Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1903-01-24

1906, nor mad any Otner OBJECT tnan
the defence Of those principles Of
American liberty upon which the con-
stitution Of the several states were orig
inally founded, and unless they are
strictly observed fear there will be
an end Of republican form Of govern
ment in this country.
That the conditions on which the orig
inal thirteen states entered into the
Union in 1888 reserved their sovereign
right to withdraw from the compact, II
the experiment proved inharmonious.
there can be no doubt. This was the
Interpretation of New England through
Josiah Quincy and Henry Cabot and
Pickering and the Hartford convention
Of 1914, as well as Of distinguished stu
dents Of our form of government else
where. We were not the sole judges Of
our rightful cause.
I do not distrust the verdict Of i'm
partial history when It's clear voice Is
heard as to the truth Of that cause for
which Lee and his comrades in arms
fought. Truth, little by little, is break
ing away from the prejudice that fet-
tered 1t for four decades In our own
country, and year after year speaks
to growing audiences. It was only re-
Gently that the lamented president Of
the whole country proposed that the
honored dust Of our beloved Confeder-
ate soldiers should be entombed in ma
tional cemeteries under the care Of the
government. And there is little doubt
that William McKinley's purpose
would have been adopted had the noble
daughters Of the south consented to
surrender their loving trust to such Of
fetal keeping. And more recently
gifted son Of Observation-Disclosures
ant Of illustrious ancestry-in words
eloquent with fact and logic, bore a
message across the continent to the
northwest, telling that secession was a
fundamental principle in the confeder-
alton of states composing the Union,
and that Robert E. Lee should be hon
ored with a monument beside that Of
Washington and Lincoln at the Nation
al capital.
It is not that one president Of the
United States or that a great number
of eminent but hostile critics now con-
cede that the Confederate soldier was
not q rebel, much less traitor because
Of his loyalty to his state, which had
the right to Judge; but these voices
are echoed back through the press Of
the country, some discordantly, some
with federation and many approvingly.
The dawn Of truth even in our own
country Is fast appearing, and when
historians as honest and fearless as
Thomas Carlyle appear-he who printed
the truth Of Cromwells cause to Eng
land-the cause that Lee made glori-
GUS and the southern soldier defend
ed with his life and fortune, will stand
honored among all people Of this coun-
try as it is honored today by the wise
and just Of all nations. Then the high
est badge Of honorable descent will be
to point to record telling that your
ancestry were soldiers that fought un-
der Lee and Hampton and Jackson, and
by the side Of Jenkins and Connor and
Pettigrew for constitutional liberty.
Let us recur again to England under
Cromwell. We are impressed by some
striking analogies drawn from that
period and contrasted with our own
civil war. Again was fought over on
our shores the battle between Round
head and Huguenot, Puritan and Cav
alier. Again Huguenot and Cavalier
were overthrown in the struggle. and
are yet, after nearly forty years, slow
ly but energetically rebuilding their
higher civilization, If but yet small
measure Of their political prestige.
In that English conflict the ancestry
of Robert E. Lee were Cavaliers who
went down in the overthrow Of their
sovereign. And in the American con-
flict the illustrious descendant Of Rich
ard Lee, the Cavalier, saw the down.
fall Of the sovereign that commanded
his allegiance-his beloved Common
wealth of Virginia. Like John Hamp-
den, Cromwell's great lieutenant, Lee
was reviled, and his estate confscated
to the crown, and an indictment lodged
against him for treason, and as a citi-
zen was outlawed.
But the analogy between the two
conflicts abruptly closes here. In the
English struggle the end was consum-
mated and the constitutional monarchy
restored. In the American conflict the
overwhelming armies claiming to bat
tie for the restoration of the Union pre-
vailed in arms; but failed to restore
the Union Of states that were over
thrown. The existing governments
turned the shameful tyranny. We are
a claimed by conquest; part OF Vlr-
ginia dismembered and erected into a
new state; the people Of the remaining
states largely disfranchised; property
rights destroyed and the people OF the
state placed under the dominion or
their former slaves, whose power to
rob and oppress was maintained by the
armed forces of the government, until
the people in their might overturned
the shameful tyranny. We are for
giving people, and these crimes against
civilization may be forgiven, but will
never be forgotten. No historian of the
period has yet had the courage to paint
this sADmeful picture Of conquest and
crime in truthful colors.
Robert E. Lee, like John Hampden,
presented to the world life too pure
and patriotism too lofty for distorted
history to misrepresent. Even amid