USA > Mississippi > Mississippi : comprising sketches of towns, events, institutions, and persons, arranged in cyclopedic form Vol. I > Part 62
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Crozat, assumed its entire control and management. D'Artaguette subsequently obtained a concession at Baton Rouge and returned to the colony on the same ship that brought Gov. de L'Epinay in March, 1717. In 1719, he received the appointment of inspector- general of the troops of the colony. Father Charlevoix has de- scribed the grant of d'Artaguette as very well situated, but "not much forwarder than the rest, and which they call Baton Rouge (the red stick). Penicut, in his Annals of Louisiana, states that in 1719, "M. d'Artaguette was ordered by the governor to remove the colony from Dauphine Island and New Biloxi, to the Missis- sippi, as it was impossible to improve the sterile lands of the coast." The younger brother of d'Artaguette, who had been in the colony for some years was commissioned captain of a com- pany of troops destined for the Illinois post, in 1718. He subse- quently served with distinction in the Natchez wars and was re- warded with the appointment of commandant of the above post, and was slain by the Chickasaws in 1736, while leading an auxil- iary expedition in the disastrous campaign of that year, conducted by Bienville. Says the historian Gayarre, speaking of the name d'Artaguette : "The royal commissary of that name, who came to Louisiana in 1708, and who filled in it several high offices until 1742, left behind him a long memory, which made his virtues, his talents and his deeds, familiar to succeeding generations. The fate of his younger brother, who fell into the hands of the Chicka- saws in 1736, and was burned at the stake, has been pathetically told by Dumont." The elder brother died at Cape Francois, in the Island of St. Domingo, while holding the office there of King's Lieutenant.
David, a post-hamlet in the northwestern part of Leake county, 15 miles from Carthage, the county seat. Population in 1900, 27.
Davis, a post-hamlet of Lamar county, 6 miles northwest of Purvis, the county seat.
Davis, Jefferson, was born June 3, 1808, in the region of Ken- tucky now known as Todd county. His grandfather, Evan Davis, youngest of three brothers, was an immigrant from Wales, who settled first in Philadelphia, whence he removed to Georgia, and made his home there when it was a colony. By his marriage to a widow whose family name was Emory he had one son, Samuel, who at 16 years of age, became a Revolutionary soldier. When he returned from the army his mother had died, the home was wrecked, and he settled near Augusta, Ga., where he married Jane Cook, of Scotch-Irish descent, and was elected county clerk. He
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was an unusually handsome man, an accomplished horseman, and "of a grave and stoical character." After the birth of several chil- dren, the family removed to Kentucky, where the father was a tobacco planter and breeder of fine horses. Jefferson, the youngest of ten children, was born upon the site of the Baptist church in Fairview. During his infancy the family moved to Bayou Teche, in Louisiana, and thence to about a mile east of Woodville, Wil- kinson county, Miss. His first tuition was in a log cabin school house. When seven years old he was sent on horseback with Major Thomas Hinds and others through the Wilderness to Ken- tucky and placed in an institution of the Dominican priests known as St. Thomas'. On the way the party stopped at the Hermitage and spent several weeks as the guests of Gen. Jackson. After an absence of two years the boy returned home on one of the three . steamboats then running on the river. When about ten years of age he went to Jefferson college, in Adams county, but he was mainly prepared at the county academy, under John A. Shaw, for entrance to the Transylvania university of Kentucky, where he found himself rather older than his class mates. "Usually Jeff was so dignified, decorous and well behaved, that they fell into the habit of treating him like a man of thirty," wrote one of the resi- dents of Lexington. His father died in his absence, July 4, 1824. In the same summer, after three years at the university, he was appointed to West Point, where he entered in the fall. He was in the same "set" with Albert Sidney Johnston and Leonidas Polk; "was distinguished for manly bearing and high-toned and lofty character." He did not take very high rank in his class, and was not disposed to attach much importance to class markings. After graduation in July, 1828, with the brevet of second lieuten- ant, he began his military service at Fort Crawford, on the site of Prairie du Chien, Wis., where he rebuilt the fort and had some experience with the Indians. His men were the first to cut lum- ber on the Wisconsin river. In 1829 he was ordered to Fort Win- nebago. In 1831 Col. Zachary Taylor took command in that re- gion, and Lieut. Davis was soon back at Fort Crawford, where Taylor's wife, son, and three daughters were living. Lieut. Davis and one of the daughters, Sarah Knox, fell in love with each other, but Col. Taylor had resolved his daughters should not marry sol- diers. Davis also was so unfortunate as to take sides with an enemy of Taylor's, as a 'member of a court martial, and the colonel thereupon requested him never to enter his quarters as a guest. He participated in the Black Hawk "war" of 1832, and commanded
