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Doc. 82.

sons, and remain a never-dying dishonor and reproach to the sons who shall have plotted or GENERAL SWEENY'S PROCLAMATION. permitted its destruction.

Doc. 81.

MAJOR S. D. STURGIS' PROCLAMATION. JULY 4, 1861.

To the Union-loving Citizens of Missouri: THE undersigned, learning with regret that evil-disposed persons, already in open rebellion against the Government of the United States, have spread rumors through the country in regard to the objects and practices of the Federal troops now among you, rumors calculated to alarm the peaceable citizens, avails himself of this occasion to assure the good people of Missouri that the mission of the troops is one of peace rather than that of war. It is to be hoped, therefore, that all loyal citizens will remain at their ordinary avocations; and all those who may have been deluded from their homes by the emissaries of the so-called Southern Confederacy, and persuaded to take up arms against their Government, will lay down their arms and return to their allegiance.

Among the many falsehoods which you have been made to believe to our prejudice, is, that the prime object of our coming among you is to steal and set free your slaves, and thereby encourage a servile insurrection in your midst, spreading ruin and desolation over your rich and beautiful State. You have been told that we would plunder your houses and barns; demolish them with fire; destroy your crops; rob you of your horses, cattle, &c.; insult your wives and daughters; butcher your men; in fact, commit every outrage known among the savages of the dark ages. All this is done to carry out a wicked rebellion against the Constitution and the laws.

The Government and troops thus vilified you are called upon to judge for yourselves. Upon our march thus far we have religiously observed the laws of your State and protected you in the full enjoyment thereof. In no instance has property been seized for the use of the troops. Every thing required has been fairly purchased, and its full equivalent paid for in gold. We have been ever diligent in guarding the soldiers from committing the least impropriety, and whenever detected have punished them with extreme severity.

HEAD-QUARTERS SOUTHWEST EXPEDITION, SPRINGFIELD, Mo., July 4, 1861. To the Citizens of Southwest Missouri:

YOUR Governor has striven to cause the State to withdraw from the Union. Failing to accomplish this purpose by legislative enactment, he has already committed treason by levying war against the United States. He has endeavored to have you commit the same crime. Hence he has called for troops to enter the military service of the State, not to aid, but to oppose the Government of the United States.

The troops under my command are stationed in your midst by the proper authority of our Government. They are amongst you not as enemies but as friends and protectors of all loyal citizens. Should an insurrection of your slaves take place, it would be my duty to suppress it, and I should use the force at my command for that purpose. It is my duty to protect all loyal citizens in the enjoyment and possession of all their property, slaves included. That duty shall be performed.

I require all troops and armed men in this part of the State now assembled, and which are arrayed against the Government of the United States, to immediately disperse and return to their homes. If this shall not be done without delay, those hordes of armed men will be taken prisoners or dispersed. I request every citizen who acknowledges he owes allegiance to the United States to aid me to prevent the shedding of blood and to restore peace and quiet to this portion of the State.

Those who have manifested a want of loyalty, either by word or act, towards the Government of the United States, are requested to appear before me, or any officer in command of any post or any detachment of troops under my command, and take an oath of allegiance to our Government. Gross misrepresentations of the oath which has already been administered to many of your most respectable citizens have been made. No loyal citizen will decline to take such an oath. It is the duty of every good citizen to bear allegiance to the Govern ment and to support the Constitution of the United States, not to encourage secession by word or act, and to obey all legal orders emanating from the constituted authorities of the land. No loyal citizen will bear arms against his Government or give aid and support to the enemies of the country. Such, in brief, aro the obligations required.

Unite your energies with ours to restore peace and prosperity to our distracted country. Let us put down the arch-traitors who are endeavoring to create anarchy and confusion among us by violating the laws, suppressing the I assure you the Government of the United liberty of speech, destroying your mail facili-States will deal leniently yet firmly with all its ties, tearing up your railroads, burning your citizens who have been misled, and who desire bridges and ferries, and otherwise bringing to maintain and preserve the best Government ruin and desolation upon this once free and ever devised by human wisdom. happy people.

S. D. STURGIS,

Major First Cavalry Commanding.

CAMP WASHINGTON, near CLINTON, MO., July 4, 1861.

T. W. SWEENY, U. S. A., Brigadier-General Commanding.

Doo. 83.

SPEECH OF A. H. STEPHENS.

DELIVERED At augusta, Ga., JULY 11 1861.

