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About Weekly constitutionalist. (Augusta, Ga.) 185?-1877 | View Entire Issue (July 1, 1874)
The Weekly Constitutionalist. WEDNESDAY. JULY 1. 1974. SLAVERY. The abolitionists of the United States fiever could have succeeded in their designs had they not had powerful allies in England. They and the whole country fell eventually under the dead fall of English policy. The ruin of the South was of eminent advantage to Great Britain and the destruction of negro slavery in the United States played into her hands commercially just as she designed it to do. Doubt less Dr. Ceanwii.l is right in supposing that Dr. Livinu.-.ton’ was not so much of a missionary among the heathen as an emissary of British power in extending the cotton area and circumventing the United States. The Exeter Hull fanatics, of old days, were used in the same way, and a pretty lot of cats Gae kibon & Cos., were when engaged to pull hot chestnuts out of the iirc Gy the subtle English monkey. We have seen how England dealt , with slavery in this country, after hav- < ing burned her own fingers in the West Indies. Mr. Muncure D. Conway, writ ing to the Cincinnati Commercial, from ' London, shows how the “ man and Brother ” theory is being dealt with, thus : It is not impossible that England is again to bo torn by anti-slavery agitation. The saying that the air of England is too pure for a slave to breathe will hereafter have to he taken in a strictly geographical sense, for at this moment English rule is being established and reorganized In Africa on nil avowed social basis of slavery. The new lias inaugurated the reaction witli a singular audacity. It has announced that in grouping the various stations which it means to place under the same control and regulations with the Gold Coast, it does not mean to demand the en franchisement of the slaves therein held. A leading London paper is quoted by Mr. Conway as giving the reasons for this new procedure on the part of the English Government. It, says : Domestic slavery is simply the regular form of house labor throughout Egypt with .all classes who can afford to have their work dene for them in any shape. It lias been interwoven with the social usages of the country for ages, and could not bo done away with suddenly without a revolution. To attempt it at a stroke, Col. Gordon lias lately expressed his opinion, would bo to plunge Egypt into anarchy. The Northern Abolitionists and Eng lish fanatics, driven l>v selfish and adroit diplomacy, did not mind the anarchy created in the South, and, it i may bes truly said, all over this country, j * l l iWfUw '.i.** .. m. ’ * • But what has become sauce for the goose will bee, une sauce for the gander at no distant day. Liberia. —lt is unfortunate for Rev. Mr. Bidden, that just as lie began too ling his horn in praise of Liberia and urging negroes to go there, squads of disgusted black people should be re turning to this country and blabbing out the truth. Here is the latest ex perience : The Ilawldnsvillo Despatch says four ne groes who left, t hat place in November, 1872, for Liberia, returned last Monday night, completely cured by their oxporienceof life in that African Republic. It adds that old Jon Burch's wife, the enthusiastic nogross who, a short while before sho left for Liberia, jumped up and clapped her hands together, and thanked her Gou that she was going’ whore there was iu> poor white trash, is now very anxious to got back, and lias sent tetteis here begging the white people to help her return. She is now working for two dollars a month. “Old Joe Busch’s wife” may ns well remain. In case the white people sent her money to get back, she would pretty soon abuse them as much as over. '■*? A KIND INVITATION. The Courier-Journal, with grim com placency, says : Persons desiring to start national banks in the West and South may now go ahead. The Controller of the Currency notifies Vow.! that he is ready for them to make ap plication to him for the currency which is to be redistributed under the new law Kentucky is entitled to several millions, but the money is likely to come in very slowly,-' That’s as edifying ns a sermon on the infamy of dancing addressed to a man who lost his legs during the war. Democracy. —A Democratic states man “ who has received the highest honors his State could bestow,” thus writes: “My Dear Mr. Marble: I am glad to see that the Democrats of the East are stirring, and especially that the World is uncompromising upon the questions of free trade and hard money, " If we could driv e out of our ranks the protectionists aud rag-money men the vhancos for a Democratic viet >rv would bo much increased.” The “ fag-money men ” think, on their part, if they could drive out of '.he ranks the liard-money men, the “chances for a Democratic victory v.