Staunton spectator and vindicator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1896-1916, 1904-09-09
HOW ROOSEVELT
Denounced DAVIS.
AIIeoed Refusal to Correct Misstatement
and Insult of Aged and Defeated Man.

AI,eoed Refusal to Correct Misstatement
and Insult of Aged and Defeated Man.
The Baltimore Sun says:
A number of Southern newspapers
are publishing this extract from Theo-
dore Roosevelt's biography of Thomas
II. BentOn:
"Before jefferson Davis took his
place among the arch-traitors in our
| annals he had already been known as
one of the chief repudiators; 1t was not
unnatural that to dishonesty toward
the creditors of the public be should
afterward add treachery to the public
| itself.'
The Augusta Chronicle contributes
some interesting information relative
to the statements. I'VE have it, "says
the Chronicle, ION the personal testl-
mony of Major Livingstone Minis, OF
Atlanta, who was an actor in the al
fairs of Mississippi referred to by MI.
Roose velt, that, SO far from fav0rlng
reputation in that State. Mr.. DAVIS
advised the opposite course as good
policy, while not cOndemning the mo-
tives of those who differed with him.
That action cost him the United States
senatorship. He had it in his grasp
and it passed to Hon. A. G. Brown.
The Chronicle gives this account OF
some correspondence which once took
place between Mr.. Davis and Mr..
Roosevelt:
SIN after years, when Mr.. Davis was
old and unfortunate, at Beauvoir, the
charges made by Mr.. Roosevelt were
brought to his attention. He waved
them aside magnanimOusly.| saying:
"Oh, they are not true, but Mr.. RoOse-
velt made them in the hot impulse of
of prejudiced faith But when. later
on, Mr.. Roosevelt, in q magazine arti-
Gle, repeated the false charges and add
ed that Mr.. Davis personally did not
discharge his debts. the exC Confederate
president wrote a kind letter to Mr..
Roosevelt, pointing out his errors and
offering to furnish indisputable evil
dence as to his course in the repudia-
tion era and his own individual hon
esty. What did Roosevelt do? Any
man of honor, it seems to US, would
Ihave been eager to correct an injustice
land slander leveled at such man as
lMr. Davis; but Mr.. Roosevelt without
1.-The ordinary courtesy of epistolary
s4lutation of Sir or Dear Slr,' wrote
contemptuously on slip OF paper
and mailed it to Beauvoir: MIR. TheO
dore Roosevelt desires not cOmmuni
cation with Jefferson Davis For fur
ther particulars We refer the Houston
Post to Major Livingstone Minis, At
lanta, Ga, or to Mrs. Jefferson Davis
whose present address we cannot a
present furnish"
1.-The interest of the people of thi
time in Roosevelt's opinion of MI
Davis is very slight" says the Hous
ton Post. "The honor and fame
Mr.. Davis are beyond the shafts of an
liar or slanderer who eyer lived, bu
: the matter is important insofar as
gives an insight to the character OF
- man now a candidate, for president {
the United States. Mr.. Roosevelt
when he penned his slander OF M
Davis, was quite obscure. 1t was a
s. act of graciousness on the part OF M
Davis to offer in kindly spirit to Co
:" rectly inform him. and if ROoseve
didn't have the decency to do right
" the premises, it merely proved that l
was grossly deficient In the virtues
honesty and truth.
THAT the.deficiency still exists W
. have had recent proof. Only a fe
= weeks ago the country was moved
the pitiful appeal of General James
Tyner, once attorney general OF t
- United States, and recently an assis
" ant attorney general for the postofli
~ department.. Roosevelt had public
denounced him as a criminal and
=, moved him from Office. He was
dicted and tried and all Impartial in
honorably acquitted him. The old m
appealed to the president to do him
"s instice to recall the slander and lib
-. but up to this day not word has col
from Roosevelt. a president OF
e United States Is not too great to un
a wrong be has committed against
humblest citizen, but Roosevelt in
yate and public life has been guilty
reckless slanderous charges against
good names of other men, and SO
has never shown the slightest dlsp'
tion to restifY his blunders. NO W
~ der people say and believe that his Il
takes are maliciously made"