Duchesne Courier | 1930-05-09 | Page 2 | "The Most Neglected American"

11 THE MOST NEGLECTED M M Iv E i R I. I c CAN ri j t h 4 A i I I dI I 4 I 3 I I p r a 1 I I f I rY V i z A J Jefferson Vis Da-Vis V lina r Davi I S By ELMO SCOTT WATSON a short time there will vill be unveiled Unveiled unveiled un un- veiled in Statuary hall hail In the Capitol at Washington a anew anew new statue statueL the gift of tl the e state of Mississippi to the nation It has been carved in marble b by byS S Augustus s Lukeman the sculptor who Is engaged In cutting 4 from the living JIvIng rock roch of Stone mountain near Atlanta Ga the martial frieze that shall shaH record the valor of the men who fought under the Stars and Bars In the greatest civil war warIn warIn warin In all aU history the leaders of the Confederate States of America Although the face of Jefferson Davis Dals will appear In the Stone Mountain frieze because he was the president of the Confederacy acy the new statue of him which is to have a place In StatS Statuary Stat Stat- S nary uary hall hail will be there not so soS much because he was the leader lead S er of a lost cause but because he was a great American The most neglected man of S. S his stature In American history a recent biographer has called him and that biographer Allen Alien Tate Tate i in his Jefferson Davis Davis- His Rise R-lse and Fall published by MInton Balch Batch and company has rescued from an undeserved obscurity a man who played one of the very few leading roles on the tho American historical stage from tram 1789 1780 to 1865 who was vas an Interesting personality and a aS S genuinely tragic figure It Is not difficult perhaps to understand Ln I fr 7 r J J'S S 'S S S S S c 1 Davis DaVi 1 S Portrait from Tote Jefferson DavI DaTI M Courtesy MInton Minion Enich Dolch Co way Jenerson i Lavis uvis nas lIas been neen thIs mis most neglected neglect d American In the eyes of the North he was was tb theS the S rebel arch-rebel and the tho tide of pr prejudice a and d bitter partisanship which rose steadily from tram 1851 1861 to Its height In 1865 and which did not begin to recede for many years would not allow that section of ot the country to see him otherwise than thanas as a traitor In the e eyes es of the South h he was a misfit as a leader Jeader at first the scapegoat in the failure of the Confederacy and at at last a martyr martyr martyr mar mar- tyr whom no one Intimately understood It Is Js easy to hall hail a successful rebel it Is equally easy to forget torget a an unsuccessful one But the great Injustice that history has hns done Jefferson efferson Davis has ha's been to remember him mainly a aS a's he lie was during those four bitter years and what Tate calls the Uie twenty four years of ot anticlimax anti antl- climax of ot death in life from 1805 1865 until he died on May 11 11 1889 WI What it It has failed to do Is to remember him for what he was during the 53 years of his distinguished career before that fatal day when h he be ordered General Beauregard to fire upon Fort Surater Sumter It was a curious example of the Irony of fate that the origins of Jefferson DavIs Dayla should have so closely resembled those 0 of S the opponent leader in this greatest of all an civil wara wars Davis was born In Kentucky a year before Lincoln was born In the same state He sprang from the same stock as did Lincoln for Tate characterizes Samuel Davis his father ath r. r as ns a ua typically typically restless pl pioneer neer of at the Old Southwest sturdy plain working hard painfully honorable and deeply religious not faring very well wen nort nor t taking to himself the air of ot a superior class un- un for tor there was no aristocracy In the primitive day of the frontier His restlessness S led him to move his family several times Umes from Kentucky to Louisiana and finally Into Wilkinson county Miss The last move moye proved to be the deciding one In tho career of at J Jefferson D vIs for this was the land of King Cotton and as Tate says The he transformation of at the Davis family In one generation from tram Insecure small farmers Into great planters and the growth gro of the patriarchal patriarchal patri patri- archal Idea whereby Samuel Davis a plain man became the symbol of ot knightly grace thIs grace this process process proc proc- S ess esa of ot expansion In one family y Is the story of the therIse therise therise rise of the LowerS Lower South So Jefferson Davis became an aristocrat by training If It not by birth From the ng age of six he had every advantage of education possible In that period and that schooling continued through his graduation from West Point There he was looked upon as tho the typically southern West West Point Point- er er cr His presence conduct and manner Indicated self esteem pride determination personal mas mas- tery While serving as a Ue lieutenant tenant at Fort Crawford In Wisconsin under the command of Col Cal Zachary Taylor he fell felt In love with the colonels colonel's colo cole nels nel's daughter Sarah Knor Knox Taylor and despite the objections of ot that officer married married her Then he resigned from the army