Farewell Speech to the
United States Congress
Jefferson Davis
21 January A.D. 1861
I rise, Mr.
President, for the purpose of announcing to the Senate that
I have satisfactory evidence that the State of Mississippi,
by a solemn ordinance of her people, in convention
assembled, has declared her separation from the United
States. Under these circumstances, of course, my functions
are terminated here. It has seemed to me proper, however,
that I should appear in the Senate to announce that fact to
my associates, and I will say but very little more. The
occasion does not invite me to go into argument; and my
physical condition would not permit me to do so, if it were
otherwise; and yet it seems to become me to say something on
the part of the State 1 here represent on an occasion as
solemn as this.
It is known to Senators who have served with me
here that I have for many years advocated, as an essential
attribute of State sovereignty, the right of a State to
secede from the Union. Therefore, if I had thought that
Mississippi was acting without sufficient provocation, or
without an existing necessity, I should still, under my
theory of the Government, because of my allegiance to the
State of which I am a citizen, have been bound by her
action. 1, however, may be permitted to say that I do think
she has justifiable cause, and I approve of her act. I
conferred with her people before that act was taken,
counseled them then that, if the state of things which they
apprehended should exist when their Convention met, they
should take the action which they have now adopted.
I hope none who hear me will confound this
expression of mine with the advocacy of the right of a State
to remain in the Union, and to disregard its constitutional
obligation by the nullification of the law. Such is not my
theory. Nullification and secession, so often confounded,
are, indeed, antagonistic principles. Nullification is a
remedy which it is sought to apply within the Union, against
the agent of the States. It is only to be justified when the
agent has violated his constitutional obligations, and a
State, assuming to judge for itself, denies the right of the
agent thus to act, and appeals to the other states of the
Union for a decision; but, when the States themselves and
when the people of the States have so acted as to convince
us that they will not regard our constitutional rights,
then, and then for the first time, arises the doctrine of
secession in its practical application.
A great man who now reposes with his fathers, and
who has often been arraigned for want of fealty to the
Union, advocated the doctrine of nullification because it
preserved the Union. It was because of his deep-seated
attachment to the Union -- his determination to find some
remedy for existing ills short of a severance of the ties
which bound South Carolina to the other States -- that Mr.
Calhoun advocated the doctrine of nullification, which he
proclaimed to be peaceful, to be within the limits of State
power, not to disturb the Union, but only to be a means of
bringing the agent before the tribunal of the States for
their judgment.
Secession belongs to a different class of
remedies. It is to be justified upon the basis that the
States are sovereign. There was a time when none denied it.
I hope that time may come again when a better comprehension
of the theory of our Government, and the inalienable rights
of the people of the States, will prevent any one from
denying that each State is a sovereign, and thus may reclaim
the grants which it has made to any agent whomsoever.
I, therefore, say I concur in the action of the
people of Mississippi, believing it to be necessary and
proper, and should have been bound by their action if my
belief had been otherwise; and this brings me to the
important point which I wish, on this last occasion, to
present to the Senate. It is by this confounding of
nullification and secession that the name of a great man
whose ashes now mingle with his mother earth has been
invoked to justify coercion against a seceded State. The
phrase, "to execute the laws," was an expression which
General Jackson applied to the case of a State refusing to
obey the laws while yet a member of the Union. That is not
the case which is now presented. The laws are to be executed
over the United States, and upon the people of the United
States. They have no relation to any foreign country. It is
a perversion of terms- at least, it is a great
misapprehension of the case- which cites that expression for
application to a State which has withdrawn from the Union.
You may make war on a foreign State. If it be the purpose of
gentlemen, they may make war against a State which has
withdrawn from the Union; but there are no laws of the
United States to be executed within the limits of a seceded
State. A State, finding herself in the condition in which
Mississippi has judged she is -- in which her safety
requires that she should provide for the maintenance of her
rights out of the Union -- surrenders all the benefits (and
they are known to be many), deprives herself of the
advantages (and they are known to be great), severs all the
ties of affection (and they are close and enduring), which
have bound her to the Union; and thus divesting herself of
every benefit- taking upon herself every burden -- she
claims to be exempt from any power to execute the laws of
the United States within her limits.
