The morning star and Catholic messenger. [volume] (New Orleans [La.]) 1868-1881, 1877-01-28
TIE TRUTH OF HISTORY.



The amicable termination of the libel suit
of Rev. Stuart Robinson, of Louisville,
against the st. Louis Democrat, a bitter
Radical Republican paper, by confession of
Judgment in favor of the plaintiff for $780,
600 and costs of suit aud attorneys' fees,
will make dispassonste men pause to cAn-
slider how recklessly we have been flooding
the world with inventions of sectional pas
sion and prejudice, and deforming the truth
of history in the greatest conflict of modern
times. Mr.. Robinson was a Southern man,
and sympathized with that section in the
late civil war. He WAS, therefore, deemed
a free target for partisan organs to hurl
their invectives against, and the Democrat
charged him aiding and abbetting the dis
tribQtion of infected rags from Canada into
the Northern cities, to spread the pestilehce
among the homes OF the people engaged in
war against the South. In the passions
which fingered after the bereavements of
civil strife, it was easy to assAii the repRta-
ton of the purest and most humane men
| who had been miSled OF mIsed Others into
rebellion, and there were few who CO aid
| hope for a dispessonate hearing in answer
! to their accusers. In this way MIR. Robin =
son was assaled, and hundreds OF thousands
! have DOUBTLESS believed him to be the moral
| monster that suca an exceptional crime
would make lin. AT last he fndS a re
| spous BILE aCcuser in one Of the ahleSt par
tisau public journals III tho West, aud he
| summoned the author of the charge before
a tribunal, where there must be truth be.
tween them. An Investigation into the
facts proved that the struCluus crime im
puted to Mr.. Robinion was without the
shadow OF foundation, and no defence was
attempted, as is shown by the voluntary
| confession of judgment for $50, 600, with all
legal and incidental Q 3sts.
Thus is Mr.. Robinson indicated: but
how many of the leading actors in the ter
rible drama of the rebellion have been, in
like manner, flung into history as guilty of
| crimes against humsnities of Christian
warfare ny tie passions which survive civil
| war This question is q grave one, and
| must soon command the eaTnect attention
| of considerable men of both sections. JEFF
ferson Davis has been accused of the DELHI
crate starvation of prisoners of war, con-
| signing them to tUrtures worse than q
thousand deaths, aud when shall the truth
| be established and accepted as authentic
history Not only by partisan journals
when iptlaming the prejudices of people
to recruit armies or to win political con
tests, but by statesmen on the floor of Con-
gress, have the fearful accusations been
made and yet fall decade has gone by,
evidence has persisted, and pc yer has failed
to employ lts resOuTceS to teach the world
the truth CT faisIty of the charge. If true,
Ar. Davis should have Gtoned for it by his
death ia obedience the Judgment of
| Christian law ; If untrue, be should he nc
quilted of it before the enlightened civilizl-
ton that must heap upon snch crime its
most terrible execTatiOus. Why there has
not been dispassiOnRte inquiry into the dis
| puted records of conspicuous actors in the
rebellion, is question that comes from very
many sincere men who believe th At only
the truth should be crystalized into history
We owe it to the world now, after nearly
twelve years of peace, to riae above passion
and prejudice in both sections, and present
ourselves to history and to each other as we
really are. We owe, each to his foe, the
| justice of candor that brave men ever CON
cede to brave men and we owe to a once
estrsnged but now united people, with a
common country and common laws and
common aspirations, to turn back through
the scars and sores of intensified hate, and
make truth the guiding star of those who
Worshiped the blue and the gray.