The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1898-08-07

Major Robbins. who was a Confederate
officer, at a camp fire of the G "A. II.
at Gettysburg recently. 1t presents the
honest Southern view of the cause OF
secession. 1t voices, no doubt, the SEN
timents of the whole South, in this hour
of happy concord, and is another strong
reason why we should let history record
the past. and thus bring our living as
sociatiOns. North and South, under the
''brotherly love" of united American
citizenship.
A large party of New Workers visit
mig Gettysburg recently, camp fire was
held at the post rooms in the evening,
at which brief speeches were made by
Colonel Albert D. Shaw of Washington,
and others. Among those called on to
speak was Major William NJ. Robbins,
the Confederate member of the Gettys-
burg National Park Commission, who
ficer Of the Fourth Alabama Regiment.
in Longstreet's Corps. Major Robbins
said:
my friends, thank you for the COM
pliment Of this call, though / came here
tonight to listen and not prepared to
speak.
81 have listened with much interest to
the excellent and broad-minded re-
marks Of Colonel Shaw, and especially
to what he has said about the origin OF
our sectional dscord, which led at
length to the Civil War. He attributed
it to difference of type as well as OF
ideas in the two great classes of imml-
grants-the Puritan and the Cavalier
who, in the main, peOpled respectively
the North and the South and shaped
their differing civilizations; the former
being based upon the idea of universal
liberty and equally of rights; the lat
ter upon the idea of class inequality
and the subordination of one class to
another.
"You will pardon me for questioning
frankly the sOundness of that view of
the matter. plausible as it may seem, and
for presenting to yOu my notions may
say, our Southern view-of the great
sectional controversy, its origin and sa-
lent features. The observations of a
lifetime have led me to conclude that
there is, after all a surprisingly small
difference in the fundamental character
istics Of all classes and sections of the
American people. the pioneers that peo-
plcu OuI WIOIc w HClC as
there ever better type of the Puritan
than Stonewall Jackson, and a great
multitude of his comrades in the Civil
War on the Southern side? Where can
you find more Of the spirit of caste and
pride of race, equal to that Of the Cava-
ler, than you find in the descendants of
the immigrants that came over in the
Mayfiower to Massachusetts? The
great social and industrial feature from
which arose the differences between the
North and the South was African sla-
very, and it was climate which determ
ined that and fixed its bounds, and the
differences if wrought were mainly in
habits and manners which are but SUI
perfcial matters after also that we
all both Of the North and South, re.
manned much the same and much alike
in the essential fibre of cur manhood
all being sciOns of the sturdy American
stock and showing what stuff they were
made Of on many bloody fields.
1--WE Southerners did not originate sla
very. The SOutherners of our day were
merely the heirs of that system. 1t was
planted in common by the men of the
North and of the South originally, and
your ships and not ours, mainly, imported
the negroes from Africa. The want of
suitable climate caused the system to
die out in the Northern States, but the
climate of the Southern States caused its
perpetuatiOn. The Southerners even of
our day great many of them-looked
upon the system as a great misfortune;
as an incubus upon our prosperity; as an
evil which we would have been glad to
be rid Of. But when, about 70 years
ago, our people began to mediate and
Al
how to rid ourselves of it. just about
that time We began to be denounced be-
cause the system existed amongst u.s. We
We're called sinners above all men because
we had the misfortune to be slave-Own-
ers. The solution Of the problem by the
emancipation of the slaves was one that
might well puzzle thoughtful minds. The
free blacks amongst us were the most
degraded and helpless members of So
ciety. The great body of the black
slaves were manifestly incapable of tax
ing care of themselves, and Of competing.
as free men, with the white race among
whom they dwell Whilst we We're puz-
cling over the problem, our difficulties
were increased by the incendiary appeals
that were sent amongst us by the so
called friends of the slave who lived
in the Northern States; and when we
remembered that the ancestors of these
men had done as much or more than our
ancestors in the establishment Of the sys-
tenn and heard ourselves denounced by
them as we were, we lost our tempers
and much as we loved the Union and
glOried in the American name and the
free government which our ancestors had
fought and died to help establish, the
question finally presented itself to u.s.
whether we would not be happier it we
We're separated and off by ourselves, cut
loose from our countrymen who persisted
in misunderstanding us and denouncine
us, and whether it would not be well foI
us to set us a government for ourselves
as nearly as possible like the government
under which we then lived as citizens
of the United States. and leave you peo
pie Of the North to enjoy the government
that you had, which we did not seek mol
wish to destroy.
Did we have q right to do it? We
remembered what the Declaration OF
Independence said, that all just gov
ernments are based upon the consent
Of the governed and we We're foolish
pnOuph n haliava that If . 900 000 ho :