Twenty Years of Congress, Vol. 1: From Lincoln to Garfield, with a Review of the Events Which Led to the Political Revolution of 1860Blaine, James Gillespie
History
Twenty Years of Congress, Vol. 1: From Lincoln to Garfield, with a Review of the Events Which Led to the Political Revolution of 1860
Blaine, James Gillespie
United States -- History; United States -- History -- 1865-1898
The Confederate Government saw fit to do nothing of the kind.
Their Congress put forth no declaration or manifesto, and Jefferson
Davis in his Inaugural as President utterly failed--did not even
attempt--to enumerate the grounds of complaint upon which the
destruction of the American Union was based. He said that "the
declared compact of the Union from which we have withdrawn was to
establish justice, insure domestic tranquility, 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 has been
perverted from the purposes for which it was ordained, and ceases
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 assert the right which the Declaration of Independence
of 1776 defined to be inalienable." But in what manner, at what
time, by what measure, "justice, domestic tranquillity, common
defense, the general welfare," had been destroyed by the government
of the Union, Mr. Jefferson Davis did not deign to inform the world
to whose opinion he appealed.
Mr. Jefferson, in draughting the Declaration of Independence which
Davis quotes as his model, said "the history of the present King
of Great Britain is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations,
all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute tyranny
over these States." What would have been thought of Mr. Jefferson
if he had stopped there and adduced no instance and given no proof
of his serious indictment against George III.? But Mr. Jefferson
and his fellow-patriots in that great Act proceeded to submit their
proof to the judgment of a candid world. They recited twenty-eight
distinct charges of oppression and tyranny, depriving them of rights
to which they were entitled as subjects of the Crown under the
British Constitution. From that hour to this, there has been no
disproval of the truth of these charges or of the righteousness of
the resistance to which our forefathers resorted. It would have
been well for the dignity of the Southern Confederacy in history
if one of its many able men had placed on record, in an authentic
form, the grounds upon which, and the grievances for which,
destruction of the Union could be justified.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account