It illustrates the American idea that governments rest on the consent of the governed, and that it is the right of the people to alter or abolish them at will... it is by abuse of language that their act has been denominated a revolution.
Original passage & context
"Our present political position has been achieved in a manner unprecedented in the history of nations. It illustrates the American idea that governments rest on the consent of the governed, and that it is the right of the people to alter or abolish them at will whenever they become destructive of the ends for which they were established. [...] Thus the sovereign States here represented have proceeded to form this Confederacy; and it is by abuse of language that their act has been denominated a revolution. They formed a new alliance, but within each State its government has remained; so that the rights of person and property have not been disturbed."
Davis claims the Declaration of Independence for the slaveholding republic in his first breath as president: secession as the American idea fulfilled, not betrayed. Then he insists that founding a nation is not a revolution — and that "the rights of person and property have not been disturbed," in a speech founding a government whose property is people. Avalon's text derives from Richardson's 1905 compilation; it reads "rest on the consent" where the Papers of Jefferson Davis reads "rest upon." Non-contiguous passages joined with [...].
Read it in the original — Inaugural Address, Montgomery, Feb 18, 1861 ↗