Duke University Libraries Speech of Hon. Conf Pam #634 SPEECH OF HON. W. S. OLDHAM, OF TEXAS, On the Resolutions of the State of Texas, concerning Peace, Reconstruction and Independence. In the Confederate States Senate, January 30, 1865. The following resolutions having been read to the Senate — Retolutiont of the State of Texas, eoncerning Peace, Reconstruction and Independence. Whkreas, amonj; the political pirties of tho United States the question of a reunion of those States with those of the Confe-teracy is being agitated, ami, in order to promote such re- Quion, it is ur^ed that delegates be chosen from each of the S'ates in the Confederacy and ia the UniMQ, to meet in convention to leform the constiturion of the TJLited States, which prop- osition is coupled with the quasi pledge that such aiiien'lment shall be made to the cong;i- tution as will forwvor guarantee the institution of African slavery in the States in this Con- federacy ; And whereas, it is possible that the political party in the United States advocating thai proposition may prevail at the approaching el'-ction in choosing the Executive of that Goyt'rnment, and that consequently the foregoing proposition may bo attetnpted to be mtide to th- States if the Confederacy ; Nom, we of the State of Texas, believing that it is proper to meet such proposition in advance, have resolved as follows : /{eaoluiian Ist. Be it resohed by the ijegislaturc of thf St9t» of Texas, That neither the abova proposiiion, nor any other, can be made to the people of this State, by the Unite. 1 Stales or any- other foreign people, tho (Jovernment of the Confederate States being tho only organ of th» States in the Confederacy, for the transaction of business with foreign nations, and such prop- osifiim, if made at all, must bo made to the Governm(!n.t of the Confederate States, and, if made to the g 'Vernment of thi? State, will not be entertained. HesolHtion 2d. Thai wc recognize in th it proposition no good faith, but merely an insidioua policy to "divide and oonqu.er ;" a policy through wliich it is hoped to detach some of th« States Irom the Confederacy, thereby to weaken and demoralize the rest. To ace mplish this, an ai peal is made to our love of property, which, as ii is tne all-prevailing motive to the actions of the people of the Noith, they supposed would control our conduct. Risfilution .3d. That it will be well for the people of the North to understand, even at this late day, t.h»t the southern States did not secede trom the Union upon any question such as the mere prt'Si-rvafifpu of the slave prcperty of their citizens. But, that being fn^e and sovereign Stall's, they were resolved to preserve their freedom and their sovereignty. They were free to govern themselves as they, and not others, saw fit. They were free to change their govern- ment, to erect a new one, and to make whatever alliances they should choose. And, after nearly tour years of arduon^ war, these States are still unwavering in their resolution to pre- serve I heir freedom and their sovereignty, without which all else is valueless. * Resolution 4lb. That could the present war and all its horrors be blotted out of our memo- ries, cur past experience while in the Union would warn us from any reaoion with the peopl» uf the North. A written constitution, adopted hj our aoccetore aad theirs, which eont«lsod plainly-worded guarantees of the rights of all, was by them, and their sworn representatives » deliberately and persistently violated to our injufy; and finally, after years of discussion when the question was understandingly before the people at large, they elected a Chief Ma- gistrate with the purpose that he should destroy our liberties, in disregard of the constitution which he had sworn to support, thus exhibiting an instance of radical and wide-spread national depravity, to the honor of human nature, never exhibited in the world before. Resolution 5th. But we could not, if we Would, banish from our memory the inhumanities of this war. Our enemies have repudiated every principle of civilized warfare. They have withdrawn their felons from jails and penitentiaries, have recruited from the scum of Europe, and armed our own slaves, in order to procure an army sufficiently atrocious for their purpose ; and this army has been launched upon us "with the declared object of our extermination. Poisoned weapons have been manufactured and used. 'Eschange of prisoners has been refused until the success of our armies extorted a cartel, and the terms of this. have been violated by them whenever the varying fortunes of the field made it apparently advantageous to do so. Our countrymen, when captured, have been removed to rigorous climes, and sub- jected to every hardship, that thus they might be destroyed. Non-combatants have been murdered. Indiscriminate onslaught has been made upon tottering age and tender youth. Our chante and defenceless women have been submitted to outrage worse than deat^. Peace- ful villages have been bombarded, and happy homes plundered and burnt. Whole populations have been removed and bondaged to northern masters. Desolation has marched with their armies. Religious services have been prohibited ; ministers of the gospel