Page:Southern Historical Society Papers volume 24.djvu/375

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fortunate. Men do not idly erect monuments to lost can-' - 1 ame lias no trumpet lor failure. The world hears not the voice of the vanquished. Yet history might teach us strange things of men who fail and causes that are 1<>M. ( ienius did not keep Hannibal or Na- poleon from defeat; heroism went with Joan of Arc to the stake, and Emmett to the scaffold. The eloquence of Demosthenes did not savr Greece, or Cato's virtue Rome. The courage of Kosciusko availed naught for Poland, and Hungary went down for all the pa- triotism of Kossuth. Sometimes defeat gives a tragic pathos which lifts the commonplace into the immortal, and tenderly preserves the memory of the vanquished long after the victor has been forgotten. Since the death of Napoleon there has been no career which illus- trates so dramatically the vicissitudes of fortune as that of Jefferson Davis. Born amid the rugged surroundings of a frontier State, he lived to win the triple glory of the soldier, the orator, and the states- man. He became the ruler of 7,000,000 of people. His govern- ment was overwhelmed, his fortune swept away. He was bound as a criminal and prosecuted for his life. He became an exile. He was denied the rights of citizenship. He was defamed, denounced, in- sulted, ridiculed to the hour of his death. And yet he died by millions more sincerely mourned and deeply beloved than any other man in the history of the nation. If his enemies had succeeded in putting him to death he would have been the most conspicuous figure in American history.

SEE HIM AS HE IS.

When the mists of passion and prejudice have passed away the calm light of justice gives the right niche to each figure in history. The descendants of the men who burned Joan of Arc now regard her as a character of heroism and beauty. The posterity of the men who hanged witches in Salem as a pious duty now hear the story with horror. The descendants of the men who to-day look on Jef- ferson Davis with unkind expressions will see him as we do the stainless gentleman, the gallant soldier, the devoted patriot, the pure and gifted statesman.

I do not propose to discuss now the unhappy causes leading to the war between the States. It is still too soon. Criminating and re- criminating over irritating causes of differences cannot readjust what the war has settled. We must wait for the mists to clear away, and that will take another generation. It does no good to recall our wrongs, real or fancied; it keeps up partisan feeling; it gives an ex-