The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1904-08-19
ROOSEVELT'S MISREPRESENTA-
TION OF JEFFERSON DAVIS.

1
on Wednesday night, Hon. r. b.
| Glenn, Democratic candidate for Gov
ernor, took the ground that Roose-
velt's utterances had forfeited the
right to expect any votes from the
Southern people, referring to a state
ment made by Mr.. Roosevelt in d
G. A. r. speech in Washington City
in which he put the Confederate sol
der down in the list of men who stood
for anarchy"
1t is we'll that the treatment of Mr..
Jefferson Davis by Mr.. Roosevelt
should he fully understood by the
Southern people-it is a record that
ought to cause the President to blush
for shame. On page 1913, in Roose-
velts Life of Benton will be found
this passage:
1.-The moral difference between
Benedict Arnold on the one hand, and
Aaron Burr or Jefferson Davis on the
other, is precisely the difference that
obtains between a politician who sells
his vote for money and one who SUPP
ports bad measure in consideration
of being given some high political
position"
On pages 219 ana 220, we find the
following language:
During Van Buren's administration
many States, in the rage for
public improvements, had contracted
debts which they now refused to pays
in many cases they were unable or
at least so professed themselves, even
to pay the annual interest. The debts
of the States were largely held
abroad; they had been converted into
stock and held in shares, which had
gone into a great number of hands,
and now, of course, became greatly
deprecated in value. 1t is painful
and shameful page in our .history;and
every man connected with the repu-
diation of the States debts ought, if
remembered at all, to be remembered
with scorn and contempt. However,
| time has gradually shrouded from our
! sight both the names of the leaders
in the reputation and the names of
the victims whom they sWindled. Two
alone, one in each class, will always
be kept in mind. Before Jefferson
Davis took his place among the arch
| traitors in our annals he had already
been known as one of the chief re-
pudators: it was not unnatural that
| to dishonesty towards the creditors of
the public he should afterwards add
treachery to the public ITSELF
No comment uron the first extract
put in a book called biography a
statement that convicts Mr.. Davis and
every Confederate soldier of a crime
like that of Benedict Arnold shows
that he has no conception of the War
Between the States worthy of con-
sheraton Neither Grant nor Lin
coin nor any man who bore a con-
spicuous part in that struggle re-
garded Mr.. Davis and Gen. Lee as
other than brave men fighting for
iwhat they believed TO be their cor,
stitutional rights. This utterance of
Roosevelt-putting jefferson Davis and
Benedict Arnold in the same class
should damn him with all men who
respect courage and Willingness to
sacrifice all that man holds dear for
his convictions.
AS to the statement that Jefferson
Davis favored reputation of the debts
of Mississippi, what are the facts?
They are thus given by the Augusta
Chronicle:
"A sincere historian. who values his
reputation, would always be careful
| in consulting authorities and, like Col.
Davy Crockett. first be sure; then
| go ahead But this evidently is not
| the Roosevelt system. 1t is certain
that jefferson Davis was never MEM
Der of the Mississippi Legislature nor
| Governor of the State. We have 1t,
on the personal testimony of Major
Livingstone Minis, that grand old man
| of Atlanta, who was an actor In the
affairs of Miss ssippi referred to by
Mr. Roosevelt, that, so far from favor
ing reputation i'm that State. he ad-
vised the opposite cause. as good
policy, while not condemning the mo7
tives of those who differed with him.
jThat action cost him the United States
Senatorship. He had it in his grasp
and it passed to Hon. a. G Brown.
In after years. when Mr.. Davis was
old and unfortunate, at BeauVolr, the
charges made by Mr.. Roosevelt wG--
| brought to his attention. He waived
them aside magnanimously, saying:
oh. they are not true, but Mr.. Roose-
Welt made them in the hot Impulse OF
prejudiced faith But when later
on. Mr.. Roosevelt. in a magazine arti-
Gle. repeated the false charges ana
added that Mr.. Davis personally uld
| not discharge his debts. the ex-Con-
| federate President wrote kind letter
to Mr.. Roosevelt, pointing out his
errors and offering to furnish lndlS-
nutable evidence as to his course in
| the repudiation era and his own in
dividual honesty. What did Roose-
welt do? Any man of honor, it seems
| to us would have been eager TO cor
rect an injustice and Islander, levelled
| at such a man as Mr.. DAVIS;
| but Mr.. Roosevelt, without the
ordinary courtesy of an epistoldry
| salutation of Sir or Dear Sir, wrote
| contemptuously on slip of paper and
mailed il 10 Beauvoir: Mr.. Theodore
Roosevelt desires to communication
| with jefferson Davis.
The renorts to the Truckers Asso-