current events and experience shall show a modifi- | sion? Plainly, the central idea of secession is the cation or change to be proper; and in every case essence of anarchy. and exigency my best discretion will be exercised according to the circumstances actually existing, and with a view and hope of a peaceful solution of the national troubles, and the restoration of fraternal sympathies and affections. That there are persons, in one section or another, who seek to destroy the Union at all events, and are glad of any pretext to do it, I will neither affirm nor deny. But if there be such, I need address no word to them. To those, however, who really love the Union, may I not speak, before entering upon so grave a matter as the destruction of our national fabric, with all its benefits, its memories, and its hopes? Would it not be well to ascertain why we do it? Will you hazard so desperate a step, while any portion of the ills you fly from, have no real existence? Will you, while the certain ills you fly to, are greater than all the real ones you fly from? Will you risk the commission of so fearful a mistake? All profess to be content in the Union if all constitutional rights can be maintained. Is it truc, then, that any right, plainly written in the Constitution has been denied? I think not. Happily the human mind is so constituted, that no party can reach to the audacity of doing this. Think, if you can, of a single instance in which a plainly-written provision of the Constitution has ever been denied. If, by the mere force of numbers, a majority should deprive a minority of any clearly-written constitutional right, it might, in a moral point of view, justify revolution; it certainly would, if such right were a vital one. But such is not our case. All the vital rights of minorities and of individuals are so plainly assured to them by affirmations and negations, guaranties and prohibitions in the Constitution, that controversies never arise concerning them. But no organic law can ever be framed with a provision specifically applicable to every question which may occur in practical administration. No foresight can anticipate, nor any document of reasonable length contain, express provisions for all possible questions. Shall fugitives from labor be surrendered by national or by state authorities? The Constitution does not expressly say. Must Congress protect slavery in the Territories? The Constitution does not expressly say. From questions of this class, spring all our constitutional controversies, and we divide upon them into majorities and minorities. A majority held in restraint by constitutional check and limitation, and always changing easily with deliberate changes of popular opinions and sentiments, is the only true sovereign of a free people. Whoever rejects it, docs, of necessity, fly to anarchy or to despotism. Unanimity is impossible; the rule of a majority, as a permanent arrangement, is wholly inadmissible. So that, rejecting the majority principle, anarchy or despotism in some form is all that is left. I do not forget the position assumed by some that constitutional questions are to be decided by the Supreme Court, nor do I deny that such decisions must be binding in any case upon the parties to a suit, as to the object of that suit, while they are also entitled to very high respect and consideration in all parallel cases by all other departments of the government; and while it is obviously possible that such decision may be erroneous in any given case, still the evil effect following it, being limited to that particular case, with the chance that it may be overruled and never become a precedent for other cases, can better be borne than could the evils of a different practice. At the same time the candid citizen must confess that if the policy of the government upon the vital questions affecting the whole people is to be irrevocably fixed by the decisions of the Supreme Court, the instant they are made, as in ordinary litigation between parties in personal actions, the people will have ceased to be their own masters, unless having to that extent practically resigned their government into the hands of that eminent tribunal. Nor is there in this view any assault upon the court or the judges. It is a duty from which they may not shrink, to decide cases properly brought before them; and it is no fault of theirs if others seek to turn their decisions to political purposes. One section of our country believes slavery is right and ought to be extended, while the other believes it is wrong and ought not to be extended; and this is the only substantial dispute; and the fugitive slave clause of the constitution, and the law for the suppression of the foreign slave trade, are each as well enforced, perhaps, as any law can ever be in a community where the moral sense of the people imperfectly supports the law itself. The great body of the people abide by the dry legal obligation in both cases, and a few break over in each. This, I think, cannot be perfectly cured, and it would be worse in both cases after the separation