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EEV. A. J. RYAN, Editor-
AUGUSTA, GA„ APRIL 25, 1808.
ADHERENCE TO PRINCIPLE,
Principles may cease to be practical in
their application—may become obsolete
in effect—but can never die. Those
which lived in the past —good or bad—
live also in the present, and will continue
to live in the future. They arc not dead
—they but slumber, quiescent and in
operative. Anew occasion for their re
x + *
suscitatiou and application may arise, and
so warm them into life again. And good
principles should never be permitted to
die. They should ever be kept alive, at
least in the hearts of the good and true,
even though the heavy heel of tyranny
should, for the time being, trample them
in the dust.
Was the American principle of political
self-government right ? If it was right,
have the fortunes of war made it wrong ?
Was the American principle that the peo
ple had a right to choose their own gov
ernment, correct ? If it was correct,
have the fortunes of war made it incor
rect ? If the American principles,
“freedom of speech, freedom of thought,
freedom of the press, freedom to worship
God according to the dictates of one’s
own conscience, freedom of the ballot
box,” were good and true principles,
have the fortunes of war made them bad
and evil principles ? No. They arc
good, true, and living principles to day, as
they were yesterday, and all the yester-*
days that have witnessed the birth, life,
and death of the great American lie
public.
It was to save the life of these princi
ples that the South struggled through
four years of bloody and vengeful war
It was to maintain these grand principles
—principles which our forefathers had
established by their own blood and wo—
that they gave their blood and their lives
so freely. It was to preserve in the new
nation all that was grand and good in the
old, and to still give to the world a beacon
light of freedom and principle. And
shall we now be ashamed of that struggle
and that effort because strength and
power have made them failures ? Shall
we, to-day, be ashamed of the gallant men
in grey who upheld that cause ? Shall
we be ashamed of the gallant dead who
went down in the shock of battle, at the
outposts, or in the quiet hospitals ? And
shall we be so ashamed of all the glorious
memories of that glorious struggle as to
say that the principles which actuated it
are wrong to-day, because tyranny and
oppression have overpowered us and
trampled them down ? No, a thousand
times, no !AArc\ r c must lie proud of them,
wo must preserve them in our hearts, we
must cherish the memories of the war
and of the heroes in grey who fought and
bled in it, and we must bring bright
flowers, and wreaths, and garlands, to
strew and deck the graves of our gallant
dead, and songs must be written in honor
of their heroism, and histories must be
written to preserve all the glorious deeds
of that war. And so our children must
be taught to revere these principles, and
to cherish these memories ; and so
some bright day in the future will come
when the American people will free
themselves from the prejudices of
tyranny and oppression, of wrong
and injustice, and they, too, will do
justice to our cause, and give credit
to our motives, and join with us,
heart and hand, in reannuuciatiim
these pv nciples, in giving vitality
and effect to them once more. Then
will “ the lost cause’' be no longer
a lost cause, but a triumph for the
South, a triumph for the right, and
a triumph for principle.
MEMORIAL CELEBRATIONS,
The anniversary of the impressive
ceremony of decorating the graves of our
dead falls on Sunday, April 26, this year,
but we believe it has been generally
agreed here to postpone it until Mon
day, 27th, on which occasion our people
will repair to our beautiful cemetery and
there pay homage to the virtues of the
dead who died for us, by strewing their
graves with garlands and flowers. Our
fair ladies will sec to it that this custom,
now so generally inaugurated throughout
the South, will be religiously observed.
There is, however, a want of uniformity
as to time, which should be remedied.
In some sections, the ceremony takes
place during April, while in others it is
observed in May and June. This differ
ence is owing to the absence of flowers in
some parts of the South so early in the
Spring. We suggest as a suitable time
for the animal observance of these solemn
but beautiful ceremonies, the 15th of
May, which day should be forever sacred
to revering the memories and decorating
the graves of the Confederate dead.
ABUSING OUR DEAD,
We sec it stated that a creature, called
Colonel C. Hawkins, in a speech at the
New York Union League Rooms, made a
violent attack upon a member who had
expressed himself in favor of the common
burial of the Federal and Confederate
dead. The Springfield (Mass.) Republi
can, in commenting upon that speech,
uses the following language :
“Out upon the thought that the rank
and file of the Southern army were trait
ors and criminals ! They fought honestly
and earnestly in a bad cause, enduring in
many cases privation of which our own
troops knew little. They marched bare
foot, when our boys were well shod.
They went hungry when ours were filled.
