The weekly Floridian. [volume] (Tallahassee, Fla.) 1867-19??, 1882-01-03

E<stz Il6I Set .kl = - M
It'll = Inte wnss - dsme
~ M $ ivatipal viii eplosN &c
soulEossrsy bswe<n III. Dssis and Ca.
ssal Johnsso They ore pfominens &C.
arss d the drama Of THAI nighty strue
gle, and the lover Of the South. uhlesa he
be > blind partisan Of one or the other,
viii ever reverentially salute the memory
Of each for his devotionHto our section.
and to cause naked now and forever Of
tie psans and msgnetism Of sucCess.
though It's followers were - true, and
possibly more persistenily tried in their
devotion, than ever before were the fota-
ries Of governmental principal or seq
tional sentiment. It will do the South
no practical good, SO far As its efforts At
national autonomy are concerned, 20 dis
cuss the question as to whether If General
Johnston had not been removed before
Atlanta, Sherman's army would have
been oyerthrown aud Grant compelled to
surrender. When we say we doubt it,
it is with no desire to elicit controversy.
Leave this 20 the military schools. But we
will say that it is sadly unfortunate that
anything has fallen from the lips of Gen
eral Johnston, which could be tortured
into suspicion of Mr.. Davis personal
integrity. Mr.. Davis position since the
surrender has been painfully exceptional
the dethroned head of . PROSTATE cause
whose cardinal principle all the agencies
Of power in the North have sought to
make infamous and despised. AT his
bosom have been aimed all the poisoned
arrows of defamation which his official
prominence would have secured TO even
corruptible and treacherous chief; and
upon HIM has been hurled both the criti-
who believe that his management was not
wise, and the malignant maledictions of
those who had in them none of that wool
of manhood which produces fidelity to
the principle of a losing venture. 1t may
be that in this fearful ordeal he has once
or twice not come up to the mark which
all of his countrymen would have made,
but his errors, if any, have been on the
side of frank and honest nature. What
ever may be said of him, the South knows
he was true to the high and unsolicited
trust she imposed upon him.
Those familiar with the history Of the
times contemporaneous with secession,
know that of all the believers in this doc
trine he more than any dreaded its prac-
teal initiation, and lamented the disrup-
ton of the Union. The faithful observer
sions been brave and honorable man.
His peculiar ambition, a. anticipating the
conflict, was the field and not the Cabi-
net. The South was lead by no one man
to the step that eliminated in war. or if
by any one, he was not Mr. Davis. Mr..
Calhoun believed that in the doctrine Of
secession might be found protection to
the South against the outstripping power
! of the North. We owe it to Mr.. Davis
patriotic fidelity, to his earnest and un-
ceasing services and devotion, to our
selves and the honor of the cause in which
so much noble manhood was showed, that
he should not now, as he passes out his
days under the shadow Of our defeat, be
even panied, or be injured by I'M
founded aspersions, or BY a transfer of re-
sponsibility resting upon multitude of
our political leaders, if not upon the null
titude of our political faith. In the name
of the living and of the dead, let US not
permit that the escutcheon of this faithful
man should be even clouded. Let us
teach posterity that we can be true in ad-
versity to him, whom, over all Others, we
made prominent in the beginning and by
the hapless ending of that contest. Duty
admonishes us that the sunset of his life
should be illuminated by the peaceful yet
immutable light of our gratitude and re-
spect. This is all Jefferson Davis would
ask, for he has left to coming generations
the clearest exposition of the States
Rights doctrine to be found on printed
pages