thon, New York, C. L. Dufour, Esq. of New Orleans, Mrs. Susan Thornton Price of Waco, Texas, Mrs. L. McFarland Blackmore of Hopkinsville, Ky., Hill Ferguson of Birmingham and Robert Fridenburg of New York City to make accurate transcripts of Davis letters in their possession. I thank them heartily for their helpful co-operation. In the collection of transcripts letters were written to every historical agency in the United States, to scores of dealers in manuscripts and to hundreds of individuals. When it was possible photostat copies of the original letters were taken. In other cases the utmost care was taken in copying, comparing and correcting. The most courteous consideration was extended from every quarter, and generous co-operation followed all requests for the use of important letters. The true spirit of service pervades every historical agency in the United States. It gives me genuine pleasure to express the very warm appreciation I feel for the assistance given me by the following ladies and gentlemen, many of whom are my close personal friends: To the late Capt. Louis Guion of the Board of Trustees of the Confederate Memorial Hall, and to the late Col. J. A. Chalaron, its custodian, both of whom were gallant Confederate soldiers, I am very grateful for the heartiest co-operation, and to Mrs. H. B. McCants am I indebted for accurate transcription of papers from the Memorial Hall collection. To Hon. Henry Lewis Stimson, the learned and scholarly Secretary of War, 1911-1913, and Gen. Henry Pinckney McCain, a native of my own State, the gallant and capable Adjutant-General of the United States Army, are the historians of the country indebted for making accessible the historical materials in the Old Records Division of the Adjutant-General's office of the War Department. I am grateful to them for innumerable courtesies. To Dr. Gaillard Hunt, the scholarly Chief of the Manuscripts Division of the Library of Congress, 1909-17, I extend warmest thanks for help and hospitality of the most generous and helpful nature. I am also most appreciative of the consideration given to me in my work in the Library of Congress by Dr. Herbert Putnam, to whom every student and scholar in the United States is indebted. It gives me pleasure to express my obligation to Allan Richards Boyd, John C. Fitzpatrick, and Miss Florence Spofford of the staff of the Library for valued assistance. I cannot say too much in the expression of my thanks to Miss Susan B. Harrison, House Regent of the Confederate Mu seum, and to Miss Ellen M. Ellyson for the careful copying and collation of the letters from the Davis papers in the Museum. In the beginning of my undertaking in locating letters I was fortunate in having the cordial help of the late Miss Kate Mason Rowland who cherished the ideals and traditions of Virginia with a womanly devotion beautiful to see. She died full of years and honors. It affords me genuine pleasure to record here my obligations to her. During the progress of my laborious task I have had the sustaining interest and encouragement of some of the country's most scholarly and distinguished historians, publicists, jurists and churchmen to whom I had the honor of submitting my plans for the publication of "Jefferson Davis, Constitutionalist, His Letters, Papers and Speeches." It affords me unusual pleasure to add this public acknowledgment of my gratitude to my appreciation heretofore privately expressed. I am greatly obliged to the following named eminent ladies and gentlemen for their generous courtesy: Charles M. Andrews, James Lane Allen, Edwin A. Alderman, Frederic Bancroft, Gamaliel Bradford, John S. Bassett, Virginia Frazer Boyle, Edward Channing, James Alston Cabell, Collins Denny, William E. Dodd, Worthington C. Ford, Thomas F. Gailor, Clark Howell, Gaillard Hunt, John S. Kendall, Frances Rawle, James Ford Rhodes, Mildred Rutherford, Booth Tarkington, Lyon G. Tyler, Henry Van Dyke, John Sharp Williams and Edward D. White. Above all am I indebted to my dear wife Eron Opha Rowland, who for twenty years has been my co-worker in all my historical undertakings, and who has sustained and inspired me as none other could have done in times of doubt and discouragement. The policy pursued in editing is a mean between overloading the page with notations which may seem pedantic on the one hand and failing to provide sufficient helps to the investigator or reader on the other. The needs of the student have been constantly held in view. The well-known rules for editorial work which prevail generally with editors of historical sources have been followed. On account of the correspondents of Mr. Davis being residents