The Sun.
London, England, 1861-12-07 00:00:00

THEI SUN, LONDON, SATURDAY EVENING, DECEMBER 17, 1861.

!LAT EST NEWS

THE CIVIL WAR IN AMERICA.

PRESIDENT DAVIS'S

MESSAGE.

(PER THE EDINBURGH, via QUEENSTOWN.)

NEW YORK, Nov. 24.
The following is the text of President Davis's
Message to the Confederate Congress :

"TO THE CONGRESS OF THE CONFEDERATII STATES--•
"The few weeks which have elapsed since your
adjournment have brought us so near the close of
the year that we are now able to sum up its general
results. The retrospect is such as should fill the
hearts of our people with gratitude to Providence
for His kind interposition on their behalf. Abun-
dant yields have rewarded the labour of the agri-
culturist, whilst the manufacturing industry of the
Confederate States was never so prosperous as now.
The necessities of the times have called into exist-
ence new branches of manufactures, and given a
fresh impulse to the activity of those heretofore in
operation. The means of the Confederate States
for manufacturing the necessaries and comforts of
life within themselves increases as the conflict con-
tinues, and we are gradually becoming indepen-
dent of the rest of the world for the supply of such
military stores and munitions as are indispensable
for war.

" The operations of the army, soon to be partially
interrupted by the approaching winter, have affor-
ded a protection to the country, and shed a lustre
upon its arms, through the trying vicissitudes of
more than one arduous campaign, which entitle our
brave volunteers to our praise and our gratitude.
From its commencement up to the present period
the war has been enlarging its proportions and ex-
panding its boundaries so as to include new fields.

The conflict now extends from the shores of the

Chesapeake to the confines of Missouri and Arizona,
yet sudden calls from the remotest points for mili-
tary aid have been met with promptness enough not
only to avert the disaster in the face of superior
numbers, but also to roll back the tide of invasion
from the border. When the war commenced the
enemy were possessed of certain strategic points
and strong places within the Confederate States.
They greatly exceeded us in numbers, in available
resources, and in the supplies necessary for war.
Military establishments had been long organised,
and were completed. The navy, and, for the most
part, the army, once common to both, were in their
possession. To meet all this we had to create, not
only an army in the face of war itself, but also mi-
litary establishments necessary to equip and place
it in the field. It ought, indeed, to be a subject of
gratulation, that the spirit of the volunteer, and
the patriotism of the people, have enabled us, under
Providence, to grapple successfully with these dif-
ficulties.

