He and his Cabinet have disregarded the injunctions of the sixth article of the amendments to the Constitution, not less flagrantly than those to which I have referred. That article declares: "In all criminal prosecutions the accused shall enjoy the right to a speedy and public trial by an impartial jury of the State and district wherein the crime shall have been committed, which district shall have been previously ascer freedom of speech or of the press." President Lincoln aud his Cabinet have wilfully disregarded the spirit of this article. Numerous instances could be cited to prove that the solemnities of an oath have not restrained them in their efforts to abridge the freedom of speech" and to muzzle "the press." The numberless arrests made by them in Western and Eastern Virginia, in Kentucky, in Missouri, in Mary-tained by law, and to be informed of the nature and cause land, in Washington City, and also in the free States, when nothing more was charged against the parties arrested than the declaration of their opinion in condemnation of the policy of President Lincoln and his Cabinet, show that freedom of speech is not tolerated by them. The notorious fact that papers have been suppressed in New York, Philadelphia and elsewhere by the exercise of Executive power, fully attests a scandalous usurpation for the destruction of the independence of the press. 66 The President and his Cabinet and the military officers under their direction and control, have violated the fourth article of the amendment to the Constitution which guarantees the rights of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers and effects against unreasonable searches and seizures," and declares that it" shall not be violated." This article has been habitually disregarded, and every observant man will call to mind numerous instances of the violation-the result of suspicion, merely. of the accusation, to be confronted with the witnesses against him, to have compulsary process for obtaining witnesses in his favor, and to have the assistance of counsel for his de fense." He and his Cabinet have seized large numbers of our citizens; withdrawn them from their homes, their families and their business; cast them into loathsome prisons; refused to inform them of the cause and nature of the accusation against them; denied to them the right and opportunity of consultation with friends or counsel, and have withheld from them a speedy and public trial by an impartial jury. They would neither confront them with the witnesses against them, nor would they allow them to have compulsory process for obtaining witnesses in their favor. The conduct of President Lincoln has been as oppressive and tyrannical toward the Confederate States as the acts of the King of Great Britain, which caused our first Revolution, were toward the colonies. The comparison cannot fail to make its im pression upon the mind even of the most casual ob server. President Lincoln has plundered the public treas He and his Cabinet have violated, as deliberately and wilfully, the fifth article of the amendments to the Constitution, which is in these words: “No person shall be held to answer fer a capital or other-ury, and has delivered at least forty thousand dol wise infamous crime unless on a presentment or indictment of a grand jury, except in cases arising in the land or naval forces or in the militia, when in actual service or time of war or public danger; nor shall any person be subject for the same offense to be twice put in jeopardy of life or limb; nor shall be compelled in any eriminal case to be a witness against himself; nor to be deprived of life, liberty or property without due process of law; nor shall private property be taea for public use without just compensation." Without a presentment or indictment of a grand jury, they have, on mere suspicion of crime, caused men and women to be arrested and confined under strong guards, and have detained them for weeks and months. They have prostituted the telegraph to their uses, for the purpose of communicating orders for the arrest of suspected persons, repudiating all those safeguards which the law has wisely thrown around the citizen for his protection. Desolation has followed in the footsteps of the Federal army. Neither life, liberty nor property has been respected by them. They have murdered many of the best citizens of the country, they have incarcerated others in jails and forts, and they have seized and appropriated private property to public use without just compensation to the owner. lars to Pierpoint to enable him and his traitorous associates in the Commonwealth of Virginia to overthrow the State Government, and to organize within the limits of this State a new Government. He has thus been guilty of the unprincipled conduct of using the people's money to lavish upon traitors and encourage them to perseverance in their work of treason. "The history" of Abraham Lincoln "is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having for their object the establishment of an absolute tyranny over these" Confederate States. To this end "he has affected to render the military independent of and superior to the civil power." He has combined with Pierpoint and other traitors in Virginia "to subject us to a jurisdiction foreign to our Constitution and unacknowledged by our laws, giving his assent to their acts of pretended legislation." He is endeavoring to quarter "large bodies of armed troops amongst us." "He has plundered our seas, ravaged our coasts, burned our towns and destroyed the lives of our people." GOVERNOR LETCHER'S MESSAGE. 527 He is endeavoring to cut off" our trade with all demonstrated that the former has shown himself not parts of the world." less a tyrant and usurper than the latter. He is endeavoring to impose "taxes upon us without our consent." The Constitution of the United States has had no binding efficacy upon us since the 17th day of April He is endeavoring to deprive us," in many cases, last. On that day we repudiated it, and declared of the benefits of trial by jury." to the world that we would not be longer bound by The occurrences of the past nine months have demonstrated conclusively that we cannot live together as equals under the Government of the United States; and the habitual violation of the provisions of the Constitution, and the open disregard of the laws by President Lincoln and his officials, render governmental association between as impossible. Mutual respect between the citizens of the Southern Confederacy and those of the North has ceased to exist. Mutual confidence has been succeeded by mutual distrust; and mutual good will by mutual aversion. No government can be enduring which does not possess the affection and respect of the governed. It cannot be that the people of the Con In every stage of these oppressions, attempted or consummated, prior to the secession of the State, we warned President Lincoln and the Northern people of the inevitable consequences of their course, and admonished them that if justice was not ac-federate States can again entertain a feeling of affec corded to us the Union must be dissolved. In every stage of these oppressions since the secession of the State we have resisted them as became a free people asserting independence. Our admonitions and resistance have been answered by repeated injury and oppression, aggravated by war and bloodshed and by the assumption and exercise of power which even an autocrat would hesitate to assume and exercise. A President "whose character is thus marked by every act which may define a tyrant is unfit to be a ruler of a free people." I have thus presented: 1. The considerations that influenced and controlled the action of Virginia in separating herself from the Government of the United States and resuming her sovereignty. 2. The results which President Lincoln's policy gave us fearful reason to apprehend, and which are now matters of history stamped indelibly upon its pages. In these I enumerate its repeated violations of a Constitution which he had solemnly sworn to support. 3. I have run a parallel betwen the conduct of President Lincoln and George the Third, and have tion and respect for the Government of the United States. We have, therefore, separated from them, and now let it be understood, that the separation "is and ought to be final and irrevocable"--that Virginia will, under no circumstances, entertain any proposition from any quarter which may have for its object a restoration or reconstruction of the late Union on any terms and conditions whatever. We must be content with nothing less than the unqualified recognition of the independence of the Southern Confederacy and its nationality by the Government of the United States; and to this end we must meet the issue they have tendered to us with spirit, energy and determination, and with a firm resolve on the part of each of the Confederate States that everything shall be done that may be necessa ry to insure the triumph of our arms and thus secure our liberty and independence for the South. In conclusion, I recommend that before your ad jourument this day you reaffirm, by solemn vote in each house, the resolutions adopted by the General Assembly of Georgia. The Empire State of the South has spoken; let not "the Mother of States" remain silent on a subject of so much significance GENERAL REFERENCE INDEX. A. B.-Continued. PAGE. PAGE. Ability of the Northern States to sustain a State of War. 512 Baltimore, Assault on the Massachusetts Troops, April 22, 1851....... 81 203 95 145 146 120 Occupied by Butler's Forces.......... 66 66 ........ 345 99 347 Adams' Express, Heavy Exportations of Arms by, to the 107 Atrocious Aspersions of President Lincoln, Instances of. 138 Booneville, Mo., Rebels at, in July, '61..... Bayard, U. S. Senate, Resolution of, Substitute for Fesscn- 278 80 Bowling Green, Ky., rebel forces at, Nov. '61. 421 .18, 171 47 |