The Bamberg herald. [volume] (Bamberg, S.C.) 1891-1972, 1919-06-12
HE SERVED HIS
PEOPLE FAITHFULLY

| Wis was most successful. He reOr-
ganized, enlarged and improved ev-
cry department in the army; built
the aqueduct to bring water into the
District of Columbia, superintendent
the extension of the capitol, and had
several surveys made to find suit
able route for Pacific railway.
cat the end of the Pierce admins
! tration Davis was reelected to the
senate. From this time on he led
the Southern senators in opposition
to anti-slavery aggression. He con-
stantly put forward the views of the
South on slavery, State rights, State
sovereignty and secession, and in
1850 secured the adoption by the
senate of set of resolutions embody-
ing these views. He seems not to
have realized the real significance of
the Northern opposition to slavery.
Davis was opposed to secession ex-
cept as a last resort, and after Lin
coins election advised the leaders of
his State against it, but his advice
was disregarded. After secession was
accomplished he hoped for reunion
until Sumter was fired upon. On Jan
uary 21, 1861, he took his leave of
the senate, returned to Mississippi,
and was made major general of State
troops. Meantime the delegates Of
the seeding States met at Montgom-
cry, organized a provisional govern
ment and elected Davis provisional
president. There was no other strong
candidate for the Office. The princi-
pal opposition to Davis was that he
was too moderate. On February %,
1852, Davis was inaugurated presi-
dent under the permanent constitu-
ton.
''The public life of Davis from
1876 is inseparably connected
with the history of the Confederacy.
Reluctant to think of war, and hop
ing for reunion, he yet urged proper
preparation for Independent exist
ence, but found the Southern people
possessed with the idea of peaceable
secession. He organized the govern
ment with a cabinet of fair ability
Everything had to be created, there
was no civil service, no army, no
navy, no funds, few factories, and a
people opposed to heavy taxation.
Yet under such conditions Davis had
working government from the first.
All that could be made of the situa-
tion was made, but it is now easy to
the chief executive of the Confedera-
cy. His disagreements with Johnston
and Beauregard, his faithfulness to
Bragg and Northrop, his lack of tact
in his relations to those who dis
agreed with him, were the causes of
weakness. Difficulties were inherent
in the nature of the Confederacy.
The people were believers in State
sovereignty; yet to carry on gov
ernment, strong central govern
ment, was needed.
efforts to make the Confederate
government more efficient met with
strong opposition from the States and
from leading individuals. Reverses to
the Confederate armies resulted in
the development of a peace party.
The removal of the capital to Rich
mond under the border State infu-
ence caused the Southwest to be neg
lected and hence resentful. Davis
had certain characteristics which in
jured his influence. He was frequent
ly mistaken in his Judgment of peo-
pie, both in his friends and in those
who opposed his policies. He was
accused of partialities in his appoint
ments, and of leniency toward Offend
ers and incompetents. But it is GER
tain that the South had no other
leader who could have succeeded bet
ter.
AFTER the collapse of the Confed-
eracy, Davis tried to make his way to
the trans Mississippi department for
the purpose of continuing resistance,
but was captured in Georgia May 10,
1865, and carried to prison in For
tress Monroe, charged with treason.
Here for two years he was kept in
close confinement, badly treated for
a time and never brought to trial.
In 1857 he was admitted to bail,
and year later the Indictment was
dismissed.
During the last months Of the
war Davis had been distinctly unpop-
ular; i'll treatment and Imprisonment