Jefferson Davis' Second Inaugural Address. To show ourselves worthy of the inheritance bequeathed to us by the patriots of the Revolution, we must emulate that heroic devotion which made reverse to them but the crucible in which their patriotism was refined. Three weeks later, Abraham Lincoln did likewise, to much different results. 90 terms. But the Government at Washington, denying our right to self-government, refused even to listen to any proposals for a peaceful separation. The remaining revenue, on the consumption of foreign articles, is paid chiefly by those who can afford to add foreign luxuries to domestic comforts. He told the crowd, 'I have no purpose, directly or indirectly, to interfere with the institution of slavery in the States where it exists.' In each of the segments illustrated above, a single long stroke appears in a high position midway along the line. At the capitol in Richmond, Virginia, Davis gave his second inaugural speech. Fellow-Citizens: On this the birthday of the man most identified with the establishment of American independence, and beneath the monument erected to commemorate his heroic virtues and those of his compatriots, we have assembled to usher into existence the Permanent Government of the Confederate States. I fear not that any motives of interest may lead me astray. Second Inaugural Address. Lincoln in his first inaugural address opens quickly by listing off many ways in which he will hold his bias and use a neutral . I have therefore undertaken, on no occasion, to prescribe the religious exercises suited to it: but have left them, as the constitution found them, under the direction & discipline of the state or church authorities acknoleged by the several religious societies. But the picture has its lights as well as its shadows. We too have had our trials and difficulties. The period is near at hand when our foes must sink under the immense load of debt which they have incurred, a debt which in their effort to subjugate us has already attained such fearful dimensions as will subject them to burdens which must continue to oppress them for generations to come. 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. 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. 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 want of it will certainly not lessen with increasing years. 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. Nothing was then left to do but to prepare for war. now reduced within limits too narrow for the hunter-state, humanity enjoins us to teach them agriculture & the domestic arts; to encourage them to that industry which alone can enable them to maintain their place in existence, & to prepare them in time for that state of society, which to bodily comforts adds the improvement of the mind & morals. The experiment instituted by our revolutionary fathers, of a voluntary Union of sovereign States for purposes specified in a solemn compact, had been perverted by those who, feeling power and forgetting right, were determined to respect no law but their own will. 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. 1805], To Samuel Harrison Smith, [ca. The constitutions of each government were similar as well, with a key difference that the Constitution of the Confederacy guaranteed the right to own slaves. I shall need too the favour of that being in whose hands we are: who led our fathers, as Israel of old, from their native land; and planted them in a country flowing with all the necessaries & comforts of life; who has covered our infancy with his providence, & our riper years with his wisdom & power: & to whose goodness I ask you to join in supplications with me, that he will so enlighten the minds of your servants, guide their councils, & prosper their measures, that whatsoever they do shall result in your good, & shall secure to you the peace, friendship, & approbation of all nations. Our people have rallied with unexampled unanimity to the support of the great principles of constitutional government, with firm resolve to perpetuate by arms the right which they could not peacefully secure. It helped me pass my exam and the test questions are very similar to the practice quizzes on Study.com. 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The tyranny of an unbridled majority, the most odious and least responsible form of despotism, has denied us both the right and the remedy. but the experiment is noted to prove that, since truth & reason have maintained their ground against false opinions, in league with false facts, the Press, confined to truth, needs no other legal restraint. we are firmly convinced and we act on that conviction, that with nations, as with individuals, our interests, soundly calculated, will ever be found inseparable from our moral duties. Lincoln suggested that 'insurgent agents' were working to destroy the government with or without a war, and 'seeking to dissolve the Union.' Abraham Lincoln was reelected to a second term as President of the United States in 1865. I shall need therefore all the indulgence which I have heretofore experienced from my constituents. In contrast, Davis wanted to direct his energies to the new Confederacy with no interest in returning to the North. Among the observers in the gallery was the outgoing vice president, Aaron Burr, who had been dropped from the ticket for Jeffersons second term. The blockade, if effectual and permanent, could only serve to divert our industry from the production of articles for export and employ it in supplying the commodities for domestic use. 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. Users are not permitted to mount this file on any network server. Also available is Lincoln's first and second inaugural. 