of peace have been incarcerated and. silenced, and sacriligious hands have been laid upon our sacred alters. Lying to themselves, and pretending to the rest of the world that they are fighting the battle of freedom for four millions of happy and contented negroes, they are attempting the enslavement of eight millions of freemen. With devilish mockery of philanthropy, they have deluded and dragged these negroes from their comfortable homes to use them as screens from our weapons in the day of battle, and they have sent them by thousands to painful death by neglect, exposure, and starvation. Words cannot express the malignity in their hearts or the atrocity of their deeds, exceeding, as they do, all that was ever conceived by men from the Scythian down to the Comanche, Nor has this been the conduct of an unbridled soldiery merely. Those officers of their army who have surpassed the rest of the infamous, in infamy, have been rewarded with promotion by their Government. Nor has their Government been alone in identifying itself with these crimes. The people of the North have never failed, when the opportunity was presented, to tender ovations to the most transcendent among the criminals, while their press has been constant in its laudation and their orators and preachers have cried out " well done." Army, government and people, have united to make the name of Yankee, suggestive as it was before of fraud, now the synonym of barbarism and baseness. Resolution 6th. By the just pride of the manhood and the virtue which we claim as indi- viduals and as a people ; by the divine command which warns us not to walk in the way with the wicked ; by the memory of our murdered dead ; by the sight of the bereaved mothers, widows, sisters, daughters and orphans of our land ; bj- the heart-brokenness of trampled virtue ; and by our desolated- hearths, we are borbidden to admit a thought of further association with the people of the North, Our heroic soldiers, the living, and martyred dead, forbid it ; and our trust in God forbids it. Resolution 7th. We declare that we are earnestly desirous of peace, but we say no less dis- tinctly that it must be coupled with our independence. And if the people of the United States be really disposed to terminate the war, they will best prove that disposition by making their propositions to the Government of the Confederate States, which alone can entertain it. Resolution 8th. That a copy of these resolutions be transmitted to the President of the Confederate States, to each of our Senators and Representatives in Congress, and to the Gov- ernor of each State in the Confederacy. Approved November 12, 1864. ■« State op Texas, ) Department of State. ) I, Robert J. Townes, Secretary of State of the State of Texas, do hereby certify that the foregoing is a true and correct copy of the original, now on file in my Department. In testi- mony whereof, I have hereunto signed my name and caused the Seal of my Department to be affixed, at Austin, this 15th day of November, A. D., 1864. R. J. Townes Mr. Oldham said : Mr. President, it is with both pride and pleasure that I present to the Senate the resolutions just read, expressing the unanimous sentiments of the Legisla- ture of my State. Those resolutions are not the mere vain and idle boastings of blustering civilians. Many of the members of our Legislature were battle- scarred veterans, who were temporarily called by the people from the field to guide the coimsehs of legislation, and have again returned to their standards. Nor arc they the excited ebulitions of a party faction, but the cool, calm, and deliberate determination of an intelligent people. It is true that the desolation of war has not been visited upon the people of Texas ; but I attribute our exemption, under Providence, to the ^wisdom of her counsels, producing una- nimity among her her people, to her promptitude in taking possession of the public property and arms, and expelling the United States troops, which were in her limits at the time of her secession from the old Union, and to the gal- lantry with which every attempted invasion has been met and repelled. Our people have not remained idle spectators of the contest. Our whole arms- bearing population are in the field. Our sons have not waited for the enemy to invade our soii, but have hastened to the distant fields, where the contest was the fiercest and the battle raged hotest. They have shed their blood upon every battle-field, and their bones resjwse beneath the soil or whiten' the surface from the plains of Arizona to the eastern shores of Virginia. I do Rot refer to these facts in the spirit of boasting, biit as affording evidence, in confirmation of th'3 resolves of her Legislature, tliat Texas is prepared " to take no -step backwards ;" that she will do !ier wlrole duty and will share with her sister States any and cwry fate but th^t of submission and re-union ; anecause he will thereby acknowiedo-e that it is a Government, but that he will only treat with us as States in rebellion or individual insurgents. J venture the prediction that it is upon that point present efforts to negotiate will fail. Would he be likely to recede from that position, and concede our independence