MR. DAVIS IN THE UNITED STATES SENATE, FIRST BY EXECUTIVE APPOINTMENT,
AND SUBSEQUENTLY BY UNANIMOUS CHOICE OF THE LEGISLATURE OF HIS
STATE--POPULAR ADMIRATION NOT LESS FOR HIS CIVIC TALENTS THAN HIS
MILITARY SERVICES--FEATURES OF HIS PUBLIC CAREER--HIS CHARACTER AND
CONDUCT AS A SENATOR--AS AN ORATOR AND PARLIAMENTARY LEADER--HIS
INTREPIDITY--AN INCIDENT WITH HENRY CLAY--DAVIS THE LEADER OF THE
STATES' RIGHTS PARTY IN CONGRESS--THE AGITATION OF 1850--DAVIS OPPOSES
THE COMPROMISE--FOLLY OF THE SOUTH IN ASSENTING TO THAT SETTLEMENT--
DAVIS NOT A DISUNIONIST IN 1850, NOR A REBEL IN 1861--HIS CONCEPTION
OF THE CHARACTER OF THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT--LOGICAL ABSURDITY OF
CLAY'S POSITION EXPOSED BY DAVIS--THE IDEAL UNION OF THE LATTER--WHY
HE OPPOSED THE COMPROMISE--THE NEW MEXICO BILL--DAVIS' GROWING FAME AT
THIS PERIOD--HIS FREQUENT ENCOUNTERS WITH CLAY, AND WARM FRIENDSHIP
BETWEEN THEM--SIGNAL TRIUMPH OF THE UNION SENTIMENT, AND ACQUIESCENCE
OF THE SOUTH.
Within less than two months from his return to Mississippi, Colonel Davis
was appointed by the Governor of the State to fill the vacancy in the
United States Senate occasioned by the death of General Speight. At a
subsequent session of the Legislature, the selection of the Governor was
confirmed by his unanimous election for the residue of the unexpired term.
Seldom has there been a tender of public honor more deserved by the
recipient, and more cheerfully accorded by the constituent body. It was
the grateful tribute of popular appreciation to the hero who had risked
his life for the glory of his country, and the worthy recognition of
abilities which had been proven adequate to the responsibilities of the
highest civic trust. Doubtless Colonel Davis owed much of the signal
unanimity and enthusiasm which accompanied this expression of popular
favor to his brilliant services in Mexico. The military passion is strong
in the human breast, and the sentiment of homage to prowess, illustrated
on the battle-field and in the face of danger, is one of the few
chivalrous instincts which survive the influence of the sordid vices and
vulgarisms of human nature. In all ages men have declaimed and reasoned
against the expediency of confiding civil authority to the keeping of
soldiers, and have cautioned the masses against the risk of entrusting the
public liberties to the stern and dictatorial will educated in the rugged
discipline and habits of the camp. Yet the masses, in all time, will
continue their awards of distinction to martial exploits with a fervor not
characteristic of their recognition of any other public service.
But the tribute had a higher motive, if possible, than the generous
impulse of gratitude to the "Hero of Buena Vista," in the universal
conviction of his eminent fitness for the position. His service in the
House of Representatives, brief as it was, had designated him, months
before his Mexican laurels had been earned, as a man, not only of mark,
but of promise; of decided and progressive intellectual power; of
pronounced mental and moral individuality.
Of all the public men of America, Jefferson Davis is the least indebted
for his long and noble career of distinction to adventitious influences or
merely temporary popular impulses. The sources of his strength have been
the elements of his character and the resources of his genius. Never
hoping to _stumble_ upon success, by a stolid indifference amid the
fluctuations of fortune, nor engaged in the role of the trimmer, who
adjusts his conduct conformably with every turn of the popular current,
his hopes of success have rested upon the merits of principle alone. He
has succeeded in all things _where success was possible_, and failed, at
last, in contradiction of every lesson of previous experience, with the
light of all history pleading his vindication, and to the disappointment
of the nearly unanimous judgment of disinterested mankind.
