Had he been born half a century earlier maybe Jefferson
Davis would be remembered more like his namesake, Thomas Jefferson. He had a
storybook presidential upbringing. Born in 1808 in western Kentucky, Jefferson
was the tenth of ten children. His father moved the family nearly 600 miles to
Louisiana shortly after Jefferson’s birth and then again, less than a year
later, to Mississippi. When Jefferson was seven, his father decided he needed a
proper education and sent Jefferson on a 500-mile trip to a Catholic boarding
school in Kentucky without telling his wife. On the trip Jefferson spent
several memorable weeks at the Hermitage. General Andrew Jackson was a bonafide
American legend fresh off of his victory at New Orleans.
Jefferson’s older brother, Joseph, was a major force in his
life and became a surrogate father. Joseph
encouraged Jefferson to continue his education. Jefferson attended Transylvania
University and West Point, where he was a middling student. Jefferson was a
West Point contemporary with his future general Robert E. Lee, though the two
were not close. He did become close friends with Albert Sidney Johnston and
Leonidas Polk, who would also go on to serve as generals under Jefferson.
After graduating from West Point Jefferson was stationed in
Wisconsin. It was true frontier territory. The commanding officer at the fort
was future president Zachary Taylor and Jefferson soon fell in love with his
daughter, Sarah. As discussed in the post about Taylor, he did not want his
daughter marrying an Army man due to the family pressures of military life. Jefferson
resigned from the military and married Sarah. Malaria struck shortly after the
wedding killing Sarah.
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| Jefferson and Varina's wedding photo. There's something about this photo I find intriguing. |
Joseph was a wealthy planter with thousands of acres of land
along the Mississippi River near Vicksburg. Joseph gave his brother some land
where he built his plantation, Brierfield, in the years following Sarah’s
death. Jefferson met and married the much younger Varina Howell during these
years. The age difference, tension between Varina and Joseph, and Jefferson’s
military service would strain the early years of their marriage. However, the
two were devoted to each other and her ability to raise their children and
advocate for her imprisoned husband in the years after the war are admirable.
Her life as a writer living in New York after Jefferson’s death seem
interesting. I intended to learn more about Varina following the president
project.
Joseph encouraged his brother to pursue politics and was elected
to the House of Representatives during the Polk administration on his second
try. Less than one year in to his term the Mexican War broke out. Davis
resigned his seat to serve as a colonel much to Varina’s vexation. In Mexico, Davis
led the Mississippi Rifles who would famously be the first to breech the walls
of Mexican stronghold, “the Tannery”, at the Battle of Monterrey. The Rifles
also fought gallantly at Buena Vista. In short, the war could not have gone
better for an up-and-coming Democratic politician. Davis was appointed to
Mississippi’s vacant Senate seat upon his heroic return home and then won
reelection. At this point the Compromise of 1850 was the hot-button issue de
jour and David bitterly opposed it. Davis hated the legislation’s implicit
abandonment of the Missouri Compromise, but the real reason he could not
support the Compromise of 1850 is that it would admit California as a free
state throwing off the senatorial balance between free and slave states.
Shortly in to his elected term as Senator he resigned to run for governor of
Mississippi and his candidacy was to serve as a referendum on the Compromise of
1850. Jefferson lost narrowly as his opposition successfully labeled him a
secessionist despite Davis’s painstaking parsing of the difference between the right to secede and the need to secede. No one could know at the
time how this portended the future.
Following his gubernatorial defeat, Davis worked to get a
Democrat back in to the White House campaigning for Franklin Pierce. When
Pierce defeated General Winfield Scott he rewarded Davis with a spot in his
cabinet as Secretary of War. As secretary, Davis worked to modernize and
increase the size of the Army that would go on to defeat his Confederate troops
a decade later. Davis also played an important role acting as liaison between
Pierce and the congressional supporters of the regrettable Kansas/Nebraska
legislation.
Davis returned to the Senate after the Pierce administration
ended as the country careened toward Civil War. In a period of escalated congressional
rhetoric, Davis was by no means a fire-eater (the nickname given to nineteenth-century
Southern secessionists). He did not believe that South Carolina should secede
on its own and he did not believe any state should secede until no hope of
peace remained. In his last address to the Senate he said that Republicans had
forced upon the South a choice it did not want to make.
Davis returned home to Brierfield and awaited word from
Montgomery, Alabama where delegates from six slave states were meeting to draft
the specifics of what would become the Confederate States of America. Davis was
a relatively easy choice for President given his military acumen, knowledge of
government, and history of political moderateness. The Confederate government
mostly mirrored the United States government, however the Constitution “clarified”
the protection of slavery and importance of states’ rights.
The conventional way we tend to think about the Civil War is
that the Confederates got off to a hot start knocking the Union on to its heels
before the Union was able to gather itself, find a suitable leader in Ulysses
Grant, and then take the fight to the South. At least that’s how I think about
it. While this is the general pattern it’s a decidedly Northern perspective.
