Page:Southern Historical Society Papers volume 29.djvu/97

 The Trials and Trial of Jefferson Davis. 81

Strange to say, an order was entered upon the ist of February, reciting that inasmuch as the indictments had been dismissed, he and his bondsmen were forever released.

The motion, on appeal in the Supreme Court, of course, was never called, and is now filed amongst its archives.

This recitation of the "Trials and Trial of Jefferson Davis" has not been prepared with the purpose of stirring up sectional animosi- ties or reviving the bitterness of the past. Its aim has been solely to vindicate the truth of history, that its teachings may be taken to heart. Between those who fought, bitterness vanished almost with the smoke of the hostile guns. The lapse of years has made us one people again, and it is not patriotic or wise to do anything which may mar the harmony time has wrought. If the reputation of indi- viduals shall suffer by turning a searchlight upon the official acts of their past, it is their misfortune, not the fault of the historian who handles the reflector.

The historians on either side of our Civil War are naturally warped in their judgment, and even after so many years cannot take an unprejudiced view of the same facts, however undisputed. The history of that epoch in our national life must be written on the other side of the Atlantic, but though that is the case, we are not relieved of the obligation to seek for the truth and to preserve our researches for the use of those writers whose environments will ena- ble them to be impartial. To that end this paper has been written.

The other side in our contest was never just in their judgment of Mr. Davis, nor has it given him due credit for either his intellectual or his moral strength, his courage, his devotion to what he regarded right, or his faithfulness in the discharge of duty. This prejudice, inflamed by the natural grief and indignation aroused by the murder of President Lincoln, made the treatment of Mr. Davis as a prisoner more rigorous than it would have been otherwise, but it cannot jus- tify or excuse the insults and inhumanities to which he was subjected by those to whose custody he was committed as a prisoner of State, or the cruelty of those who s'o long denied the constitutional right of a speedy and impartial trial. These wrongs it is our duty to for- give, but it is also our duty not to forget.

CHARLES M. BLACKFORD. Lynchburg, Va., July 18, 1900.