Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1905-06-05
Subject for Congratulation.

the sea.
Subject for Congratulation.
Surely my friends we may congratulate
ourselves that grim-visaged war hath
smoothed its wrikled front and all again
is peace" But there Is no incompatibilty
whatever between loyalty to the restored
union and loyalty to the confederate dead.
While we want to perform faithfully and
conscientiously all the duties of the Ameri-
can citizen, we are not yet prepared 10
write with our own hands the words,
Traitor Traitor" upon the brow of any
confederate living or upon the grave of
any confederate dead. The brave defenders
of the Union would have supreme con-
tempt for us If we could come now crlng-
ing and whining like whipped spanels ask
ing forgiveness for our sins. Why, L de-
mand to know shall not we hold in for
ever in grateful and affectionate remem-
brance, the virtues and heroism of those
who for four long years encountered with
out murmer, hardshps of the march, pri-
vations of the camp and perils of the field
in defense of home and native land.
From the foundation of the government
there had been two opposing theories as
to the nature and character of its COM
pick system. On the one hand it was main
tanned that the body polite known as the
United States government, consisting of all
the people in the aggregate, that all the
people had united in one political society
and bound themselves in one national gov
eminent in which ultimate sovereignty re-
sided and in which paramount citizenship
was due. On the other hand, it was man
tanned that the Constitution of the United
States was not made by any maa or sat
of men. but by the states as states. That
government was one of well-defined and
limited powers; that powers not delegated
had been reserved to the states respec-
lively or to the people that the states
in entering into the compact of the union
had not surrendered their sovereignty thai
Intimate SpVpTaip0tV resided in them and
that the paramount allegiance of every citi-
zen was due to his own state. These diff
ferences of opinion We're radical and they
had been stoutly maintained by their re-
spectiVe champions for more than Ealf
century upon the arena of debate and they
were finally submitted to the arbitrament
of the sword as the last resort
Not for Slavery.
ut is a great mistake TO suppose that
the people of. the south went TO war for
the perpetuatiOn of African slavery. Slav-
cry was only an incident of the war, and
not the cause. In the time of the colonies
many of them protested against the i'm
pOrtation of slaves and enacted many laws
for the prevention of slave trade which
were afterWard vetoed by the sovereign
power of England. jefferson favored &
system of gradual emancipation. 1t is well
known that the immortal George Mason
was opposed to the perpetuation OF slaV-
cry. In 1882 a system of gradual enamel
patton was earnestly debated in the gen
eral assembly of Virginia and ehamploned
by some of the foremost men of the COM
mOnwealth. Our great military commander
emanCipated all the slaves under his con-
troll and is reported to have said that If
he owned all the four million slaves of the
south he would freely surrender them all
for the preservation of the Union. Jackson
never owned but one, and he was pur-
chased by his request. The majority of
the rank and file of the confederacy never
owned slaves and never felt an interest in
the peculiar institution.
Before the dark storm clouds of war,
which had been so long gathering, burst
with all its fury, Virginia exerted all her
great powers and all her persuasive infiu
ence to bring about pacification and re-
store a feeling of concord and harmony be-
tween the opposing sections. AS one of the
two surviving members of the Virginia Sc
cession convention of 1861. and the only
surviving member of the confederate con-
gress now living in Virginia, l know
the proclamation issued by President Lin
coin calling upon Virginia to furnish 2,34U
soldiers, her quota of the $4,000 troops to
coerce the seeding states of the Union
Virginia would never have withdrawn from
the Union. When men who composed a
large majority of the convention and who
had held on to the Union as the shipwreck-
ed mariner holds to the last plank, when
the midnight storm and tempest was gath
had been reduced to most distressing al
tentative, and that she was compelled to
fight on one side or the other. She resoly-
ed that from considerations of duty and
honor she should cast her fortunes with
her southern sisters,