Stephen Douglas vs. Jefferson Davis: Who Led the Confederacy?

Stephen A. Douglas was never President of the Confederate States. He was a prominent U.S. Senator from Illinois, a Northern Democrat, and a staunch opponent of slavery's expansion. He died in 1861, early in the Civil War.

Jefferson Davis was the first and only President of the Confederate States of America (1861–1865). The confusion may stem from both being prominent Democrats in the 1850s, but they stood on opposite sides of the secession crisis.