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the escort of Black Hawk and other prisoners to St. Louis. In the beginning of 1833 he was one of two officers selected from his regiment for promotion into the new regiment of dragoons. After recruiting service in Kentucky, he was appointed adjutant of the new regiment; stationed at Fort Gibson, Ark., and was on active duty against the Comanches, but resigned from the army June 30, 1835. Meanwhile Col. Taylor had not softened. His daughter, failing to move him, took a boat for St. Louis to be married to Lieut. Davis. He wrote of the event that the marriage was per- formed at the home of Miss Taylor's aunt in Kentucky. Coming at once down the river, they stopped at "The Hurricane," the home of his elder brother, and Lieut. Davis received from him the title to a tract of land called "Briarfield," in lieu of his interest in his father's slaves. He began clearing this plantation, but he and his wife both contracted malarial fever, and Mrs. Davis died Sept. 15, 1835. He sailed for Havana a few weeks later, and from there, sick at heart, took boat for New York, and went on to Washing- ton. Returning to Mississippi he gave himself up to the life of a planter, rarely leaving home for eight years, and was much in the society of his brother, Joseph, a man of great ability. He was gentle in his management of the negroes, never allowing corporal punishment. James Pemberton, one of the negroes, was planta- tion overseer until his death in 1850.
He entered politics in 1843 as the Democratic candidate for rep- resentative of Warren county. He was called upon by his friends, who had espoused the theory that the Union bank bonds were not the debt of the State, to debate the question at Vicksburg with S. S. Prentiss. The two spoke, hour and hour about, for two days. Davis proved himself a master of rhetoric and logic, and mentally capable of viewing all sides of a theory. Reuben Davis wrote, "Less brilliant in oratory than Prentiss, he was al- ways fascinating and charming, and had much more strength as a debater. He was certainly more cautious and deliberate, and his friends claimed for him the advantage in this whole discussion." "In personal appearance and traits he was very attractive. His figure was erect and graceful, though spare; his carriage, easy, alert and dignified ; his voice singularly clear and gentle. His memory was nearly infallible. A person he had met cas- ually he could call by name many years after. . . He was a devout man, modest and humble in his relations to his Maker, without a tinge of the Pharisee. . At his table he 'said grace' with bowed head, in silence making the in-
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vocation." (Robert Ransom.) "Like most people of keen per- ceptions, incisive wit, and high ideal standards, Mr. Davis was in- clined to satire, and in his younger days indulged this propensity, never cruelly, but often to his own injury." (Mrs. Davis.) "He was courteous in the extreme to everyone, and his servants used commonly to express their appreciation of this by saying he was a very fine gentleman." On the question of repudiation Davis contended with his party, that the bonds were issued without war- rant of the constitution, though he evaded the weight of Prentiss' argument by admitting that the State might be sued, and he was in favor of abiding the judgment of the court. He was defeated, and consequently had no part in repudiation. Subsequently he declared, that the Planters' bank bonds were a lawful debt. In 1844 he was a member of the Democratic State convention, made a forcible speech in favor of instructing the delegates to the na- tional convention to support John C. Calhoun as second choice, and was unanimously chosen one of the presidential electors. He- canvassed the State in company with Henry S. Foote for Polk .. Reuben Davis heard him at Holly Springs, and said that though there was nothing particularly imposing in his salutation, he seemed to rise, as he spoke, by reason of a certain remarkable ease and eloquence, and "expand and etherealize into the very spirit of oratory. It was a delight to listen to his soft and mellow utter- ances, his lucid argument and poetic fancy. Dignified and com- manding, soft and persuasive, his speech was from the beginning to end a finished piece of logic and oratory. He sat down amid rapturous applause." It was largely due to this canvass of Davis. and Foote that the State was carried for Polk. Early in 1845 he came down to Natchez for his marriage to Varina, daughter of W. B. Howell (q. v.) and on the boat met General Taylor and was reconciled with him. The marriage occurred Feb. 26. That sum- mer he was nominated for representative in Congress, and was elected. He took his seat in December, 1845, and made his first speech in February, 1846, on the Oregon boundary question, in the course of which he disclaimed for the South "motives of sec- tional aggrandizement," in order to maintain the balance of power, but said the Texas annexation was a great national measure. In May he had a tilt with Andrew Johnson, of Tennessee, because of a remark that Johnson construed as an attempt to magnify West Point graduates at the expense of tradesmen and mechanics.
