Year: 1875

hSpuOllC, dt WHiCl TeSOiutioHS were passed to the effect that it was an insult to the loyal citizens of Winnebago to ''invite the arch traitor Jeff Davis to address the relatives and surviving friends of thirteen thousand men murdered at Andersonville alone by his orders" They say, furthermore, that they will not attend the far nor do anything toward making it a success if the Board brings forward this ''archtraitor and cow ard"

 We we heard that MT. Davis had accepted the invitation to visit Illinois and deliver an agri- cultural address we were gratified. It was kindly thing on the part of the farmers of Illinois to invite Mir. Davis. It was courteous thing for the ex President of the Confederacy to accept it. A good deal of bitterness that belongs to the recent war unjustly centres around the person of MT. Davis. This movement of the Grand Army of the Republic is an illus tration of this injustice. If Jef-' ferson Davis is an unwelcome. guest at Northern agricultural fair then no other Southerner who fought in the war can be welcomed. We do not see where the members of the Grand Army of the Republic draw the line be- tween Jefferson Davis and Gener- al Longstreet, unless in this that Mir. Davis preferred to cherish the convictions with which he entered the rebellion, while Gen. Longstreet, with more wisdom and courage, has accepted the doctrines of the republican party. Mir. Davis was no more responsi- ble for the rebellion of the South than any one of thousand other men. In fact, before the war, while the question of secession was under discussion, he was among the more moderate of the Southern leaders. There were twenty members and Senators in the Congress which preceded the rebellion more active than Mir. Davis in bringing about hostilities and more responsible for the re- suit. Mir. Davis and his col leagues in that Congress followed q public opinion ill the South, and did not lead it. Mir. Davis was put at the head of the Confeder- acy simply because he had more character than most of the South ern leaders. Even as it was the Confederate Congress almost elected MT. Toombs, of Georgia. The election of Davis was the ex- pression of a conservative senti- ment even in the Southern Con- federacy. As President of the Confederacy Mir. Davis did his duty as well as he knew how. He did what any other Southern leader would have done in the same place. He stood by his post to the end. When he fell he fell with the Confederacy. Therefore, to deal with Mir. Davis as in any way more responsible for the rebellion than any one of the conspicuous men of the South before the war is to do him a great injustice and ourselves n discredit.

 The wisdom of Mir. Davis con- ing into a hostile community to deliver lecture upon any subject might be questioned. It is prob ably the penalty which he and all men like him who have held SUI preme station in rebellion must pay, that he must accept failure as closing to him any opportunity for display or advancement. We think it would have been a gra- cious thing for the people of Hi nois to have accepted his act in the spirit which prompted it. These members of the Grand Army of the Republic represent only the dismal memories of the war. This organization is knowp