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. This great strife has awakened in the people the highest emotions and qualities of the human soul. Its like a teacher waved a magic wand and did the work for me. It is not an authoritative final version. Seven Southern states. Due to a planned power outage on Friday, 1/14, between 8am-1pm PST, some services may be impacted. .' In a later reading of the marks, Jay Fliegelman instead asserted that, based on the placement and appearance of the markings, they represented not accented syllables but rhythmical pauses of emphatical stress used to divide the piece into units comparable to musical bars or poetic lines (Julian P. Boyd, The Declaration of Independence: The Mystery of the Lost Original,, The marks are nearly identical to those recommended by Irish actor, speaker, and rhetorician Thomas Sheridan, whom Jefferson occasionally recommended to young scholars seeking reading lists. The rule of voluntary association, which cannot fail to be conservative, by securing just and impartial government at home, does not diminish the security of the obligations by which the Confederate States may be bound to foreign nations. It is not an authoritative final version. War of conquest they cannot wage, because the Constitution of their Confederacy admits of no coerced association. Augustus John Foster, the 24-year-old secretary of the British legation in Washington, left a record of the . But in the heart of a people resolved to be free these disasters tend but to stimulate to increased resistance. they saw the latent source from which these outrages proceeded. At the darkest hour of our struggle the Provisional gives place to the Permanent Government. copyright 2003-2023 Study.com. To unlock this lesson you must be a Study.com Member. and history bears witness to the fact, that a just nation is trusted on its word, when recourse is had to armaments and wars to bridle others. Mississippi Department of Archives and History. 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. Many were incorporated into Smiths copy, and others were added to both copies via editorial marks. they might perhaps have been corrected by the wholsome punishments reserved to, and provided by, the laws of the several states against falsehood & defamation. The abolitionist orator/editor (and former slave) had met Lincoln only twice before, and for most of the war was a fierce critic of the president's policies. Julian Boyd linked the markings on that early version of the Declaration to the marks present in this reading script. Neither of Jefferson's predecessors as president had given a second inaugural address. It is with mingled feelings of humility and pride that I appear to take, in the presence of the people and before high Heaven, the oath prescribed as a qualification for the exalted station to which the unanimous voice of the people has called me. Through this instrumentality, under the favor of Divine Providence, we hope to perpetuate the principles of our revolutionary fathers. A million of men, it is estimated, are now standing in hostile array, and waging war along a frontier of thousands of miles. 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. I have said, fellow-citizens, that the income reserved had enabled us to extend our limits. 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. The rule of voluntary association, which cannot fail to be conservative, by securing just and impartial government at home, does not diminish the security of the obligations by which the Confederate States may be bound to foreign nations. 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. Jefferson Davis' First Inaugural Address. 1805], Reading Copy of Second Inaugural Address, [before 4 Mch. In spite of his laborious attempt to discountenance the opposition to philosophy and to make a statement about the opposition press, Jefferson recognized, as he wrote in his Notes on a Draught for a second inaugural Address, that the nature of the occasion requires that detail should be avoided. He used the address to make his case for the performance of his earlier promises and to lay out a foundation for governing performance in a second term (Adams, The Two Duchesses: Georgiana Duchess of Devonshire, Elizabeth Duchess of Devonshire. Davis believed that because the North was restricting the rights of the Southern states, secession was 'a necessity, not a choice.' On the topics of liberty and equality his message was clear: he did not want to abolish slavery in the South. The optimism which some had had at the beginning of the war had faded away. in time of war, if injustice by ourselves or others must sometimes produce war, increased as the same revenue will be by increased population & consumption, & aided by other resources reserved for that crisis, it may meet within the year all the expences of the year, without encroaching on the rights of future generations by burthening them with the debts of the past. without power to divert, or habits to contend against it, they have been overwhelmed by the current, or driven before it. topics that appear in. Learn more about Davis' views and how they differed from those expressed by Abraham Lincoln in his public address. https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Jefferson/99-01-02-1302, National Historical Publications and On March 4, 1861, Lincoln spoke to a crowd gathered on the steps of the U.S. Capitol after being sworn in as President. To save ourselves from a revolution which, in its silent but rapid progress, was about to place us under the despotism of numbers, and to preserve in spirit, as well as in form, a system of government we believed to be peculiarly fitted to our condition, and full of promise for mankind, we determined to make a new association, composed of States homogeneous in interest, in policy, and in feeling. They therefore determined to sever its bonds and establish a new Confederacy for themselves. Davis helped set up a new government in the Confederacy, with the goal of making it similar to the United States. Lincoln hoped that he could prevent the conflict from escalating by taking a peaceful approach on the divisive issue of slavery. It was to be expected when we entered upon this war that it would expose our people to sacrifices and cost them much, both of money and blood. Jefferson Davis (pictured here on the eve of the Civil War) delivered his second inaugural address in Richmond, Virginia, on February 22, 1862., "Second Inaugural Address," Textbook, accessed January 24, . Seven Southern states had already seceded, or broken away, from the United States and formed the Confederacy. Those Who Labor for My Happiness: Slavery at Thomas Jeffersons Monticello, Jefferson, Natural Language, & the Culture of Performance, The Dublin Orator: Thomas Sheridans Influence on Eighteenth-Century Rhetoric