Jefferson Davis
(Non-Partisan/Democratic Party)
1861-1868
Perhaps it was his experience as United States Secretary of War that made Jefferson Davis react “like a man informed of his execution” on hearing he had been appointed the first president of the Confederacy. The sudden death of President-Elect Douglas in the North had thrown out any certainty of a peaceful resolution to the issue of slavery. His successor Everett chosen by the House proved a dubious figure, lurching between timidity and threats to the South's secessionist movement. By June 1861 as Federal garrisons across the South surrendered without a shot, the North finally reacted. Led by the ancient Winfield Scott, the Grand Army of the Republic lumbered south over the Potomac to “restore order”. The act proved incendiary and ineffective all at the same time. As the Hero of '48 drowned under the weight of his steed, his fellow Virginians Lee and Jackson abandoned the Union cause, joining Beauregard's corps in time for the Battle of Stevensburg. The headless Union forces fled through Washington and beyond spreading chaos and confusion. Silver Spring. White Marsh. Bradshaw. Names “etched in infamy” by the Union.
The Treaty of Baltimore was finally signed in a stuffy overheated room in February 1862, under the auspices of the French and British ambassadors. Davis it is said took little pleasure in the affair. Supposedly he took Everett to one side and suggested “binding their nations' wounds” with a joint expedition to liberate Mexico. The New Englander, drunk and mortified by the legacy fate had given him, supposedly simply snorted in Davis' face and walked away.
Despite the patriotic glow the War of Secession initially gave the Davis Administration, it soon faded. The much vaunted King Cotton which had apparently forced London and Paris to mediate was no match for King Corn. The Union raised duties on her wheat exports, causing chaos in the European market. The message taken, Britain looked to Egypt and India for cotton. Combined with new border restrictions along the Mason-Dixon Line, “safe haven” laws for fugitive slaves in many Union states and loss of investment opportunities out West, by 1864 the Confederate economy had entered a recession.
In response Davis reluctantly approached Mexico's Emperor Maximilian and his French benefactors. While trade deals were struck they proved controversial in Montgomery. Notably the “Rio Grandees” Affair undermined Davis' image. The President and Congress of the Confederacy had since secession been officially “Non-Partisan”, in effect a one-party state run by Democrats. However the financial downturn, coupled with the Grey House's willing ignorance of the Monroe Doctrine finally triggered the return of partisan politics. Vice-President Stephens', a wary ally of Davis, led the Atlanta Convention that saw the rebirth of the Whig Party in July 1865, just in time for the legislative elections. Although the Democrats retained a strong majority, the fact the dissent was being led by his own second-in-command completely undermined Davis for the rest of his term. Utilising personal friends in Montgomery while increasingly refusing to intervene in the states, many historians credit Davis with establishing a system of decentralised cronyism that would haunt Confederate government for generations to come.