Spirit of Jefferson. [volume] (Charles Town, Va. [W. Va.]) 1844-1948, 1873-09-16
Spirit Of geffersol1.
charlestown, Jererson County, West Va.
TUESDAY MORNING, sEPrEMBER 10, 1918.
SPEECH OF JEFFERSON DAVIS
BEFORE THE
Southern Historical Society.

| Historical Society at the Montgomery White
Sulphur Springs. Two or three opinions ex
pressed by the speaker have excited unusual
attention throughout the country; the news.
papers of the North, which approved the late
| Mr.. Thaddeus Stevens scheme of general con.
fiscation at the South, and that great Radical
leaders amiable disposition to employ the
halter TOR "rebels, as the most efficient means
| of reconstruction, having led all others in de-
nounciug the speaker aud his speech. What
| did Mr.. Davis say to cause the denunciation
1st. "That the Southern people had been
more cheated than conquered" in the result
| of the war between the States:
I'd. f.The men of this day NAV Weld the
principles for which they conteuded. but the
children who succeed them will cherish aud
| perpetuate them :"
Sd. 81 have yet to see the first Southern
woman who has been sreconstructed.'"
These were the utterances of the speaker,
which have been seized upon, like the red rag
OF the spanish Matadore, in order to excite a
bovine craze among the multitude
| In a subsequent interview with the Editor
of the Memphis Appeal Mr.. Davis explained
the above expressions opinons. He said
substantially follows: The war vvas waged
on the part of the North ostenaibly to restore
the Union under the Constitution. It was
the reiteration of this purpose by solemn Con-
eressional resolutions, Executive proclama-
tions, and military orders by all tho leading
Generals of the Union Armies, which. in the
| opinion of Mr.. Davis, led to tho desertions
| from the Southern Armies in the winter of
lS6i-65, aud the consequent overthrow of
the Confederate cause. If the "Union under
the Constitution" exists to>day, or has existed
at any day since the close of the war, then
Mr.. Davis was wrong in this specification of
Falo L.
right in his deduction, that without the in.
tervention of this declared object of the war
on the part of the Federal Government before
the cessation of the struggle, the result would
have been different, is entirely beside the ques-
ton. Is the allegation itself true or false p
1t true, Mr. Davis has much right as any,
body else to draw his conclusions from the es-
tabllshed fact. IF false, then of course his
conclusions from it must also be false, for there
can ho no effect without a cause
| During the the women of the South
were INIT in heart, soul, mind. and works.
| They believed that the G government t established
at Montgomery in 1861 was good Govern
ment, and when the,infant progeny Of Free
dom was baptized in fire at Sumter and in
blood at Bull Run. Southern women. in the
midst of their patriotic tears, flung forth the
Ritual of its Conservation 10 the world and
like the old martyrs of the Coliseum they
vowed to sink or swim, survive or perish,
with the Southern Cause engraved upon their
hearts. Let anybody point out Southern
woman who has ever been faithcss to her
| love.-postmistress employee, 'sschoolmarm''
or what not, and it can easily be shown that
| the Southern female recipients of Federal
favors were either Southern women with
Northern principles or feminene "scallawags"
and traitors during the war. This is NIr.
| Davis opinion, aud, as it is boosted that this
Is free county, no one can justly object to
his entertaining it. When he declared as
corollary to this opinion OF his (Which is 80
Questionable just now, that he had vet to
meet the first ':reconstructe6" Southern
woman. he only paid beautiful and delicate
compliment to the sex. lie meant but to say
that the Southern women priced honor and
principle above peIf and ducats, aad it is
gratifying to find that one man is vet bold
enough to pay our women the Inerited but now
rarely expressed compliment which Eve wears
ago was commonplace in the mouth of every
man who ventured to address Southern ar>
dience. In concluding this commentary on
the argument of Mr.. Davis il ia only me-
! cessary to add that if the theory of Govern.
meut which the South fought for is wise one
and conducive to the liberties of the people.
certainly the possession of ten guhs to one and
FIVE soldiers to one by the North over the
South cannot be construed into proof that
State rights and local self-government are
| synonymous with treason.T If the next gem
Grafton should grow up to believe in and follow
the theory which the prescott generation has
lost or disregardcd, it would be difficult to
establish by any sound reasoning that such
rege"erafed faHh would be different from that
which made Washington patriot and efFer.
son political prophet and law-giver. So
much for the direct question at issue.
1t is too true, however, that large nuns
Der of people, not only at the North, but here
| in the South well. will continue to denounce
Mr.. Davis, without pausing to reflect whether
he is right or wrong, patriot, or criminal.
One of the old, and greatest of the publicists
| tells US that the ma jority of mankind seldom
| stop to think; they satisfied to feel
"While it be true" says Putfendorf in his own
quaint way, "tkat reason be the filter to COM
| maud, yet sense will always hold the larger
empire" A word or two, therefore, to this
gregarious class may not he amiss Suppose
it be admitted, argumentatively, that Mr..
Davis was altogether wrong in saying what he
did say before the Historical Society. Is
there no extenuation to be offered for the
shortcoming? What manner of man is this,
whose offense cries aloud to Heaven for ven>
geance? A traitor! cries the Northern
demos. An impracticable Bourbon answers
back the Southern disciple in the new school
of Capitalization. Ten years ago hundred
| thousand swords would have leapt from their
scabbards at the word of Jefferson Davis A
whole people rose up to proclaim him their
leader. Under the flag of the Union he had
done battle without fear and without reproach
ON the fields of Mexico In the Federal
Senate and Cabinet he served the State and
kept alive, with few others. the glory and
pride of that Statesmanship which had made
the South the arbiter of the destinies of the
Union from 1776 to the death of Calhoun
! What voice rang grandly out in the dark hour