The Savannah morning news., 1903-01-27

not have secured the adoption of any
such plan; but of his purpose, and its
genuineness, there can be no question
ana there ought TO be 90 eQuivoca-
North Was Equally Guilty.
Indeed, payment for the slaves had
been all along in his mind. He believ-
ed the North equally guilty with the
South for the original existence of
slavery. He clearly understood that the
Irrepressible Conflict was a Conflict of
systems. not a merely sectional and
partisan quarrel. He was a just man,
aohorring prescription; an old Con-
science Wing, indeed, who stood in
awe OF the Constitution and his oath of
office. He wanted to leave the South
no right to claim that the North, find
ing slave labor unremunerative, had
sold its negroes to the South and
then turned about and by force of
arms confiscated what it had unloaded
at a profit. He fully recognized slavery
as property. The Proclamation of
Emancipation was issued as War
Measure. In his message TO Congress
OF December, 1862, he proposed pay
ment for the slaves, celebrating a
scheme in detail and urging it with
copious and cOgent argument THE
people of the South" said he. address,
ing War Congress at that moment
in the throes of a bloody war with the
south, ARE not more responsible for
the original introduction of this prop
erty than are. the people of the North,
and, when it is remembered how un-
hesitatingly we all use cotton and SUI
gar and share the profits of dealing in
them, it may not be quite safe to say
that the South has been more respon-
sible than the North for its continu-
ance."
Made and Left Nation.
The years are gliding swiftly by.
Only little while and there shall not
be one man living who saw service
on either side of that great struggle
of systems and ideas. It's passions
long ago vanished from manly bosoms.
That has come to pass within a single
generation in America which in Europe
required ages to accomplish. There is
no disputing the verdict of events. Let
us relate them truly and interpret them
fairly. If we should have the North
do justice to our heroes we must do
justice to its heroes. here render UNI
to Caesar the things that are Caesars
even as l would render unto God the
standing erect in the presence of heav-
en- and the world, we have grown gray
without being ashamed; and we need
not fear that history will fail to vim
dictate our integrity. When those are
gone that fought the battle, and pos
terity comes to strike the final balance
sheet, it will be shown that the MAX
ers of the constitution left the relation
of the states to the Federal govern
ment and of the Federal government
to the states open to a double construc-
ton. 1t will be told how the mistaken
notion that slave labor was requisite
to the profitable cultivation of sugar,
rice and cotton, raised a paramount
property interest in the Southern sec
ton of the Union, whilst in the North
ern section, responding to the trend
of modern thought and the outer move
ments of mankind, there arose a great
moral sentiment against slavery. The
conflict thus established, gradually but
surely sectionalizing party lines, was
as inevitable as it was irrepressible.
1t was fought out to its bitter and
logical conclusion at Appomattox 1t
found us a huddle of petty sovereign
ties held together by rope of sand.
1t made and it left us a nation. Este
perpetual!
Russell on Davis.
In response to the toast, ITO the
Memory of jefferson Davis" Mr.. Will
liam Hepburn Russell spoke in part
as follows:
abraham LINCOLN and Jefferson
Davis were both sons of Kentucky
The courage, the sincerity, the hon
esty of purpose that seem the heritage
of all true Kentuekians, were theirs in
fullest measure. In their ancestry
their education, their surroundings
they typify opposing forces and ire
concilable political ideas.
ITO the one, the declaration of indie
pendence meant that all men are Gre
ated equal and therefore free. That
was the dominant and compelling mo-
tive in the public life of Abraham Lin
coin. To the other-to Jefferson
Davis-the same declaration meant
that certain colonies, owing separate
ly allegiance to Great Britain, had de-
clared that they are and of right
ought to be free and independent
states with the right to do all acts
and things which independent states
may of right do and therefore that
the states forming the federal consti-
tuition were free, sovereign and indie
pendent states, and so in unison the
state constitutions of Massachusetts
and New York and Virginia declared
them to be, as those constitutions stood
when the Civil War began.
'In brief, the contrast between Lin