The Grenada sentinel. [volume] (Grenada, Miss.) 1868-1955, 1900-02-17
'.rHEY WERE NOT REBELS"

Orleans PIcayune Of last Sunday on
tanned an interesting and we'll prepar-
ed article showing that The people Of
the South were NOT r .~be!s-not Trail
tors as Il partisan press, pulpit and To-
run OF this North have all along con-
tended that they were. The writer
cites the arrest and long confinement
in prison of Jetferson Davis on acharge
OF treason and Rebellion, and the siren
uous efforts made by his accusers to
find some law uudcr which they could
convict him, and their failure TO do So,
as proof conclusive that he was not a
ring those years that tried mems
souls" we're not rebels.
The ablest attorneys Of the North
were engaged, and the most vindictive
and partisan among his Toes sought TO
move heaven and EARTH" as it we're,
in order that they might find some law
some pretext, however almsy and
untenable, by which to secure his con-
%viction and execution and yet they
failed and we're forced to sell him free.
Their failure establishes the innocence
OF our Chief and his followers, and
cleared the South, we think, Of the
stigma Of treason that the fre-eaters
OF the North sought TO fasien upon her.
We Are actuat5d by no feelings of Bit
t%erness or vindictiveness; neither do
we charge the Northern people as "a
whole with seeking TO malign and per-
sGcute the wearers of the Confederate
Grey, for We well know that there
were many OF the very best people of
the North who were too ~nagnanimous
to treat the whipped, but not conquer
ed people of the South as traitors,
and even Grant himself sought to re-
pei the charges preferred against Da-
Wis, Lee and other leaders of the Lost
Cause and to arrest the food OF vituper-
alton and abuse that threatened to de-
LUCE the South.
The South is not to be judged by the
petty passions and preiudices that per-
vert the judgment of nan When we see
a Polk leaving the sacred walks OF the
ministry for the tented field; when we
hear the gallant Stuart, the Rayard Of
the South, giving praise to God ia his
dying moments; when We find Stone
wall Jackson amid the silent watches
Of the midnight hour imploring the
guidance of Him who protected the ar
mies of Israel, we are driven to exclaim,
surely these men were christian war
riors. No, to brand the Confederate
soldiers As traitors would be to rob his
tory OF its truthfulness; honor of it's
glory and virtue of its attractiveness.
10 their private lives the Confeder-
ate heroes were above reproach, in
their patriotic professions they were
sincere, and with their blood many of
them sealed their faith in the right
eousness of the cause for which they
fought. That they believed they were
right, that they we're actuated by the
purest motives, the most partisan of
their foes will scarcely deny; and we
believe that the calm, quiet, dispas-
sionate historian OF the future will do
them justice when be undertakes to
write a fair and impartial history of
the greatest clash of arms that the
world has ever known. From manas-
sas to Malvern Hill, from the Father
Of Waters to the granite crests of Get
tysburg, through four long years of
blood and carnage the Confederate le-
gions dashed and charged until the
world stood breathless as they blazed
their way to glory. Trained in the
earlier political schools Of the fathers, |
the voice OF their states was but the
voice Of God, and in answer TO their
states behest they went forth to battle
for cherished rights guaranteed to
them, as they sincerely believed, by
the constitution under which they
were living.
Yes, patriots they were, but Rebels
they were not.