The New Orleans crescent. [volume] (New Orleans, La.) 1866-1869, 1868-08-16
srIPHFNs's CONSTITUTIONAL VIEW.

STEfHEN6s CON61lIUllONh al NA6Ws
It is generally known that the Honorable
Alexander Fl. Stephens, of Georgia, has been
for some time engaged in the preparation of
a work on the late war; As first medita ed,
it was designed to be complete in a single
volume. But growing on his hands, he was
obliged to extend it into two volumes, the
first of which is now issued in good style from
the press of the National Publishing Company,
Philadelphia, and inclUdes upwards of six
hundred quarto pages. Thetitl of this work,
GA Constitutional View of the late War be-
tween the State, its causes, character, conduct
and results, presented in a series of colloquies
at Liberty Hall, scarcely does justice, judging
by the part herein offered, to the scope, varie-
ty and interest of its contents. The present
volume terminates with an inquiry into the
structural nature of the federal Union, the
conflict of ideas which led to a collision OF
arms, and the character of the war thus m
duced. The consideration o. the conduct of
the war on both sides in its relation to consti-
tutional principles, with its final results upon
the American system of free government is
reserved for another volume.
We confess that the impression made upon
us by so much of the work as is now before
us is very favorable disappointment.
Highly as we estimated Mr.. Stephens intel
lectual yigor and political erudition, we had
feared that he had undertaken an enterprise
which, if not beyond his grasp of thought or
Of research, would prove too much for his
practical discrimination, skill and facility in
authorship. But in none of these does he
seem at fault His management of the COLO
quial style suggests an honorable comparison
with the examples of Cicero end Plato, but
not a seTvile or pedantic imitation of those
models. He lays before the reader running
commentary on the constitutional origin and
constitutional history of the federal govern
ment, IN manner rarely easy and attractive. |
The effect of the colloquies is at once critical
and expository, accompanied by ample and |
opposite quotations and exemplifcations. In |
his sketches of the leading statesmen of what |
may be, in contrast with the present period, |
distinguished as the constitutional epoch, Mr.. |
Stephens is remarkably felicitous This is espe-
cially true of the treatment of the intellectual
and moral qualities of Clay, Webster and Cal
houn. There are few instances Of as much /
vividness with as little exaggeration as these
portraitures exhibit.
very notable fact in the history of opin-
ion given by Mr.. Stephens, is that the minds
OF all those public men who, by prominence,
may be called constitutional statesmen, no
matter how widely they may have differed in
ia irSf frnp /
rights doctrine gravitated ultimately bv
logical instinct to the explicit or virtual adj
mission of the doctrine as the only one afford
ing guarantee of a constitutional Union
and of constitutional liberty. Mr.. Stephens
himself, who was not, formerly, an avowed
disciple of Mr.. Calhoun, now seems to paw
this sort of involuntary tribute to the genius
of the great Carolinian whom he confesses to
have been, after Mr. jefferson, the most
and profound of American states
men. Events are bearing the same testimony
to the soundness and value of Mr.. Calhoun's
theory Of the federal Constitution, as a COM
pact between sovereign and coequal States,
differing from all previous considerations in
Inc TACT that the federal goveruIl4,--, : -.
lied not only to enact laws for the Union. but
to put such laws in execution. The consoli-
iationists have illogicaly and arbitrarily
this popularity so as to cover up
State sovereignty and State consent, and to
'bliterate all constitutional limitations to the
power of the federal government The result
before us-central despotism. 1t is i'm
possible to be otherwise while constitutional
government, as understood by Washington,
efferson, Madison, Calhoun, is repudiated. 1
nd the principle of central coercion is su- !
rene Logic is memorable. a