in consequence of our having discarded the Confederate Government as our treaty-making agency, and subs'ritutino- the agencies di<;tated by him ? Would he not take ^the fact, that we had adopted the only channel through which he will allow us to approach him, or through which he will vouchsafe to us mercy and clemency, as conclusive evi- dence that we are ready and eager to submit and obtain peace and pardon, upon whatever terms he may be disponed to grant them ? Will any ot^ier conclusion be diawn at the North, or by any party, or by any unprejudiced and impartial mind anywhere? We may deny the inference as stubbornly as we please, and aver that the agency was substituted because of the obstinacy of the President, or of any other reason, still the fact of Lincoln's declaiation and reasons, and our compliance by the suLstitution of the agency dictated by him, will stand out m bold relief Regardless of the re-son we niay give for'it, the act will be regarded at the North as a concession yielded to 'the demands of Lincoln. Uonldheand his party lessen their demands under the influence of suih a conviction? Would the peace party upon the basis of "a restoration of the Union, with additional constitutional guarantees to the South" be inclined, under such an impression, to acknowledge our independence, which they have iiever proposed to offer us heretofore ? Would not the real peace party, which' ve desire to strengthen, in favor of peace upon the basis.of our independence, {if there is su(di a party there.) become dumb-founded and silent ? If tlieiie is really any party at the North, who are in heart our friends and desireour success, becaii.se they believe that we are fighting their battles as Well as our own, the battles of liberty against despotism, which" we are, but who conceal their .sentiments from policy,"we cannot strengthen that party, and induce them to avow th^^ir real .sentinients, by yielding to" the demands of their and our enemy. If there is any party thsie'willing to grant us peace, with independence, it is because they believe we will never accept peace upon any 6 other terms — and, if we desire to strengthen that party, we' mtist do no act^ utter no sentiraent, calculated to shake or weaken their faith in that opinion. Mr. President, the proposition to treat through State conventions or indi- vidual agencies, is a two-edged sword and may wound the hands of those who wield it. While we may believe there is a peace party at the North, our enemies Lelieve there is a submission or reunion party at the South — and, although small indeed, I believe such to be the fact, composed of men who have suppressed their real sentiments from policy, but will avow them whenever they can do so^ Avith impunity. Will not this party be more likely to grow and strengthen at the South, than the peace party at the North under such influences ? Should we adopt such agencies as a means of obtaining peace, and this party should obtain the control of a single State, and decide to treat upon its own account and accept Lincoln's terms, the consequences can be easily foreseen and foretold. Such a party would give to such a State anything but the peace they covet. She would thereby become an ally of the enemy, would be surrounded by hos- tile States, whom she had basely and treacherously deserted. Patriots in the army and at home would never submit to such a treaty made by traitdrs. Under such circumstances, for her there would be no peace. It may be said that no State would do such an act. If reunionisls and sub- raissionists were to obtain control it would. Individuals are constantly making their escape, and obtaining peace and amnesty at the hands of Lincoln. If such men had the power they would obtain the same for their State. How do the people of the North I'egard this clamor for negotiation through State conventions or otherwise, and for peace ? They receive and use it as con- clusive evidence that we are yielding from our position — giving way. Their papers are publishing exaggerated accounts of it, to prove that " the rebellion is on its last legs, and is about crushed out." It is confirming their Government and uniting their people upon the determination to prosecute the war against us still longer — it is recruiting their army and can bring nothing but prolonged evil upon our country and upon us. Here, it can do no good, but much harm. It is calculated to produce a morbid desire for peace in the minds of our people, to excite discontent and division amongst them, to weaken their spirit of resist- ance, and to prepare them finally to submit to the yoke of the oppressor without conditions. Mr. President, we must avoid these consequences — we must keep our people united in their determination to be free. We must do nothing, by act or "owiis- sion, that will divide them, or that will weaken their resolution never to submit to our enemies. I know of no better mode of accomplishing this, than by keejjing constantly and prominently befo)e their minds, the issue so clearly made up between us and our enemies. If ever a people upon earth, had evi- dence t© convince them of a fact, we have the evidence to convince us, beyond all doubt, that the Government of the United