CONGRESS, CONFEDERATE. 



215 



be incompatible with the dignity of the Confederate 

 States, to send commissioners to Washington City 

 for the purpose of securing a cessation of hostilities, 

 yet it would be, in the judgment of this body, emi- 

 nently proper that the House of Kepresentatives of 

 the Confederate States should despatch, without de- 

 lay, to some convenient point, a body of Commis- 

 sioners, thirteen in number, composed of one Repre- 

 sentative from each of said States, to meet and confer 

 with such individuals as may be appointed by the 

 Government of the United States, in regard to all 

 outstanding questions of difference between the two 

 Governments, and to agree, if possible, upon the 

 terms of a lasting and honorable peace, subject to 

 the ratification of the respective Governments and 

 of the sovereign States respectively represented 

 therein. 



Mr. McMullen proceeded to address the 

 House at considerable length, urging the pol- 

 icy and the propriety of the Government pro- 

 posing some terms of peace to the United 

 States Government. He believed this to be an 

 unholy, uncivilized, barbarous war, and thought 

 that the Government should exhaust all means 

 consistent with its honor for the attainment of 

 a speedy peace. 



Mr. Atkins, of Tennessee, said he would like 

 to know of the gentleman from Virginia (Mr. 

 McMullen) if he or any other member of the 

 House had one iota of information or intima- 

 tion that propositions for peace would be en- 

 tertained or even received by the United States 

 Government. 



Mr. McMullen said that he had information 

 of a very important character. He had in- 

 formation from Bishop Lay that Gen. Grant 

 had signified to him that any Commissioners 

 appointed by the Confederate Government 

 would be received by the United States au- 

 thorities at any point they might designate. 

 And that an equal number of Commissioners 

 or persons would be appointed on the part of 

 the North to meet them, to have a free and 

 full interchange of views upon the subject of 

 peace. Mr. McMullen proceeded to urge that 

 our Government should take some initial steps 

 looking to bringing the war to a termination. 

 Governor Brown and Vice-President Stephens 

 had said that we were unwilling to open nego- 

 tiations with the enemy for securing a peace. 

 Let the Government open negotiations for 

 peace. Let Congress despatch its Commis- 

 sioners into the enemy's lines ; let us show to 

 the world that we are willing to accept an 

 honorable peace, and the mouths of Governor 

 Brown and his friends will be stopped. 



"Without Mr. McMullen concluding his re- 

 marks, the morning hour expired, and the con- 

 sideration of the subject was postponed. 



In the Senate, on Nov. 18th, Mr. Henry, of 

 Tennessee, introduced the following joint reso- 

 lutions, declaring the determination of the Con- 

 gress and the people to prosecute the war until 

 their independence is acknowledged, which 

 were read, ordered to be printed, and subse- 

 quently referred to the Committee on Foreign 

 Relations : 



Resolved (by the Congress of the Confederate 



States of America), That the people of the Confed- 

 erate States are endowed by their Creator with the 

 inalienable rights of life, liberty, and the pursuit of 

 happiness ; that to secure these high rights govern- 

 ments were instituted among men, deriving their 

 just powers from the consent of the governed; and 

 whenever any Government becomes destructive of 

 these ends, it is the right of the people to alter of 

 abolish it and to institute a new government, laying 

 its foundation on such principles and organizing ita 

 powers in such form as to them shall seem most 

 likely to effect their safety and happiness ; that in 

 these principles, embodied in the Declaration of 

 American Independence, the United Colonies, in 

 1776, dissolved the connection that bound them to 

 the Government of Great Britain, and on them the 

 Confederate States have severed the bonds of that 

 political union which connected them with the peo- 

 ple and the Government of the United States of 

 America, rathw than submit to the repeated injuries 

 inflicted upon them by that people, and to the usur- 

 pations of that Government, all of which had the 

 direct object to deprive them of their rights, rob 

 them of property secured to them by constitutional 

 guarantees, and to establish an absolute tyranny 

 over these States. 



Resolved, That the Confederate States appealed to 

 arms 'in defence of these rights, and to establish these 

 principles, only after they had in vain conjured the 

 people and the Government of the United States, by 

 all the ties of a common kindred, to discountenance 

 and discontinue these injuries and usurpations, and 

 after they had petitioned for redress in the most ap- 

 propriate terms, and received in answer only a repe- 

 tition of insults and injuries, which foreshadowed 

 usurpations still more dangerous to liberty. 



Resolved, That after nearly four years of cruel, 

 desolating and unnatural war, in which the people 

 of the Confederate States have unquestionably es- 

 tablished their capacity for self-government, and 

 their ability to resist the attempts of the enemy to 

 subjugate them, this Congress does not hesitate to 

 aver its sincere desire for peace, and to that end 

 proclaims to the world the readiness of the Govern- 

 ment of the Confederate States to open negotiations 

 to establish a permanent and honorable peace be- 

 tween the Confederate States and the United States, 

 upon the basis of the separate independence of the 

 former. 



Resolved, That the time has come when the Con. 

 federate Congress, in the name of the people of tho 

 Confederate States, deem it proper again to pro- 

 claim to the world their unalterable determination 

 to be free, and that they do not abate one jot of 

 their high resolve to die freemen rather than live 

 slaves ; and further, if the people of the United 

 States, by reelecting Abraham Lincoln, mean to 

 tender to them four years more of war, or reunion 

 with them on any terms, deeply deprecating the 

 dire necessity so wantonly thrust upon them, and 

 relying upon the justice 01 their cause and the gal- 

 .antry of their soldiers, they accept the gage of bat- 

 tle, and leave the result to the righteous arbitrament 

 of Heaven. 



Resolved, That in view of the determination of the 

 enemy to prosecute this horrid war still further, 

 against which the Confederate States have at all 

 times protested, and which the enemy have waged 

 with extraordinary vigor, and which has been 

 marked by acts of extraordinary atrocity, in vio- 

 lation of the usages of civilized warfare, the Con- 

 gress of the Confederate States will, from this hour, 

 dedicate themselves anew to the great cause of self- 

 defence against the combined tvranny of the ene- 

 my. That it shall no longer be the momentous 

 occupation of the Congress and the people of the 

 Confederate States, but the business of their lives, 

 to gather together the entire strength of the country 

 in men and material of war, and put it forth, as 

 with the will of one man, and with an unconquer- 



