Richmond dispatch. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1884-1903, 1898-03-12
HUNG In THE MUSEUM
PORTRAIT OF JEFFERSON DAVIS
UNVEILED THERE YESTERDAY.
GIFT OF The SOLID-SOUTH ROOM.
Captain John Cussons Delivers
Splendid Address I'm Making the
Pre.eutation-A Large Crowd Pres
emf, Including Many Regents.

| emf. Including Mnuy Kegents.
on the walls Of the Confederate Mu
scum there now hangs a large and hand
some oil-painting of President Jefferson
Davis, the portrait having been unveiled
yesterday with simple, but appropriate
exercises.
The painting is the gift of the Solid
South Room, of which Miss Minnie
| Baughman is vice-regent. The work is
from the brush Of Mr. John =. Walker a
well-known artist here, and is a striking
likeness Of the late President of the Con-
federacy.
The rooms of the museum were throng-
| ed yesterday afternoon at 4:SO o'clock,
the hour at which the exercises COM
menced The Georgia, or Solid-South,
| Room. in which the portrait nung could
not accommodate one-third of the large
| crowd that gathered TO witness the UNI
yelling ceremonies. All of the rooms on
| the first floor of the building were tested
to their utmost capacity, so great was
the throng
Promptly at the appointed hour Captain
John Cussons entered the room, and Mr..
ID. c. Richardson introduced the distln-
guished soldier, who he said, "on benall
OF the Solid-South Room, will present 10
the Confederate Museum a portrait OF
jefferson Davis, President of the Con-
federate States Of America
CAPTAIN CUSSONs'S ADDRESS.
CAPTAIN Cussons, as soon as the APP
plause subsidized, said:
Friends Comrades, Ladies, and Gentle
men: on the 18th day of March, ls6l-
thirtv-seyen years ago to-day-a nation
was born. Calmly. unobtrusively. majes-
tically, il came into being by virtue OF
the unconstrained political assocla tlon
of seven sovereign states, which mao WIN
drawn their adhesion from the federdt~
Union. At that time no pubncist OF
note denied or doubted the absolute nght
of those sovereign powers TO thus eXer-
else their vital function Of sovereignty.
On that fateful day | sat on the portco
of the State Capitol at Montgomery ana
noted the sedate yet earnest faces or
that magnificent assemblage of gentlemen
who had been delegated by their several
States to adopt a Confederate constitu-
ton.
There was no bravado there; no spirit
of wanton defiance either in word or
act But there was steadfastness and
temperate courage, and serene forutude
in the glance of every eye and in the
curve of every lip.
And l said: If the Lincoln government
shall attempt to despoil these people Of
their inherited right to govern them
selves by lawful methods, in their own
way, then must there come conflict
which will not cease while the power of
resistance remains-a conflict which Will
either Vindicate for ages yet TO come the
great American principle of peoples
God-given right to self-governmsnt; or
else that principle, wounded in the house
of its friends will become "a by-wOrd and
a mockery throughout all lands, and to
the remotest times.
Four years later, the drift of events
had borne me again TO the banks of that
same river and / made my lonely camp
with little remnant Of FORESTS gallant
men. But there remained in all that re-
gion no trace Of any familiar thing The
nation had persisted. Four years of NOR
tai strife-of immortal glory, of unfading
renown. Four years of fortunes tickle
moods. her smiles and frowns-of hopes
and memories. and binding tears. and
sorrows which would not be assuaged.
The nation had persisted. Her armies,
worn and wasted by victories were re-
duced to fragments which could no longer
form battle line Her opulent cities
were a waste. The flower Of her youth,
the glory of her manhood had passed
away; on wind-swept plains and in
painless forests, q little mound of name
less dust their only sepulchre. Every
household in mourning-every home in all
the land forlorn and desolate--
"Ah! realm of tombs; but let her bear
This blazOn 70 the last Of times:
No nation rose so bright and fair
or fell so pure of crimes"
OUR HISTORY Is HIS.
The history OF those eventful days is
the history of he illustrious parsonage !
@h9se portrait the Department of the !
SOLD south now presents to the Confede- |
rate Museum. AS the chief of a fallen /
cause. Jefferson Davis must bear for a |
season that burden which the Fates or |
IAN for those who sink beneath their
IrOWn. 1t is easy for the time-server |
% say that our leader should have sur
when he saw that the trend of
events was against US. But we must
.tmemoer that to his heroic soul there
was no middle ground between right and
wrong. He stood for the liberties of his
,ountrymen-for those rights which men
u our race must have. or perish in the
attempt to attain them
ana even II the Invader had asked the
terms on which our chief would cease
resistance, the spirit of his reply could
nave been only that which old Cato sent
TO all-conquering Caesar:
Bid him disband his legions.
restore the commonwealth to liberty;
Submit his actions to the public censnre
ana stand the judgment Of a Roman
Bid him do this and Cato is his friend"
Jefferson Davis knew. as none else
knew, the real nature and magnitude of
front. W ~ Noii
de was dealing with a revolutionary
.actlon which was not amenable to the
ordinary dictates of reason and of right
4 FACTION which had denounced the
Union, and reviled the Constitution. and
ispersed the courts, and Vilfied the ma
ION S nag; faction which set up what
u called ITS conscience against the most
august OF constituted authorities and the
most sacred of covenanted obligations;
when lightly dotted aside all laws, hu-
nan or divine, and called for a new
Bible and new God; a faction which
lad launched against the South the most
erocious and the most fearless of it's
dnatlcal freeboOterS-a man of iron nerve
ma bloody hand, who became at last
heir chosen divinity, and whose name
md fame united to INSPIRE the battle
song of their marauding armies No
sraVer crisis ever confronted d liberty
owing and law-abiding people.
Jefferson Davis's European critics hold |
nat he should have awaited himself of
he tremendous power which autocracy
,lVes To war; that when the Lincoln |
Government resorted To desDotic mea-
ures he also should have met force with
orce. But those critics forget that the /
South's struggle was solely for constitu-
iOnal freedom, for civil privileges and |
social order for liberty linked with law !