2. That the action of our State Legislature in passing the so-called 'Declaration of Independence' and in forming the Military League' with the Confederate States, and in adopting other acts looking to a separation of the State of Tennessee from the Government of the United States, is unconstitutional and illegal, and therefore not binding upon us as loyal citizens. "3. That in order to avert a conflict with our brethren in other parts of the State, and desiring that all constitutional means shall be resorted to for the preservation of peace, we do, therefore, constitute and appoint O. P. Temple, of Knox, John Netherland, of Hawkins, and James P. McDowell, of Greene, commissioners, whose duty it shall be to prepare a memorial and cause the same to be presented to the General Assembly of Tennessee, now in session, asking its consent that the counties composing East Tennessee, and such counties in Middle Tennessee as desire to co-operate with them, may form and erect a separate State. "4. Desiring, in good faith, that the General Assembly will grant this our reasonable request, and still claiming the right to determine our own destiny, we do further resolve that an election be held in all the counties of East Tennessee, and in such other counties in Middle Tennessee adjacent thereto as may desire to co-operate with us, for the choice of delegates to represent them in a General Conven tion, to be held in the town of Kingston at such time as the President of this Convention, or, in case of his absence or inability, any one of the VicePresidents, or, in like case with them, the Secretary of this Convention may designate; and the officer so designating the day for the assembling of said Convention shall also fix the time for holding the election herein provided for, and give reasonable notice thereof. 5. In order to carry out the foregoing resolution, the sheriffs of the different counties are hereby The Resolutions. requested to open and hold said election, or cause the same to be so held, in the usual manner and at the usual places of voting, as prescribed by law; and in the event the sheriff of any county should fail or refuse to open and hold said election, or cause the same to be done, the coroner of such county is requested to do so, and should such coroner fail or refuse, then any constable of such county is hereby authorized to open and hold said election, or cause the same to be held. And if in any county none of the above-named officers will hold said election, CHAPTER VI MEETING AT RICHMOND. THE OF THE CONFEDERATE CONGRESS PRESIDENT'S MESSAGE. IMPORTANT DOCUMENTS LAID BEFORE THE adjourned session | lation of his forces on the Po Davis' Message of July 20th, 1861. Davis' Message of of the Confederate Congress tomac sufficiently demonstrated July 20th, 1861. was resumed at Richmond that his efforts were to be diJuly 20th, when Jefferson Davis laid before the rected against Virginia, and from no point could necessary measures for her defense and protection be so assembled members important documents. effectively decided, as from her own capital. The rapHis Message-forming, as it does, an import-id progress of events, for the last few weeks, has fully ant link in the chain of history of the Rebel-sufficed to lift the veil, behind which the true policy lion-we give at length: and purposes of the Government of the United States 'Gentlemen of the Congress of the Confederate States of had been previously concealed. Their odious feaAmerica: "My message addressed to you at the commencement of the last session contained such full information of the state of the Confederacy as to render it unnecessary that I should now do more than call your attention to such important facts as have occurred during the recess, and the matters connected with the public defense. "I have again to congratulate you on the accession of new members to our Confederation of free and equally sovereign States. Our loved and hon ored brethren of North Carolina and Tennessee have consummated the action foreseen and provided for at your last session, and I have had the gratification of announcing, by proclamation, in conformity with law, that these States were admitted into the Confederacy. The people of Virginia, also, by a majority previously unknown in our history, have ratified the action of her Convention uniting her fortunes with ours. The States of Arkansas, North Carolina and Virginia have likewise adopted the permanent Constitution of the Confederate States, and no doubt is entertained of its adoption by Tennessee, at the election to be held early in next month. "I deemed it advisable to direct the removal of the several executive departments, with their archives, to this city, to which you have removed the seat of Government. Immediately after your adjournment, the aggressive movements of the enemy required prompt, energetic action. The accumu tures now stand fully revealed. The message of their President and the action of their Congress during the present month, confess their intention of the subjugation of these States, by a war, by which it is impossible to attain the proposed result, while its dire calamities, not to be avoided by us, will fall with double severity on themselves. "Commencing in March last, with the affectation of ignoring the secession of seven States, which first organized this Government; persevering in April in the idle and absurd assumption of the existence of a riot, which was to be dispersed by a posse comitatus ; continuing in successive months the false representation that these States intended an offensive war, in spite of conclusive evidence to the contrary, furnished as well by official action as by the very basis on which this Government is constituted, the President of the United States and his advisers succeeded in deceiving the people of those States into the belief that the purpose of this Government