STEPHEN Bo WEEKS 
 
 CLASS OF 1886; PH.D. THE JOHNS HOPKINS UNIVERSITY 
 
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 Speech of 
 
 Hon* S* A* Crump 
 
 of Macon, Ga* 
 
 Delivered at 
 the Reunion of the 
 North Carolina 
 Confederate Veterans 
 
 Greensboro, N« C, 
 
 August 20th, 
 
 1902. 
 
 AACON EVENING NEWS. 
 
SPEECH. 
 
 Commander and Confederate Veterans of North Carolina, 
 Ladies and Gentlemen : 
 
 It is an unusnal distinction to have one of my age accorded 
 the honor of appearing at your Annual Reunion, therefore it 
 affords me exceptional pleasure to unite with you in giving ex- 
 pression to those sentiments which have bound us together by 
 ties that enchained the hearts of our ancestors and their com- 
 patriots, and I hope it will serve to demonstrate to you that your 
 sons' sons have learned the lessons of history truly ; that we shall 
 teach our children, that they may transmit it to posterity to come, 
 that your many struggles for liberty have not been in vain. 
 Georgia and North Carolina have always been close together in 
 their domestic relations ; my home city, I think, the fairest in 
 the South, bears the name of one of your brilliant sons — Nathaniel 
 Macon. 
 
 When the first sweet tones of liberty rang out from oppressed 
 Mecklenberg the sound was welcomed by ' ' Cavalier and Round- 
 head ' ' alike, as it assured advancement to both circles and opened 
 to the colony a hope of independent government ; in which the 
 former heard the death-knell of tyranical oppression and petty 
 exactions, and in which the latter divined the sunshine of a social 
 revolution. 
 
 The chimes of liberty are always sweet, and then they trav- 
 eled upon the wings of the wind and smote the ear of the dull 
 Dutchman of the New Netherlands, as well as the quaint Quaker, 
 in their far away homes ; the praying Puritans of Plymouth Rock, 
 prayed another prayer and the oppressed Huguenots joined in 
 the benediction ■ " That we do hereby declare ourselves a free 
 and independent people ; are, and of right ought to be a sovereign 
 and self-governing association, under the control of no power, 
 other than that of our God, and the general government of the 
 Congress : to the maintenance of which independence we solemnly 
 pledged to each other our mutual co-operation, our lives, our for- 
 tunes and our most sacred honor. ' ' 
 
 The historian exults : The council set apart the first day of 
 August as the day for proclaiming the declaration at the court 
 house in Halifax. 
 
 <k 
 
 <e*V<,s4 
 
It was a proud day for the ancient borough. 
 
 " And Belgium's capital had gathered then, 
 Her beautj' and her chivalry," 
 
 — Wheeler's History of North Carolina. 
 
 Bright shone the glorious sun as if all nature rejoiced at the 
 birth of a mighty nation. The words of Cornelius Harnett rings 
 yet around the world and in the ears of millions of freemen ; re- 
 incarnated in the Declaration of Independence, the breathing 
 spirit of the Articles of Confederation and the Archkey of Con- 
 stitutional Liberty : and in its sublimity, as a beacon light, it has 
 wrapped its sacred vestments about the Queen of the Antilles and 
 cast its bright radiance^in the path of the liberty loving Beers of 
 South Africa. Of course the sun did not long continue to shed 
 its kindly rays upon this sacred nativity. It was the gauntlet of 
 war hurled at a proud Monarch of a proud and imperious nation, 
 whose arms had been victorious in [every contest, for centuries 
 past, upon land and sea. 
 
