by J. Scheibert, Major in the Prussian army.
[The following article chiefly condensed from the noble oration of
Hon. John W. Daniel before the General Assembly of
Virginia, January 25, 1890, was sent to the editor by the chivalric
Major Scheibert, in extracted pages from the
Annual Register of the German Army and Navy, December 1891, in which other articles contributed by him and herein referred to, also appeared.
The tone of the article and some of its definite expressions would indicate that the character of
Mr. Davis and the cause and exemplification of the
South in the recent war between the States is justly estimated in
Germany.
The editor is indebted to his friend,
Mr. Samuel H. Pulliam, of this city, for the translation.]
He swayed States, and led the soldiers of the Union—and he stood accused of treason in a court of justice.
[407]
He saw victory sweep illustrious battle-fields—and he became a captive.
He ruled millions—and he was put in chains.
He created a nation; he followed its bier; he wrote its epitaph—and he died a disfranchised citizen.
But though great in all vicissitudes and trials, he was greatest in that fortune which lifting him first to the loftiest heights, and casting him thence into the depths of disappointment, found him everywhere the erect and constant friend of truth.
He conquered himself and forgave his enemies, but bent to no one but God.
In these pages have been recorded the deeds of the former leaders of the so-called army of the
Rebellion, and short sketches of their lives given.
We refer to the biographies of
R. E. Lee,
Stonewall Jackson,
J. E. B. Stuart,
Mosby,
Forrest, etc.
We believe that the
President, prominent in position and revered by all the above-named generals in spite of manifold points of difference, is well worthy to be ranked among these portraits as original as they are significant; and so much the more since rarely has a purer character been more unworthily treated and more falsely judged in history, by a generation incapable of judging.
May these lines contribute to the end that history will become more just to a pilot who steered his ship of state in storm and danger, in calamities and evil times, faithfully, courageously, and skilfully through five troubled years.
If the leaky vessel sank at last it was entire exhaustion of all its resources, and the will of a being stronger than human hand which permitted the catastrophe.
But the vessel did not go to pieces, for with new courage and fresh power the
South raises itself from the ruins to which the war had reduced its resources; already it takes a bold start, even taking precedence of the proud
North in industrial enterprise.
If, through the abolition of slave labor the cultivation of cotton and of tobacco has been diminished and ‘King Cotton’ buried with it, yet the whole
South, whose States had united to free themselves from the arrogance of
New England, springs up lustily in other departments, and even in literature.
The purity of character of their leader, and the satisfaction with which they can look back on those deeds by which they struck for years, almost always victoriously, opponents who were two or three fold their superior in numbers, contributed not a little to the strong self-consciousness of the subjugated.
Not a little contributes
[
408]
also to this end the tone of high idealism which their great leader and
President,
Jefferson Davis, knew how to inspire.
After the Revolutionary war a certain
Samuel Davis, who had fought bravely in it, settled in
Kentucky.
By a remarkable coincidence in the same year, 1782, also a certain
Thomas Lincoln emigrated from
Virginia to this State.
Jefferson, the son of the first named, was born June 3, 1808, and February 12, 1809, Abraham, the son of
Lincoln, was born—both in the same State, as the exceedingly interesting ‘
Southern Historical Society Papers’ have informed us.
Samuel Davis happened to emigrate to the
State of Mississippi.
His son entered the Military Academy at
West Point, and there graduated as lieutenant.
Soon he was stationed on the frontier, where he had an opportunity to fight the Indians.
Abraham Lincoln settled in the
State of Illinois, and fought as captain of a volunteer company in the same war in which
Davis was engaged.
The author of the brilliant oration from which we take the details of this article,
John W. Daniel, makes in this connection the following not uninteresting remark.
John Hampden and
Oliver Cromwell had once engaged passage for
America, and
George Washington was about to become a midshipman in the
British navy.
Had not circumstances changed these plans,
Hampden and
Cromwell might have become great names in American history.
