Page:Southern Historical Society Papers volume 16.djvu/278

 272 Southern Historical Society Papers.

nated capital of the infant Republic, Mr. Hunter was again chosen as a delegate from the Old Dominion.

It will be remembered that Mr. Toombs resigned the portfolio of the State Department and accepted service in the field with the rank of Brigadier-General. In this emergency President Davis summoned Mr. Hunter to his Cabinet. He accepted the appoint- ment of Secretary of State, and discharged the duties of that respon- sible position until the organization of the Confederate Senate, when he became a member of that body, and retained his seat, as the leading Senator from Virginia, until the close of the war. The valu- able services he rendered, both in the National Assembly of the United States and in the Confederate Congress, are well remembered. The conspicuous part borne by him when, at the instance of Mr. Davis, and in association with Vice-President Stephens and Judge Campbell, he participated in the Fortress Monroe Conference, is fresh in our recollection.

Subsequent to the conclusion of the war Mr. Hunter was for some time the treasurer of his native State. Of late years he has led a retired life, toiling for bread in the midst of disappointments and losses. At the last, we doubt not, he welcomed surcease from labor and anxieties in the repose of a simple but honored grave.

Thus do we inscribe a page in memory of one who held high office and discharged important duties in the civil service of the Confederacy.

Although only twenty-two years have elapsed since the fall of the Confederacy, the catalogue of the dead who, while in life, bore pro- minent parts in the maintenance of that government, is remarkable. Not the flight of time only, but burthensome losses, weighty dis- appointments, mental and physical tension, and unusual afflictions, have had much to do in bringing about a heavy mortality. This will increase during the next decade in a greater than geometrical ratio, and very soon there will be none among the living who bore personal allegiance to the Confederate flag. The youngest survivor of the Confederate Army and Navy well-kept benedict, or spruce bachelor though he be must surely have attained at least to his fortieth year. The head of the average soldier is silvered with age, and multitudes who were in the meridian of life when the storm raged have succumbed to the inevitable law which fixes the bounds of human longevity.

Let us see, in a general way, how the record stands.

Our venerable president still lives, and at Beauvoir enjoys a serene