Jefferson Davis

On January 21, 1861, a fearful capital city awaited the farewell addresses of five senators. From the galleries, Mrs. Jefferson Davis sensed "blood in the air," as the chaplain delivered his prayer at high noon. With every senator at his place, Vice President John Breckinridge postponed a vote on admitting Kansas as a free state to recognize senators from Florida and Alabama.
   When the four senators finished their farewell addresses, all eyes turned to Mississippi's Jefferson Davis. Tall and slender at the age of fifty-two, Davis had been ill for more than a week. Suffering from a severe headache, he began his valedictory in a low voice that grew stronger as he progressed.
   I rise, Mr. President, for the purpose of announcing to the Senate that I have satisfactory evidence that the State of Mississippi, by a solemn ordinance of her people in convention assembled, has declared her separation from the United States. Under these circumstances, of course, my functions are terminated here. It has seemed to me proper, however, that I should appear in the Senate to announce that fact to my associates, and I will say but very little more. The occasion does not invite me to go into argument, and my physical condition would not permit me to do so if it were otherwise; and yet it seems to become me to say something on the part of the state I here represent, on an occasion so solemn as this.
    Less than a month later, a convention of all the seceding states named him President of the new Confederacy. His election was a compromise choice; his elevation to Chief Executive fully pleased no one, least of all himself. Davis had hoped to win glory as commander of the Southern armies. As president, he faced a far more daunting task.
   He, his wife Varina, and their four children lived in the Confederate capital of Richmond, Virginia. Some have described Davis as proud, touchy, loyal, hot-tempered, and deluded. To many he was a complex man whose mix of flaws and virtues seemed to embody the South he led in its years of deepest crisis. Davis's own inflated ego and view of himself as a military strategist led to constant quarrels and meddling with his generals. Some Southerners looked upon him as a "would-be" despot and incapable of compromise. According to his wife, Davis was so persistently at battle with his foes that it made him "a mere mass of throbbing nerves."
    Davis failed to raise sufficient money to fight the American Civil War and could not obtain recognition and help for the Confederacy from foreign governments. He was in constant conflict with extreme exponents of the doctrine of states' rights, and his attempts to have high military officers appointed by the president were opposed by the governors of the states. The judges of state courts constantly interfered in military matters through judicial decisions.
   In 1865 Davis still hoped the South would be able to achieve its independence, but at last he realized defeat was imminent and fled from Richmond.
   On May 10, 1865, federal troops captured him at Irwinville, Georgia. From 1865 to 1867 he was imprisoned at Fortress Monroe, Virginia. Davis was indicted for treason in 1866 but the next year was released on a bond of $100,000 signed by the American newspaper publisher Horace Greeley and other influential Northerners. In 1868 the federal government dropped the case against him.
    From 1870 to 1878 he engaged in a number of unsuccessful business enterprises; and from 1878 until his death in New Orleans, on December 6, 1889, he lived near Biloxi, Mississippi. His grave is in Richmond, Virginia. He wrote The Rise and Fall of the Confederate Government (1881).

   Jefferson, born in Christian County, Kentucky, which now forms Todd County, June 3, 1808. His father, Samuel Davis, had served in the Georgia cavalry during the Revolution, and, when Jefferson was an infant, moved with his family to a place near Woodville, Wilkinson County, Miss. Young Davis entered Transylvania College, in Kentucky, but left in 1824, on his appointment by President Monroe to the U. S. military academy. On his graduation, in 1828, he was assigned to the 1st infantry, and served on the frontier, taking part in the Black Hawk war of 1831. He was promoted to first lieutenant of dragoons on March 4, 1833, but after more service against the Indians, abruptly resigned on June 30, 1835. Davis eloped with the daughter of Zachary Taylor, then a colonel in the army, and settled near Vicksburg, Miss. where he became a cotton planter. Davis pursued a life of study and retirement till 1843, when he entered politics in the midst of an exciting gubernatorial canvass. He was chosen an elector on the Polk and Dallas ticket in 1844, made a reputation as a popular speaker, and in 1845 was sent to congress, taking his seat in December of that year. He at once took an active part in debate, speaking on the tariff, the Oregon question, and military matters, especially with reference to the preparations for war with Mexico.
   As a United States congressman, senator, and secretary of war, Jefferson Davis was an aggressive proponent of slavery. He was in the U.S. Senate when the state of Mississippi left the Union in January 1861.

We, the people of the Confederate States, each State acting in its sovereign and independent character, in order to form a permanent federal government, establish justice, insure domestic tranquillity, and secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity~invoking the favor and guidance of Almighty God~do ordain and establish this Constitution for the Confederate States of America.

Jefferson Davis

Jefferson Davis President

Alexander Stephens Vice President

Mississippi Secedes

The Rebel