Bellows Falls times. [volume] (Bellows Falls, Vt.) 1856-1965, 1871-04-21
From the Boston Journal.
Dead or Live Issues |?

tiles tnal nave Deen torpid Throughout
the winter. In the political world, also
something or other-whether it be the
New Hampshire election, the increased
Democratic strength in the new House
of Representatives, or the dissensions de.
veloped amongth friends of the Admin.
istration by the San Domingo project, we
cannot say-seems to have brought out
anew such manifestations of the old reb-
ell sentiment as we have not witnessed for
a long time before. The very head of
the rebellion, which has maintained a
decorous silence for years, has at length
found encouragement to resume its old
style of utterances. Jefferson Davis,
who recently spoke at Selma, Ala, is re-
ported as follows:
| Proceeding in an exultant tone, he
declared that State sovereignty, although
defeated in the late strug lie, will ulti-
mateiy triumph; its day of success might
not come in his time, but he would live
and die in the belief that it would surely
triumph. He declared that no people
on earth had ever suffered as had the
Southern people since the surrender of
the Southern armies, and he loved them
for the fortitude with which they had
borne the oppression heaped upon them.
He had always been willing to give his
life for his people, and now, if any Yam
b M 81 H. IlooI
any action of the Southern people, they
could take it, On him the government
had done its worst, and for himself he
did not care, but for the sake of the peo-
pie whom he loved, he would forbear to
express more fully the feelings of his
heart. He never had asked pardon for
what he had done, and he never would,
for he felt that he had done no wrong"
That carries us back ten years ago, to
the old "let us alone" epoch, when Davis
began the struggle of which he is still
so sanguine The same influences that
have thawe6 him out have stil red large
section of the democratic press of the
South to similar avowals of sentiment,
accompanied with virtual demand that
the Northern Democracy shall stop talk
ing about dead issues" The Augusta
(Ga.) Constitutionalist says plainly:
1t may as we'll be understood first as
last, that the Democrats in the States
tyrannized over by carpet bag rule do not
in end to surrender the right of discus
sion and redress of their grievances to
the decision of Democrats in other States
who have II ever felt these wrongs"
And again:
" Nothing is irreversible which the
mongrels have done TO our Federal sys-
tenn unless the South gives up. The dead
cannot be brought back, but all the SOW
ereignty which has been stolen from the
States can be regained or will be, if the
South is not whipped in its manhood"
The Lagrange GA Reporter recently
said:
Give us the true, the genuine Democ-
racy, that is not afraid to denounce the
usurpations of Congress, in its work of
reconstruction, as unconstitutional, null
and void"
The Alabama Advertiser, alluding to
the constitutional amendments and to the
reconstruction measures of Congress,
says:
Now, this evil work must be undone:
the United States Government must be
deprived of the powers it has obtained
by statutory usurpations and coerced
amendments, in perversion not only of
the Constitution, but of the inherent
rights of the people,"
The Mobile Register says:
I" Is the old issue dead yet? Not bit
Of 1t. In our country viIlany, cheat
and fraud is apotheosized as dead
issue IN two years after its successful per-
The Montgomery (Ala.) Mail saws
hat the duty of Southern Democrats is
o "strike first, last and all the time, for
our own (Southern) people, whatever
he National organization may dictate
% the contrary"
The Savannah News denounces those
who are willing to accept the "new de-
oarture," views of the New York World
md ex-senator Hendricks, as "mush
md milk Conservatives" Other South
I'm papers declare that there il no differ
'nce between the accept the situation
democrats and the republicans, and
he only democrat who differs in the
east from a radical is one who is of the
Frank Blair stamp"
Now what do these things mean? Has
my thing been settled by the terrible
we have gone through, or are
.he spared monuments of the rebel.
Ion ready and eager to fight their old
issues over again as soon and as far as
hey can get the chance This is what
he people want to know, and the sooner
he better. They want to know also, the
opinion of the Northern democratic lead
'rs about it. On this point we call at
ention to the following extract from
Washington letter written to the Utica
Herald by its editor, Hon. Ellis H. Rob-
srts, now member of the House of