of the sections than before. The foreign slave trade, now imperfectly suppressed, would be ultimately revived, without restriction, in one section; while fugitive slaves, now only partially surrendered, would not be surrendered at all by the other. If the minority will not acquiesce, the majority must, or the government must cease. There is no alternative for continuing the government but acquiescence on the one side or the other. If a minority in such a case, will secede rather than acquiesce, they make a precedent which in turn will ruin Physically speaking we cannot separate-we canand divide them, for a minority of their own will not remove our respective sections from each other, secede from them whenever a majority refuses to be nor build an impassable wall between them. A controlled by such a minority. For instance, why husband and wife may be divorced, and go out of not any portion of a new confederacy, a year or two the presence and beyond the reach of each other, hence, arbitrarily secede again, precisely as por- but the different parts of our country cannot do tions of the present Union now claim to secede this. They cannot but remain face to face; and infrom it? All who cherish disunion sentiments are tercourse, either amicable or hostile, must continue now being educated to the exact temper of doing between them. Is it possible, then, to make that this. Is there such perfect identity of interests intercourse more advantageous or more satisfacamong the States to compose a new Union as to tory after separation than before? Can aliens make produce harmony only, and prevent renewed seces-treaties easier than friends can make laws? Can treaties be more faithfully enforced between aliens than laws can among friends? Suppose you go to war, you cannot fight always; and when, after much loss on both sides and no gain on either, you cease fighting, the identical questions as to terms of intercourse are again upon you. This country, with its institutions, belongs to the people who inhabit it. Whenever they shall grow weary of the existing government, they can exercise their constitutional right of amending, or their revolutionary right to dismember or overthrow it. I cannot be ignorant of the fact that many worthy and patriotic citizens are desirous of having the national Constitution amended. While I make no recommendation of amendment, I fully recognize the full authority of the people over the whole subject, to be exercised in either of the modes prcscribed in the instrument itself, and I should, under existing circumstances, favor, rather than oppose, a fair opportunity being afforded the people to act upon it. I will venture to add, that to me the convention mode seems preferable, in that it allows amendments to originate with the people themselves, instead of only permitting them to take or reject propositions originated by others not especially chosen for the purpose, and which might not be precisely such as they would wish either to accept or refuse. I understand that a proposed amendment to the Constitution (which amendment, however, I have not seen) has passed Congress, to the effect that the Federal Government shall never interfere with the domestic institutions of States, including that of persons held to service. To avoid misconstruction of what I have said, I depart from my purpose not to speak of particular amendments, so far as to say that, holding such a provision to now be implied constitutional law, I have no objection to its being made express and irrevocable. The chief magistrate derives all his authority from the people, and they have conferred none upon him to fix the terms for the separation of the States. The people themselves, also, can do this if they choose, but the Executive, as such, has nothing to do with it. His duty is to administer the present government as it came to his hands, and to transmit it unimpaired by him to his successor. Why should there not be a patient confidence in the ultimate justice of the people? Is there any better or equal hope in the world? In our present differences is either party without faith of being in the right? If the Almighty Ruler of nations, with his eternal truth and justice, be on your side of the North, or on yours of the South, that truth and that justice will surely prevail by the judgment of this great tribunal, the American people. By the frame of the Government under which we live, this same people have wisely given their public servants but little power for mischief, and have with equal wisdom provided for the return of that little to their own hands at very short intervals. While the people retain their virtue and vigilance, no administration, by any extreme wickedness or folly, can very seriously injure the Government in the short space of four years. My countrymen, one and all, think calmly and well upon this whole subject. Nothing valuable can be lost by taking time. If there be an object to hurry any of you, in hot haste, to a step which you would never take delib | erately, that object will be frustrated by taking time; but no good