Davis Jefferson - Jefferson Davis: the essential writings

2004 Modern Library Paperback Edition
Copyright 2003 by Random House, Inc.

All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. Published in the United States by Modern Library, an imprint of The Random House Publishing Group, a division of Random House, Inc., New York, and simultaneously in Canada by Random House of Canada Limited, Toronto.

MODERN LIBRARY and the TORCHBEARER Design are registered trademarks of Random House, Inc.

Portions of this work were originally published in The Papers of Jefferson Davis, volumes 110, published by Louisiana State University Press, and appear here by arrangement with Louisiana State University Press.

This work was originally published in hardcover by Modern Library, an imprint of The Random House Publishing Group, a division of Random House, Inc., in 2003.

LIBRARY OF CONGRESS CATALOGING-IN-PUBLICATION DATA
Davis, Jefferson, 18081889.
[Selections 2003]
Jefferson Davis: the essential writings / edited, with an introduction and notes, by William J. Cooper, Jr.2003 Modern Library ed.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
1. Confederate States of AmericaHistory. 2. United StatesPolitics and government18151861. I. Cooper, William J. (William James). II. Title.

E467.1.D26 A25 2003
973.7'13'092dc21 2002038017

Modern Library website address: www.modernlibrary.com

eISBN: 978-1-58836-378-7

v3.0_r1

CONTENTS

Introduction: Jefferson Davis: His Life and Record
by William J. Cooper, Jr.

Documents

NOTES

For a full biography see William J. Cooper, Jr., Jefferson Davis, American (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2000).

The documents reproduced from PJD contain a number of editorial symbols. Those most frequently used, with their definitions, follow:

[text] editorial insertions, usually because manuscript was damaged

deviation from lineal presentation

<-text-> strikeouts

/text/ interlined words

text struck-through word.

JDs sister, who married David Bradford.

JDs father, Samuel Emory Davis, died on July 4, 1824.

JDs nephews, Benjamin and David Bradford, and his brother-in-law.

JDs sister-in-law, married to his brother Isaac D.

JDs eldest brother. Twenty-four years older than JD, his youngest sibling, Joseph became JDs surrogate father.

JDs sister, who married William Stamps.

Samuel A. Davis.

Florida Ann Davis, Josephs daughter.

JD was not a model cadet. This record specifies the range of violations that brought him many demerits. In his senior year JD amassed 137 demerits, which in the corps as a whole ranked him 163 of 208.

Jefferson Barracks was an army post near St. Louis.

William Stamps, JDs brother-in-law.

JD did have a middle name, but only the initial F. survived. He used it at West Point but dropped it completely in early manhood.

JDs fiance, daughter of Zachary Taylor. They were married on June 17, 1835; she died on September 15, 1835.

In Oklahoma.

Watson Van Benthuysen, Joseph Daviss brother-in-law.

John C. Calhoun, U.S. senator from South Carolina, and Thomas Morris, U.S. senator from Ohio.

James Pemberton, JDs first slave, an inheritance from his father. Pemberton was JDs overseer at Brierfield until his death in 1850.

U.S. senator from Ohio; JD met him in Washington in 1838.

Thomas Hart Benton, U.S. senator from Missouri.

JDs fiance; they were married on February 26, 1845.

Hurricane was the name of Joseph Daviss plantation; it adjoined JDs plantation, Brierfield. JD lived at Hurricane until his marriage.

Eliza Van Benthuysen Davis, JDs sister-in-law, Josephs wife.

Judge George Winchester, Varinas tutor and a close friend of the Howell family.

Martin Van Buren, president of the United States 183741 and in 1844 candidate for the Democratic partys nomination for president; William Henry Harrison, president of the United States in 1841 (he died after only one month in office); John Tyler, sitting president of the United States; Henry Clay, U.S. senator from Kentucky; Andrew Jackson, president of the United States 182937; Roger B. Taney, cabinet officer under Jackson and chief justice of the U.S. Supreme Court 183564; Joel R. Poinsett, cabinet officer under Van Buren.

JDs mother-in-law.

Varinas younger sister, Margaret.

William B. Howell, JDs father-in-law.

Media tutissimus ibis: You are safest in the middle of the road.

John Adams, John Quincy Adams, Harrison Gray Otis, Elbridge Gerry, and John Hancock were all political leaders from Massachusetts.

Noted American frontiersman.

James Madison, Founding Father and president of the United States 180917.

Originally printed in the Vicksburg Sentinel and Expositor and then in other newspapers.

Nascitur non fit: born, not created.

George Washington, Founding Father, commanding general of the Continental army during the American Revolution, and president of the United States 178997.

Governor of Mississippi, later U.S. representative and senator.

JDs sister.

Mary Jane Bradford Brodhead Sayre, JDs niece.

William Stamps, JDs brother-in-law.

Eliza Van Benthuysen Davis, JDs sister-in-law.

U.S. secretary of the treasury; formerly U.S. senator from Mississippi.

Lewis Cass of Michigan, leading Democratic politician.

Joseph D. Howell, JDs brother-in-law.

Brigadier General William J. Worth and J. Pinckney Henderson, governor of Texas and major general of Texas Volunteers.

Jim Green, a slave of Joseph Davis; accompanied JD to Mexico.

Major General Zachary Taylor, JDs former father-in-law; Antonio Lpez de Santa Anna, Mexican general and political leader.

Chief of staff to Major General Zachary Taylor.

JDs report on the Battle of Buena Vista.

Businessman in Vicksburg, Mississippi.

Friend of JD in Mississippi who was active in Democratic party politics.

Henry S. Foote, governor and U.S. senator, a major foe of JD in Mississippi politics, and Jacob Thompson, a notable figure among Mississippi Democrats; served in U.S. House of Representatives and as secretary of the interior in President James Buchanans cabinet.

The Wilmot Proviso proposed to ban slavery in the Mexican Cession; it never passed Congress.

All ellipses are in the autograph catalog, which has the only known version of this letter.

A Virginian and professor of law at the College of William and Mary.

Mrs. Robert J. Walker.

Notable Kentucky political leader who served in cabinet, in Congress, and as governor.

Henry Clay and Major General Zachary Taylor, at this time president-elect.

Whig politicians: John M. Berrien of Georgia, Edward Baker of Illinois, Thomas Butler King of Georgia, Andrew Stuart of Pennsylvania and Ohio, John Clayton of Delaware, Horace Binney of Pennsylvania, Amos Lawrence of Massachusetts, and James Gadsden of South Carolina.

Physician and friend of JD who lived in New Orleans.

Mississippi editor and officeholder.

Jean-Jacques Rousseau, French thinker, and Jeremy Bentham, English thinker.

Thomas Jefferson, Founding Father and president of the United States 180109.

Editor of the Natchez Free Trader.

John A. Quitman, long friendly with the Davis family and important military and political leader; served as a general officer in the Mexican War, as governor, and as a U.S. representative.