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YALE UNIVERSITY
LIBRARY

THE CRADLE

OF THE

CONFEDERACY:

OR, THE TIMES OF

TROeP, QOTMAN AND YANCiy.

A Sketch of Southwestern Political History
FROM THE Formation of the Federal
Government to A. D. 1861.

By JOSEPH HODGSON,
OF MOBILE.

MALIM INQUIETAM LIBERTATEM, QDAM QUIETUM SEKVITIUM.

W^o%iU:

PRINTED AT THE REGISTER PUBLISHING OFFICE.
IS70.

Entered, according to Act of Congress, in the year 1876, by Joseph
Hodgson, in the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the United States
for the Southern District of Alabama.

Hon, John For^syth,
of mobile,
LATE ENTOT EXTRAORDINARY AND MINISTER PLENIPOTENTIARY
TO THE REPUBLIC OP MEXICO,
I DEDICATE
THIS HISTORICAL SKETCH,
IN GRATEFUL REMEMBRANCE OF THE
PATRIOTIC SERVICES OF HIMSELF AND OF HIS DISTINGUISHED FATHER,
WHOSE LIVES HAVE ILLUSTRATED
THE
PATRIOTISM OF SOUTHERN STATESMANSHIP,
AND THE
DIGNITY OF SOUTHERN MANHOOD.

PREFACE.

Time has borne us so far from the men and events of the period which
ushered in the fratricidal war of lS61-'5 that it is well for a new genera
tion to be taught the truth of Southern History. It is not amiss to review
the causes which produced the late war, and by examining the more
humble and minute incidents of local discussion and action, to arrive at
a correct conclusion as to the motives of those who engaged in the for
mation of the Southern Confederacy.
It wUl be seen from the following imperfect sketch that a majority of
the people of the South were opposed to secession in 1850, and even in
1860 ; that the Unionists of the South were driven from their position
after a protracted struggle, not so much by the advocates of disunion at
the South as by the advocates of disunion at the North ; and that the
great mass of Southern people were led into acceptance of the Ordinance
of Secession under the belief that the remedy they thus sought against
grievances, would be acquiesced in by the people of the Noi^thern States
and by the Federal Government.
The author will not have had hislabor in vain, if he succeeds in saving
from the wreck of time, and in preserving in the m.ore durable form of a
book, many facts which throw light upon our local history, and which ,
after a few years, might otherwise be lost to memory. And if the facts
here presented should aid in convincing the people of this Republic that
the South-Western States were driven by Northern enemies, rather than
by Southern leaders, into the act of secession, the author will rest satis-
fled that he has contributed one important aid towards an obliteration
of sectional misunderstanding, and towards a return of that fraternal
feeling which should exist between peoples bound together by common
language, laws, kindred, and commerce.

CONTENTS

CHAPTER I  The City of Montgomery, Alabama— The Birthplace of
the Confederacy— Extent and Situation of the Original Confederacy—
Her Resources and Population— Independent Spirit of the Slave-
Owner— Testimony of Edmund Burke— The Non-Slave-Owners—
Traditions Inherited from Patrick Henry— Jealousy of States-Rights—
The Immigration from Virginia— Displacement of the Musoogees—
Growth in Population and Wealth— The Study of Oratory— Political
Customs, Social Habits— General Quitman's Description of a South
ern Home— Etc., Etc.,
CHAPTER II — Discovery and Settlement of the Southwest— Her
nando DeSoto— Marquette, JoUet, and DeSalle— Iberville, Bienville,
and SauvoUe— The French in Alabama, Mississippi, and Louisiana^
The English Successors in Alabama and Mississippi—The Spaniards
in the Gulf States— Oglethorpe and his Settlement of Georgia- Condi
tion of the Gulf Country at the Outbreak of the Revolution- Strength
and Position of the Indian Tribes— Etc., Etc. •
CHAPTER Ill-Growth of the Idea of Secession— Jealousy of the
Commercial Against the Agricultural States— Navigation of the Mis
sissippi—The Whiskey Rebellion- The Jay Treaty— Views of Distin
guished men— Frequent Threats and Hopes of Disunion— The Louisi
ana Purchase— The East Fears the South and West— The Hartford
Convention— The Resolutions of '98— Randolph's Reply to Patrick
Henry— Etc., Etc.
CHAPTER IV.— Jurisdiction of the United States Over Indian Tribes
—The Fee Simple of Lands Occupied by the Tribes— The Yazoo
Frauds— The Decision in the Case of Fletcher vs. Peck— Indignation of
the People of Georgia— Constitutional Questions Growing Out of that
Decision— Etc., Etc,
CHAPTER v.— Relation of the Union to the Indian Tribes— Relation
of the State to the Tribes Within its Limits— The Georgia Act of
Cession— Non-Observance of the Contract on the Part of the United
States— The Treaty- Making and Commerce-Regulating Power— Con
flicting Views as to Indian Rights— Practice of the Northern and
Eastern States— The New Theory of Equality of Races— Etc., Etc.
CHAPTER VI.— The Treaty of Indian Springs- Murder of Mcintosh—
General Gaines and Governor Troup— Threatened Collision of State
and Federal Forces— The State Sustains Her Position — The Cherokee
Nation— An Appeal to the Supreme Court — Its Writ of Error Disre
garded—The Question of Coercion— Etc., Etc.

XIV CHAPTER VII.— South Carolina and the Tarifl'— Continued Contest
Between the Agricultural and Commercial States— Calhoun and Nul-
liflcation— The Force Bill and the Right of Coercion— Inconsistency
of President Jackson— Calhoun's Victory— Webster Retires from the
Battle— Real Causes for the Proclamation— Etc., Etc,
CHAPTER VIII.— Controversy Between Alabama and the United
States— Intrusion on the Creek Lauds— Killing of Owens— Message of
Governor Gayle— Threats of Resistance to the MUitary— Resolutions
of a Legislative Committee— Mission of Key to the State— Adjustment
of the Difficulty— The Federal Government Compromises the Ques
tion—Etc, Etc.
CHAPTER IX.— The Federal Party Reorganize upon the Slavery
Question— Continued War upon the Agricultural States— Opinions of
the Southern People as to Slavery— The Missouri Compromise— The
Slade Agitation— The Abolitionist, George Thompson— Views of
England— Opinions of Jackson, Marcy, Clay, Everett and others-
Drawing of the Geographical Line— Etc., Etc.
CHAPTER X.— Position of the South During the Van Buren and Har
rison Administration— Relation and Tenets of Parties from 1840 to
1850— More Territory for the South— New Threats of Division at the
North— The Mexican War— Quitman and the Palmettoes— Offer of the
Mexican Crown to General Scott— Condition of a Mongrel Popula
tion—Etc, Etc
CHAPTER XI  Wm. L. Yancey and the Montgomery District— The
Alabama Democratic Resolutions of 1848— General Cass and the
States-Rights Party— The Nashville Convention and Defeat of Seces
sionists—The Compromise Measures of Clay— Triumph of the Union
Party all Over the South— Defeat of Governors Seabrook and Quit
man— The Georgia Resolutions— Union Leaders and Sentiment In
Alabama— Etc. , Etw.
CHAPTER XII.— The Montgomery District— Contest of States-Rights
and Union Men over Yancey— The Georgia Platform— Yancey Retires
and Cochran Takes His Place— Report of the Southern Rights Associ
ation—Defeat of the Yancey Party— Scheme to Acquire Cuba— Lopez
and Quitman— Federal Arrest of a Governor— Reorganization of Par
ties—The Southern Whigs— The Whig Convention at Baltimore-
Reply of Scott and Pierce to the States-Rights Associations— Etc., Etc.
CHAPTER XIII  The Kansas-Nebraska Bill— Preparing for Battle
over the Outpost— Sharpe Rifles— Emigrant Societies— Rise of the
American Party— Fillmore and Buchanan in the Southwest — Political
Elements of the Elections of 1856— Etc., Etc.
CHAPTER XIV.— The Dred Scott Decision— Condition of Parties in
1858— The Irrepressible Conflict— The John Brown Raid— Leagues of
United Southerners- The Southern Commercial Convention- Debate
Between Yancey and Pryor— Precipitating the Cotton States into
Revolution— Etc., Etc.
CHAPTER XV — Instructions to Alabama Delegates— Action of the
Alabama Legislature— Views of Forsyth, White and others— Meeting
of the Charleston Convention— Yancey's Great Address— Withdrawal
of Southern Delegates— Position of Political Parties— Yancey at Balti
more—He is offered the Vice-Presidency- Nomination of Breckin
ridge— Etc., Etc.

XV

CHAPTER XVI.— The Canvass in Alabama— Assaults upon Yancey
—Position of the Three Contestants— Yancey's Canvass of the West
and North— His Arrival at Memphis— Reception at Knoxville— Speech
at Washington— Attempted Fusion in New York— Yancey at New
York— His Speech in Faneull Hall, at Lexington, and at New Or
leans— Return of Yancey and Visit of Douglas to Montgomery—Etc.
CHAPTER XVII.— Election of Lincoln— Reception of the News-
Mass Meeting at Montgomery— Yancey Declares for Secession— The
People Taught that Secession will be Peaceable — Co-operationists and
Secessionists— The Crittenden Compromise— Its Rejection and De
feat—Etc, Etc.
CHAPTER XVIII— Effect of Seward's Speech— The Vote for Delegates
to the Secession Convention— Meeting of the Alabama Convention-
Caucus at Washington— Excitement in the Convention— Parties
Nearly Equally Divided— Refusal to Submit the Ordinance to the
People— Yancey's Threatening Speech— Counter-Threats— Etc., Etc.
CHAPTER XIX.— Adoption of the Ordinance of Secession- Popular
Enthusiasm— Union of all Classes of the People— Assembling of the
Southern Congress at Montgomery— Arrival of President Davis—
Ratification by the Alabama Convention of the Confederate Consti
tution— Conclusion,

THE

Cradle of the Confederacy,

CHA^PTER I.

The City of Montgomery, Alahama — The Birthplace of the
Confederacy — Extent and Situation of the Oriainnl
Confederacy — Ker Resources and Population — Inde
pendent Spirit of the Slave-Owner — Testitfony of
Edmund Burlce — The Won Slave-Owners — Traditions
Inherited from Patriclc Henry — Jealousi/ of State
Rights — The TmmifiraMon from Virginia. — Displace
ment of the Muscogees — Growth in Population and
Wealth — The Study of Oratory — Political Customs —
Social HaMts — General Quitman's Description of a
Southern Home— Etc., Etc, Etc.

" If slavery "was an evil, it bred the, best race of men and women the
world ever saw," Horatio Seymour.
"For this much is certain: That if institutions are to be judged by
their results in the compo.^^ition of the councils of the Union, the slave
holders are much more ably represented than the simple freemen."
* * * "In the progress of this affair, the distinctive character of the
Inhabitants of the several great divisions of the Union have been shown
more In relief than perhaps in any national transaction since the estab
lishment of the Constitution. It Is perhaps accidental that the combi
nation of talent and Influence has been the greatest on the slave side,"
John QuiNOy Adams.
" He is a gentleman of the South ; they have no property but land ;
and I am told his territory was immense. * * * It is not unlikely he
may have lost his estates now; but that makes no difference to me. I
shall treat him, and all Southern gentlemen, as our fathers treated the
emigrant nobility of France," Disraeli, in Lothair.
It was on the eventful evening of Saturday, February
16th, 1861, that an immense crowd of human beings,
of all classes, sexes and colors, thronged the streets of
the little city of Montgomery, in the State of Alabama,

2 THE CRADLE OF THE CONFEDEEACY.
and congregated in front of the Exchange Hotel, which
overlooks the broad mart. The occasion for this im
mense assemblage, whose shouts of exultation rent the
air, was the arrival in that city of the President elect
of the Confederate States — Jefferson Davis.
In obedience to the call of the people who had assem
bled to greet him, Mr. Davis appeared upon the balcony
of the hotel, accompanied by many distinguished men,
whose names had long been eminent in the annals of
the Union, and who were yet to become even more dis
tinguished in the history of the ill-fated Confederacy.
Prominent among them was William Lowndes Yancey.
Introducing Mr. Davis to the assembled multitude, the
voice of the greatest orator ever produced by the South
rung out like the notes of a clarion — '¦'¦The hour and the
man have met .'"
The place of this remarkable meeting, Montgomery,
was then a small city of twelve thousand inhabitants,
standing at the navigable head of the Alabama river,
and in the heart of that fertile band of rolling and wooded
prairies which stretches itself, averaging a width of
seventy-five mUes, from the waters of the Savannah to
those of the Mississippi.
Here is the great cotton belt of the Gulf States.
Here is grown the larger proportion of the cotton
production of the United States. Here it was that broad
plantations covered the fairest land under the sky; where
great wealth accumulated, and where was developed that
highest and best pride of humanity which accompanies
the possession of vast landed estates.
The beautiful city of Montgomery was the brightest
of gems upon the belt of this fertile and happy region.
Midway between the Gulf and the Tennessee, between

THE CEADLE OF THE CONFEDERACY. ,3
the Savannah and the Mississippi, she held the key to
the Gulf States. North of her, and extending to the
Tennessee, was a roUing country, rich in metallic ores,
mth fertile valleys, salubrious climate, and health-giving
waters. South of her, the broad cotton lands rolled
down to meet the pine forests of the coast, whose wealth
of timber was fringed by groves of magnolia and orange.
It was the habit of many who were proud of the
extent of the Union to deride the Confederacy at its
earliest organization, when it embraced only the first
seven seceding States, because it was so small a fraction
of the United States. There was no occasion for derision
or contempt. The country of which Montgomery was
the immediate centi'e, covered an area as large as
England and France combined.
The entire country of which she was then the capital,
contained more than half a million square mUes, or more
than three hundred and thirty-six millions of acres. It
embraced some of the most fertile and productive land
to be found in either hemisphere, situated in a mild and
healthful climate. It lay circling half around a vast
inland sea, which covers a surface nearly as extensive as
the Mediterranean, and draining river basins unparalleled
in size and variety of products by any of those of the
Eastern hemisphere.
This territory, of which Montgomery was the capital,
is more extensive than the combined areas of France,
Great Britain, Prussia, Bavaria, Belgium, and the Neth
erlands — countries which contain more than one hundred
and five millions of inhabitants. It produces every
commodity which is adapted to the soU and climate of
these populous European nations; and yields, besides,
the valuable staples — cotton, sugar and rice. Its

4 THE CRADLE OF THE CONFEDERACY.
mountains are rich with coal and iron, which lie close
to the sea, and are easy of manipulation. At a lower
price than elsewhere it is able to grow all the cotton
needed for the world. Its production of rice and sugar
is limited only by the amount of labor. Its timber for
ship and house building is the most valuable in the
world. It has every variety of climate, from the
Appalachian range of mountains to the semi-tropical
groves of Mobile and New Orleans. The health of this
vast imperial domain sta,nds as well in the medical
reports as that of any other section of the Union.
Such was the site of the city in which was estabhshed
the government of the Confederate States. The people
who joined on the evening of February 16, 1861, in
joyful greetings to the President elect were no less dis
tinguished than the soil which gave them birth. They
were of the highest type of the Anglo-Saxon.
Here and there throughout this broad dominion
remain undiluted remnants of the French and Spanish
families who first colonized the Gulf Coast, and other
Franco-Latin vestiges of that great wave of adventurists
which the empire of Charles V sent forth to the Indies
and to the Gulf of Mexico; but these feeble off-shoots
of South Europe were long since overshadowed by the
great Anglo-Saxon immigration which planted the
banner of King George, under Oglethorpe, upon the
banks of the Savannah; which swept down from south-:
western Virginia along the waters of the Tennessee; and
which followed the course of the Ohio and the Mississippi
to the bluffs of Vicksburg and Natchez.
It has been remarked that the American descendants
of the English Saxons have acquired, as a race, a
variety of their own : that in complexion, expression

THE CRADLE OP THE OONPEDERAOY. 5
and physique they now differ perceptibly from the
parent stock. Although this may be true of the people
of the more northern States, it cannot be held true of
the people of the South. In the latter region, and
especially in those sections where were large landed
estates, the race of men has always preserved the highest
characteristics of their EngUsh ancestry.
Whether or not the institution of African slavery
aided in the development of this highest order of Saxon
manhood, has been a disputed question ; but we have
on record that philosophic testimony of Edmund Burke,
which, during the civil war in America, arrested general
attention. That great statesman, seeking to dissipate
the hope that less resistance to the encroachments of
Great Britain would be found in the Southern colonies
than in the Northern, uttered this language :
" There is, however, a circumstance attending the
" [Southern] colonies, which, in my opinion, counterbal-
" ances this difference, and makes the spirit of liberty
"still more high and haughty than in those to the
" Northward. It is, that in Virginia and the CaroHnas
" they have a vast multitude of slaves. Where this is
'' the case in any part of the world, those who are free
" are by far the most proud and jealous of their freedom.
" Freedom is to them not only an enjoyment, but a kind
" of rank and privilege. Not seeing there that freedom,
"as in countries where it is a common blessing, and as
" broad and genial as the air, may be united with much
" abject toil, with great misery, with aU the exterior of
" servitude, liberty looks among them like something
" that is more noble and liberal. I do not mean, sk, to
" commend the peculiar morality of this sentiment, which
" has at least as much pride as virtue in it; but I cannot

6 THE CRADLE OP THE CONFEDERACY.
"alter the nature of man. The fact is so; and these
" people of the Southern colonies are much more strongly,
" and with a higher and more stubborn spirit, attached to
" liberty than those to the Northward. Sach were all
" the ancient commonwealths ; such were our Gothic
" ancestors ; such in our days were the Poles ; and such
" will be all masters of slaves, who are not slaves them-
" selves. In such a people the haughtiness of domination
" combines with the spirit of freedom, fortifies it, and
" renders it invincible."
Throughout the cotton belt, where, at the blast of a
horn, the master could be surrounded by a regiment of
slaves, the spirit of freedom and domination in the
descendants of the Cavaliers and Huguenots was such
as to develop the frame, and inflame and intensify the
pride of the individual to the highest extent known to
the human race. Such Herculean deeds of valor as
were drawn forth in the terrible conflict which shook the
North American continent testified to the sagacity of
the English philosopher, and to the manhood of the
Southern Saxons.
Nor was this spirit of personal dignity and inde
pendence confined to the actual slave-owners. The
non slave-owners, who had been crowded by superior
wealth or energy from the rich cretaceous lands of the
interior, and from the equally rich alluvium of the
rivers, and who had taken up more humble abodes
among the hills of north Alabama, or in the pine
forests of the coast, felt an equal pride in that distinc
tion of race which made the ti^axon a master. With
such jealousy did they cherish the spirit of personal
liberty and local independence, that the pohcy which ,
looked to the extremest license of State-rights always

THE CRADLE OF THE CONFEDERACY. 7
found among them the most enthusiastic, the most
numerous, and the most persistent supporters. They
received no pecuniary advantage from African slavery,
and were so careless as to its continuance that at , no
time were they wilUng to enter into a war for separation
of the States to secure its firmer esiabHshment ; but
they perceived with that subtle instinct which belongs
to the average Saxon, that the overthrow of African
slavery would leave in the heart of their State a host of
citizens foreign to their ideas, antagonistic to their labor,
and cherishing under the influence of designing leaders
the fi'etflil jealousy of race — a jealousy which the history
of mankind had shown to be the precursor of violent
and constant hostility.
These non slave-holders were not, as has been sup
posed, the dupes or the deluded foUowers of the slave
owner. They were so numerous as to control the politics
of the State. They gave political leaders to the slave
owners. From their midst sprung men like Patrick
Henry, Andrew Jackson, Calhoun and Clay. They gave
warriors of renown, at whose head stands Stonewall
Jackson. , They furnished the rank and file of armies,
and concluded with glorious honor a contest entered into
with unanimity, and prosecuted it with unparalleled
devotion, gaUantry and endurance.
The ancestors of these men had served in the Revo
lutionary war, and had won the independence of the
colonies : an independence which they were so careful
not to surrender to a new, overshadowing, government
that their fears of the proposed Constitution of the
United States could only be aUayed by the then clearly
defined and clearly understood reservations of the
annexed amendments.

8 fHE CRADLE OF THE CONFEDERACY.
Patrick Henry, the eloquent commoner who infused
this spirit into the masses of Southern people, perceived
the doubtful constructions which ambitious men might
place upon the Federal powers. He opposed the adop
tion of the Constitution. Believing that in a national
government the liberties of the people would be gradu
ally lost, he saw that the only hope of the multitude of
Anglo-Saxon people who were destined to fiU this conti
nent was in a confederated republic of independent
States. Hence, he asked in the Virginia convention,
" Why is it that the preamble of the Constitution is
"made to read 'we, the people,' instead of 'we, the
" States V " " If," he declared, " the States be not the
" agents of this compact, it must be one great, consoli-
" dated, national government of the people of aU the
" States." He protested against the language of the
preamble as containing the germ of absolutism. Begin
ning with this solemn protest, the wisdom of which has
been justified by the events of the succeeding eighty
years, the Virginia patriot raised a warning voice which
appears to us of to-day the inspiration of prophecy.
The checks and balances of the three co-ordinate
departments of the Federal Government appeared to
him as specious, imaginary balances — "rope-dancing,
" chain-rattling, ridiculous ideal checks and contriv-
" ances," which could be annulled by the power of Con
gress to throttle the judiciary, or by the power of the
President at the head of a standing army to throttle
States, Congress and Courts, " Can he not at the head
" his army beat down every opposition ? Away with
"your President, we shall have a king: the army will
" salute him monarch ; your militia wiU leave you, and
" assist in making him king, and fight against you ;

TffE CRADLE OF THE OONPEDERAOY. 9
"and what have you to oppose this force?" The State
legislatures would be shorn of then- consequence, being
forbidden to legislate upon any but the most trivial
affairs. They are not to touch private contracts, and
"cannot be trusted with dealing out justice between
" man and man." A stamp act was authorized. Federal
collectors could seize the papers and property of citizens,
and caU in the army to enforce the most dangerous and
alarmmg practices. The Federal judiciary could over
shadow the States, oppress the citizen by onerous costs,
summon juries fi'om a great distance, and, in the hands
of bad men, sustained by the Federal Executive, could
destroy the last vestige of popular government. The
State was at the mercy of a Federal judge — the creature
of the Federal Executive.
The fears of Patricia; Henry were those of the people.
They were only quieted by those amendments which
were supposed to studiously guard against the dangers
which he had portrayed so eloquently.
From this orator of the Revolution the people of the
South inherited a deadly opposition to a national con
solidated government, a fear of concentrated Federal
power, and an earnest resolve to resist to the last the
abrogation of State-rights. The slave-holder and the
non slave-holder alike were inflamed by this traditionary
antagonism; and when Lincoln declared after his election
to the presidency that the relation of a State to the
Federal Government was simply the relation of a county
to a State; and when Seward, a little later, declared that
old things had passed away and all things had become
new, the Anglo-Saxons of the Gulf, with no special
reference to African slavery, except as an incident in
the impending conflict, arose as one man, from the

10 THE CRADLE OP THE CONFEDERACY.
mountains to the sea, and, in the language of the last
battle-order of General Gordon, lowered at Appamattox
the Cross of St. Andrews only amid the huzzas of victory
and before a routed foe. As an organization, they were
conquered; as individuals, they were stiff fi'eemen. This
spirit of personal independence and pride of race could
not be crushed by the most appaffing cafcistrophe that
ever befeU a people.
The central and most fertUe lands of the Gulf States
received at Augusta, Georgia, the tide of immigration
from Virginia and the Carolinas, which followed swiftly
upon the steps of the departing Muscogees. This noble
tribe of Indians (better known as Creek Indians, fi'om
the abundance of water courses upon which they lived),
in the year 1721 occupied that entire country fi'om the
Savannah to the Tallapoosa and Coosa rivers, which
afterwards became the garden spots of Georgia and
Alabama. In 1733 General Oglethorpe met the
Muscogees on the bluff of Yamacraw, on the Savannah.
They agreed in formal councff to yield to the colonists
aU the lands below tide water between the Savannah
and the Altamaha. Six years later, Oglethorpe again
visited them on the Chattahoochee, and by a new treaty
they acknowledged themselves subjects of Great Britain;
ceding to the English, with some reservations, the coast
from the Savannah to the St. Johns as far into the
interior as the tide flows. During the American Revo
lution the Creeks adhered to the British, After the
conclusion of peace the Georgians claimed, that by
treaties concluded in 1783, 1785 and 1786, the Mus
cogees had ceded to Georgia a considerable part of then-
lands south and west of the Oconee. The Creeks,
under their able leader, McGfllivray, whose father was a

THE CRADLE OP THE CONFEDERACY. 11
Scotchman, denied the validity of these treaties, and,
although his people had always been aUies of the
Enghsh against the Spaniards, they now entered into
close relation with the Spanish government of Florida,
They numbered 6000 warriors, and were weU supplied
with fire arms. In 1787 war broke out between them
and the Georgians, and the colonists suffered severely.
In 1789 they entered into negotiations with the United
States, and acknowledged allegiance to the Federal
Government; but soon after broke off" negotiations,
and renewed hostiUties when they discovered that the
commissioner did not propose to restore their lands.
By the treaty of 1796 the Creeks admitted the eastern
boundary, as defined by the treaty of Hopewell in
1756, "from Tugals river, thence a direct line to the
" top of Currohe mountain ; thence to the head of the
" south fork of the Oconee river."
Between this eastern boundary, and the western
boundary of Line creek in the county of Montgomery,
Alabama, the Creeks cultivated their fertile lands in a
rude way, and remained at peace eighteen years. But
at the outbreak of the war of 1812 with Great Britain,
a large portion of the nation — incited it is said by
Tecumseh, and probably receiving encouragement from
other quarters — took arms without the sUghtest provb-
cation, and at first committed great ravages. They
received a severe chastisement at the hands of General
Jackson, and in August, 1814, surrendered a large part
of their best territory. In 1818 they made another
large cession of lands, and in February, 1825, they
ceded all their lands in Georgia. On March 2, 1832,
the Creeks ceded to the United States all thek lands
east of the Mississippi.

12 THE CRADLE OP THE CONFEDERACY.
It was thus that during the first quarter of the present
century the immigration fi'om Virginia and the Carolinas,
crossing the Savannah at Augusta, pushed before it the
fated Muscogees, until finaUy by treaty and by battle
driving the savages beyond the Mississippi, they spread
the broad wave, of civilization and industry over the
entire Gulf States.
This occupancy was not marked by the circumstances
of frontier life. It met upon the west below and beyond
Montgomery an old and refined society which had been
planted by Iberville and Bienviffe, and which had
received accessions from the fugitives of Waterloo. It
brought with it the wealth, energy and enlightenment
of half a century of industry upon the banks of the
Savannah, the memories of the American Revolution,
and the manly independence and honesty which had
been engendered by the poUtical education of middle
Georgia. Thirty years' use of the cotton gin had raised to
wealth and respectability persons who before the intro
duction of Whitney's invention, had been depressed by
poverty and sunk in idleness. Debts had been paid off.
Slaves had been imported in great numbers under the
clause of the Federal Constitution which forbid the
discontinuance of the African slave trade until 1807.
Capital had increased. The sons of the planters had
been liberaUy educated at Cambridge, New Haven,
Litchfield, Princeton and Charlottesville. Lands had
grown enormously in value, and railroads were even
had in contemplation to convey to Savannah and
Charleston the cotton bales of that broad belt which
reached from the Savannah to the Mississippi.
The parish of St Paul, which wau afterwards known as

THE CRADLE OP THE CONFEDERACY. 13
the county of Richmond, and from which the county of
Columbia was constructed, was one of the wealthiest in
the State of Georgia. Its county s^at, Augusta, was
the centre of a very populous and prosperous com
munity. Among its eminent sons it numbered such
men as Edward Telfair, WilUam H, Crawford, John
Forsyth, Richard Henry Wilde, WiUiam Cumming,
the Holts, Longstreets, Glasscocks, the two Generals
Twiggs (father and son), Abram Baldwin, Nicholas
Ware, George Walton, John MUledge, Freeman Walker
and Thomas W. Cobb.
Within the Umits of the present county of Columbia
was Carmel academy, which was for some years con
ducted by the celebrated Dr. Waddell. At this academy
John C. Calhoun, William. H. Crawford and Thomas W.
Cobb were pupils. Here Calhoun, supported by the
proceeds of his own labor alone, was prepared in two
years for the junior class of Yale college.
Immediately after the Revolution this region received
a large accession of population from Vkginia. The
leader of this wave of immigration, George Mathews,
a man of sterling worth, but of hmited education, had
been colonel of the 9th regiment of Virginia troops
in the continental service. His knowledge of frontier
Ufe recommended him to the notice of Gen. Washing
ton, and at the head of his regiment he distinguished
himself at Germantown. He was high in favor with
the army as a vigorous and undaunted officer. In
1785 Col. Mathews purchased a tract of land on Broad
river, and removed to it with his famffy. By his
advice, Traviss Merri wether, Benj. Taliaferro, Peachy
Gilmer and, John GUmer also emigrated from Virginia
to the same region. These famiUes became prosperous,

14 THE CRADLE OF THE CONFEDERACY.
rose to distinction, gave governors to Georgia, and were
honored by having their names perpetuated in counties.
Mathews was the principal man of all that section. His
military reputation made him governor of Georgia one
year after his settlement in the State. He had become
personaUy known to the people some years before while
serving under Gen. Greene. From 1785 to 1795 the
lands upon Broad river were settled mainly by the friends
and relatives of Mathews and those who first accom
panied him from Virginia. The descendants of these
Virginians foUowed the retiring Muscogees, and settled
in the heart of the richest prairies between the Chatta
hoochee and Line creek in Alabama.
This society of middle Georgia, born in the hiUs of
Virginia and nurtured upon the banks of the Savannah,
extended in full vigor to the fresher lands of central
Alabama. The men of this region, fi'om the beginning of
the century to its fifth decade, were such as no country
ever saw before; and such as, it may be feared, wiU
perhaps never be seen again. The first settlers were
comparatively rude and uncultivated. The eight years
of Revolution had debarred an entire generation fi-om
all education except that of the camp and the battle
field. There was then no rapid road to wealth. Some
what later, however, the cotton gin added new value to
agricultural labor, and began to bring gold into the
hands of the planter. The log cabin soon gave way to
the substantial framed house, or to the more pretentious
country mansion surrounded by elegance and taste.
The squad of slaves increased into companies and regi
ments; school houses and churches arose in every

THE CRADLE OF THE CONFEDERACY. 15
settlement, and the trading viUages sweUed into wealthy
commercial towns.
The population was almost entirely agricultural.
There were few mechanics, and but a smaU number
engaged in commercial pursuits. The professions were
not crowded. Although the sons of planters generaUy
pursued legal studies, it was seldom with a view to
active pi-actice ; more generaUy it was to serve as an
entrance to political Ufe.
Sir James Mackintosh, speaking of the EngUsh
nobility as the most powerfiil order of men in Europe,
surrounded by every circumstance which might seem
likely to fill them with arrogance, and to teach them to
scorn their inferiors, and which might naturaUy be
supposed to extinguish enterprise and to lull every
power of the understanding to sleep, has asked the
question : " What has preserved their character ? what
"makes them capable of serving or adorning then-
" country as orators and poets, men of letters and men
" of business, in equal proportion to the same number
" of men in the commercial and professional pursuits of
"life ?" The answer is: Where the ordinary incentives
to action are withdrawn, a free constitution excites it by
presenting poUtical power as a new object of pursuit.
By rendering that power in a great degree dependent
on popular favor, it compels the highest to treat their
fellow-creatures with decency and courtesy, and disposes
the best of them to feel that inferiors in station may be
superiors in worth, as they are equals in right. What
is true of the EngUsh nobility, was true of the most
opulent and well-born of the Southern planters. They
looked to the people at large for preferment, and firom
a nearer plane. The richest among them had been

16 THE CRADLE OP THE CONFEDERACY.
poor but recently, and the most aristocratic in feeling
could boast of no ancestry which antedated the Revo
lution in distinction. The only aristocracy which could
maintain itself was one either of wealth or genius. But
as wealth was an accident to which any onq might
attain, and as the honors of the Republic lay within
the reach of the youth born in poverty equally with
him who was born in opulence, it became essential that
the men who sought the ear and favor of the people
should cultivate aU the graces and courtesies which are
found among the poUtical aspirants of England. Ora
tory was cultivated as the most effective means to reach
the popular ear. Newspapers being rare, the rostrum
became the source of political information, and a people
who had ample leisure deUghted to witness the contests
of the inteUectual gladiators.
There was no official dishonesty in those days. To
be suspected even of selfishness in office was to be dis
carded from pubUc favor. The voice of the people was
supreme. No officer dared set himself above the wishes
of his constituents, nor resist the power of public opinion.
The man with clean hands was caressed and honored.
The man with soiled hands sunk to obscurity, and died
in shame. The pecuUar election laws of Virginia had
moulded a lofty public sentiment, and impressed upon
her children in the other Southern States a purity of
political morals which Uves now only in tradition. The
manner of voting was viva voce. The voter was a free
holder. On the day of election the candidates sat with
the judges, and in turn harangued the multitude in
elevated and courteous language. The free-holder in an
open, frank and manly manner announced his prefer
ence. He had a choice, and he] was brave enough to

THE CRADLE OF THE CONFEDERACY. 17
let the worid know it. There was no equivocation,
double-dealing and shuffling. It was the voter's pride
that he sustained great fundamental principles, or
honored men of great worth, or maintained the dignity
of his State in the Union by elevating to representative
positions the wisest and the best in the land. In the
dignity and worth of his governor or representative in
Congress he recognized his own importance. He blushed
with shame at an unworthy representative. So strong
had become the pride of the voter, and so firmly rooted
had become this elevated view of statesmanship, that it
remained steadfast long after the subdivision of property
and the gradual extension of suffi-age to the non-land
owner. This lofty sentiment accompanied the Virginian
and Carolinian wherever he went. It was renewed and
strengthened by the aristocratic tendency of Afi-ican
slavery. It made him the most independent of mankind.
He was the patron of the politician and statesman, and
not the recipient of governmental favors and bounty.
He bore himself with all the majesty of the perfect
fi-eeman, dispensed a generous hospitality, and displayed
a loftiness of soul which respected and aUeviated honest
misfortune. He was quick to rebuke an unworthy act,
and to revenge the slightest affront. He was haughty
to the proud, kind to the unfortunate, gentle to the
poor, stubborn in opinion, patient under affliction, and
unostentatious in prosperity. He was a fair specimen
of a class of men which could be developed only by
great agricultural prosperity, under a system of laws
which encouraged and compelled the highest exhibition
of political candor and boldness.
Although the generation which immediately foUowed
the Revolution was comparatively rude and uncultivated,

18 THE CRADLE OF THE CONFEDERACY.
it possessed those splendid quaUties of patriotism, pa
tience, and endurance which invariably lay broad and
deep the foundations of States. In the midst, and im
mediately under the shadow, of great events the human
mind becomes more comprehensive in its grasp, and
the human soul more enlarged in its aspirations, and
more steadfast in its principles. Nothing impresses the
mind more permanently with the glory of humanity
than the exhibition of splendid acts of devotion occur
ring within its experience. The immortal deeds which
shine out brilliantly from a patriotic war stir the heart
of the beholder with an ambition to emulate such
virtue, and a pride in being worthy to claim it as a her
itage. When the poUtical causes which occasion war
have been lost to memory in the mass of uncertain his
torical fects, the deeds of gallantry which emblazoned
its annals wUl live fi-esh and green in the enthusiastic
bosoms of succeeding generations. The fathers of the
Revolution exhibited in their sti-uggle for fi-eedom the
most heroic qualities. The mothers forgot the feebleness
of thek sex and bore with fortitude the most appaUing
dangers, from the open foe, the secret enemy at theii'
door, and fi:om the mercUess savage.
In the Carolinas and in Georgia the sufferings and
misfortunes of the patriots were most intense. The
army of Greene, the little bands of Marion and Sux-i-
ter, struggled against fearful odds, and at times seemed
to be struggUng against destiny itself Such patience,
such endurance, was the cradle of a race of men of
enlarged inteUect and iron wiU. They were found in
every settiement where the Continental soldier had
hung up his musket. They carved an empire out of
the forest ; they thrust the Indian backward towards

THE CRADDLE OF THE CONFEERACY. 19
the Pacific. They organized and conducted State and
municipal governments which were models of simplic
ity, vigor and purity. There were but few books in
their cabins; but the Uvcs of' Washington and of Ma
rion, by Weems, were in the hand of nearly every
chUd. The events described in these little books
formed the character of the rising generation. It grew
to be jealous of personal dignity and anxious for the
security of municipal privileges. It chafed at the inter
ference of a Federal executive. It was suspicious of a
government whose a'uthrrity was not derived dkectly
fi-om themselves. Above aU it yearned for military
glory. AU wars were popular with them ; and no pol
itician could win the popular applause more surely than
by appeaUng to the final arbitrament of arms.
The succeeding generation, that which was born with
the present century, inherited the manly qualities of
their fathers. To these, prosperity added education,
with its refining influences and its expansion of the
grasp of intellect. With them society was simple and
orderly. There was no dissipation, thriftlessness, no
want. The thief and the beggar were rarely known.
The slave which had escaped the club of the captor
found a home where labor was accompanied with abun
dant food and clothing, and where the law and public
opinion alike protected him from cruelty and oppres
sion. If it was a crime to have brought him fi-om
Afiica, the crime did not rest with these planters.
Under Oglethorpe, slavery had been prohibited in all
Georgia, stretching fi:om the Savannah to the Missis
sippi, but the greed of merchants on the coast and of
ship owners fi-om New England, abohshed the prohibition
and engrafted the traffic for twenty years, even on the

20 THE CRADLE OP THE CONFEDERACY.
face of the Federal Constitution. Was it better, in the
development of mankind, that this race should have
remained in Afi-ica, free to Uve like the veriest beasts
they slaughtered, or should have become useful as
slaves, under an enlightened sky? In that day slavery
was regarded as an evU — but so difficult of removal
that no plan was ever seriously contemplated for its
cure. It was many years later that the constant as
saults upon the slaveholder by citizens of distant States
drove him in his pride and defiance to the proposition
that slavery was a moral, political and social blessing.
Compared with his situation in Afi-ica, slavery was un
doubtedly a poUtical, moral and social blessing to the
slave. Whether it was such to the master wiU remam
one of those vexed questions which wUl be answered
according to the sentiments with which habit, educa
tion, prejudice and custom have clothed each one of us.
Certain it is, that taking the slave-owning planters of
that day as a body, there was nowhere under the broad
sun a more moral race of men, with purer and more
elevated social habits, or with more Uberal and benign
poUtical institutions.
Major General Quitman, a native of New York,
wrote in 1822, when but a youth, to his father, the fol
lowing description of Southern Ufe :
" Our bar is quartered at different country seats—
" not boarding ; a Mississippi planter would be insulted
" by such a proposition, but we are enjoying^the hospi-
" talities that are offered to us on aU sides. The awful
" pestUence in the city brings out, m strong reUef, the.
"peculiar vktues of tiiese people. The mansions of
" the planters are thrown operi to aU comers and goers
"fi:ee of charge. Whole famiUes have fi:ee quarteis

THE CRADLE OF THE OONPEDERAOY. 21
"during the epidemic, and country wagons are sent
" daffy to the verge of the smitten city with fowls, veg-
" etables, &c., for gratuitous distribution to the poor. I
" am now writing from one of these old mansions, and
" I can give you no better notion of Ufe' at the South
" than by describing the routine of a day. The owner
" is the widow of a Virginia gentleman of distinction —
" a brave officer who died in the pubUc service during
" the last war with Great Britain.
" She herself is a native of this vicinity — of Eng-
" Ush parents, settled here in Spanish times. She is
" an Ultimate fi:iend of my first friend, Mrs. G., and I
" have been in the habit of visiting her house ever
" since I came South. The whole aim of this exceUent
" lady seems to be to make others happy. I do not
" believe she ever thinks of herself She is growing
" old, but her parlors are constantly thronged with the
" young and gay, attracted by her cheerfiil and never-
" faiUng kindness. There are two large famUies from
" the city staying- here ; and every day come ten or a
" dozen transient guests. Mint juleps in the morning
" are sent to our room«, and then foUows a delightful
" breakfast in the open veranda. We hunt, ride, fish,
" pay morning visits, play chess, read or lounge until
" dinner, which is served at 2 p. M., in great variety,
" and most deUcately cooked in what is here caUed
" Creole style — very rich, and many made or mixed
"dishes. In two hours afterwards everybody, white
" and black, has disappeared. The whole household is
"asleep— the siesta of the ItaUans. The ladies retire
" to their apartments, and the gentlemen on sofas, set-
" tees, hammocks, and often gipsy fashion, on the grass
" under the spreading oaks. Here, too, in fine weather

22 THE CRADLE OP THE CONFEDERACY.
"the tea-table is always set before sunset; and then
" until bedtkne we stroU, sing, play whist or croquet
"It is an indolent, yet charming life, and one quits
" thinking and takes to dreaming.
" This excellent lady is not rich, merely independ-
" ent ; but by thrifty housewifery and a good dairy and
" garden she contrives to dispense the most liberal hos-
" pitality. Her slaves appear to be in a manner fi-ee,
"yet are obedient and polite, and the farm is well
" worked. With aU her gayety of disposition and fond-
" ness for the young she is truly pious ; and in her own
" apartments every night she has famUy prayers with
" her slaves, one or more of them being often called
" upon to sing and pray. When a minister visits the
" house, which happens very frequently, prayers, night
" and morning, are always said ; and on these occasions
" the whole household and the guests assemble in the
" parlor ; chairs are provided for the servants. They
" are married by a clergyman of thek own color ; and
" a sumptuous supper is always prepared. On public
" hoUdays they have dinners equal to an Ohio barba-
" cue ; and Christmas, for a week or ten days, is a pro-
" tracted festival for the blacks. They are a happy,
" careless, unreflecting, good-natured race, who, left to
"themselves, would degenerate into drones or brutes;
" but subjected to wholesome restraint and stimulus be-
" come the best and most contented of laborers. They
" are strongly attached to ' old massa ' and ' old missus,'
" but their devotion to ' young massa ' and ' young
"missus' amounts to enthusiasm. They have great
" famUy pride, and are the most arrant coxcombs and
" aristocrats in the world. At a wedding I witnessed
"here last Saturday evening, where some one hundred

THE CRADLE OF THE CONFEDERACY. 23
" and fifty negroes were assembled — many being in-
" vited guests — 1 heard a number of them addressed as
" governors, generals, judges and doctors (the titles of
" thek masters), and a spruce, tight-set darkey, who
" waited on me in town, was called ' Major Quitman.'
" The ' colored ladies ' are invariably Miss Joneses,
" Miss Smiths, or some such title. They are exceed-
" ingly pompous and ceremonious, gloved and highly
" perfumed. The ' gentlemen ' sport canes, ruffles and
"jewelry ; wear boots and spurs ; affect crape on thek
" hats, and carry huge cigars. The beUes wear gaudy
" colors, ' tote ' thek fans with the air of Spanish seno-
" ritas, and never stir out, though black as the ace of
" spades, without their parasols.
" In short, these ' niggers,' as you caU them, are the
" happiest people 1 have ever seen, and some of them,
" in form, features and movements, are real sultanas. So
" far from being fed on ' salted cotton seed,' as we used
" to believe in Ohio, they are oUy, sleek, bountifully
" fed, weU clothed, weU taken care of, and one hears
" them at all times whistling and singing cheerily at
" thek work. They have an extraordinary faciUty for
" sleeping. A negro is a great night-walker. He wUl,
" after laboring aU day in the burning sun, walk ten
" mUes to a frolic, or to see his Dinah, and be at home
" and at his work by daylight the next morning. This
" would knock up a white man or an Indian. But a
" negro wiU sleep during the day — sleep at his work—
" sleep on the carriage box, sleep standing up ; and I
" have often seen them sitting bare-headed in the sun,
" on a high rail fence, sleeping as securely as though
"lying in a bed. They never lose thek equipoise;
" and wiU carry thek cotton baskets or their water ves-

24 THE CRADLE OF THE CONFEDERACY.
" sels, fiUed to the brim, poised on their heads, walking
" carelessly and at a rapid rate, without spUling a drop.
" The very weight of such burdens would crush a white
'man's brains into apoplexy.
"Compared with the ague-smitten and suffering
" settlers that you and I have seen in Ohio, or the sickly
" and starved operatives we read of in factories and in
" mines, these Southern slaves are indeed to be envied.
" They are treated with great humanity and kindness."
This is a true picture of the home and surroundings
of the Southern planter of that day, drawn by an intel
ligent spectator of Northern birth and education. Such
were the homes of Middle Georgia and of Middle Ala
bama. If the character of the people was not marked
with that quiet refinement, that gentle grace and per
fect command over every movement of person and
every expression of countenance and speech which be
longed to the older communities of the coast cities, and
which can only be acquked by constant contact with
the highly educated, it was at least marked with an
unselfishness and a candor, a vigor of mind and a pu
rity of thought and action, which could often shame and
put to fli^rht the cold, calculating spirit of the fashion
able world. It was not an aristocracy of education and
hereditary wealth, but a nobility of nature. The child
obtains the imprint of character fi-om the mother. The
daughters of that day received a home education.
Their constitutions were robust ; their health vigorous.
They were devoted to the claims of home, husband and
children. They were affectionate, industrious, proud
and pious. Their worid was the home circle; and their
occupation was in the broad field of domestic duties.
They taught thek sons and daughters the simple purity

THE CRADLE OF THE OONPEDERAOY. 25
of thek own lives — the fgrmer to look upon woman
with the most chivakic tenderness, and the latter to
cultivate that deUcacy of sentiment and action which
takes alarm at the first approach of whatever is coarse
and vulgar. The man of mean conduct was despised
and discarded. The man of cruelty was shunned. The
drunkard, the liar, the libertine was ostracised. The
siUy and the fi-oward woman was rebuked, and she who
overstepped the bounds of maiden propriety lost caste
forever. The sUghtest whisper against a woman's char
acter, if true, blasted a Ufe and caused the heads of a
famffy to hang in shame for generations ; if felse, the
life of the accuser paid the forfeit for an accusation so
revolting to the sentiment of the domestic ckcle.
Religion is the cement which holds together the
constituent elements of society. The generation which
immediately succeeded the Revolution lived in sparse
settlements and was cut off" from the word of God. It
would seem that in the face of great dangers and ca
lamities the reUgious element would be strengthened,
but strangely enough, during periods of war famUiarity
with death appears to rob the grim monarch of his ter
rors. The soldier faUs with the triumphant huzza upon
his Ups and a simle of defiance mocking the paUor of
the last adversary. He is buried with the honors of
war ; a voUey of musketry is fired over his grave, and
his comrade, with a single tear for his memory, rushes
in another hour to the arms of a like fate. With the
generation which succeeded, our war for independence
that skepticism and infidelity which accompanied the
rise and progress of the French Revolution, increased
the indifference of its American sympathisers to mat
ters pertaining to the life beyond the grave. There was

26 THE CRADLE OP THE CONFEDERACY.
stUl another reason for carelessness in religious affaks ;
men high in authority and possessed of the affections
of the people were known to entertain irreligious opin
ions. Beside this, there was no immediate means by
which such an unhealthy condition of society could be
remedied. The Parish of St. Paul's was no more. The
AngUcan Church lost its power and popularity with the
Revolution, and its Episcopal successor had not only to
struggle against the prejudice which had atta,ched to
the relation of its predecessor with the EngUsh govern
ment, but against the stronger prejudice which a rude
and uncultivated people entertained against the ritual.
The serAdces were too compUcated, the forms and cere
monies too cumbersome. The prayer-book appeared to
them to requke as much study as an Indian dialect.
John Wesley had been sent by the Anglican Church
as a missionary to Georgia, and the renowned White-
field had foUowed him, but notwithstanding their labors,
as late as 1769, there were but two churches in Georgia,
and these were one hundred and fifty miles apart.
Soon after the Revolution the Baptists obtained some
foothold on Kiokee creek in Columbia county, where
was established the first Baptist church in Georgia.
The first Methodist society was formed in Augusta
as late as 1799. It may be said that for twenty years,
or one generation after the Revolution, there were no
churches in Georgia. With the opening century, how
ever, when the introduction of the cotton gin had in
creased the comforts, wealth and opportunities of the
people, a new condition of religious affairs began. The
labors of Wesley and Whitefield had been seed sown
in fruitful ground, destined after a long time, but finally,
to bear abundant fi-uit. The Baptists and Methodists

THE CRADLE OF THE CONFEDERACY. 27
were the missionaries of the Word. The simple prac
tices and fiiith of these churches adapted themselves to
the rude customs of the early settlers. Devoid of
show and ceremony, they appealed to the emotional
nature of man. Woman is more religious than man,
because her emotional nature is more delicately organ
ized. So an appeal to the emotions more readUy cap
tivates an unlettered and simple people than one more
highly educated. The humble ministers of God passed
to and fi-o, holding divine services in the log school-
houses, in the cottages, under the wide-spreading trees
beside the cool springs. They inctffcated those divine
precepts which society recognizes, so soon as announced,
as the corner-stone of its structure, the key-stone of its
arch — to love one's neighbor, to Uve vktuously, to do
no wrong. Here and there churches were erected, but
churches no longer could contain the multitudes who
crowded to listen to the men of God — men often of the
most captivating eloquence, always of a zeal which if
it could not arouse the attention by beauties of rhetoric
and logic, wrought the heart into a frenzy by the elec
tricity of enthusiasm. To accommodate the multitudes
camps were resorted to. Great arbors covered with
brush, and under which were rough seats of logs and
coarse boards, constituted the audience room. Often
several preachers were occupied in exhorting different
congregations at the same hour. From morning untff
midnight the groves resounded with prayer and song.
The whole country assembled at these meetings. The
tents witnessed the most profuse hospitaUty. In the
intervals of service the famiUes of the neighborhood
mingled together, and as the conversation was natm-aUy
dkected towards the events of the occasion, the con-

28 THE CRADLE OF THE CONFEDERACY.
duct and language of the people partook of a religious
discretion and fervor. Amid such scenes were edu
cated the most exalted sentiments of human nature.
From such a presence the impure of heart, the disturber
of public peace, the man of lasciviousness and violence
slunk abashed.
The memory of revolutionary deeds excited this peo
ple to bravery ; their political customs educated them
to candor and honesty ; thek free institutions inflamed
their pride and independence ; but thek camp-meetings
did more than aU else to make of them a peaceful, or
derly and virtuous society.

OH^I'TE]R II.

Discovery and Settlement of the Southwest — Hernando De
Soto — Marquette, Joliet and DeSalle — Iberville, Bien
ville and Sauvolle — The French in Alabama, Missis
sippi and Louisiana — The English Successors in Ala
bama and Mississippi — The Spaniards in the Gulf
States — Oglethorpe and Ms Settlement Of Georgia —
Condition of the Gulf Country at the Outbreak of
the Revolution — Strength and Position of the Indian
Tribes, t&c, &c.

" What a substratum for empire ! Compared with which the founda
tion of the Macedonian, the Boman and the British sink into inslgnifl-
cance. Some of our large States have territory superior to the Island of
Great Britain, whilst the whole together are little inferior to Europe
Itself. Our Independence will people this extent of country with free
men and will stimulate the innumierable inhabitants thereof, by every
motive, to perfect the acts of government and to extend human happi
ness." David Ramsey.
" The time will come when one hundred and fifty millions of people
will be living in America, equal in condition, the progeny of one race,
owing their origin to the same cause, preserving the same civilization,
the same language, the same literature, the same religion, the same
habits, the same manners, and Imbued with the same opinions, propa
gated under the same forms," De Too(iTrBvii.i.E,
Hernando DeSoto, a native of Spain, in early youth
enUsted under the banner of Pizarro, and acquked dis
tinction in the conquest of Peru. Returning to Spain,
he was made governor of Cuba in 1538, and adalen-
tado of Florida, A year after, he saUed for Florida
with an expedition of nine vessels and six hundred
men. It was his ambition to estabUsh on the northern
coast of the guff", an empire equal to that of Peru and
Mexico. The story of his adventure is soon told.

30 THE CRADLE OF THE CONFEDERACY.
Landing at Tampa bay, Florida, he marched in the
direction of TaUahassee, one of his captains, in the
mean time, having discovered the Bay of Pensacola.
Entering Georgia, he crossed the Ockmulgee, Oconee
and Ogechee rivers, and marched up the Savannah
to a point in Habersham county. Thence he marched
westwardly across Georgia to the head waters of the
Coosa, and along the course of the Oostenaula to the
sight of the present town of Rome. StiU moving
down the Coosa he reached the Indian town of Tal-
lassee, and was met by the son of Tuskaloosa, a
powerful chief, whose rule extended fi'om the Coosa
and Alabama to the Tombigbee. Accepting an invita
tion from Tuskaloosa, DeSoto met the gxeat chief at a
village upon Line creek, in the county of Montgomery.
Thence he passed through the counties of Montgomery,
Lowndes and DaUas, and crossing the Alabama, moved
southward through Wffcox. Tuskaloosa, the chief of
the MobUes, whffe accompanying DeSoto in this march,
secretly dispatched his couriers in every direction to
alarm and concentrate his warriors. On October 18,
1540, DeSoto and Tuskaloosa arrived at the capital of
the chief, the town of Mobffe, situated upon the north
bank of the Alabama, at Choctaw bluff, in the county
of Clarke. It was here that DeSoto was attacked by
Tuskaloosa. The battle lasted nine hours, and eighty-
two Spaniards were kffled. Forty-five horses were also
slain and the camp baggage destroyed by fire. The
town of MobUe was burned, and it is said that Tuska
loosa perished in the flames. After this disastrous vic
tory the Spaniards were anxious to march directiy for
Pensacola, where their ships were awaiting them with
stores, but DeSoto,. unwilling to surrender the enter-

THE CRADLE OF THE CONFEDERACY. 31
prise, took up his march toward the northwest, passing
through the counties of Clarke, Marengo and Greene,
and at last reaching the banks of the Black Wai-rior,
near the viUagc of Erie. It was there that he was
agam attacked by a large force of the Mobffes, sup
posed to number eight thousand warriors. The result
was like that of aU the contests between naked savages,
armed with bows and arrows, and cavalrymen, armed
with guns. The Indians were driven off". Crossing
the Tombigbee, DeSoto marched westwardly through
Mississippi, and at last reached the great father of
waters, of which he was the first European discoverer.
His ranks had been thinned by constant engagements
with the brave Indians and by disease. The energy of
his men was gone, and his own stout heart had faffed
him. In May, 1542, DeSoto died upon the banks of
the Mississippi, and his body was buried in the waters.
The remnant of his ffl-fated expedition constructed
boats and set sail down the river, July 2, 1543. But
three hundred and twenty men were then left of the
army of one thousand who had saUed from Cuba. As
they descended the river they were attacked by fleets
of canoes, and lost twelve in kffled or drowned, and
twenty-five in wounded. In sixteen days they reached
the gulf and put to sea, landing at Panuca, on the
Mexican coast, September 10, 1543, after four years
of wandering through Florida, Georgia, Alabama, Mis
sissippi and Arkansas. Such was the fate of the first
attempt to colonize the southwest.
It was not untff 1673 that a new attempt was made
to found a colony of Europeans upon this gulf coast.
It was in that year that two Canadians, Father Mar-
qjiette, and JoUet, a trader, sought, the great father of

32 THE CRADLE OF THE CONFEDERACY.
waters, of which they had heard vague rumors. Leav
ing the lakes, they ascended Fox river, crossed to the
Wisconsin, and made their way in canoes to the Mis
sissippi, and southwardly as far as the Arkansas.
Joliet returned to Quebec and announced the result of
his explorations. LaSalle organized an expedition and
foUowed the Mississippi to the gulf, taking formal pos
session of the country, Aprff 9, 1682, in the name of
King Louis XIV, Upon information by LaSaUe, of
his discoveries, the French government fitted out an
expedition to assist him in planting a colony near the
Mouth of the Mississippi. They saw the importance
of connecting their Canadian possessions by a chain of
colonies and mUitary posts with the Gulf of Mexico.
LaSaffe's Uttle fleet failed to find the mouth of the
great river, but landed the expedition upon the coast
of Texas. There a colony was planted, and LaSaUe,
with a few companies, set out in search of the Missis
sippi. Doubt, hardships and famine led to his murder,
by his own men, on the headwaters of the Trinity. A
few of the adventurers made their way to Canada, and
the rest perished on the coast of Texas.
Six years later commences the history of the three
Canadian brothers, who were the actual founders of
Mississippi, Alabama and Louisiana. Ibervffle had
won some rank as a naval officer in the service of
Louis XIV. He was commissioned in 1^68, with a
smaU fleet, to prosecute the search instituted by La
Salle, and was accompanied by his brothers, Bienvffle
and SanvoUe. Discovering the mouth of the Missis
sippi, he explored the river some distance, penetrated
the lakes, and finaUy estabUshed a colony at Bffoxi.
SanvoUe was appointed governor, and BienviUe, Ueu-

THE CRADLE OF THE CONFEDERACY. 33
tenant governor of Louisiana. They at once built a
fort upon the Mississippi, to hold the river against the
claim to the entire gulf coast set up by the Spanish
Governor at Pensacola. In 1701, Bienville broke up
the establishment at Bffoxi, and moved the colony t8
Mobile Bay.
The growth of these feeble settlements was slow, and
for a long time uncertain. The fear of the savages,
and of sickness from the more fertffe lands of the
interior, caused the colonists to hug the coast closely,
and to depend for subsistence upon barter with the
Indians and upon contributions fi-om the home govern
ment. Ten years after IberviUe had planted his flag at
the mouth of the Mississippi, the condition of the
colony of Louisiana was extremely precarious. Of
officers and soldiers there were one hundred and twen
ty-two, and of civffians there were but one hundred
and fifty-seven. In 1712, the King of France granted
Louisiana to one of his favorites, Crozat, a wealthy
speculator, who hoped to build up a splendid name by
developing this extensive region^ Crozat sent out as
governor Lamotte Cadfflac, who, in his dispatches to
Count Pontchartrain, represented Bien-vUle's colony as
being "a mass of rapscalUans, fi-om Canada, a cut-throat
" set, without subordination, with no respect for religion,
" and abandoned in -vice with Indian women whom they
" prefer to French girls." This picture of the earliest
settlements of the gulf coast is no doubt overdrawn,
but enough of it is true to convince the reader that
these colonies did not possess the enterprise to lay
broad and deep the foundation of a vigorous govern
ment and a flourishing commerce.
While they remained weak and apathetic, the Eng-

34 THE CRADLE OF THE CONFEDERACY.
Ush colony of the Carolinas was extending its arms
westward and seeking affiances. That colony was
forty-four years old when Crozat assumed charge of
the gulf, and had for a long time conducted trade with
the great tribe of Muscogees, who extended from the
Savannah nearly to the Warrior, and even with the
brave Chickasaws, who held for a century later undis
puted sway over north Mississippi.
In 1716, Bienvffle established a mffitary post at
Natchez, which became the nucleus for the settlement
of west Mississippi. This was the only inportant event
of the Crozat regime. In the foUowing year his
charter was annulled, and Louisiana was handed over to
a West India company, of which the celebrated Law
was chief dkector. This adventure also signally faffed,
the new colonists imitating thek predecessors in hug
ging the coast and abstaining fi-om agriculture. But
war accompUshed what peace had faffed to do. When
hostffities began between Spain and France, in 1719, the
French saw the importance of strengthening the popu
lation and resources of thek colony if they would save
the great river from the hands of the Spaniard. The
home government offered special inducements to set
tlers, and succeeded in increasing the population of the
colonies very rapidly. Negro slaves were sent over jn
large numbers, and the cultivation of rice, indigo and
tobacco was encouraged.
After the peace between Spain and France and the
spread of French traders more frequently through the
Indian tribes, the coffisions between them and the Eng
Ush traders from the Carolinas became more and more
serious. Each tried to inflame the savages against
the other. The cordon of French mffitary posts ex-

THE CRADLE OF THE CONFEDERACY. 35
tended at this time from Fort Toulouse, upon the Coosa,
a few miles north of the present city of Montgomery
to La Harpe's Station, upon Red River.
The Indians complained that thek peltries brought
better prices firom the English than from the French,
and that, the goods which they received fi-om the Eng
Ush posts were of better quality and cheaper price than
that furnished at Mobffe and New Orleans. Thus early
did the great question which controls civilized nations,
affect the sentiments of these savages. The Chicka
saws and the Muscogees affied themselves with the
EngUsh. The Choctaws adhered to the French, and
the Alabamas preserved an armed neutrality. Gov
ernor Perrier, who succeeded Bienvffle, in a dispatch
to the home government, used this language :
" The English continue to urge their commerce into
" the very heart of the province. Sixty or seventy
" horses laden with merchandise have passed into the
•' country of the Chickasaws, to which nation I have
" given orders to plunder the EngUsh of their goods,
" promising to recompense them by a present"
In the year 1728, the province of Louisiana was
guarded by 800 soldiers, and employed 2000 Afiican
slaves in labor. Her exports of indigo, cotton, tobacco,
grain and lumber were becoming considerable. This
growth in agriculture and trade was clouded but not
checked by the massacre by the Indians of the Natchez
settlement during the foUowing year.
The English CaroHnas were deskous of interposing a
barrier between themselves and the Spaniards of the
Floridas on the one hand and the French of Louisiana
on the other. To carry out this deske, James Ogle-
thox-pe proposed to estabUsh a colony upon the western

36 THE CRADLE OF THE CONFEDERACY.
bank of the Savannah. In February, 1733, Oglethorpe
landed on that river with thkty famffies, numbering one
hundred .and twenty-five persons, and immediately laid
out the city of Savannah. CaUing the chiefs of the
Lower Creek Nation together, he obtained fi-om them a
cession of aU the lands between the Savannah and the
Altamaha. During the foUowing year this colony was
increased by a company of forty Jews ; of three hun
dred and forty-one Germans, and by many Scots, who
settled at Darien. Two years later the town of
Augusta was laid out, and a fort estabUshed there. At
once, Augusta became the scene of an active ti'ade with
the Indians. Over six hundred whites were engaged
in this trade. A highway was constructed between
Augusta and Savannah, and boats pUed between those
towns and Charleston. We have seen how feeble were
the settlements of Bienville after an existence of twenty
years. Only five years had elapsed firom the landing
of Oglethorpe, before the colony of Georgia had re
ceived more than one thousand settlers from the trus
tees of the Company, and several hundred more who
came at their own expense.
Tbe rapid growth of Georgia alarmed the Spanish
Government, and led to a series of skkmishes between
the EngUsh and Floridian Spaniards. Oglethorpe
wisely formed aUiance with the Lower Creeks. In
their treaty it was stipulated that no one but the trus
tees of the colony of Georgia should settle the lands
between the Savannah and the mountains. The Upper
Creeks being under French and Spanish inffuence, did
not unite in this treaty. They never recognized the
cessions to Oglethorpe made by the Lower Creeks ; and
although the EngUsh held a garrison at Ocfiiskee, on

THE CRADLE OF THE OONPEDERAOY . 37
the eastern bank of the Tallapoosa river, within forty
miles of Fort Toulouse, planted by Bienvffle, they
succeeded in converting to thek cause but few of the
Upper Creeks.
It was in May, 1736, that Bienviffe determined to
destroy the last vestige of the Natchez tribe, who had
fled fi?om French arms upon the Mississippi, and who
were now hospitably entertained by the Chickasaws in
the hiUs of North Mississippi and North Alabama.
These Natchez reftigees bore a deadly hatred to the
French for the destruction of their tribe, and lost no
occasion to instil animosity against their conquerors in
the breasts of the brave mountaineers. The EngUsh
fanned the ffame, untff the French were goaded by
constant attacks upon their settlements to launch an
expedition against the Natchez viffage, which had been
estabUshed in the heart of the Chickasaw nation.
It was planned that D'Artaquette should lead a force
of French, with thek affies of the tribes of the Miamis
and the lUinois, fi-om a point upon the Mississippi, and
should march eastward toward the heart of the Chicka
saw tribe, while Bienviffe should move up the Tombigbee
fi-om Mobffe and march westward to the same point.
The two forces, were to unite and extinguish the Natchez
survivors, and destroy English influence with the moun
tain tribes.
D'Artaquette reached the point of contemplated
junction of forces, but could hear nothing of Bienville.
He determined to make the attack alone and reap aff
the glory. His force consisted of one hundred and
thirty Frenchmen and three hundred and sixty Indians.
He charged the Natchez town and found himself con
fronted by a body of thkty EngUshmen and five hun-

38 THE CRADLE OF THE CONFEDERACY.
dred Chickasaws. The Mianais and Illinois fled at
once and the French were shot down by scores. Most
of the officers were slain, and D'Artaquette himself
feff into the hands of the enemy and was subsequently
burned to death But a smaff remnant of the expedi
tion escaped. The French guns and ammunition cap
tured on the field were afterwards turned against
BienviUe. With an army of five hundred and fifty French and
six hundred Choctaw affies, Bienvffle embarked at
Mobffe, and ascended the Tombigbee to the head of
navigation, now known as Cotton-Gin Port. Not
hearing fi-om D'Artaquette, he marched westward
twenty-seven mffes and encountered the first Chickasaw
viffage. To his astonishment he found it weff fortified
by stockades, with loop-holes for musketry, and With
the EngUsh flag flying over the fort. BienviUe
attacked the village and was most disgracefully driven
back. His Choctaw affies gave him no assistance in
the battle. He left his dead and wounded on the field
of Pontotoc, and hastily reached the river and
descended to Mobffe. This disastrous expedition term
inated the official career of Bienvffle.
In 1752, war broke out between England and
France. The Chickasaws remained true to the EngUsh,
and BienvUle's successor, the Marquis De Vaudreuil,
determined to chastise them. He pursued the route
foUowed by Bienvffle, landed with his army at Cotton-
Gin Port, marched westward against the Chickasaw
villages, and was beaten as disastrously as his prede
cessor had been. He returned to Mobffe wffh no
laurels At the conclusion of the French and Indian war, by

THE CRADLE OF THE CONFEDERACY. 39
treaty of February 18, 1763, France ceded to Great
Britain all of her Canadian possessions, and all of Louis
iana lying on the eastern side of the Mississippi, as far
south as Bayou Iberviffe. She ceded also the port and
river of MobUe. Spain, the aUy of France, ceded to
Great Britain her province of Florida. The northern
boundary of West Florida was declared to be the line
32 degrees, 28 minutes, which, commencing at the
mouth of the Yazoo river, extended through points
near the towns of DemopoUs on the Tombigbee, and of
Columbu.- on the Chattahoochee. Alabama, south of
that Une, was in British West Florida ; and Alabama,
north of that Une, was in British Illinois. As soon as
the fertffe lands of Alabama and Mississippi passed
into English hands, and a British Governor was sta
tioned at Mobffe, Anglo-American colonies sprang up
in every direction. A colony of North Carolinians
settled between Manchac and Baton Rouge. Vkgin-
ians came down the Ohio and the Tennessee. Many
immigrants came in from England, Ireland, Scotland
and the British West Indies. Aff along the Missis
sippi, and covering a belt of fifteen mffes^ settled
adventurers from New Jersey, Delaware, and Virginia,
and colonies of Scots and of Germans, many of whom
assumed French names. The British government in
dustriously suppUed these settlers with Afi:-ican slaves.
In June, 1 773, the Creeks and Cherokees met the
EngUsh at Augusta and ceded to them aU the territory
upon the head waters of the Ogeechee and northwest of
Little river.
Lachlan McGUUvreiy, a young Scotch trader, had
married an Indian giri, the daughter of Marchand, by
an Indian woman of the tribe of the Wind. Marchand

40 THE CRADLE OF THE CONFEDERACY.
had been commander of Fort Toulouse. The son of
Lachlan by the Indian princess, Alexander McGffUvray,
became e. powerfiil man among the Creeks. He was
carefirUy educated at Charleston, and at the age of 30
was elected Chief of the Creek Nation. This was just
at the outbreak of the American Revolution. The
British commissioned him a colonel, and thus early
secured his favor. He was active in confederating the
Indians against the Whigs, and led many expeditions
of Tory Reftigees and Indians against the white settie-
ments of the Guff".
As soon as Spain was embroffed in the war with
Great Britain, she resolved to re-take Florida, and
restore the Spanish flag over the country which De
Soto had discovered. Don Galvez attacked and
reduced Fort Bute at Manchac and carried his arms to
Baton Rouge. The forts along the river were surren
dered by the British. Thence Don Galvez saffed for
Mobffe, reduced Fort Charlotte, and received the sur
render of the city with aff the territory from the Per-
dido to Pearl river. With the exception of Pensacola,
the Spaniards were now in possession of the British
Province of West Florida. On May 9, 1781, Pensa
cola was also conquered by the everywhere victorious
Galvez. By the treaty of Paris, Great Britain stipulated as
the southern boundary of the American colonies now
free, the Une of thirty-one degrees, beginning at the
Mississippi, extending due east to the Chattahoochee,
down that river to the mouth of the Flint, thence to
the St. Mary's, and along that river to the sea. Great
Britain ceded East Florida and confirmed West Florida
to Spain.

THE CRADLE OF THE CONFEDERACY. 41
The territory between thirty-one degrees and thirty-
two degrees twenty-eight minutes, although not ceded
to Spain by Great Britain, was claimed by that power
in virtue of the line adopted, under conquest by Galvez,
as the northern boundary of West Florida.
The colony of Oglethorpe continued to enlarge its
proportions. In 1 783, commissioners fi-om the Georgia
Legislature, by treaty at Augusta, acquked from the
Cherokees the country west of the Tugaloo, including
the head-waters of the Oconee. A smaU delegation of
Creeks agreed to this treaty, but a larger portion of
the nation repudiated it.
After the acquisition of East and West Florida by
Spain, the Indian chief McGffUvray, who represented
the Creeks and Seminoles, allied himself with Spain
and agreed that there should be concert of action in
the interest of Spain between the Creeks, Chickasaws,
Choctaws and Cherokees. As soon as Georgia at
tempted to occupy the lands ceded under the Augusta
treaty, a border war commenced. The Provisional
Congress appointed Comnffssioners to treat with Mc
GffUvray, but only a few of the chiefs attended at the
appointed place. Georgia protested against the inter
ference of the Provisional Congress, and so soon as the
Federal Commissioners took thek departure, she treated
with the few assembled Creek chiefs for a cession of aff
the territory lying on the east side of a Une to run firom
the junction of the Oconee and Ocmulgee to the St.
Marys river, including all the islands and harbors. In
thus repudiating- the Congressional Commission, the
State of Georgia, at the earliest day, v/hffe the articles of
Confederation were the league between the States,
denied the right of Congress to make treaties with the ¦

42 THE CRADLE OF THE CONFEDERACY.
Indian nations who resided within what she claimed to
be her territory. The articles of Confederation gave
Congress the power to make treaties with and to
manage affairs with Indians not dwelling within the
boundaries of a State. When the Federal Constitution
was adopted, in 1 787, the year foUowing the Augusta
treaty, its language gave Congress the power to regu
late commerce with the Indian tribes ; but in ratifying
that instrument Georgia never for a moment suspected
that the absence from the Constitution of the qualify
ing phrase contained in the articles of Confederacy
was intended to give the new Federal Congress
authority to make treaties and regulate commerce with
Indians resident in a State. The Georgia Legislature,
in 1786, declared by resolution that the attempt of
Congress to treat with the Creeks was subversive of
the rights of the State. It also instructed its members
of Congress to insist on a revocation of the powers of
the Federal Commission.
The Upper Creeks, who had never occupied the Oco
nee lands, waged incessant skirmish against the Geor
gians who dared to settle upon the disputed territory.
McGffUvray was active in every direction. He sent a
detachment of Creeks to the rescue of the Cherokees,
who were being pushed back by the North Carolinians,
and after coUecting the demoralized warriorw, attacked
a body of the Franklin troops and completely routed
them. But three of the Americans escaped.
At last McGillivray, in hope of being jestored to the
fortune of $100,000, which his Scotch father forfeited
to the Whigs when he joined the Tories, and finally
ffed back to Scotiand, agreed to meet Federal Commis
sioners for an adjustment of disputes. At the head of

THE CRADLE OF THE OONPEDERAOY. 43
two thousand warriors he attended the Commission, at
Rock Landing, on the Oconee, but finding that the
basis of treaty did not contemplate a return to the
Creeks of the Oconee lands, he abruptly terminated
the conference.
General Washington, now President, was at first
inclined to declare war against McGffUvray and defend
the Oconee settlements, but finally concluded to at
tempt fiirther peaceable measures. He despatched Col.
Marinus Willett, a native of Long Island, and distin
guished as an officer in the Canadian war and in the
Revolution, to meet McGffUvray and to invite him and
his chiefs to a conference at the seat of Government.
The chiefs accepted the invitation and visited New
York. When they reached that city, they were
received by the Tammany Society, in the fuU dress of
thek order, and conducted to the presence of the Pres
ident and Congress. A treaty was concluded whereby
it was agreed that the Greeks and Seminoles should be
under the protection of the United States, and that
they should make no treaties with any State, and that
the Oconee lands should remain with Georgia. By
private understanding, McGffUvray was to be made
agent of the United States, with the rank and pay of
Brigadier General, and the various chiefs were to be
paid annually flOO each, and to be furnished gold
medals. Such was the inauguration of that pernicious
system of bribery which ever since that day has
kept the Indian standing in presence of the Govern
ment with a bloody scalp extended in one hand and
the other hand stretched out for his annual subsidy of
gold. Upon his return to the Coosa, McGffUvray found a

44 THE CRADLE OF THE CONFEDERACY.
large portion of his people hostile to his New York
treaty, and he therefore delayed carrying out its pro
visions. At the first convenient time, he visited
Mobffe, New Orleans and Pensacola, and entered into
a new aUiance with the Spaniards. He was made
Spanish agent over the Creeks at a salary of $3,500
per annum. Professing to be desirous of can-ying out
the New York treaty, he remained sffent and apathetic
whffe the Spanish officers incited the Indians to re
newed hostilities upon the Cumberland and the Oconee.
The Spanish Government forbid fi-ee navigation to the
mouth of the Mississippi, claimed thirty-two degrees
twenty-eight minutes as the North boundary of West
Florida, remonstrated against the running of the Une
around the Oconee lands, claimed surveiffance over the
affaks of the Creeks, and declared that she would pro
tect them against the pretensions of Georgia.
On February 17, 1793, McGffUvray died at Pen
sacola. He had been a Colonel in the British service,
and at one and the same time Brigadier General in the
Spanish and United States service.
After McGiffivray's death hostffities between the
Creeks and Georgians increased, until Governor Edward
Telfek, of Georgia, determined to raise a large force
and invade the Creek nation. President Washington
remonstrated with Teffair and claimed that Congress
alone had the right to prosecute such a war. But the
Georgian denied the claun of Congress and continued
his military preparations. So intense was the feeUng
against the pretensions of the President, that Wash
ington, notwithstanding his eminent services to his
country, wa-o regarded with deep animosity by the
people of Georgia of that day.

THE CRADLE OP THE CONFEDERACY. 45
It was in June, 1796, that the Federal Government
concluded a treaty, with the chiefs of the whole Creek
nation, ratifying that made by McGiffivray at New
York. The Creeks admitted a new entering wedge
into their territory by giving the Federal Government
the right to estabUsh posts between the Oconee and
the Ocmulgee, although denying such permission to be
a cession of lands.
Thomas Pinckney, United States Minister at Madrid,
in October, 1795, concluded a treated with Spain, in
which the Une of thirty-one degrees was defined as the
northwest boundary of West Florida. Thus another
large domain lying between thirty-one degrees and
thirty-two degrees, twenty-eight minutes, and stretching
from the Mississippi to the Chattahoochee, became the
acknowledged property of Georgia.
In 1798, Congress, by the consent of the State of
Georgia, organized the territory of Mississippi, com
prising the country bounded between thirty-one de
grees and thkty-two degrees twenty-eight minutes, and
between the Mississippi and Chattahoochee rivers.
This organization by Congress, it was stipulated, was
not to impair the rights of Georgia in the soff. Presi
dent Adams appointed Winthrop Sergeant, Governor ;
John Steele, Secretary ; and John Tilton, of New
Hampshke, and Thomas Rodney, of Delaware, Judges.
The Natchez District was formed into two counties,
Adams and Pickering. The population of this district
numbered six thousand. They cultivated the banks
of the Mississippi, and the bayous and larger streams
ff owing into that river. The Chickasaw and others of
the bravest Indian tribes dwelt upon the north, east,

46 THE CRADLE OP THE CONFEDERACY.
and west of these settlements, and the Spanish Govern
ment held the country to the south.
The Alabama District was organized into one
county, Washington, which covered an area from
which twenty counties in Alabama and twelve in Mis
sissippi have been since constructed. The population
of the entire territory, excluding Indians, was at that
time about ten thousand.
In 1802, the Federal Government acquked from
Georgia all of her rights in territory west of the Chat
tahoochee. It was agreed that Georgia should be paid
the sum of one miffion two hundred and fifty thousand
dollars, and the Federal Government stipulated that
the Indians should be removed as soon as possible
from the territory of Georgia. The purchase money
which was to be paid could not be considered a
ruling motive for this cession on the part of Georgia,
since it was to be paid from proceeds of the sale of
lands within the ceded territory. The true motive by
which Georgia was actuated was the pledge by the Fed
eral Government to remove the Indians from her
Umits. So soon as land offices were estabUshed by the Gov
ernment and the boundaries of old French, Spanish
and EngUsh grants had been fixed and recognized by
law, the territory of Mississippi received a large and
constantly increasing population. It came from all
sections of the United States, but chieffy from Georgia,
the Carolinas and from Virginia.
In 1801, Napoleon compeUed Spain to cede the
province of Louisiana to France; but burdened by
European possessions and not being able to protect and
defend so distant and at that time unprofitable colony,

THE CRADLE OF THE CONFEDERACY. 47
he readffy consented, in consideration of fifteen millions
of dollars, very greatly needed by his camp chest, to
cede Louisiana to the United States. This cession
took place Aprff 30, 1803, and at once large numbers
of settlers flocked into the territory of Louisiana from
the States, and planted settlements from the Kansas
river to the mouth of the Mississippi. On Dec. 20,
1803, General Wffkinson and the troops of the United
States took possession of New Orleans.
The people of the territories of Louisiana and Mis
sissippi, impatient of the Spanish garrison and com
mercial restrictions at Mobile, and anxious to occupy
the lands about Bayou Sara, Baton Rouge and Man
chac, on the east bank of the Mississippi, and the lands
on the Tombigbee and Alabama, south of thirty-one
degrees, and as far as the gulf, both of which regions
feff within the latest Spanish definition of West Florida,
contended that the cession of Louisiana by Spain to
France, in 1801, was a cession of that Louisiana of
which Bienvffle had been the founder and which France
possessed before 1792, and that when Napoleon, in
1802, ceded to the United States aff the territory
acquired by France from Spain, he ceded not only the
region then known as Louisiana, but also that other re
gion extending from the Perdido to Bayou IberviUe, em
bracing Mobffe, which was once a part of Louisiana,
but which afterwards became known as a part of
Florida. The United States supported this claim.
Some border troubles occurred between "the Ameri
cans and the Spaniards. So intense was the popular
feeling against the Spanish pretension and continued
occupation of Baton Rouge and Mobffe, that John
Randolph, of the Committee on Foreign Relations, re-

48 THE CRADLE OP THE CONFEDERACY.
ported a bffl in Congress to raise an army to repel the
Spaniards. President Jefferson, however, exerted his
inffuence, effectually, to defeat such a warlike measure.
The anknosity against the Spanish occupancy con
tinued to grow for several years, during which the pop
ulation of Louisiana and Mississippi multiplied in every
dkection, untff at last, ki August, 1810, a band of
Americans, styUng themselves patriots, and under the
lead of the Kempers, who had suffered cruelty at the
hands of the Spaniards, organized at St. FrancisvUle,
made a dash upon Baton Rouge and took that place by
surprise, kUling Governor Grandpre in the assault.
The other posts were captured in succession, and the
Spanish forces departed for Pensacola.
The territory thus captured was bounded by thkty-
one degrees on the north. Bayou Ibervffle on the
south, the Mississippi on the west and Pearl river on
the east. It embraced the present parishes of West and
East FeUciana, Bast Baton Rouge, St. Helena, Living
ston, Washington and St. Tammany, in Louisiana, a
territory comprising nearly eight thousand square mffes,
and equal in extent to the State of Massachusetts.
A Declaration of Independence was pubUshed by
the patriots in convention, and steps were taken to es
tablish a government independent of the Union. The
adventure of Aaron Burr, a few years previous, had
inspired a wide-spread ambition to organize new gov
ernments after the model of the United States, from
either unoccupied territory of the United States or
from neighboring territory.
The new republic commissioned Reuben Kemper to
organize a force upon the Tombigbee to expel the
Spaniards from Mobffe and aU the territory between

THE CRADLE OP THE CONFEDERACY. 49
Pearl and Perdido rivers. A considerable body of men
was soon organized and moved down the river. Halt
ing one mffe above' Blakely, they sent a note to Gov
ernor Folch, demanding the surrender of Mobffe.
While awaiting an answer the expedition threw off aff
miUtary restraint and precaution, and were surprised
by a Spanish force. A number were kffled and the
rest took to flight. A few captives were confined five
years in More Castle. The United States frowned
upon these proceedings of the Kempers, and sent a
force to MobUe for the protection of the Spaniards.
Had this adventure succeeded, and the country between
the Pearl and Perdido been added to the already free
repubUc of Ibervffle, the dominion of that Government
would have been so extensive and favorably situated
as to become at once self-supporting and prosperous.
But the faffure of the expedition against Mobffe re
sulted at once in a relinquishment of all plans for an
independent republic upon Lake Pontchartrain, and in
the annexation of that region to Louisiana.
Spain continued to hold the country south of thirty-
one degrees, and to shut the Americans from the gulf,
but the United States made valuable acquisitions of
territory in other dkections. In 1805 nothing but an
Indian traff led from the Oconee to the Alabama river,
at Lake Tensaw. To open a better avenue to the set
tlements on the Tombigbee, the Federal Government
obtained from the Creeks the right to open a horse
path through thek country. The chiefs agreed to
estabUsh bridges and houses of accommodation. In
the same year the Cherokees granted the right for a
maff route fi-om Knoxvffle to New Orleans by way of
the Tombigbee, and also a cession of three hundred

50 THE CRADLE OP THE CONFEDERACY.
and fifty thousand acres of land, lying in the bend of
the Tennessee river, and embracing the present county
of Madison. In that year, also, the Choctaws ceded
five mUlions of acres between the Alabama and Tom
bigbee rivers, and stretching from the Tombigbee to the
Natchez settlements. It was thus that the fakest of
his lands were being acquked from the Indian, and high
ways constructed through the remainder, which tended
surely to further conquest or removal.
When war broke out between England and the
United States, in 1812, the continued occupancy of
the gulf coast by the Spaniard was considered danger
ous to our Government, as Spain was believed to be in
secret league with England. Under orders. General
Wilkinson, with six hundred men, saffed from New
Orleans, in April, 1813, and on the 13th took position
in the rear of Fort Charlotte. Captain Perez, the
commandant, surrendered the fort, and the Spanish
garrison retked to Pensacola. At last the whole terri
tory of what is now Louisiana, Mississippi and Ala
bama was free from foreign dominion, and nothing
was left to prevent its entire occupancy by Americans
except the continued residence of warUke tribes of In
dians, whom the Federal Government, as long ago as
1802, had stipulated with Georgia to remove.
Notwithstanding the non-observance of this stipula
tion, the country was rapidly settled by a brave and
enterprising people. In 1810 the population of Lou
isiana was 76,556 ; that of Georgia was 252,438, and
that of the Mississippi territory was 40,352. The
total population of this new region thus embraced more
than 369,000 souls. Ten years later, in 1820, just as
the Indian agitation, the slavery agitation and the free-

THE CRADLE OF THE OONPEDERAOY. 51
trade agitation had begun to divide the people of the
United States into weU defined political parties, we find
that the population of these gulf States was as foUows:
Georgia, 340,975 ; Mississippi, 75,448 ; Alabama,
127,901 ; and Louisiana, 152,923. They had grown
in ten years from a population of 369,000 to one of
697,000, notwithstanding the fierce Indian war which
had occurred in the meantime.
This population represented a voting power two-
thirds as great as that of Virginia, more than half as
great as that of New York, much greater than that of
Massachusetts, and more than one-third as great as that
of aff New England. If in the short period of one
generation this new power in the southwest was able to
command a poUtical position so imposing, would not her
continued growth in a few years restore to the South
and to the agricultural States that preponderance in
the government which had already shffted from Vir
ginia to Massachusetts ?
The unjust political plans devised to curb this gi-ow-
ing empire were the causes which led to the establish
ment at Montgomery, in 1831, of the Southern Con
federacy.

OHi^PTER III.

Growth of the Idea of Secession— Jealousy of the Commer
cial against the Agricultural States— Navigation of the
Mississippi— The WMsTcey Rebellion— The Jay Treaty
— Vieics of Distinguished Men — Frequent Threats
and Hopes of Disunion — The Louisiana Purchase —
The East Fears the South and West— The Hartford
Convention — The Resolutions of W8 — Randolph's Re
ply to Patrick Henry, etc., etc.

