I worked night and day for twelve years to prevent the war, but I could not. The North was mad and blind, would not let us govern ourselves, and so the war came.
Source: Letter to James Frazier Jacquess & James R. Gilmore, 17 Jul 1864.
-- Jefferson Davis, (Jun 3 1808-1889), US political leader; He was president of the Confederacy, 1861-65.