Chapter 50

Military Laws and Measures.--Agricultural Products diminished.--Manufactures flourishing.--The Call for Volunteers.--The Term of Three Years.--Improved Discipline.--The Law assailed.--Important Constitutional Question raised.--Its Discussion at Length.--Power of the Government over its own Armies and the Militia.--Object of Confederations.--The War-Powers granted.--Two Modes of raising Armies in the Confederate States.--Is the Law necessary and proper?--Congress is the Judge under the Grant of Specific Power.--What is meant by Militia.--Whole Military Strength divided into Two Classes.--Powers of Congress.--Objections answered.--Good Effects of the Law.--The Limitations enlarged.--Results of the Operations of these Laws.--Act for the Employment of Slaves.--Message to Congress.--"Died of a Theory."--Act to use Slaves as Soldiers passed.--Not Time to put it in Operation.

APPENDIXES.

[Transcriber's Note: There is no Appendix A.]

APPENDIX B.

Speech of the Author on the Oregon Question

APPENDIX C.

Extracts from Speeches of the Author on the Resolutions of Compromise proposed by Mr. Clay

On the Reception of a Memorial from Inhabitants of Pennsylvania and Delaware, praying that Congress would adopt Measures for an Immediate and Peaceful Dissolution of the Union

On the Resolutions of Mr. Clay relative to Slavery in the Territories

APPENDIX D.

Speech of the Author on the Message of the President of the United States, transmitting to Congress the "Lecompton Constitution" of Kansas

APPENDIX E.

Address of the Author to Citizens of Portland, Maine

Address of the Author at a Public Meeting in Faneuil Hall, Boston; with the Introductory Remarks by Caleb Cushing

APPENDIX F.

Speech of the Author in the Senate, on the Resolutions relative to the Relations of the States, the Federal Government, and the Territories

APPENDIX G.

Correspondence between the Commissioners of South Carolina and the President of the United States (Mr. Buchanan), relative to the Forts in the Harbor of Charleston

APPENDIX H.

Speech of the Author on a Motion to print the Special Message of the President of the United States of January 9, 1861

APPENDIX I.

Correspondence and Extracts from Correspondence relative to Fort Sumter, from the Affair of the Star of the West, January 9, 1861, to the Withdrawal of the Envoy of South Carolina from Washington, February 8, 1861

APPENDIX K.

The Provisional Constitution of the Confederate States, adopted February 8, 1861

The Constitution of the United States and the Permanent Constitution of the Confederate States, in Parallel Columns

APPENDIX L.

Correspondence between the Confederate Commissioners, Mr. Secretary Seward, and Judge Campbell

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.

Jefferson Davis, aged Thirty-two

J. C. Calhoun

Briarfield, Early Residence of Mr. Davis

The First Confederate Cabinet

Alexander H. Stephens

General P. G. T. Beauregard

Members of President's Staff

General A. S. Johnston

General Robert E. Lee

Battle of Manassas (Map)

INTRODUCTION.

A duty to my countrymen; to the memory of those who died in defense of a cause consecrated by inheritance, as well as sustained by conviction; and to those who, perhaps less fortunate, staked all, and lost all, save life and honor, in its behalf, has impelled me to attempt the vindication of their cause and conduct. For this purpose I have decided to present an historical sketch of the events which preceded and attended the struggle of the Southern States to maintain their existence and their rights as sovereign communities--the creators, not the creatures, of the General Government.

The social problem of maintaining the just relation between constitution, government, and people, has been found so difficult, that human history is a record of unsuccessful efforts to establish it. A government, to afford the needful protection and exercise proper care for the welfare of a people, must have homogeneity in its constituents. It is this necessity which has divided the human race into separate nations, and finally has defeated the grandest efforts which conquerors have made to give unlimited extent to their domain. When our fathers dissolved their connection with Great Britain, by declaring themselves free and independent States, they constituted thirteen separate communities, and were careful to assert and preserve, each for itself, its sovereignty and jurisdiction.

At a time when the minds of men are straying far from the lessons our fathers taught, it seems proper and well to recur to the original principles on which the system of government they devised was founded. The eternal truths which they announced, the rights which they declared "_unalienable_," are the foundation-stones on which rests the vindication of the Confederate cause.

He must have been a careless reader of our political history who has not observed that, whether under the style of "United Colonies" or "United States," which was adopted after the Declaration of Independence, whether under the articles of Confederation or the compact of Union, there everywhere appears the distinct assertion of State sovereignty, and nowhere the slightest suggestion of any purpose on the part of the States to consolidate themselves into one body. Will any candid, well-informed man assert that, at any time between 1776 and 1790, a proposition to surrender the sovereignty of the States and merge them in a central government would have had the least possible chance of adoption? Can any historical fact be more demonstrable than that the States did, both in the Confederation and in the Union, retain their sovereignty and independence as distinct communities, voluntarily consenting to federation, but never becoming the fractional parts of a nation? That such opinions should find adherents in our day, may be attributable to the natural law of aggregation; surely not to a conscientious regard for the terms of the compact for union by the States.

In all free governments the constitution or organic law is supreme over the government, and in our Federal Union this was most distinctly marked by limitations and prohibitions against all which was beyond the expressed grants of power to the General Government. In the foreground, therefore, I take the position that those who resisted violations of the compact were the true friends, and those who maintained the usurpation of undelegated powers were the real enemies of the constitutional Union.