The News-Herald. [volume] (Hillsboro, Highland Co., Ohio) 1886-1973, 1894-02-08
THERE Is NO SOUTH.
Judge Emory Speer, an Ex.COnfeder.
ate, Asserts 1t.

The sensation of the hour in Savan.
nah is the address of Judge Emory
speer to the grand jury of the United
States District Court Wednesday. In
one portion of the address the Judge
expressed the belief that if the lost
cause had triumphed the south would
now be under military oligarchy.
Surprise is expressed at the tenor of
that part OF the address, and some of
the former weaiers of the gray are una
BILE to see what reason there was for the
Judge so to express himself in perform.
ing an ordinary judicial function. That
the Judge should have characterized as
impudence the firing on the flag is not
relished by them even though Judge
Speer, as he stated, was gallant Con
federate soldier himself. The sugges.
ton that the people of Poland could
have attempted to throw off Russian
sovereignty with far greater reason
than the South fought for Independent
sovereignty is not accepted by some
with good grace. Said Judge Speer:
At no period of the history of the
United States have the laws been in.
humanity enforced No doubt it is true
that just after our great civil war, when
the passions of the public on both sides
were excited, injustice was done, and
no doubt bad men were sometimes in
Office, because when the caldron of rev.
olution is seethiDg and boiling it always
throws the scum of society to the top.
But this is no longer possible in these
courts. This is just as much Georgia
| court as if it were the court OF Chatham
County; more over, it is typical South.
ern court. The district attorney, the
marshal, and the judge are all ex. Con.
| federate soldiers, but we are none the
less devoted to the laws of our common
| country; we are none the less resolved
to do all we can fearlessly and justly for
| their enforcement.
Suppose the several states of this
Union constituted independent princi-
palities, each with it's own system of
government, each with its own stand.
ing army and it's own navy, and an in
dependent system of laws, can you i'm
agine that the condition of the people
would be comparable in its happiness
to what it is now?
Go a step further. Suppose that we
had succeeded in our late effort to de.
stroy the government and establish an
independent government OF our own in
the South, what would have been the
condition of the people of the South
In all the light which the lapse of
years has thrown upon that terrible
struggle and upon its results it cannot
be doubted, believe, by thinking and
philosophic men that our condition
would have been much worse if we had
succeeded than it is now. We should
have been a strong military govern.
ment, as a matter of necessity. Those
of us who are of the appropriate mill
tary age wonld have been in the stand.
ing army or in the navy. Our boundaries
would have bristled with forts. On.
posed as we would have been by the
spirited people of the Northern section
of the country-a people noted as we'll
for courage and determination = we
would have had constant wars; we would
have been taxed into a condition of
poverty which the people could not
have borne.
What is the spectacle now? We have
harmonious union, beneficent in all
its results upon more than sixty mil
lions of people, and the very men who
attempted to separate this country into
two independent governments are act.
ually combining for its welfare and are
taking an even and patriotic part in its
councils and discharging with even i'm
partiality its public functions, with even
devotion its military duties. No other
people can point in its history to such
an advance of magnanimity on the part
OF the government. 1t could only be
possible where the powers of the gov.
ernment How from the sovereignty OF
the people.
Suppose the people of Poland with
far greater reason had attempted to
throw off the Russian yoke and estab.
lish an independent sovereignty, what
would have been the result OF their de-
feat? Their leaders would have died
under the Russian knout or would have
expiated their lives in the quicksilver
mines of Northern Siberia. Vac victis
is the maxim under the monarchic or
despotic governments where people re-
volt and are defeated, but here we wit
ness in this great government which we
tried to overturn and in this court the
object lesson that the Marshal and the
District Attorney were gallant Confed.
crate soldiers, and that the Judge him.
self had the impudence to fire on the
flag of his country from the outworks
of two of the cities in which he now
holds his court Certainly such gov.
ernmeDt, so magnanimous deserves the
full. free and unreserved support of its
people.
Judge Speer is native Georgian and
entered the Confederate army 1t 18.
Ga