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Documents From The
Civil War Era
Gettysburg
Address
Delivered on the 19th Day of November,
1863 Cemetery Hill, Gettysburg,
Pennsylvania
"Fourscore and seven years ago, our fathers brought forth upon this continent
a new Nation, conceived in Liberty, and dedicated to the proposition
that all men are created equal. Now, we are engaged in a great Civil War, testing
whether that Nation, or any nation so conceived and so dedicated, can long
endure. We are met on a great battlefield of that war. We have come to dedicate
a portion of that field as a final resting-place for those who gave their lives
that that Nation might live. It is altogether fitting and proper that we should
do this.
But, in a larger sense, we cannot dedicate, we cannot consecrate,
we cannot hallow this ground. The brave men, living and dead, who
struggled here, have consecrated it far above our power to add or
detract. The world will little note nor long remember what we say
here, but it can never forget what they did here. It is for us, the
living, rather to be dedicated to the great task remaining before
us; that from these honored dead, we take increased devotion to that
cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion; that
this Nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom; and that
government of the People by the People and for the People shall not
perish from the earth."
Abraham Lincoln
The
Emancipation Proclamation:
By the President of the United States of America:
Whereas on the 22nd day of September, A.D. 1862, a proclamation was
issued by the President of the United States, containing, among other
things, the following, to wit:
"That on the 1st day of January, A.D. 1863, all persons held as slaves
within any State or designated part of a State the people whereof
shall then be in rebellion against the United States shall be then, thenceforward,
and forever free; and the executive government of the United States, including
the military and naval authority thereof, will recognize and maintain
the freedom of such persons and will do no act or acts to repress such persons,
or any of them, in any efforts they may make for their actual freedom.
"That the executive will on the 1st day of January aforesaid, by proclamation,
designate the States and parts of States, if any, in which the people
thereof, respectively, shall then be in rebellion against the United States;
and the fact that any State or the people thereof shall on that day be in good
faith represented in the Congress of the United States by members chosen thereto
at elections wherein a majority of the qualified voters of such States
shall have participated shall, in the absence of strong countervailing testimony,
be deemed conclusive evidence that such State and the people thereof
are not then in rebellion against the United States."
Now, therefore, I, Abraham Lincoln, President of the United States,
by virtue of the power in me vested as Commander-In-Chief of the
Army and Navy of the United States in time of actual armed rebellion
against the authority and government of the United States, and as
a fit and necessary war measure for supressing said rebellion, do,
on this 1st day of January, A.D. 1863, and in accordance with my
purpose so to do, publicly proclaimed for the full period of one
hundred days from the first day above mentioned, order and designate
as the States and parts of States wherein the people thereof, respectively,
are this day in rebellion against the United States the following,
to wit:
Arkansas, Texas, Louisiana (except the parishes of St. Bernard, Palquemines,
Jefferson, St. John, St. Charles, St. James, Ascension, Assumption,
Terrebone, Lafourche, St. Mary, St. Martin, and Orleans, including
the city of New Orleans), Mississippi, Alabama, Florida, Georgia,
South Carolina, North Carolina, and Virginia (except the forty-eight
counties designated as West Virginia, and also the counties of Berkeley,
Accomac, Morthhampton, Elizabeth City, York, Princess Anne, and Norfolk,
including the cities of Norfolk and Portsmouth), and which excepted
parts are for the present left precisely as if this proclamation
were not issued.
And by virtue of the power and for the purpose aforesaid, I do order
and declare that all persons held as slaves within said designated
States and parts of States are, and henceforward shall be, free;
and that the Executive Government of the United States, including
the military and naval authorities thereof, will recognize and maintain
the freedom of said persons.
And I hereby enjoin upon the people so declared to be free to abstain
from all violence, unless in necessary self-defence; and I recommend
to them that, in all case when allowed, they labor faithfully for
reasonable wages.
And I further declare and make known that such persons of suitable
condition will be received into the armed service of the United States
to garrison forts, positions, stations, and other places, and to
man vessels of all sorts in said service.