- 1,1 be much increased.” So they go. fa uoptAX Travel. —Travel in Italy is said to be rather annoying and peril ous. The conductors of railway trains rob the tourist’s trunk, and the bri gands have broken out in a fresh place. COTTON. number 2. The receipts at the ports the past week were 12,000 bales ; and the total receipts, thus far have been 3,715,000 bales, compared with 3,475,000 last year ; making an increase over last year of 240,000 bales. These figures indi cate a crop of about 4,125,000 bales.— There are still ton weeks in this cotton year; and it is likely the receipts will be about 100,000 bales more; or an average of 10,000 bales a week. But whether this amount is correct or not, is of no consequence as to the price, for all interest in the past! crop is now over, and the grow- ; ing one only will affect the situation ; as it may promise a small, medium ox large crop. For the benefit of some of our planting friends who may not un derstand how the total crop is made up, we will give the following figures, which will approximate the actual ones as they will be made up September Ist: Receipts at ports 8,815,000 ! Consumed by Southern mills.. 145,000 i Taken by Northern mills, direct | from plantations 105,000 Total crop 4,125,000 NEW YORK. This market has been dull and life less for spot cotton. Sales about 4,000 bales, at a decline of % of a cent in the prices. Contracts for futuro de livery have been active, with large sales, with no change in the price since last week ; but there has been considerable excitement during tho week; July con- j tracts at one time selling as low as 10 j*.-, i cents ; then rallying again to 17}*j. The i cause of this depressed state of tho market is the same as given last week, large stock in New York; added to which is the fact that tho prospect of the growing crop is tho best for years. LIVERPOOL. This market has been quiet and steady most of the week, with medium sales, at a decline of j,) of a cent. We still expect the price, under the influ ence of tho growing crop, to settle | down to about 8 pence. MANCHESTER SPINNERS. It is a stir prise to some persons that i the Liverpool market should be so dull and the sales so small. But the facts* are these : Trade in manufactured goods is generally dull; and, in tho coarse, heavy fabrics extremely so. Then, English spinners have a stock of Cotton on hand of 104,000 bales. Now, suppose they should say, as they did in the Summer of 1872: “The growing wiit it-f rorr stock: .It the noils rim down to one week’s supply—Say 00,000 bales.” They could reduce their purchases to i 8,000 or 10,000 bales a day, for ten weeks, and still have a stock of 00,000 bales on hand September Ist. Now, we do not know that they will do this, but, as they have done so before, they may do it again, and, in such a case, is it likely the price will be above 8 pence;, j The stock in Liverpool will bo countod i in about ten days, as it to count it every year about the first of j July. COTTON CHEAP. Some persons are saying cotton is cheap enough at present prices, “and I will buy some.” To all tlieso wo will say, do you know of any one who can make money by buying cotton the last of June or first of July ? It is true tho price may go no lower for a month, but what is there to put it up, in tlio‘ faco of large stocks and one of tho finest prospects for a large crop we ever knew? _ -'mK ‘-feu? SALES. Someone sijjrS, “ Tlio short interest •is' so large in York that it can easily bo cornered, and this will put the market up.” Our information te that in the months of February, March and April the bears of New York bought about 4Q.QO.Q bales of spot cot ton, suitable to ‘deliver on contracts, and then stored it away; and ever since have been selling tho Southern dealer all the futures lie wanted, when he was willing to pay from one to two cents more for July and August than they were actually worth. This has been a safe operation for the bears, and as they still hold their spot cotton, is it likely they can bo easily cornered ? tides in cotton. Every one who ever saw the ocean knows that, when the tide is running down, waves will, every few minutes, wa*h up a little higher than the pre ceding ones ; but the next one will fall so