Official Records of the Union and Confederate Navies in the War of Rebellion, Series II, Volume 3 by United States Department of the Navy

Author:United States Department of the Navy
Language: eng
Format: mobi
Tags: Official Records, Civil War
Publisher: United States Department of the Navy
Published: 0101-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

LIST OF PAPERS. 658

While it is totally beneath the dignity of this Government to give assurances for the purpose of vindicating itself from any unworthy suspicions of its good faith on this subject that may be disseminated by the agents of the United States, it may not be improper that you should point out the superior efficacy of our constitutional provision to any treaty stipulations we could make. The Constitution is itself a treaty between the States of such binding force that it can not be changed or abrogated without the deliberate and concurrent action of 9 out of the 13 States that compose the Confederacy. A treaty might be abrogated by a party temporarily in power in our country at the sole risk of disturbing amicable relations with a foreign power. The Constitution, unless by an approach to unanimity, could not be changed without the destruction of this Government itself; and even should it be possible hereafter to procure the consent of the number of States necessary to change it, the forms and delays designedly interposed by the framers to check rash innovations would give ample time for the most mature deliberation and for strenuous resistance on the part of those opposed to such change.

After all, it is scarcely the part of wisdom to attempt to impose restraint on the actions and conduct of men for all future time. The policy of the Confederacy is as fixed and immutable on this subject as the imperfection of human nature permits human resolve to be. No additional agreements, treaties, or stipulations can commit these States to the prohibition of the African slave trade with more binding efficacy than those they have themselves devised. A just and generous confidence in their good faith on this subject exhibited by friendly powers will be far more efficacious than persistent efforts to induce this Government to assume the exercise of powers which it does not possess and to bind the Confederacy by ties which would have no constitutional validity. We trust, therefore, that no unnecessary discussions on this matter will be introduced into your negotiations. If, unfortunately, this reliance should prove ill founded, you will decline continuing negotiations on your side and transfer them to us at home, where in such event they could be conducted with greater facility and advantage under the direct supervision of the President. Very respectfully, etc..

J. P. BENJAMIN,

Hon. JAMES M. MASON, Secretar~i of State. London.

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