A peculiar feature in the public career of Mr. Davis was its steady and
consecutive development. He has accepted service, always and only, in
obedience to the concurrent confidence of his fellow-citizens in his
peculiar qualifications for the emergency. From the beginning he gave the
promise of those high capacities which the fervid eulogy of Grattan
accorded to Chatham--to "strike a blow in the world that should resound
through its history." His first election to Congress was the spontaneous
acknowledgment of the profound impression produced by his earliest
intellectual efforts. The consummate triumph of his genius and valor at
Buena Vista did not exceed the anticipations of his friends, who knew the
ardor and assiduity of his devotion to his cherished science, and now in
the noble arena of the American Senate his star was still to be in the
ascendant.
At the first session of the Thirtieth Congress, Jefferson Davis took his
seat as a Senator of the United States from the State of Mississippi. The
entire period of his connection with the Senate, from 1847 to 1851, and
from 1857 to 1861, scarcely comprises eight years; but those were years
pregnant with the fate of a nation, and in their brief progress he stood
in that august body the equal of giant intellects, and grappled, with the
power and skill of a master, the great ideas and events of those
momentous days. Mr. Davis could safely trust, whatever of ambition he may
cherish for the distinguished consideration of posterity, to a faithful
record of his service in the Senate. His senatorial fame is a beautiful
harmony of the most pronounced and attractive features of the best
parliamentary models. He was as intrepid and defiant as Chatham, but as
scholarly as Brougham; as elegant and perspicuous in diction as Canning,
and often as profound and philosophical in his comprehension of general
principles as Burke; when roused by a sense of injury, or by the force of
his earnest conviction, as much the incarnation of fervor and zeal as
Grattan, but, like Fox, subtle, ready, and always armed _cap a pie_ for
the quick encounters of debate.
Among all the eminent associates of Mr. Davis in that body, there were
very few who possessed his peculiar qualifications for its most
distinguished honors. His character, no less than his demeanor, may be
aptly termed senatorial, and his bearing was always attuned to his noble
conception of the Senate as an august assemblage of the embassadors of
sovereign States. He carried to the Senate the loftiest sense of the
dignity and responsibility of his trust, and convictions upon political
questions, which were the result of the most thorough and elaborate
investigation. Never for one instant varying from the principles of his
creed, he never doubted as to the course of duty; profound, accurate in
information, there was no question pertaining to the science of government
or its administration that he did not illuminate with a light, clear,
powerful, and original.
It has been remarked of Mr. Davis' style as a speaker, that it is "orderly
rather than ornate," and the remark is correct so far as it relates to the
mere statement of the conditions of the discussion. For mere rhetorical
glitter, Mr. Davis' speeches afford but poor models, but for clear logic
and convincing argument, apt illustration, bold and original imagery, and
genuine pathos, they are unsurpassed by any ever delivered in the American
Senate. Though the Senate was, undoubtedly, his appropriate arena as an
orator, and though it may well be doubted whether he was rivaled in
senatorial eloquence by any contemporary, Mr. Davis is hardly less gifted
in the attributes of popular eloquence. Upon great occasions he will move
a large crowd with an irresistible power. As a popular orator, he does not
seek to sway and toss the will with violent and passionate emotion, but
his eloquence is more a triumph of argument aided by an enlistment of
passion and persuasion to reason and conviction. He has less of the
characteristics of Mirabeau, than of that higher type of eloquence, of
which Cicero, Burke, and George Canning were representatives, and which is
pervaded by passion, subordinated to the severer tribunal of intellect. It
was the privilege of the writer, on repeated occasions, during the late
war, to witness the triumph of Mr. Davis' eloquence over a popular
assemblage. Usually the theme and the occasion were worthy of the orator,
and difficult indeed would it be to realize a nobler vision of the majesty
of intellect. To a current of thought, perennial and inexhaustible,
compact, logical and irresistible, was added a fire that threw its warmth
into the coldest bosom, and infused a glow of light into the very core of
the subject. His voice, flexible and articulate, reaching any compass that
was requisite, attitude and gestures, all conspired to give power and
expression to his language, and the hearer was impressed as though in the
presence of the very transfiguration of eloquence. The printed efforts of
Mr. Davis will not only live as memorials of parliamentary and popular
eloquence, but as invaluable stores of information to the political and
historical student. They epitomize some of the most important periods of
American history, and embrace the amplest discussion of an extended range
of subjects pertaining to almost every science.
