Editing Jefferson Davis (section)

===Civil War policies===
====National policy====
[[File:Jefferson Davis and his cabinet2, published by Thomas Kelly, New York.jpg|thumb|left|upright=1.2|Colorized print of Jefferson Davis and his first cabinet with General [[Robert E. Lee]], published by Thomas Kelly (1897){{efn|From left to right: [[Stephen Mallory]], [[Judah P. Benjamin]], [[LeRoy Pope Walker]], Jefferson Davis, Robert E. Lee, [[John H. Reagan]], [[Christopher Memminger]], [[Alexander H. Stephens]], and [[Robert Toombs]]{{sfn|Neely|Holzer|Boritt|1987|pp=185, 247}}}}|alt=Six men sitting around a table looking forward, one man, Robert E. Lee, is standing up pointing toward a map]]
Davis's central concern during the war was to achieve Confederate independence.{{sfnm|Cooper|2008|1p=82|McPherson|2014|2p=10}} After [[Virginia in the American Civil War|Virginia seceded]], the [[provisional government]] of the Confederacy moved the capital to Richmond.{{sfn|Davis|1991|p=336}} The Confederate federal government had almost no institutional structures in place,{{sfn|Davis|1991|p=703}} lacking an army, navy, treasury, diplomatic missions, and bureaucracy.{{sfn|Cooper|Terrill|1991|p=358}} Davis had to work with the Confederate Congress quickly to create them.{{sfn|Hattaway|Beringer|2002|pp=42–45}}

Though Davis supported states' rights, he believed the Confederate constitution empowered him with the right to centralize authority to prosecute the war. He worked with the Congress to bring military facilities in the South, which had been controlled by the states, under Confederate authority.{{sfn|Escott|1978|pp=54–55}} Confederate governors wanted their states' militia available for local defense. Davis knew he needed to deploy military forces to defend the Confederacy as a whole and [[Confederate States Army|created a centralized army]] that could enlist volunteers directly.{{sfn|Escott|1978|pp=55–57}} When soldiers in the volunteer army seemed unwilling to re-enlist in 1862, Davis instituted the first [[Confederate Conscription Acts 1862–1864|conscription]] in American history.{{sfnm|Cooper|2008|1p=38|Roland|1991|2p=106}} He received authorization from Congress to suspend the [[habeas corpus|writ of habeas corpus]] when needed.{{sfn|McPherson|2014|pp=73–74}} In 1864, he challenged property rights by recommending a direct 5% tax on land and slaves,{{sfn|Hattaway|Beringer|2002|pp=272–273}} and implemented the impressment of supplies and slave labor for the military effort.{{sfnm|1a1=Escott|1y=2009|1pp=159–156|2a1=Hattaway|2a2=Beringer|2y=2002|2p=47}} In 1865, Davis's commitment to independence led him to even compromise slavery when he advocated for allowing African Americans to earn their freedom by serving in the military.{{sfn|McPherson|2014|pp=228–231}} These policies made him unpopular with states' rights advocates and state governors, who saw him as creating the same kind of government they had seceded from.{{sfn|Davis|1991|p=536}}

====Foreign policy====
{{see also|King Cotton|Cotton diplomacy}}
[[File:Cotton is king.jpg|thumb|An 1861 American [[political cartoon]] depicting [[John Bull]] kneeling on a Black slave before [[King Cotton]], accompanied by a poem mocking Britain's dependence on Southern cotton|alt=man in tophat with script coming out of pocket that says Manchester kneeling on an African American bowing before a bale of cotton depicted with a face and scepter and a crown on top of it.]]

The main objective of Davis's foreign policy was to achieve foreign recognition,{{sfn|Beckert|2004|p=1417}} allowing the Confederacy to secure international loans, receive foreign aid to open trade,{{sfn|Eaton|1977|p=169}} and provide the possibility of a military alliance. Davis was confident that most European nations' economic [[King Cotton|dependence on cotton]] from the South would quickly convince them to sign treaties with the Confederacy.{{sfnm|1a1=Hattaway|1a2=Beringer|1y=2002|1pp=50–51|2a1=Hubbard|2y=1998|2p=23}} Cotton had made up 61% of the value of all U.S. exports and the South filled most of the European cloth industry's need for cheap imported raw cotton.{{sfn|Beckert|2015|p=243}}

There was no consensus on how to use cotton to gain European support. Davis did not want an [[embargo]] on cotton,{{sfn|Owsley|1959|p=30}} he wanted to make cotton available to European nations, but require them to acquire it by violating the [[Union blockade|blockade]] declared by the Union. The majority of Congress wanted an embargo to coerce Europe to help the South.{{sfn|Hubbard|1998|pp=25–26}} Though there was no official policy, cotton was effectively embargoed.{{sfn|Owsley|1959|pp=32–39}} By 1862, the price of cotton in Europe had quadrupled and European imports of cotton from the United States were down 96%,{{sfn|Beckert|2015|p=247}} but instead of joining with the Confederacy, European cotton manufacturers found new sources, such as India, Egypt and Brazil.{{sfn|Beckert|2004|pp=1410–1414}} By the end of the war, not a single foreign nation had recognized the Confederate States of America.{{sfn|U.S. Department of State|2013}}

====Financial policy====
{{see also|Confederate war finance}}
[[File:CSA-T16-$50-1862.jpg|thumb|upright=1.2|left|Davis $50 [[Confederate States dollar|Confederate States treasury note]] issued between April and December 1862|alt=$50 confederate bill with man's profile, man looking right]]

Davis did not take executive action to create the needed financial structure for the Confederacy. He knew very little about public finance, largely deferring to Secretary of the Treasury Memminger.{{sfn|Ball|1991|pp=9–11}} Memminger's knowledge of economics was limited, and he was ineffective at getting Congress to listen to his suggestions.{{sfnm|Ball|1991|1p=9|Todd|1954|p=1}} Until 1863, Davis's reports on the financial state of the Confederacy to Congress tended to be unduly optimistic.{{sfn|Ball|1991|p=8}}

Davis's failure to argue for needed financial reform allowed Congress to avoid unpopular economic measures,{{sfn|Ball|1991|p=8}} such as taxing planters' property{{sfnm|1a1=Ball|1y=1991|1p=234|2a1=Hattaway|2a2=Beringer|2y=2002|2p=200}}—both land and slaves—that made up two-thirds of the South's wealth.{{sfn|Eaton|1977|p=199}} At first the government thought it could raise money with a low export tax on cotton,{{sfn|Ball|1991|p=208}} but the blockade prevented this. In his opening address to the fourth session of Congress in December 1863,{{sfn|Davis|1863b|pp=363–367}} Davis demanded the Congress pass a direct tax on property despite the constitution.{{sfn|Hattaway|Beringer|2002|pp=272–274}} Congress complied, but the tax had too many loopholes and exceptions,{{sfn|Hattaway|Beringer|2002|pp=275–276}} and failed to produce the needed revenue.{{sfn|Todd|1954|pp=144–145}} Throughout the existence of the Confederacy, taxes accounted for only one-fourteenth of the government's income;{{sfn|Todd|1958|p=409}} consequently, the government printed money to fund the war, destroying the value of the Confederate currency.{{sfn|Eaton|1977|p=200}} By 1865, the government was relying on impressments to fill the gaps caused by lack of finances.{{sfn|Hattaway|Beringer|2002|pp=46–47}}