The tri-weekly standard. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1866-1868, 1866-07-26

roll HslI---Eyery day Lie Of Jefferson DAVIS
Recent FuI and Unresersed EApressieh : =
his Opinion on the Craven BOOK
p,c,,,,oxn Va. wednesday, July IT,
Nothing is more difficult than for the news
naner Correspondent to gain even transient
riew of tbe inner life at Fortress Monroe, as
the Government has issued an imperative
order for the exclusion OF his craft IRON the
precincts of the Fortress.
The public must hear about the prisoner
at Fortress Monroe; they expect it, and de-
mand it at our hands, and not being able
ourselves to see Jefferson Davis, we are driven
to the necessity of deriving our knowledge
of him from those who have the privilege
A gentleman of this city of the highest
standing and character has, recently hao a
very extended interview with DAVIS, having
spent an entire day with him in the fort, ana
what have to say of the prisoner Is derlVeu
from this entirely trustworthy source.
THE PRESENT CONDITION
of Davis is far from healthy. He mas tnat
peculiar sallowness that is the 1neVltanle re-
suit of long confinement, and his nervous
irritablity under restraint has naturally
enough taken off and keeps off what little
flesh he ever had. He has no appetite, and
it was noted the other day as remarkable
event, that he ate the whole of a crab at
one meal The constitution of the man
seems gone, and DIR. Cooper said as much
when, being asked why he did not build up
his patient promptly, he replied that there
was nothing to build on. Whether this state
of affairs is a result of his confinement Is at
least problematical. A man OF seriously lnl-
paired health for years before he was taken
TO the Fortress and sufferer from nervous
disease, it is the prevalent opinion that the
ruin that came upon his ambition would
have brought him to precisely the same
physical condition without any confinement
at all. He was not the man to sheer 1T away,
like BENJAMIN; or work it away, like Lee
and johnson or philosophize it away, like
Stephens Whatever might have been, the
plain, simple truth is that Jefferson Davis is
Suffering at Fortress Monroe from the same
nervous disease to which he was for years
constantly subject at Richmond and at
Washington.
That ssglaring light" is in the adjoining
room on a small table in its centre. The bed
is thus in the shadow, and the direct light
does not reach Davis at all and it Is only
after it has traversed the half of one large
room, the whole of another, and been retlec-
ted back from the opposite plain white wall
of his room, that it has any power to annoy
the prisoner His eyes are very weak, and
the light doubtless does annoy him more
Miles, conceiving it his duty to have the pri-
soner always in sight of the sentinels, it is
difficult to imagine any plan by which he
can make the light less offensive than it is
under the present arrangement; but the
more sensible course undoubtedly would be
to dispense with sentinels altogether, and
leave Davis at night, as at day, to his parole.
Mr. Davis does not complain Of being dis
turbed by the noise of the sentinels.
By day, Mr.. Davis is at entire liberty un-
der parole within the limits of the Fortress,
and generally spends the most of his time in
the apartment of his wife, who has had one
of the classmates assigned her. He it is at
liberty to receive any books or papers that
ANYBODY chooses to send him, and in peru
sing these, and in conversations with his wife
and with the numerous visitoas who are con-
stantly calling upon him, he prevents time
from hanging heavily upon his hands.
THE CRAVEN BOOK.
Although he has never said so in so many
words, he has said enough to show that the
has read the work with decided Impotence
and indignation. He thinks it gross breach
of confidence, in the first place, for DR.. Ora
ven to have written any book about him at
all, as all the information he pretends to give
was derived from the confidential and gen
orally consideredsacred relation of physician
and patient. Having written book, under
these circumstances. MIR. Davis thinks he was
doubly bound to adhere strictly to truth
Generally, Mr.. Davis denies the accuracy of
every reported conversation in the book, but
as throwing light upon his thoughts and
feelings, I specify few of the points he
made.
He grew most indignant perhaps over the
fact that Craven puts into his mouth on sew
eral occasions the expression, "Me and mig
people," which he says he never used at any
time or upon any occasion, the form of words
used when he had occasion to refer himself
and the Southern people being, Me and our
people," In commenting upon this point,
Davis remarked that whatever he might
have been, he had never been egotistical.
Mr. Davis repudiates an toto the Craven &C
count of the manacling scene, including the
mock-heroic speeches Craven represents to
have been made on both sides. His account |
is to the effect that when the file of soldiers
entered his room, and the sergeant had sta
ted in few direct words the business upon
which they had come, he Davis quietly and
briefly said that he must resent it to the ex-
tent of his power as an insult to "me and
Our people" With the view only of enter
ing this forcible protest. and with no intent
of engaging in childish struggle with the
soldiers, he struck at the man nearest him,
when the soldiers brought their arms prompt
ly to the position of charge bayonets."-
Sergeant however, instantly ordered,
" Shoulder, arms" and had the prisoner
seized and placed upon the bed. When there,
Davis struggled for moment with the same
intent, but only for a moment and then sub
mitted without remark to what he knew he
could not avoid. The Sergeant (who was
the only officer" presently Mr. Davis says,
performed his duty just as soldier would
do, made no excuse for it, and did not plead
orders. In short, all the detail of this scene
in the Craven book, including the exclama-
ton by Mr.. Davis, Oh, the shame! oh, the
shame I" are, upon the authority of the pri-
soner himself, merely Pigments of the Doctors
Imagination.
Mr.. Davis is particularly indignant over
the fact that he is made to endorse General
Hunter as " Christian and patriot" and
he says, truly enough, that it would have
been grotesquely inconsistent for him to
have done anything of the kind after having,
as President of the Confederacy, put Hunter
under the ban as a robber. All that he ever
said to Craven on the subject was, that Hun
ter was fanatic, and he gave as his reason
for the opinion, that he had on two occas-
ions, some years ago, attended Hunter in a
duel, and that both times, when all was in