Honorable Jefferson Davis: My father, Harrison Self, is sentenced to hang at four o’clock this evening on a charge of bridge-burning. As he remains my earthly all, and all my hopes of happiness centre on him, I implore you to pardon him.
Elizabeth Self
(Telegram which secured pardon for her father)
Jefferson Davis dies, 1889
The county of Kentucky formed from Virginia, 1776
Duncan Nathaniel Ingraham, “Hero of the Koszta Rescue,” born, 1802
December Seventh
For years after the war, the Republican politicians in the South told the negroes that if the Democrats were elected, they would be put back into slavery. Consequently, after the first election of Cleveland, many of them began to make their arrangements to readapt themselves to the old regime. One old Virginia “aunty” living in Howard County, Maryland, announced that she was ready to return to Richmond; but declared most positively: “Deed, my ole Missus has got to send me my railroad ticket fust.”
December Eighth
Our one sweet singer breaks no more
The silence sad and long,
The land is hushed from shore to shore
It brooks no feebler song.
Carl McKinley