short that you can see perceptibly the water is gradually falling, even if a wave does sometimes rise higher than the one just before it. This is exactly the way the future market is manipulated, whether the tide be ris ing or falling. There have been seve ral spurts up within the last month, but every decline lias been a little low ,°i' than the proceeding one, and this is likely to continue until a portion of the ; stock in Now York is exported, or until we have some general damage to the growing crop, from caterpillars, drouth, or extensive floods. GOLD. Every few days there is something that can be used as a handle to de press or animate the market. Just now the currency bill is used Jto talk up gold ; andefcy this means, store the bears in cotton. -Ase think thlexcite ment will be a short lasting but a few days, when the gold will settle back to its normal value, and from present appearances feiikely to contiue to fall, until five oisis per cent, premium is touched next nter. CATERPILLARS. (I Last year these worms were imported as early as tho 3,Bth of Mayan Ala bama, Georgia and Florida, pi the 14th of June they were repeated in Tennessee and Mississippi. Tlu- far we have not heard of one as|w:iere, and it is now getting so late ifo: the first reports, we hope to os case alto gether this season. crop prospects. All our reports from the cotin wop are as good as possible. Iforuern Georgia, 75 miles above Atlanta,Mias fields of cotton which is two felt high. South Western Georgia lias sortie large plantations in which the ally three feet high. And ous<*kres pondent at Meridian, Texas, w-jAes tl;at tho crop is the finest since the if no disaster befalls it, will be fifty per cent, larger than last year, in mat sec tion. prospects. Under this head we can onlyepeat our remarks of last week, ami in ad dition will say, those who fitly now, thinking cotton is cheap, mi®- make money, but we think they are as likely to lose tlfree times out of four.* PSEUDO-DEMOCRACY?;- The Rome Courier has this para- j graph: Ben Lane Posey, a garrulous politician of ye olden time, a South CaroUntaMUid a : violent fire-eater before tho war, hasmrne.i j Radical, and is one of the leaders el- that party in Mobile. “How have tWHfcsghty fallen!" j Ben Lane Posey has svnlloTved the | fourteenth and fifteenth amendments, 1 and, like Lamar, of Mississippi, believes them to bo “ not less sacred and invio “ lablo than tho original charter as it | “ came from the hands of the f&tliors.” ■ Believing this, Ben goes over to the : Radical camp, where ho properly be longs, by the law of gravitation. If any man can accept the sentiments of Mr. Lamar, as above enunciated, the difference between Radicalism and Democracy is merely a question of being in power and being out. So long, however, as the Lamar '•ratio 1 ■ :' ■■ THE FmANfe £ll^^Hp^# President Grant is c \d 1 natured man. He did ruA the finance bill, but signed it Vwerthcless, ; thinking perhaps that somi.ldnd of; currency-tinkering was better than ! none at all. The Richmond Dispatch says tiio best that can lie said of this measure in the fewest words, thus: . “ It will afford a good deal of relief. It does justice to the country in au thorizing a better distribution of the j currency according to population. Its chief good is in giving us the benefit of the reserves and curtailing the means of the money-gamblers of Wall street j to injure tho whole country by their \ combinations. “ Above all, it settles the matter for a year. It lets people know what they have to depend on. In other words, it lets them know what they have to do ; and it is a great step towards the doing of what is to be done to know what that is. This knowledge, together with confi dence upon a sort of platform which satisfies the hard-money man that his fears were groundless, and the so called inflater that all lie asked cannot bo obtained, will give ease to the coun try, and let looso a good deal of enter prise that had been held back to see vvtoit would bo done. As this is now understood, men of enterprise wifi go ahead, suiting their plans and views to the means spread out before them. “ The bill might have been infinitely better without danger to the country ; but let us take what we can get, and do the most we can with it.” The excuse of New York banks and capitalists for hoarding their supplies of money and tightening the market everywhere is now of no avail, It was declared that so long as Congress agi tated the currency question, no moneyed institutions or men were willing to