The Daily Ardmoreite. [volume] (Ardmore, Okla.) 1893-current, 1910-06-07
A TRIBUTE TO THE
CONFEDERATE CHIEF

that Cf a planter and he was poor
He refused donation made by the
Southern people il love, saying that
a. long as there was a Confederate
soldier or his widow or orphan in
need he would never accept a dollar
at the hands cf his people. He was
man who believed that history
should tell the truth. In his Rise
and Fall of the Contederacy,' he
speaks OF Sherman and his infamous
march TO the sea, that was shame
and reproach to the civilized world,
and he tells how Sherman deliber.
ately falsified the facts, for when
he burned Columbia TO carry out
his diction that war was hell, he
reported to the war department that
Wade Hampton mad started the
fire, probably catching the inspira-
tion from Nero who set fire to
Rome in order that the cracking
Of the flames might be an accom-
paniment to his wild, wierd fiddling
and to appease the populace, said
that the Christians had started the
fire. SO Sherman in his memoirs,
ten years afterwards admitted that
he started the fire himself, but
he made his report in order to
shake the confidence Of the people
of South Carolina in Wade Hamp-
ton. i believe that every man in this
audience will agree with me that
every negro ever born in Africa
and all his descendants, no matter
in what place they are located, were
not worth the tear of one Southern
woman who stool by the coffin of
her husband who had been sent
home from the front wrapped in a
Confederate flag and that their eter-
nal destiny was not commensurate
with the wall of the mother, over
her soldier boy CT cries of the
orphan that the cruelties of war had
made.
On December 2Sth, Mr.. Davis
peacefully passed away in New Or
leans, at the home of Judge Fenner,
of the supreme court of Louisiana.
A wall of anguish went up from
the entire South at his death. He
died before he came into his own
and before history had fully vindi-
Gated his course, but times have
changed; the war is over, and we
are all Americans, one in hope, one
in faith and one in destiny. The
gray soldier of 'o1 is now recorded
as an American citizen. Another
generation has come upon the scene
of action. Hate and passion have
given place TO justice and honesty.
There is no man who glories in
being an American citizen who
would for moment rob this nation
Of the glories of the battle of Beuna
Vista, or the movement that cleo
trified the civilized world; of the
territory that was brought into the
union by Mr., Davis; of the justice
and humanity of man; of the honor
of his character and his loyalty to
his state. Snatch this from our his
tory, then you snatch the brightest
star from the American crown.
During the war Mr.. Davis name
in raised letters had been erased
from a bridge over the Potomac that
he had built while secretary of war
Only a few months ago it was or
derei to be reinscribed upon the
corner stone and will stand en-
craven upon the marble until the
Angel of Death shall place one
foot on the trembling land and the
other on the quivering sea. Twenty
one years after his death when
ilo DtlONtu uduSl llN'l ciiSO htiu btth
called to join her father and later
her mother had gone to her home,
the uncrOwned king of the South
had come unto his own and history
has written him as an American
soldier, a statesman and a patriot.
From the Temple of Virtue he
walked through the Hall of Fame.
History is now giving him his true
place. Eternity will show the chief
tain of the lost cause at his place
among the hundred and forty and
four thousand who circle round the
Throne of God singing the psalms
of Eternity forever.