PUBLIC DOCUMENTS. 



787 



tion of slavery In the States where it exists. I believe I 

 have no lawful right to do so, and I have no inclination to 

 do so. Those who nominated and elected me, did so with 

 full knowledge that I had made this and many similar dec- 

 larations, and had never recanted them. And more than 

 this, thi'y placed in the platform for my acceptance, and as a 

 law to themselves and to me, the clear and emphatic reso- 

 lution which I now read: 



Rt. solved. That the maintenance in violate of the rights of 

 the State.-", nnd especially the right of each State to order 

 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 po- 

 litical fabric depend, and we denounce the lawless inva- 

 sion by armed force of the soil of any State or Territory, no 

 matter under what pretext, as among the gravest crimes. 



Nor was this declaration of the want of power or dis- 

 position to interfere with our social system confined to a 

 state of peace. Both before and after the actual com- 

 mencement of hostilities, the President of the United 

 States repeated in formal official communications to the 

 cabinets of Great Britain and France that he was ut- 

 terly without constitutional power to do the act which 

 he has just committed, and that in no possible event, 

 whether the secession of these States resulted in the 

 establishment of a separate confederacy or in the resto- 

 ration of the Union, was there any authority by virtue 

 of which he could either restore a disaffected btate to 

 the Union by force of arms or make any change in any 

 of its institutions. I refer especially for verification of 

 this assertion to the despatches addressed by the Sec- 

 retary of State of the United States, under direction of 

 the President, to the Ministers of the United States at 

 London and Paris, under date of the 10th and 22d of 

 April, 1861 



The people of this confederacy, then, cannot fail to 

 receive this proclamation as the fullest vindication of 

 their own sagacity in foreseeing the uses to which the 

 dominant party in the United States intended from the 

 beginning to apply their power; nor can they cease to 

 remember with devout thankfulness that it is to their 

 own vigilance in resisting the first stealthy progress of 

 approaching despotism that they owe their escape from 

 consequences now apparent to the most sceptical. 



This proclamation will have another salutary effect 

 in calming the fears of those who have constantly 

 evinced the apprehension that this war might end by 

 some reconstruction of the old Union, or some renewal 

 of close political relations with the United States. 

 These fears have never been shared by me, nor have I 

 ever been able to perceive on what basis they could 

 rest. But the proclamation affords the fullest guaran- 

 tees of the impossibility of such a result. It has estab- 

 lished a state of things" which can lead to but one of 

 three possible consequences the extermination of the 

 slaves, the exile of the whole white population of the 

 confederacy, or absolute and total separation of these 

 States from the United States. This proclamation is 

 also an authentic statement by the Government of the 

 United States of its inability to subjugate the South by 

 force of arms, and as such must be accepted by neutral 

 nations, which can no longer find any justification in 

 withholding our just claims to formal recognition. It 

 is also in effect an intimation to the people of the 

 North that they must prepare to submit to a separa- 

 tion, now become inevitable ; for that people are too 

 acute not to understand that a restitution of the Union 

 has been rendered forever impossible by the adoption 

 of a measure which, from, its very nature, neither ad- 

 mits of retraction nor can coexist with union. 



Among the subjects to which your attention will be 

 specially devoted during the present session, you will, 

 no doubt, deem the adoption of some comprehensive 

 system of finance as being of paramount importance. 

 The increasing public debt, the great augmentation in 

 the volume of the currency, with its necessary con- 

 comitant of extravagant prices for all articles of con- 

 sumption, the want of revenue from a taxation ade- 

 quate to support the public credit, all unite in admon- 

 ishing us that energetic and wise legislation alone can 

 prevent serious embarrassment in our monetary affairs. 

 It is my conviction that the people of the confederacy 



will freely meet taxation on a scale adequate to the 

 maintenance of the public credit and the support of 

 their Government. When each family is sending forth 

 its most precious ones to meet exposure in camp and 

 death in cattle, what ground can there be to doubt the 

 disposition to devote a tithe of its income, and more, if 

 more be necessary, to provide the Government with 

 means for insuring the comfort of its defenders? If 

 our enemies submit to an excise on every commodity 

 they produce, and to the daily presence of the tax 

 gatherer, with no higher motive than the hope of suc- 

 cess in their wicked designs against us, the suggestion 

 of an unwillingness on the part of this people to submit 

 to the taxation necessary for the siiccess of their de- 

 fence is an imputation on their patriotism that few will 

 be disposed to make and that none can justify. 



The legislation of your last session, intended to 

 hasten the funding of outstanding Treasury notes, has 

 proved beneficial, as shown by the returns annexed to 

 the report of the Secretary of the Treasury ; but it 

 was neither sufficiently prompt nor far reaching to 

 meet the full extent of the evil. The passage of some 

 enactment carrying still farther the policy of that law, 

 by fixing a limitation not later than the 1st of July 

 next to the delay allowed for funding the notes issued 

 prior to the 1st of December, 1862, will, in the opinion 

 of the Secretary, have the effect to withdraw from cir- 

 culation nearly the entire sum issued previous to the 

 last-named date. If to this be added a revenue from 

 adequate taxation, and appropriation of bonds guaran- 

 teed proportionately by the seven per cents, as has 

 already been generously proposed by some of them in 

 enactments spontaneously adopted, there is little doubt 

 that we shall see our finances restored to a sound and 

 satisfactory condition, our circulation relieved of the 

 redundancy now productive of so many mischiefs, and 

 our credit placed on such a basis as to relieve us from 

 further anxiety relative to our resources for the pros- 

 ecution of the war. 



It is true that at its close our debt will be large ; 

 but it will be due to our own people, and neither the 

 interest nor the capital will be exported to distant 

 countries, impoverishing ours for their benefit. 



On the return of peace the untold wealth which will 

 spring from our soil will render the burden of tax- 

 ation far less onerous than is now supposed, especially 

 if we take into consideration that we shall then be 

 free from the large and steady drain of our substance, 

 to which we were subjected in the late Union, through 

 the instrumentality of sectional legislation and protec- 

 tive tariffs. I recommend to your earnest attention 

 the whole report of the Secretary of the Treasury on 

 this important subject, and trust that your legislation 

 on it will be delayed no longer than may be required 

 to enable your wisdom to devise the proper measures 

 for insuring the accomplishment of the objects pro- 

 posed. 



The operations of the War Department have been in 

 the main satisfactory. In the report of the Secretary, 

 herewith submitted, will be found a summary of many 

 memorable successes. They are with justice ascribed 

 in large measure to the reorganization and reinforce- 

 ment of our armies under the operation of the enact- 

 ments for conscription. The wisdom and efficacy of 

 these acts have been approved bv results, and the like 

 spirit of unity, endurance, and self-devotion of the peo- 

 ple which has hitherto sustained their action, must be 

 relied on to assure their enforcement under the con- 

 tinuing necessities of our situation. The recommen- 

 dations of the Secretary to this effect are tempered by 

 suggestions for their amelioration, and the subject de- 

 serves the consideration of Congress. 



For the perfection of our military organization no 

 appropriate means should be rejected, nnd on this sub- 

 ject the opinions of the Secretary merit early atten- 

 tion. It is gratifving to perceive that, under all the^ 

 efforts and sacrifices of war, the power and means of 

 the confederacy for its successful prosecution are in- 

 creasing. Dependence on foreign supplies is to be de- 

 plored, and should as far as practicable be obviated by 

 the development and employment of internal resour- 



