The Minneapolis journal. [volume] (Minneapolis, Minn.) 1888-1939, 1903-06-22
Live or Dead z


Watsons history Of the United States is
completed land will soon be- published.
This volume will be devoted to 1.-THE Life;
and Times Of Thomas Jefferson and.
according to some Of the southern jour
nails, will contain trustworthy historical
information which will demonstrate to
every candid person that the term 1.-THE
Lost Cause as applied to the collapse;
Of the Southern Confederacy, is a, base
untruth, and that southern children should
be continually taught that their fathers
fought only for local self government as
against the Harniltonian idea of a strong
central government.
Mr.. Tom Watson, formerly an active
leader Of radical populisn and now a
southern litterateur, is to correct the con-
viction of many American minds that
the southern states seeded, not only to
make conspicuous object-lesson of their
alleged right under the constitution, for
a, stats to Withdraw on its own motion
from the American union, but to secede
in group for the express purpose of Sc
curing adequate protection for the insti-
tuition of slavery against any interference
on the part of the free states, So called.
! That was the object of the movement,
conspicuously affirm ed by every southern
orator and author who spoke or wrote on
the policy in q favorable way. Many
soldiers Of the ranks In the Confederate
army grew weary OF the long war and
unhesitatingly declared tina they were
''tired Of fighting for rich mems niggers."
That was what they really thought they
were doing, and they thought correctly.
Mr.. Watson has in his publics utterances
held that slavery was only an incident
in the struggle, while local self-govern-
ment was the thing fought for. If that
! was. what they were after, the struggle
for such liberty certainly does not appear
from the acts of the Confederate govern
ment to have been very successful That
government used Its power to force Vir-
ginia and some other of the states to
adopt ordinances Of secession, in violation
of the requirements Of the state consti-
tutions. There never was a more rotten
4 plea than that the principle for which the
south commended in 1875 lives and will
live and be erninently worthy OF defense
and propagation. The south fought for
the alleged right Of secession as a defense
for negro slavery, just as the south, I'M
der Polk, forced the Mexican war on the
country to acquire territory for the fur
Their propagation Of negro slavery. The
result of theswa Of 1876 Knocked ir
the head the Jeffersonian doctrine Of Sc
cession as states right Even JEFF
Davis freely admitted, after the war, that
while he still believed firmly in the JEFF.
fersonian doctrine, it was absolutely i'm.
practicable. Surely; the cause OF seces
sion. and slavery propagation thru It
having been annihilated by the arbitra
rnent Of war and by the instinct Of self
preservation on the partEof the people o
the union, It is the very acme OF foil!
flor Watson or any other southern mar
ito claim that the southern cause In tn,
war of 1S61-65 is not q Lost Cause ii
every sense OF the word, and that tn,
i southern children ought to be taught tina
secession, to-day, is fully justifable b.
the federal constitution. There is ).
/ deader cause thru the entire course Q
J the worlds history.