Duke University Libraries 
 
 Speech of Hon. 
 Conf Pam #627 
 
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 f7- -■ .->-/-^'^ SPEECH 
 
 OF 
 
 HON. GUSTAYUS A. HENRY, 
 
 OF TENNESSEE, 
 
 In the Senate of the Confederate Slates, November 29, 18G4. 
 
 The qnoBtion being on the joint resolution introduced by him in the Senate, defining the 
 position of the Confederate States, and declaring the determination of the Congress and the 
 I>eople thereof to prosecnto the war till their indspcndenco is acknowledged- 
 Mr. Henry said : 
 
 Mr. President, I rise to address the Senate on the momentous 
 questions inolved in the resolutions which have just been reported 
 to the Senate, with more than ordinary sensibility. The field pre- 
 sented for discussion is so wide, that I fear, were I to occupy it fully, I 
 might consume more of the valuable time of the Senate than would bo 
 appropriate; and yet, if 1 attempt to contract my remarks into too 
 narrow a limit, I will rob the resolutions of much of their interest, 
 and render the discussion of them stale and unprofitable. I will, 
 therefore, be obliged to the Senate for its charitable indulgence while 
 I give my views, in my own way, on all the topics I may see proper to 
 discuss ; promising the Senate to strike the golden medium, if I can, 
 which lies between the extremes of undue expansion on the one hand 
 and of contraction on the other. • Sir, I feel it will be good for us to- 
 day, and a useful occupation of our time, to recur to first principles, 
 and to examine well the ground on which wo stand, that the judgment 
 of mankind, which we invoke on our conduct, may be properly en- 
 lightened before it is pronounced. 
 
 e. -^nUJ 
 
In 1776, the American Rerolution dawneil upon the world, and the 
 people of the thirteen colonies, then British gubjects the common 
 anceetors of the parties to the present conflict of arras, in Congress 
 as»embled, proclajmed to the world the Declaration of American In- 
 dependence, in which thepe great political truths, never before an- 
 Dcunced with such solemnity, w. re submitted to the candid judgment 
 of .mankind — among others, that all men *' are endowed by their 
 Creator with certain unalienable rijzhts; that among these, are life, 
 liberty and the pursuit of happiness ; thar, to secure these rights, 
 governments are instited among men, deriving their just powers 
 from the consent of the governed ; that, whenever an} form of gov- 
 ernment becomes destructive of these ends, it is the right of the peo- 
 ple to alter or abolish it, and to institute a new government, laying 
 its foundation on such principles, and organizing its powers in such 
 form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their safety and hap- 
 piness." 
 
 To establish these great principles, and in earnest of their sincerity, 
 the Adamses and the Hancocks of Massachusetts "pledged their lives, 
 their fortunes and their sacred honor." On this declaration the peo- 
 ple of Massachusetts and New York, Virginia and South Carolina, in- 
 deed, the whole North and the whole South, united in the revolu- 
 tionary struggle, and, hnnd in hiind, fought and bled in its defence, 
 and finally achieved their independence, in despite of the power of 
 England, then the mistress of the world. This was the language of 
 stern men, not hastily adopted ; of unconquerable patriots, who had 
 counted all the cost, and who had deliberately staked life, liberty and 
 property on the great issue — the independence of their country. 
 
 On these principles our fathers, more than eighty years ago, though 
 comparatively few in numbers, grappled with the power of Great 
 Britain, and, after seven years of war, in which their country was 
 desolated, and their cities occupied, possessed and sacked by the en- 
 emy, finally triumphed. On these same principles we have staked 
 our all, in the war in which we are engaged with the United States; 
 and though our country may be despoiled and ravaged, our cities 
 given to the flames, and nothing bo left but the " blackness of ashes" 
 to mark vthere they stood, we, too, will finally triumph and achieve 
 our independence. 
 
 Mr. President, are not these principles as potent now, and as full 
 of magic, as when they were uttered in Independence Hall, in Phila- 
 delphia, air id a silence as deep and solemn as that of the grave ? The 
 spell they threw over the hearts of men is felt by us now, and we are 
 bound by it still. This was true political doctrine when England was 
 trying to rivet chains upon Massachusetts' and New York, Virginia 
 and South Carolina. It is true now. We stand where our fathers 
 stood and in defence of the same rights. The United States occupy 
 the ground of George the Third, and are re enacting his despotism, 
 obliterating the brightest pages of their own hi.story, and tearing 
 down with their own hands the monuments that were erected by their 
 
 '^ • <^ • •^ *•! 
 
ancestors, and cemented with their b'ood ; and such will everywhere 
 be the verdict of enlightened public opinion upon their conduct. 
 
