The Rise and Fall of the Confederate Government (1881) is a book written by Jefferson Davis, who served as President of the Confederate States of America during the American Civil War. Davis wrote the book as a straightforward history of the Confederate States of America and as an apologia for the causes that he believed led to and justified the American Civil War. He wrote most of the book at Beauvoir, the Biloxi, Mississippi, plantation where he was living as a guest of the novelist and wealthy widow Sarah Ellis Dorsey. Ill with cancer, in 1878 she made over her will and left the plantation to him before her death in 1879. She had already assisted him in his writing, notably with organization, editing, and encouragement. Davis was also assisted by his wife, Varina, and his secretary Major W. T. Walthall. He corresponded voluminously with surviving Confederate statesmen and generals, including Judah Benjamin and Jubal Early, for fact-checking and details on key issues. Publication The book was released in 1881 by the New York publisher D. Appleton & Co. in a two-volume edition totaling more than 1,500 pages and with many engraved illustrations. Content What was compelling in the view of Davis's contemporaries and modern scholars was Davis's thoughtfully constructed arguments about the constitutional and moral justification of the formation of the Confederacy and of the Civil War. Davis made many comparisons between the formation of the Continental Congress and the American Revolution and the formation of the Confederate States and the American Civil War. He saw them as being little different ethically or politically, save that the former resulted in victory for the rebels and the latter in defeat. Davis discussed the history of slavery and defended its fundamental morality: in his view, slavery enlightened blacks with the "arts of peace, order and civilization" and slaves were happy and "contented" in their servitude. Davis detailed his belief in the hypocrisy of Northern states with regard to slavery considering that most Northern states had once allowed slavery and that all derived income from trade goods produced by slaves, and the unfairness that he saw in the numerous acts and policies that benefited Northern industrialists to the detriment of Southern planters. Davis cited numerous constitutional passages, constitutional scholars, and American political leaders to support his thesis that secession was justified, including a speech by Abraham Lincoln that argued for the illegality