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

TIRE SOUTHERN CONFEDERACY.

The following is the Message of Jefferson Davis
:o the Provisional Congress :
GENTLEMEN OF THE CONGRESS, .

It is my pleasing duty to announce to you that
the Constitution framed for the establishment of a
permanent Government for the Confederate States
has been ratified by Conventions in each of those
States in which it was referred. To inaugurate the
Government to its full proportions and upon its own
substantial basis of the popular will it only remains
that elections should be held for the designation of
the officers to administer it.

There is every reason to believe that at no distant
day other States, identified in political principles
and community of interests with these which you
represent, will join this Confederacy, giving to its
typical constellation increased splendour; to its go-
vernment of free, equal, and sovereign States a
wider sphere of usefulness; and to the friends of
constitutional liberty a greater security for its har-
monious and perpetual existence.
It was not, however, for the purpose of making
this announcement that I have deemed it my duty
to convoke you at an earlier day than that fixed by
yourselves for your meeting. The declaration of
war made against this Confederacy by Abraham
Lincoln, the President of the United States, in his
proclamation issued on the 15th day of the present
month, rendered it necessary, in my judgment, that
you should convene at the earliest practicable mo-
ment to devise measures necessary for the defence
of the country.
The occasion is, indeed, an extraordinary one. It
justifies me in a brief review of the relations here-
tofore existing between us and the States which
now unite in warfare against us, and in a succinct
statement of the events which have resulted in this
warfare ; to the end that mankind may pass intel-
ligent and impartial judgment on its motives and
objects.
During the war waged against Great Britain by
her colonies on this continent a common danger im-
pelled them to a close alliance, and to the formation
of a Confederation by the terms of whiclO the colo-
nies, styling themselves States, entered " severally
into a firm league of friendship with each other for
their common defence, the security of their liberties,
and their mutual and general welfare, binding
themselves to assist each other against all force
offered to or attacks made upon them, or any of
them, on account of religion, sovereignty, trade, or
any other pretence whatever."
In order to guard against any misconstruction of
their compact, the several States made explicit de-
claration, in a distinct article, that " each State re-
tains its sovereignty, freedom, and independence,and
every power, jurisdiction, and right which is not by
this Confederation expressly delegated to the United
States in Congress assembled."

Under this contract of alliance the war of the
Revolution was successfully waged, and resulted in
the treaty of peace with Great Britain in 1783, by
the terms of which the several States were, each by
name, recognized to be independent.
The Articles of Confederation contained a clause
whereby all alterations were prohibited, unless con-
firmed by the Legislatures of every State, after
being agreed to by the Congress ; and, in obedience
to this provision, under the resolution of Congress of
the 21st of February, 1787, the several States ap-
pointed delegates, who attended a Convention " for
the sole and express purpose of revising the Articles
of Confederation, and reporting to Congress and
the several Legislatures such alterations and pro-
visions therein as shall, when agreed to in Con-
gress, and confirmed by the States, render the
Federal Constitution adequate to the exigencies
of Government and the preservation of the Union."
It was by the delegates chosen by the several
States, under the resolution just quoted, that the
Constitution of the United States was framed in

1787, and submitted to the several States foTratifi-
cation, as shown by the seventh article, which is in
these words:—

"The ratification of the Conventions of nine States
shall be sufficient for the establishment of this Con-
stitution between the States so ratifying the same."
The Constitution of 1787 having, however,
omitted the clause already recited from the articles
of Confederation which provided in explicit terms
that each State retained its sovereignty and inde-
pendence, some alarm was felt in the States when
invited to ratify the Constitution, lest this omission
should be construed into an abandonment of their
cherished principle, and they refused to be satisfied
until amendments were added to the Constitution,
placing beyond any pretence of doubt the reserva-
tion by the States of all their sovereign rights and
powers, not expressly delegated to the United
States by the Constitution.
I have italicised certain words in the quotations,
just made, for the purpose of attracting attention to
the singular and marked caution with which the
States endeavoured, in every possible form, to ex-
clude the idea that the separate and independent
sovereignty of each State was merged into one com-
mon Government and nation, and the earnest desire
they evinced to impress on the Constitution its true
character—that of a compact between independent
States.
Strange indeed must it appear to the impartial
observer, but it is none the less true, that all these
carefully-worded clauses proved unavailing to pre-
vent the rise and growth in the Northern States of
a political school which has persistently claimed
that the Government thus formed was not a com-
pact between States, but was, in effect, a national
Government, set up above and over the States. An
organisation, created by the States to secure the
blessings of liberty and independence against foreign
aggression, has been gradually perverted into a
machine for their control in their domestic affairs ;
the creature had been exalted above its creators ;
the principals have been made subordinate to the
agent appointed by themselves.
The people of the Southern States, whose almost
exclusive occupation was agriculture,early perceived
a tendency in the Northern States to render the
common government subservient to their own pur-
poses by imposing burdens on commerce as a protec-
tion to their manufacturing and shipping interests.
Long and angry controversy grew out of these at-
tempts, often successful, to benefit one section of the
country at the expense of the other. And the dan-
ger of disruption arising from this cause was en-
hanced by the fact that the Northern population
was increasing by immigration and other causes in
greateraerancein
ratio than the population of the South.
tdßayugdhetgrtheeesi,ras the Northern States gained prepon-
tpheeope National Congress,
lCorenagdryess,
assentto self-interestany
plausible advocacy of theiry right as a majority to
govern the minority without control; they learned
to listen with impatience to the suggestion of any
constitutional impediment to the exercise of their
will ; and so utterly have the principles of the Con-
stitution been corrupted in
delivered
Northern mind, that
in the inaugural address
Lincoln in Marchlast, he asserts as an axiom which
he plainly deems to be undeniable, that the theory
of the Constitution requires that in all cases the
instance majority
ststih:eat
elslsa gmtooey
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those ;
magistrateandw h ini e h anotherdidexist
notme
declaration to liken the relations between a State and the
and the State in which it is situated et
mw hesitateer between
bl
ae
was created. Th;s '
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- is lamentable
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Confederate Statoo
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