Year: 1865

The Duty the South Owes AGr. Davis


The Selma Times has q good article


under this caption. Says the Times


We feel and know that he is suffering


and being punished for an offence we al


committed. Asa prominent and pop


ular citizen, he was made, Jy The vote Of The


WHOLE PEOPLE South, President of the


then Confederate States, and so long as


he occupied that position he did not lack
friends, supporters and admirers, but now
that he is fallen, and the inmate of q
dungeon, these former admirers and sup
porters have deserted him, and appar


emily care very little for his future.
Such conduct is more disgraceful and un-


becoming than otherwise, for we feel
persuaded that our most bitter enemy
would hold US in higher appreciation and
respect for manifesting an anxiety for
the fate of our former leader, than by
neglecting and treating him as we are.


II ia fact notorious and patent to all
the world that by the votes of the South
ern people he was placed in Office, and
by the wealth and arms of the same sus-
tanned until the surrender in April last,
and then, with degree of pusillanimity
before unknown in the Southern people,
they have deserted him and have not
since even offered to mediate in his be-
half. There is no man, North or South,
fraPo A nj
lican principles, who would raise obiec
tion to this or think the less of US for it,
but on the contrary, they would esteem
us the more.


Mr.. Davis is as thoroughly convinced,
we believe. of the impossibility of estab-
fishing Southern Confederation as any
one, and were he to day pardoned, he
would, beyond all doubt, do and advise
the same all other prominent men have,
and would in future be as loyal citizen
as the United States Government will
have. Thea, if he would be such, is there
good reason for taking the life of one Tor
the offences of-cver eight million?


If petitions from the citizens of each
State were gotten up, extensively signed
and forwarded to the President, there is
no doubt hut that good would result
perhaps the release of Mr.. Davis. That |
we owe him this no one can deny-no, |
not even his bitterest enemy here-if
reason be allowed to determine. He is
not more responsible for the desolation,
death and ruin of the past four yeals
than any other prominent man-indeed,
not so much as some who now have their
liberty-but the people are the response
bic parties and should now, in obedience
to the sacred duties of respect and obli-
cation, intercede in behalf of him who is
being punished for their faults, offences
and crimes. IT ne will only ask for len.
iency forshim with as:much unanimity as
we supported him in sixty-two, his pun
ishment will be gladly borne by him, and
he will rejoice that the people who sup
ported him in prosperity have not desert
ed him in adversely. Can this not be
done?"


We think it is worth trying. There
are but few men North who favor the ex-
ecution of Mr.. Davis. The conservative
press and the administration desires to
pursue mild policy towards the South.
crn people-a policy that will make them
learn to sustain the Union without havig
bayonets forever among them. The par
don of Jefferson Davis and the other
leaders now held in custody, must be
strong move in that direction. Mr.. Davis
would retire to private life as the other
leaders have done, counseling the people
to Union and harmony and all would go
on peaceably and to the satisfaction of .
every liberal hearted man in the North.