Spirit of Jefferson. [volume] (Charles Town, Va. [W. Va.]) 1844-1948, 1867-01-15
TUESDAY. JANUARY Is, 1861.


imaginedthat the distinctness of their vision
was enhanced by distance from the scene of
conflict and an exemption from the disturb>
ing elements of whistling bullets and burst>
ing she'll. Perhaps other writer's of the same
class may follow, aud various speculations be
INDUCED in as to the cause of our disasters.
As Tor myself, have not undertaken tospec-
ulate as to the causes of our fni!uFa, a. lave
sen abundant reason for it iu the tremendous
odds brought against US. Having had some
means of judging, / will, however, say that,
in my opinion, both President Davis and
General Lee, in their respective spheres, did
all for the success of our cause which it was
possible for mortal men to do, and tits great
privilege and comfort for me so to believe and
to haYe been able to bring with me into exile
profound love and veneration for those great
man.
In regard to my own services, all have to
say is, that Lhave the consciousness of having
done my duty to my country, to the very best
of my ability, aud whatever my fate, Iwould
not exchange that consciousness for untold
millions. l have.come into exile rather than
submit to the yoke Of the oppressors of my
country but have never thought of attrib
uting aught of blame or censure to those true
men who, after having nobly done their duty
in the dreadful struggle through which we
passed, now that it has gene against us, re-
main to share the nisiortunes of their pco-
pie, and to aid and comfort them in their
trials; on the contrary L appreciate and hon
or their motives | have not sought refuge
in another land from insensibility to the
wrongs aud sularings of my own country;
but feel deeply and continually for them,
aud could my life secure the redemption of
that country. as it has boep often risked, SO
now it would be freely given for that object.
There were men born and nurtured in the
| Southern States and some of them in my own
State, who took sides with our enemies, and
aided in desolating and humiiating the land
of their own birth, and of the graves of their
| ancestors. Some of them rose to high posi-
tions In tnu Uu;ted States army, and Others
to high civil positions. envy them not
their dearly brought prosperity. had rather
be the humblest private soldier who fought
in the ranks OF the Confederate army and
now, MANNED and disabled, hobbies on his
crutches from house to house, to receive his
daily bread from the hands of the grateful
women for whose homes he fought, than the
highest of those renegades and traitors Let
them enjoy the advantages of their present
positions as best they may for the deep and
bitter execrations of an entire people now
attend them, aud en- Immortality of infamy
awaits them.
As for all the enemies who have oycrruu or
aided in overrunning my country, there is q
wide and impossible gulf between u.s. in
which l see the blood Of slaughtered friends
comrades, and countrymen, which all the wa
ters in the irmanent above and the seas be-
meath cannot wash away. Those enemies
have undertaken to render cur cause odious
and infamous and among other. atrocities
committed by them in the effort to do SO, an
humble subordinate, poor Wirz, has been Sc
lected victim to fendish spirit, and
bascly murdered under an executive edict,
founded on the sentence of vindictive and
illegal tribunal. Let them continue this sys-
TEN they are but erecting gmoQpments to their
own eternal dishonOr, and furnishing finger
posts to guide the historian in his researches.
They may employ the infamous Holt, with
his bureau Of Military Justice" to sacrifice
other victims on the altars Of their hatred.
and. provost marshals, and agents of the
"Freedmen's Bureau" may riot in all the IL
cense Of petty tyranny, but our enemies can
no more control the verdict of impartial his
tory, than they can escape that deem which
awaits them at the fual Judgment.
During the war, slavery was used as catch
word to arouse the passions of fanatical mob.
and to some extent the prejudices of the civ
ilized world were excited against us but the
war was not made on our part for slavery
High dignitaries in church and state in Old
England, and puritans in New England, had
participated in the profits Of a trade, by which
the Ignorant and barbarous natives of Africa
were brought from that country, aud sold
into slavery in the American Colonies. The
generation in the Southern States which de-
Tended their country in the late war, found
amongst them, in civilized and christianized
condition, 1900, GOO of the descendants of
those degraded Africans. The Almighty
flrootnr oF l,a -Dir ho1 u
indclibly, with a different color and an infe-
riOr ply steal and mental organization. He
had not doRc this from mere caprice or wh;m
but for wise purposes. An amalgamation Of
the races was in contravention of His designs,
or He would not have made them SO differ
ent. This immense number of people could
not have been transported back to the WiIds
from which their ancestors were t3kep. or If
they could have been, it would have resulted
In their relapse into bGrbarisin. Reason.
common sense, true humanity to the black,
as well as the safety of the white race, re-
qulred that.the inferior race should he kent
in state of fsuborG nation. The condition. IF
domestic sla'cry, it existed in the South.
had not only resulted in great Improvement
in the moral and physical condition of the
negro race, but had furnished class of la
borers as happy and contented as anyin the
world, if not more so. Their labor had NOT
only developed the immense resources of the
immediate country in which they were loca-
ted, but was the main source Of the great
prosperity of the United States, and furnish
ed the means for the employment of millions
of the working classes in other countries-
Nevertheless the struggle made by the people
of the South was not for the institution of
slavery, but for the inestimable. right of self.
government, against the domination of ia
-natical faction at the North and slavery was
the mere occasion of the development of the