For this your Constitution makes adequate provision;
but beyond this, if I mistake not the judgment and will of the
people, a reunion with the States from which we have separated
is neither practicable nor desirable. To increase the power,
develop the resources, and promote the happiness of the
Confederacy, it is requisite that there should be so much of
homogeneity that the welfare of every portion shall be the aim
of the whole. When this does not exist, antagonisms are
engendered which must and should result in separation.
"Actuated solely by the desire to preserve our own rights, and
promote our own welfare, the separation by the Confederate
States has been marked by no aggression upon others, and
followed by no domestic convulsion. Our industrial pursuits have
received no check, the cultivation of our fields has progressed
as heretofore, and, even should we be involved in war, there
would be no considerable diminution in the production of the
staples which have constituted our exports, and in which the
commercial world has an interest scarcely less than our own.
This common interest of the producer and consumer can only be
interrupted by exterior force which would obstruct the
transmission of our staples to foreign markets--a course of
conduct which would be as unjust, as it would be detrimental, to
manufacturing and commercial interests abroad.
Pages:
358
359
360
361
362
363
364
365
366
367
368
369
370
371
372
373
374
375
376
377
378
379
380
381
382