Richmond dispatch. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1884-1903, 1898-11-03
DIR. WILSON'S SECESSION VIEWS.
Rev. DIR. Jones Takes Issue With the
Distinguished Lecturer.


College are attracting large audiences of
our most intelligent people and are GER
tainly able, eloquent, witty. and deeply
interesting as well as instructive. With
most Of what the distinguished Profess
sor has said in the two lectures | have
heard q was out of the city and had not
the privilege of hearing his second lee
ture on last Friday night am in hearty
accord.
But / desire to enter my earnest pro-
test against the position he took In MS
lecture Monday night on the Right of
Secession" He. very properly. conceded
that any lawyer would be Obliged TO IN
terpret the Constitution of the United
States in favor of the southern view
that is, that the States had a right to
secede He might have added that this
was, also. not only for twenty years
las he admitted), but for many years
the predominant northern view as we'll
that not only I'm 1904. when the Louisiana
Purchase was under consideration, but
during the war of 1872. and again in 1914
and 1916. during the agitation of the ques-
ton Of the annexation of Texas. Massa-
chusetts and the New England States
not only maintained the right OF seces-
sion, but threatened to secede If things
did not go TO suit them, and that the
Personal Liberty Bills " passed by near
" all of the Northern States, and in
force i'm 1860, nullifed not only the Con-
stitution of the United States. but the
laws OF Congress and the decisions OF the
Supreme Court He might have added
that up to the very breaking out of the
great war between the States"-the
great struggle for constitutional free
dom" as General X. f. Lee always
called it-Horace Greedy in the New YORK
Tribune, the New York Herald the en-
cinnati Commercial, and other leading
papers. and some Of the ablest men AT
the North maintained that the South hao
a right to secede. and the North no right
to coerce the Confederate States, ana
that since the war, and recently, some
of the ablcst lawyers at the North, such
as James G. Carter. Of New York (sald
To be one of the very ablest lawyers Ill
the country, and Senator Lodge. OF Mas
sachusetts, have conceded that the South
ern States had a perfect right. under the
Constitution. TO secede.
But DR.. Wilson follows up this state
ment of the legal right of the Southern
States, under the Constitution. TO secede
by the very remarkable contention thai
as the North and Northwest advanced
in material development their interests,
and consequently their views OF the Con-
stitution changed, so that in 1861 they
had become more nationalized. ana ala
not believe in the right of secession, while
the South had made no advance and
chung TO the old traditions and old views
of the Fathers of the Constitution, and
that consequently when the Southern
States sought peaceably to exercise their
legal right of secession, and to resume
the powers delegated to the General Gov
ernment-a right which Virginia had
most distinctly reserved when she rati-
fed the Constitution-and the Northern
States denied this right, and brought
Overwhelming numbers and resources
to coerce these sovereign States into SUBJ
mission, leach section, from Its own
point of view, was right"
How can this be unless we admit as
true the higher law doctrine of Sew
ard. who said that he took the oath to
support the Constitution with mental
reservation" the doctrine of Wendell
Phillips, Lloyd Garrison, and other eX-
IRENE Aboitionists, who denounced the
Constitution as "a covenant with death
and a league with hell'-and the doctrine
of Thaddeus Stevens, who in ''reconstruc-
ton" days justified the Infamous mea-
sures of Congress on the ground that
they had the right to work outside Of
the Constitution?
That the Southern States had a perfect
right to secede-that they were justlia-
BILE in doing so under all of the clrcum-
stances: that they ought to have resisted
the armed hosts who invaded their terri
tory to force them TO submit to the
extra constitutional view OF the North;
that Robert Edward Lee put it exactly
right when he said TO Wade Hampton
in 1862 1--WE could have pursued no other
course save with dishonor, and If all were
TO be done over again I should act in pre-
cisely the same way"-these points are
all capable of the most complete demon
stration. and were in fact practically
admitted by the government when. under
advice OF its ablest lawyers, Chief-Jus-
tice Chase at their head, IL never dared
TO bring to trial the indictments for
treason 4" which the infamous Judge
Underwood induced his mixed jury 10
find against President Jefferson Davis,
General r. +. Lee. and others
But that the North was also right
I'm its point of view" and justifiable in
treating the seeded States as 'in rebel
lion" and their people as rebels and
traitors"-in bringing against them the
armed forces of despotc power, over
sword, and starving US into abandoning
what was our right. under the Constitu-
tion-that the North. equally with the
South. was right" in that great con-
hict-s proposition utterly repugnant
to all of my ideas of justice and truth, |
and one that not even the brilliant rheto- |
ric or ingenious sophistrles am not
surprised that he sneers at logic of DIR. |
Wilson can ever establish.
Indeed it seems to me that the logical |
result of DR.. Wilson's position that a |
majority may without changing it violate |
the written Constitution whenever their
interest or pleasure may seem 10 them |
to demand it, leads directly to the worst |
anarchy that the world ever saw-the |
worst despotism that men acting out
side" OF the written law could ever in |
fict.
That there were brave and true men at |
the North, who sincerely believed that |
they were right in seeking to defend |
the flag" and retain the South in the |
Union, even at the expense OF the Con-
stitution which made the Union l make
no doubt That the result Of the war
killed secession forever is so plain that
'he that runs may read"
But that the North was right in the !
and Ubiquitous war that she |
Vaged against the Confederate States. |
can never believe until convinced that
black is white and wrong Is right-that
the fundamental principles of the Con-
stitution may be set aside and trampled
under foot whenever the passions Of the
hour may dictate this 10 a majority OF
the people.
No! A thousand times no. The men who
the battle-hag of the COnfede-
.f.t< 4 ri