Congress of the Confederate States of America

“ The sad story of the wrongs and indignities endured by those States which have been in the complete or partial possession of the enemy will give the best evidence of the consequences of subjugation. Missouri, a magnificent empire of agricultural and mineral wealth, is to-day a smoking ruin, and the theatre of the most revolting cruelties and barbarities. The minions of tyranny consume her substance, plunder her citizens, and destroy her peace. ”

“ Accompanied by every act of cruelty and rapine, the conduct of the enemy has been destitute of that forbearance and magnanimity which civilization and Christianity have introduced to mitigate the asperities of war. The atrocities are too incredible for narration. Instead of a regular war, our resistance of the unholy efforts to crush out our national existence is treated as a rebellion, and the settled international rules between belligerents are ignored. Instead of conducting the war as betwixt two military and political organizations, it is a war against the whole population. ”

“ Our soldiers are not a consolidated mass, an unthinking machine, but an army of intelligent units. To designate all who have distinguished themselves by special valor, would be to enumerate nearly all in the army. The generous rivalry between the troops from different States has prevented any special pre-eminence, and hereafter, for centuries to come, the gallant bearing and unconquerable devotion of Confederate soldiers will inspire the hearts and encourage the hopes, and strengthen the faith of all who labor to obtain their freedom. ”

“ It is absurd to pretend that a government, really desirous of restoring the Union, would adopt such measures as the confiscation of private property, the emancipation of slaves, systematic efforts to invite them to insurrection, forcible abduction from their homes, and compulsory enlistment in the army, the division of a sovereign State without its consent, and the proclamation that one-tenth of the population of a State, and that tenth under military rule, should control the will of the remaining nine-tenths. ”

“ Absenteeism would curse us with all its vices. Superadded to these, sinking us into a lower abyss of degradation, we would be made the slaves of our slaves, hewers of wood and drawers of water for those upon whom God has stamped indelibly the marks of physical and intellectual inferiority. The past, or foreign countries, need not be sought unto to furnish illustrations of the heritage of shame that subjugation would entail. ”

“ The President, more authoritatively, in several of his messages, while protesting the utter absence of all desire to interfere with the United States, or acquire any of their territory, has avowed that the "advent of peace will be hailed with joy. Our desire for it has never been concealed. Our efforts to avoid the war, forced on us as it was by the lust of conquest and the insane passions of our foes, are known to mankind." ”

“ Remembering the disproportion in population, in military and naval resources, and the deficiency of skilled labor in the South, our accomplishments have surpassed those recorded of any people in the annals of the world. There is no just reason for hopelessness or fear. Since the outbreak of the war the South has lost the nominal possession of the Mississippi river and fragments of her territory; but Federal occupancy is not conquest. The fires of patriotism still burn unquenchably in the breasts of those who are subject to foreign domination. ”

“ Others look with alarm upon the complete subversion of constitutional freedom by Abraham Lincoln, and feel, in their own persons, the bitterness of the slavery which three years of war have failed to inflict on the South. Brave and earnest men at the North have spoken out against the usurpations and cruelties daily practiced. The success of these men over the radical and despotic faction which now rules the North may open the way to peaceful negotiation and a cessation of this bloody and unnecessary war. ”

“ Coupled with, and contributing greatly to this enthusiastic ardor, was the lofty courage, the indomitable resolve, the self-denying spirit of our noble women, who, by their labors of love, their patience of hope, their unflinching constancy, their uncomplaining submission to privations of the war, have shed an immortal lustre upon their sex and country. ”

“ Let us, then, looking upon the bodies of our loved and honored dead, catch inspiration from their example, and gather renewed confidence and a firmer resolve to tread, with unfaltering trust, the path that leads to honor and peace, although it lead through tears and suffering and blood. ”

“ In conclusion, we exhort our fellow-citizens to be of good cheer and spare no labor, nor sacrifices, that may be necessary to enable us to win the campaign upon which we have just entered. We have passed through great trials of affliction, but suffering and humiliation are the schoolmasters that lead nations to self-reliance and independence. These disciplinary providences but mature and develop and solidify our people. We beg that the supplies and resources of the country, which are ample, may be sold to the Government to support and equip its armies. ”

“ Inspired by a holy patriotism, again and again have our brave soldiers, with the aid of Heaven, baffled the efforts of our foes. It is in no arrogant spirit that we refer to successes that have cost us so much blood, and brought sorrow to so many hearts. We may find in all this an earnest of what, with determined and resolute exertion, we can do to avert subjugation and slavery—and we cannot fail to discern in our deliverance from so many and so great perils the interposition of that Being who will not forsake us in the trials that are to come. ”

“ It is better to be conquered by any other nation than by the United States. It is better to be a dependency of any other power than of that. By the condition of its existence and essential constitution, as now governed, it must be in perpetual hostility to us. As the Spanish invader burned his ships to make retreat impossible, so we cannot afford to take steps backward. Retreat is more dangerous than advance. Behind us are inferiority and degradation—before us is everything enticing to a patriot.
Our bitter and implacable foes are preparing vigorously for the coming campaign. ”

“ We charge the responsibility of this war upon the United States. They are accountable for the blood and havoc and ruin it has caused. For such a war we were not prepared. The difference in military resources between our enemies and ourselves; the immense advantages possessed in the organized machinery of an established government; a powerful navy, the nucleus of an army, credit abroad, and illimitable facilities in mechanical and manufacturing power, placed them on "the vantage ground." ”