And upon this act, sincerely believed to be an act of justice, warranted
by the Constitution upon military necessity, I invoke the considerate
judgment of mankind and the gracious favor of Almighty God.
Jefferson
Davis's Farewell to the
US Senate
I rise, Mr. President, for the purpose of announcing to the Senate
that I have satisfactory evidence that the State of Mississippi,
by a solemn ordinance of her people, in convention assembled, has
declared her separation from the United States. Under these circumstances,
of course, my functions are terminated here. It has seemed to me
proper, however, that I should appear in the Senate to announce that
fact to my associates, and I will say but very little more. The occasion
does not invite me to go into argument; and my physical condition
would not permit me to do so, if it were otherwise; and yet it seems
to become me to say something on the part of the State I here represent
on an occasion as solemn as this.
It is known to Senators who have served with me here that I have
for many years advocated, as an essential attribute of State sovereignty,
the right of a State to secede from the Union. Therefore, if I had
thought that Mississippi was acting without sufficient provocation,
or without an existing necessity, I should still, under my theory
of the Government, because of my allegiance to the State of which
I am a citizen, have been bound by her action. I, however, may be
permitted to say that I do think she has justifiable cause, and I
approve of her act. I conferred with her people before that act was
taken, counseled them then that, if the state of things which they
apprehended should exist when their Convention met, they should take
the action which they have now adopted.
I hope none who hear me will confound this expression of mine with
the advocacy of the right of a State to remain in the Union, and
to disregard its constitutional obligation by the nullification of
the law. Such is not my theory. Nullification and secession, so often
confounded, are, indeed, antagonistic principles. Nullification is
a remedy which it is sought to apply within the Union, against the
agent of the States. It is only to be justified when the agent has
violated his constitutional obligations, and a State, assuming to
judge for itself, denies the right of the agent thus to act, and
appeals to the other states of the Union for a decision; but, when
the States themselves and when the people of the States have so acted
as to convince us that they will not regard our constitutional rights,
then, and then for the first time, arises the doctrine of secession
in its practical application.
A great man who now reposes with his fathers, and who has often been
arraigned for want of fealty to the Union, advocated the doctrine
of nullification because it preserved the Union. It was because of
his deep-seated attachment to the Union -- his determination to find
some remedy for existing ills short of a severance of the ties which
bound South Carolina to the other States -- that Mr. Calhoun advocated
the doctrine of nullification, which he proclaimed to be peaceful,
to be within the limits of State power, not to disturb the Union,
but only to be a means of bringing the agent before the tribunal
of the States for their judgement.
Secession belongs to a different class of remedies. It is to be justified
upon the basis that the states are sovereign. There was a time when
none denied it. I hope the time may come again when a better comprehension
of the theory of our Government, and the inalienable rights of the
people of the States, will prevent any one from denying that each
State is a sovereign, and thus may reclaim the grants which it has
made to any agent whomsoever.
I, therefore, say I concur in the action of the people of Mississippi,
believing it to be necessary and proper, and should have been bound
by their action if my belief had been otherwise; and this brings
me to the important point which I wish, on this last occasion, to
present to the Senate. It is by this confounding of nullification
and secession that the name of a great man whose ashes now mingle
with his mother earth has been invoked to justify coercion against
a seceded State. The phrase, "to execute the laws," was
an expression which General Jackson applied to the case of a State
refusing to obey the laws while yet a member of the Union. That is
not the case which is now presented. The laws are to be executed
over the United States, and upon the people of the United States.
They have no relation to any foreign country. It is a perversion
of terms -- at least, it is a great mis-apprehension of the case
-- which cites that expression for application to a State which has
withdrawn from the Union. You may make war on a foreign state. If
it be the purpose of gentlemen, they may make war against a State
which has withdrawn from the Union; but there are no laws of the
United States to be executed within the limits of a seceded State.
A State, finding herself in the condition in which Mississippi has
judged she is -- in which her safety requires that she should provide
for the maintenance of her rights out of the Union -- surrenders
all the benefits (and they are known to be many), deprives herself
of the advantages (and they are known to be great), severs all the
ties of affection (and they are close and enduring), which have bound
her to the Union; and thus divesting herself of every benefit --
taking upon herself every burden -- she claims to be exempt from
any power to execute the laws of the United States within her limits.