and took his bride S back to 10 his Mississippi home with him but within three months she had isad died It was the first tragedy trag trag- edy In Davis Davis' career After the death of at his wife Davis flavis withdrew Into loto the strictest seclusion and for the next nest ten tea years yeara he devoted his time to directing the affairs 4 of f his plantation S amassing a fortune from cotton and applying himself elt to reading and study of ot political philosophy political S economy and law It public was during this period that he determined 1 upon a political career He was a states Democrat a i rights man and a vcr follower of Calhoun i rather than of ot Jackson and ana as such was elected electea to congress In 1845 he married Miss Varina Howell During Davis Davis' first session as a member of ot the house of at represent representatives aU yes he resigned to lead a regiment of ot volunteers from Mississippi Into Meleo Mex Mex- ico leo His old West Point training came Into play and he drilled his men to the degree that made him unpopular with them He was ever cyer the mar mar- He Be served gallantly In Mexico especially at Buena Vista In the latter engagement his father- father law in-law General Taylor advised him to l leave aye the field so badly wounded was he but he lie remained all aU that day with his IsIs men In 1847 Davis was appointed to fill fiU out a fermIn term ferm in the senate This was followed by byan an au elected term In the same bod body but he resigned In 1851 only to be re-elected re In 1857 serving ing until his state seceded fr from m the Union In 1861 As senator he lie was the leader of ot the southern Democrats taking the place made mate vacant by Calhoun When Pierce became President t all aU knew that Jefferson Davis DavIs' would b be high In the the- government go under him so conspicuous was hl his at that time He lie was offered the portfolio of th theS the S War Var department and became secretary of f war war of the United States In 1853 His Ills services were of conspicuous value to the country and elicited praise even en from flom his enemies Ills his previous services services sen ices as chairman of ot the committee on military affairs In the senate had greatly helped to equip him huh for tor the Important work of ot the War department depart depart- ment meat Davis Davis' career as secretary of ot war Is Js but little known wn to most Americans but It was upon his acts In that po post t that his principal claim to being a great statesman rests With characteristic thoroughness thoroughness thoroughness thor thor- he began to Institute needed reforms in inthe the army He e secured for both officers ers and privates privates vates yates an Increase In pay for tor living expenses m had Increased 4 40 per cent while wages had remained l S stationary He lIe enlarged enlarge the standing army and he adopted the most Improved equipment in arms i and ammunition that the period afforded Additional AddItional Additional Addi AddI- forts torts and arsenals were erected and the i signal corps service was was was' perfected Lee was at nt this time superintendent of ot West Vest WestPoint Point so Davis through him had a thorough In Investigation In- In ves of ot that Institution and Its curriculum i made with the result that bo both h were improved so eo that our national military academy was said I to be the equal of any similar Institution anywhere nay any where In the world It Is also worthy of at mentionS mention i S that he lie was placed In c charge harge of at completing the National Capitol and he and his arc architects planned 1 and mid started th the buildings gs of ot the lie senate and house j wings s of ot that great structure As a dreamer of ot an empire and a planner r forIt for tor forIt r It It Davis has been compared and not unfavorably to Washington Jefferson Iud and Jackson Transportation Transportation tation and the Joining of our widely separated J coasts seemed to have Interested him Intensely He Tie Introduced camels Into the country hoping hopin B that they would solve the problems of travel an and d transportation across ucross the arid southwestern tern des des- i- i erts He ordered the first survey for tor a r- r route rute ute for fora r a transcontinental railroad and Is quoted as saying sayIng sayIng say- say r- r Ing regarding It The military necessity for such h means of transportation and the need for tor safe e and rapid communication with the Pacific slope e If It we are to secure Its continuance as a part pait of f this Union Is apparent He even contemplated d the feasibility of at a Panama railroad under the ie control of this government go But of all these the thing which was foremost Jt I H r I 4 1 Javis DaVis at r 1 f Y YIn In his mind was the transcontinental 1 railroad Settlers were continuing to press westward and form settlements which would sometime be states of ot the Union Getting their products through the mountains to the eastern coast would be an expensIve expensive ex ex- pensive and difficult process A railroad from Memphis to Charleston through Montgomery and Atlanta was already under way and