object can be frustrated by it. Such of you as are now dissatisfied still have the old Constitution unimpaired, aud on the sensitive point, the laws of your own framing under it; while the new administration will have no immediate power, if it would, to change either. If it were admitted that you who are dissatisfied hold the right side in the dispute, there is still no single reason for precipitate action. Intelligence, patriotism, Christianity, and a firm reliance on Him who has never yet forsaken this favored land, are still competent to adjust, in the best way, all our present difficulties. In your hands, my dissatisfied fellow-countrymen, and not in mine, is the momentous issue of civil war. The government will not assail you. You can have no conflict without being yourselves the aggressors. You have no oath registered in leaven to destroy the government; while I shall have the most solemn one to "preserve, protect, and defend" it. I am loath to close. We are not enemies, but friends. We must not be enemies. Though passion may have strained, it must not break our bonds of affection. The mystic cords of memory, stretching from every battle-field and patriot grave to every living heart and hearthstone all over this broad land, will yet swell the chorus of the Union, when again touched, as surely they will be, by the better angels of our nature. Doc. 43.-THE INAUGURAL ADDRESS. HOW IT IS RECEIVED. The Baltimore papers discuss the tone of Mr. Lincoln's Inaugural Address. The American regards the address with favor. "The tone of the speech is pacific; that is to say, Mr. Lincoln avows his determination to preserve peace, so far as it may be done, in the performance of his duty as he understands it. He denies that he has the power to recognize the right or the fact of secession, and therefore denies that he has the liberty to refrain from the performance of what would be plain obligations if no such right or fact had been assumed to exist. While, therefore, he announces his intention to collect the revenue and to possess and defend the forts, he distinctly declares that he will do these things in such a manner as to avoid the necessity for strife, if it is possible to do so. It is perfectly evident, from the whole tenor of his Address, that he does not intend to be the aggressor, if peace may not be preserved. "No one will deny that he has met the issues presented with a firmness and frankness that are in themselves commendable. He does not expect to be misunderstood, and he foreshadows his policy with a directness that provides for no future evasions or change of programme. It is hardly probable that the citizens of the Southern Confederacy have waited for this Inaugural with the expectation that it was to contain a relinquishment of United States authority in the seceded states, or a promise to recognize the government there set up; and if they have, it is not probable that the Address will leave them in doubt upon this subject. "Whatever may be the differences of opinion throughout the country upon the various subjects, subject, and further manifests his desire to conof which the address treats, it will be very general- ciliate, by frankly endorsing the Corwin amendly received as an honest and outspoken avowal of ment to the Constitution, which has just received a the policy of the new administration. It is certain two-thirds vote of both branches of Congress." that it furnishes no pretext for disunion that has not existed since the November election." STATES' ARMY BILL. The Baltimore Sun denounces the Address as Doc. 44.-SYNOPSIS OF THE CONFEDERATE "sectional and mischievous," and adds that "if it means what it says, it is the knell and the requiem of the Union, and the death of hope." The Baltimore Exchange says, "the measures of Mr. Lincoln mean war.' The Baltimore Patriot believes, with the American, that Mr. Lincoln means to avoid aggression, and adds: SEC. 1. Enacts, that from and after the passage of the act, the military establishment of the Confederate States shall be composed of one corps of engincers, one corps of artillery, six regiments of infantry, one regiment of cavalry, and of the staff department already established by law. 2. The Corps of Engineers shall consist of one colonel, four majors, five captains, one company of sappers, miners, and pioneers, consisting of ten sergeants or master-workmen, ten corporals or overseers, two musicians, and thirty-nine privates of the first-class, or artificers, and thirty-nine men of secondclass, or laborers-making in all one hundred. 3. Said company shall be officered by one captain and as many lieutenants, taken from the line of the army, as the President may deem necessary. 4. Duties of the colonel of the Engineer Corps prescribed. "The reasoning and expositions of the Inaugural, in the virtues of patience, forbearance, &c., apply as well to Mr. Lincoln as to the people of the several States, and as he expects the people to exercise those virtues, so must he allow the people to expect that he will apply the counsel to himself, as well as to them. In this there is another assurance of pacificatory purposes, and of the intention to enforce the laws, as nearly as possible, in conformity with the will of the whole people. This position is greatly strengthened by the appeal to the Almighty Ruler of Nations, with his eternal truth and justice, as the great appellate tribunal of the American people. 