St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1884-03-25
JEFFERSON DAVIS ATTITUDE.
Tert of His Recent Speech Before The Miss.
assippi Legislature.

| Tert of His Recent Speech Before iIte Miss.
assippi Legislature.
The following is given by the Jackson
| Miss Clarion as full report of Jefferson
Davis speech before the Mississippi legisla
ture on the 10th inst, which was but briefly
reported by telegraph:
FRIENDS AND BRETHREN OF MISSISSIPPI:
In briefest terms, but with deepest feeling
permit me to return my thanks for the I'M
expected honor you have conferred on me
Away from the political sea, have in my
secluded home observed with intense inter
est all passing events affecting the interest
or honor of Mississippi, and have rejoiced tc
| see in the Investigation OF labor, the deVe-
| lopment of new sources of prosperity, and
| the increased facilities of public education,
reason to hope for a future to our state more
prosperous than any preceding era. The
safety and honor of a republic must rest up
on the morality, intelligence, and patriotism
of the community. We are now in a transit
ton state, which is always bad one, both in
society and nature What is to be the result
of the changes which may be anticipated it is
not possible to forecast, but our people
have shown such fortitude and have risen SO
grandly from the deep depression inflicted
| hopes for the future.
| Sectional hate, concentrating itself upon
my devoted head, deprives me of the privi-
| lege accorded to others in the sweeping eX-
| preston of stwithout distinction of race,
color, or previous condition. but it cannot
deprive me of that which is nearest and dear
est to my heart-the right to be aMisslssip-
pian-and it is with great qualification that
Of
right by the representatives of our people.
Reared on thesoil of Mississippi, the ambition
of my boyhood was to do something which
would rebound to the honor and welfare of
the state. The weight of many years adj
monishes me that my day for actual service
has passed, yet the desire remains undimin-
ished to see the people of Mississippi pros
porous and happy, and her fame not unlike
the past, but gradually growing wider and
brighter as the years roll away. 1t has been
said that should apply to the United States
for pardon, but repentance must precede the
right of pardon, and have not repented.
Remm bering, as l must, all which has been
suffered, all which has been lost, disappoint-
ed hopes and crushed aspirations, yet | de-
liberately say, if it were to do over again, l
would again do just as / did in 1861. No
one is the arbiter of his own fate. The people
of the confederate states did more in pro-
portion to their numbers and means than
was ever achieved by any in the worlds his
tory. Fate decreed that they should be I'M
successful in their effort to maintain their
claim to resume the grants made to the fed
eral government
Our people have accepted the decree; it
therefore bhooves them, as they may, to pro-
mote the general welfare of the union, to
show the world that hereafter, as heretofore,
the patriotism of our people is not measured
by lines or latitude and longitude, but is as
broad as the obligations they have assumed
and embraces the whole of our ocean bound
domain. Let them leave to their childrn's
children the grand example of never swerv
ing from he path of duty, and preferring to
return good for evil, rather than to cherish
the unmanly feeling of revenge.
But never question or teach your children
to desecrate the memory at the dead by adj
hitting that their brothers were wrong in the
effort to maintain the sovereignty, freedom,
and independence which was their inaliena-
BILE birth-right. Remembering that the COM
ing generation are the children of the his
toric mothers, whose devotion to our cause in
its darkest hour sustained the strong and
strengthened the weak, can not believe
that the cause for which our sacrifices were
made can ever be lost, but rather hope that
those who deny the justice of our asserted
claims will learn from experience that the
fathers builded wisely, and the constitution
should be construed according to the COM
mentaries of the men who made it. 1t hay
ing been previously understood that would
not attempt to do more than it would be pos
sible for me to express, will now, senators
and representatives, and to you, ladies and
gentlemen, who have honored me by your
attendance, bid you an affectionate, and, it
may be, last farewell.