The Bennington banner. [volume] (Bennington, Vt.) 1858-1894, 1889-12-12

Iln PleTce was OStensl0ly so, certainly
he developed that kind of executive abil-
ity that is begotten of self-asserIion
He deeply coveted the honor, and he
was clear headed enough to see the ris-
ing of the tide of Republicanism that
threatened to end his party's dynasty
for a generation. As a leader in the
Democratic councils he knew that aTis-
tccratIc, pro-slayery sentiments control
led them. He knew that the Calhoun
doctrine of notification would appeal
-tronRly to the sentimental side of the
Southern people. He knew that there
vas inside the Union no future for the
Democratic leaders of his extreme faith
or many years to come. Blind to the
moral sin of slavery, he underestimated
the moral earnestness with which an at
tempt to build an independent nation
with it's foundations act in hell would be
resisted by those whom patriotism would
call to the preservation of the republic
of the fathers. There was no conceal
ment of the anticipations of bloodshed.
The whole Sou looked for that. But
slavery, like q reversal of Christianity,
mad accustomed it's beneficiaries to the
idea that many were made TO suffer for
The honor and glory of the few; and TO
politicians educated in such moral
school bloodshed had few horrors If Its
results were favorable to them. AS we
nave seen, this blindness caused its own
defeat, since it underestimated the
strength of the moral appeal which
would be made in behalf of armed resist
4nce to slavery. But the personal stake
was light. Slave property would be
taken away in few years at best, and
Southern land would be cheap, and the
chance of personal glory was too splen-
lid to be resisted by aristocratic ambi-
tion.
The time comes at last in the life Of
man of commanding intellect who grows
old with a conscience hardened TO the
resistance of original right impulses,
when the outraged moral nature turns
aud curses him with intellectual blind.
ness, until he pursues falsehood and ABB
surdity as earnestly as il it were truth.
Jefferson Davis embodied not merely the
aristocracy of slaveland, but the strange,
the chimerical paradox expressed in
his own words "A perpetual union OF
the States, and the secession of the States
from the Union so established" No
fanaticism can approach that OF the man
who stars out by devotion to what he
wants to believe. He ultimately believes
it and all that it involves with tenacity
that only death can interrupt.
In the immediate presence OF death
the world may leave the question Of
jefferson Davis responsibility for this
terrible civil war, to be settled between
him and his God. How much he was to
blame for its duration, and for the sac
rifice of 80 much more blood than need
have been spilled cannot be accurately
determined now; perhaps never. Ger
tain it was thar he thought himself fit
tt d by nature and education to dictate
the movements ofkthel Confederate ar
mics at long range, and that he was con-
stantly interfering with the movements
and plans of trained soldiers like Lee
and Johnston, discouraging them and
aspiring to leadership that only uni.
versal genius could have exercised more
wisely than the men who we're in the
field and who naturally knew more Of
the situation and could act more prompt
ly than he. The resources of patriotism
for the preservation of the Union might
haye been called out sooner, the rebel
lion suppressed earlier and peace restor-
ed before 1865, at least cost in life and
treasure, had Davis been less confident
of his own supreme ability and lmpor-
lance. But his attitude towards his gen.
erals and toward the rebel Congress was
that of self sufficiency for every posi-
BILE demand. He knew everything, was
perfectly sure he was right, and con go
quently could and would learn nothing.
In ignominious defeat as in recognize
ed leadership, the same firm belief in
him characterized him. For the last
twenty-four years of his life ne has been
the incarnation of an unrepentance that
would have done credit to Millions Luci
fer. Never content with the silence OF
pride, he has never omitted an oppor-
tunity to denounce his conquerors, never
recognized in the least the magnanimity
of the nation that spared his life from
the stigma of punished treason, and ad-
mitted him and the State of his home
to the equal protection Of the law, leav-
ing nothing undone except the single
act of restoration of this arch rebel to
the highest dignity of enfranchised citi-
zenship. 1t was not in human nature to
admit among the nations actual rulers
him who had led the attempt to des-
troy it.
To the last this type of the blind cruel,
despotic old regime of status and force
and the greatest degradation of the
greatest number refused to see the logic
of events, the hand of God in the saliva
ton of the Union and in making it q
land of liberty in fact as well as in name,
an object lesson in the Christian civiliza-
ton Of the Golden Rule. He has gone
to be weighed in the scales of eternal
justice, and we may not see him behind
the'veil, but we can be thankful that the
nation that saved itself from him was
guided into a path over which such
shadows as his can never more be cast.