Serenade to the
President and lady.
A number of our citizens, accompanied by the Armory Band, on Saturday evening paid to his Excellency and lady the compliment of a serenade.
A crowd of at least three thousand were soon collected, embracing many ladies, who, in response to the unanimously were addressed by the President as follows : ‘ Speech of President Davis.
Friends and Fellow-Citizens--I thank you for the compliment that your presence conveys. It is an indication of regard not for the person, but for the position which he holds.
The cause in which we are engaged is the advocacy of the rights to which we were born-- those for which our fathers of the Revolution bled — the richest inheritance that every fell to man, and it is our sacred duty to transmit them untarnished to our children.-- Upon us is devolved the high and holy responsibility of preserving the constitutional liberty of a free Government. (Applause.)--Those with whom we have lately associated have shown themselves so incapable of appreciating the blessings of the glorious institutions they inherited, that they are to-day stripped of the liberty to which they were born. They have allowed an ignorant usurp to trample upon all the prerogatives of citizenship, and to exercise power never delegate to him, and it has been reserved for your own State, so lately one of the original thirteen but now, thank God ! fully separated from them, to become the theatre of a Great Central Camp, from which will pour forth thousands of brave hearts to roll back the tide of this despotism.
Apparition the gratification we may well feel at being separated from such a connection, is the pride that upon you devolves the task of maintaining and defending our new Government. I believe we shall be able to achieve this noble work, and that the institutions of our fathers will go to our children ed as they have descended to us. ( Applause.)
In these Confederate States we observe those relations which have been poetically ascribed to the United States, but which there never had the same reality--States so distinct, that each existed as a sovereign, yet so united that each was bound with the other to constitute a whole; or as more beautifully expressed--
the billows, yet one as the sea."
(Applause.)
y hill which now overlooks Richmond you have had and will continue to have camps containing soldiers from every State of the Confederacy; and to its remotest limits. --Every proud heart beats high with indignation at the thought that the foot of the invader has been set upon the soil of old Virginia (Great Cheering) There is not one true son of the South who is not ready now to shoulder his musket, to bleed, to conquer, or to die in the cause of liberty here. (Cheers)
Beginning under many embarrassments, the result of seventy years of taxation being in the hands of our enemies, we must at first move cautiously. It may be that we shall have to encounter sacrifices, but my friend under the smiles of the God of the just, and filled by the same spirit which animated our fathers, success shall perch upon our banner.
I am sure you do not expect me to go into any argument upon those questions, which have for twenty-five years agitated the country. We have now reached the point where arguments being exhausted, it only remains for us to stand by our weapons. (Cheers, and cries of ‘"We will !"’) When the time and occasion serve, we shall smite the smiter with manly arms, as did our fathers before us, and as becomes their sons. To our enemy we leave the base acts of the assassin and incendiary, to them we leave it to insult helpless woman; to us belongs vengeance upon man (Tremendous applause.)
I thank you again for this gratifying manifestation.
(A voice — Tell us something about Buena Vista)
Well, my friends, I can only say we will make the battle fields of Virginia brighter than that of Buena Vista, and drench them with blood more precious than the blood which flowed there. We shall make a history for ourselves. We do not ask that the past shall shed its lustre upon us, bright as our past has been, for we can achieve our own destiny. We may point to many a field, over which has floated the flag of our country when we were of the United States, upon which Southern soldiers and Southern officers reflected their brave spirit in their deeds of daring; and without intending to cast a shadow upon the courage of any portion of the people of the United States, let me recall it to your remembrance that no man who went from any of these Confederate States, has ever yet, as a general officer, surrendered to an enemy. (Great cheering.) [Pardon me if I do not go into matters of history.] Permit me again to thank you for this kind manifestation of your regard, to express to you my hearty wishes for the individual prosperity of you all, and the hope that you will all pray to God to crown our cause and our country with happiness and success.
’ His Excellency then retired from the window amid the prolonged cheers of his enthusiastic audience.
Calls were then made for the Hon. Henry A. Wise, to which, after a short delay, he appeared and responded as follows :
‘ Speech of Hon. Henry A. Wise.
