The Newberry herald and news. (Newberry, S.C.) 1884-1903, 1888-03-08
to abolish it, it is time we parted con

panI. OOOu DSe.
Hold on" said the north, 'this un-
ion is not partnership termlnable at
will. tt marriage, and there can be
no divorce.n But the south had long
held that in effect the union was vol
untary alliance of States. The southern
people had little expectation that the
north would oppose it by arms, and at
the north and among Republicans the
right and expediency of "coercing
State" was very much in doubt till de-
bate was cut short by the cannon of
Sumter. So, first, the gulf States Sc
ceded; then, when blood was shed and
passion reused, the other southern States
went, too.
Up to this point, many southerners
had opposed secession, and in the bor-
der States had made some head against
the passion of the hour and the tyranny
of public sentiment. But when once
State had voted to leave the union,
almost every southerner believed that
his State had right to his allegiance.
Even if disappearing of secession, he
felt himself In the position of any
citizen whose country goes to war, con-
trary to his Judgment, but with the
right to command his services. After
all, very few men reason out the right
and wrong Of things clearly, especially
amid great social eXcitements. They
catch fire from the feeling in the air.
North and south alike, men enlisted
under an impulse to fight for their
homes along with their neighbors and
in defense of their country. To a Mas
sachusetts man, his country meant the
United States to a Virginian, his coun-
try meant Virginia or the South.
George Washington, in his letters dur
ing the revolution, wrote ''my coun-
try" when he meant Virginia.) Then
the war became to the south, what it
never was to the north, war of defense.
The home and fire-side were threatened.
Who blanes the men who took arms
against that? Who has no feeling for
the women who sent their husbands
and sons to keep back the hosts of Grant
and Sherman, whose coming meant fire
and sword? Who wonders if they
found it hard to forgive?
This is the southerner's side. If we
do not give the northerner's side here,
it is because our readers have heard it
for many years. We need not repeat
to them that slavery was gigantic evil,
or that to keep this people one nation
was worth all it cost. But we would
do justice to our fellow-countrymen Of
of the south. They were mistaken, and
they paid tremendous penalty. Think
how men love the flag they have fought
under for four long years, and measure
the anguish when that flag sank to rise
no more! Beaten, thinned, impover-
ished, the men of the south had to face
and make wholly new future. They
accepted the overthrow of slavery, and
the iDdissoluble unity of these States,
as facts as facts they made the best
of them, until they grew reconciled to
the result, glad slavery was gone, and
attached to the union they had fought
to break. In building up their waste
places, in looking forward and not back,
in joining hands tocreate new Ameri-
ca, they have shown themselves Drawer
men than on the battle field. We are
proud of them as our fellow-country-
men, and We would not ask them to re-
pent or to be ashamed of their past.