Semi-weekly standard. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1853-18??, 1861-07-27
MESSAGE
PRESIDENT JEFFERSON DAVIS.

GENTLEMEN: MY Message AuuTeSSeQ 10 you u
the commencement of the session, contained such
full information of the state OF the Confederacy to
render it unnecessary that should now do more
than call your attention to such important facts
have occurred during the recess, and to matters
connected with the public defence.
have again to congratulate you on the accession
of new members of our Confederation of free, equal
and sovereign States. Our loved and honOred
brethren of North Carolina and Tennessee have
consummated the action, foreseen and provided for
at your last session. and have had the gratifica-
ton of announcing by proclamation, in conformity
with law, that those States were admitted into the
Confederaey.
The people of Virginia, also, by majority pre-
vously unknown in her history, have ratified the
action of her Convention, uniting her fortune with
ours The States of Arkansas, North Carolina and
Virginia, have likewise adopted the permanent Con-
sttution of the Confederate States, and doubt is
entertained of its adoption by Tennessee at the cleo
ton to be held early next month.
| deemed it advisable 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 to be directed against Virginia
and from no point could the necessary measures for
her defence ana protection be so efficiently directed
from her own capitol.
The rapid progress of events for the last few
weeks has fully suficed 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 ac-
ton of their Congress during the present month,
confess the intention Of subugatng these States by
a war, whose folly is equaled by its wickedness;
war by which it is impossible to attain the proposed
L H. L. 1aA
by us, will fall with double severity upon them
selves.
Commencing in March last with an affectation Of
ignoring the secession of the seven States which
first organized this government; persistng in April
in the idle and absurd assumption of the existence
of riot which was to be dispersed by posse conf
tdtus; continuing in successive months the false
representation that these States intended offensive
war; in spite Of the conclusive evidence to the con-
trary furnished as we'll by Official action, by the
very basis on which this governments constituted ;
the President of the United States and his advisers
succeeded in deceivng the people of those States in
to the belief that the purpose of this government
was not peace at home, but conquest abroad; not
the defence of its liberties, but the subyersion
of those of the people of the United States
The series of maneuvreS by which this impress
sion was created-the art with which they were
devised, and the periidy with which they were exc
cuted were already known to you but you could
scarcely have supposed that they would be openly
avowed and their success made the subject of boast
and self-laudation, in executive message. For
tunately for the truth OF history however the Pres
ident of the United States details with minuteness
the attempt to reinforce Fort PickenS in violation Of
an arniStce of which he confeSses to have been in
formed but "only by rumors too vague and uncer-
tain to fix attention." the hostile expedition dis
patched to Fort Sumter, admitted to have been un-
dertakcn with a knowledge that its success was i'm
possible; the sending of notice to the Governor Of
South Carolina of his intention to force to &C.
complish his object; and then quoting from his In
augural Address the assurance that there could be
conflict, unless these States the aggressors
he proceeds to declare that his conduct just rea
ted by himself, was performance Of this promise,
so free from the power of ingenious sophistry as
that the world should not be able to misunderstood
it :" and in defiance Of his own statement that he
gave notice of the approach of hostile fleet, he
charges these States with becoming the asSalans of
the United States, without gun in sight or in
expectancy to return their fire. only the few in
the fort" He is indeed fully justified in saying
that the sis so free from the power If ingenious
sophistry that the world will not be able to misun-
derStand it"
Under cover of this unfounded pretence that the
Confederate States the asSailants, that high
functionary after expressing his concern that
foreign nations 'Shad so shaped their action as if
Union was probable" abandons all further disguise,
and proposes TO make this contest q short and de-
ciSve one" by placing at the control of the govern
ment for the work, at ledSt four hundred thousand
men and 500, 600 900. The Congress concurring
in the doubt thus intimatcd as to the suficiency of
the force demanded has increased it to half mil
lion of men, These enormous preparations in men
and money, for the conduct of war on a scale more
gigantic than any which the new world has ever
witnessed, is distinct avowal in the eyes Of civil
lied man, that the United States are engaged in a
conflict with great and powerful nation; they are
at last compelled to abandon the pretcnce of being
engaged in dispensing rioters and suppressing in
surrections; and are driven to the acknowledgment
that the ancient Union has been dissolved They
recognize the separate existence Of these Confederate
States, by the Introduction, embargo and blockade
ofall commerce between them and the United States,
not only by sea- but by land not only in ships,
but in rail cars not only with those who bear
arms, but with the entire population Of the Confed-
crate States. Finally, they have repudiated the
foolish concet that the inhabitants of this Confeder-
acy are still citizens of the United States, for they
are waging an indiscrininate war upon them all,
with savage ferocity unknown to civilization. In
this war; rapne is the rule; private residences, in
peaceful, rural retreats are bombarded and burnt
grain crops in the field consumed by the torch
and when the torch is not convenient careful labor
is bestowed to render complete the destruction OF
every article of use or ornament remaining in pri.
vate dwellings, after their inhabitants have all fed
from the outrages of brutal soldiery.
In 1871, Great Britain, when invading her revolt
ed Colonies, took possession of the very district Of
country near Fortress Monroe now occupied by
troops of the United States. The houses then in.
habited by the people, after being respected and
protected by avowed invaders, are now pillaged and
destroyed by men who pretend that the victims are
their fellow citizens.
Mankind will shudder to hear the tales of outrages
committed on deenceless females by soldiers of the
United States now invading our homes; yet these
outrages are prompted by hfamed passions and the
madness of ntoxication- But who shall depict the
deliberate malgnity which, under pretext of sup
pressing an instruction, said by themselves to bs
upheld by a minority only of our people, makes
special war on the sick, including the women anG
the children, by carefully devised measures to pre-
vent their obtaining the medicines necessary for the
cure. The sacred claims of humanitr, .rasnactaf