programme.
I.
Col. Charles Dimmock to be
Chief-Marshal, assisted by four aids.
II.
The Senate and House of Representatives will meet in their respective halls at half-past 11 o'clock A. M., and then, with their respective officers, repair to the hall of the House of Delegates of
Virginia, which has been kindly tendered by the House of Delegates.
III.
The President and
Vice-President-elect will be conducted to the hall by the Joint Committee of Arrangements at a quarter to twelve o'clock, and be received by the assembly standing.
IV.
The President of the Senate will occupy the seat on the right of the
President-elect; the
Vice-President-elect that on the left of the
President, and the
Speaker of the
House that on the left of the
Vice-President.
[
200]
V. Invitations are extended to the following persons and bodies, to wit: Members of the
Cabinet, who will be seated on the right and left of the
President of the Senate and Speaker of the
House; the
Governor of
Virginia and his staff, the
Governors of any other of the
confederate States who may be in
Richmond, and
Ex-Gov. Lowe, of
Maryland; the Senate and House of Delegates of
Virginia, with their respective officers; the
Judges of the Supreme Court of
Virginia, and of the Supreme Court of any other of the
confederate States who may be in
Richmond; the
Judge of the confederate District Court at
Richmond, and any other
Judge of a confederate Court who may be in
Richmond; the members of the late Provisional Congress, the officers of the Army and Navy of the
confederate States who may be in
Richmond; the
Mayor and corporate authorities of the city of
Richmond; the reverend clergy and Masonic and other benevolent societies, and the members of the Press.
VI.
At half-past 12 o'clock the procession will move from the hall by the eastern door of the
capitol to the statue of
Washington, on the public square, by such route as the
Chief-Marshal may direct, in the following order, to wit:
1. The
Chief-Marshal.
2. The Band.
3. Six members of the Committee of Arrangements, including their respective Chairmen.
4. The
President-elect, attended by the
President of the Senate.
5. The
Vice-President-elect, attended by the
Speaker of the House of Representatives.
6. The members of the
Cabinet.
7. The officiating clergyman and the
Judge of the confederate Court at
Richmond.
8. The Senate of the confederate States, with its officers, in column of fours.
9. The House of Representatives, with its officers, in column of fours.
10. The Governors of
Virginia and other States, and staff.
11. The members of the Senate and House of Delegates of
Virginia and their officers.
12. The Judges of the Supreme Court of
Virginia and other States, who may be in the city of
Richmond.
13. The officers of the army and navy.
14.
The reverend clergy.
15. The
Mayor and corporate authorities of the city of
Richmond.
16. The Masons and other benevolent societies.
17. Members of the press.
18. Citizens generally.
Seats will be provided by the
Chief-Marshal for the
Governors of States, the
Judges, and, as far as practicable, for the other guests.
The invited guests are requested to present themselves at the door of the
Hall in the order above indicated.
At the statue of
Washington the
President-elect, the
Vice-President-elect, the
President of the Senate, the
Speaker of the House of Representatives, the officiating clergyman, confederate
Judge,
Governors of States,
Judges of the
Supreme Courts of States, the
Chief-Marshal and his aids, and six of the Committee of Arrangements, will take position on the platform.
Prayer will then be offered by
the Right Rev. Bishop Johns.
The Inaugural Address will then be delivered, [given below,] after which the oath will be administered to the
President by the confederate
Judge, in
Richmond,
the Hon. J. D. Halyburton, and the result will be announced by the
President of the Senate.
The oath will then be administered to the
Vice-President by the
President of the Senate, who will also announce the result.
The several legislative bodies will then return to their respective halls, and the
President and
Vice-President will then be escorted to their respective homes by the Committee of Arrangements.
The Inaugural address.
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.
Through this instrumentality, under the favor of Divine Providence, we hope to perpetuate the principles of our Revolutionary fathers.
The day, the memory and the purpose seem fitly associated.
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. Deeply sensible of all that is implied by this manifestation of the people's confidence, I am yet more profoundly impressed by the vast responsibility of the office, and humbly feel my own unworthiness.
In return for their kindness I can only offer assurances of the gratitude with which it is received, and can but pledge a zealous devotion of every faculty to the service of these who have chosen me as their
Chief Magistrate.
When a long course of class legislation, directed not to the general welfare, but to the aggrandizement of the
Northern section of the
Union, culminated in a warfare on the domestic institutions of the
Southern States--when the dogmas of a sectional party, substituted for the provisions of the constitutional compact, threatened to destroy the sovereign rights of the States, six of those States, withdrawing from the
Union, confederated together to exercise the right and perform the duty of instituting a government which would better secure the liberties for the preservation of which that Union was established.
