CONGRESS

549

To prevent such effects, our people are now prosecuting this struggle. It is no mere war of calculation, no contest for a particular kind of property, no barter of precious blood for filthy lucre. Everything involved in manhood, civilization, religion, law, property, country, home, is at stake. We fight not for plunder, spoils, pillage, territorial conquest. The government tempts by no prizes of beauty or booty," to be drawn in the lottery of this war. We seek to preserve civil freedom, honor, equality, firesides; and blood is well shed when "shed for our family, for our friends, for our kind, for our country, for our God." Burke said: "A State, resolved to hazard its existence rather than abandon its object, must have an infinite advantage over that which is resolved to yield, rather than carry its resistance beyond a certain point." It is better to be conquered by any other nation than by the United States. It is better to be a dependency of any other power than that.

By the condition of its existence and essential constitution, as now governed, it must be in perpetual hostility to us. As the Spanish invader burned his ships to make retreat impossible, so we cannot afford to take steps backward. Retreat is more dangerous than advance. Behind us are inferiority and degradation; before us is everything enticing to a patriot.

Our bitter and implacable foes are preparing vigorously for the coming campaign. Correspond. ing efforts should be made on our part. Without murmuring, our people should respond to the laws which the exigency demands. Every one capable of bearing arms should be connected with some effective military organization. The utmost energies of the whole population should be taxed to produce food and clothing, and a spirit of cheerfulness and trust in an allwise and overruling Providence should be cultivated.

The history of the past three years has much to animate us to renewed effort and a firmer and more assured hope. A whole people have given their hearts and bodies to repel the invader, and costly sacrifices have been made on the altar of our coun try. No similar instance is to be found of such spontaneous uprising and volunteering. Inspired by a holy patriotism, again and again have our brave soldiers, with the aid of Heaven, baffled the efforts of our foes. It is in no arrogant spirit that

Let us, then, looking upon the bodies of our loved and honored dead, catch inspiration from their example, and gather renewed confidence and a firmer resolve to tread, with unfaltering trust, the path that leads to honor and peace, although it lead through tears, and suffering, and blood.

We have no alternative but to do our duty. We combat for property, homes, the honor of our wives, the future of our children, the preservation of our fair land from pollution, and to avert a doom which we can read both in the threats of our enemies and the acts of oppression we have alluded to in this address.

The situation is grave, but furnishes no just excuse for despondence. Instead of harsh criticisms on the Government and our generals; instead of bewailing the failure to accomplish impossibilities, we should rather be grateful, humbly and profoundly, to a benignant Providence, for the results that have rewarded our labors. Remembering the disproportion in population, in military and naval resources, and the deficiency of skilled labor in the South, our accomplishments have surpassed those of any people in the annals of the world. There is no just reason for hopelessness or fear. Since the outbreak of the war, the South has lost the nominal possession of Mississippi river and fragments of her territory, but Federal occupancy is not conquest. The fires of patriotism still burn unquenchably in the breasts of those who are subject to foreign domination. We yet have in our uninterrupted control a territory which, according to past progress, will require the enemy ten years to overrun.

The enemy is not free from difficulties. With an enormous debt, the financial convulsion, long postponed, is surely coming. The short crops in the United States and the abundant harvest in Europe will hasten what was otherwise inevitable. Many sagacious persons at the North discover in the usurpations of their Government the certain overthrow of their liberties. A large number revolt from the unjust war waged upon the South, and would gladly bring it to an end. Others look with alarm upon the complete subversion of constitution. al freedom by Abraham Lincoln, and feel in their own persons the bitterness of the slavery which three years of war have failed to inflict on the South. Brave and earnest men at the North have spoken

out against the usurpation and cruelties daily practised. The success of these men over the radical and despotic faction which now rules the North, may open the way to peaceful negotiation and a cessation of this bloody and unnecessary war.

In conclusion, we exhort our fellow-citizens to be of good cheer, and spare no labor nor sacrifices that may be necessary to enable us to win the campaign upon which we have just entered. We have passed through great trials of affliction, but suffering and humiliation are the schoolmasters that lead nations to self-reliance and independence. These disciplinary providences but mature, and develop, and solidify our people. We beg that the supplies and resources of the country, which are ample, may be sold to the Government to support and equip its armies. Let all spirit of faction and party differences be forgotten in the presence of our cruel foe. We should not despond. We should be self-denying We should labor to extend to the utmost the productive resources of the country. We should economize. The families of soldiers should be cared for and liberally supplied.

We entreat from all a generous and hearty cooperation with the Government in all branches of its administration, and with the agents, civil or military, in the performance of their duties. Moral aid has the power of the incommunicable," and by united efforts, by an all-comprehending and selfsacrificing patriotism, we can, with the blessing of God, avert the perils which environ us, and achieve for ourselves and children peace and freedom. Hitherto the Lord has interposed graciously to bring us victory, and in his hand there is present power to prevent this great multitude which come against us from casting us out of the possession which he has given us to inherit.

Signed by T. J. Semmes, J. L. Orr, E. A. Maxwell, Committee of the Senate; J W. Clapp, Julian Hartridge, J. L. W. Curry, John Goode, Jr., W. N. H. Smith, Committee of House of Representatives; Thomas S. Bocock, Speaker of House of Represent atives, and by numerous members.

