The times dispatch. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1903-1914, 1907-08-04
MASSACHUSETTS
HOME OF SECESSION
Such is the Claim Set Up BY
an Able Northern
Writer.
sOUTH's GLORY NOW DENIED
Life OF Abncr Morgan, Who
Claimed to Be First
"Scceeder."

Times have changed and sentiment
Is constantly changing. People change
with time, that is their views of things
Change.
Fortr years ago no man living do vi
s,ulh would have ventured the pre-
dictior that grown men then LIVING
would continue to live to see the day
Wnen Northern peopic would be cla'n!
ins some of the glory of secession.
The following from the Fourth Of
July edition of the Springfield (Mnss.)
Republican should have space in Our
Confederate Column, a mighty good
place to reproduce 1t:
a massachusetts Claim.
To the Editor of The Republican:
Mas it not only true, as General
Lee declared in his memorial-day
speech, that the doctrine of secession
and of state rights was of Massachu-
sets birth, but that it's birthplace
was, to speak exactly, Hampden coun-
tS, Mass? And could one be still lore
succinct and assert that it's actual
parentage was in the little town of
Brimfield, in your county of Hampden?
The record seems to run that way. The
Hartford convention assembled De-
cember Is, 1914, and adjourned with
theRsenl of secrecy upon its journal of
proceedings, January 8, 1915. But on
September 80, 1914, the town-meeting
Of sBrimtield had alread adopted a
paper prepared by Major Abncr Nor
GAM the leading citizen OF the town
(Which on his motion took the form
OF instructions to the Representatives
OF Rrimtield in the General CourD
which, printed in parallel columns be.
side almost any of the secession reso-
buttons adopted by the Southern States
In 1861 as justification for seeding
from the Union, would show, If any
q thing, a more instead of less delib-
crate declaration Of the right of a
State to withdraw from the Union at
its own sweet will!
This Doctrine of Perfection" which
is printed in full in Hydes History OF
Rrimfield (Springfleld Clark Bryan
Co. 1870. pages 326-32s, after recitine
the8usual objections that New England
expressed in SO many ways to the sec
i ond war with England, asserts that
1.-THE extension of the boundaries OF
the United States and the admission
therein OF new States without the con,
consent Of the partners to the original
y compact, the gradual destruc
ton of that commerce, to maintain
which was one principal cause of thu
a,lopsiun Of or .Nhrsed Constitution
81 1OgcLlerg Win many OllleT. III FhCtlOH'
by the national legislature Of tina
Constitution. has absovet
the individual States from all mora
obligations to maintain the Union"
Only Temporary.
l Certainly this is explicit enoug
while the remained of the paper Quit
in the vein afterward so familiar !
the memorials of the seeding South
err States of 1850. recites all sort
of devotion to a national Union tina
should entirely suit; e. e., the town c
Brimtield, Hampton county, Mass! S
M FAR as we can ascertain, this is tn
first actual paper adopted to sugge'
withdrawal from the Union by stat
\ itself. TO be sure. the secession pro
posed by the good people of Brimhe
was only to be temporary, If the gel
eral government. seeing the error
~ It's ways, should take the Brimie
IL view of things and steadily confor
Its walk and conversation to the spec
fcation laid down by that right lit
tight little town-meeting. I'VE a
not insensible," proceeds this I
SgN markable document, ito the inco
yenienccs and possible danger of
partial, and we hope but Temporal