YALE UNIVERSITY LIBRARY THE >N^. M J— J- #^ IF flffi ^Tty ©mnmantaBa [^lelblillllli^ki. ©B^IIM™ JT 0 Tic ^ BOMBARDMENT OF' FORT SUMPTER, J.D.TORREY, PUBLISHER, 13 SPRUCE ST, NEW YORK, ;' *W~:'.r£njj1^.. THE HISTORY, GIVE, POLITICAL AND MILITARY, OF THE SOUTHERN REBELLION, FROM ITS INCIPIENT STAGES TO ITS CLOSE. COMPREHENDING, ALSO, ALL IMPORTANT STATE PAPERS, ORDINANCES OF SECESSION, PROCLAMATIONS, PROCEEDINGS OF CONGRESS, OFFICIAL REPORTS OF COMMANDERS, ETC., ETC. BIT ORVILLE J. VICTOR. VOLUME I. iebr&nlt: JAMES D. TORRET, PUBLISHER, 13 SPRUCE STREET. Entered, according to Act of CoDgress, in the year 1861, by James D. Toerey, in the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the United States for the Southern District of New York. :?A&-y '.' /;; PREFACE. The production of a History of the Southern Rebellion and the War for the Union which shall cover the entire subject; in all' its aspects and relations, is a work of magni tude, comprising three distinct histories, each of which might properly demand a spe cific record. The Political, Social and Military conditions of the Eebellion are so clearly defined as to offer strong claims for their separate consideration ; still, each is but part of a single whole ; and each are so interwoven as to be treated in unity. In assuming the responsibility of producing the History in its comprehensive form, I felt, but too keenly, the requisition for the exercise of abilities which but few persons are permitted to call their own. Clearness of apprehension, correctness of judgment, im partiality, power of grouping and association, patience of research — all to be guided by a style of narrative at once clear, concise, and impressive, — surely I might well have shrunk from the ordeal. But, the earnest desire to see the much-needed work performed, to place the public in possession of the story of the Secession Eevolution,overcame appre hension for the result, and induced me to assume the responsible trust. How that trust has been discharged, the public must judge. From the outset I have had to contend against the quantity of data offered as mate rial for my work. The historian generally seeks for multiplicity in his authorities, thus to be the more able to secure a correct version of his story ; but, in the present instance at least, there has been only too much " authority" offered. What with interminable versions of the same affair in almost countless papers—with news dispatches from responsible and irresponsible sources — with letters written in a partisan spirit, in ignorance or in malice — with endless Convention reports, speeches, ordinances, resolutions, &c. — with Legislative proceedings of many States — with the proceedings of two Congresses, and the documents of two cotemporary Executives— with the great ebb and flow of popular feeling in all sections, as represented by two thousand newspapers — I have been fairly oppressed with the weight and multitude of my witnesses. To reduce this chaos to order was a labor of many days, and if, in the reproduction of testimony offered, occasional errors have occur red, I feel that they were unavoidable, considering the circumstances under which this History has been produced— thirty-two octavo letter-press pages being demanded weekly. Still, I can but hope that errors of facts are few:— if they do occur, it is from no purpose to modify the record, nor to suppress the truth. I acknowledge every obligation to the New York daily journals. Their extraordinary facilities of information, their vast net-work of correspondence, render them cotemporary chroniclers which no book-maker can slight in the composition of a history of the times. Their editorial views, or partisan bias, scarcely affect the statement of events, in which posterity will be chiefly concerned. Where a difference of statement has been made, having the several leading dailies at hand, and other collateral evidence, it is not necessary for the careful coUaborateur of evidence to be led estray by the "writing up" or the "writing down" of editors and correspondents. IV PBBFACE. In reporting Congressional proceedings I have used, to a great extent, telegraphic abstracts or digests. Having before me, however, the Congressional Globe, I have been enabled to correct those errors incident to mere news dispatches ; while, in the case of the great " representative " speeches pf leading members of the two Houses, I have chiefly had recourse to the Official {Globe) reports. The pages of this work, therefore, become, ex necessitate rei, a repository of some of the finest specimens of eloquence and dialectics which now are a part of our oratorical treasures. The State Papers and Documents reproduced are such as have true historical value and signifieance. I have used abstracts of such papers in but few instances, preferring that the public should be placed in possession of the, originals. In the future, when this great struggle shall enlist, in its exposition, writers of various views, it will be the surest safe guard against misinterpretation or partizan zeal to be possessed of the official records. Having these, the intelligent reader need have no fears of being misled in his judgments. The detail of State Legislature' and State Convention's proceedings has, to a large extent, been omitted. I preferred not to encumber the narrative with the processes of legislation when the final results would convey all historically necessary information. A volume would be required for each State, if its doings were given in detail. Such a work it will remain for some citizen in each State to perform, who shall have access to all sources of local information and proceedings. I may here confess my many obligations to leading citizens throughout the country for the interest they have taken in my labors. For their valuable suggestions, for their generous remittances of important documents and special information, for their publicly and privately expressed opinions regarding the work I was performing, I can but be grateful. In my future labors I trust their good offices will not be intermitted. I shall be ever happy to receive any information or sugges tions which can add to the value of this History. CONTENTS > p 1QB. 13 21 LOS. 87 9499 107 113 119124 INTRODUCTION PRELIMINARY CHAPTER.— History of former HISTORICAL SUMMARY OF EVENTS, from 1> DIVI PA CHAPTER I. The True Cause of the Rebellion IDT. Spread of the Secession Sentiment . IT. Action of Governors Legislatures, Con ove s an. 25 2931 3541 44495469 74 78 83 mber 6th, 1860 ION ] CHAPTER X xrv. XV. XVI. xvn. XVIII. xrx. Pi II. — Continued, Others. The Crittenden Com promise Resolutions. The Com- The South Carolina Convention. The Ordinance of Secession. General Proceedings. The De claration of Independence How the News was Received. State of Public Feeling in the North. Interest in Major An derson. The Forts of Charles- V. The Financial Condition of the Country. State of Feeling at VI. Progress of the Rebellion in South VII. Views of the Fathers of the Re public on the Question of Union Vm. XXXVI Congress, Second Session. Meeting the Question of Dis union. The President's Mes sage. Hostile Attitude of South- The South Carolina Convention Proceedings Continued. Ad dress to the Slaveholding States. A Week of Exciting Events. The The Robbery of the Interior " Department. The Alleghany Arsenal Affair. Alabama Elec tion. The South Carolina Com missioners' Arrival at Wash ington. Affairs in Virginia. List of Army and Navy Officers from South Carolina. Senator Toombs' Telegraphic Address. Hopelessness of Compromise . . Proceedings of Congress Contin ued. Fourth Week. The Pro ceedings of the Committees of Thirty-three and Thirteen, up Incidents and Results of the Evac- IX. Action of the Southern States, up X. Proceedings of Congress Contin ued. Second Week. Import ant Preliminary Proceedings. The Futility of Compromise XI. Disruption of the Cabinet. The President's Policy. The Condi tion of the Charleston Forts. General Scott's Prophetic paper and Propositions. Action of the Committee of Thirty-three. XII. Several Phases of the Revolution. XIII. Proceedings of Congress Contin ued. Third Week. Speeches of Senators Wade, Johnson, and Others. The Resolutions of Adrian, Lovejoy, Morris, and 65 - "' 'ORMEE CONSPIRACIES. If, as Mr. Alexander H. Stephens asserts, our government is " one of the most beneficent the world has ever known," it has not escaped the fortunes incident to all governments-of fierce opposition and attempted revolutions. The Constitution of the Union was not adopted without extraordinary manifestations of opposition in the Convention, in Congress, in State Legislatures, and among the people. It was regarded in the various lights of " an ex periment," a "cqnsolidated tyranny," a "cen tralization fatal to State independence," &c. Washington said of the instrument: "There are some things in it which never did and never will obtain my cordial approbation." Patrick Henry denounced it as inimical to the liberties of the people. Franklin said, in the Convention: "I consent to this Constitution because I expect no better." The attempt to construct a consolidated government out of States, diverse in interests, each jealous of its sovereignty, was " an experiment ;" and Wash ington's expression of surprise, that any ar rangement had been made, was justified by the result eventually achieved in the adoption of the Federal compact. He said: "It ap pears to me little short of a miracle that the delegates from so many States, different from each other in their manners, circumstances and prejudices, should unite in forming a sys tem pf national government so little liable to well-founded objections;" uttering, however, in the same paragraph, his own qualified ac ceptance of the instrument : — " Nor am I yet such an enthusiastic, partial or ^discriminat ing admirer of it as not to perceive it is tinc tured with some real, though not radical defects." Pending discussion of the merits and de merits of the new Constitution, two great par ties sprang into full and spirited life, viz. : the " Federalists," sustained by Washington, and led by John Adams and Hamilton ; and the "anti-Federalists," who afterwards as sumed the more distinctive appellation of "Democrats," under the leadership of Tho mas Jefferson, Aaron Burr, and others. The differences between those two parties were those of quality rather than of kind. Both wanted a Republican form of government; both favored a Union ; both had in view the best mode of developing the vast resources of the country ; both sought to guard the inte rests of the people ; and it was the intense patriotism of both parties which rendered them such bitter partisans. , Each sought to prove the other an enemy to good govern ment ; and, failing to reconcile their respective ideas, they became as irreconcilable in their animosities as the Whigs and Tories of the Revolution. It is not, therefore, a matter of surprise that a government, ordained under such discord ant circumstances, should have retained some of its elements of discord, nor that each gene ration should witness violent Opposition, if not actual resistance, to the Constitution and the Laws, both by individuals and by States. It is to be doubted, indeed, if the Federal Government would have succeeded as a go- HISTORY OF FORMER CONSPIRACIEI vernment had it not been for the necessity of enforcing its authority, thus proving its pow ers and strength. The vigilance and bitter ness of parties made their supporters ever watchful to reap advantages from the errors and weaknesses of their antagonists ; hence, the administers of the laws were sedulously careful to execute their trusts with fidelity and wisdom, even though the "motive might be the selfish one of maintaining a political supremacy. An apathy or indifference to ward the government would have proved its ruin, and have paved the way for a Mo narchy, or for a series of State independencies alike fatal to their political and moral pros perity. Party spirit, political rancors, public antipathies, unpleasant as they are to contem plate singly, are, nevertheless, the great regu lators of the law, and, as such, are actually desirable. Washington said of party spirit : " It is a fire n'ot to be quenched ; it demands a uniform vigilance to prevent its bursting into a flame, lest, instead of warming, it should consume." That " uniform vigilance" is the price of our liberties ; so long as it is ex ercised by our public administrators, and by the people, we are safe — when it is abated, our liberties and government are in danger. Opposition to the Government generally has resulted in nothing more than a war of words, with the ballot-box for umpire. Ac tual resistance to the arm of the law, so as to require force in its suppression, has been com paratively unfrequent ; yet, such instances are numerous enough to prove not only that we have a Government capable of sustaining it self, but, also, that the peculiar freedom gua ranteed to all may engender combinations in imical to law and order. Such we may name : The Whisket Insurrection, 1791-4. The Alien and Sedition Emeute, 1798. Aaron Burr's Conspiracy, 1806-7. The Hartford Convention Conspiracy, 1814. The Missouri Compromise Agitation, 1820-22. The Indian Rebellion in Georgia, 1825. The South Carolina Nullification Rebellion, 1831-2. Dorr's Rhode Island Rebellion, 1842. The Kansas-Nebraska Imbroglio, 1854-58. The Utah Troubles, 1858-59. The Secession Revolution, 1860-61. Several uprisings, or rebellions, occurred prior to the adoption of the Constitution, which were suppressed by force; but they sprung out of* disorders consequent upon a want of law rather than of defiance to it. We name above the Missouri Compromise trou bles of 1820. Though not of the nature of a rebellion they still threatened the perpetuity of the Government, and merit a" prominent place in any political history of the country. That agitation was the parent of those which followed, wherein the questions of Free and Slave territory were paramount ; and the hy dra then appeased by " compromise" became the dragon of secession and revolution in 1860. THE WHISKET INSURRECTION, 1791-4. Upon the assumption, by the Federal Go vernment, of the debts incurred by the States in the War for Independence, it became neces sary to provide for the interest, and gradual liquidation of the principal, of that debt- making $826,000 to be added to the annual tax list in support of the Federal Govern ment. This sum, Alexander Hamilton, then Secretary of the Treasury, proposed to raise by an " excise" tax on distilleries, and by ad ditional duties on imported liquors. In con firmation of the Treasurer's recommendation, the Congress of 1791-92 enacted laws impos ing upon all imported spirits a duty varying from twenty to forty cents a gallon. The ex cise to be collected on domestic spirits varied, with their strength, from nine to twenty-five cents per gallon on those distilled from grain, and from eleven to thirty cents when the ma terial was molasses or other imported product, thus allowing a considerable discrimination in favor of the exclusively home product. For the collection of these duties each State was made an inspection district, with its su pervisor, and each district was subdivided Into surveys of inspection, each with its in spector. All distillers were required to enter their distilleries at the nearest office of inspec tion, with a complete description of all the buildings, which buildings were to be subject to the constant examination of an inspector appointedfor that purpose, who was to guage and brand the casks, the duties to be paid before the removal of the spirits from the dis tillery. But, to save the expense and trouble HISTORY OF FORMER CONSPIRACIES, to both parties of this constant oversight, the [ small Country stills not situated in any town or village, were to pay an annual rate of sixty cents per gallon on the capacity of the still. AH casks containing spirits not properly branded and certified were liable to forfeiture. Pennsylvania at that time manufactured great quantities of whiskey. Indeed, it was manufactured liberally by all the States, and became so common as a beverage as to be re garded one of the actual necessaries of life. Its tax, and consequent enhancement of cost to the consumer, created as much feeling as if flour and bacon were to become agents in re plenishing an exhausted treasury. But, in Pennsylvania, west of the Alleghany moun tains, the excitement soon assumed the tone of a menace. In that particular section the chief grain grown was rye, which, in the shape of whiskey, could be transported to the East and be exchanged for every needed com modity. Whiskey thus became a kind of cur rency. To tax it was regarded as an arbitrary assumption which it was as just and necessary to repudiate as to resist-the tea and stamp tax imposed by the British Parliament. This feeling became so general that, in the four western counties of the State named, combinations were entered into by the distil lers and the people to resist, by force, the col lection of the tax. The first step was to warn away the collectors; next, to forbid the in spectors 'ftom , entering any distillery, public or private.* Indignities were, consequently, freely visited upon the "minions of the law." Johnson, collector for Alleghany, was seized, shaved, tarred and feathered, and driven out side of his district. An inspector named Wil son, who had resolved to do his duty, was seized in his own house one night, by men in dis guise, borne to a blacksmith shop, branded on both cheeks by a red hot iron, coated with tar and feathers, and ordered to leave the county. The terror inspired by these and other outrages, caused much alarm through out the entire country. In it friends of the * It is estimated that, in Pennsylvania alone, there were five thousand distilleries, great and small! Great numbers of farmers manufactured their grain into spirits and wagoned it over the mountains to ex change for supplies. government saw the seeds of a powerful in surrection. But, the law must be sustained and the resistants punished; otherwise all law would be at an end, and any armed mob might defy the acts of Congress. A modification of the law was made, by the exertions of the timid, who thought it better to compromise matters than to resort to force. It was in vain ; and Western Penn sylvania successfully resisted the collection of the tax, up to July, 1794. Government then saw the necessity of enforcing the law and of arraigning the malcontents, or else of confess ing its weakness to meet rebellion. Thirty warrants were placed in the hands of the United States Marshal, against offending dis tillers. All save one were successfully served, by the aid of a posse of armed men, under the guidance of the District Inspector, Gen. Neville. This one met the posse by an arm ed resistance. His men fired upon the officers and compelled them to fly for their lives. Neville secured a squad of troops to guard his house, but it was attacked and burned down — the General escaping down the river to Marietta, then crossing over the country to Philadelphia, to make known the true state of affairs to the President. This success gave the insurrectionists a clear field. They proceeded to extremes in their violence against all who upheld the law. The mail was robbed and letters were read to obtain evidence of complicity with government, on the part of citizens. The in surgents summoned the militia, and seven thousand men answered the call. Col. Cook, one of the Judges of Fayette County, was made President of this "assembly of citi zens," and Albert Gallatin (afterwards one of the most eminent men in the country) was chosen Secretary. Gallatin prepared an ad dress which embodied the sentiments of ,the " still loyal people" who were in arms to " re sist a lawless invasion of their rights." A major-general was elected, who proceeded at once to drill the troops and to prepare for fur ther operations. Washington, now thoroughly convinced that further temporising with the wrong was inexcusable, issued his proclamation requiring the insurgents to disperse, and those opposing the laws to desist/ This effected nothing, HISTORY OF FORMER CONSPIRACIES. when he issued a second, calling upon the States of Virginia, Maryland, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania for 13,000 troops to sup press the rebellion.* This was the begin ning of the end. The insurgents, apparently appalled by the President's well understood purpose to arrest and hang every man found in arms, called a Convention at Parkinson's Ferry, and there adopted resolutions of entire submission. The troops proceeded to the seat of trouble, under command of Gov. Lee, of Virginia, when the excise officers entered, with but occasional signs of opposition, upon their duties. Lee proclaims an amnesty, and the matter ended by Pennsylvania whiskey contributing essentially to enhance the reven ues of the country. THE ALIEN AND SEDITION EMEUTE, 1798. During the administration of John Adams the country was visibly affected by the French Revolution, whose terrible tragedy was then being enacted. It created, in America, a strong party, in sympathy with the revolu tionists, notwithstanding the French Direc tory had, with reckless impudence, preyed upon our commerce, insulted our foreign agents, and refused liquidation for authenti cated claims. Jefferson was, from his long residence in France, and his strong sympathy with the ultra-democratic idea, the virtual leader of the sympathisers in this country. Running for the Presidency he was beaten by Adams. This was construed by the French as a non-recognition, by this country, of their new government; they therefore rather in- * It was not until February 28th, 1795, that Con gress passed the act to empower the President to call out troops in certain emergencies, under which law Mr. Lincoln acted in 1861. Washington really exceeded his authority ; but, Congress not being in session for the moment, he was compelled to act and look to the people and to Congress for his justi fication. Congress justified him by the passage of the act referred to, which was then designed to meet all such cases of danger occurring during the ad journment of the Legislative Body. Mr. Lincoln in availing himself of that act, did not exceed its powers in calling 75,000 men "to suppress said com binations and to cause the laws to be duly respected." tensified their lawless course towards our commerce and ministers. Their organ, the Aurora, of Philadelphia, and its '' anti-Fede ral" echoes throughout the country, became excessively insolent toward the " Federals," going so far in their malignant endeavors to excite the country against the party, as to heap lampoons even upon Washington's head. The French Directory refused to receive our minister, Mr. Pinckney, and left no means un tried for mortifying our representatives and for crippling our energies at home and abroad. Adams and the Federalists wished, from the first, to preserve a neutrality in regard to the wars in Europe ; but, the violence of the French sympathisers here, and the continued persecutions of our commerce by the French, left no alternative, apparently, but to resent not only French indignities, but also to place the large number of foreign malcontents, seeking by their immeasurable libels to stir up sedition, under the restraints of law. Acting under the impulses of the prevail ing excitement against this revolutionary for eign element, the question was raised whe ther the safety of the country did not demand that such foreign residents in the United States as were known to give aid to external enemies should not be banished; while, to protect the President, Congress, and public officers from the atrocious falsehoods and libels put forth day by day, it was proposed to pass a Sedition law which should meet the case. The question was finally met in Con gress by the passage of three acts. The first was an amendment to the naturali zation act, extending the previous residence to fourteen years, and requiring five years pre vious declaration of intention to become a citizen. A register was also kept of all aliens resident in the country. A second act, limited to two years, gave the President authority to order out of the country all such aliens as he might deem dangerous' to the peace and safety of the United States. By a third act, in case of declaration of war all natives or citizens of the hostile nation were liable to be apprehended or removed. These acts produced extreme excitement. The second, familiarly called the Alien Act, was strenuously opposed in the House, and HISTORY OF FORMER CONSPIRACIES. only passed by a vote of 46 to 40. Neither this act nor the third, however, were enforced, it being left to the discretion of the President to do. so or not. They served, nevertheless, the good effect of starting from our shores three ships' loads of Frenchmen, whose pre sence in America had given great offence. Among the number was Volney, the revolu tionist and infidel. June 26th, 1798, Mr. Lloyd, of Maryland, introduced the Sedition law to Congress. After various amendments and much opposi- sition, it passed. It provided: First, that it is a high misdemeanor, punishable by fine, not exceeding five thousand dollars, for any per sons to conspire against the government of the United States to impede the operation of the law, or to commit, advise or attempt to pro cure any insurrection, riot, unlawful assembly or combination. The second section subjected to a fine, not exceeding two thousand dollars, the publishing of any false, scandalous or ma licious writings against the government of the United States, or either house of Congress, or the President, with intent to defame them or bring them in disrepute, or to excite against them the hatred of the people of the United States, or to stir up sedition, or to excite any unlawful combination for opposing any law of the United States, or to encourage any hos tile designs of any foreign nation against the United States. The act was to continue in force until June 25th, 1800. These acts called forth the most determined opposition from the " anti-Federalists," who regarded them as unconstitutional and highly offensive. As the Alien law was not enforced, and as the Sedition law terminated by limi tation in less than two years, it is evident that it was not the laws themselves which offended so much, as the principle involved. They gave occasion, therefore, for Jefferson's cele brated " Resolutions of '98," introduced by George Nicholas, into the Kentucky Legisla ture. The original draft of these resolutions, in Jefferson's own hand-writing, is yet pre served. As introduced by Nicholas, however, some of its more objectionable sections were mc dified. The original draft began with a resolution that the Federal Government is a compact between the States, as States, by which is created a general government for special pur poses, each State reserving to itself the resi duary mass pf power and right, and that, as in other cases of compact between parties, having no common judge, each party has an equal right to judge for itself, as well as of infractions as of the mode and measure of re dress. Then followed five resolutions, practi cally applying to the acts of the last Con gress — this alleged right of the States to judge of infractions and their remedy, not merely as a matter of opinion, but officially and consti tutionally as parties to the compact, and as the foundation of important legislation. These three acts were severally to punish counterfeiters of bills of the United States Bank, the Sedition Law and the Alien Law — all of which, for various reasons assigned, were successively pronounced "not law, but altogether void and of no force." The Sena tors and members of Kentucky were directed to lay these resolutions before the two Houses of Congress, and the Governor was also in structed to transmit the resolutions to the legislatures of the several States, to whom an earnest appeal was made for a concurrence with Kentucky in requesting the repeal of the obnoxious laws, and declaring them void and of no force. This was the shape in which, with only two or three dissenting votes, the resolutions passed the Kentucky Legislature on the 14th of November, 1798. The same sentiments were embodied in re solutions introduced by Madison to the Vir ginia Legislature, Dec. 24th, 1798. A month later they were sent out to the several States accompanied by an address. All however ended here. None of the States responded favorably to the resolutions ; but, on the contrary, Maryland, Delaware, Penn sylvania, New Jersey, New York, Connecticut, Rhode Island, Massachusetts, New Hampshire and Vermont disavowed the doctrine, set up of a right in the State Legislatures to decide upon the validity of acts of Congress. The reply of Massachusetts likewise maintained the constitutionality of the Alien and Sedition laws as being justified by the exigency of the moment, and the power of Congress to pro vide for the common defence. Mr. Everett says: — "But the resolutions did their .work — all they were intended or 1 HISTORY OF FORMER CONSPIRACIES. expected to do — by shaking the administra tion. At the ensuing election, Mr. Jefferson, at whose instance the entire movement was made, was chosen President by a very small majority; Mr. Madison was placed at the head of his administration as Secretary of State; the obnoxious laws expired by their own limitation; and Mr. Jefferson proceeded to administer the Government upon constitu tional principles quite as lax, to say the least, as those of his predecessors." These resolutions we have referred to at seemingly unnecessary length; but, as they contain the germ of all the ideas since ad vanced of the right of a State to interpret — to adopt or nullify — the laws of Congress, they deserve especial attention. They were simply acted upon and repeated by the trai torous Hartford Convention — were simply re produced by South Carolina in her Nullifica tion Ordinance of 1832, and put in practice by the revolutionists of 1860, as will be shown. THE CONSPIRACY OF AARON BURR, 1806-7. Aaron Burr came within one vote of being the Democratic President of the United States. His competitor, Jefferson, finally obtained the casting vote of Mr. Bayard, Federalist, of De laware. He thereupon became President, and Burr Vice-President. The history of that seven days balloting is one of the most re markable episodes in that day of intrigues, of plots and counterplots. It shows Burr to have been a subtle, unscrupulous and perfectly im mobile man — one well fitted for " stratagems, treasons and spoils." Burr served the one term with ability, plotting a stroke for the Presidency. But, the Democracy found rea son to distrust him, and named George Clin ton, of New York, as their candidate for Vice- President —Mr. Jefferson standing for his second term as Chief-Magistrate. Burr, not to be thwarted, and hoping to heap confusion upon his opponents, avowed himself an inde pendent candidate for the Gubeanatorial chair of New York, and would have defeat ed opposition had he not been so thorough ly distrusted. Alexander Hamilton cast his great influence against the intriguer — prefer- ing that the Federalists should pass from power rather than contribute one vote to the election of a person as base as Burr. That opposition defeated the ambitious aspirant, and Hamilton paid the penalty of his life for the part he had acted. Burr challenged him to mortal combat, and, by avoiding every possibility of a settlement, forced the unwilling Hamilton to place his body as a target for the unerring weapon of his implacable adversary. They met July 11th, 1804. Burr took most deliberate aim and shot his antagonist. Hamilton did not fire at all, as he proposed, though his pistol exploded from the convulsive motion of his finger on the trigger when Burr's ball struck his bosom. Burr fled, and the execrations of a nation followed him. He sought a brief residence, " until the storm should pass over," in the Southern States, where a successful duelist ever has a passport to public and pri vate favor. From thence he journeyed back to Washington to preside over the Senate. In Virginia he had a most enthusiastic public reception. At the same time two warrants were out for his arrest as a murderer, one in New York and one in New Jersey. At Wash ington he was received, Parton* says, with more deference than usual. The President, he says, even gave one or two appointments to his (Burr's) friends — one, General Wilkin son, being made Governor of the Territory of Louisiana. He sought to make good use of this appointment afterward, but eventually found a betrayer in him whom he had sought to promote. The summer of 1805 Burr spent in the West and South, in quest of a new home where his energies might find full play. If he had conceived any definite plan of revolu tion, at that time, it is not known. The summer was ' passed merely in observation and visiting, from Pittsburg all along the river down to New Orleans, making two vis its to Nashville, Tenn. At all places he was the welcomed guest of leading men, and, pro fiting by their knowledge and influence, gain ed such information as he desired in regard * See Parton's Life of Burr, chapter XVI. Randall's Life of Jefferson, Vol. II., Chap. IX. Also, HISTORY OF FORMER CONSPIRACIE 9 to the resources and population of the country as well as of the feeling of the people toward the Union and toward Spain, then still in pos session of the country lying west of the Mis sissippi. During the fall of 1805 he returned to Washington, and was well received, being dined by Mr. Jefferson. He spent the winter in Washington and Philadelphia ; but, what he was doing is not fully known further than what was afterwards betrayed by Gen. Eaton, then recently returned from the Mediterra nean. To him he divulged the fact of his contemplated expedition against Mexico, and thus secured a promise of his co-operation. He also developed a project for revolution izing the Western country, establishing a mo narchy, organizing a force of ten or twelve thousand volunteers, and, finally, securing the co-operation of the marine corps at Washing ton and gaining over Truxton, Preble, Deca tur and others; he then intended to turn Congress ont of doors, assassinate the Presi dent, seize on the Treasury and Navy, and declare himself the Protector of an energetic government. It is to be doubted, however, if these really were well concerted plans of Burr. He doubtless adverted to them as what might and ought to be. They prove, at most, that the fertile brain of the conspi rator was meditating some grand enterprise, worthy even of his master skill. Eaton, it is said, was satisfied that his friend was a dan gerous man. He accordingly waited upon the President, and made a partial revelation of the facts, suggesting the propriety of ap pointing Burr to some foreign mission to " keep him out of mischief." In 1806 Burr again went West, making his head-quarters at Blannerhassett's Island, in the Ohio River, a few miles below Marietta. The owner of the island, a reckless and ra ther shiftless Irishman, had become a partner in the " enterprise"- to the extent of embark ing his entire' fortune — in what ? He con fesses he did not know, only that, by floating down the Mississippi, he was to float into prosperity, and Lady Blannerhassett was to become more than a lady. It was proven, on their trial in Richmond, that the too-credu lous Irishman never knew that he had com- mittpd or was to commit treason against the Government of the United States. 2 During the entire summer of 1806 the West teemed with reports of Burr's designs upon the South ; but, notwithstanding many men were in his service as soldiers and assistants, and that boats lay at Marietta loaded with provisions and military stores, none knew aught of the destination of the expedition — not even the men embarked in it ! Gen. Wil kinson alone appeared to be in the secret. With him Burr was in constant correspond ence, in cypher ; but Wilkinson, in his labor ed defence against the charges of complicity with Burr, denied any knowledge of his real designs until at a late period, when he imme diately divulged them, and aided Govern ment, by his duplicity and his fears, to arrest the adventurer. In the fall of 1806 the " Monarch of an un defined realm" was arrested in Kentucky, by order of government ; and, through the vigir lance of that remarkable man, Col. Joe Da viess, was brought to trial. Henry Clay acted for the defence, upon the solemn assurance of Burr that he meditated no enterprise or act contrary to the laws and the peace of the land. By hastening the trial ere important witnesses could be produced, Burr was acquis ted. Joe Daviess opposed the tide of public sentiment in prosecuting Burr, but his saga city was not to be deceived — he read in the adventurer's very eyes his subtle and dan gerous nature ; and, though he failed to con vict, and injured his own personal popula rity greatly by the determined character of the prosecution — persecution it was called by Clay — he had the satisfaction of seeing all his prophecies, regarding the man, fully ve rified. After acquittal, Burr hastened from Frank fort to the Ohio river, and passed down stream with his flats and companions- in-adventure — among whom were Blanner hassett and his wife. But a few days after his departure Jefferson's proclamation, de nouncing the expedition, was received at Frankfort — much to Clay's mortification and Daviess' regret. The boats still at Marietta were seized, and Blannerhassett's island was occupied by United States militia ; but Burr had escaped down the Mississippi. In January, 1807, the flotilla of Burr ar rived at Bayou Pierre, on the Lower Missis- 10 HISTORY OF FORMER CONSPIRACIES sippi. He was there seized by the Gover nor of Mississippi, but managed shortly after to effect his escape. A reward of two thou sand dollars was offered for his apprehen sion, and many arrests were made of his sup posed accomplices. The narrative of his ar rest is as follows: — "About the 1st of Feb., late at night, a man in the garb of a boat man, with a single companion, arrived at the door of a small log -cabin in the backwoods of Alabama. Col. Nicholas Perkins, who was present, observed by the light of the fire that the stranger, though coarsely dressed, possessed a countenance of unusual intelli gence, and an eye of sparkling brilliancy. The tidy boot, which his vanity could not surrender with his other articles of finer cloth ing, attracted Perkins' attention, and led Mm truly to conclude that the mysterious stranger was none other than the famous Colonel Burr. That night Perkins started for Fort Stoddart, on the Tombigbee, and communicated his suspicions to the late General Edmund P. Gaines, then the lieutenant in command. The next day Gaines, with a file of soldiers, started in pursuit of Burr and arrested him on his journey. Burr attempted to intimidate his captor; but the young officer was resolute, and told him he must aocompany him to his quarters, where he would be treated with all the respect due the ex- Vice-President of the United States. In about three weeks Bun- was sent to Richmond, Va., under a special guard selected by Colonel Perkins, upon whom he could depend in any emergency. Perkins knew the fascinations of Burr, and fearing his familiarity with the men — indeed, fearing the same influences upon himself— he obtained from them the most solemn pledges that they would hold no interviews with the prisoner, nor suffer him to escape alive. " In their journey through Alabama they always slept in the woods, and, after a hastily prepared breakfast, it was their custom to re mount and march on in gloomy silence. Burr was a splendid rider, and in his rough garb he bestrode his horse as elegantly, and his large dark eyes flashed as brightly, as if he were at the head of his New York Regiment." After a number of interesting adventures Perkins and his prisoner reached Richmond, where he was soon after tried for treason and misdemeanor, the trial commencing May 22d, 1807. This trial was one of the most remarka ble which ever transpired on this continent. Chief Justice Marshall, " the Washington of the bench," presided over the court. The legal talent engaged embraced such names as those of Wirt, for the prosecution, and Luther Mar tin and Edmund Randolph, for the defence. Fourteen days were spent in getting a jury. Nine days were exhausted in arguments on the inadmissibility of indirect evidence, in which Burr's astonishing tact was too much for his opponents. The trial for treason ended August 29th. The Chief Justice charged the jury September 1st, and, in a few moments, the verdict came in, in irregular and equivocal shape, not guilty. • The trial for misdemeanor then proceeded, and ended, in October, by acquittal, on the ground that the offense was committed in Ohio — therefore, that Virginia had no juris diction. Thus released, Burr fled — none knew whither, except his few friends. Liable to be carried to Ohio for further trial— to be tried in New York and New Jersey for mur der — he could only escape by secretly leaving the country. All the winter of 1807-8 he was kept secure from discovery, and, in June, 1808, passed over to England as G. H. Ed wards. THE HARTFORD CONVENTION CON SPIRACY, 1814. The Embargo act of 1809 gave intense dis satisfaction in Massachusetts. At that time that State had a heavy interest at sea, and the embargo affected her commerce disastrously. Many leading loyal men of the State pronounc ed the act to be unconstitutional. A large meeting in Boston declared the act arbitrary and unconstitutional, and that all who assist ed in carrying out the law should be regarded as enemies of the State and as hostile to the liberties of the people. To aggravate the evil feeling there appeared, in the New Eng land States, one John Henry, whose mission, it eventually became apparent, was to foment HISTORY OF FORMER CONSPIRACIES, 11 the excitement into open rupture against the Federal Government. Madison, in his special message to Congress, said of him: — "He has been employed as a secret agent of the British government in the New England States in intrigues with the disaffected, for the purpose of bringing about resistance to the laws, and eventually, in concert with a British force, of destroying the Union and forming the eastern part thereof into a political connection with Great Britain." He was in correspondence with parties in Canada, and was known to maintain intimate relations with some of the leading malcontents in Boston and other New England cities. He intrigued and plotted beyond the power of Government to arrest "a subject of the British crown." The declaration of war against Great Brit ain, June 18th, 1812, brought the excitement to its climax. A "Peace Party" was formed in New England, pledged to offer all possible opposition to the war. Taxes to support State levies of militia were not readily assess ed nor easily collected. _The New England States were so backward in sending their quotas and supplies to the field that, for much of the time, the army on the Northern fron tier was in a powerless condition. The United States treasury was in a distressed condition. The banks throughout the country, except those of New England, had suspended specie payment. Everything betokened a weak government, and a want of confidence and harmony among the States. A late writer says: — "During the year 1814 the situation of the New England States was in the highest degree critical and dangerous. The services of the militia for two years had been extremely severe, and the United States had been compelled to withhold all supplies for their sustenance, and throw upon the States the burden of supporting the troops which defended their coast from invasion and their towns from pillage. Congress gave the command of this militia to the officers of the regular army. To this the Governors of Mas sachusetts and Connecticut refused to submit, and the authorities of the latter State passed a law for raising a provisional army of 2,000 men for ' special State defence,' of which one of her own citizens was made the commander. The course of Massachusetts in other respects was not less hostile to the general government. Her Legislature refused to Captain Lawrence, afterwards of the ill-fated Chesapeake, a vote of thanks for his capture of the Peacock, be lieving, in the language of the resolution, " that ina war like the present, waged with out justifiable cause, and prosecuted in a man ner indicating that conquest and ambition were its real motives, it was not becoming a moral and religious people to express any ap probation of military and naval exploits not directly connected with the defence of our seacoast and soil.' At the same time the peo ple of the New England States began to cry out for ' a separate peace.' The Vermont mi litia were withdrawn from the field, and on a proposition being made in Congress to prose cute the Governor for this act, Harrison Gray Otis laid on the table of the Massachusetts Senate a resolution, expressive of the duty of his State to aid with her whole power the Governor of Vermont in support of her con stitutional rights, by whomsoever infringed." The spirit of opposition went so far in Con necticut that the enemy's vessels, which lay off the harbor of New London to intercept Decatur's frigates, were advised by blue lights on the hills, of the movements of the Ameri can ships. This incident gave rise to the ex pression — "Blue-light Federalists," which be came a term of opprobrium for the opponents of the war. The State Legislatures of Massachusetts, Connecticut, Vermont, &c, passed laws for bidding the use of their jails by the United States for the confinement of prisoners, com mitted by any other than judicial authority, and directing the jailors at the end of thirty days to discharge all British officers, prisoners of war, committed to them. The President, however, applied to other States of the Con federacy for the use of their prisons, and thus the difficulty was in a measure obviated. This opposition of course met with the sharpest recrimination from the Central and Southern States of the Union, which, gener ally, supported the war policy of the Govern ment. Anathema and invective were freely bestowed upon the " Yankees," and, as a na tural result, the friendly feeling of the New Englanders did not wax warmer toward their confederates. Action, long threatened, final- 12 HISTORY OF FORMER CONSPIRACIES. Iy came. The Massachusetts Legislature, by report of a joint committee on the question of calling a Convention of the States, urged a conference as " expedient to lay the founda tion of a radical reform in the national com pact, and devise some mode of defence suit able to those States, the affinity of whose in terests are closest, and whose habits of inter course are most frequent." This report was adopted by a vote of three to one, though it was protested against by a powerful mino rity, who declared it a step toward a dissolu tion of the Union, and therefore treason. On the 18th of October twelve delegates were elected to confer with delegates from the other New England States. Seven dele gates were also appointed by Connecticut and four by Rhode Island. New Hampshire was represented by two and Vermont, by one. The Convention met at Hartford, Connecti cut, on the 15th of December, 1814. After a session of twenty days a report was adopted, which, with but slight stretch of imagination, we may suppose to have originated from a kind of en rapport association with the South Carolina Convention of 1861. We may quote from the Report : " To prescribe patience and firmness to those who are already exhausted by distress is sometimes to drive them to despair, and the progress towards re form by the regular road is irksome to those whose imaginations discern and whose feelings prompt to a shorter course. But when abuses, reduced to a sys tem, and accumulated through a course of years have pervaded every department of government, and spread corruption through every region of the state ; when these are clothed with the forms of law, and enforced by an Executive whose will is their source, no summary means of relief can be applied without recourse to direct and open resistance. It is a truth not to be concealed that a time for a change is at hand. * * * A reformation of public opinion, re sulting from dear bought experience in the Southern, Atlantic states at least, is not to be despaired of. They will have seen that the great and essential in terests of the people are common to the South and to the East. They will realize the fatal errors of a system which seeks revenge for commercial injuries in the sacrifice of commerce, and aggravates by needless wars the injuries it professes to redress. Indications of this desirable revolution of opinion among our brethren in those states are already manifested. Finally, if the Union be destined to dissolution by reason of the multiplied abuses of bad administrations, it should be, if possible, the work of peaceable times and deliberate consent. Some new form of confederacy should be sub stituted among those states which shall intend to maintain a federal relation to each other. Events may prove that the causes of our calamities are deep and permament. They may be found to pro ceed not merely from the blindness or prejudioe, pride of opinion, violence of party spirit, or the con fusion of the times ; but they may be traced to im placable combinations of individuals or of states to monopolise power and office, and to trample without remorse upon the rights and interests of commercial sections of the Union. Whenever it shall appear that the causes are radical and permanent, a separa tion by equitable arrangement will be preferable to an alliance by constraint among nominal friends, but real enemies, inflamed by mutual hatred and jea lousy, and inviting, by intestine divisions, contempt and aggression from abroad, — but a severance of the Union by one or more states against the will of the rest, and especially in time of war, can be justified only by absolute necessity." The Report then proceeds to consider the several subjects of complaint, the principal of which is the national authority over the militia, claimed by gov ernment. Continuing, it says : " In this whole series of de vices and measures for raising men, this Convention discerns a total disregard for the Constitution, and a disposition to violate its provisions, demanding from the individual States a firm and decided opposition. An iron despotism can impose no harder service upon the citizen than to force him from his home and his occupation to wage offensive war undertaken to gratify the pride or passions of his master. * * In cases of deliberate, dangerous, and palpable infrac tions of the Constitution, affecting the sovereignly of a State and the liberties of the people, it is not only the right, but the duty of such Stale to interpose its authority for the protection in the manner best calculated to secure that end. When emergencies occur which are either be yond the reach of the judicial tribunals, or too pressing to admit of the delay incident to their forms, States which have no common umpire must be their own judges and execute their own decisions. ' ' * * This sentiment, here italicised, is that of State supremacy in its unadulterated form — such supre macy as really renders the hold of the Constitution and the power of Congress over the States that of a mere contract, to bo dissolved at will. But, nulli fying and disintegrating as it was, Mr. Jefferson him self set the precedent. In his Kentucky resolutions, before referred to, he began with a resolution that the Federal Constitution is a compact between Slates as States, by which is created a General Government HISTORY OF FORMER CONSPIRACIES. 13 The Convention adjourned January 5th, 1815, and, so doubtful was it of the propriety of its acts, that the resolutions adopted were not made public until two weeks after ad journment. These resolutions were, in brief, as follows : — The first recommended the Legislatures of the States represented to protect the citizens of the se veral States from the operation of acts passed by Congress, subjecting th'em to forcible drafts, con scriptions or impressments, not authorized by the Constitution. The second recommended that the States be em powered to defend themselves, and that they have for their own use their proportion of the taxes col lected. , The third recommended each State to defend itself. The fourth recommended amendments to the Con stitution as follows : — Apportionment of representation and taxation the basis of white population. New States to be admitted by a vote of two-thirds of both houses of Congress. Congress shall have no power to lay an embargo of more than sixty days duration. for special purposes — each State reserving for itself the residuary mass of power and right; and "that, as in other cases of compact between parties having no common judge, each parly has an equal right to judge for itself, as well of infractions as of the mode and measure of redress." Perhaps the special pleader may be able to discover that this assumption, by Mr. Jefferson, is not that of the Hartford Conven tion ; but, to the mass of readers, who take words in their accredited signification, the Hartford resolves will seem but Mr. Jefferson's reproduced. If any lingering doubt exists as to the extent of Mr. Jeffer son's nullification sentiments, they will be dissipated by the eighth resolution, which expressly and di rectly declares that {the States themselves being the sole judges) where Congress assumes powers not de legated by the people, " a nullification of the act is the right remedy ; and that every State has a natu ral right, in cases not within the compact, to nullify, of their own authority, all assumptions of power, by others within their limits." We are at a loss, in view of this express declaration, and that which im mediately follows it in the same resolutions, to dis cover upon what authority Mr. Everett [See his ad dress, July 4th, 1861] denies the nullification senti ment as Mr. Jefferson's own. The " theoretic generalities" read so much like Hartford Convention and South Carolina Convention specialities, that or dinary perceptive faculties; will not discover their differences. Congress shall not have power to interdict foreign trade without a vote of two-thirds of both houses. Congress shall not make war by a less vote than two-thirds of both branches, unless in defence of ter ritory actually invaded. No naturalized citizen to be eligible to any civil office under the United States. No President to be elected twice, or for two terms, nor to be chosen from the same State twice in suc cession. The report concluded with the recommendation that if the foregoing resolutions should be unsuccess ful when submitted to the general government through the respective States, if peace should not be concluded, and the defence of the New England States be neglected, as it had been, it would be ex pedient for the Legislatures of the several States to appoint delegates to another Convention to meet at Boston, " with such powers and instructions as the exigency of a crisis so momentous may require." The sessions of the Convention, like those of similar conventions held in the seceded States at a later day, were secret. The people of Hartford, justly indignant at the presence of a " body of disorganisers" in their midst, expressed their loyalty to the government in various ways. The resolutions brought forth a burst of indignation from all quarters of the Union. The go6d sense of the mass of New England people then perceived what a dan gerous thing they had nursed into life, and none were more willing to consign the twenty- six members of the Convention (twenty of whom were lawyers!) to infamy, than the in telligent and influential portion of the "Yan kees" themselves. The responses of such States as took the trouble to respond to the propositions made to them, were adverse to the proposed changes in the Constitution. The doctrines set forth both in the Address and Resolutions gave dissatisfaction to those dissatisfied with the embargo and the war. No second Convention was called, for, not a town or village in New England, one year later, would have tolerated the sittings of such a body in its precincts. Well would it have been for the country — for the lately seceded States — if the loyal people of the cotton-growing commonwealths had crushed their disloyal leaders as the New Englanders crushed out the treason hatched by the Hartford Disunion Convention I 14 HISTORY OF FORMER CONSPIRACIES, =1 THE MISSOURI COMPROMISE EX CITEMENT— 1819-21. The Territory of Missouri came forward, in December, 1818, for admission into the Union as a State. As Slavery existed in the territo ry, the admission as a State involved the prin ciples of a recognition of the "peculiar insti tution," and its right to extension. The Freesoil element of the Northern or Free States becoming alarmed, resolved to oppose the admission of the territory as a State with a Slave clause in its constitution. The South, equally rlp.tprminp.fl, resolved the State should have Slavery if it wanted it, and thereby assumed that position which it has ever since persistently maintained — of a Slave right in the territories. The issue, thus squarely pre sented, was met in the House of Represen tatives by a bill (introduced by Mr. Tall- madge, of New York,) prohibiting Slavery, " except for the punishment of crimes, and that all children born in the said State after the admission thereof into the Union, shallbe free at the age of twenty-five years." This passed the House, but was lost in the Senate. For eighteen months the discussion was con tinued in both branches of Congress with great ability, and not without great excitement which extended to every section of the Union On the one hand, it was contended that the ordinance of 1787, which excluded Slavery from all territory north-west of the river Ohio, was a public recognition of the princi ples of the people of the United States in re gard to the establishment of Slavery in new States and Territories in that region, and that the proposal to establish it in Missouri was a direct violation of these fundamental princi ples. On the other hand, it was urged that Slavery was incorporated in the system of so ciety when Louisiana, which comprehended the territory of Missouri in 1803, was pur chased from the French, and that as the faith of the United States was pledged by treaty to all the inhabitants of that wide domain to maintain their rights and privileges on the same footing with the people of the rest of the country, it would be a violation of that faith and those rights to abolish the institution of Slavery without their consent. Henry, Clay then came forward with his well known " compromise" resolutions, and, by his eloquence and great personal influence, succeeded in securing their passage — thus averting the peril threatened, of a disruption of the Union. The Compromise consisted of admitting Missouri as a Slave State, but con ceding, as an equivalent for Northern conces sion in the premises, the prohibition of any further Slave territory north of the parallel 36 deg. 30 min. The Compromise, though unpalatable to the opponents of the right of Slave extension, was accepted as a solemn guarantee against all further extension, as, south of the parallel named, the territory then was not ours. Had it not been proposed and pledged as such a guarantee, the bill of Mr. Clay never could have passed the House of Representatives. It was not until August, 1821, that the State was admitted. Prior to this the terri tory had adopted a State Constitution, one provision of which required the Legislature to pass a law "to prevent free negroes from coining to and settling in the State." When presented to Congress, this provision was strenuously opposed, but Missouri was finally admitted, on condition that no law should be passed by which any citizen of either of the States of the Union should be excluded from the enjoyment of any of the privileges and immunities to which such citizen is entitled under the Constitution of the United States. The vote upon the passage of the bill in the House was 86 to 82, several members from non-Slaveholding States voting for it. In the Senate it was passed two to one — 28 to 14. Missouri thus became one of the United States, measureably to increase the power of the Slave States in the government. State byState had been added to the original thirteen — Alaba ma, Tennessee, Kentucky, Mississippi, Loui siana, all with Slavery in their borders, and- bearing to Congress the preponderating weight of their votes. The admission of Missouri, and the later admission of Arkansas and Flo rida, confirmed the supremacy of the South in the National counsels ; a supremacy which was not disturbed until the repeal of the Missouri Compromise in 1854 called into life the party which, in 1860, succeeded to the majority.* * Mr. Everett states : — " Out of seventy-two years since the organization of this government, the Execn- HISTORY OF FORMER CONSPIRACIES. 15 THE INDIAN DIFFICULTIES IN GEORGIA, 1825. The immense tracts of lands held in Geor gia, Alabama, Florida and Mississippi by the Creeks, Choctaws, Chicksaw and Cherokee Indians, proved, for awhile, the source of much anxiety to government. The " reserva tions" guaranteed by solemn treaty to the Indians, in the various Southern and Western States, embraced immense bodies of choice land, up to a comparatively recent period. Thus, the treaties secured to the savages, and promised protection from all infringements by the whites on their domains, territories as follows : — In Georgia, nine and a half millions of acres ; in Alabama, seven and a half mil lions ; in Mississippi, fifteen and three-quarter millions; in the Territory of Florida, four millions; in the Territory of Arkansas, fifteen and a half millions ; in the State of Missouri, two millions and three-quarters; in Indiana and Illinois, fifteen millions, and in Michigan, east of the lake, seven millions. The " march of civilization" soon compass ed these reservations with white settlements, and, as a matter of course, trouble followed. Encroachments would be made by the whites, covetous of the land or of its game. Indians would murder the whites and give the State authorities and General Government plenty to do to keep them in bounds. So great be came the anxiety, in the Southern States named, to get rid of the aborigines, that their State Legislatures demanded of Government the entire removal of the red-men from their midst to the unsettled Territories around the tive Chair has, for tiity-four years, been filled nearly all the time by Southern Presidents; or when not by Southern men, by those possessing the confidence of the South. For a still longer period the controlling in fluences of the Legislative and Judicial Departments of the government have centered in the same quarter. Of all the offices in the gift of the central power, in every department, far more than her proportionate share has always been enjoyed by the South." It is well to remember so important a fact. Judge Holt, of Kentucky, used these facts, in his speech made at " Camp Holt," late in July, 1860, with most damag ing force against those who made th& plea that the South had been denied her rights and just share in the Government. head waters of the Arkansas river. Georgia made her demand peremptorily, since she held the Federal Government bound by a compact to relieve her. This compact stipu lated that, in consideration of Georgia relin quishing her title and claim to the Mississip pi Territory, the General Government would extinguish the Indian titles to the lands with in her confines, " whenever it could be peace ably done and on reasonable terms." After making that agreement the Government suc ceeded in extinguishing the title to about fifteen million acres, and conveyed the same to the State of Georgia. There still remained 9,537,000 acres in the possession of the In dians, of which 5,292,000 acres belonged to the Cherokees and the remainder to the Creek nation. Shortly before the .termination of Mr. Monroe's administration, the State Gov ernment became very urgent for the entire removal of the Indians, and at the solicitation of the Governor two Commissioners were ap pointed to make a treaty with the Creeks for the purchase of their lands. This was a trea ty negotiated on the 12th of February, 1825, the famous Chief, General William Mcintosh, signing it in the presence of Mr. Crowell, the United States Indian Agent, by which all the Creek country and several millions of acres in Alabama were ceded to the United States. Complaints followed it to Washington as hav ing been concluded by Mcintosh without the authority of the nation. The ratification of the treaty was opposed, but was finally car ried by the strong vote of thirty-four to four. This sanction, on reaching the ears of the dis contented Creeks,produced great excitement, and a secret council of the nation being called, they resolved not to accept the treaty. The death of Mcintosh was determined on, and on the 30th of April his house was surround ed by a party, who shot him and another chief, and burned his premises. This aroused the State authorities to a determined course, and Georgia resolved to take possession of the lands by force. Troops were called out to sustain the claim. By this act the State opened a controversy with the General Gov ernment, which was bound to protect the In dians in their just rights. When Mr. Adams came into power he made the subject an early matter of examination, 16 HISTORY OF FORMER CONSPIRACIES. and became convinced that the Indians were right — that the treaty, as they represented, had been made by Mcintosh without author ity, and therefore that the enforcement of its provision ought not to be urged. As Georgia had called out troops to force the savages into an acceptance and fulfillment of the treaty, it only remained for the President to order a Federal force to the confines of the reservation to protect the Indians in their rights. This step aroused not only Georgia, but also the adjoining States, who were pre pared, with troops and money, to assist Geor gia "against the Government and the In dians." To avoid this hazard of war, Mr. Adams- succeeded in gathering at Washington, in January, 1826, the head men and responsible representatives of the Creeks, and concluded a new treaty, which was substituted for the old one, whereby all the lands in Georgia were ceded, but none in Alabama. Notwith standing the oposition of the Georgia delega tion in Congress, the new treaty was ratified by the Senate at the ensuing session by a vote of thirty to seven, and the appropriations were made by the House of Representatives by a vote of one hundred and sixty-seven to ten. This treaty was faithfully observed by the Indians, and Georgia became possessed of their valuable land, after waiting a quarter of a century for Government to fulfil its agree ment (made in 1802). At a late day the Cherokees' title was extinguished in Alaba ma, though their removal to the West was not accomplished until Gen. Scott took the matter in hand (in May, 1838). THE SOUTH CAROLINA NULLIFICA TION CONSPIRACY, 1832-3. This Conspiracy raised the direct issue, in vented by Mr. Jefferson in his Resolutions of '98, of the right of a State to nullify the acts of Congress and to be its own judge of the constitutionality of a law.* * It is denied that Mr. Jefferson is the originator of the idea ; but, as we have before remarked, the evidence to the contrary is, the resolutions theni- The passage of the Tariff Act of 1828 was the immediate cause of the excitement known as the "Nullification" rebellion. That act heavily taxed woolens and other imported products — thus greatly enhancing their price to the South, and restricting importations. The complaint was one well calculated to excite a bitter feeling in the Cotton States, since it took the shape of a "Northern exac tion" — a " tribute to Northern capital and labor" — an " unequal assessment of burdens," &c. Mr. Hayne, U. S. Senator from South Carolina, in January, 1830, arraigned the act as unconstitutional, and asserted the right and duty of the State to nullify the law by refusing to pay the required duties. This speech called forth from Webster his great oration on the powers of the Constitution. In it he so thoroughly killed the assumed right of nullification, that, for the moment, . the friends of resistance to the law were in timidated, if not convinced. The excitement, however, soon received a new impetus, from a most trivial but not less significant source. The matter is thus stated : On the 15th of April, 1830, the anniversary of the birthday of Thomas Jefferson was cele brated by a numerous company at Washing ton city, among whom were the President and Vice-President of the United States, sev eral members of his Cabinet, and a numerous attendance of the members of Congress. With the promulgation of the toasts the feel ing began to spread that the dinner was got up to inaugurate the doctrine of nullification, and make Mr. Jefferson its father. Numbers left the table, but the company was still nu merous and the festivity a success. When the regular toasts were over, the President selves. The time has gone by for us as partisans to make special pleas to explain away or qualify acts and expressions of great leaders. Let plain words be interpreted in the plain way. There has been so much " pettifogging" in regard to the clear, Saxon expressions of the Constitution, So much good sense wasted in constructing equivocalities for party plat forms, so much legal doubt created by Supreme Court decisions on property in men, that we should be permitted to regard them all as c msigned to the past, and to read the records by the new and direct ' light of a present disenthralment of mind from old passions and prejudices. HISTORY OF FORMER CONSPIRACIE! 17 was called upon for a volunteer, and gave one which has since become historical. " Our Federal Union — it must be preserv ed." Under the peculiar circumstances of the case — the feeling that had found vent in South Carolina and elsewhere in that section, and the excited state of the public mind gen erally, this simple sentiment was received as a proclamation from the President to announce a plot against the Union. The next toast was by Mr. Calhoun, and it did not by any means allay the suspicions which existed in every bosom. It was this : " The Union, next to our liberty, the most dear : may we all remember that it can only be preserved by respecting the rights of the States, and distributing equally the benefit and burthen of the Union." In the language of Thomas H. Benton, who was present, "this toast touched all the ten der parts of the new question — liberty before Union — only to be preserved. State rights, inequality of burthens and benefits. These phrases connecting themselves with Mr. Hayne's speech, and with proceedings and publications in South Carolina, unveiled nul lification as a new and distinct doctrine in the United States, and the existence of a new party in the field." From that moment the issue was directly presented in the shape of "our rights or dis union," and the State Rights party, in the extreme Southern States, became very power ful, particularly in South Carolina — the home of both Mr. Hayne and John C. Calhoun, where their influence was remarkably strong. To meet the approaching storm, and avert the calamity of an open rupture with South Carolina, a modification was made of the of fensive act; but. the duties were not abated enough. The fact that the movement for nullification and secession had frightened Congress into some concessions made the State Rights men more strenuous than ever. It gave them the prestige which comes from victory. Had not Mr. Calhoun been elected Vice-President of the United States ? Had not Congress made concessions and betrayed a nervous apprehension of South Carolina threats? The leaders of the nullification movement deemed the beginning auspicious for a glorious ending. 3 Meetings took place throughout the State close upon the Presidential election. The Legislature came together amid much excite ment. One of its first acts was to appoint a Committee to report on the relations of the State with the General Government. It re ported that the Federal Constitution was a compact originally formed, not between the people of the different States as distinct and independent sovereignties; that when any violation of the spirit of that compact took place, it was not only the right of the people, but of the State Legislature, to remonstrate against it ; that the Federal Government was responsible to the State Legislatures when ever it assumed powers not conferred; that notwithstanding a tribunal was appointed under the Constitution to decide controver sies where the United States was a party, there were some questions that must occur between the Government and the State which it would be unsafe to submit to any judicial tribunal ; and finally, that there was a pecu liar propriety in a State Legislature's under taking to decide for itself, inasmuch as the Constitution had not provided any remedy. A convention of delegates was thereupon ordered to assemble on the 19th of Novem ber, to act for the State, in the crisis. Mean while the Virginia Legislature, also, by a vote of 154 to 68, gave her assent to the principle of nullification. North Carolina declared against it and held out firmly for the Consti tution and the laws. Alabama and Georgia endorsed South Carolina heartily, and their course led the country to feel that, in event of South Carolina's secession, they would fol low her lead. Government had just succeed ed at enormous cost, in extinguishing the In dian titles to lands in these States, and they in return, were ready to cast off the Govern ment. The Convention of Delegates assembled on the 19th of November. Governor Hayne (late United States Senator) was made its President. The Tariff acts of 1828 and 1832 were declared null and void and not binding upon the citizens of the States. It was fur ther declared that if the United States should attempt to enforce them by naval or military force, the Union was to be dissolved, and a convention called to form a government for 18 HISTORY OF FORMER CONSPIRACIES. South Carolina. It further provided that no appeal should be permitted to the Supreme Court of the United States in any question concerning the validity of the ordinance, or of the laws passed to give effect thereto. This threw the die for the movements to fol low. The Legislature immediately took all steps necessary to carry out the programme of the Convention — the legislators being con vened for the especial purpose, by call of the Governor. The acts adopted embraced one authorizing the Governor to call on the mili tia to resist any attempt on the part of the Government of the United States to enforce the revenue laws. Ten thousand stand of arms and the requisite quantity of military munitions were ordered to be purchased, and any acts done in pursuance of that law were to be held lawful in the State courts. This was followed by the resignation of the Vice-President of the United States by Mr. Calhoun, and he proceeded to Washington to resume his seat in the Senate. The Presi dent, Andrew Jackson, just re-elected, felt extremely indignant toward Calhoun, and, it is now known, had made up his mind to ar rest him, on his arrival at the Capital, to try him for high treason, and to hang him if convicted. He was persuaded from this ex treme and hazardous course by Mr. Webster and others ; and, on the 10th, issued his fa mous proclamation against the nullifiers, in which was forcibly and plainly stated the na ture of the American Government ; the pre tended right of sovereignty was denied ; the su premacy of the Federal Government declared, and an exhortation made to the citizens of South Carolina not to persist in a course which must bring upon their State the force of the Confederacy, and expose the Union to the hazard of dissolution. At the same time all the disposable military force was ordered to assemble at Charleston, and a sloop-of-war was sent to that port to protect the Federal officers, if necessary, in the discharge of their duty. General Scott, then as at a later day, the watchful Guardian of the public weal, was given charge of the military movements, under special instructions from Lewis Cass Secretary of War. Ere the South Carolinians were aware Scott was in Fort Moultrie, with a strong force, prepared to collect the revenues of the harbor at the cannon's mouth, if neces sary. At the opening of Congress, Jackson sent in his Message, setting forth the facts of the case. His policy was one of peaceful settle ment, if possible ; but, if Congress did not repeal or modify the law, he was ready to force South Carolina into submission. Nul lification he termed revolution, which he was bound to suppress. The entire country, save the States of Virginia, South Carolina, Georgia and Alabama, approved " Old Hick ory's" policy, and stood ready to sustain him. Even in these apparently disloyal States there was a very powerful Union party, which re pudiated the baleful idea of nullification, and which, eventually, succeeded in making itself heard and felt. The determined front of the governments — the argument read in General Scott's face — the silent admonition of Moultrie's guns, in duced a material abatement of the nullifiers' zeal. South Carolina, it became painfully evident to the leaders of the conspiracy, could not get out of the Union if she would. Her revenues were collected by the Collector, at the regular Custom House, and, in all other respects, the state of affairs was not changed. The Convention, after its most extraordinary display of arrogance and opposition, resolved to wait until Feb. 1st before ordering hostile action ! On the 21st of January, Mr. Wilkins, of Pennsylvania, introduced in the United States Senate his bill, to empower the President to crush out all opposition to the collection of the revenue by summoning the military pow er of the Confederacy. Pending the discus sion which followed, Calhoun delivered his argument on the Constitution. It was a most powerful and subtle plea, claiming the rights of states as states and independencies, and as suming nullification to be the bulwark of their liberties. The speech was published and cir culated extensively throughout the country, to be quickly followed by Webster's truly magnificent reply, which, in fact, made the Government and the Constitution stronger for the assault of the Carolina logician. The bill of Mr. Wilkins passed by an almost una nimous vote— so united was the sentiment on the question of sustaining the laws and pro- HISTORY OF FORMER CONSPIRACIES, 19 tecting the Constitution from infringement upon its powers. John Tyler, of Virginia, was among those who voted against the bill. This act was followed by one of concession and compromise, introduced by Henry Clay, proposing a graduated scale, by which the duties' were to be abated annually. This bill allawed Government the needed benefits of the revenue, only > detracting from the tariff one-tenth each year upon all articles tariffed over twenty per cent., thus gradually reduc ing the duties until they should strike the free list, in December, 1841. This act passed both Houses by good majorities, and was signed March 2d, 1833. In the meantime, February 1st had come, and the Nullifiers did not drive General Scott out of Fort Moul trie, nor cease to pay their duties both to the Collector and to the Government. Accepting the "highly satisfactory settlement" of the difficulty, it only remained for Governor Hayne to summon the Convention to undo what they had done. The delegates came together March 11th,' placed South Carolina back in the Union, declared the great princi ple of State Sovereignty established, and, ad journed. This conspiracy left behind it the seeds of disunion. The idea of a State independence, of a power to control circumstances to their own liking, of a disseverance of all bonds with the " hated North," was left to germinate and grow, to burst out again, when a weak Ex ecutive should afford the opportunity, into treason and revolution. DORR'S REBELLION, 1842. This merely local "rebellion" deserves men tion rather from its peculiar nature than from its importance. Its circumstances were as follows : — Down to 1833 the government of Rhode Island was based upon the original charter of settlement, granted by Charles II. in 1663, by which the elective franchise was restricted to persons possessed of real estate to a specified amount, and to their eldest sons. This dis franchised fully two-thirds of the actual citi zens. Yet, so prevalent were old prejudices, so powerful old associations, that the Legis lature steadily refused to substitute a more modern and republican constitution for the old, but simple and strong, government of the Charter. Thomas W. Dorr, an attorney at law, of Providence, and a member of the Assembly, sought to introduce a reform ; but, for a long time labored in vain. When brought to a vote his proposition for a change obtained only seven out of seventy votes. Not to be thwarted, Dorr then appealed to the people, agitating the question of change and reform in several mass conventions, held in 1840-41. When the movement had gained sufficient strength, a Convention of Delegates was called, which prepared a State Constitu tion to be submitted to a regular vote of the people. It obtained 14,000 votes — said to have been a clear majority of the regular citi zens of the State. The Chartists pronounced the entire proceedings seditious and declared the vote, illegal as it was, to have been large ly fraudulent. Dorr decided otherwise ; and, with true Puritan pertinacity, proclaimed the Constitution to be the law of the State. He ordered, accordingly, an election to be held for State officers. Dorr was chosen Governor, and a Legisla ture, composed exclusively of his supporters, was elected, to meet at Providence on the first Monday of May, 1842. The Charter party also held an election for State officers, polling 5,700 votes, while the Suffrage party claimed to have polled 7,300. On the 3d of May, Dorr's Government at tempted to organize at Providence and seize the reins of power. They were resisted by the legal State Government, which assembled at Newport on the same day, and at the head of which was Gov. Samuel W. King. Both sides appealed to arms. The excitement was intense, and the people flocked to the respec tive standards in large numbers from various New England States. Gov. King proclaimed the State under martial law, called out the militia and asked and obtained the aid of the United States to suppress the treason. On the 18th of May a portion of the Suffrage party assembled at Providence under arms and attempted to seize the arsenal, but were dispersed by Gov. King and a military force. They assembled again, to the number of seve ral hundred, May 25, 1842, at Chepachet Hill, 20 HISTORY OF FORMER CONSPIRACIES, ten miles from Providence, but again dispers ed on the approach of the State forces. Three days afterwards the affair was over. Dorr fled from the State, and took refuge first in Connecticut, and then in New Hampshire. A reward of $4,000 being offered for his appre hension by Rhode Island, he voluntarily re turned home, was tried, convicted of high treason, and sentenced to imprisonment for life. In 1847 he was pardoned, and, in 1852, the Legislature restored him to his civil rights, and ordered the record of his sentence to be expunged. He lived to see a liberal constitution and his party in possession of the reins of government. Rhode Island is now as democratic as any of her sister States. She boasts a population nearly as great as that of Texas, and twice that of Florida, while, in intelligence and in dustrial enterprise, she is vastly before either of the States named. In the hour of the Ge neral Government's peril she has proven a tower of loyalty, and the names of her sons occupy a favored place in the record of the struggle against revolution and national dis integration. THE KANSAS-NEBRASKA TROUBLES. The years 1854-58 are "representative" in the history of the country. On the 4th of January, 1854, Mr. Douglas, as chairman of the Committee on Territories, in the United States Senate, introduced the bill for the or ganization of the territories of Nebraska and Kansas. It provided as follows : — "When admitted as a State, the said terri tory, or any portion of the same, shall be re ceived into the Union, with or without Sla very, as their constitution may prescribe at the time of their admission." Thus abrogating the venerable and respect ed Missouri Compromise Act, of 1820, while it further established the principle of " Squat ter Sovereignty," which gave to the people of a territory the right to make their own laws— denying to Congress the power to le gislate laws for its territories. That act became a law, after one of the most exciting sessions of Congress known for years. It was one of the most fatal acts for the peace of the country which could have been conceived. It alarmed the North. The country flew to arms. From the South came armed bands, who, as a posse comitatus, under authority of the President, pursued the Anti- slavery settlers with a vengeance making the record of 1855 and 56 one of outrage and bloodshed. The North, aggravated by this armed attempt to make a Slave State out of soil unfitted for slave labor, poured in its set tlers, armed them for defence, gave them sup plies to sustain them through the day of trial, and, eventually, obtained the victory through the action of that very principle of " Squatter Sovereignty." The Northern "Squatters" became vastly more numerous even than the Missouri invaders and the vagabonds from Arkansas and Mississippi introduced by Capt. Titus and his coadjutors, and, by mere force of numbers, obtained control of affairs. What was most important, however, in this unfortunate re-opening of the Slavery ques tion, was, not the local struggle which follow ed, but the great political party which it called into existence. Taking the powerful issues of opposition presented, of the non-ex tension of , slavery and the freedom of the territories, the Republican party sprang into life, and, ere long, began to carry all before it in the Northern States. Mr. Fremont, as its candidate for the Presidency in 1856, needed but the vote of Pennsylvania to have made him President; and Mr. Lincoln, its candidate in 1860, was elected to that high office by heavy majorities in seventeen States. Had it not been for that Kansas-Nebraska) bill the Republican party never would have had existence, upon such issues as " no more Slave territory,"— "no Slavery in the territo ries," — "no more Slave representation in Con gress from new Slave States." The matter resulted : — 1. In the admission of Kansas as a Free State. 2. In the formation of the Republican Party. 3. In the election of a Republican Presi dent. 4. In the "rebellion" of the Slave States against his rule. 5. HISTORICAL SUMMARY OF EVENTS, FROM NOVEMBER 6, 1860, TO DECEMBER 27, 1860. Nov. 6.— Presidential Election day. Four candi dates before the people,' viz. : Abraham Lincoln, Republican, of Elinois; Stephen A. Douglas, Demo crat, of Illinois ; John C. Breckenridge, Democrat, of Kentucky ; John Bell, Unionist, of Tennessee. Seven teen States out of thirty-three States cast their ma jority vote for Lincoln electors ; eleven States for Breckenridge ; three for Bell ; while Douglas received the vote of Missouri, and three-sevenths of the vote of New-Jersey. jVot;. 10-.— Bill introduced in South Carolina Legis lature to call out and equip 10,000 volunteers. —United States Senator, James Chesnut, Jr., from South Carolina, resigns his seat in the Senate. — South Carolina Legislature orders an election of Delegates to a Convention for taking action on the question of secession ; the election to be held Dec. 6th ; the Convention to assemble Dec. 17th. — Georgia Legislature refuses to order an election of United States Senator, to succeed Alfred Iverson. — Immense excitement throughout the South. Large meetings held in New Orleans, Augusta, Montgomery, Vicksburg, &c, to favor disunion. Ex citing cabinet session at Washington, to " take ac tion on the alarming state of the country." Great number of resignations of Post-masters, Custom house officers, &c, received at the Departments in Washington. " Minute men" organizations making throughout the Cotton States. .—South Carolina Legislature authorizes banks to suspend specie payment. Nov. 11. — United States Senator Hammond, of South Carolina, resigns his seat in the Senate. Nov. 13. — South Carolina Legislature adjourns sine die. Nov. 14. — Immense torch-light procession in Colum bia, S. C, in honor of the action of the Legislature of S. C. Florida, by her Governor, telegraphed to the Governor of South Carolina, " Florida is with the gallant Palmetto flag." Nov. 15. — Senator Toombs makes a " powerful se cession speech" in Milledgeville, Georgia. Governor Moore, of Alabama, announces his in tention to order an election of Delegates to a State Convention; the election to be held Dec. 24. He advises the people to prepare for secession. The Convention to assemble January 7th. Governor Letcher, of Virginia, calls an extra ses sion' of the Legislature, to assemble Jan. 7, to " take into consideration the condition of public affairs.-" — The United States troops garrisoning the forts, arsenals, &c, in the Southern States, are as follows : at Fort Monroe, Va., eight companies of artillery; at Fayetteville arsenal, N. C, one company of ar tillery ; at Fort Moultrie, S. C, two companies of artillery ; at Augusta, Ga., one company of artillery ; Key West, Florida, one company of artillery ; Bar rancas barracks, near Pensacola, Fla., one company of artillery ; Baton Rouge, La., one company of artil lery ; total, about 800 men. There are about 120 United States marines at Norfolk and Pensacola. Nov. 17. — Grand gathering of citizens of Charles ton, S. C, " to inaugurate the revolution." Pine pole, 100 feet high, raised, and the Palmetto flag un furled. Hotels, private residences, and public build ings all display the flag. Great rejoicing. Secession badges worn by men, women and children. Nov. 18. — General depreciation of government and state stocks, railway shares, &c. Very unsettled state in the money market. General suspension of payment of debts due the North by Southern mer chants, looked for in New York and Philadelphia. — Georgia Legislature appropriates $1,000,000, " to arm and equip the State." Orders an election of Delegates to a State Convention, to be held Jan uary 2. The Convention to assemble January 9. — Major Anderson ordered to Fort Moultrie, to re lieve Col. Gardiner, who is ordered to Texas. Nov. 19. — Gov. Moore, of Louisiana, orders the Legislature of that State to convene, Dec. 10. Nov. 20. — Large arrivals in New York of arms for the South. Heavy orders received and filled in New York for rifles, ammunition, pistols, &c, for the Southern States. Nov. 22. — The Washington and Philadelphia banks suspend specie payment. The banks of Baltimore and Richmond suspended specie payment two days previously. Notes of all Southern banks at a heavy discount in New York. The New York banks re solve to consolidate funds and afford relief by a libe ral line of discount. Nov. 23. — Suspension of North Carolina banks le galised by the Legislature of that State. Numerous bank suspensions announced in Pittsburg, Pa., Tren ton, N. J., Charleston, S. C. The Boston banks re solve to adopt the course of the banks of New York. — Disagreements in the Cabinet reported. The President is understood to take strong grounds against the right of secession. Messrs. Cobb, Thompson and Floyd are reported as threatening to resign in consequence. They are understood to favor a " peaceful separation." — Great public meeting in New Orleans, to organ ize a " Southern Rights Association," whose pur pose is to aid in carrying the State out of the Union. 22 HISTORICAL SUMMARY. Nov. 27.