After
Jefferson Davis made his March 1884 speech before a joint session of the
Mississippi Legislature, convened specifically to honor him as a martyr for the
Southern people, he thought he was finished with public life and so retired to
his home at Beauvoir in Biloxi, Mississippi. He was also influenced to retire to private
life by the fact that some newspapers in the North accused him of inciting the
public when he made any reference to the patriotism of the Confederate soldier
and the Southern people in general. For
this reason, when he was approached in early 1886 by the mayor of Montgomery,
Alabama, Colonel W. S. Reese, who invited him to come to Montgomery to dedicate
the cornerstone of the Confederate Monument which was under construction there,
he at first declined the invitation, two times.
But then Reese took a different approach, after learning from Varina
Davis that Jefferson Davis was now focused on the happiness of his daughter,
Varina Ann, known to all as "Winnie, Daughter of the Confederacy".[1] Reese urged Davis to come to Montgomery for
the dedication ceremony, so that his daughter Winnie could see how much he was
loved and admired by the people of Alabama and the South. This idea convinced President Davis to make
the trip, and so he agreed after this third attempt by Reese to convince him.
When
it was announced that Jefferson Davis was coming to Montgomery, other cities
clamored for a visit as well, and the former Confederate President ended up
with an itinerary first to Montgomery, then to Atlanta to unveil a statue of
Benjamin H. Hill, then finally to Savannah, where he would speak at the
unveiling of a monument to Revolutionary hero General Nathanael Greene, under
whom Davis's father, Samuel Emory Davis, had fought. Knowing even this itinerary would be very
tiring, Davis declined invitations to Charleston and Richmond.
On
27 April Jefferson Davis and daughter Winnie left Beauvoir in a special
railroad car, accompanied by Mayor Reese and other prominent citizens. The rest of the Davis family stayed at
Beauvoir, due to the illness of Davis's grandson (Addison Jefferson) by his
daughter Maggie. Even Northern
newspapers were surprised by the reception given Davis at every stop the train
made. The New York World reported: "Half a
carload of floral offerings were showered upon him during his trip and
thousands of other tokens of love."[2]
As
the train came into Montgomery, in spite of a light rain, cannon boomed and
thousands of people crowded the train station, cheering and applauding, which
made it difficult for the ex-President and his special escort, General John B.
Gordon, to reach their carriage. There
were also Roman candles, rockets, and other fireworks, for more than a half
mile, according to the New York World. The journey to the Exchange Hotel was
very slow, due to the pressing crowd, all of whom wanted to touch their former
president. The Montgomery Grays and
Blues were both present, and I imagine there were some Dragoons and other
Prattville Confederates in the crowd (Montgomery descendant Annie Mae
Montgomery Martin says Dragoons were in the parade the next day).[3]
When
Jefferson Davis arrived at the Exchange Hotel, he was greeted by a set piece of
fireworks which flashed in flame the words, "Welcome, Our Hero!" These words were also placed over the
entrance to the Exchange Hotel. He was
escorted to Room 101, the same room he had slept in before his inauguration 25
years and two months before, and had to walk through layers of roses strewn
over the hall and his room, even his bed.
This welcome was even greater than it had been in 1861, when he was
introduced by William Lowndes Yancey with the words, "The man and the hour
have met". As he stood on that same
balcony where Yancey spoke, a brass band inside the hotel struck up
"Dixie".[4] A policeman had to be posted at the door of
his room, to keep out all except those with special credentials. Even so, he was almost overwhelmed with
visitors, including the widow of Clement Clay, who had been incarcerated with
Davis at Fortress Monroe, Virginia, after the War. Another interesting detail is that Davis
slept that night under a silk quilt used by General Lafayette when he visited
Alabama in 1825[5];
it seems clear that Davis was being honored in every way possible by the people
of Alabama.
The
next day about noon the rain stopped, and the sun came out, though the threat
of rain continued. Because of the rain,
plans were changed and the ceremony was moved from Clisby Park (somewhere near
the end of North McDonough Street) to the Capitol steps, which was fitting,
since it would place former President Davis in the same spot he had stood twenty-five
years before, at his inauguration.[6]
A
procession had been planned to be as much as possible like the one which made
its way from the Exchange Hotel up to the Capitol in 1861. There was a carriage drawn by four white
horses. Militia in blue and gray lined
up, and as mentioned before Montgomery descendant Annie Mae Montgomery Martin states
that some Prattville Dragoons also marched in the procession, led by Captain
William Montgomery Jr. In the carriage seated
next to Davis was former Alabama governor Thomas Hill Watts, who had served as
Attorney General for a time (1862) in Jefferson Davis's cabinet.[7] Facing Davis were Montgomery Mayor W. S.
