PUBLIC DOCUMENTS. 





Patent Office and Public Printing, some legislative 

 provision will be required, which will be specifically 

 stated in the report of the head of that department. 

 I invite the attention of Congress to the duty of organ- 

 izing a Supreme Court of the Confederate" States, in 

 accordance with the mandate of the Constitution. 



I refer you to my Message, communicated to the 

 Provisional Congress in November last, for such fur- 

 ther information touching the condition of public af- 

 fairs as it might be useful to lay before you, the short 

 interval which has since elapsed not having produced 

 any material changes in that condition other than 

 those to which reference has already been made. 



In conclusion, I cordially welcome representatives 

 who, recently chosen by the people, are fully imbued 

 with their views and feelings, and can so ably advise, 

 me as to the needful provisions for the public service. 

 I assure you of my hearty cooperation in all your ef- 

 forts for the common welfare of the country. 



JEFFERSON DAVIS. 



Message of President DAVIS at the second or ad- 

 journed Session of the Confederate Congress 

 August 15, 1862. 



To the Senate and House of Representatives 



of the Confederate States : 



It is again our fortune to meet for devising measures 

 necessary for the public welfare, whilst our country is 

 involved* in a desolating war. The sufferings endured 

 by some portions of the people excite the deepest so- 

 licitude of the Government, and the sympathy thus 

 evoked has been heightened by the patriotic devotion 

 with which these sufferings have been borne. The gal- 

 lantry and good conduct of our troops, always claiming 

 the gVatitude of the country, have been further illus- 

 trated on hard-fought fields, marked by exhibitions of 

 individual prowess which can find but few parallels in 

 ancient or modern history. Our army has not faltered 

 in any of the various trials to which "it has been sub- 

 jected, and the great body of the people have continued 

 to manifest a zeal and unanimity which not only cheer 

 the battle-stained soldier, but give assurance to the 

 friends of constitutional liberty of our final triumph in 

 the pending struggle against despotic usurpation. The 

 vast army which threatened the capital of the Confed- 

 eracy has been defeated and driven from the lines of 

 investment, and the enemy, repeatedly foiled in his ef- 

 forts for its capture, is now seeking to raise new armies 

 on a scale such as modern history does not record to 

 effect that subjugation of the South so often proclaimed 

 as on the eve of accomplishment. 



The perfidy which disregarded rights secured by 

 compact, the madness which trampled on obligations 

 made sacred by every consideration of honor, have 

 been intensified by the malignity engendered by defeat. 

 These passions have changed the character of the hos- 

 tilities waged by our enemies, who are becoming daily 

 less regardful of the usages of civilized war and the 

 dictates of humanity. Rapine and wanton destruction 

 of private property, war upon non-combatants, murder 

 of captives, bloody threats to avenge the death of an 

 invading soldiery by the slaughter of unarmed citizens, 

 orders of banishment against peaceful farmers engaged 

 in the cultivation of the soil, are some of the means 

 used by our ruthless invaders to enfore the submission 

 of a free people to foreign sway. Confiscation bills 

 of a character so atrocious as to insure, if executed, 

 the utter ruin of the entire population of these States, 

 are passed by their Congress and approved by their 

 Executive. The moneyed obligations of the Confeder- 

 ate Government are forged by citizens of the United 

 States, and publicly advertised for sale in their cities 

 with a notoriety that sufficiently attests the knowledge 

 of their Government, and its complicity in the crime 

 is further evinced by the fact that the soldiers of the 

 invading armies areYound supplied with large quanti- 

 ties of these forged notes as a means of despoiling the 

 country people, by fraud, out of such portions of their 

 property as armed violence may fail to reach. Two, 



at least, of the generals of the United States are en- 

 gaged, unchecked by their <. 



servile insurrection, and in arming and training slave* 

 for warfare against their mast- 



federacy. Another has been touml .if inMmcts so 

 brutal as to invite the violence of his soldiery against 

 the women of a captured city. 



Yet, the rebuke of civilized men has failed to evoke 

 from the authorities of the Unitr.l Sut<-- one mark of 

 disapprobation of its acts ; nor is there any reason to 

 suppose that the conduct of Benjamin F. "liutler has 

 failed to secure from his Government the sanction and 

 applause with which it is known to have been ^ 

 by public meetings and portions of the press of the 

 United States. To inquiries made of the- Coimnander- 

 in-Chief of the armies of the United States, whether 

 the atrocious conduct of some of their military com- 

 mandants met the sanction of that Government, an- 

 swer has been evaded on the pretext that the inquiry 

 was insulting, and no method remains for the suppres- 

 sion of these enormities but such retributive justice 

 as it may be found possible to execute. Retaliation in 

 kind for many of them is impracticable, for I have 

 had occasion to remark in a former Message, that under 

 no excess of provocation could our noble-hearted de- 

 fenders be driven to wreak vengeance on unarmed men, 

 on women, or on children. But stern and exemplary 

 punishment can and must be meted out to the mur- 

 derers and felons, who, disgracing the profession of 

 arms, seek to make of public war the occasion for 

 the commission of the most monstrous crimes. Deeply 

 as we regret the character of the contest into which 

 we are about to be forced, we must accept it as an al- 

 ternative which recent manifestations give us little 

 hope can be avoided. The exasperation of failure has 

 aroused the worst passions of our enemies, a large por- 

 tion of their people, even of their clergymen, now en- 

 gage in urging an excited populace to the extreme of 

 Ferocity, and nothing remains but to vindicate our 

 rights and to maintain our existence by employing 

 against ouf foe every energy and every resource at our 

 disposal. 



I append for your information a copy of the paper 

 exhibiting the action of the Government, up to the 

 present time, for the repression of the outrages com- 

 mitted on our people. Other measures, now in prog- 

 ress, will be submitted hereafter. In inviting your at- 

 tention to the legislation which the necessities of our 

 condition require, those connected with the prosecu- 

 tion of the war command almost undivided attention. 



The acts passed at your last session intended to se- 

 sure the public defence by general enrolment, and to 

 render uniform the rule governing troops in the ser- 

 vice, have led to some unexpected criticism that is 

 much to be regretted. The efficiency of the law Las 

 been thus somewhat impaired, though it is not believed 

 that in any of the States the popular mind has with- 

 held its sanction from either the necessity or propriety 

 of your legislation. It is only by harmonious as well 

 as zealous action, that a Government as new as ours, 

 ushered into existence on the very eve of a great war, 

 and unprovided with the material necessary for con- 

 ducting hostilities on so vast a scale, can fulfil its du- 

 ties. Upon you, who are fully informed of the acts 

 and purposes of the Goveniment, and thoroughly im- 

 bued with the feelings and sentiments of the people, 

 must reliance be placed to secure this great object. 

 You can best devise the means for establishing that 

 cooperation of the State and Confederate Govern- 

 ments which is essential to the well-being of both at 

 all times, but which is now indispensable to their very 

 existence. And if any legislation shall seem to you ap- 

 propriate for adjusting differences of opinion, it will be 

 my pleasure as well as duty to cooperate in any meas- 

 ures that may be devised for reconciling a just care fo 

 the public defence with a pruper deference for the 

 most scrupulous susceptibilities of the State authorities. 



The report of the Secretary of the Treasury will ex- 

 hibit in detail the operations of that department. ] 

 will be seen with satisfaction that the credit of j 

 Government securities remains unimpaired, and that 



