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LETTER FROM PRESIDENT JEFFERSON DAVIS,
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At MACON, GEORGIA, April 26tli, A. 13., 1878.
Mississippi City, Miss., 11th April, 1878.
Gentlemen :
I sincerely regret my inability to be present at the laying of the corner stone of "a monu¬
ment to be erected at Macon, Ga., in honor of our dead Confederate soldiers."
The event possesses every attraction to me : it is inspired by the Ladies' Memorial Association; the
monument is to be located in the key-stone State of the Confederate arch; and to commemorate the sacrifices
of those who died in the defense of our inherited and " inalienable" rights.
What though we were overborne by numbers, and accessories not less efficient, truth is not to be
measured by success in maintaining it against force; nor is the glory less of him who upholds it in the face
of unequal odds, but is- it not rather more to his credit that he counted all else as dust in the balance
when weighed with honor and duty. On many a stricken field our soldiers stood few and faint, but fearless
still, for they wore the panoply of unquestioning confidence in the rectitude of their cause, and knew how
to die but not to surrender. Let not any of their survivors impugn their faith by offering the penitential
plea that "they believed they were right."
Be it ours to transmit to posterity our unequivocal testimony to the justice of their convictions, to
their virtues, and the sanctity of the motives by which they were actuated.
It is meet that this monument should have originated with the ladies of the land, whose self-denial
was conspicuous through all the trials and sufferings of war, whose gentle ministrations in the hospitals, and
at way-side refectories, so largely contributed to relieve the sick and the wounded, and whose unfaltering
devotion to their country's cause in the darkest hours of our struggle, illustrated the fidelity of the sex which
was last at the cross, and first at the sepulchre.
I am profoundly thankful to them for inviting me to represent them, as their orator, on the approaching
occasion. Had it been practicable to accept, their request would have been, to me, a command, obeyed with
no other reluctance, than the consciousness of inability to do justice to the theme.
Thanks to the merits of our Confederate Dead, they need neither orator nor bard to commend their
deeds to the present generation of their countrymen. Many fell far from home and kindred, and sleep in
unmarked graves; but all are gathered in the love of those for whom they died, and their memories are
hallowed in the hearts of all true Confederates.
By the pious efforts of our people, many humble cemeteries, such as m their impoverishment were J
possible, have been prepared, and the Confederate Dead have been collected in them from neighboring battle¬
fields. There annually, with reverential affection, the graves, alike of the known and the unknown, are decked
with vernal flowers, expressive of gratitude renewable forever, and typical of the hope of a resurrection and
reunion where the wicked cease from troubling and the weary are at rest.
To be remembered, honored, beloved by their people is the reward bestowed on our Confederate Dead.
It is the highest which a good and purely patriotic man could desire. Should it be asked, why then build this
monument? the answer is, they do not need it, but posterity may. It is not their reward, but our debt. If
the greatest gift a hero gives his race, is to have been a hero, in order that this gift may be utilized to
coming generations, its appreciation by contemporaries should be rendered as visible and enduring as possible.
Let the monument, rising from earth toward heaven, lift the minds of those who come after us, to a higher
standard than the common test of success. Let it teach that man is born for duty, not for expediency; that
when an attack is made on the community to which he belongs, by which he is protected, and to which his
allegiance is due, his first obligation is to defend that community; and that under such conditions it is better
to have "fought and lost, than never to have fought at all." Let posterity learn by this monument that you
commemorate men who died in a defensive war; that they did not, as has been idly stated, submit to the
arbitrament of arms the questions at issue — questions which involved the inalienable rights inherited from
their ancestors, and held in trust for their posterity; but that they strove to maintain the State sovereignty
which their Fathers left them, and which it was their duty if possible to transmit to their Children.
Away then with such feeble excuse for the abandonment of principles, which may be crushed for a while,
but which possessing the eternal vitality of truth, must in its own good time prevail over perishable error.
Let this monument teach that heroism derives its lustre from the justice of the cause in which it is
displayed, and let it mark the difference between a war waged for the robber-like purpose of conquest, and
one to repel invasion—to defend a people's hearths and altars, and to maintain their laws and liberties. Such
was the war in which our heroes fell, and theirs is the crown which sparkles with the gems of patriotism and
righteousness, with a glory undimmed by any motive of aggrandisement or intent to inflict ruin on others.
We present them to posterity as examples to be followed, and wait securely for the verdict of mankind when
knowledge shall have dispelled misrepresentation and delusion. Is it unreasonable to hope that mature reflection
and a closer study of the political history of the Union, may yet restore the rights prostrated by the passions
developed in our long and bloody war ? If however it should be otherwise, then from our heroes' graves shall
come in mournful tones the
"Answer fit;
And if our children must obey,
They must, but thinking on our day,
T'will less debase them to submit."
Yours faithfully,
JEFFERSON DAVIS.
Messrs. John P. Fort, L. N. Whittle, John C. Curd, T. D. Tinsley,
W. It. Rogers, J. F. Greer, I. B. English—Committee.
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J, w. BURKE & CO., Printers, &c., Macon, Ga. , '• ,