jeffdavis+austinf09


 * Topic: Jefferson Davis

Focus: He was forced to leave the Union?**


 * Reason for choice: He is often portrayed as the enemy, even though he was against the secession and war from the start.**


 * What's your point? ([|thesis]):**

He was forced out of the Union unvoluntarily and tried to make peace with the Union before the attack on Fort Sumter


 * What four reasons do you have that will back up your point?**


 * __1.__** "Following the election of [|Abraham Lincoln] in [|1860], however, events accelerated. [|South Carolina] adopted an ordinance of secession on December 20, 1860, and [|Mississippi] did so on January 9, 1861. As soon as Davis received official notification of that fact, he delivered a farewell address to the [|United States Senate], resigned, and returned to [|Mississippi]." - from wikipedia

It seems as if he was forced to resign from the senate simply because he represented South Carolina which went into secession.

He was against the secession he was overruled
 * __2__**. "Four days after his resignation, Davis was commissioned a [|Major General] of Mississippi troops.[|[1]] On February 9, 1861, a [|Constitutional] convention at [|Montgomery, Alabama] named him provisional [|President] of the [|Confederate States of America] and he was inaugurated on February 18, 1861. In meetings of his own Mississippi legislature, Davis had argued against secession; but when a majority of the delegates opposed him, he gave in."- from wikipedia


 * __3.__** "In conformity with a resolution of the [|Confederate Congress], Davis immediately appointed a Peace Commission to resolve the Confederacy's differences with the Union. In March 1861, before the bombardment of [|Fort Sumter], the Commission was to travel to Washington, D.C., to offer to pay for any Federal property on Southern soil, as well as the Southern portion of the national debt, but it was not authorized to discuss terms for reunion."

" Mississippi elected him at once to the command of her State forces, a position he desired, but a few weeks later he was called by election to the Presidency of the Confederacy--a responsibility which he had earnestly shunned. " from civilwarhome.com
 * __4.__**

South Carolina went into sucession and left the union after Lincoln's election, and Jefferson Davis was forced to resign from the senate and he got moved back to Mississippi. He left after a farewell address to the nation.
 * What is your first reason and three to five facts to support it?**

What can you conclude from these facts?

If he didn't like the union, he wouldn't have left with a farewell address.

Sources: wikipedia and civilwarhome.com

Jefferson Davis was against the secession from the beginning, but the majority of delegates were for the secession so he gave in because he knew he would not overrule them.
 * What is your second reason and three to five facts to support it?**

What can you conclude from these facts?

He tried to stop the secession from happening, but he failed at doing so.

Sources


 * What is your third reason and three to five facts to support it?**

What can you conclude from these facts?

Sources


 * What is your fourth reason and three to five facts to support it?**

So far as the antagonists of his government could determine from his open policy he had no thought of peace except in independence. But it is apparent from his actions in the winter of 1864 and 1865, especially after his interview with Lee and other officers, that he began to look about him for the way to peace. The commission sent to Canada to meet any parties from the United States who would counsel peace; his readiness to give audience to even such unauthorized but friendly visitors as Colonel Jacques; his two interviews with Blair and his letter to Blair to be shown to Lincoln; his appointment of Stephens, Campbell and Hunter to meet President Lincoln in an informal conference--all these indicated at the time and now more clearly disclose that the Confederate President would have consented to peace upon terms that would even subvert his presidency and consign him to private life. The defeat and surrender of the armies of Lee and Johnston dissolved the Confederate States in fact leaving nothing to be done in law but the abrogation of the ordinances of secession by the States which had erected them. As one result of the fall of the armies the President was made a captive by the military, imprisoned in chains, charged unjustly with crimes for which he demanded trial in vain, and after two years of imprisonment which disgraced his enemies was released on bond. A nolle prosequi was entered in his case in 1869, and thus he was never brought to the trial which he earnestly demanded.

What can you conclude from these facts?

Sources [] [] []
 * Based on your research, what conclusions would you make and how does your research connect to your life?**

Ideas on how you are going to present? Involve the class? Be exciting? Interesting? Wow? Huh? Ahhh?