Speeches of the Honorable Jefferson Davis, 1858 | Page 3

outrages in the Gulf found us, as a people, with domestic quarrels on
our hands; but if this power counted on existing divisions and on
making them wider, the result showed how great was her error. The
insult was resented by a united people; the Senate, as one man, leaped
up against British pretensions; while England, as suddenly, astonished,
withdrew her pretensions. The claim she so long preferred is given
up--entirely abandoned. The same spirit that resented insult in the past
will resent it in the future. I stand, said the Senator, substantially on the
deck of an American vessel; it is American soil; the American flag
floats over it; its right to course the ocean pathway is perfect. When the
blue firmament reflected its own color in the sea, it was the

unappropriated property of mankind; and it was arrogant and idle for
any nation to deny to the United States her full enjoyment of this
common property. It was for the full and undisturbed enjoyment of this
right that out fathers, when much less prepared for war than we are now,
engaged in the conflict of 1812; and for this right we were ready to
strike in 1858. Let a feign power, under any pretence whatever, insult
the American flag, and it will find that we are not a divided people, but
that a mighty arm will be raised to smite down the insulter, and this
great country will continue united.
Trifling politicians in the South, or in the North, or in the West, may
continue to talk otherwise, but it will be of no avail. They are like the
mosquitoes around the ox: they annoy, but they cannot wound, and
never kill. There was a common interest which run through all the
diversified occupations and various products of these sovereign States;
there was a common sentiment of nationality which beat in every
American bosom; there were common memories sweet to us all, and,
though clouds had occasionally darkened our political sky, the good
sense and the good feeling of the people had thus far averted any
catastrophe destructive of our constitution and the Union. It was in
fraternity and an elevation of principle which rose superior to sectional
or individual aggrandizement that the foundations of our Union were
laid; and if we, the present generation, be worthy of our ancestry, we
shall not only protect those foundations from destruction, but build
higher and wider this temple of liberty, and inscribe perpetuity upon its
tablet.
In the course of his beautiful speech, senator Davis passed a noble
eulogium on our mother country; and dwelt on the many reasons why
the most cordial friendship should be maintained with her; and he
concluded by a tribute to the fair sex--the women--beautiful woman; to
the wondrous educational influence as the mother which she exercised
over the minds of men. It is ever, at all times, felt and operative--upon
the dreary waste of ocean, on the lonely prairie, in the troublous
contests at the national halls. And when the arm is moved in the deadly
conflicts of the battle-field, and the foe is vanquished, then the gentle
influences instilled by women do their work, and the heart melts into
tears of pity and prompts to deeds of mercy.
After this intellectual repast, then succeeded congratulations; the air

was made vocal with song; while, through the foresight of the gallant
captain, at the evening hour, the sky about the good ship Joseph
Whitney was brilliant with those various pyrotechnic displays which
must be so grateful to the spirit of patriotic John Adams, of bonfire and
illumination-memory.

Speech at the Portland Serenade, July 9th, 1858.
After the music had ceased, Mr. Davis appeared upon the steps, and as
soon as the prolonged applause with which he was greeted had
subsided, he spoke in substance as follows:
Fellow Countrymen:--Accept my sincere thanks for this manifestation
of your kindness. Vanity does not lead me so far to misconceive your
purpose as to appropriate the demonstration to myself; but it is not less
gratifying to me to be made the medium through which Maine tenders
an expression of regard to her sister Mississippi. It is moreover, with
feelings of profound gratification that I witness this indication of that
national sentiment and fraternity which made us, and which alone can
keep us, one people. At a period, but as yesterday when compared with
the life of nations, these States were separate, and in sorts respects
opposing colonies; their only relation to each other was that of a
common allegiance to the government of Great Britain. So separate,
indeed almost hostile, was their attitude, that when Gen. Stark, of
Bennington memory, was captured by savages on the head waters of
the Kennebec, he was subsequently taken by them to Albnny