Year: 1861




statesmen Of the South, and adhered to by shos'


Of the Administration school, until they have pro
duced their natural and often predicted result o
the destruction of the Union, under which ",
: might have continued to live happily and glorious
ily together had the spirit Of the ancestry wh,
framed the common Constitution animated th,
, hearts Of all their cons, you now, with persis
tcnce untaugbt and uacured by the ruin which


has been wrought, refuse 70 recognise the grea
7 fact presented to you Of completed and SUCCESS


iui revolution; you close your eyes to the exstenc


of the Government founded upon it, and ignor,


the high duties Of moderation and humanit, whicl
attach to you 10 dealing with this great facs. Had
} you met these Issues with the frankness and man
illness with which the undersigned we're instructed


to present them to you and treat them. the under
signed bad not now the melancholy duty to return
} home and tell their Government and their coun
trymen that their earnes. and ceaseess efforts il


behalf of peace had been futile, and that the Gov
crnment Of the United States meant to subiuga,c
them by force Of arms. Whatever may be the re-


suit, impartial history will record the innocence Of
the Governments of the Confederate States, and
place the responsibility of the blood and mourn
ling that may eusue upon those who have denied
the great Fundamental doctrine Of American lib
erty, that Governments derive their just powers
from the consent Of the governed" and who have
set naval and land armaments in motion to sub
ject the people Of one portion Of this land to the
will of another portion. That that can never bc
done whilea freeman survives in the Confederate
states to WELD weapon, the undersigned appeal
to past history to prove These military demon
stratiOns against the people Of the Seeded States
are certainly far from being 10 keeping and con-
ss'ency with the theory of the Secretary Of State,
maintained in bis memorandum, that these States
are silk competent parts Of the late American
Union, as the undersigned are not aware Of any
constitutional power in tho Presden. Of The United
States to levy war. without the consent of Con-
gress, 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 OF engage in discuss
ion" of the subject on which their two Govern
ments are SO irreconcilaby at variance IL is this
variance that has broken up the old Union, the
dlsintegraton Of which has only begun. II is
proper, however, to advise you that it were we'll
i TO dismiss the hopes you seem to entertain that
by any of the modes indicated, the people of the
Confederate States will ever be brought to submit
TO the Authority of the Government of the United
States. You are dealing with delusions too, when
you seek to separate our people from our Govern.
ment and to characterize the deliberate, sover.
eigu act OF that people as 'perversion of a tenn
porary aud partisan excitement" IF you cherish
these dreams you will lie 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 full knowledge of all
the responsibilities of that act, and with as firm
determination to maintain it by all the means
with which Nature has endowed them as that
which sustained their fathers when they threw off
The authority of the British crown.


The undersigned clearly understand that you
haze declined 10 appoint day to enable them to
lay the sbjects of the mission With which they are
charged before the President of the United States.
because SO to do would be to recognize the inde-
pendence and separate nationality of tho Confed.
crate States. This is the vein of thought that
pervades the memorandum before us. The truth
of history requires that it should distinctly an
pear upon the record that tho undersigned did not
ask the Government of the United States to recog-
Mise the independence of the Confederate States.
They only asked audience to adjust, in spirit of
amity and peace, the new relations springing
from a manifest and accom- plished revolution in
the Government Of the late Federal Union. Your
refusal to entertain these overtures for peaceful
solution, the active naval and military prepara-
ton of this Government, and formal notice to
the commanding general of the Confederate forces
in tho habor of Charleston that the President in
tends to provision Fort Sumter by forcible means,
il necessary, are viewed by the undersigned, and
caaupnly be received by the world, as a declara-
Iioh-6f war against the Confederate States for |
the President of the United States knows that
Fort Sumter cannot be provisioned without the
effusion 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 defend their liberties to
the last against this Aagrant and open attempt at
their snbjugation to sectional power.


This communication cannot be properly closed
without adVer.iug TO the date of your memorau.
dun. The official note of the undersigned, of the
18th March, was delivered to the Assistant Sec.
retary OF State on the 18th of that month, the
gentleman who delivered it informing him that
the Secretary of this commission would call at
twelve o'clock. noon, on the next day for an an
swer. AT the appointed hour Mr.. Pickett did
CALL and was informed by the Assistant Secreta-
ry OF State that the engagements o! tho Secreta-
ry of State had prevented him from giving the
note his attention. The Assistant Secretary Of
State than asked for the address of Messrs. Grow
ford and Forsyth, the members Of Commission
then present in this city, took note oil the address
on card, and engaged to send wbatessr reply
might be made to their lodgings. Why this was
not done it is proper should be here eIplain,d
The memorandum is dated March Is, and wis
not delivered until April 8. Why was /, viii.
held during the intervening twspty-tbree days
In the postoTipt 10 your psemoranduu m you s,,y 4,