Memphis daily appeal. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1847-1886, 1867-03-28

Greece: but he has omitted CROMwELL's
c~onfscation in Ireland, and the expa-
tristion Of the MOors from Spain, the
robbery Of Indians by New England
Puritans, and the appropriation Of Mexi-
can and Peruvian lands by CORTEz and
PIzAKRo, by the same right and law of
conquest.
The ConQueror and S~ubjugatOr always
stiematizes those who still struggle for
their rights and liberties, as rebels. u
From the time when DERMOTT MCMUR-
ROUGH fed to HENRY III Of England
from the just anger of his subjects, and
brought upon his country the curse and
calamity of an English invasion, every
attempt Of Ireland to regain its indie
pendence has been branded by England
as rebellion WALLACE was executed
by EDWARD I as a "rebel - against the
English Crown and his head held up to
be gazed on as that Of a " traitor" Kos
sUTH fed to this country as a rebel, +"
when Hungary, rising to assert her an
Gent privileges against the Austrian
Emperor, was crushed by the Russian
armies. Poland has more than once
h" rebeIIed " against the Gar; andla Ven
dee was deemed to have "rebelled -
against Republican France.
But there is no instance in all the his
tory Of the world, where men or States
struggling for independence have been
so HbeIled and DETAINED, by the epithets
rebel and traitor as that of the
eleven States, which, six years since,
~peaceably withdrew from the Union of
States continued by the Constitution Of
I7S7. The States from which they seBa-
rated, if they had a right to insist that
BY the compact the Union was to be per-
petual, and that the eleven could not,
without violating it, dissolve their con-
nection with them, had no right under
heaven to claim any prerogatives Of SOW
ereignty over their peers. The States
that Withdrew, owednO allegiance to the
Others. The United States was, to these
States, a mere empty abstraction, an
ideal being, TO which they could not
owe allegiance, any more than to the
I states themselves that continued united
under that name. To call Secession Re
belliOn or Treason, was a lie: to treat it
as such, a crime. The war waged against
the Withdrawing States was the war Of
Might against Right. The Northern
States may have had the right TO insist
that the Southern had no good cause to
dissolve the compact, and to resolve
/ that they should not do it. 1t may
be admitted that the compact bound
US not to do it, except for good
cause. 1t may be admitted that the at
tempt, without sufficient cause, was one
which TIE Northern States hadShe right
to resist by arms, and c~onquering the
seeded States, to compel them to abide
by their solemn compact. But none Of
these things prove that there was any
thing in the action Of these States that in
the least resembled treason or rebellion.
There was not q single ingredient Of
either offence. There was a claim Of
right to separate, and q separation con-
summated by the most solemn action
possible Of each State. No argument
can demonstrate, and History and the
Constitution itself absolutely deny that
the whole people Of the Union as a po-
litieal unit, ever established any National
Government that had sovereignty over
the States, and between which and the
States the relation Of liege and vassal or
subject could exist nor did the whole
people Of the United States, ever
do an act as n people, by numerical
majority Of votes.
The pretence, therefore, that when the
Southern States saw fit TO withdraw
from the Union, dissolving or resembling
the compact between them and the other
States, the people Of the Withdrawing
States were guilty Of rebellion or treason,
was utterly unfounded and false.
But, extraordinary and strangely un-
warranted as it was, and Incompetent
sible as it seems to US that any rational
man could deem it sound and true, the
defective moral sense Of the people Of
the North, and their seeming ineapacity
to rise to the level of the great questions
really in controversy, were more smaz-
ing and incomprehensibIe still,
During the war, and while we felt
rather than reasoned, and passion Instead
of calm reflection governed, We did the
Northern people injustice by believing
that they well knew they were waging
US an u~njustifable war. We
attributed their determination to CONQUER
US, to the wish for revenge, the love Of
domination, and lust for the material
advantages Of the Union which
enriched them by protective tariffs,
the carrying-trade and other profit
able perquisites. At least, we believed
them actuated by fsnaticism against
and we hated them r~ancorously
for denying u the right Of independence
and self-goveTnment, and for branding
Us as rebels. But with peace came wiser
and iuster views and as the mists Of
passion and anger cleared away, we saw
more clearly, and admitted that on their
tide the contest was for the idea of
Union, and that they were inspired by
he sentiment Of reverence for the flag.
For this we could respect and honour ali
rue soldiers, who were neither lner-
or ~pillsgers, although we felt
hat the war was an unjust one on their
and that it would have been more
. Their honour, more manly and more
ieeent, if they had not hired foreigners !
rom Europe and Canada, and negroes, !
% help them overcome us, when they ]
themselves outnumbered us three to one.
To pay hiTelings to slaughter US. was
compared by US to the employment I
4 Hessians by Great Britain against her ]
colonies, in the wal Of I776.
Now, we do not doubt, hat they were
ineere in thinking that secession and :
lostilities on u part were ~unprOvoked {
md criminal. But We can yet hardly
that they believe We fought TO