Morning appeal. [volume] (Carson City, Nev.) 1877-1906, 1877-05-12
JEFF DAVIS.

are unaffected, modest, truthful, gentleman
like. They despise, as all well-bred people
despise, all windy rhetoric for the entertain
ment of the vulgar, all demonstrations to
excite the wonderment of the ignorant. They
are frank and open, temperate, resolute and
self-respectful. They love their homes, their
section and their good names. They shrink
from all personal disagreements, are amiable,
modest and brave. There are many such
gentlemen in the South. Their wives and
daughters are gentle and of simple manners,
and their sons are tender and respectful in
their demeanor. The young men who are
under this influence are. as lovely in their
purity of habit and gentleness of address as
any woman; and they are above all fear as
they are above all tolerance of dishonesty or
dishonor. Their standard has been high, as
their education has been excellent and
elevating. These partake of sweet gentility
which is not sectional, not Southern, not
Northern, not circumscribed by any geo
graphical lines or confined to any single
nationality, neighborhood or State These
gentlemen are kept, as they prefer to remain
in, the background by noisier and more pre-
tentious men. Orators whose volatility
evaporates i'll high sounding words and whose
volubility is the refuge and vehicle for vast
and gaudy troops of adjectives, cheaper
the terms and epithets which express our
Hottest conception, and leave wondering
over their familiarity with our more valued
ideals. These too abundent takers bring
their more sterling neighbors into disrepute.
The soberer scholars and more self-sure
gentlemen of the South are chary of such
words as Chivalry and Knightliness and
Calamity and 'scutcheons. Temperance of
phrase characterizes the diction of gentlemen,
the world over; and the better taste of men
and women of well-ordered lives shrinks
from the contact which evolves the sounding
extravagances and pompous pretensons of
speechmaking We have been reading re-
port of an address made lately before the
Lee Association of Mobile, by Jefferson
Davis. 1t seems to us to indicate frame of
mind and temper very much at variance
section of this country; and are not
willing to believe that either the political
ideas limited at or the language in which
they are conveyed is welcome to the higher
minded and more respected classes of South
eners to which we have made reference The
expressions of gratitude proper and
timely; but for a man in the sixties to employ
the stilted language of the tournament and
the borrowed explosives of bygone age of
romance is simply preposterous, We quote
as follows:
From the bottom of my heart l thank you |
Though the silver lining of the cloud be but |
family discernable, yet be not dsmayed. |
But that | need not say to men who never
feel any other fear than that of doing wrong.
Then let me say, rather, "Be not without
hope" The cause for which you struggled |
vas that of Justice and Truth The Tri-
lmphs of these may be postponed, but, in
he ordering of Providence must come at
asst. Your motives must be appreciated
sooner or later, for your sacrifices were made
or Constitutional Liberty; and those who
lied bravely, though they fell vainly, are not
o be reckoned as the most unfortunate for
whether bearing a saber or a musket, whether
III the battle field or upon the vessels deck
he proper place for man to die is where he
lies for man. For the honor of the comrades
whose untimely deaths you mourn, for the
aspect due to the cause you loved, for the
,ride you feel in your ancestry, for the hopes
'ou cherish for your posterity, let not your
yes revert constantly to the past, but, con-
ronting the present and looking periodically l
N the future, let your efforts be made to {
epair what has been injured, and to build I
gain, higher and broader, on more solid I
the temple of human Libety, c
fter the model left you by your fathers.
You engaged in no war for sectional aggran- (
isement, you fought no battles for personal c
you were prompted by no malice c
nd your knightly escutcheon is furnished by I
o sordid hate or desire for mean revenge F
he war left you stripped of all save honor, t
nd your chivalry was as incapable of intlict- T
~ wrong as it was of submitting to it tamely. Il
he past demands, them knightly generosity b
nd faithful devotion to the principles which a
on inherited from your revolutionary sires, Il
nd which you will best bless mankind by
ansmitting unchanged to posterity. Thrice t
nd four times | am thankful for the indica- II
ons which the day brings to us of the revival t
the spirit in which our Union was founded, n
ON which our prosperity springs and upon h
hich our perpetuity must surely depend. | r
I'd not expected to do more than simply to C
turn my thanks to you. 1t would be in vain a
r me to attempt to express the gratitude /
ell. My cordial thanks are all have to give,
Id they are truly yours. c.