The Pensacola journal. (Pensacola, Fla.) 1898-1985, 1910-04-27

ing without a little blood letting"
eloquently did she appeal for the strict
observance of the constitution only to
be told that the constitution was "a
league with death and a covenant with
hell"-that there was a higher law
which was that might makes right"
After forty years of ceaseless agitation
this party of bitter hatred and blind
fanaticism elected Lincoln as presi-
dent upon a-strictly sectional platform
pledged to legislate against the in
terests, property rights of the south in
the general government. The south
having exhausted every other remedy
to maintain her rights and liberties in
the Union as defined by the constitu-
ton as a last resort, exercised the
right of secession-a right
which I'D to that time had never been
disputed. Hence the southern states,
each in it's sovereign capacity, resumed
the powers and rights originally dele
gated to the general government and
formed a government of her own.
When Lincoln was inaugurated as
president We had a government of our
once appointed commissioners to con-
fer with the Lincoln government and
settle all questions at issue upon the
basis of strict equity and exact jus
tice. This commission, of course,
failed in the purpose for which it was
appointed, and the south accepted the
gage of battle thrown by Lincoln. To
have acted otherwise we would have
been unworthy sons of noble sires.
He who worships at duty's shrine can
ne'er go wrong; he who doubts at her
call is bastard, and he who hesitates
to obey her high behests through fear
of consequences Is an arrant coward
and should be forever damned. The
south did not want war, but it was
war or base submission, and as true
men, we accepted the former. We
have no apologies to make, nothing to
retract; we fought for what We knew
was right at the time; we know it
then, We know it now, and will know
it forever And we feel that it was
better by far to have fought and lost
than never to have fought at all.
These are our sentiments and we want
the north and the balance of mankind
to know it. Who fired the first gun
in this unjust war? John Brown, at
Harper's Ferry; he was but the ad-
vance guard of Mcdowell, and his
mighty host that following two years
later, appeared upon the historic plains
of Manassas-the former met a right
eous retribution, as the state of Vir-
ginia hung him and his murderous
free Ibotters higher than Modecai hung
the infamous Hannah. Who fired the
second gun? Undoubtedly Lincoln,
when he ordered Fort Sumter to be
reinforced after Seward, his secretary
Of state, solemnly pledging his honor
TO our commissioners that it should
be evacuated. Faith as to Fort Sum-
Ter kept, wait and see," said this arch
iend, and even at the very moment
ne was using his dupiIcity he was
loing his utmost to reinforce the
tort, that he might have the city of
Charleston at his mercy. The midnight
burglar enters your house to rob and
70 murder, if necessary, to attain his
object. Must you wait until he has
Dlundered your castle before you fire?
The immutable law of God and of man
says no. "Self-preservation is the first
aw of nature" and in self-defense we
to reduce the fort, to tear
down the accursed emblem of a despot
and usurper and hoist instead the
Bonnie Blue Flag" thus proclaiming
to the world the birth of new ma
ton. Will any one not blinded by
prejudice and ,partisanship dare say
that we violated any law. either Di-
vine or human? We struck for the
Iod-given right of freedom and liberty,
for the sanctity of our homes, the
purity of our firesides and never since
line began has there been more
righteous gun fred than at Charleston.
which announced to the world that we
we're men who would no longer sub
nit to wrong and injustice. Where
lid Lincoln find any law under the
to call fer troops. arm and
equip them to coerce sovereign states?
He was perjurer, for he Intentionally,
and maliciously violated his
path Of office when he solemnly sWore
% defend and SUPPORT the constitution
If the government and no sane man
will deny the fact of his being a
Isurper when he resorted to means
hat plunged this country into an in
war. Lincoln was the one
and the only one who could have pre-
vented the firing Of gun in the civil
war. There can be effect without
cause. The first gun fired in the war
was the effect and echoes of the mid
night guns of John Brown and his
freo-booters at Harners
Ferry, Virginia, in 1859, when peaceful
citizens were aroused from their
Slumbers and murdered without cause
1r provocation; Brown proclaiming
hat it was the beginning of a general
;eTVile instruction throughout the en-
ire south for indiscriminate slaughter
Of its people regardless of age or sex.
When Lincoln ordered General Nc
lowell to cross the Potomac river
with $500 Federal soldiers to shoot
Town southern men who were defend
ms their homes; violators of no law
known to the constitution, guilty. of
no crime, he was as much a yiolator
If law and as redhanded a murderer as
vas John Brown. Applying the rule
IF true analysis wherein did one differ
rom the other? Tell me not with fine
spun theories and false sentimental
Sophistry, what Lincoln would have
lone for the south had he have lived .
tell YOU what he had already done
and that nothing he could have dome
would have atoned for and made right
he ruthless slaughter of enough south
ern men, whose skeletons placed one
upon the other would have made a
of human skulls and human