The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1897-11-29

were not shaken in their opposition by
the decision of the supreme court
against them, and proceeded to mani
fest their utter disregard OF it or any
thing contrary TO their determination
to control the government according to
| their own will. The election of Mr.
Lincoln by party formed on the
ground of hostility to them, brought
these differences TO a. crisis, and the
south tool. her affairs into her own
hands and left the Union. Even her
enemies are constrained to acknowl-
edge that the rights she claimed were
hers under the constitution and to
justify their own action by an appeal
TO what they call "the higher law"
What account does Professor Nc
Master give Of the reasons for seces-
sion? He says:
Why did the southern slave states
secede? To be fair to them, we must
seek to answer in the speeches of their
leaders. Your votes. said Jefferson
Davis, refuse to recognize our domes-
tic institutions Slavery, which pre-
existed the formation Of the Union, our
property (slaves), which was guaran-
teed by the constitution. You refuse
US that equality without which we
should be degraded if we remained in
the Union. You elect a candidate up
on the basis of sectional history; one
who in his speeches, now thrown broad
cast over the country, made q distinct
declaration of war upon our institu-
TONS.
There is" said Howell Cobb, of
Georgia. secretary og the treasury OF
the United States. no other remedy
for the existing state of things except
immediate secession
Our position said the Mississippi
secession convention, lis thoroughly
identified with the institutions OF
slavery. A blow at slavery is q blow
at commerce and civilization. There
was no choice left us but submission
to the mandates of abolition, or & dis
solution Of the Union"
Alexander II. Stephens, the vice
president of the confederacy, asserted
that the personal liberty laws of some
of the free states constitute the only
cause, in my opinion, which can justify
secession
The South seeded. then, according to
its own statements, because the people
believed that the election of Lincoln
meant the abolition of slavery.
These are the grounds of secession as
stated by the latest school histories of
the United States. Mrs. Lee undoubt-
edly states the southern view, but she
assumes the very points that were in
| dispute before the war when she talks
about the rights of the South under the
constitution. There is no denying that
there was question whether or not a
state had right to secede UP to the
time Of the civil war, but that war de-
cided it in the negative. Nor were
many things so clear before the war as
since.
There is no reason for any one to go
into Mysteries over Mrs. Lees history.
1t is extremely southern, no doubt, but
it isn't bad thing TO have history
that gives the extreme southern view
of the civil war and it's causes, because
it enables the people of the north to
know what that view is, and so it
serves an educational purpose wider
than originally intended. So far as we
have had time to examine it, it isn't
bad school history, generally speak
ing It's style shows that it is written
by one who is not used to historical
investigation, and while it is called an
advanced" history, it really seems
adapted to grade schools rather than
to advanced or high schools. This is
we'll illustrated in the closing para
graph of Mrs. Lees history. 1t is as
follows:
In taking leave of you, my young
countrymen ana courtrywomen, must
express the hope that each one of you
will realize your responsibility towards
the whole country, and especially TO
that section of it to which you more
Immediately belong; that you will per-
form your duties faithfully as boys and
girls, and make the best use of the OPP
portunities and privileges which are
given you at home and at school. If
YOU do this now. you will in a few
years, as men and women, exhibit the
virtues and abilities of those who have
so much adorned and exalted the his
tory OF the nation, and will show to
! the world that our country is today, as
she has ever been since Captain John
Smith established his colony at James
town. in 1907, the home of brave, pa
triotic, upright men and women, who
walking in the fear of God and up
holding the true principles Of free gov
ernment, will be to all ages an honor
and a safeguard to humanity.
r0NrED NTNTc nEMnrT AMI TAD