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

THE SUN.

LONDON, WEDNESDAY, MAY 22, 1861:

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JEFFERSON DAVIS has at length, under date
29th April, 1861, answered the manifesto of
ABRAHAM LINCOLN. The proclamation of the
latter in his capacity as PRESIDENT of the United
States has been responded to by the message ad-
dressed by the former in his capacity as Pre-
sident of the Confederate States, addressed by him
to the Provisional Congress of the Southern Go-
vernment. The document like most Presidents'
Messages will be found, as usual, exceedingly
long-winded. And upon perusal it turns out to
be about as tedious as the greatest stickler for
circumlocution could possibly desire. It is in its
whole tone and character put forth as a justifica-
tion of the seceding States in the South, as a
justification of the attitude at present assumed
bylthem, as—actually—the champions of a defen-
sive war ! Astounding though it may appear that
is absolutely the drift of the whole of Mr. DAVIS'S
argument ! He answers with the most delightfully
cool effrontery that the Northern States are repro-
sented by him as the victims of a prolonged and
insidious oppression. The cup there has long since
been brimmed up—all but to overflowing. The last
drop has fallen into it—and it has consequently run
over, to the spilling of blood. The overburdened
camel has for a generation or two been groaning
tnere, under the pressure of the accumulated cruel-
ties of the central authority at Washington. The
final straw—the straw thrown up to show which
way the wind blew at the time of the last Presiden-
tial election—having been drifted against the
Southerners, has recently alighted upon the sym-
bolical camel, compelling him at length to turn upon
his heartless oppressors. At the commencement of
his laboured effort at extenuation, Mr. JEFFERSON
DAVIS 'goes back to the very beginning of the
annals, to the very dawn of the existence, of the
Republican confederation ! He recognises there,
even then and there, at the date of the conclusion
of peace between Great Britain and those among
her colonies in North America which had just con-
trived to throw off the yoke of her authority—Mr.
JEFFERSON DAVIS, as President of the Con-
federate States' Government, recognises even
then and there the commencement of those
grievous oppressions which he declares have ever
since continued to hamper the Southern States of
the Union, in consequence of the ingrained injustice
and arrogance of the Northern States. Reference is
made by him, after a long preamble, to the diffe-
rence between the North and the South being
traceable in a great measure to the diversity of their
avocations, the Northern States being mercantile
and the Southern agricultural. After beating thus
about the bush for a long while, he at last, at last,
comes to the point—but, Oh ! so gingerly. " When
the several States," says President DAVIS, "dele-
gated certain persons to the United States Con-
gress a large portion of the labouring population
consisted of Afriean slaves imported into colonies
by the mother country. In twelve out of the
th.irteen States negro slavery existed, and. the
'right of Property in slaves was protected by law.
The property was recognised in the Constitution,
and provision was made against its less by the
in I
escape of the slaves. The increase 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 discou-
ragement of the owners of that species of property,
or excluding it from. the protection of the Govern-
ment." However delicately insinuated the truth
may be—it all comes to be blurted out at length
more frankly than Mr. JEFFERSON DAVIS calculated
upon when beginning his cautiously designed Mes-
sage to the Provisional Congress of his Aggressive,
rather it should be said, than (as he would have
the world believe) Defensive Government. yes_
the mask drops off in spite of all his precau.
tions. The veiled Prophet of the American
Khorassan stands revealed before his would-
be worshippers. Slavery is the cause in-
scribed upon the Souther n banners, the main-
tenance and the spread of slavery are the twin
objects the Unionists are figlitirg for. The Northern
States, the United States still, insisting merely
upon the preservation of the integrity of the Re-
publican Confederation—unprepared, while doing
so, to become implicated in the famous conspiracy,
to become connivers in the execrable plot, now I