The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1865-11-30
AN ELOQUENT Appea1.

from INC Iaclle, pen VI nIIos Do"hi"S3, Va
Virginia, written at the request of nu-
,merous friends during a recent visit to
Raleigh, N. G. The writer truthfully and
feelingly expresses the sentiments of the
tair women of the South, in behalf of one
who has been admired by them; however
much traduced by the stcrner sex. Such
words of pleading cannot fail to enliven
the generous impulses of those who are
in authority, for they cyince a spontane--
GUS feeling of gratitude ,sscoming from the
hearts of women whose fame is universal
and whose devotion was admired through
out the wide world:
To His Ercellelcy Andrelc johnson,
President Of the United States:
We, the undersigned, acting on the
part of the women of your Excellency's
native city, and actuated by the spirit
which animates the women of the entire
South, most respectfully beg leave to pre-
sent to your Excellency our petition.
This is in behalf of Jefferson Davis,
lately invested with all the pcrogatives
of position similar to the one in which
your Excellency, by the direct interposi-
ton of tho hand of God has been placed,
now a captive languishing in prison
Whether that prison be the just doom OF
him who is suffering from its effects, is
not question to be argued by us. If it
be conceded that the man, who is the rep
rcsentative Of q people must suffer the
consequences of such representation, then
the decree which. consigned Mr. Davis to
imprisonment in land which has hither-
to been the worlds synonyme for free=
dom, was a most proper ono, and he is
undergoing only fitting cxpiation for
the offended majesty Of the law. But
has he not suffered it sufficiently long
Is it impossible for justice to be tempered
with mercy? Will not the resources of
your Excellency's mind, devise some
means by which their antagonism may be
removed ?
Is not America sufficiently glorious !?
has there not been proven sufficiently
great to allow her to rise superior to the
petty conventional codes of smaller ma
tions, and exhibit to the world at once
her power and her magnanimity, by ex-
tending free pardon To one who, though
|
he may have erred grievously against her,
is still her child and still loves her? Will
not your Excellency be Americas agent
in this matter? Will you not, as the en-
bodiment of her strength and greatness,
unloose the bonds of the patient snffcrer,
who has so mcelsly and uncomplainingly
seen the spring blossom into summer and
summer fade into autumn-seenit through
his prison bars
Will you not release him before the
dreary winter comes, bringing with it SO
much of martial discomfort to his frail
and delicate body, and what is far worse
than the most acute physical suffering,
the wintry chill of hope deferred to his
soul which pines for freedom? Give him
back, we implorc you, to the women of
the South. lie is ours, and we love him !!
We bound up our hearts and souls in
him and the cause which he once repre-
sented. God has seen fit to permit that
cause to be lost forever, and we bow to
His decree In. all the bfoad South there
is no one so mad as to cherish the hope,
that Mr.. Davis may in any way be con-
nected with future, consonant with what
our wishes were when lie was invested
with the dignity which has proved 60 fa-
tai to him. No such thought has an cx-
istcncc; he has no future, and all our
hopes in him were connected wholly with
the past and are dead forever.
But we would be less than women, if
we forsooll him with whom the cause,
which we loved and have lost was identi-
fed, and womanlikc, we cling to him all
the more closely, because he is suffering
and stands in need of our sympathy.
The sweet and holiest season OF tho
year is fast approaching, bringing to hui
man remembrance Him who opened the
prison doors of the enchained universe,
and gave freedom to ransomed world
Will not your Exccllcncy make the
Christmas of 1865, a ycar..which has wit
nessed the reunion of q glorious country
and made you it's Chief Magistrate, by
giving as Christmas gift to tho women
of the South the freedom of Jefferson Da-
WIS.,