[
257]
the Military and Naval Committees to report plans for the organization of an army and navy, and to make provision for the officers in each service who had deserted their flag and were seeking employment from the
Confederates at
Montgomery.
Preparations were now
made for the reception and inauguration of
Davis.
He was at his home near
Vicksburg when apprised of his election, and he hastened to
Montgomery on the circuitous railway route by the way of
Jackson,
Grand Junction,
Chattanooga, and
West Point.
His journey was a continuous ovation.
He made twenty-five speeches on the way, all breathing treason to the
Government by whose bounty he had been educated and fed, and whose laws he had frequently sworn to uphold.
A committee of the Convention and the public authorities of
Montgomery met him eight miles from the city.
At
Opelika, two companies from
Columbus, Georgia, joined the escort.
He reached his destination at ten o'clock at night, where he was received with unbounded enthusiasm.
Cannon thundered a welcome, and the shouts of a vast multitude filled his ears.
At the railway station he was formally received, and made a speech, in which he briefly reviewed the then position of the
South, and said the time for compromises had passed.
“We are now determined,” he said, “to maintain our position, and make
all who oppose us smell Southern powder and feel Southern steel.”
He had no doubts of the result, if coercion should be persisted in. “We will maintain our rights and our government,” he said, “at all hazards.
We ask nothing; we want nothing; and will have no complications.
If the other States join our Confederacy, they can freely come in on our terms.
Our separation from the old Union is complete, and no compromise, no reconstruction can now be entertained.”
Davis was conducted from the station to the
Exchange Hotel, where a large crowd, many of them women, awaited his arrival.
He made a speech from the balcony or gallery to the assembled populace, while on each side of him stood a negro, with a candle, that the people might see his face.
He addressed them as “Brethren of the confederated States of
America.”
He expressed undoubting confidence in the success of the revolution they had just inaugurated.
They had nothing to fear at home, for they were united as one people; and they had nothing to fear from abroad, for if war should come, their valor would be sufficient for any occasion.
The inaugural ceremonies took place at noon on the 18th,
upon a plat-form erected in front of the portico of the
State House.
Davis and
Stephens, with
the Rev. Dr. Manly, riding in an open barouche, and followed by a large concourse of State officials and citizens, moved from the
Exchange Hotel to the
Capitol, while cannon were thundering.
The eminence on which the
Capitol stands was crowded at an early hour.
It is said that so grand a spectacle had not been seen in the Slave.
labor States since the ovation given in New Orleans to the victorious
General Jackson, in January, 1815.
At one o'clock in the afternoon, after a prayer by
Dr. Manly,
Davis commenced pronouncing his Inaugural Address.
He defended the right of secession; and he declared that, “moved by no interest or passion to invade the rights of others, and anxious to cultivate peace and commerce with the ”