MR. CHAIRMAN, Ladies and Gentlemen of Richmond County:-I appear before you today in the discharge of a duty assigned me by the Confederate Congress. I am rejoiced to see so many persons out-persons of all classes and ages, men as well as women. It is true, that the subjects upon which I am to address you to-day concern mostly-most directly the men, and a particular class of men at that-I mean the cotton planters-interesting all alike. The questions involved are questions which concern all alike. They involve the peace of the country-her political and social existence. All, therefore, do well to be here. We are involved in a war-the most important war that the country has ever been involved in since the revolution of our fathers-since American Independence was declared. We have had many wars since. We have had Indian wars with the different tribes; we had a small French war; we have had a second war with the mother country. Many, perhaps, who hear me today were engaged in that conflict. But this is war far transcending every other war, in magnitude and consequence-the consequences that will result from it.

creases, that we shall have to raise more. The estimate, however, of the Secretary of the Treasury was fifty millions of dollars, and whatever number of men and whatever amount of money shall be necessary must be raised. We do not intend to be subjugated. Mr. Lincoln has increased his call from seventy-five thousand to four hundred thousand men. He has increased his demand for money from the five millions first asked for, (the amount I do not exactly recollect,) and asks his Congress, now in session, for four hundred millions of dollars. Whether he will raise his men or his money, I know not. All I have to say about it is, that if he raises his four hundred thousand men, we must raise enough to meet him, and if he raises his four hundred millions of money, we must raise enough to meet it.

It is a war of political and social existence, and unless we intend to be overriden and beaten down and subjugated, and to become the vassals of his mercenaries and myrmidons, we must every one of us-every man, every boy, and every woman-be prepared to do our duty. Our means in men and money are ample to sustain our independence. We have, upon a reasonable estimate, at least seven hundred thousand fighting men. Whether all these will be required to drive back his armed myrmidons, I know not; but, if they are, every man must go to the battle field. He may think, and My business to-day is to unfold to you the doubtless does, that four hundred thousand men exigencies of this war and its requirements. will intimidate, subjugate, and overrun us. He The Congress, it is known to you, provided for should recollect, however, as we should, and raising one hundred thousand men. Nobly, reverently too, that the "race is not to the gallantly, and patriotically has that call been re-swift, nor the battle to the strong," but it is sponded to, and is now being responded to. Thousands and tens of thousands (the exact number I am not able to state to you) have gone to the battle field. These men, however, must be clothed; they must be fed; they must be armed; they must be equipped. Wars can be sustained, not by men alone; it requires men and money. The gallant volunteers have responded on their part. The questions upon which I am to address you to-day relate to the importance of raising the necessary amounts of money to meet these requisitions.

Upon the adjournment of the Congress from Montgomery to Richmond, the estimate was for one hundred thousand men for the first fiscal year.

The amount estimated by the Secretary of the Treasury to meet the requirements to support an army of this number was fifty millions of dollars-a large amount. This amount must be raised. How to do it is the question. But since that adjournment, since that estimate, this war has assumed a wider and broader range. It has taken on larger and more gigantic proportions, and instead of one hundred thousand inen, we may have to send two hundred thousand to meet the enemy; instead of fifty millions of dollars, we may have, and the probability is that we shall have to raise one hundred millions; and it may be, if it goes on and in

God that gives the victory.

Four hundred thousand may be a formidable army against us, but it is not as formidable as the six hundred thousand led by Darius against the Grecian States; and we there have the example of much fewer numbers than we are, fighting a battle for right, for justice, for independence, and for liberty. We have an example worthy of our imitation. Six hundred thousand Persians invaded Greece. These small States could bring against them but eleven thousand all told. The eleven thousand met the hosts of Persia, not the six hundred thousand, but all that could be brought against them, on the common plain. The eleven thousand, with valorous hearts, fighting for home, fighting for country, fighting for every thing dear to freemen, put to flight the hosts of Persia, leaving sixty thousand slain upon the field. Men of the South, therefore, let this war assume its gigantic proportions, its most threatening prospects (nerving our hearts with the spirit of our revolutionary fathers, when they were but three million, and coped with Great Britain, the most powerful nation in the world)-animated by these sentiments, fighting for every thing dear to us, fear not the result, recollecting that "thrice armed is he who hath his quarrel just;" and as our fathers, in the bloody conflict of the Revolutionary War, appealed to the God of

Battles for success in their cause, so may we, | law, with State sovereignty maintained to its since we have the consciousness, in any event, that this is no war of our seeking.