 This declaration was anticipated in consequence of the bloody 
 battle which had occurred between the British officers and the 
 Colonists in opposition to oppressive taxes ; and at this time the 
 Convention of the Colonies which formed the Declaration of In- 
 dependence was'in session. Thus North Carolina built the first 
 and proudest pillar in the sacred temple of liberty. You have 
 perpetuated the name and fame of " Old Guilford Court House," 
 by honoring the fairest and bravest soldier who came from an 
 Eastern Colony, in this beautiful city, and joining withlGeorgia 
 in materially rewarding his distinguished services and zeal. A 
 Quaker, and hated by the Puritans, his last resting place is en- 
 shrined in the hearts of the people of my State — Nathaniel Greene. 
 Though powerful as our government is today among the 
 nations ofthe earth, and great the promise of future grandeur, 
 history, nevertheless, cautions us by pointing to the fact that we 
 never have-been a nation, are not now, and never will be, as origi- 
 nating from a parent stock — a family of the world ! Our citizen- 
 ship sweeps the known races ofthe human family, including the 
 strong and the weak. Cycles of time, as measured by the scien- 
 ists, will be required to unify them into a nation ; and this fact 
 alone, more than any one factor, has produced the flood upon our 
 fortunes, and the drought upon our dreams of material happi- 
 ness. 
 
 Nature's law demand, and experience teaches, that the weak 
 must submit and the strong will dominate. The first efforts of 
 
 8* 
 
3 
 
 our patriot ancestors to harmonize these racial distinctions, con- 
 flicting views and diverse interests, as presented by the hete- 
 rogeneous peoples mingling to make our Republic, found an abor- 
 tive lodgment in the articles of Confederation. Seeking a com- 
 mon purpose, confronted by a common foe, and with the star of 
 liberty lighting their way, the Eastern colonies, through the 
 spirit of avarice and greed, which has ever characterized their 
 dealings with the South, set in motion that principle of govern- 
 mental robbery which abides with us unto this good hour. 
 
 Before the smoke of battle had cleared away and the result of 
 the colonial arms had been fully realized, Virginia ceded to the 
 Continental Congress all that part of her vast domain known as 
 the Northwestern Territory, lying northwest of the river Ohio, 
 south of the Great Lakes and east of the Mississippi ; the purpose 
 of this session was said to be voluntary to pay the war debts of all 
 colonies, subdivide it into States, and admit the States into the 
 Union ; but primarily, if you will read the history of the times, 
 to allay the apprehension and the fear of the Eastern colonies that 
 they would not get the " Lion's share " of the Seven Years Hunt 
 for Liberty. 
 
 You will readily recall that at that time the colonies had been 
 considered about equal in population and material wealth, except 
 the Southern colonies owned under various grants from the King, 
 immense areas of fertile plains and timbered valleys, stretching 
 from the 'Eastern seashore to the Father of Waters. The keen 
 sense of the avaricious sees every straw that floats in the breeze, 
 and they never overlooked the principles laid down by the Courts: 
 " According to the theory of the British Constitution, all vacant 
 lands are vested in the crown ; and the exclusive power to grant 
 them is admitted to reside in the crown, as a branch of the Royal 
 prerogative." 8 Wheat, 542. 
 
 At this time Virginia was called the " Mother of the Colonies," 
 and could be liberal, but Georgia and North Carolina, sisters only, 
 were nagged into similar voluntary sessions, like Jacob bought 
 Esau's birth right ! The public debt, foreign ard domestic, was 
 less than $60,000,000, so the Southern colonies paid into the 
 common treasury of this vast country, more than five times the 
 area of the Eastern colonies and worth ten times the public debt, 
 while the East contributed a pittance. This, and this alone, 
 would "insure domestic tranquility," and would have been a 
 "catch-bargain " if we had taken a receipt in full. 
 
 The Revolution was entirely political and the success of arms 
 
could only transfer from the King, the sovereignty he held to the 
 separate, distinct and several colonies, over the people and the 
 crown-lands. As the colonies grew into Republics the strain was 
 too great on the fragile timbers of the old Arc of Confederation, 
 she bilged on the Eastern side ; the pumps of patriotism failed to 
 save her as she drifted from her moorings into the muddy waters 
 of the Constitution. The labor and learning of the whole coun- 
 try were centered in fashioning another and a new ship of State, 
 with timbers from but few of the States, to be launched in mid- 
 summer upon w r aters that looked placid, blue and serene like the 
 bottomless sea that feeds in its deep bosom the monstrous forms 
 of leviathans! "The burnt child dreads the fire." The long 
 tenting upon the battle fields of the bloody Revolution had not 
 inspired confidence and faith in the soldiers of North Carolina to 
 put their trust in the dominant spirit of the East ; others had 
 their doubts and fears, but finally all the States surrendered in 
 concilliation, after assurances repeatedly made, that the words in 
 the Constitution meant what they expressed. 
 
