[125] Memoir, Id. vol. i. 59, 60.
[126] Mrs. Davis tells all the details most delightfully; Memoir, vol. i. 207-212.
[127] Memoir, vol. i. 214, 215. Compare what Stephens says of the speech made by President Davis at the African church in Richmond in February, 1865, just after the return of our Commissioners who had sought in vain for terms of peace which the south could consider. We give the part of the passage pertinent here.
“The newspaper sketches of that speech were meagre, as well as inaccurate ... and ... came far short of so presenting its substance even, as to give those who did not hear it anything like an adequate conception of its full force and power. It was not only bold, undaunted, and confident in tone, but had that loftiness of sentiment and rare form of expression, as well as magnetic influence in its delivery, by which the passions of the people are moved to their profoundest depths, and roused to the highest pitch of excitement. Many who had heard this Master of Oratory in his most brilliant displays in the senate and on the hustings, said they never before saw him so really majestic. The occasion, and the effects of the speech, as well as all the circumstances under which it was made, caused the minds of not a few to revert to like appeals by Rienzi and Demosthenes.” War between the States, vol. ii. 623, 824.
[128] Memoir, vol. i. 146, 147.
[129] Landon Knight, “The Real Jefferson Davis,” already cited.
[130] Landon Knight, “The Real Jefferson Davis.”
[131] Mrs. Davis’s Memoir, vol. i. 392.
[132] In his fourth chapter.
[133] Memoir, vol. ii. 18.