The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1901-04-28
GRANTS PEACE MESSAGE
And THE CONFEDERACY
The Address OF Editor Clark Howell at the
Grant Birthday Dinner in New York
Last Night.
LET US HAVE PEACE,..THY PEACE IS COME
HIS GREAT PEACE MESSAGE.

sage, born of love, crying to discovered
people: LET US have peacei"
HIS GREAT PEACE MESSAGE.
In the living reality of practical re-
union and of perfect peace, no man can
measure the mighty power that, fraternal
message wrought in shaping the destiny
of country then emerging from the chaos
and confusion of civil war. 1t spoke the
patriot spirit of American union. With
out it union of States welded in the
fore of war and held together only by
the sword! An empty mockery of union
in all save name! union without sym
pathy of sentiment; without unity of
heart; without a common inspiration.
The north Russia and the South her Po-
land. England in the Northern heart,
and Ireland in ours.
To those who are familiar with the
people of the South and with the cond-
! tions leading to the four years war it
is unnecessary to protest that the van
pushed South could never have played
| Carthage to a conquering Rome. Her
| people had breathed the inspiration of
independence from the hills that Graded
Washington and Jefferson and Patrick
| Henry Jealous in the preservation of
what they believed constitutional and
hereditary rights, they We're prodigal in
all that was required to maintain those
rights.
These Southern ancestors of mine had
much of the spirit now better known as
Northern enterprise and thrift. Finding
that the genial climate of the Southern
slope was better suited to the successful
adaptation of negro slavery-an institu-
ton inaugurated by their Northern breth-
ren-they did not hesitate to adopt the
triffic, nor to utilize on Southern planta-
lions the slaves who had proved I'M
profitable property in Northern fields.
Nor were the statesmen of the South
less slow TO profit by the political exam
pie established by their contemporaries
of the Northern States. They witnessed
with observant eye the birth Of the doc
| trine of secession as it sprung from the
loins of New England and first claimed
life in Hartford. the Charleston of the
first secession. They listened with grave
attention when Quincy, of Massachusetts,
in the halls of Congress fifty years prior
to the Southern secession made the first
formal declaration of the right of seceS-
sion in opposition to the admission of
Louisiana and West Florida as States,
that 'if this bill passes, it is virtually
dissolution of this union; 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 a ecession-amicably, if they can,
violently, if they must
NO CORNER IN SECESSION.
| mention these events, Mr.. Chairman,
in no spirit of pride that the South had no
corner on the secession market and in
no spirit of regret for the failure of the
principles once advocated by the Round
heads who were rocked in the cradle of
the Revolution, and which principles were
many years afterwards adopted by the
Cavalier convention of Charleston. | cite
them merely as incidents that played
their part in shaping the convictions of
the Southern people concerning State
rights and the right of secession-issues
then offering ample room for honest diff
ference but which have been settled for
all time to come by the covenant of the
cannon, sealed by the nations blood
1t was the spirit OF fraternity, en-
bodied in the immortal message of Grant
that consecrated that covenant and es
tablished its sacred arbitrament beyond
appeal. 1t was this spirit that conquered
forever the doctrine OF absolute State
rights; this spirit that conquered for
ever the restless ghost of SECESSION this
spirit that converted the invincible fol-
lowers of Lee and Stonewall jackson into
loyal citizens of a reunited republic. Re-
sponsive to the spirit of that message and
hv re
sought the broad shelter of the flag they
once assaulted. and it's sacred folds have
healed the bitter wounds of war.
At Versailles. after Sedan, Germany
stood in the glittering paraphernalia of
an armored giant, with one hand on the
throat of Paris and the other pointing to
the hungry document demanding the most
prodigious indemnity an exultant victor
ever exacted of PROSTATE victim.
AFTER APPoMATTOX-WHA
Not so at Appomattox! Instead of ex-
action-liberality! Instead of Siberia
again the tranquil fields of home; again
the music of familiar waters; again the
chirp of the cricket on the hearthstone
and the melody of childrens' prattle
around the mothers knee! Instead of st.
acknowledgment! Not Washington
as the stronghold of an armed foe, but as
the common capital Of a reunited country.
where victor and vanquished met on equal
terms of fellowship. Washington. the
capital from which, few years later, a
Federal major, as President of the
United States. wrote one day the order
making brigadier generals of the nephew
of Pobert f. Lee and the son of Ulysses
S. Grant!
Inevitable Appomattox. Better that it
had ccnlc sooner. since ii had TO come;
but better for The greatness Of our coun-