was not peace at home, but conquest abroad; not defense of its own liberties, but subversion of those of the people of the United States. The series of manoeuvres by which this impression was created; the art with which they were devised, and the perfidy with which they were executed, were already known to you, but you could scarcely have supposed that they would be openly avowed, and their success made the subject of boast and self-laudation in an executive message. Fortunately for truth and his Davis' Message. tory, however, the President | the inhabitants of this ConfedDavis' Message. of the United States details, eracy are still citizens of the with minuteness, the attempt to reenforce Fort United States; for they are waging an indiscriminPickens, in violation of an armistice of which ate war upon them all, with savage ferocity, unhe confessed to have been informed, but only by known in modern civilization. rumors; too vague and uncertain to fix the attention of the hostile expedition dispatched to supply Fort Sumter, admitted to have been undertaken with the knowledge that its success was impossible; the sending of a notice to the Governor of South Carolina of his intention to use force to accomplish his object; and then quoting from his inaugural address the assurance that there could be no conflict unless these States were the aggressors,' he proceeds to declare his conduct, as just related by himself, was the performance of a promise, so free from the power of ingenious sophistry as that the world should not be able to misunderstand it; and in defir ance of his own statement that he gave notice of the approach of a hostile fleet, he charges these States with becoming the assailants of the United States, without a gun in sight, or in expectancy, to return their fire, save only a few in the fort. He is, indeed, fully justified in saying that the case is so free from the power of ingenious sophistry that the world will not be able to misunderstand it. Under cover of this unfounded pretense, that the Confederate States are the assailants, that high functionary, after expressing his concern that some foreign nations had so shaped their action as if they supposed the early destruction of the National Union probable, abandons all further disguise, and proposes to make this contest a short and decisive one, by placing at the control of the Government for the work at least four hundred thousand men and four hundred millions of dollars. The Congress, concurring in the doubt thus intimated as to the sufficiency of the force demanded, has increased it to half a million of men. "These enormous preparations in men and money, for the conduct of the war, on a scale more grand than any which the new world ever witnessed, is a distinct avowal, in the eyes of civilized man, that the United States are engaged in a conflict with a great and powerful nation.. They are at last compelled to abandon the pretense of being engaged in dispersing rioters and suppressing insurrections, and are driven to the acknowledgment that the an cient Union has been dissolved. They recognize the separate existence of these Confederate States, But who "In this war, rapine is the rule; private houses, in beautiful rural retreats, are bombarded and burnt; grain crops in the field are consumed by the torch, and, when the torch is not convenient, careful labor is bestowed to render complete the destruction of every article of use or ornament re maining in private dwellings after their inhabitants have fled from the outrages of brute soldiery. În 1781, Great Britain, when invading the revolted col onies, took possession of every district and county near Fortress Monroe, now occupied by the troops of the United States. The houses then inhabited by the people, after being respected and protected by avowed invaders, are now pillaged and destroyed by men who pretend that Virginians are their fellow. citizens. Mankind will shudder at the tales of the outrages committed on defenseless families by sol diers of the United States, now invading our homes; yet these outrages are prompted by inflamed pas sions and the madness of intoxication. shall depict the horror they entertain for the cool and deliberate malignancy which, under the pretext of suppressing insurrection, (said by themselves to be upheld by a minority only of our people,) makes special war on the sick, including children and wo men, by carefully devised measures to prevent them from obtaining the medicines necessary for their cure. The sacred claims of humanity, respect ed even during the fury of actual battle, by careful diversion of attack from hospitals containing wounded enemies, are outraged in cold blood by a Gov ernment and people that pretend to desire a continuance of fraternal connections. All these outrages must remain unavenged by the universal reprehension of mankind. In all cases where the actual perpetrators of the wrongs escape capture, they admit of no retaliation. The humanity of our people would shrink instinctively from the bare idea of urging a like war upon the sick, the women and are other resorted to the children of an enemy. taken by the by an interdictive embargo and blockade of all com- enemy on board the armed schooner Savannah, merce between them and the United States, not sailing under our commission, were, as I was only by sea, but by land; not only in ships, but incredibly advised, treated like common felons, cars; not only with those who bear arms, but with put in irons, confined in a jail usually appro the entire population of the Confederate States. priated to criminals of the worst dye, and threaten Finally they have repudiated the foolish conceit that ed with punishment as such. I had made applica MESSAGE OF JEFFERSON DAVIS. OXFOM LIGBART 301 Davis' Message. assertion that the States have no other power than that reserved to them in the Union by the Constitu tion. 