Jefferson+Davis


 * Name**: **Jefferson** Finis **Davis**
 * Age (as of 1850)**: 42
 * Gender**: Male
 * Occupation**: Politician; U.S. Senator from Mississippi; Secretary of War under Pierce Administration; President of the Confederate States of America
 * If in politics, what was your occupation prior to that**: Colonel serving in the Mexican-American War
 * Social Class**: High-ranking aristocrat, popular in his successes as military leader and politician
 * Financial Situation**: Befitting to his aristocratic elegance
 * Appearance**: Perennially dressed in stately black, complete with immaculate beard and pointy nose; resembles hawk in facial appearance
 * Location**: Mostly Mississippi
 * Daily Routine**:
 * Personality/Quirks/Unique Personality Traits**: Rather academic, especially in the writing sense (is portrayed to that effect among
 * Past/Individual and family history**: Youngest son of ten children, fathered by Samuel Emory Davis and mothered by Jane Cook; family history is entwined with American military campaigns such as the American Revolutionary War and the Battle of New Orleans;
 * Family**: Married to Varina Howell Davis; fathered six children, only one of whom survive childhood and marriage
 * Social relations with others**:
 * Religion**: Protestant believer
 * Education**: A well-completed education, full with colle
 * Conflicts/Enemies**:




 * Journal 1: // The time frame is sometime during the year 1850. Consider all of the things that have taken place during the previous five years (Mexican-American War, Mexican Cession, Wilmot Proviso, Compromise of 1850, Fugitive Slave Act). You are free to write about any one (or more) of these things in your journal entry. Be sure to include your actions in response to one (or more) of these events. //**

Oh, lo and behold – it seems that disaster lies ahead for America.

It remains a condition of man (potentially regrettable, but all the more desirable) that we strive for riches and power. In this sense, the American man is no different from those aristocratic wretches who dwell an ocean away; and indeed, what warrants any difference at all? Hath not God carved us all out of the same flesh, the same divine magic weaved within? We merit our chances to meet those faraway Asians, to gaze upon the Pacific in confidence. There is nothing to be lamented over the Mexican Cession, when we the blessed people satisfied our continental destinies. Power should be seized and admired; compassion comes from the weak and the lighthearted.

But such blithe solicitude is not to be seen in our politics, which is fraught with the most menacing figures God dared to create. Bloodshed (of the metaphorical kind) occurs daily in Congress, where those abolitionist northerners – who know nothing of life and values – and we the noble southerners find cause for contention in housing those damned Negroes. The question of slavery wields an obvious answer, and yet the northerners wish to respond with nonsense. Mind, do they even remotely minister to these Negroes' welfare? Does anyone? Not even we, ever-protective and truly pitiful of their inferior condition, bear any emotive niceties towards those creatures of filth. And yet those depraved northerners, those New Englanders who know nothing of southern necessities, dare to pass the balderdash that is the Wilmot Proviso. Under what authority? Their very spectral own. Imbeciles like Wilmot and Tallmadge assume so wistful things – at our expense. Damn these men! This very debate angers me greatly, even in my most private being. The Compromise of 1850 hath favored the North enough with such outrageous proposals – why shall we slaveholders relent to our abolitionist enemies? Indeed, and for how long must we relinquish our powers?

It seems almost inevitable that all Hell's entrails with break loose at any moment. This matter must be resolved quickly and efficiently – but a resolution, a compromise seems impossible. May God bestow mercy on us all – or perhaps, at least His noble slaveholding soldiers, for we hath followed His most Powerful will.


 * Journal 2:** //**The year is now 1852. Continue your story as you began in Journal #1. (For this journal entry and all subsequent entries, you must interact with at least two other characters in each journal entry. When you interact with another character, provide a hyperlink to that character's page in your journal entry.)**//

Since my departure from the Senate, much has materialized. Why, God hath handed me an occupation needing handling, namely advertising the campaign of my dearest Franklin Pierce in the South. Mr. Pierce is a great man, a Democrat of worthy stature and charisma, hailing from New Hampshire, and if we count him a northerner, he is no wretch - many in the South know of his blood and identity as their very own. The man knows of the responsibilities that come with the Presidency. Honored by God he must be! - as we all are.

