From the New York Herald shortly after Davis' death on December 6, 1889:
"In the essential element of statesmanship, Davis will be judged as the rival and parallel of Lincoln. When the two men came face to face, as leaders of two mighty forces, bitter was Northern sorrow that Providence had given the South so ripe and rare a leader and the North an uncouth advocate from the woods."
Yet that 'uncouth advocate' beat that 'rare and ripe leader' in every way imaginable - politics, leadership, international relations, military control, legislative ability, you name it. And when the end came, that 'rare and ripe' leader was willing to call for guerilla warfare and the total destruction of the south rather than honorable surrender. Fortunately for the Southern people the confederate military leadership was wise enough to ignore him.