— Gov. Hicks, of Maryland, refuses to con vene the Legislature. He write9 a letter, taking. strong ground against secession, and says his pur pose is to avoid any precipitation in action on the part of the secessionists in the State. Nov. 29. — A dispatch from Washington says : " Let ters from members of Congress and others, in South Carolina, written before the Presidential election, are exhibited here, proving that this revolutionary seheme was concocted long ago, and that a secret military organization was formed to carry out the scheme of resistance in the event of Mr. Lincoln's success." — The Vermont Legislature — 125 to 58 — votes against a repeal of its Personal Liberty bill. — Day of Thanksgiving observed in most of the States. Sermons were preached by eminent divines, generally urging a policy of peace, concession, and fraternization in the great questions of the times. — The Mississippi Legislature authorizes the Gov ernor to appoint as many Commissioners as he may deem necessary, to visit each of the slave-holding States, to inform them that the Mississippi Legislature had authorized a Convention to consider the neces sary steps for meeting the crisis. The Commissioners were to solicit the co-operation of Legislatures to devise means " for their common defence and safety." The following gentlemen were afterward named by the Governor : Virginia, C. P. Smith ; Georgia, W. L. Harris ; Maryland, A. H. Handy ; Ten nessee, T. J. Wharton ; South Carolina, C. B. Hooker ; Alabama, J. W. Matthews ; Kentucky, W. S. Feather- ston ; Louisiana, Wirt Adams ; Arkansas, Geo. R. Fall ; Texas, H. H. Miller ; Florida, E. M. Yerger ; Dela ware, Henry Dickinson ; North Carolina, Jacob Thompson. — Dispatches from New Orleans state : " Abolition ists are daily arrested. There is immense excite ment, and the secession feeling momentarily increas ing. Disunion is inevitable." Nov. 30. — The North Carolina Legislature refuses to go into an election for United States Senator, in place of Mr. Clingman. — The Bank bill to suspend specie payment of banks in Georgia re-passed over the Governor's veto. — Bill introduced into the Georgia Legislature (House) prohibiting the levying of any execution from the Courts of the United States on the property of citizens of Georgia prior to December, 1861 — all sales under such process to be void. Dec 1. — A committee of citizens of Texas, com prised of leading men, petitioned Gov. Houston to convene the Legislature. The Governor responded, that, viewing the proposed measure unwise, he could not call the Legislature ; but if a majority of the citizens of the State petitioned for it, he could not stand in the way. The secession feeling largely predominates in the Southern and Eastern portion of the State. — Florida Legislature passed the Convention Bill unanimously. The Convention to meet Jan. 3d. — Banks in Georgia generally suspend specie pay ment. — Immense secession meeting at Memphis, Ten nessee. Resolutions were passed accepting the " irrepressible conflict ;" calling upon the Governor to convene the Legislature ; directing that a State Convention be called, and telling the Southern States that Tennessee will stand by the action of the Southern Convention for weal or woe. Dec. 3. — Preamble and resolutions adopted in the Georgia Legislature, (House,) proposing a Confer ence of the Southern States, at Atlanta, on the 20th of February, to counsel and advise as to the mode and manner of resistance to the North in the exist ing exigency, was made the special order for to morrow. The preamble and resolutions take strong grounds in favor of having all sectional questions finally settled, and objects to separate action. — Meeting in Boston, to commemorate the anni versary of John Brown's execution broken up. Considerable violence shown to its participators. — Congress meets at Washington. Full repre sentation from most of the States. South Carolina representatives in their seats, except Mr. Bonham. Her Senators absent. — President's Message read to the two Houses, and the Department reports sent in. The Message takes strong grounds for conciliation; blames the North for its aggressions on Slavery ; proposes plans of compromise ; denies "the right of secession, yet disparages coercion. Message was attacked fiercely in the Senate by Clingman, of North Carolina, and defended by Crittenden, of Kentucky. In the House, Mr. Boteler, of Virginia, offered a resolution to ap point a Special Committee of one from each State, to whom should be referred so much of the Presi dent's Message as " relates to the present perilous condition of the country." Dec. 4. — The President dispatches a messenger (Mr. Trescott) to South Carolina, to urge a post ponement of action in regard to secession or nullifi cation, until Congress could act on compromises and remedies. Dec. 5. — Meeting of the State Electoral Colleges. Abraham Lincoln for President, and Hannibal Ham lin for Vice-President, receive the votes of seventeen States or one hundred and eighty electoral votes. — Exciting speeches in the United States Senate by Southern Senators looking to secession as their only relief from Northern domination. Dec. 6. — Great Union meeting and oration in Rich mond, Va. — The Speaker of the United States House of Re presentatives announced the Committee of one from each State, called for under Mr. Boteler's resolution, (Dec. 4,) to consider " so much of the President's Message as relates to the present perilous condi tion of the country." The names are as follows :— Ohio, Mr. Corwin, Chairman ; Virginia , Mr. Millson ; Massachusetts, Mr. Adams ; North Carolina, Mr. Winslow ; New York, Mr. Humphreys ; South Caro lina, Mr. Boyce ; Pennsylvania, Mr. Campbell ; Georgia, Mr. Love ; Connecticut, Mr. Ferry ; Mary land, Mr. Davis; Rhode Island, Mr. Robinson; Dela ware, Mr. Whiteley ; New Hampshire, Mr. Tappan ; New Jersey, Mr. Stratton ; Kentucky, Mr. Bristow ; Vermont, Mr. Morrill ; Tennessee, Mr. Nelson; In diana, Mr. Dunn ; Louisiana, Mr. Taylor ; Mississippi, Mr. Davis ; Illinois, Mr. Kellogg ; Alabama, Mr. Houston; Maine, Mr. Morse ; Missouri, Mr. Phelps; Arkansas, Mr. Rust; Michigan, Mr. Howard ; Florida, Mr. Hawkins ; Texas, Mr. Hamilton ; Wisconsin, Mr. Washburne ; Iowa, Mr. Curtis ; California, Mr. Burch ; Minnesota, Mr. Windom ; Oregon, Mr. Stout. Dec. 7. — A circular is issued inviting the members of the Texas Legislature to assemble in Austin on thi; third Monday in December, for the purpose of holding an extra session, and to take the necessary steps for calling a State Convention. Gov. Houston promises to resign if the people of the State demand the convoking of the Legislature. The hoisting of Lone Star flags in the towns of Texas continues, and the people throughout the State appear to be unit ed in their feeling of resistance to the administration of Mr. Lincoln. — The President to-day explicitly expressed his determination to send no more troops to the forts near Charleston, and said everything would be done on his part to avoid a collision. Major Anderson has made no request for re-enforcements. — A dispatch from Washington states that the Sec- etary of the Treasury, Howell Cobb, has had repeat ed interviews with Mr. Hunter, Chairman of the Com mittee on Finance in the Senate, and finds himself unable to extricate the Treasury from its present bankrupt condition; consequently he proposes to resign at once. Dec. 8. — The Kentucky banks resolve to continue specie payment, as a suspension can afford no com mercial relief. — Governor of Tennessee calls an extra session of the Legislature, to convene Jan. 7th, to " consider the present condition of the country." Dec. 9. — Gov. Brown of Georgia publishes a letter favoring immediate secession. Dec. 10. — Howell Cobb, Secretary of the Treasury, resigns his seat in the Cabinet. Mr. Toucey, Secre tary of the Navy, acts in his stead, ad interim. —United States Senator Clay, of Alabama, re signs his seat in the United States Senate after March 4th, 1861. — It is divulged that the Democratic members of Congress from the North- Western States have held several conferences. They take the position that the Union cannot be dissolved peaceably ; that the North- West will, under no circumstances, consent to be cut off from the Gulf of Mexico and the City of New York ; that the Government, whatever may be its faults, is of inestimable value. — Extra Session of Louisiana Legislature meets. The Governor recommends a State Convention. Convention ordered — an election of delegates to be held Jan. 23. Legislature adjourned Dec. 12th. A military bill was passed, appropriating $500,000 to arm the State for defence, and provisions made for military organization and administration. Dec. 12. — Assistant Secretary of State, Trescott, resigns. Mr. Philip Frank Thomas, of Maryland, Com missioner of Patents, is nominated Secretary of the Treasury, vice Cobb, resigned. Dec. 13. — Immense Union demonstration in Phil adelphia, by proclamation of the Mayor. — Exciting session of the Cabinet in regard to the re-enforcement of Fort Moultrie, in Charleston har bor. The President opposed its re-enforcement as impolitic, saying he 'had assurances that the fort would not be attacked if no re-enforcements were attempted. Mr. Cass, Secretary of State, and Mr. Toucey, Secretary of the Navy, both strenuously urged the policy of strengthening Major Anderson fully. Mr. Cass, it was understood, made that policy a sine qua non of his stay in the Cabinet. Dec. 14. — Lewis Cass, Secretary of State, resigns his seat in the Cabinet. His resignation causes much feeling and comment. It was owing to his disap proval of the President's inaction in regard to re-en forcing Southern forts, arsenals, navy yards, &c. Dec. 15. — Attorney-General Black nominated Se cretary of State in place of Lewis Cass, resigned. — A meeting of members of the Georgia Legisla ture favoring co-operation, and urging a Convention of Southern States desirous of co-operating. An address issued to the people of South Carolina, Alabama, Mississippi, and Florida, signed by 52 mem bers of the Legislature. Dec. 17. — South Carolina Convention of Delegates assembles in Convention. General Jamison elected President. Adjourned to Charleston. — Mr. Pickens inaugurated by the Legislature as Governor of South Carolina. His Inaugural was decidedly for secession. Dee. 18. — Mr. Crittenden introduces into the Uni ted States Senate, Resolutions of Compromise and settlement of differences between the Slave and Free States. The bill, as introduced, proposes : To re new the Missouri Compromise Line ; prohibiting Slavery in the Territory north of 36 deg. 30 min., and protecting it South of that latitude ; and for the admission of new States with or without Slavery, as their Constitutions shall provide : to prohibit the abolition of Slavery by Congress in the States : to prohibit its abolition in the District of Columbia so long as it exists either in Virginia or Maryland : to permit the transportation of slaves in any of the States by land or water : to provide for the payment of fugitive slaves, when rescued : to repeal one ob noxious feature of the Fugitive Slave Law — the ine quality of the fee to the Commissioner — ,and also to ask the repeal of all the Personal Liberty bills in the Northern States. These concessions are to be sub mitted to the people in the form of amendments to the Constitution, and if they are carried they are to be changed by no future amendments. Dec. 18-19. — Andrew Johnson, United States Sena tor from Tennessee, speaks on the resolutions propos ing amendments to the Constitution. He denies the right of secession, and calls upon the President to enforce the laws regardless of consequences. Tak ing up arms to resist the Federal laws he pronounces treason. Dec. 19. — Governor Hicks, of Maryland, declines to receive the Commissioner from Mississippi. He vindicates the course by expressing strong Union sentiments., ¦ — The Commissioner of Mississippi to Maryland addresses a large meeting in Baltimore, advising co operation on the part of the people of Maryland in the secession movement. Dec. 20. — The Ordinance of Secession passes the South Carolina Convention of Delegates unanimously. The announcement is received by the people of Charleston with exciting manifestations of delight. The news throughout the North excites compara tively little remark. —The Methodist Conference of South Carolina passes resolutions favoring secession. — Immense receipts of specie in New York. Nearly i 54 HISTORICAL SUMMARY. six millions of dollars in coin received during the week. — Great demonstrations of enthusiasm throughout the Cotton States over South Carolina secession. In the leading cities of these States salutes were fired, Palmetto and State flags were displayed, bells were rung, and large meetings of citizens were held. No Union sentiment appeared. No Stars and Stripes flags to be seen. Salutes were "also fired in many cities of the Border Slave States. Dec. 21, — As indicative of the course the Repub lican members of Congress are to pursue in regard to compromise measures, the speech of Senator Wade, of Ohio, before the Senate Select Committee of Thirteen, on the Crisis, is the first declaratory ex pression. It took ground against any amendments of the Constitution, and generally expressed oppo sition to compromises which looked to giving slavery any constitutional protection or recognition. He said Mr. Lincoln was constitutionally elected and should be constitutionally inaugurated. — Judge Douglas made important statements be fore the Senate Select Committee of Thirteen. He is reported as saying, " that he was ready now to unite in recommending suoh amendments to the Con stitution as will take the Slavery question out of Congress. In view of the dangers which threaten the Republic with disunion, revolution, and civil war, he was prepared to act upon the matters in controversy without any regard to his previous ac tion, and as if he had never made a speech or given a vote on the subject." Dec. 22. — The North Carolina Legislature ad journed to January 7th. The bill to arm the State tailed to pass the House. — Caleb Cushing, special messenger of the Presi dent to South Carolina, to induce the postponement of the threatened attack upon Fort Sumter, returns and reports disparagingly for peace. He has no hopes of any arrangement of the pending differ ences. A Cabinet meeting was called. Dec. 23. — Intense excitement in Washington, con sequent upon the discovery, of a heavy defalcation in the Department of the Interior, by abstraction of bonds and coupons belonging to the Indian Trust Fund. The amount abstracted is confessed by Go- dard Bailey, the guilty clerk, to have been $830,000. Mr. Floyd, Secretary of War, is said to be deeply implicated by the revelations made. Dec. 24.— The Speaker of the House directs the names of the "withdrawn" South Carolina members to be retained on the roll and to be regularly called. — Great excitement in Pittsburg in consequence of orders being given to ship, from the Alleghany Arsenal, 78 ten and eight-inch columbiads to Fort Newport, near Galveston, and 48 to Ship Island, near Balize, at the mouth of the Mississippi — both unfin ished forts. The people regard the order as designed to strip the Arsenal in order to place the heavy guns in the hands of the enemies of the Government and will oppose their removal by force. — The South Carolina Convention adopts a "De claration of Immediate Causes which Justified the Secession of South Carolina from the Union." —The Special Commissioners, appointed by the South Carolina Convention to negotiate a settlement of differences and a treaty of amity and commerce with the United States, leave Charleston for Wash ington. — Gov. Moore convenes the Legislature of Ala bama for January 14th, to provide for any emergency that may arise from the action of the Convention, which meets January 7th. Dec. 25. — Among other important transactions of the South Carolina Convention was the reception of three resolutions from the Committee on Relations with the Slaveholding States of North America. The first resolution provides that the Convention appoint Commissioners to proceed to each Slaveholding State that may assemble in Convention, for the pur pose of laying before them the ordinance of seces sion and respectfully to invite their co-operation in forming a Southern Confederacy. The second reso lution authorises the said Commissioners to submit the Federal Constitution as the basis for a provisional Government for such States as shall have withdrawn from the connection with the Government of the United States of North America. The third resolu tion provides that the said Commissioners be author ized to invite seceding States to meet in convention at sucha time and place as may be agreed upon for the purpose of forming a permanent Government for these States. All of which were acted upon affirma tively, after considerable discussion. They are re garded as having been arranged by the secession leaders, long since, and look to a co-operative union among the slave seceding States. Dec. 26. — The three South Carolina Commissioners, viz. : Messrs. R. W. Barnwell, James L. Orr, and Ex- Gov. Adams arrive in Washington. • — A resolution offered in the South Carolina Con vention, that the Governor be requested to commu nicate to the Convention in secret session, any infor mation he possesses in reference to the condition of Forts Moultrie and Sumter, and Castle Pinckney, the number of guns in each, the number of workmen and kind of labor employed, the number of soldiers. in each, and what additions, if any, have been made since the 20th inst. ; also, whether any assurance has been given that the forts will not be re-enforced, and if so, to what extent ; also, what police or other re gulations have been made, if any, in reference to the defenses of the harbor of Charleston, the coast and the State. — It is now announced by advices from Texas, that Gov. Houston will convene an extra session of the Texas Legislature on the 21st of January, to consider the present crisis. The Convention of the people will be held on the 28th of January. The secession element is rapidly gaining the ascendancy. It will carry all before it in the Convention. — Major Anderson commences the evacuation of Fort Moultrie at night. Dec. 27. — Gov. Magoffin calls an extra session of the Kentucky State Legislature to assemble Jan. 17th, to consider the distracted state of the country. — It is ascertained at Charleston that Fort Moul trie is evacuated. The evacuation took place during the night, Major Anderson transferring his entire force (about eighty men) with stores, munitions, movable arms, 4c, to Fort Sumter. Most intense excitement in consequence throughout the entire country. The military in Charleston ordered out. Troops tendered by Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi, and Florida. CHAPTER I. TRUE CAUSE OF THE REBELLION. The True Reason. The Secession movement, which took form and con- sistency by the action of South Carolina, immediately after the election of Mr. Lincoln, ; was not the conception of an hour. It was ; 'not the result of the election of a " sectional" j President. It was not the result of wrongs \ inflicted upon the South by the Free States. , It was not because the North had perverted I the Constitution from its original intent and '¦¦ purposes. It is urged, by the leaders of the move ment, that these were their reasons for the attempt to dissolve the Union, and the • mass of our people doubtless have regarded 1 them as the true grounds of complaint ; but, f it is the merest surface view of the question. ', Were these the only excuses to offer for the \ Rebellion and all its train of blood, what a miserable pretence of justification the move- \ ment would have ! ! The'' motive which underlies all is the numer- \ ical preponderance of the North, and, under | the Constitution, its ability hereafter to control \ the legislation of Congress by virtue of its re- \MStless majority. Each census, since 1800, has shown that the increase of population in the North ern, or Free States, was in a ratio soon to snatch from the Slave States their almost unbroken control of the Government ; hence from that time the study has been to avert the impending minority by the introduc tion of new Slave States to the Union. Lou isiana was purchased at an enormous price, not more to open the mouths of the Mis sissippi than to send to Congress two Slave Senators and her due quota of Representa tives. Mississippi was purchased from Geor- 4 Purchases of new Territory. gia and the Indians for the same purpose. Alabama was made out of Georgia and Mis sissippi territory, to increase the representa tion. Tennessee was set off from North Carolina for the same purpose. Florida was purchased of Spain, at great expense, to the same end. Then followed a step over the Mississippi river, to appropriate territory ly ing to the west of the territory given to free labor by the ordinance of Mr. Jefferson ; and Missouri, with her lines running as far North as the centres of Ohio, Indiana and Illinois, was given up to Slavery and a Slave repre sentation in Congress. Arkansas, ere long, was added. Then the soil fitted for Slave labor, and accessible for Slave settlement, seemed exhausted, and the South, for a while, stood still to witness the onward march of the North. Even these enormous accessions of domain scarcely served to maintain the Southern preponderance in the Government, so rapidly had the Free States grown in po pulation, both in the old and the three new States added. Thus matters stood in 1840. The census of that Schemes of Conquest. year aroused the South to renewed efforts for further extension of the "peculiar institution." To the North they could not go, for soil, climate and sentiment were alike inimical to the existence of- slaves in the territory of Iowa. To the West they could not proceed, for Government had pledged that section to the Indians. Con quest alone must come to the rescue. Texas, an immense domain, fitted to make five States, must be won. The scheme of its " an nexation" was soon conceived and perfected. War was declared upon a flimsy pretext against a weak and distracted neighbor. — One 26 THE SOUTHERN REBELLION hundred millions of dollars were spent, and Texas was given over to the Slave power to be made into States, as emergencies should require ; while New Mexico, with her bound less plains, lay to the West, to await the ne cessity for her introduction to a Slave proprie tary. But, even this absorbtion of an empire did not suffice. The census of 1850 again sent consternation into the " balance of power" ranks, and excited their leaders to renewed zeal. More territory must be had, at any sac rifice. Kansas and Nebraska alone offered the soil, but there stood the Gibraltar of Hen ry Clay's " Compromise Act" of 1821, guaran teeing all that region to Freedom forever. Still, the emergency was imperative. Kan sas at least must be represented on the floors of Congress by a Slave delegation. The tre mendous strides of the North, in Iowa, Wis consin, Michigan and Minnesota, threatened, by their very growth, to leap at once into an uncontrolled majority. Kansas lost, all was lost, since Texas could not, for years, gain population enough to allow of her subdivi sion into several States. The repeal of the Missouri Compromise Act alone would open the Territory for Slave incursion. That repeal was made, through the co-operation of the Northern Democratic party with the South. But, the hand of Des tiny seemed to interfere. The entire scheme of Southern settlement miscarried, and Kan sas not only became a Free State, but the struggle to make it such called into existence the Republican party, which, in a brief pe riod, elected its candidate to the Chief Magis tracy— so fatally were the tables turned. Dismayed at the storm created by the ef fort to secure Kansas, mortified at their de feat, cut off from any further extension of Slave representation, the Southern States saw before them their long-apprehended disaster of a minority in the Government. If they re mained in the Union it must be as the weaker half. At this not only their pride revolted but, as it appeared to them, their material interests forbade submission. With some hesitancy, as if feeling the way, the long con templated scheme of Southern independence was revived and its agitation determinedly entered upon. But, the love of the Union Was SO strong in the hearts Fictitious Causes of a majority in the South ern States — the disinclination to encountci the hazards of a revolution was so apparent — that it became necessary for the leaders to act with great circumspection in setting on foot their movement for disunion. The old themes of wrongs endured — of slaves stolen — of unjust imposition of taxes by way of tariff levies — of unconstitutional Personal Liberty acts by Northern States — were augmented in force by the evident fact that the institution of Slavery was to be excluded from the Ter ritories in the West, thus seemingly denying the rights of the South in the unsettled and common domain ; while, to crown the list of motives for non-submission, the North had become so far estranged and inimical to the South as to elect a "sectional" President This catalogue of indignities, if properly re presented to the excitable and sensitive peo-; pie of the South, could not fail to answer the ends designed ; hence, separately and collec tively, they have been put forward as the real causes of the uprising and of the abjuration of the Constitution, and have been so often and variously repeated that the original and prime cause of the movement is almost ig nored. In contemplating the events which have transpired in the attempt to dismember the Union, it is necessary to accept the bill of complaint preferred in the various resolutions, ordinances and declarations of the seceded States' Conventions and Legislatures; but, a comprehensive understanding of the revolu tion can only be had by striking at the ulti mate causes which originated the desire for a separate Confederacy. Even though those first causes may not be confessed nor set forth by any of the parties implicated— a con fession which would concede defeat in the struggle for power— they nevertheless are readily demonstrable. The increase in the pop ulation of the country since The Iocrca5e of Pop" 1800 has been in singularly regular ratio. Thus, for 1810 it was entered as being 36.45 per cent. ; 1820, 33.13 ; 1830, 33.49; 1840, 32.67; 1850, 35.87; 1860,35.53, making the average 34.57, or nearly 3J per THE NATIONAL CENSUS. 27 cent, per annum. This ratio being so defini tively marked, rendered it an easy matter for any section to indicate, in advance, its popu lation and consequent Congressional repre sentation. Hence, the South, growing more slowly in population than the energetic, competitive North, discovering itself beat en in the race of numbers, sought to make up in territorial acquisition what it failed to obtain by popular increase. In 1850 it was conclusive that the South must be cast into a minority if new acquisi tions were not secured during the decade fol lowing. The attempt was made on Kansas and failed ; and the South has had to witness the long threatened ascendency of the Free States in the returns and apportionment of the census of 1860, with no power to modify the result. To apprehend, at a The Census. glance, the particular strength of each section of the Union, and thus to demonstrate the fact of the ascendancy of the Free States, we will classify the States, and give the Congres sional representation of each, under the new apportionment rendered necessary in order to keep the number of Representatives in Con gress down to 233. NEW ENGLAND STATES. Stales. 1850. 1860. Reps. Loss. Gain. Maine 583,169 628,276 5 10 NewHampshire.317,976 326,072 3 0 0 Vermont 314,120 315,116 2 10 Massachusetts.. 994,514 1,231,065 10 1 0 Rhode Island . . .147,545 174,621 110 Connecticut . . . 370,792 460,151 4 0 0 Total 2,728,116 3,135,301 25 4 0 Gaininl0years,407,185, or 15 per cent nearly. New England, it will thus be seen, loses four members of Congress, notwithstanding her gain has been over four hundred thou sand in population. MIDDLE STATES. States. 1850, 1860. Reps. Loss. Gain. New York... 3,097,394 3,887,542 31 2 0 NewJwsey.. 489,791. 672,031 5 0 0 Pennsylvania .2,311,726 2,906,370 23 2 0 Total 5,898,911 7,465,943 59 4 Gain in 10 ys. .1,566,972, or 26 j per cent. 0 Here we have still more remarkable re sults. Notwithstanding the enormous in crease of over one and a half million, in pop ulation, these three States lose four Repre sentatives. New York alone has nearly double the free population of the six original " Seceded States," and yet she has only thir ty-one Representatives to their twenty-eight. This simple fact proves how largely slaves are represented in Congress — the negroes entering into " population" in the proportion of five negroes for three in count, thus obtaining a Congressional apportionment without any of the rights of citizenship appertaining to them. If the Slave States were apportioned Representatives on their free white popula tion alone, their representation in Congress would decrease about forty per cent ; or, as Slaves are property, if the Free States were represented on property in the apportionment of three persons for every five thousand dol lars, their Congressional delegations would immeasurably be increased.* NOKTH-WESTEKN STATES. Slates. 1850. 1860. Reps. Loss. Gain. Ohio 1,980,429 2,339,599 18 3 0 Michigan 397,654 749,112 6 0 2 , Indiana 968,416 1,350,479 11 0 0 Illinois 851,470 1,711,753 13 0 4 Wisconsin.... 305,391 775,873 6 0 3 Iowa 192,214 674,943 5 0 3 Minnesota 6,077 162,022 110 Kansas 107,110 10 0 Total... 4,721,551 7,870,896 61 4 12 Gain for 10 ys.3,149,345, or about 67 per cent. Ohio, notwithstanding her heavy gain, loses three Representatives, though the North western States collectively add nine to their delegation. Ohio alone has more free white population than the whole six States of South Carolina, Georgia, Alabama, Florida, Missis sippi, and Louisiana; yet she has but eighteen * There is something so paradoxical in the con structive and the active relations of the Slave to the government as to excite the wonder of a foreigner. Thus, by the Constitution, the principle of represen tation on property is forbidden, yet it gives the Slave States a representation as stated. This would seem to settle, beyond question, the fact that the Consti tution does not recognize Slaves as property. Yet, here comes the decision of the United States Su preme Court, in the celebrated Dred Scott Slave Case, that Slaves are property, and property only, not men. It will be hard for a stickler for consis tency to reconcile this discordance. He willhave to be satisfied with the fact without understanding its propriety. Representatives in Congress, while they have twenty-eight. Few even of our own people re alize how enormous this discrepancy has been ; but, figures here are incontrovertible witnesses, and prove how largely Slaves are represented in our National councils. The fact thus expressed it is necessary to weigh well in any argument which may arise on the relative favors which the Constitution be stows upon particular sections. PACIFIC STATES. Slates. 1850. 1860. Reps. Loss. Gain. California 92,597 380,015 3 0 1 Oregon 12,294 52,464 10 0 Total 104,891 432,479 4 0 1 Gain in 10 years 326,588, or nearly 310 per cent. Both of these States are loyal to the Union and are classed with the Free States in all comparative estimates. THE LOYAL SLAVE STATES. , 1860 . Free. Slave. Reps. Loss.Gain. Maryland 599,848 87,188 6 10 Kentucky.... 930,223 225,490 8 2 0 Missouri 1,058,352 114,965 9 0 0 Delaware 110,420 1,798 10 0 Total .2,698,841 429,441 23 3 0 SECEDED BORDER. SLAVE STATES. Virginia 1,105,196 490,887 11 2 0 N. Carolina . . 661,588 331,081 7 10 Tennessee.... 834,036 275,784 8 2 0 Arkansas 324,323 111,104 3 0 1 Total 2,925,143 1,208,856 29 5 1 SECEDED COTTON GROWING STATES. S. Carolina... 301,271 402,541 4 2 0 Georgia 595,097 462,230 7 1 0 Florida 78,686 61,753 10 0 Alabama 529,164 435,132 6 10 Mississippi. . . 354,699 436,696 5 0 0 Louisiana 376,913 332,520 5 0 1 Texas 420,651 180,388 4 0 2 Total 2,656,481 2,311,260 32 4 3 This classification gives interesting results, which it will be well for the reader to con sider. Thus, the total free white population of the eleven seceded States is 5,581,630, or 1,884,313 less than the population of the three Middle States alone, or 2,289,266 less than the eight North Western States. Or, add the aggregate as follows : — New England States 3,135,301 Middle States 7,465,943 North Western States 7,870,898 Pacific States 432^479 The Free Territories 213,292 Total pop. of Free States and Territories.. .19,117,911 Add loyal Slave States 2,698,841 Total loyal population 21,816,752' Eleven Seceded States, disloyal. 5,581,630' Excess of loyal population 16,235,122, These are the figures de duced from the Census re- Effects of the Census., turns for 1860, prepared under the supervision of a Southern man. That they are correct admits of no doubt. The results, gratifying to the North, discon cert the South, since they prove it to he helplessly in the minority. In the Union the- power of the Slave States is forever gone, ex cept, acting as a unit, they can take advan tage of party divisions in the North to name certain single measures, or elect certain men; but, without a very strong co-operating party; in the Free States, the Pro-Slavery propagand ists are perfectly powerless to secure more soil, to command the Executive, to direct the revenues and appropriations, or to control legislation in their favor. IThe Constitution* may be regarded by the Northern States to the letter — the Fugitive Slave Act may be enforced against every runaway negro slave— the right to Slave transit through the Free States may be conceded ; but these will not avail to appease the Southern mind. The facts of their minority — that Slavery is cir cumscribed in the Union — that the Free soil and Free labor party is immensely in the as cendant — impelled the Southern people into the scheme for founding a pure Slave Con federacy, and no "compromise" will restore* them to the Union except it be such a com promise as will abjure the old Constitutions 1 so far as to give the Slave States an equal share in the General Government at all times, an equal share in the common territory, the right of Slave transit through Free soil, the use of local officers and jails to arrest fugi-; fives, &c, &c. -Other terms than these thcy: will not accept in peace so long as the "Southern idea" of property in man conti nues to influence the reason and to excite the passions of the people of the South. 4 CHAPTER H. THE OBJECTS OF SECESSION. Pre -determination to Secede. As early as in 1858, the results of the new census having been anticipated, the leaders of the rebellion began to canvass the subject of immediate secession. Jefferson Davis, in a speech at Jackson, Mississippi, in the fall of that year, assumed the position of a direct secession advocate. He said : " If an Abolitionist be chosen President of the United States, you will have presented to you the question of whether you will permit the Government to pass into the hands of your avowed and implaca ble enemies ? Without pausing for an answer, I will state my own position to be, that such a result would be a species of revolution by which the purposes of the Government would be destroyed, and the observ ance of its mere forms entitled to no respect. In that event, in such a manner as should be most ex pedient, I should deem it your duty to provide for your safety outside of the Union, with those who have already shown the will, and would have ac quired the power, to deprive you of your birthright, and to reduce yon to worse than the Colonial de pendence of your fathers." ¦ The sentiment, it will be seen, covered the wEole ground of the right and propriety of a secession from the Union. " If an Abolition ist be chosen President," proves that the con tingency of a Northern triumph was appre hended, and what follows indicates the line of argument to be pursued before the people in justification of the movement for a dissolu tion of the Confederacjj If an " Abolition ist" had not been elected? Probably the contemplated movement would not have been made in 1860, as the right pretext would have been wanting with which to go before the people. Not that the election of any Presi dent could in any way change the Constitu tion, could control Congress, could affect that bulwark of our institutions, the United States Supreme Court, could deprive any State, or any people, or any man of a birth-right: — the President being the mere temporary head of the nation, under Congress, under the Su preme Court, under the laws, and under the people, has no power to oppress or wrong any section, and his election could afford no just cause for alarm, even if he were a Monarchist. None better knew this than the speaker quo ted from above ; but he, and all those who afterwards acted with him, chose to as sume a fallacy as a fact, in order to aid and forward the pre-determined design of a dis solution of the Union; and the election of an " Abolitionist" — thatis,any Northern man, with Northern or Freesoil principles — was to be the signal for the effort to cast off alle giance to the Constitution. Governor Hicks, in his address to the peo ple of Maryland, said : — " We are told by the leading spirits of the South Carolina Conven tion, that, neither the election of Mr. Lincoln, nor the non-execution of the Fugitive Slave law, nor both combined, constitute their grievances. They declare that the real cause of their discontent dates as far back as 1833." We shall give the South Carolina Declaration of Causes, in its proper order in this History, and quote from Governor Hicks, to show how a Southerner, not a Secessionist, viewed and understood the movement. Mr. Davis, in his address to the Senate, (January 21st,) after arguing that the equality spoken of in the Declaration of Independ ence was the equality of a class of political rights, said : f But we have proclaimed our independence. This is done with no hostility or any desire to injure any section of the country, nor even for our pecuniary benefit, but from the high and solid foundation of defending and pro tecting the rights we inherited, and trans mitting them unshorn to our posterity." As the Declaration, in his view, secured only a class of political rights, the succeeding avow al that the step of secession was taken " from the high and solid foundation of defending and protecting the rights we inherited," &c, Southern View of Rights. 80 THE SOUTHERN REBELLION. gives the reader a glimpse of the true purpo ses in view — not to recognize an equality of rights of persons, but to secure, to the domi nant class, the " rights" it " inherited." All this, however, is not Mr. Stephens' Expo- . . . . . , . .-, sitioa. onlv clearlv stated by the Vice-President of the " Con federate States," but the curtain is drawn aside, and we are permitted to seethe moving will of the ambitious scheme of the Secession ists. Mr. Stephens' exposition of the powers of their Constitution and the purposes had in view in its formation, was made at Savan nah, March 21st, 1861. We may, therefore, here give place to such portions of his speech as will serve to illustrate our chapter subject, viz. : — " The objects of Secession," which it is highly important to understand as a prelimi nary to a just comprehension of all the events which have followed upon the rupture of old relations : " The new Constitution has put at rest forever all the agitating questions relating to our peculiar insti tutions — African Slavery as it exists among us — the proper status of the negro in our form of civilization. This was the immediate cause of the late rupture and present revolution. Jefferson, in his forecast, had anticipated this as the ' rock upon which the old Union would split.' He was right. What was con jecture with him, is now a realized fact. But whether he fully comprehended the great truth upon which that rock stood and stands, may be doubted. The prevailing ideas entertained by him and most of the leading statesmen at the time of the formation of the old Constitution, were that the enslavement of the African was in violation of the laws of nature : that it was wrong in principle, socially, morally, and po litically. It was an evil they knew not well how to deal with, but the general opinion of the men of that day was, that somehow or other, in the order of Providence, the institution would be evanescent and pass away. This idea, though not incorporated in the Constitution, was the prevailing idea at the time. The Constitution, it is true, secured every essential guarantee to the institution while it should last, and hence no argument can be justly used against the constitutional guarantees thus secured, because of the common sentiment of the day. Those ideas, how ever, were fundamentally wrong. They rested upon the assumption of the equality of races. This was an error. It was a sandy foundation, and the idea of a government built upon it ; when the ' storm came and the wind blew, it fell.' " Our new Government is founded upon exactly the opposite idea ; its foundations are laid, its cor ner-stone rests, upon the great truth that the negro is not equal to the white man. That Slavery— an. bordination to the superior race, is his natural and moral condition. This, our new Government, is the first, in the history of the world, based upon this great physical and moral truth. This truth has been slow in the process of its development, like all other truths in the various departments of science. It has been so even amongst us. Many who hear me, per haps, can recollect well, that this truth was not gene rally admitted, even within their day. The errors of the past generation still clung to many as late as twenty years ago. Those at the North who still cling to these errors, with a zeal above knowledge, we justly denominate fanatics. * * » " In the conflict thus far, success has been, on oar side, complete throughout the length and breadth of the Confederate States. It is upon this, as I have stated, our actual fabric is firmly planted ; and I can not permit myself to doubt the ultimate success of a full recognition of this prineiple throughout the \ civilized and enlightened world. " As I have stated, the truth of this principle may be slow in development, as all truths are, and ever have been in the various branches of science. It was so with the principles announced by Gallileo— it was so with Adam Smith and his principles of politi cal economy — it was so with Harvey and his theory of the circulation of the blood. It is stated that not a single one of the medical profession, living at the time of the announcement of the truths made by him, admitted them. Now they are universally ac knowledged. May we not, therefore, look with con fidence to the ultimate universal acknowledgement of the truths upon which our system rests. It is the first government ever instituted upon principles of strict conformity to nature, and the ordination of Providence, in furnishing the materials of human so ciety. Many governments have been founded upon the principle of certain classes ; but the classes thus enslaved, were of the same race, and in violation of the laws of nature. Our system commits no such violation of nature's laws. The negro, by nature, or by the curse against Canaan, is fitted for that condi tion which he occupies in our system. The archi tect, in the construction of buildings, lays the foun dation with the proper materials, the granite ; then comes the brick or the marble. The substratum of our society is made of the material fitted by nature for it, and by experience we know that it is best, not only for the superior, but for the inferior race that it should be so. It is, indeed, in conformity with the ordinance of the Creator. It is not for us to inquire into the wisdom of His ordinances, or to question them. For His own purposes He has made one race SPIRIT OF THE SECESSION SENTIMENT. 31 to differ from another, as He has made ' one star to differ from another star in glory.' " The great objects of humanity are best attained •when conformed to His laws and decrees, in the for mation of governments, as well as in all things else. Our Confederacy is founded upon principles in strict conformity with these laws. This stone which was rejected by the first builders ' is become the chief stone of the corner' in our new edifice. " The progress of disintegration in tie old Union may be expected to go on with almost absolute cer tainty. We are now the nucleus of a growing power, which, if we are true to ourselves, our destiny and high mission, will become the controlling power on this continent. To what extent accessions will go on in the process of time, or where it will end, the future will determine." This sets at rest all doubts in regard to the distinctive objects in view in severing relations with the old Confederacy, while it also de monstrates the moral and political spirit which will direct the new Government. CHAPTER III. SPREAD OF THE SECESSION SENTIMENT. Treasonable Utter ances. Elections held in the several Northern States, during September and Oc tober, indicated pretty clearly that Mr. Lin coln, the Republican nominee, would carry each of those States, with a fair prospect, also, of obtaining a majority in California and Or egon. This indication served to awaken the slumbering disunion feeling, and various pro jects were agitated, by Southern papers," to meet a common danger." In South Carolina there was but one sentiment — that of seces sion. The election of a Republican to the Presidency was not urged as the sole, or even the leading, cause of the disunion feeling ; but the course of events seemed to have de monstrated that the people were rife for the formation of a Slave Confederacy, and the leaders prepared, even before the 6th of No vember, the programme of this disunion movement. As early as 1856, one of the South Carolina representatives in Congress, Mr. Preston Brooks— who, but a few weeks previously, had assaulted United States Senator Sumner — in a speech made at an ovation given in his honor said among other things : — S*l tell you, fellow-citizens, from the bot tom of my heart, that the only mode which I think available for meeting it (the issue) is just to tear the Constitution of the United States, trample it under foot, and form a Southern Confederacy, every State of which shall be a slaveholding State. I believe it as I stand in the face of my Maker — I believe it on my responsibility to you as your honored representative that the only hope of the South is in the South, and that the only available means of making that hope effective is to cut asunder the bonds that tie us together, and take our separate position in the family of nations." I ThiS^-gpeech, violent as it was considered at the time, in the North, really reflected the sentiment of his State. A sympathy with that sentiment prevailed, to a great extent, throughout all the Cotton States ; .but, up to the date named, (Nov. 6th,) except in South Carolina, no action was taken which looked to immediate secession. ''Even in Virginia the feeling against "submission" was so strong that Governor Letcher, in iis Message to the Legislature said : — " It is useless to attempt to conceal the fact, that, in the pre sent temper of the Southern people, it (the election of a Republican President) cannot and will not be submitted to. * * The idea of permitting such a man to have the 33 THE SOUTHERN REBELLION. The Grand Vote for President. control and direction of the army and navy of the United States, and the appointment of high judicial and executive officers, post masters included, cannot be entertained by the South for a moment." The Democratic party, by being divided upon two candidates, rendered the Republican nominee's chances all the better ; while a fourth, or " Union" candidate, in the person of John Bell, of Tennessee, being at a late hour brought forward, added certainty to Mr. Lincoln's hopes of success, since none of the candidates named against him could, to any material degree, distract the Republi can vote. The election resulted, as gloomily antici pated by the Southern States, in Mr. Lin coln's triumph. The vote stood : — STATES. AlabamaArkansas.CaliforniaConnecticut .. Delaware Florida Georgia Illinois Indiana Iowa Kentucky. . . . Louisiana . *. . Maine MarylandMassachu's . . . Michigan MinnesotaMississippi . . , Missouri . . . . N. Hampshire. New Jersey . . New York . . . N. Carolina . , Ohio Oregon Pennsylvania. Rhode Island . S. Carolina. . . TennesseeTexas Vermont Virginia Wisconsin 39,173 43,792 3,815 Rep. Dem. Lincoln. Douglas. 13,651 5,227 38,516 15,522 1,023 367 11,599 160,215115,509 55,111 25,651 7,625 76,693 5,966 34,372 65,05711,920 3,283 58,801 25,881 62,801 303,329 2,701 187,2o2 3,951 16,765 7,707 172,161 139,033 70,409 1,364 62,111 2,294 106,533 88,48022,069 17,028 37,519 58,324 353,804 231,610 5,270 268,030 12,244 Dem. Breck'e. 48,831 28,732 34,33414,641 7,337 8,543 61,889 2,404 12,295 1,048 53,143 22,681 6,398 42,482 5,939 805 748 40,79731,317 2,112 Union. Bell. 27,87520,094 6,8173,291 3,864 6,437 42,886 4,193 6,306 1,673 66,058 20,204 2,046 41,760 22,331 405 62 25,040 68,372 441 Electors chosen by — 11,350 33,808 6,849 1,929 1,6290 86,110 65,021 48,539 44,990 11,405 12,194 5,006 183 178,871 12,776 Legislature. 64,709 69,274 47,548 218 74,323 15,438 1,969 74,681 161 Total 1,857,610 1,365,976 847,953 590,631 For Abraham Lincoln, of Illinois, and Hannibal Hamlin, of Maine, Vice-President 180 For Stephen Arnold Douglas, of Illinois, Presi dent, and Herschel V. Johnson, of Georgia, Vice-President 12 For John C. Breckenridge, of Kentucky, Presi dent, and Joseph Lane, of Oregon, Vice-Presi dent 72 For John Bell, of Tennessee, President, and Ed ward Everett, of Massachusetts, Vice-Presi dent 39 303 The popular vote was largely against Mr. Lincoln, as will be perceived Had all the opposition been united the vote would have stood : — Opposition 2,804,560 For the Republican candidates 1,857,610 Majority against the Republicans 946,950 Or, had the Democracy been united, the ma jority would have been heavily against the Republicans, viz. : — For Douglas and Breckenridge tickets 2,213,929 For the Republican candidates 1,857,610 Majority in favor of the Democracy 356,319 These figures are of par- , • -, • , . • The Democratic Con- ticular interest as proving that the election was lost to the Democrats by their own divisions, for which the South alone was responsible. The Charleston Convention, (April 23d,) packed with disunionists, sought to drive the North ern Democrats into declarations on the sub ject of Slavery at once distasteful and hos tile to their convictions, ; and, by their efforts to force Mr. Douglas from the list of candi dates, incurred the hostility of his friends to such a degree that further co-operation was impossible without a compromise of self-re spect. The malcontents, thwarted in their plans for the demoralization of the Northern Democrats, on the question of Slavery, with drew, or " seceded," to prevent a nomination. The Convention failing of a nomination ad journed to meet at Baltimore, June 18th — the " Seceders" having adjourned to meet at Richmond, June 11th. The Convention at Baltimore was beset by the " Seceders" and their unaccredited delegates ; but, after much discussion and voting they were ruled out, when Mr. Douglas received the nomination. The " Seceders," headed by Caleb dishing, gathered at the Front Street Theatre, in Bal timore and nominated John C. Breckenridge. Twelve States were not represented at all, in that gathering. The " Seceders" at Rich mond — composed entirely of delegates from the cotton growing States, with one from Tennessee and one from Vfrginia — having ad- GROWTH OF SECESSION. 33 South Carolina to lead. journed to await the action of the Baltimore Convention, "ratified" the nomination of Mr. Breckenridge, who thus became a candi date of the extremists, or disunionists. That Mr. Douglas was the regular and just nomi nee is evident from the fullness of the delega tions in the Convention and by the popular vote. The election of Mr. Lincoln was, therefore, owing to the disorganization of the opposi tion by the Southern men, and that these dis organizes should have proceeded to organ ize a scheme of treason against the Govern ment, using their defeat as a pretext, demon- .strates the wisdom of the course pursued by the Douglas men in repudiating the dicta tion of the extremists. For the election of a Republican President the country is indebted to the extremists of the South. From the unity of senti ment which prevailed in South Carolina on the ques tion of a dissolution of her relations with the Union, that State was looked to by the Seces sionists to take the initiative in the rebellion. She did not, shrink from the responsibility. Before the day of election her Governor had laid a strong disunion message before the Legislature, advising the calling of a Conven tion of Delegates to act for the State in dis solving her relations with the Union. Such dispatches as the How the Election was « -,, . n ,. regarded. following flew over the wires on the days succeed ing the Presidential election : — Raleigh. N, C, Wednesday, Nov. 7, 1860. The Governor and Council are in session. The people are very much excited. North Carolina is ready to secede. Columbia, S. C, Wednesday, Nov. 7, 1860. William W. Boyce, member of Congress, spoke from the step3 of the Congaree House, on Tuesday night,urging secession in case of Mr. Lincoln's elec tion. He was followed by other prominent Caro linians. Montgomery, Ala., Wednesday, Nov. 7. 1860. Large numbers of the Bell men, headed by.T. H. Watts, have declared for secession, since the an nouncement of Lincoln's election.. The State will undoubtedly secede. Augusta, Ga., Wednesday, Nov. 7, 1860. , The Charleston Mercury says the news of Lincoln's 5 election at Charleston, was received with long-con tinued cheering for a Southern confederacy. Washington, D. C, Wednesday, Nov. 7, 1860. There is a good deal of excitement here. Several extreme Southern men in office have donned the cockade, and declared themselves ready to march South. Columbia, S. C, Thursday, Nov. 8th. The Speaker of the House last night received a dispatch from Virginia, tendering the services of a volunteer corps in the event of South Carolina's se cession. Edmund Ruffin spoke last night. He said Southern independence could only be secured by the secession of South Carolina. His speech was raptu rously applauded. Charleston, S. C, Thursday, Nov. 7, 1860. The bark James Gray, owned by Cushing's Boston Line, lying at our wharves, under instructions from her owners, has hoisted the Palmetto flag, and fired a salute of fifteen guns. New Orleans, La., Thursday, Nov. 8, 1860. Placards are posted about the city, calling a Con vention of those favorable to the organization of a corps of " Minute Men." Washington, D. C, Friday, Nov. 9, 1860. The President is still in doubt what to do. He is apprehensive of troubles in the South, but does not know how to meet them. His feelings are with the South, but he is afraid to assist them openly. A large quantity of arms was yesterday shipped from our arsenal to the South. But the place of des tination remains a secret. The proclamation of Gov. Brown, of Georgia, has created much excitement. It is the most unconsti tutional manifesto ever published in the United States, and it depends now upon the President whether he will use his authority, and enforce the laws of the United States. Each day added to the intensity of the excitement. The press of the South, early in November, was widely divided, even in the Gulf States. In New Orleans, the ma jority of press and people seemed to regard the threats of disunion with disfavor. So in Savannah, Mobile, Memphis, Nashville, &c, there were found stem and strong voices for the Union. " Wait until Mr. Lincoln is in augurated, and commits the overt act," the Union men urged ; but, it soon became evi dent that the antipathy to the North and to the Union gained in fervor ; and, day by day, the public mind of the South became more reconciled to the views of the few men who assumed a leadership in the crisis, viz. : Wm. Growth of the Seces sion Sentiment 34 THE SOUTHERN REBELLION L. Yancey, Jefferson Davis, Robert Toombs ••U. S. Senator Iverson, U. S. Senator Benjamin U. S. Senator Wigfall, U. S. Senator Cling man, U. S. Senator Clay, Jr., and Messrs. Ma son, Wise and Hunter, of Virginia. By the middle of Novem- TheDramaUnfolding. ^ ^ pr0gresa of the movement was perceptible, as will be indicat ed by the dispatches of the 15th, viz. : — Charleston, S. C. South Carolina is decidedly in earnest. There is but one voice here now ; it is for secession. Union and conservative parties are dead. Visible excite ment has abated, but resolves are more intense than ever. South Carolinians are done arguing ; they act now. The Mayor of Charleston has forbidden steer age passengers to land, unless steamship companies enter into bonds to support them in event of becom- in g incumbrances. Montgomery, Ala. Gov. Moore, of Alabama, awaits the election of Lincoln by the electoral college, on the fifth of De cember, before calling a State Convention. He will issue his call on the 6th of December, fixing election (>f delegates for the 24th. The Convention assembles 7th January, 1861. The Convention will be compos ed of one hundred members. From the indications given in private correspondence from leading men in each county, at least seventy-five members of the Convention will be for unconditional disunion. Milledgeville, Ga. The leading men of all parties had a conference to-day, and unanimously agreed to a State Conven tion. They recommend resistance, the time and mode to be settled by the Convention. Good feeling prevailed. Tallahasse, Fla. " Florida is with the gallant Palmetto flag," said a dispatch from Governor Perry, of that State, to Gov ernor Gist, of South Carolina. Richmond, Va. Governor Letcher has called an extra session of the Legislature for the 7th of January, to take into consideration the condition of public affairs, and de termine calmly and wisely what action is necessary in this emergency. November 10th, in the South Carolina Acts. South Carolina Legislature, important action was had A bill was reported for the immediate en rolment of 10,000 volunteers. November 21st was fixed as a day of humiliation, fasting and prayer. The resignations of Messrs. Ham mond and Chestnut, United States Senators, were accepted " enthusiastically." The Con vention bill was adopted — December 6th be ing fixed as the day for the election of dele- gates, the Convention to meet December 17th. These - " precipitate" de monstrations gave especial Virginia's Protest. alarm to the Union men in the South, who were rapidly becoming power less before the growing feeling against any ar rangement with the North. In Virginia, al though the disunion sentiment largely pre vailed, the disinclination to precipitate steps was so strong as to call forth such protests as the following, from the Alexandria Gazette, against the course of South Carolina : " Throwing aside the question of Constitutional right to secede at all, there is something due to comity, to neighborhood associations, to propriety. No man has a ' right,' by setting fire to his own house, to endanger the house of , his neighbor. Vir ginia, in this Union, or out of it as a sovereign, and as potential as South Carolina, and has her own in terests to look after, her own rights to be secured, her own feelings to be respected — and she will de mand this from South Carolina, just as much as she would from any other State in the present United States. It would seem as if in the course now pursued, fearing the conservative action of Virginia, and not desiring, in truth, ' a United South,' certain Cotton States were for going off by themselves, for the mere sake of 'forming a Cotton Confederacy,' totally irrespective of other Southern States which do not recognize Cotton as their King, and totally regardless of any interests or any views but their own. It used to be a *' United South !" It was for merly Disunion and Secession for aggression by the General Government. It is now a disunited South — secession on account of the untoward result of a Presidential election ! This is not the way to uphold the rights of the States, and the rights of the South. It is weakening our own position, and destroying our own strength." To this view of the case the Charleston Mercury re plied : — "Virginia and the other frontier States may as well at once understand their position with the Cot ton States. They are not expected to aid the Cotton States in protecting themselves and redeeming their liberties. They will practically aid the Northern States in attempting to obtain in the South an acqui escence in the rule of Abolitionists' at Washington. The Southern States, however, will disregard their counsels. They want no conference but in the con vention which will assemble to frame the Constitu tion, and complete the organization of a Southern The Iron Rule. ACTION OF GOVERNORS AND LEGISLATURE! SO Confederacy. They intend to secede from the Union, and construct a Union amongst themselves, and will be glad to find Virginia and the other Border States in counsel with them, after this great Revolution. But if these value their own dignity ,or respect our wishes, let them keep aloof from us until they are prepared to dissolve their connection with the pre sent Union, and to unite their destinies with that of the other Southern States. If they will not be our friends, let them not be our enemies, by unsolicited and undesired efforts under whatever amiable pre text — of preserving an abolished Union, to subject us to the sectional despotism of a consolidated gov ernment under the control of abolitionists at Wash ington. The day for new guarantees is gone. Henceforth we are two peoples." The Conference demanded by Virginia looked to a united effort before Congress, and all action for secession was to be withheld until after the failure to obtain from Con gress the necessary guarantees. It was un derstood by her leading men that the Repub licans in Congress would patiently and will ingly consider plans for compromise, and Virginia, if she could stay the revolution be fore it passed beyond the actual point of se cession, had fair hopes of still preserving the Union. The programme determined upon by the Virginia leaders embraced, first, a re peal of the statutes nullifying the ^Fugitive Slave law by those States which have passed such statutes, with a guarantee of a faithful enforcement of that law in the future; second, a concession that the Constitution authorizes the carrying of slaves into the common terri tory, and consequent protection for slave pro perty therein ; and, third, that neither Con gress nor the Executive shall interfere with slavery in the States or Territories, except for its protection in the latter when necessary. Terms of Settlement to be proposed. The conservative element in the South, it was hoped, would rally around a pro position of this kind ; but, no concerted sym pathy was expressed, and all hopes of the pro posed Conference were abandoned at an early day. Under the influence of an ever-increas ing sentiment for disunion and " further inde pendence," the Unionists in Alabama, Geor gia, and Mississippi were soon left in the small minority. The immediate Secessionists began at length to speak of them derisively as " submissionists," began to use them dis courteously at first, but soon proceeded to intimidate by threats. Before South Caro lina had actually seceded, in the cotton grow ing States a strong Unionist was regarded as an enemy to the South, and was treated with such opposition as made it impolitic for a citizen to speak his sentiments if they were averse to precipitate action. It was given out, and became the generally received opin ion, that " in view of the increasing power of the Disunionists in the South, the conser vatives of that quarter, headed by Henry 8. Foote of Mississippi, Alexander H. Stephens of Georgia, Isaac E. Morse of Louisiana, Geu. Sam Houston of Texas, George W. Jones of Tennessee, the Hon. John M. Botts, Timothy Rives, and William C. Rives of Virginia, Al bert Rust of Arkansas, and James Guthrie of Kentucky,intend issuing a manifesto, assuring the conservative people of the Free States that in no event will the constitutional elec tion of Mr. Lincoln be regarded as a cause for breaking up the Union, unless he should attack the rights of the South." But, if such an address ever was contemplated or proposed, it never was published. CHAPTER IV. ACTION OF GOVERNORS, LEGISLATURES, & C . All attention now be- Georgia Convention came centered m the action ordered. of the Southern State Legis latures. Georgia followed South Carolina in calling a Convention. A special message of Governor Brown had paved the way for such legislation as placed the State in an attitude of offence. The bill appropriating one mil lion dollars, to arm and equip the State, be came a law, November 13th. On the 18th the Convention bill passed unanimously — the election of delegates being ordered for Janu ary 2d (1861); to meet Jan. 9th. The pream ble of the Convention bill read : — THE SOUTHERN REBELLION. Whereas, The present crisis in national affairs, in the judgment of this General Assembly, demands re sistance ; and Whereas, It is the privilege of the people to deter mine the mode, measure, and time of such resistance : therefore, The General Assembly enacts that the Governor issue his proclamation, ordering the election on the 2d of January. Its powers were defined in the fourth sec tion of the bill, which read : — " Said Conven tion, when assembled, may consider all grie vances impairing or affecting the equality of rights of the people of Georgia as members of the United States, and determine the mode, measure, and time of redress." The Governor of Missis- Mississippi Legisla- . . ., _ ,. T . . , sippi called the Legislature ture Convened. r A ° of that State to meet on the 26th of November. His proclamation read : — ^Whereas, The people of the Non-Slaveholding States have in various forms, declared purposes hos tile to the institutions of the Slaveholding States, and the State Governments of nearly all the Northern States have evinced a settled purpose to evade their constitutional obligations, and disregard their oaths in carrying on this war on the rights and institutions of Southern States ; and "Whereas, The recent election of Messrs. Lincoln and Hamlin demonstrates that those who neither reverence the Constitution, obey the laws, nor re gard their oaths, have now the power to elect to the highest offices in the Confederacy men who sympa thize with them in all their mad zeal to destroy the peace, property and prosperity of the Southern sec tion, and who will use the powers of the Federal Government to defeat all the purposes for which it was formed ; and " Whereas, The dearest rights of the people depend for protection, under our Constitution, on the fidelity to their oaths of those who administer the Govern ment: " Now, therefore, that the State of Mississippi may be enabled to take into consideration the propriety and necessity of providing surer and better safeguards for the lives, liberties, and property of her citizens than have been found, or are to be hoped for, in Black Republican oaths : " I, John J. Pettus, Governor of the State of Mis sissippi, exercising the powers in me vested," &c, &o. Governor Letcher's pro- VirPoonvmed?tUre clamation next followed. He used, among other ex pressions, the following : — " Whereas, In consequence of the appointment of Electors, a majority of whom are known to be favor able to the election of sectional candidates as Presi dent and Vice-President of the United States, whose principles and views are believed (by a large por tion of the Southern States) to be in direct hostility to their constitutional rights and interests, and in consequence thereof great excitement prevails in the public mind, and prudence requires that the re presentatives of the people of this Commonwealth should take into consideration the condition of pub lic affairs, and determine, calmly and wisely, what action is necessary in this emergency, therefore, I, John Letcher, Governor, by virtue of the -authority aforesaid, do hereby require the Senators and Dele gates of the two Houses of the General Assembly of the Commonwealth to convene at the Capitol, in the city of Richmond, on Monday, the 7th day of Janua ry, A. D. 1861, at 12 o'clock, M., to legislate upon such subjects as they may deem necessary and pro per." This was accompanied by an announcement in the Dispatch, of Richmond, to the effect that the State could efficiently arm 25,000 troops. The editor further stated that she had at least sixty bronze and rifled field pieces and howitzers. "A contract has been made for 3,000 shells and shrapnells, in addi tion to those purchased with the Parrott guns. Eive hundred barrels of Dupont pow der has been purchased and stored in maga- zines built for the purpose. The model of a new Virginia musket is determined on. Oth er warlike preparations, are also in progress." The Dispatch, referring to the Governor's call, and the crisis which the Legislature would have to meet, said : — " By the time they meet, the crisis will be suffi ciently developed, no doubt, to demand some action on the part of Virginia., She will then find, very probably, that the question for her to debate is ripe. Ten days have very much changed the appearance of things. The signs from the South leave little room to hope that the Union will long remain un broken. If there is a possibility of preserving it, or of prevailing upon States which may secede to rejoin the Union, we cannot long postpone deliberation upon the means by which either is to be done. There may be yet another question for Virginia, and that is, if secession cannot be avoided, and the Seceding . States cannot be induced to return, what course is left her to pursue? It is probable that Governor Letcher will renew his proposition to the last Legis lature for a Convention of the States, under the fifth article of the Constitution, to consider the state of THE GOVERNOR OF KENTUCKY'S VIEWS, 87 the country, and see if some measure cannot be taken, which will restore harmony to the Union and protect the rights and equality of the States from fanaticism and radicalism." Governor Moore, of Louisiana, yielding to the pressure of the State, issued his call, (November 19th,) for the Convention of the Legislature, December 10th. Governor Moore, of Ala- AI&bamA Governor's . . , . „. bama, in answer to inqui ries of leading citizens of the State in regard to his views, answered by an elaborate paper, under date of November 14th, taking the ground that secession was not only a right — but a necessity. He took the position that the President had no power, under the Constitution, to coerce a state, say ing : — " 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." This view of the want of power in the Executive to coerce a State, we may add, was that quite generally entertained at the South, and it is certain the precipitate Secessionists regarded that fact as one so im portant, that their wish was to get out of the Union before Mr. Lincoln came into power, not knowing to what extent he might resort to force against them. Mr. Buchanan, it was felt and understood, would not attempt coer cion, let the result be what it might. Governor Moore's address added : — " We should remember that Alabama must act and decide the great question of resistance or submission for herself. No other State has the right or the power to decide it for her. J She may, and should, consult with other Slaveholding States to secure concert of action, but still she must decide the ques tion for herself, and co-operate afterward. " The contemplated Convention will not be the place for the timid or the rash. It should be composed of men of wisdom and experience — men who have thel capacity to determine what the honor of the State and the security of her people demand ; and patriot ism and moral courage sufficient to carry out the dic tates of their honest judgments. "What will the intelligent and patriotic people of Alabama do in the impending crisis ? Judging of the future by the past, I believe they will prove them selves equal to the present, or any future emergency, and never will consent to affiliate with, or submit to be governed by a party who entertain tho most deadly hostility toward them and their institution of Slavery. They are loyal and true to the Union, but will never consent to remain degraded and dis honored members of it." Governor Magoffin, of Ken- , . , -, , -, • The Governor of Ken tucky, in an address to his tucky's views. people, took a position ad verse to the secession movement. His words were strong in condemning the unconstitu tionality of the Personal Liberty acts, and those other acts which had done injury to the South. He regarded Slavery as neces sary to the prosperity of the North. He said, among other things : " To South Carolina, and such other States as may wish to secede from the Union, I would say : The geography of this country will not admit of a division; the mouth and sources of the Mississippi River cannot be separated without the horrors of civil war. We cannot sustain you in this movement merely on account of the election of Lincoln. Do not precipitate us, by premature action, into a revo lution or civil war, the consequences of which will be most frightful to all of us. It may yet be avoid ed. There is still hope, faint though it be. Ken tucky is a border State, and has suffered more than all of you. She claims that, standing upon the same sound platform, you will sympathize with her, and stand by her, and not desert her in her exposed, perilous, border position. She has a right to claim that her voice, and the voice of reason, and modera tion, and patriotism, shall be heard and heeded by you. If you secede, your Representatives will go out of Congress, and leave us at the mercy of a Black Republican Government. Mr. Lincoln will have no check. He can appoint his Cabinet and have it con firmed. The Congress will then be Republican, and he will be able to pass such laws as he may suggest. /the Supreme Court will be powerless to protect us. We implore you to stand by us, and by our friends in the Free States, and let us all, the bold, the true, and just men in Hie Free and the Slave States, with a united front stand by each other, by our principles, by our rights, our equality, our honor, and by the Union under the Constitution. I believe this is the only way to save it, and we can do it." The Arkansas Legislature met Nov. 13th, but Governor Conway did not, in his message, refer to the National troubles. His silence was variously construed, but it was under stood that the people of the State were op posed to disunion. On the 14th of "November, Mr. Alexander H. Stephens, afterwards Vice-President of the 38 THE SOUTHERN REBELLION, V Southern Confederacy, made a speech at Mil- lidgeville, Georgia, declaring against seces sion because of Mr. Lincoln's election, but approving the call for a Convention to act, saying that his fortune should be cast with that of Georgia. He plead in eloquent terms the cause of the Union, and thought Georgia safer and more prosperous in than out of it. Mr. Toombs, who was present, frequently in terrupted Mr. Stephens to show his own dis union sentiments. As the members of the Georgia Legislature were present, the speech was heralded at the North as evidence- of a still unspoken sympathy for the Union ; but, it proved to be only the final struggle of the loyal heart. Mr. Toombs addressed the peo ple for secession on the following evening with great effect. The Legislature of Georgia followed with its Convention bill, which, in itself, was almost a declaration of secession. Mr. Stephens himself soon gave way before the changing current, and we find him, in the speech quoted from, [See pages 30, 31] de claring against the Union in terms calculated to excite a doubt if the same person could have made both speeches. We advert to the discrepancy to show how strong must have been the influences which could have in duced such changes of conviction in such wise and honest men. Up to this time, sin gular as it may seem, no "bill of particulars" had been laid before the public, specifying the individual wrongs which the South had to urge in justification of its belligerent atti tude towards the North and the Union. In most documents thus far issued, the " wrongs of the South" were expressed in generalities, and we therefore find the Northern people and press asking — " What are all those . wrongs ?" The first explicit answer made was by the Declaration of Causes, and the preamble and resolutions adopted, by the great secession meeting in Mobile on the evening of November 15th. This admirably comp"Bsed. document served as a model for others which followed, anticipating, as it did, by more than a month, the South Carolina " Declaration," which it much exceeded in force and fitness for the crisis. Its historic, as well as its political, interest demands its reproduction entire : THE MOBILE DECLARATION OF CAUSES. The Presidential election has resulted in the tri umph of sectionalism over the supporters of law, or der and the Constitution. Anti-Slavery fanaticism has lifted to the Chief Ma gistracy a man pledged to carry on a relentless war of aggression upon the rights and equality of fifteen States of the Union. In the pause after the battle, and before the enemy takes possession of the Government, it behooves us to consider what our safety demands, to look the danger in the face, and in the spirit of men who, knowing their rights, dare to maintain them at any and all hazards. The gravity of the occasion admonishes us neither to magnify nor under-estimate the hazard of our po sition. The question is, can the honor, dignity, and equal ity of the Sonthern States, and the rights of their citizens,be preserved by remaining in the Union ? Are we not constrained to ehoose between u dis graceful submission, and a separation from' those who persistently and defiantly violate the covenants of our fathers ? The following brief but truthful history of the Black Republican party, 4ts acta and purposes, af fords an answer to these questions : It claims to abolish Slavery in the districts, forts, arsenals, dockyards, and other places ceded to the United States. To abolish the inter-State Slave- trade, and thus cnt off the Northern Slave States from their profits of production, and the Southern of their resources of supply of labor. It claims to forbid all equality and competition of settlement in the common Territories, by the citizens of Slave States. It repels all further admission of new Slave States. It has nullified the Slave act in the majority of the Free States. It has denied the extradition of murderers, and marauders, and other felons. It has concealed and shielded the murderer of masters or owners in pursuit of fugitive slaves. It has refused to prevent or punish by State autho rity the spoiliation of slave property ; but, on the contrary, it has made it a criminal offense in the citi zens of several States to obey the laws of the Union for the protection of slave property. It has advocated negro equality, and made it the ground of positive legislation hostile to the Southern States. It opposes protection to slave property on the high seas, and has justified piracy itself in the case of the Creole. It has kept in our midst emissaries of incendiarism THE MOBILE DECLARATION OF CAUSE! to corrupt our slaves and induce them to run off, or incite them to rebellion and insurrection. It has run off millions of slave property, by a sys tem of what are called "underground railroads,!' and has made its tenure so precarious in the border Slave States as nearly to have abolitionized two of them — Maryland and Missouri; and it is making similar inroads constantly upon Virginia and Ken tucky. It is incessantly scattering firebrands of incendiary appeals in our midst. It has extended fanaticism into our own borders. It has invaded a Territory by arms furnished by Emigrant Aid Societies, under State patronage, and by funds furnished by foreign enemies, in Canada and Great Britain. It has invaded Virginia and shed the blood of her citizens on her own soil. It has published its plan for the abolition of Slave ry everywhere. To rescue slaves at all hazards, form associations to establish presses, to use the vote and ballot, to raise money and military equip ments, to form and discipline armed companies, to appeal to non-slaveholders and detach them from slaveholders in Slave States, to communicate with the slaves, to encourage Anti-Slavery emigrants to the South and West, to seize other property of slave holders to compensate for the cost of running off their slaves, to force emancipation by all means, es pecially by limiting, harassing, and frowning upon Slavery in every mode and form, and finally by the Executive, by Congress, by the postal service, and in every way to agitate without ceasing until the Southern States shall be abandoned to their fate, and, worn down, shall be compelled to surrender and emancipate their slaves. It has repudiated the decisions of the Supreme Court. It assails us from the pulpit, the press, the school room. It divides all sects and religions, as well as parties. It denounces slaveholders as degraded by the lowest immoralities, insults them in every form, and holds them up to the scorn of mankind. It has already a majority of the States under its domination ; has infected the Federal as well as the State Judiciary ; will, ere long, have a majority of the House of Representatives of the Congress of the United States ; will soon have, by the new census, a majority of the Senate ; and before it obtains the Se nate, certainly will obtain the Chief Executive power of the United States. It has announced its purpose of total abolition in the States and everywhere, as well as in the Territo- jaefi, and districts, and other places ceded. It has proclaimed an "irresistible conflict" of higher law with the Federal Constitution itself ! Its candidate elect to the Chief Magistracy has pro claimed that " the Government cannot endure half slave and half free" — that there is an" irrepressible conflict between opposing and enduring forces — that the United States must and will, sooner or later, be come a slaveholding nation, or entirely a free-laboi nation." Thus it is seen that their declared policy is a set tled and determined hostility to the social fabric of the Southern States, a policy at war with the theo ry of our Government and the design of its framers — regardless of the Compromises of the Federal Con stitution, ignoring the rights of property, and de structive of the harmony of our Federal system, and the equality of the States. The success, therefore, of that party in the late election is an open and official avowal by a popular majority of the non-Slaveholding States that there will be no pause in their aggressive warfare, until the full success of their fell purposes. The time, therefore, has come for us " to put our house in order," and, if need be, to stand by our arms. We will not give the enemy time to collect his strength and wield the powers of Government against us, by waiting for any further " overt act." Therefore, be it / Resolved, 1. That the election of Abraham Lincoln to the Presidency upon the principles avowed by the Black Republican party, is, in our opinion, a virtual j overthrow of the Constitution and of the equal right of the States. ! 2. That the idea of submission by the South to the ule of such a man and such a party should be repu diated from one end of her borders to the other. 3. That in the language of the Constitution of Ala bama, under which she was admitted into the Union, ' All political power is inherent in the people, and all free governments are founded on their authority, . and intended for their benefit; and, therefore, they have at all times an inalienable and indefeasible right to alter, reform, or abolish their form of government in such manner as they may think expedient." 4. That, in the present state of things, it is the de liberate opinion of this meeting, assembled without distinction of parties, that the State of Alabama should withdraw from the Federal Union without any further delay than may be necessary to obtain in the speediest manner a consultation with other Slave- holding States, in the hope of securing their coope ration in a movement which we deem essential to our safety. This document shows some " master hand" in its preparation. The list of specifications was truly formidable enough to answer the query, "What are your wrongs?" 40 THE SOUTHERN REBELLION, On the evening of No- Southern Rights' As- . nn -, -, i- sociation. vember 23d a large meeting was held in New Orleans for the organization of a " Southern Rights' Association." It adopted a declaration em bodying the general features of the Mobile resolutions, though its language was more in cendiary and violent. The' Constitution adopted for the government of the Associa tion embraced, among its articles, the follow ing:— " The objects of this Association shall be to encou rage Southern independence of interest and feeling, and to promote concert of action among the South ern States. And should any State or States, in the exercise of their sovereign right, withdraw from the Union, and the Federal Government attempt coer cion, to extend to such State or States our cordial support and sympathy; to use all honorable means to bring about, under the sanction of a State Con vention, the withdrawal of the State of Louisiana from the present Union, and the assertion of her in dependence and sovereignty; and, finally, to pro mote in every way the establishment of a Confede rate Government of the Southern States, or such pf them as will unite for that purpose." The Legislature of North North Carolina Legis- ~ -,. -,. ., , n lature Carolina did not act, du ring November, definitely on the questions of relations with the Fede ral Government. Resolutions were intro duced on the 22d, by Mr. Ferrebee, strongly Union in their nature, denying the right of secession, &c, &c. Various substitutes were offered, but all were tabled, and no action taken. On the 24th, Mr. Slade introduced a resolution which was referred to the Committee on Federal Relations, as follows : — " That without intending any menace or threat, it is the opinion of this General Assembly, that in case any State shall, through the voice of her people, withdraw from the Union, the General Government ought not to attempt coercion, and that the people of this State ought not only to refuse to take part in any such attempt, but to resist the same by all means in their power." This was the only indication, thus far, of the feeling in the Legislature, while it was remarked that the people of the State were largely in favor of the Union, and of righting their wrongs on the floors of Congress. Governor Hicks, of Ma- , -, , , , TT . Governor Hicks' Po- ryland, took strong Union f u grounds, in a letter dated November 27th, in answer to a memorial from influential citizens for the Governor to con vene the Legislature. He said : — " Identified, as I am, by birth, and every other tie, with the South, a slaveholder, and feeling as warmly for my native State as any man can do, I am yet compelled by my sense of fair dealing, and my re spect for the Constitution of our country, to declare that I see nothing in the bare election of Mr. Lincoln which would justify the South in taking any steps tending toward a separation of these States. Mr. Lincoln being elected, I am willing to await further results. If he will administer the Government in a . proper and patriotic manner, we are all bound to submit to his Administration, much as we may have opposed his election. "As an individual, I will very cheerfully sustain him in well doing, because my suffering country will be benefited by a constitutional administration of the Government. If, on the contrary, he shall abuse the trust confided to him, I shall be found as ready and determined as any other man to arrest him in his wrong courses, and to seek redress of our griev ances by any and all proper means." Tennessee assumed no part in the secession move ment. Her people, during November, were represented as " calm and conservative" — that they had expected the election of Mr. Lincoln, and wereprepared to do their duty under the Constitution. Ex- Governor Andrew Johnson, her United States Senator, and Emerson Etheridge, one of her Representatives, were unqualified in their Union principles, and served much to steady public sentiment. It was understood, how ever, that her Governor, Isham Harris, sym pathised with the Secessionists, and fears were entertained by the Unionists that he might commit the State at any moment to " cooperation." Florida, indicated her position as beside South Carolina, in the dispatch sent by her Governor, Perry, to Governor Gist : "Florida is with the gallant Palmetto flag," and by the calling of her Convention to meet Jan. 3d. The immediate secession movement, so far as the proceeding of November indicated, seemed to be confined to the Gulf States and South Carolina. The Border Slave States, Tennessee's Con dition. CONDITION OF THE BANKS. 41 sympathising strongly with their fellow Slave States, still preferred some arrangement by which the Union should be preserved, and directed their influence to that end. Ad joining the Free States on the North, they must become chief sufferers in event of hos tilities ; hence, whatever might have been the secret desires of their people, policy dictated the wise course of laboring for adjustment of difference in the Union, not out of it. Well would it have been for Virginia, " Mo ther of Presidents," if she had never known the baleful influence of such men as Henry A. Wise, Jas. M. Mason, Roger A. Pryor, and John Tyler ! Well was it for Kentucky, that she had such men as John J. Crittenden, Rev. Dr. Breckenridge, and Joseph Holtl Alas for Tennessee that the counsels of An drew Johnson, Emerson Etheridge, and Judge Nelson should not have prevailed I CHAPTER V. THE FINANCIAL CONDITION OF THE C 0 U N T R Y . — S T A T E OF FEELING AT THE NORTH. It became evident, early The Monetary Crisis, in the fall of 1860, that a monetary crisis was im pending. As a consequence, business was restricted, and capital began to withdraw from investment. Manufacturers and importers became eager to close off stocks on hand, and crowded the market with goods beyond its want. The Southern market for goods sud denly ceased, early in November, except in firearms and military wares, and the feeling of insecurity in regard to debts due from the South by November 15th, changed to a feeling of alarm, since remittances almost totally ceased. Exchange on New York and Phila delphia became so high, and Southern bank notes grew so discredited, that, even those creditors of the Northern factors and mer chants who were honorable enough to meet their engagements, could only do so at ruin ous discounts. The result was disastrous in the extreme to the ' lenient tradesmen and manufacturers of the North, who, in their anxiety to " do a Southern business," would credit large amounts on long time. The Western buyer was considered "favored" with a four months' credit; the Southern buyer was "accommodated" with eighteen months' bills. The Western man could not buy more than the sharp Mercantile Agency 6 thought proper to report " safe." The South ern man could buy all he wanted — it would not have been "courteous" to question his ability to pay. This certainly was the feel ing in the trade, and, as must inevitably have been the result, when the crisis came, it was found that the South was an immense debtor to the North for goods bought on long credits. Many a house which, in the summer of 1860, was considered good for a million, in Novem ber found its name in the list of " discredited firms." This generous confidence had been its ruin. Notwithstanding this , , -, , . , Good Condition of the general dry goods disaster, , Banks. the condition of the banks was most satisfactory. The crises of 1837 and '57 found them with small assets and large circulations: the crisis of 1860 found them with heavy assets and narrowed circu lations. The following table will exhibit the comparative statements of the several " panic" seasons : — , January, 1837. 1851 1860. Capital $290,000,000 $368,000,000 $469,600,000 Circulation. 151,900,000 177,000,000 197,234,000 Deposits.... 144,300,000 255,900,000 248,780,000 Loans 553,000,000 745,700,000 685,161,000 Specie 37,900,000 59,700,000 90,153,000 Real Estate.. 