The Starting Point of the Great War Between the States. Inauguration of Jefferson Davis. Color lithograph by Strobridge & Co., 1878, from a painting by James Massalon, based on a photograph of the event. While Lincoln believed there was still hope for reconstructing the Union, Davis addressed this assemblage as the first president of what secessionists foresaw as a permanent Confederation: “Obstacles may retard, they cannot long prevent the progress of a movement sanctified, by its justice,” Davis said, “and sustained by a virtuous people.”