"Pray how so, sir?" Jones asked. He looked irritated.
"Well, Mr. Jones, the way I read it, Boteler's proposed idea of what should be the watch word for the southern republic was, oh, sir, my knowledge of Latin is totally lacking." I went to my folders sitting beside me to find the notes.
He tapped his cane sharply. "Don't bother, sir, it was 'Deo Duce Vincemus,' which, I was told in a condescending manner by Boteler, means 'God being our leader, we will conquer.' I told Mr. Boteler and Congress that I was opposed to it because I didn't know what the highfaluting Latin words meant. Nor would they be understood by most of our boys on the battlefield or the citizens in our desperate new nation."
Jones spoke like a true Tennessee plebeian. "Instead I suggested as our motto, 'Liberty and Independence.' I said a plain simple ideal would be just fine. Seemed to me that those fighting could understand those words, and that motto would serve to state our hopes clearly and strongly. When they saw it, read it, heard it, they'd be inspired and confirmed in their sacrifice. I lost. Finally it was decided on another pompous Latin abstraction, 'Deo Vindice': 'God vindicates.' Well, if that be the case, we were certainly not on the side of the Holy, quite the opposite. After my first year in Richmond it became pretty clear there would be no vindication for the Confederacy or its Congress. I became so disgusted during one inane debate on 'what we needed to be doing' as a legislative body that I told them with as much ridicule as I could muster, 'If the House would adjourn and not meet anymore, it would benefit the country!'" "So you didn't stand for reelection in 1864?" I asked.
"It was necessitated sir; my district was occupied by Union forces and my people under duress. My heart was not in continuing. Yes, sir, my district, Lincoln County and the Tennessee Valley came under Union control while I was in Congress at Richmond. While I was making every effort to eliminate wasteful spending in the fledgling Confederate republic, my earthly goods, books, tools, even banked assets vanished in the economic turmoil that emerges from war. I shall not present a false humility, sir…in my actions I brought on my on discomfort and misfortune. I respected fellowship and stayed with my people during the ordeal, striving to serve as their voice in the new government as long as it was applicable.
"Perchance it was selfishness of sorts, my going to Richmond and the Confederate Congress…vanity, too, I suppose, but certainly not in the ordinary sense. The Civil War destroyed my career and fortune. It was choice, dear sir, and I chose Fayetteville and Lincoln County and the exceeding ill-favored fortunes of the Southern Confederacy." He then stopped his recitation of actions and motivations, exhaling a chest full of breath. He refilled his lungs to continue his story.