amI a second one was planned through Jackson to Mobile These endeavors set Davis planning a road rand from Memphis MemphIs Mem Mem- plus to CaI California ornia The roads would join the South and the West and would be adequate to handle bandle trade diverted down to the South Instead of going to to the East In order to carr carry out his plan It it was necessary necessary necessary sary to to send groups of engineers along the three possible ro routes to California Much information of the new West Westa a was thus accurately obtained and laid before tI the e members of ot congress The route roufe most favored was that to the extreme south pass passing ng with difficulty through h New Mexico an obstacle easily avoided by the tile purchase of ot land lying to the south and known as ns the Gadsden Purchase was obtained from Mexico b by Gadsden for existent Co-existent with that nation-developing nation plan there ran another which our modern times Is seeIng seeing see see- I Ing lag carried to success It was nothing less than the dream of ot securing protectorates over Central America and parts of at Nicaragua Cuba Culm had at first been Included In this vision of wider boundaries boundarIes boundaries boun boun- daries for the United States but t that mt dream was shattered in the Ostend manifesto Davis navIs saw clearly enough that travelers and cargoes of commerce commerce com corn merce made their chosen passage to the Pacific through Nicaragua It was one of natures nature's routes and the line of a future railroad or canal Through a man named Walker who furnished hed American forces to aid a revolution In that country Davis j came close to realizing his aim but events came cameto to pass that frustrated not only this scheme to create a sphere of Influence to the South but also that hat great plan of arterial rail building to the West TI The e slavery dispute was beginning to reach rench an acute stage rind and the North orth opposed Davis Davis' schem schemes for the western expansion on the ground that It meant the Inevitable extension of ot slavery ery into the S new territory In 1850 Davis DavIs' wasp was again In the senate The war clouds were alread already beginning to gather and a committee was appointed to draw up a compromise to prevent the danger of a n civil 1 I war He was a member of that committee but before Its plan was completed South Carolina had bad seceded and when Mississippi followed her out of the Union n. n Davis resl resigned from tram the senate On February l 10 16 1861 William Lowndes Yance Yancey Yan- Yan S ce cey the foremost orator of tile the South stepped out ut on the gall gallery ry of ot the Exchange me hotel in Montgomery Montgomery Montgomery Mont Mont- gomery Ala and bowing to the great throng of people below hl him pointed J to the he tall taU erect lect figure which stood beside him and end said The man and the hour have met The man was Jefferson Davis and the hour IsIs Ills was Inauguration as presIdent pres pres- ident of ot the Confederate States of America It was also the hour when two seemingly irreconcilable Irreconcilable systems of society and economy came to grips In a death struggle and the fate of a nation hung In Ip the balance If It Jefferson Davis had been lIeen other than what what- it itI he he was what is now the one nation of the United itt d States might have been two nations But It Is not t that because he was was according to his latest b biographer bi hi- I- I one of ot th the great and anel admirable failures IB Is s of history A According to Tate Davis failed because because be- be B- B cause He could not manage men and he lie was too 10 great a character to let men manage him that Is isal the tragedy of his career He lIe was a n constitutIonal constitutional al pedant who never understood the political reality behind the political law low Every breakdown of if 3 political theory gave him a shock and thIs tills wn was is mostly what he received from the election of isa isa a u sectional l President A Abraham raham LIncoln H Ho H. was a southern Intellectual who cast his lot with theories the- the e- e orles ories and fell feU before the onslaught of ot facts Just how much he be contributed to the failure re rex of the tue Confederacy can never be estimated C ex- ex x- x for there were so ninny many factors other than m his weaknesses which contributed to that failure ft 61 But If It the South came ame to blame him In the bitterness bitter bitter- ir- ir ness of Its defeat the tho time came canse when as os Tut Tt t says sas he received at last the adoration of ot his ils people lIe He was the President until he lie died I. I And their affection for him in tor recent years tool took the form olm of a a. lofty obelisk a stone monument lit second o only b In height to the Washington ment V which was at his birthplace monument monument u- u F Ky 1 last year The statue which near ar arto Is to ti be he unveiled In Statuary han hall is another emblem of that feeling g. g But It Is more than thun that It is im imn tardy tribute to the lithe most neglected American American- a n whom all Americans can CaIl Justly honor