Page:Southern Historical Society Papers volume 38.djvu/392

378 father, Pope Pius, sent words of comfort to President Davis, shackled in Fortress Monroe. And the guns of that fort were wont to roar in his honor when War Secretary, and the greatest the country ever had. So much by way of parenthesis to my story.

Reflecting upon all this and our government under Washington and his successors, down to Taylor, the last Southern President, and the degradation growing deeper and deeper since Lincoln's advent in 1861. In the spirit of Christian fortitude and resignation, we, with all reverence, cry within our hearts, "My God! My God! Why hast Thou forsaken us?"

Another contrast for deep reflection occurs between Jefferson Davis and Abraham Lincoln: Who and what they were and represented; how they lived and how they died. The one a true type, and remained with his people; the other an anti-type, and turned against them. But he was not to the manner born. Likewise, oppositely considered, Robert E. Lee and Ulysses S. Grant, as soldiers and civilians. But Grant at Appomattox was magnanimous, apprehending the grandeur of Lee and the valor of his veterans, which he evinced. A thorough and truthful sifting of the respective leaders, and by comparison, produces startling results and dumfounds him who would fathom the mysterious ways of Providence. And as the storm of sectional strife approached and continued, analyze in like manner: as Vice-Presidents, John C. Breckenridge and Hanibal Hamlin; as Secretaries of State, Judah P. Benjamin and William H. Seward; as Secretaries of War, Jefferson Davis and Edwin M. Stanton; as Chief Justices, Roger B. Taney and Salmon P. Chase, and the impartial student is enabled to separate, and widely, the Cavalier from the Puritan.

In the military service, even the Southern school children know the great gulf between the crowning merits of Lee, Jackson, Stuart, both Johnstons, both Hills, S. D. Lee, Smith, Hood, Polk, Hardee, A. P. Stewart, Buchanan, Semmes, Maury, Maffit—all educated and trained soldiers or sailors—and the despicable renegades who espoused the Puritan side—the Tories and traitors of the Confederate War—such as Scott, Thomas and Farragut, born Virginians, and who apprehended their true allegiance until seduced by the Lincoln government.