ndence, and it must be inflexibly
pursued through many years of controversy with our late associates of
the Northern States. We have vainly endeavored to secure tranquillity
and obtain respect for the rights to which we were entitled. As a
necessity, not a choice, we have resorted to the remedy of separation,
and henceforth our energies must be directed to the conduct of our own
affairs, and the perpetuity of the Confederacy which we have formed. If
a just perception of mutual interest shall permit us peaceably to pursue
our separate political career, my most earnest desire will have been
fulfilled. But if this be denied us, and the integrity of our territory
and jurisdiction be assailed, it will but remain for us with firm
resolve to appeal to arms and invoke the blessing of Providence on a
just cause. * * *

Actuated solely by a desire to preserve our own rights, and to promote
our own welfare, the separation of the Confederate States has been
marked by no aggression upon others, and followed by no domestic
convulsion. Our industrial pursuits have received no check, the
cultivation of our fields progresses as heretofore, and even should we
be involved in war, there would be no considerable diminution in the
production of the staples which have constituted our exports, in which
the commercial world has an interest scarcely less than our own. This
common interest of producer and consumer can only be intercepted by
an exterior force which should obstruct its transmission to foreign
markets, a course of conduct which would be detrimental to manufacturing
and commercial interests abroad.

Should reason guide the action of the government from which we have
separated, a policy so detrimental to the civilized world, the Northern
States included, could not be dictated by even a stronger desire
to inflict injury upon us; but if it be otherwise, a terrible
responsibility will rest upon it, and the suffering of millions will
bear testimony to the folly and wickedness of our aggressors. In the
meantime there will remain to us, besides the ordinary remedies before
suggested, the well-known resources for retaliation upon the commerce of
an enemy. * * * We have changed the constituent parts but not the system
of our government. The Constitution formed by our fathers is that of
these Confederate States. In their exposition of it, and in the judicial
construction it has received, we have a light which reveals its
true meaning. Thus i