 The preamble was catchy and boiling over with promises : 
 " We, the people of the United States, in order to form a more 
 perfect Union, establish justice, insure domestic tranquility, pro- 
 vide for the common defense, promote the general welfare and 
 secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity, do 
 ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of 
 America." The idea and plans were new, in fact, an anomaly 
 among the governments of the earth ! "A Union of States, sov- 
 ereign and independent within their own limits in their internal 
 and domestic concerns, and bound together as one people by a 
 general government, possessing certain enumerated and restricted 
 powers, delegated to it by the people of the several States." The 
 whole instrument was plainer than the promise to the children of 
 Israel. They have kept their faith four thousand years ! The 
 simplicity and innocence of childhood would have been appeased 
 by hearing it read. 
 
 This was the twelfth year of Independence. " Watchman, 
 what of the night?" 
 
 The munificence of Virginia was the bait which toled the 
 hidden monster from the deep. Slavery was prohibited in the 
 territory northwest of the river Ohio, in the act accepting the gift, 
 by the right under the Constitution, as contended by the North 
 in the principle asserted in the Missouri compromise. 
 
 In this great territory, like in many of the States, it was dis- 
 covered that negro slavery was unprofitable, and being unfit for 
 
mechanical industries, as well as the fact that the climate was too 
 severe for safe investment, slavery had drifted to the Southern 
 States. These reasons deflected public notice of the inhabitation.: 
 of slavery in the territory 'till many years later. During this 
 period, industries throughout all the States were nourishing, the 
 North was growing rich in manufactory, while the Southern 
 States were keeping pace with rice, cotton, sugar, tobacco and 
 all the cereals ; slaves were increasing in numbers and healthful 
 conditions. 
 
 It was the calm before the storm ! 
 
 The " Meddlesome Matties" of the North, with their insatia- 
 ble maws, could not tolerate the spirit of ease and dignity with 
 which the South contemplated and enjoyed the privileges of in- 
 dependence and affluence. 
 
 Importation of slaves had been prohibited by the South ; the 
 " Yankee Skipper " had lost his profit as well as his love for the 
 negro ; he was a social excrescence, was sold or driven away, de- 
 nied citizenship or even the right to testify in the courts. Some 
 of the States prohibited his coming " free or slave " by law, like 
 they do now in Illinois without law. The good people(?) of Con- 
 necticut passed stringent penal laws prohibiting any one from 
 teaching, boarding or harboring a negro in the State. The pre- 
 amble to these peculiar laws ran thus: "And whereas, the in- 
 crease in slaves in this State is injurious to the poor and incon- 
 venient." 
 
 The legislatures of the Northern States vied with each other 
 in nullifying the " fugitive slave law," in violation of the Consti- 
 tution and the decision of the courts ; one State made it a penalty 
 of $2,000.00 and five years imprisonment, for the owner to claim 
 by law a fugitive slave. 
 
 Despite the bickering and snarling, for many years imigration 
 flowed into our country. New territory was purchased, and 
 great wealth was accumulated. In 18 16, Congress passed the 
 " Robber Tariff Act " and no one complained ; in fact, Southern 
 statesmen favored the measure, as it would stimulate Northern 
 manufacturies. 
 
 "The Missouri Compromise" Act of Congress divided the 
 country on acute lines and exacted great conservatism from the 
 South to weather the storm of villification, abuse and down-right 
 lying which blew from the North with a chilly blast. Missouri was 
 admitted into the Union as a slave State, but the jarring thud 
 with which it was dumped into the new ship of State shifted the 
 
cargo. The act of admission prohibited slavery in all of the terri- 
 tory known as Louisiana, purchased from France, north of Mis- 
 souri, and of north parallel 36 30'. 
 
