--- title: Jefferson Davis Day 2017: How His Citizenship Was Restored description: The pardon of Jefferson Davis in 1978 provides an illustration of the way attitudes toward the Civil War have evolved in the United States. canonical: https://time.com/4802270/jefferson-davis-day-2017/ author: Olivia B. Waxman article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2017-06-05T15:00:39.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-23T05:13:38.609Z article:section: History og:title: Jefferson Davis Day 2017: How His Citizenship Was Restored og:description: The 1978 decision provides an illustration of the way attitudes toward the Civil War have evolved og:url: https://time.com/4802270/jefferson-davis-day-2017/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt856c6465a3b60712/6988cfdcab6d772fd36ae5c1/gettyimages-678748356.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: New Orleans Prepares To Remove More Civil War Monuments og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Jefferson Davis Day 2017: How His Citizenship Was Restored twitter:description: The 1978 decision provides an illustration of the way attitudes toward the Civil War have evolved twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt856c6465a3b60712/6988cfdcab6d772fd36ae5c1/gettyimages-678748356.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Why Jefferson Davis Got His U.S. Citizenship Back  by [Olivia B. Waxman](https://time.com/author/olivia-b-waxman/)  ## Olivia B. Waxman Staff Writer Jun 5, 2017 3:00 PM UTC  A view of the Jefferson Davis monument on May 4, 2017, in New Orleans, Louisiana. A view of the Jefferson Davis monument on May 4, 2017, in New Orleans, Louisiana.Justin Sullivan—Getty Images  by [Olivia B. Waxman](https://time.com/author/olivia-b-waxman/)  ## Olivia B. Waxman Staff Writer Jun 5, 2017 3:00 PM UTC When Alabamians mark Jefferson Davis Day on Monday — the state is the [only](http://www.al.com/opinion/index.ssf/2015/05/jefferson%5Fdavis%5Fbirthday%5Fis%5Fto.html) one that still specifically honors the 1808 birth of the Confederate president with its own official holiday — the [controversial](http://blog.al.com/wire/2013/06/poll%5Fshould%5Fjefferson%5Fdavis%5Fbi.html#incart%5Friver) [commemoration](http://www.al.com/opinion/index.ssf/2015/05/jefferson%5Fdavis%5Fbirthday%5Fis%5Fto.html) will fall just weeks after New Orleans removed a [statue of Jefferson Davis](http://time.com/4774994/new-orleans-mayor-mitch-landrieu-confederate-monuments/) as part of what’s become a [nationwide push](http://time.com/4775456/new-orleans-confronts-confederate-history/) to remove Confederate monuments. The changing national view of how Confederate leaders should be remembered is in some ways exemplified by Davis. In 2017, for example, New Orleans Mayor Mitch Landrieu[ expressed the view](http://time.com/4790674/mitch-landrieu-new-orleans-confederate-monuments-speech/) in speaking about the statues in his city that nation is still very much confronting the issues raised by the Civil War. “Centuries-old wounds are still raw because they never healed right in the first place,” he said. A different sentiment was expressed in 1978 when President Jimmy Carter, a Democrat from the South, signed into law legislation posthumously [restoring](http://time.com/vault/issue/1978-10-30/page/111/) Davis’s full citizenship rights on Oct. 17, 1978\. (General Robert E. Lee’s citizenship had been restored in 1976, under President Gerald Ford). In a [statement](http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/ws/?pid=29993) on the decision, Carter explained that he saw the move as bringing to a close “the long process of reconciliation” that followed the Civil War: --- > “” --- Debates over restoring Davis’ citizenship date back to [the 1870s](https://constitutioncenter.org/blog/the-pardon-of-jefferson-davis-and-the-14th-amendment), but a 1872 law prevented high-ranking Confederate officials like him from voting or holding public office. He said during his lifetime that he would not request a pardon to get those rights back — a devotion to his cause that in fact contributed to the later movement to celebrate his birthday. He had even said during his lifetime that he would not request a pardon to get his citizenship rights back. For example, in 1884, the former Mississippi U.S. Senator said, “‘Tis been said that I should apply to the United States for a pardon, but repentance must precede the right of pardon, and I have not repented,” in an address to the state legislature. “Remember as I must all which has been lost, disappointed hopes, and crushed aspirations, yet I deliberately say, If I were to do it over again, I would do just as I did in 1861.” A century later, it wasn’t that Americans in the mid-1970s had suddenly become more supportive of the cause that Davis and Lee fought for — in fact, the civil rights and peace movements were in full force — yet, some contend, this period of increased political awareness was related to the movement restore the citizenship of Confederate leaders. “Their willingness to oppose the federal government because of principle struck a responsive note in a nation disillusioned by Vietnam, Watergate, and the Church Committee hearings,” Francis MacDonnell, a professor of history at Southern Virginia University, [argues](https://muse.jhu.edu/article/421004/pdf) in a paper on the pardoning of Lee and Davis. “Ultimately, the national sense that the government had let down — even betrayed — average Americans helped create a favorable climate for legislation extending clemency.” Carter used the same this principle when he expanded amnesty for Vietnam draft evaders. As [he said at the time](https://books.google.com/books?id=cUZ5SpAnXFsC&pg=PA358&lpg=PA358&dq=carter+%22i+have+a+historical+perspective+about+this+question%22&source=bl&ots=qZpcuzGti3&sig=BNrH3D529LG-Pc6ZrTRNUmVwaU8&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwid4dPSxZ3UAhVD2yYKHcCxCpUQ6AEIKDAA#v=onepage&q=carter%20%22i%20have%20a%20historical%20perspective%20about%20this%20question%22&f=false): “I have a historical perspective about this question. I come from the South. I know at the end of the War Between the States there was a sense of forgiveness for those who had not been loyal to our country in the past, and this same thing occurred after other wars as well.” MacDonnell, however, makes a point that the Lee and Davis pardons were slightly different: though Lee had later in his life worked for reconciliation and “he wanted his citizenship back and he probably deserved it,” Davis on the other hand ” never wanted to surrender and favored turning to guerilla warfare.” But, though Davis may not have wanted reconciliation, the nation in the 1970s did. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4802270/jefferson-davis-day-2017/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4802270/jefferson-davis-day-2017/"},"headline":"Why Jefferson Davis Got His U.S. Citizenship Back","datePublished":"2017-06-05T15:00:39.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-23T05:13:38.609Z","description":"The 1978 decision provides an illustration of the way attitudes toward the Civil War have evolved","url":"https://time.com/4802270/jefferson-davis-day-2017/","keywords":["Civil War","politics","Civil Rights","People"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt856c6465a3b60712/6988cfdcab6d772fd36ae5c1/gettyimages-678748356.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Olivia B. 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