The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1906-10-07

States may be formed. But, sin all such
territory the institution Of negro slavery,
as II now exists in the Confederate States,
shall be recognised and protected by Con-
gress and by the Territorial Government
Although. therefore, the new Confederacy
was to be State producing, like the old, it
could only produce slave States. The
admission Of q new State was so hedged
about that IL had TO be Slave State to get
admitted. Thus the Co~nfederaoy in its
inception justified Lincoln's prophecy:
This Government cannot endure perma-
nently half slave and half free; it will become
all one thing or all the other.'
vi.
It IL our authors conviction that in look
ing back at the secessive movement Of
Cottonis n her leaders an impartial
judgment must affirm that there was not
q single farseeing statesman among them.
As things were their party controlled
both houses OF Congress In the old Union,
with every chance OF a reaction in their
favor. It was obvious on thef face Of the
election returns that had Douglas been
the nominee Of q united Democracy he
would have been chosen President. The
Democratic party held the United States
Supreme Court in . frmer grip than ever,
seeing that Judge Curtis had resigned
and Clifford had taken his place. More
over. since the bred Scott decision the
Shareholders could not by any enactment
OF Congress be excluded from tbs Terri
tories. In substance, then, they already
had quite all that they asked for, seeing
that two branches OF the Government,
the legislative n the judicial, were in
their hands. II is true that for the moment
the executive authority was not theirs,
but it would be IL in 1894 they should put
forward q nominee OF the Douglas stripe.
What, then, could have been the motive
for seoessioni Our author submits that,
looking into the psychology OF the matter,
we must seek for some hidden spring Of
action generally unuttered and often
unconscious. yet the deepest and most
powerful. Secession, he thinks, can only
be explained On the theory that although
the South already had all that il asked for
there was still something which it did not
ask for, but which IL wanted more than
anything else, namely, rule, executive
authority, administrative domination. In
Mr.. Snider's opinion, the love Of slavery
was not its deepest love, nor even the love
Of State Sovereignty. The South must
rave control Of a nation; II not Of the whole
United States, then OF it's Southern half
We are reminded that Jefferson Davis
never mentioned slavery in his inaugural
address and that his wife reports him as
saying just before the civil war: in any
case 1 think our slave property will be
eventually lost Our author interprets
All .AA-,o.uk - 1900 khaA L., NJ n--!-I-
forecast slavery would perish even II
the South should win her Independence.
II would seem TO follow that Mr.. Davis went
into secession ~ostensibly for the sake Of
slavery, but secretly with another motive.
Mr.. Snider believes that many of the South
ern leaders were like him in this respect.
Hence when outvoted in the nation they
few into revolt under the pretext OF danger
to our peculiar institution, slavery but
really because they, though the minority,
could not bring themselves to give up ma
tional rule. Some Of them, like Davis,
foresaw that slavery was likely to perish
in the appeal to arms, but did not expect
to lose independence too. But they lost
the whole stake, and by their course an
initiated the very thing they wen after.
Sad and tragic enough on its individual
side is the drama; but TO the eye Of the
world spirit these passionate leaders are
comic characters, rushing in vengeance
TO saw on from the tree the limb on which
they are standing
In a survey of the position taken by the
North during the first three critical months
OF 1891 our author notes, what is often
overlooked, that the bred Scott decision
stood in the way OF compromise. Accord
TO that decision, Congress had no power
TO prohibit slavery in any Territory, North
ern or Southern, and could not oonstitu-
make any Law upon the subject.
Any compromise must, therefore, be in the
form of an amendment to the Federal Con-
stitution. But, obviously, this would be a
and uncertain process to which it
would be absurd to have recourse amid
hurrying vents which required immediate
Thus, illustrating the sarcasm OF
the decision OF Chief Justice fancy
the chief obstacle to the triumph
OF the cause which it was intended TO up-
hold, and finally rendered the Crittenden
impracticable. Davis and Toombs would
have accepted that compromise with the
slave" and slavery" intrenched in
BUR Federal organic law, as then the asser-
ton that the word slave does not occur
In the Constitution" would be 40 longer
tue. Unhappily for those who desired
to avert q civil war the decision rendered
by Chief Justice fancy made compromise
impossible.