The Montgomery advertiser., 1901-06-04

pathos or passion, with a character
 untarnished by vice, and with a bod,
 Lnweakened by dissipation. the rsles I tric spirit of Jefferson Davis was now
 ready either for the battlefield. th'
 Senate, or the forum. Then, whan hs
 needed her most. God blessed him witt
 the noble. gifted wife who was thu
 mother of his children, his pride in tht
 days of his glory. his comforter in tht
 days of sorrow and diversity.
 I am sure that some of the elder la.
 dies of this fair city If there are evel
 elder ladies in any city. will remembe,
 the eventful days during which Mrs Davis presided with queenly grace ir the first Confederate White House just across the street wonder. Certainly nc | more commendable or unselfish work Twas ever undertaken than that involved
 in the project of preserving that his. toric house, as the souvenir of a past
 never to be forgotten.
 I Recor as a Soldier.
 | In 1S45. the year of his second mar
 riage, MT. navis was elected as the l Representative of his district in Con-
 gress. just in time to take part in the
 notable debates on the Oregon question,
 and on the military preparations pre- l CSuiiS lnc war Wltn hGXlCO. On the | outbreak of that var in 1846, he was
 chosen colonel If the 1st Regiment of
 Mississippi Volunteers, at the head of
 which he went to reinforce the army | of General Taylor in the valley of the | Rio Gratide. He was actively engaged in the st,rming of Monterey in the fol-
 lowing September. and served as a com
 missioner in the arrangement of the | terms of it's equalization. It was. | however at the famous battle of | Buena Vista, in February, 1S47, that he | found the opportunity to prove to the army that he was a real soldier. When
 his regiment was there attacked by an immensely superior force he maintain ed his ground for long time without
 re-enforcements, and. although severe | ly wounded. remained in the saddle un-
 til the close of the fight, calm, stern, in- | domitab1e as Andreas Hofer in the | Tyrol. When. on his way home, he received at New Orleans from Presi- dent Polk commission as brigadier | general of volunteers, he declined to | accept it upon the ground that the | President had no constitutional right
 to make such an appointment. With the laurels of the Mexican campaign fresh upon him he was appointed by | the Governor of his State to a then 'oNoht SSol HI lAC oCHdlC Ol lUC LII | States, to which he was unanimously | elected by the legislature in the fol- | lowing year. The young Senator was thus brought into personal contact with Webster, Clay and Calhoun in the ,midst of the great debates incident to | the compromise measures of 1850. On | the day Webster delivered his great | speech in favor of the compromise, Davis overlook Clay and Barien of Georgia in the capitol grounds in earn
 est conversation as to the. merits of the
 speech. After exhorting Davis to join
 the compromise men, upon the ground
 that that measure would probably give
 rapose to the country for the following
 thirty years. Clay turned to BarieA
 and said: You and I will be under
 ground before that time, but our young friend there may have trouble to
 meet" The death of Calhoun in that very month gave to. that prediction
 special and ominous significance.
 Hardly had MT. Davis settled down
 to his work as chairman of the com
 mittee on military affairs before he was compelled to resign from the Sen ate by reason of a nomination from
 his party to the Governorship of Mis- sissippi in opposition to Henry s.
 Foote, the nominee of the Union party.
 
 jority so small as to make 1t really a triumph, was followed by a temporary retirement which ended with the Presi- dential contest of 1852 in which he took part in behalf of General Pierce who rendered him, after his election, place in his cabinet as Secretary of War. During his administration of the war office it was that he accomplished the
 revision of the army regulations, and
 the introduction of the rifle system of tactics and the use of the minnie ball. At the close of his service as Secretary
 of War In 1857 he re-entered the Sem
 ate for the term ending March 3, 1883. Leader of Confederacy.
 Thus when the great Civil War drew
 near our soldier-statesman found him.
 self in- the upper chamber, where he
 was sopn recognized as the leader of
 his party. The mantle of Calhoun had fallen upon him. And yet the mental tempers of the men were widely diff ferent Devoted as MT. Davis always
 was in his advocacy of the rights of a sovereign State, he was never pos
 sessed by the spirit of disunion; he
 never approved of the doctrine of nu,- lihcation. In his speech on the Oregon question delivered in February 1S46, he saidS From sire to son has descended the love or union Tn our hearts, as in
 our history are mingled the names of
 Concord and Camden. of Yorktown and
 Saratoga of Moultrie and Platteburg,
 of Chippewa and Erie, of Bowyer and Guilford, of New Orleans and Bunker
 Hill. Grouped together, they form a monument to the common glory of ouP common country; and where is the Southern man who would wish that that monument were less by one of the Northern names that constitute the
 mass?" And in reply to an invitation | to attend festival at Boston in Janua- ry, 1859, in honor of the birthday of Daniel Webster. he sent in a formal
 letter cordial greetings to the friends of the constitution, and asked to be enrolled among those whose mission is. by fraternity and good faith to every constitutional obligati tion, te insure that, from the Aroostook to San Diego, from
 Key West to Puget Sound. the grand
 arch of our political temple shall stand unshaken." Like the mighty and
 silent Lee, who stood so nobly by his side, MT. Davis in his heart loved the Union. But the time had come when
 the resistIess march of historic events refused to pause for a moment in
 deference tp personal opinion. The temporary disruption of the American
 Commonwealth was the predestined fruit of the noxious plant of African slavery whose seeds were not sOWn by us.
 When the time for action came, the South naturally demanded that the su- pieme command should pass to the leh1e r who combined in his DarSOn fhR