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
[
201]
of the
Constitution, must have been dispelled by the malignity and barbarity of the
Northern States in the prosecution of the existing war. 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.
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.
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.
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.
The people of the States now confederated became convinced that the
Government of the
United States had fallen into the hands of a sectional majority, who would pervert that most sacred of all trusts to the destruction of the rights which it was pledged to protect.
They believed that to remain longer in the
Union would subject them to a continuance of a disparaging discrimination submission to which would be inconsistent with their welfare, and intolerable to a proud people.
They therefore determined to sever its bonds and establish a new confederacy for themselves.
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 Government had ceased to answer the ends for which it was ordained and established.
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.
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.
But the
Government at
Washington, denying our right to self-government, refused even to listen to any proposals for a peaceful separation.
Nothing was then left to us but to prepare for war.
The first year in our history has been the most eventful in the annals of this continent.
A new government has been established, and its machinery put in operation over an area exceeding seven hundred thousand square miles.
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.
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.
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 rights which they could not peacefully secure.
A million of men, it is estimated, are now standing in hostile array, and waging war along a frontier of thousands of miles.
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.
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 burthens which must continue to oppress them for generations to come.
We, too, have had our trials and difficulties.
That we are to escape them in future is not to be hoped.
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 mopey and blood.
But we knew the value of the object for which we struggled, and understood the nature of the war in which we were engaged.
Nothing could be so bad as failure, and any sacrifice would be cheap as the price of success in such a contest.
But the picture has its lights as well as its shadows.
This great strife has awakened in the people the highest emotions and qualities of the human soul.
It is cultivating feelings of patriotism, virtue and courage.
Instances of self sacrifice and of generous devotion to the noble cause for which we are contending, are rife throughout the land.
Never has a people evinced a more determined spirit than that now animating men, women and children, in every part of our country.
Upon the first call, the men fly to arms; and wives and mothers send their husbands and sons to battle, without a murmur of regret.
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.
The recollections of this great contest, with all its common traditions of glory, of sacrifice and of blood, will be the bond of harmony and enduring
[
202]
affection amongst the people; producing unity in policy, fraternity in sentiment, and joint effort in war.
Nor have the material sacrifices of the past year been made without some corresponding benefits.
If the acquiescence of foreign nations in a pretended blockade has deprived us of our commerce with them, it is fast making us a self-supporting and an independent people.
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 commodities for domestic use.
It is a satisfaction that we have maintained the war by our unaided exertions.
We have neither asked nor received assistance from any quarter.
Yet the interest involved is not wholly our own. The world at large is concerned in opening our markets to its commerce.
When the independence of the
confederate States is recognised by the nations of the earth, and we are free to follow our interests and inclinations by cultivating foreign trade, the
Southern States will offer to manufacturing nations the most favorable markets which ever invited their commerce.
Cotton, sugar, rice, tobacco, provisions, timber and naval stores, will furnish attractive exchanges.
Nor would the constancy of these supplies be likely to be disturbed by war. Our confederate strength will be too great to tempt aggression; and never was there a people whose interests and principles committed them so fully to a peaceful policy as those of the
confederate States.
By the character of their productions they are too deeply interested in foreign commerce wantonly to disturb it. War of conquest they cannot wage, because the constitution of their confederacy admits of no coerced association.
Civil war there cannot be between States held together by their volition only.
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.
In proof of this it is to be remembered that, at the first moment of asserting their right of secession, these States proposed a settlement on the basis of a common liability for the obligations of the
General Government.
Fellow-citizens, after the struggles of ages had consecrated the right of the Englishman to constitutional representative government, our colonial ancestors were forced to vindicate that birth-right by an appeal to arms.
Success crowned their efforts, and they provided for their posterity a peaceful remedy against future aggression.
The tyranny of an unbridled majority, the most odious and least responsible form of despotism, has denied us both the right and remedy.
Therefore we are in arms to renew such sacrifices as our fathers made to the holy cause of constitutional liberty.
At the darkest hour of our struggle the provisional gives place to the permanent government.
After a series of successes and victories, which covered our arms with glory we have recently met with serious disasters.
But in the heart of a people resolved to be free, these disasters tend but to stimulate to increased resistance.
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.
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.
With humble gratitude and adoration, acknowledging the
Providence which has so visibly protected the
Confederacy during its brief but eventful career, to Thee, O God!
I trustingly commit myself, and prayerfully invoke thy blessing on my country and its cause.
