Quote

If the Confederacy fails, there should be written on its tombstone: Died of a Theory.

Jefferson Davis

Change background

T
T
T

Change font

TAGS & TOPICS

Jefferson Davis
Age: 81 †
Born: 1808
Born: June 3
Died: 1889
Died: December 6
Businessperson
Former President Of The Confederate States Of America
Military Officer
Political Writer
Politician
Slaveholder
Fairview
Christian County
Kentucky
Jefferson Finis Davis
Jeff. Davis
Jefferson F. Davis
President Jefferson Davis
President Jeff. Davis
President Davis
His Excellency Jefferson Davis
Jeff Davis
J. D.
Politics
Confederacy
Political
Tombstone
Fails
Organization
Died
Failing
Theory
Written

More quotes by Jefferson Davis

Image
We protest solemnly in the face of mankind, that we desire peace at any sacrifice, save that of honor.
Jefferson Davis
Image
Pray excuse me. I cannot take it.
Jefferson Davis
Image
A question settled by violence, or in disregard of law, must remain unsettled forever.
Jefferson Davis
Image
For an enemy so relentless in the war for our subjugation, we could not be expected to mourn yet, in view of its political consequences, it could not be regarded otherwise than as a great misfortune for the South.
Jefferson Davis
Image
How idle is this prating about natural rights as though still containing all that had been forfeited.
Jefferson Davis
Image
Slavery existed before the formation of this Union. It derived from the Constitution that recognition which it would not have enjoyed without the confederation. If the States had not united together, there would have been no obligation on adjoining States to regard any species of property unknown to themselves.
Jefferson Davis
Image
Let men not ask what the law requires, but give whatever freedom demands.
Jefferson Davis
Image
Our government is an agency of delegated and strictly limited powers. Its founders did not look to its preservation by force but the chain they wove to bind these States together was one of love and mutual good offices.
Jefferson Davis
Image
The principle for which we contend is bound to reassert itself, though it may be at another time and in another form.
Jefferson Davis
Image
The withdrawal of a State from a league has no revolutionary or insurrectionary characteristic. The government of the State remains unchanged as to all internal affairs. It is only its external or confederate relations that are altered. To term this action of a Sovereign a 'rebellion' is a gross abuse of language.
Jefferson Davis
Image
A government, to afford the needful protection and exercise proper care for the welfare of a people, must have homogeneity in its constituents. It is this necessity which has divided the human race into separate nations, and finally has defeated the grandest efforts which conquerors have made to give unlimited extent to their domain.
Jefferson Davis
Image
Lay aside all rancor, all bitter sectional feeling, and to make your places in the ranks of those who will bring about a consummation devoutly to be wished—a reunited country.
Jefferson Davis
Image
If slavery be a sin, it is not yours. It does not rest on your action for its origin, on your consent for its existence. It is a common law right to property in the service of man its origin was Divine decree.
Jefferson Davis
Image
Obstacles may retard, but they cannot long prevent the progress of a movement sanctified by its justice, and sustained by a virtuous people .
Jefferson Davis
Image
Truth crushed to earth is truth still and like a seed will rise again.
Jefferson Davis
Image
Tradition usually rests upon something which men did know history is often the manufacture of the mere liar.
Jefferson Davis
Image
Be not haughty with the humble be not humble with the haughty.
Jefferson Davis
Image
It is our duty to keep the memory of our heroes green. Yet they belong to the whole country they belong to America.
Jefferson Davis
Image
Your little army, derided for its want of arms, derided for its lack of all the essential material of war, has met the grand army of the enemy, routed it at every point, and now it flies, inglorious in retreat before our victorious columns. We have taught them a lesson in their invasion of the sacred soil of Virginia.
Jefferson Davis
Image
I will admit no bond that holds me to a party a day longer than I agree to its principles. When men meet together to confer, and ascertain whether or not they do agree, and find that they differ - radically, essentially, irreconcilably differ - what belongs to an honorable position except to part? They cannot consistently act together any longer.
Jefferson Davis