A Southern Republic and a Northern Democracy [pp. 283-290]

A Southern Republic and a 2Northern Democracy.
tinguished his later years, clearly detected
that insidious germ of consolidation which
he afterwards so aptly characterized as
tbe " poison under the wing of the Federal
Constitution." But this alarming evil
against which even then the forecaste of
Mason, and the inspired prophecy of Henry, warned their countrymen as the source
of contention and strife, if not the instrument of destruction to all rights and powers of State Sovereignty, was not the only
cause for apprehension, nor indeed the
most formidable. Later events lhave proven that the most powerful cause operating
for the severance of the bonds of Union
between North and South, was far beyond
the reach of legislative remedy, and far
superior to the statesmanship) of the wisest
framers of the Federal Constitution.
Long wh ill wail the NFrtlern matrons
O'er the friends who fell that day,
Vainly battling'gainst the Southtron,
In th-e dread Manassas fray;
And from sunny orange bowers
Comes a sound of grief and woe,
For the fondly loved and loving,
On that fatal field laid low;
But the names embalmed in glory,
Long will live in song and story,
Of those who lie all gashed and gory,
On the flank.
We advance no new theory in the interpretation of the philosophy of this revolution, when we ascribe the necessity of separation to the irreconcilable antithesis and
utter imcompatibility of the civilization of
the two sections. That cavalier* element
predominating in Southern civilization,
and giving tone to Southern society, and
character to Southern politics, had its
representatives in the early days of the
Union in those who opposed the surrender
of the liberties of the States to a necessarily inimical, centralized power. That Puritan element which underlies the fabric
of Northern civilization, clearly manifested its antagonism to the other, by seekting
in the very incipiency of the government,
to deprive the States of all their power,
and to establish with an irresponsible supremacy, a monster consolidated empire,
iwhich like that of Augustine, should have
the name of Republie., but the character
of an unmitigated despotism. The former,
in later periods of our history, had a worthy champion in Carolina's great son, who
on all occasions nobly sustained the emi
It is no disparagement of the wisdom
and patriotism of our forefathers, for us
who have survived the wreck of the governalent of their creation, to ascribe its
destruction tc ce rt ain radica l errors of
pri nciple, which s scal)ing their penetral
tion are revealed in the calamities which
afflict their posterity. It is no ungrateful
denial of t hei r eletited fame, to avail ourselves f the l tig,hts which experience has
given'us whil e read ing the philosophy of
the failure of thie Union, in'the events which
marlkedl its career, and culminated in its
downfall.
The Revolution, through whose bloodstained paths we are now treading our
May to independence, is but the natural
sequence, with all its coincident features
of nmiserv and desolation, of those causes,
whose operation began with the existence
of the late Uniolh, and have steadily increased in force and directness with each
stage of our national development.
Jollhln Randolph, when a youth of sixteen,
with that sagacity which so eminently dis
* For a thorough discussion of this question of the Antagonism of rac2s. see a paper entitled the "Puritan and the Cavalier," by'rWm. Archer Cocke, Esq.. in I)eBow, September, 186SG1, and an address by
Jamres Barron Hlope, Esq., called "Social
Development in Virginia," delivered in
Hampton, Va., July 18630.
I
1863.]
283
And the night her star-looped curtains,
Draws around our sleeping dead;
An(i the fullorbed moon, SlaW rising,
Silvers wood, and hill, and dale,
Cirelitig with a rtidiant halo,
Many a forehead, marble pale;
And the hollow night winds sigb,
Atid tl-ie owlets mournful cry,'
Where stiff and stark o -ur heroes lie,
On the flanlc.
A SOUTHERN RFPUBLIC AND A
I NORTHERN DEMOCRACY.
BY FRANK H. ALFRIEND.