Jefferson Davis: Resolutions to the U.S. Senate on the Relations of States

In Jefferson Davis's Resolutions to the U.S. Senate on the Relations of States, presented in February 1860, the congressman who would become president of the Confederacy sought to firmly state the position of the South on key issues, most important of which was congressional protection of slavery in the territories, in anticipation of the upcoming presidential election. To fully understand Davis and his importance during the critical period of the American Civil War, it is important to place him in the context of the time in which he lived and understand what led him and millions of other Americans to support the Confederate cause. For most of the 1850s Davis was the spokesperson for the southern cause in the Senate and a strong supporter of states’ rights. The Resolutions to the U.S. Senate on the Relations of States represent a last-ditch effort on his part to unequivocally assert the southern cause, articulating positions from which the South would not retreat. These demands marked the death knell of Democratic unity, setting forth demands that were unacceptable to northern Democrats.