Jefferson Davis, American

The title might seem odd, given that Jefferson Davis (1808-89) served as president of the Confederacy during the Civil War, and never once, in the 34 years between the end of the war and his death, expressed any remorse for his part in the conflict that tore America apart. Yet, as historian William J. Cooper Jr. reminds us in his sober, comprehensive biography, Davis "saw himself as a faithful American ... a true son of the American Revolution and the Founding Fathers." Indeed, Davis's own father had fought in the Revolution, and Davis himself was a West Point graduate and Mexican War veteran. He declared January 21, 1861, "the saddest day of my life," as he resigned his U.S. Senate seat to follow his native state of Mississippi out of the Union; yet he also unflinchingly defended secession as a constitutionally guaranteed right. Cooper's measured portrait neither glosses over Davis's lifelong belief that blacks were inferior nor vilifies him for it: "My goal," he writes, "is to understand Jefferson Davis as a man of his time, not condemn him for not being a man of my time." The chapters on the Civil War show Davis intimately involved in military decisions, as well as in diplomatic attempts to gain foreign support for the Confederacy. Cooper acknowledges the irony of his subject--who interpreted the Constitution as strictly limiting federal authority--being forced by the war's exigencies to create a powerful, centralized Confederate government. Yet, this depiction of a forceful, self-confident Davis makes it clear that he never could have been anything but "a vigorous and potent chief executive." The author also paints an attractive picture of a warm family man who was devoted to his strong-minded wife and their children. Neither hagiography nor hatchet job, this evenhanded work sees Jefferson Davis whole. --Wendy Smith From Publishers Weekly Much has been written about Jefferson Davis, claims Cooper (The American South, etc.), professor of history at Louisiana State University, and most of it is negative. Instead of viewing Davis strictly through a modern lens, Cooper has set out to understand Davis as "a man of his time who had a significant impact on his time, and thus on history" and to "not condemn him for not being a man of my time." Davis was born in Kentucky in 1808 and attended Transylvania University in Lexington. In 1824, he left the South for West Point, graduated in 1828 with a commission as Brevet Second Lieutenant and went on to a noteworthy career as a hero of the Mexican War and an able statesman. Davis served as secretary of war under President Pierce and then as a U.S. senator from Mississippi. Indeed, Cooper notes, many thought Davis would be president one day. Always believing himself a firm supporter of the Constitution and a true patriot, Davis trusted in the sovereign rights of states ("he looked to Thomas Jefferson, James Madison, and John C. Calhoun as the great explicators of states' rights and strict construction, of the proper understanding of the nation and the Constitution"), which included the right to own slaves if a state so chose. Although Davis did not initially favor secession, he believed the Confederacy's goals to be consistent with the America he honored, and was proud to serve as the president of the Confederacy. Previous accounts of Davis's life have argued that he was basically an incompetent leader; some even have suggested that the failure of the Confederacy was, at the core, Davis's fault. But here Davis appears much like any other leader, possessing both strengths and weaknesses. In the already cluttered field of Civil War history, Cooper's is the definitive biography; readers will be particularly pleased to discover the compelling power of his narrative. (Nov.) Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc. From Library Journal Cooper, whose earlier books showed how Southerners reconciled liberty and slavery, casts Jefferson Davis as the "true patriot," who left the Union with sadness but also the conviction that the South stood as heir to the Founding Fathers because the antislavery North had violated the sacred promise of letting slaveholders take their "property" where they would without interference. Cooper's Davis entrusted considerable authority to individual slaves but never doubted the racial superiority of whites, and he worked for national expansion but insisted on Southern "rights." Throughout, says Cooper, Davis never doubted his own ability or purpose, whether at West Point, in the Mexican War, as Secretary of War, or as president of the Confederacy. Cooper (The American South: A History) finds Davis a more flexible and intelligent war leader than have most historians, but he also stresses his unbending belief in the constitutional rightness of secession. Cooper's great achievement is that he never loses the man to the age. Along with William Davis's more critical biography, Jefferson Davis: The Man and His Hour (LJ 11/15/91), Cooper's sympathetic reading of Jefferson Davis's life and work gives the man his due. If every Southern historian needs to "get right" with Davis to find out what made the Confederacy, readers can hardly do better than getting hold of Cooper's book to understand why so many men were willing to die for Dixie.DRandall M. Miller, Saint Joseph's Univ., Philadelphia Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc. From Booklist Cooper ( The American South , 1990) constructs his straightforward, detailed biography of Jefferson Davis around a central question: "How did a patriotic American come to lead the great struggle to destroy the United States?" In following the stages of Davis' political career and personal life, the reader sees that prior to his assumption of the office of Confederate president, having served as U.S. senator from Mississippi and secretary of war under President Franklin Pierce, Davis was a well-established leader in U.S. politics. The reader also sees that Davis was a man of his time in terms of the ideas he held on race and slavery. Most importantly, it is made quite clear that Davis' principles were firmly held, including a belief that "secession