The farmer and mechanic. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 18??-19??, 1910-07-05
A PORTRAYAL OF JEFFER-
SON DAVIS
CONTINUED from Page EleVen.)

. free from tnt1T liOidI ODllSIIioll9 ,
a anG nat as it will be the right of all.
o"i viii be the duty of some, to prepare
1ef6itrIy for 4 OBSERVATION-DISCLOSURES II
they AN, violently If they must
II must not be forgotten hat these
-. not the words OF Jefferson Davis.
Whrn he defended the doctrine of a
ct,,a.s right to sever its relation with
+ba Union, he was d~eDOEn ed as a con-
enir4tsr against the lite of the nation
@Dn December 18th. 1914. the Hart
ford convention assembled,
If delegates from all the New eng
gI,nd states to protest against the
3,r then in progres tive the
United States and England. They
had suffered immense loss by the de-
ctruction of their commerce and fish
cries, and rather than endure more
for the nations account, they pre-
ferred to withdraw from the Union.
Tb, report adopted unanimously by
NE convention contains this lam
guage:
"in case of deliberate, dangerous. and
palp1blo infractions Of the CONSTIPATION.
affecting the sovereignty of a State to
5nterpose its authority for their protee-
ZION in the manner best calculated to
sp,nre that end. When emergencies occur,
% TU are either beyond The reach of judi
riaI tribunals or too pressing to admit
of the delay incident to their forms. States
which have no common umpire must be
their own judges and execute their own
DECISIONS
While that threat was never carried
into exeCutiOn-the Treaty OF Client
having been signed in the meantime.
there is the solemn assertion, Oh
the part Of these New England dele-
gates. Of their sovereign right to with
draw from the Union, if occasion
seemed 70 demand. | make no COM
ment upon the fact that while New
England was meditatng withdrawal
from the Federal compact, General
80 lN-~1n In~io 700
in the battle at New Orleans We're
shedding their blood for the honor
of our national flag. But l venture
t. ask this question, Is there anything
in the lapse of q few years to make
the utterances of Roger Griswold and
Rufus King and Joseph Story and
Josiah Quincy and the Hartford Con-
yention less disloyal to the calm philo-
sophie reasoning of John G. Calhoun
and Jefferson Davis? And Yet no one
ever hears Of New England as tho
hotbed Of secessio0,' and her poll
teal leaders as c~onspirators against
the life of the nation. No air-Hlinded
student Of history can acquit Josiah
Quincy and find fault with Jefferson
Davis.
The legislature Of Massachusetts,, in
1899 declared the embargo law not
legally binding on the citizens of the
State" Now in New England that was
simply the dSefIlOn Oh l~ldleDaDlS
rights! If in South Carolina, il would
have been, and was, denounced as the
YileSt notification.
Now l come to the conditions and
questions that Immediately preceded
If they did not precipitate, the dis
membermeDt of the Union. Slavery,
which existed in all but one of the
States when the Union was formed,
and in fifteen Of them when the war
began. was the occasion, but not the
cause Of the lamented conflict. But as
Mr.. Davis we'll said:
In the later controversies, its
effect in operating as a lever upon the
mankind was so potent that it has been
spread like Il thick cloud over the whole
horizon Of historic truth"
The right OF wrong of slavery we
need not discuss, or attempt to de-
termlne who was most responsible
therefor, The institution is dead be-
yond the possibility Of resurrection.
and the whole nation is glad. The
later geographical limitations Of slav-
cry in the United States were deter
mined not by conscience, but by CHI
mate. 1t was the climate at the
North and the cotton-gin in the South
that regulated the tributi Of
slave labor. ! have scant respect for
d conscience TOO sensitive to own GER
tam property because it is immoral.
out which without ~cOTnpunctiOn will
sell the same to another at full mar
ket value. Had the slaveholders of
Inc North emanCipated their slaves
and not sold them because their labor
ceased to be profitable, there would
nave been more respect for their sub
StQuent abolition zeal. It is a matter
OIL PRIDE with us that no Southern col
ohy or State ever had a vessel en-
gagged in the slave trade. And several
OF the Southern States were the first
10 pass stringent laws against the i'm
poftadOn of African slaves.
BUT apart from the ethical question
ihFpIVed as we now see it. slave prop
eTty was recognized by the Constitu-
lion and existed in every State but
one when the Union was formed. And
d clear mandate of the Constitution
teQuIred slaves to be delivered UP to
aIeIr owners when escaping into