 Mr. President, we are struggling in this war for the right of stlf- 
 government. These few words cover the whole ground, and elucidate 
 the insue we have joined with our enemies. All others are minor 
 considerations and are merged in it. The contest about our domestic 
 in^titutionti, the li^ht of the States to legalize, destroy or perpetuate 
 thein, as' an attribute of their sovereignty, are all embraced under the 
 general idea, and purel.y an American one, the right of the people to 
 s.'lf-government ; for whatever may be the dogmas of legit'macy and 
 of despotism, under which man, in all ages, has groaned, and been 
 doomed to drink the cup of slavery, w ho/4 that governments have no 
 rigli»tul authority over men. except by the consent of the governed. 
 
 Sir. I deKire to disabuse the public mind of one fatal error into which 
 our enemies have fallen, and which, to some extent, is participated ia 
 by a few of the people of the South This is no "rebellion ;" but 
 such a war as independent sovereignties wage against each other. 
 These States were all equals. Virginia was as free as New York, 
 and in all pcilitical respects her equal and her peer. Equals 
 cannot rebel the one against the other. If they disagree, and 
 rcHort to arms .•^s the arbitrator, it is war, such as writers on the law^ 
 of nations recognize among independent nations. The people of the 
 old thirteen colonies were Briti'sh subjects, acknowledged to be so, and 
 dependent on the Crown. When they threw off British authority they 
 were in rebellion against England. Not so with us in this war. We 
 V ere the subjects of no power, but were ourselves sovereigns, equal* 
 in all respects with our enemies; and they who call us rebels con- 
 found all legal distinctions, and show, to say the least of it, *hat they 
 have not investigated the subject. Here, no one State was dependent 
 upon another, or upon all of them together. The States^ after the 
 i^ar with England, received the acknowledgment of their indepen- 
 lienoe as States, not as one consolidated nation. They wee recognized 
 ly England in the treaty of peace, ns States ; by the name of Geor- 
 gia, Virginia, New York, arid so on, the whole thirteen being 
 called by name. Undet the old confederation they had stood for 
 thirteen years as equals, and voted as equals, each State being enti- 
 tled to one vote. Jn 1787, when they formed the Constitution of 
 the Lnited States, they met as equal sovereignties. They 
 did not afterwards sink their separate State sovereignty,- abolish 
 tlifir State governments, and have one legislature, as in the case of 
 England, Ireland, and Scotland. No, sir. They maintained their 
 State 80verei;'nty, in opposition to centralism, ai« beii.g the great 
 «nemy of liberty in free States, which would swallow them in the 
 whirlpool of consolidation, but for the spirit of local Belf-go?ern« 
 rcents, always the life-blood of freedom. 
 
 The States never surrendered their independent sovereignty, and 
 when the Constitution was on its passage through the convention 
 that formed it, they unanimously rejected a proposition to dele> 
 
gate to the General Government the power to coerce a Stale. The 
 proposition wae distinctly made and unanimously rejected ! 
 
 This historical fact takes from the United States the last pretence 
 of a constitutional right to coerce, by military power, a State, or any 
 number of them, if they see proper to throw off the government of the 
 United States, and institute a new government, which would be more 
 likely to effect their safety and happiness. Even Alexander Ilamil- 
 tcn, who was supposed to be the advocate of unlimited power in the 
 government, declared that a proposition to coerce such a State as 
 New York or Virginia, with such a population as they would have in 
 fifty years, was the maddest project that could be devised. Mr. Mad- 
 ison declared that it would be to confer despotic power on the Gov- 
 ernment, and that it would convert our free institutions into a des- 
 potifm. While the States exercised military power to establish their 
 independence, and delegated to Ccngress the power to declare war, 
 thev did not intend to organize a government with a view to the sub- 
 jugation of the sovereign States which created it. On the contrary, 
 they unanimously refused to delegate such despotic power to the 
 government. 
 
 Nor is this, sir, a civil war. That is, a war between the people of 
 the same State, such as prevailed in England between the houses of 
 York and Lancaster, when contending factions rent the vitals of the 
 State. This is no such war. It stands on the broad ground of a war 
 etween sovereign and independent States, precisely such as has often 
 prevailed between France and England. 
 
