Some years ago I read somewhere that Davis was captured by Union troops somewhere in Georgia in the first few months of 1865. He was held in a federal prison for about two years, awaiting trial on treason charges, and then the charges were dropped and he was released. The reason, I read, was that Union officials were afraid that if they tried him, the courts might render a verdict of not guilty because he wasn't a U.S. citizen and therefore had no obligation of loyalty to the U.S. This is because he led a country made up of states that had seceded from the U.S. and were in fact another country, and he was the leader of that country. The issue of the legality, or constitutionality, of secession was never settled in the courts. It was settled on the battlefield. At the beginning of the war Lincoln was afraid of allowing the courts to rule on that issue, and that's why he threatened to arrest Supreme Court justices to prevent that from happening. If the courts were given an opportunity to rule on that issue two years after the war, and if they found in a trial of Jefferson Davis that the Confederate states DID have the legal right to leave the union and therefore that Davis was not guilty of treason because he was in fact the leader of a foreign country, that would have been like losing the war in the courts after winning it, at enormous cost, on the battlefield. That would have been a disaster, and that's why they dropped the charges against Davis and let him go.
That's what I read somewhere some years back, but I cannot tell you where I read it because I cannot find it now. I am relating it now just from memory. I assume there is at least some truth to it because it does make sense and fit the facts. It might also have something to do with why they didn't prosecute other Confederate officials.
— Ron
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