* The principle, (states rights) for which we contended is bound to reassert itself, though it may be at another time and in another form. --Jefferson Davis

* Let's begin the struggle for the well-being and independence of the Southern people by every honorable means. --Michael Hill, Chairman, League of the South

* Our enemies are pressing everywhere....I pray that the great God may aid us, and am endeavoring by every means in my power to bring out the troops and hasten them to their destination. --Robert E. Lee, 1862

* My name is not for sale at any price. --Robert E. Lee,
(after the war when he could use the money)

* If I have foreseen the use those people designed to make of their victory, there would have been no surrender at Appomattox Courthouse; no sir, not by me. Had I foreseen these results of subjugation, I would have preferred to die at Appomattox with my brave men and my sword in this right hand.
--Robert E. Lee, spoken to former Governor Stockdale of Texas in 1870.

* A question settled by violence, or in disregard of law, must remain unsettled forever.
--Jefferson Davis

* I do not desire to survive the independence of my country.
--Thomas "Stonewall" Jackson

* A legitimate union of states "depends for its continuance on the free consent and will of the Sovereign people of each state," and " when that consent and will is withdrawn on either part, their union is gone." Any state forced to remain in a union by military force" can never be a co-equal member of the American Union " and can be viewed only as a "subject province." --Daily Union Newspaper, Bangor, Maine Nov. 13, 1860

* We, the people of the State of South Carolina, in convention assembled, do declare and ordain, and it is hereby declared and ordained that the ordinance adopted by us in Convention, on the 23rd day of May, in the year of our Lord 1788, whereby the Constitution of the United States of America was ratified, and also all Acts and parts of Acts of the General Assembly of this State ratify the amendments of the said Constitution, are hereby repealed, and that the Union now subsisting between South Carolina and the other States under the name of the United States of America is hereby dissolved. --The South Carolina Legislature, December 20, 1860

* We protest solemnly in the face of mankind, that we desire peace at any sacrifice, save that of honor. In independence we seek no conquest, no aggrandizement, no concession of any kind from the states with which we have lately been confederated. All we ask is to be let alone - that those who never held power over us shall not now attempt our subjugation by arms. This we will, we must resist to the direst extremity. The moment that this pretension is abandoned, the sword will drop from our grasp, and we shall be ready to enter into treaties of amnesty and commerce that cannot but be mutually beneficial. So long as this pretension is maintained, with a firm reliance on that Divine Power which covers with its protection the just cause, we must continue to struggle for our inherent right to freedom, independence, and self government.
--President Jefferson Davis' first address to the Confederate Congress