The Louisiana Democrat. [volume] (Alexandria, La.) 1845-1918, 1866-10-17
d JEFFERSON DAVIS. /.

s3iaJEf / EKSUN DAVIS.
MORT ,-ABeUTSTHELATE INTERVIEW At
FORTRESS MONROE C CONDITION OF THE
PRISONER.
- CO g;s ~ Lite ~ g.sggE
From the Petersburg Inaex.1
The following isthe continuation of Rev,
Mr. Kelley's narrative ofhis Interview with
ex-Presdent Davis:
Mr.. Davis was dressed in a plain, neat,
somewhat worm suit of black, which hung
rather loosely upon his person. His dress
frock coat, especially seemed. too large for
him, As he leaned upon my arm, I could
measure by my own muscular sense, with
toleiTlble accuracy, the great decline in his
/ phgsafue AH his senses seemed to me I'll
be preternaturally acute, especially his
hearing. He has lost the use of one eye;
| the other was quite ACUTE as was evinced
/ by this incident: Twas sitting nearest tie
door dnringa very interesting conversation,
| in which he was more than usually anima-
ted end Interesting. IA shadow seemed to
me to be just passing by the 'door;lp
| on, his quick perception iascertained that
1 it was approaching as u probable caves
| dropper and he mOtioned us into the case
mate. His whole being, body, soul and
spirit, seemed to Inc to be like, an ideal
sensitive plant. Not only outward things
effect him deeply, but the yeryo aroma of
thought, as yet unspoken, perhaps scarcely.
well formed, is felt by. him iH ssenie -ap-
| parently mysterious manner. l read i'll
Jung Shilling" many, many years ago,
something about this, and ! remember
something Of Neander's eNplanation--but
1 it is only the dream of a dream, the shadow
of IL vanished glory. will return to this
again. His linen was white as the driven
. snow-his neckcloth neatly adjusted--his
hands faultlessly neat, and his upper beard
closely shaved-but with all this neatness,
l there was All air of subducd dignity, of
sanity, serene humility, that affected you
! too deep for tears. There wasstiil aleayen
of the old imperialness in his voice, q
. nMancc of IL tone that indicated occasional
high temper. and, perhaps, angry words.
i To suggestion, that perhaps the ill-will
manifested toward him by some public
men, might be caused by an unforgiying
spirit on their part, in view of some offence
given by him: TlIatis quite probable. !
have often been too angry. Though gener-
ally thoughtful and cautious--eyen tender
to tile feelings of others-yet when they
crossed my patti IN the shape of pretence,
4 falsehook craft or cant-then these faults
aroused bitter anger for the moment, some
4 time utter alienation This was allwrong.
Oh how public life blunts our perceptions
to the higher Observation-Disclosures, for.
bearance-putting the best construction on
things, words and persons, they are capable
4 of have erred in this particular-but ]
had often great prOvocations; never, how
ever, have UTTERED All angry, undertaking
or denunciatory sentiment, without be-
| ieying that I had good cause for so doing;
and, in most cases, the country has already,
or will hereafter find that / was right. l
now feel and acknowledge that was
sometimes wrong as to the tone or coloring
of a phrase while under the excitement of
debate, as for instance, when Mrs johnson,
| after the Mexican war, made some remarks
derogatory Of the West Point, officers
/ thought it strange that any man Of sense
should think that the training Of, officers
for duty, by a thorough military education
wes,ld ratherdisqualify them for that duty,
or what was the same thing, that unframed
| officers did better than the Wcst-P Pointers.
In the course of reply made use of this re-
marks 'sWho would select a tailor to
shoe q horse, or q blacksmith to make a
coat" This gave personal offence to Mr..
Johnson, who regarded il as a sheer. per-
sonality.s Nothing the world was further
from my thoughts.
To the query, whether he had anything
to complain of Fin his present treatment, he
replied thathe had not The present COM
mandant of the fort was "a soldier and q
gentleman, who, while diligent and faith
full in the discharge of his duty to his Gov
eminent, was also forbearing and consider
ate as to all the minuti;p of his prison life,
and allowed him all the Indulgence he re-
quired, which was simply not to be insulted
in the intolerable ways and manners he
had been by the creature who used every
means to torment him before the arrival
of Gen. Burton. One of us told him that
all the officers Of rank in the old army with
whom We had in any way come in contact,
had expressed the opinion that he ought to
have been released ayear ago; that some
of them thought that he, as Conmander-in-
Chief of the Confedcracy, was virtually in
cluded in the parole Of these armies on
their surrender. and ought to have been
admitted to parole at once, but for the
malicious assassination charge, which no
one that knew him believed Mr.. Davis
said: "That gratifes me very much |
was brought into frequent contact, both
lin the Mexican war and 2as Secretary Of
jNar under President PIERCE, with many
lIofficess; and did then and donow entertain
Ia high sense of the chiyalrous honor OF
limany of them. The Government may have
been deceived by the testimony, which has
since turned out to be sheer perjury, tend
ling to implicate MIC in the assassination Of
President Lincoln; or it may have been
subject to one of those manias, which oc.
casionally, like plaques, seize governments
and communities; OF what us most likely,
a few unprinciplcd men, seeing an oppor-
tunity in the excited condition of the
4 nation for obtaining wealth and position
through the instrumentality of villains
suborncd for the purpose, really did impose
upon the government, and led them to be-
lieve for moment, in the .whirl of excite
4 ment, the statements put forth in the
proclamation for my capture. But, gentle
men, my heart is u stranger to that plot.
These hands are spnstained in, innocent
blood. No unrighteois gold has ever, dur
/ ing the Confederacy, adhered to these
4 palms." He uttered the last sentence in Q
most solemn manner, holding up his hands
and raising his face to heaven, and with
such holy, child7likey simplicity, that tits
impossible for any words. however weird,
to convey a half idea-not an adequate one
--of that touching scene. Issa s}til
The coming'of the little child into the
inner casenate, and climbing into his
4 fathers arms, who had jnst leaned upon
the sofa, gave OCCASION to Mrs. Davis to
make some remarks about her other child
rem, particularly those in Canada. Bishop
Green then remarked that he would not
have ventufed to- introduce the subject,
4 but as Mrs. Davis had done so herself, he
felt bound to say, as bishop Of her own
chosen church, he Jlidnot think she acted
entirely wisely in sending her children to
a convent to be taught. Mrs. Davis Ne.
piled III wasin Geofgia hadno money
No institution Of my own church offered to
teach my poor ehildren. One day three