 Mr. President, it is a source of pure and Christian consolation to the 
 people of the South, that they did not rush blindly into this war. No, 
 air; we flew to arms only after wc had exhausted every means of peace 
 and reconciliation. Never did a people more earnestly implore and sup- 
 plicate their rulers to beware how they drove them to the necessity of 
 defending their rights by an appeal to arms. We implored thorn by 
 the ties of a common kindred, and in the name of a common God, to 
 abstain from the injuries and insults they were habitually inflicting 
 upon us,- and from the usurpation of powers not delegated in the Con- 
 stitution, which foreshadowed the establishment of an absolute tyranny 
 over these States. They were deaf to our appeals. In vain did we 
 invoke a peace congress to step in between us and them, and, like 
 the daysman, lay its hand upon the ono and the other, and command 
 the peace. The Hon. John Tyler, from Virginia, who had " sounded 
 all the depths and shoals of honor," and who had been President of 
 the whole United States in their purer and better days — the venerable 
 Ju('ge Iluffin, of North Carolina, who had for so many years presided 
 witti such dignity and intelligence in the Supreme Court of that i 
 State, and had shed such lustre on American jurisprudence ; as re- | 
 markable for the purity of his character^as for the power and clearness I 
 pf his logic — the pure-ciinded and gifted Judge Caruthers, of Ten- | 
 nessc, wl o had held nearly everj post of honor in his native State, 
 and^vNtio is now her Chief Magistrate elect; and many others of equal j 
 
 
patriotipm, made tlieir pilgrimage to Washington to stay the coming 
 strife before the first blow was struck — toiled in vain to bring about 
 an honorable adjustment, and were at last forced to go home in 
 despair of the Republic, and to tell their people that all hope of saving 
 it was gone ! 
 
 It was not until all these efforts were made and provetl to be una- 
 vailing; not until the last star of hope that blazed on the political 
 horizon had gone down in blood, and Lincoln had made his proclama- 
 tion for seventy-five thousand men to subjugate these States, that the 
 people began to prepare for war. When that dreadful alterhative, war 
 or subjugation, was presented to them, the masses everywhere, as if 
 by instinct, before the politicians were ready for it, or had fully made 
 up their minds what they would do, had detected the lUrking purposes 
 of the tyrant, sounded the tocsin and were panting for the conflict. 
 The politicians, who, in ordinary cases, lead the people, were led, in 
 this great greund-swell of popular indignation, by them. It was more 
 emphatically a movement of the people than any I have ever observed 
 since I have been in public life. It is emphatically tht people's war. 
 
 Mr. President, we have now maintained this unequal contest for 
 nearly four years, and invoke the judgment of the world whether or 
 not we have established our capacity for self-government, and our 
 ability to resist the power of the enemy to subjugate us. 
 
 \V e have a Government regularly organized under a written con- 
 stitution, with Executive, Legislative and Judicial departments ; all 
 the functions of a constitutional government .in full and successtul 
 operation. 
 
 If the Governments of Europe have not seen fit to recognize us as 
 a free and independent Power and welcome us into the family of na- 
 tions, it is their fault, not ours. 
 
 The United States were recognized by France in less than two years 
 after their decjaration of independence; and the United States, in a 
 much shorter period than that for which we have niaiatained our sep- 
 arate nationality, recognized the South American Republics and the 
 Republic of Mexico, after they asserted their independence of the 
 G(A'ernment3 which they respectively overthrew. 
 
 We need hut look to the present and the past, to settle the question 
 of our ability to resist the power of the enemy. Less than four years 
 ago we were without an army and navy. Our enemy took possession 
 of both, and turned them against us. The wealth of the country was 
 at the North ; and the pernicious system of legislation pursued so 
 long and so persistinglj to our prejudice and to the aggrandizement 
 of the North, had concentrated there nearly all the public works and 
 manufacturing power of the whole country. We had neither heavy 
 ordnance nor small arms ; manufactured neither powder nor ball ; not 
 even percussion caps. But see the progress we have made, and how 
 we have developed our resources. We are now making more than ten 
 thousand pounds of powder per day at^one of our milU. Our army 
 is well equipped with all the implements of warfare. We are able to 
 
