The Maryville times. (Maryville, Tenn.) 1884-1944, 1890-01-15
THE FORGIVENESS OF JEFFER-
SON DAVIS.
BY PRESIDENT B. TEUEBLoOD, LII. D,

Published BY Request
The death of the ex-president Of
the ex-sOuthern confederacy causes
the recent past of our country to
pass before one like the seeming re-
alities of a vivid dream. The CEN
trail figures in it all as it passes, are
those of Abraham Lincoln, on the
one side, and confronting him, on
the other, of Jefferson Davis. His
tory has already had time enough
to write the character and deter
mine the place of the former
What will it say of the latter?
l first heard the name of "Jef"
Davis soon after the war broke out.
To the imagination OF boy Of four
teen, who has been early taught to
love his country, and to feel deep
regard for its integrity and its hon
or, this name came soon to stand
for high treason, war, death, the
groans and sObs Of suffering slaves,
q ruined country and disorganized
humanity. Many, many a time at
my old home in southern Ind lana,
during those early days Of the war,
did some sympathizer with rebel
lion pass by and ding his malicious
~hurra for JEFF Davis" over against
the loyal bulwaiks Of my young
spirit. What l thought and how
felt at that time OF youthful effervs-
ence, it is not necessary here to re-
cord.
1t is not my purpose here to en-
ter into any detailed account or the
life and action Of this man, but sim
ply to allude to them by way Of
preparation Of another kind. His
purely intellectual abilities WEI Q
of high order. There is no re-
cord, so far as know, of licentious-
ness and debauchery in his private
or public life, such as deepened the
baseness of the great Roman con.
spirater and would-be destroyer Of
his country. He had reached emf
nence at the hands Of his country,
representative, and, secretary of
war.
What was it that Davis as the
leader of the seeding states pro-
prosed to do? It was nothing less
than to establish a confederacy
strong enough, not only to defy,
but also to crush out the growing
sentiment of the country in favor
of the overthrow of the accursed
system of slavery. 1t was DELHI.
crate attempt to establish by force
the principle that any section of a
nation has a right to break up the
national sentiment and the nation
al laws begin to interfere with its
selfish and unholy purposes. 1t
meant, logically, national and state
disorganization, and the sovereign
ty Of individual desire, whim and
passion. Four years passed away,
years whose battles and sieges and
weary marches, whose sufferings
in awful prisons, under open skies
and in crowded hospitals, whose
anguish and evil foreboding none
who lived at that time can ever
forget. Davis and his cOadjutOrs
were forced to desist, but not until
they had made this awful record
on the whole face and heart of the
nation.
After this monstrous attempt up.
on his country's life, with all its un.
told accompanying calamities, did
the nation do wrong when it par
doned this man and all who were
with him. Such q thing could
not have occurred probably in any
other nation under heaven. Davis
did not even ask for pardon. He
seemed never to have repented OF
the evil sentiments which he held,
or Of the evil works which he
wrought. He went down to his
grave believing himself a virtual
martyr of holy "lost cause"
And yet the nation, forgave him
outright, and gave him his liberty.
1t was not religious "cranks" who
did this, but the nation as whole
through its representatives. Even
now while hi body lies in state and
multitudes of his friends and symp-
athizers, perhaps more from the
influences of association than from
disloyalty, gather about him with
praises and honor, the nation looks
on in patience and pity, rather
than in evaporation and revenge.
What does all this mean? His
country did not forgive him be-
cause it had not the power to kill
him. nor because II was not afraid