Part 20 (2/2)

”We have borne all this for long years and might have borne it many more under the a.s.surance of our Northern friends that such fanaticism does not represent the true heart of the Northern people. But the fallacy of these promises and the folly of our hopes have been too clearly proven in the late election. The platform of the political party on which you have swept every Northern State and elected a sectional President is a foul libel upon our character and a declaration of open war on the lives and property of the Southern people.

”In defiance of the Const.i.tution which protects our rights your mob has decreed the confiscation of three thousand million dollars' worth of our property. If we claim the protection of our common law, your mob solemnly burns the Const.i.tution in your public squares and denounces it as 'an agreement with Death and covenant with h.e.l.l.' We appeal to the Supreme Court of the Republic and when its Judges unanimously sustain our position on every point, your mob cries:

”'Down with the Supreme Court of the United States!'

”You have not only insulted us as unchristian and heathen, you have proclaimed that four million ignorant negroes but yesterday taken from the savagery of cannibal Africa are our equals and ent.i.tled to share in the solemn rights of American citizens.h.i.+p. Your declaration is an open summons that they rise in insurrection with the knife in one hand and the torch in the other.

”Your mob has declared the South outlawed, branded with ignominy, consigned to execration and ultimate destruction. Your mob has decreed the death of Slavery and sends the new President to execute their decree.

”All right--kill Slavery and then what? Kill Slavery and what will you do with its corpse? Who shall deliver us from the body of this death? We are not leaving this Hall to fight for the Inst.i.tution of African Slavery. The grim specter of a degraded and mongrel citizens.h.i.+p which lies back of your mob's programme of confiscation is the force that is driving the Southern people out of the Union to find peace and safety.

Whatever may be the sins of Slavery in the South they are as nothing when compared to the degradation of your life which must follow their violent emanc.i.p.ation. The Southern white man is slowly lifting the African out of barbarism into the light of Christian civilization. In our own good time we will emanc.i.p.ate him and start him on a new life beyond the boundaries of our Republic. Whatever may be the differences of opinion in the South on the inst.i.tution of slavery--there is no difference and there has never been on one point--it was true yesterday--it is true to-day--it will be true to-morrow--_Slavery is the only modus viviendi by which two such races as the Negro and the Aryan can live side by side in a free democracy with equality the law of its life_--”

Again a burst of tumultuous applause swept the gallery.

”The issue is clear cut and terrible in its simplicity--the South stands on the faith of our fathers who created this Republic. The South stands for Const.i.tutional freedom under the forms of established law. The North has lifted the red flag of revolution and proclaims the irresponsible despotism of an enthroned mob!

”For a generation your school mistresses have been training your boys to hate us and arming them to fight us. Make no mistake about this movement to-day. We who go are but the servants of those who sent us. They now recall their amba.s.sadors, and we obey their sovereign will. Make no mistake about it. They are not a brave and rash people, deluded by bad men, who are attempting in an illegal way to wreck the Union. They seek peace and safety outside driven by the Rebellion against Law and Order within.

”Are we more or less than men? Can we love our enemies and bless them that curse and revile us? Are we devoid of the sensibilities, the sentiments, the pa.s.sions, the reason, and the instincts of mankind? Have we no pride, no honor, no sense of shame, no reverence for our ancestors, no care for posterity, no love for home, or family or friends? Must we quail before the onion breath of an enthroned mob, confess our baseness, discredit the fame of our sires, degrade our children, abandon our homes, flee from our country and dishonor ourselves--all for the sake of a Union whose Const.i.tution you have publicly burned and whose Supreme Court you have spit upon?

”Shall we consent to live under an administration controlled by those who not only deny us justice and equality and brand us as infamous, but boldly proclaim their purpose to rob us of our property and destroy our civilization?

”The freemen of Alabama have proclaimed to the world they will not. In their sovereign power they have recalled me. As their servant I go!”

With a wave of his hand in an imperious gesture of defiance to the silent Senators of the North, amid a scene of unparalleled pa.s.sion, the speaker turned to his seat, gathered his books and papers and strode with quick firm step down the aisle.

Jennie had leaped to her feet and stood clapping her hands in a frenzy of excitement, unconscious of the existence of the strangely quiet young man by her side.

He rose and stood smiling into her flushed face as she gasped:

”A wonderful speech--wasn't it?”

”They say the South has never lacked audacity, Miss Barton. I'm wondering if they are really going to make good such words with deeds.”

He spoke with a cold detachment that chilled and angered the impulsive girl. A hot answer was on her lips when she remembered suddenly that he was a foreigner.

”Of course, Signor, you can not understand our feelings!”

”On the other hand, I a.s.sure you, I do--I'm just wondering in a cold intellectual way whether the oratorical temperament--the temperament of pa.s.sion, of righteous wrath of the explosive type which we have just witnessed, will win in the trial by fire which war will bring--”

”You doubt our courage?” she interrupted, with a slight curve of the proud little lips.

”Far from it--I a.s.sure you! I'm only wondering if it has the sullen, dogged, staying qualities these stolid Northern men down there have exhibited while they listened--”

The girl threw him a quick surprised look and he stopped. His voice had unconsciously taken the tones of a soliloquy.

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