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THE
COUNTRYMAN.
217
Thb Rebels and their Leader.—The
popularity of Jeff Davis, is just now at a
very low ebb in Dixie. The rebels, gen>
erally, have a notion that he is somehow
responsible for the great reverses that
have overtaken them ; and, without scru
ple, they are casting at hitn the sharpest
reproaches. He is stigmatized, both for
incapacity, and for neglect—for lack of
brain, and for lack of heart. The pre
vailing criticism upon him is all adverse;
and his iorroer lieges now make him out
to be a man very much to be despised.
Now, we don’t feel ourselves called up
on to say one word in behalf of Jeff Da
vis. There is not a man on the footstool,
whom we so utterly abhor. In our delib
erate judgment, there has never lived a
human being—certainly not in modern
civilization—who attempted so enormous
a crime, or wrought such a terrible ca
lamity. Nothing is more certain than
that, one or two centuries hence, when
the last remnant of slavery has died out
of the world, and history has made up its
calm, irreversible verdict upon these times,
the name of Jeff Davis, the slavery cham
pion, the conspirator, and the traitor, will
be put on the scroll as, beyond all cempar-
ison, infamous.
We say we have no plea to make for
Jeff Davis. Yet we protest that it does
not look well for his fellows in guilt to
turn upon him, because be is not success
ful. There is something in this act, ex
quisitely paltry. We were going to say
devilish, but about that we are not. so
sure. If Milton is any authority, the
devils don’t do 6Uch things ; for, among
all the speeches he reports from the ter
rors of Pandemonium, not one of them—
whether from Moloch, or Mammon, Belial,
or Beelzebub—contains a syllable of re
proach against the rebel leader, or the
‘ sad overthrow, and foul defeat.’ The
whole crew recognized that there had
been ‘ equal hope, and hazard, in the glo
rious enterprise,’ and were content to t ike,
without complaint, the ‘equal ruin.’ The
disposition of our American rebels, to
make their chief responsible for their hard
fate, belongs to the meanest elements of
the human soul. It is very like the blind
spite of the baffled reptile.-
Bad as Jeff Davi* is, he has served the
rebels well, and they have no right to
complain of him. He was made their
president by a unanimous vote. They
had known him long, and thoroughly, and
could not be mistaken, either about his
faculties, or his devotion to their princi
ples. It is the judgment of the whole
world that they were not mistaken. They
could have found no man in their borders
so consummately qualified fur their leader
ship. Cold, reseived, imperious, he could
be the tool of no man. Ever audacious,
yet never rash ; inflexible in his purpose,
yet veisatile in the use of means ; of very-
clear apprehension in general matters, and
yet of a most bigoted attachment to the
great rebel idea; of a temper of soul
incapable alike, of undue elation, or de
spondency ; of tireless industry, and of
firstrate executive ability; he was precise
ly fitted to be the chief of this tremen
dous enterprise. The wonder ever will
be, not that he at last sinks exhausted,
but that he was ever able to stand against
our government at all. History may be
searched in vain for another instance of
so prodigious a power organized from
such limited materials, and holding out *o
long against such terrible trials. The
ability, and energy, with which he has
consolidated, and sustained the rebellion,
have extorted, not only the admiration of
Europe, but of even the loyal north ; for
the qualities are, in themselves, none the
less admirable, though employed in the
most wicked cause. Of course it cannot
be pretended that Jeff Davis has made no
mistakes. Were this so, it would prove
him more than human. There never was
human energy yet, which did not some*
times flag, nor human judgment which
did not sometimes miscalculate. Our point
is, not that the rebel leader was perfect in
his management, but that he was as near
ly so, as any living man, in similar circum
stances could have been ; and that, there
fore, he cannot justly be reproached, in
any measure, for the failure of the rebel
enterprise. He has surpassed all the ex
pectations his confederates in treason
could have reasonably formed ; and he is
just as much entitled to the confidence of
his fellow-traitors, now, in their day of
disaster, as he was a year ago, when, in
the flush of victory, they shouted his
name to the stars.
