Jefferson Davis, U.S. senator, secretary of war,
and Confederate president, was born in Christian (later Todd) County, Kentucky,
to Jane Cook Davis and Samuel Emory Davis, who were frontier farmers. The exact
year of his birth was not recorded. When he was a young boy, the family moved to
the Louisiana Territory, then to Mississippi. He was educated at St. Thomas
College, a Catholic boarding school, for two years, before resuming his studies
at academies near his family’s home in Mississippi. He attended Transylvania
University in Lexington, Kentucky, for one year beginning in 1823. His father
died the next year. Jefferson’s eldest brother, Joseph, secured his sibling an
appointment to the U.S. Military Academy at West Point. His record as a cadet
(1824-1828) was one of rowdy behavior and mediocre academic achievement.
Upon graduation the army commissioned Davis as a
lieutenant and assigned him to the West. He saw little action, however, even
during the Black Hawk War (1832), most of which he missed while away on
furlough. In 1835 a military court found Davis guilty of showing disrespect
toward a superior officer, but determined that it was not a military offense.
Unhappy with the decision as well as with army life, he resigned. In June 1835
he married Sarah Knox Taylor, the daughter of Zachary Taylor; she died three
months later of yellow fever or malaria. Davis helped manage his eldest bother’s
plantations for several years. During that time he read extensively and became
interested in public affairs, developing into a Democratic partisan and an
advocate of states’ rights and territorial expansion.
In 1843 Davis was defeated in a race for state
legislator, but the next year he was elected to Congress. In 1845 he married
Varina Howell. With the commencement of the Mexican War, Davis resigned from
Congress to join the Mississippi volunteers. He performed skillfully at the
battles of Monterrey and Buena Vista, for which he became a hero in his home
state. In August 1847 the Mississippi legislature recognized Davis’s new
stature by appointing him to fill the U.S. Senate seat left unoccupied upon the
death of Jesse Speight. In the Senate, Davis chaired the Committee on Military
Affairs, promoted territorial expansion, and defended slavery, states’ rights,
and Southern interests. He staunchly opposed the Compromise of 1850, which
attempted to settle the issues raised by the Mexican War, and countered
unsuccessfully with a proposal for extending the Missouri Compromise line to the
Pacific Ocean (anticipating the Crittendon Compromise of 1861).
Davis resigned from the Senate in September 1851
to run for governor of Mississippi, but was defeated in a close election. In the
spring of 1853 Franklin Pierce, the new Democratic president, named him to be
secretary of war. Davis proved to be a competent administrator who strengthened
the U.S. army by insisting on improved training and equipment, merit promotions,
and expanded arsenals, defenses, and personnel. He dispatched survey teams to
lay out routes for a transcontinental railroad, which he supported for national
security reasons. He also advanced Southern views within the Pierce
administration.
Davis was reelected to the U.S. Senate in early
1857, again serving as chair of the Military Affairs Committee. When the
Democratic party split in the election of 1860, he supported the Southern
candidate, Vice President John Breckinridge. Davis did not endorse immediate
secession following Lincoln’s election, but worked for compromise and
supported the ill-fated Crittendon Compromise. When Mississippi seceded from the
Union, Davis resigned his Senate seat. He accepted with reluctance the
presidency of the newly proclaimed Confederate States of America.
As chief executive of a region seeking
independence against a stronger opponent, Davis faced great obstacles. He has
been praised as an intelligent, flexible, and effective administrator, but he
lacked the crucial ability to inspire and lead the populace. He has been
criticized for making unsound appointments, not paying enough attention to the
western military theater, and ignoring the suffering of the general population.
He interpreted the emergency powers under the Confederate Constitution broadly
and consequently oversaw the use of a military draft, the suspension of the writ
of habeas corpus, and the government regulation or control of key industries.
After the northern elections in 1864, Davis proposed to arm the slaves and to
free them as a reward for military service. Despite intense opposition, the
Confederate Congress approved a revised version of his plan.
When the Civil War ended in Confederate defeat,
Davis was arrested and incarcerated at Fort Monroe (Hampton, Virginia) for two
years. After being paroled he published a two-volume The Rise and Fall of the
Confederate Government, which defended the right of secession. He engaged in
several unsuccessful business ventures, then died of pneumonia while in New
Orleans.
Sources consulted: American National Biography;
Biographical Directory of the United States Congress; The Complete Book of
U.S. Presidents, ed. William A. Degregorio