Jefferson Davis's arguments about slavery and the causes of the Civil War

Jefferson Davis was born on June 3, 1808 in Kentucky in Todd County, formerly Christian County, Kentucky. Davis was educated at Transylvania University in Lexington, Kentucky and attended the U.S. Military Academy graduating in 1828. David fought in the Mexican War at Monterrey and Buena Visa and was wounded. David retired from the army in 1835 due to health problems. In the same year Jefferson Davis married Miss Sallie Taylor whose father was Zachary Taylor however, Sally died only three months following their wedding. (Alward, nd) After Sallie died, David purchased a cotton plantation complete with slaves working the field and was a successful plantation cotton farmer. In 1845, David married again, this time to Miss Varina Howell. (Alward, nd) Davis was both a devoted father and husband.

DAVIS: SENATOR, CONGRESSMAN, & CONFEDERATE PRESIDENT

Davis was elected U.S. senator from the state of Mississippi serving ten years between 1835 and 1845 and served as a U.S. Congressman from 1846 to 1846 and again from 1857 to 1861. In 1861 when Mississippi seceded from the Union, David withdrew from the U.S. Senate. Davis was appointed the provisional president by the provisional Congress of the Confederate States on February 18, 1861. Davis held the title of the President of the Confederacy until the surrender of General Robert E. Lee at Appomattox, Virginia, on April 9, 1865.

III. DAVIS: THE SURRENDER

The work entitled: "A History of Mississippi From the Discovery of the Great River, Including the Earliest Settlement Made by the French, to the Death of Jefferson Davis" (1891) states that Davis arrived in the state of Mississippi "while a tender infant, and was nurtured on the soil of the State he loved with the most devoted affection." (Lowry and McGardle, 1891) it is related that Jefferson Davis was raised by his older brother, Joseph E. Davis, until he was eight years old. Joseph lived near Greenville and had a law practice. Joseph was determined that Jefferson would receive a good education and sent Jefferson to Kentucky, under the charge of General Thomas Hinds. (Lowry and McGardle, 1891) states as well that during the time that Jefferson Davis held a seat in the Senate of the United States, he was the peer of the ablest and proudest Senator on that floor." (Lowry and McGardle, 1891) During the time, that Jefferson Davis was president of the Confederate States of American he "waged a gigantic war one with one of the most powerful governments known to our times, for four weary years. He saw in those years the muster rolls of the United States bear the names of three millions of men; while the muster-rolls of the Confederate army bore scant 600,000 names." (Lowry and McGardle, 1891) While there were many victories in the battlefields against terrible odds, it is stated that "the end came on the 9th day of April 1865. The surrender of General Lee was followed by that of other commanders in the field, and the government of the Confederate States became a memory. Jefferson Davis was captured, hurried to Fortress Monroe, and there manacled like a common, vulgar ruffian." (Lowry and McGardle, 1891) it is related that President Johnson had posted a reward of $100,000 for the capture of Jefferson Davis who had been accused of being involved in a conspiracy to assassinate President Lincoln. Davis writes his account of this occasion that he surrendered peaceably but Davis states that Colonel Pritchard claimed credit for his capture speaking of the "forbearance shown by his men in not shooting me when I refused to surrender." (Davis, 1890) When Davis was captured, he was placed in shackles of iron and taken to prison where he remained for almost two years.

DAVIS: THE LAST YEARS

The trial of Jefferson Davis for the crimes he was accused of never culminated. Davis is stated after this to have "gone quietly about his business, attending to his planting affairs, reading his favorite authors, enjoy the society of his friends, conscious that he possessed the respect and the confidence of every brave man and virtuous woman in the entire South." (Lowry and McGardle, 1891) in early December, 1889, Jefferson Davis became critically ill while in the City of New Orleans. It is stated that the people of the South "were saddened by the intelligence....[and that they]"...watched the dispatches of the morning and evening journals with the deepest and most painful interest, until the end came at 12:45 in the morning of the 6th of December, 1889, and then every house in the South was covered with the pall of sorrow." (Lowry and McGardle, 1891) Jefferson Davis was laid in state for three days and estimates given are that in those three days that approximately one hundred thousand "passed the bier to take a last look at those beloved features." (Lowry and McGardle, 1891) Jefferson Davis was buried on December 11 in what was a "strict military" funeral. Officiating at the funeral were "...the Episcopal Bishops of Mississippi and Louisiana, Right Reverend and Hugh Miller Thompson, and Right Revered John N. Gallaher, Bishop of Louisiana assisted by Reverend Thomas R. Markham, D.D. A native of Mississippi, in charge of a Presbyterian church in New Orleans and a number of other clerical gentlemen." (Lowry and McGardle, 1891) Reverend Gallaher states in a tribute following the funeral of Jefferson Davis that: "...this man as a Christian and as a churchman was a lover of all high and righteous things; as a citizen, was fashioned in the old, faithful type; as a soldier, was marked and fitted for more than fame, the Lord God having set on him the seal of a pure knighthood; as a statesman, he was the peer of the princes in that realm; and as a patriot, through every day of his illustrious life, was an incorruptible and impassioned defender of the liberties of men. Gracious and gentle, even to the lowliest-nay, especially to them - tender as he was brave, he deserved to win all the love that followed. Fearless and selfish, he could not well escape the long conflicts to which he was committed. " (Lowry and McGardle, 1891)