The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1895-11-29
teacher, Calhoun, and holding fast to the

teacher, Calhoun, and holding fast to the
Bible and the Christian faith, he
as firmly believed in tho doc
trine of secession as Lincoln did
in the idea of union. The beginning of
the war found him at mature manhood,
and in possession of the greatest honors
that his adopted state could confer on
one of her citizens. As a boy he had
fought CALAMITY in the Indian wars, and
afterwards retired to life of contempla-
ton and study. In obeying his country's
cali he later fought bravely in the far-off
fields of Mexico, and, with the blood
streaming from his body. refused to
leave his battalions until their victorious
shout told the battle had been won.
Again retiring to the shades of private
life, after having refused great military
honors that. by his severe Interpretation
of the constitution, he could not accept.
was chosen by his state to the high posi-
ton as legislator in the American con-
gress.
"But the supreme moment came to
Davis as it comes to us all in various
ways, and under different circum-
stances. Should he stand for the union
or should he cast his lot in favor of Sc
cession? Looking at him as we do to-
day, knowing his surroundings, his
teachings, and high above these, the
the issue be doubtful? AS we'll might
we have expected the first proclama-
ton of the great Line oln after his in
auguration to have been acknowledge
ment of the right of South Carolina to
secede, as to have expected that the
great Davis would have favored union.
With all the courage that could ami
mate a great mind, under trials as severe
as could come to any man, throughout
the entire war he did his best to main
tain aud support the south in her mad
infatuation for secession and disunion.
Grant said that the war should have end
ed with the battle of Gettysburg. That
is true, but it would have ended sooner
than it did had Grant been captain of the
southern soldiery and Lincoln been
president of the confedsracy?.D Davis and
Lee fought on because they were Ameri-
cans and because they believed they
were right They succumbed just as
the north would have done had the con-
ditions been reversed in the last ditch
"Then the bearing of Davis during his
life since the war endeared him to the
south. He felt that in him was the en-
bodiment of the lost cause; that, yield
ing to the inevitable, a different inter
probation had been given to the constitu
ton from that believed in by him and by
the south, and although the right of Sc
cession was forever settled as wrong, still
to the survivors of his soldiers and in mem
omry of the southern dead, he,remained
to the last, acting and saying, we believe
ed in the justice of our cause.
while believing as l do that had the
south succeeded the greatest harm had
come to liberty and to the cause of hu-
Inanity; that the grand destiny of this
people could never have been theirs;
that the south was wrong, eternally
wrong, and that the north was right, sv-
erlastingly right-still l as firmly be-
lieve that not only was the rank and file
of the southern soldisry honest and sin
cere in the advocacy of rebellion, but
that their great leaders were imbued by
lofty patriotism, and among them all
there was no more sincere and conscien-
tious man than Jefferson Davis"