 Missouri was settled by Southern men and its ' ' internal con- 
 cerns " were shaped by Southern sentiment. This was in 1820. 
 
 Irritation and aggitation continued till these wedded evils gave 
 birth to all sorts of notions and ideas of civil rights ; " free soil ; " 
 1 ' individual sovereignty ; " " squatter sovereignty ; " " natural 
 sovereignty ; " and, in truth, all of the vagaries and theories dis- 
 ordered minds could conjure to evade the Constitution, so plainly 
 written and so well understood. Northern courts sneered at the 
 Constitution and enforced their laws without precedent, right or 
 justice. Usually passing judgment in accord with local opinion 
 or popular ideas surrounding the court. One striking peculiarity 
 about most of these decisions should be pointed out in order that 
 the insanity in them could be discerned. They proceeded on the 
 idea of the Constitution that, as each State was sovereign within 
 itself, and each, therefore, might regulate slavery within its own 
 borders irrespective of the rights of other coterminous States, be- 
 cause of their sovereignty, comity only, would control their con- 
 duct toward each other, and by parity (or paragon) of reasoning, 
 comity was regulated by treaties between foreign nations. They 
 were too blind to see the ' ' fugitive slave law " 7 in the Constitu- 
 tion, and too crazy to recognize the fact that the States had dele- 
 gated to Congress all treaty-making power. 8 
 
 The Southern people, in their dealings among themselves, 
 had for many generations learned to repose the utmost faith and 
 confidence in their fellowmen, and had every reason to believe 
 that the North would keep their covenants, but intolerance and 
 self-sufficiency, to put it mildly, had seized the Northern mind, 
 the tariff for revenue only had wriggled its slimy form into rob- 
 bery for protection of " infant industries" — which are now still 
 swinging to the ifudder ! 
 
 Avarice and envy were nursed into rage and frenzy ; 8a Love- 
 joy was killed by a mob in Illinois; slaves were incited "to 
 rise ; " the negro Turner and his followers murdered women and 
 children ;. nullification and secession were preached and practiced. 
 
 When the Kansas-Nebraska bill reached Congress, pandemo- 
 
 (7) Par. 2, Sec. 2, Art. II. 
 
 (8) Par. 1. Sec. 10, Art. I. 
 
 (8a) The Methodist Episcopal Church was divided in 1844. The Southern Church sued 
 the Northern Church and by decree in equity compelled a division of the Church prop- 
 erty. See 16 Howard, U. S., p, 288. 
 
nium broke loose; "Poor bleeding Kansas" was the seat of 
 war — " holy war " — waged by societies formed in the East for the 
 purpose. 
 
 Congress ' ' compromised ' ' the ' ' Missouri Compromise Act ' ' 
 of 1820 ; " John Brown's body went marching on " into Virginia 
 and into Purgatory — if there was, at that time, so pleasant a place. 
 
 The Supreme Court of the United States declared the ' ' Mis- 
 souri Compromise Act " unconstitutional and void ; holding that 
 Congress had no power to prohibit slavery in the territories. 9 This 
 decision tracked the plain words of the Constitution, and settled 
 many national questions ; it defined and limined the power of 
 Congress to wantonly violate the Constitution ; it settles the status 
 of the negro as to citizenship ; and limited the powers of Congress 
 to the grants contained in the Constitution. 
 
 The words of Chief Justice Taney are painfully prophetic of 
 some of our fresh troubles. Listen to his wisdom : ' ' There is 
 certainly no power given by the Constitution to the Federal Gov- 
 ernment to establish or maintain colonies bordering on the United 
 States or at a distance, to be ruled and governed at its own pleas- 
 ure ; nor to enlarge its territorial limits in any way, except by* 
 admission of new States." IO 
 
 This is known as the famous " Dred Scott Case. " It was 
 ably argued on both sides twice before the court. " The decision 
 flashed through the North and engendered the most bitter sec- 
 tional abuse ; their blind fury knew no bounds ; it was a sore dis- 
 appointment to the South haters ; they assailed the courts and 
 reviled the Constitution. Abolitionists asserted that the "Con- 
 stitution was a covenant with death and an agreement with 
 hell." I2 
 
