Posted on 11/19/2007 10:09:26 AM PST by BnBlFlag
Death of Jefferson Davis Remembered - The Christmas of 1889 was a sad time in the South. By Calvin Johnson Jr. Staff Email Contact Editor Print
Jefferson Davis - AuthenticHistory.com December 6th, is the 118th anniversary of the death of a great American Hero---Jefferson Davis.
The "Politically Correct" would have you forget the past...But do not forget the history of the men and women who made the USA great.
Caution, this is a family friendly story to be shared.
The Sons of Confederate Veterans have declared 2008, the "Year of Jefferson Davis." Remembrance events will include the re-opening of "Beauvoir" on Jefferson Davis' 200th birthday---June 3, 2008. This was Davis' last home that was damaged by Hurricane Katrina. The Jefferson Davis Presidential Library and Museum will be rebuilt and re-open about two years after the house. Beauvoir is located on the beautiful Mississippi Gulf Coast. See more at: www.beauvoir.org
The New York Times reported the death of Jefferson Davis;
New Orleans, December 8, 1889---Quote "A careful tally of the visitors shows that about 40,000 persons, mostly women and children, viewed the remains today. This crowd included, in solemn and respectful attendance, all conditions of Whites, Blacks, ex-Confederates, ex-Federals, and even Indians and Chinamen." ---Unquote
Davis' Death was also the page 1 story in Dixie;
Excerpt: http://www.accessnorthga.com/detail.php?n=204067&c=11
(Excerpt) Read more at accessnorthga.com ...
Should read “like all of us”
I have actually visited Fort Monroe where he was held after the armistice. The story told there is that he was a decent, restrained man, and the guards felt somewhat sheepish about confining him.
Maybe, maybe not. What history does show us is he wasn’t very good at the job, as it was detailed in the CSA constitution. He micromanaged way too much, gave in to political appointments for combat units with disasterous results (Polk, Bragg come to mind) and in the end was moving units that didn’t actually exist, as if they did, eerily reminiscent of Hitler in the last days of The Reich.
(disclaimer for you ‘Lost Cause’ types, I’m not comparing Jefferson Davis to Adolph Hitler, so don’t bother flaming me on that score).
Somebody once noted that ‘The Confederacy needed either a great stateman, or a great military leader. IN Jefferson Davis, they got neither.’
I think that about sums it up.
Good and decent yes, but his view of the Constitution was fatally flawed - as his heroic attempts to govern the South using his newfangled constitution proved to be doomed to failure.
"Died of a theory" was his own epitaph for the Confederacy.
Unfortunately, the history books tell us more of Pres. Lincoln, Gen. Grant and Gen. Lee and very little of Pres. Jefferson Davis.
‘I have actually visited Fort Monroe where he was held after the armistice. The story told there is that he was a decent, restrained man, and the guards felt somewhat sheepish about confining him.’
How the Union treated him while he was there for two years is one of the uglier post Civil War incidents you’ll never read about in any highschool history book.
I thought in the PPS special Civil War said while imprisoned at Fort monroe he was basically an outcast and died later after being released without many friends...
Perhaps I remember wrong..what is the proper histroy??? ...or has he become a hero after death???
Dixie Ping!
Wow, I got in before someone called him a “traitor”!
‘I thought in the PPS special Civil War said while imprisoned at Fort monroe he was basically an outcast and died later after being released without many friends...
Perhaps I remember wrong..what is the proper histroy??? ...or has he become a hero after death???’
He was always viewed as a ‘hero’ by the South after the war, and had thousands of friends, and hundreds of thousands that would have been glad to have made his acquaitance.
They jump when they’re told to,,only response is “How High”,,
I visited his home in Pass Christian (I think), Mississippi 20 years ago. It overlooked the Gulf of Mexico. I believe it was destroyed by Katrina.
Hmmmm. Traitor is a strong word, and I don’t think it applies to Jefferson Davis.
He, and many many others believed the South had a right to ‘succeed’ from the Union, based on their interpretation of the Constitution.
He was a traitor to the union.
The reality is that he was a pretty retiring, chastened individual after the war and there was little mileage to be made politically out of publicly befriending him or associating with him.
But he had plenty of friends and admirers, and it was much easier to celebrate him after he died than to champion him while he was alive.
The national climate was much different in 1889 than it was in 1866.
I will also point out that many former Confederates who despised him while he was alive became his biggest boosters when he died.
Federalist, States' Rights, Constitutional Originalist BUMP!!!
Where does it say in the Constitution as it existed in 1861 that individual states don’t have a right to succeed from the Union?
It doesn’t have to. Any American citizen who engages in active warfare against his country is a traitor by definition. And I don’t buy the noble states rights cause either. Remove slavery from the equation and the war never happens. Anyone who thinks otherwise is either lying or delusional. So i’m supposed to be sad that a pro-slavery traitor died and think he was a good man. Not a chance.
