Page:Confederate Military History - 1899 - Volume 1.djvu/470

decided aggressive activity. The resolution read, 44 That whatever propriety there may have been in the original adoption of what is known as the defensive policy in connection with the prosecution of the pending war for Southern independence, recent events have already demonstrated the expediency of abandoning that policy henceforth and forever, and that it will be the duty of the government of the Confederate States to impart all possible activity to our military forces everywhere, and to assail the forces of the enemy wherever they are to be found whether upon the land or the water, with a view to obtain the most complete security for the future." The resolution was understood by many as designed to impugn the policy of the administration, as there had been in those States which were overrun by Federal armies very open complaint against the supposed purpose of the Confederate government to wear out coercion by what is called the Fabian plan of defense. These complaints now began to find an utterance in Congress itself. Mr. Foote very warmly urged the hearty adoption of his resolution, which expressed, as he believed, the conviction of the country. No people in revolution, he said, "could be successful by adopting the defensive policy. Instead of his resolution being aimed at the President, as Mr. Jenkins, of Virginia, had asserted, Mr. Foote declared that he had high authority for saying here that Mr. Davis was opposed to that defensive policy which 44 somebody," he knew not who, had imposed upon the country. He proceeded to announce that Judge Harris, of Mississippi, who was the President s intimate friend, had authorized him to say that President Davis had no participation in stopping the onward movement of the Confederate armies. Mr. Foote insisted that a vigorous onward movement immediately after the battle of Manassas would have been advantageous to the Southern cause, and he now favored some similar movement. He believed that we should enter upon the soil of the enemy