^C3^€^3mM 
 
 ' 
 
 AN ADDKESS 
 
 TO THE 
 
 CITIZENS OF ALABAMA. 
 
 ON THE 
 
 CONSTITUTION AND LAWS fl) 
 
 I? 
 f 
 
 I) 
 
 OF THE to ( 
 
 CONFEDERATE STATES OF AMERICA, % 
 
 BY THE 
 
 HON. ROBERT H. SMITH, 
 
 At Temparan.ee Hall, on the- 30th of March, L861. 
 
 I 
 
 [PUBLISHED BY REQUEST OF THE CITIZENS OF MOBILE.] 
 
 MOBILE: 
 
 MOBILE DAILY REGISTER TRINT. 
 
 1861. 
 
 ^ < y63 < yC3 < r69 < y€ 3^ 
 
George Washington Flowers 
 Memorial Collection 
 
 DUKE UNIVERSITY LIBRARY 
 
 ESTABLISHED BY THE 
 FAMILY OF 
 
 COLONEL FLOWERS 
 
 
AN ADDRESS 
 
 TO THE 
 
 CITIZENS OF ALABAMA, 
 
 ON THE 
 
 CONSTITUTION AND LAWS 
 
 OF THE 
 
 CONFEDERATE STATES OF AMERICA, 
 
 BY THE 
 
 HON. ROBERT H. SMITH, 
 
 At Temperance Hall, on the 30th of March, 1861. 
 
 [published by request of the citizens of mobile.] 
 
 MOBILE: 
 
 HOBILB DAILY REGISTER TRTNT. 
 
 186L 
 
« < >!;!. I ISPONI>EN< E. 
 
 MOBILE, It April 1861 
 Hon. RonKRT H. Smith, Mobile: 
 
 Sir— We hoard with much pleasure the able Addraai you delirexed at the Temperance Hall 
 
 on the night of the 30th ultimo, on the Constitution and Laws of tHn Confedi 
 
 America. We are satisfied that such an exposition r.f the reasons and motives, which in- 
 duced the Congress of the Confederate States to make the changes they have done, in our 
 Federal Constitution and Laws, coming from a prominent member of ;hat body, must be in- 
 teresting and acceptable to the public. We therefore respectfully request a copy oi yotM 
 Address for publication. 
 
 Very respectfully, yours, &c. 
 
 C. J. MaRAE, 
 
 A. F. HOPKINS, 
 
 JAMES S. DEAS, 
 
 S. J. MURPHY, 
 
 WM. W. ALLEN, 
 
 L. M. WHBON, 
 
 J. J. WALKER, 
 
 FRED'K B. SHEPARD, 
 
 T. J. BUTLER, 
 
 HENRY MYERS, 
 
 JOS. K. MURRELL, 
 
 S. G. BATTLE. 
 
 T. L. TOULMiV, 
 
 HUGH McCAW, 
 
 WM. D. DUNN, 
 
 WM. S. .It INKS. 
 
 NKWTON ST. JOHN, 
 
 ROBERT W. SMITH, 
 
 CHAS. W A LSI I, 
 
 PBICE WILLIAMS 
 
 JOHN H. GARNER, 
 
 A. ROYSTER, 
 
 H. A. HURXTHAL, 
 
 R, T. DADE, 
 
 J. A. M. BATTLE, 
 
 B. F. MARSHALL, 
 
 ROBERT S. BUNKER, 
 
 ROBERT B. ARM1STEAD. 
 
 MOBILE, April 1st, 1861. 
 Gtntlemen — In reply to yonr kind note of to day, asking for publication a copy of my Ad- 
 dress on the Constitution and Laws of the Confederate States of America, 1 herewith Bend 
 you the paper desired. 
 
 Very respectfully, yours, &c, 
 
 ROBT. H. SMITH. 
 To Mes»ra. C. J. McRak, A. F. Hopkins, Jajbss S. DlAB, and others. 
 
 
IliU I uwnwi 
 
 ADDRESS 
 
 ON THE 
 
 Eon&fifution an!) Laws of tin: Confebcraic States* 
 
 Fellow- Citizens of the Confederate States of America: 
 
 The Congress of which I am a member, and whose labors have 
 been eventful in our history, has, after a session of sis weeks, 
 taken a recess until the second Monday in May next : and in view 
 of the momentous questions with which it has had to deal and of 
 the consequences which hang upon its work, it seems to me pro- 
 per on returning home to address the citizens of our Commercial 
 Metropolis, and the people of Alabama generally who may be 
 here, upon the present condition and future prospects of our 
 political affairs. I have, therefore, invited your attendance this 
 evening to lay before you, so far as an observance of the secrecy 
 of our proceedings will admit, the course and action of the Con- 
 gress of the Confederate States of America and to express my 
 views of the destiny of our New Republic. I shall seek to dis- 
 charge the task plainly and simply ; for my object is not to 
 entertain you with a speech, but to converse with you as a 
 neighbor. 
 
 Our ordinance of secession invited the People of the Southern 
 States to meet the People of the State of Alabama at Mont- 
 gomery on the 4th day of February, " for the purpose of consult- 
 ing with each other as to the most effectual mode of securing 
 concerted and harmonious action in whatever measures may be 
 deemed most desirable for our common peace and security." 
 And the resolution, under which we were elected, authorized us 
 to meet such deputies as might be appointed from the other slave- 
 holding States, which should secede from the Federal Union, for 
 the purpose of "framing a Provisional Government upon the prin- 
 ciples of the Constitution of the United States, and also to prepare 
 and consider upon a plan for the creation and establishment of a 
 
Permanent Government for the seceding States upon the same 
 principles, which shall he suhmitted to Conventions of such seced- 
 ing States for adoption or rejection." 
 
 We met and consulted and framed a Provisional Government, 
 by adopting the Constitution and enacting the laws to which you 
 are now obedient, and we have suhmitted a plan for the creation 
 and establishment of a Permanent Government of the seceded 
 States. I am gratified to know that our State Convention lias 
 accepted this Constitution by an almost unanimous vote and the 
 act meets, so far as I have ascertained, the approbation of our 
 people, 
 
 The first question, which necessarily arrested the attention of 
 the Convention was what powers should it exercise, in view of the 
 authority conferred and the condition and wants of the constitu- 
 ency represented. We assembled as the Deputies of six separate 
 States for the purpose of securing concerted and harmonious 
 action in such measures as might be deemed most desirable for 
 our common peace and security ; and to this end we were in- 
 structed, as I have said, to frame a Provisional Government upon 
 the principles of the Constitution of the United States. 
 