We simply wish to govern ourselves as we please. We simply stand where our revolutionary fathers stood in '76. We stand upon the great fundamental principle announced on the 4th of July, 1776, and incorporated in the Declaration of Independence-that great principle that announced that Governments derive their just power from the consent of the governed. In the announcement of this principle, the delegation from Massachusetts, and from Rhode Island, and from Connecticut, and from all the Northern States, united with the delegates from the Old Dominion and from the Palmetto State, and from Georgia, the youngest and last of the Colonies, then not numbering more than fifty thousand of population-they united in this declaration of the delegates from all the States or Colonies, and for the maintenance of it they pledged their lives, their fortunes, and their sacred honor-Massachusetts side by side with Georgia, John Hancock at their head, and, strange to say, to-day, the people of Massachusetts and the Northern States are reversing the position of our fathers, and are demanding to rule, to govern, to coerce, to subjugate us against our consent.

We wish no quarrel with them. After the establishment of the great principle, after the acknowledgment of it by Great Britain, in the treaty of 1783, when each separate State was recognized as independent, we were not recognized by Great Britain as a nationality, but the independence of each Colony or State was recognized by itself-Massachusetts and Rhode Island, and Connecticut and Virginia, each one by itself; each one was separate, sovereign, and independent. They made a common cause to achieve individual and separate sovereign existence.

After the Revolutionary war they entered into a constitutional compact-that Constitution that we have ever adopted-that Constitution to the maintenance of which I have devoted so much of my life.

We entered into that Constitution with this people. Almost from the beginning, a large party in the North were against it; and as a Southern man, in passing, I may be excused for claiming, as I do, that the Constitution of the United States was mainly the work of Southern hands.

It is true that the delegates from the Northern States joined us in the Convention of 1787 that made it; but the first programme, the outline of the Constitution as we now have it, was proposed by the distinguished member from Carolina, Mr. Pinckney. Another programme which was said to be the basis of the Constitution, was introduced by Mr. Randolph, of Virginia. The Northern men, with a few exceptions, did not favor that form of government. The Constitution, therefore, reserving Sovereignty to the people, constituting a limited government, with an executive bound by

fullest extent, with a judiciary bound by fundamental law, with every officer, from the highest to the lowest, bound by law-this great bulwark of constitutional liberty was the work mainly of Southern hands. Madison is styled the father of it. Not a single pillar in the temple, not a single arch in this great building, was laid, or reared, or constructed, by Northern men.

They had able members in the Convention. I detract nothing from their merits. They show forth as great lights in the Revolutionary war. I name but two-Franklin and Hamilton; men of transcendant talents, men of genius; but neither of them contributed any thing to the formation of the Constitution. Mr. Hamilton was for a different model of Government; he was against the form adopted, and actually quit the Convention before it was made. It is true that afterwards, when the Convention was agreed upon and submitted to the people, he lent all the power of his gigantic intellect, and all the fervor of his pure and lofty patriotism, to the establishment of the Government; but he differed in theory from the work that was done, and afterwards attempted to incorporate, by construction, many of his original ideas. But what I claim before you as a Southern orator is, and I am proud of it, that the Constitution that made the old United States what they were, under which they prospered as no other nation ever has prospered, and under which they run the rapid and high career in national glory-this Constitution was the work of Southern hands mainly. And during the time of our political existence, the administration of the Government was mostly under Southern hands and Southern policy. But, after it was adopted, reserving State rights, reserving State sovereignty, reserving popular sovereignty, upon the idea that all political power resides with the people and emanates from the people; that the high and the low, the rich and the poor, every man, whatever be his status in society; every citizen stands upon equality in the law. It was this grand principle of which we boasted. These are the grand ideas of American Constitutional liberty, of which we are proud; these are the principles taught by our fathers to their sons, and they were the work mainly of Southern hands.

But soon after this Constitution was formed, a large party in the North commenced, as I have said, by construction, to torture and twist the Constitution from its proper and legitimate meaning, to gain power indirectly. I have not time to go through the history of the country. It is enough to say it ripened within the last few years, and came to maturity under the organization of that party now in power-that party which now has the destiny of the United States in its hands-known as the Republican party. Seven States of the North finally utterly repudiated the most important feature in

it-a feature without which, I am told, in the language of Judge Story, the Constitution would never have been made. I mean that obligation the North entered into to return fugitive slaves from our country. Seven States arrayed themselves-perhaps more-seven at least, arrayed themselves in open, palpable, violation of this known portion of the compact. We appealed to them-we believed it was best for all the States, as Washington presided over the Convention that made the Constitution, that all the States should remain in the Union, faithfully performing, each for itself, the obligations of this Constitution.