5. The artillery corps shall consist of one colonel, We make this observation in reference to Mr. one lieutenant-colonel, ten majors, and forty compaLincoln as an enlightened and conscientious states-nies of artillerists and artificers; and each company man, and not as an educated and conscientious shall consist of one captain, two first lieutenants, fanatic. In the character of the statesman, he will one second lieutenant, four sergeants, four corpowisely and judiciously apply the law he is obliged to rals, two musicians and seventy privates; also one enforce as a sufficient instrument for the accom-adjutant to be selected by the colonel from the first plishment of its purposes, without any appeal to the lieutenants, and one sergeant-major to be selected higher law of the fanatics, which is subversive of all from enlisted men of the corps. human law and government, and impels the submission of all human thought and consideration and action to the whim or notion of an individual man." In Virginia the secessionists denounce it as a warlike document, and threaten immediate secession and fight. In the seceding States intense excitement was created by the reception of the Address. In North Carolina, the Inaugural was favorably received by the Unionists, who regarded it as a hopeful indication of the peace policy of the administration. The St. Louis Democrat says: "We can only say this morning, that it meets the highest expectations of the country, both in point of statesmanship and patriotism, and that its effect on the public mind cannot be other than salutary in the highest degree." 6. Each regiment of infantry shall consist of one colonel, one lieutenant-colonel, one major and ten companies. Each company shall consist of one captain, one first lieutenant, two second lieutenants, four sergeants, four corporals, two musicians and ninety privates; and to each regiment there shall be one adjutant, and one sergeant-major. 7. The cavalry regiment shall consist of one colonel, one lieutenant-colonel, one major and ten companies. Each of which shall consist of one captain, one first lieutenant, two second lieutenants, four sergeants, four corporals, one farrier, one blacksmith, two musicians and sixty privates; also, of one adjutant and one sergeant-major. 8. There shall be four brigadier-generals, entitled to one aid-de-camp each. 9. All officers of the army shall be appointed by the President, by and with the advice and consent The St. Louis Republican says: "We hoped for of the Congress; and the rank and file shall be ena more conservative and more conciliatory expres- listed for not less than three nor more than five sion of sentiments; much will depend upon the put-years. ting in practice of the ideas advanced that will test 10. All officers are required to stand a creditable the question-be it one of expediency or right-military examination. whether the forts can be held or retaken and the revenues collected without bloodshed." The Boston Post is pleased. It says: "The conservatives will be glad to see, at this time, the opening avowals of the Address. The pledge not to interfere with slavery in the States; the denunciation of lawless invasions of those States; the avowal to protect slavery in case of a servile insurrection; the promise to carry into effect the fugitive slave obligation, seem to come up to the requirements of the Constitution. Nor is this all. Towards the conclusion the President returns to the 11 and 12. Promotions in the army shall be made according to seniority and ability. 13. The pay of the brigadier-general is $3,612 per year, and his aid-de-camp (in addition to his pay as lieutenant) the sum of $35 per month. 14. Monthly pay of the officers of the Corps of Engineers: colonel, $210; majors, $162; captains, $140; lieutenants serving with sappers and miners will receive the pay of cavalry officers of the same grade. 15. The monthly pay of the colonel of the artillery corps is $210; lieutenant-colonel, $185; majors, $150; and when serving on ordnance duty, $162; captains, $130; lieutenants, $90; second lieutenants, $30. The adjutant, in addition to his pay as lieutenant, the sum of $10 per month. Officers serving in the light artillery, or performing ordnance duty, shall receive the same pay as officers of cavalry in the same grade. 16. The monthly pay of officers in the infantry regiment. Colonels, $195; lieutenant-colonels, $170; majors, $150; captains, $130; lieutenants, $90; second lieutenants, $80; and the adjutant, in addition to his pay as lieutenant, $10 per month. 17. The monthly pay of officers of cavalry: Colonel, $210; lieutenant-colonel, $185; major, $162; captains, $140; first lieutenant, $100; second lieutenants, $90; and the adjutant $10 per month in addition to his pay as lieutenant. 