Page:A Compilation of the Messages and Papers of the Confederacy, Including the Diplomatic Correspondence, 1861-1865, Volume I.djvu/205

Rh foresight, and statesmanship of the men who constituted it, but an everlasting refutation of the charges which have been brought against them. These works together show clearly that their only leading object was to sustain, uphold, and perpetuate the fundamental principles of the Constitution of the United States." He favored the "peace policy" which was manifested by the sending of commissioners by the Confederacy to Washington in 1861, and said he was astonished at the treatment they received there, and charged Mr. Seward with duplicity in dealing with them.

At the election in November, 1861, he was chosen by a unanimous vote Vice President of the Confederate States, on the ticket with President Davis; was inaugurated on February 22, 1862, and filled this position throughout the life of the Confederacy. He was called upon and made numerous addresses to the people at critical periods during the war, in all of which he characterized the invasion of the South as an unjust war for conquest and subjugation.

In a speech delivered during the second year of the war, he said: "The States south had done nothing but what was their right — their inalienable right to do, the same as their ancestors did, in common with the North, when they severed their connection with the British Government. This war was waged by the North in denial of this right, and for the purpose of conquest and subjugation. It was, therefore, aggressive, wanton, and unjust. Such must be the judgment of mankind, let its results be what they may. The responsibility, therefore, for all its sacrifices of treasure and blood, heretofore or hereafter to be made in its prosecution, rests not upon us. What is all this for? Why this array of armies? Why this fierce meeting in mortal combat ? What is all this carnage and slaughter for? Why the prolongation of this conflict? Why this lamentation and mourning going up from almost every house and family from Maine to the Rio Grande, and from the Atlantic and Gulf to the Lakes, for friends and dear ones who have fallen by disease and violence in this unparalleled struggle? The question, if replied to by the North, can have but one true answer. What is all this for, on their part, but to overturn the principle upon which their own Government, as well as ours, is based — to reverse the doctrine that governments derive 'their just powers from the consent of the governed?' What is it for but to overturn