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 corpus, and of delegating that power to military commanders at their discretion. And both these propositions claim a respect equal to that which is felt for the additional statement in the same paper, that it is prop er, 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 extent be violated. We may well rejoice that we have for. ever 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 defense of seven States which originally organized in the Confederacy, as is evidently the fact, since, with the exception of three fortified islands, whose defense is efficiently aided by a preponderating naval force, the enemy has been driven completely out of these stations; and now, at the expiration of five months from the formation of the Government, not a single hostile foot presses their soil. These forces, however, must necessarily prove inadequate 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 recommendations 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 attention. tion for the exchange of these Davis' Message. prisoners to the commanding officer of the enemy's squadron off 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-inchief of the army and navy of the United States, the only officer having control of the prisoners. To this end, I dispatched an officer to him under a flag of truce, and, in making the proposal, I informed President Lincoln of my resolute purpose to check all barbarities on prisoners of war by such severity of retaliation 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 possible. 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 depend on that of prisoners held by the enemy. I append a copy of my communication to the President and commander-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 directed 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 declaration of martial law, some of them, at least, would joyfully unite with us; that they are, with almost entire unanimity, opposed to the prosecution of the war waged against us, are facts of which daily recurring events fully warrant the assertion that the 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 "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 Davis' Message. self-sacrificing devotion. They manifest a laudable pride of upholding their independence, unaided by any resources other than their own, and the im meuse wealth which a fertilized and genial climate has accumulated in this Confedoracy of agriculturists, could not be more strongly displayed than in the large revenues which, with eagerness, 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 consumption of our army is provided otherwise than by subscription to the produce loan, so happily devised by your wisdom. The Secretary of the Treasury, in his report submitted to you, will give this, because, in need of large | singularly, viz: its disingenuousness and its and increased expenditure, in duplicity-the first, in imputing treachery support of our army, elevated and purified by to the President, rapine to his armies a sacred cause, they maintain that our fellow and undue tyranny to the Executivecitizens, of every condition of life, exhibit most duplicity in its tenor and tone, evidently designed to impress the mind of Europe and thus to expedite the hoped-for recognition of the Slave Confederacy. If it answered any direct purpose, its first effect was to inspire the Northern mind with disgust; while the charge of rapine laid upon our soldierywhose special study had been to punish the rebels with the least possible injury to their fine "sense of honor" and their "sacred" rights*-certainly did not incite particular regard for orders which compelled them to respect rebel property, even to leaving their cornfields untouched. Unionists in the South learned, at an early day of the revolution, that they had no rights of person or property which the Confederates were bound to respect; yet, the very persons who treated Unionists with brutal severity, and inflicted all the rigors of an unfeeling law, were those who clamored against Federal cruelty! Among the documents submitted with the Message were the papers re you the amplest details connected with that branch of the public service; but it is not alone in their prompt pecuniary contributions 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 The Case of the Privateers. country, the cool and confident courage with whichgarding the mission of Colonel Taylor to 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 a 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 incomprehensible 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 borders; 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." t Washington. As they probably exerted some influence in modifying the Federal Government's proceedings against the captured privateers, we may here recur to them. Mr. Lincoln's proclamation of blockade of April 19th, 1861, declared, "that if any person, under the pretended authority of said (Confederate) States, or under any other pretense, shall molest a vessel of the United States, or the persons and cargo on board of her, such person will be held amenable to the laws of the United States for the prevention and punishment of piracy." This declaration was simply a consequent of the denial to the Confederates of the status of a belligerent power: if they had no rights on the high seas, as such power, then their seizure of vessels sailing * It is one of the anomalies of the war that men in open insurrection should have been accorded rights of property, of person and of transit. If the South was in insurrection its citizens were rebels, and, by all the laws and usages of nations, rebels had no po This document was characterized by two features which impressed the Northern mind | litical and only qualified personal rights. |