The semi-weekly messenger. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1897-1908, 1899-11-28
The Wessenger.


IMPORTANCE of the south's standing
Favely by the reserved rights of the
States under the constitution of the
UNITED States we first copy from the
British Quarterly in discussing DR.. Won
Holst's first volume recently referred
to in this column. 1t said:
1T is customary with many to speak
of the unity of the American people as
a nation, as If that had been distinc-
tive Of their history from the first. So
far, however, is this from being the
case, hat from the first the seeds Of
all the subsequent difficulties and
complications were thickly sown in the
constitutions and relations Of the va
rious States. The chief value Of the
work before US is that it makes this
plain after a very laborious and on
vincing fashion,"
The Nation with a big 'N"came with
the results of the long and terrible war,
when constitution and wisdom and
foresight and craftsmanship were
thrown away, and crazy, unwise lead
ers so lost their heads as to forget the
past, and to work mighty changes in
the constitution Of the wise and great
men of the past. The able British
Quarterly says, and it follows the proof
established by the learned German his
torian:
THE claims Of State Sovereignty,
which were to cause so much embar-
Iassment, grew directly out of the orig
inal circumstances and conditions of
the Union. The assertion Of the right
Of secession did not lie in allegiance for
any long period during any portion of
the earlier history of the United
States"
This is beyond fair question true.
This is precisely true, and no part of
the north claimed more for independent
and sovereign action on the part of the
states then New England. If necessary
we could establish it as true that New
England, which was SO bitter, so re-
morseless, so fanatical in it's attacks
upon the south, and cried havoc with
SO much joy, was engaged from about
1906 to 1915, or later, in frequent
schemes to break up the union and as
sert the right of secession. There is
abundant proof, but we give but little.
In the able work of Mr.. Grady, page
276-7, you will find this: I'm 1911, the
Hon. Josiah Quincy, a member of con-
gress from Massachusetts, opposing a
bill for the admission OF Louisiana as
a state in the union, because, as the
reader can infer from evidence else
where presented the south would be
thereby strengthened in congress-, said:
If this bill passes, it is my deliberate
opinion that it is virtually a disssolu-
ton Of the union; that it will free the
states from their moral obligations;
and as it will be the right of all, so it
will be the duty of some, definitely to
prepare for separation-amicably if
they can, violently if they must" Here
we see by what a very brittle thread
the states were held together in 1911,
according to this leader in Massachu-
sets. To admit a territory as a state
that would increase the strength in
congress of the south, was suffi-
cient cause for the rupture of
the American union. 1t was in
fact a dissolution of the union ac-
rcording to Mr.. Quincy. How many
states have been since rushed into the
union to well the power of the north
in the congress? A dozen at least.
One was so rushed that has not now,
after forty years of statehood, as
much population as a congressional dis
trict of average strength has. When
the south for real grievances, a thou
sand times greater than any New Eng
ldHu IldS cNcI bOI llC, L " ~
draw from the violated compact, and
peaceable if it could, how fanatical
Massachusetts, lusting for southern
blood, and crazy over the negroes they
had stolen and sold to the south. be-
came furious for war and beloved
with stentorian lungs for the preserva-
ton of the union. Did Quincy mis-
represent his people in 1911. Mr.. Grady
GNE, n,;~ay I0nc not tn
have been at variance with public SEN
timent in Massachusetts,; he was hon
pred with many official stations after
wards, serving in the legislature, as
judge of the municipal court in Bos-
ton, and from 1929 to 1916. as president
of Harvard college," 1t will be recall
ed that in 1914, the Hartford convention
"a reasonable body if there was ever
any-issued an address in which it
favored withdrawing from the union
if occasion seemed to demand it. This
was a body that was chosen by the leg
islatures of three states-Massachu-
sets, Connecticut and Rhode Island
and some delegates from others of the
New England states. There is plenty
of other evidence to show that seces-
sion was the recognized appeal, anG
the Talk or 1t as common as 1t was ever
known in South Carolina n Alabama.
But how hot the Yankees waxed, and
how they roared and wrote when the
south sought a peaceful withdrawal.
The cry was at once war to the knife
and "let us kill the d. secessionists and
traitors"
But to return now to DR.. Won Holst's
book. The British Quarterly y "Dr.
Won Hoist traces all the occasions that
gave rise to it, and shows clearly how
this claim, so fated to the national in
tegrity, was the natural and almost
necessary outgrowth from the circum-
stances" The plain truth is, that it
was never designed by the wise men
who constructed to make the confede-
ration of states a nation. and the use
of hat term originated in the north,
and like other noXious things a pro-
pagated itself and become the mother
of many widespread and deadly evils.
If the reader would consult a Massa-
chusetts work of value published some