Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1866-07-05
From the Richmond Times.
Prison Life of Jefferson Davis.


embracing details and incidents in his cap.
tivitY, particulars concerning his health and
habits, together with many conversations
on topics Of great public interest,"" is the
title of volume of some four hundred
pages, which has just been given to the
world by John j. Craven, lately Surgeon
in the Federal army, and who was from the
25th of May to the 25th of December,
1865, the physician of ex. President Davis.
From this remarkable book copious extracts
are given in another paper A violent ne
grophilists and an ardent Republican, as
well as an enthusiastic advocate of the war,
| noDody can suspect DR.. Craven of the
slightest predictions for the unfortunate
ex President, about whose condition and
conversation, as State prisoner, he has
written book. . .--
But, despite political prejudices, Dr.
Craven has managed to tell the truth, and
and in doing so he impales and crucifes
Tho Head Tnrpkev st Fnrtresa Moproa as
completely as Dr.. Barry O'Meara did the
merciless tyrant who slowly tortured another
great prisoner to death upon the barren and
blasted heights Of St. Helena
The plain, simple, unadorned record Of
DR.. Craven sustaiDs and corroborates the
terrible report Of his successor in Office.
DR.. Cooper, and condemns to eternal infamy
the parties to the frightful inhumanities
which have been inflicted upon President
Davis The tale of bis prison life is now
complete, as the diary of DR.. Craven and
the official report Of Surgeon Cooper en-
brace the whole period of his imprisonment
The truth, temperately, coldly and forcibly
spoken by the two men who saw President
Davis daily during the whole period of hi,
confinement, has cast food Of light upon
the most hideous, shameful and loathsome
chapter of American history. Itis provi
Dental that these men have spoken the
truth, and that their testimony cannot be
assailed tits we'll for the defeated section,
and for the truth of history, that the se'
crets of the inquistion and the chamber Of
torture, at Fortress Monroe should be ex.
posed by the officials who witnessed the
agony and noble fortitude of the illustrious
victim
"The mills of the gods grind slowly"
but il is time that they should grind to
powder the torturers of a helpless statesman
aud pure Christian gentleman. Wild,
frightful and shocking as have been the
rumors of the deeds of violence done upon
the person of President Davis, DR.. Craven's
book shows that they all fall far short OF
what he has really suffered. ......
Above the din of great European war,
the indignant voice of Christendom will be
heard when DR. Craven's diary crosses the
Atlantic. Unless be break its force, Miles
must at once take his place in history BY
tie side of Hudson Lowe, and expect to
meet him "elsewbere than in the abode of
of the blessed" when be shufles off the
mortal coil. By slight paraphrase of GER
tain we'll known lines, when be departs
upon his journey to that bourne from
whence no traveller returns, We may say,
"open wide the gates of Orcus,
Where the souls Of tyrants roast;
Open wide the gates of Orcus,
To receive another ghost"
No one can read the charge of Dr. Cra.
v, and the report of DR.. Cooper without
disco ring that but for the courageous hu-
mauity of his medical attendants, Mr.
Davis would have long since succumbed to
the slow tortures of which he was for twelve
months the victim. To the noble humanity
of these gentlemen, and the late orders
of President johnson, Mr.. Davis is indebted
for the little life which is yet left in bis
frail body.
Denied all conversation with the very
soldiers who paced day and night up and
down bis narrow cell, who can describe the
cheering effects of the daily visits of bis
kind physicians2
But this source of consolation did not
meet the approval Of the humane Miles
Hudson Love permitted friends, physicians
and guards to talk with Napoleon, but we
have now to soap the climax" of Miles
noble conduct, by showing how be at last
denied to a surgeon of the ex-Presidcnt the
privilege of free and unrestricted conversa-
ton with his patient!
If Dr. Craven had not wisely published