Memphis daily appeal. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1847-1886, 1873-08-23
MR. JEFF. DAVIS.
Reception OF the Ex-President Of the
Confederaey by the Southern
Historical Society.
Full Text of his Speech" We have
been Cheated Rather than Con-
quered'-SOuthern Women.

Special telegram TO the Richmond Cva3 Dis
patch.l
MONTGOMERY WHITE. SULPHUR
SPRINGS, Va, August Ex-Governor
Letcher called the southern historical
convention to order. Proceedings of
last meeting were read and approved.
Governor Letcher said that as chair
man of the committee appointed to
wait on General Hardee he had dis
charged that duty delivering to Mrs.
Hardee a copy of the resolution, the
general not being able to receive him in
person.
At this point Admiral Semmes, presi-
dent of the committee of reception, en-
tered the hall escorting Mr.. Jefferson
Davis. Admiral Semmes said: "Mr.
President, have the honor to present
to you and the gentlemen of the con-
vention MIR. Jefferson Davis, our es-
teemed President of the late Confederate
States" Mr.. Davis was received by the
audience standing and with prolonged
applause. -.-
Governor Letcher said: GAS the or
gan of this convention it is my pleas
ure as well as my duty, Mr.. Davis, to
give you a hearty Welcomes welcome
to the honors, the affections and hospi-
talities of Virginia"
Mr.. Davis responded: al am deeply
thankful for your kind welcome. feel
at home in Virginia. She gave her
bosom to be torn by all the horrors of
war, and her sons and her treasure for
the cause, and look upon her noun
tains in their peaceful grandeur, her
verdant wales and her material wealth ::
vet, above all, her men excel her soil,
and her women excel her men. Fresh
in my memory is the devotion and self
sacrifice of her noble women. When
the Shenandoah valley was laid in
waste the fair women whose hands had
never known an hours toll labored for
the support and the 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. 1t 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, snd
could we have foreseen the results of the
surrender, we would have been free to-
day. The time has come for US to vim
dicate the truth for the sake of the un-
recorded dead who fought for truth and
died in patriotic cause. These scraps
of history do us injustice. We must
collect the material for the future histo-
rian. 1t may have been well to wait
until passion and feeling should suhside,
but we should delay no longer. Do We
not see decadence in all that makes a
people great and happy? Therefore the
hfnhar Hrrtu hAUn rnanIUnn a
letter from a gentleman in Massa-
chusetts, in which he wrote: 'OuI
people owe you a debt of graft
tude for maintaining those principles
of constitutional liberty ON which the
safety of the country depends and which
would have been lost sight of but fol
said in you WAS my greatest hope fol
seen a southern woman who had been
reconstructed. The men of this day
may yield the principles for which they
contended, but the children who sue
ceed them will cherish and perpetuate
them. Gentlemen 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 filtered, and who had
the manliness, whether in foreign land
or on his native shore, to assert the
glorious principles for which he so nObly
Struggled
MI. Davis took his seat amid great
applause. He spoke with ali his aceus-
toned grace and elegance, and while he
showed deep feeling he uttered no senti-
ment of hostility to the government, but
only evinced deep and earnest devO-
ton to constitutional principles. At the
conclusion of Mr.. Davis's speech the
convention adjourned sine die.