Jefferson Davis: The Essential Writings
- ISBN-10
- 0812972082
- ISBN-13
- 9780812972085
- Series
- Jefferson Davis
- Category
- Biography & Autobiography
- Pages
- 496
- Language
- English
- Published
- 2004-08-10
- Publisher
- Modern Library
- Author
- Jefferson Davis
Description
Jefferson Davis is one of the most complex and controversial figures in American political history (and the man whom Oscar Wilde wanted to meet more than anyone when he made his tour of the United States). Elected president of the Confederacy and later accused of participating in the assassination of Abraham Lincoln, he is a source of ongoing dissension between northerners and southerners. This volume, the first of its kind, is a selected collection of his writings culled in large part from the authoritative Papers of Jefferson Davis, a multivolume edition of his letters and speeches published by the Louisiana State University Press, and includes thirteen documents from manuscript collections and one privately held document that have never before appeared in a modern scholarly edition. From letters as a college student to his sister, to major speeches on the Constitution, slavery, and sectional issues, to his farewell to the U.S. Senate, to his inaugural address as Confederate president, to letters from prison to his wife, these selected pieces present the many faces of the enigmatic Jefferson Davis. As William J. Cooper, Jr., writes in his Introduction, “Davis’s notability does not come solely from his crucial role in the Civil War. Born on the Kentucky frontier in the first decade of the nineteenth century, he witnessed and participated in the epochal transformation of the United States from a fledgling country to a strong nation spanning the continent. In his earliest years his father moved farther south and west to Mississippi. As a young army officer just out of West Point, he served on the northwestern and southwestern frontiers in an army whose chief mission was to protect settlers surging westward. Then, in 1846 and 1847, as colonel of the First Mississippi Regiment, he fought in the Mexican War, which resulted in 1848 in the Mexican Cession, a massive addition to the United States of some 500,000 square miles, including California and the modern Southwest. As secretary of war and U.S. senator in the 1850s, he advocated government support for the building of a transcontinental railroad that he believed essential to bind the nation from ocean to ocean.”
Get the book
Other editions
Similar books
-
Jefferson Davis, American
By William James CooperWest Point graduate, secretary of war under President Pierce, U.S. senator from Mississippi-- how was it that this statesman and patriot came to be president of the Confederacy, leading the...
-
Jefferson Davis
By Clement EatonA biography of Jefferson Davis, who was a West Point graduate, soldier in the Black Hawk Wars, plantation master and self-made aristocrat, Secretary of War under Franklin Pierce, and the...
-
Jefferson Davis, Napoleonic France, and the Nature of Confederate Ideology, 1815-1870
By Jeffrey ZvengrowskiIn this highly original study of Confederate ideology and politics, Jeffrey Zvengrowski suggests that Confederate president Jefferson Davis and his supporters saw Bonapartist France as a model for the Confederate States of America.
-
Jefferson Davis and the Civil War Era
By William J. Cooper, Jr.This volume offers rare insight into one of American history's most complicated and provocative figures. William J. Cooper, Jr., is the author or coauthor of six books.
-
The Man Who Punched Jefferson Davis: The Political Life of Henry S. Foote, Southern Unionist
By Ben WynneBen Wynne fills this gap in his examination of the life of this gifted and volatile public figure in The Man Who Punched Jefferson Davis: The Political Life of Henry S. Foote, Southern Unionist.
-
Jefferson Davis: His Life and Personality
By Morris SchaffJefferson Davis: His Life and Personality
-
Jefferson Davis: His Rise and Fall
By Allen TateAllen Tate's portrayal of the tragic figure of the Confederacy's only president is fast-paced and compelling. This highly readable biography presents not only a life of Jefferson Davis but an...
-
A Long Shadow: Jefferson Davis and the Final Days of the Confederacy
By Michael B. BallardMuch of the protest against his leadership came from those who had long been his political enemies. The Confederate president's actions and experiences during the retreat reinforced his status as the last, beleaguered defender of the ...
-
Jefferson Davis
By Cory Gideon GundersonFollows the life of Jefferson Davis, the president of the Confederate States of America, tracing events from his childhood, through secession and the Civil War, to his life following the conflict.
-
Jefferson Davis: The Man and His Hour
By William C. DavisColonel Samuel Cooper had held the post just a few months when Davis arrived . Davis first met Cooper on his 1837 trip to Washington , and the high recommendation given then and later by Franklin Pierce was enough to win Cooper's esteem ...