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North's Attitude since the war.
And we should never forget this pregnant and, we think, conclusive fact in regard to this question, namely: the conduct of the
North after the war in regard to
Mr. Davis,
General Lee, and others of our leaders.
As is well known,
Mr. Davis was indicted three times in their own courts upon charges which directly and necessarily involved a decision of the right of a State to secede from the
Union.
Immediately on the finding of these indictments, he (through his eminent Northern as well as Southern counsel), appeared at the bar of the court and demanded a speedy trial, in order that he might judicially vindicate his course and that of his people before the world.
This right of trial was postponed by the
Federal Government for nearly three years. During two of these years he was confined in a casemate at
Fortress Monroe and subjected to indignities and tortures, by which it was attempted to break the spirit of the distinguished captive; and at the same time to degrade the people whom he represented, and for whom he was a vicarious sufferer.
It is hardly necessary to say that this conduct is to-day universally regarded as not only unworthy of the representatives of the government which held
Mr. Davis as its prisoner, but that it has made a page in its history of which it ought to be, and we believe is, ashamed.
When at last the
Government consented to try the case, it declined to meet the real question involved, in its own chosen tribunal; and having been advised by the best lawyers and statesmen at the
North, that the decision must be against the
North and in favor of the
South, in order to evade the issue, the
Chief Justice himself suggested a technical bar to the prosecution, which was adopted and the cases dismissed.
The South was entirely in the power of the
North, and could do nothing but accept this, their own virtual confession that they were wrong and that we were right.
