The commonwealth. (Greenwood, Miss.) 1896-1923, 1902-05-16

to your command at once, and the
children can starve, but the name
which we received from you must not
be dishonored, so kissed the sleeping
children. and have returned at Mary's
command. Il am ready to receive my
sentence When he concluded tears
were streaming down the cheeks of every
member Of the court But those bronz-
ed warriors had learned duty in the
school Of Lee and Jackson They found
him guilty and sentenced him to death,
but with a recommendation to Pres.
dent Davis that he be pardoned. This
was promptly granted; and the young
soldier fell in battle not many days af-
ter His last words, as his life ebbed
away, was a message to his wife Tell
Mary I died in battle, and there is no
stain on our name.
Glorious as was the spirit of that
young Virginian matron, there we're
wives and mothers all over the South
who would have done the same. There
are those here to day who would have
done it,
I maintain that people Of such quail
ties, inspired by such motives, and
fighting with such magnificent courage,
were not could not be, mere vulgar
rebels and traitors. They believed that
that they we're right They believed
that their cause was just. 1t may
be thought that this were enough to BE-
said. But I am not content to rest
their vindication upon such claim,
however true; for at the best it is but
an apology, which is half confession.
l advance to tie proposition that in
fact they were right, and that their
cause Yves just
The heart of the controversy between
the North and the SoutL was wheterer
the republic was a consolidation Of peo-
pie or union Of States; whether ultimate
sovereignty was in the central govern
ment or the constituent States; whether
or not the States had the right to judge
for themselves whether the organic
compact had been violated. Their rights
under it abridged OF denied, their dig
nifty impaired and their independence
endangered and, SO determining,
whether the States had the right to re-
sist the encroachments of the central
goAernment and command the ale
glance Of their citizsns in SO doing.
To my mind these questions can be
answered in bat one way.
The States were first and were ab
solutely sovereign. The Uni, j.
afterward, and was the creature Of the
States. The Union had no powers
save such as were given. The States
reserved everything which they did
not grant They never ceded
their sovereignty Such a demand, as
a condition Of Union, would have made
the Union forever impossible. But it
may be contended that the States diyed-
ed their sovereignty, and retaining to
themselves some sovereign powers,
granted others to the Union. This is
half truth. Certain powers which
pertain to sovereignty we're granted to
!
the Union. But sovereignty itself, the
right in the last resort to secure the
rights and provide for the safety Of a
people, is and indivisible. It was
never surrendered by the States, and
from it's essential nature it could not
be divided and parcalled out
This was the understanding with which
the Union was formed 1t was the CO.
temporary construction Of the effect of
the Constitution, and was the view Of
the great jurists and statesmen Of the
early decades OF the republic. The con-
SeqQent right Of secession upon neCeS-
sity to be determined by the States was
generally maintained. The people of
many of the States, and notably those
of New England, stood ready to assert
1T In practlce, and on more Ihan one Oc-
casion threatened to do so.
This question Of the ultimate sover-
eighty Of the States was the real issue
upon which the war was fought The
arbitrament of battle was against rs
and the real sovereignty Of the States,
deemed by the fathers essential to pres
ervation of popular liberty, was forever
lost at Appomattox. With the subver
sion Of State sovereignty was lost the
surest guaranty Of local self f-govern-
ment. Henceforward the States must
hold their rights at the mercy of the
dominan5 faction controlling the cen