The Sun.
London, England, 1861-05-22 00:00:00

THE UN, ;_,ONDON, WEDNESDAY EVENING, MAY 22, 1861.
S

VENISON.-T. GROVE, FISHMONGER AND
VENISON DEALER, 33, Charing Cross, has commenced
killing BUCK VENISON for the Season.

OLDRIDGE'S BALM OF COLUMBIA is the
most certain remedy for restoring and strengthening
the hair. By it whiskers and moustaches are produced and
beautified. Ladies will find it especially valuable, as the
most delicate head-dress or bonnet can be worn without fear
of soiling. Sold in bottles, 3s. 6d., 65., and Ils. C. and A.
OLDRIDGE, 22, Wellington-street, Strand.

7
HEATSTONE'S HARMONIUMS (English)
in solid oak cases, manufactured by them expressly
for Churches. Chapels, Schools, &c., have the lull compass of
keys, are of the best quality of tone, best workmanship and
material, and do not require tuning.
Guineas.
New Patent, five octaves, from CC. double pedals 6
With one stop, oak case (reduced price) .
Piano Model, one stop polished(unique wind indicator) 10
With two stops, one set and a half of vibrators, polished 12
With three stops, effective forte stops d0.... 12
Witt, three stops, large size organ tones. d0.... 15
With five stops, two sets of vibrators d0.... 22
With eight stops, two sets of vibrators do. . 21
With ten stops, three sets of vibrators do. .. 30

The best and most effective instrument made.
Prize Medalist, 1851. An extensive assortment of Freud
Harmoniums, by Alexandre, with all' the latest improvements
from 6 guineas ; also Messrs. W. and Co.'s new Piano-Har.
moniums.
Wheatstone and Co., 20, Conduit-street, Regent-street, W.

No. 8, GROSVENOR-STREET, BOND-STREET.
ARTIFICIAL TEETH on a NEW and IM-
PROVED PRINCIPLE.—Mr. ESKELL'S PATENTED
INVENTION (protected by her Majesty's Royal Seal, July,
1860), for adapting Artificial Teeth on Moveable Bases by
Self-adhesion, are. fixed without springs or any fastenings,
without pain or extraction, restore perfect articulation and
mastication, rendering detection impossible, and last a life-
time. "An admirable contrivance for remedying the defects
of nature, without requiring new sets of teeth."—Sun, July
20. " Will doubtless be extensively patronised."—Court Cir-
cular, July 21. "Unrivalled for its utility and economy."—
Morning Post, July 20. Consultations free.—Terms strictly
moderate. 8, Grosvenor-street, Bond-street ; Old Steyne,
Brighton; Bennett's-hill, Birmingham.

In addition to the long-3ontinued and deep-seated
resentment felt by the Southern States at the per-
sistent abuse of the powers they had delegated to
the Congress for the purpose of enriching the
manufacturing and shipping classes of the North
at the expense of the South, there has existed
for nearly half a century another subject of discord,
involving interests of such transcendent magnitude
as at all times to create the apprehension in the
minds of many devoted lovers of the Union that its
permanence was impossible.
When the several States delegated certain powers
to the United States Congress a large portion of the
labouring popula, ion consisted of African slaves im-
ported into colonies by the mother country. In 12
out of the 13 States negro slavery existed, and the
right of property in slaves was protected by law.
This property was recognised in the Constitution,
and provision was made against its loss by the
escape of the slave. The increase in the number of
slaves by further importation from Africa was also
secured by a clause forbidding Congress to prohibit
the slave trade anterior to a certain date ; and in
no clause can there be found any delegation of
power to the Congress authorising it in any manner
to legislate to the prejudice, detriment, or dis-
couragement of the owners of that species of pro-
perty, or excluding it from the protection of the I
Government.

