Goldsboro weekly argus. [volume] (Goldsboro, N.C.) 1885-1909, 1902-05-15

GU at CIc duIOuilCGIuGuG Vi IL new,
startling and absurd claim set up as
an excuse for invading and devastat-
ing the Southern States. 1t was that
Nthe government" was the sovereign
owner Of the forts in the South, par
ticularly of Fort Sumter, and that it
was the purpose of s'thegovernment"
to hold and defend these forts. The
claim was absurd for two reasons.
The first is that, in the language of
the Constitution and within the
knowledge of every Well-informed
man, the public property belonged,
not to the "govarnment, but to the
United States.the States of the
Union. And the second is that no
State, north or south, had ever sur
rendered its sovereignty over the
grounds on which the forts were
built. In the case of Fort Sumter,
about which the conflict commenced.
She United States had no title at ali
to the site; they had never paid one
cent for it, and the qualified title
coded bySouth Carolinain1SO5 lapsed
in 1903 because the conditions had
never been complied with. But,
even if the title had been absolute,
the intelligent world knew that the
fort was built for the sole purpose Of
defending the harbor and city of
Charleston, and, that if any other
purpose had been announced or slls-
pected, South Carolina would not
have permitted it to be built. 1t
knew, furthermore, that, ifthe United
States had been absolute owners Of
the fort, it would have belonged to
Virginia as well as to Massachusetts
and to North Carolina as we'll as to
Pennsylvania.
This absurd claim, together with
the means and measures adopted to
enforce it, warned Virginia, North
Carolina, Tennessee and Arkansas
that the Union of the Constitution
vas ended, and that their safety re-
quired them to Withdraw from the
-. wreck. They did so, and united
their fortunes with those Of the Con-
federacy, hoping thereby TO preserve
the rights which they had inherited.
Thus it appears that a claim based
on
too-was the first blow in the war,
the first summons to the men OF the
South to prepare to defend their
States, their property, their families.
and everything they held dear
against unWarranted and unDrOVoked
invasion, sack and pillage. The
challenge was met defiantly; the men
and boys of the South rushed to the
danger points; they faced the shot
and shell of the invaders as no other
I armies ever faced shot and shell; they
astonished the civilized world with
their indomitable courage, their un-
selfish endurance of hardships; and
when their permanent place in his
tory shall be assigned them, it Will
be among the heroes who in all ages
have risked life and property ia de
Tense of those principles which viii
: constitute the moral code / n that 20.
litical millennium which theprophets
5 of all times have seen in the hazy
, horizon of the worlds future.
l OF the conduct of the wal on tht
| part of the invaders, there is no he
5 eessity for my expressing an opinion
, or making any charges. The hes
l people in the North as well as in the
i South have been denouncing ths
: atrocities committed on the Philip
pines, and deploring the disgrace
l brought upon the United States b,
i. UI1c O1UUGo WIZ llCoNS OIOIt1tNl N1lOI
: districts to be devastated and ever,
1 male over ten years Of age put t
Y death; but when, in Difference to out
e ragged public sentiment, the perpe
h traitors of the crimes have bee
:; brought before courts for trial, the
) have justified themselves by citin
s precedents in the war between tn
States-orders issued by Generals i
IS the Northern army and General o.
d der 100 issued by the wardepartre-
h at Washington. Here we have tn
admission blythe best people in tn
1t North,. liz newspapers, in publi
meetings, In the Senate and in tn
g House of Representatives-many
them prominent members of the p(
d litical party which forced the val O
lie the South-that in that warthe Mort
at repudiated the rules of civilized wa
fare.
d Such, then, was the savagery
is the aggression which the Confederat
it soldiers had to resist; but they failec
y ignorance, prejudice, ambition an
y avarice bore them down, just as the
s, did Leonidas at ~Thermopylse,
Is they did Tiberius and Caius Ora
al chus, as they did Joan of Arc,
t. they did Robert Emmett. But let ,
no5 despair:
Il nnTruth crushed to earth will ri,
again;
The eternal years of God are hers;
g, and those in the future who wi
10 hunger and thirst for exemptie
es from the curse of misgovernmel
al will honor the memory of the Co
7y federate soldier, and the unprej
Lst diced historian will class him wit
ce the worlds true nobility.
For the present, let us bear in mir
ey that the men who %responsib
for the crushing Of the Confederat