That
was the only letter of which I have any knowledge that he wrote
on the subject, and that was shown to only a very few persons,
and only when I was asked if Mr. Davis would accept the
presidency....
"There was no electioneering, no management, on the part of any
one. Each voter was left to determine for himself in whose hands
the destinies of the infant Confederacy should be placed. By a
law as fixed as gravitation itself, and as little disturbed by
outside influences, the minds of members centered upon Mr.
Davis.
"After a few days of anxious, intense labor, the Provisional
Constitution was framed, and it became necessary to give it
vitality by putting some one at the head of the new
Government....
"Without any effort on the part of the friends of either
[Messrs. Davis or Stephens], the election was made without the
slightest dissent. Of the accidental complications referred to,
I have not the least knowledge, and always thought that the
election of Mr. Davis arose from the spontaneous conviction of
his peculiar fitness. I have consulted no one on the subject,
and have appended my name only to avoid resting an important
fact upon anonymous authority. Very respectfully yours,"
(Signed) "Alexander M. Clayton."
From the Hon. J. A. P. Campbell, of Mississippi, now a Justice of the
Supreme Court of that State:
".
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