Page:Southern Historical Society Papers volume 13.djvu/151

 148 selves—when on a bench near us we saw this by-play. The young man, blushing and trembling with embarrassment, was half rising to go forward. A coarse, sensual old man, known for his slavery to the bottle, sitting beside him, was pulling him down by the skirt of his coat, saying, with an oath, "Don't be a fool; sit still; you have got no niggers to fight for." The young man at last firmly pushing his hands away, rose and said, "I know that, but I have got to fight to keep the Yankees from making a nigger of me." He saw clearly what it seems our author has never seen. So all the way up, to the other extreme of the social scale, the Southern judgment was equally clear. General R. E. Lee saw the same thing, when he, the owner of hundreds of bondsmen, said he would cheerfully surrender every one to preserve peace, were that the real issue to be settled.

Let us endeavor, for the thousandth time, to make the real cause of Southern resistance clear to Mr. Cable. As soon as the North was sure of a numerical majority it had taken this determined ground—Southern States shall not have equal franchises in the federation, and the reason why they shall not is, that they are comparatively unworthy of them alongside of us. They shall not have equal franchises because they are debased by a sin.

Now could any one, except a predestined slave and born dolt, fail to see that acquiescence in such inequality on such a ground must mean despotism and slavery for us and our children? Would not oppression inevitably follow the contempt? We had but to listen to such satanic libels as Mr. Sumner's "Barbarism of Slavery," to know what such bonds of federation as that meant. But when the Southern States, applying the most moderate and the minimum means of defence possible in their case, calmly said: "Well, then, if we are unworthy to federate with you as equals, let us freely surrender the contested franchises and quietly retire, so as to save our liberty, if we must lose these rights." The imperious answer was, "No. Neither shall you be equals in the copartnership, nor shall you retire; you shall stay in as inferiors, to be vilified, slandered, and of course oppressed, and else we will murder you." Lives there a man in the North base enough to hold a pretended union on such terms? Mr. Cable knows there is none. That was the cause of Southern resistance. The issue might have been raised, had circumstances varied, about our right to our mules instead of our servants; for no Northern man's right to his live stock is more fully guaranteed than was ours to our servants by law, both Federal and State.