Wilmington journal., 1866-10-11

Parties desiring information on any of
the above subjects may address me at Vicks-
burgh, Miss.
H. D. BOWMAN,
and Messrs. LEES & WALLER, New
| York.
The Condition and Fate of e1-PresIdent
Davis.
The editor of the Natchez Miss Courier
| (Mr. Hillyer) has recently visited Mr.
Davis, and writes as follows to his paper
concerning the present state of the illustri-
Gus prisoners health, and the fate which
awaits him:
Mr.. Davis health is fceble-precarious in
the extreme. Long confinement, and the
treatment he received during the first year
of his horrible incarceration have told ter
ribly upon his tender frame. He was never
a man of muscle The intellectual ever
predominated over the material. He is one
of those gifted, intellectual men, born once
in century, whose brain is thought, and
whose month is eloquence. In his prison
/ dungeon, he can almost be spoken OF as a
| hero of the past, and his acts, principles,
and ambition have an historic and heroic
interest. As state prisoner of the great
empire of the United States, he is surroun-
ded with more personal interest than any
other man can possibly be- The iron mask
of the Bastile was but a curiosity. The State
prisoner of the United States is Il wonder
and an object of glory
1t would be difficult for an old friend Of
Mr.. Davis to recognize him, were he not
presented to him as the great State pris-
Oner. Emaciated to the extreme almost
a walking skeleton little left but great
and stately form a gray beard covering
| &1.,I, ck- 81
which in other days has given life and
thought to nation an eye undimmed and
full of the fire of intellect be yet might
! pass upon our streets unknown to former
| friends. His physical condition is such
| that in walking he is obliged to use cane
and the arm of friend or attendant. The
writer does not know what skeleton weighs.
Add ten pounds to any medical man s report
on the subject, and Mr.. Davis weight can
be ascertained. His lower limbs are as q
mans wrists, and the prisoners steps totter
us he walks. But yet he is reliant on his
own integrity and on the God whose favor
and mercy, with beautiful simplicity, he
asks at more hours than the imprisoned
Daniel did
Mr.. Davis confined AS he is, will not live
long. Emaciated in the extreme, without
appetite and without hope, he is gradually
going down to the long home where mil
lion of manly and womanly tears will follow
him. The first chill, the first attack of any
sharp disease, will carry him away to the
great Judge who ruleth over all Temper
ed may be the wind that blows over Fort
ress Monroe May her breaths be sweet,
and her winds soft /!
Mr.. Davis is yet denied the use of pen,
ink or paper. He violates the parole that
allows him a walk inside the Fortress, if he
even gives his autograph. During the day.
he has little, except as a prisoner, to com.
plain of. During the night, he has grated
doors, guards and officers to watch every
time he turns over in bed, or changes the
position Of his pillow.
In all probability Mr.. Davis will never
see our people again. He is an individual
victim, whose life by confinement will be
sacrificed to solve great political embar-
rassment. Like the man who drew the ell
ephant in the lottery, the Government
knows not what to do with him; should not
death, less remOrseless than earthly power,
| cOnsign him to a tomb which will be hal
| lowed for ages as that of a martyre, sacri-
feed for people No matter what Mr..
Davis political views might have been, and
certainly the writer of this article was, up
to 1861, as much opposed to them as any
Southern man living. that illustrious State
prisoner now lives, and will die if longer
Gus representative of a people that loved
| him in manhood, trusted him when in pow
er, and now turn their eyes upon him as
one suffering unjustly for their doings
| 1t Is useless to speculate as to the future
Of Mr. Davis. Unless the great hand Of
mercy soon intervenes, the silent and colo
hand of death will shortly relieve Mr.. Sew
ard and Mr. Stanton from further trouble
in the matter. Speaking of his hopeless
= Il e L L
| most the last words of that illustrious State
prisoner were: "Would that could be the
conductor by which the lightning of ven
geance could be warded off Gus dear people.
could then live OF die here contentedIy."
Prophecy Becoming History,
John G. Calhoun, as far back as 1887,
proclaimed a great truth when he said
8 Emancipation itself would not satisfy these ia
natlcs that gained, the next step would be TO
raise the negroes to social and political equality
with the whites and that being effected we shur III
lind the present condition ofthe two races reversed
They and their Northern masters would be the mas
tors, and we the slaves the condition of the white
race in the British West India Islands, as bad as
1t j. would be happiness to there the III yther
countryls Interested in sustaining the supremacy
OF the European race.
The speech of Mr.. Boutwell,, of Massa.
chusetts, In opposition to the adjournment
or Congress proves all this. Referring to
the then approaching assemblage of the so
called Louisiana Convention, he stated in
substance that that Convention orOuu dis
franchise the rebels and confer Me electro
franchise on tie negroes. Let wise men be
warned III season. The Radicals demand
universal negro suffrage, and superadded to
that the prescription of all the white race in
volved in the rebellion. This is not Reform
but innovation, as Burke said to the fanat-
les of his day. Lord Bacon, too, on the
subject of political innovations, said wisely
and In truth, for all time, that
1t were good that men in their innovations
would follow the example of time, which, indeed,
innovsteth greatly, but quietly, and by degrees
scarcely to be perceived. 1t il good not to try
perments in States except the necessity be ur-
gent or the utility evident, and well to be aware
that 1t be the reformation that draweth on the
change, and not the desire of change that preten-
deth the reformation And lastly, that he novelty
though 1T be not rejected, yet be held for snr-
pect."-N. Y. Express.
Ii the loyalists, so-called, of the South,
now stumping the North, were fair samples
of the South, our judgment would be that
Il L., Ill