I well remember an occasion when Massachusetts was arraigned before
the bar of the Senate, and when the doctrine of coercion was rife,
and to be applied against her, because of the rescue of a fugitive
slave in Boston. My opinion then was the same that it is now. Not
in a spirit of egotism, but to show that I am not influenced in my
opinions because the case is my own, I refer to that time and that
occasion as containing the opinion which I then entertained, and
on which my present conduct is based. I then said that if Massachusetts
-- following her purpose through a stated line of conduct -- chose
to take the last step, which separates her from the Union, it is
her right to go, and I will neither vote one dollar nor one man to
coerce her back; but I will say to her, Godspeed, in memory of the
kind associations which once existed between her and the other States.
It has been a conviction of pressing necessity -- it has been a belief
that we are to be deprived in the Union of the rights which our fathers
bequeathed to us -- which has brought Mississippi to her present
decision. She has heard proclaimed the theory that all men are created
free and equal, and this made the basis of an attack upon her social
institutions; and the sacred Declaration of Independence has been
invoked to maintain the position of the equality of the races. That
Declaration is to be construed by the circumstances and purposes
for which it was made. The communities were declaring their independence;
the people of those communities were asserting that no man was born
-- to use the language of Mr. Jefferson -- booted and spurred, to
ride over the rest of mankind; that men were created equal -- meaning
the men of the political community; that there was no divine right
to rule; that no man inherited the right to govern; that there were
no classes by which power and place descended to families; but that
all stations were equally within the grasp of each member of the
body politic. These were the great principles they announced; these
were the purposes for which they made their declaration; these were
the ends to which their enunciation was directed. They have no reference
to the slave; else, how happened it that among the items of arraignment
against George III was that he endeavored to do just what the North
has been endeavoring of late to do, to stir up insurrection among
our slaves? Had the Declaration announced that the negroes were free
and equal, how was the prince to be arraigned for raising up insurrection
among them? And how was this to be enumerated among the high crimes
which caused the colonies to sever their connection with the mother-country?
When our Constitution was formed, the same idea was rendered more
palpable; for there we find provision made for that very class of
persons as property; they were not put upon the equality of footing
with white men -- not even upon that of paupers and convicts; but,
so far as representation was concerned, were discriminated against
as a lower caste, only to be represented in the numerical proportion
of three-fifths. So stands the compact which binds us together.
Then, Senators, we recur to the principles upon which our Government
was founded; and when you deny them, and when you deny us the right
to withdraw from a Government which, thus perverted, threatens to
be destructive of our rights, we but tread in the path of our fathers
when we proclaim our independence and take the hazard. This is done,
not in hostility to others, not to injure any section of the country,
not even for our own pecuniary benefit, but from the high and solemn
motive of defending and protecting the rights we inherited, and which
it is our duty to transmit unshorn to our children.
I find in myself perhaps a type of the general feeling of my constituents
towards yours. I am sure I feel no hostility toward you, Senators
from the North. I am sure there is not one of you, whatever sharp
discussion there may have been between us, to whom I cannot now say,
in the presence of my God, I wish you well; and such, I feel, is
the feeling of the people whom I represent toward those whom you
represent. I, therefore, feel that I but express their desire when
I say I hope, and they hope, for peaceable relations with you, though
we must part. They may be mutually beneficial to us in the future,
as they have been in the past, if you so will it. The reverse may
bring disaster on every portion of the country, and, if you will
have it thus, we will invoke the God of our fathers, who delivered
them from the power of the lion, to protect us from the ravages of
the bear; and thus, putting our trust in God and in our firm hearts
and strong arms, we will vindicate the right as best we may.
In the course of my service here, associated at different times with
a variety of Senators, I see now around me some with whom I have
served long; there have been points of collision, but, whatever of
offense there has been to me, I leave here. I carry with me no hostile
remembrance. Whatever offense I have given which has not been redressed,
or for which satisfaction has not been demanded, I have, Senators,
in this hour of our parting, to offer you my apology for any pain
which, in the heat of discussion, I have inflicted. I go hence unencumbered
by the remembrance of any injury received, and having discharged
the duty of making the only reparation in my power for any injury
offered.
