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I am forever amused by the pro north and pro south stances taken here by many. But I see so many paralells between the media, the civvies, and total view of the war and our current sifting tide of opinions about the conduct of our current war, so the questions are inevitable. The North was hardly "as one'...despite the way the media likes to paint it nowadays...and southerners seem to forget the number of troops who fought against the Confederacy, esp. from east TN and N. Alabama...The arrest of Vallendigham and his subsquent exile to the south, which wound up with him living in Canada is a point. Some people now openly critisize the Patroit Act. Its pretty weak considering what had already transpired before and during the War of Northern Aggression, or whatever your choice of title is.... Lincoln would be crucified in the press, probably a lot like he was then. Davis barely kept his govt. together, and his choice of commanders, esp. in the West, was questionable, at best. He may have cost the south the war. Here is my question. I really want to hear from all the members here who take sides...who was the better President and why? Lincoln or Davis? I am really looking to gain insight here...Thanks...Custersluck
Lincoln. Nothing succeeds like success. Davis was unable to work with his rivals, while Lincoln put his rivals in his cabinet, dominated them, and turned them into supporters. Thus he was able to make use of their strengths. Davis deprived himself of the strengths of his "enemies." Also, Lincoln was better at seizing the strategic initiative in the political realm. The Emancipation Proclamation is a prime example.
Right off the bat Davis begins making moves that infringe on Southerner's individual rights more than anything Ole Lincoln is doing. Throughout the war soldiers were unhappy with the confederate governments treatment of its families and land back home. At any time, Confederate officers could come to yor home and commandeer your crops in the name or army preservation. He even went so far as to dictate what crops you had to grow on your farm. Mostly it had to be some sort of food staple to feed the armies. Did they mind helping out the armies? maybe, maybe not, but they sure minded being told what they could do on their own land. Disliking the government, however, did not translate to dislike of the Confederacy as a whole.
__________________ "In mortal combat, a man may and will become so infuriated by the din and dangers of a bloody fight that his heart will turn to stone and his every de sire [be] for blood."
John Hadley, 7th Indiana after the battle at Port Republic
Lincoln gets my vote hands down. One of the reasons has been stated above, and that is that he held to the adage keep your friends close and your enemies closer. He did just that, and it worked to his advantage in the end. He was an able commander in chief too, IMO. Yes, there were times when he seemed meddlesome, but that is what a good CiC is; he gets involved. But he left the tactics and fighting largely up to the generals in the field. The only time we really see him telling a general how to fight a campaign is with McClellan, who had, as Lincoln said, a case of the slows, and if planning the campaign himself forced Little Mac to move, then he would do it.
He also deserves credit for holding the nation together (minus the states in rebellion) during a time of war, when it was not always a popular war. Even through the furor over the draft, and the Emancipation Proclamation, he was still able to win the election over McClellan and bring the war to an end. Every president is going to have his detractors, and Lincoln for sure had his share, but that did not phase him one bit, and that is the sign of a good president. He had Jefferson Davis outclassed from the beginning.
Jeff Davis was too involved in the war, not letting some of his generals be. Davis had, when secession was declared, wanted to be a general, not a politician, and it shows by his trying to control troop movements and tactics in the Western AO. Lee, he let alone, but he would not let the commanders in the West be.
The politics and policies of the CSA did nothing to bring a support of the government itself. IMO, the reason some of the troops stayed the course was to fight for two things: their state, or for the fact that they had been fighting for two or three years, and to up and quit would be to admit defeat, which they could not do, for that would not uphold Southern honor. But others did just that; they up and left and went home, seeing the war as a Lost Cause, not worth dying for. Davis did not have the ability to hold the loyalty of a great deal of his men. You don't hear any songs saying "We are coming Father Jefferson, 300,000 more." The CS government was impotent to do anything, and the most impotent seems to have been Davis himself.
__________________ "The unity of government which constitutes you one people is also now dear to you. It is justly so, for it is a main pillar in the edifice of your real independence, the support of your tranquility at home, your peace abroad; of your safety; of your prosperity; of that very liberty which you so highly prize." George Washington, Farewell Address, 1796
Lincoln. Nothing succeeds like success. Davis was unable to work with his rivals, while Lincoln put his rivals in his cabinet, dominated them, and turned them into supporters. Thus he was able to make use of their strengths. Davis deprived himself of the strengths of his "enemies." Also, Lincoln was better at seizing the strategic initiative in the political realm. The Emancipation Proclamation is a prime example.
Regards,
Cash
I concur with Cash. To a certain extent I think Davis fails to mobilize quick enough and fails to realize that the Confederates cannot win a long term war of attrition.
Lincoln had the greater legal mind than all of the South.
He was undeterred from his goal to keep the Union, as it originally was, even in the face of early defeats.
Jefferson Davis could never solve the problem of "states rights" states supporting a national government.
Certainly as as West Pointer and war veteran, he failed to grasp the necessity to keep his armies adequately supplied. As a West Pointer, he kept the war going, long after many of the Confederate states were lost, and then after there was no hope for any Confederate victory.
Many of the Cofederate deserters, without significant educations, came to an earlier conclusion that the war was lost under the Confederate States, far earlier than Jefferson Davis and R.E. Lee would admit, but were well trained to know.
Unfair! Lincon became president of a Union of quarrelsome people with, at least, a shared purpose. Davis became president of a mishmash of buttheads, whiners, and aristocratic wannabes.
I have doubts that Lincoln could have prevailed in Davis' seat. Of course, it didn't help that Davis had the personality of a horseshoe nail.
There's no comparison. Lincoln managed to make lemonade. Davis was still trying to brew tea.
ole
__________________ I never knew a man who wished to be himself a slave. Consider if you know any good thing that no man desires for himself. A. Lincoln
Unfair! Lincon became president of a Union of quarrelsome people with, at least, a shared purpose. Davis became president of a mishmash of buttheads, whiners, and aristocratic wannabes.
Who also had a shared purpose--the preservation of slavery.
Who also had a shared purpose--the preservation of slavery.
Regards,
Cash
"We are not fighting for slavery; we are fighting for independence." -Jefferson Davis
__________________ POWER & MONEY
"Your New-York bankers and merchants are shrewd people, but I never gave them credit for so much sagacity as when they took the Government Loan. It was not merely patriotism, it was a high stroke of policy. It has saved the Government, and what they will regard as equally important, saved them from a great financial disaster."
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