American citizen. [volume] (Canton, Miss.) 1851-1863, 1861-07-27
MESSAGE.

federacy as to render it unnecessary that
should now do more than call your attention
to such important facts as have oecuires
during recess, and TO matters connected
with the public defence.
have again TO congratulate you on the &C
cession of new members to our Confederation
of free, equal and sovereign States. 0ul
loved and honored brethren of North Caro-
J lima and Tennessee have consummated fhs
action foreseen and provided for at your last
session, and | have had the qualification O
announcing. by proclamation, in conformity
with law, that those States were admitted
into the Confederacy. The people of Vir-
ginia, also, by majority previously unknown
in her history, have ratified the action of the
Convention, uniting her fortunes with ours
The States of Arkansas, North Carolina and
: Virginia have likewise adopted the Perma-
nent Constitution of the Confederate States
and no doubt IS entertained of its adoption
by Tennessee at the election to be held early
next month.
l deemed it advisable to direct the re-
movai of the several Executive Departments,
with their archives, TO this city, to winch
Iyou had removed the seat OF Government
/ Immediately after your adjournment, the
aggressive movements of the enemy required
prompt and energetic action. The accunu-
lation of bis forces sufficiently demonstrated
that his efforts were to be directed against
Virginia, and from no point could necessary
measures for Ler defence and protection be
SO efficiently directed as from her own capt.
tai.
The rapid progress of events for the last
few weeks have fully sufficed to strip the
veil behind which the true policy and pur-
poses of the Government of the United
States had been concealed. Their odious
! features now stand fully revealed The
message of their President and the action of
their Congress during the present month.
confess the intention of the subiugation of
these States by war whose folly is equaled
by its wickedness-a war by which it is i'm
possible to attained the proposed result
whilst its dire calamities, not to be avoided
by us, will fall with double severity on
themselves.
Commencing in March last, with an affec-
tatiap of ignorance of the secession of the
seven States which first organized the Con-
federate Government; persisting III April in
an idle and absurd assumption of the exist
enee of riot which was to be dispersed by
a posse e0an2ftGtus continuing, in successive
months, the false representations that these
States intended offensive war, in spite Of
conclusive evidence to the contrary-fur-
nished well by official action as by tie
very basis on which this Government is con-
StlIulcQ--SuS IfeslIcDt OF the ODiteu STATES
and his advisers succeeded in deeeiving the
people of those States into the belief that
the purpose Of this Government was not
peace at home, but conquest abroad; not de
Tense of its own liberties, bat the subyersion
of those of the people OF the United States.
The series of manosuyres BY which the
impression was created, the ait with which
they were devised, and the pertidy with
which they were executed, were already
known to you bat you could scarcely have
supposed that they would be openly ayowed
and their success made the subject OF boast
and self-iaudation in an Executive message. I
Fortunately for truth in-history, however, /
the President of the United States details I
with extreme mnuteness the attempt TO
reinforce Fort pickens in violation of an ar ?
mistice of which he confessed to have been
informed, but only by rum3rs, or vague and /
uncertain information to create attention.
The hostile expedition dispatched to rein
force Fort Sumter, admitted to have been
overtaken with a knowledge that its success
was impossible.
The sending of the notice to the Governor
of South Carolina of his intention TO use force I
in accomplishing this object, and then quot
ing from the inaugural address that there /
could be no conflict unless hose States were T,
the aggressors, he proceeds to declare that
his conduct for the future was the perform
ance OF this duty, SO free from the power of
ingenious sophistry, as that the world should /
not be able to understand. And in defiance
of bis own statement that he gave notice of
the approach of hostile fleet, he charges
these States with beng the assaiants of tie
United States, without gun in sight or ex-
pectancy, to return their fire, save a few in
the fort. He is indeed fully justified in
saving that the cause is so free from the
powers of ingenious statesmen that the
world will not be able to misunderstood it
under cover of this unfounded pretense that
the Confederates are the assalants.
That high functionary, after expressing
his concern that some of the foreign nations
had so shaped their action as If they suppos-
ed the early destruction of our National
Union probable, abandons all further dis
guise, and proposes to make the contest a
short and decisive one, by placing at the |
control of the Government for the work at
least oo,0oo men, four hundred millions of
dollars. The Congress concurring in the
doubt thus intimated as TO the sufficiency
Of the force demanded, has increased it to {
half a million men. The enormous prepara- {
tons in men and money for the conduct
Of the war on a scale more gigantic than any !
which the New World ever witnessed, is
distinct avowal in the eyes of civilized men {
that the United States are engaged in con-
sict WITH great aua powerful nation.
They were at last compelled to abandon the
oretense of being engaged disposing of rioters {
md snppressing instructions, and are driv- {
N to the acknowledgment that the present I
Union has been dissolved. '
They recognize the separate existence Of
be Confederate States by introduction, EN- r
fargo, and blockade on all commerce be- '
ween them and the United States, not only c
" sea but by land; not only in ships but in a
ars; not only with those who bear arms, a
,ut with the entire population OF the Con- /
ederate States. Finally, they have repudi- c
ted their foolish consent that the inhabi- 5
ants of this Confederacy are still inhabi- d
ants of the United States, for they are t
vaging an indiserIminate war upon them ail e
With savage ferocity unknown to modern il
ivilization. In this war rapine is the rule. I
private residences in peaceful rural retreats t
re bombarded and burnt. Grain crops in
he field are consumed by the torch, and 9
ghen the torch is not convenient careful il
abor is bestowed to render complete the +
of every article of or orna- I
cent remaining in private dwellings after C
heir inhabitants have fed from the ont rapas r.