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 MESSAGE OF THE PRESIDENT. 
 
 TO THE COKGBESS OF THE CONFEDERATE 
 
 States of A meek a : 
 
 C EX TEEM EN, 
 
 My Message, addressed to you at tlio 
 
 commencement of this session, continued such lull infor- 
 mation of the state of the ( 'oiifcder.irv as io render it un- 
 necessary thai 1 should nOW do more than call your atten- 
 tion to such important facts as have occurred during the 
 recess, and to mailers connected! with the public defence. 
 
 I have again to congratulate you oh the accession of 
 new members to our Confederation of free, equal and 
 sovereign States. Cur loved and honored brethren of 
 North Carolina and Tennessee naive consummated the ac- 
 tion, foreseen and provided for ;it your last session, and I 
 have had the gratification Of Announcing, by prbclama- 
 lion, in conformity with law, that those Stales wore ad- 
 mitted into the Confederacy. 
 
 The people of Virginia also, by a majority previously 
 unknown in her history, have ratified the action of her 
 Convention, uniting her fortunes with ours. The States 
 of Arkansas, North Carolina and Virginia have likewise, 
 adopted the permanent Constitution of the Confederate 
 States, and no doubt is entertained of its adoption by 
 Tennessee at the election to be held early next month. 
 
 1 deemed it advisable to direct the removal of the se- 
 veral Executive Departments, with their archives, to this 
 city, to which you had removed the seat of government, 
 immediately after your adjournment. r J no aggressive 
 movements of the enemy required prompt and energetic 
 action. The accumulation of Ins forces on the Potomac 
 sufficiently, demonstrated that his efforts were to be di- 
 rected against Virginia : and from no point could the ne- 
 1 
 
cessary measures for her defence and protection be so 
 efficiently directed as from her own capital. 
 
 The rapid progress of events for the last few weeks 
 has fully sufficed to strip the veil behind which the true 
 
 policy and purposes of tin 1 (lovernment of the United 
 Stated had been previously concealed; their odious fea- 
 tures now stand fully revealed : the message of their 
 President and the action of their Congress during the 
 present month, confess the Intention of subjugating these 
 States by a war, whose folly is equaled by its wicked- 
 ness: a war by which it is impossible to attain the pro- 
 posed result, whilst its dire calamities, not to be avoided 
 By us, will fall with double severity on themselves. 
 
 Commencing in March last, with an affectation of 
 ignoring the secession of the seven States which first organ- 
 ized this government: persisting in April in the idle and 
 absurd assumj tion of the existence of a riot which was 
 to be dispersed by a posse comitatus: continuing in suc- 
 cessive months the false representation that these States 
 intended offensive war, in spite of the conclusive evidence 
 to the contrary, furnished as well by official action, as by 
 the very basis on which this government is constituted: 
 the President of the United States and his advisers suc- 
 ceeded in deceiving the people of those States into the 
 belief that the purpose of this government was not peace 
 at home, but conquest abroad : not the defence of its 
 own liberties, but the subversion of those of the people 
 of the United States. 
 
 The series of manoeuvres by which this impression was 
 created : the art with which they were devised, and the 
 perfidy with which they were executed, were already 
 known to you ; but you could scarcely have; supposed 
 that they would be openly avowed, and their success 
 made the subject of boast and self-laudation in an execu- 
 tive message. Fortunately for the truth of history, how- 
 ever, the President of the United States details with 
 minuteness the attempt to reinforce Fort Pickens, in vio- 
 lation of an armistice, of which he confesses to have been 
 informed, but "only by rumors too vague and uncertain 
 to fix attention:" the hostile expedition dispatched to 
 supply Fort Sumpter, admitted to have been undertaken 
 with a knowledge that its success was impossible : the 
 sending of notice to the Governor of South Carolina of 
 

 his intention to use force to accomplish his object : and 
 then quoting from his Inaugural Address the assurance 
 that there could be no conflict, unless these States were 
 the aggressors, he proceeds to declare that his conduct, as 
 just related by himself, was a performance of this pro- 
 mise, "so free from the power of ingenious sophistry as 
 that the world should not be able to misunderstand it :" 
 and in defiance of his own statement that he gave notice 
 of the approaeh of a hostile fleet, he charges these States 
 with becoming the assailants of the United States, 
 "without a gun in sight or in expectancy to return their 
 fire, save only the few in the fort." He is indeed fully 
 justified in saying that the case* "is so free from the 
 power of ingenious sophistry, that the world will not be 
 able to misunderstand it." 
 
