Show THE E MOST A NEGLECTED ar doffe L A abie AMERICAN M R C AN WON A lk 9 p I 1 am W wa ha qT effers on 3 a i S by ELMO SCOTT WATSON a short time there will iiii be unveiled in statuary hall in the capitol at washington a now new statue the gift of tile ali state elate of mississippi to tile tha nation nallon it has been curved in marble by augustus Augu atna Luke ninn the ho sculptor who la Is engaged in cutting 4 from tho the living rock 0 f stone mountain near benr atlanta on ga tho the martial frieze friezo that shall record the valor of tile tho men who fought under tile the stars and bars in the greatest civil war in all history lil story the loaders leaders ot of the confederate states of 0 america Amerl cn although the face of jefferson davis will appear in tho the stone mountain because became lie he was tho president of the confederacy tho the new statue of him film which la Is to have a place in sant tat vary hall will ivill be ba there not BO much because lie he was vas tile tho lead or er of a lost cause but because he was a great american the roost most neglected man of his stature in 1 a recent biographer has haa called ill bilm cud and that blo biographer grapher allen alien tate tn in ilia hla jefferson ferBon Jef davis ula ills rise and fall published ili by minton batch balch and company has an undeserved obscurity a man who played ono of 0 tile tho very fe leading roles on the american stare from 1780 to 1803 15 who wag an interesting personality null and a genuinely tragic figure it la Is not perhaps to understand 1 0 em g al wil 1 W re X davis statue abr hall rort ralto from tates jefferson davis courteau Cour tear minton A coe why davis liaa has been tills most neglected american in the eyes of the north lie was the arch rebel and tile title tide of blind prejudice and bitter partisanship which rose steadily from 1801 to its lt height in itald which did not begin to recede receda for ninny nanny years would not allow that 01 0 action of the country tasee to see him etim otherwise it wise than as a traitor in tile the eyes of 0 tile tho south ho was a misfit as M a lender leader nt at first tho the ScaP egolit in the failure of the confederacy and lit at at last a martyr whom no one intimately understood it 11 Is easy to hall la a successful rebel it Is 18 equally easy to forget an unsuccessful ono one but tho the great injustice that history has bus clone jefferson davis has haa been to remember him mainly as art lie he was during those four bitter years and what tato tate calls tile the twenty four years of anticlimax of death in life from 1805 until he died on WILY may 11 1889 what it has failed to do Is to remember him for what lie was during tho the sa M years yearn of its his distinguished career before that fatal day when he ordered general Ileaure gard to fire upon fort sumter it was a curious example of the irony of fato fate that tile the origins of jetterson jefferson davis should have so no closely resembled those of the opponent leader in this greatest of nil all civil wars dails Dav lawas was born in kentucky a benr before lincoln was born in the same state llo ile sprang from tile the same batoch ns as did lincoln for tate characterizes samuel davis tits ills father as a typically restless pioneer of the tha old southwest sturdy plain hardworking hard working painfully honorable and deeply religious not faring very very well nor taking to the ilia air clr of a superior class un aristocratic for thero there was no aristocracy in the primitive day of the front frontier ler ills restlessness led him to move hla his farally family several times from kentucky to louisiana and finally into county coubry mies the lost last move proved to be the deciding one in tile the career of jeff jefferson erson davis for this was waa the lona land of king cotton and as tato tate says saya the transformation of the davis family in one generation from insecure small farmers into great planters aud and the growth of the patriarchal iden idea whereby samuel davis a plain roan man became the symbol of 0 knightly grace this process of expansion in one family la Is the story of tho the rise of the lower south so jefferson became an aristocrat by training if not by birth from the age of six he had every advantage of education po possible kalble in that period and that schooling continued through his graduation from west point there o he was looked upon as the typically southern west rotgut er r nis presence conduct and mariner manner indicated self elf esteem pride determination personal mastery white while serving as an a lieutenant at fort crawford in wisconsin under the command of COLIX col zachary achary taylor lie he tell fell in love with tile the colo nets bels daughter sarah knox taylor and despite the objections of that officer married her then ho be resigned from the army and took his bride back to 0 o hla hil mississippi homo home with him but within three months sha had lied died it was the first tragedy in a davis career after the death of hla his wife davis datla withdrew into the strictest seclusion and tor for tin next ten years bo be devoted ills his time to tb directing the affairs of bis big plantation tatIon a fortune from cotton and ana applying himself to reading anti and study of political philosophy political economy and public law 1 it was durking this period that he determined upon al a political career caecer co i was ii a JOm democrat oeral a statis mt atis rights man and a follower of calhoun rather than of jackson and as such was elected to congress in 1645 he be married bliss varina during davis first session its as a member of the house of 0 representatives he res resigned I 1 ened to lead a regiment of volunteers from mississippi lito into mexico ilia 1118 old west point training ining came linto into play and he drilled ills hla men to the degree thit mide made him unpopular with them ile he was ever the martinet lie ile served gallantly in Bl mexico exico especially nt at buena vista in the latter engagement tits lila father inlow inlaw in low law general taylor advised him film to leave the field so BO badly wounded wits lie he but ho he remained all that day with his men in 1817 1847 18 17 davis was vaa appointed to nil fill out a term in inthe tile senate tills was wag followed by nn inn elected elate d term jn in tho the same body but lie ho resigned in 1851 only to bo be reelected elected re in 1857 serving until his state from tile union tn ili 1801 1861 As senator lie he was tile lender leader of the sout southern heru democrats tat taking ing the plate place made vacant by calhoun when pierce became president all knew that jefferson dails would be high in ili tho the government under hlin blin so conspicuous ans lila ills notional national status at that time lie ho was pol the portfolio of the war department and became secretary of 0 war of tile the united states in 1851 ills ilia services were of 0 conspicuous value to tle tile country anil and elicited praise even from hla his one enemies enem niles jes ills ilia previous services ds ns chairman of the contil committee littee on military tary affairs in the senate had greatly helped to equip him for the