The Daily state journal. [volume] (Alexandria, Va.) 1868-1874, 1873-08-19
ELECTIoN-DAY.
TUESDAY NOVEMBER A, 1878.


IT seems to have been ordained by an
overriding Providence that people should
not see themselves as others sec them,
Perhaps were the rule reversed the dspo-
sltion, very marked in some persons, "to
cut fantastic tricks before high heaven"
and mankind generally, would be materi-
all abbreviated. Here is a case in point
Mr.. Jefferson Davis is a gentleman who,
by long and persistent course of wrong
doing, both by example and precept, has
made himself exceedingly obnoxious to
majority of his fellow countrymen. 1t was
his misfortune to have done so, but,
nevertheless, the fact remains. I'm
der such circumstances the average
man, whether American or otherwise,
would have soothed his wounded vanity
by reflections about the ''post Of honor"
being the aprivate station" and have
crept into the first available knot-holc, and
there remained " chewing the cud Of sweet
and bitter fancieso the remainder of his
natural life. Mr.. Jefferson Davis, how
ever, is more than an average American,
and hence we find that he is not content
to remain in that obscurity which the
country at large had long ago RENTED
him, in the charitable hope that he had
vanished from sight forever.
There is now in progress at the Mont
gomery White Sulphur Springs South
ern historical convention, gotten up jointly
for the benefit of The proprietors of that
pleasant watering place and those heroes
spared by the war, many of whom, to
judge by their present activity, were of
that class who acted on the motto:
CHOSE who fight and run away,
May live to fight another day."
Against the declared objects of this
convention, the perpetuating of memorials
of the proves of those who propose
kindly to engage in the gathering up Of
such fragrant reminders Of an unpleasant
past, we have nothing specially to say.
Most men are not averse to praise, and self.
praise is better than none at ALL However
when an occasion of the sort is availed o.
to utter covert sneers and inuendoes agans,
a people and government by whose
cemency alone such parties now g live,
move and have their being" the affair as
sumes another aspect altogether, and one
by no means so pleasing.
We repeat that it is pity that people
cannot see themselves as others see them.
Yesterday at the Southern historical con-
vention, ex-President Davis entered the
hall escorted by Admiral Semmes.n TO
the mellifluous welcome of Ex-Governor
Letcher on that occasion, ex-President
Davis is reported IN city paper to have
replied:
II ana deeply thankful for your kind
welcome. feel at home in Virginia. She
gave her bosom to be torn by all the hor-
rors of war, and her sons and her treas
IRE for the cause, and look upon her
mountains in their peaceful grandeur, her
verdant wales and her material wealth
yet, above all, her men excel her soil, and
her women excel her men. Fresh in my
memory Is the devotion and selcsacrifce
of her noble women. When the Shenan.
doah Valley was laid in waste the fair wo
men whose hands had never known an
hours toll labored for the support
and comfort of the army. am
most happy to know the cause
for which we have convened.
Much time has passed away many
of the participants have been called to their
fathers. Il is hard for those whose hearts
were in the cause to think of those days
without feeling their mothers softness
coming to their eyes. We have been
cheated rather than conquered, and could
we have toreseen the results Of the sllrren-
der we would have been free to-day. The
time has come for us to indicate the truth
for the sake Of the unrecorded dead who
fought for truth and diedin patriotic cause.
These scraps OF history do us injustice. We
must collect The material for the future
historian. 1t may have been well to
wait until passion and feeling should sub
side, but We should delay no longer. Do
we not see decadenee in all that makes a
people great and happy? Therefore the
higher duty on us. | have received letter
from gentleman in Massachusetts, in which
he wrote: Our people owe you debt Of
gratitude for maintaining those principles OF
constitutional liberty on which the safety Of
the country depends and which would have
been lost sight of but for your struggle
Ladies, have often said in you was
my greatest hope for the future of our
country. | have never seen q southern
woman who had been reconstructed. The
men of this day may yield the principles
for which they commended, but the children
who succeed them win cherish and per-
petuate them.
"Gentleman of the society, may your
steps ever be onward and upward. | urge
you to all diligence and fidelity. You
must succeed with the grand old Early at
your head, whose brave heart never failed
or ialtered, and who had the manliness,
whether in foreign land or on his native
soil, to assert the glorious principles for
which he so nobly Struggled
AT the conclusion of Mr.. Dayis's speech
the convention adjourned aine die.
1t is well perhaps that it did.