It has never been explained why Jefferson Davis was chosen
President of the Confederacy. He did not seek the office and did
not wish it. He dreamed of high military command. As a study in
the irony of fate, Davis's career is made to the hand of the
dramatist. An instinctive soldier, he was driven by circumstances
three times to renounce the profession of arms for a less
congenial civilian life. His final renunciation, which proved to
be of the nature of tragedy, was his acceptance of the office of
President. Indeed, why the office was given to him seems a
mystery. Rhett was a more logical candidate. And when Rhett,
early in the lobbying at Montgomery, was set aside as too much of
a radical, Toombs seemed for a time the certain choice of the
majority. The change to Davis came suddenly at the last moment.
It was puzzling at the time; it is puzzling still.

Rhett, though doubtless bitterly disappointed, bore himself with
the savoir faire of a great gentleman. At the inauguration, it
was on Rhett's arm that Davis leaned as he entered the hall of
the Confederate Congress. The night before, in a public address,
Yancey had said that the man and the hour were met. The story of
the Confederacy is filled with dramatic moments, but to the
thoughtful observer few are more dramatic than the conjunction of
these three men in the inauguration of the Confederate President.
Beneath a surface of apparent unanimity they carried, like
concealed weapons, points of view that were in deadly antagonism.
This antagonism had not revealed itself hitherto. It was destined
to reveal itself almost immediately. It went so deep and spread
so far that unless we understand it, the Confederate story will
be unintelligible.