And suppose
Admiral George Washington, under the colors of King George III, had been pursuing the
Count D'Estaing, whose French fleet hemmed Cornwallis in at
Yorktown—who knows how the story of the great Revolution might have been written!
Had
Jefferson Davis gone to
Illinois and
Lincoln to
Mississippi, what different histories would be around those names; and yet I fancy that the great struggle with which they were identified would have been changed only in incidents and not in its great currents.
In the year 1835
Lieutenant Davis resigned his commission, married
Miss Taylor, of a distinguished family, and undertook the management of his estates in
Mississippi, devoting his time to politics and agriculture.
Exactly the same preparation had the most noted statesmen of the
South—Washington and almost all his distinguished successors.
They came, as did
Jefferson Davis in 1843, from a Southern plantation, where they were at the head of a happy family and well-ordered house, in which the slaves were members of the household, and cultivated in these simple surroundings idealism, dignity, energy and the fundamental sciences, which they could turn to such advantage later.
[
409]
Davis served the
State in many ways, once as member of the House of Representatives, three times as
Senator, furthermore as colonel and leader of the volunteer troops which fought in
Mexico; twice was he nominated as candidate for
Governor of
Mississippi.
In the war against
Mexico it was
Davis who, in the crisis of the
battle of Buena Vista, took the enemy between two flanks and drove back the
Mexican Lancers.
‘
Colonel Davis,’ says
General Taylor in his report, ‘although severely wounded, remained in the saddle even until the close of the battle.
His conspicuous coolness and courage at the head of his regiment entitle him to special distinction.’
In the fiftieth year of his age
Davis was made
Secretary of War, in the
Cabinet of
President Pierce, and it was when in this position that he caused
Captain McClellan, afterwards
Commander-in-chief of the Army of the Potomac, to be sent to the Crimea, to observe and report the progress of the war. In this position
Davis already showed his military knowledge and his great talent for organization.
He introduced iron gun-carriages and had the heavy guns cast hollow instead of boring them after casting, increased the army by two cavalry and two infantry regiments, improved the regulations—especially by the introduction of light-infantry tactics—armed the foot soldiers with rifles and gave greater efficiency to the sanitary department.
He turned his whole attention to the
West, conducted the taking up of lands on the borders with great energy, and constructed new forts and magazines in the endangered territories.
There was observable everywhere a steady, well directed, and energetic hand, which let nothing escape that could be serviceable to the army and the country.
He also looked after the material well-being of the army by the increase of pay, and by pensioning the widows.
In doing this he was far from being a narrow-minded partisan.
He selected his officers, not from favoritism, but chose them entirely according to their capacity.
To his expert judgment was committed the construction of the additions to the public buildings, and also the plan for the first great railroad, which was to unite the
Mississippi with the great ocean.
This splendid and fruitful period of the life of
Davis ended with the presidency of
Pierce in the year 1857.
Davis appeared as a politician in 1843, and, indeed, as leader of the
Democratic (Conservative) party of
Mississippi.
We pass over the different phases of the internal political life of the
Union, in which the chasm which separated North and South was growing ever wider.
We can refer to only one incident and two speeches,
[
410]
the first of which
Davis made on the occasion of his defence of the new railroad line,
Mississippi-still Ocean, and in which he with glowing patriotism praised the strength of the bond which held together States of the
Union; and the other of which was made by a man who, as a genuine radical, had opposed the war against
Mexico as unnecessary and unconstitutional.
This other speaker said in a certain way eloquently giving a motive for the secession of the
Southern States: Every people who have the will and power for it possess also the right to rise, shake off their government and establish a new one which suits them better.
1 This is an invaluable, sacred right which will at some time free the world.
But this right is not limited only to cases in which a whole people is united in rising in arms; but even minorities have the right to revolt and establish their independence, etc., etc.
And who, asks
Daniel, was this man who in a certain manner pressed into the hands of the
Southern States, the right of throwing off a hated government?
It was
Abraham Lincoln, who made this speech on the 12th of February, 1858, in the House of Representatives.
