The Morristown gazette. [volume] (Morristown, Tenn.) 1867-1920, 1881-04-13
JEFFERSON DAVIS BOOK.
The Agents Through Whom 1t
viii Be Sold Here.
Nashville American


Mr.. T. B. Threlkeld, General
Superintendent for the Department
of Kentucky and Tennessee, for the
sale of Hon. Jefferson Davis long ex-
pected book, "The Rise and Fall OF
the Confederate Government" now
being published by the Appletons,
New York, is in this city. He has
appointed Col. Leon Trousdale,
General Manager for this and the
Fourth Congressional District OF
Tennessee. Mrs. Mary Bradford
Johns, of this city, has been. appoint
ed one of the canvassing agents for
Nashville and Mr. French Strange
another. They will commence the
canvass Immediately, and the books
will be delivered as soon as they can
be issued from the press. 1t will be
issued in two octave volumes, illus
trated with steel engravings, in
Guiding portraits Of the Presidents
staff, of the members of the Confed-
serate Cabinets, of Mr. Davis himself,
of Calhoun, Stephens, and Gems
Hampton, A. S. and S. E. Johnson,
Beauregard, jackson, Lee, Hardee,
Longstreet and Bragg. The fol-
lowing is Mr. Davis introduction to
the work:
A duty to my countrymen; to the
memory ofthose who died in defense
ofa cause conseerated by inheritance,
as well as sustained by conviction
and to those who, perhaps, less fortn-
nate, staked all, and lost ALL save
life and honor, in its behalf has i'm
PEELED me to attempt the vindication
of their cause and conduct. For
this purpose I have decided to pre-
sent an historical sketch of the
events which preceded and attended
the struggle Of the Southern States
to maintain their existence and their
rights as sovereign communities
the creators, not the creatures, Of
the General Government
The social problem of maintaining
the just relation between constitu-
ton, government and people has
been found so difficult that human
history is record of unsuccessful |
efforts to establish it. A govern
ment, to afford the needful protection !
and exercise proper care for the |
welfare Of people, must have |
homogeneity in it's constituents. 1t !
is this necessity which has divided !
the human race into separate nations,
and finally has defeated the grandest !
efforts which conquerors have made !
to give unlimited extent to their
domain. When our fathers dissolv-
ed their connection with Great Brit
tain, and by declaring themselves free
and Independent States, they con-
thirteen separate communi-
ties, and were carful to. assert and
preserve, each for itself, its severe
ignty and jurisdiction.
At a time when the minds of men
are straying far from the lessons our
fathers taught, it seems proper and
well to recur to the original princi-
pies or which the system ofgovern-
ment they devised was founded.
The eternal truth which they de-
clared ''indJiendUe," are the founda-
ton stones on which rests the vim
dication Of the Confederate cause.
He must have been a careless
reader of our political history who
has not observed that, whether un-
der the style of" United Colonies or
'sUnited States" which was adopted
after the Declaration of Indepen-
dence, whether under the articles Of
Confederation or the compact of
Union, there everywhere appears
the distinct assertion of States sover-
eighty, and nowhere the slightest
Of any purpose on the
part of the States to consolidate
themselves into one body. Will any
candid, welI-informed man assert |
that at any time between 1879 and
and 1890, a proposition to surrender
the sovereignty of the States and
merge them into a central govern
ment would have had the least pos
sibIe chance of adoption ? Can any
historical facts be more demonstrable |
than that the State did, both in the |
Confederation. and the Uuion, retain
their sovereignty and independence !
as distinct communities, voluntarily |
to federation but never
becoming the fractional part Of a ma
ton That such opinions should |
find adherents in our day, may be
to the natural law of
surely not to a con-
regard for the terms Of
the compact for union by the States.
In all free governments the con-
stitution or organic law is supreme
over the government, and in our
Federal Union this was most dis
tinctly marked by limitations and
against all which was
beyond the expressed grants of
power to the general government
In the foreground, therefore, 1 take
the position that those who resisted
of the compact were the
true friends, and those who main
tanned the usurpation Of undelegated
powers were the real enemies of the
Union.
To the parents, the widows and
the orphans of the Confederate
dead, I offer the consolation that
those for whom they mourned died
for the right-a willing sacrifice on
the altar of their country, where
their memories, enshrined in the
hearts oftheir people, well go downin
tradition to posterity, immortalized
by valor in defense of home, and
martyrdom for liberty.
A countryman sent to a Pittsbarg