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

incubus and reproach, and declared
that they could not be kicked out of
the Union''-a faction w hich dedicated
itself to the cause Of "equal rights y
and poured out all the fervor of its soul
in the inspiring phrase, eve haven't
got any niggers and we don't mean
that you shall have any"-a faction
which resisted the plea for peace by
savagely declaring that "the Union
would be improved by little blood let
ting'-a faction which started it's choic-
est chapter with professions Of the loft
lest benevolence, and closed it with that
nightmare of horrors, the witches dance
of reconstructiou-a faction hich in
augurated its reign OF paace by insti-
tuting terrors more terrible than the
terrors of war which overthrew courts
and constitutions, and set up military
satrapies on the ruins of Sovereign
States-a faction which disfranchised
every Southerner of established charac-
ter, and made the ownership of proper
tva crime; which called to the front of
civil power servile race; a race which
had had nothing but its brief tutelage
of slavery to uplift it from the barbar-
ism in which 1t had groped since the
creation OF the world-a faction which
united every phase of folly in its the
ories with every form Of atrocity in its
practice; which instilled into the Ne
gro heart the vile doctrine of "misceg-
enation," and thus planted the seeds of
an evil which now Overshadows the
land-a faction which daffed aside all
laws, human or divine, and called for
new Bible and new Coda faction
which had launched against the South
the most ferociods and the most fear
less of its fanatical freebooters a man
of iron nerve and bloody hand, who be-
came at last their chosen divinity, and
whose name and fame united to inspire
the battle song of their maraudiug ar
mics No graver crisis ever confronted
a liberty loving and lawabiding people.
Jefferson Davis European critics hold
that he should have availed himself of
the tremendous power which autocracy
gives to war; that when the Lincoln
government resorted to despotlc meas
ures he also should have met force with
force. But those critics forget that the
South's struggle was solely for constitu-
tional freedom, for civil privileges and
social order, for liberty linked with law
The whole story of the war and its
causes have been distorted and pervert-
ed and falsely told. Yet at the bar of
unbiased history, before the tribunal Of
impartial posterity, it will become man
ifest that the vital principle of self gov
ernment-the worlds ideal, and what
was fondly deemed Americas realiza-
tion of that ideal-went down in blood
and tears on the stricken field of Apo
mattox. II was there that statehood
perished. 1t was there there that the
last stand was made for the once-sacred
principle of government by free con
sent.
The present order Of things will go
on The nation will gather strength
and prestige and immunity, and power
to repress and command, but never
again will it be the government which
the fathers ordained. Popular in its
forms doubtless it will long remain,
yet in essence it will be imperial-a
vast and Opulent yet irresponsible
oligarchy, uniting Grecian culture and
British strength with something per