Clarke courier. [volume] (Berryville, Va.) 1869-1997, 1907-01-30


in forty thousand pulpits, and
repeated in tens of thousands OF
newspapers.
These expressions might be re
garded as the mere hssty and
ephemeral expressions of the
sorrow and indignation aroused by
the first assassination of Presid.
ent, except for the fact that in
1861, the armies of the North. were
called out and set in motion tc
suppress rebellion" That
every state paper emanating from
the Federal Governments, and
every act of Congress, relating to
subject, passed during the war,
and during the reconstruction
period, is based upon the assump-
tioE that the attitude of the people
ofthesOuth was that of rebellion, "
and that the people of the South
had forfeited all of their politician
right, by their treason.
What l have to say, to you my
Comrades, and to you my hearers,
on this Anniversary meeting, held
in memory of the men, whom we
followed so loyalty, obeyed so inn
plicitly, trusted so absolutely,
honored so unreservedly, and
whose memory we cherish with
such pride and devotion, is not
conceived in the spirit, or with the
desire of relighting the shoulder
ing fires of hatred and sectional
strife, that were kindled and burn
ed so fiercely, during the days OF
conflict, and during the bitter and
disastrous years that followed the
close of actual conflict.
Nor by way of resistance to, or
protest against, the situation and
circumstances in which we find
ourselves today, as citizens of the
Sovereign State of Virginia, in her
old place in the Union, and as citi-
zens of the United States of Amer
lea, on the same plane of legal
equality, with the survivors of the
armies who opposed us.
But l do maintain, that under
the law of the land, as plainly
written in 1851, Robert +. Lee
and Stonewall jackson, in leading
the armies of the South, in resist
ing the evasion of the soil of their
native Sovereign State, and in re-
sisting an usurped authority, nc
where lawfully existing in the
Federal Government, were not
guilty of any breach of trust, were
not in violation of any pledge OF
faith, and were not traitors in re,
bellion.
1t is universally conceded, thai
at the beginning of the American
Revolution, the thirteen colonie.
had no political connection what
ever with each other, except tina
each was 8 part of the British
Empire.
There was no more political con
nection between Massachusetts ant
Virginia, than there was between
Virginia and Canada, or than Their
is now between Canada and Aus
tralia.
The colonies justified their &C
ton by the Declaration of indie
lpendence.
The clause in the Declaration
That whenever any form of gov
eminent becomes destructive q
those ends Chat is, as previousl,
stated, its just and proper ends) i
is the right of the people to alte
or to abolish it, and to institute
new government laying its founda
tons III such principles, and organ
izing its powers in such form, a
to them shall seem most likely t.
effect their safety and happiness,
is original only in the form of ex
preston.
1t does not create a new right
but is the statement of an existin;
right.
1t is simply an appeal to, and
voucher of the inherent and funda
mental right of the people of Eng
land and of her colonies, as the,
existed, were practiced and main
tanned from the time of King John
The England Revolution of 1858
declared in act, the identical thin,
which the Declaration of Indepen
dence asserts in words.
The revolution of 1776, and tn,
leading and immortal clause of tn,
| Declaration of Independence, wer,
the assertion by our forefathers