" A succession of glorious victories at Bethel,
Bull Run, Manassas, Springfield, Lexington,
Leesburg, and Belmont, has checked the
wicked invasion which greed of gain and the un-
hallowed lust of power brought upon our soil, and
has proved that numbers cease to avail :when
directed against a people fighting for the
sacred right of self-government and the pri-
vileges of freemen. After seven months of
war the enemy have not only failed to extend
their occupancy of our soil, but new states and ter-
ritories have been added to our Confederacy ; while
instead of their threatened march of unchecked con-
quest they have been driven at more than one point
to assume the defensive, and upon a fair comparison
between the belligerents as to men, military means,
and financial condition, the Confederate States are
relatively much stronger now than when the
struggle commenced.
" Since your adjournment the people of Missouri
have conducted the war, in the face of almost un-
paralleled difficulties, with a spirit and success
alike worthyof themselves and of the great cause in
which they are struggling. Since that time Ken-
tucky, too, has become the theatre of active hostili-
ties. The Federal forces have not only refused to
acknowledge her a party to the war, but invaded
her for the purpose of attacking the Confederates
States. Outrages of the most despotic character
have been perpetrated upon her people. Some of
her most eminent citizens have been seized and
borne away to languish in foreign prison, without
knowing who were the accusers, or the specific
charges made against them, while others have been
forced to abandon their homes, their families, and
property, and seek a refuge in distant lands.
" Finding that the Confederate States were about
to be invaded through Kentucky, and that her
people, after being deceived into a mistaken security,
were unarmed, and in danger of being subjugated
by the Federal forces, our armies were marched
into that State, to repel the enemy, and prevent
their occupation of certain strategic points, which
would have given them great advantages in the
contest—a step which was justified not only by the
necessities of self-defence on the part of the Con-
federate States, but also by a desire to aid the
people of Kentucky. It was never intended by
the Confederate Government to conquer or coerce
the people of that State ; but, on the contrary, it
was declared by our generals that they would with-
draw their troops if the Federal Government would
do otherwise. Proclamation was also made of the
desire to respect the neutrality of Kentucky,and the
intention to abide by the wishes of her people as
soon as they were free to express their opinions.
These declarations were approved by me, and I
should regard it as one of the best effects of the
march of our troops into Kentucky if it should
end in giving to her people liberty of choice, and
a free opportunity to decide their own destiny
according to their own will.
" The army has been chiefly instrumental in
prosecuting the great contest in which we are
engaged ; but the navy has also been
.effective in
full proportion to its means. The naval officers,
deprived to a great extent of an opportunity to
make their professional skill available at sea, have
served with commendable zeal and gallantry on
shore, and upon inland waters, further details of
which will be found in the reports of the Secretary
of the Navy and Secretary of War.
"Iu the transportation of the mails many diffi-
culties have arisen, which will be found fully deve-
loped in the report of the Postmaster-General. The
absorption of the ordinary means of transportation
for the movement of troops and military supplies,
the insufficiency of the rolling stock of railroads for
the accumulation of business resulting both from
military operations and the obstruction of water
communication by the presence of the enemy's
fleet, the failure and even refusal of contractors to
comply with the terms of their agreements, the
difficulties inherent in inaugurating so vast and
complicated a system as that which requires postal
facilities for every town and village in a territory
so extended as ours, have ail combined to impede
the best directed efforts of the Postmaster-General
whose zeal, industry, and ability have been taxed
to the utmost extent. Some of these difficulties
can only be overcome by time and an improved
condition of the country upon the restoration of
peace, but others may be remedied by legislation,
and your attention is invited to the recommenda-
tions contained in the report of the head of that
department.
"The condition of the Treasury will, doubtless,
be a subject of anxious inquiry on your part. I am
happy to say that the financial system already
adopted has worked well so far, and promises good
results for the future. To the extent that Treasury
notes may be issued the Government is enabled to
borrow money without interest, and thus facilitates
the conduct of the war. This extent is measured by
the portion of the field of circulation which these
notes can be made to occupy. The proportion of
the field thus occupied depends again upon the
amount of the debts for which they aro reoeiyable,

and dues not only to the Confederate and
State Government, but also to corporations
and individuals, are payable in this me-
dium. A large amount of it may be circulated
at par. There is every reason to believe that the
Confederate Treasury note is fast becoming such a
medium. The provision that these notes shall be
convertible into Confederate stock being eight per
cent. interest, et the pleasure of the holder, insures
them against a depreciation below the value of that
stock, and no considerable fall in that value need
be feared so long as the interest shall be punctually
paid. The punctual payment of this interest has
been secured by the act, passed by you at the last
session, imposing such a rate of taxation as must
provide sufficient means for that purpose.
" For the successful prosecution of this war it is
indispensable that the means of transporting troops
and military supplies be furnished, as far as pos-
sible, in such manner as not to interrupt the com-
mercial intercourse between our people, nor place a
check on their productive energies. To this end
the means of transportation from one section of our
country to the other must be carefully guarded and
improved ; and this should be the object of anxious
care on the part of the State and Confederate Go-
vernment, so far as they may have power over the

subject.
" We have already two main systems of through
transportation from North to the South—one from
Richmond, along the seaboard ; the other through
Western Virginia to New Orleans. A third
might be secured by completing a link of
about forty miles between Danville, in Vir-
ginia, and Greensborough, in North Carolina.
The construction of this comparatively short
line would give us a through route from
north to south in the interior of the Confederate
States, and gives us access to a population, and to
military resources, from which we are now in a
great measure debarred. We should increase
greatly the safety and capacity of our means for
transporting men and military supplies. If the
construction of the road should, in the judgment of
Congress, as it is in mine, be indispensable for the

most successful prosecution of the war, the action

of the Government will not be restrained by the
constitutional objection which would attach to a
work for commercial purposes ; and attention is
invited to the practicability of securing its early
completion, by giving the needful aid to the com-
pany organised for its construction and adminis-
tration."

"If we husband our means, and make a judicious
use of our resources, it would be difficult to fix a
limit to the period which we could conduct a war
against the adversary whom we now encounter.
The very efforts which he makes to isolate and
iivade as must exhaust his means, whilst they
serve to complete and diversify the productions of
our industrial system. The reconstruction which
he seeks to effect by arms becomes daily more and
more palpably impossible. Not only do the causes
which induced us to separate exist in fcll force,
but they have been strengthened, and whatever
doubt may have lingered in the minds of any must
have been completely dispelled by subsequent
events.

