Editing Jefferson Davis (section)

==Political views on slavery==
[[File:Brierfield Plantation House, owned by Jefferson Davis, 1866.jpg|thumb|upright=1.2|Sketch of Davis's [[Brierfield Plantation]] by [[Alfred Waud]] (1866)|alt=house with columns in the front, two trees- one right, one left- in foreground, figures walking on porch of building and in foreground.]]
During his years as a senator, Davis was an advocate for the Southern states' right to slavery.
In an 1848 speech on the Oregon Bill,{{sfn|Davis|1848}} he argued for a [[Strict constructionism|strict constructionist]] understanding of the Constitution. He insisted that the states are sovereign, all powers of the federal government are granted by those states,{{sfn|Cooper|2008|pp=34–35}} the Constitution recognized the right of states to allow citizens to have slaves as property, and the federal government was obligated to defend encroachments upon this right.{{sfn|Huston|1999|pp=280–281}} In his February 13–14, 1850 speech,{{sfn|Davis|1850}} Davis declared that slaveholders must be allowed to bring their slaves into federal territories.{{sfnm|Bordewich|2012|1p=148|Davis|1991|2p=194}} He stated that slavery does not need to be justified: it was sanctioned by religion and history.{{sfn|Huston|1999|p=281}} He claimed that African Americans were destined for bondage,{{sfn|Bordewich|2012|pp=146–147}} and their enslavement was a civilizing blessing to them{{sfn|Woods|2020|p=[{{Google books|id=fPXGDwAAQBAJ|pg=PA101|plainurl=yes}} 101]}} that brought economic and social good to everyone.{{sfn|Bordewich|2012|pp=148–149}}

Davis's speeches after secession acknowledged the relationship between the Confederacy and slavery. In his resignation speech to the Senate, delivered 12 days after his state seceded, he said Mississippi "has heard proclaimed the theory that all men are created free and equal, and this made the basis of an attack upon her social institutions and the sacred Declaration of Independence has been invoked to maintain the position of the equality of the races."{{sfn|Davis|1861a}} In his February 1861 inaugural speech as provisional president of the Confederacy,{{sfn|Davis|1861b}} Davis asserted that the Confederate Constitution, which explicitly prevented Congress from passing any law affecting African-American slavery and mandated its protection in all Confederate territories, was a return to the intent of the [[Founding Fathers of the United States|original founders]].{{sfn|Currie|2004|pp=1266–1267|ps=: see {{Harvnb|Confederate Congress|1861|loc= art. I, §9 cl. 4; art. IV, §3 cl. 3}}}} When he spoke to Congress in April on the ratification of the Constitution,{{sfn|Davis|1861c}} he stated that the war was caused by Northerners whose desire to end slavery would destroy Southern property worth millions of dollars."{{sfn|Stampp|1980|pp=192–193}} In his 1863 address to the Confederate Congress,{{sfn|Davis|1863a}} Davis denounced the Emancipation Proclamation as evidence of the North's long-standing intention to abolish slavery and doom African Americans, whom he called an inferior [[race (human categorization)|race]], to extermination.{{sfn|Davis|1991|p=495}}