iepp an nrmy of four hundred thousand soldiers in the field. TVt 
 hnre met the enemy in a hun^ired baiiles, and have baflled and defeated 
 his armies in conflicts without number on the land, and our little 
 navy has nearly driven his commerce from the seas. We have struck 
 the world with astonishment at the power we hive exhibited, while 
 th'' giize of all Europe is fixed in admiration of the gallantry of our 
 soldiers. If we connider our small and meagre resourc'S at the be- 
 ginning, and the material strength we wield now, we are ourselves 
 antonished at the progress we have made in the art of war and the 
 • science of government. The most potent . ower on earth has gtineJ 
 no decided a<lvantage over us ; and we can now say to the enemy, 
 aft'-r having maintained the struggle for nearly four years, with so 
 niuch giillantry and success, without heing misun<ier8tood. even by 
 him. that we are sincerely desirous of peace, and that the Confederate 
 StHtes Hre ready and willing to open negotiations to that e id, on the 
 basis of tlw'ir separate independence, positively repudi:iring all id<'a 
 of a reunion with them, or of a reconstruction of the Union through 
 the instrumentality of a convention of all '.he States. 
 
 If we were to agree to go into a convention of the States, we would 
 be bound, on honor, to abi'<e its decisinn. They ouiiiumb<^r as two 
 to one, and, of course, would have us in their powet. VVe woul-i 
 deliver ourselves over to them, bound hand and toot, to receive the 
 scourge which their malice would inflict, and which our fatuity and 
 folly would richly ^^.erit. No, sir; let our enemy know, ami l"t ttie 
 vorid bear witness, we strike for independence and will be saiisfTe*! 
 yith nothing ehe. Reunion with tb.e United States would result m 
 bon lage to us The bondage undt r which Ireland groiins — rbe 
 tyr/tnny which England has, for so many years, inflicted upon ttiMt 
 d> wr'-tro<i<!cn p'.'Ople, would be visited upon us by our eni'mii-s. 
 Death would be infinitely preterable -to such a condition. A brave 
 and gallant people may well aff'onl to din freemen, but they c mnot 
 afford to live sliJves. JJefore su< h disgrace and taliuiiity, as w-uld 
 assuredly follow reunion with the United States, shall befall us. E 
 pray God that the earth may open under our fi et and bury ev^ry 
 Itan won an and child in the wholt- Confederacy in one undistinguished 
 grave ! Yes, sir; wo will couit death in any shape — on the hatde- 
 ■fiehl, in the earthquake's dreadful sh'»ck, or ocean's stoim — before w© 
 •will sut'mit to an^ terms of reunion with tflem. 
 
 Listen, sir, to a short lecita! from revolutionary history: In 1778, 
 Lord North intioduced into the iiriUhh Parliament his famous con- 
 ciliatory bills. The first two retracted the claim of power in Parjia- 
 ment to tax the colonies, an<l the thiid provided for the appointment 
 of .commisKioners, who should be duly authorized to treat, and agree 
 to a facification on that basis. J he whole scheme, however, pro- 
 ceeded on the assumption that the American States were to return to 
 their colonial dependence on the Biitish Crown These bills were 
 Eent to America and to General Washington, who laid them before 
 Congress, That body, on the 2:.'d. Ap.il, 1778, promptly and unani- 
 
mously resolved, that they vtouM hoM no conference or treaty with 
 any coHamissioners who were appointed and sent to America, on the 
 part of Great Britian, unless they should, as a preliminary, either 
 withdraw their armies, or acknowledge in positive and express terms 
 the independence of America It is worthy remark, that this bold 
 lani^uage of our fathers was used when Conj^ress was ignorant of tl\e 
 conclu!<ion of treaties v»ith France, aiid when they thought they 
 "would have to measur^' strength with England unaided by any other 
 power. This, Mr President, is the defiant language we should hold 
 to the enemy. Here is an example worthy of our imitation, an<i I 
 commend it to ail who suffer themselves to think, for one moment, of 
 reunion with the enemy, 
 
 R>-union with them ? No, sir ; never! There* is a great gulf that 
 rolls between us. It is a gulf of blood, without a shore and without 
 a bottom, and is as impassable as that which separates Dives from 
 Lazarus The mute objects of nature; our desecrated churches and 
 altars; our sweet valleys drenched in blood and charrad by fire, forbid 
 it. The dead would cry out against it from their gory beds. The 
 blood of my own sons, yet unavenged, cries to Heaven from the ground 
 for vengeance The thousands who are sleeping red in their graves 
 would awake and utter their solemn protest. Stonewall Jackson, 
 Polk, Stuart, Rodes, Morgan, Preston Smith, and the thousands ove/ 
 whose remains a monument to the unknown dead shall bo ruised. are 
 speaking in tones of thunder against it; and can it be the livwg only 
 will be dumb ? Sir, those who have died in this war are not dead to 
 us. 
 
