The Birmingham age-herald., 1912-06-03
Jefferson Davis Birthday

Jefferson DaYls' Birthday
 This is the birthday of Jefferson Davis, and it is legal holiday in Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Missis- sippi, Tennessee, Texas and South Carolina. In Louisiana June 3 is ob- served as a Confederate Memorial Day." and in Virginia, while it is not a legal holiady, ti is generally ob- served in the public schools.
 MT. Davis was statesman of the highest type. Trained for the mili- tary service at West Point, and serv- ing with distinction at the head of a Mississippi regiment in Mexico, he was especially we'll equipped for the office of Secretary of War in the cab met of President Pierce. As secre- tary he made many improvements in coast defenses and armaments, but it was in the United States Senate that his strong moral character and intel lectual force shone most distinctly, and attracted the attention of the country most generally in the ante bellum period.
 MT. Davis was a democrat from principle and championed the cause of democracy with note of sincerity that commanded the respect of his op- ponents as well as the admiration of his partisans. In the forensic arena he had few equals. His arguments were philosophic and consistent, and his mind was always informed by earnest conviction.
 The doctrine of states rights was passion with MT. Davis as it was, in- deed, with all the great democratic jurists and statesmen of this country. He stood squarely for the mainten- ance of slavery, but although devoted to the principle of state sovereignty, he advocated until last the preserva- tion of the Union.
 When Mississippi seeded in Janu- ary, 1861, Mir. Davis promptly took leave of the Senate and was unani- mously chosen provisional President of the Southern Confederacy by the congress which met in Montgomery. For four years he administered the executive office of the government, and while his direction of the war and his governmental policies were often severely criticized, no fair minded man ever questioned the purity of his motives.
 Col. Hilary A. Herbert, in his valu- able book, "The Abolition Crusade and Its Consequences" recently pub lished, says: "Mr. Davis feared long and bloody war and, unlike Yancey, he had doubts as to it's result"
 Quoting again from Colonel Her bert's work: Jefferson Davis and his cause failed; and the triumphant forces that swept the Confederacy out of existence have long (and quite naturally sought to bury the cause of the south and its chosen leader in ignominy. But the days of hate and passion are past; reason is reassert- ing her sway; and history will do justice to both the Confectionery and its great leader, whose ability, pat riotism and courage were conspicuous to the end" As Colonel Herbert points out, Mir. Davis was also a martyr, and in that connection he pays him this tribute: His long i'm prisonment, the manacles he wore, the sentinel gazing on him in the bright light that day and night disturbed his rest; the heroism with which he en- dured all this, and the quiet dignity Of hlS after llfe-theSe have doubly endeared his memory to those for whose cause he suffered"
 For many years after the war MT. Davis lived in retirement at Beau voir," writing his great work, "The : Rise and Fall of the Confederate Government" published in 1881, in which is discussed exhaustively states rights and in which he vindicated with manly dignity, but vigor, his policies as President.
 During the sos MT. Davis travelled occasionally through the south, and everywhere he stopped the people turned out in large numbers to honor him. Some of his short tours were