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PUBLIC DOCUMENTS. 



vantage from this success. The same general who, 

 in February last, marched a large army from Vicks- 

 burg to Meridian with no other result than being 

 forced to march back again, was able, by the aid of 

 greatly-increased numbers, and after much delay, to 

 lorce a passage from Chattanooga to Atlanta, only to 

 be for the second time compelled to withdraw on the 

 line of his advance, without obtaining control of a 

 single mile of territory beyond the narrow track of 

 hid march, and without gaining aught beyond the 

 pr3carious possession of a few fortified points in 

 which he is compelled to maintain heavy garrisons, 

 and which are menaced with recapture. 



The lessons afforded by the history of this war are 

 fraught with instruction and encouragement. Re- 

 peatedly during the war have formidable expeditions 

 been directed by the enemy against points ignorantly 

 supposed to be of vital importance to the Confed- 

 eracy. Some of these expeditions have, at immense 

 cost, been successful ; but in no instance have the 

 promised fruits been reaped. Again, in the present 

 campaign, was the delusion fondly cherished that 

 the capture of Atlanta and Richmond would, if 

 effected, end the war by the overthrow of our Gov- 

 ernment and the submission of our people. We can 

 now judge by experience how unimportant is the in- 

 fluence of the former event upon our capacity for 

 defence, upon the courage and spirit of the people, 

 and the stability of the Government. We may, in 

 like manner, judge that if the campaign against Rich- 

 mond had resulted in success instead of failure ; if 

 the valor of the army under the leadership of its ac- 

 complished commander, had resisted in vain the 

 overwhelming masses which were, on the contrary, 

 decisively repulsed ; if we had been compelled to 

 evacuate Richmond as well as Atlanta, the Confed- 

 eracy would have remained as erect and defiant as 

 ever. Nothing could have been changed in the pur- 

 pose of its Government, in the indomitable valor of 

 its troops, or in the unquenchable spirit of its people. 

 The baffled and disappointed foe would in vain have 

 scanned the reports of your proceedings at some new 

 legislative seat, for any indication that progress had 

 been made in his gigantic task of conquering a free 

 people. The trutn so patent to us must ere long be 

 forced upon the reluctant Northern mind. There 

 are no vital points on the preservation of which the 

 continued existence of the Confederacy depends. 

 There is no military success of the enemy which can 

 accomplish its destruction. Not the fall of Rich- 

 mond, nor Wilmington, nor Charleston, nor Savan- 

 nah, nor Mobile, nor of all combined, can save the 

 enemy from the constant and exhaustive drain of 

 blood and treasure which must continue until he 

 shall discover that no peace is attainable unless 

 based on the recognition of our indefeasible rights. 



Before leaving this subject it is gratifying to assure 

 you that the military supplies essentially requisite 

 for military defence will be found, as heretofore, 

 adequate to our needs ; and that abundant crops 

 have rewarded the labor of the farmer, and rendered 

 abortive the inhuman attempt of the enemy to pro- 

 duce, by devastation, famine among the people. 



It is not in my power to announce any change in 

 the conduct of foreign powers. No such action has 

 been taken by the Christian nations of Europe as 

 might justly have been expected from their history, 

 from the duties imposed by international law, and 

 from the claims of humanity. It is charitable to 

 attribute their conduct to no worse motive than in- 

 difference to the_ consequences w_hich shakes only the 

 republican portion of the American continent ; and 

 not to ascribe to design a course calculated to insure 

 the prolongation of hostilities. 



No instance in history is remembered by me in 

 which a nation pretending to exercise dominion over 

 another, asserting its independence, has been the 

 first to concede the existence of such independence. 

 No case can be recalled to my mind in which neutral 

 powers have failed to set the example of recognizing 



the independence of a natic i, when satisfied 

 inability of its enemy to subvert its Government: 

 and this, too, in cases where the previous relation 

 between the contending parties had been confessedly 

 that of mother country and dependent colony, rot as 

 in our case, that of coequal States united by Fed- 

 eral compact. It has never been considered the 

 proper function and duty of neutral powers to per- 

 form the office of judging whether in point of fact 

 the nation asserting dominion is able to make goci 

 its pretensions by force of arms, and if not, by re> 

 cognition of the resisting party to discountenance 

 the further continuance of the contest. And the 

 reason why this duty is incumbent on neutral 

 powers is plainly apparent when we reflect that the 

 pride and passion which blind the judgment of the 

 parties to the conflict cause the continuance of active 

 warfare, and consequent useless slaughter, long after 

 the inevitable result has become apparent to all not 

 engaged in the struggle. So long, therefore, as neu- 

 1ral nations fail by recognition of our independence 

 to announce that, in their judgment, the United 

 States are unable to reduce the Confederacy to sub- 

 mission, their conduct will be accepted by our ene- 

 mies as a tacit encouragement to continue their 

 efforts, and as an implied assurance that belief is en- 

 tertained by neutral nations in the success of their 

 designs. A direct stimulus, whether intentional or 

 not, is tfius applied to securing a continuance of the 

 carnage and devastation which desolate this conti- 

 nent, and which they profess deeply to deplore. 



The disregard of this just, humane, and Christian 

 public duty by the nations of Europe is the more re- 

 markable from the fact that authentic expression has 

 long since been given by the Governments of both 

 France and England to the conviction that the United 

 States are unable to conquer the Confederacy. It is 

 now more than two years since the Government of 

 France announced officially to the cabinets of Lon- 

 don and St. Petersburg its own conclusion that the 

 United States were unable to achieve any decisive 

 military success. In the answers sent by these pow- 

 ers no intimation of a contrary opinion was con- 

 veyed ; and it is notorious that in speeches, both in 

 and out of Parliament, the members of her Britannic 

 Majesty's Government have not hesitated to express 

 this firm conviction in unqualified terms. The de- 

 nial of our right under these circumstances is so 

 obviously unjust, and discriminates so unfairly in 

 favor of the United States, that neutrals have sought 

 to palliate the wrong of which they are conscious by 

 professing to consider, in opposition to notorious 

 truth and to the known belief of both belligerents, 

 that the recognition of our independence would be 

 valueless without their further intervention in the 

 struggle ; an intervention of which we disclaim the 

 desire and mistrust the advantage. 



We seek no favor, we wish no intervention, we 

 know ourselves fully competent to maintain our own 

 rights and independence against the invaders of the 

 country, and we feel justified in asserting, that with- 

 out the aid derived from recruiting their armies from 

 foreign countries they would, ere this, have been 

 driven from our soil. When the recognition of the 

 Confederacy was refused by Great Britain, in the fall 

 of 1862, the refusal was excused on the ground that 

 any action of Her Majesty's Government would have 

 the effect of inflaming the passions of the belligerents 

 and of preventing the return of peace. It is assumed 

 that this opinion was sincerely entertained, but the 

 experience of two years of unequal carnage, shows 

 that it was erroneous, and that the result was the 

 reverse of what the British ministry humanely de- 

 sired. A contrary policy, a policy just to us, a policy 

 diverging from an unvarying course of concession to 

 all the demands of our enemies, is still within the 

 power of Her Majesty's Government, and would, it 

 is fair to presume, be productive of consequences 

 the opposite to those which have unfortunately fol- 

 lowed its whole course of conduct from the com' 