This was the Southern idea. We made our appeals for years to them to come up and fulfil their obligations. From the beginning of the Government, the man cannot rise up and charge the South with ever violating in the slightest degree, their obligations. We never asked Congress to do any thing against the interests of the Northern States; we never complained of their institutions; we never wished to interfere with them at all. We rested upon the great principle that each State should govern itself; that they should govern themselves as they pleased, and let us govern ourselves as we pleased. This was the position of the South, and we made the same appeal to them for years; and only when this party came to maturity, and when so many States openly disregarded the Constitution, when they got the Government in their hands, it was then the South thought it necessary to look out new safeguards for security. It was then she resumed her sovereign powers. It was then she became satisfied that the people of the North would not fulfil their portion of the obligation, and even then we believed it would be better for them and us to live on together, each and all doing their duty, but they would not discharge their duty. We said we would even try it, and even then sent Commissioners to them with the olive branch of peace. Our overtures were disregarded and hence this war.

But the point I present to you is that we stand now where our revolutionary fathers stood. All we ask is to be permitted to govern ourselves as we please; and for one I declare to you to-day, you may think of it as you please, the people of the South may decide it as they please, but as for one, I would never surrender this principle, though every valley from here to the Potomac should run with Southern blood, and every hill top be bleached with Southern bones. (Tremendous applause.) Home, firesides, life, friends, and luxuries are dear, but there is something dearer to a true man than life, and home, and all. It is honor and independence. (Applause.) Let the enemy, therefore, make his calculation as wide and broad as he pleases. I say every true Southern heart is impressed with the magnitude of the responsibility that now rests upon us; and let every man be nerved to meet that responsibility at any and every cost. Our fathers pledged life, honor, and for

tune for this principle, and I know we are not the degenerate sons, nor are we the degenerate daughters of the noble matrons of that day, that would sacrifice, lose, or surrender these principles at a less cost.

The men are ample; the means to support them is the subject upon which I am to address you, and how is the money to be raised? War I tell you costs treasure as well as blood. Have we the means? Can we cope with the North?

that is the question. We have not less than four thousand millions of taxable property within the Confederate States, upon the last minimum estimate. At last year's rates, we therefore could raise from one hundred millions to two hundred millions, for years to come and yet survive. The wealth of nations, the ability of nations to sustain war, depends not so much upon its taxable property as its productive capital. It is to the latter we must look for the means and ability to sustain war, for in times of war generally all business is interrupted. In this particular of productive capital, perhaps there is no people in the world more favored under heaven, and for which we ought to be grateful, not boastful, and it is one of those blessings for which we should return thanks. No nation in the world with the same popula tion, has such a continuous annual productive capital.

I have not stated the wealth of the North, but it is not my purpose to detract from it. They were a people of wealth. Most of it, however, came from their connection and trade with us. They were an ingenious and manufacturing people. We are an agricultural people. Their interests and ours were all blended together. Our prosperity enabled them to become prosperous, and their States grew up by our trade and commerce. Most of their wealth, when you come to estimate it and look at it, was nothing but profits derived from our trade. Cut off that trade. Most of the wealth of the State of New York-and that State alone is estimated to be worth four hundred millions of dollars (that is the taxable property of the State of New York)-and in what does it consist? Close up the harbor; cut off manufac tures. What does it consist in? Bricks and mortar, nothing else. And if the war last as long as the siege of Troy, in what will their wealth consist? It will disappear, for the bricks and mortar will be worth no more, unless there are tenants and the profits derived from labor, than the bricks and mortar in the arid plains of Babylon.

