The times dispatch. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1903-1914, 1913-03-23
BY HON. JOHN u. LONG,
In Christinn RcRisfnr.

! Guess is not history. though history
! is sometimes not much better than
guess. Reaching those secession days,
II have at times been Interested in
guessing whether the Southern Con-
| federacy would not have stood a bet
ter chance OF success by nonresistance
| than by fighting. You cannot make
much impression OIL "A bag OF feathers
! BY striking it. Could the North have
subducd the South if there had been
nothing TO strike and no resistance to
! overcome? Such arc our constitutional
! limitations that nonreSistance. para
doHical as may seem, would probab-
Z ~ have been irresistible.
Suppose that South Carolina had
made no attempt to secure Fort sum
ter: that all the United States forts.
arsenals and public buildings in the
South had been simply let alone: that
the Confederate union of the South
crn states had been organized as IL
was. its Confederate officials chosen.
Ipost-oflices and custom houses OF its
own csta blishcd and the United States
quietly told that il might run it's ma
chine and the Confederates would run
theirs. Under the Overwhelming pres
sure of local public sentiment every
| United States postmaster in the South,
every custom-h house official. every Fed
eral judge and marshal. as we'll as
scores Of army and navy officers,
would have resigned. II the United
States had attempted TO enforce Its au-
thoritN by legal process. no jury could
have been found to convict any South
ern man accused of an offense against
the laws Of the United States. Trials
would have had TO be in the vicinity;
that is, in the respective Southern
States. The South keeping the peace,
no sufficient ground for sending an
army into II would have existed, and
the suggestion of such action would
have run against what in that case
would have been tho very strong. and
probably controlling conservative opin-
ion OF the North. and would have
awakened sympathy and caused re-
action OF feeling. Horace Gfeeley's
advice that the separating sisters be
( let go would have had many and an in
creasing number of followers. The
Democratic party. instead OF being
almost entirely shifted from its pro-
slavery and Southern sympathies by
the firing on Sumter and by the mill
tary preparations OF the South, would
have continued shouting the old CON
sNtutonal argument of Calhoun.
/ lfayne and Jefferson Davis Military
leaders OF that party. like Generals But
Ter and Sickles and Logan. and all the
great mass OF citizens of whom they,
were typical also a large part of the
conservative Wing element. the whole
Tammany organization and many oil
the commercial interests which
were imperilled BY the prospec-
tive loss OF trade-all these would
have been reluctant, If not reso-
lutely refusing, to sanction the in
vasion of an unresisting State by a
Federal army. No Harvard or other
college student would have been fired
with patriotic ardor Concession to the
South or compromise with it would
probably have cnsued. or. if not that,
Greeley's complete acquiescence in its
separation would have stood a chance
to meterialize. And mastery mac
tivity or, in short. the being simply
( a bag of feathers. yielding If struck,
but at once resumins it's place unhurt
might have accomplished what four
years of bloody war. with it's final ut
ter impovcrishment. failed to effect
However. it must be admitted that
such q policy was practically impos-
sibc. II would have been as easy to
stop hurricane with a mosquito net
ting to stay that fiery outburst OF
the Southern spirit. |
AS one result of this later more lib
cral sentiment towards the South the
conflict is no longer regarded as so
much q rebellion as a civil war Will
not that be the final historic verdict?
The grim verdict of war has now final
lly and forever settled the constitu-
tional question, but in 1S6O-6l there
was very great weight in the South
ern view az stated by jefferson Davis
Admitting that notification was indie
fcnsible. he clearly distinguished il
from secession. which he claimed was
a states reserved right which had
never been surrendered to the Federal