Evening star., 1895-03-19
"MAY 1T BE PERPETUAL"
Secretary Herbert's Toast at Philadelphia
...~ Banquet
Settling the Doctrine of States Rights
ON the BattleReld-senius OF
American Institutions.

The Secretary of the Navy. Mr.. Herbert,
spoke ut the dinner of the Hibernian So
ciety in Philadelphia last night on THE
United States" Secretary Herbert's re-
marks as they related to the attitude Of
the south in bringing on the war. were OF
especial interest. Among other things, he
said:
1T was always the minority section that
held to the extreme doctrine of states
rights. In 1914 it was the New England
states, in 1860 and 1861 the southern states.
The question had to be settled, and, as both
the federal government and states claimed
to be sovereignties, there was no arbiter
that could decide it except the sword. Our
civil war that settled it forever was the
mightiest struggle in the book Of time.
"Freemen had met freemen on the field OF
battle; all were fighting for what they con-
ceived to be the liberties that had been be-
queathed to them by their ancestors. The
ten southern states had set over themselves
in substance the constitution OF 1IS9. 1t
was altered in no material particular. 1t
was written exactly as southerners believed
Jefferson and Madison had construed it.
They were fighting to maintain it as they
understood it, and the people OF the north
ern states were fighting for the Constitu-
ton of the fathers, and the perpetual Union
they understt cd it to form.
"I have been frequently asked the Ques-
ton, How Is it that the people OF the south
so readily accepted the results of the war?
How could they come back and SO soon be-
come loyal again to the Union? There Is no
secret about it if we look at the facts as
they are. There never was a moment Of
time when the seeding states were not
under just such a government as our ia
theirs framed in 11S9. When the civil war
was over, when slavery, the cause of strife
between the two sections had perished.
x,,I,a, fho of hod hoor
settled, when the people of the two sections
had learned on the field of battle to respect
each other as never before, when the tramp
of armies to and fro across Mason and
Dixon's line had opened the eyes of the
south to the fact that there were no natural
barriers separating the south from the
north, that this country Is geographically
one country, when the seeding states had
states in the Union, there was nothing left
to be hoped for or intelligently wished for
hut union and confraternity.
''Mr. President: Looking back over the
period that has elapsed since the thirteen
colonies won their independence. and look
ing forward as far as we may into the
limitless future, the great civil war, bloody
and prolonged though it was, was neverthe-
less a single incident in the final makeup Of
our government, one of the steps necessary
to be taken before this country could be
fairly put upon the mighty career for
which it is destined among the nations Of
the earth. That war is a final, accepted and
conclusive decision that the union of these
states is forever indissoluble, and yet for
us and our posterity it stands for more
than this-it is the loftiest monument in
the world of history, to the heroism, the
devotion, the courage Of man, testimonial
without parallel of the willingness of men
and women reared under free Institutions to
sacrifice themselves for constitutional liber-
ty.
oav,f tho OF
ways have before 1t grave questions to
deal with, but for more than century the
saving common sense of the American peo-
| pie has been equal to every emergency.
Millions Of the most enterprising of the
peoples CT the old world have come to us,
and we have AmericaniZed them all. In art
and literature We are beginning to excel.
| In agriculture. in mining, in manufactures,
| in trade. counting our internal commerce,
we lead the world. Our industrial progress
for the hundred years that are gone has