February 18, 1861. The Confederacy's first president is inaugurated.

[Condem]

Jefferson Davis takes the oath of office on the steps of the Alabama capitol in Montgomery. His speech: http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/02/17/hastily-composed/?ref=opinion

[trotsky]

1. Not many people have seen his presidential limo.

[Condem]

2. Meanwhile , the other President had quite the day.

http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/02/17/crowds-cannons-and-cheers/?ref=opinion

[cynatnite]

3. I figured that was Haley Barbour's limo. n/t

[onehandle]

4. If a teabagger beats Obama, we'll witness another. nt

[onager]

5. But...but...wasn't it all about "state's rights?"

:rofl:

“No bill of attainder, ex post facto law, or law denying or impairing the right of property in negro slaves shall be passed.”

Growing up in South Carolina, I was raised on a constant diet of hooey about The Glorious Cause and The War of Northern Aggression.

I remember being struck by what I eventually found - in their articles of secession, every single Confederate state mentioned slavery as a primary reason for leaving the union. State's rights, not so much.

That was even true - of all people - of the Cherokees who sided with the Confederacy. Good grief! If anybody should have known better...

[Condem]

6. You didn't live in those times.

Obviously, we know nothing but the written word. This was our history. Americans killing Americans. For most of these folks, it's meaningless.
Hell. They brushed by it in History class in two days. More than a half a million lost thier lives in this deal. I say let the ghosts speak. They have a lot to say.

[Lord Magus]

10. Of course it was about "states' rights".

Specifically, the "right" of states to support slavery.

[midnight]

7. Sounds like he had problems with states rights extremists....

Jefferson Davis was born on June 3, 1808, in Christian (now Todd) County, Kentucky, and educated at Transylvania University, Lexington, Kentucky.
Military History

U.S. Military Academy Graduated 1828.
Afterwards was in the frountier service.
Health forced him to resign from the army in 1835
Fought in the Mexican War at Monterrey and Buena Vista
Wounded at Buena Vista
Political History

US senator from Mississippi from 1835 to 1845.
US Congressman from 1845 to 1846
US Congressman from 1857 to 1861
Withdrew from the Senate in 1861 when Mississippi seceded.
On February 18, 1861, the provisional Congress of the Confederate States made him provisional president .
He was elected to the office by popular vote the same year for a 6-year term and was inaugurated in Richmond, Virginia, the capital of the Confederacy, on February 22, 1862.



On May 10, 1865, federal troops captured him at Irwinville, Georgia. From 1865 to 1867 he was imprisoned at Fortress Monroe, Virginia. Davis was indicted for treason in 1866 but the next year was released on a bond of $100,000 signed by the American newspaper publisher Horace Greeley and other influential Northerners. In 1868 the federal government dropped the case against him.http://americancivilwar.com/south/jeffdavi.html

[LuvNewcastle]

9. I think he was inaugurated in Montgomery,

not Richmond. Montgomery was the first capital of the Confederacy, although it was for a short time. They moved the capital to Richmond in order to secure Virginia's vote to secede.

[NoPasaran]

12. Davis's inauguration in Montgomery was as Provisional President

Jefferson Davis was elected Provisional President by the convention of the seven seceded states meeting in Montgomery. Later in 1861 the CSA held elections which elected a Congress and Davis as President for a six year term. Davis was then inaugurated to that office on February 22, 1862 in Richmond. Virginia and three other states had seceded in response to President Lincoln's call for volunteers to suppress the rebellion after Fort Sumter was bombarded in April, 1861.

[kentuck]

8. Both he and Abraham Lincoln were born less than 100 miles apart...

in the state of Kentucky.

[LuvNewcastle]

11. I find that interesting since the two men

spent the war years about 100 miles from each other -- Lincoln in D.C. and Davis in Richmond.