The states that ratified the Constitution, in so ratifying it, acknowledged Article VI, paragraph 2:
This Constitution, and the Laws of the United States which shall be made in Pursuance thereof; and all Treaties made, or which shall be made, under the Authority of the United States, shall be the supreme Law of the Land; and the Judges in every State shall be bound thereby, any Thing in the Constitution or Laws of any State to the Contrary notwithstanding.
If the individual states are bound by the Constitution as the supreme law of the land, they cannot unilaterally abolish it within their borders and replace on their own authority.
They have ceded that supreme legal authority to the United States through ratification.
Too bad the Confederate Prison in Salisbury was out of operation.
He also stayed in a house near Greensboro College. The house is still standing.
You just described George Washington in the minds of many people. The same PC sickness that is destroying the memories of Confederate heroes will soon be unleashed on the Founding Fathers. In fact, it's already happening.
An interpretation which he learned at West Point while studying the Constitution from Joseph Story's gold-standard textbook (at the time).
I'm not the grammar and spelling police, but to quiet those who are, the word is secede
Ah yes, there's always one idiot on every COnfederacy/States' Rights thread....
As did Lincoln, to be fair.
He was a traitor to the crown. He was a patriot to America. As an American I view him as a hero. Were I a Brit in 1780 I wouldn’t. Davis was a scoundrel who should not be celebrated by anyone. An incompetent scoundrel to boot who was in a war about states rights to continue a deeply immoral system.
"We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness." " In every stage of these Oppressions We have Petitioned for Redress in the most humble terms: Our repeated Petitions have been answered only by repeated injury. A Prince, whose character is thus marked by every act which may define a Tyrant, is unfit to be the ruler of a free people."
Rightly or wrongly, both sides assigned nearly all blame to Davis and elevated General Lee to a hero-status shared only by Washington in American history.
Kind of ironic, isn’t it, that one of the fruits of the Union victory was ratification of the 14th Amendment, which has basically been used to overthrow our system of government on a variety of issues ranging from abortion to Nativity scenes to homosexuality.
If anyone was a traitor to the Constitution, it was Lincoln.
“Ah yes, there’s always one idiot on every COnfederacy/States’ Rights thread....”
Still enamored with the Lost Cause are we? I’m not that sentimental. The war is over. It has been for a long time. The South lost and the South was wrong morally. I’m happy the union won.
You’re not American,,are you in Finland..??,you can tell us..
Good for you. Unfortunately, your happiness is based on knowledge appropriate to a fifth-grader in a public school.
It actually has nothing to do with spelling or grammar, “succeed” and “secede” are completely different words with completely different meanings.
LOL! In what possible way?
‘How the Union treated him while he was there for two years is one of the uglier post Civil War incidents you’ll never read about in any highschool history book.
‘Too bad the Confederate Prison in Salisbury was out of operation.’
Thats basically the attitude that led to his treatment while detained at Ft Monroe, all right....(chuckle)
Yep.
‘...gave in to political appointments for combat units with disasterous results.’
‘As did Lincoln, to be fair.’
While thats true, it has nothing to do with this. And Lincoln finally learned better. Davis didn’t, he just knew if he kept Bragg or Polk in command, he was running the risk of having bonafide officers like Longstreet resign, or Bedford Forrest, just to name two of many.
Well, you’re just doing the usual “the side that wins gets to pick the heroes” routine. I’d place Lee over Davis because he was the more gallant and competent figure, but this constant Confederacy bashing is wrong and it’ll someday backfire bigtime on the PC Cons (Politically Correct conservatives) who join with the radical lefties in trying to bury any positive memory of the South’s forces. The anti-Dixie crusade, launched about fifteen years ago by leftist senators led by Carole Moseley-Braun, is just a warm up for a future purge of the Founding Fathers.
(1) The South never had a chance at winning the war - the secession and the initiation of hostilities were two of the most colossally avoidable blunders in US history.
(2) The South's cause was not only legally flawed and morally indefensible, but its supporters at the time endeavored to misrepresent it from the very beginning.
(3) If the impossible happened and the Confederacy had managed to live for any length of time, it would have had devastating effects on the South, the North and strengthened America's traditional enemies immeasurably.
The victory of the Union was ultimately to the benefit of all the states and their people.
No American who knows his history can give unqualified praise to the Confederacy.
The same Story who said:
" The constitution of the United States, then, forms a government, not a league; and whether it be formed by compact between the states or in any other manner, its character is the same. It is a government, in which all the people are represented, which operates directly on the people individually, not upon the states; they retained all the power they did not grant. But each state having expressly parted with so many powers, as to constitute jointly with the other states a single nation, cannot from that period possess any right to secede, because such secession does not break a league, but destroys the unity of a nation; and any injury to that unity is not only a breach, which would result from the contravention of a compact; but it is an offence against the whole Union To say, that any state may at pleasure secede from the Union, is to say, that the United States were not a nation; because it would be a solecism to contend, that any part or a nation might dissolve its connexion with the other parts, to their injury or ruin, without committing any offence. Secession, like any other revolutionary act, may be morally justified by the extremity of oppression; but to call it a constitutional right, is confounding the meaning of terms; and can only be done through gross error, or to deceive those, who are willing to assert a right, but would pause before 'they made a revolution, or incur the penalties consequent on a failure."
