The weekly clarion. [volume] (Jackson, Miss.) 1863-1882, 1878-08-14
-BEFFER son DAVIS
HAtrAcI from am Address of Col.
y. VI Meek before Tho W=,a,.,
societies of Mis~i~siPPI UniVer.T-
ty.

by the side OF Lee another figure stands
| prominently forth, with all its curious and
wonderful combinations Of citizen and
soldier, and statesman, which strike with
/ peculiar force the observant locker on
and mark aud characterize the distinctive
civilization Of the Southern peopIe. In
his heightened Christian bearing and
morality, in his Iofty contempt of wrono
In his fearless advocacy of the right. and
IN his love Of constitutional freedom. as
taught by the great missionaries of the
past, We Of the South, can proudly point
to him as our great representative man.
1t Is hardly necessary for me to say, that
L refer to our Christian hero, patriot and
statesman, JEFFERSON DAVIS. "Invec-
tive and reproach will, in the sacred name
OF history, continued to be poured upon
those who deserve only her applause.
The faithful witnesses Of Truth will 90 in
cloud and sorrow to the tomb, burying
their principles only in protest; but they
will do it in the certain faith of a resur-
rection AS for their own fame, they can
afford to wait. Eternity is long-and it
is their life time. Upon the lips of that
boundless sea, their prophetic eve can
seize that FURNISHED throne, which HUI
man justice makes its last tribunal, and
before which the nations and the centu-
ries are arraigned for trial. Defamation
and SANDER fall as lightly upon their
calm spirits, as the salt spray that crys-
taliZes upon the silent rock 1t too. the
warnings of the past, like the prophecies
of Cassandra, are heard only to be disbe-
lieved, still let modern despots know, they
are but sowing the dragons teeth of an
armed and fercer retribution. Constitu
tional freedom has not come forth from
the conflict Of Ages to be stifed now, when
she spreads her broad shield over two
Continents. She will appear again and
again, amid the birth-throes of regenera
ted States" and finally conquer the world.
The name of this representative man of
the South-his character and his history,
suggests these thoughts We might well
linger around the theme and bring be-
fore you the principles which have gui-
ded his life But the occasion, and the
circumstances about us, forbid it. But, in
his life and in his character,
and in the principles for which
he struggled, the men and women
of the South will ever have special
legacy. We can never fail to remember,
that, when the great civil contest was over,
when cannon were hushed, and flags Wee
furled and armies disbanded, that the
vctor's vengeance was all leveled at his
head. Can this people ever forget-or
ever fail to admire-the dignity and
grandeur, and composure Of soul, with
which their fallen chieitain bore the in
dignities heaped upon him? 1t was for
them he suffered, and never did Prince
or Potentate, Citizen or Soldier, suffer
for people with such heroic dignity be
fore He then achieved for himself,
though defeated, an Immortality of glory.
And though he may die upon foreign
soil, or wrap the drapery of his death
couch about him." and lay himself down
to rest, upon the banks of his own lordly
Mississippi, whose majestic waves shall
sing forever his funeral dirges to the sea,
still generations yet unborn, away down
the line of coming centuries, upon South
ern soil, will make pilgrimages to his
tomb and imbibe instructive lessons of
freedom, legislation and political wisdom
from the lettered monument of his great
ness and glory, as the stars and the plan
cts, after having burned through their
appointed seasons and exhausted their
primal fires, return to some great central
sun, to refill their golden urns with
light