Huntsville gazette. [volume] (Huntsville, Ala.) 1879-1894, 1891-07-18
"PATRloT" JEFF DAVIS.
Silly Statements Calculated to Revive
Sectional Feeling.

Silly Statements Calculated to Revive
Sectional Feeling.
Influential newspapers in the south
are endeavoring Ito smooth over the
monstrous treachery of the rebellion,
in such persistent manner, that the
attempt can hardly escape serious at
tentiOn. &En 4At
The Richmond Dispatch voices de-
mand for new history of the war
which shall justify the south in the
course it pursued. 1t calls upon its
readers to resolve that they will have
the 's'honest" history and then to boy
colt northern writers and support a
southerner. In other words, it wants
to have the doctrine of disunion taught
in the schools in:order to crafty fool
ish vanity which shrinks from acl1nowl-
edging that it could ever have been in
the wrong 1t cares nothing, appar-
entity, for the consequences which
might follow such an ingenious method
of keeping alive sectional differences.
The Charleston News and Courier in
dicates the kind of information that
the revised histories will contain.
Speaking of 1.-THE South's Great Hero, )"
it says; y-~.s. r~t .--.
In his recent address to the old confederate
soldiers. asking them to unite in raising money
for the purpose of erecting a monument to JET
ferson Davis, Gen. John b. Gordon Of Georgia
said: I'VE win build monuments to our own
peerless heroes as an inspiration to coming
generations, and we will erect q fitting one to
our great chieftain, whose public and private
life was without fear or reproach; whose scrv-
t.. l., 80. IIsx,..f
command the respect and win the plaudits Of
all his countrymen, and whose dauntless devo-
tion to his convictions has scarcely parable;
in history" On the 18th day of June in every
city, town and hamlet in the ex-confederate
states public meetings will be held to promote
the high and holy purpose which Con Gordon
has so eloquently commended to the approval
and cooperation OF the southern people. 1t Is
hoped that there will be no stay homes on
that day, and that sufficient fund will be
raised to erect monument worthy of the
grand old patriot Certainly no man who APP
preciates patriotic motives will fail to give his
earnest support to the movement, which is in
tended to perpetuate in everlasting bronze the
memory of the great man who presided over
the destinies of the south in the most eventfu
period of its history. 81 f -e'tltg Et. }
The News and Courier then goes on
to alIege that Davis served his coun-
try nobly," and in fighting "fcr the
! principles on which the union was
founded he was the "chosen repre-
sentative of the southern people in
their struggle for Independence"
In! short, these bourbons of the south
desire to persuade themselves and the
world that the rebellion was war for
independence from oppression and
: that the leader was second Washing
ton. They recall the glorification of
the south and Jefferson Davis by
Judge, then Senator, Lamar in 1879,
and the proper rebuke administered by
Zach Chandler.
We can imagine no idea more silly OF.
more pernicious. 1t is silly because it
cannot succeed and pernicious because
it win keep alive sectional jealousies
| and enmities which were fast dying
out. If the rebellion, instead of mis-
take, was war for independence, why
not try lit again? q If it's leaders were
I patriots, why cannot others become
patriots by following their example?
No good can come from this pre-
posterous attempt to change the facts
of history, but, on the contrary. much
harm may, result. - Albany IN. "
.Jnrrpa1 1859 E- . ff H4tN