rom the high and solemn motive of defending and protecting
the rights we inherited, and which it is our sacred duty to transmit
unshorn to our children."

Alexander Hamilton Stephens, of Georgia, Vice President of the
Confederacy, was a Whig, and like others of the leading statesmen,
loved the Union. When the North began to control the new territories,
and thus denied the South her legitimate share in the government
thereof, Mr. Stephens made a long and powerful argument in the House of
Representatives at Washington, some years before the Secession. He said
in part:

"If you men of the North, by right of superior numbers, persist in
ignoring the claims of the South, separation must follow; but why not
in peace? We say as did the patriarch of old, "Let there be no strife,
I pray thee, between me and thee * * * for we be brethren. Is not the
whole land before thee? Separate thyself, I pray thee, from me If thou
will take the left hand, then I will go to the right; or if thou depart
to the right hand then I will go to the left." In other words if we
cannot enjoy this public domain in common, let us divide it. This is a
fair proposition. * * * Unless these bitter and sectional feelings of
the North be kept out of the National Halls, we must be prepared for
the worst. Are your feelings too narrow to make concessions and deal
justly by the whole country? Have you formed a fixed determination to
carry your measures by numerical strength, and then enforce them by
the bayonet? If so the consequences be upon your own head. You may
think that the suppression of an outbreak of the Southern States would
be a holiday job for a few of your Northern regiments, but you may
find to your cost, in the end, that 7,000,000 of people, fighting for
their rights, their homes, and their hearthstones, cannot be easily
conquered. I submit the matter to your deliberate consideration."

Mr. Stephens, in a speech before the Georgia legislature opposed
secession, but said: "Should Georgia determine to go out of the Union,
whatever the result may be, I shall bow to the will of my people. Their
cause is my cause, and their destiny is my destiny."

These speeches and sentiments do not savor of stirring up strife--of
leading the South into rebellion "so that I may be king, and thou
my standard bearer." There could be no treason in doing what the
Constitution of the United States permitted. And so every sp