Indiana State sentinel. (Indianapolis, Ind.) 1861-1865, 1861-05-01


CCsING THE GOVERNMENT OF DECEPTION, AND
ACCEPTING A SOLUTION BY THE SWORD
WAsHEG1oS, April ., lSsl.
Hon. VIM II. SEWARD, Secretary of State of the
United States, Washington:
The memorandum dated Department of
State, Washington, March IS, 1861, with post
script under date of 9Th instant, has been re-
ceived through the hands of Mr.. j. T. Pickett,
Secretary TO this commission, who, by theinstruc-
tons of sle undersigned, called for it on yester-
day at the department
In that memorandum you correctly state the
purport of the official note addressed to you by
the undersigned on the 18th ultmo. Without
repeating the contents of that note in full it is
enough to say here that its object was to invite
the government of the United States to a friend
ly consideration of the relations between the
United States and the seven States lately Of the
Federal Union, but now separated from it by the
sovereign viii o. their people, growing out of the
pregnant and undeniabe fact that those people
have rejected the authority of the United States
and established government of their own.
Those relations had to be friendly orhostile The
people of the old and new governments, occupy
ing contiguous territories had to stand to each
other in the relation of good neighbors, each
seeking their happiness and pursuing their nation
al destinies in their way, without interference
with the other, they had to be rival and hostile
nations. The govenmeet of the Confederate
States had no hesitation in electng its choice in
this alternative. Frankly and unreservediy,
seeking the good of the people who had entrusted
them with power, in the spirit of humanity, of
the Christian civilization of the age, and of that
Americanism which regards the true welfare and
happiness of the people, the government of the
Confederate States, among its first acts, commits
stoned the undersigned to approach the govern
ment of the United States with the olive branch
of peace, and to offer to adjust the great questions
pending between them in the only way to be jus
tilted by the cOnsciences and common sense Of
good men who had nothing but the welfare of the
people of the two confederacies at heart.
Your government has not chosen to meet the
undersigned in the conciatory and peaceful
spirit in which they are commissioned. Persist
emily welded to those fatal theories of construc-
ton of the federal Constitution always rejected by
the statesmen Of the South, and adhered to BY
those of the administration school, until they
have produced their natural and often predicted
result of the destruction of the Union, under
which might have continued to live happily
and goriously together had the spirit of the an
ceStry who framed the common Constitution ami
mated the hearts of all their sons, you now, with
persistence untaught and uncured by the ruin
which has been wrought, refuse to recognize the
great fact presented to you of completed and
successful revolution; you close your eyes to the
existence of the government founded upon il. and
manty which attach to you in dealing with this
great fact. Had you met these issues with the
frankness and manreSs with which the under
signed were instructed to present them to you and
treat them, the undersigned had not now the
melancholy duty to return home and tell their
government and their countrymen that their ear
~ and ceaseless efforts in behalf of peace had
been futile, and that the government of the United
States meant TO subiugate them by force of arms.
Whatever may be the result, impartial history
will record the innocence of the government of
the Confederate States, and place the response
bity of the blood and mourning that may ensue
upon those who have denied the great fundament-
al doctrine of American liberty, that govern
ments derive their just powers from the consent
of the governed" and who have set naval and
land armaments in motion to subject the people
of fOne portion of this land to the will of another
portion That that can never be done while n
freeman survives in the Confederate States to
WELD a weapon, the undersigned appeal to past
history to prove. These military demonstra-
tons against the people of the seeded States are
certainly far from being in keeping and consist
ency with the theory of the Secretary of State,
maintained in his memorandum. that these States
are still component parts of the late American
Union, as the undersigned are not aware of any
constitutional power in the President the United
States to levy war, without the consent of Con-
gress, upon a fore en power, much less upon any
portion of the people OF the United States.
The undersigned, like the Secretary of State,
have no purpose to "invite or engage in discus
SION of the subject on which their two govern
ments irreconciably at variance. 1t is
this variance that has broken up the old Union,
the disintegration of which has only begin. IL
is proper, however, to advise you that it well
to dismiss the hopes you seem to entertain that,
by any of the modes indicated, the people Of the
Confederate States will ever be bro ught to submit
a.. ~ 80 IL
States. You are dealing with delusons, too
when you seek to separate our people from our
government and to characterize the deliberate
sovereign act of that people as a "perv erson of a
temporary and partisan excitement" If you
cherish these dreams you will be awakened from
them and find them as unreal and unsubStantal
as Others in which you have recently indulged
The undersigned would omit the performance OF
of an obvious duty were they to fail to make
known to the government of the United States
that the people of the Confederate States have
declared their independence with full knowledge
of all the responsibilities of that act, and with as
firm determination to maintain it by all the
means with which nature has endowed them as
that which sustained their fathers when they threw
off the authority of the British crown.
The undersigned clearly understand that you
have declined to appoint day to enable them to
lay the objects of the mission with which they
are charged before the President of the United
| States, because so to do would be to recognize
the independence and separate nationality of the
| Confederate States. This is the vein of thought
that pervades the memorandum before The
truth of history requires that should distinctly
appear upon the record that the undersigned did
| not ask the Government of the United States to
recognize the Independence of the Confederate
States They only asked audience to adjust in a
spirit of amity and peace, the relation:
| springng from manifest and accomplished rev
OlutiOn in the government of the late Federal
| Union. Your refusal to entertain these overture;
for peaceful solution, the active naval and mill
tary preparation of this Government, and forma
rotice to the commanding General of the Con
| federate forces in the harbor of Charleston tha
the President intends to provision Fort Sumter by
forcible means, if Necessary, are viewed by the
undersigned, and can only be received by the
world, as a declaration of war against the Con
federate States for the President of the United
! States knows that Fort Sumter not be pro
visioned without the effuson of blood. The un
dersgned, in behalf their Government and people
accept the gage of battle thus thrown down tC
them; and, appealing to God and the judgment
of mankind for the righteousness of their cause
the people of the Confederate States will defenC
their Liberties to the last against this fragrant and
open attempt at their subjugatiOn TO sectiona
| power.
! This communication can not be properly closet
without adyerting TO the date OF your memoran
dunn The official note of the undersigned, o
the 18th March, delivered to the Assstan
Secretary of State on the 18th OF that month, th'
gentleman who delivered it informing him tina
| the Secretary of this Commission would call a
twelve o'clock noon, on the next day, for an an
swer. At the appointed hour Mr.. Pickett di,
call, and informed by the Assistant Secretar,
of State that the engagements of the Secretary o
State had prevented him from giving the note hi
| attention The Assistant Secretary of State thcl
asked for the address of Messrs. Crawford AM
Forsyth, the members of the Commission thel
! present in this city, took note of the address
card, and engaged to send whatever reply Nigh
he made to their lodgings. Why this was no
done it is proper should be here explained Tn
memorandum is dated March -, and was not dc
livered until April s. Why was it withheld dur
ing the intervening twenty-three days? I'm tn
postscript to your memorandum YOU say it wa
delayed, as was understood, with their (AIessrs
Forsyth and Crawford's consent" This is true
but it is also true that on the 18th of March
Messrs Forsyth and Crawford were assured By
nersOn Occupyino n hiph official nosjtion I'm In