I say, therefore, gentlemen, that this was not a commission issued by a "person, to wit, one Jefferson Davis." I say it was a commission issued by several of the States of the Union, represented, if you please, by Jefferson Davis, and by authority, in fact, from those States, and from the Government in force over them. And more than that, gentlemen, to bring the case still more clearly within the authorities I have read to you, and which you, no doubt, carry in your minds, we will show by the declarations of the Presidents of the United States--by the declaration of Mr. Buchanan, in December, 1860, and by the declaration of Mr. Lincoln, on the 4th of March, 1861--that neither of them, at either of those dates, intended to interfere, or to attempt to interfere, by force, with this existing Government. They both, publicly and solemnly, in the presence of the United States, declared that they would not attempt, by any forcible invasion of those States, to overthrow the Government established over them;--that there would be no "invasion," is the expression;--that they would leave it to the sober second thought of the people of those States, by process of time, by maturer thought and better reflection, to return, probably, to their former position under the Government of the United States. And what were men to do, in that condition of things, in the State of South Carolina, in the State of Georgia, or in any one of those States, with not an officer of the United States to protect them--with not a Court of Justice to protect them--with Courts of Justice, on the contrary, organized by the new Government, and exercising dominion of life and death, and every other dominion that Government could exercise--but to yield their allegiance to it, and from thenceforth to support it, as honest men should do, who yield their allegiance to the Government? As I said before, in respect to this question, even if this were a voluntary act on the part of the prisoners--if they were not controlled by necessity--if they had a state of things before them which authorized them to believe that their conduct was right--that the States did nothing more than they had a right to do--they were justified in giving allegiance to the Government in existence. We have nothing to say as to the correctness of the political views or opinions of the prisoners whatever. The question is, What did these men believe--what were they taught to believe, by your own expounders of the Constitution--what did they conscientiously and sincerely believe? When they acted under this commission, did they believe that it was a legitimate authority, and had they full color for the belief which they held?