The Brandon news. (Brandon, Miss.) 1892-1961, 1903-05-21

Il 4
no consideration was given to the
question of race and the capacity
for self government and for the
duties OF free men. A reference to
the British and French West India
Islands, in which the blacks have
been in a condition of chronic
revolution ever since they were set
free was calculated to have given
pause to a people not blinded by
partisan zeal.
The leaders Of that party, includ-
ing President Lincoln and Mr.. Sew
ard, insisted that their country
could not remain half free and half
slave, and this party, leaders pro-
claimed that there was higher
law than the constitution of the
United States. They claimed that
their mission was to liberate the
slaves, and without the consent of
the Southern States they could on
ly do this by submitting a popular
majority of the people of all the
States in place of the constitution
with its limitations on the power of
the Federal government, and by a
revolutionary movement in plain
violation of the constitution.
Article 8, section 8, of the consti-
tuition recognizes the persons bound
to service in defining the free peo-
| pie of the country. Article I, sec
ton 9, of the constitution provides
that the slave trade shall not be
prohibited before the year 1903,
twenty years after its adoption.
Article A, section 2, clause, Of the
constitution provides for the return
of fugitive slaves escaping from one
State and found in another, So it
is seen that in this solemn compact
between the States and the people
of the Union, African slavery and
the right Of property in such slaves
was recognized and protected. In
bringing to your view these great
facts am net dQing SC for the pur-
pose of saying that slavery was
right or wrong in itself, OF for the
purpose of condeming those humane
feeling which favored abolition.
And | say for myself, and think |
speak the sentiments of the great
body Of Southern people, that
would not restore slavery if | had
the power to do so. am calling
attention 10 these facts 10 show
that the Unconstitutional and revolt
utionary methods adopted by rep
ublicans to secure its abolition, in
volving as it did the breaking up of
| the social and industrial system of
fifteen. States OF the Union, the Con-
flscation of $1,000, 900, 900 worth
of what the constitution and laws
held to be property, the risk of a
war, then feared by the Southern
people, The sacrifice Of hundreds OF
thousands of human lives, the MAX
ing Of countless widows and or
phans, and the sacrifice of many
billions of dollars worth of proper
ty, attended with all the suffering
and horrors OF the greatest war Of
modern times. = "
When the American colonies
came to be formed into States, as
the result Of the revolutionary war,
warned by the expressions and de-
NAL of rights imposed on them by
the crown of Great Britain, each of
them accompanied their States con-
stitQfaols with q "bill Of rights in
which it was declared that the peo-
pie possessed certain inalienable
rights of which they could not be
deprived, which they specified, so
when the American people came to
form the constitution Of the United
States, animated BY the same jeal-.
ousy OF the unlimited power Of gqy-
eminent, they created a govern
ment with delegated and strictly
limited power only, and for greater
security for their liberty and rights
they provided that the power not
| therein delegaatfed were reserved to
the States and to the people rAspec-
lively. The Federal government
was given jurisdiction over ques-
tons of a National and those of an
interstate character, while the Sta
ties retained jurisdiction over all To-
cal questions and domestic institu-
tions. This is the authority for
| the doctrine Of State rights. Slav-
| cry was from the first treated by|
all the States as a domestic institu-
ton, to be controlled OF disposed of
&C . sarh State might choose for itself.
And this is ~. The reason why the
Northern States abolished slavery
without asking the sanction OF the
Federal government.
And when the people Of the Nor
+bnrr, Ctafnc commanded THAR c1I-