The simple truth is, that this rebellion
fails, because it was not possible for it to
cope successfully, for any long period,
with the mightier po.rer arrayed against it,
especially when that power has right on
its side. It was ceitain, from the outset,
that if the north should once really gath
er, and put -forth its vastly superior
strength, the confederacy would have to
yield sooner, or later, unless it should re
ceive help from abroad. The desperate
efforts which have been made by its en
voys, to secure such help, have all the
while betokened a lurking consciousness
that this was its only chance. In the ear
lier stage of the rebellion, before the first
great uprising of the north, the southern
people would have sooner ‘ brooked the
infernal devil,’ to have set up a cotermin
ous empire, than have endured Napoleon
III. in Mexi<&. But, ever since, they
have hai'ed every step of the French Em
peror there, and, at the present time,
would even be glad to accept, not only his
close neighborhood, but his direct protec
tion.
We have no belief that Jeff Davis him
self, with all his traitorous spirit, would
have ever entered into open rebellion, had
he not counted upon a divided, and paral
yzed north, or speedy foreign intervention
against the national government. Bold
as he is, he, otherwise, never would
have committed himself to on enterprise
with-such terrible odds against it. Once
in, of course be could not go back; and it
is marvelous with what potent, and daunt
less energy he has, ever since, been fight
ing his fate. Accursed as he is, for all
the ruin he has plotted, and the sea of
blood he has caused to be shed, wo yet do
not hesitate to testitfy that he has been as
tfue to his work, as his fellow-traitors
have to theirs. Having together sown tha
wind, they must together reap the whirl
wind. They deliberately challenged their
fate. Though it comes in a different
shape than they expected, let them meet
it like men. This cursing of their
is pitiful.—.New York Times, August 19*
1864.
The Express Company Working to Rk-
lieve the Soldiers.—“Col. F. W. Sims,
Chief Inspector Railroad Transportation,
on the 21st of February, at Richmond,
issued the following address to Virginia
soldiers :
The soldiers in the field, trom Virginia,
can have provisions sent them, free of ex
pense, by the Southern Express Compa
ny.
- Packages should he plainly marked,
with the name of the soldier, company,
regiment, and brigade, ‘Care Captain P.
H. Mayo, A. Q. M., Richmond, Va.,’ who
who will see that they are sent to tha
proper command.
The agreement made with the Southern
Express Company, February 20th, 1864,
still continues in force, and the friends of
soldiers in other states will mark their
packages as formerly, in the care of
their respective associations.
F. W. Sims,
Lt. Col., and Chief Ins. R. R. Trans.
To this address, the following, from the
superintendent of the company, is annex
ed :
Agents and Messengers
Will receive, and forward promptly,
any packages marked as above stated, and
let charges be collected at Richmond.
Shippers will be required to put their
packages in good shipping condition, and
our agents will always regard these goods
as preferred freight.
J. F. Gibson,
Asst. Superintendent
Southern Express Co. M
Yankee News.—“ Senatobia, Maroh
28.—Northern dates to the 24th hare been
received.
The Sk Louis Republican'says, that re
ports from New York show that metropo
lis to have been excited, on the 23d, *>y
reports that Sherman had arrived in front
of Raleigh, and, in a great battle, had de
feated Joe Johnston. This contributed
to a fall in gold, -and a decline in the mar
ket generally.
John D. Stockton, democrat, has been
elected U. S. senator from New Jersey,
in place of Ten Eyck, republican.
Orders had been received at Paducah,
Ky,, for the transportation of ten thou
sand prisoners, who are to be exchanged
at Eastport, according to an agreement
made by Gen. Thomas, with the confede
rate authorities.
Capt. Beauregard, a brother of General
Beauregard, has passed through the city
of Mexico, en route for Sonora.
Jere Clemens, who has been residing
in Philadelphia, for a year past, is about
to return to his home in Huntsville, Ala.”
‘ One act of charity is worth a century
of eloquence.’