let go their hold on the cash. The thing is settled now, and it remains to be seen whether or not relief is to follow the new bill aud the adjourn ment of Congress. Your Bull and My Ox. —When Ben Butler denounced Southern men, every Radical at the North thought it a good thing. But when ho abused Northern Radicals, the other day, the New York Tribune comes to the cliaige and says Ben’s speech, “ for blackguardism and falsehood, coarseness and brutality, was never equalled in any assembly ealling itself reputable or decent.” A New Hampshire man wants seven dollars from the Village Board as dam ages for his wife's broken leg, but he’ll probably settle for three, as he’ll save four dollars’ worth of provisions while her appetite is poor. THE CURSE OF GOLD. Many years ago, an old Baltimore merchant named Samuel McDonald ac cumulated an immense fortune, and, dying a bachelor, bequeathed it to his gepliew William. The money old Mr. Samuel gathered in a very laborious and homely way, his heir commenced spending in the most free-handed aud reckless manner. He built a splendid mansion, bought or rented an island for duck-shooting on the Chesapeake bay, drove fast horses, purchased Flora Temple, the racer, and was the spoil of thousands of dead-beats and gentle manly, so-called, bummers. This young man was a model of physical beauty, and had some of the noblest traits of character. But his very virtues were perverted by riotous living, and especially by frequent and prodigious dram-drinking. At an early age, when he should have been in the very flower of his years, he died from the consequences of debauchery and left a wife and two children to mourn his loss and inherit an estate which was still fragmentarily immense, be cause, by the provisions of his uncle’s will, he was not able to grasp and squander it all at once. His widow is married again. His daughter, a most beautiful and estimable woman, is a happy wife and mother. His son, named after the original producer of tho millions of money, has just been arrested in Baltimore, charged with the murder of a fellow gambler. He has been a sad decline even upon his father’s example, and illustrates how gold may be a deadly curse when allied with uncontrolled passions and foolish parental indul gence. Pt is a sad thing and a sore thing to bo very poor; but the mean est pauper that exists on earth, in a stato of virtue, has more reason to thank God than the rich man who is profligate himself and leaves that her itage of woe to his unhappy offspring. ! n.ARD on a Saint.— A colored mur ! derer named Jones was executed at I Culpepper C. H., Va., a few days ago. Just after expressing his certainty of “ going to Jesus,” and while dangling from the gallows, his pious friends and j fellow-citizens, not entirely diseonnect | ed with the Ethiopian persuasion, thus ; saluted him, according to tho Obser- I ver’s ßecount: “Look yonder, ’fore | God he done stuck his foot »»»*•” “ Did i y oi» sefftte like, do man’s laugh ’ ing?” “Will you genneir.en git down Ifrorn dar an’ let dese ladies have a ■jinnee to s<w’ “He won’t kill no mo’ Mnfethis'WOlkU I reckon.” “ Ift’s fin hell ji'st about dis time, I spec.- pEfne ain’t he ought to be.” I Greater disrespect to a man in the act of “going to Jesus ” has never be fore como to our knowledge. South Carolina. —The New York World, speaking of the South Carolina “Conservatives,” says: Their only courso is to make their own platform, which should be simply “opposi tion to Radical corruption,” place some able, earnest, and liberal-minded man like Col. Lathers at the head of their ticket, and go boldly into the fight. If they should not win a victory in this way they will very certainly conquer concessions, and these they most assuredly will not get either directly or indirectly by any so-called Re publican reform movement. If South Carolina could secure such a man as Richard Lathers for Gov ernor, her lot would be enviable indeed. FARMERS AND FACTORS. A correspondent from Burke county indulges in racy criticisms of the re cent Cotton Exchange Convention, somewhat in the same vein as the f nion ami American, of Nashville, whose strictures we considered a few days ago. The factors are looking after their own interests in their own way. Let tho planters do the same. It would be very gratifying to see a Convention es planters assembled whose councils should evince as much practical shrewdness as the cotton meu have shown. I Bellew.