CONSTRUCTING A NATION: JEFFERSON DAVIS AND CONFEDERATE NATIONALISM by ROBERT JARROD ATCHISON (Under the Direction of John M. Murphy) ABSTRACT This dissertation examines the speeches of Jefferson Davis before and during the Civil War. Through four case studies, I examine Davis’s vision of the Confederacy as articulated through his public address. I conclude that Davis struggled with the pragmatic demands of war, which required him to sacrifice several of the core components of the Confederate identity. In the end, Davis was unable to articulate a vision of the Confederate nation outside of the doctrine of states’s rights and the institution of slavery. INDEX WORDS: Jefferson Davis, Nationalism, Confederate Nationalism, Presidential Rhetoric, Civil War CONSTRUCTING A NATION: JEFFERSON DAVIS AND CONFEDERATE NATIONALISM by ROBERT JARROD ATCHISON B.A., Wake Forest University, 2001 M.A., Wake Forest University, 2003 A Dissertation Submitted to the Graduate Faculty of The University of Georgia in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY ATHENS, GEORGIA 2007 © 2007 Robert Jarrod Atchison All Rights Reserved CONSTRUCTING A NATION: JEFFERSON DAVIS AND CONFEDERATE NATIONALISM by ROBERT JARROD ATCHISON Major Professor: John Murphy Committee: Vanessa Beasley Celeste Condit John Inscoe Edward Panetta Electronic Version Approved: Maureen Grasso Dean of the Graduate School The University of Georgia August 2007 iv TABLE OF CONTENTS Page CHAPTER 1 THE SPEECHES OF JEFFERSON DAVIS AND THE DEBATE OVER CONFEDERATE NATIONALISM: A SPACE FOR RHETORICAL STUDIES ..1 Literature Review......................................................................................................3 Critical Approach ....................................................................................................19 Chapter Outline .......................................................................................................22 Chapter Endnotes ....................................................................................................28 2 THE MYSTIC CHORDS OF SEPARATION: DAVIS’S RESIGNATION FROM THE SENATE.........................................................................................................34 Davis’s Resignation: Baptism by Fire-eaters ..........................................................39 A Peaceful Separation: Davis and Decorum ...........................................................44 Conclusion...............................................................................................................65 Chapter Endnotes ....................................................................................................67 3 A TALE OF TWO SOUTHS: SECESSION AND CIVIC REPUBLICANISM IN DAVIS’S INAUGURAL ADDRESS .....................................................................74 Davis’s Election ......................................................................................................75 Civic Republicanism: A (Southern) Performative Tradition ..................................78 Davis’s Inaugural Address: Civic Republicanism in the Age of Secession............86 Simple Farmers: Davis’s Vision of the Confederacy..............................................96 v Conclusion.............................................................................................................101 Chapter Endnotes ..................................................................................................104 4 A WRETCHED ENEMY AT THE GATE: AMPLIFICATION IN DAVIS’S DEFENSE OF CONSCRIPTION .........................................................................109 Conscription and Confederate Desperation...........................................................111 Davis’s Defense of Conscription: Combining Policy and Value Arguments .......117 Amplification: Making the Enemy Stronger.........................................................122 Conclusion: Amplification and Confederate Identity ...........................................129 Chapter Endnotes ..................................................................................................133 5 WAR RHETORIC ON THE BRINK OF DESTRUCTION: DAVIS AND CONDITIONAL EMANCIPATION ....................................................................137 Current Approaches to War Rhetoric: Initiation and Legitimation.......................140 Context of the Emancipation Debate.....................................................................142 Rhetorical Strategies for Legitimation ..................................................................149 Davis Proposes Emancipation...............................................................................154 Conclusion.............................................................................................................158 Chapter Endnotes ..................................................................................................162 6 CONCLUSION..........................................................................................................168 Davis’s Vision and Confederate Defeat ................................................................169 Davis’s Vision and the Lost Cause........................................................................177 The Successes and Failures of Davis the Rhetor...................................................179 Chapter Endnotes ..................................................................................................183 vi REFERENCES ............................................................................................................................184 PRINTED PRIMARY SOURCES ..............................................................................................194 1 CHAPTER 1 THE SPEECHES OF JEFFERSON DAVIS AND THE DEBATE OVER CONFEDERATE NATIONALISM: A SPACE FOR RHETORICAL STUDIES Before December 20, 1860, Jefferson Davis’s resume was quite impressive. He took advantage of his family’s wealth and power to achieve an admirable career at West Point. He used his military education to propel him into the national spotlight as a hero in the Mexican war. He used his national fame to forge a political career that included the prestigious positions of Secretary of War under Franklin Pierce and United States senator from Mississippi. Davis’s resume was so impressive that he had even become a potential presidential candidate for the Democratic Party. These achievements, however, were overshadowed by the events that followed South Carolina’s ordinance of secession on December 20, 1860. South Carolina’s bold move set into motion a political and social revolution that threatened to dismantle the United States of America. Reluctantly, Davis accepted the Presidency of the Confederate States of America and is known today for his role as the leader of the Southern rebellion. A cursory glance at the devastation generated by the Civil War demonstrates how important it is to treat Davis as a serious object of study. According to James McPherson, “More Americans were killed … at the battle of Antietam than were killed or mortally wounded in combat in all of the other wars fought by the United States in the nineteenth century combined.”1 In addition to the military and civilian deaths, the South endured great suffering as a result of having the majority of the war fought on its territory. Throughout the devastation, although not without objection, Davis maintained his position as the military and civilian leader of the Confederacy. In short, as president of the Confederacy, Jefferson Davis was one of the few 2 people in the history of the United States to command a large scale military and political campaign against the federal government. The campaign failed, but not without requiring significant sacrifices. The point of this project is not to celebrate Davis’s views on secession and slavery or even to attempt to separate him from them; to the contrary, I am interested in examining how Davis’s vision of the Confederacy gained enough traction to sustain the wartime sacrifices required in the losing effort. Careful attention to the public speeches of Jefferson Davis is appropriate for understanding his vision for the Confederacy. In addition to helping understand Southern sacrifice, studying the speeches of Davis has the potential to contribute to several important conversations regarding the role of nationalism in the creation and maintenance of state institutions, the role of war rhetoric in the creation and maintenance of national identity and values, the role (if any) of Davis’s vision of the Confederacy in its ultimate defeat, and judgments about Davis’s overall rhetorical competence. In order to demonstrate that Davis’s speeches are worthy of attention, this introduction moves in three stages. First, I review the literature surrounding nationalism, Southern culture and politics, Confederate nationalism, and Jefferson Davis. The review demonstrates that, despite his status as a powerful agent of change, communication scholars have largely ignored Davis and as a consequence have ignored his relationship to studies of Confederate nationalism. Second, I outline a critical approach to the speeches of Jefferson Davis. In that section, I argue that the project calls for a blend of traditional rhetorical history and constitutive approaches to rhetoric. Third, I conclude this chapter with an outline of the major case studies to demonstrate the scope of the dissertation. 3 Literature Review Investigating the