132 Southern Eistorical Society Papers,
temple. But can failure deny to the other entrance there when we remember that the Temple of Virtue is the gateway of the Temple of Fame ? Both of them in their speeches then stood for American principles ; both of them in their lives afterwards were the foremost champions of American principles ; both of them were revolu- tionists, and as such must be judged ; and Jefferson Davis never advocated an idea that did not have its foundation in the Declaration of Independence ; that was not deducible from the Constitution of the United States as the fathers who made it interpreted its mean- ing ; that had not been rung in his ears and stamped upon his heart from the hour when his father baptized him in the name of Jefferson and he first saw the light in a Commonwealth that was yet vocal with the States'- Rights Resolutions of 1798.
A GREAT REPRESENTATIVE OF AMERICAN PRINCIPLES AND OF ANGLO-SAXON CHARACTER.
We cannot see the hand on the dial as it moves, but it does move nevertheless, and so surely as it keeps pace with the circling sun, so surely will the hour come when the misunderstandings of the past will be reconciled, and its clamors die away; and then it will be recognized by all that Jefferson Davis was more than the representa- tive of a section, more than the intelligent guide of a revolution, more than the champion of secession. He will stand revealed as a political philosopher, to be numbered amongst the great expounders of American principles and the great heroes and champions of the Anglo-Saxon race. When the turbid streams of war have cleared and flow evenly in their channels, it will also be seen that underneath the hostile currents which impelled two great peoples in collision there was a unity of sentiment which, operating from different poles of circumstances and interest, threw into separate masses those who by natural instinct would have cohered together.
It is easier to note the differences that float upon the surface of social organizations than to detect the congruities and identities that lie beneath them ; and critics, in their analyses of character, are more prone to exhibit the striking antitheses of contrast than to linger upon the neutral colors which are common and undistinguishing.
GERMS OF CONTROVERSY NOT IN DIFFERENCES OF RACE, MORALS, OR CREED OF EARLY SETTLERS.
Some fancy that they discern the germs of the controversy of
