The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1900-02-07

, tial historian will declare that he is
primarily responsible for the war, respon-
sible for the loss of the lives OF our SOL
diers, responsible for the the inhuman and
i devastating conflict that has followed, and
that he obtained the permission which was
!; necessary through the cowardice, venality,
or weakness Of men in this Chamber.
Therefore 1 say to the Senator from
Indiana:
Thou canst not say did i; ; never shake
Thy CORY locks at me.
: stand by the record as it has been pre-
sented in this Senate, the documents sent
us by the President himself, and the re-
port OF General Otis. The record Of
speeches made in this Chamber will sus-
tain every assertion I have made, and the
American, people can not be deceived any
longer unless they want to be.
4 have left to the last discussion Of that
phase Of this subject which is most impor-
tant and vital-the race question. It Is
well understood that the people who
inhabit the Philippines belong to what we
call the colored races, and the most perplex-
ing and disturbing factor in the whole ques-
tiOn arises from this fact. The number Of
these people is variOusly estimated at from
six to ten millions, and the Senator from
Indiana, who has spent some time in per-
sonal investigation, asserts in the most
positive manner that they are unfit for self
| government, and he gives us some very
strange and unaccountable reasons as to =
why this is so. | say unaccOuntabLe be-
cause the Senator comes from State and
belongs to party that in the very recent
past held very different views in regard ito
the capabilities Of the blackest and lowest
type Of the colored peoples. IT, ~
! pause here to state the necessity I feel
for speaking with absolute candor and
frankness. 1t is not pleasant to open old
wounds or to stir the embers-I prefer to
think that they are ashes-of those dead
passions which brought on our great civil
conflict, but Mr.. President, coming as do
from State where this race question has
been the cause Of untold misery and woe,
and where, for thirty-two years, it has
Ebeen and Is now the paramount issue;
remembering the wrongs that has been
heaped upon my people, the sons OF ReVo-
lutionary sires, who suffered more and
endured more in the cause Of liberty in ::
, that struggle than those or any other
State, and feeling the race question in it's
brOadest sense, as we know it, may be ]
llikened to the worn that dieth not" that
Is new "irrepressible conflict" that can
not be summed, but presents ever growing
and ever formidable dangers-I must speak
my thoughts though die for it. :
/ will not join the Senator from Alabama,
who is not in the Chamber, in the asser-
tions made in his speech on the Pritchard
resolution:
was soldier of the Confederacy, and while
i I have always regretted the necessity that put
me under arms in open hostility to the flag OF
ate soldier feels, that it is peculiar honor
that we were the only white men ever called
upon as soldiers to defend the white race
against a fanatical attack OF so-called REFORM
ers and the deliberate organization of ambi-
tious politicians, who forced us into war by
their cruel design to put negro slaves on q
political and social footing OF equality with US.
Idonot believe any such thing, The war
had no such origin. The condition in re-
gard to slavery and the ceaseless agitation
had embittered the South against the
North and the North against the South.
Secession and belief in States rights, for
precipitated the conflict. The North
| fought to preserve the Union and to free
the slaves, and the South fought for self
government and the inherited belief In the
Justice of holding slaves as property. The
Declaration OF Independence was the
slogan Of both sections. The North con-
tended that the Declaration embraced the
Negroes, while the South, remembering
that Jefferson had been Shareholder, con.
tended that it did not. was only a boy OF
thirteen when the great struggle began;
but who can forget, even though child,
the angry OutburStS, the battle cries that
had led up to the bloody contest? Amid
the storm of passion, who was the man,
the embodiment Of all that was best and
noblest in Northern civilization, and even
in American civilization, who stood as the
great apostle OF liberty? Whose words OF
| fervid eloquence marShaled the Northern
hosts? Whose high moral purpose, whose
grandeur of character and greatness Of
soul, sustained those hosts in adversity
and defeat? Who stood like a colossus
towering above the smaller, meaner men
who surrounded him, and who must ever
stand above them. commanding the admi:~
ration and love of all true men everywhere?
Who? Abraham Lincoln; and I from
South Carolina tell you so and fesl honored
| in doing it.
Whatever motives may be attribbgd to
others, whatever of seltishness or ambi-
ton that entered into the calculations Of
others, here declare it is my belief that
he never had thought in connection with
the whole subject nor uttered a word that
did not have its inspiration In the purest
patriotism and the noblest aspiration for
humanity. He did not consider the
Declaration of independence an academic
question. 1t was to him religion. II
Now, after all the bloodshed, what have
we as q people gained? What has the con-
fiict left to us? Although this city is filled
with monuments erected to the brave men
who barred their bosomS to the storms OF
shot and shell from Confederate rifles and
cannon, although the thirteenth, fourteen
tn. and fifteenth amendments to the Con-
stitution were declared to be necessary to
secure the fruits Of this victory for liberty
in the Union, and were said to be the fruit,
the gathering in, the perfecting and solidi-
fying of the structure Of liberty; although
no honest man will deny that the words OF
Webster, Liberty and union, one AM in
separablc, now and forever" had been the
inspiration which filled the Northern
armies and under LincOln'S leadership won
the fight; although We now have nation
| whose States are cemented together with
4 blood, it is a Union only; the spirit the
vitaizing essence, love Of liberty, appears
to have died and little remains of Webster's
and LincOln's ideas.
We have come, within forty years from
the beginning of that great struggle, to
have n leading Senator on the floor of this
Chamber, a man who stands high in the
councils Of the dominant party-the party
of Lincoln. Of Sumner, of Phillips, or
Seward--declare that Governments derive
their Just powers from the consent Of some
of the governed" Another Senator, he
from Indiana, whose brilliant speech has
been heralded by the imperialiSt press as
the slogan OF Notwithstanding Republl-
canism, makes this declaration:
Let men beware how they employ the term
! ''Self-govcnnlcnt." Ii is a sacred term. is
the watchword at the door of the inner temple
Of liberty, for liberty does not always mean
self-goyernmcnt. Self government is II metl,
od OF libcrtythc highest, simplest, best-anu
IL is acquired only after centuries of study ana
struggle and experiment and instruction and
all the elements of the progress of man. Sell
government is no base and common thing, to
1,.,.t. sod, r.tt1n