of that war; that the Southern men fought to keep their
slaves. They utterly miss the point, or purposely pervert the truth.

In days gone by, the theological schoolmen held hot contention over the
question as to the kind of wood the Cross of Calvary was made from. In
their zeal over this trivial matter, they lost sight of the great thing
that did matter; the mighty transaction, and purpose displayed upon that
Cross.

In the causes of that war, slavery was only a detail and an occasion.
Back of that lay an immensely greater thing; the defense of their
rights--the most sacred cause given men on earth, to maintain at every
cost. It is the cause of humanity. Through ages it has been,
pre-eminently, the cause of the Anglo-Saxon race, for which countless
heroes have died. With those men it was to defend the rights of their
States to control their own affairs, without dictation from anybody
outside; a right not _given_, but _guaranteed_ by the Constitution,
which those States accepted, most distinctly, under that condition.

It was for that these men came. This was just what they had in their
minds; to uphold that solemnly guaranteed constitutional right,
distinctly binding all the parties to that compact. The South pleaded
with the other parties to the Constitution to observe their guarantee;
when they refused, and talked of force, then the men of the South got
their guns and came to see about it.

They were Anglo-Saxons. What could you expect? Their fathers had fought
and died on exactly this issue--they could do no less. As their noble
fathers, so their noble sons pledged their lives, and their sacred honor
to uphold the same great cause--peaceably if they could; forcibly if
they must.

=Those Who Answered the Call=

So the men of the South came together. They came from every rank and
calling of life--clergymen, bishops, doctors, lawyers, statesmen,
governors of states, judges, editors, merchants, mechanics, farmers. One
bishop became a lieutenant general; one clergyman, chief of artillery,
Army of Northern Virginia. In one artillery battalion three clergymen
were cannoneers at the guns. All the students of one Theological
Seminary volunteered, and three fell in battle, and all but one were
wounded. They came of every age. I personally know of six men over sixty
years who volunteered, and served in the ranks, throughout the war; and
in the Army of Northern Virginia, more than ten thousand men were under
eighteen yea