Jefferson Davis' First Inaugural Address
Alabama
Capitol, Montgomery, February 18, 1861
Gentlemen
of the Congress of the Confederate States of America,
Friends and Fellow-Citizens:
Looking forward to the speedy establishment of a permanent government to take the place of this, and which by its greater moral and physical power will be better able to combat with the many difficulties which arise from the conflicting interests of separate nations, I enter upon the duties of the office to which I have been chosen with the hope that the beginning of our career as a Confederacy may not be obstructed by hostile opposition to our enjoyment of the separate existence and independence which we have asserted, and, with the blessing of Providence, intend to maintain. Our present condition, achieved in a manner unprecedented in the history of nations, illustrates the American idea that governments rest upon the consent of the governed, and that it is the right of the people to alter or abolish governments whenever they become destructive of the ends for which they were established.
The declared purpose of the compact of Union from which we have withdrawn was "to establish justice, insure domestic tranquillity, provide for the common defense, promote the general welfare, and secure the blessing of liberty to ourselves and our posterity;" and when, in the judgment of the sovereign States now composing this Confederacy, it had been perverted from the purposes for which it was ordained, and had ceased to answer the ends for which it was established, a peaceful appeal to the ballot-box declared that so far as they were concerned, the government created by that compact should cease to exist. In this they merely asserted a right which the Declaration of Independence of 1776 had defined to be inalienable; of the time and occasion for its exercise, they, as sovereigns, were the final judges, each for itself. The impartial and enlightened verdict of mankind will vindicate the rectitude of our conduct, and He who knows the hearts of men will judge of the sincerity with which we labored to preserve the Government of our fathers in its spirit. The right solemnly proclaimed at the birth of the States, and which has been affirmed and reaffirmed in the bills of rights of States subsequently admitted into the Union of 1789, undeniably recognize in the people the power to resume the authority delegated for the purposes of government. Thus the sovereign States here represented proceeded to form this Confederacy, and it is by abuse of language that their act has been denominated a revolution. They formed a new alliance, but within each State its government has remained, the rights of person and property have not been disturbed. The agent through whom they communicated with foreign nations is changed, but this does not necessarily interrupt their international relations.
Sustained by the consciousness that the transition from the former Union to the present Confederacy has not proceeded from a disregard on our part of just obligations, or any failure to perform every constitutional duty, moved by no interest or passion to invade the rights of others, anxious to cultivate peace and commerce with all nations, if we may not hope to avoid war, we may at least expect that posterity will acquit us of having needlessly engaged in it. Doubly justified by the absence of wrong on our part, and by wanton aggression on the part of others, there can be no cause to doubt that the courage and patriotism of the people of the Confederate States will be found equal to any measures of defense which honor and security may require.
An agricultural people, whose chief interest is the export of a commodity required in every manufacturing country, our true policy is peace, and the freest trade which our necessities will permit. It is alike our interest, and that of all those to whom we would sell and from whom we would buy, that there should be the fewest practicable restrictions upon the interchange of commodities. There can be but little rivalry between ours and any manufacturing or navigating community, such as the Northeastern States of the American Union. It must follow, therefore, that a mutual interest would invite good will and kind offices. If, however, passion or the lust of dominion should cloud the judgment or inflame the ambition of those States, we must prepare to meet the emergency and to maintain, by the final arbitrament of the sword, the position which we have assumed among the nations of the earth. We have entered upon the career of independence, and it must be inflexibly pursued. Through many years of controversy with our late associates, the Northern States, we have vainly endeavored to secure tranquillity, and to 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 to 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 blessings of Providence on a just cause.
As a consequence of our new condition and with a view to meet anticipated wants, it will be necessary to provide for the speedy and efficient organization of branches of the executive department, having special charge of foreign intercourse, finance, military affairs, and the postal service.