My Friends :--You all know that I am a civil soldier only, and that, in that capacity, I was very nearly worn out in the siege of the Virginia Convention. Thank God, however, with a little rest, some help and some damage from the doctors, I have been enabled to recruit my exhausted energy. The time of deliberation has given place to the time of action, and I have taken up my bed, as an individual, in common with others, to march to Richmond, to meet the President of our now separate and independent Republic. I am ready to obey his orders, not only with pride, pleasure, and devotion to the cause, and respect to the office he fills, but with respect and devotion to the man himself, as one who has our fullest confidence. (Applause.) You have to meet a foe with whom you could not live in peace. The political power and rights which were enthroned in their Capitol, when you were united with them under the old constitutional bond of the Confederacy have been annihilated.--They have undertaken to annul laws within your limits which would render your own property unsafe within those limits. They have abolitionized your border, as the disgraced North west will show. They have invaded your moral strongholds and the rites of your religion, and undertaken to teach you what should be the moral duties of men.--They have invaded the sanctity of your homes and firesides, and endeavored to play master, father, and husband for you in your households — in a word, have set themselves up as a petty Providence, by which you were in all things to be guided and controlled. (A Voice--‘"That's so."’) But you have already declared that you would not be subject to this invasion of your rights. Though war was demanded, it was not for you to declare war; but now that the armies of the invader are hovering around the tomb of Washington, where is the Virginian heart that does not beat with a quicker pulsation at this last and boldest desecration of his beloved State ? Their hordes are already approaching our metropolis, extending the folds of oppression around us as the anaconda encircles his victim. The call is for action, and I rejoice that it has met such a response. Who is there that now dares to put on the face of sanctity to deprecate war, or the horrid glories of war? None! Why? Because it is a war of purification. You want war, blood, fire, to purify you. The Lord of Hosts has demanded that you shall walk through the trying ordeal. You are destined to go through atlery baptism; and I call upon you to come up to the alar bravely. (Applause and cries of ‘"We will."’) Though your pathway be through flame and smoke, or through a river of blood, turn not aside. Be in no haste. Be calm Collect yourselves; summon yourselves. Elevate yourselves to the high and sacred duty of patriotism. The man who now dares to wait until some magic arm is put into his hand, the man who will not go until he can have a Minnie rifle or a percussion musket; who will not be content with flint and steel, or even a gun without a lock, is worse than a coward; he is a renegade. If you can do no better, go to a blacksmith, take a gun along as a sample, and have him make you one like it; get a spear, a lance — take a lesson from John Brown; manufacture your blades from old iron, even though they be the tires of your cart wheels; get a bit of a spring, grind and burnish it into the shape of a two-inch blade bowie-knife; put to it any sort of a handle, so that it be strong-ash, hickory or oak--[A voice, ‘"Take your poker and tongs!"’] --and if possible get a double-barreled gun, and a dozen rounds of buck-shot, and go upon the battle-field with these. If the enemy's guns reach further than your own, reduce the distance. Meet them foot to foot, eye to eye, body to body, and when you strike a blow, strike home. Your true-blooded Yankee will never stand still in the presence of cold steel. Let your arm, therefore, be to get into close quarters, and with a few decided, vigorous movements, always pushing forward — never back — my word for it, the soil of Virginia will be swept of the Vandals who are now polluting its atmosphere. (Cheers.)
The band then struck up the air of ‘"Dixie,"’ which was followed by, ‘"We may be happy yet;"’ during the performance of which Mrs. Davis, the wife of the President, appeared at one of the windows, and bowing to the multitude, was received with demonstrations of delight. She then retired.
The music done, with its usual pertinacity, the crowd insisted on having speeches from Hon. R. C. Toombs and Hon. J. P. Benjamin, but both these gentlemen being absent, Hon. Ex-Senator Wigfall also being called for, appeared at one of the windows in another part of the house and said he must be excused from discussing the questions of the day. The time had come for action. The time for talking had past. Virginia having taken her place among the Confederate States, her sister sovereignties were sending troops to her border as rapidly as possible. Nothing remained to be done by her citizens except to organize companies with whatever arms could be had, and hang upon the flanks of the enemy at every step. The latter would thus be annoyed, and far more execution of an effective character would be done than by the simple skirmishes among the few soldiers on the out posts, which were already beginning to be reported to the country. In conclusion, he stated that Hon. Col. Lamar, of Mississippi, was in the room and would address the assemblage, after which he hoped no further call would be made.
