Show FALLEN CHIEFTAINS All of interest that occurs does not come to us by means of telegraph or any other way and it is too often the case that the means whereby we obtain special information informa-tion which the Associated Press and those who write to us ignore or do not know of are cast aside and paid no attention to because be-cause they are so humble and obscure wo mean the local country papers Nowhere for instance is an account of a delegation of Mississippians calling on the late president presi-dent of the southern confederacy JEFFERSON JEFFER-SON DAVIS at his home at Beauvoir Mississippi Mis-sissippi i recently the object of the call being to invite the fallen chieftain to attend the meeting of the national na-tional confederate veterans association associa-tion on the 15th and 16th of next month at Aberdeen in the same state Mr DAVIS is represented as looking remarkably remark-ably welL The spokesman Captain SIRES acting for the delegation stated its object to be the perpetuation of the association by the present means of a correct history of the late war between the sections and the causes thereof as Mr DAVIS and his cohorts berth understood them ho having been at the head and front of that struggle it was especially desirable that he b present at the organization and give the enterprise the benefit thereof as well as his beniscn > upon it The great leadcrof the lost cause in reply thanked the committee and the spokesman but gave them to understand that hMiaa been warned not to subject meet i If tiuidil m ex itll nit thai he hal also been warned lieioiv but in ipito of the wtuuini hi jkOne to Macon cogm ILC result biing that he had t i placed his life in immediate danger Ho could not therefore go to the festivities at Aberdeen without en caging in the exercises and he would regretfully re-gretfully be compelled to decline While 1 entirely approving of the object of the association he would have to deny himself the > great pleasure it would afford him to be present He advised that in writing a history of the war the story of the private soldier should not be neglected Around the camp fire said he one could hear the whole truth concerning that great war it was true that no soldier saw the whole of a battle but each one saw a part and he would rather accept these individual and collective statements than the majority of the official reports in which Mr DAVIS showed how skilled he is in relation to the affairs of mankind and what a thorousrh judge he must b of those men and things which are or wcr about and with him and the cause for which he risked and dared so much I is Quit common to speak of JEFF DAVIS and his kind as ounrcucntant and unmitigated traitors to the government which gave them a birthplace birth-place and a home Not even the lapse of many years has tended to I soften such asperities in the breasts of those who live but for themselves and for this life only Above and beyond his personal per-sonal and political predilections they are unable to see that great and undefinable quality known as character and give the man credit for his exact worth or else for temporary advantage they prefer to willfully fully falsify the facts Unquestionably the waiscttlcd the doctrine doC-trine of the right of states to withdraw that will against such doctrine and all that it is proper to say in favor of it is that those who espoused it were shown by such arbitrament to have been wrong But it was not forbidden by the organic law and those who took the losing side of the proposition were fully as patriotic as in most instances more so than those whom they confronted and who overpowered them Among the class so described as having fallen and lost DAVIS was at the head he recognized and has always admitted that the cause for which he and his fellows contended was lo t but never would and never will admit that he or they were what their conquer ers have so freely and continuously described des-cribed them as being traitors renegades and men without a country Here and there we meet with a man who fought brilliantly and well for the Union cause and who when questioned regarding his estimate of the struggle and those engaged en-gaged in it is free to state that it is an insult to himself and those who were with him to depict the southern soldiers as anything but brave patriotic and resolute men men who however misguided mis-guided and mistaken wore still such foemen foe-men as would have been an honor to any causi They have not forgotten and will never forget how confederates in inferior infe-rior numbers met them face to face in the storm of death and fought them furiously step by step to the last ditch never giving up an inch of ground or a point of advantage advan-tage until by the sheer force of superior strength they were compelled to And then those Union soldiers say to themselves can it be possible that these men were altogether bad That being so brave so resolute and FO determined under circumstances circum-stances so severe and in such hopeless array they were what the politicians of the day would fain make us believe them to bet And the answer will come not at all Men like JKMCRSOS Divis have lived before and will live after him It is also worthy of vote that there may have been one or two who were contemporaneous with him and who also shared the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune which he received so many volleys of anif who like him must look only to their immediate friends and to history for a complete vindication vindi-cation Tee HEKALD has now in its minds eye a lan who did more all dared nearly as much in order that those who saw as he I lid might have at least such privileges as I the great charter granted and who in order I that he and they might not constantly conflict con-flict with established prejudice sought toecap to-ecap it by getting out of the way of it But it followed him as it did Diva and I after every point was made by the adversary adver-sary opposition still did not cease As to whether he was right or wrong it is not icccssary at present to discuss It is only mentioned in order to show that men may and do become KO welded to ideas of their own that nothing but force can separate one from the other and because they be come separate by such means is no reason I that they arc altogether or at all bad or unworthy un-worthy of belief in their more recent utterances utter-ances The southern people will always as a das venerate such men as 1 I y n15 0 DAVIS HourKT E Le and TtiOMAsJWKi SON JACKSON There is no rca why they should not All being conscientious Confearing upright able and danger defying men who did and dared all that they asked others to do and dare in behalf of a common purpose why should not those who rallied around them who sustained them with their ballets brawn and blood in the dark days of tho civil war now cherish the memories of those of them who are dead and encourage and strengthen by their voices and their acts the ducliuiiie years of those who still live J Why not indeed The better classes of people in the United States instinctively praise and preserve the recollection of thoso pioneers whose hardihood hardi-hood and courage enabled them to either acquire success or deserve it and whose nerseverance and selfsacrificing devotion to principle enabled the to lead their people peo-ple up to the last moment iii which leadership leader-ship was available We may disagree as tot to-t eir being right or wrong as to whether they soueht themselves beneath the garb of welfare for the many or on some other pOlmi ion but wo are not at liberty to dispute if we be anywhere near fair minded that they were sincere that they came as near to the right as GOD had given them to sea the right and the natural imperfections and selfsufficiency of our nature would permit Had they been otherwis > ehad they their own welfare and naught else in view from Ihe beginning begin-ning or at any time dimux their perturbed careers how much better ami easier they might have made it for thenolves and those by whom they were immediately surrounded and who depended upon them by taking another I d a ier course Before proceeding to be censorious let us first arrive at actual facts and then endeavor en-deavor in our best estate to be just Call ing names and speaking of or acting des pitofully toward those whom we may at some time have been or are now at variance with is too profitless an occupation for the I brief span of time we have left to us |