Let the gentleman go to Revelation to learn the decree of God - let him go to the Bible. . . . I said that slavery was sanctioned in the Bible, authorized, regulated, and recognized from Genesis to Revelation. . . . Slavery existed then in the earliest ages, and among the chosen people of God; and in Revelation we are told that it shall exist till the end of time shall come. You find it in the Old and New Testaments - in the prophecies, psalms, and the epistles of Paul; you find it recognized - sanctioned everywhere.

The troops of other states have their reputation to gain, the sons of the Alamo have theirs to maintain.

The principle for which we contend is bound to reassert itself, though it may be at another time and in another form.

We protest solemnly in the face of mankind, that we desire peace at any sacrifice, save that of honor.

Our armies were in as much chaos in victory as theirs in defeat.

Vicksburg is the nail head that holds the South’s two halves together.

If slavery be a sin, it is not yours. It does not rest on your action for its origin, on your consent for its existence. It is a common law right to property in the service of man; its origin was Divine decree.