States will not treat with us ex- cept upon the basis of submission or reunion, which amounts to the same thing. Never was an issue move clearly or distinctly made up. We fight for indepen- dence — they fight for our subjugation. They have shown no signs of yielding — we cannot yield ; to do so, is certain destruction ; we staked our all upon the issue, and if we fail all is lost. We must fight still longer. We must fight for peace, and continue to fight as the only alter- native left us. We must prove by our arms, what we never can do by argument or negotiation, that our enemy cannot conquer us. Until we shall do that, we can never obtain any peace but that of subjugation. Then lei us cease all contention and drive away all unmanly despondency and go to work to arouse the energies •and revive the spirit of resistance and enthusiasm of the people. If unwise counsels have prevailed, we but weaken ourselves by quarreling about it now; if errors have been committed in the field, we cannot repair them by warring upon those who committed them ; if we have met with disaster and defeat, we cannot rise above them by unmanly discontent and despondency. Our safety in this great struggle depends upon the harmonious and faithful union of the States of the Confedera.cy. We should avoid everything that tends in the slightest degree to disintegration. I believe that we can keep them united, and bring to the support of the country all the strength and energy of the people, only by adhering to the constitution in letter and spirit, which all have agreed to as the b«nd of union. Discard that instrument, either in regard to the agencies created by it or the powers conferred, and you will open the flood-gates of discord and anarchy, of division and conflict. I believe that most, if not all, the dissension and distrust that exist among the people have resulted from such departures. Impressed with the belief that such would be the case, I have invariably resisted every measure, which I believed conflicted ■with that instrument. It is not a party majority that we need, but the harmo- nious and unanimous support of the people and the States. I do not, in the slightest degree, call in question the patriotism of those who favor and advocate other diplomatic agencies than those provided by the con- stitution. I know that they sincerely b€lie\'e that, by such means, we will strengthen our cause at the North, and so far promote the ends- of peace, and I as sincerely believe that at this time they will weaken our cause, both there and at home, and thereby prolong the war and intensify its barbarism. There is but one mode of strengthening our cause with the people of North, and that is, to convince those who are opposed to our independence that we will never accept peace without it. The greater the disaster, the darker the hour, the more firmly and stubbornly should we assert that resolve; the more determined and defiant should be our tone ; the more energetically should we set to work to gather up our strength for the renewal of the combat. The clear, cheerful, ringing tone of confident defiance, that we are determined "to die freemen, rather than live slaves," sent out from the two Houses of this Congress, w6uld cheer the hearts of our people; would renew the courage, revive -the energies, confirm the endurance and nerve the arras of our brave and gallant soldier boys in the array, who for nearly four years, have patrioticallv endured and heroically battled for our cause. They would repeat the shout from rank to rank, from regiment^to regiment, from brigade to brigade, from division to division, from corps to corps, and from army to army. It would be caught up by the old grey-haired fathers and mothers at home, by our sisters, wives, and daughters, and even by the little children, until its echos W'Ould be heard from valley to mountain, and from mountain to valley, and would reverberate from one end of the Confederacy to the other. Then, indeed, would we strengthen the peace party at the North, by showing them that we are not to be ov^rcoine by disaster nor dismayed by defeat, or that we can ^e induced to abate one iota of our just demands by reason of them; and by convincing our enemies that we cannot be subjugated by them. Thus our fathers, in the revolution of 1776, strengthened the peace party of Great Britain by refusing to negotiate while an invading army was upon their soil, and by convincing the monarch and the ministry that subjugation was impossible. Let not the lesson of wisdom, taught us by that example, be lost upon us. We may make up our minds to the fact that our enemies will never grant us peace, with independencfe, as long as they believe, from any cause, they can conquer us, and whenever that delusion is dispelled, peace will follow as naturally as day follows the night. The night may be dark, but the day of our deliverance will come, if we but remain true to o-arselves. 