American Eloquence, Volume IV | Page 9

the bills of rights of the States
subsequently admitted into the Union of 1789, undeniably recognizes
in the people the power to resume the authority delegated for the
purposes of government. Thus the sovereign States here represented
proceeded to form this Confederacy; and it is by the abuse of language
that their act has been denominated revolution. They formed a new
alliance, but within each State its government has remained. The rights
of person and property have not been disturbed. The agent through
whom they communicated with foreign nations is changed, but this
does not necessarily interrupt their international relations. Sustained by
the consciousness that the transition from the former Union to the
present Confederacy has not proceeded from a disregard on our part of
our just obligations or any failure to perform every constitutional duty,
moved by no interest or passion to invade the rights of others, anxious
to cultivate peace and commerce with all nations, if we may not hope to
avoid war, we may at least expect that posterity will acquit us of having
needlessly engaged in it. Doubly justified by the absence of wrong on
our part, and by wanton aggression on the part of others, there can be
no use to doubt the courage and patriotism of the people of the
Confederate States will be found equal to any measure of defence
which soon their security may require.
An agricultural people, whose chief interest is the export of a
commodity required in every manufacturing country, our true policy is
peace and the freest trade which our necessities will permit. It is alike
our interest and that of all those to whom we would sell and from
whom we would buy, that there should be the fewest practicable
restrictions upon the interchange of commodities. There can be but
little rivalry between ours and any manufacturing or navigating
community, such as the northeastern States of the American Union. It
must follow, therefore, that mutual interest would invite good-will and
kind offices. If, however, passion or lust of dominion should cloud the
judgment or inflame the ambition of those States, we must prepare to

meet the emergency, and maintain by the final arbitrament of the sword
the position which we have assumed among the nations of the earth.
We have entered upon a career of independence, and it must be
inflexibly pursued through many years of controversy with our late
associates of the Northern States. We have vainly endeavored to secure
tranquillity and obtain respect for the rights to which we were entitled.
As a necessity, not a choice, we have resorted to the remedy of
separation, and henceforth our energies must be directed to the conduct
of our own affairs, and the perpetuity of the Confederacy which we
have formed. If a just perception of mutual interest shall permit us
peaceably to pursue our separate political career, my most earnest
desire will have been fulfilled. But if this be denied us, and the integrity
of our territory and jurisdiction be assailed, it will but remain for us
with firm resolve to appeal to arms and invoke the blessing of
Providence on a just cause. * * *
Actuated solely by a desire to preserve our own rights, and to promote
our own welfare, the separation of the Confederate States has been
marked by no aggression upon others, and followed by no domestic
convulsion. Our industrial pursuits have received no check, the
cultivation of our fields progresses as heretofore, and even should we
be involved in war, there would be no considerable diminution in the
production of the staples which have constituted our exports, in which
the commercial world has an interest scarcely less than our own. This
common interest of producer and consumer can only be intercepted by
an exterior force which should obstruct its transmission to foreign
markets, a course of conduct which would be detrimental to
manufacturing and commercial interests abroad.
Should reason guide the action of the government from which we have
separated, a policy so detrimental to the civilized world, the Northern
States included, could not be dictated by even a stronger desire to
inflict injury upon us; but if it be otherwise, a terrible responsibility
will rest upon it, and the suffering of millions will bear testimony to the
folly and wickedness of our aggressors. In the meantime there will
remain to us, besides the ordinary remedies before suggested, the
well-known resources for retaliation upon the commerce of an enemy.
* * * We have changed the constituent parts but not the system of our
government. The Constitution formed by our fathers is that of these

Confederate States. In their exposition of it, and in the judicial
construction it has received, we have a light which reveals its true
meaning. Thus instructed as to