The New Orleans bulletin. [volume] (New Orleans [La.]) 1874-1876, 1874-04-26
Why the Confederate Armies
Did Not Win.
Davis, Lee and Johnston.
ATLANTA Herald. March H.

[Atlanta Herald March H.
Mr.. President, Ladies and Conference.-The
object of this meeting is to organize il
Georgia an auxiliary branch Of The
Southern Historical Society" The object
of this society is to collect and preserve
authentic materials for full and correct
history Of the Confederate States. | have
accepted the hattering invitation to address
YOU on this occasion, and now proceed to
perform the part allotted me, as both a
duty and q pleasure.
obligations OF the Southern and No tn
ern states.
When the war between secession and
coercion ended, the Southern States were
under every obligation which defeat could
imply or surrender impose, to abandon
secession MS a remedy for every grievance,
real or supposed. Whatever might have
been their convictions touching the alb
stract right of secession, or the snfiiciency
of the causes which provoked its exercise,
surrender was a confession Of inability to
maintain il by the sword, and honor and
fair dealing demanded that the sword should
be sheathed. But defeat, in IA physical con-
test, does not prove that the defeated party
was in the wrong. 1t is certainly no evil
dence Of criminal motive. 1t is confession
of weakness, not of crime Were il other
II
his victim Il thief. Socrates was felOn and
the mob that sentenced him to death were
patriots. In a wicked world innocence and
right are not at all Incompatible with failure
sorrow and humiliation. Else the man who
fell among thieves on his way from .Jcrlls;i-
lem to Jericho was criminal, and his
plnnderers were entitled to the plaudits, the
oil and the wine of all good Samaritans
Nay, the Saviour himself was a malefactor
and his crucifiers were Christian gentlemen
Failure to dissolve the Union, and nothing
more, was the confession of surrender, and
the obligation to remain in the Union and
discharge all its duties under the Constitu-
ton necessarily resulted.
So, on the other hand, the Northern
States-the asserters Of the right er
coercion-were equally under every obliga-
ton to accept surrender as meaning this and
only this. They proclaimed no other pur-
pose, in making the war Of coercion, but to
defeat secession and preserve the Union
They had no right, political moral or honor
able, to enlarge the issue after the contest
had ended, and the issue made by the con
test was exhausted and determnd
The Southern States and people accepted,
in n frank and liberal spirit, all the Just CON
sequences Of their defeat. They abandoned
secession, and the doctrine of secession, as "a
practical remedy for all grievances, past or
future and for all time They did more.
Property in slaves was not the cause of the
war. 1t was not the great fundamental
right for which the Southern States went
into secession. Ii was only an incident to
that right. The right of the States to reyu-
late their own internal affairs, by the exer-
else of the powers of government which |
they had never delegated, and the convic-
ton that independence was necessary
to preserve that right of self-government
was the great, moving, inspiring |
cause of the seeding States. There was
not day of the struggle when the Southern
people would not have surrendered slavery
10 secure independence. But slavery was
the particular property which, it was be-
lieved, was endangered without indepen-
dence, and which, therefore, made the asser-
ton OF secession necessary. The disciples
of coercion denied this, and asserted they
had no intention of interfering with slavery
in the States. True, war proclamation of
was issued finally, and a
movement was made to amend the Federal
Constitution rs If to make this emancipation
efitctnal. But This was avowedly done as
Il threat to induce a surrender to avoid such
a result. Yet, promptly after surrender,
the Southern people waived the discussion
OF all technicalltics on this question, and re-
leNed their late enemies of all necessity TO
tions assembled, each State for itself, most
solemnly abolished slavery forever in their
borders. To protect the negro in his free
dom was more than u corollarv to his eman-
IL was duty which the preser-
Walton OF society made necessary in each
State, and by each State for itself.
The North Not Satisfied
But the Northern States and people were
not satisfied with these nromnf and ,,,,Ir
by orr people of every LEGAL ,
necessary, reasonable, and even incidental,
result of defeat in the war; The war being
over, our arms surrendered, our government
scattered, and our people helpless, they now
determined not only to enlarge the ISSUES ,
made by the war and during the war, but ,
they also determined to change those issues
and make demands which had not before
been made, which indeed had been utterly ,
lisclaimed in every possible form hy every I
State OF the North and by every department I
Df the Federal Goverpmeht-lrgisla,ive ex- i
acntive and judicial. Nay, they now make I
demands which they had, in every form, de- !
'larcu they could have no power or right to ,
make without violating the Constitution !
fhey mad sworn to support, aud DESTROYING 9
he Union they had waged the war itself to !
preserve. Over and over during the war I
hey proclaimed in every authoritative form Z
o us and to foreign governments that seces- q
ion was u nullity; that our States were It II G
u the Union, and that We had only to Law 7
Town our arms and retain all our rights and a
lowers as equal States in the Union. We e
aid down our arms and Immediately they
insisted our States had lost all their rights c
ND powers in the Union, and while cOmpell- t
d to remain under the control of the Union, b
We could only do with such rights and pow 2