Why wasn't Mr. Davis tried and possibly executed? To put him on trial would be to put secession on trial, a losing proposition for the prosecution.
Perhaps we should dig him up and do just that...
Try again. Davis could have been tried for treason, perhaps should have been tried for treason, but the same Chief Justice of the Supreme Court who would later rule that secession as practiced by the Southern states was unconstitutional also said that trying Davis for his crimes after the ratification of the 14th Amendment would have violated his 5th Amendment protections.
So much for your "they couldn't try him without proving secession was legal" nonsense.
: That's another well worn myth from the Lost Cause school.
Section 3 of the 14th amendment basically stripped Davis and all other confederate leaders who had once sworn an oath to the US constitution of their citizenship. It prevented them from voting or from ever holding public office again. It also prevented the president from issuing pardons for that offense.
To try Davis or any of the others in court on additional treason charges would have been a violation under the 5th amendment -- i.e. double jeopardy. They had already been punished under the terms of Section 3.
Many criticized congress for including that clause because they felt strongly that Davis and others should pay for what they did. Others saw Section 3 as a way to punish the confederate leadership in one stroke while avoiding endless trials and perhaps a renewal of conflict as a result of those trials. For most then, there was no strong desire for endless revenge. They wanted it all behind them.
Secession itself was found to be unconstitutional under other court decisions.
You mistake conciliation (”malice towards none”) for concession:
“On the occasion corresponding to this four years ago, all thoughts were anxiously directed to an impending civil war. All dreaded it—all sought to avert it. While the inaugeral [sic] address was being delivered from this place, devoted altogether to saving the Union without war, insurgent agents were in the city seeking to destroy it without war—seeking to dissole [sic] the Union, and divide effects, by negotiation. Both parties deprecated war; but one of them would make war rather than let the nation survive; and the other would accept war rather than let it perish. And the war came.
...
Fondly do we hope—fervently do we pray—that this mighty scourge of war may speedily pass away. Yet, if God wills that it continue, until all the wealth piled by the bond-man’s two hundred and fifty years of unrequited toil shall be sunk, and until every drop of blood drawn with the lash, shall be paid by another drawn with the sword, as was said three thousand years ago, so still it must be said “the judgments of the Lord, are true and righteous altogether”
With malice toward none; with charity for all; with firmness in the right, as God gives us to see the right, let us strive on to finish the work we are in; to bind up the nation’s wounds; to care for him who shall have borne the battle, and for his widow, and his orphan—to do all which may achieve and cherish a just and lasting peace, among ourselves, and with all nations.”
- Abe Lincoln
No, Jefferson Davis was released without a trial. The Federal Government didn’t want a court ruling on the legality of secession.