of so many States and some of them being unknown to fame, it was necessary to secure the help of historians who are experts in their own State field. I cannot be too profuse in my expressions of appreciation of the help given by Benjamin F. Shambaugh, Superintendent State Historical Society of Iowa, Julius H. Tuttle, Librarian Massachusetts Historical Society, Lucian Lamar Knight, State Historian of Georgia, Thomas L. Montgomery, Librarian of the Historical Society of Pennsylvania, Solon J. Buck, Superintendent of the Minnesota Historical Society, Mrs. Marie B. Owen, Director Alabama Department of Archives and History, Miss Elizabeth H. West, State Librarian of Texas, R. B. House, Archivist North Carolina Historical Commission, Joseph J. Hill, Assistant Librarian University of California, A. J. Wall, Librarian New York Historical Society, William E. Connelley, Secretary Kansas Historical Society, Miss Stella M. Drumm, Librarian Missouri Historical Society, Mrs. Mary Crittenden Haycraft, Librarian of the Kentucky State Historical Society, L. H. Dielman, Chairman Library Committee, Maryland Historical Society, Clifford R. Myers, State Historian of West Virginia, and William Beer, Librarian, Howard Library of New Orleans. I cannot be unmindful of my obligation to Miss Katharine R. Sanderson and Hermes H. Knoblock, my faithful and accurate copyists. It is a pleasure to thank them for much efficient service. To Newton D. Mereness, Archivist of the Conference of Historical Agencies of the Upper Mississippi with headquarters at Washington am I greatly indebted for research work in the Library of Congress. The editor submits "Jefferson Davis, Constitutionalist, His Letters, Papers and Speeches" to a generous public with the confident belief that the historical and biographical material contained in these volumes will place the President of the Southern Confederacy in an altogether different light from that in which many have hitherto presented him. I hope in the due course of time to follow up this publication with a "Life of Jefferson Davis." May I not express the hope that in the meantime other historians on both sides of "Mason and Dixon's Line" will devote their talents to the same subject. Department of Archives and History State of Mississippi The Capitol, Jackson, Mississippi DUNBAR ROWLAND. JEFFERSON DAVIS 1808-1889 Soldier, Scholar, Statesman, Executive, Orator, Author, and Expounder of the Constitution of the United States. George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, John Adams, James Otis and James Madison were the defenders of the inalienable, constitutional rights of Englishmen of the American Colonies. Jefferson Davis, Robert E. Lee, "Stonewall" Jackson, Albert Sidney Johnston and John B. Gordon were the defenders of the inalienable, constitutional rights of Americans of all the States of the Union. These superior and unusual spirits embodied in their ideals of government the deathless principles of democracy which made John Hampden, John Milton, William Pitt, Edmund Burke and Oliver Cromwell immortal. CHRONOLOGY OF JEFFERSON DAVIS 1808-June 3. Born on his father's farm at the site since marked by the Baptist Church of Fairview, Todd (formerly Christian) County, Kentucky, the tenth and youngest child of Samuel and Jane Davis. 1811-Removes with the family to Saint Mary's Parish, Louisiana. 1812-Removes with the family to a farm near Woodville, Wilkinson County, Mississippi Territory. 1813 Commences attending school, with his sister Mary, in a log-cabin school house, one mile from home. 1815-Enters the Catholic school of Saint Thomas Aquinas in Washington County, Kentucky. 1818-Enters Jefferson College at Washington, Adams County, Mississippi. 1821-October 1. Enters Transylvania University at Lexington, Kentucky. 1824 March 11. Appointed a cadet at West Point. June 18. Delivers an address on "Friendship" at the 1828-July 1. Graduated from West Point and commissioned 2nd Lieutenant of the 1st Infantry.-Stationed at Fort Crawford. 1829-Detailed to superintend the cutting of timber on the banks of the Red River for the repair and enlargement of Fort Crawford.-Stationed at Fort Winnebago. 1831-Superintends the building and management of a saw mill on the Yellow River, contracts pneumonia and returns to Fort Crawford. 1832-In command of a detachment at Galena, Illinois, to remove miners from lands the occupation of which was protested by the Indians; serves in the Black Hawk War and escorts Black Hawk to prison in Jefferson Barracks. 1833-March 4. Promoted to the rank of 1st Lieutenant of the 1st Dragoons. August 30. Is made a regimental adjutant. 1834 Stationed at Fort Gibson. |