Reese and Alabama Governor Edward O'Neal.
Jefferson Davis was cheered all the way up Dexter Avenue, and
continually bowed to the thousands of adoring spectators, emotionally affected
by their demonstrations. His special
escort for the occasion, former Confederate General John B Gordon of Georgia,
followed in a second carriage with Davis's daughter, Winnie, "Daughter of the
Confederacy". Letitia Tyler, the
granddaughter of President John Tyler who had raised the First National Flag
over the Capitol in February 1861, was also present.[8]
Here's
how the Montgomery Advertiser
described what happened once the official party was seated on the portico of
the Capitol (this description filled the first two pages of that day's
newspaper; I will only read a part of it).
The front page begins:
ON THE SAME SPOT
Where He Stood Twenty-Five
Years Ago
And Took the Oath of His
High Office,
JEFFERSON DAVIS Stands and
Speaks to His People
"Your Demonstration Now
Exceeds That Which Welcomed Me Then."
It
is estimated that fully thirty thousand people witnessed the Davis celebration
yesterday. That is a safe estimate,
doubtless, but it includes all who were on the streets and in the buildings
along the line of march, and it does not mean that that many went to the
capitol grounds to hear the speeches of Mr. Davis and General Gordon. Never before was such a scene witnessed in a
Southern city, probably never in the world.
Certainly no people have made such a demonstration over the leader of a
lost cause. And there was no doubt of
its genuineness. Visitors from the North
remarked upon its wonderful sincerity as eclipsing anything known among their
people in the triumphal processions of their victorious leaders. Smiles and shouts were everywhere seen and
heard, though tears rolled in rivulets down a thousand cheeks.
The
rain ceased about noon, and as if in special compliment to the occasion, held
up until all was over and the procession had returned. Perhaps nature was weeping for joy at the
splendid patriotism of Alabama's people, and dried her eyes for awhile to
behold the solemn scene on Capitol Hill.
AT THE CAPITOL
A
great crowd had gathered on Capitol Hill before the procession started, and the
coming of the carriages was awaited with greatest impatience. When the carriages reached the stone steps
leading to the State House, Mr. Davis alighted, and when the people saw him
walking up the steps round after round of cheers and shoutings greeted
him. The troops were drawn out in line
on either side of the walk leading to the Capitol. Mr. Davis and Mayor Reese walked together and
in front, then Ex-Governor Watts and General Gordon, then the Governor and
other distinguished citizens with the ladies in the party. The scene was one never to be forgotten by
the thousands who witnessed it. People
will recall it and talk about it for years to come, and its thrilling incidents
will be handed down to future generations.
There was something wonderfully touching in Mr. Davis' appearance. He walked with firm, measured tread (he's 78
years old--DTC), his head was uncovered, his face was calm and composed, and
his soldierly form erect.
In
introducing Mr. Davis, Mayor Reese said:
My
Countrymen--With emotions of the most profound reverence I introduce to you the
highest type of Southern manhood (applause), Hon(orable) Jefferson Davis. (Long continued applause).
(Speech by
Jefferson Davis)
My Friends--
It would be vain if I should attempt to express to
you the deep gratification which I feel at this demonstration, but I know that
it is not personal, and therefore I feel the more deeply grateful, because it
is for a sentiment far dearer to me than myself. You have passed through the terrible ordeal
of war which Alabama did not seek. When
she felt her wrongs too grievous for further toleration, she sought the
peaceable solution. That being denied
her, the thunders of war came ringing over the land. Then her people rose in their majesty, gray-haired
sires and beardless boys eagerly rushed to the front. It was the only kind (of war) of which
Christianity approved--a holy war of defense.
Well do I remember seeing your gentle boys so small,
to use the farmer's phrase, they might have been called seed corn, moving on with
eager step and fearless brow, to the carnival of death. And I have also looked upon them when their
knapsacks and muskets seemed heavier than the boy, and my eyes, partaking of a
mother's weakness, filled with tears. [9]
Those days have passed. Many of them have found a nameless grave, but
they are not dead. They live in memory,
and their spirits stand out, the grand reserve of that column which is marching
on with unfaltering steps toward the goal of constitutional liberty.
(Applause) It were vain if I should
attempt, as I have already said, to express my gratitude to you.
