Page:Southern Historical Society Papers volume 13.djvu/456

 Letter of Instructions to Hon. John Slidell. 455

General Lee rode the whole distance with his hat in his hand, and with tears tncklmg down his cheeks. No one who was presen can ever forget the scene.

Letter of Instructions to Hon. John Slidell. By Hon. R. M. T. HUNTER.

DEPARTMENT OF STATE, RICHMOND, September 23, 1861.

To the Hon. JOHN SLIDELL, &<:., & c. t &c. :

SIR, Along with this you will receive your letter of credence to the Government of France, to which the President desires you to present yourself as soon as possible. Our claims for recognition as an independent people have been made much stronger by events which have occurred since they were first presented by our Commis- sioners. But before reinforcing those claims, you will not fail to place the Confederate States in their true position before the Gov- ernment of France. You will show that they are not to be consid- ered as revolted provinces or rebellious subjects seeking to overthrow, by revolutionary violence, the just authority of a lawful sovereign, but, on the contrary, they stand before the world as organized par- ties, maintaining their right to self-government, with sufficient strength to make good their claim, and so organized as to be mor- ally and politically responsible for their actions Their first union was formed by a compact between sovereign and independent States, upon covenants and conditions expressly stipulated in a written in- strument called the Constitution. In that union the States consti- tuted the units or integers, and were bound to it only because the people of each of them acceded to it in their separate capaci- ties, through the acts of their representatives. That confederacy was designed to unite under one government two great and diverse social systems, under one or the other of which all the States might be classified. As these two social systems were unequally represented in the common government, it was sought to protect one against a warfare which might be waged by the other through the forms of law, by carefully defined restrictions and limitations upon the power of the majority in the common government. Without such restric- tions and limitations, it is known historically that the union could not