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 Duke University Libraries 
 
 An Appeal to th 
 Conf Pam #615 
 
AN APPEAL 
 
 TO THE 
 
 FEDERAL SOLDIERS. 
 
 SoLDTERS : Two years of our sanguinary confliot have passed ; hun- 
 dreds of thousands of brave men have fallen ; hearts have been made 
 to mourn, homes have been desolated, and the voice of sorrow and 
 sadness is heard throughout your land and ours. We both desire 
 peace. 
 
 Let us, therefore, for a moment lay aside the weapons of strife, and 
 reason together on the lessons this conflict is adapted to teach. 
 
 We of the South have seceded from a Union we had once loved, 
 and have unfurled to the world the emblem of a new nationality. It 
 was becau.se sectional prejudice and ill-will in the North had raised into 
 the Chair of State a man whose political principles led him to wage a 
 continual war against our interests and constitutional rights. 
 
 Slavery was the apparent, though not the real cause of war That 
 real cause lay in the diversity of our interests. You were a commercial 
 and manufacturing people, and demanded protective tariffs ; we an 
 agricultural people, whose interests demanded free trade. Hence arose 
 continual bickerings. Your politicians seized upon abolitionism as a 
 convenient pretext for exciting the popular mind against us. 
 
 Their policy first met only scorn and disdain from your people, be- 
 lieving it as they did a ba^e interference with our insritutionij and 
 rights. But slowly and silently the poison spread. Meetings were 
 held, and inflammatory speeehes made by men utterly ignorant of the 
 true condition of the slave ; men, who scrupled not by deceit and 
 lying, to misrepresent the South. Your people have been deceived, 
 and, led on by these wicked men, we now see the result of their teach- 
 ings in a nation's agony and dissolution, in the slaughter of thousands, 
 in the misery of millions. 
 
 At the elevation into power of a .sectional party with entirely sec- 
 tional interests, we determined on separation. Long before had we 
 threatened it if our rights were not respected, but the Republican 
 leaders had laughed these threats to scorn, and .said " let them go." 
 
 The issue was now forced upon us, and we formed our new Govern- 
 ment. Self- preservation and national honor left us no other alternative. 
 We still desired a peaceful separation, and sent our Commissioners to 
 
Washington to effect it. They were denied even a hearing, and we 
 were conipe!Icd to prepare fur war. 
 
 Your Govcrniuciit pruuiij-id jc-u an cofy victory over us. Your ar- 
 niies, vastly outnuuiLcriiifr (iur.>^, were splendidly equipped aud well 
 aruicd ; ours were pcmrly clad and bore inferior weapons. You e.\prei>Hcd 
 your trust in the iua<:iiiluLle of your resources and overpowering 
 numbers. Our confidence was in the justice of our cause, our trust in 
 tlie God of batf'ep. 
 
 We met at ^lana.csas. Your hosts were overthrown. Your nation, 
 enraged by defeat, now thoroughly aroused all its njighty energies to 
 prepare for a crushing war, while in yuur armories, workshops and navy 
 yards, was heard the bustle of a new industry. 
 
 Wc were without manufactories, and our ports wore sealed to the 
 commerce of tlic world ; but trusting in' God wc marched to the fron- 
 tier to repel your invading host. 
 
 Soldiers ! we have met on many a bloody field. Often have we join- 
 ed in deadly strife. Many of your comrades and many of niiue have 
 fallen by our sides, and now ask yourselves the question, has " the bat- 
 tle been to the strong?" 
 
 You were told of a Union parii/ in the So^ith. As you have ad- 
 vanced into our territory have you found our jioople welcoming you as 
 deliverers? Uas not every foot of soil been hotly contested ? 
 
 You were told of the great lovo your Irudcrs bore for the Union. 
 Had they been sincere would they ever have said "let them go?" 
 Would they now have forced us to its dissolution ? or would they have 
 been guilty of the folly of fighting us, to enkindle in our hearts new 
 love Ibr our oppressors ? 
 
 The Union that they loved was not the Union founded by Washing- 
 ton, but it was a Union by which they hoped to compel us, by force if 
 necessary, to endure all their injustice and tyranny without a murmur. 
 They forgot that we were freemen like themselves. 
 
 failing in their eflorts to subjugate us, thoy proclaimed oxir luf/roes 
 free, and endeavcred to incite them to ins-urreelion among us. They 
 received them into your army as your equals to light by your side, and 
 compelled you to pay them a respect you could not feel. 
 
 They tell you that we are Kfarvin^/, and bid you wait a few more days 
 or months to witness our downfall. 1'hey arc again striving to deceive 
 you. Altl-.ough deprived of many of those lu.xuries we formerly en- 
 joyed, we still have cnoii</h, and our crops promise abundance. 
 
 Soldiers I your leaders have been and are deceiving you. When your 
 President was inaugurated in March, l^Gl, did he not take his solemn 
 oatli, before God and the nation, to administer his '^uties in accordance 
 with »hc law and the Constitution of the land ? Has not his every act 
 falsified that oath ? Has not a higher law been established, even the 
 imperial will of the dictator ? 
 
