Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1881-02-28

from the portrait by Marshall, painted in
1870, when Mr.. Davis was 62 years OF age.
Time has dealt gently with him in the
wears OF his retirement and it is said he
has changed but very little since he sat for
Marshalls portrait This man, now in the
73d year of his age, emerges for the first
time from the seclusion in which for many
years he has enveloped his life. Ever since
he walked out of the prison at Fortress
Monroe expatriated in effect, but free,
two years after Grant and Lee met under
the apple tree at Appottomox- has led
as quiet and uneventful life as ever fell
to the lot of great public character. He
has studiously avoided the throngs of the
Southern populace who
STILL REVERE HIM
As the leader of the Lost Cause, and by
whom the sight of him and the sound of
his voice would still be enthusiastically
welcomed He has kept his opinions on
public affairs to himself. His lips have
been sealed to all the interviewers of the
press. While Alexander II. Stephens,
Robert Toombs, General Joseph E. John.
ston, and scores of the leading statesmen
and soldiers OF the Confederacy have said
their say on matters part and present, with
the utmost freedom and fullness, in the
newspapers, in books, and in the national
legislature, Jefferson Davis has been as
conspicuous for his complete retirement
from all the affairs of public life, as he was
once prominent in the making of history.
But though dumb, even in the humble role
of mere observer, he has not been mac.
tive. For ten years he has been laboriously
gathering the material for the most elabo-
rate and undoubtedly the last defense of
secession that will ever be written. The
Southern people recognize it as the
first formal and comprehensive his
tory of their cause. They will well
come it as the first general history
of their struggle. In Alex. H. Stephens
books are presented his theories of what
the Confederate policy in the field and in
the Cabinet should have been, General
Johnston tells the story of campaign or
two. All Southern histories yet published
are more or less fragmentary, special, and
narrow Mr.. Davis book is the first at
tempt to cover the field. He will make an
J exhaustive justification of his policy and
acts as President of the Southern Confed-
eracy, and sharp, aggressive, even bitter
attack upon the men who opposed him in
his Cabinet and in his Congress. 1t will,
without doubt, get all the Southern states
men by the ears again, and revive the Bit
terness which marked the last despairing
years of the Confederacy. 1t is said that
some years ago Robert Toombs told Mr..
| Davis that if he wanted any peace during
the remaining years of his life he had bet
ter leave his book as post-mortem con-
tribution to history in other words, to
defer it's publication until after his death.
| This, not because of Northern criticism,
| but because of the inevitable
REMINDING OF SUPPRESSED ANIMosITIEs
| Among the Southern leaders. 1t is fact
that some OF the most prominent statesmen
of the South are already sharpening their
pencils for an attack upon Davis and
his defense as soon as his history is issued.
Certain of these public men have already
been engaged by prominent journals to
write elaborate reviews Of the work. A
Macon (Geergia) newspaper is authority
| for the statement that Bob Toombs has re-
Gently refused to furnish his portrait for
the volume, and that he has expressed his
willingness to wager that the book would
not be issued this spring, nor during his
| lifetime Mr.. Toombs expects to come in
for his share of criticism in the forthcom-
ing work, and he proposes to take up the
cud gels of defense in his own vigorous and
explosive fashion. Fortunately for those
who would like to see Mr.. Toombs' per-
trait in the work, he has concluded not to
furnish it, after the publishers had pro-
vided themselves with an admirable like
ness of himself. Neither Mr.. Davis nor
his publishers have been willing as yet to
| fo, 10 h. 10 of
the book. They seem to prefer that the
public derive their first impressions of the
work from the volumes themselves. From
several sources, however, the Times
correspondent has been able to OBJ
tain considerable information as to
the authors scope and design, and
his method of historical treatment to-
gether with brief synopsis of the argu-
ment with which the author supports and
defends the doctrine of secession and the
| Justice. of the Southern cause, and a
few details of the narrative portions of the
work. What is here given about the book
may be relied upon as perfectly accu-
rate as far as it goes, Without any injus-
tice to the author, the Times is able to pre-
sent the following facts as the first infor-
nation that has been published in any de-
tail relative to the plan, argument and
method of Jefferson Davis history. Mr..
Davis Introductory is a short one, covering
not quite two pages. In it he makes a
very clear, concise and forcible statement
of the polt cal principles which it is one
of the main purposes of the history to de.
fend and justify. He dedicates his work
to the widows and orphans of the Confed-
crate dead. He conceives it to be his duty
to his countrymen to prepare this history
OF the rise and failure of their cause. He
finds in the structure of the thirteen indie
pendent States, and their relations to each
other, the primary principles and vested
r 1hts on which he rests his
MEDICATION OF THE CoNFEDERACY.
He evidences the doctrine of State SOW
ereignty, and the compact by which the
States voluntarily gave their consent to a
federation, with no design expressed or i'm.
piled, ever to become fractional parts of a
nation and he believes that those who re-
sisted the violation of this original COM
pact were, in fact, the true friends of the
constitutional Union. 1t is learned that
the author, discussing principles and events
in their natural and logical order, first
gives his attention to African servitude,
ana the long ana DlbGer secJlonal stTlIe TO
which it gave rise. He then takes up the
question of States rights, giving the con-
stitutional and historical arguments on
which he rests the principle of State SOW
ereignty, and quoting copiously from all the
authorities on the subject. These ques-
tions, and full statement of the immediate
causes of the war, occupy one-half of the
first volume. The remainder of the work
is given to a narrative of the struggle, in.
Guiding the fullest statement yet written
from Southern standpoint of the fierce
dissensions in the Confederate councils, and
of his defense of the prolongation of the
war for many months after many of the
ablest men in the South were fully con.
WINGED that their struggle was a hopeless
one. In opening the work, he treats Of
the early legislation on the subject OF
slavery, He acouits the South of all re.