Fitzgerald leader enterprise and press. (Fitzgerald, Ben Hill County, Ga.) 1921-1964, 1924-09-25
Turner Count, u D. C.'s Perpetuate
Memory Jefferson Davis With Marker
From the Ashburn Wiregrass Farmer,
Issue of September 10Th.

More than half century has elaps-
ed since the surrender of General
Robert f. Lees armies; and for more
than three decades Jefferson Davis,
President of the Confederate Army
has slept upon the banks of the
James Nearby twenty thousand con-
federate soldiers live bivouacked be-
side him in the bush and serene beau
ty of Hollywood, Richmond Virginia.
Time is the kindest adjustor, the most
suave diplomat. The wounds engender
ed by the strife of sixty years ago are
happily healed steady pulse beats
have succeeded the hot breath of dis
sension, and this gracious fexibility
has smoothed away perplexities and
has created an atmosphere that is both
benign and joyous.
Sectional intolerance has been sooth
ed by kindness, unselhshness and
courtesy. Wrapped in the mists OF
time, sins seem but errors of imma-
turity; and after sixty years, bitter
ness pales into insipid misunderstood
ing Wherein the past they rushed in
to battle, now in the evening glow,
there is the fine grace of heroes, ODE
| dent to duty til its last CALL they will
lingly become knight Grants to do bat
| tie against sorrow, ingratitude and
pain. And they are more than con-
querors, the survivors of those regret
able days of the sixties now see with
hearts of sympathy, thereby they have
gained a vitation of peace and walk
| blamelessly down the avenue of time
| towards the sunset.
| In Irwin county, part of which
now forms Turner, President Davis
! was taken prisoner Thus it is most
| fitting that with pure and lofty pur-
pose, the Turner County Chapter,
United Daughters of the Confederacy
have erected stone of Georgia gra
finite at the conjunction of the Nation
| al and Jefferson Davis Highways to
emphasize their devotion to the Pres
ident of the Confederacy and to honor
the surviving heroes of the Confeder-
ate Army.
In the gentleness of spirit, incapable
of malice or hate, they violate no law
of kindness when they wreathe the
name of Jefferson Davis with the
flower and breath of truth and justice.
So let it rather be counted that they
are flower bearers. Back of the stone
| 10 ttIC DlOllfC, lilC AOWCl, lllC
spirit. Which takes no stain from the
sordid or ignoble but with a more
heightened loneliness emits fragrance
| that dispels the faint of humiliation
which he suffered With a wise char,
ity, wiser than the most trenchant
icism, they have no word of repl
for those who besmirched the noble
name of Davis with uncharity, false
hood and of wrong.
The stone is in itself of little worth.
Look to the inscription, the most hon
est convictions of the Daughters of
the Confederacy seek expression: "Jef-
ferson Davis, President of the Confed-
eracy, The great Constitutionalist'
| And they Irvine about his name the
laurel and the myrtle in the light of
truth and justice, in the coutry where
he was bruised and insulted for the
cause he espoused.
| Perhaps no man in public life in
| America was ever more cruelty revil-
ed than was he, no great leader more
! flagranrly assailed, more hopelessly
misunderstood. For a time he was po-
tentially an exile and an outcast While
prisoner in custody of the United
| States government, every effort was
made to prove him guilty of treason.
But the trial came to naught. He could
not be convicted of any crime, while
| the Constitution of these United States
stood unrepealed. That great instru-
ment was the tower of his defense,
his bower of strength, his shield, his
| buckler. So answering was the allie
glance of Jefferson Davis to the funda-
mental law that he well deserves to
be called the great Constitutional
ist.' He. richly deserves that distinc-
ton.
The Turner County Chapter, Unit
ed Daughters of the Confederacy de-
sire theirs to be work of so real and
deep worth, that it will not be passed
unheeded but possessing the beauty OF
thoughtfu1ness and love, it will bring
no evil results but all essence of fair
! living and dealing If it helps to spread
devotion for the right and good, that
| will be the land in which we dwell with
a growing sense of unity, comradeship
and brotherhood, they will rejoice
most in its beneficient effect And in
kindness of spirit and with feet shod
| with the preparation of the gospel of
peace, will ever be flower bearers.
MRS. w. l.. STORY,
MRS L. w. GREEN,
MRS K. P. BAKER,
Committee