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your past; thus pledged to a future of devotion to the Confederate cause and its rightfulness. Ladies of the New Orleans Chapter 72, United Daughters of the Confederacy, your decoration becomes an inestimable prize, a badge of knighthood, ennobling the Confederate veteran who receives it. Such will it ever be to me.

And if my heart could be further moved in gratefulness, it would proceed from the appropriateness of the anniversary under celebration and the sacred precints you have chosen to make me presentation of this emblem of martial and patriotic services rendered the Confederacy and the South. You have conferred it on me, as it were, in the view of the whole Confederacy-under the auspices of its president, Jefferson Davis. For the Confederacy is here in this temple of its fame in all the intensity and dramatic action of its short-lived years. From these tattered and bloody flags its heroism speaks forth; from these weapons, these relics, these fragments, these documents, its spirits, its motives, its devotion, its rights are proclaimed; its great leaders, chieftains and immortal soldiers surround you, lending there Confederate days' appearance to these ceremonies; it is recalled in every article you touch or see; it permeates the air, and here to-day it stirs your Southern pulses as of yore. And above all others, one presence prevades this hall, one personality dominates its memories; it is that of the Confederacy's first and only president, Jefferson Davis.

Follow it through, from the cradle in yonder corner, where, in Christian county, of the "dark and bloody ground," his infancy was rocked, 93 years ago, by sturdy southern parents, and then recall the day when, in state, his body lay under this beautiful roof, in the midst of these holy relics, surrounded by grieving hearts of a community he loved so much, and you have spanned his life. But, at every step herein, touching and precious mementos tell its story between, and mark the epochs of his illustrious career. 'Tis in his commission, signed by President Andrew Jackson, as lieutenant in the United States army, for gallantry in the Black Hawk war; 'tis in his watch, worn at the capture of Monterey, when commanding the First Mississippi Rifles; 'tis in the swords presented to him by a foreign minister, whilst Secretary of War of the United States; 'tis in that mass of his official papers, so clear and statesmanly; 'tis in those books of his masterly messages, and other State papers, when President of the Confederate States of America; 'tis in that picture and souvenirs of his white house, at Richmond, where he went, chosen by his people to guide their government through the storm

of war they had dared for principle and for right, where he displayed to the world such high ability and devotion, through four years of the greatest conflict of the ages; from which he departed unblemished, erect, dignified, defiant, when the life of his government was crushed out under the weight of numbers; 'tis in these hundred volumes of records of that gigantic interstate war, given to the world by the foe, where posterity will marvel to find how much he had to contend with in numbers and equipment of the foe, and how much he had to create to make possible the glorious and protracted campaigns of his vastly disproportionate armies; 'tis in that photograph of him, pale, emaciated, yet unbending, as he emerged the martyr of his people and his cause from the dungeon of Fortress Monroe, and the manacles and fetters of a Miles; 'tis in that release, wrung from his foes after ineffectual search in his official and private acts as President of his government, for aught that could be construed into crime against the laws and the constitution under which he had been born, educated, and had served; 'tis here, in his thousand personal articles, effects, manuscripts, papers, pictures, books, letters, cherished family trinkets and mementos, and touching tokens from friends and his people, that lay before you his home life, its affections, its tastes, its purposes, as, from a prison door, in simple grandeur, an uncrowned monarch of southern hearts, he pursued the even tenor of his way, until that fateful day in December, 1889, when, in this city, his dauntless soul took flight, to meet the Great Judge of all rulers and of all men; 'tis in these numerous sets of resolutions of deepest sorrow, from individuals, organizations, communities and States, that crowd these walls, attesting the majestic mourning of the South, when her great leader came to pass away. Not only in all that establishes his greatness as a man, as a statesman, as a leader, as a patriot, is he here present, but he is here in his gentlest, dearest, tenderest memories and affections. These touching mementos of Miss Winnie, these family pictures of Mrs. Hayes, these articles recalling his sons, early lost, all have shreds of his heart still clinging to them; and well we know how much his venerable relict's heart is also in this sanctuary: for has she not written : But my heart is in the New Orleans Memorial Hall. There, I feel I owe most affectionate gratitude, and to this place I sent my dearest relics.

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Search the Southland over, and no spot is hallowed by his spiritual presence so much as this memorial hall; from no spot could rise more gratefully to his great spirit, the spoken incense of his people's love and praise, on days to follow perpetually this inaugral one, an annual

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celebration of a birth that gave to the South this giant among its statesmen, its patriots and its leaders, and to the world another name "that was not born to die."

There was great applause at the conclusion of the ceremonies.

Mrs. Smith arose and thanked the Army of Tennessee veterans for a beautiful bouquet which she had received, and Mrs. McLellan recognized the gift of a like compliment from Colonel Chalaron.

Then Dr. Palmer dismissed the gathering with the benediction.

MEMOIR OF JANE CLAUDIA JOHNSON.

Few women had the good fortune in the war between the States to have such opportunities for good as the subject of this memoir, and no one ever improved them as she did.

She was of distinguished ancestry. Her father, Romulus M. Saunders, of North Carolina, was a member of Congress from 1819 to 1844; from 1845-49, Minister Plenipotentiary to Madrid, authorized to offer $100,000,000 for the Island of Cuba. He had really nonrinated James K. Polk for the Presidency by devising and securing the adoption of the two-third rule at the Democratic National Convention in Baltimore in 1844.

A majority of the delegates had come instructed to vote for Van Buren. But, in the meantime, Van Buren had taken position in opposition to the annexation of Texas, and the Southern Van Buren man wanted him defeated, hence the two-third rule, which required two-thirds of all the members to make the nomination.

The mission to Spain, then the most important diplomatic position in the Government, was a recognition of his service to the party, to the cause of Texas, and to the President elect.

The mother of Mrs. Johnson was Anna Hayes Johnson, daughter of the Hon. William Johnson, of South Carolina, Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States, appointed by Mr. Jefferson in 1804, and who married the brilliant young rember of Congress from North Carolina when she was quite a young woman.

She was a splendidly handsome, brilliant, and intellectual woman,

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