The Montgomery advertiser., 1901-06-04

, Ing for some time in regard to the character and lie of the immortal Davis, Mir. Taylor deviated somewhat from his subject and spoke on the Eng fish people. and of their sovereign power.
 Step by step he finally brought his subject tip to the question confronting the present Constitutional Convention and his every utterance met with a response from the audience. There were many members of the Constitu- tional Convention present last night, prominent among them was Hon. J. B. Knox, the president of the convention, who occupied one of the boxes.
 HON. HANNIS TAYLOR
 DELIVERS ADDRESS.
 Mir. Taylor spoke as follows:
 Commander, Confederate Veterans of Camp Lomax, Daughters of the Con- tederacy, Ladies of Montgomery. Eel low Citizens of Alabama:
 A year ago, in the backwoods of Clarke County, it was my privilege and my honor to address for the frut time camp of Confederate veterans. The scene I witnessed on that occasion can never forget. The plain farmer people, with their wives and their chill dren. had come from the countryside, some on foot, some on horseback, some in country wagons, to meet together on the green sward. under the blue sky, in order to do homage to a deathless memory. As I stood there and witt messed the simple and unostentatious proceedings of those aged survivors of fallen cause. as I read in their up- turned faces .the pathetic story of uh- selfish patriotism, of unfaltering f1del- fn nf hna ion felt that for the first time in my life stood face to face with that indomit- able inner spirit which has made for the South place in the annals of the world. And so I went away from that sacred spot with the firm resolve fixed in my heart. that whenever I may be honored with an invitation to address a camp of Confederate veterans. no mat ter what my personal preoccupations at the moment may be, I will leave my blow in the furrow and go without a word. l was specially happy to re- ceive from this camp the invitation that brings me here tonight because, after long separation, it reunites me to the citizenship of a city with which have been connected by tender ties of affection for IT ore than thirty years. In the high court on the hill wonder the struggles of my professional life really
 
 through the long vista of years that divides me from those hard struggling days, I see in my fancy the kindly, weather-beeten faces of three old Con- federate veterans who were among the first in Alabama ever to speak words of encouragement and sympathy to me. You loved them all and you honored them all. But, alas! they have gone to the other country. They have long ago joined that phantom host into l which your ranks are fast dissolving. I am sure. therefore. that you will par don me if pause for a moment now to pay the silent tribute of a tear to the memories of the three old veterans who. in my earlier years, were my cherished and helpful friends. I speak i of your honored fellow citizens, Gov ernor Thomas H. Watts, Major Henry Churchill Semple and Colonel Daniel s. Troy.
 Principle of Honoring Dead.
 Taine. in his marvellous history of English Literature, has told us that wherever we ind a shell on the sea shore we know that beneath it there | was once an animal; that when we take a book from our reading table, we know that behind 1t there was once man. And so I may tell you that whenever you find men and women meeting habitually together as me- morial of some great sentiment or prin- | ciple, you may be sure that there Is inured beneath that memorial the sa- cred ashes of some illustrious man through whose heart or brain such sem l timent or principle once found it's high est and noblest expression. To do | honor to the dead has ever been regard ed as one of the most sacred privileges of the living. No matter whether pompous wealth builds in its pride the tomb of Mausolus, or whether the ten der hand of Orlando carves the name of Rosalind on some forest tree in Ar den, the common motive is the creation of an enduring memorial to the one we | love. In love and in reverence, not in | hate or in anger, we are met together here tonight to place a few laurel | wreathes at the foot of a monument erected long ago in the hearts of the Southern people in memory of one who, | at critical time in their history, stood forth before the world as the incarna- tion of their sentiments and principles. I propose to speak tonight, first of the man; then of some of the vital principles which his great life illus trated.
 On June 3, 1908. Jefferson Davis was born on the soil of Kentucky, just six teen years after that great common | WedIIH ndu USCn ldhSH li'h' ciNO of Virginia. There on the famous hunting ground where men of the pur- est English stock had chased the buff | falo and the elk. in the primeval haunts of the painted savage was era | dled the warrior spirit of the man pre- destined by his genius to lead his peo- pie in the greatest civil war in his | tory. The removal of his father soon after his birth to Mississippi. did not | prevent his return to Pennsylvania | Collepe. Kentucky, from which he was appointed in 1924 by President Monroe as a cadet to the Military Academy at West Point. where he graduated in ! 1928. During his seven years of sub sequent service in the army, he took | part in the Black Hawk War of 1S31-2, ard as First Lieutenant of Dragons i> he saw hard services in subsequent ex- petitions against the Comanches, PawneeS and other hostile Indian | tribes. Tn 1885 he resigned his com mission in the army. and having mar ried the daughter of Col. Zachary Fay ' Tor. afterwards President of the United States, he became in name d Missis- sippi cotton planter. in fact student of the science of politics.
 Mr. Davis as a Student.
 Nothing is more notable in the dra,- matic life of Jefferson Davis than his ! voluntary withdrawal from the world at the age of 2 years. in order to com ! mune for years, lin the unvexed silence ' of students cell" with tha mighty spirits of the past The outcome of