Thoughts on Jefferson Davis' 200th Birthday

Todd County has a lot to be proud of.

From its award-winning schools, beautiful scenery, friendly and welcoming people, and even an award-winning weekly newspaper, this is a wonderful place to live. During my time here, I have experienced good weather, better neighbors, and the best of pleasant country life.

Todd County even has a place in history. In 1905, U. S. Poet Laureate Robert Penn Warren was born in Guthrie. A museum, a WKU Center for Robert Penn Warren Studies, and even a commemorative postage stamp honor his contributions to the literary arts. What’s more, Todd County has produced two major league baseball players, Hugh Poland and Kent Greenfield. Greenfield won 41 games for the New York Giants and Boston Braves in the 1920’s. Poland spent parts of five seasons as a major league catcher.

Todd County certainly has a lot to be proud of. And then there’s Jefferson Davis.

“Jeff,” as he is known to some locals, was born in Fairview. He did not live there long, moving to Mississippi at age two and not returning for almost eighty years (and then only for a weekend). Yet somehow, he is a celebrated figure in the history of Todd County.

Make no mistake. Like any human life, there are many facets to the Jefferson Davis story. He was a war hero. (Of course, so was Benedict Arnold, but we musn’t let one event cloud the rest of the story overmuch, right?) He was politically well-connected, serving as both a Congressman and Senator from Mississippi. He was Zachary Taylor’s son-in-law and Franklin Pierce’s Secretary of War. He was even the first to publicly suggest the building of a transcontinental railroad.

But we must not – in good conscience, we cannot – overlook the fact that Jefferson Davis led the most dangerous insurrection ever mounted against the United States of America. When threatened with the prospect of African slaves living side-by-side in free society with Caucasians, Davis took thirteen states to war to prevent it. And in case one might suspect other motives (states rights, etc.), consider Davis’ own words:

“Everything around . . . [speaks] eloquently of the wisdom of the men who founded these colonies – their descendants . . . contrasted strongly, as did their history and present power, stand out in bold relief, when compared with those of the inhabitants of Central and Southern America.

Chief among the reasons for this . . . the self-reliant hardihood of their forefathers who, when but a handful, found themselves confronted by hordes of savages, yet proudly maintained the integrity of their race and asserted its supremacy over the descendants of Shem, in whose tents they had come to dwell. They preferred to encounter toil, privation and carnage, rather than debase their lineage and race. Their descendants of that pure and heroic blood have advanced to the high standard of civilization attainable by that type of mankind. Stability and progress, wealth and comfort, art and science, have followed their footsteps.

Among our neighbors of Central and Southern America, we see the Caucasian mingled with the Indian and the African. They have the forms of free government, because they have copied them. To its benefits they have not attained, because that standard of civilization is above their race. Revolution succeeds Revolution, and the country mourns that some petty chief may triumph, and through a sixty days' government ape the rulers of the earth. Even now the nearest and strongest of these American Republics, which were fashioned after the model of our own, seems to be tottering to a fall, and the world is inquiring as to who will take possession; or, as protector, raise and lead a people who have shown themselves incompetent to govern themselves.” – Jefferson Davis, addressing the Democratic Convention at Portland, Maine (August 24, 1858) [Emphasis Added]

For Davis, the primary issue in the Civil War was not states’ rights, personal property, culture, or even the propagation of slavery. Davis was fighting for racial purity.

And Todd County wants to honor this? Our award-winning newspaper wants to celebrate the 200th birthday of a traitorous bigot? I mean, it’s one thing to build a park and an obelisk that not-so-subtly reminds one of the Washington Monument, but that was over 90 years ago, and what’s done is done. But by continuing to celebrate this man, we tacitly endorse his legacy and ideals.

To me, the truly sad part of this story is that for some reason, people in Todd County feel the need to honor Davis, as though if we don’t celebrate him, we don’t have anything else to be proud of. That notion I will challenge loudly. By most standards, I haven’t lived here long – just over three years. But I’ve been here long enough to know that this is a wonderful place, one that anyone of any skin color, any national heritage, or any religion can be justifiably proud to call home.

Todd County has a lot to be proud of. We don’t need Jefferson Davis to validate our place in history. We’re better than this.