A history of Mississippi : from the discovery of the great river, Part 57

Author: Lowry, Robert, 1830-1910; McCardle, William H
Publication date: 1891
Publisher: Jackson, Miss. : R.H. Henry & Co.
Number of Pages: 674


USA > Mississippi > A history of Mississippi : from the discovery of the great river > Part 57


Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).


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Men of all parties were willing at last to do tardy jus- tice to a great patriot and much wronged gentleman. His remains laid in state for three days, and in those seventy- two hours it was estimated that nearly one hundred thou- sand persons passed the bier to take a last look at those beloved features.


It had been arranged that the burial of Jefferson Davis should occur on the 11th of December, and that the funeral should be a strictly military one; and no such outpour- ing of affection and respect has ever been witnessed in New Orleans, or possibly ever will be witnessed again.


The Episcopal Bishops of Mississippi and Louisiana, Right Reverend Hugh Miller Thompson, of the first named State, and Right Reverend John N. Gallaher, Bishop of Louisiana, were officiating at the funeral, assisted by Rev. Thomas R. Markham, D. D., a native of Mississippi, in charge of a Presbyterian church in New Orleans, and a number of other clerical gentlemen.


At the close of the services at the City Hall Bishop Gallaher uttered the following eloquent and appropriate tribute :


"When we utter our prayers to-day for those who are distressed in mind ; when we lift our petitions to the Most Merciful, and ask a benediction on the desolate, we re- member that one household above others is bitterly


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bereaved, and that hearts closely knitted to our own are deeply distressed. For the master of Beauvoir lies dead under the drooping flag of the saddened city ; the light of his dwelling has gone out and left it lonely for all the days to come. Surely we grieve with those who weep the ten- der tears of homely pain and trouble, and there is not a sigh of the Gulf breeze that sways the swinging moss on the cypress trees sheltering their home but finds an answer in our over-burdened breathing. We recall with sincerest sympathy the wifely woe that can be measured only by the sacred deeps of wifely devotion; and our hearts go traveling across the heaving Atlantic seas to meet and comfort, if we might the child, who coming home, shall for once not be able to bring all the sweet splendors of the sunshine with her. Let us bend with the stricken house- hold and pay the ready tribute of our tears ; and then, ac- knowledging the stress and surge of a people's sorrow, and say that the stately tree of our Southern wood, planted in power, nourished by kindly dews, branching in brave luxuriance and scarred by many storms lies uprooted ! The end of a long and lofty life has come; and a moving volume of human history has been closed and clasped. The strange and sudden dignity of death has been added to the fine and resolute dignity of living. A man who in his person and history symbolized the solemn convictions and tragic fortunes of millions of men cannot pass into the glooms that gather around a grave without sign or token from the surcharged bosoms of those he leaves behind ; and when Jefferson Davis, reaching 'the very sea-mark of his utmost sail,' goes to his God, not even the most igno- ble can chide the majestic mourning, the sorrowing honors of a last salute. I am not here, to stir, by a breath, the embers of a settled strife; to speak one word unworthy of him and of the hour. What is writ is writ in the world's memory and in the books of God. But I am here to say for our help and inspiration that this man as a Christian and as a churchman was a lover of all high and righteous things ; as a citizen, was fashioned in the old, faithful type ; as a soldier, was marked and fitted for more than fame, the Lord God having set on him the seal of a pure


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HISTORY OF MISSISSIPPI.


knighthood ; as a statesman, he was the peer of the princes in that realm ; and as a patriot, through every day of his illustrious life, was an incorruptible and impassioned de- fender of the liberties of men. Gracious and gentle, even to the lowliest-nay, especially to them-tender as he was brave, he deserved to win all the love that followed. Fearless and unselfish, he could not well escape the life- long conflicts to which he was committed. Greatly and strangely, misconceived, he bore injustice with the calm- ness befitting his place. He suffered many and grievous wrongs, suffered most for the sake of others, and those others will remember him and his unflinching fidelity with deepening gratitude, while the Potomac seeks the Chesa- peake, or the Mississippi sweeps by Briarfield on its way to the Mexican sea. When on the December midnight the worn warrior joined the ranks of the patient and prevailing ones, who -


"Loved their land, with love far brought"-


if one of the mighty dead gave the challenge :


"Art thou of us? He answered : I am here."


After the benediction, says the New Orleans Times-Dem- ocrat of December 12th, then came the most affecting por- tion of the entire service. Bishop Thompson surrendered his post at the head of the bier, and Rev. Father Hubert, of the Jesuit Church, stood once more beside the beloved re- mains. The priest's sensitive face was eloquent with over- whelming emotion. His gentle voice trembled with sup- pressed sorrow, and there were few dry eyes as he prayed with almost passionate fervor :


"O God, loving and compassionate Father, in the name of my heart-broken comrades, I beseech Thee to behold us in our bereavement, from whom Thou has taken one who was to us a chief, a leader and a noble and constant exemplar. Thou knowest how, in time of his 'power, he ever took care that his soldiers should have with them thy ministers, to cheer, to warn, to teach them how to fight and to die for the right. See him now at the bar of Thy judgment, at the throne of Thy mercy seat, and to him let justice and mercy be shown. And may we one day with


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HISTORY OF MISSISSIPPI.


him love and bless and praise Thee forevermore through our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen."