— Some of the American pa | pers referred rather contemptuously to | Mr. Bellew, when, growing siek, ap j peals were made in his behalf for re ! lief. The Baltimore Gazette gives a ! most touching reason why he died I poor. It says : | He was free with his money. He was an | Irishman. But he also gave away in ehari | ty sums which will astonish Miss Cushman. During the four years of his residence in j London lie contributed by his readings and | preaching over five thousand dollars annu j ally to charities. Throughout all his career j he has largely devoted the proceeds of his readings to worthy institutions and per i sons in need. These facts should be recog- I nized and keep his memory green in grate i ful recollection. It is a pity that such generous souls ■ should at last need charity, with a pre- I cious poor chance of securing it. But j such is life, and nobody knows it more than Gradgrind, who thinks charity not only should begin at home but be kept a prisoner there. And yet, it may be much better, in the final reckoning, for poor Bellew than selfish Giiad grind. Snakes arc gradually taking posses sion of Louisville, Jefferson county. MR. HILL'S HISTORICAL AD DRESS. Number 6. Liberty Hall, I Crawfordville,Ga., 26th June, 1874. j’ E‘l if&r of the icons'Hut ioruuist: The long delayed reply of Mr. Hill to my articles Nos. 3 and 4, in which his letter to me of “March 14tb, 18C4” was given to the public, has been be fore me several days ; and I now send you for publication such comments upon it as I deem pertinent, and as my great feebleness of body has per mitted me to have reduced to wilting. The length of this most remarkable pa per of Mr. Hill requires me, in no ticing it, to draw much more largeiy upon year columns than is at all com patible with my wishes; but I trust you will on this occasion indulge me. I shall be as brief, condensed and me thodical as possible. Ist. AVhat Mr. Hill’s exigencies re quired of him, was not a hish/ry of his letter of “ March 14tli, 1864,” or how it came to be written; but what he had to 6-ay of its substance' and subject mat ter, in extrication of himself from the “ horrible ” dilemma in which it clearly placed him ; in view of what he had asserted in his “ Historical Address » about the mischievous and treacherous machinations of the “ malcontents ” in Georgia in their attempt to array the State in hostility to the Confederate Administration, at the extra session of the Legislature in 1864; and of his “ ganderieering ” (not gandeleering, as Mr. Hill seems not to perceieve tho meaning of that word as used by me) to Mr. Davis over his exploits in de feating the movement. His letter of “March 14th, 1804,” showed conclus ively that the action of the Legisla ture had been in pursuance of a pro gramme previously fully agreed to by him. At first he was so “staggered” by the extract from this letter published in my article No. 3, (which covered all the points I then iiad in hand,) that he called for the entire letter, hoping, per haps, to find something in other parts of it, on which he could venture, by the ingenuity of a sophistical argument, to relieve himself from the dilemma in which he was then so clearly placed. In making this call, however, be it re membered, Mr. Hill said: i “I only say now, that if anything 1 ever said, acted, written or thought-—being fully told—can identify me, for one hour with those who made war on the Confederate Administra tion and taws, then I will Confess that L am not entitled to the respect of any true Southern man, woman or child now, or ever." His call was promptly replied to by the publication of ail the other por tions of the letter not embraced in the extract before given. So the public then had the whole of the letter, from the beginning to the end—without the mutilation of a sentence, word, syllable, or “comma” in it. Mr. Hill certainly got no comfort from the response to his call. The other portions of the letter were quite as damaging to his j position as that part first published. After the whole was thus brought out, : It will lie recollected, that 1 in my | article No. »4, in reply to his language , J.J.U.....n1.nl ttcmight. lli m tu taw, in these words : All I have to savin reply to this is, that if I, or Gov. Brown, or Hon. Linton Ste phens, of the Georgia Legislature, in their action at the extra session of ls(>4, made “war upon Ike Confederate Administration or its laws," then the letter in all its essential parts fully identified him with what we did in every essential particular. If this shall bring him to the conviction that “ he is not entitled to the respect of any true