PUBLIC DOCUMENTS. 



621 



enemy on board the armed schooner Savannah, sailing 

 under our commission, were, as I was credibly ad- 

 vised, treated like common felons, put in ironsj con- 

 fined in a jail usually appropriated to criminals of the 

 worst dye, and threatened with punishment as such. 

 I had made application for the exchange of these pris- 

 oners to the commanding oth'cer of the enemy's squad- 

 ron oft' Charleston, but that officer had already sent 

 the prisoners to New York when application was made. 

 I therefore deemed it my duty to renew the proposal 

 for the exchange to the constitutional commander-in- 

 chief of the army and navy of the United States, the 

 oulv officer having control of the prisoners. To this 

 end, I despatched^au officer to him under a flag of 

 truce, and, in making the proposal, I informed Presi- 

 dent Lincoln of my resolute purpose to check all bar- 

 barities on prisoners of war by such severity of retali- 

 ation on prisoners held by us as should secure the 

 abandonment of the practice. This communication 

 was received and read by an officer in command of the 

 United States forces, and a message was brought from 

 him by the bearer of my communication, that a reply 

 would be returned by President Lincoln as soon as pos- 

 sible. I earnestly hope this promised reply (which 

 has not yet been received) will convey the assurance 

 that prisoners of war will be treated, in this unhappy 

 contest, with that regard for humanity, which has 

 made such conspicuous progress in the conduct of 

 modern warfare. As measures of precaution, however, 

 and until this promised reply is received, I still retain 

 in close custody some officers captured from the enemy, 

 whom it had "been my pleasure previously to set at 

 large on parole, and whose fate must necessarily de- 

 pend on that of prisoners held by the enemy. I ap- 

 pend a copy of my communication to the President 

 and cominander-in-chief of the army and navy of the 

 United States, and of the report of the officer charged 

 to deliver my communication. There are some other 

 passages in the remarkable paper to which I have di- 

 rected^ your attention, having reference to the peculiar 

 relations which exist between this Government and 

 the States usually termed Border Slave States, which 

 cannot properly be withheld from notice. The hearts 

 of our people are animated by sentiments towards the 

 inhabitants of these States, which found expression in 

 your enactment refusing to consider them enemies, or 

 authorize hostilities against them. That a very large 

 portion of the people of these States regard us as 

 brethren ; that, if unrestrained by the actual presence 

 of large armies, subversion of civil authority, and dec- 

 laration of martial law, some of them, at least, would 

 joyfully unite with us ; that they are, with almost en- 

 tire unanimity, opposed to the prosecution of the war 

 waged against us, are facts of which daily-recurring 

 events fully warrant the assertion that Jhe President 

 of the United States refuses to recognize in these, our 

 late sister States, the right of refraining from attack 

 upon us, and justifies his refusal by the assertion that 

 the States have no other power than that reserved to 

 them in the Union by the Constitution. Now, one of 

 them having ever been a State of the Union, this view 

 of the constitutional relations between the States and 

 the General Government is a fitting introduction to 

 another assertion of the Message, that the Executive 

 possesses power of suspending the writ of habeas cor- 

 pus, and of delegating that power to military com- 

 manders at their discretion. And both these proposi- 

 tions claim a respect equal to that which is felt for the 

 additional statement of opinion in the same paper, 

 that it is proper, in order to execute the laws, that 

 some single law, made in such extreme tenderness of 

 citizens' liberty that practically it relieves more of the 

 guilty than the innocent, should to a very limited ex- 

 tent be violated. We may well rejoice that we have 

 forever severed our connection with a Government 

 that thus trampled on all principles of constitutional 

 liberty, and with a people in whose presence such 

 avowals could be hazarded. The operations in the 

 field will be greatly extended by reason of the policy 

 which heretofore has been secretly entertained, and is 



now avowed and acted on by us. The forces hitherto 

 raised provide amply for the defence of seven States 

 which originally organized in the .Confederacy, as is 

 evidently the fact, since, with the exception of three 

 fortified islands, whose defence is efficiently aided by a 

 preponderating naval force, the enemy has "been driven 

 completely out of these stations ; and now, at the ex- 

 piration o'f five months from the formation of the Gov- 

 ernment, not a single hostile foot presses their soil. 

 These forces, however, must necessarily prove inade- 

 quate to repel invasion by the half million of men now 

 proposed by the enemy, and a corresponding increase 

 of our forces will become necessary. The recommend- 

 ations for the raising of this additional force will be 

 contained in the communication of the Secretary of 

 War, to which I need scarcely invite your earnest at- 

 tention. 



In my Message delivered in April last, I referred to 

 the promise of the abundant crops with which we were 

 cheered. The grain crops, generally, have since been 

 harvested, and the yield has proven to be the most 

 abundant ever known in our history. Many believe 

 the supply adequate to two years' consumption of our 

 population. Cotton, sugar, tobacco, forming a surplus 

 of the production of our agriculture, and furnishing 

 the basis of our commercial interchange, present the 

 most cheering promises ever known. Providence has 

 smiled on the labor which extracts the teeming wealth 

 of our soil in all parts of our Confederacy. 



It is the more gratifying to be able to give you this, 

 because, in need of large and increased expenditure 

 in support of our army, elevated and purified by a 

 sacred cause, they maintain that our fellow-citizens", of 

 every condition of life, exhibit most self-sacrificing de- 

 votion. They manifest a laudable pride of upholding 

 their independence, unaided by any resources other 

 than their own, and the immense wealth which a fer- 

 tilized and genial climate has accumulated in this Con- 

 federacy of agriculturists, could not be more strongly 

 displayed than in the large revenues which, with eager- 

 ness, they have contributed at the call of their country. 

 In the single article of cotton, the subscriptions to the 

 loan proposed by the Government cannot fall short of 

 fifty millions of dollars, and will probably exceed that 

 sum ; and scarcely an article required for the consump- 

 tion of our army is provided otherwise than by sub- 

 scription to the produce loan, so happily devised by 

 your wisdom. The Secretary of the Treasury, in his 

 report submitted to you, will give you the amplest de- 

 tails connected with'that branch of the public service; 

 but it is not alone in their prompt pecuniary contribu- 

 tions that the noble race of freemen who inhabit these 

 States evidence how worthy they are of those liberties 

 which they so well know how to defend. In numbers 

 far exceeding those authorized by your laws, they have 

 pressed the tender of their services against the enemy. 

 Their attitude of calm and sublime devotion to their 

 country, the cool and confident courage with which 

 they are already preparing to meet the invasion, in 

 whatever proportions it may assume; the assurance 

 that their sacrifices and their" services will be renewed 

 from year to year with unfailing purpose, until they 

 have made good to the uttermost their rights to self- 

 government ; the generous and almost unequivocal 

 confidence which they display in their Government 

 during the pending struggle, all combine to present & 

 spectacle, such as the world has rarely, if ever, seen. 

 To speak of subjugating such a people, so united and 

 determined, is to speak in a language incomprehensi- 

 ble to them ; to resist attack on their rights or their 

 liberties is with them an instinct. Whether this war 

 shall last one, or three, or five years, is a problem they 

 leave to be solved by the enemy alone. It will last 

 till the enemy shall have withdrawn from their bor- 

 ders; till their political rights, their altars, and their 

 homes are freed from invasion. Then, and then only, 

 will they rest from this struggle, to enjoy in peace the 

 blessings which, with the favor of Providence, they 

 have secured by the aid of their own strong hearts and 

 steady arms. JEFFERSON DAVIS. 



