Senior Oration of
Edward T. Sykes, [1858]
Sykes, Edward Turner, b. 1839
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Two Sections of the Union
Edward T. Sykes
Columbus,
Mississippi
Mr. President & fellow members:
Historians in describing the manners and customs of nations, commence with her
aborigines, coming down, giving every circumstance directly or indirectly
connected with her subjects.
Biographers undertaking to delineate the characters of great men search
diligently into the most obstruce turn of life, portraying in lucid colors, each
and every incident compatible with nature, leaving nothing for the mind to
conjecture.
But for me to attempt a retrospect of
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the past,
beginning with the earliest dawn of
American civilization, and ending with the
present crisis, would be an almost endless task of study, as well as tax of
mind. I shall not one moment entertain the idea of involving myself in such
difficulties, but rest satisfied by asking your indulgence a few minutes, whilst
we take a cursory view of the revolutionary struggle,
Northern fanaticism, and
Southern
conservatism. It has ever been the characteristic of
England even before she
rose to any distinction in the catalogues of nations to aspire to that point in
the acme of glory that
Rome held once, when mistress of the world.
She has with unremitted toil striven to subjugate the whole civilized globe, and
when the empire of
America rising as she was upon a soil bathed with an atmosphere pure as
that inhaled by the first born in the garden of
Eden — issued her declaration of
rights, praying for
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redress of grievances, formed in
1774, and based upon the infringements of principles, imposed by the British parliament, for
eleven years previous, was looked at with scorn and derision, and considered
only as a stepping stone to liberty (and sure it was, for soon she cast off the
galling yoke of oppression placed on her by the mother country, and declared
herself henceforth and forever free).
England thought to drive her into ranks would be only a
plaything and amusement for the times.
In vain did the high minded Chatham aided by the patriotism
and genius of Burke warn them of their danger, but it seemed that invention was
exhausted, reason fatigued, but obstinacy had yet to be conquered.
Hand in hand did Americans
North, South, East, and West
meet the ruthless invaders on the beach determined rather than live slaves to
die freemen, well did they maintain their rights. "The blood of all was
shed in one common pool"
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And never did they intend to dispair until the last man of that glorious band
was made to measure his length on his mother earth. The conclusion is known by
all, especially when we can look up to the blue vault of heaven in sight of him
who reigns supreme and exclaim we live free. "We born to none but our
God."
But we have yet to come to a time in our national career by far more sad and
appalling—a time when fanaticism and blind infatuation sit high on
their imperial thrones— a time when reason is foolish and conviction
humbug— a time, in short when social and religious duties are thrown
to the four winds of heaven, and the ballot box the great bulwark of civil
liberty is rendered profane and insecure by repeated instances of Black
Republican mobs.
I regret fellow members that I can present to your minds no fit offering for the
occasion. "Would that I had procured for your reception some casket of
precious gems—the rich jewels of history and learning
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some boquets of fresh and fragrant flowers from the
enchanted land of poetry and rhetoric, some mental telescope to transport you to
the last discovered planet in the far off Heaven of science, or a panorama of
the icy palaces of the Arctic whale, and the snowy couch of the Aurora Borealis.
But fellow members, our theme is of a more exaulted bearing—and I
almost quail beneath the idea of its important consideration. I mean Northern
fanaticism— Northern
philanthropy.
That bane of all virtue which had been curdled in their breasts ever since the
adoption of the constitution was waiting for a time when its vile mechanism
against the prerogatives and rights of free born citizens, might burst forth,
sweeping, dashing, and tearing down every thing in its course.
Led on by men who cared nought for the good of their country, animated by the
indomnible lust of personal aggrandizement
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and
selfish of the Enjoyments, and social interests of
Southern patriots, they long ago opened their
damning batteries against that only legacy of liberty and justice, prepared and
handed down by the patriarchs of consistency in the trying days of tyranny as a
standard and safe guard for our rule and action.
Endeavoring to prove to the enlightened South that slavery is a curse, Northern fanatics have staked their all.
They have transgressed the bounds of propriety, set reason at defiance, over
leaped the breach that separates virtue from vice, and given to hypocrisy the
semblance of religion.
