If the civil wars could be represented by a single person, the personification of the struggle in the United States between the North and the South would be a frightening individual to behold. Unfortunately, for Jefferson Davis, his life and temperament came close to embodying the gruesome internal struggle of the American (or at least the Southern) Civil War. As men go, he was labeled an enigma. He was simultaneously a contradiction and a confirmation of himself, unpredictable but predictable. His insecurities were major weaknesses. Without the special skills of a “people's person,” he was put in a position of leadership over unorganized and untrained men. Despite these things, Jefferson Davis, President of the Confederacy, attempted to overcome all of this. In this way, he exemplified the Civil War and further internal tensions of the American South. As a child, Davis received little opportunity to make his own decisions. His father, Samuel Davis, was decisive yet distant in his son's life. Samuel reportedly held back "such an expression [of emotion] that his son later recalled as extraordinary a single occasion when his father had embraced him" (Essay I, p.5, ll.34-36). Constantly searching for a father figure, Davis held the older men in her life in high esteem. This included Andrew Jackson, Martin Van Buren, Zachary Taylor (his first father-in-law), and his brother, Joseph Davis, among others. Joseph in particular began fathering Davis, even before his father's death, when Davis was seventeen. Because Davis never questioned the men above him, he with all obedience and loyalty followed the paths they advised or directed him to (a trait he carried forward throughout his career). The paths, starting from the military academy, were good in themselves, but... middle of paper... what a disgusting wizard” (Essay II, p.34, l.9) to compensate for the missing attributes of his men, or even find ways to make up for their own failures. For this reason, Davis fought to keep the Confederacy above water. In the spring of 1865, the North's inevitable victory left the South to rebuild while reluctantly paying dues and following Union orders. Davis's term was over, and the South thought it was over, too. However, Davis and the South still gained many things despite how much they lost. They still had freedom. It was a freedom with boundaries, and it wasn't what they wanted, but it was a freedom that ultimately reinforced many of their insecurities. They had finally gained some sort of strength from the challenges they had faced. In this respect Davis's life once again reflected that of the states he had governed.