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‘ [364] but with the expectation and intention of soon returning to the field. On my way to Montgomery brief addresses were made by me at various places which were grossly misrepresented at the North as invoking war and threatening devastation. Not deemed worthy of contradiction at the time when problems of vital public interest were constantly presented, these false and malicious reports have since been adopted by partisan writers as authentic history. It is sufficient to say that no utterances of mine, private or public, differed in tone and spirit from my farewell address to the Senate or my inaugural address at Montgomery.’ (Short History of the Confederacy, p. 60.) On the way from Mississippi to Montgomery Mr. Davis was made the object of the most patriotic demonstrations, which must have satisfied him that the Southern public was gratified by his election. He arrived at Montgomery on Saturday, the 16th, and was welcomed by a popular demonstration marked by enthusiasm well-tempered with the spirit which the gravity of the situation produced. His address from the balcony of his hotel the evening of his arrival was made in response to a general call, and it revealed the flow to which his feelings had risen at the close of his journey. Beginning with ‘Brethren of the Confederate States of America,’ as the opening words of the speech, he described the unity of the Southern people in blood and principles and purposes, from which he inferred a government of domestic peace and increasing growth. Touching on ‘a possible storm of war’ he predicted that the clouds would be dispersed and the sun outlive the storm. ‘If war should come, if we must again baptize in blood the principles for which our fathers bled in the revolution, we shall show that we are not degenerate sons, and prove that Southern valor still shines as bright as in 1776, in 1812, and in every other conflict.’ The Capitol hill in the fair city of Montgomery was almost literally covered, early in the morning of the
Atlanta, Ga. 1899.
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