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LINCOLN & DAVIS
A Dual Biography of America's Civil War Presidents
By Augustin Stucker
AuthorHouse
Copyright © 2011 Augustin Stucker
All right reserved.
ISBN: 978-1-4567-9420-0
Chapter One
Beginnings Samuel Emery Davis and Jane Davis welcomed their 10th child into the world on June 3, 1808. In an era when the average American male lifespan was forty-five and women often died younger from complications in childbirth, Jane was forty-six or forty-seven, and she and 52-year old Samuel felt ten children in twenty-three years of marriage had taken the Biblical quote to "go forth and multiply" quite literally enough. The boy was given the Christian name of Jefferson, after Samuel's favorite revolutionary hero and president, with the middle name of Finis, a Latin jest to show the father's grasp of a language other than English and the mutual hope their tenth offspring was the final one.
Jefferson Finis Davis's family, at least on the fraternal side, had originated in Wales. A great-grandfather, Evan Davis, arrived in Philadelphia in the early 1700s, wed a woman named Mary, eventually became an innkeeper, and sometime in the middle 1720s sired the youngest of six children, namesake Evan Davis. In his early twenties Evan Davis, Jr. moved to South Carolina where he met and married widow Mary Emory Williams. He then moved again to the region around Augusta, Georgia, where Samuel Emory Davis came to be in the mid-1750s. Evan Davis would only survive another five or six years, leaving Samuel to grow to young manhood sans a father figure and deciding on his own to take up the Revolutionary War cause. In future years he would tell his children about raising a militia company at the age of twenty-three and leading them in the defense of Savannah in December 1779. After the war he returned home to find the land devastated and his mother deceased. His grandfather Evan had also passed during the war, and though Samuel was entitled to a share of the estate he was as uninformed of his Philadelphia relatives as they were of him, so his chance to the claim was lost. As a Revolutionary War hero he was granted several hundred acres of land near Augusta. History does not record where or how Samuel came by an education, but it is known he was considered by his peers to be sufficiently literate and lettered to be named county clerk. He was also greatly admired for his fine horsemanship, and sometime around 1783 met and married Jane Cook, a woman of Scotch-Irish descent.
As noted, Samuel and Jane proved to be a most fertile couple. Close to a year after being wed Jane gave birth to the couple's first son, Joseph Emory Davis in December, 1784. In the two following decades at roughly two to two-and one-half year intervals came Benjamin, Samuel, their first daughter, Anna Eliza, Isaac William, Lucinda Farrar, Amanda, Matilda, Mary Ellen (called Polly by the family), and finally, as his middle named portended, Jefferson. Long before the last child's birth, however, Samuel proved to have the restless disposition of so many frontier settlers. Though esteemed and honored in the Georgia community, Samuel felt his toil on the land was not financially rewarding enough, and tales of fertile Kentucky were too persuasive to resist. In the mid-1790s the family moved to and settled for a short time in Mercer County, then shifted to what would eventually be Todd County in the southwestern part of the state. There Samuel and his growing family built a double log cabin, essentially two separate two-room cabins separated by a twenty-foot breezeway referred to as a "dog run," a thatch-roofed open-ended space which was probably enclosed later as separate rooms. The cabin had glass windows and wood floors, highly unusual and upscale for the day.
Busy on the farm raising tobacco and breeding horses and with only a couple of slaves to assist him, Samuel had little time for his youngest child. Not that Jefferson lacked for affection; with so many older siblings "little Jeff" was probably spoiled beyond measure. Anna, roughly sixteen years older, was especially attentive, caring for him when Jane was otherwise occupied or indisposed. When Jeff was just shy of being three years old wanderlust set in with Samuel again, and the entire family, excepting Joseph who stayed behind to study law, packed their belongings and moved to Bayou Teche in Louisiana Territory. The stay there was short—a plague of malarial mosquitoes forced Samuel to seek a "higher and healthier" location outside Woodville in Mississippi Territory. There, close to the east bank of the Mississippi River, fifty-five year old Samuel settled on several hundred acres to grow cotton, breed horses and build a home which he would call Poplar Grove. The house Samuel and his older sons built was commonly called a Mississippi planter's cottage; the one-and one-half story home was centered around a wide hallway with two rooms on either side on the ground level, with two more rooms and a sitting room on the second level beneath a sloping roof. The wooden frame was enclosed with cypress siding, and wide porches were attached to the front and back. It was here, at about four years of age, when Jefferson's earliest memories began.
