New Orleans daily crescent. [volume] ([New Orleans, La.]) 1851-1866, 1861-05-03

w 4ur sopTavasrnaN AND AareIcAy llsus.l

y 0NTGoMERY, april ~:.Ibe Congress of the
Confederate States Of America assembled at noon
yesterday Hon. Howell Cebb, Of Georgia, Presi
dent, In The chair.
After the usual preliminaries Of organization had
been got through with, the following message OF
his Exceliency, Jefferson Davis, President Of the
read
The Message.
\ 2 Gentlemen of Congress- id my pleasing duty
70 announce to yom that the Constitution framed
Z ior the bishment Of "a permanent Government
of the Confederate States Of America lias been
ratified by the several Conventions of each of
those States which were referred to inaugurate
the said Government in its full proportion and
upon lis own substantial basis OF the popular will
itonly remains that elections should be held for
the designation Of the officers to administer it,
There is every reason To believe that at no dis
tant day that other States. ideatlfed ia political
principles and community IF Interest with those
y which you represent, will Join this Contederacy,
giving to ts typical constellation increased spen-
DOR to IT'S Government OF free. equal and sovereign
States wider sphere of usefulness, and to the
friends Of constitutional liberty greater security
for us harmonious and perpetual existence.
4 II was not, however, for the purpose of making
this announcement that have deemed it my duty
to congnke you at an earlier day than that fixed
by yonraeiyestor your meeting.
Tie declaration Of war against this COnfederacy
by Abraham Lincoln, President of the United
States, in his proclamation issued on the 18th day
of the present month, rendered it necessary in my
Judgment that you should convene at the earliest
practicable moment to devise the measures neces-
Sary for the defence OF the country.
The occasion Is. indeed, an extraordinary one.
Itjustfes me in giving brief review of the rela.
lions heretofore existing between and the States
\ which now unite In warfare against u.s. and sue
cinct statement Of the events which have resulted
to the end that mankind may pass intelligent and
Impartial Judgment on its motives and objects.
During the war waged against Great Britain by
her colonies on this continent, a common danger
impelled them to close alliance, and to the for.
nation of a Confederation, by the terms Of which
the colonies, styling themselves States, entered
aeyerally into o firm league Of friendship with
each other for their common defense, the security
or their liberties and theirnaturaland general vel
fare binding themselves to assist each other
against All force offered to or attacks made upon
them, or any Of them, on account Of religion
sovereignty, trade, or any other pretence what
eyer.
In order to guard against any demonstration Of
their compact, the several States made an explicit
declaration in a distinct article-that each State
retain IT, sovereignty, freedom and Independence
and every power W Jurisdiction and right, which
is not Pr this, said Confederation expressly dele
gated It'd the United States i'd Congress- assembled
under this contract VI allegiance.
The war of the Revolution was successfully
waged. and resulted 10 the treaty Of peace with
Great Britain in 1883, by the terms of which the
several States we're each by name recognized to
be ndspendant.
The articles of Confederation obtained clause
whereby All alterations were prohibitednnless con
firmed by the Legislatures of every State after
being agreed to by the Congress, and in obedience
to this provision, under the resolution Of Congress
Of the 2ist Of February, 1857, the several States
appointed delegates for the purposeo of revising
the articles OF Confederation and reporting to Con
greEs and the several Legislatures such alterations
and provisions therein as shall, when agreed to in
Congress, and confirmed TO the States, render the
Federal Constitution adequate to the exigencies Of
the Government and the preservation of the Union
II was hy the delegates chosen by the several
States under the resolution Just quoted that tile
Constitution Of the United States was formed in
1857, and submitted to the several States for rat
ficatfon, shown by the seventh article which is
in these words:
e The ratification of the Conventions of nine
States shall be sufficient for the establishment Of
this Constitution 6ettceeit the States so rtifyiag The
sdnle.' : L.
have italicised certain words in the resolution
Just quoted for the purpose Of attracting attention
to the singular and marked canton with which the
States endeayored 10 every possible form to ex
ciude the idea that the separate and independent
sovereignty of each State was merged into one
common government or nation, and the earnest
desire they evinoed to impress on the Constitution
IFS true characteristics of a compact between in
dependent States--the Constitution of 1887, how.
ever, admitting the clause already recited from
the articles of Confederation, which provided in
explicit terms, thateach State reclaimed its sover.
eighty and independence.
Some alarm was Tin the States when invited
to- ratify the Constitution lest this omission should
be construed into an abandonment of their cher.
ished principle, and they refused to be satisfied
until amendments were added to the Constitution
placing beyond any pretence of doubt the re.
aervation by the States Of their sovereign rights
and powers, not expressly delegated to the United
Y States by the Constitution.
Strange indeed, must itapppar to the impartial
Observer yet it is nevertheless true, that ali these
carefully clauses proved unavaing to
prevent the rise and growth in the Northern States
-hnG.
that the Government set above and over the
States an organization created by the States to
secure the blessings Of liberty and Independence
against foreign aggression, has been gradually
perverted into machine for their control in their
domestic affairs.
The creature has been exalted above its creator
the principals have been made subordinate to
the agent appointed by themselves.
The people of the Southern STATES. whose almost
exclusive occupation was aqficaiente, early per-
eceiyed d tendency in the orthern States to render
: y common Government st.rerslenr to their own
4 purposes by imposing bnrdsns ON commerce, rs a
protection TO their notwithstanding and shipping in.
terests. M s4s 55E s
" Long and angry controversies grew out of these
attempts, often successful, to benefit one section
of country at the expense of the other and the
danger of disruption arising from this cause was
enhanced biz the fact that the Northern population
was increasing by emigration and other causes
more rapidly than the population of the South
BY degrees, as the Northern States gained pre-
p0nAbfeHcG III Lue
taught their people to yield ready assent to any
plausible advocacy Of their rights as majority to
govern the minority. Without control, they learn
TO listen with Impotence to the suggestion of any
constitutional impediment 1.-THE exercise of their
will ; and SO utterly have the principles of the
Constitution been corrupted in Northern minds,
that in the inaugural address delivered by Presi-
dent Lincoln in March last, he asserts as a maxim
which he plainly deems to be undeniabe, that the
theory Of the Constitution requires in all cases
that the majority shall govern; and in another
memorable instance, the same Chief Magistrate
did not hesitate to liken the relations between
States and the United States to those which exist
between the county and the State in which it ia
situated, and by which it was created.
This is the lamentable and fundamental error in
which rests the policy that has eliminated in his
declaration of war against these Confederate
States. In addition to the long continued and
deep seated resentment felt by the Southern States
at TIE persistent abuse of the powers they had
delegated to the Congress for the purpose Of en-.
riehing 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 diseord, involving interests of such transcend
ant magnitude as atall times to create apprehen-
sion in the minds OF many devoted lovers of the
Union that its permanence was impossible.
When the several States delegated certain pow
ers to the United States Congress, large portion
Of the laboring population was imported into the
colonies by the mother country. In twelve out of
the fifteen States, negro slavery exated and the
rightiof property exsting in slaves was protected
bylaw this property was recognized in the Con-
stitutoIl and provisions was made against its loss
by the escape of the slave.