`  == The first paragraph needs revision ==  The first paragraph should be brief, to-the-point, and factual.  When referring to a person who people feel strongly about, care should be taken to not distort the person's image to one side or the other.  I argue that most of the first paragraph is not only unnecessary, but strongly opinionated, and it paints a distorted image of this controversial man.  Below is a clip of the first paragraph as I read it:  `` leading the rebelling southern slave states (the Confederacy) to defeat because of a lack of soldiers and supplies toward the end of the American Civil War, 1861-65. Davis was never touched by corruption, but he lacked the resources and experience to overcome his counterpart Abraham Lincoln, and was unable to defeat a more industrially developed Union. His insistence on independence even in the face of crushing defeat prolonged the war—Davis was a strong believer in the rights of the people to ``alter or abolish governments whenever they become destructive of the ends for which they were established,`` noting such in his first inaugural address. Sam Houston of Texas uttered perhaps the most succinct, if not the most unbiased, characterization of Davis when he said the Mississippian was ``ambitious as Lucifer and cold as a lizard.`` After Davis was captured in 1865, he was held in a Federal prison for two years, then released with no charges being brought against him.``  Words such as, ``rebellion,`` ``lack of soldiers,`` lack of ``experience,`` ``crushing`` defeat, the insinuation that Davis ``prolonged`` the war, the out-of-place opinion of Sam Houston which the writer says, ``the most succinct``... What kind of picture is this author trying to paint of Jefferson Davis?  After reading the first paragraph of this article, who would care to venture forth and learn more about Davis?  I was horrified when I saw it.    Somebody please clean up this article.   `