The Laurens advertiser. (Laurens, S.C.) 1885-1973, 1893-06-20
THE END OF THE WAR.
The Honors Paid to Jefferson Davis
A Remarkable Editorial.

|
The Honors Paid to Jefferson Davis
A Remarkable Editorial.
The New York Sun has recentl,
made q remarkable utterance in re
gard to the honors given to the re-
mains of ex-President Davis, and wher
it is remembered that the kindly and
conciliatory expressions came from the
pen of Editor Charles A. Dana, who
was assistant secretary of war under
Edwin NJ. Stanton, the conclusion NAV
be drawn with safety that the war al
last is ended, and the era OF peace ia al
] hand
| With imposing ceremonies the body
| OF the former President of the Con
| federate States has been brought for
reinterment to the city which was the
| capital aud the stronghold of the Con-
federacy. The demonstration of af-
lection and respect, in which a large
portion of our Southern brethren have
taken part, must be recognized as a
proof that the Confederate cause.
though lost, is still beloved; and that
the organizers OF secession are be-
lieved by many of their children to
have deserved success, although they
| were unable to command it But the
most remarkable feature of the occa-
sion has passed unnoticed, namely,
| that the honors to the memory of JEFF
fersOn Davis have provoked no word of
protest from the North, although they
were rendered at the very time when
we commemorated those who died to
to uphold the Union.
The spectacle presented at Rich
mond will be appreciated by the his
torian who contrasts the present posi-
tion of the beaten party in the war of
the rebellion with the treatment of the
vanquished in other civil wars. The
time never came in the history of Rome
when the sympathy and admiration
felt by many of the people and by u
large part of the senator's for Brutus
and Cassius and other resolute foes of
Cnsarism could be publicly avowed.
More than century elapsed after the
battle of Philippi before the pen of
Tacitus could disclose even by inu-
endo the stubborn hostility of the de-
feated. The Republican ideas which
triumphed in the English Common
wealth, and were stiHed at the Resto-
ration, recovered only a trace of their
former influence in 1858; and the day
has yet to dawn when English public
opinion will tolerate the erection of a
ootooo w OiiNCi SiohWell Ill WcSI-
minister Abbey.
Nothing could attest more strikingly
the enlightenment and magnanimity
of the American people than the fact
that Northern men can view without
remonstrance or i'll will the devotion of
their Southern brethren to the men,
DRY of the statesman in whom was in
carnated the effort to subvert the
Union. Such patience, such Indulgence,
such Willingness to make allowances,
such comprehension of anothers point
of view, is without a parallel in the
experience of nations. In the North it
is so absolutely true that the war is
over, and that all animosities which it
engendered are effaced, that no irrita-
tion is excited by the reluctance now
and then exhibited by Southerners to
forget the dissensions of the past and
to remember only that they are now
the honOred and trusted citizens of
reunited country. TO feel irritated is
impossible, in view OF the awakening
of the Northern mind to q keen sense
of the difficulty of deciding whether,
as q matter of strict traditional right,
the attempt at secession could not be
justified. Among the signs. of this
awakening, and of the curiously be-
lated prepondcrance OF Calhouns
views Of the Constitution over Web
ster's, may be mentioned the testi-
mony of the grandson of John Quincy
Adams, who, in his history of the JEFF
fersOn and Madison administrations,
points out that the first statesman to
proclaim in the House of Representa-
tives the right of u State to secede
was Josiah Quincy of Massachusetts.
That was fact which Massachusetts
had forgotten in 1861.
1t was really the doctrine of State
rights, carried, indeed, thirty years
ago to an extreme inconsistent with
the safety and development of free in
stitutions on this continent, and to that
extent condemned by the arbitrament
of war. but still doctrine, when
soberly applied, of deep and vital
moment to the republic, which is hon
ored at Richmond in the person of JEFF
ferson Davis. No word, therefore, of
rebuke, but only regret that war was
needed to mark the limitations of the
principle, will be heard from those
who felt that unity was an even more
essential guarantee of American
liberty and progress
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