In the discussion of the river and harbor bill he took occasion
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to state his theory of "the Government," that it is "the creature of the States ; as such it can have no inherent power."
The doctrine that was fundamental in the statesmanship of Mr. Davis was "State Sovereignty." Later in his life, when he wrote his "Rise and Fall of the Confederate Government" (I, 143), he noted the observation of the historian Motley, that "the words 'sovereign' and 'sovereignty' are purely inapplicable to the Ameri- can system;" that after the declaration of independence, when "connection with a time-honored feudal monarchy was abruptly severed, the word sovereign had no meaning for us." Against this suggestion Mr. Davis argued elaborately in his book, taking as his foundation the letter of the declarations of the founders of the Republic. He fully believed in the principle and expounded it as an axiom of political economy, not subject to challenge; and in- deed it was not seriously challenged before 1861, though Webster seemed half disposed to do so in his great debate with Calhoun. Mr. Davis followed Mr. Calhoun in a passionate devotion to this doctrine, as the safeguard of liberty. There have been brilliant and learned men in all ages, including the fathers of the Republic who have defended it with religious fervor.
There were famous discussions in the time of Mr. Davis as to where sovereignty is lodged in a democratic republic. He said : "The primary, paramount allegiance of the citizen is due to the sovereign only. The sovereign, under our system, is the people- the people of the State to which he belongs." "If the sovereign withdraws from association with its confederates in the Union, the allegiance of the citizen requires him to follow the sovereign."
He zealously supported the policy of war with Mexico for the Rio Grande frontier, and when volunteer troops were called for, agreed to become colonel of the Mississippi regiment, and arranged that it should be armed with rifles. He was offered a commission as brigadier-general by the president, but declined it on account of his doctrine that the governor of the State should commission the volunteer officers. He went home overland, and joined the regiment in camp near New Orleans, July 21, 1846. His gal- lantry at Monterey and Buena Vista (q. v.) made his name famous all over the United States. Of the latter battle it may justly be said that more than any other officer of equal rank he was entitled to credit for the victory. (See Miss. Rifles and Mexican War.) At Buena Vista, in his first encounter with the enemy, a musket ball entered his right foot on the side and just below the instep, carrying into the flesh a portion of the spur, which made the wound
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more painful. He remained on the field, however, until late in the evening, when he was taken to the camp at Saltillo, in a wagon with Lieut. Samuel G. French and another officer. On its return from Mexico the regiment was given a great ovation at New Or- leans. To the address of welcome by Seargent S. Prentiss, the last speech of that famous orator, Col. Davis made the response. At Natchez, June 14, 1847, they were given another great recep- tion. Adam L. Bingaman, the veteran Whig, made the address, and in the course of his remarks, said:
"When the terms of the capitulation at Monterey were assailed -when reproach was attempted to be cast upon him who is first in honor as the first in place-when a stigma was sought to be fixed upon the Hero of the age-on that man of iron will, upon whose sword sits Victory laurel-crowned-whose praise Time. with his own eternal voice shall sing-when the eagle of his tribe was hawked at by mousing owls-when it was attempted to drug with poison the chalice of congratulation-when the serpent of defamation was cunningly concealed in the chaplet of applause- who, disinterestedly, nobly, in the frank and fearless spirit of a true soldier ; who, generously, manfully and effectively stood for- ward in defense of a brother soldier? Who was it, that did not only scotch but kill; aye, and seared the reeking fragments of the lurking reptile? Col. Jefferson Davis, of the Mississippi Rifles. Thanks and honor to you, sir, for such noble conduct. Your own conscience approves the act, and the voice of a grateful country sanctions and sustains the approval." In reply Col. Davis grati- fied his audience by generous praise of Gen. Taylor. A speech was also demanded from McClung, who shared with Davis the glory of war.
