New Orleans daily crescent. [volume] ([New Orleans, La.]) 1851-1866, 1866-08-16

gard might not unreasonably occasion sur
prise. But deeper study of the problem
Will show the justice of his conclusions,
Under the old confederation the Southern
people were ever faithful to that ephemeral
Constitution, even when Northern States
ignored or disregarded their Obligations. The
Southern States inorder to form that ''more
perfect union under the Constitution of the
United States, compromised more interests
than were yielded by the States of the North
In order to maintain the perpetuity of the
Union the Southern people submitted, time
after time, to invasions Of their guaranteed
rights, and remained loyal in the best sense
of that term, to the Constitution and the
Union, when New England threatened to
withdraw from the one and openly disre-
garded her plainest obligations to the other.
Through decades of revolutionary excitement
the Southern people chung tenaciously to the
Union under the Constitution. Even the
most violent of the present revolutionary
radicals will testify to the anxiety manifested
by Mr.. Davis and other Southern leaders for
effecting compromise of the questions which
eventuated in our recent civil commissions.
It was only when sectional agitation had
succeeded by persistent efforts, in thoroughly
arousing the North against the South on a
platform which violated the we'll settled in
terpreta6ons of the Constitution; and it was
only when this hostile party, intoxicated by
success, refused 10 concede any guaranty for
the preservation of the Southern rights against
which they professedly warred that the
Southern people determined to risk all the
chances Of battle to maintain, in separate
nationality the rights which were denied
them in the Union.
In the contest which followed our people
were ssterTibly in earnest. They had tried
compromise Right after right had been
given up for the sake of peace and Union.
Their reasonable demands as security from
further expressions were secuted at. They
saw in the presence of that Union the sure
destruction by revolutionary efforts of inter.
ests which were dear to them. They riskeG
all upon the cast and they lost Their pur
pose was honest and determined. They were
satisfied they We're right. And though then
failure has been signal they do not possess
that puritanical hypocrisy which induces
them to say they were wrong because they
were unsuccessful In the midst of their dis
asters and their poverty they look proudly
back ON career in which, like brave men,
| they opposed what they believed to be a revo-
lutionary invasion of their guaranteed rights.
| But while they do not concede they were
in the wrong, they acknowledge, with frank
ness which magnanimous foe should ap-
| preciate, that the issues fought for have been
irretrievably lost They accept this result
without reservation. They accept the Con,
stitution even as modified by the prolonged
contest They accept, in good faith, the
Union under this modified Constitution
They mean, as in former days, when New
England swerved from her obligations to the
Union, to stand by the Constitution Of the
country, and to find their welfare in the Union
of the States. Their loyalty is of that char
acter attributed to them, not long ago, by 9
distinguished federal officer who had fought
them persistently through the long years Of
the. contest al am convinced" said he,
s'the Southern people were terribly in earnest
But they have frankly given up the questions
which were commended for, and will be, here,
after, as earnest in their support of the gov.
eminent as they have recently been in oppo,
sition to it. They have learned there is nc
way of getting out of the Union without fight
ing out There are some people further east, "
he continued "who have yet that lesson to
learn"
The distinguished officer Btook very just
view of the question. We agree with him
that if there is another attempt at secession it
will be on the part of New England. She
threatened it in 1916 when she wished to
speculate on the misfortunes of the country
and she may threaten it again when conserva-
tive counsels give a check to her revolution
airy course, and diminish the extent of the
tribute which other sections now pay to fill to
oyerfowing her loyal" pocket.