Macon beacon. [volume] (Macon, Miss.) 1859-1995, 1916-04-28

fttingly observed in Macon last
Wednesday under the auspices Of the
Daughters or the Confederacy.
General E. u. Cavett was master
ceremonies and made short address
the opening. Hon. T. B. Brame Of
fered up q prayer and invocation on
the meeting and Master Pierre Roberts
of the A. & M. College, grandson of
Gen. Cavett. delivered Henry W..
Grady's famous eulogy on the "New
South"
The principal address was made
by the Rev. E. Nash Brovles,
of the First Methodist church. His
speech was one Of the most
notable ever delivered in Noxubee
county and has been widely commented
on for its scholarship, breadth and true
sentiment. Space permits only brief
synopsis Of it.
Mr.. BRoYLEs' ADDRESS.
Its subject was "The United States:
Original State Sovereignty"
Necessity had a great deal to do
with the formation of our government
and has exercised q great, at times
commanding, influence on it's course.
The necessities of the old world directed
the expansion of the new. 1t forced
the Indian wars. It was necessity,
the necessity of presenting united
front against the great power of Great
Britain. that brought about the union
of the colonies, and the necessity occa.
stoned by that war and the difficulties
confronting our people at its close that
dictated that closer, firmer union that
was the United States, and our writ
ten constitution. The great Civil war
was a necessity; it was necessary for
the more perfect union into one great
nation rather than great confedera-
ton of states. Providence held the
guiding hand over our destinies, but as
when God told Moses to bid the chill
dren of Israel 60 forward, the urgency
of the chariots of Egypt behind them
reinforced the divine command, so the
necessities of our national existence
has urged US forward to the destiny
God wills for US. Not all our progress
have been due toaspiration. Necessity
has driven US a great way out of and
y,hrough o,lg wilderness cf trials to our
Iippresent promised land Of national great
ness and happiness.
Each of the original colonies pursued
more or less independent and selfish
course; each longed for complete inde-
pendence. But alone or separately
none could achieve independence even
of England. Mutual need of the
others help drove them to form a
federation and then the United States,
whereby each achieved independence
of the mother country, but surrendered
some of their sovereignty to the union.
The weakness of the original confeder-
alton at home and abroad caused the
union to be made closer and stronger,
but it was made no stronger than was
thought necessary. Every bit of power
was grudgingly granted the union. and
states rights zealously guarded. Each
state was a sovereign state with sov.
eign rights which they did not sur
render to the union. This was their
safeguard against federal aggrandize-
ment and constitutional distortion.
The word national" was stricken
out of Randolph's motion, to form a
government. The national idea was
repugnant to the twelve states repre-
sented. When the constitution was
submitted for ratification the main
fight against it was that it gave the
union too much power, and its main
defense was that it did not, but that
the rights of the states were fully safe
guarded. The right of state to secede
was never disputed then. The union
was nothing more than a compact.
Virginia expressly retained her right
to withdraw from it whenever she
pleased. New York and Rhode Island
made the recognition of this right a
condition of their ratification.
The right of state to secede was
repeatedly asserted. New England
was really the first to assert it. They
aullifed the Embargo acts, and in the
last years of Jefferson's administra-
ton took steps to join Canada. The
Hart ford Conventions records have
been care fully suppressed, but its well
known purpose was secession, and
there was as much treason" talked
there as in any secession convention in
the cos. Secession was not treason in
the early days of this republic. Nearly
every state had asserted the right,
but long after New England had made
the claim.
So when the South felt itself out
ragged by the conduct of the national
government and the illegal acts of the
northern states which violated the COM
pact between the states, we took no