The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1904-09-04
THE JEKYE[ WHO
KICKED At DAVIS
Grins Thro' the Hyde
Smile of Roosevelt.
ARNOLD THE TRAITOR
To This Man Roosevelt Compared
Jefferson Davis, and When Davis
Cautiously Pointed Out the
Error, Flung Back a
Brutal Insult.
brooklyn Eagle.)

A certain man wrote a book years
before he ever thought of running for
office. He ran for office years after
he wrote the book What he said as
an author then was revived with effect
on his ambition as candidate. That
is why 1.-The South is now stirred
up about Mr.. Roosevelt. He wrote
"a Life of Thomas Hart Benton" of
Missouri in 1.-The Statesman's Series,
several years ago. In that Life he had
this to say, when his pen was free
and when his ambition was that of a
literary man-only:
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 d politician who sells
his vote for money and one who sup
ports bad measure in consideration
of being given some high political
position"
Benedict Arnold held a command
at a pivotal post in the Revolutionary
War He resented a failure to be pro-
NOTED by scheming to turn over the
post and the garrison to the foreign
enemy. He was a traitor. Jefferson
Davis was a seceSsi onist, one who be-
leved that States had as much right
voluntarily to leave the Union as they
had voluntarily to enter it. The differ
ence between adherence to school
of thought in peace and betrayal OF
q post and a garrison to the enemy
in war ought to be evident it is real.
jefferson Davis believed always what
he said. He was as open in his bellet
as Arnold was secret in his treachery.
Davis was elected President OF the
Confederate States after it's organiza-
ton, being concededly the ablest
Southerner in civic life. Had he then
betrayed the Confederacy to the
Union he would be likenable to
Arnold--but in no other contingency
Mr.. RooseyeIt's comparison of him To
Arnold in the book about Benton is
inexpIicablc except on the theory CT
captiyatiOn by "a sham analogy.
Naturally it has nightly stirred
the South having been revived to at
tcntfon at a time when Mr.. RooSe- |
welt is running for an office for which
votes are needed.
1t turns out that the foregoing is
not the only accusation Mr.. Roosevelt,
in his book about Benton made against
Jefferson Davis. He accused him of
being an advocate of Mississippi's re-
pudiation of her State debt. Je1er
son DAVIS still has friends. down
South. One of them, Major Living
ston Minis, lately showed in the At
lanta News that jefferson Davis once
gave up an assured election from his
state to the Federal Senate rather
than even seem to connive at repudia-
ton. When the book about Benton,
with these charges in it, was first
brought to Jefferson Davis attention,
the latter remarked, says Mr. Minis:
"Oh. they are not true, but MI
Roosevelt made them in the hot i'm
pulse of prejudiced faith But, &C
cording to the Charlotte On. CD News,
just received, Mr.. Roosevelt reiterated
the accusation in a magazine article,
jefferson Davis, then a very old man,
was as free from legal difficulties as
any other Southerner, thanks to the
wise good nature which public opinion
insisted the government should show
We quote here from the Charlotte
News: Seeing that these false
charges had been repeated in maya
zen article along with the added in
suit that Mr.. Davis did not discharge
his personal obligations, the latter
wrote to Mr.. Roosevelt q Kind letter
pointing out his error and Offering
evidence to the contrary. Theodore
Roosevelt, at the time certainly suf-
fering from none of Mr.. Davis disad-
vantages, wrote on slip of paper the
brutal message: MT. Theodore
Roosevelt desires no communication
with jefferson Davis.
We shall not here repeat the COM
mentS of the News, for while they are
earnest and dignified, they are polltl-
cal. and politics is not within our pur-
pose here. Our purpose is here only
to urge that an author of history *
apt to show that his errors are on
the side of his temperament, and his
temperament is likely to be OH the
side of his errors. jefferson Davis OPP
posed repud Iation and suffered loss be-
cause he did Whatever his errors,
that was not one of them. He called
Mr.. RooSeveit's attention to an in
justice. by evidence which refuted
that Injustice He did so courteously.
The reply he received is set forth by
The News, in the extract which we
reprint.
We the more regret, and are the
more surprised by this than We would
otherwise he, from the fact that Mr.
Roosevelt when on vote-gettings
tour, two years ago, enlarged at
Charleston on the claim that his ma
ternal grandfather was a Confederate
naval officer and that his daughter
the mother of the President, was tie
of loving alliance between him and
the old South. That temporarily had
an effect That was rlanifestly de-
signed TO have at least a Temporary
effect We had been pleased, had the
effect been permanent, but the est-
mated political necessity to infiict ne
gro postmasters and negro custom
collectors on white communities, dis
solved the effect, with lamentable in
crease to the bitterness and to the
diflcuities of politics and of patriot
ism.
our country has been a loser by
this. Every moral and many bust
ness interest has been injured By this.
The hardships of Republicanisn. in
Trying to cease from sectionalisrn.
have been augmented by this. The
temptation to Southern Democracy
itself to become or to stay sectional
has been strengthened by this. The
endeavors of Northern and Southern
friends of the education of the two
races have been made harder and
less hopeful by this. The effort of
those friends to get Southern States