" An effort has often since been made to represent it as one of many
malicious and entirely ungrounded calumnies, that there was at this
time any serious thought of a disruption of the Union. This is only one
instance of the white- washing tendencies and decorative coloring char
acteristic of the greater number of historical works. In the letters of
the Federalists we find not only that wishes to this end were expressed,
but that formal plans were devised."
Von Holst's Constitutional History of the United States,

"The Federal Government, then, appears to be the organ through
which the United Kepubllos communicate with foreign nations and with
each other. Their submission to its operation is voluntary ; its councils,
its engagements, its authority, are theirs, modified and uuited. its sov
ereignty is an emanation from theirs, not a flame in which they have
been swallowed up. Each is still a perfect State, still sovereign, still in
dependent, and still capable, should the occasion require, to resume the
exercise of its functions in the most unlimited extent."
Tucker's Blackstone [1803.]
The growth of the southwest was looked upon with
disfavor by the political leaders of the Northern States
from the very hour when the Constitution recently
adopted began to show signs of vitality ; and this dis
favor was intensified by the acquisition of Louisiana.
Washington himself even as late as 1784, did not
regard the possession of the Mississippi river as a mat
ter essential to the confederation, and was accustomed,
like tbe entire body of the CoDgress, to limit his atten-

54 THE CRADLE OF THE CONFEDERACY.
tion to the thk-teen colonies. The outiying lands were
regarded simply as a convenience for payment of the
pubUc debt. Few ff any of the statesmen of that day
contemplated the possibility of the expansion of this
outlying territory into populous States, whose votes in
the Federal Congress might soon decide the balance of
power against the North.
The fkst issue between the South and North was
distinctly and positively made when Spain, in 1785,
refused to yield the free navigation of the Mississippi,
but at the same time off'ered a treaty, which otherwise
would have been favorable to the commercial interests
of the Middle and Northern States. The Secretary of
Foreign Affaks, Mr. Jay, recommended a waiver for
thkty years, of aU claim to the free navigation of the
Mississippi. The seven Northern States voted for this
stipulation, and the five Southern States, with the ex
ception of one member, voted against it Delaware
was not then represented. Thus early were geograph
ical lines drawn upon a question in which the South
exhibited a comprehensive statesmanship, and in which
the North exhibited an unpatriotic jealousy at the ex
pansion of the confederation. Jefferson, writing from
Paris, to Madison, in 1787, says: " I have had great
" opportunities of knowing the character of the people
" who inhabit that country, and I venture to say that
" the act which abandons the navigation of the Missis-
" sippi is an act of separation between the eastern and
" western counti-y. It is a relinquishment of five parts
" out of eight of the territory of the United States—
"an abandonment of the fairest subject for the pay-
" ment of our public debts, and the chaining of those
''debts upon our own necks, in perpetuation. I have

THE CRADLE OF THE CONFEDERACY. 55
"the utmost confidence in the honest intentions of
" those who concur in this measure, but I lament thek
" want of acquaintance with the character and physical
" advantages of the people who, right or wrong, wiff
" suppose thek interests sacrificed on this occasion to
" the contrary interests of that part of the confederacy
" in possession of present power."
Unquestionably on this occasion the interests of aU
the settlements upon the waters of the Mississippi were
sacrificed to the jealousy of that part of the confed
eracy which was then in power. In the language of
John Adams, this unpatriotic attempt at waiver for
thirty years, of aU claim to the free navigation of the
Mississippi, " gave rise to rankling jealousies and fester-
" ing prejudices, not only of the North and the South
" against each other, but of each section against the
" ablest and most virtuous of the other."
The jealousy which thus began under the confedera
tion continued after the adoption of tbe Constitution.
The smaUer commercial States, at the outset, while
John Adams was President, for the most part repu
diated the right of secession, and denounced the reso
lutions of the Kentucky and Virginia Legislatures,
which set up the doctrine that in the last resort, the
State was the sole umpire as to aff Federal questions ;
but so soon as it appeared that the Federalists would
lose control of the government, they hastened to ad
vocate and threatened disunion upon every question
which tended to diminish thek already waning power.
There was not at that day a horror of disunion, and
no man was stigmatized as traitor who threatened it
The States had made the Union, just as they had made
the confederation, and it was difficult to understand

56 THE CRADLE OF THE CONFEDERACY.
how the one compact was more sacred in its origin or
its objects than the other. The confederation had sig-
naffy faffed of ffs purpose, and the Union might be
equally as defective.
As an fflustration of the temper of the times it is
interesting to note that the suppression of the whiskey
insurrection, during Washington's administration, gave
rise to prophecies of civff war, and of the overthrow of
the administration. It was said that the insurgent
district of Pennsylvania would secede from the Union,
and that the coercive action of the Government would
justffy such secession. Jefferson feared that the
excise law would produce disunion. Wolcott expressed
a hope that the insurgent district would be either chas
tised or rejected from the Union. Hamilton was
chagrined to find that the march of the militia to
enforce the excise law was greeted by the people with
laughter and derision. Edmdnd Randolph expressed a
fear that the insurgents would caff England to thek aid
and thus bring about disruption of the Union.
Another iUustration of the indifference with which
the Union was regarded by the States whenever Federal
laws interfered with their pecuUar interests, may be
found in the denunciation of the treaty negotiated with
Great Britain, by Jay, in 1 794, The friends of the
French Revolution in the House of Representatives, in
retaUation against the British Orders in Councff of 1793,
which forbade the commerce of foreign nations with
France, had adopted a resolution in Congress forbid
ding the purchase of British manufactured goods until
the western posts were surrendered and reparation had
been made for a violation of the neutral rights of the
United States. Fortunately better councUs prevaffed ;

THE CRADLE OP THE CONFEDERACY. 57
but, pending the question of this embargo, there was
the most intense excitement among the people. The
material interests of the Federalists and a fear of her
power bound them to England. Sympathy with the
Republican purposes of the French bound the anti-
FcderaUsts or RepubUcans to France. New England
was for peace with Great Britain and acceptance of
Jay's treaty. The Middle States and the South were
a unit ag-ainst the treaty. Dwight declared that the
people of New England would take no part in a war
with Great Britain. Said he, in a letter to Wolcott :
" Sooner would ninety-nine out of a hundred of our
¦' inhabitants separate from the Union than , plunge
" themselves into an abyss of nffsery." Wolcott writ
ing to Noah Webster, expressed his impatience at the
antagonism between the agricultural South and the
commercial East, and his belief that "the great sec-
" tions of the United States wffl not long continue to
" be agitated as they have been."
Jeff'erson, in the fourth volume of his Memoirs, says
that John Q, Adams caffed upon him during this con
troversy over the embargo laws and declared that he
had information of the most unmistakable character
that certain citizens of the Eastern States, Massachu
setts particularly, were in negotiation with the British
Government, the object of which was an agreement
that the New England States should take no fiirther
part in executing the embargo laws against the hostile
British Orders in Councff, and that without formaffy
declaring their separation from the Union, they would
withdraw from aff aid and obedience to it. In other
words they would resort to nullification.
A report by Mr. Gore, in the Massachusetts Legis-

58 THE CRADLE OF THE CONFEDERACY.
lature, which was adopted by the unanimous vote of
the Federal party, declared the war enforcing the em
bargo " unjust, oppressive and unconstitutional, and not
" binding." Here was a plain and explicit nullification
of a Federal law. If the laws in question were " not
" binding," the State had a clear right, and ff was her
duty to resist them ff she saw proper to do so.
The political econonust, Mathew Carey, writing just
after the peace with Great Britain, sets forth very
pointedly the reasons which inffamed the sectional jeal
ousy of the North against the South.
"The naked fact is, that the demogogues in the
"Eastern States, not satisfied with deriving all the
" benefit from the Southern section of the Union, that
" they would from so many wealthy colonies ; with
" making princely fortunes by the carriage and expor-
" tation of its bulky and valuable productions, and
" supplying it with thek own manufactures and the pro-
" ductions of Europe and the East and West Indies, to
" an enormous amount, and at an immense profit, have
" uniformly treated it with outrage, insults and injury.
" And, regardless of their vital interests, the Eastern
" States were lately courting thek own destruction, by
"aUowing a few restless, turbulent men to lead them
"blindfold to a separation, which was pregnant with
" their certain ruin. Whenever that event takes place
" they sink into insignificance. If a separation were
" deskable to any part of the Union, it would be to the
" Middle and Southern States, particularly the latter,
"who have been so long harassed with the complaints,
" the restlessness, the turbulence and the ingratitude of
" the Eastern States, that their patience has been tried
"almost beyond endurance. 'Jeshuran waxed fat

THE CRADLE OF THE CONFEDERACY. 59
" and kicked '; and he wffl be severely punished for his
" kicking in the event of a dissolution of the Union."
The next issue between the South and North was
upon the acquisition of Louisiana. Here, again, the
North exhibited an unpatriotic jealousy against expan
sion of territory. In this matter the question of
slavery was not mooted. The objection was to the
acquisition of any portion of Louisiana — that at the
head waters of the Mississippi, as weU as that at its
mouth. Again, Congress and the country were
divided by geographical Unes, and the two discordant
elements became even more embittered against each
other than they had been upon the Mississippi Naviga
tion and the Embargo questions. It was openly
declared fiom Northern sources that separation from
the Union would be preferable to acquisition of Louis
iana. Plummer, of New Hampshire, said : " Admit this
" Western World into the Union, and you destroy at
" once the weight and importance of the Eastern States
"and compel them to establish a separate and inde-
" pendent empke." Griswold, of Connecticut, regarded
as a leader of the Federal party, said : " The vast,
" unmanageable extent which the accession of Louisiana
" wiU give to the United States, the copseaucnt disper-
" sion of our population, and the disteibtttien of the
" balance, which it is so important to maintain between
" the Eastern and Western States, threatens at no very
" distant day, the subversion of our Union."
The disunion design of the Federal party, in conse
quence of the acquisition of Louisiana is thus shown
by John Quincy Adams, who in 1828 wrote: "This
" design had been formed in the winter of 1803 or
" 1804, immediately after, and as a consequence of the

60 THE CRADLE OP THE CONFEDERACY.
" acquisition of Louisiana. * * This plan was so
" far matured that the proposal had been made to an
" individual to permit himself at the proper time to be
" placed at the head of the mffitary movements which
" it was foreseen would be necessary for carrying it into
" execution. The project, I repeat, had gone to the
" length of fixing upon a mffitary leader for its exe-
" cution." Mr. Adams' information was obtained from Senator
Tracy, of Connecticut, who, although he disapproved
the project, was made acquainted with it in aff its par
ticulars. The Northern Confederacy was to extend, if
practicable, so far South as to include Maryland. The
Susquehanna was suggested as another boundary, but
ff New York could not be won over, the Hudson was
to be the boundary. Mr. Adams gives incidents of a
visit to Rufus Ejng, in 1804, and says: "I found
" there sitting Timothy Pickering, who, shortly after I
" went in, took leave and withdrew. Mr. King said to
" me, 'Col. Pickering has been talking to me about a
" project they have for a separation of the States, and
" a Northern Confederacy.' "
Governor Plummer, of New Hampshire, was an open
and pronounced secessionist. In a letter to Mr.
Adams, he admitted that he " was a disunionist at that
"period ; in favor of forming a separate government in
" New England ; that he was consulted on such a plan
" by Federal members of Congress fi-om New England."
In his journal. Governor Plummer mentions that in
1804, Timothy Pickering, James Hillhouse and himself
dined with Aaron Burr ; that Hiffhouse " unequivocally
" stated that it was his opinion that the United States
"would soon form two distinct and separate govern-

THE CRADLE OP THE OONPEDERAOY. 61
" ments." Again he ' says : " When the late Samuel
" Hunt intimated to me the necessity of seceding
" from the Union, he observed that the work must
" commence in the State Legislatures, so that those
" who acted should be supported by State laws."
When Hiffhouse denied the statement of Adams,
Governor Plummer made the foffowing entry in his
journal : " There is no ckcumstance in these publica-
" tions that surprises me so much as the letter of James
" Hiffhouse. I recoUect and am certain that on return-
" ing early one evening from dining with Aaron Burr,
" this same Mr. Hillhouse, after saying to me that New
" England had no influence in the government, added
" in an animated tone, ' The Eastern States must and
" wffl dissolve the Union, and form a separate govern-
" ment of thek own, and the sooner they do this the
" better.' But there was no man with whom I con-
" versed so often, so fiiUy, and so freely as with Roger
" Griswold. He was without doubt or hesitation deci-
" dedly in favor of dividmg the Union and establiuhing
" a Northern Confederacy."
Gov. Plummer speaks of walking for hours with
Pickering, who said "that he thought the United
" States too large and their interests too diversified for
" the Union to continue, and that New England, New
" York, and perhaps Pennsylvania might and ought to
" form a separate government. He then paused, and
" looking me fiiUy in the face, awaited my reply. I
" simply asked him if the division of the States was
" not the object which General Washington most pa-
"theticaUy warned the people to Oppose. He said,
" 'yes, the fear of ff was a ghost that for a long time
" haunted- the unagination of that old gentieman.' "

62 THE CRADLE OP THE CONFEDERACY.
From the day of the ratification of the Federal
Constitution, the Southern States saw themselves out
stripped by the Northern and Eastern States, in popu
lation and wealth. But at the opening of the present
century the agricultural interests of the South received
an impetus from the increased value of cotton planting,
and it was just then that a combination of ckcum-
stances attracted to the South and West the attention
of the country and inflamed that jealousy at the North
which had survived the acquisition of the Mississippi
i-iver and the adoption of the Jay treaty.
The experiments which were being made for cheap
ening the production of cotton, by applying machinery
to the removal of the seed promised a speedy and rapid
appreciation of Southern lands and power. The efforts
which had been made by General WAsnraGTON and
Governor Telfair, to remove fi-om the gulf country all
the Indian tribes ; the cession by Georgia to the
United States of aff the territory between the Chatta
hoochee and the Mississippi ; tHe prospect of a speedy
erection of this territory into at least two States ; the
fortunate acquisition by President Jefferson of Loo-
isiANA and the great territory stretching from the Mis
sissippi river to the Pacific Ocean, capable of erection
into a hundred States and certain of giving birth to at
least two more States within a few years — all alarmed
the political leaders of New England as to a contin
uance of their power.
For some years to come they might control the pop
ular branch of Congress, but, if these schemes were to
be permitted, the new States would soon overshadow
the old in the Senate. The labors of New Eagland

THE CRADLE OF THE CONFEDERACY. 63
were therefore stiU more ardently directed towards
curbing the power of the great southwest.
So long as the commercial States controUed by New
England prevailed in the Federal Government, the de
sired curb was to be found in an exercise of the power
of Congress. When Vkginia and Kentucky pro
tested in their celebrated resolutions of 1798 against
the alien and sedition laws, and declared that as there
was no umpke to settle disputes between the State and
Federal Government, each State must decide for itself
the measure of its grievances and the mode of redress,
all of the commercial States at once denied the
doctrine. No matter that Jefferson, the author of the
Declaration of Independence, had written the one set
of resolutions, and Madison, the father of the Consti
tution, had written the other, every one of these States
admitted the power of Congress to enact the alien and
sedition laws. The agricultural States denied that
power. But when the growth of the southwest was observed,
'and the acquisition of Louisiana was impending, the
very men and the very States, who in order to vindi
cate the aUen and sedition laws, denied to the States
aff power to decide for themselves against any Federal
act, however oppressive or iniquitous, now openly and
boldly advocated a dissolution of the Union.
From his seat in Congress, Josiah Quincv, a leading
statesman of Massachusetts, declared that ff the bffl
for the purchase of Louisiana became law it was a vir
tual dissolution of the Union, that ff would free the
States from their moral obligation ; and as ff would be
the right of all, ff would be the duty of some to pre
pare for a separation — amicably ff" they could, violently

64 THE CRADLE OP THE CONFEDERACY.
if they must. The doctrine of secession and nuUifica-
tion thus obtained its first practical appUcation in New
England. The embargo affected thek maritime in
terests. Therefore they went so far as to designate
the man who was to be the mffitary chief of thek
secession movement. The acquisition of Louisiana
threatened thek political supremacy. Therefore they
declared that the extension of our territory justified vio
lent separation ; and we find Aaron Burr, a prominent
statesman of New York, relying upon the tacit consent
of the North and the possible forbearance of the South,
organizing an armed expedition to make New Orleans
the capital of a great southwestern repubUc.
This spkit of sectionalism acquired additional growth
at the North, and especially at the East, during the war
of 1812. It had not as yet appeared at the South.
Whffe the South rallied as one man to the aid of the
oppressed seamen of the United States (aU of northern
birth), the States of New England, at first clamorous
for war, so soon as they saw that their ships were left
idle and thek commerce destroyed, were as ardently
clamorous for peace. They defamed President Madi
son, and held up to him, " the Island of Elba ! or a
" halter." The acts of nuUification at the outbreak of
the war were numerous. The resolutions of then- leg
islatures went as far as the more celebrated but not
more pointed resolutions of '98. The executives of
Connecticut and Massachusetts refused to place their
militia, when caUed into service, under command of the
President, as requked by the Constitution. The Gov
ernor of Vermont ordered the return of the militia of
that State, which had gone upon the expedition to
Canada. Nothing was left undone to embarrass the

THE CRADLE OF THE CONFEDERACY. 65
financial operations of the Government, to prevent the
enlistment of troops, to keep back the men and money
of New England fi-om the service of the Union, and
to force the President fi-om his seat. lUicit trade was
carried on mth the enemy, and free traffic was con
ducted between Massachusetts and Great Britain
through a separate custom house. Beacon fires were
Ughted as signals to the enemy. The faU of Detroit
was openly rejoiced at The acts of individuals soon
became the acts of government. The Massachusetts
Legislature authorized delegates to meet like delegates
fi-om other New England States, at Hartford, to con
sult upon the subject of " their pubUc grievances and
" concerns," and upon " the best means of preser-ving
" thek resources." Chief among the recommendations
of that convention was — that an amendment be pro
posed " for restraining Congress in the exercise of an
" unlimited power to make new States and to admit
" them into the Union.'' Through aff thek proceed
ings the under-current of complaint was at the loss of
poUtical power by the growth of the States. It was
the old jealousy of the smaff States against the large
States which had so seriously obstructed the formation
of the Constitution.
A clergyman of Boston expressed the sentiment of
the hour when he said — " The Union has long since
" been -vktually dissolved, and it is fiffl time that this
"part of the dis-united States should take care of
" itself" Another doctor of divinity thus addressed
his flock : " The IsraeUtes became weary of yielding
"the fruit of their labor to pamper their splendid
<' tyrants. They left thek poUtical woes. They sep-
" arated ; where is our Moses ? Where the rod of his

66 THE CRADLE OF THE CONFEDERACY.
" miracles ? Where is our Aaron ? Alas ! no voice
" from the burning bush has directed them here."
An krepressible conflict was admitted at that day as
existuig between the smaUer States of the East, which
were engagfed in commercial pursuits, and the larger
States of the South, which were engaged more espe
ciaUy in agriculture. " Events may prove," says the
Journal of the Hartford Convention, January 4, 1815,
" that the causes of our calamity are deep and perma-
", nent. They may be found to proceed, not merely fi-om
" blindness of prejudice, pride of opinion, violence of
" party spirit, or the confusion of the times ; but they
" may be traced to implacable combinations of indi-
" viduals or States, to monopoUze power and office and
" to trample without remorse upon the rights and
"• interests of the commercial sections of the Union."
" Whenever it shaU appear," continues the Journal,
" that these causes are radical and permanent, a separa-
" tion by equitable arrangement wiU be preferable to an
" alliance hy constraint among nominal friends hut real
" enemies, inflamed hy mutual hatreds and jealousies^
''and inviting hy intestine divisions, contempt and
" aggressions from abroad.'''' The Hartford Convention,
having thus announced that there were such serious
conflicts of interest between the commercial and agri
cultural States, the maritime and the inland, as to
threaten a permanent calamity to the States of New
England, proceeded to announce the remedy for the
evff. The remedy proposed was precisely that sug
gested by the Vkginia and Kentucky resolutions. The
Convention said : " That Acts of Congress in violation
" of the Constitution are absolutely void, is an undo'
<'niable position. It does not, however, consist with

THE CRADLE OF THE CONFEDERACY. 67
" the respect from a confederate State towards the
" general government, to fly to open resistance upon
" every infraction of the Constitution. The mode and
" the energy of the opposition should always conform
" to the nature of the violation, the intention of the
" authors, the extent of the evff inflicted, the determi-
" nation manifested to persist in it, and the danger of
"delay. But in cases of deliberate, dangerous, and
" palpable infractions of the Constitution, affecting ihe
"sovereignty of the State, and the libertfes of the
" people ; it is not only the right, but the duty, of such
" State to interpose its authority for their protection, in
" the manner best calculated to secure that end. When
" emergencies occur, which are either beyond the reach
" of judicial tribunals, or too pressing to admit of delay
" incident to thek forms. States which have no common
" Umpire, must be their own judges and execute their
"own decisions."
It wffl be observed that the Convention recognized
the possibility of emergencies beyond the reach of
judicial tribunals, and for the settlement of which there
is no common umpke. In the debate between Mr.
Webster and Mr. Haynb, in 1830, at the session of
Congress during which the question arose as to the
conflicting jurisdiction of the State of Georgia and
the Federal Government, the umpire declared by Me.
Webster, in aff cases affecting the powers of the gen
eral government, was the Supreme Court of the United
States. Mr. Hayne insisted that courts, whether su
preme or inferior, are the mere creatures of the sover
eign power designed to expound and carry into effect
its sovereign wffl, and that no independent State ever
yet submitted to a Judge upon the bench the true con-

68 THE CRADLE OF THE CONFEDERACY.
struction of a compact between itself and another sov
ereign. In proof that the judiciary were not designed
to act as umpires it is only necessary to observe that
in a great majority of cases the Supreme Court could
manifestly not take jurisdiction of the matters in dis
pute. " Whenever it may be designed by the Federal
" Government," prophesied Mr. Hayne, " to commit a
" violation of the Constitution, it can be done and
" always wiff be done in such a manner as to deprive
" the court of aU jurisdiction over the subject." Like
wise Mr. Madison, in his report upon the Vkginia Res
olutions of '98, says : " But it is objected that the
"judicial authority is to be regarded as the sole expos-
" iter of the Constitution in their last resort ; and it
" may be asked, for what reason the declaration by the
" general assembly, supposing it to be theoretically
" true, could be requked at the present day, and in so
" solemn a manner ? On this objection, it might be
" observed, first, that there may be instances of usurped
" power which the forms of the Constitution would
" never draw within the control of the judiciary depart-
" ment ; secondly, that if the decision of the judiciary
" be raised above the authority of the sovereign parties
" to the Constitution, the decisions of the other depart-
" ments, not carried by the forms of the Constitution
"before the judiciary, must be equaffy authoritative
" and final with the decisions of that department."
These views of Mr. Hayne and of Mr. Madison,
accord with the opinion which prevaffed at the Hartford
Convention, as to the impotency of the Supreme Court
to decide grave questions affecting the sovereignty of a
state. A few years later than the great Webstee-
Hayne debate, it was seen that the Supreme Court

THE CRADLE OF THE CONFEDERACY. 69
refused to decide as to the legitimate sovereignty of
Rhode Island, referring the whole question to the polit
ical department of the government, and foUowing its
decision. To us, of the present day, who have seen
the Supreme G ourt shorn of its powers, or increased
in members, by the political department of the govern
ment, at pleasure, in order to secure a decision one way,
or to defeat a decision another way, it is evident that
the Supreme Court of the United States is no umpire
between the States and the Federal Government.
The spkit of sectionaUsm thus owed its birth to New
England, and found the only basis for its independence
in those principles of State sovereignty which remained
undisputed for forty years from the foundation of the
government. Mr. John Quincy Adams, then Minister
to Russia, writing from St. Petersburgh, October 24th,
1813, says: "If New England loses her influence -in
" the councffs of the Union, it wiff not be owing to any
"diminution of her population, occasioned by these
" emigrations : it wffl be from the partial, sectarian, or
"as Hamffton has caffed it, clannish spkit, which
" makes so many of her political leaders jealous and
" envious of the West and South. This spirit is in its
" nature, narrow and contracted, and it always works
" by means like itself Its natural tendency is to excite
" and provoke a counteracting spirit of the same char-
" acter; and it has actually produced that efed in our
"country'' Such is the testimony of one of New
England's representative sons against his own people.
Is it surprismg that this partial, selfish, clannish
spkit of sectionalism which planted itself boldly on the
extremest doctrines of State rights, should arouse a
, (jounteracting spkit in the people of the Gulf States

70 THE CRADLE OF THE CONFEDERACY.
and lead them to assert the sovereignty of their right
ful State laws over every inch of their territory, even
though it should be in the face of a writ of error from
the Supreme Court of the United States and in the
face of Federal troops ?
The greater part of the southwest was finally and
completely opened up to settlement by annexation to
the United States, as we have seen, just as the consti
tutional questions which divided the friends of Jeffer
son fi-om those of Hamilton, were the subject of vio
lent party contention. The most vital of these ques
tions affected this district closely, and the people were
educated in politics by practical experience of the
operation of the Constitution as construed by one party
or the other. Thek first lesson in constitutional law
came from that doctrine of Jefferson and Madison, set
forth in the resolutions of 1798, which was a few years
later incorporated in the resolutions of the Hartford
Convention. The Vkginia Resolutions, adopted by her Legislature,
December 24th, 1798, were written by James Madison,
who has been styled " the Father of the Constitution."
The most important paragraph of those Resolutions is
the one which declares that " in case of a deliberate,
" palpable, and dangerous exercise of other powers not
"granted by the said compact, the States who are
" parties thereto, have the right and are in duty bound
" to interpose for arresting the progress of the evff, and
"for maintaining wffhin their respective limffs the
"authorities, rights, and liberties, appertaining to
" them." The Kentucky Resolutions, adopted by that State,
November 10th, 1799, were written by Jeffersok,

THE CRADLE OP THE CONFEDERACY. 71
after consultation with Madison. The language made
use of was not so guarded as that of the Vu-ginia reso
lutions. It declared that the Federal Government
" was not made the exclusive or final judge of the
"extent of the powers delegated to itself, since that
"would have made its discretion, and not the
" Constitution, the measm-e of its powers : but that as
" in aff other cases of compact between parties having
" no common judge, each party has an equal right to
"judge for itseff, as weff of infractions as of the mode
" and measure of redress." The Resolutions went on to
define the manner in which this principle might be put
into practice, by declaring that " the several States who
" formed that instrtmient [the Constitution] being sov-
" ereign and independent, have the unquestionable
" right to judge of the infraction : and that a nuUifica-
"tion by those sovereignties of aff unauthorized acts
" done under color of that instrument, is the rightful
"remedy." At a later day, when the sentiment in favor of
Union had become strengthened by time and by the
growing greatness of the RepubUc, it was endeavored
to argue away the plain meaning of these celebrated
resolutions. Madison, in 1831, asserted that his Reso
lutions were merely declaratory of opinion, that they
pointed out no mode of correcting fflegal Federal acts,
that the words " to ffiterpose " meant legal interpo
sition, and that the word " nuUification " which appears
in the Kentucky Resolutions was not to be found in the
Virginia Resolutions. Benton, in his " Thirty Years'
View," attempts a defense of Jefferson, by asserting
that he was not the author of the Kentucky Resolu
tions. The pubUcation of Jefferson's Works at a later

72 THE CRADLE OP THE CONFEDERACY.
day refutes the denial of Benton, and the evasions of
Madison. There were found among his papers, two
original drafts, in Jefferson's own handwriting, of the
Kentucky Resolutions. In one of them is this resolu
tion: that when the general government assumes
powers " which have not been delegated, a nuffification
'" of the Act, is the rightfiil remedy : that every State
" has a natural right, in cases not within the compact
" [casus non foederis^ to nuUffy of thek own authority,
"all assumptions of power by others within their
"limits." Although the Vkginia Resolutions used the words
"to interpose," where Kentucky used the word
" nuUify," there is not room for a shadow of doubt that
both meant the same thing. Jefferson says that the
conference on the Kentucky Resolutions took place
between him and the two brothers Nicholas, and he
adds : " I think Mr. Madison was either with us, or
"consulted, but my memory is uncertain as to the
"minute detaffs." The two sets of resolutions bear
upon their face evidence of consultation and unity of
sentiment between the two distinguished authors. Von
HoLST, professor at the University of Freidburg, in his
Constitutional History of the United States, very justly
says, with reference to these Resolutions : " In a word,
" as the principles advanced in the Resolutions were the
" same, they led to the same logical conclusions, which
'were clearly expressed in the Kentucky Resolutions,
" namely, the right of the States, through the organ of
"their Legislatures, to 'resolve' that laws of Congress
" were •uneonstitutional, and therefore void and of no
"effect" Jefferson wrote to Madison, November 17th, 1798,

THE CRADLE OF THE CONFEDERACY. 73
enclosing him a draft of the Kentucky Resolutions,
and we have nowhere,- in evidence, any protest against,
or difference of opinion,- as to the use of the word
" nuUffication," expressed by Madison, untff the lapse
of more than thkty years, when South CaroUna, under
the teachings of Calhoun, put in practical effect the
doctrines of the Kentucky Resolutions. John Quincy
Adams, in his eulogy on Madison, said: "Concurring
" in the doctrine that the separate States have a right
" to interpose in cases of palpable infractions of the
" Constitution by the government of the United States,
" and that the aUen and sedition acts presented a case
"of such infi-action, Mr. Jefferson considered them
" as absolutely nuff and void, and thought the State
" Legislatures competent, not only to declare but to
" make them so, to resist their execution within thek
" respective bppdCT^ by physical force and to secede
" from the Union rather than submit to them, if at-
" tempted to be carried into execution by force."
Whatever doubt there may be as to what Madison
meant by the right and duty of the State "to interpose"
to prevent Federal infractions of the Constitution, there
is no doubt as to what Jefferson meant, and not the
least doubt as to what Vkginia meant The State of
Virginia meant precisely what the State of Kentucky
had said. At this time Hamilton wrote to Drayton,
Speaker of the House, charging that the Vkginia Res
olutions meant the overthrow of the Government, and
that her hostile declarations had been foffowed up by
preparations for the use of force. He declared that
Virginia had taken steps to put her miUtia on a war
footing, and had estabUshed magazines and arsenals.
The truth of this charge is not denied by Randall,

74 THE CRADLE OP THE CONFEDERACY.
the biographer of Jefferson. Indeed, at a somewhat
later day, John Randolph admitted in Congress that
there was no longer any cause for conceaUng that the
great armory at Richmond was buUt to enable the
State of Virginia to resist by force the encroachments
of the then administration upon her indisputable
rights. The views of the anti-FederaUsts were well expressed
by John Randolph when in March, 1799, he debated
with Patrick Henry at Charlotte Courthouse, Vkginia.
Mr. Henry, at the request of Washington, had come
from his retirement and offered himself as candidate
for the legislature, with the purpose of defending the
acts and doctrines of the Federal administration under
Adams. Randolph was a mere youth, and his reply to
Henry was the first of a long series of brffliant ad
dresses. He had been educated in the ideas of Jeffer
son and Madison. Said he : " In questions of meum
" and tuum, where rights of property are concerned,
" and some other cases specified in the Constitution, I
" grant you that the Federal judiciary may pronounce
" on the vaUdity of the law. But in questions involv-
" ing the right to power, whether this or that power
" has been delegated or reserved, they cannot and
" ought not to be the arbiter ; that question has been
" left, as it always was, and always must be left, to be
" determined among sovereignties in the best way they
"can. Political wsdom has not yet discovered any
" in&Uible mathematical rule by which to determine
" the assumptions of power between those who know no
" other law or limitation, save that imposed upon them
" by their own consent, and which they can abrogate
" at pleasure." He continued : " ShaU the creature

THE CRADLE OP THE CONFEDERACY. 75
" of the States be the sole judge of the legaUty or con-
" stitutionality of its acts, in a question of power
"between them and the States? ShaU they who
" assert a right be the sole judges of their authority to
" claim and to exercise it ? Does notgjll power seek to
" enlarge itseff? — grow on that ff feeds upon ? Has
" not that been the history of aU encroachment, aU
" usurpation? "
Mr. Henry had said that the remedy for unau
thorized Federal laws, when the Federal judiciary had
no cognizance of the case, would be found in the priv-
ffege and right of petition. " Petition ! Whom are
"we to petition?" replied Randolph. "Those who
" are the projectors of these measures, who voted for
" them and forced them upon you in spite of your wffl ?
" Woiffd not those men laugh at your petition, and, in
" the pride and insolence of new born power, trample it
" under thek feet with disdain ? "
From this brief review of the opinions and wishes
of poUtical leaders of both of the early parties, it is
seen that the right of nuUification and secession was
recognized by either party whenever the admimstration
was in the hands of its opponents, or whenever the ten
dency of events pointed to a diminution of the power
and influence of the section in which its strength lay.
The friends of Jeff'erson might threaten secession one
day because of the sedition act ; but it was the party
of Adams which threa.tened disunion on the next day
because of the extension of territory or of an embargo
upon commerce. Under these leaders the Southwest
came into existence and began its wonderful growth.
At their very bkth the Gulf States had seen a des
perate attempt by New England to strangle them

76 THE CRADLE OP THE CONFEDERACY.
under the continued rule of Spain and of the Indian
savage. The first political lesson learned in infancy
was that they were a bastard offspring, regarded with
aversion by the mother who should have nourished
them. The first political cry that met thek ears was
the cry from Massachusetts, that thek accession to the
Union was justifiable cause for disunion, and a simffar
cry from Virginia that each State has the right to
judge for itself of an infraction of the Constitution and
to assert the mode of redress.

CE[i?LPTER IV.

Jtirisdiction of the United States Over Indian Tribes — The
Fee Simple of Lands Occupied by the Tribes — The
Yazoo Frauds — The Decision in the Case of Fletcher
vs. Peck — Indignation of the People of Georgia — Con
stitutional Questions growing out of that Decision, &c.

" Congress have the exclusive right of pre-emption to all Indian
lands lying within the territories of the United States. * * * The title
is in the United States by the treaty of peace with Great Britain, and by
subsequent cessions from France and Spain, and by cessions from the in
dividual States ; and the Indians have only a right of occupancy and the
United States possess the legal title subject to that occupancy, and with
an absolute and exclusive right to extinguish the Indian title of occu
pancy either by conquest or purchase."
Kent's Commbntabies on American Law.

" Randolph was in Georgia at the time of the perpetration of this
villainy, and participated in the shame and mortification of his friends
at seeing persons reputed religious and respectable, effecting a public
robbery, by bribing the legislature of the State, and reducing them^ to the
horrors of treachery and perjury. A more detestable, impudent, and
dangerous villainy is not to be found on record."

Garland's Life of Randolph.

Under the Articles of Confederation the United States
had the power to manage all affaks with the Indian
nations not members of a State. The language of the
article conveying the power was this : " The United
" States in Congress assembled, shaU also have the sole
" and exclusive right and power of * * regulating
" the trade and managing aff affaks with the Indians,
" not members of any of the States, provided that the
" legislative right of any State within its own Umits be
" not infringed or violated."

78 THE CRADLE OF THE CONFEDERACY.
It was claimed under this grant that the Federal
Government could manage aU Indian affaks of whatever
character, except affairs relating to individual Indians
who may have subjected themselves to State laws and
become citizens of the State. In all other cases,
whether the Indian tribe resided within or without the
limits of a State, the United States alone cr,uld regulate
and rule them. It was seen at once that this Federal
jurisdiction must confUct with the right of a State to
rule the people of every class within its own Umits, and
that interminable confusion would result from the sub
jection of one class of the people within a State to one
set of laws, and those of another to another set. When,
therefore, the Constitution was framed, the States de-
cUned to renew this grant ; but contented themselves
simply with adopting this provision, the only one in
that instrument referring to the Indian :
" The Congress shall have power * * to regu-
" late commerce with foreign nations, and among the
" several States and with the Indian tribes."
The plain meaning of this section is that the United
States should regulate commerce with those Indian
tribes which dwelt upon lands not belonging to a State,
and which were outside the jurisdiction of a State.
This is evident from the fact that commerce with the
Indian tribes alluded to is placed in connection with
commerce between the States and foreign governments. ,
The right to manage all affaks with the Indians, such
as the United States possessed under the articles was
withdrawn under the Constitution, and yet the Federal
Government proceeded under the Constitution to exer
cise the authority it wielded under the articles, to reg
ulate commerce with Indian tribes, both within and

THE CRADLE OF THE CONFEDERACY. 79
without the Umits of a State, and also to manage aU
Indian aff"airs, without regard to whether the tribes
were wthin or without the State.
Such a claim, and an attempt to enforce it, was the
occasion of serious difficulty between the Federal Gov
ernment and the State of Georgia from an early day.
The questions which sprang fi-om this claim, agitated
the people of Georgia, Alabama and Mississippi, from
the year 1 795 to the close of the administiation of
President Jackson, a period of more than forty years.
Notwithstanding the denunciations which have been
hurled at the State of Georgia for her action and posi
tion in these Indian questions, a review of the facts
and the law, must convince every dispassionate reader
that at each step of the controversy, the people of the
Southwest are vindicated.
The first question which arose between the State of
Georgia and the Federal Government was, who pos
sessed the lee simple of the lands lying within the
boundaries of the State, but occupied by Indian tribes ?
An answer to this question is found in the International
Law which prevaffed among Christian Powers at the
period of the discovery of Anierica.
When the American Continent was discovered by
the Europeans, the several nations who settled it with
colonies united in the declaration that discovery gave a
titie to the government by whose subjects it was made,
against aff other European governments whose title
might be consummated by possession. The nation
making the discovery was recognized among Christian
people as having the sole right to make terms with the
Indians, and to plant settiements. The Indians were
admitted to be the rightful occupants of the soil with a

80 THE CRADLE OF THE OONPEDERAOY.
legal, as weU as just, claim to retain poosession of it,
and to use it according to thek own discretion; but
thek rights to complete sovereignty were necessarffy
diminished, and thek power to dispose of the soff at
thek own wffl, to whomever they pleased, was denied by
the original fundamental principle, that discovery gave
exclusive title to those who made it.
WhUe the different nations of Europe respected the
rights of the natives, as occupants, they asserted the
ultimate donainion to be in themselves : and claimed
and exercised as a conveyance of this ultimate domin
ion, a power to grant the soff whffe yet in possession of
the natives. These grants have been understood by
aff, say the Supreme Court of the United States, to
convey a title to the grantees, subject only to the
Indian right of occupancy.
Spain, in aff her discussions with France, Great
Britain and the United States, based her titie on the
rights given by discovery. Upon the same basis rested
the claim of Portugal to the Brazffs : and upon this
basis, France claimed aff Canada and Acadie, as weff as
Louisiana, when her population was insignificant, and
when the Indians occupied nearly aff the country.
Hoffand based its title to the New Netherlands, upon
the discovery by Hudson.
Great Britain recognized with equal distinctness the
rights of discovery. In 1496 Cabot was commissioned
to take possession in the name of the King of England
of all countries he might find, " then unknown to all
" Christian people." Here we find asserted the right
to take possession of the country, notwithstanding the
occupancy of the natives who were heathens, and at
the same time admitting the prior title of aay Christfem

THE CRADLE OP THE CONFEDERACY. 81
people who may have made a previous discovery.
The charter granted to Sir Humphrey Gffbert in 1517
authorizes him to discover and take possession of such
remote, heathen and barbarous lands as were not pos
sessed by any Christian prince or people. This charter
was afterwards renewed to Sir Walter Raleigh, in nearly
the same terms. In 1606, by charter, afterwards en
larged in 1609, James I granted to colonists aff the
lands between the thirty-fourth and forty-first degrees
of north latitude, along the sea coast and into the land
from sea to sea. In aff of this territory the soil, at the
time the grants were made, was occupied by the Indians;
yet almost every title within these boundaries is depen
dent on these grants. It has never been objected to
any of these original grants that the title as weff as
possession was in the Indians when it was made, and
that it passed nothing on that account.
Under aff the treaties which affected the possession
of this country by European states, the title given by
discovery was relied upon, and the fact that the ter
ritory was largely, often entirely, occupied by Indian
tribes, was ignored as of no importance. Such was the
case under the treaty of Utrecht, in 1703, when France
ceded Nova Scotia to Great Britain ; and under the
treaty of 1763, when Spain ceded Florida to Great
Britain ; and also under the secret treaty when France
ceded Louisiana to Spain. AU the nations of Europe
have invariably asserted for themselves and recognized
in others the exclusive right of the discoverer to appro
priate the lands occupied by the Indian.
The American States have recognized the principle
thus inherited from the old world. At the close of the
Revolution,. Great Britain conveyed aU of her rights,

82 THE CRADLE OF THE CONFEDERACY.
proprietary and territorial, to the colonies, and thereby
aff of her rights to the soff passed to the States. " It
" has never been doubted," says Chief Justice Mar-
shaU,, in his opinion in the case of Johnson vs. Mcin
tosh, "that either the United States or the several
" States had a clear title to aU the lands within the
" boundary lines described in the treaty, subject only
" to the Indian right of occupancy, and that the ex-
" elusive power to extinguish that right was vested in
" that government which might constitutionaUy exer-
" cise ff."
Vkginia in 1779 passed an act declaring her exclu
sive right of pre-emption from the Indians, of aff the
lands within the limits of her chartered territory, and
denying the right of any person to buy lands fi'om the
Indians. The territory ceded by Virginia to the Fed
eral Government was occupied by numerous and war
like tribes of Indians, but the exclusive right of the
United States to extinguish their title and to grant the
soff has never been doubted.
In 1845, in a case before the Supreme Court of the
United States, (United States vs. Rogers,) Chief
Justice Taney used this language : " It is our duty to
" expound and execute the law as we find it, and we
" think it too firmly and clearly established to admit of
" dispute that the Indian tribes residing within the ter-
" ritorial limits of the United States are subject to thek
" authority ; and where the country occupied by them
" is not within the Umits of one of the United States,
" Congress may by law punish any offence committed
" there, no matter whether the offender be a white man
" or an Indian.
A^sunung a right over aff of her lands which thus

THE CRADLE OF THE CONFEDERACY. 83
far had never been denied, and which had been acted
upon by aU of the thirteen original States, the General
Assembly of Georgia, in 1798, authorized a conditional
sale of the larger portion of her territory lying between
the Chattahoochee and the Mississippi. Three com
panies were organized by speculators to acquire these
valuable lands. The "South Carolina Yazoo Company"
agreed to pay sixtj- thousand doUars for five millions
of acres, now embracing the middle counties of Mis
sissippi. The Vkginia Company agreed to pay ninety-
three thousand doUars for seven miUions of acres, em
bracing what are now the northern counties of Missis
sippi. The " Tennessee Company," for forty-six thous
and doUars agreed to purchase three miUions five hun
dred thousand acres, now lying in north Alabama.
Steps were being taken to occupy the several pur
chases, when a question arose as to the right of Georgia
to seU the lands claimed by Spain, between thirty-one
degrees and thirty-two degrees twenty-eight minutes.
A stffl more serious question, and one to which atten
tion has already been caffed, arose, as to the right of
Georgia to dispose of the fee simple of lands occupied
stiff by Indian tribes, with whom the Federal Govern
ment had treaties, and who had never granted to the
whites the lands which the State was now clainung her
right and power to convey to speculatmg companies.
The Union had just been formed, and President Wash
ington was unwffling that anything should be done to
embroff the infant repubUc with a foreign power. He
was also fearful of the effect upon the Union of a gen
eral Indian war. But the chief motive for his opposi-
. . tion to the Yazoo sale may be found in the jealousy
which he entertained for the power of the Federal

84 THE CRADLE OF THE CONFEDERACY.
Government as against the claims of a State. He had
seen during the continuance of the preceding weak
Government, that under the articles of confederation
the United States had the right to make treaties with
the Indian tribes (or nations as they were improperly
styled) not residing within a State, and he either faffed
to observe that that clause was excluded from the new
Federal Constitution, or construed its absence as mean
ing that the new Government were to make treaties
with and have exclusive charge of Indian tribes both
outside as weff as within a State. He stffl beUeved
that the old practice of treating with the tribes as
though they were independent sovereigns should be
continued by the general Government, and that the
States being precluded from making treaties, could not
properly deal with the Indian people, and could not
legaUy aUenate the lands they occupied. The question
which puzzled Washington was that which puzzled the
Government for many years after his day, and which
wiU be practicaUy solved at last only by the subjection
of the Indian to the laws which rule every other citizen
of the RepubUc, of whatever color or race.
The President issued a proclamation against the
attempt of the companies to occupy the lands, and as
they all faffed to pay the purchase money within the
time stipulated, the State rescinded the sale.
In December, 1794, the Legislature of Georgia, by
a majority, passed a new bffl contracting for a sale of
the Yazoo territory. This bffl was vetoed by Gov
ernor Mathews because of the inadequacy of the con
sideration offered, and on the ground that it would
create a monopoly. A few days subsequentiy. Gov
ernor Mathews gave way to the importunities of the

THE CRADLE OF THE OONPEDERAOY. 85
Assembly and signed another biU in January, 1795,
which was designed to accompUsh the purpose of the
first, but which was more guarded in some of its expres
sions. This " Yazoo Act " set out that the Articles of
the Confederation had stipulated that each State was to
retain her territory : that by the treaty with Great
Britain, the boundary of Georgia was confirmed as
being the same claimed by her repeatedly and recog
nized b}^ the convention between South Carolina and
Georgia, held at Beaufort, in 1787 : that the State had
the right of pre-emption over aff the lands within her
borders occupied by Indian tribes : that the treaty
claimed to have been made at New York, between
McGffUvray and the Federal Government, had never
been recognized by Georgia: that the confederation
had no right to make that treaty with Indians, resident
within a State: that President Washington had no
right to agree with McGiffivray and his chiefs, and to
guarantee all the territory west of the Oconee, to the
Creeks : and that the State had the right to convey fee
simple titles to aff of her territory, whether to individ
uals or to companies.
The importance of these positions taken by Georgia,
wffl appear hereafter. The claim thus set forth by her
in the preamble to the Yazoo Act, has been recognized
as correct by the Supreme Court of the -United States
in various decisions, but at that day it was denied
strenuously by President Washington and the Federal
party. We wiff see how it became the occasion for pro
longed hostiUty between the Gulf States and the Fed
eral Government, and for the development of that
responsive spirit of jealousy on the part of the State
agamst the unjust pretensions of the Union, which edu-

86 *rHE CRADLE DP THE OoNFEbEUAOY.
cated the people of this section, from the earliest day,
in the doctrines of State rights, nuUification, and finally
secession, as the only remedy against Federal usurpa
tion. Pour Yazoo companies were formed under this Act,
and for the sum of five hundred thousand dollars,
twenty-one mfflions and five hundred thousand acres of
land were conveyed The companies paid promptly
into the State treasury one-fifth of the purchase money
and obtained titles from the Governor. They hastened
at once to re-sell the lands to those who might, in case
of a repeal by the State, set up a title as innocent pur
chasers without notice. As soon as this sale was con
summated. President Washington laid a copy of the
Yazoo Acts before Congress, saying — " These Acts
" embrace an object of gi-eat magnitude, and their con-
" sequences may deeply affect the peace and welfare of
" the United States." Congress insti-ucted the Attor
ney General to investigate the title of Georgia to the
lands in question.
Before, however, any action could be taken by the
Federal Government, the people of Georgia themselves
effectuaUy disposed of these Yazoo Acts. Whffe they
acknowledged the right of the State to the fee simple
of the lands involved, they repudiated the sale so far
as lay in thek power, as having been secured through
bribery and corruption.
The opponents of the Act denied the power of the
Legislature to seU, and denounced the scheme as ti-ans-
ferring the richest part of' the teiritory of Georgia with
all the inchoate rights of the settiers to the tender
mercies of a speculative corporation. They contended
with great reason, that the members had not been

THE CRADLE OP THE CONFEDERACY. 87
elected with a view to such a proposition, and that the
people should be consulted at a new election before pas-
ing upon su-jh a momentous subject. So deep was the
popular indignation that several of those who voted for
the Act were actually slain upon their return home:
some had thek dwelUngs burned: othei-s fled the State:
and one was even pursued' and kiUed in Virginia. All
of them were repudiated and spurned by the people.
Their votes were held as affixing a mark of disgrace to
themselves and entaiUng infamy for years upon their
chUdren. There were men of vktue and high position who
advocated and supported the Yazoo Acts. They held
that the sale of the western territory to different com
panies would be productive of a more rapid settlement
of the lands, the erection of new States, and the speedy
buffding up of an interest quite equal to the task of
compassing the extinguishment of the whole Indian
tribe. There can be no question that these men were
deceived as to the character of those who managed the
business of securing the sale, however honest they may
have been as to the merits of the question itself
William Few, then a Senator in Congress from Geor
gia, bears this testimony : " In fact Georgia was inva-
" ded and overrun by a horde of speculators and other
" adventurers, just after the close of the Revolution, and
" was as completely changed for a time as to character,
" sentiment, or conduct, as ever was England after the
" Saxon or Norman invasion." He declared further,
that " it is hardly susceptible of proof, that any per-
" sons, born or bred in Georgia, were any more than
"dupes in the fraud." Mr. Few was doubtiess correct.
We have seen in another day, and after a fiercer

88 THE CRADLE OF THE CONFEDERACY.
revolution, an invasion of simffar adventurers, and the
perpetration of simffar frauds, without the connivance
or consent of the native population. There is no rea
son to believe that Governor Mathews was corrupted.
But so bitter was the feeling against aU who aided
dkectly or indirectly in the passage of the obnoxious
Acts, that to this day no county of Georgia has been
named for one of its first and most gallant governors ;
and never since that day has a member of a Georgia
Legislature, elected by the Anglo-Saxon population,
dared to exercise his office corruptly. One of the first
lessons of the century in the Gulf country taught
honesty in political life. It was remembered for gene
rations. The,people of Georgia made the expressed opinion
of a politician with reference to the vaUdity of the
Yazoo sale a test of his fitness for office. If he held
that the Legislature had the right to seU the territory,
and that the purchasers acquked title by the sale, he
sank to an obscurity from which he could never rise.
James Jackson, a young man of great tact and ability
and boldness, who had served with distinction in the
Revolution, and who was elevated to the gubernatorial
chak at an unusually early age, was now a member of
Congress. He was of ardent temperament, the soul of
honor, and chivalrous in the highest degree. Of com
manding and graceful figure, eloquent in expression, a
determined enemy and an impulsive friend, positive in
thought and act, and holding in utter contempt every
species of deceit and treachery, he wielded a wide in
fluence throughout South Georgia. Resigning his seat
in Congress, this young " Bayard," without fear and
without reproach, announced himself as a candidate for

THE CRADLE OP THE CONFEDERACY. 89
the State Legislature, declared that " Repeal of the
Yazoo sale " should be the rallying cry of the honest
sons of Georgia, and proceeded to visit every section of
the State, addressing popular assembUes and caUing for
an uprising of the people to rebuke the first corrupt
scheme that ever passed a Georgia Legislature. He
inspked the multitudes with his own enthusiasm, was
elected to a seat in the Assembly, proposed and secured
a repeal of the Yazoo sale, and then at the head of a
procession of members of both houses, bore the manu
script of the repealed Act to the pubUc square, and
with a sun glass burned it to ashes. Henceforth the
rising young men of Georgia knew that to preserve
popular favor they must keep the robes of office un-
sulUed. The " Yazoo Fraud " question did not make its
appearance again until after the State of Georgia, in
1802, had ceded to the United States all of her lands
lying between the Chattahoochee and the Mississippi.
In the " Articles of Agreement and Cession "
between Georgia and the United States, was a proviso
that the latter may dispose of or appropriate a portion
of the lands covered by the Yazoo grants, not exceed
ing five mffUons of acres, or any part thereof, for the
purpose of satisfying, quieting, or compensating any
claims other than those recognized in the Articles
of Agreement, which may be made to the said lands.
It was under this provision that the New England and
Mississippi Land Company, who, in the meantime, had
purchased the title of the original grantees of a corrupt
Legislature, petitioned Congress to satisfy their claim
by a fair purchase or commutation. In the session of
1802-3 this subject was first brought to the attention

90 THE CRADLE OF THE CONFEDERACY.
of Congress. Mr. Madison and Mr. GaUatin, members
of the Cabinet, and Mr. LeAd Lincoln, were appointed
commissioners to investigate the subject. They made
an elaborate report and concluded with a proposition
that so much of the five miUions of acres as shaU
remain after ha-ving satisfied the claims of settlers and .
others, not recognized by the agreement with Georgia,
which shaU be confkmed by the United States, be
appropriated for the purpose of satisfying and quieting
the claims of the persons who derive thek tities from
the Act of the State of Georgia, passed Jan. 7, 1795.
The head of this New England and Mississippi' Land
Company was Gideon Granger, then Postmaster Gen
eral. He was the agent of the Company to prosecute
the claim before Congress. Referring to Mr. Granger
and his appUcation to Congress in this case, Mr. John
Randolph said : '" The first year I had the honor of a
"seat in this House, an act was passed somewhat of a
" simffar nature to the one now proposed. I allude to
"the case of the Connecticut Reserve, by which the
" nation was swindled out of three or four miUions of
" acres, which, like other bad titles, had fallen into the
"hands of innocent purchasers. Whea I advert to
" the appUcants by whom we were then beset, I find
" among them one of the persons who styled them-
" selves the agents of the New England and Mississippi
" Land Company, who seems to have an unfortunate
" knack of buying bad titles. His gigantic grasp em-
" braces with one hand the shores of Lake Erie, and
" with the other stretches to the Bay of Mobile. * *
" Mr. Speaker, when I see the agency which is em-
" ployed on this occasion, I must own that it fiUs me
" with apprehension and alarm. The same agent is at

THE CSABLE 01? THE OONFEDERAOY. 91
" the head of an Executive Department of our Gov-
" ernment, and inferior to none in the inffuence at-
"tachedtoit * * This officer presents himself at
" your bar at once a party and an advocate. Sir, when
" I see such a tremendous influence brought to bear
" upon us I do confess it strikes me with consternation
"and despair. Are the heads of Executive Depart-
" ments, with the influence and patronage attached to
" them, to extort fi'om us now, what we refused at the
" last session of Congress."
Mr. Granger and his friends professed great indigna
tion at the opposition of Randolph, and threatened to
canvass J^'ew England in the interest of the company
who now claimed to hold as innocent purchasers under
the rescinded Yazoo law. Prominent among those
who aided and sympathized with the company was
Aaron Burr, who doubtless was in league with the
claimants to add then- portion, of the Yazoo territory
to the country which he hoped to erect into an inde
pendent Southwestern Republic.
In order to establish their claim, a case Vas made by
the claimants for adjudication by the Supreme Court
of the United States. James Gunn and others, who
held one of the grants, sold certain lands to John
Peck, who in turn sold to Robert Fletcher. Peck
made a deed to Fletcher, and Fletcher sued Peck for
breach of covenant, in that the State of Georgia at the
time of passing the Yazoo Acts, had no good right to
seU and dispose of the lands in question. One of the
covenants of the deed from Peck was that aU the titie
which Georgia ever had in the lands had been legaffy
conveyed, and another was that the title to the lands
had in no way been knpaked by virtue of the subse-

92 THE CRADLE OF THE CONFEDERACY.
quent rescision of the Acts by a new Georgia Legis
lature. Thus the questions came up which were to have so
marked an inffuence upon Southwestern poUtic's. (1).
As to the right of a State to the fee simple of lands
occupied by Indian tribes. (2) As to the right of a
State to interfere with vested rights by rescision of a
contract. The Supreme Court refused to say that bribery of
a General Assembly would invalidate an Act. " It
" would be indecent in the extreme," said the Chief
Justice, " upon a private contract between two indi-
" viduals, to enter into an enquiry respecting the corrup- .
" tion of a sovereign power of a State. If the titie be
" plainly deduced from a Legislative Act, which the
" Legislature might constitutionally pass, ff the act be
" clothed with aff the requisite favors of a law, a court,
" sitting as a court of law, cannot sustain a suit brought
" by one individual against another, founded on the
" allegations that the Act is a nuUity, in consequence '
" of the impure motives which inffuenced certain mem-
" hers of the Legislature which passed the law." ,
The Supreme Court decided that the constitutional
inhibition forbidding a State to enact a law invalidat
ing a contract, applied to this case. It was the unani
mous opinion of the Court that the repeaUng Act did
not deprive purchasers from the Yazoo grantees of
rights under the Acts of 1796, and that the lands in
controversy having passed into the hands of a pur
chaser for valuable consideration and without notice,
the rescisive Act of the State of Georgia was inope
rative, nuU and void as to such innocent purchaser.
To sustain the rights of the purchasers in this case,

THE CRADLE OF THE CONFEDERACY. 93
it was necessai-ily held also that Georgia had a right to
seff the lands in question, although then occupied and
claimed by Indian tribes. It was found by the Court
that the grant of CaroUna by Charles I, to the Earl of
Clarendon and others, comprehended the whole country
from thk'ty-six degrees thirty minutes, to twenty- nine
degrees, and fi-om the Atlantic to the South Sea. Seven
of the eight proprietors of the colonies surrendered to
George I, in 1729, who appointed a governor for South
CaroUna. In 1 732, George I granted to the Lord Viscount
Percival and others, seven-eighths of the temtory be
tween the Savannah and the Altamaha, and extending
west to the South Sea, the remaining eighth part,
which was stffl the property of the hek of Lord Carte
ret, one of the original grantees of Carolina, was after
wards conveyed to them. This territory was constitu
ted a colony, and caUed Georgia. The Governor of
South CaroUna continued to exercise jurisdiction south
of Georgia. In 1752, the grantees surrendered to the
crown, and in 1754 a governor was appointed by the
crown, with a commission defining the boundaries of the
colony. In 1765, a commission was issued to the
Governer describing the boundaries of Georgia, as
extending westward to the Mississippi. The lands
involved in the case of Fletcher vs. Peck, lay within
the boundary defined by the commission of 1763. It
was thus held to be the exclusive property of Georgia,
mherited and aequired by the right of conquest.
Chief Justice Marshall, in passing upon this branch of
the case, said: "The question whether the vacant
" land within the United States became joint property,
" or belonged to the separate States, was a momentous

94 THE CRADLE OF THE CONFEDERACY.
" question, which at one time threatened to shake the
" American confederacy to its foundation. This im-
" portant and dangerous contest has been compromised,
" and this compromise is not now to be disturbed," In
conclusion of his opinion, he says : " The majority of
" the Court are of opinion that the nature of the
" Indian title, which is certainly to be respected by all
" Courts until it be legitimately extinguished, is not
" such as to be absolutely repugnant to seizin in fee on
" the part of the State."
Although the Supreme Court was thus cautious in
its language in 1810, when this decision was ren
dered, we find that Chief Justice Tracy and the Court
had become positive in 1845. There was at that day
no longer a doubt as to the seizin in fee by the State of
aff lands within her limits occupied by Indian tribes.
This right to the soff was recognized by Kent in his
Commentaries, as early as 182?', as wiU be seen by
reference to the paragraph fi'om his writings quoted at
the beginiung of this chapter.
The importance of this decision of Fletcher vs.
Peclc, was at once understood by the States It was
the first adjudication which announced that the control
by a State of its own territory is not unlimited, but
that the General Government has the right in certain
cases to restraia the State from annuUing its own
patent. The Court declared that when a law is in its
nature a "contract, a repeal of the law cannot divest the
rights acquked under it by innocent purchasers without '
notice, and that thek title shall not be impaired. The
Court held that a grant by a State is a contract within
the meaning of the Constitution, and a party is always
estopped by his own grant. A party cannot pronounce

THE CRADLE OF THE CONFEDERACY. 95
his own deed invalid whatever cause may be assigned
for its invaUdity, even though that party be the Legis
lature of a State. A grant amounts to an extinguish
ment of the right of the grantor, and implies a con
tract not to reassert that right A grant from a State
is as much protected by the operation of the provision
of the Constitution as a grant from one individual to
another ; and the State is as much inhibited from im
pairing its own contracts, or a contract to which it is a
party, as it is fi'om impairing the obligation of contracts
between individuals.
Such was the decision of the Supreme Court of the
United States. No matter that the voice and consent
of Georgia had been obtained through misrepresenta-
•tion on the part of her Greneral Assembly. No matter
that bribery and corruption had extorted a shameful
sacrifice of most valuable property from the accidental
representatives of the people No matter, said the
United States Judiciary to the innocent people, whether
the grant was made rightfiiUy or wrongfiiUy, " you are
" not to be the judge of that question ; you are
" estopped from questioning anything but the existence
'/ of your patent." No wonder the people of Georgia
were indignant at such a decision, so unexpected, so
novel, so antagonistic to the theory of State sovereignty
in which they had been educated.
The opponents of the decision contended that the
inhibitory clause of the Federal Constitution simply
appUed to cases of contract between man and man, and
not to cases in which a sovereign State directly or in-
dkectiy was a party. It appeared to them monstrous
that a State should be bound by the unauthorized acts
of her ageuts, shnply because a citizen had acquked a

96 THE CRADLE OF THE CONFEDERACY.
vested right thereby. Could it not be left safely with
the State to make compensation for injury to innocent
parties in such case ? Before the States would ratffy
the Constitution they insisted upon an amendment for
bidding the judicial power of the United States to any
suit in law or equity by the citizen of another State or
of a foreign country against any of the States. If the
State could not be compelled to abide by a contract
made with a citizen of another State or a foreigner,
how could she be compeUed by the United States to
abide by a contract with one of her own citizens ? The
people of the State were fiUed with indignation against
the aUeged encroachment by the General Government
against thek rights.
The Federal party which had adhered to the admin
istration of Washington, from this day began to faff
away more rapidly than ever. The RepubUcan party
of Georgia grew with wonderful rapidity, and soon
there appeared upon the stage such men as John
Forsyth, William H. Crawford, Thomas W. Cobb,
Duncan G. Campbell, Augustus Clayton, Eli S. Shor
ter, John M. Dooly, Freeman Walker, John M. Bek-
RiEN, Stephen W. Harris, and Geo. M. Troup. Into
every poUtical campaign entered the principles of Gov
ernment involved in the Yazoo transaction. The
people were on the side of Georgia, and this splendid
array of youthfiil inteUect was on the side of the
people. The current aU set towards the sovereignty of
the State ; there was barely a perceptible eddy in the
other dkection.

CHi^PTER V.

Relation of the Union to the Indian Tribes — Relation of the
State to the Tribes Within Its Limits — The Georgia
Act of Cession — ^071- Observance of the Contract 0%
the Part of the United States — The Treaty Making and
Commerce Regulating Power — Conflicting Views as to
Indian Rights — Practice of the Northern and Eastern
States — The Neio Theory of Equality of Races, &c., &c.

" But the project of ultimately organizing them [the Indian tribes]
mto States, within the limits of those States which had not ceded or
should not cede to the United States the jurisdiction over the Indian
territory within their bounds, could not possibly have entered into
the contemplation of our Government, Nothing but express authority
from the States could have justified such a policy, pursued with such
a view." WiiiiiiAM Johnson, Associate Justice Supreme Court U. S.
" The main point involved, was not the rights of the Creeks, but
the corner-stone of the legal foundation of the whole nnion. It is
true that there was no danger that this corner-stone would be broken
and shattered on the instant. But the demand of principiis obsia.'
was again urged upon the Federal Government, and in a more press
ing way than ever before," VoN HoLST's Constitutional Histoky, p, 449,

A majority of the States represented in the con
vention which fi:-amed the Constitution, either ceded to
the United States the soff and jurisdiction of thek
western lands, or claimed ff to be remaining within
themselves. Congress assented as to ceded, and the
States as to the unceded territory, their right to the
soff absolutely and the dominion in fiffl sovereignty,
within thek respective limits, subject only to the Indian
occupancy, not as foreign States or nations, but as
dependent on, and appendant to the State govern-

98 THE CRADLE OF THE CONFEDERACY.
ments. Before the convention took action. Congress
erected a government in the Northwestern territory
containing numerous and powerfiil tribes. It was
ordained that the territorial laws sTiould extend over
the whole district, and divisions were created for the
execution of the civff and commercial law. Although
the Indians were, for a long time, and generally, per
mitted to regulate thek internal affaks in their own
way, it was not by any inherent right acknowledged
by Congress or reserved by treaty, but because Con
gress did not see proper to exercise its fuU powers
of sovereignty. This complete sovereignty was de
clared and asserted in all the regulations of Congress,
from 1775 to 1788, in the Articles of Confederation,
in the Ordinance of 1787, in the Proclamation of
1788, and in the case of the Southwestern Indians in
the Treaty of HopeweU in 1785.
In the Act of Cession made by Georgia to the
United States in 1 802 of aU lands claimed by her west
of the line designated, one of the cnditions was: " that
" the United States should, at thek own expense,
" extinguish for the use of Georgia, as early as the
" same can be peaceably obtained, on reasonable terms,
" the Indian title to lands within the State of Georgia."
Finding that the Federal Government delayed to
carry out thek part of the stipulation, and were adopt
ing measures looking to the perpetual occupation of
these lands by the Indians, such as the erection of
school houses and churches, the parceUing out of farms
among them, and their education in the arts of civil
ized Ufe, the State of Georgia resolved to extend her
laws over the entke Indian territory within her borders.
She clauned, as has already been seen, a fee simple

THE CRADLE OF THE CONFEDERACY. 99
titie to these Indian lands. She claimed and exercised
the right to sell these lands to the Yazoo speculators;
and the Supreme Court of the United States, in 1810,
had decided that she had a right to make the sale, and
should not annul it There could be no higher recog
nition of her right to sovereignty, over the vast terri-,
tory covered by the Yazoo Acts, than the opinion of
Chief Justice Marshall in the case of Fletcher vs.
Peck. If Georgia, as was adnutted by a majority of the
court in that cause, had a fee simple title to the soff, it
was a worthless title so long as the Federal Government
recognized a right on the part of the Indian tribes to
occupy the soff at wffl. The analogy of an estate in
remainder or reversion could not apply, since no time
or circumstance was fixed for the reversion to happen.
There could not be two concurrent so-rereignties. The
State repeatedly remonstrated to the President, and
caffed upon the Federal Government to take the neces
sary steps to fulfil the stipulations as to removal.
She complained that while the Indian title to immense
tracts of country had been extinguished elsewhere, but
littie if any effort had been made in that dkection
within the limits of Georgia. This delay was attrib
uted either to a want of attention on the part of the
United States, or to the effect of ffs new humanitarian
policy towards the red man. In one or more of the
treaties, tities in fee simple to certain reservations of
land were given by the Unffed States to individual
Indians. This was complained of by Georgia as a
dkect infraction of the condition ol^ the cession.
Georgia complained also that the poUcy of the Gov
ernment in advancuig the cause of civiUzation among

100 THE CRADLE OF THE CONFEDERACY.
the tribes, and inducing them to assume the forms of a
regular government and of civUized life, was calculated
to promote an attachment to the soff they inhabited,
and to render the purchase of their title more difficult,
if not impracticable. Mr. Jefferson in 1809, in a letter
to the Cherokees, recommended them to adopt a regu
lar government, that crimes might be punished and
property protected. He pointed out a mode by which
a council should be chosen, who should have power to
enact law ; and he also recommended the appointment
of judicial and executive officers, through whom the law
should be enforced. In the treaty of 1817, the Cher
okees were encouraged to adopt a regular form of gov
ernment, and they thereupon adopted a government
modeffed on that of a State. Subsequently a law was
passed by Congress making an annual appropriation of
$10,000, as a school fund for the education of Indian
youths. Missionary labors among the Indians were
also sanctioned by the Government, by granting per
mission to reside in the Indian country to those who
were disposed to engage in such work. The means
thus adopted by the United States to reclaim the
savage from his erratic Ufe, and induce him to assume
the forms of civilization, no doubt tended to increase
his attachment to the soil, and the difficulty of pur
chasing it as the United States had agreed with Georgia
to do. It was not contemplated by the State at the
time of the cession that any obstructions to the fulfil
ment of the contract should be allowed, much less
sanctioned, by the United States.
Georgia denied that the power of the United States
to make treaties authorized the Government to treat
with Indian tribes as though they were sovereign and

1 THE CRADLE OF THE OONPEDERAOY. 101
independent nations. The Indian tribe was in no sense
a nat'on. It did not own the fee simple of the lands it
hunted over. It occupied, said Chief Justice Marshaff,
towards the State in whose limits it was included, or to
the United States, if it lay without the borders of a
State, the relation of a ward to a guardian. Assuredly
a guardian could not treat with his ward. In the
treaty of HopeweU, March 15, 1^75, just after the
Revolution, the Commissioners of the United States
expressed themselves in these terms : •' The Commis-
" sioners Plenipotentiary of the United States give
" peace to all the Cherokees, and receive them into the
" fiivor and protection of the United States, on the
" foUowing conditions." This was the language of
conquerors and sovereigns, and not the address of
equals to equals. Such an agreement was simply a
promise or contract, and in no way worthy or deserving
of the title of treaty. In designating the country to
which the Cherokees should be confined, the Commis
sioners used this language : " The boundaries aUotted
" to the Cherokees for their hunting grounds." The
concession was aU on the side of the United States.
No right of possession of the soff in the Indian was
recognized. Down to that day the tribes did not claim
to be recognized as nations, and no nation on earth
had ever looked upon them as sufficiently sovereign to
become parties to what is technically known as a treaty.
If they should declare war, and issue letters of marque
or reprisal, no one would respect their commissions. In
the treaty of Hopewell, the Cherokees renounced every
attribute of sovereignty. They received as a boon the
territory allotted to them: the right of punishing
intruders into that territory was conceded by the con-

102 THE CRADLE OF THE CONFEDERACY.
queror, not asserted by the tribe, and the sole and
exclusive right was claimed by the conqueror of regu
lating thek trade and managing aU thek affairs in such
manner as the Government of the United States should
think proper. To leave no question as to the subjec
tion of the tribes, the United States in the so-caUed
treaty of Hopeweff provided : " For the benefit and
" comfort of the Indians, and for the prevention of
" injuries and aggi-ession.s on the part of the citizens
" or Indians, the United States, in Congress assembled,
" shaff have the sole and exclusive right of regulating
" the trade with the Indians, and managing aff
" thek af&ks in such manner as they shaff think
" proper." Georgia claimed under this HopeweU treaty that the
United States had plenary power to do with the Indians
as they might think proper. A simffar and equal
power to that which the United States possessed over
Indian ti'ibes outside of Georgia, clearly belonged to
the State as regards tho=e tribes within her limits. The
Federal Government had only the power which it in
herited from the State. The treaties that foffowed that
of Hopewell, namely, those of Holston and TelUco^
referred to and confirmed that of HopeweU.
The use of the word " treaty," as appUed to these
agreements, contracts or stipulations made with Indian
tribes is of no significance. Thus in the second article
of the Holston treaty. so-caUed, oecurs these words :
" That the said Cherokee nation wffl not hold any
" treaty with any foreign power, individual. State, or
" with individuals of any State." The application of
the word ti-eaty to an agreement with an individual is
evidence that it was not used in its strict technical

THE CRADLE OP THE CONFEDERACY. 103
sense, and was not intended to mean a contract between
sovereign powers. Georgia protested that these agree
ments with conquered and dependent Indian tribes
were not such treaties as were made by the Constitu
tion the supreme law of the land, and therefore the
Federal Government, under color of these so-called
ti:eaties had no right to interfere with the State of
Georgia in managing every foot of her own soff and
every person resident within her borders.
A memorial of the Georgia Legislature in 1819,
urged the President to hasten the fulfilment of the
agreement of 1802. The Administration professed
wffUngness to carry out the stipulation, but the Indians
refused to sell. A councff of Creek chiefs at Tucke-
bachee declared. May 25, 1824, that the lands stiff in
thek possession were only sufficient for the support of
the tribe. Said they : " We have guns and ropes, and
" ff any of our people shaff break these laws, those
" guns and ropes shaff be their end." On the 29th of
October, of the same year, a councff of chiefs met
again and passed a resolution of the same tenor, and
committed it, " confiding in the- magnanimous disposi-
" tion of the citizens of the United States to render
"justice to the Indians" — to a newspaper for publica
tion, "so that it maybe known to the world." In
reply to the Commissioners of the United States,
Duncan G. Campbell and James Merriwether, who con
ferred with them at Broken Arm, in the following
December, John Ross and the Creek chiefs used
decided language.
It was suggested t6 the Indian, by the Commis
sioners, that but two courses were left him. He must
consent to removal to hunting grt)unds beyond the

104 THE CRADLE OF THE CONFEDERACY.
Mississippi, or he must be incorporated in the State
government. To the first of these propositions was
given an emphatic no. To the second, it was replied
that the happiness which the Indians once enjoyed by
a quiet and undisturbed ease, before the face of the
white miin was seen upon the continent, was afterwards
poisoned by the bad fi-uits of the civUized tree which
he had planted around them. Wars arose, the moun
tains and plains were covered with carnage, and the
Elysian fields drenched with blood ; and many noble
tribes, whose unfortunate doom it was to have been
overshadowed by the expanded branches of this tree,
drooped, withered, and are no more. The Indian
tribes have become extinct whenever merged into
the white population. Invariably they have fallen
an early and easy sacrifice to ihe ambition, pride, and
avarice of the civffized man. Defrauded out of their
rights ; treated as inferior beings, because of their pov
erty, their ignorance and their color, they have been
thrown with the most degraded of society, from whom
they imbibed habits of debauchery and intemperance,
with all the vices that follow in their train Then-
lands have been swept from under their feet by the
ingenuity and cunning of the white man, and being
left destitute of a home, ignorant of the arts and
sciences, and possessing no experience in the occupa
tions of a laborious and industrious Iffe, they have
become vagrants among strangers. By successive and
constant oppressions, their spirits have been depressed
and broken, and finally, they have been urged by
misery to hasten the period of a troublesome existence
by resort to intemperance and every description of
sensuality. Such have been the causes which fixed

THE CRADLE OF THE CONFEDERACY. 105
the doom of extinction to many of the proudest Indian
tribes ; and such, they protested, would be thek own
doom ff incorporated into the family of the white man.
If we concede that ff is impossible for the Indian to
practice the arts of peace and civilized life, these men
undoubtedly spoke the language of truth. It is amus
ing, after the lapse of half a century, to recur to the
reasons assigned by Governor Murphy, of Alabama,
for arriving at the conclusion of Ross and his braves.
In his message to the Alabama Legislature he seriously
said: " To ci-yilize a people from a rude and barbarous
" condition, they should be removed from the inUuence
" of the vices and luxuries which prevaff in civffized
" life, and subjected to that discipline and instruction
" by which a change of Itfe, manners and mental
" improvement is graduaUy produced. The virtues
" must first be cultivated, and the mind strengthened
" against the seductions of vicious gratification. Such
" is the natural order of things ; and experience only
" confirnjs what they might justly predicate on a cor-
" rect knowledge of human nature. Such has been
" the evidence of history ; for the provinces farther
" removed from the vices, refinements and luxuries of
•" Rome, but subjected to its laws and instructed by its
" arts, made the most solid, if not the most immediate
"progress in civiUzation. This necessary course can
" not be pursued with the Indians whUst they remain
" within our limits ; they have continued access to
" whatever tends to corrupt them ; they have con.
" stant testimony that thek condition is regarded as
"inferior to others, than which nothing is more
" destructive to vktuous pride and generous emulation ;

106 THE CRADLE OP THE CONFEDERACY.
" and the abandoned part of our people (who alone can
" mingle freely with the nation as a body without
" losing their standing in society), wffl introduce our
" vices and prevent the introduction of our vktues."
More candid and much more phffosophic was the view
taken of this difficult problem by Governor Troup, of
Georgia. He held that ff such a scheme as the incor
poration of the Indian and his amalgamation with the
society of the Anglo Saxons, was practicable, the
utmost of rights and privffeges which public opin
ion would concede him would be a middle station
between the white man and the negro slave ; that if he
should survive this degradation, without the possibility
of attaining to the position of the former, he would
gradually sink to the condition of the latter, would
intermarry and amalgamate with the negro, and thus
extinguish his proud race of huntsmen by transforming
it into a loathsome hybrid without the docffity of the
mother nor the pride of the father.
The State of Massachusetts had been earliest to
enact a law against intermarriage between tjbe Indian
and the Anglo-Saxon. It was entitled "An Act for
the better preventing of a spurious or mixed issue."
Our forefathers, understanding the inferior character of
the colored races, refused to permit amalgamation, and
visited it with the severest penalties of law. They pos
sessed a lofty pride of race which, in a great measure,
has been lost to their descendants. Their firm resolve
to preserve the purity of the race, and to continue its
dominion over the land, was strengthened by the aspect
presented by Central and South America, and the
Spanish isles. There the races had been received into
poUtical feUowship ; the white blood had been adul-

THE CRADLE OP THE CONFEDERACY. 107
terated, and government had become a by-word and
reproach. The Pilgrims Fathers who came dying from
persecution, piously returned thanks to God for the
wonderful dispensation of His Providence in sweeping
away whole tribes of Indians with pestffence. The
Indian was considered by them an incumbrance upon
the land, and the mode of dealing with him was en
tirely discretionary. The whole of Rhode Island was
bought for fifty fathoms of beads. But the colonies
invariably claimed possession under the royal charters,
and not by purchase. In war, the Indian was never
treated as a civffized enemy. The male adults were
exterminated. The females and children were reduced
to slavery. Massachusetts sold the son of King
Philip into slavery. In Virginia, Massachusetts?
Connecticut, Maryland and Pennsylvania, laws were
passed, some stffl existing, to regulate, to protect
and to punish Indians. In Massachusetts the in
termarriage of an Indian and white was forbidden as
debasing the Anglo-Saxon blood. The whffe man by
his oath could purge himseff of a charge brought by
an Indian. In Connecticut as late as 1774, we find a
statute enacted which provides that ff any Negro,
Indian or Mulatto servant is found wandering out of
the town of his residence without a written pass, he is
made liable to seizure and return to his master. At a
recent day Maine had passed an Act " for the regula-
" tion of the Penobscot and Passamaquoddy tribes,"
Everywhere the laws of the State were extended over
the Indian. The difference between his condffion
North and his condition South, was that at the North
he was placed upon the level of a slave, and at the
South he was treated simply as an uncivffized fi-eeman.

108 THE CRADLE OF THE CONFEDERACY.
He had no rights at the North which a white man was
bound to respect. Georgia proposed to give him every
right which the laws extended to the whites.
Understanding perfectly the absolute sovereignty
which had been claimed and exercised by the other States
in this matter Georgia repudiated definitely and finally
the idea of admitting the Indian to her political family.
There was no place for him intermediate between the
slave and the master. He was a weed, indigenous to
the soil it is true, intended doubtless for a good purpose
in the economy of nature, but not for a moment to be
tolerated among the life-giving and health-preserving
plants of a cultivated garden. Not all the logic nor aff
the rhapsodies of the new generation of humanita
rians, who looked to equal political and civil rights
between the white man and the Indian could convince
the bold Saxons who won thek independence from
Great Britain that it was their duty to adulterate their
white blood and sink to a level with the descendants
of the Castilian of the Southern Continent. No Federal
agent to the Indian tribes could convince them that
such was thek duty. The Indian must go. There had
been enough said about the noble red man, his happy
hunting grounds, and how his untutored mind sees God
in the clouds and hears him in the wind. All that was
very pretty in poetry ; but in plain prose the Indian was
a murderous, treacherous savage, who flattened his skuU
between boards and hung brass trinkets fi-om his nostrils,
who sang the most remarkable noises and beat the
most discordant tunes on the harshest sorts of instru
ments, who traded off a league of land for a glass neck
lace and wore a flap around his middle, who stuck fish
bones through his ears and painted himself like a zebra.

THE CRADLE OP THE CONFEDERACY. 109
who jumped about like an idiot in what he called a war
dance or a corn dance, and lived like the beasts of the
field, leaving behind him not a trace of the purpose of
his creation. Georgia was the only one of the original
States burthened with the presence of this nuisance ;
and she concluded it was time to devote her soff to
something' better.
Georgia prosecuted her efforts to obtain from the
Creeks thek consent to removal. A portion of the
chiefs who represented the Southern Greeks were
fiiendly to the Georgians. The Upper Creeks, who
had united with Tecumseh and waged wskr against the
United States, had been conquered, and had never
been recognized as having a voice in treaties or nego
tiations with the States or Federal Government. The
chiefs of the Lower Creeks, representing the nation,
signed a tteaty, of sale at Indian Springs. This
treaty, despite the objections of the Indian ageuts,
was ratified by the United States Senate and signed by
the President. It thus became, according to the
theory of Mr. Adams and the party who agreed with
him as to the dignity of such treaties, the supreme law
of the land.
But even if this Indian Springs treaty had not been
completed with the only recognized Creek chiefs, and
ratified by the Government at Washington, the State
of Georgia had high ground upon which to stand as to
her abstract right to extend her laws over her own soff,
whether occupied by whites, Indians or Negroes-
Under the treaty-making power, the United States
guaranteed to the Indians the integrity of their terri
tory, and held, apart from the treaty-makiiig power, that
the power to regulate commerce among the Indians and

110 THE CRADLE OF THE CONFEDERACY.
between the United States, was sufficient to establish a
guardianship over the tribes, represented by an agent
who was to act as a minister plenipotentiary near the
Royal Wigwam. These claims appeared to the Geor
gians to be fallacious and unwarranted.
Judge George Walton, an eminent jurist, in his
charge to the grand jury of Richmond county, in
regard to the settlement made by General Clarke,
in 1795, within the Indian reservation, whUe condemn
ing the settlement as an infraction of Georgia laws,
had said :
" Soon after the accession of all the States to the
" present Federal Constitution, 1 stated my doubts to a
" gi'and jury, also of Wffkes county, as to treaties
" with savages being of the same rank as those of civ-
" ffized nations ; and was inclined to be of the opinion
" that they ought not to be considered in the list of
" supreme laws, and of equal efficacy with those in the
" statute book ; but the construction of the United
" States has been otherwise."
How the tribes of Indians having simply an usu
fruct of the woods, and holding them originally by per
mission of the colonies, and afterwards by that of the
States, could enter into treaties with the Union, and
those treaties become the supreme law of the land to
the exclusion of every right of sovereignty of the
State, was difficult to be understood. If this were the
law, where would the treaty-power end ? Could a col
ony of foreigners enter one of the States, and claiming
to be a tribe or nation, enter into a treaty with the
General Government? Could treaties be made with
wandering tribes of gypsies, and thus .be made the
supreme law -of the land? All of the other original
States had dealt with Indians as their subjects, and had

THE CRADLE OF THE CONFEDERACY. Ill
extinguished their claims without the interference or
interposition of the Washington authorities. Several
of the Northern States had extended thek laws over
the Indian reservations and incorporated the tribes
among the citizens. But now the Federal Government
must enter upon the soil of Georgia, treat with her
subjects as though they were independent nations, and
deny to the Georgia authorities even entrance upon
their own territory.
Nor could the people of Georgia understand how a
power to regulate commerce among the Indian tribes
could carry with it a power to exclude white traders
from the Indian country, to establish Federal agencies
for their Government with the powers of a pro-consul,
and to regulate all the domestic and municipal affairs
of the territory, '"'he article of the Constitution which
gave Congress the power to regulate commerce with
the Indians, at the same time granted power to regu
late commerce with foreign nations and between States.
It has never been contended except by extreme Feder-
aUsts, that the right to regulate commerce between the
States would justffy the United States in excluding
ti-aders fi-om one State or another, or to appoint official
traders throughout a State, to the exclusion of all
other citizens. Yet this was the power claimed in the
case of commerce with Indians, and which is practiced
down to the present day.
The Georgians contended that, even if thek State
had not been one of the original colonies, the United
States would not have had jurisdiction over the vacant
and unpatented lands within her borders. It was held
that the Indian was not an occupyer. He was simply
an overrunner, and had not the faintest claun, except

112 THE CRADLE OF THE CONFEDERACY.
such as Georgia might permit, to the soff upon which
he hunted. In the matter of vacant lands within the
limit of a State, the right of the United States to thek
possession has been often seriously questioned by even
those States which have been constructed fi-om terri
tory undoubtedly possessed by the United States.
Mississippi, IlUnois and Indiana have all contended that
on the organization of a State and its adroission into
the Union, it entered, in the language of the Act of
Congress accepting the territorial claim from the States,,
" with the same rights of sovereignty, freedom, and
" independence as the other States." Could the State
of Indiana be as independent, or as sovereign as the
State of Connecticut, if a large part of her terri
tory, unlike the territory of Connecticut, remained in
the possession of the United States? Could the
United States, owning large bodies of unpatented or
vacant lands in the heart of a State, set up a govern
ment to regulate the same, as independent of that of
the State, as are the navy yards, the barracks, or the
forts ? To ask such a question appeared to the sover
eign people of the State of Indiana, in 1829, to justffy
an instant and decisive answer in the negative. If,
then, a question could arise as to the right of the Fed
eral Government to retain ownership of vacant lands in
a State fi-amed from a ten-itory, how much stronger was
the question when applied to one of the original colo
nies, and to an Indian reservation? Georgia con
tended that she had absolute dominion over the Indian
lands, and could, at pleasure, extinguish the Indian
title by extending to their reservation the municipal
regulations of the State. The case of Fletcher and
Peck confirmed this claim, so far as to estabUsh the

THE CRADLE OF THE CONFEDERACY. 113
doctrine that the Indians are to be considered merely
occupants. It estabUshed, also, as has been seen, the
doctrine that over the Indian lands which lie within the
common territory, the United States possess the legal
titie, subject to that occupancy, and with an absolute
and exclusive right to extinguish the Indian title of
occupancy, either by conquest or purchase. Clearly,
then, if the United States, by vff-tue of their sover
eignty over the common territory, could extinguish the
Indian occupancy at pleasure, it foUowed that Georgia
had the right to extinguish in like manner the Indian
claims within her own borders.
It was better that the central power of the Govern
ment, at Washington, should deal with all the Indian
tribes. If that power had to deal only with tribes
outside the States, leaving it to the State authorities to
deal with those inside, it was clear that in mffitary
movements there could not be that concert of action
necessary for prompt defense of an extensive frontier
against a wffy and nomadic enemy. Hence it was that
Georgia in her patriotic cession to the United States,
stipulated that the United States should extinguish the
Indian title as soon as possible. Here was a distinct
compact between the State and the General Govern
ment Georgia consented for the Federal Government to
do what she herself might have done, but which she
weU knew could be done more speedffy, more satisfac
torily, and more peaceably by the powers at Washing
ton. In extinguishing the claims herself, the Indian
would stffl be within her borders ; the money received
by hun for the cession would be soon spent ; his hunt
ing grounds would be fiUed with white settlers, and
becoming a vagrant, he would soon be a burden to the

114 THE CRADLE OF THE CONFEDERACY.
State. The United States, in extinguishing the titie
could give him better and more extensive hunting
grounds beyond the Mississippi, and hence Georgia
was content to surrender her magnificent territory to
the United States, provided they would remove the
Indian at once. In consenting thus to restrict her
right of soff and her sovereignty, Georgia looked, with
confidence in the plighted faith of the Uiuon, to the
prompt removal of the Indians, and the speedy settle
ment of the vacant tenitory.
It was in 1802 that the cession was made. Twenty
years had passed away. New States had been organ
ized and received into the Union fi-om even beyond the
Mississippi river, and stiU the Federal Government, as
though determined to prevent the development of the
Guff States, had not extinguished the Indian titles in
Georgia, nor in Alabama and Mississippi. StiU the
savages hovered on the Georgia frontier and pressed
back the step of civffization. It was as though a
deadly miasma rested upon the brow of the State ; and
energy, enlightenment and progress held back from
the contagion. Is ff wonderful that Georgia at last
resolved to do what the United States, after accepting
her imperial grant, had faffed to do ?
The slavery agitation had begun to raise its head.
The Missouri question had aroused the Freesoffers to
active exertions, and growuig out of that body of agi
tators was a class of humanitarians who. beUeved, or
affected to believe, in the equality of all men before the
law. With them the Caucasian, the Negro and the
Indian were entitied to the same consideration; and
they would Usten to no argument drawn from the dif
ference in origin, habits and ckcumstances of the races

THE CRADLE OF THE CONFEDERACY. 115
antagonistic to their optunistic theories. WhUe some
of these men were engaged in advocating the freedom
of the Negro, others had penetrated the Indian nations,
and were using every argument and artifice to induce
them to withhold their consent to a relinquishment of
their lands. These men contended with the people of
Georgia that the Indian was a man and brother ; that
he should not be damned for a skin not colored like
their own; and that having been once lords of the forest
and fi-ee as the winds, they should be received into the
political famffy of the State, endowed with the privi
leges of citizenship, and mingled in blood with the
other races which had visited and populated the land.
It was cruel, they contended, to treat these innocent
and simple natives as a lower order of humanity, desti
tute of the claims of society, and unfit for aUiance with
the white man. It was brutal to drive them from
thek hunting grounds and transport them to unknown
wffds far distant from the scenes of their bkth. The
true poUcy, dictated by reason and humanity, was to
pernfft the Indian to retain his native lands, to force
him to possess them, not as an usufruct held in com
mon, subject to the councff, but by aUodial tenure ; in
fine, to make him a citizen Uving on his own farm and
to extend over him the laws of the State. If he should
alienate his land and wander out among the whites,
so much the better, for the bond of tribe would be
broken. He would sink or rise with the great body of
citizens of whatever color, and that prejudice which
would have been arrayed against the tribe, would refuse
to visff itself against the individual. The French Rev
olution had developed les amis des JVoirs. Liberty,
fraternity and equality were to cover aU classes, condi-

116 THE CRADLE OF THE CONFEDERACY.
tions and races of the people aUke. The Caucasian,
the Malay, the Indian, the Mongolian, and the Negro
were aU to stand aUke — side by side, and hand in hand
— under the broad banner of a common Republic. Such
were the views of heavenly phffanthropy; mixed with
a large quantity of mortal cunning. The humanita
rians were generaffy traders and teachers, and a few
missionaries from the North. Some of them were
pious men, but others divided thek time in admin
istering to the Indian sinner ghostly consolation and
bad whiskey. The agents were generaffy men who,
finding thek positions profitable in the way of trade,
were exceedingly anxious to preserve the autonomy of
the Indian tribe; and faiUng in that, to get possession
of the Indian lands, by having them aUotted to the
simple-minded savages. In aff events, they were
deadly hostile to the removal of those upon whom they
lived and thrived.
There were others who beUeved that the only solu
tion of the Indian problem was in absorption of the
aboriginees by the whites — men who were true friends
of Georgia and of undoubted purity of character. Of
such was William H. Crawford, one of the ablest and
noblest of Georgia statesmen. As Secretary of War,
in 1816, ff was his opinion, that when every effort
to introduce among the Indians ideas of separate prop
erty, real as weU as personal, had faffed, the Govern
ment should encourage inter-marriage between them
and the whites. Whffe declaring that the extinction of
the Indian race was abhorrent to the feeUngs of an
enUghtened and benevolent nation, ff appears that he
was wffling to extinguish them by contaminating the
blood of the progressive white man with the imbecility

THE CRADLE OP THE CONFEDERACY. 117
of one of the feeblest of peoples. It does not appear,
however, that he proposed for the mongrel race to
which he would have given birth, to be admitted to the
full rights of citizenship enjoyed by the Anglo-Saxon
conqueror. The thunders of the New England church and ros-
tium which had agitated the Missouri question on
behaff of the black man, were now hurled at the head
of Georgia in behalf of the red man. Petitions to
Congress were ckculated through the New England
States for signatures, addressed to congregational cler
gymen, with instructions to have them fffled with as
many names as could be obtained. These petitions,
starting from the pulpit, supplicated Congress to pro-
V tect the Indians in the occupancy of thek land and the
civff regulations they might adopt for thek own
guidance, as against the laws of the States of Georgia,
Alabama and Mississippi. These very Christians were
aware that among those Indian regulations were many
which were destructive to peace and order, and abhor
rent to vktue. Polygamy was aUowed by usage and
law. A man, overtaking a horse thief, might slay him.
An assault with intent to murder or rape, was dis-
naissed with a smaU fine. Any Indian leaving his
home and offering to emigrate, forfeited aff right to his
property. Any Indian who might enroU his name as
an emigrant with the Unffed States agent, forfeited his
citizenship, and any one buying his lands was pun
ished with a hundred lashes. If any Indian who had
emoUed, should dare to remain fifteen days within the
tribe, he might be slain. These were the regulations
which the New England clerical politicians besought
Congress to sustain as against the beneficent laws of

118 THE CRADLE OF THE CONFEDERACY.
Georgia. Circulars signed by women and bidding the
Congressmen read, "with a view to eternity," also aided
in these appeals for the preservation of polygamy.
The same line of argument, the same claim of
national power, the same straining of constitutional
grants, the same partisan cries, the same fanatical delu
sion, the same incendiary appeals from the pulpit, which
many ' years afterwards illustrated another political
question, were resorted to during John Q. Adams' ad
ministration with reference to the sovereignty of a
State over any and all of its inhabitants.
The claims of State sovereignty set up by Georgia,
Alabama and Mississippi in that day were not imagi
nary and vain. They were substantial and of supreme
importance to the very existence of those common
wealths. Chief McIntosh and his council of braves,
representing the Creek Nation, under the usual forms of
their law ceded their lands in Georgia, by the treaty
of Indian Springs. The party opposed to the sale
became violent and appealed to Washington for an an
nulment of a treaty which they declared was pro
cured by bribery. The administration of James Mon
roe had ceased, and with it had ceased for a time that
scrupulous regard for the rights of the States which
marked the immediate successors of Jefferson. John
Quincy Adams was now President, and the poUcy of
his administration was to curb the pride of the States^
to reduce their governors to the position of sheriffs,
and to repress the growing empires of the Southwest.
The power of the South was to be broken, and one of
the surest means to strangle the incipient giant was to
leave the Indian tribes as a constant menace to the
growth and civffization of the Gulf country. There

THE CRADLE OF THE CONFEDERACY. 119
was another consideration which controUed the phffos-
opher of Braintree. The greater the importance and
dignity with which the Indian might be clothed, the
greater the probabiUty that antagonisms of race and
prejudices of color would weaken year by year, and
finaUy vanish in a recognition of an universal brother
hood. Already the ideal repubUc of Plato, and the
actual commune of Rousseau were visible in the
near distance to the radical poUticians of 1825. Al
ready the foundation was being laid for the erection of
an imperial edifice, dedicated to an absolute fraternity
and equaUty, upon the ruins of the autonomy of the
States.

oh:a.i>ter VI.

The Treaty of Indian Springs — Murder of Mcintosh —
General Gaines and Governor Troup — Threatened
Collision of State and Federal Forces — The State
Stistains Her Position — The Cherokee Nation — An
Appeal to the Supreme Court — Its Writ of Error
Disregarded — The Question of Coercion, &c., &c.