The development in Mr. Davis of the high and rare qualities, requisite to
parliamentary leadership, was rapid and decisive. His nature instinctively
aspires to influence and power, and under no circumstances could it rest
contented in an attitude of inferiority. Independence, originality, and
intrepidity, added to earnest and intelligent conviction; unwavering
devotion to principle and purpose; a will stern and inexorable, and a
disposition frank, courteous, and generous, are features of character
which rarely fail to make a representative man. After the death of Mr.
Calhoun, he was incomparably the ablest exponent of States' Rights
principles, and even during the life of that great publicist, Mr. Davis,
almost equally with him, shared the labors and responsibilities of
leadership. His personal courage is of that knightly order, which in an
age of chivalry would have sought the trophies of the tourney, and his
moral heroism fixed him immovably upon the solid rock of principle,
indifferent to the inconvenience of being in a minority and in no dread of
the storms of popular passion. His faith in his principles was no less
earnest than his confidence in his ability to triumphantly defend them. In
the midst of the agitation and excitement of 1850, Henry Clay, the Great
Compromiser, whose brilliant but erring genius so long and fatally led
estray, from the correct understanding of the vital issue at stake between
the North and the South, a numerous party of noble and true-hearted
Southern gentlemen, furnished the occasion of an impressive illustration
of this quality. Turning, in debate, to the Mississippi Senator, he
notified the latter of his purpose, at some future day, to debate with him
elaborately, an important question of principle. "Now is the moment," was
the reply of the intrepid Davis, ever eager to champion his beloved and
imperiled South, equally against her avowed enemies, and the not less
fatal policy of those who were but too willing to compromise upon an issue
vital to her rights and dignity. And what a shock of arms might then have
been witnessed, could Clay have dispelled thirty years of his ripe
three-score and ten! Each would have found a foeman worthy of his steel.
In answer to this bold defiance, Clay, like Hotspur, would have rushed to
the charge, with visor up and lance _couchant_; and Davis, another
Saladin, no less frank than his adversary, but far more dexterous, would
have met him with a flash of that Damascus scymetar, whose first blow
severed the neck of the foeman.
That would have been a bold ambition that could demand a formal tender of
leadership from the brilliant array of gallant gentlemen, ripe scholars,
distinguished orators and statesmen, who, for twenty years before the war,
were the valiant champions in Congress of the principles and aspirations
of the South. Yet few will deny the preëminence of Mr. Davis, in the eye
of the country and the world, among States' Rights leaders. Equally with
Mr. Calhoun, as the leader of a great intellectual movement, he stamped
his impress upon the enduring tablets of time.
Like Mr. Calhoun, too, Mr. Davis gave little evidence of capacity or taste
for mere party tactics. Neither would have performed the duties of
drill-sergeant, in local organizations, for the purposes of a political
canvass, so well as hundreds of men of far lighter calibre and less
stability. Happily, both sought and found a more congenial field of
action.
The unexpired term, for which Mr. Davis had been elected in 1847, ended in
1851, and, though he was immediately reëlected, in consequence of his
subsequent resignation his first service in the Senate ended with the term
for which he had first been elected. A recurrence to the records of
Congress will exhibit the eventful nature of this period, especially in
its conclusion. In the earlier portion of his senatorial service, Mr.
Davis participated conspicuously in debate and in the general business of
legislation. Here, as in the House of Representatives, his views upon
military affairs were always received with marked respect, and no measure
looking to the improvement of the army failed to receive his cordial
coöperation.