"If, instead of being a dissolution of a league, it
were indeed a rebellion in which we are engaged,
we might find ample vindication for the course we
have adopted in the scenes which are being enacted
in the United States. Our people now look with
contemptuous astonishment on those with whom
they have been so recently associated. They shrink
with aversion from the bare idea of renewing such
a connection.

" When they see a President making war ,ivithow

the assent of Congress—when they behold judges
threatened because they maintain the writ of habeas
corpus, so sacred to freemen—when they see justice
and law trampled under the armed heel of military
authority, and upright men and innocent women
dragged to distant dungeons—when they find all
this tolerated and applauded by a people who had
been in the full enjoyment of freedom but a few
months ago, they believe that there must be some
radical incompatibility between such a people and
themselves. With such a people we may be content
to live at peace, but the separation is final, and for
the independence we have asserted we shall accept
no alternative.

,‘ The nature of the hostilities which they have
waged against us must be characterised as barbar-
ous whenever it is understood. They have bom-
barded defenceless villages, without giving notice
to women and children to enable them to escape,
and in one instance selected the night as the period
when they might surprise them most effectually,
whilst asleep and unsuspicious of danger. Arson
and rapine, the destruction of private houses and
property, and injuries of the most wanton charac-
ter, even upon non-combatants, have marked their
forays along their borders and upon our territory.
"We ought to have been admonished by these
things that they were disposed to make war upon
us in the most cruel and relentless spirit, yet we
were not prepared to see them fit out a large naval
expedition with the confessed purpose not only of
pillage, but to incite servile war in our midst. If they
convert their soldiers into incendiaries and robbers,
and involve us in a species of war which claims non-
combatants, women and children, as its victims,
they must expect to be treated as outlaws and ene-
mies of mankind, There are certain rights of hu-
manity which are entitled to respect even in war,
and he who refuses to regard them forfeits his
claims, if captured, to be considered as a prisoner of
war, and must expect to be dealt with as an of-
fender against all law, human and Divine.

" But not content with violating:our rights under
the law of nations at home, they have extended
these injuries to us within other jurdisdictions.
" The distinguished gentlemen whom, with your
approval at the last session, I commissioned to re-
present the Confederacy at certain foreign Courts,
have been recently seized by the Captain of a
United States ship-of-war, on board a British
steamer, on their voyage from the neutral port of
Havana to England.
" The United States have thus claimed a general
jurisdiction over the high seas, and, entering a Bri-
tish ship, sailing under its country's flag, violated
the rights of embassy for the most part held sacred,
even among barbarians, by seizing our Ministers
whilst under the protection and within the domi-
nions of a neutral nation.

" These gentlemen were as much under the juris-
diction of the British Government, upon that ship
and beneath its flag, as if they had been on its
soil, and a claim on the part of the United
States to seize them in the streets of London would
have been as well founded as that to apprehend them
where they were taken. Had they been manufac-
turers, and citizens even of the United States, they
could not have been arrested on a British ship or
on British soil, unless under the express provisions
of a treaty, and according to the forms therein pro-
vided for the extradition of criminals. But rights
the most sacred seem to have lost all respect in their
eyes.

" When Mr. Faulkner, a former Minister of the
United States to France, commissioned before the
secession of Virginia, his native State, returned in
good faith to Washington to settle his accounts and
fulfil all the obligations into which he had entered,
he was perfidiously arrested and imprisoned in New
York, where he now is. The unsuspecting confi-
dence with which he reported to his Government
was abused, and his desire to fulfil his trust to them
was used to his injury.
"In conducting this war we have sought no aid
and proffered no alliances offensive and defensive
abroad. We have asked for a recognised place in
the family of nations; but in doing so we have de-
manded nothing for which he did not offer a fair
equivalent. The advantages of intercourse are
mutual among nations, and in seeking to establish
diplomatic relations we were only endeavouring to
place that intercourse under the regulation of public
law.

" Perhaps we had the right, if we had chosen to
exercise it, to ask to know whether the principle,
that blockades to be binding must be effectual, so
solemnly announced by the great Powers of Europe
at Paris, is to be generally enforced or applied only
to particular parties.
" When the Confederate States, at your last sea•
sion, became a party to the declaration reaffirming
this principle of international law, which has been

recognised so long by publicists and Governments,
we certainly supposed that it was to be universally
enforced. The customary law of nations is made
up of their practice rather than their declarations,
and if such declarations are only to be enforced in
particular instances at the pleasure of those who
make them, then commerce of the,world, so far from
being placed upon the regulation of a general law,
will become subject to the caprice of those who
execute it or suspend it at will. If such is to be
the course of nations in regard to this law, it is
plain that it will thus become a rule for the weak
and not for the strong.