Mr. President and Senators, having made the announcement which the
occasion seemed to me to require, it only remains for me to bid you
a final adieu.
Declaration
of the Immediate Causes Which Induce and Justify the Secession
of South Carolina from the Federal Union
The people of the State of South Carolina, in Convention assembled,
on the 26th day of April, A.D., 1852, declared that the frequent
violations of the Constitution of the United States, by the Federal
Government, and its encroachments upon the reserved rights of the
States, fully justified this State in then withdrawing from the Federal
Union; but in deference to the opinions and wishes of the other slaveholding
States, she forbore at that time to exercise this right. Since that
time, these encroachments have continued to increase, and further
forbearance ceases to be a virtue.
And now the State of South Carolina having resumed her separate and
equal place among nations, deems it due to herself, to the remaining
United States of America, and to the nations of the world, that she
should declare the immediate causes which have led to this act.
In the year 1765, that portion of the British Empire embracing Great
Britain, undertook to make laws for the government of that portion
composed of the thirteen American Colonies. A struggle for the right
of self-government ensued, which resulted, on the 4th of July, 1776,
in a Declaration, by the Colonies,
"that they are, and of right ought to be, FREE AND INDEPENDENT
STATES; and that, as free and independent States, they have full
power to levy war, conclude peace, contract alliances, establish
commerce, and to do all other acts and things which independent States
may of right do."
They further solemnly declared that whenever any "form of government
becomes destructive of the ends for which it was established, it
is the right of the people to alter or abolish it, and to institute
a new government."
Deeming the Government of Great Britain to have become destructive
of these ends, they declared that the Colonies "are absolved
from all allegiance to the British Crown, and that all political
connection between them and the State of Great Britain is, and ought
to be, totally dissolved."
In pursuance of this Declaration of Independence, each of the thirteen
States proceeded to exercise its separate sovereignty; adopted for
itself a Constitution, and appointed officers for the administration
of government in all its departments-- Legislative, Executive and
Judicial. For purposes of defense, they united their arms and their
counsels; and, in 1778, they entered into a League known as the Articles
of Confederation, whereby they agreed to entrust the administration
of their external relations to a common agent, known as the Congress
of the United States, expressly declaring, in the first Article
"that each State retains its sovereignty, freedom and independence,
and every power, jurisdiction and right which is not, by this Confederation,
expressly delegated to the United States in Congress assembled."
Under this Confederation the war of the Revolution was carried on,
and on the 3rd of September, 1783, the contest ended, and a definite
Treaty was signed by Great Britain, in which she acknowledged the
independence of the Colonies in the following terms:
"ARTICLE 1-- His Britannic Majesty acknowledges the said United States,
viz: New Hampshire, Massachusetts Bay, Rhode Island and Providence
Plantations, Connecticut, New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland,
Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina and Georgia, to be FREE, SOVEREIGN
AND INDEPENDENT STATES; that he treats with them as such; and for himself,
his heirs and successors, relinquishes all claims to the government, propriety
and territorial rights of the same and every part thereof."
Thus were established the two great principles asserted by the Colonies,
namely: the right of a State to govern itself; and the right of a
people to abolish a Government when it becomes destructive of the
ends for which it was instituted. And concurrent with the establishment
of these principles, was the fact, that each Colony became and was
recognized by the mother Country a FREE, SOVEREIGN AND INDEPENDENT
STATE.
In 1787, Deputies were appointed by the States to revise the Articles
of Confederation, and on 17th September, 1787, these Deputies recommended
for the adoption of the States, the Articles of Union, known as the
Constitution of the United States.
The parties to whom this Constitution was submitted, were the several
sovereign States; they were to agree or disagree, and when nine of
them agreed the compact was to take effect among those concurring;
and the General Government, as the common agent, was then invested
with their authority.
