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The Speech of Vice-President A. H. Stephens...the War.

Vice President Stephens made a speech at Crawfordville, Ga., some weeks since, which we find reported in the Augusta Chronicle. The present war, he said, is emphatically ‘"the people's war."’ It is the effort of one people to blot another from existence, and it becomes every man in the South to exercise every capacity in aiding the army which is preventing his becoming worse than a serf. He said, frankly, that the Government, while doing all it can, cannot compass as thorough relief for the army as the efforts of communities and individuals:

In his appeal for contributions he alluded to those whose pursuits, positions, or opportunities had enabled them to make money in these times. Opportunities to realize unusual profits upon labor or capital, in particular pursuits or trades, were incidents of all wars, and this one was no exception.--These were evils of war. They afford great temptations to frail human nature. These temptations by every one should be resisted as the approaches of the foul fiend.

Dickens had said the fumes of gold were more deadly to the moral sensibilities than the fumes of charcoal to the physical. It was true none should think of making money or growing rich out of our common necessities; but every one should feel and realize the fact that our common all is embarked in the common cause; that everything is at stake, and every one should do his duty, and his whole duty, whether at home or in the field. Those at home, in whatever portion, have as important and as essential — though not so hard and dangerous — duties to perform as those in the field. All should co-operate harmoniously and patriotically to the great end, and while they (the people of that community) had none among them known as speculators or extortioners, yet there were some whose pursuits enabled them, or afforded them, opportunities to realize larger profits on their capital and labor than in times of peace. To such he made a special appeal to contribute liberally and generously, as he believed they would.--Let no one, whether body corporate or not, think of making profits out of articles needed by the men in the field. The idea was abhorrent.

On the general subject of our present conflict, involving as it does our individual as well as national existence, he said all wars were calamities — the greatest that can be fall a people except perhaps direct visitations from Providence, such as famines, plagues, and pestilence. The greater the war, the greater the calamity. This war is a great calamity to us. We all feel it. It is the greatest war, and waged on the largest scale, of any since the birth of Christ. The history of the world — not excepting the crusades — furnishes no parallel to it in the present era.

The responsibility and guilt of it must be fearful somewhere. As great calamities as wars are, they are, however, sometimes necessary. Often forced by the highest dictates of patriotism — like ‘"offences,"’ we are told of — they sometimes needs come. They are, however, never right or justifiable on both sides. They may be wrong on both sides, but can never be right on both. Unjust wars, by the unanimous consent of civilized men, are held, as they should be, in condemnation and reprobation. People, therefore, as well as their rulers to whom such high trusts are confided, should look well to it, and see that they are right before appealing to this last and most terrific arbitrament of arms.

Some thoughts on this subject, Mr. Stephens said, might not be out of place, even there. These he dwelt upon at some length, showing the justice of our cause and the wanton aggression of the enemy. He traced the history of the controversy between the Southern and Northern States, the principles and nature of our Government, the independence and sovereignty of the States, and the right of each to control its own destinies and act for itself in the last resort, as each State might think best for itself. It was wholly immaterial, he said, in considering the question of right and justice, now to look any further than the solemn act of the States of the South, after mature deliberation, each acting for itself in its sovereign capacity. Each State had the right thus to act, and when each for itself had thus acted, no power on earth had the right justly to gainsay it.

The old Union was formed by the States, each acting for itself in its sovereign character and capacity with the object and purpose of advancing their interests respectively thereby. Each State was the sole judge, in the last resort, whether the future interests, safety, and well being of her people required her to resume those sovereign powers, the exercise of which had been delegated to other hands under the old compact of Union. These principles have ever been held not only true, but sacred, with the friends of constitutional liberty in all the States since the old Union was formed. They rest upon that fundamental principle set forth in the Declaration of Independence, that all Governments ‘"derive their just powers from the consent of the governed."’ The States south, therefore, had nothing but what was their right — their inalienable right to do, the same as their ancestors did in common with the North when they severed their connection with the British Government.

This war was waged by the North in denial of this right and for the purpose of conquest and subjugation. It was, therefore, aggressive, wanton, and unjust. Such must be the judgment of mankind, let its results be what they may. The responsibility, therefore, for all its sacrifices of treasure and blood heretofore, or hereafter to be made in its prosecution, rests not upon us.