The climate and soil of the Northern States soon
proved unpropitious to the continuance of slave
labour, while the converse was the case atthe South.
Under the unrestricted free intercourse between the
two sections, the Northern States consulted their
own interest by selling their slaves to the South, and
prohibiting slavery within their limits. The South
were willing purchasers of a property suitable to
their wants, and paid the price of the acquisition
without harbouring a suspicion that their quiet
possession was to be disturbed by those who were
inhibited, not only by want of constitutional
authority, but by good faith as lendors, from dis-
quieting a title 'emanating from themselves.
As soon, however, as the Northern States, that
prohibited African slavery within their limits, had
reached a number sufficient to give their represen-
tation a controlling voice in the Congress, a per-
sistent and organised system of hostile measures
against the rights of the owners of slaves in the
Southern States was inaugurated and gradually ex-
tended. A continuous series of measures were devised
and prosecuted for the purpose of rendering inse-
cure the tenure of property in slaves, fanatical orga-
nisations supplied with money by voluntary sub-
scriptions were assiduously engaged in exciting
among the slaves a spirit of discontent and revolt,
means were furnished for their escape from their
owners, and agents secretly employed to entice them
to abscond; the constitutional provision for their
relation to their owners was first evaded, then
openly announced as a conscientious violation of
obligation and religious duty ; men were taught
that it was a merit to elude, disobey, and violently
oppose the execution of the laws enacted to secure
the performance of the promise in the constitutional
compact; owners of slaves were mobbed and even
murdered in open day, solely for applying to a
magistrate for the arrest of a fugitive slave; the
dogmas of these voluntary organisations soon ob-
tained control of the Legislatures of many of the
Northern States, and laws were passed providing
for the punishment by ruinous fines and long-con-
tinued imprisonment in gaols and penitentiaries of
citizens of the Southern States who should dare to
ask aid of the officers of the law for the recovery of
their property. Emboldened by success, the theatre
of agitation and aggression against the clearly ex-
pressed constitutional rights of the Southern States
was transferred to the Congress ; senators and re-
presentatives were sent to the common councils of
the nation, whose chief title to this distinction con-
sisted in the display of a spirit of ultra fanaticism,
and whose business was not "to promote the gene-
ral welfare or insure domestic tranquillity," but to
awaken the bitterest hatred against the citizens of
sister States by violent denunciations of their insti-
tutions; the transaction of public affairs was im-
peded by repeated efforts to usurp powers not dele-
gated by the constitution, for the purpose of im-
pairing the security of property in slaves, and
reducing those States which held slaves to a
condition of inferiority. Finally, a great party
was organised for the purpose of obtaining
the administration of the Government with the
avowed object of using its power for the total
exclusion of the Slave States from all participa-
tion in the benefits of the public domain, acquired
by all the States in common, whether by conquest
or purchase; of surrounding them entirely by States
in which slavery should be prohibited ; of thus ren-
dering the property in slaves so insecure as to be
comparatively worthless, and thereby annihilating
in effect property worth thousands of millions of
dollars. This party thus organised succeeded, in
the month of November last, in the election of its
candidate for the Presidency of the United States.

In the meantime, under the mild and genial cli-
mate of the Southern States, and the increasing care
and attention for the wellbeing and comfort of the
labouring class, dictated alike by interest and hu-
manity, the African slaves had augmented in num-
ber from about 600,000, at the date of the adoption
of the constitutional compact, to upwards of four
million. In moral and social condition they had
been elevated from brutal savages into docile, intel-
ligent, and civilised agricultural labourers, and sup-
plied not only with bodily comforts, but with care-
ful religious instruction. Under the supervision of
a superior race their labour had been so directed as
not only to allow a gradual and marked ameliora-
tion of their own condition, but to convert hundreds
of thousands of square miles of the wilderness into
cultivated lands, covered with a prosperous people;
towns and cities had sprung into existence, and had
rapidly increased in wealth and population under
the social system of the South ; the white popula-
tion of the Southern slaveholding States had aug-
mented from about 1,250,000, at the date of the
adoption of the Constitution, to more than 8,500,000
in 1860, and the productions of the South in cotton,
rice, sugar, and tobacco, for the full development
and continuance of which the labour of African
slaves was and is indispensable, had swollen to an
amount which formed nearly three-fourths of the
exports of the whole United States, and become ab-
solutely necessary to the wants of civilised man.
overwhelmingdnttehreesptseeopflesuecfhtheseutherh
States magnitude
w erwere
imWperitihllei
driven by the conduct the North
of
to the adoption
of some course of action to avert the danger with
which they were openly menaced. With this view
the Legislature of the several States invited the
people to select delegates to conventions to be held
for the purpose of determining for themselves what
measures were best adapted to meet so alarming a
crisis in their history.
Here it may be proper to observe that from a
period as early as 1798 there had existed in all the
States of the Union a party almost uninterruptedly
in the majority, based upon the creed that each State
was, in the last resort, the sole judge as well of its
wrongs as of the mode and measure of redress. In-
deed it is obvious that under the law of nations this
principle is an axiom as applied to the relations of
independent sovereign States such as those which
had united themselves under the constitutional com-
pact. The Democratic party in the United States
repeated in its successful canvass in 1856 the declara-
tion made in numerous previous political contests,
that it would " faithfully abide by and uphold the
principles laid down in the Kentucky and Virginia
resolutions of 1798, and in the report of Mr. Madi-
son to the Virginia Legislature in 1799 ; and that
it adopts those principles as constituting one of the
main foundations of its political creed.'
The principles thus emphatically announced em-
brace that to which I have already adverted, the
right of each State to j udge of and redress the wrongs
of which it complains. The principles were main-
tained-by overwhelming majorities of the people of
all the States of the Union at different elections,
especially in the election of Mr. Jefferson in 1805,
Mr. Madison in 1809, and Mr. Pierce in 1852.
In the exercise of a right so ancient, so well estab-
lished, and so necessary for self-preservation, the
people of the Confederate States in their Conven-
tions determined that the wrongs which they had
suffered and the evils with which they were menaced
required that they should revoke the delegation of
powers to the Federal Government which they had
ratified in their several Conventions. They conse-
quently passed ordinances resuming g all their rights
as sovereign and independent States, and dissolved
their connexion with the other States of the Union.
Having done this, they proceeded to form a new
compact among themselves, by new articles of con-
federation, which have been also ratified by the
Conventions of the several States, with an approach
to" Unanimity far exceeding that of the Convention
which adopted the Constitution of 1787. They
have organised their new Government in all its de-
partments ; the functions of the executive, legisla-
tive, and judicial magistrates are performed in ac-
cordance with the will of the people, as displayed
not merely in cheerful acquiescence, but in the en-
thusiastic support of the Government 'thus esta-
blished by themselves ; and, but for the interference
of the Government of the United States in this legi-
exerein of the right of a people to solfiok

