Really Cool Stuff about Jefferson Davis
1. As a young boy of seven and on his way to boarding school, Davis ran across a national hero—Andrew Jackson, before he was president. Davis and others stayed at the Hermitage for several weeks and Jackson’s demeanor greatly impressed the young boy. “Youthful Jefferson Davis came face to face with an authentic hero. The boy had certainly heard about the general, the victor at New Orleans and the vanquisher of the Indians, who had a larger-than-life image in the Southwest…More than seven decades later, Davis wrote, ‘in me he inspired reverence and affection that has remained with me through my whole life’” (p. 16).
2. Davis was a troublemaker at West Point and was even arrested for the Christmas eggnog riot of 1826! Even though alcohol was illegal, Davis and a few others were instructed to obtain it for the Christmas morning festivities. Let’s just say he succeeded. “Early on Christmas morning the participants planned to mix and drink eggnog in two designated rooms on the upper floors of North Barracks” (p. 37). Everything happened as planned, except that they were found out and an inebriated Davis was put under arrest. Thankfully he was arrested before the riot and it is popularly believed that this saved his West Point career.
3. In 1838, James Smithson, an Englishman, left the US government over $500,000 in his will and Jefferson Davis sat on the committee that would eventually create the Smithsonian Institution. “Placed on the seven-man committee, Jefferson Davis became an ardent proponent of using the money for establishing the institution, which to his mind would benefit science and encourage ‘the diffusion of every kind of helpful knowledge’” (p. 117). Polk signed it into law.
4. After the Mexican War, Polk offered Davis a brigadier general position in the army, “His decision made, Polk on May 19 [1847] wrote Davis praising his performance in Mexico and tendering him a commission as a brigadier general in the United States Army to command a brigade of volunteers” (p. 158). Davis eventually turned down this appointment as he preferred a political, rather than military, path instead.
5. On Christmas Day 1847, Davis got into a physical altercation with his fellow Senator, Henry Foote. It began with a disagreement about popular sovereignty and then degenerated into a fist fight, which almost resulted in a duel. They were never friendly after that.
6. Davis was at Zachary Taylor’s deathbed and Taylor’s final words were directed to him. "I am about to die. I expect the summons soon. I have endeavored to discharge all my official duties faithfully. I regret nothing, but am sorry that I am about to leave my friends."
7. As Pierce’s Secretary of War, Davis decided that it was time to learn current military information from other armies around the world. With this aim, he sent several men to Europe to seek newer military knowledge and bring it back to the United States. “In his best-known enterprise designed to draw on European examples and expertise, in 1855 Davis dispatched three officers across the Atlantic on what on scholar terms ‘the most ambitious military mission of the antebellum era’” (p. 255).
8. Davis, also as Secretary, wanted to create a Camel Corp. “Upon becoming secretary of war, he obtained congressional authorization to purchase and employ camels, and in 1855 sent an expedition to the Middle East to buy and bring back the beasts…The record makes clear that Davis had two goals for his camel force: basic transportation and direct military involvement against Indians, when camels could carry light cannon and infantry as well as substitute for cavalry horses. He believed camels would give American troops, and thereby American settlers, an advantage against both the topography and the Indians in the vast arid area stretching westward from central Texas” (p. 259). It was a good idea and the camels did succeed in this way but the advent of railroads effectively abrogated this effort.
9. As President of the Confederate States of America, Jefferson Davis instituted the first National Conscription Law in American history. “Then he proposed legislation declaring that all persons between the ages of eighteen and thirty-five legitimately eligible for military service ‘shall be held to be in the military service of the Confederate States’” (p. 384).
10. In retirement, Davis was visited by many people who still respected and admired him as the frontrunner of a fallen ideal. One such visitor was the famed playwright Oscar Wilde. “On a lecture tour in the United States in 1882, Wilde pronounced Davis the American he most wanted to see. When he appeared at Beauvoir, he captivated Varina and Winnie, though Davis found his demeanor and dandyish dress offputting. Wilde left him an unrequested, signed photograph” (p. 635).
11. Sadly, Jefferson Davis outlived all four of his sons.
I found this book about Jefferson Davis truly interesting and at the same time, I found myself, almost against my will, enjoying this guy. I have a feeling that if I had known old Jeff Davis, we would have been good friends, you know? This book was extremely readable and even though the author apparently likes Davis, he does not allow his personal feelings to keep him from giving the CSA president a fair trial. Cooper lays out there for all to see Davis’ shortcomings and faults and lets us judge accordingly. On the whole, though, I found Jefferson Davis an upstanding human being and a rare opponent for my friend Abraham Lincoln. In fact, if things had worked out differently, I think that Abe and Jeff would have gotten along quite swimmingly.
It was also nice to take a peek into the Southern sympathies before, during and after the Civil War and what life was like for them during this period. I, personally, do not agree with secession but I can see the reasoning behind it. To the Southern frame of mind, the Civil War was not really about slavery at all but the Constitutional right of certain freedoms for all Americans. While the North declared that all men were created equal, the South stated that the freedoms of the Constitution of the United States allowed them the freedom to keep slaves. And really where does the line of freedom begin and end? I know that as Americans we give up certain freedoms to have a central government and the protection that it affords. But do our Constitutional freedoms cover subjection of an entire race? The South seemed to believe that it did and they were prepared to fight for that belief. Jefferson Davis, as a strict constructionist of the Constitution, thought that abolitionists were perverting the Constitution while trying to deny the South the right to bring slaves into other “free” states. So you can make the case that in the beginning of the war the South fought for basic freedoms and not the institution of slavery or even states rights. I think that Abraham Lincoln, political genius that he was, used slavery as a very clever maneuver to ennoble the fight between the states and as nothing else.
I also thought it was quite fascinating to get the whole story of the Confederate States of America. Jeff Davis was in it from the start and so we have a lot of information regarding all the problems, issues and benefits of being a Confederate State. I thought it rather funny that the minute the Confederate States set up a government they made one to look exactly like the United States of America, complete with similar cabinet positions, elections, and congresses. They also wrote a mirror Constitution but with a more pronounced slave code and set up a government that would basically run in the same manner as the United States government. You would think that this would have aided them in establishing a new nation but the inherent problems in their system would not go away.
I really believe that there was no possible way for the South to win the Civil War. No possible way. And the reason for this thought is from the basic premise of the CSA itself—the states are separate but equal entities and thus it defies the idea of centralized government. To me, this sounds ridiculous when trying to make a cohesive government between equal entities. The fact is the states were almost more important that the CSA government put together and so Jefferson Davis faced a myriad of issues in power struggles between the various governors. The Georgia governor at one point decided not to send its militia to the Army of Northern Virginia, stating that its men should be used in defense of its own soil. At another point, the governor of North Carolina actively worked with the North to find a peaceful solution to the mass homicide going on in the country. Not only had that but the South also had the devil of a time trying to find good generals. I believe that one of the main reasons that the war lasted so long was due to the fact that Lincoln couldn’t find a good general to fight Lee in the East and Davis couldn’t find a good general to fight Grant and Sherman in the West. Much of CSA history in this book dealt with the ineptitude and double-dealing from the generals that wreaked havoc on the war effort in the West and eventually aided the South in losing the whole thing. Take into consideration the lack of interest from foreign countries to recognize the South, the severe money and inflation problems, the shortage of manpower, the crippling effect of slavery, and the sheer scarcity of resources and I think you can get a good idea of the problems besetting the fledgling CSA and the reasons why it did not make it.
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