History of the Civil War

The people of the State having declared themselves a sovereign and independent nation, the duty of providing by law proper measures for the defense of that sovereignty and independence is, by the constitution, cast upon the executive and legislative branches of the government of the State, and it is particularly my duty to call your attention to such matters as may seem to me to justify the belief that the State is in danger from any foe, and to call on you to unite with me in defending her from injury. The occurrences of the last two months sufficiently indicate that this State and any others of the slave-holding States which have or yet may decide to separate from any political connection with the non-slave-holding States of the late American Union will not be permitted to accomplish such separation in a peaceable manner, and that they must maintain the independence which they assert and claim to have the right to assume by a show of force, perhaps by an actual resort to arms, however powerful may be the argument on which we rely to justify our separation. However much we may be convinced of our right to adopt the course which as a people we have determined to pursue to avert from us and our posterity the calamities which we feared would befall us and them from the continuance of a Government in a just share of the power of which we could not reasonably expect to enjoy, although the wrong and injuries we had experienced without any adequate redress from the Government of the United States were such as rendered the advantages we derived from it no adequate compensation for the evils to which it left us exposed, and although we as a free, enlightened, and Christian people have, after long suffering and expostulation with those who sought to injure us under the forms of legislation and under the shield of the Union, been driven to the exercise of the right to reassume to our State the powers delegated to the Federal Union of States which existed under the Constitution of the United States, which right is plain and incontestable by any of the principles upon which the independence of the American colonies was placed by the illustrious men who framed and adopted the declaration of the reasons which governed the people of the colonies in their action; yet it manifest that the inhabitants of the non-slave-holding States are hardening their hearts against all signs and evidences which justify our exodus from among them, and that, like Egyptians of old, they are not willing that we should depart in peace from our state of bondage, but, in the spirit of the oppressor, they seek to tighten their grasp upon a people who have been to them an abundant source of profit and advantage, and are preparing their host to follow after and to return us to a captivity the latter end of which must be worse than the first. Whilst President Buchanan has officially declared that he has no power to employ the military and naval forces under his control in hostility against any of the State which have dissolved their connection with the late Federal Union, yet it is apparent that he support officers of the Army under his control in the hostile occupation of portions of the territory of this State and our sister State of South Carolina, permits his general and members of his Cabinet to set on foot military expeditions against us, re-enforce forts, order men-of-war to hover on our coast in hostile array, and has advised Congress to pass laws for the purpose of collecting revenue from imposts into our State by means of armed vessels. This conduct of President Buchanan, which is totally at war with our claim of independence and sovereignty, is not only recognized to be correct and supported by the representatives of the non-slave-holding States sitting in Congress at Washington, and claiming to be the Congress of the United States, but they have, be speech and votes, manifested a firm resolve to disregard the act of the people, done in convention, dissolving the political ties which united us with the people whom they represent, and declare their purpose, so soon as they attain further power by the inauguration of a President elected by themselves, without the voice and in direct opposition to the will of our people, to use all the military and naval power which they may be enabled to acquire the possession and control of to subjugate our people and those of the States concurring with us, and to compel us to submit to that Government which we resolved to throw off because its further continuance menaced the destruction of our rights and liberties. We have unmistakable evidence of every kind that is significant and reliable that the people of the non-slave-holding States sustain the action and declared purposes of those whom they chose by a large majority of their voices to represent them and rule us. We have seen Legislature of the great States of New York, Ohio, and Massachusetts passing resolutions pledging men and money to aid in fastening upon us again the chains with which they hope to attach us forever to a condition of bondage and vassalage to an unfriendly people. No friendly voice was lifted in the councils of these States to defend our action and to maintain our right to throw off a Government which, in our opinion, no longer conferred on us those blessings of peace and domestic tranquility which it was founded to secure. No one was heard to utter that truth which our ancestors had inserted in their Declaration of Independence, "that all governments derive their just powers from the consent of the governed." Of all the