I well remember an occasion when Massachusetts was
arraigned before the bar of the Senate, and when the
doctrine of coercion was rife, and to be applied against
her, because of the rescue of a fugitive slave in Boston. My
opinion then was the same that it is now. Not in a spirit of
egotism, but to show that I am not influenced in my opinions
because the case is my own, I refer to that time and that
occasion as containing the opinion which I then entertained,
and on which my present conduct is based. I then said that
if Massachusetts- following her purpose through a stated
line of conduct -- chose to take the last step, which
separates her from the Union, it is her right to go, and I
will neither vote one dollar nor one man to coerce her back;
but I will say to her, Godspeed, in memory of the kind
associations which once existed between her and the other
States.
It has been a conviction of pressing necessity --
it has been a belief that we are to be deprived in the Union
of the rights which our fathers bequeathed to us -- which
has brought Mississippi to her present decision. She has
heard proclaimed the theory that all men are created free
and equal, and this made the basis of an attack upon her
social institutions; and the sacred Declaration of
Independence has been invoked to maintain the position
of the equality of the races. That Declaration is to
be construed by the circumstances and purposes for which it
was made. The communities were declaring their independence;
the people of those communities were asserting that no man
was born -- to use the language of Mr. Jefferson -- booted
and spurred, to ride over the rest of mankind; that men were
created equal- meaning the men of the political community;
that there was no divine right to rule; that no man
inherited the right to govern; that there were no classes by
which power and place descended to families; but that all
stations were equally within the grasp of each member of the
body politic. These were the great principles they
announced; these were the purposes for which they made their
declaration; these were the ends to which their enunciation
was directed. They had no reference to the slave; else, how
happened it that among the items of arraignment against
George III was that he endeavored to do just what the North
has been endeavoring of late to do, to stir up insurrection
among our slaves? Had the Declaration announced that
the negroes were free and equal, how was the prince to be
arraigned for raising up insurrection among them? And how
was this to be enumerated among the high crimes which caused
the colonies to sever their connection with the
mother-country? When our Constitution was formed, the
same idea was rendered more palpable; for there we find
provision made for that very class of persons as property;
they were not put upon the equality of footing with white
men -- not even upon that of paupers and convicts; but, so
far as representation was concerned, were discriminated
against as a lower caste, only to be represented in the
numerical proportion of three-fifths. So stands the compact
which binds us together.
Then, Senators, we recur to the principles upon
which our Government was founded; and when you deny them,
and when you deny us the right to withdraw from a Government
which, thus perverted, threatens to be destructive of our
rights, we but tread in the path of our fathers when we
proclaim our independence and take the hazard. This is done,
not in hostility to others, not to injure any section of the
country, not even for our own pecuniary benefit, but from
the high and solemn motive of defending and protecting the
rights we inherited, and which it is our duty to transmit
unshorn to our children.
I find in myself perhaps a type of the general
feeling of my constituents towards yours. I am sure I feel
no hostility toward you, Senators from the North. I am sure
there is not one of you, whatever sharp discussion there may
have been between us, to whom I cannot now say, in the
presence of my God, I wish you well; and such, I feel, is
the feeling of the people whom I represent toward those whom
you represent. I, therefore, feel that I but express their
desire when say I hope, and they hope, for peaceable
relations with you, though we must part. They may be
mutually beneficial to us in the future, as they have been
in the past, if you so will it. The reverse may bring
disaster on every portion of the country, and, if you will
have it thus, we will invoke the God of our fathers, who
delivered them from the power of the lion, to protect us
from the ravages of the bear; and thus, putting our trust in
God and in our firm hearts and strong arms, we will
vindicate the right as best we may.
In the course of my service here, associated at
different times with a variety of Senators, I see now around
me some with whom I have served long; there have been points
of collision, but, whatever offense there has been to me, I
leave here. I carry with me no hostile remembrance. Whatever
offense I have given which has not been redressed, or for
which satisfaction has not been demanded, I have, Senators,
in this hour of our parting, to offer you my apology for any
pain which, in the heat of discussion, I have inflicted. I
go hence unencumbered by the remembrance of any injury
received, and having discharged the duty of making the only
reparation in my power for any injury offered.
Mr. President and Senators, having made the
announcement which the occasion seemed to me to require, it
only remains for me to bid you a final adieu.
