The Savannah morning news., 1903-01-27

cere. both honest and both in large
measure right.
What Caused the War.
TT was not Lincoln. It was not Da-
Wis, nay IL was not even the Adolf
tionists' of the North or the 'fre-eat-
ers of the South who made the war
inevitable.
1T was the preservation of the con-
federation in 1857, through the eva
sions and compromises of the Federal
constitution and the Federal constitu-
tional convention. that made the ulu-
mate conflict of sections a hideous ne
cessity; but a necessity of political
assimilation and national growth.
Il do not mean that the same re-
suit might not have been attained
without war. That is possible. But
l do mean to say that l agree with
Lincoln that ii was impossible for this
nation to endure half slave and half
free, and that l regard all attempts
that were made by way of compro-
mise to evade the final settlement of
this great issue as but barriers of
straw between opposing force of fire.
I'VE can see. if our brethren OF the
North cannot. that the conflict was in
deed irrepressble.' and that it came
into being at the birth of our nation
and was but the frightful afterbirth
VI CNChNS anu NeAbStS NAehN sAhbNNoAN0
the American Revolution.
I'VE fought to a finish the fight that
our forefathers left for us to fight.
They evaded It. because for their
common preservation union was an inn
mediate necessity. We could not
avoid il, because for us continued
union was impossible under a consti-
tutional compromise that cheated both
sides.
The Career of Davis.
THE career of Jefferson Davis no
American need be ashamed of. and
none should revile or condemn. 1t is
one of which we of the South may
well be grandly. however sadly, proud.
In 1888 Davis had accepted the view
of Calhoun that the states were SOW
ereign, and that it was unconstitu-
tional to coerce a state. On the other
hand he rejected the theory of multi
fication' within the Union, while fully
accepting as a logical necessity the
doctrine that a sovereign state which
had assented TO confederacy could
withdraw that assent and secede from
the Union.
ut is to be wondered at that Jeffer-
son Davis, who followed his state into
the Southern Confederacy, was never
brought to trial for treason against
the nation.
1.-The compromises of the Federal
constitution left it uncertain whether
there was either citizenship or true
sovereignty within the Federal Union.
except as citizenship in, or sovereignty
Of a particular state.
'It took the Civil War and the
Fourteenth amendment, to establish at
once the paramount sovereignty of the
state united and a citizenship of the
United States apart from citizenship
in any state.
Secession would be treason now; but
in 1861 1t was fairly debatable ground
with the balance of technical authority
in favor of the Davis view.
"It is the written amendments to the
Federal constitution and the changes
in The unwritten Constitution, which
the war established, that really make
the Calhoun-Davis theory of the Fed
eral Union no longer tenable.
cit was slavery that made the doc
trine of state sovereignty and indie
pendence a necessary element of doubt
at the formation of the Federal Union
under the constitution. Isl
What Slavery Did.
"It was slavery that made the right
of secession one of which the Southern
states were jealous.
with the passing of slavery has
come a general acceptance of the re-
suits of the war and, an acknowledge
ment of the new shibboleth that, The
constitution in all its provisions looks
to an indestrutible Union of indie
structible states
with my personal views upon the
slavery question and my legal view
that sovereignty always was in the
states united, and not in the states
separately, I cannot but reject the
right of 'peaceable secession and re-
joice that the United States remained
a union, with all the powers and at
tributes of national sovereignty in ma
tional affairs; that citizenship has be-
come citizenship of the United States,
as we'll as of the states, and that all
men are entitled to the equal pro-
lection of the laws
"These views, however, do not blind
me to the essential honesty, sincerity
and nobility of character of Jefferson
Davis, and am glad that here, in the
great metropolis of the North, it be-
comes my privilege as a son of the
South, to link the names of Davis and
Lincoln as martyrs to duty and pa
triots of our country. Nor would there
be more fitting time and place in this
great city for us to revently drink to
the memory of these two men than at
meeting of camp of Confederate
Veterans. Here we can sorrow for the
Lost Cause and yet not regret that
1t was lost now that the glories of
our reunited country are made mani
fest on every hand"
Sacrificed His Desires,
1.-THE history of jefferson Davis from
1861 until the end, is so we'll known
that ! need not repeat 1t here.
with the failure of the Crittenden
compromise. the last chance for recon-
Citation between the sections, except
through the arbitrament of war, pass
ed away and jefferson Davis bidding
farewell to the Senate of the United
States, in a speech of pathetic regret
and noble candcr followed his state
out of the Union and into the Confed-
crate government.
Unexpectedly offered the presi-
dency of the Southern Confederacy, he
accepted that presidency with regret,
because he had hoped to serve his
state in the field and in the command
of the armies of the South, rather than
in the chambers of the executive man
sion. Here, as everywhere, he sacri-
feed his personal desires to what he
deemed his public and his patriotic
duties.
His name Is linked indissolubly
with the Confederate states. He made
a government where none existed. He
overcame difficulties of colossal magni-
tude. His genius dominated a great
war for years. The defeat of the
Southern Confederacy was his defeat.
It's fall was his fall. Its obsequies, his
obsequies.
1--WE drink to his memory, and