 Each State had seceded with the expectation of speedily form- 
 ing a close bond of union with her sympathizing sisters, and the 
 great object of the Convention was to bind together the broken 
 fragments of a separated, but homogeneous people, and tbus 
 " establish justice, insufe domestic tranquillity, provide for the 
 common defence, promote the general welfare, and secure the 
 blessings of liberty to ourselves, and our posterity." 
 
 The long strife with the non-slaveholding States had ended in 
 a disruption of our relations with the Government. The Consti- 
 tution of our Fathers had been long and persistently abused to 
 our injury, until a hostile party was coming into power, whose 
 rule of action was the almost single idea of embittered hate to- 
 wards our people and our institutions, unmindful of the Constitu- 
 tional guaranties which were intended as checks against popular 
 majorities. It's elected President looked to his advent to power 
 with the narrow vision of a sectional partisan and heard in the 
 complaints and saw in the resistance of a free people nothing but 
 the clamor of rebels, who were to be punished. It is impossible 
 to doubt that it was Mr. Lincoln's policy, under the name of 
 enforcing the laws, to retake the forts, to collect the revenue of 
 the United States in our Ports and to reduce the seceded States 
 
to obedience to the behests of his party. His purpose therefore 
 was war upon, and subjugation of our people. I need not tell 
 you that this state of things demanded prompt and united resist- 
 ance and that the position assumed by the seceded States was to 
 be maintained at any and every hazard. Each State had for 
 herself put on the armor of war, but the cause was a common one, 
 and the cardinal object of assembling a Congress was to meet and 
 provide for a common exigency ; and the required Provisional 
 Government could only be framed, so as to respond to the high 
 purposes aimed at, by the exercise of legislative powers. In- 
 deed the letter of our authority would not have been fulfilled, had 
 we simply made a Provisional Constitution without the enactment 
 of laws ; for by stopping at the creation of the fundamental law, 
 we should have performed but one important part in framing a 
 Government. 
 
 The necessities of the occasion demanded prompt and efficient 
 military organization under the direction of one power ; the col- 
 lection of revenues at a few seaports for defraying the expenses 
 of the common cause ; the enactment and administration of 
 laws emanating from an acknowledged head empowered to speak, 
 within the sphere of its authority, in the name of the whole ; 
 the creation of a Government which would command obedience 
 at home and acknowledgment and respect abroad, and which, 
 by the promptitude, efficiency and wisdom of its action, might 
 avert the calamities of war, or, failing in this high hope, success- 
 fully maintain, through the last appeal of nations, the rights of 
 these States. 
 
 For myself, I never doubted but the warrant of our authority, 
 the expectations of the public and the necessities of the occasion, 
 demanded that the Convention should adopt and put in motion 
 the Government of the Confederate States, by enacting as a 
 Congress such laws as the exigency required. In my opinion, 
 we are this day indebted to such a course for the pacific policy 
 now beginning to prevail at Washington ; for a change from 
 threatening war to promised peace ; for that revival of confi- 
 dence which business to-day exhibits in your streets, and for that 
 cementing together of public opinion so happily illustrated in the 
 councils of our State in the adoption of a permanent Constitu- 
 tion ; and what is more and least disputable, to it we are indebt- 
 ed for the power of this Confederacy to maintain by arms the 
 position we have taken. 
 
Fellow-citizens, you have but to trace with your memories a lit- 
 tle more than one abort month, to know what prospects, what 
 hopes, what realities have been created. Division, doubt and uncer- 
 tainty have been succeeded by unanimity, confidence and stability. 
 Revolution has been accomplished without anarchy ; and, whether 
 our independence is to be received and treated as a tact by other 
 nations or is yet to he baptized in blond, we feel assured that our 
 nationality is a successful and an irrevocable deed. You have 
 but to read the speeches ot' Mr. Lincoln on his journey to Wash- 
 ington, in contrast with the present tone of the Administration, 
 to realize the effect of our conduct upon our enemies. You have. 
 but to compare the speeches of the President of these Confede- 
 rate States with those of the President of the United States to 
 feel proud of the contrast between the statesman ami the. narrow- 
 minded and ignorant partisan. For the truth of which latter 
 assertion, if proof be wanted, I would refer you to the editorials 
 of the National Intelligencer, supposed to represent the views of 
 the Premier of the United States, refusing even to credit the 
 accuracy of the reports of speeches made by Mr. Lincoln on his 
 journey to Washington. 
 
 We met on the fourth of February to create a Government, and 
 to give to it such solidity and strength as would challenge the 
 confidence of our public and the respect of the world. To be 
 effectually done it had to spring into strength in one short month 
 and to spread, as if by a magic touch, confidence to the pursuits 
 of our people. But I need not pursue this part of my subject. 
 The act and its results are before you, and for one I stand ready 
 to answer at the bar of present opinion and to abide by the 
 judgment of posterity as to the patriotism and wisdom which 
 caused the Convention of the Confederate States to resolve itself 
 into a Legislative Congress. 
 
 We deliberated and acted with closed doors, but the results of 
 our labors are before the world ; for our laws were promulgated 
 as they were approved by the President. If they are wise it 
 matters not what discussion caused their adoption ; if unwise 
 nothing can or should redeem them from censure. I do not deny 
 nor even doubt the importance of open discussion in a free Gov- 
 ernment, but there are occasions when every Power must delibe- 
 rate with closed doors, and, in our case, all circumstances com- 
 bined to render this not only proper but necessary. We had 
 much to do in a short time and the matter was of the gravest 
 
importance; for we had a nation to form, and peace and waf 
 hung trembling in the balance. The Convention that in time of 
 peace passed the Constitution of the United States had given us its 
 high example of the necessity of secret sessions. Calm, unbiassed 
 deliberations, unrestrained even by the pre-expressed opinions 
 of the members themselves 5 as well as freedom from all motive or 
 hope of individual eclat were promoted by closed doors ; but 
 apart from these considerations, it was of the highest importance 
 that our actions should not be anticipated and misrepresented 
 through the appliances of news mongers and sensation telegrams. 
 The matters of legislation with which we had to deal were of a 
 high and often confidential character and required celerity of 
 action. Such are always, more or less, the nature of Govern- 
 mental affairs appertaining to Foreign relations. Much too bad 
 to be done in a short time and every one is aware of the facility 
 imparted to deliberation and action by retired, quiet and calm 
 labor. To the fact that Congress sat on all important business 
 in secret session is mainly attributable the unusual amount of 
 work performed ; and it affords me pleasure to know, that seldom 
 have men labored for the public weal more assiduously, or brought 
 to the discharge of their duties a higher sense of obligation than 
 my associates in the Congress of the Confederate States. 
 
