April 10, 1863, urging them to comply with a resolution of the Confederate Congress that they should cease planting tobacco and cotton in anticipation of an early termination of the war, and devote their land to food crops. The second is from President Davis's message of December 7, 1863, to the Confederate Congress. (a) ... We have reached the close of the second year of the war, and may point with just pride to the history of our young Confederacy. Alone, unaided, we have met and overthrown the most formidable combination of naval and military armaments that the lust of conquest ever gathered together for the subjugation of a free people. We began this struggle without a single gun afloat, while the resources of our enemy enabled them to gather fleets which, according to their official list published in August last, consisted of 427 vessels, measuring 340,036 tons, and carrying 3,268 guns. Yet we have captured, sunk, or destroyed a number of these vessels. . . . To oppose invading forces composed of levies which have already exceeded 1,300,000 men, we had no resources but the unconquerable valor of a people determined to be free, and we were so destitute of military supplies that tens of thousands of our citizens were reluctantly refused admission into the service from our inability to provide them with arms, while for many months some of our important strongholds owed their safety chiefly to a careful concealment of the fact that we were without a supply of powder for our cannon. Your devotion and patriotism have triumphed over all these obstacles and called into existence the munitions of war, the clothing, and the subsistence which have enabled our soldiers to illustrate their valor on numerous battlefields, and to inflict crushing defeats on successive armies, each of which an arrogant foe fondly believed to be invincible. The contrast between our past and present condition is well calculated to inspire full confidence in the triumph of our arms. At no previous period of the war have our forces been so numerous, so well-organized, so thoroughly disciplined, armed, and equipped as at present. The season of high water, on which our enemies relied to enable their fleets of gunboats to penetrate into our country and devastate our homes, is fast passing away; yet our strongholds on the Mississippi still bid defiance to the foe,1 and months of costly preparations for their reduction have been spent in vain. Disaster has been the result of their every effort to turn or to storm Vicksburg and Port Hudson. . . . Within a few weeks the falling waters and the increasing heat of summer will complete their discomfiture and compel their baffled and defeated forces to the abandonment of expeditions on which was based their chief hope of success in effecting our subjugation. We must not forget, however, that the war is not yet ended, and that we are still confronted by powerful armies and threatened by numerous fleets; and that the Government which controls these fleets and armies is driven to the most desperate efforts to effect the unholy purposes in which it has been thus far defeated. It will use its utmost energy to arrest the impending doom, so fully merited by the atrocities it has committed, the savage barbarities which it has encouraged, and the crowning infamy of its attempt to excite a servile population to the massacre of our wives, our daughters, and our helpless children. . . . Your country, therefore, appeals to you to lay aside all thought of gain, and to devote yourselves to securing your liberties, without which those gains would be valueless. . . . Let us all unite in the performance of our duty, each in his sphere, and with concerted, persistent, and well-directed effort there seems little reason to doubt that ... we shall maintain the sovereignty and independence of these Confederate States, and transmit to our posterity the heritage bequeathed to us by our fathers. Executive Office, Richmond April 10, 1863. Jefferson Davis 1 President Davis refers to the two strongholds of Vicksburg and Port Hudson on the Mississippi that were left to the Confederates after Grant and Foote from the North and Farragut from the South had won back all but about one hundred and twenty-five miles of the river for the Union. (b) Richmond Va. Dec. 7, 1863 TO THE SENATE AND HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES OF THE CONFEDERATE STATES: The necessity for legislative action arising out of the important events that have marked the interval since your adjournment, and my desire to have the aid of your counsel on other matters of grave public interest, render your presence at this time more than ordinarily welcome. . . . ... Grave reverses befell our arms soon after your departure from Richmond. Early in June [July] our strongholds at Vicksburg and Port Hudson, together with their entire garrisons, capitulated to the combined land and naval forces of the enemy. The important interior position of Jackson next fell into their temporary possession. Our unsuccessful assault upon the post at Helena was followed at a later period by the invasion of Arkansas, and the retreat of our army from Little Rock gave to the enemy the control of the important valley in which it is situated. The resolute spirit of the people soon rose superior to the temporary despondency naturally resulting from these reverses. The gallant troops, so