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 84 Southern Historical Society Papers.

sovereignty, he was very far in advance of the consolidationists of our time."

The University of North Carolina, and every other institution in the State, devoted to the education of our youth, which receives the benefit of State endowment, should be required to teach those in their charge the theory of the Constitution which conceded the right of the States of the Union to withdraw therefrom for causes deemed sufficient by the State.

So that the term of reproach, " Rebel," now imputed to our peo- ple, would be shorn of that meaning which causes the average man a tremor of shame.

Happily, our people, as a rule, are not in a hurry to condemn the action of the South in their efforts to found a government more con- sonant with their rights than the government of the United States.

An occasional philosopher marks his disapproval by a declaration, " in forma pauperis" and complains that the movement was fore- doomed to failure.

A remark as applicable to any other weighty enterprise that ulti- mately fails, as to this one.

At what stage of the struggle, pray, was the autograph of failure written upon it?

Was the cause of the Colonies in their war with Britain more hopeful of success, at the outset, than our cause ?

Is the success or failure of movements, freighted with the fortunes, the hopes, the hearts of millions of Christian men and women, the infallible test of the right or wrong of them ?

Does nothing succeed but success?

Is the " odd man " God's only faithful servant ?

" We were more cheated than conquered into surrender."

Most forms of government have effect upon the moral and intel- lectual qualities of their citizens.

Certain broad declarations in our Constitution of the equality of all men are producing legitimate fruit in the United States.

The tendency of our government to centralize unduly the func- tions of the government at Washington is the tendency against which the full force of our war was aimed and delivered. That tendency grows greater with every year of our experience as a government.

When time and contemporaneous construction shall completely sanctify these tendencies, we will have all the elements of socialism in our midst.

Morelly's book, "The Code of Nature," appeared in 1755; you