CONFEDERATE STATES. 



191 



hend the sentiment beginning to prevail ex- 

 tensively in Georgia and South Carolina, and 

 even in North Carolina and Virginia, which 

 was one of strong disaffection. There was a 

 deep conviction existing in those States that the 

 Executive regarded the safety of Richmond as 

 more important than any other point, whereas 

 the loss of particular places in South Carolina, 

 hy cutting the communications, would involve 

 the surrender of Richmond. 



Amid this unsatisfactory state of public feel- 

 ing, the peace commissioners returned from 

 Fortress Monroe. Their mission had been an 

 entire failure. A public meeting was at once 

 called for midday in the African Church at 

 Richmond to express the feelings of the people. 

 Mr. Hunter, one of the Commissioners, Mr. 

 Benjamin of the Cabinet, and other persons of 

 eminence in the Confederacy appeared. Mr. 

 Hunter said : 



Having called you to order, it is proper that I should 

 explain the object and purposes of this meeting. "We 

 stand here to consider the most momentous public 

 issue that ever agitated a nation one in which is in- 

 volved the very life and being of a people, the exist- 

 ence of their laws and Government, their liberty and 

 honor. Whatever is sacred in human affections, or 

 dear to the hearts of men, is involved in this contest, 

 and may God grant us the wisdom to devise, and the 

 arm to execute those measures which, under His 

 hand, shall effect our deliverance in this great crisis 

 of our affairs. We are not responsible for the lives 

 that have been given up in this contest, and our 

 skirts are clear of the blood which has been shed. 

 We entered it to maintain the right of self-govern- 

 ment a right which should have been as dear to our 

 enemies as to us. It is a great American idea, the 

 growth of American soil, and should in their eyes be 

 as sacred as it is to us. For four long years we have 

 been engaged in a war, the like of which has not been 

 seen in modern times the only approximations to 

 which were the wars of Wallenstein and Attila, and 

 the thirty years' war of Germany. And now, after 

 these years of waste and destruction, we have been 

 lately informed by the President of the United States 

 that there can be no peace except upon the conditions 

 of laying down our arms and absolute submission, to 

 come in as rebels, and submit to laws confiscating 

 our property, and awarding the death penalty to our 

 citizens. Nor is this all. We are required to submit 

 to an amendment to the United States Constitution, 

 to turn loose the thousands of slaves in pur midst 

 without restraint, and without the education which 

 they would require for self-preservation. 



If any thing more was wanting to stir the blood, it 

 was furnished when we were told that the United 

 States could not consent to entertain any proposition 

 coming from us as a people. That Government 

 which makes treaties with the meanest and weakest 

 of nations, tells us, a nation of seven millions of men, 

 with arms in their hands, that it cannot entertain 

 any proposition coming from rebels. Even upon the 

 theory that we were rebels, upon what authority 

 could they refuse to treat with us? There has been 

 no civil war of any magnitude, which has not been 

 terminated by treating. It would seem possible that 

 Lincoln might have offered something to a people 

 with two hundred thousand soldiers, and such sol- 

 diers, under arms. Could it be probable to him that 

 we could go into the United States Government as 

 rebels, assuming the responsibility of all the blood 

 that has been shed, confessing that we have kept up 

 a wicked and needless war, submitting to laws con- 

 fiscating our property, and taking the lives of our 

 people ? It is true, he said that these laws would be 



administered by him in a spirit of kindness; but 

 when did men ever give to one man the power over 

 their lives and property, and all that they hold dear, 

 trusting to his spirit of kindness, and divesting them- 

 selves of the power to resist his tyranny? And it is 

 to be remembered that whenever we go into the 

 Union as a conquered people, we give up the laws 

 of the United States, and must take such as they 

 choose to make for us ; and we go in without repre- 

 sentation in making those laws ; for Mr. Lincoln told 

 us, told me, that while we could send representatives 

 to the Yankee Congress, yet it rested with that Con- 

 gress to say whether they would receive them or not. 

 Thus we would cast every thing away, and go to 

 them as a subdued, subjugated, and degraded peo- 

 ple, to be held in subjection by their soldiery. Xor 

 is all told yet. More than three million slaves are 

 to be let loose, and one billion five hundred thou- 

 sand dollars' worth of property destroyed at one 

 fell swoop. These slaves are to wander about and 

 become the lazzaroni of the land. The Congress 

 would be continually interfering between the white 

 and black man ; the laws would be made by a Con- 

 gress hostile to us, and any attempt to make these 

 thriftless wanderers useful would be interfered with. 

 If, under the old Government, they interfered with 

 ourdomestic institutions, what would becomeof usif 

 we were helpless in their hands, and those hands hold- 

 ing the power to arbitrate in all questions concern- 

 ing us ? They would raise questions about the State 

 laws, and soon sweep away the barrier we might 

 erect for the protection of social order and industry 

 in our midst. But, fellow-citizens, I will not attempt 

 to draw a picture of subjugation which must loom 

 up before the eyes of every man who considers it. 

 It would require a pencil dipped in blood to paint its 

 gloom. I pass from this to the question of what is 

 to become of the slaves. We know that in large dis- 

 tricts of our country the men have been taken away 

 by them, and the women left. Who is to support 

 them ? Under our system they were provided for 

 and happy. Under their system they must perish ; 

 that system will destroy the whole negro race in this 

 country. In the fierce competition for food between 

 the white and the negro, the latter will be blasted 

 like human life before a burning sirocco, and vanish 

 like the mist before the sun. We draw the sword 

 not for ourselves alone, but also for their sake. And 

 the world, which stands coldly looking on, will find 

 that the men whom they have excluded from their 

 sympathy, are the hope of the black race. It was 

 the exclamation of a celebrated French woman : 

 " Oh, Liberty ! what crimes are committed in thy 

 name ! " and we may parody by exclaiming : " Oh, 

 Philanthropy! how much misery is caused in thy 

 name ! " Well may the negro rise up and pronounce 

 judgment against it. 



He then presented, in glowing words, the gains 

 which would come with successful resistance, 

 and said : " I trust and believe in the success 

 of our cause. If our people exhibit the proper 

 spirit, they will bring forth the deserters from 

 their caves, and the skulkers who are avoiding 

 the perils of the field will go forth to share the 

 dangers of their countrymen." 



Mr. Benjamin, Secretary of State, followed, 

 and alluding to the numbers present and the 

 cheers greeting the sentiments, he said : " How 

 different from one short week ago. It seems 

 an age, so magical has been the change. Then 

 despondency and hope deferred weighed upon 

 us. Men were querulous, and asking if it were 

 true that no honorable peace were attainable 

 except by continued warfare. Then it was said 

 it was our perverse indisposition to negotiate 

 that led to the arrogance of the invader. Thib 