They disputed every inch of ground
with desperate valor, and yielded only to
destiny at last. They proved themselves
in life foemen worthy of our steel, and
their mouldering bones may well rest in
peace by the side of our bravest and dear
est. Their differences with us were all
settled when they fell together with ours
on the field of honor. All that is left of
them now is only human. Vengeance
need not follow them into the grave.
Pity may weep over them. Patriotism
may cover their failings, remembering
that they were children of one mother,
and their valor sprang out of the same
heroic stock. Beauty may strew flowers
upon the green mounds that hide such
courage and high resolve.”
Now, we have respect for the views ex
pressed by the Springfield Republican.
They appear to be candid, and honest, and
as liberal, perhaps, as could be expected
from such a source. But for such a poor,
miserable creature as Hawkins, who takes
advantage of his position to insult our
martyred dead, we cau have nothing
but supreme contempt. Our cause was
not a bad but a good one, and we of the
South, dead and living, are neither rebels
nor traitors ; and the day will come when
the people of this whole country will unite
in proclaiming the justice and righteous
ness of the struggle for Southern inde
pendence —when our Davises and Lees,
Jacksons and Johnsons, Beauregards and
Hamptons, will be honored and revered
for their virtues and greatness, as Wash
ington and his compatriots have been
honored for their successful Rebellion ol
’76,
*
SOUTHERN LITERATURE.
We have in our own sunny South
authors and writers, poets and essayists,
pen painters, and word painters, and his
torians, of the highest order —of equal
talent with those of any section of the
Union, and yet we have not built up a
pure Southern literature. Our literature
has crone to the North to enrich Northern
journals and buildup Northern periodicals,
to the detriment of those of our own sec
tion. And why ? Because the policy of
Southern journalistic proprietors and
Southern newspaper readers has driven
it there. The few Southern publishers
who had the means were too parsimonious
to pay for contributions, and the Southern
MifflSl ©J SIS B©TOH.
readers were too little patriotic to give a
liberal support to those who would pay if
they had the means. And surely it
would be asking too much to require the
labor of a man’s or woman’s hand and
mind for nothing. Authors could not
afford to give away their productions.
Hence they were compelled to seek in a
hostile section what they could not get
at home; hence they were compelled to
give their works to the Harpers, and
Leslies, and Putnams, and other Northern
publishers, who had the means and the
liberality to pay for what they got; hence,
they helped to build up Northern litera
ture at the expense of their own, and to
give vitality and interest to publications
hostile to the South, hostile even to decency
and morality.
We believe that this policy is now to
be changed. AVe hope that it is. AVe
hope that Southern publishers will be
more libera!—that Southern authors will
meet these Southern publishers half way,
as it were, and 'give them the preference,
and so build up here, at home, a pure,
sound, healthy, moral, Southern literature.
For our part, we are too young and too
poor to set the good example yet; but if
the Southern people will only stand by us,
we shall stand by them ; if they will only
give us the encouragement which we have
the right to expect from them, it cannot
be long before the Banner of the South
.will be enabled to offer liberal encourage
ment to such a literature It is our
earnest desire to do so; and we shall
labor faithfully and earnestly to this end
—striving, in all fair and honorable ways,
to restore the shattered fortunes of our
once sunny land, to preserve its glorious
past, and to secure for it a glorious future.
Let us all, press and people, work to this
great end, and, with God’s grace, we
must and will succeed.
THE LIFE OF PRESIDENT DAVIS.
AA r e have already noticed the publica
tion of the life of our noble President,
Jefferson Davis, and we feel assured the
following extracts from the work of Mr.
Alfriend will be read with interest by all
tbe friends of the “Lost Cause.” Jefferson
Davis is, to-day, more endeared to the
people of the South than at any former
period of his life. His sacrifices and suf
ferings since the overthrow of the Confed
erate Government have only intensified
the love and veneration of our people for
this great and good man:
“During his journey homeward from
Mexico there occurred a most impressive
illustration of the strict devotion to prin
ciple which, above all other considerations,
is the real solution of every act of his
life, public and private. AVhile in New
Orleans, Colonel Davis was offered, by
President Polk, a commission as Brigadier
General of Amlunteers, an honor which
he unhesitatingly declined, on the ground
that no such commission could be con
ferred by Federal authority, cither by ap
pointment of the President or by act of
Congress. As an advocate oi States
Rights, he .could not countenance, even
for the gratification of his own ambition,
a plain infraction of the rights of the
States, to which respectively the Consti
tution reserves the appointment of officers
of the militia. The soldier’s pride in de
served promotion for distinguished ser
vices, could not induce the statesman to
forego his convictions of constitutional
right. The declination of this high dis
tinction was entirely consistent with his
opinions previously entertained and ex
pressed Before he resigned his seat in
the House of Representatives, the bill au
thorizing such appointments by the Pre
sident was introduced and rapidly pressed
to its passage. Air. Davis detected the
Constitutianal infraction which it involved,
and opposed it.”
