The herald and mail. [volume] (Columbia, Tenn.) 1873-188?, 1875-08-13
SHERMAN AND DAVIS.

| The Assassination of lincoln General BRAGG on
the Stand Alleged Attempts to Assassiaate the
Confederate President.
General Bragg was In the city several
days during the past week. He re-
ferred, In the course of conversation,
to the recent assertion of General Sher-
man that he had suspected Mr.. Jetfer-
son Davis of completely with the as
sassins of Mr.. Abraham Lincoln. Gen
eral Bragg said that he had seen Mr..
Davis tested in cases of this sort, and
while two efforts were made by hired
assassins in 1864 to destroy Mr.. Davis
life ne never manifested the least signs
of 1esentful feeling. 1t was in June,
1864, that Mr.. Davis, when riding along
the defences of Richmond, was fired at,
the bullets passing very near his person.
Once afterward he was shot at when In
the outskirts of Richmond. But we
propose to settle this question finally.
Dahlgren's raid will not soon be for
gotten. Col. Dahlgren's address, as
written and signed by him, was memo
rized and spoken or read to his follow,
ers. They were disguised as spies, and
were captured as spies inside of the
confederate lines. They came, as stated
to murder Mr.. Davis. When they were
captured and this paper was found on
the person of this man, Dahlgren, Mr..
Davis cabinet and his military staff con-
CURED in declaring that the prisoners
should be executed in accordance with
the laws of war. President Davis, after
reading the paper and finding that he
especially was designed to be assassi-
mated by Dahlgren, peremptorily forbade
other treatment than that accorded to
prisoners of war. Gen. Bragg pre-
served photograph copies of Col. Dahl
gren's orders]. If Mr.. Davis were
capable of enormities which Gen. Sher-
man would ascribe to his intervention
he would never have hesitated to punish
with death the disguised followers of
Dahlgren. And would it not be well
for Gen. Sherman to remember that
Mr.. Davis at all time interviewed in be-
half of the condemned? 1t was the
complaint of many confederate leaders
that nobody could be executed who APP
pealed to the president for pardon. He
spared Harrison Self, the bridge burner
of East Tennessee, and each unionist
who became spy rather than soldier,
and was captured within the confederate
lines. QfafI men Mr.. Davis personal
virtues and character have been most
grievously misrepresented and misun-
derstood by northern people; even as
Lincoln's character and spirit were at
first misapprehended throughouG the
south. hlr. Davis, differed from Mr..
Lincoln in that-both Kentuckians and
both reared in the midst of the same
moral atmosphere-Davis was elabor-
ately educated, and taught and refined
in all the schools while Lincoins gen.
erosity, neither greater nor purer than
that of Mr.. Davis, was more copspicu-
GUS because of his personal rudeness,
with which his womanly traits we're in
strong contrast. Gen. Sherman is
man of force and genius and skillful
warrior ; his selfishness, and thus his
vanity, is his most significant foible,
often degenerating into an objectionable
vice. Occupying his position he had no
right to ascribe degree of criminaity
to Mr.. Davis which could only be sup
posed just to the extent that partisans,
north and south, traduced Mr.. Davis in
order to make the cause he espoused
odious. Gen. Sherman, if morally a
great man, which he is not, because his
vices of intellect are great, should have
considered the facts before pronouncing
an opinion, as disgraceful to Sherman as
designed to be ruinous to Mr.. Davis per-
sonal fame.--AuStin IerdS States
971H1