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Auction: 317 - The Collector's Series
Lot: 1073

Civil War: Davis, Jefferson Finis. President of the Confederate States of America, Secretary of War under President Franklin Pierce, Democratic Senator from Mississippi; characterized by most historians as "stiff-necked, unbending, doctrinaire and over-bearing," Davis proved a far less effective leader than his counterpart Abraham Lincoln; following the end of the Civil War, southerners growingly identified with Davis' defiance, pride, ideals, refusal to accept defeat and his resistance to Reconstruction, and he became a hero in the eyes of the South. Original Virginia Electoral Ticket for Presidency of the CSA, 1861. On pale blue-gray pelure, 4 ¼ x 5". Jefferson Davis for President, Alex. H. Stephens of Georgia for Vice-President, two nominees for the state at large and 16 for the districts. Signed on the back in browning ink, "S.S. Nottingham". Following Mississippi's succession on Jan. 9, 1861, Davis delivered a farewell address, on what he called "the saddest day of my life," to the US Senate, resigned and returned to Mississippi. On Jan. 23, Governor John J. Pettus made Davis a major-general of the Army of Mississippi. On Feb. 9, a constitutional convention at Montgomery, Alabama, considered Davis, Howell Cobb, Alexander Stephens and Robert Toombs for the office of provisional president of the Confederate States. Stephens was the choice of all present, but he was unwilling to agree to fire the first shot in the anticipated war. The delegates thus chose Davis who was elected without opposition to a six-year term beginning that November. Minor diagonal crease upper left and trivial edge wrinkle, Near Fine. A clean and pleasing example of this uncommon, historic electoral ticket.

Sold for
$250