Keowee courier. [volume] (Pickens Court House, S.C.) 1849-current, 1909-08-04
TRUTH CAN AFFORD TO j.
WAIT. i,
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| Editor Keowee Courier: We no
ticed recently tribute in The Cou-
rier to Lincoln. We come with one
to the great chief of the Confederacy,
Jefferson Davis. We have often
thought how slowly truth travels,
| and how swift faIsehood can 60
almost as swift as the eagle that
splits the air. 1t has taken England
| one hundred years to find out that
Napoleon Bonaparte was really a
great man. The vicious spirit of
war falsified the true character, OF
Napoleon as man, warrior, and
ruler In the last few years the late
great head Of the English army,
Lord Wolseley, in one OF the leading
magazines, sums up Napoleon',
qualifications and remarks that they
made him the most remarkable
man that the Almighty ever made"
Other English writer's Of late have
acknowledged his genius in glowing
terms.
How different are the history ac-
counts lately written concerning the
Civil War between the States, from
those recorded up to ten years ago.
The truth of history travels slowly,
but when 1t once arrives it's sway IL
eternal. Truth can afford to wait.
1t cannot be discerned in passion or
in prejudice. 1t must wait for these
to subside.
On the Gulf Of Mexico, where the
wild waves wash the white sand,
there rises an humble cottage whose
lowly roof once sheltered the light
form and snowy head OF a poor old
man. His race has long since been
run; he is part Of the past, and
cannot be separated from 1t now
Memory cannot part company with
him; history will not surrender him.
The parchment on which Jefferson
Davis's last act of love and grace
Is inscribed will become the heir
loom of the American people, and
future generations will read and
ponder the pardon Of Jefferson Davis,
while the world stands lost in won
der and admiration. Poetry, song
and history have brought their rich
est treasures to perpetuate his undy-
ing fame. Tried by the fires of three
wars, and not found wanting; stand
ing In the United States Senate
amid the storms of debate and con-
hfct, he was not eclipsed by the
prudence of Pitt nor the policy of
Napoleon. When war was declared
with Mexico he commanded the i'm
mortal First Mississippi Regiment on
the field of strife. 1t is fact of his
tory that his courage and leadership
In the very crisis of the Battle of
Buena Vista won for his country her
proudest victory upon foreign fields
of wars.
The spirit Of Jefferson Davis still
lives, and it remains for posterity to
judge the Righteousness of the, cause
for which he suffered and died-the
wonder of the age and the glory of
the Anglo-SaXon blood He never
deserted his convictions nor feared
death. Through all the vicissitudes
of life he bore himself with a lofty
dignity and composure worthy Of
his exalted manhood. He kept his
faith in men and women, and, con-
quering himself, he forgave his ene-
mics. Years after the fall OF the
Confederacy, when failure had set
tied upon its banners" and its brave
armies retired from the field Of bat
tie, with its great hold upon the
Souther people, he was still the rep
resentative Of a cause (which cleo
trifed the civilized world by the
| grandeur of It's sacrifice and the dig
nifty and rectitude of its aims"
| Disfranchised as a citizen, old and
poor, after seclusion Of twenty-one
years, he emerged to make tour Of
the Southern States amid ovations
which are only paralleled in the his
tory of kings and conquerors. "Such
homage is startling" was the Ian
guage Of one Of the Northern critics,
"and 1t is needless to attempt to dis
guse or evade the conclusion that
there must be something great, and
noble, and true in him and in his
cause to evoke this homage"
And now the daughters of the
South, whom he honored and re-
membered in his last labor OF love,