Speech of Jefferson Davis before the State Democratic
Convention held in Jackson Mississippi January 3, 1844, for the purpose of
sending delegates to the National Convention of the party and for the selection
of presidential electors.*
(From The Mississippian, January 12, 1844.)
Mr. Davis remarked in substance—Though instructed by the
delegation from Warren to cast the vote of our county, in this convention, for
Mr. Van Buren, as the presidential candidate, I hope I will be excused for
availing myself of the nomination of Mr. Calhoun, to express some of my
opinions, as an individual, in relation to the comparative claims these
gentlemen have upon us. I would here premise, that I wish nothing which I may
say to be referred to a willingness to depreciate the high, just, and
often-acknowledged claims of Mr. Van Buren; a democrat who long and severely
tried, has never been found wanting—a democrat, than whom there is none I have
more implicit confidence—none to whom I would more freely confide in times of
difficulty, of danger, and of personal temptation, the safe keeping of the
constitution; and in proof of the correctness of this opinion, I will refer to
but a single instance: When the "independent treasury" was opposed by
a prejudice so fixed and wide-spread among our people, that it was apparent if
one had risen from the dead to bear testimony to its merits, he would not have
been believed, still did Mr. Van Buren give it his open, decided and unwavering
support. Surely it will not now be contended by those who attribute to him so
much political shrewdness as to attach to him the name of magician, that he was
ignorant of the danger to which an adherence to this measure exposed his
political fortune. Upon us, however, it forces itself as conclusive evidence,
that he valued truth and the good of his country above power and place, and the
conscientious discharge of his duty above personal advancement.
Mr. President, it is not my purpose to attempt an eulogy of
Mr. Calhoun. I should be inadequate to the task, and should deem the labor
superfluous in the hand of the most able—a long public life of virtue and
intelligence, of active and patriotic devotion to the best interest of his
country, having shed around his name a halo which it is not in the power of
language to brighten. Neither, sir, is it my intention to review the political
principles of that great statesman; for in comparing him with Mr. Van Buren, I
find no exception to that proud and generally just boast of the democracy, that
the principles of our party are the same throughout the Union. The points of my
preference for Mr. Calhoun will be merely indicated to you; because, resting as
they do upon basis so well understood by you, any elucidation of them is
uncalled for. First, I will mention "free trade," by which is meant,
as I understand it, the most liberal principles of commerce, and from which we
may anticipate as a consequence, the freest exchange of the products of
different soils and climates, the largest amount of comforts for a given amount
of labor. Again, as incident to the freest national intercourse, we may expect
the extension of amicable relations, until our canvas-winged doves shall bear
us across every sea, olive branches from every land. In addressing
Mississippians, who rely upon a foreign market for the disposal of their
products, an argument in support of unrestricted commerce is surely
unnecessary, and I will close the consideration of this point by saying I
consider Mr. Calhoun its exponent.
The annexation of the republic of Texas to our Union, is
another point of vital importance to the south, and demanding, by every consideration,
prompt action. Daily are we becoming relatively weaker, and with equal step is
the advance of that fanatical spirit which has for years been battering in
breach the defences with which the federal constitution surrounds our
institutions.
Would Mr. Calhoun have less zeal than one less intimately
connected with the south, or would he support this measure with less ability? I
would answer not less but more. The ardent, able and honest support which he
gives to all measures having his entire approbation, enables him more
successfully than any one I have ever known, to combat prejudice and error; and
I would add that among the many I have known who had enjoyed his intercourse, I
recollect not one who had not imbibed some of his opinions.
Again, I believe that Mr. Calhoun could reduce the various
divisions of the executive department at Washington to such order, and
introduce a system of such prompt accountability, by the various agents, that
defalcation could seldom reach that point which would result in loss to the
government. That he possesses this ability, I conceive to be demonstrated by
his administration of the war department; considered, I believe, of the various
departments, that which is most difficult and complex in its disbursements. He
found it in great confusion—he reduced it to an organization so perfect, that
it has received but slight modifications down to the present time, and has been
that department which has afforded but few examples of unfaithful depositories
of the public money.
With the experience he acquired then, and the knowledge he
has acquired since, may we not expect all that I claim for him on this point?
I will, Mr. President, tax the patience of the convention
with but one point more, and that is one nearly affecting us: it is the defence
of the southern Atlantic and gulf coasts. We have been treated ungenerously and
unjustly, in that the majority has, through a long course of years, refused to
us, the minority, that protection which it was the duty of the federal government
to give us. Having made such appropriations for the benefit of other portions
of the Union, inability has not been the cause of this failure in duty towards
us—a failure which is aggravated by the recollection that throughout the whole
period of our federal existence, we have contributed, as consumers, to the
revenue, in a higher ratio than that of our representation in the halls of
legislation, (by the number of our unrepresented slave population,) and
therefore our claim to a share of those appropriations to which we are all
entitled, is something stronger than our representative rate. Sir, if we
institute a comparison as to the importance, in a national point of view,
between the objects for which we require appropriations and those for which we
have been neglected, still do we find nothing to justify the treatment we have
received. Whilst the northern harbors and cities have been surveyed, and as far
as the ability of the treasury would allow, fortified—whilst navy yards have
been erected along the northern coast—whilst surveys have been made of the
sinuosities of our northern lakes, sometimes where it required the perspective
eye of the engineer to see a harbor, and millions expended year after year, for
these joint purposes, there stand the cape and keys of Florida unprotected,
though by them flows the whole commerce of the south and west, and though they
overlook the straits through which, in peace or war, is the only maritime
communication between the different portions of our Union, and around which
sweeps a wide curve of circumvallation, extending from the Oronoko to the banks
of the Bahama, from various points of which, within signal distance, from the
batteries of Great Britain.
Looking further westward, which brings us nearer home here
upon our own coast lie, wholly unprotected, the islands upon which the British
fleet found a safe anchorage and harbor; where British troops debarked for the
attack on New Orleans, an event which, though it brought glory to the American
arms, and made this day an American festival, does not the less enforce itself
as a warning on our government, and should have proved sufficient reason to all
who loved their country more than sectional interest, to have guarded against
the recurrence of such contingency.
Mr. President, the South has a delicate and daily increasing
interest in the navy. She needs her own sons in the navy to represent that
interest; she therefore needs in her own waters navy yards, and squadrons at
home, on her own waters, to develope the nautical feeling of our youth. A
survey made of the Tortugas, by the recommendation of that great man who
directed the glorious event to which I but just now alluded as connected with
the day on which we are assembled, exhibits a harbor admirably adapted to the
purposes of a navy yard. At Pensacola, we have another favorable point, so
recognized by our government in building a dock and giving it the name of
"navy yard;" and they both have this great advantage over any
northern harbor, they are convenient to "live oak," our most
important ship timber.
Sir, I will not detain the Convention farther than to urge
upon their consideration the necessity we have for a Southern President to
advance these measures. The South has borne long; let her be true to herself,
that justice may be done.
Jefferson Davis, of Warren, offered the following
resolution, which was unanimously adopted.
Resolved, That our
delegates to the national convention, in the event of any contingency which
shall defeat the purpose for which they are appointed, viz., the nominations of
Martin Van Buren for president, and James K. Polk for vice president, that they
shall consider as our second choice, John C. Calhoun for president, and Levi
Woodbury for vice-president.
_______________
* This speech brought Mr. Davis into statewide
notice and marked the beginning of his political career. As a delegate from
Warren county he favored John C. Calhoun for the presidency.
SOURCE: Dunbar Rowland, Editor, Jefferson
Davis, Constitutionalist: His Letters, Papers and Speeches, Volume 1, p. 6-9
