New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1873-12-03

as Representative from Georgia was, unuel
all the circumstances, an event OF marked
significance lie is the first really conspicuous
Southern statesman of tho period before the
war who has returned to the National Legis-
lature. In the thirteen years that have elapsed
since the unsuccessful experiment of secession
began. the men of the South who figured
prominently in Congress and in national
notifies before that time have almost en-
tirely disappeared from public notice. Some
of them fell on the field in the arbitra-
ment of arms to which they took their
confident appeal some died by violence ana
some by disease; some have gone abroad ana
in other countries, i'll the pursuits OF active
professional life, are trying to forget their
disappointments and many more have WITH
drawn from all interest in public affairs, and
in one way OF another are leading quiet, anon-
trusiye lives. Unlike most of his associates, Mr.
Stephens, in the spirit Of a sagacious states
man. considered well the situation beforehand.
No one of all of them cOmprehended 50 well
AS he the magnitude of the undertaking, OF
Goresaw so clearly its peTils The Others were
for the most part mere conspirators; his views,
broader in their scope and larger in their gem
Civilizations, approached the dignity OF states
manship. Opposing steadily and persstently
to the latest practicable moment the madness
of secession. he urged upon his fellow ctlzens
of Georgia and the South more deliberate
consideration of the good they were lying
from and the i'll to which they hastened.
His speech before the Legislature of Georgia,
on the sth Of November, 1860, was IN able
and unanswerablc argument against the folly
of secession, grounded upon the entire absence
of any good cause for such step, ana the
obligations OF honor and truth which bound
them TO their national engagements Wam-
ing with his argument he made q most i'm
FASHIONED appeal for the preservation OF the
Union. and i'll reply to Mr.. Howell Cobb's
assertion that the Government was a failure
described in eloquent terms the greatness
and growth of the nation which he
said was "the admiration of tho civil
lied world d." and represented the
brightest hopes Of mankind II was in this
speech that he boldly stated what he believed
TO be the cause and the keynote of the re-
belliou. "Some Of our public men," he said,
have failed in their aspirations. and from
that comes great part of orr ttouDles.'
1t was the weakness of Mr.. Stephenss position
that. after setting forth 80 forcbly and elo-
duently the weakness and wickedness OF Sc
cessiOn, he consented to he governed by the
action of his State upon the question. Georgia
having seeded he accordingly closed
the door behind him, and throw
his lot in with his State. The
support of thousands of Union men who
held with him as to the folly and wrong OF
secession, but held also with him to the heTesy
of the supreme duty of allegiance to the State,
was won over by the choice of Mr.. Stephens
az Vice President of the Confederacy. Drawn
into the movement in this way against the
dictates of his judgment and perhaps his CON
science he even then grasped the situation
more fully and interpreted its philosophy
more clearly than any of the more ambitious
and impetuous leaders that surrounded him.
Others talked of trivialities, of petty issues
and insignificant details, avoiding the larger
feature of the movement, which attracted the
attention of the world. Mr.. Stephens in his
well-known speech at Savannah IN March,
1861 stripped off the husk and held up the
kernel of tho experiment to the world.
The ideas OF the statesmen of the
old Union, he said, rested upon the
fundamentally wrong assumption of the
eouality of the races Our now Government
said he, "is founded upon exactly the Oppo-
"site ideas; it's foundations are laid, its cor
"ner-stone rests upon the great truth that the
"negro is not equal to the white man that
slavery, subOrdinatiOn to the superior race, is
CHS natural and normal condition. This our
"new Government is the first in the his
"torv of the world based upon this great
philosophical and moral TRUTH This
was fair and manly statement of
the issue. 1t lodged nothing, evaded
nothing, was not even polite. How much
this candid utterance Of the Vice-President,
and by all odds the ablest statesman of the
new Confederacy, helped the Union cause
cannot be estimated. That 1T was of meal
culable value to us in presenting the bald, naked
issue on its merits before the world cannot be
doubted. II was frankly avowed to be an eX-
perimcnt based upon ideas which the civilized
world had long held in adherence, and after
that there was no room for side issues.
1t failed. Mr.. Stephens has accepted the
result with tho philosophic mind which age
and experience bring, and which was always
more or less his characteristic. He returns to
Congress in which the fallacy Of his earlier
doctrines and the futility of the great effort
70 give them permanent establishment are
most powerfully illustrated IN the dusky
countenauces Of some of his fellow legis-
lators. None OF the men who served with
him from 1913 TO 1857 are members now.
Faces have changed. and times have
changed, but the Federal Union ia tho
same good Government no eulogi1ed 30
coquently of old, bearing now as then
the brightest hopes of mankind"
Richnr In cxneriance and Wiser Grner