sacred right they have appealed to the nations of the earth not for material aid or alliances offensive and defensive but for the moral weight which they would derive from holding a recongnized place as a free and independent people. In asking for this they feel that they will not receive more than they will give in return and they offer as they think a full equivalent for any favor that may thus be granted them. Diplomatic relations are established mainly to protect human intercourse and to adjust peaceably the differences which spring from such intercourse or arise out of the conflicting interests of society. The advantages of such an intercourse are mutual and in general as between nations any one of them receives as much as it gives to say nothing of the well being of human society which is promoted by placing its relations under the protection and restraints of public law.

It would seem then that a new Congederacy asking to establish diplomatic relations with the world ought not to be required to do more than to present itself through a Government competent to discharge its civil functions and strong enough to be responsible for its actions to the other nations of the earth. After this is shown, the great interests of peace and the general good of society would seem to require that a speedy reconginition should follow. It cannot be difficult to show in our case a strict compliance with these the just conditions of our recognitio as an indepentend people. If we were pleading for favors we might ask and find more than one precedent in British history for granting the request that we be recognized for the sake of that sacred right of self-government for which we are this day in arms, and which we have been taught to prize by the teachings, the traditions and the example of the race from which we have sprung. But we do not place ourselves before the bar of nations to ask for favors; we seek for what we believe to be justive not only to ourselves, but justive to the great interests of peace and humanity. If the recognition of our independence must finally come, and if it be only a work of time, it seems to be the duty of each of the nations of the earth to throw the moral weight of its recognition into the scale of peace as soon as possible. For to delay will only be to prolong unnessecarily the sufferings of war.

If then our Government can be shown to be such as has been here described we shall place ourselves in the position of a people who are entitled to a recognition of their independence. The physical and moral elements of our Confederacy, its great but undeveloped capacities and its developed strength as proved by the history of the conflict in which we are now engaged ought to satisfy the world of the responsible character of the Government of the Confederate States. The eleven States now confederated together cover 733,144 square miles of territory and embrace 9,244,000 people. This territory - large enough to become the seat of an immense power - embraces not only all the best varieties of climate and production known to the temperate zone but also the great staples of cotton, tobacco, sugar and rice. It teems with resources both moral and physical of a great empire, and nothing is wanted but time and peace for their development. To these States there will probably be added hereafter Maryland, Missouri and Kentucky whose interests and sympathies must bind them to the South. If these are added the Confederate States will embrace 850,000 square miles of territory and 12,500,000 people to say nothing of the once common territories west of these States which will probably fall into the new Confederacy.

Is it to be supposed that such a people and with such resources can be subdued in war when subjugation is to be followed by such con-