jefferson davis on the constitution

7/23/2019 Jefferson Davis on the Constitution

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J e f f e r s o n D a v i sJ e f f e r s o n D a v i s

o n t h eo n t h e

C o n s t i t u t i o nC o n s t i t u t i o n

An Extract From

TheRise and Fall

of theConfederateGovernment

by

Jefferson DavisJefferson Davis

Constituting pages 75-168

of the complete work,

with the authors original

Preface and Introduction

New Foreword by

Daniel V. Bowden, J.D.


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F o r e w o r d

After the close of the War for Southern Independence, a number ofConfederate generals and politicians turned to writing theirmemoirs, determined that the history of the conflict would not be

entirely written by the victorious North. None was more determined thanJefferson Davis. Davis was not one to accept defeat easily. After the fall ofRichmond he was forced to flee south with the records and papers of theConfederate government loaded in train cars and wagons. Making his waythrough South Carolina and Georgia, his entourage dwindled as the collapseof the Confederate military became apparent. Even after Lees surrender inVirginia, Davis hoped to travel west to Texas and continue the fight withGen. Kirby Smiths forces. After being informed by Gen. Joseph Johnstonthat his forces could no longer stand against Shermans army, Davis ordered

Johnston to take his men into the hills and fight a guerilla warJohnstonignored the order and surrendered instead. Davis managed to elude theFederal forces searching for him for some time, but his progress westwardwas hampered by his family, which was travelling with him. He wascaptured unharmed in south-central Georgia by Federal troops, but wouldhave resisted had his wife not restrained him, fearing for his safety. TheConfederate President spent two long years in Fort Monroe in Virginia as afederal prisoner, awaiting trial for treason.

After the war ended, and with the civil courts in full operation, theRepublicans could no longer make a case for the use of military tribunals.Some of the best lawyers of the day volunteered to represent Davis. Faced

with the prospect of having to try Davis before a jury of Virginians, thegovernment dropped all charges and released him rather than risk anacquittal. A not-guilty verdict by a jury is unreviewable by any court, andsuch an acquittal would have been viewedand rightly soas a vindicationof the South and an acknowledgment of the constitutionality of secession.The government had much to lose and little to gain by allowing such a trial,for which Davis was eager.

Davis retired to Beauvoir, his post-bellum home in Biloxi, Mississippi,and turned out his two-volume Rise and Fall of the Confederate Government,published in 1881. Buried within Volume I of this 1200+ page work is a

short section entitled simply The Constitution. It is Davissexplanationand exposition of the compact theory of the Constitution, the view which

was almost universally-held by Southern statesmen, and, as Davis shows, bythe founders themselves. Davissshort work is one of the best written on thesubject. He painstakingly and with great detail examines and refutes everyargument that the United States as a nation-state preceded or was superior


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to the individual states, that the states gave up their sovereignty uponforming the Union, and that secession was illegal or unconstitutional. It isDavissbrief for the defence, the one he never got a chance to present at trial.

Davisswork is not an easy read, but it will repay the diligent studentwith a wealth of knowledge. It is my hope that by extracting the section onthe Constitution fromthelarger work and making it available for the firsttime in electronic format, it will be accessible to a wider range of readers.Few indeed would have the fortitude to delve into Rise and Fall in itsentirety. With a copy of the Constitution and this work in hand, any readerwill be well-prepared to answer the critics of secession, who are asnumerous today as ever. Secession as a political topic may not be as deadas was once supposed. Secession movements around the world continue toshow that the desire for freedom and self-government cannot beextinguished by even the most brutal governments. In the U.S., somepolitical liberals, distressed by the results of the 2004 presidential election,have discussed the idea of the Northern/Democratic blue states secedingfrom the Southern/Republican red states. From the Hartford Conventionof 1812, to the Confederacy, to the present day, the discussion of secession

has almost come full circle.I think Davis would be pleased to know that more than 120 years

after he wrote it, his work is educating a new generation on the truemeaning of the Constitution and vindicating our Southern ancestors from thecharges of treason. Deo Vindice.

Daniel V. Bowden, J.D.Tuscaloosa, Ala.7 February, A.D. 2005


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jefferson davis on the constitution

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