The Authors Of All Our Misfortune.

I Worked Night And Day For Twelve Years To Prevent The War, But I Could Not. The North Was Mad And Blind, Would Not Let Us Govern Ourselves, And So The War Came.

Among Our Neighbors Of Central And Southern America, We See The Caucasian Mingled With The Indian And The African. They Have The Forms Of Free Government, Because They Have Copied Them. To Its Benefits They Have Not Attained, Because That Standard Of Civilization Is Above Their Race. Revolution Succeeds Revolution, And The Country Mourns That Some Petty Chief May Triumph, And Through A Sixty Days' Government Ape The Rulers Of The Earth.

For An Enemy So Relentless In The War For Our Subjugation, We Could Not Be Expected To Mourn; Yet, In View Of Its Political Consequences, It Could Not Be Regarded Otherwise Than As A Great Misfortune For The South.

I Tried All In My Power To Avert This War. I Saw It Coming, For Twelve Years I Worked Night And Day To Prevent It, But I Could Not. The North Was Mad And Blind; It Would Not Let Us Govern Ourselves, And So The War Came, And Now It Must Go On Unless You Acknowledge Our Right To Self Government. We Are Not Fighting For Slavery. We Are Fighting For Independence.

Nothing Fills Me With Deeper Sadness Than To See A Southerner Apologizing For The Defense We Made Of Our Inheritance.