The western sentinel. [volume] (Winston-Salem, N.C.) 1887-1926, 1890-02-06

VANCE'S GREAT SPEECH.

VANCES GREAT SPEECH.
THE ABLEST DISCUSSION OF THE NE
GRO PROBLEM YET PRINTED.
He Scores Spitfre Ingalls, and Defends
the Honor and Integrity of the South
in a Mastery Mannsr.-Every South
erner Should Read It.
Senator Vance said: Mr.. Presi-
dent, one of the earliest recorded ut
terances of inspiration is, that the sins
of the fathers are visited upon the
children. This is another way of say
ing that the mistakes of one genera
tion endure to plague another. =
First and foremost in this calam
itous traffic was New England. In
fact, 90 anxious we're the people Of
those colonies for slaves they reduced
to bondage the native Indians whom
they captured in war, and, not un
frequently, those wicked people of
their own race and blood who were
guilty of differing from them in re-
ligious opinions.
The tobacco growing colonies of the
South s,r,n followed suit in the impor-
tation of African slaves, and early
found how profitable this cheap and
involuntary labor was in the raising
Of their great staple. The introduc-
ton of the cultivation and uses of cot
ton soon gave a further impetus to
slaveholding, and made the chief
prosperity OF all the Southern regions
to depend mainly upon this enforced
J labor Whilst the wont of profitable
returns gradually lessened the hold of
the North upon slavery, its great pro-
fits constantly increased that hold up
on the South.
The stony and sterile fields of New
England called for manufactures and
commerce. That commerce consisted
very largely in purchasing slaves on
the African coast, and selling them to
Southern planters. Thus their inter
eats constantly drifted the Northern
and Southern people apart in regard
to African slavery. After time it
ceased to exist altogether in the
North, by reason of mancipation
laws made to take effect at fixed
periods, and by their sales to their
6outhern neighbors By this time
the wrongfulness of holding slaves
fully dawned upon the conscience of
the Northern people. Its prickings
became 80 active that they not only
deemed it a sin to hold slave them
selves, but to permit anybody else to
hold one, even though there Vas no
responsibility whatever upon them for
the transgression.
They even went 80 far in obeying
the dictates of conscience, that they
did not hesitate to stand up boldly in
tho sight of God, with the purchase
money in their pockets, and denounce
fhe vengeance of heaven against their
Southern neighbors for holding on to
the negro which they themselves had
sold them.
Every requisite to the effectual
working of a good conscience was
present. Slaveholding was not only
Improbable, as has been said, upon
their soil and in their climate, but the
lucrative trade of supplying the
Southern planters vas abolished by
the Constitution. In addition to this
their sense of rectitude was unparden.
ably offended by the contemplation Of
the we'll doing Of their neighbors. Oh
course, men who burnt witches, ban
ished or enslaved Quakers, and had
made fortunes by the horrors of "the
middle passage, could not be expect
cd to tolerate any longer the ungodly
thing which brought fortunes to Vir
ginia and Carolina planters. With
ever increasing bitterness this conscien
tious crusade was kept up with an ex
travagance of language which scrupled
not to denounce the Constitution it
self, which respected the shareholders
right under State laws, as "a league
with death and a convenant with hell.
The inevitable result is fresh in oul
recollection. 1t ultimately led to civi
war in which more than million
lives were lost and more than thre,
billions of property destroyed, and al
much of indebtedness incurred. TIL.
slaves xere set free.
Those of us in the South who hat
deprecated the war and deplored tn,
agitation which led to it, as we sat il
the ashes of our own homes and scrap
, ed ourselves with the potsherds o
desoiation, yet consoled ourselves fo
, the slaughter of our kindred and tn
f devastation Of our fields by the ref1ec
/ tion that this, at least, was the end
, that the great original wrong com
. mitted by our fathers had at last beel
| atoned for that the Union havin,
, been declared indissoluble. and slav
cry forever abolished. the one grea
+ stumbling block and stone of offens
, was removed, and the people of thes
, American States, henceforth homoge
) neous, could pursue their great destin,
f harmoniously and fraternally.
How little we know the temper G
the victors in that great struggle
We made no calculation for the fac
that the necessities Of party supre
macy would lead men as far as eve
the prickings of conscience for an un
i profitable sin had done. No soone
4 had we fairly witnessed the end {
o hostilities before acts in Congress wer
. passed directing the subversion of a
J; law and civil government in the State
8 of the South, under cover OF whic
9 they were divided into military dii
= tricts, over each of which was place
0 = general of the army, supported b
d sufficient troops. To these genera