If only nine of the thirteen States had concurred, the other four
would have remained as they then were-- separate, sovereign States,
independent of any of the provisions of the Constitution. In fact,
two of the States did not accede to the Constitution until long after
it had gone into operation among the other eleven; and during that
interval, they each exercised the functions of an independent nation.
By this Constitution, certain duties were imposed upon the several
States, and the exercise of certain of their powers was restrained,
which necessarily implied their continued existence as sovereign
States. But to remove all doubt, an amendment was added, which declared
that the powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution,
nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States, respectively,
or to the people. On the 23d May , 1788, South Carolina, by a Convention
of her People, passed an Ordinance assenting to this Constitution,
and afterwards altered her own Constitution, to conform herself to
the obligations she had undertaken.
Thus was established, by compact between the States, a Government
with definite objects and powers, limited to the express words of
the grant. This limitation left the whole remaining mass of power
subject to the clause reserving it to the States or to the people,
and rendered unnecessary any specification of reserved rights.
We hold that the Government thus established is subject to the two
great principles asserted in the Declaration of Independence; and
we hold further, that the mode of its formation subjects it to a
third fundamental principle, namely: the law of compact. We maintain
that in every compact between two or more parties, the obligation
is mutual; that the failure of one of the contracting parties to
perform a material part of the agreement, entirely releases the obligation
of the other; and that where no arbiter is provided, each party is
remitted to his own judgment to determine the fact of failure, with
all its consequences.
In the present case, that fact is established with certainty. We
assert that fourteen of the States have deliberately refused, for
years past, to fulfill their constitutional obligations, and we refer
to their own Statutes for the proof.
The Constitution of the United States, in its fourth Article, provides
as follows:
"No person held to service or labor in one State, under the laws thereof,
escaping into another, shall, in consequence of any law or regulation
therein, be discharged from such service or labor, but shall be delivered up,
on claim of the party to whom such service or labor may be due."
This stipulation was so material to the compact, that without it
that compact would not have been made. The greater number of the
contracting parties held slaves, and they had previously evinced
their estimate of the value of such a stipulation by making it a
condition in the Ordinance for the government of the territory ceded
by Virginia, which now composes the States north of the Ohio River.
The same article of the Constitution stipulates also for rendition
by the several States of fugitives from justice from the other States.
The General Government, as the common agent, passed laws to carry
into effect these stipulations of the States. For many years these
laws were executed. But an increasing hostility on the part of the
non-slaveholding States to the institution of slavery, has led to
a disregard of their obligations, and the laws of the General Government
have ceased to effect the objects of the Constitution. The States
of Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, Massachusetts, Connecticut, Rhode
Island, New York, Pennsylvania, Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Wisconsin
and Iowa, have enacted laws which either nullify the Acts of Congress
or render useless any attempt to execute them. In many of these States
the fugitive is discharged from service or labor claimed, and in
none of them has the State Government complied with the stipulation
made in the Constitution. The State of New Jersey, at an early day,
passed a law in conformity with her constitutional obligation; but
the current of anti-slavery feeling has led her more recently to
enact laws which render inoperative the remedies provided by her
own law and by the laws of Congress. In the State of New York even
the right of transit for a slave has been denied by her tribunals;
and the States of Ohio and Iowa have refused to surrender to justice
fugitives charged with murder, and with inciting servile insurrection
in the State of Virginia. Thus the constituted compact has been deliberately
broken and disregarded by the non-slaveholding States, and the consequence
follows that South Carolina is released from her obligation.
The ends for which the Constitution was framed are declared by itself
to be
"to form a more perfect union, establish justice, insure domestic
tranquility, provide for the common defence, promote the general
welfare, and secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our
posterity."
These ends it endeavored to accomplish by a Federal Government, in
which each State was recognized as an equal, and had separate control
over its own institutions. The right of property in slaves was recognized
by giving to free persons distinct political rights, by giving them
the right to represent, and burthening them with direct taxes for
three-fifths of their slaves; by authorizing the importation of slaves
for twenty years; and by stipulating for the rendition of fugitives
from labor.