The extensive conquests of the army in Mexico, and the necessity of
maintaining the authority of the Federal Government in the conquered
country until the objects of the war could be consummated, created
considerable embarrassment. Upon this subject Mr. Davis spoke frequently
and intelligently. His sagacity indicated a policy equally protective of
the advantages which the valor of the army had achieved, and humane to the
conquered. In a debate with Mr. John Bell, in February, 1848, he defined
himself as favoring such a military occupation as would "prevent the
General Government of Mexico, against which this war had been directed,
from reëstablishing its power and again concentrating the scattered
fragments of its army to renew active hostilities against us." He
disclaimed the motive, in this policy, of territorial acquisition, and
earnestly deprecated interference with the political institutions of the
Mexicans. The estimate entertained by the Senate, of his judgment and
information upon military subjects, was indicated by his almost unanimous
election, (thirty-two for Mr. Davis, and five for all others,) during the
session of the Thirty-first Congress, as Chairman of the Committee on
Military Affairs. His speeches on the subject of offering congratulations
to the French people upon their recent successful political revolution,
resulting in the establishment of a republican form of government, the
proposed organization of the territorial government of Oregon, upon
various subjects of practical and scientific interest, and his incidental
discussions of the subject of slavery, were able, eloquent, and
characteristic.
The session of Congress in 1849 and 1850 brought with it a most angry and
menacing renewal of sectional agitation. Previous events and innumerable
indications of popular sentiment had clearly revealed to candid minds,
every-where, that the increasing sectional preponderance of the North, and
its growing hostility to slavery, portended results utterly ruinous to the
rights and institutions of the South. To the South it was literally a
question of vitality, to secure some competent check upon the aggressive
strength of the North. To maintain any thing like a sectional balance, the
South must necessarily secure to her institutions, at least, a fair share
of the common domain to be hereafter created into States. The immense
territorial acquisitions resulting from the Mexican war were now the
subjects of controversy. After a contest, protracted through several
months, and eliciting the most violent exhibitions of sectional feeling, a
plan of adjustment, under the auspices chiefly of Henry Clay, whose fatal
gift was to preserve, for a time, the peace of the country by the
concession of the most precious and vital rights of his section to an
insolent and insatiate fanaticism, was finally reached. This settlement,
known, by way of distinction, as the "Compromise of 1850," averting for
the time the dangers of disunion and civil war, met the approval of the
advocates of expediency, but was opposed, with heroic pertinacity, by Mr.
Davis and his associates of the States' Rights party. They saw the
hollowness of its pretended justice, its utter worthlessness as a
guarantee to the South, and sought to defeat it--first in Congress, and
afterwards by the popular voice. But the sentiment of attachment to the
Union triumphed over every consideration of interest, principle, even
security, and the snare succeeded. Again the South receded, again received
the stone instead of the asked-for loaf, and again did she _compromise_
her most sacred rights and dearest interests, receiving, in return, the
reluctant and insincere guarantee of the recovery of her stolen slaves.
The folly of the South in assenting to this adjustment is now obvious to
the dullest understanding, and subsequent events were swift to vindicate
the wisdom, patriotism, and foresight of Mr. Davis and those who sustained
him in opposition to the much-vaunted Union-saving compromise. Yet, they
were no more disunionists in 1850 than rebels and traitors in 1861. The
charge of disunionism was freely iterated against them, and not without
effect, even in their own section, where the sentimental attachment to the
Union was stronger, just as its sacrifices in behalf of the Union were
greater, than those of the North. Jefferson Davis never was a disunionist,
not even in his subsequent approval of secession, in the sense of a wanton
and treasonable disposition to sever the bonds of that association of
co-equal sovereignties which the founders of the Federal Government
bequeathed to their posterity.
His action, at all times, has been thoroughly consistent with his
declared opinions, and with the earnest attachment to the Union, avowed in
his congressional speeches and in his public addresses every-where. In
1850 and in 1861 his course was the logical sequence of his opinions,
maintained and asserted from his introduction to public life. To save the
Union, upon the only basis upon which it could rest as a guarantee of
liberty,--the basis of absolute equality among the States; to blend
Federal power and States' Rights, was the grand, paramount object to which
all his aspirations and all his investigations of political science were
directed. Repudiating the power of a State to nullify an act of Congress,
and yet not surrender its normal relations as a member of the Union, he
always asserted the right of secession, in the last resort, as an
original, inherent, and vital attribute of State Sovereignty. The Federal
Government, to his mind, was a mere agent of the States, created by them
for a few general and intestate purposes, but having in it no principle
subversive of the paramount sovereignty of the States. Rapidly extending
its power by enactments of Congress and judicial constructions, he
foresaw, and sought to counteract, its tendency to obliterate all State
individuality, and ultimately absorb into its own keeping the liberties of
the people. With dread and indignation, he contemplated its progress
towards that _monstrum horrendum_, a consolidated democracy--the Union of
to-day, in which we see that the _will of the majority is the sole measure
of its powers_.
