The Ocala banner. (Ocala, Marion County, Fla.) 1883-194?, 1914-05-08
"a SENTIMENT AND A REMINls-
CENcE"

N6J'
We clip from it the following edito-
rial, which will awaken the memories
of other days:
Hon. Jefferson Davis is once more
enjoying his repose in the quiet
shades of Beauvoir, unmindful of the
clang and clamor his recent appear
ance at Montgomery, Atlanta and Sa-
vannaE caused among so many poor
ly informed and over-anxious editors
and politicians across the supposed
line which separates the two sections
of our country. These men, we hope,
will not go entirely insane, as the
country, at last accounts, especially
along the route of the fallen southern
chieftain, Is securely safe. Red-hand-
ed war has not yet raised his af-
frighted front; the sun shines on; the
stars continue in their courses, and
the moon still fills our land with her
mellow light Therefore, the fierce
and wild alarums of the tomtoms and
gewgaws, in the hands of these raw
preservers of our country's peace, are
absurdly previous, painfully ridicu-
lous and monotonOusly out of time
and tune. School boys in the south
have broader views and better knowl-
edge. Surely if the utterances of
these individuals are honest and
spring from motives not partisan,
their ignorance of the true condition
and real sentiments of the south of
today must furnish food for amuse-
ment and regret to the more enlight-
ened men of that section. For all do
not share this Ignorance, nor sub
scribe to the idiotic utterances that
have of late filled large portion of
the northern press, ignorance in our
day and time is worse than crime.
Than to be so wholly uniformed of
the real sentiments of so large por
ton of our own countrymen we should
rather live in a dungeon and exist up
On it's vapors. Jefferson Davis was
the central figure in the stormiest
epoch in our country's history, but
that was quarter of a century ago,
and the dominant idea of that strug-
gle persisted when the cause itself
went down, and it is remembered
now simply as a matter of history,
and the mere fact that it is only so
tells how utterly lost it
Is. The south at that time was ami
mated as one man, but when the
struggle ceased they recognized the
the past and their faces to the front
in pursuit of other themes and occu-
pations The bravery and devotion,
fortitude and courage of the men who
fell on either side in that struggle is
a common heritage and belongs to the
glory of common and united coun-
try. That, after lapse of more than
twenty years, a monument should be
erected to the men who fell under
that ill-starred flag Is not unnatural,
and as the chieftain of that struggle
still survives, it was not inappropriate
that he should have been selected to
lay the corner stone of that monu-
ment.. In 1861 the south acted as one
man. Mr.. Davis was no more guilty
of treason against the Union than
were any of his fellow comrades, any
number of whom have since held high
office in the government under
both republican and democratic ad-
1t fell to Mr.. Davis lot
to be the central figure in that event
full drama That is the sum and sub
stance of his offending more than 9TH
ers. None can say that ne has not
conducted himself with dignity and
decorum since the downfall of his
government. And while he has borne
no part in public affairs, no censure
has escaped his lips for those who
have. His advice, on the contrary, on
all occasions, has been in favor of re-
storation. This being true is it not
natural that his fellow citizens should
treat him with respectful or even en-
thusiastic homage? That is what they
did, and that only. The hullaballoo a
few northern editors and politicians
are making over the event is only adj
vertising themselves to the world as
idiots and bitter-enders, and until
their insane rawlings are hushed by a
more enlightened and tolerant public
sentiment, the north cannot be said
to have gotten as far from the war
period as the south, and the farther
away the country grows from that pc
riod marks its progress in inteli-
gence, generosity, tolerance, forbear-
ance, patriotism and all things that
make people great. We have no pa