19,000,000 26,300,000 22,456,000 No. of banks 788 1,368 1,680 43 THE SOUTHERN REBELLION, As will be seen by our Summary of Events (page 3), bank suspensions throughout the country became very general about the mid dle of November ; and, in all circles, the want of money was seriously felt. There was money enough in the country; — never, since the Government was organized were the peo ple so generally in " easy circumstances ;" but, the distrust which prevailed, the political ruin which stared the nation in the face, the distressed condition of the United States Trea sury and the want of confidence in the Trea surer's management, the action of Southern State Legislatures in authorizing not only suspension of specie payment by the banks, but a suspension of payment of debts due to the North — all contributed to that contrac tion of capital which is the inevitable result of a "panic." But, the tide of exchange and trade was so immensely in our favor that, by the latter part of November, coin commenced flowing in such amounts as to astonish even the most sanguine of money prophets. On the 22d of November one of the leading authorities in New York commercial reports declared that the superabundant wealth actually clogged the avenues of business. The reason was, that exports so immensely exceeded im ports that foreign exchange could not be used in the purchases, and pending the arrival of specie from Europe, to replace the unsought bills of exchange, much embarrassment ensu ed. The exports of cotton and grain were particularly heavy. The South, preparing for a stagnation in business, or compelled by its wants, hastened forward its product, while the propitious year for grain-growth swelled the great granaries of the West to such full ness that operators had to push forward wheat, flour, and corn for a market in order to buy again at the West. On Monday, November 19th, the pressure on the market of unsalable foreign exchanges became so great, and the wants of commission men became so importunate, that the New York bank presidents met, and, after much discussion, resolved to purchase $2,500,000 of foreign exchange, upon which the gold would be realized in thirty days. This afforded a brief relief only, and until gold could come An Overstocked Mar ket. forward much trouble was experienced in getting rid of the vast stores of grain and cotton awaiting shipment in New York, Bos ton, Philadelphia and Baltimore. On the 21st of Novem- , ,, -.T ,r , , . The New York Banks' ber the New York banks, , ' Loan. in order further to relieve the stringency prevailing, particularly among merchants, resolved upon a liberal line of discounts, by a consolidated fund arrange ment through the Clearing House. Ten mil lion dollars were thus set loose — with a pro mise of more if necessary — to the great relief of the community, and many a first-class house was spared the mortification of " a fail ure." Notwithstanding this relief, "second class" paper was only negotiated at fearful rates — as high as 18 per cent, being a common rate. The condition of the banks, in the great commercial centres, was as follows, at the dates named: Loans. Specie. Circul'n. Deposits. N. York. Nov. 17 $123,271 ,025 $19,464,410 $9,268,317 $76,190,663 Philad'a, Nov. 19. 20,775,878 4,115,932 2,791,762 15,833,121 N. Orl's, Nov. 10. 23,443,541 10,219,756 8,005,239 16,304,467 Boston, Nov. 20. 64.150.600 4,518,400 7,705,709 19,384,400 Total.. $237 ,641 ,043 $38,318,498 $27,831,008 $127,712,651 Previous Week. 237, 5J1, 051 40,003,5 3 28,486,368 131,255,133 Increase. Decrease $109,992 The United Stale3 Treasury. $l,6S5,05'i $658,360 $3,542,681 The condition of the Go vernment Treasury was cal culated to excite alarm. Howell Cobb, of Georgia, entered upon his duties, as Secretary of the Treasury, in March, 1857, to find a chest absolutely plethoric with deposits. To prevent further accumulation, it was found necessary to buy in the Treasury notes next due. Two years of his manage ment, with no unusual drafts upon the Trea sury, found the National Exchequer none too well filled. In the Fall of 1860, he was compelled to go into the New York market as a solicitor for a loan to provide for the wants of Government and the interest on its indebtedness. That loan was obtained at ruinous rates, and Government paper which, a few months previously, would have com manded a premium, went at 85 and 87 cents on the dollar. But even these bids for the THE SECTIONAL EQUALITY PARTY. 43 loan were not paid in, and the financier was compelled to see his department brought to embarrassment. Matters were not changed until, by Mr. Cobb's resignation, (December 10th,) John A. Dix, of New York, was called to the Secretaryship. His integrity and busi ness ability won the confidence of Wall street, and, ere ten days of administration, the threatened bankruptcy was not only averted, but the Treasury began to show signs of ac cumulation quite gratifying in view of the contingencies likely to arise. The state of feeling at The Feeling at the ^ ^^ durf fte North. ' month, was extremely un settled. The selection of Mr. Lincoln's cabi net would, in a great degree, determine the line of conduct to be adopted by the admin istration; therefore men of all parties can vassed the subject freely and with some feel ing. The attitude of the Southern States in spired apprehensions of disaster, which it was very difficult to dissipate by any course con sistent with the integrity of the Union. Mr. Buchanan's policy, it was feared, would lack in firmness and integrity to the Constitution, since, unlike his predecessor, Andrew Jack son, he had expressed no determination to enforce Ms abrogated authority. On the 15th of November it was announced that Fortress Munroe, in Virginia, was garrisoned by but eight companies of artillery — the valuable arsenal at Fayetteville, North Carolina, by one company — Fort Moultrie, in Charleston harbor, by two companies (eighty men)— Key West fortifications by one company — Barran cas -barracks, Pensacola, by one company — the richly stored arsenal at Baton Rouge, Louisiana, by one company; while the New Orleans Mint, the valuable Custom Houses in New, Orleans, Charleston, Mobile, Savannah, &c, &c, were totally without guard. Nor folk Navy Yard and the Pensacola Navy Yard, both having millions of property in their keeping, were only garrisoned by 120 marines. As soon as the movements for se cession became well developed, the South de manded of the President that no reinforce ments of Southern fortresses, &c, should be made. The North anxiously awaited the President's ac tion in the matter. It The Sectional Equali ty Party. Mr. Buchanan's Inac tion. waited in vain. Though Gen. Scott plead to be permitted to throw a strong defensive force in Fort Moultrie, as in 1832 — though he labored earnestly to dissuade Mr. Buchanan from the dangerous apathy which governed his actions — it was in vain: the President not only would authorize no steps looking to the complete protection of Government pro perty, but committed the more heinous mis take of assuring the determined Southern leaders that no reinforcements should be made. With such want of decision in the Admin istration, it followed that the people were greatly divided in sentiment. One party, looking at the question of difference between the North and the South, assumed the une quivocal position that the South should be rendered politically equal in the Con federacy, no matter what her minority might be in population and wealth. The New York Herald, as organ of this class of thinkers, said, in its issue of November 28th : — "The first thing demanded is the absolute suspen sion of Mr. Seward's ' irrepressible conflict,' and the ¦ recognition by the North of the rights of our South ern slaveholders to their slave property, wherever it may be found within the limits of the Union. That point conceded by each of the Northern States, even Mas sachusetts will be ready for the next proposition, which is that the Southern States, in behalf of their institution of Slavery, are entitled to such additional checks and balances in the General Government as may be necessary to render them hereafter secure against Northern Anti-Slavery parties and Popular Majorities. This proposition will, of course, compre hend a reconstruction of the organic law of the Union, and a new Constitutional Convention of all the States to do this important work. Itis probable, too, that this very proposition may emanate from this approaching Congressional Conference, a.iid it may be suggested in the President's Annual Mes sage," This, it was understood, represented the views of the Breckenridge wing of the Demo cracy, although it was certain that many of the Pro-Slavery men of the party did not fa vor so undemocratic a measure as a " protec tion against popular majorities." Another class, representing the Douglas wing of the Democratic party, favored liberal concessions to the South in the shape of a 44 THE SOUTHERN REBELLION, Position of the Repub lican Party. right in the territories ; of a repeal of the Per sonal Liberty bills in the Northern States ; of a strict execution of the Fugitive Slave law, &c, &c. This class of men were devoted to the Union, and most of them favored a firm defence of the Government property, and the enforcement of the laws. The Republicans were, also, strong in their Union sentiments, and apparently favored the idea of such compromises as were consistent with their ineradicable opposition to the extension of Slavery. They could but deplore the want of firmness in the President, and looked hopefully forward to Congress, which would come together December 3rd. Senator Seward — who, it was well understood, would be Secretary of State under the new administration — in a speech made to the " Wide-A wakes" of Auburn, on the evening of November 20th, advised conciliation in these terms : — " What is our present duty ? It is simply that of magnanimity. We have learned, heretofore, the practice of patience under political defeat. It now remains to show the greater virtue of moderation in triumph. That we may do this, let us remember that it is only as figures of speech that the use of martial terms, such as ' defeat' and ' victory' obtain in our system of elections. The parties engaged in an election are not, never can be, never must be, enemies, or even adversaries. We are all fellow- citizens, Americans, brethren. It is a trial of issues by the force only of reason ; and the contest is car ried to its conclusion with the use only of suffrage. An appeal lies from the people this year, to the peo ple themselves next year — to be argued and deter mined in the same way, and so on forever. This is, indeed, a long way to the attainment of rights and the establishment of interests. It is our way, how ever, now, as it has been heretofore. Let it be our way hereafter. If there be among us, or in the country, those who think that marshaling of armies or pulling down the pillars of the Republic is a bet ter, because a shorter way, let us not doubt that if we commend onr way by our patience, our gentle ness, our affection towards them, they too will, be fore they shall have gone too far, find out that our way, the old way, their old way as well as our old way, is not only the shortest but the best." .This reflected the feelings of the great ma jority of Republicans. There was no com mittal, on the part of the leaders of the party, to any definitive line of conduct in the crisis —they appeared willing to await the issue of events, leaving all responsibility with the President and Congress. CHAPTER VI. PROGRESS OF THE REBELLION IN SOUTH CAROLINA, The action of the South Carolina Legisla ture in ordering a Convention, and in provid ing for the "military defence" of the State, gave almost unanimous satisfaction to the people of the State. If a Union sentiment was existent it did not appear. Although the Convention was not to assemble until December 17th, the feeling prevailed, early in November, that the State was virtually out of the Union. November 12th, Barnwell Rhett, one of the leading men of the State, said, in a public address : — " The Southern Confederacy ought to be a Slaveholding Con federacy. It is no experiment Mr. Ehett's Senti ments. that Free Governments should exist in slaveholding countries. The republics of Rome and Greece — still the light and glory of ancient times — were built on domestic slavery. But it is an experiment to main tain Free Government with universal suffrage, and the whole population to control the Government. * * * The forts and fortresses in our bay should never again be surrendered to any power on earth. We have seen the cannon, placed in,them for our defence , turned against us for our subjugation, When our flag again floats over them, let it remain there, until our existence is blotted out as a free people. * * * What shall prevent the people of the South from being a great and free people 1 Taught by the bitter experience we have had, we can frame a Constitution the best for securing jns- RESIGNATION OF MILITARY OFFICERS CALLED FOR. 49 - tice and liberty, the world has ever seen. With such a Constitution and our institutions, we can establish a Confederacy which shall endure for ages ; and our Confederacy will be as powerful as it will be great. * * * The Union is dissolved, and henceforth there is deliverance and peace and liberty for the South. We leave it, not in a time of publio danger and trouble, but in a time of established security ; not in a time of war, with a foreign enemy thunder ing on our coasts, but in a time of profound peace \ with all the world.. We leave it victorious in three * wars, led on by Southern generals; and with a vast ', domain of territory, stretching from sea to sea, greater than all civilized Europe contains — the glo rious fruits of Southern statesmanship. We leave it, as our fathers left their union with Great Britain, after a patience of endurance, which they would have scorned ; and armed like them, with the mighty consciousness of right, more powerful than armies with banners. The long weary night of our humilia tion, oppression, and danger is passing away, and the glorious dawn of a Southern Confederacy breaks on our view. With the blessing of God, we will soon be a great people — happy, prosperous and free." This speech was significent not only of the state of sentiment in the State, but demon strated, incontestably,that the work of rebel lion had been progressing long enough before the Presidential election to render secession a fixed fact in event of Lincoln's success. On Thursday evening a great meeting was held in Charleston, to welcome the returning delegates to the Legislature, to secure the pas sage of the Convention bill. Mayor Macbeth presided. From the speeches made we see that the mere act of calling Reception of Dele- & Convention was regard- gates. ed as equivalent to seces sion, although the Convention would not as semble until December 17th. One speaker, Mr. Porter, responding for the delegates, said : — This great Government, the wonder of the world this mighty Federal Union, the centre of so many hopes and aspirations — is now sliding from under our feet, and those great sovereign communities that breathed into it the breath of life ; that called it into being, but which has been most perfidiously abused and betrayed, are about to recall the powers with which they clothed it, and to assume their orig inal positions among the people of the earth as a so vereign and independent nation. But, fellow-citi zens, what is most remarkable of all is, that it is not a legislative, but a popular revolution. The people j sai started the ball of revolution, and they will carry it forward to the consummation and the end they have In view. Solitary and alone, it is my fixed belief that the State of South Carolina, whatever may be tide her, whoever refuse to stand by her — that South Carolina, solitary and alone if need be, will launch her gallant little bark of independence upon an un tried political sea; abiding in the justice of her cause, and relying upon the gallant arms and the stout hearts of her people, will peril all in the con test with our enemy." Another speaker from the delegation said : " The wicked and nefarious plot which forty years ago was conceived to seize the reins of this Govern ment for the purpose of plundering the South and uprooting her institutions has, day by day, matured, until the hour of its accomplishment has come. * * The knell of thi3 Union has been sounded, and it must go down, if it has to go down in a stream of blood and in a multitude of human suffering. Of what value, my friends, is this Union to you now ? Three thousand millions of property is involved in this question, and if you say at the ballot-box that South Carolina shall not secede, you put into the sacrifice three thousand millions of your property. Aye, my friends, that Union of which so many speak in terms of laudation — its virtues, its spirit, its splen dor has forever fled. It is now a dead carcass, stink ing in the nostrils of the South. * * Aye, my friends, a few weeks more and you will see floating from the fortifications the ensign that now bears the Palmetto, the emblem of a Southern Confederacy. A thousand hearts will rally to its support, and a thousand swords will leap from their scabbards, re solved to make it their winding-sheet ere it shall trail in dishonor in the dust." Upon the adjournment of the Court of Chancery, on the afternoon of Friday, No vember 16th, the Chancellor, in his parting address, "expressed the earnest hope that when they again met, it would be as the Court of an independent State, and that State a member of a Southern Confederacy." About this time a de-„T , , _ j.iwv/nu Navy and Army offl mand was made by the C8rs to resign. Mercury, of " all the Army and Navy officers of the State of South Caro lina, now in the service of the General Gov ernment," to throw up their commissions and join in the revolutionary movement. The call read : — " In behalf of the people of the State of South Carolina, we would this day call upon each and all of her sons who are now engaged in 'he military ser 4G THE SOUTHERN REBELLION. vice of the Government of the United States, to re nounce at once the sword and the rations of the vul gar oppressor, and to hasten at once to the homes that gave them birth, for the protection of their na tive soil, the preservation of the institutions of their State , and the maintenance of the liberty of freemen, bequeathed them by their fathers. " South Carolina wants her soldier citizens around her now. The mother looks to her sons to protect her from outrage. Shall she look in vain? She wants, now, military skill and science, to direct the courage and energies of her people. She looks to her Army and Navy officers to supply that want. Let them return home at once, without any hesita tion whatever. They need have no more doubt of South Carolina's going out of the Union, than of the world's turning round. Every man that goes to the Convention will be a pledged man — pledged for im mediate separate State secession, in any event what ever. Once out of the Union, nothing but conquest will bring her back. She is resolved, sick of the Union, disgusted with it upon any terms that are within the range of the widest possibility. " Her sons, however, will be taken care of, what ever the result of her secession — for that is » fixed fact. Let them not hesitate ; but rather let their promptitude bespeak the amount of their devotion to their native State." Saturday morning, Nov. Gre'itPopular Demon- ., n , , ,, , ,,.-., ¦, 17th, the people of Charles- stration. ' r * ton inaugurated a gala-day by erecting a pine pole, ninety feet in height, from which was flung the Palmetto flag. It consisted of a white ground with a palmetto tree in the centre, under which was inscribed — "Animas assibusque parati." The State flag also flew from all the public buildings and leading houses in the city. It is estimated that twenty thousand persons took part in the festivities of the day " to inaugurate the revolution." As the flag ran up the "liberty pole," the Washington artillery fired a salute of one hundred guns, while a band discoursed the " Marseilles Hymn" — adding the " Mise rere" from II Trovatore, as a requiem for the departed Union. The Rev. C. P. Gadsden then invoked the blessing of God in the following prayer : " 0, God ! onr refuge and Prayer for Secession, strength, the shield of our help and the sword of our excellen cy, we come before Thee to express our dependence apon Thy succor, and our need of Thy guidance and defence. The liberties with which Thy protection blessed our fathers being imperiled, we ask Thy fa vor and aid. Inspire us with courage, with a Bpirit of self-sacrifice, with a love of law and order, and with dependence upon Thee. Bless our State, and her sister States, in this great crisis. May they act as becometh a moral and religious people. Conse crate with Thy favor the banner of liberty this day hung in the heavens. May the city over which it floats be in Thy gracious keeping. Shield our com merce on the seas, and protect our homes and fire sides. May agriculture bring her stores to onr mart, and order and quiet abide in our streets, if it be Thy will. Avert from onr land the horrors of war ; but whatever we may be called upon to endure, be Thou our fortress and defence. 0 God ! our fathers have declared unto us the noble works which Thou didst in their days. Continue Thy goodness to us their children, and make us that happy people whose good is the Lord, through Jesus Christ, our Redeemer. Amen." This was succeeded by speeches, chiefly from business men, since it was a business men's, or people's celebration. The crowd was addressed as " Citizens of the Southern Republic." Processions came pouring into the public square from all sections of the city, bearing banners and mottoes expressive of the sentiments of the hour, viz. :— " Now oi Never," " Stand to your Arms," " South Caro lina Goes it Alone," " God, Liberty, and the State," " No Stripes for South Carolina," " Let us bury the Union's Dead Carcass," &c, &c. Secession badges were worn by men, women and children. A reporter present said:— " All classes are arming for the contingency of coercion. Revolvers and patent fire-arms are selling like hot cakes." The same autho rity said : — " Not a ship in the harbor has the Federal flag flying, but, far down in the Bay, it can still be discerned flying over Fort Moultrie.' ' In the evening of the same day another vast concourse of people assembled in the square to hear speeches, all of the most radi cal disunion character. One thought, feeling and devotion to the secession sentiment pre vailed. Merchants from Northern cities, it is said, took part in the proceedings — giving the people strong assurances that New York, Philadelphia and Baltimore, would sustain South Carolina in her course. From the speech of Mr. Theodore G. Bar ker we must re-produce a paragraph to show VIGILANCE ASSOCIATIONS, 47 that a strong feeling prevailed against the Union for its majority ruli. Mr. B. said : — " I am not one of those who ThOTpragCOuUCr°P" can bear t0 s°off at the l09t grandeur of this dying Repub lic. It has indeed been a glorious triumph of free institutions. The diseases which have undermined it are common to all known human systems. Its death should be no discouragement to our continuing the grand experiment of self-government for our selves. The great lessons of its short but brilliant history will not be lost to us or mankind. But re member, also, its warnings. Beware of the tenden cies of a majority government — Remember the teachings of the great State-Rights Champion of Carolina, your own Calhoun. See to the protection of the minority ; beware of the abuses of universal suffrage ; beware of Democratic Absolutism ! But be not discouraged. The torch of liberty, which was kindled by the great men of 1776 in the fires of the American Revolution, is already passing into the hands of the leaders of the Southern Revolution of 1860. The experience of near a century will teach them how to keep it bright forever." On the evening of No- A Congressman's . -., , „ T , vember 21st, Hon. John V lews. ' McQueen and others ad dressed the people of Columbia. Mr. Mc Queen said, among other things: — " In three short weeks, according to his humble judgment, the sovereignty of South Carolina will be again established. The people are determined to live free or die. In a journey of three thousand miles that the speaker had made through many Southern States, he had not met one man who was not ready to strike the blow at once. They say you are ready, and if you strike we will soon follow you. Had they not heard it said by the other South ern States that if South Carolina goes now, whether we unite with you or not, yet upon the shedding of the first drop of blood we will be with you in such numbers that there will not be soil enough in South Carolina to hold us ?" Precipitation was the Precipitation. wish of the people and the purpose of the leaders. If a stroke could be made — if "one drop of blood" could be shed — the State would have " cooperation." Hon. J. D. Ashmore spoke briefly. He re marked that the day for speech- making was past, the time for action had come. He came from the mountains, where the people were resolved either to die or to succeed in throw- -ing off a tyranny worse than death. And so with the men of the western part of the State. They would come up to the Convention with hearts resolved to do or die. The people of South Carolina had determined, right or wrong, to be free. The die was cast. All these expressions, taken in connection with the resolves of the Legislature, leave no reason to doubt that the people were prepared for any contingency which might arise, either in separate secession, in a peace ful negotiation of terms of settlement with the authorities at Washington, or in a con flict with the Federal Government. It was, apparently, a matter of indifference what turn events might take : — all appeared to feel that their mere act of secession was equivalent to the full accomplishment of the States inde pendence. As a further feature of the attitude of the people throughout the State, we may men tion the formation of ,, -.-.... . ... „ Vigilance Associa- Vigilance Associations," tioas whose objects will be in ferred from the following resolutions adopted November 24th, by citizens of Lexington District : — Resolved, That the officers shall be elected every four months by the members of the Association, and they are required to meet monthly, and transact all business that may be referred to them, having full power to decide all cases that may be brought before them, and their decisions shall be final and conclusive. Resolved, That the President appoint as many cap tains of patrol as he may think necessary to carry out the object of the Association, each company of patrol to consist vf not less than five men. Resolved, Thai the patrol companies have the power to arrest all suspicious white persons, and bring them before the Executive Committee for trial. Resolved, That each captain of patrol be required to call out his company for duty once a week, or as often as he may think necessary. Resolved, That we pledge ourselves to put down all negro preachings, prayer-meetings, and all congregations of negroes that maybe considered unlawful by the patrol companies. Resolved, That the patrol companies have the power to correct and punish all slaves, free negroes, mulatloes, and mestizoes, as they may deem proper, as nothing herein justifies any patrol company to injure any person's property. Resolved, That we pledge ourselves to give no general passes — each pass to specify where to go and when to return. 48 THE SOUTHERN REBELLION, Resolved, That each and every captain of patrol be furnished with a copy of these resolutions, which they must show to all persons residing in their neigh borhood, and request their signatures. Resolved, That each captain of patrol be required to make a return to the President monthly, and re port all persons who refuse to do duty. Resolved, That we will prohibit all peddlers from passing through our section of the district, unless they be legally authorized to do so by law. Resolved, That any of the above resolutions may be changed at any regular meeting by a majority of two-thirds of the votes of the members present. Resolved-, That the officers do duty equal to any of the members. These Vigilant Associations and Commit tees were soon at work, and large numbers of Northern men and women — teachers, preach ers, travellers, peddlers, &c. — were arraigned by them and compelled to leave the State. In a few 'cases violence was resorted to, in the way of tar and feathers, where an "aboli tionist" was " spotted." From the planter owning six hundred ne groes, down to the " white trash," all seemed to feel the fire of enthusiasm in the cause of disunion — all alike were inspired with hatred of the North and contempt of the Federal compact. So far as we can know, not one soli tary voice in South Carolina was raised in behalf of the Union, after the middle of No vember. [A very remarkable fea- a Queer case ture of this "popular up rising" is the fact that the Legislature and the people in the action taken abrogated their own Constitution, and never for a moment regarded its provisions. Thus, every officer serving the State was required to subscribe to the following oath : — " I do swear (or affirm) that I am duly qualified according to the Constitution of this State, to exer cise the office to which I have been appointed, and will, to the best of my abilities, discharge the duties thereof, and preserve, protect, and defend the Con stitution of this State and of the United States." It was also provided, among other things by the State Constitution, that the Governor " shall command the military forces of the State, except when they shall be called into the service of the United States." As it was impossible to alter that Constitution for the emergency, the entire obligations of the in strument were ignored as part of the scheme of the revolution. The Constitution could only be altered after the following process :— "No part of the Constitution shall be altered un less a bill to alter the same shall have been read three times in the House of Representatives and three times in the Senate, and agreed to by two-thirda of both branches of the whole representation; nei ther shall any alteration take place until the bill, as agreed to, be published three months previous to a new election for members to the House of Represen tatives ; and if the alteration proposed by the Legis lature shall be agreed to in the first session by two- thirds of the whole representation in both branches of the Legislature, after the same shall have been read three times, on three several days, in each House, then, and not otherwise, the same shall be come a part of the Constitution." A strict constructionist may, very properly declare the whole act of secession illegal and unconstitutional under the laws of South Ca rolina. As the Wheeling Convention after wards declared the entire vote of Virginia and the declaration of secession illegal, so any citizen or body of men in South Carolina can declare the acts of their Legislature and Con vention entirely illegal under their State or ganic law, and consistently might repudiate the entire proceedings.] \ CHAPTER VII. VIEWS OF THE FATHERS OF THE REPUBLIC ON TH', QUESTION OF UNION AND DISUNION. Before entering upon the narrative of the events which rapidly followed upon the open ing of the XXXVI Congress, (2d Session,) which assembled Dec. 3d, we must pause to introduce the opinions of the founders of the Constitution and of its most eminent expound ers, on the question of Union. It is only by having their views, of the right of a State to secede, that we can form a just estimate of the position which parties soon assumed on the question of disunion. Chief of all comes Wash- Opinions of President . T - . _, ,, Washington. mS^on- In hls Farewell Address, we have at once his warning and his encouragement. The Union, one and indivisible, is his prayer and his adjuration. Did he sadly foresee, with the prescience of his patriot spirit, the cir cumstances of 1861, when he wrote that im maculate document ? It says : " The unity of government, which constitutes you one people, is also now dear to you. It is justly so ; for it is a main pillar in the edifice of your real inde pendence ; the support of your tranquility at home, your peace abroad ; of your safety ; of your pros perity; of that very liberty which you so highly prize. But, as it is easy to foresee that, from differ ent causes and from different quarters, much pains will be taken, many artifices employed, to weaken, in your minds, the conviction of this truth ; as this is the point in your political fortress against which the batteries of internal and external enemies will be most constantly and actively (though often cov ertly and insiduonsly) directed, it is of infinite mo ment that you should properly estimate the immense value of your National Union to your collective and individual happiness ; that you should cherish a cor dial, habitual, and immovable attachment to it; ac customing yourselves to think and speak of it as of the palladium of your political safety and prosperity ; watching for its preservation with jealous anxiety ; discountenancing whatever may suggest even a sus picion that it can, in any event, be abandoned ; and 7 indignantly frowning upon the first dawning of every attempt to alienate any portion of our country from the rest, or to enfeeble the sacred ties which now link together the various parts. For this you have every inducement of sympathy and interest. Citi zens, by birth or choice, of a common country, that country has a right to concentrate your affection." Upon the benignant character of the Con stitution, and its provision for all needed amendment, the Address says : — " To the efficacy and permanency of your Union a government for the whole is indispensable. No alliances, however strict, between the parts, can be an adequate substitute ; they must inevitably expe rience the infractions and interruptions which all alliances, in all times, have experienced. Sensible of this momentous truth, you have improved upon your first essay by the adoption of a constitution of government better calculated than your former for an intimate Union, and for the efficacious manage ment of your common concerns^ This government, the offspring of our own choice, uninfluenced and nnawed, adopted upon full investigation and mature deliberation, completely free in its principles, in the distribution of its powers uniting security with en ergy, and containing within itself a provision for its own amendment, has a just claim to your confidence and your support. Respect for its authority, com pliance with its laws, acquiescence in its measures, are duties enjoined by the fundamental maxims of true liberty. " If, in the opinion of the people, the distribution or modification of the constitutional powers be, in any particular, wrong, let it be corrected by an amendment, in the way which the Constitution desig nates. But let there be no change by usurpation. " The basis of our political systems is, the right of the people to make and to alter their constitutions of government. But the constitution which at any time exists, till changed by an explicit and authen tic act of the whole people, is sacredly obligatory upon all. The very idea of the power and the right of the people to establish government pre-supposes the duty of every individual to obey the established government." 50 THE SOUTHERN REBELLION. Against rebellion to its authority, the Fa ther of his Country said : — " All obstructions to the execution of the laws, all combinations, and associations, under whatever plau sible character, with the real design to direct, con trol, counteract or awe the regular deliberation and action of the constituted authorities, are destructive of this fundamental principle [of liberty] and of fatal tendency." And this reproof was administered to those factionists who arrogated the right of States to supremacy rather than concede to the Fed eral Government its needed centralization of power : — "And remember especially that, for the efficient management of your common interests, in a country so extensive as ours, a government of as much vigor as is consistent with the perfect security of liberty is indispensable. Liberty itself will find in such a government, with powers properly distributed and adjusted, its surest guardian. It is, indeed, little else than a name, where the government is too feeble to withstand the enterprises of faction, to confine each member of the society within the limits prescribed by the laws, and to maintain all in the secure and tranquil enjoyment of the rights of person and pro perty." Truly these words seemed to have been penned in a prophetic spirit. But they were those of wisdom — of disinterested patriotism — of Christian faith and manly dignity, — vir tues, alas ! to which the factionists of the year 1860 were strangers.* Chief- Justice John Mar- Opinions of Chief -Jus- . ., „TT. . . „ ,, • tice Marshall. shall, of Virginia, one of the ablest and purest justices who ever adorned the United States Supreme Court, was a devoted supporter of the sys tem of the Federal Union. When, in 1798, Madison introduced his Nullification Resolu tions into the Virginia Assembly, consequent on the passage of the Alien and Sedition laws, Judge Marshall wrote to Washington, (January 8th, 1799,) that the laws served but * This precious heir-loom of the whole American people was the combined wisdom of Washington and Hamilton, both of whom labored upon its produc tion. It also passed under the critical legal inspec tion of Judge Jay, and had his endorsement. See ' An Inquiry into the Formation of Washington's Farewell Address,' by Horace Binney, of Philadel phia ; 8vo. Parry & MacMillan, Publishers. 1859.' as & pretext for the introduction of the "highly dangerous" resolutions, in that, had they never passed Congress, the resolutions would have found some other pretext for their viru lence, which was aimed at the dominant party — the Federalists — rather than at par ticular measures. He then referred to the papers introduced by Colonel Taylor, (in the Virginia Assembly,) and Mr. George K. Tay lor, on Federal relations. Judge Marshall then says : — " The debates on these subjects were long and animated. In the course of them sentiments were declared and (in my judgment) views were develop ed of a very serious and alarming extent. To me it seems that there are men who will hold power by any means rather than not hold it, and who would prefer a dissolution of the Union to the continuance of the administration not of their own party. They will risk all the ills which may result from the most dan gerous experiments rather than permit that happi- uess to be enjoyed which is dispensed by other hands than their own. It is more than ever essen tial to make great exertions at the next election, and I am persuaded that by making them we obtain a Legislature, if not federal, so divided as to be mode rate. " I feel with increased force the obligations of duty to make sacrifices and exertions for the preservation of American union and independence, as I am more convinced of the reality of the danger which threat ens them." Thomas Jefferson, the " Father of Demo cracy," an implacable adversary of the Fede ralists, as a partisan leader who considered that any means would justify the ends of their overthrow, penned and secretly despatched to opinions of Jefferson; Kentucky those celebrated resolutions which make him the Father of Nullification; yet, as a true patriot, he could but openly oppose the scheme of a separate Confederacy proposed by Colonel Taylor, (re ferred to in Judge Marshall's letter, quoted from above,) to be composed of Virginia and North Carolina. He thus expressed his un qualified dissent to the idea of " secef, sion :" — " In every free and deliberating society, there must, from the nature of man, be opposite parties and vio lent dissensions and discords; and one of these, for the most part, must prevail over the other for a longer or shorter time. Perhaps this party division VIEWS OF STATESMEN ON DISUNION 51 Is necessary to induce each to watch and to report to the people the proceedings of the other. But if, on a temporary superiority of the one party, the other is to resort to a scission of the Union, no Fede ral Government can ever exist. If to rid ourselves of the present rule of Massachusetts and Connecticut, we break the Union, will the evil stop there ? Sup pose the New England States alone cut off, will our nature be changed? Are we not men still to the South of that, and with all the passions of men ? Im mediately we shall see a Pennsylvania and a Virginia party arise in the residuary Confederacy, and the public mind will be distracted by the same party spirit. What a game, too, will the one party have in their hands by eternally threatening the other that unless they do so and so they will join their Northern neighbors. If we reduce our Union to Vir ginia and North Carolina, immediately the conflict will be established between the representatives of these two States, and they will end by breaking into their simple units. Seeing, therefore, that an asso ciation of men who will not quarrel with one another is a thing which never yet existed, from the greatest confederacy of nations down to a town meeting or a vestry — seeing that we must have somebody to quar rel with, I had rather keep our New England associ ates for that purpose, than to see our bickerings transferred to others." Well would it have been for the patriot's reputation for candor and consistency if, after penning such statesman-like views, he had not to father those incendiary resolves which afforded South Carolina a precedent for her conduct in 1832. Hamilton, in his Federal- Hamilton's views, ist, devoted all his intellec tual resources to an elimina tion of the nature and powers of the Constitu tion. Having then to meet the question of State rights as superior to the rights of the Commonwealth, he said : — ".However gross a' heresy it may be to maintain that a party to a compact has a right to revoke that compact, the doctrine has had respectable advo cates. The possibility of such a question shows the necessity of laying the foundation of our national government deeper than in the mere sanction of de legated authority. The fabric of American empire ought to rest on the solid basis of the consent of the people." Patrick Henry opposed the Constitution because it proposed a consolidated and indivisible government. He said, in his speech in the Virginia Convention of 1788, Patrick Henry's Views. Chancellor Kent's Views. called to ratify or to reject the organic instru ment : — "Have they said, 'We, the States?' Have they made a proposal of a compact between States ? If they had, this would be a Confederation ; it is, other wise, most clearly a consolidated Government. The whole question turns, Sir, on that poor, little thing, the expression, ' We, the People,' instead of ' the States,' of America." Chancellor Kent adverts to the necessities which impelled the adoption of the Constitution as a substitute for the old Articles of the Confederation, in these terms : — " The great and fundamental defect of the Con federation of 1781, which led to its eventual over throw, was, that, in imitation of all former Con federacies, it carried the decrees of the Federal Council to the States in their sovereign capacity. The great and incurable defect of all former Federal Governments, such as the Amphictyonic, Achaean, and Lycian Confederacies, and the Germanic, Hel vetic, Hanseatic and Dutch Republics, is, that they were sovereignties over sovereignties. The first effort to relieve the people of the country from this state of national degradation and ruin came from Virginia. The General Convention afterwards met at Philadelphia in May, 1787. The plan was submitted to a convention of delegates chosen by the people at large in each State for assent and ratification. Such a measure was laying the foun dations of the fabric of our national polity where alone they ought to be laid — on the broad consent of the people." (Commentaries, Vol. I., p. 225.) Chief Justice Story tells . . ... j. . , Chief-Justice Story's us, m his exposition of the „. history of the compact be tween the States and General Government, that, " in the most elaborate expositions of the Constitution by its friends, its character as a permanent form of government, as a fun damental law, as a supreme rule, which no State was at liberty to disregard, to suspend, or to annul, was constantly admitted and in sisted upon." (1 Story, 225.) And he fur ther adds : " There was no reservation of any right on the part of any State to dissolve its connection, or to abrogate its dissent, or to suspend the operation of the Constitution as to itself." Mr. Madison, more than „ ... , „. ' Madison's Views. any other man, may be styl ed the Father of the Constitution, for his ta- 52 THE SOUTHERN REBELLION. bors in Committee and in open Convention served to give the instrument the impress of his mind and his principles. When he came forward in the Virginia Assembly (1798) with his resolutions of nullification, he was actua ted, unquestionably, by the motive ascribed by Judge Marshall — that of creating an issue to overthrow the Federalists. When, in 1830, Mr. Madison was appealed to, by Mr. Calhoun, as the author of the idea of nullifi cation, he feelingly denied the truth of any such construction being placed upon his reso lutions, or the address which he sent out with them to the States. Mr. Everett, referring to this position of Mr. Madison, says : — " It was repeatedly and emphatically declared by Mr. Madison, the author of the resolutions, that they were intended to claim, not for an individual State, but for the United States, by whom the Constitution was ordained and established, the right of remedying its abuses by constitutional ways, such as united protest, repeal, or amendment of the Constitution. Incidentally to the discussion of nullification, he de nied, over and over again, the right of peaceable se cession, and this fact was well known to some of the members of the late Convention at Richmond. " No effort was spared by the leaders of the nulli fication school to draw from him even a qualified as sent to their theories. But in vain. He not only refused to admit their soundness, but he devoted his time and energies for three laborious years to the preparation of essays and letters, of which the object was to demonstrate that his resolutions and report did not, and could not, bear the Carolina interpreta tion." Pinckney (Charles Cotes- Pinckney's Views, worth), the tried patriot and trusted friend of Wash ington, and one of South Carolina's most re vered statesmen, is thus reported in Elliott's Debates (TV, 301) :— " The separate independence and individual sove reignty of the several States were never thought of by the enlightened band of patriots who framed the Declaration of Independence. The several States are not even mentioned by name in any part of it, as if it was intended to impress this maxim on Ame rica, that our freedom and independence arose from our Union, and that without it we could neither be free nor independent. Let us, then, consider all at tempts to weaken the Union, by maintaining that each State is separately and individually indepen dent, as a species of political heresy which can never benefit us, and may bring on us the most seri ous distresses." Adams, Livingston, Jay, Franklin, Robert Morris, Randolph, Pendleton — all entertained similar opinions to those expressed in the Farewell Address, and gave their wisdom to preserve the word of the great Bond at once of our nationality and our prosperity from the perversions and demoralization of the faction which preferred State to country. The generation which followed them embraced Webster's Views. such men as Clay, Webster, and Benton, whose opinions of the Constitu tion all harmonised on the one principle of its national supremacy, to defy which was treason. Webster's opinions are so frequently cited as to be familiar to all. In his truly sublime defence of the Constitution against the rhetoric of Mr. Hayne, and the logic of Mr. Calhoun, he became known as the " Great Defender." At as late a day as March 7th, 1850, he was called upon to speak of " seces sion." We quote : " I hear with distress and anguish the word " se cession," especially when it falls from the lips of those who are patriotic, and known to the country, and known all over the world for their political ser vices. Secession! Peaceable Secession ! Sir, your eyes and mine are never destined to see that mira cle. The dismemberment of this vast country with out convulsion ! The breaking up of the fountains of the great deep without ruffling the surface ! Who is so foolish — I beg everybody's pardon — as to ex pect to see any such thing? Sir, he who sees these States now revolving in harmony round a common centre, and expects to see them quit their places and fly off without convulsion, may look the next hour to see the heavenly bodies rush from their spheres and jostle against each other in the realms of space, without causing the wreck of the universe." Henry Clay fairly ab horred the name of " Seces- Henry C,a3? Senti- mcnts. sionist." In the Senate, (1850,) he thus referred to Mr. Rhett, who acted a leading part in the revolutionary pro ceedings of 1860-61 :— "If he pronounced a sentiment attributed to him, raising the standard of disunion and of resistance to the common government, whatever he has been, if he follows up that declaration by corresponding overt acts, he will be a traitor, and I hope he will meet the fate of a traitor." That he held his duty as a citizen of the United States paramount to his duty as a THE POWERS OF TH: CONSTITUTION, 53 citizen of Kentucky, we see from these re markable expressions : — " I have heard with pain and regret a confirmation of the remark I made, that the sentiment of disu nion is becoming familiar. I hope it is confined in South Carolina. I do not regard as my duty what the honorable Senator seems to regard as his. If Kentucky to-morrow unfurls the banner of resistance unjustly, I never will fight under that banner. I owe a paramount allegiance to the whole Union — a su bordinate one to my own State. When my State is right — when it has canse for resistance — when ty ranny, and wrong, and oppression insufferable arise — I will then share her fortunes ; but if she summons me to the battle-field, or to support her in any cause which is unjust against the Union, never, never will I engage with her in such a cause." — Benton's Ab. Deb.— Vol. xvi., p. 594. His ideas of the indissoluble nature of the compact of confederation may be learned from the following extracts from the same speech : " I said that I thought that there was no right on the part of one or more of the States to secede" from this Union. I think that the Constitution of the Thir teen States was made, not merely for the generation which then existed, but for posterity, undefined, un limited, permanent, and perpetual — for their pos terity, and for every subsequent State which might come into the Union, binding themselves by that in dissoluble bond. It is to remain for that posterity, now and forever. " Like another of the great relations of private life, it was a marriage that no human authority can dissolve or divorce the parties from ; and, if I may be allowed to refer to this same example in private life, let us say what man and wife say to each other: We have mutual faults ; nothing in the form of hu man beings can be perfect ; let us, then, be kind to each other, forbearing, conceding ; let us live in hap piness and peace. " Mr. President, I have said what I solemnly believe — that the dissolution of the Union and war are identical and inseparable — that they are convertible terms. Such a war, too, as that would be, following dissolution of the Union ! Sir, we may search the pages of history, and none so furious, so bloody, so implacable, so exterminating, from the wars of Greece down, including those of the Commonwealth of England and the Revolution of France— none of them raged with such violence, or was ever conduct ed with such bloodshed and enormities as will th at war which shall follow that disastrous event — if that event ever happens — of dissolution." The Union sentiments of such men as Messrs. Douglas, Cass, Crittenden, Dickinson, Howell Cobb's Opinion. Fillmore, Judge Holt, Amos Kendall, Reverdy Johnson, ex-President Van Buren, it is unne cessary to refer to. They have all denounced disunion — have declared secession to be revo lution. We cannot, however, refrain from placing on record the opinions of Howell Cobb, who withdrew from Mr. Buchanan's cabinet to give his influence at home to the secession movement. In 1851, in a letter to citizens of Macon, he thus expressed himself on the right of a State to withdraw, at will, from the Union : " When asked to concede the right of a State to secede at pleasure from the Union, with or without just cause, we are called upon to admit that the framers of the Constitution did that which was never done by any other people possessed of their good sense and intelligence — that is, to provide, in the very organization of the Government, for its own dissolution. It seems to me that such a course would not only have been an anomalous proceeding, but wholly inconsistent with the wisdom and sound judgment which marked the deliberations of those wise and good men who framed our Federal Gov ernment. While I freely admit that such an opinion is entertained by many for whose judgment I enter tain the highest respect, I have no hesitation in de claring that the convictions of my own judgment are well settled, that no such principle was contemplat ed in the adoption of our Constitution." In view of this unanimity of sentiment among those best qualified to speak on the question, it is impossible to arrive at any other than the following conclusions, in re gard to THE POWERS OF THE CONSTITUTION. 1. That the Union is a permanent one, un less dissolved by the people. The enacting clause of the Constitution reads : — " We, the people of the United States, in order to form a more perfect union, establish justice, insure domestic tranquillity, provide for the common de fence, promote the general welfare, and secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America." 2. That the Constitution is the supreme law of the land, to which all State laws are in subjection. Article 1, Section 8, of the Constitution prescribes that Congress shall have power to lay and collect duties, imposts and excises ; to provide for the common de- 54 the southern rebellion, fence and welfare of the United States ; to regulate commerce ; to coin money ; to estab lish post-offices and routes ; to declare war, grant letters of marque; to make treaties, &c, &c; and, finally, to make all laws neces sary for carrying into execution the powers named and " all other powers vested by this Constitution in the Government of the United States, or in any department or office there of." This is supreme authority. The Con stitution must be abrogated, as specified above by the people before it will or can cease to be supreme. 3. That States are positively prohibited from exercising any of the functions delegated to Congress, and, therefore, possess no power to act independently of Congress, nor to sit in judgment on Congress, nor to invalidate its acts. To do so, in defiance of Congress, is rebellion and treason. 4. That to nullify acts of Congress, to " se cede" from the Union, are only criminal when the laws of the United States are opposed and inoperative in any State, by any action of the State authorities, or by the people. Such opposition the President is bound by his oath to suppress. He has no option in the matter, and not to suppress it is just cause for his impeachment. Such opposition is rebellion, and rebellion is treason, whose punishment Congress alone is empowered to prescribe. 5. That "secession" is extra-constitutionaly' because the Constitution does not provide for it, did not contemplate it, cannot allow it. Secession is, therefore, revolution. The right and duty of the President to re cover property belonging to the Union which may have been seized and made use of by other parties it is unnecessary to question, so long as the foregoing deductions are admit ted. It is imperative on him to recover such property, even to calling out an army as a posse comitatus. CHAPTER VIII. XXXVI CONGRESS, SECOND SESSION. MEETING THE QUES TION OF D.ISUNtON. THE PRESIDENT'S MESSAGE. HOSTILE ATTITUDE OF SOUTHERN MEMBERS. Both Houses of Congress assembled at noon, December 3rd. A full quorum being present the organization was immediately made. In the House of Representatives the Chaplain, Rev. Thomas Stockton, (Methodist,) delivered the following eloquent and touch ing prayer: — "0,God! we remember the Opening Prayer. past, and we are grateful for the past. We thank Thee for the discovery of this New World. We thank Thee for the colonization of our part of it. We thank Thee for the establishment of our National Independence. We thank Thee for the organization of our National Union. We thank Thee for all the .blessings we have enjoyed within this Union. National blessings, civil blessings, social blessings, all kinds of blessings, un speakably great and precious blessings, such bless ings as were never enjoyed by any other people since the world began ! And now, 0 Lord our God, we offer to Thee our humble praise for the past, the present, and for all the future. Will it please Thee, for Christ's sake, to grant us Thy special aid? Thou art very high and lifted up. Thou lookest down over the whole land, from lake to gulf, from sea to sea, from the rising of the sun to the going down thereof, and Thouknowest all our doings, and Thou knowest all our dangers. Thou knowest that our good men are at fault, and that our wise men are at fault ; in the North and in the South, in the East and in the West, they are at fault;. We know not what is best for us to do, and, with common consent, we come to Thee, 0 Lord our God ! and we pray Thee to overrule all unreasonable and wicked men in all parts of our Confederacy. We pray Thee to inspire, and to strengthen, and to assist all true patriots in every part of the Union. May Thy blessing rest upon all departments of our Government. We remember with especial solicitude the President of the United States, and his immediate advisers. They lack wis dom, but if they call upon Thee Thou wilt give them THE PRESIDENT'S MESSAGE 55 wisdom, for Thou givest it.to all men liberally, and npbraideth not. While we trust that they pray for themselves, we here also pray for them. Let Thy holy spirit be granted unto them, and grant that they may speedily see whatis exactly right for them to do, and grant them grace to do it, and to fully understand the position in which they are placed. We thank Thee for this bright and beautiful morning for the assembling of the two Houses of Congress. We pray that Thy blessing may rest on the Vice- President, and upon every Senator in his place ; upon the Speaker of the House, and upon every memb,er in his place. We rejoice to learn that they see their responsibilities, and that they feel their re sponsibilities, and that many of them are looking to ward Thee for counsel and direction. 0 Lord, our God ! let Thy own presence subdue every heart, every mind ; and sanctify all actions to Thy own glory, and the greatness of our whole people. And 0, grant that we may still live in peace andharmony in this blessed Union." The President's Message was read on the 4th to both Houses. As it is the first com munication from the Executive canvassing the great issue before the country, of a right of a State to withdraw at pleasure from the Union to become a foreign State, we are con strained to give all that portion of the Mes sage relating to the question of secession. It is as follows : — " Fellow-Citizens of the Senate, and House of Representatives : " Throughout the year Bince our last meeting, the country has been eminently prosperous in all its material interests. The general health has been excellent, our harvests have been abundant, and plenty smiles throughout the land. Our commerce and manufactures have been prosecuted with energy and industry, and have yielded fair and ample re turns. In short, no nation in the tide of time has ever presented a spectacle of greater material pros perity than we have done until within a very recent period. " Why is it, then, that discontent now so exten sively prevails, and the Union of the States, which is the source of all these blessings, is, threatened with destruction? The long-continued and intempe rate interference of the Northern people with the question of Slavery in the Southern States has at length produced its natural effects. The different sections of the Union are now arrayed against each other, and the time has arrived, so much dreaded by the Father of his Country, when hostile geographical parties have been formed. I have long foreseen and The President's Mes sage. The President's Mes - sage. often forewarned my country men of the now impending dan ger. This does not proceed solely from the claims on the part of Congress or the Territorial Legislatures to exclude Slavery from the Territories, nor from the efforts of different States to defeat the execution of the Fugitive Slave law. " All or any of these evils might have been en dured by the South without danger to the Union (as others have been), in the hope that time and reflec tion might apply the remedy. The immediate peril arises not so much from these causes as from the fact that the incessant and violent agitation of the Slavery question throughout the North for the last quarter of a century, has at length produced its malign influence on the slaves, and inspired them with vague notions of freedom. Hence a sense of security no longer exists around the family altar. This feeling of peace at home has given place to ap prehensions of servile insurrection. Many a matron throughout the South retires at night in dread of what may befall herself and her children before the morning. Should this apprehension of domestic danger, whether real or imaginary, extend and in tensify itself until it shall pervade the masses of the Southern people, then disunion will become inevita ble. Self-preservation is the first law of nature, and has been implanted in the heart of man by his Crea tor for the wisest purpose ; and no political union, however fraught with blessings and benefits in all other respects, can long continue, if the necessary consequence be to render the homes and the fire sides of nearly half the parties to it habitually and hopelessly insecure. Sooner or later the bonds of such a Union must be severed. It is my conviction that this fatal period has not yet arrived ; and my prayer to God is, that he would preserve the Consti tution and the Union throughout all generations. " But let us take warning in time, and remove the cause of danger. It cannot be denied that, for five and twenty years, the agitation at the North against Slavery in the South has been incessant. In 1835, pictorial handbills and inflammatory appeals were circulated extensively throughout the South, of a character to excite the passions of the slaves ; and, in the language of Gen. Jackson, ' to stimulate them to insurrection, and produce all the horrors of a ser vile war.' This agitation has ever since been con tinued by the public press, by the proceedings of State and County Conventions, and by Abolition ser mons and lectures. The time of Congress has been occupied in violent speeches on this never-ending subject, and appeals in pamphlet and other forms, indorsed by distinguished names, have been sent forth from this central point, and spread broadcast over the Union. fc- 56 THE SOUTHERN REBELLION. "How easy would it be for ThePrSge?nt'SMM' the American people to settle the Slavery question forever, and to restore peace and harmony to this distracted country! " They, and they alone, can do it. All that is ne cessary to accomplish the object, and all for which the Slave States have ever contended, is to be let alone, and permitted to manage their domestic insti tutions in their own way. As sovereign States, they, and they alone, are responsible before God and the world for the Slavery existing among them. For this, the people of the North are not more respon sible, and have no more right to interfere, than with similar institutions in Russia or in Brazil. Upon their good sense and patriotic forbearance I confess I still greatly rely. Without their aid, it is beyond the power of any President, no matter what may be his own political proclivities, to restore peace and har mony among the States. Wisely limited and re strained as is his power, under our Constitution and laws, he alone can accomplish but little, for good or for evil, on such a momentous question. " And this brings me to observe that the election of any one of onr fellow-citizens to the office of Pre sident does not of itself afford just cause for dissolv ing the Union. This is more especially true if his election has been effected by a mere plurality, and not a majority, of the people, and has resulted from transcient and temporary causes, which may proba bly never again occur. In order to justify a resort to revolutionary resistance, the Federal Government must be guilty of ' a deliberate, palpable, and dan gerous exercise' of powers not granted by the Con stitution. The late Presidential election, however, has been held in strict conformity with its express provisions. How, then, can the result justify a revo lution to destroy this very Constitution? Reason, justice, a regard for the Constitution, all require that we shall wait for some overt and dangerous act on the part of the President elect before resorting to such a remedy. " It is said, however, that the antecedents of the President elect have been sufficient to justify the fears of the South that he will attempt to invade their constitutional rights. But are such apprehen sions of contingent danger in the future sufficient to justify the immediate destruction of the noblest sys tem of government ever devised by mortals? From the very nature of his office, and its high responsi bilities, he must necessarily be conservative. The stern duty of administering the vast and complicated concerns of this Government affords in itself a gua rantee that he will not attempt any violation of a clear constitutional right. After all, he is no more than the chief executive officer of the Government. The President's Mes- sage. His province is not to make, but to execute, the laws ; and it is a remarkable fact in our history, that, notwithstanding the repeated efforts of the Anti-Slavery party, no single act has ever passed Congress, unless we may possibly except the Missouri Compromise, impairing, in the slight est degree, the rights of the South to their property in slaves. And it may also be observed, judging from the present indications, that no probability exists of the passage of such an act, by a ma jority of both Houses, either in the present or the next Congress. Surely, under these circumstances, we ought to be restrained from present action by the precept of Him who spake as never man spoke, that 'sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof.' The day of evil may never come, unless we shall rashly bring it upon ourselves. " It is alleged as one cause for immediate secession that the Southern States are denied equal rights with the other States in the common Territories. But by what authority are these denied? Not by Congress, which has never passed, and I believe never will pass, any act to exclude Slavery from these Territories ; and certainly not by the Supreme Court, which has solemnly decided that slaves are property, and, like all other property, their owners have a right to take them into the common Territo ries, and hold them there under the protection of the Constitution. " So far, then, as Congress is concerned, the objec tion is not to anything they have already done, but to what they may do hereafter. It will surely be admitted that this apprehension of future danger is no good reason for an immediate dissolution of the Union. It is true that the Territorial Legislature of Kansas, on the 23d of February, 1860, passed in great haste an act, over the veto of the Governor, declaring that Slavery ' is, and shall be, forever pro hibited in this Territory.' Such an act, however, plainly violating the rights of property secured by the Constitution, will surely be declared void by the Judiciary whenever it shall be presented in a legal form. " Only three days after my inauguration, the Su preme Court of the United States solemnly adjudged that the power did not exist in a Territorial Legisla ture. Vet, such has been the factious temper of the times, that the correctness of this decision has been extensively impugned before the people, and the question has given rise to angry political conflicts throughout the country. Those who have appealed from this judgment of our highest constitutional tri bunal to popular assemblies would, if they could, invest a Territorial Legislature with power to annul the sacred rights of property. This power Congress THE PRESIDENT'S MESSAGE. 57 is expressly forbidden, by the The President's Mes- Federal Constitution, to exer- sa^e. cise. Every State Legislature in the Union is forbidden, by its own Constitution to exercise it. It cannot be exercised in any State except by the people, in their highest sovereign capacity, when framing or amending their State Constitution. " In like manner, it can only be exercised by the people of a Territory represented in a convention of delegates, for the purpose of framing a Constitution, preparatory to admission as a State into the Union. Then, and not until then, are they invested with power to. decide the question whether Slavery shall or shall not exist within their limits. This is an act of sove reign authority, and not of subordinate Territorial Legislation. Were it otherwise, then indeed, would the equality of the States in the Territories be de stroyed, and the right of property in slaves would depend, not upon the guarantees of the Constitution, but upon the shifting majorities of an irresponsible Territorial Legislature. Such u, doctrine, from its intrinsic unsoundness, cannot long influence any considerable portion of our people, much less can it afford a good reason for a dissolution of the Union. " The most palpable violations of constitutional duty which have yet been committed, consist in the acts of different State Legislatures to defeat the ex ecution of the Fugitive Slave Law. It ought to be remembered, however, that for these acts neither Congress nor any President can justly be held re sponsible. Having been passed in violation of the Federal Constitution, they are, therefore, null and void. AH the courts, both State and National, be fore whom the question has arisen, have from the beginning declared the Fugitive Slave law to be constitutional. The single exception is that of a State court in Wisconsin ; and this has not only been reversed by the proper appellate tribunal, but has met with such universal reprobation that there can be no danger from it as >• precedent. The validity of this law has been established over and over again by the Supreme Court of the United States with per fect unanimity. It is founded upon an express pro vision of the Constitution, requiring that fugitive slaves who escape from service in one State to an other shall be ' delivered up' to their masters. With out this provision it is a well-known historical fact that the Constitution itself could never have been adopted by the Convention. " In one form or other, under the acts of 1793 and 1850, both being substantially the same, the Fugitive Slave law has been the law of the land from the days of Washington until the present moment. Here, then, a clear case is presented, in which it will be the duty of the next President, as it has been The President's Mes sage my own, to act with vigor in executing this supreme law against the conflicting enact ments of State Legislatures. Should he fail in the performance of this high duty, he will then have manifested a disregard of the Constitution and laws, to the great injury of the people of nearly one half of the States of the Union. But are we to presume in advance that he will thus violate his duty? This would be at war with every principle of justice and of Christian cha rity. Let us wait for the overt act. The Fugitive Slave Law has been carried into execution in every contested case since the commencement of the pre sent administration; though often, it is to be re gretted, with great loss and inconvenience to the master, and with considerable expense to the Gov ernment. Let us trust that the State Legislatures will repeal their unconstitutional and obnoxious en actments. Unless this shall be done without any necessary delay, it is impossible for any human power to save the Union. " The Southern States, standing on the basis of the Constitution, have a right to demand this act of justice from the States of the North. Should it be refused, then the Constitution, to which all the States are parties, will have been wilfully violated by one portion of them in a provision essential to the domestic security and happiness of the remain der. In that event, the injured States, after having first used all peaceful aud constitutional means to obtain redress, would be justified in revolutionary resistance to the Government of the Union. " I have purposely confined my remarks to revo lutionary resistance, because it has been claimed within the last few years that any State, whenever this shall be its sovereign will and pleasure, may secede from the Union, in accordance with the Con stitution, and without any violation of the constitu tional rights of the other members of the Confede racy. That, as each became parties to the Union by a vote of its own people assembled in Conven tion, so any one of them may retire from the Union in a similar manner by the vote of such a Convention. " In order to justify secession as a, constitutional remedy.it must be on the principle that the Federal Government is a mere voluntary association of States, to be dissolved at pleasure by any one of the contracting parties. If this be so, the Confederacy is a rope of sand, to be penetrated and dissolved by the first adverse wave of public opinion in any of the States. In this manner our thirty-three States may resolve themselves into as many petty, jarring, and hostile republics, each one retiring from the Union, without responsibility, whenever any sudden excite ment might impel them to such a course. By this 58 THE SOUTHERN REBELLION, The President's Mes sage. process a Union might be en tirely broken into fragments in a, few weeks, which cost our forefathers many years of toil, privation, and blood to establish. " Such a principle is wholly inconsistent with the history as well as the character of the Federal Con stitution. After it was framed, with the greatest deliberation and care, it was submitted to Conven tions of the people of the several States for ratifica tion. Its provisions were discussed at length in these bodies, composed of the first men of the conn- try. Its opponents contended that it conferred pow ers upon the Federal Government dangerous to the rights of the States, while its adyocates maintained that under a fair construction of the instrument there was no foundation for such apprehensions. In that mighty struggle between the first intellects of this or any other country, it never occurred to any indi vidual, either among its opponents or advocates, to assert, or even to intimate, that their efforts were all vain labor, because the moment any State felt her self aggrieved she might secede from the Union. What a crushing argument would this have proved against those who dreaded that the rights of the States would be endangered by the Constitution! The truth is, that it was not until many years after the origin of the Federal Government that such a proposition was first advanced. " It was then met and refuted by the conclusive arguments of General Jackson, who, in his message of 16th January, 1833, transmitting the nullifying or dinance of South Carolina to Congress, employs the following language : ' The right of the people of a single State to absolve themselves at will, and with out the consent of the other States, from their most solemn obligations, and hazard the liberty and hap piness of the millions composing this Union, cannot be acknowledged. Such authority is believed to be utterly repugnant both to the principles upon which the General Government is constituted, and to the objects which it was expressly formed to attain.' " It is not pretended that any clause in the Consti tution gives countenance to such a theory. It is altogether founded upon inference, not from any language contained in the instrument itself, but from the sovereign character of the several States by which it was ratified. But is it beyond the power of a State, like an individual, to yield a portion of its sovereign rights to secure the remainder? In the language of Mr. Madison, who has been called the Father of the Constitution : — ' It was formed by the States — that is, by the people in each of the States, acting in their highest sovereign capacity; and formed, consequently, by the same authority which formed the State Constitutions.' The President's Mes- " Nor is the Government of the United States, created by the Constitution, less a Gov ernment in the strict sense of the term, within the sphere of its powers, than the governments created by the constitutions of the States are, within their several spheres. It is, like them, organized into legislative, executive, and judiciary departments.. It operates, like them, directly on persons and things ; and, like them, it has at command a physic al force for executing the powers committed to it. " It was intended to be perpetual, and not be an-: nulled at the pleasure of any one of the contracting , parties. The old Articles of Confederation were en titled 'Articles of Confederation and Perpetual Union between the States ;' and by the 13th article it is expressly declared that ' the articles of this Confederation shall be inviolably observed by every State, and the Union shall be perpetual.' The pre amble to th'e Constitution of the United States, hav ing express reference to the articles of Confedera tion, recites that it was established ' in order to form a more perfect Union.' And yet it is contended that this ' more perfect Union' does not include the es sential attribute of perpetuity. " But that the Union was designed to be perpetual appears conclusively from the nature and extent of the powers conferred by the Constitution on the Federal Government. These powers embrace the very highest attributes of national sovereignty. They place both the sword and the purse under its control. Congress has power to make war and to make peace ; to raise and support armies and navies, and to conclude treaties with foreign Governments. It is invested with the power to coin money, and to regulate the value thereof, and to regulate com merce with foreign nations, andamong the several States. It is not necessary to enumerate the other high powers which have been conferred upon the Federal Government. In order to carry the enume rated powers into effect, Congress possesses the ex clusive right to lay and collect duties on imports, and in common with the States to lay and collect all other taxes. " But the Constitution has not only conferred these high powers upon Congress, but it has adopted effectual means to restrain the States from interfer ing with their exercise. For that purpose it has, in strong prohibitory language, expressly declared that ' no State shall enter into any treaty, alliance, or confederation ; grant letters of marque and reprisal ; ooin money ; emit bills of credit ; make anything but gold and silver coin a tender in payment of debts ; pass any bill of attainder, ex post facto law, or law impairing the obligation of contracts.' Moreover. ' without the consent of Congress, no State shall lay THE PRESIDENT'S MESSAGE. 