eared that the proof in the other direction is too
strong.' Indeed, the editor might well be astonished at the supposition
that Jefferson Davis, who subscribed the repudiation letter in question
of the 25th May, 1849, as well as a still stronger communication of the
29th August, 1849, should have been confounded, during a period of near
fourteen years, by the press of Europe and America, with Reuben Davis,
and that the supposed mistake should just now be discovered, especially
as Reuben Davis never was a Senator of the United States from
Mississippi, or from any other State.

I was asked if it really was Reuben or Jefferson Davis who was the
author of the letter in question advocating the repudiation of the Union
Bank bonds of Mississippi, their recollection being, that it was the
latter. I said that the repudiation letter in question of the 25th May,
1849, was subscribed and published at its date in the Washington
_Union_, by Jefferson Davis, as a Senator of the United States from
Mississippi, which position he then held, that he was personally well
known to me for nearly a fourth of a century, as was also Reuben Davis,
and that the latter never had been a Senator of the United States from
Mississippi, or any other State, as was well known to me, and would be
shown by reference to the Journals of the United States Senate. I
stated, that I had represented the State of Mississippi in the Senate of
the United States from January, 1836, until March, 1845, when, having
resigned that office, I was called to the Cabinet of President Polk, as
Secretary of the Treasury of the United States, and remained in that
position until the close of that administration in March, 1849. I added,
that I was in Washington City, the capital of the Union, and residing
there as a counsellor at law in the Supreme Court of the United States,
when the first repudiation letter of Jefferson Davis, communicated by
him to the editor of the _Union_ (a newspaper of that city), was
published, on the 25th May, 1849, in that print, and very generally
throughout the United States. It was remarked by me, that it was well
known to myself personally, and I believed to every prominent public man
of that date, especially those then in Washington, that Mr. Jefferson
Davis was the author of that letter then published over his signature,
and that he defended its doctrines, with all that earnestness and
ability for which he was so distinguished. I was also residing in