In August the Paulding Clarion put the name of Jefferson Davis at the head of the paper as a candidate for the United States sen- ate, saying his fame belonged to the whole Union, and "while Lib- erty and Patriotism are remembered, his name will be associated with all that is honorable among men." The Whigs approved the suggestion and called upon the Democrats to also recognize the fitness of Gen. Taylor for the presidency.
On account of his wound he could not dispense with crutches for two years, suffered intensely for five years, and for a much longer time was more or less disabled by the injury. Immediately on his return he was offered a commission as brigadie-general by the president and declined it as before because he held that the constitution did not authorize such appointments. But within two
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months he was appointed to fill a vacancy in the United States sen- ate, and on January 11, following, the two houses of the legislature, on motion of Gen. Stanton unanimously resolved: "That in consid- eration of the distinguished services rendered our common country, by the Hon. Jefferson Davis, and our unbounded confidence in his ability and integrity, that he be proclaimed by acclamation as sen- ator to the congress of the United States to fill the unexpired term of the Hon. Jesse Speight, deceased."
He took his seat Dec. 6, 1847, and soon became involved in the discussion regarding construction of the constitution. In De- cember, 1848, he opposed a resolution inviting Father Matthews to a seat in the senate, on the ground that he was an abolition agitator, and said: "I will say of the hord of abolitionists, foreign and domestic, that if I had the power to exclude them all from this chamber, I would not hesitate for a moment to do so."
During the great debates concerning the extension of slavery, and the compromise of 1850, he joined with other Southern con- gressmen, under the leadership of Senator Calhoun, in the address to the people, which was the beginning of the secession movement of 1849-51 (See Convention of 1849). He was reelected to the senate, for six years, in February, 1850. He was present at the special session of the legislature called by Governor Quitman in 1850 to provide for resistance to the Compromise acts, and ad- dressed popular meetings at the capitol in support of the policy. A letter also, was published over his signature, declaring that he was in favor of the execution of the plan of the Convention of 1849, "to submit the question to the people, in a law, for the assembling of a Convention of the State to consider of and decide on our pres- ent condition and prospects, and the measures which should be adopted. To prepare for the defense of the State, armed if need be. To propose a Convention of the slaveholding States, to be com- posed of formally elected delegates, which should unite all those States who were willing to assert their equality and right to equal enjoyment of the common property. The States thus united should, in my opinion, demand of the other States such guarantees as would secure to them the safety, the benefits, the tranquillity which the Union was designed to confer. If granted, the minority could live in equality under the temple of our federal compact ; if refused, it would be conclusive evidence of the design of the majority to crush all paper barriers beneath the heel of power; the gulf of degradation would yawn before us. The equality to which we were born being denied, and the alternative of slavish
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submission or manly resistance being presented to us, I shall be in favor of the latter. Then, if full provision has been made, in the preparation of arms, of munitions of war, of manufacturing es- tablishments, and all the varieties of agriculture to which our climate and soil are adapted, the slaveholding States, or even the planting States, may apply the last remedy-the final alternative of separation, without bloodshed or severe shock to commercial interests." On this point Judge J. A. P. Campbell afterward wrote : "Years prior to secession, in his address before the legislature and people of Mississippi, Mr. Davis had earnestly advised extensive preparation for the possible contingency of secession."
