Savannah morning news. [volume] (Savannah) 1868-1887, 1881-06-29


measure Of commentator, and, irres-
pective of his abilities, the work of his
closing hours might exact it if it were
grudged.
While many gallant actors may com
plain of not having the measure of COM
mendation they deserved, Joseph E.
Johnston and Longstreet are the least
charitably, or, perhaps, one should say,
the least justly dealt with. The patriotic
devotion of both of these men to the
cause they espoused the South never
doubted. On that the people have form
ed their judgment, and it is irrevocable.
Neither does Mr.. Davis assail it, but his
structures on their conduct as soldiers
are given as a military man and can only
be weighed by soldiers, and while most
of us bore arms, few of us can view the
issue joined and render verdict such as
it demands
OF this, however, one is safely as
sured, that however disheartening the
course of events before the fall of At
Ianta, the swift march of disaster that
followed it negatived the wisdom of the
series of orders which were issued to an
army, and in their failure of execution
left the Confederacy at the mercy of its
fees. General Johnston has had hear.
ing; the Confederate chieftain has pub
lished his plea. Let US trust that the
issue is Joined, and that its arbitramenI
will be left where it properly belongs
to the calm, unbiased judgment of pos
terity.
While we might echo this wish in
reference to the other question raised by
Mr.. Davis as to the possibility of pro
longing the war when Johnston turned
over his battered remnants to the flushed
and triumphant legions of Sherman, we
feel that in this Mr.. Davis marvellous
devotion and matchless zeal inspired a
fond delusion that his well balanced fac
ulties could not dispel. Our dreams of
triumph were dissipated at Gettysburg
our hopes were shaken at Atlanta, shat
tered at Nashville, and the awful anguish
of inevitable defeat seized us when
Lee laid down his stainless sword.
General Johnston earned the only com
mendatien his countrymen could give
when be sank the ambition of the sol
dier ard the aspirations of the patriot in
the humanity of the man. And, be-
sides, the soldier. who doubted the abih.
ty Of his tolerably appointed and numer-
Gus following with means of supply at
hand. to cope with Sherman's hosts ear
lier IN the struggle, might well reject the
feasibility of anything with the frag-
ments he surrendered. Here soldier and
civilian can Judge and have judged alike
and Alright. This portion of Mr.. Davis
work is stamped with the impress of his
feelings, and will be valued according as
its facts survive that elimination.
But the living part OF his work, the
portion in which he accomplishes the
task which he set himself-the vindica-
ton of the cause of his people from the
obloquy and reprobation to which the
penny-a-liners and so called historians of
the North have essayed to consign it
measures up in its clearness of statement
and memorable logic to the standard
that was demanded from him,
who can say, with but one
other: 81 sat in the Senate
with Webster, listened to the splendid
eloquence of Clay, misunderstood the
play OF the matchless intellect of Cal
houn." AS Nestor was honored among
the heroes of the Iliad so Jefferson Davis
in his isolation, though denied coun-
try, is faeile princeps in his comprehen-
sion of the origin. aims, scope, charac-
ter and limitations of that system of
government that has made the American
Republic the wonder of the world.
His demonstration of the right of the
South to secede is conclusive. His
proofs that the Southern people were
more fondly devoted to the maintenance
of the rights, honors, immunities and
dignity of American citizenship than
were those who forced them to take the
step they did, are unanswerable. That
the right to take that step was not mega
tived by the war is, in our view, a pos
tulate, and needed not the labor with
which Mr.. Davis has enunciated it. But
in this connection loyal" readers will
find a flood of light shed on
the peculiar tenets of men, whom
they have long ago canonized among
the patriots of the republic. Through
out this portion of his work Mr.. Davis
speaks the voice of history not the
heartinspiring tones with which she
records the valor and proves of the
great, which can assume the varying
shades of human utterance, but the
cold, calm deliverances, wherein are
weighed the mighty deeds of nations
and statesmen, which live in their con-
sequences when the names of the actors
are dim in the hoary past. This is
history. but it is the philosophy Of
history-the wheat of achievement win
moved of the chaff of individual accom-
plishment The one endures and is
fruitful of future veal or woe when the