The true northerner. [volume] (Paw Paw, Mich.) 1855-1920, 1886-05-13

Inc cOrner-stone OF tho monument
at Montgomery, Ala, to commemorate
the abortive effort of the shareholders
to destroy the Republic has been laid,
and perhaps it was fitting that the arch
traitor who was the head and center of
that wicked effort should have been in
vited TO glorify il and mourn over its
defeat, to reiterate his reasonable sem
timents, and to spit out his venomous
hatred of the American Union in pres
ence of the shouting, yelling crowd of
Brigadiers and "Majahs." He has ex-
pressed himself with the rancor that
might have been expected, and in his
glorification treason has been glorifed
and loyalty once more insu,ted.
The sps ech OF Jeff Davis, ex-Presi-
dent OF the collapsed Confederacy, on
this occasion ought not to pass un-
noticed. The Union people and the
Union soldiers are not yet so far away
from the period of the war which this
unhanged traitor precipitated on the
country as to forget it or to allow the
cause for which they fought to be Wilt
fed without indignant protest. There
is little in it that he has not said before,
but it is the first time that his treason
has been so publicly applauded and
sustained, and it adds to the insults
that the demonstration was made on
the spot where he took the oath to de-
stroy the Union. The sentiments which
he expressed twenty-five years ago and
those which he expressed day before
yesterday are based upon the same
principle. Then they were colored by
exultant anticipations of victory; now
by lamentations over defeat. But the
treason is the same, and the Jefferson
Davis of 1886 stands where the Jeffer-
son Davis of 1861 stood. Here is his
position, compactly stated:
My friends, partners IN JOY and in sorrow
in trials and suffering, have come to join you
in the performance of a sacred task-to lay the
foundation of monument at the cradle of the
Confederate Government which shall COM
memorate the gallant sons of Alabama who
died for their country flor slaveryl who gave
their lives a free-will offering in defense of the
rights OF their sires Ito hold slavesl won in the
War of the Revolution ri and the State-sov-
eregniy freedom and independence which
were left us as an inheritance TO their posterity
forever These rights the compact of union
was formed not to destroy, but the better to
preserve and perpetuate.
Trials and sufferings." Who pre-
cipitated those trials and sufferings on
the South but himself and his cocoon
spirators? died for their country"
What country? Certainly not for the
Union. Did they die for the South?
The Government was not fighting to
take the South away from them. 1t
was not q war of land confiscation. Not
an inch of land has been taken away
from any rebel. There is not man in
the entire South whose title deeds have
been disturbed. 1.-The rights won in
the war of the revolution" What rights
were won in the revolution except the
right to be independent of an island
5000 miles away the right to be free
and independent nation; and the right
for all men to be free and equal" as
set forth in the Declaration of Inde-
pendence? What is this State SOW
ereignty which he claims men of indie
pendence left as an inheritance, and
about which he is continually prating?
The State-sovereignty idea means
the ..human-slavery idea, and it
never meant anything else. Since the
collapse of the Rebellion and the
abolition of slavery the "South" has
said but little about State sovereignty.
Its members of Congress have sys-
tematically voted themselves liberal
constructionists and grabbed subsidies
and plunged into the National Treas
ury without hesitation or shame. Be-
| fore the war a protective tariff was I'M
constitutional in the eyes of the Dem
ocratic South. River and harbor APP
preparations were unconstitutional.
Even the mails were opened, pur-
Joined, and supervised by the "State."
Such bill as Blair's, which passed
the Senate the other day by the aid of
Southern votes, abstracting seventy
seven millions to substitute for State
funds for education, would have been
voted down as unconstitutional. We.
hear nothing Of that kind now. State
sovereignty in practical politics disap-
! peared with slavery, for without slav-
cry the South has no interest in the
narrow unconstitutional dogma. The
South" fought to own human flesh and
hold it in bondage; to lash livelihood
out of the backs of the colored men;
| to breed human chattels for the mar
ket; to buy and sell their mulatto and
octoroon elatives-half-broth half
sisters, half-uncles, half-aunts, and
half-cousins; to perpetuate this brutal
and degrading system; to extend 1t
over the free Territories; and to re-
open the African slave trade. This was
the sum total of jeff Davis idea of
Democracy; it was and still is his in
depreciation of the Constitution. The
ninth article of the Confederate Con-
stitution tells what they were fighting
for: "That in all territory acquired by
the Confederate States the institution
of negro slavery shall be recognized
and protected, and that the citizens of
any State may carry his slaves into such
territory;" and this most outrageous
oligarchy the world has ever seen is
called Democracy" Nothing else is
meant but the restoration of this sys-
tenn of slavery when jeff Davis has the
effrontery to say: POLICY in the abb
sence of magnanimity would have indi-
Gated That in restored union of the
States there should have been full
restoration of the equality, privileges,
and benefits as they had pre-existed
The Montgomery monument COM
memorates the regret of the slave
/