Page:Confederate Military History - 1899 - Volume 1.djvu/440



HE Confederate policy was to conduct the war defensively. President Davis had sufficiently intimated his own views through his message of April 29th, 1861, and while there was no little popular call for immediate relief of Maryland, the counsel for a defensive policy prevailed. The Vice-President, Mr. Stephens, who had negotiated with Virginia the immediate union of that great State with the Confederacy, said in a public speech April 3oth, "A general opinion is that Washington City is soon to be attacked. On this subject I can only say that our object is peace. We wish no aggressions on any one’s rights, and will make none. But if Maryland secedes, the District of Columbia will fall to her by reversionary right, the same as Sumter to South Carolina, Pulaski to Georgia, and Pickens to Florida. When we have the right, we will demand the surrender of Washington, just as we did in the other cases, and will enforce our demand at every hazard, and at whatever cost." President Davis, perceiving that the main attack by land would be made upon Virginia, was actively co-operating with Governor Letcher to meet the threatened invasion of his State. His unavailing sympathy for Maryland is