An immense and brilliant military cortege, composed of representative organizations from nearly every State of the late Confederacy, headed the funeral procession, the right of which was accorded to the Volunteer Southrons, under the command of Captain C. J. Searles. This was a graceful recognition, in that Warren county was for many years the home of Jefferson Davis, and that the Vicksburg Volunteer Sonthrons, so named in honor of two companies of the famous regiment Mr. Davis commanded in Mexico. One was the Vicksburg Volunteers, commanded by Captain George P. Crump, and the Southrons, commanded by Cap- tain John Willis.


There were Governors representing eight States of the late Confederacy, who were selected as honorary pall- bearers. These were Governor Francis T. Nicholls, of Louisiana, Governor Robert Lowry, of Misssissippi, Gov- ernor Simon B. Buckner, of Kentucky, Governor John B. Gordon, of Georgia, Governor J. S. Richardson, of South Carolina, Governor D. C. Fowle, of North Carolina, Gov- ernor E. P. Fleming of Florida, Governor James P. Eagle, of Arkansas.


In addition to the honorary pall bearers, there were fifty- seven active pall bearers representing seven States of the late Confederacy, and one from Iowa in the person of the Hon. George W. Jones, a life-long friend, a classmate at Transylvania, and a colleague in the Senate of the great Mississippian.


Thus died and thus was buried all that was mortal of the great patriot, Jefferson Davis. He was followed to the grave by more than thirty thousand men and women, who loved the man and honored the soldier and the statesman. In every capital of the late Confederate States, in every city, town and village within the boundaries of the Confed- eracy, there were funeral ceremonies on the day of his burial in New Orleans. From every church in the South bells. were tolled to denote the great sorrow that had over- shadowed the hearts and the homes of a proud and patriotic people.


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HISTORY OF MISSISSIPPI.


The blow fell heaviest upon the hearts of the people of Mississippi, who loved and honored the son reared upon their soil, and who had reflected upon them and the State so much honor, as well upon the field of battle where he had led their sons to victory, as in the council chambers of the country. The people of Mississippi knew Jefferson Davis, and therefore honored and loved the man. They knew him as a scholar with a wealth of learning and a vast fund of information rarely equalled. They knew him as an able and accomplished statesman; as a splendid soldier and unbending patriot ; they recognized in him the fear- less and indignant foe of all that was wrong, while they knew him as the eloquent advocate of whatever was just and right. They knew that the lips of Jefferson Davis were never polluted by falsehood. They know him as the constant friend of and expounder of the truth under all cir- cumstances. They knew that Jefferson Davis had pre- served, from youth to age,


"The whiteness of his soul, and thus men o'er him wept ?"


Jefferson Davis was an intense American, and yet more intensely a Mississippian. He loved the State on whose soil he was reared as a child should love its mother. He was proud of the intellect and courage of the sons of the State, and yet more proud of the beauty, purity and con- stancy of her daughters. In every pulsation of his heart, in every fibre of his brain, he was a devoted son of Mis- sissippi. and he consecrated his life to her honor and pros- perity. He had the supremest confidence in the soldiers of Mississippi, and believed that when properly offi- cered, they could accomplish anything possible for mortal men to achieve, and hence the people of Mississippi be- lieve that his mortal remains should have their final rest- ing place in the soil of the State he loved so well, served so faithfully, and by whose people he had been so much beloved and honored.


ERRATA.


Page 389-7th line from top, State levy should read 10 mills on the dollar instead of 10 cents.


Page 413-In line 2, Administration of Governor Stone, read Gibson for "Giles" county as his birth-place.


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Page 415-In line 1, Administration of Governor Lowry, read Chesterfield Dis- trict for "Chesterville," etc.


Page 453-6th line from bottom, for "Dr. N. S. Williams" read Dr. U. S. Wil- .liams."


Page 469-5th line, for "Rev. Henry Conn," read Rev. Matthew Conn.


Page 469-20th line, for "Jacob Millsaps," read Jackson Millsaps.


Page 471-In 19th and 20th lines, it should read that Reuben Watts, instead of John Watts, was the father-in-law of Judge John E. McNair.


Page 528-8th line from bottom, "John S. Cameron" should read Malcolm Cameron.


Page 553-It should appear that Hon. J. B. Boothe, and not Hon. Robert L. Taylor, was a delegate for State at-large in Constitutional Convention, 1890. Mr. Taylor was a delegate from Panola county in that Convention.


Page 574-Last line, "Brandon" should read Branson.


Page 575-For "Capt. N. W. Frank and Robert Crook," read, Capt. H. W., Frank and Robert Crook.


Page 606-6th line from top, "Nolan Stewart" should read William Stewart.


Page 606-Insert after "Farish" where name first occurs in line, Hazlewood Far- ish, (the latter being father of Capt. Wm. S. Farish.)


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