 Under cover of this unfounded pretence that the Con- 
 federate States are the assailants, that high functionary, 
 after expressing his concern that some foreign nations 
 "had so shaped their action ;is if they supposed the early 
 destruction of our National Union was probable," aban- 
 dons all further disguise, and proposes "to make this 
 contest a short and a decisive one," by placing at the con- 
 trol of the government- for the work, ni has! 100, 000 
 men, and $400,000,000. The Congress, concurring in 
 the doubt thus intimated as to the sufficiency of the 
 force demanded, has increased it to half a million of men. 
 These enormous preparations in men and money, for the 
 conduct of a war on a scale more gigantic than any which 
 the new world has ever witnessed, is a distinct avowal, 
 in the eyes of civilized man, that the United States are 
 engaged in a conflict with a great and powerful nation : 
 they are at last compelled to abandon the pretence of 
 being engaged in dispersing rioters and suppressing in- 
 surrections; and are driven to the acknowledgment that 
 the ancient Union has been dissolved. The)' recognize 
 the separate existence of these Confederate States, by the 
 interdiction, embargo and blockade of all commerce be- 
 tween them and the United States, not only by sea, but. 
 by land : not only in ships, but in rail cars: not only 
 with those who bear arms, but with the entire popula- 
 tion of the Confederate States. Finally, they have re- 
 pudiated the foolish conceit that the inhabitants of this 
 Confederacy are still citizens of the United States, for 
 
they are waging an indiscriminate war upon them all, 
 wiili a savage terocity unknown to modern civilization. 
 In this war. rapine is the rule: private residences, in 
 peaceful rural retreats, arc bombarded and burnt: grain 
 crop's in ilic Geld are consumed by the torch : and when 
 tin- n.'ivh is not convenient, careful labor is bestowed to 
 render complete (he destruction of every article of use or 
 ornament remaining in private dwellings, after their in- 
 habitants have lied From the outrages ot a brutal soldiery. 
 
 In 1781, (ireat Britain, when invading her revolted 
 ('•-!•. nirs, t<»ok possession of fhe very district of countcy 
 near Farttess Monroe now occupied by troops ot the 
 United States. The houses tin n inhabited by the peo- 
 ple, after being respected and protected by avowed In- 
 vaders, are now pillaged and destroyed by men v. 'no pre- 
 tend that the victims are their fellow-citizens. 
 
 Mankind will shudder to hear of the tales of outrages 
 committed 6tl defenceless females by soldiers of the 
 United States now invading our homes: yet these out- 
 rages are prompted by inflamed passions and the madness 
 of intoxication. But who shall depjc] the horror with 
 which it will regard the cool ami deliberate malignity 
 which, under pretext of suppressing an insurrection, said- 
 by themselves to be upheld by a minority only of our 
 people, makes special war on the sick, including the wo- 
 men and the children, by carefully devised measures to 
 prevent ihcir obtaining the medicines necessary for their 
 cure. The sacred claims of humanity, respected even 
 dtiring the fury of actual battle, by careful diversion of 
 attack from the; hospitals containing wounded enemies, 
 are Outraged in cold blood, by a government and people 
 that pretend to desire a continuance of fraternal con- 
 nexion-. 
 
 All these outrages must remain unavenged, save by the 
 universal reprobation of mankind, in all cases where the 
 actual perpetrators of the wrongs escape capture. They 
 admit of no retaliation. The humanity of our people 
 would shrink instinctively from the bare idea of waging 
 a like war upon the sick, the women and the children of 
 the enemy. 
 
 Bill there are other savage practices which have been 
 resorted to by the Government of the United States, 
 which do admit of repression by retaliation. I have been 
 
driven to the necessity of enforcing this repression. The 
 prisoners of war taken by the enemy on hoard the armed 
 schooner Savannah, sailing under our commission, were, 
 as I was credibly advised, treated like common felons: 
 put in irons: confined in a jail usually appropriated to 
 criminals of the worst dye, and threatened with punish- 
 ment as such. I had made an application for the ex- 
 change of these prisoners, to tb0> commanding officer of 
 the enemy's squadron off Charleston harbor, but that 
 officer had already sent the prisoners to New York when 
 the application was made. I therefore deemed it my 
 duly to renew the proposal fir the exchange, to the con- 
 stitutional Commander-in-Chief of the Army and Navv 
 of the United States, the only oilicer having eontrol of 
 the prisoners. To this end I dispatched an oilicer to him, 
 under a flag of truce; and in making the proposal, I in- 
 formed President Lincoln of my resolute purpose to check 
 all barbarities on prisoners of war, by such severity of 
 retaliation on the prisoners held by us as should secure 
 the abandonment of the practice. 
 