The one who praised and invoked the concord of the
Union was, by his contemporaries, stigmatized as traitor.
The other is esteemed and venerated to-day by many, as the defender and preserver of the
Union!
Even the opponents of
Davis admired the warmth of heart and irreproachable nobility of mind which governed his life.
Even his greatest political opponent,
Clay, always called him his friend.
This is not the place to set forth the motive for the ever growing rupture between the States.
2
Only as a curious fact for the superficial critics of the whole conflict, it may here be stated that at the beginning of the settlement of the country, the
Southern States had a greater aversion to slavery than the
Northern States.
From 1720 to 1760,
South Carolina unceasingly protested against the introduction of negro labor.
Georgia forbade it by law.
Virginia decidedly opposed it and levied a tax of ten dollars on each negro.
They were originally forced to adopt this system through the avarice of the
English merchants, and the despotism of the
English ministers which had later, certainly for the
South, its demoralizing features.
[
411]
It was the
South also which at first prohibited the slave trade, and
Virginia at the head.
When
Jefferson Davis was born, the slave trade was in the hands of only Northern merchants who had made terms with the slave planters of
South Carolina.
Other curious facts may here be introduced.
A statue of
Lincoln was executed, which represented him as loosing the chains of the slave.
What would the beholder say if the following words which he wrote after the secession of
South Carolina were chiseled on the pedestal: ‘Does the
South really fear that a republican administration could directly or even indirectly interfere in its slave affairs?
The South would in this matter be just as safe as in the time of
Washington.’
Or what he wrote on the 4th of May, 1861: ‘I have not the intention of attacking the institution of slavery; I have no legal right, and certainly no inclination to do it, etc., etc.’
Again, January 10, 1861,
Jefferson Davis, like
General R. E. Lee, earnestly strove for the reconciliation of the States, and those were not the words of an ambitious, self-seeker; but of a troubled patriotic heart, when he said, ‘What, senators, to-day is the condition of the country?
From every corner of it comes the wailing cry of patriots in pleading for the preservation of the great inheritance we derived from our fathers.
Is there a senator who does not daily receive letters appealing to him to use even the small power which one man here possesses to save the rich inheritance our fathers gave us?
Tears are trickling down the faces of men who have bled for the flag of their country and are now willing to die for it; but patriotism stands powerless before the plea that the party about to come to power adopted a platform, and that come what will, though ruin stare us in the face, consistency must be adhered to, even though the government be lost.’
On the 20th of January,
Mississippi united with the secession movement, and thereupon
Davis resigned his seat.
It will also interest our military readers (for here state-craft and the art of war are closely connected), to recall the words of the future
President of the seceded States on parting from his former colleagues.
‘In the course of my service here, associated at different times with a great variety of senators, I see now around me some with whom I have served long.
There have been points of collision; but whatever of offence there has been to me, I leave here.
I carry with me no hostile remembrance.
Whatever offence I have given, which
[
412]
has not been redressed or for which satisfaction has not been demanded, I have, senators, in this hour of our parting, to offer you my apology for any pain, which in the heat of the discussion, I have inflicted.’
‘It is known to senators, who have served with me here, that I have for many years advocated, as an essential attribute of State sovereignty, the right of a State to secede from the
Union.
But I hope none who hear me will confound this expression of mine with the advocacy of the right of a State to remain in the
Union, and to disregard its constitutional obligations by the nullification of the law. Such is not my theory.
Secession is to be justified only upon the basis that the States are sovereign (which was guaranteed in the
Constitution). There was a time when none denied it.’ * * *
‘My opinion was the same then that it is now that if
Massachusetts chose to take the last step which separates her from the
Union, it is her right to go. (
Massachusetts was an opponent of the
Southern States) * * and I will neither vote one dollar nor one man to coerce her back; but I will say to her “ God speed” in memory of the kind associations which once existed between her and the other States.’
‘I know that I express the general feelings of my constituents towards yours when I say we cherish no ill — will towards you. In the presence of my God I want to say that I, and certainly my friends, wish that it may be well with you. I hope and they hope for peaceable relations with you, though we must part.
