Lancaster daily intelligencer. [volume] (Lancaster, Pa.) 1864-1928, 1883-09-10
BLACK ON DAVIS.
TnE GREAT JURIsT On TuE IN
pkEsIDENT.
Davis twenty Years sIiencS-BiacksU Upin-
Ion of tho Union and Of Siavery-The
Proclamation lie Desired

In tho Philadelphia Press of to-day, F..
A. Burr gives long and interesting ac-
count Of his last interview with Judge
Black, in which tho latter referred at length
TO JEFF Davis attack upon him. From Mr..
Burr's account Of what Judge Blask said
We make the following extracts
"It has taken Mr.. Davis moro than 20
years to bring me to the block. His effort
is rs amusing as were the antics and say
ings of Rip Van Wrinkle to the plain
country people among whom he awoke
after his 90 years slumber. He brings
news to the American people in the charge
upon which he arraigns me. If, as he
says, violated my oath of office because |
denied the right of secession, urged the
president to protect government property
IN the South and punish all offenders
against the laws of the land, | am glad of
it. | should do the same thing again, il
called upon to act III a like emergency. But
what does Mr.. Davis say of his actsp Ii
they can now meet the approval of his
conscience he must have au elastic one. He
was senator of the United States
while he was in the conspiracy TO de-
stroy the government. He was pleading
for peace while he was planning war. 1t
is too late now for him to exhibit his
ingenious arguments in the Senate for .
peaceful solution of the difficulties while
he was playing the president with PERM
ciOuS advice and endeavoring to influence
him to disregard the constitutional oblIga
tious His judgment must have entirely
let go its hold ON his passions when he
peuued that charge, or he may have been
trying 70 be funny. IL it was violation
OF my oath, or even straining OF the
proptieties Of my position, that fought
by night and by day the schemes of the
SecessionistS, Mr. Davis has done me a
great service by pyUclaiming 1t. | wish |
could bring some charge against him,
touching his conduct IN that crisis. that
would be as much to his credit. Ii his
conclusions in this his last paper were rs
sound rs his attack upon me is vicious, |
might say that he rs a great and good
man. lie has struck SO wildly, however,
that
uis passions ana G.~ virtues lie confused
And suiN'a t0Ee' her IN so Wild "A tumult
That tie whole man = lutte uishgUTcd In
him
Their supreme ImPuGeEce.
II there was anything at that time that
illustrated the supreme impudeuce of the
SCcesSi0n.sts, it was their demand that
Major Anderson should not be permitted
to leave FO.t Muultrie He acquits the
president Of the responsibility OF granting
permission 10 Major Anderson to occupy
Sumter in case his judgment so dictated,
aud lays the charge ~ my door. | father
the responsibility, II responsibility Is
necessary, as CECGriu,y now as | did in
tho heat Of tha. controversy. lit was an
insult 70 the people Of South Carolina for
IL La IL Of
that little baud of federal soldiers in
CHARLESTON harbor, cannot see it so.
Whether the president intended that the
orders to Major Anderson should be SO
framed as to give him the right TO
move into Sumter, | cannot say. But
when | wrote the order, such was my in
tention, and have no excuses TO offer for
that act. Ii it provoked war, as Mr..
Davis declares iC did, it was because those
who were then wilfully menacing the
Federal government made it a pretext for
the crime Of revolt. In tho mighty events
then chasing each other in rapid success
sion, played no part which has the more
cordial approval Of my conscience to-day
than IN framing that order that carried
Major Anderson from Fort Moultrie TO
Fort Sumter. What Mr. Davis says about
the commissioners from South Carolina
proceeding upon some sort of assurances
from the executive, is ridiculous. The
president had no right to treat with these
people as the commissioners Of q state and
ho declined TO DO 10. They were simply
three respectable gentlemen whom the
president treated ciyily, and they as
sumed an importance never justified By
tho facts
1t will not do at this day for Mr, Davis
20 write about the peaceful Intentions OF
himself and his fellow Secess sionists. Their
assault upon the government was deliber-
ate ard predetermined, and their cries of
peace, while they were for war unless they
could have their CwH way, were only tho
vapor with which they hoped to envelop
their real purposes. Mr.. Davis began
early after Nj. LiGcOlu's election to urge
his views upon the president and he was
recognized among tho SoceSsionists as
their most important agent. Cobb was
one OF the worst SecCJ,iNnists | ever knew
and oCe Of the ablGst men. Thompson, a
SOutheTner, a man Of integrity and supe
rior powers. Floyd had little influence.
Mr.. Davis was called to Washing
ton rom Mississippi by his Southern
fIiends in the cabinet, that they might
have their most potent advocate near the
| executive while the message was being
prepared He did the work OF his clan
most faithfully, and because he did not
succeed he assailed the president after the
| message was read, and never until now,
that have heard of, appeared as his de-
fender. That Mr. Buchanan was strong
enough 10 resist the appeals of Davis and
his fellows, brave enough 10 defy their
auogancO, and clear headed enough to
escape the traps with which they sur
rounded him is to his lasting credit. They
did him great injustice then, and they
have never repented that know of. They
cnvcloped him In an atmosphere aud gave
u cOloring to some OF his acts that the facts
did not justify. They furnished the am
munitlOn by which hc has been success
fully slandered from that day to this Mr..
Davis calls himself the old friend OF Mr.,
Buchanan. This, indeed Is the acme OF
sarcasm.
SIR. Buchanan's First Alarm
'Just after the election Of lSOO-eysu
before any Southern state had taken a
decided step toward secession, one of the
senators from South Carolina left the
capitol in q huh, declaring the election OF
MIR. Lincoln meant civil war, and that lac
would no longer serve in tho Senate. This
was the first significant act pointing to
secession, and IL made an impression upon
Mr Buchanan's mind. Very soon alter
1t occurred hc took occasion TO say tC
me
Judge, have these pooplo any right tc
secede? Do you find any warrant 10 the
constitution for states withdrawing
from the Federal Union ?"
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