The Opelousas courier., 1891-06-06
Al! Americans.
N. o. Picayuue, June 3.

n. .. Picayune, June 3.
The dedication to-day at jackson,
the capital of the great State of Mis-.
sissippi, with eloquent oratory aud au-
gust ceremonial, by the old soldiers of
the South, amid vast concourse of
their countrymen from many surround
ing commemorative, of monument to
the Confederate dead will be an event
full of interest to the eutire South and
full of Importance to the people of the
great republic.
The history of the American repub-
lie is as much a history of the Southern
people as of any other of its Inhabitants
and citizens. Many and complicated
causes brought on Il series of events
which occurred through near half q
century, arousing sectional preiadices
and finally eliminating in the great
war between tue States The circum-
stances preceding this war, and the
prolonged and sanguinary contest it.
self, make up after the Revolutionary
struggle the greater part of the history
of the Union This war was culmin-
atiou of a long and rancorous conten-
tion about constitutional rights.
We will not say that the resort to
arms was wise. 1t was far otherwise,
but it was further still from being
wicked. Ill-considered. enormously
imprudent from a mere standpoint OF
worldly wisdom, it was an appeal to
the last earthly tribunal for rights
which were founded as well in the or
ganic law of the country as in the prin-
ciples Of common justice. No peace
able solution of the dispute, which bad
been prolonged through generations
and was constantly made more acri-
nonious by the growing conflict of OPP
posing interests, was possible save up
on the basis of what were considered
humiliating concessions by the weaker
party. Compromise after compromise
had already been made to a spirit of
aggression which was yearly growing
in power and confidence. Irritated,
augered, aud finally alarmed at the con
staptiy increasing power and arrogance
of the one section, which did not hesi-
tate to denounce the constitutions which
restrained its advances, and to appeal
to tho higher law OF the will of the
stronger, tits not strange that proud
people, conscious of the justice and
righteousness Of their cause, should re-
solve to make their last appeal before
the growing power Of aggression could
render their essay hopeless.
The Southern people were not wise
perhaps, but they believed In their
cause; they were confident that it Was
on Justice and right, and with daring
that was vastly imprndent, if not more
than desperate, they precipitated the
conflict which they saw would be finally
inevitable. They staked all they had
upon the Issue, and they lost enorm-
ously. Perhaps they could have bought
peaceful compromise at lesser Pc
cuniary cost and with no shedding of
blood, but it il more than questionable
| il they would not have sacrificed the
honor which at least they saved.
But at any rate the devotion, the
heroisul. the fortitude, the valor of the
IsSouthern people can no longer be
tYeated as sectional They are Ameri-
can. They belong to the common
heritage. They are part OF the glory
of the American people, and 80 they
will 20 into history, Some Of thepa
tisan papers of the North express a
Willingness to give credit to the valor
of the South, but they still talk o.
rebellion and treason. What can oe
more absurdf Positively, intelligent
Americans should learn to discard
those trumpery expressions since the
highest authority in the Union could
| find ma warrant for declaring the South
ern peopla either rebel or traitors
The constitutional and statute books
| were ransacked to find an excuse fol
| prosecutions for treason and rebellion
hnt 10 vain. There were no traitors
ard no rebels. The right OF secession
hy States were never abrogated save
| by force OF arms. None of the doctors
! at the law could find warrant IN the1l
books against it. !.
Then the monument raised to day II
tl,e heart of Mississippi, is monument
TO the grandest attributes OF American
/ oitizeps. and upon the ashes OF the com
i mon dead of the war between ta'
states. upon the yalor, the patriotism
] sha devotion and heroism of the Am
/ erican dead of the North and OF Gu
Sonth. will be built, must be built, tn
future safety, the perpetnity, tn
grandeur. the glory and enduring
/ Saneficence of the American Union ans
/ ire free institutions. In the years g
i eon,e. when it shall be asked who's
ashes repose beneath the monument
/ that that rahh their proud shafts and sculp
tnred columns to the heavens IL th
various y States of the broad land, iron
the lakes 10 the gulf, and from tll
Atlantic TO the Pacific, there Will 2
bnt one answer. They are the asiaes ].
heroic and 9patriotic Americana, 7
I may il be-; so It viii be.
.