The Time For Compromise Has Now Passed,

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.

Neither Current Events Nor History Show That The Majority Rule, Or Ever Did Rule.

How Idle Is This Prating About Natural Rights As Though Still Containing All That Had Been Forfeited.

Nothing Fills Me With Deeper Sadness Than To See A Southern Man Apologizing For The Defense We Made Of Our Inheritance. Our Cause Was So Just, So Sacred, That Had I Known All That Has Come To Pass, Had I Known What Was To Be Inflicted Upon Me, All That My Country Was To Suffer, All That Our Posterity Was To Endure, I Would Do It All Over Again.

The Past Is Dead; Let It Bury Its Dead, Its Hopes And Its Aspirations; Before You Lies The Future-a Future Full Of Golden Promise.