was constitutional, and [consequently] his loyalty to Mississippi underlay his allegiance to the United States." Brad Hooper Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved "Bill Cooper's marvelous book is unquestionably the finest biography of Jefferson Davis ever published. Superbly researched, elegantly written, exquisitely balancing the public and private dimensions of Davis's life, it provides an incisive and compelling analysis of his role as Confederate president, largely because it presents a brilliantly coherent interpretation of his entire career."Michael F. Holt, author of The Rise and Fall of the American Whig Party "Jefferson Davis at last has a sympathetic yet critical biographer. William J. Cooper, Jr., has written a splendid life of one of the most complicated and controversial figures in American history. With consummate skill he narrates and analyzes the events and individuals who shaped Davis's life. This book will stand as a model for many other controversial figures in U.S. history."Robert V. Remini, author of Andrew Jackson From the Publisher "This is a splendid biography.-- Jefferson Davis comes from history as a lofty, lonely, crochety, contentious, elusive southerner.-- Damned for leading a losing cause and blamed for the way he lost it, he has attracted a surprising number of biographers and conclusions are various.-- Cooper's book ranks at the top of the list -- meticulously written, based on an astounding range of sources, it presents a high-tempered, sometimes abrasive man of greatness and remorseless devotion the cause he nearly made.-- Cooper understands Davis and rescues him from a rummage of confusions, prejudices and adulation.-- He comes as close to the real Davis as any biographer is likely to get."-- Frank E. Vandiver, author of Blood Brothers and Mighty Stonewall "Jefferson Davis lived seventy-seven of his eighty-one years as an American, and only four as president of the Confederacy. Yet it is for those four years he is chiefly remembered. William J. Cooper's splendid biography -- the best yet -- does good service in reminding us that even during his years at war with the United States, Davis professed to fight for American institutions and ideals as he understood them."-- James M. McPherson, author of Battle Cry of Freedom "Jefferson Davis at last has a sympathetic yet critical biographer. William J. Cooper, Jr., has written a splendid life of one of the most complicatedand controversial figures in American history. With consummate skill he narrates and analyzes the events and individuals who shaped Davis's life. This book will stand as model for many other controversial figures in U.S. history." -- Robert V. Remini, author of Andrew Jackson "A subtle, moving portrait of an agonized, complex Jefferson Davis -- veteran readers of Civil War books will think they are meeting him for the first time." -- Charles Royster, author of The Destructive War "This masterful biography of Jefferson Davis will take its place beside the classic studies of 19th century Americans. Exhaustively researched, sensitively written, and judiciously balanced, Jefferson Davis, American buries the myths that have encrusted the life of Jefferson Davis. In this volume, William Cooper examines not just the public man, but Davis as a brother, husband and father."-- Jean Baker, author of Mary Todd Lincoln, A Biography "Jefferson Davis devoted his life to the twin causes of liberty and slavery. Who better to explore this theme than William J. Cooper, Jr.? Having established himself as one of our premier historians of the politics of slavery, Cooper is uniquely qualified to place Davis in his proper time and place. Marshalling great wisdom and immense learning, Cooper has written a readable, scholarly, and humane biography of the only president of a doomed Confederacy."-- James Oakes, author of Slavery and Freedom From the Inside Flap raduate, secretary of war under President Pierce, U.S. senator from Mississippi-- how was it that this statesman and patriot came to be president of the Confederacy, leading the struggle to destroy the United States? This is the question at the center of William Cooper's engrossing and authoritative biography of Jefferson Davis. Basing his account on the massive archival record left by Davis and his family and associates, Cooper delves not only into the events of Davis's public and personal life but also into the ideas that shaped and compelled him.We see Davis as a devoted American, yet also as a wealthy plantation owner who believed slavery to be a moral and social good that could coexist with free labor in an undivided Union. We see how his initially reluctant support of secession ended in his absolute commitment to the Confederacy and his identification of it with the legacy of liberty handed down by the Founding Fathers. We see the chaos that attended the formation of "Bill Cooper's marvelous book is unquestionably the finest biography of Jefferson Davis ever published. Superbly researched, elegantly written, exquisitely balancing the public and private dimensions of Davis's life, it provides an incisive and compelling analysis of his role as Confederate president, largely because it presents a brilliantly coherent interpretation of his entire career."Michael F. Holt, author of The Rise and Fall of the American Whig Party "Jefferson Davis at last has a sympathetic yet critical biographer. William J. Cooper, Jr., has written a splendid life of one of the most complicated and controversial figures in American history. With consummate skill he narrates and analyzes the events and individuals who shaped Davis's life. This book will stand as a model for many other controversial figures in U.S. history."Robert V. Remini, author of Andrew Jackson William J. Cooper, Jr., is Boyd Professor of History at Louisiana State University. In addition to numerous articles, essays, and reviews, he is the author of The Conservative Regime: South Carolina, 1877-1890 ; The South and the Politics of Slavery, 1828-1856 ; and Liberty and Slavery: Southern Politics to 1860 , as well as coauthor of The American South: A History . He lives in Baton Rouge. Read more