The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1886-02-21
JEFFERSON DAVIS.
A Severe Arrangement of the Leader Who
Made Terms with Sherman.

A Severe Arrangement of the Leader Who
/ Made Terms with Sherman.
New Orleans Special to st. Louis Globe-Democrat.
Seventy-fve miles out from New Orleans, and
nearly midway between that city and Mobile. is
Beauvoir, the residence of the President of the
late Confederacy. The railway has a ststion
there for its local business Arriving at the
station, a walk Of few hundred yards, with q
vineyard on one hand and the tall pine trees on
the other, led to the gate OF the mansion
grounds. The house stands in the midst OF a
considerable park, planted in magnolias
and orange trees with beds of Towering
plants and clumps of shrubbery. The
building fronts on the Gulf of Mexico,
standing on low bluff some fifteen
same as the average of Southern plantation
houses, built of wood two stories high. sur
rounded ty broad shaded veranda. and sup
ported above ground on brick pillars. Tho
| veranda is reached by wide fight of wooden
7 .. t-'-" -he house itself, spacious hall
traversing the house from front to rear Is Sem.
It is furnished with arm chairs and settees and
is breezy lounging, place The walls are hung
with engravings, and in glass cases are numerous
articles OF virtu and brica-brac. To the left are
the double parlors, the archway between them
being hung with Persian portiere.
The furniture had once been handsome, but Is
now cid aud worn, but the books pictures and
the objects of art and Thousand little evidences
of the skill and taste of refined women, give the
rooms an air of comfort and elegance which was
no little enhanced by bright wood fire burning
| in the wide chimney place. Among the pictures
| are some portraits in pencil by Gabriel Dante
Rossetti. the English painter and poet, repre-
senting his sister and wife. Numerous photo
graphs of noted people. including one Of Oscar
Wilde, were on the tables, and many
of the books were autograph presentation copies
from the authors. piano-forte, guitar and
| banjo were among the musical instruments to be
| seen. On the pier table stands marble bust of
child. 1t is the one mentioned in the letter of
Mr.. Davis to his wife, published in the Globe
Democrat, and represents the first-born SON of
the family. He died when a child. and the bust
| is precious thing to the parents. The visitor
| had chance TO observe these items while he
waited for the master of the house to appear.
In a little while tall, slender, erect, white
bearded and silver-haired man came in. He was
dressed in black, and wore broad brim soft
black hat He walked with a cane but did not
lean on it. There was no appearance of decay
or senility. After the visitor had explained his
| business. and the host and guest were seated
comfortably by the fire, which the damp sea air
rendered very agreeable. Mr.. Davis said:
There remains little to be said about the war.
rating details. As to the letters published in the
Globe Democrat. they were private matter and
Of no public interest" They had been pifered
from his wife's baggage. He did not undertake
Cabinet, as they were too vouminous, but he
would do so at his leisure.
1.-THE only thing, he said, that was of par
ticular Importance in considering the last days of
the Confederacy was the surrender of Gen.
j. Il. Jonnston's army. General Lee had sur
VII w imnOSSihla m 70 do
anything else. His army, reduced to handful
by constant fighting against superior force, was
destitute of supplies and found itself
not only surrounded, but with formid-
ible force interposed between it and its
only line of retreat. the Virginia mountains. In
the face of overwhelming numbers, with no
means of maintaining his position and with re-
treat cut off, General Lee had succumbed to the
inevitable. Some persons, with probably de-
sire to pay weak tribute to Lees kind heart or
to rob Grant of his claims to magnanimity in
the matter of the surrender, have said that Gen.
Lee had only surrendered to stop the effusion of
blood.
This is not true General Lee was too thors
ougbly man of profound convictions and devo-
ton to principle to allow any sentiment to inter-
fere with him In the performance of his duties
He had no weaknesses where his plain duty was
concerned: He surrendered to overwhelming
Grants treatment Of his prisoners, let
him have all the credit that can at
tach TO him. The surrender OF Johnston
was different affair. Johnston's line of retreat
as chosen by himself, Through South Carolina,
was open and had supplies placed upon it at sew
era points. He had a large force, of which over
36. 900 were paroled at Greensboro, N. c. We
had other forces in the field and we certainly
were in position to make serious resistance.
This was all the more important as such ability
would have been of service in securing better
terms in bringing the war to an end.
1t might have been possible to have made
some arrangements that would have secured the
political rights of the States and their immunity
from the terrible calamities that afterward fell
upon them. General Johnston had these matters
fully placed before him, and the details of plan
for his proposed movement placed before him,
with orders to execute it. He disobeyed the or
der, and surrendered his army, and put every
thing ct the mercy of tho conquerors. without
making movement to secure terms that might
have availed to protect the political rights of the
people and preserve their property from pillage
when it was in his power
Mr.. Davis said that Johnston's failure to make
an attompt to accomplish what might have
turned out to De his most valuable service to the
people OF the South should have tempered the
violence OF his assaults upon some others who
were exerting themselves In behalf of the truth
The ex-President Of the late Confederacy is in
reasonable health He is working plantation