The Birmingham age-herald., 1904-08-21

front of the resistence to the federal gov ernment, and yet that government after hastily preferring the charge abandoned the issue, fearing that its own supreme court would decIare against It's contention.
 ..It must also Oe observed that the with drawal of any state or of number, was not A disolution of Union, except as to inc states taking the action. The Union remained and the constitution, to such states as had no complaint to make and desired to continue the partnership and carry on business agreeable to all.
 South Was Entirely Content.
 "The South was entirely content with the constitution, its provisions, obligations and guarantees; what 1t protested against and had lifted up It's voice against was the denial of those rights anu guarantees. It did not claim a right that was not either written in the instrument or one that had been declared by the supreme court.
 "The denial of these rights. the refusal of the congress to protect the states in the exercise and enjoyment of them was the initiative fact that brought on the war.
 "rhe construction, put when the con- stitution, its limitations. duties and ob- legations by the South, had been in every instance supported by the decisions of the highest tribunal known to our land-the supreme court
 Tt must be remembered too, that these views were maintained by some of the greatest and ablest men in the northern states who were quite as desirous of get ting rid of slavery as the most pro- nounced abolitionist.
 Must Decide for Themselves.
 ''Mr. Madison, who has been called the Fa4t of fba hat ha states being parties to the compact, in their sovereign capacity. 1t follows there can be no tribunal above their authority, to decide in the last resort whether the compact made by them be violated and consequently in the last resort they must decide this question for themselves
 "A meeting at Fanuel hall In 1909 held the same doctrine. Wendell Phillips in 1860 at New Bedford, Massachusetts de- clareo that the states had right to de- eide whenever their peculiar institutions required a separate government
 "A convention in Ohio in 1859 declared that the constitution was compact to which each state acceeded IS state, that each state had the right to judge of in- fractions and of the mode and measure of redress. and Giddings, Wade, Chase and Denison assented to this proposition.'
 "At Capon Springs, Virginia, in June, 1851, Daniel Webster, one of the greatest statesmen in American history, and a man most conspicuousy attached to the Union, said:
 :" T do not hesitate to say, and repeat that If the northern states refuse wilfully and deliberately to carry into effect that part of the constitution which respects the restoration of fugitive slaves, and congress provides no remedy. the South would no longer be bound to observe the compact. A bargain broken on one side is broken on all sides
 Horace GreeIys Opinion.
 "The New York Tribune Norace Greely) the organ of the abolltionists, said in 1S6O If the cotton states wish to withdraw from the Union they should be allowed to do so, and any attempt to force them to remain would be contrary to the principles of the Declaration of Independence, and to the fundamental ideas upon which human labor Is based.
 "The legislature of Massachusetts. con- sidering the annexation of Texas, in it's session in 1S44-45, declared that the pros pect for the annexation c1 Texas unless arrested on the threshold. may tend to drive these states into dissolution of the Union.'
 Henry Cabot Lodge, in his life of Web ster, says: When the constitution was adopted -" it is safe to say there was not a man in the country from Wash ington and Hamilton on one side to Clin- ton and Mason on the other who regarded