Page:Confederate Veteran volume 01.djvu/11

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CONFEDERATE VETERAN.
5

had. Shaw married in Mississippi, and he preached while teaching.

Jefferson Davis was sent again to Kentucky, and placed at the Transylvania University, near Lexington. Afterward he was one of six United States Senators who were fellow-students at that University. At the early age of fifteen he was given a cadetship at West Point.

Here is a literal extract from his dictation: "When I entered the United Suites Military Academy, that truly great and good man, Albert Sidney Johnston, had preceded me from Transylvania. Ky., an incident which formed a link between us, and inaugurated a friendship which grew as years rolled by, strengthened by after associations in the army, and which remains to me yet, a memory of one of the greatest and best characters I have ever known. His particular friend was Leonidas Polk."

Mr. Davis then gives an account of Polk's religious convictions, and of his joining the church. It is known that he afterward was a Bishop in the Episcopal Church. Polk was a Lieutenant General, in the Western Army with Gen. Jos. E. Johnston, whom he confirmed into church membership only a few weeks before he was killed by a cannon shot from the enemy. The dictation ended too early. In referring to it, he said to his wife, "I have not told what I wish to say of Sidney Johnston and Polk. I have much more to say of "them."

The history starts on from the dictation in a manner worthy the distinguished wife.

Our people generally know quite well how meanly the publishers treated the author in regard to the royalty on her book, and that she succeeded in stopping its sale when they owed her a little more than $4,000. When legal technicalities are removed, and she can procure what is due her on sales, there will no doubt be many orders given for the work, both because of its merits and the wish to show an appreciation of her noble service in its presentation.




FROM TWO TRIBUTES TO MR. DAVIS.

In one of the successful entertainments given at Nashville for the benefit of the monument fund, there were two short addresses, from which the following is taken. Col. H. M. Doak, the first speaker, said:

"Jefferson Davis built his own monument firmly in the history of his country—a heritage for the world. It rises, firm and true, out of his struggles as a typical American youth; out of his service to his country on the fields of Mexico; out of his planter's life, adorned by domestic love and the affection and confidence of neighbors and slaves; out of his earnest, stormy political struggles; out of his able organization and support of the American military system, as Secretary of War, and as a statesman; out of his far-sighted projection of a transcontinental railway; out of his long and able career as a statesman; out of his faithful struggle to preserve the Union as it was, and out of his sad but resolute departure to enter upon inevitable civil strife; out of his able civil administration as President; out of his capable preparation for and conduct of war; out of his clear and able State papers; out of his unfaltering devotion to civil liberty, in the midst of arms, when laws are silent; out of his preservation of the forms and spirit of civil government, when the military necessity for a dictator must have tempted him strongly to sweep aside all that stood in the way of the military arm; out of his stubborn endurance in war: out of the ignominy of unjust chains and prison; out of his long and dignified endurance of obloquy; out of his life as a man and a citizen, a neighbor, husband and father; out of his quiet but able part in church and business assemblies, when he was denied all part in political affairs. Out of these conditions of his busy life rises the monument he builded—more enduring than bronze or marble. To ourselves we owe it to build a material monument symbolic of these virtues."

Mr. Arthur H. Marks, of Winchester, gifted, and of great literary promise, but who has since died—he was the son of the late ex-Governor Marks—said:

"Jefferson Davis was the man not only of his generation, but of his day. His unique personality would have fitted nowhere else. His destiny was as broad as his country, and there was no other gap of American history wide enough to receive it. To us, as to all the world, he still stands for the Confederacy. He was covered with it. Between the dates of his birth and death was written all of that stormy chapter. In the name of Jefferson Davis we must raise a monument to the Old South, for in his long career the glory of that Old South lies like a sword within its scabbard, inclosed from hilt to tip with years of precious service. To you Confederate veterans Jefferson Davis is a memory, but to the young men of the South he is an inspiration. For you he revives the past, but for us he animates the future. To you be is a majestic figure of battle smoke looming up in the haze and distance of a generation ago, but to us he is a living presence, an example of a man striding on before all of our ambitions, showing us by his knightly footsteps where we should tread."



A CHRISTIAN'S NEW YEAR GREETING.



To My Dear Aunt, S. E. B.:


Again the clock of time doth strike, 'tis eighteen ninety-three;
Again the love-chords of my heart, dear aunt, I'll tune for thee.
Our Father in His wisdom hath kindly shut from view
All that the coming future shall bring to me and you;
But may His richest blessings be sent thy heart to cheer,
And may no bitter sorrow becloud thy glad new year.
The angels sang a chorus of "peace on earth, good will;"
May the spirit of that anthem our hearts forever fill!
Again, the loving words, "I'll not leave thee, nor forsake,"
Inspires our fainting energies, and we fresh courage take.
Thus on and on we Journey, still trusting In His word,
Waiting still and watching for the coming of our Lord.
With the rapids almost past, we can see within the veil—
Our God doth hold the rudder, and safe will be our sail;
And when we reach the haven we'll lay our burden down,
And with the many ransomed receive the promised crown.

Jacksonville, Ala., Jan. 1, 1898. Mary D. C.


The recipient of the above stands first in practical advancement of the Monument cause.


Please supply information to this journal about contributors to Confederate Homes or Monuments.