Rebellion Record: a Diary of American Events: Documents and Narratives, Volume 7.
Frank Moore, Ed.

At the invitation of the Lieutenant-General commanding the Trans-Mississippi Department, we assembled at this place, with several of your Judges, confederate Senators, and other distinguished citizens, to confer with him on the measures to be taken for the defence of our common cause. Those measures we do not particularize, as they had best be disclosed by the execution of them, and by the benefits they must produce. Coming to a thorough understanding with him, the members of the conference unanimously sustain the vigorous and decided policy he proposes to pursue.

We will not attempt to disguise the change in our position by the fall of our stronghold on the Mississippi River. Interrupting communication between the two sections of the Confederacy, it throws each mainly on its own resources. But the apprehensions of evil from this interruption have been greatly exaggerated. The warning given by the fall of New-Orleans has not been unheeded, and the interval since that event has been used to develop the great resources of this department. We now are self-dependent, but also self-sustaining.

With our own manufactories of cannon, arms, powder, and other munitions of war, with mines opened and factories established, with cotton as a basis for financial measures, and with abundance of food, we are able to conduct a vigorous defence, and seize occasions for offensive operations against the enemy. The immense extent of our territory, the uncertainty of navigating our rivers, the unwholesomeness of the regions through which our interior is approached, the difficulties of transportation on our roads, present immense obstacles to the advance of large armies of the enemy, with their cumbrous trains of luxurious supplies;. small bodies will ignominiously fall in the attempt at our subjugation. To crush even his largest armies, we rely on the energy and skill of our military commanders, the zeal and activity of our civil authorities, the discipline and courage of our armies, and the vigorous, self-sacrificing patriotism of our whole people. There is every thing to incite us to renewed efforts, nothing to justify despondency.

We are fortunate in the military chief of this department. In the prime of life, large experience, active, intelligent, and with the prestige of uniform success in his undertakings, he is guided by a profound respect for law and the constitutional rights of the citizens. Reposing full trust in him, we cordially commend him to your entire confidence and support. In view of the existing state of our affairs, he has been clothed with more than. usual powers by the President, to be exercised within the bounds of the Constitution and the law. These just and legal powers he may have to exert, promptly and boldly, to their fullest extent, for the common good; in so doing he will receive the zealous support of every patriot. The entire military force and means in this department should be liberally used for our protection when necessary. Some measures may inconvenience particular individuals, but we rely on their patriotism and good sense to produce a cheerful endurance of the hardships to be expected in a war for our very existence as a nation.

To organize and combine without delay the individual efforts of our citizens to sustain our cause, we have formed, unofficially, a Committee of Public Safety, to be composed of the Executives, for the time being, of the States in this department, and have selected the Governor of Missouri as present Chairman thereof. By committees of correspondence and voluntary associations in every parish and county, we hope to unite all our patriotic citizens in a vigorous support of the confederate and State authorities in defence of our families and homes. Let every one rally to the call and promptly perfect an organization which will fill the Southern heart with renewed enthusiasm throughout the whole department. Let a patriotic press and clergy stimulate exertion. Under the searching eye of a whole people aroused to ceaseless vigilance, the plots of secret foes will wither in the bud. By the wholesome influence, gentle and peaceful, but imposing, of an organized, all-pervading patriotic public opinion, the despondent will be inspired with fresh hope, the steadfast be nerved to heroic energy, the rapacious extortioner learn liberality, the selfish trimmer abandon his neutrality, and the vile traitor be cowed into the inaction of despair.

We address you in the true language of firm confidence in the final triumph of our cause, concealing nothing of our perils, exaggerating nothing of our hopes. Our powerful and haughty foes propose not only to coerce us into submission, but to despoil us of our whole property, and subject us to every species of ignominy. Base is he who would not continue to contend for our rights even when all shall be lost but honor. The capitalist must be liberal of his means, the speculator forego his gain, the straggler hasten to his regiment, every able-bodied man hold himself in readiness for military service; our women, the glory of our race, tend the loom and even follow the plough; our boys guard the homes their fathers are defending on the frontier, and Western skill and valor will prepare a San Jacinto defeat for every invading army that pollutes the soil of this department. Unsarpassed in courage, intelligence, and energy, you have only to arise in your might and the enemy will be speedily driven back. Be true to yourselves, your past history, to your hopes of the future, and a baffled foe will gladly seek the peace which we war to obtain.

The enemy may dismiss all hopes that the Western section of the Confederacy will seek any destiny separate from that of our sisters east of the Mississippi. Attached to the Confederacy by community of race, institutions, and interests, [407] baptized in the blood we and they have poured out together, we desire no new political connection. Let our eastern confederates do their duty; these States and our Indian allies will do theirs, and when our joint efforts shall have secured our common safety, the remembrance of the danger from a temporary cessation of intercourse will only strengthen the ties which bind us together. In the darkest hours of our history, the protection extended to us by Almighty God has been so manifest, as even to be acknowledged by candid foes. Their victories have been to them as fruit turning to ashes on their lips; our defeats have been chastenings to improve us and arouse our energies. On His help and our own right arms we steadfastly rely; counting on aid neither from the policy of neutral nations, nor from the distractions in the midst of our enemies, we look confidently forward to the day when thirteen confederate States will in peace and safety occupy their rightful position among the great powers of the earth.