Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1885-01-28
a MATTER OF SENTIMENT,

Mr. Cable has awakened another re-
spondent James Phelan, in the Current,
after paving high tribute to Cables
brilliancy and literary genius, declares
that his report to Malcolm Mckay was an
answer to the letter and avoidance of
the spirit of MeKay's ayerment that the
South, the best Of it, holds, with regard 10
the Righteousness of Its cause, the same
position now that ii held in those stormy
days" To this Mr.. Gable had responded,
in efiect-tirst, the best of the South never
believed in the doctrine OF secession it
was I pretext behind which to defend a
social structure that depended upon the
mental aud servile condition Of a certain
class. Secondly, that class having been
enlranchised, society at the South Is
unwilling to recognize the changed condi-
ton, and will accord the negro no civil
rights except such as are possible to the
serviIe and mental This constitutes the
pith Of the whole debate which has
awakened such wide attention and has
taken on the importance Of national dis
putation-one, however, by no means to
be regretted, and the continuance of which
must result in bringing tie people, North
and South, into the light Of better uuder-
standing of each other, and therefore THAI
much nearer TO the right adjustment of
the negro question. Now, SAYS Mr.
Phelan, Mr. Cable is right in his
statements, hut he should not have
uttered them - being Southern man
he shoa,d have been the last to say what
he did He, therefore, offended, not in
being strictly accurate but in compelling
the South TO admit his accuracy 1t will
occur To the intelligent reader that this IS
an inviting tribute to Mr. Cables posi-
ton serving to fortify his views.
Mr. Phelan puts it in this way in briei-
slavery was wrong, and the doctrine of
secession equally so, as it had its origin in
the desire TO perpetuate slavery. The war
destroyed these false gods, hut the senti-
menr of reverence remains and this Is IN
carnate in Mr.. jefferson Davis: " Mr.
Gables sin has been, not against the idols
Themselves. but against the sentiment Of
reverence. This sentiment of reverence
that s.ill fingers around the Lost Cause is
one of the factors Of national life in the
II
against this sentiment Il Is not necessary
that the priest who sees the craven image
broken should delile the temple in which
he has served" So, he holds, Mr.. Cable
viii not be forgiven by the South for I'M
necessarily making the confession which
all tacitlv admit. Ii is the fail
ure to recognize the existence OF this sen
timent as a justiiable survival of cause,
not merely lost, but given up, that has
given the bIoody-shirt' orators and writers
so much material for political agitation.
To demand that the South yield this sen
timent is to demand the destruction of q
human characteristic that produced the
noblest display of courage and heroism
during Che war itself"
Mr.. Phelan has done both North and
South a profoundly great service in thus
narrowing the issue. We have now got
down to the simple fact that political en-
hanchisement must remain subseryient to
a fmereal sentiment; that human right
must stand aside in Difference to the pre-
cedence Of the mourners over an unburied
corpse In short, that the material pres
ent must stop its wheels of progress that
the hearse of dead past may block the
way. Ii is not needed that the logical