Daily Nashville patriot. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1860-1862, 1861-04-23

welfare dnu happiness OF the people, the gov
eminent of the Confederate States, among its
first acts, commissioned the undersigned to
approach the government 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 justified
| by the coqsciences 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 conciliatory and peace
| full spirit in which they are commissioned.
Persistentiy welded to those fatal theories of
| construction of the federal constitution al
ways rejected by the statesmen of the South,
and adhered to by those of the administra-
ton school, until they have pooduced their
natural and often predicted result of the de-
| strucsion of the Union, under which we might
have continued to live happily and glorious
| together had the spirit of the ancestry who
| framed the common constitution animated
the hearts of all their sons, you now, with a
persistence untaught and uncured by the
ruin which has been wrought, refuse to recog-
nize the great fact presented to you of q
complete and successful revolution: you close
your eyes to the existence of the government
founded upon it, and ignore the high duties
OF moderation and humanity which attach
to you in dealing with this great fact. Had
You met these issues with frankness and
manliness with which the undersigned were
them, the undersigned had not now the mel
ancholy duty to return home and tell their
government and their countrymen that their
earnest and ceaseless efforts in behalf of
peace had been futile, and that the govern
ment of the United States meant to subjugate
them by force of arms.
Whatever may be the result, impartial his
tory will record the innocence of the govern
ment of the Confederate States, and place
the responsibility of the blood and mourning
that may ensue upon those who have denied
the great fundamental doctrines of American
liberty, that governments derive their just
powers from the consent of the governed"
and who have set naval and land ornaments
in motion to subject the people of one por-
ton of this land to the will of another por-
ton. That that can never be done while
freeman remains in the Confederate States to
WELD weapon, the undersigned appeal to
past history to prove. These military DEM
onstrations against the people of the Sc
ceded States are certainly far from being in
keeping and consistency 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 Of the
United States to levy war, without the con-
| sent of Congress, upon foreign people,
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 discussion" of the subject on which their
| two governments are so irreconcllably at va
| rance. 1t is this variance that has broken
| up the old Union, the disintegration of which
has only begun. 1t is proper. however, to
advise you that it were well to dismiss the
hopes you seem to entertain that by any of
/ the modes indicated, the people of the Con-
| federate States will ever be brought to sub
init to the authority of the government of
the United States. You are dealing with de-
lusions, too, when you seek to separate our
| people from our government, and to charac-
| teriZe the deliberate, sovereign act OF that
people as "perversion of temporary and
partizan excitement" If you Cherish these
dreams, you will be awakened from them and
| find them as unreal and unsubstantial as
others in which you have recently INDUCED.
| The undersigned would omit the performance
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
a full knowledge of all the responsibilities of
| that act, and with firm determination to
maintain it by all the means with which ma
ture has endowed them, as that which sus-
| tanned 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 sepa-
rate nationality of the Confederate States
| This is the vein of thought that pervades the
memorandum before US. The truth of his
| tory requires that it should distinctly appear
| upon the record that the undersigned did not
| ask the government of the United States to
Il "a Al
| ate States. They only asked audience to ad-
| just, in q spirit OF amity and peace the new
relations springing from manifest and &C
1 complished revolution in the government of
| the late Federal Union. Your refusal to en-
| terrain these overtures for peaceful solu-
| ton, the active naval and military prepara-
| ton of this government, and formal notice
to the commanding general of the Conteder
/ ate forces In the harbOr OF Charleston that
| the President intends to provisian Fort Sum-
/ ter by forcible means, if necessary, are
/ viewed by the undersigned, and can only be
| received by the world as q declaration of war
| against the Confederate States; for the Pres
| ident of the United States knows that Fort
| Sumter cannot be provisioned without the eff.
fusion of blood. The undersigned in behalf
| of their government and people, accept the
gage of battle thus thrown down to them;
and, appealing to God and the judgment OF
| mankind for the righteousness of their cause,
the people of the Confederate States will de-
fend their liberties to the last against this
fragrant and open attempt at their subjuga-
| ton to sectional power.
This communication cannot be properly
closed without adverting to the date of your
memorandum. The official note of the under
| signed, of the 18th March, was delivered to
the Assistant Secretary of State on the 18th
of that month, the gentleman who delivered
it informing him that the Secretary of this
Commission would call at IL o'clock, noon,
| on the next day, for an answer. At the ap-
pointed hour Mr.. Pickett did call, aud was
informed by the Assistant Secretary of State
| that the engagements of the Secretary of
State had prevented him from giving the
note his attention. The Assistant Secretary
of State then asked for the address of Messrs.
| Crawford and Forsyth, the members of the
Commission then present in this city took
note of the address on card, and engaged
to send whatever reply might be made to
| their lodgings. Why this was not done, 1t is
proper should be here explained. The memo
randum is dated March Is, and was not de-
ivered until April s. Why was it withheld
during the intervening % days! In the
postscript of your memorandum you say it
"was delayed, as was understood, with their
(Messrs. 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 person occupying high
| official position in the Government, and who,
as they believed, was speaking by authority,
| that Fort Sumter would be evacuated within
very few days, and that no measure chang
ing the existing status periodically to the
Confederate States, especially Fort Pickens
was then contemplated, and these assurances
were subsequently repeated, with the addi-
ton that any contemplated change as re-
spects Pickens would be notified to us. On
the LIST of April, we were again Informed thai
there might be an attempt to supply Fort
Sumter with provisions, but that Gov. Pick
ems should have previous notice of this at
tempt. There was no suggestion of any re-
enforcement. The undersigned did not hest
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