The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1903-11-01
SENATOR VESTS SENSATIONAL
WAR STORY.

Senator Vest is contributing reminis-
ing Post. There is no living man so ca
pable, by long and varied experience in
public life and the mastery of virile Eng
lish, to write of the leading incidents and
of the great men who figured in the Con
tederate and in the United States Senate
since 1860. In a late memoir, Senator
Vest gives story which he says was
told to him in Richmond in May, 1851,
by Senator Wigfall, of Texas, who became
a brigadier in the Confederate army and
who was afterwards extremely unfriend-
ly TO President jefferson Davis. Here is
the story Senator Wigfall gave to Senator
Vest:
When Lincoln was elected President,
and Davis and myself We're serving in the
United States Senate, 1 asked for a con-
terence between the Senators from the
Southern States. Jesse D. Bright, of In
diana, who was in ALI essentials one of
our number, being invited to be present.
After the caucus had met I submitted the
following proposition: That when the
votes of the States were placed before
the Joint session of the Senate and House
OF Representatives to be counted, as the
Constitution provided, five Senators, my
self being one Of the number should seize
the returns and carry them into an ad-
joining committee room, where they
should be destroyed. This being done,
the result of the election could not be de-
clared as the only copies of these returns
were required to be deposited with the
Secretary of State in each State, and
there was no provision in the Constitu-
tion for the use of these copies if the
originals sent to Washington were not
produced. In order to prevent interior
ence by the Capitol police or any United
States soldiers at Washington, I offered
to bring from Baltimore, where I was
well acquainted, 500 determined Southern
men. we'll armed and without fear who
would be present in the galleries AMI cor
ridors of the House, ready for any en-
Urgency. IF this had been done 4 gov
eminent de facto could have been organic
ed and proclaimed, which would have
caused the recognition of the Confederacy
by foreign nations. The only two Sena-
tors who agreed to join me were Jeffc-
son Davis and Jesse D. Bright, all the
others declaring the scheme to be i'm
practicable and dangerous"
1t is most surprising that so remarkable
story has never before found its way
into print. It will startle men who
thought they knew every important Incl
dent that led up to the establishment of
tho Confadorat 70 cta+av Of Anoar;oo Al
ready it has called forth a reply from
the only surviving member of the Cabinet
of President Jefferson Davis-the veneer
able ex-senator Reagan, of Texas. Writ
ing under the date of October 23rd, to
the Houston (Texas) Post, Judge Reagan
says
"T have known my friend, Senator Vest,
many years, and any statement of fact he
would make of his own knowledge would
not be questioned by me. But do not
believe there is a word of truth in the
statement attributed to Senator Wigfall
about President Davis and Senator
Bright consenting to the destruction of
the returns of the votes in the presiden-
tial election of 1861.
''In the first place. such a scheme
would have been both senseless and i'm
practicable, and would have been highly
criminal, dishonorable and disgraceful
Nor is it at all probable, if such a pan
had been proposed as suggested. that a
knowledge of it could have been kept
from the public for more than forty years
"The whole life of Mr. Davis was char
acterized by the highest sense of honor
and cblV11ry and mr. EVh ly11oy him
could be made to believe him capable of
entering into a conspiracy to commit d
crime, or 70 do an unlawful or dishonor-
able act
Who that ever read his great and pa
iriotie speech, on his retirement from the
Senate of the United States, could be in
duced to believe he could have approved
such a senseless scheme?
Senator Wigfall was very abe man,
but ne was a born revolutionist, and a
very reckless man, and I can conceive it
possible for him to have made such a pro-
position as that referred to by Senator
Vest, but l do not believe he would have
had the audacity to submit it to Mr.. Davis
or Senator Bright.
Il was IN Congress, and closely associat-
ed with the Southern members, and some
"iitC % Will lJdFlS lOF I0e lOuF years
preceding the war, and I never heard of
such a scheme before.
While M. Davis had very decided con,
vlctions as to the rights of the States.
and OF the people, he was always cautious
and conservative. 1t will be remembered
that when the sectional troubles were
reaching their elimination he was opposed
to the separate withdrawal from the
Union of the several Southern States, and
favored convention of delegates from
all OF them to meet at Nashville and
formulate terms upon which our rights
would be secure in the Union; or. If this
should be denied to US, that all the
States should go out together, including
Kentucky and Missouri. And this conser-
vatism was such that the extreme men
of South Carolina and Mississippi did not
take him into their councils for probably
year and a half before we withdrew
from Congress. I stated this fact on the
floor of the House of Representatives
some years ago. and Colonel Singleton. Of
Mississippi, stated the same fact on the