The Vermont watchman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1883-1911, 1886-05-05
Exalting the Lost Cause.

The Rutland Herald well says of the
remarkable ovation to Jefferson Davis
at Montgomery, Alabama, last week,
that the worst effect of the demonstra-
ton els to educate the rising genera
ton to honor a cause which had no
honor in it except the heroism of the
struggle" Much has been said by
democratic and independent journals to
the effect that the "war issue " is dead,
and that sectionalism lies buried in its
tomb, but the Montgomery demonstra-
ton does not justify these millennial
statements. In his opening address
Mr.. Davis did not congratulate his
auditors that the war had ended in a
restoration of the Union, that slavery
was dead, or that sectionalism was no
more but he asserted that on the part
of the South it was {" a holy war of de-
fence" and the great gathering in his
honor impelled him to exclaim that
"the spirit of southern liberty is not
yet dead" General Gordon of Georgia,
who delivered the principal address,
spoke effusively of Davis as great and
grand at the head of nation" and of
his moral elevation and matchless
fortitude." He also asserted that "no
more exalted purposes ever inspired
people than those which impelled the
South to enter upon her perilous
struggle for independence, nor ever in
duced freer and more costly sacrifice,
nor led to defence which, though I'M
successful, secured more deathless
renown." 1t is due to General Gordon
to say that in concluding his speech he
pledged the faith of the southern peo-
pie to the permanent union of the
States. The comments of many of the
leading southern papers on the Mont
gomery demonstration are much in the |
strain of General Gordon's high-fiown
eulogy upon Davis. BY some of them
Mr. Davis is held up as second Wash
ington, and the Montgomery Despatch
asks what flowers are beautiful enough
to crown a brow such as that of Jefferson
Davis?" A few southern journals are
sufficiently courageous to protest against
the sentiments expressed by Davis and
his admirers. There may be nothing
in the wailings of these southern
mourners of the lost cause or in their
extravaganza laudation of its chief rep
resentative that threatens hostility to
the government of the country or the
safety of the Union. Notwithstanding
Mr.. Davis, in brief speech at Auburn,
Alabama, last Friday, said: "You have
heard of the lost cause. 1t is not lost.
1t will live again. 1t is not dead, but
sleeping, Truth can never die" Slavery
is dead, and the wicked secession
dogma is thing of the past; but the
effect of the demonstrations in honorof
Jeff. Davis is not wholesome. There is
nothing in the underlying principles of
the " lost cause that deserves to be
ennobled or cherished. The war issue
was secession and it's parent was hui
man slavery-a foul blot on the coun-
try. The Davis demonstrations are to
be deprecated, because they serve to
perpetuate a spirit which enkindles
sectional resentments and is harmful to
the best interests of the country. The
glorification of disloyalty is menace
to republican institutions. The crime
of treason is one that patriotic people
cannot condone, though their magma
nimity may suffer it to go unpublished.