As to the "instructions"
asked for with regard to the propriety of continuing to hold their
seats, I suppose it must have been caused by some diversity of opinion
which then and long afterward continued to exist; and the practical
value of which must have been confined to Senators of States which did
not actually secede. For myself, I can only say that no advice could
have prevailed on me to hold a seat in the Senate after receiving notice
that Mississippi had withdrawn from the Union. The best evidence that my
associates thought likewise is the fact that, although no instructions
were given them, they promptly withdrew on the receipt of official
information of the withdrawal of the States which they represented.
It will not be amiss here briefly to state what were my position and
feelings at the period now under consideration, as they have been the
subject of gross and widespread misrepresentation. It is not only
untrue, but absurd, to attribute to me motives of personal ambition to
be gratified by a dismemberment of the Union. Much of my life had been
spent in the military and civil service of the United States. Whatever
reputation I had acquired was identified with their history; and, if
future preferment had been the object, it would have led me to cling to
the Union as long as a shred of it should remain. If any, judging after
the event, should assume that I was allured by the high office
subsequently conferred upon me by the people of the Confederate States,
the answer to any such conclusion has been made by others, to whom it
was well known, before the Confederacy was formed, that I had no desire
to be its President.
Pages:
312
313
314
315
316
317
318
319
320
321
322
323
324
325
326
327
328
329
330
331
332
333
334
335
336