r politically was Hamilton the better man of the
two. Nor was there treason in his Mexican scheme. He meant no more with
universal acclaim than Houston did three decades later. To couple his
name with that of Benedict Arnold is historic sacrilege.

Jefferson pursued him relentlessly. But even Jefferson could not have
destroyed him. When, after an absence of four years abroad, he returned
to America, there was still a future for him had he stood up like a man,
but, instead, like one confessing defeat, he sank down, whilst the wave
of obloquy rolled over him.

His is one of the few pathetic figures in our national history. Mr.
Davis has had plenty of defenders. Poor Burr has had scarcely an
apologist. His offense, whatever it was, has been overpaid. Even the War
of Sections begins to fade into the mist and become dreamlike even to
those who bore an actual part in it.

The years are gliding swiftly by. Only a little while, and there shall
not be one man living who saw service on either side of that great
struggle of systems and ideas. Its passions long ago vanished from manly
bosoms. That has come to pass within a single generation in America
which in Europe required ages to accomplish.

There is no disputing the verdict of events. Let us relate them truly
and interpret them fairly. If the South would have the North do justice
to its heroes, the South must do justice to the heroes of the North.
Each must render unto Caesar the things that are Caesar's even as each
would render unto God the things that are God's. As living men, standing
erect in the presence of Heaven and the world, the men of the South have
grown gray without being ashamed; and they need not fear that History
will fail to vindicate their integrity.

When those are gone that fought the battle, and Posterity comes to
strike the balance, it will be shown that the makers of the Constitution
left the relation of the States to the Federal Government and of the
Federal Government to the States open to a double construction. It will
be told how the mistaken notion that slave labor was requisite to the
profitable cultivation of sugar, rice and cotton, raised a paramount
property interest in the Southern section of the Union, whilst in the
Northern section, responding to the trend of modern thought and the
outer movements of mankind, there arose a great moral sentiment
against slavery. The conflict thus established, gradually but surely
sectionalizing party lin