The daily dispatch. [volume] (Richmond [Va.]) 1850-1884, 1866-10-13

lCon4itutiop lot fer,sif, az she not adopt
the cd and honored onesaimost word Tor
wordi Had the North beee but half d loyal
@ the South has ever betpyno war would
have tiesotstsd our county, and the Union
would be, what It's founders iRtended, one
of equal and sovereign States, bound To-
petber by the strong ties of paternal afiec-
fion. iusiesd OF what II nok b. consoH-
dated despotisn Of the stronger States,
tyuiinp with A rod of iron the weaker ones.
The South is, and ever has been, loyal In
the proper sense Of the word. - -
I ann aware that the North has given q
new meaning to this word when applied TO
the South, For the South to be loyal in
the ewes of the North she must admit her.
self to be inferior in oil points; she must
declare that she has sinned, and, like 0 re-
pentant child, she must humbly sue for
forgiveness. She must pronounce State
rights and State sovereignty fallacies, and
she must forget the teachings of Patrick
Henry, Of Jefferson, and of Madison.
You, men Of Pickens, must forget the IL
lustrious son you gave to our State, and
you must brand Calhoun as traitor.
The names of McDuffie, Cheves, Hayne,
Hamilton, Harper, must no longer be held
in reverence in their own State as those
of great statesmen and pure patriots, but
the men who bore them, like their immor-
tai compatriot, are to be called traitors,
and their doctrines seditious. You will
not be loyal until you import, along with
everything else, your politics, your moral
ity, and your religion, from the North.
/ know not, fellow citizens, how it may
be with others, but for myself | prefer still
to cling to the political faith taught by her
great APOSTLES of Liberty. | repudiate as
heretical and damnable that morality
which inculcotes "bigher law" than the
Bible teaches. yAnd as to religion, con-
fess that after the way they call heresy, so
worship the "God of my fathers" We
obey the laws of the land; we pay the
takes levied on us: we support the COnsti-
tuition; and we acknowledge the supre-
macy of the National Government. The
North has no right to demand or to expect
of us more than this. She has no right to
ask that we should give up the divine
riaht-which even slaves enjoy-of free
dom of opinion; that we should deny the
PRINCIPLES we hold sacred that we should
abase ourselves in the dust to propitiate
her good will, or that we should kiss the
rod that smites us.
"Shall free born men, in humble awe
Submit 10 servile shame,
Who from consent and custom draw
The same right to be ruled by law
Which kings pretend to reign
Shall we, who were free-born men, be
50 base as to declare that our country has
met the fate it deservedl Shall we submit
TO the shame which would cling to us for
ever if we admit that we have been guilty
of treason Shall we cover ourselves with
eternal infamy by branding as traitors the
men who died for US, and to whose memory
you arc now paying honor Never
Never. Never!! Let any fate, how
ever hard, be our lot rather than such dis
honor should be ours. When the gallant
warrior-king of old saw in the defeat of
his brave army the ruin of all his hopes,
proud, though conquered, he could still
exclaim, "All is lost save honor" Let us,
amid the failure of our hopes, the wreck
of our fortunes, strive to save, like him,
what is far more precious than all else, our
honor.
| have given you the record of the
South. have shown how we'll she has
! kept her faith untarnished, how closely
she has observed her obligations. Let me
turn now to the record of the North. Bear
in mind that in giving this | shall simply
state facts, leaving you to draw your own
differences. ! propose to say what the
| North has done. l do not intend to dis
cuss the morality, the honesty, or the. JUS
tice of her actions. When the tyrant dis
putcd the assertions of the philosopher,
and endeavorcd to draw him into an argu-
ment, the reply of the latter was, 81 do
not choose to argue with the commander
of thirty legions." Without being phi
losopher, can recognize the force of this
answer. and waive argument as totally
inappropriate in discussion of this sort.
Facts, which are said to be stubborn
things, will be amply sufficient for my pur-
poses at present.
For four years the North waged war
upon us, only, as she solemnly declared, to
bring us back into the Union. More than
year ago the South expressed her willing
ness to return, and yet she is now as eff
fectually out of the Union as if she had
never formed part of it. The North pro-
fessed to fight for the Constitution. As
soon as she had the power to do so, she
changed that Constitution, and she violated
its sacred provisions. The North protested
that she did not fight for conquest or for
plumber. The southern States are at this
moment practically conquered provinces,
and more of their movable property Is
now in the hands of northern soldiers, who
stole it, than in those of its rightful posses
sors. The parole which southern soldiers
received promised, as have already said,
that they should not be interfered with so
long as they obeyed the laws of their own
States. And yet on their return to their
States they were not allowed to exercise
any right pertaining to free citizens until
they had, under oath, endorsed all the acts
of Congress, and declared the abolition OF
slavery fixed, irrevosable, and constitu-
tional.
Amnesty for the past had been repeat.
cdly promised to the South; yet how
many of her citizens are still, in the bro
thcrly language of the Radicals, only un-
pardoned rebels" whilst her most honored
and best beloved son languishes in q felon's
cell, denied the sacred right guaranteed
by the Constitution of "speedy trial by
an impartial jury" The southern States
were to be recognized as equal members Of