Lexington weekly intelligencer. (Lexington, Mo.) 1871-1887, 1882-01-07
THE ISSUE MADE UP.

General 10. johnson made the great
est mistake oil his hie, and he has made
many, when he accused OK Presldent
Jefferson Davis OF appropriating to his
own use. So. zoe. 900 in specie, the prop
erty OF the Southern Confederacy. Such
is his charge. He may not have said all
the reporter of tho Philadelphia Press
made him say, but he said enough to
| call down on his head the scorn and con.
tempt OF every brave and honorable
confederate soldier In the country.
It makes no difference what opinions
men may have Of Mr.. Davis admlnis-
traticn OF he affairs OF the confederacy,
nor who Is 10 the right or the wrong Of
the quarrel between himself and John.
son the question IS, did he take q dol.
lar that did not belong to him ? Conssd-
crate officers and privates. too, Tor that
matter. are rising up all owe tho land,
TO declare Of their own personal knowl-
edge, u It he did not. Those who were
with him on his retreat from Richmond.
who guarded him day and night until
his capture, and those who had charge
of what little specie there was, some
$4,000, declare that AIR. Davis never
touched . dollar OF the governmental
money. Not . single man. SO far, has
testified on behalf OF Gen. Johnston, or
in any that could make his
charge the least bit plausible or excusa-
BILE. Indeed. some of the criticisms
upon him are so harsh as to
be really brutal. Gen. Johnston is an
old man. He fought the best he could
for his country. There g has been
any love between him and Mr.. Davis.
Their methods OF warfare we're differ
ent. The president wanted results, the
general time. In q revolution death must
be dashed against the eyes OF tho people
in some terrible way, il they would fight
it out to a triumph. Johnston was a
quartermaster general OF the old army.
1t is a mistake to take a bureau man Tor
a chief in . revolution. He has fixed
habits, that are hard like oak. He has
withes OF system that car no more be
made to expand than the driving wheels
Of q locomotive. For revolution the
need Is for meteors-those colossal things
which flash across the war armament
meek. modest, praying sometimes,
iatalists fore.doomed to death. and dy-
ing always when to fall seems to DO
an act of conservation or going to God.
There were some such on the confeder-
ate side. Stonewall Jackson was one.
So vas Albert Sydney Johnston. So
was Van Dorm. So was B. Il. Weight
man. Upton Hays. Pat. Clebarne, the
boy Pelham, dead amid his guns, with
this for funeral Grafton:
''Just as the Spring came laughing through the
strife,
With all It's gorgeous cheer,
In the high noon of his historic life,
Fell the great cannoneer."
And W. against such .here were Nc
Ph%erson, and Dalghren, and Sedgwick, |
and Lyon, and Mulligan, and many an
other who gave up his plain. simple,
loyal lie that the country fought for
should not be worsted in the strife.
But all this Is neither here nor there.
The question raised by Johnston. against
Jefferson Davis has been answered 20
thoroughly iu Mr.. Dsvis's favor, and 80
much to the utter discontinue if not to
say disgrace Of Gen. Johnston. as far as
he is concerned it would have been better
bis name and his lame il, instead OF
his wound being severe at tho Seven
Pines, it had been mortal.