The Londonderry sifter. (South Londonderry, Vt.) 1883-19??, 1889-12-12

again unanimously elected to full term
and in the senate became chairman of the
| committee on military affairs. He resigned
| to run for governor and was beaten.
| He assisted Franklin Pierce materially in
| his presidential canvass of 1852, and in 1858
was rewarded by being made secretary of
war, position which he held until James
| Buchanan became President. Upon his re-
tirement from this office, he re-entered the
United States senate. In 1859 he was recog-
nized as the head of the democratic party in
the senate. He had presidential aspira-
tons, and in his general speeches he
took high loyal and patriotic ground
| In January, 1861, he, with others, used one
of the committee rooms of the capitol at
| Washington in which to hatch rebellion
and inaugurate civil war. His state seeded
on Jan g. but he held his seat in the senate
until Jan. 81. The last of January Davis
made farewell speech in the United States
senate and shook all Union dust from his
| feet.
He and his coadjutors were precipitating a
civil war the most colossal of all the ages
In that hour Mr.. Davis occupied position
of magnificent audacity. He was trying to
| incarnate the ruling southern idea and to
found great southern empire. He was al
| most unanimously selected as the true rep
| sentative of the South.
The first step of elevation which Davis
| took in the rebellion era was prep,r for
| him by the state of Mississippi, which made
| him commander-in-chiefo of the militia, with
| the rank of maior-general Feb. the con-
| federate congress met at Montgomery, and
after organizing provisional government
unanimously elected Jefferson Davis presi-
dent of the Confederate States of America,
On the 10Th he arrived in Montgomery, and
was ina,lgurated as president on the 18th.
| On the Goth of May the confederate govern
ment was established at Richmond. In the
spring IF 1862 President Davis declared
martial law tor 10 miles around Richmond,
and the civil power was entirely supplanted,
Richmond and vicinity being governed by a
military police. 1t is evident that Davis kept
a sharp eve on every portion of the confed-
eracy, and carefully watched all military
| operations.
At the end of 1868 Davis led his mad vent
ure into gloom from which
it never emerged. He conspicu-
ously failed in getting the finances of the
| confederacy upon any respectable basis
| At Charlotte Davis learned of the death
of Lincoln and of the feeling that he was
concerned in it. He still determined to re-
| sist the government and moved westward.
AT lrwinsville GA, he was i'll camp May 30
when a body of Wilson's cavalry captured
| him. He was caught in disguise, attempt
| ing to steal out of the camp, and was taken
| to Augusta, where he was turned over to the
l4th New Hampshire. This regiment es-
corted him to the boat on the Savannah
river, and the scene was a memorable one.
Half the crowd was cheering Davis and the
other half cursng him. He was incarcer-
atcd in Fort Monroe, and it was generally
bell we'd at the North that he would be
hanged. 1t could not be proved that he was
| in the conspiracy to murder Lincoln He
was confined in Fort Monroe for two years,
and was arraigned May 10, 1867, lat Richmond
on charge OF treason He was released on
bail, went to New York Canada and then to
| England. Returning to the United States,
he was discharged by the United States court
| in December 1868. Since then he has re-
sided in Tennessee and Mississippi. If Da-
Wis was prominent before the war, he had
been notorious ever since. He took pride
in standing as an unreconstructed rebel.
Since the war Davis figured somewhat
pretentiously as an author. His most con-
spicuous work is The Rise and Fall OF the
| Confederate Government" two volumes of
over 800 pages each.
During the past three years Mr. Davis
lived quietly. In 1886 he was invite to
Montgomery, and there received an ova-
| ton such as few men on this con-
tinent have been IGNORED with Again
in October, 1887, Mr.. Davis made tour,
which was really triumphal march. The
reception was SO cordial that Mr.. Davis was
greatly weakened by it, and SO critical was
his condition that speedy dissolution was
anticipat d.