CONFEDERATE FOREIGN RELATIONS, 1864

As offering a suggestive exposition of the foreign relations of the Confederacy during the year 1864, we give place to the following.

H. B. M.'s LEGATION, WASHINGTON, D. C., April 1, 1864. Mr. Jefferson Davis etc., etc., Richmond, Va.: SIR-I have been instructed by Earl Russell, her Britannic Majesty's Secretary of State for Foreign

Affairs, to convey to you the following extract of a dispatch which has been forwarded to me by his lordship. I have chosen the method which appear. ed to me to be the only available one, under the present unhappy circumstances in which the country is involved, and I trust that the absence of all recognized diplomatic or consular residents or other agents of her majesty near Richmond, will be recognized as sufficient reason for its not being sent through usual clanuels. I need scarcely say that the bearer of this dispatch, whom you have consented to allow to visit Richmond, has been authorised by

the Government of the United States to pass into your lines on the flag-of-truce boat, for the purpose of delivering it, and will desire your permission to return to Washington by the same mode of convey.

You will also convey to Mr. Davis, at Richmond, through such channel as shall be available, and as you may in your discretion deem proper, the formal protest and remonstrance of her Majesty's Government against the efforts of the authorities of the socalled Confederate States to build war vessels within her Majesty's dominions, to be employed against the Government of the United States. Perhaps your lordship might best accomplish this object by obtaining permission from the authorities of both belligerents to send a special messenger to Rich mond with the necessary dispatch, in which you will transmit this paragraph, or the substance of it,

together with all that follows, to the close of this

communication.

Her Majesty's Government, in taking this course, desire Mr. Davis to rest assured that it is adopted

entirely in that spirit of neutrality which has been declared the policy of this country with regard to the two belligerents now so lamentably desolating America, and which will continue to be pursued, with a careful and earnest desire to make it condu cive to the most rigid impartiality and justice.

After consulting with the law officers of the Crown, her Majesty's Government have come to the decision that agents of the authorities of the socalled Confederate States have been engaged in

building vessels which would be at least partially equipped for war purposes on leaving the ports of

this country; that these war vessels would undoubt edly be used against the United States, a country with which this Government is at peace; that this would be a violation of the neutrality laws of the realm; and that the Government of the United States would have just ground for serious complaint against her Majesty's Government, should

EARLY'S VERSION OF THE BATTLES OF CEDAR GROVE.

Saxon race before him, that under a Government faithfully representing the people of Great Britain, the whole weight and power of that nation would be unhesitatingly thrown into the scale, in favor of the principles of free government on which these States were originally formed, and for which alone the Confederate States are now struggling. He cannot but feel that with such a Government, and with the plea of neutrality urged upon the people. as it now is, no such pitiful spectacle could be witnessed as is now manifested by her Majesty's pres ent Government, in the persistent persecution of the Confederate States, at the beck and bidding of officers of the United States, while a prime minister mocks and insults the intelligence of a House of Commons, and of the world by excusing the permission to allow British subjects to go to the United States to fight against us, by the paltry subterfuge that it was the great demand for labor and the high rate of wages that were taking them thither. He

cannot but feel that a neutrality most cunningly, audaciously, fawningly and insolently sought and urged, begged and demanded by one belligerent, and repudiated by the other, must be seen, by all impartial men, to be a mere pretext for aiding the cause of one at the expense of the other; while pretending to be impartial, to be, in short, but a cover for treacherous, malignant hostility.

At two o'clock P. M. all the division commanders,

except Pegram, who had not returned from the mountain, came to my headquarters, and I gave

them their instructions. Gordon was directed to cross over into the bend of the river immediately after dark, and move to the foot of the mountain, where he would rest his troops, and move from there in time to cross the river again and get in position at Cooley's house, in the enemy's rear, so as to make the attack at the designated hour, and he was instructed, in advancing to the attack, to move for a house on the west side of the Valley pike called the "Belle Grove House," at which it was known that Sheridan's headquarters were located. ordered to be sent to General Gordon, and Colonel A guide who knew the country and the roads was Payne was ordered to accompany him with his force of cavalry, and endeavor to capture Sheridan himself. Rosser was ordered to move before day, in time to attack at five o'clock next morning, and to endeavor to surprise the enemy's cavalry in camp. Kershaw and Wharton were ordered to move, at one o'clock in the morning, toward Strasburg, under my personal superintendence, and the artillery was ordered to concentrate where the pike passed

through the lines at Fisher's Hill, and, at the hour

appointed for the attack to move at a gallop to

Hupps' Hill-the movement of the artillery being

thus delayed for fear of attracting the attention of the enemy by the rumbling of the wheels over the

macadamized road. Swords and canteens were directed to be left in camp, so as to make as little noise as possible.

Gordon moved at the appointed time, and, after he had started, General Pegram reported to me that he had discovered, from the signal station on the mountain, what he supposed to be an entrenchment thrown up across the road over which Gordon would have to advance after crossing the river a second time, and that the signal operators had informed him that it had been thrown up since Gordon and Hotchkiss made their examination; and he suggested the propriety of attacking the enemy's

ernment and the highest law officers of the Crown, for their decision. The President himself will not condescend to notice them.

as he would probably have more difficulty than had been anticipated. I adopted this suggestion, and determined to cross Kershaw's division over Cedar

BURTON N. HARRISON.

and strike the enemy's left flank simultaneously with the other attacks, of which purpose notice was sent