The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1896-04-28

the Golden Medical Discovery"
compromise; in admitting California, it
repudiated its action and enacted that
nowhere in that common domain, north
or south of the accepted latitude, should
the master bring his slave. They had de-
MED the right of free settlement; they had
driven South Carolina to notification Of
an unconstitutional law designed 10 en-
rich the north at the expense of the
south, there now only remained to at
tack the constitution in terms and with
out disguise. Legislature after legisla-
ture proclaimed that, law or no law,
within the boundaries of their states the
slave should be free and the master with
out remedy. 1t was no paper threat.
Armed mobs enforced their defiance to
the constitution with violence and blood
shed, until the end came in the invasion
of Virginia by a discredited ruhian amid
the clanlorOus plaudits of the north; whilst
in defiance to the constitutional court
fhe common soil of Kansas became HE
scene Of practical war levied against the
people of the south. Even with the cleo
ton of sectional president pledged to
the policy that 1t could not continue half
slave and half free, the south had not
despaired of saving the union. Compro-
mise after compromise was suggested by
it's representatives in the congress, only
to be met with the silence of contempt.
The conditions suggested by Daniel Web
ster were at hand. The chord had reached
its tension and snapped with the unbear-
able strain, and the states whose valor
had made American liberty fact passed
from the union their sacrifices had made
possible and resumed the powers they had
delegated in vain. 1t had been maintain
ed that it was not tenable for a state
to remain in the union and nullify its
laws, but the right to secede had never
been seriously questioned. 1t was not
questioned when the south seeded. They
had withdrawn from the union and had
for months been in the peaceful exercise
OF all the functions of independent govern
ment when war was precipitated.
The south had respected the rights Of
northern property within its limits The
general property belonged as much 40 II
as it did to the north, and in demanding
the evacuation of Fort Sumter there was
states of the value of their interest, nor
was this ever pretended. It's land had
been ceded by South Carolina and with
the common money it had been construct
ed for the defense of a southern port
1t was, therefore, intolerable that a
southern city should lie at its mercy when
it came to float the flag of an alien
power.
The commission sent to Washington by
the government of the confederate states
70 procure a specific adjustment Of the
that Sumter would be evacuated Holding
them IN delay by specious representa-
tons the government Of the United
States was utilizing their confidence in
preparation of an armed expedition to
invade the waters of Carolina. When the
mask at length was dropped and this in
the limit of its endurance, and smarting
under the perfdy of the deception the
defiant flash from Castle Pinckney an
nounced the breaking of the storm whose
reverberating echoes rolled across the
beautiful bay of historic Charleston and
Numbered in the hearts and souls of all
the south.
The results of the war excite in our
hearts infinite regret; but they can call
forth nothing of complaint. We mourn
our dead; we keep in our memory that
glorious life whose charm has faded from
the civilization of the world; and tears
viii rise in our hearts and gather to our
eyes in thinking on the days that are no
more" But poverty and death; blighted
hopes and broken hearts; these are the
sacrihces which liberty eXacts, and some
times in vain. We cast our fortunes on
the hazard of arms; we may not cry out
in protest if it has turned to our ruin We
accept the issues of the confiict-that is a
matter between the victor and ourselves;
but the cause which led to war, the right
and truth and justice which sanctioned
and made holy the contention of our peo-
pie, that lies between God and our con-
science, and fate nor time nor conqueror
can take it from us.
It has been our fate to stand among the
smoking embers of our social fabric,
stricken in heart and stripped of re-
sources, powerless, save for the dignity
of our manhood and the suggestions of
our past The curses of our enemies then
swelled with access of venom as they urg-
ed the intelligence of the south as the
unforgivable element of their armed con-
been preached into another generation
that the forgetting spirit of a great pity
should brood over the sins of our past
because in the hot temper of an ignorant
wrath we were the maddened victims of
a reckless race of schemers, misguided to
a treason which made humanity shudder.
Let us, my countrymen, take no refuge
behind the heartless falsity of such ex-
cusing. Be the consequences what they
may, in the name of the living and of the
dead l claim for the people of the south
the conscious and purpOsed responsibility
for their action as the reasoned result of
their instructed cOnsciences and deliberat-
ing minds. There never lived a people
who were so instructed In the political
conditions of their day as the people of
the south at the epoch Of the war
The Athenian in the time of Pericles
did not bring TO the considerable of pub
lie affairs the enlightened thought which
governed their temper and directed their
movements. Long years Of masterful adj
had made their power of command instinc-
tive and the daily ordering of their lives
had constructed them into a brave, reso-
lutte, self-relant race, knowing their
rights, valuing their liberty. and rever-
encing the pledges of democratic govern
ment which had been sealed to humanity
In the generous blood OF American patri-
oiism. To urge that such "a people were
'ed into the responsibilities of civil strife
hy the schcming Of politicians or brought
upon their firesides and country the hor-
rOrs Of war rather than yield to humane
suggestions upon the subject OF African
slavery. IS 10 follow m the lead Of the
slandorer.
In historical answer 7 summon 10 your
memories the scenes which ushered IN the
war. An enthusiasm. such as words can
not describe, had Qaickened into acsion an