Page:Southern Historical Society Papers volume 38.djvu/124

 [From Washington, D. C., Evening Star]

RESTORES DAVIS' NAME.

'''President Orders It Put Back On Cabin John Bridge—Cut Out During War—Erased from Tablet by Official Order, It Is Said—No Record Ever Found.'''

'''To-day's Action Result of Years of Effort on Part of Southerners— Major Cosby's Adverse Report.'''

"The Secretary of War, by direction of the President, has instructed the chief of engineers, United States Army, to take the necessary steps to restore the name of Jefferson Davis as Secretary of War to 'Cabin John Bridge.' "

The above brief but significant memorandum was given to the press at the office of Secretary Wright in the War Department to-day. It marks the triumph of the persistent and long continued efforts of the Southern people to remedy what they considered a blot on the memory of the President of the Confederate States. At intervals since the Civil War the question of restoring the name to its former place on the bridge has been presented to Congress and the President, but without avail until the present time.

It came up during the Cleveland administration, as well as before and since that time. It was left, however, for the present War Secretary—himself a Confederate soldier—to induce President Roosevelt to order the restoration of the name so dear to the Southern part of a reunited country.

INSCRIPTION AS IT STANDS.

"Cabin John Bridge" is one of the longest and most imposing single-span masonry arches in the world. It lies on the conduit road, about six and one-half miles northwest of the Aqueduct Bridge, and was built to carry over a small valley the aqueduct conveying the water supply of Washington. Two inscribed stone tablets are built onto the masonry in corresponding positions on the south sides of the two abutments. The tablet on the east abutment bears the following inscription: