THE REAL JEFFERSON DAVIS
[Illustration: Jefferson Davis
(From a photograph taken in 1865)]
The Real Jefferson Davis
_By_ LANDON KNIGHT
"Where once raged the storm of battle now
bloom the gentle flowers of peace, and
there where the mockingbird sings her night
song to the southern moon, sweetly sleeps
the illustrious chieftain whom a nation
mourns. Wise in council, valiant in war, he
was still greater in peace, and to his
noble, unselfish example more than to any
other one cause do we owe the indellible
inscription over the arch of our union,
'_Esto perpetua_.'"
PUBLISHED BY
THE PILGRIM MAGAZINE COMPANY
BATTLE CREEK, MICH.
1904
Copyright, 1904,
THE PILGRIM MAGAZINE CO.
Battle Creek, Mich.
DEDICATION
_To My Wife_
Is dedicated this little volume in appreciation of that innate sense of
justice which has ever loved and followed the right for its own sake.
CONTENTS
CHAPTER PAGE
I Birth and Education 11
II Service in the Army 21
III His Life at Briarfield 29
IV First Appearance in Politics 35
V Enters Mexican War 41
VI The Hero of Buena Vista 45
VII Enters the Senate 49
VIII Becomes Secretary of War 53
IX He Re-enters the Senate 59
X Still Hoped to Save the Union 67
XI President of the Confederacy 75
XII His First Inaugural 79
XIII Delays and Blunders 85
XIV The Bombardment of Sumter 91
XV Conditions in the South 97
XVI The First Battle 101
XVII A Lost Opportunity 105
XVIII The Quarrel with Johnston 111
XIX The Battle of Shiloh 115
XX The Seven Days of Battle 121
XXI Butler's Infamous Order 28 125
XXII Mental Imperfections 131
XXIII Blunders of the Western Army 135
XXIV Davis and Gettysburg 139
XXV The Chief of a Heroic People 145
XXVI Sherman and Johnston 151
XXVII Mr. Davis' Humanity 155
XXVIII General Lee's Surrender 161
XXIX The Capture of Davis 167
XXX A Nation's Shame 173
XXXI Efforts to Execute Mr. Davis 177
XXXII Indictment of Mr. Davis 183
XXXIII Why Davis Was Not Tried for Treason 187
XXXIV Freedom--Reverses--Beauvoir 193
XXXV Death of Mr. Davis 199
ILLUSTRATIONS
FACING PAGE
Jefferson Davis Frontispiece
Jefferson Davis' Birthplace, at Fairview, Ky. 15
Where Jefferson Davis Boarded While in Lexington 17
Transylvania College at Lexington 19
Jefferson Davis at Thirty-five 31
Briarfield, Jefferson Davis' Home 33
The Room in the Briars in Which Jefferson Davis Was Married 37
General Taylor and Colonel Davis at Monterey 43
The Charge of Colonel Davis' Regiment at Buena Vista 47
Jefferson Davis as United States Senator in 1847 51
Jefferson Davis as Secretary of War 57
The Capitol at Richmond 77
Interior of Fort Sumter after the Surrender 93
Henry Clay Addressing the Senate on the Missouri Compromise 99
Edward Ruffin 103
Robert Toombs 107
General Joseph E. Johnston 111
Generals Lee, Jackson and Johnston 113
C. G. Memminger 119
The Site of the Prison Camp on the James River Below Richmond 133
On the Field of Cold Harbor Today 137
The Battle of the Crater 143
Mr. and Mrs. Davis in 1863 147
The Davis Children in 1863 153
The Famous Libby Prison as It Appeared at the Close of the War 157
The Surrender of Lee 163
Richmond as Gen. Weitzel Entered It 169
The Davis Mansion 195
The Davis Monument at Richmond 201
PREFACE
For four years Jefferson Davis was the central and most conspicuous figure
in the greatest revolution of history. Prior to that time no statesman of
his day left a deeper or more permanent impress upon legislation. His
achievements alone as Secretary of War entitle him to rank as a benefactor
of his country. But notwithstanding all of this he is less understood than
any other man in history. This fact induced me a year ago to compile a
series of magazine articles which had the single purpose in view of
painting the real Jefferson Davis as he was. Of course, the task was a
difficult one under any circumstances, and almost an impossible one in the
restricted scope of six papers, as it appeared in _The Pilgrim_. However,
the public according to these papers an interest far beyond my
expectation, I have decided to revise and publish them in book form.
This work does not attempt an exhaustive treatment of the subject but, as
the author has tried faithfully and without prejudice or predilection to
paint the soldier, the statesman, the private citizen as he was, he trusts
that this little volume may not be unacceptable to those who love the
truth for its own sake.
L. K.
_Akron, Ohio, Aug. 16, 1904._
The Real Jefferson Davis
I. Birth and Education
Almost four decades have passed since the surrender at Greensboro of
Johnston to Sherman finally terminated the most stupendous and sanguinary
civil war of history. Few of the great actors in that mighty drama still
linger on the world's stage. But of the living and of the dead,
irrespective of whether they wore the blue or the gray, history has, with
one exception, delivered her award, which, while it is not free from the
blemish of imperfection, is nevertheless, in the main, the verdict by
which posterity will abide. The one exception is Jefferson Davis. Why this
is so may be explained in a few words.
Occupying, as he did, the most exalted station in the government of the
seceding states, he became from the day of his accession to the
presidency, the embodiment of two diametrically opposite ideas. The loyal
people of the North, disregarding the fact that the Confederacy was a
representative government of limited powers, that a regularly elected
congress made the laws, often against the judgment of the chief executive,
that many of the policies most bitterly condemned by them were inaugurated
against his advice, transformed the agent into the principal and visited
upon him all of the odium attaching to the government that he represented.
Nay, more than this. The bitter passions engendered in the popular mind by
the conflict clothed him with responsibility, not only for every obnoxious
act of his government, but, forgetful of the history of the fifty years
preceding the Civil War, saddled upon him the chief sins of the very
genesis of the doctrine of secession itself. Thus confounded with the
principles of his government and the policies by which it sought to
establish them, the acts for which he may be held justly responsible have
been magnified and distorted while the valuable services previously
rendered to his country, were forgotten or minimized, and Jefferson Davis
as he was disappeared, absorbed, amalgamated, into the selfish arch
traitor intent upon the destruction of the Union to gratify his
unrighteous ambition.
The masses of the Southern people, on the other hand, holding in proud
remembrance the gallant soldier of the Mexican War and deeply appreciative
of his able advocacy of principles which they firmly believed to be
sacredly just, regarded their chief magistrate as the sublimation of all
the virtues inherent in the cause for which they fought. When the
Confederacy collapsed, the indignities heaped upon its chief, his long
imprisonment and the fact that he alone was selected for perpetual
disfranchisement added the martyr's crown to the halo of the hero, thus
creating in the South an almost universal mental attitude of affection and
sympathy, which was as fatal to the ascertainment of the exact and
unbiased truth of history as were the rancor and bitterness that prevailed
at the North. That this prejudice and predilection still exist cannot be
doubted. But time has plucked the sting of malice from the one and has
dulled the romantic glamor of the other sufficiently to enable us to
examine the events that gave birth to both with that calm and
dispassionate criticism which subrogates every other consideration to the
discovery of truth. I do not underestimate the difficulties that beset the
self-imposed task, but to the best of my humble ability and free from
every motive except that of portraying the impartial truth, I shall
endeavor to delineate the life of the real Jefferson Davis.
[Illustration: Jefferson Davis' Birthplace, at Fairview, Ky.]
Contrary to the belief still somewhat prevalent, Jefferson Davis was not
descended from a line of aristocratic progenitors, but sprang from the
ranks of that middle class which has produced most of the great men of the
world. About the year 1715 three brothers came to this country from Wales,
and located in Philadelphia. The younger, Evan Davis, eventually went to
the colony of Georgia and there married a widow by the name of Williams.
The only child of that union, Samuel Davis, enlisted at the age of
seventeen as a private soldier in the War of the Revolution. Later he
organized a company of mounted men and at its head participated in most of
the battles of the campaign that forced Lord Cornwallis out of the
Carolinas. At the close of the war he married Jane Cook, a girl of
Scotch-Irish descent, of humble station, but noted for strength of
character and great personal beauty, and they settled on a farm near
Augusta, Ga. In 1804 Samuel Davis removed with his family to southwestern
Kentucky to engage in stock raising and tobacco planting, and there, in a
modest farmhouse, which was then in Christian County and not many miles
from the cabin where a few months later Abraham Lincoln opened his eyes
upon the light of the world, Jefferson Davis was born, June 3, 1808. The
spot is now in Todd County, and upon it stands the Baptist church of
Fairview. While he was still an infant, the hope of there better providing
for a numerous family caused his father to seek a new home on Bayou Teche
in Louisiana. The country, however, proved unhealthful, and he remained
but a few months. He finally bought a farm near Woodville in Wilkinson
County, Miss., where he spent the remainder of his long life, poor, but
respected and esteemed as a man of fine sense and sterling character.
[Illustration: Where Jefferson Davis Boarded While in Lexington]
Jefferson Davis' first tuition was at a log schoolhouse, near his home,
but the educational advantages of that time and place were so meager that
when seven years old he was sent to a Catholic institution known as St.
Thomas' College, and there, under the guidance of that truly good man and
priest, Father Wallace, afterward Bishop of Nashville, his education
really began. After some years in this school, he entered Transylvania
University, at Lexington, Ky., then the principal collegiate institution
west of the Alleghanies and famous many years thereafter as the alma mater
of a distinguished array of soldiers and statesmen. In November, 1823,
when in his senior year at Transylvania, through the efforts of his
brother, Joseph Davis, he was appointed by President Monroe a cadet at
West Point. The following year he entered that institution and after
pursuing the customary course of four years, was graduated in July, 1828,
with a very low class standing.
[Illustration: Transylvania College at Lexington]
He was then in his twenty-first year. The period in which the principal
foundations of character are laid had passed. What this important period
of life had developed is, therefore, both interesting and instructive.
Fortunately, this information is obtainable through evidence which is
conclusive. More than a half score of his classmates at Transylvania and
at West Point, who subsequently played important parts in the history of
the country, have left us their impressions of Jefferson Davis during that
period of his life. This information is supplemented by his instructors at
both institutions. All of this testimony was recorded previous to the
occurrence of any of the later events in his life which might have biased
the judgment, and all of the witnesses corroborate each other. Without
entering into any extended discussion of this evidence, we may safely
conclude from it that in his youth he was one of those peculiarly normal
characters whose well-ordered existence leaves but little material for the
biographer. Few inequalities and no excesses are discoverable. He seems to
have possessed one of those refined natures that abhor vice and immorality
of every kind. While he made no pretensions to piety, and, apparently
selected no associations with this view of avoiding contamination, his
moral character was without a blemish. Nor was he, as has been
represented, haughty, impulsive and domineering, but, on the contrary, his
nature seems to have been remarkably gentle and his bearing free from
pretensions of every kind. He had opinions, and his convictions were
strong, but he neither reached them hastily nor maintained them with
arrogance. He was serious, somewhat reserved, always cheerful, sometimes
gay. In his manner he was thoroughly democratic, but free from any
suggestion of demagoguery. He was slow to anger, easily mollified, without
malice and possessed in a remarkable degree that ingenuous and credulous
nature which a long and eventful life never impaired and which was
responsible, in no small degree, for many of the fatal mistakes of later
years. If at this time he possessed any of those mental powers which later
in life won the admiration even of his enemies, he gave no indication of
the fact. He was an indifferent student, always somewhat deficient in
mathematics, and never particularly proficient in any other branch,
impressing those who knew him best as an ordinary youth of fair capacity
and of about the attainments requisite to pass the examinations.
II. Service in the Army
Thus equipped by nature and education, Jefferson Davis was commissioned,
upon leaving West Point, a second lieutenant, and was assigned to duty
with the First Regiment of Infantry at Fort Crawford. The life of a second
lieutenant on a frontier post in time of peace, unless under exceptional
circumstances, is not likely to provide many incidents of a nature to
illuminate his character, test his higher capacity or to greatly interest
posterity. The circumstances in this case were not exceptional, and during
the next seven years there was nothing in the career of Lieutenant Davis
worthy of preservation that cannot be recorded in few words. It was the
most barren period of his life. At Fort Crawford, at the Galena lead mines
and at Winnebago he was employed in the police duty that our army at that
time performed on the frontier which consisted chiefly of building forts
and trying to preserve the peace between the Indians and encroaching
settlers. In the performance of all of the duties to which he was
assigned, he acquitted himself creditably and earned the reputation of
being a conscientious, intelligent and efficient officer. At one time
during this service an opportunity to win distinction seemed imminent.
Black Hawk, driven to desperation by the continuous encroachment of the
pioneers upon the hunting grounds of his people, formed what was then
believed to be a powerful coalition of all of the Indian tribes of the
Northwest. But the coalition soon fell to pieces, and the war, with its
few slight skirmishes, turned out to be nothing more serious than an
Indian raid, which was speedily terminated. An incident happened at the
beginning of these troubles which, in the light of subsequent events, is
perhaps, worthy of preservation. The governor of Illinois called out the
state forces and mobilized them at Dixon. General Scott sent there from
Fort Snelling two lieutenants of the regular army to muster them into
service. One of them was Lieutenant Davis and the other was the future
major who so gallantly sustained the fire of Beauregard's heavy guns
against the old walls of Fort Sumter. Among the captains of the companies
to be mustered in was one who was hardly the ideal of a soldierly figure.
He was tall, awkward and homely, and was arrayed in a badly fitting suit
of blue jeans, garnished with large and resplendent brass buttons. He
presented himself and was sworn in and thus probably the first time in his
life that Abraham Lincoln ever took the oath of allegiance to the United
States it was administered to him by Jefferson Davis.
Soon after the engagement at Stillman Run, Black Hawk and several of his
more troublesome warriors surrendered to the United States forces and were
sent as prisoners in charge of Lieutenant Davis to Jefferson Barracks. In
his autobiography the old chief describes this journey in a way that
leaves nothing to be guessed of the bitterness he felt, but he does not
fail to express his appreciation of "the young white chief who alone
treated me with the courtesy and consideration due to an honorable,
vanquished enemy." About a year after Lieutenant Davis' return from this
mission to Fort Crawford, an incident occurred, which, while unimportant
in itself, was destined to produce far-reaching consequences. Col. Zachary
Taylor was assigned to the command of the First Regiment, and with him
came his family to Fort Crawford. His daughter, Miss Sarah Taylor, and
Lieutenant Davis soon conceived an ardent affection for each other, and
their marriage would have followed within the year had it not been
prevented by Colonel Taylor. The cause of his opposition to the marriage
has been the source of much speculation and of many absurd stories. The
bare fact of the case is that Taylor's opposition to Davis as a son-in-law
was based solely upon the privations that confronted the wife of a
soldier,--a not altogether unreasonable objection when we consider army
life on the frontier at that time. Convinced of the fact, however, that
his own family considered the reasons of his opposition unsound, he
determined to find what, at least to him, would prove weightier ones, and
proceeded to seek a quarrel with his daughter's suitor. He found a pretext
in a court martial, where, upon some trivial point, Davis voted against
Taylor with a certain Major Smith. Taylor and Smith were not upon friendly
terms, and thereupon the former flew into a violent rage, and in language
which needed no additional strength to convince one that he fully deserved
his sobriquet of Old Rough and Ready, he swore that Davis should never
marry his daughter, and forbade him to enter his house as a visitor. In
striking contrast to his intended father-in-law, Davis comported himself
throughout this affair as a gentleman, and during the next two years
sought in a manly way to reverse the irate old warrior's decision.
However, all of his efforts were unavailing, and finally convinced that
the task was a hopeless one, but resolved to remove the only substantial
objection, he in the summer of 1835, resigned his commission in the army.
A few weeks later he and Miss Taylor were married at the home of one of
her aunts in Kentucky. But his new-found happiness was destined to a sad
and untimely end, for in September of the same year, while visiting his
sister near Bayou Sara, in Louisiana, both he and his bride were
simultaneously stricken down with malarial fever and in a few days she
succumbed to the disease. He was passionately devoted to his wife, and her
death inflicted a blow from which he did not finally recover for many
years. The winter following the death of his wife was spent in Havana and
at Washington, and in the spring of 1836 he returned to Mississippi to
take up with his brother, Joseph, the threads of a new life, the influence
of which upon his future destiny has never been properly estimated.
III. His Life at Briarfield
Joseph Davis was in many respects a remarkable man. Educated for the bar,
he abandoned the practice of law, after a successful career, when he was
still a young man, and embarked in the business of cotton planting. He
succeeded, acquired two large plantations known as "The Hurricane" and
"Briarfield," and soon became a wealthy man. But he was something more
than a rich cotton planter. He was a man of great strength and force of
character, a student possessed of a vast fund of information, and a clear
and logical reasoner. He read much and thought deeply, if not always
correctly, along the lines of political government and economic science.
Always refusing to take an active part in politics, it was, nevertheless,
a subject in which he was deeply interested. He was partially in sympathy
with the principles of the democratic party, but in that academic, strict
and literal construction of the Constitution and upon the question of
state rights he occupied a position far in advance of that political
organization--a position even beyond that assumed by Mr. Calhoun in his
advocacy of the doctrine of nullification.
[Illustration: Jefferson Davis at Thirty-five]
From this brother Jefferson Davis purchased "Briarfield," and arrangements
were made by which they lived together and jointly managed the
plantations. Owning a large number of slaves, they inaugurated a policy
for their management which is no less interesting in itself than for the
results attained. It was based upon the political maxim of the elder
brother that the less people are governed, the better and stronger and
more law-abiding they become. All rules that involved unnecessary
supervision and espionage of any kind were abolished. The slaves were
placed upon honor and were left free to go and come as they pleased.
Corporal punishment was only inflicted in cases involving moral turpitude,
and only then after the trial and conviction of the accused by a jury of
his peers, during the process of which all of the rules governing the
production and admission of evidence observed in a court of justice, were
scrupulously adhered to. The pardoning power alone was retained by the
masters, and that they frequently exercised. Whenever a slave felt his
services were more valuable to himself than they were to his master, he
was allowed by the payment of a very reasonable price for his time to
embark in any enterprise he wished, the brothers counseling and advising
him, frequently loaning him money and always patronizing him in preference
to other tradesmen. A copy of a page from one of the books of a slave,
bearing the date of Sept. 24, 1842, is before me, and upon it J. E. and J.
Davis are credited with $1,893.50. Another slave usually purchased the
entire fruit crop of the two plantations, and there were still others who
conducted independent and successful business operations. Some of those
slaves in after years became respected and substantial citizens, one of
them purchasing the plantations for something less than $300,000, which
had been offered by a white competitor.
In their intercourse with their slaves, the brothers observed the utmost
courtesy. With the idea that it involved disrespect, they forbade the
abbreviation of Christian or the application of nicknames to any of their
servants. Jefferson Davis' manager, James Pemberton, was always received
on his business calls in the drawing-room, and the dignified master met
the equally dignified slave upon exactly the same plane that he would have
met his broker or his lawyer. From the practice of this system two
results followed: A large fortune was accumulated and the slaves became
thoroughly loyal and devoted to their masters.
[Illustration: Briarfield, Jefferson Davis' Home]
But, as great as must have been the influences of this life in forming the
character of Jefferson Davis, still greater and of more importance,
perhaps, must be regarded the rigorous mental training which he derived
from it. During the period of their residence together, the time not
required by business the brothers devoted to reading and discussions.
Political economy and law, the science of government in general and that
of the United States in particular, were the favorite themes. Locke and
Justinian, Mill, Adam Smith and Vattel divided honors with the Federalist,
the Resolutions of Ninety-Eight and the Debates of the Constitutional
Convention. It was said they knew every word of the three latter by
memory, and it is certain that year after year, almost without
interruption, they sat far into the night debating almost every
conceivable question that could arise under the Constitution of the United
States.
IV. First Appearance in Politics
The first appearance of Jefferson Davis in politics would be hardly worthy
of mention, if it were not for the fact that the event was used in after
years to lend color to a baseless calumny. The Democratic party of Warren
County nominated Mr. Davis for the Legislature in 1843, and although the
normal Whig majority was a large one, he was defeated only by a few votes.
Some years previous to that time the state had repudiated certain bank
bonds which it had guaranteed, and in that canvass this question was an
issue. Mr. Davis assumed the position that as the Constitution provided
that the state might be sued in such cases, the question as to whether the
bonds constituted a valid debt was one primarily for the courts rather
than for the Legislature to decide. Referring to this controversy,
General Scott in his autobiography says, "These bonds were repudiated
mainly by Mr. Jefferson Davis;" and during the Civil War the same
propaganda was urged in England by Robert J. Walker. The well-known
imperfection of General Scott's knowledge on most matters political
serves, in some measure, to palliate his error; but as General Walker was,
at that time, a senator in Congress from Mississippi, it is difficult to
believe that he erred through lack of information or that he was ignorant
of the fact that when the Legislature finally refused to heed the mandate
of the courts and provide for the payment of those obligations, Mr. Davis,
as a private citizen, advocated a subscription to satisfy the debt, and
that this very act was later used by the repudiators as their chief
argument against his election to Congress.
Mr. Davis took a conspicuous part in the presidential campaign of 1844,
and was chosen one of the Polk electors. Before this campaign he was but
slightly known beyond his own county; but at its conclusion his popularity
had become so great that there was a general demand in the ranks of his
party that he should become a candidate for Congress in the following
year.
[Illustration: The Room in the Briars in Which Jefferson Davis Was
Married]
On February 26, 1845, he was united in marriage to Miss Anna Varina
Howell, of Natchez, and in the following month entered upon the canvass
which resulted in his election by a large majority. He took his seat in
the Twenty-Ninth Congress, December 8, 1845.
In that body were many men whose lives were destined to exert an influence
upon his own fate in no small degree. Among them was that ungainly captain
of volunteers to whom we have seen him administering the oath of
allegiance at Fort Snelling, and a strong rugged, wilful man, who, in his
youth, had been the town tailor of the little village of Greenville, in
Tennessee.
Practically the only question involved in the campaign of 1844 was the
admission of the Republic of Texas as a state of the Union. Mexico had
declared that she would regard that act as tantamount to a declaration of
war, and all parties in the Twenty-Ninth Congress now recognized the
conflict as inevitable. Nor was it long delayed. One of President Polk's
first official acts was to order General Taylor to proceed to the Rio
Grande and defend it as the western boundary of the United States.
Proceeding to a point opposite Matamoras, he was there attacked by the
Mexicans, whom he defeated, drove back across the river and shelled them
out of their works on the opposite side.
In the war legislation that was now brought forward in Congress, Mr.
Davis' military education enabled him to take a conspicuous part. His
first speech seems to have left no doubt in the minds of the best judges
that henceforward he was a power to be reckoned with. John Quincy Adams,
it is said, paid the closest attention to this maiden effort, and at its
conclusion shouted into the ear trumpet of old Joshua Giddings: "Mark my
words, sir; we shall hear more of _that_ young man!" But this speech,
which was a reply to an attack made by Mr. Sawyer, of Ohio, on West Point,
did something more than win the admiration of Mr. Adams. Contending for
the necessity of a military education for those who conduct the operations
of war, and ignorant that any member of either avocation was present, he
asked Mr. Sawyer if he thought the results at Matamoras could have been
achieved by a tailor or a blacksmith. Mr. Sawyer good-naturedly replied
that, while he would not admit that some members of his craft might not
have rivaled the exploits of General Taylor, that when it came to
reducing things he himself preferred a horse shoe to a fort any day.
Andrew Johnson, however, took the matter as a personal insult, and as long
as he lived cherished the bitterest hatred for Mr. Davis.
V. Enters Mexican War
But as promising as Mr. Davis' congressional career began, it did not long
continue. Soon after war was declared, he received notice of his election
as colonel of the First Mississippi Regiment, and early in June resigned
his seat in Congress and accepted that office. President Polk, learning of
his resignation, sent for Mr. Davis and offered him an appointment as
brigadier-general. There is no doubt that he greatly coveted that office,
but such, even at that time, was his attachment to the doctrine of state
rights, that, frankly informing the President of his conviction that such
appointments were the prerogatives of the states, he declined the offer.
Hastening to New Orleans, Colonel Davis joined his regiment, and at once
inaugurated that course of training and discipline which, in a few
months, made of it a model of efficiency.
In August he joined General Taylor's army just as it moved forward into
Mexico. On Sept. 19, 1846, General Taylor with six thousand men reached
the strongly-fortified city of Monterey, garrisoned by ten thousand
Mexican regulars under command of the able and experienced General
Ampudia. Two days later the attack began, and at the close of a sharp
artillery duel, General Taylor gave the order to carry the city by storm.
The Fourth Artillery, leading the advance, was caught in a terrific cross
fire, and was speedily repulsed with heavy losses, producing the utmost
confusion along the front of the assaulting brigade. The strong fort,
Taneira, which had contributed most to the repulse, now ran up a new flag,
and amidst the wild cheering of its defenders redoubled its fire of grape,
canister and musketry, under which the American lines wavered and were
about to break.
[Illustration: General Taylor and Colonel Davis at Monterey]
Colonel Davis, seeing the crisis, without waiting for orders, placed
himself at the head of his Mississippians, and gave the order to charge.
With prolonged cheers his regiment swept forward through a storm of
bullets and bursting shells. Colonel Davis, sword in hand, cleared the
ditch at one bound, and cheering his soldiers on, they mounted the works
with the impetuosity of a whirlwind, capturing artillery and driving the
Mexicans pell mell back into the stone fort in the rear.
In vain the defeated Mexicans sought to barricade the gate; Davis and
McClung burst it open, and leading their men into the fort, compelled its
surrender at discretion. Taneira was the key of the situation, and its
capture insured victory. On the morning of the twenty-third, Henderson's
Texas Rangers, Campbell's Tennesseeans and Davis' Mississippians the
latter again leading the assault, stormed and captured El Diabolo, and the
next day General Ampudia surrendered the city.
VI. The Hero of Buena Vista
Two months later, General Taylor again moved forward toward the City of
Mexico, and on February 20 was before Saltilo. Santa Anna, the ablest of
the Mexican generals, with the best army in the republic, numbering twenty
thousand men, there appeared in front. Taylor could barely muster a fourth
of that number, and for strategic purposes fell back to the narrow defile
in front of the hacienda of Buena Vista, where, on the twenty-third, was
fought the greatest battle of the war.
The conflict began early in the morning, and raged with varying fortunes
over a line two miles long, until the middle of the afternoon when the
furious roar of musketry from that quarter apprised General Wool that
Santa Anna was making a desperate effort to break the American center.
Colonel Davis was immediately ordered to support that point, and the
Mississippians went forward at a double quick. As they came upon the
field, the wildest disorder prevailed, and only Colonel Bowles' Indiana
regiment held its ground. After trying in vain to rally the fugitives of a
routed regiment, Colonel Davis speedily formed his own into line of battle
and rapidly pushed forward across a deep ravine to the right of the
Indianians just in time to meet the shock of a whole brigade, which the
two commanders succeeded in repulsing with great gallantry.
But the battle was not over. Under cover of the smoke, Santa Anna's full
brigade of lancers flanked the Americans, and now at the sound of their
trumpets, the Mexican infantry advanced once more to the charge. Thus
assailed on two sides by overwhelming numbers, the situation was truly
critical, but Colonel Davis, forming the two regiments into the shape
of a re-entering angle, awaited the assault.
[Illustration: The Charge of Colonel Davis' Regiment at Buena Vista]
With flying banners and sounding trumpets the gailey caparisoned lancers
came down at a thundering gallop until a sheet of flame from the angle
wrapped their front ranks and bore it down to destruction. Quickly
recovering, the survivors, with the fury of madmen, threw themselves again
and again upon those stubborn ranks, which, now assailed on two sides,
refused to give an inch, and met every onslaught with a withering fire,
which soon so cumbered the ground with the dead that it was with
difficulty the living could move over it.
At last utterly demoralized by the awful carnage, the Mexican lines broke
and fled from the field. The day was over. Buena Vista was won, and
Colonel Davis had accomplished a feat which, when Sir Colin Campbell
imitated it at Inkerman two years later, he was sent by England to
retrieve her fallen fortunes in India.
Notwithstanding the fact that Colonel Davis' right foot had been shattered
early in the morning, he had refused to leave the field for aid, but now
at the close of the action he fell fainting from his horse. The wound was
a dangerous one, and as the surgeons were of the opinion that more than a
year must elapse before he could hope to walk, as soon as he was able to
travel, General Taylor insisted on his going home, and thus closed his
career in the Mexican War.
VII. Enters the Senate
This exploit at Buena Vista created the profoundest enthusiasm throughout
the country, and the Legislatures of several states passed resolutions
thanking him for his services. Governor Brown of his own state, in
obedience to an overwhelming popular sentiment, a few weeks after his
return, appointed Colonel Davis to fill a vacancy that had occurred in the
Senate--an appointment which was speedily ratified by the Legislature.
When, in 1847, Mr. Davis took his seat in the Senate, that irrepressible
conflict, inevitable from the hour that the Constitutional Convention of
1787 sanctioned slavery as an institution within the United States, had
reached a crisis which was threatening the very existence of the Union.
The Missouri Compromise prohibiting slavery north of 36° 30' had failed
to sanction it in express terms south of that parallel, and while in 1820
probably no one would have denied that this was the logical and obvious
meaning of that measure, such was not the case thirty years later. The
Abolitionists had opposed the annexation of Texas, believing, as Mr. Adams
declared, that such an event would justify the dissolution of the Union.
In finally accepting Texas with bad grace, they served notice that it was
their last concession. Therefore when the application of the Missouri
Compromise to the vast territory acquired from Mexico would have given
over a large portion of it to slavery, they brought forward the Wilmot
Proviso, a measure, the effect of which was to abrogate the Missouri
Compromise in so far as it affected slavery south of that line, while
leaving its prohibition as to the north side in full force.
[Illustration: Jefferson Davis as United States Senator in 1847]
Mr. Davis participated in the discussion of these questions and at once
became the ablest and most consistent of those statesmen who, contending
for the strict construction of the Constitution and the broadest
principles of state sovereignty, sought to prevent Congress from violating
the one by infringing on the prerogatives of the other. Holding that the
Constitution sanctioned slavery, that Congress had specified its limits,
that the territories belonged in common to the states, he contended that
the South could not accept with honor anything less than that the Missouri
Compromise extended to the Pacific Ocean.
Reasoning from these premises, his speeches were masterpieces of logic,
and whatever one may think of their philosophy, all must agree that they
were among the greatest ever delivered in any deliberative body. Had the
leaders of his party stood with him in that great battle, they would have
been able to force some definite legislation which would have postponed
the Civil War for many years--possibly beyond a period when the operation
of economic laws might have effected the abolition of slavery as the only
salvation of the South--but Henry Clay's dread of a situation that
endangered the Union prompted him to bring forward his last compromise
measures, which he himself declared to be only a temporary expedient.
Calhoun, equally strong in his love for the Union, anxious to preserve it
at all costs, abandoned his former position, and against the warnings of
Jefferson Davis, soon to become prophetic, his party accepted the measure
which, as he declared, guaranteed no right that did not already exist,
while abrogating to the South the benefits of the Compromise of 1820.
VIII. Becomes Secretary of War
With temporary tranquillity restored, Mr. Davis soon afterward resigned
his seat in the Senate to become a candidate for governor of his state--a
contest in which he was defeated by a small plurality. He retired once
more to Briarfield, and there is little doubt that he at that time
intended to abandon public life. However, in 1853, he yielded to the
insistence of President Pierce, and reluctantly accepted the portfolio of
war in his cabinet.
Only a brief summary is possible, but if we may judge by the reforms
inaugurated, the work accomplished during the four following years,
Jefferson Davis must be considered one of our greatest secretaries of war.
The antiquated army regulations were revised and placed upon a modern
basis, the medical corps was reorganized and made more efficient, tactics
were modernized, the rifled musket and the minie ball were adopted, the
army was increased and at every session he persistently urged upon
Congress the wisdom of a pension system and a law for the retirement of
officers, substantially as they exist at present.
But more enduring and farther reaching in beneficent results were those
great public works originated or completed under his administration,
prominently among which may be mentioned the magnificent aqueduct which
still supplies Washington with an abundance of pure water; the completion
of the work on the Capitol, which had dragged for years; and the founding
of the Smithsonian Institute, of which he was, perhaps, the most zealous
advocate and efficient regent.
Transcontinental railways appealed to him as a public necessity. He
therefore had two surveys made and collected the facts concerning
climate, topography and the natural resources of the country, which
demonstrated the feasibility of the vast undertaking, which was
subsequently completed along the lines and according to the plans that he
recommended.
From his induction into office he set at naught the spoils system of
Jackson, and may very justly be regarded as a pioneer of civil service
reform, for he altogether disregarded politics in his appointments, and
when remonstrated with by the leaders of his party, informed them that he
was not appointing Whigs or Democrats, but servants of the government who,
in his opinion, were best qualified for the duties to be performed. The
same principle he adhered to in matters of the greatest moment, as he
demonstrated in the Kansas troubles. A state of civil war prevailed
between the advocates and opponents of slavery, and it could not be
doubted where his own sympathies were in the controversy. From the nature
of the case, the commander of federal troops in Kansas must be armed with
practically dictatory powers. The selection remained altogether with
himself, and he sent thither Colonel Sumner, an avowed abolitionist, but
an officer whose honor, ability and judgment recommended him as the best
man for the difficult duty.
How the absurd story ever originated that Mr. Davis used the power of his
great office to weaken the North and prepare the South for warlike
operations, is inconceivable to the honest investigator of even ordinary
diligence. No arms or munitions of war could have been removed from one
arsenal to another or from factory to fort without an order from the
Secretary of War. Those orders are still on record, and not one of them
lends color to a theory which seems to have been adopted as a fact by Dr.
Draper, upon no better proof than that afforded by heresay evidence of the
most biased kind. In fact, arsenals in the South were continuously
drawn upon to supply the Western forts during his term of office, and at
its close, while all defenses and stores were in better condition than
ever before, those south of the Potomac were relatively weaker than in
1853.
[Illustration: Jefferson Davis as Secretary of War]
Other less serious charges are equally baseless, and the historian who
would try Mr. Davis upon the common rules of evidence must conclude that
his administration was not only free from dishonor but was characterized
by high ability and unquestioned patriotism--a verdict strengthened by the
fact that contemporaneous partisan criticism furnished nothing to question
such a conclusion.
IX. He Re-enters the Senate
When, in 1857, Mr. Davis was again elected to the Senate, the Compromise
of 1850 had already become a dead letter, as he had predicted that it
would. The anti-slavery sentiment had, like Aaron's rod, swallowed all
rivals, and party leaders once noted for conservatism, had resolved to
suppress the curse, despite the decision of the Supreme Court statute, of
law, of even the Constitution itself. Those who have criticised Mr. Davis
most bitterly for his attitude at that time have failed to appreciate the
fact that he then occupied the exact ground where he had always stood.
Others had changed. He had remained consistent. He had never countenanced
the doctrine of nullification; he had always affirmed the right of
secession. Profoundly versed, as he was, in the constitutional law of the
United States, familiar with every phase of the question debated by the
Convention of 1787, his logical mind was unable to reach a conclusion
adverse to the right of a sovereign state to withdraw from a voluntary
compact, the violation of which endangered its interests. He believed that
the compact was violated by the repeal of the Missouri Compromise; he felt
that it was being violated now, but as in 1850 he had declared that
nothing short of the necessity of self-protection would justify the
dissolution of the Union, he now pleaded with the majority not to force
that necessity upon the South. Secession he frankly declared to be a great
evil, so great that the South would only adopt it as the last resort; but
at the same time he warned the abolitionists that if the guarantees of the
Constitution were not respected, that if the Northern states were to defy
the decrees of the Supreme Court favorable to the South, as they had done
in the Dred Scott decision, that if his section was to be ruled by a
hostile majority without regard to the right, the protection thrown around
the minority by the fundamental law of the land, that the Southern states
could not in honor remain members of the Union, and would therefore
certainly withdraw from it.
He undoubtedly saw the chasm daily growing wider, and had he possessed
that sagacious foresight, that profound knowledge of human nature, in
which alone he was lacking as a statesman of the first order, he would
have realized then, as Abraham Lincoln had before, that the die was cast
and that the Union could not longer endure upon the compromises of the
Constitution which had implanted slavery among a free, self-governing
people, a majority of whom were opposed to it. But there is no recorded
utterance of Jefferson Davis, no act of his, that would lead one to
believe that he had despaired of some adjustment of matters, or that
secession was wise or desirable, until after the nomination of Mr.
Lincoln. Then, for the first time, he declared before a state convention
at Jackson, Miss., that the Chicago platform would justify the South in
dissolving the Union if the Republican party should triumph at the coming
election. But he did not expect that triumph. Shortly previous to that
speech, he had introduced resolutions in the Senate embodying the
principles of the constitutional pro-slavery party.
They affirmed the sovereignty of the separate states, asserted that
slavery formed an essential part of the political institutions of various
members of the Union, that the union of the states rested upon equality of
rights, that it was the duty of Congress to protect slave property in the
territories, and that a territory when forming a constitution, and not
before, must either sanction or abolish slavery. The resolution passed the
Senate, and Mr. Davis hoped to see it become the platform of a reunited
party, which would have meant the defeat of the Republican ticket and a
consequent postponement of the war.
The foregoing facts alone make ridiculous the assertions of Mr. Pollard
that during this Congress Jefferson Davis, with thirteen other senators,
met one night in a room at the Capitol, and perfected a plan whereby the
Southern states were forced into secession against the will of the people
thereof.
What the plan was, how it was put into operation so as to circumvent the
will of the people of eleven states who more than a year later decided the
question of secession by popular vote, why Mr. Davis later introduced the
above resolution and why he worked so zealously thereafter to prevent the
threatened disruption and why he sought to induce the Charleston
Convention to adopt his resolution as the principles of the party, Mr.
Pollard does not attempt to explain. In fact, any rational explanation
would be impossible, for at every point the evidence refutes the
allegation.
Then, again, those who, like Mr. Pollard, have sought to saddle the chief
responsibility of secession upon Jefferson Davis have overlooked the fact
that while not an avowed candidate, he nevertheless hoped to be the
nominee of his party in 1860 for the presidency, and that much of his
strength lay in Northern states, as Massachusetts demonstrated by sending
him a solid delegation to the Charleston Convention. His conduct during
his last year in the Senate is consistent with this ambition, but the
ambition is wholly inconsistent with the theory that he had long planned
the destruction of the Union. The truth is that the impartial historian
must conclude from all of his utterances, from his acts, from the
circumstances of the case, that in so far from being the genius and
advocate of disunion, he deprecated it and sought to prevent it, until
political events rendered certain the election of Mr. Lincoln. Then,
sincerely believing the peculiar institutions of the South to be
imperiled, and never doubting the right of secession, he advocated it as
the only remedy left for a situation which had become intolerable to the
people of his section.