2 8 The American Civil Warprovisions for state powers, the founders of
the new nation selected Jefferson Davis of
Mississippi and Alexander H. Stephens of
Georgia as President and Vice-President
respectively.
Davis and Stephens emphasized the
centrality of slavery to the process of
secession. In a speech delivered on
21 March 1861, Stephens averred that the
Confederate constitution 'has put at rest
forever all the agitating question relating to
our peculiar institutions - African slavery as
it exists among us - the proper status of the
negro in our form of civilization. This was
the immediate cause of the late rupture and
present revolution.' Five weeks later, Davis
observed in a message to the Confederate
Congress that slave labour 'was and is
indispensable' to southern economic
progress. 'With interests of such
South Carolina had threatened secession more
than once prior to the crisis of 1860, most recently in
response to the Compromise of 1850. Many
northerners believed that secessionist talk in
South Carolina after Lincoln's election amounted
to mere posturing. This broadside sent a clear message
that those who sought to take the state out of the
Union had triumphed. (Library of Congress)
Jefferson Davis believed ardently in slavery and
southern rights, but he was not a 'fire-eater'.These
qualities, together with his stature as a prominent
United States senator made him an attractive figure
to the delegates in Montgomery. Alabama. Although
frequently compared unfavorably to Abraham Lincoln,
Davis proved to be an able chief executive for the
new slaveholding republic. He lacked Lincoln's genius
with language, but dealt forcefully with the staggering
challenge of simultaneously launching a nation
and waging a war (Author's collection)overwhelming magnitude imperiled,' added
Davis, 'the people of the Southern States
were driven by the conduct of the North to
the adoption of some course of action to
avert the danger with which they were
openly menaced.'
The secession of the Lower South
represented a gambling effort to protect the
institution of slavery in the face of a striking
defeat at the polls. Many slaveholders looked
down the road and saw ever larger numbers
of free states controlling both houses of
Congress, Republican justices on the
Supreme Court and a national government
willing to tolerate or even encourage
agitators such as John Brown.