The tri-weekly standard. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1866-1868, 1867-06-01
HORACE cREELY AND JEFFERSON DAVIS.

by Mr.. Greeley's performances at Rich
mond last week have been sufficiently
strong and sufficiently numeroust to war
rant us in saying that, whatever differ
ence of opinion there may be as to Mr..
Greeley's motives, there is none at all
as to the responsiveness and inexpedien-
cy of his conduct. The majority Of the
Republican papers ascribe his appear
ance as Davis's first bondsman to a love
of notoriety which has been growing
on him for some years, and which now
finds expression in one way and now IN
another. They appear to think that,
having achieved as an editor all the dis
tinction within his reach, he signs for
the possession of some odder title to
fame, and wants to connect his name
with some startling political monstrosi
ty, or F" curiosity,' as his friend Barnum
would call it that he has the craving
for participation in any character In
practical life by which so many men OF
eminence as thinkers and scholars have
been afflicted, and not being able to Sc
nels, seeks it through the " sensational"
Others explain his course by ascribing
it to still loftier and more daring ambi-
ton, and support their theory by an
elaborate and highly entertaining analy-
sis of his character, which we have nei
ther the space nor the inclination to re-
produce. The examination ofmen's mo-
tives is a difficult and delicate task,
which even the most skiltul hand can
hardly perform without doing injustice,
and it is tolerably certain that no reve-
lations which the chemists of any party
are likely to make about Mr.. Greeley's
mental or moral composition shake the
faith of the farmers in him. Partly ow-
ing to his long and mistaken devotion
to the great principle of freedom, part
ly to the plainness, directness, and
bluntness of his style, and partly to the
innocent expression of his face, he has
secured hold upon the confidence of
the agricultural population which moth
ing short of downright betrayal of the
cause to which his life has been devoted
will weaken, SO that even large pro-
portion of those who are most disguised
by his kindness to Jefferson Davis will
not ascribe it to low motives. He mi ght
do worse things than this and yet find
himself popular in the (" unpaved dis
tricts."
But we do not need to show that in
bailing Jefferson Davis he was actuated
by any purely selfish motives in order
to prove him guilty of that kind of blum
der which, when committed by man
in his position, deserves almost as severe
punishment as if it were piece ofsheer
baseness. He would and probably will |
defend himself by saying that the first
necessity Of the country at the present |
moment is peace and reconciliation, that
Davis was no more guilty than the rest
of the rebels, that the war was in reali-
ty only a rough mode of deciding be-
tween two contending principles, that
no good purpose can now be served by |
Furnishing anybody, and that the sooner
we can lead the South to forgive and |
forget, the better will it be for all par.
ties, and that there is no better mode of |
doing this than having a prominent |
anti-slavery man like himself help to |
get the chief of the rebellion restored to !
liberty.
Now, this is a statement of just half
the truth. The restoration of peace and |
harmony between North and South is |
no doubt of great Importance, but the
means taken to secure it is Of just as
great importance. If there be anything |
which the press, the pulpit, the prayers,
the hymns, the speeches, the CONVERSE
lions of the North have been emphatic |
in affirming during the last six years, it
IS that the late war was not merely
contest for empire, as Earl Russell call |
ed it, not merely struggle to settle
political difference, but struggle be-
tween moral right and moral wrong
1t was on this special ground that the
Dvectives hurled against France and
England were justified. These coun-
tries were told over and over again,
that were the war simply a war tor the
Union we should neither ask nor expect
their sympathy. 1t was not to be ex-
pected that they should greatly care
whether the North American continent
was covered by one political organiza-
ton or by two. TO Frenchmen and
Englishmen the American flag from a
purely political point of view was no
more than the Brazilian or Paraguayan
flag.
We took far higher than political
ground. We said that the rebellion
was an immoral enterprise, conceived
and carried out not by mistaken men,
but by bad and rupulous men, ami
mated by corrupt and selfish motives,
and determined to gain their ends at
whatever cost or suffering to others
We said, too, that not only was the en-
terprise immoral, but that the means
deliberately employed to ensure it's sue
cess were inconceivably wicked, and in
volved the commission of the toulest
crimes-perjury, treason, murder, and
robbery. Nowhere has the deliberate
villany of the Confederate leaders been
more uproariously exposed than in the
columns Of The Tribune, and in fact it
is this very villany which has been al
ways used by Mr.. Greedy as reply to
the statement that the South voluntari
" seeded from the Union, which he has
always maintained stoutly she had
right to do.
1t was, therefore, not solely because
the South sought to leave the Union,
but because she sought to leave it by