59 The President's Mes sage. any imposts or duties on any imports or exports, except what may be absolutely neces sary for executing its inspection laws ;' and if they exceed this amount, the excess shall belong to the United States. " And ' no State shall, without the consent of Con gress, lay any duty of tannage ; keep troops, or ships of war, in time of peace ; enter into any agree ment or compact with another State, or with a foreign power ; or engage in war, unless actually in vaded, or in such imminent danger as will not admit of delay.' " In order still further to secure the uninterrupted exercise of these high powers against State interpo sition, it is provided ' that this Constitution, and the laws of the United States which shall be made in pur suance thereof, and all treaties made, or which shall be made, under the authority of the United States, shall be the supreme law of the land ; and the Judges in every State shall be bound thereby, any thing in the Constitution or laws of any State to the contrary notwithstanding.' " The solemn sanction of religion has been super added to the obligations of official duty, and all Sen ators and Representatives of the United States, all members of State Legislatures, and all executive and judicial officers, ' both of the United States and of the several States, shall be bound by oath or affirma tion to support this Constitution.' " In order to carry into effect these powers, the Constitution has established a perfect Government in all its forms, legislative, executive, and judicial ; and this Government, to the extent of its powers, acts directly upon the individual citizen of every State, and executes its own decrees by the agency of its own officers. In this respect it differs entirely from the Government under the old Confederation, which was confined to making requisitions on the States in their sovereign character. This left it in the discretion of each whether to obey or to refuse, and they often declined to comply with such requi sition. It thus became necessary, for the purpose of removing this barrier, and, 'in order to form a more perfect Union,' to establish a, Government which could act directly upon the people, and exe cute its own laws without the intermediate agency of the States. This has been accomplished by the Constitution of the United States. " In short, the Government created by the Consti tution, and deriving its authority from the sovereign people of each of the several States, has precisely the same right -to exercise its power over the people of all these States, in the enumerated cases, that each one of them possesses over subjects not The President's Mes- delegated to the United States, but ' reserved to the States, respectively, or to the people.' " To the extent of the delegated powers, the Con stitution of the United States is as much a part of the Constitution of each State, and is as binding upon its people, as though it had been textually inserted therein. " This Government, therefore, is a great and pow erful Government, invested with all the attributes of sovereignty over the special subjects to which its authority extends. Its framers never intended to implant in its bosom the seeds of its own destruction; nor were they, at its creation, guilty of the absurdity of providing for its own dissolution. It was not in tended by its framers to be the baseless fabric of «¦ vision, which, at the touch of the enchanter, would vanish into thin air, but a substantial and mighty fabric, capable of resisting the slow decay of time, and of defying the storms of ages. Indeed, well may the jealous patriots of that day have indulged fears that a Government of snch high powers might violate the reserved rights of the States, and wisely did they adopt the rule of a strict construction of these powers to prevent the danger ! But they did not fear, nor had they any reason to imagine, that the Constitution would ever be so interpreted as to enable any State, by her own act, and without the consent of her sister States, to discharge her people from all or any of their Federal obligations. " It may be asked, then, are the people of the States without redress against the/ tyranny and oppression of the Federal Government? By no means. The right of resistance on the part of the governed against the oppression of their Governments cannot be de nied. It exists independently of all Constitutions, and has been exercised at all periods of the world's history. Under it old governments have been de stroyed, and new ones have taken their place. It is embodied in strong and express language in our own Declaration of Independence. But the distinction must ever be observed, that this is revolution against an established Government, and not a voluntary se cession from it by virtue of an inherent constitutional right. In short, let us look the danger fairly in the face : secession is neither more nor less than revolu tion. It may or it may not be a justifiable revolu tion, but still it is revolution. " What, in the meantime, is the responsibility and true position of the Executive ? He is bound by sol emn oath before God and the country ' to take care that the laws be faithfully executed,' and fiom this obligation he cannot be absolved by any human power. But what if the performance of this duty, in whole or in part, has been rendered impracticablo CO THE SOUTHERN REBELLION, The President's Mes sage. by events over which he could have exercised no control? Such at the present moment, is the case throughout the State of South Carolina, so far as the laws of the United States to secure the administration of justice by means of the Federal Judiciary are concerned. All the Federal officers within its limits, through whose agency alone these laws can be carried into execution, have already resigned. We no longer have a District- Judge, a District- Attorney, or a Marshal, in South Carolina. In fact, thewhole machinery of the Federal Govern ment necessary for the distribution of remedial jus tice among the people has been demolished, and it would be difficult, if not impossible, to replace it. " The only acts of Congress on the statute-book, bearing upon this subject, are those of the 28th Feb ruary, 1795, and 3d March, 1807. These authorize the President, after he Bhall have ascertained that the marshal, with his posse comitatus, is unable to ex ecute civil or criminal process in any particular case, to call forth the militia and employ the army and navy to aid him in performing this service, having first by Proclamation commanded the insurgents to ' disperse and retire peaceably to their respective abodes, within a limited time.' This duty cannot by possibility be performed in a State where no judicial authority exists to issue process, and where there is no marshal to execute it, and where, even if there were such an officer, the entire population would constitute one solid combination to resist him. " The bare enumeration of these provisions proves how inadequate they are without further legislation to overcome a united opposition in a single State, not to speak of other States who may place them selves in a similar attitude. Congress alone has power to decide whether the present laws can or cannot be amended so as to carry out more effectu ally the objects of the Constitution. " The same insuperable obstacles do not lie in the way of executing the laws for the collection of the customs. The revenue still continues to be collect ed, as heretofore, at the Custom-House in Charles ton ; and should the Collector unfortunately resign, a successor may be appointed to perform this duty. " Then, in regard to the property of (the United States in South Carolina. This has been purchased for a fair equivalent, ' by the consent of the Legisla ture of the State,' ' for the erection of forts, maga zines, arsenals,' &c, and over these the authority ' to exercise exclusive legislation' has been express ly granted by the Constitution to Congress. It is not believed that any attempt will be made to expel the United States from this property by force ; but if in this I should prove to be mistaken, the officer in command of the forts has received orders to act strictly The Pre^dg6e°1'8 Mes" on the defensive. In such a contingency, the responsibility for consequence! would rightfully rest upon the heads of the as sailants. •• Apart from the execution of the laws, so far as this may be practicable, the Executive has no au thority to decide what shall be the relations between the Federal Government and South Carolina. He has been invested with no such discretion. He pos sesses no power to change the relations heretofore existing between them, much- less to acknowledge the independence of that State. This would be to invest a mere Executive officer with the power of recognizing the dissolution of the Confederacy among our thirty-three sovereign States. It bears no resemblance to the recognition of a foreign de facto Government, involving no such responsibility. Any attempt to do this would, on his part, be a naked act of usurpation. It is, therefore, my duty to submit to Congress the whole question in all its bearings. The course of events is so rapidly hasten ing forward, that the emergency may soon arise, when you may be called upon to decide the momen tous question whether you possess the power, by force of arms, to compel a State to remain in the Union. I should feel myself recreant to my duty were I not to express an opinion on this important subject. " The question fairly stated is : — Has the Constitu tion delegated to Congress the power to coerce a State into submission which is attempting to with draw, or has actually withdrawn, from the Confede racy? If answered in the affirmative, it must be on the principle that the power has been conferred upon Congress to declare and to make war against a State. After much serions reflection, I have arrived at the conclusion that no such power has been dele gated to Congress, or to any other department of the Federal Government. It is manifest, upon an in spection of the Constitution, that this is not among the specific and enumerated powers granted to Con gress ; and it is equally apparent that its exercise is not ' necessary and proper for carrying into execu tion' any one of these powers. So far from this power having been 'delegated to Congress, it was expressly refused by the Convention which framed the Constitution. " It appears from the proceedings of that body, that on the 31st May, 1787, the clause ' authorizing an exertion of the force of the whole against a de linquent State,' came up for consideration. Mr. Madison opposed it in a brief but powerful speech, from which I shall extract but a single sentence. THE PRESIDENT'S MESSAGE 61 He observed : — ' The use of The President's Mes- foroe agamgt a state wou]d look more like a declaration of war than an infliction of punishment; and would probably be considered by the party attacked as a dissolution of all previous compacts by which it might be bound.' Upon his motion, the clause was unanimously postponed, and was never, I believe, again presented. Soon afterward, on the 8th June, 1787, when incidentally adverting to the subject, he said: — ' Any Government for the United States, formed on the supposed practicability of using force against the unconstitutional proceedings of the States, would prove as visionary and fallacious as the Government of Congress,' evidently meaning the then existing Congress of the old Confederation. " Without descending to particulars, it may be safely asserted that the power to make war against a State is at variance with the whole spirit and in tent of the Constitution. Suppose such a war should result in the conquest of a State, how are we to gov ern it afterward? Shall we hold it as a province, and govern it by despotic power? In the nature of things we could not, by physical force, control the will of the people, and compel them to elect Sena tors and Representatives to Congress, and to per form all the other duties depending upon their own volition, and required from the free citizens of a free State, as a constituent member of the Confede racy. " But, if we possessed this power, would it be wise to exercise it under existing circumstances? The object would doubtless be to preserve the Union. War would not only present the most effectual means of destroying it, but would banish all hope of its peaceable reconstruction. Besides, in the fraternal conflict, a vast amount of blood and treasure would be expended, rendering future reconciliation between the States impossible. In the meantime, who can foretell what would be the sufferings and privations of the people during its existence ? " The fact is, that our Union rests upon public opinion, and can never be cemented by the blood of its citizens shed in civil war. If it cannot live in the affections of the people, it must one day perish. Congress possess many means of preserving it by conciliation ; but the sword was not placed in their hand to preserve it by force. " But may I be permitted solemnly to invoke my countrymen to pause and deliberate, before they de termine to destroy this, the grandest temple which has ever been dedicated to human freedom since the world began ? It has been consecrated by the blood of our fathers, by the glories of the past, and by the hopes of the future. The Union has already made ns the most prosperous, and, ere long, will, if pre served, render us the most pow erful nation on the face of the ne Pre"'*ft'B Mea' earth. In every foreign region of the globe the title of American citizen is held in the highest respect, and when pronounced in a foreign land it causes the hearts of our countrymen to swell with honest pride. Surely, when we reach the brink of the yawning abyss, we shall recoil with horror from the last fatal plunge. By such a dread catas trophe the hopes of the friends of freedom through out the world would be destroyed, and a long night of leaden despotism would enshroud the nations. Our example for more than eighty years would not only be lost, but it would be quoted as a conclusive proof that man is unfit for self-government. " It is not every wrong — nay, not every grievous wrong — which can justify a resort to such a fearful alternative. This ought to be the last desperate re medy of a despairing people, after every other con stitutional means of conciliation had been exhausted. We should reflect that under this free Government there is an incessant ebb and flow in public opinion. The Slavery question, like everything human, will have its day. I firmly believe that it has already reached and passed its, culminating point. But if, in the midst of the existing excitement, the Union shall perish, the evil may then become irreparable. Congress can contribute much to avert it by pro posing and recommending to the Legislatures of the several States the remedy for existing evils, which the Constitution has itself provided for its own pre servation. This has been tried at different critical periods of our history, and always with eminent suc cess. It is to be found in the 5th article providing for its own amendment. Under this article amend ments have been proposed by two-thirds of both Houses of Congress, and have been ' ratified by the Legislatures of three-fourths of the several States,' and have consequently become parts of the Consti tution. To this process the country is indebted for the clause prohibiting Congress from passing any law respecting an establishment of religion, or abridging the freedom of speech or of the press, or of the right of petition. To this we are, also, indebt ed for the Bill of Rights, which secures the people against any abuse of^power by the Federal Govern ment. Such were the apprehensions justly enter tained by the friends of State rights at that period as to have rendered it extremely doubtful whether the Constitution could have long survived without these amendments. "Again, the Constitution was amended by the same process after the election of President Jeffer son by the House of Representatives, in February, 1803. This amendment was rendered necessary to prevent a recurrence of the dangers which had seri- 62 THE SOUTHERN REBELLION ously threatened the existence The President's Mes- of the Goverument during the pendency of that election. The article for its own amendment was intended to secure the amicable adjustment of conflicting constitutional questions like the present, which might arise be tween the Governments of the States and that of the United States. This appears from cotemporaneous history. In this connection, I shall merely call at tention to it few sentences in Mr. Madison's justly celebrated report in 1799 to the Legislature of Vir ginia. In this he ably and conclusively defended the resolutions of the preceding Legislature against the strictures of several other State Legislatures. These were mainly founded upon the protest of the Vir ginia Legislature against the ' Alien and Sedition Acts,' as ' palpable and alarming infractions of the Constitution.' In pointing out the peaceful and con stitutional remedies, and he referred to none other, to which the States were authorized to resort on such occasions, he concludes by saying, ' that the Legislatures of the States might have made a direct representation to Congress with a view to obtain a rescinding of the two offensive acts, or they might have represented to their respective Senators in Congress their wish that two-thirds thereof would propose an explanatory amendment to the Constitu tion, or two-thirds of themselves, if such had been their option, might, by an application to Congress, have obtained a convention for the same object.' " This is the very course which I earnestly recom mend in order to obtain an 'explanatory amend ment' of the Constitution on the subject of Slavery. This might originate with Congress or the State Legislatures, as may be deemed most advisable to attain the object. " The explanatory amendment might be confined to the final settlement of the true construction of the Constitution on three special points : "1. An express recognition of the right of proper ty in slaves in the States where it now exists or may hereafter exist. "2. The duty of protecting this right in all the common Territories throughout their territorial ex istence, and until they shall be admitted as States into the Union, with or without Slavery, as their Constitutions may prescribe. " 3. A like recognition of the right of the master to have his Blave, who has escaped from one State to another, restored and ' delivered up ' to him, and of the validity of the Fugitive Slave law enacted for this purpose, together with a declaration that all State laws impairing or defeating this right are vio lations of the Constitution, and are consequently null and void. " It may be objected that this construction of the Constitution has already been settled by the Supreme Court of »• Preesidemt'8 Mm- the United States, and what more ought to be required ? The answer is, that a very large proportion of the people of the United States still contest the correctness of this decision, and never will cease from agitation and admit its binding force until clearly established by the people of the several States in their sovereign character. Such an explanatory amendment would, it is believed, forever terminate the existing dissensions and restore peace and harmony amongst the States. " It ought not to be doubted that such an appeal to the arbitrament established by the Constitution itself would be received with favor by all the States of the Confederacy. In any event, it ought to be tried in a spirit of conciliation before any of these States shall separate themselves from the Union. " When I entered upon the duties of the Presiden tial office, the aspect neither of onr foreign nor do mestic affairs was at all satisfactory. We were in volved in dangerous complications with several nations, and two of our Territories were in a Btate of revolution against the Government. A restora tion of the African slave-trade had numerous and powerful advocates. Unlawful military expeditions were countenanced by many of our citizens, and were suffered, in defiance of the efforts of the Gov ernment, to escape from our shores, for the purpose of making war upon the unoffending people of neighboring republics with whom we were at peace. In addition to these and 'other difficulties, we expe rienced a revulsion in monetary affairs, soon after my advent to power, of unexampled severity and of ruinous consequences to all the great interests of the country. When we take a retrospect of what was then our condition, and contrast this with its mate rial prosperity at the time of the late Presidential election, we have abundant reason to return our grateful thanks to that merciful Providene e whichhas never forsaken us as a nation in all our past trials." In the house its reading was followed by a motion by Mr. Boteler, of Virginia, as follows: Resolved, That so much of the President's Message as relates Imp•¦ view to ascertain if any of them are in conflict with, or tend to embarrass or hinder the execution of the laws of the United States, made in pursuance of the 2d sec tion of the IVth Article of the Constitution of the United States for the delivery up of persons held to labor by the laws of any State and escaping there from ; and the Senate and House of Representatives earnestly request that all enactments having such tendency be forthwith repealed, as required by a just sense of constitutional obligations, and by a due regard for the peace of the Republic. And the Presi dent of the United States is requested to communi cate these resolutions to the Governors of the sev eral States, with the request that they will lay the same before the Legislatures thereof respectively." This resolution, apparently, gave the assurance that the Republicans were solicit ous in regard to constitutional obligations. The discussion which grew out of its intro duction elicited the confession from Southern members that the Republicans had been mis represented on the question of the enforce ment of the Fugitive Slave Law, while the several " Liberty Bills" of Northern States, which underwent a searching analysis, were shown to be in strict concordance with the Constitution, and comparatively harmless in their reputed opposition to an enforcement of the Fugitive Law. The day's work was, therefore, highly satisfactory, as it won from the Southerners themselves acknowledg ments of their hitherto misapprehensions and misinterpretations of the Anti-Slavery oppo sition of the North. A sub-committee, con sisting of Messrs. Davis, Dunn, Millson, Bris- tow, and Kellogg, was appointed, to consider the amendments proposed by Southern mem bers to the Fugitive Slave Law. Wednesday's session of the Committee was directed to the consideration of Mr. Rust's ultimatum proposition; but no definite action was taken. The Republicans expressed their opposition to an actual protection to the in stitution south of the line named. It would involve the recognition of the right of Sla very to Congressional protection — a right they were, under any circumstances, unwilling to concede. Thursday's proceedings were devoted to the further discussion of the Rust proposi tion. Mr. Adams, of Massachusetts, in a very able and elaborate speech, took the position that the Republican party could not consent to any proposition looking to a protection of Slavery in Territories, or to amendments to the Constitution, looking to a recognition of Slavery by that instrument. The proceedings of Friday were confined to the Rust propositions. It was decided, finally, to adjourn the vote, on their accept ance or rejection, to Thursday, December 29th. After adjournment the Republican Members of the Committee remained in close conference for some time. The Senate Committee of Thirteen also held a session on Friday. Mr. Wade, of Ohio,repeated the substance of his previous declarations. He stated that " no compromise could be made, as the Republicans had done nothing unconstitutionally, not having been in power to do so. Mr. Lincoln, having been elected according to the Constitution of the United States, he ought to have the same chance as others had before him to develop his policy, which would be perfectly consist ent with their constitutional rights. The as sumption that the Republicans, nothing having been brought against them of any practical character, were going to do some wrong, was an insult, and came with bad grace from a party that had wrought mischief to the country." This brought out Mr. Douglas, who, in a spirit of great candor and earnestness, de clared that " he was ready now to unite in recommending such amendments to the Con stitution as will take the Slavery question out of Congress. In view of the dangers which threaten the Republic with disunion, revolu tion, and civil war, he was prepared to act upon the matters in controversy without any The Senate Commit tee of Thirteen. COMPROMISE RESOLUTIONS ACTED ON. 105 Gov. Hicks' Union Declaration. regard to his previous action, and as if he had never made a speech or given a vote on the subject." Mr. Crittenden expressed a like spirit, and gave utterance to the hope that nothing might at least result from the acts of the Committee which would, in any degree, savor of a disin clination to adjust differences, and thus to court the calamities of disunion. We may add to our chap ter of the week's features a reference to the recep tion, by Gov. Hicks, of Maryland, of the Com missioner from Mississippi, Judge H. K. Han dy. Their correspondence, as published,Satur- day, Dec. 22d, in the Baltimore papers, showed that, under the executive hand of Gov. Hicks, Maryland could not be thrown into the seces sion movement. The gist of the correspon dence may thus be given : Judge Handy inquires whether the Gov ernor will convene the Legislature for the purpose of cooperating with Mississippi in measures necessary to defend the rights of the South and to form a new confederacy. The Governor replies at some length. He says that Maryland is identified with the Southern States in feeling, institutions, and habits ; but she is also conservative and de voted to the union of the States under the Constitution, and her people will use all hon orable means to preserve and perpetuate these. He declares that the sentiments of the people are almost unanimous in favor of upholding and maintaining their rights under the Con stitution. They believe that their rights will yet be admitted and secured, and not until it is certain they will be respected no longer — not until every honorable, constitutional, and lawful effort to secure them is exhausted — will they consent to any efforts for a dissolution of the Union. The people of Maryland are anxious that time should be given and oppor tunity afforded for a fair and honorable ad justment of the difficulties and grievances, of which they, more than the people of any other State, have a right to complain. He believes that a large majority of the people of the Union desire an adjustment, and he thinks it will be promptly effected. Until the effort is found vain, he cannot con sent to any precipitate revolutionary action to aid in the dismemberment of the Union. When he is satisfied that there is no hope of adjustment, and not until then, will he exer cise any power with which he is vested to afford even an opportunity for such a pro ceeding. Whatever powers he may have he will use only after full consultation with the other Border States, since we and they, in the event of any dismemberment of the Union, will suffer more than all the others combined. He states that he is now in correspondence with the Governors of these States, and awaits with much solicitude the indications of the course to be pursued by them. When this is made known, he will be prepared to take such steps as duty and the interests of the State demand. He is, consequently, unable to say whether, or when, the Legislature will be called. The Hon. W. S. Featherstone, Commis sioner from the same State to Kentucky, had an interview with Gov. Magoffin, of Ken tucky, Dec. 21st., but the result was not defi nitively made known until a later day. December 21st, Caleb Cushing arrived in Char- Caleb Cushing's leston as a messenger from Mission to Charleston. the President to the Con vention. His mission was understood to be to prevail upon the Convention to respect the status quo of the Federal laws during Mr. Bu chanan's administration, giving guarantees of a non-reinforcement of Major Anderson. He remained but five hours in the city, and returned immediately to Washington to re port that the Convention would make no promises whatever — that it must act as cir cumstances might dictate — leaving all nego tiations to special commissioners. A Cabinet meeting was called (Dec. 22nd,) upon his return, when a stormy and anxious session is reported to have been held. The Committee's Saturday's session, was one of earnest consideration. Mr. Critten den's Compromise Resolutions were brought forward and acted upon. The entire plan was supported by Messrs. Bigler and Doug las, as well as by Mr. Crittenden himself, with remarkable power and zeal. Mr. Douglas re iterated his expressed determination to con sider the question for the preservation of the country, as though he had never cast a vote 106 T H E' S O U T H E R N REBELLION. or uttered a sentiment on the subject before. If that mode of compromise would not an swer, he declared himself willing to go for any other, consistent with honor or justice. The appeals of Mr. Crittenden in behalf of the Union are said to have been sublime. He, too, was willing to embrace any other effec tive mode of adjustment. Mr. Bigler, of Pennsylvania, preferred a division by a line across the country, because in that way the question of Slavery could be taken out of Congress and separated entirely from the popular elections in the North, without which we never could have perma nent peace. Messrs. Wade, Doolittle, Collamer and Grimes opposed the proposition with much earnestness. They maintained that the people, in the late election, decided the question of Slavery in Territories, and therefore they had no concessions to make or offer. They mani fested great unwillingness to act in the absence of Mr. Seward, but as they could give no assurance of his immediate return, the Committee declined to defer action on account of his absence. Messrs. Davis, Toombs and Hunter dis cussed the present unhappy condition of the country with real feeling and power, and, while manifesting a willingness to accept any measure of final settlement which would secure their just rights in the Union, insisted that propositions must come from the domi nant party, the Republicans. The vote on Mr. Crittenden's first resolu tion was as follows : For the proposition — Messrs. Bigler, Crittenden, Douglas, Rice and Powell — 5. Against it — Messrs. Davis, Doolittle, Collamer, Wade, Toombs, Grimes and Hunter — 7. Messrs. Hunter, Toombs and Davis, never theless, intimated an inclination to go for it if the Republicans would propose it in good faith. The second proposition submitted by Mr. Crittenden, denying the right of Congress to abolish Slavery in the dockyards and arsenals, was voted against by Messrs. Collamer, Doo little, Grimes and Wade. The remainder of the committee voted for the proposition, but as it had not a majority of the Republicans, it was defeated under the rules adopted by the Committee, that no proposition should be considered adopted and recommended to the Senate which did not receive a majority of the Republican votes, and also a majority of those opposed to the Republicans. The third clause, denying the right of Congress to abolish Slavery in the District of Columbia was defeated by the same vote, the Republicans all voting against it, and the remainder of the Committee for it. The fourth clause, establishing the right of transit, was defeated by the same vote. The fifth, which is intended to perfect the Fugitive Slave law, by requiring the several States to pay for fugitives who might be res cued from the officers of the law, was lost by the same vote, the Republicans all voting in the negative. Many other propositions were offered and voted upon, but none of leading importance, none that, would meet the great exigencies of the times. Mr. Davis submitted a resolution expressly recognizing property in slaves, but no vote was taken on it. Mr. Toombs submitted a series of resolu tions, embracing substantially the principles of the Breckenridge platform, but final action was not taken on them. The Committee adjourned, to meet at ten o'clock on Monday morning. J% CHAPTER XVI. THE SOUTH CAROLINA CONVENTION PROCEEDINGS CONTINUED. ADDRESS TO THE SLAVEHOLDING STATES. IMPORTANT LEGIS- s \i L ATION. The Address to the peo- Address to the Slave- , .... m t_ -ij- > holding states. Ple of the Slaveholding States was introduced by Mr. Rhett, in the South Carolina Convention, Monday, Dec. 24th. It was considered Mon day and Tuesday, and, after various amend ments, was adopted as follows : " THE ADDRESS OF THE PEOPLE OP SOUTH CARO LINA, ASSEMBLED IN CONVENTION, TO THE PEOPLE OP THE SLAVEHOLDING STATES OF THE UNITED STATES. " It is now seventy-three years since the union betwoen the United States was made by the Consti tution of the United States. During this period their advance in wealth, prosperity, and power, has been with scarcely a parallel in the history of the world. The great object of their union was external defense from the aggressions of more powerful nations ; now complete, from their mere progress in power, thirty- one millions of people, with a commerce and navi- , gation which explores every sea, and of agricultural productions which are necessary to every civilized people, command the friendship of the world. But, unfortunately, our internal peace has not grown with our external prosperity. Discontent and con- •- tention have moved in the bosom of the Confederacy for the last thirty-five years. During this time South Carolina has twice called her people together in so lemn convention, to take into consideration the ag gressions and unconstitutional wrongs perpetrated by the people of the North on the people of the South. These wrongs were submitted to by the ; people of the South, under the hope and expectation that they would be final. But these hopes and ex pectations have proved to be void. Instead of be- ¦ ing incentives to forbearance, our submission has only instigated to new forms of aggressions and out rage, and South Carolina, again assembling her peo ple in convention, has this day dissolved her con nection with the States constituting the United Btates. " The one great evil, from which all other evils have flowed, is the overthrow of the Constitution of Address to the Slave- holding fc'tates. the United States. The Govern ment of the United States is no longer the government of a con federate republic, but of a consolidated democracy. It is no longer a free government, but a despotism. It is, in fact, such a government as Great Britain at tempted to set over our fathers, and which was re sisted and defeated by a seven years' struggle for independence. " The Revolution of 1776 turned upon one great principle-self-government; andself-taxation, the cri terion of self-government. Where the interests of two people united together under one Government are different, each must have the power to protect its interests by the organization of the Government, or they cannot be free. The interests of Great Bri tain and of the colonies were different and antago nistic. Great Britain was desirous of carrying out the policy of all nations toward their colonies, of making them tributary to their wealth and power. She had vast and complicated relations with the whole world. Her policy toward her North Ame rican colonies was to identify them with her in all these complicated relations, and to make them bear, in common with the rest of the empire, the full bur den of her obligations and necessities. She had a' vast public debt; she had a European policy and an Asiatic policy, which had occasioned the accu mulation of her public debt, and which kept her in continual wars. The North Amerioan colonies saw their interests, political and commercial, sacrificed by such a policy. Their interests required that they should not be identified with the burdens and wars of the mother country. They had been settled under charters which gave them self-government, at least so far as their property was concerned. They had taxed themselves, and had never been taxed by the Government of Great Britain. To make them a part of a consolidated empire, the Parliament of Great Britain determined to assume th'e power of legislat ing for the colonies in all cases whatsoever. Our ancestors resisted the pretension. They refused to be a part of the consolidated Government of Great Britain. 108 THE SOUTHERN REBELLION. Address to the Slave holding elates. " The Southern States now stand exactly in the same posi tion toward the Northern States that our ancestors in the colonies did toward Great Britain. The Northern States, having the majority in Congress, claim the same power of omnipotence in legislation as the British Parliament. ' The general welfare' is the only limit to the legislation of either ; and the majority in Congress, as in the British Par liament, are the sole judges of the expediency of the legislation this ' general welfare' requires. Thus the Government of the United States has become a con solidated Government, and the people of the South ern States are compelled to meet the very despotism their fathers threw off in the Revolution of 1776. " The consolidation of the Government of Great Britain over the colonies was attempted to be car ried out by the taxes. The British Parliament un dertook to tax the colonies to promote British inter ests. Our fathers resisted this pretension. They claimed the right of self-taxation through their Col onial Legislatures. They were not represented in the British Parliament, and therefore could not rightfully be taxed by its Legislature. The British Government, however, offered them a representation in the British Parliament ; but it was not sufficient to enable them to protect themselves from the ma jority, and they refused it. Between taxation with out any representation, and taxation without a rep resentation adequate to protection, there was no difference. By neither would the colonies tax them selves. Hence they refused to pay the taxes laid by the British Parliament. " The Southern States now stand in the same rela tion toward the Northern States, in the vital matter of taxation, that our ancestors stood toward the peo ple of Great Britain. They are in a minority in Con gress. Their representation in Congress is useless to protect them against unjust taxation, and they are taxed by the people of the North for their bene fit, exactly as the people of Great Britain taxed our ancestors in the British Parlisment for their benefit. For the last forty years the taxes laid by the Con gress of the United States have been laid with a view of subserving the interests of the North. The people of the South have been taxed by duties on imports, not for revenue, but for an object inconsistent with revenue — to promote, by prohibitions, Northern in terests in the productions of their mines and manu factures. " There is another evil in the condition of the Southern toward the Northern States, which our an cestors refused to bear toward Great Britain. Our ancestors not only taxed themselves, but all the taxes collected from them were expended among them. Had they submitted to the pretensions of Address to the Slave- ; N holding States. . v 5 the British Government, the taxes collected from them weuld have been expended on other parts of the British Empire. They were fully aware of the effect of suoh a policy in impoverishing * the people from whom taxes are collected, and in en- -. riching those who receive the benefit of their expen diture. To prevent the evils of such a policy was one' J ¦ of the motives which drove them on to revolution. Yet '* $ this British policy has been fully realized toward tho V . Southern States by the Northern States. The peo- ': ; ' pie of the Southern States are not only taxed for the ' - benefit of the Northern States, but after the taxes are collected three-fourths of them are expended at ; '' the North. This cause, with others connected with $ the operation of the General Government, has prov- V incialized the cities of the South. Their growth is paralyzed, while they are the mere suburbs of Northern cities. The basis of the foreign commerce of the United States are the agricultural productions of the South ; yet Southern cities do not carry it on. Our foreign trade is almost annihilated. In 1740 there were five ship-yards in South Carolina to build ships to carry on our direct trade with Europe. Be- Vj tween 1740 and 1779 there were built in these yards ~> twenty-five square-rigged vessels, besides a great number of sloops and schooners, to carry on our coast and West India trade. In the half century immediately preceding the Revolution, from 1725 to 1775, the population of South Carolina increased ^ \ seven-fold. " No man can for a moment believe that our an cestors intended to establish over their posterity exactly the same sort of government they had over- J\ 5 N thrown. The great object of the Constitution of the -j ' United States, in its internal operation, was, doubt-1, , j less, to secure the great end of the Revolution — a limited free government — a government limited to those matters only which were general and common to all portions of the United States. All sectional or local interests were to be left to the States. By --- no other arrangement would they obtain free go- \ vernment by a Constitution common to so vast a Confederacy. Yet by gradual and steady encroach-^ ments on the part of the North, and submission onV' the part of the South, the limitations in the Consti tution have been swept away, and the Government of the United States has become consolidated, with a claim of limitless powers in its operations. " It is not at all surprising, while such is the charac ter of the Government of the United States, that it should assume to possess power over all the insti tutions of the country. The agitations on the sub ject of Slavery in the South are the natural results of the consolidation of the Government. Responsi bility follows power ; and if the people of the North S3 ADDRESS TO THE SLA V.E HOLDING STATES 109 have the power by Congress 'to, Address to the Slave- _romote tne general welfare of holding btates. r & the United States ' by any means they deem expedient, why should they not assail'' L * and overthrow the institution of Slavery in the * ' South ? They are responsible for its continuance or x existence, in proportion to their power. A majority' -1 > in Congress, according to their interested and per; ¦1 verted views, is omnipotent. The inducements to ,j' ' act upon the subject of Slavery, under such circum- ^ _ stances, were so imperious as to amount almost to a v 'moral necessity. To make, however, their numeri- ~ ; cal power available to rule the Union, the North v must consolidate their power. It would not be A . J united on any matter common to the whole Union — .' in other words, on any constitutional subject — for' "¦ ., on such subjects divisions are as likely to exist in i ,] , ?the North as in the South. Slavery was strictly ji ¦ '^sectional interest. If this could be made the crite- , ^ rion of parties at the North, the North could be v united in its power, and thus carry out its measures \ of sectional ambition, encroachment, and aggran-. v< clizement. To build up their sectional predominance (• in the Union, the Constitution must be first abolished ; by constructions ; but, that being done, the consoli- ,*!. dation of the North to rule the South, by the tariff \ j and Slavery issues, was in the obvious course of ' thiDgs. " The Constitution of the United States was an ex periment. The experiment consisted in uniting under one Government different peoples, living in different climates, and having different pursuits of industry and institutions. It matters not how care fully the limitations of such a government be laid - down in the Constitution — its success must at least depend upon the good faith of the parties to the con stitutional compact in enforcing them. It is not in the power of human language to exclude false infer ences, constructions, and perversions, in any consti tution ; and when vast sectional interests are to be subserved, involving the appropriation of countless millions of money, it has not been the usual expe rience of mankind that words on parchment can ar rest power. The Constitution of the United States, irrespective of the interposition of the States, rested on the assumption that power would yield to faith — that integrity would be stronger than interest, and that thus the limitations of the Constitution would . , be observed. The experiment has been fairly made. The Southern States, from the commencement of the Government, have striven to keep it within the -"' orbit prescribed by the Constitution. The experi- yj ment has failed. The whole Constitution, by the con- i'v structions of the Northern people, has been swal lowed up by a few words in its preamble. In their reckless lust for power they seem unable to compre hend that seeming paradox, that the more power is given to the Ad™ *• »' - 'General Government the weaker it becomes. Its strength consists in its generality and limitations. To extend the scope of its power over sectional or local interests, is to raise up against it opposition and resistance. In all such matters the General Government must necessarily be a despot ism, because all sectional or local interests must ever be represented by a minority in the councils of the General Government — having no power to protect itself against the rule of the majority. The majority, constituted from those who do not represent these sectional or local interests, will control and govern them. A free people cannot submit to such a gov- t ernment ; and the more it enlarges the sphere of its power the greater must be the dissatisfaction it must j produce, and the weaker it must become. On the contrary, the more it abstains from usurped powers, and the more faithfully it adheres to the limitations of the Constitutions, the stronger it is made. The Northern people have had neither the wisdom nor the faith to perceive that to observe the limitation of the Constitution was the only way to its per petuity. " Under such a government there must, of course, be many and endless ' irrepressible conflicts,' be tween the two great sections of the Union. The same faithlessness which has abolished the Constitu tion of the United States, will not fail to carry ont the sectional purposes for which it has been abolish ed. There must be conflict ; and the vs^Jifir sec tion of the Union can only find peace and liberty in an independence of the North. The repeated efforts, made by South Carolina, in a wise conservatism, to arrest the progress of the General Government in its fatal progress to consolidation, have been unsup ported and denounced as faithless to the obligations of the Constitution by the very men and States who were destroying it by their usurpations. It is now too late to reform or restore the Government of the United States. All confidence in the North is lost in the South. The faithlessness of half a century has opened a gulf of separation between them which no promises or engagements can fill. " It cannot be believed that our ancestors would have assented to any union whatever with the peo ple of the North if the feelings and opinions now ex isting among them had existed when the Constitution was framed. There was then no tariff— no Negro fanaticism. It was the delegates from New England who proposed, in the Convention which framed the Constitution, to the delegates from South Carolina and Georgia, that if they wouhL agree to give Con gress the power of regulating commerce by a majo rity, that they would support the extension of the 110 THE SOUTHERN REBELLION. Address to the Slave. holding States. African slave-trade for twenty years. African Slavery existed in all the States but one. The idea that they would be made to pay that tribute to their Northern Confederates which they had refused to pay to Great Britain, or that the institution of Afri can Slavery would be made the grand basis of a sectional organization of the North to rule the South, never crossed their imaginations. The Union of the Constitution was a Union of Slaveholding States. It rests on Slavery, by prescribing a repre sentation in Congress for three-fifths of our slaves. There is nothing in the proceedings of the Conven tion which framed the Constitution to show that the Southern States would have formed any other Union, and still less that they would have formed a Union with more powerful non-Slaveholding States, having a majority in both branches of the Legisla ture of the Government. They were guilty of no such folly. Time and the progress of things have totally altered the relations between the Northern and Southern States since the Union was first estab lished. That identity of feeling, interests and insti tutions which once existed is gone. They are now divided between agriculture, and manufacturing, and commercial States — between Slaveholding and non-Slaveholding States. Their institutions and in dustrial pursuits have made them totally different peoples. That equality in the Government between the two sections of the Union which once existed no longer exists. We but imitate the policy of our fathers in dissolving a Union with non-Slaveholding Confederates, and seeking a Confederation with Slaveholding States. " Experience has proved that Slaveholding States cannot be safe in subjection to non-Slaveholding States. Indeed, no people ever expect to preserve their rights and liberties unless they are in their own custody. To plunder and oppress where plunder and oppression can be practiced with impunity, seems to be the natural order of things. The fairest portions of the world have been turned into wilder nesses, and the most civilized and prosperous com munities have been impoverished and ruined by Anti-Slavery fanaticism. The people of the North have not left us in doubt as to their designs and policy. United as a section in the late Presidential election, they have elected as the exponent of their policy one who has openly declared that all the States of the United States must be made Free States or Slave States. It is true that among those who aided in this election there are various shades of Anti-Slavery hostility. But if African Slavery in the Southern States be the evil their political^ combina tions affirm it to be, the requisitions of an inexorable .ogic must lead them to emancipation. If it is right to preclude or abolish Slavery m -i _ —i... v. u •* 1 Address to the Slave- in a Territory, why should it be holding statea ™. allowed to remain in the States? -. c • 'j -< The one is not at all more unconstitutional than the other, according to the decisions of the Supreme Court of the United States. And when it is consid ered that the Northern States will soon have the power to make that Court what they please, and that the Constitution never has been any barrier whatever to their exercise of power, what cheek can there be in the unrestrained counsels of the North to emancipation? There is sympathy in asso ciation, which carries men along without principle ; but when there is principle, and that principle is fortified by long existing prejudices and feelings, as sociation is omnipotent in party influences. In spite of all disclaimers and professions, there can be but one end to the submission by the South to the rule of a sectional Anti-Slavery Government at Washing ton ; and that end, directly or indirectly, must be the emancipation of the slaves of the South. The| hypocrisy of thirty years — the faithlessness of their whole course from the commencement of our union with them — show that the people of the non-Slave holding North, are not and cannot be safe associates 1 of the Slaveholding South under a oommon Govern ment. Not only their fanaticism, but their erro neous views of the principles of free Governments, render it doubtful whether, separated from the' South, they can maintain a free Government among| themselves. Brute numbers with them is the great element of free Government. A majority is infallible; and omnipotent. ' The right divine to rule in kings^ is only transferred to their majority. The very ob ject of all constitutions, in free, popular governi ments, is to restrain the majority. Constitutions; therefore, according to their theory, must be most unrighteous inventions, restricting liberty. None ought to exist, but the body politic ought simply to have » political organization, to bring out and en force the will of a majority. This theory may be harmless in a small community, having an indentity of interests and pursuits; but over a vast State — still more, over a vast Confederacy, having various and conflicting interests and pursuits — It is a remorseless despotism. In resisting it, as applicable to ourselves, we are vindicating the great cause of free govern ment, more important, perhaps, to the world than the existence of the United States. Nor in resisting it, do we intend to depart from the safe instrumen tality the system of government we have established with them requires. In separating from them we invade no rights— no interest of theirs. We violate no obligation of duty to them. As separate, inde pendent States in Convention, we made the Consti tution of the United States with them ; and as sepa ADDRESS TO THE SLAVEHOLDING STATES, 111 Address to the Slave holding States. rate, independent States, each State acting for itself, we adopt ed it. South Carolina, acting in her sovereign capacity, now thinks proper to secede from the Union. She did not part with her sovereignty in adopting the Constitution. The last thing a State can be presumed to have surrendered is her sover eignty. Her sovereignty is her life. Nothing but a clear, express grant can alienate it. Inference should be dumb. Yet it is not at all surprising that those who have construed away all the limitations of the Constitution should also by construction claim the annihilation of the sovereignty of the States. Having abolished all barriers to their om nipotence by their faithless constructions in the operations of the General Government, it is most natural that they should endeavor to do the same toward us in the States. The truth is, they having violated the express provisions of the Constitution, it is at an end as a compact. It is morally obliga tory only on those who choose to accept its per verted terms. South Carolina, deeming the com pact not only violated in particular features, but virtually abolished by her Northern Confederates, withdraws herself as a party from its obligations. The right to do so is denied by her Northern Con federates. They desire to establish a despotism, not only omnipotent in Congress-, but omnipotent over the States ; and, as if to manifest the imperious necessity of our secession, they threaten us with the sword, to coerce submission to their rule. " Citizens of the Slaveholding States of the United States! Circumstances beyond our control have placed us in the van of the great controversy between the Northern and Southern States. We would have preferred that other States should have assumed the position we now occupy. Independent ourselves, we disclaim any design or desire to lead the councils of the other Southern States. Provi dence has cast our lot together, by extending over us an identity of pursuits, interests, and institutions. South Carolina desires no destiny separated from yours. To be one of a great Slaveholding Confede racy, stretching its arms over a territory larger than any power in Europe possesses — with population four times greater than that of the whole United States when they achieved their independence of the British Empire — with productions which make our existence more important to the world than that of any other people inhabiting it — With common insti tutions to defend, and common dangers to encounter, we ask your sympathy and confederation. While constituting - portion of the United States, it has been your statesmanship which has guided it in its mighty strides to power and expansion. In the field as in the Cabinet, you have led the way to its renown '¦ . / ¦ E ALLEGHANY ARSENAL AFFAIR. ALABAMA ELECTION. THE SOUTH CAROLINA COMMISSIONERS' ARRIVAL AT WASHINGTON. AFFAIRS IN VIRGINIA. LIST OF ARMY AND NAVY OFFICERS -FROM SOUTH CAROLINA. SENATOR TOOMBS' TELEGRAPHIC ADDRESS. HOPELESSNESS OF COMPROMISE. The week of December 25th to January 1st was ushered in by a revelation of fraud which startled the entire country. The facts were substantially as follows : — Secretary Thompson, re- The Great Robbery, turning from his trip to North Carolina, Sunday 15 evening, December 25th, called immediately upon the President, to advise him that he had been informed, by letter, of a large rob bery in his department. It was decided to investigate the matter at once. Proceeding to the offices Mr. Thompson attempted to ex amine the safe in which the Indian bonds 114 THE SOUTHERN REBELLION. were kept, but discovered the key to be miss ing. He made several attempts to find it, but failed. Different statements were made by different subordinates as to the whereabouts of Mr. Godard Bailey, disbursing clerk, a native of South Carolina, to whom the bonds were specially intrusted, and who held the key of the safe. He was found, and asked for the key, but could not produce it. The Secretary, at once suspecting the worst, pro ceeded to the office of Mayor Berrett and solicited a special police force. With these he returned to the Department, and put a guard at every avenue leading to it. The clerks were summoned, and orders given not to allow any of them to pass out. The safe was then broken open. The bonds were missing. The register of the bonds was found. Monday, Bailey, it was ascertained, was miss ing. Mr. Black, Secretary of State, District Attorney Ould and others, having know ledge of the nature of the bonds, were called in by Secretary Thompson. The clerks were severally examined as to their knowledge of the disappearance of the instruments. After much close investigation, Monday and Tues day, the facts were elicited. They proved to be as follows: — About two months previous to the disco very of the loss, Mr. E. Russell, of the firm of Majors, Russell & Waddell, held about a mil lion of dollars of the official acceptances of the Secretary of War. These acceptances had been given, conditionally, in advance, for transportation of supplies to the army, under contract with the Government. Mr. Russell, not finding himself able to negotiate the ac ceptances, was greatly embarrassed, pecuni arily ; and, ascertaining from Godard Bailey, with whom he was intimately acquainted, that the latter had control over three millions of Indian Trust Funds, invested in bonds of different States, arranged with him for about half a million of dollars — these bonds to be hypothecated in New York. As security, he gave Bailey the acceptances of Mr. Floyd, which Bailey placed in the safe where the bonds were kept. During December these bonds greatly depreciated, and -the bankers in New York, who made advances on them, called for additional security. Bailey, in order to save the bonds, delivered over $300,000 worth of them additional, in all $870,000. On the 18th of December he ad dressed a letter to the Secretary of the Interior, frankly imparting these facts, and requesting an investigation. This letter he gave to a Senator to be delivered to the Secretary on his return from North Carolina, which request was complied with. The in vestigation proved the truth of the state ments. A Philadelphia journalist having investi gated the matter, wrote of it as follows : — " Floyd, to aid Russell, Majors & Co., in comply. ing with their huge contract for the transportation of army supplies from the Missouri River to Utah, accepted their drafts, in some instances absolutely, in others conditionally, for a sum exceeding $800,000. Subsequently he allowed Russell, Majors & Co. to draw the whole amount due them under their con tract, with the assurance on their part that all of his acceptances as Secretary of War should be retired. Drafts matured, and Russell, Majors & Co. were un able to meet them, and others were soon to mature, which, unless money could be had, would be pro tested also. Under these circumstances, Mr. Bailey, the clerk in charge of the Indian Trust Fund, who, it is said, married a niece of Secretary Floyd, was approached by an agent of Russell, Majors & Co., and told that unless the acceptances referred to were provided for immediately, the Secretary of War would be disgraced irredeemably. He was then asked to lend to Russell, Majors & Co., temporarily, State bonds of the Indian Trust Fund to the amount of eight hundred and seventy thousand dollars. Bailey, in fluenced by the conviction that this breach of trust was the only means of saving the honor of the Sec retary of War, and satisfied, also, that Russell, Ma jors & Co. would be able to replace the bonds ac cording to promise, delivered bonds amounting to $870,000 to Maj. Russell, the principal of that firm, who hypothecated them to the Bank of the Republic, New York. This is" said to be Bailey's version of his unfortunate breach of official trust, which it was im possible to conceal longer, inasmuch as the Indian Bureau had applied for the coupons, to collect the January interest on the bonds abstracted. Hence, the confession of Bailey to the Secretary of the In terior, on Saturday, of the whole affair." This affair, whatever its causes, was unfor tunate in its results, since it added much to public excitement, and turned popular senti ment very strongly against an administration which had failed so utterly to answer to the demands of the hour. Report magnified the EVACUATION OF FORT MOULTRIE. 115 The Pittsburgh (Al leghany) Arsenal Excitement. sum abstracted to millions, and linked Mr. Floyd's name as a principal in the robbery, — thus intensifying the feeling of indignation growing among all classes in the North against the Southern men in the Cabinet. Mr. Cobb had retired, leaving a bankrupt treasury ; and now that Mr. Floyd and the Department of the Interior were responsible for a most gigantic breach of public trust, it gave rein to the most exaggerated 'stories of perfidy and recklessness in the Cabinet. But, the facts were as given above. The sum ab stracted amounted to eight hundred and sev enty thousand dollars, which, being in bonds, were traced ; and Messrs. Russell, Majors and Waddell, being possessed of a vast property, were enabled, eventually, to save the Govern ment from serious loss. This great temporary de falcation was followed by the Pittsburgh (Alleghany) Arsenal Excitement, which, for a few days, threatened serious consequences, and added materially to the alarm of the friends of the Union. An order was given to ship from the arsenal 78 guns to Newport, near Galveston, Texas, and 46 guns to Ship Island, near Balize, at the mouth of the Missis sippi river. As the fortresses at both points named were still unfinished, the order of ship ment, it was felt, was given thus early in order to place the valuable guns in the hands of the Secessionists. The news dispatch from Pitts burgh, dated Monday, December 24th, said that the Chairman of the House Committee on Military Affairs had been telegraphed for information — that leading Democrats of the city telegraphed to the President to have the order of shipment immediately counter manded, since the people never would allow the guns to leave the arsenal — that a call, signed by citizens of all parties, was made public arranging for a meeting of citizens to take necessary action in the matter; — that a report gained currency of large amounts of shot, shell, muskets and accoutrements hav ing already been sent South, &c. An im mense meeting was held on Thursday in the street opposite the Court-house. The report of proceedings stated that several resolutions were adopted " declaring loyalty to the Union, and ability to defend ourselves against all enemies of the Union; deprecating any inter ference with the shipment of arms under Go vernment orders, however inopportune or im politic the order might appear; deploring the existing state of things in connection with the administration of important departments of the public service so as to have shaken confidence in the people of the Free States ; that while Pennsylvania is on guard at the Federal capital, it is her special duty to look to the fidelity of her sons, and in that view call on the President as a citizen of this Com monwealth, to see that the public receive no detriment at his hands. It behooves the President to purge his cabinet of every man known to give aid and comfort to, or in any way countenancing the revolt of any State against the authority of the Constitution and the laws of the Union. A dispatch from the Hon. Robert McKnight, asking the people to make no further resistance, but to ask for a suspension of the shipment of the guns until further advices were received from the War Office, was read and approved."* This storm was thus mo- ., ., - , . Evacuation of Fort mentanly allayed, to be Moullrie ExcltemeDt. succeeded by the announce ment that Fort Moultrie had been evacuated and disabled, and Fort Sumter occupied by Major Anderson's entire force. It is scarcely possible to express the excitement which fol lowed this news. The Union fairly trembled under the conflicting emotions awakened by the act. In the South it aroused the spirit of resistance to its highest pitch. "To arms ' ' became the cry, for all believed it to be the * The order was : — " Send immediately to Ship Island, (mouth of Mississippi,) 46 cannon, and 78 cannon," naming the kinds. The schedule was as follows : — 21 ten-inch Columbiads, 15,200 lbs.= 21 eight-inch ditto 9,240 " = 4 32 pounders, (iron,) 7,250 near Balize, to Galveston 319,200 lbs. 194,040 " 29,000 " 46 To Ship Island. Total weight of metal, 542,240 lbs. 23 ten-inch Columbiads, 15,200 lbs.=349,600 lbs. 48 eight-inch ditto 9,240 " =443,520 " 7 32 pounders, (iron,) 7,250 " = 50,750 " 78 To Galveston. Total weight of metal, 843,870 lbs. =il 116 THE SOUTHERN REBELLION, first movement toward " coercing " the rebel lious States. In the North it aroused a per fect acclamation of delight. " Huzza for Major Anderson 1" became the street-greeting, for, without a full knowledge of the affair, men believed it to foreshadow a determina tion, on the part of the Administration, to resist any further encroachments upon its authority. [The incidents of the evacuation are given in Chapter XIX.] The election of Delegates Alabama Election, to the State Convention, in Alabama, came off Decem ber 24th, resulting in the choice of a large majority of unconditional Secessionists. The entire majority for secession was over fifty thousand. In many localities Union and Conservative tickets were not voted upon at all. On the same day Governor Moore is sued a proclamation, convening the Legisla ture of that State, January 14th, to provide for any emergency which might arise from the action of the Convention, which was to meet January 7th. On the 24th the South Carolina members of Congress (House) sent in, to the Speaker, a letter stating that, by the act of secession, their State had withdrawn from the Union, thereby dissolving their connection with the House, and that they should, accordingly, vacate their seats. The letter was signed by Messrs. John McQueen, M. L. Bonham, W. W. Boyce, and J. D. Ashmore. Mr. Keitt had previously withdrawn. The Speaker, however, directed that their names be retained on the roll and regularly called — thus failing to recognize the act of secession and the with drawal, for that cause, of members. The South Carolina Com. missioners, Messrs. Bam- well, Orr and Adams, ar rived in Washington Dec. 26th — their mission, as before stated, being to treat with the Federal Government for a peaceful adjustment of all relations between the Government and their " Sovereign" State. The evacuation of Moultrie, by Major Ander son, not a little complicated the difficulties of their position. On the evening of their ar rival a number of leading Southern men were called into counsel, to arrange more fully their line of conduct. They did not, however, lay Arrival of Commis sioners in Washing ton. their first communication before the Presi dent until Dec. 29th. For the correspondence which followed, see a future Chapter. Secession gained ground rapidly in Virginia, after Virginia's Defection. the movement of South Carolina became well canvassed. Under its influence numerous meetings were called, and many individuals characterized as " Conser vative" gave in to the programme for separate action. This was in Eastern Virginia. West ern Virginia then, as later, was loyal to the Union, and took little part in affairs, except to protest against the course of the incen diaries, led by such wild and reckless spirits as Roger A. Pryor. John Minor Botts, one of the most eminent and able men that the State ever called citizen, thundered away with the Paixhan guns of his incontrover tible logic, against the " bloody heresy," the right of secession, and stood up grandly for the Union, the Constitution and the Laws. It was not reason, however, which controlled the hour ; and Virginia, " Mother of Presi dents," it became painfully apparent, was rapidly gliding into the arms of a paramour, who would rob her of her jewels and debase her ancient glory into the very dust. The prospective move ments in the South were canvassed excitedly in both army and navy, a large proportion of whose officers were Southern men. When attention was called to the subject it was found that the materiel of the two services would suffer severely by the defection likely to follow, since a majority of the commissions above second lieutenancies were held by Southern men, notwithstanding the proportion of pop ulation and wealth in the North was as three to one. South Carolina alone, with her fifty- two thousand voters, was represented in the navy and army as follows, at the date under consideration, December 24th-30th. A KMT. Name. Department. 9ri?toal m"7 into service. Capt. Abraham C. Myers..Q. M. Gen. Dep..i . . .1833 Maj. Adam N. McLaren.. ..Surg. Gen. Dep 1833 Maj. Samuel P. Moore. . . . Surg. Gen. Dep 1835 Maj. David C. Leon Surg. Gen. Dep 1837 Maj. James Simons Surg. Gen. Dep 1839 Capt. John F. Hammond . Surg. Gen. Dep. 1847 Army and Navy Resignations. OUTH CAROLINIANS IN THE ARMY AND NAVY, 117 Name. Original entry into service. akmy — continued. Department. Capt. Wm. W. Anderson. .Surg. Gen. Dep 1849 Capt. Robert L. Brodie. . . Surg. Gen. Dep 1854 Capt. Nat. S. Crowell Surg. Gen. Dep 1854 1st Lt. Wm. J. L'Engle.. .Surg. Gen. Dep 1856 1st Lt. Wm. A. Caiswell . . Surg. Gen. Dep 1859 Maj. Thomas G. Rhett Paymaster Gen. Dep . 1845 Bvt. Col. Benj. Huger Ordnance Dep 1825 Bvt. Maj. L. B. Northrup . 1st Regt. Dragoons. . . 1839 2d Lt. S. W. Ferguson 1st Regt. Dragoons. . . 1857 Capt. R. H. Anderson ... 2d Regt. Dragoons. . . 1842 1st Lt. J. B. Villepigue.. .2d Regt. Dragoons.. .1854 Capt. Wm. De Saussure. . . 1st Regt. Cavalry 1855 Capt. Nathan D. Evans.. .2d Regt. Cavalry 1848 1st Lt. Stephen D. Lee . . .4th Regt. Artillery. . . 1854 1st Lt. Geo. S. James 4th Regt. Artillery. . . 1856 2d Lt. J. H. Hollinquist.. .4th Regt. Artillery. .. 1858 Capt. Chris. S. Lovell 2d Regt. Infantry 1853 1st Lt. L. W. O'Bannon. . . 3d Regt. Infantry 1843 1st Lt. Jas. L. Corley 6th Regt. Infantry. . .1850 1st Lt. Ed. D. Blake 8th Regt. Infantry. . .1847 2d Lt. E. S. Camp 9th Regt. Infantry. . . 1857 Capt. John Dunnovant. . .10th Regt. Infantry.. .1855 Capt. Barnard E. Bee ... . 10th Regt. Infantry. . . 1845 Duty. Original entry into service. Capt. Wm. B. Shnbrick. .Chr. L. H. Board 1806 Capt. C. K. Stribling Com. E. I. Squadron..l812 Capt. D. N. Ingraham.. . .Chf. BureauOrdnance.1812 Com. Henry K. Hoff Com.rec. ship at Phil.1823 Com. John S. Missroon . .Waiting Orders 1824 Com. Percival Drayton. . . Waiting Orders 1827 Com. Henry J. Hartstene-.Special duty 1828 Com. Chas. Ste^dman Com. brig Dolphin. . . 1828 Com. Edw. Middleton Waiting Orders 1828 Lt. James H. North L. H. Inspector 1829 Lt. Rd. Wainwright Stm. frgt. Merrimac . . 1831 Lt. Thos. B. Hnger Stm. sloop Iroquois . . 1835 Lt. John Rutledge Waiting Orders 1835 Lt. Henry Rolando Stm. sloop Lancaster. 1836 Lt. C. Morris Sloop Marion 1837 Lt. Alex. F. Warley Waiting Orders 1840 Lt. John R. Hamilton Stm. sloop Hartford.. .1845 Lt. Thomas P. Pelot Sloop Savannah 1849 Lt. Wm. G. Dozier. Leave of absence . . . 1850 Lt. Henry C. Flagg Leave of absence 1828 Lt. Maurice Simmons Furlough 1839 Surgeon Arthur M. Lynch.Stm. frgt. Roanoke. .. 1830 Surgeon Chas. E. Lining .. Sloop Cyane 1858 Purser J. S. Cunningham. .Naval Academy 1857 Master John M. StribIing..Steamer Wyandot 1851 Master Philip Porcher. . . . Stm. frgt. Merrimac . . 1851 Master Wm. E. Evans. . . .Stm. sloop Pensacola.1859 Mid'n John Gumball Sloop Macedonia 1854 Mid'n J. H. Ingraham Naval Academy 1857 NAVY — O Name. Duty. 0rleinaI e?try J into service. Mid'n Benjamin F. Perry. Naval Academy 1857 Mid'n R. H. Bacott Naval Academy 1859 Lt. H. L. Ingraham Marine Corps 1858 Engineer Geo. D. Lenny.. .Stm. sloop Wyoming..l858 Three West Point Cadets from South Caro lina : viz., H. S. Farley, James Hamilton and George Reynolds, resigned at the call made by the Charleston Mercury [see pages 45-46] ; and Lieutenant J. R. Hamilton, of the United States' Steam Sloop Wyoming, had thrown up his commission ; but the list above given was on the rolls at the date of South Caro lina's secession. After that act a rapid suc cession of resignations occurred, embracing officers of all grades, who almost immediately offered their services to South Carolina. The two Departments at Washington accepted these resignations without a protest ! Every commission thrown up added to the record of disloyalty, ingratitude, and dishonor which influenced the entire movement, so far as officials were concerned, for disunion. They not only left the house of the mother who gave them all their knowledge — all their honors — all their ability for service, but they were eager to despoil her, and, if she resisted, to stab her. It is not enough to say these States had the first claim to their swords, for the States gave them nothing, the Federal Government everything. If they were un willing to serve against their States, honor, duty, self-respect and true courage alike for bade that they should take up arms against the kind band which had given them all they possessed. Yet, with scarcely an exception, every Southern man who resigned from the army or navy did so to accept service against the Federal Government ! The disinterested observer will not fail to find in this fact an evidence of the remarkable demoralization of sentiment which characterized the rebellion. To imflarne the zeal of ,, . -,- , a • i Mr. Toombs' Ad- the immediate Secessionists . of' his State, (Georgia) Mr. Toombs sent the following telegraphic ad dress from Washington, on the evening of Sunday, Dec. 23d :— " I came here to secure your constitutional rights, and to demonstrate to you that you can get no guarantee for those rights from your Northern con federates. 118 THE SOUTHERN REBELLION. " The whole subject was referred to a committee of thirteen in the Senate. I was appointed on the committee and accepted the trust. I submitted propositions which, so far from receiving a decided support from a single member of the Republican party of the committee, were all treated with deri sion or contempt. A vote was then taken in the committee on amendments to the Constitution, pro posed by Hon. J. J. Crittenden, and each and all of them were voted against, unanimonsly, by the Black Republican members of the committee. "In, addition to these facts, a majority of the Black Republican members of the committee de clared distinctly that they had no guarantees to offer, which was silently acquiesced in by the other members. " The Black Republican members of this Commit tee are representative men of the party and section, and, to the extent of my information, truly represent them. " The Committee of Thirty-Three on Friday ad journed for a week, without coming to any vote after solemnly pledging themselves to vote on all the propositions then before them, that day, It is con trolled by the Black Republicans, your enemies, who only seek to amuse you with delusive hope un til your election, that you may'defeat the friends of Secession. " If you are deceived by them, it shall not be my fault. I have put the test fairly and frankly. It is decisive against you now. I tell you, upon the faith of a true man, that all further looking to the North for security for your Constitutional rights in the Union, ought to be instantly abandoned. " It is fraught with nothing but ruin to yourselves and to your posterity. Secession, by the 4th day of March next, should be thundered from the ballot- box by the unanimous voice of Georgia, on the 2d day of January next. Such a voice will be your best guarantee for liberty, tranquillity and glory." (Signed,) "E. TOOMBS." This address anticipated the vote on Toombs' propositions. Although he stated that they were " treated with derision or con tempt," no vote was taken upon them until Monday, Dec. 24th. His message, therefore, reflected more credit to his increased zeal for secession than for correctness of statement. The address was sent by telegraph Sunday, to influence the elections of Monday. It answered its purpose most admirably, for even Mr. Stephens, the hitherto champion of the Conservatives, gave over his views and entered the field as a champion for separate and immediate action. The general assump tions of the address, in regard to the impos sibility of obtaining concessions from the dominant party, were -con firmed by the vote of Sat- No to7">mil* J probable. urday, (Dec. 22d) on Mr. 'Crittenden's resolutions [see page 90.] A dispatch, by the Associated Press reporter, dated Dec. 23d, stated : " The Senate's Select Committee having come to no conclusion yesterday on any of the points before them, the Republicans asking further time for con sideration, the most hopeful now despond, seeing no immediate prospect of an accom modation of the political differences. Mr. Crittenden, in a conversation with a friend, said that was the darkest day of his life ; that he was overwhelmed with solicitude for the country, and that nothing but the affection of the people for the Union can restore peace. The extremes on the Committee are equally unyielding to concession." The same authority also added: — "The re ported recent declaration of the President elect that he will strictly adhere to the Chicago platform, has confirmed the wavering Repub licans to that policy, and increased the in tensity of Southern feeling." This referred to a paragraph placed at the head of the edi torial column of the New York Daily Tribune, Dec. 22d., which announced that Mr. Lincoln had no compromises to offer, and was under stood to adhere strictly to the principles of the Chicago platform on the question of the freedom of the Territories. Mr. Wade, it would, therefore, appear, had spoken for the President elect as well as for himself, in his speech of Dec. 17th. [See pages 88-89.] Dec. 27th, Gov. Magoffin called an extra session of the Kentucky Legislature, to meet January 17th " to consider the distracted state of the country." The Democratic State Committee of Illi nois, on Dec. 27th, issued a call for a State Convention, to be held in Springfield on the 17th of January " to confer as to the existing national crisis, and to adopt some line of policy relative thereto." At a Convention of " National Democrats," called by circular to meet at Albany, De cember 27th, forms of petitions were adopted, requesting the Legislature to repeal the Per sonal Liberty law of 1840, and to restore the Nine-months Slaveholding law of 1817, to-be circulated in each county. CHAPTER XVIII. PROCEEDINGS OF CONGRESS CONTINUED. FOURTH WEEK; THE PROCEEDINGS OF THE COMMITTEES OF THIRTY-THREE AND THIRTEEN, UP TO DECEMBER 29TH. Mr. Nicholson's The Senate (Monday, December 24th) re ceived propositions of settlement from Messrs. Pugh, Douglas, Bigler, &c, which were seve rally referred to the Committee of Thirteen. Mr. Nicholson, of Tennessee, having the floor, proceeded to address the Senate in reply to his colleague, Andrew Johnson, as well as to Mr. Wade. He charged upon the Republican party all responsibility for the enmity felt at the South against the North — the Democrats of the North were in no manner censurable. The feeling commenced, in 1856, with the nomination of Fremont, when the first vital stab was given to the Union. He quoted from the platform of the Republican party in regard to Slavery in the Territories, to, show that it was the basis of all sectionalism. He then quoted Mr. Fill more's prediction that the success of such a party must cause disunion. The Repub licans concede that in the States the South have a right to hold slave property, but es tablish a principle, in places where they have the power, which affixes a stigma on Southern men. All that the South has to rest upon is the professions of a party, whose general principle is to disregard the rights of the South outside their own States. Suppose that this party gets a majority in both Houses of Congress, they will abolish Slavery in the District of Columbia and in all the arsenals and dockyards, &c, of the South, and they will also refuse to admit new Slave States. Is it strange, then, that Southern men should begin to look out for their own interests, when, if this sectional power has dominion, it will surely progress towards the extinction of Slavery ? The trouble is not so much that the Fugitive Slave law is not enforced, or the equality of the States denied, but that a principle is laid down that denies the title of Southern men to property which they claim under the Constitution — a principle which strikes at the very root of a system identified with the interest, prosperity and safety of the South. In view of this he claimed that the only safety for the South in the Union, was in Constitutional guarantees against en croachments, and a protection to Slavery in Slave sections. He would do all he could to obtain proper guarantees; but,if all failed, he would choose secession or revolution rather than acquiesce. He regretted hasty action in the South, and he thought it better to have counsel and concerted action in the Senate. He thought that an appeal from the whole South, with unanimity of sentiment, could not be resisted by the North. He regarded the policy of the extreme Southern States as dictated by a desire to awaken the sentiment of the North rather than a love of disunion per se. He thought that it was the duty of the Border States to meet in solemn consul tation and present their demands to the North. But, from the course of the Republi can organs, he had scarcely a ray of hope that their demands would be granted. The chief points in our demand would be the recog nition of the right of property in slaves, and fhe right to hold them in the Territories. Although he had not much hope left, yet he preferred to try if a solemn appeal from tho South to the North would not produce a good effect. Mr, Nicholson then referred to the ordinance of secession of South Carolina as the act of a sovereign State, saying that he should only allude to it as a fact, not argue whether it was right or wrong. He argued that any resort to force by the Federal Gov ernment was equivalent to a declaration of war to South Carolina. She had absolved ^t: 120 THE SOUTHERN REBELLION. More Union-saving Schemes. her citizens from all allegiance to the United States, and the Government could not make war rightfully upon them. He drew a pic ture of the horrors of civil war, and urged calmness and consultation on the part of the Southern States. He concluded by ex pressing the hope of a more perfect Union at no distant day. ¦ This speech elicited some remark, as fore shadowing the course of the Conservatives in Tennessee, and proved that the issue of Union or Disunion was to be forced upon Congress, in the demand for a constitutional recognition and protection of Slavery. The attitude of the Republicans against any such guarantees gave small hope, therefore, of any adjustment, and, dayby day, the impassability of the gulf, widening between the Slave and Free States, became more apparent. In the House, John Coch rane, (Dem.,) of New York, again sought to press his views. He offered a preamble setting forth the dangers which menaced the country, sug gesting the removal of the Slavery question from Congress as a remedy, and concluded with a resolution expressive of the opinion of Congress that Slavery shall not exist in the Territory north of 36 deg. 30 min., and that the States formed therefrom shall be admitted with or without Slavery, as their Constitu tions may prescribe ; and that, south of that line, Slavery shall not be prohibited by Con gress or Territorial legislation. The next re solution asserts the sovereignty of each State, and that any attempt to compel them by force to subserve the Federal compact would be to levy war, and precipitate a revolution. Mr. Haskin, (Dem.,) of New York, pro posed, as a substitute, that the Judiciary Committee inquire into the relations now ex isting between the Federal Government and the State of South Carolina ; the duty of the Executive Department in view of the attempt ed withdrawal of that State from the United States, and the threatened seizure of the Fed eral property within the limits of that State ; 'and what action Congress should take to ex ecute the Constitution, and enforce the laws, and protect the property from seizure, and that the Committee report at any time. Mr. Cochrane wanted a vote, and desired a suspension of the rules for that purpose, to save a reference to the Select Committee of Thirty-three. Upon a motion for its refer ence, Mr. Cochrane withdrew the resolution. The two Houses took a recess until Decem ber 27th. Thursday, Dec. 27th, Mr. -r-. T,,-t /-r. \ j! ttt' Mr. Doolittle's Doolittle, (Rep.,) of Wis- gpeech_ consin, addressed the Sen ate in a very elaborate and able argument, defending the Northern States, the Republi can party, and Mr. Lincoln. As the speech met the points raised by Mr. Nicholson and others, and expressed the leading sentiment of the North-western States on the crisis, we may give place to some of the Senator's argu ments and declarations: Peace, he said, was based on two ideas — one that neither the Federal Government nor citizens of non-Slaveholding States should make any aggression on Slavery in the States;, and the other, that neither the Federal Gov ernment nor the citizens of Slaveholding States should, make any aggressions or un dertake to overthrow Freedom in the Terri tories. If these conditions were broken, there cannot be peace. He said the Constitution was the supreme law of the land and of every State; and if the Constitution contains any language which would abolish Slavery in a Territory, it would abolish it in a State. He then referred to the Dred Scott decision, and claimed that there was nothing in that deci sion to lead any one to infer that the Consti tution establishes Slavery in any Territory ; nothing that justifies men in saying that the Constitution enters the Territory acquired from Mexico, and abolishes Mexican law, and establishes a law guaranteeing the right to take and hold slaves in this Territory. He urged that, if we should annex Canada, the Constitution had no power, of its own force, to repeal the law there in regard to Slavery, which had been in force a hundred years. He said the Senator from Tennessee (Nich olson) had said there was a great alarm at the South, against the Free States, and said he apprehended the time would come when the Free States would attempt to amend the Constitution, so as to extinguish Slavery. Why did not the Senator from Tennessee, if he wished to allay the alarm, quote in his MR. DOOLITTLE'S SPEECH. 1?1 speech part of the Republican platform, which declares an essential principle to be the main tenance of State rights, in order to maintain the balance of power, and denounced the in vasion of any State on whatever pretext. Why did not the Senator quote from the speeches of the President elect, when he had declared over and over again that he did not intend or wish to interfere with Slavery in the States ? He then read from Mr. Lincoln's speeches, where he declared that he had no purpose, directly or indirectly, to interfere with Slavery in the States. He believed he had no lawful right to do so, nor had he any inclination to do so. The Constitution, he averred, was formed by men who knew the meaning of the words they employed. They recognized the right of Slaveholding States to persons held to service, and made it the duty of the Free States to deliver up such persons ; but left each State perfectly sover eign over its own laws. The law of the Slave States makes slaves property. The law of the Free States does not make them property. The Constitution does neither. Upon the idea that the Constitution estab lishes Slavery, we cannot have peace on the Slavery question, and we may as well know it first as last. The people of the United States will never consent that the Constitu tion be so altered as to become by its own force a Slavery-extending Constitution. But they do not ask a construction put upon it which will make it abolish Slavery in any State or Territory. We simply ask — let the Constitution stand as our fathers made it, neither affirming nor denying ; then we can have peace. He said Mr. Lincoln was in favor of giving the South the Fugitive Slave law, and read speeches to support the asser tion. The South complain that they lose a great deal by fugitives, and few are reclaim ed. This arises from the fact that they pos sess a species of property with a will of its own, and legs of its own, and desire of its own to get away. This is no fault of ours, and the North are not responsible for that. The Senator from Virginia (Mr. Mason) told us that, a few years ago, Virginia lost annu ally $100,000, and he believed she lost the same now. He would concede that, for the sake of argument, Virginia had about 500,000 16 slaves, worth, on an average, $800 — at least, before the panic— making $400,000,000. The loss of $100,000 is only one-fortieth of one per cent., or about one-quarter of a mill on a dollar. This is less than the risk incurred in any other species of property in the United States. Suppose the people of the Border States resolve themselves into an insurance company, how small would be the premium to cover the loss 1 This special property has special advantages. It has advantages of representation, and is it strange that such property should be subjected to peculiar risks ? What will those gentlemen gain by severing the bond of the Union ? If they run this slight risk now, what will they run then, when the Northern States will be under no obligations to return their property ? Would ten per cent, cover the loss of the State ? Let the bond of Union be broken, and Slave pro perty would of necessity retire from the bor der. I declare that those men at the North who are called Abolitionists stand looking on to-day, with an anxiety you cannot con ceive of, and their prayers are going up to night that this Union may be broken up ; that the Free States at the North must no longer be compelled, by this bond of Union, to surrender fugitive Slaves. ***** " The Constitution of the United States speaks in language clear enough that it is not in the power of one out of ten, or of one hundred, or of all the citi zens of a State, to annul an act of Congress, because the Constitution of the United States and an act in pursuance of it is a supreme law of that State, and binding upon every citizen of that State, and every citizen must act at his peril. Now, if this doctrine is true, that a State by its own mere motion can as semble in convention a mass of its citizens, by reso lutions dissolve its connection with the Federal Gov ernment, and put an end to the supremacy of the Constitution and laws of the United States, several other consequences must follow. If one State can secede from all the rest, I suppose the Senator from Louisiana will not deny but that all the rest can se cede from one, and that of necessity gives to this Government the power to expel a State. Your right of secession involves the right of expulsion. Let us go a little further, and see how this doctrine would apply in time of war. We were engaged in a war with Great Britain in 1812, and the New England States, it is said, were rather disaffected, and met in Convention at Hartford. Now, if the doctrine of the gentleman is correct, any of the New England States 122 THE SOUTHERN REBELLION, could have resolved itself out at its pleasure and gone over to the enemy. Our fortresses in Boston Harbor, which we had manned, built, and filled with munitions and guns, they might have withdrawn from and surrendered to the enemy, and turned our own guns upon us. This is the consequence of this doctrine. -But, again, take it in time of peace. Ap ply the doctrine to Pennsylvania, that she, by a sim ple resolution of her people, can withdraw from the United States. She could cut off all the mail routes going across Pennsylvania, and we could not go from Virginia to New York without going across a foreign country. So, too, with Illinois ; if this doctrine is correct, we of tiie North-west could be cut off entirely from the East ; and especi ally if the Union is to be broken up, we could not go to New York except by leave of Illinois, or without going through the State of Kentucky ; and you propose to make that a foreign jurisdiction. Apply this doctrine further. How is it with Florida, a little State of the Gulf that has 50,000 white in habitants — almost as many as some of the counties in the State where I live ? We purchased this penin sula, and paid for it, to get rid of the foreign juris diction over it — also to get possession of the Key, and command the entrance to the Gulf. We paid $35,000,000 to take the Seminoles off from it, and now these 50,000 people, whom the good people of the United States permitted to go there and settle their territories — they had hardly population enough to be admitted as a State, but we have admitted them to full fellowship — and Florida now attempts, by mere resolution of her people gathered together, to resolve herself out of the Union, and take all those fortresses, which we have spent thousands of dollars to make, with all onr own guns, and turn them against us. How is it with'Louisiana ? The Govern ment of the United States upon wise national princi ples of great national policy, purchased from the Emperor of France, or the FirstConsuI, the Territory of Louisiana, at an expense of $15,000,000. We pur chased it to obtain possession of the great valley of the Mississippi, and, above all things, to hold the mouth of that River which controls all its commerce, and discharges it upon the high seas of the world. Now, can it be contended here that because the peo ple whom the Federal Government has permitted to go there and occupy its lands, and permitted to be introduced into the family of this Union, that she, in a moment of passion aud excitement, by the mere resolution of her citizens, can resolve herself outside of the Confederacy, declare that she is a foreign power, and take with her the control of the months of the Mississippi? I tell you, Mr. Presi dent, and I tell the Senator from Louisiana, that if any such doctrine had been understood when Louisiana was admitted, she would never have been admitted. I tell you, sir, if any such doctrine had been asserted, her people would never have been permitted to take possession of the swainps of Louisiana. They will not willingly coDsent that she should hold the mouths of the Mississippi, and thus control the commerce that goes out into the Gulf. How has it been with Texas? The Federal Government admitted Texas at a time when she had a sparse population, and there were many debts against her treasury, and her credit was im paired and broken. We took her, as one of the States, into this Confederacy. The result of her an nexation brought the Mexican war, which cost us 40,000 lives and nearly $100,000,000. Now, when we have made her a good State, built fortifications, paid her debts and raised her to position as a State in this Confederacy, with prospects as glorious, per haps more so than any other Southern State, is she now, in a single hour or moment of pas sion, to resolve herself out of the Union and become a foreign power ? Suppose we had paid $200,000,000 for Cuba, and acquired her, with all her fortifica tions, could she now go out, and turn our own guns against us ? What is all our great boasted nation ality? Is it a farce and a delusion? Gentlemen sometimes complain that the Republican party are disposed to do injustice to the citizens of the South, and to their social institutions especially. But what has been the history of the Government since it was formed under the Constitution ? We have acquired Florida, Louisiana, Texas and the Territory from Mexico. We have surrendered a part of Maine, and given up our claim to a large part of Oregon. Flor ida cost us, $40,000,000. It has been given up to the social institutions of the South. We purchased Louisiana Territory, and two-thirds of the good land has been given up to the social institutions of the South. The annexation of Texas, the war with Mex ico, and the acquisition of all those territories from Mexico, may be regarded as one transaction. Now I ask you, gentlemen, in all fairness and candor, to say whether we have not surrendered to your social institutions your full share, comparing the number of persons who are employed in your system of labor with the free white citizens of the United States? When you speak of injustice, it is without foundation. You have had your full share, and more than your share, of the Territories we have acquired from the beginning np to this hour. I am sick and tired of hearing gentlemen stand up here' and complain of the injustice done to this institution of the South. There is no foundation for it in our history — none whatever. * * * What do we deny to you that we do not deny to ourselves ? What single right have I inNew Mexico that you have not? Yon THE COMMITTEE OF THIRTEEN, 123 say this law excludes your social institution. So it excludes our banking institutions and our manufac turing corporations. Your social institution is a kind of close corporation, existing under the laws of your States, not existing by the common law of the country. We deny you no right which we do not deny ourselves. * * * If we acquire territory, you are asking too much when you ask us to convert it to Slave Territory. It is impossible that we can have peace upon any such doctrine as that. You must allow the Free Territories to remain free. We will not interfere with your institution where it ex ists. Sir, that is peace. I repeat, that non-interfe- renoe by the General Government or by the Free State men, with Slavery in the States, and non-inter ference by the General Government or by the Slave holders against freedom in the Territories, is peace." Mr. Doolittle was frequently interrupted by Mr. Benjamin,of Louisiana, Wigfall, of Texas, and Brown, of Mississippi — all of whose in quiries he answered with decision and candor. Mr. Brown made a brief Mr. Brown's Reply, reply, declaring that North ern Senators would over look the main point at issue. We claim that there is property in slaves, and they deny it. Until we can settle on some basis this ques tion, it is idle to talk of peace. He claimed that the doctrine of non-recognition of prop erty in slaves was a new doctrine. He said the South had $400,000,000 in this kind of property. Is it to be supposed that the South would consent to live under a Government outlawing this kind of property ? Can mil lions at the South consent to live under a Government as outlaws, only recognized when the Government wants tribute ? If the Gov ernment continue to outlaw the South, there is only two ways — separate in peace or by force. He said the South could not take less than justice, and asked no more. They re cognized the right of the Government to pro tect the property of the North, but the North would not recognize the right of protection to the property of the South. If they persist ed in the idea that the Government would not recognize property in slaves, and protect it, then, standing in the high presence of and before Almighty God, he declared the Union could not last ninety days. This day's proceedings did not bring the discordant elements into closer harmony. The spirit of Mr. Doolittle's speech was enii- Tbe Committee of Thirty- three. nently kind and candid ; and, if it failed to make any impression on the points at issue, its circulation among the people served to strengthen the confident and determined spirit of the vast mass of Northern people. It unquestionably had the endorsement of four-fifths of the voters in the North-western States. No further proceedings of this week's (the 4th) session particularly related to the " ques tion of questions." It was understood that Mr. Benjamin, of Louisiana, would address the Senate on Monday, January 1st. All looked forward with interest to that speech, as Mr. B. would unquestionably define the course which the united Southern States were to pursue. The Committee of Thir ty-three having adjourned December 21st to Decem ber 27th, accomplished little during their sessions of Thursday and Friday, December 27th-28th. On Thursday t?ie propositions of Mr. Rust [See page 103] were urged to a vote, and were rejected, by 12 to 15. On Friday the Committee considered Mr. Adams' proposition. It proposed an amendment to the Constitution prohibiting Congress from passing a law interfering with slavery in the States where it exists. It was agreed to by nearly an unanimous vote, the several dis sents considering that the Constitution al ready gives that security. The Committee of Thir teen sat three hours on Monday, December 24th, when most significant propositions were sub mitted by Mr. Seward : " First. No amendment shall be made to the Con stitution which will authorize, or give to Congress any power to abolish or interfere, in any State, with the domestic institutions thereof, including that of persons held to service or labor by the laws of such State." This was carried by the following vote : " Yeas. — Messrs. Powell, Hunter, Crittenden, Seward, Douglas, Collamer, Wade, Bigler, Rice, Doolittle, and Grimes. " Nays. — Messrs. Davis and Toombs. " Second. The Fugitive Slave Law of 1850 shall be so amended as to secure to the alleged fugitive a trial by jury." Mr. Douglas proposed to amend by insert- The Committee of Thirteen. 124 THE SOUTHERN REBELLION. ing "in the State from which the fugitive es caped." This was carried, and then the whole proposition was voted down by the Democrats, all the Republicans sustaining it. This was lost, as follows : "Yeas. — Messrs. Grimes, Seward, Wade, Doolittle, Collamer, and Crittenden — 6. " Nays. — Messrs. Powell, Hunter, Toombs, Doug las, Davis, Bigler, and Rice — 7." The Southern men voted adversely, upon the ground that, though it was not openly assigned, this proposition would affect their laws imprisoning colored seamen. It will be seen that the extremists would not sustain the propositions intended to meet the very cases they had specifically charged against the North. Mr. Toombs' resolutions were then called up, and four of them voted upon, Mr. Doug las refusing to go upon the record They were then postponed till Wednesday, Mr. Toombs and the ultras resisting any delay, for the transparent object of using the action of the Committee to operate upon the pending elections for the Southern Conven tions. Mr. Davis offered the following reso lutions, which went over with the others : " That it shall be declared by amendment of the Constitution that property in Slaves, recognized as such by the local law of any of the States of the Union, shall stand on the same footing in all Consti tutional and Federal relations as any other species of property so recognized ; and, like other proper ty, shall not be subject to be divested or impaired by the local law of any other State, either in escape thereto, or by the transit or sojourn of the ownei therein. And in no case whatever shall such pro perty be subject to be divested or impaired by any legislative act of the United States, or any of the Territories thereof." On Wednesday the Committee rejected the Toombs and Davis resolutions. Subsequent ly, Mr. Seward offered the following on be half of the Republican members : " Resolved, That under the fourth section of the fourth article of the Constitution, Congress should pass an efficient law for the punishment of all per sons engaged in the armed invasion of any State from another by combinations of individuals, and punishing all persons in complicity therewith, on trial and conviction in the State and District where their acts of complicity were committed in the Fed eral Courts." Mr. Toombs proposed to amend by inclu ding "insurrections," and Mr. Douglas, by inserting his sedition law of last session, after which the resolution was voted down. Mr. Douglas explained that he declined voting on the Toombs and Davis resolutions, on Monday, because he had presented amend ments to the Constitution, in due form, cov ering the same points. CHAPTER XIX. INCIDENTS AND RESULTS OF THE EVACUATION OF FORT MOULTRIE. Major Anderson's true Position. The evacuation of Fort Moultrie, by Major Ander son, on the night of liec. 26th, quite took the country by surprise. His great peril — the steady refusal of the Presi dent to allow the dispatch of reinforcements — excited the most painful apprehensions throughout the entire North for his safety. An occasional note like the following, dated December 24th, came from the gallant commander, to intensify the feeling in his behalf: — " When I inform you that my garrison consists of only sixty effective men, and that we are in a very indifferent work, the walls of which are only about fourteen feet high, and that we have, within one hun dred and sixty yards of our walls, sand hills which command our work, and which afford admirable sites for batteries, and the finest covers for sharp-shooters; and that, beside this, there are numerous houses, some of them within pistol-shot, you will at once see that, if attacked in force, headed by any one but a simpleton, there is scarce a possibility of our being able to hold out long enough to enable our friends to come to our succor. " Trusting that God will not desert ns in our hour of trial, I am sincerely yours. " ROBERT ANDERSON, " Major 1st Artillery, &c." THE OCCUPATION A MILITARY NECESSITY. 