 " E'en in their ashes live their wonted firef." 
 
 They are, in the light of their example, more valuable than the living. 
 Their spirits walk abroad, and stir the hearts of living men to do or 
 die in the cause of liberty. We cherish their memory Weeping 
 virgins and devoted mothers shall kneel arOund their tombs, and be<lew 
 with their tears the graves where they sleep Poetry shall ^inbalm 
 their memory, and minstrel.-y perpetuate their fime. forever. \7e 
 give in charge their names to the sweet lyre. The historic muse, 
 proud of her treasure, shall march with it down tu the latest limes, 
 and sculpture, in her turn, shall give bond in stone and ever during 
 brass to guard them and immortalize her trust ! The soldiers wfio 
 have died in this war are not only enshrined in the innermost core of 
 our hearts, but, to the mind's eje, are ever in our sight. 
 
 "On fame's eternal cauipinp ground, 
 
 Their silent tents are spread ; 
 And glory gu irds with solemn round 
 
 The bivouac of the dead." 
 
 Sir, this is a fit and appropriate time to proclaim again our unal- 
 terable determination to be free If the people of the United States, 
 by re-electing their present Chief Magistrate, who began this war, 
 and who has perpetrated, in its prosecution, acts of unparalleled atro- 
 
8 
 
 city, mean to give us notice that they will prosecute it still further — 
 mean to tender us four years more of war or reunion with them — we 
 accept the notice. We accept their gage of battle, and defy them to 
 the contest. They may bo stronger than we ; but a people who are 
 determined to be free never stop to count the numbers of those who 
 would rob them of the priceless boon. Besides, sir, the battle is not 
 to the strong. There is a just God who will fight our battles for us. 
 Our strength is in Ilim and we will not fear, " though the earth be 
 moved, and though the hills be carried into the midst of the sea." 
 
 If it be the purpose of the enemy to prolong the war, let us begin 
 anew to prepare for it. When mast after mast on Paul Jones' vessel 
 was carried away by the cannon balls of the enemy, till not one was 
 left standing, and that enemy had boarded his vessel, and he was 
 called upon to surrender, he heroically shouted aloud, "I will never 
 surrender; I am just getting ready to fight." Let us emulate the 
 example of that stout-hearted sailor. The Government should or- 
 ganize its strength, and, especially, execute our laws. The failure to 
 do so stamps weakness on all our eftorts to fill the army. Let us 
 prepare in earnest for the defence of our country, and give cordially 
 every power to the Government that is necessary to establish our 
 independence. That being done, we need have no fear about our 
 personal rights. Who will dare to assail them ? No public man 
 could maintain his place who would have the temerity to attempt it. 
 The real danger does not lie in that direction. The great difficulty 
 is, first, to establish our independence. Then every other temporal 
 good shall be given unto us. We have men enough, who have never 
 been in the service, to drive the enemy before us. Let us bring them 
 into the field, and give them an opportunity to take part in this great 
 war. It were cruel to them and to their children to deny them the 
 privilege. If we could bring back to the service all able-bodied men 
 who are absent, from any cause, we would reanimate our noble armies, 
 and enable them to achieve fresh victories. Sir, this is the great point 
 to which we ought to direct attention. Fill up the army ! It is the 
 best peace measure after all. Fill up the army — it is the great 
 scheme of finance that will regulate our currency. Fill up the army — 
 it will achieve our independence ! 
 
 There Avas "but one moment that a doubt ever bung on my mind as 
 to the final result of this war, and that doubt was soon dispelled by the 
 noble conduct of our army. When the first terms of service of our 
 volunteers was about to expire, the Congress felt it was necessary to 
 conscribe them for two years longer. The necessity was imperious, 
 and we were compelled to meet it. We knew all of our soldiers 
 wanted to go home to see their families ; but we also knew to disband 
 the veteran troops then in the field was to give up the contest. We 
 ■were not unconscious the step we were about to take was a perilous 
 one ; but the public safety demanded it. We passed the law, and 
 without a murmur our neble soldiers stood to their arms. No com- 
 
plaint was heard anywhere except among tlie politicians and those 
 who had never been in the service. 
 
