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Article: THE CONFEDERATE PRESIDENT: Was Davis DOOMED.(Jefferson Davis)
- Article from:
- Cobblestone
- Article date:
- January 1, 2001
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2001 Carus Publishing Co. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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Jefferson Davis did not attend the February 1861 Montgomery convention that approved a provisional constitution for the Confederate States of America. But the political leaders who did attend -- from Georgia, Florida, South Carolina, Alabama, Louisiana, and Mississippi -- unanimously elected him president of the Confederacy. "I was surprised, and, still more, disappointed," Davis recalled years later.
Davis had hoped for a military role. Moreover, he felt certain a long, bloody war with the Union was coming soon. "We are without machinery, without means, and threatened by a powerful opposition," he wrote his wife, Varina, "but I do not despond, and will not ...