“ If we had succeeded in preventing any successes on the part of our enemy, it would have been a miracle. What we have accomplished, with a population so inferior in numbers and means so vastly disproportionate, has excited the astonishment and admiration of the world.
The war in which we are engaged was wickedly, and against all our protests and the most earnest efforts to the contrary, forced upon us. South Carolina sent a commission to Washington to adjust all questions of dispute between her and the United States. ”

“ It may not be amiss, in this connection, to say that at one time it was the wish and expectation of many at the South to form a treaty of amity and friendship with the Northern States, by which both peoples might derive the benefits of commercial intercourse, and move on side by side in the arts of peace and civilization. History has confirmed the lesson taught by Divine authority, that each nation, as well as each individual, should seek their happiness in the prosperity of others, and not in the injury or ruin of a neighbor. ”

“ We fell back upon the right for which the colonies maintained the war of the Revolution, and which our heroic forefathers asserted to be clear and inalienable. The unanimity and zeal with which the separation was undertaken and perfected, finds no parallel in history. The people rose en masse to assert their liberties and protect their menaced rights. There never was before such universality of conviction among any people on any question involving so serious and so thorough a change of political and international relations. ”

“ We can only repeat the desire of the people for peace, and our readiness to accept terms consistent with the honor and dignity and independence of the States, and compatible with the safety of our domestic institutions. ”

“ Resolved, That as our country and the very existence of the best government ever instituted by man are imperiled by the most causeless and wicked rebellion that the world has seen, and believing, as we do, that the only hope of saving this country and preserving this government is by the power of the sword, we are for the most vigorous prosecution of the war until the constitution and the laws shall be enforced and obeyed in all parts of the United States ”

“ We yet have in our uninterrupted control a territory, which, according to past progress, will require the enemy ten years to overrun.
The enemy is not free from difficulties. With an enormous debt, the financial convulsion, long postponed, is surely coming. The short crops in the United States and abundant harvests in Europe will hasten what was otherwise inevitable. Many sagacious persons at the North discover in the usurpations of their Government the certain overthrow of their liberties. A large number revolt from the unjust war waged upon the South, and would gladly bring it to an end. ”

“ He does not paint too strongly the purposes of the enemy or the consequences of subjugation. What has been done in certain districts is but the prologue of the bloody drama that will be enacted. It is well that every man and woman should have some just conception of the horrors of conquest. The fate of Ireland at the period of its conquest, and of Poland, distinctly foreshadows what would await us. ”

“ Until some evidence is given of a change of policy on the part of the government, and some assurance is received that efforts at negotiation will not be spurned, the Congress are of opinion that any direct overtures for peace would compromise our self-respect, be fruitless of good, and interpreted by the enemy as an indication of weakness. ”

“ Emancipation of slaves as a war measure has been severely condemned and denounced by the most eminent publicists in Europe and the United States. The United States, "in their diplomatic relations, have ever maintained," says the northern authority just quoted, "that slaves were private property, and for them, as such, they have repeatedly received compensation from England." Napoleon I. was never induced to issue a proclamation for the emancipation of the serfs in his war with Russia. He said: "I could have armed against her a part of her population, by proclaiming the liberty of the serfs. ”

“ To impoverish us would only be to dry up some of the springs of northern prosperity—to destroy southern wealth is to reduce northern profits, while the restoration of peace would necessarily re-establish some commercial intercourse. ”

“ The heroes of our contest would be required to lay down their proud ensigns, on which are recorded the battle-fields of their glory, to stack their arms, lower their heads in humiliation and dishonor, and pass under the yoke of abolition, misrule and tyranny. ”

“ Moral aid has the "power of the incommunicable," and, by united efforts, by an all-comprehending and self-sacrificing patriotism, we can, with the blessing of God, avert the perils which environ us, and achieve for ourselves and children peace and freedom. Hitherto the Lord has interposed graciously to bring us victory, and in His hand there is present power to prevent this great multitude which come against us from casting us out of the possession which He has given us to inherit. ”

“ Subjugation involves everything that the torturing malice and devilish ingenuity of our foes can suggest—the destruction of our nationality, the equalization of whites and blacks, the obliteration of State lines, degradation to colonial vassalage, and the reduction of many of our citizens to dreary, hopeless, remediless bondage. A hostile police would keep "order " in every town and city. Judges, like Busteed, would hold our courts, protected by Yankee soldiers. Churches would be filled by Yankee or Tory preachers. Every office would be bestowed on aliens. ”

“ A State, resolved to hazard its existence rather than abandon its object, must have an infinite advantage over that which is resolved to yield, rather than carry its resistance beyond a certain point. ”

“ That a people, professing to be animated by Christian sentiment, and who had regarded our peculiar institution as a blot and blur upon the fair escutcheon of their common Christianity, should make war upon the South for doing what they had a perfect right to do, and for relieving them of the incubus which they professed rested upon them by association, was deemed almost beyond belief by many of our wisest minds. ”

“ No whispers of freedom go unpunished, and the very instincts of self-preservation are outlawed. The worship of God and the rites of sepulture have been shamefully interrupted, and, in many instances, the cultivation of the soil is prohibited to her own citizens. ”