Kentucky's Other President: Jefferson Davis | President's Day | Kentucky Life | KET

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KET - Kentucky Educational Television
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Published 2014-02-17
Kentucky's Other President: Jefferson Davis

Both Civil War presidents were born in Kentucky. Jefferson Davis, a soldier and statesman who went on to become the president of the Confederate States of America, was born just eight months earlier than Lincoln, on June 3, 1808, and only 100 miles away, in Fairview, here in Christian County. Historians James Klotter and James Ramage offer their views on the similarities and differences between Lincoln and Davis.

Like Lincoln's family, Davis's family left Kentucky during his youth. Davis's family moved first to Louisiana and then to Mississippi. Davis had years of formal schooling Lincoln never had. He returned to Kentucky for portions of his schooling. He was educated at a Catholic school in Springfield—where he was the only Protestant student—and at Transylvania University in Lexington, a training ground for many prominent politicians of the day.

Lincoln married a Kentucky native, Mary Todd of Lexington. Davis's first wife, Sarah, had Kentucky ties: She was Zachary Taylor's daughter. It was an ill-fated union. Taylor opposed the marriage; and Sarah died three months after the wedding of malaria, in 1835. It would be a decade before Davis married again.

In Illinois, Lincoln was defeated by Stephen Douglas in his run for the U.S. Senate. In Mississippi, Davis was twice elected U.S. senator: He was appointed to a vacant seat in 1847, then won election and held the seat until 1851. He returned to the Senate a second time, in 1857, resigning in 1861 when Mississippi seceded from the Union.

Later in his life, Davis always identified himself as a Kentuckian. He is remembered here with a 351-foot-tall concrete obelisk located at the Jefferson Davis State Historic Site in Fairview. Dedicated in 1924, it's the fifth tallest monument in America.
All Comments (21)
  • @NCLUSA
    My Grand Father's name was JD Lewis, guess what the JD stood for ?.
  • @barbiquearea
    Ironically during his second term as a senator of Mississippi, Davis made a lot speeches against secession and did not believe states had the right to secede.
  • @outdoorlife5396
    He might have been more loved, if he had of not made some of his decisions based on who is friends were. Best example is he stuck up for Bragg, when he was the problem. He also gave Hood a command when he should have been anywhere but in command of an army.
  • @Fire_82
    I have to do my stupid home work :(
  • @natethegreat9977
    Wow JD was kinda a tragic figure. I feel like he and Lincoln were different sides of the same coin seeing as they both wanted to preserve the union
  • @lawrencecates8402
    Jefferson Davis was a Great Man a Godly Man and a Great Leader . Much more honest than Abe Lincoln.
  • @avecmoi9429
    Complete nemeses. Kentucky s noted for whiskey more, even before the Civil War, Georgetown was founded in 1789. There were much better places than Kentucky for education. There was slavery there in DC and it was definitely in the South. This Kentucky announcer must be hitting the sauce early.
  • @johnsonslawnserviceministr4038
    Jefferson Davis should’ve stayed where he was and not messed up the south the cross dresser/special Ed Jefferson Davis should’ve stayed up where he was
  • @oOBubbleStreamOo
    He was a criminal maniac thinking that it's okay to "own" human beings like objects
  • @jameslawracy2666
    He was a president of a group of rebels. Never the president of a country. The continued idolatry of a traitor is mind boggling.