Why was Jefferson Davis leader of the confedercy?

Answer 1

Jefferson Davis had a great track record as a military leader and a scholar. He was a graduate of West Point, a former army officer and the Secretary of War for the Union. He also served as a Senator from Mississippi. The South would be hard pressed to find a more capable person. As with all men that that have been defeated, the victorious discredit the vanquished.

The following are excerpts from Jefferson Davis' speeches. It is presented to give the reader the flavor of his ideas.

From father to son has descended the love of the Union in our hearts, as in our history are mingled the names of Concord and Camden, of Yorktown and Saratoga, of New Orleans and Bunker Hill. Together they form a monument to the common glory of our common country.

Because of this deep attachment to the Union, we are determined to find some remedy for the existing ills. Secession belongs to a class of remedies. It is to be justified upon the basis that the States are Sovereign.

For a generation your schoolmistresses have been training your boys to hate us. Can we love our enemies and bless them that curse and revile us? Are we more or less than men? Must we discredit our fathers, degrade our children, abandon our homes, flee from our country and dishonor ourselves-- all for the sake of a Union whose Constitution you have publicly burned and whose Supreme court you have spit upon?

Whatever may be the sins of Slavery in the South they are nothing when compared to the cost of war that must follow their violent emancipation. The Southern white man is slowly lifting the African out of barbarism into the light of Christian civilization. In our own good time we will emancipate him and start him on a new life beyond the boundaries of our Republic.