Page:Southern Historical Society Papers volume 27.djvu/91

 The Vindn-aiin,, of the South. 88

high principles and pure motives which controlled Virginians. The very pathos of our story will enlist the interest of the world. Cal- varies and Crucifixions take deepest hold upon humanity. The truth will be found and proclaimed just so sure as sacrifice and devotion appeal most strongly to the hearts and minds of men.

" Thou hast great allies. Thy friends are exultations, agonies And love, and man's unconquerable mind."

Already the truth of this assertion is being verified, and writers and thinkers of this and the old world make bold to affirm the in- tegrity and heroism of Virginia's course. Thus Henderson, the English military critic and author, in his Life of Jackson, declares:

JUSTICE TO CROMWELL.

"The world has long since done justice to the motives of Crom- well and of Washington, and signs are not wanting that before many years have passed, it will do justice to the motives of the Southern people. They were true to their interpretation of the Constitution."

Then referring to Virginia " Her best endeavors were exerted to maintain the peace between the hostile sections, and not until her liberties were menaced did she repudiate a compact which had be- come intolerable. It was to preserve the freedom which her fore- fathers had bequeathed her, and which she desired to hand down unsullied to future generations, that she acquiesced in the Revo- lution."

Ropes, the New England historian and author, in his History of the Civil War, referring to the Southern people, says: "They are not in their own opinion rebels at all; they were defending their States, that is, the nations to which they conceived themselves to belong, from invasion and conquest."

Mr. Lecky, England's greatest living historian, in his Democracy and Liberty, declares: " The self-sacrifice, the unanimity, the tena- city of purpose, the indomitable will displayed on both sides by the vast citizen armies, in that long and terrible struggle, form one of the most splendid pages in iQth century history."

But not only will these facts impress the minds and demand recog- nition of the students and historians of the future, but the time will come when the united voice of this whole land will proclaim the in- tegrity of purpose which controlled our people in that conflict, and