JEFFERSON DAVIS’ RIGHTFUL PLACE IN HISTORY By Mildred Lewis Rutherford, Historian
Reading edition
1. Distinguished services in the Black Hawk War.
2. Served valiantly in the Mexican War.
3. Hero at Monterey; wounded at Buena Vista; scaled the walls of the City of Mexico.
4. He introduced the wedge movement and saved the day at Buena Vista.
5. United States Senator from Mississippi.
6. Secretary of War in Pierce’s Cabinet.
7. First to suggest transcontinental railroads connecting the Atlantic with the Pacific.
8. First to suggest camels as ships of the uninhabitable West to convey military stores.
9. First to suggest buying Panama Canal Zone.
10. First to suggest buying Cuba.
11. He planned American Trade with China and Japan.
12. He suggested closer relations with South America.
13. He urged preparedness in the event of an enemy attack.
14. He enlarged the United States Army by four regiments.
15. He organized cavalry service adapted to our needs.
16. He introduced light infantry or rifle system of tactics.
17. He caused the manufacture of guns, rifle, and pistols.
18. He rendered invaluable service to Colt’s Armory.
19. He ordered the frontier surveyed.
20. He put young officers in training for surveying expeditions.
21. He sent George McClellan to Crimea to study the military tactics of British and the Russian armies.
22. He appointed Robert E. Lee as Superintendent of West Point.
23. He advanced Albert Disney Johnston to important posts.
24. He had forts rebuilt and repaired.
25. He strengthened forts on the Western frontier, frequently drawing on arsenals in the South to do so.
26. He had the Western part of the continent explored for scientific, geographical and railroad work.
27. He was responsible for the new Senate Hall, the new House of Representatives, and for the extension of many public buildings in Washington, especially the Treasury Building.
28. He was responsible for the construction of the aqueduct in the National Capital.
29. He was responsible for Armed Liberty on the Capitol having a helmet of eagle feathers instead of the cap of a pagan goddess.
30. He had Cabin John Bridge with a span of 220 feet built.
31. He was United States Senator under President Buchanan.
32. He was nominated for President by Massachusetts men in 1860.
33. He refused to allow his name to be presented for President at the Charleston Convention.
34. He stood strongly for the Union, but stressed the constitutional right of a state to secede if it wished.
35. He did secede with Mississippi, as he had been taught at West Point.
36. Nowhere did his genius display itself more significantly than as Secretary of War under Franklin Pierce.
37. When it was known that he was to make his “Farewell Speech” to the Senate in 1861, the building was crowded to overflowing. He was one of the most gifted orators of the Congress. At West Point he studied “Rawle’s View of the Constitution” and was taught that if a state seceded the duty of a soldier reverted to his state—hence Davis, Robert E. Lee, Thomas J. Jackson, the Johnstons, and others acting upon this instruction cast their lot with their States in 1861.