Is Davis a Traitor? - photo 1
Is Davis a Traitor? - photo 2
Is Davis a Traitor? - photo 3

Is Davis a Traitor?

Lot 153
17.01.2024 11:00UTC -05:00
Classic
Sold
$ 3 780
AuctioneerCHRISTIE'S
Event locationUSA, New York
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Archive
ID 1119168
Lot 153 | Is Davis a Traitor?
Estimate value
$ 3 000 – 5 000
Is Davis a Traitor?

Jefferson Davis's own copy, 1866

DAVIS, Jefferson (1808-1889); DAVIS, Varina (1826-1906); BLEDSOE, Albert Taylor (1809-1877). Is Davis a Traitor: or Was Secession a Constitutional Rights Previous to the War of 1861? Baltimore: printed for the Author by Innes & Company, 1866.



Jefferson Davis's personal copy. The former Confederate President wrote on the front pastedown: "Reserved copy—not to be loaned—Jefferson Davis" and then added his signature across page 61 which features a discourse on the disputed meaning of the preamble to the Constitution, attacking the "Northern theory" that "We, the people" overruled the rights of the several states. Albert Taylor Bledsoe was a schoolmate of Davis at West Point, and in 1861 he was commissioned a colonel in the Confederate Army. For a time he served as Assistant Secretary of War. In 1863, Davis sent Bledsoe to London on a research and public relations mission on behalf of the Confederacy. Bledsoe's research led to the present volume—one that offered arguments that Davis would have found of value if he had ever been tried for treason (the Justice Department dropped its charges in 1869). Davis's wife, Varina, has written below his statement "The above is Mr. Davis' own hand. The marks in the book are his just as he left them—and he considered it one of the best books justifying our course in the seceding of the condensed arguments upon the right of secession. The book is now very scarce and I hope it will be kept very carefully. V[arina] H[owell] D[avis]." Opposite the pastedown, Bledsoe's daughter Anna has inscribed it to Davis in pencil.



Octavo (191 x 121mm) (Title and preliminary leaves toned, lighter toning throughout, tear to chapter page and marginal loss to preface repaired). Original brown cloth (rubbed, some fraying and chipping along spine). Custom morocco box. Provenance: Anna Bledsoe, 1851-1923 – Jefferson Davis (inscribed by the former to, and ownership inscription of) – Varina Davis (inscription) – Simon J. Shwartz (his sale, Anderson Galleries, 8-10 November 1926, lot 225) – Justin G. Turner (loose bookplate) – Sotheby's New York, 23 April 1986, lot 200.

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