Wilmington daily commercial., 1876-09-26
MIR. BAYARDS CALHOUNISG- AND THE
ORIES OF SECESSION.


Senator Bayard made speeches, last week,
in New York city and Brooklyn, and took
special pains to unfold at length his theories
concerning the National government. The
New York Times whose remarks upon
them we print elsewhere, sees in them
simply and precisely the old doctrine that
Calhoun inculcated throughout the South,
and which, carried to logical conclusion,
ultimated in secession and civil war. The
TS71les's remark is that " We know of no
reported speech, indeed, in which the un-
adulterated doctrine of State Rights, which
eliminated in rebellion, is more concisely
or defantly set forth"
This remark is perfectly just. There is
probably no one in the country whose ut
terance Of the old secession doctrine is like
ly to be more colo, philosophical candid, and
indiscreet than the utteranoe of Mr.. Bayard.
Calhoun was more fiery and vehement
man, but the Senator from this State is not
less filled with those ideas that led up to
the firing on Fort Sumter, and which were
supposed to have surrendered at Appomat-
tox. ''The sovereignty of the State as
against the authority of the Union; the
right of State to cut the tie that forms the
Union; the theory that each part
separately, is greater than the
whole; the pretension that the
liberties of the citizen are more safe if COL
fded to the protection of one than of all
these are the old and favorite precepts Of
the school in which Senator Bayard studies
and would fain instruct. In the words of
James Russell Lowell, this is ''to make re-
bellion constitutional to give US, instead
of the country we have, Mexico = but to
whatever ultimate result they may really
expect to go, the inevitable logic Of their
arguments does not deter them from pro-
ceeding ON the way, and MIR. Bayard's re-
cent speeches, while they seem to be more
explicit and more elaborate, are not more
strongly inspired by Calhoun and Yancey
than his utterances habitually are.
And, after all the experiences of the last
lenty years, is it possible that this is to be
tae future craftsmanship OF the Republic
A Democratic President and Congress
means a government directed from the
Southern centres of opinion and policy
the revival of that control which Richmond,
Charleston, and Montgomery held before
the war. For "a solid South" is the only
hope of Mr.. Tilden's success, and solid
South giving him his election means. ne
cessarily, an administration dominated by
that power. In his Trenton speech Mr..
Bayard set himself the task of justifying
this prospect and showing the benefcence
that must flow forth when, onoo more, the
statesmen who levied war against the Union
held majority in the National Capital
and placed their President in the White
House. In such a governmental era-which
we pray may never come again-Mr. Bayard's
political philosophy would be the hand-boob
for daily use; Benjamin, slidell, Yancey,
Toombs, Mason would arise, in spirit and by
proxy, If not in the flesh, to agair crack the
plantation whip around the ears of the Ma.
tion. These recent speeches of the Senator
from this State are sounded as the voice
crying in the wilderness, the sign of tha
Oalhounish revival which he hopes may fol
low. Whether it shall is tho question nov
bsfore the people.