I didn’t read the speech that way."
Perhaps that was the "inaudible" part you missed? ;-)
I suspect he mumbled his way past that one.
The truth is that many Southerners in 1860 were indeed calling for repeal of anti-importation laws, and presumably Davis wanted their votes.
- "He also asserted that the General Government had no power to limit the importations of any State.
If it be a protective duty by which the States are taxed, by what right is slave property to be deprived of this protection?
On this issue, after days of discussion, they saw the Democratic Convention broken up, and the Party uniting joyfully for its funeral.
He had faith, however, that the Democracy still lived, that it would honestly meet the issue, and that the masses of the country would sustain it..."