 This communication was received and read by the 
 officer in command of the Army of the United States, 
 and a message was brought from him, by the bearer of 
 my communication, that a reply would be returned by 
 President Lincoln as soon as possible. I earnestly hope 
 li',-1 i his promised reply, whieh has not yet been received, 
 will convey the assurance that prisoners of war will be 
 treated, in tins unhappy contest, with that regard to hu- 
 manity whieh has made such QonspiCUOUB progrets in the 
 conduct of modern warfare. As a measure of precaution, 
 however, and until the promised reply is received, I still 
 retain in close custody some officers captured from the 
 enemy* whom it had been my pleasure previously to en- 
 large on parole, ami whose fate must necessarily depend 
 on that of the prisoners held by the enemy. 
 
 1 append a copy of my communication to the President 
 and ( ommander-in-Chief of the Army and Navy of the 
 Unjted States, and of the report of the officer charged to 
 deliver it, marked Doe. A. 
 
 There are some other passages in the remarkable paper 
 to which I have directed your attention, having reference 
 to the peculiar relations which exist between this govern- 
 ment and the States usually termed the border slave 
 States, which cannot properly be withheld from notice. 
 
The hearts of our people are animated by sentiments 
 towards tne inhabitants of those States, which found ex- 
 pression in your enactment refnsing t<» consider them as 
 enemies, or to authorize hostilities against them. That a 
 very large portion of the people of those States regard Us 
 as brethren; that if unrestrained by the actual presence 
 of lafge armies, the suhversion of civil authority and the 
 declaration of martial law, some of them at least would 
 joyfully unite with us; that they are with almost entire 
 unanimity Opposed to the prosecution of the war waged 
 against us; arc facts of which daily recurring events fully 
 warrant the assertion. 
 
 The President of the United States refuses to recognize 
 in these, our late sister States, the right of refraining from 
 attack on us: and justifies his refusal by the assertion 
 that the States have no other power "than that reserved 
 to them in the Union by the Constitution, no one of them 
 having ever been a State out of tin I nwn,?* 
 
 This view of the constitutional relations between the 
 States and the General Government, is a fitting introduc- 
 tion to another assertion of tin- Message, that the Execu- 
 tive possesses the power of suspending the writ of habeas 
 corpus, and of delegating that power to military com- 
 manders, at his discretion: and both these propositions 
 claim a respect equal to that which is felt for the addi- 
 tional statement of opinion in the same paper, that it is 
 proper, in order to execute the laws, that " some single 
 law, made in such extreme tenderness of the citizens' li- 
 bertv, thai practically it relieves more of the guilty than 
 the innocent, should, to a verv limited extent, be vio- 
 lated." 
 
 We may well rejoice that we have forever severed our 
 Connection with a government that thus tramples on all 
 the principles of constitutional liberty, and with a people 
 in whose presence such avowals cOuld he hazarded. 
 
 The operations in the field will be greatly extended 
 by reason of the policy which, heretofore secretly enter- 
 tained, is now avowed and acted on by the United States. 
 The forces hitherto raised proved ample for the defence 
 of the seven States which originally organized the Con- 
 federacy, as is evinced by the fact, that with the excep- 
 tion of three fortified islands, whose defence is efficiently 
 aided by a preponderating naval force, the enemy has 
 
been driven completely out of those States ; and now, at 
 the expiration of five months from, the formation of the 
 government, not a single hostile foot presses their soil. 
 Those forces, however, must necessarily prove inadequate 
 to repel the invasion by half a million of men, now pro- 
 posed by the enemy ; and a corresponding increase in our 
 forces will become necessary. The recommendations for 
 the raising and efficient equipment of this additional 
 force, will be contained in the cominunication of the Se- 
 erctary of War, to which I need scarcely invite your ear- 
 nest attention. 
 
 In my Message delivered in April last, I referred to the 
 promise of abundant crops, with which we were cheered. 
 The grain crops, generally, have since been harvested, 
 and the yield has proven to be the most abundant known 
 in our hislory. Many believe the supply adequate to two 
 years' consumption of our population. Cotton, sugar and 
 tobacco, forming the surplus production of our agricul- 
 ture, and furnishing the basis of our commercial inter- 
 changes, present the most cheering promise ; and a kind 
 Providence lias smiled on the labor which extracts the 
 teeming wealth of our soil in all portions of our Con- 
 federacy. 
 
