CONFEDERATE STATES. 



139 



it be an offensive war or conducted only for 

 defence, and to prevent an invasion of the 

 Southern States? What should be the plan? 

 The more radical and extreme portion of the 

 Southern people clamored for an attack upon 

 "Washington at once. The Secretary of War 

 had said on the eve of the attack on Fort Sumter 

 that " the flag which now flaunts the breeze here 

 would float over the dome of the old Capitol at 

 Washington before the 1st of May.'' Others said : 

 'the desire for taking Washington increases every 

 hour, and all things seem tending to this con- 

 summation." " Nothing is more probable than 

 'that President Davis will soon march an army 

 through North Carolina and Virginia to Wash- 

 ington." " From mountain tops and valleys to 

 the shores of the sea there is one wild shout of 

 fierce resolve to capture Washington City at all 

 and every human hazard." 



President Davis, in his message on the 29th 

 of April, although giving no decisive informa- 

 tion upon the purposes of the Government, 

 manifested a disposition to pursue a defensive 

 policy. He said : ' We protest solemnly, in 

 the face of mankind, that we desire peace at 

 any sacrifice, save that of honor." " In inde- 

 pendence we seek no conquest, no aggrandize- 

 ment, no cession of any kind from the States 

 with which we have lately confederated. All 

 we ask is to be let alone that those who never 

 held power over us should not now attempt 

 our subjugation by arms. This we will, we 

 must resist, to the direst extremity." ' ; The 

 moment that this pretension is abandon- 

 ed, the sword will drop from our grasp, and 

 we shall be ready to enter into treaties of amity 

 and commerce, that cannot but be mutually 

 beneficial."' 



On the night of the 30th of April, on his re- 

 turn from Richmond, where the terms were ar- 

 ranged under which Virginia joined the Con- 

 federate States, the Vice-President, Mr. Ste- 

 phens, addressed an audience at Atlanta, Ga., 

 as follows : 



What is to take place before the end, I know 

 not. A threatening war is upon us, made by 

 those who have no regard for right. We fight 

 for our homes, our fathers and mothers, our 

 wives, brothers, sisters, sons, and daughters, 

 and neighbors ; they for money. The hirelings 

 and mercenaries of the N.orth are all hand to 

 hand against you. 



" As I told you when I addressed yon a few- 

 days ago, Lincoln may bring his seventy-five 

 thousand soldiers against us ; but seven times 

 seventy-five thousand men can never conquer 

 us. We have now Maryland and Virginia, and 

 all the Border States with us. We have ten 

 millions of people with us, heart and hand, to 

 defend us to the death. We can call out a 

 million of people, if need be ; and when they 

 are cut down, we can call out another, and still 

 another, until the last man of the South finds a 

 bloody grave, rather than submit to their foul 

 dictation. But a triumphant victory, and in- 

 dependence with an unparalleled career of 



glory, prosperity, ana progress await us in the 

 future. God is on our side, and who shall be 

 against us ? None but His omnipotent hand can 

 defeat us in this struggle. 



" A general opinion prevails that Washington 

 City is soon to be attacked. On this subject I 

 can only say, our object is peace. We wish no 

 aggressions on any one's rights, and will make 

 none. But if Maryland secedes, the District of 

 Columbia will fall to her by reversionary right 

 the same as Snrnter to South Carolina, Pu- 

 laski to Georgia, and Pickens to Florida, 

 When we have the right, we will demand the 

 surrender of Washington, just as we did in 

 the other cases, and will enforce our demands 

 at every hazard and at whatever cost. And 

 here let me say that our policy and conduct 

 from the first have been right, and shall be to 

 the last. I glory in this consciousness of our 

 rectitude. 



" It may be that l whom the gods would de- 

 stroy, they first make mad.' But for Lincoln's 

 wicked and foolish war proclamation, the Bor- 

 der States some of them at least, would still 

 have lingered in the hope thatrthe Administra- 

 tion and its designs were not so basely treach- 

 erous as that document has shown them to be. 

 Tennessee and other States would have lingered 

 for some time. Now, all the slave States are 

 casting in their lot with us, and linking their 

 destinies with ours. We might afford to thank 

 Lincoln a little for showing his hand. It may 

 be that soon the Confederate flag with fifteen 

 stars will be hoisted upon the dome of the 

 ancient Capitol. If so. God's will be done, is 

 my prayer. Let us do nothing that is wrong. 

 Let us commit our cause into His hand per- 

 form our whole duty, and trust in Him for the 

 crowning results. 



"I have many things I would like to say to 

 you, but my strength will not admit, even if it 

 were necessary for yonr encouragement but 

 it is not. I find that yon are fully up to the 

 music, that you thoroughly comprehend our 

 condition, and are resolved to do yonr whole 

 duty. I find our people everywhere are alive 

 to their interests and their duty in this crisis. 

 Such a degree of popular enthusiasm was never 

 before seen in this country.'' 



The plan of the war was evidently decided 

 by circumstances beyond the control of the 

 Government. Commencing as an organized 

 Confederacy on the 22d of February, on the 

 12th of April Fort Sumter was attacked, and 

 the Confederacy launched into a gigantic war. 

 An agricultural people entering upon n war of 

 invasion within three months after their organ- 

 ization as a nation, and against a commercial 

 and manufacturing people, superior in numbers 

 and general intelligence, is an event as yet un- 

 known in history. Peace was the only source 

 of life to the* Confederate States at least a 

 peace of such length of time as would allow of 

 concentration and national organization. The 

 movement to send supplies to Fort Sumter was 

 followed by the attack on that fort, and sub- 



