Editing Jefferson Davis (section)

==Senator and Secretary of War==
===Senator===
[[File:Jefferson Davis 1847.jpg|thumb|right|[[Daguerrotype]] of [[United States House of Representatives|Representative]] Davis of the [[29th U.S. Congress]] ({{circa}} 1846)|alt=man looking forward]]
Davis took his seat in December 1847 and was made a regent of the [[Smithsonian Institution]].{{sfn|Davis|1991|pp=172–173}} The [[Mississippi state legislature]] confirmed his appointment as [[senator]] in January 1848.{{sfn|Cooper|2000|p=183}} He quickly established himself as an advocate of expanding slavery into the [[Western territories]]. He argued that because the territories were the common property of all the United States and lacked state sovereignty to ban slavery, slave owners had the equal right to settle them as any other citizens.{{sfn|Cooper|2000|pp=170–171}} Davis tried to amend the [[Oregon Bill of 1848|Oregon Bill]] to allow settlers to bring their slaves into [[Oregon Territory]].{{sfnm|Davis|1991|1p=178|Eaton|1977|2p=68|Waite|2016|3pp=536–539}} He opposed ratifying the [[Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo]], which ended the Mexican–American War, claiming that [[Nicholas Trist]], who negotiated the treaty, had done so as a private citizen and not a government representative.{{sfn|Eisenhower|1990|pp=365–366}} Instead, he advocated negotiating a new treaty ceding additional land to the United States,{{sfn|Eaton|1977|p=65}} and opposed the application of the [[Wilmot Proviso]] to the treaty,{{sfn|Davis|1991|pp=165–166}} which would have banned slavery in any territory acquired from Mexico.{{sfn|Davis|1991|pp=186}}

During the 1848 presidential election, Davis chose not to campaign against Zachary Taylor, who was the [[Whig Party (United States)|Whig candidate]]. After the Senate session following Taylor's inauguration ended in March 1849, Davis returned to [[Brierfield Plantation]].{{sfn|Davis|1991|pp=184–185}} He was reelected by the state legislature for another six-year term in the Senate. Around this time, he was approached by the Venezuelan adventurer [[Narciso López]] to lead a [[filibuster (military)|filibuster]] expedition to liberate Cuba from Spain. He turned down the offer, saying it was inconsistent with his duty as a senator.{{sfn|Davis|1991|p=197}}

When Calhoun died in the spring of 1850, Davis became the senatorial spokesperson for the South.{{sfn|Davis|1991|pp=205–206}} The Congress debated [[Henry Clay]]'s resolutions, which sought to address the sectional and territorial problems of the nation{{sfn|Cooper|2000|pp=188–189}} and became the basis for the [[Compromise of 1850]].{{sfn|Eaton|1977|pp=75–76}} Davis was against the resolutions because he felt they would put the South at a political disadvantage.{{sfn|Cooper|2000|p=189}} He opposed the admission of California as a free state without its first becoming a territory, asserting that a territorial government would give slaveowners the opportunity to colonize the region. He also tried to extend the [[Missouri Compromise Line]] to allow slavery to expand to the Pacific Ocean.{{sfn|Cooper|2000|pp=191–192}} He stated that not allowing slavery into the new territories denied the political equality of Southerners,{{sfn|Cooper|2008|pp=92–93}} and threatened to undermine the balance of power between Northern and Southern states in the Senate.{{sfn|Eaton|1977|p=71}}

In the autumn of 1851, Davis was nominated to run for governor of Mississippi against [[Henry Stuart Foote]], who had favored the Compromise of 1850. He accepted the nomination and resigned from the Senate, but Foote won the election by a slim margin. Davis turned down a reappointment to his Senate seat by outgoing Governor [[James Whitfield (Mississippi politician)|James Whitfield]],{{sfn|Davis|1991|pp=214–217}} settling in Brierfield for the next fifteen months.{{sfn|Eaton|1977|pp=79–80}} He remained politically active, attending the Democratic convention in January 1852 and campaigning for Democratic candidates [[Franklin Pierce]] and [[William R. King]] during the [[1852 United States presidential election|presidential election of 1852]].{{sfn|Cooper|2000|pp=241–242}}

===Secretary of War===
[[File:Jefferson Davis 1853 daguerreotype-restored.png|thumb|[[Daguerreotype]] of [[United States Secretary of War]] Davis (1853)|alt=Portrait of Davis looking forward]]

In March 1853, President Franklin Pierce named Davis his [[United States Secretary of War|Secretary of War]].{{sfn|Wallner|2007|pp=5–6}} He championed a [[transcontinental railroad]] to the Pacific Ocean, arguing it was needed for national defense,{{sfn|Wallner|2007|p=52}} and was entrusted with overseeing the [[Pacific Railroad Surveys]] to determine which of four possible routes was the best.{{sfn|Wallner|2007|pp=40–41}} He promoted the [[Gadsden Purchase]] of today's southern [[Arizona]] from Mexico, partly because he preferred a southern route for the new railroad. The Pierce administration agreed and the land was purchased in December 1853.{{sfn|Waite|2016|pp=541–542}} He presented the surveys' findings in 1855, but they failed to clarify the best route and sectional problems prevented any choice being made.{{sfn|Wallner|2007|p=181}} Davis also argued for the acquisition of Cuba from Spain, seeing it as an opportunity to add the island, a strategic military location and potential slave state.{{sfnm|Cooper|2000|1p=265|Eaton|1977|2p=101}} He suggested that the size of the regular army was too small and that its salaries were too meagre. Congress agreed and authorized four new regiments and increased its pay scale.{{sfn|Cooper|2000|p=251}} He ended the manufacture of smoothbore muskets and shifted production to rifles, working to develop the tactics that accompany them.{{sfn|Cooper|2000|pp=254–255}} He oversaw the building of public works in Washington D.C., including the initial construction of the [[Washington Aqueduct]].{{sfn|Davis|1991|pp=236–237}}

