Was the Confederate Soldier a Rebel? State was determined by the same intuition by which a man will defend with his life the mother who bore him, or perish to protect the honor of his family. Compared with his State the Union was but a conventional government, possessed of nothing, either of territory or power, which had not come to it from the States. The Constitution having been voted a dead letter, there was nothing left to him of republican liberty but that to be found within his commonwealth. The federal government as compared with his State was distant and shadowy. He was hardly con scious of it except in presidential years, on the Fourth of July, or when paying postage and internal revenue. But the lines of his life were in constant contact with his State. In it he lived, moved, and had his civil and political being. Its authority and protection were over and around him from the cradle to the grave. It contained his home and family altar. Had he taken arms against his State, he would indeed have been a most unnatural parricide and rebel. But it was not written that the American Union — the brightest star — should fall from the galaxy of nations. With slavery and fanaticism cast out, the Union lives on under the hand of God to fulfill His great appointment.
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It does not stand, however, upon the uneven pillars of loyalist and repentant rebels. The Confederate soldier is loyal but not repentant. Both history and his conscience acquit him of having sinned against the Constitution. He ivas therefore no rebel. Should he smite upon his breast and cry peccavi, he would be a canting hypo crite or a drivelling imbecile. While loyal to his country, he retains his self-respect. He will meet in reunion sur viving comrades, and strew flowers upon the graves of his dead. He will build homes for his aged and disabled, and rear monu ments to his statesmen and heroes. He will preserve the traditions of the South-land. He will turn from these tender engage ments at the call of his country, and pour out his life's blood in its defense, and even in its questionable aggressions. Taking the northern brother by the hand, he can say, " Did you fight to save the ter ritorial integrity, — the body of this Union,— I fought for the life, the spirit of the Con stitution. We will maintain them both for ever, and together will revive the spirit of those times when South Carolina rushed to the aid of Boston; when Virginia resented the wrongs of Rhode Island, and in sym pathy with the sister commonwealth of Massachusetts called her people to humil iation, fasting and prayer."