For purposes of defense, the Confederate States may, under ordinary circumstances, rely mainly upon their militia, but it is deemed advisable, in the present condition of affairs, that there should be a well-instructed and disciplined army, more numerous than would usually be required on a peace establishment. I also suggest that for the protection of our harbors and commerce on the high seas a navy adapted to those objects will be required. These necessities have doubtless engaged the attention of Congress.
With a Constitution differing only from that of our fathers in so far as it is explanatory of their well-known intent, freed from the sectional conflicts which have interfered with the pursuit of the general welfare, it is not unreasonable to expect that States from which we have recently parted may seek to unite their fortunes with ours under the government which we have instituted. For this your Constitution makes adequate provision; but beyond this, if I mistake not the judgment and will of the people, a reunion with the States from which we have separated is neither practicable nor desirable. To increase the power, develop the resources, and promote the happiness of a confederacy, it is requisite that there should be so much of homogeneity that the welfare of every portion shall be the aim of the whole. Where this does not exist, antagonisms are engendered which must and should result in separation.
Actuated solely by the desire to preserve our own rights and 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 has progressed 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 and in which the commercial world has an interest scarcely less than our own. This common interest of the producer and consumer can only be interrupted by an exterior force which should obstruct its transmission to foreign markets--a course of conduct which would be as unjust toward us as it 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 the strongest desire to inflict injury upon us; but 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 means before suggested, the well-known resources for retaliation upon the commerce of an enemy.
Experience in public stations, of subordinate grade to this which your kindness has conferred, has taught me that care and toil and disappointment are the price of official elevation. You will see many errors to forgive, many deficiencies to tolerate, but you shall not find in me either a want of zeal or fidelity to the cause that is to me highest in hope and of most enduring affection. Your generosity has bestowed upon me an undeserved distinction, one which I neither sought nor desired. Upon the continuance of that sentiment and upon your wisdom and patriotism I rely to direct and support me in the performance of the duty required at my hands.
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 instructed as to the just interpretation of the instrument, and ever remembering that all offices are but trusts held for the people, and that delegated powers are to be strictly construed, I will hope, by due diligence in the performance of my duties, though I may disappoint your expectations, yet to retain, when retiring, something of the good will and confidence which welcome my entrance into office.
It is joyous, in the midst of perilous times, to look around upon a people united in heart, where one purpose of high resolve animates and actuates the whole--where the sacrifices to be made are not weighed in the balance against honor and right and liberty and equality. Obstacles may retard, they cannot long prevent the progress of a movement sanctified by its justice, and sustained by a virtuous people. Reverently let us invoke the God of our fathers to guide and protect us in our efforts to perpetuate the principles which, by his blessing, they were able to vindicate, establish and transmit to their posterity, and with a continuance of His favor, ever gratefully acknowledged, we may hopefully look forward to success, to peace, and to prosperity.
From The Papers of Jefferson Davis, Volume 7, pp. 45-51. Transcribed from the Congressional Journal, Volume 1, pp. 64-66.
Jefferson Davis' Second Inaugural Address
Virginia
Capitol, Richmond, February 22, 1862
Fellow-Citizens:
On
this the birthday of the man most identified with the
establishment of American independence, and beneath the
monument erected to commemorate his heroic virtues and
those of his compatriots, we have assembled to usher into
existence the Permanent Government of the Confederate
States. Through this instrumentality, under the favor of
Divine Providence, we hope to perpetuate the principles of
our revolutionary fathers. The day, the memory, and the
purpose seem fitly associated.
It is with mingled feelings of humility and pride that I
appear to take, in the presence of the people and before
high Heaven, the oath prescribed as a qualification for the
exalted station to which the unanimous voice of the people
has called me. Deeply sensible of all that is implied by
this manifestation of the people's confidence, I am yet
more profoundly impressed by the vast responsibility of the
office, and humbly feel my own unworthiness.
In return for their kindness I can offer assurances of the
gratitude with which it is received; and can but pledge a
zealous devotion of every faculty to the service of those
who have chosen me as their Chief Magistrate.