We affirm that these ends for which this Government was instituted
have been defeated, and the Government itself has been made destructive
of them by the action of the non-slaveholding States. Those States
have assume the right of deciding upon the propriety of our domestic
institutions; and have denied the rights of property established
in fifteen of the States and recognized by the Constitution; they
have denounced as sinful the institution of slavery; they have permitted
open establishment among them of societies, whose avowed object is
to disturb the peace and to eloign the property of the citizens of
other States. They have encouraged and assisted thousands of our
slaves to leave their homes; and those who remain, have been incited
by emissaries, books and pictures to servile insurrection.
For twenty-five years this agitation has been steadily increasing,
until it has now secured to its aid the power of the common Government.
Observing the *forms* [emphasis in the original] of the Constitution,
a sectional party has found within that Article establishing the
Executive Department, the means of subverting the Constitution itself.
A geographical line has been drawn across the Union, and all the
States north of that line have united in the election of a man to
the high office of President of the United States, whose opinions
and purposes are hostile to slavery. He is to be entrusted with the
administration of the common Government, because he has declared
that that "Government cannot endure permanently half slave,
half free," and that the public mind must rest in the belief
that slavery is in the course of ultimate extinction.
This sectional combination for the submersion of the Constitution,
has been aided in some of the States by elevating to citizenship,
persons who, by the supreme law of the land, are incapable of becoming
citizens; and their votes have been used to inaugurate a new policy,
hostile to the South, and destructive of its beliefs and safety.
On the 4th day of March next, this party will take possession of
the Government. It has announced that the South shall be excluded
from the common territory, that the judicial tribunals shall be made
sectional, and that a war must be waged against slavery until it
shall cease throughout the United States.
The guaranties of the Constitution will then no longer exist; the
equal rights of the States will be lost. The slaveholding States
will no longer have the power of self-government, or self-protection,
and the Federal Government will have become their enemy.
Sectional interest and animosity will deepen the irritation, and
all hope of remedy is rendered vain, by the fact that public opinion
at the North has invested a great political error with the sanction
of more erroneous religious belief.
We, therefore, the People of South Carolina, by our delegates in
Convention assembled, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the world
for the rectitude of our intentions, have solemnly declared that
the Union heretofore existing between this State and the other States
of North America, is dissolved, and that the State of South Carolina
has resumed her position among the nations of the world, as a separate
and independent State; with full power to levy war, conclude peace,
contract alliances, establish commerce, and to do all other acts
and things which independent States may of right do.
Adopted December 24, 1860
[Committee signatures]
Battle
of Dandridge, TN
Forces
Engaged: Cavalry Corps, Army of the Ohio, and Infantry
of the IV Army Corps [US]; Department of East Tennessee [CS]
Estimated
Casualties: Total unknown (US 150; CS unknown)
Description:
Union forces under Maj. Gen. John G. Parke advanced on Dandridge,
Tennessee, near the East Tennessee & Virginia Railroad,
on January 14, forcing Lt. Gen. James Longstreet’s
Confederate troops to fall back. Longstreet, however, moved
additional troops into the area on the 15th to meet the enemy
and threaten the Union base at New Market. On the 16th, Brig.
Gen. Samuel D. Sturgis, commanding the Cavalry Corps, Army
of the Ohio, rode forward to occupy Kimbrough’s Crossroads.
Within three or four miles of his objective, Sturgis’s
cavalry met Rebel troops, forcing them back towards the crossroads.
As the Union cavalry neared the crossroads, they discovered
an enemy infantry division with artillery that had arrived
the day before. The Union cavalry could not dislodge these
Rebels and was compelled to retire to Dandridge. About noon
the next day, Sturgis received information that the Confederates
were preparing for an attack so he formed his men into line
of battle. About 4:00 pm, the Confederates advanced and the
fighting quickly became general. The battle continued until
after dark with the Federals occupying about the same battle
line as when the fighting started. The Union forces fell
back to New Market and Strawberry Plains during the night,
but the Rebels were unable to pursue because of the lack
of cannons, ammunition, and shoes. For the time being, the
Union forces left the area. The Confederates had failed to
destroy or capture the Federals as they should have.
Result(s): Confederate
victory
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