The morning star and Catholic messenger. [volume] (New Orleans [La.]) 1868-1881, 1877-05-06
jefferson Davis Address to the Lee Memorial As
ISOLATION Of Gobile.

The following remarks were made by M
Dayis to the members Of the excursion part.
of the Lee Memorial Association of Mobile, oil
their way to this city, who stopped at hi
residence, Mississippi City, FOR the sole pur
pose of visiting their illustrious chieftain:
Mr.. Chairman and Members of the Leo Association
| Ladies and Gentlemen;
am deeply sensible of the honor you have
conferred pom me by this visit, and grateful ly
| recognize the kindness which has prompted
the compliments expressions of your orator
Not the less 80 because feel that they very
far exceed any merits which the nnprej adiced
would ascri be to me.
Believe me, am the more proud of this, as
it is the manifestation Of more rare virtue
in the people have served to the best of my
ability. Never before in tie history of man
has there been, far as l know, an instance
in which fallen chief was followed with
more sffectionate devotion than his associates
had felt towards hin in The days OF bis power
For q people capable of euca magnahimity,
his would indeed be tame spirit who did
not feel it to be glory to have suffered.
You have passed through terrible ordeal of
deprivation, of wrong, and pjustice; and on
have borne it with tortitude only eQnalled
by the Pallantry display ed in your desperate
effort to maintain a cause which has been
crushed. but not destroy ed, for it was the
cause of Truth, which is eternal; and with all
these sad memories clustering around You, you
come, not to upbrad me as responsible for
your disasters, but to shield me In the depths
of my adversely with the warm covering of
your hearts, best affections. Cold, indeed,
would be the nature which did not find in this
o solace for all it's disappontments and con-
ISOLATION for it's ruined hopes.
From the bottom of my heart thank you.
Though the silver lining of the cloud be but
family discernibe, yet be not disnayed. But
that l need not say TO men who never feel any
other fear than that of doing wrong. Then
let me say rather BE not ,ethoat hope" The
cause for which you struggled was that of
Justice and of Truth. The triumphs of these
may be postponed, but in the ordering of
Providence most come at last. Your motives
must be appreciated sooper or later. for your
sacrifices were made for Constitutional Liberty
and those W no died bravely, though they tell
vainly- are not to be reckoned as The most un
fortunate for, whether bearing a bre or a
musket, whether the battlefield upon
the vessels deck, the proper place for man to
die Is where he dies for mau.
For tie honor of the com! AIDES whose I'M
timely deaths you mourn, for the respect due
TO the cause you loved, for the pride you fee
IN your ancestry, for the hopes yUu cherish FOR
Jour posterity, let not your eyes revert con-
stantly to the past, but confronting the present
and looking patricticaily on to the future let
your efforts be- made to repair what has been
injured and to build again, higher and broad
or, on more solid foundation, the temple of
human Liberty, after the model left you by
yonr fathers.
You engaged in no war for sectional sg-
grandizement, You fought no battles for per-
sonai advantage, you were prompted by no
malice, and your knghtly escutcheon is tar
nished by no sordid hate or desire for mean re-
yenge. The war left you stripped of all save
honor. and your chivalry was as incapable of
lnhioting wrong it was of submitting to it
tamely. The Past demands then kAightly
generosity and faithful devotion to the prin-
ciples you inherited from revolutionary sires,
and which You will best bless mankind by
transmitting unchanged to your posterty.
Thrice and four times | am thank for tne
W hich the day brings to Us rf tho
revival of the spirit in which our Union was
from which prosperity springs
and upon which its parpetulty must surely de-
pend.
l lad not expected to do more than simply
20 return my thanks to You. 1t would bs in
vain for ne to attempt to express the graft
,ude feel. My cordial thanks are all have
% give, and they are truly ours.