The Principle For Which We Contend Is

The Withdrawal Of A State From A League Has No Revolutionary Or Insurrectionary Characteristic. The Government Of The State Remains Unchanged As To All Internal Affairs. It Is Only Its External Or Confederate Relations That Are Altered. To Term This Action Of A Sovereign A 'rebellion' Is A Gross Abuse Of Language.

Our Government Is An Agency Of Delegated And Strictly Limited Powers. Its Founders Did Not Look To Its Preservation By Force; But The Chain They Wove To Bind These States Together Was One Of Love And Mutual Good Offices.

I Tried All In My Power To Avert This War. I Saw It Coming, For Twelve Years I Worked Night And Day To Prevent It, But I Could Not. The North Was Mad And Blind; It Would Not Let Us Govern Ourselves, And So The War Came, And Now It Must Go On Unless You Acknowledge Our Right To Self Government. We Are Not Fighting For Slavery. We Are Fighting For Independence.

Governments Rest On The Consent Of The Governed, And That It Is The Right Of The People To Alter Or Abolish Them At Will Whenever They Become Destructive Of The Ends For Which They Were Established.

It Is Our Duty To Keep The Memory Of Our Heroes Green. Yet They Belong To The Whole Country; They Belong To America.