A searing commentary on Jefferson Davis appeared in the Seattle Post-Intelligencer newspaper, June 1, 1893. This was part of a piece written about Davis on the occasion of his internment in Richmond VA's Hollywood cemetery after his death.
"After Davis' escape from justice in May 1867, there was no 'vicarious suffering for the deeds of the South'on part of any body, and least of all by Davis, who spent the rest of his days posing as the wandering ghost of the lost cause, foaming at the mouth with epileptic rhetoric concerning state supremacy at every public opportunity. This is the whole truth about Davis, who was in nothing a great or heroic character; he is rather to be classed as one of the notorieties of history, like Robespierre, than with historic great men."
Whether or not the author of this is a Seattle writer isn't clear as most of the writings published in period papers do not have an author attributed. However, when something is reprinted from another paper, that is always mentioned. That was not the case with this piece. It's publication, with such rhetoric, in this Seattle paper is suggestive at the least as to certain editorial points of view of the paper itself, and may perhaps be reflective of its readership, as well. Feelings ran high in the last decades of the 1800's over the post-war South and the Lost Cause, even here in far away Seattle.
Source: Seattle Post Intelligencer June 1, 1893
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