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Let men not ask what the law requires, but give whatever freedom demands.

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.
Men
Requires
Demand
Asks
Law
Whatever
Freedom
Give
Giving
Demands

More quotes by 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.
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The past is dead let it bury its dead, its hopes and its aspirations before you lies the future-a future full of golden promise.
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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.
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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.
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Pray excuse me. I cannot take it.
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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.
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A restitution of the Union has been rendered forever impossible.
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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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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.
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If you will not have it thus: if in the pride of power, if in contempt of reason and reliance upon force, you say we shall not go, but shall remain as subjects to you, then, gentlemen of the North, a war is to be inaugurated the like of which men have not seen.
Jefferson Davis
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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
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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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The authors of all our misfortune.
Jefferson Davis
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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
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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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Truth crushed to earth is truth still and like a seed will rise again.
Jefferson Davis
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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.
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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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If the Confederacy fails, there should be written on its tombstone: Died of a Theory.
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