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86 The Kentucky Anthology Jefferson Davis from “Farewell Address to the U.S. Senate” Born in Fairview, in Todd County, Kentucky, Jefferson Davis attended St. Thomas Catholic School in Springfield and later Transylvania University; he graduated from West Point in 1828. When he was two years old, his family moved to Louisiana and then Mississippi, which became Davis’s political base. After the collapse of the Confederacy , he moved his family to Beauvoir, an estate on the Mississippi Gulf coast. The following is Davis’s farewell not only to the Senate but also to the Union; he was soon to become the first and only president of the Confederate States of America. h I am sure I feel no hostility towards you, Senators from the North. I am sure there is not one of you, whatever sharp discussion there may have been between us, to whom I cannot now say, in the presence of my God, I wish you well; and such, I am sure, is the feeling of the people whom I represent towards those whom you represent. I, therefore, feel that I but express their desire when I say I hope, and they hope, for peaceable relations with you, though we must part. They may be mutually beneficial to us in the future, as they have been in the past, if you so will it. The reverse may bring disaster on every portion of the country; and, if you will have it thus, we will invoke the God of our fathers, who delivered them from the power of the lion, to protect us from the ravages of the bear; and thus, putting our trust in God and in our own firm hearts and strong arms, we will vindicate the right as best we may. . . . Mr. President and Senators, having made the announcement which the occasionseemedtometorequire ,itonlyremainsformetobidyouafinaladieu. . . . Letter to Governor Magoffin Davis wrote this letter to Governor Beriah Magoffin of Kentucky regarding the state’s attempt to remain neutral. h To the Hon. B. Magoffin, Governor of Kentucky, etc. Sir.—I have received your letter informing me that “since the commence86 Harriet Beecher Stowe 87 ment of the unhappy difficulties yet pending in the country, the people of Kentucky have indicated a steadfast desire and purpose to maintain a position of strict neutrality between the belligerent parties.” In the same communication you express your desire to elicit “an authoritative assurance that the government of the Confederate States will continue to respect and observe the neutral position of Kentucky.” In reply to this request, I lose no time in assuring you, that the government of the Confederate States of America neither intends nor desires to disturb the neutrality of Kentucky. The assemblage of troops in Tennessee, to which you refer, had no other object than to repel the lawless invasion of that State by the forces of the United States, should their government seek to approach it through Kentucky without respect for its position of neutrality. That such apprehensions were not groundless has been proved by the course of that government in the States of Maryland and Missouri, and more recently in Kentucky itself, in which, as you inform me, “a military force has been enlisted and quartered by the United States authorities.” The government of the Confederate States had not only respected most scrupulously the neutrality of Kentucky, but has continued to maintain the friendly relations of trade and intercourse which it has suspended with the people of the United States generally. In view of the history of the past, it can scarcely be necessary to assure your Excellency that the government of the Confederate States will continue to respect the neutrality of Kentucky so long as her people will maintain it themselves. But neutrality, to be entitled to respect, must be strictly maintained between both parties; or if the door be opened on the one side for aggressions of one of the belligerent parties upon the other, it ought not to be shut to the assailed when they seek to enter it for the purpose of self-defense. I do not, however, for a moment believe that your gallant State will suffer its soil to be used for the purpose of giving an advantage to those who violate its neutrality and disregard its rights, over others who respect them both. In conclusion, I tender to your Excellency the assurance of my high consideration and regard. And am, Sir, very respectfully yours, etc., Jefferson Davis Jefferson Davis 87 ...

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