It would have been well for the dignity of the Southern Confederacy in history if one of its many able men had placed on record, in an authentic form, the grounds upon which, and the grievances for which, destruction of the Union could be justified.
In his message to the Confederate Congress, Mr.Davis apparently attempted to cure the defects of his Inaugural address, and to give a list of measures which he declared to have been hostile to Southern interests.

But it is to be observed that not one of these measures had been completed.

They were merely menaced or foreshadowed.

As matter of fact, emphasized by Mr.Buchanan in his message, and known to no one better than to Mr.Davis, not a single measure adverse to the interests of slavery had been passed by the Congress of the United States from the foundation of the government.

If the Missouri Compromise of 1820 be alleged as an exception to this sweeping assertion, it must be remembered that that compromise was a Southern and not a Northern measure, and was a triumph of the pro-slavery members of Congress over the anti-slavery members; and that its constitutionality was upheld by the unanimous voice of the Cabinet in which Mr.Crawford of Georgia and Mr.Calhoun of South Carolina were leading members.
On the other hand, the policy of the government had been steadily in favor of slavery; and the measures of Congress which would strengthen it were not only numerous, but momentous in character.
They are familiar to every one who knows the simplest elements of our national history.