PUBLIC DOCUMENTS. 



717 



and the bread of the workingman is sweetened by 

 the consciousness that the cause of the country "is 

 his own cause, his own safety, his own dignity." 

 Here every one enjoys the free use of his'faculties and 

 the choice of activity as a natural right. Here, under 

 the combined influence of a fruitful soil, genial 

 climes, and happy institutions, population has in- 

 creased fifteen-fold within a century. Here, through 

 the easy development of boundless resources, wealth 

 has increased with two-fold greater rapidity than 

 numbers, so that we have become secure against the 

 financial vicissitudes of other countries, and, alike 

 in business and in opinion, are celf-centred and 

 truly independent. Here more and more care is 

 given to provide education for every one born on 

 our soil. Here religion, released from political con- 

 nection with the civil government, refuses to sub- 

 serve the craft of statesmen, and becomes, in its in- 

 dependence, the spiritual life of the people. Here 

 toleration is extended to every opinion, in the quiet 

 certainty that truth needs only a fair field to secure 

 the victory. Here the human mind goes forth un- 

 shackled in the pursuit of science, to collect stores 

 of knowledge and acquire an ever-increasing mastery 

 over the forces of Nature. Here the national domain 

 is offered and held in millions of separate freeholds, 

 so that our fellow-citizens, beyond the occupants of 

 any other part of the earth, constitute in reality a 

 people. Here exists the democratic form of govern- 

 ment ; and that form of government, by the confes- 

 sion of European statesmen, "gives a power of which 

 no other form is capable, because it incorporates 

 every man with the State, and arouses every thing 

 that belongs to the soul." 



Where, in past history, does a parallel exist to the 

 public happiness which is within the reach of the 

 people of the United States? Where, in any part of 

 the globe, can institutions be found so suited to their 

 habits or so entitled to their love as their own free 

 Constitution ? Every one of them, then, in whatever 

 part of the land he has his home, must wish its per- 

 petuity. Who of them will not now acknowledge, 

 m the words of Washington, that "every step by 

 which the people of the United States have advanced 

 to the character of an independent nation, seems to 

 have been distinguished by some token of Providen- 

 tial agency " ? Who will not join with me in the 

 prayer, that the invisible hand which has led us 

 through the clouds that gloomed around our path, 

 will so guide us onward to a perfect restoration of 

 fraternal affection, that we of this day may be able 

 to transmit our great inheritance of State govern- 

 ments in all their rights, of the General Government 

 in its whole constitutional vigor, to our posterity, 

 and they to theirs through countless generations ? 

 ANDREW JOHNSON. 



Washington, Dec. 4, 1865. 



Message of JEFFERSOX DAVIS to the Congress 

 at Richmond, March 13, 1865. 



To t7w Senate and House of Representatives 



of the Confederate States of America : 



When informed on Thursday last that it was the 

 intention of Congress to adjourn sine die on the en- 

 suing Saturday, I deemed it my duty to request a 

 postponement of the adjournment, in order that I 

 might submit, for your consideration, certain mat- 

 ters of public interest, which are now laid before 

 you. When that request was made, the most im- 

 portant measures that had occupied your attention 

 during the session had not been so far advanced as 

 to be submitted for Executive action, and the state 

 of the country had been so materially affected by the 

 events of the last four months as to evince the neces- 

 sity of further and more energetic legislation than 

 was contemplated in November last. 



Oar country is now environed with perils which 

 it is our duty calmly to contemplate. Thus alone 



can the measures necessary to avert threatened ca- 

 lamities be wisely devised and efficiently enforced. 



Recent military operations of the enemy have been 

 successful in the capture of some of our seaports, in 

 interrupting some of our lines of communication, 

 and in devastating large districts of our country. 

 These events have nad the natural effect of encour- 

 aging our foes and dispiriting many of our people. 

 The capital of the Confederate States is now threat- 

 ened, and is in greater danger than it has heretofore 

 been during the war. The fact is stated without re- 

 serve or concealment, as due to the people whose 

 servants we are, and in whose courage and constancy 

 entire trust is reposed ; as due to you, in whose wis- 

 dom and resolute spirit the people have confided for 

 the adoption of the measures required to guard them 

 from threatened perils. 



While stating to you that our country is in danger, 

 I desire also to state my deliberate conviction that it 

 is within our power to avert the calamities which 

 menace us, and to secure the triumph of the sacred 

 cause for which so much sacrifice has been made, so 

 much suffering endured, so many precious lives have 

 been lost. This result is to be obtained by fortitude, 

 by courage, by constancy in enduring the sacrifices 

 still needed ; m a word, by the prompt and resolute 

 devotion of the whole resources of men and money 

 in the Confederacy to the achievement of our liber- 

 ties and independence. 



The measures now required, to be successful, 

 should be prompt. Long deliberation and protracted 

 debate over important measures are not only natural, 

 but laudable, in representative assemblies under or- 

 dinary circumstances ; but in moments of danger, 

 when action becomes urgent, the delay thus caused 

 is itself a new source of peril. Thus it has unfor- 

 tunately happened that some of the measures passed 

 by you in pursuance of the recommendations con- 

 tained in my message of November last, have been 

 so retarded as to lose much of their value, or have, 

 for the same reason, been abandoned after being ma- 

 tured, because no longer applicable to our altered 

 condition ; and others have not been brought under 

 examination. In making these remarks, it is far 

 from my intention to attribute the loss of time to 

 any other causes than those inherent in deliberatire 

 assemblies, but only urgently to recommend prompt 

 ' action upon the measures now submitted. 



We need, for carrying on the war successfully, 

 men and supplies for the army. We have both with- 

 in our country sufficient to attain success. 



To obtain the supplies it is necessary to protect 

 productive districts, guard our lines of communica- 

 tion by an increase in the number of our forces ; and 

 hence it results, that with a large augmentation in 

 the number of men in the army, the facility of sup- 

 plying the troops would be greater than with our re- 

 cent reduced strength. 



For the purchase of supplies now required, espe- 

 cially for the armies in Virginia and North Carolina, 

 the treasury must be provided with means, and a 

 modification in the impressment law is required. It 

 has been ascertained, by examination, that we have 

 within our reach a sufficiency of what is most needed 

 for the army, and without having recourse to the 

 ample provision existing in those parts of the Con- 

 federacy with which our communication has been 

 partially interrupted by hostile operations. But in 

 some districts from which supplies are to be drawn 

 the inhabitants, being either within the enemy's lines 

 or in very close proximity, are unable to make use 

 of Confederate treasury notes for the purchase of 

 articles of prime necessity ; and it is necessary that, 

 to some extent, coin be paid, in order to obtain sup- 

 plies. It is therefore recommended that Congress 

 devise the means for making available the coin with- 

 in the Confederacy for the purpose of supplying the 

 army. The officers of the supply departments re- 

 port that, with two millions of dollars in coin, the 

 armies in Virginia and North Carolina can be amply 



