"The truth is that as a country we have often found one reason or another to let the powerful escape the consequences of their actions. Consider Jefferson Davis, the first and only president of the Confederate States of America, commander in chief of a rebellion that killed hundreds of thousands of people. Davis spent two years in federal custody after the end of the war. The indictment against him was dismissed following his release, and he spent the rest of his life a free man."
"In 1931, the state of Mississippi contributed a statue of Davis to the U.S. Capitol's Statuary Hall. It's still there. Resting in peace A little more than a century after Davis' death, a former American president, Richard Nixon, would die peacefully in bed. In life, he had disgraced his oath to the Constitution of the United States, grievously abusing his power in what was, until quite recently, the most notorious presidential scandal in American history."
Most Americans like to believe that this is a nation of laws, where justice is blind to power and status. The country has often found reasons to let powerful people escape consequences. Jefferson Davis, Confederate president and commander in chief of a rebellion that killed hundreds of thousands, spent two years in custody but had his indictment dismissed and lived the rest of his life free, dying 24 years after Appomattox. Southern newspapers praised him and New Orleans staged an elaborate funeral; Mississippi later placed a Davis statue in the U.S. Capitol. Richard Nixon died peacefully despite grievously abusing presidential power and disgracing his oath.
Read at www.mercurynews.com
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