Statesmen of the Lost Cause: Jefferson Davis and His Cabinet
New York: Literary Guild of America, 1939. Hardcover. 452 pages, illustrations, chronology, bibliography, index, discolor inside boards, name of previous owner scribbled out on front flyleaf. DJ worn: small tears, small pieces missing. His main thesis is that the failure of the cause rested on two main issues, -- that the statesmen did not measure up to the military leaders, and that the Confederacy was founded on a principle that made impossible the orderly conduct of public affairs. He takes his men individually; he views them collectively; he sees them as personalities; he sees them as factors in the running of a machine, and hesitates not at all in pointing out their adequacies and inadequacies to the issue before them. Davis himself, Stephens, Toombs, Cobb, Seddon, Benjamin --all more vital to the ultimate history of the Confederacy than many whose names are better known to the average American. A study of civil aspects rather than military. Important for schools, colleges, public libraries and students of American history. More