influence in the State, not only as an eminent jurist, but as a citizen
who had grown up with it, and held many offices of honor and trust.

On my way to Montgomery, brief addresses were made at various places, at
which there were temporary stoppages of the trains, in response to calls
from the crowds assembled at such points. Some of these addresses were
grossly misrepresented in sensational reports made by irresponsible
persons, which were published in Northern newspapers, and were not
considered worthy of correction under the pressure of the momentous
duties then devolving upon me. These false reports, which represented me
as invoking war and threatening devastation of the North, have since
been adopted by partisan writers as authentic history. It is a
sufficient answer to these accusations to refer to my farewell address
to the Senate, already given, as reported for the press at the time,
and, in connection therewith, to my inaugural address at Montgomery, on
assuming the office of President of the Confederate States, on the 18th
of February. These two addresses, delivered at an interval of a month,
during which no material change of circumstances had occurred, being one
before and the other after the date of the sensational reports referred
to, are sufficient to stamp them as utterly untrue. The inaugural was
deliberately prepared, and uttered as written, and, in connection with
the farewell speech to the Senate, presents a clear and authentic
statement of the principles and purposes which actuated me on assuming
the duties of the high office to which I had been called.

INAUGURAL ADDRESS.

"_Gentlemen of the Congress of the Confederate States of
America, Friends, and Fellow-Citizens:_

"Called to the difficult and responsible station of Chief
Magistrate of the Provisional Government which you have
instituted, I approach the discharge of the duties assigned to
me with humble distrust of my abilities, but with a sustaining
confidence in the wisdom of those who are to guide and aid me in
the administration of public affairs, and an abiding faith in
the virtue and patriotism of the people. Looking forward to the
speedy establishment of a permanent government to take the place
of this, which by its greater moral and physical power will be
better able to combat with many difficulties that arise from the
conflicting interests of separate nations, I enter upon t