Port Tobacco times, and Charles County advertiser. (Port Tobacco, Md.) 1845-1898, 1862-03-06
THE INAUGURAL ADDRESS OF JEFF.
DAVIS.

From the Richmond Examiner Extra, Feb. %
Fellow CITIZENS On this. the birth
day of the man most identified with the
establishment of American Independence.
and beneath the monument erected to COM
memorate his heroic virtues and those of his
compatriOts. we have assembled to usher in
to existence the permanent Government Of
the Confederate States. Through this in
strumentality under the favor of Divine
Providence, We hope to perpetuate the prin-
ciples Of our Revolutionary fathers. The
day. the memory and the purpose seem ftly
associated.
1t is with mingled feelings of humility
and pride that appear to take. in the pre-
sence of the people. and before high Heaven.
The oath prescribed as qualification for the
exalted station to which the unanimous voice
Of the people has called me. Deeply sensi-
bic of all that is implied by this manifesto
ton Of the peoples confidence, am yet
more profoundly impressed by the vast re-
sponsibility Of the office, and humbly feel
my own unworthiness.
In return for their kindness I can only
it is received. and can but pledge jealous
devotion of every faculty to the service of
those who have chosen me as their Chief
Magistrate.
When long course Of class legislation.
directed not to the general welfare, but to
the aggrandizement of the Northern section
Of the Union, culminated in warfare on
tho d4rntr inAitations Of tho Southern
1wtsun -ea..s ~ 4 a
party, substitutedxor tie proyisioas ef the
constitutional compact. threatened to destroy
thesovereign rights Of the States, six Of those
States, Withdrawing from the Uniou, con-
federated together to exercise the right and
perform the duty of instituting govern-
ment which would better secure the liberties
for the preservation of which that Union was
established
Whatever hope some may have entertain
ed that returning sense of Justice would
remove the danger with which our rights
were threatened, and render it possible to
preserve the Union of the Constitution. must
have been dispelled by the malignity and
barbarity of the Northern States in the prose-
cutiou of the existing war. The confidence
of the most hopeful among US must have
been destroyed by the disregard they have
recently exhibited for all the time honored
bulwarks of civil and religious libety. Bas-
tiles filled with prisoners, arrested without
civil process or indictment daily foend the
writ of hobeas corpus suspended by Execu-
tive mandate; State Legislature controlled
by the imprisonment of members whose
avowed principles suggested to the Federal
Executive that there might be another add.
ed to the list of Seeded States; elections
held under threats of military power civil
officers, peaceful citizens and gentle women
incarcerated fer opinions sake, proclaimed
the incapacity of our late associates to ad-
minister government as free, liberal and
humane as that established for our common
use.
For proof of the sincerity of our purpose
to maintain our ancient institutions, we may
point to the Constitution of the Confederacy
and the law enacted under it, as we'll as te
the fact that through all the necessities Of
an unequal struggle there has been no act
on our part to impair personal liberty or the
freedom of speech. of thought Or of the press
The courts have been open, the judicial func.
tions fully executed, and every right of the
pe,ceful citizen maintained as securely as il
war Of invasion had not disturbed the land
ue peUplc Oi TIE ClateS now COnIcQcfat-
cd became convinced that the Government
of the United States had fallen into the
hands of sectional majority. who would
pervert that most sacred of all trusts to the
destruction of the rights which it was pledg-
ed to protect They believed that to remain
longer in the Union would subject them to
continuance Of disparaging discrimina-
ton, submission to which would be incon-
sistent with their welfare and intolerable to
proud people. They. therefore. determin-
ed to sever its bonds and establish new
Confederacy for themselves.
The experiment instituted by our Revo-
lutionary fathers. Of voluntary union of
sovereign States for purposes specified in a
solemn compact. had been perverted by
those who, feeling power and forgetting 2
right, we're determined to respect no law
but their own will. The Government had
ceased to answer the ends for which it was
ordained and established. To save ourselves
from revolution which, in its silent but
rapid progress, was about to place us under
the despotism Of numbers. and to preserve
IN spirit, as we'll as in form, Il system of
government we believe to be peculiarly fitted
t, our condition. AMI full # prc.,ri-o II man