The weekly clarion. [volume] (Jackson, Miss.) 1863-1882, 1881-02-24
Hon. Jefferson Davis Book.
The Chief Topics Discussed by its Dis
finguished Author.


the Confederate dead He coneeives 1t
be his duty to his coutrymen to prepare tn
history of the rise and failure of their caust
He finds in structure thirteen lndependen
States and their relation to each other pr
mary principles and the vested rights o
which he rests his yindication of the Con
federacy. He evidenced the doctrine of Stat
sovereignty and the compact by which thes
States voluntarily gave their consent 10 lea
Grafton with no design expressed or implied
ever to become fractional parts of the nation
and he believes that those who resisted tn
| violation of this original compact were, II
fact. the true friends of constitutions
union. The author in discussing the princi
pies and events in their natural and logica
/ order. first gives his attention to African
| servitude, and the long and bitter strife t.
which it gave rise.
| He then takes up the question of State
| rights, giving constitutional and historical
arguments, in which he recites the principle
of State sovereignty, and quoting copiously
| from all authorities on the subject. These
questions and full statement of the lmme
date causes of the war, occupy one-half Of
| the first volume; the remainder of the work
| is given to a narrative of the struggle, includ
| ing the fullest statement yet written, from
Southern standpoint, of the fierce dissen
| sion in Confederate councils, and of his de-
Tense of the prolongation oft war for many
months after many of the ablest men In the
South were fully convinced that their strug-
gle was hopeless one.
In the opening of the work he treats of the
early legislation on the subj ect of slavery.
He acquits the South ofa responsibility for
the existence in its midst of the peculiar in
stitution, and calls attention to the fact
that Virginia was the first State to prohibit
importation into its territory of the blacks
brought to this country and reduced to slav-
cry, and that Georgia was the first State to
incorporate in its Constitution the prohibi-
ton of the African slave trade. All through
the work he treats of slavery not as the cause
of the war, but only as an incident of the
secession movement. The paramount ques-
ton he declares was equality in the territo-
ries and new made States of the Union. He
traces the conflict, which was intensified
until it burst into open war While upon
this subject he speaks in condemnatory
terms of the Missouri compromise which
he regards as asurrender of the rights which
belonged to the South, and which it should
have maintained but after it was adopted,
he believed i: should have been adhered to,
and he arraigns the North and Federal gov
eminent for the failure of a compromise
which was practically repealed by the bills
organizing the territories of Kansas and Ne
braska in 1859
1t will be observed that Mr. Davis takes
occasion to declare in many places through
out the work his devotion to the constitu-
tional union. He instances speeches which
he made in 1861, during his candidacy for
governor of Mississippi in opposition to
Henry S. Foote.
These speeches contained repeated deca-
rations ofhis adherence and devotion to the
Union, and he afirms that his public deeds
were at all times actuated by this spirit, be-
fore the general government began its vio-
lent encroachments on the rights of the
States. 1t was during the Pierce admins
tration that the struggle in Kansas, between
the Free Soil and Pro-Slavery parties cul-
minated in bitterness. This struggle, Mr..
Davis finds, was the beginning of the imme-
date cause of the war. He devotes consid-
cradle space to a description of what he calls
the usurpations of the Federal authorities.
Congress, it will be rendered, refused to rec
ognize a delegate chosen from Kansas on the
ground that his election by the Pro-Slavery
party had been procured by fraud. He res
CARDS the repeal of the Missouri compromise
as re-opening the question of slavery in the
Territories, and as precipitating a conflict
between the opposing parties, which was en-
by the Abolitionists of the North,
and which finally compelled the South in
self-defense to take a decided stand.
Heholds the violent abolition partylargely
for the final breach of the peace.
Bringing his history down to tho election of
Lincoln he finds the federal government in
the hands of party under which the South
ern States could not live. Lincoln was
elected upon a platform of resistance to
slavery extension, party antagonistic to
the South, and believing in centralizing
power in the federal government, controlled !
by the executive department. Having de-
voted half of the present volume to the ex>
position of the causes which led the South
to desire a separation from the federal gov
Mr.. Davis proceeds, in several
chapters, to defend the right of secession.
In justification of this right he quotes large
" from Webster, Calhoun, Douglass, Gree
ley, Seward, Benton and Clay. In main
tanning that the compact between the States
was of the nature of confederation, he |
draws largely for the basis of his argument |
upon the debates in the constitutional Con-
vention of 1889 and fortifies himself with |
extracts from "Storey on the Constitution"
Elliott's debates, and Bancroft's history:
He refers to the memorial debate on the |
purchase of louisiana, when the venerable |
Josiah Quincy, of Massachusetts,, who as
serted in the House of Representatives that |
that act virtually Dissolved, the Union, 80 |
that the States were freed from their obi |
cations, ana should prepare for peaceable or
forcible separation. He gives the history |
Of the adoption of the tenth amendment to |
the Constitution, by which it was provided |
that "the powers not granted to the United |
States by the Constitution, nor prohibited |
oy it to the States, are reserved to the |
States respectively or to the people" he |
the right ofsecession as perfectly |
compatible with the Constitution, and |
Claims besides, that the general government |
4 inhf 10
The question, he maintains, rests with |
the people, from whom all power is derived. |
Arriving in the latter part of the first |
volume at the period when hostilities COM
the narrative makes rapid progress. |
The author refers to Northern protests |
against coercion, in which connection the |
name of Greeley figures prominently. He |
that the South did everything in |
its power to go out of the Union peaceably |
and quietly. The conservative temper of |
the Southern people, he says was shown |
in the early acts of their Congress In the |
adoption of its Constitution it was the |
desire and endeavor of the confederacy to
unite the two countries together in friendly |
ties. He takes friendlier view of Lincoln |
at the beginning of his administration than |
of his compeers in the federal government |
He speaks of Lincoln's inaugural address,
and says that Lincoln did not so far violate |
the traditions of his country, as to defend
coercion, while arguing against the right
of the South to secede and stating that he
would use force enough to protect United
States property. He did not intimate that
an invasion of Southern soil would be un-
dertaken.
These extracts from Mr.. Lincoln's inau-
gural led the South to hope that separa-
tion would be brought about in a peaceful
manner. Among the arguments with which
he supports this theory he cites contempt
raneous debates on this subject in the Sem
ate of the United States, and quotes Sena-
tor Douglass resolution ordering the with
drawal of the garrisons occupying Southern
forts He accuses Seward and others of
bad faith in representing that no hostile in
tention was involved in the succor which
was sent to the garrisons of the forts. |
Whereas, the real design was to enable the
troops TO hold out against the demands of
the South for the restoration of its property. |
He cllarackerizes the acts 0f T.Sr1eoIS7ss adj /