" When the United States, under the treaty-making power, claimed
the right to settle with Great Britain the northern boundary of Maine.
Governor Lincoln, of that State insisted upon the right of Maine to
assert her own boundary. Fortunately for Governor Lincoln, he
lived in a favored region ; and his doctrine of State rights and sov
ereignty brought down no invectives upon his head, although in
theory, and in language, too, he did not lag far behind the flery
Georgian." Senator John Foksyth, 1831.
"The European Journals, especially the EngUsh ones, which had
followed the struggle with lively interest, had to listen to many a
sneering remark about the short-sightedness which, springing from
their hostility to everything Republican, had already led them to
think they saw the United States bathed in the blood of her citizens,
and the Union shattered forever." Von Holst's Constitutional History.
" I entreat you most earnestly, now that it la not too late, to step
forth, and having exhausted the argument, to stand by your arms."
Governor Tboup's Mbssaoe.
AU Georgia was in a blaze of excitement. The hos-
tffe Creeks declared they would not respect the treaty.
The State of Georgia took steps at once to make a
survey of the lands reUnquished by the treaty, and to
throw them upon the market. The Georgians com
plained that the agents had excited the Indians to vio
late the stipulations of the treaty. The President
commissioned Colonel Andrews to investigate the com-

122 THE CRADLE OP THE CONFEDERACY.
plaints made against the agents. General Gaines was
instructed to suppress any hostilities on the part of the
Indians, and to seek some way by which an understand
ing coiffd be arrived at with them.
General Gaines proceeded to the scene of hostilities,
and as his intercourse was most closely with the Gov
ernment agents, his views of the situation were very
soon turned against the pretensions of Georgia. He
reported to his Government that the Indian Springs
treaty was a fraud. He represented the people of
Georgia as longing- to rob the Indian of his lands, and
as resorting to the foulest means of cunning- and deceit
to manufacture a treaty, plausible on its face, but un
just and tyrannical at heart He intimated that McIn
tosh was but an instrument of Governor Troup, and
that he had been used for the base purpose of giving a
color of consent for the Creek Nation when ninety-nine
hundredths of them were utterly opposed to a cession
of thek lands.
To this it was repUed by the people of Georgia that
it was true they wanted the lands of the Indian, but
they did not seek to obtain them liy robbery. The
Indian Springs treaty gave the Creeks better and more
extensive lands in the West. It gave them means of
transportation and a vast sum of purchase money.
The Georgians wanted the lands of the Indian to make
them subserve the purposes of a civffized rather than
savage life. This was no robbery. It was simply
exercising the right of conquest, without imposing a
single condition of hardship upon the subject. It was
extending the area of Anglo-Saxon enlightenment and
progress, and rendering compact and homogeneous the
power of the republic from the Atlantic to the Missis-

THE CRADLE OF THE OONPEDERAOY. 123
sippi. They asserted also that McIntosh, the chief of
that branch of the Creeks which was true to the United
States in the late war, and which had conquered and
subdued their enemies, the Red Sticks, alone had the
right to speak for the Nation. That right had been
recognized by the General Government in a letter from
the Secretary of War, of the 17th March, 1817. In
conformity to that recognition, McIntosh and the
friendly chiefs had been in the habit of speaking and
stiff spoke for the Creeks. That the Sed Sticks assas
sinated the faithfiil friends of the whites was no reply to
the force of this argument. They further contended
that President Monroe had recognized, and the Senate
had ratified the Indian Springs treaty; that the Georgia
Legislature, in pursuance of that ratification had en
acted a law for the survey and distribution of the ceded
territory ; that citizens had acquked vested rights
under this treaty and the laws made in pursuance
thereof, which were the supreme laws of the land ; and
that by vktue of the decision of Fletcher aginst Peck,
those vested rights could not be disturbed, however the
treaty might have been secured. They contended,
moreover, that the treaty was secured fakly ; that if
money was used to bribe the chiefs, ff was nothing
more than had been done from the discovery of America.
What John Smith and Willluh Penn could do for a
few ounces of beads and a dozen or so red blankets,
had now to be done, in the present advanced state of
Indian ideas, with a, more substantial largess. It
was denied that the chiefs had been bribed by the
State. The Governor could pay no money from the
State treasury unless speciaffy appropriated; no ap
propriation had been made for any such purpose; the

124 THE CRADLE OP THE CONFEDERACY.
contingent fiind was barely enough to keep cattle out
of the capitol grounds and to pay the hire of servants
about the offices of State ; and finaUy, the treasury
of the State was not able to pay one-tenth of the sums
which the enemies of Georgia had set as the price of
the treaty.
The true motive for the ratification, of a treaty so
favorable to the Georgians, might have been found in
the relationship existing between the Governer of
Georgia and the great Creek chief George M. Troup
was born in 1780, at Mcintosh Bluff, on the west bank
of the Tombigbee river, in what is now the State of
Alabama. His grandfather was a captain in the royal
army, and chief of the Mcintosh clan of Scotland. For
valuable services in Florida, he was rewarded by King
George with a grant; of Mcintosh Bluff and extensive
lands in Mississippi. This Captain McIntosh had one
son and one daughter. The son was, like his fether, a
British officer. The daughter married an officer of the
British army named Troup, whffe on a visit to Eng
land. Upon her return to her father's home, Governor
Troup was born at Mcintosh Bluff Captain McIntosh,
the father of Mrs. Troup, had a brother named Roder
ick McIntosh, also an officer in the royal army. He
was a man of great physical stature and courage, and
the embodiment of chivalry. He took part with the
Royalists in the Revolution. His cousins, John and
Lachlin McIntosh, took part with the Whigs. Rod
erick, or " Old Rory," as he was caUed famiUarly, took
to himself a squaw of the Creek Nation, and was the
father of Chief William McIntosh. The chief partook
of the characteristics of the McIntosh famffy. He was
brave as a Uon. His stature was above that of ordi-

THE CRADLE OP THE CONFEDERACY. 1 25
nary men. His intellect, naturaUy strong, became cul
tivated by association with white men of position and
educiition. These scions of the McIntosh clan were
born to command. They were chiefs in Scotland, chiefs
in the royal and patriot armies, and chiefs in the
Indian tribes. The near relationship between the Gov
ernor and the Indian chief, might have suggested to
President Adams a reason for the friendly treaty of
Indian Springs more powerful than bribery.
The claim of Georgia under the treaty of Indian
Springs was uhdisputable. The compact of 1802
bound the United States, in consideration of the cession
of a princely domain, to extinguish for Georgia all the
Indian claims within her borders. When, through
their agents, the contract of Indian Springs was nego
tiated, and the Government had ratified the bargain, the
right of Georgia became irrevocably vested; the
authority of the United States was then at an end.
The power was executed and the Government was func
tus officio as to the subject. The United States had
conferred no right upon Georgia: they had simply
removed an incumbrance to a pre-existing right, and
they could not now replace that encumbrance by a new
contract with the Indians.
Georgia denied that the Indian Intercourse Act
applied to this subject. It applied to the intrusion of
unauthorized individuals, and not to the acts of the
sovereign State. This was obvious from its terms and
from the fact that the passport of the Governor of the
State, equaUy with that of the President, dispensed
with some of its penalties.
That the title of Georgia to the fee sunple of Indian
lands was unquestionable is evidenced by the second

126 THE CRADLE OF THE CONFEDERACY.
article of the agreement and cession wherein, through
abundant caution on the part of the State, the United
States "cede to the State of Georgia whatever claim,
" right or title they may have to the jurisdiction or soff
" of those lands." If that language meant anything,
it meant that the United States were debarred from
questioning the right of Georgia to enter upon her own
soff at her own pleasure for the purpose of survey.
The soil and jurisdiction being in Georgia, it was no
more lawfiil for the United States to introduce other
persons there, than it would have been for them to
introduce into the settled portions of Georgia a colony
of free persons of color, of Indians or of white people.
The utmost affowable to the United States in this res
pect was the settlement within the territory of such
officers as were necessary for the regulation of com
merce with the Indians. The United States, never
theless, by permission and toleration, even by encour
agement, had inti-oduced there fi-om time to time, white
persons and others who had made settlements, exercised
ownership over the soff and cultivated . it in the same
manner as though the United States, and not Georgia,
possessed the right of soff and jurisdiction. These
very persons, so fflegally occupying the soff of Georgia
under the protection of the United States, were chieffy
instrumental in preventing the Indians from leaving the
country. Prominent among these disturbers of the peace was
the United States agent. This person, indebted for his
lucrative office to the administration, lost no oppor
tunity to fortify his present position and to recommend
his loyalty to the new administration. He not only
inflamed the Creeks against McIntosh, but went out

THE CRADLE OF THE CONFEDERACY. 127
among the people of Georgia electioneering against
Troup. The Governor in his next annual nlessage al
luded to his conduct, in the following language :
" I had for the first time come into office when a
" subject of peculiar delicacy presented itself, and
" being' intimately connected with the independence of
" the elective franchise (without which it would be in
" vain for Georgia to claim for herself the attributes
" of a sovereign State), it was made known to the
" President that on occasion of the election just then
" terminated, an officer in his employ, bearing a high
"and dignified commission, and being a citizen of
" another State, had abandoned his post to mingle in
" the strifes of that election, had espoused the cause of
" one of the parties to the prejudice of the other, and
" by the weight and influence of his office, united with
"the most enthusiastic ardor, had rendered himself so
" signaffy conspicuous, that the chief magistrate could
" not conscientiously forbear, among his first acts, to
" complain to the executive government of the Union
" of this outrage upon the most sacred of aff the rights
" of sovereignty.
The President paid no attention to this remon
strance. It was evident that the agent by positive
instruction or implied consent, was authorized to leave
his station, assaff the Governor of Georgia, and teach
the Indians that thek Great Father at Washington was
not the filend of the Governor of Georgia, nor of those
Indians who were his affies. He labored to prevent
the treaty at Indian Springs, and faffing in that, mis
represented it at Washington. AU the mischiefs,
disorders, and hearl>burnings, which followed this treaty
were organized and fostered by this man. In justice
to him, he should be considered, however, as the instru
ment of the administration; for whatever he said or did
was approved by his principal. No evil report of ban

128 THE CRADLE OF THE CONFEDERACY.
would be listened to; the word of no man taken
against him ; aU testimony in his favor was eagerly
received; all against him promptly discredited. If one
of the foreign governments should request another to
remove its ambassador for language and conduct unbe
coming his mission, the request would be instantly
granted, however much the conduct . of the minister
might be subsequently approved by his government.
In this case, however, when the Governor of Georgia
had denounced the agent as an enemy to her interests,
a fomenter of disturbance, a breaker of treaties, the
Federal Government disregarded the wish of the State,
and the agent himself treated it with derision and con
tempt. FaiUng in his effort to defeat the ratification of
the Indian SpRmos treaty, this Indian agent, in the
face of the action of the President and of the Senate,
returned from Washington and proceeded to agitate for
its annulment. How could it be annuUed ? McIntosh
was President of the National CouncU ; he was author
ized to make the treaty. Not only was he recognized
by the Indian nation as the officer to negotiate, but the
Federal Government had time and again declared that
he was the only competent authority for that purpose.
There was only one way to set it aside. It must be
made to appear that the act of McIntosh was unau
thorized. Not by an appeal to usages, customs and
laws ; but by an appeal to the higher law, the sword,
or rather the bow and arrow. Independent of the
treaty, McIntosh and his chiefs had consented that
Georgia should survey the lands, some months prior to
the period set for removal. The agent seized upon
this agreement to array the Indians and the Federal
Government against the State. The treaty was

THE CRADLE OF THE CONFEDERACY. 129
supreme law, according to the broad Federal idea, now
that it was ratified ; but as McIntosh's consent to the
survey was not a part of the treaty, the agent, on that
ground, advised the Indians to resist the survey. This
advice, coming from the agent of the Great Father, was
equivalent to a mandate. McIntosh saw his danger.
The life of this splendid chief, in whose veins flowed
the blood of Indian kings and Scottish princes, whose
breast was adorned with the badge of a general of the
United States army, who had served gaUantly under
Jackson, and who had been the unflinching, unfaiUng,
constant friend of the white man, was now imperilled
by the cunning machinations of an Indian agent. The
Red Sticks remembered that it was McIntosh who held
them in check; although by the interposition of
his kon hand, he had saved them from the ruin to
which Tecumseh would certainly have led them. They
were savages, and needed only an occasion for ven
geance. The agent furnished the occasion. They
notified the Georgia surveyors that they must desist
from running their lines. To the number of three
hundred they surrounded the house of McIntosh at
night, and sent a hundred buffets through the body of
this defenceless man. The assassins declared to the
wffe of the chief that they were supported and encour
aged in thek murderous mission by the agent.
The Governor caffed out the mffitia to enforce the
treaty, and to protect the surveyors under the supple
mental agreement. Generals Wimberly, Shorter and
Miller were ordered to hold thek divisions in readi
ness. The President of the Umted States, at this juncture,
interferes and. commands the survey to cease. Whence

130 THE CRADLE OF THE CONFEDERACY.
came the authority for this virtual annulment of a
treaty ratified by Congress ? The President had sworn
to execute the laws, and here he was setting himself
against what, by his own logic, was one of the supreme
laws of the land. As a pretext for his interposition he
aUeged that it was made in accordance with the eighth
article of the treaty which guarantees protection to the
fi-iendly Indians. Under that guaranty the United
States passively suffer McIntosh and his friends to be
murdered ; in the hour of peril no arm is Ufted to pro
tect or save ; after the commission of the foul deed no
voice comes from Washington for vengeance. The
danger past, the chiefs massacreed, their property rav
ished, the surviving fi-iends of McIntosh in exUe in
Georgia asking bread and protection, after abandoning
every valuable to the insurgents, the United States now
step forth with their armed power to defend, under the
eighth article of the treaty, the so-caffed friendly Indians
against their enemies. It might be supposed that the
enemies to be defended against were the assassins, in
the employment of J pothleyoholo. No, the Federal
administration find the enemies contemplated by the
treaty to be the people of Georgia, at whose firesides
the friendly Indians were then resting. Could the
force of absurdity go farther? It was supposed that
the Federal Government at its creation was a govern
ment of delegated powers expressly stated, or of powers
necessarily implied for the support and maintenance of
those expressly stated. Yet, here, the Government was
straining the treaty-making power in order to dispose
of the Indian most effectually and according to what
ever poUcy might suit its pleasure ; ff was at the same
time using the commerce-regulatmg power to acquke

THE CRADLE OF THE CONFEDERACY. 131
possession of the territory of a State and to confine the
benefit of trading posts to the friends of the agent.
Worse than all, wlffle denying the validity of a treaty
which the Senate had approved, and which stood on
the statute book as one of the supreme laws of the
land, it was now seeking under a clause of that treaty
which was intended to protect friendly Indians from
the violence of hostffe Indians, actuaffy to defend the
unjust pretensions of the hostile Indians who stood
before them with the blood of the friendly Indians stffl
dripping from their hands. The indignation of the
State was aroused against these alleged usurpations of
the General Government, and the hiUs and vaUeys of
Georgia, from the mountains to the sea, rang with the
cry of " Troup and the Treaty."
The man with whom General Gaines was to deal
upon reaching Georgia, was George M. Troup, It was a
a case of flint meeting steel. From the time he reached
his majority, Troup had been in public Iffe as a repre
sentative of the people. He supported the claims of
Jefferson against Adams when a member of the Geor
gia Legislature. As Representative in Congress he
combatted the compromise made by the Federal Legis
lature with the Yazoo speculators. As chairman of
the Committee on Mffitary Affairs, he was a leading
spirit in the war of 1812, As Senator in Congress,
he pleaded for the removal of the Indians. He was
always active, fervid, and faithful. Every interest of
his people found in him a stubborn and determined
advocate. General Gaines was received by the people of Geor
gia with great courtesy. Whffe at Mffledgeville, he
informed the Governor that his instructions from Wash-

132 THE CRADLE OF THE CONFEDERACY.
ington were that no survey was to be made untff the
removal of the Indians under the treaty. The only
point of controversy then existing was the authority
of the ehiefs to permit a survey outside of the letter of
the treaty. Certainly if the Indians who made the
treaty did not, object, Georgia had a clear right to sur
vey her own fee simple. It was a matter with which
the United States had nothing to do. The reply of
Troup to this letter was courteous but decided. Whffe
deploring the vascfflating conduct of the adminisfa-ation
at Washington, he said : " On the part of the govei-n-
" ment of Georgia, the wffl of its highest constitutional
" authorities has been declared, upon the most solemn
" deliberation, that the line shaU be run and the survey
" executed. It is for you, therefore, to bring it to an
"issue; it is only, for me to repeat that, cost what it
" wffl, the line wiU be run and the survey effected."
At the same time the Governor suggested that the
Georgia commissioners should be present at the coun
cff to be held by General Gaines at Broken Arrow, so
as to meet and repel any "charges or misstatements pre
ferred by the agent or the hostffe Indians. To this
General Gaines objected. He was to arrive at the truth
by an ex parte examination. It appeared as though
the approaching coun(?ff was not for the purpose of as
certaining facts, but to carry out a policy already
decided upon by President Adams. Upon reaching
Flint river. General Gaines held a councff with leading
chiefs, and forthwith dispatched to the Governor a cer
tificate of two persons of doubtful character to the
effect that neither General McIntosh nor the chiefs had
ever consented to a survey. General Gaines added, in
a letter, that this certificate "proves that your excel-

THE CRADLE OF THE CONFEDERACY. 133
" lency has been greatly deceived in supposing that the
" McIntosh party ever consented to the survey of the
" ceded territory being commenced before the time set
" forth in the treaty for their removal," and that it
became " his duty to remonstrate against the surveys
"being commenced until the Indians shall have re-
" moved, agreeably to the treaty." Down to this time
not a word had been said as to the fflegality or annul
ment of the treaty itself On every occasion General
Gaines advised the Indians to entertain no hope as to
its rescision. The stopping of the survey was de
signed, however, simply as a pretext for the entire ab
rogation of the treaty.
Governor Troup so understood it. General Gaines
perhaps did not at that time understand the purpose of
President Adams' cabinet.
Governor Troup very justly felt aggrieved that
Georgia was refused an audience at the council ; that
her two eminent citizens, Campbell and Merriwether^
who had negotiated the treaty of Indian Springs, on
the part of the United States, were cavalierly excluded
from vindicating their mission; and now that an ex
varte examination of and certificate from, two Indians
should be set forth as conclusive testimony, without
application to the Governor of Georgia to know what
evidence was in his possession to the contrary.
The Governor repUed : " The certificate of Mar-
" SHALL, no matter how procured, is one of the most
" daring efforts that ever was attempted by malignant
" villainy to palm a falsehood upon credulity." At that
very moment the Governor had in his possession the
agreement of McIntosh to the survey. He offered to
make oath to the fact, and concluded his letter as fol-

134 THE CRADLE OF THE CONPEDEEAOY.
lows : " I very well know from the late events which
" have transpired under the eyes of the commissioners,
" that the oath even of a Governor of Georgia may be
" passed for nothing, and that any vagabond of the
" Indian country may be put in requisition to discredit
" him." This was hot language, and barely to be pal
liated on the ground of d6ep popular excitement.
General _-aines responded to this letter, through the
public press. He tried to sustain the character of the
two persons who had signed the certificate, and declared
that the " maUgnant viUainy " was aU on the part of
those who had secured the treaty. As to the question
of the Governor's veracity he used this remarkable
language : " If you wffl take the trouble to read the
" newspaper essays with which the presses have been
" teeming for some years past, j^ou will find that many
" of the essayists have had the hardihood to refuse
" credence to the word of their chief magistrate, and
" yet we have no reason to despair of the RepubUc."
To this unmilitary letter Governor Troup responded
curtly by forbidding the General to have any further
intercourse with the Georgia government And now
the Secretary of War, alleging intrigue and deceit in
the procurement of the treaty, addressed the Governor
as follows : " I am, therefore, directed by the Presi-
" dent, to state distinctiy to your exceUency that for
" the present he will not permit such entry or survey
" to be made." To this the Governor replied by saying
that no Indian treaty had ever been negotiated in better
faith ; that if there had been corruption in its procure
ment, the principles of the case of Fletcher and Peck,
estopped the United States from annulUng it ; and fur
thermore that he would advise the Georgia Legislature

THE CRADLE OP TflE CONFEDERACY. 13,5
on its fir.st meeting " to resist any effort which might
"be made to wrest from the State the territory ac-
'' quired by that treaty, no matter by what authority
"that effort be made." Remonstrating against the
conduct of General Gaines, the Governor wrote to the
President of the Umted States, as follows : " In the
" enclo.'-ed gazette you will find another insolent letter,
"dated the 16th instant, addressed by your agent,
"Brevet Major Genta-al Gaines, to the chief magis-
" trate of this State. Having been betrayed by his
" passions into the most violent excesses, he is pre-
" sented before you at this moment as your commis-
" sioned officer and authorized agent, with a corps of
" regulars at his heels, attempting to dragoon and over-
"awe the constituted authorities of an independent
" State, and on the eve of a great election, amid the
" distractions of party, taking side with the one polit-
" ical party against the other, and addressing election-
"eering papers almost weekly to the chief magistrate
" through the public prints, couched in language of con-
" tumely and insult and defiance, and for which, were
" I to send him to you in chains I would transgress
" nothing of the public law." In conclusion the Gov
ernor said, " I demand, therefore, as chief magistrate of
" Georgia, his immediate recaU, and his arrest, trial and
" punishment, under the rules and articles of war."
The President replied through the Secretary of War
that he could not accede to the demand for Gaines'
arrest ; but at the same time sent a letter of rebuke to
the General.
Upon the assembling of Congress, President Adams
rehearsed in his message the events connected with
the Indian Springs treaty. He said that happily dis-

136 THE CRADLE OF THE CONFEDERACY.
tributed as the sovereign powers of the people of this
Union have been between thek General and State gov
ernments, thek history has already too often pre
sented coffisions between these divided authorities with
regard to the extent of their respective powers. No
instance, however, had hitherto occurred in which this
collision had been urged into a conflict of actual force.
No other case was known to have happened in which
the application of military force by the Government of
the Union had been prescribed for the enforcement of
a law, the violation of which had, within any single
State, been prescribed by a legislative act of the State.
In the present instance he held it to be his duty, if the
State of Georgia still persisted in making a survey of
the Indian lands, to enforce the law and fulfil the duties
of the nation by aff the force committed for that pur
pose to his charge.
Upon the convening of the General Assembly of
Georgia, Governor Troup held no less decided language,
I'he Committee on Relations with the Federal Govern
ment submitted a report in which the complaints of
Georgia were fairly and forcibly set out. " We have
"been insulted," they said, "by petty agents; we have
" been brow-beaten and derided by Indians. Our
"chief magistrate at home and our Representatives in
" Congress, while in the public service and under the
" very eye of the General Government, have been com-
" pelled to brook the insolence of half-breeds ; we have
" been prevented, nay, ordered to desist from surveying
" our own lands when no possible harm could ensure,
" and when, too, the General Government under pre-
" cisely similar circumstances was carrying on its own
" surveys among Indians unremoved from recently ac-

THE CRADLE OP THE CONFEDERACY. 137
" quired lands, a privffege heretofore uninterruptedly
" enjoyed by every new frontier State, and questioned
" only for the first time in the case of Georgia, one of
" the original thirteen States ; we have had our Indian
" allies — those who long defended Georgia from the
" tomahawk of the very Indians who are now so high in
" favor — murdered in cold blood, their families exffed
" from home, made wanderers and outcasts from the
" very country which but nine years ago was declared
" to be exclusively theirs, under the pUghted faith and
" solemnly written guaranty of the General Govern-
" ment, and aU these misfortunes, cruelties and hard-
" ships, they have been destined to endure from no
" other cause, as we verily believe, than that of being
" the unswerving friends of Georgia."
The resolutions of the committee maintained, 1st,
that Georgia owns exclusively the soff and jurisdiction
of aff her territory, and with the exception of the right
to regulate commerce among the Indian tribes, claims
the right to exercise over any people, white or red,
within those limits, the authority of her laws ; 2d, that
threatening a State with an armed force and actually
stationing troops upon her borders is contrary to the
spirit and genius of our Government — a fundamental
principle of which is that the military is subordinate to
the civff authority; 3d, that the President's protest
against the survey is an instance of dictation and Fed
eral supremacy unwarranted by any grant of power to
the General Government.
In the meantime President Adams went to the length
of declaring the Indian Springs treaty null and void,
and proceeded to negotiate a new treaty with certain of
the hostffe Creek chiefs at Washington. By this second

138 THE CRADLE OF THE CONFEDERACY.
treaty the removal of the Creeks would be only partial,
and the boundary of Georgia somewhat restricted. The
State protested against this new treaty. A collision
appeared imminent. The surveyors appointed by the
General Assembly were ordered to be on the ground by
a certain day, and at sunrise to commence their work.
Governor Troup had classified the militia, and ordered
his generals to hold themselves in readiness to take
the field. General Gaines was ready with the Federal
forces to meet those of the Sta,te.
Fortunately, in the army of Gaines were three
Georgians devoted to their State, and connected with
some of her most distinguished people: Col. David E.
Twiggs, Col. John S. McIntosh, and Col. Duncan
Clinch. Zachary Tavlor was Lieutenant-Colonel of
Clinch's regiment. Aff of these men were ardently
Southern. The three Georgians wrote to the President
tendering their commissions if ordered to take arms
against Georgia, This letter was sent to Washington
by a person who had much influence with Mr. Adams ;
and it is said that the representations made by this
person as to the temper of the Southern people, and
particularly of the Federal army officers of Southern
birth, was such as to induce him to change his policy,
and to acquiesce in the claims of Georgia, under cover
of a new treaty. The new treaty was in substance the
old treaty so far as Georgia was concerned, and it was
finaUy confirmed by the Senate — the Georgia Senators
voting against it; but the State of Georgia, without
regard to the proceedings at Washington, continued
the survey and took and held possession of all the lands
ceded by the Indian Springs treaty. The treaty of
Washington was simply a pretext to enable the Presi-

THE CRADLE OP THE CONFEDERACY. 139
dent to escape from his coercive poUcy. Its terms were
never intended to be carried out, and were never re
garded by the State, except so far as they conformed
to the former tieaty.
To cap the climax of the triumph of Governor
Troup, it was proven that those immaculate friends of
the red man who had denounced and sought to annul
the Indian Springs treaty on the ground of bribery and
corruption, had actuaUy secured the Washington treaty
by giving bribes to the leading hostile Indians. Mr.
Benton, in his " Thkty Years in the United States
" Senate," has given an interesting account of the
manner in which he made the discovery that the war
department had agreed to divide one hundred and sixty
thousand dollars among the murderers of McIntosh, in
order to induce them to do what they alleged they had
slain McIntosh for consenting to do Mr. Benton says:
" When the President sent in the treaty of January,
"and after its rejection by the Senate became certain,
" thereby leaving the Federal Government and Georgia
" upon the point of coUision, I urged upon Mr. James
"Barbour, the Secretary of War (of whose depart-
"ment the Indian office was then a branch), the neces-
" sity of a supplemental treaty ceding aU the Creek
'' lands in Georgia ; and assured him that with that
" additional article, the treaty would be ratified and the
" question settled. The secretary was very wffling to
" do all this, but said it was impossible — that the chiefs
" would not agree to it. I recommended to him to
"make them some presents, so as to overcome their
" opposition, which he most innocently declined, as it
"would savor of bribery. In the meantime it had
" been communicated to me that the treaty already

140 THE CRADLE OF THE CONFEDERACY.
"made was itself the work of great bribery; the sum
" of 1160,000 out of $247,000, which ff stipulated to
" the Creek Nation, as a first payment, being a fund for
" private distribution among the chiefs who negotiated
" it. Having received this information I felt sure that
" fear of the rejection of the treaty and the consequent
" loss of these |ldO,000 to the negotiating chiefs would
" insure thek assent to the supplemental article without
" the inducement of other presents. • I had an inter-,
" view with the leading chiefs, and made known to them
" the inevitable fact that the Senate would reject the
"treaty as it stood, but would ratify it with a supple-
" mental article ceding all their lands in Georgia. With
" this information they agreed to the additional article,
" and then the whole was ratified as I have already
"stated." Thus it was that President Adams negotiated a treaty
with the hostffe chiefs, which was the counterpart of
that made with the friendly chiefs, except that the
Indians were not to remove from a small part of the
Georgia territory included in the former treaty. The
hostffe chiefs were bribed to accede to it, and when
their appetite was whetted for the bribe money, almost
in their grasp, the bags of gold were held up beyond
their reach until they had ceded every acre of Georgia
territory. What then ? Were the shameful terms of
the compact held good by the high contracting parties ?
One would suppose there would be honor between briber
and bribed. Not so in this case. Mr. Benton con
tinues the nan-ative in the most ingenuous manner :
" But a further work remained behind. It was to
" balk the fraud of the corrupt disti:ibution of $160,000
" among a few chiefs ; and that was to be done in the

THE CRADLE OP THE CONFEDERACY. 141
" appropriation biff, and by a clause directing the whole
" treaty money to be paid to the Nation instead of the
" chiefs. The case was communicated to the Senate in
" secret session, and a committee of conference was ap-
" pointed (Messrs. Benton, Van_uren and Berrien)
" to agree wffh the House committee upon the proper
" clause to be put into the appropriation bffl. It was
" also communicated to the Secretary of War. He
"sent in a report from Mr. McKinney, the Indian
" Bureau clerk, and actual negotiator of the treaty,
" admitting the fact of the intended private distribu-
" tion ; which in fact could not be denied, as I held an
" original paper showing the names of aU the intended
" recipients with the sum allowed to each, beginning at
" iir2(J,000 and ranging down to $5,000, and that ff
" was done with his cognizance.."
The Indian Springs treaty ceded all the Creek lands
in Georgia, and to the Coosa river in Alabama ; but
the Washington treaty ceded simply the Georgia lands.
Georgia came out of the controversy with all she had
ever demanded. It was Alabama that suffered. While
the Governor of Georgia had exhausted the argument
and was standing by his arms, the Governor of Ala
bama was content simply to advise the gentle savage
that to civffize a people from a rude and barbarous con
dition they should be removed from the influence of
the vices and luxuries which prevail in civiUzed life ;
and that the provinces farthest removed fi-om the vices,
refinements and luxuries of Rome made the most solid
progress in civffization. In this whole difficulty with
the Creeks, beyond a simple resolution instructing her
members in Congress to use their best efforts to procure
for Alabama the immediate execution of the Indian
Springs treaty, nothing was done to assert, prosecute
or defend her rights thereunder. And thus the &irest

142 THE CRADLE OF THE CONFEDERACY.
part of Alabama remained in the hands of savages for
twelve years longer.
Although the Creeks had been removed, and the
counti-y opened up to civilization between the Oconee and
Chattahoochee, there yet remained ten thousand Chero
kees in Georgia. The Cherokee country of Georgia
is one of the most fertile, healthful and beautiful on the
western continent. The Indians were greatly attached
to it, especiaUy as under the teachings of Jefferson
they had adopted many of the methods of civiUzed
Ufe. Had the plans of that wise phUanthropist been left
undisturbed, the Indian tribes would eventually have
become useful c'tizens of the States ; but the desire of
the Federal paety to keep those of this section as a
breastwork against Southern advance, created recip
rocal hostiUty between the white man and the red man,
and finaUy defeated every scheme for their culture.
The Georgians having overrun the lands of the
Creek, now turned wistful eyes to the lands of the
Cherokee. Did the Federal Government have no inten-
tention to extinguish the Cherokee title in accordance
with the cession of 1802 ? Twenty-five years had now
elapsed since that cession, and Georgia witnessed the
same delay which almost plunged the State into hos
tilities with the Federal Government in the case of the
Creeks. Not only was no step being taken for re
moval of the Cherokees, but the poUcy of President
Adams and his friends appeared more pronounced in
this case than in the other. Every effort was being
put forth by the administration to fasten the Cherokees
to the soff, by instructing them in those peaceful avo
cations which strengthen the attachments of family and
home.

THE CRADLE OF THE CONFEDERACY. 143
Georgia by a law of December 20, 1828, added all
of the Cherokee territory lying within her Umits to
certain counties of the State, and extended over it her
criminal jurisdiction. The object of this law, and of a
subsequent one passed in, the following year, was to
parcel out the territory of the Cherokees, to subject it
to the laws of Georgia, to abolish the Cherokee laws,
to make it murder for a death sentence to be executed
under Cherokee law, and to authorize the use of the
Georgia militia in executing all processes over the Cher
okee territory. The Cherokees sent a delegation to
Washington, which presented to the President a protest
against the encroachments of the Georgians; but Mr.
Adams, just on the eve of retiring from office, took no
action in the matter.
The views of the party opposed to the Adams theory
of government were well expressed in the first annual
message of President Jackson. He caffed the atten
tion of "Congress to the fact that the Indian tribes had
lately attempted to erect an independent government
within the limits of Georgia and Alabama. These
States claiming to be the only sovereigns within their
territories, had extended their laws over the Indians,
and the latter had caUed upon the United States to in
terpose between the tribe and the State. Under these
circumstances the question presented was, whether the
General Government had a right to sustain the tribe in
then- pretensions ? The Constitution declares that " no
" new. State shaU be formed or erected within the juris-
" diction of another State " without the consent of its
Legislature. If the General Government is not per
mitted to tolerate the erection of a confederate State
within the territory of one of the members of the

144 THE CRADLE OF THE CONFEDERACY.
Union, against her consent, much less, said President
Jackson, could it allow a foreign and independent gov
ernment to estabUsh itself there. Georgia became a
member of the confederacy, which resulted in our
Federal Union, as a sovereign State, always asserting
her claim to certain Umits, which having been origin
ally defined in her colonial charter, and subsequently
recognized in the treaty of peace, she has ever since
continued to enjoy, except as they have been circum
scribed by her own voluntary transfer of a portion of
her territory to the United States in the cession of
1802. Alabama was admitted into the Union on the
same footing with the original States, with boundaries
which were prescribed by Congress. There is, said the
message, no constitutional, conventional, nor legal pro
vision which allows them less power over the Indians
within thek borders than is possessed by Maine or
New York. Would the people of Maine permit the
Penobscot tribe to erect an independent government
within their State ? And if they did, would it not be
the duty of the General Government to aid the State
in resisting such an an attempt ? Would the people of
New York permit each remnant of the six nations
within her borders to declare itself an independent
people under the protection of the United States?
Could the Indians establish a separate republic on
each of their reservations in Ohio ? And if they were
so disposed, would it be the duty of the Federal Gov
ernment to sustain them? " If," said General Jackson,
" the principle involved in the obvious answer to these
" questions be abandoned, it wiU foUow that the objects
" of this Government are reversed ; and that it has

THE CRADLE OF THE CONFEDERACY. 145
" become a part of its duty to aid in destroying the
" States which it was established t® protect."
Actuated by this view of the subject. President Jack
son, reversing the poUcy of his predecessor, informed
the Indians inhabiting parts of Georgia and Alabama,
that thek attempt to establish an independent govern
ment woiffd not be countenanced by the executive of
the United States, and advised them either to emigrate
beyond the Mississippi or submit to the laws of the
State. Instead of bribing the Indian chiefs and going
through the absurd formality of treating with them as
independent nations, the President caUed upon Con
gress for the passage of an act to enable him to provide
for thek removal. Upon this proposition the two parties
arrayed themselves. The Representatives in Congress
from the Southern States, aided by a few votes from
the North, succeeded in enacting such a law as the
President requested. The opposition was led by Mr.
Frelinghdysen, in the Senate, and with him was found
nearly aff the Northern Senators.
The Indians, instigated by the half-breeds and mis
sionaries who incUned to the Federal party, took counsel
and legal advice with a view to get the question into
the Supreme Court of the Uiuted States. William
Wirt, late Attorney General, was retained as thek
counsel. George R. Gilmer was then Governor of
Georgia. As soon as it became evident that the Indian
BiU, as proposed by the President would become law,
the Cherokees were persuaded that the right of self-
government could be secured to them by the power of
the Supreme Court of the United States, in defiance of
the legislature of the State and National Government.
At that time the idea does not appear to have been en-

146 • THE CRADLE OF THE OONPEDERAOY.
tertained by Wirt or by his cotemporaries of the Fed
eral school of poUtics, that in the event the Supreme
Court might show an inclination to interfere, that august
tribunal might be brought to terms by an act of Con
gress curtailing its powers or increasing its members.
Judge A. S. Clayton of Georgia, in whose circuit
the Indian counties lay, in his charge to the grand
jury, assured the Indians of protection from the State,
warned them against the intermeddUng agents and mis
sionaries who used their influence improperly in govern
mental matters, and predicted the futffity of applying
for relief to the Supreme Court. With respect to those
who had counselled resistance to the State law, he said :
" Meetings kave been held in aff dkections to express
" opinions on the conduct of Georgia, and of Georgia
"alone," when her adjoining sister States had safely done
precisely the same thing; and which she and they had
done in the rightful exercise of their State sovereignty.
The judge showed that one of those intrusive phffan-
thropists had endeavored to enlist European sympathy
in behaff of the, Cherokees ; and quoted from the ad
dress of the Reverend Mr. Milner of New York, to
the Foreign Missionary Society of London : " That
" if the cause of the negroes in the West Indies was
" interesting to that auditory — and deeply interesting
" it ought to be — if the population in Ireland, groaning
" beneath the degradation of superstition, excited their
" sympathies, he trusted the Indians of North America
" would also be considered as the objects of their Christian
" regards. He was grieved, however, to state that there
were those in America who acted towards them in a
dffferent spirit ; and he lamented to say, at this very
moment, the State of Georgia was seeking to subjugate

THE CRADLE OP THE CONFEDERACY. ' 147
"and destroy the Uberties both of the Creeks and
"Cherokees." Thus was ff sought to defame a
Southern State which was simply seeking to extend its
laws throughout its limits as had been done by every
Northern and Eastern State which had dealt wffh the
Indians within its borders. And so ignorant was
this pseudo phUanthropist of what he was discussing
that he seemed not to know that the Creeks, at the
time he was speaking, had been gone five years from
Georgia. Instead of the Cherokees, who stffl remained,
being deprived of their liberties, they were offered a
large price for their lands if they chose to remove
across the Mississippi. If they preferred to remain
they were simply to be subjected to the same laws with
the whites. With respect to the Supreme Court, Judge
Clayton declared that he should pay no attention to its
mandate — holding no writ of error to lie from the Su
preme Court of the United States to his State court,
but would execute the sentence of the law, whatever it
might be, in defiance of the Supreme Court. This bold
position of the Georgia judge was maintained with the
same firmness it was enunciated.
A Cherokee half-breed, George Tassels, instigated
by the poUtical opposition to the poUcy of Jackson,
committed a honaicide in resisting the execution of the
Georgia law. He was tried for murder, condemned,
and sentenced to be executed on a certain day. A
writ of error to bring the case before the United States
Supreme Court was obtained, and Mr. Wirt endeavored
to secure the consent of Governor Gilmer that the
whole question should rest upon an agreed statement of
fects. Governor Gilmer repUed : " Your suggestion
" that it would be convenient and satisfactory if your-

148 THE CRADLE OF THE CONFEDERACY.
" self, the Indians and the Governor could make up a
" law case to be submitted to the Supreme Court for
" the determination of the question whether the Legis-
" lature of Georgia has competent authority to pass
"laws for the government of the Indians residing
" within its limits, however courteous the manner and
" conciliatory the phraseology, cannot but be considered
" exceedingly disrespectful to the government of this
" State. No one knows better than yourself that the
" Governor would grossly violate his duty and exceed
" his authority by complying with such a suggestion,
" and that both the letter and the spkit of the powers
" conferred by the Constitution upon the Supreme Court
"forbid" its adjudging such a case."
The proceedings before the United States Supreme
Court are of supreme interest when considered in rela
tion to the alleged right of the Federal Government to
coerce a State. Mr. Wirt, in his application for an
injunction to restrain the State, discussed the question
with great ardor and abffity. His argument has been
pronounced the most brffliant of his Ufe. " The great
'• interest excited by the controversy," says a writer in
the North American Review, '^ was naturally to be
" expected from the novelty of the case, the dignity of
" the parties, and the high importance of the principles
" in question. The scene wore, in some degrees, the
" imposing majesty of those ancient debates, in which
" the great father of Roman eloquence sustained before
"the senate the rights of aUied and dependent, but
" sovereign princes, who had found themselves com-
"peUed to seek for protection and redress from the
"justice of the mighty RepubUc." kiss Martineau,
in her graceful description of the Court, aUudes to the

THE CRADLE OF THE CONFEDERACY. 149
scene — " I have watched the assemblance when the
" Chief Justice was delivering a judgment, the three
"judges on either hand gazing at him more like
" learners than associates, Webster standing firm as a
"rock, his large, deep set eyes wide awake, his lips
" compressed, and his whole countenance in that intent
" stUlness which easffy fixes the eye of the stranger ;
" Clay, leaning against the desk in an attitude, whose
" grace contrasts strangely with the slovenly make of
" his dress, his snuff box for the moment unopened in
" his hand, his small gray eye and placid half-smile,
" conveying an expression of pleasure which redeems
" his face from its usual unaccountable commonness;
" the Attorney General, his fingers playing among his
"papers, his quick black eye, and thin, tremulous lips
" for once fixed, his small face pale with thought, con-
" trasting remarkably with the other two. These men,
" absorbed in what they are listening to, thinking
" neither of themselves nor of each other, whffe they
" are watched by the group of idlers and listeners
" around them : the newspaper corps, the dark Chero-
" kee chiefs, the sti-agglers from the far West, the gay
" ladies in their waving plumes, and the members of
" either House that have stepped in to Usten ; aU these
" I have seen constitute one sffent assemblage, whffe
" the mffd voice of the aged Chief Justice sounded
" through the Court."
At the outset of the case, was suggested the diffi
culty as to how the injunction was to be enforced in
the event it should be awarded and the fetate should
refuse to obey. " It wffl be time enough," said Mr.
Wirt, " to meet the question when it shaff arise."
Chief Justice Marshall, ever ambitious to make the

150 THE CRADLE OF THE CONFEDERACY.
Supreme Court the arbiter of all constitutional ques
tions, and by the force of former poUtical association
ever leaning to the views, of the Federal party, held
that the Court had fuU jurisdiction to pronounce upon
the vaUdity of the Georgia laws. The Court declared
the Cherokee Nation a distinct community, occupying
its own territory, with boundaries accurately described,
and in which the laws of Georgia could have no force.
It declared void the act of Georgia, under which the
plaintiff in error was prosecuted, that the judgment of
the State Court was a nullity, and that the plaintiff
"was entitled to the protection of the Constitution,
" laws and treaties of his country."
Thereupon arose the question, how was this decision
to be enforced ? Could the United States coerce a
State ?
The State of Georgia treated the decision as a
nulUty. No further action was taken by the Supreme
Court ; no effort made to enforce its decision. Chief
Justice Marshall and his associates, by non-action,
tacitly admitted that the United States had no consti
tutional power to enforce a decision against a sovereign
State. The State of Georgia did not appear as a party to
these proceedings. The Chief Justice cited the State
by writ of error " to show cause, ff any there be, why
"the judgment [of the State Court] should not be
" corrected." The Governor laid the writ before the
General Assembly, saying that he would not regard
commands of the Federal Court which interfered with
the constitutional jurisdiction of the State, and would
oppose any attempt to execute them. The General
Assembly sustained the Governor, and adopted a series

THE CRADLE OF THE OONPEDERAOY. 151
of resolutions to the effect that the action of the Chief
Justice of the United States was " a flagrant violation
" of the rights of the State ; " that the Governor
should pay no attention to the mandate ; but that he
was bound " to resist and repel any and every inva-
" sion, from whatever quarter, upon the administration
" of the criminal laws " of the State, with all the " force
" and means " entrusted to him by the laws of Georgia.
They declared that " the State of Georgia will never so
" far compromise her sovereignty as an independent
" State, as to become a party to a case sought to be
" made before the Supreme Court of the United States
" by the writ in question," and that the Governor
should acquaint the sheriff of Hall county with these
resolutions, as far as was necessary to ensure the fuff
execution of the laws in the case of George Tassels.
The sentence of the State court was executed by the
hanging of Tassels, Dec. 28, 1830.
Depending upon a statement of G. N. Briggs of
Massachusetts, who was at the time a member of Con
gress, Greeley, in "The American Conflict," vol. I, p.
106, relates that President Jackson said: "John
" MarshaU has made his decision ; now let him enforce
" ff ! "
In accordance with the Georgia law of December 22,
1830, a missionary named Worcester, with other white
persons who persisted in disobeying the statute, was
sentenced- to four years' imprisonment at hard labor.
Worcester took the case before the Supreme Court of
the Unffed States, and the State of Georgia was once
more cited to appear at Washington, before the Federal
judiciary. Governor Lumpkin informed the Legislature
that he would present a "determined resistance " to

152 THE CRADLE OF THE CONFEDERACY.
such "usurpation." The Supreme Court once more
attempted to annul the action of the State, but the
State court refused to grant a writ of habeas corpus,
and paid no attention to the decision. No effort was
ever made by the Federal Government to enforce the
decision. The Government at Washington and the country at
large, by acquiescing in the failure of the Federal Gov
ernment to carry out the mandate of the Federal court,
admitted that Georgia had the right to extinguish any
title to her lands remaining in the occupancy of the
savages, that she was right in refusing to appear at the
bar of the Supreme Court, and right in executing her
statutes in these cases, notwithstanding interference
fi-om the Federal Government. In the debate over the
Force Bffl, in 1833, two years later than the events
here referred to, we find the verdict of the people ex
pressed in the language of Senator MiUer of South
Carolina. "No reproof of her [Georgia's] refractory
" spirit was heard ; on the contrary, a learned review of
" the decision came out attributed to executive coun-
'' tenance and favor." It is to be borne in mind that
the executive aUuded to was the same who one year
later, proposed at a public dinner at Washington, the
toast, " The Federal Union, it must be preserved."

CHA-I^TER VII.

South Carolina and the Tariff— Continued Contest between
the Agricultural and Commercial States — Calhoun and
Nullification — The Force Bill and the Right of Coer
cion — Inconsistency of President Jackson — Calhoun's
Victory — Webster Retires from the Battle — Real Causes
for the Proclamation, &c., &c.

" Why should we fetter commeroe ? If a man is in chains, he droops
and bows to the earth, because his spirits are broken ; but let him. twist
the fetters from his legs and he will stand erect. Fetter not commerce !
Letlher be as free as the air. She will range the whole creation, and re
turn on the four winds of Heaven, to bless the land with plenty."
Pateick Henry.
" To the Northern politician, who, during Monroe's administration
recalled the past annals of the republic, the future was without hope.
Incited by his devotion to Unionism, he had tried to strengthen the cen
tral power at Washington, but had been defeated on the occasion of the
Alien and Sedition Acts; he had looked with disfavor upon the free
navigation of the Mississippi, but the river had been bought ; he was dis
inclined to territorial expansion, but Louisiana had been purchased ; he
had resisted the admission of new States from that purchase, but one
after another, they were coming in." Deapkk's Civil. Wak, vol. I, p. 360.

Whffe the difficulty between Georgia and the Federal
Government was stffl pending, the people of the United
States, by a large majority, threw off the remaiiung
vestiges of Federalism as represented by Adams, and
elected Andrew Jackson to the Presidency by an elec
toral vote of one hundred and eighty-three, as against
eighty-three for Adams. It is worthy of observation,
however, that the victory of Jackson was not strictly
upon principle. In New York, Pennsylvania, and in
the West generaUy, Jackson was supported as the' firm

154 THE CRADLE OF THE CONFEDERACY.
friend of the protective tariff, and of internal improve
ments by the General Government ; whereas, in the
South he was zealously sustained by those who denied
the right and constitutionality of those things, as being
the friend of those Southern interests which were
believed by them to be seriously injured by the laws
protecting home industry.
The new President's inaugural address was extremely
vague upon the question of the tariff His first annual
message was not much more expUcit. It favored a
modification of the protective features of the tariff, but
at the same time suggested that a desire for successful
competition of American products with foreign should
furnish " the general rule to' be applied in graduating
" the duties." The friends of Calhoun lost confidence
in the purpose of President Jackson to carry out the
free trade views upon which they had voted for him.
The first protective tariff, that of 1816, was advo
cated by Calhoun and opposed by Webster. It was at
that time believed that the South would esfciblish fac
tories, and that the building- of this Chinese wall around
New England would destroy her carrying trade. The
question of principle was lost sight of; and policy alone
attached Calhoun to a doctrine which he afterwards
condemned, and caused Webster to advocate free trade,
which his' section a few years later repudiated. Between
1816 and 1824, New England took advantage of the
tariff and invested largely in factories. In 1824 the
protective system was championed by Henry Clay, and
stiff resisted by Daniel Webster. Virginia, the Caro
linas, Georgia and the Southwest were unanimous
against it, while Pennsylvania, New York, Ohio and
Kentucky were unanimous for it. Massachusetts,

THE CRADLE OP THE CONFEDERACY. 155
under the lead of Webster, gave aff her votes except
one against it. It was not untff four years later that
Webster gave in his adhesion to the American system
of Clay.
In 1828 the question had assumed a most serious
sectional aspect. When Jefferson was President, the
maritime States of the North had bitterly opposed the
embargo laws, which vktually kept thek ships rotting
at the wharves. They boldly declared that the enforce
ment of the embargo was adequate cause for dissolution
of the Union. But now, in 1828, and in 1830, they
favored a protective tariff, which operated upon the agri
cultural States as the embargo had upon the maritime
States. Its operation was claimed to be even more
severe. No one pretended that it was simply a tariff
for revenue. It was iiitended to protect certain
branches of industry by paying them a bonus wrung
from other branches, and especiaUy from the agricul
tural labor of the South. It was spoken of as a Bffl
of Abominations. Aff that the South asked was that
she might buy her cotton gins, her ploughs, her hoes,
and her clothing at moderate and just prices, and not
be compeUed to pay a subsidy to Massachusetts for the
one article, or to Pennsylvania for another. African
slavery had made the South purely agricultural, and
all agricultural States naturaUy and necessarffy favor
free trade. Perhaps under other circumstances, how
ever violative of the spkit of the Constitution, the
South might have found a protective tariff an incentive
to manufactories of iron in Tennessee, Georgia, Vir
ginia and Alabama, of cotton goods in nearly all of
the Atiantic and Guff" States south of the Chesapeake,
and of leathern goods in the vast pine forests of the

156 THE CRADLE OF THE CONFEDERACY.
coast, as it was certainly an incentive to the produc
tion of sugar in Louisiana, But while agriculture was
the sole occupation of the Southern people, the tariff
feff upon the cotton States with crushing burthen.
With one-third of the population they paid two-thkds
of the revenue of the Union.
The opening of richer cotton fields in Alabama had
diminished the value of land in South Carolina, and the.
commercial importance of Charleston had receded, it
was said, before the blighting effects of the tariff.;
Within a few years past a thriving foreign commerce
had been carried on dkect with Europe, but now the
forty ships which had sought the harbor of Charleston
had all disappeared. The ship yards had been broken
up ; the merchants had become bankrupt or had
sought other pursuits ; mechanics were thrown out of
employment, and the very streets were assuming the
sffence of inactivity. Said Mr. Hayne : ''If we fly
" fi-om the city to the country, what do we there behold?
" fields abandoned ; the hospitable mansions of our
" fathers deserted ; agriculture drooping ; our slaves,
" like thek masters, working harder and faring worse ;
" the planter striving with unavaUable efforts to avert
" the ruin that is before him."
K there had been a necessity for such protection t*"-
the interests of one branch of industry at the expense
of another, the case would not have appeared so bad ;
but it was shown from the custom-house books that
many species of our manufactures, and especially those
of cotton, were going abroad to distant countries, and
sustaining themselves there against aff competition and
beyond the fostering care of our laws. The only effect
of protective duties in such cases was clearly to cut off

THE CRADLE OF THE CONFEDERACY. 157
importations, to create a monopoly at home, and to en
able manufacturers to sell their goods higher to their
own fellow-citizens- of the South who produced the raw
material than to the distant inhabitants of the Medi
terranean and of India.
John C Calhoun saw very plainly that the question
of fi-ee trade was that which, keeping the more danger-,
ous question of slavery in the back ground, was des
tined to divide the republic into two great parties.
Upon this question he could raUy the agricultural
States to his standard, and would have the advantage
of fighting on a higher level than he would be com
peUed to stand upon were the issue simply upon slavery.
He had given up aff hope that President Jackson would
aid hun in destroying the protective system by ordinary
parliamentary measures. On July 26, 1831, at Fort
Hill, he issued an address to the people of South Car
oUna, setting forth the declaration of the Vkginia reso
lutions and asserting the right of interposition, " be it
" called as it may, State right, veto, nulUfication or by
"any other name." In 1832 the tariff had received
the sanction of the President. Calhoun in a letter
to Governor HamUton of South CaroUna reviewed the
situation quite elaborately and announced the doctrine
of nullification. " Nullification," said he, " is the great
" conservative principle of the Union." " Not a pro-
" vision can be found in the Constitution authorizing
" the General Government to exercise any control over
" a State by force, by veto, by judicial process, or in
" any other form — a most important omission, designed
" and not accidental." That Calhoun regarded nullifi
cation as a peaceful remedy appears throughout his
letter. The calUng out of the miUtary power of the

158 THE CRADLE OF THE CONFEDERACY.
Union, he said, would be useless because no opponents
would be found, for " it would be * * * a con-
" flict of moral, not physical force." He insisted that
the legal relation between the Federal and State gov
ernments would not be broken up.
He denied the right of a State Legislature to nulUfy
a Federal law. It must be done by a State convention. ?
A motion was made in the South Carolina Legislature
to call a State convention, but faffed of the regular two-
thkds vote. Another effort was more successful, and a
convention was called to meet at Columbia, November
18th. A nullification ordinance was adopted Novem
ber 24th, declaring that the tariff of May 19, .828,
and that of July 24, 1832, were nuff and void, and
instructing the Legislature to pass laws necessary for
enforcing the ordinance, after the fkst day of February
next, for preventing the coUection of duties imposed by
the nuUified laws. The convention announced that
every measure of coercion on the part of the Federal
Government would be regarded " as inconsistent with
" the longer continuance of South Carolina in the
" Union." The convention then adjourned untff March
to await the action of Congress.
There were many leading men of the South, who,
whffe sympathizing with those who complained of the
obnoxious tariff and not denying the right of a State
in the ultimate resort to judge of the measure of its
grievances and the mode of redress, nevertheless held
that South Carolina had placed herself in a wrong atti
tude by passing her ordinance at a time when the Pres
idential election, two weeks before, had gone over
whelmingly against Clay's American system, and
when a large majority of opponents of the oc^ous tariiF

THE CRADLE OP THE CONFEDERACY. 159
had been returned to Congress under a pledge for ffs
repeal or modification. A majority of the people of
the South believed that the case was not such an one
as was described in the resolutions of '98, and in those
of the Hartford convention, as a " deliberate, palpable
" and dangerous " exercise of powers not granted by
the compact. It was not a deliberate act of the United
States ; because after full debate in Congress, and an
appeal to the country in a Presidential canvass in which
the tariff was a leading question, the verdict of the
people of the United State had been against it. It was
not a dangerous act because the verdict of the election
being adverse, it was now certain that its dangerous
and oppressive features would be removed. Recog
nizing the fact that the Constitution itself was a bundle
of compromises, these patriotic citizens of the South
were wUUng to endure all burdens of Government which
were not absolutely too grievous to be borne and without
remedy, rather than rush to unknown evUs beyond the
confines of the Federal system. l''hey believed in an
appeal to the judiciary whenever the question could be
reached in that way ; ff it was a question which could
not be so reached, they appealed to the people at the
next election. Hence they now protested against the
hasty action of South CaroUna.
Another large body of Southern people held that
the remedy adopted by South Carolina was not the
proper one. Ti) secede from the Union was one thing ;
to remain in the Union and nullify a Federal law was
quite another thing. NulUfication would make the
Union " a rope of sand," and place her precisely in
the position she occupied uiider the articles of confed
eration when she had power to enact laws but no power

160 THE CRADLE OF THE CONFEDERACY.
to enforce obedience to them. The Constitution was
clearly intended to enable the Federal Government to
enforce obedience to her laws within those States which
remained in the Union. To escape such laws, the rem
edy, as was asserted by these opponents of nulUfication,
was by secession fi-om the Union.
It is interesting to know that many of these South
ern opponents of the principle of nuUification were
those who but a few years previous had stood by Gov
ernors Tkoup and Gilmer in thek determined and suc
cessful nullification of the Indian treaties. The appar
ent inconsistency of thek course is explained by refer
ence to the distinction which they made between a
Federal law of merely local operation which might be
met by the local authorities without affecting the gen
eral interests of the Union, and a Federal law of gen
eral operation affecting aff the States. The former
could be opposed, they said, by State action within the
Union; the latter could be met only by separation from
the Union. Whffe the Georgian, however, could con
sistently deny nullification as a remedy, in the case of
the tariff, the New Englander who had advocated nul
lification of the embargo law, and of the acts declar
ing war against Great Britain, was moraUy estopped
from such denial.
There was stffl another class of Southern men who
held that the protective tariff was not only not un
constitutional and dangerous to the States, but actuaUy
within the scope of the Constitution, and conducive to
the prosperity of the whole country. This class of
men were numerous throughout the West, powerful in
Louisiana and strong throughout the Gulf States.
When the poUcy of protection was first broached, and

THE CRADLE OF THE CONFEDERACY. 161
the discriminating tariff of 1816 enacted, New England
denounced it as unjust and oppressive, and the South
advocated it almost as a unit. As has been already
mentioned, Calhoun was then for protection, and Web
ster was for fi-ee trade. The South looked to the day
when she might build up factories in her cotton fields ;
but New England feared that a protective tariff would
lessen the imported cargoes which fostered her ship
ping. PubUc sentiment was not aroused upon this
question untff 1824, and not untff then was a doubt
expressed as to the constitutionality of protection.
Four years later. New England had ghanged her invest
ments from the West India shipping trade into factories,
and was beginning to reap a golden harvest. The
Western States, also, were giving birth to vUlages and
cities where furnaces and water-wheels were in perpet
ual motion. The hemp factories of Kentucky and
Missouri were supplying bagging and rope to the
Cotton States, and Louisiana was furnishing the whole
Union with sugar. With an exception here and there,
the American system had been sustained from 1820 to
1832 by the New England States, by those north and
west of the AUeghanies, and by the State of Louisiana.
It is not surprising that it had ardent supporters
among those inteffects at the South, who, looking into
the future, desired to diversify her industi-ies and make
her self-supporting in peace and in war. It was for
these reasons that a large class at the South opposed
the nulUfication act of South Carolina as hasty, incon
siderate and fflegal.
President Jackson issued his proclamation on the
11th of December, 1832. Congress was then in ses
sion. In his annual message, the President had

162 THE CRADLE OP THE CONFEDERACY.
expressed an opinion that the proceedings in South
Carolina would come to an end if the tariff were
simply put upon a revenue footing. South Carolina
stiU persisting in her course, notwithstanding the favor
able disposition of the administration and of Congress,
the "revenue collection," or " force bill," as it was
caUed, was introduced into Congress, January 31st,
1833, giving the President fuU power to meet the acts
of the nuUification 'legislature. The whole country was
plunged into the wUdest excitement. Those at the
South who protested against the course of South Caro
Una, protested as .strongly against the use of force
towards her by the Federal Government. Upon this
bffl arose the great debate between Calhoun and Web
ster. Has the Federal Government the right to coerce
a sovereign State into obedience to a law which she
holds to be unconstitutional and oppressive? Gur
wisest statesmen had often warned their countrymen, in
the most solemn terms, that our institutions could not
be preserved by force, and could only endure whUst
concord of feeling and a proper respect by one section
for the rights of another should be maintained. Madi
son, in this spkit, had observed in the Federal Conven
tion that, "any Government for the United States,
" formed upon the supposed practicabffity of using
" force against the unconstitutional proceedings of the
" States, would prove as visionary and faUacious as the
" government of [the old] Congress." Senator Tyler
of Virginia, well expressed the sentiment of the whole
South when he said: "Yes, sir, the Federal Union
"must be preserved. But how? Wffl you seek to
" preserve ff , by force ? WiU you seek to appease the
"angry spkit of discord by an oblation of blood?

THE CRADLE OP THE CONFEDERACY. 163
" Suppose that the proud and haughty spirit of South
" Carolina should, not bend to your high edicts in
" token of fealty ; that you make war upon her ; hang
" her Governor, her legislators and her judges, as trai-
" tors, and reduce her to the condition of a conquered
"province — have you preserved the Union? This
" Union consists of twenty-four States ; would you
" have preserved the Union by striking out one of the
" States — one of the old thirteen ? Gentiemen had
" boasted of the flag of our country, with its thirteen
" stars. When the Ught of one of these stars shall
" have been extinguished, will the flag wave over us,
" under which our fathers fought ? If we are to go on
" striking out star after star, what wffl finaUy remain
" but a central and burning sun, blighting and destroy-
" ing every germ of liberty ? The flag which I wish
" to wave over me, is that flag which floated in triumph
" at Saratoga and Yorktown. It bore upon it thirteen
" stars, of which South Carolina was one. Sir, there is
" a great difference between preserving the Union and
" preserving the Government ; the Union may be anni-
" hffated, yet Government preserved ; but^ under such
" a Government, no man ought to desire to Uve."
This idea of Mr. Tyler, for the first time advanced
in the American Senate, that the coerOion of a State '
would leave it at the feet of the Federal Government
as a conquered province, was scouted by those Senators
who sustained the bill. Mr. Benton speaks of his lan
guage as "-vituperative." Mr. Webster at aU times
declared that whatever might be the coercion employed
by the Federal Government, it could not operate upon
the State, but would sknply preserve the peace among
the people of the State, and prevent thek interference

164 THE CRADLE OF THE CONFEDERACY.
with the regular process of an act of Congress. Thus
far only, declared the Federalists, could the force biU
go. The Federal Government could no more overthrow
and destroy the State, than the State could nuUify an
act of Congress.
Affairs were in a critical state, and the whole
Southern people undoubtedly stood ready in the event
of hostilities between South Carolina and the United
States to array themselves with the former. In this
crisis, Virginia delegated Benjamin Watkins Leigh, as
commissioner to intercede with South Carolina and to
urge her either to rescind her ordinance or to postpone
action untU the close of the session of Congress. His
mission was successful. In view of the probable reduc
tion of the tariff to a revenue standard, action upon her
ordinance was postponed from February 1st to March
4th. It was then that Clay offered his compromise
measure, securing adequate protection for nine years,
and less protection beyond that term. The manufac
turers denounced him, as having yielded to a storm
which in a few years would sweep protection away en-
tkely; and his Northern supporters fell from him in
multitudes. It was said to him that by compromising
protection he had forfeited his chances for the Presi
dency. " I would rather be right than be President,"
repUed the patriot. Whffe Webster, proud of the power
of the opulent North, and impatient of what he held to
be the factious disturbance of ambitious politicians,
refused to be a party to the compromise. Clay re
membered that the Union itseff was a compromise and
that no document, like the Constitution, could be so
perfect, that a resort to mutual concessions might be
discarded when questions of conflicting jurisdiction

THE CRADLE OF THE CONFEDERACY. 165
arise between the State and Federal Government. To
the mind of this great man it was clear that it was
better to solve political questions by compromises which
endangered no great interest and whieh applied to their '
cure the soothing influence of time, than to resort to
civff war with its waste of treasure and blood, its dis
tortion of principles, and the bitter seed it would sow
for generation after generation.
Referring to the spirit of that day, the attitude of
South Carolina finds an apology in the temper of the
North. While she believed that the protective tariff'
was dangerous to the Union and oppressive to her
people, and that its retention would justffy resistence,
her enemies on the other hand believed that the aboli
tion of protection would be ruinous to the welfare of
the Union and would justify its dissolution. The
threats of South CaroUna were met by counter threats
from the manufacturing regions. If treason lurked in
the oratory of Calhoun, and in the proclamations of
Hayne, it showed itself fully to view in the language of
Northern politicians. Clay had distinctly declared
that danger to the Union was more to be feared from a
surrender of the American system than from its reten
tion. Of the friends of that system he said : " Let
" them feel that a foreign system is to predominate,
" and the sources of their subsistence and comfort
" dried up ; let New England, the West and the middle
"States, aU feel that they too are the victims of a mis-
" taken poUcy, and let these vast portions of our
" country despair of any favorable change, and then
"indeed might we tremhle for the continuance and
"safety of -this Union'''
John M. Clayton, Senator from Delaware, said that

166 tliE ORADiLB OP THE CONtEDEEACY.
" the Government cannot he kept together if the prind-
" pie of protection were to he discarded in our policy,"
and that he " would pause before he surrendered that
" principle, even to save the Union."
Thus it was that whereas South CaroUna was ready
to resist the Federal Government in the levying of im
posts for what she beUeved to be an unconstitutional
object, her defamers were ready to dissolve the Union'
if the imposts were simply directed towards raising
revenue. The cause for which South Carolina would
fight was a violation of the Constitution ; the cause for
which her enemies would fight was not a violation of
the Constitution, but simply a curtaffment of thek
extravagant profits in business.
That profound student. Von Hoist, in his able work
on the Constitutional History of the United States,
has not faffed to observe the inconsistency between the
action of President Jackson towards South Carolina
and that towards Georgia, only a few years previous.
" Why was that now so great a crime," he asks, " upon
" which the President then looked with scarcely con-
'' cealed satisfaction ? Did not his oath of office im-
" pose the same duties upon him then ? Was the
" supremacy of a tariff law of a higher sort than that
'' of treaties ? Why must a sovereign State now most
" obediently entreat the United States Supreme Court
" to inform it of the Umits of its rights, when, then,
" a State no more sovereign could angrily reject the
" decision of that Court, made in aU form, as a revolt-
" ing assumption, without receiving even a warning- re-
" proof from President or Congress ? South Carolina
" knew that no answer could be given to aU these ques-
" tions, and therefore did not faU to put them."

THE CRADLE OP THE CONFEDERACY. 167
The answer to these questions is that President Jack
son was carried away by his personal animosity to Cal
houn, and having resolved to antagonize him and vin
dicate his determination to maintain a personal govern
ment, he hastened into an inconsistency, and assumed
an attitude against State-rights which he afterwards
desired to explain away. When Calhoun was elected
to the Vice-Presidency with Jackson, it was not known
to the latter that when a member of Monroe's Cabinet,
the former had expressed the opinion that the General
ought to be brought to trial for his conduct in the war
against the Seminoles. When the tiaith was made
known to Jackson, he submitted the charge to Cal
houn's inspection and was intormed that it was true.
From that day General Jackson was the implacable
enemy of Calhoun. He even threatened him with the
halter — and to show his hostUity, he reorganized ' the
Cabinet, giving a majority of the Secretaryships to the
friends of Van Buren, and the enemies of Calhoun.
Calhoun at once resigned the Vice-Presidency and
was elected to the Unffed States Senate to succeed
Hayne, who had given up his seat in order to accept
the Governorship of South CaroUna. Upon taking
his seat in ihe Senate, Calhoun at once took issue
with the President's proclamation. That proclamation
had already been received with loud laughter and jest
ing commentaries by the South Carolina Legislature.
This was to be expected ; but ff was also received with
doubt, hesitation, or opposition by a vast multitude, who
did not sympathize wffh South CaroUna. Henry Clay
wrote December 12th, to Judge Brooks : " As to the
" proclamation, although there are good things in it,
"especiaUy what relates to the judiciary, there are

168 THE CRADLE OF THE CONFEDERACY.
" some entirely too ultra for me, and which I cannot
" stomach." Before its adjournment the South Carolina conven
tion issued an address to the people of the United
States, in which it declared that so far as lay in its
power matters would not come to bloodshed, and that
to avoid such result, the State would secede from the
Union. Whatever doubt was entertained by the States-
rights advocate as to the right of the State to remain
in the Union and nuUify Federal laws, it does not
appear that there was any doubt among them as to the
right of peaceable secession. In the Legislature of
South Carolina the proclamation of Jackson was severely
commented upon by Barnwell Smith, as containing
"the tyrannical doctrine that we have not even the
" right to secede." The address proceeded to set forth
a plan of taxation which would satisfy the State and
lead to a repeal of the nullification ordinance. This
concession was offered by the State, " provided she is
" met in due time and in a becoming spkit by the
" States interested in the protection of manufactures."
President Jackson, in his message of December 4th,
recommended the removal of such duties as were found
to fall unequally upon any of the community. This
was a concession made in the face of the ordinance of
South Carolina. On December 27th the committee to
whom this part of the message was referred reported a
biff decreasing the revenue $13,000,000 compared with
the tariff of 1 828, and |7,000,000 compared with that
1832. As this reduction was to take place within two
years, it amounted to an abandonment of protection.
The manufacturers were alarmed, and Webster opposed
the bill with all his power. He declared that Jackson

THE CRADLE OF THE CONFEDERACY. 169
was not in favor of any concessions to the nuUifiers, but
had been pressed forward by his party who feared the
effect of the doctrines developed in the proclamation.
Pending these proceedings the President asked for
extraordinary powers to enforce the coUection of cus
toms as against the ordinance ; and " in case of an at-
" tempt otherwise to take the property [attached for
"non-payment of duties] by a force too great to be
" overcome by the officers of the customs," he applied
for authority to use the land and sea forces to execute
the law. On January 21st, the judiciary committee
reported the biU known as the " force bill," to make
possible the collection of customs. The biff was furi
ously assailed by aU the States-rights advocates. The
debate had continued fourteen days, and threatened to
be almost interminable when Clay asked the Senate to
permit him to bring in a bffl to modify the tariff. Ben
ton relates that Clay had advised Webster of his inten
tions, but that the latter had opposed the proposed bill,
saying : " It would be yielding great principles to fac-
"tion, and that the time had come to test the strength
" of the Constitution and the Government."
Calhoun sustained the proposed biff, saying that the
minor points of difference would present no difficulty
if men met each other in the spirit of mutual compro
mise. That Calhoun did not yield consent to this pro
position simply to escape personal danger, appears from
his speech of February 15th and 16th against the
force bffl, in which he declared that should that bill
become law and an effort be made to enforce it, "it wiff
"be resisted at every hazard — even that of death
"itself" On February 18th the Senate ordered the
force biff to a third reading by a vote of thirty-two to

170 THE CRADLE OF THE CONFEDBRIcIY.
eight. On February 25th, on motion of Letcher, the
bffl of Verplanck, then pending in the House, was
stricken out, and Clay's biU substituted for it. The
bill, on the next day, passed the House by a vote of
one hundred and nineteen against eighty-five.
The House then took up the Senate biU, Already
the Judiciary Committee of that body had, on Febru
ary 8th, denounced the message of President Jackson,
and declared that the use of force towards South Caro
Una would be unjust and impolitic from every point of
view. The committee did not pass upon the question
of right, but they evidently believed that the Federal
Government had no such right. The House did not
carry out the views of the committee, but after waiting
to see the fate of the Clay tariff bffl, in the Senate,
they yielded assent to the Senate force bffl. When
the force bffl came up in the House, McDuflfie asked
what practical aim the bffl now had, and Foster asked
any member to rise in his seat who imagined any
further resistence by South CaroUna possible after every
Senator and Representative fi-om that State had voted
for the tariff bffl. Notwithstanding these objections,
the passage of the two bffls was tacitiy regarded as a
mutual concession, and the House ordered the force
bffl to a third reading, by a vote of one hundred and
twenty-six to thirty-four. The Senate thereupon
passed the tariff bffl by a vote of twenty-nine to six
teen. The President signed both biffs on the 2d of
March, and on March 16th, South Carolina repealed
the ordinance of nuUification.
The people of the South saw in this settlement a'
victory for South Carolina. The exhibition of resis
tance to a Federal law by a single State had resulted

(The cradLe of the ooiipederaoy. 171
in a surrender by the Federal Government of the law
in question. It is true that the passage of the force
act was an assertion by the United States of the prin
ciples of the proclamation — but that assertion was
weakened by a denial on the part of Jackson's intimate
advisers of the apparent meaning of the proclamation,
and was destroyed several years later by the adoption
of substantially the very resolutions with which Cal
houn had met and defied that proclamation.
A portion of Jackson's adherents objected to his
course, because they saw in his proclamation the con-
soUdation ideas of the old FederaUsts. The Congres
sional Glohe met the reproaches of this faction with
a long " authorized " article in which the President let
it be stated that he recognized not only in the States
but in the State Governments, the rights claimed in
the Vkginia and Kentucky resolutions. The article
said :
" Its [the proclamation's] doctrines, ff construed in
" the sense they were intended, and carried out, incul-
" cate * * that in the case of the violation of the
" Constitution of the United States and the usurpation
" of the powers not granted by it on the part of the
" functionaries of the General Government, the State
" Governments have the right to interpose and arrest
" the evff, upon the principles which were set forth in
"the Vkginia resolutions of 1798, against the aUen
" and sedition acts ; and finally that in extreme cases of
" oppression (every mode of constitutional redress hav-
" ing been sought in vain) the right resides with the
"people of the several States to organize resistance
" against such oppression."
The editor of the Globe, Francis P. Blair, who was

172 THE CRADLE OF THE CONFEDERACY.
authorized to explain away the generally understood
meanmg of the proclamation, proceeded in .this article
to say that during the debate on Foote's resolutions
between Hayne and Webster, and whffe he was editor
of a journal in Kentucky, he received from the Post
Master General the speech delivered by Mr. Living
ston, accompanied by a letter saying that the views
contained in it were sanctioned by the President, and
might be considered as exhibiting the light in which
his administration considered the subject under debate.
The following extracts from that speech wffl serve to
illustrate the principles upon which the President then
took his stand, and to explain the more condensed
view given of tbem in his proclamation :
" It is a compact by which the people of each State
" have consented to take from thek own Legislatures
" some of the powers they had conferred upon them,
" and to transfer them, with other enumerated powers,
" to the Government of the United States, created by
" that compact."
" Yet I am far from thinking that this [Supreme]
" Court is created an umpire to judge between the
" General and State Governments."
" In an extreme case * * * the injured State
" would have a right at once to declare that it would no
" longer be bound by a compact which had been thus
" grossly violated."
John Tyler in his memok of Roger B. Taney, says
that when the proclamation was presented to President
Jackson, he disapproved the principles and doctrines
contained in it. But as the conclusion suited him, he
determined to issue it at once, without waiting to cor
rect the erroneous doctrines contained in it.

THE CRADLE OF THE CONFEDERACY. 173
The South did not believe Jackson entertained the
principles of his proclamation. It was against his
views and conduct in the Creek controversy. It was
antagonistic to the Virginia Resolutions of 1798, which
he professed to endorse. It ran counter to the above
expressed views of Livingston, who is said to have
written the proclamation. They attributed his course
to purely personal hostility against Calhoun, and they
attributed the concession of the United States on the
Tariff question as a recognition of the correctness of
the views of South Carolina. The condition of the
public faith as to the umpire in disputes between the
States and the United States was weU expressed by
Clay in his letter of January 17th, to Brooks: "As
" to politics we have no past, no future. After forty
"years of existence under the present Constitution,
" what single principle is fixed ? The bank ? No.
" Internal improvements ? No. The tariff ? No.
" Who is to interpret the Constitution ? We are as
" much aff oat at sea as the day when the Constitution
" went into operation."
Not only did the actual victory rest with South Car
oUna in this controversy, but the inteffectual and moral
victory rested with the champion of South Carolina.
On January 22d, 1833, Calhoun introduced into the
Senate his celebrated series of resolutions which gave
rise to the remarkable debate between himself and
Webster. The first resolution against which the thun
ders of Webster were dkected, reads as follows :
" Resolved, That the people of the several States
" comprising these United States, are united as parties
" to a constitutional compact, to which the people of e^ch
"State acceded as.a separate sovereign community, each

174 THE CRADLE OP THE CONFEDERACY.
" binding itself by its own particular ratification ; and
'' that the Union of which the said compact is the
"bond, is a Union hetween the /States ratifying the
" same." From this compact the other resolutions deduced the
doctrine of the resolutions of '98, that in this case as
in aU other cases of compact among sovereign parties,
without any common judge, each has an equal right to
judge for itself as well of the infraction as of the mode
and measure of redress. These resolutions of Calhoun
were aimed dkectly at the President's proclamation.
Webster so accepted and so treated them. He argued
that "the Constitution means a Government, and not
" a compact." " Not a Constitutional compact but a
" Government." " If compact, it rests on plighted
" faith, and the mode of redress would be to declare the
" whole void." " States may secede, if a league or
f' compact." Seizing upon this admission of Webster, that a State
may secede ff the Constitution is a compact, Calhoun
in his response called attention to the language used by
Massachusetts in ratifying the Constitution. She speaks
of it as a " solemn compact." He called attention to
Webster's own language in his great speech three years
before, upon the Foote resolutions, when he alluded to
" accusations which impute to us a disposition to evade
" the Constitutional compact." So complete was Cal
houn's argument that Webster never offered a rejoinder.
Alexander H. Stephens, in his "War between the
"States," speaks of it as "a crusher, an extinguisher,
" an annihUatf.r," and says — " This speech of his was
" not answered then, it has not been answered since,
" and in my judgment never wiU be, or can be answered

THE CRADLE OP THE CONFEDERACY. 175
" whffe truth has its legitimate influence, and reason
" controls the judgments of men."
That Webster felt the force of Calhoun's argument
is evident from the change in his own -vdews within the
next few years. In 1839^ in the case of the Bank of
Augusta vs. Earle, Webster used such language as this :
" I am not prepared to say that the States have no
" national sovereignty." " The Constitution treats
" States as States." " The States of this Union, as
" States, are subject to all the voluntary and customary
"laws of nations." The language of the Supreme
Court in this case was : " They are sovereign States."
" A corporation created by one sovereignty is per-
" mitted to make contracts in another, and to sue in its
" courts." " The same law of comity prevails among
" the several sovereignties of this Union." Thus the
Supreme Court held that sovereignty is stiff retained
by the several States of the Union under the Constitu
tion. Webster admitted it. The great " expounder
" of the Constitution," in 1839, was immeasurably
behind his successor of 1861, who held with Lincoln
that the relation of a State to the United States was
simply that of a county to a State — without one
shadow or spark of sovereignty.
Subsequently, in his letter to the Barings, bankers of
London, who enquked as to the right of States to issue
bonds and bon?ow money, Webster recognized in the
State this high privffege of sovereignty. "Every
" State," said he, " is an independent, sovereign, politi-
" cal community, except in so far as certain powers,
"which it might otherwise have exercised, have been
"conferred on a General Government." Again, in

176 THE CRADLE OF THE CONFEDERACY.
1851, Webster expressed simffar views in a speech
made at Capon Springs, Virginia. He said :
"How absurd it is to suppose that when different
"parties enter into a compact for certain purposes,
" either can disregard any one provision, and expect,
" nevertheless, the other to observe the rest."
" I have not hesitated to say, and I repeat, that if
" the Northern States refuse, wfffuffy and deUberately,
" to carry into effect that part of the Constitution
" which respects the restoration of fugitive slaves, the
" South would no longer be bound to observe the com-
" pact. A bargain cannot be brokert on one side and
" stffl bind on the other."
The Resolutions of Calhoun in 1833 did not express
more distinctly than this language of Webster, that the
Union is a Union of States, that the Union is founded
upon compact, and that a compact broken on one side
does not continue to bind the other side. No vote was
taken upon the Calhoun resolutions of 1833, but on
December 28, 1837, only four years later, Calhoun in
troduced to the Senate a new set of resolutions, the
first of which, in these words, set forth the very idea of
those of 1833.
Resolved, That in the adoption of the Federal "Con-
" stitution, the States adopting the same, acted severaUy
" as free, independent, and sovereign States ; and that
" each for itself, by its own voluntary assent, entered
"the Union with the view to its increased security
" against aU dangers, domestic as weU as foreign, and
" the more perfect and secure enjoyment of its advan-
" tages, natural, political and social."
It wiU be observed that this resolution is in dkect
confUct with the Websterian doctrine as announced in

THE CRADLE OP THE CONFEDERACY. 177
1838, and with the generally accepted meaning of
Jackson's proclamation. Calhoun here announced that
the Union is a compact springing from the States act
ing as States, and not a government springing from the
people. This resolution was adopted by a vote of thir
ty-two Senators against thirteen. Eighteen States voted
for it ; and Senators representing only six States voted
against it. One State was divided and one did not
vote. Thus more than two-thirds of the States, through
thek Senators, vindicated the poUtical ideas of Calhoun,
and this verdict was given only four years after the or
dinance of nullification, and after Jackson's proclama
tion.

CHAPTER VIII.

Controversy between Alabama and the United States — In-
trtision on ihe Creek Lands — Kilting of Owens — Mes
sage of Governor Gayle — Threats of Resistance to the
Military — Resolutions of a Legislative Committee —
Mission of Key to the State — Adjustment of the Diffi
culty — The Federal Government Compromises the Ques
tion, &c., &c.

" Allegiance, a word brought from the Old World, of Latin origin,
from itj7o, to bind, means the obligation which every ooe owes to that
power in the State, to which he is Indebted for the protection of his
rights of person and property. Allegiance and sovereignty, as we have
seen, are reciprocal. ' To whatever power a citizen owes allegiance, that
power is his sovereign.' To what power are the citizens of the several
States indebted for protection of person and property, in all the relations
of life, for the regulation of which governments are instituted 1 Cer
tainly not to the Federal Government." AiiEXANDEK H. Stephens.

" The use of force against a State would look more like a declaration
of war than an infliction of punishment, and would probably be consid
ered by the party attacked as a dissolution of all previous compacts by
which it might be bound. * * Any government for the United States
formed on the supposed practicability of using force against the uncon
stitutional proceedings of the States would prove visionary and falla
cious," Jambs Madison, in the Convention.

The lands occupied by the Creeks in Alabama were
laid off and organized into nine counties, by an act of
the General Assembly, so as to put the entire machin
ery of the State Government into fuU operation. This
was in accordance with the action of Georgia, in pur
suance of the Constitution of Alabama, and consistent
with the views of President Jackson, as understood at
the time the treaty was made, and before his views had

180 THE CRADLE OF THE CONFEDERACY.
become affected by the tariff difficulty in South Caro
lina. Several of these counties contained a population
of six or eight thousand whites, and the aggregate
white population was not less than twenty-five thousand.
The treaty by which the Creek Indians in March,
1832, ceded to the United States their possessions in
Alabama, contained this stipulation :
Article 5th. — "All intruders upon the country
" hereby ceded shaU be removed therefrom in the same
"manner as intruders may be removed by law fi-om
" other public land, untff the counti-y is surveyed and
" the selections made ; excepting however from this
" provision, those white persons who have made thek
" own improvements, and not expelled the Creeks from
" theirs. Such persons may remain tiff thek crops are
" gathered. After the country is. surveyed, and the se-
" lections made, this article shall not operate upon that
" part of it not included in such selections. But in-
" truders shall, in the manner before described be re-
" moved fi-om the selections, for the term of five years
" from the ratification of this treaty, or untff the same
" are conveyed to white persons."
It wffl be seen that, by this article, the Government
assumed upon itself the obUgation of remo-vdng intru
ders from this land, in the same manner as intruders
might be removed by law from other pubUc land. The
"manner" was prescribed in the Act of Congress,
passed March 3d, 1807, entitled "An Act to prevent
" settlements being made on lands, ceded to the United
" States, untff authorized by law." This Act provided
for the interposition of the Marshal and the employ
ment of military force, under orders of the President,
and furnished the authority by virtue of which the
proceedings in Alabama, in relation to this subject, took
place.

THE CRADLE OP THE CONFEDERACY. 181
There were two Umitations to this obUgation. One
excepted fi-om its operation " those white persons, who
" have made thek own improvements, and not expeUed
" the Creeks fi-om theirs ; such persons may remain tiU
"thek crops are gathered.'' As the season alluded to
had passed away, and the crops had been gathered, this
provision was no longer applicable to any settler upon
these lands. The other limitation confined the obligation
of the Government, to remove intruders, to the tracts
located for the Indians "after the country is surveyed
" and the selections made," and leaving the duty of re
moval imperative over the whole cession, until both of
these objects were accompUshed.
It was now denied by Alabama as it had been by
Georgia, that the Act of 1807 appUed to intrusions
upon lands lying within a State. As early as the year
1785, when Colonel Harmar was engaged in removing
intiuders from the public lands in the western country,
the commissioners of Indian affairs directed him to
employ such mffitary force as he might judge necessary
in driving off persons attempting to settle on the lands
of the United States, "not within the Umits of any
" particular State."
It was claimed that the settlers upon these vacant
Jands, hunted over by the Creeks, had the same rights
of occupancy and pre-emption permitted by the laws
of the United States in the case of any other vacant
lands. Under a series of Acts of Congress, extending
from the Act of May 10th, 1800, down to that of
1830, persons who had settled upon public lands in
anticipation of a sale, were entitled to the right of pre
emption. The Act of 1830 pro-vided — "that every
" settler or occupant of the pubUc lands, prior to the

182 THE CRADLE OF THE CONFEDERACY.
" passage of this Act, who is now in possession, and has
"cultivated any part thereof, in the year 1829, shall
" be, and he is hereby authorized to enter with the
" register of the land office, for the district in which
" such lands may he, by legal subdivisions, any number
"of acres not more than 160, or quarter section, to
" include his improvement, upon paying to the United
" States the mimmum price of the land."
In this continued succession of Acts, embracing and
running through a period of thkty years, all conferring
upon settlers the valuable privffege of pre-emption, is
shown the settled policy of the Government to encour
age citizens to settle and occupy the public lands.
This class of population had always been esteemed
highly meritorious, and the exclusive right to purchase
at private sale was extended to them in consideration
of, and as a reward for, the services they had rendered
by these settlements, in testing the value and product
iveness of the soff ; and .in affording facilities to pur
chasers to examine it.
Notwithstanding this claim of Alabama to jurisdic
tion of her State laws over the Creek territory, and
notwithstanding the fact that the " treaty " doctrine
had been exploded for several years, and the pre-emp
tion rights of settiers had been respected for thirty
years, the Federal Government announced its purpose
to remove the so-called " intruders " upon Creek terri
tory, numbering now twenty-five thousand souls, by the
strong arm of military force.
Alabama had sustained President Jackson in his
contest with South CaroUna on the tariff question,
and the Governor of the State, John Gayle, had been
elected to the executive chair as an opponent of the

THE CRADLE OP THE CONFEDERACY. 183
theory of nulUfication ; but, notwithstanding the ardent
desire of the people of the gulf country to strengthen
the Union, they were constantiy met by stubborn facts
which tended to repress that desire. Governor Gayle
had no disposition to bring about a collision between
the Federal Government and the State of Alabama,
but the theory as to the treaty-making and commerce-
regulating powers of the General Government, as ap
plied to Indian tribes and lands, was so repugnant to
the rights of the States and to the interests of the peo
ple, that he was borne along by the same current of
argument and events which carried Governor Troup to
the edge of battle. The honest and patriotic spirit
which actuated the Governor of Alabama is exhibited
in his letter dated at Tuscaloosa, October 2d, 1833,
and addressed to Lewis Cass, Secretary of War. In
that letter he says :
" If the General Government have the right to regu-
" late the conduct of our people in relation to their
" land — ff it can rightfuUy expel a citizen who tres-
" passes upon the landed possession of his neighbor, by
" the summary interposition of a mffitary guard, with-
" out even the forms of mUitary investigation, what is
" to restrain it froni the exercise of the same power in
"relation to trespassers upon personal property? From
" this the transition would be easy to the taking cog-
" nizance of aU irregularities, misdemeanors, and crimes,
" the right to punish which, has heretofore been con-
" sidered as belonging exclusively to the State tribu-
" nals. If, by the treaty-making power, the ordinary
" operation of our laws upon the persons and property
" of our own citizens can be suspended, as wiU be the
" case if the 5th article of the treaty is executed in
" the mode prescribed in your late order to the marshal,
" the whole field of State jurisdiction may be consid-

184 THE CRADLE OF THE CONFEDEilAeY.
" ered as occupied ; and State sovereignty, the reserved
" rights of the States, 4*c., are but unmeaning sounds,
" totally unworthy of serious consideration.
" I know that these terms are used by many as mere
" cant expressions, and that they have been brought
"into disrepute by the extravagant pretensions and
" absurd doctrines of a sister State ? but they imply
" things that are stffl worth preserving, and as long as
" the blessings of this Union are justly appreciated,
"they wiff command the best and highest exertions of
" the patriot. It is often difficult to trace, with precise
" accuracy, the boundary which separates the jurisdic-
" ti&n of the State and Federal Governments. We can
" at all times, however, determine nearly where it lies.
" But this treaty is for giving it a new direction. It
" crosses the Une designated in the Constitution, at
" right angles, and runs into the very heart and centre
" of our domestic concerns.
" But, sir, there is another view of this subject,
" which wffl expose in a Ught stffl more glaring, the
" utter incompatibUity of this treaty with the jurisdic-
" five rights of the State of Alabama.
" As before observed, the right of extending our
" laws over the country from which our people are
"ordered to be expelled, is admitted to the fullest
" extent. This necessarily implies the right of employ-
" ing the means that are indispeneible to its exercise.
" What are these means ? As enumerated in the Con-
" stitution of this State and the laws made in pursu-
" ance thereof, they are, that the State shaU be laid off
" into counties, and convenient circuits, that the circuit
" courts shall be held in each county at least twice in
"every year, that the counties shall be divided into
" small districts, in each of which there shaU be ap-
" pointed two justices of the peace and two constables,
" that there shall be, in each circuit, a judge of the
" circuit court, who shall reside in his circuit, that there
" shaU be for each county a judge of the county court.

TkE CRAbLE OP THE]OONPEDERACY. 185
" that there shaU be also in each county, a sheriff^
" clerks of the circuit and county courts, a coroner,
" notaries public, commissioners of roads and revenue,
" &c.; and that there shall be summoned, previous to
" every circuit court, a competent number of grand and
" petit jurors, and a like number of petit jurors for the
" county courts. All these ministers of our law are
" required to reside in the counties to which their office
" belongs. These are the ordinary means by which our
" State government is put in operation, and effect given
" to our laws. And yet the late instructions to the
" marshal absolutely prohibit the use of them.
" The General Government has not only admitted
"the right of • Alabama to extend her jurisdiction
" over the ceded country, but it has invited and encour-
" aged such extension by sundry documents to which
" it is unnecessary to refer. No sooner, however, is the
" country organized and the necessary steps taken to
" this end, than an armed forced is collected on the
" banks of the Chattahoochee for the purpose of expel-
"ling from this large and flourishing section of the
" State aU ' white persons,' including of course aU civil
" officers and other persons whose agency is necessary
" to the execution of our laws.
" We wffl have no power to punish any offences
" committed by the Indians, or to subject them in any
" respect to the restraints of the law, because our
" courts wffl have been suppressed in aU the counties in
" which they reside. Now, sir, if your order be car-
" ried into effect, wffl not an instance have occurred in
" our country, and the first instance, too, of the gov-
" ernment of a State being put down and destroyed, in
" nine of its counties, by miUtary force ? Wffl not the
" alarming spectacle be exhibited of the laws of one of the
" States of this Union, in their ordinary operation, being
" compelled to yield in time of profound peace, to the
" dominion of the sword — to give way to the capricious
" wiU of a deputy marshal, whose favorite modes of

186 THE CRADLE OP THE CONFEDERACY.
" punishment seem to be the conflagration of dweUings
" and the appUcation of the bayonet.
" I respectfully request that this project, so-fatal in
" its tendency to civil liberty, and so directly subver-
" sive of the acknowledged rights and sovereignty of
" the State of Alabama, be abandoned. I protest
" against it as unconstitutional interference with our
" local and internal affairs, and as a measure of revolt-
" ing injustice and oppression towards that portion of
" our inhabitants who have not injured the Indians.
" Put away, sk, the sword which has been unneces-
" sarily and too quickly drawn against this large and
" unoffending community. It is the appropriate arbiter
" in contests of ambition, but not in questions of con-
" stitutional right. It is not to be forgotten that the
" Amei ica.! people, on a recent occasion, pronounced
" emphatically, that questions of jurisdiction between
" the foreign and domestic branches of our government,
" are to be settled by the tribunals which the Constitu-
" tion vests with the power of expounding the laws.
" To these tribunals I appeal on behalf of the good
" people of this State."
In August, 1833, a citizen of the county of RusseU,
by the name of Owens, was kffled by a party of soldiers
who had been placed under the direction of the deputy
marshal for the Southern District of Alabama, for the
purpose of removing from the Creek country such per
sons as had intruded upon Indian possessions. These
officers had previously made frequent incursions with
the soldiers of the United States, and their action, after
the murder of Owens, kindled an excitement that
rapidly extended over the whole of the new counties,
and in some degree, throughout the State, Governor
Gayle was at once satisfied that the mode adopted by
the Government to carry the stipulation of the treaty
into effect, and to evict intruders, could not fail lo pro-

THE CRADLE OP THE CONFEDERACY. 187
duce serious and unpleasant difficulties,- and that it
would lead to unhappy, and perhaps dangerous
excesses. He wrote to the Secretary of War protesting against
the action of the soldiery, but received no other
response than that the settlers must be removed.
The greatest agitation existed in the new counties.
Everywhere pubUc meetings were called, at which was
represented the incalculable injury in which their re
moval would involve them. It was perceived, when
the business of hurning houses and delivering crops to
the chiefs should commence, that the exasperated feel
ings of the people would urge them to stand by their
wives, their chffdren and their property, that bloodshed
would be the inevitable consequence, and that many
valuable Uves would be lost. In the meantime, the
troops of the United States had taken their position at
Fort MitcheU, and active preparations were making to
move in upon the settlers. At this period, apparently
so gloomy, the Governor issued a proclamation to the
inhabitants of the new counties, recommending and ex
horting them to look with unshaken confidence to the
law for protection, to submit to any process from the
courts of the United States, and to abstain from at
tacks or unlawful violence towards the Indians. The
civff officers were advised to issue, promptly, all neces
sary process for the apprehension of offenders, and the
people generaUy were instructed to look to the courts
as affording more certain protection than they could
expect from a confiised and disorderly resort to arms.
This step had the effect, at once, to quiet the citizens,
to inspire confidence in the efficacy of the laws, and to
put a stop to the contemplated movement of the troops;

188 THE CRADLE OF THE CONFEDEl^ACY.
thus affording, says Governor Gayle, " a practical and
"impressive illustration of the great truths so often and
" so ably advocated by the President himself — that the
"Constitution of the United States, and the constitutions
" and laws of the several States, as they are understood
" by the common sense of mankind, are sufficient for
" any emergency, and that the laws in their usual and
" customary operation wffl stay the hand of encroach-
" ment, in whatever quarter it may appear."
The grand jury of Russell county returned a biU of
indictment for murder against the soldiers and officers
who were concerned in the death of Hardeman Owens,
and appUcation in due form was made to the command
ing officer at Fort Mitchell to deliver them over to the
civil authorities. The appUcation was rejected. The
Governor, in his message to the General Assembly,
November IP, 1833, said: "The officers and troops
" of the United States, at this post, have set our laws
"and our courts at defiance, and the power of the
'' county is not sufficient to arrest the offenders.
" Though full power is conferred on the executive by
" the Constitution, to call forth the mffitia in cases of
" this kind, yet sincerely desirous of avoiding aU col-
" lision with the Government or any of its officers —
" and not doubting that they would be ordered to be
" delivered up for trial — I have deemed it unnecessary
" to take any other step than transmit the despatches
" to the War Department, for consideration of the
" President, which was done on the 23d ult."
The Secretary of War, in a letter to Senators King
and Clay, of Alabama, as early as December, 1832,
had distinctly acquiesced in the continuance of the so-
caUed intruders upon the Creek lands, provided they

THE CRADLE OP THE CONFEDERACY. 189
interfered with no Indian rights. Mr. Cass had said :
" Taking into view the facts that the season for agri-
" cultural labor wffl not arrive for some time — that the
" survfeys are nearly completed, and that as soon as
" they are received, the locations of the individual
" reservations wffl be made, and the tract selected for
" each wffl be assigned and deUvered to him, I do not
" see that any injury would result to the Indians, by
" permitting those persons who obtained peaceable pos-
" session of the land on which they Uve, and do not
" retain it to the exclusion of any Indian, justly
" entitled to it, to occupy those tracts tiU the several
" selections are made. If, however, any of them are
" selected for the Indians, it wUl be expected that the
" occupants reUnquish possession, within thirty days
" after such selection is made. This arrangement
" seems to me to be an equitable one, and I trust wffl
" be satisfaiCtory to all persons interested in the subject.
" I hope, further, that after the locations are made,
" quick possession wffl be relinquished to the Indians,
" so that tbe Government wffl not be compeUed to resort
" for that purpose to measures which I am anxious to
" avoid "
Letters of similar tenor had been addressed to Hon
orable Gabriel Moore and other citizens of Alabama.
Referring to the letters of the Secretary, Governor
Gayle placed the responsibffity, for the condition of
affaks, upon the Federal Government, using this
language :
" After the pubUcation of those letters, no one, what-
"ever his respect for the laws and for the rights of
" others, could have supposed he was doing wrong or
" violating any of the duties of a good citizen, by
" making a settiement in this part of the State ; and ff
" is submitted to the impartial judgment of aU candid
" minds, whether the great body of the settiers have

190 THE CRADLE OF THE CONFEDERACY.
" not been involved in their present difficulties without
" any fault on their part.
" When the act' of the last session was passed, laying
" this country off into counties, the letters of the Sec-
" retary of War were before the Legislature.
" Without this measure, the people would have been
" deprived of separate representation for the next six
" years, and it was obvious that our laws could not be
" made to operate with effect upon a population so
" large and so rapidly increasing. The poUcy and the
" views of the administration in relation to the Indians
" were made known, and the act, while under considera-
" tion, was regarded as being in strict accordance th'ere-
" with. The treaty extinguished the Indian title to
' ' land, and the Indians had become citizens of the
" State, and amenable to its laws, by their own con-
" sent, thereby obviating aff objections growing out of
" our former relations with their people. AU saw and
" acknowledged the necessity of the measure, and none
" objected to it. The Jeneral Assembly were inffu-
" enced in their course by considerations of public duty
" and pubUc poUcy, and it certainly never entered the
" mind of any one that they were encroaching upon
" the property rights of the United States.
" It is difficult to anticipate the effects that would
" result fi-om the abolition of thgse counties. All crini-
" inals and persons indicted for offences, will be dis-
" charged ; aff suits wffl be discontinued ; the courts
"and aff offices aboUshed ; officers wiff lose their places,
" and in fine, such is the intimate connexion between
" these and the other counties of the State, that to
" destroy them would embarrass and derange the
"administration of justice generaUy, and introduce
" perplexing confiision through the whole machinery of
" the State government."
The conclusion of Governor Gayle's message indi
cates the change of poUtical sentiment which was being
brought about iu Alabama by the new pretensions of

THE CRADLE OP THE CONFEDERACY. 191
the Federal Government. So long as the question of
usurpation agitated a sister State, the people were con
tent to foUow those leaders who exalted the Union, and
strengthened Federal power; but now that the usurpa
tion had come home to themselves, we find an execu
tive message using this language :
" In the present controversy, my situation has not
" been fi-ee from difficulty and embarrassment. Yield-
" ing as I had done, for the last ten years, a sincere
" and disinterested support to the distinguished effizen
" who now fiffs the presidency, it was with the utmost
" relucta^ice that I felt myself constrained to oppose
"the course he had adopted. The country, too, had
" but recentiy emerged from the gloom of a threatened
" conffict with a sister State, and it was foreseen that
" even a difference of opinion with the administration
" would tend to awaken the fears and alarm the appre-
" hensions of many good citizens.
" The suppression of the State government, or the
" maintensgice of its laws in eight ffourishing and pop-
" ulcus counties, were the alternatives presented, and I
" embraced that to which I was directed by the solemn
" obUgation I had assumed as the chief magistrate of
" one of the independent States of this Union. With-
" out resorting to force, which I cannot beUeve neces-
" sary, unless the process of our courts be altogether
" disregarded, I have maintained the integrity of these
" counties and kept the laws steadily in operation."
Before this co ntroversy had reached the point when
it was suggested that force might be used to protect
the civff organization of the eight counties against the
pretensions of the War Department, Governor Gayle
had been re-elected to the executive chair without
opposition. In delivering his inaugural address, De
cember, 1833, before the General Assembly, the gov
ernor declared that to execute the order of removal,

192 THE CRADLE OP THE CONFEDERACY.
" power is claimed to suppress by mffitary force the
" government of the State in eight of its counties, to
" regulate, at the point of the bayonet, trespasses by
" our citizens upon the possessions of each other, and
" in effect to establish mffitary tribunals as substitutes
" for our courts." Commenting on this inaugural, the
Mobile Register, of date December 6, 1833, defied any
man in South Carolina to indite a better nullffying
paragraph : "And yet," said that journal, "his excel-
" lency, not ten days before, took occasion to denounce
" nullification in good set terms ; perhaps he has a pre-
" judico against the phrase ; it may be that he thinketh
" it unpopular, or that a rose by any other name
" would smell as sweet."
A special committee was raised by the General As
sembly to report upon the grave matters submitted in
the message and inaugural.
Near the end of December, the chairman of this
committee, M.X, Breen, made their report and submitted
the foUowing resolutions for the consideration and
adoption of the House :
1st. Resolved, That the order of the Secretary of
War, dkecting the removal, by mffitary force, of the
whole white population, from the counties contained in
the territory ceded by the Creek Indians, was unneces
sary for the protection of the Indians, that its execu
tion would be destructive of the prosperity of the citi
zens, subversive of the jurisdiction of the State, and
ought not to be carried into effect.
2d. Resolved, That in the opinion of this General
Assembly, the Act of Congress, of 1807, was not
intended to have effect within the limits of States of the
Union ; that the execution of the provisions of said
Act, by the mffitary force, would be subversive of the

THE CRADLE OF THE CONFEDERACY. 193
rights of the citizens, destructive of free government,
and incompatible with the jurisdiction and sovereignty
of the States.
3d. Resolved, That the General Government has no
constitutional power to interfere with the internal muni
cipal affairs of the State^ that when the Government
has parted with the pubUc lands, it has no further con
trol over them, and that trespasses by the citizens of
the same State, upon the property of each other can be
regulated and corrected alone by the laws and authori
ties of such State.
4th. Resolved, That the power conferred by the
Constitution of the United States upon the President
and two-thirds of the Senate to make treaties is hmited
and restrained by the grants of power therein con
tained, and that all treaties which encroach upon the
reserved rights of the States are usurpations of power,
subversive of the Government and destructive of civil
liberty. 5th. Resolved, That this General Assembly do ap
prove of the principles avowed, and the propositions
assumed by the Governor of this State, in his procla
mation dated on the 7th day of October last; ad
dressed to the citizens of the Creek country and in his
recent correspondence with tiie Secretary of War, and
that he is hereby authorized and requested to see
that the laws and jurisdiction of the State, be main
tained in fuU force and effect in the said counties.
As indicating the wide-spread interest manifested by
citizens of other States, both North and South, in the
progress of this controversy, the Richmond Enquirer
used this language : " We know of no event, which
"would cover the friends of our Federal Institutions
" with so deep a gloom, as the actual coUision between
" the Federal and the State authorities in this instance,
*' and the shedding of the blood of our feUow cffizens
" in a civil contest between the troops of the United

194 THE CRADLE OF THE CONFEDERACY.
" States and the militia of Alabama. Here is a Presi-
" dent of the "United States, who has distinguished him-
" self by his manly vindication of the rights of Geor-
" gia in the case of the Cherokee Indians. We should
" expect from him a course in relation to the Creeks,
" which may mamfest lus strict respect for the rights of
" Alabama. Here, also, is the Governor of a State,
" who has avowed himself one of the most decided
" opponents of nulUfication, in the whole Southern
" country. Who better calculated to settle this dispute
" than these two citizens ? To respect, on the one
" hand, the sacred and inalienable rights of the States,
" in relation to State jurisdiction over the Indian
" tribes, and on the other, to avoid aU rash and hasty
" recourse to violent measm-es against the agents of the
" United States. We put it freely to aU, thaft, ff under
" such fevorable ckcumstances, a dkect issue should be
" made up between the two ; ff blood should be shed
" in this civff war ; how much would it gratffy the ene-
"mies of our Federal system, who predict thatt'ne
" machine is too complicated to play fi-eely, and that
"the parties must inevitably clash with each other?
" And what disconsolation would it not impart to the
" real friends of the RepubUc ? "

THE CRADLE OF THE CONFEDERACY. 195
Governor Gayle, among other letters of encourage
ment received the foUowing* from a number of young
men of Hudson, New York: Hudson, New Yoke,)
Dec. 29, 1833. j
To His Excellency, John Gayle,
Governor of Alabama.
Sir. — A number of young men of this city, sensible
of the injustice with which Alabama is threatened in
the proposed forcible removal of the settlers from the
Indian territory, have appointed us a committee to
offer their and our services to your Excellency in the
anticipated contest. We propose to raise a company
of volunteers, to act as the service may requke. If
you, sir, are wiUing to receive our aid, please inform us
as soon as convenient, With great respect.
Your most obedient servants,
J. Vanvleck,
N. T. Rosseter,
E. Clark,
F. N. Cady,
C. S. Jordan,
R. H. Bdrton.
The committee sustained their resolutions with an
able report, in which they held, that to drive out the
30,000 white settlers at the point of the bayonet, would
be a cruel and unparaUeled usurpation ; that a govern-.
ment whose laws are carried into effect without the
*ThlB letter is among the correspondence of the late Governor Gayle,
kindly submitted to the author by his accomplished daughter, Mrs.
Ibomas L, Bayne, of New Orleans,

196 THE CRADLE OF THE CONFEDBKACY.
intervention of courts, by military authority, is a des
potism, by whatever name it may be called; that
whether a tract of land is public ox private property is
strictly a judicial question which every citizen has a
right to have investigated according to the known and
established forms of law ; that the doctrine that the
rightful jurisdiction of a State can be taken away by
vktue of a tieaty has been so uniformly repudiated by
President Jackson, both by his declarations and by his
practices, that it could not with any propriety be
advanced by the Secretary of War ; that such a doc
trine has not been seriously contended for by the great
Federal party of our countiy, since the period of Jay's
treaty, and it is to be regretted that any attempt
_ should be made to renew it now ? If the rights of the
State, urged the committee, can be bartered away by
the President and Senate under the form of a. treaty,
there could have been no object ia inserting any pro
visions in the Constitution Umiting the General Govern
ment to certain specific objects for the security of the
State and the people. According to such a doctrine it
would be in the power of President and Senate to
change the form of our government.
It was the earnest desire of the Alabama Represen
tatives in Congress, who, with Governor Gayle, had
opposed the nuUification measures of South Carolina,
that there should be no breach wffh the President.
William R. King and Gabriel Moore of the Senate and
Messrs. John Murphy, Dixon H. Lewis and Clement
C. Clay of the House, exerted themselves to bring
about a compromise of the matters in controversy.
Upon reaching Washington, they hastened to caU upon
the President, and to lay before him the distress that

THE CRAItLE OF THE dONPEDEItACY. 197
would be caused by a strict compliance with the order
of removal. Whffe conciUating the President by remov
ing from his mind the idea that the Governor of Ala
bama was desirous of foUowing in the steps of South
Carolina, they, at the same time, opened the way for
an adjustment, by assuring Governor Gayle that the
executive order was never intended to be carried into
fuU effect, but was simply framed to cover every case
that might possibly arise under the treaty. The lan
guage of Ex-Governor Murphy to Governor Gayle was :
" I beUeve it was never intended to expel aU the peo-
" pie from the ceded Creek territory. This would evi*
" dently be carrying the thing beyond the, justice or
" necessity of the case. The order issued was general
" in its nature to apply to what had taken place, or
" might possibly afterwards take place, and to cover
" every stipulation of the treaty intended for the benefit
" of the Indians. It was merely asserting- the control
" of the Government over the subject, should there
" arise the necessity to exercise it ; but evidently the
" execution of the order would be governed by that
" necessity. Why remove the whole population while
" only a few individuals have been guilty of trespass,
" and indeed whffe the Indians for whose benefit all this
"was done had no deske that any but a very few
' " should be removed ? It never could have been
" necessary, and therefore could never have been in-
' " tended." Mr. Murphy continues in his letter , of
' December 3d, 1833 : " The nuffifiers have endeavored
" to make much of this excitement. They entertained
¦ " great hopes from it for their cause."
•¦ Early in December, 1 833, Mr. King caffed upon the
s President and received assurances that " no measures

198 THE CRADLE OF THE CONFEDERACY.
" should be taken for the removal of the settlers who
" had not interfered with the possessions of the Indians,"
and these assurances were at once conveyed to Gov
ernor Gayle. On the next day Representatives Clay
and Samuel W. Mardis accompanied Senator King upon
a visit to the Secretary of War, Lewis Cass, and rep
resented to him, as Mr. King and Mr. Murphy had
already done to the President, the condition of affairs
in iMabama. The Secretary acceded to the views and
wishes of the delegation, and requested them to submit
to him an address in writing. The address was drawn
up and submitted to the Secretary. The President ap
pointed Francis S. Key, author of "the Star-spangled
"Banner," a commissioner, to visit Alabama and adjust
all the questions in dispute. Mr. Key was a man of
most captivating address, learned in the law, of high
personal character and great prudence of action. A
better agent could not have been selected to mediate in
a dispute which had almost reached the point of armed
coUision. To prepare Governor Gayle for the conciliatory com
munications borne by Mr. Key, Mr. Murphy reviewed
the whole controversy elaborately in a letter to the
Governor, and closed by intimating that his course
would lead to a breach between him and President
Jackson, and the result would be that he would find
himself drifting out of the RepubUcan party and into
the ranks of the opposition. Writing, February 28,
1834, in reply to Murphy, Governor Gayle said : "As
" straws show which way the wind blows, some smaff
" occurrences, too unimportant to mention, have pro-
" ceeded towards me from the President, which induce
" me to suppose he is tired of the Creek controversy.

