Richland beacon., 1875-08-28
The Ola W0"n! Opened .:f:eS',.

mere Is an L EtiCutufAt A>S"cia-
lion in Winucbago county, Illinois,
Which seems 10 be composed Dt gentle
men but there i also branch of the
Grand Army Of ;hc Republic" there,
that is MT composed Of such material.
The Agricultural association is to
have 4 meeting in September at Rock
ford; and, seeming to be influenced
hy The spirit Of generosity recently
manifested by other portions Of the
country, North and South, thew
invited Hon. Jefferson DAVIS, the
representative man of the South, TO
address them on that occasion, which
invitation be accepted in the same
spirit. with patriotic desire to assist
in bringing about the desired recon-
Citation between the two sections.
But this arrangement did not suit the
ideas Of the cX-army bummcrs and
malignant yipers who compose the
Grand Army Of the Republic, whose
business it is to irri.atc and keep
bleeding the old wounds Of the civil
war; and forthwith they held meet
ing and proceeded to disgrace them
selves, if such thing were possible,
by Offering insults to one Of the
noblest men Of the age and their
intelligent fellow-citiZens, in set of
resolutions, the animus of which may
be judged by one Of the prcamblcs,
which contains about as much venom
and falsehO0d as could be crowded
into the same space. Here it is
"WHEsEAs, We look upon il as an insult
TO the loyal citizens of Winncbago county
to invite the arch-,rai;or, JEFF Davis, TO adj
dress the relatives and surviving friends Of
1900 men murdered at Anderson !i,Ie alone
by his orders
In perfect keeping with these rcso-
lutions and inspired by the same
malignant spirit, the Rockford Gazette
publishes an editorial TRADE, Of which
this extract is fair sample:
"To bring JEFF Davis here is to insult every
soldier who wore the army blue during those
! four years o" bloody war, to harrow TIE
feelings of every widow and mother whose
husband or son was starved 10 death at
| Andcrsonville, shot at the dead-ine or on the
numerous battle-ficlds of the South, and all
for the sake of adding 5000 or $500 to the
Golfers of an agricultural society"
Thus have the despicable creatures
taken advantage Of courtesy, to
offer insult to every man Of honor and
gentlemanly feeling in the South
through their representative man, OF
whom they will ever be proud as
long as men love bravery, honor, and
purity Of character, brilliance of intel
lect and generosity of soul; thus
attempted to open afresh the old
wounds of the civil war and create
afresh heart-burnings and discord
between the sections, by repeating
base and calumniouS falsehoodS and
reminding US of a murdered Wurz,
who was hung like dog upon this
very villainous, lying charge.
Bunker's Hill and independence
Centennials are vain; all efforts to
reconciliation are vain, so long as we
are thus insnlted and lied upon and
such strong appeals are made to the
passions of the people. The Centen-
NAL may prove a political success,
but if our representatives are to be
insulted at Philadelphia as one of
them would have been insulted (if
not murdered) at this little county
fair, we will none of it.
OF course, Mr.. Davis recalled his
acceptance of the invitation after this
attack upon him, but he did it in a
dignified, yet mild and friendly man.
ner, without exhibiting any sentiment
except regret that the affair should
have taken this unpleasant turn.
There are those who think that Mr..
Davis lowered his dignity in accept
ing the invitation in the first place,
and that be ought to remain in a
retired position and refuse at all times
to come before the public; but they
feel as much insulted at the conduct
Of those Illinois Doors as any of US.
We cannot agree with such, no matter
how much we may respect their
opinions as q general thing. Jefferson
Davis is public man 4; he cannot
and should not make reclusc of
himself: has no right to do it; but
be has right, and it is his duty, to
appear in public as often as he can
accomplish any good by so doing ;
because he has never done anything
to drive him to life o. seclusion.
He was our chosen leader in our vain
struggle for independence, and we
love and respect as such, for he never
BETRAYED our trust or deserted US in
the darkest hour of our trial. So do
those who were once our enemies and
are worthy of being recognized now
as friends. He did nothing as colonel
in the Mexican war, rOthing as
Secretary of War, nothing as United
States Senator and nothing as Presi-
dent of the Confederacy to be ashamed
Of that he should hide his face from
his country men, and we insist that it
is his duty, as often as possible, to
meet them and give them counsel, for
he is capable of welding a greater
influence over the South than any
other man in it-and we have few
such men left-and he could more
fully represent our friendly sentiment
toward the North than any other man.
We are glad to note that all the