Chapter 69: letters from prison.
Mr. Davis's letters will best express the cruelties of his duress, which may be read between the lines.From Mr. Davis to Mrs. Davis.
Fortress Monroe, August 21, 1865.
I am now permitted to write to you under two conditions, viz., that I confine myself to family matters, and that my letter shall be examined by the United States Attorney-General before it is sent to you.
This will sufficiently explain to you the omission of subjects on which you would de sire me to write.
I presume it is, however, permissible for me to relieve your disappointment in regard to my silence on the subject of future action toward me, by stating that of the purpose of the authorities I know nothing ...
I often think of “old Uncle Bob,” and always with painful anxiety.
If Sam has rejoined him he will do all in his power for the old man's comfort and safety.
The Smith land had better be returned to
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the heirs.1 No deed was made, and the payments were for movable effects and for interest; their right to the land, which alone remains, clearly revives, since I am unable to make the payment which is I believe due, and shall be unable to fulfil the engagements hereafter to mature; therefore, the sooner the case is disposed of, the better.
... I have the prayer-book you sent, but the memorandum placed in it was withheld . ...
... The confidence in the shield of innocence with which I tried to quiet your apprehensions and to dry your tears at our parting, sustains me still.2 If your fears have proved more prophetic than my hopes, yet do not despond.
“Tarry thou the Lord's leisure, be strong, and He will comfort thy heart.”
Every day, twice or oftener, I repeat the prayer of St. Chrysostom.
To the surgeon and regimental chaplain I am under many obligations; the officers of the guard and of the day have shown me increased consideration, such as their orders would permit.
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The unjust accusations which have been made against me in the newspapers of the day might well have created prejudices against me. I have had no opportunity to refute them by proof, ... ; and can, therefore, only attribute the perceptible change to those good influences which are always at work to confound evil designs ...
Be not alarmed by speculative reports concerning my condition.
You can rely on my fortitude, and God has given me much of resignation to His blessed will ...
Men are apt to be verbose when they speak of themselves, and suffering has a rare power to develop selfishness, so I have wandered from the subject on which I proposed to write, and have dwelt upon a person whose company I have for some time past kept so exclusively that it must be strange if he has not become tiresome ...
It has been reported in the newspapers that you had applied for permission to visit me in my confinement; if you had been allowed to do so the visit would have caused you disappointment at the time, and bitter memories afterward.
You would not have been allowed to hold private conversation with me. ...
Remember how good the Lord has always been to me, how often He has wonderfully
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preserved me, and put your trust in Him ...
Jefferson Davis.
From Mr. Davis to Mrs. Davis.
Fortress Monroe, Va., September 15, 1865.
. ... As only an occasional newspaper is given me, I cannot know whether any replies are made to the fictions published in regard to myself; as their effect is not merely to prejudice public opinion against myself, but extends likewise to those who were politically associated with me, it would not seem probable that even the timidity of this day would keep silent all whose justification is the truth ...
Tell me when you write whether your personal property, seized by the command which captured us, has been restored.
I expected Generals Johnston and Sherman would regard the expedition as contrary to their agreements and take corresponding action, which would at least bear on the question of property claimed as the capture of war. If they, or either of them, have done so, the fact has not become known to me. General Sherman, however, I observe, indignantly repels the idea of my having specie enough to buy him, at the same time declining to state his price.
All I can say on the point is that if he was to bring no more than Beadle
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Bumble did, I could not have made the purchase.From Mr. Davis to Mrs. Davis.
Fortress Monroe, September 26, 1865.
... It is true that my strength has greatly failed me, and the loss of sleep has created a morbid excitability, but an unseen hand has sustained me, and a peace the world could not give and has not been able to destroy, will, I trust, uphold me to meet with resignation whatever may befall me ...
If one is to answer for all, upon him it most naturally and properly falls.
If I alone could bear all the suffering of the country, and relieve it from further calamity, I trust our Heavenly father would give me strength to be a willing sacrifice; and if, in a lower degree, some of those who called me (I being then absent) to perform their behests, shall throw on me the whole responsibility, let us rejoice at least in their escape, expecting for them a returning sense of justice when the stumbling-blocks of fear and selfishness shall have been removed from their paths.
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The great mass, accepting the present condition of affairs as the result of the war, and directing their attention to the future issues which are involved in the changes produced, would bury the inevitable past with the sorrow which is unmingled with shame.
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