Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1881-02-28
such as its custom-houses, navy yards, etc

Sucn as us cusIOIn-nouSes, navy ydrus, etc
AMONG THE ARGUMENTS
With which he supports this theory he
cites the contemperaneous debates on this
subject in the Senate of the United States,
and quotes Senator Douglas resolution or
dering the withdrawal of the garrisons &C.
cupying Southern forts. He accuses Sew
ard and others of bad faith in representing
| that no hostile intention was involved in
! the succor which was sent to the garrisons
of the forts, whereas the real design was to
| enable the troops to hold out against the
| demands of the South for the restoration
| of its property. He characterizes the act
of the Lincoln Administration in sending
ammunition to Fort Sumter as an act of
fraud and prevarication. Defending them,
and still justifying the right of the South
to withdraw from the Union ard form a
Government of its own, he lays the re-
sponsibiIity for all the blood shed upon the
North. He speaks at length of the Journey
of the Peace Commissioners who were sent
by the Confederate Government from
Montgomery, then its capital, to Washing.
! ton, to negotiate for peaceful ad iustment
| OF the questions at issue. He severely
criticises the conduct of Secretary Seward
and his colleagues during these delibera-
tions, and asserts that the overtures of the
| South were not met in frank and candid
spirit.
1T Is IMPOSSIBLE
To give, at this early day, even a general
view of the concluding portion of this work,
which, after all, will be most interesting
to all class of readers. He will give, it is
| said, a very full discussion of the peace
movements in the last year of the war, and
will present an elaborate defense of the
policy of his Administration as opposed to
the Stephens, Brown and Toombs policy.
All the history yet written has tended to
| tiS the responsibility upon Mr.. Davis of
prolonglng hopeless struggle long after
he himself was convinced that success was
impossible The country, both North and
South, will await with interest his explana-
ton of the reasons for protracting the
struggle for lost cause, and sacrificing a
hundred thousand lives, when, as has been
shown, honorable terms of peace and re-
union were awaiting his acceptance In
the concluding chapters OF his work will be
presented the defense of his special policy
There he will attempt his vindication
against the aspersions and the determined
opposleiOu VI iuoIS Iiitu hall tlc SldteStleu
who were leagued with him. In writing
these chapters he has had the great
advantage of having before him the
special pleas of most of his antagonists. The
enmities bred in the Confederate Admins
tration were so bitter that the book will
necessarily stir many an ugly feud and
provoke many controversy in Southern
political circles A writer who recently
talked with him about the fear expressed
in the South that he would let his intoler-
ant spirit get the better of him, and that
what should be an impartial history would
become a vehicle of personal opinions and
prejudices, reports Mr.. Davis as saying
"They say when people get old they be.
come spiteful, but think I understand
and appreciate thoroughly the character of
my undertaking" An intimate acquaint-
ance of Mr.. Davis says "Ten years ago
Mr.. Davis said to me that he intended to
devote the remaining years of his life to
the writing of defense of the lost cause.
If God spares me, he said, Il shall put in
the hands of the children of our dead
justification of the cause for which their
fathers died" In this fruition of Mr..
Davis last years of labor he certainly
maintains with mistaken frmness all the
points that were put to the arbitrament of
the sword. "My work is done, said he,
last month, and on that work l am will
ing that the cause and the author may be
Judged"