18. The pay of officers of the general staff (except those of the medical department,) will be the same as officers of cavalry of the same grade. The annual salary of the surgeon-general is $3,000, with fuel and quarters; monthly pay of surgeons of ten years' service in that grade, $200; a surgeon of less time service, $162; assistant-surgeon of ten years' service, $150; assistant-surgeon of five years' service, $130, and for assistant of less than five years' service, $110. 19. There shall be allowed, in addition to the pay herein before provided, to every commissioned SOUTHERN RECOGNITION. officer, except the surgeon-general, $9 per month Doc. 45.-AN ENGLISH PROTEST AGAINST for every five years' services, and to the officers of the army of the United States who have resigned, or may resign, to be received into the service of The Confederate States, this additional pay shall be allowed from the date of their entrance into the former service. There shall also be an additional monthly allowance to every general officer cammanding in chief a separate army actually in the field, the sum of $100. 20. The pay aforesaid shall be in full of all allowances, except forage, fuel, quarters, and travelling expenses, while travelling under orders, etc., etc. 21. Allows forage to officers, etc. 22. Monthly pay of enlisted men: Sergeants or master workmen of engineer corps, $34; corporals or overseers, $20; privates of first-class or artificers, 17; privates of second-class, or laborers, and musicians, $13; sergeant-major of cavalry, $21; first sergeant, $20; sergeants, $17; corporals, farriers, and blacksmiths, $13; musicians, $13; privates, $12; first sergeants, $20; sergeants, $17; corporals and artificers, $13; musicians, $12; and privates, $11. Non-commissioned officers, artificers, musicians, and privates serving in light batteries shall receive the same pay as those of cavalry. 23. The President is authorized to enlist all master workmen necessary to the ordnance service, not exceeding one hundred men, and at salaries ranging from $13 to $34 per month. 24. Each enlisted man shall receive one ration per day and clothing. 25. Refers to commutation of rations. 26. The Secretary of War is directed to prescribe the duties of every department of service. 27. Requires Quartermasters and Commissaries to give bonds. 28. Prohibits any officer from being interested in purchases made for the army. 29. The rules and articles of war of the United States, with slight exceptions, adopted by the Congress of the Confederate States. Mr. Gregory has given notice that on an early day he will call the attention of her Majesty's gov ernment to the expediency of a prompt recognition of the Southern Confederacy of America. There is no occasion for Mr. Gregory or any one else to be anxious to get our government to acknowledge the so-called Southern Confederacy of American States. The practice of the British government in such cases is firmly established and well understood, viz., to recognize all de facto governments, irrespective of opinions, origin, or any circumstance but the fact of being the actually established ruling power. If ever and whenever that happens with the Southern States, which now professes to be a confederacy, there can be no doubt about their being recognized by all the European powers; and by England, with the utmost certainty and distinctness. But the case has not reached this stage; and it is very far from reaching it. The secession leaders who have assumed office do not pretend to be more than a provisional body; no appeal has been made to the people of their States; none of the constitutional conditions of republican organization have as yet been complied with; and none of the antecedents which were specified by the founders of the republic as justifying rebellion have occurred. The movers in the case have begged the question in regard to the right of secession; and there has as yet been no opportunity of reply on the other side. The whole matter remains for treatment; and, in the most democratic country in the world, the great body of the people has been silent during a whole winter of crisis, from actual want of opportunity to declare their opinion and will. There can be no recognition from without of any new claims put forth in such an interval; and the American nation has a right to expect from its foreign allies patience to wait till the people have spoken and taken their course of action. The inauguration address of the Provisional President of the South was intended to produce just such an effect as it seems to have produced on Mr. Gregory's mind. This audacious parody on the Declaration of Independence might, it was evidently thought, catch the ear of Americans, to whom that Declaration is as familiar as the Lord's Prayer; and it might entrap the imagination of foreigners who might not have paid sufficient attention to the course of American affairs to detect its inapplicability. One does not look for extreme accuracy or for any impartiality in political manifestoes issued by revolutionary