“He never even mentioned the word slavery in his inaugural address.”
Why would he? He was by then preaching to the choir.
His resignation speech to Congress was his statement of intent of himself and of MI.
No one welcomes imprisonment and possible execution. Davis had young children, other Confederate leaders had escaped. Davis was clearly on the run to avoid capture. Davis freely admits he was heading for TX to start up another Confederacy.
The north was worried that Davis might be able to establish some legal basis for secession and be able to offer a defense, as Burr had done, that there was no overt act by Davis for secession. That it was MI’s move, not his.
So, with the prospect of an innocent verdict to treason, he was not tried and then released. There was also a strong political interest not to make Davis a martyr and further inflame the conquered South.
Why would he? He was by then preaching to the choir.
The choir whose real motivation was not protection of slavery.
It was the legal basis for saying the Northern states had violated the compact between them.
That was after the war. I was talking about the time directly after he had resigned from the US Senate and before Lincoln chose to start a war over secession.
As Chase admitted, secession was legal and there had been no treason. Adjudicating the issue would not have turned out well for the Federals. Ergo, they chose not to fight it out in court.