The Stark County Democrat. [volume] (Canton, Ohio) 1833-1912, 1881-08-18
A VALUABLE CHAPTER OF HIS
TORY.

In this issue OF tle DEMOCRAT Will De
found an interesting article from the N.
Y. World, being an interview of the dis
tinguished Judge Black, in which he de-
tails valuable history drawn out by JET
ferson Davis's work, and calculated to
confute and correct some statements of
Mr.. Davis, regarding Mr.. Buchanan and
his administration.
1t is something that Mr.. Davis's publ
cation has had, the effect to draw out the
learned and able Judge. He was a mem
ber of President Buchanan's cabinet; and
this account of the situation at Washing
ton after the election of Lincoln, and be-
fore his Inauguration, is valuable history,
much needed to correct wrong impress
sions.
Judge Black since the death Of Mr..
Buchanan has been moved on several
occasions to undertake the defense of his
old official chief and personal friend
against the late Vice President Wilson
and sundry other persons. But until now
Judge Black has never had occasion to
explain his own personal connection
with the events of that critical season,
with anything like the same fullness and
frankness with which he has now ex-
planned that connection in the very in
teresting interview which we print this
week. During the war and after it, Judge
Black and men who believed with him,
were denounced as "copperheads" and
"rebel sympathizers," for the sole reason
so far as appears, that they did approve
of the prosecution Of the war for the
preservation of the Union, by means
which defeated the ends for which the
Union was established, which set at
naught the very first principles of civil
liberty, and which deprived American
citizens of rights which are the birth
right of all people of the Anglo-Saxon
race"
1t will be seen that Judge Black, with
Gen. Cass, urged that reinforcements be
sent to Fort Sumter; and he shows how
largely Gen. Scott was responsible for it
not being done. We well remember our
wonder from day to day that steps were
not taken to hold Fort Sumter, and thus
protect the property of the United States.
1t is time these important points were
placed before the public; and, now that
new generation has grown up since the
war, that the outrages perpetrated in vi
olation of law, against civil citizens dur
ing the war, were also fully exposed
This new generation will scarcely realize
that such things were. Many never yet
heard Of Stewards boast that he, as Sec
retary Of State under Lincoln, could
touch his little bell, when a servant
would enter, and he (Seward) could is
sue his mandate, ordering the arrest and
imprisonment of any citizen of the Uni
ted States outside Of the Southern Con-
federacy Said Seward to Lord Lyons,
the British Minister-"Can the Queen of
England do as much"
The World says, Judge Black was one
of the men who, throughout the civil
war and after it, stood for liberty and
the law, and was slandered for so stand
| ing The most common form of this
slander was to describe men like Judge
Black as having attempted to connive at
the dissolution of the Union. How ut
terly empty, not only of justification, but
Of excuse this accusation was, so far as it
concerned himself, Judge Black has now
made manifest, and in making it mani
fest he has been forced to show how
largely Gen. Scott, against whom this ac-
cusation was never made, but who at the
, outbreak of the war was already broken
with age, was responsible for the failure
of the U. S. Government, in the early
stages of secession, fully to assert and
defend the right of the United States to
their own property. 1t will be observed
that Judge Blacks account of the last
months of BuChanan's Administration
curiously complete and confirms the
striking account given of the same events
year or so ago in the North American
ReUieiO, from the "Diary of Public
Man" That Judge Blacks statement is
an important contribution to the history
Of most exciting and as yet but imper-
fectly understood political convulsion
will be admitted. Nor will any intelli-
gent and candid person dispute that it is
an unanswerable vindication of the
public spirit and the conduct in high
and difficult position of its author
throughout the period to which it refers.