The Sweetwater enterprise. (Sweetwater, Tenn.) 1869-187?, 1871-02-23
Powerful Speech.
y NoBLE TRIBUTE TO RIgHr-ExrRAcr
FRoM senator SAUIsBURY's FAREWELL
10 TMA SENArE.

a NOBLE TRIBUTE TO RGGHr-EXrRAcr
FROM S~ENAToR S~AULsBURY's FAREWELL
TO THh SENArE.
1t may be that some newspaper scribler
may say that | am Il soccssionist because
/ am suggesting legal questions to legal
minds. | do not know, sir, whether YOUR
habits OF life or habits Of thought have
led you to deeply study the principles of
law, but | know that Mr.. Jefferson offered
The Attorney Generalship of the United
States to a man WHO distinctly laid down
the doctrine in the FIRST treatise that was
ever written upon the Constitution of the
United States, that a State had a right to
secede and that there was no power in the
General Government to cocrce it. That
was the recognized doctrine Of this coua-
try TOR the first twenty years of its exist
cnce. But the same commentator. when
he announced the principle, warned his
cointrymcn against ever attempting the
exercise Of such a power, as Lin my hum
bic sphere, warned my elbow citizens. Ky
no act or word did / ever encourage the
exercise Of such q power, real or prosump-
tive.
But, sir, it shows how nice are the lines
dividing Federal aud State authority, and
it Is for Iat reason that | cite it. Is for
those Southern men who, after their State
had seeded, followed the banner OF their
States in war, | give it as my deliberate
Judgment, hoping nothing, expecting no.
thing, that it would require twelve butch
ors for a jury auS1Jehreys for a Judge to
try them for so doing. Sir. protection
and duty are reciprocal and When YOU did
not afford protection to those Southern
people, when they were living under a gov
eminent having power to compel their
obedience and to punish their disobodi-
ence, aud you had not power to relieve
them from the consequences, they were no
traitors. They are not traitors in God Al.
mighty's chaDcery. They are not traitors
according to the instincts Of human ma.
ture. 1t was 50 decided By the English
courts, and before you were the United
States Of America and within less than a
year after Pennsylvania had dissolved her
allegiance to the British Grown it q SIDE
cil0d by the American courts that the
man who adhered to Pennsylvania AGAINST
tho King was not a traitor. What, haug
a nan if he docs, and hang him il he does
not! There Is 10 such principle of law
there Is no such principle in moral ethics.
And now, in this the last time, although
1t be an impromptu address that | make
to my brother Senators, that | cXpect to
address them, l beg the American people,
beg that great engine Of public opinion
which controls and governs to a great OK
tent public sentiment, Danish from your
minds tho idea That the men of tho South
are traitors. They are t]raitors no more
than you are, sir. Their States went out.
Their States had the power to compel ODE.
dionco and to punish disobedionco. You
did not protect them when they we're de-
icnceIoss. | stand here now, in the last
moments OF my Senatorial life, to proclaim
throughout the length and breadth OF this
whole country, North and South, so far as
my feeble utteranCGs can reach, that those
gallant, noble people were not traitors.
"Suoh g]royc5as theirs avs pilgrim shrinos,
mn, 5LgincJ TO 10 c,'o or cree! t].niDcd,
~ Tho T'ro,"', ,|.Il, .S L1,I1"HIl'
Aud when your rude soIdiory drive away
the humble yotary who brings flowers TO
Nv 5'.Io - '"' o~o..S"0'''c S'!a'',
Tn' ''GoP' ''"' ~ sue "''' your h'AoEal
Jo"g' ~" '''.'.i ~ whose o[T'r 'Iat was
. "'' q "@l'o' "Eal'SO I"o I"','Hct5 Oh
".S;aI - T. V ti. I5'.i!s' tuy !Fo"g'!"@s
a' ,,. ,Io -1'I".S'y I~I"'3'I' mas P"' ig'o
, r.o r'"' I"., WEN Io ''I"S' 0"'V.o mat
a ~ . D'Vl". MI: ,i'J"""I ooio'o "H'oN we
C,J %,' ~ ""y''eO" cue
=, = y; w. " 10 u n'I'''J.' %'o'yn' II
G,,n is 10y io"' GIV'' ne u'o' loI MIN DC
I' u g0.S"''I' 'u' o,JT II 'Vt '"c'e
.',rO'''0" '"0 "o'0'' "1loFo HES III
81.
: w nv: say ~ mis- OccauSe l was Ill
more panied and more cricyed, and who
di;apDroved Il al ,roro tL,, ala so,,
.Lor H., ana.,S -, ~ A''"
o4 ''' "ic'o"''noH' ana ruin VhaI SGCG'-
country 3IYt Sor t;ania e., ' n"a ~, J., 1P' lrI I1U
States Rn, cir ~baHy ,Ln +aIr ,,n ,Iat
the dcsccrdoots n tLo moII, oIJ Vi.v;n;,
who drI morn to i.r the E.rn1a,;5as or
.Lis Goyornmont drc, j., tto nrir.;,J lao r.
Constitutional Tbortr rocnIatoJ IT,, I,,,
than all otLors nro tro ?tors 1,oto,i
oroinst il in haLoIf # tLo Sam,rod J"aJ
n,trionc s;res In baInif nf tLai''
living relatives ! protest o]goinst il " tLo
of God AIrrigbty,s etorrai maran
which is voucLsafeT in oyuharant oburi''
,ncc to mankind, T nrotcst n@,inst T.
Sir nnt far from, tEis nI.co is oon,o,r.,
ybora lie homes IF monI If yanr Iii
and did any one who ever visited that
place read the inscription over the gate
through "h'cA nc passed The very III
.t''o" o'o' Wv cav u NV 'cnc'c'y III