The farmer and mechanic. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 18??-19??, 1911-09-05

coyery that the Constitution legalized
il. and consequently they
the constitution OF the united SlaelS
as a league with death and a cove
nant with hell n claimed that no
moral or Christian man could find or
hold office under such an accursed
as ours, and gave all their
energies to proving that secession was
the duty of the fellow States.
rs is not perfectly evident that
there was a great rebellion. but that
the rebels were the Northerners ana
that those Who defended the constitu-
ton as it was were the Southerners
for they defended State rights and
slavery, which were distinctly in
1renched within the constitution.
Origin of the Civil War.
so We can truly say that the I'M
DERIVING. efficient cause OF our Civil
War was the compromises of the con-
stitution, utterly irreconcilable prln-
ciples existing there side by side. COW
cred only by compromises that could
in the end satisfy neither party.
"Then came the great c~ontroversy
tina ended in the Missouri Compro-
mise. Into that entered also the ele-
ment of slavery when the free States
denied the slave power any part OF
the Louisiana purchase, which was the
purchase of the whole nation. The
SId 1oo up III oiSO 49,
asked why they, with their peculiar
property, should be shut out from the
territory which had been purchased
by the whole nation. Here again
there was a compromise, but not a
solution.
Lincoln was our Bismarck, and
LincOln's policy after the surrender at
Appomattox was conciliatory toward
the South, and it was a deep misfOr-
t,1pa for tho S011thorn nQOn1Q 2S for
the whole nation, that he was removed
by the hand of an insane assassin just
at the Oment when he might have
completed the great work which he
had carried through such a period OF
national stress and storm to the point
Of absolute victory.
w can better understand the anti
slavery agitation in it's bearings on
the development Of our national his
tory when we remember that the
formation Of the Colonization Society,
which Henry Clay was president. the
conscience of anti-slayery men. both
at the North anG South, found a most
effective opiate III the doctrine Of
gradual emancipation and deportation
Of the slaves to Africa.
$50 as we look back upon the war
it ought to have for us no sting or
bitterness, but every angry thought
should be stilled in the presence of a
great sorrow. On both sides were
men Of the highest principle and the
1oblest intention. giving themselves up
in heroic devotion and self-sacrificing
bravery to what they thought was
true.
Sometimes the question is asked:
Were not the slaves better off under
slavery than they are now under free
dom?' I think that a candid answer
to that question demands us to say
that some were better off under sla-
very than they are under freedom.
The abolition Of slavery acted on the
colored race like a wedge. forcing
some down and some up. Those who
were fit for freedom, prepared to en-
brace and make the most of the OPP
~portunities offered them as free men.
rose. But some were not fit for free
dom. Now that is no reflection upon
the cOlored race. We ave a very
large proportion Of the white race
that are not fit for freedom. We have
innumerable numbers Of men ana
women that we are comDelie1 to con-
fine in institutions and keep as wards
of the State or they destroy them
selves and everybody else.
If slavery was an unutteraDly evil
institution with no alleviating features,
how are we to account for the fact
that when the Confederate soldiers
were at the front fighting as they
thought for their Independence, the
negroes on the plantations took care
Of the women and children and cid
people. and not an act of violence was
ever shown among them? I have seen
in Charleston. S. c., a monument
erected by former shareholders and
their descendants in grateful acknowl-
edgment of the fidelity of these slaves
who remained upon the plantations
and cared for their women and chill
dren while they were at the ron and
l understand that he Confederate
veterans are also to erect another such
"Certainlv such kindly feeling be-
tween master and slave shows that
there must have been something good
in the institution of slavery. Certain
ly hat is the plain implication of
Uncle Toms Cabin for the very 10