The Sun.
London, England, 1864-11-08 00:00:00

The Southern Confederacy,

The Columbia South Carolinian gives the fol-
lowing detailed report of the speech delivered at
that place on Oct, 4 by Jeff. Davis :

" Ladies and Gentlemen of the metropolis of South Caro-
lina—Your mayor has welcomed me to your home. I re-
ceive his greeting with that gratitude which one only feels
when he hears expressed the language of commendation
from those whose silence would have made him realise that
his conduct had been bad indeed. If, in this great struggle
for the rights of the. States and the liberties of the people to
secure the possession of which, and to transmit which to us
our fathers of the revolution shed their blood, South Caro-
lina, who has stood for 30 years in the vanguard, should
give him who asserted these rights no word of well-done,
he might turn convinced that he had failed as a public ser-
vant to perform his mission, and, as a man, had proven un-
able to cope with the responsibility of his position. There-
fore it is, Mr Mayor and fellow- citizens of Columbia, that I
feel heartily grateful for the welcome receivel at your
hands. South Carolina has struggled nobly in the war, and
suffered many sacrifices. There is, indeed, no portion ofour
island where the pall of mourning has not been spread; but
I thank the Giver of all Good that our people still remain
firm there, above all other places. I am told there have been
none to waver and none to doubt. It often happens that at
a distance from a scene of action men who, if present,
would easily measure it, magnify danger, until at last
those become despondent whose hearts, if actually stirred
by perils, would no sooner think of shrinking from the
prompt performance of duty than the gallant sons of
Carolina, whose blood has so generously flowed on the
many battlefields of this war. But if there be any one
who feel that our cause is in danger, that final success may
not crown our efforts, that we are not stronger today than
when we began the struggle, that we are not able to con-
tinue the supplies to our armies and to our people, let all
such read a contradiction in the smiling face of our land,and
the teeming evidences of plenty which everywhere greet
the eye; let them go to those places where brave men are
standing in front of the foe, and there receive the assurance
that we shall have final success, and that every man who
does not live to see his country bee will see a freeman's
grave. (Applause.) There are those who, like the Israelites
of old, are longing to turn back to the flesh pots they have
left; who have thought there still may have been some fea-
sible mode of reconciliation, and are even willing to rush
into a reconstruction of the Union. Such, I am glad to I
know, do not flourish on the soil of South Carolina.
Such cannot be tho sentiments of any man in the Con-
federate States, if he would only recollect that from the
heginning down to the present hour your Government has
made every effort within its power to avoid a collision of
arras in the first instance, and since then to obtain every
possible means of settlement honourable to ourselves, based
on a recognition of our independence. First, we sent com-
missioners to ask on what terms the quarrel could be ad-
justed, and since that time we have proclaimed in every
public paper our desire for peace. Insolently our every
effort has been met. The Vice-President of the t,ocfederate
States was refused a passport to the North when his object
was negotiation—that means by which all wars must be ter-
minated. The door was rudely shut in our faces. Interven-
tion and recognition by foreign States, so long anticipated,
have proved an ignis fatuus- There is, then but one means
by which you can hope to gain independence and an hon-
ourable peace, and that is by uniting with harmony, energy,
and determination in fighting those great battles and achiev-
ing those great victories which will teach the world that
we can defend our rights, and the Yankee nation that it is
death to invade them. (Applause.) With every Confede-
rate victory cur stocks rise in the foreign market—that
touchstone of European sentiment. With every noble
achievement that influences the public mind abroad you
are taking one step forward, and bringing foreign nations
one step nearer your aid in recognising and lending you
friendly intervention, whenever they are satisfied that, in-
tervention or no intervention, the Confederacy can sustain
itself. Does any one believe that Yankees are to be cone
ciliated by terms of concession ? Does any man imagine
that we can conquer the Yankees by retreating before them,
or do you not all know that the only way to make spaniels
civil is to whip them ? And you can whip them, if all the
men capable of bearing arms will do their duty by taking
t heir places under the standard of their country, before the
