JEFFERSON DAVIS DEAD.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XVII, Issue 44, 21 February 1890, Page 20

JEFFERSON DAVIS DEAD.

On 6th December Jefferson Davis, the chief figure and last survivor of the great conspiracy against the United States, passed to hia final account. The head and front of the greatest organised treason against free institutions that the world ever witnessed, he was permitted, in the hour of his defeat, to go his way without penalty or recantation, and enjoy still the protection of tho Goverament wnich he had conspired to destroy, and it was his lot to live to see the las. vestige of the lost cause go down in shame to oblivion, the institution of slavery, which he loved dearer than his country, wiped out for ever, and the flag, against which the impious hand of treason had been raised, floating in triumphant security over a reunited and happy nation. Jefferson Davis in the beginning of his public career was a man of much promise. He served his country with distinction in the Indian wars as early as 1831, and when a colonel in the army, four years later, married a daughter of Zachary Taylor, afterwards President.

While a member of Congress from Mississippi in 1846 he joined the Volunteers in the Mexican War, in which he served with distinction at Monterey, Buena Vista, and other battles, in which he showed a high degree of courage and military skill, and on hia return was made Brigadier-General of Volunteers. In that war he fought side by side with the gallant Irish-Ameiican General Shields, General Rosecrans, the brother of Bishop Rosecrans, and a number of other officers who afterwards distinguished themselves ia overthrowing the Rebellion of which he bad become the head. He was appointed Secretary of War in President Pierces Cabinet, during which he was the colleague of such statesmen as William L. Marcy, Secretary of State, Caleb Cusbing, Attorney-General, and Postmaster James Campbell, of Pennsylvania, a Catholic, who was the first to introduce the uniform system of postage to all parts of the United States. In the 39th Congress of 1859-60 Jeff Davis was the recognised leader of the Democrats in the Senate, and was a candidate for President in 1860, but failed to receive the nomination. Ou the convening of Congress that very year he became one of the chief conspirators against the nation, whose Chief Magistrate be had Bought to become. His part in tho great Rebellion is known to all. From the inception to the close of that gigantic treason he was the guiding archconspirator. The States that he led to war against the nation, were each in the full enjoyment of Home Rule, but not satisfied with this they sought to become supreme over the whole. They fought not for liberty but to perpetuate slavery, and for this waa a four years' war precipitated and human blood poured out ia torrents. Ia this treason were Jeff Davis and his confederacy aided and abetted by England, the inveterate enemy of the Republic. But Right and Freedom triumphed, and — let England, the butcher of Ireland's patriots struggling for the Home Rule which failed to satisfy the rebellious States, note the seqnel— Jefferson Davis was caught in flight, and, although

the guilty treason in which he was the chief spirit had not only drenched the country with blood but had murdered the beloved Emancipator President Lincoln, he was allowed his freedom after a brief imprisonment, and was finally pardoned on Christmas Day, 1868, though he still remained as unrepentant for his crime as he was impotent for further evil. The history of civiliaed nations furnishes no parallel to this act of national clemency, and as Davis is being lowered into the tomb the Government of the United States tak«s no official notice of the event. Nearly all the great heroes of the mighty struggle with treason and slavery have gone before the pardoned but unreconciled archtraitor and with the God of nations rests their eternal destinies. There let him reet, a monument to the clemency of the American Government and a lesson for disappointed ambition harbouring schemes of treason against the freest, mightiest nation upon the earth. — Irish World.