The daily exchange. [volume] (Baltimore, Md.) 1858-1861, 1861-09-02
Tour obedient servant,
THOMAS 4. r. NELSON.
To which the following answer was returned ::

hICuhorD, Aug IL
Sir l have received your letter of the 18th
instant in which you asked to be discharged from
arrest and prosecution, and make promise that You
will, "as citizen of Tennessee, submit to her late
action and regiously abstain from any further
words acts of condemnation whatever or oppo-
sition to her government"
The desire of this Government being to maintain
the independence it has asserted BY the united
feeling and action of all its citizens, it has been its
policy not to enter into questions of differences of
political opinions heretofore existing.
am, therefore, pleased to be spared the necessity
of iDquring whether the accusation against you
be well founded or not, vexatiOus or not, and to
rest content with yCur submission as uyal citizen
of your State, to her recent action in adhering TO
this Contederacy and adopting its permanent Con-
sitution by increased majority. | have ordered
your discharge and that Of your companions from
custody.
l am, &c, JEFFERSON DAVIS.
To Thomas A. Il. Nelson, Esq.
Since my return home, am thoroughly satisfied
that nv friends would have risked the action |
dreaded; and, upon the most mature reflection, am
content with my own course in the premises. But
whether 1t was right or wrong, wise, or unwise,
feel bound. honorable man, to act up to the
spirit aud letter of the obligation | assumed
shall offer no plea of duress; because neither the
Southern Confederacy nor any other earthly p0wer
could have compelled me to make an agreement
that my judgment and conscience did not approve
in the situation in which | was placed
No terms or conditions, expressed or implied,
public or private, attended my release other than
those plainly expressed in the two above quoted;
but have thought it due to past relations and
the painful solicitude MANY of YOU have felt in
my behalf that | should thus briefly address you.
While | did not promise allegiance active sup
port to the Southern Confederacy, and will not ad
wise you to assume any obligations contrary to
convictions of duty. feel perfectly free to that
the failure of the Government of the United States
for four long months to sustain us in position;
its apparent inability to do so, since the battle Of
Manassas, within any reasonable time; the deliber
ate action of our State in the August election;
the assurances Of public men that no test oaths or
drafting measures will be adopted or required; the
mutual hatred which has grown up between the
antagonist sections of the Union, and the recent
coniscation laws which have been either adopted
or proposed on both sides, well other causes,
have painfully impressed my mind with the belief
that. unless some wonderful and improbable change
is effected, beloved Union is gone forever and
it is policy and duty to submit to a result
which, however We may deporc it, seems inev-
TABLE
Aware that my advice as we'll as my motives
may be liable to msconsructiOn, / would still most
respectfully recommend to my friends the pro-
priety of abstaining from all further opposition
resistance to the Confederate authorities, the
action of our State, and should this be done,
although have no authority TO speak for them.
am satisfied that no military power will be exerted
among US, except such as may be iodispensablv
necessary to retain military possession of East
Tennessee. And to those of our citizens whG have
gone beyond the limits of the State, either through
fear or purpose of arming themselves to resist a
course of action which is dsavowed in General
Poik's letter. think safely say, without ar
rOgance, that from the course which adopted
towards ne, they would risk nothing by returning
to the State and submitting to a result which they
have in vain endeavored to prevent.
THOMAS A. +. NELSON.
KNOXVILLE, Aug. II.