The Politics of Dissolution: Quest for a National Identity and the American Civil War by Marshall L. Derosa

Author:Marshall L. Derosa [Derosa, Marshall L.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Political Science, Nationalism & Patriotism, General, Political Ideologies
ISBN: 9781351290944
Google: vyBWDwAAQBAJ
Goodreads: 39949996
Publisher: Routledge
Published: 1997-11-30T00:00:00+00:00

8

Pulling Down the Political Temple

Senator Jefferson Davis, Mississippi

January 10, 1861

Jefferson Davis (1808-1889) was born in Kentucky and moved to Mississippi the same year. He attended schools in Kentucky and Mississippi, including Transylvania University in Lexington. He graduated from West Point in 1828, served in the Black Hawk War from 1830-1831, resigned from the military in 1835, and moved to his plantation in Warren County, Mississippi. He was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives in 1845 and resigned in 1846 to command the First Regiment of Mississippi Riflemen during the Mexican War. In 1847 he was appointed to the U.S. Senate and resigned in 1851 to conduct his unsuccessful campaign for governor of Mississippi. He was appointed Secretary of War by President Pierce and served from 1853-1857. In 1857 he was again elected to the Senate and resigned on January 21, 1861. He was chosen by the C.S.A. Provisional Congress to be President of the C.S.A. and was inaugurated on February 18, 1861; later that year he was elected President of the C. S.A. for a six year term and inaugurated on February 22, 1862. On May 10, 1865, he was captured by Union troops, imprisoned, and indicted for treason on May 8, 1866. He was paroled to the custody of the court on May 13, 1867, and a nolle prosequi was ordered by the U.S. Government in December 1868. In this speech Davis criticized the Senate for discussing abstract questions and reading “patch-work from the opinions of men now mingled with the dust” rather than “manfully” and “patriotically” struggling with the difficulties oppressing the country.

Mr. DAVIS. Mr. President, when I took the floor yesterday, I intended to engage somewhat in the argument which has heretofore prevailed in the Senate upon the great questions of constitutional right, which have divided the country from the beginning of the Government. I intended to adduce some evidences, which I thought were conclusive, in favor of the opinions which I entertain; but events, with a current hurrying on as it progresses, have borne me past the point where it would be useful for me to argue, by the citing of authorities, the question of rights. Today, therefore, it is my purpose to deal with events. Abstract argument has become among the things that are past. We have to deal now with facts; and in order that we may meet those facts and apply them to our present condition, it is well to inquire what is the state of the country. The Constitution provides that the President shall, from time to time, communicate information of the state of the Union. The message which is now under consideration gives us very little, indeed, beyond that which the world, less, indeed, than reading men generally, knew before it was communicated.

What, Senators, to-day is the condition of the country? From every quarter of it comes the wailing cry of patriotism pleading for the preservation of the great inheritance we derived from our fathers. Is there a Senator who

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