As Air. Davis' brief but brilliant Con.
federate career, from the fact that every
incident connected therewith is of world
wide interest and historic importance, has
a tendency to overshadow the services he
rendered the United States while a mem
ber of President Pierce’s Cabinet, it is
well to extract the passages enumerating
them :
“Under his control the Department of
AVar was greatly advanced in dignity and
importance, receiving a character far
more distinctive and independent of other
branches of the Government than it had
previously claimed. He infused into all
•ts operations an energy till then un-
known, introducing improvements so ex
sensive and comprehensive as to occasion
apprehension of an almost too powerful
and independent system of military or
ganization. It is a fact universally con
ceded that his administration of the War
Office was incomparably superior to that
of any official who has filled that position,
contributing more to the promotion of
efficiency in the army, to the advancement
of those great national establishments so
vital to the security of the nation, and to
the systematic, practical management of
the details of the office. In reviewing
Mr. Davis’ conduct of this important de
partment of the Government, the splendid
improvements which he inaugurated, his
earnest and unceasing labors in behalf of
the efficiency of the army, it is impossible
to overestimate his eminent services to
the Union, which even at that time his
traducers and those of the South would
pretend he was plotting to destroy. In
the Cabinet, as in the Senate, there was
no measure of national advantage to
which he did not give his cordial support,
no great national institution which he
would not have fostered with generous
and timely sympathy; nothing to which
he was not zealously committed, promising
to redound to the glory, prosperity and
perpetuity of that Union, in whose service
he had been trained, whose uniform he
had proudly worn, and beneath whose
banner he had braved a soldier’s death.
Secretary Davis made many recom
mendations contemplating radical altera
tions in the military system of the Union.
One of the first measures was a recom
mendation for the thorough revision of
the army regulations. He opposed the
placing of officers, at an early period of
service, permanently upon the staff, and
advocated a system which, he contended,
would improve the discipline and efficiency
of officers, “whereby the right of command
should follow rank by one certain rule.”
The increase of the medical corps ; the
introduction of the light infantry or rifle
system of tactics, rifled muskets, and the
Minie ball were all measures advocated by
Secretary Davis, and discussed in his
official papers with a force and intelli
gence that make them highly valu
able to the military student. He urged
a thorough exploration of the AA r estcrn
frontier, and important changes in the
arrangement of defences against the In
dians, demonstrating the inefficiency of
the system of small forts for the purposes
of war with savages. To obviate, in a
measure, the expense, and almost useless
trouble, of locating military posts in ad
vance of settlements, he suggested the
plan of maintaining large garrisons at
certain points, situated favorably for ob
taining supplies, and accessible by steam
boat or railway. From these posts strong
detachments could be supplied and
equipped for service in the Indian
country. His efforts were most strenuous
to obtain an increase of pay to officers of
the army, and pensions to the widows and
orphans of officers and men, upon a basis
similar to that of the navy.
During the Crimean war, Secretary
Davis sent a commission, of which Major
General McClellan, then a captain of cav
alry, was a member, to study and report
upon the science of war and the condition
of European armies, as illustrated in the
operations incident to that struggle. At
his suggestion, four new regiments—two
of cavalry—were added to the army, and
numerous appropriations made for the
construction of new forts, improvements
in small arms, and the accumulations of
munitions of war ” t
A great deal has been said and written
on the failure to obtain results from the
victory of Mauassas, and the author of the
present volume could scarcely, in justice
to Mr. Davis, pass over that controverted
question. The reader will find it thorough
ly discussed, and also full details of the
steps taken by the Confederate authorities
to mitigate the horrors of war by facili
tating the exchange of prisoners, and
the manner in which their advances were
met by the Federal Government.
