The Montgomery advertiser., 1905-02-26

Confederate government sent c. c. Clay, Jr.. of Alazama, Thompson of Mississippi and others to Canada to keep up communication and foment the discord. The general scheme Of the Western anti-Lincoln men was. that while Johnston kept Sher- man occupied on his front by daily battles, they would liber- ate thousands of Confederate the West arm them, join them and take sherman in the rear. Much aca- demic investigation of Vallandingham and the "copperhead" movement has been entered into recently at the North and all this matter appears in most startling relation to Johnston's Dalton campaign and his removal. General Lee possessed the ardent love and supreme confidence of his soldiers. yet no commander was ever more thoroughly trusted than Johnston was by the Army of the Tennessee. The immediate effect of the disobedience to him in Mississippi was. the sacrifice of the Vicksburg garrison and the Port Hudson garrison; the prompt result Of his removal in front of Atlanta was. the anuihilation of the Army of the Tennessee. In the histories of wars few commanders have been overruled with direct results so disastrous to an army and a country as the everything of General Johnston.
 The author having reached the men, tai conclusion that the Confederacy had the right to live and possessed the resources upon which life must depend in amplitude of supply. is only just to himself in setting forth certain retro active causes. Describing the Chief Executive he says: MT. Davis was a great man in many respects. In the Senate he ranked next to Calhoun in the school of States-rights Democrats. He was a high and chivalrous type of Southern manhood. He was the soul of honor. courage and manliness He was thoroughly honest in his convic- tions. full of patriotism and willing to die for the South. which he knew to be right. He made some serious blunders in his administration which we notice elsewhere in this narrative. While he was learned in statecraft un. der the old regime, forceful and elo- quent with tongue and pen, and true to the Confederate cause as the needle to the north pole. yet he was not equal to the exigencies of the great office he held in a revolution.
 It dawned upon many thoughtful minds during the war, that "the exi- gencies of the great office" of Presi- dent should have been avoided by fail ure to perfect Q civil government un- til civil affairs might become the main care of the population. Lincoln in the United States practically abolished civil government in the war time. General Lee in the position held before by Gen. eral Washington presented to those minds prospect full of reform in the affairs of the Confectionery
 The phenomena of influence carried into the civil career of the Confederacy by men of the South who resisted to the last the Southern movement, re- ceives significanc emphasis in the eX- ample of Mir. A. H. Stephens al the outset. Stephens, as a member of the Georgia Convention resisted secession doggedly. When the ordinance passed over his opposition he went back to his country home, declaring he would not attend the Congress at Montgom- cry or take any part in the affairs of the State unless he was instructed to place over the proposed Southern Con- federacy immediately a civil govern ment modelled after the Constitution of
 the United States.
 The position of Georgia in response to this demand of Stephens had it's full share of effect in elevating to Con gress. the Cabinet, and other high of flee, B. H. Hill, J. P. Benjamin. James A. Seddon, John A. Campbell, men who had not been responsible for the Con- federacy. Some of this class of leaders never desired the success of the cause. Had the Confederacy been a forlorn hope. no mistake was made in creat- ing a complex civil government at the outset and MT. Davis was the ideal head. He had no friends among the Union men the day he was inaugurated i at Montgomery, and he had no friends among the secessionists when the Con1 | federacy fell Withal, he had more to do with the conservation of the masses to the cause than any one man. In the character of maytyr, no page of history