Page:Southern Historical Society Papers volume 26.djvu/339

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" DI-.MI.I K.\ is ON. i M.IK i io i UK HKKACH! (i>\md I\iilly dt HnshnclL l-~rida\\ November jth, 1864.

Hon. L. W. Ross, Major S. P. Cummings, T. E. Morgan, Joseph C. Thompson will addrrss tin- people on the above occasion, and disclose to them the whole truth of the matter.

\\HIIK MKN OF MCDONOl'CH,

Who prize the Constitution of our Fathers; who love the Union formed by their wisdom and compromise;

Braie men ,v//<> hate the Rebellion of Abraham Lincoln, and arc determined to destroy it;

Noble women who do not want their husbands and sons dragged to the Valley of Death by a remorseless tyrant;

Rally out to this meeting in your strength and numbers.

CENTRAL COMMITTEE."

Mr. Greeley, in his American Conflict, says:

"It is highly probable that had a popular election been held at any time during the year following the 4th of July, 1862, on the question of continuing the war, or arresting it on the best attainable terms, a majority would have voted for peace; while it is highly probable that a still larger majority would have voted against eman- cipation."

The same writer shows, too, not only how the successes or failures of the Northern armies served as the financial gauge which marked the price of their gold from time to time, but that these same suc- cesses or failures told in the elections the measure of the devotion of the Northern people to their cause.

Not so with the people of the South, who, in the darkest period of the war. February, 1865, and with a unanimity never surpassed, resolved that their cause was the ' ' holiest\>f all causes, ' ' and de- clared their resolution "to spare neither their blood nor their treasure in its maintenance and support." And even now, a third of a century after that cause went down in defeat, but not in dis- honor, its memories, though shrouded in sadness, are still a sacred and living factor in their lives and being.

Just at this point I desire to consider what was said of our cause, especially of the "right of secession," and of the conduct of the