 The provisional Constitution has been before the country since 
 the 8th day of February last, and its adaptation to the expecta- 
 tion and wants of the people seems to be generally conceded. 
 It secures every cardinal principle of American liberty : indeed, 
 adds additional safeguards to its preservation. Save that the le- 
 gislation of Congress is made during the brief existence of the 
 provisional Government to devolve upon a single body, and that 
 the President and Vice President were chosen by Congress 
 (changes which the urgent necessity of the occasion demanded) 
 we have followed with almost literal fidelity the Constitution of 
 the United States, and departed from its text only so far as ex- 
 perience had clearly proven that additional checks were required 
 for the preservation of the Nation's interest. Of this character 
 is the power given the President to arrest corrupt or illegitimate 
 expenditures, by vetoing particular clauses in an appropriation 
 bill, and at the same time approving other parts of the bill. 
 There is hardly a more flagrant abuse of it's power, by the Con- 
 gress of the United States than the habitual practice of loading 
 bills, which are necessary for Governmental operations with rep- 
 
8 
 
 rehcnsible, not to say venal dispositions of the public money, 
 and which only obtain favor by a system of combinations among 
 members interested iu similar abuses upon the treasury. 
 
 Bills necessary for the support of the Government arc loaded 
 with items of tho most exceptionable character, and are thrown 
 upon the President at the close of the session, for his sanction, as 
 the only alternative for keeping the Government in motion. 
 Even however under this salutary check, the evil might be but 
 mitigated, not cured, in the case of a weak or highly partisan 
 President, who would feel that the responsibility of such legisla- 
 tion rested but lightly on him, so long as the unrestrained power 
 and duty of originating appropriations depended upon a corrupt 
 or pliant Congress — hence the Convention of Confederate States 
 wisely determined that the Executive was the proper depart- 
 ment to know and call for the moneys necessary for the support 
 of Government, and that here the responsibility should rest. 
 Therefore the Provisional Constitution prohibits Congress from ap- 
 propriating money "from the treasury unless it be asked for by tho 
 President or some one of the heads of the Departments, except 
 for the purpose of paying its own expenses and contingencies." 
 This provision proceeds upon the idea that the chief Executive 
 head of the country and his Cabinet should understand the pecu- 
 niary wants of the Confederacy, and should be answerable for an 
 economical administration of public affairs, and at the same time 
 should be enabled and required to call for whatever sums may be 
 wanted to accomplish the purposes of Government. 
 
 These provisions reappear in the permanent Constitution ; the 
 latter, however, in the following modified form : 
 
 " Congress shall appropriate no money from the treasury ex- 
 cept by a vote of two-thirds of both Houses, taken by yeas and 
 nays, unless it be asked and estimated for by some one of the 
 heads of Department, and submitted to Congress by the Presi- 
 dent ; or for the purpose of paying its own expenses and contin- 
 gencies ; or for the payment of claims against the Confederate 
 States, the justice of which shall have been judicially declared by 
 a tribunal for the investigation of claims against the Government, 
 which it is hereby made the duty of Congress to establish." 
 
 Correlative to these is the provision that " all bills appro- 
 priating money shall specify in federal currency the exact 
 amount of each appropriation and the purposes for which it is 
 made ; and Congress shall grant no extra compensation to any 
 
9 
 
 public contractor, officer, agent or servant, after such contract 
 shall have been""rnade or service rendered." 
 
 The most casual observer of the workings of the Government 
 of the United States can hardly fail to perceive, in these several 
 clauses, important and necessary additional assurances of purity 
 in the administration of our national affairs. 
 
 The denial of extra compensation to public contractors, agents 
 or servants, and the limitation upon the power of Congress to de- 
 termine on claims against Government, and the establishment of 
 Courts for their adjudication, doubly commend themselves ; for, 
 while they interpose effective barriers to heedless or corrupt 
 legislation, they offer to the honest bidder fair competition, and 
 to the public creditor an impartial tribunal, better fitted for the 
 investigation and adjudication of his rights than a mere political 
 body can be. 
 
 The want of facility of communication between the Exec- 
 utive and Legislature, has, it is believed, been a serious im- 
 pediment to tho easy and harmonious working of Government. 
 Experience has shown that our Fathers, by refusing the Execu- 
 tive tho right to be heard through his constitutional advisers on 
 the floor of the Legislature, had interposed barriers to that free 
 intercourse between the two departments which was essential 
 to the wise and healthy action of each. Hence, by the Provi- 
 sional Constitution, members of Congress may fill Executive 
 places, while by the Permanent one, the old prohibition is re- 
 tained that " No person, holding any office under the Confede- 
 rate States, shall be a member of either House during his con- 
 tinuance in office," subject however to the qualification that 
 " Congress may, by law, grant to the principal officer in each 
 of the Executive Departments a seat upon the floor of either 
 House, with the privilege of discussing any measures appertaining 
 to his department." It will be at once perceived that the pro- 
 vision, respecting the appropriation of money upon estimates from 
 the Executive, and that giving Congress power to admit the 
 Ministry to seats on its floor, are but modified derivations from 
 the British Constitution. In England, the rule is absolute that 
 no money can be appropriated by Parliament, unless asked for 
 by the Crown, and the principal ministerial officers must be mem- 
 bers of Parliament, and are required, upon being called to office, 
 to resign their seats in the House of Commons, and to return to 
 the body by reelection. The Ministry bring their Budget before 
 Parliament, and retire from office when their measures fail to 
 
