Savannah morning news. [volume] (Savannah) 1868-1887, 1882-01-10
The Southern People and Their Ex-
Chief
st. Louis Republican

The vOluminous narratives of indi-
vidual experience and expressions of
opinion that have followed General John
stOn's statement about the Confederate
specie demonstrate remarkable and in
teresting fact; that the people of the
South will not listen to any disparage.
ment of the now venerable man who was
the first and last President of their Con
federacy. This is the more curious when
it is reflected that Mr.. Davis lacks many
elements of popular leader; that his
administration was severely criticised
by many of the most popular Southern
leaders, and that thousands of intelli
gent ex-sOldiers of the Confederacy freely
| criticise his policy to this day in private
! conversation. Notwithstanding this they
do not relish seeing him assailed in pub
lie. They will not believe any story to
his personal discredit, even though it
comes from or through so eminent and
respected an officer as General Johnston :;
and they will not cOuntenance any dis
paragement of the high character for
honor which they believe is all that he
came out of tue wreck Of the Confede-
rate experiment with.
Northern Republicans have from the
beginning exhibited uncOncealed impa
tieDce with this determined disposition
of the Southern people to stand by their
vanquished and disappointed Chief. But
the fact is in the highest degree credita-
bic to them. AS their civic Chief, be
had to bear the heaviest share of the
shock Of the downfall He has been, in
one sense, an outlaw ever since the
downfall. On him him has been visited
a larger measure of Northern resentment
than on ali other Southern leaders to.
gether. Many of these leaders-Lee and
jackson, for example-are admired
throughout the North for their genius
and personal virtues. The Vice Presi-
dent of the COnfederacy has lived to be
a welcomed and respected member of
the National CONGRESS. Longstreet
is an officeholder under a
Republican administration. So is
MOsby, so is McLaws. A year ago there
were more than a platoon of ex-rebel
Brigadiers in the national Congress, and
the very man who so ably and long
batfled Sherman in his march to the sea
was Chairman of the House Committee
on Military Affairs. The \ orthern people,
to their credit be it said, have forgotten
their resentment towards all the Southern
people and the Southern leaders, with
single exception. For some reason, diff
cult to explain, they refuse to pardon or
palliate Jefferson Davis, and the very
press that in reviewing the unhappy his
tory of twenty years ago exhibits will
ingness to hear the whole truth and give
a fair judgment upon the other Southern
actors in the drama, neglect no oppor-
pOrtunity to misrepresent and discredit
jefferson Davis.
A high spirited people cannot but de-
fend their PROSTATE and vanquished
chief under such circumstances. They
forget his faults in his Affections. He
was an actor and a sufferer in a common
cause with themselves, only the larger
share of suffering fell to him. They re-
fleet that if he was wrong they were
wrong, too, and in the spirit of honor
they refuse to yield silence under the
oblOquy heaped upon him as part of the
price of pardon extended to themselves
To abandon him in his old age, infrmity
aud sorrow to the attacks of his enemies
would be unmanly, dishonorable and
disloyal to the claims of friendship; and
the Southern people are not people to
do thing that has either of these quail
ties.