It is in keeping with the Southern military traditions of this country that one of Jefferson's earliest recollections was related to the War of 1812. When war broke out with Britain brothers Benjamin, Samuel and Isaac rushed off to serve. Though Jefferson admitted knowing nothing of the war itself, he did write of his brothers' "unparalled devotion to their country." Between the stories of his father's service in the Revolutionary War and knowing of his brothers' actions in the War of 1812 it became ingrained at a very early age that devotion and duty to one's country was the highest honor a person had to obey. Loyalty to family and friends was nearly as high, but early on it was firmly established country should always come first.
For the most part, however, Jefferson's childhood memories were far more normal and carefree than the heavier concerns of warfare. Older sisters Matilda and Polly were favored playmates, and they had the run of the modest plantation and the surrounding grounds. Growing up a "country boy" meant he was, if not formally instructed by his father and older brothers in the crafts of hunting, fishing, farming and horsemanship, expected to learn through observation and exposure to that way of life. Samuel, having lost his own father at an early age, lacked a model on how to be a parent himself. Certainly he loved his wife and children, as demonstrated by his unwavering efforts to provide for them. From all accounts Samuel's outward demeanor was one of undemonstrative aloofness, and his parental style seemed to be one of leading and instructing through somber example. In his memoirs Jefferson wrote his father was "usually of a grave and stoical character, and of such sound judgment that his opinions were a law to his children," and "His admonitions were rather suggestive than dictatorial." Where most fathers were the unquestioned heavy-handed masters of the house, Samuel believed in mostly sparing the rod and letting his children learn through example and being allowed to make mistakes from which lessons could be more soundly impressed. That is not meant to imply Samuel did not impose his will without the use of occasional physical force or deprivation; Jefferson so deeply resented the authority which confined him to his room without supper he vowed never to impose the same punishment on his children. Based on the standards of the time Jefferson would now be regarded as the product of an extremely liberal upbringing. On the rare occasions when mentioning his father he was obviously respectful of Samuel's reputation in the community as well as of his equestrian talents. But he knew next to nothing of the man beneath the authoritarian exterior, and as an adult would find himself with more characteristics of his father than he would recognize in himself. On the plus side Samuel remained an exemplary horseman and rider to the end of his days, and "little Jeff" also became a rider par excellence, always lauded for his skill with horses and other animals. Inversely, it would come as a shock to Jefferson to find Samuel in virtual poverty at the end of his life, in spite of theoretically having worked the modest plantation "successfully" for many years. It may have also shocked him had he ever realized his own external persona was seen as being the spitting image of Samuel—cold, aloof and unfeeling. The quality Jefferson least admired in his father was to become the very public image of himself.
Fortunately Jefferson's mother and siblings would more than make up for any love and affection he found lacking from Samuel. Jane Davis was mentioned as minimally as Samuel in Jefferson's memoirs, but when she was it was with the fondest thoughts a son might have for a mother. He described Jane as a woman "noted for her beauty, much of it retained to extreme old age," and her "graceful poetic mind." In her he recalled "a tender memory of the loving care of that mother, in whom there was so much for me to admire and nothing to remember save good." Jane was also an avid gardener with a penchant for roses. She did, in fact, plant and tend to so many rose bushes and hedges around the cottage the estate was eventually referred to as Rosemont instead of Poplar Grove.
One of the fundamentals of life on which Samuel and Jane agreed was the belief that knowledge is power, and it was ordained all the Davis offspring (including the daughters) would go to school. Jefferson's formal education began about the age of six when he and Polly were sent to Woodville, a log "schoolhouse" about a half mile from Poplar Grove. The schooling at Woodville would have been rudimentary at best, most probably a typical "blab" school of the day, wherein the single teacher stood at the front of the one-room log-cabin and listened while all the students of varying ages and class levels recited memorized lessons simultaneously. As historian Bruce Catton once noted, possibly the most impressive result of any of the blab schools was anyone ever learning anything from them. Jefferson started learning basic reading and writing skills, along with elementary arithmetic there, but never made mention of it in his recollections, whereas later schools brought forth reverent detailed memories. And while the schools in Mississippi were minimally adequate at best, the education back in Kentucky was equal, if not superior to, the best schools along the Atlantic seaboard. It was Kentucky where Joseph Davis acquired his law degree to become a prominent attorney in Mississippi, helping to write the first draft of the Mississippi state constitution while also establishing one of the most prosperous law practices in the state. In future years his practice helped him acquire an eleven thousand acre plantation called Hurricane. Located several miles north of Poplar Grove along a stretch of the Mississippi River, Hurricane had its own steamboat landing known as Davis Bend. Perhaps in part because of Joseph's success Samuel broke his usual silence long enough to discuss with Jane sending their youngest son away to school. Jane opposed the idea to the point of being distraught, but in the end Samuel's word was final. In June 1816 Samuel learned a family friend, Major Joseph Hinds, was returning to Kentucky with his family, and possibly without even allowing Jane time to say goodbye to "little Jeff," sent the boy off with the Hinds family across the Natchez Trace back to Kentucky.
