788 



PUBLIC DOCUMENTS. 



ces. The peculiar circumstances of the country, how- 

 ever, render this difficult, and require extraordinary 

 encouragements and facilities to DC granted by the 

 Government. 



The embarrassments resulting from the limited capa- 

 city of the railroads to aflbrd transportation, and the 

 impossibility of otherwise collecting and distribut- 

 ing the necessary supplies for the armies, render ne- 

 cessary the control of the roads under some general 

 supervision, and resort to the power of impressment 

 under military exigencies. While such powers have 

 to be exercised, they should be guarded oy judicious 

 provisions against perversion or abuse, ana be, as re- 

 commended oy the Secretary, under due regulation of 

 law. 



I specially recommend in this connection some re- 

 vision of the exemption law of last session. Serious 

 complaints have reached me of the inequality of its 

 operation from eminent and patriotic citizens whose 

 opinions merit great consideration, and I trust that 

 Borne means will be devised for leaving at home a suf- 

 ficient local police, without making discriminations, 

 always to be deprecated, between different classes of 

 our citizens. 



Our relations with the Indians generally continue to 

 be friendly. A portion of the Cherokee people have 

 assumed an attitude hostile to the Confederate Govern- 

 ment ; but it is gratifying to be able to state that the 

 mass of intelligence and worth in that nation have re- 

 mained true and loyal to their treaty engagements. 

 With this exception there have been no important in- 

 stances of dissatisfaction among any of the friendly na- 

 tions and tribes. Dissatisfaction recently manifested 

 itself among certain portions of them ; but this re- 

 sulted from a misapprehension of the intentions of the 

 Government in their behalf. This has been removed, 

 and no further difficulty is anticipated. 



The report of the Secretary of the Navy, herewith 

 transmitted, exhibits the progress made in this branch 

 of the public service since your adjournment, as well as 

 its present condition. The details embraced in it are 

 of such a nature as to render it, in my opinion, incom- 

 patible with the public interests that they should be 

 published with this message. I therefore confine my- 

 self to inviting your attention to the information there- 

 in contained. 



The report of the Postmaster-General shows that 

 during the first postal year under our Government, ter- 

 minating on the 30th of June last, our revenues were 

 in excess of those received by the former Government 

 in its last postal year, while the expenses were greatly 

 decreased. There is still, however, a considerable de- 

 ficit in the revenues of the Department, as compared 

 with its expenses, and, although the grants already 

 made from the general treasury will suffice to cover 

 all the liabilities to the close of the fiscal year ending 

 on the 30th of June next, I recommend some legisla- 

 tion, if any can be constitutionally devised, for aiding 

 the revenues of that Department during the ensuing 

 fiscal year, in order to avoid too great a reduction or 

 postal facilities. Your attention is also invited to 

 numerous other improvements in the service recom- 

 mended in the report, and for which legislation is re- 

 quired. 



I recommend to the Congress to devise a proper 

 mode of relief to those of our citizens whose property 

 has been destroyed by order of the Government in pur- 

 suance of a policy adopted as a means of national de- 

 fence. It is true that full indemnity cannot now be 

 made ; but some measure of relief is due to those pa- 

 triotic citizens who have borne private loss for the 

 public good, whose property in effect has been taken 

 For public use, though not directly appropriated. Our 

 Government, born of the spirit of freedom, and of the 

 equality and independence of the States, could not 

 have survived a selfish or jealous disposition, making 

 each only careful of its own interest or safety. 



The fate of the confederacy, under the blessing of 

 Divine Providence, depends upon the harmony, ener- 

 gy, and unity of the States. It especially devolves on 

 you, their representatives, as far as practicable, to re- 



form abuses, to correct errors, to cultivate fraternity, 

 and to sustain in the people a just confidence in the 

 Government of their choice. To that confidence and 

 to the unity and self-sacrificing patriotism hitherto 

 displayed is due the success which nas marked the un- 

 equal contest, and has brought our country into a con- 

 dition at the present time such as the most sanguine 

 would not have ventured to predict at the commence- 

 ment of our struggle. Our armies are larger, better 

 disciplined, and more thoroughly armed and equipped 

 than at any previous period of the war ; the energies 

 of a whole nation, devoted to the single object of suc- 

 cess in this war, have accomplished marvels, and many 

 of our trials have by a beneficent Providence been con- 

 verted into blessings. The magnitude of the perils 

 which we encountered have developed the true qual- 

 ities and illustrated the heroic character of our people, 

 thus gaining for the confederacy from its birth a just 

 appreciation from the other nations of the earth. The 

 injuries resulting from the interruption of foreign com- 

 merce have received compensation by the develop- 

 ments of our internal resources. Cannon crown our 

 fortresses that were cast from the proceeds of mines 

 opened and furnaces built during the war. Our moun- 

 tain caves yield much of the nitre for the manufacture 

 of powder, and promise increase of product. From 

 our own founderies and laboratories, from our own ar- 

 mories and workshops, we derive, in a great measure, 

 the warlike material, the ordnance and ordnance stores 

 which are expended so profusely in the numerous and 

 desperate engagements that rapidly succeed each other. 

 Cotton and woollen fabrics, shoes and harness, wagons 

 and gun carriages are produced in daily increasing 

 quantities, by the factories springing into existence. 

 Our fields, no longer whitened by cotton that cannot 

 be exported, are devoted to the production of cereals 

 and the growth of stock formerly purchased with the 

 proceeds of cotton. In the homes of our noble and 

 devoted women without whose sublime sacrifices our 

 success would have been impossible the noise of the 

 loom and the spinning wheel may be heard throughout 

 the land. 



With hearts swelling with gratitude, let us, then, 

 join in returning thanks to God, and in beseeching 

 the continuance of His protecting care over our cause, 

 and the restoration of peace, with its manifold bless- 

 ings, to our beloved country. 



JEFFERSON DAVIS. 



RICHMOND, January 12th, 1863. 



Message of JEFFERSON DAVIS, at the Second Ses- 

 sion of the Confederate Congress, in 1863. 



To the Senate and House of Representatives 



of the Confederate States : 



The necessity for legislative action, arising out of 

 the important events that have marked the interval 

 since your adjournment, and my desire to have the aid 

 of your counsel on other matters of grave public inter- 

 est, render your presence at this time more than ordi- 

 narily welcome. Indeed, but for serious obstacles to 

 convoking you in extraordinary session, and the neces- 

 sity for my own temporary absence from the seat of 

 government, I would have invited you to an earlier 

 meeting than that fixed at the date of your adjourn- 

 ment. 



Grave reverses befell our arms soon after your de- 

 parture from Richmond. Early in July our strongholds 

 at Vicksburg and Port Hudson, together with their 

 entire garrisons, capitulated to the combined land and 

 naval forces of the enemy. The important interior 

 position of Jackson next fell into their temporary pos- 

 session. Our unsuccessful assault on the post at He- 

 lena was followed, at a later period, by the invasion of 

 Arkansas ; and the retreat of our army from Little 

 Rock gave to the enemy the control of tne important 

 valley in which it is situated. 



The resolute spirit of the people soon rose superior 

 to the temporary despondency naturally resulting from 

 these reverses. The gallant troops so ably commanded 

 iu the States beyond the Mississippi inflicted repeated 