8 It may be nearer than we imaa;ine; but whether it is or not, it will be all the brighter by reason of the darkness that precedes the dawn. I do not deny that there is depression of spirit amongst many of our people, nor that there is cause for it, but that it results from any well-grounded appre- hension or distrust of our final success, I do deny. It results from over sanguine hopes, excited and intensified suddenly and cruelly blighted, " Like Dead Sea fruits, Which turn to ashes on the lips." We all remember how (confidently it was asserte^J, twelve months ago, that, the campaign then approaching would be the last of the war; we all remember how our hopes of peace were strengthened and confirmed by a series of bril- liant and rapidly following victories. Banks' army was driven, with slaughter and in consternation, from the trans-Mississippi department. Grant's army of the Potomac was rapidly cut down to one-third of its original number, and held at bay in front of Richmond and Petersburg. All believed tiiat the dawn of peace was ap- proaching, and that, nothing was wanting to ensure it but the destruction or, capture of Sherman's army, and that that was in a position from which it could not escape. All those fond hopes were suddenly dispelled by Sherman's being allowed to convert an actual retreat into a march of triumph through Georgia," closing with the capture of Savannah, and Hood's defeat near Nashville and retreat from Tennessee. These events produced a revulsion, a sudden rushing of the blood back to the heart. Although the unlooked-for conclusion of the campaign was calculated to pro- duce the greatest disappointmeiijt and depression, it is in no respect calculated to justify any doubt of our success. Why should any man doubt upon that subject ? Sum up the results of the last campaign, and it will be found that the loss of the enemy was five to our one. We beat them in ten battles to where we lost one. One of their main armies was almost annihilated ; that of the Potomac has suffered beyond that of almost any army in history, and is now occupying a position which it could have taken last Spring without t}ie loss of a man. While the loss of the third has been twice or thrice as'great as that oppose/il to it. Sherman's march from Atlanta was actually a retreat; he could neither stay there nor return by the way he caane. He availed himself of the only road of escape, on which there was no army to oppose him, and on which he could, with impunity, forage upon a country filled with supplies for the support of his army. By the capture of Savannah, he has been enabled to convert an actual retreat into the semblance of a march of victory and tiiumph. Upon a calm review, it will be found that the results of the last campaign, furnish nothing to inspire the enemy with hope, or us with despondency. It is like one of Pyrrhus' victories over the Romans, "another such" a campaign "and they are ruined." VVhat though Sherman has been* allowed to escape from Atlanta, and Hood has been driven out of Tennessee; what though Savannah and Fort Fisher have been lost, "all is not lost, honor is not lost," liberty and independence are not lost, while we have the spirit to defend them. Should the enemy capture all our seaport towns and drive us from Richmond, they would weaken themselves to the amount of force required to hold them, and strengthen us, by enabling us to concentrate our whole force, now divided, to defend those places, and tuake our blows the more effective. They have not, as yet, touched the " vital oini" of the Confederacy. It has none; but is "vital in every part, and can ut by annihilation die." It has recently been my duty, as Senators know, to look into the military re- sources of our country, and I unhesitatingly declare, that, they are ample to enable us to maintain ourselves indefinitely against any force the enemy can send against ust We have men, arms, ammunition, and provisions, and the means necessary to keep up the supply To-day our army is nearer to an equality with that of the enemy, in point of numbers, than at any past period of the war. For four campaigns, we have sustained ourselves in the unequal struggle, with a spirit, vigor and bravery, that has astonished both ourselves and the world. Our enemy can never conquer us; but we may conquer ourselves. If we stand firm to our position, he must yield. Could we but look into bis resources, and test the spirit of hi^, peojjle, we would, doubtless, discover much to encourage us. The gigantic scale upon whi< h he has prosecuted the war, has, no doubt, greatly impaired hi.s resources and shaken the confidence of his people in the successful accomplishment of the work of our subjugation. Ilia financial system cannot much longer sustain the immense superstructure erected upon it. The crash must come, under the influence of which, (if not before.) :md the continued destruction inflicted upon his armies, the war spirit of his people must eventually quail and succumb. The third resolution asserts a fact, which our enemies seem not to understand, and many of us seem to have ignored. We are not engaged in a war for the preservation of slave property, but to preserve the freedom and sovereignty of the States, to maintain and vindicate our right of self-government in regard to our domestic affairs and local institutions. The slavery question, in the manner in which it stands in this contest between the North and the South, involves an i^sue vastly more important than any mere question of propert3\ It involves the question of State sovereignty ; the power of the Federal Government, to prescribe the domestic institutions of a State, as well as the constitutional power of that government, by arms, to coerce a State into obedience to its mandates. Six of the States of this Confederacy refused to secede from the United States upon the abstract question of slavery, as presented in the Chicago convention and endorsed by Lincoln's election, nor did they do so until war was made upon the seven States which had seceded, to force them back into the Union. This simple fact ought to be sufficient to satisfy our enemy, our own people, and the world, that we are not fighting upon a mere issue of property, but "to preserve our freedom and sovereignty, without which, all else is valueless." The remainder of the series of lesolutions set forth, in cogent terms, the rea- sons why we should never reunite with tlio people of the North. In a lapid summary, they sketch and portjay in vivid colois, ahis! too true, the many acta of violated faith and disregard, of plainly-worded constitutional guaiantees on their part, while living in union with us; of inhumanity in making war upon us, and of the mannei in which they have conducted that war. For a period of more than seventy years, we lived in union with that people, under a written constitution, containing guaiantees, intended to secure to thetn and to us, and to our posterity, the blessings of liberty and free government. From the first moment that union was formed, the northern statesmen set them- selves to work to convert a confederacy of sovereign Sta es, united by the < on- stitution, into one grand consolidated government, over one consolidated political society. Their whole political conduct consisted in persistent efforts, to pervert the common government from one to preserve, protect and perpetuate the seveial sovereign political communities, composing the confederai-y, into a goveinment hiving the power to regulate and control the internal domestic aflfairsand local institutions of those several communities. They en leavored to administer the government upon a policy which fostered and promoted the domestic and indi- ' 10 vidual pursuits of the people of their section, at the expense, and to the preju- dice of the people of the South. By a revenue S3^stem, they, in a great degree, exempted the people of the North from contributing their portions of the taxes for the support of the common government, and imposed an undue proportion upon the people of the South, at the same time enlarging the profits of capital invested in the North, and lessening; those upon capital in the South. By the same system they forced capital and trade from their natural channels, made northern cities the depositaries and entrepots, for almost the entire capital en- gaged in southern trade, and for the exports from the South, and imports for southern consumption. They sought, by a system of unnecessary and burthen- some taxation, unequally levied, to collect a large surplus revenue, and by uncon- stitutional appropriations to expend that surplus upon local objects amongst them- selves — for the advancement and promotion of their own local and individual pecuniary interests. Being the stronger section, in order to control the" Grovernment and carry out their policy, by concentrating their superior numerical strength, they or- ganized a political party upori a marked geographical and sectional principle, based upon prejudice against, and in opposition to the local and domestic in- stitutions of, the southern States. To give strength to the party so organized, .they assailed us with the vilest and most offensive epithets; they invented and published the most unmitigated and atrocious slanders against usj they held us up to the indignation and execration of the civilized world, in regard to the domestic institution of African slavery, for the existence of which amongst us they and the civilized world are responsible. To deceive and inflame the sentiments of their own people against us, they availed themselves of every avenue to the mind — of the nursery, the domestic fire-side, the school-room, the college, the professor's desk, the lecture-room, and, above all, of the pulpit, intended to be the medium of the glad tidings of salvation to a dying world, and ''of peace on earth and good will to men." They perverted the sacred desk from its holy purppse and desecrated it to the vilest object, into an instrument of reckless defamation, slander, and inflam- matory declamation to excite horror against our institutions and hatred against us. Thq press, religious and secular, literary and scientific newspapers and periodicals, 'school-books and books of science, history, and literature, their religious tracts and theological works, all, all, reeked with slanders, vile and unmitigated. From the hustings, in every village and hamlet, town and city of the North, resounded anathemas against us, and the halls of their State legislatures echoed them back again. Men were elected and sent to Congress as senators and representatives solely because they hated us and our institu- tions, and for years our senators and representatives sat in council with