Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1876-01-19
would not bow in homage to these in-

famous enactments were dcmagosueS'
Willard Fillmore and the Silver Hfeys
were regarded as types Of statesmen ana
peaceful citizens, while Seward, SUMNER
Fessenden, and Horace Mann were mere
politicians, unforgiv;ng OF the crimes oil
their slaveholding brethren. Thus echoed
and re-echoed certain newspapers in los
ton. New York. and Philadelphia, more
numerous, more cowardly than similar
rewspapers in the same c les to-day. 80
when the States Rights democracy were
openly preparing war against the nlon'
raising armies aud gathering munitions OF
war. all who wonld not sanction the So
called Peace Congress and get ready to
approve of the views of President Buchan-
an that there is no power in the ConStltu-
ton to prevent by force state gong out
of the Union, were called irreconcllabes,
acitators, no statesmen. As though the
Republic could be saved by dish-water
and dough. As though trah and justice
were not always stronger and better than
subterfuge and sham. Cannot this simple
ndeslructibe fact be rememocred-that
the true peace of society and the real Sc
curity of government rest on the ETERNAL
FITNESS of THINGS? VIII not ali lovers
of the country keep before them the TACT
that the only path to true reconciliation OF
@ Al fed
Welding of their revolutionary heresies, a
full giving up OF their rebel anlmoslties
and schemes, followed by an unqualified
obedience to the laws9 Never before were
men treated so literally, so fairly, so
kindly. The annals of mankind furnish
nothing like it. 1t is proposed to make one
exception as to the right of these recent
falsifiers of their oaths to have access to
the highest offices in the Nation. Jetfer-
son Davis has committed crimes that have
startled the world. His rebel doctrines
he still tenaciously adheres to. But.the
other day he told the people of Texas i'll
public speech that the Lost Cause was
not lost-that the Confederate doctrines
are sound, and that the American people
will vet return TO them. He conlesses to
no repentance for his heresies and crimes.
Such man for such otfenses was never
amnestied by those who had resisted his
deeds and his power The records of ma
tons furnish no such example of full am
nesty. Reeking with the infamy OF these
enormous crimes, his head and heart still
full of treason, the democracy of this
country propose to make this man eligible
to the Senate of the United States and TO
the Executive Chair of George Washing
ton, Abraham Lincoln. and Ulysses S.
Grant, thus placing this arch traitor. con-
spirator, and wholesale murderer on a
par with the three great men who did so
much to create and save the Republic.
And those who will not give Jefferson Da-
Wis access to the highest places of the Ma
ton. are denounced as disturbers of the
public peace and wanting the true qualiii-
cations of craftsmanship What satire
on words, What blind, sycophantie,
dawdling disregard of the commonest
truths and the simplest justice. Cannot
these writers of some of the city
newspapers remember that "history is
philosophy speaking by example that
fundamental verilies are stronger than top
surface shams--that fearless Common
Sense is the essential quality Of practical
craftsmanship