In August 1858, one of the most controversial events in local history took place at Bowdoin College in Brunswick, when the institution honored a southern visitor. Although this event was well intended, a historic and nation-shaking storm was brewing, one which would ultimately make this a contentious event.

By July 1858, then-Mississippi Sen. Jefferson Davis and his family arrived in Maine. Davis had served four years as the 23rd United States secretary of war in the cabinet of President Franklin Pierce before taking a seat in the Senate.

Davis was suffering from an eye infection and it was believed that the summer climate in Maine would restore his health. Wherever Davis went, his celebrity preceded him, as he was met with marching bands, glad-handing, speeches and other celebratory welcoming at every stop along the way.

When Sen. Davis and his wife Varina first arrived in Portland, they were greeted with a band that played a serenade just for them, and Davis delivered a 30-minute speech to a vast crowd assembled in front of their hotel at the corner of Park and Danforth streets.

Davis also served as the keynote speaker at the Portland High School girls’ graduation, then addressed the Cumberland County Democratic Convention. He also delivered a speech at the Maine State House in Augusta.

Davis then traveled on to ceremonies in East Hancock and Belfast, but it was his trip to Brunswick that August for which he is best remembered, even 167 years later.

On Aug. 5, Bowdoin held its 53rd commencement ceremony, and Maine’s illustrious Sen. William Pitt Fessenden was bestowed with an honorary doctorate for his lifetime of work. And since Davis was already in the state, Bowdoin took the opportunity to honor him as well with “an honorary Doctorate of Laws degree.”

After the ceremonies, a small parade was held and a number of orations were delivered by both Fessenden and by Davis. There was food and drink, and the night was capped off with a formal ball in honor of the men.

Davis and his family enjoyed a fun and restorative summer in Maine, and he was feted everywhere he traveled, despite the social and political fury of growing tensions between the anti-slavery North and the pro-slavery South. Davis owned more than 100 slaves at the time.

Two years later, after South Carolina seceded from the Union, Mississippi quickly followed suit, and Davis resigned his seat in Washington to return to Mississippi. By Feb. 28, 1861, Jefferson Davis officially became the president of the Confederate States of America and was now seen as a traitor to the Union.

On April 12, forces led by Confederate Major Gen. P.G.T. Beauregard — under orders from Jefferson Davis — laid siege to Union-held Fort Sumter in the mouth of Charleston Harbor, sparking the American Civil War. In this “War Between the States,” many sons of Bowdoin, such as Joshua L. Chamberlain, Oliver O. Howard and Thomas W. Hyde, became venerated American heroes, and even then, the president of the Confederacy was considered an “honorary” son of Bowdoin.

Chamberlain was a professor at Bowdoin when Davis received his honorary degree, and when Lee’s Army of Northern Virginia surrendered its arms and flags at Appomattox Court House on April 12, 1865, it surrendered to Bowdoin’s favorite son, Joshua Chamberlain.

By May 1865, Jefferson Davis was arrested and indicted for treason against the United States and held in prison at Fort Munroe in Virginia. However, Davis was never tried, as he was forgiven under a general amnesty proclaimed by President Andrew Johnson in 1867.

In 1965, 100 years after the American Civil War ended, a plaque was installed at Memorial Hall on the Bowdoin Campus. Mention of Davis’ honorarium, along with the honor roll of 18 Bowdoin men who served in the Confederacy during the American Civil War, was displayed. An estimated 300 Bowdoin students served in the Union Army.

By August 2017, the Bowdoin memorial was under fire by students who wanted the display and Davis’ degree to vanish. However, it was decided early on “that when the degree was conferred, Mr. Davis was a fitting man to receive it and that his later conduct had no bearing on the matter, a doctorate was given for life.”

After a great deal of public admonishment, the college finally removed the memorial, but the honorary degree bestowed on Jefferson Davis’ would remain. Today, the record of Jefferson Davis’ visit to the Pine Tree State, and the numerous honors given to him by so many, still exists in the memory of one of our more controversial Stories from Maine.

Lori-Suzanne Dell is a Brunswick author and historian. She has published four books and runs the “Stories from Maine” Facebook page.