Davis assisted in the passage of the [[Kansas-Nebraska Act]] in 1854 by allowing President Pierce to endorse it before it came up for a vote.{{sfnm|Cooper|2000|1pp=266–268|Davis|1991|2pp=248–249|Wallner|2007|3pp=95–97}} This bill, which created [[Kansas Territory|Kansas]] and [[Nebraska Territory|Nebraska]] territories, repealed the [[Missouri Compromise]]'s limits on slavery and left the decision about a territory's slaveholding status to [[Popular sovereignty#1850s|popular sovereignty]], which allowed the territory's residents to decide.{{sfn|Potter|1976|pp=158–161}} The passage of this bill led to the demise of the Whig party, which had tried to limit expansion of slavery in the territories. It also contributed to the rise of the [[Republican Party (United States)#19th century|Republican Party]] and the increase of [[Bloody Kansas|civil violence in Kansas]].{{sfn|Eaton|1977|pp=88–89}}

The Democratic nomination for the 1856 presidential election went to [[James Buchanan]].{{sfn|Davis|1991|pp=250–251}} Knowing his term was over when the Pierce administration ended in 1857, Davis ran for the Senate once more and re-entered it on March 4, 1857.{{sfn|Cooper|2000|pp=274–276}} In the same month, the [[United States Supreme Court]] decided the [[Dred Scott v. Sanford|Dred Scott case]], which ruled that slavery could not be barred from any territory.{{sfn|Cooper|2000|p=284}}

===Return to Senate===
[[File:Jefferson Davis by Vannerson, 1859.jpg|thumb|left|Photograph of [[United States Senate|Senator]] Davis of the [[35th United States Congress]] by [[Julian Vannerson]] (1859)|alt= man with slight beard only on chin in profile looking right]]
The Senate recessed in March and did not reconvene until November 1857.{{sfn|Davis|1991|pp=256, 259}} The session opened with a debate on the [[Lecompton Constitution]] submitted by a convention in Kansas Territory. If approved, it would have allowed Kansas to be admitted as a slave state. Davis supported it, but it was not accepted, in part because the leading Democrat in the North, [[Stephen Douglas]], argued it did not represent the true will of the settlers in the territory.{{sfnm|Davis|1991|1pp=258–259|Eaton|1977|2pp=109–111}} The controversy undermined the alliance between Northern and Southern Democrats.{{sfn|Potter|1976|pp=325–326}}

Davis's participation in the Senate was interrupted in early 1858 by a recurring case of [[uveitis|iritis]], which threatened the loss of his left eye.{{sfn|Cooper|2000|p=289}} It left him bedridden for seven weeks.{{sfn|Davis|1991|pp=260–261}} He spent the summer of 1858 in [[Portland, Maine]] recovering, and gave speeches in [[Maine]], [[Boston]], and [[New York City|New York]], emphasizing the common heritage of all Americans and the importance of the constitution for defining the nation.{{sfn|Cooper|2000|pp=290–291}} His speeches angered some states' rights supporters in the South, requiring him to clarify his comments when he returned to Mississippi. Davis said that he appreciated the benefits of Union, but acknowledged that it could be dissolved if states' rights were violated or one section of the country imposed its will on another.{{sfn|Davis|1991|p=267}} Speaking to the Mississippi Legislature on November 16, 1858, Davis stated "if an Abolitionist be chosen President of the United States{{nbsp}}... I should deem it your duty to provide for your safety outside of a Union with those who have already shown the will{{nbsp}}...to deprive you of your birthright and to reduce you to worse than the colonial dependence of your fathers."{{sfn|Davis|1858|p=[{{Google books|id=spUsAAAAMAAJ|pg=PA356|plainurl=yes}} 356]}}

In February 1860, Davis presented a series of resolutions defining the relationship between the states under the constitution, including the assertion that Americans had a constitutional right to bring slaves into territories.{{sfn|Cooper|2000|p=306|}} These resolutions were seen as setting the agenda for the Democratic Party nomination,{{sfn|Davis|1991|p=278}} ensuring that Douglas's idea of popular sovereignty, known as the [[Freeport Doctrine]], would be excluded from the party platform.{{sfnm|Davis|1991|1pp=278–279|Eaton|1977|2pp=112–113}} The Democratic party split—Douglas was nominated by the North and Vice President [[John C. Breckinridge]] was nominated by the South{{sfn|Cooper|2000|p=313}}—and the Republican Party nominee [[Abraham Lincoln]] won the [[1860 United States presidential election|1860 presidential election]].{{sfn|Davis|1991|p=285}} Davis counselled moderation after the election,{{sfnm|Cooper|2008|1pp=31–32|Davis|1991|2p=286|Eaton|1977|3pp=119–120}} but South Carolina adopted an ordinance of secession on December 20, 1860. Mississippi seceded on January 9, 1861, though Davis stayed in Washington until he received official notification on January 21.{{sfn|Eaton|1977|pp=121–122}} Calling it "the saddest day of my life",{{sfn|Cooper|2000|p=3}} he delivered a farewell address,{{sfn|Davis|1861a}} [[resignation from the United States Senate|resigned from the Senate]], and returned to Mississippi.{{sfn|Eaton|1977|pp=120–124}}