 Soldiers! this Union can never he restored. Our separation into two 
 
distinct nationalities is lasting, permanent, and final. Wc have suf- 
 fered much and can suffer mure. We are all prepared to make every 
 needful sacrifice on the altar of our country's liberty. But one un- 
 alterable deteriniuatiou exists i.mong us — that wc will never give up 
 our right to self-government. Was not that right established in the 
 -colonial war with England ? Did not your ancestors and mine pour 
 out their blood in fighting for the same right for which the South is 
 now contending? Will not the rct-ult be the same? Rather than 
 give up that right we will fight till the last right arm is cold in death . 
 And if we should die, we will show you how freemen ought to die, 
 sword in hand, resi-sting oppression. 
 
 Soldiers ! this war may go on. * You and I may fall on the field of 
 battle, but the Soidh never can be conquered. Your leaders may strive 
 to m'l/ce it an " irrfprcssiUe conjiict." What care tlicy for the thou- 
 sands slain while their wicked purpose remains unaccomplished ? They 
 are not exposed themselves to the privations of war or the dangers of 
 battle. Did they not press your men who were just about rcturaing to 
 their homes from the Army of the Kappahaunock into the very thickest 
 of the fight, that they might be the first to fall ? Call ye this generous 
 reward for all their privatiuus, sufferings and toil ? 
 
 Soldiers I beware; those very men who are .seeking to overthrow our 
 rights are e([ually undermining yours. They tell you that they are 
 fighting in the cause of huiuauity and religion. Have not half a mil- 
 lion of the brave already fallen victims to this misdirected philanthropy, 
 this mi.«guided religion ? 
 
 Look to the dungeoijs of Fort Lafayette and to the newspapers they 
 have suspended, if you would see the fate of those that dare utter an 
 independent opinion Look to Vallaudigham, dragged before a mili- 
 tary tribunal, tried, condemned and banished, because he dared to use 
 the right of the American citizen to free thought and free .speech. 
 And remember that Napoleon IIL used his Presidential Chair only 
 as a stepping stone to the throne of France. 
 
 They are striving to give freedom to the slave who is not capable of 
 enjoying it, that they may drn^^ j/ou, /recmen, into a servitude far more 
 galling than African bondage. Instead of enslaving infcriois they 
 strive to enslave you, their equals, and that in a country which has so 
 much boa.«ted of licpublican equality. 'J'hey are bringing upon you 
 an enormous debt which will never be paid. 
 
 I^ave you thought of the consequences of success to your country's 
 cause ? Of the casting among you of four millions of slaves utterly 
 unable to care for themselves ? Would not their natural idleness 
 speedily reduce them again to the savage state ? Would not the poor 
 negro, unable to cope with your superior imergy, and driven by despair 
 to the commission of the most dreadful criuiet, commence a conflict 
 which would end in his utter extermination ? Would nojt larceny, 
 rapine, arson and murder, overrun and deluge your fair land with 
 
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 blood ? Have )-ou thiupht of the dreadful suffering that must follow 
 the repudiation of your debt? And will the condition of your country 
 be improved by continuing the war, by sacrificing more lives, by ia- 
 creaeing th:it debt ? 
 
 Some among you are Irishmor). 
 
 Irishmen I you come among us seeking a land of freedom and of 
 thrift. Exiles from your native laud, which now lies a victim to Eng- 
 lish tyranny, you seek among ua a refuge and a home. 
 
 Is not the South battling in the Biiiuu cause in which Ireland fought 
 during her revolutions ? Have we not your Mitchel witli us? You 
 have fled from the laud which oppressed you, and will you now join 
 oMr oppressor y Your ancestors fougH't to prevent a union with England 
 they did not desire, and will you now strive to force us to a Union we 
 detest ? 
 
 Some of you are Scotchmen. 
 
 Scotchmen I has 3'our characteristic love of justice and right been 
 forgotten ? Are the patriotic examples of your own Wallace and Bruce 
 to be lost ». n their descendants ? Does tiie patriotic poetry of your Burns 
 excite in you no love of constitutional liberty and right ? Wc thought 
 not to meet you in the ranks of a tyrant. 
 
 Many of you are Germans. 
 
 Germans I you have brought with you from your fatherland the ele- 
 ments of thrift and success. Your persevering industry has cultivated 
 the fertile lauds of the great West, and promises you opulence and 
 wealth. We, too, are an agricultural people. Our interests are the 
 same. We are natural allies. Why are we at variance ? Your leaders 
 are deceiving you They are making you strike the dagger into your 
 own bosoms. They make you fight their battles while they, quietly 
 remaining at home, are making fortunes out of your necessities. 
 
 Soldiers! u- til you hujer continue (Jiix dnud/ul var ? Must tl.e 
 war still go on ; must more lives be sacrificed and more hearts be made 
 to bleed '{ We desire not to invade your land or deprive you of your 
 rights. All wc wish is to be left to the enjoyment of our own. 
 
 Will you longer strive to save from a certain ruin that Administra- 
 tion which has so often deceived you, and which is striving etjually to 
 overthrow your riglits and ours. 
 
 Soldiers ! will you (|uietly submit while despotism is drawing its cords 
 mcjn! and more tightly round your necks':' Will you longer remuio the 
 tools of a corrupt and wicked Administration t Forb'd it reason; for- 
 bid it justice; forbid it liberty ! 
 
 A NEW ENG LANDER, 
 NOW A CONFEDERATE SOLDIER. 
 
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