Knoxville daily chronicle. [volume] (Knoxville, Tenn.) 1870-1882, 1881-06-21


the twaddle that pads the big Volumes which
are destined to place their author high up in
the pantheon of vanity struck fools. This
verdict would have been modified if the
editors of the Dispatch had jumped into
the ring little earlier. I venture to say
that there is not sane person in the South
to-day, with brains sufficient to distinguish
between right and wrong, who would vol
unfairly write himself down as an unparal-
leled ass by publishing such pretentious and
malicious stuff as appears in this editorial.
Nothing but a disordered liver, limited brains,
long and gallant service in the Confederate
army, and heavy loss in niggers, could
possible have stimulated this journalistic
dogbery up to such feeble and silly dis
play.
General Sherman's comments upon Davis
book were tart and timely. He quoted
facts, solid undisputed facts, to prove the
falsity of Davis assertions. He treated the
vain old man with wonderful consideration,
and it was generally agreed that Davis de-
served much severer comment. 1t will
make General Sherman get up and howl
with rage when he reads that Mr.. Davis
characterizes the famous march to the sea
as really the most absurd of military man
euvers ever undertaken in the tide of time"
What disgusts the late Jefferson Davis is that
the march to the sea twas right in the
teeth of all the rules of war, and but for the
fact"-only this little fact, you know" that
the Confederacy was then in It's death ago
MES, must have resulted in the irretrievable
ruin of Shermans whole army" What
lucky escape for Sherman!
| History has already decided that Sher-
man burned Columbia in the mere wanton-
ness of war, and to crafty brutal spirit
of revenge" says Jefferson Davis Well it
is only sufficient to say that no history ex-
cept Mr.. Davis decides any such thing.
When Mr.. Davis calamity trudged to the
spring for pail of water, covered with his
wife's cloak, when the Yankees dropped
down on him, in May, 1866, he was uncon-
sciously making history-comic history, too.
Since that time he has made sleeping-car
history later on, real estate history, and
last of all, he has made war history. for
| which his best friends cuss him heartily
The Democratic party has had to carry this
| little old man on their shoulders SO long that
they have almost ceased to vince when he
pompously made an utterance. But even
now, there is to be seen an occasional zealot
who rises to the fly, and swallows every
thing that bears Davis hit. The Dispatch,
[ infer, is purely and entirely Democratic
It should be kindly encouraged, for there
could scarcely be more potent instrument,
on small scale, for driving away from the
Democratic ranks that proportion of
it's rank and file who combine common
sense with bit of education.
J. Davis, in his interview says: "Sher-
mans defense is in the nature of mega
tive pregnant and the editor of the Dis
patch indorses the assertion. Sherman s
moral character, trust, will buoy him up
under this grave charge of being a mega
tive pregnant" | don't believe Sherman is
that sort of a person. [ don't, indeed.
With unconscious but glazing -imbecility,
the Dispatch editor goes on to remark, re-
garding the burning of Columbia (by Wade
Hampton's drunken, fanatical fools):
We are glad, for the sake of truth and
justice, Mr.. Davis has unfolded this dark
and remorseless chapter in the history of
the late war. It will stand the test, the
most rigid test of public scrutiny"
J. Davis unfolding dark and remorseless
chapter in the history of the late war is
sufficient to make the saints rise up and
screech. Mr.. Davis need not wait for the
Endorsement of posterity He gets it right
now. What az happy condition of COM
bined insanity and malice an editor must
enjoy, when he writes such colossal stu
pidity
Then the Dispatch genius waltzes right
into Sherman again, this way:
''He may squirm and he may twist-he
may appeal to the passions and preiudices
of the hour, and he may arouse all the
dormant hates of the war against the South,
but when history comes to render it's final
verdict, as it WILL and to place the results of
that terrible conflict in their true attitude,
he will be put down as the instigator of the
destruction of Columbia"
Now, I have noticed among small-fry edi-
tors and crossroads politicians in the South a
disposition to get upon their hind legs and
howl about 'arousing all the dormant hates
of the war against the South" whenever any
one says anything that don't agree with the
stomach of the average Southern Democrat.
What sublime slush it all is! A graduate of
a feeble-minded institute who would write
such stuff for a country paper would be
gobbled up and sent back to the institution
for further treatment.
Possibly the whole subject-matter of the
Dispatch editorial is not worth referring tc
seriously, but one cannot help thinking that
the editor has sadly mistaken his vocation.
He should be hoeing the gaudy corn OF
welding the reins of the uncertain, but
vivacious UNDERWRITING rather than edit.
ing even a Democrat paper.
OLD SOLDIER.