Staunton spectator and vindicator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1896-1916, 1911-08-11

party that elected Abraham Lincol
was party avowedly hostile to tn
institution of slavery, and elected
man to the presidency who ais
avowed his hostility to the institu
ton of slavery, who had been know
to say that the Union could no
exist both slave and free, was bount
ultimately to become all slave or al
free, and who in the Cooper Unio1
address said that the anti-slaver,
sentiment had already caused more
than million votes, which could
have seemed to the Southern States
nothing more nor less than a danger
and menace. Consequently when
they drew the sword to defend the
doctrine of State rights and the in
stltution of slavery, they certainly
had on their side the Constitution and
laws of the land, for a strict inter-
| probation of the national Constitu-
tlon gave a certain justification to
the doctrine of State rights. AS to
the institution of slavery, even the
abOlltlOniStS had made the discovery
that the Constitution legalized it,
and consequently they denounced the
Constitution of the United States "a
league with death and a convenant
with helA' and maintained that no
moral or Christian man could find
or hold office under such an ac-
cursed government as ours, and gave
all their energies to proving that Sc
cession was the duty of the fellow
States.
Is it not perfectly evident that
there was great rebellion, but that
the rebels were the Northerners and
that those who defended the Con-
Stitution as it, was were the South
for they defended State rights
and slavery, which were distinctly
within the Constitution?
Origin of Civil War
so we can truly say that the
Underlying, efficient cause of orr
'1vll War was the compromises of
ne constitution, utterly irreconcil-
lbie principles existing there side by
lde, covered only by compromises
hat could in the end satisfy neither
'arty.
'Then came the great controversy
nat ended in the Missouri Com
fomlse. Into that entered also the
iement OF slavery when the free
tate denied the slave power any
art OF the Louisiana purchase, which l
as the purchase of the whole ma
on. The Shareholders rose I'D in
nger and asked why they, with their e
ecullar property, should be shut N
Ut from territory which had been
urchased by the whole nation. Hero
gain there was compromise. but d
ot a solution. t,
Lincoln was our Bismark, and p
ncoln's policy after the surrender u
Appomattox was conciliatory to- u
ard the South, and it was a deem g
lsfortune for the Southern people, II
for the whole nation, that he al
as removed by the hand of an in g
ne assassin just at the moment W
len he might have completed the d
eat work which he had Carried LII
rough such a period of national
'ess and storm to the point of in
solute victory. W
we can better understand the
tl-siavery agi alton in it's bearings If
the development of our national w
story when we remember that in III
formation of Colonization So
ty, of which Henry Clay was Presi- Ne
1t, the conscience of anti-slavery
n, both at the North and South.
Ind most effective opiate in the le!
;trlne OF gradual emancipation MI
q deportation of the slaves to
'ica. to
so as we look back upon the war W., w.
ought to have for us no sting or
but every angry thought
'uld be stilled in presence of a
at sorrow. On both sides were
OF the highest principle and the ~
'lest intention, giving themselves o"
IN heroic devotion and self-sacri-
lg bravery to what they thought pe'
true. H.
Sometimes the question is ask w,
Were not the slaves better off -'N'
er the slavery than they are now !,
er freedom?' l think a candid
Wer to that question demands us ''a
ay that some were better off un-
slavery than they are under free
|. The abolition of slavery acted
the colored race like a wedge
ing some down and some ND.
Sc who We're fit for freedom, pre- - -
ID to embrace and make the most "
he opportunities offered them as
men, rose. But some were not
Tor freedom. Now that is no
ction upon the colored race. We r
very large proportion of the Viii
e race that are not fit for free of IL
We have innumerable numbers here
en- and women that we are COM M
u 10 connne IN institutions and Nata
as wards of the State, or thew visit
'oy themselves and everybody M
OF
slavery was an unutterably evil here
tuition, with no alleviating fea- also
, how are we to account for the Keys
that when the Confederate SOL M,
were at the front fighting, as last
thought, for their independence. Mi
legroes on the plantations took city,
OF the women and children and sus.
eople, and nothing like an act of Ar
nee was ever known among Strib
? | have seen in Charleston, s. Alex;
monument erected by former Mrs.