 Nothing seemed possible to save the Union. The statesmen 
 from the South had so shaped the policy of the government to 
 maintain an equilibrum of power, and keep in check that ever- 
 lasting and growing spirit of destruction now loosening the dogs 
 of war ! ' ' How can the Union be saved ? There is but one way 
 by which it can be saved with any certainty ; and that is by a full 
 and final settlement, on the principles of justice, of all the ques- 
 tions at issue between the sections. The South asks for justice — 
 simple justice — and less she ought not to take. She has no com- 
 
 (9) Scott vs. Sanford, 60 U. S., 691. 
 
 (10) Scott vs. Sanford, 60 U. S. p. 718. 
 
 (11) Supreme Court of U. S. was composed of Chief Justice Taney (Md.), Associate 
 Justice Wayne (Ga.), Nelson (N. Y.), Catron (Tenn.), Daniel (Va.), Grier (Pa.), Camp- 
 bell (Ala.), McLean (O.), and Curtis (Mass.); last two dissenting. 
 
 (12) "Our Country," p. 289. 
 
promise to offer but the Constitution, no concession or surrender 
 to make." Mr. Calhoun answers his own question. " Can this 
 be done ? Yes, easily ! Not by the weaker party, for it can of it- 
 self do nothing — not even protect itself, but by the stronger. But 
 will the North agree to do this ? It is for her to answer this ques- 
 tion. But, I will say, she cannot refuse if she has half the love 
 of the Union which she professes to have. Nor without exposing 
 herself to the charge that her love of power and agrandisement is 
 far greater than her love of the Union. 
 
 The general elections were drawing nigh, and party spirit was 
 running high — it seemed a mania for disruption had seized all the 
 people. Four parties were in the national field ; Bell and Everett 
 lead the "Union party," and declared for the Union, adherence 
 to the Constitution and enforcement of the laws ; the Democratic 
 party had split in two, Douglas and Johnson led one wing, de- 
 claring for " Popular Sovereignty " in the territories, and deny- 
 ing the authority of Congress to interfere with the will of the 
 majorities. The other wing of the party had for its candidates 
 Breckenridge and L,ane, known as the "States Rights Party ; " 
 .the Republican party was led by Lincoln and Hamlin, and in its 
 platform joined issue with the other three parties ; the Conven- 
 tion which made this nomination was entirely sectional and 
 opposed every interest represented in the South. Lincoln was 
 elected. Every hope the South had that the Union could be saved 
 was gone forever. 
 
 The balance of power was shifted to the North and the revel 
 of fanatics began, encouraged by political success, their conduct 
 became unbearable. 
 
 To a proud and princely people, God fearing and chivalrous, 
 taught to respect the rights of their fellowman and defend their 
 own, mindful of the many wrongs and injuries wantonly inflicted 
 in the past, faith broken, hope destroyed, with a just fear for their 
 fortunes, their liberties and their lives, the South peaceably re- 
 sumed its delegated powers and withdrew from the Union. The 
 most lamentable war the world ever saw ensued. 
 
 The President lost his head, called for troops to coerce a State 
 in the name of the Constitution, terming peaceable secession " an 
 insurrection." He issued his proclamation commanding the 
 whole country to set apart a day for " Fasting, humiliation and 
 prayer." The preachers had their day. In the North they mis- 
 construed the sacred scriptures as they had our common Constitu- 
 tion. Some stood upon the hill-tops and reviled us like Shimei of 
 
old cursed King David ! A rabid preacher from Brooklyn said : 
 " In one and the same year, 1620, English ships landed the Puri- 
 tans in New England, and negro slaves in Virginia. * * * I 
 love every drop of Puritan blood the world ever saw." I3 Evi- 
 dently having in mind and memory the spirit of Cotton Mather, 
 one of the early graduates of Harvard College. 
 
