cause and to purchase release from the sufferings of imprisonment by the simple process of taking the oath. Those who have seen the light of battle on the faces of these humble sons of the South or witnessed their steadfastness in camp, on the march, in the hospital, have not been ashamed of their brotherhood.
There is such a thing as fighting for a principle, an idea; but principle and idea must be incarnate, and the principle of state rights was incarnate in the historical life of the Southern people. Of the thirteen original states, Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Georgia were openly and officially upon the side of the South. Maryland as a state was bound hand and foot. We counted her as ours, for the Potomac and Chesapeake Bay united as well as divided. Everyone was something more than a certain aggregate of square miles wherein dwelt an uncertain number of uncertain inhabitants, something more than a territory transformed into a state by the magic of political legerdemain—a creature of the central government, and duly loyal to its creator.
In claiming this individuality, nothing more is claimed for Virginia and for South Carolina than would be conceded to Massachusetts and Connecticut; and we believed then that Massachusetts and Connecticut would not have behaved otherwise than we did, if the parts had been reversed. The brandished sword would have shown what manner of placida quies would have ensued, if demands had been made on Massachusetts at all commensurate with the federal demands on Virginia. These older Southern states were proud of their history, and they showed their pride by girding at their neighbors. South Carolina had her fling at Georgia, her fling at North Carolina; and the wish that the little State had been scuttled at an early day was a plagiarism from classical literature that might have emanated from the South as well as from the North.
