The Columbus weekly dispatch., 1908-05-03
Jesse ?. Woodward
GENERAL INSURANCE AGENT
Columbus, Mississippi
foated over half her capitols." !"

floated over half her capitols.' .
But why not, as Stephens and
others suggested, and some still in
sist would have been wiser, have
fought out the issues within the
Union, under the old flag? As has
been shown, it was generally believed
that the differences were irrecoacil-
able. that a peaceful separation could
be made, and that it would be best
for the two sections to work out
apart, each its own peculiar problems
and final destiny. Separation by Sc
cession-hitherto more a Northern
than Southern plan for redress of
Vances-seemed natural, logical,
and eaceabIe-better far than frat
ricidal war which neither side really
government had been established
Years ago, the churches had led this
way; the Methodists separating in
1914, the Baptists in 1916. Life
apart had thus already actually be
gun. Preparation for war was at
first deemed hardly necessary by
many of the Southern. leaders.
have dwelt thus on these great
principles of the Confederacy, be
cause, / repeat it, it was for principle
and honor, equality of rights under
the Constitution, particularly in the
territories that the South contended
Against the bitter opposition of the
North. Southern craftsmanship and
the Union and from three-fourths of
them by Constitutional enactment,
nullifying the Constitution and the
Dred Scott Decision. the South was
now to be excluded. The existence
of slavery in the States was not in
volved in the controversy: its extern
sion in the territories was all that the
Republican Party in it's platforms
and Congress and the President op-
posed. March /, 1861, the following
proposed amendment to the Consti-
tuition was adopted by both houses of
Congress, and was approved by Mr..
Lincoln: mo Amendment shall be
made to the Constitution which will
authorize or give to Congress the
power to abolish or interfere within
any State with the domestic institu-
tions thereof, including that of per-
sons held to labor or service by the
laws of said State" April 1, 1861,
Secretary Seward wrote to President
Lincoln. Change the question before
the public from one upon slavery or
about slavery, for a question upon
Union or DisuniOn." Lincoln in his
inaugural address, and time and
again afterwards, disclaimed any in
tention to make war of conquest
or to interfere with slavery in the
States. The Emancipation Procla-
nation came later, in 1923, as
desperate war measure -barbaric
and horrible to contemplate-de-
signed to break down the successful
of the South, by driving
its soldiers home to the protection of
their families.
Does slavery itself, as existing gen
orally in the South, need any strong
er vindication against the bitter
charges of the Abolitionists than the
response of the slaves themselves to
this monstrous Proclamation? The
soldier kept the field: the slave, re-
sponsiye to the law of kindness and
protection which generally governed
them, stood by his mistress and the
children, and still made bread for
them and for his master far away.
The responsibility of the South for
slavery it is needless to discuss. The
world knows that it was forced on
the colonists against their will by
English slave traders; that the South
as well as the North protested against
It in vain. The ordinance of 1887
oanishing it from the Northwest Ter
ritory was written by Thomas Jeffer- |
son. To satisfy the greed of the slave |
dealers of New England as much as
he demands of the planters of Geor-
5ia and South Carolina, the importa-
ion of slaves was, under protest else
where, extended to 1908. Washing
on, Jefferson, Madison, Clay, and |
>ther great Southerners vigorously |
denounced the foreign slave traffic. |
md advocated the freeing of the
slaves gradually or after a fixed date.