them, and were daily insulted by the vile slanders that were heaped upon them and their constituents. They sent emissaries amongst us to steal our negroes and to excite them to servile insurrection. They avowed their contempt for, and disregarded the clear constitutional mandate to them, and guaranty of right to us, requiring fugitive slaves to be returned to their owners, and, by fraud and force, by unconstitutional State legislation, by perjury and murder, they refused to perform their duty in that behalf. They declared they were gov- erned by a ''higher law" than the constitution, which they denounced as a *' league with death and a covenant with hell." Finally, they succeeded in organizing and concentrating their sectional sti»ength, and took possession of the Government, under the forms of the con- stitution, with the avowed determination to administer it against us, upon principles in direct violation and destructive of that instrument. By the dan- 11 gers that threatened us, and by the wrongs and insults of more than forty years, we were forced to the only alternative, as a means of self-preservation, to exercise a sovereign right — and without which we were not sovereign — the right to secede from a union so dangerous, and to " establish a new govern- mcnt, laying its foundations upon such principles, and organizing its powers in such form, as to us seemed best calculated to secure our safety and happi- ness." Who has the faith strong enough to remove the mountains of conviction piled up by years of treachery and wrong, that can now be brought to believe that we could live in peace and safety with a people so faithless, could we be so insane as to allow them "■ to woo and win us back again ?" Who can be- lieve that the northern people would regard any treaty pledges or constitu- tional obligations, since they have proven themselves so regardless of those of the past ? We want no new constitutional guarantees. We were satisfied with the old constitution and its guarantees. It was the ftiithlcss disregard of those guarantees that caused us to separate from the people and States of the North. It was from them, and not from the constitution, that we seceded. With the long catalogue of past acts of treachery and faithlessness fresh in our memories, aifoi'ding the most conclusive evidence that we can rely upon no guaranty of safety in a future union with the people of the North, can any man but a conquered coward consent to reunite with them ? Can any man but a traitor at heart to his country, to her institutions and the liberty of her people advocate such a reunion ? It matters not as to the form or manner of our reunion with the North, we go back as a conquered people. When we seceded, we declared our separation to be final and forever. We have reitera- ted that declaration in every possible form and shape. We have a thousand times more cause to repel a reunion now than we had to drive us to separa- tion. Were we to reunite with them, it would be because they have made war against us and to induce them to stop the war. The act would be prompted by compulsion and fear. For the future they would regard us a conquered people and treat us accordingly. They would neither regard our feelings nor respect our rights, and we would never have the spirit again to assert our rights, nor manhood enough to dare vindicate and defend them. By such a reunion we will lose all,, property, liberty, and honor. It would be worse than subjugation, for, in that event, we would, at least, save our honor and excite the admiration and sympathy of the world. But could we forget the past with all its wrongs; forget the union of afiPec- tion that was destroyed and that of hate that was substituted in its stead — can we forget this cruel and inhuman war they have made upon us to compel us to submit to a union of force after having driven us from that of consent? A war that has destroyed the influence of our republican system of free gov- ernment, which has re-established and confirmed despotism in Europe and made it exultant, and has rolled back the sun of liberty for a century. Yes, Mr. President, they have made war upon us; they have armed their own people ; they have ransacked the dens of Europe for mercenaries to fill their armies to be hurled upon us, in violation of Christianity and civilization; they have robbed us of our slaves and armed them to cut our throats ; tliey have blockaded our ports, shut us out from the world,' and have bombarded our towns and cities; they have invaded our territory and devastated -our country, destroyed our towns and cities and burnt the houses of our peacable citizens; they have imprisoned old men and women, driven helpless women and children from their homes to starve and die; they have outraged and vio- lated female innocence and purity, and they have murdered our people. 