10 
 
 receive its approbation. The King declares war and makes 
 
 peace. He too possesses the unqualified power of making treat- 
 ies and of appointing to office ; yet the control of Government 
 resides in Parliament, because of the power in the House of 
 Commons to withhold supplies, and by a vote of censure or of 
 rejection of ministerial measures, to change the actual Executive 
 heads of the Realm. As the measures passed are those of the 
 Crown ; and as its policy must always be attuned to the wishes of 
 Parliament, it follows that the Executive department will never 
 fail to ask for all proper appropriations, and it has necessarily 
 resulted that the veto power has fallen into disuse in England ; 
 for the Crown would employ it, if at all, against measures, origi- 
 nated or proposed or assented to by its Ministers before and as 
 part of the Legislature. The effective veto power in England 
 really resides in Parliament and is absolute, and hence we truly 
 say that the Government of Great Britain is a Parliamentary 
 one. While these principles may be said to be the modern sheet- 
 anchors of English liberty, and to commend themselves to us as 
 wise and long-tried safeguards of freedom, deserving the high 
 eulogiums of her jurists, orators, statesmen and historians, it will 
 readily occur to the student of American institutions, that they 
 could not be safely transferred, in their full proportions, to the 
 soil of permanent American legislation ; for with us Congress 
 declares war, and the President appoints to office and makes 
 treaties, only by and with the advice and consent of the Sen- 
 ate ; and his advisers . are not, like those of the Crown, sub- 
 ject to removal at the will of the Legislature, nor are they, like 
 the British Ministry, the responsible administrators of Gov- 
 ernment. So harmoniously adjusted are the parts of the En- 
 glish Constitution, that each seems necessary to the symmetry 
 of the whole, but it is apparent that with us the President might 
 refuse to ask for appropriations to execute measures passed by 
 Congress, which failed to meet his approbation, and that to give 
 to the chief officer of the country, who was not amenable to Con- 
 gress, and whose tenure of place and freedom of action were in 
 no wise controlled by it, the right, through his Cabinet, fully to 
 participate in legislation, and the power not only of absolute veto 
 in advance, but that of preventing even full discussion of the 
 wants of Government by refusing to call for appropriations, 
 would be creating a power unknown to the British Constitution 
 and dangerous to public liberty. 
 
 By refusing to a mere majority of Congress unlimited control 
 
11 
 
 over the treasury, and by requiring the yeas and nays to be 
 taken whenever two-thirds assume to vote away money not asked 
 for by the Executive; by placing upon the administration the 
 duty and responsibility of calling for appropriations ; by virtually 
 excluding Congress from passing upon claims against the Govern- 
 ment ; by prohibiting extra compensation to employees ; by ena- 
 bling the Executive to be heard on the floor of Congress, and by 
 giving the President the power to veto objectionable items in 
 appropriation bills, Ave have, I trust, greatly purified our Govern- 
 ment, and, at the same time, placed its different parts in nearer 
 and more harmonious relations. 
 
 Proceeding upon the idea that a just economy in the adminis- 
 tration of government is due to those who are taxed to support 
 it, and that the authority to raise more money than the public 
 exigency demands invites abuse, and taught by the history of the 
 legislation of the United States, that too much money is corrupt- 
 ing to public morals, the Convention, by the provisional Consti- 
 tution, restrained Congress from laying and collecting taxes, du- 
 ties, imposts and excises, except for discharging the debts and 
 carrying on the Government ; and lest, in after times, the ingenu- 
 ity of construction might enlarge the provision and turn loose 
 again the pent up evil, the permanent Constitution emphatically 
 forbids the Legislature from granting bounties from the treasury, 
 or promoting or fostering any branch of industry. Holding stea- 
 dily in view the principle that the great object of the Federal 
 Government is to perform national functions and not to aggran- 
 dize or depress sectional, or local, or individual interests, and ad- 
 hering to and enforcing the doctrine that a people should be left to 
 pursue and develope their individual thrift without direct aids or 
 drawbacks from Government, and that internal improvements are 
 best judged of, and more wisely and economically directed by the 
 localities desiring them, even when they legitimately come within 
 the scope of Federal action, and knowing that, as the regulation 
 of commerce was one of the chief objects of creating the Govern- 
 ment, and that under this power lurked danger of sectional legis- 
 lation and lavish expenditure, the Constitution denies to Con- 
 gress the right to make appropriations for any internal improve- 
 ment, even though intended to facilitate commerce, except for 
 the purpose of furnishing lights, beacons, buoys and other aids to 
 navigation upon the coasts, and the improvement of harbors and 
 the removing of obstructions in river navigation ; and the cost 
 and expenses of even these objects must be paid by duties levied 
 
12 
 
 on the navigation facilitated. And in order that each State may 
 the better attain such objects for itself, the exclusive power of 
 Congress over commerce is subject to the qualification, that any 
 State may accomplish the work within her borders by a duty on 
 the sea-going tonnage, participating in the trade of the harbor or 
 river improved ; provided that such impositions shall not conflict 
 with treaties of the Confederacy, and that any surplus so raised 
 shall be paid into the Federal treasury. Thus, are not only 
 fruitful sources of discord cut off, by abolishing the hot-house 
 system of imparting artificial heat and growth to chosen localities, 
 at the expense of others, through bounties, navigation and tariff 
 and internal improvement laws, but great facilities are offered to 
 each and every State to secure, on its own judgment and at its 
 own risk of unduly burdening its trade, the improvement of its 
 waters at the expense of the sea-going vessels using them ; and 
 whether the work be undertaken by the State or Federal 
 Government, the burden falls subtantially on the immediate 
 beneficiary. 
 
 We may congratulate ourselves that henceforth the Federal 
 Government will know no favorite State or section ; that pros- 
 perity however widely, profusely or partially scattered, is to be 
 the legitimate results of legitimate causes, and that agriculture, 
 commerce and manufactures will no longer breed jealousy and 
 discontent, but will, hand in hand, each advance the prosperity 
 and harmony of the whole. 
 
 Were we here to pause and point our people to the past, 
 tracing the abuses of Government and all the ills of discord, 
 which partial and hostile legislation engendered in the public 
 mind, until, long before our dissolution, we had become an alien- 
 ated and almost belligerent people, we should find that in the 
 construction of a Government for the Confederate States, the 
 lessons of experience have not been overlooked, and that what- 
 ever of contention the future may bring forth, from the necessary 
 conflicts of opinion and interest, new checks and balances havo 
 been added to the old Constitution, and hopes of long continued, 
 fraternal feelings, indulged by our Fathers, have again revived. 
 
 We come here to-night to indulge in no Utopian idea, that we 
 have attained perfection in Government, or that we have, by the 
 clearness of language, left no room for evasion or perversion or 
 usurpation of power ; but we may, I think, congratulate our- 
 selves that grave errors have been corrected, and additional hopes 
 given for the preservation of American liberty. 
 
1 o 
 
 lo 
 
 When we see that while Government is restrained as to the 
 ohjects to which money is to be applied, and that the appropria- 
 tion of it is put under material checks ; that the patronage of the 
 Executive is almost cut off by the tenure of good behavior, 
 attached to the vast number of offices which before were the mere 
 spoils of a victorious party, and by the ineligibility of the Presi- 
 dent to a second term, we are prepared to realize the good -which 
 has flowed from a movement, the necessity for which Ave must 
 all admit, however that necessity may be deplored. And while 
 we may spend a sigh of regret over the disappointments of the 
 past, and linger in memory around the things that were, we gather 
 fresh hopes from the present, and find in our new Constitution a 
 firmer foundation for that faith which we have hitherto had in the 
 capacity of man to work out a high destiny under the genial influ- 
 ence of Republican institutions. 
 