 It is the more gratifying to be able to give you this 
 assurance, because of the need of a large and increased 
 expenditure in the support of our army. Elevated and 
 purified by the sacred cause they maintain, our fellow- 
 citizens of every condition of life exhibit the most self- 
 sacrificing devotion : They manifest a laudable pride in 
 upholding their independence, unaided by any resources 
 other than their own: and the immense wealth which a 
 fertile soil and genial climate have accumulated in this 
 confederacy of agriculturists, could not be more strik- 
 ingly displayed than in the large revenues which, with 
 eager zeal, they have contributed, at the call of their 
 country- In the single article of cotton, the subscription 
 to the loan proposed b} r the government cannot fall short 
 of fifty millions of dollars, and will probably largely ex- 
 ceed that sum : and scarcely an article required for the 
 consumption of the army is provided otherwise than by 
 subscription to the produce loan so happily devised by 
 your wisdom. The Secretary of the Treasury, in the re- 
 port submitted to you by him, will give you the amplest 
 details connected with that branch of the public service. 
 
8 
 
 But it is not alone in their prompt pecuniary contribu- 
 tions that the tooble racfe of freemen who inhabit these 
 States ovine;' how worthy thry art of tin* liberties Which 
 they so well know how to defend. In numbers far e\- 
 ( ding those authorized by your laws, they have prtssed 
 
 the tender of their services againtrl the* enemy. Their 
 
 attitude of calm and sublime devotion to their country: 
 the cool and confident dourage with which thev are 
 already preparing to meel ihe threatened invasion in 
 whatever proportions it may assume; the assurance that 
 their sacrifices and their services will be renewed from 
 year to year with unfaltering purpose, until they have 
 made good to the uttermost, their right to self-govcrn- 
 ment ; the generous arid almost unquestioning eonlidence 
 which they display in their government during the pend- 
 ing struggle 1 ; all combine to present a spectacle such as 
 the world has rarely, if ever, seen. 
 
 To speak of subjugating, such a people, so united and 
 determined, is to speak a language incomprehensible to 
 them. To resist attacks on their rights or their liberties 
 is with them an instinct. Whether this war shall last 
 one, or three, or five years, is a problem they leave to be 
 solved by the enemy alone ; it will last till the enemy 
 shall have withdrawn from their borders — till their politi- 
 cal rights, their altars and their homes arc freed from in- 
 vasion. Then and then only will they vest from this 
 struggle, to enjoy in peace the blessings which with the 
 favor of Providence they have secured by the aid of their 
 own strong hearts and sturdy arms. 
 
 JEFFERSON DAVIS. 
 Richmond, July 20, 1SG1. 
 
DOCUMENT A. 
 
 RICHMOND, 6th July 186 1, 
 
 To Abraham Lincoln, President, and 
 
 Commander in Chief of t/ie Army and Navy of the U. S. 
 
 Sir, 
 
 Having learned that the schooner Savannah, a 
 private armed vessel in the service and sailing under a 
 commission issued by authority of the Confederate States 
 of America, had been captured by one of the vessels 
 forming the blockading squadron off Charleston harbor, 
 I directed a proposition to be made to the officer com- 
 manding that squadron for an exchange of the officers 
 and crew of the Savannah for prisoners of war held by 
 this government " according to number and rank." To 
 this proposition, made on the 19th ult., Capt. Mercer, the 
 officer in command of Uie blockading squadron, made 
 answer on the same day that " the prisoners (referred to) 
 are not on board of any of the vessels under my com- 
 mand." 
 
 It now appears, by statements made without contra- 
 diction in newspapers published in New York, that the 
 prisoners above mentioned were conveyed to that city, 
 and have there been treated not as prisoners of war, but 
 as criminals : thnt they have been put in irons, confined 
 in jail, brought before the courts of justice on charges of 
 piracy and treason, and it is even rumored that they have 
 been actually convicted of the offences charged, for no 
 other reason than that they bore arms in defence of the 
 2 
 
10 
 
 rights of this government and under the authority of its 
 commission. 
 
 I could not without grave discourtesy have made the 
 newspaper statements above referred to, the subject of 
 this communication, if the threat of treating as pirates 
 tin- citizens of this Confederacy, armed for its service on 
 the high seas, had not been contained in your proclama- 
 tion of the April last. Thai proclamation, however, 
 
 seems to afford a sufficient justification for considering 
 these published statements as not devoid of probability. 
 
