The commonwealth. (Scotland Neck, N.C.) 1896-1929, 1907-05-16
Thursday, May Is, 1907.
MEMORIAL DAY EXERCISES.
TContinued from First PageI

Colonies protested time and again
to the King of England against send
ing slaves to these shores. The House
of Burgesses enacted laws on twenty
three different occasions against the
importation of slaves. The King of
England vetoed each act.
In 1882 the Legislature of Virginia
came within one vote of passing a
law of emancipation.
On page 8S, Vol. 1, of Henderson's
life of Stonewall Jackson you will
find an interesting letter written by
Gen. Robert E. Lee showing what
he thought Of slavery before the
war. Lee set free his slaves before
the war began while Grant retained
his until freed by the Proclamation.
Not one man in thirty of the Stone
wall Brigade owned a slave. A
Northern writer says, Slavery was
the cause Of the war just as property
is the cause of robbery"
If any man will read the debates
between Lincoln and Douglas just
prior to the war, or the Emancipa
ton Proclamation, he will see that
slavery was not the cause of action
or it's abolition it's intent. Emancipa-
ton was war measure not affecting
the border states.
Mr.. Webster said at Capon Springs
in 1851, 81 do not hesitate to say and
repeat. that if the Northern states
refused to carry into effect that part
Of the Constitution which respects
the restoration of fugitive slaves the
South would no longer be bound to
keep the compact"
Did yea ever see a soldier who was
fighting for slavery? A celebrated
English historian in treating this sub
ject remarks: Slavery was but the
occasion Of the rupture, in no sense
the object Of the war. Slavery
would have been abolished in time
had the South succeeded"
The enlightened sentiment of man.
kind, the spirit of the age, was against
chattel slavery. England and France
had freed their bondmen. Russia
emancipated her serfs about 1880.
In 1878 the Island of Porto Rico tax
ed itself 100000 and freed 10000
slaves. Does anyone suppose that
the enlightend and Christian people
of the Southern States would have
set themselves against the moral
sentiment of mankind, and refused
to heed the voice Of civilization and
progress?
Under the leadership of Lee and
Gordon, Vance and Currie and thous-
ands Of others these Southern States
would have carried out destiny full
of moral grandeur and glory. The
problems that now challenge the pa
tience, courage and endurance of a
mighty people would not have, in all
probability, arisen. At all events the
one black, dark cloud that over
shadows our domestic and political
horizon would have been turned
back through wiser and more hui
name legislation, or at least prevent
ed from spending it's force through
false teaching, inspired by band of
the most selfish and ignorant fanat-
les that were ever permitted to prey
upon a noble and defenceless people,
On memorial occasions such as this
the speaker, anxious always to leave
some abiding thought in the minds
and on the hearts Of his hearers, turns
to those who made our history half
OF century ago and by precept and
example imp essed themselves or
their countrymen. What Cromwell
was to the English Commonwealth;
what Washington was to the Rovolu
ton, Lee was to our Southern cause
Let me give you a pen protrait OF
our Chieftain from an English view
point. In a translation of Homer
dedicated to Gen. R. E. Lee, the
most stainless of living commanders
and except in fortune, the greatest
Philip Stanley Worsley of Oxford
wrote:
"The grand old bard that never
dies,
Receive him in our English tongue
! send thee, but with weeping eyes,
The story that he sung.
Thy Troy is fallen, thy dear land
Is marred beneath the spoiIer's
heel,
can not trust my trembling hand
To write the things | feel.
All; realm of tombs, but let her bea
This blazon to the last of times;
No nation rose so white and fair,
Or fell so free of crimes.
The widows moan, the orphan
wall
Come round thee, yet in truth be