THE CRADLE OP THE CONFEDERACY. 199
" and wishes to mend the breach which that affak has
" produced. My feelings have had no effect to change
" the favorable Ught in which I • have always regarded
" the prominent m&asures of General Jackson's admin-
'• istration, or his qualifications and fitness for the office
" he fills, but I can never yield him the zealous and
" active support, which I have heretofore extended,
"under the charges of corrupt speculation and furnish-
" ing a combination with the nulUfiers, which were dealt
" out against me some time since by the Glohe, as it is
"understood, with the approbation, if not at the
" instance, of the President."
A letter from Senator King to Governor Gayle,
dated March 18, 1834, was evidently intended to heal
the breach between the Governor and the President and
to pave the way for the success of Mr. Key's mission.
The Senator wrote as foUows :
" In the controversy in which you conceived it your
" duty, from your official situation, to engage with the
" General Government, no man knew better than your-
" self the view which I took of the matter. Actuated
" by a strong feeling of personal and political friendship,
" 1 felt that I could, without offence, speak to you
"plainly on a subject of such absorbing interest. I
"did so in a spirit of frankness and friendship. I
" was, as you know, anxious that as far as practicable
" all discussions should be avoided by the legislature,
" then about to meet. I feared no good would come
" of it, and the event has, I am sorry to say, in some
" measure realized my apprehensions. I saw Mr. Key
" at Montgomery, and had a free conversation with
"him. I did, I trust, ample justice to the purity of
" your motives and pure Republican principles. I pre-

200 THE CRADLE OF THE OONFEDERAtiV.
" pared him to meet you in the undisguised spirit of
" political confidence and personal respect. I took the
" earliest occasion to remove from the mind of the
"President and the authorities here any unfavorable
" impression which the excitement growing out of the
" discussion might have produced. 1 know that I suc-
" ceeded, as you have some evidence in the altered
" tone of the Secretary of War. As to the publi'ca-
" tions or strictures which appeared in the Glohe, you
" must not take them as conveying either the senti-
" ments of the President or of any responsible person
" connected with the administiation. The editor of
" that paper is perfectly reckless in his course, and
" although it is considered in the country as the official
" paper, God help the administration, if it is to be held
"responsible for aU of Blair's indiscretions. In the
" very few communications I made to members of the
" Legislature whffe the subject was under consideration
"I held but one language — 'put an end to debate;
" divide not our ¦ party ; respect the feelings of our
" Governor ; impak not his well-earned popularity ;
" give not currency and strength to the doctrines of
" nullification by divisions amongst ourselves.' Sk, no
•' political considerations would have induced me to
' ' make this plain detaff of my motives and conduct
'• throughout this whole busuiess. But I had seen with
" deep regret statements intended no doubt to produce
" alienations, if not the destruction of our ancient friend-
" ship. The course pursued by some of those with
" whom I stand connected, but as you know radically
" differing with ine on many of the great subjects of
" policy which mark the distinctions of party in our
" country, was, no doubt, under the circumstances, cal"

THE CRADLE OF THE CONFEDERACY. 201
" culated to produce unpleasant feelings for the
" moment. I am happy to learn they have passed
" away with the occasion which called them forth."
It is interesting to know that the breach between
the President .and Governor^ Gayle was never cured,
and that the latter, after retiring from the gubernatorial
chair, threw his inffuence for Judge White for Presi
dent, as against Mr. Van Buren, and subsequently
supported General Harrison and the Whigs. He was
an elector upon the Whig ticket in 1840, and in 1847
was elected by the Whig party a Representative in
Congress from the Mobffe District. In 1849 he was
appointed by President Taylor, United States District
Judge for Alabama, which office he held until his death
in 1859. In November, 1841, Governor Gayle re
ceived fifty-five votes in the Alabama Legislature for
United States Senator, against seventy-two for Mr.
King. Secretary Cass, in pursuance of the modified views
of the President, transmitted to the Governor a letter
informing him that as soon as the report of the death
of Owens reached the War Department, a communica
tion was sent to the deputy marshal informing him
that instructions had been given the mffitary command
ing officer to facilitate, by all the means in his power,
any investigation which the civff authorities might con
sider necessary. He supposed, untff recently, that
Major Mcintosh, the officer in command, had followed
these instructions ; but it appears that there was some
mistake in the transmission of the orders. The Presi
dent had now instructed Mcintosh directly to submit
to aff legal process. The Secretary said : " These
" orders were given some days since, and I have the

202 THE CRADLE OP THE CONFEDERACY.
" honor to enclose you a copy of them. I transmit
" also an extract from the instructions to Mr. Key, who
" has been employed to aid the District Attorney of
" the Southern District of Alabama, in the legal intes-
" tigations growing out of this subject, by which you
" wffl see that the supremacy of the civil authority wffl
'' be asserted and maintained as far as depends on the
" executive. These orders and instructions will be suf-
" ficient to insure the due submission of the troops now
" in Alabama, to all legal process, and I trust wiff be
" satisfactory to your exceUency."
Mr, Key, in a communication, dated at Tuscaloosa
December 16th, 1833, to the Governor, informed him
that the reservations allotted to the Indians would be
laid off by January 15th,~and that the settlers upon all
the lands outside of these allotments would be released
from the stipulations of the treaty, and no longer sub
ject to removal. Those settlers who were upon the
reservations would have it in their power to purchase
the right of the Indians whose lands they occupy.
In view of the early day at which the titles of the
settlers would be assured, and of the fact that the order
for removal was virtually withdrawn, and the fiirther
fact that the jurisdiction of the State Courts over the
soldiers who kiUed Owens was admitted. Governor Gayle
sent a special message to the General Assembly,
December 20th, in which he said that " the principal
" object of this unpleasant controversy having been
" obtained, by asserting and vindicating those great
" principles which were established by the Constitution
" for the security of the people and for the protection
" of the States, in the exercise of their rightful juris-
'• diction, it cannot faff to be a source of the highest

THE CRADLE OF THE CONFEDERACY. 203
" satisfaction to our fellow citizens in these new coun-
" ties, that the calamity with which, at one period they
" were threatened, has been averted, and of pride and
" patriotic exultation to our people everywhere that the
" supremacy of tbe civil over the military authority
" has been successfiiUy maintained."
Mr. Hopkins, of the House, in his reply to ' the
advocates of the resolutions of Mr. Beene's committee,
said that the modification of the orders of the Secretary
of War as conveyed to Governor Gayle by Mr. Key,
must satisfy ninety-nine out of every hundred of the
people of Alabama. If this compromise were not
accepted and these nullifying resolutions of the com
mittee were carried out, there would inevitably be a
collision between the State and Federal Government,
and Alabama would fall before the power of the
national arms ; or, if successful in the struggle, she
"would soon become the prey to internal dissensions and
to ambitious men. He moved, therefore, that the res
olutions be indefinitely postponed. The vote was, 33
for postponement and 34 in the neg itive. A motion
was then made to lay the resolutions on the table.
The vote was, nay 39, yea 30. A motion was then
made to refer them to a select committee. This motion
was ail opted by a vote of, yea 36, nay 33. The com
promise offered by Key having been accepted by the
Governor, and having received the approbation of the
press and of the people, the select committee never
reported upon the resolutions. The controversy
between Alabama and the Union was not settied upon
principle, but was smothered by a compromise ; and the
people once more witnessed the Federal Government
yielding the point at issue to the hostffe demonstrations
of the State.

CH^I'TEE IX.

The Federal Party Reorganize upon the Slavery Question —
Continued War iipon the Agricultural States — Opi7i-
ions of the Southern People as to Slavery — The Mis
souri Compromise — The Slade Agitation — The Abo
litionist, George Thompson — Views of England —
Opinio^ns of Jackson, Marcy, Clay, Everett and others
^Drawing of the Geographical Line, &c., &c.

"Adverse fortune and ill-judged policy had brought the Federal
party to its end. Its leaders saw that all was over. New and living
issues must be sought for. Not without wisdom did they select another
standpoint and prepare to comb.at their adversaries In his most vulner
able part. A compact and an unmistakable formula, of which the pur
port is easily understood, is invaluable as a party war-cry. To restrain
slavery, and eventually to destroy it, became their dogma. It gathered
Irresistible power, because It was in unison with the sentiments of the
times." Dkapek's Civil Wae in Amekica.

"The [Missouri] question is a mere party triojc. The leaders of Fed
eralism (Ire taking advantage of the virtuous feeling of the people to
ofTect a division of parties by a geographical line; they expect that thi.s
will ensure them, on local principles, the majority they could never ob
tain on the principles of Federalism." Thomas Jeffekson.

" You are kindling a lire' which all the waters of the ocean cannot
extinguish; it can be extinguished only in blood,"
Thos, W. Cobb, in Congress, 1819.

Down to the year 1819, a period of over thff-ty
years from the adoption of the Constitution there had
been no objection to the admission of a State to the
Union because of the existence of slavery. Objection
had been made to the Louisiana purchase upon other
grounds, but not upon that of slavery. Louisiana,

206 THE CRADLE OF THE CONFEDERACY.
Mississippi, Alabama, Kentucky and Tennessee had aU
been admitted with constitutions recognizing slavery.
Down to this period the existence of slavery in a fi-ee
Republic had not been held by any large number of
people to be repugnant to our theory of government.
Nowhere in the Union had it been regarded as viola
tive of moral or Christian law, or opposed to the rights
acquff-ed by conquest and capture. No political party,
or fi-action of a party, had denounced the slave-
holding States as unworthy members of the Union'
But now, the Federalists, casting about for a new subject
upon which they might raUy their scattered forces, and
upon which they might draw the Unes aiound the agri
cultural States, seized upon the question of slavery.
The people of the Southern States had inherited
their slaves. They had grown up upon the plantations
and had passed from father to son by the laws of
descent. The ancestors of these slaves had been
brought into the Southwest against the wishe.-j of
Oglethorpe. One of the earliest laws of the colony of
Georgia was that forbidding the introduction of African
slaves — but the greed of traders had broken through
all laws untff the ships of Old England and of New
England had filled the South with a vast number of
negroes. Nothing in the history of the world, down to
the present century had taught the people of this
unhappy section, against whom had been launched the
poisonous weapons of a defeated political party, that
slavery was a moral wrong or a social evff. They saw
it recognized by aU the ancient nations, kingdoms and
republics; by the Mosaic law; by the Roman empke; by
the Gospel of Christ; by aU the more modern peoples ;
by the councils of the Catholic church ; by the leaders

THE CRADLE OF THE CONFEDERACY. 207
of the reformation; by EngUsh law and custom; every
where throughout the world, in aU ages and climes.
They saw it recognized in the Federal Constitution
which permitted the importation' of African slaves for
t\venty years after its ratification.
In neariy every household throughout the South, if
there were no other book, might be found the family
Bible. That Bible told the reader of Abraham's slaves,
bought with his money; of the Angel of the Lord who
commanded the fugitive slave, Hagar, to return to her
mistress and submit herself; of the tenth command
ment of the Decalogue, which spoke of the master's
property in man servants and maid servants ; and of
the - . osaic laws which recognized and regulated slavery
iu its seveTest forms The reader of the New Testa
ment looked in vain for any allusion to slavery by
Christ ; for any word of censure for an institution then
tolerated throughout the world ; for any word, on ac
count of it,- of condemnation of Cresar, whose empire,
according to the historian. Gibbon, then embraced sixty
mUlions of slaves. They read the precepts of Paul, in
which he told the slaves to be obedient to thek masters,
and in which he warned the masters to give unto thek
slaves that which is just and equal, since they also had
a Master in Heaven. The preachers of the Gospel
throughout the South, while inculcating lessons of
mercy, justice and kindness between the master and
slave, could not stultify themselves by denouncing the
moral or Christian legality of Slavery. Before them
were the writings of churchmen from the earUest ages,
and nowhere, down to that period when the wffd orgies
of the French Revolution had upturned the founda
tions of society, could be found any denial of the rec-

208 THE CRADLE OF THE CONFEDERACY.
titude of an institution which had been coeval with the
ages and coextensive with the habitable globe. Jerome,
one of the oracles of the ancient church, writing at a
time when the church was at peace and there was no
longer occasion to conceal sentiments, commenting on
1 Cor. 7, 21, said : " The condition of a slave cannot
" be opposed to the Christian religion." Augustine,
Bishop of Hippo, said that slavery could result from
iniquity, as in the case when God cursed Canaaii, and
from purchase, as in the case of the sale of Joseph, and
also from capture in war, and that Christ " does not
"make free men of servants, but He makes good
" servants of bad servants." " How much," adds St.
Augustine, " do the wealthy owe to Christ who regu-
" lates their home." The great Chrisostom, Bishop of
Constantinople, the orator of the " Golden Mouth,"
writes : " For even as circumcision profiteth nothing,
"and uncircumcision hurteth nothing, so even does
" slavery or liberty, and in order that he [the Apostle
" Paul] might teach this yet more plainly, he saith —
" ' but if thou mayest be made free, use it rather.'
" That is serve rather. But why does he command
" him that might be free, to remain a slave ? Because
" he desired to show that slavery does not hurt, but
" even profits. We are not ignorant, indeed, that some
" interpret the words, ' use it rather,' as referring to
" liberty, saying, ' if thou mayest be freed, be free.'
" But this is very contl-ary to the meaning of Paul, for
" his design being to console the slave by showing that
" his condition was no injury, he would not have
" ordered him to become free."
Gregory the Great, Bishop of Rome, in his book
concerning the " pastoral care," lays down this rule to

THE CRADLE OF THP.; CONFEDERACY. 209
the clergy : " Slaves should be admonished in one way
" and the masters in another. The slaves, to-wit : that
" they should always in themselves regard the humility
" of their condition : but the masters, that the memory
" of thek nature, in which they are created equally
" with their slaves, must not be forgotten." There is
extant a deed of gift by Gregory, conveying one of
his slaves to the bishop of Porto, who had charge of a
suburban diocese near Rome. The biU of sale recites :
" so that you may have and hold him, and preserve
" and maintain your right to him, and defend him as
" your property, and do, by the fi-ee right of this dona-
" tion, as his master, whatsoever you wiU concerning
" him. Against which charter of our munificence, you
" may know that neither we nor our successors are ever
" to come."
The Apostolic canons ; the Clementine constitutions;
the Councff of Gangra in Asia Minor ; the Councffs of
Agde, Narbonne and Orleans, in France ; the Councffs
of Epone and Macon, in Burgundy ; the Council of
Toledo, in Spain ; the Councff of Berghamstead, near
Canterbury, in England ; the Councffs of Aix-le-Cha-
peUe and Worms, in Germany — aff recognized slavery,
taught obedience to the master, ordered the rendition
of fugitive slaves to thek owners, and in no instance
denied the rightfiilness of the institution. Slaves were
owned not only by kings, princes and nobles, but by
citizens of every class and condition, by churches,
monasteries, bishops and the clergy.
Melancthon, Calvin, Luther ; and the commentators,
Patrick, Lowth, Whitby, Henry, Scott, Clarke and
Doddridge ; aU, construe the language of St. Paul pre-

210 THE CRADLE OP THE CONFEDERACY.
cisely as the Christian church had construed ff from the
beginning down to the reformation.
The change from a labor system of slavery to one of
freedom was gradually brought about in Europe, but
very slowly and without appeals to moral or religious
sentiments. As late as A. D. 1545, the Turks, taken
prisoners at Lepanto, were made slaves to- the victorious
Spaniards. They were divided among the victors in
the proportion of one-half to Phffip, and one-half to
the Pope and Venice. Don John received as a present
one hundred and seventy-four slaves. The number of
slaves allotted to Philip, in chains, was three thousand
six hundred. At least seven thousand two hundred
slaves were divided out among Christians. At that
day the universal judgment of Christendom was that
there was no sin in holding slaves.
It was as late as 1772, that England took the first
step towards declaring against slavery in her courts of
law. In the celebrated case of the negro Somerset
who sued for his freedom, having been brought to
London fi-om the West Indies, that distinguished law
yer, Hargrave, declared in his brief that however
reasonable it may be to doubt the justice of domestic
slavery, however convinced we may be of its evff effects,
it must be confessed that the practice is ancient and
has been almost universal. The negro, Somerset, was
declared fi-ee on the ground that no slavery but that of
viUeinage had ever existed in England by common or
statute law, and that the last viUein had either died or
been manumitted a century and a half previous. Not
a word was said about slavery being against moral or
natural law. Disuse, in the case of vffleinage, had
destroyed it as a £iQt,

THE CRADLE OF THE CONFEDERACY. 211
The first article of the treaty of Utrecht, A. D. 1713,
stipulated that the English-African company should
bring into the West Indies one hundred and forty
thousand negroes within a period of thirty years, one-
fourth part of the profits of the traffic to go to the
King of Spain, and one-fourth to the Queen of Eng
land. If it was true, according to Lord Mansfield's
decision in the celebrated Somerset case, that the soff of
England could not tolerate a slave, it is singular that
Queen Anne and a British company, chartered under
English laws, could legally engage in the African slave
trade and stock the colonies with slaves. Let it be ob
served that the period at which this stipulation was to
terminate was the yean 1749, less than twenty-two
years before the decision of Lord Mansfield, and before
the period at which the American colonies entered
upon the Revolution ! The stipulation was studioijsly
observed by George I and George II ; and when it ex
pired, in 1749, the slave trade was thrown open by
statute to all British subjects. So great was the influx
of negroes into the colonies, under this statute of
George II, that South CaroUna and Georgia passed
laws forbidding the importation ; but the British Gov
ernment abrogated the colonial acts, and reprimanded
the Governor of South CaroUna for having given
assent to them.
In view of Lord Mansfield's decision, ff is stffl more
singular to find the British Pariiament after the Amer
ican war, in 1787, authorizing the exportation of cer
tain merchandise from the English islands to any foreign
colony, and that in the Ust of merchandise is included
rum and negroes. When the Somerset case was decided,
there is said to have been, in London alone, fourteen

212 THE CRADLE OP THE CONFEDERACY.
thousand negro slaves. The decision of Lord Mans
field was held not to be law by such distinguished
jurists as Lord Hardwicke and Lord StoweU. Wilber-
FORCE declared that all the British bar was against his
efforts at emancipation. It was not untff 1833, the
period at which we have just arrived in our sketch of the
States-Rights agitation in Alabama, Georgia and South
CaroUna, that Great Britain emancipated her slaves in
the West Indies.
The American colonies having slavery fastened upon
them by the treaty of Utrecht, and for the benefit of
the purse of the Christian Queen Anne, grew up to
believe in its rightfulness, and down to the American
Revolution not a doubt as to its propriety, except here
and there, was expressed. Lord Dartmouth, in 1774,
immediately after the decision in the Somerset case,
declared : " We cannot aUow the colonies to check or
" discourage in any degree, a traffic so beneficial to the
" nation." A few enlightened and benevolent minds
lamented such a state of affairs, but their regrets were
lost in the universal desire for gain. Laurens, of
South CaroUna, said : " I am devising means for manu-
" mitting my slaves. * * * Great powers oppose
" me — the laws and customs of my country, my own,
" and the avarice of my contrymen." In the draft of
the Declaration of Independence, Jefferson bitterly
complained that the King of Great Brffain had forbid
den attempts "to prohibff or restrain this execrable
"commerce." Patrick Henry, writing to a Quaker,
said : " Would any one believe that I am master of
" slaves of my own purchase ? I am drawn along by
" the great inconvenience of Uving without them. I
" will not, I cannot justffy it."

tHE CRADLE OP THE CONFEDERACY. 213
According to the census of 1790, there were slaves
in all the States of the Union. Only six were reported
in Massachusetts. There were two thousand seven
hundred and fifty-nine in Connecticut ; three thousand
seven hundred and thirty-seven in Pennsylvania; twenty-
one thousand three hundred and twenty-four in New
York ; eleven thousand four hundred and twenty-three
in New Jersey ; nine hundred and fifty-two in Rhode
Island. At that day there were more slaves in Pennsyl
vania than in Tennessee, and as many in New Jersey
as in Kentucky. After the slave trade had ceased,
slavery became unprofitable to the Northern States, and
the greater value of the cotton fields, from the invention
of the gin, drew southy,'ard the remaining slaves of the
Northern States. Yet the complete abolition of slavery
at the North was very slow. As late as 1840, Massa
chusetts, Maine, Vermont and Michigan were the only
States which contained no slaves at aU." In that year
the number of slaves in. the so-caUed fi-ee States
amounted to one thousand one hundred and twenty-
nine. When Virginia, in 1784, ceded to the United States
her great Northwestern territory, Jefferson moved a
plan for its government. The plan declared that after
the year 1800, "neither slavery nor involuntary servi-
"tude" should exist there. This plan was not
adopted; but in 1787 an ordinance was passed by
Congress forbidding slavery in all that territory and
providing for the rendition of fugitive slaves. Not
withstanding these advances made towards emancipa-
pation, we find that in 1785, Hopkins complained that
" some New England States and other States " had
again begun to import slaves from Africa^ In 1800,

214 THE CRADLE OP THE CONFEDERACY.
Wain of Pennsylvania admitted in Congress that the
slave trade was carried on in great part by Rhode
Island, Boston and Pennsylvania ; and Broun, of Rhode
Island, said the encouragement of the trade " ought to
" be a matter of national policy since it would bring in
" a good revenue to our treasury."
Very soon the West began wishing for slaves to tffl
the fertffe lands north of the Ohio. The territory of
Indiana labored, from the year 1802, to induce Con
gress to suspend for a term of years the prohibition
imposed by the ordinance of 1787. The request was
rejected ; but subsequently it was reported upon
favorably by the committees of both Houses, although
it failed to meet the approval of Congress. There
were later attempts also to introduce slavery into
Iffinois. The breeze of war around the harbor of Charleston
had just blown safely past, when the people of the South
were destined once more to have thek constitutional
rights assaffed, and now at a more vulnerable point. By
the Missouri Compromise, an attempt had been made to
exclude the people of the South from remo-ving with
their slave property to the territory North of thirty-
six degrees, thff-ty minutes, north latitude. Aff the
States north of that line must be non-slaveholding ; all
south of that Une might be such, or not, as the people
estabUshing the territory into a State should determine.
It was not probable, nay, even possible, that the people
of the. South would desire or attempt to transport thek
slaves from the mffd and rich lands 'of the Gulf to the
bleak prairies of the Northwest. Yet the application
of the settiers of Missouri for admission into the
Union, with a constitution recognizing slavery, was

THE CRADLE OP THE CONPEDERACY. 215
made a pretext for assaulting the whole people of the
South as slave propagandists, and of establishing the
precedent that Congress has power to prohibit slavery
in the common territory. The Constitution of Mis
souri happened to be framed by her first settiers, who
had emigrated from Kentucky and Virginia, as growers
of tobacco and hemp. So far as she was concerned,
had the question been left alone, it was not probable
that she would have remained a slave State beyond
one generation. The Free-Soffers, not satisfied with
their victory in excluding the property of the South
fi-om aU the northern territories, now proceeded, insid
iously and systematicaUy, to agitate, not so much for
the abolition of slavery, as for a dissolution of the
Union. Down to this day the people of the South were not
banded together in support of slavery. They differed
among themselves as widely upon that subject as they
did upon other political questions. It was not the
South who sprung the Missouri question. The settlers
of Missouri, like those of Louisiana, Mississippi, Ten
nessee and Kentucky, had framed her constitution, and
they alone were responsible for its features ; just as
the settiers of Indiana a few years previous, and not
the people of the North, generaUy, were responsible for
her appUcation to Congress to do away with the feature
of the ordinance for the government of the Northwest
territory proscribing slavery. Down to the period of
the unhappy nullification ordinance of South CaroUna,
and even a few years later, Virginia, Kentucky and
Tennessee were earnestly engaged in practical move
ments for the gradual emancipation of the slaves. In
1832, Vkginia was on the verge of emancipation.

216 THE CRADLE OF THE CONFEDERACY.
Both of the leading Richmond newspapers ; all of the
most prominent statesmen, and perhaps a majority of
the people favored the poUcy and the justice of the
measure. Thomas Jefferson Randolph, grand son of
Thomas .lefferson, a delegate from Albemarle, one of
the wealthiest and largest of the slave-holding counties,
brought forward a biU in the House of Delegates to
accomplish this object. The biU was freely and fiiUy
discussed, and advocated by many leading members.
Not a voice was raised in defense of slavery. Mr-
Randolph did not press his measure to a vote, but the
House resolved by a vote of sixty-five to fifty-eight
that they were sensible of the evffs arising from the
condition of the colored population of the common
wealth, but that further action for a removal of the
slaves should await a more definite development of
public opinion. Mr. Randolph's course was approved
by his constituents, and at the next election he was
returned to the Legislature as an advocate of this very
measure. Unfortunately, at this moment, when emancipation
hung quivering in the balance, as though to prevent
what was in process of accomplishment through peace
ful and constitutional means, the anti-slavery agitation
was set on foot by EngUsh and New EngUsh agents.
It assumed such an alarming aspect for the peace and
sectirity of the Southern people, that an immediate
reaction against emancipation was the result, Mr.
Randolph, a short time thereafter, expressed a confi
dent beUef to James Buchanan, that but for this inter
ference, the General Assembly of Virginia, at no dis
tant day, would have passed a law for gradual emanci
pation.

THE CRADLE OF THE CONFEDERACY. 217
The moderate tone of Southern sentiment, at that
period, is further evidenced by the fact that the Consti
tution of Mississippi was amended by a clause prohib
iting the introduction of slaves into her territory. The
General Assembly of Alabama had also forbidden the
introduction and sale of slaves from other States. At
several sessions of the Legislature of the latter State,
there was an open advocacy by the " lobby " of grad
ual emancipation — a proposition seriously entertained
by the more intelligent and independent members. It
was a notable fact that the agents of certain. cotton
factories, owned by Quakers, travelled through the
State, seeking and purchasing only such cotton as was
produced by free labor, their religious and moral scru
ples forbidding them to encourage slavery by investing
in its products. This practice was tolerated, barely
drawing forth an adverse criticism from those who
were thus passed by as men violating the moral law.
As early as 1825, Governor Israel Pickens, of Ala
bama, in his message to the General Assembly, calling
attention to resolutions transmitted to him by the
State of Ohio, recommending a plan for emancipa
tion and colonization, criticised the proposition in fair
and temperate language, exhibiting an appreciation of
the evUs of slavery, and a desire for its removal, when
ever a practical plan nught be suggested. He said :
" Should the national government, at any future pro-
" pitious mdtnent see proper to offer a plan, it is to be
" hoped that whffe it is characterized by justice to our
" citizens, it wffl be worthy of national phffanthropy ;
" that preparatory to the free condition, proper nurser-
" ies shaff be provided for instruction in the necessary
" branches of industry, in the arts and in hterature,

218 THE CRADLE OF THE CONFEDERACY.
" as far as may be requisite to form useful members of
" society and government,"
A stiU stronger evidence that the South not only
tolerated, but actually participated to a wide extent in
the anti-slavery sentiment, at that time and for many
years after, is the support given Henry Clay, who, in
his Lexington speech of September, 1836, denounced
slavery as a curse to ma-ster and man; as altogether
wrong and a thing which no possible contingency could
make right. The statesman who announced this senti
ment, received in the slave States three hundred and
eighty-one thousand four hundred and six votes, as
against four hundred and five tliousand one hundred
and seventy-eight cast for Mr. Poix In Alabama,
Mr. Clay received his strongest support in the slave-
holding counties.
The leaders of the slavery agitation, in New Eng
land and in old England, knew that there could be no
dissolution of the Union so long as the Southern people
were divided among themselves. A large section of
the country must stand united in sentiment, and with
contiguous territory, before secession could be practi
cally accomplished. It has been the habit of Northern
politicians to say that Calhoun and other leading spirits
of the South schemed to unite that section upon the
slavery question when it was found not to be a unit
upon the tariff and nullification questions. History
does not substantiate this charge. There was no wide
spread slavery excitement until the British agents of
Exeter HaU estabUshed a newspaper in Boston, and
ffooded the South with incendiary documents. The
motive of Great Britain in beginning this crusade was
the same which was afterwards admitted, under other

TllE CRADLE OF THE CONFEDERACY. 219
circumstances, by a distinguished English statesman,
"My reason," said Mr. Roebuck, "for desiring the
"acknowledgment of the South, was this: I wanted
" the great Republic of America split into two. I
" honestiy and openly confess it, and if it had been so
" it would have been better for us."
The controUing motive of New England was to be
found in the fact that by Clay's compromise measure,
the protective tariff had a certain existence of only
nine years ; that after that period, a union of the votes
of the South with those of the West and North, who
opposed protection, would, in their opinion, inevitably
reduce the duties to a revenue standard, and place the
factories of America in competition with all the world ;
and that a separation of the slave States from the
Union would be the salvation of that protective system,
which Clay and Clayton had declared to be dearer to
the manufacturing regions than the Union itself
That this agitation owed its origin to others, and not
to the Southern people, and that it was not confined to
an insignificant class of the American people, is evident
from the official messages of Presidents and Governors.
President Jackson saw proper to call the attention of
Cong-ress to the painful excitements in the South by
attempts to circulate, through the mails, inflammatory
appeals addressed to the passions of the slaves, in prints
and various sorts of publications, " calculated to stimu-
"late them to insurrection, and to produce all the
" horrors of civff war." Governor Marcy, of New
York, in his official message, said that he could see no
object which the Abolitionists could have in view so far
as they propose to operate by disseminating incendiary
appeals, but to embark the people of New York, under

220 THE CRADLE OP THE CONFEDERACY.
the sanction of the civff authority or with its con
nivance, " in a crusade against the slave-holding States
"for the purpose of forcing abolition upon them by
" violence and bloodshed." " If such a mad project,"
said Governor Marcy, " as this could be contemplated
" for a single moment as a possible thing, everyone
" must see that the first step towards its accomplish-
" ment would be the end of our confederacy and the
"beginning of civil war." Governor Everett, of
Massachusetts, in his message, said that the country
has been greatly agitated during the past year in rela
tion to slavery, and that the patriotism of all classes of
citizens must be invoked to abstain from a discussion
which exasperated the master, rendered the condition
of the slave more oppressive, and tied the hands of
those at the South who favored emancipation. Such
agitation, he feared, would " prove the rock on which
"the Union wffl split." Clay, who was by no means
an alarmist, or disposed to do injustice to any class of
Northern people — remarked from his place in the Senate
that "abolition should no longer be regarded as an
" imaginary danger." Said he : " The Abolitionists,
" let me suppose, succeed in their present aim of unit-
'' ing the inhabitants of the free States, as one man,
" against the inhabitants of the slave States, union on
" the one side wiU beget union on the other. And
" this process of reciprocal consolidation wffl be
" attended with aU the violent prejudices, embittered
" passions and implacable animosities which ever dc-
" grade and deform human nature. A virtual dissolu-
"tion of the Union will have taken place, while the
" forms of its existence remain. The most valuable
" element of union ; mutual kindness ; the feelings of

the cradle of the confederacy. 221
" sympathy ; the paternal bonds which now happffy
" unite us, wffl have been extinguished forever. One
" section wffl stand in menacing, hostffe array against
" another ; the colUsion o:^ opinion wffl be quickly fol-
" lowed by the clash of arms."
It was clear that the purpose and tendency of this
agitation was to array the people of the Union by
geographical lines. Every inteUigent mind at the
North saw and appreciated this fact. At first, the
great mass of the people deplored and denounced it ;
but, graduaUy the manufacturing interest glided into
the movement on the plea that the salvation of the
tariff' depended on the ostracism of the South. Then,
here and there, a few honest, but misguided humanita-
,1-ians took up the cry. Then the pulpit issued, in the
same direction, its hebdomadal flow of irrelevant phil
anthropy. Then the young politicians, such as William
H. Seward has been described to be in the funeral
oration deUvered by Charles Francis Adams, chiming
in with the prejudices of his section, chose slavery
agitation as the prolific means of obtaining local power
at once, and national power after the irrepressible con
fUct should have been fairly inaugurated. From a
smaU beginning, this agitation assumed most fearful
proportions. The pulpit; the press; Sta,te Legisla
tures; State and county conventions; anti-slavery
societies ; and abolition lectures, were all brought into
requisition to drive in the wedge between the sections.
AboUtion petitions flowed into Congress, signed by
hundi-eds of thousands of men, women and chffdren.
The people of the South had every epithet of contempt,
hatred and indignation hurled at thek heads. If they
took up a Northern magazine, thek sentiments were

222 THE cradle op THE CONPEDERACY.
shocked by the pages they read; if they traveUed
with a servant, they ran the risk of being mobbed.
They were not to derive consolation from the Word of
God unless they beUeved it .to be an anti-slavery Bible ;
they were not to' commune as Christians, except in an
anti-slavery church; and there were grave doubts
whether they would be admitted into any but an anti-
slavery Heaven. Ex-President Jefferson, who was no
friend to slavery, and who would have listened respect
fully to any plan by which it might be removed consti
tutionaUy, was alarmed from the very outset of this
agitation, at the manner in which it was set on foot,
and the motives which prompted it. He charged the
leaders of Federalism with taking advantage of the
virtuous feeUngs of the people " to effect a division of
" parties by geographical Unes." " They expect," said
he, "that this wiU insure them on local principles
the majority they could never obtain on principles of
" FederaUsm.'' If Mr, Jefferson had been possessed
of the powers of prophecy, he could not have more
distinctly pointed out the methods by which the patri
otic and vktuous passions of the people of the North
were to be directed, whenever occasion required,
through their prejudices against slavery and the acts of
the slave-holder, towards concentration of power in
the Federal Government, and towards the absolute
supremacy of Congress.
The controlling spirit of this effort to array North
and South on geographical Unes was George Thompson,
a man of genius, who had been sent from London
upon an abolition mission to this country. He had
been a member of Parliament, and was a vigorous
thinker and writer. J. B. Morse, of telegraph fame,

THE CRADLE OP THE CONPEDERACY. 223
published about that time a letter giving a statement
fi'om General Wilson, a British officer employed by his
government in the arrangement for emancipation in the
West Indies, to the effect that Great Britain sought a
looting by this act of emancipation, from which to pro
mote dissensions between the North and South in
regard to slavery, so as by disunion, if possible, to ad
vance her manufacturing interests. In furtherance of
this object we find Thompson coming to America imme
diately after the West India Act, and repeating in con
versations that " every slaveholder should have his
throat cut." Lloyd Garrison, another British subject,
became editor of the "Liberator." In the Massa
chusetts House of Representatives he appeared before
a committee of the General Assembly, an immense
audience being present, and said : " I feel myself, Mr.
" chairman, like Paul in the presence of Aqrippa.
" They teU us, sir, that ff we proceed in our course we
" shaU dissolve this Union. But what is the Union to
" me ? I am a citizen of the world." The motto
which he displayed at the head of his paper was :
"The Constitution — A Covenant with Death, An
" Agreement with Hell."
The States of Virginia, Georgia, North Carolina,
South Carolina and Alabama, transmitted to aU the
State Legislatures a series of resolutions asking that aU
petitions for the abolition of slavery be laid on the table
of Congress without reading or printing. The twenty-
fourth Congress agreed to this reasonable request ; but
the twenty-fifth Congress had barely convened when
the agitation was renewed from a Northern quarter, and
rose at once to a pitch of unprecedented fury. In de
fiance of the adjustment made by the preceding Con-

224 THE CRADLE OF THE CONPEDERACY.
gross, a member from New England created intense ex
citement by presenting two abolition petitions, and
attempting to debate their merits. The Southern
members, the next day, offered a rule by which all such
petitions should be laid on the table without being read,
printed or debated,, and that no further action be had
upon them. This rule was adopted by a vote of yeas,
one hundred and twenty-two, to nays, forty. The num
ber and character of the petitions which came flooding
the tables of Congress were sufficient to create the
most intense excitement and uneasiness at the South.
Benton says that they were signed by " hundreds of
" thousands — many of them women who forgot their
" sex and their duties to mingle in such inflammatory
" work ; some of them clergymen who forgot their
" mission of peace to stir up strife among those who
" should be brethren." Buchanan says that they were
directed not only at slavery in the District of Columbia
and at the forts, dock yards, and arsenals "of the
United States, which might have been a legitimate and
constitutional object ; but also against the introduction
of any more slave States ; and some of them went so
far as to petition for a dissolution of the Union itseff.
Without provocation, other than the inheritance of a
species of property transmitted to them by thek
fathers, the people of the South, without a note of
warning, upon the heels of the partial defeat of the
protective tariff, and immediately after West India
emancipation, thus found themselves ground be
tween the upper and the nether miUstone — between
the fear of New England at the loss of her manufac
tures, and the hope of Old England that the dissolution
of the American Union would place the South at least

THE CRADLE OF THE OONPEDERAOY. 225
in the condition of one of her own colonies, a rich con
sumer of her wares. From the Chesapeake to the
Gulf, a peaceful, intelligent, brave and proud people,
found themselves defamed in the haUs of Congress,
rebuked from pulpit, denounced from press, and threat
ened on aU sides with the knife and the torch. " Sir,"
said Senator Buchanan, in the midst of this intense
agitation : " Touch this question of slavery seriously—
" let it once be made manifest to the people of the
" South that they cannot live with us, except in a state
" of continual apprehension and alarm for their wives
" and their chffdren, for aff that is near and dear to
" them upon the earth, and the Union is from that
" moment dissolved. It does not then become a ques-
" tion of expediency, but of seff-preservation. It is a
" question brought home to the fireside, to the domestic
" circle of every white man in the Southern States."
FoUowing close upon this furious crusade — which
relaxed a Uttle of its violence when General Harrison,
the hope of the protectionists, ascended the Presiden
tial chak, only to be resumed when the elevation of
President Tyler dashed the cup from their lips — was a
decision of the Supreme Court of the United States,
which aroused exultation on the part of the agitators,
and corresponding indignation on the part of the South.
The Constitution had made it mandatory that a fugi
tive slave " shaU be deUvered up " on claim of the
master; and according to the doctrine of coercion, as
held by the Federalists, it became the duty of the
authorities I of the State to which the slave had fled to
deliver him up. If the State should omit to enact
laws, or should obstruct such delivery, it foUowed from
the coercion theory that Congress could compel the

226 THE cradle of THE CONPEDERACY.
State authorities to carry out the mandate of the Con
stitution. The Constitution provides that the States
shaU elect members to Congress. Suppose, said the
advocates of coercion, the State should refuse to do so,
would not Congress have the power to compel her to
carry out a provision so necessary for representative
government ? The class of politicians who have, at a
recent day, decided this question in the affirmative, did
not hesitate to deny, in 1843, the right of Congress
to compel the State to carry out the constitutional
mandate respecting fiigitive slaves. In that year the
Supreme Court held, in the case of " Prigg against the
" commonwealth of Pennsylvania," that the State mag
istrates were not bound to aid the master so far as
to grant warrants of arrest upon application.
If the master could have no aid from the local
authorities, it was manifest, from the scarcity of Federal
officers, that no arrests could be made, and that the
provision of the Constitution would be nullified. This
decision of the Court was claimed by Judge Story as a
"triumph for freedom." He should rather have
claimed it as a " triumph for nullification." So soon
as the local magistrates were commanded to stand aside,
a new and furious agitation was commenced against the
continuation upon the statute book of the fugitive slave
law of 1793, which required the Federal judges and
magistrates, as well as those of the State, to carry its
provisions into effect. Let ff be remembered that this
law was enacted by those who framed the Constitution,
and during the administration of Washington. The
Legislatures of several States passed laws prohibiting
their magistrates from assisting in its execution. The
use of State jails was denied for safe-keeping of the

THE CRADLE OP THE CONFEDERACY. 227
fugitives. Personal liberty laws were enacted, imposing
insurmountable obstacles to the recovery of slaves.
Every means was resorted to to nullify the constitu
tional provision. The Ufe and liberty of the pursuing
masters were placed in jeopardy. They were often
imprisoned and sometimes murdered.
Thus the people of the South, for no fault of their
own, were doomed to see thek States insulted, their
property destroyed, their lives menaced, the laws of the
Union revffed and the Constitution spurned. Is it
strange that this persecution produced its inevitable
result ? Is it strange that emancipation was no longer
mooted, that he who even suggested it was suspected
• as an enemy, that the stranger who wandered through
the land was often treated with hasty indecency, that
the reins were tightened upon the poor and innocent
slave, that the geographical Une became so distinct that
to all intents the two peoples were separate nations,
that the value of the Union became a question of dis
cussion, that the wish for separation sought out and
welded together arguments in support of the right of
secession, and that the Southern people, from looking
at slavery as a necessary evil, flung back into the teeth
of their tormentors that it was a necessary good ?

OH^PTEK X.

Position of the South during the Van Buren and Harrison
Administration— -Relation and Tenets of Parties from
I84O to 1850 — More Territory for the South — New
Threats of Division at the North — The Mexican War
— Quitman and the Palmettoes — Offer of the Mexican
Crown to General Scott — Condition of a Mongrel Pop
ulation, (Sic, (&c.

" There is a political force in ideas which silently renders protesta
tions, promises and guarantees, no matter in what good faith they
may have been given, of no avail, and which makes Constitutions
obsolete." Dbapbb's " Civil Wab in Ambbioa."
" I have never read reasonings more absurd ; sophistry more grots ;
" in proof of the Althanaslan creed or transubstantlation, than the
" subtle labors of Helvetius and Rousseau, to demonstrate the natural
' equality of mankind. The golden rule, do as you would be done
" by, Is all the equality that can be supported or defended by reason,
" or reoouoUed to common sense." John Adams.
" But nature's laws are stronger than bayonets. She made the
" Saxon and she msule the Indian ; but no mixed race called Mexican
" wlU she support. Already we are told that the Indian blood pre-
" dominates ; of course It will ; but give the so-called nation another
" century, and then let us consider what must happen. The CastlUau
" blood will be all but extinct, the Indian predominating; but by
" that time the Anglo-Saxon, true to his go-ahead principle, seizes
" Mexico; but uo Saxon wlU mingle with dark blood; with him the
•' dark races must be slaves or cease to exist. "
Knox's " Bacbs of Mbn."

Towards the close of Van Buren's administration,
political parties, which had been in somewhat chaotic
condition from the entrance of Alabama into the Union
in 1819, now began to assume definite shape. The fol
lowers of Calhoun, who, although seated voiceless in

230 THE CRADLE OF THE CONFEDERACY.
the chair of the Vice-President, had spoken by Hayne
in his great debate with Webster, and who had
himself subsequently from a seat in the Senate,
repeated and strengthened the argument, had never
cordially affiliated with either the Clay Whigs or the
Jackson Democrats. They called themselves par excel
lence, the " States-Rights " party. AU the parties pro
fessed to be advocates of States-Rights ; but this party,
alone, defiantly and proudly, planted themselves on the
premises laid down by Hayne, and undauntedly held
their faces to the inevitable conclusion of the argument.
They beUeved in the right of both nuUification and
secession. The State might choose either mode of re
dress ; for the resolutions of '98 had distinctly stated
that each State had % right to judge for itseff " as weU
" of infi-actions, as of the mode and measure of redress."
General Jackson had mortaUy offended Mr. Calhoun.
Whatever may be said of the explanations made by
Blak and the " Globe," it is certain that the proclama
tion against South CaroUna had stigmatized secession
and nuUification as treason. It declared, with respect
to nuUification, that it would be the abrogation of aU
Federal authority, and with respect to nuUification that
it would be nothing more nor less than an act of revo
lution. It said that these doctrines can only be advo
cated through gross error, or "to deceive those who
" would pause before they made a revolution or incur
" the penalties consequent upon a faffure."
In Calhoun's opposition to General Jackson's
administration, the States-Rights party affied themselves
with that branch of the old National RepubUcan party,
who were now being caUed for the first time, Whigs.
Calhoun and Clay were apparentiy in close alUance,

THE CRADLE OP THE CONPEDERACY. 231
and remained so, untff the elevation of Van Buren
to the Presidency. There was no common ground
of principle for this aUiance. The opposition of Clay
was to aU the Democratic measures of Jackson, since
they aU ran counter to his " American System ; "
whereas the opposition of Calhoun was confined to the
questions growing out of the aUeged right of nulUfica
tion. Upon questions of policy within the Union, Cal
houn was in general accord with the adherents of
Jackson. Whffe disclaiming any connection with any
party, the South Carolinian had given victory to Clay
and Webster in many hard fought battles against the
Jackson Democrats. Now that his old enemy had
passed from the chief magistracy, Calhoun advanced to
the side of the Van Buren administration, and sus
tained it in those financial measures which gave it
character. The slavery agitation having subsided for a while,
the great question before the country was, how the
Federal revenue should be deposited, and in what kind
of money. The Whigs contended for a national bank
ing system which should be the depository of the
pubUc funds, and that taxes should be payable in bank
notes equaUy with coin. This system they contended
would be of great convenience to the people in afford
ing them a medium of exchange which would not
fluctuate in value; in doing away with the ruinous
discounts which prevaffed in the exchange of the
money of one State for that of another ; and in distrib
uting throughout the States the Federal monies for
which there was no knmediate use by the Government.
Banks, based upon Federal deposits, secured by Gov
ernment pledges, affording wide-spread and equal

232 THE CRADLE OP THE CONPEDERACY.
accommodation and confidence to business me6,
appeared to the Whigs to be not only a convenience,
but a necessary protection from those pecuniary panics
which had so often "swept over the country from the
insecurity and recklessness of State banks. On the
other hand, the Jackson Democrats, and now the Cal
houn States-Rights party, held that a national bank
system tended to a consolidation of Federal power ;
that it gave undue weight and influence to the Federal
agents ; that it tended to drive gold and sffver from
circulation ; and that it placed all industrial interests at
the mercy of the banks, and held the banks themselves
at the mercy of the Secretary of the Treasury and of
the President. In one word, it would place not only
the purse of the Government, but the purse of every
citizen at the mercy of the Executive. BeUeving that
a national bank system would endanger the rights of
the States, the foUowers of Mr. Calhoun sustained
President Van Buren in his recommendation for an
independent treasury and a hard money currency.
Whffe these States-Rights men, in the several States
of the South, denied the constitutionality of a national
bank, it is a matter of history that their great leader
was in favor of a United States bank in 1816, and that
he supported and mainly carried through the charter
under which it was incorporated by Congress ; aiding
his coUeague Lowndes in a speech of great ability. In
that speech he admitted the constitutionality of such a
bank, although reserving an expression of opinion as
to how far its powers might constitutionaUy extend.
During the twenty years of its continuance, he had
never denied the power of Congress to create it ; and
in 1834:, when the charter was about to expke, he

THE CRADLE OP THE CONFEDERACY. 233
advocated the renewal of its term for twelve years
longer. The States-Rights party, from 1832, had acted upon
the idea that they held the balance of power between
the two national parties, and by throwing their weight
into this or that scale, as their interests were best sub
served, they could modify the views of both parties
and thus better protect the people of the South. Their
course, however, was marked by an inconsistency
which paralyzed them as an independent organization.
As between General Harrison and Mr. Van Buren, in
1836, it would seem that their animosity towards the
Federalism of the Jackson Democrats should have
induced them to sustain General Harrison, who was a
strict-construction Whig. Not so, however ; they
threw their ballots for Judge Hugh L. White, of Ten
nessee, who carried the electoral votes of Georgia and
his own State. Had the States-Rights party of Ala
bama voted for General Harrison he would have carried
that State. They voted for Mr. White, and thus Mr.
Van Buren succeeded in Alabama by a majority of but
three thousand four hundred in a popular vote of
nearly thirty-five thousand. Among the revenges of
time it is interesting to remember that the sage of
Kinderhook, who was thus elevated to power, by the
retiring of the States-Rights party to their tents, was
destined to consoUdate and lead the Abolition ranks at
a later day, and by holding the balance of power in
New York was able to defeat the party which had
honored him with the highest office in the land.
Immediately upon the election of Van Buren, Con
gress was called together in special session to take into
consideration the finances of the country, and the

234 THE CRADLE OF THE CONFEDERACY.
Governor of Alabama caUed the General Assembly
together to co-operate with Congress. Calhoun having
aUied himself with Van Buren, his foUowers immed
iately united their forces with the Jackson Democrats,
throughout the South. In the Alabama General
Assembly, the two bodies thus remained united for ten
years. Analyzing the several political parties of the South,
we find them with distinct characteristics, although the
lines of demarcation merge here and there upon theo
retical questions. The Whigs and the Democrats were
so equaUy balanced that in nearly all of the Southern
States the few thousand independent States-Rights
men were able to turn the scale.
1. The Democrats beUeved in the least government
necessary for the preservation of pubUc peace.- They
denied aU incidental powers of Government, except
when such incidents were absolutely necessary to carry
into effect expressed graats. They opposed a national
bank system, a protective tariff, and internal im
provements by the General as weU as by the State
government. They likewise opposed the distribution
of the proceeds of the sale of pubUc lands among the
States, and the assumption of the State debt by the
Federal Government. It is difficult to say what
portion of the party at this time beUeved in the right
of nullification and secession. The poUcy of the party
was to express no opinion upon those questions, since
none of the States except South CaroUna believed that
an occasion had yet arisen for the exercise of that
reserved right even if it existed. There was, however,
a large body of the people who stood by the anti-nuUi-
fication proclamation of General Jackson. While

THE CRADLE OP THE CONFEDERACY. 235
Georgia and South CaroUna and even Tennessee repu
diated the Unionism of Jackson by voting for Mangum
and White, the Democrats of Alabama sustained Van
Buren, who was known to represent the sentiments
of his predecessor. There were large numbers of the
Democracy however, who whffe assenting to the re
served right of secession and recognizing the danger
to the South from the incessant anti-slavery agitation,
believed it best to abide by a national organization
untff oppression was unendurable. The tendency of
the party, however, was to deny that the right of seces
sion had been reserved by the State upon her acces
sion to the Union.
2. On the other hand, the Whigs gave a more liberal
consti-uction to the powers of the Federal Government.'
They advocated internal improvements by both the
Federal and State GovernmenuS, the estabUshment of a
national banking system, a protective tariff, and the
assumption of State debts by the General Government,
with a distribution among the States of the proceeds of
pubUc lands. So far as the question of slavery was
concerned, they were content to abide by the Missouri
Compromise. This comprpmise they considered an
equivalent for the settlement of a disturbing question,
and productive of no practical hardship to the slave
owners. FuUy understanding the grave prejudices
which existed against slavery in all civUized countries,
and appreciating the fact that there was no security for
the property of the South except under the flag of the
Union, the Whigs never hesitated to accept a compro
mise upon questions relating to negro slavery, when
the South thereby suffered no material loss, and the
North thereby admitted that it bad no disposition nor

236 THE CRADLE OF THE CONFEDERACY.
power to disturb slavery where it existed in the States.
The Uttle band of outright AboUtionists in Congress,
led by John Q. Adams, who were intent on using the
Federal authority to aboUsh slavery even in the States,
had no terrors for the Whigs. They held that the pat
riotism of the whole people would sustain the rights of
the South, and that by the use of compromises which
affected no material interests of that section, she could
be saved from an agitation which imperiled the Union.
There were very many Whigs who beUeved in the
reserved right of secession, but the great body of the
party stood by Clay and Websthr in repudiating such
a remedy, for even the grossest oppression, as anything
more or less than the inalienable right of revolution.
Even those who acknowledged the existence of the
right saw the futffity of advancing it or of acting upon
it except when prepared to enforce it by arms. To
them, such a right, when denied by the opponent, could
amount to nothing but the right of revolution.
3. The States-Rights party were the advocates of
nuffification, in 1832, and the defenders of the right
of peaceable secession at any time the sovereign State
might judge such action, to be necessary. If New
England had beUeved that the embargo and non-inter
course law justified it, she had a perfect right to secede ;
and so had Pennsylvania under the excise law; and
Virginia under the carriage tax law; Georgia under
the abrogation of the Indian Springs treaty ; Alabama
on the non-removal of the Creeks ; and South CaroUna
under the tariff of 1824. From setting up the remedy
in extreme cases, this party, grown famihar with the
argument, feU into the habit of threatening secession in
supposititious cases. Beholding the gradual expansion

The cradle op the oonpederaoy. 237
of the Union and the formidable power which, by num
bers and wealth, was being concentrated at Washington,
the rapid development of fortune at the North and the
shifting of political power from the agricultural regions
south of the Potomac to the manufacturing regions
north of that river, the States-Rights party watched the
growth of the anti-slavery idea with increasing jealousy
and distrust. Patriotism became tainted with doubt,
and clouded with suspicion. Doubt and suspicion
frowned at conciUation and compromise. With them
a right was an absolute right, not a thing to be met
with concffiation or cut in two by the cautious sword of
compromise. While they were able to do so with
dignity they would stand as a separate political body
and throw their influence in that scale which inclined
to their favor. When they" could no longer assert
their rights within one or the other poUtical organiza
tions, they would seize the first occasion to assert them
by separation from the Union. Being strict-construc-
tionists of the extreme school, the States-Rights men
could not, except in a few cases, act with the Whiqs.
After 1840, although now and then carrying on a
guerilla warfare, they were generally to be found in the
Democratic ranks. With a single idea kept fuU in
view, aiid with a tenacity which betokened courage,
endurance, fidelity and honesty of purpose, they finally
obtained a controUing influence within the ranks of
their aUies.
Even with the aid of the States-Rights men, the
Democrats barely succeeded in endorsing the poUcy of
Van Buren. At Tuscaloosa, then capital of Alabama,
the House of Representatives stood fifty-one for pay
ment of Government dues in specie, and forty against it.

238 THE CRADLE OP THE CONPEDERACY.
Having cemented an aUiance upon the financial
questions of the day, the Democrats and States-Rights
men fought under one banner in the autumn of 1840.
Van Buren was thek candidate for re-election. The
manufacturers of the North had succeeded in thrusting
Clay aside because of his tariff compromise, and had
compeUed the Whigs to nominate General Harrison.
The nomination of that veteran officer was received
with the wildest enthusiasm among the Whigs all over
the countiy. Never was there such a series of elec
tioneering expedients. The Van Buren men were
thrown upon the defensive. The financial disorders,
which were most severely felt in the southwestern
States, were all laid at the door of Jackson and his
successor. The President was charged with being an
aristocrat. He was said to have purchased gold spoons
for the White House, wffh the executive contingent
fund. The chief magistrate who could use gold spoons
when the poor farmers were suffering from a depre
ciated, and oftentimes worthless paper currency, was a
tyrant, an aristocrat, a nabob and a monster. General
Harrison, on the contiary, was the friend of the peo
ple. He had Uved in a log cabin. He had been a
frontier-man and had worn a hat made of a raccoon
skin. He was a temperate and humble man who
drank nothing stronger than hard cider, and who
would scorn to take soup with a gold spoon. He had
been a brave and successful general, and had fought
the battle of Tippecanoe. Hard cider, raccoon skins
and log cabins, became the order of the day. Public
meetings were held aU over the South, and party excite
ment ran to the highest pitch.
The fact that the nulUfiers, as they were called, were

THE CRADLE OP THE OONPEDERAOY. 239
acting unitedly with the Democrats, gave occasion to
the Whigs to claim for themselves the distinction of
being Unionists. So strong was the sentiment of
unionism among the Whigs of that day, that a huge
baU was roUed from the Mississippi river to the
Atlantic, through all the Gulf States, bearing among
its inscriptions — " South Carolina ! Hemp for traitors ! "
" Massachusetts, ever faithfial ! " This ball was re
ceived at Montgomery with a grand ovation, and was
conducted by one of the leading Whig politicians,
. James Abercrombie, one of the foremost men of that
section. The devotion to the Union which marked the Ala
bama Whigs of 1840, even to a denunciation of a
sister State of the South, and an undeserved eulogium
upon a sister State of the North, became intensified
during the Presidential canvass of 1844. The people
of Texas, an independent government, had applied for
admission into the Union. This appUcation was to
become the prolific source of a new agitation of the
slavery question. The friends of Mr. Polk throughout
the South were ardent for annexation. Throughout
the North, however, a large part of the Democratic
party opposed annexation, because of the certainty that
Texas would enter the Union as a slave State. Al
though the opposing Whig candidate, Mr. Clay,
favored annexation with certain restrictions, his
northern followers cherished the hope that the restric
tions would be such as to defeat the project. Their
position was that annexation should not be accom
plished except by negotiation with Mexico; and as
Mexico would certainly never give her consent, they
could be held as positive and unqualified opponents of

240 THE CRADLE OP THE CONFEDERACY.
a measure which appealed most strongly to the pride
and heroism of the country and most dkectly to the
pecuniary interests of the people of the South. The
wider the area of the Southwest, the more surely would
slave property recede from the Potomac towards the
Gulf, and the wider would become the belt of friendly
territory between the mass of slave property and the
personal liberty laws of the free States. The Whigs
of the South were as earnest for annexation as were
the southern. Democrats. On this question there could
be no dispute between the parties in -Alabama ; but
there was a grave and fundamental difference between
them as to the important question of Union or disunion,
which now grew out of the Texas matter.
The Legislature of Massachusetts, in its session of
1843, with a Democratic Governor in the chair, and a
majority of Democrats in both branches of the As
sembly, resolved : " that under no circumstances what-
" ever can the people of Massachusetts regard the pro-
" position to admit Texas into the Union in any other
" light than as dangerous to its continuance in peace, in
" prosperity, and in the enjoyment of those blessings
" which it is the object of a free government to secure."
The danger to the peace of the Union, contemplated
by this resolution, could exist only in the determina
tion of the New England States to forcibly resist the
annexation of Texas, or to secede from the Union at
the happening- of that event. The resolution was for
warded to. Congress and to the several States. Natur
aUy ff called forth an indignant response from the
South. It was a menace on the part of Massachusetts
that no matter under what circumstances Texas might
be acquked by the Union, there should be no peace

THE CRADLE OP THE CONFEDERACY. 241
between the sections. The succeeding Legislature,
containing a majority of Whigs, left in no doubt the
intention of thek predecessors. That body, directing
that their proceedings should be sent to Congress and
to the States, solemnly resolved " that the project
" for the annexation of Texas, unless arrested on the
" threshold, may tend to drive these States into a disso-
" lution of the Union." Cotemporaneously with this
resolution, the inaugural address of the Governor
announced for the first time in the history of the
Union a proposition which culminated finally in general
aboUtion of slavery. He said :
" Indeed, there is reason to beUeve that before the
" existence of our Constitution, our highest court held
" the opinion that the Declaration of Independence put
" an end to slavery in this State.''
From this fact, he asked whether it was unreasonable
that they should stiive " to hasten the time when every
" human being in this repubUc shaff enjoy the inaUen-
" able right of Iffe, Uberty and the pursuit of happi-
" ness." Here then was a distinct proclamation sent to
every State in the Union, by Massachusetts, as the
head of the New England States, that slavery in her
opinion was aboUshed by the Declaration of Indepen
dence in every State of the Union, that it would be
her duty to strive to enforce a perfect political equality
of aU the races, and that the introduction of another
slave State would endanger the peace of the country
and drive the New England States into a dissolution of
the Union. When this resolution was presented to
Congress, Senator King, from Alabama, one of the
most moderate and conservative Southern statesmen, as
we have already seen, expressed his regret that a propo-

242 THE CRADLE OF THE CONPEDERACY.
sition should thus come from Massachusetts to dissolve
the Union. What was a source of regret to Mr. King,
was a source of indignation to the mass of Southern
people who had been constantly denounced as dis-
Unionists by those who had goaded them almost to
desperation, and who were now calmly considering the
value of the Umon when about to be defeated in thek
desire to obtain, upon geographical Unes and for par
tisan purposes, control of the Senate of the United
States. FinaUy, Massachusetts passed another series of reso
lutions, and transmitted them to Congress and to aU the
States, in which she resolved, that as, in her opinion.
Congress had no right, under the Constitution, to
admit Texas by legislation into the Uiuon, " such an
" act of admission would have no binding force whatever
" on the people of Massachusetts." Here was a definite
and distinct re-affkmation of the principles enunciated
by the Hartford Convention. Massachusetts was to
judge for herself of a violation of the Constitution.
Any act passed by Congress for the admission of
Texas was to be treated as a nuUity. The fact that
practically no occasion could arise under which Massa
chusetts could put her nuUification resolutions into
operation could not palliate such language. The wish,
the words, the intent, the principle of nulUfication were
all as clearly revealed, understood and adopted, as
though a regiment of mffitia stood drawn up at Boston
common to resist the coUection of imports by the
officers of the custom house.
To leave no doubt of the violent intentions of New
England, John Quincy Adams, in his address to his
gonstituents, made use of language calculated to arouse

THE CRADLE OF THE CONFEDERACY. 243
a warlike spirit in the breast of his followers, and to
¦ inflame stffl more the spirit of the South, Said he :
" Texas and Slavery are interwoven in every banner
" floating to the Democratic breeze. Freedom or
" Death should be inscribed on ours. A war for
" slavery ! Can you enlist under such a standard ?
" May the Ruler of the Universe preserve you from
" such degradation. ' Freedom, Peace, Union,' be this
'" the watchword of your camp, and if Ate, hot from
" heU, wiU come and cry ' Havock ' — fight— fight and
" conquer, under the banner of universal freedom ! "
As the Federal party of New England sympathized
with Great Britain in ^812, so now they so far sympa
thized with Mexico, in their desire to curb the South
and restrict its free-trade power, that through the voice
of one of their leaders they expressed the hope that a
foreign government would welcome our patriotic troops
" with bloody hands to hospitable gi-aves."
Whffe Massachusetts was thus heading the AboUtion
disunion movement, flooding Congress and the States
with menacing resolutions, sending agents to the
southern ports under the pretense of looking after the
interests of negro saffors, denouncing the spkit of com
promise, advocating equal political rights for all men
under the Declaration of Independence, destroying
peace between the sections, and nuUifying an act of
Congress, the State of South Carolina was not slow to
meet her half way. At the head of the States-Rights
party she repUed, to all menaces, that Texas had as
much right to join the Union as though she had been
a part of our territory; that her annexation was material
to the commercial prosperity of the whole Union, and
especially of the Gulf States ; that it was not certain

244 THE CRADLE OP THE CONFEDERACY.
that her admission would accrue to the power of the
slave States, in as much as her territory was so great
and so sparsely settled that two or three free States
might yet be carved from her, and that whether she
appUed for admission with slavery or without, was a
matter entirely with herself, and in no event could be
a violation of the Constitution. FinaUy, wrought up to
the highest pitch of indignation. South CaroUna and
the States-Rights party declared that a refusal to admit
Texas upon the grounds stated in the Massachusetts
resolutions would be good cause for a dissolution of the
Union. Those who in thek public writings have placed the
origin of the spkit of disunion in the breast of the
South, have not ceased to aUege that at that day the
agitation for disunion began in South CaroUna. Senator
Benton in his " Thirty years' view," says that so soon
as Mr. Polk was nominated, " the disunion aspect man-
" ifested itself over many of the Southern States —
" beginning, of course, with South CaroUna." This is
so far from being the truth that it was as .late as May,
1844, when the first meeting was held in South Car
oUna. It was a meeting to retaUate against Massa
chusetts, who had passed her disunion resolutions in
the autumn of 1843. It was held at Ashley, in the
BarnweU district, and its intention was to combine the
slave States in a convention, to unite the Southern
States to Texas, ff Texas should not be received into
the Union, and to invite the President to convene Con
gress to arrange terms for a dissolution of the Union.
Another large meeting was held at Beaufort, another
at Charleston, and another at the WffUamsburg district,
at which resolutions looking to the same end were
adopted-

the cradle op the conPeDeracy. 245
During this controversy the State of Alabama was
ardentiy in favor of the annexation of Texas ; but it is
certain that a majority of her people would not have
favored disunion in the event of a refusal of Congress
to admit that State. She was emphatic in her reply to
the resolutions and conduct of Massachusetts. Her
General Assembly decided unanimously that the abro
gation of the twenty-first rule, by which Congress had
refused to consider aboUtion petitions, was a hostffe act
on the part of the North, and that South Carolina had
a right to protect the peace and happiness of her peo
ple, by sending back the agent of Massachusetts, who
had been delegated as an attorney to look after the
interest of negro saffors who might be citizens of Mas
sachusetts. StUl the Whig party of Alabama, and
very many of the Democratic party, denied the right of
a State to disunite itself from the Union except in the
last resort, and they believed that the acceptance or
rejection of Texas by Congress was not adequate cause
for secession. The Democratic party, embracing the
States-Rights party, and receiving a large coloring
of its principles from that wing of its army, were
charged by its opponents with being disunionists.
The banner of " Texas or Disunion," which was being
flaunted throughout the South, was almost invariably
in Democratic hands, and hence the Whig party took
advantage of the acts and words of the States-Rights
men to stamp the Democratic as the Disunion party,
and to claim for themselves the distinction of being the
Union party. Nor was it possible for the Democrats
to retaliate upon the Whigs by saying that ff the dis
union element at the South were the aUies of the former,
the disunion element at the North were the aUies of

246 THE Cradle of the Confederacy.
the latter, since it was a matter of record that the dis
union sentiments of Massachusetts were expressed by
both Whig and Democratic Legislatures, and that the
Abolition press were intent upon breaking up the Whig
party at the North as the great barrier in their way to
disunion. If the Whig Governor of Massachusetts, in
1844, had embraced the Abolitionists, he only foUowed
in the footstep^ of the Democratic Governor of 1843.
If the Northern Whigs voted to repeal the 21st rule,
so did forty-seven Northern Democrats. And in the
Presidential election which followed, the Whigs could
point triumphantly to the fact that Mr. Polk had been
elected President by the Disunion element of the North.
The candidacy of Mr. Birncy by the Anti-slavery party
drew away (mough votes in New York to have elected
Mr. Clay, just as the candidacy of Mr. VanBuren in
1 848 drew away enough votes to have elected General
Cass. They could also point to the fact that Mr. Bir-
NI3Y, whffe Abolition candidate for the Presidency, was
at the same time the regular Democratic nominee for
the Michigan Legislature. The truth is, the Abolition
party acted with either or neither of the regular par
ties, as its interests suggested, struggling to consolidate
the anti-slavery sentiments of both Whigs and Demo
crats into a new geographical party which, while pre
tending the ameUoration of the human i-ace upon high
humanitarian principles, was actually intending to revert
the Government to the views, hopes and wishes of Gen
eral Hamilton and t;he Federalists.
When at last the Whig party of the North passed
away, it is difficult to say whether the major portion, or
what portion, of that party, went to form the new Re
publican party. If leading Whigs Uke Seward, Gbee-

THE CRADLE OF THE CONPEDERACY. 247
LEY and Lincoln were to be found within its ranks, so
also among its leaders were to be found Democrats Uke
BiRNEY, Chase, Hamlin and Cameron. The Republi
can party pi-ofessed to be built upon the ruins of hoth
the Whig and Democratic parties of the North, and it
would not be far from the mark to say that as many
Whigs went into the Democratic ranks after the defeat
of General Scott as into the Republican ranks; and
that the latter party drew its foUowers as largely from
the one old party as the other. However this may be,
the Whigs of the South were not to be deterred from
thek zealous advocacy of the Union by the charge, on
the one hand, that thek brother Whigs of the North
were alUed with the Abolition party ; nor by the charge,
on the other hand, that the cry of " Union " was now
become synonymous with that of " submission."
The Whigs of Alabama in their protest against the
cry of " Texas or disunion,', which had thundered
forth from the States-Rights men in response to the
New England threat of " rejection of Texas or dis-
" union," were joined in sentiment and sympathy by
hosts of Southern Democrats. The movement in New
England took no positive form beyond words. The
movement in South CaroUna assumed an active form.
A convention of the Southern States was called for, to
meet at NashviUe, to lay down the ultimatum. The
resolutions of the South CaroUna meeting met a response
in several of the Southern States. A meeting held
in Alabama suggested that the convention meet at
Richmond. In reply to this suggestion, Mr. lirrcHiE,
editor of the Enquirer, said : " There is not a Dem-
" ocrat in Virginia who wiU encourage any plot to dis-
" solve the Union." The Richmond Whig, on the part

^48 the cradle op the confederacy.
of the Whigs, repudiated the suggestion with indigna
tion. NashviUe was not behind Richmond in decUning
the honor of being the seat of the disunion convention.
A meeting of her citizens protested against " the dese-
" oration of the soff of Tennessee, by having any' con-
" vention held there to hatch treason against the
" Union." The resolutions adopted by the Nashviffe
meeting were those which marked the councffs of 'the
Whigs throughout the South. They condemned every
attempt to bring into issue the preservation of the
Union, or to bring its value into calculation. Whffe
entertaining for the people of South Carolina and for
the States-Rights party everywhere, the most fraternal
regard and the highest respect for the sincerity of thek
opinions, they lamented the exhibition by any portion
of them of disloyalty to the Union, or a disposition to
urge its dissolution with a view to annexation with
Texas, and the construction of a Southwestern repubUc
such as was contemplated by Aaron Burr.
The proposition tor the NashviUe convention met
such powerful opposition that the hopes and prospects
of the Whigs brightened throughout the South. The
plan was discarded ; Mr. Polk was elected ; the tact
and promptness of President Tyler hastened and
secured the admission of Texas, to the confusion of
New England and the satisfaction of the entke South.
The vote in the State of Alabama was for Mr. Polk,
36,740; for Mr. Clay, 26,084. The States-Rights
party had grown in strength since 1840, and had
taken two thousand voters from the Whigs and added
them to their allies. Apart from this defection which
was more than made good at the next Presidential
election, the Whigs were as earnest and enthusiastic for

THE CRADLE OP THE CONFEDERACY. 249
Clay as they had been for Harrison. The same old
leaders who guided the party in 1 840, were at its head
in 1844.
The action of President Tyler in securing the admis
sion of Texas in the last days of his Presidency, was
followed by the war with Mexico and the ultimate cap
ture of the capital of that nation. The first troops
within the fortifications of Mexico were a South Caro
Una regiment, and the first flag that floated over the
city was that of " the Palmettoes." General Quitman,
the gallant son of Mississippi, was designated as the
officer to receive the surrender of the city and to hoist
the flag of the United States over a conquered nation.
The war with Mexico exerted a gxeat influence in
many respects upon the mind of the whole country.
By extending the southwestern frontier it opened the
slavery agitation anew, and more painfully than ever at
the North ; and at the South it aroused closer attention
from those leading spirits who had participated in the
war, to a more thorough consideration of what would be
the condition of the Gulf States if the Free Soff party
should succeed in accomplishing emancipation, and in
bringing about that poUtical equality which has inva
riably foUowed emancipation.
Mexico, in less than a quarter of a century, had fol
lowed aU the routes that lead a repubUc to anarchy. Her
weakness was not in her situation, her material resources,
nor in her climate. All of these were admirable. She
possessed as magnificent a land as the God of nature
ever smffed upon — a land which claimed the flora of
both continents, and which reveled in every plant that
could be grown on the habitable globe ; grand forests of
every description of timber, numberless droves of wffd

250 THE CllADLE OP THE CONFEDERACY.
cattle, birds of the brightest plumage and most ravish
ing song ; a cUmate offering every degree of tempera
ture, and mines of precious metal which for centuries
had sustained the tottering thrones of Spain. Possess
ing every natural advantage which a government might
wish, the American army found the Mexican nation
rotten to the core. The people were overshadowed by
a church, whose vast wealth gave them a temporal
power even greater than the spiritual power. The reU
gious corporations which controUed the monasteries and
nunneries, and the secular corporations which controlled
the mines, had added riches to riches, whffe the mass of
people grew poorer and poorer.
The power of the corporations gave preferment in the
army, and hence ambitious Mexicans, leaning to the
money inffuence in order to rise in office rapidly and
to reap an early fortune, regarded as little the letter of
constitutions as they did the wants and necessities of
the people. Hence in twenty years there had been
forty revolutions. The rise and faU of parties, the
overthrow and resurrection of Presidents, Emperors and
Dictators followed each other in such rapid succession
that the events and even the names of leaders have
perished from memory.
The church and the army combined, possessing the
purse and the sword, leaned constantiy towards cential-
ism. To preserve the independence of the States, or
even the form of a Federal Republic, under such cir
cumstances, was an impossibffity. An ignorant country
people cared nothing for the rights of the States so long
as they could get offices in the army or employment at
the mines ; even at the capital the people saw their
city surrendered as the battie-field of aU the political
aspkants who had won reputation in the camp.

THE CRAdIe op the CONPEDERACY. 251
This country of seven miUions of people, twice as
prosperous as were the colonies of Anglo-Saxons when
they threw off the yoke of Great Britain, was now in
vaded by an army which assaulted their capital with
less than six thousand men. This handful of invaders
had landed under the walls of a strong sea fortification,
had marched through almost impassable defiles and over
easily obstructed mountains, had broken through a
triple line of defences bristling with the most approved
artiUery and defended by an army of forty thousand
Mexicans, and had finally fought its way along narrow
causeways into a city so populous that had the people
been possessed of half the spkit of the women of Sala
manca, they could have annihUated the enemy by hurl
ing hand grenades from the house tops.
The Anglo-Saxon, when overthrown or conquered,
never fawns at the feet of the conqueror. The descend
ants of Alfred and Harold preserved their dignity
and their customs under the Norman invader, and the
Saxons of Holstein and Schleswig brooked the Dan
ish yoke with such impatience ^that they readily rallied
to the banner of Prussia. Julius C^esak, with the
legions of imperial Rome, could not subdue those stal
wart, blue-eyed, ffaxen-haired warriors of the wilderness.
But the mongrel population of Mexico threw them
selves at the feet of the conqueror and offered him a
crown. On taking possession of the city of Mexico,
such was the order and security for life and property
established by the American General that at least two-
fifths of all the branches of government, including very
nearly a majority of the members of Congress and the
Executive, were anxious for annexation to the United
States. Men in and out of office, of great influence.

252 THE CRADLE OP THE CONPEDERACY.
approached General Scott privately and offered to place
at his disposal one mfflion of doUars if he would remain
in and govern Mexico. They knew that upon the rati
fication of the treaty of peace nineteen out of twenty
of the army would be disbanded and would be fi-ee to
enUst under any banner. It was expected that a large
portion of the troops would be eager to serve as the
fixvored guards of an American dynasty. One-third
more was to be added to the pay of those officers and
men who would engage in the proposed movement.
New regiments of volunteers were arriving daffy, and
these, more readUy than the others, were expected to
be carried away by the novel project. Ten thousand
Americans were counted upon as a nucleus, and this
force could be greatly increased by recruits from New
Orleans and Mobffe. A salary of |250,000 per annum
was offered General Scott. All the fortresses, all the
armies of the counti-y, all the custom-houses were already
in his hands. A distribution of a littie money, or the
arrest of those who were opposed to the scheme, would
easffy secure a favorable vote of the Mexican Congress ;
and then nothing was left to obstruct the mounting of
the American General to the Mexican throne, with as
much ease as Bernadotte ascended the throne of Swe
den. This offer, so shameful to the Mexicans, was re
jected for two reasons, as given by General Scott him
self The first reason was, that he could not honorably
resign from under his own flag except to add to the
glory of his country by immediate annexation of
Mexico to the United States. Such a reason, as clear
as the sunlight to ah Anglo-Saxon, could not be appre
ciated by the average Mexican. The second reason
was that, as there were but one milUon of pure-blooded

THE CRADLE OP THE CONPEDEEAOY. 253
white men in Mexico, and six miUions of Indians and
mixed Indians, Negroes and Spaniards, the American
General beUeved that the annexation of such a free
population to the United States would be an injury to
his country.
The soldiers mingled with the people, and soon dis
covered the intrigues into which thek shameless enemy
was entering. They repeUed the proposition as earnestly
as did thek commander. If General Scott, who was
no pecuUar friend of the South, could discountenance a
briUiant offer of empke because of the character of the
population, the volunteers of the South who composed
two-thkds of the army, could not for a moment, con
sider a scheme by which six millions of people of de
based blood and debased ideas were to be incorporated
into a Republican Government which owed all of its
vigor and glory to the unsulUed and untainted blood of
the Anglo-Saxon.
Of the seven mfflions of Mexicans orffy one mfflion
were white men. Three mffUons were Indians; and
three millions were Mulattoes, Mestizoes and Samboes.
The Samboes were a cross of the white man and the
Negro, the white man and the Indian, and the Negro
and the Indian, with aff the intermediate shades and
degrees of debased blood resulting from a union of the
Mestizo with the Sambo, and the Mulatto with both.
Many miUions of white men had come and gone in the
lapse of three centuries ] many hundreds of thousands
of Negro slaves had been imported and had perished ;
many mffUons of Indians had been swept away by the
brutality of Cortez and his successors, and now the
Republic of Mexico exhibited to the young Southerner
who stood guard^before the haUs of the Montezuma

254 THE CRADLE OP THE CONFEDERACY.
the singular spectacle of a nation composed mainly of
half-breeds, whose color was graduaUy year by year
assuming a darker shade, untff it must eventually go
back to the copper complexion of the aborigines.
This Republic of half-breeds, although generaled in the
Senate, in the army, and in the church, by pure-blooded
white men,. was the miserable thing which taught the
high-spirited Southerner that the strength of a nation
depends more upon the race than upon the govern
ment. The Government of Mexico is modeled after that
of the United States ; but what the pure-blooded An
glo-Saxon could accompUsh, the mind of the dark
races of Central America could not even compass.
Whffe the former advanced with the tread of a giant,
driving the copper-colored race towards the Rockv
Mountains, and holding the black race in servitude,
Mexico surrendered to the optimistic ideas of natural
race equality, which were sweeping over France and
the Iberian peninsular. Whffe the United States, with
a homogeneous population of citizens, bounded to the
front rank of nations, her mongrel sister RepubUc fell
to the earth before a single feeble blow from a handful
of brave and intelligent white men, under the lead of
General Scott..
The gaUant troops of South Carolina, Georgia, Ala
bama and Mississippi, which followed the banner of
John A. Quitman and Jefferson Davis, on the bloody
field of Buena Vista, and at the Belan Gate of . iexico,
understood even at that early day that in a Republic
there could be no intermediate station between the slave
and the freeman. A freedman, without civff and polit
ical rights, without ultimate incorporation into the body

THE CRADLE OF THE CONFEDERACY. 255
poUtic, was a being unknown to the history of Repub
lics. So soon as emancipation was accompUshed, the
tendency would inevitably be towards the retention of
the freedman by the land owner, and his permanent
fixture to the soU. What would happen then in a
State Uke South CaroUna, Mississippi or Louisiana,
where the Negro race predominated, would be what had
happened in Mexico. Even in the States of Georgia,
Alabama and Florida, where mercenary white men
might unite their fortunes with the black race it was
possible that the whites would lose their ascendancy.
The movement of the emancipated Negroes would be
towards the Gulf States. White immigrants would
loathe a Une of march in which they would be doomed
to such fellowship : and thus the fakest part of the
South would be given up to the poUtical power of the
Negro. This poUtical power would step by step ac
quire social powery and whether within or without the
bond of wedlock, would finally blast the cotton pro
ducing region with a race of hybrids. How many
years would be necessary for such a result to be reached
could only be surmised ; but certain it was that in less
than half a century the Castilian Vice Kingdom of
New Spain had cut loose from its typical white man's
Government, and had become a RepubUc incapable of
self-protection. To the soldiers of the South, it appeared that in
this beautiful but accursed land Nature had vindicated
her physiological law of race. It was said by Horace
— " Naturam expellas furca, tamen usque recurret."
You may turn nature out of doors with violence, but
she wffl stffl return. The diminution of the whites
removed the source from which the Mulatto received

256 THE CRADLE OP THE CONPEDERACY.
his light shade, and the whole array of colors, Mulatto,
Mestizo, Quadroon, Creole, Sambo, and Chino, were now
reverting to the prevaffing color, the copper of the
Indian. When Mr. Canning made his celebrated boast in
Parliament that he had created the RepubUcs of Mexico
and Peru, Columbia, BoUvia, and the Argentine, he did
not consider that it was beyond his power to create
races, and that he was simply giving the inhabitants an
opportunity to return to the Indian type. The incor
poration of aU races into the body politic of these repub-
Ucs, and the breaking down of aU social barriers, simply
turned back the hand of time three hundred years on
the dial. The recognition by England of those mon
grel nations should have been styled"—" a recognition
" of the return of the New World 'to the aboriginal
"Indian population, from whom no good have ever
" come, and from whom nothing but evff could be ex-
" pected." Would not the same physiological law hold
good in the Gulf States ? When the negro shaff have
prevaffed in the cotton section, and famiUarity shaU have
broken down the social barriers between the races; when
the half-breeds shall have become so numerous as to
absorb every vestige of poUtical power ; and when the
pure whites shaU have removed to States in which they
may be ruled and taxed by men of thek own color and
race, wffl not the hybrids revert rapidly to the purer
negro type, and thus through successive generations the
last drop of Anglo-Saxon blood be swaUowed up in the
Afiican ? Such has been the history of Mexico ; why
might such not be the history of South CaroUna ?
Was it to be hoped that the danger would be averted
by the supply of new material furnished the Anglo-

THE CRADLE OP THE CONFEDERACY. 257
Saxon by the more Northern States? On the con
trary, the negroes would become massed in the cotton-
growing region, and their numbers would increase fir
more by concentration than the whites could increase
by infiltration from the North. After a few genera-
tionsj it was reasonable to beUeve, nay, absolutely cer
tain, that the hybrids of the Gulf States would exhibit
quaUties identical with those of the mixed races of
Mexico. Impoverished, haughty, uneducated, defiant, bigoted,
disputatious, without financial credit, beaten in arms, far
behind the age in mechanical progress or social civiUza
tion, and loaded with debt, Mexico presented the mis
erable spectacle of a nation without nationality, of no
distinct race, and reposing honor and confidence in
worthless mUitary leaders. The people found them
selves oppressed by those whom they caressed, a repub
Uc with aU the essential features of a mffitary despot
ism, a lawless nation which would be more serviceable
to the human race were it to revert once more to that
aboriginal race which at least built the halls of the
Montezumas. Would not such be the fate of the fairest territory of
her Anglo-Saxon sister, when four millions of unedu
cated negroes and mulattoes, incapable of reading the
baffots which they cast for mffitary chieftains, assume
to legislate for the Anglo-Saxon race, to hold the bal
ance of power in Presidential elections, and to guide
the civffization of the 19th century as Photon attempted
to guide the chariot of the sun when he was wrecked
on the deserts of Africa ?

CHJ^PTER XI.

William L. Yancey and the Montgomery District— The
Alahama Democratic Resolutions of 184.8 — Ge^ieral
Cass and the States-Rights Party — The Nashville Con
vention and Defeat of the Secessiu^iists — The Compro
mise Measures of Clay — Triumph of the Union Party
all over the South — Defeat of Governors Seabrook and
Quitman — The Georgia Resolutions — Union Leaders
and Se^itiment in Alabama, &c., &c.

" Two great powers that will not live together are'in our midst, tuR-
glng at each other's throats. They will searcli each other out though you
separate them a hundred times. And if by an insane blindness you
shall contrive to put off the issue and send their unsettled dispute dowu
to your children, it will go down gathering volume and strength at every
step, to waste and desolate their heritage. Let it be settled now. Clear
the place. Bring in the champions. Let them put their lances in rest
for the charge. Sound the trumpet, and God save the right !"
Henet Waed Bebohek,

" We confess that we Intend to trample under foot the Constitution of
this country. Daniel Webster says ' you are a law-abiding people,' that
the glory of New England is 'that It is a law-abiding community.'
Shame on it if this be true ; if even the religion of New England sinks
as low as its statute book. But I say we are not a law-abiding commu
nity. God be thanked for It." Wendell Phillips, March, 1819.

