According to this view, he believed the Southern states could not legally leave the union. but the weaknesses of human nature, & the limits of my own understanding will produce errors of judgment sometimes injurious to your interests. it is due to the sound discretion with which they select from among themselves those to whom they confide the legislative duties. His reelection proved that the majority of American citizens supported the administrations actions and remained immune to licentious printers influence. Bastiles filled with prisoners, arrested without civil process or indictment duly found; the writ of habeas corpus suspended by Executive mandate; a State Legislature controlled by the imprisonment of members whose avowed principles suggested to the Federal Executive that there might be another added to the list of seceded States; elections held under threats of a military power; civil officers, peaceful citizens, and gentle-women incarcerated for opinion's sake--proclaimed the incapacity of our late associates to administer a Government as free, liberal, and humane as that established for our common use. Second Inaugural Address Washington, DC. But the endeavors to enlighten them on the fate which awaits their present course of life, to induce them to exercise their reason, follow its dictates, & change their pursuits with the change of circumstances, have powerful obstacles to encounter. Davis believed that because the North was restricting the rights of the Southern states, secession was 'a necessity, not a choice.' The Fundamental Orders of Connecticut | Writer & Significance, SAT Subject Test World History: Practice and Study Guide, DSST The Civil War & Reconstruction: Study Guide & Test Prep, Important People in World History Study Guide, Major Events in World History Study Guide, TCI History Alive World Connections: Online Textbook Help, Glencoe The American Journey: Online Textbook Help, TCI History Alive America's Past: Online Textbook Help, TCI History Alive The United States Through Industrialism: Online Textbook Help, Create an account to start this course today. He then returned to the Presidents House, where according to Foster he was in high spirits as everyone by common accord went to pay him a visit of congratulation. The 8 Mch. Even with the corrections, Jefferson continued adjusting the address until the eleventh hour, submitting a few changes to Smith after he sent along the full draft (see, The address rapidly circulated through the states after Smiths printing, with many newspapers publishing the speech in full. This website helped me pass! He directed his words at convincing them that he was not their enemy, but a friend. Abraham Lincoln and Jefferson Davis both believed in securing rights and freedoms for their people. these covering our land with officers, & opening our doors to their intrusions, had already begun that process of domiciliary vexation, which, once entered, is scarcely to be restrained from reaching successively every article of property & produce. but that extension may possibly pay for itself, before we are called on, & in the mean time may keep down the accruing interest: in all events it will replace the advances we shall have made. . Battles have been fought, sieges have been conducted, and, although the contest is not ended, and the tide for the moment is against us, the final result in our favor is not doubtful. and when the constitution called them to the decision by suffrage, they pronounced their verdict, honorable to those who had served them, and consolatory to the friend of man, who believes that he may be trusted with the controul of his own affairs. Through its grants program, the NHPRC supports a wide range of activities to the want of it will certainly not lessen with increasing years. The courts have been open, the judicial functions fully executed, and every right of the peaceful citizen maintained as securely as if a war of invasion had not disturbed the land. Deeply sensible of all that is implied by this manifestation of the peoples confidence, I am yet more profoundly impressed by the vast responsibility of the office, and humbly feel my own unworthiness. They therefore determined to sever its bonds and establish a new Confederacy for themselves. Battles have been fought, sieges have been conducted, and, although the contest is not ended, and the tide for the moment is against us, the final result in our favor is not doubtful. we have therefore liberally furnished them with the implements of husbandry & houshold use; we have placed among them instructors in the arts of first necessity; and they are covered with the Aegis of the law against aggressors from among ourselves. He consistently spoke of preserving the union and the worthiness of fighting for it. Chapter 14 - #1. Due to a planned power outage on Friday, 1/14, between 8am-1pm PST, some services may be impacted. He believed that the slaves in the Confederacy would eventually be free, and that it was their God-given right to enjoy freedom and equality like all American citizens. It helped me pass my exam and the test questions are very similar to the practice quizzes on Study.com. Second Inaugural Address by Jefferson Davis (Confederate States of America) Summary In this second Inaugural Address, Davis, now President of the Confederate States, speaks from what is now the Capitol of the Confederate States of America, Richmond Virginia. A new Government has been established, and its machinery put in operation over an area exceeding seven hundred thousand square miles. endowed with the faculties & the rights of men, breathing an ardent love of liberty and independance, & occupying a country which left them no desire but to be undisturbed, the stream of overflowing population from other regions directed itself on these shores. In his address, he did not embrace the North's demands for a reunion of states, which he described as 'neither practicable nor desirable.' Delaware and Maryland, both slave states, did not vote to secede. In contrast, Davis wanted to direct his energies to the new Confederacy with no interest in returning to the North. Jefferson Davis believed the union of the United States was formed by loose bonds that could be broken if necessary. The confidence of the most