FEBRUARY 6, 1865:
In the aftermath of the
failed Hampton Roads Peace Conference Confederate President Jefferson Davis
tries to weave political capital out of near nothing by blaming the failure of the
peace talks on President Lincoln. Time and again, Davis derides Lincoln’s
promised “liberal” terms for surrender, but in mentioning them he illustrates
just how reasonable they are. Among the many addresses he gives is one called
“The African Church Speech” given at a segregated house of worship in the
Confederate capital.
The Richmond Sentinel, still breathing fire, describes the speech as thus in a heavily editorialized
recounting, reprinted in part below:
The President [Davis] said that if he were there to assist in
celebrating some great and decisive victory to our arms, or in hailing the
establishment of peace, he should have been most happy . . . But he was prouder
still when he contemplated the fortitude which plucks flowers from reverses . .
.
The President said it
was meet that the spirit which inspired this meeting, should find its first
utterance in Richmond . . . On one of the hills of this city stands that sacred
building, in which Patrick Henry and his compatriots, pledged life for liberty .
. . We should not again be insulted by such terms of peace as the arrogance of
the enemy has lately proposed . . .
Does any one . . . who
has seen the Confederate soldiers believe they are willing to fail? If so, the suspicion is most unjust! Go to our camps; go to our guarded lines; go
where our pickets hold their dangerous watch, and to the posts where our
sentinels tread their weary rounds, and you will find in none of those the
place for grumblings and complaints. The
resolutions of our soldiers exclaim with Patrick Henry, "Victory or
death!" It is in the crowded mart,
where these are found whose pockets are stuffed with ill-gotten gains, that you
find the persons who grumble and complain . . .
The time for argument .
. . is passed. The duty that remains is
to stand to our arms. He had just made
an effort to secure peace . . . He had made it in the cause of humanity and the
country . . . in various ways, and on every proper occasion, [he] proclaimed
the desire of this country for peace . . . This recent opportunity he had embraced . . . He would be less than man if he had not felt
an earnest desire . . . to relieve the country from the sufferings of the war .
. . Anything honorable, and recognizing our independence . . . would have been
gladly acceded to . . .
We had now learned the
terms on which the enemy are willing to accord peace. We are required to make an unconditional
surrender. We are not even allowed to go
back to them as we came out, but are required to take just what a conqueror may
choose to give the conquered . . .
Man proposes, but God
disposes . . .
President Lincoln had,
indeed, promised, that in the enforcement of his laws for the confiscation of
our property and the hanging of our officers, his policy would be
"liberal." [Laughter.] [The famous Abolitionist Henry Ward] Beecher
in a late sermon at Washington had pictured a long line of rebels on their way
to the gallows . . . The leaders whom they propose to hang are your servants .
. .
If the power of the
enemy were ten times greater, and ours ten times less than it is, there are still
some rights of which they could not dispossess us; the right to maintain our
personal honor, and the right to fill an honorable grave. --
. . . We have been
chastened, and may be again. Let us
profit by the lesson . . .
. . . If we will all do our duty, we shall
reap a brilliant reward. If the
absentees, from our armies will return, and if the local assistance be rendered
which may be readily afforded, the noble Army of Northern Virginia will read
General Grant a yet severer lesson than it taught him from the Rapidan to the
James; while the gallant Beauregard will cause Sherman's march across Georgia
to be his last.
. . . God bless your proud spirit and manly
fortitude! History will delight to dwell upon your praise!
