 The book is much less a Davis memoir than an articulation of the secession argument.In Davis' earlier work, "The Rise and Fall of the Confederate Government", he had written what is probably the most thorough exegesis of the compact theory of the United States Constitution in existence, devoting the first fifteen chapters of the book to that topic.Fearful that his readers might not understand, or might forget, he repeated the explanation every second or third chapter after that.