Memphis daily appeal. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1847-1886, 1867-04-25
THE PAsr. THE eREAr TEACHER.

DEPARTURES FROM THEORY AND PRH-
CTPLE-PRELIMISARN.
We propose to take up in detail the
features Of the old Constitution, TO which
we have heretofore alluded, and to iu-
auire how American, and especially
Southern, Statesmen. and the Southern
People, have dealt with the safeguards
for their liberties, which it provided.
Let It be remembered that the South
soon became q minority Of the Nation,
with q continually increasing majority
against il, and cherishing in its bosom
an institution Odious 10 the rest Of the
world, aud which offered a fair aad full
mark for tie DISCLAIMERS, ike WENDELL
PHILLIPS and VICTOR HUGO; the Di-
vines. elf-commissi0ned as Gods Am
hassadors and the Interpreters Of His
will and wishes the ph~ilanthropists
aud the poets: aud the women who
calmly saw little girls sweep the street.
crossings in winter in their cities, and
huddIe together with boys in promiscu-
Gus prostitution while yet children, and
who weut over the woes Of the LITTLE ne
groes on Southern plantations. To all
Of these, nothing was so easy as to
chaunt paeans to Liberty, and load
slavery with exec-stiOns. The judg-
ment Of the world has long been that
slavery is wrong in principle, and that
nothing eau excuse IT but the impossi-
biIity Of ending it without creating far
worse evils. That Judgment concludes.
Occupying this position, the disadyan-
tagc, Of which they have lately had am
pie occasion 20 feel, common n alone
should have been sufficient to dictate to
the South the policy it ought to pursue.
The manifest danger to it, it being the
weaker party both in population and in
the number Of States, lay in the popular
ling Of the different departments Of the
Government, and in Innovations upon
the Constitution, not by changes in its
letter, but creeping in gradually in prac-
lice, to make the action Of the Executive
and Legislature, after a time, the simple
reflection or utte-ance Of the popular
wiII, prejudice or whim for the time.
This danger was greatly augmented by
the fact that the true construction Of the
Constitution, as to its own nature, the
real parties to It, and the powers granted
bv il. the sound theory to which the
leaders OF public opinion in the South,
after fhe first eight years, generally held,
and by adhering to which only could the
continuance Of the Republic be secured,
was opposed to the general current Of
popular opinion, and still more to that Of
popular prejudice, not only in the whole
North, bat also in parts OF the South
that it was sure to be directly or indi-
reetly assailed and sought 10 be made
odious, even il the South, by the politi-
cal vermin that always infest the body
polite and In some way crawl into place
and Office, IS q plot and system 10 mar
row and restrict " the inalienable right -
OF the people to govern themselves and
that it would commend itself fully to the
thinking and reading men only, Of even
the States vitality interested in maintain
ing it unimpalred. They alone could
understand 10.
Thus We are all familiar with the sue
eessful attempts, in more than three
fourths Of the South, to expose to ridicule
and bring into contempt the "abstrac-
tionists" Of Virginia, and the "meta-
phvsics'' Of South Carolina though 20
two words were ever more misplaced,
since there was neither abstraction or
metaphysics contained in the State
rights theory of the Constitution, and
any other two words in the language,
8 g~ravitation and parallax,' for exam
pie, might with quite as much apostle
ness have been employed. But the &C.
curaey Of its epithets IS neve much con
sidered by party and whether the i'll
name given a dog that one desires should
be hung, IS deserved or not, is neyer q
question that interests.
That these doctrines, sound and simple I
as they were, did not win popular favour, I
was also in DO small measure owing 10 I
llt ldEl AIdL NAE HaAG mcu WHO GuForA-
ted them, also advocated others, and
sided to carry or approved measures,
utterly inconsistent with them, in the
vain and idle endesvour to make the
theory OF State-Rights agree with the
ultra-democratic creed that the world
is governed too much which alone, they
thought, could win them popular good
viii. Also it was owing to the fact that
many men dealt with these grave ques-
tons, and set up to be expounders Of the
Constitution, who did not understand
themselves; very ordinary and barren
iutellects, with no training as LAWYERS.
legieians or Statesmen, aping MADISON
.ud CALHOUN, and being only blind lead
Of the blind. Men must have clear
IDEAS. in order to express them in clear
language and converse, when the Ian
gIaes is not clesr, and the argument is
onaSse and muddy, it is in general be-
clearness Of ideas is wanting