Wilmington journal. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1844-1895, 1866-06-28

day ready to report to his officer the first sign of
tany attempt on the prisoners part to shuttle off
thus mortal coil by any act of selfviolence It
OF, this face, with its unblinking eyes, that Mr..
Davis so bitterly planned in after days but
this is anticipating. The prisoner, said of
Lafayette, is perhaps not sick enough yet" and
has to suffer some further weeks of exposure in
This present casemate.
/ The rooms being selected, General Miles gave
orders to the Engineer Department for their
/ speedy conversion from quarters to prison, the
piazza being prolongated and raised by fight of
stairs so that access to the ramparts could be had
by Mr.. Davis without decent to the ground tier,
which invariably caused q crowd to collect, with
its usual unpleasant attendants of staring and
4 whispering commentaries,
/ Called this dGv (Oct. 81 with Captain Korte
Third Pennsylvania artillery, officer of the day.
tand found Mr. Davis already looking much bright
er, exclaiming / entered, "The world does
move. after all. " The panel in the side-door
opening the corridor, in which a sentry's face
was framed, gave him some annoyance, and he re-
ferred again to Lafayette In. connection with the
torture of human eye constantly riveted on his
movements. II his wish were to commit suicide,
such precaution would prove wholly unavailing.
It looked rather as if the wish were to drive him
to its commission. He then referred to some en-
inent French General, who, while prisoner in
England, procured and studied anatomical da-
grams for the purpose of learning how life could
be most certainly and painlessly lost or with least
disfgurement. He discovered that precise part
of the breast in which the heart, unprotected by
pin through this spot in the diagram, he next ap-
piled the diagram to his breast, and marked, by q
puncture, the exact place in which even the slight
wound OF pin-prOd would be fatal Some time
after, being transferred to France and re-incar-
cerated for conspiracy against the life of the
Emperor, he found dead in his cell-the pin
sticking in his heart, and the diagram, which he
had never parted with, lying at his feet. This
was instance of how absurd it was to attempt
preventing suicide by watchfulness. Even before
being allowed knife or fork there was no moment
| in which Mr.. Davis could not have thrown down
his burden of life, if wicked enough to have wished
so rushing into the presence of his Creator.
October 13.-Called with Captain Theodore Price,
Third Pennsylvania artillery, serving on the staff
of Major General Miles, officer of the day. Mr..
Davis in good health, but complained of being
treated as though he a wild beast exhibi-
ton, not prisoner of State awaiting trial La
dies. and other friends of persons in authority at
the fort, were let loose the ramparts about the
hour of his walk to stare at him as though he
were the Gagged monster of some travelling menag-
erie He had endeavored to rebuke this during
his last walk, when he saw group of ladies wait
ing for his appearance, by turning short round and
re-entering his cell. Dear and valuable as was the
liberty of an hours exercise in the open air, there
were prices at which he could not consent to pur-
chase it, and this was of the number His gene
raj treatment Mr.. Davis acknowledged to be good,
though there were in it many annoyances of de-
tail-such as the sentry's eye always fastened on
his movements, and the supervision Of his
pondence with his wife-unworthy of any country
aspiring to magnanimity or greatness
= The change to Carroll Hall had been of the
greatest benefit to the prisoners health, the air
being purer as it was loftier, his more
cheerful, and only subject to the drawback that he
had human eyes from three directions continually
faced mpom him through the grated door entering his
ROOM, the 1eindOoo opening Tie piazza at his lt,
and the door opposite the acndoao, aoiM an open panel
IN it, opposite octich stood a sentry.
Mr.. Davis said it was scandalous that govern
ment should allow General Miles to review his let
ters to his wife. They had to pass through the
hands of Attorney General Speed, who should be
quite competent Judge of offensive matter, or
what was deemed offensive. General Miles had
returned to him several pages of a letter written
to Mrs. Davis containing only description of his
new prison. in answer to her enquiries, the Gen
eral declaring such description to be Objectionable,
perhaps, suspecting that if told where he con-
fned Mrs Davis would storm the fort and rescue
him oi et d,noiS This was both absurd and cruel
one of those acts of petty tyranny Which
without excuse because without any sufficient OBJ
ject. In regard to attempts ut escape General
Miles might give himself no uneasiness. Mr. Davis
desired trial both for himself and cause, and if
all the doors and gates of the fort thrown open
he would not leave. If anywhere in the South the
Confederate cause yet lived, the thing would be
different but that cause was now wrapped in
the shroud of a military defeat. the only duty left
to him-his only remaing object--was to vlndlcate
the action of his people, and his own action as
their representative by fair and public trial.
Finally, in December, 1865 the jaer in charge
of Mr.. Davis ordered by his employer, Secre-
tary Stanton, to interfere with the meals of the
prisoner, and to prevent his physician from con
versing with him +; and upon DR. Craven's ventu-
ring to send to tailor for heavy overcoat to
protect the invalid from the increased cold wealth
Ell, this humane Surgeon was relieved from duty
at the fort" .....
Great interest is given and some relief to this
wretched narrative OF petty tyranny and degrading
maignity wreaked upon a captive, by Dr. Cra-
ven's spirited reports of conversations with MIR
Davis, all sorts of bjeets political, scientific,
religious, and even artistic.
CONVERSATION WITH MIR. DAVIS
Speaking of how greatly the powers of the sight
may be increased by. practice, Mr.. Davis upheld
the theory that the brain, too, was also enlarged
In its capacities both physically and intellectually
by continual labor He pointed to the large brains
of nearly all who have been eminent in pursuits
involving mental labor, contepding that as the la
bor of the tailor deyeQpes the muscles of the right
thumb and fore-fnger, those of the deliver the
muscles ofthe Leg and so forth, so the increased ex
ercise of the brain increased its size There was
a fault in his parallel, he knew, rather what
appeared to be fault-that we establish no
analogy between the mental and physical phases
Of existence. Still it was certain that labor en-
larged all organs involved in it, far had
means of ,tiudeing, and that while did not
know how the brain acted in its reception or ennis
sion of ideas-whether purely passively, or with
some physical action, however shght-we did not
know fog serain that the brains of all great intel
lectual workers were much larger, on the average,
than were those of men pursuing different call
ings. ..-.
Remarked that with these IDEAS he must to a
great extent be believer in phrenology, to which
he assented, while at the same time protesting
against the eharlatanisms which had oyerlapped,
for selfish purposes of gain, what OF truth there
was in the science. Before the matter could be
properly tested, the anatomy Of the brain should
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