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


gabble of the guards in the outside cell He said
his casemate was well formed for a torture room
of the inquisition. It's arched roof made it per-
feet whispering gallery, in which all sounds were
jumbled and repeated. The torment of his head
dreadful, he feared he must lose his mind.
Already his memory, vision, and hearing, were i'm
paired He had but the remains of one eye left,
and the glaring whitewashed walls were rapidly
destroying this. He pointed to a crevice in the
wall where his bed had been, explaining that he
had changed to the other side to avoidits mephit-
ic vapors
OF the trial he had been led to expect, had heard
nothing This looked if the indictments were to
! be suppressed, and the action of military COM
mission substituted If so, they might do with
him as they pleased, for he would not plead, but
leave his cause to the justice of the future As to
| taking his life, that would be the greatest boon
they could confer on him, though for the sake of
his family he might regret the manner of its tax
ing
.J1me 1O-Mr Davis out of sorts, very ill-tem-
| pered. Complained that his clean linen, to be
sent over twice a week by General Miles, had not
been received General Miles had taken charge OF
his clOthing, and seemed to think a change Of them
tocice aceek enough. It might be in Massachu-
| setts. But this wretched allowance was
denied. The General might know nothing of the
matter; but if SO, some member of his staff was
negligent. 1t was pitiful they could not send his
trunks to his cell, but must insist thus doing
| out his clothes, as though he were convict in
| some penitentiary. If the object were to degrade
him, it must fail. None could be degraded by :
merited insult heaped on helplessness but the per-
petrators. The Gay would come that our people
would be ashamed of his treatment For himself
the suferings he ecas undergoing qcould do him
good with his people (the South.) Even those who
had opposed him would be kept SILENT if not won
over by public sympathy Whatever other opin-
ions light be held, it clear he selected as
chief victim, bearing the burden of Northern ha-
tired, which should be more equally distributed.
Sunday, July 11.-Was sent for by Mr.. Davis
and called in company with Captain R. O. Buckley.
officer of the day.
Found prisoner very desponding, the failure of
his sight troubling him. and his nights almost with
out sleep. HIS present treatment cas killing linn By
icheS and he acished shorter acork could be made Of
his torment He had hoped long since for trial,
which should be public, and therefore with some
sembance of fairness but hope deferred was
making his heart sick.
The odious, malignant and absurd insinuation
that he was connected in some manner with the
great crime and folly of Mr.. Lincoln's assassina-
ton, his chief personal motive for earnest
ly desiring early opportunity of ylndication.
But apart from this, as he was evidently made the
representative in whose person the action of the
seeding States to be argued and decided, he
yet more strongly desired for this reason to be
heard in beharl of the defeated. but to him still
sacred cause The defeat he accepted man
has to accept all necessities of accomplished fact
but to vndcate the theory and justice of his cause,
showing the authority of the Constitution and the
Fathers of the Country that his people had only
asserted right-had committed crime this
pose on him as a public duty. Mr.. Davis then
spoke of ex-President Franklin Pierce in terms of
warm admiration, the public man who had stu
died constitutional law, and the relation of the
States to highest profit remarking, that if he
given any choice of counsel, Mr. Pierce would be
one of those whose advice he would think most
reliable. He also spoke of Mr.. Charles Eames of
Washington, as walking encyclopedias of consti-
tutional law, very accurate and ready his refer
ence to precedents adding that he had seen
port that Messrs Reverdy Johnson of Maryland,
and Charles O'Conner of New York, had professed
their readiness to assume his defence, when ap-
preached by some of his friends for that purpose,
for which he felt grateful both personally and for
his people. His own fate of no Importance
in the matter, to the government, on which
history would devolve the responsibility for his
treatment Martyrdom, while representing the
deliberate action of his people, would be immor-
talty; but for the sake of justice, not merely to
his own people, but to the whole American peo-
pie, whose future liberties at stake in his
person. fair and public trial was now the neces-
sity of the situation.
my people, he added, g attempted what your
people denounced as revolution. My people
failed but your people have suffered revolution
which must prove disastrous to their liberties
less promptly remedied by legal decision in their
efforts to resist the revolution which they charged
my people with contemplating. State sovereign
ty, the corner stone of the Constitution, has be-
come Il name. There is no longer power will,
in any State. number of States, that would dare
refuse compliance with any tinkle of Mr.. Stewards
bell.
Mr.. Davis complained this sleepIessness aggra-
rored by the lamp kept burning IN has room all night,
so lnt lie could be at all moments by the guard
IN tie outer ceM fhe happened TO dose one fe0e'-lsh
noe' the noise Of reIiecimg guard an the nert room
aroused him, ana the lamp poured its full glare into
his aching anil hToL5mg eyes. There must be
change IN this, or lie rouM go crazy, on blind, or
bath.
Doctor" he sad chad you ever the con-
ciousness of being watched :? OF having an eye
fixed on you every moment, intently scrutinizing
your most minute actions, and the variations OF
your countenance and posture? ? The conscious
ness that the Omniscient Eye rests upon us in
every situation, is the most consoGng and beauti-
full belief of religion. Bm to haze human eye
ricetedOn yOu in eUery moment Of aOding, or Sleep
ing, sitting, acdlhing or lying doacn, is refinement
Of torture anything the Camdnches or Spanish In
qtisition erer dreamed They, in their ignorance
of cruel art only struck at the body; and the
nerves have very limited capacity of pain. This
is maddening, incessant torture of the mind, In
creasing with every moment it is endured, and
shaking the reason by its incessant recurrence of
miserable pain. Letting single drop of water
fall the head every sixty seconds does not hurt
at first, but its victim dies of ravlng agony 1t Is
alleged, if the inf1iction be continued The tor
Of being icesszy oootched as to The mind, lohdt
Me uater-dropping is TO the body, bm more eficice
tie mind is susceptible Of pain. The Eye of
Omniscience looks upon us with tenderness and
compassion even if conscious of guilt, we have
the comfort of knowing that Eye sees also our re-
pentance. But the human eye forever fixed upon
you is the eye of spy, or enemy, gloatlng In the
pain anu humiliation which itself creates. [ have
lived two long in the woods to be frightened by
an owl, and have death two often to dread
any form of pain. But I confess, Doctor, this
torture of being watched begins to pray on my
reason. The lamp burning in my room all night
would seem torment devised by some one who
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