Nashville union and American. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1868-1875, 1872-05-25


hin with aaeciion and admiration. Th
: domestic lie If the South, barrlng slavery
always commanded the respect Of North
erners,r The women were true ana gooc
the men believed III their wives. Inc bes
I Of slavery WA the white mistress -,
It was noble day for broad river seen
/ cry and the peace feeling. was q 4ha
accidental extraction which knew the Vir
tues Of the South and abhored its hump
From my childhood / hated slavery, and
took no Wendell Phillips nor any other fu
gitive egotism 20 ten me the Sin, and out
cry of human nature, irresponsible or de
fenceless AGAINST it, The country in which
l was born was a protest against less thar
slavery; the human nature of which par
took had revolution IN its blood against
slavery. Perhaps I am provincial in the
belief that, had the North assumed nc
stand against this domestic monster, We
small shareholders in the border South
would have proceeded against and conquer.
ed it at less cost. But, thanks to God
there is no constitution for It now, except
the great bill Of rights in every magnani-
nous breast, which cries aloud to us, ssNot
those only, but ourselves kept slavery alive.
It was the Inheritance Of the ages. It was
the devils bastard asking to be legitima-
tized."
We arrived, at night, near Rockets, be-
| low Richmond. There were gathered up a
great lot of Gathering cavalry, the sole at
tempt Of the United STATES to give mon
archical gasconade to a small arrest. After
| the popular force subsidies In this country,
the representative criminal is shadow A
young msn named James Mcdonnell cried
70 ha ant I'D
the New York Triblme):
"Gatb, you are the luckiest newspaper
man alive"
he supposed had been taking advantage
Of Mr.. Davis. My annoyance of Mr.. Da is
had been circumscribed by looking at him
half dozen times when courtesy allowed,
during the daylight. II he sees this paper,
he viii be, perhaps, for the first time, aware
that he Travelled a whole day up the James
river in company With newspaper CORES
pondent.
SABBATH BEFORE COURT.
The next day was Sunday. A beautiful
Sabbath-day, indeed, with the green leaves
out on the trees, and all the hills of Rich
mond grassy fresh. It is beautiful city
by nsture-the Montreal of the States, rap
Ids aud Underwater meeting, heights and
raEines all round about, and In very little
Southern town. We met together, North
ern and Southern journalists, as cordially
as if the war had never been, using the
same phrases, b0n-nsctS, gestures, Ameri-
canisms. What bosh to try to make two
States out of the same man, two directions
to the same river, and lifelong enemies of
two fellows whom echo cannot but con-
found! We use the sam grammar, smoke
thesSme tobacco, spit and swear just alike,
and do equally mean things under the cover
of party loyalty. Several Of US rode out to
see the old forts-mighty works, and proof
that the South was no more lazy than the
North, andf as enterprisiDg when it had
a necessity or a resolve. There gaped
the bomb-proofs there yawned the maya
zines; there black man was gathering fag-
gots from the abattis for frewood. The
peace feeling was over all; the white sky
hung out its cirrus s. andard; the water cool
ed the eyes of man; the grass almost grew
in our sight to cover the scars of conflict In
the landscape. Did you ever think what
great race of men live at the South, to have
been subject to the licentious and profigate
contact Of slavery for twenty generations,
and still preserve such energies and 80 much
manly character? We miss them from our
public counsels to-day. How capable and
direct they were in foreign diplomacy
courtesy and chiValry, truth and death in
their address, Then, shareholders as we
were, the world knew that we said no more
than we meant. We did not needlessly ir
ritate our peers among the nations with
sardonic sentences like Bancroft Davis.
With the glove in his hand, and the talk of
a kings herald, the SOutherner made his
to the foreigner. Of him it
might be said, as of Cromwell:
awhile he lived, no Dutchman swept the
narrow seasl No Castlemaines dishonored
the high placesl Vice and folly trembled
in his eye, and all good things lay safe be-
meath his mighty shadow"
My friends at Richmond, what do you
bother with these old, threadbare Demo-
cratic politicians at the North for? All their
great men are dead. They represent moth
ing but bundle of resentments. Many of
them carry Grants shilling in their breech-
es' pockets. Come with US, who reco gnize
nothing but the future, and, as Gratz Brown
said three years ago, ''Before God, men of
Missouri, We win give you new era in this
State!'
That Sunday there was good deal Of ne
gro parading. Cuf'y was out in blood-red
uniform and gold gimp, riding horseback at
the head of his column, and taking a NAL
icious pleasure in passing before Jeff's hotel.
They have had the good sense at Richmond
not to be annoyed atsthis, and now white
troops and negro troops salute each Otner
there on WashingtOn's birthday.
THE COURTROOM.
Monday morning the United States granite
building was the rendezvous. 1t stood at
the foot of the State capitol hill, where the
Davis Government ruled with brief but
tremendous energy, and where all depart
ments quarreled, and old JEFF. himself
showed all the weakness and strength of
destructionist. In this courtroom presided
a very forbidding- looking Judge, by name
Underworld man apparently stunted and
bleeched by wrongs and fears, but, for all
know, a consistent and persistent man
born in the North, welded to a Shareholders
daughter for whom he was tutor, and now
very ambitious and uncharitable to his
beaten neighbors. The charge this man
had delivered to the Grand Jury, few days
before, was a strong instance of merely
tantalizing defamation, bad in spirit, mean
in language and without the tone or intent
Of justice in it.
The grand jury was composed of whites |
and blacks-the usual intelligent jury eX-
isting in halfguilty dependence between
the judge and the foreman. John Minor |
Bolts was on the jury-a big-bellied, hale
fellow, farmer politician, twO-Shirds dema- |
gOgue, and one-third obstinacy, with the |
varnish and veneer Of eloquence over all;
a talker by profession, who boosted that he !
had never read book since boyhood, but |
lived on newspapers and other stimulants. |
He is dead, and carved his page on the
history of the country. What contrary and |
heroic things men do for many years to get
hat page
JEFF. MEETS HORACE.
The light was fair in the courtroom,
and, in due time, JEFF. Davis entered. He
wore common clothes, looked weak-eyed,
was not an important-lookiDg man, and
seemed to me not worth so much hating
and fuss. He had been very unpopular in
but the people naturally felt
hat he was now vicariously on trial for
hem, and they Loyalty stood by him.
There are people, know, who want the
southern people to behave as Bancroft Da-
MS expected England to behave-like weep
ng funkeys, running over at the eyes and
Ups with apologies. Our fellow-man is no
Iwindler. When be carries his musket
pY1r mara har IN l-aa, ha in |