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Nr. 52. meaning. Thus instructed as to a just interpretation of the instrument, and Conföd. ever remembering that all offices are but trusts held for the people, and 18. Febr. that the delegated powers are to be strictly construed, I will hope, by due diligence in the performance of my duties-though I may disappoint your expectations—yet to retain, when retiring, something of the good-will and confidence which welcomed my entrance into office. It is joyous, in the midst of perilous times, to look around upon a people united in heart, where one purpose of high resolve animates and actuates the whole, where the sacrifices to be made are not weighed in the balance against honor, right, liberty, and equality. Obstacles may retard, but they cannot long prevent the progress of the movement sanctioned by its justice; and, sustained by a virtuous people, reverently let us invoke the God of our fathers to guide and protect us in our efforts to perpetuate the principles which, by His blessing, they were able to vindicate, establish, and transmit to their posterity; and with a continuance of His favor, ever gratefully acknowledged, we may hopefully look forward to success, to peace, and to prosperity.

No. 53.

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Nr. 53.

Proklamation des Präsidenten der s. g. Conföderirten - Die Ausgabe von Caperbriefen betr.

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Whereas, Abraham Lincoln, President of the United States, has, by proclamation*), announced his intention of invading this Confederacy with an 17. April armed force, with the purpose of capturing its fortresses, and thereby sub

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jugating its independence, and subjecting the free people thereof to the dominion of a foreign power, and ¶ Whereas, It has thus become the duty of this government to repel the threatened invasion, and defend the rights and liberties of the people by all the means which the laws of nations and usage of civilized warfare placed at its disposal. Now, therefore, I, Jefferson Davis, President of the Confederate States of America, do issue this my proclamation, inviting all those who may desire, by service in private armed vessels, on the high seas, to aid this government in resisting so wanton and wicked an aggression, to make application for commissions or letters of marque and reprisal, to be issued under seal of these Confederate States. And I do further notify all persons applying for letters of marque to make the statement in writing, giving the name and suitable description of character, tonnage, and force of vessel, and place of residence of each owner concerned therein, and the intended number of crew, and to sign such statement and deliver the same to the Secretary of State or collector of the port of entry of these Confederate States, to be by him transmitted to the Secretary of State. And I do further notify all appli cants aforesaid, that before any commission or letter of marque is issued to any vessel, the owner or owners thereof, and the commander for the

*) No. 43.

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time being, be required to give bond to the Confederate States, with at No. 53. least two responsible sureties, not interested in such vessels, in the penal Staaten, sum of five thousand dollars, or if such vessel be provided with more than 17. April 150 men, then in the penal sum of ten thousand dollars, with the condition that the owners, officers and crew who shall be employed on board of such commissioned vessels shall observe the laws of these Confederate States and instructions given them for the regulation of their conduct that shall satisfy all damages done contrary to the tenor thereof by such vessel during her commission, and delivery up of the same when revoked by the President of the Confederate States. And I do further specially enjoin, on all persons holding office, civil and military, under authority of the Confederate States, that they be vigilant and zealous in the discharge of the duties incident thereto. And I do moreover solemnly exhort the good people of these Confederate States, as they love the country, as they prize the blessing of free government, as they feel the wrongs of the past, and those now threatened in an aggravated form, by those whose enmity is the more implacable because unprovoked, that they exert themselves in preserving order, in promoting concord, in maintainig the authority and efficiency of the laws and in supporting and invigorating all the measures which may be adopted for the common defence, and by which, under the blessing of Divine Providence, we may hope for a speedy, just and honorable peace. In testimony whereof I have hereunto affixed the seal of the Confederacy, this 17th day of April, 1861.

To Robert Toombs, Secretary of State.

Jefferson Davis.

Nr. 54.

NORD-AMERIKA.

Botschaft des Präsidenten der s. g. Conföderirten Staaten an den Congress von Montgomery, vom 29. April 1861.