hopeful among us must have been destroyed by the disregard they have recently exhibited for all the time-honored bulwarks of civil and religious liberty. The National Historical Publications and Our Confederacy has grown from six to thirteen States; and Maryland, already united to us by hallowed memories and material interests, will, I believe, when able to speak with unstifled voice, connect her destiny with the South. During this course of administration, and in order to disturb it, the artillery of the Press has been levelled against us, charged with whatsoever its licentiousness could devise or dare. Fax: (713) 348-6172, Mailing Address: P.O. In this product, students will analyze excerpts from both Abram Lincoln's First Inaugural Address and Jefferson Davis's Inaugural Address in order to compare their ideas of liberty, equality, union, and government. Success crowned their efforts, and they provided for the posterity a peaceful remedy against future aggression. For proof of the sincerity of our purpose to maintain our ancient institutions, we may point to the Constitution of the Confederacy and the laws enacted under it, as well as to the fact that through all the necessities of an unequal struggle there has been no act on our part to impair personal liberty or the freedom of speech, of thought, or of the press. But the picture has its lights as well as its shadows. Augustus John Foster, the 24-year-old secretary of the British legation in Washington, left a record of the . Although perhaps not as famous as Lincoln, Jefferson Davis' words still play an important role in American history. with which should we be most likely to live in harmony and friendly intercourse? Nothing could be so bad as failure, and any sacrifice would be cheap as the price of success in such a contest. Well, Lincoln disagreed. Seven Southern states. The Government had ceased to answer the ends for which it was ordained and established. Leonard Levys 1963 critical interpretation of the president, Seemingly in line with that new ethos of free speech, in. The people of the States now confederated became convinced that the Government of the United States had fallen into the hands of a sectinal majority, who would pervert that most sacred of all trusts to the destruction of the rights which it was pledged to protect. The day, the memory, and the purpose seem fitly associated. Librarian Note: There is more than one author in the GoodReads database with this name. Copyright 2023 Political Rhetoric Archive & Dr. Beth Huber | Powered by Critical Hit Development. . With confidence in the wisdom and virtue of those who will share with me the responsibility and aid me in the conduct of public affairs; securely relying on the patriotism and courage of the people, of which the present war has furnished so many examples, I deeply feel the weight of the responsibilities I now, with unaffected diffidence, am about to assume; and, fully realizing the inequality of human power to guide and to sustain, my hope is reverently fixed on Him whose favor is ever vouchsafed to the cause which is just. The recollections of this great contest, with all its common traditions of glory, of sacrifice and blood, will be the bond of harmony and enduring affection amongst the people, producing unity in policy, fraternity in sentiment, and just effort in war. (See Documents, Neither of Jeffersons predecessors as president had given a second inaugural address. I am sensible of no passion which could seduce me knowingly from the path of justice. Seven Southern states had already seceded, or broken away, from the United States and formed the Confederacy. Its like a teacher waved a magic wand and did the work for me. On this day in 1861, former U.S. He made it clear that he did not approve of its practice and denounced slavery as one of the 'offenses' of God, who 'wills to remove' it from America. War Democrats, border states, and Republicans. Get unlimited access to over 84,000 lessons. While the war had started favorably for the Confederate States, the first several weeks of 1862 found the North was winning all the battles. The first year in our history has been the most eventful in the annals of this continent. Jack Shorter, an enslaved stable hand at the Presidents House, may have been the groom. With confidence in the wisdom and virtue of those who will share with me the responsibility and aid me in the conduct of public affairs; securely relying on the patriotism and courage of the people, of which the present war has furnished so many examples, I deeply feel the weight of the responsibilities I now, with unaffected diffidence, am about to assume; and, fully realizing the inequality of human power to guide and to sustain, my hope is reverently fixed on Him whose favor is ever vouchsafed to the cause which is just. | 22 By the character of their productions they are too deeply interested in foreign commerce wantonly to disturb it. Whatever of hope some may have entertained that a returning sense of justice would remove the danger with which our rights were threatened, and render it possible to preserve the Union of the Constitution, must have been dispelled by the malignity and barbarity of the Northern States in the prosecution of the existing war. "Second Inaugural Address, 4 March 1805," Founders Online, National Archives, https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Jefferson/99-01-02-1302. The day, the memory, and the purpose seem fitly associated. A million of men, it is estimated, are now standing in hostile array, and waging war along a frontier of thousands of miles. The president, who affects great plainness of dress and manners, was dressed all in black, including silk stockings, and was attended by his secretary and groom. The secretary was Isaac A. Coles, the young Virginian from Albemarle County who, since December, had been filling in for William A. Burwell as Jeffersons private secretary. It was, perhaps, in the ordination of Providence that we were to be taught the value of our liberties by the price which we pay for them. I shall now enter on the duties to which my fellow-citizens have again called me, & shall proceed in the spirit of those principles which they have approved. 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