’ Speech of Hon. L. Q. C. Lamar.
Gentlemen : It affords me pleasure to respond to your call, but I feel conscious of my inability to address you in a strain worthy of the interest inspired by the great events now so rapidly hurrying to their consummation.--Indeed it would be almost impossible to give adequate expression to the feelings with which all patriotic minds are now agitated. Fortunately, however, the time has come when the people of this State need neither the aid of argument nor of exiting appeal.--The time has arrived when they are satisfied that the deliverance of this fair State depends not upon argument, not upon eloquence, not upon statesmanship, but upon the fighting manhood of the people of this country --Cheers.) Upon the courage which dares to strike a braver blow for the right, than the enemy dare to strike for the wrong.
The people of these Confederate States have, by a solemn appeal at the ballot-box, after exhausting every effort to live in peace with their Northern neighbors, proclaimed their determination to take their place and maintain it among the nations of the earth; and the charter of their new nationality, which was written with the pen of our Revolutionary fathers, and adopted at Montgomery, shall, if a sacrament be needed, be subscribed with the blood of patriotism. (Applause.)
Fellow-citizens, if this continent is to be the theatre of internecine war, history will acquit these Confederate States of all responsibility for its families. The very first act of the Confederate Government was to send Commissioners to Washington, to make terms of peace and to establish relations of amity between the two sections; and if the buffoon who now disgraces the seat once occupied by Washington and Madison, had not been lost to the dictates of true justice and humanity; if that people had not been blinded by passion, maddened by fanaticism, and excited by the loss of power — had they consented to the peaceful separation of these two sections, into two republics, each pursuing its destiny in accordance with its own choice, it would have afforded the strongest evidence of the capacity of man for self-government ever presented to the world. But they did not do it; they proclaimed war and subjugation; they have called upon you to abandon your right of self-government, and to surrender your civil liberty. Here Virginia steps forward, and, among all the rich materials she has hitherto contributed to the history of the country, there are none so rich is those contributed in this contest; for, from the moment the Federal Government raised a an arm against her Southern sisters, she had stood forward to catch the blow. Grand, glorious old Common wealth. Proud, free Empress! Mother of States, themselves free — she stands here in robes of steel, raising a majestic arm to press back the foe that dare attempt to force her daughters into an unnatural and unwilling union.
And now war is denounced upon her. An infuriate mob is upon her borders. But the sentiment of Virginia is the sentiment of the South. Rather let the pillars of the New Republic crumble to the foundation; rather let us lofty battlement be overwhelmed with the last hope of liberty, than that her people should quail in this hour of trial, or refuse to tread with her the bloodiest path that may be marked out for her to follow. The sentiment of the entire South is with her. Men from every rank and class of society are rushing to arms, begging the Government to put any kind of weapons in their hands and allow them to march to the battle fields of Virginia.
I tell you that in our State--the little State of Mississippi--the number of men ready to fight, I fully believe, is above our voting population. Even the walls of our Universities to-day stand mute and deserted, while our young students have marched forth upon the soil of Virginia, ready to mingle the dash of patriotic youth with the courage of disciplined manhood, and teach the vain-glorious foe the invincibility of Southern arms and the inviolability of Southern soil.
Fellow-citizens, I shall not detain you longer. (Cries of ‘"Go on."’) We may not know what will be the nature or result of this contest. It may be that much suffering is before us, it may be that our towns and cities will be sacked; it may be that our fields will be desolated; it may be — for it is well to look at the worst attitude of public affairs -- that our South shall yet emerge from the contest exhausted, pallid, her garments dripping with blood; but, for all that, she will survive, and her glorious Constitution, fresh with vigor, will be instinct with immortal life.-- (Cheers.)
This very night I look forward to the day when this beloved country of ours — for, thank God, we have a country at last — will be a country to live for, to pray for, to fight for, and, if necessary, to die for.
A voice.--Yes, I am willing to die for it a hundred times over.
Cheers, amid which the windows were closed and the crowd dispersed.
