On January 21, 1861 Jefferson Davis rose on the Senate floor to explain why
the state of Mississippi decided to secede from the Union—it would be his
last speech as a U.S. Senator. After sharing some thoughts about
nullification and secession and expressing his support for secession, even
if a northern state decided to do so, he went on to explain:
“It has been a conviction of pressing necessity, it has been a belief that
we are to be deprived in the Union of the rights which our fathers
bequeathed to us, which has brought Mississippi into her present decision.
She has heard proclaimed the theory that all men are created free and
equal, and this made the basis