Staunton spectator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1849-1896, 1877-05-22

Confederaey was becoming well nigh
desperate, and the highest ability was
needed in the administration of the War
Department, Gen. Breckenridge was
called from the field to take charge of
that Department. Although he under
stood all the difficulties of the position,
yet he did not hesitate to accept, anx-
lous to discharge his duty in every way
possible to the country. In that posi-
ton he labored, until the end, with all
his great abilities, doing all that it was
in human power to do, and when Rich
1nond was at last evacuated, he retired
with the last of those who fingered
among her burning streets.
After the surrender of Gen. Lee. he
was with Gen. Johnston in North Car
DINA, when the terms of capitulation
were agreed upon between that General
and Gen. Sherman, and those terms as
reported give evidence surely of having
been in part the work of his hand, hon
orable as they were to all parties. The
terms of surrender, thus fixed, having
been rejected by the U. S. Government,
and Gen. Johnston having surrendered
his army, President Davis and his Cabi-
met officers were left to escape from the
enemy as best they could, they not be-
ing embraced in said surrender. It was
the desire of some of these gentlemen
to escape to the trans-Mississippi depart
ment and there continue the contest
Not SO with Gen. Breckenridge. He
knew that the contest was virtually over,
and his great anxiety was for the pro-
lection and safety of the people of the
country and for the public good. He
understood very well that the animosity
of the enemy was more excited against
him than any other officer connected
either with the military or civil service
OF the Confederacy, save President Da-
Wis himself. But it was not of himself
that he thought. When urged by his
friends to make his escape, as they and
he knew that be, with his physical en-
ergy and activity, and knowledge of the
country, could readily do, his reply was,
that it was his duty, as one Of the Presi-
dents Cabinet, to remain with him and
aid him as long as there was any hope OF
carrying out his designs, or of his elud-
ing the pursuit of the enemy. He did
net hesitate to express the opinion to
President Davis that the war should
close and to urge him to do all in his
power to terminate it, and he closed a let
ter to him on the 23rd of April, 1865, in the
following impressive manner: "What-
ever course you pursue, opinions will
be divided. Permit me to give mine.
Should these or similar views accord
with your own. 1 think the better judy
ment will be that you can have no
higher title to the gratitude of your
countrymen, and the respect of man
kind than will spring from the wisdom
to see the path of duty, and the courage
to follow it, regardless alike of praise or
blame" This closing sentence contains
the chart by which his own great life
was guided. His was the aOisdone to see
the path of duty and his the courage to
follow it, regardless alike of praise or
blame, and it was the blending of this
widom and courage which formed the
great character which good men every
where will continue to admire.
When all hope had departed from the
federate cause, and it was certain that
that banner, which he had so proudly
and hereically borne upon SO many
bloody fields, had been furled forever.
and the cause which he had so honestly
and powerfully upheld was lost, he felt
that his duty was done, and that all that
was left for him to do was to leave a
country where he was prescribed man,
and where he had, by the solemn enact
ments of the Senate, been denounced as
traitor. Death to him was preferable
to capture. He, in company with two
companions, determined to make his
escape to Cuba in an open boat, an ex-
pedient which would only have been
adopted by man of unflinehing nerve.
Trusting then to the great God, who
had thus far directed and protected him,
he launched his frail, open boat, and
boldly pressed out into the great ocean
spread out before him. After being ex-
posed for eight days to the winds and
the waves he landed at last upon the
coast of Cuba, where at least he was free
from persecution, although he felt keen
ly that he was an exile from his native
land. He remainedin foreign countries
until the Fall of 1868, when sectional feel
ing and the animosities of the war hav-
ing subsidized, he returned to his home.
The warm welcome which awaited him
everywhere, the enthusiasm and reioic-
ing awakened by his presence, showed
that whilst he was a powerless, yet he
was a truly honored man-one mighty
in the affections of the people.
He had been high in position; men
had courted him for his influence; all
the honor that office could bring had
been his; now he was simply private
citizen with all the avenues to office
and position closed to him, yet men
f1ocked to him, and loved and rever-
enced him.
He lost no time in weak regrets for
the past, or repinings over the present,
but strong in his own integrity, calmly
awaiting happier day for his country,
he went earnestly to work for his fami-
ly, and for the good of his country, in
the arduous practice of his profession
and in the attempt to open up great
highways for commerce. No muir
muir at his changed fortunes was ever
heard from his lips, no words of bitter
ness towards others ever escaped him,
but patiently and calmly he took up the
burden of his new life, leaving the gilt
tering henors of the past behind him,
and with heroic devotion to the duties
OF the present, uncomplainingly went
forward in an humber, but still equally
honorable career
History records no more striking in
stance of heroic fortitude under the great
changes to which often the great of the
earth have been subjected, by the vicis-
SAoOSSS ~ AOA oohOi VIGIL tAdu hAO1QCu
by this great man.
Two years ago, whilst he was THIS
engaged in the quiet pursuits of ci- vii
life, death came to him, not suddey ilv.
but by the slow, wasting process of dis.
ease. How he met it, it is almost need
less for me to tell you. Whilst others
were anxious, he was calm. Whilst
his friends hoped that he might be SPAR
ed, he knew that his hour had come
He could not have faced death more
calmly and triumphantly on the battle
field than he did in his chamber, when
worn down by long protracted sickness.
Patient under bodily suffering, as he had
been accomplishing through the long
years of privation and toll through
which he had passed, he calmly and
peacefully breathed his life away, onlv
anxious for those dear to him, who, with
agonized hearts, pressed around the
dying form of him whom they so dearly
loved.
And now, nay friends, my task is near
ly done, how imperfectly and hurriedly,
no one knows better than myself. Your
invitation was that should pronounce
a eulogy upon the life and character of
John G. Breckenridge. I have thought
it best to content myself with a simnIe