The Montgomery advertiser., 1905-03-24
A DrsrURBED ORGAN.


 stirred some of our Northern RepubI. can newspaper brethren almost into spasmodics. and among them The Chi cago Chronicle. Since that paper quit protesting to be Democratic 1t has been one of the most viruient South referred to has been meat and drink to 1t. We are free to confess regret that the occasion arose for the dis cussion. The act which gave rise to It belongs to the dead past, and the oc- casional mention of it would have done no harm, but for the attempt of Gen. eral Miles to justify himself. This he explanations and defences have but made 1t worse for himself.
 But the discussion gives our bitter Chicago contemporary occasion or ex- cuse to pour out the vials of its wrath on all the South and the Southern peo- pie. It endorses Miles. of course, and evidently thinks his treatment of MT. Davis was a wonderful exhibition of chivalric courtesy and kindness. Then 1t proceeds to read the stubborn South erners lesson in this style:
 The very idea of forgiveness presup- poses that there was a wrong act to be forgiven. The people of the United States have, with magnanimity un- s,aa,Ip exempted a, in the history of yiotors. tempted against the national life, but if they had understood that the act of forgiveness was to be construed to ' Anx hot AhA. ku1 done against the nation and that the | nation itself had been wrong all the time there would not have been voice voice. ior, for Forgiveness a,e They have have in the right of their cause by the Southern people, but they have never admitted and never will admit that sin cerity necessarily implies being in the right.
 they thought that those who had been misled to commit it had come to seq that they were wrong. and wished for giveness. as honest men always do in such circumstances. Therefore they forgave. and therefore only. If this discussion of the dead past Is to go on let 1t be placed on this only just and | common-sense ground.
 Following the language of The Chronicle. we may say that "the very Idea of forgiveness presupposes'-that somebody has asked to be forgiven. That Is just what no true Southern man has asked or will ask of the North or of Northern men. There have been some few who have figuratively gone down on their knees and asked to be forgiven. but there has generally been an office-perspective or prospective. The true men of the South, the men | who made Southern patriotism, cour- | age, endurance and military skill fa- nous throughout the world and for all giveness and are not going to. They | ask no more favors now than they did on the field of battle. The very best | thought of the world has admitted ISthat the South had a right to do what it did and that 1t was justiiable. Fail ure did not change the principle, nor has 1t convinced any good Southern man that he committed a crime. /. The bloviation of The Chronicle about the magnanimity of the North ern people. and their forgiveness of our people is poppycock of the rotten est brand. There was no magnanim- ity, honor or justice in their efforts for years after hostilities closed to ruin and humiliate the South and to grind her people into the very dust of | degradation. When they found that the South could not be held as a sub jugated province, and that our people were determined to assert and pre- serve their manhood, and when they found that we were amply able to take care of ourselves and intended to do it, then they became magnanimous and forgave us! Now. papers of The Chronicle brand, and some politicians of the same calibre, want to create the impression that they have been ex- ceedingly merciful and forbearing, and that it is very wicked and ungrateful in us to say a kindly and truthful word for MT. Davis or to criticise those who persecuted him. We beg to in- form them that they are welcome to keep their forgiveness for their own sins. We do not need 1t and have not asked for it.