vernment, peace, happiness, and prosperity would
now smile on our land.
That peace is ardently desired by this Govern-
ment and people has been manifested in every pos-
sible form. Scarce had you assembled in February
last when, prior even to the Inauguration of the
Chief Magistrate you had elected, you passed a re-
solution expressive of your desire for the appoint.
ment of commissioners to be sent to the Govern-
ment of the United States, " for the purpose of ne-
gotiating friendly relations between that Govern-
ment and the Confederate States of America, and
for the settlement of all questions of disagreement
between the two Governments upon principles of
right, justice, equity, .and good faith."
It was my pleasure, as well as my duty, to co-
operate with you in this work of peace. Indeed, in
my address to you on taking the oath of office, and
before receiving from you the communication of
this resolution, I had said, "as a necessity, not a
choice, we have resorted to the remedy of separa-
tion, and henceforth our energies must be directed
to the conduct of our own affairs and the perpetuity
of the Confederacy which we have formed. If a
just perception of mutual interest shall permit us
peaceably to pursue our separate political career,
my most earnest desire will have been fulfilled."
It was in furtherance of these accordant
views of the Congress and the Executive that
I made choice of three discreet, able,
and distinguished citizens, who repaired to
Washington. Aided by their cordial co-operation,
and that of the Secretary of State, every effort
compatible with self-respect and the dignity of the
Confederacy was exhausted before I allowed myself
to yield to the conviction that the Government of
the United States was determined to attempt the
conquest of this people, and that our cherished hopes
of peace were unattainable.
On the arrival of our Commissioners in Washing-
ton on the sth of March they postponed, at the sug-
gestion of a friendly intermediary, doing more than
giving in formal notice of their arrival. This was
done with a view to afford time to the President,
who had just been inaugurated, for the discharge
of other pressing official duties in the organisation
of his Administration, before engaging his atten-
tion in the object of their mission. It was not until
the 12th of the month that they officially addressed
the Secretary of State, informing him of the pur-
pose of their arrival, and stating in the language
of their instructions their wish to make to the
Government of the United States overtures for the
opening of negotiations, assuring the Government
of the United States that the President, Congress,
and people of the Confederate States earnestly desire
a peaceful solution of these great questions ; that it
is neither their interest nor their wish to make any
demand which is not founded on strict justice, nor
do any act to injure their late confederates.
To this communication no formal reply was re-
ceived until April 8. During the interval the Com-
missioners had consented to waive all questions of
form. With the firm resolve to avoid war if pos-
sible, they went so far even as to hold, during that
long period, unofficial intercourse, through an in-
termediary,
whose high position and character in-
spired
the hope of success, and through whom con-
stant assurances were received from the Government
of the United States of peaceful intentions of the de-
termination to evacuate Fort Sumter, and further
that no measure changing the existing status pre-
judicially to the Confederate States, especially at
'Fort Pickens, was in contemplation, but that in the
event of any change of intention on the subject notice
would be given to the Commissioners. The crooked
paths of diplomacy can scarcely furnish an example
so wanting in courtesy, in candour and directness,
as was the course of the United States Government
towards our Commissioners in Washington. For
proof of this I refer to the annexed documents
marked --, taken in connexion with other facts
which I now proceed to relate.
Early in April the attention of the whole coun-
try, as well as that of our Commissioners, was at-
tracted to extraordinary preparations for an exten-
sive military and naval expedition in New York
and other Northern ports. These preparations, com-
menced in secrecy for an expedition whose destina-
tion was concealed, only became known when
nearly completed, and on the sth, 6th, and 7th of
April transports and vessels of war, with troops,
munitions,and military supplies sailed from Northern
ports bound southwards. Alarmed by so extraordi-
nary a demonstration, the Commissioners requested
the delivery of an answer to their official communi-
cation of the 12th of March, and thereupon received,
on the Bth of April, a reply dated on the 15th of
the previous month, from which it appears that
during the whole interval, while the Commissioners
were receiving assurances calculated to inspire hopes
of the success of their mission, the Secretary. of
State and the President of the United States had
already determined to hold no intercourse with
them whatever—to refuse even to listen to any pro-
posals they had to make, and had profited by the
delay created by their own selfishness in order to
prepare secretly the means for effective hostile
operations.
That these assurances were given has been vir-
tually confessed by the Government of the United
States, by its sending a messenger to Charleston to
give notice of its purpose to use force if opposed in
its intention of supplying Fort Sumter. No more
striking proof of the absence of good faith in the con-
duct of the Government of the United States towards
this Confederacy can be required than is eontained in
the circumstances which accompanied this notice.
According to the usual course of navigation, the
vessels composing the expedition designed for the
relief of Fort Sumter might be expected to reach
Charleston harbour on the 9th of April ; yet, with
our Commissioners actually in Washington, de-
tained under assurances that notice should be given
of any military movement, the notice was not ad-
dressed to them, but a messenger was sent to Charles-
ton to give the notice to the Governor of South Ca-
rolina, and the notice was so given at a late hour on
the Bth of April, the eve of the very day on which
the fleet might be expected to arrive. That this
manoeuvre failed in its purpose was not the fault of
those who contrived it. A heavy tempest delayed
the arrival of the expedition, and gave time to the
commander of our forces at Charleston to ask and
receive the instructions of this Government. Even
then, under all the provocation incident to the con-
temptuous refusal to listen to our Commissioners
and the tortuous course of the Government of the
United States, I was sincerely anxious to avoid the
effusion of blood, and directed a proposal to be
made to the commander of Fort Sumter, who had
avowed himself to be nearly out of provisions, that
we would abstain from directing our fire on Fort
Sumter if he would promise not to open fire on our
forces unless first attacked. This proposal was re-
fused, and the conclusion was reached that the
design of the United States was to place the be-
sieging force at Charleston between the simultane-
ous fire of the fleet and the fort. There remained,
therefore, no alternative but to direct that the fort
should at once be reduced. This order was executed
by General Beauregard, with the skill and success
which were naturally to be expected from the well-
known character of that gallant officer; and al-
though the bombardment lasted but 33 hours, our
flag did not wave over its battered walls until after
the appearance of the hostile fleet off Charleston.
Fortunately, not a life was lost on our side, and we
were gratified in being spared the necessity of a use-
less effusion of blood by the prudent caution of the
officers who commanded the fleet, in abstaining from
the evidently futile effort to enter the harbour for
the relief of Major Anderson. I refer to the report
of the Secretary of War, and the papers which ac-
company it, for furtherdetails of the brilliant affair.

