The Carolina Spartan. [volume] (Spartanburg, S.C.) 1852-1896, 1866-05-31
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- gA&ObINA SPARTAN
IsPU BLIsnED EvERY
THURSDAY MORNING,
AT
Two Dollars (Specie) In Advance.
Eloquent Tribute 10 Mr. Davis.
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One Square, First Insertion, 81; Subsequent
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The Fon du Lac (Wisconsin) Press, an
able and distinguished conservative jour
nal, pays the following tribute to the illus.
trious statesman and uncomplaing prisoner
ut Fortress Monroe, and makes demand
for his release on the purest grounds OF
reason. It says: @
"We have always regarded it as fixed
fact that sooner or later Jefferson Davis
would be released, without being brought
to trial, unless, indeed, his captors succeed
cd in their evident design to murder him,
by the slow torture of rigorous confinement
to which he has been subjected.
It would be impossible to convict him as
q traitor before any court, except, indeed,
q military commission, composed of such
creatures as the men whe pronounced the
death sentence upon Mrs. Surratt, whose
memories will be execrated through all
coming time.
=. Not only did Jefferson Davis commit no
act of treason. but we believe that first,
last and always, his acts were governed by
motives of the purest and most disinterest.
cd patriotism. He betrayed no sacred
trust, he made no effort to elevate himself
to positions of honor and power, like self
ish aspiring politician; but of all tho bril-
liant array Of Southern talent, eloquence
and genius assembled in the Senate cham.
ber at Washington, he was the acknowl-
edged leader and superior of all. When
the people of the State he represented
called upon him, as their Representative,
TO withdraw from Congress, he promptly
responded; and of all the Southern men,
bers who bowed their naughty farewell to
the Senate, he made the most polished and
courtly adieu.
At the time the government of the Con.
federacy was formed, his vast experience
and unequaled abilities as statesman made
him emphatically the leader Of the South,
while his pleasing address and intellectual
superiority over all the other distinguished
men of the South made him the idol of the
Southern people. He accepted the posi-
tion of President, not with any design Of
building up for himself splendid fortune
and enduring fame, but because he was
chosen to ill that position by the unani-
NOUS voice of eight millions of people, and
because he deemed it his sacred duty as a
patriot to remain true 20 the South in her
hour of peril.
How far he erred in making this final
decision, which cast his fortunes with
those of the Southern people, it is idle now
to inquire; to-day, as trairor, though he
Is branded, we honor and respect him,
while we despise such vile, base creatures
as Bolts and Brownlow, and can truly be-
ieve that Washington was not more ad-
mired and beloved by the patriots of the
Revolution than Jefferson Davis is by the
Southern people to-day. History fails to
point US an example of more entire una
nimity-we search the records in vain to
find On instance surprising the love and
devotedness they have exhibited for him.
1t is the very superiority of Jefferson
Davis which has caused all this persecution
and suffering. The Abolition fends well
know that he was no ordinary man, whose
splendid genius was 80 long the brightest
star in the Senate-they know it was no
weak, common mortal, who for four years,
controlled the destinies of eight millions of
people, and they fear the influence which
his giant intellect aud matchless eloquence
would exert in moulding the future DESTINY
of America. Knowing that it is impossi-
BILE to convict him of treason. tney hone to
dispose Of him by the slow torture of con-
fnement and privation.
But time and affliction have failed TO
bow his lofty spirit-insults, chains and
dungeons can never wholly destroy that
superiority, eloquence and genius with
which God has endowed him. TODAY.
emaciated with long months of confinement
in dreary fortress, guarded by bayonets,
and surrounded by Yankee spies and in.
formers, we recognize the same calm, state
!y, superior being who figured SO grandly
in the recent terrible drama of American
history-who crushed the Northern Sena-
tors by humiliating consciousness of their
own inferiority, when he made his high
toned adieu to the Senate.
For Jefferson Davis, we ask no Execu.
tive ciemency, for he has committed no
treason. For him we implore no pardon.
for he is no traitor; all wo ask, all we do.
sire, is that he shall receive a fair, impar.
tial trial, and his guilt or innocence be do.
oided by jury of his own countrymen.
But this, of all things, his enemies are de.
termined he shall not have--for they know
in this event, he would come forth with no
stain upon his character--no tarnish upon
his honor.