and Belles Letters, A Course of Lectures on Elocution Together with Two Dissertations on Language and Some Other Tracts Relative to Those Subjects, Rhetorical Grammar of the English Language, A Rhetorical Grammar of the English Language, History of the Principal Events of the Reign of Frederic William II, Jefferson and Civil Liberties: The Darker Side, American, and Commercial Daily Advertiser, The Inaugural Addresses of President Thomas Jefferson, 1801 and 1805, Gazette Nationale ou le Moniteur Universel, The Inaugural Addresses of President Thomas Jefferson, Philip Mazzei: Selected Writings and Correspondence, History of the United States of America during the Second Administration of Thomas Jefferson, Topics for Inaugural Address, [before 8 Feb. 1805], James Madisons Remarks on a Draft, [8 Feb. 1805], Albert Gallatins Remarks on a Draft, [12 Feb. 1805], James Madisons Remarks on a Draft, [21 Feb. 1805], Notes on the Second Inaugural Address, [February 1805? 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. They are diacritical marks to assist Jefferson in the oral delivery of the address. Lincoln recognized how crucial this first inaugural address would be to the Southern states considering secession. Create your account, 26 chapters | True to our traditions of peace and our love of justice, we sent commissioners to the United States to propose a fair and amicable settlement of all questions of public debt or property which might be in dispute. Well, Lincoln disagreed. the public judgment will correct false reasonings & opinions, on a full hearing of all parties; and no other definite line can be drawn between the inestimable liberty of the press, and its demoralising licentiousness. But he praised Lincoln's four-paragraph speech as sounding "more like a sermon . Senator Jefferson Davis took to a podium for his presidential inaugural and gave an impassioned speech about the Constitution. But the Government at Washington, denying our right to self-government, refused even to listen to any proposals for a peaceful separation. Gallatin took issue with the presentation of the press in the draft he reviewed (see, When he had the address in the form he wanted, Jefferson used his polygraph to help him make multiple copies and submitted the final text to Samuel Harrison Smith for printing. Summary In his first Inaugural Address as "Chief Executive" of the Confederate States, Davis justifies secession by asserting the rights of sovereign states to govern themselves, particularly with regards to economics and defense, and argues that the United States Constitution no longer functions as a document for all people as it was intended. The great principles upon which we have been willing to hazard everything that is dear to man have made conquests for us which could never have been achieved by the sword. He spoke, according to John Quincy Adams, in so low a voice that not half of it was heard by any part of the crowded auditory. Augustus Foster also noted that the speech was too low spoken to be heard well. The inflections carefully marked according to Sheridans principles came to nothing. 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. Soon to come: Gettysburg . In his Second Inaugural Address, President Abraham Lincoln addressed the topic of the Civil War and argued that the nation needed to change. In February of 1861, just two months before the official start of the Civil War, Jefferson Davis delivered his inaugural address to the Confederacy as its new leader. In the drafting process, he struggled with how to best express this, referring first to a Censor on the public functionaries that, writing with freedom, could warn against deviations from the line of duty (. if there be still improprieties which this rule would not restrain, its Supplement must be sought in the Censorship of Public opinion. The National Historical Publications and This great strife has awakened in the people the highest emotions and qualities of the human soul. facts are piercing through the veil drawn over them: & our doubting brethren will at length see that the mass of their fellow citizens, with whom they cannot yet resolve to act, as to principles & measures, think as they think, & desire what they desire. Summarized in The Papers of Jefferson Davis, Volume 8, p. 55. Women in the Civil War: Facts & Roles | How Did the Civil War Affect Women? Jeffersons painstaking work in preparing the reading copy was worthwhile in allowing him to put the full text of the speech on the two faces of the single sheet. The question is, according to Jefferson Davis in his second inaugural address what caused the civil war do you agree or disagree and why? the larger our association, the less will it be shaken by local passions. Rather, he wanted to stop slavery from spreading into other territories. After a series of successes and victories, which covered our arms with glory, we have recently met with serious disasters. In this speech, he hoped to inspire the audience to not let the work of these soldiers go unfinished, but to have 'increased devotion to the great task remaining before us,' the task of bringing the union back together. Lincoln still passionately believed that the union was worth fighting for and assured Americans that the soldiers who died at the Battle of Gettysburg 'shall not have died in vain.' Instances of self-sacrifice and of generous devotion to the noble cause for which we are contending are rife throughout the land. James Buchanan Democratic Party Abraham Lincoln Republican Party Jefferson Davis*** Democratic Party Andrew Johnson Republican Party Ulysses S. Grant Republican Party. Jefferson Davis was again selected to remain as the President of the newly formed government and commenced to give his second inaugural address on the 22 nd of February, 1862 in front of a monument to George Washington at . How did his views on the topics we just learned about evolve over those four years? Members of the foreign diplomatic corps were also present. In his second inaugural address, Lincoln said that slavery "was, somehow, the . In what was probably Lincoln's most famous speech, the Gettysburg Address of 1863, he delivered a solemn message after a battle in which approximately 50,000 soldiers died. 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