The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1866-06-21
Remarkable Defence of Mr.. Davis.

fence of the distinguished prisoner OF
Fortress Monroe, is copied from the Gin
cinnati Enquirer. Speaking of the health
of Mr.. Davis, as indicated by the Sur
geon's report, that paper says:
This is the treatment that is accorded
to man who, for four years, was at the
head of more than one-third of the States
of the American Union, and represented
their Government both at homo and
abroad. 1t is the kind Of revenge that is
taken upon an individual who was the
chief exponent of a national sentiment,
embracing country nearly as large as
the Continent of Europe, exclusive of
Russia. 1t indicates the manner in which
the dignity of the country ls displayed
towards4that great combatant, who for
years welded power that resisted forces
that would have overthrown any OF the
mighty monarchies upon the Continent OF
Europe. 1t is completing the record that
we are making up for future history. BY
that it will appear that the great hero OF
eleven sovereign States, after long and
desperate struggle with their twenty-five
compeers, at last, by the fortunes of war,
fell into our hands. There were many
times when trifing change of circum-
stances would have suficed to have
thrown the balance into the other scale.
A long career of success shone replondent
upon the banner of these Southern bellig-
erents in the strife The names of Bull
Run, first and second Shiloh, the Seven
Pines, of Gaines Mill, of Fredericksburg,
of Cedar Mountain, of Harper's Ferry,
of Charlottesville, of Antietam, of Chicka-
mauga, of Murfreesboro' and Gettysburg,
of Spottsylvania, of Coal Harbor, of the
Wilderness, of Charleston, and Richmond,
and Petersburg suggest the greatest
military events, both in their magnitude
and in the bravery and determination OF
their contestants that appear in modern
history. "Prisoner Davis" as he is called,
in the Fortress Monroe dispatch, had
under him military commanders as con-
summate as Marlborough, Wellington, or
Prince Eugene. He commanded others
who possessed the fire, the dash, the intre-
pidity and the heroic bravery of Marshals
Ney, Murat, Lannes and Davoust, the
great military palladins that surrounded
Napoleon 1. For four5years "Prisoner
Davis" was at Richmond, with his So
called Confederate Government within
one hundred and twenty miles Of the seat
of the American Government. A million
of soldiers under arms, the best in the
world, were not adequate to his capture.
1t required force as largo as that which
fought upon both sides at Austerlitz, or
jena. or Eylau, or Waterloo, or Fried
land, to protect our Government in its
Federal Capital. Men talked about it's
being a rebellion, an insurrection, but, in
fact, it asserted equal belligerent rights
with ourselves and all of the nations OF
Christendom. It's guns were heard for
mouths with trembling and alarm at
Washington, and it's hosts were seen in
great numbers from it's capitol spires and
domes. Its government was as strong
and as perfect in every respect, as much
founded in the choice of the people as the
one that ruled over us at Washington.
While we, blinded by the fumes of rage
and passion, had outlawed all this mighty
pcorle at the South, Of us who were con-
tending for the Constitution as it had been
by the ablest American states
men. their deeds and achievements had
awakened feeling akin to admiration in
their behalf in all the disinterested nations
of Christendom.
The names of Davis, of Lee and "Stono
wall' Jackson, of Joe Johnston, OF Long
street, of A. P. Hill, of Beauregard, OF
Hood, ofEwell, of Forrest, of Stuart, were
carried to the remotest boundaries OF
civilization and inspired evf.:. at the North
something warmer than mere respect.
At length vastly superior numbers and
some grave political mistakes of Jefferson
Davis decided the day against the eleven
sovereign States of the South. Their
leader fell into our hands, and we, to our
shame and disgrace, have been treating
him like felon and malefactor. The
treatment of Napoleon Bonaparte by tho
English Government upon the island of
st. Helena, which has been dark stain
upon the honor and fame of Great Britain,
was excellent and liberal compared to the
miserable prosecutions and torture of our
great Antagonist. Wehave sought most
ridiculonsly to belittle great national
transaction down to the dimensions OF an
odious or reasonable conspiracy. We
have practiced upon our illustrious pris-
oner the refined cruelty Of the Chinese,
in condemning him to death by the slow
torture of a want Of sleep. a man we'll
stricken in years, with constitution en-
fcebled by disease, and of the most deli.
cate organization, he has been confined
in prison for moro than year, subjected
to all the rude brutality that military
turnkeys could inhict, and that too by
those who in times past dare not brook
tho gaze of the eyes of the imprisoned
chiettain.
There is not a man of ordinary sense
and intelligence who does not know that
the nnesiion of the right Of O State to So