tln February 9, 186I, Mr. Davis was elected President of the Provisional Government of the Confederacy by the Congress assembled at Mont gomery. Ala. He was chosen because his course throu:diout had been marked by consistency and moderation in comparison with the other seces leaders. The choice was made without in triguing, and was eminently popular. The inau guration took place February 18, 18111. At the expiration of the first year of the Provisional Government a new Congress was elected, and on February 22, 1862, Davis was again inaugurated, enterim2 upon a term which was set for six years by the Constitution. Ilk career as President takes in nearly all of Confederate history, his side of the matter being given ably and fully in his Rise and Fall of the Confederate Govern ment (2 vols., 1881). The military training which he had had made him desire a close control over his generals, and lie in consequence to have made not a few mistakes. The unanimity with which Ile and General Lee worked would have been impossible had not the latter been so void of selfish ambition. Davis's statesmanship was rather doctrinaire, and when he had actually to assume almost a dictatorship as the war pro gressed. lie was not found well fitted for the emi nently executive task of financing and controlling the Confederacy. He strove earnestly to inspirit his people: he set his face against barbarity in the conduct of the war; he tried to alleviate the -sufferings of prisoners: and. on the whole, he maintained Iris dignity and under ordeals that would have crushed a man hcss resolute or less sincere.
After the surrender of Lee and of Johnston, Davis, with a few friends who volunteered as an escort, started for Washington, I:a., for the purpose of making his way to the trans-Missis sippi region. A report that his wife was in dan
g,r led him to change his cool-se to join her, and on May 10. 1865, he was captured at Irwinville, Ga. The story of his assuming woman's dress as a disguise has been shown to be untrue. lie was confined in Fortress Monroe and subjected to the useless degradation of manacles. lie earnestly desired a public trial. and feared that he would die before refuting the charge of complicity in the assassination of Lincoln. An indictment was found against him for treason, but he was ad mitted to bail, Horace Greeley, Gerrit Smith, and other prominent going on his bond, and later the p•oceedinp.s were quashed. After his release he visited Canada and England, and went into business at Memphis. Tenn. In 1879 he finally retired to Beauvoir. near Biloxi in Mississippi, resisting all efforts to induce him to try to reenter politics, and devoting his time to writing and study. Ile retained the confidence of most of the Southern people. and his conduct during his retirement was diellified and consist ent. Ile died of a congestive chill on December G. 1889, and was buried with ceremonies at New In-leans. In 1893 the hods was removed to Pi•hmond. A full and valuable biography of Sir. Davis has been written by his second wife. a Miss Howell, whom he married in 1845 and who survive- him. see also a brief autobiographical article published in Bedford's .11 aga:im• for Jan uary. 1890, and W. 1'. Trent's Southern Statess Hu n of the Uhl lee'llino (1897 ). The earlier biographies by Alfriend and Pollard are respect ivel• eulogistic and condemnatory. The fullest and best account of the period during which Davis was most influential w ill be found in Rhodes, of the t' nit, dfront the ('nun D850 (New York, 1892 et seq.).