The Washington herald., 1912-04-21
Washinnton Author.

History" BY Hilary A. Herbert. LII d.
New York: Charles scribner's Sons
April. 1872
Here. IN small volume. Is new pres
entation Of the controversy between the
North and the South, told from South
ern point OF view. by one who from his
early service in the Confederate army
and sixteen years as a member Of Con-
kress and q term Of Secretary Of the
Navy in Cleveland's second administra-
ton has peculiar claims to discuss this
vexed question with candor and 4 fair
soutberners win. doubtless, agree
heartily with the writer in his assertion
that the school textbooks in history as
well as most Of the expanded histories
have been written from the Northern
viewpoint and do not fairly state, the
case for the South. Now that the coun-
try is happily reunited in q union which
all agree is indissoluble, the South wants
the true history OF the times here treat
ed Of spread before it's children-so does
the North" And It Is with this purpose
that the author sets out on the recital IN
narrative form of the great events, OF
the mistakes that were committed on
both sides-most of the events from
memory and intimate knowledge OF both
causes and events. but. withal. well sub
stantiated by the authority OF Northern
writer's particularly. All Of this In one
small volume and in simple, direct style
that makes the book suited for the use
of all whom It affects.
The four periods into which the times
under consideration naturally divide are
the snti-slavery crusade, 1881 TO 1850; se-
cession and four years Of war, 1851 to
1855; reconstruction under the Lincoln
johnson plan, with the overthrow by
Congress of that plan and the rule OF
the negro and the carpet-bagger. 1865 to
1876 and restoration Of self-government
in the South and the results that have
followed. The greater attention Is paid
10 the first period, or period OF causa-
ten, from 1Ss1 to 1850.
Threats of secession that came from
the Southern States just before the out
break OF the war, harsh and unwelcome
as they seemed to Northern ears at the
time, were no new sentiment in Ameri-
can hearts. Time and again in the earlier
days OF the Union were they uttered by
Northern States, and perhaps, oftenest
by Massachusetts among many Northern
States When. in I79s. the alien and sedi-
ton laws passed by the Federalists were
seen by the old Republicans to mean
nothing but a reaching out for uncon-
stitutiOnal powers, there came the Ken
lucky resolutions, and later, in 1914, the
Virginia resolutions as a protest, and
behind these stood Jefferson and Madi-
son, fathers and friends of the Constitu-
tion. And these resolutions. doubtless the
by no means the first limited at. As early
as 1874, Rufus King, of New York. and
Oliver Ellsworth made overtures looking
toward secession to John Taylor, though
this was not known for more than a hun
dred years later. 1t was. John Quincy
Adams, a Federalist, who privately in
formed President Jefferson, in February.
1909, that further attempts TO enforce the
embargo act in the New England States
would be likely 10 drive them to seces-
sion.
Before this, in 1903 and 1904, when
Louisiana was acquired, threats of the
dissolution of the Union and the estab-
hshment of Northern confederacy were
vigorously made. And when, in 1871,
Louisiana asked for admission to State
hood. it was Josiah Quincy. of Massa-
chusetts, in his place in Congress de-
clared shat States would separate from
the Union, ''amicably. II they can; yio-
lently, II they must" New England
statesmen met at Hartford, in 1874, to
consider secession If the nonintercourse
sct was not repealed. As late as 1874,
when Texas, a slave State, asked for
admission TO the Union. the Common
wealth Of Massachusetts declared that II
Texas were admitted such action may
tend to drive these (other) States into a
dissolution of the Union."7
This" declares the author, was Just
seventeen years before the Common
wealth of Massachusetts, began to arm
her sons to put down secession in the
South" This mass OF precedent, thor
oughly supported by competent histor-
ical authority and mostly derived from
the writings OF Northern historians, is
used only to clear the ground TO bind
the first period more closely to the
earlier days of the country, but to show
that the South was abundantIy JUSTIFIED
in believing that under previous con-
struction Of the Constitution by other
States in crises in their political lives,
the right of secession could be fairly
exercised by IL. The presentation of
this phase OF the question goes far to
REMOVE the opprobrium and contumely
that have been hesped upon the people
OF the South for their action and to
make equally clear the sense OF right
and Justice that has always been one
Of the most glorious things about the
conduct of men of the Confederacy, who,
though only FIVE and a half millions
against twenty millions. have been as
tenacio Is of the constitutionality of their
actio Fafter defeat as when it served
to = Now the lost cause" in the hearts
and minds of as brave men as the world
ever saw.
But what had happened in these sew
enteen years to cause the revulsion OF
feeling in the North and the about-face
on the question of secession by the peo-
pie of Massachusetts, and Of the North7
No Southerner, even in the light OF the
numerous threats that had emanated
from the people Of the North, may just
ly conclude that the people who took
up arms to preserve the Union ana pre-
vent secession, were not in 1861 honest
and sincere in their convictions that
under the Constitution such action was
treason Many things had contributed to
bring all this about in q very few years.
Among them were the success of the
nation in the war Of 1919, the Iluminat-
ing and masterful decisions Of the great
John Marshall, who translated the
terms Of the Constitution In new lights
to the people, but more than any other
one thing was the great argument Of
Webster in his Reply to Hayne," who
sought the fresh ground that the Con-
stitution was in reality a compact be-
tween the States, and bound each state
10 every other in indissolubIe union.
This argument with its rhetorical perora-
ton re-echoing in every schooInouse in
the land founded a new school of po-
ntical thought, the tenets OF which swept
in convincing tides over the land. The
Garisonians had for fourteen years been
agitating the slavery question and the
combination carried the old Bay State
far from its moorings in excitement
immigration, too. played a great part
IN molding anew the sentiment of the
North along lines OF cementing the