Hello and welcome to this day in esoteric political history from radiotopia.

My name is Jody Avergan.

This day October 1978, President Jimmy Carter signed a resolution which had been

unanimously passed in Congress to restore the citizenship of Jefferson

Davis, president of the Confederacy during the Civil War.

We've talked a lot on this show about the years after the Civil War, the process by which there

was reconciliation and reconstruction of the southern states, and we've touched on how about a hundred or so years

later the lost cause myth was still persistent and there were fading memories of the war,

a reimagining of what the civil war really was and what it was all about.

And here was this moment where the President of the United States was retroactively restoring

citizenship to the man who led the southern states in secession.

A super interesting moment, not least because it feels like Jefferson Davis probably would not

have even wanted this act from everything that he told us when he was alive, but let's talk

about it, as always here are

Nicole Hammer of Vanderbilt and Kelly Carter Jackson of Wellesley hello there

hello Jody hey there yeah I'm curious about this question of whether Davis would have wanted this.

You actually, do you want to start there before we get to the pardon?

Because if you were to simply say, which seems like a logical question, would Jefferson Davis have wanted to be part and what do we know?

Okay, hold up first can I just say like I've said over and over on this podcast before I love Jimmy Carter

Jimmy Carter can do no wrong and I look at this moment and I'm like damn it Jim why why this was so unnecessary.

Particularly for a person that was unrepentant when it came to, you know in the civil war and his stance he

essentially says Jefferson Davis essentially says like yeah I would do it again and

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