Memphis daily appeal. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1847-1886, 1867-05-24


The following letter has beeonp ) public
property, and we therefore give It to our
readers. It was written BY Mr.. WIN B.
Stokes after the Provisional Congress
of the Confederate States had convened
st Montgomery, and at the moment
when hundreds of thousands Of men,
until then infexibly opposed to spcession,
were forced by L1NcoLN's Proclamation
to elect whether they would fight for or
against South Carolina. me Southern
States, including Tennessee, could not be
neutral; and the issue being thus
| changed, they accordingly n after the
other seeded, forced into the war reluct-
sntly.
As zoe read Mr.. Stokes letter, he was
really actuated by the same motives as
adjusted so many others. The members
Of the Convention Of Arkansas said pre-.
cisely what his letter says; thousands of
men were saying it everywhere. The
letter bears every mark Of sincerity. IT
was precisely the letter Mfr. 8. should
have written, and been In earnest IL
writing. He wrote 1t to correct misrep-
reservations. Undoubtedly he weighed
every word. Men do not write loosely
when so much is at stake. A jealous
advocate of the Union until the Pr0cla-
nation, be pronounces the call for troops
a violation of the Constitution, for
the purpose of subjugating the South he
| commends Gov. Harris, an exile, for
his course, and for arming to resist, and
/ declaring that be has enrolled his own
name to resist %usurpation. He claims
the right of revolution, denying the right
Of secession. That is precisely what the
men of the same principles did in Arkan-
sas, accepting the title Of rebels. he
was willing to make 8 military league
with the Co~nfederaey, and would have
the South q unit during the war, by all
means. After it, time enough to make
a Constitution. He declines to be any
( longer a candidate for q seat in the Fed
eral Congress and having, ike thou
sands Of others, done his duty in en-
deavoring to prevent hostilities, he de-
termines 10 march forward resisting the
Federal power: and he propheticalIy
adds: aTime will tell where we all
stand, and who have been faithful"
We think Mr.. STOKES was honest and
in earnest then. He may afterwards
honestly have changed. We do Eot pre-
tend to Judge him for that. But how he
can reconcile it to his conscience to be
a of a party that disfranohise, thou
sands who were governed In May, 1851,
BY the self-same considerations and prin-
ciples as his letter sets forth, and UhO
hare merely adhered TO their honest con-
Utctions, we cannot understand. Nor
should we like, if we had written the
DUNCAN letter, to admit that it did not
contain our true and sincere opinions.
1t is true, one is always liable to have
his motives suspected, when he changes
from the losing to the winning side and
it is quite as well for one, in such 8 case,
where he may not be deemed wholly
d~isiuterested, to avoid notice and keep 3
little in the background, at least not
o~fieiously thrusting himself forward and
counting the taunts which opponents are
certain TO dart at the vulnerable or raw
spot. Bat may change honestly f;
and in that case displays his good sense
by simply saying so.
One thingi certain those who change,
for reasons how-good-soever, can have
no right TO persecuts or punish those
who, not convinced like them, refuse to
change, because they cannot change,
with them. If they do, they are likely
to hear it said that the renegade is al
ways the bitterest prosecutor of those
whose refusal to spostatize is to him the
severest of approaches and those who
are a little familiar with history will not
fail to remember, that, after the restora-
ton of CHARLES II, "the best friends of
the Monarchy, the constitutional sup
porters of the throne, were rewarded for
their attachment to a family whose prin-
were incompatible with religious
and political freedom, by persecution, !
prescription and death while those who
had skulked in the hour of danger, or
who a~postatized from their earlier and
more honorable profession, were pro-
NOTED to be the scOurges Of their devoted
eo-pstriOts, to send them to prison, ban
and execution, to revel on their
fines, and to share their estates"
uora Il fba latter. /