Year: 1868




The Position of Je9 1avls-Damon Relieves


the Mind Of Pythias.


jeff Davis, If we may believe the hints we
hear, begins to feel that the obligations of his
bail rest lightly upon him. He intends, it is
said, not to return for trial If Wade goes to the
White House, arguing that the removal of
Johnson will be violent revolutionary mea-
sure, and that his responsibility to the govern
ment will be absolved when the government
goes down and the revolutionary junta takes
It's place. So man responsible to justice in
France under Louis XVI. might fairly have
argued that he was not responsible to Fouquier
de Thinville and that pretended government Of
the Reign of Terror which sent to the guillotine
every opponent 1t could lay hands on. Espe-
cially might man argue thus If beyond the
reach of the authority he calls in question, as
Davis now is. Future times, not feeling the
passion of the hour and reviewing such q
course, would say that man acting thus
rightly and nationally availed himself of his
opportunities. He would not be blamed by
any one, so far as his act regarded his obliga-
tions to the law. But people would pause to
see if the ties of the law were the only ones
avoided, to inquire if there were not other
obligations more sacred, because made in a
quite different spirit AS thus-Did the man
who so failed to appear leave any other man
responsible for his appearanceP Was there any
Damon to die if Pythias did not come to time
It will be found the world over that if man
has proved Indifferent to obligations of this
sort he has violated laws of more universal
force than any on the statute books. In the
case before us we find that the Confederate
Pythias has left Damon in bonds. Damon,
the radical, is bound for his friend, and it
is said must suffer if the friend fails in the
pledge of his honor. But aptly enough, just
at the critical moment when Davis, safe in
Montreal, is turning this subject over in his
heart of hearts, revolving it in all the lights
of Confederate chivalry, Damon, the philoso-
pher, comes to thes rescue in very queer
letter. He publishes this letter ostensibly in
answer to q Connecticut invitation, saying
that he will not make speeches in Connec-
tlcut pecause tne peOplc Vi Chat otato CaIlcu
him names and refused to buy his paper when
he bailed Davis. But the real purport Of the
letter is to assure Davis that he is under no
of honor to the philosopher that
said philosopher did not bail Davis from those
notions Of humanity and good will, and all
that, which he at first put forth as the
reason, but that he did it purely and simply as
a political dodge-in no other interest but the
interest of the republican party, with no i'm
pulse at all, but on cool calculation. He
argues that to have tried Davis and punished
him would have been q calamityto to the republi-
can party; to have tried him and not punished
him would have been greater calamity; and
he came in to redeem his party from that
dilemma. The republicans had an elephant,
and the philosopher subscribed to get rid Of
him. That, then, is the whole story, and Davis
may feel that he is free. Being safe in Mon
treal, therefore, he may now see that he ought
for all reasons to stay there.