They may be mutually beneficial to us in the future as they have been in the past, if you so will it. The reverse may bring disaster on every portion of the country.
And if you will have it thus we will invoke the God of our fathers, who delivered them from the power of the
British lion, to protect us from the ravages of the bear.
And thus, putting our trust in God and in our firm, hearts and strong arms, we will vindicate the right as best we may.’
These were the words of a warm heart and of manly vigor.
In the following order the States seceded:
South Carolina,
Florida,
Mississippi,
Alabama,
Georgia,
Louisiana,
Texas,
Virginia,
North Carolina,
Arkansas and
Tennessee; whilst
Maryland,
Kentucky and
Missouri remained divided.
Jefferson Davis, with enthusiastic unanimity, was elected president, and first
Montgomery and then
Richmond was chosen as the capital of the
Confederacy.
[
413]
The chances of victory were slight.
When a colonel, says
Daniel, once was about to demonstrate to
General Lee in what an advantageous position the Confederate army was, the latter said: ‘Put your pencil back at once into your pocket,
Colonel, for as soon as you put down the relative numbers we are already badly beaten.’
Twenty millions whites on the one and four and a half millions on the other side!
Here a great fleet, arsenals, armies, manufactories, railroads, riches and technique, an unlimited importation of resources and immigration of people capable of bearing arms; there a thin line of miserably-armed and poorly-fed soldiers, who, under the most propitious circumstances, fought against at least double their numbers, shut off from the outside world, without manufactories, &c. And yet through four years
Davis, with high courage, held aloft the banner, generally victorious and always with honor, against all these odds.
Certainly the circle of statesmen whom he had gathered about him were of the first rank, and the knights who sat at their round table have won for themselves imperishable renown.
We recall the names of
R. E. Lee,
A. S. Johnston,
Joe Johnston,
Beauregard,
Stonewall Jackson, the two Hills,
Longstreet,
Gordon and the dashing cavalryman
Stuart, the two
Lees,
Ashby,
Morgan.
These will be named among the first as long as there is a history of war.
And now the war!
How fared it?
Men are lacking, therefore must old men and boys fall in. Lead is lacking, the battle-fields are ploughed up, and women and children seek eagerly after bullets, as ours after strawberries; everything fusible in the house and in the church is made into ammunition; ordnance is lacking, the bells and sacred vessels of the altar are melted down and sound only in the thunder of battle; clothing is lacking, old pieces are patched together, war horses fall, ships are sunk; the former riders and sailors seize upon muskets and hasten on to the front.
The friendly disposed border States are held from the beginning of the war under strong control, and dare not participate!
West Virginia falls off; New Orleans is lost; Vicksburg falls, and with it the control of the
Mississippi;
Gettysburg is lost; the armies melt away; already is the battle-field become the home of the citizen; thinned-out battalions fight where divisions are needed; the best leaders fall; captains become generals, and companies are commanded by privates.
The commonest necessities of life become rarest luxuries.
Barns and farm-houses are burnt, the herds are driven off or taken away, and nothing remains but ‘man and steel’—the soldier and his weapon.
[
414]
Now fall
Atlanta,
Mobile,
Savannah,
Charleston, only fragments of the former States fight in their narrow limits, cut off from all the outside world; the small army of defence melts visibly away, and just as visibly grow the armies and courage of the enemy.
Hope dies out, and fidelity to duty alone must sustain courage.
Manly courage and woman's faith remain the last support.
The women care for the wounded and strengthen the courage of the combatants.
The men stand brave and unterrified behind
Johnston and
Lee and suffer no diminution of their immortal renown.
The fight rages around
Richmond and
Petersburg in a narrow space, and here stands
Jefferson Davis, unbowed and not disheartened, in the midst of troops bleeding to death, caring for everything as far as lay in his power.
At last nature could do no more.
The
Southerner, wasted to death by hunger and privation, sank exhausted on his shield.
