List of Jefferson Davis Quotes

God Forbid That The Day Should Ever Come When To Be True To My Constituents Is To Be Hostile To The Union.

How Idle Is This Prating About Natural Rights As Though Still Containing All That Had Been Forfeited.

The Authors Of All Our Misfortune.

Vicksburg Is The Nail Head That Holds The South’s Two Halves Together.

Our Armies Were In As Much Chaos In Victory As Theirs In Defeat.

Pray Excuse Me. I Cannot Take It.

Upon My Weary Heart Was Showered Smiles, Plaudits And Flowers, But Beyond Them I Saw Troubles And Thorns Innumerable.

It Is Not Differences Of Opinion; It Is Geographical Lines, Rivers, And Mountains Which Divide State From State, And Make Different Nations Of Mankind.

Without Doing Injustice To The Living, It May Safely Be Asserted That Our Loss Is Irreparable; And That Among The Shining Hosts Of The Great And Good Who Now Cluster Around The Banner Of The Country, There Exists No Purer Spirit, No More Heroic Soul, Than That Of The Illustrious Man Whose Death I Join You In Lamenting.

To One Who Loves His Country In All Its Parts, It Is Natural To Rejoice In Whatever Contributes To The Prosperity And Honor And Marks The Stability And Progress Of Any Portion Of Its People.

Slavery Existed Before The Formation Of This Union. It Derived From The Constitution That Recognition Which It Would Not Have Enjoyed Without The Confederation. If The States Had Not United Together, There Would Have Been No Obligation On Adjoining States To Regard Any Species Of Property Unknown To Themselves.

If You Will Not Have It Thus: If In The Pride Of Power, If In Contempt Of Reason And Reliance Upon Force, You Say We Shall Not Go, But Shall Remain As Subjects To You, Then, Gentlemen Of The North, A War Is To Be Inaugurated The Like Of Which Men Have Not Seen.

A Restitution Of The Union Has Been Rendered Forever Impossible.

The Troops Of Other States Have Their Reputation To Gain, The Sons Of The Alamo Have Theirs To Maintain.

For An Enemy So Relentless In The War For Our Subjugation, We Could Not Be Expected To Mourn; Yet, In View Of Its Political Consequences, It Could Not Be Regarded Otherwise Than As A Great Misfortune For The South.

If The Confederacy Fails, There Should Be Written On Its Tombstone: Died Of A Theory.

Obstacles May Retard, But They Cannot Long Prevent The Progress Of A Movement Sanctified By Its Justice, And Sustained By A Virtuous People .

At Rest An American Soldier And Defender Of The Constitution.

We Protest Solemnly In The Face Of Mankind, That We Desire Peace At Any Sacrifice, Save That Of Honor.

Butler Is Branded A Felon, An Outlaw, An Enemy Of Mankind, And So Ordered That In The Event Of His Capture, The Officer In Command Of The Capturing Force Do Cause Him To Be Immediately Executed By Hanging.

Sir, It Is True That Republics Have Often Been Cradled In War, But More Often They Have Met With A Grave In That Cradle. Peace Is The Interest, The Policy, The Nature Of A Popular Government. War May Bring Benefits To A Few, But Privation And Loss Are The Lot Of The Many. An Appeal To Arms Should Be The Last Resort, And Only By National Rights Or National Honor Can It Be Justified.

It Was One Of The Compromises Of The Constitution That The Slave Property In The Southern States Should Be Recognized As Property Throughout The United States.

Every One Must Understand That, Whatever Be The Evil Of Slavery, It Is Not Increased By Its Diffusion. Every One Familiar With It Knows That It Is In Proportion To Its Sparseness That It Becomes Less Objectionable. Wherever There Is An Immediate Connexion Between The Master And Slave, Whatever There Is Of Harshness In The System Is Diminished.

Your Little Army, Derided For Its Want Of Arms, Derided For Its Lack Of All The Essential Material Of War, Has Met The Grand Army Of The Enemy, Routed It At Every Point, And Now It Flies, Inglorious In Retreat Before Our Victorious Columns. We Have Taught Them A Lesson In Their Invasion Of The Sacred Soil Of Virginia.