When a long course of class legislation, directed not to
the general welfare, but to the aggrandizement of the
Northern section of the Union, culminated in a warfare on
the domestic institutions of the Southern States--when the
dogmas of a sectional party, substituted for the provisions
of the constitutional compact, threatened to destroy the
sovereign rights of the States, six of those States,
withdrawing from the Union, confederated together to
exercise the right and perform the duty of instituting a
Government which would better secure the liberties for the
preservation of which that Union was established.
Whatever of hope some may have entertained that a 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
prosecution 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 liberty. Bastiles filled
with prisoners, arrested without civil process or
indictment duly found; the writ of habeas
corpus suspended by
Executive mandate; a State Legislature controlled by the
imprisonment of members whose avowed principles suggested
to the Federal Executive that there might be another added
to the list of seceded States; elections held under threats
of a military power; civil officers, peaceful citizens, and
gentle-women incarcerated for opinion's sake--proclaimed
the incapacity of our late associates to administer a
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 laws enacted under it, as well as
to 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
functions fully executed, and every right of the peaceful
citizen maintained as securely as if a war of invasion had
not disturbed the land.
The people of the States now confederated became convinced
that the Government of the United States had fallen into
the hands of a sectinal majority, who would pervert that
most sacred of all trusts to the destruction of the rights
which it was pledged to protect. They believed that to
remain longer in the Union would subject them to a
continuance of a disparaging discrimination, submission to
which would be inconsistent with their welfare, and
intolerable to a proud people. They therefore determined to
sever its bonds and establish a new Confederacy for
themselves.
The experiment instituted by our revolutionary fathers, of
a voluntary Union of sovereign States for purposes
specified in a solemn compact, had been perverted by those
who, feeling power and forgetting right, were 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 a revolution which, in
its silent but rapid progress, was about to place us under
the despotism of numbers, and to preserve in spirit, as
well as in form, a system of government we believed to be
peculiarly fitted to our condition, and full of promise for
mankind, we determined to make a new association, composed
of States homogeneous in interest, in policy, and in
feeling.
True to our traditions of peace and our love of justice, we
sent commissioners to the United States to propose a fair
and amicable settlement of all questions of public debt or
property which might be in dispute. But the Government at
Washington, denying our right to self-government, refused
even to listen to any proposals for a peaceful separation.
Nothing was then left to do but to prepare for war.
The first year in our history has been the most eventful in
the annals of this continent. A new Government has been
established, and its machinery put in operation over an
area exceeding seven hundred thousand square miles. The
great principles upon which we have been willing to hazard
everything that is dear to man have made conquests for us
which could never have been achieved by the sword. Our
Confederacy has grown from six to thirteen States; and
Maryland, already united to us by hallowed memories and
material interests, will, I believe, when able to speak
with unstifled voice, connect her destiny with the South.
Our people have rallied with unexampled unanimity to the
support of the great principles of constitutional
government, with firm resolve to perpetuate by arms the
right which they could not peacefully secure. A million of
men, it is estimated, are now standing in hostile array,
and waging war along a frontier of thousands of miles.
Battles have been fought, sieges have been conducted, and,
although the contest is not ended, and the tide for the
moment is against us, the final result in our favor is not
doubtful.
The period is near at hand when our foes must sink under
the immense load of debt which they have incurred, a debt
which in their effort to subjugate us has already attained
such fearful dimensions as will subject them to burdens
which must continue to oppress them for generations to
come.
We too have had our trials and difficulties. That we are to
escape them in future is not to be hoped. It was to be
expected when we entered upon this war that it would expose
our people to sacrifices and cost them much, both of money
and blood. But we knew the value of the object for which we
struggled, and understood the nature of the war in which we
were engaged. Nothing could be so bad as failure, and any
sacrifice would be cheap as the price of success in such a
contest.
But the picture has its lights as well as its shadows. This
great strife has awakened in the people the highest
emotions and qualities of the human soul. It is cultivating
feelings of patriotism, virtue, and courage. Instances of
self-sacrifice and of generous devotion to the noble cause
for which we are contending are rife throughout the land.