The conquest of Mexico, and the eagerness with
which the notables of that country embraced the idea
of annexation to the United States, led to the hope in
the Southern mind, that not only Texas and a part of
Mexican territory, but the entke repubUc, might be
acquired as a result of the war. General Quitman
hastened to Washington and laid before the President
a plan for permanent occupation of the country. The

260 THE CRADLE OP THE CONFEDERACY.
plan was rejected ; it was very difficult to annex any
portion of Mexico. The enemies of Southern expan
sion had fought hard against Texas. They would fight
stffl harder to make free territory of the Mexican acqui
sition. They would Usten to no scheme for more
territory. The tieaty of Guadaloupe Hidalgo was
signed and ratified, and the American army disbanded.
At the close of the Mexican war, the Alabama Con
gressional District, of which Montgomery was the prin
cipal town, was one of the most flourishing regions
upon earth. The people were possessed of luxuriant
cotton lands and of innumerable slaves. They were
for the most part wealthy, educated and accomplished,
The art of agriculture was carried to the highest point
of success, and the theory of government was the uni
versal study of the citizens. The city of Montgomery,
the birth-place of the Confederacy, had been for years
the residence of a man whose briUiant genius had been
laboriously trained and who was destined to be a leader
in those movements which were to make Montgomery
famous in history for all time to come. William
Lowndes Yancey, a logician of a high order of intellect
and an orator of most captivating address, was then in
the meridian of his powers. " He was a States-Rights
man of the most extreme school, a devoted follower of
Calhoun. BeUeving that the anti-slavery movement
would not cease untU it invaded and destroyed the
South, not only politically, but sociaUy and commer-
ciaUy, he opposed at every step all efforts at compro
mise. He demanded the fuU measure of constitutional
justice to the South. The North had no right to put
a coUar of shame upon the neck of the South by her
Missouri compromise Unes, by her denial of equal pro-

"tHE CRADLE OP THE CONFEDERACY. 261
tection to aff kinds of property in the common terri
tory. With Yancey it was not enough to say that
slavery could never go north of thirty-six degrees thirty
minutes, and that it was immaterial to debate about
slavery extension when there were not enough slaves to
thoroughly develop the slave States. With him, the
denial of a right, however abstract, was an act of injus
tice and oppression. The injustice must be remedied
or there could be no peace. A denial of justice was a
badge of superiority, and he would never consent to
live in union with a people who would refuse him any
muniment of right given him by law. Impulsive as a
mountain torrent dashing over rocks, his eloquence had
a boldness, a coolness, a transparency which challenged
admkation. There was nothing of the froth of deck-.
mation in his speech, but every leap of the torrent
struck a resounding blow, bearing away all opposition
and sweeping "the debris before it, untff it spread out
into a broad, placid, irresistible current. What Patrick
Henry was to the first American Revolution, William
L. Yancey was to the second. But Yancey possessed
that which Patrick Henry did not have — ^cultivation, a
thorough acquaintance with governmental law, and a
wonderful command of vigorous English.
Henry S. Foote, who played so conspicuous a part
as Governor of Mississippi and United States Senator
fi-om that State during the Union contest of 1849-50,
and who was subsequently a member of the Confederate
Congress with Mr. Yancey, has given a very just de
scription of this remarkable leader and orator. He
says : " There was, in Mr. Yancey's person, at least in
" his latter days, but Uttle to impress the casual behold-
'• er, or to enkindle the sympathies of those who had no

262 TttE CRADLE OP THE CONPEDERACY.
" special intercourse with him. In stature he was rather
" below than above the height of ordinary men. His
" face was well shaped, but neither strikingly handsome
" or the reverse. His vestments were quite remarkable
" for their plainness and simplicity, and did not always
" fit him as well a.s they might have done. His aspect
" was in general somewhat lacking in animation, and
" often betrayed tokens of nervous exhaustion. His
" manners were decidedly reserved, with a percepti-
" ble approximation of moroseness. He made no at-
" tempt to shine in ordinary converse. It is known
" that he had studied men closely, and had looked
" deeply into the motives and purposes of those with
" whom he had held intercourse, or whose movements
" in public life had speciaUy attracted his attention. In
" general he was able to keep the tempestuous feelings
" of his soul in a state of stoical suppression ; but occa-
'' sions sometimes arose when, either having lost his
" accustomed power of self-control, or deeming it expe-
" dient to make some display of the stormier energies
" with which he was endowed, he unloosed aU the furies
" under his command upon some noted antagonist, and
" did and .'-aid things which those who witnessed his
" sublime ravings never again forgot. * *
" In my judgment, the South has contained within
" her limits no such eloquent and effective pplitical
" speaker as Wm. L. Yancey since the death of George
" McDuffie. When rising to discuss a question of
" special dignity and importance, his aspect and man-
" ner were marked with mingled earnestness and solem-
" nity. His exordium was always uttered with an
" imposing slowness and formality. He enunciated
" every word and syllable distinctly. His voice was

THE CRADLE OP THE CONFEDERACY, 203
" clear, strong and sonorous. He commonly spoke in
" the conversational tone, a little elevated. His ges-
" tures were few, but these were most apt and impres-
" sive. He never addressed either a deliberative body
" or a popular audience without having previously mas-
" tered the subject, upon which he was expected to
" dffate, in all its parts. His acute and well-balanced
" inteUect, suppUed as it was with vast stores of informa-
" tion of almost every kind, generaUy enabled him to
" anticipate and respond effectually to whatever might
" be said by his adversaries in debate. His powers of
" sarcasm were tremendous^ and he sometimes indulged
" in a bitter and sneerful ridicule which was very diflfi-
" cult to tolerate patiently. The greatest of his speeches
" in Richmond was that which he deUvered upon what
" was known as the Judiciary question, in which he
" took strong ground against conferring appeUate juris-
" diction upon the Confederate Supreme Court in cases
" originating in the State courts. I had the satisfaction
" of hearing the whole of his elaborate argument on
" this occasion, and can declare that it seemed to me to
" be nearly equal in vigor, briUiancy and classic orna-
" ment to some of the best speeches of Webster or
" Pinckney. Arthur F. Hopkins sat by my side on
" this interesting occasion, and exclaimed to me more
" than once that he was now thoroughly con-vdnced that
" Mr. Yancey was by far the ablest of living speakers.
" I have akeady said that Mr. Yancey had much
" hand in the origination of the late civff war, and such
" was certainly the case ; but in regard to his conduct
" in this respect, I have long since ceased to censure
'•' him with bitterness. Trained in the days of his open-
'' ing manhood in the extreme States-Rights school of

264 THE CRADLE OP THE CONFEDERACY.
" the South, he very naturally adopted certain plausible
" dogmas, to the support of which he afterwards devoted
" the' best energies of his splendid and gigantic intel-
" lect. He reaUy believed that, under our system of
" government, the States are absolutely sovereign,
" bound together only by a league which they may at
" any moment dissolve, and that the Federal Govern-
" ernment, owing its origin to States, as such, is a mere
" agency established by them for purposes of conveni-
" ence, and has no powers whatever save those which
" have been formally and specifically conceded to it.
" He devoutly believed, with Mr. Calhoun, that African
" slavery was a vital and indispensable ingredient of the
" system of polity established by our fathers ; that,
" without it, no freedom, worthy of the name, could be
" enjoyed by the white race of this continent, and that
" the more widely diffused it might become, the more
" prosperous and happy would be the whole republic.
" Entertaining these views, it is not at all wonderful
" that Mr. Yancey should have sought to engraft upon
"the Democratic political platform of 1848 a resolu-
" tion affirmatively protective of slavery in the terri-
" tories. It as little surprising that he and those agree-
'• ing with him in sentiment should advocate disunion
"in 1851, because of the admission of California as a
" free State ; that they should have made an attempt
"in 1861 to persuade the Democratic party to take
" an ' aggressive attitude' in behalf of slavery; that,
" fliUing in this, he and they should have attempted to
" disintegrate that party ; and that when, by these pro-
" ceedings, the election of a Republican President was
" brought about, secession was at once resolved on as

THE CRADLE OF THE CONFEDERACY. 265
" the only means left, in their opinion, of saving Afri-
" can slavery from ultimate extermination,
" I repeat that, far as I am, and have ever been,
" fiom coinciding with Mr. Yancey and bis States-
" Rights adherents as to these matters, I am not at all
" incUned, at this moment, to heap opprobrium upon his
" memory. His sincerity in utterance of his opinions
" I do not at all question, and it is due to him to say
" that his conduct in Richmond as a legislator, during
" the trying years of the war of the Rebellion, was in
" the highest degree marked with consistency, firmness
" and manly independence. Whatever else may be
"justly said by enemies of Wm. L. Yancey, these
" truths may be safely asserted of him ; he never
" sought to make money by the war ; he ever opposed
" the suspension of habeas corpus — a measure so bane-
" ful to individual freedom ; he never gave his assent
" to the displacement of able and gallant mffitary com-
" manders, in order to make way for the incompetent
" fixvorites of a prejudiced and seff- wffled executive
" chief; he never proposed to murder in cold blood all
" the prisoners taken in war [nor did any other Confed-
" erate leader propose such a thing. —Author] ; he never
" introduced a bill providing for the permanent establish-
" ment of martial law ; he never united in a scheme for
" the coercing of one of the States deemed by him sover-
" eign, and constraining it to remain in a confederacy
" after it had become heartUy disgusted with it, and
" wished to retuin to the Federal Union ; he never voted
" for a bffl providing for the payment of the salary of
" the Confederate President in gold, whffst the Con-
" federate soldiers, in rags and barefoot, were refused
" the wretched pittance of depreciated paper which they

266 THE CRADLE OP THE CONFEDERACY. ,
"had been allowed by law; he had no hand in the
" unpardonable burning of Richmond, and, had he sur-
" vived so long as the month of December, 1 864 —
" seeing the ruin then impending over the Confederate
" cause — he would, I feel perfectly assured, have urged,
" with all the eloquence at his command, the making of
" peace with the Federal Government, on the honorable
" and advantageous terms at that time offered by Mr.
" Lincoln, as all inteUigent men. now know.
" Future generations wiU undoubtedly recognize
" Wm. L. Yancey as one of the ablest, most far-seeing,
" and most statesmanlike personages that took part in
" the Confederate struggle, as he was undeniably one of
" the most profound jurists and most eloquent advo-
" cates that have ever adorned the bar of the South
" and Southwest."
Upon the appointment of Senator Wm. R. King to
the French mission, and the election of Dixon H.
Lewis to succeed him in the Senate, the seat vacated
by Mr. Lewis in the Lower House was filled by the
election of Mr, Yancey. At the next election Mr.
Yancey was again elected to Congress, but in conse
quence of poverty, resigned the seat before the expira
tion of his term. At the present day when we see
poor men entering Congress and amassing great wealth
in a few years, it may astonish many that a man of
Yancey's transcendant eloquence and ability should
find no means of acquiring money at Washington,
apart from his meagre salary. The astonishment of
such persons would be increased when they are told
that in that day no one dared to make presents, or give
money or offer bribes in the shape of large dividends

THE CRADLE OF THE CONFEDERACY. 207
on nominal investments, to a representative from the
South. Mr. Yancey was the acknowledged leader of the
States-Rights wing of the Democratic party. The
States-Rights men had gradually grown in strength,
just as the aggressions of the Abolitionists became
bolder, more insulting and more harassing ; and .after
the Mexican war there was but Uttle difference between
them and their alUes, except as to the proper remedy
for grievances. One point of difference however, which
afterwards was swept away by the violence of sectional
passion, was well defined towards the close of Mr.
Polk's administiation. It was as to the power of Con
gress, in establishing rules and regulations for the gov
ernment of a territory, to exclude slavery therefrom or
to empower the territorial legislature, its own agent, to
enact such exclusion.
Mr. Calhoun, Mr. Yancey and the States-Rights
men, after 1 847, denied this power in Congress. A
large, perhaps the greater portion of the Democratic
party, before that date and for several years after, ad
mitted the power. It is certain that the Whig party of
the South generally admitted it down to the decision in
the Dred Scott cae. What is known as the Missouri
Compromise, the act by which Congress forbid slavery
in all the territory north of thirty-six degrees thirty
minutes, was secured by Southern votes. Lowndes of
South Carolina, King and Walker of Alabama, Pinck
ney of Maryland, Macon of North Carolina, Barbour
and Pleasants of Virginia, Smith of South Carolina,
Elliott and Walker of Georgia, all voted for its reten
tion. Had it not been supported by the South it could
never have prevaffed. It is true, that without it Mis-

268 THE CRADLE OP THE CONFEDERACY.
souri might not have been admitted as a slave State ;
but an inconvenience like that would not have per
suaded such men to sustain the measure ff they had
believed it to be unconstitutional. Mr. Monroe held it
to be a constitutional measure. His Cabinet, according
to his own recollection, and according to the diary of
Mr. John Quincy Adams, gave it as their unanimous
opinion that the act was constitutional. It was held to
be constitutional by the large bulk of both the Whig
and Democratic parties, who pointed to it as a sacred
compact for more than thkty years. Had they believed
it to be unconstitutional they would never have regard
ed it as sacred.
No question was made as to this power in Congress
as late as the admission of Texas into the Union. The
joint resolution by which Texas was admitted, provided
that " in such States as might be formed out of said
" territory north of said Missouri Compromise Une
" slavery or involuntary servitude, except for crime,
" shall be prohibited." This measure received the votes
of all the States-Rights men of the House. The whole
South, Whig and Democrat alike, voted for it. When
it went to the Senate, Mr. Buchanan said that he was
pleased with it because " these resolution^ went to re-es-
" tablish the Missouri Compromise, by fixing a Une
" within which slavery was in fiiture to be confined."
As the joint resolution could not become operative for
the prohibition of slavery in any part of her territory
untff Texas had actually become a State in the Union,
it would appear that this act of Congress went further
tVan the WUmot Proviso, and actually effected the abo
lition of slavery in a portion of a sovereign State. No
part of Texas had ever become or would ever become

THE CRADLE OF THE CONFEDERACY. 269
a territory of the United States. Again, when the bffl
for organizing the territory of Oregon was before Con
gress in 1847, Mr. Burt, of South Carolina, moved the
recognition of the Missouri Compromise line, and every
Southern member voted for it. Subsequently, in the
Senate, in 1848, upon a motion to extend the Missouri
line to the Pacific, the South voted for it unanimously.
The NashviUe Convention of 1851 favored the Missouri
Compromise, and the caucus of Southern Congressmen,
through their committee of fifteen, accepted this line,
and adopted it as a settlement of disputes. Calhoun, as
a member of President Monroe's cabinet, did not object
to, even if he questioned, the constitutionality of the
power of Congress to preclude slavery from the territo
ries. And so, as late as 1848, although opposed to the
principle of the Missouri Compromise, he gave it his
support in the case of Oregon. For nearly thkty years
neither he nor any other States-Rights leader ques
tioned the constitutionaUty of the act. Mr. Yancey
was among those Southern members of Congress who
voted to apply the Missouri Compromise to the northern
portion of Texas. By this vote he distinctly recog
nized the power of Congress to prohibit the existence
of slavery in a ftiture State which might be constructed
from that of Texas, whether that State should apply
with a constitution recognizing slavery or not.
Alexander H. Stephens, one of the most pronounced
of the States-Rights school, as late as 1854, said from
his seat in Congress — " I say nothing of the constitu-
" tional view of the question. When I have been asked
" if Congress does not possess the power to impose re-
"strictions, or to pass the Wilmot Proviso, I have
" waived that issue ; I never discuss it. On that point

270 THE CRADLE OP THE CONFEDERACY.
" I have told my constituents, and I tell you, I treat it
" as Chatham treated it in the British Parliament when
" the question of power to tax the colonies without rep-
" resentation was raised there. That question Chatham
" would not discuss ; but he told those who were so
" unjustly exercising it, that ff he were an American
" he would resist it. The question of power is not the
" question ; the question is, is it right to exercise it ? "
It was as late as February, 1847, when Calhoun
first denied the constitutional power of Congress to pro
hibit of itself or by its delegated agent, the territorial
legislature, the introduction or holding of slave property
in any of the territories. This denial was presented to
the public in the shape of a series of resolutions intro
duced to the Senate. Although the Senate did not act
upon them, they were taken up and acted upon by
several of the Southern States. Yancey presented the
question to the Democratic State Convention which as
sembled at Montgomery, 1848, in a series of resolu
tions, which declared :
1. That the opinion advanced and maintaine'd by
some that the people of a territoi-y, in other event than
in the formation of a constitu'ion preparatory to admit
tance as a State, can prevent the introduction or hold
ing of any property, be it slave or otherwise, is a restric
tion as indefensible in principle and as dangerous in
practice as ff su^h restriction had been imposed by
Congress. 2. That those who hold that such restrictions may
be enforced, should not be recognized as Democrats.
3. That the Democratic party of Alabama are
pledged, under any stress of poUtical necessity, not to

THE CRADLE OF THE CONPEDERACY. 271
vote for any one for President or Vice-President who
holds to such restrictions.
Yancey advocated these resolutions in a speech as
concisely logical as that delivered by Mr. Calhoun, and
with aU the fervor and enthusiasm of Henry Clay.
They were adopted by the Convention. Yancey was
appointed one of the delegates to the Baltimore Con
vention. He wrote to the several gentlemen whose
names had been spoken of in connection with the nomi
nation, asking a response to the Alabama resolutions.
Mr. Buchanan evasively repUed that he favored the
appUcation of the Missouri Compromise line to the
newly acquired territory. This was a rejection of the
resolutions so far as more than half the . common terri
tory was concerned. General Cass replied that he
considered the duty of Congress to be limited to the
creation of a proper government for the territories,
leaving to the people inhabiting them to regulate their
internal concerns in their own way. This was a com
plete rejection of the resolutions.
Yancey was sent as a delegate from Alabama to the
National Democratic Convention, which was to assem
ble at Baltimore. Foote, in his " Bench and Bar of the
Southwest," says :
" I saw Wm. L. Yancey, for the first time, in the sum-
" mer of 1 848. He had a»n interview with Mr. Calhoun,
" in the haU of the National Senate, when he was on his
" way to Baltimore, where the National Convention of
"the Democratic party were about assembling. Of
" what occurred at this interview, I received authentic
" and satisfactory information at the tffne. Mr. Cal-
" houn and Mr. Yancey, as weU as many other pro-
?' slavery men in the South, were not content with the

272 THE CRADLE OP THE CONPEDERACY.
" protection understood to be given by the Federal
" Constitution to slavery in the States where it then
" existed, but desired to obtain for this institution addi-
" tional organic guarantees. This they hoped to secffre
" through the instrumentaUty of the Democratic party,
" and, with a view to this end, resolved to get, if they
" could, a new plank in the accustomed poUtical plat-
" form of that party, committing its members to the
" adoption of a distinct intervention policy, and allow-
" ing slavery to be introduced into all the vacant terri-
" tory of the Union. Mr. Yancey is well known to
" have proceeded to Baltimore on the occasion referred
" to, and to have made an effort to have such a resolu-
" tion as has been described adopted by that body.
" Faffing in this, he withdrew from the convention in
" disgust, returned to his own home in Alabama, and,
" for some years thereafter, confined himseff exclu-
" sively to the practice of his profession, in which lie.,
" had already become not a little distinguished. /'His
" devotion to the study of law books was such as is not
" often seen. MeanwhUe, he read scientific and literary
" works of acknowledged merit, and labored with a
" most unremitting zeal to perfect himself in the art of
" oratory. In a few years his fame as a jurist and
" as a forensic advocate was widely diffused, and he at-
" tained such a degree of inteUectual culture as placed
" him far beyond the reach of all local rivalry."
When the National Democratic Convention met, Yan
cey offered the Alabama resolutions, and they were re
jected by a vote of 216 nays to only 36 ayes; so
fixed at that day was the opinion of the Democratic
party that Congress had the power, of itself or by its
agent, to exclude slavery from the territories. The

THE CRADLE OP THE CONPEDERACY. 273
question with them was not one of power, but of justice.
That the Democracy of Alabama were not wedded to
the new doctrine, although they had declared in con
vention that under no stress of political necessity would
they support a man who did not hold it, appears from
the fact that they ratified the nomination of Cass, and
when Yancey declared that under the resolutions he
could not support the nominee of the party, he was vir-
tuaUy ostracised. Although banished, but a few years
elapsed before the party sought him in retirement and
accepted his leadership.
Whffe it is difficult to understand with what consist
ency Yancey, who, by voting to apply the Missouri
prohibition line to a part of fexas, had recognized the
power of Congress to refuse admittance to a State ap
plying with a constitution admitting slavery, could now
lay down the counter-theory as the test of loyalty to
the Constitution, it is not difficult to understand the
reasons why the new position was taken. Calhoun, in
a letter to a member of the Alabama Legislature at this
time, said thai " instead of shunning we ought to court
" the issue with the North on the slavery question";
that he would go one step fiirther and " force the issue
" on the North." " We are now stronger, relatively,"
said Mr. Calhoun, "than we shall be hereafter politi-
" caUy and moraUy." From this day the action of the
States-Rights party in Alabama and elsewhere became
aggressive. The policy was no longer to find compro
mises by which grave and ever recurring questions
could be evaded. It was now to hold the Free SoU ele
ment — the commercial States of New England — to the
fiiU measure of the Constitution. Whenever they forced
an issue, the South was to meet- it and force another,

274 THE CRADLE OF THE CONFEDERACY.
The Free Soffers had constantly refiised to abide by the
Missouri Compromise. They would take nothing less
than the aboUtion of slavery in all the territories by
act of Congress. They would pernut no master to
take his slave servant in temporary travel through the
North. They would permit no fugitive slave to be ar
rested. They would aboUsh the slave trade in the Dis
trict. They would aboUsh slavery itseff in the District.
They would forbid the sale of slaves fi-om one State to
another. They would forbid slavery in aU places be
longing to the Government, even within the limits of
slave States. At last they were beginning to contend
that slavery was aboUshed in all the States by the Dec
laration of Independence.
In Alabama the contest of 1848, the period at which
the aggressions of the Northern extremists were met by
counter-aggressions from Southern extremists, was most
violent. The States-Rights Whigs, who had joined the
Democrats four years before, now returned to their
ranks, and the Democracy threatened a rupture be
tween the friends of Yancey and that wiog of the party
which was led by Benjamin Fitzpatrick. The Fitzpat-
RiCK Democrats held with General Oass, and afterwards
with Mr. Douglas, that the honor and the interests of
the South would be subserved by pernaitting the people
of a territory to decide for themselves whether they
would have slavery or not. They opposed breaking up
the Union in the event Congress should refuse to enact
a Territorial Code of laws recognizing and protecting
slavery. The Yancey Democrats denounced the Cass
doctrine as "squatter sovereignty "; refiised to accede
to it, and threatened secession unless Congress protected
slavery from the unfriendly legislation of the squatters.

THE CRADLE OP THE CONFEDERACY. 275
They were ready and anxious to force the issue upon
the North. The agitations and quarrels of haffa cen
tury between the commercial and agricultural sections
of the country had produced their fi-uit. The States-
Rights men beUeved that now was the time for action,
to organize their clubs, to inflame the people, and to
precipitate at least the cotton States into revolution.
The Free SoUers of the North felt the fever of ex
citement which was being engendered at the South,
fanned the flame, and held out to their exjcited brethren
a wish that the Union might be dissolved. Senator
Hale, of New Hampshke, presented a petition to the
United States Senate to dissolve the Union. Senators
Seward, Chase and Hale voted to receive it. The ap
parent wffUngness with which the agitators of the North
looked upon the idea of dissolution, and the often re
peated threats and clamors for disunion, deceived the
mass of Southern people into the delusion that seces
sion might be peaceably accompUshed. Thus both
sections were learning to question cooUy the value of
the Union, and to look upon its dissolution as an escape
from a disagreeable partnership. The idea of fighting
to preserve such a partnership was gradually being ban
ished farther and farther from the public mind.
Whffe Faneuil Hall, associated with so many de
lightful memories of the struggle for independence, was
being thrown open to the meetings of the Boston Abo
litionists, who had inscribed upon their banners — " The
" Constitution, a covenant with death, an agreement
with heU," and whffe its doors were being closed against
Daniel Webster, the States-Rights men of the South
were busily at work. Calhoun had announced that
now was the time for action. To wait longer would be

276 THE CRADLE OP THE CONPEDERACY.
to weaken the Southern cause. The issue must be
forced upon the North. To wait untff the North forced
it upon the South by the purse and sword of a sectional
administration would be suicidal. The course of Presi
dent Taylor favored his schemes. The President had
thrown himself into the arms of Mr. Seward. He
disapproved the plan of adjustment proposed by Mr.
Clay, and pronounced in favor of the immediate admis
sion of California and in favor of the Wilmot Pkoviso.
The Southern Whigs met in council and delegated Mr,
C. M. Conrad of Louisiana, Mr. Humphrey Marshall
of Kentucky, and Mr. Robert Toombs of Georgia, to
wait upon him and inform him that his Southern friends
would be driven into opposition ff he persisted in his
course. His reply indicated that he would adhere to
the Free Soff Whigs rather than to the Southern Whigs.
The breaking up of the Whig party at that day would
have thrown almost the entke population of the South
into the ranks of the States Rights men, and would
have pro'ipitated in 1850 the revolution which the
death of General Taylor postponed untff 1860.
The violation on the part of the North of the rule
agreed upon in the Missouri Compromise ; by pressing
the Wilmot Proviso upon the South; by excluding
Southern property from entrance into that territory
which had been acquked by Southern blood and valor ;
by denying to the South an equal participation under
the Constitution of the benefit of the common terri
tories, plunged the people of the South into profound
agitation. States-Rights men of aU parties, Whigs,
as weU as Democrats, claimed that the Constitution
which perinitted and tolerated slavery in the States
must likewise permit, tolerate and protect it in the ter-

I THE CRADLE OF THE CONFEDERACY. 277
ritories so long as they belonged to aU the States alike.
It was difficult to deny this reasoning. To those who
had inherited slaves and had grown familiar with the
institution of slavery, it appeared as clear as the noon
day sun. Men like Benton, who leaned to the Free
Soffers, contended that under the Mexican law, forbid
ding slavery, California and New Mexico came to the
Union with fiee territory, and niust remain free unless
some power inaugurated slavery there. This he
claimed could not be done by Congress, as the Consti
tution could not estabUsh slavery, however much it
might protect it where it already existed. Men like
Webster contended that the Constitution was made for
the States and not for the territories ; that the terri
tories were governed by rules and regulations made by
Congress, and not by the articles of the Constitution ;
and that among those rules Congress might provide
one, although Mr. Webster denied the policy of such
action, against the introduction or continuance of
slavery. To the fkst argument, Mr. Calhoun replied
that as soon as the treaty between Mexico and the
United States was ratified, the sovereignty and au
thority of Mexico became extinct, and the Consti
tution took the place of Mexican law. To the second
he replied that the rules and regulations adopted by
Congress for the government of the territories must be
constitutional and could not be arbitrary, and that in
framing them the right of the people of the South to
enjoy their property in the common territory must be
observed. Resistance to the several measures before Congress
became the cry of the States-Rights party. In Mis
sissippi, a county meeting proposed a convention at

i278 THE CRADLE OP THE CONPEbBRACY.
Nashville of all the Southern States, to take steps for
a redress of grievances. In South Carolina, in Georgia
and ia Alabama, mass meetings were held in almost
every county, denouncing the biUs, and counseUng re-
astance in the event they should become law. These
meetings were participated in by States Rights Whigs
as well as Democrats, although the great bulk of the
protestants were from the Democratic ranks. The
Whigs for the most part were content to remain quiet
and await the issue. The members of the General
Assembly of Alabama, at an informal meeting, nomi
nated delegates to the proposed Nashvffle convention.
They were selected from both of the political parties.
Among those who attended, were Benjamin Fitzpatrick,
Wm. Cooper, John A. Campbell, Thos. J. Judge, John
A. Winston, L, P. Walker, Wm. M. Murphy, Nich
Davis, Reuben C. Shorter, Thos. A. Walker, Reuben
Chapman, James Abercrombie, Wm. M. Byrd — men of
the highest position in the State, of enlarged views, and
of the strictest integrity. Many of those who attended
the convention did so with a view to prevent extreme
action. The convention met June 3, 1850. The compro
mise measures proposed by Mr. Clay were then pend
ing, but the impression prevaffed that they would be
rejected. Wm. L. Sharkey, Whig, was made President
of the convention. In his introductory speech he took
occasion to say that they met, not to dissolve the Union,
but to preserve ff. The views of Mr. Sharkey, how
ever, were not the views of the convention. Whffe
the majority of the Virginia, Alabama and Tennessee
delegations opposed the whole design of the meeting,
the delegates from South Carolina, Mississippi, Texas

THE CRADLE OP THE CONFEDERACY. 279
and other States favored a clear declaration of. resist
ance. John A. Campbell, of Alabama, afterwards a
Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States,
prepared and read the resolutions. They were cautious
and prudent, condemning the Wilmot Proviso and the
other proposed hostffe legislation, but concluding not to
advise a method of resistance, in the confident expecta
tion that Congress would not adjourn without a final
settlement of the questions in dispute. These resolu
tions were a substantial defeat of the South Carolina
programme ; but to show the sentiment of the conven
tion an address was prepared to accompany the resolu
tions. This address not only denounced the several
independent propositions before Congress, but also de
nounced the pending compromise of ./±.r. Clay. Thomas
J. Judge, of Alabama, moved to strike out that part of
the address condemnatory of the compromise. The Ala
bama delegation sustained Mr, Judge, as did portions
of other delegations, but the motion failed. Mr. Aber
crombie, of Alabama, moved that the vote of each indi
vidual be recorded ; and thus it was seen that the Whigs
of the convention generally voted to accept the com
promise, and the Democrats generally voted against its
acceptance. Mr. Sharkey decUned to vote upon the
proposition to strike out. He spoke in favor of it, but
was induced, because of his position as President, to re
frain from recording his vote. The convention ad
journed to be caUed together by President Sharkey
after the action of Congress on the compromise meas
ures. He declined to caU them together again, and
thus the movement for concerted resistance feU stiU-born.
Upon the return of the Alabama delegates from
Nashville, a meeting was held at Montgomery to ratify

280 THE cradle of THE CONPEDERACY.
the action of the convention. Mr. Yancey addressed
the meeting with his usual abffity and earnestness. He
said that it was his belief that the North would not do
the South justice, that it was " time to set our house
" in order," and to sustain Texas ff need be with the
bayonet. This appeal of Mr. Yancey tended to arouse
the spirit of especiaUy the young men. It operated
powerfiiUy upon those who had volunteered in defence
of the rights of Texas and had fought the battles of
Mexico. When Texas won her independence the Rio
Grande from its mouth to the source was yielded up by
Mexico as her western boundary. But now the Free
Soffers were intent upon carving out a territory, to be
called New Mexieo, from the soil of Texas, \rith the
sole object of making it a free State. This was so
flagrant a violation of the rights of Texas that the
eloquence of Yancey, in denunciation of the scheme,
aroused a spirit of injury and resentment in the breast
of thousands of those who stiff hoped for a satisfactory
adjustment of the dispute.
From the meeting of the Nashvffle Convention in
June to the passage by the Senate of Mr. Clay's com-
jn-omise measures in August, poUtical excitement was
intense. The Abolitiooisis denounced the proposed
fugitive slave' law as violative of morality. The Free
Soffers rejected by repeated votes in Congress every
proposition to apply the Missouri Compromise Une to
the new territory. The obstinacy of the anti-slavery
men was met by an equal obstinacy at the South. The
Democratic press were almost unanimous in repudiation
of Mr. Clay's measures. The Southern Rights associa
tions denounced the compromise. The Montgomery
Advertiser and. Gazette, one of the leading journals of

THE CRADLE OF THE CONFEDERACY. 281
Alabama, made incessant assaults upon the several
measures of compromise and caUed for thek rejection,
although it was very evident that their rejection would
be foUowed instantly by the secession of South Caro
Una. In South Carolina, and among the States-Rights
men, especiaUy in Mississippi, Alabama and Georgia, it
was hoped that the plan of adjustment would faff, the
secessionists being confident that now was the hour to
strike. On the other hand the dominant, but for awhffe sup
pressed, sentiment of the people was in favor of the
plan. The undercurrent of patriotism hoped that the
compromise might succeed. In the language of Clai
borne, writing before the late war a memoir of Quit
man : " But as the boldest tremble on the verge of eter-
" nity, and shrink from the dark abyss beyond which
" all is uncertain, so they were willing to postpone for
" posterity this dread solution. Not one of them but
" would have shed his blood freely for his country, and
" now they clung to this compromise as the mariner
" clings to the last plank in the surging seas. Let
" those who feel themselves infalUble sit in inexorable
"judgment on the motives of their feUows, and con-
" demn Clay, Benton, Webster and Calhoun, the lead-
" ing advocates of the plan of reconciliation. Such
"judgment is not for me. Had these four men pro-
" nounced the words ' No Compromise,' war would most
"probably have ensued: — ^fratricidal war! And who
" knows but that the God of vengeance and of right-
" eousness would have stamped upon us the brand of
" Cain, and sent us to wander over the earth vagabonds
" among the nations ? "
Upon the passage of the compromise measures Gov-

282 THE CRADLE OP THE CONPEDERACY.
ernor Seabrook, of South Carolina, wrote to Governor
Quitman, of Mississippi, to know whether he would caU
the Legislature together to consider grievances. Quit
man repUed that he had issued his proclamation con
vening that body November 1 8th. Seabrook expressed
his gratification, and said that it was poUcy for South
CaroUna not to take the initiative, but that " she -is
" ready and anxious for immediate separation from the
" Union." The General Assembly of South CaroUna
voted resolutions suggesting a Southern Congress, to
meet at Montgomery, June 2d, 1852. They voted
also the sum of |350,000 to arm the State. The feel
ing in Texas was apparently as deep as that in Missis
sippi. That State earnestly, protested against that
portion of the compromise which cut away her territory
north of thkty-six degrees thirty minutes and added it
to New Mexico. She denied the right of Congress to
dismember a State for any purpose, and she denied the
policy of doing so simply to appease the Free Soff pro
fessed regard for the sanctity of the Missouri Compro
mise line. Governor Bell convoked the Texas Legis
lature and caUed for one thousand volunteers to defend
the unity of Texas. General Quitman, writing to Gen
eral Pinckney Henderson, said that he was wilUng to
draw his sword for Texas, and that so soon as a coUision
of arms appeared inevitable he would convene the Mis
sissippi Legislature. Soon after, he issued his procla
mation, basing the caU upon outrages imposed upon the
South by the compromise legislation. Upon the meet
ing of the Legislature he adtised a caU for a State Con
vention to act in concert with other States, or separately,
in changing the relations of the State with the Federal
Government. The Legislature decided to call a con-

•tHE CRADLE OF THE CONFEDERACY. 283
vention for September, 1851. For the period of one
year, therefore, the people of Mississippi were greatly
agitated upon the question of acceptance or rejection
of the compromise. The Whigs, led by Sharkey, aided
by a stiong detachment of Democrats, formed a Union
party, aroused the people, returned a majority of the
State Convention, and elected Senator Henry S. Foote
Governor over Col. Jefferson Davis. Governor Quit
man had been the original candidate against Mr. Foote,
but had retired from the canvass when the people pro
nounced against secession in the election of members of
the convention. Mr. Da-vis was nominated towards
the close of the canvass. The issue of secession, being
presented clearly and distinctly to the people of Mis
sissippi, it was clearly and distinctly repudiated.
In Georgia the public excitement was quite as intense
as in Mississippi, South Carolina and Texas. There a
State convention was also called to consider the meas
ure and remedy for grievances. In the election of
members a large majority of Union men were returned.
The resolutions of that convention, known as the
" Georgia Platform of 1850," were reported by Charles
J. Jenkins, a Whig, and an eminent lawyer. Alexan
der H. Stephens was one of the committee who reported
them. It was resolved, that as our fathers yielded to
compromise to frame the Constitution, they should yield
somewhat for its continuance ; that whffe not approving
all the measures of adjustment, they accepted and
abided by them : and that Georgia should resist to the
utmost any effort to interfere with the rights of the
people of the South under the compromise. Nothing
was said as to the right of secession ; Mr. Stephens and
other Whigs upon the committee believing in that right.

284 THE CRADLE OP THE CONFEDERACY.
In the election for Governor, Howell Cobb, the candi
date of the Union party, was elected by an overwhelm
ing majority.
Even in South Carolina the Union party, uniting
their forces with the Co-operation party, exhibited such
unexpected strength, that it was clear that an attempt
at separate secession would meet resistance within her
own borders ; that the caU of a Federal marshal to sus
tain a mandate of a Federal Court, would have raUied
to his support a vast number of determined citizens, and
precipitated civil war in every district.
General Quitman, to whom an appeal had been made
to take the leadership in the secession movement, saw
that even the Guff States would refuse to act in concert.
Writing to Colonel John S. Preston of South Carolina,
he said that the only way to arouse the South was for
one State to secede, that the South would be startied,
and the people be compelled to take sides upon a plain
issue of coercion. Said he : " Should the Federal
" Government attempt to employ force, an active and
" cordial union of the whole South would be instantiy
" effected, and a complete Southern Confederacy organ-
" ized." Believing this to be true the convention of
Southern Rights Associations met at Charleston and
arrived at the conclusion with but few dissenting voices,
that affhough co-operation was in every respect desir
able, stffl, resistance alone by South CaroUna was to be
preferred to obedience to the compromise laws. Men
like Butler, Barnwell, and Orr, opposed separate
action, whffe men like Pettigru, opposing secession in
either way, threw their numbers on the side of co-op
eration. The people of South CaroUna met in conven
tion, May, 1851. The two-thkds majority necessary

THE CRADLE OP THE C0NFEDER,A0Y. 285
to pass the ordinance for separate secession was want
ing ; the minority report recommending co-operation
was ably advocated by Mr. Orr, and finally com
manded the support of more than one-third of the
convention. In Alabama the contest waged as warmly as in the
other States, and it was now that the Union principles,
taught the people by the Whigs and Jackson Demo
crats in the campaign of 1840, became their guide.
Brave, impetuous, spkited and defiant, it was difficult
for her citizens to regard the aggressions of New Eng
land with patience. They saw their friends reviled as
inhuman; their own fathers, as slave holders, read from
the church by the anti-slavery party of the North ;
they saw the post offices teeming with incendiary pub
lications ; the United States ffag displaced by the State
flag on the Massachusetts State House ; and the Con
stitution nuUified by the passage of what was caUed
personal liberty biUs. Not only nullification, but they
heard disunion openly proclaimed by the " Emancipa-
" tor," and other kindred newspapers ; they saw the
leading Free Soff journal pubUshing an ode addressed to
the ffag of the United States — " Tear down that flaunt-
" ing he." They saw the Abolitionist, Garrison, ad
mitted to FaneuU HaU, and its doors closed against
Daniel Webster, because of his opposition to the WU
mot Proviso. In spite of aU these outrages, spurning
the flag, trampling on the Constitution, nulUfying laws,
and rending the very churches in twain, the Union men
of Alabama did not despond nor despair. They saw
that the outcry against " the slave power " was simply
an electioneering scheme of politicians at the North,
that the South had not the slaves with which to popu-

286 THE CRADLE OP THE CONPEDERACY.
late territories as fast as the North could populate them
with European immigrants, and with their own drifting
anti-slavery, people ; that the preservation of the
balance of power in the Lower House of Congress was
an impossibiUty, and that its preservation in the Senate
was doomed by the inability of the South to keep pace
with the North in point of numbers ; that the preser
vation of the rights of the South was only possible by
a union of right thinking men North and South ; and
that slavery could be protected only under the flag of
the Union. Above aU, they saw the greatness and
glory of our infant RepubUc ; the freedom of thought,
speech and action permitted in this, the last and only
refuge of freemen ; the Ught burden of Government ;
and the opportunities for fortune, peace, contentment
and happiness. " Honor and praise," said Rufus
Choate " to the eminent men of all parties who rose
" that day to the measure of a true greatness ; who
" remembered that they had a country to preserve as
" weU as a local constituency to gratify; who laid aU
" the wealth and all the hopes of iUustrious lives on the
" altar of a hazardous patriotism ; who reckoned aU the
" sweets of a present popularity for nothing in compar-
" ison with that more exceeding weight of glory which
" foUows hirii who seeks to compose an agitated and
" to save a sinking land."
For the purpose of caUing out the Union sentiment
of the State, a mass meeting was held at Montgomery
soon after the passage of the compromise measures. It
was presided over by judge Lenajah S. Bibb, brother
of the first two Governors of Alabama, and cousin of
one of the coUeagues of Henry Clay, in the United
States Senate. Among the orators of the occasion

THE CRADLE OP THE CONFEDERACY. 287
was James Abercrombie, who had served many years
in both houses of the Alabama Legislature, was after
wards a member of Congress from the Montgomery
district, and who had headed the Clay electoral ticket
in 1844; Thomas J. Judge, a promising lawyer of
Lowndes county, who had also served with distinction
in the Legislature, and who had striven, but unsuccess
fully, to strike from the NashviUe address the denunci
ation of the compromise ; Henry W. Hilliard, an elo
quent and cultivated orator, who had long adorned the
Whig cause, had served in Congress and represented
the country abroad ; and Thomas H. Watts, a young
lawyer of growing reputation, of large practice, un
bounded personal popularity, and who was destined
subsequently to become a Governor of his State, and
the Attorney General of the Southern Confederacy.
The resolutions of the meeting in which these men
participated expressed a warm and confident attachment
to the Union and denounced as unnecessary and dan
gerous the systematic and formidable organization, in
progress in South Carolina, aided and abetted in certain
portions of other States, especiaUy Georgia and Missis
sippi, having for its object violent resistance to the
compromise acts. A letter was read from Senator
William R. King, in which he said that he could see
no justifiable ground for resorting to these revolution
ary measures, which he regretted to find were openly
advocated by some of our worthiest citizens ; with such
men he had no sympathy; he was no disunionist.
Letters of a simffar character were read from other dis
tinguished Alabamians. Charles J. Jenkins, of Geor
gia, wrote that at present he could see " no cause for
" the revolutionary right of secession." Evidentiy a

288 THE CRADLE OF THE CONPEDERACff^.
formidable fraction of the Democratic party were favor
able to acceptance of the compromise.
Cotemporaneously with this meeting, States-Rights
associations sprung up aU over the State of Alabama.
They breathed hostiUty to the compromise and threat
ened resistance ; without, however, naming the method
of resistance. They stigmatised the Union men as
submissionists. The Montgomery States-Rights Asso
ciation took issue with the Union meeting and sent a
written challenge to the Unionists to meet them in pub
lic debate. The Advertiser and Gazette daffy assailed
the compromise, applauded the followers of Yancey,
and denounced the Union men by name. Yet all this
time, the editor of that journal. Col. J. J. Seibels, a gen
tleman who had commanded a regiment in the Mexican
war and stood high as a citizen and a lawyer, submitted
to the people no plan of resistance. He was a member
of the States-Rights Association. If his remedy was
not by going out of the Union, it must have been by
repealing the compromise legislation Yet that legisla
tion could not be repealed, for CaUfornia was already
admitted ; and the compromise gave the South and
North equal rights in all the territory acquired from
Mexico. It also gave the South protection for her fu
gitives. It is, therefore, fair to infer that Colonel Sei
bels was in favor of secession by the most direct means.
Whffe Yancey and Seibels were actuated by identical
principles, the clubs with which they acted were divided
as to the proper redress for grievances — whether seces
sion should be accomplished by separate State action,
or by co-operative action after deliberation in a South
ern Congress. At this point it must be borne in nund
that whffe men Uke Seibels, of Alabama, and Barnwell,

THE CRADLE OF THE CONFEDERACY. 289
of South Carolina, favored co-operation of the slave
States as the best and most certain step to secession,
others favored co-operation because, unwffling to be
ranked as submissionists, but yet firmly opposed to dis
union in any shape, they looked upon co-operation as a
bungUng and cumbersome machine which must invaria
bly prevent secession, as it had recently done at Nash
ville. One branch of the co-operationists were seces
sionists ; another, and by far the larger, branch were
Union men. It was the timidity of this last branch,
who advocated co-operative resistance whffe seeking to
prevent resistance, that ten years later placed them in
a false position and gave the control of the State into
the hands of the separate secessionists.
To settle the question as to the mode of redress, the
Pleasant HiU, Dallas county. Club resolved that where
as there was a difference of opinion about the mode of
resistance, a State Convention should meet and decide
the matter. The Advertiser and Gazette joined in this
caU, declaring that the great object and the inevitable
end of the Union movement " is and wffl be the aboli-
" tion of slavery throughout the United States, and the
" people had as weU prepare to resist, or make up their
" minds to Submit to it now." The State Convention
of States-Rights clubs met at Montgomery, February
10, 1851. Thomas Williams, of Montgomery, a na
tive of South Carolina, was made President. Adam C.
Felder, also a native of South CaroUna, was made Sec
retary. Among the prominent gentlemen who partici
pated in the meeting were W. L. Yancey, Samuel J.
Rice, Joel E. Matthews, John A. Elmore, DAvm
Clopton, George Goldthwaite, J. J. Seibels, Abram
Martin, A. P. Bagby and B. F. Sapfold.

290 THE CRADLE OP THE pONPEDERACY.
The Convention, after rehearsing the grievances of
the South and the unsatisfactory character of the com
promise legislation, resolved " that a tame submission
" to or a patient acquiescence in this hostffe and uncon-
" stitutional legislation would not in our [their] opinion
" be conducive to the peace, happkiess, prosperity and
honor of the Southern States." They resolved, further,
that aff ol(J parties should be suspended, that a new
Southern party should be formed, that the Governor
should call the Legislature together for the passage of
an act enabling the people to elect delegates to a South
ern Congress ; that ff the Governor should faU to do
so, the people are advised to open poUs and hold an
election for such purpose, and that should such South-
era Congress, when assembled, decide that the Southern
Stai. ,s should secede from the Union, and if one or more
States, in accordance with that decision, should actuaUy
secede, it would be the duty and the interest of Ala
bama also to secede, and to aid in the formation of a
Southern Confederacy.
This action of the Convention did not satisfy the
separate secession wing of the party, nor did it satisfy
the opposing party. The separate action men looked
upon the election of a Southern Congress by aU the
Southern States as a virtual abandonment of resistance,
for it was evident that a majority of such a Congress
"would never decide for secession. Virginia, Tennes
see, Kentucky and Missouri would be a unit against it,
and the other States would be more or less divided.
To the Union men it appeared that the Convention were
resolving that " I dare not " should waff upon "I would."
Thereupon the Union leaders used every exertion to
force the States-Rights associations to a more definite

THE CRADLE OP THE CONFEDERACY. 291
declaration of their intentions. To all these efforts Col.
Seibels, in his journal, replied : " If Mr. Watts and his
" Federal Consolidation Fillmore fi-iends could get us to
" make this issue before the people, he is confident of
" success — for he is satisfied that the Secessionists are
" in a great minority in the State. * * * *
" Now, so far as we are concerned, we shaU not present
" the issue of secession, whatever our individual opinion
" on the subject may be, but we shall unite and go with
" the States-Rights men of the State who are opposed to
" your absolute, unconditional-submission doctrines with
" the old obnoxious doctrine of Federal Whiggery
" combined." Mr. Yancey was not satisfied with this half-aggres
sive, half-defensive movement. He was not one of
those who rode like the Mexican lancers at Contreras,
starting at a charge with ribbons and pennants dancing
to the wind, and as they near the point of concussion
subsiding to a gaUop. then to a trot, then to a walk, and
finaUy to 'a halt. His policy was to charge with accel
erated velocity, with lance in rest and helmet down,
striking for the centre of the enemy's line. The move
ment which Mr. Yancey favored was that of the leading
statesmen of South Carolina — separate State action.
It is true that in December, 1 850, the South Carolina
Legislature resolved to suggest and to send delegates to
a Southern Congress to be held at Montgomery^ and to
caff a State Convention for consideration of the action
of the proposed Congress, but it is also true that the
people were in advance of thek representatives. The
idea of a co-operative movement was seen to be futile.
The Nashvffle Convention had met with delegates regu
larly appointed from only two States, South CaroUna

292 THE cradle OF THE CONFEDERACY.
and Mississippi ; and the latter of these had provided
that the action of the Congress should be submitted to
a vote of the people. It had proven a fiasco, which
had retarded rather than advanced the secession move
ment. During the winter session of 1850 of the South
Carolina Legislature the separate-action party grew in
strength daily, untff in the foUowing May Governor
Means wrote to General Quitman that " there is now
" not the sUghtest doubt but that the next Legislature
" wffl caff the Convention (State) together at a period
" during the ensuing year and when that convention
"meets the State wiff secede." Governor Means also
said : " We are anxious for co-operation, and also anx-
" ious that some other State should take the lead ; but
" from recent developments we are satisfied that South
" CaroUna is the only State in which sufficient unanim-
" ity exists to commence the movement."
The Resistance party in Mississippi were as hesitating
as that in Alabama. Col. Maxey Gregg, writing to
General Quitman urged him to hoist the banner of se
cession. He said : " I beUeve that if the resistance
" party in Mississippi wiU now abandon aU temporizing
" and come out boldly for secession, they wffl greatly in-
" crease the chance of success in the struggles with the
" submissionists. But if they flinch from the issue of
" disunion, they wiff suffer at once from all the odium
" of the measures of South CaroUna and aU the weak-
" ness of a false position. Let them contend manfuUy
" for secession, and, even if beaten in the elections, they
" wffl form a minority so powerfiil in moral inffuence,
" that when South Carolina secedes, the first drop of
" blood that is shed wiU cause an kresistible popular
<' impulse in thek favor, and the submissionists wffl be

¦Ihe cradle op the coisrPEDERAOY. 293
"crushed." This was the plan finaUy adopted by
South CaroUna leaders. This was the plan urged by
Quitman in Mississippi, and by Yancey in Alabama.
Neither of these men were strategists, nor temporizers.
They put no value on victory apart from principles ;
they preferred defeat to equivocation; and hence it was
that General Quitman after calUng the State Convention
in Mississippi, and seeing a majority of Union men re
turned to it, retked in disgust from the canvass ; and
hence it was that Mr. Yancey not satisfied with the
half-way movement of the States-Rights Convention at
Montgomery made an issue with that body and hoisted
the banner of separate secession. From that moment
his labor was to gain over to his views the different
clubs, then to press his views upon the States-Rights
party in county meetings, and finaUy to imprint them
upon the Democratic party banner.
Mr. Watts, although a beUever in the right of the
State to secede from the Union, and an ardent States-
Rights man, was opposed, as has been said, to the policy
of secession, and was a most efficient leader of the Union
element. He vainly endeavored to draw from the
States-Rights associations an admission that they
favored secession. But whffe the admission was want
ing, the people thoroughly understood that an unquali-
.fied admission was not necessary to prove their design.
However much the one or the other party might evade
or shkk the issue, the contest in Alabama in 1851 was
undoubtedly between Union and Secession.
In a contioversy such as this, which so fearfiffly
agitated the South, it was not possible to conceal or
keep out of view the main question, whether a State has
a right to secede from the Union peaceably. That

294 TfiE CilADLE OF THE CONFilDEilACY.
question necessarffy played a conspicuous part in the
discussions. The friends of the compromise in the Ala
bama Legislature caUed a State Union Convention. It
met January 19th, 1851, at Montgomery. James
E. BiLSER, a prominent lawyer of Montgomery and re
cently a member of Congress, was made President.
Among the delegates were Thomas B. Cooper, R. M.
Pation, W. M. Byrd, B. S. Bibb, J, M. Tarleton, W.
B. Moss, James H. Clanton, Lewis E, Parsons, Robert
J. Jemison, H. W. Hilliard, R. W. Walker, Thomas
H. Watts, Xich. Davis, Jr., B. M. Woolsey, C. M.
Wilcox, and W. A. Ashley. This Convention accepted
the compromise legislation. They went fiirther and de
nied the right of secession. They resolved that when
governments become too grievous to be borne it is the
right and duty of a people to " boldly defy its authority
" by asserting in the spirit of the Revolution their
" purpose to be free and independent." The remedy
here set forth against tyranny, was clearly intended to
present an issue with the Secessionists. That remedy
was in their opinion not a reserved right of secession
but such a right as our fathers exercised when they
threw off the yoke of Great Britain. The spirit of the
Revolution was the spkit of rebelUon — an appe-al to
arms and not to law. To leave no doubt that the con
vention recognized no other mode of redress for griev
ances except that set forth in the Declaration of Inde
pendence, they resolved further : " That the asserted
" right of secession of a State from the Union is un-
" authorized by the Federal Constitution." Had they
stopped here thek declaration would have been point
less, for no one contended that the Federal Constitution
either asserted or denied the right of secession ; the

i'HE CRADLE OF THE 0ONFEt)ERAOY. 2^^
Secessionists holding that the right was reserved to the
States among the residuary powers not granted to the
Federal Constitution. But the resolution continued as
foUows : " But we claim it as a paramount right which
" belongs to every free people to overthrow their gov-
" ernment when it faffs to answer the ends for which it
" was established." There can be no dispute as to the
meaning of this clause of the resolution. It means sim
ply such revolution as our fathers waged against
Great Britain — nothing more nor less. Had the Con
vention said that they claim it as a paramount right
which belongs to every State of the Union to overthrow
the government, thek meaning might possibly have, ad
mitted of doubt, although the act of secession as recog
nized by the States-Rights men could not properly be
spoken of as an overthrow of the government, being
simply a i-etiring from a govemment which would stffl
have actual force and effect among the States which
remained confederated. But the claim of the Conven
tion was that redress of tyranny could be effected
only by means of that paramount right which belongs
to every free people. The paramount right which be
longs to every free people is simply the right of rebel
Uon — ^the right to be styled patriot if successful Uke
Washdjgton — the right to be caUed traitor if unsuc
cessful like William Wallace or Kossuth, Kosciusko
or Lopez.
There were doubtiess individuals in the Union Con
vention like Mr. Watts and others, educated in the law
school of the University of Virginia, who recognized the
right of secession as claimed by Hayne and Calhoun.
To such persons it must have appeared that an abstract
right on the part of seceding States, which the non-

296 THE cradle of THE CONFEDERACY.
seceding States denied, was in substance nothing but the
natural right of revolution which every people possessed,
and over which it was needless to waste words or raise
an issue.
Whffe these States-Rights Whigs remained sffent
over the anti-secession resolution, the vast body of the
Union party, Whigs and Democrats, undoubtedly en
dorsed the resolution in its plain meaning most heartUy.
In evidence of this fact it is weU to notice the cotem-
poraneous expressions of leading members and represen
tatives of the party.
The Whig newspaper at Montgomery, the Journal,
hoisted at the head of its columns the name of Benja
min Glover Shields as the Union candidate for Gov
ernor. Mr. Shields was a native of Abbeville, South
Carolina ; had been a member of the Alabama General
Assembly several years, was a member of Congress in
1841, and Minister to Venezuela under Mr. Polk.
He was an active member of the Democratic party. So
devoted and unqualified was his attachment to the
Union that in a pubUshed card in reply to those who
had nominated him for Governor, he said : " I am for
" this Federal Union of ours under all circumstances
" and at aU hazards ; right or wrong, I am for the
" Union." Not So unqualifiedly, but with equal distinctness, the
several Union candidates for Congress uttered thek re
pudiation of secession. C. C Langdon, of the Fkst
District, denied the right of secession. James Aber
crombie, of the Second District, denounced the proposed
action of South CaroUua, and spoke of walUng her in
with Federal authority in the event of secession, and of
starving her to death on rice. Judge Mudd, of the

THE CRADLE OP THE OONPEDERAOY. 29'*^
Third District, acknowledged the right of a State to
secede, but at the same time admitted the right of the
Federal Government to enforce its laws within her Umits.
W. R. Smith, of the Fourth District, spoke at Tuska
loosa, and was thus reported by the Monitor : " He
" denied the right of peaceable secession as it is caUed,
" in all its phases, and sustained his position most tri-
" umphantly." The Monitor added : " This thing
" they caU the right of peaceable secession is in our
"view too preposterous to spend words about. We
"acknowledge no -such right." Williamson R. W.
Cobb, in the Fifth District, denied the right of secession
in toto. George S. Houston, in the Sixth District,
also denied the right. In the Seventh District, Alex
ander WfflTE Ukewise denied the right of a State to
secede. In the County of Lauderdale, one of the richest of
the Tennessee VaUey, a number of questions were pro
pounded to the candidates for the General Assembly.
Robert M. Patton, one of the candidates for the Senate,
and afterwards Governor of the State, repUed to the
questions in these words :
" I do not believe that any State has the Constitu-
" tional or reserved right to secede from the Union.
" AU laws passed by Congress in pursuance of the
" Constitution are the supreme laws of the land as weU
" in a State attempting secession as in any other State.
" So I say that I beUeve that the President of the
" United States has the Constitutional right to execute
"aff the laws of Congress within the limits of any
" seceding State.
" My matured opinion is that the Legislature of Ala-
" bama should refuse positively to give countenance to

298 TfiE CteADLE OF THE CONFEDERACY.
" any State attempting to resist with force the execution
" of the laws of Congress within her limits ; and as a
" loyal citizen, and as a true patriot, I hold it to be my
" duty to aid, ff necessary, the supremacy of the Con-
" stitution and laws."
So answered the other candidates, Richard W.
Walker, V. M. Benham, and S. C Sheffield.
The CoNSTrrunoNAL Union Club of Montgomery had
frequent meetings, at which prominent citizens delivered
addresses. At one of these meetings, Thomas J. Judge
spoke, denying the right of South Carolina to secede,
and sustaining the right of the Federal Government to
enforce its laws within her Umits ff she should do so.
The Advertiser charged Mr. Judge with having advo
cated the right of coercion. This brought out a com
munication from him in which he said : " I contended
" that ff she seceded I would not be in favor of the
" General Government ' subjugating' her, or making
" her a ' subjugated pro-pince,' that I did not beUeve
" the General Government had such power, nor had I
" ever heard such power claimed ; but I insisted it
" would be the duty of the General Government to en-
" force its Constitution and laws ; that the Constitution
" and laws had been enforced in South Carolina ever
" since she had been a member of the Union, and if that
" had not made her a ' subjugated province' the con-
" tinning to enforce the same Constitution and laws
" would not make her so."
So clear was the sentiment of the Union party against
the right of secession that the Advertiser pubUshed the
following summary of thek views without denial from
the opposing press :
" As deducible from thek party presses, their great

iHE CRADLE OF ^HB OOJ^iPEDERACY. 299
»
' leaders and public speakers generally in this city and
' elsewhere, they deny the right of peaceable secession
' by a sovereign State. In case a sovereign State does
' secede they look upon it as rebeUion and contend for
the right of the General Government to coerce and
' subjugate her ; or, which is the same thing, they in
sist that the General ^ overnment should enforce its
' laws within the limits of the seceding State, after she
' had seceded ; and to this end should apply whatever
' force may be necessary for the purpose. They de-
' fend the late compromise against the opposition and
' resistance of the States-Rights men, and therefore ap-
' prove of the admission of Calffornia, of the abolition of
' the slave trade, and slavery too under some circum-
' stances in the District of Columbia, and the dismem
berment of Texas."
Apart from the unfairness of saying that acquiescence
in the compromise was equivalent to approval of aU its
features, this summary very justly expresses the -dews
and opinions of the Union party of 1850-'51 — that
party which in the subsequent election fiUed the Gen
eral Assembly with men, who unlike those of Georgia,
South CaroUna and Mississippi, rgfused to caU a State
Convention, a party which forced the re-election of a
Union Governor, returned four out of the seven Con
gressmen and carried the popular vote by a large majori
ty. So strong was Alabama fixed in the Union faith that
not the sound of a cannon would have shaken her then
fi-om her moorings.

CH^]PTER XII.

The Montgomery District — Contest of States- Rights and
Union Men over Yancey — The Georgia Platform —
Yancey Retires and Cochran Takes His Place — Report
of the Southern Rights Association — Defeat of the
Yancey Party — Scheme to Acquire Cuba — Lopez and
Quitman — Federal Arrest of a Governor — Reorganiza
tion of Parties — The Southern Whigs — The Whig
Convention at Baltimore — Reply of Scott and Pierce to
the States-Rights Associations, Etc., Etc.

"But the indissoluble link of Union between the people of the
several States of this confederated nation is, after all, not in the right,
but in the heart. If the day should ever come (may Heaven avert it!)
when the affections of the people of these States shall be alienated from
each other, when the fraternal spirit shall give wa.v to cold indifference
or collisions of Interest shall fester into hatred, the bands of political as
sociation will not long hold together parties no longer attracted by the
magnetism of conciliated Interests and kindly sympathies ; and far bet
ter will it be for the people of the disunited States to part in friendship
from each other, than to be held together by constraint."
Addeess of j. Q,. Adams befoke the N. Y. Hist, Soc, 1839.

The Montgomery Congressional District, composed
of some of the largest slave counties of the State, in
habited by descendents of Georgians, Vkginians and
CaroUnians, occupied a most prominent position in the
politics of Alabama. It was nearly divided between
the two great poUtical parties. Containing the capitol,
it enjoyed a legal bar equal to that of any other por
tion of the State ; and her mass meetings were there
fore frequently addressed by the ablest men of the
State. At that time Montgomery was upon the most
direct highway from New Orleans to New York. The
energy and inteUect of the whole country became

302 THE CRADLE OP THE CONFEDERACY.
famffiar with her people, and aided to impart to them
that intelUgence and independence of character which is
the result to so large a degree of contact with the world.
This district had been ably represented in Congress for
a number of years. Dixon H. Lewis had won for him
seff a national reputation. Henry W. Hilliard was
also weU known throughout the Union. William L.
Yancey had also made for himself a national reputa
tion. These gentlemen, better known, were not how
ever superior in point of character and ability to many
others who had not yet played a part upon the national
arena. With the States-Rights men it was a matter
not only of ambition, but almost of necessity to wrest
this district from the hands of the Whigs, who had
held it but by an uncertain tenure for some years. On
the other hand it was a matter of pride for the Whigs to
continue to hold it, and for the Union man to defeat at
his own door the plan of Mr. Yancey for precipitating
secession. In Aprff, 1851, the District Convention of the
Southern Rights party met at Clayton and nominated
Mr Yancey for Congress. In May, a Union Convention
met at the same place and nominated James Abercrom
bie. The resolutions of this latter convention presented
an earnest " appeal to aff quiet and law-abiding citizens
" to aid with thek influence and votes in arresting the
" wffd and fiery spkit of disunion." The Convention
also adopted the Georgia Platform, which accepted the
compromise measures as a permanent adjustment of
sectional controversy. That platform after accepting
the compromise measures provided that the South
should, even to a disruption of the Union, resist certain
measures if attempted by Congress. The measures to

THE CRADLE OP THE CONFEDERACY. 303
be resisted were these: Abolition by Congress of
slavery in the district without the consent of the
owners ; abolition of slavery at places owned by the
United States in the slave States ; suppression of slave
trade between the States ; refusal to admit as a State
any territory applying for admission because of the ex
istence of slavery therein ; any act prohibiting the in
troduction of slaves into the territories of Utah and New
Mexico ; any act repeaUng or materiaUy modifying
the fugitive slave law. This enumeration of acts of
Congress which would justify resistance does not in
clude an act of Congress prohibiting the introduction of
slavery into other territory than that acquired from
Mexico. The reason for this omission may be found in
the fact that the compromise measures of 1850 were
held to deal only with the Mexican territory. The
Missouri Compromise dealt only with the territory ac
quired with Louisiana. The latter act was held by the
Whigs generally not to have been repealed by the
former. They argued that it did not follow,^ because a
part of the Mexican acquisition extended above 36 de
grees 30 minutes, and any part even above that Une,
might come into the Union with slavery, therefore an
act fol'bidding slavery above 36 degrees 30 minutes in
the Louisiana acquisition was nuU and void. The
Georgia platform therefore, holding to the compromise
of 1850 as a final adjustment declared that the exclusion
by Congress of slavery from any of the Mexican ac
quisition justified resistance, and was sffent as to a simi
lar exclusion from other territory. In the opinion of
the friends of that platform the whole question of slave
ry in the territories was settled so far as the Mexican
territory was concerned by the compromise of 1850; and

304 THE CRADLE OF THE CONPEDEEAOY.
SO far as the rest of the territories was concerned, by
the Missouri Compronuse. If this had not been their
opinion they would have announced in their platform
that the prohibition by Congress of the introduction of
slaves into any of the territories would justify re
sistance. The Union Convention of the Montgomery District,
adopting the Georgia platform, held that the Missouri
Compromise was not repealed by the compromise of
1850. Mr. Stephens, in his "History of the United
States for schools," says that the compromise for 1850
estabUshed the principle of non-intervention for aU the
territories in Ueu of the Missouri Compromise. As he
was one of the committee who drafted the Georgia plat
form it is strange that he provided for resistance as to
Utah and New Mexico, and not as to other territory.
The argument set forth at a much later day than 1850
that the Missouri restriction was removed by the adop
tion of the new compromise which omitted such a re
striction in the case of the newly acquired territory (a
restriction to which the first compromise, of course, could
not apply), did not meet the approval of the Whigs and
Union Democrats of 1851. They held that in these
compromises there was no question of principle ; and
that the Missouri restriction over territory of the Louis
iana purchase was no more inconsistent with non-restric
tion over territory of the Mexican purchase, than re
striction above the Une of 36 degrees, 30 minutes, was
inconsistent with non-restriction below the line.
Immediately foUowing the Union Convention, the
Southern Rights Association met at ivtontgomery and
was addressed by Mr. Yancey in one of his brUUant and
captivating speeches. He declared that the only issue

THE CRADLE OP THE CONFEDERACY. 305
before the people was secession, and that he would make
no fiilse issue ; that his principles were founded on the
Constitution and must ultimately prevail ; that he wore
them as a frontlet between his eyes that aU the world
might see them. He thereupon proposed a series of
resolutions urging separate secession. He stated that
he had private advices to the effect that South Carolina
would secede the next spring ; that she had one hun
dred pieces of artillery ready, more than twenty
thousand small arms, and a large quantity of mffitary
stores. Mr. Yancey declined the nomination for Con
gress. He fully understood that the people were not
ready for his extreme movement, and hence determined
not to let defeat dim the lustre of his shield. In his
letter' declining the nomination he said that there were
but two parties, the Secession party and the Submission
party. Rehearsing the perils of the South and the
difficulty of co-operation, he closed by saying " In this
'• view I am decidedly in favor of preparing the State
" by all proper means for exerting the right of
" secession." In marked contrast with Mr. Yancey's letter was that
of Mr. Abercrombie accepting the Union nomination.
He stood by the measures of 1850, and planted him
seff firmly on the Georgia platform. He would battle
for the Union, with the slavery _ question settled as to
the territories and not to be disturbed, but he would not
submit to further encroachments at the hands of the
North. John Cochran, of Eufaula, a lawyer of great abiUty,
was nominated in place of Mr. Yancey. This gentie
man after the passage of the compromise measures had
written a letter to Mr, Ritchie, edffor of the Washington

306 THE CRADLE OP THE CONFEDERACY.
Union, in which he said that " they perfect the degra-
" dation of the South in the Union, and nothing can
" redeem her but secession." Further on, he said :
" I pray God that the South may tear herself from the
" power of the monster which does not conceal its pur-
" pose. I do not think the Union wiU be dissolved
" immediately, but I beUeve, and rejoice in the beUef,
" that at this moment there is amongst us here a leaven
" of disunion, which by a more or less rapid, but per-
" ccptibly certain, process will leaven the whole lump.
" We feel that in the confederacy we are degraded, and
" have now no remedy but secession." The author of
these sentiments was sustained in the canvass by Mr.
Yancey, the States-Rights associations, and by almost
th(j entire Democratic party. On the other hand Mr.
Abercrombie was sustained by Mr. Hilliard, the entire
Whig party, and a few hundred Union Democrats. It
may be said that the contest in this district was one
between the Whig party as representing submission to
the Compromise Acts, and the Democratic party as rep
resenting secession from the Union.
Mr. Cochran was a member of the Southern Rights
Association of Eufaula. That association had adopted
a report on "Southern wrongs and remedies" made
by the chakman of a committee, James L. Pugh, Esq.,
afterward member of Congress, which set forth the views
of the States-Rights party upon the questions at issue
and left no doubt as to the position held by Mr.
Cochran. I. The report reviewed the compromise measures at
length. It declared that the admission of [aUfornia,
without the formality of a preceding territorial enabUng
act, was an outiage on the South because half of the

THE CRADLE OP THE CONFEDERACY. 307
State lay south of 36 degrees 30 minutes, and the peo
ple of the South should have been given time in which
to introduce their slaves and compete for the plan of the
constitution. It declared that, by a convention of the
Southern States making the demand, " California may
" yet be divided, and the Southern people allowed an
" opportunity of establishing therein the institution of
" slavery." To this declaration, it was repUed that California was
properly admitted ; that the Constitution gave Congress
the power to admit new -States and was silent as to the
manner of admission. The mode and manner were left
entirely to the discretion of Congi-ess. While injustice
was shown the South in the haste with which that State
was admitted without an enabling act ; no practical nor
constitutional injustice was done his people. There was
no probabiUty of slavery being carried to Calffornia, if
she remained a territory for ten years. The rapid
influx of a mining population from aU over the world,
hostffe to slavery, made it necessary that a State gov
ernment should be speedily formed, and rendered it im
possible for the institution of slavery to have more than
a handful of supporters. The fact that half of CaUfor
nia lay south of 36 degrees 30 minutes did not give
the South any more rights in the southern portion than
in the northern. The Missouri Compromise Une did
not apply to the Mexican acquisition ; and if it had ap
pUed thereto, it would simply have excluded slavery
north of 36 degrees 30 mmutes, and left the people
south of that line to exclude it or not as they might
see proper. The people of CaUfornia had seen proper
to exclude slavery, and the Union party was readf to
vindicate the right of that people to have slaves or not

308 THE CRADLE OP THE CONFEDERACY.
as they saw proper. It was contended that such de
mands as this for the division of California, after she
had been admitted as a State, when it was cei-tain that
slavery could by no possibUity be voted into any one
of the proposed divisions, tended to damage the South
by putting her in a false position. By preferring un
reasonable demands she would not be Ustened to with
respect and consideration when her demands were just
and proper. They were ready to be aggressive at all
times when the power of the people was fflegally shorn
away, but they were not wffUng to be aggressive simply
for the purpose of preserving what was caUed a balance
of power in the United States Senate between the free
and slave States. If a State wished to be a free State
ff had a right to be so, whether the so-caUed balance of
power was affected or not. They had no fault to find
with the two Senators fi-om Alabama for voting against
the admission of California, since a delay in her admis
sion might have developed a fairer and fuller expression
of the opinion of her people ; they were to be com
mended for refusing to join in the protest made by the
ten Southern Senators. Senators Clemens and King
deserved the thanks of the State for refusing to sign a
paper protesting against the admission of a State and
threatening dissolution of the Union because of such
admission, simply because half of it was not made a
slave State without regard to the wish of the people.
II. The Southern Rights report objected to the com
promise, in the next place, because Congress had not
repealed the local law which abolished slavery in Utah
and New Mexico when they were a part of Mexico.
" Now," we ask, say the committee in their report,
" if the refusal to repeal the Mexican law, upon the

THE CRADLE OF TfiE CONPEDERACY. 309
" gi-ound stated, does not indicate the same hostility by
" the Federal Government to the institution of slavery
" as the passage directly of the Wilmot Proviso. Since
" the passage of the great ' peace measures,' and in the
" midst of the ' patriotic rejoicings ' over the prostra-
" tion of Southern rights and honor, insult has been
" added to injury by the introduction of bills to apply
" this odious Proviso to the territories of Utah and
" New Mexico. Then, what security is there in carry-
" ing slaves to these territories ? " To these questions
it was repUed that the compromise acts, so far as the
territories acquired from Mexico were concerned, did
ample justice to the South. They might come into
the Union with or without slavery. So the act provided ;¦
and not even the Missouri restriction had been appUed
to them. The local law of Mexico no longer existed.
The constitution, and the rules and regulations made
by Congress for the territories, had abrogated it ; and
the slave owner could take his property to New Mexico
just as he could take it to Missouri and Arkansas be
fore their admission as States. To say that the Union
should be dissolved because the Wffmot Proviso could
be made to apply to a territory at some future day, was
to anticipate ills which might never happen. There
was always risk in taking slaves to a territory, because,
on the formation of a State constitution, slavery might
be abolished ; but that was a risk attendant on the na
ture of the property. The Wilmot Proviso had been
invariably defeated ; and now, if the people of the South
showed a determination to stand by the compromise
measures as a final settiement of the slavery question,
we need have no apprehension that the Wffmot Proviso
wUl gain the victory in Congress. There wffl always

310 THE CRADLE OF THE CONFEDERACY.
be agitators and fanatics who wiU press it forward, but
the conservative sentiment of the whole country will
always defeat it. Let us not then rush into disunion
because of apprehensions which have no solid basis.
III. The report objected to the settlement of the
Texas boundary question, under which a portion of
Texas was added to New exico in consideration of
ten miUions of doUars to be paid Texas by the United
States. The objection was that enough territory was
taken from a slave State to form two States thereafter,
and that these two States might be brought into the
Union under the operation of the Wilmot Proviso. To
this it was replied that there were grave doubts as to
whether the temtory in question properly belonged to
Texas, but that if Texas chose to part with it for ten
mfflions of doUars, there certainly could be no objection
raised by any one else ; and that so far as the danger
of having the Wffmot Proviso applied to that section
was involved, the same proviso could, by the same
power, be applied to the identical territory were it to
remain a part of Texas, and at some future day, by the
permission of that State, apply for admission to the
Union. If the provisions of the New Mexican act
were to be invaUdated herealter by application of the
Wilmot Proviso, the provisions of the act admitting
Texas could be as easffy invalidated. This objection
then must faU to the ground. It was simply a general
objection that the people of the North would not unite
with those of the South in sttmding by Clay, Webster,
Fillmore, and Cass, and their compeers, in abiding by
the compromise. Let us see whether they would not,
before we prefer extravagant demands, however just
and constitutional, and before we declare ourselves

*iiE Oracle op the confederacy. 31 1
ready for disunion, and even before we know whether
our demands are accepted or rejected. The Union men
were opposed to this constant drawing of heavy drafts
on the patriotism of the great conservative masses of
the North. Those masses were disposed to give us all
our rights under the Constitution, but they were op
posed to slavery, and we must not expect them to legis
late with a view of preserving what we call a balance of
power. IV. The report next objected to the abolition of the
slave trade in the District of Columbia. " If Congress
" has a right to say that a slave shaU be free when
" brought into the District for sale, it can also say that
" he shaU be free when brought there to labor." To
this it was replied that Congress undoubtedly had the
right not only to stop the slave trade in the District,
but even to abohsh it there. It was thought that the
latter step should not be taken except upon a vote of
the people of the District ; but so far as the prohibition
of the slave markets in the District was concerned the
Union men were wilUng to yield so much at the seat of
Government to the prejudices of that large portion of
mankind who were sensitive as to the slave trade. It
was not necessary to keep up a slave auction under the
very windows of the Capitol. If any one in the Dis
trict desired to purchase a slave he could do so in
ten or twenty minutes by crossing the river. The
continuance of the slave auctions in the District did
more than aff else to keep up the agitation against
slavery at the North. It might be well for the South
that they were discontinued.
V. In conclusion the report declared that the South
should meet in convention and demand that California

3l2 THE CRADLE OP THE CONFEDERACY.
be divided, and the southern portion be aUowed to estab
lish slavery. If the north should not acquiesce, then
the South should make immediate preparations to
secede. " Discard aU past political differences" —
" Turn aside from the Submissionist as your worst
" enemy" — " Starve out the National Submission press
"at the South" — "Exclude aU Northern newspapers
" from our midst" — " Patronize Southern Ministers and
" Churches" — " Cease visiting Northern watering
" places" — were among the suggestions of the States-
Rights pronunciamento.
To the general argument that the South would be
shorn of her rights in the Uuion, it was answered that
the only protection for slavery was in the Union ; that
the South could not expect the people of the North to
vote slavery into the territories or aid in making con
stitutions recognizing slavery; that all efforts to con
tinue to bring in a slave State whenever a free State
was introduced must in the end prove futile ; that the
South had neither the population nor the slaves to
spread over vast territories. The question was simply
reduced to this : Shall Alabama secede from the Union
because possibly after a series of years three-fourths
of the States may be free States and may amend the
Constitution so as to abolish slavery ? That event
may happen. If it should, it would be a Constitutional
proceeding. But certainly there would be no emanci
pation without compensation to masters. The alterna
tive then arises : Is it better for Alabama to await
gradual emancipation at some far distant day under a
compensatory system, than to break up the Union,
rush into civil war, and lose in disaster all that we are
contending for? Most of the Alabama Unionists did

THE CRADLE OF THE CONFEDERACY. 313
not beUeve in peaceable secession. No government
in the world had ever broken to pieces except with civil
war. They would not stop to argue the question of
secession. That was a question they never argued.
If the right of peaceable secession existed, it was no
peaceable right if denied by the other side. AU the
North denied it to be a right. All the border States
denied it. Even Virginia had held that the Supreme
Court was the common arbiter between tbe States and
the General Government. A large and perhaps con
trolling portion of the South denied the right at heart.
If they were willing to break up the Union, they would
go into the movement with the expectation of doing
what our grandfathers did at Lexington and not of
reading the resolutions of 1798 at the mouth of a can
non. The right of peaceable secession was being urged
by Mr. Yancey they said for the purpose of deluding the
people into the belief that there would be no war in case
of disunion. By removing the idea of danger it is
hoped that converts may be more rapidly made. Let
not the people be Winded to the truth ! There can be
no such thing as peaceable disunion. When secession
is once entered upon, the country will be deluged in
blood. If we win we wUl be called patriots. Ifwelosewe
will be caUed ti-aitors. That is the sum and substance
of the right of peaceable secession. It is nothing more
than the natural right of revolution, which aU would be
ready to assert when our grievances were too great to
be borne. At present they did not beUeve our griev
ances were so serious as to justify secession. They
had watched with alarm the growing spirit of hostility
to the South and ber rights^but were satisfied that
the conservative element of the country would always

314 THE CRADLE OP THE CONPEDERACY.
rally to oar defence in an emergency, as it had done in
the recent adjustment. That compromise was not all
they wished, but it was more than they expected.
They were y/illing to stand by it as a final settlement
of the slavery dispute between the North and the South.
The contest between Cochran and Abercrombie
raged bitterly throughout the District, but at the elec
tion, Abercrombie was returned with an unprecedented
majority. From one end of the State to the other, and
in the largest slave-holding counties, the advocates of
secession were routed horse, foot, and dragoons. Mr.
Yancey was mortified to see the Gulf States rattfying
the compromise and denouncing disunion — the very
strongholds of the secession party giving unusual large
majorities for the Union candidates — and even South
CaroUna faiUng to give the requisite vote for secession.
The acquisition of Texas was undoubtedly a move
ment by Southern leaders for the purpose of preserving
the balance between the slave and free States, But
the Mexican war had accomplished more than they
intended. It had given Texas to the South ; but it
had also given Calffornia and Utah, and possibly New
Mexico, to the North. AU of the five States into
which Texas was expected to be divided eventually,
might or might not be admitted as slave States ; aU the
other larger territory was almost certain to become
free States. The balance of power must be secured in
some other way. The Southern leaders cast their eyes
on Cuba. Narcisso Lopez, a native of Venezuela, a
veteran soldier of Spain, and for some years a r>sident
of Cuba, visited the United States in 1849 for the pur
pose of enUsting sympathy in behalf of Cuban inde
pendence, and of organizing a mffitary expedition for

THE CRADLE OF THE CONPEDERACJY. 315
the invasion of that 'sland. On his arrival at Wash
ington, Mr. Calhoun called upon him, and upon the
following day repeated his visit. The policy which
had urged the distinguished South CaroUnian to secure
Texas to the South, now urged him to secure Cuba.
If the South remained in the Union the accession of
Cuba would give several more slave States, If the
South seceded, the possession of the island would add
greatly to the resources of a Southern Confederacy.
In either event, therefore, it became the policy of the
South to aid and encourage the attempt of Lopez. The
leading States-Rights men immediately enlisted them
selves in the enterprise. Lopez visited Gen. Quitman,
and proposed that they divide the civil and mffitary
leadership of the enterprise between them. Lopez was
to be President of Cuba, and Quitman was to be
Commanding General in the field. Had the offer been
accepted, there can be no doubt that an immense force
would have rallied to the caU of Q jitman. The soldiers
of his old Division were scattered from Charleston to
New Orleans. Each one of them would have become
a recruiting officer ; for the nami. of their old leader
would give confidence and dignity to an enterprise
which, under the lead of a stranger, would be open to
suspicion and distrust. Quitman was then Governor of
Mississippi. He was ardently in favor of secession, and
fully expected that disunion would occur during his
administration. A State convention had been called,
and he could not find it consistent with his duty to lead
a military movement, however promising of glory and
renown, against a foreign people, when his services as
a leader were now demanded by the States-Rights

316 THE (5RADLE OF iHE CONFEDERACY.
party in a movement at home which promised no less
renown and military glory.
Soon after the decision of Gen. Quitman, Lopez
embarked for Cuba with a small volunteer force under
O'Hara, Wheat, Pickett, Hawkins and Beff. His men
were chiefly from Kentucky. Landing at Cardenas,
he repulsed an attacking force of Spanish troops, but
meeting no encouragement from the people, re-em
barked intending to make another landing. The
Spanish steamer Pizarro g-iving him chase, he was
compeUed to run into Key West, where his force was
disbanded. Not disheartened by his first faffure, he
proceeded to effect a new organization, visiting New
Orleans and several places in Mississippi. Everywhere
he was received with enthusiasm. At Gainesville,
Miss., he spoke to a large meeting, and with singular
address aroused a warlike feeUng. Though born in
another land, and speaking a different language, he was
not ignorant, he said, of the history of Mississippi.
He knew what she had achieved in 1815 on the plains
of Chalmette, where the gallant Hinds at the head of
her dragoons braved the fire of the whole British line,
and became the pride of one army and the admiration
of another. He remembered the deadly execution of
her riffes at the storming of Monterey the flashing
sword of Davis on the field of Buena Visla — her battle-
riven banner when it was planted on the waffs of Mexico
by the heroic Quitman. With these memories of
brffliant events, he came from a kindred and friendly
St-ate — from noble-hearted Louisiana — to breathe for a
few days the pure air of your forests and to tread a
soil consecrated to Liberty. He desired to know and
to mingle with his brother republicans, anxious to see

THE CRADLE OP THE CONFEDERACY. 317
and to study thek practical exemplifications of free
government, and to witness the phenomenon of a whole
people engaged in trade, agriculture and mechanics,
comprehending and practicing the political problems
that Europe, with all its phUosophy, refinement and
learning has never been able to solve.
The compromise measures had passed, and the
prospect for Southern secession was less favorable than
ever. At least Quitman believed so, and thinking that
his sword would not be demanded by his own State,
he now inclined more favorably towards the proposi
tion of Lopez. It was generally beUeved that he would
head the Cuban movement. The Grand Jury of the
United States Court at New Orleans found a biU ag-ainst
Gen. Quitman, John 'Henderson, and others, for setting
on foot the invasion of Cuba. The question arose,
could the Governor of a sovereign State be carried
away to another State by the General Government to
answer a criminal charge ? General Quitman was dis
posed to resist the attempt. If such a power rested
with the General Government, the sovereignty of the
State was gone. At any moment her officers might
be abducted and- the wheels of government either
stopped or left in the hands of subordinates, who might
be the tools of the arresting power. Suppose a case in
which the Governor, elected by the people, was opposed
to the party in power at Washington, and the Lieut.
Governor, elected by the Senate, was friendly to that
party, and to any schemes which it might favor, the
arrest and abduction of the Governor on any pretended
charge, would defeat the wiU and safety of the people.
Suppose a new-elected General Assembly about to
convene, should be almost divided between the friends

318 THE CRADLE OF THE CONFEDERACY.
and opponents of the Administration at Washington,
how easy could the will of the people be defeated by
the arrest and abduction of enough of the majority
party to leave the organization of the Legislature in
the hands of the minority party ! Gen, Quitman
denied the power of the United States to arrest him.
Hon. Jacob Thompson wrote to him from Washington :
"If they can arrest, they can refuse baff; if they can
" refuse bail, they can, without trial, take him away
" from his duty, incarcerat^e him, and by rendering it
" impossible for him to perform his official duties, vir-
" tuaUy vacate the office of Governor and leave the
" State without a Chief Executive. This is an absurd-
" ity. The consequence of the power claimed annihi-
" lates State sovereignty, and soon we may expect to
" see Governors of States, like Tioman satraps, brought
" to the capital in chains ff the power claimed is tamely
" submitted to." Hon. R. Barnewell Rhett called
upon the Governor to resist, and thus bring about a
coUision between the State and Federal lorces, which
must ultimately involve the whole South.
Gen. Quitman was wiser than his counseUors. He
saw that ff the South would not resist the Compromise
Acts, they would not enter into a war with the General
Government because of an indictment found by a
Grand Jury against a citizen who happened to be Gov
ernor. The people sympathized with Quitman, but
they held that every citizen, however high his position,
was amenable to the laws, and that the Governor of a
State should be arrested for counteifeiting the coin,
robbing the maff, piracy, or breaking the neutrality
laws, as though he were a private citizen. The argu
ment which would apply to the Governor, would apply

THE CRADLE OF THE CONPEDERACY. 319
equall}' to every Executive and Legislative officer of a
State. If none of these could be arrested by the ¦
United States, then we would see the strange spectacle
of thousands of citizens, shielded by the possession of
an office, violating the laws of the Federal Government
with impunity. There were inconveniences connected
with this power to arrest State officers ; but no system
of government could be devised in which such incon
veniences would not occur. Politics was not one of
the exact sciences. So fallible was human nature that
aU the wisdom of aff the ages was not adequate to foresee
the various problems which would arise.
Quitman determined to resign the office' of Governor
and to stand his trial. The jury made a mistrial
in the case of Henderson, and thereupon the case .
against Quitman was dismissed. When he left the
court-room there was a great manifestation of popular
sentiment in his favor. Deputations fi-om Mississippi,
Louisiana, Alabama and South Carolina waited upon
him, offering congratulations. This display of feeling
arose from the profound impression on the Southern
mind that Quitman was actuaUy enlisted in the Cuban
enterprise, and was destined to be the liberator of that
fair island. The whole South sympathized in the
movement ; the States-Rights party, because in the
event of Southern secession they contemplated a mag
nificent Confederacy of slave-holding States, including
Cuba, Mexico and Central America — the old dream of
Aaron Burr ; the Union party, because in the annex
ation of Cuba the preservation of the balance of power
would postpone that dreaded day when three-fourths of
the States would be anti-slavery.
A mass meeting was called at Montgomery, August

320 THE CRADLE OP THE CONFEDERACY.
5, 1851, to express sympathy for and proffer aid to
the Cuban independence movement. Gen. Wm. Tay
lor was called to the chair, and James H Clanton, a
young and active Whig, was invited to address the
people. Taking the stand, he made a most eloquent
appeal in behalf of Cuba, avowing the deepest sympathy
in the struggle of the patriots and offering his personal
services in their behalf He concluded by offering a
resolution, which was unanimously adopted, caUing upon
the Government to recognize the independence of the
island. Judge Bibb offered a resolution soliciting con
tributions for the cause. At the close of Clanton's
speech many wealthy citizens came forward with Uberal
subscriptions, and a number of young men enrolled
themselves in a company for the purpose of joining the
expeditionary force of Lopez. That force had sailed
for New Orleans a few days before. The Montgomery
company elected Clanton Captain, and proceeded to
New Orleans. There they found not less than two
thousand volunteers awaiting transportation. A regi
ment was organized with Wheat as Colonel and Clan
ton as Lieutenant Colonel. The troops received every
attention from the hospitable citizens of New Orleans,
but they were eager and impatient to embark. They
longed to set foot on the beautiful island, and to see at
last the stars and stripes floating over MoRO Castle.
Whffe chafing at the delay of embarking, one morning
came the startling news of the defeat of Lopez, his cap
ture and execution. He had separated himself from
the command of Crittenden, had reUed too much upon
the co-operation of the Cubans, and had departed from
New Orleans without waiting for the troops which were
now pouring in from aU quarters. Had he taken the

THE CRADLE OF THE CONFEDERACY. 321
advice of QurpMAN, kept his force united, debarked at a
more distant port, secured the arrival of an army of
five thousand men at one time, his expedition would
have doubtless been crowned with victory. He failed,
and thus added another to the many proofs that no
great enterprises can be pressed to success under the
lead of the dark and hj'^brid races of Central America.
Lopez was executed by the garote, and Col. Crittenden
and his men were shot. When ordered to his knees,
Crittenden repUed : " Americans kneel only to their
God." The Union party haAdng achieved a signal victory
aU over the South, the States-Rights associations
resolved in their several m3etings to adjourn the ques
tion of secession. It was not to be dismissed, but to
remain in abeyance. Mr. Yancey's policy was to keep
his forces weU organized and to seize the next pretext
for an advance movement. To strengthen their posi
tion, which had been considerably weakened by the
repulse on the Compromise questions, a majority of the
States-Rights leaders deemed it best to withdraw under
shelter of the Democratic organization. By drawing
back to the Democratic party those who had been
acting with the Union party, they forced the residue
of the Unionists to return to the Whig organization.
It was a piece of masterly generalship to load the Anti-
Secession party of Alabama with the sins of the
free-soff wing of the Whig party of the North; to attack
them as partisans of Seward rather than as supporters of
the Union. The Union men understood the tactics of
the Secessionists, and struggled to preserve the Union
organization. A Union meeting was held at Mont
gomery in December, 1857. The caU for it was

322 THE CRADLE OP THE CONFEDERACY.
signed by all the leading Whigs of the General Assem
bly and several leading Democrats, but when it met no
Democrat of prominence participated in its session.
They determined to send delegates to a National Union
Convention, and to urge upon their approaching State
Convention the duty of joining a national organization
which would abide by the Compromise, and alike battle
against the Secessionists on the one hand and the
AboUtionists on the other. It was their hope that the
friends of the Compromise aU over the Union would
unite upon this as a final settlement of the slavery
question, and nominate Mr. Fillmore for the Presidency.
Before the State Union Convention could meet, how
ever, there were developments of public opinion which
divided the Union ranks. The Union Democrats,
finding that the Democratic party would sustain the
Compromise unequivocally as a final settiement, deserted
the Union organization in mass and ralUed under their
old colors. Of the Whigs who were Igft, there were a
large majority who saw the futility of attempting to
make a National organization of Whigs alone, under a
new name at the South, so long as the Whigs at the
North retained their old designation and were preparing
to go into a National Convention. They argued that,
without some of the Southern States, the Whig party
could not carry the Presidential election, and that
rather than lose the support of Southern Whigs, the
National Convention would endorse the Compromise;
that if the Compromise was not endorsed, it would then
be time to separate from the party ; and that rather
than estabUsh a sectional party, as would be a Union
party composed of Southern Whigs alone, it would be

THE CRADLE OP THE CONPEDERACY. 323
preferable to repose confidence in the National Whig
organization. So thought Mr. Hilliard.
A portion of the Alabama Whigs thought differentiy.
They believed that a return to the Whig party would
be a surrender of their organization into the hands of
the Free Soffers. Mr. Watts published a letter in May,
in which he advocated a continuance of the Union
organization. " Look," said he, " at the vote of the
" Democratic caucus assembled at the commencement
" of the present Congress, repudiating the Compromise
" as a finality. Look at the vote in Congress on the
'' resolution of Mv. Jacksom, of Ga., as amended by Mr.
" HiLLYER, showing that Northern members of Congress,
" as weU as many Southern members, are not in favor
" of standing firmly by the Compromise. And, above
" aU, look on the decision of the Whig Congressional
" caucus recently assembled in Washington City."
Not to unite with the National Whig Convention was
a duty, insisted Mr. Watts, which we owed " to the
" Southern Whigs who withdrew from the Congressional
" caucus, and to the other noble Whigs who refused to
" go into it after the announcement of the chairman of
"the caucus that he would entertain no resolutions
"looking to the finaUty of the Compromise measures."
The vote upon the resolution of Mr. Jackson, to which
Mr. Watts here referred — a resolution to recognize the
binding efficiency of the Compromises of , the Constitu
tion and to abide by such Compromises and to sustain
the laws to carry them out — was as follows :

Yeas,
Northern Democrats  35
Southern Democrats  39
Southern Whigs  20
Northern Whigs  7
Total  lot

Nays.
Northern Democrats  22
Southern Democrats  11
Southern Whigs  1
Northern Whigs  30
Tot^l  64

324 THE CRADLE OF THE CONFEDERACY.
Mr. Watts, from this vote, drew the conclusion that
the Northern Democrats were dangerously divided as
to making the Compromise a conclusion of the slavery
agitation; that the Southern Democrats were materially
divided as shown by the vote, and were known to be
far more dangerously divided than the vote shows ;
that the Northern Whigs were also dangerously divided,
with the preponderance largely in favor of renewed
agitation ; and that the Southern Whigs were alone
united. From this conclusion he argued that the
Southern Whigs should maintain the Union organiza
tion, and graduaUy draw to its support all those ele
ments which voted yea upon Mr. Jackson's resolution.
To do so would be to settle the slavery question now
auil forever, by depriving it of material upon which to
opt!..ite. Not to do so would be to leave the question
an element of discord in both the Whig and Demo
cratic organizations until it should rend both in twain
and plun.^e the country into civff war To confirm
this view of Waits, Clanton, Judge and other far-
seeing and patriotic Southern Whigs, the New York
Tribune, representing the Sewaud Whigs, replied to
the protest of the Southern Whigs at the Congressional
caucus :
" Oh green and verdant gentlemen of the House of
" Representa,tives, ye who vainly fancy that caiTying
" the Compromise measures through your iUustrious
" body is a great political stroke, even a triumph over
" an ever-active principle in the heart of man, it is time
" you were resolving that the sun shaU stand still on
" Gideon. It is time that you were erecting a stage
" under the ends of the rainbow in order to spike it on
" to the sky. It is time you had resolved that the

^HE CRADLE OF THE CONFEDERACY. 325
" ocean should cease to surge, the streams to flow or
" the seasons to return. You cannot ' compromise ' a
'• question of human freedom,"
When the State Union Convention met, those who
beUeved that the Whig party would endorse the Com
promise and that the Democratic party would not,
proved to be in the ascendant ; and the Convention,
after a faint and feeble recommendation for a National
Union Convention, dissolved, with the general under
standing that the Whig partj^ was restored, Mr.
Hiiliard, who had been favored with exalted trusts
under the Harrison, and again under the Taylor
Administration, ever eager for a wide national theatre
of action, and ambitious of the power which success
would give the leaders of a national party, led off, at a
Macon county meeting, in favoi- of sending delegates to
the Whig Convention. The Pickens county Whigs
replied with a similar movement, and forthwith the
blows of the Democratic party shattered to utter disso
lution the remaining waUs of the Union party. Nolh-
ing was now left of the organization which defeated
secession in 1850. The Whigs had cast everything
upon the chances of the Baltimore Convention. If they
lost, what would foUow ?
If the Whig Convention did not fuUy and fakly
accept the Compromise, it would follow that the Southern
Whigs, constituting a large minority of the Southern
people, iind one which by the aid of Union Democrats
could always arrest an attempt at secession, would be
left powerless. If slavery agitation was to continue,
they must take the side of their people and their
property, and demand for their protection every guar
anty of the Constitution. If the North would not

326 THE CRADLE OF THE CONPEDERACY.
accept a compromise ia which the Free-rtate party
received every advantage and the South gave up more
than half of her constitutional rights, then the Whig.'s
of the South would also hoist the banner of States-
Rights and abide the issue.
" Let us go and demand the Compromise," said the
Whig papers of Alabama.
The evening before the meeting of the Whig National
Convention at Baltimore, a caucus of k-^outhern Whigs
adopted and resolved to submit to the Convention the
foUowing resolution :
" That the series of measures commonly known as
" the Compromise, including the Fugitive Slave Law,
" are received and acquiesced in by the Whig party of
" the United States, as a settlement in principle and
" substance — a final settlement — of the dangerous and
'• exciting questions which they embrace ; and, so far as
" the Fugitive Slave Law is concerned, we wUl main-
"tain the same, and insist on a strict enforcement,
" until time and experience shaff demonstrate the
" necessity of further legislation, to guard against
" evasion or abuse, not impairing its present efficiency ;
" and we deprecate aff further agitation of the slavery
" question as dangerous to our peace, and wffl discouii-
" tenance aU efforts at the renewal or continuance of
" such agitation in Congress or out of it, whenever,
"^wherever and however the attempt may be made ;
"and we will maintain the system of measures as a
" policy essential to the nationality of the Whig party
" and the integrity of the Union."
if this resolution were not adopted substantiaUy, the
Southern Whigs were to withdraw. It will be ob
served that it embraced —
" 1st. A distinct recognition of and acquiescence in
" a compromise or settlement, embracing a series of mea-

-TfiE CRADLE OF TfiE OONPEDERAOY. 32?
" sures known by that name and including the Fugitive
" law. " 2d. A declaration that said settlement shaU be filial
"3d. A declaration that the Fugitive law, as a part
" orf such settlement, shall be maintained and enforced
" until fiirther legislation is required to guard against
" abuse or evasion.
" 4th, A declaration against the further agitation of
" the Slavery question, in Congress or out of it ; and a
" further declaration that the policy thus set forth in
" the various averments of the resolution is essential to
" the naoionaUty of the Whig party."
Such was the Southern Whig demand, presented as
containing no one point which could be spared, if the
Whig party was to be a national and not a sectional
party. This resolution was emasculated by the Com
mittee of the Convention and adopted by that body in
the foUowing language :
" .3. That the series of acts of the Thirty-first Con-
" gross, the act known as the Fugitive Slave Law
" included, are received and acquiesced in by the Whig
"party of the United States as a settlement, in principle
" and substance, of the dangerous and exciting ques-
" tions which they embrace ; and, so far as they are
"concerned, we wffl maintain them, and insist upon
" their strict enforcement, until time and experience
" shaU demonstrate the necessity of further legisla-
"tion to guard against the evasion of the laws on
"the one hand, and the abuse of their powers on the
'' other — not impairing their present efficiency ; and
" we deprecate all further agitation of the questions
" thus settled as dangerous to our peace, and will dis-
" countenance aU efforts to continue or renew such
"agitation, whenever, wherever or however the attempt
" may be made ; and we will maintain this system as

328 THE CRADLE OP THE CONFEDERACY.
"' essential to the nationality of the Whig party and the
" integrity of the Union."
It wiff be observed that this resolution differs from
the other in these respects :
" 1 St. It contains no sort of recognition of the feet
" that there has been any compromise at all- ^'o such
" term, no such fact, no such idea appears in it.
"2d, Still less does it recognize, or in any way
" allude to any final settlement.
" 3d, The resolution, so far from recognizing any
¦" special covenant obligation in the compromise
" measures, puts them aU upon precisely the same
" footing with every other law enacted by the Thirty-
" first Congress"
As soon as the report was read, Mr. Rufus Choate
sprang at once to his feet to interpose the dazzling
shield of his eloquence between the ruins of their reso
lution and the objections of the Southern Whigs.
Adroitly reminding his audience that he had not heard
the exact terms of the last resolution, he proceeded at
once to claim for it a merit and a character to which its
exact terms present a marked contrast. He under
stood, in general, that it affirmed the finality of the
(Compromise, and that it deprecated any further political
agitation on the subject of slavery. And, if he rightly
understood it, he made haste to rise and thank God
that the doctrine for which he had contended in his
measure and place, though circumstances were unpro-
pitious, in FaneuU Hall, when FaneuU HaU was opened—
if he might judge by the cheering indications — seemed
to he sustained by the highest authority which, as a
party man and Whig, he could recognise in the Con
vention of Union Whigs of the Uuited States.

