The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1886-05-05

and crushing as was ever known. Is not to be
respected. The South was the victim of as mis-
chievous class of politicians as have existed in
/ any country. They ruled this country for TWEEN
ty years, and the simple fear that they might not
be able to rule 1t longer was enough to mpel them
20 attemptto runit There was only one thing that
paralleed their arrogance, and this was the pat
riotic forbearance of the North Rather than
risk the severance of the Union the North even
| agreed to incorporate the permanence of slavery
in the Constitution itself by passing a constitu-
| tional amendment making its abolition impossi
BILE without the consent of all the States. never
| think of what the North was willing TO do for
slavery In order to avert rebellion without being
Inundated as well as indignant The war or
| the rebellion was politicians war 1t need
never have come. All the blood and treasure
| spent in it was sacrifice to the Moloch of the
| ambition of such Southern leaders as Jefferson
| Davis. When the Southern people honor Jeffer-
son Davis, therefore, they honor the ugiest idol
| with which men ever deluded themselves.
| shall be told, of course of the 'irrepressible
conflict that Mr.. Lincoln said that the Nation
could not endure half slave and half Free This
may be-; but the end might have been reached
without war The great crime of the Southern
politicians was that when they saw the North
was willing to reason with them, to make con-
cessons, they spurned anything Of the kind and
precipitated bloodshed. They organized the
hotheads of the South, and they crushed out
unionism then under reign of terror. They
were responsible for the blood that was split,
and Jefferson Davis is more responsible for 1t
than any one else l never think of the many
noble lives lost from the North without INDY
ing Indignation toward those who compelled
this sacrifice for our country: butt much as
we were injured, the injury to the South
was far greater. They sacrificed larger pro.
portion of life than did we, and they saw their
homes ruined while ours prospered. Worst of
all. in the end they had to encounter failure, and
failure with the consciousness that their whole
action had been in every sense a dreadful mis-
take. To honor the man who led them into it is
amazing falsity am impatient of those South
ern people who do not this now For the
Southern soldiers who fought in the war, and
for the Southern people who sustained them by
such terrible sacrifices there is other feeling.
They were the victims of the politicians. They
had been educated to believe that their first ale
glance was due to their States, and when the
politicians captured their State governments
they captured chem. / have the belief that the
great body of the Southern people were as sin
cere in their conviction that they were right,
were even as patriotic in their devotion to coun-
| try, as were our own people. They differed from
us in recognizing the State as their country
rather than the Nation No one who has read
carefully the history of the Nation can fall to
appreciate this state of things. From the days
of jefferson and the revolution of 1898 down. the
Southern people had been taught the right OF
secession It had been argued on every stump.
and it had been accepted as the political gospel
of that section. We can never treat them fairly
I'LL we recognize TINS TACT Ii mas notnlng 10 40
with the justice Of secession. The right to Sc
cede existed, and it had been exercised This
was the fact that confronted them. They recog-
nized divided duty. They could not go with
| their States and with the general government
both. They were compelled to choose between
them. They had been taught that in such an
exigency, allegiance to the State was paramount.
They believed that this kind of loyalty had the
prior claim upon them much as we believed
the other kind of loyalty had the prior claim
i har
South 1t removes the causeless character of
that action in which it sacrificed so much. 1t
enables us to respect the great mass of the
Southern people honest foes, as they certainly
were brave and gallant ones It takes them out
of the ranks of those mischievous politicians
who wrought all this calamity for them and for
u.s. They were the victims of conspiracy but
they had consciously part in it. They went
with their States. as patriots have often done
before them, without criticising the right Of