The daily dispatch. [volume] (Richmond [Va.]) 1850-1884, 1873-08-19
TELEGRAPHIC NEWS.
Southern Historical Convention.
OF MR.. JEFF. DAVIS.
HIS 8 II Z &c HI /.
Especial telegram 10 The DIspatch.l

"
August 1s.--Governor Leteher called the
Southern Historical Convention to order.
Proceedings Of last meeting were read and
approved. .r ts~.. '.E -.-. >,
Governor Letcher said that as chairman of
the committee appointed to wait. ON General
Hardee he had discharged that duty by de-
lvering't to Mrs. Hardee copy of the resolu-
ton, the General not being able to receive
him in person. '". .-..'.. .... .s..
At this point Admiral Semmes. chairman
of the Committee of Reception, entered the
ball eScorting Mr.. Jefferson Davis. Admiral
Semmes said: Mr.. President, I have the
honor 10 present to you and the gentlemen
of the Convention Mr.. Jefferson Davis, our
esteemed president of the late Confederate
Sties."
Mr.. Davis was received by the audience
standing and with prolonged applause.
Governor Letcher said GAS the organ of
this Convention it is my pleasure as well as
my duty, Mr. Davis, to give you a hearty
wecome-a welcome to the honors, the
affections, and hospitalities Of Virginia.
Mr.. Davis responded: 81 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 mountains in their peaceful grail
deur, her yerdant 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 self.sacri-
fee of her noble women. When the Shenan-
doah Valley was laid in waste the fair women
whose hands had never known an hours toll
abored for the support and the comfort of
the army. am most happy to know
the cause for which we have con-
vened. 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, and could
we have foreseen the results of the surren-
der we would have been free to-day. The
time has come for us to yindicate the truth
for tue sake of the unrccorded dead who
fought for truth and died in a 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
subside, but we should delay no
longer. DO we not see decadence in all
that makes a people great and happy?
Therefore the higher duty on Us. have
received letter from gentleman in Ma,sa-
ch,lsetts in which he wrote Our people
owe you debt of gratitude for maintaining
those principles Of constitutional libexsy on
which the safety Of the country dependeand
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 southern woman who
had been reconstructed. The men Of this
day may yield the principles for which they
contended, but the children who succeed
them will cherish and perpctuate 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 fal
tered, and who had the manineSs. whether
in 4 foreign land or on his native soil, to as
sert the glorious principles for which he SC
nobly struggled"
Mr. Davis took his seat amid great ap
| plause. He spoke with all his accustomed
grace and elegance, and while he showed
deep feeling he uttered no sentiment of hos
| tility TO the Government, but only evincet
| a dery &nd earnest devotion to constitutions
principles.
At the conclusion Of Mr.. Davis's speech
the Convention adjourned sine die.
SOUTHERN NHISTORICALS SOCIETY
| MONTGOMERY WHITE SULPHUR SPRINGS, VA.
| August 1S.-General Early then called the
Society to order.
Admi ra! Semmes submitted the following
resolution which was unanimously adopted