Oh, but without this occupation, my life would be one bore. I had been expelled from the Senate, powerless against the will of the nation; if the United States of America so desire the Compromise of 1850, let us have it, I say! Never mind my own predilections, which serve the nation first and foremost above any other; never mind my prophecies of peril, especially for the South, should the Compromise be passed. But Compromise hath been the ultimate byword of American politics, and the grand one of 1850 was certain to be passed. Oh, those wretched northerners and their deranged desire for abolition! I say, they only care for political brunt and nothing more; those damned Negroes deserve our ministry. The South hath been bestowed a Godly gift; we are empowered by the Word. Those damned abolitionists, those Garrisons and Douglasses of yore, will to destroy a most divine mandate. Why must the northerners revile the sacrosanct?

O, it hath been many a year since I have found room in my diary to talk of more cheerful things. Such monsters sicken me to the extreme – they hath given themselves the prerogative to govern this land, much to our distaste. Distaste? No, more than distaste – foul creatures, they are! O, I hear of Stephen Douglas, that Little Giant, who plan to move the Transcontinental Railroad northward! What kind of wretched conspiracy is this! They fear for our well-being and success; they fear that slavery shall yield delightful propositions for us the lovers of the institution. They fear for slavery's expansion and for them bathing in God's glory! O, what strange intentions they have! They burden us with the destruction of our institution and the adulteration of our economy; they prize themselves with riches, yet deface themselves with the most Devilish corruption! Shame on them!

**Journal 3:** //**It's 1854... the Kansas-Nebraska Act has passed. Squatters are now moving into Kansas in an attempt to sway the vote. Continue your story...**// Oh, what a spectacular travesty Douglas has created!

While I know only of loyalty to the Democratic cause, and while I can only commend our Presidential administration, spearheaded by the great Franklin Pierce, and while I can only speak of Stephen Douglas with great fondness, the Kansas-Nebraska Act has shown the Union at its corrupt best. Why, I was merely looking through a newspaper when I beheld a lamentable, yet euphoric scene:

Douglas hath resorted to a brave yet cowardly compromise to the entire affair, and I applaud him for such astounding effect. The Missouri Compromise has been rendered void. Northern territories, for the first time, are open to the brilliant institution that is slavery. We now know of a marvelous precedent to what shall invoke greater power to the slaveholders, those servants of Divine will. Those wretched Free-soilers shall find their policy a lost cause, a lamb wayward from its home. Popular sovereignty, which hath been mandated within the Kansas and Nebraska Territories, is a golden opportunity extort the virtues of slavery in Northern Territory. God's desires shall be fulfilled in these pastures at long last.

But the manner in which such noble policies have been implemented come to me as a great shock. Douglas hath resorted to a compromise all the same, and corruption now abounds in these lands. But Douglas deserves the results of such compromise, for northerners have retaliated with a grave sort of uproar. He hath attempted to destroy the slaveholders' economy by benefiting themselves with riches, and the only notable result from such efforts have been that nationwide panic at the question of slavery, which hath graciously subsided over the last few years, have begun to disturb us all with no penitence. We have, indeed, forced slavery down the throat of the Free-soilers, and such coercion surely cannot provide the optimal consequences. See the men in suits, grave-faced and somber, flinging that black wretch down the giant's throat: how would the Northerners react to such magnanimity? With further depravity, surely; with the uneducated and the adulterous and the debauched ideologies of freedom, with their dangerous obsessions with manpower and political leverage. It is a spectacle, indeed, that this policy may come to magnificent effect; but it is still a tragic spectacle, and the Union is faced with treacherous prospects. We ought not entertain the notion of secession until we receive a most crystalline signal – a sign that the Union is breaking is the definitive sign for us to abandon ship.

**Journal 4:** //**It's now 1856. Bleeding Kansas has just taken place and John Brown emerged on to the scene. Buchanan was just elected as the US President. Dred Scott is arrested and is about to be brought to trial. Continue your story.**//

Much has happened in our blessed lands, and lo and behold, so much more is yet to occur.

John Brown, that wretch, that pervert of a man – he hath murdered the whitest of whites in the name of abolitionism. What terrible deviant he is! How dare he question the Divine Mandate, the Heavenly order of slavery! He dreams of egalitarianism to roam amongst the races – delusional, I say. What precedent shall he present to even entertain such an irrational notion? Must he kill our people for his crazed visions? I say he is demonic, a depraved monster of Lucifer's will. Freedom cannot dwell on a land destined for opportunity and carved for God-given success; does Brown not understand this notion?