"Even the pulpits have been converted into so many batteries of fiery
assaults." Yes that sacred place from which should ever issue words of
peace, and good will towards man consecrated as it should be to the precepts of
Universal love, has been defiled, disgraced, and prostituted to the wicked
purposes of faction, and to the teachings of sectional business and social
strife
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Casting aside their ministerial garbs the pretended preachers of the Gospel
instead of expounding religious precepts, and inculcating benevolent aids, have
sought to instil in the youthful heart the poisonous ingredients of sectional
philanthropy and subvert maiden virtue by
hardened vice. Such and always will be the case until that manmouth monster, fanaticism, is quelled by wrenching asunder the two
great sections of this once glorious Union. Disunion alone is not the only instance in
which the North has
shown a want of conservatism. It is the hot bed and cradle of all the isms of
the day. They are all born and nourished there. (Kathsuthism the policy in
spite of earnest admonitions of Washington and all of our great statesmen of
meddling with the affairs of foreign nations. Free soilism a modification of
abolitionism, socialism or free loveism, a disgrace to a civilized nation
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and which even licentious profligate France would
scorn to have originated, all had birth there.) To this the South except in cases of constitutional
attacks has been but a looker on. She has permitted herself to be slandered and
blackguarded and every epithet of abhorance that could be conceived by a
degenerate people has been applied to the Southern portion of our Union. And why is
this? Why I ask can one half of a people, born in the same land, and nurtured by
the same constitution, who ought to have but one common interest in view, and
that the progress of their country should be so far rifted assunder as to render
dangerous the freedom of speech. To this we are each and every one of us able to
make a correct and ready response. Slavery which has so long agitated the Union, has not yet I
think reached that hight to which its backers wish it to attain. That position
allowed us by the all wise, and sanctioned by our consciences.
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That principle coeval with our nature and
acknowledged by all honest and honorable men should give birth to violence and
sedition, is easily accounted for. The North have long since tried their habituation to the
cold regions of Ohio, Michigan, Massachusetts, and others now hot beds of abolitionism.
They knew that they would not do — that they could not prosper under
their chilly clime, and if they kept them they would eventually die completely
out — and their property in the form of slaves would soon become
nothing. To them it was policy to abolish slavery, and now when they see they
are doing well under our Southern atmosphere, and the South is gaining ground by their labor! They
cry aloud for philanthropy, philanthropy.
Gentlemen it has been said that there is a point of endurance beyond which
forbearance becomes cowardice, and submission crime. Has not that limit of
endurance been passed over with impunity?
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Shall we
continue to retreat until the last entrenchments of liberty be our graves? No
fellow members let us rise from our lethargy — let us strengthen every
nerve, and raise the stalwart arm of justice against the damning sword of Northern fanatics. Look
to the infringements of rights, repeated depredation made on our property, and
the arrow of death hurled at our elective franchise, and put the question to
yourselves what shall we do?
I ask is there not some hidden thunder of heaven to crush such men? Is there not
some electric spark yet reserved in the reach of
Southern statesmen to silence such
hypocrisy? Our question has been answered once. And thank
God that in the time of our greatest need an
Ithuriel was given in the person of
Clay
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who with matchless
eloquence for his spear and the voice of thunder for his command gained the
victory over the demons of avarice and revenge.
Now that Ithuriel has departed for his etherial abode,
they again rally under the banner of discord, with "cries of war open war" war
against kindred blood and common interest. That cry has to be quelled. Let the South think of her
interests and do justice to its calling — and if we see that the Union cannot be
preserved without the sacrifice of the South, let us take for our motto the first grand law
of nature, and with serried ranks and open voice call for disunion.
Side by side the constitution and
the South have made their onward march together, and
when attacks from
the
North have been made on that rich legacy of our fore fathers it ever and
anon found
the South
ready to wield the shield of justice in its defence. The first great
characteristic of
the
South is her conservatism, and long ago would
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this last fabric of a Republican form of government been shattered to
the surface had it not been (I feel happy to say) for the conservative spirit of
that portion of the
Union that gave me birth
We have learned by experience and repeated attempts that reconciliation with
the North is beyond
the bounds of dis-cretion. Then as we have every inducement to be a nation of
our own with soil and climate not to be surpassed by any on the globe, with
kindred sympathies and common interests may we show to the North by our actions, that we are
independent of their aid, and not subject to their will and consel. If the
Constitution falls let the "same enthusiasm that swells the heart of modern Greeks as they pause on the plains of Marathon" rage high in our breasts. May we all love the South born under her genial clime,
fed on her generous soil "clasp her to our bosoms with hooks of steel," willing
to stake our honor in defence of her honor and our cause in behalf of her sacred
rights.