The president of the Confederacy had a long history with Dubuque. This is a story of trust, service, and gratitude.
In the winter of 1831-1832, lead mines were booming in Galena, Illinois. Squatters sneaked across the Mississippi River to Julien Dubuque’s mines and began excavating lead. Native Americans complained, and the Federal Government sent in U.S. Army troops. The soldiers were to use bayonets if necessary. That portion of Iowa Territory hadn’t yet passed into the hands of the U.S. government.
Lt. Jefferson Davis and about 50 soldiers crossed the Mississippi River to force the squatters back to Illinois. The miners thought they were entitled to the land. About a dozen grim miners, bristling with weapons, met Davis.
He convinced the miners that the land and their mining claims would be theirs if they were patient. They listened in silence.
Tension builds
A few weeks later, Davis returned. The mood had soured. Twenty five miners waited in a “drinking booth.” Davis’s orderly said, “If you go in, they’ll kill you.”
Davis walked inside and said, “My friends, I am sure you have thought over my proposition and are going to drink to my success. So I will treat you all.” They cheered, drank up, and Davis walked out unscathed.
The miners evacuated Dubuque. They returned after the treaties were signed. As promised, they regained their land and claims.
An old friend
Lt. Davis visited his old college classmate, George Wallace Jones. Both men owned slaves (Davis in Mississippi and Jones in Wisconsin Territory).
The Jones family lived across the Mississippi River at Sinsinawa Mound. Two of Jones’s slaves waited on Davis and served him cornbread.
Friendship defined
Jones became one of Iowa’s first U.S. Senators. His political motto was simple: Friendship equals personal and political loyalty. Jones’s friends did favors for each other.
Two of his Dubuque friends, Warner Lewis Sr. and Patrick Quigley, also became friends of Jefferson Davis. As Senator, Jefferson Davis helped Lewis retain his job as Surveyor General.
Riverfront change
Davis became Secretary of War two decades after he helped the miners. Davis helped his friend, Senator George Wallace Jones, by authorizing a change in the survey of Waples’ Cut on Dubuque’s riverfront.
This area was evolving into a winter and spring harbor, to protect ships from crushing ice floes. Congress then designated Dubuque a “port of entry.” Today, this area includes Dubuque’s Ice Harbor and the National Mississippi River Museum and Aquarium.
Price to be paid
In 1859, Jones was appointed minister (ambassador) to New Grenada, South America. A month after Ft. Sumter, Jones wrote a letter to Davis, the new Confederate President. The letter seemed to be disloyal to the United States.
Jones paid dearly for his loyalty toward Davis, for his vocal antagonism toward abolitionists, and for having two sons in Confederate gray.
Jones was imprisoned for two months. Republicans demonized him as a traitor.
“Should auld acquaintance be forgot”
In 1875, ten years after the Civil War had ended, most Iowans still considered Jones and Jefferson Davis to be traitors. Many early miners were now the upper crust of Dubuque society. They organized a grand celebration and expected thousands.
A Republican asked Jones to invite Jefferson Davis as guest of honor. Citing ill health, Davis declined.
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Thanks for reading my blog! Please leave any comments below.
Kathleen Parsons
15 Mar 2016Excellent once again! Thank you for my weekly ‘Confederates’ fix.
David Connon
16 Mar 2016Hi, Kathy.
Thanks for reading my blog — and for the “Confederates fix” chuckle.
George Shurr
15 Mar 2016Thanks for another interesting post.
David Connon
16 Mar 2016Hi, George.
Thanks for reading my blog!
jdrhawkins
15 Mar 2016Very interesting article. I posted to my Facebook page!
David Connon
16 Mar 2016Hi, jdrhawkins.
Thank you for your kind feedback! I appreciate your re-posting, too.
Randall Schroeder
16 Mar 2016A timely article for me. I just spent a day in historic Dubuque at a bed and breakfast. Fascinating research.
David Connon
16 Mar 2016Hi, Randall.
I’m glad it was timely. Thanks for your kind remarks. Isn’t Dubuque a nice town?
Greg Eatroff
17 Mar 2016Slavery was illegal in Wisconsin territory, but Jones, a citizen of Missour, brought his slaves north “temporarily” under a legal principle known as “right of sojourn.” This was the same principle under which Dredd Scott was brought to Fort Snelling.
A number of northern states limited right of sojourn (Pennsylvania required that any slave brought into the commonwealth be freed within six months, with an exception for serving congressmen, Philadelphia being the capital at the time), or banned it entirely. Before the Civil War southerners lobbied the federal government to override state personal liberty laws and impose a national right of sojourn, which would have gutted all state antislavery laws.
So much for “states’ rights.”
David Connon
17 Mar 2016Hi, Greg.
Thanks for joining the conversation! Your comments remind me that in the Dred Scott Case, Justice Taney’s decision overrode states’ rights (in a sense). Many Southerners probably applauded that decision. And yet within a few years, many Southerners insisted on states’ rights.