The Rise And Fall Of The Confederate Government. Two Volumes

JEFFERSON DAVIS

Publication: D Appleton and Company, 1881, New York

First edition. Two volumes. Octavo. xxi, [3], 707, [1 (blank)], [4 (adverts)]; xvii, [3], 808, [4 (adverts)] pp., frontis, plates, portraits, maps. As issued, in original embossed cloth with C.S.A. seal in gold on the front cover; all plates and maps are present as called for including the 13 maps at the rear of Volume II, many of which are folding. 18 maps in total (14 folding) and 19 plates, including stipple-engraved portraits of Davis, members of the presidential staff, General Lee and others.

A two-volume history of the Confederacy written by Davis, the president of the Confederate States of America during the Civil War, as a defense and explanation of the Confederate cause during the war. He argues that the Southern states had a constitutional right to recede as the states voluntarily joined the Union and should be able to leave it. He gives detailed accounts of battles, leadership decisions and internal conflicts.

"As president of the Confederate States of America, Jefferson Davis directed the new nation's mighty struggle for independence. Born on the Kentucky frontier in the first decade of the 19th century, he witnessed and participated in the epochal transformation of the United States from fledgling country to a strong nation spanning the continent. His views, which he never recanted, were enshrined in his Rise and Fall, which was published in 1881" (Cooper, Jefferson Davis, xvii-xxi). Rise and Fall was Davis' "magnum opus." This was not a conventional memoir that tells the story of the subject's life. Instead, Rise and Fall was in large part a massive, legalistic, dense and impersonal defense of state's rights, secession, and Southern independence" (Swanson, 363). This is "probably the most scholarly recital of the 'states rights' arguments, since it was written by the leader of the movement after mature reflection" (Channing, 2156). "Every impartial reader must recognize the ability with which Davis' history is composed and the value which it possesses as the authentic commentary on the most momentous episode in the history of the United States" (Allibone Supplement I:461). "As President Davis' own account this book is obviously of great importance" -- In Tall Cotton 34. Dornbusch III, 182. "Conceals more than it reveals of the inner history of the Confederacy; mainly an argumentative dissertation on secession and states' rights" Nevins II, p.51.

Each volume lightly foxed throughout, light wear to the head of spine of each volume else a near fine bright clean set. An exceptionally nice set.