The Sun.
London, England, 1861-09-03 00:00:00

211E''SAGE OF PRESIDENT DA VIS.

On the 20th of July, the eve of the Battle of
Bull's Run, President Davis delivered a Message to
the Congress of the Confederate States. The Mes-
sage begau as follows :

Gentlemen,—My message addressed to you at
the commencement of the session, contained such
full information of the state of the Confederacy as
to render it unnecessary that I should now do more
than call your attention to such important facts as
have occurred during the recess, and to matters
connected with the public defence.
I have again to congratulate you on the acces-
sion of new members to our Confederation of free,
equal, and Sovereign States. Our loved and
honoured brethren of North Carolina and Tennessee
have consummated the action, foreseen and pro-
vided for at your last session, and I have had the
gratification of announcing, by proclamation, in
conformity with law, that these States were ad-
mitted into the Confedetation.

The people of Virginia, also, by a majority pre-
viously unknown in her history, have ratified the
action of her Convention, uniting her fortunes
with ours. The States of Arkansas, North Caro-
lina, and Virginia have likewise adopted the per-
manent constitution of the Confederate States, and
no doubt is entertained of its adoption by Tennessee
at the election to be held early next month.
I deemed it advisible to direct the removal of the
several executive departments, with their archives,
to this city, to which you had removed the seat of
Government, immediately after your adjournment.
The aggressive movements of the enemy required
prompt and energetic action. The accumulation of
his forces on the Potomac sufficiently demonstrated
that his efforts were to be directed against Virginia ;
and from no point could the necessary measures for
her defence and protection be so efficiently directed
as from her own capital.
The rapid progress of events for the last few
weeks has fully sufficed to strip the veil behind
which the true policy and purposes of the Govern-
ment of the United States had been previously con-
cealed ; their odious features now stand fully re-
vealed : the Message of their President and the
action of their Congress during the present month,
confess the intention of subjugating these States by
a war, whose folly is equalled by its wickedness—
a war by which it is impossible to attain the pro-
posed result, whilst its dire calamities, not to be
avoided by us, will fall with double severity on
themselves.

Mr. Davis proceeds to reply to Mr. Lincoln's recent
Message in some detail, and after threatening reta-
liation for the " barbarities" alleged to be committed
by the Northern troops, and expressing sympathy
for the Border Slave States, he concludes :

The operations in the field will be greatly ex-
tended by reason of the policy which, heretofore
secretly entertained, is now avowed and acted on
by the United States. The forces hitherto raised
proved ample for the defence of the seven States,
which originally organised the Confederacy, as is
evinced by the fact that with the exception of three
fortified islands, whose defence is efficiently aided
by a preponderating naval force, the enemy has
been driven completely out of those States; and
now, at the expiration of five months from the
formation of the Government, not a single
hostile foot presses their soil. These forces, how-
ever, must necessarily prove inadequate to repel
the invasion by half a million of men, now. proposed
by the enemy ; and a corresponding increase in our
forces will become necessary. The recommendations
for the raising and efficient equipment of this addi-
tional force will be contained in the communication
of the Secretary of War, to which I need scarcely
invite your earnest attention.
In my message delivered in April last I referred
to the promise of abundant crops with which we
were cheered. The grain crops generally have since
been harvested, and the yield has proven to be the
most abundant known in our history. Many believe
the supply adequate to two Teals' consumption of
our population. Cotton, sugar, and tobacco, form-
ing the surplus production of our agriculture, and
furnishing the basis of our commercial interchanges,
present the most cheering promise ; and a kind
Providence has smiled on the labour which extracts
the teeming wealth of cur soil in all portions of our
Confederacy.
It is the more gratifying to be able to give you
this assurance, because of the need of a large and
increased expenditure in the support of our army.
Elevated and purified by the sacred cause they
maintain, our fellow-citizens of every condition in
life exhibit the most self-sacrificing devotion. They
manifest a laudable pride of upholding their inde-
pendence, unaided by any resources other than their
own ; and the immense wealth which a fertile soil
and genial climate have accumulated in this Con-
federacy of agriculturists could not be more strik-
ingly displayed than in the large revenues which,
with eager zeal, they have contributed at the call
of their country. In the single article of cotton
the subscriptions to the loan proposed by the Go-
vernment cannot fall short of 50,000,000 dols.,
and will probably largely exceed that sum; and
scarcely an article required for the consumption of
the army is provided otherwise than by subscriptions
to the produce loan so happily devised by your
wisdom. The Secretary of the Treasury, in the
report submitted to you by him, will give you the
amplest details connected with that branch of the
public service.

But it is not alone in their prompt pecuniary con-
tributions that the noble race of freemen who inhabit
these States evince how worthy they are of the