Complete the excerpt from Jefferson Davis’s Inaugural Address by filling in the correct words based on the context. Through many years of controversy with our late associates, the Northern States, we have endeavored to secure tranquillity, and to obtain respect for the rights to which we were entitled. As a necessity, not a choice, we have resorted to the of separation; and henceforth our energies must be directed to the conduct of our own affairs, and the perpetuity of the Confederacy which we have formed.