 Prominent among the evils of the old Government, felt and 
 acknowledged by all, was the mode of electing the President, the 
 tenure of his office, and his reeligibility. The chief officer of the 
 nation had come to be the appointee of a mere self-constituted 
 and irresponsible Convention, and the measures of Government 
 had received direction in advance, not so much from the wisdom 
 and for the good of the people as for the triumph of party. As 
 a consequence, each four years heralded the advent of a politician, 
 sometimes thrown upon the surface by accidental causes and re- 
 flecting the latest heretical dogma of a section, rather than ad- 
 dressing himself to the good of the whole country. The Execu- 
 tive of the United States had come to be too dependant upon the 
 party that elected him, and too independent of the wishes and 
 interests of the country at large. The framers of the Constitu- 
 tion of the United States did not intend that the Executive 
 should be the direct representative of the democratic principle, 
 but they interposed between the elector and the elected a feeble 
 barrier which proved a mere form without substance. Each 
 election for Chief Magistrate inaugurated doctrines which were 
 the. mere watchwords of party, dictated to the people by self- 
 constituted power, and caught up as the rallying cry of a cam- 
 paign and carried into elections for the State and Federal 
 offices, until the different branches of Government became more 
 or less demoralized ; until appointees to office degenerated into 
 mere partisans, and the halls of Congress, from being places 
 for statesmen, were fast becoming arenas of stife. The system 
 of platforms and caucus nominations was fast changing the Gov- 
 
14 
 
 ernment from its representative character to one much worse than 
 that of a pure democracy, — to a mere oligarchy, and thai nol of 
 intelligence and virtue, but of low ambition. All was coming to 
 be done in the name of the. people — nothing by them, save to fol- 
 low in the train of self-appointed dictators. 
 
 I regret to say that the chief defect of the Constitution of the 
 Confederate States is, in my opinion, the retention of the old 
 mode of electing the President, The task of reformation would, 
 however, have been nice and difficult, and I doubt if you can, by 
 interposing machinery of any kind between the elector and the. 
 elected, prevent the candidate from standing directly before and 
 being in fact chosen immediately by the people, so long as they 
 retain the right to vote for the office ; a right which cannot in our 
 Government be elsewhere lodged without materially altering its 
 form and essence. While, then, the evil exists, I am inclined to 
 to think it may be one inherent in institutions whose corner stone 
 rests on the popular will ; and to hope that the change in the 
 tenure of office, the deprivation of its patronage, the ineligi- 
 bility of the incumbent and the additional obligations imposed on 
 the Executive in regard to the public expenditures will greatly 
 mitigate, if not remove, the ills with which the United States have 
 been and are so sorely afflicted from Presidential elections. Should, 
 however, experience prove that the present mode of election ought 
 to be abandoned, a greater facility is afforded for its attainment 
 by allowing three States to call a convention of all to consider 
 proposed amendments to the fundamental law, which, if assented 
 to by a majority of this body, shall be effectual, on being ratified 
 by two-thirds of the States through their several Legislatures or 
 Conventions, as the one or the other mode of final action shall be 
 determined by the general body. 
 
 The restrictions thrown around amendments to the organic law 
 by the Constitution of the United States proved to be a prac- 
 tical negation of the power to alter the instrument. Discontent, 
 however loud or well founded, was sure to receive no heed in ad- 
 vance from two-thirds of both Houses of Congress, or from two- 
 thirds of the Legislatures of the several States ; and, without a 
 concurrence of such, no body could be assembled even to consider 
 the complaints of members of the Union. Hence, restlessness 
 when once created, could not be allayed, and a wound once inflict- 
 ed on the body of a State never healed, but festered into a chro- 
 nic and incurable complaint. The substituted provision imparts 
 a wholesome flexibility to our Constitution and, at the same time, 
 
15 
 
 assures us against an assembling of the States for light or tran- 
 sient causes, or hopeless purposes, and the consultative body, 
 when convened, will be confined to action on propositions put 
 forth by three States. 
 
 Among other felicitous provisions of the permanent Constitu- 
 tion may be mentioned that requiring the electors in each State 
 to be citizens of the Confederate States and prohibiting any per- 
 son of foreign birth, not a citizen of the Confederate States, from 
 voting for any office, civil or political, State or Federal. As the 
 right of voting was not correlative to or dependent upon that of 
 citizenship, under the government of the United States, and as 
 the institutions we were about to establish were for our own citi- 
 zens, it was wisely determined that none but such should exercise 
 the highest political right ever given to a people. Nor is there in 
 the provision any of the spirit of hostility to or proscription of 
 foreigners ; for Congress is empowered to pass uniform laws of 
 naturalization, and the simple rule, above indicated, is, that what- 
 ever probation is necessary to fit a man for the rank of citizen is 
 essential to his wisely exercising the high privilege of a voter. 
 Wishing to see no proscription of any, but desiring that our land 
 may remain the asylum of all freemen, yet I hope and believe 
 that Congress while giving facility to naturalization, will place 
 such safeguards around its attainment, that it will be felt to be a 
 high boon to be admitted to participation in the control of this 
 Republic. It may be worthy of remark in this connection that 
 the Constitution of the United State confers on Congress the pow- 
 er " to establish an uniform rule of naturalization" and " uniform 
 laics on the subject of bankruptcies" and, it has been insisted, 
 with much plausibility, derived from history and from the lan- 
 guage used, that the naturalization clause was designed only to 
 give the Congress of the United States power to prescribe an 
 uniform rule, to be observed by each State in making citizens, and 
 not power to make citizens of the Federal Government. From 
 this proposition has been drawn the deduction that there are no 
 citizens of the United States, but that the people are citizens of 
 the several States owing allegiance to the United States only 
 through the several States. The convention of the Confederate 
 States, after mature deliberation, adopted the judicial decisions 
 and the practice of Congress on the question, and hence chang- 
 ed the expression — "rule" to "latcsof naturalization." It will 
 also be observed that the power to pass laws on the subject of 
 bankruptcies finds the important qualification that " no law of 
 
16 
 
 Congress shall discharge any debt contracted before the passage 
 of t lie sami 
 
 A new policy is to be inaugurated in regard to postal affairs; 
 
 for the permanent Constitution dec-lares that the expenses of the, 
 
 ■'.rtment, shall after the 1st day of March, 1861 
 paid out of its own revenues. Without entering- upon the mooted 
 
 tion whether the correspondent should pay for the trans 
 Bion of his own letters or whether cheap postage should be pur- 
 chased at the expense of the whole people, the clause in question 
 □amends itself to me for the secondary benelits it wilt bring; 
 for it st that the much abused franking privilege is thus 
 
 cut up and that our mails will not be loaded with the carriage, 
 nor our treasury burdened with the. printing of political trash, 
 tending more to mislead than to enlighten the public mind. I 
 am pleased to say that our postal act is in conformity with these 
 views. 
 
