Jefferson Davis
Emanuel County, GA, November 7, 1861
"For President Jefferson Davis" Possibly Unique Ballot Totals from Georgia
Partially printed DS

[JEFFERSON DAVIS.], Partially Printed Document Signed, Consolidated Returns for Emanuel County, Georgia, November 7, 1861, [Swainsboro], Georgia. Signed by six election superintendents. 1 p., 15.125" x 12.125". Separation on central fold; very good.

This rare document records the total votes for Confederate President Jefferson Davis and Vice President Alexander H. Stephens from Emanuel County, Georgia. Although it lists eight districts, only three districts, with a total of 136 voters, have a record for president and vice president. Davis and Stephens each received all 136 votes. Totals for Congressional, statewide, and district offices include totals from six districts.

The Provisional Congress of the Confederate States of America met at Montgomery, Alabama, on February 4, 1861. They adopted a provisional constitution on February 8 and elected Jefferson Davis and Alexander H. Stephens as provisional president and vice president the following day. In March, the Confederacy adopted a permanent constitution, which called for an executive who would hold office for a single term of six years. In May, the Congress of the Confederacy called for an election on November 6, 1861. Davis and Stephens ran without opposition, carrying all 11 states and all 109 electoral votes. The voters in each state selected electors who would vote for the president and vice president, except in South Carolina, where the state legislature chose the electors.

The summary also includes votes for candidates for the Confederate Congress Thomas M. Forman (1809-1875) and Julian Hartridge (1829-1879). Forman had represented Georgia in the Provisional Confederate Congress and was a wealthy planter who owned 171 enslaved people. Hartridge was a Harvard Law School graduate and attorney from Savannah In Emanuel County, Hartridge edged out Forman by two votes but won by a larger margin in the twenty counties that made up the First Congressional District. In Savannah and Chatham County, for example, Hartridge won 1,508 votes to Forman's 189. Hartridge represented Georgia in the First and Second Confederate Congresses.

All of the election superintendents who tallied the votes and signed this return served in the Confederate army in Virginia or Georgia. At least three of them did not survive the war.

Historical Background
Created in 1812, Emanuel County was in south-east Georgia's wiregrass region and had a population of 5,081 in 1860, of whom 1,294 were enslaved African Americans, and 39 were free African Americans. A rural county devoted to agriculture and pine forests, Emanuel County contributed portions of its territory to four other counties after 1860 but remains the seventh largest county in the state by area. A lack of roads in antebellum Emanuel County limited development and population, but General William T. Sherman passed through the county in his 1864 "March to the Sea." The county did not attract a railroad until the 1870s, when a large-scale lumber industry began there.

This return is signed by six Election Superintendents, four of whom put "J.P." after their signatures, indicating that they were justices of the peace. Among the superintendents are Richard Bird Flanders (1819-1862), who died of his wounds while serving as a private in the 48th Georgia Infantry in the Army of Northern Virginia, and Joseph L. Sherrod (1828-1864), a sergeant in the 48th Georgia Infantry who died at the First Battle of the Weldon Railroad (also known as the Battle of Jerusalem Plank Road), on June 22, 1864, during the Siege of Petersburg.

Superintendents James H. Price (1833-1862) and John C. Tapley also served as privates in the 48th Georgia Infantry. Price died of typhoid fever in a hospital in Richmond, Virginia. Superintendents Charles Aron and John Dekle served as a private and a 2d lieutenant, respectively, in Captain Joel J. Moring's Company of Georgia Infantry for local defense in the summer of 1863.

Jefferson F. Davis (1808-1889) was born in Kentucky and graduated from the U.S. Military Academy in 1828. After service under Zachary Taylor in the Black Hawk War, Davis married the future president's daughter, Sarah Knox Taylor, in 1835, but she died three months after their wedding. Davis established a plantation in Mississippi and became a Democratic politician. In 1844, he was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives, and a year later, married Varina Howell. Davis resigned his seat in Congress and raised a volunteer regiment for the Mexican War. He returned to politics after the war and served as a U.S. Senator (1845-1852, 1857-1860), and as Secretary of War (1853-1857). A moderate, he initially opposed secession, but when Mississippi seceded in January 1861, Davis resigned from the Senate and returned to Mississippi to raise troops. A month later, the Montgomery Convention named him as provisional president of the Confederacy, until he was elected to a six-year term as president in November 1861, and inaugurated on February 22, 1862. Davis took a direct role in the management of military affairs and worked with the Confederate Congress to expand the powers of the Confederate government, including conscription, impressment, and suspension of habeas corpus, which prompted some states' rights opposition to his administration. After the fall of Richmond, Union troops captured a fleeing Davis in Georgia. He was charged with treason and imprisoned for two years at Fort Monroe, Virginia. He was never brought to trial and was eventually released. After living for several years in Canada and Europe, he settled in Memphis in November 1870. He served as the president of a life insurance company from 1869 to 1873. He published his two-volume memoir, The Rise and Fall of the Confederate Government, in 1881.

This item comes with a Certificate from John Reznikoff, a premier authenticator for both major 3rd party authentication services, PSA and JSA (James Spence Authentications), as well as numerous auction houses.

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15.125" x 12.125"