New-York daily tribune. [volume] (New-York [N.Y.]) 1842-1866, 1863-12-12
JEFFERSON DAVIS.

Three years 400. jefferson Davis sat in the
Senate of the United States, with everything al
his command that heart could desire. Though
but a little past fifty years of age, he had
achieved wide and honorable distinction both as
a soldier and statesman. lie had received o
Military education at the National expense, and
served with credit as q lieutenant OF regulars
and as colonel Of volunteers in the Mexican
War. He had been an extensive and pros
porous planter, an elector Of President, repre-
sentative and senator in Congress, and for four
years Secretary Of War. In bis active public
career, he had encountered but two defeats
one in his attempt to bully Col. (afterward Gov
enor) Bissell of Illinois on the floor of the
House, and aftervard by sending him chdr
lenge, which he was at last constrained to back
out Of; the other, when he ran on the state
Rights" (meaning Secesson) ticket for Gov
ernor Of Mississippi, and was beaten by Henry
S. F,ote. winning speaker, respectable in
private life, and generally esteemed in spite Of
his inordinate concet, Col. Davis might have
closed his career in tranquil prosperity ard
honor but for the insane and guilty ambition
which impeled him for years to foment and at
length to lead the atrocious SHAREHOLDERS Re-
belion.
He left Washington on or about the 22d OF
January, 1861, having resigned his seat in the
Senate on the 2Ist. He was fayOrite of the
upper caste of both that City and Baltimore,
and he little dreamed that he was bidding a
long adieu to 30 many Of his enthusiastic ad-
mirers. On the contrary, he utterly refused to
credit Gen. Butler and others who assured him
that Disunion involved long and terrible War.
He left his pew still rented in the most aristo-
cratic Episcopal church. with his name in silver
on the door. He expected TO be pressing IL
velvet cushions within month, the tenant off
tho White House, the President Of Slavehold-
ing Confederacy stretching from the Rio Grande
to the Susquehanna and the Missouri, with
boundless prospects of speedy expansion south
ward and westward. Such were the roseate
dreams that sped his passage southwark, "the
observed of all observers "-cheered, dined, |
wned, a. if he were barely less than god.
Three years have not since passed, and Nr.
Davis il called to face his bogus Congress-a
new one--at Richmond. His expose Of his and
their position might suffice to draw blood from
a turnip. It's sum and substance is this-Thc
Coniederacy is played out! 1t has not soldiers
enough to withstand the Union armies, yet it
can neither feed, clothe nor shelter those il
already has. Its people as well as its armies
are ragged aid furnishing. It's credit is gone,
and its paper money! worth lowing to the high
price Of Cotton and the scarcity Of Rags some
Blk or eight cents per pound. Its people knOn
that the Rebel cause is "gone up" and must
be hunted BY bloodbounds to drive them into
It's shiyering, dying leglons. In short, it is used
up.
OF those who embarked with him in this des.
perate yet sanguine adventure, the majority are
Already dead-Ben. McCulloch, Albert Sidney
Johnston, William L. Yancey, John W. Ellis,
D. Jennings Wise, Claiborne +. Jackson,
Thomas ]. Jackson, Maxcy Gregg, William
Hood, and ever so many others.
The South is cemetery nearly every wh.s