The State Journal

DECORATION-DAY.
Its Observance at the South-Jefferson Davis' Sentiments.

Macon, GA., April 26. - Memorial-day was celebrated with great ceremony. The Confederate monument corner-stone was laid by the Grand Masonic Lodge of Georgia. An eloquent letter of Jefferson Davis was read, and an oration delivered by Gov. Colquitt. The largest crowd ever known on Memorial-day was present.

In a letter to the Memorial association of Macon, in response to an invitation to deliver an address, Jefferson Davis says:

Let not any of the survivors impugn their faith by offering the penitential plea that "they believed they were right." Let posterity learn by this monument that you commemorate the 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 involving inalienable right inherited and held in trust for posterity, but they strove for the State sovereignty which their fathers left them, and which it was their duty if possible to transmit to their children. 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 movement of aggrandizement or intent to inflict ruin on others.

We present them to posterity as examples to be followed, and wait security for the verdict of mankind, when knowledge shall have dispelled misrepresentation and delusion. It is not unreasonable to hope that mature reflection and a closer study of the political history of the Union may yet restore the rights prostrated by passions developed in our long and bloody war. If, however, it should be otherwise,

Then from our heroes' grave shall come In mournful tones the answer:

And if our children must obey,
'Twill less, do these them to submit

Yours faithfully,
JEFFERSON DAVIS