important work of the war department davis career as secretary of war Is but little known to roost most americans but it was upon his acts in that post that tits his principal claim to being a great statesman rests with le thoroughness ough ness lie ho began to institute needed reforms in the army ile he for b bogli th and privates an increase in pai for foro living expenses had increased 40 per cent while wares wages had remained stationary ile ha enlarged tile standing army and lie adopted the most lin proved equipment la arms and ammunition that tile the period afforded adolf lional forts aud and arsenals were erected and the signal corps service sen ice was perfected lee was waa nt at this time all superintendent pert tit eident of west point so davis through him lint hail a thorough investigation vesti gation of that institution and its curriculum made with tile result that both were improved so that our national military academy was said to bo be the equal of tiny any st rallar institution anywhere in the world it Is also worthy of mention that tant lie he was placed in charge of completing the national capitol and lie he and ills his architects architect planned find started the buildings of the file senate mid house wings of that great structure strut ture As a dreamer d earner of an empire and a planner for it davis has been compared ard and not unfavorably to washington jefferson anti jackson Tran and the joining of our widely separated coasts seemed to have interested hint film intensely lie ile introduced camels lato into the country hoping that they would solve tho problems of travel and transportation across the arid sou southwestern deserts lie ile ordered theli survey for it a route for a transcontinental railroad rall rond and Is quoted as saying regarding it the military necessity for such means of transportation aal the need for safe and rapid communication with the pacific slope if wo we are to secure its continuance as a part of this union Is apparent ile he even contemplated tho the feasibility of at a panama railroad rail road under the control of this government but of all these the thing which was foremost va rhia kowell dams A 3 ldavis davis memorial V in his mind was the transcontinental railroad settlers were continuing to press westward and form settlements which would sometime be santes of the union getting their products through the mountains to the eastern const coast would be an ex pensive and difficult process A railroad front memphis to charleston through and atlanta was already under wui way and ninta a second one was wa 9 planned through jackson to mobile these endeavors set davis planning a road from mem pills to california the roads would join the south and the west and would be adequate to handle tra trade de diverted down to the south instead of going to the last east in order to carry out his fits plin plan pl in it was feces sary nary to send groups of engineers along the time three PO possible isible routes to california MIKII information of the new west was thus accurately obtained and laid before the members of congress the route most favored was that to the extreme passing with difficulty through new mexico an all obstacle easily avoided by the purchase ot of lan land lying to the south and known a as tile the purchase which was obtained from mexico by br gadsden for foi coexistent co existent with that nation developing plan there ran another which our modern modem times la Is seeing carried to success it was nothing less thin than the dream of securing protectorates protector protect orates atea over central america and parts of nicaragua cuba had at first been included in this vision of wider boundaries daries for the united states but that dream was waa shattered la in tho the ostend manifesto davis saw clearly enough that travelers and cargoes of commerce made their chosen passage to the pacific through nicaragua it was one of natures routes and the line of it future railroad or canal through 11 a man named walker who furnished american forces to aid a revolution in that country davis came close to realizing his altu aim but events came to 0 o pass that frustrated not only tills this scheme to create a sphere of influence to the south but tits also that great plan of arterial rail building to tile west the slavery dispute was beginning to reach an acute stage and the north opposed davis schemes for the western expansion on the ground that it meant the inevitable extension of slavery into the new territory in ISAI 1850 davis was okien in the senate the war clouds were already beginning to gather and a committee was appointed to draw up a compromise to prevent the danger chinger of a cayll war ile he was a member of that committee but before its plan was waa completed south carolina had find seceded receded and when mississippi followed her out of the union davis resigned from tile lie senate on february 16 1801 william lowndes yancey tho the foremost orator of the south stepped out on the gallery of the Exclia lige hotel in montgomery ala ain and bowing to tile the grott great throng of people below him pointed to tile the tall erect figure which stood beside him film unit and said tile the man and the hour hive met the mon man was jefferson davis bavta and the hour was ills inauguration as president of the confederate states of america it was also the hour when two lwft seemingly irreconcilable systems of society and economy came to grips in a death struggle and the fate of a nation hung in the balance if jefferson davis had bad bien been other than what he was what Is now the one nation of the united states might have been two nations hut it Is not that because he was according to hla his latest ill bt one of the groat great and admirable failures of history according to title davis failed because lie ile could not manage rien men and he was too great a character to let men manage him that Is the tragedy of his big career lip ile was a pedant who never understood tile he political real reality alty behind the political law every of political Icat theory gave hiu him a shock and this was mostly what he received ret rec elved front tile alie election of a sectional president dent abraham lincoln ille he was n southern intellectual who cast ills lot with the orles orlea and fell before the onslaught of facts just how ninth much lie he contributed to tile the failure of the confederacy can never be estimated exactly fol there were so many factors other t thon 1 ion tits hla weaknesses which contributed to that failure but it if the south came to blame him in me bitterness of its defeat the time came when as tate says sas lie ho received at last the adoration of tits hla people ile he was the president until he died 1 and their affection for him irl li recent years took the form of a lofty obell obelisk sk a stone monument second only in height to the washington monument which was dedicated at his birthplace near fairview ky last year the statue which Is to be unveiled in statuary hall ball Is another emblem of that feeling but bat lus more than that it la in a tardy tribute to the most neglected american Americ tun whom all americans can lastly justly honor |