The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1891-07-05
TRACY THE WAR
a MONUMENT TO SOLDIERS UN-
YELLED At OWEGO.

Honesty of Purpose OF the South /
Dissolution of the Republic Would |
Have Been Fatal-rhe Reupiting CT
the Country.
OwEGo, n. Y, July A monument !
raised to the memory of the soldiers from
Tioga county, who lost their lives in the
late war, was unveiled here to-day. Secre-
tary Tracy was the orator of the day.
Secretary Tracy began his speech by re-
calling the fact that he had livered a
Fourth of July Grafton thirty
years ago standing on the
same spot. Then the struggle for
national existence had fairly opened, ami
the union, as all knew. was to be preserved
by force Of arms Ia less than three weeks
after that the first battle Of Bull Run had
been fought and lost. The secretary then
rapidly reviewed the great events of the
civil war, with their varying shades of vic
tory and defeat, and summarized the his
tory of his own command. raised in Owego
from among his auditors. He also sketched
succnctly the causes that led up to the
great conflict, defining strongly the posi-
tion assumed by the states rights adherents
on one side as laid down by jefferson, and
that taken by the eXpouuders of national
ton and Marshall--on the other.
BELIEF OF THE SOUTH.
In conclusion he said
That the south believed they had a right
p-aceably to secede from tho union, | have
never doubted. This belief logical conse-
qlence of premises that were assumed in the
revolution OF 1854 For sixty years il had been
instl d in the minds OF the southern people.
The proceedings of their political conventions
were deemed incomplete without reatflrmance
,Ns fa,, aFaJ'
childhood under its influence they had come to
regard allegiance to the state as the corner
stone OF theft political faith Their
conviction was sincere, and though
their administrations rejected this
narrow scheme Of government in practice,
their creed n-ver lost its hold upon the minds
of the sope. Even President Buchanan and
his Attorney General, Jeremiah Black, denied
the power of the national government to coerce
seeding state.
THE APPEAL TO ARMS.
The question had been argued and rear
ment could not settle it. IL could only
ba determined by the arbltrament of
arms, and to this tribunal the south appealed,
and as people they have Loyalty and heroically
accepted the result; and shall we, fellow-ciGi-
zens, who came victorious out Of tho struggle
grudge to them the precious tradition of the
valor and heroism that their armies even
though vanquished, have left them. AS we
stand here to-day, raising this monument TO
our beloved dead, We remember that
dependence @ Of unite united w nation, n
AID looking back across the dark gulf of the
civil war through 1l5years of national existence
we can but think of the restored union and say
TO these others: "As you we're our enemies you
are our countrymen."
ALL BITTERNESS FORGOTTEN.
\ quarter of q century has passed and all the
bitterness of the struggle is forgotten Like
us they have veterans living, and believing
like us, they still cling fondy to those dear as
sociations, the compauionshiD formed on the
march. in the tent around the campfire and in
the stress of battle Like US, they fought from
conviction, though their conviction was founded
upon that mistaken doctrine of allegiance
winch they, had learned in their early
youth; AID they fought bravely and
untnchingly for the cause, which,
after the first two years, was well
nigh hopeless, and yet in spite OF their defeat
the southern people discovered, in the results of
the war, the foundation Of new prosperity. Or
what other conflict can it be said that though
one party triumphed the vanquisced gaiued
more than if they had been victorious.
a NEW ERA OF PROGRESS.
The burden of slavery, which for centuries
had hung like milestone around their necks,
was removed, and straightaway there opened up
nov era of progress and deve .Opment, Of which
the end is not yet. Would Galveston now be the
outlet Of the trans Mississippi region, or New
Orleans of the rich river countries, or would
Mobile receive the vast share of the CONNIE rce
OF the northwest through st. Louis, if these
three ports were the ports of foreign country?
Compare the nation of today numbering
63Go00OO of happy and prosperous people,
with the conditions that would
have existed had such secession
been accomplished. Tho dissolution of the
union of the states, neither strong enough to
control the destnes of the other, ultimate sep
aration, perhaps OF other sections, until the
union would have been split up into a number
Of petty communities regarding each other
with hostility, their advancement checked by
loss OF the essential parts Of the integral
whole, each endeavoring to gain an
advantage by war or diplomacy over The others
a ,f rafr Aa1nt bxy
possibility have endured.
VALUE OF THE MISSISSIPPI.
Can it be supposed for moment that the
states bordering on the Mississippi river and its
tributaries h would have permitted themselves to
be cut Off from the mouth of that river
Dy an allen power? So essential
was this outlet to vast territories
OF the interior that even Jefferson sanctioned
lts ltsacqusition, in defiance of his own constitu-
uonaI scruples. Or it be supposed that
elIher the west or east would have tolerated
Us separation from the ocean on the other side
oA the Continent, or that the lake country
would have remained passive with another
power OF about equal strength
OUR NATURAL BOUNDARIES.
The conhguration of this country defines its
o9uldarles; each part is necessary to the whole,
Ahd all that It requires IL a sentiment among its
people as united and indivisible as the country
ltSsf-a sentiment which knows nolines except
tnose created by American citizenship and
winch extends from the Atlantic to the Pacific
oe understood as saying that in the results of
tle war any change has been wrought in the
uuu7fiylng principles of our constitutional gov
eet.Ihent further than that embodied in the
thirteenth. fourteenth and fifteenth amend
Lnehts but do say that the old heresy has dis
appeared forever. 1t may be that men still
ulner In their Interpretation of the con
sutuIon, as would be the Gaze with
an3 Jaw, whether an organic or an ordinary
ieHlslatlve enactment. But the fact is now &C
HnoWedged and accepted that the supreme
oourt ' OF the United States is a tribunal clothed
WIN WIN sufficient and final power TO determine
any specific case as it arises.
NOT MERE COMPACT.
,le Inc Jefersonian theory of compact has been
abandoned, and the citizen now regards him.
seu' and the law now regards him
as a citzen of the United States first and of his
aVe 5atterward. But while we have eX
uusulsned Jeffersonian theories, we have only
I'm .ioulirlned and reestablished JeffersonIau prac
bI, bIe, nor can any one of whatever party
tne aiIe US for discArdng the politica
p,iHHosopher, the author Of the resolutions
4o 9. ~ 70 stand on the broad and secure plat
~ O'S 1so OF tne President who acquired Louisiana
th?, toO?, Although we have thus put an end tC
S G mis,aken doctrine of state sovereignty, we
80 not lost sight of the true principle of state
IMPORTANT FUNCTIONS.
;y lo-uay, as in 1889. the states exercisethe mos
: ,,it "a ~ ! functions of the domestic govern
tratu iion. 1nese rights must be preserved in oil
-, -, NOpstltutOnal vigor. We belong to a re
puoHci out II is federal republic and in it,
~ a. a. pAcple, OF a union OF all combined