125 Anderson's last In structions. The desertion of this untenable post for the fastness of Fort Sumter, Which lay like a vast monster on the bosom of the waters far out in the harbor, was a step certainly never con templated by the South Carolina authorities nor by the President. Anderson's last instruc tions from the War Depart ment — as averred by the President in his correspon dence with the South Carolina Commissioners — were as follows : "Verbal Instructions to Major Anderson, First Ar tillery, commanding Fort Moultrie, S. C. " You are aware of the great anxiety of the Secre tary of War that a collision of the troops with the people of this State shall be avoided, and of his Btudied determination to pursue a course with refer ence to the military force and forts of this harbor which shall guard against such a collision. He has, therefore, carefully abstained from increasing the force at this point, or taking any measures which might add to the present excited state of the public mind, or which would throw any doubt on the con fidence he feels that South Carolina will not attempt by violence to obtain possession of the public works, or interfere with their occupancy. "But as the counsel and acts of rash and impul sive persons may possibly disappoint these expecta tions of the Government, he deems it proper that yon should be prepared with instructions to meet so unhappy a contingency. He ha», therefore, directed me, verbally, to give you such instructions. "You are carefully to avoid every act which would needlessly tend to provoke aggression, and for that reason you are not, without necessity, to take up any position which could be construed into the assumption of a hostile attitude ; but you are to hold possession of the forts in the harbor, and if attacked, you are to defend yourself to the last extremity. The sraallness of your force will not permit you, perhaps, to occupy more than one of the three forts, but an attack on, or attempt to take possession of either of them, will be regarded as an act of hostility, and you may then put your command into either of them which you may deem most proper to increase its power of resistance. You are also authorized to take similar steps whenever you have tangible evidence of a design to proceed to a hostile act. " D. P. Butler, •• Assistant Adjutant-General. " Foot Moultbie, S. C, Dec. 11, 1860." " This is in conformity to my instructions to Major Buell. John B. Floyd, " Secretary of War." In the mutterings of an excited populace — in the gathering of soldiery — in- the resolution of inquiry [see page 112], Major Anderson detected the evidence of an early occupation of Fort Sumter, if not of an actual assault upon Fort Moultrie. If Sumter were occu pied by an enemy, Moultrie would not be tenable for five hours. It was, in fact, the key to the harbor, which, if properly garris oned, would defy the assault of any force for months. Noting carefully the daily, almost hourly, gathering strength of the revolution ists ; seeing, upon all sides, unconcealed prep arations for large military movements ; look ing wistfully, but in vain, for succor from reinforcements, it would have been a base betrayal of trust for him to have remained in Moultrie when Sumter offered him the shelter of its kindly walls. A correspondent from __. , . , ., , . The Occupation a Washington, under date Mihtary Necessity. of December 29th, said: "Major Anderson had command of all the forts of Charleston. He held and occupied them at his discretion. Before he went to his command last autumn he was here, and was depressed at the position he felt he was about to occupy. But his views of duty were wholly those of a soldier. His business was to defend his position, and the fact that he intended to do it was what depressed him. Pe felt the delicacy of his situation, and he knew the weakness of his command. He found himself at Fort Moultrie, threatened with an attack. He besought the Executive for more troops. General Scott, over and over again, urged that they be sent. The President refused. Major Anderson went on strengthening his position, while, at the same time, he urged forward the completion of Fort Sumter, the mounting of its heavy ord nance, &c. This was done as promptly as possible by Captain Foster, of the Engineers. When the engineering labors of Captain Foster were completed, he reported the fact to Major Anderson. Without any special orders or suggestions from the President, the Secretary of War, or the Commander-in-chief, Major Anderson, looking upon his position from an exclusively military point of view, seeing the weakness of Fort Moultrie and the strength of Fort Sumter, did precisely that 126 THE SOUTHERN REBELLION, thing which, as a military man, he was com pelled to do, and which he could not avoid doing without inflicting a stain upon his military reputation. He left the weaker for the stronger position. As a military act its propriety admits of not the slightest question among military men. As a political question, or an act of policy, in reference to the diffi culties between South Carolina and the United States, Major Anderson had nothing to do with either, and acted with no refer ence to either. He simply discharged his duty as a wise and gallant soldier." This statement presents a correct view of the circumstances, and justly gives to the commander the entire credit of the move ment, so applauded by friends, so execrated by foes. If merely a military act it neverthe less was potent with political results. The little vessels which, in their night duty be tween Moultrie and Sumter, bore to the fast ness the men and munitions that were to hold it for their country against conspirators, held the fate of a Republic on their slender decks ; and the soldier who ordered the trans fer became an instrument in the hand of destiny, of leading the Crusade against the Goths who sought to sack the citadel of the Republic, and scatter its glories to the four winds of Heaven. He proved a worthy leader. When informed by Capt. Foster of the readiness of Sumter for occupancy, the Major secured three vessels as transports. It was given out that the service required was to remove the families, furniture, &c., of the garrison to a place of safety at Fort John son. Besides the vessels, several row-boats were brought into requisition, to be manned by the soldiers. At an early hour Wednes day (Dec. 26th) the order was given for the evacuation. Not a soldier of the garrison knew the destination, but all were zealous for duty. The vessels were rapidly loaded from the landing-place with all the personal effects of the officers and men, with muni tions, provisions, and with the women and children of the post. They then stood out toward Fort Johnson, on James Island, but brought up at Sumter, where, by the aid of the workmen in the fort, the vessels were Particulars of the Evacuation. rapidly relieved of their heavy cargoes. The small-boats pulled away after everything needful, which it was possible to transport had been recovered. By daylight the entire force was within the walls of the great water fortress, excepting Capt. Foster and eight men, left to dismantle the big guns bearing on Sumter, by burning their carriages. This duty Capt. Foster proceeded to perform. At an early hour, Thursday morning, the smoke from the burning carriages gave the Charles- tonians their first intimation of an extraordi nary occurrence. The alarm immediately spread, and the people thronged the wharves and battery looking out upon the harbor. The military were ordered under arms. Eve rything betokened a crisis in the affairs of the " sovereign " State. It was at first supposed that a reinforcement had arrived — then it was reported that the garrison had evacua ted the harbor, after destroying the fort. Some laborers, however, arrived at the wharves, direct from Sullivan's Island, and communicated the truth to the thoroughly ex asperated people and the anxious authorities. The Convention immediately came together, in secret session, scarcely waiting for the for mality of a breakfast. It gave orders for the military disposition necessary in a moment of danger. Governor Pickens was out on duty, gathering the masses of men into sol dierly consistency. The battery was filled with troops, ready for any service. When news arrived of the course pursued by Ander son, Governor Pickens sent off a note to in quire by what authority the evacuation was made, and what was the object of the move ment. Anderson replied, stating that it was a military step for which he alone was re sponsible — that it was an act of defence only. While these messages were on their way, Captain Foster appeared in the streets of Charleston to repeat the facts of the case to all inquirers. Intense indignation was ex pressed at the coup de main, but no violence was offered to the officer. Having imparted the information as authorized by Major An derson, he returned to Fort Moultrie to retain its possession and await the action of the authorities. It was thus retained to throw upon the State the responsibility of its seiz ure from a United States garrison. CONDITION OF FORT MOULTRIE, 127 Condition of Moultrie after the Act. The Charleston Courier's special reporter, visiting the partially evacuated fort to observe its condition, gave an interesting statement of his observations. He wrote : — " In order to ascertain truthful statements of the actual damage done to the forts, of the causes of the movement, and of the state of affairs generally, reporters were dispatched to the scene during the forenoon. On the way across the harbor, the hoisting of the American flag from the staff of Fort Sumter, at precisely 12 o'clock, gave certain indica tion that the stronghold was occupied by the troops of the United States. On a nearer ap- proach,the fortress was discovered to be oc cupied, the guns appeared to be mounted, and sentinels were discovered on duty, and the place to give every sign of occupancy and military discipline. The grim fortress frown ed defiance on every side ; the busy notes of preparation resounded through its unforbid- ding recesses, and everything seemed to indi cate the utmost alacrity in the work on hand. " Turning towards Fort Moultrie, a dense cloud of smoke was seen to pour from the end facing the sea. The flagstaff was down, and the whole place had an air of desolation and abandonment quite the reverse of its busy look one week ago, when scores of la borers were engaged in adding to its strength all the works skill and experience could sug- " In the immediate vicinity of the rear or landside entrance, however, greater activity was noticeable. At the time of our visit, a large force of hands had been summoned to deliver up their implements for transporta tion to Fort Sumter. Around on every side were the evidences of labor in the fortifica tion of the work. In many places, a portion of the defences were strengthened by every appliance that art could suggest or ingenuity devise; while, in others, the uncompleted works gave evidences of the utmost confu sion. On all hands the process of removing goods, furniture, and munitions was yet go ing on. The heavy guns upon the ramparts of the fort were thrown down from their car riages and spiked. Every ounce of powder and every cartridge had been removed from the magazines ; and, in fact;, everything like small arms, clothing, provisions, accoutre ments, and other munitions of war had been removed off and deposited — nothing but heavy balls and useless cannon remained. " The entire place was, to all appearances, littered up with the odds, ends, and frag ments of war's desolation. Confusion could not have been more complete had the late occupants retired in the face of a besieging foe. Fragments of gun carriages, &c, bro ken to pieces, bestrewed the ramparts. Sand bags and barrels filled with earth, crowned the walls, and were firmly imbedded in their bombproof surface, as an additional safe guard — and, notwithstanding the heteroge neous scattering of materials and implements, the walls of the fort evinced a vague degree of energy in preparing for an attack. A ditch some fifteen feet wide and about the same in depth surrounds the entire wall on three sides. On the south side, or front, a glacis has been commenced and prosecuted nearly to completion, with a rampart of sand bags, barrels, &c. " On one side of the fort a palisade of Pal metto logs is extended around the ramparts as a complete defense against an escalading party. New embrasures have been cut in the walls so as to command the faces of the bas tion and ditch. These new defenses are all incomplete, and are. evidence of the haste with which they were erected. Considering the inferior force, in point of numbers, under his command, Major Anderson had paid par ticular attention to strengthening only a small part of the fort. " A greater portion of the labor expended was spent upon the citadel or centre of the west point of the position. This he had caused to be strengthened in every way; loop-holes were cut, and everything was so ^ arranged that in case a well-concerted attack was made, he would have retired from the outer bastions to the citadel, and afterwards blow up the other portions of the fort. For this purpose mines had already been sprung, and trains had been laid ready for the appli cation of the match. The barrack-rooms and every other part of the fort that was in defensible would have gone at a touch. " On the ramparts of the fort fronting Fort Sumter were nine eight-inch columbiads, 128 THE SOUTHERN REBELLION. Active Preparations for Resistance. mounted on wooden carriages. As soon as the evacuation of the fort was complete, the carriages of these guns were fired, and at the time of visiting the fort yesterday, were near ly consumed, and the guns thereby dismount ed. These guns, as well as those constituting the entire armament of the fortress, were spiked before it was abandoned. This is the only damage done the fortification, further than cutting down the flagstaff, and the breaking up of ammunition wagons to form ramparts on the walls of the fort." This movement of the commander was construed by the Convention as a threat of coercion, and every means were taken to prepare for resistance. A commu nication was dispatched to the Commission ers at Washington, authorizing them to de mand of the President the unconditional evacuation of the forts in the harbor in event of his refusal to order Anderson back to Moultrie, and thus restore the status ante quo bellum. The telegraph offices were placed under State control. The post-office was con sidered to be under surveillance. The cus tom-house already had become part of the machinery of State. Orders were issued, du ring the day, for the occupation of Castle Pinckney and Fort Moultrie by the State troops. The arsenal, already in possession of State troops under Major Humphreys, gave freely of its plentiful stores to equip the troops, and to furnish munitions and artil lery as they were required. Mr. Floyd had, during his four years' administration, suc ceeded in placing ten years' ordinary supplies in that arsenal, and thus had, indeed, be friended " the cause." During the afternoon of S6i2Ur ftoopT ^^ Thursday (December 27th), the two forts were occu pied. Castle Pinckney was taken by Colonel J. J. Pettigrew, with a force of two hundred men. That fort had not a soul in it, and was so barricaded that scaling ladders had to be used to secure an entrance. The guns were found spiked, the ammunition and stores removed, and the flagstaff down. When it had been stripped no one knew. Lieutenant- Colonel De Saussure, with two hundred men, took possession of Moultrie. Captain Foster seeing the approach of the troops, retired up the beach to a small boat with his eight men and was suffered to pull over to Sumter. The work of restoration immediately commenced. Anderson could have shelled the fort, had he dared to assume the offensive; but, as his orders were imperative, to stand only on the defensive, he soon had to see one thousand troops and negroes swarming on Sullivan's and Morris' islands, throwing up fortifications and mounting guns for his own destruc tion. Had he been empowered to forbid this hostile work, the shot and shell of his tre mendous Columbiads would have rendered it simply impossible for the revolutionists to erect their batteries. One of Mr. Buchanan's most unfortunate mistakes was to resist rein forcements of the forts in the harbor, when they could have been thrown in early in No vember. His next great error was to hamper Anderson with orders which forbade him to assume the responsibility of destroying forti fications expressly designed for the subjuga tion of the beseiged garrison. The patriotism and courage which afterwards controlled the Cabinet, in the persons of Joseph Holt, Judge Black and General Dix, gave the country good cause to regret their introduction at so late an hour. The movement into Sum ter was received with re markable unanimity of approval in all sections of the country, save in the disaffected States. Even there many were found who saw in the act the attitude best calculated to force matters to a speedy settlement. It would seem to prove that, if it had "precipitated" matters politically, it had also precipitated the unsettled patriotism of the people to glisten like a ruby on the "Ethiop breast" of the rising storm. The press, the pulpit, the platform, the poets — all chaunted pseans for the loyal Anderson — more loyal and true, indeed, than his supe riors. His name became the theme of dis course, for many a day, in public and private, throughout all the States still faithful to the Constitution and the Laws. Such sponta neous, heartfelt congratulation never before was offered to a servant of the United States. Honor to Major Anderson. HISTORICAL SUMMARY OF EYENTS,-N¦ Commissioners. " JAMES L. ORR, J "To His Excellency, the President of the United States." This highly offensive document the Presi dent refused to receive. It was returned with the following endorsement : — " Executive Mansion, 3J o'clock, | " Wednesday, j " This paper, just presented to the President, is of such a character, that he declines to receive it." The Commissioners left Washington for Charles- The Result. ton, Wednesday afternoon. The correspondence above given was first published in the Charleston Courier of Jan uary 5th. It was regarded as equivalent to an opening of hostilities, and every hour was expected to bring news of an assault on Sum ter. In view of such an event, the steamer Star of the West departed, secretly, from New York harbor on the evening of Saturday, January 5th, with a heavy store of provisions and 200 troops for Major Anderson, com posed of men of tried patriotism and ef ficiency. The President, under the influence of the loyalty and vigor infused into his counsels by the new members of the Cabinet, seemed, for the moment, to awaken to his full duty. CHAPTER IV. THE PROCEEDINGS OF CONGRESS CONTINUED. FIFTH WEEK. THE SPEECHES OF SENATORS BENJAMIN, BAKER, DOUGLAS, AND OTHERS. IMPORTANT RESOLUTIONS. In the Senate, Monday, December 31st, Mr. Powell,- from the Special Committe of Thir teen, reported that it had not been able to agree upon any general plan of adjustment. Mr. Crittenden then asked that some day be set apart for the consideration of the joint resolution offered by him. The resolution was, thereupon, made the special order for Wednesday, when Mr. Douglas would have the floor. Mr. Wilson, (Republican) of Massa chusetts, introduced a resolution of inquiry, 'that the Secretory of War be requested to inform the Senate what disposition had been made of the arms made at the National Armories, if any had been sold, and, if so, at what prices and to whom, what number there were in the arsenals, and how they were pro tected. This was immediately objected to by Southern members, and was laid over under the rules. Mr. Benjamin, of Louisiana, having the floor, addressed the Senate on the state of the country. The audience was unusually large, and the interest manifested was intense, owing not more to the Senator's ability as a 150 THE SOUTHERN REBELLION. speaker, than to the position which he was to assume, of an open advocacy of the secession programme. Hitherto Mr. Benjamin had been regarded as eminently conservative, and opposed to disunion ; but the growing senti ment of his State for secession, and the futility of compromise, had impelled him to accept the Southern view, and to become its advocate. His speech would define the course of the " Conservatives," and, for that reason, commanded unusual consideration. Mr. Benjamin commenced Benjamin's Speech, by referring to a speech made by him four years previously, in which he declared that the ag gressions of the North would force the South to throw the sword in the balance. The pro phecy was now fact. How will the country and Congress meet the issue ? South Carolina, exercising her inalienable rights, had dis solved her relations with the Union. Missis sippi would follow next week ; then Alabama and Florida ; a week after, Georgia ; a little later, Louisiana; and, soon after her, Arkan sas. What then shall be done ? Shall South Carolina be acknowledged a free and inde pendent State, or shall she be coerced by force? Mr. Benjamin proceeded to quote from Mr. Webster's speech in the Rhode Island case, to show that the Great Expounder of the Constitution considered a Convention of Delegates, duly elected and assembled, had full power to act on the question of Union, or secession from the Union. He also quoted from Mr. Madison's works, to prove that he held the same view. He read from the de bate of the Convention which formed the Constitution, to show that the members of that Convention refused to make the Senate the judge of, or give the President the power to veto, the action of a State ; that they re fused to give Congress the power to negative State legislation, and that they specially re fused to give any power to coerce States; yet, when the State Convention came to ratify the Constitution, the States were not sufficiently secure. It must be admitted that certain political rights are guaranteed the States, but when these rights are denied where is the remedy ? Suppose that South Carolina should send two Senators here, and the majority should refuse to receive but one, what power can compel that majority to re pair that wrong ? Suppose that South Car olina should then withdraw from the Union; who could say it was a violation of the Constitution ? Suppose, again, that a wrong is perpetrated which does not appear quite clear to the North but does appear clear to South Carolina — suppose she is denied ac^ cess to the Territories ? Is she without any remedy under the Constitution ? If there is none then she must be the judge of the wrong and the mode of redress. He read an extraet from an address delivered by John Quincy Adams, in New Tork, in 1838, in which he said nations themselves must be the sole judge whether compacts are broken, and also saying " that when all fraternal feeling was gone between the States, then it was time to separate in peace and return to their original state." Suppose that South Carolina is wrong in believing that wrong has been done her, still that does not alter the issue whether we shall permit her to withdraw or force her back. In reply to the Senator from Wiscon sin (Mr. Doolittle), he claimed that a citizen was bound to obey his State Government. The Republican Senators say that they will not coerce a State, but enforce the laws against individuals. But how can they pun ish an individual in a State for treason ? Where are they to find the judge and jury to do so, when all the citizens in the State think that he has done right? They could not blockade a port without declaring war; they could not embargo one port without closing the other. He claimed that neither Congress nor the President had the power to go into a State with a military force without the intervention of the civil power— some civil process must precede the military force. He argued that they could not collect the revenue by force. Such threats were only a pretext to cover up the real question, which is no other than this : " Shall we acknowledge the independence of a seceding State or re duce her to subjection by war ?" Mr. Benja min here read from Vattel to show that the hypocritical keeping of compacts was of no avail, and referred to the case of Rhadamis- cus, who promised not to use steel against a captive, yet smothered him. He added : " And you, Senators of the Republican party, yon MR. M'KEAN'S RESOLUTION, 151 Mr. Benjamin's Speech. ausert, and your people assert, that, under a just and fair in terpretation of the Federal Constitution, it is right to deny that our slaves, which, directly or indirectly, involve a value of $4,000,000,000, are property at all, entitled to protec tion in the Territories under and by the Govern ment. You assert that, by a fair interpretation of that instrument, it is right to encourage, by all pos sible means, the robbery of this property, and to legislate so as to render its recovery as dangerous and difficult as possible. You say that it is right and proper, under the Constitution, to prevent our mere transit across a sister State, to embark with our property on a lawful voyage, without being openly despoiled of it. You assert that it is right and proper to hold us up to the ban of mankind, in speeches and writings, as thieves, robbers, villains, and criminals of the blackest die, because we con tinue to own property, which we owned at the time we all signed the compact. You say it is right that we should be disposed to spend our treasure in the purchase, and our blood in the conquest of foreign territory, and yet have no right to enter it for set tlement, without leaving behind our most valuable property, under penalty of its confiscation. Your fathers interpreted this instrument to mean safety and .peace to all, and you say it is eminently in ac cordance with the surety that our welfare and peace is to be preserved, that our sister States should combine to prevent our growth and development, and surround us with a cordon of hostile communi ties, for the express and avowed purpose of accu mulating, in dense masses and within restricted lim its, a population which you believe to be dangerous, and thereby forcing us to sacrifice a property nearly sufficient in value to pay the public debt of every nation in Europe. This construction of the instru ment which was to preserve our security and pro mote our welfare, and which we only signed on your assurance that such was its object, you tell us now is a fair construction. You don't propose to enter our States, you say, to kill and destroy our institu tions by force. Oh, no ! You initiate the faith of Rhadamiscus, and you propose simply to inclose us in an embrace that will suffocate us." After referring, at some length, to the anomalous opinion held by the Republicans — saying that they disliked the Southern States, but would not let them go — he closed as fol lows : — " Our Committee has reported this morniug that no feasible scheme of adjustment can be devised. The day of adjustment has passed. If you propose to make one now, you are too late. And now, Senators, within a very few weeks w, part, to meet again as Senators in one common council chamber of the nation, no more forever. We desire, we be seech you, to let this parting be in peace. I conjure you to indulge in no vain delusion, that duty, or conscience, or interest, or honor, impose upon you the necessity of invading our States, and shedding the blood of our people. You have no possible jus tification for it. I trust it is from no craven spirit, or any sacrifice of the dignity or honor of my own State, that I make this last appeal, but from far higher and holier motives. If, however, it shall prove vain — if you are resolute to pervert the Gov ernment, framed by the fathers for the protection of our rights, into an instrument for subjugating and enslaving us, then, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the Universe for the rectitude of our intentions, we must meet the issue you force upon us as best becomes freemen defending all that is dear to man. What may be the fate of this horrible contest none can foretell ; but this much I will say, the fortunes of war may be adverse to four arms ; you may carry desolation into our peaceful land, and with torch and firebrand may set our cities in flames ; you may even emulate the atrocities of those who, in the days of \ the Revolution, hounded on the bloodthirsty savage ; you may give the protection of your advancing armies to the furious fanatics who desire nothing more than to add the horrors of servile insurrection to civil war; you may do all this, and more, but you never can subjugate us ; you never can convert the free sons of the soil into vassals, paying tribute to your power; you never can degrade them to a ser vile and inferior race ; never, never, never !" Intense excitement followed its conclusion. The crowded galleries gave vent to shouts of applause, clapping of hands, and huzzas. Mr. Mason, of Virginia, with a voice whicli rose above the din, demanded that the galle ries instantly be cleared. Mr. Yulee, of Flori da, moved to adjourn, and demanded a vote. Order was restored after the galleries were cleared, when Mr. Baker, of Oregon, having the floor, the Senate adjourned to Wednes day. In the House, Monday, December 31st, a resolution of inquiry — similar to' that of Mr. Wilson, in the Senate — was offered by Mr. McPherson, (Rep.,) of Pa., but was instant ly objected to by Southern members, and was not, therefore, received. Mr. McKean, (Rep.,) of N. Y., asked leave to offer a resolution as follows : — " That the several States did not ' ordain and establish' this MoKean's Resolution. Government ; that it was made 152 THE SOUTHERN REBELLION. by the people of the United States in order to form a more perfect union, establish justice, insure do mestic tranquillity, provide for the common defense, promote the general welfare, and secure the bless ings of liberty to themselves and their posterity ; that for such purpose the people withdrew from their several State Governments certain powers and vested them in one General Government, whose Con stitution, laws, and treaties are the supreme law of the land, anything in the Constitution or laws of any State to the contrary notwithstanding ; that we are not thirty-three nations, but one nation, made such by the Constitution, and known to the world as the American nation ; that any nation has the right of self-preservation, the right to defend itself against enemies from without and traitors within ; that we believe this nation has the power to do so, and that it is its duty to exercise it.'1 This was also objected to by Southern mem bers and was not received. Mr. Bingham, (Rep.,) of Ohio, offered an im portant resolution empowering the President to collect the revenues. It was referred to the Judiciary Committee. The Speaker laid before the House a com munication from Mr. Floyd, giving his ver sion of the acceptances extended to Mr. Rus sell for services to be performed. He justified the advance issue of the acceptances as abso lutely necessary to assist the contractors in forwarding supplies, since the enormous sum required to carry out the Floyd's Defense. provisions of the contract exceeded the ability of any ordinary firm. The close of his communica tion read as follows : — " I have now nearly brought my administration of the War Department to a close, and I will be excus ed for adverting to it briefly. There is not one branch of the military service which is not in perfect order as far as any means are afforded of knowing, and they are very complete. Some have been par ticularly encouraged, and, I think, improved ; disci pline is excellent, and the accountability to superior authority in every department could scarcely be ex celled. Strict economy is enforced, and perfect re sponsibility in all money expenditures is and has been successfully carried into effect within four years. Since I have presided in this Department, not a dollar, I believe, has been lost to Government by embezzlement or theft, and within that time sixty millions of dollars have been disbursed. No system of administration, no line of policy, I think, could reach better results ; no system of accountability could be more perfect. These facts I confidently assert, and the Department is everywhere full of the proofs of them. I invite any investigation which the House may think proper to institute into any or all of my official acts." This was referred to the Select Committee on the Abstraction of the Bonds. Another attempt was made to get a resolution Exciting Resolutions. of inquiry before the House in regard to the President's course. Mr. Stevens, (Rep.) of Pennsylvania, offered a resolve requesting the President to commu nicate to the House, if not incompatible with the public interests, the condition of the forts, arsenals, and other property at Charleston ; whether any measures have been taken to garrison and put them in condition, since it has become evident that South Carolina in tended to secede ; what troops were there then and now ; whether any orders have been given to reinforce Fort Sumter, and what or ders have been given to the officers; and whether any vessels of war have been ordered thither since the seizure of the forts by the rebels. This shared the fate of all other re solves looking to the same end, by the objec tion of a Southern man. Mr. Pryor, of Virginia, introduced the fol lowing resolution : "Resolved, That any attempt to preserve the union between the States of the Confederacy by force would be impracticable and destructive to republican lib erty." He instantly demanded the previous ques tion, which was ordered, thus cutting off ob jections. An exciting warfare of words fol lowed. Motions to lay on the table, to ad journ, for the question, &c, following in rapid succession, and a passage of words occurred between Barksdale, of Mississippi, and Mac- Clernand, (Dem.) of Illinois. The vote on the tabling of the resolution stood, 98 ayes, 55 nays. This vote was regarded as significant of the Union strength in the House. Mr. Stevens, of Pennsylvania, then sought to bring forward his resolve, above referred to, by a motion to suspend the rules. Lost, by 91 against 62 — not two-thirds, as required to suspend. Mr. Stanton, (Rep.) of Ohio, having proposed a substitute, it was then adopted as an independent resolution. It proposed that the Committee on Military MR. BAKER'S SPEECH, 153 Affairs inquire and report how, to whom, and for what price, arms have been distributed Since January, 1860; and also into the con dition of the forts, arsenals, dock-yards, &c, of the country; whether they are supplied with adequate garrisons ; and whether any further measures are required to protect the public property; and that the Committee have power to send for persons and papers, and have leave to report at any time. Wednesday's session of the Senate, (Jan uary 2nd,) was an interesting one. Before eleven o'clock the galleries, the lobbies, and the cloak-rooms were crowded, while a great multitude had gathered outside, unable to secure even a hearing place. Mr. Baker, the new Senator from Oregon, was to reply to Mr. Benjamin. His fame as an orator, and the position he was to assume as an exponent of the sentiment of the Pacific States, created much interest to hear him. His speech more than fulfilled expectation. It was an effort of great power, and was marked, throughout, with candor, earnestness and self-command. After complimenting the Baker's Speech. ' speech of Mr. Benjamin as the best yet made on the Southern side of the Senate, he said it still reminded him of what had once been said of a famous book : — " It is the best that could be said of what never ought to have been said at all." Benjamin sought to prove the Union to be actually dissolved. He (Baker) wished to contribute his poor argument to sustain the Government under which he lived, and under which he hoped to die. He desired to show that this Government was a substantial power, sovereign in its sphere — a Union (and not a compact between Sovereign States), which has a right to self-protection. Its Con stitution is a perpetuity, and its power .is equally capable of being exercised against domestic treason and a foreign foe. He would say, first, that the argument of the Senator (Mr. Benjamin) was based on an as sumption that the Constitution of the United States is a compact between the Sovereign States, and that he thence argued that the compact was broken by one State. That South Carolina may withdraw from the Union was no new argument. It was a repetition of the famous discussion led by 20 Calhoun. He (Mr. Baker) denied, as Webster, Madison, Baker's Speech. and Jackson had denied, that the Constitution was simply a compact be tween Sovereign States. He referred to the authorities quoted by the Senator from Loui siana as being detached opinions, and ex tracts, and read copies of extracts from Mad ison to show that he was opposed to nullifi cation. He thence proceeded to argue that Mr. Madison expressly declared that the Con stitution was not a compact between Sover eign States. He read from Webster's works the opinion that no State had a right to dis solve its relation to the General Government, and there could be no secession without revo lution. He then claimed that, according to Mr. Webster, the Government was a Govern ment of the whole people, founded by indi viduals. He said the argument made against nullification would apply to secession, for se cession bears the same relation to nullifica tion as biography bears to history. As some body said, history was biography with the brains knocked out ; so nullification was se cession with the brains knocked Tjut. He then referred to the extract read by the Sen ator from an address made by J. Q. Adams, and said the Senator unwittingly left out the first part, where he said that nullification was an idea too absurd for argument, and too odious for discussion, and the right of a State to secede equally absurd. He then read the close of Mr. Adams' address, to the effect that the Constitution was the work of the people of the United States, and the United States, though double in numbers, are still one peo ple. He then referred to the former attempts of South Carolina to do what she says she has done now. Was the President of the United States ready to do his whole duty ? Whether there was such a President now he would leave for others to determine. He read an extract from the proclamation of Jackson. He (Baker) denied the assumption that States were sovereign or the Government sovereign. There was but one sovereign, and that was the people ; and all arguments based on the sovereignty of a State were fallacy. He said the Constitution itself declares it was made by the people of the United States, and not by the States. The Senator from Loui- 154 THE SOUTHERN REBELLION, Answering Objec tions. siana has read Vattel to show that a Sover eign State could withdraw from the com pact. In answer, ho would say, that South Carolina was not a Sovereign State, and thought all arguments made with special ref erence to European Sovereignties not exactly applicable here. Did the Senator mean to argue that there was a right of secession un der the Constitution ? Mr. Benjamin had asked what if South Carolina sent here two Sena tors and one was refused admittance ? He thought South Carolina should first ask cause for such exclusion, bat he'supposed the Sen ator meant if it were right for a representa tive to be fraudulently denied his seat his State had a right to secede. He said the right of representation was inalienable, and if perti naciously denied, may be repelled by all the force of the State, but such right is rebellion and revolutionary. He asked again if the right to secede sprang out of the Constitution ? Objections, in answer, were interposed by Mr. Benjamin, in regard to the rights of the States guaranteed by the Con stitution ; the following passage occurred : Mr. Benjamin referred him to the ninth and tenth amendments to the Constitution. Mr. Baker— Does the right to secede spring out of or belong to the Constitution ? If so, where is it ? Mr. Benjamin— I suppose the Senator will scarce ly deny that the States have reserved to themselves, under the Constitution, every right not expressly denied to them by the Constitution, and I say the ninth and tenth amendments to the Constitution re cognize the very right which I claim. Mr. Baker— I have been endeavoring to show that, so far from its being true that the States had reserv ed all rights not delegated, they did not reserve any thing, and there is no such thing as reservation by the States. The instrument was made by the peo ple, and the reservations, if any, are by the people. Mr. Benjamin— I ask the Senator whether or not, after the Constitution had been framed, amendments were proposed by nearly all the States to meet the very construction for which I am now contending, and for maintaining the very proposition against which the gentleman now argues, the amendments stating distinctly that the meaning of the Constitu tion was not that the Government was framed by the whole people, but that it was a delegation of power ^ by the States, and the people of the States reserved to themselves the powers not expressly delegated ? Mr. Baker— The answer to that is, that, in the full light of that amendment, every argument which I have advanced from Jackson, Madison, Webster and Adams, all united in the proposition that this is a Government made by the people of the United States, in their character of people of the United States, being one Government made by them. Mr. Baker, after some further interrup tions, proceeded to refer to the Fugitive Slave law. He said : — "You will find in the history of the debates, unsurpassed in Mr. Baker's Speech. the country, between the distin guished Senator from Illinois (Mr.Douglas) and Mr. Lincoln, thathe was asked, for obvious purposes,what his opinion was upon this Fugitive Slave law, and he replied, ' I do not now, nor never did stand in favor of an unconditional repeal of the Fugitive Slave law;' and, Sir, I echo him, not because he is Pre sident, but because he is honest, wise and true. I reply with him, as a Senator on this floor, repeating what I believe to be the sentiments of my constitu ents, without distinction of party, I, too, say I have not been, and never will be in favor of an uncondi tional repeal of the Fugitive Slave law. * * * * * * " Now, Sir, have we in our platform, or in any resolution, or by any bill, have we evinced a disposition to repeal that Fugitive Slave law ? Do we not abide by it on all occasions ? Though many believe it is a hard bargain, yet it is so nominated in the bond, and we will endure it. When we make these statements, what is the reply ? It is said : While your platform does not propose to repeal the Fugitive Slave law, there are States which pass Per sonal Liberty bills. Will gentlemen listen to our calm, frank, candid reply ? The whole North is op posed to nullification in any way, or upon any sub ject, and we will yield obedience — which is a better word than submission — we will yield obedience to any provision of the Constitution of the United States, as it is construed by the ultimate tribunal, and that has, we understand, declared that law to be constitutional. If, then, States have passed laws in violation of it, preventing it, or to hinder or defeat it, in my judgment, and what is of infinitely more consequence, the judgment of the whole North-west, those laws ought to be repealed. Not because South Carolina threatens — not because Louisiana will -se cede—but because we desire to yield obedience to those high obligations of right and duty. But the honorable gentleman knows very well that there is great doubt whether those laws are in any sense unconstitutional. We are told that some of them were made before the Fugitive Slave law was pass ed. We are told that the provisions of many of them are intended to secure personal liberty, independent of any question as to a Fugitive Slave law ; but DAVIS' RESOLUTIONS 155 whether that be so to any extent, or to what extent, we say, if it shall be proved before any competent tri bunal, and, most of all, before the Supreme Court of the United States, that these laws do hinder, delay, or defeat the execution of that law, we will say, ' Let them be reformed altogether.' And, Sir, speak ing in my place, with some knowledge of the Repub lican party — speaking by no authority of the Presi dent-elect, but because I have known him from my boyhood — I say that when the time arrives, when he shall be inaugurated in this Capitol, and exercise, in the chair of the Chief Magistrate, all the high re sponsibilities and duties of that place, that he will enforce the execution of all the laws of this Govern ment, whether Revenue or Fugitive Slave law, or Ter ritorial or otherwise, with the whole integrity of his character, and the whole power of the Government. Now, I ask my friend if that is not a fair and frank reply to anything he may say about differences of construction about the Fugitive Slave law ?" In regard to Mr. Benjamin's point of ex ception, that " the South complained, because holding property, which was recognized as property at the time of the formation of the Constitution by all" the States, the North now undertakes to say, under the Constitution, that slaves are not property when found within the jurisdiction of the Federal Gov ernment, outside of certain States. They complain that the Federal Government does not recognize slaves as property in the Terri tories, at the same time it does recognize it on the high seas." Mr. Baker replied : — " I understand what the Senator now says to be nothing more than a specification by item of the causes of complaint. There is this difference of opinion ; we too believe that Slavery is the creation of the local laws, and does not, of its own force, ex tend beyond that jurisdiction. We do believe, when Senators claim the contrary, that they interpolate a new reading in the Constitution, and violate the car dinal belief which has been entertained in other and better days by distinguished statesmen of this coun try, and by their very party and their very organ ization, and beyond that which is entertained by the whole civilized world. Slavery is the creature of local law. But we do not deny that it is property at all. The whole extent of our offense is fonnd alone in the earnest recognition of the great doc trines of civilization and humanity, and of common law, and of universal law." Mr. Baker then quoted from a speech of Senator Butler, where he said the South did not wish to extend Slavery. He only wished to have hands off. If that was the opinion of South Carolina then, and if it be not truly the opinion of South Carolina now, then he would appeal from Philip, from Philip drunk to Philip sober. He quoted further from a speech made by Mr. Buchanan in 1845, and also from a speech made by Mr. Clay in 1850, contending against the right to take slaves in the Territories; and still further, to make the testimony overwhelming, he quoted from a speech made by Mr. Cass at Detroit in 1854, taking the ground that, if Slavery could go into the Territories, it might go into a State in the same way. This last great leader of the Democracy has shown in the great crisis that he loved the country more than State, place, power, or party. May his memory re main green in American hearts forever and forever 1 The hour for adjournment having arrived, Mr. Baker gave way for the motion to ad journ. Pending the motion, Davis, of Missis sippi, asked and obtained leave to present the following : "WAerazs.BytheHd and Hid Mr. Davis' Reso lutions. articles of the Constitution, it is provided that the militia shall be the security of the States and also indirectly provided that a State may in time of peace keep troops and ships of war ; and by the 17th clause of the 1st article, that the jurisdic tion of the Federal Government is limited ; therefore "Resolved, That upon the application of a State, either through a Convention or the Legislature, the Federal forces may be withdrawn, and that the Pre sident of the United States shall order the withdrawal of the Federal garrison, and take needful security for the safety of the public property remaining. "Resolved further, Whenever a State in Convention lawfully assembled, shall enact that the safety of the State requires the keeping of troops and ships of war, the President of the United States is hereby directed to recognize the power of the State to do so, and by his proclamation give information to all the parties concerned." Laid over and ordered to be printed. In the House, Wednesday, ' J House Resolutions. a stormy session was had. Two New Jersey members presented memo rials and resolutions from people and meet ings of their State, recommending compro mise. After some division these were referred to the Committee of Thirty-three. It was sought to secure a Special Committee of Five 156 THE SOUTHERN REBELLION. for their consideration, but the effort failed. Then Mr. Davis, (Dem.) of Indiana, brought forward his resolutions of Monday, instruct ing the Committee on Judiciary to inquire into and report to this House at any time what legislation, if any, has become neces sary on the part of Congress, in consequence of the secession position assumed by South Carolina. The House, refusing to second the demand for the previous question (47 to 72,) Mr. Davis withdrew his resolution to give way for the substitute of Mr. Holman, (Dem.) of Indiana, which declared against the right of secession, and called for the employment of the Army and Navy for the protection of public property and the collection of the rev enue. Against this withdrawal both Mr. Sherman, of Ohio, and Valandigham, of Ohio, protested, as not allowable under the rules. The Speaker decided that Mr. Davis had the right. Mr. Sherman then claimed the privi lege of offering Davis' original resolution. A debate sprung up which enlisted much spirit and some acrimony. The Speaker finally decided against Mr. Sherman's right to re- offer the resolution. Mr. Sherman appealed from the decision, saying it was due to the country that there should be a vote on the proposition. This appeal renewed the ex citement and feeling. Mr. Sherman remain ed firm, and was anxious to press the vote on the appeal, but finally gave way to a motion, by Mr. Howard, of Michigan, to adjourn, with the understanding that the vote on the ap peal should be taken up on re-assembling. Thursday, Mr. Sherman withdrew the appeal " by request of his friends." Mr. Bingham, (Rep.) of Mr. Bingham's Force „ . „ , B|11 Ohio, from the Judiciary Committee, reported back, with amendments, the bill to provide for the collection of the duty on imports, giving the President further powers for that purpose. The motion for its recommitment excited the Southern section of the House. The bill was finally set for consideration, Tuesday, January 8th. Its provisions were as follows : " Whenever, by reason of unlawful obstructions, combinations or assemblages of persons, it shall be come impracticable in thejudgment of the President to execute the laws and collect the duties on imports in the ordinary way, it shall be lawful for him to di rect the Custom-house for such district to be estab lished and kept in any secure place, within some port or harbor of said district, either on land or on board any vessel ; and in that case it shall be the duty of the collector to reside at such place, and there de tain all the vessels and cargoes arriving within the district until the duties imposed on the cargoes by law shall be paid in cash, anything in the laws of the United States to the contrary, notwithstanding ; and in such cases it shall be unlawful to take the vessel or cargo from the custody of the proper officer of the Customs, unless by a process from some Court of the United States ; and, in case any attempt shall be made to take such vessel or cargo by any force or combination, or assemblages of persons too great to be overcome by the officers of the Customs, it shall and may be lawful for the President, or such person or persons as he shall have empowered for the purpose, to employ snch part of the land or naval forces, or militia of the United States as may be deemed necessary, for the purpose of preventing the removal of such vessel or cargo, and protecting the officers of the Customs in retaining the custody thereof." The House adjourned to Monday, Jan. 7th. In the Senate, Thursday, Mr. Baker con cluded his speech before a very crowded house. Prior to its delivery, Mr. Bigler pre sented a numerously signed memorial from Philadelphia, asking for the passage by Con gress of the Crittenden resolutions, as referred to the Committee of Thirteen. Mr. Bigler said, if the people could only act on the ques tion, the South would see that the people were prepared to meet its complaints in a concili atory and kindly spirit. To attain this end, of a reference of the question of settlement direct to the people, Mr. Crittenden introduced the following propositions : " Whereas, the Union is in dan- ger, and it is difficult, if not im- K£ £j^£ns. possible, for Congress to concur by the requisite majority so as to enable it to take such measures to recommend to the States such amendments to the Constitution as are necessary to avert the danger. " Whereas, In so great an emergency the opinion and judgment of the people ought to be heard, Therefore "Resolved, That provision be made by law, without delay, for taking the sense of the people, and sub mitting to them the following resolution : " Whereas, Alarming dissentions have arisen be tween the Northern and Southern States, as to the rights of the common Territory of the United States, MR. BAKER'S SPEE C,H . 157 Mr. Crittenden's New Propositions. and it is eminently desirable and proper that the dissensions be settled by the Constitutional provision which gives equal justice to all sections, and thereby restore peace ; therefore "Resolved, That by the Senate and House of Repre sentatives, the following article be proposed and submitted as an amendment to the Constitution, which shall be valid as part of the Constitution, when ratified by the Convention of three-fonrths of the people of the States : "First, In all the Territories now or hereafter ac quired north of lat. 36 deg. 30 min. Slavery or involun tary servitude, except for the punishment for crime, is prohibited ; while in all the Territory south of that latitude Slavery is hereby recognized as existing, and shall not be interfered with by Congress, but shall he protected as property by all departments of the Territorial Government during its continuance. All the Territory north or south of said line, within such boundaries as Congress may prescribe, when it contains a population necessary for a Member of Congress, with a republican form of government, shall be admitted into the Union on an equality with the original States, with or without Slavery, as the Constitution of the State shall prescribe. "Second, Congress shall have no power to abolish Slavery in the States permitting Slavery. " Third, Congress shall have no power to abolish Slavery in the District of Columbia while it exists in Virginia and Maryland, or either ; nor shall Con gress at any time prohibit the officers of the Govern ment or Members of Congress, whose duties require them to live in the District of Columbia, from bring ing slaves there or holding them as such. "Fourth. Congress shall have' no power to hinder the transportation of slaves from one State to ano ther, whether by land, navigable rivers or sea, "Fifth, Congress shall have power by law to pay an owner who shall apply the full value for a Fugitive Slave in all cases when the Marshall is prevented from discharging his duty by force or rescue made after arrest. In all such cases, the owner shall have power to sue the county in which the violence or rescue was made, and the county shall have the right to sue the individuals who committed the wrong in the same manner as the owner could sue. "Sixth, Nojurther amendment or amendments shall affect the preceding articles ; and Congress shall never have power to interfere with Slavery in the States where it is now permitted. The last resolution declared : " the Southern States have a right to the faithful execution of the law for the recovery of Slaves ; and snch laws ought not to be repealed or amended so as to impair their efficien cy. All laws in conflict with the Fugitive Slave law it shall be deemed proper for Congress to ask the repeal of. The Fugitive Slave law ought to be so altered N J£- g^S* . as to make the fee of the Com missioner equal, whether he decides for or againsl the claimant ; and the clause authorizing the person holding the warrant to summon a posse comiiatus, to be to restrict it to cases where violence or res cue is attempted. The laws for the suppression of the African Slave-trade ought to be effectually ex ecuted." In submitting this second proposition for settlement, Mr. Crittenden said: something must be done to avert the impending calam ity. Congress would be covered with shame if it did not offer to the country some remedy for the crisis. The sacrifice asked for really was comparatively trifling. The peace and safety of a great country were never pur chased so cheaply. He would appeal with confidence to the people. They have the greatest interest in the Government. He had confidence that the people would give good advice. The resolutions were laid over, when Mr. Baker, having the floor, resumed his speech. He insisted that the attack on the men of the North, for action in regard to the Territories, was unjust, for men of all classes' in the North believed Slavery the creature of local law. He quoted from Gen. Cass' speech at Detroit, in 1854, against the so-called doc- -trine of equality. Also from that of Sen ator Hunter before the Breckenridge Club, at Charlottesville, admitting that the opinion of the South, in regard to ' , , , -, Mr. Baker's Speech, Slavery, had changed, and conc,„cied. that her opinion was against the repeal of the Missouri Compromise, and for the extension of the system. Mr. Hunter and Mr. Benjamin both interrupted him whilst speaking. — Mr. Benjamin making important admissions, as, for instance, that he did not complain of Congress, but of the States. He said that it was cause for dissolution that the Re publican party intended to surround the Slave States with Free States, and thus force eman cipation. This admission reduced the entire catalogue of complaints into a prospective dan ger. It had much effect upon the Senate, and strengthened the sentiment of the Republicans against concession, on the Territorial question. Mr. Baker replied to these admissions, that it was a necessity for, Slavery in America to be circumscribed by Free States to the North 158 THE S 0 U T H E R N"R E B E L L I 0 N. Mr. Baker's Speech. and West. If the institution was guaranteed the rights of extension, it would be againstnot only the sentiment of the large ma jority of the American people, but also against the sentiment of the world. He claimed that the North were allies of the South, and that they were bound to return slaves. France, England, or Russia, would not do that. If the slaves should revolt the North would be bound to assist the South, and would do it. He argued that the right of free speech could not be restricted in a free country, or a free press, which was a greater safeguard to a free country. He would not restrict these to avert civil war, or to maintain Slavery. The great principle of free Government would not be surrendered. Come weal come woe, Slavery shall never be extended by the pow ers of the Government of the United States. He would not yield one inch to secession, but there were things which he would yield; among them the repeal of the Personal Lib erty bills, should the Supreme Court pro nounce them unconstitutional. Mr. Clay had said, and he would say, yield not one inch or word to secession. He would agree to make all the Territories States now, and let the people decide on Slavery, but he would never agree to protect Slavery in the name of Free dom. Referring to power, he said : Didn't it look a little as though, because the South had lost the offices, they had got up this re bellion ? He said, after all, he had great con fidence in the loyalty of the people at the South. He heard loyal sentiments every where, and could see the clouds breaking, and he was not without the hope that, with time to allow the feverish heat to evaporate, the Union would yet remain safe, if trusted to the hands of the people. The Senator from Louisiana had said that a State actually had seceded, and we must acknowledge its independence, or make war. He said he would not acknowledge its independence, and said he thought it no very strange thing if a great Government had sometimes to en force law. He quoted the ordinance of Gen eral Jackson in regard to collecting the rev enue when South Carolina once before re volted, as an answer to the Senator from Louisiana, when he asked how we would col lect the revenue: "And above all, let the laws be maintained, and the Union be pre served." He closed with the words of Web ster's speech in reply to Hayne. We have given this reply of the Oregon Senator to Mr. Benjamin's speech quite at length, for the reason that it so freely ex pounded the Republican view of the points raised, and forced upon the country, by the South. The reply had a large circulation among the people, and quite generally com manded the approval of the speaker's party for its manner and matter. Mr. Douglas then having the floor, asked that the report of the Committee of Thirteen be taken up. He said that he adverted to that report with as great pain as any act of his life had caused. The Committee could not agree. In order to see why no plan of compromise could be adopted, it would be necessary to go back to the late election. He said the Mr. Douglas' speech. history of the country prov ed that all agitation on the subject of Slavery followed its introduction into Congress for legislation. The compromises had, for their purpose, to keep the question out of Con gress, and, so long as that was done, there was peace. The result of the recent election had brought the South face to face with an issue which was driving it from the Union. He said : " It is folly for any man not to see facts which do exist. The result of the recent election, in connec tion with all the circumstances with which it is sur rounded, have led the people of the South to form the conviction that it is a fixed policy of the domi nant party of the North to invade and destroy their constitutional rights, and they are ready to rush, rashly I think, into all the horrors of revolution and disunion, rather than to submit to what they think the impending blow which hangs over them. * * * The harshest thing I have said of the Republican party was,that they intended to use the power of the Government with a view to the ultimate extinction of Slavery, not only in the Territories, but in the States of the Union. I have said, and have believed it, and I would rejoice now to be corrected, that it is the policy of this party to prohibit Slavery in all the Territories of the United States, now owned, or hereafter acquired, with a view to surrounding me Slave States with a cordon of Abolition States, and thus keep Slavery confined till the number increases beyond the capacity of the soil to feed them, and MR. DOUGLAS' SPEECH. 159 Mr. Douglas' Speech. thus force them to die of starv ation, as a means of getting rid of the evil of Slavery in the name of humanity and Christianity. I have said that in Rlinois, in the Abolition portions of the State, but never said it in a Slave State. I have always been exceedingly mild in speaking of that party in the Slaveholding States. But, inasmuch as I did not get a direct answer from the Senator who makes the charge against the Northern Democracy, I will refer to the sentiments of the President-elect, and see What he says on that subject." Mr. Douglas then referred to the report of the speeches of Mr. Lincoln, in his canvass of Illinois, in 1858, against Mr. Douglas, quoting from his several declarations on the question of Slavery in the Territories. [See pages 141, 142]. He then continued : — " When the Republican Committee publish an edi tion of Mr. Lincoln's speeches containing sentiments like these, is it surprising that the people of the South think he was in earnest, and intended to carry out the policy which he then announced ? I should not revive such revolutionary sentiments, but for the attempt to cast the responsibility upon the Northern Democracy, clearly intimating that Mr. Pugh and myself were the chief authors of these misrepresent ations. I would like to find any one man, on that side of the Chamber, in the confidence of the Presi dent-elect, who would deny that it is the policy to carry out the very things to which I have referred. I feel bound, however, and take pleasure in saying, that I don't believe the Southern States are in any danger, or ought to have any apprehension, that Mr. Lincoln or his party can do any harm or render in secure their rights to persons or property anywhere in this country. I have some faith, too, that Mr. Lincoln, after having emerged from the surround ings of » small country village, and assumed the high responsibilities of administering the law, and protecting the rights of a great nation, will sink the partisan in the patriot, and abandon the extreme doctrines, and step forward and avow his willingness to save the country by repudiating his extreme doc trines of a party. But be that as it may, neither he nor his party will have power to invade the rights of any State in this Union. ***** In the name of the Union, who are the Disunionists ? Those who pursue a line of policy calculated to de stroy the Union, and refuse to arrest that policy, or disavow that purpose, when they see that revolution has taken place. If such be not your policy, why not say so? If you never intend to do what the South think is your purpose, and which you do not blame them for thinking, what harm is there in mak ing such amendments to the Constitution as will ren- Mr. Douglas' Speech. der it impossible for you to do so ? But we are told that the Union must be preserved, and law must be enforced. I agree to that. I am in favor of doing all these things, according to the Constitu tion and the laws. No man will go further than I to savetheUnion and enforce the laws, to put down re bellion and insurrection, and to use all the power conferred by the Constitution for that purpose. But we must look the facts in the face. We must take no tice of those things whose existence cannot be de nied. History teaches us that rebellion often be comes successful ; revolution and the greatest repub lics and proudest monarchiesbave foundit necessary to recognize the existence of a Government de facto in the rebellion of States and provinces. Such was the condition of the American colonies for seven years after the Declaration of Independence. At first, it was rebellion, and rebellion was treason. A few months afterwards it was revolution and a Gov ernment de facto at Philadelphia; Mr. Hancock, Pres ident, and Washington, Commander of the Armies. Rebellion had ceased, and revolution taken its place. The American colonies were in revolt, had Govern ments de facto, and Great Britain, proud as she was, was compelled to recognize the existing state of facts. The laws of nations and all the laws of civili zation demanded thatthe Government de facto be ac knowledged. But the laws must be enforced. In our system of Government the laws are to be en forced by civil authority, assisted by the militia as a posse comitatus, when the Marshal is resisted. If the colonies, or a State, revolt, the revolution is com plete when the Federal authorities are expelled, and no one man left to acknowledge allegiance to the United States. How are you going to enforce the laws then ? How are you going to do it in South Carolina ? She has passed an ordinance of secession. I deny her right to secede, but she has done it. The revolution is complete. She has no human being in her borders to acknowledge our authority. This is all wrong, but how are you going to help it ? * * " I deny that we have the right to make war in order to regain possession, in order to enforce the laws. Are we prepared for war ? I do not mean prepared in the sense of having soldiers, arms, and munitions ; but are we prepared in onr hearts for war with our brethren? While I affirm that the Constitution was intended to form a perpetual Union — while I affirm the right to use all lawful means to enforce the laws — yet I will not meditate war, nor tolerate the idea, until after every effort at adjust ment has been tried and failed, and all hope of the Union is gone. Then, and not till then, will I deli berate and determine what course my duty will re quire of me. I am for peace, to save the Union. War is disunion, certain, inevitable, final, and irre- - 160 THE SOUTHERN REBELLION. versible. Our own very existence forbids war. He. referred to the purchase of Louisiana, and said it was purchased for the benefit of the whole Union, and for the safety of the Upper Mississippi in par ticular. The possession of that river is more neces sary now than it was then. We cannot expect the people of the interior to admit the right of a foreign State taking possession of that river. He also re ferred to the purchase of Florida and the amounts paid, and asked if she could go out now? The Pre sident, in his message, first said we could not coerce a State to remain in the Union, but in a few senten ces he advised the acquisition of Cuba. As if we should pay $300,000,000 for Cuba, and then the next day she might secede and re-annex herself to Spain, and Spain sell her again. He had admitted that Texas cost us a war with Mexico, and 10,000 lives ; and, besides, we had paid Texas $10,000,000 for land which she never had owned ! * * * * * In his opinion, we had reached the point when disu nion was inevitable unless a compromise, founded on concession, can be made. He preferred compro mise to war, and concession to disunion. No com promise would be available which does not carry the question of Slavery beyond Congress. He said he had voted for the proposition of the Senator from Kentucky (Mr. Crittenden's), and was ready to vote for it again. Why cannot the Republicans unite on the Missouri Compromise line ? They had heaped curses enough on his head for repealing it, to be glad now to reestablish it. He had helped to sup port that measure until he was compelled to aban don it. He was willing to meet on terms of mutual concession. He had offered another proposition to leave the Territories in statu quo till they have 50,000 inhabitants, and then settle the question themselves ; and also provided for the removal of the negroes, if the Territory chose, to certain provinces. If the Republicans do not intend to interfere with Slavery in the States, why not put in an amendment in the Constitution, so that they cannot do it? There must be a settlement of some sort now. It cannot be postponed. We are in a state of revolution. It is compromise or war. He preferred compromise. * * It humbles my pride to see the authority of the Gov ernment questioned, but we are not the first nation whose pride has thus been humbled. Republics, empires, and kingdoms alike, in all ages, have been subject to the same humiliating fact. But where there is a deep-seated discontent pervading ten mil lions of people, penetrating every man, woman, and child, and involving everything dear to them, it is time for inquiring whether there is not some cause for thisfeeling. If there be just cause for it, in God's name let us remove it. Are we not criminal, in the sight of Heaven and posterity, if we do not remove the just cause ? If there is no cause, and yet they believe there is, so much the greater the necessity for removing the misconception. Are you so elated with the pride of your recent triumph, or pride of opinion, that you cannot remove an unfounded ap prehension, when it is rushing ten million people into disunion, and breaking up the Government of our fathers, and leaving us, hitherto a proud Repub lic on earth, to become a byword among the na tions? I still entertain the hope that this qnestion may be adjusted, although the indications are that blood will be shed, and war will rage before gentle men fully appreciate the crisis through which we are passing. I don't think my nerves are any weaker than ordinary, nor do I think there is much courage in shutting the eyes in the face of danger, and then saying you do not see it. Every man must see it, and hear it, and breathe it. The atmosphere is full of it. I have determined that I will do all that is in my power to rescue the country from such a dread ful fate. But I will not consider this question of war till all hope of peaceable adjustment fails. Better, a thousand times better, that all political armies be disbanded and dissolved. Better that every public man now in existence be consigned to retirement and political martyrdom, than this Government should be dissolved, and this country plunged in civil war. I trust we are to have no war for a plat form. I can fight for my Country, but there never was a political platform that I would go to war for. I fear if this country is to be wrecked, it is to be done by those who prefer party to their country. Party platforms, and pride of opinion, and personal consistency, are the only causes in the way of a satisfactory adjustment of this difficulty. I re peat that, notwithstanding the gloom and the dark clouds which overhang everything, I do not despair of the Republic, and I will not despair till every effort shall be found to be of no avail." This speech commanded unusual remark. To the Republicans it was disconcerting, because it, in effect, threw the onus of the disunion movement upon them, and proceed ing from the leader who had received over- thirteen hundred thousand votes for Presi- dent, it could^but be construed as indicative r ¦ of a strong public sentiment in the North in favor of compromise, and opposed to co ercion. Mr. Toombs obtained the floor, when the Senate adjourned over to Saturday. During the Saturday's session Mr. MasOn, of Vir ginia, offered a resolution of inquiry, that the Secretary of War give the Mason's Resolution of Inquiry. ATTITUDE OF THE NORTHERN STATES, 161 Senate a copy of any orders issued from the department to the officers commanding the fortifications in South Carolina since Novem ber 1st ; also, a copy of any plans or recom mendations relative to increasing the forces, or otherwise, in the forts and arsenals in Virginia, or in any of the States of the South, by the commanders-in-chief, and if any action or order was issued in pursuance thereof. Laid over. The day was consumed in considering the Pacific Railway bill. Mr. Toombs, therefore, deferred his speech until the Monday's session. CHAPTER V. ATTITUDE OF THE NORTHERN AND BORDER STATES IN JANUARY. THE FIRST BUGLE NOTES OF ALARM. The revolution had progressed, up to Jan- nary 1st, with no further protests than came from individuals and meetings of citizens in Northern States. With the convention of the State Legislatures, iowever, there came a louder and more authoritative testimony to the Union and the laws. State after State gathered in council, and but one spirit seem ed to animate every Free Commonwealth — that of a determined resistance to the revolu tionary scheme. One after another they came into line, like ponderous frigates, to show their armaments and their sides of steel, with which to uphold the cause of the Constitution and the stability of the Government. The " Empire State," vast New York. in her resources, steadfast in her patriotism, loyal in her duty, met the crisis as became her honor. Upon the first day of the Legislature's ses sion Mr. Spinola introduced, and had refer red to a Special Committee of Five, January 3d, the following : " Whereas, Treason, as defined by the Constitution of the United States, exists in one of the States of the Confederacy, and " Whereas, It is the religious as well as the patriotic duty of each State in its sovereign capacity, as well as that of each citizen, to make every necessary sa crifice for the preservation of the Union of States, as they' were united by Washington and his associates, and " Whereas, The State of New York is now, as it ever has been, and ever will be, unalterably and un- 21 compromisingly in favor of the Union as it is, there fore "Resolved, (if the Assembly concur), That the Gov ernor be and hereby is directed, in the name of the State of New-York, to tender to the President of the United States the services of the militia of the State, to be used in such manner and at such times as the President may deem best to preserve the Union and enforce the Constitution and laws of the country. " Resolved, That the Committee on Military Affairs be and are hereby directed, to inquire into the con dition, efficiency, and available strength of the mili tary force of the State and to report to the Senate at the earliest practicable day, what legislation, if any, is necessary to render that branch of govern ment fully effective for any exigency that may arise ; and if requisite that the said Committee report a bill to raise $10,000,000 to properly arm the State." The "Old Bay State" sent forth her clarion notes Massachusetts. as soon. Her Legislature assembled January 2d. The President of the Senate said, in his opening address : — " While we meet under circumstances auspicious in our own State, a deep agitation pervades other parts of our country, causing every true patriot to feel the greatest anxiety. Disunion is attempted in some States, because, as is alleged, laws have been pass ed in others contrary to the Constitution of the Unit ed States. Massachusetts is accused of unfaithfulness in this matter in some of her enactments, although she has always been ready to submit to judicial de cision, and is so still. She has ever regarded jea lously the liberty of her citizens, and I trust ever will. We cannot falter now without disgrace and 162 THE SOUTHERN REBELLION. dishonor. Whatever action we may take, let us, be careful of the rights of others, but faithful to our trusts, that we may return them to our constituents uninjured." The Speaker of the House uttered substan tially the same sentiments. Governor Banks delivered his valedictory address, January 3d. He took open and unequivocal ground against secession, saying that the north never would permit the keys of the continent to pass into the hands of an enemy. He urged an at titude of preparation for any emergency. Governor Andrews, the incoming Governor, was even more alive to the crisis than the Legislature. In him the cause of the Union found a worthy sentinel. The "Keystone State" Pennsylvania. was first, however, in the field. Her Legislature as sembled Jan. 1st. Almost immediately upon coming together, Mr. Smith, of Philadelphia, offered in the Senate a resolution and pream ble, reciting that South Carolina had passed an ordinance nullifying the laws of the United States, and declaring that their allegiance to the Union is dissolved ; saying that Penn sylvania is willing to pass laws necessary for the redress of real grievances of any sister State, if found to exist ; proclaims an ardent desire to cultivate friendly relations with sis ter States ; avows adhesion to the doctrines of Jackson's proclamation ; is willing to con tribute men and money for the preservation of the Union ; a copy of the resolutions, au thenticated under the seal of the Common wealth, to be sent to the President, and Gov ernors of States. This was referred to a Com mittee of Five, which entered, at once, upon duty. Gov. Packer's Message was delivered January 2d. It was proudly Union in its tone — declaring secession to be rebellion, which, if unsuccessful, would be punishable as treason. He said that Pennsylvania was de voted to the Union and would follow the stars and stripes through every peril, adding, in conclusion: "But, before assuming the res ponsibilities that are foreshadowed, it is the solemn duty of Pennsylvania to remove every just cause of complaint so that she can stand before high Heaven without fear and without reproach ; and then she was ready to devote her lives and fortunes to the best form of government ever devised by the, wisdom of man." Gov. Curtin had yet to speak. The " Wolvarines " were awake for the peril and rea- Michigan. dy for duty. The Michi gan Legislature assembled January 2d. The retiring Governor, in his Annual Message, took an imperative stand against the right of secession ; charged the President with in tentional misrepresentation of the principles and aims of the Republican party, and at tributed the sectional excitement to mis representation, by the Northern Democratic press, of the designs of the dominant party. If the Personal Liberty laws are unconstitu tional, repeal them ; but they are not uncon stitutional, — they speak the sentiments of the people, — are in accordance with the Consti tution, and ought not to be repealed Let them stand! This is no time for timid and vacillating counsel, while the cry of trea son is ringing in our ears !" The Message of Governor Blair, the incoming Governor, was also decided in its tone against secession, The abstract reads : — " He denies that the Personal Liberty Laws have had the effect to prevent the execution of .the Fugi tive Slave law, in a single instance; but, whenever an appeal has been made to the courts to enforce that law, it has been done in good faith. He invites judicial scrutiny into the legislation of the State, and is willing to abide by the result, but is not willing that the State should be humiliated by compliance with the demand to repeal these laws, accompanied by threats of violence and war. He concludes by recommending that, at an early day, the Legislature make it manifest to Representatives in Congress and to the country, that Michigan is loyal to the Union, the Constitution and the laws, and will defend them to the uttermost, and to proffer to the President of the United States the whole military force of the State for that purpose." Then came tidings from the forests of Maine. The Maine. Legislature of that State convened January 2d. Governor Wash- burne's message ably reviewed the history of the Slavery question, declaring that the au thors of the Government designed that the institution should perish, and that the dogma of its right of extension and protection was only of recent invention. " Slavery was the child of municipal law— local, sectional, not ATTITUDE OF THE BORDER 163 national. If there is one fact that stands out stronger, clearer, and more indisputable than any other in our history, it is this. There is the record— it cannot be blotted out — it can not be burned out — it remains forever." -Adverting to the Personal Liberty laws he said, they are designed as beneficent and ne cessary provisions, to prevent kidnapping or illegal removal, and to bring their line of action into entire harmony with the line of Constitutional power and obligation, laid down by the United States Supreme Court, in the case of Prigg vs. the State of Pennsyl vania. If, however, such laws are unconsti tutional, repeal them ; allow no stain on the faith and devotion of the State to the Con stitution and the rights of the States. As to the concessions demanded by the South, he said : — " The concessions, for the most part, which are now demanded from the Free States, as the terms upon which the people of this country are to be allowed to govern themselves, under the Constitu tion, are wholly inadmissible, not merely that they are objectionable in themselves, but because they have been made on such terms. To grant them would be to establish a precedent of incalculable mischief and danger, through which would be wrought, at no distant period, a practical subversion of the Consti tution, and a transfer of the Government from the hands of the many to the power of the few." Of secession he said : — s " There is no such right in the Constitution ; the President cannot permit it ; Congress cannot grant it; the States cannot concede it; and only by the people of the States, through a change of the Con stitution, can it be conferred. The laws, then, must be executed, or this, the best, because the freest and most benificent Government that the world has ever seen, is_destroyed." He gave the State's pledge to support the cause of the Union, with all its power, re sources and moral strength. Governor Hicks, under Maryland. date of January 6th, pub lished an address to the citizens of Maryland, setting forth his reasons for refusing to convene the Legislature. Among other things he said : " That Maryland is a conservative Southern State all know who know anything of her people or her history. The business and agricultural classes — planters, merchants, mechanics, and laboring men — those who have a real stake in the community, who would be forced to pay the taxes and do the fighting, are the persons who should be heard in preference to excited politicians, many of whom, having no thing to lose from the destruction of the Govern ment, may hope to derive some gain from the ruin of the State. Such men will naturally urge you to pull down the pillars of this ' accursed Union,' which their allies at the North have denominated a ' covenant with hell.' The people of Maryland, if left to themselves, would decide, with scarcely an exception, that there is nothing in the present causes of complaint to justify immediate secession ; and yet, against our judgments and solemn convic tions of duty, we are to be precipitated into this re volution, because South Carolina thinks differently. * * * t^ men wj10 have embarked in this scheme to convene the Legislature will spare no pains to carry their point. The whole plan of ope rations in the event of the assembling of the Legis lature is, as I have been informed, already marked out, the list of Ambassadors who are to visit the other States is agreed on, and the resolutions which they hope will be passed by the Legislature, fully committing this State to Secession, are said to be already prepared." Hon. Henry Winter Davis, member of the United States House of Representatives, from Baltimore, published an Address to his con stituents, January 2d. It was a powerful ap peal against the calling of the Legislature. He also opposed the calling of the proposed " Border State Convention," to assemble in Baltimore. Every project which was extra- constitutional was, therefore, ^constitutional. The whale people and all the States must act to give a Convention validity. He still hoped for settlement by compromise. The Virginia Legislature assembled, in extra session, Virginia. January 7th. Gov. Letch er's message was condemnatory of immediate secession ; he proposed that all Constitutional remedies be exhausted before committing the State to the step of withdrawing from the Union. His scheme of settlement was thus stated : — " He opposes a State Convention at this time, and suggests, first, that a Conugft **,\pf two of the most - -fev discreet statesmen vi^g^ing «a "jAjtares of the States which have passed its. '-» hills and insist on their unconditional repe: „ Confedera?w England States ; second, we must °^ be redresa^ effective guarantees for the protectfl", , trench' k the District of Columbia ; third, our eq!I5rN7**s„;gjer States and Territories must be fully recog^i^ed, ay ^6 164 THE SOUTHERN REBELLION, the rights of person and property adequately pro tected and secured ; that we must be permitted to pass through the Free States and Territories unmo lested, and if a slave be abducted,the State where it is lost must pay its value ; fourth, like guarantees that the transmission of slaves between the Slave- holding States by land or water shall not be inter fered with ; fifth, the passage and enforcement of right laws for the punishment of such persons in the Free States as organize, or aid and abet in any mode whatsoever, in organizing companies with a view to assail the Slaveholding States, and to incite the slaves to insurrection ; sixth, the General Govern ment to be deprived of the power of appointing to local offices in the Slaveholding States persons hos tile to their institutions or inimical to their rights." Notwithstanding this " moderate view" of the Governor, the Legislature, like new con verts, was rife for hasty action. Prior to its ¦assemblage, a bill calling a Convention, Feb ruary 18th, had been prepared, and was in troduced as one of the first measures of the session. Also, the question of military de fense was quickly referred to a Special Com mittee. A resolution to appropriate ten mil lions of dollars for defense was referred with little opposition to the same committee, which, it was understood, would report affirmatively in two or three days. A joint resolution was introduced on the 9th to appoint, a commis sion to the President to represent that, " in the judgment of the General Assembly of Virginia any additional display of military power in the North will jeopardize the tran quility of the Republic ; and that the evac uation of Fort Sumter is the first step that should be taken to restore harmony and peace." It would appear that the Legislature was fully up to the revolutionary point. Could that body have acted on the question, so wild was its zeal for the repudiation of its ancient honor that the ordinance of secession would have received its engrossing seal by January 10th. Treason, and the infamous programme of treason, were betrayed in' almost every act considered by the J.