Such was his consistency, and such his sagacity, as vindicated in the
light of subsequent events, and patent to the eyes of the world to-day.
Who can now doubt which was the better and more logical theory? Clay said:
"I owe allegiance to two sovereignties, and only two: one is to the
sovereignty of this Union, and the other is to the sovereignty of the
State of Kentucky." Thus he held to the paradox of an _imperium in
imperio_, that obvious absurdity in our system of government, a divided
sovereignty. In his ardent Unionism, the great exponent of expediency
disavowed allegiance to the _South_, though still holding to his
allegiance to Kentucky. But suppose Kentucky asserts her sovereignty, and
chooses to unite with the South, what, then, becomes of State Sovereignty
and State allegiance? Just here was the _hiatus_ in Clay's logic, and,
closely pressed by Davis, he emphatically declared his _first_ allegiance
to the Union as the supreme authority; and the State Sovereignty of Clay's
conception was seen to be as intangible and unreal as the "baseless fabric
of a vision."
Far more fair in its semblance, noble in its proportions, and beautiful in
its harmonies, was the ideal of Davis. In his speech on the compromise
measures, July 31, 1850, he said:
"Give to each section of the Union justice; give to every citizen of
the United States his rights as guaranteed by the Constitution; leave
this Confederacy to rest upon that basis from which it arose--the
fraternal feelings of the people--and I, for one, have no fear of its
perpetuity; none that it will not survive beyond the limits of human
speculation, expanding and hardening with the lapse of time, to extend
its blessings to ages unnumbered, and a people innumerable; to include
within its empire all the useful products of the earth, and exemplify
the capacity of a confederacy, with general, well-defined powers, to
extend illimitably without impairing its harmony or its strength."
The grounds of Mr. Davis' opposition to the so-called "Compromise"
programme of Mr. Clay were far otherwise than a factious and impracticable
hostility to an amicable adjustment of sectional differences. He
conscientiously doubted the disposition of the North to abstain from all
future interference with Southern institutions, and he detected and
exposed the utter want of efficacy of the compromise measures as an
assurance of protection against future aggression. He abhorred the
substitution of expediency for principle; could see no _compromise_ where
one side simply _surrendered_ what the other had no right to demand, and
correctly estimated this settlement, like those which had preceded it, as
but an invitation to still more intolerable exactions by an implacable
sectional majority. While discussing, in private conversation with Mr.
Clay, the merits of Mr. Webster's memorable speech of the 7th of March,
1850, a few days after its delivery, he briefly, but sufficiently defined
his position. "Come," said Mr. Clay, "my young friend; join us in these
measures of pacification. Let us rally Congress and the people to their
support, and they will assure to the country thirty years of peace. By
that time" (turning to John M. Berrien, who was a party to the
conversation) "you and I will be under the sod, and my young friend may
then have trouble again." "No," said Davis, "I can not consent to transfer
to posterity a question which is as much ours as theirs, when it is
evident that the sectional inequality, as it will be greater then than
now, will render hopeless the attainment of justice."
His clear, penetrating glance discovered, under the guise of a friendly
and pacific purpose, the insidious presence so mischievous to Southern
interests, just as George Mason, more than fifty years before, had seen
the "poison under the wing of the Federal Constitution." While the bill
for the organization of the Territory of New Mexico was pending, the
vigilance and sagacity of Mr. Davis elicited the most flattering
commendation from his Southern associates. In this bill there was a
general grant, in loose and ambiguous phraseology, of legislative power,
with a reservation that no law should be passed "in respect to African
slavery." Strangely enough, this provision, though obviously involving an
inhibition against the enactment of laws for the protection of Southern
property, escaped general detection. Mr. Davis promptly exposed its
purpose, and offered an amendment, striking out the restraint against
legislation "in respect to African slavery," and prohibiting the enactment
of any law interfering "with those rights of property growing out of the
institution of African slavery as it exists in any of the States of this
Union." To meet the concurrence of other Senators, the amendment was
variously modified, until, as explained by Mr. Davis, it embodied "the
general proposition that the Territorial Legislature should not be
prevented from passing the laws necessary for the protection of the rights
of property of every kind which might be legally and constitutionally held
in that territory." It is needless to say that so just a proposition,
affording equal protection to Southern with Northern institutions, was
defeated.
