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| Prof. A.T. Bledsoe |
The War Between the States had ended a few months before, and Jefferson Davis, the ousted president of the Confederate States of America, was being held as a prisoner of war by the United States government. He was imprisoned at Fortress Monroe in cruel conditions, indicted for treason, and looking forward to a trial and the opportunity to vindicate the Southern states. However, many vengeful northerners waved the bloody shirt and were eager to see Davis hang.
The U.S. government, however, had a huge problem: the law was not on their side.
Is Davis a Traitor? or Was Secession a Constitutional Right previous to the War of 1861? came out as the country was in a quandary about the fate of President Davis. This work is a scholarly refutation of the "national" theory of the United States, which was a repudiation and misrepresentation of the nature of the American Union according to the Constitution.
With grave concerns about the crisis of Davis (and thus the South) possibly being vindicated by a court of law, the federal government opted to release him from prison without a trial. Many credit Bledsoe's book for Davis's liberation. Owing to a loophole, unlike amnesty measures that restored citizenship to former confederate citizens, Davis's U.S. citizenship was not restored during his lifetime. It was, however, reinstated posthumously in 1978 under U.S. President Jimmy Carter.
The book is today in the public domain and inexpensive. Many people have asked me for the title of a concise book that presents the Southern side of the secession question. This is a very good example.
As a bonus, historian Brion McClanahan of the Abbeville Institute led a five-part study of the book! Dr. McClanahan was the last Ph.D. student of the legendary scholar and professor, Clyde N. Wilson, and is the author of numerous books pertaining to American History.
His videos of the study of IDAT? are linked here. Thank you, Dr. McClanahan!:
Thank you! I just purchased the book. I've added to the dozen or so I've gotten on the subject of the South and/or War Between the States. I'm still making my way through the first volume of Shelby Foote's Civil War. Thanks for the links to the Abbeville study; I'll bookmark these for viewing when I read the book.
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