officials, on their first attempt to rule the people they have raised; but it may be doubted whether in any European conflict within this revolutionary century any document has appeared more impudently false than Mr. Jefferson Davis's Address. It is so incredible that he and any hearers qualified for political action can be self-deceived to such a point as to believe what he was saying, that we can only suppose the object to be to lead the ignorant people about them by the sound of familiar and venerated words, trusting to their inability to perceive the baselessness of the thoughts. If the poor whites of the Southern section, who constitute nearly three-fourths of the white population, can really be led by such an address as this to fancy themselves resisting oppression, and establishing free government under the special blessing of Heaven, in imitation of their fathers ninety years ago, they are indeed fit only for such subjection to oligarchical government as has long been, and still will be, required of them. In citing the familiar and venerable statement of the Declaration of Independence, as to the causes which justify rebellion, and the principles on which the resulting polity should be framed and organized, Mr. Jefferson Davis pronounced the most crushing condemnation of his own case, in terms of the keenest irony. The staunchest Republican of the North might have taken up the same parable as the aptest speech he could make. The Philadelphia patriots exhibited the long course of oppressions the colonies had endured before they lost patience, and the actual extremities of injury they underwent before they raised a hostile flag. In the present case the Southern party has enjoyed thirty years' possession of the Federal Government-thirty years of domination over the whole Union-during which they have altered the laws, undermined the Constitution, carved out territory, restricted liberty and created license, for their own sectional objects and interests. So much for the long oppression which has driven them to resistance. And what outrage roused the reluctant men of peace at last? What was the Stamp Act of the present occasion? It was the loss of an election, a constitutional election, conducted in a regular and orderly That no misunderstanding may exist on this subject, it is announced to all concerned that this traffic is strictly forbidden, and all such supplies, which may be captured in transit to said vessels, or to Fort Pickens, will be confiscated. The more effectually to enforce this probibition, no boat or vessel will be allowed to visit Fort Pickens or any of the United States naval vessels without special sanction. Col. John H. Forney, Acting Inspector-General, will organize an efficient Harbor Police for the enforcement of this order. By command of BrigadierGeneral BRAXTON BRAGG. ROBERT C. WOOD, jr. Asst. Adjt. Gen. -Times, March 23. Doc. 47.-CORRESPONDENCE BETWEEN MR. SEWARD AND THE CONFEDERATE COMMISSIONERS. The following is the correspondence between the Secretary of State and the Commissioners from the Confederate States : MESSRS. FORSYTH AND CRAWFORD TO MR. Seward, OPENING NEGOTIATION AND STATING THE Case. WASHINGTON CITY, March 12, 1861. Hon. WM. H. SEWARD, Secretary of State of the United States: SIR-The undersigned have been duly accredited by the government of the Confederate States of America as Commissioners to the government of the United States, and in pursuance of their instructions have now the honor to acquaint you with that fact, and to make known, through you, to the President of the United States, the objects of their presence in this Capital. Seven States of the late federal Union having, in the exercise of the inherent right of every free people to change or reform their political institutions, and through conventions of their people, withdrawn from the United States and reassumed the attributes of sovereign power delegated to it, have formed a government of their own. The Confederate States constitute an independent nation, de facto and de jure, and possess a government perfect in all its parts and endowed with all the means of self-support. With a view to a speedy adjustment of all questions growing out of this political separation, upon such terms of amity and good will as the respective interests, geographical contiguity, and future welfare of the two nations may render necessary, the undersigned are instructed to make to the government of the United States overtures for the opening of negotiations, assuring the Government of the United States that the President, Congress, and people of the Confederate States carnestly desire a peaceful solution of these great questions; that it is neither their interest nor their wish to make any demand which is not founded in strictest justice, nor do any act to injure their late confederates. The undersigned have now the honor in obedience to the instructions of their government, to request you to appoint as early a day as possible, in order that they may present to the President of the United States the credentials which they bear and |