You're probably thinking of William Rawle, whose book did allow for the possiblity of secession, and which was used for one year (1826) at West Point.
“I thought in the PBS Special Civil War said while imprisoned at Fort Monroe he was basically an outcast and died later after being released without many friends”.
Never believe anything you hear on PBS. (Radio or TV)
Here is the story of Davis’ “Second Funeral” when his Body was moved to Richmond to his final resting place as an example as to the esteem for which he was held not only in the South, but in the rest of the Country as well:
Jefferson Davis’ Funeral Train to Richmond
June 3, 2003 marked the 195th birthday of American Icon and Hero, Jefferson Davis.
The following was contributed by Calvin E. Johnson, Jr. Kennesaw, Georgia
There is a highway that begins in Washington, D.C. and runs through Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, Texas, Arizona, New Mexico, California and Oregon. Some call it the largest monument to an American.
That highway is the Jefferson Davis Highway, a memorial to a man who graduated from West Point Military Academy, served in the United States Army, was elected as United States Senator and the Confederate States of America’s first and only President-1861-1865.
This story is about a man who served his God, his family and his country. This is about the strong love the people of the South had for a man who never asked anything for himself, but was always ready to help his fellow man.
Jefferson Davis was born on June 3, 1808, in Christian County (now Todd), Kentucky. He died at the home of a friend in New Orleans, Louisiana on December 6, 1889, from severe bronchitis, complicated by malaria.
The funeral of Jefferson Davis was no simple affair. Two hundred thousand attended the services at Metairie Cemetery in New Orleans. He was laid to rest in a temporary tomb of the Army of Northern Virginia.
The events of May 29, 1893, would overshadow all other news events covered by Dixie’s Newspapers. It was the day the mortal remains of Jefferson Davis were removed from Metairie Cemetery, placed in a new casket and taken to Confederate Memorial Hall to again lay in state. On the evening of May 29, 1893, Davis’ funeral procession started toward the New Orleans railroad station where train Engineer Frank Coffin and his locomotive would start the 1,200 mile trip to Richmond, Virginia. Davis would be re-interred at Hollywood Cemetery in Richmond.
Mrs. Jefferson (Varina) Davis began three years previous to secure a special funeral train and military escort. The train was No. 69 of the Louisville and Nashville Railroad and the Conductor was George Crammer. Davis’ body was placed on a catafalque inside a converted observation car. The windows of the car were removed so the people could view the casket. The crowd was so huge that the funeral procession had a difficult time getting to the train station. The L & N train No. 69 pulled out of New Orleans at midnight.
Uncle Bob Brown, a former servant of the Davis family and a passenger on the train, saw the many flowers that children had laid on the side of the railroad tracks. Brown was so moved by this beautiful gesture that he wept uncontrollably.
The train stopped near Gulfport, Mississippi at Beauvoir which was the last home of Jefferson Davis. In Mobile, Alabama the train was met by a thousand mourners and the Alabama Artillery fired a 21-gun salute. Locomotive No. 25 was also added with C.C. Dewinney as Engineer and Warren Robinson as Fireman. In Montgomery church bells rang as a caisson carried Davis to the Alabama Capitol. A procession carried the casket through the portico where Jefferson Davis had taken the oath of office as President of the Confederacy. The casket was placed in front of the bench of the Alabama Supreme Court room. Above the right exit of the room was a banner with the word ‘Monterey’ and above the left exit was a banner with the words ‘Buena Vista.’ The significance of these words were that Jefferson Davis was a hero at Monterey and wounded at Buena Vista in the War with Mexico.
The train continued to the Georgia State line going through West Point, LaGrange and finally pulling into Union Station in Atlanta. A caisson carried the Southern Leaders body to the Georgia Capitol and there laid in state.
The Jefferson Davis Funeral Train continued through South Carolina, Raleigh, North Carolina and in Danville, Virginia a large throng gathered around the train and the people sang,” Nearer My God To Thee” as city church bells tolled.
Finally the train reached Richmond, Virginia. On Wednesday, May 31, 1893, in the morning, and Mrs. Alberta Lee Thompson described it best as follows: “On Arriving in Richmond on Wednesday morning, May 31, the body lay in state in the Virginia capitol building until final rites in the cemetery in the afternoon. With Mrs. Davis were her two daughters, Winnie and Margaret (Mrs. J. Addison Hayes) and Mr. Hayes. Six state governors acted as pallbearers. Thousands attended the service in Hollywood Cemetery, including Confederate military leaders and privates, where with the Presidential twenty-one gun salute the beloved leader was laid to final rest.”
Lest we forget those who helped make America great!
Jefferson Davis
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I’m a Republican. Jefferson Davis is a Democrat. Naturally I don’t like him.
Very little worth telling.
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