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Gentlemen of the Congress: It is my pleasing duty to announce Nr. 54. to you that the constitution framed for the establishment of a permanent Staaten, government for the Confederate States has been ratified by conventions in 29. April each of those States to which it was referred. To inaugurate the government in its full proportions and upon its own substantial basis of the popular will, it only remains that elections should be held for the designation of the officers to administer it. There is every reason to believe that at no distant day, other States, identified in political principles and community of interests with those which you represent, will join this confederacy; giving to its typical constellation increased splendor- to its government of free, equal and sovereign States a wider sphere of usefulness-and to the friends of constitutional liberty a greater security for its harmonious and perpetual existence. It was not, however, for the purpose of making this announcement that I have deemed it my duty to convoke you at an earlier day than that fixed by yourselves for your meeting. The declaration of war made against this confederacy by Abraham Lincoln, the President of the United States, in his proclamation issued on the fifteenth day of the

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No. 54. present month, *) rendered it necessary in my judgment that you should conConfod. vene at the earliest practicable moment, to devise the measures necessary 29. April for the defence of the country. ¶ The occasion is indeed an extraordinary one. It justifies me in a brief review of the relations heretofore existing between us and the States which now unite in warfare against us, and in a succinct statement of the events which have resulted in this warfare; to the end that mankind may pass intelligent and impartial judgment on its motives and objects. ¶ During the war waged against Great Britain by her colonies on this continent a common danger impelled them to a close alliance, and to the formation of a confederation, by the terms of which the colonies, styling themselves States, entered "severally into a firm league of friendship with each other for their common defence, the security of their liberties, and their mutual and general welfare, binding themselves to assist each other against all force offered to or attacks made upon them or any of them, on account of religion, sovereignty, trade or any other pretence whetever." In order to guard against any misconstruction of their compact, the several States made explicit declaration, in a distinct article, that "each State retains its sovereignty, freedom and independence, and every power, jurisdiction and right which is not by this Confederation expressly delegated to the United States in Congress assembled." ¶ Under this contract of alliance the war of the revolution was successfully waged, and resulted in the treaty of peace with Great Britain in 1783, by the terms of which the several States were, each by name, recognized to be independent. The articles of confederation contained a clause whereby all alterations were prohibited, unless confirmed by the Legislatures of every State, after being agreed to by the Congress; and in obedience to this provision under the resolution of Congress of the 21st of February, 1787, the several States appointed delegates who attended a convention "for the sole and express purpose of revising the articles of confederation, and reporting to Congress and the several Legislatures such alterations and provisions therein as shall, when agreed to in Congress, and confirmed by the States, render the federal constitution adequate to the exigences of government and the preservation of the Union." It was, by the delegates chosen, by the several Statés, under the resolution just quoted, that the constitution of the United States was framed in 1787, and submitted to the several States for ratification, as shown by the seventh article, which is in these words: "The ratification of the Conventions of nine States shall be sufficient for the establishment of this constitution between the States so ratifying the same.“ ¶ I have italicised certain words in the quotations just made, for the purpose of attracting attention to the singular and marked caution with which the States endeavoured, in every possible form, to exclude the idea that the separate and independent sovereignty of each State was merged into one common government and nation; and the earnest desire they evinced to impress on the constitution its true character- that of a compact between

*) Nr. 43.

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independent States.

