Page:Southern Historical Society Papers volume 12.djvu/345

 Letter from President Davis. 335

parallel of 36° 30', there yet remains enough to justify the expecta- tion alluded to above. The expansion of cultivation has no doubt changed the appearance of the country, substituting the useful of agricultural man for the beautiful of nature. Years ago, in its wilder state, I went over wide spreading plains carpeted with primroses, while here and there arose isolated groves of sturdy oaks, and felt the charm of a scene where nature had, on a scale too grand for man's imitation, laid out parks replete with beauty ; but the most cherished memory is that of the cordial, unconventional welcome of the gallant, free-hearted sons of Texas. Thereafter, I have said a Texan, instead of a " Highland welcome," the wide world o'er.

The approaching reunion is to bring together the men whose friendships were formed in camp, and which have the sure, enduring foundation of having been cemented under the severe tests of toil, privation, suffering, and danger by which all that is weak or meanly selfish is exposed. Happy indeed must such reunion be, and from afar I send you my warmest congratulations. Of the hardy "old settlers" who, against desperate odds, won the battles of the war for independence, of the veterans who served in the war with Mex- ico, "how few — all weak and withered — of their force wait on the verge of dark eternity."

The Romans gave to Great Britain and to the United States in the rules and articles of war the basis of the military establishments of three peoples, who have attained to the highest degree of mili- tary glory, and it was a rule among the Romans richly to reward their generals when returning successful from a foreign war, but never to grant a triumph for a victory won in internecine strife. With us the rule has been reversed, and the veterans of the war with Mexico have been the subjects of a special discrimination.

During the progress of the Texas revolution a distinguished officer left the United States army and went, unheralded, to join the struggling Texans, and entered their service as a private. His abil- ity, as well as his reputation, attracted notice, and step by step he rose to the command of one of her armies. Baptized in her service, he became her adopted son. When the war occurred between the United States and Mexico he led a regiment of Texans to join the army of the Rio Grande. Thus he was an "old settler" and "a veteran of the war with Mexico" He subsequently re-entered the army of the United States, of which he was a brevet Brigadier-Gen- eral when Texas seceded from the Union and war was inaugurated between the States. True to his allegiance to his adopted mother