Jeffersohn Davis’ Failed Business

This lot is closed for bidding. Bidding ended on 2/19/2015

DAVIS, Jefferson (1807-1889) was an American soldier and politician who was the President of the Confederate States of America during the American Civil War (1861–1865). He took personal charge of the Confederate war plans but was unable to find a strategy to defeat the more populous and industrialized Union. His diplomatic efforts failed to gain recognition from any foreign country. At home he paid little attention to the collapsing Confederate economy; the government printed more and more paper money to cover the war's expenses, leading to runaway inflation and devaluation of the Confederate Dollar.Autograph Letter Signed by Jefferson Davis on ruled paper, 4 pages,octavo, March 19, 1876, To General William Montague Browne, who had been on the personal staff of Davis during the war, regarding a failed business venture. Davis became president of the Carolina Insurance Company in 1870. In this letter, Davis denies responsibility for a company's demise: "…I lost enough of money by that loosely conducted injudicious transaction to be quite unwilling to bear the responsibility of the failure of that company which I believe only lasted thus long by the means it derived from the Carolina. Had my proposition to examine into its affairs been adopted its unsoundness would have been revealed soon after examination commenced…Our babes in the woods went into a den of wolves. Not knowing even the meaning of the terms employed they bargained with two of the sharpest and least accomplished men in the town and relied on their oral appearances and on their 'honor'…"He goes on to relate payouts from the liquidation of the company by Carolina Insurance in Virginia and South Carolina. Two small pinholes in top blank margin, else fine. Accompanied by a 1979 invoice from Joe Rubinfine,

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