The Birmingham age-herald., 1906-05-27

i Titanic debates in the Senate of that 1 era. It was a period of intense political 1 excitement, and secession was narrowly averted and perhaps was only prevented 1 by the efforts of Henry Clay Daniel ;, Webster and Stephen A Douglass. In ] 1856 MT. Pugh was elected on the Buchan-
 an ticket for the state at large, after which he was returned to the thirty sixth congress.
 A Histor'o Body
 1 It was q historic body-that Thirty 1 sixth Congress, the last time the "Old
 South" sat at the national council board l It was an irrepressible conflict, inherited l from the fathers. MT Pugh was a pro- | nounced southern man and a believer in 1 the good policy as well as the absolute 1 right of secession. He made but one | speech of any considerable length. and I
 have never anywhere come across a 1 cleaner statement of the two conflicting l ideas of the north and the south than is 1 contained in this speech. I count no nian 1 adequately informed upon the momentous 1 issues that produced the war of 1861 un- l less he is familiar with the doctrines laid i down by MT. Pugh in his speech of the
 first session of the Thirty-sixth Congress.
 l will take the liberty to quote: ''fhe northern theory is that the Con stitntion of the United States is the off, | spring of the numerical power of the | whole people regarded as one political | community. That individual al- l legiance to the state is merged in the | general mass of allegiance to the general | government Also that the powers of l Congress were not delegated, but surrend- l cred, abandoned by the states and con- ! solldated in the supreme head. Hence, I that the government is not federal, but l national, and that parties, patriotism and l allegiance are national Also that the 1 people of every state and section are 1 homogeneous, with harmonious interests | and pursuits, and if homogeneous with 1 harmonious interests and pursuits, it is claimed that the power of ultimate decl- I sion, sovereignty, resides with the gen l eral mass Another is that the popular
 will of this general mass should preside 1 over the actions of the government and | determine what Is the general welfare l and what powers exist to promote it. Such 1 is the political philosophy of those who 1 strike down state sovereignty and state l rights and whose aim is the abolition of 1 slavery and the establishment of northern | supremacy.
 Tn opposition to this theory, the south l contends that the constitution is the re- 1 suit of the concurrent action of the people | of each state by virtue of their soy | ereignty and independence; that 1t passed 1 the ordeal of nine conventions each of NHicH ldu dDSOlute, unfeStfalneu JuflSulc- | ton oyer the question of it's adoption or rejection. The constitution is the offspring l of thirteen concurrent sovereigntes. It's | distinctive characteristics and main ex- cellences consist in the checking power of minorites. The concurrence of sepa- l rate, independent, majorites in producing results is the predicate of the whole sys- l tenn of checks and balances, and imparts | to the. republic all it's elasticity and pow | CT of expansion"
 His Views of Government. MT. Pugh held that there were two | governments in the federal establishment created by conflicting constructions of the constitution of the United States. The northern construction was-and is-that the United States government is a na- tion. The southern construction was that it is a federal republic of delegated and restricted powers nominated in the con stitution. MT. Pugh and every other se- cessionist held that it was impossible for the Union to exist except in perpetual strife while the two opposing ideas were in conflict in the same government He
 therefore. advocated secession, and he
 never dreamed but that 1t would be
 peaeeable Few men north or south | looked for war. and fewer still desired 1t. | R. M. T. Hunter, of the most en- | frightened statesmen of that epoch, said | that war was too expensive to be thought |
  900 to conquer the south. and he did not believe the stronger section would go to the expense. Three years later the north was expending $60O,0000 900 per annum for the war.
 And vet the war was nearly averted. Had Seward been President there would have been peaceable secession. Had not the south struck the first ilc~, there would have been war. It the work of fate-the whole thing.
 When Alabama seeded, Pugh withdrew from Congress. He became a private in the Confederate army and while serving IS such was elected to the Confederate Congress. After the war he practiced law, and in 1874 he presided over the memorable state convention when the white people of Alabama grimly resolved that they would no longer be ruled by carpet-baggers, sealaways, and negroes. There was excitement; there was violence; there was bloodshed; but tho white man prevailed and has ruled Alabama ever since In 1S15 Mr. Pugh was member or the convention that formed new state constitution, and his sage counsel was stamped on many of the sections Of that l instrument. In 1878 Governor Houston peat MT Pugh for United States senator. but died after serving single session
 lheh II was that Mr. Pugh was chosen 10 succeed him and held the seat until lss'' a period of seventeen years.
 Services In the Senate.
 It would require volume to do justice to MT. Pughs services in the Senate
 lie was one of the very great lawyers of that body patient and laborious He be- came chairman of the Senate committee on the Judiciary, position that had been held by Thurman and Edmunds and was soon to be held by Hoar d station that IS as nigh in the profession as is the of lice or attorney general of the United
 states, or justice of the supreme court
 It Will be remembered that during the nrst Cleveland administration our coun- | try and Great Britain had a row over the
 fisheries dispute. There was treaty
 negotiated and it was considered in open galleries for a long time, but never before
 or since did l witness such .'a-twisting of
 the British lions tail" as during that de-
 pate In those days the democrats were Anglomaniacs, and the republicans Anglo
 phobes. The tariff was big issue at the
 time, and many good republicans were ready to swear that they had personal | knowledge of the fact that the only use | England had for gold was to buy our elections for the democratic party. Now | that is all changed. The republicans are | Anglomaniacs and the democrats Anglo | phobes. and there are democrats who will | swear that they were personally present | and eyewitnesses to the transaction when | England bribed the American congress to | perpetrate 'the crime of 73' On the occasion-the fisheries dispute |