The Charleston daily news. [volume] (Charleston, S.C.) 1865-1873, 1868-08-07
!. CHA RLESTON N.
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FRIDAY MORNING, AUGUST 2, 1858. la.i
Tho States! ana the union

a ~ 4
THE CosaTITUTIoNAL VEw OF TIE LATE WAR
!. BETWEEN TIE STATES; its Causes, Character,
Conduct and Results. Presented In q series
of co,loquies a6 Liberty Hall, by Alexander
II. lsas,t rl1mes onange anaa men a
5 two volumes. r.Eoi. T.. National Publishing
r Company 81 philadelphia 4eo.: arnssG
Mr.. STEPHENS ms is q bold man. HsseisSs
book in whiehshe, with sthe utmost sim
plicity and straigntforWardness, with CO.
gent augmentation, and with manifold ap-
peals to, the archives. and the statesmen Of
the republic, vindicates the Southern move
ment the sovereignty Of the States, and the
right Of secession. The great debate which
force, adjusted, OF, at least .silenced,5 upon
the blood-stained fields Of war, Mr. sTE-
pHHss renews before court Of higher
appeal Whatever the Union mayaseem in
the eyes Of others, to him it is simply .
federation between neighhoring fres, dem.
ooratic States system which, republican
in it's parts and limited in its general agency
of government, affords the only safeguard
of mankind against the universal preva-
lence Of monarchy:
Our author was, just before secession an
ardent Union man. In 1860 he opposed
the policy Of secession, and denied that the
Legislature Of Georgia had any legal right:to
withdraw from the Union. But he at the
game time asserted that just such q conven-
tion of the people as had put State in the
Union could take it out for such q con-
Yantion would embody the real and unre-
linquished sovereignty of the State. Mr..
STEPHENS acted upon these principles; he
voted against secession as an unwise meas
ure; but when Georgia, By regularly con-
stituted convention, withdrew from the
Compact Of Union, he felt it his duty to
obey her high behest. The present volume
msy be regarded as an elaborate argument
in vindicstion Of that course.
:, In form, the work is constructed after
the models presented in the dialogues of
Plato and GIozRo. It consists of series
Of colloquies. Mr.. STEPHENS states that,
after the war, number Of friends from the
North visited him-men representing every
shade Of opinion upon the present state of
public affairs. Actual conversations held
upon this subject suggested the mode of
treatment here pursued. The scene is the
portico of Liberty Hall-the somewhat pre-
tentious name of Mr.. STEPHENS residence.
The dramatis person@ are the master OF
the mansion and his guests-Judge BYNuM,
of Massachusetts, a Radical; Professor
NoRTeS, Of Connecticut, Conservative
Republican, and Major HEIsTER, Of Penn
sylvania, War Democrat. Encountering
these opponents, either singly or together,
from day to day, Mr.. STEPHENS exposes the
sophistries by which the sovereignty of the
States have been deprecated, and vindi-
Gates that fundamental political doctrine by
careful analysis of the Articles of Con-
federation and the Constitution of the Uni
ted States, as well as by the authority Of
the msxims Of jurisprudence and the great
writer's on international law. he shows
that this doctrine was recognized in the
State conventions which adopted the con-
stitution; that it has been repeatedly ad-
mitted by Congress, aad that it has been
held by every President, from JEFFERSON to
L1sooIs. And he now contends that the