Edgefield advertiser. [volume] (Edgefield, S.C.) 1836-current, 1876-10-19

resclnded the ordinance OF secession
According to their theory, by this act
they accomplished their return to the
Union. For the theory Of the peo
pie at the North was that they never
were ou; IF the Union; taking either
! horn of the dilemma they believed
they-were again in the Union. In
this opinion they were grievously dis.
appointed, as the Republicans at once
changed front, and declared that by
secession and the acts of war, they
were out of the Union, and that they
had to be re-admitted by compli-
ance with the Reconstruction Acts.
I do not care where the "germinal
idea" came from, whether from the
erratic brain OF the fanatics of New
England, or the Political metaphysics
of the enthusiasts Of the South. I
believed then, as do now, that NO
such right as that of peaceable seces-
sion can be found in the Constitution
of the United States, or in the phi
losophy that underlies the formation
of all governments. I shall not CHAR
acterize those who believe in it, in
the severe language of Hugh Swinton
Legare, who, in speaking of its advo-
Gates, said, "they first practice with
the utmost deliberation, a fraud upon
the people, by assuring them that
their premeditated scheme Of violence
is perfectly regular and peaceable
one"
But I should as soon believe that
the architects who planned and cor
structed the beautiful National Capt.
tol at Washington, or our own mag
niGcent State-house in Columbia, did
so with view of pulling them down
when they ceased to crafty the
changed taste of those who should
live after them, as to believe that the
great statesmen VINO foSme3 the Con-
stitution and the Federal Union
placed a clause in it that gave to a
disafected State the right to peacea-
bly, secede for fancied or real griev-
ances, and thereby dissol:e the Union.
Those who form governments and
create constitutions have but one idea
as to the duration of the government,
and that is to make the government
last forever. Esto peypetua is the
motto inscribed upon the constitution
of all governments.
The first gun that was fired into
the "Star of the West" dispelled the
theory of peaceable secession. When
this ingeniously wrought veil was
blown aside by the rude blast of war,
like that Of the yelled prophet Of
Khorassan. it revealed in all of its
hideous deformities bloody revolution.
/ believed that the South had suf6-
cient cause to 60 to war with the
North. I was in favor of throw
ing off the authority of the govern
ment Of the United States, and I de-
sired to accomplish it by revolution.
I drew my sword not to maintain the
RI hit of secession; not to defend or
perpesuate African slavery in the
South; but to defend and preserve
the greatest blessing yet given to
n$n-Constitutional Liberty.
The- doctrine Seward and his
party, that there was law higher
than the Constitution is what caused
;he people to establish the Southern
Confederacy. They hoped thereby
TO preserve and transmit to their
oosterity the civil liberty of America.
It was the same spirit that animated
our fathers in the Revolution Of l776;
he same spirit influenced the Demo
Gratis of the North to fight for the
restoration of the Union; the great
mistake We made was fighting under
4 new flag out of the Union.
The question of slavery was one of
the incidents of the war; the negroes
have been emancipated, and every
Southerner is glad of it,
for they now see what our leaders
failed to point out to US before the
war, that in a politico-economical
view we are better off now than we
were then. There were four million
slaves, who were worth two billion
dollars. What an immense sum to
have invested in perishable property.
Yet it was sol Every thirty-three
years these slaves died out, and we
placed this two billion of d''lars in
pine boxes, painted black. d buried
it six feet beneath the -, IN the form
of dead negroeo. MS was system
of loss and reproduction that kept
the South as poor as church mouse.
We now make the same amount of
cotton, corn. wheat, rice, oats, rye
and barley that we made before the
war, our net profits are the same il
not greater, and we will have the two
billion Of dollars liberated ready for
in other forms of proper
ty; every dollar that We now make
will live and continue to accumulate
and add to our State and National
wealth.
Concluded on Second Page.