Lucius Quintus Cincinnatus Lamar (American National Biography)

In Congress Lamar advocated "southern rights" and justified slavery. He stood with Senator Jefferson Davis of Mississippi in trying to avoid separate state secessions from the Union at the Charleston Democratic Convention of 1860, but when the movement gained momentum he wrote Mississippi's secession ordinance. Lamar provided a conservative rationalization that linked the Confederate revolution with the Declaration of Independence of 1776 and with the republicanism of the founding fathers.

After combat as a lieutenant colonel of the Nineteenth Mississippi in Virginia, Lamar fell ill with a debilitating paralysis and resigned from military duty in 1862. Named as Confederate states commissioner to Russia, Lamar traveled to Europe and temporarily undertook desultory duties in England and France in cooperation with other Confederate diplomats and agents. Political circumstances caused the Confederacy to abort the Russian mission, and Lamar was recalled without reaching his destination. During 1864 he did some work for the War Department in Richmond, but mainly he acted as Confederate president Davis's emissary in Georgia, where he conducted a public campaign in favor of the Habeas Corpus Act and other unpopular government actions. In December he rejoined the army and served as a judge advocate to a military court in Richmond.