Part 29 (1/2)
LETTER ACCEPTING THE PRESIDENCY OF WAs.h.i.+NGTON COLLEGE.
POWHATAN COUNTY, _August 24, 1865_.
GENTLEMEN:--I have delayed for some days replying to your letter of the 5th instant informing me of my election, by the board of Trustees, to the Presidency of Was.h.i.+ngton College, from a desire to give the subject due consideration. Fully impressed with the responsibilities of the office, I have feared that I should be unable to discharge its duties to the satisfaction of the Trustees, or to the benefit of the country. The proper education of youth requires not only great ability, but, I fear, more strength than I now possess; for I do not feel able to undergo the labor of conducting cla.s.ses in regular courses of instruction. I could not, therefore, undertake more than the general administration and supervision of the inst.i.tution.
There is another subject which has caused me serious reflection, and is, I think, worthy of the consideration of the Board. Being excluded from the terms of amnesty in the proclamation of the United States of the 29th of May last, and an object of censure to a portion of the country, I have thought it probable that my occupation of the position of president might draw upon the college a feeling of hostility, and I should therefore cause injury to an inst.i.tution which it would be my highest object to advance.
I think it the duty of every citizen, in the present condition of the country, to do all in his power to aid in the restoration of peace and harmony, and in no way to oppose the policy of the State or general Government directed to that object. It is particularly inc.u.mbent on those charged with the instruction of the young to set them an example of submission to authority, and I could not consent to be the cause of animadversion upon the college. Should you, however, take a different view, and think that my services, in the position tendered me by the Board, will be advantageous to the college and the country, I will yield to your judgment and accept it; otherwise I must most respectfully decline the offer.
Begging you to express to the Trustees of the college my heartfelt grat.i.tude for the honor conferred upon me, and requesting you to accept my cordial thanks for the kind manner in which you have communicated its decision, I am, gentlemen, your most obedient servant,
R. E. LEE.
JEFFERSON DAVIS.
~1808=1889.~
JEFFERSON DAVIS, President of the Confederate States, was born in Todd County, Kentucky, but his father removed to Mississippi soon afterwards, and he was reared and partly educated in that state. Later he attended Transylvania University in Kentucky, and in 1824 entered West Point. He was graduated in 1828 and served seven years in the army, being stationed in Missouri and Minnesota. On account of ill-health he resigned in 1835 and travelled, and then settled on his Mississippi plantation, ”Brierfield.”
He was elected to Congress in 1845; served in the Mexican War with great distinction and was injured in eye and limb at the battle of Buena Vista. He was Secretary of War in President Pierce's cabinet, and was a Senator when Mississippi seceded from the Union.
He made his farewell to the Senate in January, 1861, and returned home where he was at once appointed commander of the State troops. But he had been elected president of the new Confederacy by the Convention at Montgomery, and he was inaugurated, February 18, 1861. On the change of the capital from Montgomery to Richmond, he removed to the latter city and remained there until the war was ended.
He was imprisoned for two years at Fort Monroe, to be tried as a traitor to the United States. Being finally released on bail, he went for his health to England and Canada; and then he resided in Memphis and at ”Beauvoir,” Mississippi, which latter place was his home when he died. This home, ”Beauvoir,” he had arranged to purchase from Mrs.
Dorsey, who was a kind and devoted friend to his family and had a.s.sisted him in his writing; but on her death in 1879, it was found that she had left a will bequeathing it to him and to his daughter Varina Anne. He, like Lee, had always declined the many offers of homes and incomes made by their devoted and admiring friends.
On him, as President of the Confederacy, seems to have fallen in some sense the whole odium of the failure of that cause; and this pa.s.sage from Winnie Davis' ”An Irish Knight” has a touching application to his case: ”Thus died Ireland's true knight, sinking into the grave clothed in all the bright promise of his youth; never to put on the sad livery of age; never to feel the hopelessness of those who live to see the principles for which they suffered trampled and forgotten by the onward march of new interests and new men. Perhaps Freedom like some deity of ancient Greece, loved him too well to let the slurs and contumely of outrageous fortune dim the bright l.u.s.tre of his virgin fame.” He is enshrined in the hearts of thousands.
His daughter, Varina Anne, or Winnie, ”the Child of the Confederacy,”
as she is lovingly called, is a writer of some ability. She was educated in Europe, and has written ”An Irish Knight” [story of Robert Emmet], and articles for magazines. Mrs. Jefferson Davis' Life of Mr.
Davis is a work of rare excellence and interest. See also _Davis Memorial Volume_, by J. Wm. Jones.
WORKS.
Rise and Fall of the Confederacy.
Autobiography, [unfinished; it is included in Mrs. Davis' book.]
Mr. Davis' writings have a force and dignity of style that accord well with his character. ”His orations and addresses are marked by cla.s.sical purity, chaste elegance of expression, a certain n.o.bleness of diction, and a just proportion of sentence to idea.”--John P.
McGuire.
TRIP TO KENTUCKY AT SEVEN YEARS OF AGE, AND VISIT TO GENERAL JACKSON.