The Dallas weekly herald. [volume] (Dallas, Tex.) 1873-1885, 1875-09-11
JEFF. DAVIS.
A Southern WOmRn's Letter 10 the
Soldiers Of the Grand Army of the
Republic Of Illinois.

A Southern WomRn's Letter to IN,
Soldiers Of the Grand Army of III,
Republic Of Illinois.
From the Memphis Appeal
SoLDIERs-You say Jefferson Davis
IL II "coward and an arch-traitor." II
you are brave men and true, you will
make good your words or retract them.
If Jefferson Davis IL traitor, and trea-
sou is Il crime, come and take him
prove his treason and hang him, rs trai-
tor should be hung. a Atraitor il one who
betrays trust. II Jefferson DAVIS had
ever betrayed trust put in him, the
Southern people would have been the
swiftest and the lOudest to cry, "Hang
| him , hang him !" IL jefferson Davis
Is guilty of the crime you charge, your
Government Is weak and criminal not
to bring him to justice. For years he
lay in prison waiting trial he is yet
waiting; at any hour, any moment, he
will stand his trial. Let his guilt or in
nocnce be shown to the civilized world.
When you charge Jefferson Davis
with the crime of secession, remem-
Der your own honored and now
saintcd Horace Greely, rs well as
other men of the North, was an earn
est believer in the right OF seces-
sion. In the New York Tribune of De-
cember II, lS6O, Greedy says: If it (the
Declaration of lndepenience) Justified
the secession from the British Empire
of 5000, 600 Ot colonists IN l116, we do
not see why it would not justify the se-
cession of 5000, 900 of SOutheriiers from
the Federal Union IN 1851" In the
Tribune of February %, 1861, five days
after Jefferson Davis was iiiauytlratcd
mt Montgomery, Greely used these
words: ave have repeatedly said aud
we once more insist, that the great
principles embodied by Jefferson in
the Declaration of Independence, that
governments derive their just powers
from the consent of the governed, is
sacred and just, and that ii the Gulf
States chose to form an independent
nation, they have Il clear moral right
to do So" In the Tribune of Novem-
ber 8, Greedy further says: "rhose who
would rush upon carnage to defy or de-
feat separation by the popular vote of
the Southern people would clearly
place themselves in the wrong"
Soldiers of the grand army remember
which side crushed upon carnage to
defeat that separation" to which the
South had a "clear moral right" Re-
member there was not day, nor even
an hour, when the South would not
gladly have made peace on the basis of
Independence. And when you talk of
the horrors of Andersonville, remem-
Der that figures tell tale that you can
not deny; figures show the death-rute
in NNr nj r,riSnno uyaa
i'm Southern, and this in spite of our
poverty, our starvation, and destitution
of medicines. Remember which side
oners, and which side sternly refused
to exchange. Grant said: at was ca
sier 10 feed than to fight rebels" Some
ny Argues, charging the AndersOnville
eral Hitchcock, Butler, and others
it. Grant sent this telegraph: "On the
subject of exchange, l differ from Cen
eral Hitchcock. 1t is hard on our men
held in Southern prisons, but not to
those left in our ranks to fight our bat
ties. TO release all the rebel prison.
ers. the North would compromise our
safety here" Generol Butler said this
order of Grants caused the death of
more than twenty thousand men. But
more than all else soldiers of the North
when you speak of AndersOnville, or
Libby, or Saulsberry or Belle Isle, you
should remember these prison places
were in the bosom of the land on which
your Government had let loose your
bloody dogs of war. These prisons
were in the bosom of land fighting
to defend itself from n million armed
men. The men who suffered in these
prison places had come to us with shot
and shell, with sword and fire in their
hands. They killed, they burnt, they
destroyed, they desolated. When you
talk of your war made widows, your
sonless mothers, come and look on
ours. Or do you suppose that we have
not heerts tn feel as you OF the North?
Do you think tl2t we are dull clay,
that you add to our griefs your perpet-
ual taunts? You have conquered us,
you have crushed us, you are our mas
ters, you have taken our swords, our |
guns, our forts, our ships, you have dis
banded our armies aud disfranchised |
our best and most hOnored men. If
you choose to call secession crime,
you Cdu uO IL yOu Gail udnb US DecduSe |
we claimed the right to secede. If
you choose to say the belief in States
rights is treason, you can do so and
hang us for such belief But If such
opinions are to be held a. crime, you
snould so set them down in your code
of laws, and annex thereto the penalty
you say they deserve. Ifyou choose to
play the tyrant over us, and establish
an inquisition over free thought and
free speech, you can do 1t, but you
should first make out code of laws, that
we may walk warily. What monstrous
injustice is that government guilty of
that leaves what IL calls treason so I'M
defined that even wise men and loyal
souls like Horace Greely made the
mistake ofpreaching it to one
hundred thousand people? Jefferson
Davis Is no greater criminal than the
men who put him at the head of the
Southern Confederady; If he deserves
so do they; ifhe is unworthy
to stand on your soil and look your men
in the face, 50 are millions of our men
When you call him cow
ard and an arch-traitor, you call them
and arch-traitors. Ifyou hate
him with that bitter and malignant
hatred, we will accept it as our portion
also. A SOUTHERN WOMAN