 " September ye 15, 1682. 
 "To ye Aged and Beloved Mr. John Higginson : 
 
 ' ' There is now at sea a ship called the Welcome, which has 
 on board an hundred or more of the heritics and malignants called 
 Quakers, with W. Penn, who is the chief scamp, at the head of 
 them. The General Court had accordingly given secret orders to 
 Master Malichi Huscott, of the brig Porpoise, to waylay said 
 Welcome, slyly, as near the Cape of Cod as may be, and make 
 captive said Penn and his ungodly crew, so that the Lord may be 
 glorified and not mocked on the soil of this new country with the 
 heathen worship of these people. Much spoil can be made by 
 selling the whole lot to Barbadoes, where slaves fetch good prices 
 in rum and sugar and we shall not only do the Lord great service 
 by punishing the wicked, but we shall make good for his minis- 
 ters and people. Master Huscott feels hopeful, and I will set 
 down the news when the ship comes back. 
 
 ' ' Yours in ye bowels of Christ, 
 
 " Cotton Mather." h 
 
 This is a fair sample of the disease which afflicted the North. 
 Listen a moment at the tones of love coming from the South : 
 
 ' ' Strange as it may seem to those who are not familiar with 
 the system, slavery is a school of virtue, and no class of men have 
 furnished sublimer instances of heroic devotion than slaves in 
 their loyalty and love to their masters. We have seen them re- 
 joice at the cradle of the infant, and weep at the bier of the dead ; 
 and there are few amongst us, perhaps, who have not drawn their 
 nourishment from their generous breasts. I5 
 
 Listen further to the gallant spirit which had been spared so 
 long and has just now taken its flight : 
 
 ' ' That these slaves form parts of our households, even as our 
 children, and, that, too, through a relationship recognized and 
 sanctioned in the scriptures of God even as the other. Must I 
 
 (13) Beecher, Jan. 4, 1861. 
 
 (14) Judge burton's address before Georgia Bar Association, 1902. 
 T(i5) Rev. Dr. J. H. Thornwell's address, Nov. 21, i860, Columbia, S. C, 
 
pause to show how it has fashioned our modes of life, and deter- 
 mined all of our habits of thought and feeling and moulded the 
 very type of our civilization." l6 
 
 Slavery is older than civilization, even that sort hurled at us 
 from the North ! It originated in early history by accident of 
 capture in war — benevolent savages found it more profitable to 
 enslave their captives than to murder them. All ancient orien- 
 tal nations, of whom we have record, including the jews, had 
 their slaves. The Hebraic laws authorized it. I7 
 
 In the Homeric Poems it is related as the ordinary destiny of 
 war. Ullyses narrawly escaped kid-napping and consequent ser- 
 vitude. Aristotle defended slavery on the ground of diversity of 
 races, dividing mankind into the Free and Slave by nature. 
 Roman slavery preveiled long after the great empire had fallen to 
 pieces. We take the word ' ' slave ' ' from the large number of 
 Slavonian captives at Rome. 
 
 It is not my purpose to discuss the barbarity of this new 
 struggle for liberty, nor essay to paint a glowing tribute to the 
 heroes and men who repelled this tyrrany with the life-blood of 
 the most gallant soldiery human history ever transmitted and 
 sacrificed a treasury of money unequaled in the annals of war. 
 To undertake this would be like walking into a vast flower gar- 
 den to garner a bouquet from the rarest and choicest of God's 
 creation. On every field of battle their matchless gallantry and 
 daring bravery carried aloft their flag to victory. But let it be 
 said of the Southern soldier of rank or file : ' ' Wherever he was, 
 liberty abided, faith was made more enduring, courage was ex- 
 alted, and devotion to friend and country immortalized. If flowers 
 could spring from his deeds of virtue, of sacrificial allegiance to 
 the highest forms of human duty, and bloom upon his grave, his 
 last resting place would present a gem to earth, to consecrate it 
 with its best possession, a body of a brave man ! " 
 
 The reign of terror began despite the prayers and supplica- 
 tions of the people. The love of conquest, subjection and plunder 
 had to be assuaged. 
 
