The Man Who Punched Jefferson Davis: The Political Life of Henry S. Foote, Southern Unionist by Ben Wynne (review)

Ben Wynne’s political biography of Henry S. Foote, The Man Who Punched Jefferson Davis: The Political Life of Henry S. Foote, Southern Unionist, is an engaging narrative about a complicated southern politician. Foote’s career never lacked for intrigue, and few rivaled his dramatic shifts in geography and party. While his ideology remained relatively consistent for Unionism (with one important exception), he campaigned in Mississippi, Texas, California, and Tennessee with, at various times, the Democrats, Whigs, Unionist Democrats, Know-Nothings, and Republicans. While this shifting could have damaged his standing with any particular group, there was always another new state to restart in, another constituency who welcomed his pugnacious personal campaigning.

Foote’s most distinctive feature was his combative style. Unlike his longtime rival Jefferson Davis, Foote delighted in crowds. He was a wildly entertaining speaker who relied on his ability to excite audiences and attack enemies. Foote represented the new democratic style of openly ambitious candidates who courted popular approval. This combativeness served him well while campaigning; Wynne relates Foote’s tireless schedules as both a candidate and a surrogate and the respect he earned from allies. As an officeholder, though, Foote accomplished little in the way of policy. Wynne points out that Foote spent most of his time insulting other legislators in speeches, and few were willing to work with him. His actions more often led to physical confrontations, including an infamous altercation with Thomas Hart Benton as well as the titular punching of his Mississippi rival.

It is ironic, then, that Foote’s greatest political triumph came in helping pass the Compromise of 1850, but this success, too, was in character. One of his few consistent positions was support for the union of states. Unionism appears in his earliest speeches and was further encouraged by his support of Andrew Jackson. Though like most white southerners a believer in slavery, he broke with other politicians like John C. Calhoun and Davis to discourage movements that might threaten the Union. When he shifted suddenly to supporting secession in 1860, Foote claimed that it was a response to Abraham Lincoln’s call for volunteers after Fort Sumter, though Wynne shows this justification was a self-serving postwar explanation. The best explanation for this shift, pointed out throughout the book, was that Foote was impulsive and rarely self-reflective. His inconsistent support for the Confederacy reflects this quality, as he attacked the Davis administration and suggested negotiating for peace and reunion with northern “Peace” Democrats. Foote ended a brief exile in Canada after supporting Radical Reconstruction and black suffrage and being vouched for by southern Unionists like William G. Brownlow.

As the title suggests, Jefferson Davis looms above the proceedings. Even though Foote was clearly an influential figure, well known around the nation, his career lagged behind that of his Mississippi rival. The two men represented competing factions in state-level Democratic politics, and Foote could always be counted on to take unprompted shots at Davis. While his ideology stands on its own, Foote’s career cannot be divested from his contest with the future Confederate president.

Foote is a difficult figure to pin down, and Wynne regularly writes that the only thing consistent about him was constant movement and reinvention. It is hard to adequately summarize a man who shifted so suddenly and regularly between parties and locations, but Wynne does an admirable job in narrating this full and fascinating political career. He makes it easy to see the things that made Foote such a popular and formidable figure, and those that limited his appeal. Wynne has written a never-boring narrative for anyone interested in the shifting politics of America’s South and West and the continual reinvention of a flamboyant and ambitious politician.