The several weeks long trip across the rough-and-tumble terrain led northeast through the Mississippi Territory pine lands and into Tennessee. Despite the sense of being on an adventure, riding a pony and seeing sights and meeting all manner of people strange to him (Choctaw Indians and occasional interracial couples), young Davis recalled almost nothing of the trip save one meeting he would never ever forget: Andrew Jackson.
Major Hinds had commanded a battalion under "Old Hickory" at the Battle of New Orleans, and took advantage of the trip to stop at Jackson's home on the outskirts of Nashville. What was intended to be a brief stay proved to be so pleasant and the cordiality of the host so immense the visit turned into a few weeks of sheer idolatry for 8-year old Jefferson. In his memoirs Davis said of the visit, "I had the opportunity a boy has to observe a great man, a stand-point of no small advantage." The war hero was described as being "unaffected and well-bred, temperate in language and behavior, and generous in hospitality." Jackson was "very gentle and considerate" towards Davis, and "In me he inspired reverence and affection that has remained with me through my whole life." One of the major dichotomies found in Davis's character is his love of being his own man and making his own decisions about all situations, and his inordinate blind hero worship of individuals throughout his life. It is to be expected any young boy away from home for the first time in his life who was welcomed and treated as virtually a family member by a genuine hero of the day would idolize said hero. But when Davis lionized any individual, whether they deserved it or not, they were placed on a pedestal so high any feet of clay became invisible to him. As an adult Davis broached zero criticism of Jackson. He would find a way to make the "Jacksonian Democracy" ideals dovetail with Jeffersonian democratic beliefs, a sometimes difficult stretch involving ignoring Jackson's belief in a strong central government and Thomas Jefferson's convictions of a smaller federal government being preferable. Whatever mental gymnastics he had to perform to reach his own conclusions, once said conviction was established in Davis's mind it became the only "right" conviction—anybody who disagreed with him was either irrational or deliberately obstinate. Such an outlook would cause no end of problems for him in later years.
The visit with the Jackson family had to end eventually, and sometime in mid-July the Hinds party reached Springfield, Kentucky, where Davis was placed into the care of St. Thomas Collage, a Catholic boys' school run by Dominican priests. It is a complete mystery why Samuel Davis, a non-diligent Baptist, would send his son to such a parochial institution. Not only was Jefferson the only Protestant at the school, he was also the youngest and smallest student. While the situation could have proved disastrous for others, Jefferson seemed to have adapted very well. With no prior indications of his religious beliefs or upbringing, it was at St. Thomas where Jefferson first mentions any inclination towards a creed. He approached Father Thomas Wilson and suggested his conversion to Catholicism as a practical matter, simply so he could fit in better with his fellow students. Father Wilson graciously told the boy conversion was a serious matter which could wait, and the topic was dropped then and forever. As a result of their kindly disposition towards him, Father Wilson and Father William Tuite became particular idols of the boy. He proved to be an apt pupil of Latin and Greek, remaining fond of languages and literature the rest of his life. Samuel Davis kept Jefferson at St. Thomas for a second year, but in the spring of 1818 Jane Davis insisted her youngest child come home, and Samuel acquiesced.
When Jefferson returned home in May he first encountered Jane tending to her roses, and mother and son had a joyful reunion. Following the meeting "little Jeff," not quite so little after two years away, sought out his father working alongside the slaves in the cotton fields. Samuel was so taken by his son's return that Jefferson recalled "He took me in his arms with more emotion than I had ever seen him exhibit, and kissed me repeatedly." It was the one and only time the youngest Davis recalled witnessing unrestrained affection from his father, though it puzzled him as to "why my father should have kissed so big a boy."
(Continues...)
Excerpted from LINCOLN & DAVIS by Augustin Stucker Copyright © 2011 by Augustin Stucker. Excerpted by permission of AuthorHouse. All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
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