 The question of negro slavery has been the apple of discord in 
 the government of the United States since its foundation. The 
 strife has now and then lulled, but has not ceased, All observing 
 m< n must have felt, for at least ten years, that this fanatical agi- 
 tation was the death knell of the Union. A triumphant party, 
 that repudiated the constitution and set up a law higher even 
 than that of the Bible, came into power on a single idea — hostility 
 to our people and our rights. We have long borne with the evil 
 and endured reproach, until our national character has been great- 
 ly injured, and our enemies have read, in our forbearance, a want 
 of courage to defend our rights. The scales have at last fallen 
 from their eyes, and they begin to survey with surprise and regret 
 the deed they have done. But the die is irrevocably cast. 
 Henceforth and forever we are separate nations. The Confede- 
 rate States are a nation; to be maintained in peace if it may be, 
 but to be maintained. 
 
 The institution of slavery is as old as the records of man. It 
 has found its existence in the polity of every nation, civil or ec- 
 clesiastical, ancient or modern. It was firmly established in the 
 laws of the Jews, and is recognized in the Revelations of Christi- 
 anity. The pages of earliest profane history are full of its ex- 
 istence, " It spread from Chaldeainto Egypt, Arabia and all the 
 East, and found its way into every known region under the hea- 
 ven." 'Tis part of the song of the seige of Troy. Hector in 
 taking a tender, and perhaps last farewell of his wife, tells her 
 that, on the conquest of Troy, she would be compelled 
 
17 
 
 " To bear the victor's hard commands, or bring 
 The weight of water from Hyperia's spring." 
 
 Home, in all the pride of her power and the progress of her 
 knowledge and her arts, and long after the conversion of Con- 
 stautine to Christianity, bound hard upon her captives the fetters 
 of a galling slavery. The ancient German, it is said, in his 
 thirst for gaming sold himself to slavery upon the throw of the 
 dice ; and Great Britain, who boasts that " slaves cannot breathe 
 in England," but who, in her apprentice system, is now forging 
 for freemen fetters at which humanity revolts, abolished the in- 
 stitution of slavery within her own island home and from her 
 own immediate subjects only in the reign of Queen Elizabeth.* 
 
 But let the subject pass. Its discussion is not our theme to- 
 night, and were it, we might end it by saying, our rights, as writ- 
 ten in the contract, have been persistently refused and violated 
 and the war of " irrepressible conflict" waged upon the guarantees 
 of the Constitution. I repeat it, the deed is done, and is final ; 
 and, taking this as our stand point, we turn to the rising sun 
 and see where we now are in respect to this institution. 
 
 The right of transit and sojourn with our slaves in any State 
 of the Confederacy is secured, and slaves escaping or lawfully 
 carried from one State or Territory to another, shall not be dis- 
 charged from service or labor by any law or regulation therein. 
 but shall be delivered up on claim of the party to whom they be- 
 long ; and the power to acquire new territory and legislate for 
 the inhabitants thereof, is subject to the qualification that, " the 
 institution of negro slavery, as it now exists in the Confederate 
 States, shall be recognized and protected by Congress and by 
 the territorial government ; and the inhabitants of the several Con- 
 federate States and Territories shall have the right to take to 
 such Territory any slave lawfully held by them in any of the 
 States or Territories of the Confederate States." Thus, by lan- 
 guage too plain to be misunderstood, is the question of our rights 
 in the Territories settled — and upon the principle that what is 
 acquired from the common means of the whole is held in trust 
 equally for each and every part, and that property under the 
 Constitution must remain such under the Acts of Congress. 
 
 So much for this question of strife ; but there was another 
 point of view from which our institution was to be regarded and 
 treated : one solely concerning ourselves. I mean, of course, 
 the African slave trade. 
 
 Had we been sitting as Legislators for Dahomey, the richest 
 
 * £ee Encyclopedia Brittanica, Title Slavery. 
 
Lf 
 
 boon we could have conferred upon its lavage people would have 
 
 been to send them into Americas bondage ; but called on to act 
 as Legislators of the Confederate States, the question, required, in 
 my opinion, a different solution. I eonnot now pursue the argu- 
 ment at any length; but whether regarded as an economical 
 
 question, or one of mere political or looked at in the light 
 
 of duty to our own civilized negroes, the propriety of writing in 
 the Constitution ■ prohibition against the trade, is to my mind 
 (dear. That it was demanded by the instructions of the Conven- 
 tion of Alabama we know from its ordinances, and that it was re- 
 quired by public opinion I am fully satisfied. It ia not strange 
 that ardent minds, aroused by libellous assaults upon our institu- 
 tion, should, now and tben, be driven so farinto the extren 
 opposition as to desire the re-opening of the trade; but the charge 
 that any considerable portion of our people entertained such 
 views is but one of the many unfounded imputations of our ene- 
 mies; and now that the public mind is left to think of the subject, 
 free from irritation, I believe there will shortly be entire unan- 
 imity upon it. 
 
 Slavery as it now exists in North America, is not that ot 
 seventy years ago. The latter was the slavery of the African 
 trade, throwing among us the most bestial and untutored sava- 
 ges. At this our fathers revolted, and hence, admitted the evil 
 of slavery itself; while we rightly justify and defend it, because 
 that of to-day is a civilized and christianized domestic institution. 
 The wild savage from Africa was almost a mere beast ; his 
 American descendant is a civilized appendage to the family rela- 
 tion. Therefore it is, that we have rightly come to defend 
 slavery, and to contrast the condition of our laborers favorably 
 with that of the operative classes in other parts of the world. If 
 it be said that it was founded in wrong, and therefore cannot be 
 right, the ready answer to England and to New England is, (the 
 argument being admitted for convenience,) that the money their 
 people obtained from the sale of African negroes to our forefathers 
 was obtained by wrong, and it and its proceeds should he given 
 up ; that the tenures to estates in England are held under the title 
 of plunder from an invaded and overrun people, and that New 
 England holds its lands by but a little better origin; that most, if 
 not all of the rights of modern civilization have sprung from 
 wrongs protected by a far shorter statute of limitation than the 
 slave trade, which is coeval with history. 
 