 The effort of resistence was spontaneous ! the most wonderful 
 government on earth was conceived in a day, and the grandest 
 army that ever bore arms was born in a night. 
 
 With about 6oo,coo men, all told, without arms or ordinance, 
 without commissary or quartermaster, blockaded by sea and 
 
 (16) Address of Dr. D. B. Palmer, New Orleans, Nov. 29, i860. 
 
 (17) 25th Chap. l,eviticus, 44-46. 
 
walled in on land by a force of about 3,300,000 of the best armed, 
 best equipped and best drilled soldiers money and power could 
 command, you killed and wounded more than three times as many 
 of your enemies as you had enlisted men on your rolls ! 
 My distinguished preacher friend and patriot has sung : 
 
 " And while we do not brag nor boast of how our comrades 
 
 fought, 
 The pension rolls you know full well the facts of this have 
 
 taught ; 
 And if these pension rolls be true, and none have said 
 
 they lied, 
 We must have crippled all the world and half the coons 
 
 besides." l8 
 
 Either this Reverend Confederate veteran is right or else the 
 other poet is correct, who said : 
 
 " Death gets them all, both great and small, 
 Except the pensioned soldier. 
 They never die, but multiply, 
 As fast as they grow older ! ' ' 
 
 But I digress. 
 
 The Southern States resumed " their separate independence," 
 that is to say, each separate State, by its delegates in Convention, 
 prepared and submitted to the votes of the people the ' ' Ordi- 
 nances," "resuming," and "reclaiming" the powers of sov- 
 ereignty delegated to the General Government and known as the 
 Constitution of the United States. 
 
 They were called " Secession Ordinances." A celebrated son 
 of your State drafted the Ordinance of Georgia. x 9 Another illus- 
 trious descendent of your State presented that ordinance to your 
 General Assembly in session at Raleigh. 20 
 
 The right of a State to resume its sovereignty at its pleasure 
 was never doubted by the framers of the Constitution, in fact, it 
 was the cardinal inducement which formed the Union. For three 
 quarters of a century no sensible man dared to declare openly the 
 contrary of this proposition. As early as 1803 Massachusetts se- 
 ceded ; again on the admission of the State of Louisiana in 181 1 ; 
 and again on the annexation of Texas in 1845. 
 
 The " Secret Hartford Convention" was held by delegates 
 from the legislatures of Massachusetts, Rhode Island, New Hamp- 
 shire and Vermont, for the purpose of seceding from the Union. 
 
 (18) Rev. J. B. K. Smith, of the Tombigbee Rangers. 
 
 (19) Eugenius A. Nisbet, See Georgia Journal, 1861. 
 
 (20) Samuel Hall, Esq., Georgia Journal, p. 248. 
 
Maine was not born then, and everybody wondered what had be- 
 come of ' ' Blue Connecticut, ' ' as she had no representative pres- 
 ent. 
 
 The real spirit of that time is shown in the following question : 
 " I will not yet despair ! I will rather anticipate a New Con- 
 federacy, exempt from the corrupt and corrupting influence and 
 oppression of the aristocratic Democrats of the South. Then will 
 be (and our children, at farthest, will see it) a separation." 2I 
 
 The last instance of secession was West Virginia. The Vir- 
 ginia Convention was in session when the call for troops was made 
 by the President of the United States ; the Ordinance of Secession 
 was passed and carried by a large majority of the votes of the 
 State. Some of the northwestern counties 22 of the State held a 
 Convention, carved a State out of Virginia, in violation of the 
 Constitution, 23 and was admitted into the Union by Act of Con- 
 gress 24 and approved by the President. This part of Virginia 
 was thoroughly Puritanized. So its acts of "insurrection" 
 "revolution" and "secession" were pardoned, and, therefore, 
 with all its faults, it was welcomed into the fold. " A bastard 
 child of a political rape ! " 24a 
 
 This is not a moiety of the iniquity perpetrated in the name 
 of the Union Government. Various States were subjugated, 
 military governments established, their laws repealed, their con- 
 stitutions changed, and amendments to the Constitution of the 
 United States adopted ; all at the point of the bayonet. 
 