ably commanded in the States beyond the Mississippi, inflicted repeated defeats on the invading armies in Louisiana and on the coast of Texas. Detachments of troops and active bodies of partisans kept up so effective a war on the Mississippi River as practically to destroy its value as an avenue of commerce. . . The able commander [Lee] who conducted the campaign in Virginia determined to meet the threatened advance on Richmond, for which the enemy had made long and costly preparations, by forcing their armies to cross the Potomac and fight in defence of their own capital and homes. Transferring the battlefield to their own soil, he succeeded in compelling their rapid retreat from Virginia, and in the hard-fought battle of Gettysburg inflicted such severity of punishment as disabled them from an early renewal of the campaign as originally projected.1 1 The disappointment of Lincoln and the war office in Washington over Meade's failure to follow up his defeat of Lee at Gettysburg was Unfortunately the communications on which our general relied for receiving his supplies of munitions were so interrupted by extraordinary floods, which so swelled the Potomac as to render impassable the fords by which his advance had been made, and he was thus forced to a withdrawal, which was conducted with deliberation after securing large trains of captured supplies, and with constant and unaccepted tender of battle. . . . The hope last year entertained of an early termination of the war has not been realized. Could carnage have satisfied the appetite of our enemy for the destruction of human life, or grief have appeased their wanton desire to inflict human suffering, there has been bloodshed enough on both sides, and two lands have been sufficiently darkened by the weeds of mourning to induce a disposition for peace. If unanimity in a people could dispel delusion, it has been displayed too unmistakably not to have silenced the pretense that the Southern States were merely disturbed by a factious insurrection, and it must have long since been admitted that they were but exercising their reserved right to modify their own. Government in such manner as would best secure their own happiness. But these considerations have been powerless to allay the unchristian hate of those who, long accustomed to draw large profits from a union with us, cannot control the rage excited by the conviction that they have by their own folly destroyed the richest sources of their prosperity. They refuse even to listen to proposals for the only peace possible between us — a peace which, recognizing the impassable gulf which divides us, may leave the two peoples separately to recover from injuries inflicted intense. On reading Meade's remark after the victory, of "driving the invader from our soil,” Lincoln said with impatience: "Will our generals never get that idea out of their heads? The whole country is our soil.” -Nicolay and Hay, Abraham Lincoln, Vol. VII, pp. 278–281. On July 14 Lincoln wrote to Meade (but never signed or sent the letter): "I do not believe you appreciate the. magnitude of the misfortune involved in Lee's escape. He was within your easy grasp, and to have closed upon him would, in connection with our other late successes, have ended the war. As it is the war will be prolonged indefinitely. . . . Your golden opportunity is gone, and I am distressed immeasurably because of it." on both by the causeless war now waged against us. Having begun the war in direct violation of their Constitution, which forbade the attempt to coerce a State, they have been hardened by crime until they no longer attempt to veil their purpose to destroy the institutions and subvert the sovereignty and independence of these States. We now know that the only reliable hope for peace is in the vigor of our resistance, while the cessation of their hostility is only to be expected from the pressure of their necessities. The patriotism of the people has proved equal to every sacrifice demanded by their country's need. We have been united as a people never were united under like circumstances before. God has blessed us with success disproportionate to our means, and under his divine favor our labors must at last be crowned with the reward due to men who have given all they possessed to the righteous defense of their inalienable rights, their homes, and their altars. Jefferson Davis federate [464] On three occasions a trio of "ambassadors " from the 97. A ConSouth sought to treat with the United States govern- embassy, ment at Washington. First, immediately after the secession February 3, 1865 ordinance, in December, 1860, the "sovereign state" of South Carolina sent three gentlemen (Barnwell, Adams, and Orr) to President Buchanan to negotiate for the delivery of the forts and other real estate held by the Federal government in South Carolina. Second, in March, 1861, soon after the formation of the Confederate government at Montgomery, President Davis, according to Article VI of the provisional Constitution, appointed a commission. (Roman of Louisiana, Crawford of Georgia, Forsythe of Alabama) "to negotiate friendly relations and to settle all questions of disagreement between the Confederate States and their late confederates of the United States in relation to public property and the public debt." Neither of the embassies succeeded in obtaining recognition from the |