Nov. 19, 1850, he wrote a famous letter, in reply to a written question from some Mississippi citizens, whether he was in favor of the dissolution of the Union. The date was after the Compro- mise acts had been passed under the pressure he helped to create; the South had elected the speaker of the house despite fierce oppo- sition ; President Taylor, who had proposed to use troops, had died, and the Nashville convention, under the leadership of Judge Shar- key, had advised moderation. Mr. Davis then wrote:
"If any have falsely and against the evidence before them, at- tempted to fix on me the charge of wishing to dissolve the Union, under existing circumstances, I am sure your information and in- telligence have enabled you to detect the shallow fraud. If you have represented me as seeking to establish a Southern Confederacy on the ruins of that which our revolutionary fathers bequeathed to us, my whole life and every sentiment I have ever uttered, in public or private, give them the lie. If any have supposed gratui- tously (they could not otherwise) that my efforts in the senate were directed to the secession of Mississippi from the Union, their hearts must have been insensible to the obligations of honor and good faith, which I feel are imposed upon me by the position of an accredited agent from Mississippi to the federal government."
The last words indicate how close he stood to Calhoun in his theory of the American union, which he preferred to call a "confed- eracy," and none of the words of this letter are inconsitsent with the declarations of Mr. Calhoun himself, whose great plan seemed to be a perpetuation of the union as a union of equal Confederate States.
He was in Jackson during the Democratic convention of 1851. The party desired to nominate him for governor as a more con- servative candidate. Quitman had made himself conspicuous as an advocate of secession and had been mixed up seriously in the Cuban
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filibustering, and it was proposed to yield him the seat in the senate, but he demanded the nomination for governor, and it was given him. Senator Davis went into the canvass, in support of Quitman, but was soon taken sick.
Of his campaign that year Reuben Davis wrote:
"The people had a confidence in his integrity and trustworthi- ness that surpassed anything I have ever known, and that con- tinues until this day. His name was a magic sound in the ears of all ranks. Much as the people admired him, they loved him far more. There were others who might even equal him in majestic and persuasive utterance, but when he spoke 'the hearts of the people were moved as the wind moves the trees of the wood.' "
In the midst of the campaign, the people elected an overwhelming number of Union delegates to the proposed convention. There- upon Quitman withdrew; Davis was asked to accept his place, and did so, immediately resigning his seat in the senate, but was defeated by a thousand votes by Senator Foote. (See adms. of Quitman, Guion-Whitfield and Foote). His attitude was, in his own words, "that secession was the last alternative, the final rem- edy, and should not be resorted to under existing circumstances." Senator Davis went back to his plantation. It was not necessary that he should have resigned his seat in the senate to become a can- didate. Senator Foote did not resign until a few days before his inauguration. In January, 1852, Mr. Davis took part in the State Rights convention at Jackson, the sentiment of which was yet for rejection of the Compromise as a settlement. At the same city he addressed a large meeting in ratification of the nomination of Pierce. He was a great force in carrying the State for Pierce, who called him to his cabinet as secretary of war. This greatly angered Senator Foote and his followers and disorganized the Union party in Mississippi. It was said by Foote, that the plan of President Pierce in calling into his cabinet such profoundly opposed charac- ters as Caleb Cushing and Jefferson Davis was to unite the aboli- tionists and separationists in his support, so that he might either be reelected or name Mr. Davis as his successor.
A few months later he accompanied Mr. Pierce on a visit to the Crystal Palace, the first of the great "world's fairs" in America. Mr. Davis addressed audiences at several cities during this tour. At Trenton he said: "The Constitution is our bond of Union. The wisdom of our fathers has been exhibited year after year, until it is hardened into the affections of their sons, so that I cannot
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conceive of the day when that bond can be broken." At Hartford, Conn., he alluded to his visit to New England twenty-seven years before, praised the industry of the people and said: "Northern manufactures are used by Southern families. These and such as these are the means by which each part is made to realize its de- pendence on every other and are the sure bonds of union." Among the most memorable events of his administration were a renewal of war with the Seminole Indians and the beginning of Fort Jef- ferson, Florida. It was necessary also to station troops to main- tain peace in Kansas, where war had begun between the slavery and anti-slavery forces. He had charge of surveys of a proposed Pacific railroad, and detailed W. J. Hardee to revise the army tac- tics. He devoted himself to carrying forward the government buildings at Washington on the grandest scale. "He was un- doubtedly a great secretary of war," wrote John W. Forney. "His construction of his stewardship to the government was very strict. His office had for him no perquisites. He was much displeased because his messenger carried a parcel for me to a shop, and gravely admonished me," wrote Mrs. Davis.
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