"Feeling that such views must be taken by the
neutral nations of the earth, I have caused the evi-
dence to be collected which proves completely the
utter inefficiency of the proclaimed blockade of our
coast, and shall direct it to be laid before such
governments as shall afford us the means of being
heard.

" But although we should be benefitted by the
enforcement of this law, so solemnly declared by
the great Powers of Europe, we are not dependent
on that enforcement for the successful prosecution
of the war. As long as hostilities continue the Con-
federate States will exhibit a steadily increasing
capacity to furnish their troops with food, clothing,
and arms. If they should be forced to forego many
of the luxuries and some of the comforts of life, they
will at least have the consolation of knowing that
they are thus daily becoming more and more inde-
pendent of the rest of the world. If, in this process,
labour in the Confederate States should he gra-
dually diverted from those great Southern staples
which have given so much of the commerce of man-
kind into other channels, so as to make them rival
producers, instead of profitable customers, they will
not be the only or even the chief losers by this
change of their industry.

" Although it is true that the cotton supply
of the Southern States could only be totally cut off
by the total subversion of our social system, yet it
is plain that a long continuance of this blockade
might, by a diversion of labour and investment of
capital in other employments, so diminish the
supply as to bring ruin upon all those interests of
foreign countries which are dependent on that
staple.
" For every labourer who is diverted from the
culture of cotton in the South, perhaps four times
as many elsewhere, who have found subsistence in
the various employments growing oat of its use,
will he forced also to change their occupation.
" While the war which is waged to take from us
the right of self-government can never attain that
end, it remains to be seen how far it may work a
revolution in the industrial system of the world
which may carry suffering to other lands as well as
to our own.

" In the meantime we shall continue this strug-
gle, in humble dependence upon Providence, from
whose searching scrutiny we cannot conceal the
secrets of our hearts, and to whose rule we con-
fidently submit. For the rest we shall depend upon
ourselves.

"Liberty is always won where there exists the
unconquerable will to be free, and we have reason
to know the strength that is given by a conscious
sense not only of the magnitude but of the righteous-
ness of our cause.

" JEFFERSON DAVIS.
Richmond, Nov. 18, 1861."

The New York Herald of to-day, alluding to the
message of P resident Davis, says :
" As a summary of the rebel view of the position
of the belligerent parties since the commencement
of the civil war, it is interesting, and contains
some bold statements concerning the condition of
the South which will be received with no little sur-
prise, and will certainly be accepted with no cre-
dence whatever. To say that the document is re-
plete with misrepresentations as to the object as
well as the conduct of the present war, would do no
injustice to the composition of Mr. Davis. He
endeavours to present to the misguided people
whom he addresses the fact that the South is
invaded by a horde of barbarians, who are carry-
ing on the war in a fashion contrary to
the usages of civilised nations, He represents the
condition of the rebel States as progressing in
manufactures and other branches of industry, in
spite of the troubles which have overtaken them,
but he is unwillingly compelled to admit that the
chances of assistance and recognition from abroad
—upon which their hopes of success rested—are
very small, if not absolutely frustrated. It is, upon
the whole, a weak and wavering document, more
indicative of doubt and fear as to the future than of
hope and confidence in the cause of which he is the
representative. The message is viewed by the
Government in Washington and by all intelligent
persons as a singular intermixture of bombast
and falsehood, and as such it will be considered by
every one who peruses it carefully, and compares
its loose statements with the facts developed by the
incidents of the war from its commencement to the
present time.

NEW YORK, Nov. 23.
:Per Nova Scotian, by telegraph to Father Point,
and via Londonderry.)

The army of the Potomac has not yet been ordered
to march, nor have orders yet been given for it to
be hutted for the winter.

The apprehension felt by some that the enor-
mous machinery gathered together for the sup-
pression of the rebellion will be unused before six
months is groundless. Neither the policy of the
Government nor the temper of the people admit of
placing an army of half a million in winter quar-
ters.

Mr. George Francis Train has addressed a
letter from London to the New Fork Herald, de-
claring that a number of vessels are fitting out at
English ports with ammunition for the South.
He makes a violent attack ma the British Go-
vernment, and declares that England's neutrality
is contemptible.
The Secretary of the Treasury has announced
that he will want no more money until February
next. Large quantities of Sea Island cotton will
soon be gathered on Government account in the
Beaufort district.