Never has a people evinced a more determined spirit than
that now animating men, women, and children in every part
of our country. Upon the first call the men flew to arms,
and wifes and mothers send their husbands and sons to
battle without a murmur of regret.
It was, perhaps, in the ordination of Providence that we
were to be taught the value of our liberties by the price
which we pay for them.
The recollections of this great contest, with all its
common traditions of glory, of sacrifice and blood, will be
the bond of harmony and enduring affection amongst the
people, producing unity in policy, fraternity in sentiment,
and just effort in war.
Nor have the material sacrifices of the past year been made
without some corresponding benefits. If the acquiescence of
foreign nations in a pretended blockade has deprived us of
our commerce with them, it is fast making us a
self-supporting and an independent people. The blockade, if
effectual and permanent, could only serve to divert our
industry from the production of articles for export and
employ it in supplying the commodities for domestic use.
It is a satisfaction that we have maintained the war by our
unaided exertions. We have neither asked nor received
assistance from any quarter. Yet the interest involved is
not wholly our own. The world at large is concerned in
opening our markets to its commerce. When the independence
of the Confederate States is recognized by the nations of
the earth, and we are free to follow our interests and
inclinations by cultivating foreign trade, the Southern
States will offer to manufacturing nations the most
favorable markets which ever invited their commerce.
Cotton, sugar, rice, tobacco, provisions, timber, and naval
stores will furnish attractive exchanges. Nor would the
constancy of these supplies be likely to be disturbed by
war. Our confederate strength will be too great to tempt
aggression; and never was there a people whose interests
and principles committed them so fully to a peaceful policy
as those of the Confederate States. By the character of
their productions they are too deeply interested in foreign
commerce wantonly to disturb it. War of conquest they
cannot wage, because the Constitution of their Confederacy
admits of no coerced association. Civil war there cannot be
between States held together by their volition only. The
rule of voluntary association, which cannot fail to be
conservative, by securing just and impartial government at
home, does not diminish the security of the obligations by
which the Confederate States may be bound to foreign
nations. In proof of this, it is to be remembered that, at
the first moment of asserting their right to secession,
these States proposed a settlement on the basis of the
common liability for the obligations of the General
Government.
Fellow-citizens, after the struggle of ages had consecrated
the right of the Englishman to constitutional
representative government, our colonial ancestors were
forced to vindicate that birthright by an appeal to arms.
Success crowned their efforts, and they provided for the
posterity a peaceful remedy against future aggression.
The tyranny of an unbridled majority, the most odious and
least responsible form of despotism, has denied us both the
right and the remedy. Therefore we are in arms to renew
such sacrifices as our fathers made to the holy cause of
constitutional liberty. At the darkest hour of our struggle
the Provisional gives place to the Permanent Government.
After a series of successes and victories, which covered
our arms with glory, we have recently met with serious
disasters. But in the heart of a people resolved to be free
these disasters tend but to stimulate to increased
resistance.
To show ourselves worthy of the inheritance bequeathed to
us by the patriots of the Revolution, we must emulate that
heroic devotion which made reverse to them but the crucible
in which their patriotism was refined.
With confidence in the wisdom and virtue of those who will
share with me the responsibility and aid me in the conduct
of public affairs; securely relying on the patriotism and
courage of the people, of which the present war has
furnished so many examples, I deeply feel the weight of the
responsibilities I now, with unaffected diffidence, am
about to assume; and, fully realizing the inequality of
human power to guide and to sustain, my hope is reverently
fixed on Him whose favor is ever vouchsafed to the cause
which is just. With humble gratitude and adoration,
acknowledging the Providence which has so visibly protected
the Confederacy during its brief but eventful career, to
thee, O God, I trustingly commit myself, and prayerfully
invoke thy blessing on my country and its cause.
Transcribed from Dunbar Rowland, ed., Jefferson
Davis, Constitutionalist, Volume 5, pp.
198-203. Summarized in The Papers
of Jefferson Davis, Volume 8, p.
55.