At
Appomattox he fell unconquered by human hand, stricken down by inexorable fate, a hero even unto death.
And now does any one ask those to whom secesssion brought nothing except ruin, wounds, death, and misery, what they thought of
Jefferson Davis?
The answer is unanimously given from the huts to the palaces, from the
Mississippi to the
Atlantic Ocean, that the love and veneration of the whole
South has followed him to the grave, for he was a sincere Christian and a man of the greatest nobility of character.
Seldom has there been more superficial and false judgment about a war and more calumnious opinion about a man than about
Jefferson Davis and the rebellion.
May Heaven forgive the people who knowingly spread such lies!
Jefferson Davis was after the war judged not by the measure of justice but of passion.
One hundred thousand dollars reward was placed on his head.
In prison he was accused of having tortured the captured and of having plotted treason.
He was held a prisoner without a trial for two years; like a common criminal put in chains, confined in a solitary cell, in which a guard kept eyes upon him with a burning light day and night.
All this created in him neither hatred nor thirst for revenge.
The greatness of his soul elevated him above it. During this time the prying eyes of his enemies sought among the official and private papers which had fallen into their hands for a pretext on which they could pass judgment upon him. Hundreds of eyes, eager for revenge, hunted through the
Government papers which remained undestroyed, and woe to him had any evidence been found in the most secret corner
[
415]
by which they could criminate the helpless prisoner.
Joyfully would this have been greeted, for an excited multitude demanded vengeance on the hated leader of secession.
But nothing was discovered which could afford the slightest occasion for delivering the noble
Davis over to punishment, and they were finally compelled to liberate him. Most successfully has
Jefferson Davis been acquitted of the charge, believed even in
Germany, of having maltreated the prisoners.
The official reports, which are the best evidence, throw a clear light on this subject.
The contradiction of separate charges would fill volumes, but a biography of
Davis must at least touch on this subject.
In spite of the frequent and great need which compelled the
Government in
Richmond to put the army on half rations, it was determined, and a Congressional resolution made it official, that the prisoners should have the same rations as the soldiers.
The latter, it is true, seldom had anything but bacon and corn bread, and neither always fresh.
The South had 60,000 more prisoners to support than the
North, an evidence of the success of the small army, and yet at the
North 4,000 more prisoners died than at the
South.
Davis was much concerned, and complained bitterly in the presence of the writer of this article that he could not effect the exchange of prisoners, since the means were lacking in the
South of supporting the excess.
Whenever the
Union had the advantage it discontinued this proceeding, which was strictly observed by the
South.
A delegation of prisoners which
Davis sent to
Washington to entreat their own government, in the name of humanity, to put an end to this intolerable state of affairs by an exchange of prisoners, was denied their petition.
An attempt of
Vice-President Stevens to treat personally with
President Lincoln failed utterly.
The great statesman was not even granted an interview!
In January, 1864, and in the same month, 1865,
Davis begged that at least physicians, medicines, etc., which were lacking in the
South, should be sent for the many sick prisoners; that they would be well received.
No answer!
Then the offer was made by
Davis to send back to the
North,
without any exchange, all the sick and wounded whom the
South had not the means to care for.
Only after months could the
North decide to accede to this humane proposition, and thousands were now immediately sent off, without exchange, to prevent their dying, which the
North in cold
[
416]
blood would have allowed.
General Grant wrote on August 18th, 1864: ‘It is hard on our prisoners that we cannot exchange them; but it is humane for the active army.
Should we exchange prisoners we must fight the
South until the last man falls.
Should we exchange prisoners
Sherman would be beaten, and our own safety endangered.’
Grant could scarcely have paid a more splendid tribute to the
Southern Army.
To put the whole odium of this matter of the prisoners on
Jefferson Davis is a climax of injustice which condemns itself.
His life was a conflict from the cradle to the grave; but he stood in good and evil fortune great and in his deepest humiliation sublime in the strength of his soul.
He was as a man and a Christian an example in history.
Clarus et vir fortissimus.