 When "two years more of war had rolled round, and the second term 
 of the soldiers was about to expire — when the Congress had the sub- 
 ject under painful consideration, we were all relieved by glad tidings 
 that came from the army. The soldiers, anticipating th9 act of Con- , 
 gress, had volunteered, or re-enlisted for the war. From that mo- 
 ment I felt all was safe, if we would do our duty. 
 
 I had the honor, sir, to offer the first resolution of thanks to the 
 soldiers for their heroic sacrifice of ease, and all the joys of home, to 
 the good of their country. The example, which all the army speedily 
 followed, first came from my own noble Tennessee, thus reasserting and 
 re-establishing the proud claim of Tennessee of being the " Volunteer 
 State ;" and I lifted my heart in thanks and praise to God that I had 
 the honor, in part, to represent here in the Senate such a people ! 
 
 Sir, we are engaged in the prosecution of a mighty war. It has 
 swelled and grown beyond the dimensions anybody gave to it at the 
 beginning. We have to make up our minds to fight it out unaided, 
 and we will " conquer or perish more proudly alone." We have de- 
 termined to suflfer and endure, and we feel that suffering and endur- 
 ance but purify our hearts, and enable us to make sacrifices that are 
 worthy of the cause in which we are engaged. The spirit of patriot- 
 ism is found in its purest state where the scourge of the oppressor 
 has been most keenly felt. It is then unadulterated, and has been re- 
 fined of its dross, as silver by fire, " The blood of the martyr is the 
 seed of the church," and the plant of patriotism takes root and flour- 
 ishes best in the soil -that has been fertilized by the blood of our sons, 
 and fallowed with the ploughshare of despotism. We may, some- 
 times, under the hope of saving our property, temporize with the 
 enemy, and even listen to degrading terms of reconciliation ; but if 
 that property is destroyed in our sight, our families insulted and 
 driven from their homes, and those homes themselves given to the 
 flames, the remains of them reminding us of the vandalism of the 
 foe, then we begin to burn with a patriot's fire, and are willing to 
 give up all earthly treasures, as being of no value in comparison with 
 the liberty of the country. Many a man is a good patriot without 
 being burpt out, but he is certain to be so afterwards. It is an infal- 
 lible remedy for all who are deficient in love of country, or who " lack 
 gall to make oppression bitter." No man has any idea how cheer- 
 fully the people of the desolated districts of Tennessee have given up 
 all they had, atd how strong is the hope of the future which animates 
 them. Their faith in final success is stronger than the faith of the 
 people where the invader has never been. Thousands of my constit- 
 uents, who have heretofore enjoyed all the luxuries that wealth could 
 purchase, are now eating the bitter bread of exile, or are compelled, 
 by manual labor, to earn the bread they eat; but they murmur not, 
 neither do they complain ; seeming to realize the truth of Holy Writ, 
 that the " rest of the laboring man is sweet." They- submit to the 
 
10 
 
 I 
 
 change of the condition in which they are placed without a Bigh. No 
 groiui breaks from the heart, however loaded it may be by a sense of 
 degradation or of wrong. They say, *' we do not care for the loss of 
 o.ur property, but give us, oh, give us independence to our country, 
 and freedom from Yankee thraldom." They have felt his contaminat- 
 ing touch ; they have felt the degradation that accompanies his su- 
 premacy ; and they fear his rule as the djing sinner fears the tortures 
 of the damned, and pray to be delivered from it as the dying Christian 
 prays to be delivered from the bondage of hell. Oh, sir, it is enough 
 to break one's heart to listen to the recital of their wrongs. Not 
 content with burning mills, dwelling-houfles and factories, the enemy 
 have committed enormities, at the very name of which my heart sick- 
 ens, and which are enough to shdck hiirh heaven and invoke its thun- 
 ders. A refugee from ray own State, recently out, fell in with a 
 neighbor boy wbo had been in the service here in Virginia since Gen- 
 eral Lee's first campaign in the mountains. He had been with him 
 in all his great battles; from Petersburg, along the winding Chick- 
 ahominy, the heroic fields at Manassas, and away to Antietam and 
 Gettysburg, wherever his banner floated or his falchion flashed, and, 
 by the mercy of God, was preserved uninjured. The meeting of the 
 two friends was touching beyond anything [ have ever seen in fiction. 
 The young soldier said to him : *' Tell me quickly the news from 
 home. The old man, my father, is he alive ? is he well ? My mother, 
 my sister, how are 'they ?" *' Oh, sir, the news is too had to tell. 
 The homestead is in ruins; your ageil father was murdered by the 
 vandals on his o^vn heath-stone ; your mother fell broken-hearted on 
 his lifeless corpse; and your sister — oh, 1 cannt)t tell what has hap- 
 pened to her — she is now a wandering maniac !" Can we have a re- 
 union with such monsters in human shape? Forbid it. Almighty G>d ! 
 