 But my, when the camp followers found us out, "carpet- 
 baggers," "bitter-weed," "itch," "nut-grass," "wooden-nut- 
 megs," "poplar-hams," and all the parent evils swarmed over 
 the once beautiful Southland like locusts of old ; they found a 
 congenial welcome in the arms of the " scallawags," "buck 
 negroes," and " Yankee soldiers " stationed in every county with 
 " Freedman's Bureau," "forty acres of land and a mule," all 
 intended to outrage common decency ! "The demon which 
 erected it upon the guillotine in the days of Robespierre and 
 Marat, which abolished the Sabbath and worshiped reason in the 
 person of a harlot, yet survives to work other horrors, of which 
 those of French Revolution are but the type." 
 
 (21) Rise and Fall of the Confederate Government, Vol. I., Chap. 9, quoting Timothy 
 Pickering. 
 
 (22) Rise and Fall of the Confederate Government, Vol. I., Chap. 9. 
 
 (23) Constitution U. S., Art. IV., Sec. 2. 
 
 (24) Rise and fall of the Confederate Government, Vol. II., Chap. 38. 
 (24a) Henry M. Wise. 
 
13 
 
 The suffering, misery, ruin and devastation wrought by this 
 high carnival of crime, finds its parallel in the history of the rev- 
 elry of a Caligula or a Nero. 
 
 As I said, the civil government as established by the people, 
 was set aside and a military oligarchy was set up, with the Presi- 
 dent at the head aided by his cabinet ; the writ of habeas corpus 
 was suspended and trial by jury abolished, and these things were 
 done under the plea of " necessity," but, in fact, was in keeping 
 with the whole idea of stealing and robbing the primary end and 
 purpose of waging war ! The confiscation acts would have been 
 inoperative under the organic law and the laws of nations, and 
 their plans for plunder averted. They had in view the seizure of 
 five thousand millions of dollars of private property and the libra- 
 tion of all slaves ; to accomplish all this they were forced to as- 
 sert the barbaric principle that " might was right." 25 
 
 The head of Mammon would not down ; the wealth of the 
 Southern people must be secured. They were satiated by the 
 wealth robbed from us by the war, but they were not satisfied. 
 Under the military government the infamous reconstruction 
 government was put in power ; and the incubus of public debts 
 of the States are yet hanging over us like an appalling cloud to 
 dwarf our few industries ; while in the North the privileged classes 
 were in partnership with the government, using its wealth and 
 power for private gain. 
 
 Men, from childhood, have grown gray since the Confederate 
 arms were stacked at Appomatox and upon this historical spot. 
 Will the avenging Nemesis pursue us forever ? 
 
 Like Dr. Durham, when he left Hambright for Boston, if you 
 will make the journey, you will be impressed with the reason for 
 his great surprise at the great wealth, and lavish expenditure of 
 money in contrast between the South, in a great measure wrung 
 from us by unequal taxes, railroad partnerships, Star-route rob- 
 berries, the great combination of wealth, trusts and pools, the 
 natural sequence of lust and power. 
 
 This is but a part of the simple story of the times through 
 which you have passed, exhibiting to the world that fortitude 
 under adversity which has preserved to you the principles estab- 
 lished by your fathers, and which places you foremost in the eyes 
 of all mankind, as the purest type of the Anglo-Saxon race. 
 
 You feel justly proud of your good name, sung in song and 
 
 (25) Rise and Fall of the Confederate Government, Chap. 25. 
 
14 
 
 story ; " The typical American Democracy ;." you gave the first 
 blood for Independence ; you were first at Bethel and last at 
 Appomattox, You " sent more boys to the front than any other 
 State in the Confederacy — and left more dead on the field." 26 
 "God bless North Carolina ! " 
 
 (26) The Leopard's Spots. 
 
UNIVERSITY OF N.C. AT CHAPEL HILL 
 
 00032757892 
 
 FOR USE ONLY IN 
 THE NORTH CAROLINA COLLECTION