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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

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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.
Good
Office
Founders
Love
Liberty
Preservation
Force
Agency
Wove
Together
Libertarian
Delegated
States
Mutual
Offices
Government
Chains
Bind
Look
Limited
Strictly
Looks
Powers
Chain

More quotes by Jefferson Davis

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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
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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
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Be not haughty with the humble be not humble with the haughty.
Jefferson Davis
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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
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Pray excuse me. I cannot take it.
Jefferson Davis
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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
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A question settled by violence, or in disregard of law, must remain unsettled forever.
Jefferson Davis
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If the Confederacy fails, there should be written on its tombstone: Died of a Theory.
Jefferson Davis
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How idle is this prating about natural rights as though still containing all that had been forfeited.
Jefferson Davis
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Every one must understand that, whatever be the evil of slavery, it is not increased by its diffusion. Every one familiar with it knows that it is in proportion to its sparseness that it becomes less objectionable. Wherever there is an immediate connexion between the master and slave, whatever there is of harshness in the system is diminished.
Jefferson Davis
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We protest solemnly in the face of mankind, that we desire peace at any sacrifice, save that of honor.
Jefferson Davis
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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
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The principle for which we contend is bound to reassert itself, though it may be at another time and in another form.
Jefferson Davis
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Truthfulness is a cornerstone in character, and if it be not firmly laid in youth, there will ever after be a weak spot in the foundation.
Jefferson Davis
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Let men not ask what the law requires, but give whatever freedom demands.
Jefferson Davis
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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
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It is not differences of opinion it is geographical lines, rivers, and mountains which divide State from State, and make different nations of mankind.
Jefferson Davis
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A restitution of the Union has been rendered forever impossible.
Jefferson Davis
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The authors of all our misfortune.
Jefferson Davis
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Tradition usually rests upon something which men did know history is often the manufacture of the mere liar.
Jefferson Davis