Staunton spectator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1849-1896, 1886-07-14
'DIED FOR THEIR STATE
An Exhaustive Paper on Great Questions
BY BENZ. j. WILLIAMS, ESQ, A WE'LL
KNOWN NEW ENGLANDER.
From Lowell Mass Sun.

From Lowell (Mass) Sun.
The communication printed below is
from the pen of Mr.. BENJAMIN J. Williams
of this city, and treats of a subject OF
deepest interest to the people of this
country North and South. 1t treats CT
MIR. Jefferson Davis and his connection
with the Southern Confederacy from q
Southern standpoint. The writer handles
his subject in manner unfamiliar to our
readers, who if they do not agree with the
sentiments expressed, will at least find it
a very interesting and instructive COM
munication, particularly at this time
Editor Of the Sun:
Dear Sir:-The demonstrations in the
South in honor of Mr.. Jefferson Davis,
the ex-president Of the Confederate States,
are certainly of remarkable character,
! and furnish matter for profound considers
ton.
Mr.. Davis, twenty-one years after the
| fall of the Confederacy, suddenly emerging
from his long retirement, journeys among
his people to different points, there to take
part in public observances more or less
directly commemorative, respectively, of
the cause of the Confederacy, and of those
who strove and died for it, and everywhere
he receives from the people the most over
whelming manifestations of heartfelt affec-
ton, devotion and reverence, exceeding
even any of which he was the recipient in
the time of his power; such manifestions as
no existing ruler in the world can obtain
from his people, and such as probably
were never before given to a public man,
old, out of office, with no favors to dis
pense, and disfranchised.
Such homage is significant, startling. 1t
is given, as Mr.. Davis himself has recog-
nized, not to himself alone, but to the cause
whose chief representative he is. And it is
useless to attempt to deny, disguise, or
evade the conclusion that there must be
something great, and noble, and true in
him, and in the cause to evoke this hon.
age.
As for Mr.. Davis himself the student of
American history has not yet forgotten
that it was his courage, self-possession and
| leadership, that in the very crisis of the
battle of Buena Vista won for his country
her proudest victory upon foreign fields of
war; that as secretary of war in Mr.. Pierce's
administration, he was the recognized lead
er of the United States Senate at the time
of the secession of the Southern States
For his character there let it be stated by
his enemy but admirer, Massachusetts IS
own Henry Wilson.
''The clear-headed, practical, dominating
Davis" said Mr.. Wilson in speech made
during the war, while passing in review
the great Southern Senators who had
withdrawn with their States. When the
seeding States formed their new Confder-
acy, in recognition of MIR. Davis's varied
and predominant abilities, he was unani-
mously chosen as it's chief magistrate. And
| from the bour of his arrival at Montgomery
to assume that Office, when he spoke the
memorable words, "We are determined to
make all who oppose US smell Southern
powder and feel Southern steel, 'all through
the Confederacy's four years unequal
struggle for independence down to bis last
appeal as it's chief, in his defiant proclama-
| tion from Danville, after the fall of Rich
mond, "Let US not despair, my country
men, but meet the foe with fresh defiance,
and with unconquered and unconquerable
hearts" he exhibited everywhere and al
ways the same proud and unyielding
| spirit, SO expressive Of his sanguine and
| resolute temper, which no disaster could
subdue, which sustained him even when it
could no longer sustain others, and which,
had it been possible, would of itself have
assured the independence of the COnfeder-
acy.
And when at last the Confedsracy had
fallen, literally overpowered by immeasur-
ably superior numbers and means, and Mr..
Davis was prisoner, subjected to the
grossest indignities, his proud spirit re-
manned unbroken, and never since the sub
.jugation of his people has he abated in the
least his assertion of the cause for which
they struggled. The seductions of power
or interest may move lesser men, that mat
ters not to him; the cause of the Confeder-
acy, as fixed moral and constitution
al principle, unaffected by the triumph of
physical force, he asserts to-day as unequiv-
ocally as when he was seated in its execu-
tive chair at Richmond in apparently ir-
reversible power with its victorious legons
at his command.
Now when we consider all this, what Mr..
Davis has been, and most of all what he is
to-day in the moral greatness of his posi-
ton, can we wonder that his people turn
aside from time-servers and self-seekers,
and from all the common place chaff of life,
and render to him that spontaneous and
grateful homage which is his due.
And we can not indeed wonder when we
consider the cause for which Mr.. Davis
is SO much to his people. Let Mr.. Davis
himself state it, for no one else can do it
so well.
In his recent address at the laying of the
cornerstone of the Confederate monument
at Montgomery, he said:
81 have come to join you In the perform
ance of sacred task, to lay the foundation
of a monument at the cradle of the Con-
federate Government which shall COM
memorate the gallant sons Of Alabama
who died for their country, who gave
their lives freewill Offering in defence of
the rights of their sires, won in the war of
the revolution, the State sovereignty, free
dom and independence, which were left to
us as an Inheritance to their posterity
forever
These masterful words, ''the rights of
their sires, won in the war of the revolu-
tion, the State sovereignty. freedom and
independence, which were left to us as an in
heritance to their posterity forever" are
the whole case, and they are not only
statement, but a complete justification of
the Confederate cause to all who are ac-
quainted with the origin and character of
| the American Union.
When the original thirteen colonies
threw off their allegiance to Great Britain,
they became independent States, "indepsn-
dent of her and each other" as the great
Luther Martin of Maryland expressed it in
the Federal Convention. This indepen-
dence was at first a revolutionary one, but
afterwards, by its recognition by Great Brit
ain, it became legal.
This recognition was of the States separ-
ately, each by name, in the treaty of peace
which terminated in the war of the revolu-
ton. And that this separate recognition
was deliberate and intentional, with the
distinct object Of recognizing the States as
separate sovereignties and not as one ma
tion will sufficiently appear by reference to
the last chapter of the 9th volume of Ban
croft's History of the United States.
The Articles of Confederation between
the States declared, that leach State re-
tains its sovereignty, freedom and indepen-
dence."
And the Constitution of the United
States. which Immediately followed, was
first adopted by the States in Convention,
each State casting one vote, as proposed
plan of government; and then ratified by
the States separately, each State acting for
itself in its sovereign and independent
capacity, through convention of its peo-
pie. And it was by this ratification that
the Constitution was established to use its