A Tribute to Jefferson Davis page 6

A Tribute to Jefferson Davis

At this time the indignities to Mr. Davis began. The party was robbed and the President treated with such uncalled for insolence that Governor Lubbock, of Texas, one of the party, says in a personal letter: "I became so indignant and so completely unstrung and exasperated that I called upon the officers to protect him from insult, threatening to kill the parties engaged in such conduct."

As a prisoner he was conducted to Fortress Monroe and there imprisoned for two years.

Whatever may have been the animosities that Mr. Davis incited as Chief Magistrate of the Confederacy, whatever may have been the criticism of his executive acts, these were all blotted out by the noble. dignified and uncomplaining attitude which he preserved during this cruel test. Adversity showed him as he really was, a wise, considerate, conscientious man, one who could suffer for conscience sake, and who, when he believed a thing to be right, followed it to the bitter end even if it took him through a dark valley and over a toilsome road.

When first incarcerated he was put in irons (an indignity unheard of in the history of the treatment of State prisoners). The details of this early prison life are simply and plainly told by Lieut. Col. John Craven, post surgeon at Fortress Monroe. This Federal surgeon speaks of Mr. Davis during this fearful ordeal in terms of the highest respect, and it was through his intervention that the distinguished prisoner was relieved of his shackles and received such creature comforts as were the means of preserving his life and reason. In his book published in 1866, he writes: "Before history takes up the pen to record her final judgment, the world will be willing to conclude that the man who was our most prominent foe was not utterly bad—had, in fact, great redeeming virtues—and that no movement so vast and eliciting such intense devotion on the part of its partisans as the late Southern rebellion could have grown up into such gigantic proportions without containing many elements of truth and good which it may profit future ages to study attentively."

Mr. Davis was always anxious and willing to be brought to trial. In fact, the chief aim of his life while in prison was to preserve himself so as to be able to go before the Courts and to vindicate his own cause and that of his people before the whole world. When eventually an attempt was made to bring him to trial, no trained perjurer, could implicate him.

There were three charges brought against him. The first attempted was, "Complicity in the Assassination of President Lincoln." This failed. The next charge was, "Cruelty to prisoners. " This, too, failed. The third charge was "Treason."

In this last charge the first grand jury of whites and blacks ever empaneled in this country found an indictment of treason against Jefferson Davis and R. E. Lee. Gen. Grant "squashed" the indictment against Gen. Lee by maintaining that his parole protected him. In the case of Mr. Davis the authorities at Washington and Chief Justice Chase himself decided that the charge of "treason" could not be maintained. Mr. Davis, still anxious for trial, was finally admitted to bail and was never afterwards brought before the Court.

In 1867, after having made an arrangement by which he was to have sixty days notice whenever the United States Courts required his presence, he went to Europe to live. After a year's residence abroad, during which time he was offered an interview with Louis Napoleon, (an honor which he declined), he returned to Memphis to accept the presidency of a life insurance company in that City.

About this time he bought Beauvoir from his old friend, Mrs. Dorsey, and before he had fully paid for it she died, leaving him her sole legatee. From 1876-79 he devoted his life to the preparation of his classic defense of the South, "The Rise and Fall of the Confederate Government."

He was seldom seen in public life during his latter days. He presided at the Lee memorial meeting in Richmond in November, 1870, and spoke at the Convention held at Montgomery White Sulphur Springs, Va., in August, 1874, to organize the Southern Historical Society. Again, he spoke at the unveiling of the monument to "Stonewall" Jackson in New Orleans, at tbe meeting of the Southern Historical Society in New Orleans, at the unveiling of the monument to Albert Sidney Johnston in New Orleans, and at the laying of the corner-stone of the Confederate Monument in Montgomery. Mr. Davis' health had always been uncertain and the sufferings and trials of his latter days would have completely overcome a man of less stubborn will or weaker character. His was a clear case of the power of the spiritual over the material. He was spared, however, to a ripe odd age and was able to outlive envy, silence calmly and to advocate with his pen the people he so dearly loved.

This great work done, he was laid to rest, followed by the love and admiration of a nation who looked upon him as their great and noble "leader," a man who had preserved for them a stainless and honorable name.

He died disfanchised, denied the simplest political privileges of a man, but the principles for which he suffered defeat and clung to till death still live and are today strong in the hearts of all men who believe in and consider what constitutional liberty is. It has been an extremely interesting task to me to find out what the wise and good of our own times have said of this soldier of three wars, this statesman who wore the mantle that Calhoun laid down, and this brilliant member of a notoriously brilliant Cabinet of the United States.