Year: 1879

ly newspapers for the work it has done,
and is still doing, for the benefit of this
country Weste7n Homestead.


SOMETHING FOR THE COUNTRY


TO CONSIDER.


The Democratic party, by the votes
and speeches Of its representatives in the
United States Senate, places itself square
ly on the record in favor of paying a
pension to Jefferson Davis. More than
that; it declares that to call treason by
its right name, to denounce conspiracies
for the destruction of the Union as
crimes, to discriminate in any way be-
tween the men who broke their oath and
the men who kept it, the men who fought
to destroy the nation and the men who
gave their lives to defend it, is wanton
insult to the best part of the Democracy,
and is to be resented with all the indig
nation that the English language is cap
able of expressing. The defence of the
leader of the rebellion was not left to
the Confederate Brigadiers" alone. Mr..
Thurman took lively part in it, and
when reference was made to ''treason,"
he volunteered the remark that the trea-
son of Massachusetts had been longer
and more violent than that of any other
State in the Union


1t was a good and useful debate.
Foolish sentiment and random rhetoric
have been allowed to cover up important
political truths. and it is high time for
us to find out where the parties stand,
what they believe, and what they pro-
pose to do. We, and those who think
with us, have always held that the re-
bellion was wicked that it was infamous
in its origin and infamous in its object !;
that it was hideous conspiracy, organ
lied against the best and most equitable
Government in the world, for a purpose
no less base than the perpetuation of
human slavary; that Jefferson Davis
perjured himself when he took up arms
against the government to which he had
sworn allegiance that the leaders of the
secession movement committed disgrace
full act when they secretly and treacher-
ously made use of their official position
to disarm the national forces before they
renounced their citizenship and surren-
dered their places of trust and power at
Washington. That was the belief of the
heroic host who sprang to arms in de-
fence of the Union, and who died for
their belief on the banks of the Cumber-
land and the Rappahannoek, before the
bluffs of Vicksburg. in the swamps of
the Chickahominy, on the ridge of Get
tysburg, in the awful thicket of the
Wilderness. If the rebellion was not a
crime, our dead have died in vain. If
Davis is patriot then Lincoln was none,
and Wilkes Booth was hero. If the
chief of the Confederacy will go down to
posterity as the peer of Washington,
then ours was a crime in fighting against
the cause which he represented, and JUS
tice will never be done until the conse.
quences of the contest have been revers-
ed. 1t is high time for these questions
to be cleared up. Davis has already re-
turned to political activity. and made a
rather striking speech last summer, de-
nouncing the Government which gave
him his life, and reminding the pardoned
Confederates that in returning to the
Union they made no promise of fidelity
except to the old Constitution, as they
understood its provisions before the Rad
icals had strained and distorted it. The
present Government, he assured them,
was not constitutional, and they owed it
no loyalty. But his northern and south
ern apologists in the Senate consider it
to be greatly to his credit. first that he
does not counsel a new insurrection at
present, especially since the south seems
to be in fair way of getting all its
wants without so much trouble, and Sec
ondly that he will not stoop to ask any
favors of the United States.


Let nobody say that Mr.. Davis is no
longer person of public consequence !;
it is not with him that we are concerned,
but with his eulogists, and the manifes-
tations of their spirit and intentions !;
and these men are of public consequence,
for they control. from this time, both
branches of the National Congress. 1t
is the soul of the rebellion which now
animates the Democratic party. The
highest aim of that party is to tear down
whatever the war built up-to restore
whatever the war destroyed. a pension
to Jefferson Davis is the next thing to
saddling the north with the payment of
the Confederate debts, the satisfaction of
the southern war claimants, and the vir-
tual repudiation of the debts contracted
in the national defence. Let the country
look upon the spectacle of the closing
night of Congress and pronounce its
iudgement.-NeU York Tribune.