Year: 1878

we nave been truly surprised 10 uou
in the Mobile Register an article such as
that in one of it's recent iseues on the sub
ject Of Mr.. Davis speech. It takes water
quite bumbly and unmistakably. First it
adverts to the fact that:


Alabama, through . convention elee I'd by
Democrats, recently incorporated in her State
Constit ton . provision that there can be NO
seoe ssion of . State from the Union.


On which subject two remarks present
themselves,-tbe one. that Alabama can
hardly make Constitution for any other
State than heree.f; the other that, If this
passage is merely . construction of the
Constitution of the United States, there
seems to have been some radical change OF
views in that locality since the year 1861.
The question then was ident tically the same
as the question is now. The Constitution
of the United States is precisely the same
now that it was then on the subject of
secession, and if Alabama was right then
she is wrong now. If she was wrong then
what arguments have convinced her of it
Did her sight become clearer amid the
smoke of battlef Were her reasoning
faculties sharpened by casting away the
intellectual pursuits of peace aud devoting
herself, as she did most gallantly, to the
utter materialism of war; The question
was entirely one of logical accuracy and
skill, and no light could be thrown on it
by the results of armed strife. The
decision of the sword, though binding on
the will, cannot be supposed TO satisfy the
reason, and we, therefore, give up, as an
enigma, the problem presented by the Ala
bama Constitution, according to the evil
dence of the Register.


But the Register evidently does not hold
itself responsible for the new Alabama
Constitution. 1t says it would be "non-
sense to say that the principles of the
Constitution have been changed by the
late war. Nothing has been changed
except the feasibility and propriety Of
secession as a remedy" So far, SO good !:
but We do not admire the extreme to which
our cotemporary carries it's idea of unfeasi-
bility. Hear it:


There is not one ex treme man of the thou
sands believing in the Stats rights theory,
who would advocats its being put into prsc.
tice, except under those dreadful burdens of
oppressive government which in the course OF
cen aries make all secessions or revolu tons q
duty.


Such an estimate of secession makes 1t
| identical with revolution, which would be q
total misconception CT the idea. 1t requires
no such fearful extreme of oppression and
suffering as would justify revolution, to
justify the exercise of the right of seces
sion. 1t requires nothing but the will anG
the opportunity. The right itself is abso
lutte, and any people who have it can exer
else it, if they choose, whenever they have
the power go to do. Can the Register fo
o moment hesitate to befieve that th'
Southern people would secede again to
morrow, if they waited TO do it and hat
the power to make it good7 The logic o
one war would soon be replied to by tn
logic of another war if coercion were at
tempted, and no one-not even our goo'
friends of the Register, we are convinced
would wait for "dreadful burdens"


In fact We think that the Register itsel
covertly believes the came thing, for it says


What Mr.. Davis meant to say, wss thtt a
that portion of the Southern people who ono
believed in tho right of secession believe in /
still. So far he was light. Men cannot chang
their belief as they do their coats. But it woul
| have been well for bln, Tor Gne Sou5np ana 10
the whole country had he expressly proclaime
that Q majority of the voting population of ta
right Sou tn do net believe in the of secession


Isn't there little bit of buncombe i
this 7 All who believed in it etill believ


in it, yet majority of the voting popula


ton do not believe in it Where does th


majority come from then You mean th


'niggers," you sly fellow; and why not 30


it right out The negroes don't believ


in secession and the whites do. That's i
eh 7 Well, that's about right, except as
3 the negroes. We have grave doubts tina


there is any appreciable percentage of mel
white or black, North or South, who hay
good common sense, and who do not b.
lieve in the absolute right of State sece
sion.


But the part of the article with whiC
we must take irreconcilable issue is this
Altar all The aneech of Mr. DAyia vaa air