Claiborne guardian. [volume] (Homer, La.) 1877-188?, 1878-07-24
jefferson Davis.

JoN0rSOn UaVlS.
The speech delivered Wednesday,
the 10th Instant, at Mississippi City,
BY ex President Davis to the LOuisi.
ana Division Of theAssociatiOn of the
Army of Tennessee, on the occasion
Of tho presentation to him OF a certifi
cate and badge Of honorary member
ship OF tho organization, must rank
amongst the highest specimens Of
American oratOry-
Those who were present and heard
with their own ears tho words as
they fell from the lips of the illustri.
Gus speaker-whO listened to the LOT.
ty sentiments he,,enunciatcdJ the pun.
gent truths he presented, the keen
criticisms of recent events he made,
the noble tribute he paid to Polk,
the fighting Bishop, to Sydney
Johnston and TilghmaD, to the halt
starved aud ragged soldiers who fol-
lowed them, and to the glorious wo-
meh of the Confederacy-wili re-
member to the end of their lives the
occasion and the emotions which
were excited in their breasts by the
patriot statesman who has filed SO
large o space in his generation, and
whose tongue has not forgotten the
magic by which he once captivated
the people and controlled the coun.
sells of the Senate.
lin these degenerate days when the
doctrine that success sanctifies fraud
has become prevalent in almost every
class of society; when q man occupies
the Presidency in violation Of the
right OF FREQ election, and through
the success of disgracefal conspir-
acy; when creatures such as Eliza
PinkstOn, Mrs. jerks, Jim Ander
son, Packard and Kellogg, and their
brood of forgers and perjurers have
become the ruling spirits in Ameri-
can politics, it must fill the hearts
OF all Southern men with pride to
read the speech of Mr.. Davis, and
" contrast their former leader, still
honored and beloved by them,
though driven into retirement, and
prosecuted for moro than ten years
by the whole North with tho ferocity
of blOOdhounds, with the base and
dishonored men who now control the
Federal government, and who have
swarmed out of the dirty political
cesspools of the last decade.
From one end of the North TO the
other Mr.. Davis has been GenOuced
as a rebel and a traitor; sectiona
malice has found no cpithets too Op
probrious to bestOw upon him; adj
vanced in years, poor in fortune, AZ
piring to no political preferment
living in unosteDtatious but digni
fed retirement, the mean and ma
levolent demagOgues and the debas
ed and cowardly press of the Nortl
have abused, prosecuted and pur
! sued him with untiring and never
tagging ferocity. But to whom vii
, an impartial generation award tn
, palm Of honor, patriotism and states
. manship! Will posterity confirr
!. the verdict of the triumphant North
Or will it declare that the head
a the Confederacy who led his country
men through one of the most herol
o struggles in the annals of mankind
in defense of great principles whic
/. he believed to be right, and whic
r the American people arc now return
ing:to, was the true patriot, and thu
v the real traitors to the cOnstitutio
Q and enemies of the Republic and
/. American liberty were Grant an
4. the demagogues and conspirato1
d who swarmed in Congress on the ia
d OF the Confedcracy, and Hayes, an
n John Sherman, and Matthews an
d all their tribe, who have rolled al
r. wallowed in bribery, perjury an
D. fraud until they smell rank in Il
a postrils of even these degenera
is timesi Mr.. Davis, possessing u
70 deep and unalterable love Of u
n Southern people and the admirati'
ID of all peoples, may serenely subu
m to the denunciations of the Mort
,e conscious that the verdict Of ma
kind will be in his favor, and th
ID history will hand down his name
ID all time as one of the leaders Of I
ne tons, whose every purpose was