The daily phoenix. [volume] (Columbia, S.C.) 1865-1878, 1866-05-22
COLUMBIA.
Tuesday Morning, May 20, 1866.
Jefferson Davis.

SudLe ,Ol uAS uSaAeiA, VIC khH'iAiO"S
charge of Judge Underwood, and the
packing of his grand jury, at Norfolk,
together with the approaching trial
of the distinguished prisoner-have
all created deep interest throughout
the entire country. If the trial
should come off, it will be the most
important that has ever taken place
in this country. We consider it SO,
because it will decide, if conducted
according to the high and digniiied
rules and comfy of fair-dealing,
which have heretofore characterized
American jurisprudence, i'll its high
est Courts, in what treason consists,
and whether or not there are not, to-
day, men within the portals OF the
capitol at Washington who are
greater traitors than any man at the
South, including Jefferson Davis,
ever was or ever intended to be.
There are vital questions involved in
this trial, that will enlist the interest
Of the whole world. From the able
counsel employed, from the nature of
the charge, and from the unhappy
causes which have brought about his
capture and indictment, we have no
doubt the investigation of the charge,
committed, perhaps. to the ablest
lawyers in the country, will throw
more light upon the constitutional
principles upon which our Govern
ment is founded, and add more to the
fund of political knowledge supposed
to be possessed by the people, than
any event Which has happened since
the independence manifesto of the
fathers of the republic.
But we wish to write of Jefferson
Davis, so long honored by the South
ern people, SO soon to be tried for
the highest crime that can be com
mitted against a Government Urea
SON." Treason! There is no sane
man in the late .so-called" Confede-
rate States there is no sensible man
IN the United States-who believes in
his heart, to-day, that Jefferson Davis
is more guilty of treason, more deeply
dyed in rebellion, than the hundreds
of thousands of those gallant men
who, at the call of their respective
States, marched promptly to the front,
and who, for years, manfully fought,
heroically contended and endured, for
the cause they had espoused. Not
one whit more guilty of treason is
Jefferson Davis, than are the mem
bers of the late Confederate Congress,
the Secretaries of the Confederate
Government, the Generals of the
Confederate armies, the officers OF
the line or the rank and file. If the
one is guilty of treason, they all are,
and Underwood had better embraced
the millions of the South-men and
women-in his abominable charge to
the men he had gathered together as
a grand jury, and had these millions
enrolled in the indictment, then
select one of the purest men-what-
ever his errors in judgment may have
been-that the South could boast
of-a man whose antecedentS the
proudest of the land would not blusl
to own-for honor, gallantry, pro
bity, intellectual attainments, polish
ed manners and high social position
During the brief and fitful life O.
the late Confederacy- Throughout it:
temporary successes and it's depress
ing reverses up to the hour of it.
final Observation-Disclosures Davis ex
hibited some of the highest traits 0
character as patriot and statesman
We believe he was heart and sou
with the cause which the people VIII,
had selected him as their Chief Ma
gistrate had believed it their duty t,
espouse, and we have never know
him to shrink from any duty, respon
sibihty Or labor his position require,
of hfp. In many instances, espe
cially. in relation to military affairs