19 
 
 Let the negro philanthrophist eome to the confessional and 
 make restoration for all the rights which he holds from a wrong, 
 and we will then listen to him ; hut till then let him be silent 
 and abashed. 
 
 As an economical questiou the fact is before us that about four 
 hundred thousand Africans have been imported into the United 
 States. From these have sprung about four millions of improved, 
 civilized, hardy and happy laborers. 
 
 Cuba, on the other hand, has relied upon Africa for recruits, 
 and a fresh supply is constantly necessary to keep up the popu- 
 lation of her slaves. 
 
 We have dissolved the late Union chiefly because of the negro 
 quarrel. Now, is there any man who wishes to reproduce that 
 strife among ourselves 1 and yet does not he, who wished the 
 slave trade left for the action of Congress, see that he proposed 
 to open a Pandora's box among us and to cause our political 
 arena again to resound with this discussion. Hud we left the 
 question unsettled, we should, in my opinion, have sown broad- 
 cast the seeds of discord and death in our Constitution. I con- 
 gratulate the country that the strife has been put to rest forever, 
 and that American slavery is to stand before the world as it is, 
 and on its own merits. 
 
 We have now placed our domestic institution, and secured its 
 rights unmistakably, in the Constitution ; we have sought by no 
 euphony to hide its name — we have called our negroes "slaves," 
 and we have recognized and protected them as persons and our 
 rights to them as property. We have further declared that 
 
 " Congress shall also have power to prohibit the introduction 
 of slaves from any State not a member of, or Territory not be- 
 longing to, this Confederacy." 
 
 I trust it may not be necessary to exercise this power, because 
 I hope to see the Southern States of the United States joined in 
 Government with us ; but the power was essential, and, as a 
 legislator, I shall be ready to exercise it to absolute prohibition 
 whenever I shall be driven to adopt the conclusion that these 
 States have chosen to remain a fringe upon the skirts of New 
 England abolition. I shall then think the day has come to force 
 them to keep their blacks or to seek other outlets for them than 
 this Confederacy. 
 
 " Other States may be admitted into this Confederacy by a 
 vote of two-thirds of the whole House of Representatives, and 
 two-thirds of the Senate, the Senate voting by States." 
 
20 
 
 This provision secures us as amply against the admission of 
 undesirable associates as language can ; for the Constitution itself 
 may be amended by two-thirds of the States, and three States 
 can call a Convention to consider proposed alterations. It is 
 therefore morally certain that whenever any feature of it becomes 
 obnoxious to two-thirds of the States, it will and ought to be 
 altered or abolished. 
 
 But I justify the Catholicism of the above provision on higher 
 ground, and throwing aside the feelings which the irritation of the 
 moment create, and looking to the future with full confidence 
 that our domestic policy will justify itself and long outlive the 
 puny assaults of maddened fanaticism, led on by ambitious politi- 
 cians, I earnestly hope that not only will the kindred States join 
 us, but abide in confidence that some of the great Northwestern 
 States, watered by the Mississippi, will be drawn by the strong 
 current of that mighty river and by the laws of trade, to swell 
 the number and power of this Confederation ; and that we shall 
 receive them on such terms of their organic law as we ourselves 
 may prescribe ; and in doing so, grasp the power of empire on 
 this continent and announce to the startled North that it has 
 reached its western limit, and must spread, if spread it can, to- 
 wards the frozen sea. If in adopting these views I may seem 
 to have listened to the whispers of fancy, I beg to call your at- 
 tention to the prosaic fact that sentiment in nations never long 
 rules master of interest. Who thinks that our late sister Southern 
 States, or even Indiana and Illinois, will pay millions per year 
 as a tribute for joining in hozannas to the Union. As sure as 
 " blood is thicker than water" — as sure as Virginia is the mother 
 of States — as sure as she is the parent of the doctrines of 1798 
 and 1799; and as sure as North Carolina's young men have 
 become Alabama's sons, so sure will the Southern States of the 
 United States blend their destiny with ours. And as sure as 
 the Mississippi flows towards the Gulf, and bears on its bosom 
 the great commerce of the West — and as sure as we ai*e con- 
 sumers of Western products and our tariff will be lower than 
 that of the United States, so sure will the trouble be, not to have 
 the West with us, but to keep it from us. The only escape from 
 this is by their Government's adopting our system of low duties, 
 or by New York's cutting loose from New England and spreading 
 its gates of commerce wide to free trade. 
 
 The political economist knows it, the merchant knows it, and 
 
21 
 
 the Black Republican statesman now feels it and stands appalled 
 at the ruin he has done. 
 
 Fellow-citizens, I have thus gone briefly through the material 
 amendments we have made upon the Constitution of the United 
 States, except that I have not noticed the few, and not vital 
 changes in the judiciary system. Sufhce it to say, to an unpro- 
 fessional audience, that, save the withholding from the Federal 
 Courts jurisdiction of suits between citizens of different States of 
 the Confederacy, the judicial power of this Government is the 
 same as that of the United States, and that the Congress have 
 enacted a judiciary act chiefly modelled on that of the old Gov- 
 ernment. One important and wholesome provision in regard to 
 the judiciary I ought to mention. It is " that any judicial or 
 other federal officer, resident and acting solely within the limits 
 of any State, may be impeached by a vote of two-thirds of both 
 branches of the Legislature thereof." 
 
 The Senate of the Confederate States have the sole power to 
 try such and all other impeachments. The provision noticed 
 applies only to the Federal officer, acting solely within the limits 
 of a State, whose conduct could not, therefore, be expected 
 to fall under the observation of the nation at large. The entire 
 freedom of the inferior judiciary of the United States from State 
 influence, and virtually from that of the general government, 
 served to render the provision necessary. It is hardly possible 
 that it will be perverted to injustice, or can be abused to the se- 
 rious detriment of the officer, for the State authority goes no far- 
 ther than impeaching. It does not extend to trying the officer. 
 It is but the inquest of the grand jury which is given to the State. 
 
 Georgia and Louisiana have responded to Alabama in adopting 
 the Constitution of the Confederate States, and, while we write, 
 the joyful news comes dancing over the wires that Texas and 
 Mississippi have accepted ; and thus, by the assent of the requi- 
 red number, formed a permanent federal body. Soon will South 
 Carolina complete the circle of the stars, and then the seceded 
 States will form one united sisterhood. 
 
