The Hattiesburg news., 1912-10-14
I. K. ut the South
BY SAVOYARD

Col. John B, Brownlow is the son of
one of the most forceful characters de-
yeloped in an era exceptional for the
great number of extraordinary men it
produced. Col. Brownlow was himself
stout soldier in mighty and bloody
war, and as trooper in the saddle he
a hundred times approved himself
worthy the steel of Morgan and For
rest and Wheeler; 'gainst each and all
OF whom he was frequently opposed.
A brave man in battle, John b. Brown
low is a magnanimous man in peace.
In his daily walk he is a gentleman:
in instinct he is just, hating a mean
ness with all the intensity and cordial
1ty of a true man. In politics he is a
Republican linked to the party of Lin
coin and of Grant. He is a man of
thought and man of culture, and in
his capacious memory is stored more
of the political history of this coun-
try, near and remote, than have any
score of statesmen you could draft
from the two houses of Congress, not
excluding from the squad Cabot Lodge
and Champ Clark, either or both.
In a recent article Col. Brownlow
relates the following, a characteristic
episode taken from the career of Theo.
dore Roosevelt:
The Ex-Confederate and their de-
scendants comprise the vast majority
Of the Democratic voters of the South
ern States These voters hold in re-
speet and yeneration the character and
memory Of their leader, Jefferson Da-
Wis Years before Roosevelt became
President he wrote an article for a
Northern magazine in which he de-
nounced Mr.. Davis as the father of
the reputation of Mississippi's state
debt of about two millions of dollars
in 1851, and he added that Jefferson
Davis had not only favored the re-
pudiation of his states public debt, |
but he had also been in the habit of |
repudiating and refusing to pay his
own personal debts In other words, !
the chief Bull Moose said that the
leader of the Confederate cause was
a dishonest mana thief. When Mr !
Davis saw the magazine article re-
ferred to he wrote Roosevelt per-
fectIy polite letter, which would have
brought forth a polite answer from
any gentleman. He told him that he
had never advocated the reputation
Of Mississippi's debt; that when it oc-
Cured he was in private life, holding
no office. but 1t was we'll known to all
The people of Mississippi that he was
to It; that for party purposes
that charge had been made and had
been promptly contradicted by him,
md that his personal and political enc
niles who had made it had been ST.
enced and had offered no proof to
It, And he added that
the charge that he had ever evaded
'ayment OF his personal debts had
ever before been made. and politely {
d6ing that he could not believe that i
a. Roosevelt would have made the ]
bafse except upon authority he t
eemed reliable,' he respectfully re-
uested him to give him the name Of S
le author. To this Roosevelt brutal a
replied through his secretary: Mr.. t
heodore Roosevelt directs me to say Il
iat he declines to have any eorre- e
'ondence with Mr.. Jefferson Davis s,
avis had known Roosevelt's father r
i'd had been the friend Of two Of his u,
lcIes who had served the copfed- &C
aey, and he had right to expect tn
polite answer to a polite letter" ST
tn
There was sequel to that circum-