Southern man, woman or child now, or over;” be it so. It is a matter for his own conscience to determine, when ho sees what tie put in writing at tho t’me. He may cry “out” to these lines so penned, but they will not “out.” His onlv escape, consistently with his character, is'upon the ground that he did not stand to the princi ples and sentiments so announced by him, for the space of “one hour.” The issue thus presented he did not attempt to meet, thinking, perhaps, if he adopted the only plan of escape in dicated, that he would be irretrievably caught, and more damagingly exposed by proof of his well known support in 18G3, of Hon. Joshua Hill for Governor of Georgia, who had not only been op- I posed to Secession, but was one of the very few in the State who had during the whole war so little sympathy with the Confederate cause, that he was at its close enabled to take the iron clad I oath, so-called. In this most embarrassing predica ment, Mr. Hill, after two weeks’ reeon noissance and dose obs nation of the situation, so far as cone- .lied any fur ther contest in a diset.-don of the question at issue, seems to have come to the same conclusion as to his course in this matter, that another redoubta ble knight arrived at, as to his, under similar circumstances, though in a conflict of a different sort, te-vvit, that: “In all the trade of war no feat Is nobler than a bravo retreat; For lie that fights and runs a wav, May live to light another day.”’ Mr. Hill, at one bound, quits the field of argument, and betakes himself to his favorite arena of fancy and fic tion. Hence his most remarkable new Chapter of Confederate History! 2. This new chapter, which is the work entirely of his imagination, as most of his “ Historical Address ” was. is, to me, from the beginning to the end, one of the most amusing speci mens of work of this sort, I ever read. Nothing in the heroic Seheherzade’s thousand and one stories, in the Ara bian Nights Entertainments, invented to secure her escape from death, is more so. Not even her account of the “ Merchant and the Genius,” “Sinbad. the Sailor,” or “ Aladdin ” with his “ Wonderful Lamp.” Wliat, for instance, more amusing,* and at the same time more incredible story could have been invented, by the most fruitful imagination than, that I could have told Mr. Hill at our inter view in March, 1864, that I had no con fidence in Mr Davis—l knew him wen tied we must fight Davis as wet! as Lin . coin—that I knew l\Tr. Davis intended to make himself a military dictator—that I knew wliat I was saying, and had rea sons for knowing it, which I could not state —that Davis meant to arrest me— that he meant to arrest Brown, and even Mr. Ifill himself! Whoever believes such a tale as that *Dr. Johnson remarks, that amuse im plies something less lively than divert, and lesS important than please. Hence it is often said, we are amused with trifles. can readily swallow as truth, anything in Gulliver or Munchausen. Then his statement, that he well knew, that my opposition to Conscription, Impress ments, and Habeas Corpus suspensions originated in nothing but “ hatred ” of Mr. Davis, is of the same character. Who can be so credulous as to believe any such story ? Mr. Hill in putting it up'would have done well to have borne in mint! the memorable couplet, said to have been repeated by the elder Judge Underwood, of our State, (a distin guished lawyer and brilliant wit of his dav), to a client of his who was making out the most extravagant aud fraudulent list of items in an answer to a bill in chancery which he was about to be sworn to: “Lest some suspect your tale tube untrue, Better keep probability in view. Hatred of Mr. Davis by me! For what ? The most perfect friendly re lations had ever existed between us. No expression of personal unkindness had ever been uttered by either against the other, as far as I was aware. He had often consulted with me upon the most delicate questions of war up to that time. I had freely and frankly given him my views upon all questions when asked. I had just as freely aud fr*Qjcfr- <a -/erred; with him nij’ vital cause, on which my Dot been sought. Oif~ many he disagreed with me. Just as I had urged in the most friend- ly way upon many of my best personal friends not to adopt the policy of Seces sion, but their disagreement with me on this point, in no way or degree alienated my personal feelings frorn them. Mr. Hill says I know howAo hate; but do not know how to sacri fice personal feelings on the altar of the public good. Who among the deal- or the living ever had less of “ hate ”in his nature,or ever exhibited, throughout his life, in a greater de gree than I have, the virtue of "sacri ficing his personal feelings on the altar of the public good.” Hate, indeed! This quality is as far from my nature as are its kindred qualities of double dealing, deceit, duplicity and hypoc risy. In this connection, I beg to be excused for saying that I have seen it stated in some papers that I was in : fluencetl by “ hate ” or an “ old grudge ” | against Mr. Hill In entering upon a rfi ; view of his “ Historical Address^!’ ! Such writers know nothing of- u,ynau ture. What cause had I ever had for ! "hate” or “ grudge ” against him, even i if I had been capable of entertaining j such sentiments ? Our personal inter ! ests in no way clashed. I never met I him on tho hustings but once, and was perfectly satisfied with the result of ! the discussion then had. The popular ] verdict rendered at the polls in a short time after, upon the merits of our re spective arguments, showed an increas ; ed majority on that side which was ad ’ vocated by me. Was this any cause of i “ hate ” or “ grudge ” on my part ? I never met Mr. Hill in a court, either before a jury Judge, in the ! State Circuit Court, onHppreme Court, or the Federal Court, where the ver r dii’t of the jury ott thefdecision of- the wm* ««»* fiT rf*y fr*v*Vr.‘ Wttfl tll’S - any cause>f ;my part towards him ? No ! On the 1 alter of T4fcdioue no offerings were ! ever presented by me. Malice I can cherish towards no hunian being. It is true 1 am not devoid of passion, or even the highest indignation, especially at wrong, injustice aud baseness; but even now, after Mr. Hill has exhausted his vocabulary of denunciations agaiust me, -and taken his flight, I feel very much towards him as Uncle Toby did towards the fly. His “ buzzing,” as I have heretofore said, about me for several years since tho war, with what ever motive or with whatever object, I permitted to pass with perfect indiffer ence! It was only when he exhibited himself in his “ Historical Address,” as belonging to the Green species order of that insect by his profuse deposits of loathsome Larvae upon my integrity,’ character, and patriotism, 'as well as that of the good name of many of the truest and noblest men of the South, I felt it to be my duty to crush these noxious vermin without any disposi tion to hurt individually the creature that had laid them. Again ; If the matter of my defection from the “ cause ” was a subject of discussion at Richmo and in the Winter of 1863, as he says it was, and if he and others there “ had reason to know that it was regarded by our enemies as a. most significant indication of a divid ing and collapsing Confederacy,” as he now says, why did he not inform me of these facts when he was at my house ? Why wait ten years to give the infor mation ? According to his account, his visit here was a “ brave undertaking on his part, to make a patriot of the Vice-President!” 3d. Mr.’ Hill begins this new “ ehap.- ter in Confederate history ” by assign ing as a reason for his “ bold retreat-,” or “ retirement,” as it is called, from any further contest in this controversy over those portions of his “ Historical Address ” reviewed by me in this series of Articles, what he claims to be a pending question of veracity between us, growing out of what I s r aid in my* first Article about his absence from Richmond pending the consideration of the appointment of commissioners to the Hampton Roads Conference. On this point he claims that he has shown me to be a “ liar,” and guilty of a most “ malicious falsehood ” —that he has “outlawed” me from the pale of truth, and that henceforth I am utterly un worthy of belief, &e. This is certainly a most ludicrous pretext for such a bold and extraordi nary retreat, in view of the facts of the case. Suppose I did say he was not in Richmond when he was, feeling fully assured of the truth of the assertion when I made it, does that constitute falsehood on my part ? According to all standard writers on law and morals, and according to the universal good sense of mankind, “falsehood” can never be justly charged upon anv one for stating wliat he believes to be ’ true, especially if there be good reasons for this belief—even though the fact turns out otherwise than it was thus believed to_ be. My reasons for stating that Mr. Hill was not in Richmond at the time Mr. Davis and his Cabinet had under consideration the appointment of the Commissioners, under the Blair propo-
