ABSTRACT
On January 9, 1861, Mississippi became the second state to secede from the United States of America. Mississippi voters went to the polls to choose delegates for a constitutional convention on December 20, 1860, the same day that a South Carolina delegation voted unanimously to leave the Union. Before becoming one of Mississippi’s leading secessionists, Barksdale supported John C. Breckinridge in the presidential campaign of 1860. Barksdale was head of the Mississippi Democratic delegation and was selected to present the viewpoints of all southern delegations. The philosophy of history may, indeed, give one lofty and sublime ideas of human nature; but it annals are filled with the grotesque, the ridiculous, and the vulgar Ironically, Douglas had spent a considerable amount of time campaigning in the South and followed the election returns in the newsroom of the Mobile Register. Barksdale’s support of Breckinridge may have appeared lukewarm, but it was an important move for his future success.
