The Staunton Vindicator, March 15, 1861, p. 2, c. 1

The Southern Confederacy is gradually progressing in a career of eminent success. With the flower of the American Army in command of 50,000 well drilled troops; the most gifted and experienced statesmen of the age in charge of its civil departments; a treasury well supplied with funds; and sustained by the hearts and hands of a united people, the new Confederacy bids fair to become one of the most successful and prosperous governments on the globe. Its foundation are being carefully and firmly laid; its columns erected to meet all the shocks and throes incident to new enterprises, and its arches formed to bear the weight of an empire baptised in blood, if needs be. The idea of this government ever again uniting with a people whose entire education is enmity and whose highest ambition is oppression, aggression and outrage, is simply preposterous. Such a thing is not dreamed of by the statesmen who are directing the affairs of the Confederate States. Every act is looking directly to the establishment of a firm, united and powerful government, sufficient for all the exigencies of peace or war.