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

About the Author

To contemporary students of American history the name of Jefferson Davis is permanently linked with his role as president of the Confederate States of America. To Americans of the 1850s, however, Davis was a prominent member of the U.S. Senate and a significant figure in American politics. Known for his polished oratory, he was a hero of the Mexican-American War and served with distinction as secretary of war under President Franklin Pierce. Davis, as the leader of the southern cause and extoller of states' rights in the Congress, framed many of the political issues leading up to the Civil War. His leadership as Confederate president shaped the course of the Civil War, and his incarceration after the conflict laid the foundations for the image of the tragic but noble heroes of the South. Davis became the quintessential unreconstructed Confederate. His tenacious belief in the righteousness of the Confederate cause had a strong impact on the way in which the South dealt with defeat.

Davis was born on June 3, 1808, in Christian County (now Todd County) on a site that has since become a part of Fairview, Kentucky; he moved with his parents to southwestern Mississippi in 1810. In 1824 he entered the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, graduating in 1828 twenty-third in a class of thirty-three. After a brief and somewhat lackluster military career, Davis resigned from the army in 1835. In 1845 he was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives, his first political office.

In 1846 Davis resigned his seat in the House to lead a Mississippi unit in the Mexican-American War, during which he won recognition for heroism. Upon his return to civilian life, he was elected to the U.S. Senate and served until 1853, when he became secretary of war. In January 1856 Davis was again elected to the Senate, where he became the primary spokesperson in Congress for states' rights and the southern cause. A lifelong Democrat, Davis was a strong defender of slavery, its expansion into the territories, and the superiority of the white race, but he was also known as a benevolent master to the slaves on his plantation. By 1860 he was one of the largest slave owners in Mississippi; the 113 slaves who labored on his cotton plantation brought him not only financial wealth but also status as member of the plantation class. He served in the Senate until his resignation on January 21, 1861, twelve days after Mississippi seceded from the Union.

On the issue of secession, Davis hoped to save the Union if constitutionally possible. He did not see this belief as inconsistent with his support of states' rights and the compact theory of the Union: the theory that the nation was formed through a compact of states that retained their sovereign status and could constitutionally secede. Davis was not associated with the “Fire-eaters,” the extreme pro-slavery politicians of the South. The vociferous voices of the Fire-eaters in support of the cause of the South in the late 1850s, and specifically during the crucial days leading to the election of 1860, did much to increase tensions between the sections and was a significant factor in the formation of the Confederate States of America. Fire-eaters saw the Republican victory of 1860 as evidence that the North would immediately attempt to abolish slavery, and they were instrumental in urging South Carolina to pass articles of secession in December 1860. As evidence of his moderate position, Davis believed that even with the election of Abraham Lincoln, the South could work out a solution to the conflicts over the issue of slavery, and he continued to seek an amicable solution up until the secession of his native Mississippi.

After he was officially notified that the Mississippi legislature had voted to secede from the Union, Davis resigned from the Senate. As a military hero and standard-bearer of the southern cause, Davis was a leading choice for president of the new Confederate States of America. He was a reluctant candidate for the office, however, and would have preferred a military post. As president of the Confederacy, he faced the daunting task of forming a central government from a group of states that had left the Union asserting their states' rights; at the same time he had to finance and fight a war against an enemy with superior industrial and military strength. In addition, Davis suffered from ill health during much of his presidency; many historians argue that this further limited his effectiveness as a chief executive. His critics portrayed him as an ideologue who lacked political skills and was prone to micromanaging the war. During and after the war, they placed much of the blame for the southern defeat on Davis.

After the surrender of General Robert E. Lee on April 9, 1865, Davis attempted to maintain his government while on the run, hoping to reestablish it west of the Mississippi. On May 10, 1865, he was arrested by federal troops. He was taken to Fortress Monroe, Virginia, and was ultimately charged with treason, a charge that the U.S. government never successfully prosecuted. In response, Davis sought a trial, holding that secession was not treason—a position that he would maintain for the rest of his life.

After the war Davis devoted most of his remaining years to asserting that states' rights, not slavery, had been the cause of the Civil War and to explaining why secession was constitutional. Plagued with financial problems, he ultimately retired to write his memoirs on the Gulf Coast as the guest of a wealthy Confederate widow in Mississippi. He never sought a pardon, maintaining that even in light of the suffering brought on by the war he would do the same things all over again. In 1881 he published his memoirs, The Rise and Fall of the Confederate Government, which was essentially a defense of arguments regarding secession and the validity of the Confederate cause. Davis died on December 6, 1889, in New Orleans.