The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1901-05-11
CAUSES OF THE WAR
AND ITS FIRST YEAR
CONTINUED from Fourth Page.)

where its sessions were held thereafter.
The permanent Constitution of the Con-
federate States, which The who runs
may read Is itself full and plain refu-
tation of the ridiculous statements often
made that its object was the overthrow
of the principles of the Constitution of the
United States. The permanent Consti-
tuition was the Constitution of the United
States, with such necessary amendments
as the difference of situation made ne
cessaTy, Some of these amendment were
significant, especially that forbidding the
foreign slave trade which was not forbid
den in the Constitution of the United
States, on the contrary it was there ex-
pressly allowed (Article /, Section 81 I'M
I'll 1903, after which its prohibition by
that instrument was only permissiye. The
Constitution of the United States was the
wisdom of our own ancestors. With it.,
properly construed and administered, we
had no quarrel, and our only thought was
TO live under its provisions apart from
those with whom it seemed we could not
rest in peace, and against whose perver-
sions we could not rest in peace, and
against whose peryersions of its powers
We protested with all our energy. We
never dreamed of overthrowing or de-
stroying the old government or of molest-
ing any State that elected to remain with
it, We as fully acknowledged the right
to remain if so it seemed good, as we
also claimed the right to withdraw.
On the tenth of June, 1861, less than
a month after the passage of the Ordi-
nance of Secession, was fought and won
the battle of Great Bethel in Virginia,
won principally by North Carolina troops
under Col d. H. Hill. And here another
parallel with revolutionary days may be
of interest.
In that olden time of the first revolu-
ton our people we're called upon to de-
fend their homes and to repel invasion;
and with Richard Caswell, with Ashe and
Ellington. they won the fight at Moore's
Creek Bridge on the 9th of February,
1916, the first victory in pitched battle
won in the territory Of the thirteen colo
MES There had been actions before,
mcmentous and far reaching in their
consequences, as at Bunker HILL but it
was a defeat for the Americans, also at
Great Bridge in Virginia, which was only
a repuise of the British. Moore's Creek
WIS a complete victory and an utter rout
OF the enemy that checked the invasion
of North Carolina and gave peace to the
State within its borders, for three years.
50 at Bethel. in 1861 the first victory
in pitched hattie of the United Confed-
eracy was won by North Carolinians.
4 simple monument at Moore's Creek
tells the story of the men who fought
there. Our citizens celebrated with
much rejoicing and patriotic spirit the
centenary of that victory but heaped no
insults upon the memory OF the brave men
m CHI hp al
kindly admiration was expressed for the
gallant Scotchmen who died there. Nor
Is it expected of their descendants, our
fellow citizens of today, as proof of pres
ent loyalty, that they shall condemn the
action of their fathers. With General
Frank Nash our kinsfolk went to death
at Germantown, in the long ago. With
Mad Anthony Wayne they went to that
desperate bayonet charge at Stony Point;
with Jethro Sumner at Eutaw Springs;
with Morgan and Greene; with Davie,
Davidson and Graham; with Hogan at
Observation-Disclosures duty called or dan
ger was to be dared they were to be
found until the end of that long strug-
gle which ended successfully for them.
Wen, the swift years flew by, and in 1861
our State, whose behest we were ever
taught is paramount to all, again sum-
moned her sons to repel invasion and to
uphold the right Of self government-and
ii cannot be too often or too strongly en-
phaszed that they fought only to resist
invasion and to vindicate the right of
seif-g government and in the brave old
way, as in the brave old times of the
past, they came at her call, and with
Branch and Fender and Pettigrew, with
Daniel and Whiting and Ramseur. with
Hcle and with RANSOM at Newhern, 2
Richmond. at Manassas, and at Sharps-
burg, at Fredericksburg, at Chandeliers
Vile, at Gettysburg and at Chickamauga;
in the Wilderness and at Petersburg, at
Fort Fisher, Averasboro and at Benton
vile they freely offered their young lives
as the last evidence they could give of
their earnest conviction of right and duty
OF their fortitude under hardship of their
unliinchng courage and self-sacrifcing
devotion you need no reminder. Suffice
it to say that in the same brave old
way learned from those, who in like
manner had gone forth in the first Revo-
lution, they met their sad fate, doing
al that men could do to maintain their
cause,-unlike their ancestors in only this
sstfas they failed in their undertaking. And
shall we not hold the men of these later
loving memory too, and forever preserve
the record of their matchless deeds?
Let the mute eloquence of many memorial
shafts throughout the South make an
sWcr. The women of the South in their
bereavement, sorrow and poverty did not
forget gratitude and everywhere have
placed lasting mementoes of the self
citation of all Confederate dead-grander
than their prototypes the modest column
at Moore's Creek, or the simple stone to
Sumner at Guilford, or the humble tomb
that in the church yard of st. James at
Wilmington marks the resting place OF
Cornelius Harnett by as much as our
strife was greater than theirs.
Lament them not; no love can make i'm
mortal,
The span that we call life,
And never heroes entered heavens portal
Thro' fields Of grander strife.
GOVERNOR or NORTH CAROLINA.
On the 18th of July, 1861, John w. Ellis,
Governor of North Carolina, died at the
Rcd Sulphur Springs in what is now West
Virginia, Of consumption of the lungs He
had been in delicate health for several
months previously. and had gone to that
resort but a few days before his death
r.