The daily dispatch. [volume] (Richmond [Va.]) 1850-1884, 1866-07-20

l
To-, view of the inner life at ror,iess
Monroe, "a the Government has issueu ah
n,,,cra,ive order for the exclusion Vi MS
e, from the precincts Of the fortress.
Tho rrb,;c must hear about the prisoner
=, Fnrtrcss Monroe; they expect 1t, and
J.mand Il ut our hands, and not being able
nurscIvcs 10 sec Jefferson Davis, We are
driven TO the necessity of deriving our
Lnowlcdgc of him from those who have
the privilege. 4 gentleman of this city
of the highest standing and character has
recently had very extended interview
with Davis, having spent an entire day
with him in the fort, and what have to
say of the prisoner is derived from this
entirely trustworthy source.
| THE PRESENT CONDITION
of Davis is far from healthy. lie has that
peculiar sallowness that is the inevitable
result 81 long confinement, and his nervous
irritabllity under restraint has naturally
enough taken Off and keeps OIL what little
flesh nc ever had. lie has no appetite, and
il was noted the other day asa remarkable
event, that he ate the whole of crab at
one meal. The constitution of the man
seems gone, and DR.. Cooper said as much
when, being asked why he did not build
UP his patient promptly, he replied that
there was nothing to build on. Whether
this state of affairs is result OF his con-
tinement is at least predetermined. n man
of seriously impaired health tor years DC
fore he was taken to the fortress, anu
sufferer from nervous disease, it is the pre-
yalcnt opinion that the ruin that came upon
his ambition would have brought him 10
precisely the same physical condl'ioil "i'h-
out any confinement at all: hD was Nv.
W. worr Il away. like Lee and Johnston or
ri;,,.nnh;zc il away, like Stephens. What
ryer might have been, the plain, simple
trntb is that Jefferson Davis is suffering at
Fortress Monroe from the same nervous
/ disease to which be was for years con-
stantly subject at Richmond and at Wash
iugton.
That "glaring light" is in the adJoin-
| ing room On small table in its centre. The
/ bed is thus in the shadow, and the direct
| light does not reach Davis at all: and it Is
only after il has travcrscd the half of one
large room, the whole of another, and been
reflected back from the opposite plain
white wall of his room, that it has any
power to annoy the prisoner. His eyes
are very weak, and the light doubtless
does annoy him more than it would any
man living but General Miles, conceivilg
| il his duty to have the prisoner always in
| sight Of the scntinelS, it is difficult to
imagine any plan by which hc can make
the light less offensive than il is under the
present arrangement; but the more SEN
| sible course undoubtedly would be to dis
pcnse with scntincls altogether, and leave
Davis at night, as at day, to his parole.
Mr.. Davis does. not complain of being
disturbed by the noise OF the scntinels.
BY day, Mr.. Davis is at entire liberty
under parole within the limits OF the
fortress, and generally spends the most OF
his time in the apartment OF his wife, who
| has had one Of the classmates assigned her.
He is at liberty 10 receive any books or
papers that anybody chooses TO send HIM,
and in perusing these, and in conversations
; with his wife and with the numerous visl-
tors who are constantly calling upon him,
he prevents time from hanging heavily
upon his hands.
THE CRAVEN BOOK.
Although he has never said SO in 50 many
words, he has said enough TO show that he
has read the work with decided Impotence
and Indignation. He thinks it gross
breach OF confidence, in the first place, for
DR.. Craven to have written any book about
him ut all, aS all the information he pre-
tends To give was derived from the CONT
Dental and generally considered sacred
relation Of physician and patient. Having
written book under these circumstances,
! Mr.. Davis thinks nc was doubly bound TO
adhere strictly to truth. Generally, Mr..
Davis denies the accuracy Of every re-
ported conversation in the book, but as
throwing light upon his thoughts and feel
! iugS, specify few Of the points he made.
He grew most indignant perhaps over the
fact that Craven puts into his mouth on
several occasions the expression, " Me and
my people," which he says he never used
at any time or upon any occasion, the form
OF words used when he had occasion to
refer to himself and the Southern people
being, "Me and ON people" In comment
ing upon this point, Davis remarked that
whatever he might have been, he had never
been egotistical.
Mr.. Davis repudiates in toto the Craven
account of the manacling scene, including
the mock heroic speeches Craven repre-
sents to have been made on both sides.
His account is to the effect that when the
file Of soldiers entered his room, and the
sergeant had stated in few direct words
the business upon which they had come,
he Davis quietly and briefly said that he
must resent it to the extent Of his power
as an insult to "me and or people" With
the view only of entering this forciblc pro-
test, and with no intent of engaging in a
childish struggle with the soldiers, he struck
at the man nearest him, when the soldiers
brought their arms promptly to the posi-
ton of "charge bayoncts." Sergeant -,
however, instantly ordered, "Shouldcr,
arms" and had the prisoner seized and
placed upon the bed. When there, Davis
struggled for moment with the same in
tent, but only for moment, and then sub
nitted without remark 10 what he knew
he could not avoid. The sergeant (who
was the only "otficcr" present., Mr.. Davis
says, performed his duty just as a soldier
would do, made no excuse for il, and did
not plead orders. In short, all the details
of this scene i'm the Craven book, including
the exclamation by Mr.. Davis, "Oh, the
shame oh, the shame" are, upon the au-
thorty of the prisoner himself, merely fig
ments Of the Doctors Imagination.
Mr.. Davis is particularly indignant over
the fact that no is made to endorse Gene
rel Hunter as Christian and patriot
and he says, truly enough, that it would
have been grotcsquely inconsistent for him
to have done anything of the kind after
having, as President of the Confedcrecy,
nut Hunter under tho ban as a robbcr. All
that he ever said to Craven on tho subject
was. that Hunter was fanatic, and he