 It is the desire of this government so to conduct the 
 war now existing as to mitigate its horrors as far as may 
 be possible : and, with this intent, its treatment of the 
 prisoners captured by its forces has been marked by the 
 greatest humanity and leniency consistent with public 
 obligation : some have been permitted to return home on 
 parole, others to remain at large under similar condition 
 within this Confederacy, and all have been furnished with 
 rations for their subsistence, such as are allowed to our 
 own troops. It is only since the news has been received 
 of the treatment of the prisoners taken on the Savannah, 
 that I have been compelled to withdraw these indulgences 
 and to hold the prisoners taken byus in strict confinement. 
 
 A just regard to humanity and to the honor of this 
 government now requires me to state explicitly, that 
 painful as will be the necessity, this government will deal 
 out to the prisoners held by it, the same treatment and 
 the same fate, as shall be experienced by those captured 
 on the Savannah ; and if driven to the terrible necessity 
 of retaliation by your execution of any of the officers or 
 crew of the Savannah, that retaliation will be extended 
 so far as shall be requisite to secure the abandonment of 
 a practice unknown to the warfare of civilized man ; and 
 so barbarous as to disgrace the nation which shall be 
 guilty of inaugurating it. 
 
11 
 
 With this view, and because it may not have reached 
 you, I now renew the proposition made to the commander 
 of the blockading squadron, to exchange for the prisoners 
 taken on the Savannah, an equal number of those now 
 held by us, according to rank. 
 
 I am, sir, yours, &c. 
 
 JEFFERSON DAVIS, President, 
 and Commander in Chief of the Army and 
 
 Nary of (he Confederate States. 
 
13 
 
 [Copy.] 
 
 Richmond, July 10th, 186ft. 
 
 To His Excellency Jefferson Davis, 
 
 President of the Confederate States. 
 
 #JR, 
 
 In obedience to your instructions, I left the city 
 of Richmond ou the morning of the ?th of July at 6 
 o'clock. A. M.j as bearer of dispatches to His Excellency 
 Abraham Lincoln, President of the United States. At 
 Manassas I received from General Beauregard a letter to 
 General McDowell, commanding the U. S. forces at A\- 
 lington. From Manassas I proceeded to Fairfax court- 
 house, where I was furnished by General Bonhain, an 
 escort of fourteen cavalry under the command of Lieu; 
 Breckenridge of the Virginia cavalry. Proceeding on the 
 direct road to Alexandria to its junction with the road to 
 Arlington, I met a detachment of cavalry under the com- 
 mand of Col. Porter, U. S. A., about three miles from the 
 junction ; from which pla-ee I sent back my escort. Oapt. 
 Whipple, U.S. A., accompanied me to. Arlington, where 
 I arrived about 4 o'clock P. M., Monday the 8th. Gen. 
 McDowell not being at Arlington, my arrival was tele- 
 graphed him to Washington city. About 9 o'clock P. M. 
 Ool. Van Renslaer, senior aid-de-camp to General Scott, 
 was sent to convey me to General Scott's headquarters — 
 where I found General McDowell, to whom I delivered 
 General Beauregard's letter. After reading Gen. B.'s let- 
 ter, he passed it to General Scott, who being informed in 
 tins letter, that I desired to deliver your communication 
 in person, received it of me. After reading your com- 
 munication to Mr. Lincoln, Gen. Scott informed me that 
 
14 
 
 a reply would be returned by Mr. Lincoln as soon as pos- 
 gjble — and at the same time instructed me to return to 
 Arlington with Gen. McDowell, thence to proceed in the 
 Morning back to our fines, Which 1 did, under an escort 
 of twenty U. S. cavalry, commanded by Lieut. Putnam. 
 In my intercourse with Gen. Scott and the other officers 
 of the U. S. army, I have to say, that I was received with 
 narked consideration and attention, and with that cour- 
 tesy and kindness which should ever characterize the di- 
 plomatic relations of great nations, in war as well as in 
 peace. Understanding that the object of my mission was 
 the delivery of your letter to Mr. Lincoln, I have the 
 fconor to state that it was done, and subscribe myself 
 
 Your obedient servant, 
 
 THOS. H. TAYLOR, 
 
 Gttpt* Cavalry C. S. A. 
 And Lt. Col. 2nd Kij. Regiment. 
 
 KlTCHIF. & DrNNAVANT, PR1NTKRS. 
 
Hollinger Corp. 
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