734 



PUBLIC DOCUMENTS. 



Message of President DAVIS to the Confederate 

 Congress at its first Session under the " Perma- 

 nanent Constitution" Feb. 25, 1862. 



To the Senate and House of Representatives 



of the Confederate States : 



In obedience to the constitutional provision requiring 

 the President from time to time to give to Congress 

 information of the state of the Confederacy, and rec- 

 ommend to their consideration such measures as he 

 shall judge necessary and expedient, I have to com- 

 municate that, since my Message at the last session of 

 the Provisional Congress, events have demonstrated 

 that the Government had attempted more than it had 

 power successfully to achieve. Hence in the effort to 

 protect by our arms the whole territory of the Con- 

 federate States, seaboard and inland, we have been so 

 exposed as recently to encounter serious disasters. 



When the Confederacy was formed the States com- 

 prising it were, in the peculiar character of their pur- 

 suits and a misplaced confidence in their former 

 associates, to a great extent destitute of the means for 

 the prosecution of the war on so gigantic a scale as 

 that which it has attained. The workshops and artists 

 were mainly to be found in the Northern States, and 

 one of the first duties which devolved upon this Gov- 

 ernment was to establish the necessary manufactories, 

 and in the mean time to obtain, by purchase from 

 abroad, as far as practicable, whatever was required 

 for the public defence. No effort has been spared to 

 effect both these ends, and, though the results have 

 not equalled pur hopes, it is believed that an impartial 

 judgment will, upon full investigation, award to the 

 various departments of the Government credit for 

 having done all which human power and foresight 

 enabled them to accomplish. The valor and devotion 

 of the people have not only sustained the efforts of the 

 Government, but have gone far to support its defi- 

 ciencies. 



The active state of military preparations among the 

 nations of Europe in April last, the date when our 

 agents first went abroad, interposed unavoidable delays 

 in the procurement of arms, and the want of a navy 

 has greatly impeded our efforts to import military 

 supplies of all sorts. 



I have hoped for several days to receive official re- 

 ports in relation to our discomfiture at Roanoke Island 

 and the fall of Fort Donelson. They have not yet 

 reached me, and I am, therefore, unable to communi- 

 cate to you such information of the late events and the 

 consequences resulting from them as would enable me 

 to make recommendations founded upon the changed 

 condition which they have produced. Enough is 

 known of the surrender of Roanoke Island to make us 

 feel that it was deeply humiliating, however imperfect 

 may have been the preparations for defence. The 

 hope is still entertained that our reported losses at 

 Fort Donelson have been greatly exaggerated, inas- 

 much as I am not only unwilling but unable to believe 

 that a large army of our people have surrendered 

 without a desperate effort to cut their way through the 

 investing forces, whatever may have been their num- 

 bers, and to endeavor to make a junction with other 

 divisions of the army. But, in the absence of that 

 exact information which can only be afforded by 

 official reports, it would be premature to pass judg- 

 ment, and my own is reserved, as I trust yours will 

 be, until that information is received. 



In the mean time, strenuous efforts have been made 

 to throw forward reenforcements to the armies at the 

 positions threatened, and I cannot doubt that the 

 bitter disappointments we have borne, by nerving the 

 people to still greater exertions, will speedily secure 

 results more accordant with our just expectations, 

 and as favorable to our cause as those which marked 

 the earlier periods of the war. 



The reports of the Secretaries of War and Navy will 

 exhibit the mass of resources for the conduct of the 

 war which we have been enabled to accumulate, not- 

 withstanding the very serious difficulties against which 

 we have contended. They afford cheering hope that 



our resources, limited as they were at the beginning 

 of the contest, will, during its progress, become devel- 

 oped to such an extent as fully to meet our future 

 wants. 



The policy of enlistment for short terms, against 

 which I have steadily contended from the commence- 

 ment of the war, has, in my judgment, contributed in 

 no immaterial degree to the recent reverses which we 

 have suffered, and even now renders it difficult to fur- 

 nish you an accurate statement of the army. When the 

 war first broke out many of our people could with 

 difficulty be persuaded that it woula be long or serious. 

 It was not deemed possible that anything so insane 

 as a persistent attempt to subjugate these States could 

 be made ; still less that the delusion would so far pre- 

 vail as to give to the war the vast proportions which it 

 has assumed. The people, incredulous of a long war, 

 were naturally averse to long enlistments, and the 

 early legislation of Congress rendered it impracticable 

 to obtain volunteers for a greater period than twelve 

 months. Now that it has oecome probable that the 

 war will be continued through a series of years, our 

 high-spirited and gallant soldiers, while generally re- 

 enlisting, are, from the fact of having entered the 

 service for a short term, compelled, in many instances, 

 to go home to make the necessary arrangements for 

 their families during their prolonged absence. 



The quotas of new regiments for the war, called for 

 from the different States, are in rapid progress of 

 organization. The whole body of new levies and re- 

 enlisted men will probably be ready in the ranks 

 within the next thirty days. But in the mean time it 

 is exceedingly difficult to give an accurate statement 

 of the number of our forces in the field. They may in 

 general terms be stated at four hundred regiments of 

 infantry, with a proportionate force of cavalry and 

 artillery, the details of which will be shown by the 

 report of the Secretary of War. I deem it proper to 

 advert to the fact that the process of furloughs and re- 

 enlistments in progress for the last month had so far 

 disorganized and weakened our forces as to impair our 

 ability for successful defence ; but I heartily congratu- 

 late you that this evil, which I had foreseen and was 

 powerless to prevent, may now be said to be substan- 

 tially at an end, and that we shall not again during the 

 war be exposed to seeing our strength diminished by 

 this fruitful cause of disaster short enlistments. 



The people of the Confederate States, being princi- 

 pally engaged in agricultural pursuits, were unpro- 

 vided at the commencement of hostilities with ships, 

 ship yards, materials for ship building, or skilled 

 mechanics and seamen in sufficient numbers to make 

 the prompt creation of a navy a practical task, even 

 if the required appropriations had been made for the 

 purpose. Notwithstanding our very limited resources, 

 however, the report of the Secretary will exhibit to 

 you a satisfactory proportion in preparation, and cer- 

 tainty of early completion of vessels of a number and 

 class on which we may confidently rely for testing the 

 vaunted control of the enemy over our waters. 



The financial system devised by the wisdom of your 

 predecessors has proved adequate to supplying all the 

 wants of the Government, notwithstanding the un- 

 expected and .very large increase of expenditures 

 resulting from the great augmentation in the neces- 

 sary means of defence. The report, of the Secretary 

 of the Treasury will exhibit the gratifying fact that 

 we have no floating debt ; that the credit of the Gov- 

 ernment is unimpaired ; and that the total expenditure 

 of the Government for the year has been, in round 

 numbers, one hundred and seventy millions of dollars 

 less than one-third of the sum wasted by the enemy 

 in his vain effort to conquer us ; less than the value of 

 a single article of export the cotton crop of the year. 



The report of the Postmaster-General will show the 

 condition of that Department to be steadily improving, 

 its revenues increasing, and already affording the 

 assurance that it will be self-sustaining at the date re- 

 quired by the Constitution, while affording ample mail 

 facilities for the people. 

 In the Department of Justice, which includes the 



