The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1873-09-04
Southern History-Mr. Davis Speech.


the Historical Convention, has excited the ire
and stirred the bile of many journals, North
and South. We gave synoptical report of the
speech last week, containing all that was cal
culatsd to offend in any quarter, but the full
report gives evidence of beauty and pathos not
embodied in the synopsis, and shows that Mr..
Davis has lost none of his power and eloquence
as an orator, albeit the fires Of his youth are
spent and the measure of his ambition passed
away. Among the numerous comments of the
newspapers upon this speech, we find the fol-
lowing article in the New York Journal of
Commerce, which is a temperate expression of
dissent from Northern standpoint, but which,
for its kindly advice in regard to the collection
of historical data, deserves place in our
columns:
The Southern Historical Society proposes to
do useful and important work, one in which
every part of the country must take an inter-
est The mission of this society is to collect
the materials for that hypothetical parsonage,
so often referred to, "the future historian" !"
The time is not yet come-it is far of-when
the story of a civil war can be fairly and truth
fully written. Too much sensational passion
survives the terrible conflict; and, besides, the
data for the construction of an impartial his
tory have still to be gathered and classified. 1t
NAV take wears for the Southern Historical So
ciety to collect and assort the documentary
evidence now floating about in private hands
at the South. For considerable time after
the downfall of the Confederacy the Southern
ers did not have the heart to engage in this
line of research. They cared but little what
was said of them or what became of them.
They wanted only food and shelter, and liberty
to earn living unmolested: and as for their
military successes or reverses, they seemed to
desire nothing more than that the chequered
events of five years should be buried in the OBJ
liv;on they sought for themselves. And it so
happened that until within a year or two there
has been no effort worthy of the name to bring
together the Southern materials for history of
the Southern armies. By far tile largest known
collection of this nature Isl thc possession of
the United States Government, the fruits of its
captures at the South, and of purchases made
from Confederate agents at the close Of the war.
But the facts there 2massed are inadequate TO
full understanding of the Southern military
movements. Of these the complete and trust
worthy narratives can only be had through the
exertions of the Southerners themselves. Un-
less the Southern Historical Socict' or some
such body, supplies the hiatus, the culture his
torian" will be, in one respect, no better quail
fled 10 do Justice to his great subject than is
tllc historian of our day, The muse OF history
is p:.ssionless, calm, seeking only alter the
truth and the proceedings of historical socle-
tics appear at the best when they are free from
all personal or political feelings. We regret
that the appropriate tranquility OF the South
ern Historical Convention should have been
broken in upon'by the rash and imprudent ut,
taranccs of Mr.. Jefferson Davis. They jar most
upon our sense of what was fitting
to the time and place. Mr.. Davis knows, or
should know, much about the war, in which he
was leading spirit. He could give the South:
crn Historical Society facts and figures that
would bc worth having He could correct
some mi>apprehcnsions chat now exist in North
crn and Southerisminds with regard to lmpor-
tant occurrences of the war. And there could
be no better place to do this than at the South
ern Historical meeting, where he was an invl-
ted eucst-invited, doubtless, for the express
purpose Of offering facts or suggestions that
would be of use in carrying on the great work
of the society. When Mr.. Davis gets up he
launches at once into speech clarifying seces-
sion. declaring that eve had been cheated
rather than conquered" and that "the men of
this day may yield the principles for which
thcy contended, but the children who succeed
will cherish and perpetuate them" TO the
women of the South he addressed himself with
much tact, paying beautiful compliments to
their "devotion and self-sacriice," " saying that
he chad never seen a Southern woman who
had been reconstructed" and committing to
the faithful and devoted sex his greatest hope
for the future of our country" All that he
saws of the fortitude the patience, the self-sac-
rifice, and the answering fidelity of the South
ern women is perfectly true-as it is true of
women in the wars of all lands and ages. The
tribute was deserved. But taking it in connec-
tion with all else that Mr.. Davis said in his ex-
altation Of the past or in his hopes for the tu-
ture, we see that the aial of his speech was to
make his hearers as discontented and bitter as
he is himself. We acquit him of any absurd
notion of trying to folnent another civil war,
though some Northern Radical journals Will
probably put that foolish construction on his
words, but, nevertheless, his speech, in its ef-
feet, was out of place and mischlevous. 1t
might have answered well enough for political
barbecue or an after-dimcr occasion. Much
could he pardoned to the contagion of partisan
excitement or the influence of an undue quan-
IlLy VI WluC. DuG WC Cdli oSS iio S->S1oS AL 'Ao
intrusion of these gloomy regrets and these
threatening prophecies upon a convention OF
gentlemen assembled to study how they could
BEST save the scattered records of an old war
not hatch plans for new one. 1t has often
been asserted that Mr.. Davis has no measura-
BILE influence at the South. At all events, we
do not believe that be represents the feelings Of
those Southerners upon whom the fortunes of
their country actually depend; the men who Who
can forget as we'll as forgive; ,r who do %, not OF
childshIy mourn over the past, but work in
the present for the future with q courage that
will not let them despair. These arc the men
who, while Mr. Davis and few others arc use
lessly lamcnting over the lost cause, arc trying
hard to save the South from carpet-bagsers and
decay With their co-workersMthc Conserva.
tive mon of all parties at the North-they will
yet disappoint The lugubrious expectations of
Mr.. Jefferson Davis, aud show him union
regencrated and disenthralled.
Or1ICpc c-poop1a h pnn-