The western sentinel. [volume] (Winston-Salem, N.C.) 1887-1926, 1891-02-19
MR.. DAVIS IN PRISON.
Richmond TinesI.

L
son Davis, OF crulety to her hus-
while prisoner at Fortress Mon
REQ by General Nelson A. Miles,
commadant of the post at that
time, have called forth a. number
of indignant denials from that
officer and his friends. They even
goso faras to deny that Mr.. DAY.
is was subjected to any inconven-
fence ofmoment whatever, much
less indignity and outrage, and
to read their story one would
think that the life of the ex-Presi-
dent,ln his casemate cell, was one
OF more dignified leisure than
that of a hated prisoner of State.
! Unfortunately for the veracitv
of these friends of Miles, how
ever, there is evidence against
them which even they cannot dis
pute. For instance, there is DR..
Craven's ''Prison Life of Jefferson
Davis which tells plainly the
story of their shame, and it
comes from a source impossible
for them to ignore. DR.. Craven
was then a surgeon in the United
States army, stationed at For
tress Monroe, and it is to be pre-
sumed that he had no more
friendly feelings towards Mr..
Davis than did the average
Northen man and army officer,
who felt for the x-President only
the most malignant hate on ac-
cont of the severe humiliation
the Southern forces had so fire.
quently inflicted upon the North
ern arms. Yet he, in his book,
corroborates fully the account
given by Mrs. Davis of her hus-
bands i'll treatment. He not on
ly describes that place of devilish
work, the forging of manacles,
by three great strapping fellows,
a blacksmith and two armed
soldiers, upon the limbs of a fee
BILE and helpless old gentlemen,
but he tells of the even more ter
rible suffering to which he was
subjected by having Il sentinel at
watch over him at all hours, with
orders to keep a bull's-eye Ian
tern turned constantly upon
the prisoners face. No CONAN
che Indian ever lived to invent so
ingenious a system of maligant
torture than that adopted by the
authorities of a great, powerful
and victorious nation against
Jefferson Davis while a prisoner
of State, because he had been the
President of the Southern Con-
federacy in its great four-year
fight for Southern rights and
Southern independence against
the combined forces of the world.
The plain truth of the matter
regarding Mr.. Davis is, that after
his capture and Imprisonment in
Fortress Monroe the Northern
authorities found they had a
white elephant on their hands.
They did not dare, and never
have dared-although hecourted
the test-to bring him to trial,
for they knew that if the consti-
tutional right of the South to dis
solve the compact made with the
Federal Union were subjected to
to legal scrutiny, even the SUI
preme Court of the United States,
as then constituted, would be
forced to decide against the North
and vindicate the South in the
person of Jefferson Davis. The
only possible solution of the diff
iiculty presented to them was
Mr.. Davis death, and as that
could not be judicially accom-
plished, it was necessary to try
and worry his life out of him as a
cat worries the life out of
mouse. The great trouble in
their way. however, was that
Mr.. Davis, seeing their scheme,
refused to die, but lived on solely
through the force of his will.
These are facts. Unpleasant
they may be but facts still, and
historical facts at that. All
the denials that Miles and his
friends can utter cannot change
them, and they will stand
throughout ages to come, for the
edifcation and instruction of
fnt,1ro generations And the