New-York tribune., 1867-05-13
TILE PRLSONER OF SITE.

! Sometimes biography is history. Either by
! his own force, OF by eminence OF office, one
man sometimes stands as the representative OF
/ "a nation OF an epoch and includes its story IN
his own. Such relation jefferson Davis
bears to the Rebellion; he was its apostle,
its defender, and its chosen leader; he
was the President of the COnfederacy so
| long as the COnfcderacy existed; long be-
fore its birth, when to Others it was
but dream he saw it as a reality in the
future, growing larger and more menacing,
and knew it as the instrument of his ambi-
| ton, and the destiny of his people. After its
death he cung to the deusion that it lived
Lee surrendered, Johnston surrendered. but he
did not. AS he had brought the battle on, he
fought it out to the end, and even after the
end maintained the mOckery OF resistance.
To this day he remains President Davis
to the people of the South. 1t is true that the
Rebellion was far greater than he, as the North
in subduing the Rebellion was greater than
any of our leaders; yet the changes which i'll
six years made jefferson Davis a Die
tator, fugitive, and prisoner, are those
by which the historian will measure the swift
est and mightiest revolution of modern times.
Six years ago, Jan. 81, 1861, Jefferson Davis
left the United States Senate, owing, as he
claimed, allegiance to Mississippi, his State
which had seeded; i'll less than month
thereafter he was elected President of the
Southern COnfederacy, and, May 30, arrived in
Richmond, selected as the capital of the new
Republic. There he ruled for four long
years, encouraging the people of the
South, denOuncing the Union armies
as cruel and mercenary invaders; there at
times he welded almost absolute power; there
he prOphecied the failure of our arms, explained
away their victories, and exaggerated their de-
feats; there he remained while Grant fought
his way through the Wilderness, while Sher-
man swept round from Atlanta to Savannah,
and even when the Union troops were encamped
around the walls, and threatened to cut OIL all
escape. 1t was not till April 2, 1865, that he fled
from Richmond to Danville, whence, three days
afterward when the capital had fallen, he
issued a proclamation of his determination
never to submit to the abandonment OF one
State of the Confederacy. Swift comment on
this boast came when, on April 0, Lee suITen-
dered his whole army. Davis fled to Colds
borough, n. c., where he remained to hear
i'm swift succession that Montgomery was
taken, that Mobile had surrendered, that
Lincoln was killed. He delayed his fight till it
was known that the truce Gen. Sherman had
formed with Johnston was disapproved by the
Government, when he retreated into Georgia,
followed by President JOhnson's celebrated
proclamation of May 2, in which reward of
100000 was offered for Jefferson Davis as one
of the assassins of Abraham Lincoln. lie was
captured May 10, and on May 10, 1865, was i'm
prisOned in Fortress Monroe.
Now, into Richmond, which six years ago he
entered in triumph, which two years ago he
left fugitive, Jefferson Davis returns as a
prisoner Then half a million of men could
scarcely break bis power; now company Of
soldiers may guard him. IN his former capital
| there is no uniform but the uniform OF his old
foes; no flag but the flag he sought to
trample. Then he was the judge and ruler of
I hundreds of thousands of men; now, solitary
| and powerless, he stands at the bar Of a civil
Court, accused of the highest crime known to
American law; and, by revolution of which
his widest dreams Of disaster could bave bad