The Portland daily press., 1871-06-16

Jefferson ID.
Several days ago it was asserted in New
York paper that the Democratic leaders III
Flew York would advise Mr.. Davis to keep
lis mouth Shut and that he had been written
IL by party friends imploring him' ior the
present, to maintain discreet silence. IL is
quite evident that Jefferson ID. has heard
from these parties and learns that he has |
made sad mistake. Things have changed. |
Threats of treason are no longer the best az
puments of the Democracy. Buster has had |
its day.
But the method that Mr.. JEFF Davis takes
TO escape the accusation of his party friends
Tor his untmey yet honest utterances is as
cowardly and mean as the most cowardly
and mean things that he ever did. He now
now says that he did not give expr ession to
many OF the sentiments that appear in his
printed speeches. 1t is the work OF Yankee
reporters. Now, Mr.. Davis! Yankee report
ers, indeed; when the speech first appeared
III Southern Democratic organ. This may
appease Mr.. Davis party organs that have for
the past few weeks been wishing that he had
been hung or had been brought to some end
where his speeches cannot be reported Mr..
Davis says that he proposes to live a well OIL
dered life, and by all means obey the laws of
the country.
But Mr.. Davis has had occasion to know
how fearfully Democratic papers can berate
even Democrat when he is poweIless. He
has possibly thought that if these political
friends had been as plain with him in 1861
he never would have organized the Confeder-
acg. But he remembers how these gave him
their sympathy and many of the leaders their
aid.
All the disasters that are likely to come
from this speech might have been avoided If
Mr.. Davis had been called into that consult
alton which Vallandigham, Judge Chase
and the Tammany magnates monopolized.
Had Mr.. Davis known the secret of The "new
departure" with its Interpretations he
been apprised of this new device to emascu-
late the Amendments and regain through
strategy all that the Democracy in the South
had lost-he would never have made that
speech.
Mr.. Davis imagined that the Democracy
were going to continue their direct attacks
upon their radical enemy, by battering down
his citadel and at length stormine his posi-
ton. 1t was to be done, too, by the old Dem.
ocratic artillery, smooth-bored and short
ranged, to be sure, but still honored by more
than twenty-five years constant service under
such leaders as Davis, Toombs, Pierce and
Seymour. 1t never entered the mind of that
honest Democrat of Mississippi that the
party were to clothe themselves in the uni.
forms of the enemy and carrying his arms
seize the position by strategy and then
then despoil it.
Had Mr.. Davis been called to that confer.
ence and apprised of the plan of the cam
paign, had the new revelation been made te
him, he would never have fired the Southern
heart and the Northern Indignation.
Every way as worthy a Democrat as Mr.
Vallandigham, what a stroke of policy II
would have been to have had Mr.. Davis made
the prophet of the new dispensation instead
OF making that unfortunate speech at Atlanta
and which he now attempts to shit off upon
the wicked Yankee reporters