Davis Jefferson

Jefferson Davis Resends Letter to Friend from the Early Days of the Confederacy in Montgomery, Alabama

Jefferson Davis, autograph endorsement initialed, on envelope addressed to Mary T. Lanier, ca. October 1886. 1 p., 6" x 3.375". Tear on front through one word, but no loss of text; twentieth-century annotations in blue ink.

Complete Transcript:

"You will see that this letter was sent to the 'dead letter' office and returned to me. It was not my neglect but the failure of your Post master to deliver.

J.D.

[Address:] Mrs. Mary T. Lanier / Birmingham / Ala.

[Postmark on Recto:] ADVERTISED / SEP 4 1886 / BIRMINGHAM, ALA.

[Stamped on Verso:] UNCLAIMED / FORWARDED TO D.L.O. / OCT 2 1886 / from Birmingham, Ala."

Montgomery served as the first capital of the Confederate States of America, from February to May 1861. During these months, Jefferson Davis and members of his cabinet had offices in the Exchange Hotel, operated by brothers-in-law Abraham P. Watt and Sidney Cook Lanier. There, Davis became acquainted with the hotel operators' wives, Mary T. Lanier and her sister-in-law Jane E. Lanier Watt. Their nephew Sidney Clopton Lanier (1842-1881) later became known as the “poet of the Confederacy” for his post-war poetry.

Jefferson Davis (1808-1889) was born in Kentucky and graduated from the U.S. Military Academy in 1828. After service under Zachary Taylor in the Black Hawk War, Davis married the future president's daughter, Sarah Knox Taylor, in 1835, but she died three months after their wedding. Davis established a plantation in Mississippi and became a Democratic politician. In 1845, he married Varina Howell and won election to the U.S. House of Representatives. Davis soon resigned his seat in Congress and raised a volunteer regiment for the Mexican War. He returned to politics after the war and served as a U.S. Senator (1845-1852, 1857-1860), and as Secretary of War (1853-1857). A moderate, he initially opposed secession, but when Mississippi seceded in January 1861, Davis resigned from the Senate and returned to Mississippi to raise troops. A month later, the Montgomery Convention named him as provisional president of the Confederacy, until he was elected to a six-year term as president in November 1861, and inaugurated on February 22, 1862. Davis took a direct role in the management of military affairs and worked with the Confederate Congress to expand the powers of the Confederate government, including conscription, impressment, and suspension of habeas corpus, which prompted some states' rights opposition to his administration. After the fall of Richmond, Union troops captured a fleeing Davis in Georgia. He was imprisoned for two years at Fort Monroe, Virginia, charged with treason. He was never brought to trial and was eventually released. He published his two-volume memoir, The Rise and Fall of the Confederate Government, in 1881.

Mary Theodora Browne Lanier (1837-1908) was born in New York and married Sidney Cook Lanier (1821-1866) in 1859. He was the uncle of the poet Sidney Clopton Lanier (1842-1881). In 1860, he and his brother-in-law Abraham P. Watt (1813-1871) operated the Exchange Hotel in Montgomery, Alabama, and both couples lived in the hotel. While in Montgomery, she and her sister-in-law Jane E. Lanier Watt (1824-1879) met and befriended Confederate President Jefferson Davis before the Confederate capital moved to Richmond. Some time between 1863 and 1865, Sidney Cook Lanier and Mary Browne Lanier fled to Xalapa, Mexico, where Emperor Maximilian welcomed Confederate refugees to the short-lived New Virginia colony, and Sidney Cook Lanier died there. Mary T. Lanier was a devout Catholic, and lived with her son Sterling Sidney Lanier (1860-1917) in Birmingham in the 1880s.

This item comes with a Certificate from John Reznikoff, a premier authenticator for both major 3rd party authentication services, PSA and JSA (James Spence Authentications), as well as numerous auction houses.

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