The state chronicle. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1883-1893, 1886-12-16
SENATOR VANCE At THE HUB.
IN THE HOME ENDELL PHIL
LIPS HE DEFENDS TIL L SOUTH.
In the Entire Lecture There il No Gu>h
Over New EngIand--The Lecture i an
\ Bile Presentation of Southern Ideas.

v e publish below synopsis OF senator
Nance's lecture in fremont Hall, Bost m
Mass, Dec. sth., on political Feeling
and Sentiment During the War" The lee
ture WIS delivered for the benefit Of J. \.
Andrew Post G. 4 r. We have read the
lecture rather copious extracts there
from and regret that our space bids its
publication in its entirety. y defence of
the South in Boston was doubtless de
cided novelty in that city in which the
anti slavery movement had its birth and
most able champions Reared under the
shadow of Bunker Hill, listening with rapt
interest to the eloquence of Wendell Phil
lips, paying daily reverence to Charles
Sumner, the Bostonian as naturally
thought Of a Southern soldier as "a rebeP'
as he thought of Lincoln as a patriot.
Fed since the war by partizan and mall
cious lies about the South the men of the
Hub may have wondered if any good thing
could come out of Nazareth. Some OF
their broad men had heard Senator Vance
and been impressed with his candor, his
honesty and his ability rs a popular lee
turer He was invited 10 speak in Boston.
Think Of that. Twenty years ago the city
would have been decidedly too cool to-
wards prominent Southern soldier to
give him a warm reception.
We rejoice that our great Senator, who
better than any other prominent citizen
of the commonwealth represents North
Carolina sentiment and North Carolina
prejudices, as well, accepted the invita-
tion to speak before a portion OF the Grand
Army of the Republic in Boston. We re-
oice that he discussed the war and gave
to the Northern people a clear statement
Of the reasons hat induced southern men
to secede. 1t is an admirable lecture
honest, straightforward, with an occa-
sional flash Of humor. The Boston Globe
published it and the Boston press spoke
pleasantly of it.
We do not believe there is now in the
South a man in public life who is so many
sided and SO typical Of the best type of
the Southerner as Senator Vance There
are better lawyers, better scholars, better
specialists, but not one we believe who
has his ability in so many departments.
For this reason, us well as for the reason
that be i5a North Garolinan, we are .lad
that lie was the first 10 represent our
lost cause in the home Of the highest cul
ture and the peculiar abode OF the anti
slavery sentiment.
The following synopsis written by the
Boston correspondent Of the Baltimore
SUMS, to be given III such small space,
excellent. Read and preserve for your
children:
The Senator's remarks We're devoted to
the attempt on the part Of the North to
forestall history in regard to the civil war,
and Q impress upon all who took part in
it Oh the Southern side the stigma Of
treason to which he said that ,.all crime
is to be found in criminal intent, and 10
Southern man believed he was engaged III
rebellion or treason; that secession was
constitutional and right; that the Southern
people had been 50 taught by Northern
and Southern statesmen: that the unlyer
sal understanding when the constitution
was adopted was that when Il State deem
cd herself injured by It's restrictions she
had the right to withdraw The founda-
ton for this decison,' he said ''was
Madison's resolution of 1898. Massachu-
setts accepted this doctrine, and asserted
her right and threatened to execute it in
1903 when Louisiana was annexed. She
again asserted this right IN the Hartford
Convention several years later. The resO-
luton of 1898 became the political plat
form of the Democratic party, and was
enunciated again and again by national
conventions, and candidates of that party
protesting these principles had carried a
majority of the American people. Thus
feeling and being reared to believe that
doctrine accepted, no Southern man could
! be legally convicted of crime for thus at
tempting to carry it out. No court has
ever decided that secession was treason,
and therefore there could have been no
criminal intention as there was no criml-
nal knowledge. 1t is therefore unfair and
untruthtul to continue to speak OF seces-
sion as treason. The question never was
decided until it was decided by the war"
''They do us injustice,' continued Sena-
| tor Vance, when they say that slavery
WAS the cause of the war; in truth it was
only an occasion Of the war The real
cause of the war was the attempt of the
! federal government to control the internal
I affairs of the States. Had we submitted
TO the interference Of the general govern
ment III regard to slavery, we would have
been prccluded from resisting that inter
! ference II regard to anything else what
/ ever which would have made an absolute
end of the sovereignty of each State over
its own affairs He then went on to
state that for the the sin of slavery itself
the responsibility must be divided between
| the North and South Rhode Island and
Massachusetts ships (slavers) went to Af-
/ RIGA, bought slaves for New England rum;
the South also bought them. When the
! Northern States found the climate uu-
! suited to slaves, they sold them to the
| Southern States, quit the business and
| turned philanthropists. Massachusetts,
| New Hampshire and Connecticut Joined
/ extreme Southern States, the two Carroll
mas and Georgia, when the constitution
was formed and postponed for twenty
| wears the suppression of the slave trade
so that on both subjects, secession and
| slavery, New England is not in condition
to throw stones at anybody else.
He then proceeded to speak of how Sc
cession was accomplished; how it was re
ceived by the common people, how the
! civil authorities were supported by popu-
! lar opinion throughout the first year or so
of the war; the necessity for conscription
acts and their effect on the popular Opin
! ion i'll the South; the social condition of
the South during the war, when shut off
/ by blockade from all the world; what peO
/ pie did and said and thought and felt, and
especially what they did in the way of i'm
proving their manufactures of war ma