Montgomery County sentinel. [volume] (Rockville, Md.) 1855-1974, 1862-03-07
THE SENTINEL.
MESSAGE OF PRESIDENT DAVIS.

On the Goth ultimo the following mes
sage is said to have been sent to the
Confederate Congress:
To The Senate and House Of Representatives
ofMe Confederate States
In obedience to the provision of the
Constitution, requiring the President,
from time TO time, to give to Cons
gress information of the state of the Con-
federacy, and recommend TO their consides
ration such measures rs he shall jddge
necessary and expedient, / have to com
municate that, since my message at the
last session of the Provisional Congress,
events have demonstrated that the gov
ernmcnt had attempted more than it had
power successfully to achieve. Hence in
the effort to protect by our arms the
whole territory Of the Confederate States,
seaboard and inland, we have been SO
exposed as recently to encounter serious
disasters.
When the Confederacy was formed,
the States composing it were. in the pc
culiar character of their pursuits and a.
misplaced confidence IN their former as
sociates, to great extent destitute of the,
means for the prosecution Of a war on SO
gigantic scale as that which II has at
tanned. The workshops and artists were
mainly to be found in the Northern
States and one of the first duties which
devolved upon this government was to
establish the necessary manufactures,
and in the meantime to obtain, by pur-
chase from abroad, as far as practicable,
whatever was required for the public de-
Tense.
Noefort has been spared to effect both
of these ends, and though the results have
not equalled our hopes, it is believed that
an impartial judgment will, upon full in
vestigation, award the various depart
ments of the government credit for hav-
ing done all which human power and
foresight enabled them to accomplish.
The yalor and devotion of the people have
not only sustained the efforts of the 60
vernment, but have gone far to support
its deficiencies. The active state of mill
tary preparations among the nations of
Europe in April--the date when our
agents first went abroad-interposed un-
ayoidable delays in the procurement of
arms, and the want of navy has greatly
impeded our efforts to import military
supplies of all sorts.
! have hoped for several days to re-
ceivc official reports in relation to our
discontinue at Roanoke Island and the
fall of Fort Donelson. They have not
yet reached me, and am therefore una
Bile to communicate to you such informa-
ton of past events and the consequences
resulting from them as would enable me
to make recommendation founded upon
the changed condition which they have
produced. Enough is known of the sur
render at Roanoke Island to make us
feel that it was deeply humiliating, how
ever imperfect may have been the pre-
parations for defense.
The hope is still entertained that our
reported losses at Fort Donelson have
been much Exaggerated, inasmuch as l am
not only unwilling but unable to believe
that large army of our people have sur
rendered without desperate attempt to
cut their way through the investing
forces, whatever may have been their
numbers, and TO endeavor to make
junction with the other divisions of the
army. But in the absence of that exact
information which can be afforded only
by Official reports, it would be premature
TO pass judgment, and my own is re-
served, as ! trust yours will be. until
that information is received.
In the meantime, strenuous efforts
have been made to throw forward rein
forcements to the armies at the positions
threatened, aud I cannot doubt that the
bitter disappointments we have borne, by
nerying the people to still greater exer-
tons, will speedily secure results more
accordant with our past expectations,
and as favorable to our cause as those
which marked the earlier periods Of the
war.
The reports of the Secretaries of War
and the Navy will exhibitthe mass of re-
sources for the conduct of the war which
we have been enabled to accumulate,
notwithstanding the very serious difficult
ties against which we have commended.
They afford cheering hopes that our re-
sources, knitted as they were at the be-
ginning of the contest, will, during its
progress, become developed to such an
extent as fully to meet our future wants.
The policy Of enlistments for short
terms, against which l have steadily con-
tended since the beginning of the war,
has, IN my judgment, contributed in no
immaterial degree to the recent reverses
which we have suffered and, even now.
renders it difficult to furnish you an ac.
curaic statement Of the army. When
the war first broke out many of our men,
pie could with difficulty be persuaded that
1T would be long or serious. II was not
deemed possible that anything SO insane
as persistent attempt to subiugate these
States could be made-still less that The
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