CONFEDERATE STATES. 



237 



time, members of Congress under the Perma- 

 nent Constitution were elected. The only point 

 involved before the people in these elections, 

 was whether this or that man should be chosen 

 to Congress. Every question relative to the 

 previous condition of the people, as citizens of 

 the United States, and the change which had 

 been made, had passed beyond the considera- 

 tion of the voters. In fact, no such question 

 was ever submitted to their action. Such were 

 the forms under which the Government of the 

 Confederate States came into operation, and at 

 the close of 1861, when nearly a year had pass- 

 ed away, it was weak and trembling under the 

 uncertainty of its future existence. A frenzy, 

 like that which suddenly created it, might as 

 suddenly extinguish it. It had no hold upon 

 the hearts of the people, arising from convic- 

 tions long entertained of its necessity. There 

 had never been any peculiar interests in exist- 

 ence, which required its organization for their 

 special protection ; and there never would be, 

 unless the Government of the United States by 

 future hostile action should assail the interests 

 of the people, and demonstrate its necessity. 

 In that case only, and under such adverse cir- 

 cumstances, could it be expected to become so 

 rooted in the hearts of the people as to receive 

 their unanimous and unfaltering support. The 

 existence of the Confederate Government at 

 this period was entirely in the hands of the 

 Federal Government; and the statesmanship 

 with which the latter was wielded, was des- 

 tined either to extinguish the former or to nurse 

 it into vigorous life. The causes of this weak- 

 ness were developed as early as the beginning 

 of the year 1862, and were then in operation. 

 The movement to establish the Confederate 

 States was urged upon the people as necessary 

 to save themselves from degradation ' and to 

 preserve their property in slaves against the 

 hostile action of the Federal Government, as it 

 would be administered by the newly elected 

 President, Abraham Lincoln. These arguments 

 were addressed to two classes of citizens those 

 who were wealthy and the owners of slaves, or 

 whose interests were interwoven with this 

 class, and those who were comparatively poor, 

 and whose labor suffered under the competition 

 of that of the slaves. They were insufficient 

 to convince the majority of either class to es- 

 pouse the movement, and it would have been 

 an utter failure had there been no stimulating 

 causes created outside of the limits of the Con- 

 federate States. Even with the aid of the lat- 

 ter it was successful only by a resort to all those 

 arts which the skilful can devise to bias the 

 public mind. In the choice of delegates to the 

 State Conventions, a large minority of the 

 voters did not appear at the polls. Thus the 

 Confederate Government came into existence 

 by the tolerance of a large mass of its citizens. 

 This mass was the chief element which Federal 

 statesmanship should have used for its destruc- 

 tion. The new Administration of the United 

 States was not entirely insensible of the advan- 



tages within its grasp. Its first movements 

 aimed to secure the confidence of this mass of 

 the citizens in the Confederate States. Presi- 

 dent Lincoln denied that he had any designs 

 hostile to the institutions of those States, and 

 declared that he would not be foremost to 

 commence hostilities, but would continue the 

 benefits of the Government to those States as 

 far as practicable in their existing posture. 

 He said : 



Apprehension seems to exist among the people of the 

 Southern States that, by the accession of a Kepublican 

 Administration, their property, their peace, and per- 

 sonal security are to be endangered. There has never 

 been any reasonable cause for such apprehension. In- 

 deed, the most ample evidence to the contrary has all 

 the while existed, and been open to their inspection. 

 It is found in nearly all the published speeches of him 

 who now addresses you. I do but quote from one of 

 these speeches when 1 declare that " I have no purpose, 

 directly or indirectly, to interfere with the institution 

 of slavery in the States where it exists." I believe I 

 hare no lawful right to do so, and I have no inclina- 

 tion to do so. And, more than this, they placed in the 

 platform, for my acceptance, and as a law to them- 

 selves and to me, the clear and emphatic resolution 

 which I now read : 



fiesolred, That the maintenance inviolate of the rights of 

 the States, and (-specially the right of each State to ordet and 

 control its own domestic institutions according to its own 

 judgment exclusively, is essential to that balance of power 

 on which the perfection and endurance of our political fabric 

 depend ; and we denounce the lawless invasion by armed 

 force of the soil of any State or Territory, no matter under 

 what pretext, as among the gravest of crimes. 



I now reiterate these sentiments ; and in doing so I 

 only press upon the public attention the most conclu- 

 sive evidence of which the case is susceptible, that the 

 property, peace, and security of no section are to be in 

 any wis'e endangered by the now incoming Adminis- 

 tration. I add too, that all the protection which, con- 

 sistently with the Constitution and the laws, can be 

 given, will be cheerfully given to all the States when 

 lawfully demanded, for 'whatever cause, as cheerfully 

 to one section as to another. 



The effect of these and similar declarations was 

 to stop the progress of secession, and the great 

 States of Virginia. North Carolina. Tennessee, 

 Arkansas, and Missouri quietly continued as 

 members of the United States. Still the decla- 

 rations of a President are of little value, any 

 further than they express the views of the po- 

 litical party he represents. The Confederate 

 Government, as yet powerless at home, pro- 

 tested that peace was its only wish. As it 

 gathered strength by completing its independ- 

 ent organization, it soon became apparent that 

 without hostilities with the Federal Govern- 

 ment it must soon perish through deficient vi- 

 tality. The brilliant and dazzling dreams of 

 the future republic still failed to warm the 

 hearts of a portion of the Southern people in 

 its favor; the most bitter denunciations of the 

 tyranny of the North were equally unable to 

 kindle the anger of those citizens, and rouse 

 in them a stern determination to sustain the 

 new union with a patriot's firmness. "War alone 

 would relieve the Confederate Government of 

 these embarrassments. It would cut off all 

 communication between the North and the 

 South. It would shut out the Federal Govern- 

 ment, and destroy all its means of access to the 



