Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1881-02-28

These speeches contained repeated declara-
tions of his adherence and devotion to the
Union. and he affirms that his public deeds
were at all times actuated by this spirit be-
fore the General Government began its
violent encroachments on the rights of the
States. In his history of the slavery strug-
giles he has occasion to treat quite fully of
the Administration of Franklin Pierce, I'M
der whom he was Secretary of War He
is the sincere friend of Pierce, and the
moderate eulogist of his Administration.
He comedies to that gentleman higher and
more admirable qualities as a man and
publicist than are enumerated in the refer.
ences which most contemporaneous histo.
rians make of him. Of his personal char
acter he says: Mr.. Pierce was man who
would never descend to meanness, who was
true to his friends, bold in following out
his convictions, and admirable for his truth
and generosity. 1t was during the Pierce
Administration that
THE STRUGGLE IN KANSAS
Between the free-soil and pro-slavery par
ties eliminated. In the bitterness of this
struggle Mr.. Davis finds the beginning of
the Immediate causes of the war. He de-
votes considerable space to description
of what he calls the usurpations of the
Federal authorities. Congress, it will be
remembered, refused to recognize the Dele.
gate chosen from Kansas on the ground
that his election by the pro-slavery party
had been procured by fraud. This part of
his work will probably be regarded as
among the most noteworthy in the history,
for Mr.. Davis distinctly opposes the favor
able notion of Douglas and many others of
the leading Democrats of that time, sum-
med up in the doctrine of "squatter or
popular sovereignty that the people
of the Territories should have been free in
their political action, and when they came
to form their State Constitutions and ask
admission into the Union, they should ex-
ercise their right and adopt or reject
slavery. He regards the repeal of the
Missouri compromise as reopening the ques-
tion of slavery in the Territories, and as
precipitating conflict between the opposing
parties, which was encouraged by the
Abolitionists of the North, and which
finally compelled the South, in self-de-
Tense, to take decided stand. He holds
the violent Abolitionists largely RESPONSE
BILE for the final breach of peace, for out of
their teachings grew such facts as the John
Brown raid, which greatly intensified the
bitterness between the North and South,
while the collisions between slave and free
labor in Kansas, some years before, rem
dered possible by the repeal of the Missouri
compromise, had already widened and
deepened the agitation to a dangerous ex-
tent. Bringing his history down to the
81 &c T IN ho dc bn H.
Government In the hands of party un-
der which the Southern States could not
live. Lincoln was elected upon platform
of resistance to slavery extension. A
party antagonistic to the South, and be-
leving in the Capitalization of power in
the Federal Government, controlled the
executive department. Having devoted
half of the first volume to an exposition of
the causes which led the South to desire
a separation from the Federal Govern
ment, Mr. Davis proceeds in several chap
tiers to defend
THE RIGHT OF SECESSION.
In the justification of this right he quotes
largely from Webster, Calhoun, Douglas,
Greeley, Seward, Benton and Clay. In
maintaining that the compact between the
States was of the nature OF confederation
he draws largely for the basis of his argu-
ment upon the debates in the Constitu
tional Convention of 1889, and fortifies
himself with extracts from "Storey on the
Constitution, Elliott's Debates and Ban
croft's History. He refers to the memoir
able debate ON the purchase of Louisiana,
when Josiah Quincy of Massachusetts as
serted in the House of Representatives that
that act virtually dissolved the Union, so
that the States were freed from their obi
cations, and should prepare for peaceable
or forcible separation. He gives the his.
tory of the adoption of the tenth amend
ment to the Constitution, by which it was
provided that the powers not granted to
the United States by the Constitution, nor
prohibited by it to the States, are reserved
to the States respectively or to the peo-
ple" He vindicates the right of secession
as perfectly compatible with the Constitu-
ton, and claims, besides, that the General
Government has no rightful power to pre-
vent it. The question, he maintains, rests
with the people, from whom all power is
derived 1t will possibly make many read
ers feel as though they had
In life for the last quarter of century to
peruse this statement of principles and
issues which the late serious unpleasantness
made res adjudicata. But the vitality with
which Mr.. Davis strives to invest these
political questions of by.gone era is a
striking exemplifcation of the theory to
which it is said many Southerners still
tenaciously cling = that their principle
live, and that their cause ia not dead, but
only defeated. There cannot, of course
be much that is new in Mr.. Davis argu-
ment, but his facts and ideas have been
collated and marshaled with great ability,
and presented with all the force which
mastery arrangement, clearness Of thought
and vigor OF literary expression can give
them. Mr.. Davis style of composition is
admirable. It is trenchant, clear, forci-
BILE and elegant. He uses few adjectives
there is little of sentiment in the book it
is cold, logical appeal to public judg-
ment his narrative IS simple and straight
forward, keeping to the main point, with
no digressions or illustrative passages which
are not needed to add lucidity to the story.
The argumentative parts of his work will
undoubtedly take rank among the very
ablest attempts to justify and uphold the
principles he advocates. Though he may
be trying to
REvIvIFY A CORPSE,
He is evidently honest in the belief that
he is setting forth, in proper array, living
truth His work will be notable not only
as the history of secession by the leader Of
the movement, but as the ablest exposition
yet made in behalf of secession, of its mo.
tives, justification and results Arriving
in the latter part of the first volume at the
period when hostilities commenced, the
narrative makes rapid progress. How one
State after another followed South Caro-.
lima out of the Union is briefly sketched.
The author refers to the Northern protests
against coercion, in which connection the
name of Mr.. Greeley figures prominently.
He maintains that the South did every.
thing in its power to go out of the Union
peaceabIy and quietly. The conservative
temper of the Southern people, he says,
was shown in the early acts of its Congress