The Robesonian. [volume] (Lumberton, N.C.) 1870-current, 1909-01-25

he lruest Type Is lie VINO
Combines the Excellencies of
the Old and the New South,
the Finished Product of Many
Generations - Let Us Have
Done With the Silly Twaddle
About the New South.
Address delivered by Col. N. A. Nc
Lean at the exercises held in the court
house in Lumberton on Tuesday of last
week, the anniversary of the birth of
General Robt. E. Lee.
Ladies of Robson Chapter
United Daughters of the Con-
federacy, Confederate Veterans
of Camp Hoke, Ladies and Gen
tlemen:
That rugged old Scotchman,
Thomas Carlyle, has said: The
candid judge will in general re-
quire that a speaker, in so ex-
tremely serious a Universe as
this of ours, have something to
speak about. In the heart Of
the speaker there ought to be
some kind of gospel tidings
burning till it be uttered. Other
wise it were better for him that
he altogether held his peace" "a
rule that, if rigidly enforced,
would bring about much of un-
easiness. if not of acute suf-
fering, caused by repression and
suppression of desiccated dull
ness and vacuous verbosity,
which, like some other noxious
humors of the body, are in
healthiest condition, for him
who already has them, when
thrown to the surface, and ready
to be thrown on the first unfortu-
nate who may pass by.
Besides, if only those who
have something to say were per-
mitted to speak, silence would
be well-nigh primeval, all-per-
vading. Preferably, to the ease
of all men and JOY of all women,
let us who do not profess to be
the missioners of any tidings,
God-spelling or what not, re-
ceive and deliver our common
place messages. having in them
little of combustion of confagra-
ton, and perhaps less of light.
Forty-seven years ago there
began that armed conflict pro-
nounced from the bench of the
Supreme Court of the United
States not a rebellion, but
'the greatest civil war known
in the history of the human
race, and, says Losing in his
Civil War in America, "the
din of the conflict was heard all
over the world, while people of
all nations were spectators of the
scene" Neither time nor oc-
casion permit us to give even an
extended resume of the causes
which led up to this war, nor to
attempt anything like a constitu.
tional exposition Of the subject,
were it desirable otherwise, OF
profitable to do so, which per.
haps it is not; but it is of su.
preme Importance that we, anC
those who come after us, shoulc
have a clear understanding of
and should ever bear in mind,
two great truths: First, tha1
the sole responsibility for negro
slavery did not rest on our peo
pie; and second, that slavery was
not the real cause of the war, as
has been so often charged. by
Northern historians, and is be
lieved by so many of our owr
people. Ample proof of the frs
statement is to be found in the
well known historical fact thai
the legal subordination of the
black race to the white-slavery
existed in fifteen States of the
Union when the civil war began
and in all the States, North ant
South alike, save one, when the
Constitution was framed in 1887
and, | dare say, would have con
tinued in the North so long as
did in the South, if it had beer
found profitable.
AS to our second proposition
the. cause: Alexander H. Ste
, phens, Vice-President of tn
Confederate States, before hi
, State, Georgia, passed the OF
dinance of secession a stron
} Union man, a participant in tn
; stirring scenes which precede
; the disruption Of the Union,
,, statesman of great breadth an
. comprehensiveness of thought,
calm historian, says in his Cor
stitutional View Of the War b.
tween the States, it (slavery
was unquestionably the occasio
of the war, the main excitin
prOXlmate cause on both side
on the one as we'll as the othe
: but it was not the real cause, tk
} causa causan", and that the w;
grew out of different and d
rectly opposite views as to Il
nature of the government of tn
United States, and where und
our system ultimate sovereie
. power of paramount authorit
resided, the Northern idea b
6 ing that the people Of the Sc
' eral States were citizens of Il
United States, and owed all
glance to the Federal Cover
ment as the absolute sovereis
power over the whole count
consolidated into one Nation; t
South holding, contending, su
fering, dying for the convicti
, (for this and in defense of the