The Ocala banner. (Ocala, Marion County, Fla.) 1883-194?, 1911-03-10
Staunton, Va, Feb. u. 1911.

IN the issue of your magazine of
February 9th, 1911, there appears an
article, "A Semi-Centennial View of
Secession, by E. nj. Banks. who. a
short biographical sketch heading his
article states, is a native of Georgia,
and at present professor of history
and economies in the Florida Uniyer-
sity.
The position held by Mr.. Banks in a
southern university gives this article
a significance that its intrinsic merits
do not command. In fact, if Mr.. Banks
We're not occupying the position that
he does, | doubt very much if his ar
ticle would have appeared in the In
dependent.
It is not my intention to go into an
argument in defense of secession. AS
every tolerably well informed man
knows, there were two questions in
volved in that movement, viz:
1. Did the southern states have the
OtSAOA6A AA6nI " oCCCuG.
2. Was the secession such as to
justify the exercise of this right?
That the southern states did have
the sovereign right to secede, and that
they did not act without occasion nor
isproportionately to the occasion has
been established beyond the power of
reputation. Mr.. Banks assumes in his
article to write from broad philo-
sophical point of view. The whole ar
ticle, however, shows that he totally
misapprehends the spirit of the gov
eminent under which he lives, and
that he mistakes retrogression for
progress in the science of government
The tone of his entire article is that
success is the criterion of right Mr.
Banks asserts that most intelligent
southerners would now concede that
for our country a Confederacy with
the recognized right of secession is
not the best form of government" All
intelligent southerners would now in
sist that the constitution of the Unit
ed States, the bond of union, is COM
pact between sovereign states, and
that cit is an established doctrine on
the subject of treaties (compactsl
that all articles are mutual conditions
of each other that breach of any
one article is a breach of the whole
treaty (compact) and that a breach
committed by either of the parties alb.
solves the others and authorizes them
if they please, to pronounce the treaty
(compact) null and void" and that
those great men, who framed and rat
flied the constitution of the United
States, after long and earnest debate,
determined that this constitution
compact between sovereign states
established the best form of govern
ment. All of the twaddle, in this ar-
ticle, about the spirit of national
ism" and the interpreting Influences"
only demonstrates that Mr.. Banks
neither understands nor appreciates
the difference between written or
rigid constitution and an unwritten or
flexible constitution, and that the con-
titution of the United States it a writ
ten or rigid constitution, that it pre-
scribes the manner in which it car:
be changed or amended, and that any
effort to amend or change that instru-
ment in accordance with spirit of
nationalism" or "integrating influence"
or in any other manner than that pre-
scribed by the constitution itself is a
fragrant breech of the contract and is
"odious treason"
Mr.. Banks contention that it was
as much the function of the states
men of 1860 to interpret the nature of
our union in the light of what it ought
to be, as it was the duty of our fathers
in 1887 to act in harmony with the de-
mands of the day" is simply another
way of promulgating the Rooseveltian
doctrine that the powers of the feder-
al government should be ENLARGED and
not by the slow and diff
cult method of amendment, as pre-
scribed by the constitution, but by
legislation and executive acts and by
judicial construction. In other words,
this professor of history and econom-
les in the principal institution of learn
ing in the state of Florida advocates
and violation of the oath re-
CURED of all public officials to pre-
serve, protect and defend the constitu-
ton The southern statesmen of 1860
had higher conception of their moral
and constitutional obligations.
Mr.. Banks assertion that slavery
was "legalized and regulated by TIE
state governments and not by the
national (federal) government" leads
one to believe that this professor Of
history and economics government
and constitution as Interchangeable