The Lexington dispatch. [volume] (Lexington, South Carolina) 1870-1917, 1898-05-18

1eellnSS III OOutueiu eAee'iono 'Aoi14
the crash in 1882 when Andrew
Jackson, by his strong arm, put a
temporary injunction to the ou'bu'st
for which as yet the conditions were
not ready.
Various efforts were made at diff
ferent times to free the negroes, but
only to confne slavery to the slave
States then recognized as such and
to forbid it's introduction into any
new State which should be there
after admitted into our Union.
All efforts and compromises were
fruitless and in 1856 the Black Re
publican party was introduced and its
main feature was that slavery should
not be extended in the United States
but strictly confined to the then slave
territory. Iu 1860 the Democratic
party split and the Republican party
elected Abraham Lincoln President,
although by a minority vote.
The election of President Lincoln
did not endapger slavery in any way.
but only its further extension in our
territory. But the issues have reached
the crisis and slavery had run its
race, had filled its mission, bad ac-
complish all it could and the fatal
attempt of the slave lords to de-
stroy the Union eliminated in the
secession of South Clrolina and sew
eral of her sister States from the
Federal communion. Rash and i'm
pudent as it may have seemed it will
some day appear to all patriotic
thinkers that the best possible thing
occurred for America as a whole, for
the South in particular and as the
proper step for the best interest OF
the human family. Having had ac-
complished all it could for our South
ern country and the climax had been
reached when it's further existence
would have been a menace to our
civilization. The point had been
reached when the negro must be
freed or the poor white man would
be enslaved It was the situation,
the destiny and the future and not
the Federal soldier that elevated
100000 of human beings from
chattel slavery to the proud position
of American freedom.
The South in it's attempt to en-
danger the existence of the flag
drew together the American heart as
no other question possibly could and
thus arrayed against her gallant sons
the most determine an inveterate SEN
timent of all men outside the slave
States and greatly weakened her
cause even in her own territory, for
there were great many Unionists
then in South Carolina.
And what two leaders possibly
could have been elected to accom-
plish the best results at the end.
And strange to say both the Confed
crate President Davis and the Fed
eral Executive both South Caro-.
linians by blood but not by birth or
raising.
I have already given to the public
my reasons in part for believing and
for feeling very confident that Abra
ham Lincoln was the son of John G
C.lhoun and Nancy Hanks, whose
home was in Anderson county Of this
State. Who of all men then in pub
lie life was better suited and quail
fed for the momentous task assigned
hin?
History some day will give a
different lineage for Jefferson Davis
than the one now accepted. When
the trials and struggles of the gal
liant armies and heroes Of our civil
war shall be written as they we're,
many erasures and interlinings will
mar the present pages which narrate
the achievements of the heroic slain
of both armies, and which find moth
ing in Greek or R)man annals to diD,
the glory which shone on the Ameri
can battle grounds. And to the pru-
dent thinker nothing in uninspired
history which more clearly marks the
interference of God in the civil strifes
of men and nations.
The historian will some day tell of
these two principal gladiators in
proper terms and not for blood rela
tions or position restrain the truth
as it is.
President Davis, like President
Lincolp, will descend from South
Carolina origin, and the Hon. Simeon
Christie, for long years the Sheriff Of
Edgefeld district before the war and
one of the land barons and slave
lords Of this State, will go down in
al