The New Orleans daily Democrat. [volume] (New Orleans, La.) 1877-1880, 1878-05-12
EX-PREsIDENT DAVIS LETTER.

has provoked much denunciation from the
Northern press. In this particular case the
Chicago Tribune has ecljpsed its contemporn-
res In maevolenee and imbeeility. Ii any
thing cowardly, ungenerous and unmanly
could excite amusement we might smile at
the pitiful terror certain Class OF
Northern newspapers and politicians
display whenever the name of the illus
trious chief Of the Confederacy appears In
print The tale of raw head and bloody
bones creates no greater CONSERVATION In
the nursery than does the name OF Jefferson
Davis In Northern newspaper sanctum
or New England legislature. We fear
these people will never sleep quietly OF
feel that the Union is entirely safe until the
great head of "the rebellion" has gone to rest
with his fathers. Indeed, the Chicago sheet
before us expresses the deepest regret ct the
lenIency of 1.-THE government in dealing
with the boss trnitor," by which we
understand that the Chicago Tribune
would have been happy had the Federal gov
eminent in It's day of triumph disgraced the
civilization of the age by hanging the grand
est and most consistent champion OF civil
liberty the age has produced. And why2
Any disinterested lover Of the American Union
who will compare the principles which Jeffer-
son Davis represented, and for which the sol
diers of the Confederacy fought, with the
principles the journal and the party leaders
of the journal, which has made SO disgraceful
display of its malevolence, have established
upon the wreck Of the constitution, will assert
that the latter have been the enemies of the
Republic and deserve, II either party does,
tho vengeance Of the people
jefferson Davis and his people withdrew
from the Union to preserve The great princi-
ple of State sovereignty which the fanatics
OF the North, gathering head each year.
threatened utterly to destroy. They fought
to subvert no principle Of the American con-
stitutlon; on the contrary, they fought for
the preservation of all its guarantees They
fought, as Mr.. Davis said in his letter, 'in n
defensive war;" and for the preservation of a
principle they inherited from their fathers
and which it was their duty, 1t possible, to
transmit to their children. Upon the other
hand. the war waged against them was
simply o war for the unification of territory.
It was a war to maintain no principle save
that of the right Of might, and it degenerated
from even that low standpoint into war
waged for the robber like purposeof conquest.
And when it was concluded, when the Con-
federacy, after recruiting its shattered but
undaunted br1gades from the cradle and the
verge of the grave, fell through exhaus-
ton, the conquerors turned over the con-
auered States to Adventures and thieves to
plumber outrage and oppress; and for ten
years these States were at the mercy of such
wretches protected by the Federal army. Can
any Northern man review the policy Of the
Federal government in the Southern
States during the decade which succeeded
not the surrender, but the exhaustion and fall
of the Confederacy, and not blush for his
country or claim that the war Of the Union
was not war of conquest and spoliation2
If. when the ragged Confederates turned
from the stricken fields their heroism has i'm
mortalized and the blood Of their fallen COM
rades has sanctified, the leaders Of the Union
side, civil and military, had devoted their en-
ergies and their abilities to the restoration of
the Union as it was, and to the establishment of
the principles of the constitution even rs they
understood them. they might have claimed
that they had waged the war for high and
patriotic purpose, and though we believe his
tory would have vindicated the Confederate
leaders 1t would certainly not have accused
the men who fought for the Union.
But they did not do this On tho contrary,
having conquered the South, they set de.
liberately TO work to destroy 1t, and to trans
form the government into q centralized oil
garchy. It is needless here to review the law
less measures they have persistently pursued
to accomplish that wicked end. The results are
before u.s. The country to-day Is controlled by
a moneyed despotism, and the masses Of the
people, crushed under its merciless heel, are
ripe almost for revolt and revolution. The pres
idential Office is occupied by a fraud who was
never elected by the people, and who holds
his place through the triumph OF q damnable
conspiracy. The Supreme Court, by sustain
ing usurpatory and tyrannical and I'M
constitutional measures, has forfeited the
respect Of the country and is held in uni
versaI contempt; and now the moneyed power,
which is all-powerful, is seriously contem-
plating the utter humiliation of the States
and the establishment OF all power in Wash
ington. Gan any American who retains q
spark of devotion to the principles of the
constitution look unon this condition of things
and feel that the nobler and better cause has
triumphed?
In so far as the tide OF centralsm has been
in the last year or two repealed, 1t has
been repealed by the principles of the
Confederacy which Jefferson Davis has
so eloquently, feelingly and courage
ously defended In his noble letter. II
is these principles which constitute The
hope OF the Union. 1t is the triumph o
these principles which can alone restore K
this abused country the liberties of which It's
people, North and South, have been insid
iously bereft, for they are, deny it who may
the principles of the constitution of oul
fathers.
1t Is the brutal maievolence and rancor O
partisan and sectional hate which clamors
still against the President Of the Confederac,
I'D oo,I,, ti,,,rh In IN yarcan,ta b;,,