The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1897-04-27
GRAVES FLOWER DECKED.
Continued from Eighth Page.


men Of the south hold the dead defenders
Of their country
Woman. whose caress is as tender TO
the defeated as to the victorious, and
whose affections are unchanged by disas-
ter; woman, whose aching heart is saved
from the breaking by reCollecuon's sweet
whisperings woman, whose dead hero Is
worth all the living sons in Christendom,
originated the beautiful idea embodied in
the ceremonies of this day. To the women
of the south. whose brave hearts knew no
fear and whose faith no waVerng, is due
the credit of a custom without its Ike in
the history Of the world. Their labor Of
love is not to place upon the brow of the
victor the laurels Of reward, but to streW
the graves of the vanquished with the
cypress-nOt to scatter flowers in the path
way of the conqueror, but to wet with the
hearts dew the resting-place of the con-
quered. And yet they would not have it
otherwise.
Rather tears for the right. than joyous
acclaims for the wrong. Rather to go
down beneath the glorious folds Of the
banner Of right than TO fight beneath the
flag of oppression. Far better to live in
history as vanquished exemplars of the
true spirit Of constitutional liberty than
TO be remembered as the victorious cham
pions Of injustice. Koscusko will live
long after the despoilers of his country
have sunk into oblvion's pit and Wrinkle
reid, blazing liberty's path, will arouse the
slumbering patriotism of the future, when
his slayers have been forgotten.
The people of the south, believing the
soldiers of the confederacy to have been
right, are not ashamed in the face of the
world TO pay homage to them, for the
time has long since come when without
arrogance but in justice to themselves
ana their descendants. they dare to stand
before the bar Of public opinion or in the
% HaH
actions Of those who fought the
south's battles. The cant of the cringing
coward whose pregnant hinges were ever
ready to be crooked, has almost ceased;
the apologize whine of the poltroon who
would sacrifice the principles of his people
at the demand of expediency, is dying out;
ana the manhood of the south, asking no
mercy but demanding justice, is carrying
nome even to the consciences of adver-
saries, the conviction that all the right
was not with the north, all the wrong
with the south. OF course, those who re-
garded the constitution as a covenant
with hell need not to be persuaded of the
strength of the constitutional position of
the south.
1t would alike be idle to argue with fed
eral New England the right Of withdraw
al for there was first advanced the
doctrine of secession. If it be true that
slave holding was morally wrong, at least
the north should have been charitable
IN Its judgment of the system for the
hrst profit made from the traffic in human
beings went into northern pockets.
IL IS SAD commentary of the ease with
which the people of a section may take
a new viewpoint Of a question that a
New England pen should have written the
great SANDER Of the system Of slavery
when that same New England began the
importation of slaves into this country
None viii dare to maintain that slavery
IN It's entirety was perfect-nothing de-
pendent upon human agency can attain
perfection. But to take isolated instances
or cruelty, bring them into contact with
vivid imagination and a preiudioed mind
ana 10 weave therefrOm a romance as UNI
true as It was inflammatory. was cruelty
unjust, and was as uncalled for and illog-
zeal as would be an attack upon our sys-
tenn of Jurisprudence, because, forsooth,
sometimes the innocent suffer in the place
of the guilty
To the people of the south the state was
bnt the evolution of the Monochrome, from
whence springs all that is pure and admir-
aoie In patriotism: home, where centers
the love OF family and kind; home, whose
Ties should be the strongest binding us to
earth blow at the state meant a me-
mace at the home, and in such a spirit they
resented what seemed to them an unholy
infringement upon the blessings of lib
erty.' History will show that they did
NOT desire to take from others rights con-
ceded to be theirs, but simply claimed the
privilege of Withdrawing from an union
rounded to promote the general welfare"
out which had become so changed and al
tered that the creators could no longer
recognize what once had been their crea-
ture.
The south was declared TO have been in
a state Of rebellion because certain states
OF me union had exercised the right of Sc
eession and Withdraw from the compact
or confederation. When the colonies who
had forced from England the recognition
OF independence as free and sovereign en-
tered into the articles of agreement, they
acted in their sovereign capacity. A calm
and dispassionate study of the conditions
surrounding the birth of the federation
can result in no conclusion fustifving the
idea that a nation was formed to which
the sovereignty OF the individual states
was surrendered. For the easier and more
convenient manner of arriving at certain
ends, and in order to insure to citizens of
one state equal protection and rights I'M
der the laws Of the others, the general
government was made the agent of the
sovereign states. Those ends and those
purposes were clearly and specifically set
out in the instrument under which the
agency was created-the constitution So
long as the common purpose was kept in
view and the provisions of the constitu-
Wnetner
one state or a number of states could
withdraw from the union at pleasure.
But when the northern states attempted
TO render nugatory and void that
section of the constitution which
required the states to sur
render to their owners all escaped slaves;
when the people of the north sought by
federal interference to prevent the peace
able carriage of slaves into the common
territories, although the supreme court of
the United States had expressly decided
that 1t was not within the province of the
general government to so interfere, then
no sovereign state which felt itself ag-
grieved was bound In law or in morals 70
longer remain in an union whose funda-
mental law had ceased to be respected by
the parties 20 the contract.
The compact had been broken, not by
the south, but by the north and the
southern states, clothed with all the pow
er and majesty OF soyereigns, sorrowing
NJ 1an frI 81