THE CRADLE OF 'I'HE CONFEDERACY. 329
But, on the contrary, Mr. Charles Anderson, of
Ohio, rose sturdily up to tell the plain truth about the
whole business, and he spoke out the Whig ''.reed
bluntly. He said : " This Compromise was, after aU,
'* nothing but a law like all others on ihe statute book.
'• The first Compromise of Mi. Clay was nothing more
" than an act regulating the duties on imports. So with
" this Compromise — it is nothing more than any other
" law on the statute book. Those who are opposed to
" it at the North are men who do so, not from any
" passion on the subject, but from sectional pride.
" The Whigs of the fi-ee States have witnessed the
" diminution of ; heir numbers — have seen their friends
" go off by scores — on account of forcing this Compro-
" mise upon them "
The resolution of the Southern Whigs, in order to
soothe the Northern animosity to certain features of
the Fugitive Slave Law, provided that the law was to
be maintained until experience should demonstrate the
necessity of further legislation to guard against evasion
of its provisions or an abuse of its powers. The other
laws were to be maintained as final. But the Conven
tion provided that experience was to be the test of all '
the Compromise laws. This change in the wording of
the resolution, taken in connection with the repeated
declaration of members that the Compromise laws were
no more final and fixed than other laws, and with the
nomination of Gen. Scott over Mr, Fillmore and Mr.
WfiBSTER, satisfied many leading Whigs of the South
that as between the two National parties, it was their
duty to cast themselves with the Democratic, which,
to the surprise of Alabama Whigs, had endorsed the
Compromise, with a declaration that they would resist

330 THE CRADLE OF THE CONFEDERACY.
aU attempts at renewing in Congress or out the agita
tion of the slavery question. Upon this platform, all
that the Union party of Alabama had ever asked, they
had placed as their candidate for Vice-President a dis
tinguished son of Alabama who had, two years before,
denounced the secession movement in spirited, prompt,
and unequivocal terms.
Immediately upon the nomination of Gen. Scott,
Alexander H. Stephens, Robert Toombs, and James
Johnson, of Ga., Charles James Faulkner, of Va.,
Walter Brooke, of Miss , Alexander White and James
Abercrombie, of Ala., pubUshed a card in the Wash
ington papers withholding their support from the Whig
nominees. The defection of these leading Southern
Whigs created quite a commotion in the ranks of the
party. Mr. Abercrombie wielded a great influence in
the Montgomery District, and Mr. White was scarcely
less potent in the TaUadega District. Still Messrs.
Hilliard, Langdon, Watts, Belser and the bulk of
the party in Alabama, placed upon the Whig resolu
tion relating to the Compromise Acts the construc
tion which Mr. Choate had placed upon it, and which
its plausible language might be made to bear. They
resolutely shut their eyes to the construction placed
upon it by the Seward Whigs of the North, as weU as
to the position claimed for Gen. Scott by the New
York Tribune as the ally of free-soU and emancipation.
A Scott and Graham ratification meeting was held
at Montgomery, July 7, and speeches were made by
Moss, Belser, and Clanton. The Whig State Con
vention met Sept. 1 and ratified the action of the
Baltimore Convention.
The States-Rights party found themselves in a

TfiE CRADLE OF THE CONFEDERACY. 331
difficult position. They had denounced the Compro
mise measures, and now they were to vote to accept
them as the least ol evils Their Convention, which
had assembled at Montgomery in February, had
appointed a committee to draw up a report and address
to the people of the State. Upon this committee were
such distinguished lawyers and eminent citizens as W.
L. Yancey, John A. Elmore, Sam'l F. Rice, H. M.
Elmore, and G. W. Gayle. The address was pub
lished during the spring, disseminated over the State,
and was fresh in the recollection of the people when the
two National Conventions took action. It said that
the ""tates-Rights associations were " composed of men
' who beUeve that the tendency of old party organi-,
" zations has been to lead their members to avoid any
" decisive action on the great slavery question, and to
" wink at and acquiesce in aggressions on the South
" rather than endanger party success by opposition to
" them, and who have determined to stand aloof from
" those parties untff the wrongs done to the South,
" while each of those parties have a Iministered the
" government, shall be amply redressed and the rights
"of the South fuUy guaranteed against future aggres-
" sion'; or in the event of failure of such just demands,
" untff ' new safeguards ' have been provided for the
" maintenance of our liberties." The address then
argued at length the failure of the Compromise Acts to
do the South fuff justice, and concluded by ad-vising
the people of Alabama to secede at once. It said :
'• In view of our condition, the question forces itself
"upon us--' What policy does our interest and our
" duty alike dictate shall be pursued by us ?' In the
" opinion of the Convention, the only issue which can

332 THE CRADLE OF THE COiSfPEDERACY.
" be made in answer to that question is— Submission
" or Secession.
" The first is recommended to you under the more
" honeyed term, ' acquiescence.' It implies that past
" aggressions afford no ground for resistance, and that
"your safety is not endangered by submission.
" Fellow-citizens ! The AboUtionist recommends to
" you to submit ! The Federalist says it is your
" duty ! The North deskes you to interpose no
" obstacle to the success of its designs ! In what
" consists the difference between such advice from
" such quarters, and the same advice from some of
" your own brethren ? Simply in this : the advice of
" the first is dictated by a selfish desire to be unmo-
" tested in their operations against you ; that of the
" latter is dictated from a selfish desire, on the part of
" the leaders, to preserve unimpaired that old party
" organization which tends to elevate them to power
" and place in this government — and on the part of
" the. masses who follow them, by that feeling of timidity
" and love of ease, which in ages past has permitted
"many a tyrant to rule millions of his feUow men.
" Tories were found in the days of the Revolution to
" deilounce our fathers as ' agitators,' and to preach up
" ' acquiescence ' in the action of the parent govern-
" ment, and to portray the horrors of war to the excited
" imaginations of the weak. Men are found now to do
" the same thing.
" ' Acquiescence ' is the policy which the wisest free-
" soUer may well advocate. A ' masterly inactivity '
"• now, wiU accomplish all his aims. Time, acting as
" the friend of his scheme, wffl ripen his measures into
" a profuse fi-uition. Free soff State after free soff

THE CRADLE OP THE CONFEDERACY. 333
" State wiU come into the Union. The free soil majority
" now in the Senate wUl increase with each accession.
" The free soil majority in the House wUl continue to
" enlarge its gigantic proportions. The Executive will
" be but the reflex of a dominant free soff power in
" the government ; while the South, with no hope of
" corresponding territorial expansion, will be struggUng
" with the very plethora of slavery. Our public men
" seduced from the thorny, self-denying path of duty,
" wffl be found struggling for place in the affections of
" some Northern President. And when Time shall
" have ruthlessly produced these effects, and the sunny
" South has become the Ireland of the Union, the spirit
" of ' Acquiescence ' may complacentl}'' claim them to
" be the fruits of her policy — a policy but occasionally
" and feebly disturbed by some Bmmett whom the
" sufferings of our land may induce to attempt its
" rescue, and whose blood wiU quench the feeble fire of
" patriotism, which his eloquence may serve to kindle
" in the bosoms of his abject, ' acquiescing ' coun-
' trymen." The language of this address stigmatized as Tories
and Federalists those who advocated acquiescence in
the Compromise. But the Democratic party had now
acquiesced in it, and even more plainly and unequivo-
caUy than those who had just composed the Union
party. What was to be done? Mr. Williams, who
was President of the Association, and Mr. Elmore, of
the Committee on the Address, wrote to Gen. Pierce
and Gen. Scott asldng them to define their position on
the question of slavery. Gen. Scott replied that his
letter of acceptance was his only reply to the numerous
letters he received relative to his poUtical views. Gen.

334 THE CRADLE OP THE CONFEDERACY.
Pierce made no reply. Gen. Quitman was also written
to. The reply of this distinguished gentleman was
satisfactory to the association. He rejoiced to learn
that the Southern-Rights party of Alabama still
retained its organization. The policy whether they
should go into the Presidential contest as an organized
party, was one which they alone could decide. If the
people of the whole South finally settle down into quiet
acquiescence in this precedent set and the encroach
ments made by the aggressive measures in question,
they will soon have nothing worth contending for.
Upon the receipt of these letters, the States-Rights
party were caUed together in Convention at Montgom
ery Sept. 13, and unanimously adopted a report
declaring that, whereas Messrs, Pierce and Scott had
failed to answer the interrogatories propounded to them,
they could not consistently vote for either. They
therefore recommended the nomination of Ex-Gov.
Geo. M. Troup, of Ga., and Gen. John A. Quitman, of
Mississippi, for the Presidency and Vice-Presidency.
Immediately after the Democjatic nomination Gen.
Quitman had said in a published letter :
" It was but a short time since we regarded some of
" the compromise measures as unjust, destructive of the
" equality of the Southern States, against the spirit, if
"not the letter, of the Constitution, and evidence of a
" fixed design to abolish slavery everywhere. If our
" opinions are changed — vfe have found ourselves mis-
" taken ; if these measures are so benign as to deserve a
"place in our political creed, let us honestly make
" proclamation to that effect, and raise altars to their
" authors, Clay, Cass, and Foote. But if not, let us
" not write ourselves down as asses or rogues. How
" would Colonel Davis, Governor Brown, or I appear,
" vindicating, defending, and approvmg such a platform ?

. THE CRADLE OP THE CONPEDERACY. 335
'' Why, those political chameleons, Foote and Sharkey,
" could not beat it. But I must conclude by summing
" up : My present opinion then, is, that if Pierce be
" nominated without any indorsement of the compro-
" mise measures, and if he assume no other objectional
" positions, States-Rights men should give him their
" support. If, on the other hand, the Convention have
" placed him on that ebony and topaz platform, I
" think it wUl become our duty to stand aloof, or, what
" would be better, if we can muster spirit, use our exer-
" tions to rouse up and raUy the old State-Rights Guard,
" form societies, hold conventions, nominate a separate
" ticket, and declare war to the knife.
" But it may be said that such action on our part
" might, perhaps, result in the defeat of the Democratic
" ticket and success of the Whig All the answer I
" have to this is, that if Democracy is to retain power
" by striding this centaur hobby, with AboUtion head '
" and Southern taff, it had better be unhorsed. If
" reorganized Democracy admits the absolute doctrines
" of the existence and sovereignty of a supreme
" national government, possessing power to coerce the
" States, nothing wffl be lost by its defeat and de-
" struction." The outspoken sentiments of Gen. Quitman were
endorsed by the entire States-Rights party, yet one
branch of it supported Gen. Pierce and the other
repudiated him. Of the latter class, was Mr. Fisher,
editor. of the Southern Press. Writing from Washing
ton, he said :
" I can not concur in the support of Pierce at all
" with such a platform, and I can not isolate him from
" it when he says ff is in accordance with his judgment.
'• If a Southern-Rights party had resolved to support
" him with a distinct repudiation of the platform, and
" with a power, from its own separate organization, of
" resisting his administiation in any attempt to pursue

336 THE CRADLE OF THE CONPEDERACY.

iC

the compromise poUcy, I could have co-operated.
"But you must forgive me for saying that I consider
" it one of the most disastrous signs of the times that
" men of the two extremes. Free SoUers and Fire-
" eaters, hasten into parties and yet repudiate the
" platforms. It looks like a love of party for the sake
" of party. The consequence is, the success of the
" Deniocratic party wOl be tiie complete ascendency of
" Compromise faction, and the continual defection
" of Southern-Rights men in order to obtain place."
Of the former class was Hon. E. C Wilkinson, of
Miss., one of the Pierce electors, who, writing to
Quitman, said :
" It would doubtless have been better for the party
" with which I am now acting, if you had not pursued
" this course, but I can not say that I see anything
"in what you have published inconsistent with your
" own antecedents. Yours is a position somewhat dif-
" ferent from that of any other States-Rights man in
" Mississippi. You are expected to carry out your
" creed in aff its severity, and not to flinch in the least
" from its conclusions. The time may come, and I do
" not doubt it wiU, when you wUl find your advantage
" in it ; for when the States-Rights party is formed
" again (and who can tell how soon it may be reorgan-
" ized ?) it wffl naturally turn at once to you, who have
"' stood, and stand now, like old Torquff iu the romance
" of Scott, aff alone, battered, but not beaten, whffe
" every living soul has fallen around you,"
Mr, Yancey was of that class, who as bold as
Quitman, were as cautious as Wilkinson. He well knew
that the Compromise could not be depended upon as a
settlement of the slavery question. His own resolu
tions, rejected in 1848, denying the power of the people
of a territory to drive out slavery before the adoption
of a constitution for State government, would renew

THE CRADLE OF THE OONPEDERAOY. 337
the stiffe again whenever presented in a National Con
vention or in Congress. The question whether the
Compromise of 1850 had not overthrown that of 1820
and opened up aU the territories to slavery, was another
entering wedge which at any time could be driven to
the heart of the Union and rend it in twain. The
success of the Democratic party would give the South
the control of it. Let him once become the power
behind the throne, and he would show himself greater
than the throne ! Let the deluded people North and
South accept the Compromise as a finaUty, there were
a hundred ways of renewing the agitation, and at the
same time protesting that the Compromise justified it !
There was no estoppel in politics. The States-Rights
men were determined that the agitation should be
.renewed, and they knew very weU that the Free Soff
party were intent upon something more radical than
building a platform under the end of a rainbow and
attempting to fasten it to the sky with a spike.
At the Presidential election in November, the vote
of Alabama was for Pierce, 26,881 ; for Scott, 15,038 ;
for Troup, 2,174. The vote for Polk in 1847, had
been 37,740, and for Cass in 1848, 31,363. Not less
than 15,000 Democrats tSiiled to vote'for Pierce, and
not less than 15,000 Whigs faffed to vote for Scott.
Here was a mass of thirty thousand reflecting men who
had been driven from the Whig party by the agitation
of the AboUtionists, or led away from the Democrats
by the agitation of the States-Rights party. This
formidable array of malcontents were ready for an
advance movement

CHAPTER XIII.

The Kansas-Nebraska Bill — Preparing for Battle Over
the Outpost — Sharpe Rifles — Emigrant Societies — Rise
of the American Party — Fillmore and Buchanan in the
Southwest — Political Elements of the Elections of 1856,
Etc., Etc.

" At the coming election I cannot doubt that the free states * * will
take possession of this government, restore to the Constitution the pro
portions of power established by Washington, reinstate lu full force that
barrier against the extension of slavery called the Missouri Compromise,
make Kansas a free State, and put an end forever to the addition of any
more slave States to this Union— duties to be fulfilled at any hazard— even
to the dissolution of the Union itself."— l3osiA.A Quincby, Se„ June 5, 1856.]
" Your estate Is gracious that kfeeps you out of hearing of our politics.
Anything more low, obscene, purulent, the manifold bearings of history
have not cast up. We shall come to the worship of onions, cats and
things vermioulate. 'Renown and grace are dead.' 'There is nothing
serious In mortality.' If any wiser saw or Instance ancient or modern
occurred to me to express the enormous, impossible Inanity of American
things, I should utter it."— [RrrFTjs Choate, 1855,]

When the House Territorial Committee reported in
1853, a bUl to organize the Territory of Nebraska, no
question was raised as to the Missouri Compromise
having been repealed by the compromise of 1850.
The bffl was adopted by a vote of 98 to 43. It was
sffent as to slavery ; the whole territory, including what
was afterwards Kansas, lying north of 36 deg. 30 min-
Those who voted for it were alike Democrats, Whigs,
and Free Soffers. This bffl was reported back to the
Senate by Mr. Douglas,' Chairman of the Senate Ter
ritorial Committee, without amendment, on the last
day of the session, March 3, 1853. The debate upon

340 THE cradle op THE CONFEDERACY.
it barely affuded to the question of slavery. It was
laid upon the table because of objections to the manner
in which it dealt with the Indians. A year later Mr.
Douglas, against the remonstrance of President Pierce,
it is said, and apparently looking to the Presidential
succession by means of the Southern vote, brought
forward an amendment to a bffl introduced by a Sena
tor from Iowa — to organize the Territory of Kansas,
and which, Uke the preceding Nebraska bffl, was sffent
as to slavery — declaring that " when admitted as a State
" or States, the said Territory, or any portion of the
" same, shaff be received into the Union with or without
" slavery, as their Constitution may provide at the
" time of their admission," This amendment, referring
in express terms to the Missouri Compromise, declared
that, being inconsistent with , the principles of non
intervention laid down by the compromise of 1850, it
was inoperative and void. From that day began the
renewed .slavery agitation which was not to rest untff
the Continent was drenched in blood.
The Free Soffers, who had been quiet since the elec
tion of President Pierce in 1852, now rejoiced to find
food upon which to strengthen their fortunes. The
amendment of Mr. Douglas was denounced by Sumner,
Seward and Chase in unmeasured terms. The
sanctity of the Missouri Compronuse (never voted for
by the Free Soffers, and always rejected by them
whenever advanced by the South), was held up to the
North as violated by slave propagandists. Resolutions
against the passage of the bill were forwarded to
Congress by New York and Massachusetts. Memorials
flowed in against it from every portion of the North,
East and West. Three thousand and fifty New

THE CRADLE OP THE CONFEDERACY. 341
England ministers, in a petition, protested against it.
Mrs. Stowe and eleven hundred women of Andover,
Mass., joined the memorialists, who were now stirring
up the worst blood of the people. The anti-slavery
sentiment of the North had been intensified during the
past year by the unprecedented circulation of Mrs.
Stowe's novel against slavery. " Uncle Tom's Cabin "
had drawn tears from the eyes of hundreds of thousands,
and given birth to a horror against slavery in the
Northern mind which aU the politicians could never
have created or aUayed. Of that remarkable work,
which did more than all else to array the North and
South in compact masses against each other, 400,000
copies were sold in the United States. One edition
was published in the German language and circulated
among the Germans of the West. Over 500,000
were sold in England. It was translated into every
language of Europe, and into several of those of Asia,
including Arabic and Armenian. In many of these
languages, as in the German, French, Italian, Welsh,
Wallachian, and Russian, there were from two to
twelve different translations.
The Whigs of the South could not understand why
Douglas should renew the slavery agitation by his
inauspicious amendment. When Texas was about to
be annexed, Mr. Alex. H. Stephens had weU expressed
their sentiments when he said of slavery : " I have no
" wish to see it extended to other countries ; and if
" the annexation of Texas were for the sole purpose of
" extending slavery where it does not now, and would
" not otherwise exist, I would oppose it " — and when
at a later day he had said of the measures of 1 850 :
" Whatever abstract rights of extension and expansion

342 THE CRADLE OF THE CONFEDERACY.
" we may have secured in the settlement of that poUcy,
" you may not expect to see many of the territories
" come into the Union as slave States unless we have
" an increase of Afincan stock. The law of population
" wffl prevent. We have not the people." More than
half of the Whigs of /Vlabama had refused to vote for
Gen. Scott because they believed his administration
would not abide by the Compromises as a final settle
ment. A large body of them had, since the adoption
of the Pierce platform, given in their adhesion to the
Democracy, in the vain hope that the policy of the new
administration would be to let the question of slavery
alone. If the citizen had a right to carry his slave to any
territory north of 36 deg. 30 min., why not let the
courts, they asked, decide the question ? Why incor
porate a declaration as to his power to do so in an Act
of Congress — especiaUy when there was littie or no
probabffity that any citizen would thus defy the laws
of nature and the dictates of prudence ? Whenever
Kansas should apply, with a constitution recognizing
slavery, it would be time enough for Congress to
express their opinion ; but there was no more necessity
nor occasion to declare in advance of the fact that she
should be received as a State recognizing slaves as
property, than to declare that she should be received
with a constitution recognizing property in buffaloes
or saw-miffs. It was a mere trick of politicians to
pander to the sentiments of States-Rights men who
controffed the Democratic party South. Grant the
abstract principle to be tiue, it was equally true when
the first compromise was adopted. If we were to fall
back on abstract principle, why had not the Southern

THE CRADLE OP THE CONFEDERACY. 343
man a right to have his property protected in a North
ern State as weU as in a Territory ? But whUe the
Southern Wmos were prepai-ing to organize themselves
anew in opposition to the Kansas-Nebraska BiU, the
tornado from the anti-slavery party, now forming itself
into the Republican party, swept down from the North
with its whirlwind of angry passion, its derisive and
abusive epithets, its threats of violence and disunion,
and its actual nuUification and obstiuction of law.
Hilliard, Watis and other Whig leaders had already
announced themselves against the poUcy of the repeal
of the Missouri Une But what mortal could brook the
assaults which New England hurled at aU the South
indiscriminately, and live ? Before the passage of the
bffl, an event occurred which sffenced any protest
which the Southern Whigs' might have been disposed to
make, and which drove them away from aU considera
tion of compromises to an assertion of constitutional
priujciple. Previous to the passage of the Compromises
they had held that the Southern citizen had a right to
carry his slave property to a common territory, as the
citizen of Georgia had carried his slaves to Alabama
and Mississippi. The opposition of the Free Coffers to
the Missouri Compromise, so repeatedly expressed ;
their constant demand for a Congressional Act forbid
ding slavery in the Territories ; their Personal Liberty
Laws, designed to nullffy the act for the rendition of
fugitive slaves — aU tended to drive the Whigs, in
common with other slaveholders, to the further position
that Congress should not by its agent, the Territorial
Legislature, do that indirectly which it could not do
directly. The Missouri line being removed by the
common consent of the Free Soff North and the States-

344 . TBE CRADLE OP THE CONPEDERACV.
Rights South, nothing was left for the Southern Whigs
except to adhere to the principle adopted by Mr. Clay
and his compeers in 1850 for the government of New
Mexico. The event which destroyed any effort at a restora
tion of the Compromise of 1820, and drove the
Southern Whigs to a clear enunciation of abstiact
rights, was the passage by the Legislature of Massa
chusetts of an Act incorporating " The Massachusetts
" Emigrant Aid Company." The incorporators were
leading Free Soil poUticians. Their capital stock was
to be five millions of dollars. - The men who directed
the company, and the large amount of money to be ex
pended, proved to the South that it was a scheme to
acquire political control of the new Territory — to
interfere with tbe natural laws of immigration, and to
thrust out the property of legitimate Southern emi
grants by seizing and misusing the powers of the Terri
torial Legislature. This company was foUowe4 by
another with a simffar capital of five miffions, and
styled " Emigrant Aid Society." An Association of
Free Soff Congressmen was at the same time secretly
formed at Washington, under the name of the " Kansas
" Aid Society," whose object was to send persons to
Kansas to " prevent the introduction of slavery."
These associations were undoubtedly violative of the
letter of no law ; the emigration of citizens opposed to
slavery was a legal right not to be disputed ; but to
the Southern people it appeared a great moral wrong,
and contrary to the peaceful spirit of Republican gov
ernment, that the political control of a Territory or
State should be secured by the use of vast sums of
money, and the employment of vagabond mercenaries

THE CRADLE OP THE OONPEDERAOY. 345
as against a fair and free expression of the wiU of resi
dent and permanent citizens. If such a system of
crusade were admissable, what was to prevent a simffar
imoad of immigrants into Missouri, Kentucky, or Vir
ginia, and the overthrow and destruction of valuable
property by the votes of paid persons who had no
interest in the soff ? Ten miffions of dbffars could give
sustenance for twelve months to one hundred thousand
voters. This army of crusaders thrown' from Territory
to State, and from State to State, would be so powerful
as to carry Free Soilism wherever it might go. The
forces sent out by the Emigrant Aid Societies were
weff armed with breech-loading rifles of approved army
pattern — not fowling pieces for game, nor the ordinary
huntsman's rifle — but short and rifled breech-loaders,
suitable only for warfare. These rifles were often pre
sented by churches. The Free Soil newspapers sport-
ingly alluded to " the Sharpe's riffe argument."
Down to this moment a majority of Southern people
had not entertained a thought of forcing slavery into
Kansas'. The few settlers from Missouri were more
than outnumbered by those from Iowa. They knew
that the South had not the white population nor the
slaves to indulge in such a rash experiment. A large
minority of the South were at that very time protesting
against the removal of the Missouri Compromise. But
when the march of a Northern army and the gleam of
Northern arms announced that the war had begun, it
was useless for them to talk further of concffiation and
compromise. The largest ,slave-holding counties of the
South had been invariably Whig. Their overtures to
the North had been rejected; their compromise of
rights had been certainly spurned ; their .property was

346 THE CRADLE OP THE CONPEDERACY.
now being warred against. Stiff they yearned for and
expected peace and Union. Their only hope now was
in the boldest position — in the declaration and mainte
nance of the abstract principle on the part of the South,
and a solemn determination to meet force with force on
the fields of Kansas. Opposed as they were to the
repeal of the ..dssouri Compromise, now that it was
removed, they would obey the new law and see to it
that its principle of peaceable non-intervention should
be carried out. It had always been their opinion that
a law of Congress should be obeyed until it was re
pealed. They were for the Union, the Constitution and
the enforcement of the laws in spffit as weff as letter.
Far different was the sentunent of the Free Soil
agitators. At a pubUc meeting held in his church in
the interest of the " t' migrant Aid Society, Rev.
Henry Ward Beecher said that " he beUeved that the
" Sharpe riffe was truly a moral agency, and there was
" more moral power in those instruments, so far as the
" slaveholders of Kansas were concerned, than in a
" hundred Bibles." Such was the blasphemy of the
Abolition Church. Mr. Lloyd Garrison said : " Mas-
" sachusetts has already made it a penal offence to help
" to execute a law of the Union. I want to see the
" officers of, the State brought into coUision with those
" of the Union." Such was the treason of Abolition
legislation. Again said Mr. Garrison : " No Uiuon
" with slave-holders. Up with the flag of disunion, that
" we may have a free and glorious Union of our own."
Such was the cry and the hope of the Northern Seces
sion party. Said Mr. Joshua R. Giddings : " I would
" not be understood as desiring a servile insurrection ;
" but I say to Southern gentlemen, that there are hun-

THE CRADLE OF THE CONFEDERACY. 347
" dreds of thousands of honest and patriotic men who
" will laugh at your calamity and mock when your fear
" Cometh." Such was the humanity of the Abolition
heart. That, at the outset, the abrogation of the Missouri
line was not intended to carry slavery North of it, and
that the South entertained no hope or expectation of
such a result, is evidenced by a speech of Mr. Yancey,
in which he said :
" The South had done its duty in using aU its
" exertions to bring Kansas into the Union ' in accord-
" ance with the p inciples of the Constitution.' She did
" it knowing that the new State would be represented
" by Free Soil Senators and Representatives. She had
" nobly performed her duty without counting the cost."
It was in May, 1854, that the Free Soff party took
up arms, by its Emigrant Aid organization, to " prevent
" the introduction of slavery into " a territory where
the laws of the United States had decreed that it might
go. It was two years later that an appeal was made
by States-Rights leaders of Alabama in behalf of emi
gration to Kansas. AU parties now stood shoulder to
shoulder against the armed invasion of that territory
by New Eagland. Mr. Yancey was appointed to
receive contiibutions. Jefferson Buford, a lawyer of
respectabUity and social " standing, and a member of
the Southern Rights Association of Eufaula, proceeded
to organize a company of emigrants.
During the first week in Aprff, 1856, a body of
emigrants under command of BjFobd, to the number of
five hundred, arrived at Montgomery on their'journey
to Kansas by way of New Orleans and the Mississippi
Kiver. An impromptu reception of the emigrants by

348 THE CRAJJLE OP THE CONFEDERACY.
the citizens was held at Estelle HaU. An eloquent
address was delivered by Alpheus Baker, of Barbour
county, who had followed and animated by his soul-
stirring addresses at aU resting points since leaving
Eufaula, this body of emigrants, to whose care was
confided the interests of the South in the new Territory
of Kansas. Mr. Baker's speech occupied at least one
hour and a half in its delivery, and was listened to
with profound attention. He dwelt upon the constant
assaults made upon the South by the Abolitionists of
the North, and the insidious means which they em
ployed to deprive Southerners of their property ; he
took a cursory glance at the course of injustice and
partiality which had faUen to the lot of the South. He
considered Kansas the battle-iground on which Southern
Rights were to be triumphantly maintained or inglori-
ously reUnquished. He counseled no hasty or uncon
stitutional movements on the part of the South, but
urged a firm, determined spffit to " commit no wrong
" and reUnquish no right." He said the South had
borne, long and patiently, the aggressions, encroach
ments, and haughtiness of the North, not because she
was tremulous for the result should she meet these —
but for the sake of Union. He now considered it meet
and proper that the South should show her determina
tion to suffer persecution no longer. He caUed upon
the proverbial chivalry of her sons, and appealed to
their dearest interests to come up now, manfliUy to the
rescue, to stand by their constitutional rights, and to
maintain in aU vigor the institutions to which they
were accustomed from their infancy. He wished to
oppose no spirit of dictation or haughtiness to the
North, but he wished to see the entire South united on

f THE CRADLE OP THE CONPEDERACY. 349
the question, as to whether the South should maintain
its rights or surrender them at the beck and caU of
rampant fanaticism. At the conclusion of his eloquent
speech, Mr. Bai?;er was loudly applauded.
On Saturday, Aprff 5, the emigrants were formed in
Une before the Madison House on Market street, when
Maj. Buford addressed them, recommending an absti
nence from intoxicating drinks, and a general bearing
such as becomes good citizens. At two o'clock p. m.,
they marched to the Agricultural Fair Grounds, where
an election for officers was held, and the emigrants were
di-vided into compames — Maj. Buford being elected
General of the battalion.
A large and enthusiastic meeting of the citizens of
Montgomery was held the same night at EsteUe HaU,
to express their approval . of and to aid the Kansas
Emigration movement. Calls were made on several
distinguished gentlemen to address the meeting. Major
Buford delivered a dignified and stirring appeal,
explaining the patriotic motives which had induced him
to engage in the undertaking. His address was
received with great expressions of applause from the
assembly. He expressly declared that the intention of
the emigrating party under his charge was peaceably to
settle Kansas with true-hearted Southern men; that
they intended no acts of lawlessness, or force, or fraud ;
but in the event of an interference with their rights by
the hired minions of Northern Freesolism and Fanati
cism, they would, to the last extremity, defend them
selves and the institutions of their choice. He said
that Kansas was the " outpost " which should be now
defended by the South if the South intends to preserve
her institutions and her character.

350 THE CRADLE OF THE CONPEDERACY,
Judge Wn.T.TAM P. Chilton said that it was weU
known that he had always been a " Union man," that
he was stiff a Union man, but the crisis had arrived
in which he felt it his duty not to falter, but to maintain
strictly every right of the South, in the Union ff
possible; ff not, then out of the Union I He said that the
great fault of the South heretofore had been in compro
mising their rights for the sake of peace and harmony.
Such compromises had only urged the North to new
acts of aggression ; henceforth he deemed it the duty
of the Southern States to suffer no infringement of their
guaranteed privffeges, but to contend to the last
extiemity for a fuff and complete equaUty with their
Northern sister States,
The foffowing resolutions were read by the Secretary
and unanimously adopted by the meeting :
"Resolved, That our gratefiff thanks are tendered
" to the noble band of emigrants who have so promptly
" responded to the caff made upon them to march forth
" and throw themselves in the breach in defence of
" Southern Rights and the constitutional privileges of
" the South, and though we hope their mission may be
" a peacefid one, and not involve them in an appeal to
" arms, yet should Abolition fenaticism force such an
" issue, we wish them to consider themselves as but
" the vanguard of the mighty hosts of their brethren of
" the South who are ready to march to their relief and
" stand with them in the stiuggle.
" Resolved, That we are satisfied their conduct will
" be governed by a strict observance of aU the consti-
" tutional laws of the Federal Government, and that we
"deem it unnecessary 'to exhort them to oppose, by
" aU the means placed in their hands by the God who

THE CRADLE OP THE CONFEDERACY. 351
" made them, the least aggression on their rights and
" privffeges by the base hirelings of Northern fanat-
" icism. " Resolved, That the South has made sacrifices and
" compromises to promote the harmony, peace, and
" union of these States on divers occasions, and all such
" efforts have only tended to encourage our adversa-
" ries in their lawless and fanatical proceedings, and to
" urge them on to repeated outrages against our char-
" acter and standing as equals in the confederacy ;
"therefore, henceforth let there be inscribed on our
" banners, ' No Compromise of our Rights,' but a fuU,
" ample and entire equaUty with aU our sister States,
" even at the hazard of Disunion and War ! "
On Sunday the entire battalion of Emigrants re
paired to the Baptist Church, where they Ustened to
an eloquent sermon from the pastor of that congrega
tion. Rev. Dr. I. T. Tichenor. At the conclusion of
the services the Reverend gentleman remarked that,
inasmuch as several ministers at the North had been
prominent in urging the necessity of sanctffying and
civffizing the Territory of Kansas by the aid of Sharpe's
rifles, he hoped his congregation would aid him in pre
senting each of the emigrants in Maj. Buford's battalion
with a more potent weapon, and one much better
calculated to bring about brotherly love and christian
charity — a Bible. The congregation acted on the
suggestion, and an adequate coUection was impiediately
taken up for this object.
On Monday the battalion formed in line, and under
the command of their officers marched to the Baptist
Church. The entire side-gaUeries, and a large portion
of tbe body of the Church, were occupied by the emi-

352 THE CRADLE OF THE CONPEDERACY.
grants, whffe the remaining space was fiUed by
spectators, among whom were many ladies. Rev. Mr.
Dorman, of the Methodist Episcopal Church, offered up
a prayer, asking that the blessings of the Almighty
might descend on Maj. Buford and his command, and
that the enterprise in which they were engaged might
meet with the approbation of Heaven.
Rev. Mr. Tichenor, in behalf of his congregation,
then presented Buford with a large-sized elegant Bible,
bearing an appropriate inscription ; accompanying the
presentation with an eloquent appeal to the feelings,
patriotism, and the moral sense of the emigrants to walk
in the paths of virtue, and to practice with assiduity
the teachings contained in the Holy Word. He stated
that it had been the intention of the congregation to
present each individual of them with a copy of the
Scriptures, but that a sufficient number of copies could
not be found in the city. The sum sufficient to make
the purchases had been raised, which he would confide
to Major Buford's care, in order that he might, at some
convenient point on his route, procure the necessary
copies and present them to his command on behalf of
the church. The Rev. gentleman closed by wishing
them aff Iffe, happiness and prosperity, and hoped that
the blessing of God would crown thefr endeavors to
perpetuate the institutions of the South — ^which were
fuUy in accordance with the law of God.
Buford received the Bible from the hands of the
Rev. speaker, and, after reverently kissing it, repUed on
behaff of the emigrants that aU their hopes of success
were founded on the firm conviction that they were
right, and that they were animated by motives of pure

THE CRADLE OP THE OONPEDERAOY. 353
patriotism and a hearty desire for the welfare of the
South and her institutions.
Benediction was then pronounced by Rev. Mr.
Dorman,- and the emigrants marched to the wharf,
where the steamer Messenger was lying to take them
to Mobffe. The crowd of spectators in attendance at
the wharf could not have been less than five thousand
in number, a large portion of them ladies. A Band of
colored musicians discoursed exhfffrating music.
Arri-ving at the wharf they halted, and Hon. H. W.
Hilliard addressed them briefly, setting forth the right
of the Southerners, relying for protection on the Consti
tution of the country, to enter the Territory of Kansas
with their institutions and property, and to claim pro
tection therefor from the Federal Government. He
counseled a spirit of peace and concffiation, to act on
the defensive — and remarked that he was glad to see
them go armed with the Word of Truth and the Con
stitution, rather than with Sharpe's rifles. He avowed
his confidence in the success of their mission, and felt
satisfied that by no act of theirs would the South have
cause to blush for those who had taken upon themselves
the defence of her interests. Mr. Hilliard spoke from
a cotton-bale. He said it was typical of the supremacy
of the white race. Said he : " Providence may change
" our relations to the inferior race, but the principle is
"eternal — the supremacy of the white race." Mr.
Alpheus Baker again spoke in his usual eloquent
language. The beff of the steamer rang, and the expe
dition departed amid the huzzas of a united people, and
to the sound of cannon booming along the bluffs.
The National Whig party having been broken to
pieces by the incessant agitation of the question of

354 THE CRADLE OP THE CONFEDERACY.
slavery by its Northern wing, the conservative portion of
it. North and South, and a portion of the Democratic
party, ',which was wearied with the " forcing issue "
policy of the States-Rights men who controlled the
Pierce administration, now united under cover of
secrecy in an organization which they hoped would
issue from its cloak, fiaUy panoplied, and grapple suc
cessfully with the grave problems of the day. Mr.
John M. Clayton, who had been Secretary of State
under President Taylor, had announced in 1854 that
this " Know Nothing " party would reftise " to test
" the suitableness of any man for pubUc office by the
" question whether he is for or against the mere exten-
" sion of slavery in some territory of the United States."
This was satisfactory to the South. It was acquies
cence in the principle of non-intervention in the
territories. In June, 1855, the party met in National
Council at PhUadelphia, and laid down its platform.
Forthwith the Whigs of the South gave in their adhesion
to the organization, which now assumed the name
" American Party." In Alabama the old Whig leaders,
Bibb, Hilliard, Chilton, Watts, Judge, Clanton, Jemi
son, White, Langdon, and Shortridge arrayed
themselves under the new banner. It may be asked
why these citizens were not content to abide by the
Democratic party upon their platform of 1852 ? They
recognized the justice of the principles of the States-
Rights men ; why not join their organization ? Why
maintain separate organizations with paraUel principles ?
The answer may be found in the June, 1856, platform
of the National American Party :
1. The Southern Whigs, while admitting the princi
ples of the Kansas Bill, charged the Democrats, in the

THE CRADLE OP THE CONFEDERACY. 355
language of the first American resolution, with " having
" elevated sectional hostffity into a positive element of
"political power and brought our institutions into
" peril." For this reason they could not repose confi
dence in a party whose poUcy, under the leadership of
Quitman, Rhett, Davis, and Yancey, was to foUow Mr.
Calhoun and to force the issue on the North.
2. The American party declared that it would abide
by and maintain the existing laws upon the subject of
slavery as a final and conclusive settlement of that
subject. The Kansas Bffl was then a law. It also
declared that Congress ought not to legislate upon the
subject of slavery within a territory of the United
States. 3. The doctrine that the naturaUzation laws should
be more strict, and that foreigners should not be
allowed to vote until naturalized, would curtaff the Free
Soff vote and curb in the West the growing power, of a
class of citizens whose language, ideas, and habits were
foreign to our own. The Whigs of the South were
ready to seize upon this as a poUcy advantageous to
the South^ which had not a handftil of foreign-born
citizens. 4. So far as opposition to the Roman CathoUc
Church entered into the party, the Southern Whigs
everywhere rejected it, as pandering to the lowest
prejudices of bigotry and unworthy of the dignity of a
true repubUcan, with whom liberty of conscience should
be as sacred as Iffe itseff. But in those large cities of
the North wherever the Romish Church interfered
with secular affairs, they held that it was a proper
subject for poUtical opposition.
The Alabama State CouncU of Americans met at

356 THE CRADLE OF THE CONFEDERACY.
Montgomery, Nov. 13, 1855. The rapid growth
throughout the country, and wonderful success in many
of the States, of their new party, as also the conserv
ative platform laid down by the National Councff in
June, had delighted the more moderate people of the
South. They saw in the American party a worthy
successor of the Whig. But whffe the Grand Councff
of Alabama was rejoicing over a new national party
which appeared to be actually desirous of quieting the
slavery agitation, the grand councUs of many of the "
Northern States were also in session resolving that the
Missouri Compromise should be restored, and that
unless it were restored Congress should refuse to admit
into the Union any State above that Une which might
apply for admission. The Free SoU element had gained
access to the American party North, and was now
ready to force the party to apply the Wffmot Proviso
to Kansas and Nebraska. To the Southern Whigs
the repeal of the Missouri Compromise was one thuig.
Its restoration at the mouth of Sharpe rifles was quite
another thing. Therefore it was that the Alabama
American Convention resolved that the people of aU
the States have an equal right to enter and occupy
any territory with thefr property, and that they are
protected in the enjoyment of thefr property there by
the Constitution of the United States, untff such time
as the people may frame a constitution preparatory to
admission as a State. This was the principle set out
by the resolutions of Mr. Yancey adopted by the
Democratic Convention of Alabama in 1848, and
rejected by the National Democratic Convention of
that year. By breaking down the barrier of the Com'^
promises which separated them, Mr. Yancey now saw

THE CRADLE OP THE OONPEDERAOY. 357
the Democratic party and his old opponents of the
Whig party occupying the same intrenchment, with
ranks almost touching. The American party North
had not as yet fiiUy indicated that it was being con
troUed by the Free Soilers, when the Americans of
Alabama once more met in convention, Feb. 4th, '56,
and re-endorsed the position assumed by their Grand
Councff in November.
Henry C. Jones, of FrankUn county, was President
of this Convention. Among its delegates were Bibb,
Clanton, Belser, Parsons, White, Jemison, Jos. W.
Taylor, J. J. Hooper, Benj. Gardner, W. A. Ashley,
R. F. Inge, W. B. H. Howard, Jerome Clanton, B. A.
Powell, and other distinguished members of the old
Whig party, besides a number of those who had here
tofore acted with the Democratic party. The over
throw of the American party in Virginia by the vigor
ous canvass of Henry A. Wise, had alarmed the
greater portion of the Democrats who had entered the
Know Nothing lodges, and they had beat a hasty
retreat; but quite a number stUl remained, and it
appeared quite probable that the Americans might
carry the State of Alabama. The Convention an
nounced the foUowing principles :
1. That the people of aU the States have a constitu
tional right to enter and occupy any of the territories,
as weU with their slaves as with any other species of
property, and are protected in the enjoyment of the
same by the Constitution and the flag of the country ;
and that neither Congress nor a territorial Legislature
can legislate slavery into or out of a territory, but
must protect the citizens in the enjoyment of their
property of whatever description.

358 THE CRADLE OP THE CONPEDERACY.
2. That the power to exclude slavery from a terri
tory resides only in a convention of the people when
assembled under an Act of Congress to frame a consti
tution preparatory to admission as a State.
3. That the opposite doctrine of squatter sovereignty
is repudiated. 4. That neither Congress nor a Territorial Legislar
ture can enable unnaturaUzed foreigners to vote within
a territory ; and that no foreign-born resident should
vote within a State unless legally naturalized.
Addressing the Convention in support of these
principles, Mr. Hilliard argued that the Kansas-
Nebraska BiU authorized the squatters in a territory to
exclude slave property whenever they chose to do so,
and that this doctrine of squatter sovereignty was
worse than the WUmot Proviso. By the exercise of
the Wffmot Proviso the people would know at the
outset that they could not remove with their slaves to
a territory, but by being subjected to squatter sover
eignty the tenure of thefr property would be left to the
accidents of the hour, and to the whims of political
hfreUngs who might be sent to the territory, not as
actual residents and permanent citizens, but to accom
pUsh the success of a certain poUtical party. He
charged the Kansas-Nebraska Act with containing this
monstrous principle, so unworthy of dignified govern
ment, and the Democratic party with having accepted
it. It was intended, he said, to please both sections ;
the South, because it removed the Missouri Une and
enabled the slave-holder to take his slave to any of the
territories ; the North, because the Free Soff settlers,
withoui^knpediment, could first rush in and seize the
territorial government. The fact that the Democrats

THE CRADLE OF THE CONFEDERACY. 359
of Alabama had resolved that they were opposed to
squatter sovereignty, was immaterial. They had so
resolved in 1848, and their resolutions being rejected
by the National Convention, they had acquiesced,
accepted Mr. Cass and repudiated Mr. Yancey. Not
withstanding their late State Convention had reaffirmed
Mr. Yancey's resolutions of 1848, it would be seen that
the Democratic party would nominate Mr. Buchanan,
whom Mr. Yancey then denounced, and that Mr. Bu
chanan would substantiaUy endorse the doctrine of Mr.
Douglas. The American party deplored the removal
of the Missouri Une as unnecessary and provocative of
renewed sectional agitation ; but being removed, noth
ing was left except to plant themselves upon the clear
abstract right of holding slaves as other property untff
the Territory, when admitted as a State, should pro
hibit it. This, he felt satisfied, was sound constitutional
law, and would be so held by the Supreme Court of the
United States in the case then pending before it.
The State American Convention had sent delegates
to a National American Convention which was to
convene at PhUadelphia Feb. 22. It was the hope of
the Southern members of that party that the National
Convention to nominate for the Presidency would be
postponed to July. But the Northern members
insisted upon an earlier day. The Southern States had
but few representatives present, and the controUing
sentiment was for free soff. The Convention repudiated
the poUcy of the preceding Convention of June, took
the ground of the newly-organized Republican party by
declaring opposition to the reckless and unwise policy
of the existing administration, and announced a fi-ee
and open discussion of the question of slavery. So

360 THE cradle op THE CONPEDERACY.
plain was the meaning of thefr new platform, that a
despatch was forwarded to a " RepubUcan " Conven
tion, sitting at Pittsburg, in this language :
" The American party is no longer united. Raise
" the RepubUcan banner. Let there be no further
" extension of slavery. The Americans are with you."
Alexander White and Geo. D. Shortridge, two of
the delegates who had been appointed from Alabama,
pubUshed a letter protesting that the PhUadelphia Con
vention was not a representative body, that it had been
assembled in unseemly haste and for the purpose of
excluding the South ; that it had planted itself on
sectional ground and abandoned the conservative
position of the former convention. There was a moral
sublimity in the June platform ; there was debasement
for the South in that of February. Can we foUow
them ? asked the letter. The Alabama party in their
resolutions had declared that they would not support
for the Presidency any one who would not pubUcly avow
the correctness of thefr views. It was now time for the
South to take her destiny in her own hands. Messrs.
White and Shortridge could not foUow men or a party
who would not avow the justice and maintain the
principles of the Alabama American platform. Their
only hope was that the party would hold a National
Convention in July and return to the sound and consti
tutional position of the National Councff of 1855.
Notwithstanding the fiision of the Free Soilers of the
American party North with the RepubUcan party, there
was still a large body of conservative citizens at the
North who were anxious for a cessation of sectional
contioversy. These, added to the anti-administration
vote of the South, constituted one-fourth of the entire

THE CRADLE OP THE CONFEDERACY. 361
popular vote of the Union. It was hoped and believed
that this body of citizens, always devoted to the Union,
always anxious and wffling to compromise questions
which involved no practical interest, always moderate
and conservative in action and expression, would form
a nucleus around which would concentrate a dominant
national party. These men met at Baltimore in July.
It was a large assemblage, representing all parts of the
Union and composed of persons of the highest inteUect
ual attainments and moral worth. With great
unanimity they nominated Mr. Fillmore for the
Presidency. In August, 1855, the Gubernatorial election in Ala
bama had shown 30,639 votes for Judge Shortridge,
the American candidate for Governor, and 42,238 for
Winston, his Democratic opponent. The vote for
Shortridge was twice that for Scott in 1851. The
vote for Winston was but four thousand more than was
cast for Polk eleven years before. The American vote
for Shortridge was the largest opposition vote that had
been cast in the State of Alabama. It appeared from
this that the dissolution of the Whig party in 1852 had
not discouraged nor disheartened the conservatives of
the South. They were more compact than ever
against the agitation poUcy of Mr. Yancey and the
States-Rights party. Had the American party
remained a national onS, abided by the platform of
June, 1855, and had not its Northern wing <;hrown
itself into the arms of the Free Soilers in February, '56,
it is probable that the vote between Mr. Buchanan and
Mr. Fillmore in Alabama would have been as closely
contested as that between Gen. Cass and Gen. Taylor.
Notwithstanding the cloud that was cast over the

362 THE cradle of THE CONFEDERACY.
party South by the action of the PhUadelphia Con
vention of February, the Alabama Americans resolved
to accept Mr. Fillmore upon the strength of his ad
ministration and the principle involved in the Compro
mise of 1850, as announced in the resolutions of the
several Alabama American Conventions.
Mr. Yancey, at tbe Buchanan ratification' meeting
held at Montgomery, had said that every generous and
just- minded man present would admit that the Demo
crats of Alabama bad a right to congratulate themselves
on the complete justification of the resolutions proposed
by him and adopted by the State Convention of 1848.
The striking truth then announced was so palpably
ti-ue as to admit of no dispute. It was a matter which
had so forced itseff on the attention of Southern Whigs
as to compel such men as Toombs and Stephens, of
Ga., Benjam™, of La., Cabuthers, of Mo., Preston, of
Ky., and the Walkers, Pattons, Pughs, and hosts of
other true and gallant men of Alabama and elsewhere,
to dissever their old party associations in obedience to
the impulses of patriotic duty, and ally themselves with
the Democracy as the only National party possessing
the power and the wiU to protect the South and assure
the continuance of the Union upon a constitutional
basis. There can be no question but that Mr. Yancey
had consistently adhered to the Calhoun resolutions of
] 848, and that in the spirit of Calhoun, he had steadUy
•forced upon the Democratic party the doctrine of non
intervention by a territorial legislature with the institu
tion of slavery. But a large portion of the Democratic
party denied that Mr. Yancey's construction of the
Cincinnati non-intervention resolution was correct.
Recognizing the difference of opinion which existed as

THE CRADLE OP THE CONFEDERACY. 363
to the duty and powers of a territorial government, Mr.
Buchanan, in his letter accepting the nomination for
the Presidency, said " that the people of a territory,
like those of a State, shaU decide for themselves " as to
the existence of slavery. This letter was doubtless
intended to meet the demands of both sections. At
the North it was construed to mean that the people of
a territory might legislate as to property Uke those of
a State. By the Southern Democracy it was constiued
to mean that the people of a territory could decree
what was to be property in the same manner the
people of a State could make such decree, namely : by
a properly assembled convention.
Seizing this expression of Mr. Buchanan, the Ameri
can speakers in Alabama contended that Mr, Yancey's
construction was wrong, and that the Northern De
mocracy were intent upon leaving to the wiU of the
ffrst squatters of a territory the exclusion of Southern
property. If, said they, this is the conclusion of the
whole matter, why was the Missouri Une disturbed, and
why was sectional agitation once more renewed ? They
maintained that the American resolutions of the
National CouncU of June, 1855, and the Alabama reso
lutions of the February following, expressed the true
position of the American party. They held that, as
between the Free SoU Whig party of the North, and
the States-Rights Secession party of the South, the
American party stood, the only national one which could
give peace to the country and perpetuity to the Union.
The American party had decided to abide by the
existing laws. It had declared that Congress could
not exclude a State from admission to the Union
because of the existence of slavery. It is true the

364 THE CRADLE OP THE CONPEDERACY.
National Councff had pretermitted any expression of
opinion as to the power of Congress to establish or pro
hibit slavery in any territory, but they had declared
that Congress ought not to legislate upon that subject.
Thus whUe Mr. Yancey and his friends denied the
power of Congress, the Americans held that the higher
motive of moral obUgation should induce Congress to
refrain from all attempts to exercise the power. The
constitutional obligation might be in doubt, as thought
one wing of the Democracy ; but with the Americans
there was no doubt as to the moral obligation.
The poUtical elements which entered into the Presi
dential contest, were as follows :
1. The RepubUcan party, soUd and compact, in favor
of the power and duty of Congress to prohibit slavery
in the Territories. This party lacked only the vote of
Pennsylvania to carry Fremont into the Presidency.
2. The Northern Democracy, giving a squatter sov
ereignty construction to Mr. Buchanan's letter of
acceptance, just as Mr. Yancey, in 1848, had given a
simUar construction to his Berk's county letter. This'
element, while unable to give an electoral vote in pro
portion to its numbers, constituted two-thirds of the
entire Democratic population.
3. The Southern Democracy, now controUed by the
successors of Mr. Calhoun, and construing the accept
ance of Mr. Buchanan and the Cincinnati platform to
mean non-intervention both by Congress and its agent,
the territorial legislature. This element, while consti
tuting but one-third of the Democratic popular
strength, was able to control four-fifths of the probable
Democratic electoral votes.
4. The American party, which, in the North, evaded

THE CRADLE OP THE OONPEDERAOY. 365
the question of slavery, and which, in the South was
divided between those who, whffe not denying the
power of Congress to prohibit slavery in the Territories,
contended that the existing legislation on the subject
should be abided by as a final settlement, and those
who denied such a power to Congress and insisted on
congressional protection to slaves untff the territory be
came a State. Both sections of the party. South, agreed
that the present laws should be carried out, and that
the constitutionality of the question should be left to
the decision of the Supreme Court. This party at the
South was able to poU against the Democracy more
than one hundred thousand more votes than were cast
for Gen. Scott, and nearly fifty thousand more than
were cast for Gen. Taylor.

OHA^PTER XIV.

The Dred Scott Decision — Condition of Parties in 1858
— The Irrepressible Conflict — The John Brown Raid
— Leagues of United Southerners — The Southern
Commercial Convention — Debate between Yancey and
Pryor — Precipitating the Cotton States into Revolu
tion, &c., &c.

" Free labor and slave labor, these antagonistic systems, are con
tinually coming Into close contact, and collision results. Shall I tell
you what this collision means? They who think it is accidental, un
necessary, the work of Interested or fanatical agitators, and therefore
ephemeral, mistake the case altogether. It is an Irrepressible conflict
between opposing and enduring forces, and it means that the
United States must and will, sooner or later, become either entirely a
slave-holding nation or entirely a free-labor nation."
W. H. SbwAED, in 1858.
" Our own banner is inscribed : ' No co-operation with slave-hold
ers in politics: no fellowship with them in religion: no affiliation
with them In society : no recognition of pro-slavery men. except as
ruffians, outlaws and criminals.' " Impending Ckisis.
" As long as the blood-stained Union exists, there Is but Uttle hope
for the slave." W. L. Gakbison, at New York, 1857.

At the time when the Whigs of Alabama in thefr
support of Mr. Fillmore, had asserted the right of the
people of any State to remove to and hold within a
territory any species of property, subject to the decis
ion of the people of the territory, through a constitu
tion framed as preUminary to their admittance as a
State, the Supreme Court of the United States had
pendffig before them a case (Dred Scott vs. Sandford,
19 Howard's Reports, p. 393,) involving all the con^
tested questions in regard to slavery. Two days after

368 THE cradle op THE CONPEDERACY.
Mr. Buchanan's inauguration, a decision was announced
upon this case which affirmed the correctness of the
Alabama American platform. It established the prop
osition that the Federal Government could not interfere
with the possession of slave property in a slave terri
tory, and could not authorize the local government to
do so, and that it was the duty of the Government to
protect such property there. The Republican party
denied the binding force of this decision. Although
composed principaUy of Northern Whigs who applaud
ed Mr. Webster when he named tbe Supreme Court' as
the arbiter in disputes concerning constructions of the
Constitution, they now found it convenient to reject
that arbitiation. They, together with the adherents of
Mr. Douglas, held that the Court could pass simply
upon each case as it came before them, and could not
lay down a general principle which would bind the
political department of the Government. The Douglas
Democracy in thus rejecting the umpfrage of the
Supreme Court were undoubtedly in accord with the
views of Hayne, Van Buren, Calhoun and other lea
ders of the Democratic party of the preceding genera
tion. The Buchanan Democracy could not, with con
sistency, claim the Dred Scott decision as stiengthen-
ing their case. They had, theretofore, uniformly declared
that the dignity of the States would not permff the
decision of constitutional questions to rest with a Fed
eral Court. For the purpose of advancing thefr party
interests, the Northern Whigs and Southern Democrats,
the extreme Free SoUers and the extreme States-Rights
men, at this point reversed thefr positions. The party
that had once spurned the idea of hstening to the
Supreme Court upon poUtical questions, now emblazon-

THE CRADLE OP THE CONPEDERACY. 369
ed the Dred Scott decision upon its flag, and the party
which had invariably appealed to the Court in the
days of Marshall now rejected it with loathing and
hate in the days of Yancey. The Whig party of the
South alone maintained its ancient land-marks. Inher
iting the traditions of 1830 and of 1840, it stiff
adhered to the faith of Webster and Clay, and bowed
to the decision of the Court. They stffl held that the
Constitution, and the laws made in pursuance thereof^
were the supreme laws of the land, and that the
Supreme Court could alone decide whether a law was
made in pursuance to the Constitution.
AU of the Compromises of the Constitution having
been rejected, and the Supreme Tribunal having now
announced its decision upon the grave question cf the
day, the Whigs of Alabama had no further point of
dispute with thefr adversaries upon matters growing out
of slavery. They stffl, however, held themselves in
soUd a-rray against the Democracy upon the ground
that the Territorial question was an impracticable one,
upon which the continuance of the Union should not
be staked, and that the States-Rights leaders who now
held unbounded sway in the Democratic ranks, had
come to the conclusion that secession should be resorted
to without awaiting any further overt act than the
Conference Bffl, under which Kansas was vfrtuaUy
refiised admittance with her Lecompton Constitution.
So determined was this array that in the election for
Congressman in the Montgomery Distiict, as late as
November, 1858, Mr. Judge, who has been afready
aUuded to as a prominent leader of the Whigs, faffed of
an election by only two hundred and fourteen votes in
a poU of more than thirteen thousand. Referring to

370 THE CRADLE QP THE CONFEDERACY.
this election, it is worthy of note that the large slave-
holding counties of the District gave majorities for Mr.
Judge, notwithstanding the newspapers charged him
with want of fealty to the institution of slavery in voting
at the NashvUle Convention to accept the Compronuse
of 1850, and in pubUshing the card relative to the
right of secession, to which reference has afready been
made in a preceding chapter. The charge of disloyalty
to the South thus preferred against Mr. Judge by the
Montgomery Advertiser and other Democratic newspa
pers, did not prevent the people from casting for hun
6,666 votes, against 6,880 votes for Mr. Clopton, his
competitor. The counties most largely interested in
slavery, and possibly in the extension of slavery to
Kansas and Nebraska, voted for Mr. Judge. He was
defeated by the votes of those counties which were the
least interested in that subject. Thus ffrm and unbro
ken was the front maintained against the Democratic
party around the home of Yancey and the cradle of the
Confederacy. Such was the conflict, not of principle,
but of sentiment and temper, in one of the largest
slave-holding Distiicts of the South, inhabited by a
population wealthy, high-spirited, and inteUigent — a
confUct which would, by nicely balancing the power of
the disputants, have preserved the Union for an ffidefi-
nite period — when suddenly occurred a series of events
which paralyzed the labors of men Uke Watts, Judge,
Langdon, and Clanton, and struck the South with such
alarm and indignation as to add intensity to the secession
movement which had now once more assumed definite
shape. These events were : 1. The announcement by Senator
Seward, the leader of the Republican party, that an

THE CRADLE OP THE CONFEDERACY. 371
irrepressible conflict existed between the North and
South, a confUct which must eventually give free labor
to the South ; 2. The endorsement by Mr. Greeley,
Mr. Seward, and all the RepubUcan leaders, of a book
pubUshed by a charlatan, entitled " Impending Crisis,"
which advised the opponents of slavery " to land miUtary
"forces in the Southern States who shaU raise the
" standard of freedom and call the slaves to it," and to
" teach the slaves to burn their masters' buffdings, to
" kffl their cattle and hogs, to conceal and destroy
" farming utensffs, to abandon labor in seed-time and
" harvest and let the crops perish "; 3. The invasion
of Vfrginia and the emeute at Harper's Ferry by John
Brown and his AboUtion force.
Cotemporaneously with these events, which did more
to fire the Southern heart than aU the speeches of
States-Rights leaders, was the meeting of the Southern
Commercial Convention at Montgomery, and the organ
ization of Leagues of united Southerners to take the
place of the old States-Rights Associations.
A Southern Commercial Convention held at Knox-
viUe, in August, 1857, had appointed a committee, of
which L. W. Speatt, of S. C, was chairman, to prepare
business for the next meeting, covering these questions :
1. The Afiican slave tiade; 2. The political relations
of the South to the Union ; and, 3. The foreign poUcy
the South should advocate.
The next meeting of the Convention was held at
Montgomery, May 10, 1858. The welcoming address
was made by Mr. Yancey on behaff of the Mayor and
Councff of Montgomery. He said :
" I must be aUowed, at least on my own behalf to
" welcome you, too, as but the foreshadowing of that

372 THE CRADLE OF THE CONFEDERACY.
" far more important body, important as you evidently
" wiff be, that, if injustice and wrong shaU stffl continue
" to rule the hour and councffs of the dominant section
" of this country, must, ere long, assemble upon
" Southern soff, for the purpose of devising some
" measures by which not only your industiial, but your
" social and your political relations shaU be placed upon
" the basis of an independent sovereignty, which wiU
" have within itself a unity of cUmate, a unity of soil, a
" unity of production, and a unity of social relations ;
" that unity which alone can be the basis of a successful
" and permanent government." [Loud applause.]
Among the members of the Convention were men
whose names had been long famffiar to the pubUc,
some of the leading inteffects of the South. There were
Calhoun and Hayne, of S. C, able representatives of
thefr distinguished kinsmen who had passed away ;
Preston and Pryor, of Va. ; Hill and Lamar, of Ga. ;
Breckinridge and White, of La.; McRae and Dunn,
of Miss. ; Chase and Brevard, of Fla. From Alabama
were seen the faces of Yancey, Hilliard, Clanton,.
Cochran, Lea, Walker, Belser, Bethea, and many
others of distinction. A. P. Calhoun, of S. C, was
elected President. Mr. Spratt submitted to the Con
vention an elaborate report touching the questions sub
mitted at the last session of the Convention, and
recommended the adoption of the foUowing resolutions :
" 1. That slavery is right, and that being right, there
" can be no wrong in the natural means to its formation.
" 2. That it is expedient and proper the Foreign
" Slave Trade should be re-opened, and that this Con-
" vention wffl lend its influence to any legitimate
" measure to that end.
" 3. That a committee, consisting of one from each

tHE OftADLE OP THE OONPEDERAOY. 373
" slave State, be appointed to consider of the means,
" consistent with the duty and obUgations of these
" States, for re-opening the Foreign Slave Trade, and
" that they report their plan to the next meeting of
" this Convention."
Mr. Roger A. Pryor, of Virginia, stated that
although a member of the committee from whence this
report purports to come, yet he had not seen it, nOr
had he heard any of its arguments or conclusions untff
it was read to the convention. He therefore hoped the
convention would indulge him by giving him an oppor
tunity to prepare and present to the convention the
arguments founded upon considerations of high State
policy, of eminently high Southern poUcy, which would
forbid this convention, which purports to represent the
interests of the South, from embarking in so serious an
enterprise as that of proclaiming before Christendom
that they now intend to insist upon re-opening the
tiade in African slaves.
Mr. Yancey, of Alabama, said he, also was a member
of the committee from which this report comes, and
from circumstances beyond his control, he had not seen
it. But from what he had heard of it, as it was read,
he was free to confess that he gave it his most hearty
concurrence. There might be some things in it to
which he could not give his consent.
The question recurring on the following day, Mr.
Pryor addressed the convention at length. He dif
fered from the gentleman from South Carolina (Mr.
Spratt) in his argument that the diffiision of slavery
strengthened it. Diffiision is not strength ; but, on
the contiary, concentration is strength. It was not the
opuiion of Thomas Jefferson that diffusing slavery

374 THE CRADLE OF THE CONFEDERACY.
strengthened it. WhUe he admfred the genius and
patriotism of Jefferson, he must, at the same time, con
fess, with humUiation and shame, that he was the most
intelligent adversary of slavery that the world has ever
produced. But he offered the Missouri restriction
because, by using his own words, "by diffusing the
" institution of slavery you weakened it." Look at
Missouri, where slavery is very much difliised, and
then at South Carolina, where it is more concentrated
than in any other State in this Confederacy, and then
say where the institution of slavery has the most
strength. The policy advocated in this report is and ought to
be impracticable. We are committed by the action of
our forefathers to give the Federal Government un
conditional and absolute control over the African
slave trade. The gentleman from South Carolina can
not expect to get the Fedeial Government to open that
tiade. No sensible man here believes that that will
ever be done under any cfrcumstances, for the North
has complete control of the legislative and executive
departments of the Government. Does the gentleman
propose to open the trade by action of the several
Southern States ? That would be an act of bad faith,
for we have agreed to the Constitution of this country,
and as long as we remain in the Union, we must
uphold that Constitution. It is what we require of
others, and let us, like honorable men, do the same
thing ourselves.
Another objection to the agitation of this subject,
said Mr. Pryor, is that by committing ourselves to this
poUcy we sacrifice our fi-iends at the North, and the
National Democratic party in the North. It was that

THE CRADLE OP THE OONPEDERAOY. 375
Democratic party which affected an amelioration in the
financial system of this Government ; which redeemed
the country fi-om the oppression of a National Bank ;
which has extended the area of the Union by the
acquisition of Florida, Texas, and California. His
memories of that party appealed to his heart not rudely
and ruthlessly to sacrifice it. There are members of
that party in the North that he was unwilUng to
consign to frretrievable perdition and destruction by
imposing upon them a test they cannot be expected to
stand. He would rather, in an excess of generosity and
magnanimity, sacrifice some of his own feeUngs and
rights than to sacrifice those who have stood by us in
our hour of need. It was utterly impossible for any
Northern man, however faithful to the interests of the
South, to advocate the revival of the African slave
tiade. There were exceptional cases, anomaUes in
nature, lusus natures, Uke the editor of the Day Book,
but he was but an exception. The gentleman from
Alabama (Mr. Yancey) said yesterday — whether he
intended it as a compliment or a reproach — said that
the National Democratic party was the only ligament
that united the North and South, and he was unwilling
to sacrifice it.
This proposition, ff endorsed, would shock the moral
sentiment of Christendom. Some may say that they
do not care for that. But we of the South who profess
to be Christians should endeavor, if possible, without
sacrificing rights, to seek rather to propitiate the moral
sentiment of Christendom. He was not wffling to
throw the gauntlet in the face of the Christian world.
He was very much governed by considerations of

376 THE CRADLE OF THE CONPEDERACY.
poUcy. And the sentiment of the Christian world was
graduaUy coming around to one standpoint.
Look at England with her Coolies, and France with
her apprentices. The despatch from our Minister to
France shows a gradual ameUoration in sentiment upon
this subject. We should bide our time, and not, by
this public action, give our institutions an frretiievable
recoff. Quieta non movere. Allow things to go along
smoothly. He objected to the introduction of a horde of barba
rians from Africa among us. That was incompatible
with the present status of slavery here. Ours is a
patiiarchal institution now, founded in pity and pro
tection on the one side, and dependence and gratitude
on the other. It would become under this poUcy Uke
slavery in Cuba, where the master is forced to be cruel
and stern in his government and control of slavery.
It would create a new grade of slavery, and create in
the slaves we afready have a feeUng of superiority that
we should avoid.
In short, this proposition to revive the African Slave
Trade was purely and simply a proposition to dissolve
the Union, because it cannot be carried out whffe the
Union lasts. When that proposition is boldly and
openly made, Virginia, though a border State, would
not shrink from her duty. But Vfrginia was unwffling
to put the perpetuity of this Union upon any such
issue as this proposition to kidnap cannibals upon the
coast of Congo and contend with the King of Dahomey
in the marts of wffd Africa for the purchase of slaves
there. If you intend dissolution, declare it boldly and
manfiiUy. [Applause.] Present your proposition with
your preamble and resolutions, and we wffl meet you

T±E CRADLE OP tHE CONFEDERACY. 377
Upon it, and either acquiesce and go with you heartily
and zealously, or give our reasons for not doing so.
Mr. John A. Jones, of Georgia — WiU the gentleman
go, go now, to-day, for a dissolution of the Union ?
[Applause.] Mr. Pryor — I am not going to take a position
outside of the Union untff I can go with a united South.
Give me a case of oppression and tyranny suflBcient to
justify a dissolution of the Union, and give me a united
South, and then I am wiUing to go out of the Union.
[Applause.] Mr. Jones — If the gentleman waits for an undivided
South he never wUl go out of the Union.
Mr. Pryor — I wiff not so stigmatize any State or
any class of my feffow citizens by beUeving that when a
case arises sufficient to justify a dissolution of the
Union, any State of the South wffl stand back. In no
crisis has the Old Dominion ever been recreant to her
duty. When the ball of the revolution. was set in
motion in 1774, Virginia was not behind. When
Jackson desfred to send the Federal troops to crush
out South CaroUna, Virginia was not recreant to her
duty. [Applause.] But recoUect that the first onset,
in case of revolution, must be met by Vfrginia, and
gentlemen must not expect of her an inordinate enthu
siasm that may be felt by others not situated as she is.
But take my word for it, Virginia wffl not disparage
the memory of her iUustrious heroes, and abdicate the
proud position she now occupies in the annals of our
country. The tiue position of the South was the
position of defence. We claim nothing but our rights,
nothing more than our forefathers guaranteed to us,
and so help us God, Vfrginia wUl never take less than

378 THE CRADLE OP THE CONFEDERACY.
that. If there is to be a disseverance of the Union, let
there be no disseverance of the South. Believe the
border States true and loyal ; recollect that suspicion
begets resentment. Let us collect our energies for the
final struggle, so that when it comes, the entire South
may precipitate herself upon the foe, like a thunderbolt
from Heaven, with irresistible effect.
This speech of Mr. Pryor was received with great
favor by that portion of the immense audience which
was opposed to a disruption of the Democratic party
and to forcing issues upon the people of the North.
The applause which greeted his resistance to the new
proposition of the States-Rights leaders, the opening
of the African slave trade had barely died away when
Mr. Yancey obtained the ffoor. He said that he had,
under the circumstances, considered it advisable to
prepare a report embodying his views, which he would
submit to the Convention. He then proceeded to
read his report, which concluded with the following
resolution :
"Resolved, That the laws of Congress prohibiting
" the foreign slave trade ought to be repealed."
Mr. Yancey said that he supposed that the
gist of the remarks of the gentleman from Virginia
(Mr. Pryor) was to be found, like the impor
tant part of a lady's letter, in the postscript. He sup
posed the true reason for his opposition to the report of
the committee was to be fouud in the latter part of
his speech, the effect that it would have upon our
friends at the North. God save us from such friends.
Have their fidelity and friendship been exhibited in the
recent passage of the Conference BUI concerning
Kansas ? And yet we are told in a Southern Con-

THE CRADLE OF THE CONFEDERACY. 379
vention to reflect before we assert our undoubted right,
upon the effect it wffl have upon our Northern affies.
Are we never to give an open, manly, frank avowal of
our constitutional position in the Union, or must we
dejiend upon a mere subterfuge, in regard to the
meaning of which there are a half a dozen different
opinions ? Then, unlike the gentleman from Virginia,
he was for disunion now. [Applause.] He would
shed his blood to save the Union as our fathers left it,
but not the Union which has been reared upon its ruins.
The Union of our fathers has already been dissolved by
oppression and fraud, and- there was no drop of blood
in his heart that he was not ready to shed in defence
of Southern rights against that Union. [Applause.]
What was the measure recommended to the Con
vention? The repeal of a law which discriminates
against the labor of the South. Is there an Alabamian
here who does not endorse that sentiment ? Is there
a Virginian here who does not endorse it ? The Gen
eral Government has no right to discriminate against
us. The Constitution does not authorize it. It says :
" Congress shall enact no law prohibiting the emigra-
" tion or importation of such persons as the States now
"allow before the year 1808." That very clause
was a constitutional guarantee of slavery and the slave
trade, because it forbid Congress to interfere with it
before 1808. In 1807 a law was passed that after
1808 no slaves should be imported intathis Union,
which law was unconstitutional in its discrimination
against the South.
In 1807 the slave trade was declared a misdemeanor.
In 1820 it was declared piracy. And yet we must
not demand the repeal of these discriminating laws for

380 THE CRADLE OP THE CONFEDERACY.
fear we may offend our Northern affies, and perchance
defeat some aspfrant for the Presidency. The gentle
man from Vfrginia refers to the opinions of Christen
dom upon this subject — they are rather the opinions of
devUdom. The great advocates of what is caUed
Christendom have met in convention in the Northern
States and voted ff the Bible recogiuzed slavery, it was
the work of the devff rather than of God. And New
England male and female teachers and parents have
endeavored to impress upon the minds of the youth
there that God himself should be dethroned if he recog
nized African slavery.
Now, ff it is wrong to hold slaves and to buy them
and seff them, it is right in morals and under the Con
stitution which guarantees the institution, that we
should buy them ui whatever place we may choose to
select. He did not wish to be compeUed to go to
Vfrginia and buy slaves for $1,500 each, when he
could get them in Cuba for $600, or upon the coast of
Guinea for one-sixth of that sum.
As to the reduction in the value of land by the
re-opening of the slave trade, he would ask why the
land in the South, though as rich and fertffe as any
in the world, brought less in the market than the com
paratively sterffe lands of New England and New York ?
It was because the South lacked the supply of labor
necessary to cultivate her land, whffe in the North the
land was not enough for the supply of labor.
There is no amount of ingenious reasoning, no clap
trap of words, no trick in language that can do away
with the great law that if you increase the number of
slave owners you increase the basis of the institution.
There is no denying that there is a large emancipating

THE CRADLE OP THE CONFEDERACY. 381
interest in Virginia, and Kentucky, and Maryland, and
Missouri, the fruits of which we see in Henry Winter
Davis, Cassius M. Clay, and Thomas H. Benton. We
need to strengthen this institution ; and how better can
we do that than by showing the non-slave-holding class
of our citizens that they can buy a negro for $200
which, in a few years, by his care and instruction, wiU
become worth a thousand dollars? Teach the poor
white man who cannot now buy a negro, that by this
means he can buy one, you secure him to the interests
of the South.
But it is said to us — cui bono ? What good in this ?
The North has the power, and will not repeal these
laws. That is no reason why we should not resist.
Nations should be actuated by the same high sense of
honor as individuals. If a man spits in my face I wiU
strike him, though he may thrash me. I know we
cannot wrest this justice from the dominant North.
They have fastened the shackles upon us, and wffl not
loose them. But let us stand up and resist them Uke
men. If the principle of submission is to sway the
councUs of the South, it wiff not be long before wiff be
fulfilled the boast of Seward that the whole American
Continent would soon be under the flag of this Union,
and there would not be uppn it the foot of a slave. He
is a calm, cool man, not given to imaginative specula
tion, but he spoke this in the fuUness of his heart as
what he believed. He said this when goaded by his
thick-headed associate, Hale, for voting for the increase
of tbe army, which he expected to command himseff in
1860, that he had not designed us to get a glimpse of
There are elements entering into the opinions of
gentlemen upon this question that ought not to enter

382 THE CRADLE OP THE CONFEDERACY.
here — elements of national party, opinions of Chris
tendom, etc. PubUc sentiment needs some corrective
upon this subject ; and that corrective can only be
made by dfrecting the pubUc attention to this subject.
We can agitate our wrongs ; we have no rights 1 fear
to agitate ; we can agitate our injuries ; we have no
favors to talk about.
We are told that we should not assert the rights of
the South upon this issue. WUl the gentleman from
Virginia say what is the issue upon which the South
should contest their rights ?
Mr. Pryor said he was not wUUng to assert the
rights of the South upon the proposition to kidnap
cannibals from Africa, or buy slaves of the King of
Dahomey. But should a Black Republican President
be instaUed in the Executive chaff- in Washington, and
the power of the government be palpably in his hands
— whenever the gentleman can satisfy the intelligence
of the people of the South in sufficient numbers to justify
the movement, then he was wiUiag to make the issue,
and he could pledge Vfrginia not to be behind Ala
bama. And he would say further, that when the
issue was presented, and he was convinced that a
majority even of the people of Alabama were, upon
mature consideration, wilUng to leave the Union, they
of Virginia would be ready to go with them. [Ap
plause.] Mr. Yancey said he was unfeignedly happy that he
had been able to draw from the gentieman from Vir
ginia such a declaration." This morning he was for
waiting for a umted South ; now he would join with
Alabama alone. The speaker had great hopes in
agitating this question ; he trusted that the attention

THE CRADLE OP THE CONFEDERACY. 383
of the people of the South would be aroused to the
assertion of thefr rights. If this demand should be
refused by the North, it would be one other evidence
that injustice is the ruUng spirit of the hour in our
national legislature. There would be one Unk more
between Southern men and Southern men — one link
more snapped between Southern men and Northern
men. The speech of Mr. Yancey on this occasion is said to
have been one of his best. From the imperfect reports
of it, we can only gather the fact that he and his
friends, in advocating such a preposterous measure as
an agitation for a repeal of the laws prohibiting the
African slave trade and declaring it to be piracy, were
simply attempting, by advocating extreme propositions,
to snap the last feeble Unks which held together the
Democratic party. Such was his plain declaration.
He wanted disunion now. But Mr. Pryor, and those
who thought with him, were not then for disunion.
Fearing that his answer to Mr. Yancey's last question
might be misunderstood, Mr. Pryor explained that
what he had intended to say was that he did not sup
pose that Alabama would undertake to leave the Union
without sufficient cause as would justffy every other
Southern State in the Confederacy from following her.
Mr. HiLLLARD, who had now left his old Whig fiiends
and had become a partisan of the Buchanan Adminis
tration, replied to the speech of Mr. Yancey : He
contended that the power granted to Congress to
regulate commerce with foreign nations, gave them
power to regulate the African Slave Trade ; and the
clause in the Constitution referred to by Mr. Yancey,
merely restricted them fi-om exercising that power

384 THE CRADLE OP THE CONFEDERACY.
before 1808, expressly conceding to Congress the
power to do so after that time. Such had been the
opuiion of the framers of the Constitution ; such the
opinion of Jefferson, Madison and Monroe, and also of
John C. Calhoun, who was a member of Monroe's Cabi
net when the act of 1820 was passed declaring the
slave trade to be piracy.
He was not prepared to go for a dissolution now
upon existing causes, and upon mere abstractions and
questions of doubtful policy. He beUeved that the
time had come, however, when the South must resist
aU aggression upon her institutions, or give them up,
and he believed that she would do so. He beUeved
when there should be made or attempted a palpable
infringement of the rights of the South, she would be
united in her resistance. He admitted that there had
been improper legislation, and that South Carolina was
right in the stand she took, and he believed she had
brought the General Government back again to the
right track, and he preferred to-day, ff we could bring
the government to the right track .and preserve the
integrity of the Constitution, to remain in the Union
and preserve our rights there. He thought the
present indications were such as to lead us to beUeve
that such wffl be the case. He affuded to the decision
of the Supreme Court in the Dred Scott case — to the
known opinions of the present Chief Magistrate as
evidence. And he said that he believed ff the case
should be carried to the Supreme "Court, the decision
would be that slaveholders have the constitutional
right to pass through any State in this Union with his
slaves. He thought the progress of this Government
was onward in the right direction, and not backward.

THE CRADLE OF THE CONFEDERACY. 385
He thought there would be a disposition on the part of
the North now to yield us aU our rights. And he was
not for disunion upon the present issues with the Fed
eral Government.
As for the fears expressed by gentiemen here that
the North wffl triumph hereafter over the South, he
could not join with them. Now that the South was
fully aroused, he thought she would be able to defeat
the North in the future. He thought the aspect of
affairs at present was hopeful, and with the present
prospect he was not prepared to-day to abandon the
Union for existing causes of complaint. But he would
say that in his judgment the election of a Black Re
pubUcan to the Presidency would result in the subver
sion of the Government. The people of the South
would not wait to see him clothed with the insignia of
office ; would not wait for any overt act ; the end wffl
then have come. But he did not desfre to see the
South di-vdded upon such a question as this ; we
are now one people — a united people. Let us remain
in the Union, one and undivided, or let us go out of it,
if go we must, a united people.
Mr. Wm. Ballard Preston, of Vfrginia, representing
that conservative Whig element which Mr. Hilliard
had parted from, obtained the floor.
In regard to the constitutionality of the laws sought
to be repealed, he would ask the Convention if they
would not be compelled to go with him against this
poUcy, if he should succeed in showing to them that
these laws were constitutional ? The doctrine of the
States-Rights school was to» uphold the Constitution,
and not from any motive of interest, gain or ambition,
to surrender one jot or tittle of that revered instru-

386 THE CRADLE OP THE CONPEDERACY.
ment. He read from the Madison Papers containing
the debates on the Constitution of the United States, to
show that the Constitution as at first reported contained
a provision that no navigation act should be passed by
Congress except by a two-third vote of all the members
present ; and no law should be passed prohibiting the
importation of African slaves. Upon that a conflict
arose between the North and the South. The matter
was recommitted to the committee of detaff to endeavor
to frame some provision which should reconcUe the
conflicting interests of the two sections, and the result
was the provision in the present Constitution under
which these prohibitory laws had been passed.
Mr, P. read from the remarks of Mr. Pinckney, of
South Carolina, to show that at the time this clause
was reported he and others from the South, in the
Convention, understood it to grant the power to pro
hibit the importation of African slaves after the year
1808. It was considered a bargain struck, a contract
made by the patriotic framers of the Constitution, in
order to unite the two conflicting interests- of the North
and South, and enable them to form this Federal
Union. The gentleman from Alabama (Mr. Yancey) argues
in his report that these laws are discriminating against
the South, and constitute a degrading badge, a dishon
orable mark upon the South. By whom was the law of
1808 passed? By a Democratic Congress, sanctioned
by the administration of Thomas Jefferson, in which
was James Madison, one of the original framers of the
Constitution. Was it to be beUeved that those men
who framed the resolutions of '98 and '99, and inaugu
rated and estabUshed the doctrine of States-Rights,

THE CRADLE OF THE CONFEDERACY. . 387
could in eight years have so changed, or have become
so far forgetful of the rights of the South as to have
sanctioned a law that places the brand of Cain upon her
forehead, and stamps her with dishonor before the civU
ized world? Who passed the law of 1812 authorizing
the employment of a naval force upon the coast of
Afiica, to suppress the traffic in Afi-ican slaves? A
Democratic Congress, and James Monroe was in the
executive chafr. He had Wm. H. Crawford and John
C. Calhoun in his cabinet to advise and counsel him.
ShaU we now say that our ancestors were dull, obtuse,
incomprehensive, and negligent of the rights of the
South, insensible to degradation and wffling to bear the
brand of dishonor before Christendom ? Not so. He
stood there to preserve the inheritance of glory and
honor which had descended to him and to aU of the
South fi-om these men. These laws were constitutional,
the power to pass them having been freely yielded by
the South, and which power had also been exercised
by Southern meij, He was not in favor of taking any
equivocal position, in which the honor, integrity and
fafrness of the South can in any manner be questioned.
Should we do so, we wiU lose aU that, should it become
necessary for us to go out of the Union, would take us
out with honor, a sense of justice and right that could
not be gainsaid.
The South should be united, should be able to go
up to the Federal Government with a united array,
whenever it was deemed necessary to demand redress
for wrongs infUcted, or the granting of rights refiised.
How stands the South upon this question ? But two
States had had the question brought before them,
Louisiana and South CaroUna, and they had taken no

388 THE CRADLE OF THE CONFEDERACY.
action. Your entire representation in the popular
branch of Congress, at the session before the last, had,
with the exception of eight or ten, solemnly resolved
that it was inexpedient, unwise, and contrary to the
settled policy of the country, to re-open the African
Slave Trade. To accompUsh the object here recom
mended, you must ffrst attack and overthrow aU youf
public men who had expressed their opinions upon this
subject. We should act like wise statesmen, and not
seek to do that which is impracticable and impossible ;
to do that for the South which the South herself
speaking through her representatives, has declared to
be unwise and inexpedient.
Mr. Yancey closed the debate in a speech of even
greater force than that with which he opened it. He
had been assaffed on aff sides, and it was the hot battle
of argument which invariably caffed forth his closest
logic and most brffliant rhetoric.
He believed that the laws prohibiting the Afiican
slave trade were in spirit unconstitutional. He ad
mitted that gentlemen upon the other side had pro
duced authorities to show that when these laws were
passed, they might not have been in opposition to the
letter of the Constitution, and were not intended by
those who passed them to work injuriously to the
South. Yet they might weU have become in then-
effects repugnant to the spirit of the Constitution. It
was no sound argument against his position, to say that
the constitutionality of these laws had not been ques
tioned untU within a very brief period. The Missouri
Compromise, approved by Mr. James Monroe, had been
considered constitutional for more than 30 years. And

TfrE CRADLE OlP THE OONPEDERAOY. 389
yet in 1857 the Supreme Court of the United States
had declared it to be unconstitutional.
It had been urged against the proposition before the
Convention that it would produce division among the
people of the South. He would ask, upon what is the
South now united ? The South was not even united
upon the question whether she was right or wrong in
asserting that her rights had been trampled upon by the
North to such an extent as to justify her breaking the
bonds of this Union. The Convention had been ad
dressed by eloquent gentlemen, to the effect that noth
ing had yet been done to justffy such a course upon
the part of the South. AU admit that we have suffered
wrongs and injuries. And the only thing that the
South are united upon is that we are submitting to
these wrongs. And the proposition now before the
Convention cannot destroy a unity which does not exigt
among the Southern people.
It was argued against this measure that the South
would not unite upon it. He knew there would be
opposition to it. He never expected to see the day
when a Southern convention met upon Southern issues
would be superior to that band of patriots that met in
the convention that framed the Declaration of Inde
pendence, for even there were some in that body who
proposed for a little time longer to- trust to the clem
ency of the British Crown before extreme measures were
resorted to. It was human nature that there should
ever be found some such men in every body that should
assemble to discuss so mighty a question as one in
which Iffe, fortune and sacred honor were involved. He
therefore never expected a unity of action on the part
of the South on any one issue. But one thing would

390 THE CRADLE OF THE CONFEDERACY.
influence one mind ; another thing would influence stffl
another mind, tiff at last all these inffuences would pro
duce sufficient effect to enable the South to move
forward from a Lexington to a Bunker HiU, and so go
untff the foe had been driven from the land.
It was said that this was an inferior issue. A tax of
three cents a pound on tea was practically an inferior
issue. But, as his coUeague (Mr. Scott) had said, that
involved a great principle. A great principle was in
volved here, the principle of equaUty, the principle that
our government should not be permitted to brand our
institutions as unworthy of extension, even if the letter
of the Constitution gave it the power to do so.
He could produce a proposition — if it would not be
considered presumption in him to do so — let us meet
. and consult together upon this question of the duty of
the South now, and if the assembled sovereignty of
the South should say, wait, we are not ready to move
now, he would respect that voice. But perhaps that
Convention might say, we do not wish to move alone —
in Alabama, for instance — but would prefer to have all
the other States with us. He would go to Virginia, and
though she cannot move on account of her peculiar
border position, she might say in a spirit of true sister
hood to the Gulf States — move on, form your Confed
eracy, and we wiU see that you are not molested by a
foe that should reach you across our territory. And if
Virginia should give that response, he would take her
by the hand and bid her farewell and turn Southwards
aud ask South Carolina, Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi,
Texas, Florida, Arkansas, and Louisiana, to form a
confederacy of right and equality and justice, with a
unity of clime, production and brotherly love. And

THE CRADLE OF THE CONFEDERACY. 391
when they had thus done, there would be room enough
upon our shield to inscribe the " Sic Semper Tyrannis "
of Virginia. North CaroUna, Tennessee, Kentucky,
and Missouri could come in, and there would soon be
produced such a retrograde movement in the opinions of
the North that there would not be a Yankee within a
hundred miles of the border of the slave confedeiacy
who would not become a slave catcher if we would let
him trade with us. This was but a faint foreshadowing
of an idea that was at the bottom of his heart, but which
he had kept down, because he had not been shown the
proper time to give it shape.
It was in the course of this address that Mr. Yancet
alluded to the position assumed by Mr. Hilliard, that
nothing had yet occured to justify secession, but that
the election of a Republican President in 1800 would
justffy it. The language of Mr. Yancey, as taken
down at the moment by a short-hand reporter, was
this :
" I say with aU deference to my coUeague (Mr. Hil-
'' liard) that no more inferior issue could be tendered to
" the South, upon which we should dissolve the Uriion,
" than the loss of an election. If, in the contest of
" 1860 for the Presidency, Seward should receive the
" legal number of votes necessary to elect him accord-
" ing to the Constitution and the law, gentiemen say
" that then wiU be the time to dissolve the Union. If
" that is made the cause of disunion, I say to them I
" will go with them, but I am going in the wake of an
" inferior issue ; that there was a banner over me that
" is not of the kind I would wish. When 1 am asked
" to raise the flag of revolution against the Constitution,
" I am asked to do an unconstitutional thing, according
'' to the Constitution as it now exists ; I am asked to
" put mys'eff in the position of a rebel, of a traitor ; in

392 THE cradle op THE CONFEDERACY.
" in a position where, if the Government should suc-
" ceed and put me down in the revolution, I and my
" friends can be arraigned before the Supreme Court of
" the United States — which would be the creature of
" Seward, as he has already given notice in the Senate —
" and there sentenced to be hanged for -violating the
" Constitution and the laws of my country. And if I
" should be asked why sentence should not be passed
" on me, I could not then, as I can now in reference to
" past issues — I could not say then, even to the bloody
" judges who would sit upon the bench — my hands are
" gufftless of wrong against the Constitution of my
" countiy, and I appeal to an enlightened posterity, to
" the judgment of the world, to vindicate my name and
" memory, when, as Bmmett said, my country shall
" have taken her place once more an equal among the
" nations of the earth. Why am I ready to go with
" you ? (for disunion.) Because, in my judgment, the
" Union is now dissolved ; because we have a Govern-
" ment, but not the Union which the Constitution
" made." Subsequently, when the Alabama Legislature resolved
that the election of a RepubUcan President would
justify secession, Mr. Yancey explained this language
by saying that with him and men of his way of think
ing, the justification had afready existed for thirty
years, but with those who had thus far found no justifi
cation for such a movement, the election of Lincoln
simply could not furnish the excuse.
No action was taken by the Commercial Convention
upon the several reports and sets of resolutions. The
proceedings derive importance simply from the gUmpse
they give of the opinions and temper of the leading
minds of the South relative to the question of disunion.
Congress had virtuaUy refiised Kansas admittance to
the Union with a Constitution recognizing slavery. So

THE CItAbLE OP THE CONPEDBfeACY. 393
now, as in 1850, the States-Rights leaders commenced
an agitation for secession. Soon after the adjournment
of the Southern Commercial Convention, Mr. Slaughter
wrote to Mr. Yancey suggesting that the South resolve
itself itself into a great States-Rights party, and that
the old National Democratic party be abandoned. To
this letter Mr. Yancey replied as foUows :
" Montgomery, June 15, 1858.
" Dear Sir : Your kind favor of the 15th is re-
" ceived. " I hardly agree with you that a general movement
" can be made that wiU clear out the Augean stable.
" If the Democracy were overthrown, it would result in
" giving place to a greater and hungrier swarm of flies.
" The remedy of the South is not in such a process.
" It is in a dffigent organization of her true men for
" prompt resistance to the next aggression. It must
" come in the nature of things. No national party can
" save us ; no sectional party can ever do it. But if
" we could do as our &thers did — organize ' commit-
" tees of safety ' aff over the cotton States (and it is
" only in them that we can hope for any effective
" movement,) we shall fire the Southern heart, instruct
" the Southern mind, give courage to each other, and
" at the proper moment, by one organized concerted
" action, we can precipitate the cotton States into revo-
" lution." " The idea has been shadowed forth in the South by
" Mr. Ruffin ; has been taken up and recommended in
" the Advertiser, under the name of ' League of United
" Southerners,' who, keeping up their old party relations
'• on all other questions, wiU hold the Southern issue
"paramount, and wiU influence parties. Legislatures

394 THE CRADLE OP THE CONPEDERAdY.
" and statesmen. I have no time to enlarge, but to
" suggest merely. In haste, yours, &c.,
"W. L. Yancey.
" To James S. Slaughter, Esq''
On the 10th of July, at a barbecue given at Bethel
Church, near Montgomery, Mr. Yancey spoke in favor
of the " League," saying that he " bided the time when
" the people would throw off' the shackles, both of party
" and of the Government, and assert their independence
" in a Southern Confederacy," At another barbecue
given at Benton, July 17, he again recommended the
formation of local and State Leagues, and a Central
Southern Congress of the Leagues. At Montgomery,
July 20th, he again urged the estabUshment of the-
the Leagues. He said that in this matter the people
were not without a great precedent. Long before the
Declaration of Independence, long before it was
dreamed (save by a few) that the colonies would be
compeUed to withdraw from the British Empire — while
the provincial Congress were even yet discussing the
phraseology of their petitions to the King to redress
their grievances, the colonists acting upon the wise
practical principle of " Pray to God and keep your
" powder dry," formed committees of safety all over the
country. These committees were active in forming a
pubUc opinion and giving voice to that opinion, in
gathering up munitions of war, and in every conceiva
ble way organizing our ancestry into such an array
that when independence was declared they were able to
crown it with the triumph of Yorktown. The lesson
and the example, said Mr. Yancey, are eminently sug
gestive.

The cradle of the confederacy. 395
Never was there such an agitator as William L.
Yancey. His person was imposing, his eloquence
was always attractive, forcible and captivating, at times
almost supernatural. He was fiiUy imbued with the
poUcy of the leading minds of his native State, South
Carolina, and he lost no occasion upon which to enforce
that poUcy. With the language of Demosthenes
against Philip, he had the wiU which urged Csbar
across the Rubicon, and the persistence which placed
the crown upon the brow of Robert Bruce. But,
although the rejection of the Lecompton Constitution
by Congress, thfe denunciation of the Supreme Court by
the dominant party at the North, and the declaration
of the " irrepressible confUct " by Mr. Sewab,d aided
him in his efforts at agitation, stffl the views of Mr.
Yancey met a strong opposition at his own door and far
stronger resistance in the border States. Mr. Pryor,
with his brffliant pen, assaffed the Leagues vigorously,
and indulged in an acrimonious debate with Mr.
Yancey. In reply to one of Mr. Pryor 's most forcible
articles, Mr. Yancey pubUshed an elaborate defence of
his course. His letter to Mr. Pryor reveals the preva
lent sentiment of the States-Rights men of the Gulf
States, the position of the border States, and the facts
and expectations upon which they based the ultimate
independence of the South. He said :
" You take exception to these expressions ; ' Let us
" form these leagues aU over the cotton States, as it is
" only in them we can hope for any effective movement.'
" ' At the proper moment, by one organized, concen-
" trated action, we can precipitate the cotton States into
"a revolution.' Commenting on this, you aay, 'the
" leading States of the South are specificaUy excluded

396 THE CRADLE OP THE CONPEi)EEACY.
" from his plan of concerted operations ; and that is
" done on the avowed pretence of a lack of Southern
" spirit in Virginia and the other border States !'
" To be candid, I place but little trust in such States
" as Delaware, Maryland, Tennessee, Kentucky, and
" Missouri. In the first, slavery is but a nominal insti-
" tution ; and anti-slavery ideas prevaU to a large extent.
" In Maryland, a freesoffer is an honored representative
"in Congress; and, in the great issue in 1856, that
" State separated herseff from her sisters and voted for
" Fillmore. Tennessee has long maintained a Free Soil
" Senator in Congress, and a large minority now sustain
" him there. In the Methodist Conference her dele-
" gates voted against stiiking out the anti-slavery
" clause in its discipUne — whffe she maintains on her
" Supreme Court bench, and in the chair of law pro-
" fessorship in her University, one who openly declares
" ' slavery to be a moral, social and political evU.' In
" Missouri, Benton was upheld when unsound on this
" issue — was sent to the House of Representatives
" when ousted from the Senate, because of his anti-
" slavery ideas ; and now the St. Louis District is
" represented by a Free Soiler, who is a candidate for
" re-election upon the emancipation platform, Sur-
" rounded, as she almost is, by free soil territory, her
" slave owners are emigrating in large numbers to
" Texas, and wiff soon leave her a prey to Seward's
" abolition system of legislation,
" In Kentucky Mr. Clay's emancipation and coloni-
" zation ideas are bearing legitimate fruit, and Mr.
" Crittenden holds powerfiil sway over the affections of
" its people ; and it is hardly to be doubted but that
" Mr. Crittenden, conjoined with the Anti-Slavery

THE CRADLE OF THE CONPEDEEAOY. 397
" American party of the North, would carry Kentucky.
" I may well be excused, then, if I said, in private cor-
" respondence (what I frankly confess I would have
" hesitated to make a matter of pubhc discussion) that
" I only hoped for an effective movement in the cotton
" States. There is much in the way in which an idea
" is put. I said this much, and no more. I did not
" write, as you have charged, either in words or in
" spirit, that I acted on an avowed pretence of a lack
" of Southern spirit in Virginia and the other border
" States. Thajt is your own language and idea — and I
" repudiate both. I did not name Virginia. It is true
" I did not discriminate between Virginia and the
" other border States. My purposes did not caff for it.
" In a hastily written private note, it would have been
" out of place, as between Mr. Slaughter and myself
" It is equally true that I do not expect Vfrginia to
" take any initiative steps towards a dissolution of the
" Union, when that exigency shall be forced upon the
" South. Her position as a border State, and a well
" considered Southern poUcy — (a policy which has
" been digested and understood and approved by some
" of the ablest men in Virginia, as you yourseff must
" be aware) — would seem to demand that, when such
" movement takes place by any considerable number of
" Southern States, Virginia and the other border States
" should remain in the Union, where, by their position
" and their counsels, they could prove move effective
" fi-iends than by moving out of the Union, and thus
" giving to the Southern Confederacy a long abolition,
" hostile border to watch. In the event of the move-
" ment being successful, in time, Virginia, and the
" other border States that desired it, could join the

398 THE CRADLE OF THE CONFEDERACY.
" Southern Confederacy, and be protected by the
" power of its arms and its diplomacy.
" Your charge, that I designed to, and did impeach
" the fidelity of Virginia, is untrue, however much of
" truth there may be in it with reference to those border
" States that I have named.
" The article in your issue of the 21st also assaffed
" me as having opened ' a new school of Southern
" statesmanship,' and having abandoned the old and
" wisely considered policy of Southern unity, and ' sub-
" stituted a system of mutual suspicion and isolated
" action.' " I cheerfully accept the position assigned me as a
" member of ' A New School of Southern Statesman-
" ship,' however far you may consider it from being
" complimentary. In my opinion the South stands
" greatly in need of such a school. The benefits of that
" old school of statesmanship, which you applaud so
" much, are few, whffe its aggregate results have been,
" in a high degree, disastrous to the South. Under the
" influence of that ' old school,' that magnificent pro-
" slavery domain, now covered by the anti-slavery
" States of Ohio, Indiana, Iffinois, Michigan, Wisconsin,
" and Iowa, was excluded from the march of Southern
" progress, and devoted forever to free soff ; under the
" same ' old school ' influence, four-fifths of the vast
" pro-slavery territory of Louisiana was wrested from
" us, and the South forever excluded from settling it
" with her institutions ; under the same influence, the
" black Une of 36 deg. 30 min. was run through the
" pro-slavery State of Texas ; under the same influ-
" ence, the slave trade with Africa was prohibited, and
" afterwards an entangling and most mischievous aUi-

THE CRADLE OF THE OONPEDERAOY. 399
" ance made with England to send men and ships to
" blockade the coast of Africa ; under the same influ-
" ence, the internal slave trade between Virginia and
" the District of Columbia was abolished ; and, under
" the same old school influence, has the haughty de-
" mand of the Free SoUer been submitted to —that
" Kansas should not be admitted as a State under its
" pro-slavery constitution, unless that constitution shall
" substantially and practicaUy receive the approval of
" the Free Soff majority in Kansas. tk-
" That ' old school of Southern statesmanship ' found
" the South an equal in the Senate, and the owner of
" nearly all the territories. It has left the South in a
" minority of two Ptates in the Senate, with five \-ast
" Territories, out of which no sane man in the South
" expects ever to see another pro-slavery State added
" to the Union !
" The policy of that ' old school of Southern states-
" manship ' has been to ignore as ' wicked and foolish,'
" and as ' mischievous,' a persistent demand of all our
" rights in the Union, and to yield a part for ' harmo-
" ny's ' sake. It has been a policy based upon the
" maintenance of the harmony of administrations and
" of parties, upon the advancement of the chances of
" Presidential aspirants ; and he who has ever become
" alarmed at the disastrous results to the South, and
" has not considered them as at all counterbalanced by
" the splendid success of parties, and of our great men,
" in controUing and leading those parties, has invariably
" been denounced by the partisan editors attached to
" that ' old school ' as ' factionists ' and ' extremists,'
" and as ' disaffected ' and ' disappointed politicians,' "

CHA.PTER XV.

