Jefferson Davis examines the historical, political, and legal foundations of the American Union, arguing that the Southern States possessed the legitimate power to secede. The text begins with a detailed retrospect of early legislation regarding African servitude, demonstrating that the institution was an incident rather than the primary cause of sectional controversies. Davis traces the long-standing struggle for the balance of political power, pointing to unequal accessions of territory and the oppressive impact of protective tariffs that favored the Northern manufacturing states at the expense of the Southern agricultural economy. He examines the framing of the Federal Constitution in seventeen eighty-seven, analyzing the debates of the Convention and the ratification processes of the several states to prove that sovereignty remained exclusively with the states rather than residing in a consolidated national populace.
The narrative covers the various legislative compromises, the growing intensity of abolitionist agitation, the nullification of constitutional obligations by Northern personal liberty laws, and the persistent failure of Congress to protect the equal rights of all states in the common territories. Davis retells the final efforts at reconciliation during the closing months of eighteen sixty, detailing the rejection of compromise propositions by Northern representatives and the consequent realization that peaceful separation was the only remaining alternative to preserve honor and constitutional liberty. The work concludes with an analysis of the legal and historical precedents for secession, citing numerous examples from New England history to establish that the withdrawal of sovereign states was recognized as a legitimate remedy before passions and prejudices obscured the original character of the Federal compact.