Sixty-one millions of New England capital consist alone in cotton manufactures and cotton spindles. These factories look to us for our raw materials. This capital is now literally paralyzed; it is dead capital, and will be as long as this war lasts. Of their nominal products I do not now speak. Woolens, hats, shoes or silk, of every variety of dress I see before ine, from the crowns of the heads of the fair ladies to the soles of their feet, all, nearly

all, are supplied by the North, and there are eleven millions of annual produce from the sales of cotton goods alone. All this will be cut off, and other things will be equally cut off. The great difference between the North and the South to carry on the war-and this I say to you in prospect of a long war, for I wish our people to see the full magnitude, and to feel the full responsibility that rests upon us in it, and to see our responsibility to meet it—is this:The North sold us some two hundred and fifty millions annually. This was their riches; hence came their wealth; hence grew their cities. Their wealth was but the accumulation deposited from our commerce, just as the delta of the Nile was enriched above the lands of any other portion of Egypt by the deposit of the rich alluvial soil brought down from the mountains and deposited in it. The riches, money, and power of the North came in the same way. Our cotton was the source of it, and how Mr. Lincoln is to get his four hundred millions of dollars, I do not know. That is a matter for him to determine, though I may say more about it before I get through; but at present it is sufficient to say that Lincoln has dammed up the water that turns the mill of Northern prosperity. How long the mill will run time alone will determine.

But it is not so with us. We grow breadstuffs enough to supply all our wants. We live in a heaven-favored land, for all the cereals grow here equally as well as in any other portion of the world-wheat, rye, oats, and corn in a great abundance. We could compete with the world in the production of these. We grow also the tobacco plant and rice. We live in the land of the fig tree, the pomegranate, and the vine. Hardly any thing used as food but is grown in the Southern Confederacy, and we could if need be, grow an abundance of every thing except coffee. We, therefore, have the means, under the blessings of Heaven, to support ourselves, and keep upon the field every variety of cattle suitable for food or draft. We, therefore, can grow bread enough to support our people and keep from one to two hundred thousand men in the field. Let the blockade last, let the Western people be cut off from trade with us, and within the eleven Southern States we could for years carry on the war, support ourselves and our armies, and, rather than be subjugated and become vassals of Lincoln's power, fight it out beleagured by blockade all around.

But this is not our only capacity. We grow supplies that the nations of the earth must have -that is, the cotton. How the North is to do without it, as I have said, I cannot say. Hundreds of thousands are dependent upon it for their daily bread, and these people are now turned out of employment. Perhaps they are the men who, for want of bread, have joined in this unnatural and suicidal war, which will be to them as disastrous as to us. In England, perhaps not less than five millions of people depend upon cotton for their daily bread; in

France, several hundred thousands, if not millions, (I am not particular in my statistics.) And, when you come to take into consideration the amount of capital, the number of sailors, and the amount of tonnage employed in this trade, you will be still more surprised. Why, in the United States there are forty thousand seamen engaged in the transportation of cotton alone.

And if you take into account the numbers in England, France, Germany, Holland, and Bremen, engaged in it, you will find that it will amount to not less than ten millions of money capital engaged in it. This, therefore, is an element of great power, the great motor of the commerce of the world. We grow it. There is no part of the world that grows it as we do. We supply the markets of the world-they must have it.

I meet many asking about the blockade. I cannot, to-day, tell you how the blockade is to be raised. But there is one thing certain-in some way or other it will be obliged to be raised, or there will be revolution in Europe-there will be starvation there. Our cotton is the element that will do it. Steam is powerful, but steam is far short in its power to the tremendous power of cotton.

If you look out upon the ocean to-day, and inquire into the secret agency of commerce, you will find that it is cotton that drives it, and the spindles and looms, from those in your own State to the remotest quarter of the world— it is this element of cotton that drives them; and it is this great staple which is the tremendous lever by which we can work our destiny, under Providence, I trust, against four hundred thousand, or against four times four hundred thousand. (Applause.)

Upon a reasonable and ordinary estimate we grow four million bales of cotton. I am here to-day to discuss before you the fifty million loan, but I am frank to tell you it may be one hundred millions, and I think it probably will be. The proposition that the Government makes is not to tax the people. The object of a wise and good Government is to make the burdeus fall as light upon the people as possible to meet every exigency. The proposition the Government makes, therefore, is to take a loan in produce. In the grain-growing sections, the members of Congress solicit the loan in grain, army subsistence, meat, corn, wheat and flour. We are not a grain-growing country. Our supply is cotton. I address you, therefore, solely on the subject of cotton.

The object is to get along with as little tax as possible; but, my countrymen, do not suppose the Government will not tax you if necessary; for I tell you the Government does not intend to be subjugated; and if we do not raise the money by loans, if the people do not contribute, I tell you we intend to have the money, and taxation will be resorted to, if nothing else will raise it. Every life and dollar in the country will be demanded, rather than you and

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