The weekly union record., 1866-02-17
Henry Winter Davis.

LAWS VIII lCtAcoSAiSu -h@l lallU III
Congress for several years and up to
the period of his death, few months
ago. Mr.. Davis was an anti-slaverv
man, and the representative of that
element in his State. The following
passages about him are interesting:
The great characteristics of Davis
oratory were its lucidity, its condensed
logic, It's elegant epigrammatic style,
and its apparently perfect spontaneity.
Every sentence rang clear, ike coin on
the counter; every proposition was
Illuminated till it shone as by starlight.
1t is sometimes given to men so to
express themselves after careful revis-
ions in the closet; it was the crowning
glory of Davis as a speaker that his
ideas never reached his lips in any other
shape. Many man, by placing himself
on platform in position to suit him
self, with all the accessories to his
liking, and ample time for preparation,
can make stirring speech; to Davis,
all preparations were alike. You never
caught him unprepared. Like finely
cut diamond, you could not turn him in
a position or place him in light in
which he would not sparkle. Yet he
was the closest of students. His private
library overfowed his study and parlors,
and filed all the house. He was at
once a fine classical scholar and thor
oughly conversant with the whole range
of the best modern literature. He has
been spoken of as unsocial. Nothing
could be more false. Sensitively refined,
it was natural that he should avoid
many Of the coarser figures that move
through politics, but in his own house
no man was more genial or more hos
pitable. He never drank wine, yet his
guests would rarely discover it, as he
pressed on them the ripest products of
the rarest vintages. He never smoked
a cigar, but the most delicately chosen
and fragrant Havanas were always
found upon his dinner table after the
cloth was removed. And brilliant as
he was in debate, they never knew the
full extent and variety of his resources
who had not listened for hours to his
fascinating conversation in private cir
cles and on miscellaneous topics. His
book, "The Wars Of Ahriman and
Ormuzd' (the oriental names for the
divinities of good and evi), has been
spoken of, since his death, as something
he had sought in his mature years to
conceal. Some have even called it
Suppressed book" but this is an error.
Shortly after its publication in Balti-
more, in 1918, fire broke out in the
printing office where it was stored, and
most of the edition was destroyed. The
remaining volumes Davis preserved to
give to his friends. The book, which is
eloquently Y written, and, if brought out
by noted publisher, would have made
a great sensation, is an argument as to
what should be the foreign policy of the
United States. There are two typical
nations, he says: the one honestly
representing pure despotism, and tend
ing steadily always in that direction;
the other in the same way always
representing pure, untrammeled liberty.
Between these two, he argues, must
ultimately come a conflict likely to
absorb at once Europe and America.
The one is Russia-the other the United
States. And on this basis he proceeds
to discuss the later phases of European
politics. l think it highly probable
that after emancipation in Russia, and
especially when himself elevated to the
responsible post of Chairman of the
Committee on Foreign Relations, he
modified many of his ideas on this
subject.