The Daily Dispatch: January 12, 1865., [Electronic resource]

It was the fortune of General Washington, whilst conducting the Seven Years. War of the Revolution, to be the object of especial hate and vengeance to the British Crown, and, at the same time, to be exposed to misrepresentation, detraction and obloquy at the hands of his own countrymen. Few of us, not family with the details of the trying ordeal through which he passed, can form an adequate idea of the fiery furnace in which that great soul was tested, and from which it came forth, known and nized of all men, as pure gold. --There were many hours of his history in which it seemed far more probable that he would die the death of a felon and be only remembered as the unskillful and unsuccessful leader of an insane revolt, than become the admiration of all nations and of all ages, and be described by the pen of one of England's most ed nobles in words like these: "Surely Washington was the greatest man that ever lived in this world uninspired by vine wisdoms unsustained by supernatural virtue."

It is difficult to realize that the man of whom this is now said, even in England, was once ill-stressed, harassed and presented by his own countrymen. No human eye penetrated the secret chambers of that great soul to see the poignant wounds of the spirit, and how it was compelled to wrestle with and overcome its private grief at the same moment that it above the weight of a nation's burthens and marshalled it the way to victory and independence. The sorrows of the great have few who appreciate, few who sympathize with them. They are supposed to be exalted above the lot of common suffering; they are too proud to reveal the vultures that are tugging at their heartstrings and ask the compassion and support of the world. And the fortitude and virtue of a man in high position, struggling with adversity, and, what is more painful to bear, misunderstanding and obloquy, when he has reason to expect confidence and regard, is a spectacle which appeals more to the admiration of good and heroic minds than those sorrows which lie upon the surface, and which attract at once the sympathy and consolations of the world.

We have never been of those who attempted to make a demigod or a Washington of the President of the Confederate States. We know that, like other men, he is fallible; that he can err; has erred. But we will not, in this dark hour of national distress, felt by him as keenly, we doubt not as by the most sensitive of his countrymen, help to add to his afflictions by the voice of reproach and denunciation. We will not make him the scapegoat of the nation's misfortunes. We must have the evidence all before us that be ordered this and that unfortunate movement before we bring in a verdict of guilty against Jefferson Davis. "They say" and "the reliable gentleman" will not do forus. "They say" is a notorious har, and "the reliable gentleman" is generally an ass or a knave. But supposing the President not to be the man for the times. Wiro put him where he is? Who made him President by acclamation? Who fabricated this idol? The very people who are now called upon to chop it into firewood! How do we know that any other idol which the same hands construct will be any more a good? Jefferson Davis is the creation, not the creator of the Revolution; and if the Revolution fails it is as fair to attribute it to its own inherent weakness as the incompetency of its chief agent; neither of which would be true. It will be time enough to discuss the cause when the effect is produced, and if we are faithful, united and determined that we can never be. In any event, this dark hour is the last in which we will saddle the President with the responsibility of all our misfortunes. In the first place, we do not believe he is responsible; in the next, whilst Abraham Lincoln fancies he has his clutches upon his throat, we will not say — we cannot say with truth--"Yes, Father Abraham, that is the chief sinner; accept him as a victim, and restore us to thy favor." On the contrary, we can tell the President of the United States that we are all as great offenders as the President of the Confederacy, who is but our servant and our agent; and that if this war of defence has been conducted with as signal humanity and moderation as skill and valor it is because our servant and our agent has steadily maintained, under the most extraordinary provocation, the humanity and moderation of the Southern character.

But if Jefferson Davis cannot claim the credit of inaugurating this Revolution; if he is but the honored instrument selected by the people themselves for their chief; if he has manifested a persistent desire to harmonize and alleviate the horrors of war, he has conducted his administration of affairs with as much judgment, energy and devotion to the cause as any other man who could have been selected for his position. Who could have done better? Let us hear the name of the man, and also the reason why the public intelligence did not select that man for the Presidency instead of the present incumbent? We have no doubt that we did the best we could in making Mr. Davis President, and that he has tried to do the best he could in the Presidency. We see no more reason in attributing to him all the disasters in the West than all the glories in the East. If we are true to ourselves, the Ship of State will yet ride the waves buoyant and victorious; but if she goes down, let us refrain from pelting the helmsman, whom we ourselves put at the wheel of ship which we ourselves built and launched, and meet our fate with at least the fortitude and resignation of Turks, if not of Christians.