The semi-weekly messenger. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1897-1908, 1903-09-25
JEFFERSON DAVIS LAST SPEECH.
An Appeal to Temper the Feelings
of Southern People Towards the
North.

In "A Quiet Observers Column in The
Pittsburg Gazette is reprinted the fol-
lowing item from somebody's scrap
book. 1t originally appeared in The
Chronicle and Will be read with inter
est.
1T was in 1885," said a Mississippi
congressman to Henry Venable of The
Augusta (Ga) Chronicle, that the
| congressional convention of the Seventh
district met in Mississippi City and
| nominated Thomas r. Stockdale. Some
i'll feeling a been en~gendered, and We
thought the best thing to do would De
to invite Mr.. Davis. who was visiting
in town, to address the convention.
1t was a scene never to be forgotten.
The tall, quaint form, clad in black
broadcloth, as erect as a soldier on
parade, proceeded down the aisle to the
rostrum, pausing to exchange greet
ings with some personal friends. 81
lence perVadeS the hall. Mr.. Davis
turns, as he does so a long red ray OF
the setting sun falls athWart him, and
rests about a head silver white, but
now tinged with the crimson glow Of
the dying u 1t was Suggestive; the
sun soon to fade into the blackness Of
night; the incarnation Of the Confed-
eracy soon to pass away from earth
forever. AS this thought flashed
through my mind / was startled by a
sound Of that eloquently esona voice
that had renderer Mr.. Davis famous,
but hr@, --lT1 e
mournful pathos: AS nearly as 1 can
recall it, he said:
Mr.. Chairman n Fellow Citizens:
All, pardon me, the avs of the United
States no longer permit me to desig-
nate you as fellow-citizens, but I am
thankful that 1 may address you as
my friends I feel no regret that [
stand before you this afternoon, a man
without a country, for my ambition lies
buried in the grave of the Confederacy.
Aye, the grave of the Confederacy!
here has been consigned not only my
ambition, but the dogmas upon which
that government was based, the faces
I see before me are those of young
men, had l not known this ! would
not have appeared before you. Men in
whose hands the deStinieS of our south
land lie, for o Of her, l break my
silence, to speak to a few words of
respectful ~admonition. The past is
dead, let it bury its dead, its hopes
and its aspirations; before you lies the
future. A future full or golden prom
Use; a future full of recompense for hon
orable endeavor; a future of expanding
national glory, before which all the
world shall stand amazed. Let me be-
seech o to lay aside all rancor, all
bitter sectional feeling, and to take
your places in the ranks of hose who
will bring abou a contamination de-
voutly to be wished-a reunited coun-
try
Mr.. Davis continued in this strain
for half an hour or more. Every word
he uttered admonished the burial of
sectional feeling and loyalty to the
union. His speech was a fitting con-
clusion to the proceedings of that on
vention, for Colonel Stockdale, the NOM
inee, was a native Of Pennsylvania
This" continued the gentleman,
was the last public utterance of Mr..
Davis. In December of the next year
he died. The speech impressed itself
on the minds of the members Of that
convention, all of whom will attest the
truth of my statement. Its effect was
to temper the feelings or those who
heard it tward the north, and it was to
that extent one Of the elements that
has produced the conditions of today
Augusta Chronicle.
|