New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1903-05-20
UNRECONSTRUCTED
Secession al Right, q. S. Judge
Tells Confederate Veterans.

New-OrIeaas, May 19.-The thirteenth annual
reunion of the United Confederate Veterans
opened to-day under most favorable auspices
The auditorium built in the centre Of the race
track at the fair grounds was filled with
cheering, enthusiastic crowd long before the
hour set for the formal opening. and when at
noon, General J. B. Levert, commanding the
Louisiana Division, called the convention TO
order there was not a vacant seat in the hall,
which easily holds ten thousand people. E. B.
Kruttschnitt chairman of the local executive
committee, welcomed the veterans, and General
John s Gordon, commander in chief replied
In the afternoon Judge John H Rogers, of the
United States District Court of Fort Smith,
Ark. spoke. He said in part:
South is FeprQached for eS ion
It Is the basis r Tor t d SnSaIG o. e
of rebellion, OF making war on the United Sta5eS
1t not be forgotten that there Is a wide al
ference between secession and rebellion Inc
South mace no war On tl d 1T Go far as the So
ceding States concerned. but 1t neither meant
WaT al 0{ the saes we're concerned which ala not
the snd en9eP9d the the UnIon each Under acts
of ratification of its own, SO secession meant tIle
resumption by each State Of It's delegated p powers
by repeating the acts under which eacn seeding
the remaining States entered into the ConIeQeraGy;
act Of secession Ii much attach also 10 the great
North and East where IT was Tor P0ICaIi te5
aUd incuicated up to the Mexican War and the
men up to 1850 history ought not to allow them
tn slim this odium if OduIn it be, from their
Shoulders to the shoulders of the South. Our chill
dTen should know that the Confederate STATES, by
the act Of 4 ar R BRe mo hs states was not
reTeIIior II was the result of effort by the
United States TO coerce States against their Will
to remain in the Union. power not to be found III
the constitution a power which all the earlier
fathers believed did not exist, power utterly III
consistent with the right of secession, which II IS
the constitution was framed and for many years
II the Southern States had the power. notwtth-
standing the constitution. TO Withdraw from tn9
Union in 1893 in 1872 and in 1886 New-England
statesmen then affirmed. they had the same power
in 1861. No change of the constitution had oeen
made and the relations of the States to each other
expedency of drawing was one SOieIy IOr edcH
II was not a question of the control of the govern
ment or an economical or industrial question; It
was not question of preserving the balance of
was felt in NeW-Eng gland when the Louisiana and
Florida purchases were made and Texas acquired.
Il was question of civilization, Of constitutional
liberty of the preservation Of the principles or the
constitution and the South, when the alternative
b,,t itb jeenes+ reIEctanoe thar the necessity
existed, chose the latter. She overcome. she
has suffered but she ought not to be maligned or
misrepresented
question of secession and disunion has been
forever settled. far the domain OF con-
rendered at Appomattox, and written in the
best blood all sections OF this land 1t rem
laws but those Of war are silent From 1t no ap-
peal can be had except to revolution, which God
points a restored Union. and His benefcent smile
is spread all the land where dwells people
porous and happy to be found the habtable
globe. In all struggles we had not been forgot
from our calauies chastened but made better and
stronger by His loving kindness.