New Orleans daily crescent. [volume] ([New Orleans, La.]) 1851-1866, 1861-05-06
M EsSAG Il on pR ESI DENT b AVIS

70 tic Spccid Session. Che Congress eotenea Montgomery
Apra 20, 1851
Conference.-The Congress- is my pleasing duty
| to announce to you that the Constitution framed
\ for the establishment of q Permanent Government
| for the Confederate States has been ratified by
| Conventions ia each of those States to which it
was referred. To inaugurate the Government IN
Its full proportions and upon its own substantial
| basis of the popular will it only remains that cleo
tions should be held for the designation Of the ot-
4 GERS to administer it.
4 There is every reason to believe that at no
distant day other States, identified in political
principles and community of interest with those
| which you represent, will join this Contederaey,
A giving to its typical constellation increased speu-
DOR 20 its Government Of free, equal and sovereign
Il States a wider sphere of usefulness, and to the
friends of constitutional liberty greater security
fer its harmonious and perpetual existence.
! twas not, however, for the purpose of making
this announcement that have deemed it my duty
ii to convoke you at an earlier day than that liked
Y by yourselves tor your meeting The declaration
/ of war made against this Confederacy hFMA bra
ham lincoln, President of the United States,
in his proclamation issued on the 18th day of the
present MONTH rendered it necessary in my judg-
| ment that you should convene at the earliest
4 practicable moment to devise the measures neees-
4 sary for the defence Of the country.
The occasion is, indeed, an extraordinary one.
1t iustifas me in brief review of the relations
heretofore existing between and the States which
now unite in warfare against us, and in succnct
statement of the events which have resulted in this
warfare TO tEe emo THAI luatihtnu pass
i ligent and impartial Judgment on its motives and
i objects.
During the war waged against Great Britain by
her colonies on this continent, a common danger
1 inpeled them to a close alliance, and to the for
nation of Confederation, by the terms of which
4 the colonies, styling themselves States entered
severally into firm league of friendship with
each other for their common defense the security
of their liberties and their mutual and general wei
| fare, binding themselves to assist each other
! against all force offered to attacks made upon
them or any Of them on account Of religion,
sovereignty, trade, or any other pretence what
| ever.
| In order to guard against any nisconstructon of
| their compact, the several States made explicit
| declaration in distinct artcie=-that each State
retains ITS sovereignty, freedom and independence,
and every power, Jurisdiction and right, which is
not by this Confederation expressly delegated to
/ the United States in Congress assembled.n
Under this contract Of alliance the war of the
| Revolution was successfully waged and resulted
| in the treaty of peace with Great Britain in 1888,
| by the terms of which the several States were,
cach By name, recognized to be independent.
4 The articles of Confederation contained clause
whereby all alterations were prohibited unless con-
/ frmed by the Legislatures of eoe',y State, after
being agreed to by the Congress and in obedience
to this provision under the resolution of Congress
Of the 2lst Of February, 1857, the several States
4 appointed delegates who attended Convention
i ttfor the sole and cypress purpose OF revising
the articles of Confederation and reporting to Con-
gress and the several Legislatures such alterations
/
i Congress, and confirmed By the States, render the
4 Federal Constitution adequate to the exgencles of
the Government and the preservation OF the Union.
4 1t was by the delegates chosen by the several
| States under the resolution just quoted that the
| Constitution of the United States was framed in
1887 aud submitted to the several States for rati-
ficatton, as shown by the seventh article which is
4 in these words:
4 ssThe ratification Of the Conventions of nine
States shall be sufficient for the establishment of
this Constitution BETWEEN the States SO ratifying
| the samen
L have taleised certain words in the quotations
Just made for the purpose Of attracting attention
i to the singular and marked caution with which the
States endeavored in every possible form to ex-
I clude the idea that the separate and independent
| sovereignty of each State was merged into one
| common government and nation, and the earnest
desire they evinced to impress on the Constitution
1 in its true charaeter-that of compact between in
1 dependent States.
The Constitution of 1887, having, however,
omitted the clause already recited from the articles
of Confederation, which provided, in explicit terms
that each State retained its sovereignty and indie
| pendence, alarm was felt in the States when
invited to ratify the Constitution lest this omission
| should be construed into abandonment of their
cherished principle, and they refused to be satisfied
until amendments were added to the Constitution,
placing beyond any pretence OF doubt the re-
servaon by the States of all their sovereign rights
and powers, not expressly delegated to the United
| States by the Constitution.
Strange indeed, must it appear to the impartial
/
| carefully worded clauses proved unavailing to
prevent the rise and growth in the Northern States
of political school which has persistently claimed
4 that the Government thus formed was not COM
pact betoCeers States, but was in effect national
| Government, set up dboUe and ote,' the States.
An organization, created by the States to secure
the blessings of liberty and independence against
foreign aggression, has been gradually perverted
| into a machine for their control in their domestic
affairs: the creature has been exalted above its
| creators; the principals have been made subor-
| dinate to the agent appointed by themselves
The people of the Southern States, whose almost
exclusive occupation was agriculture, early per-
ceved tendency in the Northern States to render
O common Government subseryient to their own
purposes, by imposing burdens on commerce as a
Drote ction to their manufacturing and shipping ill.,
terests., Long and angry controversy grew out OF
these attempts often successful to benefit one sec
ton of the country at the expense of the other, and
the danger of disruption arising from this cause was
enhanced by the fact that the Northern population
| was increasing by emigration and other causes
ia greater ratio than the population of the South.
| By degrees, as the Northern States gained pre-
ponderance in the National Congress, sefinterest
taught their people to yield ready assent to any
plausible advocacy Of their rights as majority to
| govern the minority without control: they learned
| to listen with Impotence to the suggestion OF any
constitutional impeachment to the exercise of their
will and SO utterly have the principles of the
Constitution been corrupted in the Northern mind,
that in the inaugural address delivered by Presl-
dent Lincoln in March last, he asserts as a maxim,
which he plainly deems TO Oe uu0enlbnle, tndG bne
theory of the Constitution requires that in all
| cases the majority shall govern and in another
| memorable instance, the same Chief Magistrate
did not hesitate to liken the relations between
o State and the United States to those which exist
between the county and the State in which it is
situated and by which it was created This is
the lamentable and fundamental error on which
rests the policy that has eliminated in his
declaration of against these Confederate
Estates. In addition to the long continued and
deep seated resentment felt by tae Southern States
| at the persistent abuse of the powers they had
| delegated to the Congress for the purpose of en-
| richng the manufacturing and shipping classes of
| the North at the expense of the SOUTH there has
/ existed for nearly half a century another subject
| of discord involving interests of such transcend
| ant magnitude as at all times to create apprehen
sion in the minds Of many devoted lovers of the
| Union that its permanence was impossible.
| When he several States delegated certain pow
ers to the United States Congress. a large portion
of the lahoriBg population consisted of African
| slaves imported into the colonies by the mother
country. In twelve out of the thirteen States, ne
| gro slavery existed and the right of property in
slaves was protected by law. This property was
recognized in the Constitution, and provision was
made against its loss by the escape of the slave.
| The increase in the number of slaves by further
| importation from Africa, was also secured by q
| clause forhidding 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 authorizing it in any manner to legtslate
i to the prejudice, detriment or disbursement of
the OF thatspeGies of property, excluding
/ it from The protection of the Government. The
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