The prospects were not nearly so rosy despite early victories at Bull Run and
Ball’s Bluff. Davis’s Confederacy had about 40% of the North’s population,
which was really about 30% when only White males between the ages of 18 and 45
were counted. The Confederates had about 10% of the North’s industrial capacity
and about half of the railroad density of the North (rails that were primarily
manufactured in the North and Great Britain). Davis also had a hard time
dealing with the financial constraints of war. Very little internal financing
was ever raised through bonds and there was no serious attempt at taxation
until it was too late. The Confederacy instead turned to the financial tool of
failed regimes throughout history, printing money. In 1861 prices were rising
and by 1862 there was severe inflation that would only worsen throughout the
war.
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| Davis in his presidential years. |
As a wartime president Davis had to be a more reactionary
than proactive executive. Many of the initial Confederate soldiers were on
1-year enlistments and the Army began to deplete as the war dragged in to its
second year. Davis pressured Congress to pass a law requiring 18 to 35 year-old
white males to serve; this was later raised to 45. This was the first national
conscription law in American history. Another law passed by Congress, the “20
Negros law,” stipulated that there must be at least 1 white male for every 20
slaves on plantations. This gave rise to cries of “a rich man’s war, but a poor
man’s fight.” While Lincoln is often criticized for his suspensions of habeas
corpus Davis also utilized this, though far more conservatively than his
Northern counterpart. The last aspect of his presidency that I found
particularly interesting was the attempts at a social safety net. Realizing the
hardship of war and the need to keep Southerners ideologically united, Davis
advocated a 10% in-kind tax on surplus agriculture to be distributed to
soldier’s families as well as assistance to those who lost property to the
government for military purposes.
A discussion of Jefferson Davis is not complete without
discussing slavery. When I compared him to Thomas Jefferson in the first
paragraph I said that had he been born earlier, perhaps he would be remembered
differently. The fact was that Davis lived in a time when much of the country
no longer felt slavery could be tolerated and his views towards blacks remained
barbaric. Davis believed that slavery was “the most beneficent form of
government that has been applied to those who are morally and intellectually
unable to take care of themselves.” Davis believed that slavery was “a moral, a
social, and a political blessing.” The other side of this is that, as far as
Southern slave-owners went, Jefferson and his brother Joseph seem to have been benevolent.
In a rare arrangement, Jefferson’s most trusted slave, James Pemberton, managed
his other slaves during Jefferson’s frequent time away from Brierfield. Joseph
would sell his plantation to one of his slaves, the remarkable Benjamin
Montgomery, after the war.
With the Army of the Potomac breaking through General Lee’s
lines, the Confederate government had to abandon their capital of Richmond. It
was April 2nd, 1865. Davis’s government retreated 145 miles
southwest to Danville, Virginia. When Davis was informed of Lee’s surrender at
Appomattox, eight days later, the government retreated farther to Greensboro,
North Carolina where they were not particularly welcomed and worked out of
railroad cars. It was in Greensboro on April 13th that Davis read
the terms of surrender at Appomattox and realized that it was definitely over.
Davis’s political family now moved on as fugitives and were forced to camp out during
the week-long trip to Charlotte. In Charlotte he learned of Lincoln’s
assassination. On April 26th Davis’s crew retreated on another
week-long trip to Abbeville, South Carolina staying in private homes along the
way. Davis’s group began to break apart as Union troops advanced. There was no
longer any pretense of organized government as Davis and a small group headed
toward Washington, Georgia where Varina was. Davis and his Secretary of
Treasury even assumed false identities on this leg of the retreat. Upon
reaching Washington, Davis learned that Varina had already left. He decided to
pursue her group. The two groups met around May 7th and would be
captured, two days later, in the woods of South Georgia.
Davis spent about two years imprisoned at Fort Monroe in
Virginia. Notable advocates of his were Caleb Cushing, Franklin Pierce, Jerimiah
Black, and Horace Greeley. Once freed, Davis made several attempts at
employment both in Europe and America, including briefly serving as president
of Carolina Life Company. Davis didn’t involve himself in politics
post-imprisonment, however he was the subject of much political mud-slinging
including barbs from a young Teddy Roosevelt who compared him to Benedict
Arnold.
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| Davis as an old man. |
Davis’s last public speech was to a group of young men in
Mississippi City and it is a fitting way to move on from the Civil War
presidents. In the speech, an 80-year old Davis told the young men, “…the past
is dead. Let it bury its dead, its hopes and aspirations; before you lies the
future – a future full of golden promise; a future of expanding national glory,
before which all the world shall stand amazed. Let me beseech you to lay aside
all rancor, all bitter sectional feelings, and to make your places in the ranks
of those who will bring about a consummation devoutly to be wished – a reunited
country.”
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