Bogalusa enterprise. [volume] (Bogalusa, La.) 1914-1918, 1916-07-04

much Dragging is iDdu!sed" His
speeches then would apply now.
He was citizen of all time, a
| patriot with large prospective.
Through all his public utterances
before 1851 there breathed a con-
seriousness Of impending calamity.
His constant PRAYER was to avoid
bloodshed, but he had a conviction
and that conviction was the domi.
nant force of his life. Where it led
he had the courage to follow.
Neither Washington nor Wellington
created the conditions that made
their names immortal, nor did Mr..
Davis create the conditions of his
time. His turburlant life hurled
him into the midst of those condi.
/ tons.
The conflict was inevitable. The
theory Of state rights held that the
founders of the constitution did not
intend to create new nation. but
only a new government. that the
Federal government, was not the
sovereign, Dor had it the sovereign
powers except such functions as
had been delegated to it by TIE
states. The national theory, on the
contrary, held that the Federal
government was sovereign; that the
states had ceded their sovereignty to
it. Between theories so antagon-
istic and so resolutely held by
courageous men, the only arbitor
was the field OF battle.
have not time to discuss the
terrible experiences during the four
years that followed, nor would l..
if | could discuss here the two years
of suffering and needless t,umilia-
ton of this proud spirited southern
er that followed his defeat, but suf>
flee it to say that no public man
! living or dead has gone through the
perilous political conflicts of a gen.
tleman with more stainless name
than did Jefferson Davis.
Soldier, senator and cabinet mem.
ber. gallant, able, active and eff.
Gent, always positive and ageres-
sive, stimulating antagonism and
resentment, yet no man has ques.
toned his patriotic devotion, his
integrity, or the purity of his char
acter....a man ilDpelled by motives
unattainable by petty or ignoble
passions, guided by a character OF
sterling frmness and more than
common purity with devotion
that eliminated at the close of a
turbulant life in the highest type Of
a patriots love. Such a life, wheth.
er in victory or in defeat, whether
in public or private, is an enduring
asset in the higher development
Of a republic.
Arising from the ashes of that
titanic struggle, the men of the
North and the men of the South
faced each other with a courage
unsurpassed in all the history of
the world. There has been victory
and defeat, but the blood of the
race made it impossible for either
to be conquered. They faced each
other as unconquerable men, with
out apology or excuse for the past,
and together they TURNED the same
way to settle their differences in
their own way and to work out the
destiny of this republic as no other
people could and as only men of
heroic mould can. The tragic mo.
ment in our history, met by master
minds and hearts, reveals the SUI.
perior character and the SURPRISING
greatness of the American people.
Out of it has come new Republic,
cemented forever by the blood of
her citizens, whose battles of the
future will be fought not with shot
and shell, but with logic, reason and
moral force. people as pure as