While there was little in Mr. Clay's plan of pacification to recommend it
to Southern support, beyond the merely temporary staving off of a
dissolution of the Union and civil war, it embodied propositions utterly
incompatible with the security of the South. Mr. Davis especially and
persistently combated its provision for the abolition of the slave-trade
in the District of Columbia, and the concession that slavery did not
legally exist in the newly-acquired territory. His position upon the
general issues involved can not be more clearly and forcibly stated than
in his own language:
"But, sir, we are called upon to receive this as a measure of
compromise!--as a measure in which we of the minority are to receive
something. A measure of compromise! I look upon it as a modest mode of
taking that, the claim to which has been more boldly asserted by
others; and that I may be understood upon this question, and that my
position may go forth to the country in the same columns that convey
the sentiments of the Senator from Kentucky, I here assert that never
will I take less than the Missouri Compromise line to the Pacific
Ocean, with specific right to hold slaves in the territory below that
line; and that before such territories are admitted into the Union as
States, slaves may be taken there from any of the United States, at
the option of the owners. I can never consent to give additional power
to a majority to commit further aggression upon the minority in this
Union; and I will never consent to any proposition which will have
such a tendency without a full guarantee or counteracting measure is
connected with it."
The parliamentary annals of the Union embrace no period more prolific of
grand intellectual efforts than the debates incident to this gigantic
struggle. The prominence of Mr. Davis, with his extreme ardor in behalf of
the rights and interests of his section, brought him constantly into
conflict with the most eminent leaders of both the great political
parties, who had cordially agreed to ignore all minor issues and unite in
the paramount purpose of saving the Union. Cass, Douglas, Bright,
Dickinson, and King, earnestly coöperated with Clay, Webster, and other
Whig champions, in the advocacy of the measures of compromise. That Davis,
younger in years and experience than most of these distinguished men,
amply sustained his honorable and responsible role as the foremost
champion of the South, contemporary public opinion and the Congressional
records give abundant testimony. The great compromise chieftain, between
whom and Davis occurred such obstinate and protracted encounters in
debate, delighted to testify his respect for the talents and intrepidity
of his "young friend," which was his habitual salutation to Davis. Despite
the pronounced antagonism between them, on all measures of public policy,
and their comparatively brief acquaintance, Mr. Clay repeatedly evinced,
in a most touching manner, his warm regard for one who had been the
companion-in-arms and cherished friend of a noble son,[10] who lost his
life on the same field, upon which Davis won such deathless distinction.
"My poor boy," were his words to the latter, upon his return from Mexico,
"usually occupied about one-half of his letters home in praising you." A
still more touching incident, illustrative of his friendly regard, at the
moment not understood by those present, occurred, in the heat of
discussion during the exciting period, which we have had under
consideration. Replying to Davis, said Mr. Clay: "My friend from
Mississippi--and I trust that he will permit me to call him my friend, for
between us there is a tie, the nature of which we both well understand."
At this moment the utterance of the aged statesman became tremulous with
emotion, and, bowing his head, his eyes were seen to fill with tears. This
friendship was warmly reciprocated by Mr. Davis, and its recollections are
among those the most highly-cherished of his public life.
With the defeat of those who had opposed the compromise, terminated, for
the present, Southern resistance in Congress, though it did not for an
instant check Northern aggression. Yet many prominent public characters at
the South, and, as the sequel demonstrated, indorsed by popular
sentiment, avowed themselves fully satisfied with a mere show of triumph
and pretense of justice--a few paltry concessions, not worth the parchment
upon which they were written. In the meantime, upon another arena, Mr.
Davis entered upon a gallant struggle, in opposition to a policy from
which he foresaw and predicted a fruitful yield of disaster in the
future.