The state rights democrat. [volume] (Albany, Linn County, Oregon) 1865-1900, 1865-11-04
furnishing THE LEADING MEN
OF THE SOUTH.

verely punished for their past conduct,
and remarks:
Assuming the leaders of the rebellion
to be those who held high civil and mill
tary offices when it broke out, or while it
in progress, in the Confederaey, this
promise OF pardon to all but the leaders,
looks-in case it shall be carried into eff
fect-like doing much to promote q set
tied soeial state al the South while, from
"a Republican point of view, it bears the
appearance OF an act of extraordinary
loyal elemency and official generosity.
We, the loyal people of the North, fluid
it difficult to lay down the idea that We
are the political elect; that we have the
right 10 pronounce the r%eprobation of the
political non-elect, and that ono of the
franchises of cur paradise is TO consist in
looking down from its battlements to wit
ness the t~ertures of those who are east
into outer darkness. We may consent to
forego a portion of the retributive spec
taele, and extend mercy to some; but our
heaven would be very unsatisfactory were
it net tontrasted with II pretty broad eN-
panse of well-peopled regions Of u widely
different aspect and temperature.
Political warfare, in this land of ours,
is mostly party warfare; aud, in party
warfare, there are certain ultimate politi-
cal facts to which it is out OF order often
to recur. The better way, in general, is,
to preserve the party point of view 10
treat Of things in their surface manifesto
tions. and of men as they desire. for the
time being, to appear. IF, in this in
stance, sse should be inclined TO deviate
from this rule. we hope to be excused
upon a promise not often to repeat the
%offense.
Assuming that those who held high
political office, both in the North and in
the South. 10 be responsible Us leaders
respectively of their sections, we are en-
Iabled to present some facts bearing upon
the measure alluded to above, which are
not without their interest. 1t is pretty
certain, for example, that the placemen
Of the North were not in favor Of co
%ercion. Neither Mr.. Davis nor Mr..
Stephens were original seeessionists
neltAGt UT 14tHSoin upA 8i. SAaio VIII
original coereionists. The two former
believed in the right ofsecession as 4 prin
Iciple. but were opposed to the act, on iii,
ground of exrediency. OF the two lat
ter, Mr.. Line In certainly. and Mr.. Sew.
ard probably, believed in the right Of Sc.
cession; aud held coercion to be, not
only wrong in principle, but to be praeti
cally inexpedieht
The speech of Mr.. Lincoln in Congress
in 1913. in which. in the distinetest
terms, he asserted the right of any PEG
pie, or part of a people, to withdraw from
their existing Governments. and to estab
lish one better suited to their condition
is entirely conclusive as 10 his views a
that time entertained and the following
from his first Inaugural Address, show.
that, up to the period of its delivery, h,
was, as respects the expedieney Of coer
eion, an unbeliever:
Suppose Won go TO war. you cannct figh
always. and when, after much loss ON boil
sides aud no gain on either, you cease fight
ing. the identical questions rs TO terms o
intercourse are again upon you.
-+ZNU OttE GILL IGd0 tEG GoI1GS th1ttEfttC -
MrsSeward with foreign Governments
and with the agents Of our " Govern
ment IN foreign countries, without seem;
that. for the first half year after he cam,
into Office, he was doing his utmost t
Icommit the Administration of Mr.. Lin
colin against q war for coercion. Nor wa
Mr.. Seward alone. The Secretary o
the Navy excepted, every member Q
Mr.. Lincoln's Cabinet, by his persona
influence, and through such journals a
he could control, was operating to pre-
pare the way to permit the South to re
tire, and to create, in peace, a separat
establishment.
IF there was any public man Of til
South Who vas particularly opposed t
coercion, as understood at the North,
+ was Andrew johnson. now acting Pres
dent of the United States. This fact wa
abundantly proven by citations from hi
speeches. delivered about the time of tn
breaking out of the rebellion, male i
the late letter of the Hon. Emerson Eth
! ieridge. the correctness of which has neve
+ been called in question. Mr.. Johnso
was:sin 1889 and 1860, one of the die-ir
the-last-ditch Southern patriots, one {
those to whom Executive c~lemency, az
l cording to the rule of the Tribune col
respondent, is not to be extended.
In order to. gain ground for a wa
| against slavery, it was essential to tn
Abolitionists of the North to have it az
pear that secession was the work of slave
holders. TO this day, among the mos
phiIanthropic and conscientious of Nortf
ern joarnals-sueh as the New Yor
| Tribune and the Cincinnati Gazette
/ secession is characterized as g the slave
holders rebellion = and now that tn
ISouth is conquered, upon a p~retense tina
, slavery may, by some means or other, b
resuscitated, it is demanded that tn
| heaviest measure of vengeance shall b
visited upon the heads of those who wer
at once, it is asserted, the authors of tn
rebellion, and the representatives of th
organic effense of which all other sins {
: the South are the legitimate descendants
D Now, in point of fact, the STAKEHOLDER
constituted the conservative clement {
! the South. Property is always conserv;
: tive, and its philosophy ever teaches me
to bear the ills they have, rather than /
invite in others whose extent they al
+ unable to measure, Upon this point. v
? suppose that the following, taken from
! report of a speech delivered in this cit
by Parson Brownlow, in 1868, will /
{ deemed adequate evidence
He said that there is a great deal of j,
I norance at the North as well as the Soutl
and instanced the common idea entertaine
among us that this rebellion is the work
Shareholders. That is in no n true. I'll
Z Shareholders were conservatives generally
\ they feared the loss of property which di
: union would bring upon them where's
7 those who had nothing to lose were east
E infuencedb by the demagogues who persuade
them that Abolitionists would free the n