Richmond dispatch. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1884-1903, 1885-01-16
ApvERrIsIN8 RATES.
mar fxftt ON sIT4s



admirably during the debate on General
SHERMAH's letter and they heapcd
Goals Of fire on the heads Of the northern
senator's when, almost Immediately after
the SHERMAN matter had been disposed
Of, 50 many Of them voted for Mr.. Ed
MUNDs's bin to put General GRANT,
with the full pay Of General, upon the
retired list Of the army.
We say the Democrats in the Senate
behaved admirably during the debate on
the SHERMAN letter. They contented
themselves with q dignifed defence Of
Mr.. DAVIS and this defence was made
because Mr.. DAVIS is regarded the
world over as representative man
not because he is ADLER or better than
hundreds of other southrons, but be-
cause he had during the war between
the States the honor, and the cares, and
the burdens, aud the responsibilities, of
the highest Office in the Confederate
States.
In the seventeenth century the bones
Of OLIVER CROMWELL were dug up
and hanged at Tyburn. In the nineteenth
century he stands in the estimation of
all mankind as one Of the best, wisest,
and truest Of English rulers. Our
northern brethren may learn from that
fact what place Mr.. DAVIS will occupy
In the good opinion Of mankind hun
dred years hence. All their twaddle
about " traitors" /" reason" g per-
jury" &c., &C., will have no influence
upon the verdict Of posterity in the case
Of Mr.. DAVIS. The world will judge
for itself; and we already know what
the verdict will be. We are removed
by distance from the people of England.
The generations of men who will be
separated from us by time will concur
in the next century in the judgment
which the best classes Of the British
people have already pronounced in the
matter under consideration.
The fact that the people Of the south
ern States were Shareholders up to 1868,
and the other fact that Mr.. LINCOLN
emancipated their slaves, are the things
that have prejudiced the southern cause
and Mr.. DAVIS in the eyes Of Europe.
Itwas impossible for it to be otherwise.
"Slayes cannot breathe in England"
CAMPBELL had taught the people of
that country; and although, as Mr..
CARLYLE showed them and assured
them, the slaves Of the southern States
of this Union were much better of than
thousands of the laboring classes in
Great Britain, yet this fact never
reached the head of JOHN BULL. His
heart taught him that slavery was
wrong, and he refused to compromise
with that institution.
The charge of perjury as brought in
this connection against Mr.. DAVIS or
any other southern man is a very ab-
surd one. Where is the Constitution
which SHERMAN, LINCOLN, and we |
may say every Republican member of the
United States Senate, sworc in 1861, or
before, to support They have abol-
ishcd it and made new one. The thir-
teenth, fourteenth, and fifteenth amend
ments have radically changed the char
acter Of the Federal Constitution, and
these changes were made by men who
had sworn to support the Constitution
as il was before these amendments were
made to it. Did EDMUNDs, HoAR,
DAWES, SHERMAN, INGALLS,, and
the rest commit perjury when
they made those changes in
Constitution which they had sworn
to support as it was? Of course
not. Why nots Because when they
first swore to support the Constitution,
they took the oath with the understand
ing that they would have the right to
amend The Constitution. So it was with
DAVIS, STEPHENS, LETcHER, FLOYD, |
Thomson, HAMPTON, and all the
southern members Of Congress who
took that oath. They took it with the
firm sbelief on the part of each aud
every one Of them that his State had
right 10 secede from the Union.
Perhaps some Of our northern read
ers, and perhaps some Of our younger
southern readers, have never seen the
resolution Qualification Of the Federal
Constitution which was adopted by the
Virginia Convention of 1888 that rat
fled the Federal Constitution. Our
Virginia foreiathers, in their resolution
ratiiying that instrument, said:
" We the delegates Of the people Of
Virginia do, in the name and
in behalf Of the people Of Virginia. de-
clare and make known that tie pouers
granted xRdv fAe Constellation, being
drired from tie people Of the United
Slater. NAV be resumed BIZ them tchen-