^vj^ iture. The Northern and Westy® -=^ ™2JWere almost powerless befo,radutyofP-|.ery and madnegs Qf the pust cause of c%e Sonthem and Eastem gec. before high Hate The gluter rf & ^ ^ ^l'Wfe' before their eyes, in which the Ksti^t and renown of the Old Dominion should be restored — in which wealth would crown every owner of slaves — in which man ufactures and commerce would teem from her shores and upon her streams — while Wash ington, deserted as a capital, would give its magnificent buildings to be " consecrated to the Genius of Southern Institutions." The wise counsels of Amos Kendall, the clear logic and sturdy faith of John Minor Botts, the rights and wishes of the Union men from beyond the Blue Ridge and along the Poto mac — all were as powerless before the baleful breath of Floyd, Mason, and Henry A. Wise, as the guide over the wide desert before the fierce sirocco. If the State became a battle field, and her fair estates were laid desolate, she courted her fate by the willing abasement of her degenerate leaders before the wheels of South Carolina's chariot of fire. The Tennessee Legisla ture came together Jan- Tennessee. uary 7th. The Governor's Message advised that the question of calling a Convention be submitted to" the people. He thought the remedy for present evils to exist only in constitutional amendments. In event of their non-passage, Tennessee, he as serted, must maintain her equality in, or in dependence out of, the Union. He recom mended the organization of the State military, and the immediate purchase of arms. The Central and Eastern sections of the State, it was certain, were truly loyal to the Union, but it soon became apparent that a few men were to lead the State into the vortex of dis union, against the will of her best citizens. Governor Dennison, of Ohio, addressed the Legis- Ohio. lature of that State, Jan uary 8th. His position was one of stern purpose to sustain the cause of the Constitu tion and the Union. In his Message he uttered these words : — " We desire most ardently the restoration of affec tion and harmony to all its parts. We desire that every citizen of the whole country may look to this Government with no other sentiments but those of grateful respect and attachment. But we cannot yield, even to kind feelings, the cause of the Consti tution, the true glory of the country, and the great trust which we hold in our hands for succeeding ages. If the Constitution cannot be maintained without meeting these scenes of commotion and con- ATTITUDE OF THE BORDER STATES 165 J '>; test, however unwelcome, they must come. We cannot, we must not, we dare not, omit to do that which, in our judgment, the safety of the Union re quires.' Not regardless of consequences we must yet meet consequences; seeing the hazards whicli surround the discharge of duty it mnst yet be dis charged. For ourselves, we share the responsibility in attempting to maintain the cause. We are tied to it by indissoluble bands of affection and duty, and we shall cheerfully partake in its fortunes and fate. We are ready to perform our own appropriate part whenever the occasion may call on us, and to take our chance among those upon whom blows may fall first and fall thickest. We shall exert every faculty we possess in aiding to prevent the Constitution from. being nullified, destroyed, or impaired; and even should we see it fall, we will still, with a voice as earnest as ever issued from human lips, and with fidelity and zeai which nothing shall extinguish, call on the people everywhere to come to its rescue." Relying on the patriotism of the people, and on Divine aid, for the protection of the Union, Ohio calmly awaited the exigencies of the future. The Legislature immediately set about perfecting its military organization, and, at an early moment, provided " its mil lions for defence." The Legislature of Mis- Missouri, souri convened December 31st. The Commissioner of Alabama addressed the members, on the evening of Dec 29th, preaching his secession heresies to a patient but not pliant audience. ' January 3d, the retiring Governor, Stewart, sent in his message. Its tone was decidedly belligerent toward the North, but he depre cated secession. It was no remedy for the evils under which Missouri suffered. The abstract of his message read : — " Missouri will hold to the Union so long as it is worth the effort to preserve it. She cannot be frightened by the past unfriendly legislation of the North, nor dragooned into secession by the restrictive legislation of the extreme South. The Governor de nies the right of voluntary secession, and says that it would be utterly destructive of every principle on which the national faith is founded ; appeals to the great conservative masses of the people to put down selfish and designing politicians, to avert the threatened evils, and closes with a, strong recom mendation to adopt all proper measures for our rights; condemns this resort to separation ; protests against hasty and unwise action, and records his un alterable devotion to the Union, so long as it can be made the protector of equal rights." The incoming Governor, Jackson, delivered his Inaugural Message January 4th. In him the Secessionists found a pliant instrument, and it became evident to all that his purpose was to link the State to the car of revolution. He advised to call a Convention of Southern States to propose terms of settlement with the North ; also, to call a State Convention, to consider State action in the crisis. The Legislature of Dela ware came together Janu- Delaware. ary 2d, when it was ad dressed by the Commissioner from Mississippi, who proposed to the members the adoption of a plan of cooperation with the Slave States. The reception tendered this mission ary of secession may be inferred from the following resolutions, which passed both Houses the same day (January 2d) :— "Resolved, That having extended to the Hon. H. Dickenson, Commissioner from Mississippi, the cour tesy due him as a representative of a sovereign State of the Confederacy, as well as to the State he repre sents, we deem it proper, and due to ourselves and the people of Delaware, to express our unqualified disapproval of the remedy for the existing difficul ties suggested by the resolutions of the Legislature of Mississippi." The people and the Legislature were true to the Union, and the Governor was also re garded as loyal. In his Message, he said : " The cause of all the trouble is the persistent war of the Abolitionists upon more than two billions of property ; a war waged from pulpits, rostrums, and the schools, by press and people— all teaching that Slavery is a crime and a sin, until it has become the opinion of a large portion of one section of the coun try. The only remedy for the evils now threatening is a radical change of public sentiment in regard to the whole question. The North should retire from its untenable position immediately." The Illinois Legislature assembled Jan. 7th. Gov- Illinois. ernor Wood declared firm ly for the Union and the maintenance of the laws. In view of the necessity of all the States to hold themselves blameless in the unhappy division existing among their South ern confederates, he said: — " If grievances to any portion of our Confederation have arisen within the Union, let them be redressed within the Union. If unconstitutional laws trench ing upon the guaranteed rights of any of our sister 166 THE SOUTHERN REBELLION. States, have found place upon our statute books, let them be removed. If prejudice or alienation to ward any of our fellow-countrymen has fastened upon onr minds, let it be dismissed and forgotten. Let us be just to ourselves and each other, allowing neither threats to drive us from what we deem to be our duty, nor pride of opinion prevent us from cor recting wherein we may have erred." He recommended a complete reconstruc tion of the military system and that the most liberal encouragement be given for the for mation of volunteer companies in all branches of the army service. " Speaking not merely for himself, but reflecting what he assumes to be the voice of the whole people of Illinois, irrespective of party, as it reaches him from all quarters, he adopts the sentiments of Pre sident Jackson — ' The Federal Union : it must be preserved ' — to which sentiment he trusts the Legislature will give emphatic ex pression at an early day." . With such ex pression, Rlinois, the " Prairie State," then proved that she was as rich in her patriot ism as in her soil and exhanstless resources. With a free white population exceeding that of South Carolina, Georgia, Florida, Mississippi, and Louisiana all together, her position was only second in importance to that of the great Middle States.* Gov. Yates, the incoming Governor, of Illi nois, in his Message of the 14th, made the following points of policy : That an ' irre pressible conflict ' did exist between the Slave and the Free States, but it does not neces sarily disturb the relations of the States: that secession is revolution which the whole power of the Government must be exerted to suppress: that the great North and West will never allow the free navigation of the Mississippi river to be impeded, &c. The Governor referred to Mr. Douglas as true to the Constitution, and avowed his conviction that the people, without distinction of party, were ready to defend the Union against any and all efforts to break it up. CHAPTER VI. PROGRESS OF THE REVOLUTION IN SOUTH CAROLINA. MENT OF THE CONVENTION. AD JOUBN- The South Carolina Convention continued its organic labors ; but we need not refer in detail to the various ordinances and laws put upon her statute-books. It will only be necessary to take cognizance of the legislation affecting the status of the revolution. An ordinance, signed December Oatiis. 31st, prescribed the oaths of abjuration and of alle giance as follows : " 1st. I solemnly swear (or affirm) that I do re nounce and forever abjure allegiance and fidelity to every prince, potentate, State, or sovereignty what soever, except the State of South Carolina. "2d. I do swear (or affirm) I that will bear faithful and true allegiance to the State of South Carolina so long as I may continue a citizen thereof." Commissioners were elected to the several States proposing to form a Confederacy, to advance the scheme of consolidation. Their names were as follows : — To Florida, L. W. Spratt ; to Alabama, N. P. Calhoun ; to Mis sissippi, Aj-mistead Burt ; to Arkansas, A. C. Spain ; to Georgia, James L. Orr ; to Texas, John McQueen. These persons left almost immediately for their seve ral fields of duty. The Steps *° form a C°n" „ J federacy. Committee's report and res olution, under which they acted, suggested that the Constitution of the United States be submitted as "the basis of Provisional Con- * For interesting tables of the comparative popu lation of the States, see pages 27-28. collection op the revenue, 167 New Executive De partments. federation. The 3d and 4th sections of the report read : " That the said Commissioners shall be authorized -to invite the Seceding States to meet in Convention, at such time and place to be agreed upon, for the purpose of forming and putting the motion for such Provisional Government, so that the said Provisional Government be organized to go into effect at the earliest period previous to the 4th of March, 1861. The same Convention of Seceding States shall pro ceed forthwith to consider and' propose a Constitu tion and plan of permanent government for such States, which proposed plan shall be referred back to the several State Conventions for adoption or rejection. "That the eight deputies elected by ballot in this Convention be authorized to meet the deputies of other Slaveholding Seceding States of the Federal Union, for the purpose of carrying into effect the foregoing resolutions. It is recommended that each of the said States be entitled to one vote in the said Convention upon all questions, and each State to send so many deputies, equal in number to the Sena tors and Representatives she is entitled to in the Congress of the United States." The new order of Gov ernment [see page 113 ] embraced a division of the executive into departments somewhat similar to the Cabinet of the President. On the 4th, the Governor announced these departments and appointments as follows : — " First: The State Functions. — Assistance of the Governor, with the exercise of his powers as now delegated, and more especially in his intercourse with the States ; also arrangements with foreign powers, as in the appointment of Consuls, negotia tion of treaties, and formation of regulations for commerce. For this I appoint the Hon. A. J. Ma grath. "Second: The Law and War Object. — For the su pervision of matters relative to the condition of hos tilities, the management of the military, the dispo sition of the troops, to receive the different ordinan ces of the Convention and acts of the Legislature, and as to the management of the troops in actual service, I appoint General D. J. Jamison. " Third: The Treasury Jurisdiction. — The super vision of matters connected with the fiscal relations of the State, practical details, in the raising of funds provided for by any ordinance of the Convention and acts of the Legislature, not especially transferred to some, of the other departments, I appoint the Hon. C. G. Memminger. " Fourth: The Post-office Functions. — Indicated by The Collection of the Revenue. name, including therein so much of the collection of the customs as relates to light-houses, buoys, and matters of that nature, I appoint General W. W. Hartee. "Fifth: Interior. — The direction of local matters within the State, including the militia and coast po lice, I appoint General A. C. Garlington." The Convention (January 4th ) appointed delegates to the General Congress of the Se ceding States, as follows : The Hons. T. J. Withers, L. M. Keitt, W. W. Bezee, James Chesnut, Jr., R. B. Rhett, Jr., R. W. Barn well, and C. G. Memminger. The fortifications of the harbor began rapidly to as sume shape early in Jan uary. The appointment, by Mr. Buchanan, of Mr. Mclntyre, of Philadelphia, to be Col lector at Charleston, in place of Calcock, who was paying over his revenues to the State, was before the Senate for confirmation. As soon as that confirmation could be obtained, it was the purpose of the Administration to send him to Charleston on the armed steamer Harriet Lane, from which he should proceed to collect the revenues of the port. To pro vide against such an " invasion," the State hastened to throw up batteries at several points commanding the entrances to the port. Buoys and ranges were removed, and the lights suppressed. It was the positive deter mination of the authorities to allow no float ing Custom-house in the harbor, nor to suffer a Federal Government vessel to enter their waters for any purpose whatever. As the Southern Senators, aided by a few Northern Democrats, refused to confirm Mr. Mclntyre — thus directly co-operating with the rebels in thwarting the Government — the President was not able to carry forward his policy for collecting the duties, and the Harriet Lane did not pay her promised visit to the bristling harbor. For that pandering to treason the country ever must hold the Senate responsi ble ; and loyal men will not cease to blame those Senators who interposed their authority to prevent the President from doing his plain, palpable duty. The Charleston papers of Jan. 2d, gave no tice of formidable military preparations on the islands. The Mercury said : " The military movements are progressing rapidly all around 168 the southern rebellion. us. The brave sons of Caro- The Military Move- j. ^^sered b the m. ments. ' ^ couragement of her equally courageous daughters, are earnestly and si lently doing all that men can do towards putting our State in a position to defend her self against the world. For the present we refrain from giving the particulars of the va rious works that are progressing. We will only say, for the benefit of anxious friends, that the gallant volunteers stationed at the various posts around us are, one and all, de voting themselves to fill the exigencies of a noble cause, and that they are and will, doubtless, continue in high spirits, and as comfortable ' as circumstances permit.' " Another paragraph of the same paper an nounced that two hundred and sixty-three " prime field hands " had passed through the city, en route for the defences. The paper re marked : " Our young men will do the storming and escalading — our slaves will raise our crops, and make our ditches, glacis and earthworks for our defence." It was estimated that one thousand Negroes were at work, at a later day, upon the harbor fortifications, all volunteer laborers — that is, " volunteered by their masters." Resignations of Army and Navy officers continued. It was announced, among other items from Charleston, January 4th, that Commodore Shubrick was the guest of Colo nel Isaac Hayne — that Captain Hartstene would assume a command in the navy-to-be — that " Commodore" Barron and Captain Ingraham would be with them at the proper hour,* &c, &c. Late in December Post- Master-General Holt ad dressed a circular to all -Postmasters in the revolutionary States, to know if they still recognized the authority of the Government over them and their offices. Many replied, chiefly affirmatively; others * " In 1832-33, when General Jackson was Presi dent, and nullification was threatened by South Carolina, he directed the Secretary of War and the Secretary of the Navy to issue circular letters to all officers of the Army and Navy, enclosing a printed oath which they were compelled to take, binding themselves to stand by the Government. Mr. Bu chanan was not General Jackson. The Post-office not Seceded. did not reply ; while those few who replied negatively, were immediately stricken from the rolls and their offices closed, thus giving the Southern people a foretaste of the man ner in which the General Government would exercise its constitutional prerogatives. The reply of the Charleston Postmaster proved that, though the State had voted herself in dependent of all Federal relations and obli gations, she still was willing to acknowledge' " Uncle Sam" yet a little longer in her postal matters, and was willing that he should con tinue to lose money in carrying her mails.* Mr. Huger said : — " I do consider myself -responsible to the Government of the United States, in conformity with the existing laws, for all the postal revenues received by me as Postmaster at the City of Charleston." Again: — "You will accordingly receive my quarterly accounts in a few days." He in closed a copy of the Ordinance concerning postal affairs, and did not consider it incom patible with his position. It was not " in compatible with his position," though the authorities did not design the deposits of the Postmaster to account of the Federal Gov ernment should leave the State. On the 3d, Governor Pickens sent to the Legislature a special Message, detailing inci dents, and covering his view of the facts re garding the recent movements in the harbor and city. It read as follows : " Executive Department. " To the Members of the Senate and " House of Representatives: " The events that have re cently transpired in the harbor GovernOT PiokenB' Message. of Charleston make it proper * The following table will show to what extent the Postal system of the South drew upon the Public Treasury : EXCESS OP EXPENMTUKES ovek receipts. Maryland . . . $109,135 60 Virginia 255,339 26 N. Carolina. . 128,859 89 S. Carolina. . 140,409 67 Georgia 165,744 23 Florida 167,218 78 Alabama . . . 282,351 44 Mississippi . . 251,904 80 A total deficit of three Texas $578,103 29 Kentucky.. 196,042 29 Louisiana . . 357,693 14 Tennessee.. 161,273 59 Missouri . . . 426,714 81 Arkansas . . 289,808 14 Total deficit $3,510,598 93 and one-half millions per annum, for mail service alone, is one of the items of which the South forgot to complain, in its long list of impositions and- losses it had suffered in the Union. SOUTH CAROLINA'S ORDINANCES, 169 that I should communicate the general facts in rela- » tion to the same. " It was distinctly'understood -that those who had the right to pledge the faith of the United States -Government, on the one part, and those who had a similar right on the part of this State, had agreed that after the act of secession there should be no change in the forces within its keeping at the forts in the harbor, nor should there be any increase of the United States forces until after the Commission ers appointed by the Convention should present themselves at Washington, and lay before the Presi dent of the United States the Ordinance of Seces sion, and the proposition to negotiate for the deliv ery of the posts, and for the State to account for the public property on jnst and equitable principles. All this was admitted and stated by the late Secre tary of War, Governor Floyd, in his letter of resig nation, which has been published. Pending this sol emn pledge.'during the night of the 26th of Decem ber last, the commandant of Fort Moultrie sud denly, without notice, evacuated that fort, and with nearly every effective man nnder his command had transferred the garrison over to Fort Sumter, the strongest position, commanding the harbor, and to a great extent Fort Moultrie itself. He not only did this, but actually burned the carriages of most of the heavy guns in an effective position, and spiked all the guns, and injured the public property in other respects. The fort was enveloped in smoke and flames. "When this was known in the early morning to the good people of Charleston, they were thrown" into great excitement. I sent off an aid-de-camp to the fort to know by what authority the Commandant had acted, and to require that the Commandant should return back to Fort Moultrie, as the Government of the United States was pledged to keep all its forces as they were in the different forts. "The reply of Major Anderson was, that he had not known of any such pledge, and acted on his own responsibility, with a view to prevent the effusion of blood, and declined to return. I immediately or dered the occupation of Castle Pinckney and Sulli van's Island; and if it could be done in safety, after an examination as to the reported undermining, then Fort Moultrie itself should be occupied. " In the orders issued it was expressly stated that these occupations were made with a view to pre vent the further destruction of public property, and to secure the public safety, if possible. The officer, in taking possession of Castle Pinckney, stated, if it had not been done, the public property in that fort would have been destroyed, as was done in Fort Moultrie. " The Arsenal, containing the arms of the United States, in the city, was more recently taken posses- 22 sion of, to prevent any premature collision, and for safekeeping, in the present exeited state of the pub lic mind. All steps which have been taken, have been taken from necessity, and with a view to give security and safety in the present condition of the country. " The Convention has by its Ordinance withdrawn the State from the Federal Union, and by conse quence imposed upon the Executive the duty of en deavoring to sustain the honor and the rights of the State, and in this emergency I confidently rely upon the Legislature to sustain the Executive in all proper measures." " F. W. PICKENS." Mr. Farrow moved that the Message of his Excellency be referred to the Committee on Foreign Relations. A resolution was adopted in secret session, changing the name of the Committee on Fed eral Relations to Committee on Foreign Af fairs, and, on motion, the Message was refer red to that Committee. In the Senate, on the same day, Mr. Bryan offered the following, upon which he moved immediate consideration : " Resolved, That it be referred to the Committee on Military and Pensions to enforce and report whe ther, in the event of actual hostilities between the late Government of the United States, or the citi zens or Government of any one of them and this Stalest irojild be expedient for the General Assem- bfy to provide forThe--grantingJe^tCTS_ofjnai:q.ue3d - reprisal and letters of sea aefvice to such persons as may' volunteer for the naval service of this State, and will give adequate ,s'urety for a due observance of the law of nations while in such service ; and if so, to report by bill the most effectual method of proceeding in the/premises." The resolution was thereupon adopted. The South Carolina State Convention adjourned Jan- Ordinances Passed. uary 5th, subject '.to the call of the Governor. Among the ordinances passed in secret session, were the following : " An Ordinance Concerning Powers lately vested in the Congress of the United States.— That all powers which by this State were heretofore delegated to the Congress of the United States, sBall be vested in the General Assembly, except that during the existence of the Convention, the powers of tie General As sembly shall not extend, without thig direction of this Convention, to any one of these subjectsyto wit : duties and imposts, the post-office, (-;the declaration of war, treaties, -confederacy with otfier States, citi zenship and treason. / 170 THE SOUTHERN REBELLION. " An Ordinance Concerning Judicial Powers. — The Judicial powers heretofore delegated to this State, bo as to form a part of the Judicial power of the United States, having reverted to this State, shall be exercised by such Courts as the General Assembly shall direct. " An Ordinance to Define and Punish Treason.— In addition to what has been already declared to be treason by the General Assembly — treason against this State shall consist only in levying war against the State, or adhering to its enemies, giving them aid and comfort — and that treason shall be punished by death without the benefit of clergy." Adverting to the doings of the Convention, the results impending, the Charleston Mercury thus chronicled its view of affairs at that juncture, January 5th: A Look Through Southern Spectacles. " Scheme after scheme to keep the Union together is formed, and bursts like bubbles on a fretful tide. Every day brings its proof of the steady progress of the Government of the United States to dissolution, and of the South to Union, while every effort made to avert this inevitable drift of things, only accele rates them to their final consummation. Not to act is fatal, and to act is more speedily fatal. So, why not at once acquiesce in the destiny of things— pitch the account-book of the Union into the fire, and take down the new account-book of a Southern Confed eracy ? Then, spread out its fair pages for a glorious history of independence, prosperity, and liberty. As to the North — let it go over to Canada — or break up into an Eastern, and Middle, and Western Confed eracy all inferior in power, wealth, and civilization to the great predominating Republic of the Slave- holding States of North America. Can they help themselves ? We will see." CHAPTER VIL AFFAIRS INWASHINGTON EARLY IN JANUARY. STATE OF PUBLIC FEELING. ACTIVITY IN THE WAR DEPARTMENT. BORDER- STATE COMMITTEE. THEIR PROPOSITION. THE ACTION OF THE COMMITTEE OF T H I B X if - T H R E -ST THE F O R T S— T H E I R COST, ETC. **"¦•> THE MORALE OF THE CONSPIRACY. Strengthened Public Opinion. The withdrawal of the South Carolina Commis sioners was. followed by a more determined spirit of resistance in the Cabinet, and by unmistaka bly patriotic demonstrations on the part of the Northern people. "Union" meetings became numerous and imposing : the press, fast forgetting its chromic distemper towards adversaries, began to harmonize on the ques tion of constitutional obligation, and to de mand of the President a rigorous policy of resistance to rey blution : State Legislatures, with singular, 'unanimity, counseled resis tance to revolution, and offered their tremen dous resources to aid the Executive in the -discharge oV his duty : messages from State Governors in dicated clearly that the time for treating witln treason had passed : the invio lability of tht > Union, it was evident, would be maintained by the Free States to the last extremity. All classes wished for peace: many to whom compromise was hateful ask ed for it rather than encounter the horrors of a disrupted Confederacy." But, when it became a demonstrable fact that the revolu tionary States did not want compromise- that they were unalterably set upon the for mation of a Southern Slave Confederacy, the masses of the North drew closer together, and, even before their representatives and lead ers, were steeling their hearts for the crisis of conflict. That no overtures might be left untried, the labors of the Border States to concoct some remedy for the National dis ease were patiently accepted, though, from the very first, it was apparent that no remedy of theirs could allay the fever coursing in the veins of the body politic. During the first week of January it was THE COMMITTEES IN CONGRESS, 171 made known that the President would not order Anderson back to Moultrie. Having got rid of Floyd, he found New Elements in the ^ j h HoU ft pure.millcl. Cabinet. , , . , ed adviser, whose patriot ism and energy at once seemed to change the whole current of affairs. General Dix, as Sec retary of the Treasury, was equally patriotic and trusted. Mr. Toucey, Secretary of the Navy, if he did not enter with ardor upon the duty of resistance to the conspirators, Still, being a Northern man, was not in league with them, and gave his casting vote on the side of his Government. Thus strengthened in his counsels, and encouraged by the indi cations of the people and 'State authorities of the entire North, Mr. Buchanan would have been worse than weak to have restored Anderson to certain destruction or disgrace by ordering him back to Moultrie. Mr. Holt was given the War Department portfolio Dec. 31st. He had assumed its du ties upon the resignation of Floyd, and with such unmistakable evidences of fitness for the trust that his appoinment gave the loyal country much pleasure. The disloyal Senate refused to act upon his confirmation for many days, but the growing strength of public opinion towards resistance to, if not actual co ercion of, the rebellious States, finally forced his recognition. General Winfield Scott was tendered the seat, at the earnest solicitation of the best friends of the Government, but the wise old warrior preferred to retain his command of the army, and declined the Cabi net appointment to serve his country in his own department. Mr. Holt very judiciously called the veteran into his counsels, and the country found that, with the mere shadow of an army, the two men were prepared for the threatened emergencies as far as their means at command would permit. It was reported from Charleston, December 31st, that strong fortifications were being erected on the islands command ing the harbor entrances, to prevent any re inforcements being sent to Sumter. Not withstanding, General Scott and Sect'y Holt, with the consent of the President, prepared to make the attempt to send in supplies and men. Secret preparations were instantly or- Beinforcements for Anderson. dered to that effect. The steamer Star of the West, at New York, was commissioned De cember 31st, and, all the week succeeding, was taking in stores and munitions with which to sustain and strengthen the garrison. On the 2d of January the President sent in the name of Wm. Mclntyre, of Philadelphia, to be collector of revenue for the port and neigh borhood of Charleston. Southern members, in this, saw the President's purpose to force South Carolina into submission to the Fede ral laws for the collection of duties, and of course resisted. With the aid of Southern Democrats, an adjournment was had, — thus refusing to consider the nomination. This " fillibustering " was resorted to at every at tempt to consider the appointment ; and to a few Northern Democrats was the country indebted for that most direct collusion with treason, in tying the President's hands. Anticipating the failure of all propositions for a set tlement before the Com mittee of Thirty-three, a caucus of the Sena tors and Representatives of the Border States alone was convened, at the earnest solicitations of Mr. Crittenden, Mr. Doug las, the President, General Cass, and others, eminent citizens, then at Washington. It held a session Saturday evening, Dec. 29th, and appointed a committee to name one member from each Border State, to sit as a joint committee for the purpose of consider ing propositions of compromise and adjust ment. The following names were reported : — " Senator Crittenden, of Kentucky, Chairman ; Messrs. Harris, of Maryland; Sherman, of Ohio ; Nixon, of New Jersey ; Salisbury, of Delaware ; Gilmer, of North Carolina ; Hat- ton, of Tennessee ; Pettit, of Indiana ; Harris, of Virginia ; McClernand, of Illinois ; Bar rett, of Missouri; Sebastian, of Arkansas; Vandeveer, of Iowa ; and Hale, of Pennsylva- The Border State Committee. The Committee of Thirty -three. The Committee of Thirty- three continued its session during the week (Decem ber 31st-January 5th). On Monday, Mr. Millson's proposition, to extend the Missouri Compromise line, with recognition and pro tection of persons held to service or labor south of it, either in the present Territory, or 172 THE SOUTHERN REBELLION. in any other that may hereafter be acquired, was considered. On Wednesday it was fur ther discussed and rejected. Mr. Nelson's resolutions, which Mr. Crittenden offered in the Senate, were then taken up, and the Com mittee amended them, so as to declare it in expedient for Congress to abolish Slavery in the dockyards, arsenals and the like, of the United States, instead of being mandatory not to do so. A similar amendment con cerning the District of Columbia was pend ing upon adjournment. On Thursday it, also, was adopted. The Committee then con sidered and adopted the following, offered by Mr. Bristow, of Kentucky : " Resolved, That we recognize Slavery as now ex isting in fifteen of the United States, by the usages and laws of these States, and we recognize no au thority, legally or otherwise, outside of a State where it so exists, to interfere with slaves or Slavery in such States, in disregard of the rights of their owners and the peace of society. " Resolved, That we recognize the justice and pro priety of a faithful execution of the Constitution, and ' all' laws made in pursuance thereof, including those on the subject of fugitive slaves, or fugitives from service or labor, and discountenance all mobs, or hindrances to the execution of such laws, and that the citizens of each State shall be entitled to all the privileges and immunities of the oitizens of the seve ral States. ' ' Resolved, That we recognize no such conflicting elements in its composition, or sufficient cause, from any source, for a dissolution of this Government; that we were not sent here to destroy, but to sustain and harmonize the institutions of the country, and to see that equal justice is done to all p*rts of the same ; and, finally, to perpetuate its existence, on terms of equality and justice to all the States." These resolutions, having the assent of the Republicans, only repeated those previously introduced by Mr. Grimes, Mr. Seward, and others on the Committees. Friday, being fast-day, by proclamation of the President, the Committee was not in ses sion. Saturday, the following was introduced by Mr. Hamilton, of Texas : " Resolved, That this Committee do recommend the passage of joint resolutions, respectfully recom mending to the several States a General Convention in this city, on a day to be fixed by delegates chosen directly by the people in the several States, to con sider of and advise such amendments to the Consti tution of the United States as may be necessary to protect the interest and preserve the Government of the country, and that an appropriation be made to defray the expenses of such Convention." The Border State Com- . , -, -, The Border State mittee, appointed under Commitlee,s Pr0l,0. instructions from the cau- sition.. cus of Border State mem bers, decided, Friday evening (January 4th), upon the following propositions: . " First: Recommending a repeal of all the Person al Liberty bills. " Second: That the Fugitive Slave law be amended for the preventing of kidnapping, and so as to pro vide for the equalization of the Commissioners' fee, &c. " Third: That the Constitution be so amended as to prohibit any interference with Slavery in any of the States where it now exists. " Fourth: That Congress shall not abolish Slavery in the Southern dockyards, arsenals, &c, nor in the District of Columbia, without the consent of Mary land, and the consent of the inhabitants of the Dis trict, nor without compensation. " Fifth : That Congress shall not interfere with the inter-State Slave trade. "Sixth: That there shall be a perpetual prohi bition of the African Slave trade. ••Seventh: That the line of 36 deg. 30 min., shall be run through all the existing Territory of the United States ;, that in all North of that line Slavery shall be prohibited, and that South of that line, neither Congress nor the Territorial Legis lature shall hereafter pass any law abolishing, pro hibiting, or in any manner interfering with African Slavery ; and that when any Territory containing a sufficient population for one member of Congress in any area of 60,000 square miles, shall apply for admission as a State, it shall be admitted, with or without Slavery, as its Constitution may deter mine." This scheme, though it favorably met every point raised by the Southern malcontents, did not secure their concurrence, in that it did not positively consign all the Territory South of 36 deg. 30 min., to Slavery. For that little alteration — that mere technicality of construction of the seventh proposition, they rejected all. No further evidence was want ing to disclose the fact that the revolutionists did not desire a settlement or compromise. Here was an adjustment, conceding all the points at issue, meeting practically every de mand made by Mr. Toombs, having the assent of the Border States, and yet it failed to satisfy the disunionists. The Republicans Caucus of Repub licans. seeing that spirit, gave over every effort for Adjustment. If it was necessary to make the Constitution itself' recognize Slavery, to protect Slavery, by special enactment, they would not touch the question of Constitu tional amendment. Mr. Crittenden visited the President, Saturday, to congratulate with him on the adoption, at length, of a settlement. The pure-hearted and patriotic statesman was yet to be undeceived as to the animus of the Southern Secessionists; his congratulations were premature. A general caucus of Re publican members, Satur day, was called to espe cially Gonsider that seventh section, which was the proposition of Mr. Hale, of Pennsylvania, on the Border Committee. Mr. Howard, of Michigan, objected to any " compromise" at all, as it would, of itself, be an acdnowledg- ment of wrong which did not exist. Mr. Lovejoy, of Maine, expressed similar senti ments. Speaking of the malcontents of the Slave States, and the proposed compromise of dividing the Territory between Freedom and Slavery to the Pacific, he said : " There never was a more causeless revolt since Luci fer led his cohorts of apostate angels against the throne of God ; but I never heard that the Almighty proposed to compromise the matter by allowing the rebels to kindle the fires of hell south of the celestial meridian of thirty-six thirty." Mr. Sherman stated that, "as a member of the Committee from the Border States, he could neither vote for the proposition pro posed by Mr. Hale, nor that proposed by Mr. Crittenden, to restore the Missouri line and extend it to the Pacific. He was also oppos ed to the compromise to prevent the aboli tion of Slavery in the District of Columbia. While he did not wish to abolish it now, he was opposed to yielding up the right of Con gress to do so at any future period." Mr. Grow, of Pennsylvania, expressed him self decidedly opposed to all compromises. He asked what better platform the North or the South could have to stand upon than the Union, the Constitution and the laws? The Republican party has chosen a President in accordance with the forms of the Constitu tion, and is entitled to fair play. If his ad ministration of the Government is resisted by those opposed to Mr. Lincoln, the crime will be theirs. When the Republicans took their position before the election, they knew they would have to meet this state of things, and now they should not put the burden upon posterity. Messrs. Hickman, and Stevens, of Penn sylvania, and Case of Indiana, opposed all compromises, in speeches couched in unmis takable language. Mr. Pettit, of Indiana, from the Committee of Border States, said he had approved all the propositions in that Committee except the one proposed by Mr. Hale, upon which he did not vote. He defended the Border States for their efforts to arrange matters. Mr. Stanton, of Ohio, and Mr. Nixon, of New Jersey, expressed themselves in favor of some compromise. The caucus unanimously agreed to press the business of the country in the House. Mr. Dawes, of Massachusetts, moved that no vote be taken on any of the propositions, and that the caucus adjourn sine die, which was carried. The caucus was fully attended, and was harmonious at the close against all compro mise in view of the ultimatum made by the disunionists of a positive cession to Slavery of all territory south of 36 deg. 30 min. They resolved to stand by the Constitution as it is, and to abide the issue. A corres pondent at the Capital, of a leading Repub lican (New York) journal, wrote : "It may be stated that a majority of the Repub licans would sustain the extension of the old Mis souri line, pure and simple, through the present Ter ritory as a final settlement, regarding it as a vindi cation of the principle upon which the party was originally established. They will never concede the recognition and protection of Slavery south of it, either in the present or prospective territory." It was announced in Washington, January 2d, Seizure of Forts. that the State authorities of Georgia had seized the forts Pulaski and Jackson, at Savannah, and the United States Arsenal at the same place. The United States Arsenal at Mobile, and Fort Morgan, were seized, Jan. 4th. These seizures were expected by the State Depart 174 THE SOUTHERN REBELLION. ment at Washington, and added not a little to the gathering sentiment in Congress and throughout the North against the revolution. These acts of violence, and appropriation of the unprotected property of the General Gov ernment, eventually awakened the spirit of coercion in the breasts of men of all parties in the Free States — a spirit which, except for such overt acts might forever have slumbered.* January 4th was observed at Washington with great solemnity, as a day of fasting and prayer. A sermon, preached to an immense audience, by Rev. Thomas Stockton, Chap- * As frequent reference will be made to the forts of the South, we append, from Col. Totten's Report, a table of the Navy Yards and Forts built by the U. S. Government in the Southern States, together with their cost and armament : ' Where located. Cost. ^^ Fort McHenry, Baltimore $146,000 74 •Ft. Carrol, Baltimore 135,000 159 Ft. Delaware, Del. River, Del 539,000 151 Ft. Madison, Annapolis, Md 5,000 31 Ft. Severn, Maryland 6,000 14 Ft. Washington, Potomac River 575,000 88 Ft. Monroe, Old Pt. Comfort, Va... .2,400,000 371 Ft. Calhoun, H. R'ds., Norfolk, Va. .1,664,000 224 Ft. Macon, Beaufort, N. C 460,000 61 Ft. Johnson, Cape Fear, Wil., N. C. 6,000 10 Ft. Caswell, Oak Island, N. C 571,000 87 Ft. Sumter, Charleston, S.C 677,000 146 Castle Pinckney, Charleston, S.C... 43,000 25 Ft. Moultrie, Charleston, S. C 75,000 54 Ft. Pulaski, Savannah, Ga 923,000 150 Ft. Jackson, Savannah, Ga 80,000 14 Ft. Marion, St. Augustine, Fla 51,000 25 Ft. Taylor, Key West 185 Ft. Jefferson, Tortugas 298 Ft. Barancas, Pensacola 315,000 43 Redoubt, Pensacola 109,000 26 Ft. Pickens, Pensacola 759,000 212 Ft. McRea, Pensacola 384,000 151 Ft. Morgan, Mobile 1,212,000 132 Ft. St. Philip, Mouth Miss. River 143,000 124 Ft. Jackson, Mouth Miss. River 817,000 150 Ft. Pike, Rigolets, La 472,000 49 Ft. Macomb, Chef Menteur, La 447,000 49 Ft. Livingston, Barrataria Bay, La. . 342,000 52 In addition to these there were incomplete works at Ship Island, Mississippi River ; Georgetown, S. C. ; Port Royal Roads, S. C. ; Tybee Islands, Savannah; and at Galveston, Brazos, Santiago, and Matagorda Bay, in Texas. * Incomplete. lain, in the Representatives' Hall, was a most eloquent invocation for the Union, for peace and for fraternal conciliation. It impressed its hearers profoundly. During the week troops were concentrated in Washington and vicinity to the number of about three hundred. Fort McHenry, in Bal timore, was occupied by one company of ar tillery, while another company was thrown into Fort Washington, on the Potomac, twelve miles below the Capital. The Navy Yard was placed under a strong guard, and every arrangement made for giving a de cidedly "warm reception" to the madmen who might attempt to seize the Government buildings. It seems incredible that the de sign of such a seizure, at that early moment of the revolution, was conceived and enter tained ; but, there can be no doubt of such a plot having been concocted. Even papers in Richmond advised the seizure. "Seizures" were, indeed, a potent agency in hastening the revolution. The people were not to be hurried, nor " precipitated"- in their steady movement: public opinion was only devel oped slowly by ordinary processes. Therefore it was necessary, if the leaders would instantly create a fever for action, to seize Government property, and to urge, in justification, the "impending dangers of coercion." This is the key to the seizures at Pensacola, Savan nah, Mobile, New Orleans, and, at a later day, in North Carolina and Virginia. A dis patch from Savannah, January 5th, said : " The pretext that it was necessary to take the forts here because the people would rise against them is the merest subterfuge. The only trouble was, the people were not forward enough, and it was necessary to create an excitement in order to bring them to the proper pitch. The common talk of the town declares that all these movements are but pre liminary to an attack upon the Federal Capital. Having a friendly country through which to march, and having possession of the forts and arsenals, they say that conquest would be easy. They rely on the supposed weakness of the Administration, and are elated with the ease with which they have gained the forts already taken." If Washington were seized, the South would provide an army to retain it. This would render the proposed Southern Confederacy the Government de facto, or would, at least, enable the conspirators to dictate their own THE INTRIGUE EXPOSED, 175 Plot to seize Wash ington. terms to the North. The programme was a brilliant one, it must be confessed, and doubt less embodied the combined suggestions of Messrs. Toombs, Floyd, Governor Wise, Wig- fall, and other Southern hot-heads. The President had no army — only a few compa nies at his immediate disposal ; and, having no power to call out troops, twenty-five hun dred Virginians and Marylanders were deemed amply sufficient to hold the Federal Capital. Congress should not be disturbed — only it should act " circumspectly ;" and, as for Mr. Lincoln — why, of course, he could not be inaugurated ! All this performance was thwarted by Gen. Scott's and Sect'y Holt's judicious disposition of their small but effective force at hand, and by the action taken to place the District Military Companies and Militia in a condition for service. The spirit of loyalty grew stronger and stronger, day by day, after January 1st ; and if the seizure had been attempted, after that day, at the call of the President one hundred thousand men would have rushed, in arms, to the Capital, from New York and Pennsylvania alone. General Scott, at no period, we are assured, felt the city to be insecure — so well did he know his own strength and the resources available in event of an emergency. To become possessed of the capital, was, beyond question, the dream of the revolu tionists. The seizure of all the property of the Government in the Slave States was but preliminary to the forcible possession of the National Capital itself. The rapidity of ac tion in the seceded States in the formation of a Provisional government — the sudden manner in which an army was brought into the field — demonstrate that the details of the revolution were matured by the leaders long before their movements became public. The filling of Southern Arsenals with rich stores of arms and munitions — the withdrawal of garrisons from Southern forts to send them far off on the Western plains— the depletion of the National treasury to the very verge of bankruptcy, so as to leave the incoming ad ministration powerless from want of means — the disruption of the Charleston Democratic Convention, all were, unquestionably, parts of the plot matured, in 1858, to initiate the long talked-of, the long prayed-for, the long perfected scheme of a Slave Confederacy. A very interesting docu ment, bearing on this ques- The Intrigue Exposed. tion of the intrigues of the managers of the movement, was given to the public through the columns of the National Intelligencer newspaper, in Washington, under date of January 9th. That journal said the communication came "from a distinguished citizen of the South, who formerly represent ed his State with great distinction in the popular branch of Congress. Temporarily sojourning in this city, he has become authen tically informed of the facts recited in the letter, which he communicates under a sense of duty, and for the accuracy of which he makes himself responsible." The communi cation was as follows : " Washington, Jan. 9, 1861. " I charge that on last Saturday night a caucus was held in this city by the Southern secession Sen ators from Florida, Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, Arkansas, and Texas. It was then and there resolved, in effect, to assume to themselves the political power of the South, and to control all polit ical and military operations for the present. They telegraphed to complete the plan of seizing forts, arsenals, and custom-houses, and advised the Con ventions now in session, as soon as possible, to pass ordinances for immediate secession; but, in order to thwart any operations of the Government here, the Conventions of the seceding States are to retain their representations in the Senate and the House. " They also advised, ordered, or directed the as sembling of a Convention of delegates from the se ceding States at Montgomery, on the 13th of Febru ary. This can, of course, only be done by the revo lutionary Conventions usurping the powers of the people, and sending delegates over whom they will lose all control in the establishment of a Provisional Government, which is the plan of the dictators. " This caucus also resolved to take the most effec tual means to dragoon the Legislatures of Tennes see, Kentucky, Missouri, Arkansas, Texas, and Vir ginia into following the seceding States. Maryland is also to be influenced by such appeals to popular passion as have led to the revolutionary steps which promise a conflict with the State and Federal Gov ernments in Texas. " They have possessed themselves of all the ave nues of information in the South — the telegraph, the press, and the general control of the postmasters. They also confidontly rely upon defections in the army and navy. " The spectacle here presented is startling to con template. Senators intrusted with the representa tive sovereignty of the States, and sworn to support the Constitution of the United States, while yet act ing as the privy counsellors of the President, and anxiously looked to by their constituents to effect some practical plan of adjustment, deliberately con ceive a conspiracy for the overthrow of the Govern ment through the military organizations, the danger ous secret order of the Knights of the Golden Circle, " Committees of Safety," Southern leagues, and other agencies at their command ; they have insti tuted as thorough a military and civil despotism as ever cursed a maddened country."* The confirmation which these statements had in succeeding events gives assurance that the writer was well informed, and unveils the system of intrigue, of duplicity, of usurpation and wrong through which the entire rebel lion was controlled. When the secret histo ry of the conspiracy is written, the Southern people will be amazed to find to what an extent they were instruments in the hands of the designing and restless spirits whose polir tical ambition was only second to their seL fishness and slave-owners' pride. We have yet to learn, from a careful examination of all evi dence at this moment available — from a rigid scrutiny of individual acts and public move ments — that there has been, on the part of the instigators of the revolution, anything of patriotism, of pure motive, of earnest desire for the good of the whole. If this, indeed be true, time surely will unmask the hypoc- racy of professions and acts. * See Appendix, " The Secession Plot," page 512. CHAPTER Till. PROCEEDINGS IN CONGRESS CONTINUED. SIXTH WEEK. SPEECHES OF TOOMBS, HUNTER AND SEWARD. THE PRESIDENT'S MESSAGE. RESOLUTIONS ENDORSING MAJOR ANDERSON AND SUSTAINING THE PRESIDENT. Crittenden'sSpeech. The proceedings of this week were of the most im portant and interesting na ture. In the Senate, Monday, (January 7th,) Mr. Crittenden called up his resolutions for a reference of his compromise to the people, and supported the proposition with an earnest and eloquent appeal. It seemed to him the only course left — to appeal to the people, who would be just' arbiters. There was no thing improper in such an appeal — nothing which forbade it. He then referred to the features of his propositions, approving of the suggested amendments to the Constitution as desirable, to take the Slavery question from Congress forever. The establishment of a line dividing the common Territory was less a compromise than a fair adjustment of rights. The alternative was civil war. Were mem bers of Congress prepared for such an alter native rather than recognize Slavery in a Ter ritory until it becomes a State ? The Terri tory was acquired as the common property of all, and now a few attempt to exclude a por tion from their just rights, because they have conscientious scruples on the subject. Were Senators willing to sacrifice the country rather than yield their scruples? But, as a matter of right, have Senators any right to exclude any property ? The Constitution was formed by men who well knew we had differ ent institutions in different parts of the coun try, and no section of the country has a right to set up a particular opinion as a rule for all the rest. Suppose the different sec tions had different religions, would one sec tion try to establish a religion for the other 1 But the pulpit has become the minister of the politician, and the politician has become the minister of the Gospel. No man has the right to insist that another man's conscience shall be ruled by his. But he was to deal MR. TOOMBS' SPEECH. 177 with the present^ not the past. He was now to consider the safety of the country, and was here as advocate of the Union, contending for what he thought would save the country. Had a great party grown up which would introduce the Anti- Slavery principle, and was that the principle on which it had tri umphed ? This triumph filled some portion of the Southern States with alarm. Will the party now in the proud triumph of victory plant itself on platforms and dogmas and not yield an inch, or will they, like generous men, be not only just but liberal ? He appealed to them as patriots and countrymen to grant equal rights to all. He did not think he was asking them to make concessions, but only to grant equal rights. He did not believe in the doctrine of secession. It was a new doc trine, and an attempt to secede with the bold front of a -revolution, is nothing but lawless violation of the law and the Constitution. But he only wanted to bear his testimony to the Constitution, and to let it be known that the Constitution cannot be broken. If a State wishes to secede, let them proclaim revolution boldly, and not attempt to hide themselves under little subtleties of law, and claim the right of secession. A constitutional right to break the Constitution was a new doctrine. He argued that Mr. Webster always went against any right of secession. On one side was an asked -Concession, and on the other side was civil war. Mr. Toombs, having the Mr. Toombs' Speech, floor, next followed. His speech having been set for Monday, had drawn a very crowded auditory to wait upon its delivery. It was well under stood that it would define the extreme South ern programme. It was, as anticipated, ex tremely violent and defiant ; in many portions it was rank with treasonable threat and declaration ; in its entire spirit and matter it exemplified the irreconcileable nature of his views, and those even of the Conservatives in the two Houses. We shall reproduce so much of it'as maybe necessary to indicate its spirit and intent. " The success of the Abolitionists and their allies, under the name of the Republican party, has pro duced its logical result already. They have, for long years, been sowing dragon's teeth, and they have finally got a crop of armed men. The Union, Sir, is 23 dissolved. That is a fixed fact lying in the way of this discus- Toombs' Speech. sion, and men may as well heed it. One of your confederates has already wisely, bravely, boldly, met the public danger, and confronted it. She is only ahead and beyond any of her sisters, because of- her greater facility of ac tion. The great majority of these sister States, under like circumstances, consider her cause as their cause ; and I charge you, in their name, here, to-day, ' touch not seguretum.' While my friend from Kentucky, (Mr. Crittenden,) while the House of Representatives are debating the constitution ality and the expediency of seceding from the Union, and while the perfidious authors of all this mischief are showering down denunciations upon a large por tion of the patriotic men of this country, those brave men are calmly and coolly effecting what you call revolution. Aye, Sir, better'than that — an arm ed defense. They appealed to the Constitution and to justice — they appealed to fraternity, until the constitutional justice and fraternity were no longer listened to in the legislative halls of the country. And then, Sir, they prepared for the arbitrament of the sword. Now, Sir, you may see the glitter of the bayonet, and hear the tramp of armed men, from your Capital to the Rio Grande. * * * * "My own position, and my own demands, as I will now give them, are considered the demands of an extreme person, and what you, who talk of Con stitutional right, consider treason. I believe that is the term. I believe for all the acts which the Re publican party call treason and rebellion, there stands before them as good a traitor and as good a rebel as ever descended from revolutionary loins. What does this rebel demand? That these States have equal rights to go into the common Territories and remain there with their property, and be pro tected by the Government till such Territories shall become States. We have fought for this Territory when blood was its price. We have paid for it when money was the price. I demand only that I have leave to go into these Territories upon terms of equality with you, as equal in this great confederacy, and enjoy my own property, receiving the protec tion of a common Government until they shall come into the Union as a Sovereign State, and choose their own institutions. I demand, second, that pro perty in slaves be entitled to the same protection from Government as all other property, and that the Government shall never interfere with the right of any State to control or protect Slavery in its own limits. We demand that a common Government shall use its power to protect our property as well as yours. We pay as much as you do. Our pro perty is subject to taxation. We claim that that Government which recognizes our property for tax- 178 THE SOUTHERN REBELLION. ation should give it the same Toombs' Speech. protection it does to your pro perty. Shall it not do it ? You say, No. Von in the Senate say, No ; the House says, No ; and throughout the length and breadth of your whole conspiracy against the Constitution there is one shout of No ! It is the price of my allegiance. Withhold it, and you don't get my obedience. There is the philosophy of the armed men that have sprung up in this country, and I had rather see the population of my own, my native land, beneath the sod, than that they should support, for one hour, such a Government. * * * * * * " I demand, third, that persons committing crimes against Slave property in one State shall be delivered up by another State, to which they may have fled. That is another of the demands of an extremist and a rebel. [Mr. Toombs then re ferred to the Fourth Article of the Constitution, as supporting this demand, and proceeded:] But the non-Slaveholding States, regardless of their oaths and compacts, have steadily refused to return the men who have stolen Negroes, if these Negroes were slaves. This was done long ago in Maine. We remonstrated and appealed for fraternity. But this Article of the Constitution has been a dead letter to us from that day to this. The Senator from New York (Mr. Seward) also, when Governor, refused this right to Virginia. He said it was not against the laws of New York to steal Negroes, and he would not deliver up the man, and these are our Confede rates — our Sister States. There is a bargain and a compact. They swore to it, but you cannot bind them by an oath. They have a higher law. I sup pose you will undertake to whip freemen into loving such brethren as that. You will have a good time of it, no doubt. We want that provision of the Con stitution carried out. * * The next demand is that fugitive slaves shall be surrendered, according to the act of 1850. The Constitution has provided for this rendition. [He read that article of the Con stitution]. But the Northern States have tried al ways to evade this. First, they got up the fiction that they were entitled to the Habeas Corpus act in the States to which the fugitive had fled. They did not require that for a white man. White men might be delivered up every day, but not slaves. I under take to say here that no Black Republican Legisla ture will ever say it is their duty to render back fugitive slaves. They don't intend to do it. They intend to get possession of this Government, and to use their power against us." " The next demand is, that no State shall pass any law intended to disturb the peace and tranquility of any other State. When the Senator from Illinois (Mr. Douglas) introduced a bill here last Winter to prevent invasion, Mr. Lincoln, in his speech at New York, called it a sedition bill." Mr. Toombs then referred to the old Arti cles of Confederation, and said the Constitu tion was made simply to get at the people's pocket — that was the simple secret of the Constitution. It was false to say "it is ce mented by the blood of the brave men of the Revolution." It never cost one drop of blood. Many of the men of the Revolution voted against it. He continued : " It was carried in the Con vention of Virginia by only five Toombs' Speech. votes. The great mass of the people of Georgia, I know, would rather stay in the Union, but I believe it is a Government that has never done anything for us, and had I the opportu nity I should have voted with the men who voted against it. Yet I have been content to its mainte nance, because while I did not believe it was a good compact, I was bound by my oath and by honor, and by that common, prudence which leads men to hold to what they have instead of flying to clangers they know not of. And I have given it, and I would have given it, my unqualified support and alle giance. All the obligations, all the chains that fet ter the limbs of my people, are nominated in the bond. They acted upon that conclusion by de claring that the powers not granted to the Govern ment, or forbidden to the States, belonged to the States respectively. * * * * " If, in common justice, equal rights belong to our States, when did we get them? Every reserved right is a Constitutional right. The Northern doc trine was the same many years ago. They de- nounced Madison for the Virginia report of 1799. They denounced many of the fathers because they presumed to impugn the decisions of the Supreme Court. That was the universal judgment and' decla ration of every Free State of this Union. Very well. Come to the compact. It is not in the bond to ex clude us from the common Territory. The Supreme Court has decided we have a right to go there and have a right to be protected there. But Mr. Lincoln says, ' I don't care for the Supreme Court — I will turn you out anyhow.' Then you must take my construction of the Constitution. You won't take the Supreme Court as the arbiter, or the opinions of Madison, Jefferson, or the fathers. You take no thing but your own judgment. Your States discard the Court and our construction, and say you will drive us out. Come and do it. You will find us ready. Come and do it. If this is the argument, then the sword alone becomes the constitutional ar biter. It may be secession, it may be revolution, AN INTERESTING EPISODE, 179 but it is a free country in arms Mr. Toombs Speech, and standing for the right. * * * * * * They have made a proclamation of outlawry against ns. The Con stitution gives them no warrant for this thing. Your Chicago Platform and declaration of prin ciples expressly declares, very much like the unjust Judge that you neither fear God nor re gard man. [He read from the Chicago Platform the article denying the legal existence of Slavery in the Territories.] Then you declare that the treaty of 1803 was null and void, and no law at all. You declare that the acts by whieh we organized and protected the Territories of Louisiana, Arkansas, and Mississippi, are all null and void, and no laws ; and you declare that the decision of the Supreme Court of the United States is null and void, and no law, and that there is no Constitution but the Chicago Platform. You swear to support this Government with this understanding. But my friend from Ken tucky (Mr. Crittenden) Bays we can't secede — we can't revolutionize. What can we do ? Why, you can submit, for, they say, we are the strongest, and we will hang you. I will take that right. I will take the Constitution, and I will defend it against the sword or the halter. We are willing to defend that right with the halter around our necks, and to meet these Black Republicans, their myrmidons and allies whenever they choose to come on. * * " You have outlawed us — you avow it. Mr Lin coln declares it. Your platform, your papers, your Legislatures, declare it ; and there is but one voice rolling throughout your entire phalanx — that we shall be outlawed in the Territories of the United States. But I say we will not ; and I will never com promise that right, upon the face of the earth. I won't buy a shameful peace. I prefer war. Geor gia is on the war-path, on a proposition of this kind." The Senate adjourned to Wednesday. In the House, Monday, a most interesting episode occurred, on the introduc tion, by Mr. Adrian, of N. J., of a resolution approving the act of Major Anderson, and to support the President in his effort to enforce the laws, viz : "Resolved, That we fully approve the bold and patriotic act of Major Anderson, in withdrawing from Fort Moultrie to Fort Sumter, and the deter mination of the President to maintain that fearless officer in his present condition ; and we will support the President in all constitutional measures to en force the laws and preserve the Union." This was followed by marked excitement and personal feeling. Its introduction was Resolution to En dorse Anderson. objected to by Burnett, of Kentucky, as cal culated to do harm in the excited state of the country. Mr. Adrian said the country de manded it, and called for a suspension of the rules, to get it before the House. During the calling of the yeas and nays on the motion to suspend, the running remarks elicited formed one of the most interesting features of the en tire session, while the result had a very im portant bearing on the ultimate question of National affairs. We give, as a matter of curiosity, the entire report of the remarks elicited, as the names of certain prominent gentlemen were called : When Mr. Leach's (S. Am., Interesting N. C.) name was called, he Episode. said he could not give his vote for the resolution, although he Would like to give his vote for any man who would save the Union. Mr. McKean (Rep., N. Y.) said a few more men like Major Anderson would quiet the country. Mr. Hindman (Dem., Ark.) wanted a vote, and to ascertain who had proved a traitor to every principle. Mr. Campbell (Rep. Pa.) approving the conduct of Major Anderson, voted Yea. Mr. Hill (S. Am., Ga.) was an advocate of peace, but conceived the resolution could be productive of nothing but harm. The rules were suspended — 134 against 53. Mr. Bocock (Dem., Va.) moved to lay the resolu tion on the table. He wanted to show a disposition to get rid of this firebrand motion. Mr. Lovejoy (Rep. ,111.) — We sustain the Govern ment. Mr. Hindman wished to know whether it was in order for him to propound a question to Mr. Adrain for information ? Voices from the Republican side — " Not in or der." Mr. Hindman — I am not asking the opinion of Black Republican gentlemen. The Speaker said nothing was in order but the call of the roll. When John Cochrane's (Dem., N. Y.) name was reached, he said, having cause to believe that An derson acted under the instructions of the Secretary of War, I vote Aye. [Laughter.] Mr. Dunn (Rep., Ind.) — Believing Anderson acted on hig sole responsibility, I vote Aye. [Renewed Laughter.] Mr. Hamilton (Dem., Texas) believed Anderson ought to be sustained by the Government, but for other reasons he voted against the resolution. Mr. Moore (S. Am., Ky.)— As the Secretary of War denounced the act of Anderson, I vote No. 180 THE SOUTHERN REBELLION. Interesting Mr. Hatton (S. Am., Tenn.) Episode. believing the resolution would do harm and no good, voted against it. Mr. Vallandigham (Dem., Ohio)— I vote for peace and compromise. You refuse it. I vote now against force. No. Mr. Hindman (Dem., Ark.) said if the President or the Secretary of War, or any other officer, directly or indirectly, justified the act of Major Anderson, he did not hesitate to say that they are guilty of treason and inciting civil war. Mr. Kunkel (Dem.,Md.) believing that Major An derson acted more for personal safety than for the peace of the country, voted No. Mr. Logan (Dem., HI.) — As the resolution meets my unqualified approbation, I vote Aye. Mr. Mallory (S. Am., Ky.) while willing to sustain Major Anderson, would not vote for the resolution, pledging him in advance to all the measures of the President. Mr. McKenty (Dem., Pa.) — I have the honor of representing one of the most conservative dis tricts of Pennsylvania — one that is strongly Demo cratic. Our political difficulties and sympathies have been always with the South. I don't believe there is a single man in my district that does not sustain tbe President in his course. While we have stood by South Carolina at the ballot-box, we con- not sustain her in her treason against the General Government. I feel that the act of the President is merely defensive ; and if the last page of our na tion's history is to be a bloody one, the responsibili ty must rest with those who will make it so. Mr. Moore (Dem., Ky.) — If the question was con fined to the simple act of approving of Anderson, he might vote aye ; but he could not support the re mainder of the resolution. Mr. Nixon (Rep., N.J.) — As I stand on the Con stitution and laws, I vote Yea. Mr. Pryor — As I believe the act of Major Ander son to foster civil war, I vote Nay. Mr. Rust (Dem., Ark.) as Anderson had shown no extraordinary courage in abandoning a weak work for a safe one, and as the President had pledged his word not to change the condition of the forts, voted Nay. Mr. Sickles (Dem., N. Y.) believed his constitu ents were unfalteringly opposed to coercion against the sovereign States ; nevertheless, convinced as he was that they regard Major Anderson's act as within the spirit of his instructions and the scope of his duty and patriotism — that it is the sworn duty of the President to preserve the Union by upholding the Constitution — he believed he gave an expression of the opinion of the City of New York by voting Yea. [Applause from Republican side.] Interesting Episode. Mr. Stevenson (Dem., Ky.) did not know what measures the President contemplated, therefore he was not willing to pledge himself to anything looking to coercion. Whenever a measure of that kind shall be presented, he would inflexibly oppose it from end to end. He voted Nay. Mr. Stokes (S. Am. Tenn.. had no objection to the first part of the resolution, but had to the latter part. He did not believe the resolution had a tendency to reconcile or to restore peace. It was known he was for peace and compromise, and for healing the dis turbing questions which excite and distract the country; but he did not believe this resolution would heal the difficulties, therefore he voted Nay. Mr. Moore (Dem,, Ala.) said a solemn compact had been entered into between the representatives of South Carolina and the President ; that the forts were not to be disturbed or reinforced. He wished it to be recorded that the people of South Carolina, in her weakness, kept her faith when these forts were necessary for the protection of her homes and firesides. I vote Nay. The Republican side called him to order, objecting to further remarks. Mr. Barksdale (Dem., Miss.) amid shouts for order from the Republican side, and much general excitet ment, said this resolution was a fireband cast into the South for the purpose of inciting revolution and insurrection. It was infamous and cowardly. He could not be heard throughout owing to the great state of confusion. He took his seat remark ing that he had said all he wanted to say. The Speaker's hammer had repeatedly called him to or der. Mr. Barrett (Dem., Mo.) indorsed Major Ander son's act, but as no official information had been transmitted concerning it, he deemed it an improper subject for consideration at this time. Mr. Gilmer (S. Am., N, C.) approved the conduct of Major Anderson ; but as the House had refused to admit a proposition for adjustment of the difficul ties, he could not in the face of thatfact vote for the resolution. Mr. Webster (S. Am., Md.) said the South had held out the olive branch to the North, but the North had shown themselves adverse, as for this olive branch they had offered the sword of war. He voted Nay. Mr. Florence (Dem., Penn.) considered this reso lution as calculated to provoke mischief, and to do more harm than good ; therefore he voted Nay. The resolution was then passed by a vote of 124 to 56. This result was received with acclamations throughout the North, all parties uniting in THE PRESIDENT MESSAGE. 181 The Border Slate Proposition. expressions of loyalty. It was the first reso lution of the session looking to the " enforce ment of the laws" and to sustaining the President. It indicated to him the course which Congress was now willing to sustain him in pursuing. Mr. Etheridge,of Tennes see, previous to this vote, had asked leave to intro duce resolutions embodying the substance- matter of the propositions agreed to by the Border State Committee [See page 172.] ; but the usual protest, " I object !" gave them their quietus. Mr. Etheridge tried to force it upon the House by a suspension of the rules, but a vote not to suspend decided against him. The loss of these resolutions and the adoption of that offered by Mr. Adrian, seemed to indicate pretty clearly that the House was becoming less considerate of compromise and more solicitous of an enforce ment of the laws. The House adjourned to Wednesday. On Wednesday, the President's Message, covering the correspondence with the South Carolina Commissioners, was transmitted to the two Houses. In the Senate, its reading, and the reception of the correspondence, gave rise to an exciting passage between Mr. Davis, of Mississippi, and Mr. King, of New York. The Message, at the call of Mr. Sew ard, was read as follows : " To the Senate and "House of Representatives: " At the opening of yonr present session, I called your attention to the dangers which threatened the existence of the Union. I expressed my opinion freely, concerning the original causes of these dangers, and recommended such measures as I believed would have the effect of tranquilizing the country, saving it from the peril in which it had been needlessly and most unfortunately thrown. " Those opinions and recommendations I do not propose now to repeat. My own convictions upon the whole subject remain unchanged. The fact that a great calamity was impending over the nation was even at that time acknowledged by every intelligent citizen. It had already made itself felt throughout the length and breadth of the land. The necessary consequences of the alarm thus produced were most deplorable. The imports fell off with a, rapidity never known before, except in the time of war, in the history of our foreign commerce. The Treasury The President's The President's was unexpectedly left Without means, which it had reasonably counted upon to meet its public engagements. Trade was paralyzed, manufactures were stopped,the best public securities suddenly sunk in the market, every species of property depreciated more or less, and thousands of poor men who de pended on their daily labor for their daily bread, were turned out of employment. " I deeply regret that I am not able to give you information upon the state of the Union, which is more satisfactory than what I was then obliged to communicate. On the contrary, matters are still worse at present than they then were. When Con gress met, a strong hope pervaded the whole public mind that some amicable adjustment of the subject would be speedily made by the Representatives of the States, which might restore peace between the conflicting sections of the country. That hope has been diminished by every hour of delay, and as the prospect of a bloodless settlement fades away, the public distress becomes more and more aggravated. As an evidence of this, it is only necessary to say that the Treasury notes, authorized by the act of the 17th of December last, were advertised accord ing to law, and that no responsible bidder offered to take any considerable sum at par, at a lower rate of interest than twelve per cent. From these facts, it appears that in a Government organized like ours, domestic strife, or even a well-grounded fear of civil hostilities is more destructive of public and private interests than the most formidable foreign war. " In my annual message I expressed the convic tion, which I have long deliberately held, and which recent reflection has only tended to deepen and con firm, that no State has the right, by its own act, to secede from the Union, or to throw off its Federal obligation at pleasure. I also declare my opinion to be, that even if that right existed, and should be exercised by any State of the Confederacy, the Ex ecutive Department of this Government had no authority, under the Constitution, to recognize its validity by acknowledging the independence of such State. This left me no alternative, as the chief ex ecutive officer, under the Constitution of the United States, but to collect the public revenue and protect the public property, so fat as this might be practi cable, under existing laws. This is still my purpose. My province is to execute, not to make, the laws. It belongs to Congress exclusively to repeal; modify or enlarge their provisions, to meet exigencies as they may occur. I possess no dispensing power. I cer tainly had no right to make aggressive war upon any State, and I am perfectly satisfied that the Constitu tion has wisely withheld that power, even from Con gress. 182 THE SOUTHERN REBELLION, The President's " But the right and the duty to use military force defensively against those who resist the Federal officers in the execution of their legal func tions, and against those who assail the property of the Federal Government is clear and undeniable. But the dangerous and hostile attitude of the States toward each other, has already far transcended and cast into the shade the ordinary Executive duties al ready provided for by law, and has assumed such vast and alarming proportions as to place the sub ject entirely above and beyond Executive control. The fact cannot be disguised, that we are in the midst of a great revolution. Therefore, I commend the question to Congress, as the only human tribu nal under Providence possessing the power to meet the existing emergency. To them, exclusively, be longs the power to declare war, or to authorize the employment of military force, in all cases contem plated by the Constitution, and they alone possess the power to remove all the grievances which might lead to war, and to secure peace and union to this distracted country. On them, and on them alone, rests the responsibility. The Union is a sacred trust left by our Revolutionary fathers for their des cendants, and never did any other people inherit such a legacy. It has rendered ns prosperous in peace and triumphant in war. The National Flag has floated in glory over every sea, and under its shadow American citizens have found protection and respect in all lands beneath the sun. If we descend to considerations of purely material interest when, in the history of all time, has a, Confederacy been bound together by such strong ties of mutual inter est? Each portion of it is dependent upon all, and all upon each portion, for prosperity and domestic security. Free trade throughout the whole supplies the wants of one portion from the productions of another, and scatters wealth everywhere. The grea,t planting and farming States require the aid of the commercial and navigating States to send their pro ductions to domestic and foreign markets, and fur nish the naval power to render their transportation secure against all hostile attacks. " Should the Union perish in the midst of the present excitement, we have already had a sad foretaste of the universal suffering which would result from its destruction. The calamity would be severe in every portion of the Union, and would be quite as great, to say the least, in the Southern as in the Northern States. " The greatest aggravation of the evil, and that which would place ns in the most unfavorable light, both before the world and posterity is, as I am firm ly convinced, that the secession movement has been chiefly based upon misapprehension at the South of The President's lies- the sentiments of the majority in several of the Northern States. Let the question be answered from the political assemblies to the ballot- box, and the people themselves would speedily re dress the serious grievances which the South have suffered. But, in Heaven's name, let the trial be made before we plunge into an armed conflict, upon the" mere assumption that there is no other alternative. Time is a great conservative power. Let us pause at the momentous point, and afford the people, both at the North and Sooth, an opportunity for reflection. Would that South Carolina had been convinced of this truth before her precipitate action. I therefore appeal through you to the people of the country to declare in their might that the Union must and shall be preserved by all constitutional means. " I most earnestly recommend that yon devote yourselves to the question how this can be accom plished in peace. All other questions, when com pared with this, sink into insignificance. The pre sent is no time for palliatives. Prompt action is required. A delay in Congress to prescribe or recom mend a distinct and practical proposition for conci liation, may drive us to a point from which it will be almost impossible to recede. A common ground on which conciliation and harmony may be produced is surely not unattainable. The proposition to com promise by letting the North have exclusive control of the Territory above a certain line, and to give Southern institutions protection below that line, ought to receive universal approbation. In itself, indeed, it may not be entirely satisfactory, but when the alternative is between reasonable concession on both sides and the destruction of the Union, it is an imputation on the patriotism of Congress to assert that its members will hesitate a moment. Even now the danger is upon us. " In several States which have not yet seceded, the forts, arsenals, and magazines of the United States have been seized. This is by far the most serious step which has been taken since the com mencement of the troubles. This public property has long been left without garrisons and troops for its protection, because no person doubted its secu rity under the flag of the country in any State of the Union. Besides, onr small army has scarcely been sufficient to guard our remote frontiers against In dian incursions. The seizure of this property, from all appearances, has been purely aggressive, and not in resistance to any attempt to coerce a State or States to remain in the Union. At the beginning of these unhappy troubles, I determined that no act of mine should increase the excitement in either sec tion of the country. If the political conflict were to end in civil war, it was my determined purpose not AN EXCITING PASSAGE 183 The President's Message. to commence it, nor to furnish an excuse for it in any act of this Government. My opinion remains unchanged, that justice as well as sonnd policy requires us still to seek a peaceful solution of the questions at issue between the North and South. i Entertaining this conviction, I refrained even from sending reenforcements to Major Anderson, who commanded the forts of Charleston harbor, until an absolute necessity for doing so should make itself apparent, lest it might be regarded as a menace of military coercion, and thus furnish a provocation, or, at least, a pretext, for an outbreak on the part of South Carolina. No necessity for these reen forcements seemed to exist. I was assured, by dis tinguished, upright gentlemen of South Carolina, that no attack on Major Anderson was intended, but that, on the contrary, it was the desire of the State authorities as much as it was my own to avoid the fatal consequences which must eventually follow a military collision. " And here I deem it proper to submit, for your information, copies of a communication da ted 28th December, 1860, addressed to me by R. W. Barnwell, J. H. Adams, and James L. Orr, Commissioners of South Carolina, with the accom panying documents, and copies of my answer thereto, dated December 31st. [See pages 145-149.] In further explanation of Major Anderson's removal from Fort Moultrie to Fort Sumter, it is proper to state that after my answer to the South Carolina Commissioners, the War Department received a let ter from that gallant officer dated December 27th, 1860, the day after his movement, from which the following is an extract : ' " I will add as my opinion, that many things con vinced me that the authorities of the State designed ¦ to proceed to a hostile act (evidently referring to the orders dated December 11th, of the late Secretary of War.) Under this impression, I could not hesitate that it was my solemn duty to move my command from a fort which we could not probably have held longer than forty-eight or sixty hours, to this one where my power of resistance is increased to a very great degree.' " It will be recollected that the concluding part of the orders was in the following words : ' " The smallness of your force will not permit you, perhaps, to occupy more than one of the three forts, but an attack on, or attempt to take possession of either one of them, will be regarded as an act of hostility, and you may then put your command into either of them, which you may deem most proper to increase its power of resistance. You are also au thorized to take similar defensive Bteps whenever you have tangible evidence of a design to proceed to a hostile act.' " It is said that serious apprehensions are to some extent entertained, in which I do not share, that the peace of the District may be disturbed before the 4th of March next. In any event, it will be my duty, to preserve it, and this duty shall be per formed. " In conclusion, it may be permitted to me to re mark that I have often warned my countrymen Of the dangers which now surround us. This may be the last time I shall refer to the subject officially. I feel that my duty has been faithfully, though it may be imperfectly performed ; and whatever the result may be, I shall carry to my grave the consciousness that I at least meant well for my country. (Signed) " JAMES B UCHAN AN. " Washington City, Jan. 8, 1861." Davis, of Miss., called for the reading of the accompanying papers. He referred to the peaceful nature of the mission, and to the amiable character of the Commissioners. The country, therefore, had a right to expect something good from their presence. But they had returned, and the President had not even referred to the termination of their mis sion. He added : " He," (the President,) " stops with the letter which he sent to them, and which I must say, with all respect to the high office which he holds, was wanting in fairness, and was a perversion of the argu ments which they had presented They re plied to him, and exposed the unfairness of his treatment of the facts which they stated, certainly in a manner most uncomfortable to him, and he returned their letter as one which he could not receive. In his com munication to us he does not even permit us to know that these Commissioners had at tempted to reply to the positions he had taken. But, with this great misstatement of his paper to them, he sends that paper to the world without even a reference to the fact that he was answered. I have an authentic copy of their answer, and I send it to the desk that it may be read." Mr. King (Rep., N. Y.) interposing, objected, say- Exciting Passage. ing that the Senator (Mr. Davis) talks of the high character of the Commissioners. Benedict Arnold and Aaron Burr once also had high characters. Mr. Davis called Mr. King to order, re marking, that he (Mr. K.) once occupied a higher position than he does now. 184 THE SOUTHERN REBELLION, Mr. King — These men were here with a treasonable purpose. Mr. Davis — I call the Senator to order. I sent a paper to be read, Sir. Mr. King — I call the Senator to order. I object to the reading of the paper. Mr. Davis — If the Senator has the meanness to object, let it come back. Mr. King said he objected to the reading. He did not want to hear the papers read. A long discussion ensued on a point of or der, and the yeas and nays were called on the decision of the Chair that the paper was understood to be part of the Senate papers. Mr. King said he objected to the reception of the paper, as he supposed it was to supply a defect in the President's Message. The decision of the Chair was sustained — 31 to 19. And it was also ordered to be read —36 to 13. The reading of the last letter again called up Mr. Davis. In the course of his remarks he said : " I feel now, even more than before, pity for the Chief Executive of the United States. Fallen, indeed, is that Executive, who so lately was borne into the high office which he holds, upon the shoulders of the Democracy of the land, when he comes down to depend upon the Senators from New York for protection." He then asked: "Why, after the reception of the last letter, the Presi dent had not called upon the Commissioners for the means by which peace could be re stored ? Thus he would have initiated a measure which might have led to auspicious results, and might have turned away civil war. Then we should not have stood waiting hourly, as we do to day, for what the tele graph may bring us to decide whether we are to have peace or war." Mr. Crittenden called up his resolutions. Mr. Clark, of N. H., moved to substitute the following : — " Resolved, That the provisions of the Constitution are ample for the preservation of the Union, and the protection of all the material interests of the coun try ; that it needs to be obeyed rather than amend ed ; and an extrication from our present difficulties is to be looked for in strenuous efforts to preserve and protect the public property, and enforce the laws, rather than in new guarantees for particular interests, or compromises, or concessions to unrea sonable demands. " Resolved, That all attempts to dissolve the Union or overthrow the Constitution, with the expectation of constructing it anew, are dangerous and illusory and in the opinion of the Senate no reconstruction is practicable ; and, therefore, to the maintenance of the existing Union and Constitution should be di rected all the energies of the Government." The whole matter was laid over. In the House, Wednesday was also a day of excitement.