The herald and news. [volume] (Newberry S.C.) 1903-1937, 1906-05-15

"SN'b"""i PicSiueHt, anu ulu lie NOT de-
clare that he would not be bound By
the decisions Of the supreme court;
but that he would enforce the consti-
tuition as he understood it, and not
as it was understood by that high
tribunal.
Thomas Benton, who was an anti
slavery man, said in the senate in
1928: 81 feel for the sad changes
that have taken place in the south
during the last fifty years. Before
the revolution it was the seat of
wealth, as well as hospitality. Money
and all that it contained abounied
then. Now all this is reversed. Wealth
has fled from the south, and settled
in the regions north of the Potomac:
and this, in the face of the fact that
the south, in four staples alone, has
exported produce since the revolution,
to the value Of eight hundred million
dollars; and the north has exported
comparatively nothing. Such an ex-
port would indicate unparalleled
wealth, but what is the fact7 In the
place of wealth, the people are push
ed to the verge Of universal self de-
nial, for the preservation Of family
estates. Did slavery accomplish this7
Slavery accompanied the south in her
palmiest days, hence it could not have
been the one cause Of such adversity.
Under federal legislation, the exports
of the south have been the basis of
federal revenue. Virginia, the two
Carolinas and Georgia may be said
to defray three-fourths Of the annual
expense of supporting the federal
government, and of the great sum fur
nished by them, nothing, or next to
nothing is returned to them in the
shape of government expenditures.
This is why wealth disappears from
the south and rises up at the north. /"
"Political economists of the north,
who had studied the sources Of ma
tional wealth, gave the same explana-
tion Of the sudden and wonderful dis
appearance Of wealth from the south,
but if the north, with majority in
both houses Of congress had not op-
pressed the south, it would have been
unlike any other unshacklcd power
i'll the world" A philosophical for
cigner in 1893 said, eff ever the free
institutions Of America are destroyed,
that event may be attributed to the
unlimited authority Of the majority"
Massachusetts was the first state
to threaten to leave the union, fol.
lowed by similar threats by other
northern states. If this section had
had a minority in both. branches of
congress, as the south had, they. would
likely have outstripped South Caro-,
lima in the race of secession. The old
articles of confederation claimed to be
perpetual, but when the convention
seeded from them and formed the,
more perfect union, it did not stamp,
Immortality upon the work Of it's
hands.
or all the men who took part in the
struggle for southern independence,
Jefferson Davis was the most harshly
treated. He was imprisoned for
eighteen months and cruelty treat
ed. He lived twenty years afterwards
and was never brought to trial. This
fact ought, for all times, to put to rest
the charge Of treason. And the en-
couraging of secession in South
America by our government makes the
impression that those at the head of
the government are inconsistent, or
they have changed front about this
matter.
The south is now in the union to
stay. Every lover OF his country re-
joices at the decadence of socialism
and welcomes the return Of the era
of good feeling. When this era
comes to stay, consummation de-
voutly to be wished, there will be no
questioning of the patriotism Of those
Of our section who participated in the
struggle that ended at Appomattox.
Grady and Mckinley par mobile fra
trum, were pioneers in the good work
OF reuniting the sections. May their
spirits rule us from their urns.
0. M. Buzhardt.