Montgomery County sentinel. [volume] (Rockville, Md.) 1855-1974, 1889-12-13
A GREAT SORROW W.

An intellectual giant, Christian and vigil
liant statesman, soldier and philanthropist
has fallen in the land of sunshine, story
and song, and his spirit has passed into that
golden mist where there is no earthly awak-
ening. A brave, affectionate, confiding and
grateful people, whom he loved so fondly
and in behalf of whose rights he endured so
much and struggled so long and so heroical-
ly, are directing their sympathies, thoughts
and prayers TO his newly made and tongue
less home.
AS we attempt, in the stiffness OF our iso-
lation, to write Of the character, virtues and
services of Jefferson Davis, a troop of mem
cries, like the stealing of an autumn storm
wind through the forest, come rushing upon
us from the black gulf of the buried past
memories hapeless-.memories golden
memories dark and gloomy. We feel that
the language of eulogy has already been
exhausted, that not one single note of all
the wondrous and touching symphonies
which slumber in the lyre-strings of the
mournful muse has been left untouched and
unawakened, while by mastery hands the
outlines of the life and the features of the
character Of the illustrious dead have been
drawn so perfectly that we feel our inability
to add single touch TO the already perfect
work. Yet we cannot refrain from making
little wreath, simple though it be, for his
memory, and lay it with those richer offer
ings from the perennial blooms and DEATH
less verdure of the far Southern land upon
the grave of the distinguished dead.
1t has been said that "men's lives are val
liable as they incarnate ideas, or as they ex-
emplify splendid virtues, or as they teach
valuable lessons" Weturn over the pages
Of the days and the years of their lives as
We turn over the pages of a volume. Some
of them we remember, others we mark,
some we love to recall, and others we forget
as a volume or page whereon no word
is written. Those who have toiled for a
great principle, who have taught their fell
low-men useful lessons, or who have exem-
piified virtues worthy the imitation, live on
even after their death. Those who die,
having lived for naught, who failed to
achieve and to teach and to exemplify, are
but as demolished temples wherein no wor-
ship was ever held, no rites performed, and
around which no love clings and no fond
memory dwells.
Jefferson Davis was man of tremendous
force of character, great intellectual acu-
men and power, and laudable ambition
He vua hrad in a Sfota xuhara Tho eohoal
boy dreams Of the triumphs of statesman
ship in his trundle-bed, and where the en-
thusiasm with which the old-field school
greets his defamation rings in his ears like
a prophecy of "the applause of listening
Senates to command" Born in 1908, he was
graduated at West Point at the age of TWEEN
ty. After serving in the army seven years
he became Mississippi planter and mar
red the daughter of Zachary Taylor. He
entered politics in 1913, career in which
he was destined to shine in the glare of
strange events for almost quarter of a
century. In the national House and in the
Senate his remarkable abilities were indis-
puted as he stood among the statesmen of
his time unrivaled in Intellectual power
and matchless as leader.
Before entering the United States Senate
Mr.. Davis took part in the Mexican war,
of which he was an earnest promoter. On
several fields he was conspicuous for dash
and gallantry, and he came home with re.
nown. In 1847 his devotion to the doctrine
of states-rights was illustrated in his refusal
to accept from President Polk commission
as BrigadierG General of volunteers, on the
ground that the right to issue such commits
sions was reserved to the States President
Pierce made Mr.. Davis his Secretary of
War, and no better appointment could have
been made, for up to the great war era no
ADLER nor wiser secretary than Jefferson
Davis bad managed the War Department
From that chair he stepped again into the
Senate, and there he stood the mlghtiest
champion of slavery and states-rights the
South could put forth. In 1869 he reached
the zenith of his fame and power and be-
came the recognized leader of the Demo-
cratic party.
Before secession became fact and war
imminent, IL was realized at the North that
the Union had no more formidable foe than
the Senator from Mississippi. And now
with that tremendous struggle well settled
back in vista Of twenty. five years, it is
pretty clearly dscerned that the Confed.
eracy rose to its best effort in placing Jetfer-
son Davis at its head. If he raised some
incompetents to high positions, he brought
TO the front the finest mettle in the South
and provoked 1t to an efficiency that en-
abled it to shake the Republic from its cen
ter TO its circumference. We have at all
times entertained the opinion that nobody
could have done more than Mr.. Davis did
to give success to cause that was con-
frented from the beginning to the end by
an enemy that had no Limitation of re-
sources President Davis was the actual
head of the Confederacy-in no other hand
was the sceptre, and in the hand of Mr..
Davis this sceptre never wavered. II fol-
lows that he was one of the ablest men OF his
time, for it was by no stroke of chance that
he was chosen to guide a masterful race
'-ANN6A . 6'S@s uSSic ioi houOuul eAlSt-
ence. He was selected because he was be-
lieved by good judges, and with unanimity,
to be their best equipped representative and
strongest man.
Mr.. Davis administration of the Con.
federate government was bold, vigorous and
determined, but the road he had to travel
was anything but smooth one A strong
army with every modern invention of war.
fare backed by exhaustless wealth stood
ready to be hurled against his government
at every point-a fleet of gunboats block
AIDED every Southern port, whilst untold
numbers of insidious foes at home were
constantly plotting against his policy. At
the North, Mr.. Davis was charged with be-
ing responsible for the war. with its loss of