Instructions to Alabama Delegates — Action of the Alabama
Legislature — Views of Forsyth, White and Others —
Meeting of the Charleston Convention — Yancey's Great
Address — Withdraical of Southern Delegates — Position
of Political Parties — Yancey at Baltimore — He is
Offered the Vice-Presidency — Nomination of Breckin
ridge, Etc., Etc.

" The Eepublloan party is a conspiracy, under fiie forms, but in viola
tion of the spirit of the Constitution of the United States to exclude the
citizens of the slave-holding States from all share in the government of
the country, and to compel them to adapt their Institutions to the opin
ions of citizens of free States."— I8peech of Judge 'Wm. Duer, of N. Y., at
Oswego, Aug. 6, 1860.
" Remember, in addition to this, that the leading Abolitionists ac
knowledged no law which might stand in the way of their Interests or
their passions. Against anybody else the Constitution of the country
would have been a protection. But they disregarded Its limitations, and
had no scruples about swearing to support it with a predetermination to
violate it. We had been well warned by all the men best entitled to our
confidence— particularly and eloquently warned by Mr, Clay and Mr.
Webster— that if ever the AboUtionists got a, hold upon the organized
physical force of the country, they would govern without law, scoff at the
authority of the courts, and throw down all the defences of civil liberty.' '
[Judge Jebx S. Black,]
On the eleventh day of January, 1860, the Demo
cratic party of Alabama met in Convention at Mont
gomery and adopted, with singular unanimity, a series
of resolutions declaring that the principles recognized
by the Supreme Court in the Dred Scott case, should
be maintained by the South ; that their delegates to
the approaching National Democratic Convention at
Charleston, should present these resolutions for the
adoption of that body : that they insist upon the adop-

402 THE CRADLE OP THE CONFEDERACY.
tion of the resolutions in substance; and that if they
should not be adopted the delegates must withdraw. It
was provided that in case of the withdrawal of the dele
gates, the Executive Committee should caU the State
Convention together to take action as to their next
step. I'/'r. Yancey was a leading spirit in this Conven
tion. After twelve years he had succeeded in bringing
his party firmly to the support of the Calhoun resolu
tions of 1848. Gen. Cass had evaded the issue then.
Gen. Pierce, hi 1852, had been elected upon the Com
promise measures, and the Calhoun pronunciamento at
that time seemed almost forgotten. In 1856 Mr. Bu
chanan had also evaded the issue, under the doubtfiil
language of the Cincinnati Convention ; but now in
1860 the Supreme Court had recognized the justice of
Mr. Calhous's position ; had vindicated the principles
of Mr. Yancey ; and the people of the South, irrespec
tive of party, however great the difference among them
upon mere questions of policy, acknowledged the justice
of the claims preferred by the Democratic State Con
vention of Alabama.
On the 24th of February, 1860, the Alabama Leg
islature, with but two dissenting voices, adopted joint
resolutions declaring that, whereas, a sectional party
caUing itseff RepubUcan, committed aUke by its own
acts and antecedents, and the public avowals and secret
machinations of its leaders to a deadly hostUity to the
rights of the Southern people, has acqufred the ascen
dency in nearly every Northern State, and hopes by
success in the approaching Presidential election to
seize the Government itself, therefore it shaU be the
duty of the Governor, upon the success of that party
in the election, to caU together a State Convention to

THE CRADLE OP THE CONFEDERACY. 403
consider, determine, and do whatever, in the opinion
of said Convention, the rights, interests and honor of
Alabama may requfre to be done for her protection.
The resolutions also declared that it was the solemn
duty of the people not " to permit such seizure (of the
" Government) by those whose unmistakable aim is to
" pervert its whole machinery to the destruction of a
" portion of its members," but " to provide in advance
" the means by which they may escape such perU and
" dishonor, and devise new securities for perpetuating
" the blessings of Uberty to themselves and posterity."
At a later day in their session, the General Assembly
repUed to resolutions forwarded fi-om South CaroUna,
that Alabama had declared that under no circum
stances would she submit to the foul domination of a
sectional Northern party, and had caUed for a State
Convention, and had provided money for miUtary con
tingencies in the event of the triumph of the RepubUcan
party in the Presidential election.
The unanimity with which these resolutions were
adopted was not due to a unanimous purpose to break
up the Union in the event of a constitutional election of
a Republican to the Presidency, for during the ensuing
campaign many leading speakers fi-om the hustings
advised against disunion until the commission of an
unconstitutional act, or, as it was caUed by some, an
overt act, by a RepubUcan administration ; and very
many others, constituting it was claimed a majority of
the people of Alabama, contended that disunion should
not be attempted by separate State action, but that the
question should be submitted to a Congiess of aU the
Southern States, a majority of which Congress Mr.
Yancey, in his letter to Mr. Pryor, had clearly shown

404 THE CRADLE OP THE CONFEDERACY.
would be opposed to secession in any form. The in
structions to the Democratic delegates to withdraw from
the Charleston Convention unless the construction
given by the Supreme Court to the territorial question
was recognized, were voted for by many simply as a
threat, and with the purpose of intimidating the Na
tional Convention, It was supposed that a proposition
coming in the shape of a demand 'from a united South,
and coupled with a threat of ruin in the event of ffs
refusal, would so operate upon the fears of those who
could not afford to lose the electoral votes of the
Southern States, as to secure its recognition. The
same threat was made by the Democratic State Con
vention of Alabama in 1848, at the instigation of Mr.
Yancey, but the party had not considered itself bound
by the threat after the nomination of Gen. Cass. So
now, many of the surging mass who composed the
State Convention, in voting for the resolution of with
drawal, were more intent upon terrifying their Northern
associates than upon actuaUy breaking up the only
national party in existence. As there were many who
voted for the withdrawal with no expectation or desfre
that it would take place, so there were many who, whffe
wiUing for the withdrawal in the event contemplated,
were honestly of the opinion that such withdrawal would
neither break up the Democratic party nor the Union.
Men of this latter class argued that the nominee of the
withdrawing States, comprising three-fourths or more
of those which would certainly cast thefr electoral votes
for a Democratic candidate, might be finaUy recognized
as the legitimate candidate by the controUing voice of
the Democracy of New York, Pennsylvania, New Jer
sey, CaUfornia, and Oregon, and thus be successfiil ; or,

THE CRADLE OP THE OONPEDERAOY. 405
faiUng in this, they beUeved that, with three or four
candidates for the Presidency, there would be no elec
tion by the people, and the decision would then rest
with Congress, as a majority of the Representatives in
the House, from a majority of the States, was Demo
cratic, but opposed to Mr. Douglas, they beUeved the
election of their own candidate to be certain, if in the
end it should have to be determined by that body. If
the House should faU to elect by the 4th day of March,
then the Senate, in which the Democratic opponents of
Mr. Douglas had a clear majority, would elect a Vice-
President, and he would become President by default.
So argued many of the most intelligent leaders of the
people, and thus — some actuated by a hope that in
timidation would prevaff, others that withdrawal would
not materially affect the party vote, and stiU others
because of popular clamor — aU joined in the instruc-
' tions which rent the Democratic party in twain. Ala
bama was the , first name on the Ust of States. Mr.
Yancey was the most prominent man. It was generally
conceded that to him should belong the honor of pre
senting to the Convention the claims of the South. At
that day he was the foremost man in importance in
the whole Union. His eloquent voice was to lay down
to the United States the ultimatum of the South.
The unanimity of the General Assembly in the
passage of the resolutions calUng a State Convention in
the event of RepubUcan victory^ was Ukewise more an
apparent than an actual unity of sentiment. Many who
voted for the call were ready to deny that occasion ex
isted for extreme action, and in the event of the meeting
of a convention, would be ready to resort to any delay
by which the passions of the hour could be assuaged

406 THE CRADLE OP THE CONPEDERACY.
and the dreaded spectre of disunion be exorcised.
John Forsyth, late Minister to Mexico, then a member
from Mobffe, spoke and voted against the resolutions.
His remarks proved to be prophetic. Mr. Forsyth, in
a letter dated Sept. 13, 1859, to Wm. F. Samford, had
said :
" But to come to your ultimatum ; for your inabUity
" to grasp this bit of moonshine, you wffl go out of the
" Union ! break up the Government ! Well, sir, you
" wffl find a larger majority against you in such a prop-
" osition in Alabama than you did a few weeks ago,
" when without the backing of that ' party ' at which
" you sneer, you sought to be elected Governor of the
" Commonwealth on the naked strength of your political
" theories. Sfr, the Union cannot be dissolved upon
" such issue, and the sin of your course, and that of those
" who, with you, are agitating this firebrand of abstiac-
" tion in the Democratic party'on the eve of a vital con-
" flict with the combined hosts of Black RepubUcanism,is,
" that in the pursuit of a fallacious hope and an impossi-
" ble dream, you are paving the way for the defeat of the
" South ; for bringing it to the footstool of an AboU-
" tion President, and for draining a deeper cup of
" humiUation and disgrace than it has yet touched with
"its lips. I charge that you are no friend of the
" South in the counsels you give it ; I arraign not your
I" sound heart but your hot head ; I charge that you
' " advise it to risk its controUing influence in the Gov-
" ernment and disastious defeat in the forthcoming
" battle with the Lucifer of fanaticism and his deviUsh
" array of Black RepubUcans. I charge that you
" propose to break up the Democratic party, and sweep
" fi-om existence the only obstacle that stands between

The CRADLE Ot THE CONFEDERACY. 407
" the Constitution and the Federal ravisher — to give
" over the Government to- centralism, to protective
" tariffs, to the bottomless abyss of expenditure for
" internal improvements, to the upheaving and toppling
" down the mighty structure of Democratic policy
" which Jefferson founded, and Madison, Jackson, Polk
" and Pierce have built upon, to the subversion of the
" form and the spirit of States-Rights as vital elements
" in our Federative system, to the undoing of all that
" Democratic statesmen have tired and toiled for during
" three-quarters of a century. And for what ? For a
" vague theory of constitutional right as devoid of
" value, form and substance as the ' baseless fabric of a
" vision.' "
In the same vein Mr. Forsyth addressed the General
Assembly on the 2d of February, 1860, declaring that
there was no occasion for the adoption of the resolu
tions reported by the Committee on Federal Relations.
He said that no friend of the Democracy could consis
tently go with the late Democratic State Convention,
because they send to Charleston a platform " which it
" is known beforehand cannot be granted without scat-
"tering the Democracy of the Union to the winds,"
Said he : "I am in the minority now, perhaps ; I was
" two months since, but I have seen cheering evidences
"to show that my little party is growing apace, and
" that even on this ffoor my cause has many a friend
" that gentlemen ' wot not of ' But whether I am or
'' not, I am right, and time wiff prove it."
A few weeks later Alexander White, who had been
elected to Congress by the Whig party upon the Com
promise of 1850, and who had at a later day joined the
Democracy, (a gentieman who generaffy represented

408 THE CRADLE OF THE CONPEDERACY.
I correctiy the changes in the popular pulse,] published a
letter in which he opposed the poUcy of disuruon. By
resorting to a Southern Union, he argued, we brought
Canada to our own door. The institution of slavery
being restricted to the Southern Confederacy, it would
graduaUy retfre from the border to the Gulf States, and
soon the same elements of discord which existed in the
old Union would be found rffe in the new. Mr. For
syth and Mr. White represented a very respectable
portion of the Democratic party.
Besides what was afterwards known as the Douglas De
mocracy, the entire Whig party at the beginning of this
eventful year, was in opposition to the spirit of the resolu
tions of the General Assembly. It was as late as Septem
ber 21 before Mr. Watts, the generaffy recognized leader
of the Whigs, announced that the election of Mr. Lin
coln would justify secession. Gen. Clanton, who was
an elector for Bell and Everett, denounced the poUcy
of secession in a hundred speeches, and down to the
day of Mr. Lincoln's election, contended that neither
forcible resistance to his administration nor disruption
of the Union, should be resorted to until sOme uncon
stitutional act was perpetrated.
The National Democratic Convention met at Charles
ton, Aprff 23, 1860. On the following day a com
mittee was appointed, consisting of a delegate from
each State, selected by the respective State delegations,
to report resolutions as a platform for the party. On
the 27th majority and minority reports were made ;
the majority report accepting the Cincinnati platform
with a clause explaining the doctrine of non-interven
tion as the South desfred and as the Dred Scott
decision declared it. The minority report, after also

THE CRADLE OP THE OONPEDERAOY. 409
reaffirming the Cincinnati platform, proceeds : " Inas-
" much as differences of opinion exist in the Demo-
" cratic party as to the nature and extent of the
" powers of a territorial legislature, and as to the powers
" and duties of Congress, under the Constitution of the
" United States, over the institution of slavery in the
" Territories, Resolved, That the Democratic party wffl
" abide by the decisions of the Supreme Court of the
" United States upon questions of constitutional law."
The Southern delegates held that this minority reso
lution was too vague and indefinite to meet the case.
It faffed to recognize that a decision had already been
rendered by the Court. If the Northern delegates
intended to stand by that decision, it was impossible to
say that " differences of opinion " existed among the
Democracy as to the nature and extent of the powers of
Congress and of the Territorial Legislature over the
institution of slavery. It was moved that the minority
report be substituted for the majority. It was upon
this motion that Mr. Yancey addressed the Convention.
His reputation as an orator had preceded him. On the
preceding night an immense crowd, with banners and
music, had waited upon him. To thefr shouts and
huzzas he responded only with an excuse for not
speaking. He was at the chief city of his native State.
Around him were the abodes of a proud, inteUigent,
high-spirited people, and from the galleries looked
down an immense concourse of fair ladies and gaUant
gentlemen who sympathized with his past history and
his present labors. The occasion and the scene were
enough to inspfre one of far less enthusiasm and nobffity
than Yancey. The hour and the man had met.
Ascending the stand, the orator had pronounced but

410 THE CRADLE OP THE CONFEDERACY.
a few of his weU-weighed, rounded and musical sentences
before he had quieted the noise and confusion which
invariably attends the collection of a large multitude of
men, and had riveted the attention of every eye and
mind. Those who had heard of him as an agitator,
yielded their objection to his consuming more than one
hour of time when they looked upon his pleasant, mild
and benignant face. Those who were disposed to
clamor against the disunionist, became sUent when they
gazed upon his noble presence. The angry glance
which foUowed him from those who had regarded him
as a plotter of treason, was softened to tears by the
pathos of the most perfect voice that ever aroused a
friendly audience to a frenzy of enthusiasm, or curbed
to sUence the tumults of the most inimical.
With closely woven statements of fact and logical
deduction, with graceful gesture and melodious tones,
he advanced, vindicated and defended the cause of the
South. He asked for nothing but the recognition of
those rights which the highest tribunal had declared to
belong to the people of the South. Ever and anon
the audience would break forth in the wffdest applause,
and as the speaker became warm in his subject, and
the keen reasoning and brilliant illustrations leaped to
his lips, the responsive shouts of approbation and the
thunders of the excited multitude became so frequent
that it was moved by a delegate that the galleries be
cleared. " No, no," was cried out from aU around,
" there is as much noise upon the ffoor." Captain
Rynders, of New York, arose and shouted that if they
wished to prevent applause on the floor, they must
stop Mr, Yancey fi-om speaking ; a piece of truthfiil
wit that was received with great cheering and laughter.

TfiE CRAlDLE OP THE CONFEDERACY. 411
The peroration of his magnificent address was
worthy of the man, the cause, and the occasion.
Said he :
" Gentlemen of the Convention, that venerable, that
" able, that revered jurist, the honorable Chief Justice
" of the United States, trembling upon the very verge
" of the grave, for years kept merely alive by the pure
" spirit of patriotic duty that burns within his breast —
" a spirit that wiU not permit him to succumb to the
" gna wings of disease and the weaknesses of mortality —
" which hold him, as it were, suspended between two
" worlds, with his spotless ermine around him, standing
" upon the very altar of Justice, has given to us the
" utterance of the Supreme Court of the United States
" upon this very question. [Applause.]
" Let the murmur of the hustings be stiUed — let the
" voices of indi-vidual citizens, no matter how great and
"respected in their appropriate spheres, be hushed,
" whffe the law, as expounded by the constituted
" authority of the country, emotionless, passionless and
"just, rolls in its silvery cadence over the entire realm,
" from the Atlantic to the Pacific, and from the ice-
" bound regions of the North to the glittering waters of
" the Guff. [Loud cheering.] What says that deci-
" sion ? That decision teUs you, gentlemen, that the
" Territorial Legislature has no power to interfere with
" the rights of the slave-owner in the Territory whUe
" in a Territorial condition. [Cheers.] That decision
" tells that this Government is a union of sovereign
" States ; which States are co-equal, and in trust for
" which co-equal States the Government holds the Ter-
" ritories. It tells you that the people of those co-equal
" States have a right to go into these Territories, thus

412 THE CRADLE OP TflE CONPEDERACY.
" held in trust, with every species of property which is
" recognized as property by the State in which they
" live or by the Constitution of the United States. The
" venerable Magistrate — the Court concurring with
" him — decided that it is the duty of this Government to
" afford some government for the Territories which shall
" be in accordance with this trust, with this delegated
" trust power held for the States and for the people of
" the States. That decision goes still further ; it teUs
" you that if Congress has seen fit, for its own conven-
" ience, and somewhat in accordance with the sympa-
" thies and instincts and genius of our institutions, to
" accord a form of government to the people of the Ter-
" ritories, it is to be administered precisely as Congress
" can administer it, and to be administered as a trust
" for the co-equal States of the Union, and the citizens
" of those States who choose to emigrate to those Ter-
" ritories. That decision goes on to teU you this : that
" as Congress itself is bound to protect the property
" which is recognized as such of the citizens of any of
" the States — as Congress itself not only has no power,
" but is expressly forbidden to exercise the power to
" deprive any owner of his property in the Territories ;
" therefore, says that venerable, that passionless repre-
" sentative of Justice, who yet hovers on the confines
" of the grave — therefore, no government formed by
" that Congress can have any more power than the
" Congress that created it.
" But,''. we are met right here with the assertion : we
" are told by the distinguished" advocate of this doctrine
" of popular^ sovereignty, that this opinion is not a
" decision of the Supreme Court, but merely the opinion
" of citizen Taney. .He does not teU you, my conn-

THE CRADLE OP THE OONPEDERAOY. 413
" trymen, that it is not the opinion of the great majority
" of the Supreme Court bench. Oh, no ; but he tells
" you that it is a matter that is obiter dicta outside the
" jurisdiction of the Court ; in other words, extra-judi-
" cial — that it is simply the opinion of Chief Justice
" Taney, as an individual, and not the decision of the
" Court, because it was the subject-matter before the
" Court. Now, Mr. Douglas and aU others who make
" that assertion and undertake to get rid of the moral,
" the constitutional, the inteUectual power of argument,
" put themselves dfrectly in conflict with the venerable
" Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of the United
" States, and with the recorded decision of the Court
" itseff — because Chief Justice Taney, after disposing
" of the demurrer in that case, undertook to decide the
" question upon the facts and the merits of the case ;
" and," said he, "in doing that, we are met with the objec-
" tion ' that anything we may say upon that part of
" the case wffl be extra-judicial and mere obiter dicta'
" This is a manffest mistake," etc., " and the Court — not
" Chief Justice Taney, but the whole Court, with but
" two dissenting voices— decided that it was not obiter
" dicta ; that it was exactly in point, within the juris-
" diction of the Court, and that it was the duty of the
" Court to decide it. Now then, who shaff the Democracy
" recognize as authority on this point — a statesman, no
" matter how brilliant, and able and powerfiil in intel-
" lect, in the very meridian of Ufe — animated by an
"ardent and consuming ambition— -struggUng as no
" other man has ever done for the high and brilliant
" position of candidate for the Presidency of the United
" States, at the hand of his great party — or that old
"and venerable jurist who, having filled his years with

414 THE CRADLE OF THE CONFEDERACY.
" honor, leaves you his last great decision before step-
" ping from the high place of earthly power into the
" grave to appear before his Maker, in whose presence
" deception is impossible, and earthly position as dust in
" the balance ?" [Loud and continued cheering.]
Had the States all voted as units, or had the dele
gates all voted as individuals, the majority report would
have been sustained, but the friends of Mr. Douglas, in
the Pennsylvania delegation, succeeded in obtaining a
rule by which the vote of each individual should be
expressed. That State instead, therefore, of castiug
twenty-seven votes fqr the majority resolutions, cast
only three. The minority report was substituted for
the majority, and when the vote was taken upon the
vague explanatory resolution accompanying the report,
it was rejected by almost a unanimous vote, both ele
ments of the party looking upon it as a subterfuge and
evasion. When the final vote on the last clause of the minori
ty report was announced, and the Chafr declared that it
was carried, the dropping of a pin might have been
heard in the Convention. Every man, woman and
chffd within the vast hall in which the delegates assem
bled seemed aware that a great crisis had arrived, and
that events were about to occur in which the dearest
interests of American citizens were involved. That
great and hitherto tumultuous assemblage seemed
awed into sffence and intent suspense. The sffence was
broken by Mr. Leroy Pope Walker, of Alabama. In
a few terse and eloquent remarks he gave his reasons
why he and his coUeagues could not accept the platform
just adopted in behaff of the people of his State, and
why, under these cfrcumstances, the Alabama delega-

THE CRADLE OP THE CONFEDERACY. 415
tion deemed it their imperative duty to withdraw from
* the Convention. No sooner had Mr. Walker resumed
his seat, having discharged this solemn task, than Mr.
Barry, of Mississippi, rose to his feet, and read a paper
setting forth the reasons why the delegation of his
State had also resolved to withdraw. When the reading
of this grave act of secession was finished, the gallant
and eloquent Colonel Glenn, of Mississippi, in terms of
simple eloquence, intense feeling, and conscious dignity,
which touched the heart of every one of the thousands
who heard him, explained why the Mississippi delega
tion had reluctantly taken so serious a step. Then
arose the venerable ex-Governor Mouton, of Louisiana,
who declared that he and his co-delegates had resolved
to withdraw from a Convention which had refused to
acknowledge the great fundamental principle of the
Democratic party, equality of the States. The respec
tive chairmen of the delegations from South Carolina,
Florida, Arkansas, and Texas, then announced that
they too, would withdraw, and caused to be inserted in
the minutes of the Convention their several protocols
containing the reasons which impeUed them to do so.
There was no swagger, no bluster. There were no
threats, no denunciations. The language employed by
the representatives of these seven independent sover
eignties was as dignified and courteous as it was feeling.
As one followed the other in quick succession, one could
see the entire crowd quiver as under a heavy blow.
Every man seemed to look anxiously at his neighbor as
ff enquiring what is going to happen next. Down
many a manly cheek flowed tears of heartfelt sorrow.
A pause of a few moments ensued after Arkansas had
withdrawn, and people were beginning to resume thefr

416 THE CRADLE OP THE CONPEDERACY.
composure, when the Senator from Delaware, Mr.
Bayard, was observed to enter the haU and proceed
rapidly up the central aisle towards the platform.
When he uttered the words, " Mr. Chafrman," in a
voice not devoid of agitation, although resolute in tone,
and when the Chairman responded, "The gentieman
" from Delaware, Mr. Bayard," the Convention again
held their breath, not knowing what course that high-
minded statesman was going to pursue in so great a
crisis. He spoke but a few minutes. His language
betiayed the deep emotion which fiUed his patriotic
breast. He represented what were the views and
sentiments of his constituents ; stated that they
accorded with those of the delegations which had with
drawn ; that he had been sent by his people to repre
sent them in a great National Democratic Convention
wherein delegates from all the States of the Union could
sit in harmony and equality ; and that as the Conven
tion no longer possessed that character, he and his
coUeague, Mr. Whitely would withdraw, confident that
their action would be sustained at home.
When all the seceding delegations had retired, it is
impossible to portiay the dismay of those by whose
conduct that grave event had been occasioned, and
when a motion to adjourn was made it was readUy
assented to.
The excitement outside was intense. Everybody
asked " how many delegations wiU withdraw to-morrow ?
" What wffl the seceding delegations do ?" The whole
town was on 'foot, and unquaUfied approval of the
action of the retfring delegates expressed to applauding
crowds at every street corner. An informal meeting
of th© seceders for consultation was held at St. An-

THE CRADLE OP THE OONPEDERAOY. 417
drew's HaU the next day, when it was resolved that
• they should assemble at the MUitary HaU and organize,
and then await the action of the Convention before they
determined on thefr future proceedings. An immense
mass meeting was held in front of the City Hall, which
was addressed by the Hon. L. Q. C. Lamar, of Missis
sippi, Mr. Yancey, and other prominent Democrats, in
able and stfrring speeches.
On the tenth day of its session, after ineffectual
baUoting, the Convention adjourned to meet at Balti
more June 18th.
Before adjourning, the Vfrgiiua delegation had con
ferred with the Southern delegates as to the best mode
of restoring harmony. In consequence, Mr. Howard,
of Tennessee, stated to the Convention that " he had a
" proposition to present in behalf of the delegates from
" Tennessee, whenever, under parliamentary rules, it
" would be proper to present it." He should propose
the foUowing : Resolved, That the citizens of the
United States have an equal right to settle with thefr
property in the Territories of the United States ; and
that under the decision of the Supreme Court of the
United States, which we recognize as the correct expo
sition of the Constitution of the United States, neither
the rights of persons or property can be destroyed or
impafred by Congressional or Territorial Legislation.
Mr. Russell, of Vfrginia, informed the Convention that
this resolution, he beUeved, received the approbation ot
aU the delegations from the Southern States which
remained in the Convention, and also the approbation
of the delegation from New York. He was iifformed
that there was strength enough to pass it when in order.
Mr. Howard in vain attempted to get a vote upon it.

418 THE CRADLE OP THE CONPEDERACY.
The fi-iends of Mr. Douglas interposed objections of
order, and no vote was ever taken upon if, either at
Charleston or Baltimore.
That portion of the old Whig party which had pre
served a show of organization, and had steadUy refused
to yield to the policy of the Republican party on the
one hand, and that of the Democratic on the other, met
in Convention at Baltimore May 9th, assumed the
name of " Constitutional Union " party, and nominated
John Bell, for President, and Edward Everett, for
Vice-President. They adopted no platform of princi
ples, presenting their candidates to the people in the
spirit of Whig Conservatism, and simply upon their
records as lovers of the Union and respecters of the
rights of the States.
The opponents of the Democratic party in Alabama
believed that, as in 1858, when Mr. Yancey advanced
the demand for and a repeal of the law making the
African slave trade piracy, on the ground that in
pressing it as an issue there would be one more link
between the Southern man and the Southern man, and
one more Unk broken between the Southern man and
the Northern man, so now in aiding thus materially to
break up the Democratic party upon the Territorial
abstraction, by advising and urging the withdrawal of
the Alabama delegation, the object of the States-Rights
leaders was to let the administration pass into the hands
of the Republican party as the final step towards disso
lution. They believed that the States-Rights party
wanted disunion, not because of any practical restric
tion of the'rights of the Southern citizen, but because
the desire for a Southern Confederacy, growing out of
an accumiilation of petty defeats upon immaterial and

THE CRADLE OP THE CONFEDERACY. 419
disputed questions of public policy, had become so cher
ished, intensified and attractive as to shut from their
view the weakness of such a Confederacy, the dangers
of civff war and the horrors of defeat.
An " Opposition " meeting, in which most of the old
Whigs participated, was held at Montgomery, June 19.
IJ endorsed the principles of the Dred Scott Decision,
and appointed delegates to a State Convention to
assemble July 2. Meantime various counties of the
State had appointed delegates to a " Constitutional
" Union " Convention to meet at Selma, June 21, for the
ratification of the nomination of Bell and Everett. In
this latter Convention appeared the rank and file of
the old Whig party. This Convention ratified the
action of the Constitutional Union Convention at Balti
more, endorsed the principles of the Dred Scott Decision,
accepted Mr. Bell upon his record in the Senate,
and endorsed Mr. Everett upon his action with refer
ence to the Compromise of 1850.
A " States-Rights Opposition " Convention assembled
at Montgomery, July 2. Delegates were present from
but seven counties, and among them but few men of
prominence. They adopted resolutions stating that the
question of protecting slave property in the Territories
was the paramount question before the country, and
that no other party in Alabama except their own had
avowed in thefr platform, untff a recent day, the duty
of Congress to afford such protection. Many delegates
to this Convention believed the time had come for the
estabUshment of a party representing a united South,
and were disposed to act with the seceders from the
Charleston Convention. The Douglas party having
preserved the forms and organization of the National

420 THE CRADLE OF THE CONPEDEEAOY.
Democracy, it was hoped that the seceders would now
unite with the States-Rights opposition in a sectional
party. FoUowing out the Une of the argument they
had maintained for four years, it was now mooted
whether this portion of the " States-Rights Opposition "
should not pronounce for the candidates of the seceders ;
and so we find them declaring it thefr duty, " not jis
" Democrats, but merely as determined friends of
" Southern equaUty and Southern institutions, and as
" alUes of those who, by placing their nominees upon a
" platform substantiaUy asserting our own long-cher-
" ished principles of protection to slaA'e property in the
" Territories, have given signal proof of thefr devotion to
" Southern equality and Southern insfitutions, to support
" Breckinridge and Lane, ff in thefr letters of acceptance
" of thefr nomination, or otherwise, they give their
" unquaUfied sanction to the platform upon which they
" have been nominated." Mr. Watts moved to amend
the resolution by a proposition to write to Messrs. Bell
and Everett, and to support the Constitutional Union
candidates ff they abide by the principles expressed in
the platform. Upon a vote by counties, Montgomery
county voted for Mr. Watts' amendment, and the
remaining counties against it. In no sense was this a
representative vote. Its effect, however, was to draw
from Mr. Bell a fraction of the old Whigs led by men
of stiength like Judge, Chilton, and Rice. The
majority of Mr. Breckinridge over his two competitors
in Alabama was but seven thousand. Had the Whigs
remained united upon Mr. Bell, it is more than proba
ble that a majority of votes in the State would have
been cast against Mr. Breckinridge. It might be
difficult to understand how this Opposition ConventMm

THE CRADLE OF THE CONFEDERACY. 421
could, upon principle, arrive at the conclusion to support
Mr. Breckinridge to the exclusion of Mr. Bell. On
aU other questions than that of slavery in the Territo
ries, their associations and traditions had been with the
latta- rather than the former. Why, then, upon " the
" paramount question '' could they not give Mr. Bell
an opportunity to claim thefr votes by defining his
position ? The only solution of the movement must
be found in the profound conviction which had seized
upon the minds of many hitherto devoted Whigs, that
any attempt to keep alive a separate organization,
under whatever name, must prove futUe and could only
embarrass the position of the South. Such a party
could expect no electoral votes except at the South.
It was, therefore, in the opinion of the Convention,
powerless for good, and might be productive of injury.
Mr. Watts thought differently. In his opinion there
would probslbly be no election by the people, and Mr.
Bell would receive electoral votes sufficient to make
him one of the three candidates before the House. As
neither Douglas nor BpECKiNRmGE could control the
House, it was his hope and belief that the discordant
elements adverse to Mr. Lincoln would finally concen
trate upon Mr. Bell. In reply to a letter, addressed
to him by Mr. Watts, Mr. BeU enclosed for his inspec
tion certain of his speeches with paragraphs marked,
stating that these speeches were fuU and expUcit
answers to the questions asked him. Mr. Watts pub
lished a letter, July 30, in which he said :
" Mr. BeU thus distinctly announces, in my judg-
" ment, the foUowing propositions —
" 1. A distinct repudiation of WUmot Pro-nsoism.

422 THE CRADLE OP THE CONFEDERACY.
"2. A distinct repudiation of squatter sovereignty
" as long ago as 1848.
" 3. A distinct announcement that the Territories
" are common property of the States composing the
" Union, and that the citizens of each State have the
" right to go into such Territories with thefr property
" of every description, and whffe there to have protec-
" tion to property and person."
The Democratic Executive Committee having caUed
a convention, that body assemblad at Montgomery
early in June. On the same day, and at the same
place, assembled a Douglas Convention. Both bodies
nominated fiiU electoral tickets, the one endorsing the
action of its delegates to Charleston and authorizing
them to meet the seceders at Richmond ; the other
condemning the secession at Charleston, recognizing
the Douglas wing as the proper organized National
Convention, and appointing delegates to act with that
Convention at Baltimore.
On the 18th of June the Douglas fi:agment of the
Democratic Convention met at Baltimore. The State
of New York was now ready to adopt the resolution of
Mr. Howard, and had the seceders taken their seats
the Convention and party might have harmonized.
The seceders adjourned from Richmond to Baltimore,
but the first act of the Douglas men was to declare the
seats of the seceders vacant, and to admit the new dele
gates who had been lately appointed by Douglas Con
ventions. Thereupon Virginia, North CaroUna, Ten
nessee, Kentucky, Maryland, California, Oregon, and
Arkansas withdrew from the Convention and joined the
seceders. They were accompanied by Mr, Cushino,
President of the Convention, and five more of the

THE CRADLE OF THE OONPEDERAOY. 423
Massachusetts delegates. The seceders now represented
twenty States — and aU that were certain to give Demo
cratic majorities.
After the adoption by the seceders of the majority
report which had been presented at Charleston, and
the nomination of Mr. Breckinridge, loud caUs were
made for Mr. Yancey. Amidst great applause that
gentieman ascended the platform and addressed the
Convention with his usual force and fire. Rehearsing
the events which had transpfred, and defending the
principles of the majority report as the only basis of a
Constitutional Union founded on the equality of the
States, he said :
" I congratulate you, Mr. President, the representa-
" tive of the National States-Rights Democracy, and
" you, venerable gentiemen, who sit here as the repre-
"sentatives of your several sovereign States, and
" gentlemen, who are the delegates of the Democracy —
" you, who are the stern and true friends of the old-
" fashioned National Democracy, that there is yet in
"existence an organization pledged to uphold and
"revere our beloved Constitution, and through it to
" uphold the Union. [Applause.] Accept these con-
" gratulations at the hscnds of one who has, through the
" assiduous and wffy inffuence of our common enemies,
" acqufred a reputation for being factious and disrup-
" tionary — for being a disunionist. Accept that
" congratulation at the hands of one who, some nine or
" ten years ago, desired and endeavored to obtain a
" disruption of this Union, because he believed then, as
" he beUeves now, that there was a then existing cause
" why that Union should have been dissolved — because
" the Constitution had been violated in the admission of

424 THE CRADLE OP THE CONFEDERACY.
" CaUfornia into the Union upon the principle of
" ' squatter sovereignty,' and because the internal slave
"trade between the District of Columbia and the
" States had been destroyed by Congressional legislar
" tion, by that act initiating the great poUcy of aboUtion.
" I went before the people of the State of Alabama,
" and asked of them if they would secede from a
" Union that had thus forgotten to observe its pledges.
" She thought it fit in her wisdom to decUne, and voted
" down the seceding party. From that day to this I
" have urged no measure of dissolution, but I have
" bowed in submission to the wiU of the State, to which
" I owe my allegiance. From that day to this, under
" aU these wrongs, I have not urged them as a sufficient
" cause why the Union shall be dissolved — and though
" injustice and wrong has since been done to my
" section, yet they are not of that character which, of
" themselves, call for disunion. And when it has been
" stated, for the purpose of injuring the cause with
" which I am connected, that I am urging my friends
" to disunion, and to the disruption of the Democratic
" party, that has been stated that is utterly false as an
" inference and false in itseff. [Applause.] There is
" nothing that I have done or said in the progress of
" measures leading to organization for this canvass,
" nothing that actuates me, no motive of mine that can,
" with fairness, be so constiued. Whenever the time
" comes in which a wrong shaU be done to the section
" in which I live ; which is palpably and clearly done
" with a view of wronging that section — a wrong that
" shaU effect its honor and equality, I shaU endeavor to
" be, as I was in 1851, among the first to raise the
" banner of State secession. UntU cause for that event

THE CRADLE Op THE CONFEDERACY 425
" occurs, I here and elsewhere, shall rally under the
" banner of the Democracy and of the Constitution."
[Applause.] It is interesting in this connection to recall an inci
dent as iUustrating how utterly careless were fflustrious
politicians as to, the question over which they were
dividing parties and imperiling the country In
passing through Washington Mr. Yancey was the guest
of Mr. Pugh, a member of Congress from Alabama.
WhUe at Mr. Pugh's house he was visited by Mr. S.
S. Baxter, of Tenn., and H. W. Fisher, of Virginia,
both of whom in pubUshed letters afterwards, testified
to the correctness of the conversation which occured
between themselves and Mr. Geo. N. Sanders, of New
, York, who stepped in during their visit. Mr. Sanders
was a shrewd poUtician of some note, and had held the
important position of Consul to London under President
Pierce. Mr. Yancey said the Vice-Presidency had
been offered him by the friends of Mr. Douglas if he
would bring about a reconciliation between the factions.
Mr. Sanders had made the offer, it was said, with the
knowledge and consent of Mr. Douglas. During this
conversation Mr. Sanders urged Mr. Yancey to accept,
and suggested that Mr. Douglas would die in six
months aifter his inauguration, when the whole question
would be solved. Mr. Fisher repeated this conversa
tion in a public speech at Baltimore, and his statement
was not denied.

oh:a.f»ter XVI.

The Canvass in Alabama — Assatdts upon Yancey — Posi
tion of the Three Contestants — Yancey's Canvass of the
West and North — His Arrival at Memphis — Reception
at Knoxville — Speech at Washington — Attempted Fu
sion in New York — His Speech in Faneuil Hall — At
Lexingtoti — At New Orleans — Return of Yancey and
Visit of Douglas to Montgomery, Etc., Etc.

Mr.Presldeut: "If you wish to put a stop to cheering and applause
upon this fioor, you must stop Mr. Yancey from speaking."— [Rynders In
the Charleston Convention.
" Your policy in this great crisis of a final struggle between the South
and Its foes is mad and suicidal in the last degree. It is to risk everything
for nothing. It Is to annihilate the only living power that can defend
us, and to consummate a ruin of Southern hopes and prospects, under
which your own fiivorite abstraction of ' protection ' will be the first and
deepest burled. Do you expect to obtain congressional protection for
slavery in the Territories by electing William H. Seward President ?"—
[Public Letter of John Forsyth.
The political campaign was now opened. The Whig
candidates for Presidential Electors attacked the Doug
las Democracy because of their squatter sovereignty
principles, and the Breckinridge Democracy because of
their disunion tendencies. In Alabama the opinions
and declarations of Mr. Yancey became the special
target for the opposition. It was argued that Mr.
Yancey- was a pronounced secessionist in 1851, and
that he was stffl a disunionist. It was true he now
denied that he was a disunionist; but he made the
same denial then. Then ff was that he organized and
harangued the States-Rights Associations ; but yester
day he was organizing and harangueing the Leagues of

428 THE CRADLE OF THE CONPEDERACY.
United Southerners. Ten years ago he was for in
structing the South in the principles of States-Rights,
and admonishing them not to be trammeUed by ties of
parties. Two years ago he was for instructing the
Southern mind in the same direction, for firing the
Southern heart and precipitating the cotton States into
revolution. This being precipitated into revolution
could mean nothing more nor less than separate State
secession upon the election of a RepubUcan President.
In his speech at the Commercial Convention, Mr.
Yancey had said that the election of a President under
the forms of the Constitution by the Republican party,
would not of itself justify secession ; and he had said
in his Baltimore speech that there had been no injustice
and wrong since 1850 which would justffy disunion.
The principles of the States-Rights party were those of
the Virginia resolutions of '98, which declared that the
injustice and wrong which authorized secession on the
part of a State, must be "a deliberate, palpable and
"dangerous exercise of powers not granted by the
" compact." The power of electing such a President
as they prefer, is one of those undisputed powers which
could not be denied to the States. Alabama, there
fore, had no justification to secede simply upon the
election of a RepubUcan President, and weU had Mr.
Yancey spoken of such a purpose as "revolution."
She, together with the entire South, declared by large
majorities that the injustice and wrong of the Compro
mise Measures of 1850 were not sufficient cause, and
Mr. Yancey had pubUcly declared that since that day
the injustice and wrong done his section was not suffi
cient to justify disunion. Such being the case, said
the Unionists, it would, seem the duty of patriots, the

THE CRADLE OF THE OONPEDERAOY. 429
interest of men who yearn for continued peace and
prosperity, that the State should not be dragged into
the suicidal poUcy of South Carolina, that the people of
Alabama were in danger, was e-videnced by the actions
and schemes of Mr. Yancey and his peculiar fiiends.
He had brought about the disruption of the Charleston
Convention by procuring from the Alabama Democratic
Convention instiuctions that delegates should withdraw
in a certain contingency. He had been largely instru
mental in obtaining from the General Assembly a caU
for a State Convention in the event of Lincoln's elec
tion, and a declaration that his administiation would be
resisted. He had fired the Southern heart by obtain
ing this declaration for disunion from the representatives
of the people, and he was now for precipitating tbe
State into secession. He wanted no delay, no reflec
tion, no waiting for co-operative action. Co-operation
would bring delay, and delay would cool the passions
and fortify reason. Success for his schemes depended
upon precipitation, and precipitation would result in
ruffi. The old Whig leaders believed that there was a pos-
sibffity of the election of Mr. Bell by the people.
There was certaiiffy no hope for the election of Mr.
Douglas or Mr. Breckimidge. It was probable that
the names of Lincoln, Bell, and Breckinridge would
go to the House. In that event Mr. Bell had an
exceUent chance of being put into the Presidency as a
compromise man, since the Douglas and Lincoln Rep
resentatives would prefer to elect him before the 4th of
March rather than see the President of the Senate
assume the Presidency of the United States after that
day. Gen. Clanton, everywhere throughout the Dis-

430 THE cradle op THE CONFEDERACY.
trict, the same old District which had so often witnessed
the defeat of the States-Rights party, held that, should
Mr. Lincoln be elected, his administration ought to be
submitted to untff it committed some unconstitutional
act. He showed that the President could do nothing
unless backed by Congress, that the Senate would be
against him, and in aff probability the House also, and
that the Supreme Court were against his political views.
Lincoln would be utterly powerless if elected. Any
appointment he might make must be confirmed by a
Democratic Senate ; why, then, need we apprehend
any danger from a President who would have the sup
port of neither a majority of the voters of the Union
nor of any of the Departments of the Government?
Was this the powerless object before which the Union
must be rent in twain ? This was not submission to
Black RepubUcan rule, as it was termed. It was obedi
ence to the Constitution and submission to the Gov
ernment of the United States, which would stiU be, for
aU practical purposes, in the hands of the South,
through the preponderance of Southern Senators among
those who would be in opposition to Mr. Lincoln.
Mr. John F. Conoley, the Douglas elector for the
Thfrd District, maintained that the nomination of Mr.
Douglas was the only regular Democratic nomination.
Why, he argued, had the opponents of Mr. Douglas
insisted upon an explanatory clause to the Cincinnati
platform ? Had not the Supreme Court sufficiently
explained what the Cincinnati platform meant by non
intervention ? Mr. Yancey, in his powerful argument
at Charleston, had proved beyond the power of refiita-
tion, that "squatter sovereignty" was not in the Kansas
Bffl. By reference to the Dfed Scott case, he had

THE CRADLE OP THE CONFEDERACY. 431
also proved that it could not by any possibUity be in
any other Terrfforial Bill. By the same argument he
had showed that it could not be in the Cincinnati
platform. Then why had he insisted upon a change of
platform even to the disruption of the party and the
Union? Was it because a fraction of tbe party
denied the construction of the Court ? That faction
could hardly cast a Democratic electoral vote. It was
too weak and impotent to justify alarm. But granting
that the election of Douglas would enure to the success
of what is known as squatter sovereignty, was there
anything alarming in that doctrine ? Under it, it was
admitted, slavery had an unrestricted right of expan
sion and would go wherever the people wanted it.
Squatters had carried it to Tennessee, Kentucky, Mis
souri, Alabama, Mississippi, and Arkansas, without any
law to protect it, and to Texas against a law prohibit
ing it. Under this doctrine it could and would be
carried to all countries where climate, soff, productions
and population would aUow. Non-intervention is thus
regulated by natural laws, and no Act of Congress could
carry it into any Territory against those laws. If we
have not the population to compete with the North in
the colonization of Territories, no Act of Congress
could cure the difficulty. What was the objection to
Douglas ? Was it that the nomination was not by a
two-thirds vote ? Mr. Douglas received more than
two thirds of those who voted. Never in the history of
Democratic Conventions had it been held that the
candidate should receive a number equal to two-thirds
of all the electoral votes. Two-thirds of a House means
two-thfrds of the voting members, and not two-thfrds of
aU the members. Was the objection to the platform ?

432 THE CRADLE OF THE OONPEDERAOY.
The platform was the same that was considered broad
enough in 1856 for the whole Union. Was the objec
tion to the man who led the ticket ? If Mr. Douglas
had offended, it was alone upon the question how far a
territorial legislature may constitutionaUy impafr the
right or usefulness of any kind of property by any
system of laws they may enact. This point of differ
ence between Mr. Douglas and others di(J not involve
a question of the equality of the States in the Union or
any principle essential to our security. The people of
the Territory were the ultimate disposers of the whole
question. They could manage it better than Congress
could. Mr. DoJGLAS was for removing the slavery
agitation from the haUs of Congress. His opponents
were for continuing and increasing the agitation by
caUing upon those in Congress whose prejudices were all
against slavery, to enable them in enacting slave codes.
Could there be peace when such demands were made
by the South ? The seceders knew that such demands
would be rejected, and that the rejection would be made
the pretence for disunion. There was no mode of
quieting the slavery question or securing peace to the
countiy except by the policy of Mr. Douglas. So
spoke the candidates for the Electoral CoUege.
During the progress of the canvass it became appa
rent that Mr. Lincoln would be elected unless the States
of New York and Pennsylvania could be carried against
him by a fusion of aU the Conservative elements. The
Republicans, in order to prevent such fiision, and to
weaken the strength of Mr. Breckinridqe, made free
use of the name, opinions and published sentiments of
Mr. Yancey. The newspapers had pubUshed what pur
ported to be a copy of the constitution of tbe '' League

THE CRADLE OP THE OONPEDERAOY. 433
" of United Southerners," which declared that its object
was to break up the Union. Mr. Yancey thereupon
wrote a letter to the Democracy of Tennessee, July 19,
presenting a true copy of the League Constitution, and
stating that its declared object was to preserve the
rights of the South in the Union, or failing in that,
"a prompt resistance on the next aggression." He
stated that the estabUshment of the League had been
first recommended by the Advertiser newspaper of Mont
gomery, that its first meeting had been organized by
himself, Chas. G. Gunter, and J. C. B. Mitchell of that
place, that but three chapters had ever been formed ;
that its sessions were open, and that the people, not
approving, it had long since been discontinued. The
notable part of this letter is the admission by Mr.
Yancey that, whUe not favoring disunion in 1858, he
was for prompt resistance on the next aggression ; and
yet at Baltimore he had asserted that nothing had
occurred since 1858 to justify secession, and at the
Commercial Convention he had declared that the elec
tion of a RepubUcan President would not alone jus
tify it.
The important part which Yancey had played at
the Convention which had nominated Mr. BRECKiNRroGE,
and the wide-spread denunciations of him as a disun
ionist at the North, induced his party friends to urge
upon him the duty of making addresses at as many of
the prominent cities as time would permit. After sev
eral addresses in Alabama among those who had been
accustomed to hear him, his first speech outside of the
State was made at Memphis. During the day, upon the
evening of which he was to address the people there,
the raUroad trains and country road wagons and c?ir-

434 THE CRADLE OP THE CONPEDERACY.
riages poured into the city a host of people, some to
applaud as a patriot, some to hiss as a traitor, the
most widely criticised man in the Union. The excite
ment was intense. Threats to mob him was indulged
in openly by heated partisans, and the audience
appeared so largely his enemy that many of his fiiends
advised him not to speak. There never was a braver
man than Yancey. There never was a crowd which
could silence or intimidate him. There never was a
passion-tossed audience which he could not curb or
control. On this occasion the immense audience, sup
posed to be greatly against him, cheered and jeered,
swayed to and fro and interrupted his first sentences
with impertinent and insolent interjections. The orator
not for a moment lost temper or countenance. He
would not notice that the confusion was anything
unusual for a large audience. Soon his musical voice
attracted attention, and then his graceful gesticulation ;
then a rounded period brought applause from those
nearest him. Then sffence and attention spread a little
farther, and a Uttle farther, until before he had been
speaking fifteen minutes the vast concourse was per
fectly sffent, and foffowing breathless his rapid flights
of declamation and irresistible rush of argument. At
the close of each sentence a ripple of cheers would
foUow, and ever and anon a roar of applause would
make the welkin ring. For four hours he held th^t
audience speU-bound, and at last when his magnificent
peroration struck the blood of every Ustener with the
chUl of pleasure and admfration, and the orator had
closed, a universal shout broke out — " Go on I Go on !
" We can Usten to you until the sun rises !"
Mr. Yancey lefl Montgomery about the middle of

THE CRADLE OP THE CONPEDERACY. 435
September upon a tour to the North. After speaking
at Kingston, Gu., with his usual power, he proceeded to
KnoxviUe, the hot-bed of Unionism in East Tennessee.
There he addressed an audience of not less than three
thousand people, defending his cause with such signal
abUity as to deeply impress aU who heard him, of
whatever shade of opinion. To break the force of
his argument, and just before he appeared ready to
conclude, an incident occurred which weU illustrates the
temper of the times. The KnoxviUe Register, de
scribing the events of the day, says :
At this stage (of Mr. Yancey's speech) a voice, Mr.
Manley, asked, what would you do if Lincoln was
elected President ?
Yancey— Come upon the stand.
Mr. Manley went up and took his seat.
Mr. Yancey said he received twelve years of his
education in New England, and there learned the
Yankee mode of answering questions, and said to Mr.
M. I'U answer your question by asking another.
Manley- -Ask it.
Yancey — Who are you in fiivor of for President ?
Manley — John BeU.
Yancey — WiU you endorse what John BeU has said
on breaking up the Union ?
Manley — Said he had propounded the question at
the request of others.
Mr. Yancey asked thefr names. A note was handed
to him signed S. R. Rogers, Wm. Rogers, Jno. M.
Fleming, W. G. Brownlow, and 0. P. Temple. He
caUed out the names of these gentlemen and requested
them to come on'/the stand with hun. After some
little delay they appeared on the stand as requested.

436 THE CRADLE OF THE OONPEDERAOY.
Mr. -Yancey asked them who they were in favor of
for President. AU answered — ^John BeU. He then
repeated the question he had propounded to Mr. iv^an-
ley, and requested an answer from each.
Col. Temple — Said BeU had always been a Union
man ; though some Breckinridge men had, by garbled
extracts from his speeches, sought to create a different
impression. Thus recognizing Mr. Bell, he was pre
pared to endorse his position properly entiusted. He
did not mean to charge Mr. Yancey with garbUng, etc.
Yancey — Said he did not suppose any gentleman
would try to insult him on the stand, and he did not
regard Mr. Temple's remarks as applying to him, or he
would have repUed in a different manner.
Mr. Brownlow, in answer to the question, said yes,
and added — I propose when the Secessionists go to
Washington to dethrone Lincoln, I am for seizing a
bayonet and forming an army to resist such attack, and
they shall walk over my dead body on thefr way.
S. R. Rogers endorses Mr. Brownlow's position.
J. M. Fleming — If Mr. Bell had been interrogated
on this point, he would endorse his answer.
When the question was asked Wm. Rogers, Mr.
Brownlow said, we aff answer in the affirmative.
Yancey — I asked him. I suppose he knows better
than you, unless you have agreed on a stereotyped
answer. Brownlow — No, we have not been initiated into your
League. Yancey — No, or you would have been a better
Southern man.
Mr. Yancey then read an extract from John BeU's
speech (the extract pubUshed a short time since in the

THE CRADLE OP THE CONFEDERACY. 437
Register), and said, now, gentlemen, I wiU answer your
question, and answered it in the foUowing words :
I now proceed to answer this question, although
unable to perceive in what manner my fiiture act in
Alabama can, in the least degree, affect your votes
here, on the question of the election of a President.
By an act of the General Assembly in Alabama,
passed last winter, it is made the duty of the Gov
ernor, in the event a Black Republican shaU be elected
President, in a certain period after he ascertains it,
(thfrty days I beUeve) to make proclamation of the
fact — and that an election shaU then be held' by the
people to elect delegates to a Convention of the people
of the State, which Convention wiU consider what the
sovereignty and wrongs done the State require at its
hands. As I said to you in the earUer part of my speech, I am
a States-Rights man — beUe-ving in the right of a State
to command the aUegiance and obedience of its citizens,
and therefore that my aUegiance is first due to my
State. I do not beUeve in exercising the individual
natural right of rebellion, untU both States as weU as
Federal Constitutions are broken, and my rights are
destroyed. If the Federal Constitution shaU be broken
and destroyed by the usurpation of a Higher Law
faction, my right to resist is subordinate to my aUegi
ance to my State Constitution. As an individual,
therefore, I.shall not rebel against such an election, for
that would be rebellion also against ¦my own State
authority. But whatever course Alabama may take,
that course I shaU be bound by as a citizen, and if it
is to acquiesce, I shaU do so — ff it is to secede, I shaU
cast my fortunes with that of the State. If the Con-

438 THE CRADLE OP THE CONPEDERACY.
vention shaff see fit to go into a consultation with the
other Southern States, and act as they agree, I shaU
abide by that action. If it shaff decide to demand new
guaranties for its rights, before it wffl remain longer in
the Union, I shall acquiesce in that. In fine, as I am
bound by, so shall I acquiesce in all that my State may
decide to do.
If my State resists, I shall go with her ; and ff I
meet this gentleman (pointing to Mr. Brownlow), mar
shaled with his bayonet to oppose us, I'll plunge my
bayonet to the hfft through and through his Keart and
feel no compunctions for the act, and thank my God
my countiy has been freed from such a foe. This
man, forgetful of his nati-vity, had uttered fratricidal
sentiments of hostility towards men of the South who
differ with him upon their views of thefr rights and the
time and manner in which they should be asserted and
supported, but who, if they err in judgment, err on the
side of patriotism and through devotion to thefr native
land. If Providence, in pity, refrain sending its thun
derbolt, crushing -this old oak tree, whose boughs now
shelter us, and which has Iffted its head to heaven since
the days of Washington, and our revolutionary sfres —
he, but one individual of the South, might safely leave
the author of such sentiments to the reproaches of his
own conscience and the retributive justice which, sooner
or later, ever overtakes those who oppose their countiy 's
weal. He recognized those who came on the stand as
gentlemen, and he bore no personal malice towards
them. He hoped no miUtia office would be conferred
on this gentieman (pointing to Mr. Brownlow.) He
had better preach.
He regretted that he had been diverted from words

iSE ORADLE OP THE OONPEDERAOY. 439
of peace through interruption. He caffed it an inter
ruption, but in one sense, and that not an offensive one.
He expressed his thanks to the people for their kind
ness and courtesy. He also thanked the Bell men who
were gentiemen, and those not gentlemen.
He knew the power of the press, the base slanders it
had uttered against him, and between now and the end
of the canvass, they would stiU go where his voice could
not reach. Their Ues were like a scrubby quarter
nag, while Truth was a thorough bred four-mffe horse.
On a short race the quarter nag was always successful,
but thorough bred Truth was always victorious in a
long race.
A few other eloquent and complimentary remarks
to the ladies, Mr. Yancey closed. At the conclusion
of his remarks Mr. Brownlow took the stand, and said
in substance that the gentleman had spoken of him as
a parson, and suggested his duty in that capacity. He
had read some Scripture, and he would say to the gen
tieman, get thee behind me, Satan. He had heard the
gentleman in a whisper ask a gentleman on the stand
if that was not the parson, referring to the speaker.
The gentleman said yes. Whffe he was on the subject
of parsons, the gentleman should have referred to the
fact that the gentleman of whom he asked the question
(Rev. Isaac Lewis) was a Federal office-holder, as was
another parson present, and that the Democrats had
on their State ticket, and as an Elector for this Distiict,
two more parsons, who only differed with him in the
fact that they had been sffenced for lying.
He declined speaking any more, but would speak
out through his paper.

440 THE ORADLE OP THE CONFEDERACY.
Mr. Yancey said, if you have anything to say, say it
here before me like a man.
The crowd caUed again for Mr. Yancey. He said,
gentlemen, you cannot expect me to dignffy such a
speech with a reply.
The State of Virginia, whUe generaUy Democratic,
had been so uncertain at all times, that now it was-
believed that the Douglas party would take sufficient
votes from the regular Democratic Electoral ticket to
give her to Mr. Bbll. It- was deemed advisable that
Mr. Yancey should speak at Richmond. Remain
ing there one night he spoke to an immense audience
with his usual effect. Declining in-vitations which
came to him from aU parts of Vfrginia — a State which
remembered the brilliant words he uttered when he
received at its Capitol the field-glass of George Wash
ington, presented to him by the ladies of the Mount
Vernon Association a few years before — he hastened
to Washington. Wherever he went the crowds which
poured forth to meet him increased in numbers. So
great had become the fame of his eloquence and power,
that the largest buffdings could not contain those that
flocked to hear him. To one of these mighty hosts at
the Capital of the Union, he spoke as foffows :
" I say to you, then, though we deprecate disun-
" ion, we wiff have the Union of our fathers.. It has
" been said that the South has aggressed upon the
" North. When and where has my people ever
" aggressed upon the people of any other section ?
" When and where has any Southern statesman pro-
" posed a wrong to be done to the West, the North-
" west, the East, or the Northeast ?"
A voice — " Never."

THE ORADLE OP THE OONPEDERAOY. 441
Mr. Yancey — "Never. History wiU proclaim it.
" This age proclaims it. Our enemies wiU proclaim it
" by their sUence when we defy them to answer the
" question. " Ours, then, is a position of defence within the
"limits of the Constitution. We uphold its banner.
"We intend to defend its principles. We ask only
" equal rights in our common Government. We ask
" protection for these rights in our common Govern-
" ment. Nothmg more, and, so help me God, we wiU
" submit to nothing less." [Applause.]
" Now, my feUow-citizens, I do not intend to address
" you at length to-night. I am wearied, having trav-
" eled aU night, and having been detained on the way
" by an accident on the railroad. I have spoken four
"times this week, knd once I had the modesty to
" address an audience four hours. [A voice — ' Give
" us four hours more to-night.'] I, therefore, have no
"physical abUity to detain you any longer to-night.
" I conceive that you have met here to-night not from
"any special respect to an individual, but that you
" have recognized me as one earnestly striving to
" advance the cause of the Constitution ; and in that
" spirit, and in that only, have shown your respect for
" the cause of Democracy—- something that is deserv-
" ing of that respect — for that I most sincerely thank
" you. I trust that I shall never deserve a want of
" respect at your hands, or at those of any one else, by
"proposing aggression on any, or by proposing any
" measure not in accordance with a strict construction
" of the Constitution."
A voice — " What wffl the South do in the event of
" Lincoln's election ?"

442 the ORADLE OP THE OONPEDERAOY.
Mr. Yancey — " I don't know what she wUl do ; but
" I wffl say to you — I put it to you, my friend. Now
" ff you live in a slave-holding State — "
The same voice — " I do, sir."
Mr. Yancey — " WeU, then, ff John Brown commits
" a raid on that State whUe in the peace of God, and
" whUe in the peace of the country, under the peace of
" the Constitution that is supposed to protect it — ^ff he
" comes with pike, with musket, and bayonet, and
" cannon ; ff he slaughter- an inoffensive people ; if his
"' myrmidons are scattered aU over our countiy, where
" it is supposed rests this institution which is so unpal-
" atable, inciting our slaves to midnight arson, to mid-
" night murder, and to midnight insurrection against
" the sparsely scattered white people ; ff the brother-
" hood of this nation shaU be broken up, and the com-
" mon citizenship shaU be ignored ; ff the protection
" that is due from every citizen to every other citizen
" shaU be no longer afforded ; if, in the place of it, a
" wild and bloodthfrsty spfrit — not of revenge, for
" we have done no wrong to be revenged — but a
" bloodthirsty spuit of assassination, of murder, and
" of wrong takes its place, and we find scattered
" throughout aU our borders these people, and we find
" the midnight skies Ughted up by the fires of our
" dweUings, and the weUs from which we hourly drink
" poisoned by stiychnine ; and our wives and our
" chUdren, when we are away at our business, are found
" murdered by our hearthstones, my answer, my friend,
" is in these words : What would you do ?" [Loud
applause.] A voice — " 1 would stop him before he got that fer."
Mr. Yancey — " 1 beUeve that the God of Uberty, to

THE ORADLE OP THE OONPEDERAOY. 443
" whom it is our duty at aU times to pray ; He who
" holds in his hands the very destinies of nations —
" wiU so turn the hearts of our people that such an
" event shaU not happen."
A voice — " Amen."
Mr. Yancey — " For myself, I do hope that in the
"Northern States, which hold this question in thefr
" hands, in some way a feeling of justice wiU be aroused
" in the minds of the people, and they wiU consider
" this matter, and prevent this dire result. As for the
" South, we are in a minority. We cannot prevent it,
" however much we may desire to do so. The North
" is now the dominant section of this country. It has
" 183 electoral votes to our 120. It is for them to
" say what is to be our destiny within this Govern-
" ment. It is not, thank God, for the North , to say
" what shaU be the destiny of Southern freemen.
" [' Good,' aud applause.] That we hold in our own
hands. Our prosperity, our safety, our institutions
" do not depend upon any vote the North may give in
'' this matter as long as we are true to ourselves. They
" are safe, though the Constitution may be rent asunder.
" We prefer our protection and our defence within the
" Unes of the Government of Washington and Jefferson
" and of Hancock, but ff it is not given to us, we know
" that we have freedom within our own breasts. But
" within this Union, this Union must be preserved by
" Northern votes.
" The issue is now left with the North, and it is ten-
" dered her to save the Union and the Constitution by
" putting down the Black RepubUcan party." [Good.]
The October elections had taken place in Pennsyl
vania, and that great State had pronounced for the

a

444 THE ORADLE OP THE CONPEDERAOf .
RepubUcan party. There was now no hope of pre
venting the election of Mr. Lincoln except by bringing
about a fusion between the Douglas and Breckinridge
parties of New York. To that end Mr. Yancey visff ed
New York, and approved of the fiision, which was suc
cessfully accomplished. The State of New York cast
thirty-five electoral votes. The entire electoral vote
by which Mr. Lincoln was elected was 180; the vote
for aU the other candidates was 123. Had New York
voted for Douglas instead of for Lincoln, the vote would
have been 158 against the latter, and orffy 145
in his favor. The decision would have gone to Con
gress, and either Mr. Bell or Gen. Lane would have
become President. The vote of New York was
362,000 for Lincoln and 312,000 for the fusion
ticket. Had the compromise been effected at an earUer
day, there can be no doubt that New York would
never have cast her vote for Lincoln. Just here, the
reviewer of the events of that day pauses to enquire
how it was possible to bring about a fusion at New
York when the damage was already done, and it was
not possible to bring it about at Charleston or Balti
more. How could Mr. Yancey succumb to poUcy in
October when he had scorned to Usten to it in April
and June ?
It was the purpose of the Republicans to drive Mr.
Yancey to the waU upon the question whether he
favored disunion in the event of Mr. Lincoln's election.
His position upon that question would materially affect
the floating vote in the city of New York. If he
should say that he would favor disunion in that event,
the RepubUcans would denounce the fusion ticket as
composed partiy of disunionists, and would appeal to

THE ORADLE OF THE OONPEDERAOY. 445
•
the pride of the Union men to defy such threats. If
he should say he would not favor such a movement he
woiffd repudiate the declaration of the General Assem
bly of his State and his own present wishes and inten
tions. Speaking in the grand hall of Coopers Institute
to such a mass of men as only New York can present
to a popular public orator, he said :
" I have been asked here to-night certain questions,
" which I deem it right to answer now, at the present.
" One of these questions is, ' Would you consider the
" election of Abraham Lincoln as President a sufficient
" cause to warrant the South in seceding from the
"Union?' The second is, 'Whether, in the case of
"Mr. Lincoln being elected, and any of the States
" attempted to secede, would you support the General
" Government and the other States in maintaining the
" integrity of the Union ?' The first question is a
" speculation — a political speculation, at that. It has
" nothing to do with the canvass. I am here, however,
"aiding you to prevent such a calamity. I am hon-
" estly endeavoring to maintain the integrity of the
" Government and the safety of the Union at the baUot-
" box. [Applause.] I am here to aid you in trying
"to prevent the election of Abraham Lincoln, the
" author of the irrepressible confUct ; and ff others as
"faithfully do thefr duty, he wiU never be elected.
" [Applause.] I am asked, and have been asked
"before, whether I consider the election of Lincoln
" would be a just cause for the secession of the South-
" ern States ? That is a matter to come after the baUot-
"box. [Cheers and derisive laughter, and cries of
" ' Answer the question.'] Be quiet, gentlemen. Hear
" me, hear me. [Great excitement and tumult— cries

44B THE ORADLE OP THE OONPEDERAOY.
" of ' Order, order,' from the platform.] Don't be im-
" patient, gentlemen. [Increasing disorder.] Don't
" be impatient, and above aU things keep your temper,
[Laughter and applause.] This is not the time to fight,
" certainly. [Laughter.] This is a time to vote, and
" to consider how to vote."
A voice — " Let us have an answer to the question."
Mr. Yancey — " You are impatient, my friend. What
"is the matter with you ?"
An excited individual on the platform — " Put him
" out." Mr. Yancey — " If gentlemen are so desirous of know-
" ing my opinions, they ought to abide by my decisions
" when they are uttered. [Cheers.] This thing of
" asking advice of a man and then not taking his
"advice, is a monstrous poor way of getting along.
" Now, I am going to say this about it. This question
" that is put to me is a speculation on the future. It is
" what I consider would happen in the event of some-
" thing else happening. I hope to God that that wiU
" never happen, and that the speculation wUl never
" come to a head. [Applause.] I am no candidate
" for the Presidency, my friends who wrote these ques-
" tions, though some of you seem to have thought so,
"judging from the manner in which you have treated
" me and Mr. Breckinridge. I am no candidate for
" any office, and I do not want your vote. But I would
" like to advise with you and get you to vote for a
" good man — for any man, I do not care who it is,
" excepting one of the irrepressible confUct men. [Up-
"roarous applause.] In the first place, there is no
" such thing as the South seceding. I do not know
" how she would go about it. [Cries of ' Good,' and

THE ORADLE OP THE CONFEDERACY. 447
" loud cheers.] There is such a thing as a State sece-
" ding ; but the South seceding is a thing which I
" cannot comprehend. I do not know how the South
" would go about it. I do not think it could ever
" happen ; and, therefore, I have no answer to give as
" to what the South should do. Now, then, I am a
" citizen of the State of Alabama. I am what is caUed
"a States-Rights man. [Cheers.] I beUeve in the
" rights of my State. The Constitution of my countiy
" teUs me that certain powers were given to the General
" Government, and that aU which were not expressly
" given, or were not necessary to carry out the powers
" granted, were reserved to the States and to the people
" of the States. My State has reserved powers and
" reserved rights, and I beUeve in the right of seces-
" sion. [Excited cries of ' Good.'] Virginia and New
" York were parties to that compact. When the ques-
" tion was presented, the State of Virginia expressed
" her wilUngness to join under the compact. The
" State of New York also did so through her con-
" vention. " It was provided that if nine States assented, it
" would be a government for those nine, and for aU the
" States that would sign the compact. Therefore, the
" compact was a compact between the States mutually
" assenting: wilUftgly assenting. If any dissented there
" was no proposition to force them into the Union.
'* Therefore, I believe in the right of a State to go out
" of the Union ff she thinks proper. The State of Ala-
"bama, in her last General Assembly, passed a law
" requiring the Governor, in the event of a Black Repub-
" Ucan being elected President of the United States, to
" convene, within so many days after he ascertained

448 THE ORADLE OP THE CONPEDEEAOY.
" that fact, a convention of the people of the State, for
" the purpose of considering the question which is here
" presented to me. It is a question for the decision of
" my State — I cannot decide it. As one of the citizens
"of Alabama, I shall abide by the decisions of my
" State. If she goes out, I go with her. If she
" remains in, I remain with her. I cannot do otherwise.
" [Laughter and cheers.] It is a grave question, but
" one which I hope God, in His Providence, wiU keep
" me from considering, by the safety of this Govern-
" ment in the election of some man opposed to the
" ' frrepressible conffict party. [Cheers.] But when
" the time comes for me to make up my mind, I wUl
" have deliberate consultation with my fellow-citizens in
" Alabama. You in New York have nothing to do
" with it ; nothing. Whatever deliberations you choose
" to have, as citizens of New York, on the fate of your
" State, wiU be for yourselves. I have no interest in
" that question except incidentaUy, and have no right
" to advise with you or say anything to you about it.
" But upon this Presidential question I have a common
" interest with you, because it is the election of one to
" administer the Government for the next four years —
" for my State as weU as yours. Therefore it is a
" common question, about which I can consult with you.
" But whether my State or any other State wUl go out
" of the Union, is a question which it wiU be for that
" State itself to determine. It is not to be determined
" by arguing it before the election. It would be a grave
" matter for me to commit myself here, to a crowd in
" New York, to any policy that might be influenced by
" after events, by surrounding circumstances, by the
" expressed sympathies of large majorities of the people

THE ORADLE OP THE OONPEDERAOY. 449
"of New York or other States with the South. For
" me here, merely to gratify some political antagonist,
" to express my opinion on that point would be folly ;
" it is the wffdest foUy to expect I wffl. That opinion
" wiU be rendered to the people of my State whenever
" they ask for it. [An individual on the platform —
" ' Three cheers for the answer.'] Now, I am asked
"one other question. I am asked whether, if any
" portion of the South secedes, I wiU aid the Govern-
" ment ui maintaining the integrity of the Union. Yes,
"my friend, the integrity of the Union. [Cheers.]
" I am now struggUng for it ; I shaU struggle for it to
" the day of election. The integrity of the Union I
" shall struggle for with my Ufe's blood ff required.
" [Enthusiastic cheers.] But if this question means by
" the integrity of the Union the preservation of an ad-
" ministration that shall trample on any portion of the
" rights of the South, I teU him that I wUl aid my
"State in resisting it to blood. [Great cheering.]
" The common rights of resistance to wrong which
" belong to the worm — those rights are not the rights
" which were meant to be secured by our fathers in the
" Declaration of Independence, when they cut them-
" selves loose from despotism and the despotic ties of
" the old world. The serf of Russia has got the right
" of revolution. The hog has got the right to resist if
" you try to put a knffe to his throat. [Cheers and
" laughter.] The right of revolution is orffy the poor
" serf's right. It is no right at aU. It is only the last
" expiring throe of oppressed nationality." [Tumultu
ous cheering.]
Proceeduig from New York to Boston, Mr. Yancey
spoke. at; Faneuil HaU- Nowhere had he been mis-.

450 THE ORADLE OP THE OONPEDERAOY.
represented more than in New England ; nowhere was
his name more detested than at Boston. Faneuil Hall
had once been closed to Mr. Webster, and now a
fiercer States-Rights man thanWteBSTER's old adversary,
Hayse, was about to address the constituents of Sumner
and Burlinqame from a rostrum devoted to freedom.
The haU was densely packed with an excited and hostile
mass of men. At the outset of his remarks there was
unmistakable tendency to designed confiision and de
liberate interruption, but Mr. Yancey refused to notice
that the demonstrations were other than accidental.
He alluded in a few terse words to that freedom of
thought and speech for which Boston had been distin
guished since the days of Warren and Revere. Ap
pealing to the pride of a Boston audience he soon
secured sUence and attention. Then, once more, he
repeated the argument which, in his hands, had become
almost irresistible, demanding the equality of the States
in the Union, and abating not one jot or tittie from the
pretensions of the South. He asked :
" Do you shrink from an honest competition with
" the slaveholder ? [' No !'] Then take your hands
" off of the slave labor, and let us fight it out with you
" there in an honest way. [Loud applause.] I think
" I know something about the character of the ancient
" men of Massachusetts, ff I know nothing about the
" men of to-day ; and I teU you that the men who
" fought at Bunker HiU and Lexington, and fought aU
" over the Union for the common rights of all — those
" men were men of too much pride, too much common
" sense, and too much love of justice to ask that ui any
" race they tried with anybody else, thefr opponents
^' should be held &st and they let loose. [Cries of

THE ORADLE OP THE CONFEDERACY. 451
"'good.'] Now, if you think that your institutions
" are better than ours, if you think yours are more
" civffizing than ours, if you think they can carry on
" the great cause of civilization better than we can, all
" we ask is — hands off' -fair play — and victory to him
" who wins. [Loud cheering. A voice — ' Do you
" mean to withdraw from the Union ?'] We wiff never
" withdraw from the Union as long as the Constitution
" exists in its integrity. I wiU teU you what the South
" must do, what she inevitably wffl do, if you put your
" heel on her, ff you deny her equality, if you say she
" shaU not have the rights in the Union which your
" fathers declared she should have. If you violate the
" Constitution, I teU you, the South teUs you, her
" safety does not depend upon you, gentlemen. Her
" safety does not depend upon you. The descendants
" of the men who fought the battles of Eutaw, King's
" Mountain, and Yorktown, and helped you fight your
" batties here, can take care of themselves ff you won't
"take care of them. [Renewed cheering.] And,
" mind you, I utter it in no vaunt, and as no threat. Why,
" my countiymen, walk in a field, tread on a caterpil-
" lar, and the poor creature wffl turn on your boot and
" tiy to sting you. [' Do you think so ?'] Yes, my
" friend, 1 do think so, and you think so, too, if you
" have an ounce of manhood in your weight of hundred
"and fifty pounds. [Great applause and laughter,].
" And mind, I say, that in aff this that I declare the
" South wffl do, she does not mean to trespass upon
" you. Thank God, I can say so for my section, that
" she has never proposed a wrong upon you— she has
" always resisted every proposition of wrong upon you
" — she has been ready to fight. When the flag wa,s

452 THE CRADLE OP THE CONFEDERACY.
" ' Free Trade and SaUor's Rights,' she helped to carry
" forward the contest of the war of 1812, when some
" men in fair New England shrank from that contest."
[Loud cheers,]
The effect produced by this speech at Faneuil Hall
may be understood from the cotemporaneous comments
of the newspapers. The Boston Courier, an advocate
of the election of Mr. Bell, said :
" It is enough to say that Mr. Yancey's speech was
" worthy of the famous hall in which it was spoken.
" He was eloquent, logical, patriotic, and patient under
" the taunts which were poured in upon him. The
" speech will be remembered a long time by aU who
" heard it. Whether we agree or not with Mr. Yancey,
" we are glad that he has given us an address which
" wiU set our people thinking. When the men of Mas-
" sachusetts begin to reason, we shaU see day breaking."
The Boston Post said :
" He spoke as a son of Alabama, who loved his own
" State the best, but who recognized co-equal rights in
" the State in which he stood. Then he went on
" frankly and boldly for over two hours with admfrable
" closeness of argument and richness of Ulustiation.
" The lucid presentation of the historical argument ;
" the analysis of the commercial relations which bind
" the North and the South ; the development of the
" importance of the cotton interest ; the defence of
" Southern institutions — were done with master abffity.
" Interspersed with the main Unes of argument, was a
"succession of questions put by unwffUng listeners,
" which, so far from embarrassing the orator, were met
" with a promptness and dfrectness of reply that now
" drew forth shouts of laughter and now thunders of

THE ORADLE OP THE OONPEDERAOY. 453
" applause. We hazard nothing in the remark, that
*' there has not been seen such an exhibition of the
"power of oratory for a long time, if ever, in this hall —
" and at quarter past ten, when Mr. Yancey intimated
" that exhaustion would obUge him to close his speech,
" the closely packed audience stUl remained and urged
" him to go on — and his beautfful and noble peroration
" was Ustened to in the profoundest sUence !
"We spread the letter of this remarkable effort
" before our readers, and they can read the words ; but
" no words can give an idea of the tones, the gesture,
" the manly bearing, the ready wit and the conclusive
" point of the orator ; and the quick appreciation of the
" excited audience. It was a succession of triumphs,
" and at the conclusion the haU rang with the wffdest
" applause." Returning South by way of the Western States,
Mr. Yancey spoke at Cynthiana and Lexesigton, at
OmcmiiiATi and at Louisville. Mr. Geo. D. Prentice,
of the Louisvffle Journal, whffe decrying his speech
through the press, had paid 'the orator the very highest
eompUment by listening to him four hours . and in a
standing posture. At New Orleans the distinguished
speaker was received with the wUdest enthusiasm.
The audience which greeted him was the largest that
had ever assembled in the Crescent City. Large
numbers came in from the country. Opulent planters
were seen upon the stand side by side with merchant
¦princes of the city. It was said that no popular meet
ing had ever before been witnessed in New Orleans
where the officers who presided represented so large
an amount of the wealth of the State. Twenty thou
sand voices uprose to the heavens in long continued

454 THE ORADLE OP THE CONFEDERACY.
plaudits, whffe from the balconies and windows which
overlooked the square, thousands of handkerchiefs were
waved by the ladies. When the meeting was dissolved,
the vast multitude formed into procession, the well-
organized clubs taking the lead with lamps and
transparencies, marched through the principal streets
greeted by multitudes on the sidewalks with cheers and
huzzas for Breckinridge, Yancey and the South.
The week preceding the Presidential election wit
nessed the arrival, at Montgomery, of Mr. Douglas
and tbe return of Mr. Yancey. The reception of the
former was comparatively tame and cold. His address
to the people was a repetition of those which he had
already made during a protracted canvass. As he had
said at Norfolk in reply to a question what should be
done in the event of the secession of a State, so now
again he answered that the election of Mr. Lincoln
would not jstffy a disruption of the Union, and no State
should be permitted to set up an independent govern
ment against the United States. This declaration was
received with cheers by the large audience which, partly
from sympathy, partly from courtesy, but more espe
ciaUy from curiosity, had assembled to hear him.
Although the cheering was by no means general, it
was sufficiently widespread and distinct to exhibit an
unmistakable Union spirit in the audience. The visit
of Mr. Douglas appeared to be ominous. As he left
the city and spoke his fareweU words to the people
upon the bank of the river, the deck of the steamer
upon which he stood gave way and precipitated him
several feet below. Mrs. Douglas, who was standing
with Mrs. Fitzpatrick and a company of Montgomery
ladies around them, barely escaped fatal injury.

THE ORADLE OP THE OONPEDERAOY. 455
The reception of Mr. Yancey at his home was an
event long to be remembered by the people of Mont
gomery. He was already endeared to his political
foUowers by twenty years devotion to their principles.
He was now looked upon with pride by even his oppo
nents, who felt that thefr city and State were honored
in one whose splendid oratory had thriUed the Union
from centre to circumference. The littie city of ten
thousand inhabitants turned out en masse to welcome
her distinguished son. As the evening shades feU upon
the streets myriads of Ughts Ulumined the dwellings,
the sidewalks and the pubUc buUdings. The political
clubs emerged from their haUs with transparencies and
torches. Bonfires blazed at the corners of streets. As
the mass of eager people foUowed the march of the
clubs the procession lengthened out indefinitely, and
with one accord, accompanied by music and banners, they
marched to the residence of Mr. Yancey. There the
orator was received in an open carriage drawn by four
splendid horses and. conducted to the Theatre, which
was already weU filled with ladies. The men crowded
upon the stage, fiUed the aisles and passages with a
dense mass, and sought from the lobby, the vestibules
and the stafrways to secure a glimpse of the inspiring
scene within. " Welcome to the Garibaldi of the South,"
" Yancey and States-Rights," " Equality in the Union
" or independence out of it," were some of the significant
mottoes which decked the stage. Boquets were show
ered around him as the speaker appeared, and the
whole audience rose to their feet with cheer upon cheer.
The multitude outside who could not obtain entrance,
clamored for Mr. Judge to come out and address them.
Thus the audience in the street who Ustened to Mr.

456 THE CRADLE OP THE CONPBDERAO'Y. '
Yancey by deputy was almost as great as that which
filled the theatre.
The orator reviewed the canvass which was now to
close upon the foUowing day. Mr. Lincoln would
probably be elected, and it became the duty of aU true
Southern men to stand united in resistance to his domi
nation. The die was cast ; the argument was exhaust
ed ; would his friends stand to their arms ? The
answer of those friends was given in the motto over his
head. They looked upon him as the Garibaldi op
the South.
On the 6th of November, whffe Mr. Lincoln was
elected President under the forms of the Constitution
and by the unrepresentative system of Electoral Col
leges, the people had declared against him by a large
majority. The majority of votes against him was
nearly two hundred thousand. The Supreme Court
and the Senate were already against him ; and now
the elections had increased the majority against the
Republicans in the lower House of Congress. Of the
twelve hundred and fifty-one thousand votes cast in
the slave States, Mr. Bell and Mr. Douglas, repre
senting the Union sentiment, as against the secession
sentiment, received six hundred and and ninety thou
sand, a clear majority of the whole. In the State of
Alabama there were 41,000 against Mr. Breckinridge
to 48,000 in his favor, A larger vote had been poUed
in Mr. Yancey's own State for candidates who de
nounced both the right and poUcy of secession, than
ever before in her annals. In Georgia the vote for
Bell and Douglas was larger than for Breckinridge.
In Mississippi, the grave of Quitman and the home of
Davis, the Breckinridge ticket stood to the others only

The ORADLE OP THE CONFEDERACY. 457
as four to three. Louisiana threw five thousand ma
jority against Breckinridge.
In the Gulf States, from the Atiantic to the Missis
sippi, there was, in a poU of 330,000 votes, a bare
majority of 14,000 for Mr. Breckinridge. While
172,000 men stood by Mr. Yancey, there were, 157,000
who stood with Mr. Bell for " the Constitution, the
" Union and the enforcement of the law," or with Mr.
Douglas in denying the right and policy of secession
in the event of Mr. Lincoln's election.

CHAPTER XVII.

Election of Lincoln — Reception of the News — Mass Meet
ing at Montgomery — Yancey Declares for Secession —
The People Taught that Secession will be Peaceable —
Co-operationists and Secessionists — The Crittenden
Compromise — Its Rejection and Defeat.