Kansas has wept tears of crimson this year, sometimes for the right and others for the wrong. The Pottawatomie Massacre, for one, was an act of horrid misfortune – Brown and his antislavery ruffians shall visit the Devil for that! The sacking of Lawrence, meanwhile, was of brave conduct. God promised brimstone for Sodom and Gomorrah; God commanded the Israelites to vandalize the Midianites; and God accordingly told us to demolish the abolitionist spirit of Kansas, the antislavery sentiment that resided in the town of Lawrence. We hath rightly forced slavery down the Free-soilers' throats, and the expected outcome – bloodshed – hath been seen. It can only be a harbinger for more. Factions amongst the pro-slavery and the anti-slavery hath established themselves in separate quarters in Kansas – for good reason. Those abolitionist monsters hath set up a government in Topeka, where they hath drafted a Constitution; the noble slaveholders hath set up another in Lecompton, where they hath drafted another Constitution of equal measure. President-elect Buchanan must entertain Lecompton as ensure its passage through Congress – I am confident of success.

Franklin Pierce's presidency is nearing its end, and a seamless transition is imperative as always. James Buchanan, our President-elect, seems an odd character to have been afforded such a responsibility, but knows of politics. I am not afraid in this regard. Douglas hath shown ample evidence of the ineffectual nature of compromise – but how should Buchanan provide an alternative to appeasement? The question remains unanswered, yet it is imperative for Buchanan to answer it in panache. We ought not to be afraid of the future, and can only hope for the best. Buchanan, like the greats before him, knows of slavery's availing nature – Southerners need not fear the Northerner take office.

 **Journal 5: //The year is 1860. Lincoln was just elected as US President, prompting South Carolina to secede. Write the next chapter in your story.//**

The worst hath come for the Union – the Devil hath laid its thorns. O, what eventful day for the slaveholders! O, we have entertained a travesty that shall put imminent death to the Union, or imminent death to our fabled institution.

Abraham Lincoln, that lanky ruffian – one knows not how he gathered the honors of the Presidency. Hath there been advocates in the South? Hath there been slaveholders traitorous enough to embrace the rapscallion with open arms? Ere is the end of the Union. Unanimous dissent from the South – unanimous, I say! – is not enough for our Congress to change its course. Our most important opinions hath been rendered unimportant. Shall we follow South Carolina through the ignominy of secession and independence – may that lay brighter future in our arms? We may know in the years to come.

Even more objectionable hath been the Union’s unrepentant remorse – if such a thing shall exist. Look at its struggles for South Carolina’s return! Simply look at its moans and gasps for the Deep South’s reprieve! Well, if we shall garner our deserved prerogatives as slaveholders, then there seems no problem to that Senator Crittenden’s offers for compromise. History hath taught us of the evils of compromise – but at what cost shall we entertain the loss of our sixty-year-old nation? Ay, every option seems tolerable at this stage. Crittenden’s proposals show promise for our holy institution – and thus they deserve praise and consideration. Indeed, we cannot know as to Lincoln’s willingness to negotiate; shall he betray the platform upon which he promotes himself to the Presidency? Indeed, every option seems tolerable at this stage. It shall certainly make for an interesting Presidency if Lincoln were to preserve the Union in this manner: he shall go down in history as a deserved traitor, wretched as he is! Wretched as those monsters who espouse abolition – Brown, Douglass, we all know these abominations of men!

But if he were to honor his moral contract, his precious abolitionist precepts, what would that imply for us? Secession? If it means glory for the slave states – why, make no mistake about it, I approve gladly! God hath commanded that the Israelites destroy their bonds with the Sodomites and the Midianites; we, too, ought to sever our ties with the Union, who hath disrespected the Lord's Divine will! The South Carolinians, brave as they are, hath provided a fatal first step for the Union. Could the Union stand such a collapse – could Lincoln have a Presidency to honor at all? When divided, we ought to conquer – with secession shall come obvious war. And with a new war would come a new government, a new Constitution – of which I would contribute a verse or two! I hath said that the worst hath come for the Union; I may have been wrong, for I see even worse that is yet to come. 


 * Bibliography**

"Forcing Slavery Down the Throat of a Freesoiler" – http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/d7/Forcing_Slavery_Freesoilers_Throats.jpg