Public ledger. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1865-1893, 1866-11-22
HAVE WE NATURAL AND C0NsTITU-
TIONAL RIGHTS

Are the men of the South freemen I'M
der the Constitution of the country, or
are they slaves under the domination Of
an atrocious political party? The status
is what we wish TO get at 1t is not to
be disputed that the men of the South
are men, endowed by nature with every
right and faculty which the most favored
people of the earth possess. In what
are these curtailed, to what end, and by
whom? Where is the law of man or
Heaven that denounces them as inferi-
ors and subjects of others? If we turn
to their past history, we fail to discover
evidences of inferiority, or to detect one
spot Of degradation cankering upon their
escutcheon. In the old war they gave
genius and prowess to the cause of lib
erty. and elevated their leaders to nights
of fame not inferior to those that
rendered Grecian and Roman heroes
perpetual themes of history and poetry.
In the organization of the Government,
their genius left its trace upon every line
of the public law. They shaped its
course, gave it vitality, and rendered it
a model of human workmanship. What
is the history of Virginia from PocAHoN-
TAs to ROBERT LEE? Is it not one
heroic, unresting struggle for human lib
erty, and the amelioration of the condi-
ton of the human race? Is there upon
this ample page that records her career
one blot to mar the perfect beauty of
the whole2 If so, point to it. All her
sufferings we're the fruits of sacrifices
she made for freedom. If she is crushed
to-day, for what is il? If she is refused
that freedom which her sword carved
out upon this continent, what is the
character of those who would crown her
century of glory, liberty and progress
with night of slavery and degradation
It is favorite idea of those who
struggle to damn the white race of the
South, that all men are born equal
From it comes the deduction that ne
croes have all the rights, powers and
privileges of white men. For that
dogma a desolating war was waged
against the South. 1t has been thun-
dered from the pulpit, printed in letters
of gold. and emblazoned on the ban
ners of a whole section. A million
lives and billions of money have been
expended to give it vitality and enthrone
il upon the pedestal Of nations faith
1t has been baptized in the blood and
agony of the most sanguinary war ever
waged by man against man. 1t is en-
tirely triumphant Iii the first idea OF
the group that emerged from the car
mage, and presides to-day over the ruins
that mark the downfall Of rational
liberty. Beautiful in theory, 1t is
otherwise as a practical fact Its
universally was a cheat, falsehood,
a mockery of truth. 1t was huge fraud,
a monstrous swindle Now that it is
erected, it is discovered to have partial
face 1t beams benignantly upon the
North, smiles upon the negro, but irowns
and threatens the white race of the
South. They are not born equal to the
puritan and the negro, and have no
right to life, liberty and the pursuit of
happiness. Virginia, with all her
golden history clustering about her, is
70 be reduced below the African barba-
rian, whose ancestors rolled naked in
burning sands and practiced the rights
of cannibalism. The South, broad,
beautiful and adorned with every virtue,
is not fit to be free. Her cultivated
sons and her peerless daughters are to
receive the brand of inferiority. From
whom Z? The answer springs to the
indignant lip of every gentleman
of every country who loves liberty
and respects human justice. We deny
that we are not entitled to be free--free
as the North, or the East, or the West
We deny the right of any power to make
exactions that compromise our interest
in the principles of the Constitution.
That instrument is ours-ours by every
argument that can establish human
proposition-ours by birth. by usage
ours by the memory of the Southern men
who framed it and gave it US as an in
heritance forever. If asked to surrender
any right under it, we should refuse If
coercion be resorted to aud submission
compelled, we can but go down with the
old chart of liberty firmly grasped in our