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In the Shadow of Our Founders

© Brian Tubbs

Note: In order to help keep this topic alive until a new editor is found, several of the Suite101.com history editors have joined together to write guest articles. The first in a series of articles on Secession is written by Brian Tubbs, the editor of American Revolution & Founding Era.

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In the Shadow of Our Founders:
Jefferson Davis, Abraham Lincoln, and the Constitutional Debate Over Secession Part 1 The galleries of the United States Senate were packed in anticipation of a dramatic announcement by the former secretary of war, now a senator from Mississippi. The Vice-President banged his gavel, called for order and recognized Jefferson Davis. Senator Davis rose to his feet, and began slowly.

He informed the Senate he had just received word of his state's decision to secede from the Union. This came as no surprise to those watching the events of the Deep South in the aftermath of the recent presidential election, but the words nevertheless sank deep into the minds of Davis's audience. He immediately sought to distinguish secession from nullification--the latter having been somewhat discredited in the last generation by political giants Daniel Webster and Andrew Jackson. "Secession belongs to a different class of remedies," explained Davis. "It is to be justified on the basis that the states are sovereign. There was a time when none denied it. I hope that the time may come again when a better comprehension of the theory of our Government ... will prevent anyone from denying that each State is sovereign, and thus may reclaim the grants which it has made to any agent whomsoever."

Davis's doctrine of state sovereignty was well established in the South, but was not widely shared across the country. Nevertheless, he appealed to the Senate's dedication to the "principles upon which our Government was founded." He argued that the seceding southern states had simply been forced to "tread in the path of our fathers" with the "high and solemn motive of defending and protecting the rights we inherited, and which it is our duty to transmit unshorn to our children."

Davis concluded with an emotional affirmation of his personal affection for the Senate and his colleagues, dutifully bid his "adieu," and sank into his chair (his head in his hands) to the sound of a prolonged and vigorous ovation throughout the gallery.

Having resigned his Senate seat, Davis soon departed the capital, and, within the next few weeks, would be installed as the first (and only) president of the Confederate States of America. He would not attend the inauguration of his counterpart, the man whose election had driven the cotton states out of the Union in the first place.