Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1884-08-07
Mlistellaueuns &eadima.
ANTE:BELLUM SENATOR'S.
"REMINISCENCES OF JEFF. DAVIS, ROBERT
TOOMBS 4ND r. M. T.. HUNTER.

In the year 1860, says the st. Louis Re
publican of July 18th, Jefferson Davis, o.
Mississippi, Robert Toombs, of Georgia, and
R. M. It. Hunter, of Virginia, were mem
bers of the United States Senate, and moi
only it's three most influential members, but
eminent Southern leaders. Each represent
ed State which claimed and exercised q
weighty influence in the national council
and as they belonged to the then dominant
party and were champions of the theories
that rested on slavery, they possessed an au'
thority which in the present changed con.
dition of things, it is difficult to compre.
hend. The political sky wore q troubled
look in the spring Of 1860. The John Brown
raid on Harper's Ferry had recently taken
place, showing what daring and dangerous
measures Abolitionism was capable of
Kansas, after fierce struggle, had been lost
to the South the growing Republican par.
ty was preparing for the Chicago Conven.
tion that nominated Abraham Lincoln
there were grave divisions in the Democrat
ic party that had ruled the country for near:
ly fifty years and, to complicate things still
more, there was strong native American
element in the Southern States which re-
fused to ally itself with the Southern De-
mocracy in defense of the extreme position
which the latter claimed was necessary for
the maintenance of Southern institutions
and interests. Congress was still in session,
and it was observed that Davis, Toombs
and Hunter were frequently sitting togeth-
er in the Senate, as if in consultation.
These consultations usually took place at the
desk of the Senator from Mississippi, and
the fact was remarked then, as proof of the
clearer perspicacity, stronger will, and su-
perior ability of the man who was destined
afterWard to become chief of the then only
dreamed of Southern Confederacy.
These three men are still living. 1t is
strange that it should be so, but there are
many strange things connected with the
tremendous drama in which they played so
conspicuous a part. Their experimental
Confederacy was born, lived and perished
so long ago that the American youth of to-
day knows nothing of it except what they
read of in the books. The South has passed
through the blood and agony of a conflict
which left the flower of it's population be-
meath the sod, and Scared it's mountains,
valleys and forests with the tracks Of ploW-
ing missiles. Abolitionism had its way ;
slavery was overthrown and ruin ran riot
over the Southern land till there was little
left to destroy. Yet the three Senators OF
1860, from Mississippi, Georgia and Virgin
above the turf beneath which all their prom
inent contemporaries lie buried. Their old
abolition enemies are gone. Garrison,
Seward, Greeley, Chase, Giddings passed
away long ago. Even Wendell Phillips is
dead. Lincoln, the first Republican Presi-
dent, has been in his bloody toolnb these
nineteen years. The great Douglas sleeps
in Illinois soil, and trees twenty-five years
old grow over his grave. His Presidential
competitors in the memorable campaign of
1860, Breckenridge and John Bell, are asleep
too, each in the soil of his native State. All
the members of the first Republican Cabi-
net are gone but one-Simon Cameron-and
Simon Cameron was comparatively an OBJ
scure man in the spring of 1860.
The Mississippi Senator of 1860 is now 76
years old the Georgia Senator is "A the
Virginia Senator is Is. They are not very
old men, yet there are not three other living
men in the world who were actors in a
great historical drama who have served as
pall-bearers to such procession of eminent
felloW-players.