ALEXANDER H. STEPHENS AGAINST THE REBELLION. 421 ALEXANDER H. STEPHENS AGAINST THE REBELLION. There is an almost official confession of the "folly, wickedness, and madness" of the Rebellion, in a speech made by the so-called Vice-President, Alexander H. Stephens, in Georgia, in January, 1861, before it broke out, and made to prevent it. The whole speech has been often printed since. We have room only for a part. "When we of the South demanded the from the South. This we have required, slave-trade, or the importation of Africans so as to guard against any interpretation of for the cultivation of our lands, did they not the Constitution unfavorable to us. In like yield the right for twenty years? When we manner we have been equally watchful to asked a three-fifths representation in Con- guard our interests in the Legislative branch gress for our slaves, was it not granted? of government. In choosing the presiding When we asked and demanded the return Presidents (pro tem.) of the Senate, we have of any fugitive from justice, or the recovery had twenty-four to their eleven. Speakers of those persons owing labor or allegiance, of the House, we have had twenty-three, was it not incorporated in the Constitution, and they twelve. While the majority of and again ratified and strengthened in the Fugitive Slave Law of 1850? "But do you reply, that in many instances they have violated this compact, and have not been faithful to their engagements? As individuals and local communities they may have done so, but not by the sanction of government; for that has always been true to Southern interests. Again, gentlemen, look at another fact: When we have asked that more territory should be added, that we might spread the institution of Slavery, have they not yielded to our demands in giving us Louisana, Florida, and Texas, out of which four States have been carved, and ample territory for four more to be added in due time, if you, by this unwise and impolite act, do not destroy this hope, and perhaps by it lose all, and have your last slave wrenched from you by stern military rule, as South America and Mexico were; or by the vindictive decree of a universal emancipation, which may reasonably be expected to follow? "But, again, gentlemen, what have we to gain by this proposed change of our relation to the general government? We have always had the control of it, and can yet, if we remain in it, and are as united as we have been. We have had a majority of the Presidents chosen from the South, as well as the control and management of most of those chosen from the North. We have had sixty years of Southern Presidents to their twenty-four, thus controlling the Executive department. So of the judges of the Supreme Court, we have had eighteen from the South, and but eleven from the North; although nearly four-fifths of the judical business has arisen in the Free States, yet a majority of the Court has always been the Representatives, from their greater population, have always been from the North, yet we have generally secured the Speaker, because he, to a great extent, shapes and controls the legislation of the country. Nor have we had less control in every other department of the general government. Attorney-generals we have had fourteen, while the North have had but five. Foreign ministers we have had eighty-six, and they but fifty four. While three-fourths of the business which demands diplomatic agents abroad is clearly from the Free States, from their greater commercial interests, yet we have had the principal embassies, so as to secure the world markets for our cotton, tobacco, and sugar, on the best possible terms. We have had a vast majority of the higher offices of both army and navy, while a larger proportion of the soldiers and sailors were drawn from the North. Equally so of clerks, auditors, and comptrollers filling the Executive department; the records show for the last fifty years, that of the three thousand thus employed, we have had more than two-thirds of the same, while we have but one-third of the white population of the Republic. 66 Again, look at another item, and one, be assured, in which we have a great and vital interest; it is that of revenue, or means of supporting government. From official documents, we learn that a fraction over threefourths of the revenue collected for the support of government has uniformly been raised from the North. "Leaving out of view, for the present, the countless millions of dollars you must expend in a war with the North, with tens of thousands of your sons and brothers slain in 422 ALEXANDER H. STEPHENS AGAINST THE REBELLION. battle, and offered up as sacrifices upon the altar of your ambition, and for what, we ask again? Is it for the overthrow of the American government, established by [our common ancestry, cemented and built up by their sweat and blood, and founded on the broad principles of Right, Justice, and Humanity? And, as such, I must declare here, as I have often done before, and which has been repeated by the greatest and wisest of statesmen and patriots in this and other lands, that it is the best and freest government, the most equal in its rights, the most just in its decisions, the most lenient in its meas OFFICE OF LITTELL'S LIVING AGE, BOSTON. Thank God that some, who have read that part of this report which was copied into the Living Age a fortnight ago, have submitted their minds to the accumulated proof of the horrible atrocity of the Rebellion, and the fiendish character of its leaders. It is to be hoped that this exposure, so able and so complete, made in such a calm, clear, and Christian spirit, will induce many to lay aside their life-long prejudice against any "interference with Southern institutions," a prejudice so rooted as to have lasted even after the sacred INSTITUTION had openly made war against their country. Since the publication of the former part, a subscriber, remitting payment for another year, says, “I am sorry to see The Living Age hoist the Black Abolition Flag." Look again, dear sir, as the mist clears off; it is not black: it is "Red, White and Blue;"""Tis the Star-spangled Banner," the National Flag upheld by the President, by Congress, and by the nation. The People of the United States, in the election which has just taken place, have manifested not only their fixed purpose to sustain the Government and nation which our fathers planted, with the blessing of God, but also to uphold the present administration in its slowly-matured determination to root out the cause which has placed them in peril. The manner in which the war has been carried on by the rebels has been worthy of the object for which it was begun; and it is difficult to believe that any patriotic or humane man can hereafter be found acting with their Northern and European sympathizers. Finally, lift the next leaf, and see some few proofs of the enormous wickedness which these Accessories after the fact have to sanction. Accurately copied from the Original Photographs taken at United States General Hospital, Division No. 1, Annapolis, Maryland, and now in the possession of the United States Sanitary Commission. 423 |