GENTLEMEN OF THE CONGRESS OF THE CONFEDERATE STATES OF AMERICA, FRIENDS,
AND FELLOW-CITIZENS:

Our present condition, achieved in a manner unprecedented in the history
of nations, illustrates the American idea that governments rest upon the
consent of the governed, and that it is the right of the people to alter
and abolish governments whenever they become destructive to the ends
for which they were established. The declared compact of the Union
from which we have withdrawn was to establish justice, ensure domestic
tranquillity, provide for the common defence, promote the general
welfare, and secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our
posterity; and when in the judgment of the sovereign States now
composing this Confederacy it has been perverted from the purposes for
which it was ordained, and ceased to answer the ends for which it was
established, a peaceful appeal to the ballot-box declared that, so far
as they were concerned, the government created by that compact should
cease to exist. In this they merely asserted the right which the
Declaration of Independence of 1776 defined to be inalienable. Of the
time and occasion of this exercise they as sovereigns were the final
judges, each for himself. The impartial, enlightened verdict of mankind
will vindicate the rectitude of our conduct; and He who knows the hearts
of men will judge of the sincerity with which we labored to preserve the
government of our fathers in its spirit.

The right solemnly proclaimed at the birth of the States, and which
has been affirmed and reaffirmed in the bills of rights of the States
subsequently admitted into the Union of 1789, undeniably recognizes in
the people the power to resume the authority delegated for the purposes
of government. Thus the sovereign States here represented proceeded to