mighty thousands of Northern men whom we were beseeched to trust to as a sufficient means to guard us against the ruin which we foresaw in the impending ascendancy of the Black Republican party, not even a respectable minority in the Legislature alluded to opposed their votes to such foul acts of unfriendly power. No lover of human liberty was heard to exclaim, wherever people calling themselves Republicans were, through their representatives, offering to furnish the means to compel millions of their fellowmen their equals and lately their fellow-citizens-to submit to a Government under which they honestly believed they could not enjoy their admitted and just rights. No Burke, no Barre, no Fox, declared against acts of tyranny far more odious and cruel than those which a North and a Bute perpetrated under the authority of a Crown, and which found illustrations patriots ready to denounce in the hearing of the mighty monarch who sat on the throne of Great Britain. We are not only assured that force of arms is to be employed to compel us to pass under the yoke of Black Republican rule by the evidences I have alluded to, derived from legislative proceedings of the State Legislatures and of representative men in Congress from non-slave-holding States, but daily the press and the pulpit pour forth denunciations against our people and earnestly count the days yet to lapse when they fervently hope to see their representative man, Abraham Lincoln, enthroned at Washington in undisputed possession of all the machinery of the Government, supported by the military chieftain, who, like Napoleon at Paris, coolly and deliberately, without remorse or hesitancy, plants the cannon that is to mow down, at his word of command, his fellow-citizens, whom a love of liberty may urge to make an effort to save the tomb of Washington from remaining in the keeping of those who have forgotten his precepts, and have by the organization of a sectional party destroyed the Government and buried the spirit of the Constitution. We are forewarned of coming attacks upon our political and civil liberties, and shall we not be fore armed? We have yet heard but the mutterings of the thunder, but the storm is not afar off. It may pass by us, but let us be prepared to meet it firmly and avert from our people the injury with which it threatens them. Let us remember the voice of that illustrious Southerner whose mortal remains lie entombed on the banks of the Potomac, who counseled us "In time of peace to prepare for war." Let us arm for the contest, and perchance by a show of our force and our readiness of the combat we may escape the realities of war. Already our brethren of the Southern States are arming. We, too, have made some preparation, but much remains undone. We see that even the slave-holding States of Missouri, Tennessee, Virginia, and North Carolina, which have not yet cut loose the ties which connect them politically with the non-slave-holding States, are arming for the contest. In Virginia the people are ahead of the Legislature, and have in their county meetings empowered the county authorities to put the militia on a war footing, and have raised funds for the purchase of arms and ammunition. All these signs and tokens warn us to be ready to defend our rights. With the notes of hostile preparation sounding in our ears, with the example of our brethren (whose fate we must share) to stimulate us, is it not our duty to prepare to sustain by our arms what we have determined upon in our counsels? We who were emulous of being foremost in dissolving the Union should not be laggard in preparing for the contest. We have taken the field. Our flag is unfurled of Pensacola, where our gallant troops stand shoulder to shoulder with the brave volunteers from our sister States, who, with a noble, generous chivalry, stand ready to obey our orders and co-operate with us most cordially in our time of need. Let us make provisions to keep them under arms and to call out and support them by others should they be needed. The State expect us to do our duty; the people will do theirs. I invite you, therefore, to lend me your aid and to unite with me in providing for the calling into service such a number of troops as may be equal to our defense when assisted, as we shall be, by our sister States who are preparing to unite their political fortunes with ours. I also suggest to you that you should make special appropriations for the pay and maintenance of as many troops as may be called into service, and for the purchase of munitions of war, transportation of troops, and other expenses incidental to the defenses of the State. The States of Louisiana, Mississippi, Georgia, Alabama, and South Carolina, which have dissolved their connection with the late Federal Union, have elected delegates to meet with those sent from this State to the convention to be held in Montgomery, Ala., on the 4th day of this month, being the day suggested by a majority of the seceding States. We may expect, therefore, that the convention will at an early day form a provisional government for the States represented and call for troops and money from the confederates. The quota of Florida will not be large, but we should proceed to organize the force which we are likely to be called on to furnish, and appropriate the means necessary for the maintenance and pay of them and our quota of the expense of the common defense. I am not able to lay before you an estimate of the amount necessary, but will readily confer with committees of your bodies, with a view to ascertain what sum of money may be required therefore.