New national era. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1870-1874, 1873-08-28
Jefferson Davis


records or views of the late unpleasantness.
Like all occasions, when Mr.. Davis opens
his mouth, he says something which betrays
the shallOwness of his brain and the traitor
Gus character of his feelings. The foremost
man in the defunct Confederacy, elected by
circumstances rather than By the will of the
Southern people, he was one OF those whom
Malvolis enumerates as having greatness
thrust npon Them" and he proved By his
subsequent double course towards his asso-
ciates, by his duplicity and envy, that he was
untitled to be leader of a successful rebellion.
His mean spirit was seen in the uncivilzed
methods of warfare he resorted to, in his
employment of Sanders, Thompson Il Co.
His cowardce was exemplifed in his dis
graceful fight, and his assumption of female
apparel to assist his disguise. There is no
more clustering prOnunciamento, ridiculous
hero in history than this same president of
the southern Confederacy. And yet this
man, who accepted the hospitality of the
North, just previous to the war, to disparage
free institutions and free labor, and to spy
out the resources of the Northern people
this failure az president and traitor, who
owes his head to the mistaken and misplaced
cemency of General Grant and the national
Government, again forfeits that clemency
and insults the nation whose paroled pris-
Oner he ought to be, by the following trea-
sonable uttcrances
Too long had we delayed the vndication of
I mn Many of ! ho OF bo 4 Lon
home to their fathers yet perhaps the delay
hadnot been altogether unfortunate, for those
who felt most deeply found il hard to uncover
their whole heart. The prospects were
brighter now, and truth crushed to earth
would rise AGAIN. We had been more cheat
ed than conquered by the declaration of the
Federal President, Congress, and Generals.
Would there have been a surrender if we had
expected what has followed? We were told
the war was merely carried on to maintain
the Mon. Had we tOreseen the result, we
would to-day have been free. He referred
TO the objects of the association, and said
| there were now scattered scraps of history
that should be collected to perpetuate the
deeds of our fallen soldiers and vindicate the
action OF our country that great care should
be taken with the collection OF every scrap,
as mankind was deeply interested in the
constitutional causes that led to the war.
He referred to the commercial rights of
the South, and how they had suffered, and
the decadence of both commerce and liberty.
In referring to the moral and religious causes,
and the idea that because we did not succeed
we were necessarily wrong, he said that in
cause like ours the great Creator must have
looked down with an approving smile; that
we do not always see the workings for good
in the ways of the Great Father that our
chastisement might be designed to lead to the
triumph of the principles for which we strug-
gled. He had received a letter from gentle
man in Massachusetts, which said that man.
kind owed debt of gratitude to the Southern
people for their efforts in behalf of that CON
stitutional liberty which men ware so rapidly
forgetting; that our story had only been half
told, hut when men came to look upon it
without passion, and the whole truth had
been told, would we then be condemned before
the world? No, no, These facts must be
gotten together. twas due to the unrecOrd-
ed dead, who had fought for truth and died
in patriotic cause. While this organization
cannot write the history of this war, yet it
could collect material from which future his
torians might obtain the facts. Would not
| our enemies-or, in the phrase Of the day,
our Northern brethren-make up at least
| and take the hand of oppression from off our
Southern daughters, or are we in that deca-
dence of all that is honorable, to be brought
to the condition Of which the Irish poet sang:
'Unhonored thy sons, till they have learned
to betray;
Undistinguished they live, if they shame
not their sres
And the torch that will light them to dignty's
way,
Must be caught at the pile where their
country expires
If Tins va rnTst seek the rood IN ,,rat;.r,,,opt
who would not live life of obscurity in pre-
ference? He had hope in the future founded
on the fact that he had never seen a recon-
structed Southern woman, and while the
men of the present day might yield the prin-
ciples for which they struggled, yet he hoped
the children who succeed them would grow
up to maintain and perpetuatc them and
redeem all that we had lost.
He thanked the audience for their kindly
expressions of good will, and as to the mem
bers of the association, he hoped that their
steps might always be onward to prosperity,
and following in the steps Of that grand old
Early, who never faltered during the war,
and never failed since our flag went down,
they were sure to accomplish their object.
Admiral Semmes, more correctly the
Pirate of the Alabama, but now clerk in a
trunk factory, was present, and offered
resolution asking permission of the National
Government, which he despised, 10 examine
our archives. We stand aghast at the I'M
blushing earontery Of these undis.used
traitors, and scarcely know which most
to admire, the forbearance OF a Govern
ment which permits such reasonable utter
ance5 or the presurntiyeness Of the rebels
who announce them. AT the banquet after
the convention, THE health Of our much
loved and respected President, Mr.. Jefferson
Davis" was proposed along with other
traitorous and imprudent toasts. These are
the men who wish to write the Southern his
tory of the war, as Aleck Stevens has writ
ten Southern histories and others have writ
ten Southern readers, spoilers, etc. If there
was ever any doubt with regard to the
purpose Of the Conservatives of Virginia
under the lead Of kemper i Co., it is seen
in these gatherings intended to hre the
Southern heart, and got ten up under the aus
pices Of the left wing Of the Conservative
party of the State to help the right wing
now contending against the Union Republ-
can forces under Hughes and Ramsdell. If
Messrs. Davis, Letcher, Early, Semmes,
kemper and company, would learn TO appre-