 The people of Tennessee have felt the yoke of the oppressor. They 
 know how gallirTg it is to the neck. They have been made to drink 
 the cup of slavery to the dregs, and they know how bitter is che 
 draught. They have been ground under the heel of petty tyrants, 
 and they know what it is to have the iron enter their souls. They 
 hate their oppressors with a concentrated hate which can expire only 
 wifh their lives. The Jews when they were carried away into cap- 
 tivity in Babylon, never looked more anxiously for deliverance thaa 
 they are looking even now for the Confederate army to enter the State, 
 and strike from their limbs their galling chains. They are now, sir, 
 standing on tiptoe, straining their eyes to catch the first gli'mpse of 
 the Confederaie flag as it floats out upon the wild winds free on yon- 
 der hill, and long for its coming as the hunted hart pants for the 
 water brook. 
 
 1 confidently predict, if our at my enters the State and maintains 
 its position there for three months, that its numbers will be doubled. 
 From every hill and valley pur oppressed people will come to our 
 banner as the " leaves come when forests are rended." It is my 
 nightly prayer that my life may be spared till I witness the deliverance 
 
11 
 
 of my noble State and my oppressed people. Tennessee ! Ob, may 
 I be allowed to 
 
 " Raise my exultant head and see 
 Thy hilla, thy daleg, thy people free I 
 That glance of bliss is all I crave 
 Between my labors and my grave!" 
 
 I further predict, Mr. President, if our army goes into Kentucky 
 and stays there three months, and gives to that people any assur- 
 ance that we will hold it and stand by them — if they will unite their 
 fortunes with ns, and make common cause in this great struggle for 
 liberty — the last that ever will be made if wefail ; for if the light of 
 liberty ia extinguished here the gloom of despotiem will be unbroken 
 all over the world ; put out that light and where is the Promethean 
 spark that pan that light relume — if, I say, we will g^ve the people of 
 Kentucky an assurance that we will stand by them, and not, by com- 
 ing ppeedily away, hand them over to the ravenous wolves who will 
 thirst for their blood, thousands will join our army, and re-enact the 
 scenes of the "dork an^ bloody ground," and add new lustre to this, 
 the most memorable struggle in the annals of time, in which Ken- 
 tucky has not as yet, as a State, participated. I do not overestimate 
 it when I predict that fifty thousand as gallant men as ever shouldered 
 a musket or hung a enbre to the thigh, will be added as fre^h recruits 
 to our army from Kentucky and Tennessee. Sir, they constitute the 
 Lest recruiting grounds now in America. The people of both States 
 are now ripe for action, and will coEie to the rescue of our gallant army 
 with alacrity. 
 
 Mr. President, let us be united ; let us work together in this com- 
 mon cause, no matter at what cost of bkod and treasure ; for it is 
 worthy of the sacrifice Let not the future historian record of us : 
 here was a nation that bij'avely spurned " villian bonds and despot 
 sway," and never was conquered by its enemies till from itself it ftll. 
 If there had been no division in North Carolina and Tennessee, we 
 could have sent to the field an army of 4t)n,(IUii men. The mother and 
 the daughter, locking their shields together, could have passed through 
 the land conquering and to conquer. 
 
 It is not too late yet. If all discord were silenced, and the peopl«s 
 of the two States, soldiers and politicians, the men at home and the 
 men in the a^my, could act together as one people, animated by 
 one purpose, and emulous only to excel each other in the race of 
 glory, this war would soon have an end ; indeed, under such a condi- 
 tion of things it never would have had a beginning. It is kept alive 
 by discord now. Is it not mortifying, in a struggle like this, when 
 all hearts should be united in a common effort, that any discordant 
 voices should be raised in carping criticism against the Government, 
 its administration and its President? It is surely task enough lor 
 his worn energies to watch the public enemy, without being forced to 
 .endure the distrustful assaults of friends at home. From the bottom 
 of my heart he has my sympathy in the midst of the great and multi- 
 
12 
 
 plied trials by which he is surrounded; trials that are with him every 
 day and hour, and which haunt his pillow at night, driving sleep 
 from his eye-lids while others are in calm repose. 
 
