The times dispatch. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1903-1914, 1913-03-23
HOW THE SOUTH
NIGHT HAVE WON

| government by an express delegation
OF power There is little doubt that
in the earlier days of the government
IL was the accepted opinion that the
Federal government. had no power TO
coerce 4 State, and that each original
state had a sovereign right to with.
/ draw from the Union. That thorough
going Federalist. Timothy Pickering
and George Cabot and Josiah Quincy
arguing in Congress against the adj
mission of Louisiana, recognized the
right of Acknowledgement. Even Alex
ander Hamilton. the great centraliza :
( ZIONIST. SAID that Ito coerce a State is
one OF the maddest projects ever de-
vised. The Hartford convention o.!
New Engiandcrs in 1914 evidently had
no doubt of it's own justification II its
proceedings should result in the dis
mcmbcrment OF the Union. II Is not
improbable that at that date the SUI
preme Court of the United States would
have recognized the Federal Constitu
tion $ a compact, as Massachusetts did
in express terms when ratifying its
rdoption, and would have strictly con-
strued the constitutional provision that
lall powers not expressly delegated TO
the Federal government are reserved
TO the States, and would have held
that, as no power is expressly so dele
| gated to coerce State 70 remain In
(. the Union, no such power exists. Had
( one of the members of the Hartford
convention been arrested for trea son.
/ is there any doubt that he would have
been acquitted. and that, If he had been
defended by the godlike Daniel, the
latter would have made as convincing
constitutional argument for his
client as some fifteen years later he
made against notification IN his
epochal and unansweraale reply to
Hayne: Notification was OF course
i very different thing from secession
which is practically only another name
for revolution. And the right OF revo.
luton and of taking the chances OF
Deing hanged for treason, if it turns
out unsuccessful, neither Webster nor
anybody else denied, to say nothing
of Caihoun's argument, that il was a
reserved State RICH; under the Consti-
tuition. If these early constitutional
views were then correct. rebellion is
hardly the term TO apply To a with
drawal from the Union. No wonder
that that amiable old public function
AIRY. James Buchanan, was bewildcred
Was the war. therefore. not JUSTIFIED?
Was the splendid outpourinG by the
North OF its blood and treasure not JUS
titled: By no means Whether or not
II was rebellion, it was war--a war
precipitated by the South. Had the
south been content with the policy of
mastery inactivity to which have re-
II better chance OF success; but. when
it went further and fred it's guns on
Sumter and the national troops in il,
sought TO prevent the movement of
United States vessels TO carry them
relief. and took possession of United
States property, the South gave tho
same cause for war that any foreign
nation would have given by the same
! course of action. Many an interna-
tional war has started from sliGhtcr
I causes. II needed only this spark to
set the whole North ahre. The South,
in its desperation, had struck us on
the check, and we turned not the 9th
er, but struck back. Then ii became
it pleased the South 10 consider il so.
though on that theory OF its own. the
exercise by Lincoln of war powers. his
emancipation proclamation. and Sum
Il ner'S theory of treating the defeated
! Confederate States as conquered terri
tory. become more easy of defense.
But il was war which. in fact, what
ever the theory, the North at once
recognized as war for union, free
dom and human riEhts--war of which
Mrs. Howe's verses We're the battle
hymn. and then came that melting of
all the old parties into patriotic blend
as far as the national integrity was
at stake. Then came that outpour-
ing Of the blood and treasure of the
North, that glow of patriotism which
swept like a flame over the whole
land. that chivalrous giving OF youth
and life itself TO holy cause.
From paper read by the eX-Gov-
ernor al "A recent meeting of the Mas
sachusetts Historical Society