The gold leaf. [volume] (Henderson, N.C.) 1881-1911, 1903-09-17

Richmond News-Leader Aug. Is.
Thirty years ago tomorrow two
men were walking side by side on the
ramparts of Fortress Monroe. One
of them was Jefferson Davis, 81
years old, the defeated, crushed and
captive leader of government over
thrown, a country desOlate and
beaten, the representative of peo-
pies bright dreams vanished and
blotted out in their best blood. He
was feeble, wasted, STOPPING and
helpless, barely able to walk, COM
PEELED to pause now and then for
rest, gasping at the free air which he
was permitted to breathe as spec
ial favor and after long denial. The
other of the two men was Nelson Ap-
pleton Miles, stalwart and sturdy,
% years old. in the very flush and
prime of vigorous young manhood,
having risen from the ranks to bre-
vet ma ajOr-general, commander of an
army corps, one of the favorite he
roes of a triumphant country and a
conquering army.
At the order of General Miles,
about three months before, on May
%, 1865, Mr.. Davis had been shack
led. The former President of the
Confederate States of America was
physically q weak, worn and sick
man. He was confined in fort with
great thickneSses of stone wall, with
many locked iron doors, trebled lines
of armed sentinels and a deep moat
with high walls between him and the
possibilities of escape or rescue. Yet
he was thrown to the stone floor of
his cell by four strong young soldiers
while guards stood by with cooked
and loaded muskets, and shackles
were fastened on his emaciated
ankles. Thus degraded and tortured,
he was kept day after day in a hot,
Shiny and fetid cell, denied a moment
of solitude or peace, with a light
blazing il, his eyes all nioht and a"
armed soldier standing guard over
him every moment of every hour.
He was denied the commonest COM
forts and necessities allowed to the
vilest convicts in our penitentiary.
Private soldiers were given the right
to insult him, and it was part OF
their duty to offend his natural
human instincts and tastes in small
and large details of life. All this was
done by the order of General Nelson
A. Miles.
Now after these thirty-eight years
Mr.. Davis sleeps peacefully in Holly
wood, with the rushing waters OF the
James river singing endless requiem
near by, with the love and reverence
of his own people for his memory ex-
pressed daily in a thousand ways,
with the growing respect of the
world for his character and princi-
pies demonstrated daily. General
Miles, after Il career OF apparent
brilliant success, after years in which.
to do him right, he did good and
valiant service for his country, is dis
missed from the command of the
army of the Union, with scant 'cour-
tesy, with curt words from his com
manding officer. which must sting
and rankle in his soul and which will
stand to belittle his record all through
history. He is wounded deeply in
his vanity, a sensitive part of every
man, but in him abnormally devel'
oped and peculiarly sensitive. There
is for the moment some Outburst ol
sympathy for him-Or rather simu-
lated sympathy from those anxious
to find cause for quarrel with the
President. But he is doomed to OBJ
scurity, to modification, to humilia
ton. We wonder if the memory o.
| those days at Fortress Monroe comes
to him in these times of his own dis
| aster and suffering in his old age
and if he thinks now and then that
| perhaps it may be retribution. BE il
remembered. as he knows well, that
the torture of the prisoner was Miles
| own act and will. He and his friend:
attempted to throw the shame OF
the secretary OF war, but the docu
ments stand to show that the com
mander at Fortress Monroe was lef
free to follow his own Judgment anC
feeling in the treatment of his pris
| Oncr.
The Progressive Farmer, long il
disrepute as n political organ, is nov
in the hands Of it's gifted editor, Mr.
Clarence H. Poe, an ideal home ano
farm paper. 1t occupies IL class b,
itself in this State and improves wit
every issue 1t should be in TIN
hands of every North Carolin;
farmer-Lumberton RObesonjaH.
NCnD CT1pnn nv pI.OnT