Mr. S. said that soon after the first battle of Manassas duty called him to our camps near that point. He went over the ground on which that conflict had taken place. The evidences of the late terrible strife were still fresh and all around. The widespread desolation, the new-made graves, and the putrid animal remains not yet removed by the vultures, fully attested what a scene of blood it had been. while surveying the hills and defiles over which the various columns of men and the enemy passed, and were engaged on that memorable day, amongst many other things that crowded themselves upon his mind, were two dying expressions reported to have been uttered in the midst of the battle. One was by a soldier on the side of the enemy, who, fallen and weltering in his blood exclaimed, ‘"My God! what is all this for?"’ The other was by the lamented Bartow, who said, ‘"Boys, they have killed me, but never give it up."’ These two exclamations were made at no great distance apart, and perhaps near the same time.

‘"What is all this for?"’ Mr. Stephens said he could but think the question was pertinent to both sides, and most pertinent from him who uttered it, addressed to all his invading comrades and those who sent them. Well might he there, in the agonies of death, in the din and dust of strife, in the clangor of arms and the thunder of artillery, ask, ‘"What is all this for?"’ Why this array of armies? Why this fierce meeting in mortal combat? What is all this carnage and slaughter for? The same question is still as pertinent to those who are waging this war against us as it was then. Why the prolongation of this conflict? Why this immense sacrifice of life in camp and the numerous battles that have been fought since? Why this lamentation and mourning going up from almost every house and family from Maine to the Rio Grande, and from the Atlantis and Gulf to the Lakes, for friends and dear ones who have fallen by disease and violence in this unparalleled struggle? The question, if replied to by the North, can have but one true answer. What is all this for on their part but to overturn the principle upon which their own Government, as well as ours, is based — to reverse the doctrine that Governments derive their ‘"just powers from the consent of the governed? "’ What is it for but to overturn the principles and practice of their own Government from the beginning? That Government was founded and based upon the political axiom that all States and people have the inalienable right to change their forms of Government at will.

This principle was acted on in the recognition by the United States of the South American Republics. It was the principle acted on in the recognition of Mexico. It was acted on in the struggle of Greece, to overthrow the Ottoman rule. On that question the greatest constitutional expounder of the North, Mr. Webster, gained his first laurels as an American statesman. This principle was acted on in the recognition of the Government of Louis Philippe, on the overthrow of Charles X., of France, and again in the recognition of the Lamartine Government, on the overthrow of Louis Philippe, in 1848. At that time, every man at the North in Congress, save one, Mr. Stephens believed, voted for the principle. The same principle was again acted upon without dissent in 1852, in the recognition of the Government of Louis Napoleon. --The same principle was acted upon in the recognition of Texas, when she seceded or withdrew from the Government of Mexico.

Many at the North opposed the admission of Texas as a State in our then Union. But there was little, if any, opposition to her recognition as an independent outside Republic. Strange to say, many of those who were then fiercest in their opposition to Texas coming into the Union are now the fiercest in their denial of the unquestioned right acknowledged to her before. Well may any and every one, North or South, exclaim, what is all this for? What have we done to the North? When have we ever wronged them? We quit them it is true, as our ancestors and their ancestors quit the British Government. We quit as they quit, upon a question of constitutional right. That question they determined for themselves, and we have but done the same. What, therefore, is all this for? Why this war on their part against the uniform principles and practices of their own Government? There is but one plausible pretext for it; that is to exterminate our Southern institutions. It is to put the African on an equality with the white man. It is to conquer and subjugate independent and sovereign States, who deny their authority rightfully to rule over them. It is a war, in short, on their part, against right, against reason, against justice, against nature, and for nothing but power, conquest, and robbery.

If asked on our side, what is all this for? The reply from every breast is, that it is for home, for firesides, for our altars, for our birthrights, for property, for honor, for life — in a word, for everything for which freemen should live, and for which all deserving to be freemen should be willing, if need be, to die. Such, doubtless, were the feelings which prompted the other exclamation on that bloody field to which reference has been made. ‘"Boys,"’ said the dying Bartow, ‘ "they have killed me, but never give it up."’ The same sentiments animated the breast of every gallant son of the South who poured forth his life- blood in achieving that first signal and glorious victory to our arms. Those who survived them did not give it up, until they succeeded in driving back the invader, the aggressor, the despoiler and robber. Both exclamations may well be treasured as mementoes. In whatever trials and sacrifices this war may bring upon us, when the thought of ‘"what is all this for, "’ comes to the mind, recollect that it is, on our part, for everything most dear and sacred; and whatever reverses may await us, in a struggle for such objects, let the watchword of the last survivors be, ‘"never give it up!"’ Let the world know, and history record the fact if such should be our unhappy fate, that though our country may be invaded, our land laid waste, our cities sacked, our property destroyed, the people of the South could die in defence of their rights, but they could never be conquered.

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