" Wayward sisters, depart Injpeace !"— [Gen. Wlnfleld Scott.
" I have good reason to believe that the action of any State will be
peaceable— will not'be resisted— under the present or any probable pros
pective condition of Federal affairs,"— [W. L. Yancey,
" Were the plan of the Oouveutlou adverse to the public happiness, my
voice would be, Rbjkct the plan. Were the Union itself Inconsistent
with the public happiness, it would be. Abolish the Union."— [Madi
son in the Federalist, No. xiv.
On the night of the eventiul 6th of November, 1860,
as the telegraph carried to every nook and corner of
the Union the news of the election, the people of Mont
gomery thronged the streets and the newspaper offices
to a late hour to learn the result. AU depended upon
New York ; it ^ was past midnight before definite returns
could be received from that vast State. At last the
result was announced. The administiation of the
United States fhad been consigned to the Free Soil
party, the restrictionists of slavery. Mr. Watts had
already broken the Whig Une by announcing, towards
the close of the canvass, that in the event of Lincoln's
election he should advise and advocate secession. He
had been educated at the University of Virginia in the
school of constitutional law presided over by Davis,

460 THE CRADLE OP THE CONPEDERaOY.
afterwards by Holcombe, and had steadfastly recog
nized the right of secession. As it was a right, so he
beUeved that now it was the duty of Alabama to secede.
The excited citizens who had been watching the-
returns asked, " Mr. Watts, what wffl you do now ?"
His reply was, " Gentlemen, we ought not to stand it."
Clanton, whose views were moulded in a different
school, walked the stieets to a late hour, appeaUng to
his party friends not to commit themselves — to wait for
the cool second thought ; but by noon of the next day
so rapid appeared to be the defections from the Union
ranks among the people of Montgomery and the adja
cent countiy, and so unmistakable was thefr intention
to vindicate the declaration of thefr General Assembly,
that men of aU parties at the Capital, with but a few
exceptions, pronounced for instant and separate se
cession. (?)
It was the policy of those who advocated secession to
strike whffe the iron was hot, to arouse the people to
fiiry immediately upon the heels of the election, and
to persuade them that immediate action while many
fiiends of the South were stiff inffuential and powerftd
at Washington, would so concentrate and consolidate
the strength and resources of seceding States as to
render the movement entirely peaceable. On the
morning of the 8th, whffe passions were stiff inffamed,
the leading journal at Montgomery, in the confidence
of Mr. Yancey, pubUshed a leader entitled, " And Now."
It said : " Orgaiuze ! We can now enforce a peaceable
" secession. The time may come, wffl come, must
" come, ff you delay when you can gain your freedom,
"ffataU, only as the colonies gained it when they
" separated ; only as our forefathers gained it when

THE ORADLE OP THE OONPEDERAOY. 461
" they fought the battle of disunion, through toff and
" bloodshed, through carnage and desolation." The
burden of the cry from all quarters was — make haste
and aU can be done completely and peaceably ; delay,
and the enemy seeing you unprepared to prevent the
coercion of South Carolina, wiU force you to battle
and perhaps desolation ! Between the two alter
natives as here presented, there was but littie hesita
tion in the cities and towns where the question was
most thoroughly discussed.
In the midst of the highest excitement and popular
indignation a mass meeting was caUed at Estelle Hall.
At the request of Tenntint Lomax, Ifis ExceUency
Gov. A. B. iivlooRE took his stand upon the platform
and addressed the vast audience amid tumultuous and
long continued applause. The Governor said he saw
no course left but to secede from the Uiuon, resume
sovereignty, and form a Southern Confederacy. He
had no discretion with regard to caUing the Conven
tion — this he was forced to do by the resolutions of
the Legislature, but if he had, he should most assuredly
caU it, for lie felt that honor, Uberty, and property were
not safe under the rule of AboUtionism. The Governor
took his seat after a short address, and was succeeded
by Judge S. F. Rice.
Judge Rice said that he did not appear for the
purpose of making a speech, but to introduce a resolu
tion, which he read, as follows :
" Resolved, That the authority and control of the
" Northern sectional AboUtion party, calUng itseff Re-
" pubUcan, which has lately elected Abraham Lincoln
" to the Presidency, over the institutions, rights, and
"Uberties of the people of Alabama, or any other slave-

462 THE ORADLE OP THE OONPEDERAOY.
" holding State of the South, would be ruinous ; that
" such ruinous authority and control is not to be sub-
" mitted to, but can only be effectively resisted by
" separate State action ; that we are in favor of such
" separate State action, and without any further delay
" than may be necessary, by the most prompt available
" means, to procure a free and fraternal consultation
" among the peoples and authorities of the respective
" slaveholding States, entered into and conducted under
" the patriotic hope that such consultation wffl result in
" the general conclusion on the part of the people of
" the slaveholding States, that it is not fit or safe, that
" they or any of them should be subject to the control
" of any government, the destinies of which are in the
" hands of said sectional AboUtion party."
Judge Edward W. Pettus, of Cahaba, in obedience
to the repeated caUs of the audience, took the stand
and made a few eloquent remarks in favor of the reso
lution. He was foUowed by N. H. R. Dawson, of
Selma, whose earnest and thriUing address made an
evident impression upon his hearers. Loud calls were
made for Mr. Watts, who responded in a spfrited
appeal in behalf of his State and section. When Mr.
Watts had concluded. Judge Goldthwatte was called
for, and taking his place on the platform, vindicated the
cause of the South and defended the right and policy of
secession. His remarks were repeatedly interrupted
by outbursts of applause. Mr. Yancey responded to
the enthusiastic demands of the audience, and spoke as
Yancey always spoke. It was his night of triuinph.
The ffrst resolution ever passed by a public assemblage
at the Capital of the State in favor of secession, had
just been adopted. He said ;

THE ORADLE OP THE OONPEDERAOY. 463
"This night two weeks ago, I was asked, whffe
" speaking in New York, what course 1 would advise
" Alabama to take in the event that Lincoln should be
" elected President, Acting in perfect good faith to
" the issues presented by the party, whose cause I ad-
" vocated, and which issues contemplated a solution of
" the political questions at the ballot-box only, within
" the Union, I declined to give utterance to my indi-
" vidual opinions, which could only tend to embarrass
" my friends and to encourage their foes, but told the
" people of New York that I should cheerfully give
" that advice to my fellow-citizens of Alabama, when-
" ever they should see fit to ask it ; [applause] and 1
" redeem that pledge to-night, by saying that in my
" opinion the election of Abraham Lincoln to the office
" of President of the United States by the Black Re-
" publican party, taken in connection with his own
"political utterances, and the views and acts of his
" party in Congress, and in the several Northern States,
"is an overt act against the Constitution - [applause]
" against the Constitution, and against the Union, [ap-
" plause] and as such should be deemed sufficient cause
"for a withdrawal of the State of Alabama, and a
" resumption of aU the powers she has granted to the
" Union, by separate State secession. [Prolonged ap-
" plause.] And whUe gi-ving utterance to this ad-vice, I
" repudiate as utterly untrue, that in any just sense I
" am a Disunionist. [Applause.] If always to have
" advocated the right of aU under the Constitution — if
" never to have assaffed any single provision of that
" Constitution — if the advocacy of a policy of defense
" against wrong done to Southern rights — equality and
" honor within the Union, constitutes a fiiend to that

464 THE CRADLE OF THE OONPEDERAOY.
" ' more perfect Union,' represented by the Constitu-
" tion, then by universal acclaim I should be held to
" be a Union man, [applause] and ff to-night I advise
" my State to withdraw herseff from this Federal Gov-
" ernment in order to protect her rights and the rights
"of her people from wrongs done to them by a viola-
" tion of that Constitution by a numerical power that
" controls the govemment, I have the judgment of the
" Constitution itseff in my fevor and against its viola-
" tors, and am no disunionist. But, I am not content
" with my own vindication. That with which we are
" felsely charged is true of our accusers. [Applause.]
" Look back at the history of our government. I wiU
" not enumerate the Ust of grievances of which the
" Spirit of the Constitution complains — and about
" which our patriotic Chief Magisteate spoke so clearly
" to-night, but I wiU refer for a moment to the acts of
" the now dominant party upon the fugitive slave law.
" The Constitution caUs for the enactment of this law
" Hi plain terms. One of the very first acts of our
" patriot sfres was to enact a fiigitive slave law. The
" Constitution, it is weU known, could not have been
"formed without the pro-vision for the surrender of
" fiigitive slaves. The Constitution, too, is a compact,
" not between the majority and the minority of the
" people of the United States, but between sovereign
" States. It was submitted to a Convention of. each
" State for its adoption or rejection ; and was for along
" time in operation before two of the original thirteen
" States concluded to come into the Union. It is then
" a compact between the States. How has that com-
" pact been kept by the Black Republican States ?
" Twelve of them have passed laws nullffying the fvigi-

THE CRADLE OP THE OONPEDERAOY 465
" tive slave law and provision in the Constitution, have
" made it a crime iu their citizens to aid in its execu-
" tion, punishing such action by heavy fine and impris-
" onment in the penitentiary. The compact, then, has
"been broken — the Union has been dissolved-^the
" Constitution has been violated by this infamous
" party ; and now, when we, one of the parties to that
" compact, propose to act on the weU-estabUshed princi-
" pie that a compact broken in part is broken as a
" whole, ff either party chooses to consider it, the viola-
" tors — the breakers of that compact — those who have
" themselves disrupted the bonds of Union, cry out
"tieason! disunion! [Applause.] Fellow-citizens, we
" have long been released from any obligation to con-
" tinue in association with these Northern States under
" this broken, mutilated compact. And now, when the
" real, true disunionists have, at last, elected a Presi-
" dent — by a majority "of electoral votes — by a majority
" of the popular vote — by a purely sectional vote, and
" propose to ' inaugurate the poUcy of the irrepressible
" conffict into the government — which is the end of
"slavery,' [in Mr. Seward's words,] we propose to
" Withdraw from beneath such usurpation and power,
" and protect ourselves. [Applause.]
" There are other States, each and aU ha-ving simffar
" wrongs to complain of, and simUar rights and institu-
" tions to save and protect. If any of those States
" wish a consultation with us and each other, it is our
" duty to afford a fafr opportunity for a fiiU, free, fra-
" ternal inter-view. Should that take place, I hope, as
" my fiiend Mr. Watts expressed it, that ' we may aU go
" together ;' as Judge Goldthwaite expressed it, that * we
" wffl act together.' [Applause.] But there is a point

466 THE CRADLE OP THE CONFEDERACY.
" beyond that. In the contingency that consultation
" shaU not produce concert — that aU wiU not ' act ' — or
" ' go out together,' what then ? ShaU we, Uke them,
" linger yet within the desecrated portals of the gov-
" ernment— shaU we remain and be aU slaves— shaU
" we remain but to share with them the disgrace
" of inequality and dishonor ? God forbid ! [Tremen-
" dous applause.] Let us act in that event for our-
" selves. [Applause.] I have good reason to beUeve
" that the action of any State wiU be peaceable-^wUl
" not be resisted — under the present, or any probable
" prospective condition of Federal affairs. I believe
'¦ there wUl not be power to direct a gun against a soV-
" ereign State. [Applause.] Certainly there wffl be
" no wiff to do so during the present Administration.
" [Applause.] And ff resisted, blood shed wiff appeal
" to blood throbbing in Southern bosoms, and our
"brethren from every Southern State wffl flock to
" defend the soff of a State which may be threatened
" by mercenary bayonets. [Applause.] It is not aU
" of life to Uve, nor aU of death to die. To do one's
" duty, is man's chief aim in Iffe. Better far to close
" our days by an act of duty — life's aims fulfiUed, than
" to prolong them for years — years fiUed with the cor-
" roding remembrance that we had tamely yielded to
" our ease and our fears that noble heritage, which was
'• transmitted to us through toU, suffering, battie and
" victory, with the condition that we likewise should
" transmit it unimpaired to our posterity. [Applause.]
" As for myself, rather than live on, subject to a gov-
" ernment which breaks the compact at will, and places
" me in a position of inequality — of inferiority to the
" Northern free negro — though that Ufe nught be Ulus-

THE CRADLE OP THE CONPEDERAOY. 467
" ti-ated^ by gilded chains — by luxury and by ease, I
" would in the cause of my State gather around me
" some brave, spirits who, however few in number, would
" find a grave, which my countrymen — the world and
" all future ages, should recognize as a modern Ther-
" mopylse 1 [Prolonged applause.] "
At the close or Mr. Yancey's remarks. Gen. Clanton
was caUed for by the audience. He said that he had
been always a devoted friend of the Union, that even
in the late canvass he had declared himself in favor of
waiting for an overt act, but that the immense majori
ties given to the AboUtion ticket con-vinced him that
we had nothing to hope for from the North, and he
could not consider the Uberty and property of South
ern men safe in the Union. He was for immediate
secession. Gen. Clanton said that he had never here
tofore agreed with Mr. Yancey and those who thought
with him, that one month ago he thought he never
would agree with them, but that now he was wiUing to
bury the hatchet and unite with aU true Southern men
in establishing a free and independent government of
slaveholding States. The facts which had induced
Gen. Clanton to forego his intention of waiting for the
commission of an unconstitutional act by the Lincoln
Administration before estabUshing a separate govern
ment, had arisen just before the close of the canvass and
since the election. Wendell Phillips, the boldest and
most phffosophic leaderof the Lincoln party, had declared,
and the declaration had been repeated bythe press and
from the rostrum untff it had become a party cry:
" No man has a right to be surprised at this state of
" things. It is just what we have attempted to bring
" about. It is the first sectional party ever organized

468 THE CRADLE OF THE CONFEDERACY.
" in this country. It does not know its own face, and
" caffs itself national ; but it is not national — it is sec-
" tional. The Republican party is a party of the
" North pledged against the South." It was now an
nounced that Mr. Seward would be Secretary of State.
In his " Irrepressible conflict " speech he had asserted
that the " United States must and wffl, sooner or later,
" become either entfrely a slave-holding nation or
" entirely a free-labor nation." These declarations of
hostffity to the South had been repeated oftener as the
canvass approached a close, and on the 6th of Novem
ber few persons, North or South, faffed to understand
that the election of Lincoln was to be the restriction
and ultimate dstruction of slavery without regard to law
or courts. On that day the State governments at the
North had passed into or had been retained in the
hands of the Republican party by overwhelming ma
jorities — a party which freely boasted that the Personal
Liberty Laws should remain in force, and the Fugitive
Slave Law remain nullified. Gen. Clanton beUeved
that nothing could be longer hoped for fi'om the temper
of the North — that, although the Lincoln Admiiustra-
tion might be trammelled for four years by a hostffe
Congress and Court, at the end of that time the power
of aU the Departments would pass into the hands of
the Republican party, and the South, with her forts
and arsenals guarded by large garrisons, and with her
territory occupied by the troops of the Presidential
Commander-in-Chief, would find herseff unable to assert
her independence when the overt act should be com
mitted. There was another incentive which urged him most
powerfuUy to declare for instant secession. It was to

THE ORADL:^ op the CONFEDERACY. 469
preserve a Constitutional Union, He had come to
believe that the secession of the Southern States would
be peaceably acquiesced in by the North, that it would
be foUowed by a call for a general Convention of the
States at which the questions in dispute might be
weighed and accommodated and the Union reconstruct
ed upon the principles of the Constitution, well-defined
and accepted. It may be a matter of wonder that a
man of the political sagacity and general inteUigence
of Gen. Clanton should have beUeved for a moment
that the secession of the Cotton States would be acqui
esced in by the General Government. He did not
beUeve so untU after the election, and then his belief
was based upon the clear declaration of one of the
leaders of the Republican party that secession ought
not to be interfered with. That secession might be,
and doubtless would be, a peaceable measure, was
almost universaUy beUeved by the secession party of
the South. The miUtary preparations made by the
States would barely have secured an efficient border
and coast police. The money and supplies voted for
military purposes would not have fed an army a month.
So contemptible were the preparations for defence, so
meagre the suppUes for action, so few the muskets and
accoutrements, that nothing could have relieved the
Legislatures of the seceding States from, a charge of
insanity except a firm beUef in their minds that there
would be no necessity for armies — that there would be
no coercion. As an illustration of the delusion upon
this subject, even with prominent statesmen and mili
tary men. Gen. Clanton was accustomed to tell how,
when a few months later than the election, a cavalry
regiment of mffitia, of which he v^as a field officer, was

470 THE ORADLE OP THE CONFEDERACY.
offered to President Davis, the reply was that the Con
federacy would not need cavalry, that it would be an
infantry war, and that a few regiments of infantiy
would be sufficient. This feeling of security was
exhibited throughout the Southern press. " We can
" now enforce a peaceable secession," exclaimed the
Advertiser. Mr. Yancey, fresh from his Northern
tour, declared : " I have good reason to believe that
" the action of any State wiU be peaceable— wiU not be
" resisted — under the present or any probable prospec-
" tive condition of Federal affairs." It was understood
at the South that the views of Mr, Seward, the leading
spirit of the Republican party, and of Mr. Charles
Francis Adams, who had been a candidate for the
Vice-Presidency upon the Abolition ticket as early as
1848, were those of the fflustrious John Quincey Adams.
That distinguished gentleman, in his "Discourse
" delivered before the New York Historical Society,"
on the fiftieth anniversary of Gen. Washington's inaug
uration as President, had admitted the natural right of
the people of a State to secede from the Union, whffst
deprecating its exercise. He had said :
" But the indissoluble link of Union between the
" people of the several States of this confederated nation
" is, after all, not in \he right, but in the heart. If the
" day should ever come (may Heaven avert it) when
" the affections of the people of- these States shaff be
" aUenated from each other ; when the fraternal spirit
" shaU give way to cold indifference, or coUision of
" interest shaff fester into hatred, the bands of poUtical
" association will not long hold together parties no
" longer attracted by the magnetism of conciliated inter-
" ests and kindly sympathies ; and far better wiff it be

THE ORADLE OP THE OONPEDERAOY. 471
" for the people of the disunited States to part in friend-
" ship from each other, than to be held together by
" constraint. Then wffl be the time for reverting to
" the precedents which occurred at the formation and
" adoption of the Constitution, to form again a more
" perfect Union by deploring that which could no longer
" bind, and to leave the separated parts to be re-united
" by the law of political gravitation to the centre."
Such was the opinion of the younger Adams, and
such, it was beUeved, was the opinion of the profounder
thinkers of New England. To confirm the delusion
engendered at the South by such admissions as these,
appeared an editorial in the New York Tribune, three
days after the election, written by Mr. Horace Gree
ley, in which the foUowing sentiments were announced :
'*If the Cotton States shaU become satisfied that they
" ca,n do better out of the Union than in it, we insist on
" letting them go in peace. The right to secede may
"be a revolutionary one, but it exists nevertheless.
« * * * y^Q mast ever resist the right of any
" State to remain in the Union and nuUify or defy the
" laws thereof To withdraw fi-om the Union is quite
"another matter; and whenever a considerable section
" of our Union shaU deliberately resolve to go out, we
" shaU resist aU coercive measures designed to keep
" it in. We hope never to live in a Republic whereof
" one section is pinned to another by bayonets."
This declaration of Mr, Greeley, one of the founders
of the Free SoU party, and its ablest advocate with the
pen, was telegraphed aff over the South. It threw into
the ranks of the Secessionists thousands upon thousands
of those who had heretofore wavered ; and showed to
many thousands more a door of escape by which a

il2 THE ORADLIS OP THE CONPEDEltACY.
more perfect Union might be formed — in the language
of Mr. Adams, " By dissolving that which could no
" longer bind," and leaving " the separated parts to be
" reunited by the law of political gravitation to the
" centie." Mr. Greeley continued his appeals in
behalf of the right of the South to be let alone. On
the 17th of December, three days before the secession
of South CaroUna, he said :
"If it [the Declaration of Independence] justifies
" the secession from the British Empire of three mfflions
" of colonists in 1776, we do not see why it would not
" justffy the secession of five mffUons of Southrons from
" the Federal Union in 1861. If we are mistaken on
" this point, why does- not some one attempt to show
" wherein and why ? For our own part, whffe we deny
" the right of slaveholders to hold slaves against the
" wiff of the latter, we cannot see how twenty mfflions
" of people can rightfuUyhold ten, or even five, in a
" detested Union with them by miUtary force. * *
" If seven or eight contiguous States shaU pre-
'' sent themselves authentically at Washington,
" saying : ' We hate the Federal Union ; we have
'' withdrawn from it ; we give you the choice between
" acquiescing in our secession and arranging amicably
" all incidental questions on the one hand, and attempt-
" ing to subdue us on the other ;' we could not stand
" up for coercion, for subjugation, for we do not think
" it would be just. We hold the right of self-govern-
" ment, even when invoked in behalf of those who
" deny it to others. So much for the question of prin-
" ciple." In this course the Tribune persisted from the date
of Mr. Lincoln's election until after his inauguratiouj

THE ORADLE OP THE OONPEDERAOY. 473
employing such remarks as the foUowing : " Any
" attempt to compel them by force to remain, would be
" contrary to the principles enunciated in the immortal
" Declaration of Independence, contrary to the fiinda-
" mental ideas on which human liberty is based."
Even after the Cotton States had formed thefr Con
federacy and adopted a provisional Constitution at
Montgomery, it gave them encouragement to proceed
in the following language : " We have repeatedly said,
'- and we once more insist, that the great principle em-
" bodied by Jefferson in the Declaration of American
" Independence, that governments derive their just
"powers from consent of the governed, is sound and
"just ; and that if the Slave States, the Cotton States,
" or the Gulf States only, choose to form an independ-
" ent nation, they have a clear moral right to do so.
" Whenever it shall be clear that the great body of
"Southern people have become conclusively aUenated
" from the Union, and anxious to escape from it, we
" will do our best to forward thefr views."
Mr. Greeley was not alone in his opinion that the
South should be let alone. The Cincinnati Commercial,
a leading Western journal, said as late as March, 1861 :
" We are not in favor of blockading the Southern coast.
" We are not in favor of retaking by force the property
" of the United States now in possession of the seceders.
" We would recognize the existence of a Government
" formed of aU the slaveholding States, and attempt to
" cultivate amicable relations with it."
Mr. Thurlow Weed, who, if any one, represented the
wishes of Mr. Seward, said in his newspaper, the Albany
Journal: " The chief architects of the rebelUon, before
" ff broke out, avowed that they were aided in thefr

474 THE CRADLE OP THE CONPEDERACY.
" infernal designs by the ultia-Abolitionists of the
" North. This was too true, for without such aid the
" South could never have been united against the Union"
In a published letter of Gen. F. P. Blair, he says :
." When the rebeUion broke out, Mr Chase used this
" language : ' The South is not woiih ' fighting for V
" Several gentlemen of high position in the country
" heard him utter this sentiment substantially. He
" was at that time Secretary of the Treasury. * * *
" Jeff Davis said, ' Let us alone !' Chase said ' Let
" them alone !' "
" Let them alone," " Let them go," was the cry of
nearly all the leading RepubUcan journals and poUti
cians. The New York press was almost a unit for per
mitting peaceable secession. The Herald, Harpers
Weekly, the Day Book, the Tribune, all said, "Let
" the South go." The General commanding the
armies, the veteran Scott, also joined the cry and said :
" Wayward sisters, depart in peace !" That these dis
tinguished officers, statesmen and journaUsts afterwards
yielded their views to the clamor of a mob, does not
affect the fact that such views were widely entertained,
were beUeved to be the views of the people of the North,
and were accepted as such by a large body ofSouthern
citizens who otherwise would probably have thrown
their influence against secession. The editorial of Mr.
Greeley upon the heels of the election, and whUe
Southern blood was hot, confirmed the announcement
of Mr. Yancey that the South would be let alone, and
did more to secure the secession of Alabama, Georgia
and other Gulf States than all else besides. The seces
sion party had all along been in a minority in Ala
bama, The vote for Mr. Breckinridge was not com-

The ORADLE op the OOTfPEDERAOY. 475
posed entirely of secessionists ; whUe the vote for Mr.
Bell and Mr. Douglas was composed almost entirely
of Union men. Now, to the compact mass of seces
sionists was added a large element of the old Whig
party, who believed that by the speedy secession of all
the Southern States the Union could be reconstiucted
upon a stionger constitutional basis.
While men like Clanton believed that the safest
course at this juncture was to push forward boldly, form
the new government, and amicably adjust terms for
reunion ; and whUe Watts, Judge and other old-Une
Whigs believed that no adjustment was longer possible,
and that secession should be resorted to without regard
to whether it might be peaceable or otherwise, there
was stUl a formidable body of citizens, away from the
Unes of railroads, on the hUls and in the valleys of the
mountain country, who put no faith in the promiseg of
the Northern enemy, and no confidence in secession as
a peaceful or revolutionary remedy for grievances.
These men were, for the most part, engaged in agricul
tural pursuits, they were non-slaveholders. They had
sustained Jackson as a Union Democrat and Clay as a
Union Whig. They had no leaders' of marked abffity.
If they had possessed a leader with the fire of Yancey
or the industry of Watts, the honesty of Pettus or the
courage of -Judge, the result in Alabama might have
been different; Nicholas Davis was brave, Jere
Clemens was eloquent, Bulger was firm as a rock, and
Jemison was discreet ; but none of the Union leaders, if
leaders they could now be caffed, possessed the power
of Yancey to breast the whiriwind and the tide until
the passing of the storm.
The meeting at which Clanton, Judge, Goldthwaite,

476 THE ORADLE OP THE OONPEDERAOY.
and Watts aU took thefr stand by the side of YanceY,
appointed a committee to wait upon the Governor and
learn his intentions with reference to caUing a State
Convention. Governor Moore repUed that in accord
ance with the resolutions of the last Legislature, he
would issue his proclamation calUng for the election of
delegates to a State Convention so soon as the Electo
ral CoUeges cast their votes. He appointed Dec. 24th
as the day for the election, and Jan. 4th as the day for
assembling. The Gov'ernor proceeded to say why, in
his opinion, Alabama should secede :
" They [the RepubUcans] have now succeeded by
" large majorities, in all the non-slaveholding States,
" except New Jersey, and perhaps in Oregon and CaU-
"fornia, in electing ..t^r. Lincoln, who is pledged to
" carry out the principles of the party that elected him.
" The course of events show clearly that this party wffl
" in a short time have a majority in both branches of
" Congress. It wUl then be in their power to change
" the complexion of the. Supreme Court so as to make
" it harmonize with Congress and the President. When
" that party gets possession of aU the Departments of
" the Government with the purse and the sword, he
" must be bUnd indeed who does not see that slavery
" wffl be abolished in the District of Columbia, in the
" dock-yards and arsenals and wherever the Federal
" Government has jurisdiction. It wiU be excluded
" from the Territories, and other Free States wiU in hot
" haste be admitted into the Union until they have a
" majority to alter the Constitution. Then slavery wffl be
" abolished by law in the States, and the ' irrepressible
" conflict ' wUl end ; for we are notified that it shaU
" never cease untU ' the foot of the slave shaU cease to

THE ORADLE OF THE CONFEDERACY. 477
" tiead the soil of the United States.' The state of
" society that must exist in the Southern States with
" four mfflions of free negroes and their increase turned
" loose upon them, I wiU not discuss — it is too horrible
" to contemplate,"
The Governor then dismisses the dangerous part of
the question with this dash of his pen :
" If a State withdraws from the Union, the Federal
" Government has no power, under the Constitution, to
" use the military force against her, for there is no law
" to enforce the submission of a sovereign State, nor
" would such a withdrawal be either an insurrection or
" an invasion."
Now that the Governor had caUed an election for a
State Convention, it was remembered and pubUshed
that Mr. Yancey, . at the Commercial Convention two
years before, had said that if he should go for disunion
because of the election of Mr. Seward to the Presi
dency, he would be going in the wake of an inferior
issue, he would be doing an unconstitutional thing,
could be arraigned as a rebel and traitor, and be hanged
for violating the laws and Constitution of his country.
It became necessary for him to explain away that
speech, and to do so he published a letter in which oc
curred the following paragraph :
" I remember well the views I then entertained
" and then expressed. Mr. HiUiard, as I understood
" him, had expressed the opinion that the South was
" then on rising ground as to Federal affafrs, and that
" there was no just cause of complaint in the past ; but
" that if a Black Republican should be elected Presi-
" dent in 1860, the South should resist. I contended
" that there were causes in the past action of the anti-

478 THE CRADLE OF THE OONPEDERAOY.
" slavery party which would justify secession— and in
" order to rebuke the tameness of spirit, as well as in-
" consistency, involved in Mr. HiUiard's position, I
" presented the argument that an election of a Black
" RepubUcan, under the form of law, was, per se,|in
" itself, constitutional, and if considered without refer-
" ence to the past action and avowed aims of the party
" electing him, was in my opinion no cause for disun-
"jon, but if considered as an accumulative fact, the
" culminating movement and grand success of a party,
" which for near forty years had been warring on
" slavery and the South, and had in several instances
" (as to slave-tiade in the District of Columbia, Mis-
" souri Compromise, and nullifying the fugitive slave
" law) violated the constitutional compact between the
" States, it would overflow the cup of our wrongs, and
" be the point beyond which forbearance would cease to
" be a -drtue. In other words, my position was as to
" one occupying Mr. Hiffiard's position ; the election of
" a Black Republican was an inferior issue. Whereas,
" to one occupying my position, disunion could be jus-
" tified before such an election, and such an election
" would be but another incentive to it."
This satisfied his friends ; and forthwith they had
the weight of his name for separate State secession, and
his assurance that he had reason to beUeve that there
would be no attempt at coercion by the existing or the
next administration.
A contest now commenced between the advocates of
separate State secession and the advocates of co-opera
tive secession. So high was pubUc excitement that no
one was wffling to be spoken of as a submissionist. The
secessionist and the co-operationist aUke declared that

THE CRADLE OP THE CONFEDERACY. 479
they would not submit to a RepubUcan Administration.
But whffe the secessionist intended his declaration lite
rally, the co-operationist intended it to mean that he
would not submit to unconstitutional acts, such as
would be acts of the administration as contradistin
guished from legitimate acts of the Government. They
would submit to the Government but would not submit
to a tyrannical Administration. That the co-operation
party stood pledged to some kind of secession, does
not appear substantiated. It is true that before the
election, the General Assembly, with but one or two
dissenting voices, had passed the joint resolutions calUng
a State Convention to consider, determine and to do
what was necessary for the safety of Alabama in the
event of RepubUcan success. But it is certain that .the
vote would not have been so nearly a unit had not the
anti-secessionists beUeved that the resolutions were sus
ceptible of two constructions. Upon examining those
resolutions we find the Assembly declaring that whereas
the RepubUcan party "hopes by success in the ap-
" preaching Presidential election to seize the govern-
" ment itself," and whereas, " to permit such seizure
" * * * would be an act of suicidal foUy and mad-
" ness," therefore, they " deem it their solemn duty to
" provide in advance the means by which they may
" escape such perff and dishonor, and de"vdse new secu-
" rities for perpetuating the blessings of liberty." This
language, it must be readUy seen, was such as might
be adopted by either a secessionist or an anti-secession
ist. If it was the design of the RepubUcans to seise
the government in defiance of the Senate and Supreme
Court, then the Union men and aU were ready to
provide means for escaping the perU. Those means

480 THE ORADLE OF THE CONFEDERACY.
might be provided, however, within the Union. " Let
" Us fight within the Union 1" was the cry of a large
body of the people, embracing statesmen of distinction,
conspicuously among whom was Henry A. Wise.
Nor was the Union man and Co-operationist in
their opinion committed to some kind of secession by
the resolution adopted unanimously on the first day of
the session of the Alabama Convention. The resolu
tion as offered by Mr. Whatley, of Calhoun, was as
follows :
" Whereas, The only bond of Union between the
several States is the Constitution of the United States ;
' and, whereas, that Constitution has been violated both
' by the Government of the United States and by a ma-
' jprity of Northern -States, in their separate legislative
action, denying to the people of the Southern States
thefr constitutional rights ;
" And, whereas, a sectional party known as the
' Black Republican party, has in the recent election
elected Abraham Lincoln to the office of President,
and Hannibal HamUn to the office of Vice-President
of these United States, upon the avowed principle
that the Constitution of the United States does not
' recognise property in slaves, and that the Govern-
'' ment should prevent its extension into the common
territories of the United States, and that the power
' of the Government should be so exercised that slavery
in time should be exterminated ; Therefore, be it
" Resolved, By the people of Alabama, in solemn
' Convention assembled, that these acts and designs
constitute such a violation of the compact between
' the several States as absolves the people of Alabama
from aU obUgations to support a government of the

the ORADLE OF THE CONFEDERACY. 481
" United States to be administered upon such princi-
" pies, and that the people of Alabama will not submit
" to be parties to the inauguration and administration
"of Abraham Lincoln as President, and Hannibal
" HamUn as Vice-President of the United States of
" America." This resolution was offered in the Alabama Conven
tion, as was said by the mover, to test whether any
delegates were in favor of subnutting to Lincoln's Ad
ministration. " I desfre to ascertain," said he, " the
" sense of this body upon the question of submission or
" resistance." Mr. Smith, of Tuscaloosa, said : " Pre-
" sent a naked question of resistance to Black Repub-
" Ucan rule, and you wUl doubtless receive a unani-
" mous vote in favor of it. But do not so interlard it
" with generalities and poUtical abstractions that we
" shaU be forced to reject the good on account of its
" too close association with the evff. I object particu-
" larly to make an intimation that I would oppose by
" force the inauguration of Lincoln. I would not have
" anything to do with that in any way. I deprecate
" the idea of intimating to the people, even remotely,
"that the laws ought not to be respected." Mr.
Posey, of Lauderdale, said : " We intend to resist. It
" is not our purpose to submit to the doctrines asserted
" at Chicago, but our resistance is based upon consulta-
"tion and in unity of action with the other slave
" States." It was weU understood on aU sides that a
resistance based upon consultation with the other Slave
States, would be simply a peaceful resistance at the
poUs. The resolution as proposed by Mr. Whatley
was finaUy amended and passed unanimously, in the
following shape :

482 THE cradle op THE CONFEDERACY.
" Resolved, By the people of Alabama, in Conven-
" tion assembled, that the State of Alabama cannot and
" wffl not submit to the administration of Lincoln and
" HamUn as President and Vice-President of thie
" United States upon the principles referred to in the
" preamble." This resolution was a clear evasion of the whole
question. It was simply a declaration that the people
would not submit to Lincoln's administration ff certain
things as expressed in Mr. Whatley's preamble were
true. But Mr, Posey had just denied that the matters
set out in the preamble were true. He said : " I
" oppose the resolutions because the first recital in the
" preamble places resistance to Mr. Lincoln's Adminis-
" tration upon the aggressions of the Federal Govern-
" ment as weU as those of the Northern States. The
" last charge is true ; the first is not true."
The passage of this conditional resolution unani
mously has been held by those who are unwUUng to
acknowledge that a poUtical adversary may evade a
question as a declaration that the Co-operationists, as a
party, favored secession in some shape. They forget
that the opponents of secession in 1850 adopted similar
tactics with success. Whffe favoring co-operation, as
at the NashviUe Convention, they took care that the
co-operation should be in favor of peace and Union.
That the above resolution as adopted was not con
strued by them to mean necessarffy some kind of
secession or disunion, is satisfactorily shown by the
sentiments of co-operation the members expressed
throughout the proceedings, and finally upon the adop
tion of the ordinance of secession. Thus the minority
report upon the question of secession laid down " a basis

THE ORADLE OP THE CONFEDERACY. 483
" for a settiement of the existing difficulties between
" the Northern and the Southern States." This report,
and the plan of a Convention for aU the slave-holding
States at NashviUe, looked not to resistance, not to
certain secession in some mode, but to a continued
Union. This minority report was endorsed by aU the
co-operation members and received 45 votes as against
54. It was reported by Mr. Clemens, of Madison, and
may be taken as the authoritative expression of the views
of the Co-operation party. The basis for a settlement
upon which the Union might be maintained was not
presented as a sine qua non ; the report provided that
it was not to be regarded as " absolute and unaltera-
" ble." The remarks of members also indicated that
whatever might be the meaning of the resolution not to
submit, it did not mean that they were not to make
one more effort to preserve the Union. Said Mr.
Clarke, of Lawrence : " Is the great Constitution under
" which we live— covering this whole country — is it to
" be thawed and melted away by secession as the snows
" on the mountains ? No, sir ! No, sfr ! I wiU not
" state what mi^t produce disruption of the Uiuon ;
" but, sfr, I see as plainly as I see the sun in heaven
" what that disruption itseff must produce." Again,
speaking of the plan for a Convention at NashviUe, Mr,
Clarke said : " If some plan of reconcUiation were de-
" vised. by it which should satisfy the demands of the
" Southern States, as I confidently believe would be
" done, certainly every good patriot would haU it with
" delight." Mr. Posey said : " We would make one
"more effort to preserve the Federal Government."
Mr. Winston, of DeKalb, said : " I represent a constitu-
" ency opposed to this hasty dissolution of the best

484 THE CRADLE OF THE CONFEDERACY.
" government the world ever knew." He said further,
" that an effort should be made in the Union to adjust
" our existing difficulties with the North."
Senator Fitzpatrick, whose residence was in Autauga
county, only a few miles from Montgomery, was one
of the recognized leaders of the Co-operation party.
As Mr. Fitzpatrick had so often defeated the policy of
Mr. Yancey, it was now a labor to which the advocates
for secession devoted themselves most assiduously to
defeat the wishes of the Senator. Bolling Hall, a
warm personal and party friend of Mr. Fitzpatrick,
became the candidate of the Co-operationists for a seat
in the Convention from Autauga county, and the con
test between him and his opponent was one of the most
bitter in the State. A correspondent of the Advertiser,
writing from that county and describing a debate
between the candidates, gives a fair idea of the political
contest.. He says :
" As the poUcy of co-operation was first inaugurated
" in this county by HaU and Fitzpatrick, a great desfre
" was manifested on the part of our citizens to hear
" what the Major [Hall] had to say in its defense.
" Leading off in a debate, he consumed an hour and a
" half in a vain attempt to explain the unfortunate polit-
" ical position which he occupies before the people of
. " Autauga county. We have heard him often, and we
" must confess that it was the most futile effort, that we
" have ever heard him make. His mind seemed alto-
" gether clouded with the subject ; and so desultory
" were his remarks, that all thefr force was lost. He
" was openly for co-operation, however, but said ' he
" was afraid that even that would lead to secession at
" last.' He was opposed to Alabama seceding without

The cradle o^ tHe oonpederaoy. 48S
" a sufficient number of States would go with her ; but
" he refiised to answer the question put to him by Dr.
" Rives as to how many States he thought would be a
" ' sufficient number.' iviajor Hall, with his co-opera-
" tion doctrine, met with cold comfort at this place, as
" he took his seat without having received a single
" applause." Another correspondent writing from Autauga, said :
" In this county (Autauga) co-operation is, or has
" terminated into unionism. Major BolUng HaU stated
" in his speech at Milton, ' that he wanted to make one
" more effort to save this glorious Union.' At Chest-
" nut Creek the Hall men had a flag with thirty-three
" stars, and one side in large letters ' Union,' and they
" marched in procession singing a song with the chorus
" ' BoUing HaU, and the Union, too.' Let the secession
" men keep a lookout for the Union men. Major HaU
" did not teU those Union men that he was in favor of
" secession, but he depicted in the most vivid colors
" the horrors of disunion, the weakness of Alabama,
" and in fact everything that would or could deter them
" from going for secession."
Such was the meaning of co-operation with Fitzpat
rick and Hall. The vote of Autauga was 603 for
Hall and 626 for his opponent. Thus only twelve
votes decided that a county adjoining the home of Mr.
Yancey should not be represented by a delegate who
would make one more effort to save the Union.
The resolutions adopted by primary meetings nomi
nating candidates, also indicate the character of co
operation. Luke Pryor and Thos. J. McCleland, dis
tinguished lawyers, were nominated to represent Lime
stone county ha the State Convention. The foUowing

48B THE CRADLE OP THE CONPEDERACY.
resolution characterized the spirit of the nominating
Convention :
" Resolved, That we favor a Convention of the fifteen
" slaveholding States, to consider what is best to be
" done, trusting that there is yet a reasonable ground
' for a peaceable solution of aU differences between the
"North and the South inside of the Union and the
" Constitution." Tuskaloosa county adopted a simUar resolution :
" Resolved, That we hold it to be our dMiy— first,
" to use aU honorable exertions to semre our rights in the
"Union * *."
What was thought to be the tendency of the Co-op
erationists is shown by this extract from a leading
article of the Advertiser :
" But they do not attempt at first to advocate open
" submission. That may take with a few real estate
" speculators in the town, who are afraid of a temporary
" depreciation in the price of their lots, but the honest
" countryman, who thinks himself a white man, and
" the equal of any other white man, has a prejudice
" against negro equality, and wffl never consent to be
" ruled by an Abolitionist and a free negro. No, the
" friends of Mr. Lincoln's Administration wffl not advo-
" cate open submission, they wiU talk about acting with
" the entire South, they wiU try to get Alabama to wait
" until all the slave States are ready to go out."
The Northern press also understood that the contest
being waged in Alabama was Uke that of 1850, between
secession on the one side and Union on the other. The
New York Titnes said :
" In truth, aU the indications we are now receiving
" from Alabama are to the effect that the sentiment

THE CRADLE OP THE OONPEDERAOY. 487
" favorable to co-operation is decidedly in the ascend-
"ant. This is a happy symptom. Co-operation
" means delay — delay involves reflection, conciliation,
" and possible satisfaction ; and ff those act with suffi-
" cient -vigor to prevent other States from following the
" lead of South CaroUna, it is impossible, in the nature
" of things commercial, economical and political, for that
" soUtary republic to persist through six months in her
" experimental independence. Before the energies of
"coercion would be applied, she would be an eager
" suppUant for re-admission. The more we hear of
" co-operation, the less we have to, fear from disunion."
The editor of the local paper describing the election
in Tallapoosa county, said :
" The Separate State Actionists were defeated in this
" county on the 24th Dec, by a decided majority, by
" the Co-operationists. And since their victory, some
" of the sub-Co-operationists have come out in their true
" colors. Some talk about shouldering their muskets
"and offering their services to the General Govern-
"ment, in coercing South CaroUna to remain in the
" Union. Others say they prefer to live under Lin-
" coin to Buchanan. Others glory in the idea that they
" have lived in the Union aU their Uves thus fer, and
" wish to continue in it, no matter who is President.
" And we have heard of another stiU, who exulted on
" account of Lincoln's election, because, he said, it
" would free aU the negroes, and then poor white men
" could get better wages."
In the Co-operation party could be found, as a mat
ter of course, all those who were determined to main
tain the Union in any event, and aU those who were
deterred from secession through cowardice ; but these

488 THE ORADLE OP THE OONPEDERAOY.
men did not give character to the party. The party
were primarUy in favor of saving the Union. AU
thefr hopes and efforts were fixed upon that end. But
they were also intent upon presenting a united South
and demanding guaranties from the North such as
would pacify the apprehensions of the people. The
conditions or their equivalent upon which the Co-opera
tion party were wiUing to abide by the exisl^ing Union,
as specified in the minority report of the Convention,
were — 1. A faithful execution of the Fugitive Slave
Law ; 2. A more effective pro"vision for the surrender
of criminals escaping from one State to another ; 3. A
guaranty that slavery shaU not be abolished in the Dis
trict of Columbia or in any place over which Congress
has exclusive jurisdiction ; 4. A guaranty that the
inter-slave trade shaU not be interfered with ; 5. A
protection to slavery in the Territories whUe they are
Territories, and a guaranty that they may be admitted
to the Union with or without slavery as they may wish ;
6. The right of transit through free States with slave
property ; 7. The foregoing guaranties to be irrepeal-
able. It was provided in the report that this basis of set
tlement was not to be regarded as mandatory, but
simply as an indication of the wishes of the Convention
to which the proposed delegates should conform as
nearly as possible. Evidently the views of the Co-
operationists as here expressed were satisfactorUy met
by, and were probably based upon, the Crittenden
Compromise measures then pending in Congress.
On the 19th of December, but a few weeks before
the Alabama Convention met, Mr. Crittenden pre
sented to the U. S. Senate a series of resolutions provi-

THE ORADLE op THE CONPEDERAOY 489
ding — 1. A restoration of the Missouri Compromise
Une ; 2. A prohibition against the abolition of slavery
by Cong-ress in places owned by the United States
within the Umits of slave-holding States ; 3. That
Congress shaU not abolish slavery in the District of
Columbia without the consent of Maryland and of the
owner of the slaves ; 4. That Congress shaU not inter
dict the transportation of slave's from one slave State
to another ; 5. That the United States shall be respon
sible for the escape and loss of fiigitive slaves ; 6. That
these provisions shall be unchangeable.
It is probable that the adoption of these resolutions
would have sent a majority of anti-secessionists to the
Alabama Convention ; but the Restrictionists appeared
determined to defeat them. At first the feeling among
the politicians at the North was for a settlement upon
the Crittenden Compromise. Petitions flowed into
Congress in unusual numbers from all parts of the
North asking for its adoption. It was beUeved at the
outset that Mr. Seward was favorable to it. Senator
Pugh, of Ohio, declared his belief that it was approved
by an overwhelming majority of the people of his State
and of nearly every other State. Senator Douglas en
dorsed it in a most eloquent appeal. Senators Davis
and Toombs, and indeed all the Southern Senators,
except IvERsoN and Wigfall, beUeved that the Com
promise would be acceptable to the South, and were in
favor of it. Senator Bigler, after the defeat of the
Compromise in the Committee of Thirteen, said :
'? When the stiuggle was at its height in Georgia
" between Robert Toombs for secession and A. H. Ste-
" phens against it, had these men in the Committee of
" Thirteen, who are now so blameless in their own estima-

490 THE Cradle op the oonS'ederacy.
" tion, given us their votes, or even three of them, Ste-
" phens would have defeated Toombs and secession
" would have been prostrated. I heard Toombs say to
" Douglas that the result in Georgia was staked on the
" action of the Committee of Thirteen. If it accepted
" the Crittenden proposition, Stephens would defeat
" him ; if not, he would carry the State by 40,000 ma-
"jority. The three votes from the Republican side
" would have carried it at any time ; but Union and
" peace in the balance against the Chicago platform
" were sure to be found wanting."
Mr. Seward gave the cue for the defeat of the Com
promise in his speech at New York on the 22d of Dec.
He treated the position of the South as simply a politi
cal threat which it was not worth while to notice.
He said that, in his opinion, the secession of South
CaroUna would not be followed by many other States,
and would not be persevered in long. Everything
looked brighter than on the 6th of November, and
" sixty days more suns wiU give you a much brighter
" and more cheerfiil atmosphere.' ' Forthwith the Re
pubUcan party professed to treat the danger as a mere
bagateUe. The New York Tribune wished to know
whether the party was " to convict itself of having
" either been a rank hypocrite before the election or of
"being a skulking craven now." Mr. Chase, in a
letter from the Peace Congress, avowed the purpose of
his party " to use the power while they had it, and
" prevent a settiement." " Don't yield an inch,"
became the cry of the Republican press.

CHA-PTER XVIII.

Effect of Seward} s Speech— The Vote for Delegates to the
Secession Convention— Meeting of the Alabama Con
vention — Caucus at Washington — Excitement in the
Convention — Parties Nearly Equally Divided — Refusal
to Submit the Ordinance to the People — Yancey's
Threatening Speech — Counter Threats, etc., etc.

" I expressly said that now was not the occasion for the application of
any doctrine of coercion ; but by some strange misunderstanding I am
represejjted as a determined and fierce advocate of coercion upon the
seceding States."— |J, J, Crittenden, Senate Jan. 23, 1861.
" And should the Northern vote (which Is not among the possibilities)
reject so fair a compromise [the Crittenden Compromise] then the entire
Middle States, whose sentiments you so nobly vindicate, would be am
ply Justified before the world and posterity. In casting their lot with their
more Southern brethren."— [Horatio Seymour's Letter to Crittenden.
Jan. 18, 1861. '
The speech of Mr. Seward was made Dec. 22d, and
the election for members of the Alabama Convention was
held Dec. 24th ; but notwithstanding the hostile attitude
of the Republicans in repelUng all proffers for an amicable
adjustment, the returns of the election showed that nearly,
if not quite, a majority of the people, were favorable to
continued efforts to preserve the Union before resorting
to a separation. It is almost impossible to arrive at a
correct knowledge of the meaning of the vote, or the
relative strength of the parties. The separate secession
journal at the capital computed the vote at 36,000. for
secession and 27,000 for co-operation, whereas the
opposition journal computed ff at 24,000 for secession
and 33 000 for co-operation. The difference in thefr

492 THE oRadlE oP The confederacy.
estimates arises from the fact that in certain counties
where two. sets of candidates were before the people, it
was assumed that one set was for separate secession
and the other set were for co-operation — whereas, both
sets might have been for secession or both for co-opera
tion. In some counties it was known that one set of
candidates was for co-operation and another for unquali
fied Union. In other counties it was known that votes
cast for a thfrd candidate against two secessionists was
simply an expression of disUke for one of the candi
dates, and was not an expression for co-operation. In
some of the counties, there being none but secession
candidates, a smaU vote was polled. In other counties
there was simffarly a small vote poUed for the co-opera
tion candidates. In one or two counties which were
undoubtedly opposed to separate secession, the parties
compromised, as it was caUed, upon prominent citizens
who were elected without pledges, but who at the meet
ing of the Convention were found to be for immediate
and separate secession, when they were supposed by
their constituents to be favorable to another effort to
preserve the Union. Thus it was that the number of
secessionists or of co-operationists who were elected to
the Convention was not an accurate index of the senti
ment of the people. Certain it is, however, that in this
momentous election the highest number of votes
claimed to have been poUed for secession candidates
was but 36,000 out of a population which at the prece
ding Presidential election had polled more than 90,000
votes. The Convention met and organized on the 7th of
January, 1861, in the HaU of the House of Represen
tatives at the State Capitol at Montgomery. Of the

THE ORADLE OP THE CONFEDERACY. 493
one hundred delegates, not one was absent, so great
was the anxiety to participate in the first action of the
Convention, and so great was the doubt as to which
party had secured the victory. On Sunday night it
was believed that the Co-operation party was in the
ascendancy, but on Monday, when the Convention met,
it was known that there were 54 members for secession
and 46 for co-operation. The first day was occupied
with debating the resolution of resistance to the Lincoln
Administration, to which reference has afready been
made. WhUe the co-operation members in their re
marks upon Mr. Whatley's resolution did not withdraw
their opinion that an effort should be made to preserve
the Union by co-operation of the slave-holding States,
they exhibited an uncertainty of expression and
a confusion of purpose which bordered upon timidity.
The clamor of the populace was in their ears. The
young blood of the State was at fever heat. The
Crittenden Compromise had been insolently rejected by
an unanimous vote of the Republicans. Only two days
before, the compromise proposition agreed upon by the
border States had received only one vote in the Re
pubUcan caucus, and the door of reconcUiation upon
any plan whereby the rights of the South could be
guaranteed, was closed, it seemed, forever. If the
united Southern members of Congress, of the Peace
Congress and of the border States Convention, would
not be Ustened to, was there any hope that an appeal
by a Congress of co-operative slave States would meet
with a better reception ?
On the day before the Alabama Convention met the
Senators from those of the Southern States which had
caUed Conventions, met in caucus in Washington and

494 THE CRADLE OP THE CONFEDERACY.
adopted resolutions favoring immediate secession and
recommending the holding of a Congress of aU the
seceding States at Montgomery on the 15th of Februa
ry. These resolutions were telegraphed to the Con
ventions of Alabama, Mississippi and Florida. South
Carolina had afready seceded, and her Commissioner,
Andrew P. Calhoun, was in waiting to address the
Alabama Convention. To confuse the public mind
stiU more, and to intiicate the plain question of what
was best to be done for the interest of the people of the
State, the Governor had seized Fort Morgan and Fort
Gaines at the mouth of Mobffe Bay, and the U. S. Arse
nal at Mount Vernon, and had garrisoned them with
Alabama troops, while the State was yet a member of
the Union. Thus whffe the Co-operationists were ear
nestly desirous and constantly voted to secure a plan
by which disunion might be averted, they were met by
all the adverse weapons that ever assaffed a patriotic
body of men. As Southerners they were entreated to
prevent the coercion of South CaroUna. As Alabam
ians they could not witness their State authorities
arraigned for treason in seizing the forts whose guns
might have been turned at any time against their lib
erties. As men they could not brook the insolence of
the Republican party, which contemptuously spurned
every overture towards a settlement.
On the second day of the Convention, Jan. 8th, Mr.
Calhoun presented his credentials and delivered an
effective address. He asked Alabama to unite with
South CaroUna and form a Union of the Cotton States.
So confident was he of the strength of the Cotton States
alone, that he said : " An Union at the earliest d?iy
" between them, wiU guaj-antee success. We cannot be

THE CRADLE OF THE CONFEDERACY. 495
" conquered ; but united we wiU hurl defiance at our
" assailants." Mr. Watts laid before the Convention a
telegraphic despatch from Messrs. Moore and Clopton,
members of Congress — " The Republicans in the House
'' to-day refused to consider the border States Compro-
" mise, compUmented Major A.nderson, and pledged to
" sustain the President," and another from Messrs. A.
F. Hopkins and F. M. Gilmer, Commissioners to Vir-
gina : "Legislature passed by 112 to 5 to resist any
" attempt to coerce a seceding State by aU the means
" in her power. What has your Convention done ?
" Go out promptly, and aU wiU be right." The excite
ment within the Convention was beginning to grow as
intense as that upon the streets. The vestibule was
crowded with an animated mass of citizens, eager to
hear the latest buUetin from Washington or to catch an
opinion from a member. The President laid before the
Convention a despatch from Commissioner B. W.
Pettus : " Jackson, Miss., Jan. 7. — A resolution has
" been passed to raise a committee of fifteen to draft
" the ordinance of secession," and " The Convention
" met at 12, Mr. Barry is President. The State wiU
"probably secede to-morrow or next day;" also, a
despatch from Commissioner E. C Bullock : " Con-
" vention (Florida) by a vote of 162 to 5 adopted res-
" olutions in favor of immediate secession. Committee
" appointed to prepare ordinance of secession," The
Virginia Commissioners telegraphed: "Our friends
" here think the immediate secession of Alabama, not
" postponed to any future time, would exercise a favor-
" able, perhaps a controUing effect, on the secession of
"^Vfrginiai" Mr. Watts presented a despatch from
Pensacola: "Send us 500 men immediately"; and

496 THE CRADLE OF THE CONFEDERACY.
another, " Shall United States armed vessels be per-
" mitted to enter harbor ? If so, shaU they be , fired on
" and destroyed ?"
Mr. Yancey offered a resolution that the Governor
be instructed to send 500 volunteers to the Governor
of Florida, with a view to taking possession of the forts
at Pensacola. This resolution was opposed by the Co-
operationists on the ground that both Florida and Ala
bama were stiU members of the Union. It was adopted
by a vote of 52 to 45.
The third day of the Convention, Jan. 9th, opened
with increased and growing excitement. Mr. Davis, of
Madison, offered a resolution that the action of the
Convention should be submitted to the people for rati
fication. It was rejected by a strict party vote. The
argument of the minority was based upon the smaU
vote cast for the secession delegates, and upon the
uncertain character of the election. They asked how
can the wishes and the views of the people of the State
be clearly and satisfactorUy ascertained ? Aff parties
contend that the election of delegates was not a satis
factory indication of the views of the people. Even ff
it was held to be so, it would not absolve them [the
Convention] from the duty of submitting their action to
the people for approval or disapproval. That is the
only fair and satisfactory mode of arriving at the wishes
and the views of the people. In the late canvass there
was but little time afforded for discussion and investi
gation ; no plans or detaUs of plans were spread before
the people ; and in many counties the candidates occu
pied no definite and clear position. One man may have
voted for one from personal friendship ; another, under
the impression that he was casting his vote for a co-

THE ORADLE OP THE OONPEDERAOY. 497
operationist, whffe another may have voted for the same
person as being a Secessionist. But the submission of
their action to a dfrect vote of the people would leave
no room to doubt the drift of the popular current, and
would satisfy every one, both at home and abroad,
what views the people of Alabama entertain as to her
duty at this time. Such a course would not merely
give great moral force to the position assumed by the
State, but it would powerfully tend to harmonize and
weld together our own people. It wiU conciliate and
disarm the minority, to thus give them an undoubted
demonstration that they are in a minority, and to have
this aU done fairly and openly, and without any legis
lative jugglery or poUtical wire-drawing.
So much for the question of poUcy. As to the
question of law, the Co-operationists argued that neither
the General Assembly nor Gov. Moore had the right
to caU a State Convention. The Legislature is not
supreme. It is only one of the instruments of that
absolute sovereignty which resides in the whole body of
the people. Like other departments of the Govern
ment, it acts under delegated authority and cannot
rightfiiUy go beyond the Umits assigned to it. This
delegation of powers has been made by a fundamental
law which no one department of the Government nor
aU the departments united have authority to change.
That can only be done by the people themselves. A
power was given to the Legislature to propose amend
ments to the Constitution which, when approved and
ratified by the people, become a part of the fundamen
tal law. But no power was given to the Legislature to
eaU a Convention for any purpose whatever. That is a
measure which must come from and be the act of the

498 THE ORADLE OF THE OONFEDBEACY.
people themselves. Neither the caUing of a Conven
tion, nor a Convention itself, is a proceeding under the
Constitution. Instead of acting under the forms and
within the limits prescribed by that instrument, the
very business of a Convention is to change those
forms and boundaries as the public interests may seem
to require. A Convention is not a government mea
sure, but a movement of the people having for its
object a change, either in whole or part, of the existing
form of government. As the people had not only
omitted to confer any power on the Legislature to call
a Convention, but had prescribed another mode of
amending the organic law, it was held by the Co-opera
tionists that the call for the Convention was of no more
binding force than if it had been made by a hundred
private citizens. Nothing done by it could be of
binding effect until ratified by the people. It would
have been perfectly proper if the General Assembly
had submitted at the outset to the people the question
of " Convention " or " No Convention." Had the
people voted for " Convention," then the present body
would have been sovereign, and its acts need not be
referred to the people for ratification. But as the people
had not caffed the Convention, it occupied simply the
position of an advisory body. The fact that a majority
of the people voted at the election for delegates, did not
validate the caU made by the Legislature. In the
Michigan case, Mr, Calhoun had denied that the going
to the poUs of any number of people and the voting for
delegates could constitute a legitimate Convention. A
majority of those voting might be opposed to a Con
vention, but at the same time solicitous of proper rep
resentation should the Convention be held legal The

THE CRADLE OP THE CONFEDERACY 499
New York Council of Revision, in 1820, composed of
Justices Kent and Spencer and Governor Clinton, had
vetoed a biU calhng a State Convention without sub
mitting to the people the question of expediency
whether the Convention should be caUed or not, and
from that day to the present it had, been held most
consonant to the principles of free government that
the people should first vote upon a legislative act
recommending a Convention. It was monstrous that a
partisan majority in the Legislature should be conceded
the power to caU a sovereign Convention, designate the
number of members and the districts to be represented,
and that such Convention representing Districts framed
with special reference to returning a partisan majority,
should have unUmited power for any length of time it
might choose to sit. The people of Alabama should
have been permitted to say whether they wished a Con
vention ; but now that the opportunity had passed, they
should be allowed to say whether the acts of an im
properly called Convention should be ratified and thus
legaUzed. Thus argued the Co-operationists.
To this it was repUed by the Secessionists that it
had been established by precedents that in the sffence
of a Constitution as to the caUing of a Convention, the
General Assembly of a State was the legitimate author
ity for the issuance of such a call ; that al|;hough the
voting by the people of " Convention " or " No Conven-
" tion " had often been made a sine qua non to'the meet
ing of a Convention, many had assembled without such
condition precedent and had exercised supreme power,
and the ordinances adopted by such Conventions had
been recognized by aU the Courts as legitimate and
binding. In the case of Alabama, a majority of her

500 THE CRADLE OF THE CONFEDERACY.
people had voted for delegates to this Convention. Of
90,000 voters more than 60,000 had voted at the
election, and many thousands more would have voted
had there been any opposition in their counties to the
candidates. Certainly this was the voice of the sover
eign people. As to submitting the ordinance of seces
sion to the people for ratification, it was only necessary
to say that the Constitution of Alabama under which
they were then living had never been submitted to the
people for ratification. Indeed, the Constitution of the
United States itself was never submitted to the people.
It was urged also, especially by Mr. Yancey, that
policy dictated that there should be no delay in com
pleting the work. Said he : " We have gone too far to
" recede with dignity and self-respect. Such submis-
" sion involves delay dangerous to our safety. It
" could not weU be effected before the 4th of March."
The argument from the inconvenience of delay decided
the question. It is almost needless to say that what
was a matter of doubt when the delegates were elected,
was no longer so after Mississippi, Florida, Louisiank,
Georgia and Texas had followed the steps of South Car
olina, The martial spirit of the people had been
aroused. The Republicans had rejected aU overtures.
The fife and the drum was being heard along the sea
board. The Northern press was saying "Let tbem
" go !" • Mr. Seward had declared at New York that
for every old State which went out a new one was
ready to come in, as though aU that wished to go would
be cheerfully and peaceabfy spared. Had the ordi
nance of secession under such circumstances been sub
mitted to the people of Alabama, there is little doubt
that it would have been ratified by a large majority.

*HE CRADLE OP THE CONPEDEEAOY. 80l
After the Convention had voted against submitting
its action to the people, a resolution was offered by Mr.
Coleman, of Sumter, pledging the power of Alabama to
aid in resisting any attempt upon the part of the United
States to coerce a seceding State. In behalf of this
resolution it was argued that a State has the right to
secede, and if in her sovereign capacity she determines
to resume her independence, the other States which
have a common interest in the protection of this right,
must come to her defence. Mr. Morgan, of Dallas,
said : " The effect of the resolution is, that South Caro-
" Una may recruit her armies in Alabama, and that our
" treasury shall stand open to her demands so long as
" she shaU need, the means of defence and protection."
Mr. Stone, of Pickens, said : " The Convention which
" framed the Constitution expressly refused to grant to
" the General Government the power to employ force
"against a State." He declared his beUef that the
passage of the resolution would ^ive strength to the
Southern cause. • " It may secure peace," said he, " ff
" the government at Washington is informed that the
" coercive policy with which South CaroUna is now
" threatened wUl be resisted, and that the first Federal
" gun fired against Charleston wiU summon to the
*' field every Southern man who can bear arms. It may
" produce a peaceftil solution of the pending diflficul-

Mr. Yancey was urgent that the resolution should
pass at once. It appeared to him that anti-coercion
tvas a doctrine upon which every Southern man could
stand. Hardly a prominent law writer from the ear
liest days of the RepubUc to within a few years past,
but had denied the right of the Federal Government to

502 THE CRADLE OF THE CONFEDERACY.
coerce a State. * He had looked for opposition at other
points, but here he expected to see a united South. To
his chagrin he found the co-operation party a unit
against giving the pledge he wished to transmit with
lightning speed to his native South Carolina. Mr,
Earnest, of Jefferson, said : " I fully recognize the
" doctrine that a sovereign State, acting in her sover-
" eign capacity, can withdraw or secede from the
" Umon ; and that after that any acts she or her citi-
" zens may do to piotect her rights or to defend her
" independence, even to bloody war, is not and cannot
" be treason. But the State must act in her sovereign
" capacity ; no other act by any body or individuals
" can withdraw her from the Union or relieve her citi-
" zens from the laws of treason, if overt acts are com-
" mitted by the citizen or the State against the Gen-
" oral Government." Language equally as expUcit
was uttered by Mr. Jones, of Lauderdale. " Wait, at
" least," he said, " until to-morrow, when it is
" moraUy certain that the ordinance of secession will be
" passed, and the members of this Convention ab-
" solved by the sovereign authority of Alabama from
" their allegiance to the Federal Government. Until the
" State so absolved him he could not and would not
" vote for resolutions proposing to declare war on the
" Government of the United States." Mr. Smith, of
Tuskaloosa, said : " An assurance by a bare majority
" of this Convention of aid to be given by the State of
" Alabama, would be considered by Fouth Carolina
" almost an insult. She might be delighted at first to
" hear and receive such an assurance ; but when she
" learned the fact that the resolution had been adopted
" by a bare majority, she would be inspired with dis-

THE ORADLE OF THE CONFEDERACY. 50Ji
" gust ; and she would sweU with indignation if it
" should appear (as it may upon a calm and thorough
" examination, and a comparison of the facts and
" figures) that the minority here were really the repre-
" sentatives of a majority of the sovereigns of this
"State." The gentieman who used this language was the Hon.
Wm. R. Smith, who had been a Circuit Judge, and had
served three terms as a Representative in Congress,
having been elected for his second term over two of
the most prominent lawyers of the State and with every
newspaper of the Distiict against him. He thoroughly
understood the people. Mr, Yancey immediately
leaped to his feet and demanded the authority upon
which Judge Smith had stated that the minority of the
Convention represented a majority of the people. " I
" receive my information," was the reply, " from tables
" in the public prints ; I do not assert them to be true,
" but I believe that a popular majority of the State is
'¦ represented here by the minority." Mr. Yancey had
been restive under the powerful opposition which met
him at every step. He now lost patience. One or
the other party in this controversy, if the legitimacy of
the Convention was to be brought in question, must go
to the waU. If the powerfiil minority in the Conven
tion beUeved that they represented the majority of the
people, and that an ordinance of secession, passed by a
Convention which had not been called together by a
vote of the people, would have no binding effect in law
or morals, the result might be that two governments
would be estabUshed in the State, and all the "horrors
of civil war be burst upon the people. It was necessary
for Mr. Yancey and his friends to boldly and unfUnch-

564 TflE CRADLE OP THE 00NPEDERA6Y.
ingly maintain that the Convention was sovereign, and
that whatever it did by the femaUest majority was
supreme law for aU the people. " If the ordinance
" should pass by the meagre majority of one" said the
impulsive and excited orator, " it wffl represent the
" fuffness and the power and the majesty of the sover-
" eign people of Alabama. When it shaU be the
" supreme organic law of the people of Alabama, the
" State upon that question wffl know no majority or
" minority among her people, but wffl expect and
" demand and secure unlimited and unquestioned obedi-
" ence to that ordinance." Any one daring to array
himself against the ordinance after its passage, would
be a traitor to Alabama ; he would occupy towards the
true people of the State the relation which the Tories
bore to the Whigs of the Revolution. However such
men might be aided by Abolition forces, he believed
that they and their unnatural aUies would be defeated
by the patriotic citizens of the State. Thus for an
hour Mr. Yancey proceeded in a torrent of invective
against those who should doubt the supremacy of the
proposed ordinance when adopted. His speech threw
the Convention into the highest excitement.
Mr. Watts, who saw the impoUcy of the speech of
his coUeague, rose and expressed his regrets at its tone
and apparent temper. This was no time for the exhi
bition of feeling or for the utterance of denunciations.
He hoped the resolution would be postponed, so that on
the morrow it might be passed by a unanimous vote of
the Convention. But Mr. Watts could not eradicate
the sting of the preceding speech. Mr. Jemison wished
to know for whom and by what authority Mr. Yancey
spoke when he threatened to apply to those who might

THE CRADLte OP THE OONPEDERAOY. 505
Oppose the ordinance of secession the nomenclature of
the Revolution. Nothing that the minority had said or
done justified such sentiments. They were unprovoked
and uncalled for, and unbecoming any gentleman on
the ffoor. Here Mr. Yancey arose and the President
called Mr. Jemison to order, whereupon he took his
seat. There was great confusion throughout the hall,
•and Mr. Yancey was also called to order by the Presi
dent. When order was restored, Mr. Jemison continued
by saying that it was his earnest desire to see good
feeUng and harmony, " but, sfr, when the great leader
" of the majority shaU call the mmority party tories,
" shaU denounce us as traitors, and pronounce against
" us a traitor's doom, were I to pass it in sffence the
" world would properly consider me worthy of the
" denunciation and the doom." Mr. Yancey explained
that his remarks were not -appUcable to or intended for
the minority of this Convention ; they were intended
for those in certain portions of the State where it was
said the ordinance of secession, ff passed, would be
resisted. Mr. Jemison continued — "' I am glad, Mr.
" President, to hear the gentleman disclaim any impu-
" tation of disloyalty to the minority in this Convention.
" But has he bettered it by transferring it to the great
" popular masses in certain sections of the State, where
" there is sb-ong opposition to the ordinance of seces-
" sion and where it is said it wiU be resisted ? Wffl
" the gentleman go into those sections of the State and
" hang aU who are opposed to secession ? WiU he
" hang them by famUies, by neighborhoods, by towns,
"by counties, by Congressional Districts? Who, sir,
" wffl give the bloody order ? • Who wUl be your exe-
" cutioner ? Is this the spirit of Southern chivalry ?

506 THE CRADLE OP THE CONFEDERACY.
'" Are these the sentiments of the boasted champions of
" Southern rights ? Are these to be the first fruits of
" a Southern RepubUc ? Ah ! is this the bloody
" charity of a party who seek to deliver our own
" beloved sunny South from the galUng yoke of a fanat-
" ical and puritanical abolition majority ? What a
" commentary on the charity of party majorities ! The
" history of the Reign of Terror furnishes not a par-
" aUel to the bloody picture shadowed forth in the
" remarks of the gentleman. I envy him not its con-
" temptation. For the interests of our common coun-
" try I would drop the curtain over the scene, and
" palsied be the hand that ever attempts to lift it."
Mr. Nicholas Davis, of Madison, followed Mr. Jemi
son. The father of Mr. Davis had been the leader of
the Whigs of North Alabama from the day when the
State was admitted to the Union. Twice had he been
an unsuccessful candidate for Governor. The son
possessed the father's eloquence, spirit and devotion to
the Union. He said : " . r. President, I cannot allow
' this occasion to pass without saying a word in reply
' to what has fallen from the gentleman from Mont-
' gomery (Mr. Yancey.) Under other circumstances,
' his remarks might pass unnoticed ; but 1 feel I owe
' it to those I represent, at least, to state correctly the
' position they hold upon the question so unexpectedly
' brought before this body. I claim, sir, to know their
views, and I say to this Convention that they have
not intended to resist its action when in conformity
to the wishes of the people of the State. The ques
tion with them, sir, is, does the Convention represent
the wiU of the people ?• If it does, they will stand by
' it, no matter what its decision may be. Now, sir, I

The oradLe of the oonpedbraoy. 507
" need scarcely say that the act of this Convention
•' wiU not be conclusive in this matter. And why ?
" Because, as every one knows, the popular vote of
" this State may be one way, the Convention another,
" and this resulting fiom the manner in which it was
" caUed by those who are guilty of an usurpation of
" power. In short, Mr. President, the sovereignty of
" this body is denied, and its action wffl be sustained or
" resisted as the popular will may be reflected through
" it. The gentieman from Montgomery (Mr. Yancey)
" asserts upon the authority of a newspaper statement,
" the vote to be one way ; the gentleman from Tuska-
" loosa, (Mr. Smith,) upon like authority, claims it to
" be another. I submit, sir, in deciding a question of
" such moment, that the proof on either side is unsat-
" isfactory. The people of the State wiU so regard it-
" We have the means in our hands of ascertaining
" their wUl by submitting our action for thefr ratifica-
" tion or rejection ; and should a course so manifestly
"just be refiised, a committee of this body, with the
" evidence at the door, can arrive at a satisfactory con-
" elusion. In either event, I pledge those T represent
" to stand by the expressed wffl of the people. I repeat
" that I know this to be the position of my constituents,
" and such, so far as my knowledge extends, is the
" position of the people in North Alabama." At this
point Mr. Yancey interrupted Mr. Davis by saying
that he (Yancey) had said nothing about the people of
North Alabama. Mr. Davis continued : " No, sir, you
"did not, but ff is very weU understood by every
" member upon this floor to whom your remarks were
" applicable. If it should turn out that the popular
" vote is against the act of secession, should ff pass, I

§08 THE ORADLE OP THE CONFEDERACY.
" teU you, sir, that I believe it wiU and ought to be
" resisted. The minority of this State ought not to
" control the majority. But we are told that this is a
" representative government — not a pure Democracy,
" and in this form minorities may rule. If our State
" Government be representative in this sense, who
" made it so ? The people, who in Convention framed
" its Constitution and organic law. They set it on
" foot, and whffst it moves in the orbit which they pre-
" scribed, I grant that it is representative and has the
" feature which it is claimed. Secession, however,
" destroys that Constitution, and the people are muz-
" zled in this Convention by a Legislature which derived
" its existence from the instrument to be destroyed.
" But I do not propose to discuss this matter. Judging
" from the speech of the gentleman from Montgomery,
" this is not the mode in which it is to be decided. We
" are told, sir, by him, that resistance to the action of
" this Convention is treason, and those who undertake
" it traitors and rebels. The nomenclature of the Rev-
" olution is to be revived, and the epithet of Tory in
"^ fiiture may ornament the names of Alabamians. I
" cannot accept this as applicable to my constitoents ;
" nor do I perceive the fitness or force of the intended
" iUustration. The Whigs of the Revolution were the
" friends of this Government, the Tories its enemies.
" If names shaU hold the same relation to the Govem-
" ment now as then, I shaU have no objection to the
" historical reminiscence. And not less odious in my
'.' estimation than the name of Tory, is the doctrine
" which is claimed of the right to coerce an unwilling
" people. We must be dealt with as public enemies.
" But yesterday this Convention condemned this doc-

THE ORADLE OF THE CONFEDERACY. 609
" trine. With one voice you declared against it, and
" expressed your determination to meet such an
"invasion of your rights as it ought to be met, with
" arms in your hands. It wiU be asserted as readily
" against a tyrant at home as abroad ; as readily by
" the people of my section against usurpation and
" outrage here as elsewhere. And when compeUed to
" take this course, they wiU cheerfully no doubt assume
" all the responsibUity that follows the act. I seek no
" quarrel with the gentleman from Montgomery or his
" friends. Towards them personaUy, I entertain none
" other than the kindest feeUngs. But I tell him,
" should he engage in that enterprise, that he wffl not
" be allowed to boast the character of an invader. Com-
" ing at the head of any force he can muster, aided and
" assisted by the Executive of this State, we wiU meet
" him at the foot of our mountains, and there with his
" own selected weapons, hand to hand, and face to face,
" settle the question of the sovereignty of the people."
In the midst of deep excitement the Convention
adjourned wffhout taking action upon the resolution.
With such evidences of hostility to the manner in
which the Convention was called, and to its refusal to
submit its action to the people, what would happen on
the morrow ? Would the minority, claiming to repre
sent a majority of the people, secede from the Con
vention and defy the Act of Secession ? There were
many sleepless eyes in Montgomery on the night of
the 9th of January, 1861. What would the morrow
bring forth ?

CHA.PTER XIX.

Adoption of the Ordinance of Secession — Popular Enthusi
asm — Union of all Classes of the People — Assembling
of the Southern Congress at Montgomery — Arrival of
President Davis — Ratification by the Alabama Con
vention of the Confederate Constitution — Conclusion.

'• The effect of this [Lincoln's Proclamation of April 15, 1861.] upon th»
public mind of the Southern States cannot be described or even estima
ted. * * Up to this time a majority, I think, of those who had favored
the policy of secession, had done so under the belief and conviction that
it was the surest way of securing a redress of grievances and of bringing
the Federal Government back to constitutional principles. Many of
them indulged hopes that a Re-formation or Re-constructlon of the
Union would soon take place upon the basis of the new Montgomery
Constitution ; and that the Union under this would be continued and
strengthened, or made more perfect, as it had been In 1789 after the with
drawal of nine States from the first Union, aud the adoption of the Con
stitution of 1787. This proclamation dispelled all such hopes. It showed
that the party in power Intended nothing short of complete centraliza
tion. There was no longer any divisions amongst the people of the Con
federate States."— [A. H. Stephens.
On the morning of Jan. 10, 1861, the Alabama
Convention met at the Capitol. The President laid
before thein a despatch from the President of the
Mississippi Convention announcing that they had
adopted an ordinance of secession for thefr State by a
vote approaching unanimity, and that Mississippi
desires on the basis of the old Constitution a new
Union with the seceding States. A despatch from
Charleston was also read, announcing that a steamer
wffh reinforcements for Fort Sumter was fired into 'by
the forts, that she was disabled, had retreated and was
lying at anchor. The despatch suggested, but did not

512 THE ORADLE OF THE CONPEDERACY.
vouch for the truth of the statement, that the disabled
vessel had hauled down her colors. Another despatch
said : " Anderson, it is said and believed, intends firing
" upon our shipping and cutting off communication
" with the fort." Another said : " Anderson writes to
" the Governor he wiU fire into all ships. Governor
" replies and justifies what we did. Now Anderson
" replies his mind is changed, and refers the question
" to Washington." All this was an exciting prelude to
the grave business of the day.
Mr. Yancey then, from the Committee of Thirteen,
reported an ordinance of secession for Alabama, with
drawing " all the powers over the territory of said
" State, and over the people thereof, heretofore delega-
" ted to the government of the United States of
" America," and inviting the slave-holding States to
meet the people of Alabama Feb. 4, 1861, at the city
of Montgomery, for the purpose of consulting with each
other as to the most effectual mode of securing con
certed and harmonious action in whatever measures
may be deemed most desirable " for our common peace
" and security." Mr. Jere Clemens, from the minority
of the same committee, made a report signed by six of
the thirteen members. They said that they were
unable to see in separate State secession the most
effectual mode of guarding the honor and securing the
rights of the State, but that it was becoming to make
an effort to obtain the concurrence of aU the States
interested before deciding finally and conclusively upon
a poUcy of thefr own. They contended that in so im
portant a matter sound poUcy dictates that an ordinance
of secession should be submitted for the ratification and
approval of the people. The resolutions submitted

THE ORADLE OP THE OONPEDERAOY. 513
with this minority report recommended a Convention
of aU the Southern States to meet at Nashvffle on
the 22d of February, to consider the wrongs of the
South and to devise appropriate remedies. A basis of
settlement was stggested by the resolutions, but not to
be regarded as absolute and unalterable. If the propo
sition for a conference should be rejected by any or all
of the States, then Alabama should adopt such a plan
of resistance as might seem best calculated to maintain
her honor and rights. In the meantime Alabama
would resist, by aU means at her command, any attempt
on the part of the General Government to coerce a
seceding State.
Mr. Clemens moved that the minority report be sub
stituted for the majority report. The ayes and noes
were called upon this motion and resulted — ayes 45,
noes 54. A change of five votes from the noes to the
ayes would perhaps have changed the fate of Alabama
and of the entfre South. The HuntsviUe Advocate had
said that, " but for the unexpected loss of Autauga and
" Mobffe by bad management, the Co-operationists
" wotdd have had a majority in the Convention."
Autauga had one representative and Mobile had four.
These five votes had it in their power to defeat the
ordinance. Autauga was the home of Fitzpatrick,
who had steadUy opposed secession. MobUe was the
home of Forsyth, who in his speech at Hibernia Hall,
Charleston, at the time of the withdrawal of the South
ern delegations, had said that the proceedings there
would force him against his wffl to be a " Union man ;"
that he despised Union shrieking, and had always
thought that Unionism had gone far enough when a
man was just, and true to States Rights, but it was
quite certain that the people of the South would meet
Mr. Yancey's attempt to " precipitate a revolution "
with a counter revolution to save the country — that
there were twenty-five thousand good citizens in Ala
bama who had never been Democrats who would take

514 THE ORADLE OF THE CONPEDERACY.
a hand to help prevent a dissolution of the Union.
Writing to the journal of which he was then editor, Mr.
Forsyth had also said : " The Democratic party has
" now a double sectional fight in hand North and
" South. The Union depends on the issue. Heaven
" defend the right." Mobile county had voted in No
vember previous for Mr. Bell, 1,629 votes; for Mr.
Douglas, 1,828 votes ; and for Mr. BpECKiNRmGE,
only 1,541 votes. There were 3,452 votes cast for
Union candidates against 1,541 for the candidate sup
ported by Mr. Yancey. From these and other facts, it
was believed by many that the minority report would
have been ratified in preference to Mr. Yancey's ordi
nance of secession, had the Convention actuaUy repre
sented the voice of the people.
After the refusal of the Convention to substitute the
minority for the majority report, Mr. Clemens offered
a resolution providing that the ordinance of secession
should not go into operation unless ratified by the
people. The vote being taken on this proposition, it
was rejected by the same vote which rejected the mi
nority report. Mr. Yancey then moved the adoption
of the ordinance of secession. The Convention ad
journed untff next day, the 11th, and then occurred
one of the most interesting and painful scenes ever wit
nessed by a deliberative body sitting upon measures
involving the life or death of States. The members of
the minority, before casting their votes, protested
against the act about to be committed, and each in
turn raised his warning voice.
Mr. Clarke, of Lawrence, said : " I wiU not state
" what might produce disruption of the Union ; but,
" sir, I see as plainly as I see the sun in Heaven, what
" that disruption ffself must produce. I see it must
'' produce war, and such a war I wiU not describe in its
" two-fold character. Once more, therefore, in the
"name of Liberty, of Peace, of happy hours — of the
" aged, of the poor, of our mothers, of our sisters— of

THE CRADLE OP THE CONFEDERACY. 515
" helpless humanity throughout the borders of our
" State, I implore you to concede something to the
" counties of North Alabama." Mr. Posey, of Lauder
dale, said : " Division at home would be worse than
" secession ; this is the opinion of the minority on this
" floor upon mature reflection." Mr. Jones, of Lauder
dale, said : " This had been the most solemn hour of
" his Ufe ; he expected to feel no more solemn when he
" should stand in the presence of the King of Terrors."
Mr. Smith, of Tuskaloosa, said : " My opposition to the
" ordinance of secession wffl be sufficiently indicated by
" my vote ; that vote wiU be recorded in the book ;
" and the day is not yet come that is to decide on
" which part of the page of that book wffl be written
" the glory or the shame of this day." Mr. Kimball,
of Tallapoosa, said : " In all my intercourse with my
"fellow-citizens, I found none who did not cordially
" desfre a united Sojith : not a dissenting voice. In the
" Advertiser of this morning I find a despatch express-
" ing the opinion of Gen, Scott, who is said to be the
" great war-spirit, who unhesitatingly says, that with a
" certain unanimity of the Southern States, it would be
" unpolitic and improper to attempt coercion."
Mr. Davis, of Madison, said : " It cannot be denied
"ihat cfrcumstances have greatly changed since this
" Convention met on last Monday. We have seen
"State after State, in the exercise of its sovereign
" powers, withdrawing from the Union in the past few
" days. Florida has seceded ; Mississippi has seceded
" — each by overwhelming majorities. It is now no
" longer a serious apprehension that Alabama wffl stand
" alone in this movement of secession. It is confidently
" asserted that Georgia and Louisiana and Texas wiU
" follow. Under this aspect of the case, it is not re-
"markable that a great change has come over the Con-
" vention — a change clearly indicated by the speeches
"that have been this day delivered in this haU. I
" shaU vote against the ordinance. But if Alabama

u

516 THE CRADLE OP THE OONPEDERAOY.
" shaU need the strong arm of her valorous sons to
" sustain her in any emergency which, on account of
this ordinance of secession, may arise within her
" borders, by which her honor or the rights of her citi-
" zens are Ukely to be endangered, I say for myseff
" and for my constituents — and I dare say for aU
" North Alabama — that I and they wiU be cheerfuUy
" ready to take our part in the confUct. We may not
" endorse the wisdom of your resolves, but we wffl
" stand by the State of Alabama under aU circum-
" stances." Mr. Clemens, of Madison, said : " For the present it
"is enough to say that I am a son of Alabama ; her
" destiny is mine ; her people are mine ; her enemies
" are mine. I see plainly enough that clouds and
" storms are gathering above us ; but when the thunder
" roUs and lightning flashes, I tiust that I shaU neither
" shrink nor cower — neither murmur nor complain.
" Acting upon the convictions of a life-time, calmly
" and deUberately I walk with you into revolution. Be
" its perils, be its privations, be its sufferings what they
" may, I share them with you, although as a member
" of this Convention I opposed your ordinance. Side
'[ by side with yours, Mr, President, my name shaU
" stand upon the original roU ; and side by side with
" you I brave the consequences."
Mr. Yancey closed the debate with the following
remarks :
" Mr. President— If no other gentleman desires to
" address the Convention, I wffl exercise the usual par-
" liamentary privffege accorded to the Chairman of a
" committee reporting a measure — that of closing the
" debate, by assigning a few reasons why the measure
" before you should be adopted. In common with aU
" others here, I feel that this is a solemn hour, and I
• " congratulate the Convention that the spfrff that pre-
" vaUs is both fraternal and patriotic — that whatever of
" irritation or suspicion had prevaffed in the earUer

THE CRADLE OP THE CONFEDERACY. 517
"hours of our session, has been, in a great degree,
" dissipated, and has given way to a juster appreciation
" of the motives and the conduct of each other. In
" the committee the majority yielded to the minority
" aU the time that they desired for deliberation ; and
" since the report has been made, the majority in the
" Convention has also yielded to the wishes of the mi-
" nority in this respect, and every delegate who desired
" to do so, has addressed the Convention in explanation
" of his vote, and has taken as much time as, in his
"judgment, was necessary to his purpose. If, in
" the earUer stages of our proceedings, it has been
" thought, as it has been said by some gentlemen, that
" an undue celerity of movement was pressed by the
" majority, I beg those gentiemen to beUeve that this
" conduct on our part was dictated solely by our con-
" victions of duty, and not from any — the least — desire
" to precipitate others into a vote before they were pre-
" pared to give it understandingly. Time was deemed
" by the friends of independent State action to be either
" success or defeat in the inauguration of this • great
" movement — success if there was a prompt and une-
" quivocal withdrawal from the Union — or, defeat, if
" time was used to delay and to dishearten. You who
" were opposed to such action from a sense of duty,
" would necessarily be for all such delays as would aid
" in accompUshing its defeat ; we who were for it, from
" a Uke sense of duty, were necessarffy in favor of a
"prompt decision of the question. iiJach has acted,
" doubtless, upon weff-foupded ideas of duty. AU that
" was necessary to a better understanding of each other,
'' was a belief in that fact, a belief in the good faith of
" each other ; and I rejoice that to-day has furnished
" ample e-vidence that we now mutually entertain that
" beUef ; and, on the part of the majority, I return
" thanks to the venerable delegate from Lauderdale,
'' (Mr. Posey,) who, though compelled to vote against
" this ordinance, yet has characterized the conduct of

Sl8 THE CRADLE OP THE CONFEDERACY.
" the majority in this matter as giving evidence of
" ' wisdom, discretion, and a spirit of concffiation.'
" As to the measure itself (the ordinance and reso-
" lutions), whatever merit it possesses, is the result of
" consultation between the majority and minority of the
" committee. I am sure that the members of that com-
" mittee wiU indulge me in alluding to what passed in
" its sessions. The majority decidedly preferred to
" adopt a simple ordinance of secession, but determined,
" for the sake of harmony, to do aU in thefr power to
" disarm prejudice and to bring about a fraternal feel-
" ing ; they did not hesitate to yield thefr own cher-
" ished desfre in this particular, when my friend from
" Madison (Mr. Clemens) proposed to amend our pro-
" posed ordinance by adding thereto the preamble and
" resolutions, which form a part of his report- It is
" weU known that some of the people have been led to
" believe that the friends of secession desired to erect
" Alabama either into a monarchy or into an inde-
" pendent State, repudiating an aUiance with other
" States. As for myseff, I can truly declare that I
" have never met with any friend of secession enter-
"taining such views. The proposition submitted by
"my friend from Madison (Mr. Clemens), being in
" perfect accordance with the wishes and desires of the
" majority, and amply refiited these misconceptions,
" the one which we would have preferred to have voted
" upon separately, was at once agreed to, and the result
" is the measure now before us for consideration.
" On the first day of our session a resolution was
" unanimously adopted declaring that the people of the
" State would resist the Administration of Lincoln for
" the causes and upon the principles there enunciated.
" On the question of resistance, then, there is no differ-
" ence in this body. AU are for resistance ; -but there is
"a difference between members as to the mode, the
" manner of resistance. Some believe that when the
" rights of our people are denied or assaUed by the par-

THE ORADLE OP THE OONPEDERAOY. Sl9
" ties to the Federal compact, or by the Government,
" that secession from this compact is the rightful reme-
" dy. Others beUeve that secession is wrong, and that
" the remedy is revolution. A careful reading of the
" ordinance on your table wffl show that the resistance
" therein provided may be caUed revolution, disunion,
" or secession, as each member may desire. The cap-
" tion styles it ' An Ordinance to dissolve the Union,'
" etc. In the body of the ordinance the people of
" the State are ' withdrawn from the compact,' etc. It
"is true that the mode of resistance is organic ; it is
"an organic co-operation, not of States, but of the
" people of this State in resistance to wrong. In this
" respect it harmonizes differences. Another differ-
" ence, both in the popular mind and in that of dele-
" gates, is, that resistance should be by co-operation of
'' States, and not by independent State action. That
" difference has been harmonized by the conjunction
" of the ordinance and resolutions, as reported by the
" committee. Co-operation and separate State action,
" as far as they can be effected under our obligation to
" the Federal compact and in harmony with the princi-
" pies of State sovereignty, have been joined in this
" measure. It is true there are a class of Co-opera-
" tionists whose views are not met by this measure ;
" those who have advocated co-operation to secure sub-
" mission— to defeat resistance. But there are none of
" that character here. WhUe the friends of indepen-
" dent State action in this ordinance do obtain a declara-
" tion as to the rights of the people of Alabama ; and
" as to our determination to sustain them, the friends
" of co-operation, for the purpose of effectual resistance,
" also obtain a declaration of our desire and purpose to
" unite with all of the slaveholding States who enter-
"tain a like purpose, in confederated or co-operative
" resistance, and in a confederate government upon the
" principles of the Federal Constitution.
" As far as it was possible, then, to do so without

520 THE CRADLE OP THE CONPEDERAOY,
" yielding principles, the friends of resistance have used
" every reasonable effort to meet on a common ground.
" And I rejoice in the belief that the effort has been
" successful, and that there wffl be a far greater una-
" nimity manifested when the vote shall be taken on
" this measure, than was even hoped for when we first
" met in this haU. From the remarks of gentlemen to-
" day, many wffl be compelled to vote against this
" measure by reason of restrictions of their people, who
" otherwise would vote for it. I sincerely respect these
" motives, and think those occupying such positions
" act correctly in their premises.
" Mr. President, we are fortunate in having the
" example of our Revolutionary fathers sustaining the
" plan of action here proposed — separate State action
" and then co-operation in confederating together.
" South Carolina, after several months deUberation,
" with a view of resisting British aggression, formed a
" State government early in the year 1776. Virginia
" did so in June, 1776, declaring her separate and inde-
" pendent secession fi-om the Government of Great
" Britain. Afterwards, on the 4th of July, 1776, the
" Congress of the United States agreed upon and
" adopted a joint Declaration of Independence. It was
" after the colonies had acted separately and indepen-
" dently, that both the Declaration of Independence
" and the Articles of Confederation and the Constitu-
"tion of the United States were severally adopted.
" The friends of independent State action have also
" cause to congratulate themselves, that as far as the
" people of the Southern States have spoken, they have
" unanimously expressed themselves in favor of inde-
" pendent State action.
" South Carolina, Mississippi and Florida have each
" already acted independently. In this Convention a
" majority are • known to be in fkvor of that kind of
" action. We have already received information that
" a majority of delegates in favor of such action has

THE CRADLE OP THE OONPEDERAOY 521
" been elected, both in Georgia and Louisiana. I com-
" mend this significant fact to aU who feel disposed to
" condemn an independent State movement.
" Some have been disposed to think that this is a
" movement of politicians, and not of the people. This
" is a great error. Who, on a calm review of the past,
" and reflection upon what is daily occurring, can rea-
" sonably suppose that the people of South CaroUna,
" Georgia, Florida, Alabama, Mississippi and Louisiana,
" who have already elected Conventions favorable to
" dissolution, and the people of Arkansas, Tennessee,
" North Carolina and Vfrginia, who are contemplating
" an assembling in their several Conventions, have been
" mere puppets in the hands of politicians ? Who can
"for a moment thus deliberately determine that all
" these people in these various States, who are so
" attached to their government, have so little inteUi-
" gence that they can be thus bUndly driven into revo-
" lution, without cause, by designing and evU-minded
" men against the remonstrances of conservative men ?
" No, sir ; this is a great popular movement, based
" upon a wide-spread, deep-seated conviction that the
" forms of government have faUen into the hands of a
" sectional majority, determined to use them for the
" destruction of the rights of the people of the South.
"This mighty flood-tide has been flowing from the
"popular heart for years. You, gentlemen of the
" minority, have not been able to repress it ; we of the
" majority have not been able to add a particle to its
"momentum. We are each and all driven forward
" upon this frresistible tide. The rod that has smitten
" the rock from which this flood flows, has not been in
"Southern hands. The rod has been Northern and
" sectional aggression and wrong, and that flood-tide
" has grown stronger and stronger as days and years
" have passed away, in proportion as the people have
" lost aU hope of a constitutional and satisfactory
" solution of these vexed questions. In this connec-

522 The OfeADLE OP tHE CONFEDERACY.
" tion I would say a few words upon the proposition to
" submit the ordinance of dissolution to a popular vote.
" This proposition is based upon the idea that there is a
" difference between the people and the delegate. It
" seems to me that this is an error. There is a differ-
" ence between the representatives of the people in the
" law-making body and the people themselves, because
" there are powers reserved to the people by the Con-
" vention of Alabama, and which the General Assembly
" cannot exercise. But in this body is all power — no
" powers are reserved from it. The people are here in
" the persons of their deputies. Life, Liberty and
" Property are in our hands. Look to the ordinances
" adopting the Constitution of Alabama. It states ' we,
" the people of Alabama,' etc., etc. All our acts are
" supreme, without ratification, because they are the
" acts of the people acting in thefr sovereign capacity.
" As a poUcy, submission of this ordinance to a popular
" vote is wrong. In the first place, we have gone too
" far to recede with dignity and seff-respect. It could
" not weU be effected before the 4th of March. The
" poUcy is at war with our system of government.
" Ours is not a pure Democracy — that is, a govern-
" ment by the people ; though it is a government of
"the people. Ours is a representative government,
" and whatever is done by the representative in accord-
" ance with the Constitution is law ; and whatever is
" done by the deputy in organizing government, is the
" people's wiU.
" The poUcy, too, is one of recent suggestion ; if I
" am not mistaken, it was never proposed and acted
" upon previous to 1837. Certainly the Fathers did
" not approve it. The Constitutions of the original
" Thirteen States were adopted by Conventions, and
" were never referred to the people.
" The Constitution of the LFnited States was adopted
"by the several State Conventions, and in no instance
" was it submitted to the people for ratification. Coming

THE ORADLE OF THE CONPEDERAOY. 623
" down to a later day, and coming home to the action
" of our State sires, we find another example against
" such submission. The Constitution of the State of
" Alabama was never submitted for popular ratification.
" One other and most important consideration is, that
" looking to the condition of the popular mind of the
" minority of the people on this questioii, such a course
" wffl but tend to keep up strife and contention among
'• ourselves. Such a submission, it is clear to my mind,
" wiU but result in a triumph of the friends of secession
" — and an additional amount of frritation and preju-
" dice be thus engendered in the minds of the defeated
'• party. Some gentlemen seem to think that in dis-
" solving the Union we hazard the ' rich inheritance '
" bequeathed to us. For one, I make a distinction
" between our Uberties and the powers which have been
" delegated to secure them. Those liberties have never
" been alienated — are inaUenable. The State Govern-
" ments were formed to secure and protect them. The
" Federal Government was made the common agent of
" the States for the purpose of securing them in our
" intercourse with each other and the foreign powers.
" The course we are about to adopt makes no war on
" our liberties — nor, indeed, upon our institutions — nor
" upon the Federal Constitution. It is but a dismissal
" of the agent that first abuses our institutions with a
" view to destroy our rights, and then turns the very
" powers we delegated to him for our protection against
" us for our injury. These powers were originally pos-
" sessed by the people of the sovereign States, and
" when the common agent abuses them, it seems to me
" but the dictate of common sense, as weU as an act of
" self-preservation, that the States should withdraw
" and resume them. The ordinance withdraws those
" once delegated by Alabama, and the resolutions ac-
" companying it propose to meet our sister States in
" Convention and to confederate with them on the basis
" of the very constitution which was the bond of com-

624 THE CRADLE OF THE CONFEDERACY.
" pact and union between Alabama and the other States
" of the Union. We propose to do as the Israelites did
" of old, under Divine direction to withdraw our people
" from under the power that oppresses them, and, in
" doing so, like them, to take with us the Ark of the
"Covenant of our Uberties.
" There is but one more point upon which I desire to
" say a few words. My venerable friend from Lauder-
" dale asked us to forbear pressing the minority to
" sign the ordinance. In my opinion it is not a neces-
" sity that it be signed by members. Its signature
" does not necessarffy express approval of the act.
" Signing it is but an act of attestation, in one sense, as
" when the President of the Senate signs an act of the
" General Assembly which he has voted against. I am
" willing to vote for aU reasonable delay to enable
" members to consult their constituents. But I beseech
" gentlemen to bear in mind that when the ordinance is
" signed, the absence of the signature of any members
" wffl be a notice to our enemies that we are divided as
" a people, and that there are those in our midst who
" wffl not support the State in its hour of peril. The
" signature of the ordinance, while waiving no vote
" given against it, whUe giving up no opinion, is an
" evidence of the highest character that the signer wffl
" support his country.
" It wiff give dignity, strength, unity to the State in
" which we live, and by which each of its citizens should
" be wilUng to die if its exigencies demand it. I now
" ask that the vote may be taken."
The question being upon the adoption of the ordi
nance, the vote was taken by ayes and noes, and
resulted — ayes 61, noes 39. Seven of the minority
party had gone ovet to the majority under the lead of
Mr. Clemens. Mr. President Brooks announced the
result of the vote, and declared that Alabama was a
free, sovereign, and independent State. The obliga-

THE ORADLE OP THE OONPEDERAOY. 525
tion of secrecy was removed at once from the proceed
ings of the Convention and the doors thrown open.
The vast multitude which had assembled in and
about the Capitol, thronging the corridors and vestibule
in anxious expectation of the news, as soon as the doors
were opened, burst into the lobbies in a fever of excite
ment and enthusiasm. The Senate Chamber, within
hearing of the Convention Hall, had been thronged with
citizens from an early hour, who had Ustened to
speeches from distinguished men, and whose rapturous
applause had constantly reached the eairs of the Con
vention. Now the rush to the lobbies, to the gaUeries,
and to the floor of the Convention Chamber, resembled
the rush of a mountain torrent. In an instant salvos
of artiUery heralded the event, and banners were dis
played in all parts of the little city. As if by magic,
an immense flag of Alabama was thrown across the
hall, and was greeted with cheer upon cheer untff the
rafters fairly rang with the applause. Mr. Yancey pre
sented the flag in the name of the ladies of Alabama,
and paid a splendid tribute to the ardor of female pat
riotism. It was accepted by Mr. Alpheus Baker in
one of those glowing speeches for which he was so
famous, in which the word-painting was so briUiant and
electric as to carry captive every heart.
Throughout the day the roar of peaceful guns con
tinued ; more flags leaped every moment to the wind,
untff the air was heavy with the vast expanse of gor
geous bunting. Speeches of congratulation were being
made by eloquent orators to the wffd populace ; and
everywhere was seen an enthusiasm such as perhaps
never before in the annals of the world greeted the
birth of a new government.
On the 16th of January the report of the special
committee of thirteen upon the formation of a provis
ional and permanent governmelit between the seceding
States, was taken up by the Convention on motion of
Mr. Yancey. The report favored the formation of con-

526 THE ORADLE OF THE CONFEDERACY.
federate relations with such of the Southern States as
might desfre it, upon the basis of the Constitution of
the United States. It advised the election of delegates
to the Provisional Congress caffed to meet at Mont
gomery, Feb. 4. The opponents of secession took the
ground that a new Convention should be caUed to pass
upon the formation of a permanent government. I'here
stffl Ungered a hope that while .Alabama was untram-
meled by a new aUiance, she was in a better condition
to renew at any moment her connection with the
United States. Mr. Yancey said that " the proposition
" has a tendency to reopen the question of secession,
" by bringing up the issue of a reconstruction of the
" Federal Government ; it allows such an issue to be
" made ; it invites it, in fact." Said he : "From the
" signs of the times it would seem that coercive mea-
" sures were to be adopted. If so, about the time of
" such an election the people will be bearing the
" burthens of such a contest. Commercial and agricul-
" tural interests wffl be suffering. Debts wiU be hard
" to pay. Provisions wiU be scarce. Perhaps death
" at the hands of the enemy wiU have come to the
" doors of many famiUes. Men's minds thus sur-
" rounded and affected by strong personal and selfish
" considerations, wiU not be in that calm and well-bal-
" anced condition which is favorable to a correct and
" patriotic judgment of the question. The very state
" of things will perhaps exist which our Black Repub-
" Ucan enemies predict wffl exist, and which they sneer-
" ingly rely upon to force our people to ask for re-ad-
" mission into the Union."
These remarks of Mr. Yancey show conclusively that
he believed it to be the purpose of the advocates of a
new Convention to gain time and thus to enable the
State to seize the first opportunity to return to the
Union, A motion that the plan for a Confederate
States Constitution should be submitted for ratification
or rejection to a new Convention to be elected by the

THE CRADLE OP THE OONPEDERAOY. 527
people, was laid upon the table by a vote of 49 in favor
of laying it upon the table, and 39 opposed to tabling.
The Convention adjourned untff March 4th. Before
dispersing, the President, Mr. Brooks, said : " We are
" free, and shall any of us cherish any idea of a recon-
" stiuction of the old government, whereby Alabama
" wiU again link her rights, her fortunes and her destiny
" in a Union with the Northern States ? If any of
" you hold to such a fatal opinion, let me entreat you,
" as you value the blessings of equality and freedom,
'' dismiss it at once. There is not, cannot be, any secu-
" rity or peace for us in a reconstructed government of
" the old material. I must believe that there is not a
'¦ friend or advocate of reconstruction in this large body. .
" The people of Alabama are now independent ; sink
" or swim, live or die, they wffl continue free, sovereign
" and independent. Dismiss the idea of a reconstruc-
" tion of the old Union now and forever."
On the 1 2th of March the permanent Constitution
for the Confederate States was submitted to the Ala
bama Convention. Mr. Jemison, of Tuskaloosa, advo
cated its submission to a direct vote of the people. He
said that there was great dissatisfaction in some sec
tions of the State because the ordinance of secession
had not been so submitted. It . would be impossible
now to plead want of time or necessity for hasty action.
Mr. Morgan, of DaUas, opposed submission of the in
strument to the people. He said :
" The people would never ratify by a direct vote.
"This doctrine of a direct vote of the people on ratifi-
" cation was absurd and odious. A reference would
" give rise to many distracting questions. The African
" slave trade would be brought in ; the question of Re-
" constiuction, with aU its agitating features, would be
" brought in, and many other questions of sufficient
" abstract merit to excffe the people and arouse opposi-
" tion, but of no usefiff importance. Our fathers never

528 THE CRADLE OP THE CONFEDERACY.
" would have ratified the old Constitution by a direct
"vote." It was argued by the friends of submission that the
existing Convention, having adopted the ordinance of
secession, was fundus offldo ; that the formation of a
new government by Alabama with certain States, was
new matter demanding a new voice from the people. It
was said that the proposed Constitution had been
frapied by deputies elected by the Convention and not
by the people, and that the people had nothing to say
as to the ordinance of secession, the election of a Pro
visional Government, or the formation of a permanent
Constitution. Now they were to be deprived of an
opportunity of voting upon the kind of government
under which they were to live. Mr. Smith, of Tuska
loosa, said : " They find themselves under a new gov-
" ernment, and in amazement exclaim, who did this ?
" They find themselves in the hands of a new Congress,
" and exclaim — who elected this new Congress ? Who
" authorized it 1 The answer is, ' We are the People.'
" Sir, that ' we are the people ' in any but a
" representative sense, is absurd. It is the flimsy
" excuse for usurpations ; it has been the characteris-
" tic of legislative tyrannies in all ages of the world,
" from the Areopagus to Cromwell's Parliament."
Mr. Jemison's proposed amendment to the commit
tee's report, providing for the meeting of a new Con
vention to pass upon the Constitution, was finally voted
down by — ayes 36, noes 53.
The Confederate States Constitution was then ratified
by the Alabama Convention, only five votes being cast
against it.
On Tuesday, March 12, a resolution was unani
mously adopted by the Convention appro-ving the
election of Jefferson Davis President, and Alexander
H. Stephens Vice-President, of the Provisional Govern
ment of the Confederate States of America.

YALE UNIVERSITY

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