Jefferson F. Davis (1808–1889), the first and only President of the Confederate States of America, was born on this day in Fairview, Kentucky. The youngest of ten children, he graduated from West Point alongside Robert E. Lee.

Historian William J. Cooper Jr. noted that Davis “saw himself as a faithful American… a true son of the American Revolution and the Founding Fathers.”

Davis was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives in 1845 and served with distinction during the Mexican War. He later joined the Senate and served as Secretary of War under President Franklin Pierce in 1853.

“Neither current events nor history show that the majority rule, or ever did rule,” he once argued.

In 1861, following the secession of several Southern states, Davis was named President of the Confederacy and served until his capture in 1865. After the war, he was imprisoned for two years but was never tried. His U.S. citizenship was posthumously restored in 1978 by President Jimmy Carter.

Reflecting on the war, Davis said, “I worked night and day for twelve years to prevent the war, but I could not. The North was mad and blind, would not let us govern ourselves, and so the war came.”

“If the Confederacy fails, there should be written on its tombstone: Died of a Theory,” he observed later in life.

Today, his legacy remains a complex and debated part of American history. His birthdate is still recognized in certain states as a day of honor and historical remembrance.