ewc
Sergeant
- Joined
- Feb 20, 2005
- Location
- pittsburgh
Did Jefferson Davis's experience as Secretary of War help or hurt him as Confederate President?
Lincoln himself would have found it difficult, if not impossible, to pull the Confederate states into anything like a nation. The deck was stacked against a mediocre player.
Ole
Much food for thought here. One suggestion sparked my interest. In an Ideal World, Alexander Stephens as President and Davis as Sec'y of War has much to recommend it.
If, as I believe, the Confederate gov't would have evolved, rather quickly into a carbon copy of the gov't in Washington D.C. without the countervailing requirements of slavery as the reason for strict observance of the State Rights theory. Then, Stephens as the exemplar of the strict constructionist school of State Rights would be needed to resist the temptation to sacrifice the very reason that the south was engaged in a bloody civil war in the first place (as Stephens suspected Davis would, if it came to a choice between slavery and independence).
Davis, as Sec'y of War would, IMO, be dilligent and much more innovative, when removed from the vagaries of political compromises, required for a President.
I do not believe, that such a combination would have won the War or made it any longer, the odds were just too great.
Having been the Secretary of War beforehand gave Davis the confidence to believe he knew what he was doing, and therefore didn't need anybody's advice. This, combined with his very real desire to be a general himself commanding troops in the field, made him a stubborn, overconfident, meddler in the details of the army.
This irrevocably crippled him as a President in a war.
Lincoln, on the other hand, knew his limitations.
And those would be?That way, you may always be known by those who truly do know.
I should like you always to hold such opinions, and spew such WISDOM whenever the mood should strike.
That way, you may always be known by those who truly do know.
Lincoln is greater than Davis. Keep on alleging this. Don't ever stop.
Let the people know your complete and total knowledge of the CIVIL WAR.
THANK YOU, ALWAYS.
SIR
BEOWULF
So you don't see Lincoln as a micro-manager, himself?
Davis wanted to HEAD the army. He had no desire to be president, but was APPOINTED.
"Your generosity has bestowed upon me an undeserved distinction... one which I neither sought, nor desired..." (office of the president).
Beowulf