The Nashville globe. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1906-193?, 1911-06-16

They simply mean to declare in
short, that in our nation there should
be a fair chance for every man to
develop the best that there is in
him, irrespective of race, color or
nationality. The idea was new and
untried, and if tried at all it must
of necessity be in new country. 1t
was an experiment; it was not any
thing that could be realized at once,
but must be the slow growth of
ages.
NORTH SHARED RESPONSIBILITY.
"This much must be conceded, that
the northern states were just as re-
sponsible for the existence of slavery
as were the southern states, and that
slavery ceased to exist in the north
ern states because it was for them
an economic failure. and it grew
strong in the southern states after
the invention of Eli Whitney's cot
ton gin, simply because it was enor-
mously profitable, and property and
slaves correspondingly valuable. As
a result, the two sections of the
country grew up on two utterly ir-
reconcilable and hopelessly antago-
nistic economic basis, that of slave
and free labor. sn
"The north, with free labor, was
in harmony with the most enlight-
ened intelligence of the age as to
slavery, and advanced rapidly toward
a conception of a national democra-
tic republic in which the individual
should be the unit, while the south,
holding to the institution of slavery
when it had become an anachronism,
and the whole enlightened intelll-
gence of the world was armed against
it, was put upon the defensive, shut up
within itself, and was as hopelessly
isolated from the rest of the world
as is China to-day.
"Now, as slaves we're property, ac-
cording to law, any attack upon this
form of property was an attack ind1-
rectly upon all forms of property and
an attack also upon the constitution
of the United States. In the minds,
therefore, of pious, cnurch-going, or
thodox Shareholders, and many such
there were, the abolitionists of the
north were looked upon as we to-day
regard the bomb-throwing anarchists
of Chicago or the most radical wine
of the socialist party, as the enemies ot
co1iety and the enemies of God anC
his holy word, the Bible, in which
the pious STAKEHOLDER of the south
found abundant authority for his be
, loved institution.
$50, along these two points, the
conflict ragged, and slavery, when i
was attacked, entrenched itself more
Q and more within the doctrine O.
l l states rights, so that at the last th'
.. two became identical, and to attacl
: one was to attack the other; to de
: fend one was to defend the other
Consequently, when it came to tn
/, outbreak of the civil war, many pa
: triotic southern men who cared Ill
: tie or nothing about slavery wer
!; stirred with the deepest indignation
= at the suggestion of the nationa
Il government subduing a sovereig
u state by force of arms, and said tina
. union that could only be held tC
!, gether by bayonets had better be di:
. solved, and for the principle OF stat
) rights and state sovereignty, tn
southern men fought with holy al
Z dor and self-denying patriotism ths
y have covered even defeat with impel
:, ishable glory
> "And let us look at the matte
% from the southern standpoint. tn
:. rarty that elected Abraham Lincol
:. was a party avowedly hostile to tn
/: institution of slavery, and elected
man to the presidency who ais
# avowed the hostility to tn
4 institution of slavery, and who ha
d been known to say that the Un1c
y could not exist both slave and fire
" was bound ultimately to become a
!" slave or all free, and who in h
n Cooper Union address said that ii
Ie anti-slavery sentiment had alreat
a. caused more than million vote
C which could have seemed to Il
O southern states nothing more or lie
70 than a danger and a menace. Co
in seduentlE when they drew the swo
,a to defend the doctrine of states rlgh
and the institution of slavery, tht
&C. certainly had ON their side the cons
or tuition and laws of the land, for
re strict Interpretation of the nation
ha constitution gave certain justitiC
tion to the doctrine of states righi
,d. AS to the institution of slavery, ev
the abolitionists had made the d
- coyerv that the constitution legaliz