Page:Southern Historical Society Papers volume 18.djvu/427

 Major J. Scheibert on Confederate History. 427

country such men as General R. E. Lee men of the highest honor, who, though with heavy heart, but followed the lead of their mother State.

" If for clearer statement of the argument the German Empire is cited as an illustration, it must yet be expressly observed that the several States of the Union had much more right to withdraw from the common alliance than the members of the German Empire will ever have; for the latter are united with their free will, without reser- vation, and in loyal agreement of their lawful princes and their States. The United States, however, were founded not only as the result of a revolution, but they have solemnly and for all time sanc- tioned revolution as the basis of their State structure, as witness the Declaration of Independence. Language could not be clearer in pointing the way for the guidance of American citizens dissatisfied with their government ; so clearly is it prescribed that there can be no doubt of a moral justification of such a step for the citizens; and, if these have the power and majority in their several States, there is an equal moral right in the States to change a government whose misdeeds and usurpations, in their opinion, threaten them with despotism. * * *

"At most the question to be decided is, whether the dissatisfactions were light and transient, or whether the usurpations were intolerable. The Southern States believed the latter to be the case. We may not here anticipate the judgment of later and impartial history, but we must distinctly maintain, in accordance with the clear tenor of the Declaration of Independence, that even if the uneasiness were incon- siderable, the States have at most acted unwisely, but in no case as traitors or rebels. * * * * With the question as to the origin of the war, the enemies of the South have mingled another the slavery question which strictly does not belong to it. This slavery question was inscribed on the banners of the war, when it was seen that thereby could be enlisted on the side of the North the sympa- thies of the old world, and of a great part of their own inhabitants, especially of the German immigrants. This question could never legally be the cause of the war, for the Constitution expressly says that the question of slavery should be regulated by the State legisla- tures. * * * * At the time of the founding of the Union, eleven ot the thirteen States were slave-holding, and it is a remarkable fact that it then occurred to no writer nor humanitarian in America or Europe even to think that this ownership (of slaves) was a wrong or a crime. It is enough to say that the institution was accepted not only