The daily clarion. [volume] (Meridian, Miss.) 1863-1866, 1864-06-22
Joint esoIutIons,

| Declaring no Dispositions, i1rinclptes ana
1 Purposes Of Me Confederate States IN ReLa
ton 70 he Existing War Nth the United
| States.
Whereas, II is due to the great cause
of humanity and civilization, and espe-
cially 10 the heroic sacrifices of their gal.
liant army in the field, that no means,
consistent with proper selfrespect and
the approved usages of nations, should
be omitted by the Confederate States 10
ehlighten the public opinion of the
world with regard to the true character
of the struggle in which they are en-
| gagged, ard the dispositions, principles
and purposes by which they are actuated !;
therefore,
Resolved, by the Congress Of the Con-
federate States of America, That the fol-
lowing manifesto be issued in their name
and BY their authority, andthat the
President be requested to cause copies
thereof to be transmitted TO our commits
sioners abroad, TO tho end that the same
may be laid before foreign Governments !:
Manifesto of The Congress Of The Confederate
States of america Relaiue 10 the Eristing
War ,oith the United States.
The Congress Of tho Confederate States
of America, acknowledging their respon-
sibility to the opinion of the civilized
world, to the great law Of Christian
philanthropy, and to the Supreme Ruler
Of the universe, for the part they have
compelled to bear in the sad spectacle Of
war and carnage which this continent
has, for the last three years, exhibited to
the eyes of afflicted humanity, deems the
present fitting occasion to declare the
principles, the sentiments and the pur-
poses by which they have been and are
still actuated.
They have ever deeply deplored the
necessity which constrained them to
take up arms in defense of their rights
and of the free institutions derived from
their ancestors and there is nothing
they more ardently desire than peace,
whensoever their enemy, by ceasing from
the unhallowed war waged upon. them.
shall permit them to enjoy in peace the
sheltering protection of those hereditary
rights and of those cherished institu-
tions. The series of successes with which
it has pleased Almighty God, in SO signal
manner. to bless our arms on almost
every point of our invaded border since
the opening of the present campaign,
enables us to profess this desire OF peace
in the interests of civilization and hui
mainly without danger Of having our
motives misinterpreted, or Of the decla-
ration being ascribed to any unmanly
sentiment or any distrust of our ability
fully to maintain our cause. The re-
peated and disastrous checks, foreshad-
owing utter discontinue, which their
gigantic army, directed against the cap
ital Of the Confederacy, has already met
with, are but n continuation of the same
providential success for us. We do not
refer to these successes in any spirit of
vain boasting, but in humble acknowl-
edgement of that Almighty protection
which has youchsafed and granted them.
The world must now see that eight
millions of people, inhabiting SO extern
sive a territory, with such varied resour-
ces and such numerous facilities for de-
fence as the benignant bounty of nature
has bestowed upon us, and animated with
one spirit to encouAter every piiy"t.oi.
and sacrifice of ease, Of health, Of proper
ty, of life itself, rather than be degraded
from the condition Of free and indepen-
dent States into which they were born,
can never be conquered Will not our
adversaries themselves begin to feel that
humanity has bled long enough; that
tears and blood and treasure enough have
been spent in bootless undertaking, GOV
ering their own land, no less than ours,
with a pail Of mourning, and exposing |
them far more than ours TO the catastro-
phe of financial exhaustion and bank
ruptcy, not to speak of the loss of their
liberties by the despotism engendered
in an aggressive warfare upon the liber
ties of another and kindred people? Will
they be willing by longer perseverance
in wanton and hopeless contest, to
make this continent, which they so long
boosted to be the chosen abode of libcr-
~ and self-government, of peace and a
higher civilization, the theatre of the
most causeless and prodigal effusion Of
blood which the world has ever seen, of
virtual relapse into the barbarism OF
he ruder ages, and of the destruction OF /,
freedom by the lawlessness
# usurped power, /,
These are questions which our adver
aries will d, eide for themselves. We de-
ire to stand acquitted before the tribunal
# the world, as we'll as in the eyes OF Om-
liscient Justice, Of any responsibility for
he origin or proiongation OF o war as
ontrary to the spirit Of the age as to the
traditions and acknowledged maxims Of |
be political system OF America.
On this continent, whatever opinion
ray have prevailed elsewhere, it has ev- !!
!, been held and acknowledged by all
arties that government, TO be lawful, !.
lust be founded on the consent of the
overned. We were forced to dissolve !.
ar federal connection with our former y
ssociates by their aggressions Oh the fun I.
amental principles of our compact of n
MON with them; and by doing so, we q
xercised right consecrated in the great II
larter of American iberty-the right Of |
free people, when government proves y
estructive of the ends for which it was y
to recur to original princi- y
es and to institute new guards, for their :" q
curity, The separate independence Of =
e States, as sovereign and coequal "
embers of the Federal Union, had ney- y !,
been surrendered, and the pretention o'
applying to independent communities, "a
constituted and organized, the ordinary o.
les OF coercion, and reducing rebellious OF
bjects to obedience, was a solecism in
rms, as well as an outrage on tho prin-
Jl,s Of public law.
The war made upon the Confederate 20
ates was, therefore, wholly one ofaggres-
m On oilrs side II has been strictly an