The Birmingham age-herald., 1912-08-23

We have seen the disingenuous ar gument of the radical leader of Con gress, Thadeus Stevens. addressed to Editor Drake of Union Springs, Ala, in the privacy of the latter's home in Pennsylvania, In the summer of this year, 1s67 Stevens held that the right of Congress to enact the acts of March 9 and the supplementary acts of March 23 and July 19, of that year, was found ed on the incident that Congress had acknowledged the Confederate states las a "belligerent" Therefore the
 identity of the state was lost. The "Belligerent" owned the whole undi- vided territory and all in 1t. The "Bel1igerent' had lost his battle. To the victor belonged the spells. The con- stitution is not in this question" said Stevens to Drake.
 How happened the United States to muster an army of millions of men and put them in the field without the declaration of war; The Congress at Washington never declared war and could not. The Congress sitting at Montgomery declared war, on May 4, 1881, against the United States. Several weeks prior to that date President Lincoln called for 75,000 volunteers to suppress instruction" in the souths Some 90 days after the call for the troops to suppress insurrection," Con- gress passed a resolution declaring they should be used for the one purpose only On different occasions, in the Ir,D lp reminded the southern states of this declaration of purpose made by Con- gross and appealed to the people of those states to lay down their arms on the strength of 1t. Nearly four years after the Congress passed the resolution, that Is, March, 1865, MT. Lincoln called Grant and Sherman to him on board steamboat at City Point, Va, and there instructed them, in effect, to accept the surrender of Lee and Johnston, respectively, reason- ably sure in the near future, on the exact terms of the resolution of Con gross of July, 1881, that limited the purpose of the army to suppression of instruction.
 MT. Stevens statement was mislead- ing, in that the government at Wash ington never acknowledged the Con- federate states as belligerent. Eng land and France, and Plus TX of Rome, acknowledged the southern government as a belligerent but on the contrary, the government at Washington stood aloof. From time to time, officers of the contending armies corresponded on various matters, chiefly as related to exchange of prisoners, and the gov ernment at Washington permitted this correspondence, but the international term, "belligerent" was never used by | the United States, in its technical meaning as applicable to the case of | the Confederate states government
 i The face of the parole of every Con- federate soldier recognizes him as a citizen of the state" to which he ob- 1 ligates himself to return. He must de- lposit his arms at the capital of his state;" he must pledge himself to obey the laws, then in force, of his state. The face of the parole reduces MT. Stevens argument to Drake to non sense. If as Stevens contended to Drake, the Confederacy was an ac- knowledged belligerent, how is Sheri- dan's march through the Valley of Virginia to be defended as war? How is Sherman's diabolioal laying waste of South Carolina, where none opposed him, to come under the claim of right in belligerent?
 We are considering in these columns the achievements of statecraft, developed by the people of Alabama in particular ny
 which, relying upon their own inherent
 virtue. they cireumvented and overcame
 the most cunningly and heartlessly con.
 trived methods of political. social and tn-
 dustrial degradation ever attempted ir
 the annals of time. It is therefore dus
 to the memory of our success that any
 excuse or argument then brought for. ward in viEdication of our oppressors
 should stand clearly outlined on ths surface of events. Alabamans did no
 shed drop of innocent blood, they sac rificed not a dollar of public property ts lift themselves out from and above tn.
 machinations of the government of tn,
 United States to perpetuate their fallei
 estate. By ceaseless counsel among themselves, by daily aid of the press, i, firmness and wisdom and matchless cour
 age they lifted the darknes from thei
 own and resumed their wonted ways Possibly there may survive those wh' would forget. Man is not here to forget