The herald and news. [volume] (Newberry S.C.) 1903-1937, 1915-05-14

tells the greatness Of the reasons ioT
it's existence. No people has ever
memorialized its heroes unless GER
tain conditions existed. No man has
ever been memorialized unless he has
rendered some signal service in the
freedom of mankind from some form
of slavery-political religious or i-u-
man. No army has ever been memo
rialized unless that army fought for
more than material gain or selfish
glory. There must have been great
cause. There must have been great
army fighting for t3at cause under
great Leadership and for the love Of a
great people.
Can we of the South justify our
Memorial day, When called upon to
meet the requiremnts Of history? Was
our cause a great cause? That it was
a righteous cause can be maintained
and proven by logic and argument.
The right of State to withdraw from
a union which that State had volun-
tarily entered can never be refuted by
the arguments of right and it never
has been denied by others than the
apostles of might. If other States OF
the union had tie right to force Soutn
Carolina back into union Of unde-
sirable States in 1861, why, l ask you,
did not South Carolina have the right
in 1871 to force the other twelve orig
inal colonies into union of indis-
soluble States? Was that right ever
suggested or even thought Of? Did
not all sections of the country then
acknowledge that each State had the
right to enter the union or remain a
separate State? And was the union
ever intended to be one that could
never be severed. The only reason for
it's existence was tie weakness Of its
integral parts and that reason Of
weakness did not exist in 1861. Many
men have given this subject attention
and much has been written and said
upon sides Of the proposition, but l
have yet to see a single enemy of the
South's position give any reasonable
excuse for his denial of the rig-t to
secede.
I am an American citizen and I am
proud of it. l glory in the greatness
and the good of my country. The
question of secession has been settled
by this country in four bitter years
of war, but as long as God gives me
tae powers of reason I will always be-
lieve that the settlement Of tlis ques-
ton was wrong and that might tri-
umpned over right.
But some contend that the Southern
cause was based upon human slavery
and was, therefore, wrong. Human
slavery was wrong. 1t (2ad been wrong
from the beginning of time and will
be wrong until the end of eternity, but
I deny that the South's fight was a
fight to perpetuate slavery. The post
ponement of this argument is given
the lie in tie outset by tie fact that
less than % per cent. of those who
fought for the Southern cause were
interested in slaves or owned them.
The vast majority were inspired by no
such lowly motive as tie merceilai-gy
retention of human cbattels.
For the justification of those who
fought under the Southern cross,
appeal to higher sources tlan either
a constitution or the greed of men. I
appeal to the conscience of a people
who acted with no thought but to do
the right as the right appeared I
might defend that cause from the
pages O1 q SOuStIlut4Ou NjuICu WcSS
written in protest against the rule OF
force and which had as its foundation
stone the principle that the one essen
tial element of government was the
consent of the governed, but I believe
that higher justification exists than
any to be found in codes or articles
of construction.
No great revolution needs to explain
or justify itself. TIE rise of whole
people is a fact which furnishes the
best evidence Of its right to existence.
A gust Of passion may make Of a
crowd a mob, and a mob may create
a temporary insurrection against a
wrong, real or fancied. But when an
entire people are aroused to the point
Of revolution there must be a great
cause. When an entire people defend
their homes with desperation and de-
Votion, when they endure poverty and