Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1874-09-10
, SPEECH FROM JEFFERSON DAVIS.

Recently there was large public meeting
at Memphis to consider the Trenton outrage,
and Jefferson Davis was called upon, who,
upon ascending the rostrum, was loudly cheer
ed. Mr.. Davis then spoke as follows:
FRIENDS AND CoUNTRYMEN You have
assembled tonight, not for the bare purpose
of giving an expression which humanity COM
mands, but you have assembled for a high
and holier duty. [Applause.] 1t is what
you owe to your sires, what you owe to your
posterity, what you owe to the living and what
you owe to the gallant dead who fell for the
sacred cause of Southern independence. New
er has country been more truly III a condl-
ton of having lost all save its honor, and you,
men of the counties of Jackson, Grundy, Polk,
and others Of wide reputation, may be expect
ed to denounce whatever would stain the hon
or and whatever would tarnish the fair name
of the living. [Applause.] You are not here
then merely to express your horror of par
tcular crime still less are you here to argue
what is due from one race to another. 1t Is a
crime, and crime to be punished as it de-
serves, but that belongs to the law and its Of
6cers That they will do their duty, those
only who distrust our people can fail to be.
lieve. But you come to appeal to the moral
sense of the world; your words are to abroad
to mankind let it understand that you are
not a race of assassins; that you are not the
men who mask, but stand in the dignity of
your manhood, and in the likeness of your
Creator; with eyes open and exposed you
dare assert your rights and protect them to
the best Of your ability and to the end of
your lives will 90 forward with honor which
never seeks concealment, wears no mask, and
never blackeus its face. [Applause.]
The negroes are not our enemies; why
should they becomes so? We are their friends.
Yes, and the Southern men are the only
friends they have to-day in any part of the
world. 1t becomes US to be their friends.
Every Southern man in his memory runs
back to the negro woman who nursed him;
to the boy who hunted and 6shed with him
to the man who first taught him to ride and
to swim and, as he grew to manhood, the
cordial welcome given him by the old nurse,
with tenderness scarcely inferior to that of
his own mother, and while lie has such memo
ries clustering around him, he cannot be the
enemy of that useful race which was the main
strength Of our country, when we stood in
this relation, which l believe God intended us
to occupy. If we have been diverted from
such relation, and if hostility has sprung up
to any extent, it has been the work of those
incendiaries who have come in to destroy the
natural relation of the races, and thus fonlent.
ing discord by producing the evils which
now exist in society. But, my friends, it rests
with you, whatever be the result, to show to
the world that you are incapable Of secret
crime, that you hate the man who wears
mask [applause,] ] and whatever it is necessary
for the public peace to do, you intend to do
that, openly and manfully. Now, then, let
US see what is the necessary future of these
two races living together. [Applause.] They
require the white man to provide for them and
protect them as much as they ever did and
believe they will require him to do so to
the end of time. Now, then, as to these white
men who believe in war of races that the
black man may be exterminated, and see in
this future that is desirable, have no sym.
pathy. [Applause.] The negroes were my
friends in the olden times They were our
protectors when our brave men went TO the
field and the women and children remained at
home. [Applause] 1t was they who brought
the Mississippi valley into cultivation, and by
them alone can that valley, in my opinion,
ever be cultivated. They are as necessary to
US as we are to them and, that kind of rela.
ton existing between us, it is no reason why
the prosperity of the future shall not exceed
that of the past