The gold leaf. [volume] (Henderson, N.C.) 1881-1911, 1886-12-23
OUR ZEB." ="
Senator Vance's Lecture in
Boston.
The Noted Carolinian Talks to Boston
Culchah about War Matters.
baltimore SUM-

The lecture delivered last evening
by Senator Vance, at fremont Tenn
pie, in Boston, for the benefit of the 7.
A. Andrew Post of the Grand Army
of the Republic, on 'Political Feeling
and Sentiment During the Civil War;"
was devoted in large measure to a
discussion of the errors and delusions
under the influence of which the mass
es of the Northern people were brought
to enter upon and continue the war
upon the South. Gen. Mcclellan, in
a recently published posthumous work,
expresses the opinion that the war was
prosecuted by Stanton and other lead
ers at Washington in the interests of a
particular political party. The war
itself, with the reconstruction policy
that followed, was directed particularly,
if not openly, to the establishment of
Republican supremacy. Its history
has been written, Mr.. Vance COM
plains, on the assumption that the exi-
gencies of party were those of the
Union itself, and that party tricks
must be accepted as honest representa-
tions inspired by the purest patriotism
He gives special attention to the at
tempt on the part of Northern writer's
in dealing with the civil war to fore
stall history, and to impress upon all
who took part in it on the Southern
side the stigma OF. treason. The term
"rebellion," still used by some per-
sons to designate the war between the
States, shows what confusion of ideas
has thus been produced. GAIL crime,"
says Senator Vance, ''is to be found in
criminal intent, and no Southern man
believed he was engaged in rebellion
or treason" On the contrary, the
Southern people, in common with the
leaders of opinion North and South,
believed that secession was constitu-
tional and right. "It was the univer-
sal understanding" says Mr.. Vance,
''when the constitution was adopted,
that when State deemed herself in
.ured she had the right to withdraw"
The Madison resolution of 1898 as
serted this right, and it was reasserted
by Massachusetts, in 1903, when upon
the annexation of louisiana that
State threatened to act upon it. Mas
again, several years later, as
serted the right of secession at the
Hartford convention. But the doc
trine became well-nigh universal when
the resolutions of 1898 were incorpo-
rated in the political platform of the
Democratic party, and were again and
again enumerated among its princi-
pies by national conventions and by
candidates who were elevated to the
presidency by the votes of a majority
of the American people. The South
ern people considered the doctrine es-
tablished and no court has ever decid-
ed that secession was treason. "There
could have been no criminal inten
tion," said the lecturer, "because there
was no criminal knowledge" 1t is
therefore unfair and untruthful, Mr..
Vance contends, to continue to speak
of secession as treason ''the question
was never decided until it was decided
by the war" A like error was in
volved, it was held, in the common
assertion that slavery was the cause Of
the war, of which it was only the oc
casion, the real cause being the at
tempt of the Federal government to
control the internal affairs of the
States. Failure to resist interference
with slavery would have precluded re-
sistance to anything else whatever,
thus making an end of State sovereign
tv. AS for the sin of slavery itself,
it is divided equally, Mr.. Vance main
tains, between North and South.
Rhode Island and Massachusetts, sent
ships to Africa to exchange New Eng
land rum for slaves, and disposed of
their purchases at home and in the
South. "When the Northern States"
said the lecturer, sfound their climate
unsuited to slaves, they sold them to
the Southern States, quit the business
and turned philanthropists." The
Southern States were not less forward
than the North in bringing about the
of the slave trade, $50 that
on both subjects, secession and slavery,
New England is not in condition to
throw stones at anybody else" The
devotion of the great mass of Southern
people to their cause during the war,
the immense development of Southern
at the time, and the fl
deity Of slaves to their masters in the
time. of trial, were other topics treated
bv she Senator. Upon the question of
the Confederate constitution he ex-
pressed the strong opinian that, sin
view of the great odds against the
Confederacy, the Southern people
should have stripped themselves naked
of all laws and constitutions and bow