Large reinforcements for General Sherman's
naval expedition and two new expeditions under
Generals Butler and Burnside will move in a few
days.

PARIS, DEC. 7.

The /If oniteur, in its bulletin of to-day, says :

" A letter from Beyrout, which we publish in
our columns to-day, confirms the news of the arrest
of Joseph Karam.

" Fuad Pasha and Daoud Effendi seem to have
acted on this occasion in accord with the European
Commissioners assembled at Beyrout, in order to
insure the execution of the new organisation of the
Lebanon, which has received the sanction of
Europe."

TURIN, DEC. 6.

The debate on the Roman question was resumed
:o-day in the Chamber of Deputies.

Baron Ricasoli said that the advice given to the
Government during the debate had already been
adopted. He refuted the arguments of several
members who maintained that the only enemy of
Italy was France, and declared that he could easily
prove the contrary. " The principle of non-inter-
vention," he said, " having been agreed to by
France, proves that her friendship is free from all
pretension to supremacy. Italy is grateful to
France. She must, however, place herself in a
condition to act alone and without any foreign aid.
The state of things in the interior of the kingdom
is such as it must always be in a country that
is still in a state of revolution. The revolution
in Italy is more fortunate than those which have
occurred in other countries. No serious disturb-
ances can be cited, as none but common offerces
haye been committed. Public security certainly

leaves nothing to be desired. Although during
the last two years we have been compelled to
occupy ourselves more with political questions
than with questions of the administration of the
country, the forces of the little State of Piedmont
could not suffice for the new kingdom. The mili-
tary and police of the former Government were
corrupt, and could not bo employed. We have
formed new elements." Baron Ricasoli then spoke
of the increase of the Bersaglieri and of the
changes which had been made in the personnel of
the high functionaries. With regard to the state
of things in the Southern provinces, he confirmed
the statements contained in the circular addressed
to the diplomatic agents of the Italian Government
abroad, and said that General Cialdini had pre-
vailed over the brigandage, and had retaken the
Basilicata and the territory bordering on the
Pontificial frontiers. Baron Ricasoli announced that
a treaty had been concluded with France for the
repression of brigandage. The abolition of the Lieu-
tenancy of Naples, he said, was the result of the
adoption of the principle of administrative unifica-
tion. The Lieutenancy of Sicily would also be
shortly abolished. Touching the Roman question,
he said that the transformation of the Papacy must
be effected by Italy in accordance with France. It
was necessary to persuade the Catholic mind in
favour of this project of arrangement. This he was
striving to do. France had not disapproved his
project; she only thought it was not an opportune
moment for presenting it to the Pope, Baron
Ricasoli concluded by asking the Chamber for a
vote, either frankly approving or blaming the
policy of the Government.

After Baron 'Leas°li had concluded his speech,
the Minister of Justice rose and defended himself
against the attacks of the Opposition. The Minis-
ter explained the state of the judicial Administra-
tion, and announced that he would shortly submit
a new general code for the approval of the Chamber.

The Minister of War said that he preserved all
that he could of the old Bourbon army when in a
state of dissolution. The army of Southern Italy,
which was composed of volunteers, dissolved itself,
but the regimental lists had been maintained. By
means of these lists an army of 40,000 men could
easily be organised, more especially if Garibaldi, as
the Government hoped, would take the command.
The regular army numbered 262,000 men, 20,000 of
whom were on active service. The new levy would
give 94,000 in March next, when we should have
300,000 combatants. These, however, would not all
be trained soldiers. To make soldiers, particularly
for certain military branches, armies of long stand-
ing were necessary. If another war of independ-
ence were to break out, we should have recourse to
an appeal to the national enthusiasm. The nation
would find sufficient men for its own deliverance.
The Minister of War, in conclusion, said that Italy
had 120,000 National Guards, and arms and military
equipments in abundance.

The Minister of Public Works, who had just
returned from a visit to Naples and Sicily, gave a
long explanation respecting the condition of the
Southern Provinces, which was received with con-
tinual applause. The speech produced a great sen-
sation. The Minister of Marine then spoke, and
in the course of his speech assured the Chamber
that Italy would shortly have a navy almost twice
as strong as that of Austria.
Signor Petrucelli della Gattina afterwards at-
tacked the Government on the Roman question.

It is asserted that Garibaldi will return to-morrow
to Caprera.

The Nationalites of to day announces that the
financial report which Signor Bastogi, Minister of
Finance, is about to present to the Chamber of
Deputies will show a difference in the expendi-
ture of 200,000,000 f. compared with the ordinary
Budget.