The Montgomery advertiser., 1903-01-27
LEE, LINCOLN AND DAVIS
Continued from Page Five.)

ifesting capacity to command. to perform arduous duties and to win confidence and affection"
 Resigning from the army on account of broken health, he returned to Mississippi. and from 1887 to 1S45 lived the life of Southern planter, quiet, reserved, but honored and beloved by all men, ard by none more than those who served him.
 In 1883 Davis had accepted the view of Calhoun that the States were sovereign. and that it was unconstitutional to coerce a State. On the other hand, he rejected the theory of 'nullhcation' within the Union, while fully accepting as logical necessity the doctrine that sovereign State which had assented to a confeder- acy could withdraw that assent and se- cede from the Union.
 Holding these views, which he never abandoned, changed or varied, he en- tered public life in 1S45, and was at once elected to Congress
 He favored the annexation of Texas. and when war with Mexico followed, he was among the first to unshealth his sword. He went to Mexico as the colo nel of the 1st Mississippi regiment, and Davis and his Mississippi Rifles were soon the theme of song and story.
 Charge on Fort Taneria.
 At Monterey, Davis and McClung and Willis led the desperate charge on Fort Taneria, and swept over its ramparts side by side to victory; tine Mississippi volunteers, under the command of Davis, charging without bayonets and overcom- ing the enemy in a hand to hand con- f1ict as the fort was won.
 But the lustre of Monterey paled before a new glory as did the dawn of Lodi in the monday sun of Austerlitz.
 It was at Buena Vista. The tide of battle was setting against the Union arms. Regiment after regiment was broken up; in disorder, retreating. De- moraHzation was the order of moment. Officer after officer had fallen. Dismay was spreading. Defeat was imminent. Bragg was battling bravely, but almost overwhelmed. The enemy were in pos session of a commanding position, from which they were dealing death to our men. Jefferson Davis saw the situation. He realized that a crisis was at hand. There was no time to walt for orders. He saw that he must act. He called upon his men to follow him. They responded as one man. A handful of Indiana vol unteers joined them. The united force rushed on with Davis in the van. They charged the enemy in his position of command; they swept him backward by their impetuoSity. Davis and his men gained tine position. They held it. 1t proved the key to victory. But 1t had not been lightly won, nor was 1t to be kept except by desperate struggle, and a piece of strategy, conceived by Davis upon the moment, bravely and brilliantly executed by his mon, and now historic in the annals of war.
 InG MeAtCdH lAduCcTS-d UI1OuOdIlo strong-the flower of the Mexican army advanced to win back the position that had just been lost. Like the Old Guard at Waterloo-like Pickett's men at Gettys- burg-they moved grandly forward, con- fident of victory.
 Far outnumbered, Davis and his men held their ground even though deStruc- tion and death seemed well nigh inevita- ble. An English officer, in a like situa- ton, is reported to have thus adjured his men:
 '"Then order your ranks and fling wide
 your banners,
 For our souls are Gods, our bodies the
 Kings and our swords for St. George
 and for England"
 Bloody Angle for Lancers.
 Davis may not have spoken 50 eloquent ly, but he spoke to the point. With a flash of military genius that Napoleon might have praised-that an English of- ficer subsequently copied at lnkerman- Davis threw his men into the form of re-entering angle, so that as the Lancers came charging down the ridge they were exposed to a converging fire.
 Rifles to right of them, rifles to left of them, rifles in front Of them moved them down.
 The fire was deadly. The Lancers fal tered. Horse and man, they fell. Human courage could not stand the strain. They paused, they broke, they fled, and Buena Vista was won. Davis was wounded, but remained in the saddle until the day was over. General Taylor. in his official report, gave him unstintcd need of praise for valor, saying that his distinguished services entitled him ito the particular notice of the government.
 When President Polk offered to make him a Brigader General of volunteers, much as he coveted the honor, Davis de- clined. upon the ground that under the Federal Constitution there was no war rant for such an appointment by the President. . Davis may have been mis- taken in his views of the Constitution. but he was superbly honest in them, and he sacrificed himself, as always, for what he believed to be right.
 Retiring from the army because of his wound. Davis was immediately appoint ed United States Senator by the Governor of Mississippi and was regularly elected to the Senate of the United States in 1850.
 He joined in the debates upon the com promise of 1850 with great ability. and made his mark as thinker and a speak CT of much force and sincerity of pur- pose.
 In March, 1853, he became Secretary of War. and it Is not too much to say that under his administration the War Department was so thoroughly re-or- ganized and improved, that much of the success in that department during the Civil War was due to the miliatry fore sight and sagacity of Jefferson Davis. Was not this the irony of fate?
 He re-entered the Senate in 1857 and became at once leading figure in the great debates that followed. In 1S60 at one of the crucial moments In our his tory, he precipitated his constitutional views upon the country by the mtroduc- ton of State sovereignty resolutions, of which he moved the adoption by the Senate. The most momentous clause in these resolutions was that in the adop- tion of the Federal Constitution the State adopting the same acted severally as free and independent Sovereignties.
 Famous Resolutions.
 Proceeding from this premise, the reso- lutions pointed out that slavery existed in fifteen States and had been recognized as an existing institution in the apportion- ment of political power under the Federal Constitution, and then declared that 1t was the duty of Congress to protect the States in their rights and institutions, and that in no other way could a subVer- sion of the constitution be avoided.
 These resolutions were introduced in the Senate on March 1st, 1860 On May 24th the vote on the first resolution was taken and the resolution was adopted by a vote of 36 to 19 The other resolutions were adopted by almost identical votes, ana the Senate of the United States thus solemnly set the seal of It's approval on the constitutional views of Jefferson Davis. including. by necessary implica- tion. the doctrine of State allegiance.
 Is 1t to be wondered at that Jefferson Davis. who followed his State into the