Year: 1879

How. FAR THE LATE SOUTHERN "REB-
ELS" WERE SINNERS. THE fact is that the
rebellion was not, with the great majority OF
the southern people, in any sense Of the word
sin. To have been volunteer in the
armies of the Confederacy, fighting against
the Union, is not proof ofmoral obliquity.
Multitudes of the intelligent men who were in
those armies were as upright, as conscientious,
as honorable as any of the men against whom
they fought. Neither were they many true
sense of the word traitors; on the contrary
they would have been traitors if they had not
been just where they were. :.


The prevalent political doctrine at the.
South before the war was the doctrine OF
State Sovereignty, as the prevalent doctrine
at the North was the doctrine Of Nationality.
There were believers in the national suprema-
cy at the North, but these were exceptions to
the general rule. The great majority of the
educated Southerners held the theory of
State Sovereignty. They regarded the Gov
ernment as only confederation Of sovereign
States, and they thought that each State had
the right to withdraw at pleasure from the
Confederation. The northern man thought
that his supreme allegiance was due to the
Government of the United States; the south
ern man gave in his allegiance to his own
State. The northern man, when he was in
Europe, called himself, an American; the
southern man called himself Virginian, or
South Carolinian, or a Georgian. This
was not merely the dictate Of local pride, it
was the language of the deepest political con-
viction. From their earliest yearsthe south.
erners of this generation had been taught this
doctrine, and they believed it just as heartily
as the northern people believe the opposite
doctrine Those of them who took the oath
to support the Constitution of the United
States took it understanding that the oath
was only binding while their States remained
in the Union and that when their States
withdrew from the Union they would no
longer be citizens of the United States.


Holding this political theory they came
to the question of secession. Some Of them
were in favor of secession. They thought
it would be both right and expedient. Some
of them were opposed to it, not because they
doubted that their States had the right
70 secede, but because they deemed it q fool
ish and injurious policy. But when by a
formal vote Of its Legislature his State had
seeded from the Union, the southern man
had no longer any doubt as to where his al
legiance was due. Stonewall jackson was
citizen of Virginia he was opposed to seces-
sion; but when Virginia had seeded, he was
still citizen of Virginia, and he was no
longer citizen of the United States; it was
to the Old Dominion that his supreme loyalty
was pledged, and when the Old Dominion
declared war against the United States and
called him into the field, it was loyalty and
not treachery that made him gird on the
sword and rush to her defense.


A great multitude of the people Of the
South-the educated people, the leaders of
opinion-were in the same case. They were
not, consciously, traitors to their country;
their country was their State; it was to this
that they had always been taught to pay their
highest allegiance; and they followed their
convictions, as brave men should.


If the northern man, who believed IN the
supremacy of the National Government, had
done the things that the southern man did,
the northern man would have been traitor /;
but he ought to remember that the southern
mans fundamental theories of the Govern.
ment were wholly unlike his own, and that
the southern mans acts must be judged by a
reference to the political principles which he
honestly held But for the doctrine Of State
Sovereignty, the war could not have occurred
That doctrine the war uprooted; 1t ls settled
now that this is nation, and not conteder-
alton, and the obligations of loyalty must
henceforth be understood in the northern and
not in the southern sense. But they were
not so understood at the South before the
war, and therefore the fact Of rebellion is not
a proof of moral depravity.-Sunday After
noon for August


THE HEIGHT AT WHICH BIRDS FLY.-It
is much to be desired that something positive
we're known as to the height at which it may
be possible for birds to perform their passages,
but on this point we have ESQ far as am aware)
little information. The experiments made
by Mr.. Glaisher on the six pigeons taken up
in his celebrated balloon ascent, September
9th, 1862, (Rep Brit. ASS, 1862, page $3.50,
unfortunately admit of no definite deductions.
One pigeon thrown out at the height of three
miles "extended his wings and dropped as a
piece of paper" A second at four miles
''Aew vigorously round and and round appa-
rently taking dip each time" A third be-
tween four and FIVE miles "fell downward as
stone" A fourth at four miles, in the de-
scent, "few in circle" and then alighted on
the balloon. The two remaining pigeons