^ At the reception and read ing of the President's Message, Mr. Howard,. of Michigan, moved that the Message be re ferred to a Special Com- mittee of Five, with instruc- *" *¦*• ' Committee on the tions to inquire whether Message any Executive officers of the United States have been or are now treat ing or holding communication with any per son or persons for the transfer of forts and other property; whether any demand for their surrender has been made, and by whom, and what answer has been given; whether any officer or officers have entered into any pledge not to send reenforcement of troops to the harbor of Charleston, and if so, when, where, by whom, and on what consider ations ; whether the Custom-house, Post-of fice, and arsenal at Charleston have been seized, by whom held in possession ; whether any revenue cutter has been seized, and-whe- ther any efforts have been made to recover it. The Committee to have power to send for persons and papers, and report from time to time such facts as may be required by the national honor, &c. This stirred up the opposition to a deter mined resistance. Mr. Crawford, of Georgia, ineffectually sought to introduce a substitute. Mr. Garnett, of Virginia, sought to have the Message considered in the Committee of the Whole on the State of the Union. Mr. Phelps, of Mo., would oppose the resolu tion as offering, instead of a remedy for evils, a mere effort to indict somebody. Mr. Flo rence, (Dem.,) of Pennsylvania, opposed the resolution, believing it to be productive of no good. So of Hill, of Georgia, and Mar tin, of Virginia, the latter of whom deemed it a firebrand. The resolution finally passed ,. — 133 to 62. On further motion of Mr. Leake, the Special Committee, now ordered on the Message, was instructed to inquire whether any arms have recently been remov- HUNTER'S SPEECH, 185 ed from Harper's Ferry to Pittsburgh ; and if so, by whose authority and for what reason. In the Senate, Friday, the Crittenden res olutions were called up. Mr. Turnbull moved an amendment, approving the conduct of Major Anderson in withdrawing from Fort Moultrie to Fort Sumter ; also approving the determination of the President to maintain that officer in his present condition, and avowing that we will support the President in all constitutional measures for the en forcement of the laws and for the preservation of the Union. Mr. Hunter, of Virginia, then addressed the Senate at length on the state of the country. He reviewed the course of events, and as sumed that the South had but one path to pursue — either to obtain a concession to her demands or to withdraw from the Union. The nature of these demands he thus stated : " I now ask what should be Hunter's Speech. tne nature of that guarantee that would effectually protect our social system from such assaults as these ? They must be guarantees of a kind that will stop up all the avenues through which they threaten to assail the social system of the South. There must be Constitu tional amendments which should provide, First, That Congress shall have no power to abolish Slavery in the States or the District of Columbia, or the dock yards, forts and arsenals of the United States. "Second: Congress shall not abolish, tax, or obstruct the Slave-trade between the States. " Third: It shall be the duty of each of the States to suppress combination within its jurisdiction, for the armed invasion of any other State. " Fourth : States shall be admitted, with or without Slavery, according to the election of the people. "Fifth: It shall be the duty of the States to restore fugitive slaves, or pay the value of the same. " Sixth : Fugitives from justice shall be deemed to be those who have offended the laws of a State within its jurisdiction, and have escaped there from. "Seventh: Congress shall recognize, and protect as property, what is held to be such by the laws of any State, in the Territories, dockyards, arsenals, forts, and wherever the United States has exclusive jurisdiction. These are, of course, liable to excep tions — First: Congress may leave Slavery to the people of the Territories, when they shall be ready to pass into the condition of a State, with the usual sanction of a majority of Senators from the non- Slaveholding States. This exception is designed to 24 apply to those cases when we annex a country, and they are Hunter's Speech. not quite ready to come in as a State. The next exception is, that Congress may di vide the Territories, so that Slavery shall be prohibit ed in one portion, and be recognized and protected in the other ; provided the law is sanctioned by a majo rity of Senators. This exception is intended to ap ply to cases when unpeopled Territory is annexed, and is subject to fair division between sections." But these were not all that were necessary _ to preserve the South from encroachments. He assumed the unequivocal position that she must have guarantees of power as well as guar antees of principle, otherwise the South would be at the mercy of the majority of the North. It would, therefore, be necessary to modify the system of government, so as to give each section a constant representative in the Presi dential chair. As this scheme has found some favor among " re-constructionists," we may give the Senator's propositions on this head: " In the first place, I would resort to a dual Executive, as proposed by Mr. Calhoun, but in another form. I would provide that each sec tion should elect a President, to be called the First and Second President, the first to serve for four yearB, and the President next succeeding him to serve for four other years, and afterward be reelig- ible. During the term of the President the Second should be President of the Senate, having a casting vote in case of a tie. No treaty should be valid which did not have the signature of both Presidents, and be sanctioned by two-thirds of the Senate. No law should be valid which was not signed by both Presidents, or, in the event of a veto, be passed by the sanction of a majority of the Senators from the section from which he came. And no officers should be appointed unless with the sanction of both Presi dents, or the sanction of a majority of the Senators from whence they are appointed. And, Sirs, I would change, if I had the power, the mode of electing these Presidents. I would provide that each State should be divided into Presidential elect oral districts. Each district should elect one man as Elector, and these Electors should meet in one cham ber, and the two men who, after a certain number of ballots, should receive the highest number of votes, should be submitted as candidates to the people, and he should be declared President who should have the majority of districts. I would do this to deBtroy the chances of a combination, for purposes of power and patronage. I would substitute this in stead of a National Convention. I would diminish 186 THE SOUTHERN REBELLION, the temptations to all such cor- Hunter's Speech. rUpt combinations for spoils and patronage, by the fact that one of the Presidents that would be elected would have four years to serve before he could take the power. Meantime he would be in training for four years, as President of the Senate, and using the veto power. " But I go further. I believe the working of our present Executive system would destroy this Gov ernment by dissolution, or by turning it into a despotism, in the end, if some amendments are not made. The working of this Executive is such as to bring np a party whose very existence depends upon spoil and plunder. I have heard Mr. Calhoun say often, that the conflict in every Govern ment would be conflicts between two parties, which he called the tax-paying party and the tax-consum ing party — the one dependent entirely upon the spoils of office, and the other the tax-paying party, which made the contributions to the Government and expected nothing in return except from the gen eral benefits of legislation. He said, and wisely said, in my opinion, that whenever this tax-consuming party got entire possession, disunion would follow, and the Government must cease or take an entirely different form. I say the working of our present system is such as to give rise to such a party in the country, and some change must be made, or else it will eventually end in despotism. " Now, Sir, the check which I propose not only remedies this evil, and gives a sectional check, when a sectional check is necessary, but it would do much to purify the general legislation of the country, and renovate the public morals of the land. I do believe that this single change would do more to give us a permanent Government than any other which could be made; but it is not the only check which ought to be introduced, for some of the most important ob jects of this Constitution are now left simply to the discretion of the States. There is a large class of rights for which there is no remedy, or next to none. Those provisions which are designed to secure free trade and free intercourse between the States— most of them are left to the States. They can pass laws to tax the commodities of an obnoxious State. I believe, myself, it was intended by the framers of the Constitution that the States should be instru mental in restoring fugitive SlaveB, and we know it is in their power to obstruct and actually to impede the Government of the United States. Now, Sir, I propose, in order to secure the proper enforcement of these rights, that the Supreme Court should also be readjusted so as to consist of ten members, five from each section, the Chief Justice to be one of the five ; and I would allow any State to bring another State before it, on a charge of having failed to dis charge its constitutional obli gations ; and then, if the Court Hunter's Speech. found the State to be in fault, then, Sir, I would have, if it did not repair the wrong, that any other State might deny all privileges to its citizens, and that all the States might tax its com merce until it ceased to be in fault. Tims I would pro vide a remedy without bringing the General Govern ment in collision with the States, and I would give the States, in such cases, the right of denying the dis charge of any obligation which they may have in curred. In this way I believe these wrongs might be remedied, without producing any collision or jar ring. In order to make this complete, it should be provided that the Judges of the Supreme Court in each section should be appointed by the President from that section, and that is the only original ap pointing power, I would give the second President." He adverted at some length, and with great argumentative force, to the questions of secession, coercion and the enforcement of the laws. Call it what you may, secession was a fixed fact, and that the constitutional power did not exist to coerce a State he be- ,. lieved to be incontestable. His argument on the question of the relative and positive rights of a State was very able — by far the most able of any made by any Southern mem ber. It was subtle, forcible and very plau sible. Its great length forbids us from draw ing upon the verbatim report. As a logical. deduction of his argument, he added :— " But will this be possible if we have a civil war? I ask if the Republicans are willing to add civil war to the long catalogue of enormities for which they have to answer hereafter? Is it not enough that they have marched into power over the ruins of the Constitution ? Is it not enough that they have seized this Government at the expense of the Union ? Will it not satisfy them unless they add civil war ? * * How will they settle with their own consciences? How will they settle with humanity, for having -' crushed the highest capacity for usefulness, progress to development, that was ever bestowed on man? Sir, what judgment will posterity pronounce upon them for their unhallowed ambition ? Will it not say, ' you found peace, and established war ; you found an Empire and a Union, and you rent them into fragments ?' And more awful still, what account will they render at the bar of Heaven? When from many a burning homestead, and many a bloody bat tle field, a spectral host shall appear to accuse them — when the last wail of suffering childhood shall arise from the depths of the grave, to make its feeble plaint against them, and the tears of helpless women MR. SEWARD'S SPEECH, 187 shall plead against them, for her Hunter's Speech. wounded honor, in her speech less woe and despair — how will they account for it before man and before God, before earth and before Heaven, if they close in blood this great American experiment, which was inaugurated by Providence in the wilderness, to insure peace on earth and good will to men? * * * It is said that the very smell of blood stirs the animal passions of men. Give us time for the play of rea son. Let us see, after the States have secured in themselves their old organization and their old sys tem — let us Bee if we cannot bring together once more our scattered divisions, if we cannot close up our broken ranks, and cannot find some plan of con ciliation. And when those columns come mustering in from the distant North, and the further South, from the rising to the setting sun, to take their part in that grand review, there will go up a shout that will shake the heavens, and which shall proclaim to the ends of the earth that we are united once more — brothers in war, brothers in peace, ready to take our place in the front of that grand march of human progress, and able and willing to play in that game of nations where the prizes are wealth and empire, and where victory may crown our name with death less and eternal fame." Mr. Harlan, of Iowa, followed, confining his remarks chiefly to the ' Fugitive Slave law and the impropriety of the presumption fos tered by Southern men that the majority should submit to the minority. He conceiv ed that human liberty, liberty of speech, of the press, of the conscience, of government, of religion — all were at stake ; if the North yielded, all were in peril, and society itself would be shocked to its very centre by such a " compromise." Nothing of moment transpired in the House, during Friday. Saturday's session of the Mr. Seward's Speech. Senate was rendered mem orable by Mr. Seward's long expected speech. It called together a vast audience. The speaker's position as the ac credited Secretary of State of the incoming Administration rendered his words of more than usual weight, He was to pronounce for peace or war — to decide if the seceding States should be permitted to depart in peace, or be held 'responsible at the bar of Executive power. If compromise were possible he was to indicate it. After adverting to the happy auspices of the preceding session, and the calamities which were Mr- Seward's Speeeh. impending at the moment, he confessed that the alarm was appalling. Union is not more the body than Liberty is the soul of the nation. The American citi zen, therefore, who has looked calmly at rev olution elsewhere, and believed his own coun try free from its calamities, shrinks from the sight of convulsive indications of its sudden death. He knew how difficult it was to de cide, amid so many and so various counsels, what ought to, or even what can, be done. But, it was time for every Senator to declare himself. He, therefore, declared his " adher ence to the Union in its integrity and with all its parts, with my friends, with my party, with my State, with my country, or without either, as they may determine, in every event, whether of peace or of war, with every con sequence of honor or dishonor, of life or of death." This fine sentiment was the key-note to his entire speech ; to the defence and illustration of that stand-point he brought to bear all the power of his eloquence, all the force of his lo gic, all the resources of his accomplished in tellect. The effort cost him sacrifices, since, before war he chose peace, and for peace he would compromise to the last verge of pro priety. This position lifted him above those of his party who had declared against com promise, and, to some degree, served to ar gue a difference in policy from the President elect, whose first minister he was to become.* For that reason it created comment, though, as a whole, its general impression was emin ently satisfactory to the large majority in the Free States, and to many in the Slave States who still hoped for adjustment. It was, he said, easy to say what would not save the Union. Mere eulogiums would not, * The N. Y. Tribune, late in December, had in serted the following as a " double-leaded" editorial: "We are enabled to state in the most positive terms, that Mr. Lincoln is utterly opposed to any conces sion or compromise that shall yield one iota of the position occupied by the Republican party on the subject of Slavery in the Territories, and that ha stands now, as he stood in May last, when he ac cepted the nomination for the Presidency, square upon the Chicago Platform." 188 THE SOUTHERN REBELLION, mutual criminations would Mr. Seward's Speech. n0^ a continuance of the de bate on the power of Con gress over Slavery in the Territories would not. The Union could not be saved even by proving secession illegal and unconstitutional, and little more would be gained by proving the right of the Federal Government to coerce a Seceding State to obedience. All must give place to the practical question— Have many Se ceding States the right to coerce the remain ing members to acquiesce in a dissolution ? Congressional Compromises, as such, he as sumed, were not calculated to save the Union. He said : " I know that tradition favors this form of remedy. But, it is essential to suc cess, in any case, that there be found a pre ponderating mass of citizens, so far neutral on the issue which separates parties, that they can intervene, strike down clashing weapons, and compel an accommodation. Moderate concessions are not customarily asked by a force with its guns in battery ; nor are liberal concessions apt to be given by an opposing force not less confident of its own right and its own strength. I think, also, that there is a prevailing conviction that legislative com promises which sacrifice honestly-cherished principles, while they anticipate future exi gencies, even if they do not assume extra-con stitutional powers, are less sure to avert im minent evils than they are certain to produce ultimately even greater dangers." He thought, therefore, that it would be wise to discard two prevalent ideas or prejudices, viz : that the Union was to be saved by somebody in particular, or was to be preserved by some cunning and insincere compact of pacification. After referring, at some length, to the facts of the consolidation of the States to form a Government capable of acting as a central power and a unit — of enforcing its powers and sustaining its rights, he proceeded to show, that, laying aside all passion, all prejudice, all pique, the Union was essential to the pros perity and development of the American peo ple. " Notwithstanding recent vehement ex pressions and manifestations of intolerance in some quarters, produced by intense partisan excitement, we are, in fact, an homogeneous people, chiefly of one stock, with accessions well assimilated. We have, practically, only one language, one religion, one system of Government, Mr- Seward's Speech. with manners and customs common to all." He adverted to the impos sibility of such a people, divided, being prosperous and happy — to their intricate re lations and the necessities of a war footing to guard against each other's encroachments and assumptions. "Universal suffrage and the absence of a standing army are essential to the Republican system." A state of mili tary defence would inevitably produce a military demoralization, and, eventually, a military despotism. He then entered upon a consideration of the causes of the impend ing dissolution of the political bond of Union. We quote : "First: It is only sixty days since this dis union movement began ; already, those who are engaged in it. have canvassed with por tentous freedom the possible recombinations of the States when dissevered, and the feasi ble alliances of those recombinations with European nations — alliances as unnatural, and which would prove ultimately as pestilential to society here as that of the Tlascalans with the Spaniard, who promised them revenge upon their ancient enemies, the Aztecs. " Secondly : The disunion movement arises partly out of a dispute over the common do main of the United States. Hitherto the Union has confined this controversy within the bounds of political debate by referring it, with all the national ones, to the arbitrament of the ballot-box. Does any one suppose that disunion would transfer the whole do main to either party, or that any other um pire than war would, after dissolution, be invoked ? " Thirdly : This movement arises, in an other view, out of the relation of African slaves to the domestic population of the country. Freedom is to them, as to all man kind, the chief object of desire. Hitherto, under the operation of the Union, they have practically remained ignorant of the contro versy, especially of its bearing on themselves. Can we hope that flagrant civil war shall rage among ourselves in their very presence, and yet that they will remain stupid and idle spectators ? Does history furnish us any sat isfactory instruction upon the horrors of civil MR. SEWARD'S SPEECH. 189 war among a people so Mr. Seward's Speech, brave, so skilled in arms, so earnest in conviction, and so intent in purpose, as we are ? Is it a mere chimera which suggests an aggravation of those horrors beyond endurance when, on either side, there shall occur the intervention of an uprising ferocious African slave popu lation of four, or six, or perhaps twenty millions 2" He reviewed the great change in the pub lic sentiment of the world in regard to Slave ry, during the last century. One hundred years ago all commercial European States were engaged in transferring slaves from Af rica to America. Now, all these States were inimical even to the holding of slaves. Oppo sition to it has assumed two forms ; — one, Eu ropean, which is simple, direct abolition, ef fected, if need be, by compulsion ; the other, American, which seeks to arrest the African slave trade and to resist the entrance of the institution of Slavery into the Territories, while it leaves the disposition of existing Slavery to the considerate action of the States by which it is retained. It is the Union which restricts the oppositon to Slavery, in this country, within these limits. If dissolu tion prevail what guarantee shall there be against the full development, here, of the fearful and uncompromising hostility to Slave ry which elsewhere pervades the world, and of which the recent invasion of Virginia, (John Brown's attempt) was an illustration ? Dissolution, indeed, he assumed, would not only arrest, but would extinguish the greatness of this country. " Dissolution would signalize its triumph by acts of wantonness which would shock and astound the world. It would provincialize Mount Vernon and give this Capitol over to desola tion at the very moment when the dome is rising over our heads that was to be crowned with the statue of Liberty. After this there would remain for disunion no act of stupend ous infamy to be committed. No petty con federacy that shall follow the United States can prolong, or even renew, the majestic dra ma of National progress. Perhaps it is to be arrested because its sublimity is incapable of continuance. Let it be so, if we have indeed become degenerate. After Washington, and the inflexible Adams, Henry, and the peerless Hamilton, Mr. Seward's Speech. Jefferson, and the majestic Clay, Webster, and the acute Calhoun, Jack son, the modest Taylor, and Scott, who rises in greatness under the burden of years, and Franklin, and Fulton, and Whitney, and Morse, have all performed their parts, let the curtain fall 1" He discoursed, with great feeling, upon the shattered prosperity which must result from a dismemberment of the Confederacy. Every where a dark hand would be laid upon en terprise to smother it. The pioneer would draw back from the plains of the West, while the savage Red Man would once more rise in his vengeance to drive back the hated inva der of his land. Our ships-of-war, now com manding the respect and admiration of the civilized world, as types of our commercial and political greatness, would sail hither and thither, scarcely observed. Public liberty — our own peculiar liberty, would languish and then cease to live. Over all would rise the hateful forms of a military despotism. He then proceeded to examine into the causes of this sudden and eternal sacrifice of so much safety, greatness, happiness and free dom. Have foreign nations combined for our overthrow and subjugation ? No ! They are all interested and admiring friends. Has the Federal Government become tyrannical or oppressive, or even rigorous or unsound ? Has the Constitution lost its spirit, and all at once collapsed into a lifeless letter ? No ; the Federal Government smiles more benig- nantly, and works to-day more benignly than ever. The Constitution is even the cho sen model for the organization of the newly rising confederacies 1 What, then, can ex cuse the mighty crime of disunion and its train of anarchy, of wrong, of incalculable in jury to society, to intelligence, to liberty, to happiness ? ' " The justification it assigned was that Abra ham Lincoln had been elected, while the success of either one of three other candidates would have been acquiesced in. Was the election illegal? No; it is unimpeachable. Is the candidate personally offensive ? No ; he is a man of unblemished virtue and amiable manners. Is an election of President an unfrequent or extraordinary transaction ? No ; we never had a Chief Magistrate otherwise desig- 190 THE SOUTHERN REBELLION, Mr. Seward's Speech. nated than by such election, and that form of choice is re newed every four years. Does any one even propose to change the mode of ap pointing the Chief Magistrate ? No ; election by uni versal suffrage, as modified by the Constitution, is the one crowning franchise of the American people. To save it they would defy the world. ' Is it appre hended that the new President will usurp despotic powers ? No ; while he is of all men the most unam bitious, he is, by the partial success of those who opposed his election, subjected to such restraints that he cannot, without their consent, appoint a minister or- even a police agent, negotiate a treaty, or procure the passage of a law, and can hardly draw a musket from the public arsenals to defend his own person." ) The ground of real discontent, he said, lies in the fact that the disunionists did not -ac cept as conclusive the arguments which were urged in behalf of the successful candidate in the late canvass — this is all ! Does the Constitution, in letter or spirit, imply that the arguments of one party shall be satisfac tory to the other ? No, that is impossible. What is the constitutional remedy for this inevitable dissatisfaction? Renewed debate and ultimate rehearing in a subsequent elec tion. Have the now 'successful majority per verted power to the purposes of oppression 3 No, they have never before held power. Alas ! how prone we are, to undervalue pri vileges and blessings? How gladly, how proudly, would the people of any nation in Europe accept, on such terms as we enjoy it, the boon of electing a Chief Magistrate every four years by free, equal, and universal suf frage! How thankfully would they cast aside all their own systems of government, and accept this Republic of ours, with all its shortcomings and its disappointments, main tain it with their arms, and cherish it in their hearts! Is it not the very boon for which they supplicate God without ceasing, and even wage war, with intermissions only resulting from exhaustion ? The spirit of disunion, he averred, sprung from a class of citizens living in the States bordering the delta of the Mississippi. They have, for thirty years or more, believed that the Union was less conducive to their wel fare than would be a smaller confederacy of Slave States. Availing themselves of the Mr. Seward's Speech. discontents arising from de feat at the ballot-box, they hastened to put into oper ation the machinery of dissolution long ago prepared, and only awaiting the propitious occasion for its use. In all the Slave States there is, he remark ed, a restiveness under the resistance offered by the Free States to the extension of Sla very in the common Territories of the United States. The Republican party, which has offered this resistance, and which elected its candidate for President on that poliey, has been allowed, practically, no representation, no utterance, by speech or through the press, in the Slave States ; while its policy, princi ples, and sentiments, and even its temper have been so misrepresented as to excite ap prehensions that it denies important consti tutional obligations, and aims even at inter ference with Slavery, and its overthrow by State authorities, or intervention by the Fed eral Government. Considerable masses, even in the Free States, interested in the success of these misrepresentations as a means of partisan strategy, have lent their sympathy to the party aggrieved. While the result of the election brings the Republican party ne cessarily into the foreground in resisting Disunion, the prejudices against them have deprived them of the cooperation of many good and patriotic citizens. On a complex issue between the Republican party and the Disunionists, although it involves the direst national calamities, the result might be doubtful ; for the Republican party is weak in a large part of the Union. But on a di rect issue, with all who cherish the Union on one side, and all who desire its dissolu tion by force on the other, the verdict would be prompt and almost unanimous. But everything, he averred, is subordinate to the Union; Republicanism, Democracy, and every other political name and thing ought to disappear before the great question of Union or dissolution. He said : — " If others shall invoke that form of action to op pose and overthrow Government, they shall not, so far as it depends on me, have the excuse that I ob stinately left myself to be misunderstood. In such a case I can afford to meet prejudice with concilia tion, exaction with concession which surrenders no MR. SEWARD'S SPEECH, ;gi principle, and violence with the Mr. Seward's Speech. right hand of peace. There fore, Sir, so far as the abstract question whether, by the Constitution of the Unit ed States, the bondsman, who is made such by the laws of a State, is still a man or only property, I answer that, within that State, its laws on that sub ject are supreme ; that when he has escaped from that State into another, the Constitution regards him as a bondsman who may not, by any law or regulation of that State, be discharged from his ser vice, but shall be delivered up, on claim, to the party to whom his service is due. While prudence and justice would combine in persuading you to mo dify the acts of Congress on that smbject, so as not to oblige private persons to assist in their execu tion, and to protect freemen from being, by abuse of the laws, carried into Slavery, I agree that all laws of the States, whether Free States or Slave States, which relate to this class of persons, or any others recently coming from or resident in other States, and which laws contravene the Constitution of the United States, or any law of Congress passed in conformity thereto, ought to be repealed. " Secondly : Experience in public affairs has con firmed my opinion that domestic Slavery, existing in any State, is wisely left by the Constitution of the United States exclusively to the care, management and disposition of that State ; and if it were in my ' power, I would not alter the Constitution in that respect. If misapprehension of my position needs so strong a remedy, I am willing to vote for an amendment of the Constitution, declaring that it shall not, by any future amendment, be so altered as to confer on Congress a power to abolish or interfere with Slavery in any State. " Thirdly: While I think that Congress has exclu sive and sovereign authority to legislate on all subjects whatever in the common Territories of the United States, and while I certainly shall never, directly or indirectly, give my vote to sanction or establish Slavery in Buch Territories, or anywhere else in the world, yet the question what constitu tional laws shall at any time be passed, in regard to the Territories is, like every other question, to be de termined on practical grounds. I voted for enabling acts in the cases of Oregon, Minnesota and Kansas, without being able to secure in them such provisions as I would have preferred — and yet I voted wisely. So now, I am well satisfied that, under existing circum stances, a happy and satisfactory solution of the diffi culties in the remaining Territories would be obtained by similar laws, providing for their organization, if such organization were otherwise practicable. * * I hold and cherish, as I have always done, the prin ciple that this Government exists in its present form only by the consent of the governed, and that it is as necessary as it is'wise, to resort to the people for revisions of the Mr. Seward's Speech. organic law, when the troubles and dangers of the State certainly transcend the pow ers delegated by it to the public authorities. Nor ought the suggestion to excite surprise. Government, in any form, is a machine ; this is the most complex one that mind of man has ever invented, or the hand of man has ever framed. Perfect as it is, it ought to be expected that it will, at least as often as once in a century, require some modification to adapt it to the changes of society and alternations of empire. "Fourthly: I hold myself ready now, as. always heretofore, to vote for any properly guarded laws which shall be deemed necessary to prevent mutual' invasions of States by citizens of other States, and punish those who shall aid and abet them. * * I learned early from Jefferson that, in political affairs, we cannot always do what seems to be abso lutely best. Those with whom we must necessarily act, entertaining different views, have the power and the right of carrying them into practice. We must be content to lead when we can, and to follow when we cannot lead ; and if we cannot at any time do for our country all the good that we would wish, we must be satisfied with doing for her all the good that we can. " Having submitted my own opinions on this great crisis, it remains only to say that I shall cheerfully lend to, the Government my best support in what ever prudent yet energetic efforts it shall make to preserve the public peace, and to maintain and pre serve the Union; advising only that it practice, as far as possible, the utmost moderation, forbearance and conciliation." His closing words created much enthusiasm in the galleries. The entire speech was can vassed, in and out of Congress, with freedom and feeling; but, as we have remarked, it appeared, as a general thing, to satisfy. Looking at it in a historic sense, we now per ceive that its spirit and meaning were as much for the future as for the hour. It was as subtle as eloquent — as politic as profound — as deliberate as earnest ; and, though it may detract from its candor, it will add to its wisdom, to aver that the statesman was com passing his ultimate ends, in declarations for conciliation— in his pleas for the blending of all political parties — in that of devotion to the Union. Throughout all the Free States public sentiment was taking an unmistake- able direction; the people were ripe for the rallying cry, " The Union I" In it Mr. Sew ard, with a quick apprehension of the perils Withdrawal of South ern Members. awaiting the new Administration, beheld the only instrument of its salvation — the tower of its strength^ Therefore, apparently casting aside even his Republicanism — apparently repudiating the policy of the Republican leaders and of Mr. Lincoln, he struck the ;chord which afterward, and soon, became the i Nation's rallying call. Mr. Lincoln went into office as a Unionist, rather than as a Repub lican; and Mr. Seward, like a Jove control ling the thunderbolts, directed all the terri- j ble thunders^and lightnings of the people, I subtly but surely, against the enemies of the VEx£cutjsfi^V The Saturday's proceedings in the House of Representatives assumed a peculiar face. The Speaker laid before the House a communication from the Mississippi dele gation stating that they had received official information that their State had passed an or dinance through a Convention representing the sovreignty of the people, by which the State has withdrawn from the Federal Gov ernment all powers heretofore delegated to it, and that they thought it their duty to lay the fact before the House, and withdraw themselves from the further deliberations of that body. While they regret the necessity for this action, they approbate it, and will re turn to her bosom to share her fortunes through all their phases. Mr. Jones, of Georgia, moved that the names of the Representatives of South Caro lina and Mississippi be stricken from the roll of the House, and not called by the Clerk hereafter. Republicans objected; and de manded the yeas and nays on the motion. Burnett, of Kentucky, assumed that these gentlemen have withdrawn from the House, and that it cannot be assumed that they are now members of the House. Being asked if he considered that they had resigned then- seats he answered : — " I do ; and not only this, but that" they are out of the Union by the action of their respective States." The Speaker cut off further remarks by ruling that the objection to the motion excluded it from consideration. Rofeer A. Pryor'a - Tirade. The Army and Navy appropriation bills were then considered in Committee of the Whole. Burnett, of Kentucky, wished to know whether it would be in order to make a speech showing that these appropriations should not be made. He believed from the present movements of the Army and Navy, they were to be used against a portion of the States recently belonging to the Confederacy. The Chair decided against general debate, and was sustained by the House. This deci sion greatly displeased and disconcerted Southern members, who, generally, had re solved to "ventilate" the question of the fu ture use of the Army and Navy. Pryor, of Virginia, determined, notwithstanding the decision against debate, to "indulge" him self with " a few remarks," which proved of so violent a character as to compel his col league, Mr. Clemens, to call him to order. Among other things he said :¦ — " Forts are garrisoned with the avowed intention of subju gating and overawing sover eign States. Even in this District, masses of mer cenaries are accumulating to inaugurate a Presi dent's election in blood. The Republican principle of an antique liberty forbade the presence of a Com missioner-General within the walls of Rome, but it was for this country alone, with all its maxims of re publican liberty to banish those principles from the councils of a most detestable and wicked administra tion. [Ironical laughter from the Republican bench es.] Confining myself within the limits of debate, before I conclude, I must, on this occasion, avail myself of the opportunity to give warning to the people of Virginia, that the Government is making every warlike preparation to subject them to the tyranny of Federal oppression by means of compul sion and force. I would implore them, by every consideration of safety and honor, to . prepare for the contest that is rapidly approaching. For my self, I will discharge my duties here by opposing every appropriation for an Army and Navy to be em ployed in this most nefarious and tyrannous war fare." After an understanding that the Army Ap propriation bill should have three days allot ted- for its discussion, the Navy Appropria^ tion bill passed, when the House adjourned to Monday. CHAPTER IX. PROGRESS OF THE REVOLUTION. THE SECESSION OF MISSISSIPPI, FLORIDA, ALABAMA, GEORGIA AND TEXAS. THE ORDINANCES. CONCURRENT PROCEEDINGS OF THE CONVENTIONS. SEIZURES OF FORTS, ARSENALS, R E V E N U E - C U T T E R S , CUSTOM-HOUSES, MINT, ETC., ETC. DEFECTION OF SOUTHERN OFFICERS IN THE ARMY AND NAVY. The Mississippi State Convention assembled at Jackson, Monday, January 7th. Prior to organization a majority of the delegates assembled in caucus, and adopted n resolution requesting the President of the Convention, when elected, to appoint a com mittee to draft the Ordinance of Secession. This early expression indicated the senti ments of the Convention. 'The Convention assembled at noon, and, after a brief ballot- ting, , organized permanently by electing A. J. Barry, of Lowndes, President. A resolu tion soon passed that a Committee of Fifteen be appointed by the President with instruc tions to prepare and report, as speedily as possible, an Ordinance of Secession, providing for the immediate withdrawal of Mississippi from the Federal Union, with a view of estab lishing a new Confederacy, to be composed of the Seceding States. This Committee, chosen Tuesday, reported Wednesday, in secret session, the Ordinance of Secession, which was adopted, on that day, by a vote of 84 to 15. It was as follows : " The people of Mississippi, in Convention assem bled, do ordain and declare, and it is hereby or dained and declared, as follows, to vtit : " That all the laws and ordinances by which the said State of Mississippi became a member of the Federal Union of the United States of America be, and the same are hereby repealed ; and that all obli gations on the part of Baid State or the people thereof to observe the same be withdrawn, and that the said State Bhall hereby resume the rights, func tions , and powerswhichby any of said laws and ordi nances were conveyed to the Government of the said United States, and is dissolved from all the obliga tions, restraints, and duties incnrred to the said Fed- 25 eral Union, and shall henceforth be a free, sovereign, and independent State.'7 *• The scond section abrogates the Article in the State Constitution requiring all public officers to swear to support the Constitution of the United States. The third section con- tinues in force all State and Federal laws not inconsistent with the ordinance. The fourth section relates to the formation of a Southern Confederacy, to be composed of the Seceded States. The Commissioner from South Carolina addressed the Convention, Friday. The Gov ernor issued, on Friday, a call to the military of the State to be in readiness at a moment's warning. The Convention formally recog nized (January 11th) South Carolina as sov ereign and independent. The action of the Convention created great enthusiasm among the people. There were those, however, who viewed the act as revo lutionary and unconstitutional under the or ganic law of the State. The Convention assumed supreme authority in the matter- adopting the ordinance, and instituting a new order of things without any reference to the people. This most undemocratic proceeding awakened much determined opposition ; but, this opposition had to give way before the violent tone and imperative spirit of the un conditional secessionists. The Natchez Cou rier, of January 10th, thus adverted to the illegality of the Convention's proceedings : " The Constitution of the State is wbat we are sworn to obey. It prescribes the method of its own alteration. That method has not been followed, and yet the Constitution will be essentially altered. Un questionably the people of the State can revolution ize. A majority of them can call a Convention to 194 THE SOUTHERN REBELLION. provide a new Constitution. But the question of ' Convention or no Convention' has never been sub mitted to them. It is also possible that a Conven tion can be called by the Legislature without the assent of the people, though in our opinion a very questionable proceeding ; but its acts, in that case, can be valid only when they have received the affir mative vote of the people. Of the 70,000 voters of Mississippi, not 45,000 voted for members of the Convention ; and of these only a lean majority, or one falling far below the expectations of the disu nion leaders, voted for immediate Secession can didates." Not the least remarkable facts of all that wild, irrational revolution, were the overrid ing of the State Constitutions and of a total repudiation of the voice of the people. Not one of the Gulf States, first in revolution, submitted the ordinances of secession to a vote of the people ! Not a single State of those which first organized the new " Confederacy" allowed the ppople one par ticle of authority or voice in the matter! The Conventions decreed as summarily, as arbitrarily, as relentlessly as the French Cham bers of Deputies, obeying the behests of Na poleon. Napoleon's usurpations received the. sanction of the French people just as completely as the usurpations of the State Conventions and the " Confederate Congress" received 'the sanction of the people of the Slave States.* Although the Florida Florida. State Convention assem bled January 3d, it was not until January 11th that theOrdinance of Secession passed. On the 7th, as preliminary to the act, Judge Mcintosh introduced the following : — " Whereas, All hope of preserving the Union upon terms consistent with the safety and honor of the Slaveholding States has been finally dissipated by the recent indications of the strength of the Anti- Slavery sentiment of the Free States; therefore, "Be it resolved by the people of Florida, in Convention assembled, That it is undoubtedly the right of the sev eral States of the Union to withdraw from the said Union at such time and for such cause as in the opin ion of the people of such State, acting in their sov ereign capacity, may be just and proper ; and, in the opinion of this Convention, the existing causes are such as to compel Florida to proceed to exercise that right." * See Chap. X. " The People Overruled." This was adopted by a vote of 62 to 5. On the same day the Commissioners for Alabama and South Carolina addressed the Convention. Judge Mcintosh's resolution succeeded their addresses. The Ordinance of Secession passed January 10th, by a vote of 62 to 7. It read as follows : " We, the people of the State of Florida in Con vention assembled, do solemnly ordain, publish, and declare that the State of Florida hereby withdraws herself from the Confederacy of States existing under the name of the United States of America, and from the existing Government of the said States ; and that all political connection between her and the Government of said States ought to be, and the same is hereby totally annulled, and said Union of States dissolved ; and the State of Florida is hereby declared a Sovereign and independent nation ; and that all ordinances heretofore adopted, in so far as they create or recognize said Union, are rescinded ; and all laws, or part of laws, in force in this State, in so far as they recognize or assent to said Union, be and they are hereby repealed." This was engrossed and signed on the 11th. It was followed by great popular de monstrations of approval in the way of gun- firing, displays of flags, illuminations, pop ular meetings, &c. On the 12th, the Pensacola Navy-yard, Dry-dock, Store - houses, and, afterwards, Forts Barrancas and McRae, were seized by order of the Governor of Florida. About one hundred armed men from Alabama and Florida appeared at the Yard on the morn ing of the 12th, and demanded of Comman der Armstrong the peaceable surrender of the posts. This was complied with, and the troops with their arms and baggage were transferred to a United States vessel of war for transportation North. The entire pro perty of the Government at Pensacola thus passed into the possession of the revolution ists — the fort on Santa Rosa Island alone excepted. This surrender was justified by officer Armstrong, at his Court Martial trial a few weeks subsequently, by the fact of his leading officers, Capt. Renshaw and Com mander Farrand, cooperating with the revo lutionists. They were Mr. Floyd's chosen agents for the act. [The Court, we may here say, dismissed the officer for the surrender. Beyond question he could have held possession until, at least, ALABAMA'S ORDINANCE OF SECESSION. 195 a portion of the property in the yard and forts had been secured. Lieut. Slemmer, a Northern man, in temporary command at Fort McRae, discovering the treachery, re solved not to surrender. He hurriedly ar ranged to evacuate McRae, and proceeded, with his company of eighty men, to Fort Pickens, on Santa Rosa Island, a very heavy fortification, with a double tier of casemates. Aided by the marines from the Sloop of War Wyandotte, he immediately began to prepare for an expected assault on the land side of the fort, where it was comparatively defense less. His reply to the demand to deliver up the fort was : — " I have orders from my Gov ernment to defend this fort, and I shall do so to the last extremity." Slemmer soon ob tained most of the artillerymen from Fort Barrancas, and secured a few of the loyal men from the Navy-yard, who disdained to accede to the infamous "parole" given by their officers. Working night and day, he was soon able to keep at bay the " combined" forces sent by the revolutionists to take the fort. Flag officer, Capt. Renshaw, and Com mander Farrand, were both deeply impli cated in the surrender. They both were in league with the conspirators, and really be trayed the post into their hands. Their names are embalmed in the " black roll" of the Government, whose honor they be trayed.] The Alabama State Con- Alabama, vention assembled at Mont gomery, Monday, January 7th. On the 8th, the South Carolina Com missioners addressed the Convention. A Committee of Thirteen was appointed on that day, to consider the action proper for the State. Secret sessions were resolved upon. The Ordinance was reported, January 1 1th, and passed by a vote of 61 to 39. The in strument, as engrossed, read : " An Ordinance to dissolve the Union between the State af Alabama and other States united under the compact and style of the United States of America. " Whereas, The election of Abraham Lincoln and Hannibal Hamlin to the offices of President and Vice- President of the United States of America, by a sec tional party, avowedly hostile to the domestic institu tions, and peace and .security of the people of the State of Alabama, following upon the heels of many and dangerous infractions of the Constitution of the United States by many of the States and people of the Northern section, is a political wrong of so in sulting and menacing » character as to justify the people in the State of Alabama in the adoption of prompt and decided measures for their future peace and security: ' " Therefore, be it declared and ordained by the people of the State of Alabama, in Convention as sembled, that the State of Alabama now withdraws itself from the Union known as the United States of America, and henceforth ceases to be one of the said United States, and is, and of right ought to be, a sov ereign, independent State. " Sec. 2. And be it further declared by the people of the State of Alabama, in Convention assembled, that all powers over the Territories of said State, and over the people thereof, heretofore delegated to the Government of the United States of America, be, and they are hereby withdrawn from the said Gov ernment and are hereby resumed and vested in the people of the State of Alabama. " And as it is the desire and purpose of the people of Alabama to meet the Slaveholding States of the South who approve of such a purpose, in order to frame a provisional or a permanent government upon the principles of the Government of the United States; be it also resolved by the people of Ala bama, in Convention assembled, that the people of the States of Delaware, Virginia, Maryland, North Carolina, South Carolina, Florida, Georgia, Missis sippi, Louisiana, Texas, Arkansas, Tennessee, Ken tucky and Missouri, be, and they are hereby invited to meet the people of the State of Alabama by their Delegates in Convention, on the 4th day of February next, in Montgomery, in the State of Alabama, for the purpose of consultation with each other, as to the most effectual mode of securing connected, har monious action in whatever measures may be deemed most desirable for the common peace and security. " And be it further Resolved, That the President of this Convention be and he is hereby instructed to transmit forthwith, a copy of the foregoing pream ble, ordinance and resolutions to the Governors of the several States named in the said resolutions. " Done by the people of Alabama, in Convention assembled at Montgomery, this eleventh day of Jau- ary, eighteen hundred and sixty-one." Prior to the assembling of the Convention, the Arsenal below Mobile, and Fort Morgan, commanding the channel to Mobile bay, were seized (January 4th) by order of Governor Moore. In the arsenal were 20,000 stand of arms, 1,500 barrels of powder, and a large stock of munitions, equipments, body arms, &C, all very providently transferred by Mr. 196 THE SOUTHERN REBELLION. Floyd, from the manufacturing depots in the North, to be ready for seizure. Fort Morgan, a fine fortification, costing the Government, in its construction, over one and a quarter millions of dollars, was held by a mere guard, which surrendered, upon demand, to a force of two hundred men. It was very fully mounted with new and superior guns, and well stocked with all the materiel of war, in the way of munitions and stores. [Although somewhat anticipating the chro nological allotment of this chapter, we shall, in order to group the " original seven" seceded States, in a consecutive narrative of their action, here advert to the proceedings of the Conventions of Georgia, Louisiana and Texas.] The Georgia Convention Georgia. assembled at Milledgeville Wednesday, January 16th. George W. Crawford was elected permanent President. After organization a Committee was named, to wait upon Mr. Orr, Commis sioner from South Carolina, and Mr. Shorter, Commissioner from Alabama, to request them to communicate their mission. These gentle men delivered addresses before the Conven tion, Thursday, in advocacy of immediate secession and the formation of a Southern Confederacy. Friday, the session was in se cret. A test vote was had by the introduc tion of a resolution, declaring the right and necessity for secession from the Federal Union, which was carried by a majority of thirty-five. Herschel V. Johnson introduced, as a substitute for this resolution, others, look ing to cooperation and a Convention of South ern States at Atlanta, in February. This sub stitute was rejected by a stronger vote than was given for the original resolution. During the very anxious and exciting debate which followed, Mr. A. H. Stephens, seeing how fully determined the Convention was on se cession, advised that it be immediate. This advice really gave his " conservative" influ ence to the immediate action party, led by Messrs. Toombs and Howell Cobb. The Ordinance of Secession was introduced Satur day morning, and passed at two p. m., by a vote of 208 to 89 — Messrs. A. H. Stephens and -Herschel V. Johnson voting in the negative. The Ordinance read as follows : " An Ordinance to dissolve the Union between the State of Georgia and other States united with her under the Compact of Government entitled the Constitution of the United States. " We, the people of the State of Georgia in Con vention assembled, do declare and ordain, and it is hereby declared and ordained, that the Ordinances adopted by the people of the State of Georgia in Convention in 1788, whereby the Constitution of the United States was assented to, ratified and adopted, and also all acts and parts of acts of the General Assembly ratifying and adopting amendments to the said Constitution, are hereby repealed, rescinded and abrogated. " And we do further declare and ordain that the union now subsisting between the State of Georgia and other States, under the name of the United States, is hereby dissolved, and that the State of Georgia is in full possession and exercise of all those rights of sovereignty which belong and appertain to a free and independent State." A motion to postpone the operation of the Ordinance to the 3d of March was lost by about thirty majority. A resolution was further adopted continuing in force the Fede ral laws of revenue, and the postal system — Georgia, like South Carolina, being quite willing to " suffer" the General Government's " tyranny" as far as to allow it to lose money in carrying its revolutionary mails. Previous to the passage of the Secession Ordinance, a resolution was introduced by a Mr. Martin, a "Co-operationist," calling on the Governor for information concerning the nature and circumstances of the popular vote for dele gates. It was represented by Mr. Martin that the vote was accompanied by extraordinary and unusual impediments to a popular and unrestricted expression of opinion — that numbers of Unionists and Co-operationists were both infamously and illegally treated. The resolution, of course, raised a storm. It was scarcely to be expected that men elected by violence and " stuffed" boxes, would sub mit to an exposition of their own infamy, or would acknowledge the arbitrary course being pursued to place the State at the entire disposition of Mr. Toombs and his violent coadjutors. A substitute for the Ordinance, in a series of resolutions drawn up by Herschel V. John son, was offered by Benjamin Hill, Esq., a leading and influential " Conservative." The purport of the resolutions was : " Declaring the State of Georgia in danger — first, from the aggressions of the North, and secondly^ GEORGIA'S ORDINANCE OF SECESSION. 197 from the withdrawal of other States, whereby the Republicans have a majority in Congress, it is proposed to hold a Congress of Slave States at Atlanta, near the middle of Feb ruary; at this Congress, certain amendments to the Constitution of the United States would be insisted on ; these were, chiefly, to prevent the abolition of Slavery in the Terri tories, to provide for the sure return of, or payment for fugitive slaves, to punish those who seek to entice away slaves, to protect the internal Slave trade, to protect Slave owners from loss if they carry their slaves into a Free State, to take from all negroes the right of suffrage. This Congress would not ask the Northern States to repeal their Personal Liberty bills — they would only .swear not to stay in the Union unless they were repealed ; it was also proposed to adjourn the Conven tion till after this Congress had held its ses sion." A correspondent present wrote of the proceedings, at this point : " After a Btrong, even violent, discussion, this substitute was rejected by a majority of 31, four less than that which passed the test vote of Friday. Then an attempt was made to have a motion put providing that the Ordinance should be submitted to the people for ratification, but the previous question was sprung, and the final vote on the Secession Or dinance was taken, after some sharp debate ; during the calling of the yeas and nays, several members changed their votes, so as to be on the side of the majority, thus bringing the Convention somewhat nearer unanimity. Judge Linton Stephens, of Han cock, very warmly declared that he saw no sufficient cause for a withdrawal from the Union, and that he would neither vote for nor sign the Ordinance. This declaration provoked much warm comment and many savage wishes from the outsiders when it be came known.'' Monday, Mr. Toombs introduced the fol lowing resolution, in response to the resolu tions passed by the New- York Legislature, January 11th — a copy of which had been transmitted to the Governors of all the States* : — * The New York Legislature resolutions were as follows : " Whereas, The insurgent State of South Carolina, after seizing the Post-office, Custom-house, moneys, and fortifications of the Federal Government, has, by firing into a vessel ordered by the Govern ment to convey troops and provisions to Fort Sau.- " Resolved, unanimously, As a response to the reso lutions of the Legislature of the State of New-York, that this Convention highly approves of the ener getic and patriotic conduct of the Governor of Geor gia, in taking possession ofFort Pulaski, by the Georgia troops ; that this Convention request him to hold possession of said fort until the relations of Georgia with the Federal Government shall be deter mined, and that a copy of this resolution be trans mitted to the Governor of the State of New- York." The Ordinance of Secession was signed, Monday, by most of the members, including A. H. Stephens, Judge Linton Stephens, Benj. Hill, and ex-Governor Johnson. These gentlemen had prepared, and introduced, Monday afternoon, the following, which was adopted, almost unanimously : — " Whereas, The lack of unanimity in the action of this Convention, on the passage of the Ordinance of Secession, indicates a difference of opinion existing among the members of this Convention, which is owing not so much to the rights which Georgia ter, virtually declared war ; and Whereas, the forts, and property of the United States Government in Georgia, Alabama, and Louisiana , have been unlaw fully seized with hostile intentions; and Whereas, /urtAer.'Senators in Congress avow and maintain their treasonable acts, Therefore " Resolved, If the Senate concur, that the Legisla ture of New- York profoundly impressed with the va lue of the Union, and determined to preserve it unim paired, hail with joy the recent firm, dignified and patriotic special message of the President of the United States, and that we tender to him through the Chief Magistrate of our State whatever aid in men and money he may require to enable him to en force the laws and uphold the authority of the Fed eral Government; and that.in defense of "the more perfect Union " which has conferred prosperity and happiness upon the American people, renewing the pledge given and redeemed by our fathers, we are ready to devote " our fortunes, our lives and our sa cred honor " in upholding the Union and the Con stitution. " Resolved, That the Union-loving Representatives and citizens of Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, North Carolina, Kentucky, Missouri, and Tennessee, who labor with devoted courage and patriotism to with hold their States from the vortex of Secession, are entitled to the gratitude and admiration of the whole people. " Resolved, That the Governor be respectfully re quested to forward forthwith copies of the foregoing resolutions to the President of the nation and the Governors of all the States of the Union." 198 THE SOUTHE RN REBELLION. claims or the wrongs of which she complains, as it is to the remedy and its application before resorting to other means of redress ; and " Whereas, It is desirable to give expression to the intention which really exists among all the members of this Convention to sustain the State in the course of action which she has pronounced to be proper for the occasion ; therefore " Resolved, That all the members of this Conven tion, including those who voted against the Ordin ance as well as those who voted for it, will sign the same as a pledge of the unanimous determination of this Convention to sustain and defend the State in her course and remedy." Six delegates entered their protest against the Ordinance of Secession, but pledged their lives, their fortunes, and their honor in the defense of Georgia against coercion and inva sion. Tuesday, an Ordinance was adopted, pro viding for the execution of sentences passed by the Federal Courts ; for the execution of pro cesses issued by the same Courts; and to preserve the indictments. In view of the early formation of a Central Government, by the Seceded States, the State Conventions legislated as little as possible, preferring to make as few changes as circum stances would admit. Mr. Toombs was called upon to prepare a report, setting forth the reasons why the Or dinance of Secession was adopted by the State Convention. A Committee, to whom the matter had been referred, deferred to Mr. Toombs the task of preparing the document. It was not reported until January 29th. The " Address" was long, historically weak, and exceedingly discursive, for a State document of its nature. It read very much like its author's last speech in the United States Sen ate; not quite as burdened with invective, but, like it, peculiarly marked with the perver sions of a heated Southern imagination. Its tenor and spirit were embodied in its closing paragraph : " Such are the opinions, and such are the prac tices of the Republican party, who have been called, by their own votes, to administer the Federal Government under the Constitution of the United States. We know their treachery — we know the shallow pretences under which they daily disregard its plainest obligations. If we submit to them, it will be our fault and not theirs. The people of Georgia have ever been willing to stand by this bar gain — this contract — they have never sought to evade any of its obligations — they have never hith erto sought to establish any new Government. They have struggled to maintain the ancient rights of themselves and the human race through and un der the Constitution. But they know the value of parchment rights in treacherous hands, and there fore they refuse to commit their own to the rulers whom the North offer us. Why ? Because by their declared principle and policy they have outlawed three thousand millions of our property in the com mon Territories of the Union — put it under the ban of the Republic in the States where it exists, and out of the protection of judicial law everywhere — because they give sanctuary to thieves and incen diaries who assail it, to the whole extent of their power, in spite of their most solemn obligations and covenants. Because their avowed purpose is to subvert our society, and subject us not only to the loss of our property, bnt the destruction of ourselves, our wives, and our children, and the desolation of our altars and firesides. To avoid these evils we resume the powers which our fathers delegated to the Government of the United States, and henceforth will seek new safeguards for our liberty, security, and tranquillity." Delegates were elected, January 24th, to the Convention of States to be held at Mont gomery, February 4th. Toombs, Howell Cobb, Crawford, A. H. Stephens, and Benja min Hill, were among those chosen. The forts in Savannah harbor were seized as early as January 4th, as we have already noted. [See page 175.] The Arsenal at Au gusta was surrounded, on the morning of Jan uary 24th, by several hundred State troops, and a surrender demanded by Gov. Brown in person. The surrender was made ; resist ance would have only sacrificed the mere guard in keeping of the property. Georgia thus became possessed of a large store of val uable arms and munitions, placed there by the sagacious Ex-Secretary for the purpose of being turned, at the proper moment, against the Government. The Louisiana State Con vention met at Baton Louisiana. Rouge, Wednesday, Jan uary 23d. Ex Governor Mouton was elected permanent President, as an avowed irnme- .diate Secessionist, by a vote of 81 to 41. A committee of fifteen was nominated by the Chair to report an Ordinance of Secession. By this nomination the powerful opposition LOUISIANA'S ORDINANCE OF SECESSION 199 was instantly excluded from the committee. The Ordinance was reported January 24th, and discussion on it postponed to the suc ceeding day. A resolution, to thank the Governor for seizing the forts at the mouths of the Mississippi, and the arsenal at Baton Rouge, was offered. A warm discussion followed, when a message was received from the Governor, giving particulars of the acts of seizure. The resolution was finally adopt ed — 118 to 5. The discussion on the Ordi nance was continued through Friday. Satur day, the proposition to submit the Ordinance to a vote of the people was rejected by a vote of — yeas, 45 ; nays, 84. The Ordinance it self was then put upon its direct passage, and was adopted, by the vote of 113 to 17. It read : — "An Ordinance to dissolve the Union between the Stale of Louisiana and the other Slates united with her, under the compact entitled the Constitution of the United States of America. " We, the people of the State of Louisiana, in Con vention assembled, do declare and ordain, and it is hereby declared and ordained, that the Ordinance passed by this State on the 22d of November, 1807, whereby the Constitution of the United States of America and the amendments of said Constitution were adopted, and all the laws and ordinances by which Louisiana became a member of the Federal Union, be, and the same are, hereby repealed and abrogated, and the union now subsisting between Louisiana and the other States, under the name of the United States of America, is hereby dissolved. " We further declare and ordain, that the State of Louisiana hereby resumes the rights and powers heretofore delegated to the Government of the Unit ed States of America, and its citizens absolved from allegiance to the said Government ; and she is in full possession of all the rights and sovereignty that ap pertain to a free and independent State. " We further declare and ordain, that all rights acquired and vested under the Constitution of the United States, or any act of Congress, or treaty, or under law of this State not incompatible with this Ordinance, shall remain in force and have the same effect as though this Ordinance had not passed." The following resolution was annexed : " We, the people of Louisiana, recognize the right of free navigation of the Mississippi River and tribu taries by all friendly States, bordering thereon. We also recognize the right of the ingress and egress of the mouths of the Mississippi by all friendly States and powers ; and hereby declare our willingness to enter into stipulations to guarantee the exercise of those rights." After the adoption was announced, Gov. Moore and his staff, in military dress, entered the hall, and formally presented the President of the Convention with the Pelican flag. One hundred guns were fired from the State-house grounds. The Commissioners of Alabama and South Carolina were present, and, on Friday, made " powerful addresses," urging immedi ate secession, and the sending of delegates to the Montgomery Convention. Their influence contributed much toward suppressing the co- operationist or delay sentiment in the Con vention. Saturday, the Convention adjourned, to meet at New Orleans on Tuesday. Wed nesday, Jan. 30th, delegates were elected to the Montgomery Congress. Slidell and Ben jamin, the telegraph reported, were defeated for delegates. It should here be said, how ever, that they preferred not to be deputized. It was understood that both of these gentle men entertained a scheme for a Confederacy, to embrace the original " Louisiana purchase" and Texas — of which they, of course, were to become chiefs ; but, the influence of the Com missioners from other States, and the desire of the delegates to throw the responsibilities of reorganization upon a Congress of States, prevailed to induce the representation of Lou isiana in that Congress. Benjamin and Sli dell, thus presented the spectacle so frequent ly recorded in history, of having built a house only to be turned out of it. On the 29th, the United States revenue cutter McClelland, one of the best vessels in the Customs' service,_was handed over to the Louisiana authorities by her commander, Breshwood, a Virginian. Secretary Dix had sent a special agent to New Orleans to re lieve Captain Breshwood of the command. At the appearance of this agent, Captain Breshwood refused to obey orders, and trans ferred his vessel as stated. The revenue cutter Cass, at Mobile, commanded by Cap tain J. J. Morrison, a Georgian, was, on the same day, transferred to the State authorities of Alabama, to save it from the special orders of the determined Dix. Although these ves sels were under charge of the Treasury De partment, the War Department had the offi cering of them. Mr. Floyd had chosen the 200 THE SOUTHERN REBELLION. proper men for the act of treason at the proper time. These transactions were but preliminary to the seizure of the United States Custom house, Mint, and Sub-treasury, in New Or leans. These buildings and contents were taken possession of February 1st, by order of the Governor, acting by advice of the Con vention. The Mint and Sub-treasury con tained $511,000 in specie, subject to call of the Federal Government. General Dix had, on January 25th, given Adams' Express an order for $350,000 of $389,000 then at the Mint. The Express, on applying for the coin, was put off with evasive answers by the officer in charge, and, on the 1st, was in formed that the State had seized the money. Howell Cobb here proved that he, too, was a " benefactor to Southern independence" — hav ing, like his friend Floyd, so far studied con tingencies, that the right men were placed in the right place to " do the nice thing" at the right time. The forts seized, January llth-12th, com prised the fine structures at the main mouth of the Mississippi — St. Philips and Jackson ; the fort at the Lake Ponchartrain entrance — Pike ; and Fort Macomb, at Chef Menteur. The works at Ship Island, upon which Gov ernment had spent a large sum of money, were, also, cleared of Federal workmen. It was to this incomplete structure that Mr. Floyd ordered the forty-six heavy guns from the- Alleghany Arsenal. [See page 115.] Louisiana, by these several " appropriations," became possessed of property which cost the General Government over seven million dol lars. When we add to this the original pur chase money of millions paid Napoleon I. for the Territory, and also add the seven millions paid annually, for many years, by the coun try, as a duty on sugar, almost expressly to " protect" Louisiana sugar planters, and give them a monopoly in the market — we may safely conclude that whatever grievances Louisiana may have suffered in the Union, they did not prevent her from fattening out of the National Treasury. The Texas State Convention of Delegates met at Austin, Jan. 28th. The Ordinance of Secession Texas. was passed February 1st, by a vote of 166 to 7. The document read aa follows : " An Ordinance to Dissolve the Union between the State of Texas and the other States under the Compact styled the Constitution of the United Stales of America. " Sec. 1. Whereas, the Federal Government has failed to accomplish the purposes of the compact of Union between these States, in giving protection either to the persons of our people upon an exposed frontier, or to the property of our citizens ; and whereas, the action of the Northern States is viola tive of the compact between the States and the guarantees of the Constitution ; and, whereas, the recent developments in federal affairs make it evi dent that the power of the Federal Government is sought to be made a weapon with which to strike down the interests and property of the people of Texas and her sister Slaveholding States, instead of permitting it to be, as was intended — our Bhield against outrage and aggression — therefore, we, the people of the State of Texas, by delegates in the Convention assembled, do declare and ordain that the Ordinance adopted by onr Convention of dele- , gates on the fourth (4th) day of July, A.D. 1845, and afterwards ratified by us, under which the Republia of Texas was admitted into the Union with other States, and became a party to the compact styled ' The Constitution of the United States of America,'. be, and is hereby,repealed and annulled. " That all the powers which, by the said compact, were delegated by Texas to the General Govern ment are resumed. That Texas is of right absolved from all restraints and obligations incurred by said compact, and is a separate Sovereign State, and that her citizens and people are absolved from all allegiance to the United States, or the Government thereof. " Sec. 2. The Ordinance shall be submitted to the people of Texas for their ratification or rejection, by the qualified voters, on the 23d day of February, 1861 ; and unless rejected by a majority of the votes cast, shall take effect and be in force on and after the 2d day of March, A.D. 1861. Provided, that in the representative district of El Paso, said election may be held on the 18th day of February, 1861. " Done by the people of the State of Texas, in Convention assembled, at Austin, the 1st day of Feb ruary, A.D. 1861." CHAPTER X. A CHAPTER OF INCIDENTALS. PEN PHOTOGRAPHS OF THE CHIEF CONSPIRATORS. THE ACTIVE MEANS EMPLOYED TO SUPPRESS UNION SENTIMENT IN THE SOUTH. A FEW FIGURES FOR CON TEMPLATION. It is certain so great a conspiracy as that conceived, for years, by the discontented spir its of the South, never could have been car ried out with any degree of success, had it not enlisted, as directors, men of consummate tal ents for the peculiar work. Great emergen cies produce great men, history informs us ; the adage is verified in the story of the second American Revolution, whose gigantic dimen sions created, or evoked, leaders possessed of all the qualifications necessary to direct it. The revolution in each State found a mas ter-spirit, who controlled its wild elements completely, and, by the supremacy of its impe rious will, gave it all the features necessary to immediate success, or requisite for ultimate aims. We will photograph a few of those chiefs who brought on the crisis, and who piloted the States to the destined goal of a Southern Confederacy. In Georgia, the directing Toombs. Will of her destiny was United States Senator Ro bert Toombs — a man combining, in equal de grees, pride, self-confidence, ambition, and impatience of control. Able as a debater, shrewd in intrigue, tireless in the pursuit of an object, he, at an early day, became the re cognized leader of those who plotted for a dis solution of the Union and the formation of a new Union, to be composed only of Slave States. Howell Cobb, Crawford, Iverson, — all had to give way before his imperious sway. "When the uprising came, it was his wand which commanded it. Legislature, Convention, and People, obeyed it with mili tary alacrity and precision. Georgia was his own, to order and control as he would. She had no wish or will that was not embodied in one word — Toombs. Ominous word ! 26 In Mississippi, Jefferson Davis, United States Sena- Davis. tor, was, at once, the Janus and the Jupiter Tonans of the revolution. Less insolent than Toombs, he was scarcely less devoted to the idea of Southern inde pendence. Sagacious, calm, watchful and worldly-wise, holding the sentiment of his State as in the hollow of his hand, he drew the people and their representatives into his schemes as silently, yet resistlessly, as the deep-sea current which drives the waters of the ocean against wind and tide until they are subdued to its control. In habits unos tentatious, in demeanor courteous, in conver sation impressive, with industry, tact, and courage equal to any circumstances, he was qualified for the supreme authority with which he became invested — a supremacy which he doubtless determined upon when the idea of a purely Slave Confederacy was conceived. In Louisiana, United States Senator, John Sli- siideil. dell, was the directing spirit. Mr. Benjamin, though more generally recognized as the representative of the sen timent of his State in the Senate, was too honest, candid, and disinterested to lead the van of revolution. Slidell was the man. As sly and subtle as the snake in his own cane- brakes, he wormed himself into the counsels of Mr. Buchanan to such a degree as to win the sobriquet of " wet-nurse to the Admin istration." Then he plotted and intrigued with the genius of Lucifer. When stroking the vestments of the Executive he was only feeling for the spot where to strike when the moment came to throw off his friendly mask. When Louisiana hesitated, he had but to 202 THE SOUTHERN REBELLION, point his finger to command her obedience. He would have taken the State " out of the Union" if his constituents all had opposed. He entered into the conspiracy like a Cartha ginian, to conquer, not to be conquered. In Florida, United States Yulee. Senator, David L. Yulee, assumed the proud distinc tion of a second Cromwell. Not that he at all resembled the Puritan. His scorn was to be thought to have the most distant kinship to anything which sounded like Plymouth Rock ; but, like Cromwell, he preferred fight to philosophy, and, from his high place in the National Senate, marshaled the confident host of Florida (the entire State polls less than fifteen thousand votes) against the Government. With little of the prudence, but with all the vanity requisite for hazard ous enterprise, he assumed to walk in the footsteps of his illustrious superior, Toombs, — like old Hickory's body-servant, to do his " dragooning." South Carolina was mov- omnes. ed by the spirit of her dead Calhoun. She had leaders — indeed, she had many leaders, so prolific is the little State in men actuated to take " leading positions." But, they all consulted the shade of the Great Departed, like mid night devotees of Memnon, and sought to make unto themselves no graven image that did not bear the impress of his erect hair and lion's mien. South Carolina's misfortune was in having so many leaders: Rhett, jun. andsen., Orr, Memminger, Adams, Pickens, Jamison, Keitt, Hammond, Chestnut, Boyce, Barnwell, Withers, Bonham, McQueen, Ashmore, Hayne, Preston, Dunkin, Calhoun, Butler, Miles, Magrath, Gist, and the Charleston Mercury. For a State numbering fifty thousand voters it may be said that South Carolina was pretty well provided with " men for the crisis." No wonder she rebelled ! Alabama was led by Wm. Yancey. L. Yancey, ex-Member of Congress, who was in heart and soul a disunionist. Disappointed po litically, irrational as an economist, reck less in courage, immaculate in egotism, and as impatient of control as an Indian, he pos sessed that power over multitudes, and that disdain of results, which rendered him the very model of a revolutionist. He gained the right of leadership by priority of discovery, " always having prophecied a Southern Con federacy." John Forsythe, Mr. Clay, Mr. Curry, all confessed to his ascendency, and submitted to his unnegatived dictum. Arkansas, in Albert Rust, one of her two Representa- Rust. fives in the Lower House of Congress, found her ablest director. The Senators of that State possessed compar atively little popular influence; but Mr. Rust, " smelling of Arkansas soil and breath ing the untamed spirit of her wilds," con trolled the popular heart to an unlimited degree. Able in Congress, fearless in spirit, true to his Southern convictions and associa tions, he was admirably fitted to lead the whirl wind and direct the storm of rebellion in his young State. The State was loyal to the Union until he declared for secession — then, Arkansas was ready for the " precipitous" act. In Texas, Wigfall, United States Senator, was the spirit wigfall. of discord, par excellence. With all the bravado of Toombs, but without his common sense — with none of the shrewd ness of Slidell, and all of the vanity of Yulee and Yancey combined — with a real genius for a " ro w," Wigfall entered into the game of rev olution with as much zest as a pearl-hunter, who, having discovered a new placer, is eager to try the perils of the deep soundings. Though erratic, visionary, fickle and intractabj^ he embodied so many of the requisites of a good conspirator, in his dashing, reckless, brilliant ways, that the greater conspirators made him a very useful and trenchant instrument in "precipitating" Texas out of the keeping of Old San Jacinto Houston — who sat like Ere bus at her gates — into the arms of the black mistress of the Slave Republic. These are the political priests whose incan tations shaped the shadow of Disunion into life — whose ministrations at the dark altar confirmed a revolution, which, but for them, never had been. We have adverted, in the previous chapter, to the arbitrary manner in which the State Conventions conducted their proceedings. A A PLANTER'S CONFESSION, 203 The spirits of just men Secret Agents. made perfect— of the Fa thers of our Independence, evidently did not preside over those assem blages. The more palpable spirits of those named above were there, to drive out the people and drive in the reign of terror, which they, as leaders, would direct while the people should obey. But, this tyranny, as we have had occasion to remark, began with the incipient steps of the revolu tion. The organizations of secret societies commenced early in November. In them the plotters of the movement were sure to secure reliable and most powerful assistants. Hence, as stated on previous pages, (135 et sequitur,) the organization of "Vigilance Associations," "Minute -Men," "Brotherhoods," &c. The following circular will show to what an ex tent these organizations contributed to bring the Southern mind up to th e seceding point : — " Executive Chamber, ' The 1860 Association,' " Charleston, Nov. 19, 1860. " In September last, several gentlemen of Charles ton met to confer in reference to the position of the South in the event of the accession of Mr. Lincoln and the Republican party to power. This informal meeting was the origin of the organization known in this community as ' The 1860 Association.' " The objects of the Association are : — "First: To conduct a correspondence with leading men in the South, and by an interchange of informa tion and views, prepare the Slave States to meet the impending crisis. " Second: To prepare, print, and distribute in the Slave States tracts, pamphlets, &c, designed to awaken them to a conviction of their danger, and to urge the necessity of resisting Northern and Federal aggression. " Third: To inquire into the defences of the State, and to collect and arrange information which may aid the Legislature to establish promptly an effective military organization. " To effect these objects, a brief and simple Consti tution was adopted, creating a President, a Secre tary and Treasurer, and an Executive Committee, specially charged with conducting the business of the Association. One hundred and sixty-six thou sand pamphlets have been published, and demands for further supplies are received from every quarter. The Association is now passing several of them through a second and third edition. " The Conventionsin several of the Southern States will soon be elected. The North is preparing to soothe and conciliate the South, by disclaimers and overtures. The success of this policy would bo dis astrous to the cause of Southern Union and Indc-pen- dance, and it is necessary to resist and defeat it. The Association is preparing pamphlets with this special object. Funds are necessary to enable it to act promptly. ' The 1860 Association ' is laboring for the South, and asks your aid. " I am, very respectfully, your obedient servant, "ROBERT N. GOURDIN, " Chairman of the Executive Committee." The man who refused his contributions, to aid in this and other semi-secret organiza tions, was at once placed under ban, from which he was glad, eventually, to escape by liberal contributions and a zealous interest in "the cause." When the day approached for the election of Delegates to the State Conventions, these organizations were made to embrace the most turbulent and implacable men of every neighborhood, to incur whose enmity was simply to incur outrage. To vote for, or to speak for, the Union, was to risk both life and property ; and though, in many localities, a strong sentiment prevailed against disunion and revolution, it was suppressed by fears of a persecution, which few indeed could dare. This extensive suppression of sentiment, by violent and organized bodies of men, had too many evidences of existence to be put aside in any rationale of the conspiracy and its con summation. Single incidents will, sometimes, throw a flood of light upon a wide field of inquiry. The case narrated on page 134 thus becomes a specific witness which ten thou sand general denials cannot set aside in evi dence. We have another authenticated nar rative in a letter from Savannah, Georgia, dated January 7th, which can be regarded as "representative" in its illustration of the means by which the elections were controlled. A gentleman, residing in Georgia but a brief period, expressed surprise to a planter that the men of property there should submit to the headlong course of the Secessionists. "You must bear in mind," the gentleman wrote, in detailing the interview, " that this planter was a Slaveholder, Southern by birth, by education, and in feeling, hating the Re publican party with a terrible bitterness, calling them all Abolitionists, and Mr. Ham- A Planter's Confes. sion. 204 THE SOUTHERN REBELLION, lin ' a free negro ;' he was a man of considera ble importance in his own neighborhood, and, as I learned from the salutation of an ac quaintance, a magistrate also. From his con versation in the cars I had discovered, how ever, that he was not a rabid Secessionist, if in favor of secession at all." This encouraged the correspondent to seek, if possible, some solution of his doubts. The result was thus detailed: " As we waited, one of the noisy Disunion ists to be seen everywhere, was haranguing a lot of people, roaring for war, and cursing the Administration heartily ; when we had reach ed the other end of the platform and were alone, my companion said, quietly enough, but with a sort of weary irony : ' That is a fair specimen of the teachers of the Southern people — no other teachers are now allowed. We have a good deal changed lately ; I would not have believed, ten years ago, that the time would ever come when I couldn't stand up in Georgia and say what I thought best to say, at least free from personal peril, and that such a man as that yonder would ever repre sent the class which entirely controls the shifting people. I have certain decided opinions upon the policy of immediate se cession, or of secession at any time. I have the right to hold such opinions; it is my duty to hold some decided views, situated as I am in my county. But I cannot come out openly, loudly, boldly, in defence of my opinions, with the desire to spread them. I should be injured in my property — perhaps, probably, indeed, in my own person ; yes, I am ashamed to say, I believe I should be mobbed, that my buidings would be burned, and that I should be forced to leave the State. For when a man once falls under the ban of the mob, though they only threaten him to-day they will doubtless return to-mor row and burn his property, and the next day they will bring a rope with them, look ing out along the way for a convenient tree with a strong limb.' I said to him : 'Can it be that you do not exaggerate the danger of making your opinions known V He replied : ' I do not exaggerate. I know what I am talking about. I am even now, at home, re garded with suspicion, because my views are well known, and some of my oldest acquaint ances are shy of me. This is not so much be cause they fear the present consequences of acknowledging they know me, but they say it may prejudice them by-and-by.' 