veteran troops of the North receive the fresh increment
which is being gathered in the Northern States. Now is the
good and accepted time for every man to rally to the stand-
ard of his country, and crush the invader upon her soil ; and
this, I believe, is in your power. If every man fit to bear
anus will place himself in the ranks with those who are
there already, we shall not battle in vain, and our achieve-
ments will be grand, final, and complete. Is this a time to
ask what the law demands of you—to inquire whether or
not you are exempt under the law, cr to ask if the magis-
trate will take you out of the enrolling-office by a writ of
habeas corpus Y Rather is it not the time for every man
My country needs my ser-
cvatepeasb,lemoyf bearingcountry
arms
shall
haveto satyh, e m ?
When your heroic
fathers, the Whigs of the Revolution, fought in that war
which secured your birthright,their armies werenot gathered
by asking who can be forced into the field, but Who are
able to fight? No man was too old and no boy too young
if he had the physical capacity to enter ranks of the army.
In the days of the Revolution the boy left his paternal roof
only to return to its blacleened ruins. He grew to manhood
among its struggles—and may not your country claim
similar service from the youth or the present day ? Like
them, you must emulate the glory of your sires. Say not
that you are unequal to the task, for
I believe that our
people are even better than were our honoured ancestors.
They have fought more and bloodier battles, and there are
fewer who are lukewarm in the cause now than existed in the
dee s of the Revolution. What a glorious reflection it is that
wherever the tide of -war has rolled its devastating wave
over the land just there do you find every heart beat-
ing true to the Confederacy, strengthened, as it were by
vicissitudes, and every woman ready to share her last
loaf with the soldier who is fighting for our rights. A
plan of negotiation has been offered for consideraeion—a
plan of negotiation by States. Well, it is not easy to see
on what terms the States can negotiate. In the first place,
they have no constitutional power to do so ; in the second
place, Mr Lincoln has said that he will not negotiate wi h
them unless they can control the army, and they can only
controltreatycontrarythe
they have instituted. But, suppose this were possible, what
aro the terms offered ? It you will acknowledge your crime
lay down your arms, emancipate your slaves, and turn over
your leaders—as they call your humble servant—to be pu-
nished, then you will have permission to vote together with
your negroes upon the terms under which Mr Lincoln will
be graciously pleased to allow you to live as a part of the
nation over which he presides. If there ho a man within
the sound of my voice who contemplates such a proposition
I pity him from the bottom of my heart. My only wish is
that he was north of the dividing line. His is not the
spirit that animated our fathers, and he is not fit to exist
among the men who are now porilling their lives in the
cause in which wo are now engaged,
for he who is so slavish
cannot be trusted with the sacred guardianship of the wi-
dows and orphans of the soldiers who have died in battle.
I have just returned from that army from which we have
had the saddest accounts—the array of Tennessee—and I
am able to bear to you words of good cheer, That army
has increased in strength since the fall of Atlanta. It has
risen in tone—its march is onward, its face looking to the
front. So far as lam able to judge General Hood's stras
tegy has been good, and his conduct has been gallant. His
eye is now fixed upon a point far beyond that where ho was
assailed by the enemy. He hopes soon to have his hand
upon Sherman's line of communications, and to fix it
where he can hold it. And if but a half—nay, one-
fourth—of the men to whom the service has a right
will give him their strength, I see no chaulnce for Sher-
. I
man to escape from a defeat or a disgracef
therefore hope, in view of all the contingencies of war, with
all the confidence which I found in tleo army, that within
thirty days that army, which has so boi sstfully taken up its
winter quarters in the heart of the Confederacy, will be in
search of a crossing on the Tennessee Itiv, That our army
retreated far was but a natural precursor of thatta
sI aye despon-
dencyu
which.spread itself over the countio7 ; h
aroached the region occupied by our troops the hope in-
creased, until at last I found in the army the acme of con-
fidence itself. General Beauregard, so ye ell known to you
all, is going there with a general CDTlimand, which will
enable him to concentrate all the troops that can be made
available for the public defence, I, therefore, say be of good
cheer, for I hope that brighter intelligences will soon reach