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of this tyrant. With strong arms and stout hearts you have now resolved to stand in the defence of liberty. The Confederate States have but asserted their rights. They believed that their rulers derived their just powers from the consent of the governed. No one had the right to deny the existence of the sovereign right of secession. Our people did not want to meddle with the Northern States-only wanted the latter to leave them alone. When did Virginia ever ask the assistance of the General Government?

If there is sin in our institutions, we bear the blame, and will stand acquitted by natural law, and the higher law of the Creator. We stand upon the law of God and Nature. The Southern States did not wish to resort to arms after secession. Mr. Stephens alluded to the negotiations between Major Anderson and the authorities of the Confederate States, to demonstrate the proposition. History, he said, if rightly written, will acquit us of a desire to shed our brother's blood.

The law of necessity and of right compelled us to act as we did. He had reason to believe that the Creator smiled on it. The Federal flag was taken down without the loss of a single life. He believed that Providence would be with us and bless us to the end. We had appealed to the God of Battles

Madness and folly

not have been so,

for the justness of our cause. ruled at Washington. Had it several of the States would have been in the Union for a year to come. Maryland would join us, and may be, ere long, the principles that Washington fought for might be again administered in the city that bore his name.

Every son of the South, from the Potomac to the Rio Grande, should rally to the support of Maryland. If Lincoln quits Washington as ignominiously as he entered it, God's will will have been accomplished. The argument was now exhausted. Be prepared; stand to your arms-defend your wives and firesides. He alluded to the momentous consequences of the issue involved. Rather than be conquered, let every second man rally to drive back the invader. The conflict may be terrible, but the victory will be ours. Virginians, said he, you fight for the preservation of your sacred rights-the land of Patrick Henry--to keep from desecration the tomb of Washington, the graves of Madison, Jefferson, and all you hold most dear.

THE LAST MANIFESTO OF THE CONFEDERATE CONGRESS.

JUNE 15, 1864.

Joint resolution declaring the dispositions, principles and purposes of the Confederate States in relation to the existing war with the United States.

Whereas, It is due to the great cause of humanity and civilization, and especially to the heroic sacrifices of their gallant army in the field, that no means, consistent with a proper self-respect, and the approved usages of nations, should be omitted by the Confederate States to enlighten the public opinion of the world with regard to the true character of the srruggle in which they are engaged, and the disposisitions, principles and purposes by which they are actuated; therefore,

Resolved by the Congress of the Confederate" States of America, That the following manifesto be issued in their name and by their authority, and that

the President be requested to cause copies thereof to bs transmitted to our commissioners abroad, to the end that the same may be laid before foreign Governments.

MANIFESTO OF THE CONGRESS OF CONFEDERATE STATES OF AMERICA, RELATIVE TO THE EXISTING WAR WITH THE UNITED STATES.

The Congress of the Confederate States of America, acknowledging their responsibility to the opinion of the civilized world, to the great law of Christian philanthropy, and to the Supreme Ruler of the universe, for the part they have been compelled to bear in this sad spectacle of war and carnage which this continent has, for the last three years, exhibited to the eyes of afflicted humanity, deems the present a fitting occasion to declare the principles, the sentiments and the purposes by which they have been and are still actuated.

They have ever deeply deplored the necessity which constrained them to take up arms in defence of their rights and of the free institutions derived from their ancestors; and there is nothing they more ardently desire than peace, whensoever their enemy, by ceasing from the unhallowed war waged upon them, shall permit them to enjoy in peace the sheltering protection of those hereditary rights and of

those cherished institutions.

The series of successes

with which it has pleased Almighty God, in so signal a manner, to bless our arms on almost every point of our invaded border since the opening of the present campaign, enables us to profess this desire of peace, in the interests of civilization and humanity, without danger of having our motives misinterpreted, or of the declaration being ascribed to any unmanly sentiment, or any distrust of our ability fully to maintain our cause. The repeated and disastrous checks, foreshadowing ultimate discomfiture, which their gigantic army, directed against the capital of the Confederacy, has already met with, are but a continuation of the same providential successes for us. We do not refer to these successes in any spirit of vain boasting, but in humble acknowledgment of that Almighty protection which has vouchsafed and granted them.

The world must now see that eight millions of people, inhabiting so extensive a territory, with such varied resources and such numerous facilities for defence as the benignant bounty of nature has bestowed upon us, and animated with one spirit to encounter every privation and sacrifice of ease, of health, of property, of life itself, rather than be degraded from the condition of free and independent States into which they were born, can never be con

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