 The new charter of our rights has been spread before the 
 world, and not only has censure been struck dumb, but the con- 
 servative press of the North is swelling a chorus to the loud 
 anthems of our people. 
 
 We have organized the departments of Government, and, with 
 one voice, have called to the head of it a statesman and soldier 
 renowned alike in peace and war — in the councils of the nation and 
 
•).-) 
 
 on the field of battle ; ami he has summoned into his cabinet 
 men of national renown and established capacity and honor. 
 We have placed, in the next highest office, him who stood 
 : 1 to none among his Peers in the Congress of the United 
 We have raised and put into the field a national army 
 of ten thousand men, officered by the flower of the soldiery of the 
 old Government, and OUT Several Stales have raised the best 
 spirits of the land, who >tand ready to throw themselves into the 
 front of the battle. So rapidly and effectively have our military 
 operations gone forward that Fort Sumter is about to he surren- 
 dered, and already are we told that, on soher second thought of 
 
 the authorities at "Washington, 
 
 ■• <; ith'd h a wrinkled front " 
 
 Tn my opinion, we shall have no war. We shall have none 
 because we are ready to meet and maintain the stand we have 
 taken, and because we are right, and the soldiery of the United 
 Stales know we are, and will not fight against us. 
 
 We are organizing a navy sufficient for coast defences, and 
 shall be ready to keep our ports open; and should a blockade 
 he attempted, Europe will see that it must he close and effectual 
 to be regarded ; and when the little navy of the United States 
 shall he persuaded to fight our people, or to attempt to blockade 
 our ports, we will license the privateer to prey upon the unpro- 
 tected commerce of the North. But Mr. Lincoln, Ave are told, 
 has at last ascertained that he has no power to collect revenues, 
 otherwise than at the custom-houses and through the officers of 
 custom and the courts of the country ; nor power to blockade the 
 ports, or to attempt it ; and descending from his big words he 
 has drivelled down to the puling and imbecile head of a fanatical 
 party, and is reaping a rich harvest of abuse from his radical Re- 
 publican journals ; while Mr. Seward is no doubt enjoying over 
 again his day dream, by standing in imagination on the shores of 
 the Northern Lakes and contemplating the spread of Northmen 
 over frozen lands. 
 
 We have originated and will soon put in motion an effective 
 postal service ; have established courts of justice, and learned and 
 honest judges have been appointed to administer the law ; we 
 have sent our diplomats to Europe with the Constitution in one 
 hand and a low tariff in the other; carrying the news that the 
 surrender of Fort Sumter is a "military necessity"; and the in- 
 telligence of these materia] facts will follow fast upon the tidings 
 that the Morrill tariff has become the law of the United States. 
 
Who thinks that Europe trill not gladly acknowledge ouf 
 advent into the family of nations ? Surely none who know the 
 charm of trade or the influence of interest. 
 
 We have made the Mississippi a free highway of commerce and 
 have offered, and are ready to adjust and settle " between the 
 States forming this Confederacy and their late confederates of the 
 United States, everything pertaining to the common property, 
 common liability and common obligations of that Union, upon the 
 principles of right, justice, equity and good faith." 
 
 Our revolution has hardly made so great a pressure on the 
 pursuits of our people as is often experienced from derangements 
 resulting from ordinary causes ; and already has trade, ever sen- 
 sitive to danger, resumed its wonted confidence and thrift. Ouf 
 fields have not had a furrow less plowed and our women and 
 children have not lost the sleep of a single night from the reali- 
 zation of Northern predictions of troubles among our slaves. 
 Fed, clothed, worked and treated as usual, this happy and care- 
 less people have gone to their daily labors, as willingly and con- 
 tentedly as before. 
 
 With exports of about two hundred and sixty millions per 
 annum, of that staple upon which five millions of England's 
 people subsist, and without which the New England dweller in 
 palaces would descend to the hut of his pilgrim fathers, who 
 dreams that this people have not the means to uphold their Gov- 
 ernment or that it cannot raise money to meet its frugal 
 expenses 1 
 
 Our custom houses are not only springing into renewed activity, 
 but, unless the North soon changes its policy, its own imports 
 will flow into our cities and pay their duties into the coffers of 
 these Confederate States. The loan now sought by our Trea- 
 sury will be taken, and I trust only by our own people ; taken 
 because it is a good and safe investment, and because it is meet 
 that we should come forward with the alacrity of the French to 
 the support of the Government, and because in upholding it we 
 uphold not only our political rights but our direct material in- 
 terests. 
 
 We are now a nation, and with nationality will come develop- 
 ment of commerce, of manufactures, of arts. The public mind will 
 receive a new impetus. We shall learn to make much of what we 
 use, and to spend our money among our own people. Before, we 
 bought and we sold, but we went from home to sell and to buy. 
 Our simplest importations and much of our exportations were 
 
24 
 
 led on by New York ; our exchange went there. In short, 
 the North reaped the profits of our labor and upon it grew rich 
 and defiant. But the picture is reversed and henceforth the 
 
 th rill stand out in the full proportions of her nationality 
 and her power. 
 
 wovi\ 1 be a pleasing and useful task to examine and contrast 
 
 the different bases on which free institutions rest at the North and 
 
 ath, and an easy one to prove, that, while our svstom 
 
 admit equal political rights for all freemen, society 
 
 irth rests on a foundation, which produces that conflict 
 
 amoi _ rily arising between capital and the labor 
 
 which furnishes only subsistence, as the life long reward of toil. 
 
 But this is a fruitful theme and cannot be here discussed. Let 
 
 the North ponder over and consider the question, for her social 
 
 fabric rests on a volcano. 
 
 Having taken our political destinies into our own hands, let us 
 
 in the moment of exultation, forget the duties that, devolve 
 upon us, and let us remember that, however wise and beneficent 
 may be the working of the General Government, it is to State 
 action we must mainly look for that advancement which shall 
 secure high civilization ; for the enactment and enforcement of 
 laws, which shall give security to life, liberty and property; 
 for that intellectual and moral culture which shall enable us wise- 
 ly to govern men and guide the State. Let us prize, as we ought, 
 the broad freedom we enjoy, and to obtain which Europe has in 
 vain been convulsed again and again with bloody revolution, and 
 let us, in the elevation of our legislative bodies, prove to the 
 world that Wisdom is the Goddess of Liberty. 
 
pettiruklifei 
 
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