Daily globe. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1878-1884, 1880-12-27
A TALK WITH JEFF DAVIS.
Editor Mcclure Interviews thel Ex-C Com
federate Chief why Beaureguard was
Ordered to Fire on Sumter, -A---

Correspondence OF the Philadelphia Times. |
MISSISSIPPI CITY, Miss, Dec. Is, 1885,
A journey through the South for the |
study of the currents of opinion and the
present condition and probable progress
of the reconstructed States would be in
complete without visit to the one man
who must stand in history as the front of
the overthrown Confederacy. A drive
or five miles through the sand and stray
Cling pines which skirt the Gulf bay ex-
hibits the same general dllapidation
among the old-time summer homes which
were once the favorite retreats of the
elite of New Orleans in the sickly season.
The shore of the bay has a number of pa
latial plantation houses, but they have
fallen into the sweeping decay that
marks them as relics of an age that has
gone. The only one that
seems to have been careful
ly preserved from the desolation
that surrounds it is the Dorsey place,
now the home of Jefferson Davis. In a
forest of green live oaks, richly laden
orange trees and profusion of vines and
flowers, a large frame plantation. house
is presented. 1t is a single story in
height and has the regulation pillars and
broad verandahs of the aristocratic
Southern mansion There the ex-Con-
federate President lives with his nephew,
General Davis, and their joint families
The eX-QueenOf the Confederate Court
is a stout, motherly, cultured and genial
woman, and daughter, a strongly mark
ed copy of the mother, possesses unusual
| attractions of both person and intellect
The house is furnished with every regard
for comfort, as the well-wern easy chairs
| and lounges, and the hall and parlor
divans faithfully attest, and the
walls are decorated with ancient paint
ings and modern br1c-a-brac, while the
wide chimney place and capaciOus man
tel tell how the cheerful pine fire sparkles
when chill or stray frost silences the
song of the hooking bird and the blood
thirsty serenade Of the mosquito. Soon
after had been politely bowed into the
parlor jefferson Davis entered alone, and
his greeting was the cordial welcome of
the prOverbial hospitality of the South l
confess to disappointment in the general
appearance of the man who stands in his
tory to-day as the soldier statesman with
out country / expected to find the
strongly marked traces of previously
disappointed life, and severe civilty and
/ studied reticence in discussing all things
of the past; but those who believe Jeffer-
son Davis to be misanthrOpic in tempera-
ment and embittered against the ma
ton and the world greatly mispdge him.
| Nor is he the broken invalid that he is
generally regarded. t-H-
| DAVIS IN CONVERSATION.
His'yet abundant locks and full beard
are deeply silvered, and his face and
frame are spare as they always have been,
but his step is elastic and steady and the
hard lines of his brow which are so con-
spicuOus in his pictures, arc at once eff
| faced when he enters into conversation
Instead of impressing the visitor as a
political recluse who has no interest in
the land to whose citizenship he will live
and die stranger, he at once invites the
freedom of the planters home by chat
ting without reserve, save when his con-
temporaries are likely to be criticized,
when he adroitly and pleasantly turns the
discussion into inoffensive channels. He
is yet the same positive man in all his
convictions and purposes that made him
the leader of causelesS rebellion. He
well understands that he cast the die for
empire or for failure that
must make him alien to the country
and the world, and that he
lost; and he knows that he is to-day the
most powerless of all men in the land to
retrieve the fortunes of those who fol-
lowed him to bereavement and sacrifice
He reads right the memorable Judgment
that makes him execrated for the Con-
fedracy, while his equally guilty subor-
L n OF haa Al "a I
calf. His Vice President, who followed
the slave empire afar off when doubt and
darkness gathered about it made haste to
scramble over the ruins of the Confeder-
| acy and regain the seat in Washington
from which he seeded with Davis to aid
in guiding rebellion. Two of his unnoted
warriors have sat in Republican cabinets.
Lees ablest lieutenant is the Republican
minister to Turkey. The man who
marched the first regiment of volunteers
to Charleston and who served
as Confederate Senator until
| AppomattoX became historic, died as
the Republi can minister to Russia; and
Senate, House and the Washington de-
partments swarm with men who were
abreast with Jefferson Davis in every eff
fort to dismember the Republic. But Da-
Wis is the embodiment of humiliation,
while his fellows 60 in and out without
displeasure. | heard no allusion to or
complaint of this injustice, but it is plain
| ly evident that Davis entirely appreciates
it, and that he believes he would not be
consistent with himself and the great re-
sponsibility he assumed however mistak.
en- he may have been in assuming, if he
did not deliberately remain an alien to the
government that he more conspicuouslv
than all others struggled to overthrow.
He could not help the South or himself
| by seeking or accepting restoration to
citizenship, and he is wisely content with
stubborn faith in the rectitude of his lost
cause.
SOME "REMINISCENCES OF THE WAR
have long desired to know the exact
truth from the fountain of Southern
knowledge on the subject, in regard to
several important events of the war, and
[ was agreeably surprised at the freedom
with which Mr.. Davis met my inquiries.
Why Beauregard was ordered to fire up
on Anderson in Fort Sumter, after his
surrender was inevitable at specified
time without assaulting the flag, has
never been entirely understood. 1t was
the act of madness, as it made division in