The farmer and mechanic. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 18??-19??, 1903-04-14

| Ipon the affairs Of the Union | poured
out the dearest aspirations Of my young
manhood. ! grew gray in the service
Finally, the stern-wheel steamboat Sc
cession' came along. | saw first one
neighbor, then another neighbor get
aboard, and, when all Were aboard ex-
ccpt me, and | stood alone upon the
| shore, and they were about TO haul IN
the gang-plank, 1 cried: Hold on, boys,
| Will go with you, if you go TO Hell.
/ CHANGED to be in Europe a little while
after the war. Such trif1ing distinctions
as Federal and Confederate were IN
known. All of US were Yankees. Then
and there. | took a bee line in the direc-
ton of the bunting, and have been
smuggling beneath its folds from that
day to this. l did not believe in slavery.
| did not believe in Secession. Heavens,
il had, But what is the use specu-
lating about inconjectural possibilities
The doctrine of Secession did not origl-
nate at the South, but at the North; 1t
was not the South that brought the ne
gro from Africa, but the North. In the
very beginning the seeds of dissolution
were soWn. The makers of the Constltu-
tion left the exact relations or the FED
cral government to the States and of the
! states 10 the tLeldi SON1i ii4I1Lb ~
to a double construction. In claiming
thence the right to secede YaDcey fol-
lowed after Pickering, Jefferson Davis
after GouVeneur Morris. CurlousJy
enough, this right of secession, such as
it may be, stands yet in the Constitution
unchalIenged and unabridged. You said
bv act Of Congress that the black man
should be a white man. You confscated
the debts and the money of the Con-
federacv. But you left in the Constitu-
! ton that fatal double construction to
which, along with slavery, we owed all
our trouble, and there it is today, so
that if I want 10 take Kentucky and go
! out of the Union there Is no statute to
. hinder me. and though you may make 1t
uncomfortable for me, you cannot find
the law to hang me for treason. ! beg
that YOU will not be disturbed. / am not
going to do 1t.
l know that there are many Northern
statesmen. conscientious and learned, who
cannot assent to this view. They do not
| think it best to accept so light an csti-
mate of what they regard as a great
crime. But why not? Recalling Burkes
aphorism touching his inability to draft
an indictment of an entire people-eNen
though the subjects Of a King-hoW may
ten millions of free men be crlmlnal1y
arraigned by twenty millions OF their
fellow-citiZens because of the conse-
uuences of an honest difference or Con-
stitutional construction. embracing some
of the foremost jurists, some OF the
purest PATRIOTS. from Josiah Quincy and
John c. Calhoun to Alexander II. Ste
phcns and Salmon ?. Chase? why
should the North want to draw such an
indictment Of the South? The North won
all, the South lost all. No one Of the
principals survives. Millions of stall
wart Americans have been born and have
reached manhood-many Of them middle
age-since the last shot was fired in that
conflict. Some of them serve in the
army and some OF them in the navy.
Some of them go the length of descrlb-
ing themselves as "VeteranS Of the Span
ish War" All of them are ready, eager
to answer the call of their country. Why
should any thoughtful, patriotic American
want to put a blot upon the family es-
i cutcheon of these Americans! Why
should any thought, patriotic American
seek to scriminat between any DodV
Of upright and brave Americans, VINO o1d
their duty as God gave them the light &c
see it? What good reason can any
thoughtful, patriotic American give lol
the wish to establish an historic line,
blacklisting the people of s. section, VINO
met defeat SO manfully and have taken
uron themselves the renwed obligations
Of citizenship so loyalty?
AMERICAN HOMOGENEITY.
l did not come here tonight to exploit
myself, or to join in the exchange oil
imnaterial compliments, however agree
able. came because l fought | might
contribute something to the common
stock OF Information touching the present
relations Of the North and the South.
| There is already peace between the sec
tions." Never since the creation OF the
government has there been a greater uni
formity, a deeper effusion OF national
sentiment. We are not merely a united
people, we are a homogeneous people.
Mississippi and Massachusetts are con-
vCrtible terms, and it needs only q few
| weeks, and a change Of raiment, to con-
vert a typical Nermonter into a typical
Texan. We used to hear a good deal
about the Puritan and the Cavalier. Dur
ing our sectional war the armies of the
North were full of Cavalier soldiers, such
as Wadsworth and Kearney in the East,
as Mcpherson and Custer in the West,
whilst the one representative 1uTlldn
soldier, Stonewall Jackson, served the
Confederacy. Many Of the greatest fam
lilies in the South proudly trace their
origin back to the blood and loins of
the Pilgrim Fathers. And yet are there
people at the North, at the
North that still assume for the North
the attitude OF the imperious conqueror,
for the South the relation of the sus-
Ipected captive, and we are being con-
stantly warned that if we do this, or do
not do that, we shall be in. danger of
the judgment.
THE SOLID SOUTH.
The justification for this is the poll
teal entity, the partisan quantity, known
as the Solid South. 1t is, let me entreat
you to believe. a specious justification.
1t is the fault Of the Republican party,
not of the white people Of the Southern
States, that the South is solidly Demo-
cratic. From the death Of Lincoln to the