Speaking of Air. Davis’ persistent belief
in the ultimate triumph of the Confede
racy, the author says:
“That he did not fully comprehend the
wide-spread demoralization of the South
in the last months of the war is hardly
to be questioned. Judging men by his
own exalted nature, he conceived it im
nossible that the South could ever abandon
its hope of independence. He did not
realize how men could cherish an aspira
tion for the future, which did not embrace
the liberty of their country. No sacrifice
of personal interests or hopes were, in his
view, too great to be demanded of the
country in behalf of a cause, for which he
was at all times ready to surrender his
life. Os such devotion and self-abnega-
C
tion, a sanguine and resolute spirit was
the natural product, and it is a paltry
view of such qualities to characterize them
as the proof of defective intellect Just
such qualities have won the battles of
liberty in all ages. Washington, at A"al
ley Forge, with a wretched remnant of
an army, which was yet the last hope of
the country, and with even a more gloomy
future immediately before him, declared
that in the last emergency he would re
treat to the mountains of AUrginia, and
there continue the struggle in the hope
that he would “yet lift the flag of his
bleeding country from tbe dust.” In tiie
same spirit Jefferson Davis would never
have abandoned tbe Confederate cause so
long as it had even a semblance of popular
support.
Almost to the last moment of the
Confederacy, he continued to cherish the
hope of a reaction in the public mind, which
he believed would be immediately'kindled
to its old enthusiasm by a decided success.
It was in recognition of this qualify, of in
flexible purpose, as much as of any r other
trait of bis character, that the South or
iginally intrusted Davis with leadership.
Fit leaders of revolutions are not usually
found in men of half-hearted purpose,
wanting in resolution themselves, and
doubting th£ fidelity of those whom they
govern. Desperate trial is the occasion
which calls forth the courage of those
truly great men, who, while ordinary men
despair, confront itself with sublime reso
lution.
If ingenuity and malignity have com
bined to exaggerate the faults of Mr.
Davis, the love of his countrymen, the
candor of honorable enemies, and the
intelligence of mankind have recognized
his intellectual and moral greatness. The
world, to-day, does not afford such an ex
ample of those blended qualities which
constitute the title to universal excel
lence. For one in his position, the leader
of a bold, warlike, intelligent, and dis
cerning people, there was demanded that
union of ardor and deliberation which he
so peculiarly illustrated. Revolutionary
periods imperatively demand this union
of capacities for thought and action.
The peculiar charm of Mr. Davis is the .
perfect poise of his faculties ; an almost
exact adjustment of qualities ; of indom
itable energy and winning grace ; heroic
courage and tender affection ; strength
of character, and almost excessive com
passion ; of calculating judgment and
knightly sentiment; acute penetration
and analysis ; comprehensive perception ;
laborious habits, and almost universal
knawledge. Os him it may be said, as of
Hamilton : “He wore the blended wreath
of arms, or law, of statesmanship, of or
atory, of letters, of scholarship, of prac
tical affairs and in most of these fields
of distinction Mr.Davis has few rivals
among the public men of America.
But it is altogether a fallacious sup
position that the military situation of the
Confederacy, in the last winter ot the
war, was beyond reclamation. The most
hasty glance at the situation revealed the
feasibility of destroying Sherman, when
he turned northward from Savannah,
with a proper concentration of the forces
yet available, President Davis anxiously
sought to secure this concentration, but
was disappointed by causes which need
not here be related.
Coe. St. Leger Grenfell. —There is
a report that this unfortunate and perse
cuted gentlemen has escaped from the
Dry T ortugas. AVe sincerely hope the
report is true. His conviction was by no
lawful court, and the charges made
against him were never proved. If he
needs money, to carry him to some safer
country, he can have it in New York, if
he chances to see this paragraph. An
exchange says :
“Theae appears to be little doubt of
the successful escape of Col. Grenfell
and two of his prison companions from
Dry Tortugas. Col. Grenfell, it will be
recollected, was for a longtime with Gen.
Morgan, in Kentucky. He left the South
in the autumn of 1864, went to Nassau,
and from thence t > New York and Can
ada. He was afterwards arrested on a
charge of attempting to libei ate Southern
piisoners from a Northern Fort, and was
confined in McLean Barracks, Chicago.
He wrote from there in January, 1865,
to a British Consul: “They have tried
hard to kill me. I have suffered much
from long confienement in a cell 6 feet by
ill ventilation, and bad food. Yester
day my manacles were knocked off for
the first time.”
“Col. Grenfel was afterwards tried by
Military Commission and sentenced to
confinement in the Dry Tortugas. Hi
treatment there is said to have been very
cruel.”— K. Y. Freeman's Journal.
<%.
The orchestra of the Paris Theatre
Italien, had a singular revenge upon
Monsieur Bagier the other day, for re
fusing them pay for an extra performance.
Instead of making an open strike, they
conspired together secretly, and played
pianissimo during an entire evening, to
the great discomfiture of the singers and
1 at the risk of entirely spoiling the piece.
