The weekly clarion. [volume] (Jackson, Miss.) 1863-1882, 1873-09-04
Ex-HSresIJemIH Da v as speech Age fore
Ihe Southern HiStrfOnicaI
Society.
a FRIIE REPORT.
From the Richmond Emo

From the Richmond Enquirer.
Mr.. Davis said he felt this kind well
come lie always felt at home in Vir-
ginia, and what Confederate did not? She
gave her bosom to be racked by all the
horrors of war and freely shed her best
blood. She was now lifting her head
from its eifets, and he was glad to see her
green fields and pastures, her fertile val
leys and picturesque mountains, which
here, like no where else, were clothed
from base to summit. All were beauti-
full; yet there was here something above
them all Her men eXcelled her soil,
and her noble women excelled even the
the men, We'll did he remember when
the tide of war had swept away the men
into the army and scattered the negroes,
how,-when the barns and houses, mills
and all save the fences which were only
spared the destroying flame because they
were of stOne-how the women of the
Shenandoah Valley, whose hands had
never known an hours toll in the field,
had made crops, and whenever the Con
tederate army came along had ready
made Confederate flags, and were always
happy to aid the cause and feed Confed-
crate soldiers. Too long had we delayed
the vindlcation of our cause. Many of
the actors had been called home to their
fathers; yet perhaps the delay had not
been unfortunate, for those who felt most
deeply found it hard to uncover their
whole heart. The prospects were brighter
now, and truth crushed to earth would
rise again. We had been more cheated
than conqured by the declarations of the
Federal President, Congress and Gener-
ais Would there have been surrender
if we had expected what has followed
We were told the war was merely carried
ON to maintain the Union. Had we
forseep the result we would to-day have
been free. He referred to the objects of
the Association, and said there were now
scattered scraps of history that should be
collected to perpetuate the deeds of our
fallen soldiers and vindicate the action of
our country that great care should be
taken with the collection Of every scrap.
as mankind was deeply interested in the
constitutional causes that led to the war
He referred to the commercial rights
of the South and how they had suffered
and the decadence of both commerce.
and liberty. In referring to the moral
and religious causes, and the idea that
because we did not succeed we were neces-
sarily wrong, he said that in a cause like
ours the great Creator must have looked
down with an approving smile; that we
do not always see the workings for GOOD
in the ways of the Great Father that
our chastisement might be DESIGNED TO
lead to the triumph of the principles
for which we struggled. He had received
a letter from a gentleman in Massaebu-
sets, which said that mankind owed a
debt of gratitude to the Southern neonle
for their efforts in behalf of that const;.
tutional liberty which men were 60 ran.
idly forgetting that our story had only
been half told, but when men came 10
look upon it without passion, and the
whole truth had been told, would we
then be condemned before the worldp
No, mol These facts must be gotten To-
gether. 1t was due to the unrecordad
dead, who had fought for truth and died
in patriotic cause. While this orean;-
zation cannot write the history of this
war, yet it could collect the material from
which future historians might obtain the
facts.
Would not our enemies, or in the
DuIuSG VI nv va r, OUR NOF(l6Tn Dr6th-
rem, make up at least and take the hand
of oppression from offour Southern dauob-
tiers; or are we in the decadence Of all
that is honorable, to be brought to the
condition of which the Irish poet sang !:
''Unhonored thy sons, till they have learned
tn betray:
Undistinguished they live, If they shame not
their SireS
And the torch that will light them to tlioni-
tvs way,
Must be caught at the pile where there
country expires"
IF thus we must seek the road m nra-
ferment, who would not live life of oh
security in preference? He had a hone in
the future founded ON the fact that he
had never seen a reconstructed South-
ern woman, and while the men of the
present day might yield the principles for
which they struggled, yet he hoped the
children who succeed them would grow
up to maintain and perpetuate them and
redeem all that we had lost.
He thanked the audience for their
kindly expressions of good viii, and as
to the members of the Association. he
hoped that their steps might always be on
ward to prosperity, and following IN the
steps ofthatgrand old Early, Whenever ia
tered during the war and never failed since
our flag went down, they were sure to
accomplish their object.