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The constitution of 1787 having, however, omitted No. 54. the clause already recited from the articles of confederation, which provided Confod. in explicit terms, that each State retained its sovereignty and independence, 29. April some alarm was felt in the States when invited to ratify the constitution, lest this omission should be construed into an abandonment of their cherished principle, and they refused to be satisfied until amendments were added to the constitution, placing beyond any pretence of doubt the reservation by the States of all their sovereign rights and powers-not expressly delegated to the United States by the constitution. Strange indeed must it appear to the impartial observer, but it is none the less true, that all these carefully worded clauses proved unavailing to prevent the rise and growth in the Northern States of a political school which has persistently claimed that the government thus formed was not a compact between States, but was in effect a national government, set up above and over the States. An organization, created by the States to secure the blessings of liberty and independence against foreign aggression, has been gradually perverted into a machine for their control in their domestic affairs: the creature has been exalted above its creators; the principals have been made subordinate to the agent appointed by themselves. The people of the Southern States, whose almost exclusive occupation was agriculture, early perceived a tendency in the Northern States to render the common government subservient to their own purposes, by imposing burthens on commerce as a protection to their manufacturing and shipping interests. Long and angry controversy grew out of these attempts, often successful, to benefit one section of the country at the expense of the other. And the danger of disruption arising from this cause, was enhanced by the fact that the Northern population was increasing by immigration and other causes in a greater ratio than the population of the South. By degrees, as the Northern States gained preponderance in the national Congress, self-interest taught their people to yield ready assent to any plausible advocacy of their right as majority to govern the minority without control. They learned to listen with impatience to the suggestion of any constitutional impediment to the exercise of their will; and so utterly have the principles of the constitution been corrupted in the Northern mind, that in the inaugural address delivered by President Lincoln in March last,*) he asserts as an axiom which he plainly deems to be undeniable, that the theory of the constitution requires that in all cases the majority shall govern; and in another memorable instance, the same Chief Magistrate did not hesitate to liken the relations between a State and the United States to those which exist between a county and the State in which it is situated and by which it was created. This is the lamentable and fundamental error on which rests the policy that has culminated in his declaration of war against these Confederate States. In addition to the long continued and deep seated resentment felt by the Southern States at the persistent abuse of the powers they had delegated to the Congress, for

*) Nr. 42.

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No. 54. the purpose of enriching the manufacturing and shipping classes of the North Conföd. at the expense of the South, there has existed for nearly half a century 29. April another subject of discord involving interests of such transcendent magnitude as at all times to create the apprehension in the minds of many devoted lovers of the Union, that its permanence was impossible. ¶ When the several States delegated certain powers to the United States Congress, a large portion of the laboring population consisted of African slaves imported into the colonies by the mother country. In twelve, out of the thirteen States, negro slavery existed, and the right of property in slaves was protected by law. This property was recognized in the constitution, and provision was made against its loss by the escape of the slave. The increase in the number of slaves by further importation from Africa was also secured by a clause forbidding Congress to prohibit the slave trade anterior to a certain date; and in no clause can there be found any delegation of power to the Congress authorizing it in any manner to legislate to the prejudice, detriment or discouragement of the owners of that species of property, or excluding it from the protection of the government. The climate and soil of the Northern States soon proved unpropitious to the continuance of slave labor, whilst the converse was the case at the South. Under the unrestricted free intercourse between the two sections, the Northern States consulted their own interest by selling their slaves to the South, and prohibiting slavery within their limits. The South were willing purchasers of a property suitable to their wants, and paid the price of the acquisition without harboring a suspicion that their quiet possession was to be disturbed by those who were inhibited, not only by want of constitutional authority, but by good faith as venders, from disquieting a title emanating from themselves. As soon, however, as the Northern States that prohibited African slavery within their limits had reached a number sufficient to give their representation a controlling voice in the Congress, a persistent and organized system of hostile measures against the rights of the owners of slaves in the Southern States was inaugurated and gradually extended. A continous series of measures was devised and prosecuted for the purpose of rendering insecure the tenure of property in slaves; fanatical organizations, supplied with money by voluntary subscriptions, were assiduously engaged in exciting amongst the slaves a spirit of discontent and revolt; means were furnished for their escape from their owners, and agents secretly employed to entice them to abscond; the constitutional provision for their rendition to their owners was first evaded, then openly denounced as a violation of conscientious obligation and religious duty; men were taught that it was a merit to elude, disobey and violently oppose the execution of the laws enacted to secure the performance of the promise contained in the constitutional compact; owners of slaves were mobbed and even murdered in open day, solely for applying to a magistrate for the arrest of a fugitive slave; the dogmas of these voluntary organizations soon obtained control of the Legislatures of many of the Northern States, and laws were passed providing for the punishment by ruinous fines and long continued imprison

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