The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1872-06-13
The Bailing of JEFF. Davis.
GEO. ALFRED TowNsEND's DESCRIPTION OF
THE MEMORABLE SCENE.

"A !.
tbe memorable events here recorded were
enacted in the former capital of the Southern
Confederacy, yet we think it entirely approprl-
ate to furnish our readers with the annexed ac-
count:of the bailing of Jefferson Davis, writ
ten not long ago for the Chicago Tribune by its
famo,,s correspondent, George Alfred Town
send better known as "Gath." 1t is the best
description we remember to have seem OF the
most notable event connected with the war
since the surrender at Appomattox, and as a
contribution to current history Is well worthy
of preservation: ,r.,o
Nearly at this day of the year, five years
ago-a Friday in May received g. iloeral IL
offer from newspaper published IN Fa1lauel-
phia to 90 to Richmond, Va, and see Jefferson
Davis pleadto an Indictment for treason IN the
United States Court there.
I had been home from Europe, where had
gone to describe Napoleon's great Exposition,
only one week; and the proposition to again ;
review the battlefelds in the enyirons OF the
late Confederate capital, and to conclude my
adventures in the civil war with the last pa
peant it might present, affected me more favor
ably than the point to be gained at commerce.
At that moment I little presumed that, for hve nv.
wears vet to come, the appearance OF nostlh-
ties would continue, and the flame OF the ex-
piring brands of battle be nursed to light the
career of party camp-foliowers.
Itook the regular steamboat at Baltimore,
and slept down the bay. At daylight fortress
Monroe was disclosed above the sand-plts OF
Hampton Roads, with the flag OF the recovered re
country lazily waving above the paraPet. we
swung to at the pier, waited half an hour, and
then saw walk down the plank roadway from
the fort. with military officer on one side OF
him and a lady on the other, a thin, bent, gray
haired, unimposing, village-looking man, in a
suit of homemade gray or drab-JefeTson Da-
Wis. A couple of soldiers, think, Jagged be-
hind. and, altogether, there were not above
dozen people on the wharf in sigat beside
these.
Mr.. Davis did not come directly out to the
boat; but loitered there awhile in the warm
sunshine of that quiet Saturday, talking 70
General Duncan and Mrs. Davis, with the
smile of q sick man convalescent playing on
his face. was disappointed with his appear,
ance, for was familiar with his person and
face only from portraits on Confederate money
and from engravings. Those pictures heroized
him, and gave him classical profile and an
eve of ruling decision, which now he did not
show. Still, in this setting Of Hampton Roads,
the man could not be else than the central tig-
ure. The great law OF association made him
the parsonage to which everything in view was
subservientothe old Fort, which was the en-
tering wedge into the late Confederacy; the
yellow barrack peeping over the parapet where
he had been imprisoned; the wrecks OF frlgates
sunk in the roadstead by his navy; the oppo-
site cape of sand and wood, where lrlrked that
that morning, terrible as ever, the superstition
of the iron monster which had emerged thence
for the deliberate work OF destruction at the
command of his will. And now he was the
riddle and perplesity of his conqueror; this
thin old man, lust permitted to feel the breath
of liberty. whose name, for fear or wonder,
had gone round the world, and earned from a
cool head like Gladstone the opinion that
Jefferson Davis had made nation |" What
should the United States do with Jefferson Da-
Wis At law he might be hanged. Who
would hang him? The pulse of the country
Huttered, and everybody wanted somebody else
to take the responsibility.
I shall not attempt to wreck expression upon
the feelings that entertained as leaned over
the deck-rails of the steamer, and looked down
upon this man whose empire had been reab'
sorbed into ours, and whose active history was
done. Ihave never got over the fresh country
boys surprise at seeing the world, ana all real
news affects NE as phenomena. There was
neither resentment nor Judgment in my esti-
mate of fhis man, whom did not hold either
wholly OF in chief responsible for the great in
surrcction and its calamities. There is nobody
responsible for general revolution like that
which he led, any more than deluge Is the
fanlt of the channels it chooses or the accesso.
ries il receives. In the broad-spread evaporae
tion of slavery rose the energies of the storm
and the flood. This dam was treacherous, and
wonder reservoir bursts. Here and there
stauneh and loyal wall or column kept erect, to
be reyered when the waters subslde; but ne
who had seen the war for slavery from news
mans eyrie was not fit for his vocation who
should point out Jefferson Davis, and say
HThis was the rebellion p And. with an un,
defined, half-conscious sense OF the injustice OF
such an Interpretation, the popular mind look
ed uneasily upon its prisoner, and wished ne
had escaped to Mexico, or Canada, or Europe
on5 NOT remained the elephant that he was
nnon our hands. Should we hang him, and
afterward feel mean about it, and sanctify his
o;hbet to a dead cause? Should we keep him
IN iail as Elizabeth kept Queen Mary, and, at
the end, come to the same unwilling conclu'
e;on9 Should we set him free, and make re.
bellion cheap? Was it not party necessity
Was it o. human and patriotic necessity? What
,vould he have done to us under like circum
stances? stance, Should we apply our low estimate O.
his magnanimity to our OWN in the period O
At'the moment of awkward irresolution,
man in New York, out of his own notions O
the M needs and fitness of things, oebeyed an i'm
nulse rI which solved the problem. Horace
Greeley took the public mind off Jefferson Da "a
Wis and became, in turn, the best-aDused mar
in America. He obeyed the old law OF cards
aWhen in doubt, play trumpsr He playtst ytt
mercy and magnanity and closed ed uotdp1 up 6nt
of freedom, Whatever the motives OF ms "a ae
ss % Mr. Dan Voorhees, says, or a high and con
s;stent I principle, he made mercy success
TS1y Not under the apple-tree at Appomattox die
' tho Confederacy yield up its life, but under thu
~aI,ows.tree onT at Richmond. The most promi
Cent Ssnt man in the North wrote his name to th'
chief chief M traitors bond of security, and while W.
cayil ca about it to this day, the South, arden
and anxious again for restoration to fraterna