The Daily times. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1886-1889, 1889-12-08
CREAM OF THE PRESS
PROMINENT PAPERS COMMENT
ON Mr.. DAVIS DEATH.
Tribute Paid to His Manhood, Fidelity 10
Convictions and Model Life-NeariY
Ex.rx Iurue Cifx Renre.cnted.

Couvirtions and Model Life-Neariy
Every Large City Represented.
New York SUM-
The death of Jefferson Davis a: the
age of eighty one is one OF the most
memorable events OF memorable year.
A veteran ia arms and craftsmanship.
it could not be said of him that he
Jagged superfluoos on the public stage.
1t Was well for him. and well Tor re
united country, that the years OF the
chief organizer Of secession should
have been prolonged beyond the nor.
NAL limit Of threescore aud ten. Had
he died twenty. or even ten.
wears ago the embers of fratricidal
passion might have been raked anew
into baleful fires over his grave. As IT
is. there is no one TO rcyile. and there
are MANY TO honor, or. at oil events. TO
respect, bis memory. He has outlived
sectional enmity and personal detrac-
ton. He has lived long enough to see
the political atmosphere purged of
prejudice and Iancor. and 10 forecast
in the candid attitude of Northern con
temporaries the sober and unbiased
judgment of posterity.
Washington Post.l
OF the conduct of Mr.. Davis since the
war it must at least To SAID that he
consistently retained the courage of his
convictions. As ii a vicariOus sacrifice
for the people whom he loved, he
seemed to glory 10 bearing in his own
; person the burden of obloquy and pro-
scription that ever waits upon lost
cause. There was much in his attitude
TO admire. but more to deplore. Had
he fully accepted the conclusions OF
the war, and clothed himself anew
with the attributes Of citizenship. his
alert and active mind would have
found in the work OF reconstruction a
field more glorious than that OF exile or
virtual expatTiatioD. He could have
led greater armies than those OF Lee to
conquests greater than those OF Grant.
and stood upon the heights ola restored
Union. facing the living future instead
of sitting in the valley of the shadow
facing a dead past.
philadelphia Record.l
The death of Jefferson Davis sewers
the most vital link that connected the
aims aud actions Of the present with
the Southern Confederacy that perished
with Lees surrender at Appomattox
nearly quarter of century
ago. During the last score of years
Mr.. Davis has been the most unique
, character of American history, and
he was more potent during
that period to rekindle smoulderiDg
fires of sectionalism by his fire..
quent public and always heroic defense
OF the Lost Cause than all the other
surviving champions of the South com
bined. lie was one of the few Of the
Southern leaders who accepted self
expstriatioD aud lived a stranger to our
institutions and died without a country.
He did not teach or cherish resentment:
he had accepted the highest response
bility and distinction of the rebellion:
he bad failed in revolution and fallen
with his cause. and he never Yielded IN
conviction or bowed to expediency.
New YORK Herald
The death of Jefferson Davis marks
the departure of one who for nearly "a
generation has had only historical in-
terest in the American people. And IT
is as a historical figure. as far removed
from the stern judgments of the hour
as B0liugbroke or Pitt, that be will be
viewed even by those who, under the
cruel pressure Of terrible events. were
wont to regard him as the incarnation Of
TREASON and rapine. We have been so
long accustomed to regard Mr.. Davis as
the embodiment of the Southern Con-
p federacy. as The object Of extreme
hatred by one class of our people and Of
extreme adulation by another, that it
is difficult TO assign him true place
= among the rulers OF men. A generation
must pass and many hidden things be-
come known before the tribunal OF his
tory will pas. its final judgment upon
his character and his career.
baltimore SUM-
Although The people of the North
] cannot be expected TO mourn for the
death OF ex. President Jefferson Davis,
they can we'll afford 10 join in the trib-
utes that are being paid to q character
that was in many ways worthy OF the
highest respect. Mr.. Davis was essen
tally an American. and even his polili-
cal errors leaned TO the side of freedom.
He hated tyranny as fiercely as George
Washington hated it. and loved liberty
d6 uttDiO 10 bu0 bltb VIM a (NhNhaI R6O
pledged their lives, their fortunes and
their secret hOnOrs TO the defense OF the
rights of the colonies. Granting that
he was wrong in the view thae he took
of the aggressiOns of the North, and
| that he erred in seeking the vindication
of the South through secession. 1t must
be remembered that he followed
strictly American precedent In boldly
= resisting what he considered oppres-
, sion, aud in endeavOring TO strike down
what he believed TO be an invasion OF
the constitutional rights of the States.
1t was in the name of liberty that
the United States were baptized in rev.
dictionary blood, and it was in that
same name, and with a true devotion
to the principle which that name en-
bodies, that Mr.. Davis became the Chief
Magistrate OF the Confederacy.
New York Times,l
Assursdly Jefferson Davis appeared
, to much greater advantage as the lead
er of the Confederacy than as its apol-
ogist. In the first character he was
capable and energetic man OF affairs:
in the second he was pedantic lawyer
searching for precedents by which TO
adjudicate the 'lrrepre-sib'c conflict
between progress aud reaction, between
civilization and barbarism. The
real justification of the Southern
leaders, from their own point of
view, was not that their revolt had
q fair prospect Of success, but
that they were forced to make
it. Slavery was already in the last
ditch" before the first gun had been
fired on Sumter. The admission of
Kansas and the election of Lincoln had
made the extension Of slavery forever
impossible. rhe fate of the slave States,
If they remained in the Union, was 10
be hemmed in and finally to be over
whelmed by free States. ever increasing
in number, in wealth and in power.
Taking the slave States out of the Union
was the only chance that remained of
saving slavery where it existed. and
with 1t the social and political system
that had slavery for its foundation. !
The chance was taken and it failed.