Page:Confederate Military History - 1899 - Volume 1.djvu/403

Rh 18th, with companies of soldiers from several States, with citizens from all parts of the South, and adorned by the presence of large numbers of graceful Southern women. The inauguration ceremonies made an imposing pageant, but the interest of the public centered on the inaugural address, whose temperate tone and statesmanlike tenor disappointed such leaders as had hoped the President would be betrayed into some angry utterances. Mentioning the act of secession by the States, he said that &quot;In this they merely asserted the right which the Declaration of Independence of 1776 defined to be inalienable. Of the time and occasion of its exercise, they as sovereigns were the final judges, each for itself. The impartial enlightened judgment of mankind will vindicate the rectitude of our conduct, and He who knows the hearts of men will judge of the sincerity with which we labored to preserve the Government of our fathers in its spirit. Thus the sovereign States, here represented, proceeded to form this Confederacy, and it is by the abuse of language that their act has been called a revolution. They formed a new alliance, but within each State its government has remained. As a necessity, not of choice, we have resorted to the remedy of secession, and henceforth our energies must be directed to the conduct of our own affairs, and the perpetuity of the Confederacy which we have formed. We have changed the constituent parts but not the system of our government. The Constitution framed by our fathers is that of these Confederate States. In their exposition of it, and in the judicial construction it has received, we have a light which reveals its true meaning. The President plainly declared that the Confederacy would meet war with war, and advised Congress to make military and naval preparation for it, but averring his own wishes to be for peace, he said, &quot;If it be otherwise, the suffering of millions will bear testimony to the folly and wickedness of our aggressors.&quot;