کتاب Jefferson Davis The Essential Writings Original Were Thomas Jefferson alive to read this book he woulaJefferson Davis is one of the most complex and controversial figures in American political history and the man whom Oscar Wilde wanted to meet more than anyone when he made his tour of the United States Elected president of the Confederacy and later accused of participating in the assassination of Abraham Lincoln he is a source of ongoing dissension between northerners and southerners This volume the first of its kind is a selected collection of his writings culled in large part from the authoritative Papers of Jefferson Davis a multivolume edition of his letters and speeches published by the Louisiana State University Press and includes thirteen documents from manuscript collections and one privately held document that have never before appeared in a modern scholarly edition From letters as a college student to his sister to major speeches on the Constitution slavery and sectional issues to his farewell to the US Senate to his inaugural address as Confederate president to letters from prison to his wife these selected pieces present the many faces of the enigmatic Jefferson Davis  As William J Cooper Jr writes in his Introduction Daviss notability does not come solely from his crucial role in the Civil War Born on the Kentucky frontier in the first decade of the nineteenth century he witnessed and participated in the epochal transformation of the United States from a fledgling country to a strong nation spanning the continent In his earliest years his father moved farther south and west to Mississippi As a young army officer just out of West Point he served on the northwestern and southwestern frontiers in an army whose chief mission was to protect settlers surging westward Then in 1846 and 1847 as colonel of the First Mississippi Regiment he fought in the Mexican War which resulted in 1848 in the Mexican Cession a massive addition to the United States of some 500000 square miles including California and the modern Southwest As secretary of war and US senator in the 1850s he advocated government support for the building of a transcontinental railroad that he believed essential to bind the nation from ocean to oceand recognize every sentence every elegant turn of phrase every lofty beautifully expressed idea Indeed every word in the book is his In an astonishing feat of editing Eric S Petersen has culled the entirety of Thomas Jefferson s published works to fashion thirtyfour original essays on themes ranging from patriotism and liberty to hope humility and gratitude The result is a lucid inspiring distillation of the wisdom of one of America s greatest political thinkers  From his personal motto Rebellion to tyrants is obedience to God to his resounding discourse on life liberty and the pursuit of happiness in the Declaration of Independence Jefferson defined the essential truth of the American spirit In the essays that Petersen has crafted from letters speeches and public documents Jefferson s unique moral philosophy and vision shine through Among the hundreds of magnificent sentences gathered in this volume here are Jefferson s pronouncements on  Gratitude I have but one system of ethics for men and for nations to be grateful to be faithful to all engagements and under all circumstances to be open and generous  Religion A concern purely between our God and our consciences  America s national character It is part of the American character to consider nothing as desperate to surmount every difficulty with resolution and contrivance  Public debt We shall all consider ourselves unauthorized to saddle posterity with our debts and morally bound to pay them ourselves  War I abhor war and view it as the greatest scourge of mankind  In stately measured cadences these thirtyfour essays provide timeless guidance on leading a spiritually fulfilling life Light and Liberty is a triumphant work of supreme eloquence as uplifting today as when Jefferson first set these immortal sentences on paper