The Sun.
London, England, 1861-12-25 00:00:00

THE SOUTHERN STATES.

Mr. Maury, who is so well known to all naviga-
ors and to all scientific men, has addressed a long

letter to Admiral Fitzroy, containing an apology
for the step he has taken of resigning his post at
the Washington Observatory, and devoting himself
to the cause of his compatriots of the South. Mr.
Maury's history of the grievances of the Southern
States is much too elaborate for our columns, bat
the following extracts contain nearly all that re-
lates to the present state of the conflict :--
" President Lincoln has, by his awn mere dic-
tum, and that of his lieutenants, suspended the writ
of habeas corpus. He has muzzled the press and
abridged the freedom of speech. He has, without
authority of law, and against the Constitution,
which he is sworn to defend and support, plunged
the country into war, murdered our citizens, burnt
our houses, and is wasting their substance. He
has, without warrant, seized unoffending citizens,
and, without acquainting them with the nature of
their offence, has imprisoned them in loathsome
dungeons. He has set aside the civil authorities
and declared martial law to rule in their stead, and
under the tyrant's plea he is proceeding to do a great
many acts and things which would more become the
savage and the brute. He has sent against us an
army, and provided them with manacles to bind us
in his prisons. His Zouaves who fell at Manassas
were equipped with halters already adjusted for
our necks and the lamp-post; and, first having
treated medicines, drugs, and surgical instruments
as contraband of war, he leaves after defeat in bat-
tle his wounded to be cared for by us whom he
had sought to deprive of remedies. After his
defeat at the battle of Bull's Run, he sent
neither flag to bury his dead nor physicians to treat
his wounded. In short Lincoln and his myrmidons
are preparing to enact upon us the scenes of La
Vendee in the French Revolution.

"Though not so mighty in numbers noiso rich in
warlike supplies as the enemy, we are 8,000,000 of
people thrice armed, in that our quarrel is just.
Fighting for our homes, we are mighty in battle.
In mere lust the enemy is fighting for power and
conquest ; we, for firesides, the graves of our
fathers, dear life, and all that is precious to the
heart and to civilization. Our cause is holy ; theirs
hellish. We cannot, we will not be subjugated.
" The contrast is frequently drawn by our old
men between the conduct of the English in the war
of 1812 and the conduct of the hordes of Lincoln
now. The English invaded us, but respected the
property and regarded the rights of unarmed
citizens. The same counties have been invaded
by Lincoln. He has devastated and laid them
waste, and for what? Why, simply to compel
us to submit to his gouvernance. Suppose he
should succeed, would not success overturn the
whole fabric of the Constitution P The Re-
public was founded on the consent of the governed.
Failing in this, it is no longer either a Republic or
any other form of government that has at its foun-
dation the will of the people. It is a tyranny. We
want nothing of the North. We choose not to sub-
mit to Northern domination; we are fighting simply
to be let alone, and to be permitted to govern our-
selves in our own way. „

" The South presents the remarkable spectacle of
an army having in its ranks the first men and best
talents of the country. To subdue or conquer such
an army is simply an impossibility, for its soldiers
are fighting for all that makes life dear to them. I
fight with a price upon my head and a halter around
my neck. Nor I alone, bat every man of mark or
substance among us. Lincoln's men are not made
of such stuff; for they are for the most part mere
hirelings, and their armies in battle are strength-
ened by no such hope and moved by no such fears
as those which inspire us. They talk of a recon-
struction of the Government and a reunion of the
people. Simply, and in a few words, reannexation
to the British Crown is more possible.

" I very much desire that the friends of free go-
vernment in Europe should be correctly informed
as to the true state of things with us ; for your in-
formation being chiefly derived through our ene-
mies, it is of course onesided, and generally, also, it
is not only erroneous, but wilfully mendacious. The
papers at-the North that plead our cause, or dare
tell the truth about this war, are suppressed by
Lincoln's mere sic jubco. A large majority of us,
they would have you believe, are opposed to seces-
sion and this war. Saving some of the Western
counties of this State, and a few in East Tennessee,
1 have never known the people so united upon any
subject. The women, if possible, are more enthu-
siastic than the men ; they are of one mind, and the
clergy are as earnest as the women. In the week
the clergy are, of their own free will, drilling and
being drilled to arms ; their churches are given up
to the women, who, with needles and sewing
machines, congregate there to make clothing
for the soldiers. On Sundays, from the pulpit,
the holiness of the war and the righteous-
ness of our cause are preached to the people.
In battles you find clergymen among the foremost
of the fight. We have on our side a bishop for a
general, holy divines for colonels, majors, captains,
and soldiers in the ranks. Never was a people more
united and in earnest than the people of the Con-
federate States are at this moment.

" Yes, you have heard something too of our starv-
ing—of our inability to produce breadstuffs and
provisions encugh for our own use, &c. To make
you believe that would be requiring you to renounce
your belief in physical geography, for that shows
that within the Confederate States we have the
finest of climates : our lands are unsurpassed in fer-
tility ; we are a grazing, and a farming, and a plant-
ing people. Educated in the South, I never saw a
beggar until I entered the Navy and went to New
York. Such is the habitual abundance that the
very few poor who are found among us are pro-
vided for without calling on the people for poor-
rates. Our Southern laws recognise no such tax.
The staples of Georgia are cotton and rice, yet the
census shows that according to population Georgia
furnishes as much wheat as New York,
and New York is one of the wheat-growing States
of the North. Never have the grain crops of the
South been more abundant than they now are. The
blockade of our ports, admitting it to be effectual
would not interfere: with us as to any of the neces-
saries of life. It may cut off our supplies of tea and
coffee, and the various articles of merchandise that
we have been accustomed to receive from abroad;
hut this does not amount even to 9 privation, for we
submit to these wants as a self-denial and a disci-
pline that is all for our good.
" I see no end to this wicked and savage war as
long as the arch spirits which surround Lincoln re-
main in power. Before and after every battle
we hold out the olive branch, demanding simply,
' Let us go.' We do not desire to subjugate or
invade his people. -We are simply trying to cut
loose from them, and to have nothing to do with
them or their institutions one way or the other. As
a proof which we wished to give them and the
world of our forbearance and sincerity, behold
the movements of the enemy since the
battle of Manassas. Wo have not been disposed

to follow up that single victory by a single act of
invasion. Rely upon it, the old Union is irretriev-
ably gone, and secession is rapidly gaining ground.
The thinking men in several of the free States are
daily beginning to cast about for fresh compacts,
for new political and social combinations; and among
the new developments which the morrow may bring
forth be not surprised to find Pennsylvania and,
perhaps, New Jersey, seeking admission into our
new Republic, as one ;of the States of the Confede-
racy."