Jefferson Davis was born in Kentucky in ISOS, and in infancy was removed with his family to Mississippi. He received a military education at West Point, where he was graduated in 1828, and was appointed brevet second lieutenant.
During the seven years that he remained in the army, he served with credit in several Indian wars, but resigned his commissipn in 1835 and turned cotton planter.
His first appearance in politics was in the Polk presidential campaign. The next year he was elected to Congress, but he resigned in 1846 to command a regiment in the Mexican War, where he served with distinction.
After his return he was elected to the Senate, and, in the stormy debates which preceded the compromise of 1850, he distinguished himself as the most uncompromising champion of extreme southern claims. He was a forcible debater of a highly intellectual cast of mind, with a subtle pride which perverted his whole moral nature. He was President Pierce's Secretary of War, and, despite the superior abilities of Marcy, was the leading spirit of that cabinet. His unscrupulous and domineering nature gave him complete ascendancy over a mediocre man like Pierce and a man of supple principles like Cushing; and Marcy, though he did not approve, was powerless to resist the bold pro-slavery machinations in that really able cabinet.
It was then that Jeff. Davis sowed the dragon's teeth from which hosts of armed men nave sprung up. The Kansas imbroglio, which was fomented by that cabinet, was the entering wedge which has cleft the Union. Douglas's repeal of the Missouri Compromise would have worked little practical mischief, had it not been for Jeff. Davis's successful plot in the cabinet to abet the attempts to thrust slavery into Kansas in spite of the will of its inhabitants.— The World.
During the seven years that he remained in the army, he served with credit in several Indian wars, but resigned his commissipn in 1835 and turned cotton planter.
His first appearance in politics was in the Polk presidential campaign. The next year he was elected to Congress, but he resigned in 1846 to command a regiment in the Mexican War, where he served with distinction.
After his return he was elected to the Senate, and, in the stormy debates which preceded the compromise of 1850, he distinguished himself as the most uncompromising champion of extreme southern claims. He was a forcible debater of a highly intellectual cast of mind, with a subtle pride which perverted his whole moral nature. He was President Pierce's Secretary of War, and, despite the superior abilities of Marcy, was the leading spirit of that cabinet. His unscrupulous and domineering nature gave him complete ascendancy over a mediocre man like Pierce and a man of supple principles like Cushing; and Marcy, though he did not approve, was powerless to resist the bold pro-slavery machinations in that really able cabinet.
It was then that Jeff. Davis sowed the dragon's teeth from which hosts of armed men nave sprung up. The Kansas imbroglio, which was fomented by that cabinet, was the entering wedge which has cleft the Union. Douglas's repeal of the Missouri Compromise would have worked little practical mischief, had it not been for Jeff. Davis's successful plot in the cabinet to abet the attempts to thrust slavery into Kansas in spite of the will of its inhabitants.— The World.
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