I am standing now very nearly on the spot where I
stood when I took the oath of office in 1861.
Your demonstration now exceeds that which welcomed me then. This shows that the spirit of Southern
liberty is not dead. (Long and continued
applause)
Then you were full of joyous hopes, you had every
prospect of achieving all you desired; and now you are wrapped in the mantle of
regret. And yet that regret only
manifests more profoundly, and does not obliterate, the expression of your
sentiments.
I felt last night as I approached the Exchange
Hotel, from the gallery of which your peerless orator, William L. Yancey,
introduced me to the citizens of Montgomery, and commended me in language which
only his eloquence could yield, and which far exceeded my merit, I felt, I say
again, that I was coming to my home--coming to the land where liberty dies not
and heroic sentiments will live forever. (Applause)
I have been promised, my friends, that I should not
be called upon to make a speech, and therefore I will only extend to you my
heartfelt thanks. God bless you, one and
all, old men and boys, and the ladies above all others, who never faltered to
our direst need. (Loud and long continued applause)
Advertiser: In
every lineament of Mr. Davis' face was plainly stamped the deep emotion under
which he labored. The scene, the
occasion, the present surroundings, in contrast with the events of twenty-five
years ago, came vividly before him. His
voice, though deep, was not loud, and only those not far distant from him could
hear. But there was strength in his
tone, there was dignity and grandeur in his bearing, and a touch of sublimity
to all he said that excited to the highest pitch the vast audience before,
around, and behind him.
This was followed by a eulogy of
Jefferson Davis by General Gordon, followed by an artillery salute. Later in the afternoon there was a reception
in his honor, and that evening he attended a dramatic performance at the
Montgomery Theater to benefit the building of the Confederate Monument. The next day he dedicated the cornerstone of
the Monument, and delivered a prepared speech. I don't have the text of that speech, but here
are a couple of quotations from it, offered by Professor Hudson Strode in his
biography of Davis. President Davis said
that the Montgomery monument would commemorate "the deeds of Alabama's
sons who died that you and your descendants would have the inheritance your
fathers in the War for Independence left you." He often made this assertion, that
Confederates were only "treading in the footprints left by our
Revolutionary fathers". In this
speech, he also insisted that "the war between the states was not revolution,
as sovereigns never rebel". [10]
A reporter for the newspaper New York World, Frank Burr, marveled at what he
saw in Montgomery: "How this old
man, who is fast nearing his eighty years, has stood the exactions of the past
two days is a mystery to everyone. He
has been moving about a great deal, and has met hundreds of people and shaken
them by the hand. Yet he seems well and
in the best of spirits. This welcome has
evidently given him a new lease on life."[11] He later went to Oakwood Cemetery and
participated in decorating Confederate graves there, the same ones the Semple
Camp has decorated in years past.
On
Friday morning 30 April, he left for Atlanta and Savannah, stopping at the
"little junction" at Tuskegee where he was cheered by a crowd of 500 blacks
and whites, then went on to Auburn, where he was honored by the cadets there,
who were drawn up in a line and rendered a 21-gun salute. Ladies in summer dresses stood on the tables
outside the train station, straining to see Jefferson Davis; some were even on
the roof of the station.[12] So ended the last visit by Jefferson Davis to
the City of Montgomery, while he lived. He
did come to Montgomery one more time, but this time in a casket, bound for Richmond,
Virginia, to be re-interred there. On
the morning of 28 May 1893 he lay in state at the Capitol, on his way from Metairie
Cemetery in New Orleans to be reinterred in Hollywood Cemetery in Richmond,
where he lies today.[13]
[1]
Ibid., p. 478.
[2]
Ibid., p. 479
[3]
Reference: Prattville Library - ALA-RM,
R, 976.1463, MAR, p. 26.
[4]
Allen Felicity. Jefferson Davis: Unconquerable
Heart, p. 552.
[5]
Ibid., p. 480
[6]
Montgomery Advertiser, 29 April 1886,
front page.
[7]
Encyclopedia of Alabama, Thomas Hill
Watts, accessed 3 January 2018. http://www.encyclopediaofalabama.org
[8]
Allen, op. cit., p. 552.
[9]
I.e. his eyes filled with tears
watching mothers suffer.
[10]
Strode, op. cit., p. 482.
[11]
Ibid.
[12]
Strode, op. cit., p. 483.
[13]
See pdf file, "The Jefferson Davis Funeral Train Story".
No comments:
Post a Comment