Staunton spectator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1849-1896, 1881-02-22
The Southern Cenf ,deracy.
ALLEGED SYNOPSIS OF ITS FORTHCOM-
ING HISTORY BY JEFFERSON DAVIS.

CHICAGO, ILL, February 15.-The
Times makes public the topics discussed
by Jefferson Davis in his history, 1.-THE
Rise and Fall of the Confederate Gov
ernment," soon to be issued. He finds
in the structure of thirteen independent
states and their relations to each other
primary principles and vested rights on
which he rests his vindicatiOn of the
COnfederacy. He evidences the doc
trine of State sovereignty in the COM
pact by which the States voluntarily
gave their consent to federation with no
design, expressed or implied, ever to be-
come fractional parts of the nation, and
he believes that those vfho resisted the
violation of the original compact were
in fact the true friends OF constitutional
Union. The author. discussing the
principles and events in their natural
and logical order, first gives his atten-
ton to African servitude and the long
and bitter sectional strife to which it
gave rise. He then takes up the Ques-
ton of States rights, an gives the con-
stitutional and historical arguments on
which he rests the pril ,ciples of State
sovereignty, quoting COZ iously from all
the authorities on the subject. These
questions and full atement of the
immediate causes of the war occupy one.
half of the first volume The remain
der of the work is given to narrative
of the struggle, including the fullest
statement yet written from a southern
standpoint, of fierce discussions in the
Confederate councils, and of his defence
of the prOlongation of the war for many
months after many of the ablest men in
the South were convinced that their
struggle was hopeless one. In OPEN
ing the work he treats of the early leg
isIation on the subject of slavery. He
acquits the South of all responsibility
for the existence in its midst of the pc
culiar institution, and calls attention to
the fact that Virginia was the first State
to prohibit the importation into its ter
ritOry of blacks brought 10 this country
and reduced to slavery, and that Georgia
was the first State to incorporate in its
Constitution the prohibition of the Afri-
can slave trade. AL through the work
he treats of slavery, not as the cause of
the war, but only az an incident of the
secession movement. The paramount
question, he declares, was equality in
the Territories and the inability of the
South to maintain its equal rights in |
the Territories and new.made States. |
He traces the conflict which intensified
until 1t burst into open war. While up |
on this subject he speaks in condemna-
tory terms of the Missouri compromise, |
which he regards as a surrender of the |
rights which be uuged to the South. |
Bringing his history down to the cleo
ton of Lincoln. he finds the Federal
Government in the hands of party |
under which the southern States could |
not live. Lincoln was elected upon a
platform of resistance to slavery extern |
sion, party antagonistic to the South |
and believing in the. Capitalization of
power in the Federal Government con-
trolled by the Executive department. |
Having devoted half the first volume to |
an exposition of the causes which led |
the South to desire a separation from |
the Federal Government. Mr.. Davis
proceeds in several chapters to defend |
the right of secession. In justification |
of this right he quotes largely from
Webster, Calhoun, Douglas, Greeley,
Seward, Benton. and Clay. He vindi-
Gates the right of secession as perfectly !
compatible with the Constitution, and
claims, besides, that the General Gov
eminent has no rightful power to pre-
vent it.