In this connexion I cannot refrain from a well-de-
served tribute to the noble State, the eminent sol-
dierly qualities of whose people were so conspicuously
displayed in the port of Charleston. For months
they had been irritated by the spectacle of a for-
tress held within their principal harbour, as a
standing menace against their peace and indepen-
dence. Built in part with their own money, its
custody confided with their own consent to an
agent who held no power over them other than
such as they had themselves delegated for their
own benefit, intended to be used by that agent for
their own protection against foreign attack, they
saw it held with persistent tenacity as a means of
offence against them by the very Government
which they had established for their protection.
They had beleaguered it for months—felt entire
confidence in their power to capture it—yet yielded
to the requirements of discipline, curbed their im-
patience, submitted without complaint to the un-
accustomed hardships, labours, and privations of
a protracted siege ; and when at length their
patience was rewarded by the signal for attack,
and success had crowned their steady and
gallant conduct—even in the very moment
of triumph—they evinced a chivalrous re-
gard for the feelings of the brave but unfortu-
nate officer who had been compelled to lower his
flag. All manifestations of exultation were checked
in his presence. Their commanding General, with
their cordial approval and the consent of his Go-
vernment, refrained from imposing any terms that
could wound the sensibilities of the commander of
the fort. He was permitted to retire with the
honour of war—to 04* btutloa, to depart [MIT