Page:Southern Historical Society Papers volume 32.djvu/301

 Address of Major Graham Daves. 289

Confederate States was adopted and ratified, and on June i8th two senators and eight representatives were elected by the convention to the Confederate Congress, which, after its adjournment at Mont- gomery in May, was to meet in Richmond on the 2Oth of July, where its sessions were held thereafter.

The permanent Constitution of the Confederate States, which ''he who runs may read," is itself a full and plain refutation of the ridiculous statements often made that its object was the overthrow of the principles of the Constitution of the United States. The permanent Constitution was the Constitution of the United States, with such necessary amendments as the difference of situation made necessary. Some of these amendments were significant, especially that forbidding the foreign slave trade, which was not forbidden in the Constitution of the United States; on the contrary, it was there expressly allowed (Article I, section 9) until 1808, after which its prohibition by that instrument was only permissive. The Consti- tution of the United States was the wisdom of our own ancestors. With it, properly construed and administered, we had no quarrel, and our only thought was to live under its provisions apart from those with whom it seemed we could not rest in peace, and against whose perversions we could not rest in peace, and against whose perversions of its powers we protested with all our energy. We never dreamed of overthrowing or destroying the old government or of molesting any State that elected to remain with it. We as fully acknowledged the right to remain, if so it seemed good, as we also claimed the right to withdraw.

On the loth of June, 1861, less than a month after the passage of the Ordinance of Secession, was fought and won the battle of Great Bethel in Virginia, won principally by North Carolina troops under Colonel D. H. Hill. And here another parallel with revolutionary days may be of interest.

In that olden time of the first revolution our people were called upon to defend their homes, and to repel invasion; and with Rich- ard Caswell, with Ashe and Lillington, they won the fight at Moore's Creek Bridge on the 2oth of February, 1776, the first victory in pitched battle won in the territory of the thirteen colonies. There had been actions before, momentous and far reaching in their con- sequences, as at Bunker Hill, but it was a defeat for the Americans, also at Great Bridge in Virginia, which was only a repulse of the British Moore's Creek was a complete victory, and an utter rout of the enemy that checked the invasion of North Carolina, and gave