 Is it fair, or generous, or patriotic, that his opponents should select 
 the darkest hour of gloom that hangs over the country — a gloom 
 which a united voice and effort in this capital would drive away in 
 twenty-four hours — to assail his character and mar his plans ? As 
 though the pilot who stands at the helm in the hour of danger did not 
 have enough to do to watch the storm that is beating mercilessly on 
 his vessel, to hold its head steady to the wind and shun the rocks 
 against which it could not be driven and live, without being harrassed 
 by the railing and the mutiny of the crew ! Thank God, those who' 
 assail him cannot shake him in his steady march in the path of duty; 
 nor can they shake the confidence of the country in him ! Though 
 their words of censure may fall harmlessly at his feet, the^ are caught 
 up by the spies who crawl about the capital and meet us in our pri- 
 vate and public walks, and become winged messengers to the enemy, 
 giving exaggerated accounts of whatever disaffection may prevail 
 here, and encouragement to the enemy to persevere against us, under 
 the hope that domestic discord may unbar the gates they have not 
 been able to force, and weaken the fortress which has hitherto been 
 impregnable to their assaults, and from which their columns have 
 been hurled back in confusion, bleeding and broken. Sir, this habit 
 of assailing the President and the administration is, in my opinion, 
 a habit more honored in the breac|j than the observance. It does in- 
 calculable injury,, and, though it is. not bo intended, gives aid and 
 comfort to the enemy. It is gratifying that no such habit prevails in. 
 the Senate. But notwithstanding all the grumblings and mutterings 
 of disappointed malcontents elsewhere, he is firmly fixed in the hearts 
 of the people ; aye, sir, in their heart of hearts. They put their trust 
 in him, and lean on him while this storm of war is raging over the 
 land as he leans on Heaven for support. 
 
 May he live to bring the vessel safely into port, amid the acclama- 
 tions of all on board and the shouts and loud huzzas of all on the 
 shore. Doubtless he has committed errors, and made grave mistakes 
 in his judgments of men and measures; for everybody and every 
 thing was untried and had to be tested by experience. Did anybody 
 ever expect any thing else ? for is he not human, and is it not human 
 to err? Our own Washington, the purest and greatest of human 
 beings, Avas not exempt from human frailty. • The people have given 
 their confidence to the President of the Confederate States, because 
 they believe he is wise, patriotic and brave ; and, so far as I know, he 
 has done nothing to forfeit their confidence, but a great-deal to increase 
 it. The consequence is, they who assail him do not injure him, but 
 themselves, and. it may be, their Country. Here, sir, is the rub. The 
 country is the chief sufferer. The shafts that are aimed at him fly 
 wide of the mark, passing him harmlessly; but are found quivering 
 in the heart of our bleeding country. 
 
13 
 
 They who throw themselves in the way of a united and vigorous 
 prosecution of this war, from any unjust suspicion of the President, 
 or from any other cause, will repent it in sackcloth and ashes. " Who- 
 soever falls on this rock shall be broken ; and on whomsoever it falls, 
 he shall be ground to powder." In my opinion, we ought to give him 
 a cordial support in all his efforts to safe the country ; not blindly, 
 but patriotically, for the sake of the country. It were better, it seema 
 to me, to direct our thunders against the enemy who is trying to sub- 
 jugate us, rather than pour out our invectives on his head whom tho 
 people have chosen as the pilot to conduct us through the storm. 
 
 It shall be some consolation to me, Mr. President, wheii that storm 
 is over, and our vessel of State is riding on tranquil seas, and " walk- 
 ing the water like a thing of life," with our Confederate flag flying 
 from its mast head, recognized by all nations, and honored and respect- 
 ed in every port around the globe ; when peace and prosperity shall 
 return to bless tlie land ; when our fields shall again smile with the 
 rich productions of agriculture, and the white-winged birds of our 
 commerce shall Oock to every port, carrying our great staples to other 
 lands, and bringing back the luxuries and wealthy of other nations to 
 pour them into our lap ; it shall be some consolation to me then, if I 
 have not upheld the arms of the commander and stimulated the hearts 
 of the crew in a manner commensurato with my great ambition to 
 serve the country Jionestly and to serve it well, that I have at least 
 done nothing to paralyze the one or the other; but, according to the 
 best of ray poor ability, done all I could to sustain the cause, to advance 
 our standard, to brace and strengthen, in the field or in the cabinet, 
 all who honestly try to serve the country and to establish its inde- 
 pendence forever. 
 
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