We Protest Solemnly In The

Sir, It Is True That Republics Have Often Been Cradled In War, But More Often They Have Met With A Grave In That Cradle. Peace Is The Interest, The Policy, The Nature Of A Popular Government. War May Bring Benefits To A Few, But Privation And Loss Are The Lot Of The Many. An Appeal To Arms Should Be The Last Resort, And Only By National Rights Or National Honor Can It Be Justified.

I Tried All In My Power To Avert This War. I Saw It Coming, For Twelve Years I Worked Night And Day To Prevent It, But I Could Not. The North Was Mad And Blind; It Would Not Let Us Govern Ourselves, And So The War Came, And Now It Must Go On Unless You Acknowledge Our Right To Self Government. We Are Not Fighting For Slavery. We Are Fighting For Independence.

The Withdrawal Of A State From A League Has No Revolutionary Or Insurrectionary Characteristic. The Government Of The State Remains Unchanged As To All Internal Affairs. It Is Only Its External Or Confederate Relations That Are Altered. To Term This Action Of A Sovereign A 'rebellion' Is A Gross Abuse Of Language.

If The Confederacy Fails, There Should Be Written On Its Tombstone: Died Of A Theory.

Without Doing Injustice To The Living, It May Safely Be Asserted That Our Loss Is Irreparable; And That Among The Shining Hosts Of The Great And Good Who Now Cluster Around The Banner Of The Country, There Exists No Purer Spirit, No More Heroic Soul, Than That Of The Illustrious Man Whose Death I Join You In Lamenting.