12 These barbarous and inhuman acta have passed into history — ineflfacible, inex- orable history. They are there recorded, for all time to come, in characters as bright aud burning as if streaked across the blue vault of heaven in lineg of living fire, to exciie the horror and stir the indignation of us and our pos- terity to the latest generation — as long as history shall be read. Cun we becoano dead to natnre and forget these things '/ Can we forget our slaughtered sons, brothers, and countrymen ? Can the father forget his mur- dered boy; and will not the mangled form, the mutilated limb of the remain- ing one be ever before him? Can the widow, " with all her household gods shattered around her," and her helpless and unprotected orphans, cease to juourn their murdered husband and father ? Can the affectionate mother ever become deaf to the plaintive moans of her once pure and intellectual, but now violated maniac daughter ? Can the bones of our people, scattered over every State of this Confederacy, be gathered together and buried in the tomb of oblivion ? Can that gulf between the North and the South, dug by hostile bayonets, wide and deep, extending' from the ocean to the mountains of the west, filled with the recking blood of our slain martyrs, from which the wailings of our people ever issue forth, and over which the fires of our burning homes are ever blazing, be closed and forever obscured, or converted into a garden yielding the fruits and flowers of peace and safety and, the confidence of fra- ternal union ? Can all these crimes, and ten thousand more against us, against humanity, against God, be forgotten by us, and we, by any means, be induced to live. in reunion with the perpetrators of them? The resolves just read, answers for my State: ''By the just pride of the manhood and the virtue which we claim as individuals, and as a people ; by the divine command which warns us not to walk in the way of the wicked ; by the memory of our murdered dead; by the sight of bereaved mothers, .widows, sisters, daughters, and orphans in our land; by the heart-brokenness of trampled virtue, and by our desolated hearths, we are forbidden to admit a thought of further associa- tion with the people of the North. Our heroic soldiers, the living and the martyred dead, forbid it I and our trust in God forbids it!" We can but die ! Better to die ten thousand deaths than to live in such a union, of wrong, of hate, of scorn, of shame, of infamy and degradation ! Better. that the earth should open and swallow us up, with our country, our wives and children, and all that we have, obliterating our name and race from amongst the living, than for us to submit to such a reunion ! Our. enemies tender us this reunion as the only terms of peace, and threaten us, in case of refusal, with all the horrors of subjugation. Subjugation I What does it mean ? Bo Senators, do our people, comprehend what it means ? It means the erasing of our name and country from the map of the world; the conclusion of our history, with no future; the destruction of our govern- ments, both State and Confederate, and the provincializing of our States, to be govi^rned by a triumvirate, consisting of the whining, canting, hypocritical Yankee, the red republican, infidel German, and, the superior of the tri-o, tlie African negro It means Yankee governors to rule us, Yankee legislators to make our laws, Yankee judges to expound and administer them, and Yankee ministerial oflicers to enforce and carry them into execution. It means the confiscation of our property to pay their national debt, contracted for our •sub- jugation, the death of our leading citizens, by military executions, or other- wise, for having defended their country and its liberties against their inva- ders. It means the crushing of the heart by the buffetings and scorn, chas- tisement and contempt, of the living, and the outrage and violation of their mothers, sisters, wives, and daughters, by a brutalized negro soldiery, stationed 13 in every town and city and quartered in the houses of the people, to keep them in subjection and crush out the spirit of liberty. With the pasC history of Yankee faithlessness and treachery to warn us against any future association with the pfeople of the North, with all the hor- rors, outrages and crimes of this war before our eyes or fresh in our memories, to stir up the deepest fountains of our indignation against them, with all the evidences of our fate before our minds, should we reunite with or be Subjuga- ted by them, is it not madness to cry peace ! peace ! when there is no peace, but the peace of death, short of our independence ? The cry of peace at this time, and under existing circumstances, is but the song of the syren that beguiles to destruction, " AUnaithle!)? phantom that odIj flies, To lure us to our doom.'' The road to the peace I covet is enfiladed by hostile armies, hedged by glit- tering bayonets, and slippery with blood ; but it leads to the temple where liberty sits enthroned. Senators, let us arouse ourselves from our lethargy, and quickly, but wisely, discharge our duties here ; then let us go to our brave sons in the army and speak the words of confidence and courage to them. Thuuk God, they need them not; but, after four years of toil, service, and battle, they are sending those words to us. Then let us go to our people at hon)e, and cheer and arouse them from any depression of spirit that may oppress them, "instruct their ■ minds, and fire their hearts" with enthusiastic devotion to their country's cause, and nerve their arms to " Strike for our altar.