Wilmington journal. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1844-1895, 1873-08-22
From the Richmond DiSpatch
SOUTHERN HISTORICAL CON.
VENTION.
Ex-Presidcnt Davis Addresses the
Convention.

| MONTGOMERY w. S. SPRESGs,
| August IS.
| Governor Letcher called the South
ern Historical Convention to order.
Admiral Semmes, chairman of the
Reception Committee, entered the hall
escorting Mr.. Jefferson Davis. Admi-
raj Semmes said "Mr. President, ]
have the honor to present to you and
| the gentlemen of the Convention Mr..
Jefferson Davis, our esteemed Presi-
dent of the late Confederate States
Mr.. Davis was received by the audi
ence standing and with prolonged APP
plause.
Governor Letcher said Gas the
organ of this Convention it is nv
pleasure as well as my duty, Mr.. Davis,
| to give you a hearty welcome-a vel
| come 20 the honors, the affections and
Inequalities of Virginia"
Mr.. Davis responded 81 am deeply
thankful for your. kind welcome. {
feel at home i'll Virginia. She gave
me her bosom to he torn by all the
horrors of war, and her sons and her
treasure for the cause, and / look upon
her mountains in their peaceful gran
deur, her verdant wales and her mate
rial wealth yet, above all, her men
excel her soil, and her women excel
her men. Fresh in my memory is the
devotion and self-sacrifce of her no
ble women. When the Shenandoah
Valley was Laid in waste the fair wo-
men, whose hands had never known
all hours toll, labored for the support
and the comfort of the army. I am
most happy to know the cause for
which We have convened. Much time
has passed away; many of the parti-
clpants have been called to their
fathers. 1t is hard for those whose
hearts were III the cause to think of
those days without feeling their
mothers softness coming to their
eyes. We have been cheated rather
than conquered, and we could have
foreseen the results of the surrender
we would have been free to -day. The
time has come for rs to vindicate the
truth for the sake of the unrecortleI
dead VIII fought for truth and died in
n patriotic cause. These craps of his
tory do us injustice. We must collect
the material for the future historian.
1t may have been well to wait until
passion and feeling should subsidc,
but we shonld delay no longer. Do
we not see decadence il. all that make
Il people great and happy? Therefore
the higher duty on us. / have received
4 letter from gentleman in Massi-
chusetts III which he wrote: Our pee
pie owe you n debt of gratitude for
maintaining those principles of consti-
tutlOnal liberty Oh which the safety of
the country depends and which would
have been lost sight of but for your
struggle.
''Ltdle>s, have often said, in you,
was my greatest hope for the future of
our country. [ have never seen Il
Southern woman who had been recon-
structed. The men Of this day may
yield the principles for which they
contended, but the children who sue
ceed them will cherish and perpetu-
ate 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
Earl y at yOur head, whose brave heart
never failed or faltered, 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
Mr.. Davis took his seat amid great
applause. He spoke with all his ac-
customed grace and elegance, and
while he showed deep feeling he ut
tered no sentiment of hostility to the
Government, but only evinced deep
and earnrst devotion to constitutional
principles.
At the conclusion Of Mr.. Davis's
speech the Convention adjourned sine
die.
A meeting of the Southern Histori-
cal Society was then held After the
transaction of some business they adj
journed to meet in Richmond at the
call of the President.