The Morristown gazette. [volume] (Morristown, Tenn.) 1867-1920, 1881-02-23
JEFFERSON DAT IS BOOK
DEDICATED TO THE WIDOWS AND OR
PHANS OF THE CONFEDERATE
DEAD.

CHICAGO, February Ii ne IN
cago Times makes public the topics
discussed by Jefferson Davis in his
history of the ''Rise and Fall of the
Confederate Government, soon to
be issued. Mr.. Davis introduction
is a short one, covering not quite
two pages. He dedicates the work
to the widows and orphans Of the
Confederate dead. lie conceives it
to be his duty to his countlymen to
prepare this history Of the rise and
failure of their cause. He finds in
the structure of the thirteen indie
pendent States and their relation to
each other the primary principles
and vested rights on which he rests
his yindication of the Confederacy.
He evidences the doctrine Of State
sovereignty and tho compact by
which the States voluntarily gave
their consent to a federation, with
no design expressed or implied ever
to become fractional parts Of a ma
ton, and he believes that those who
resisted the violation of this original
compact were in fact the true friends
of the constitutional union.
The author in discussing the prin-
cipIes and events in their natural
and logical order, first gives his at
tention to African servitude, and the
long and bitter sectional strife to
which it gave rise He then takes
up the subject Of States rights, Civ
inc constitutional and historical ar
guments on which he rests the prin-
ciple Of State sovereignty, and quot
ing copiously from all authorities on
the subject. These questions and a
full statement Of the immediate
causes Of the war, occupy one-half
of the first volume, and the remain
der of the work is given to the mar
rative Of the struggle, including the
fullest statement yet written from
southern standpoint of the fierce
dissentions in Confederate councils
and OF his defense of the prOlOnga-
ton Of the war for many months at
ter many Of the ablest men Of the
south were fully convinced that their
struggle was a hopeless one.
In the opening work he treats Of
early legislation on the subject Of
slavery. He acquits the south ofall
the responsibility for the existence
in its midst of the peculiar institu-
ton, and calls attention to the fact
that Virginia was the first state to
prohibit Importation into its territory
of blacks brought to this country,
and reduced to slavery, and that
Georgia was the first State to incor-
porate in its constitution prohibition
of African slave trade. All through
the work he treats Of slavery not as
a cause of the war, but only as an
incident of the secession movement.
The paramount question, he declares,
was equality in territories, and to
the inability of the south to main
tain its equal rights in territories
and new made States in the Union.
He traces the conflict which was in
tensifed uuiI it burst into open war.
While upon this subject he speaks
in condemna ION of the terms Of the
Missouri compromise which he re
CARDS as a SUI. cnder of rights which
belonged to ne south and which it
should have aaintained, but after it
was adoptes, he believed it should
have been adhered to and he ar
raigns the north and the federal
government for the failure of com
promise which was practically re-
pealed by the bills organizing the
territories Of Kansas and Nebraska
in 1889. 1t will be observed that
Mr.. Davis takes occasion to declare
in many places throughout his work
his devotion to the constitutional
union, and instances speeches which
he made in 1851 during his candi-
ducy for Governor of Mississippi in
opposition to Henry S. Foote These
speeches contained repeated dec
IaratiOns of his adherence and de-
v0tiOn to the union, and he atfirms
that his public deeds were at all
times actuated by this spirit, before
the general government began its
violent encrOachments on the rights
of the States, 1t was during the
Pierce administration that the strugs
ole in Kansas between the free slave
and pro-sIavery parties eliminated
in bitterness. In this struggle, Mr..
Davis finds, the beginning Of the i'm
mediate cause of the war. He de
votes considerable space to descrip
ton Of what he calls the usurpatiOns
of federal authorities. Congress, it
will be remembered, refused to rec
ognize the delegate chosen from
Kansas, on the ground that his cleo
ton by the pro-slavery party had
been procured by fraud. He regards
the repeal of the Missouri compro-
mise as reopening the question Of
slavery in the territories, and as pre-
conflict between opposing
parties which was encouraged by
Of the north, and which
finally compelled the south, in self
defense, to take stand He holds !
that the violent abolitionists are
largely responsible for the final
breach of peace. Bringing his his
tory down to the election Of Lincoln |
he finds the federal government in
the hands of a party under which |
the southern States could not live
LINCOLN was elected upon the plat
form of resistance to slavery extern
sion. A party antagonistic to the
south, and believing in centraliza-
ton power in the federal govern
ment controlled the executive de-
Dartment.
Having devoted half of the first
volume to the exposition of the
causes which led the south to a de-
sire for separation from the federal
government, Mr.. Davis proceeds, in
several chapters, to defend the right
IF secession. In justification of this
light he quotes largely from Web