'How is that V ' Why, I can't tell you better than to repeat what one of the fastest Secessionists said the other day about Stephens. ' Never mind,' said he, ' when the State goes out, and we are on our own hook, these fellows have got to walk straight and keep quiet, or they'll walk into trouble.' " " I spoke then of the approaching election of delegates, asking if the freedom of the bal lot was not allowed. He replied that he believed men were permitted to vote for whom they chose to vote, but the trouble was to have such candidates put up as they wanted to vote for. ' See here,' said he, ' let us suppose we have a meeting to nominate candidates. There are to be resolutions adopted, and the meeting must express its views on the question of secession. But if there happen to be twenty or thirty such fel- , lows as that one out there present, they will control the meeting, hinder the anti- Seces sionists from saying anything, and will rush through their resolutions and carry their nominations just because no one could oppose them with safety. It is all very well to talk about boldness — but a mob is a mob, and no honor comes from maltreatment at their hands. So, don't you see we might about as well be forbidden to vote for whom we please as to be forbidden to nominate, or advocate the nomination of whom we please ? I have the right to vote for A, B, or C, on the 2d of January, if I choose ; but neither of them is a candidate, and I am not allowed, a week before the 2d, to make a speech in favor of either of them.' " The' reader, in this case, has the story, not of an individual but of a whole people — of seven States. The elective franchise became the merest mockery; freedom of opinion dared not be exercised, except in a few fav ored localities, where the Union men were too determined to be put down. The iron rule of the new order of things weighed down press, pulpit, telegraph, people, like a visitation of darkness, while, out of the ter ror inspired by the self-constituted guardians of " Southern institutions " sprung the dragon THE PEOPLE OUTLAWED, 205 The People Out lawed. of revolution, full fledged for its work of abas ing constitutional liberty. Another point in the se cession programme here de serves consideration. The fact that the Secession Ordinances never were submitted to the people of their respective States, for adoption, modification or rejec tion, has been frequently referred to in evi dence of the tyranny exercised, by the Con ventions and leaders, over the people. Why were those instruments of disorganization, so potent of evil and of change, not subjected to the calm scrutiny and judgment of the peo ple ? We have, in the speech of Mr. Yancey, before the' Alabama Convention, January 24th, the argument of justification for a refusal to let the legal voters of the State pass judg ment on the proceedings of the Convention. We shall transfer to these pages a portion of the speaker's remarks as prima facie evidence of the predetermined usurpation of a ruler's prerogatives by the leaders of the secession movement — of the purpose to carry the States out of the Union, whether or not the people consented. He said : — * * * <¦ The people have had this question of Secession before them for a longtime, and have ma turely considered it in two late elections — namely, those for electors of President, and for delegates to this body. The issue was as distinctly made in one as in the other, and in both they decided the issue in favor of Secession. " They have intrusted their delegates with unlimited power — power to ' consider, determine, and do whatever, in the opinion of this Convention, the rights, interests, and honor of the State of Alabama requires to be done for their protection.' The law that authorized the election contained that enumer ation of ample authority, and the people indorsed it. We have been selected for our supposed wisdom, experience in public affairs, integrity, and courage, to take all proper responsibility in the premises. * * # * # " But, it is s,&ii,why not call another Convention to rati fy the Permanent Government to be adopted? I an swer, because it is unnecessary. A permanent Gov ernment for a Southern Confederacy was looked for by the friends of secession — was spoken of and en tered into all the discussions in the late canvass. It was a part of the plan of secession, and when the people decided for secession, they decided for a Southern Confederacy. Therefore in that point we already know the views of the people, and no new expression of opinion is needed. Neither is such expression needed as to the character of the Perman ent Government. The character of the people have indicated and it is expressed in the report — it must be a Government as nearly similar as possible to the Federal Constitution. We need no discussion be/ore the people, nor other expression of their views on that point. Beside these views, in themselves conclusive to any mind, no statesman would willingly throw such grave issues before the people after once re ceiving their decision, until the irritations and pre judices and passion of the previous contest had cooled." * * * * " There is another reason why I oppose the elec tion of another Convention. Such a proposition has a tendency to reopen the question of Secession, by bringing up the issue of » re-construction of the Federal Government. It allows such an issue to be made — it invites it, in fact. And under what cir cumstances? From the signs of the times, it would seem as if coercive measures were to be adopted. If so, about the time of such an election the people will be bearing the burdens of such a contest. Com mercial and agricultural interests will be suffering. Debts will be hard to pay. Provisions will be scarce. Perhaps death at the hands of the enemy will have come to the doors of many families. Men's minds, thus surrounded and affected by strong per sonal and selfish considerations, will not be in that calm and well-balanced condition which is favorable to a correct and patriotic judgment of the question. The very state of things will perhaps exist which our Black Republican enemies predict will exist, and which they sneeringly rely upon to force our people to ask for readmission into the Union. Shall we, the selected friends and deputies of the people, aid these wily and malignant enemies of our State by laying this whole question, as it culminates in its progress, on the very eve of final triumph, back to the consideration of a people thus surrounded and influenced by most unpropitious circumstances ? To do so might well accord with the purposes of a friend of a reconstruction of the Federal Government, but in my opinion it is a policy which every true friend of the people should condemn. I avow my self as utterly, unalterably opposed to any and all plans of reconstructing a Union with the Black Re publican States of the North. No new guarantees — no amendments of the Constitution — no peaceful resolutions — no repeal of offensive laws can offer to me any, the least, inducement to reconstruct our re lations with the non-Slaveholding States." In this the reader will find all the excuse the revolutionists have to offer for their usur pations. The only fact bearing out the claim for justification, is that stated in the first par- 206 THE SOUTHERN REBELLION, agraph, viz: That the delegates should " have power to consider, determine, and do whatever, in the opinion of this Convention," &c, &c. When we look at all the circum stances attendant upon the passage of the Convention bills by the State Legislatures, under pressure of the leaders of the pre-deter- mined revolution — that the nomination of delegates was made under the same pressure — that, to vote for a Unionist, or a Re-construc- tionist, was to be subjected to violence — we may safely declare that no baser tyranny ever was practiced upon a people under the forms of law and constitutional procedure. It is not possible to view Federal Rights of Pur. cnase and Property. the question of the right of secession in its practical aspects without adverting to the claims which the Federal Government has upon a seceded State, by the unquestioned right of original purchase; by the right of immense advances made for improvements for internal and ex ternal protection ; by the expenses incurred in sustaining, in the State, mails, courts, custom houses, &c, against heavy annual deficits of receipts ; — claims which, if against any gov ernment or individual, would be adjudged good in law and in equity before any tribunal in the world, excepting, of course, any in the Southern States. Mr. Everett thus states the facts of the ori ginal cost to the Federal treasury of the seve ral Gulf States: — " Look at the case, for a moment, in reference to the cost of the acquisitions of territory, made on this side of the continent, within the present century - — Florida, Louisiana, Texas, and the entire coast of Alabama and Mississippi — vast regions acquired from France, Spain,- and Mexico, within sixty years. Louisiana cost $15,000,000, when our population was five millions, representing, of course, a burden of $00,000,000 at the present day. Florida cost $5,000- 000, in 1820, when our population was less than ten millions, equal to $15,000,000 at the present day, be sides the expenses of General Jackson's war in 1818, and the Florida war of 1840, in which some $80,000- 000 were thrown away, for the purpose of driving a handful of starving Seminoles from the Everglades. Texas cost $200,000,000 expended in the Mexican war, in addition to the lives of thousands of brave men; besides $10,000,000 paid to her in 1850, for ceding a tract of land, which was not hers, to New Mexico. A great part of the expense of the mili tary establishment of the United States has been incurred in defending the Southwestern frontier. The troops, meanly surprised and betrayed in Texas, were sent there to protect her defenceless border settlements from the tomahawk and scalping knife. If, to all this expenditure, we add that of the forts, the navy yards, the court-houses, the custom-houses, and the other public buildings in these regions, $500,000,000 of the public funds— of which, at least, five-sixths have been levied by indirect taxation from the North and Northwest— have been expend ed in and for the Gulf States in this century." Well might the eminent essayist demand — " Would England, would France, would any government on the face of the earth, surrender, without a death-struggle, such a dear-bought territory?" But, the case is strengthened, in special instances, where special obligations have been incurred Louisiana, for example, has, for many years, been " protected " in her sugar culture to the extent of about seven millions of dollars annually, which the country has had to pay in duties levied expressly at her behest and for her benefit alone — the duty exacted serving to enrich the State and to enhance the value of its negroes and plan tations. Over sixty millions of dollars have thus been specially contributed by the common country to sustain Bouisiana property and in terests. It need not be urged that other sec tions of the Union have been protected, in a similar manner, by duties, to enhance the value of their products. Other States so protected were loyal to all their obligations to the Union, and requited them by adding immensely to the prosperity and resources of the common government. We have yet to ascertain that an enhancement of the price of negroes and of Louisiana sugar estates has enured to the benefit of the common country, in any respect. Louisiana alone has received the direct and exclusive benefit of the tax, and, in the account current which stands charged against her, the sixty millions will be entered by posterity as a portion of her debt to the Union. The Union ! What does not Louisiana owe to it ? What has she ever received from it but benefits ? What harm or wrong did the Union ever do to her? None — none I not even to the stealing of a negro by " Northern Abolitionists." The un- kindness, the baseness, the insolence of an ingrate must ever attach to her escutcheon THE COST OF FORMER WARS TO THE SOUTH. 207 for the part her leaders forced her to play in the Secession Revolution. The cost of coast surveys, buoys, light houses, and harbor improvements on the coast, from Hatteras to Galveston, has been enormous, with excessively small returns to the General Government. Every dollar's cus toms collected in all the ports of the South, except of New Orleans, has cost the Federal Government six. Money has been appropri ated, from year to year, since 1832, on South ern rivers and harbors, custom-houses, post- offices, &c, with a lavishness which, when viewed in a merely economical light, must be regarded as incredible, considering the meagre returns which were inevitable. New Orleans being the natural entrepot for all the vast country watered by the Missouri and Mississippi rivers, did a large trade, and her customs' revenues were correspondingly pro fitable to the Government; but, these reven ues were paid largely by the Free States, which were heavy consumers of imported goods. The Mississippi river is the great highway for ten States, and New Orleans has been en riched by acting as the agent for their com merce. In the matter of mails alone the seceded States owe the General Government an enor mous sum. The table heretofore given,* will show how great that single debt must be. The cost of carrying and delivering the mails, in the seven States of South Carolina, Georgia, Alabama, Florida, Mississippi, Lou isiana and Texas, has been nearly two millions of dollars annually, greater than the entire postal receipts ! The deficit of these States to the Federal Government, in customs, in mails, in returns for monies appropriated and direct benefits bestowed, existed from the very first stages of the old Confederacy. From 1782 to '87, when Congress had no power of taxation, it could only indicate what sums were re quired to sustain the Government, and sig nify to each State what was the proportion due from it. How the obligation was dis charged will be apparent from the following table, given by Judge Story, in his " Com mentaries :" * See page 168. "Proportion Contributed by States, in Support op the Old Confederation op 1781. State which paid more than its quota — New York. State which paid nearly the whole —Pennsylvania. State which paid three-fifths — Virginia. States which paid one-half— Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Maryland. States which paid about one-third — Connecticut, Delaware. ' States which paid nothing — Georgia, South Caro lina, North Carolina, New Hampshire." New Hampshire paid nothing, being very sparsely settled, very poor in soil, and very illy able to bear any public burden. North and South Carolina, on the other hand, were rich in population and possessions, and were vastly more able to contribute to the Govern ment than any of the New England States — yet they paid nothing. The cost of the Revolutionary War was borne, in a preponderating proportion, by the New England and Middle States. At that time Virginia was the most populous, and, by far, the richest of the States ; yet, even she, with all her ascendency in the Army, in Congress, and in general influence, did far less, in proportion to her ability, than any of the Northern States. She was the " Mother of Presidents ;" her views prevailed in the Old Confederacy ; they obtained prec edence in the formation of the Federal Con stitution — in the making of treaties — in the organization of the Territories, and in the general legislation of the first sessions of Congress. She paid but three-fifths of her quota to support the Confederacy, and never has paid more in support of the Federal Gov ernment, when her political supremacy is taken into consideration. It is an unpalatable task for the historian to adjust balances of favors rendered and ben efits bestowed, in a family where all should be brotherhood and eager reciprocity of kindness. But, when a portion of that family rises up in arms against its parent — when they charge upon that mother wrong and oppression, it is the imperative duty of the historian to exhibit all the facts in the case that the responsibility of revolution may be fixed upon the proper party. Viewed in all respects, the Southern rebel lion can but be pronounced a monstrous example of tyranny, ingratitude, and wrong. CHAPTER XI. ACTION OF THE CRISIS COMMITTEE. THE FINAL REPORTS. Monday, January 7th, Committee of Thirty- winter Dayis' -amendment three. . to the Fugitive Slave law was under consideration by the Committee of Thirty-three. The amendment gave to the alleged fugitive the right of trial by jury in the State from which he might have escaped. Mr. Washburn, of Wisconsin, moved an amendment requiring the trial to take place in the State where the fugitive was arrested, but it failed by two votes. The resolution of Mr. Davis was then adopted. Tuesday, the Committee substantially concluded its labors. Most of the sitting was devoted to the dis cussion of two propositions, submitted by Mr. Dunn — one to prevent armed invasions of the States, and the other to protect citizens of one State, while traveling or sojourning in another. They were referred to a sub-com mittee, consisting of Messrs. Dunn, Millson and Davis. Bills were to be prepared by the members covering their various propositions as adopted, to be introduced to the House with the Majority Report. The Majority Report was not ready to sub mit until January 14th, when Mr. Corwin laid the document before the House, as the result of the Committee's deliberations. Its importance as a legislative document requires its quotation here entire : THE MAJORITY REPORT. Mr. Corwin 's Major ity Report. " The Select Committee, to whom was referred so much of the President's Message as re lates to the present perilous condition of the coun try, have instructed their Chairman to report the bills and resolutions adopted by them, with such comments as he may deem proper. " The terms of the resolution of reference were such as to advise the Committee of the magnitude of the subjects referred to them, and were regarded as an earnest appeal for their prompt action. By Mr. Corwin's Majority - Report. adverting to that portion of the President's Message referred to the Committee, it will be seen that, in his opinion, the causes of the present discon tents are to be found in the history of our public af fairs, dating back to the year 1835 , comprehending the legislative enactments of several States — the agita tions of the public mind on the subject of Slavery— the improper circulation of papers tending to pro duce apprehension of domestic insurrection in the Slaveholding States, and the forcible opposition to the peaceful execution of the laws of Congress for the recovery of fugitive slaves. " The matters here alleged as having given rise to the present disturbed condition of the public mind of the South, are of a character which could only be ascertained by a knowledge of the current history of our politics as exhibited in the newspaper press; in the grounds assumed by the various political par ties, and manifested by the votes of the people in electing State and Federal officers. " Publications emanating from the newspaper or periodical press having a tendency to promote do mestic insurrection in any of the States, and circu. lated with that intent, are, in the judgment of the Committee, highly criminal, and should be so treated by the laws of the several States. The right of free discussion, while it is regarded as absolutely neces sary to the maintenance of free government, may be expected, in times of great excitement, to run into occasional licentiousness. The corrective for this evil remains with the State Governments, and the Committee do not doubt that the desired corrective will be promptly applied in all cases when the evil shall have assumed a, formidable aspect, while the just and rational freedom of speech and of the press will be carefnlly preserved. " The enactment of laws, by some of the States, tending to oppose or embarrass the execution of the acts of Congress for the recovery of fugitives- from labor, has been alleged as a prominent com plaint on the part of those States of the Union in which Slavery exists. The Committee had been' impressed with the belief that this was one of those grievances referred to in the President's Message, to which the Southern States attached great import- MR. CORWIN'S MAJORITY REPORT 209 ance. The resolves of popular Mr. Corwm's Majority asgemblieg in Southern States- the addresses of speakers to Southern audiences — the frequent and earnest refer ences to it, by the newspaper press of the South, as a great and fiagrant violation of the Constitution , and of the fraternal relation of the Free to the Slave States, the denunciation of those laws by Southern members of Congress, in both branches of the National Legis lature, for the last three or four years — have, to gether, given to this subject great, and in the judg ment of the Committee, undue importance. With whatever intent or design such laws may have been enacted, in any State, they cannot be regarded as having had any effect in preventing or obstructing the recapture of fugitives from labor. The laws of the United States for the recovery of fugitive slaves are executed exclusively by the United States Courts, and Commissioners appointed by them. As a neces sary consequence, it follows that any State law which offers any obstacle to the full and perfect ex ecution of the laws of the United States, would be void, and of no effect whatever, and would be so declared by the United States Courts and Commis sioners. Such laws, if any there be, are therefore incompetent to do any mischief whatever to any one concerned in the recapture of a fugitive slave, and at most can be considered only as an exhibition of opposition to a law which some of the States regard as containing provisions dangerous to the rights of free persons residing within their limits. While, therefore, the Committee have not been able to per ceive that the State laws complained of can really affect the rights or interests of Southern people, or States, yet,from an anxious desire to conciliate the feelings, as well as to protect the interests of our fellow-citizens of the South, the Committee have respectfully requested all non-Slaveholding States carefully to revise their legislative acts, and repeal all laws, which come in conflict with the Constitution of the United States, or with the laws enacted by Congress for the recapture of fugitives from labor, and have submitted a resolution to that effect for adoption by the House. " We have seen with satisfaction that the Gover nors of several States, within the last week, have brought the subject to the notice of their respective Legislatures, and recommended legislative action, in accordance with the views of the Committee, and we entertain no doubt that the feelings, as well as the interests, of all the non-Slaveholding States will combine to effect the great object so much desired — the restoration of mutual respect and confidence be tween all the States of the Union. " The Committee deemed it incumbent on them, in connection with the foregoing subject, to revise, 27 Mr. Corwin 's Majority Report. to some extent, the laws now in force for the recovery of fug itives from labor. After the most careful examination of the subject, the Com mittee have framed an amendment to the existing laws, which, it is believed, will much improve them. " The law of 1850 was supposed to contain a pro vision which positively required any citizen who might be called on for this purpose, to aid the owner of a fugitive, or his agent, or the Marshal of the United States, in searching for and capturing such fugitive, whether forcible resistance were appre hended or not. This idea, whether well or ill-founded, has, to a very great extent, become the popular be lief in many of the State's, and, in the opinion of the Committee, has had the effect to render the law dis tasteful and offensive. It is obvious that such belief would operate to cripple the efficiency of the law, and, to some extent, prevent its prompt and peace ful execution, where that belief prevailed. It is reasonable to suppose that this odious provision, be lieved to be a part of the law, has given rise to much of that opposition to it, so much complained of by the South. The second section of the bill presented by the Committee, it is believed, will relieve the law from all objection of that kind, and tend materially to its easy and speedy execution; thus improving its efficiency as a remedy, By making it more acceptable to the people among whom it is to be enforced, and by whose aid, in case of forcible resistance, it is to be made effectual. " The provisions of the first section of the bill, it is hoped, will secure the fugitive (if he alleges he is free) a fair and impartial trial, more certainly than the law as it now stands. The Committee believe that this uncertainty as to the fate of one arrested as a fugitive, has given rise to the few instances known to us of forcible resistance to the law. The same objection to the present law has undoubtedly stimulated the passage, in most instances, of what are called ' Personal Liberty bills ' in some of the States. It should be borne in mind, that the objec tions urged by the Northern people are not to a law for the recovery of fugitives who really owe labor, but they are founded in the belief that the present law may and does permit the seizure of persons who are free, and subjects them to servitude contrary to both law and right. The Committee believe it to be unjust to the Free States, to assert that any consid erable number of personsin those States are opposed to the reclamation of persons who, by the laws of any State, owe labor or service to another. If any such class exists, it is that known as Abolitionists. This class asserts its opposition to the Constitution, because it does authorize the pursuit and re-capture of fugitive slaves. In whatever light the persons composing this class may be regarded, it is certain 210 THEi SOUTHERN REBELLION. their numbers are so small, 1&' '^Re'i'o'rt13'''0"'7 00mPared witb- the entive voting population of the Free States, that no danger can result to the constitutional rights of any portion of the Union from their peculiar opin ions, or their modes of commending them to the gen eral public. It is certainly true that this class does not act with any of the great political parties of the day, and that its chief leaders, and most talented orators, were most strenuously opposed to the Republican party in the late Presidential contest, and denounced it and its doctrines in bitter and unsparing terms. The great mistake, which is now urging on the pub lic mind to the wildest excesses, consists in con founding the class of men known by the name of Abolitionists with the great mass of the Republican party of the North and West. Similar to this, and growing mainly out of it, is a belief which seems to have obtained very generally in the South, that the people of the non-Slaveholding States, having suc ceeded in electing a President, entertain a secret design to accumulate political power in both branches of Congress, until, through Congressional action, it will abolish Slavery in the States where it may then exist. How this purpose will be accom plished, we are not informed. This prediction has been poured into the ears of excited multitudes from the mouths of popular orators, and placed before their eyes in the pages of partisan presses, until in the Southern mind it seems to have assumed the form of a plausible fact. The party charged with this purpose, when it met in Convention at Chicago to nominate its candidate, previous to the last Pre sidential election, declared its doctrine on this point in the following words : — ' That the maintenance in violate of the rights of the States, and especially the right of each to order and control its domestic insti tutions according to its own judgment exclusively, is essential to that balance of power on which the perfection and endurance of our political fabric de pends; and we denounce the lawless invasion by armed force of the soil of any State or Territory, no matter under what pretext, as among the gravest of crimes.' Notwithstanding the preposterous char acter of this idea, the Committee have deemed the belief in it, in some portions of the South, sufficiently important to demand a notice at this time. " That nothing possible should be left unattempt- ed, in order to efface these false impressions, by the Committee, they have prepared, and submit, an amendment to the Constitution, whereby any power to interfere with Slavery in the States is forever de nied to Congress till every State in the Union, by its individual State action, shall consent to its exercise. They entertain a confident belief that this amend ment will be approved by the number of States re quired by the Constitution to secure its adoption. If Mr. Corwin's Majority Report. this shall not secure Slavery in the States against the possibility of interference by Federal power, we are wholly incapable of conceiving any form of Constitutional guaranty which will, or which will satisfy those who demand further security for their rights. " The Committee are well aware that the frequent agitation of the subject of Slavery, in political con tests, has given rise, in the minds of many, to fearful forebodings of disunion. It has undoubtedly con tributed to the present alienation of feeling between the Northern and Western and Southern and South western sections of the Republic. Investigations into the rightfulness or policy of what is properly called foroed labor, when conducted by thoughtful and discreet minds, in calm temper, guided by the laws of sound morals and political philosophy, could scarcely be attended with danger to the peace of society, and might be productive of much good. It is equally true that discussion touching the constitu tional powers of the Federal Government and the powers of the States over the subject of Slavery, when properly conducted, would have the effect to elicit truth rather than to endanger public tranquil ity. But when this subject is brought into the arena of party politics, our experience has shown that it too frequently fails to attain the desired end, without disturbing to a dangerous extent the harmony and good will, so much to be desired, between all sec tions of the Republic. The truth of this remark will be fully shown by a brief reference to our history. In 1821 Missouri was admitted as a Slave State, and Slavery was, at the same time, prohibited in all the Territory lying north of the parallel 36 deg. 30 min. North latitude. At that time, bo great was the agi tation, that men not at all prone to regard imaginary in the light of real danger, entertained great fears for the stability of the Government. The public mind, however, became calm, and, yielding to the suggestions of true patriotism, harmony was restor ed, and public prosperity advanced with rapid steps. The next event which brought the subject of Slavery into' public consideration was the annexation of Texas. The Presidential election of 1844 was made to turn almost entirely upon this single question. The great majority of-the people of the Free States were much dissatisfied with the result; but, with their views of duty as citizens of a free Republic,- they submitted with regret, but with no disposition to make improper opposition to the will of the peo ple expressed in accordance with all the forms of law. Between this period and that of 1821, the pub lic mind had not been agitated, nor the public peace at all endangered, by discussion or Federal legisla tion touching the subject of slavery. " The late war with Mexico resulted in the acquit- MR. CORWIN'S MAJORITY REPORT, 211 Mr. Corwin's Majority Report. tion of territory. From the mo ment of this acquisition the ques tion of the occupation of the Territory ceded by the treaty "of peace with Slave or Free labor, again called into action all the conflicting opinions and ideas which have been, and perhaps always will be held on the subject of Slavery, until all men shall be agreed as to the moral and economical principles on which it rests. This struggle was attended with all the angry discussions which had so signally marked the two previous contests. Then, as now, disunion was threatened — public bodies resolved on Seces sion, and for two years scarcely any other question of interest was known or discussed in Congress. At length, in September, 1850, Congress acted finally on the subject, and a peaceful, though in some quarters, a sullen, acquiescence followed. The leading spirits of all parties, at that time, however, sowed eternal fidelity to that compromise, and the public mind, at that time, had reason to hope that our dominion having reached the Pacific Ocean, future acquisition of territory would not be desired, and, by conse quence, this disturbing question would not again arise.- In 1854, however, by the repeal of the law of 1821, known as the Missouri Compromise, and the attempt to extend Slavery into territory where, by that venerable law, it had been prohibited, this dis turbing question was again opened out of the grave in which it had been buried. In 1850 this fearful spirit of discord arose. The present deplorable con dition of the country bears witness to the mischief which it has wrought. We see strong and opposite parties maintaining opposite opinions on this very question — these hostile opinions are strenuously ad hered to on each side, leaving little or no hope of agreement without a surrender of convictions hon estly entertained. An adjustment founded upon legal principles, in which all will agree, seems quite impossible. The expedient of withdrawing the sub ject-matter of controversy from this conflict of opinion, and by another mode of settlement giving to the South and the North all that each, under ex isting circumstances, would expect, or should desire to obtain, seems to the Committee the best, if not the only mode of adjustment left us. " The Committee are impressed with a belief, growing out of the admonitions furnished by our past history, that, in a Republic constituted as ours is, in all cases where parties are obstinately divided in opinion, on subjects which touch the interests, or make np the passions of different sections, it is the clear dictate of sound policy to withdraw the sub ject, in every case possible, from the strife of par ties, and to keep the Federal Government as far removed from any connection with it as duty to the Constitution will permit. The Committee deem the present controversy, involving the right to carry Slavery into Mr' toJwpnJrstMaJority territory not yet formed into State Governments, one peculiarly fitted for the application of the principle just announced. " It is contended on the one hand, that in all the Territory now in possession of the United States, not embraced within the limits of any State, and lying south of the parallel of latitude 36 deg. 30 min. north, Slavery shall be established and protected by a law of Congress. The territory thus defined comprehends the now organized Territory of New Mexico, including Arizona, which last, by law of Congress, has been attached to and made a part of New Mexico. This Territory was organized in 1850. By its organic law, the Territorial Legislature was authorized to enact laws and report them to Con gress. It was provided in the same act, that if Con gress should disapprove the laws thus made, they should be null and void. " In the year 1859, the Territorial Legislature of New Mexico established, Slavery in that Territory. This law was annulled at the last session of Con gress, by a vote of the House, but the Senate have not yet acted upon the bill. So the law of the Ter ritory, not having been annulled by both Houses of Congress, remains in full force, and is thus estab lished, and now exists by law in New Mexico. " It is further provided by the act of 1850, that New Mexico, when she is admitted into the Union, shall be admitted with or without Slavery, as her Constitution may ordain. The Committee now pro pose to admit New Mexico into the Union as a State, on an equal footing with the original States. By this course the faith of the nation, pledged in the act of 1850, will be preserved, and territory lying south of the parallel 36 deg. 30 min. will be disposed of, and the subject matter of controversy removed from the jurisdiction of the Federal Government. Thus all claimed by the South will be obtained, while the Northern portion of our remaining terri tory will be subject to such law as the Constitution and Congress may furnish for its government. " By this adjustment of the present territory of the Union, including the territory of all the States, it will be found that the area of the Free States and Territories, including all north of the line of 36 deg. 30 min., contains 1,648,779 square miles, and a pop ulation of 19,036,739, making a population of about 11 5-10 to the square mile. " The area of the Slaveholding States, including New Mexico, is 1,094,504 square miles, with a Fede ral population of 9 7-10 to the square mile. " By this arrangement of all the territory owned by the United States, when New Mexico is admitted as a Slave State, that possessed by the Slaveholding States will be greater, in proportion to Federal pop 212 THE SOUTHERN REBELLION. ulation, than that occupied by Mr. Corwta's Majority ^ non-SIaveholding States and Territories. The Committee are at a loss to conceive what more than this can be demanded or desired by the South. This settlement commends itself to our acceptance as one which de mands of no one any surrender of opinion for or against Slavery, for or against any proposition of constitutional law, and withdraws, for ever, from contest between North and South all territory which the latter desire to possess — constituting it a State, with the privilege belonging to all States, to adopt Buch domestic institutions as her own sense of duty and interest shall determine. " If it be objected that the population of the pro posed State is too small to justify her admission into • the Union at this time, we answer that it now- con tains a larger white population than either of two States now in the Union, and represented in both branches of Congress. The present population of New Mexico, including Arizona, is estimated at 105,000. This computation of area and population may not be correct, but it is based on reliable data. It may also be objected that the present resources of the Territory are not equal to the support of a State Government. If this objection has any foun dation in fact, it may be easily removed by liberal donations, such as Congress has often before made to new States on their coming into the Union. The Committee consider these and other objections to this plan, which might be suggested, as too insignifi cant to weigh for a moment against the incalculable benefit to all the States, and all the people of all the States, which it is hoped may flow from the adop tion of the measures proposed. Other plans and modes of adjustment have been presented and con sidered by the Committee. All of them, however, involve the surrender of opinions on questions of Constitutional law, long held by a large portion of the people, and too firmly grounded in their convic tions to justify a demand of their abandonment, es pecially when the result desired by all can be reached without that sacrifice. " From the beginning of our deliberations it was apparent that the disposition of that portion of our Territory lying South of the parallel of 36 deg. 30 min. was the main subject of difficulty. The settle ment of that question was, however, complicated with a provision much insisted on for Territory here after to be acquired. This did not seem to the Com mittee properly to belong to the subject. The Com mittee did not think proper to extend their con sideration of the embarrassments arising out of the occupation of Territory now within our possession to Territory which might or might not hereafter be acquired. It seemed to them improper, if not ab surd, while our Government was threatened with overthrow by an angry contro versy touching the disposition Mr.Cerwm^Majority of our present Territorial pos sessions, to employ our time in arranging for a par tition among ourselves of the Territorial dominions of neighboring nations, looking to a future which, when it shall come, will probably bring with it cir cumstances and conditions which could not be now foreseen, and which, therefore, should be left to the judgments of those whose duty it may become to consider and act upon them. " The subject of Slavery in the District of Colum bia, and in those places in the Slaveholding States where the Federal Government has exclusive juris diction, as well as the inter-State Slave-trade, have been disposed pf by a resolution accompanying this report, and the reason for that disposition briefly given in the resolution itself. " The rendition of fugitives from justice has, at all times, and especially lately, been a source of much irritation between the States, and has recently con nected itself, unhappily, with the subject of Slavery. The provisions of the Constitution have been differ ently construed by the Governors of different States, leading to controversy unfriendly to those amiable relations which should always subsist between the States. "To remedy this mischief, the Committee have thought it expedient to transfer the duty of acting upon the requisitions of fugitives from justice from the Governors of the States to the Courts of the United States, so as to secure a judicial construction of the Constitution, and also secure uniformity of action on the subject, and present a bill for that pur pose. " The Committee have prepared several resolu tions which do not propose action on any specifio subject ; but which, if adopted and approved by a vote of the House, may serve to announce principles which seem in some quarters to be questioned, while their adoption may tend to correct errors and mis representations that have obtained a too general be lief in the Southern section of the Union. " The intrinsic difficulties which belong to the sub ject must be the apology of the Committee for the time consumed in coming to the conclusions now submitted to the House. If the results which we have -reached should fail to accomplish the so much desired end, the Committee still entertain a confident belief that Congress will speedily adopt some mea sure which will be accepted by all as a just and fair basis upon which the paternal relations between all sections of the Union may be restored. " It is proper to observe that the Committee were not unanimous on all the resolutions and bills pre sented ; but a majority of a quorum was obtained on them all. " THOMAS CORWIN, Chairman." ! THE MINORITY REPORTS. 213 The Minority Re ports. The Minority Report of Messrs. Washburn and Tappan was a long, interesting and able argument on the resolutions agreed upon in the Committee. It protested against the sev eral resolves looking to concessions to the slave power, believing that the disease of dis union had become chronic and would not be cured by concessions. We can give only the Closing paragraphs of the Report as embo dying its conclusions : — " Having thus expressed our views on all the propositions of the Committee that contem plate any action, we feel compelled to say, that in our judgment they are one and all powerless for permanent good. The present dissatisfaction and discontent does not arise from the fact that the North has passed Personal Liberty bills, or that the Fugitive Slave law is not faithfully executed, neither does it arise from an apprehension that the North proposes to interfere with Slavery in the States where it exists. " The treasonable purposes of South. Carolina -are not of recent origin. In the recent Convention of that State leading members made use of the follow ing language, in the debate on the passage of the Ordinance of Secession. Mr. Parker — ". Mr. President, it appears to me, with great deference to the opinions that have been expressed, that the public mind is fuiiy made up to tbe great occasion that now awaits us. It is no spasmodic effort that has come suddenly upon us, but it has been gradually culminating for a loug series of years, until at last, it has come to that point when we may say the matter is entirely right," Mr. Inglis- " Mr. President, if there is any gentleman present who wishes to debate this matter, of course this body will bear him ; but as to delay for the purpose of dis cussion, I, for one, am opposed to it. As my friend (Mr. Parker) has said, most of us here bad this matter under consideration for the last twenty years, and I presume we had, by this time, arrived at a decision upon the subject." Mr. Keitt — " Sir, we are performing a great act, which involves not only tbe stirring present, but embraces the whole great future for ages to come. I have been engaged in this great movement ever since I entered political life I am content with what has been done to-day, and content with what will take place to-morrow. We have carried tbe body of this Union to its last resting place, and now we will drop the flag over its grave. After that is done, I am ready to adjourn, and leave the remaining ceremonies for to morrow." Mr. Rhett—" The Secession of South Carolina is not an event of a day. It is not anything produced by Mr. Lincoln's election, or by non-execution of the Fugitive Slave law. It has been a matter which has been gathering head for thirty years. The election of Lincoln and Hamlin was the last straw on the back of the camel. But it was not the only one. The back was nearly broken before. The point upon which I now differ from my friend , is this : He says he thought it expedient, for ns to put this great question before the world upon this simple matter of wrongs on the question of Slavery, and that, question turned upon the Fugitive Slave law. Now, in regard The Minority Be to the Fugitive Slave law, I myself ports. doubt its unconstitutionality, and I doubted it on tbe floor of the Senate when I was a member of that body. The States acting in their sovereign capacity should bo responsible for the rendition of fugitive slaves. This was our best security." " Such sentiments, expressing the opinions of lead ing representative men in the South Carolina move ment, ought to satisfy, it seems to us, any reasonable man, that the proposed measures of the majority of the Committee will be powerless for good. " South Carolina is our ' sick man,' that is labor ing under the influence of the most distressing of maladies. A morbid disease which has been preying upon that State for a long series of years has at last assumed the character of acute mania, and has extended to other members of the Confede racy, and to think of restoring the patient to health by the nostrums proposed, is, in our judgment, per fectly idle. " Bnt we hear it said ' something must be done or the Union will be dissolved.' We do not care to go into a nice calculation of the benefits and disadvan tages to the several States arising from the Union, with a view of striking a balance between them. Should we do so, we are convinced that that balance would largely favor the Southern section of the Con federacy. "The North has never felt inclined to calculate the value of the Union. It may not be improper to inquire in this connection whether the State of South Carolina and the other ultra Secession States have been so oppressed by our Government as to render their continuance in the Union intolerable to their citizens. " It is not pretended that they ever lose fugitive slaves, or that any escaping from those States have not been delivered up when demanded; nor is it pretended that the' Personal Liberty bills of any State have practically affected any of their citizens. Neither do they complain that they cannot now go with their slaves into any Territory of the United States. The Supreme Court has decided that they have that right. " Is it, then, complained that their citizens, under the operation of the Federal laws, are compelled to contribute an undue proportion of the means to maintain the Government ? If so, and the complaint is well founded, it is deserving of notice. " But it is not true in point of fact. We could easily demonstrate, by official figures, that the Gov ernment of the United States annually expends, for the exclusive use and benefit of South Carolina, a much larger sum than that State contributes for the support of the Government. This same rule will hold true in regard to most of the States that are 214 THE SOUTHERN REBELLION, The Minority Re ports. now so anxious to dissolve their connection with the Union. " Florida, which contains less than one five-hundredth part of the white popula tion of the Union, and a State which has cost us di rectly and indirectly not less than $40,000,000, and upon which the General Government annually ex pends sums of money for her benefit, more than four times in excess of her contributions to the support of the Government, has raised her arm against the power which has so liberally sustained her. "But we will not pursue this subject further. The Union of these States is a necessity, and will be pre served long after the misguided men who seek its overthrow are dead and forgotten, or if not forgot ten, only remembered as the attempted destroyers of the fairest fabric erected for the preservation of human liberty that the world ever saw. " It is not to be preserved by compromises or sac rifices of principles. South Carolina, it is believed, is fast learning the value of-the Union, and the expe rience she is now acquiring will be of immeasurable value to her and her sister States, when she shall re turn to her allegiance. If other States insist upon the purchase of that knowledge in the school of ex perience at the price paid by South Carolina, while we may deprecate their folly, we cannot doubt its lasting value to them. " Regarding the present discontent and hostility in the South as wholly without just cause, we submit the following resolution, which is the same as that recently offered in the United States Senate by Mr. Clark, of New Hampshire : " Resolved, That the provisions of tbe Constitution are am ple for the preservation of the Union, and tbe protection of all the material interests of tbe country ; that it needs to be obeyed rather than amended, and our extrication from present difficulties is to be looked for in efforts to preserve and protect tbe public property and enforce tbe laws, rather than in new guarantees for particular interests, or compro mises, or concessions to unreasonable demands. (Signed) " C C. WASHBURNE, " MASON W. TAPPAN." The Minority Report of Messrs. Love and Hamilton embraced propositions covering the Crittenden basis of settlement. The Re port of Mr. Adams, of Massachusetts, was a protest, or rather plea, to extenuate his re fusal to accede to the Majority Report, not withstanding he had voted, in committee, for its several propositions. He withdrew his as sent " for the reason that the Southern mem bers have generally retired from the Commit tee, thereby showing an unwillingness to accept anything the North could yield in Tbe Minority Re ports. the way of compromise." The Minority Report, signed by the representatives of the Pacific coast, Messrs. Burch and Stout, declared the requisite vote for constitutional amend ments by this Congress cannot be had ; and since there is such a contrariety of views and opinions among members of the same party as leave no hope from their action which would meet all demands, they were willing to refer the matters of difference between the North and South to the source of Federal power and the delegates elected with a view -direct to their settlement. They concurred in many of the measures recommended by the majori ty, and reported a resolution additional to theirs. This resolution received 14 votes, while 15 voted against it in the Committee. It proposed to call a National Constitutional Convention. Thus ended the action of this important Committee. Its results, or want of results, proclaimed to the people that the differ ences between the two sections were too radical for the cure of compromise. The public in the North, thereafter, looked to the Executive for the preservation of the coun try — the means to be left to circumstances. In the South, the leaders of the movement for disunion hastened the action of States looking to the formation of a new Government, that should be prepared to cope with any obstacles which the Federal Executive might oppose to the abrogation of its authority by the States. Prior to this, however, the affair of the Star of the West, [see Chap. XH.], had aroused the loyal spirit of the North, while it reassured the revolutionists of the imminence of their danger, and added to their zeal for the forma tion of their consolidated administration. Divided, they were powerless to meet the strong arm of the General Government : com bined, they would offer such a front of de fense and defiance as might induce the North to terms of peaceful separation. The speech of Mr. Yancey, before the Alabama Conven- tion^see page 205, J in justification of the Con vention's refusal to submit the Ordinance of - Secession to a vote of the people, proves that the leaders considered the danger as over riding even the claims of the people. CHAPTER XII. THE AFFAIR OF THE STAR OF THE WEST. Sailing of the Transport. As stated, the Steamer Star of the West loaded se cretly in New York during the first week of January, by orders from the War Department, with provisions and mu nitions for Fort Sumter. She dropped down the Bay Saturday evening, January 5th. During the night two hundred choice troops were put on board from a steam-tug, dis patched from Governor's Island, and the vessel put to sea, steering directly for Char leston. "This departure was made known imme diately to the Charleston authorities by a reporter of a leading New York morning paper, who had succeeded in becoming ac quainted with the facts — thus giving the South Carolina authorities ample opportunity for their " defensive" preparations. A strong battery had been thrown up on Morris' island, at the entrance of the harbor. A small steamer was sent outside to reconnoitre, and give alarm Of the transport's approach. The buoys, lights, and ranges had previously been removed, when it was known that the -Brooklyn, then lying at Norfolk, was ready to sail for the harbor at any moment. She was now expected to cooperate with the Star of the West — to engage the battery and Fort Moultrie, while the steamer should run direct for Sumter. The transport arrived off the mouth -of Charleston harbor at 1.30 A. M., on the 9th. The captain, in his report to the owners of the vessel, said : " I could find no guiding- marks for the bar, as the lights were all out. We proceeded with great caution, running very slow and sounding until about 4 A. m., being then in about four and a half fathoms of water, when we discovered a light through the haze, which at that time crossed the ho rizon. Concluding that the light was on Fort Sumter, after getting the bearings of it, The Steamer Fired Into. we steered to the S. W. for the main ship channel, when we hove to to await daylight, our lights having all been put out since twelve o'clock, to avoid being seen. As the day began to break, discovered a steamer just in-shore of us, which, as soon as she saw us, burned one blue light and two red lights, as signals, and shortly after steamed over the bar and into the ship channel. The soldiers were now all put below, and no one allowed on the deck except our own crew. As soon as there was light enough to see, we crossed the bar, and proceeded on up the channel (the outer bar buoy having been taken away)." The steamer ahead of us sending off rockets and burning lights until after broad day light, continuing on her course up, near two miles ahead of us. When we arrived about two miles from Fort Moultrie — Fort Sumter being about the same distance — a masked battery on Morris' Island, where there was a red Palmetto flag flying, opened fire upon us — distance about five-eighths of a mile. We had the American flag flying at our flagstaff at the time, and, soon after the first shot, hoisted a large American ensign at the fore. We continued on under the fire of the battery for over ten minutes ; several of the shots going clean over us. One passed just clear of the pilot-house. Another passed between the smoke-stack and walking-beam of the engine. Another struck the ship just abaft the fore-rigging and stove in the planking, and another came within an ace of carrying away the rudder. At the same time there was a movement of two steamers from neal FOrt Moultrie — one of them towing a schoon er — (I presume an armed schooner) with the intention of cutting us off. Our position now became rather critical, as we had to ap proach Fort Moultrie to within three-fourths of a mile, before we could keep away for Fort 216 THE SOUTHERN REBELLION. Sumter. A steamer approaching us with an armed schooner in tow, and the battery on the island firing at us all the time, and, hav ing no cannon to defend ourselves from the attack of the vessels, we concluded that, to avoid certain capture or destruction, we would endeavor to get to sea. Consequently, we wore round and steamed down the chan nel, the battery firing upon us until their shot fell short. As it was now strong ebb tide, and the water having fallen some three feet, we proceeded with caution, and crossed the bar safely at 8.50 A. m." The vessel steamed away for New York, arriving there on the morning of the 12th, not having seen the Brooklyn. It was a sadly mismanaged affair through out. A large, heavy-draught, side-wheel steamer, with walking-beam, engine and wheels, all so open that one well-directed ball or shell would have disabled the craft and left her an easy capture to a small body of men, was not the proper transport to have chosen for the perilous service. A propeller could have loaded with more se- cresy and have proceeded with more safety. She could have run the Morris' battery (as the big steamer actually did), and, by her light draught, could have given Fort Moul trie a wide berth, by steering quite direct for Sumter. This would have rendered the expedition a success. Or, if the Star of the West had been prepared with 'small boats, she could have run out to sea after the repulse, to return on the night of the 9th, and, under cover of the darkness, have thrown in the men and preserved stores. Or, again, if the Brooklyn and Harriet Lane had been on the spot to engage Moultrie, the landing at Sumter might have been effected. As it was, the adventure reminded of the celebra ted expedition told in verse, where twice five hundred men marched up a hill and then — marched down again. Anderson knew nothing of the character of the Star of the West, though he surmised her mission. He had opened his ports, lit the matches, run out three heavy guns, and was on the point of opening fire on Moultrie when the steamer put about and headed for the sea. He immediately addressed Governor Pickens the following note, by the hand of Lieut. Hall, borne in under cover of the white flag:-- " To his Excellency the Governor of South Carolina. Anderson's Letter. " Sir : Two of your batteries fired this morning upon an unarmed vessel bearing the flag of my Government. As I have not been notified that war has been declared by South Caro lina against the Government of the United States, I cannot but think that this hostile act was committed without your sanction or authority. Under that hope, and that alone, did I refrain from opening fire upon your batteries. I have the honor, therefore, to respectfully ask whether the above-mentioned act — one, I believe, without a parallel in the history of our country or any other civilized Government — was committed in obedience to your instructions,- and to notify yon if it be not disclaimed, that I must regard it as an act of war ; and that I shall not, after a reasonable time for the return of my messenger, perrhit any vessel to pass within range of the guns of my fort. In order to save, as far as in my power, the shedding of blood, I beg that you will give due notification of this, my decision, to all concerned. Hoping, however, that your answer may be snch as will justify a further continuance of forbearance on my part, I have the honor to be, very respectfully, " Your obedient servant, "ROBERT ANDERSON, " Major First Artillery of the United States Army Commanding. " Fort Sumter, Jan. 9, 1861." After a prolonged interview between the Governor and the leading men of the State, as well as of the Legislature, the following reply was returned: — " State of Charleston, Executive Office, ) Headquarters, Charleston, Jan. 9, 1861. j " Sir : Your letter has been received. In it you make cer tain statements which very plainly show that you have not been fully informed by your Government of the precise relations which now exist between it and the State of South Caro lina. Official information* has been communicated to the Government of the United States that the po litical connection heretofore existing between the State of South Carolina and the States which were known as the United States had ceased, and that the State of South Carolina had resumed all the powers it had delegated to the United States under the com pact known as the Constitution of the United States. The right which the State of South Carolina pos sessed to change the political relations which she had held with the other States under the Constitu- Governor Pickens' Reply. FURTHER CORRESPONDENCE, 217 Governor Pickens' Reply. tion of the United States has been solemnly asserted by the people of this State in Conven tion, and now does not admit of discussion. In an ticipation of the Ordinance of Secession, of which the President of the United States had official notification, it vi as understood by him that sending any reenforce- ments of troops of the United States in the harbor of Charleston would be regarded by the constituted au thorities of the State of South Carolina as an act of hostility, and at the same time it was understood by him that any change in the occupation of the forts in the ha-rbor of Charleston wonld in like manner be regarded as an act of hostility. Either or both of these events occurring during the period in which the State of South Carolina constituted a part of the United States, was then distinctly notified to the President of the United States as an act or acts of hostility, because either or both would be regarded and could only be intended to dispute the right of the State of South Carolina to that political inde pendence which she has always asserted and will always maintain. " Whatever would have been, during the contin uance of this State while a member of the United States, an act of hostility, became much more so when the State of South Carolina had dissolved all connection with the Government of the United States. After the secession of South Carolina, Fort Sumter continued in the possession of the troops of the United States. How that fort is at this time in possession of the troops of the United States, it is not now necessary to discuss. It will suffice to say that the occupancy of that fort has been regarded by the State of South Carolina as the first act of pos itive hostility committed by the troops of the United States within the limits of this State, and was in this light regarded as so unequivocal, that it occasioned the termination of the negotiation, then pending at Washington, between the Commissioners of the State of South Carolina and the President of the United -States. The attempt to reenforce the troops now in Fort Sumter, or to retake and resume possession of the forts within the waters of this State which you abandoned, after spiking the guns placed there, and doing otherwise much damage, cannot be regarded by the authorities of the State as indicative of any other purpose than the coercion of the State by the armed forces of your Government. To repel such an attempt, is too plainly a duty to allow it to be discussed ; and while defending its waters, the au thorities of the State have been careful so to conduct the affairs of the State that no act, however neces sary for its defense, should lead to a useless waste of life. Special agents, therefore, have been off the 28 Governor Pickens* Reply. bar to warn all approaching vessels, if armed or unarmed, and having troops to reenforce the fort on board, not to enter the port of Charles ton ; and special orders have been given to the com manders of all the forts and batteries not to fire at such vessels until a shot fired across their bows would warn them of the prohibition of the State. " Under these circumstances, the Star of' the West, it is understood, this morning attempted to enter this harbor with troops on board, and having been notified that she could not enter, was fired into. The act is perfectly justified by me. In regard to your. threat in regard to vessels in the harbor, it is only necessary to say that you must judge of your responsibility. Your position in this harbor has been tolerated by the authorities of the State, and while the act of which you complain is in perfect consistency with the rights and duties of the States, it is not perceived how far the conduct which you propose to adopt can find a parallel in the history of any country, or be reconciled with any other pur pose of your Government than that of imposing upon this State the condition of a conquered prov ince. F. W. PICKENS." The Legislature being in session, this cor respondence was immediately laid before it, when, after its reading, the following resolu tions were immediately adopted : — " Resolved, That this General Assembly looks npon any attempt to reenforce the troops now in posses sion of Fort Sumter as an act of open and undisguis ed hostility on the part of the Government of the United States. " Resolved further, That this General Assembly learns with pride and pleasure of the successful re sistance this day by the troops of this State acting under orders of the Governor, to an attempt to reen force Fort Sumter. " Resolved further, That this General Assembly en tirely approves and indorses the communication of the Governor this day made to Major Anderson. " Resolved further, That this General Assembly pledges itself to an earnest, vigorous and unhesitat ing support of the Governor in every means adopted by him in defense of the honor and safety of the State." This was soon succeeded , t. , , . Further Correspon- by a further commumca-_ dence tion from the Governor, en closing Major Anderson's reply to the Gover nor's answer to his first note. The documents read : — 218 THE SOUTHERN REBELLION, "Executive Office, January 9, 1861. " To the Senate and House of Representatives: " I have just this moment received, under a white flag, from Major Anderson, Commandant at Fort Sumter, another note, a copy of which accompanies this. " I immediately granted the permission desired, and directed every facility and courtesy extended to the bearer of his dispatches (Lieut. Talbot) for his Government, going and returning. "FRANCIS W. PICKENS." "Headquarters, Fort Sumtek, S.C, 1 " January 9, 1861. j " To his Excellency F. W. Pickens, Governor of the State of South Carolina : ' ' Sir : I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of your communication of to-day, and to say, that under the circumstances I have deemed it proper to refer the whole matter to my Government, and that I intend deferring the course indicated in my note of this morning until the arrival from Washington of the instructions I may receive. I have the honor also to express the hope that no obstructions will be placed in the way of, and that you will do me the favor of giving every facility to, the departure and return of the bearer, Lieut. T. Talbot, United States Army, who has been directed to make the journey. " I have the honor to be, very respectfully, " ROBERT ANDERSON, "Major United States, Commanding." If anything was wanting Popular indignation, to cement the Union senti ment in the North, nothing could have been conceived better calculated to arouse the feeling of resistance to the revo lution than this firing on the American flag. The indignity of the act awoke, in the hearts of all classes and parties in the North, but one emotion — that of indignation, and a re solve to avenge the insult. The unity of popular sentiment produced by the dispatches announcing the news, resembled the gather ing of the elements preparatory to a terrific storm. All issues were suddenly merged in that of resentment for the outrage offered the Government. This may be inferred from the tone of the opposition press, which, up to that moment, had clamored for compromise and had deprecated all thoughts of coercion. Thus the Breckenridge organ at Albany said : " If the Star of the West, in commission of the Government, has been fired upon at the entrance of Charleston Harbor, by order of the authorities of the State of South Carolina and the communication of the Government with one of its military posts thus forcibly prevented, there is but one course to pursue. The authority and dignity of the Government must be vindicated at every hazard. The is sue thus having been made, it must be met and sustained, if necessary, by the whole power of the navy and army.. We take it for granted, that, if the present version of the af fair is correct, a vessel of war will be dis patched and will enter the harbor and com municate with Major Anderson at any cost. Thus much is necessary to preserve for the Government a decent respect, both at home and abroad." The editor " took for granted" what did not follow. The President, evi dently alarmed at the crisis thus thrust upon him, neither ordered the Star of the West back; nor the Brooklyn and Harriet Lane, vessels of war, to Charleston ; nor did he au thorize Major Anderson to execute his threat; nor did he allow the Major the poor privi lege of shelling the offending battery and Fort Moultrie for their treason and insolence. He had to sit upon his lonely ramparts, day by day, there to watch the swarms of soldiers and negroes on the islands around him throw ing up batteries and preparing for his de struction. No order, no encouraging voice came from Washington to inspirit him. But, from the twenty millions of loyal lips went up a shout which must have thrilled his soul like the sound of an Archangel's clarion. The people were true; and, thus comforted, the little garrison labored incessantly, to its ut most strength, to mount the guns which would be needed for the assault seemingly close at hand. Sumter seemed left to its fate. It lay out in the waters, silent and gloomy, like a sullen thought in the Nation's heart. It ere long became radiant with fires which shot from its ports, not only to Moultrie and Morris'island, but to the farthest verge of the Union, to kindle the beacons of patriotism on every hill, and in every valley of the teeming North. CHAPTEE XIII. SECRETARY OF THE INTERIOR RESIGNS. MR. HOLT IN THE WAR D E P ARTMENT. THE PREVALENCE OF TREASON. THE LAW OF TREASON. RESIGNATION OF MR. THOMAS AND APPOINTMENT OF GENERAL DIX TO THE TREASURY. Resignation of Mr Thompson. Hon. Jacob Thompson, Secretary of the Interior, resigned his Cabinet seat, Thursday, January 8th. His reasons were, that "after the order to reenforce Major Anderson was countermanded, on the 31st of December, there was a distinct understanding that no troops should be ordered South with out the subject being considered and decided on in the Cabinet. At the Cabinet meeting, on the 2d of January, the matter was again debated, but not determined. Notwithstand ing these facts, the Secretary of War, without the knowledge of Secretary Thompson, sent 250 troops in the Star of the West to reenforce Anderson. Not learning of this till Tuesday morning, he forthwith resigned." The resig nation proved a relief rather than an embar rassment to the President. He was, like all the Southern men in the Cabinet, inimical to a policy of resistance to the revolution, and served only to distract the Cabinet Coun cil. The remaining Southern member, Mr. Thomas, of Maryland, Secretary of the Treas ury, was less offensive than any of those who had withdrawn; but, being a "Southern man," his resignation was, also, daily looked for, and, by the great mass of the people and members of Congress, was desired. Congress not being in session Tuesday, Mr. Buchanan was waited upon by a large num ber of Congressmen, as well as by eminent persons then in Washington, to be congratu lated on the growing sentiment for Union. He was quite generally assured that his policy of resistance would not only gratify the ma jority of the people, but that they would be satisfied with nothing less than a firm en forcement of the laws. The President ex pressed much gratification with these assur ances, and declared his purpose to do his whole duty, fearlessly. Mr. Holt, Postmaster- General, continued to dis- The War Department. charge the duties of the War Department. His labors were almost exclusively performed in General Scott's office, where he could find not only privacy, but could, at all moments, obtain the wise counsel of the veteran Lieutenant-General. Spies and Southern emissaries lurked every where, and scarcely a whisper was uttered which did not seem to be heard and repeated to the Government's detriment. Eminent men from the South stooped to the mean po sition of tale-bearers and special reporters ; while the army of Southerners in employ of all the departments, in all branches of the civil service, in the Army and Navy — almost without exception — became petty informers, plotting and intriguing against the Govern ment whose bounty they were living upon. Such wide spread and thorough demoraliza tion of the sentiment of honor never before was witnessed in America : may it never again be seen ! Mr. Holt brought to the duties of his responsible position courage, patriotism and industry quite equal to the extraordinary emergencies by which he was environed, and Southern men beheld in him the controlling genius of the unqualified Union policy. January 9th, the tele graph said : " The Cabinet is now in session, deliberating upon the propriety of arresting Toombs, of Georgia, and Wigfall, of Texas, for high treason." One of the most frequent inquiries made by the people was — Why are not these men arrested, whose words and actions are plain treason ? It was not answered. One The immmunity Shown Treason. 220 THE SOUTHERN REBELLION, excuse offered was the impossibility of sus taining the arrests with sufficient force to make them secure; but the constitutional timidity of the President, and the opposition offered by the venerable man who occupied the position of Chief- Justice of the United States Supreme Court,* were, doubtless, the real causes of the latitude granted to men who were writing and preaching the most undoubted treason ; were buying arms to use against the Government; were exciting sedition and corrupting the loyalty of those still true to the Union and the Constitu- tion.f * Mr. F. C. Treadwell, of New York, on Jan. 16th, proceeded to Washington, to enter formal complaint against a large number of the leading Secessionists. This complaint, legal and pro forma in its nature, was returned by the Clerk of the United States Supreme Court, with the message from Judge Taney — not the written endorsement (for that would have been evi dence of his own complicity,) as such cases required — that " they were improper papers to be presented to the Court." The United States Supreme Court thus planted itself before the conspirators to give them immunity from arrest. No wonder the Presi dent was hesitating, when even the Supreme Bench offered sympathy to treason ! t The following resolutions, as indicative of the sentiments of a large body of the people, unanimously passed the Central Republican Club of New York City, January 10th : " Whereas, A band of traitors in the Cabinet at Washington, in both Houses of Congress, and in sev eral of the Southern States of this Republic, have made war against the United States ; have seized forts, arsenals, and other public property ; robbed the Treasury, obstructed the telegraph, and com mitted other acts of violence, in combination and conspiracy against the people of the United States, and their Constitution of Government, for the pur pose of introducing Slavery temporarily or perma nently into every State and Territory of this Union ; therefore, " Resolved, That the Constitution as it is, provides the most perfect system of government known to man ; that it needs no amendment, and shall have none, at the beck and call of traitors, or their insolent mouth-pieces. •— " Resolved, That we hold ourselves ready, and ten der our services to the State, or the National Govern ment, or both, to aid to the extent of our power in crushing this formidable and wicked rebellion ; de termined, at all hazards, that the Constitution shall The crime of treason is thus defined by the Constitution [Art. III., sec. 3] : " Treason against the United States shall consist only in levying war against them, or in adhering to their enemies, giving them aid and comfort. No person shall be convicted of treason un less on the testimony of two witnesses to the same overt act, or on confession in open Court." The same section also stipulates that Congress shall have power to declare the punishment of treason. In exercising this power Congress passed its act of April 30th, 1790, in which it is declared : " If any person or persons, owing allegiance to the United The Law of Treason. States of America, shall levy war against them, or shall adhere to their enemies, giving them aid and comfort, within the United States, or elsewhere, and shall be thereof convicted, on confession in open court, or on the testimony of two witnesses to the same overt act of treason whereof he or they shall stand indicted, such person or persons shall be adjudged guilty of treason against the United States, and shall suffer death. " If any person or persons, having knowledge of the commission of any of the treasons aforesaid, shall- conceal, and not, as soon as may be, disclose and make known the same to the President of the United States, or some one of the judges thereof, or to the President or Governor of a particular State, or some one of the judges or justices thereof, suoh person or persons, on conviction, shall be adjudged guilty of misprision of treason, and shall be impris oned not exceeding seven years, and fined not ex ceeding one thousand dollars." Chief - Justice Marshal, in administering this act, thus interpreted it : — "It is not the intention of the Courts to say that no individual can be guilty of this crime who has not appeared in arms against his country. " On the contrary, if war be actually levied — that is, if a body of men be actually assembled for the purpose of effecting by force a treasonable purpose — all those who perform any part, however minute, or however remote from the scene of action, and who are actually leagued in the general conspiracy,! are to be considered as traitors." "Overt acts" were everywhere visible throughout the South; while, in the North, be ' preserved, protected, and defended,' peace restored, and the blessings of liberty — of liberty of speech and the press, fully and amply vindicated and secured." THE LAW OF TREASON. 221 open and secret sales of arms and munitions were consummated during all the months of December, January and February — arms which the manufacturers and salesmen knew were to be used against the Government, and, beyond question, sold them so to be used. The Adams' Express was an accredited car rying agent for the transportation of arms to the South ; and, during these months, almost daily transported packages which its agents knew to contain arms and munitions ordered by the revolutionary States for use against the Government. During March, large quan tities of clothing were manufactured in North ern cities for Southern troops, and rapidly carried South by this same " Southern " Ex press, knowing the clothing to be for the aid and comfort of the enemies of the Govern ment. In Washington, as we have stated, the Departments, the floors of Congress, the Army, the Navy, all fairly stiffened with the insolence and hauteur of treason and mispri sion of treason. Army and Navy officers re signed, with the expressed purpose of taking service against their Government — some tak ing such service before they could even know if their resignations were acted upon, as in the cases of Commander Farrand and Lieut. Renshaw, at Pensacola ; while others not even deigned to send in a resignation, but took their vessels with them when they passed over to the revolutionists, as in the cases of Capt. Coste, Capt. Breshwood, and Capt. Morrison — each one of whom betrayed his vessel into the hands of the rebels. How it will astonish future generations to read the law of Congress above quoted, and then to learn that, in the face of all this un disguised cooperation and collusion with the conspirators, not one arrest was made — not one indictment for treason I That the violent Secessionists in Congress, the Army and Navy officers offering their resignations from seces- ', sion proclivities, the manufacturers and sales- agents of arms, — all should have been arrested admits of no question if the law was to be considered else than a dead letter. That Adams' Express Company should have had its charter confiscated, and its rights and im munities sequestered, can hardly be a matter of argument in the face of that act of Con- The responsibility of non-action on the part of Congress and the Executive cannot be ex cused on the plea that the States, individu ally, had power to punish treason committed against them, for, what was treason against a State was equally treason against the common country, and, therefore, amenable to the con stitutional provision for its punishment. Judge Story says : — •' The power of punishing the crime of treason against the United States is exclusive in Congress ; and the trial of the offence belongs exclusively to the tribunals appointed by them. A State cannot take cognizance, or punish the offence ; whatever it may do in relation to the offence of treason, com mitted exclusively against itself, if indeed any case can, under "the Constitution, exist, which is not, at the same time, treason against the United States." [Com. on Const. § 1296, p. 173, vol. III.] On Congress, the Supreme Court, and the Executive alone must rest the responsibility of non-action. That the growth of the de fection was precipitate and wide-spread ow ing to this very smothering of the plain pro cesses of the law is now, as it then was, evident even to the most casual observer. A telegram from Wash ington dated the llth, sta ted that the " President had signified to Mr. Thomas, Secretary of the Treasury, that his resignation was desired." This is said to have grown out of a visit of several leading capitalists of New York, as representatives of the banks of that city, who expressed a willingness and wish to aid Gov ernment with funds, but felt so little confi dence in the Secretary that his removal must precede any tenders of money. The fact that Mr. Thomas was a disunionist— as well as his first assistant, Mr. Clayton — was sufficient to inspire a want of faith in their integrity of ad ministration. The capitalists, it is probable, also suggested the nomination, as Secretary of the Treasury, of General John A. Dix, then Postmaster of New York City. Mr. Thomas resigned (January llth), and Mr. Dix took the vacated bureau to try and resuscitate the dis tressed finances of the country from their hu miliating condition. The shocking misman agement of that Department by the Secession ist, Secretaries had almost ruined the credit of Government ; and Mr. Buchanan perform ed a wise act in listening to the counsel of Further Cabinet Changes. 222 THE SOUTHERN REBELLION, the New York men of money. The Treasury soon felt the magnetism of integrity and patriotism ; and, from that hour, it began to recover its old character for efficiency. How ell Cobb took the keys to find the chest abso lutely burdened with its riches : Mr. Thomas found and left it in a state of discredit and bankruptcy. The end designed of crippling the Federal Government had been accom plished. This last change restored the Cabinet to har mony of action. It was now composed of men of undoubted ability and of devoted patriot ism, and the President found himself not only supported in a vigorous policy, but soon dis covered that his advisers were ready for a true Jacksonian handling of the reins of Govern ment. The brief term of his rule, together^ with his distaste for a state of war, contributed to lead his feet into bye-paths — to impel hkn to choose a course of action which should leave the incoming Administration to grap ple with the monster which his timidity had not strangled in its infancy. He was, indeed, to leave for his successor the veritable Pandora box. It was his only legacy. CHAPTER XIV. OUR FOREIGN RELATIONS DURING JANUARY. OPINIONS OF THE FRENCH AND ENGLISH PRESS. THE EMPEROR NAPOLEON'S WISHES EXPRESSED. When it became proba- Roiative positions, ble that a disrupted Con federacy would be the re sult of the disunion revolution, the foreign relations of the country began to excite un wonted interest on the part of the revolu tionary leaders. The South turned longingly to England and France for their sympathy. Were these nations not greatly dependent on the products of Slavery for their prosperity ? Could they fail to recognize a new Confederacy which might safely promise more cotton at a less price than under the old Union ? Would they not be happy to establish new commer cial relations, unhampered by tariffs, and en couraged by a system of exchanges — the foreign nations acting as consumers of a raw material to return it manufactured ? What a fine promise, truly, for British commerce and French looms ! And then, weightier than all, would not those nations rejoice to see the great Western Republic reduced from a first-class to a third-rate power — thus giv ing monarchy a new lease of its prerogatives ? All views seemed favorable to the scheme for the Slave Confederation, and the leaders looked eagerly for the news of each steamer to read their fate, if possible, in the revela tions of the foreign press. The North viewed the matter of English and French sympathy without concern. Ap preciating the force of the arguments urged, by the South, to create a foreign interest in its behalf, the Free States felt confident of being able to restrain active sympathy for the revolutionists, not more by old ties, treaties and international obligations, than by the re pugnance which the people — particularly of Great Britain— felt for Slavery. A pure Slave Confederacy never could win their con fidence. If they must have the products of Slave labor, to employ their millions of weav ers and spinners, they preferred to practice ,. the little hypocrisy of excusing themselves for the purchase, so long as it came from the free United States ; but, make the issue di rect, to support a Confederation formed ex pressly to extend the area of Slavery, to rivet the chains more securely on the miserable bondmen — then the English people would cry^ Never ! The North seemed to rest assured of this feeling, and did not experience the OPINIONS OF THE EUROPEAN PRESS 223 The Paris Constitu- tionel. feverish anxiety in regard to foreign relations which possessed the entire South, from a very early moment of the revolution. It will be of interest to reproduce such ex pressions of influential foreign journals, during the month of January, as will indicate how our affairs impressed the European mind. Being outside, and comparatively disinter ested, observers — the London Times, perhaps, excepted — their remarks will serve to give the reader a clearer comprehension of the questions involved than might otherwise be obtained. "Mr. Buchanan has sought out the means of preserving the Union from the catastrophe which threatens it ; he has drawn up a plan of re conciliation between the Northern and Southern States. It cannot, however, be said that- this pro ject is a compromise, inviting the two adverse par ties to mutual concessions and equal sacrifices ; it is rather a summons addressed to one to yield to the exigencies of the other ; it is more like a decision come to with partiality than an equitable arbitra tion. To the North, which has gained its cause be fore the people, the President signifies that it must abandon the benefit of the decision for the profit of the South, which has been the losing party. Under pretext of conciliation, the Message calls on the con queror to place himself under the feet of the con quered. Such is the groundwork of Mr. Buchanan's propositions. * * * * What, then, does Mr. Buchanan ask for ? He requires the North to ac cept, as forming a part of the Constitution itself, the three following points : — 1. An express recognition of the right of property over slaves wherever Slave ry exists, or may exist. 2. The duty of protecting that right on all the common Territories, until they constitute themselves into States. 3. The recogni tion of the right of a master to have a fugitive slave delivered up to him by all the States, and a declara tion that all the laws of a State, which are in con tradiction to that right are so many violations of the Constitution, and must, therefore, be null and of non-effect. It is tantamount to saying to the North : ' Grant to the South all it claims ; it will then be satisfied, and will not separate itself from you.' * * * Will the North resign itself to a capitula tion of its conscience — to a sacrifice of its self-love — and submit, in exchange for the maintenance of the Confederation, to all the exigencies of the South? Will it accept the evasion proposed to it under the form of remonstrance and wise advice ? According to Mr. Buchanan, that would be the only means of Baving the Union. Or will the North, irritated in its turn by the reproaches of the President, who throws on it the whole responsibility of the crisis, persist in its victory, and allow the South, which it has neither threatened nor provoked, to act as it likes ? That is what a no distant future will inform us. For our part, our wishes are at the same time for the safety of the great American Republic, and for the gradual diminution of Slavery. We much fear, however, that the North will see in the late Message proposi tions offensive to it ; while the South will find there an encouragement to its projects of rupture. Mr. Buchanan would thus have failed in his attempt at pacification, and will have bequeathed to his fellow- countrymen only an incoherent commentary on the Constitution of the Republic. Would it not have been better if he had referred to a famous letter of Washington, dated in April, 1786, and in which that ' Father of his Country ' said : ' There is not a man living who desires more sincerely than I to see a plan adopted for the abolition of Slavery ; but there is but one suitable and effectual mode of ac complishing that object— legislative authority.' " — Dee. lid. " Never for many years can the United States be to the world The London Times. what they have been. Mr. Bu chanan's message has been a greater blow to the Ame rican people than all the rants of the Georgian Gover nor or the ' ordinances' of the Charleston Convention. The President has dissipated the idea that the States which elected him constitute one people. We had thought that the Federation was Of the nature of a nationality ; we find it is nothing more than a part nership. If any State may, on groundB satisfactory to «. local convention, dissolve the union between itself and its fellows ; if discontent with the election of a President, or the passing of an obnoxious law by another State, or, it may be, a restrictive tariff gives a State the ' right of revolution,' and permits it to withdraw itself from the community, then the position of the American people, with respect to for eign Powers, is completely altered. It is strange that a race whose patriotic captiousness, when in the society of Europeans, is so remarkable, should be so ready to divide and to give up the ties of fellow- citizenship for a cause which strangers are unable to appreciate. Still stranger is it that a chief magis trate, who would have plunged the world in civil war rather than a suspicious craft should be boarded by English officers, after it had displayed the Stars and Stripes, or would have done battle against des pots for any naturalized refugee from Continental Europe, should, without scruple and against the ad vice of his own Secretary of State, declare the Fede ral Union dissolved whenever a refractory State chooses to secede." — January 9lh. " The Declaration of the immediate causes which induce and justify the separation of South Carolina 224 THE SOUTHERN REBELLION. from the Federal Union is by The London Times, no means so lively and spirit- stirring a composition as a little more literary skill might, perhaps, have made it. Of course it would not be in human nature— that is, American human nature— to commence any great public document without a proper fling at the old mother country, from whose tyranny the States emancipated themselves, in order to enjoy, from their mutual justice and forbearance, that perpetual concord and never-ending union and happiness which they sought for in vain from a society cor rupted by the vices of monarchy ,( aristocracy and feudality, and a decrepit civilization. At this time were established, we are told, the right of a State to govern itself, and the right of the people to abolish a Government when it ceases to accomplish the ends for which it was instituted. We know not what his* tories are allowed to pass through the charmed cir cle which girdles the domestic institutions of South Carolina, or how much a man is allowed to know of the history of the world, in those fortunate regions, without being constituted thereby an Abolitionist, exposed to the halter and the tar barrel. But we should have thought that the right of a nation to govern itself was fully established by the English Eevolution, and the right of a people to get rid of a Government which did not accomplish the ends of its institution, by the sevolt of the United Nether lands and Spain."— January 19fA. " If every State is to claim to be the judge of its own grievances, if it is to act without concert and without appeal, and if, whenever it believes that Government does not do all that is required of it, or that its allies fall short of their obliga tions, it is at liberty to break up the Union, how is it possible that the Union can be' otherwise than transitory ? It is quite true, as South Carolina says, that fourteen States of the Union have, iu violation of one article of the Constitution, passed laws, the legality of which is something more than doubtful, to prevent the recovery, by their masters, of fugitive slaves. But this could scarcely be regarded of itself as a sufficient ground for the dissolution of the Gov ernment of the United States, and that it is not suf ficient, is shown by the conduct of South Carolina herself, which has not thought it a sufficient ground heretofore for secession from the Union. With this single exception, nothing can be conceived more frivolous than the grounds of this manifesto." — January VXh. " On his (Lincoln's) accession, says the manifesto, it has been announced that the South shall be ex cluded from the common Territory, that the judicial tribunal shall be made sectional, and that war shall be made against Slavery until it ceases from the United States. It is impossible to read the speeches and writings which circulate in the North, where the freedom of discussion still exists, which the South has exchanged for its favorite ' domestic institution,' without being aware of the utter falsehood of these statements. The South is not to be excluded from the Territories, unless the Southrons consider them selves in the light, not of slaveholders, but of slaves. It is not sought to render the Supreme Court of the United States sectional, but to rescue it from the disgrace of being packed with judges placed there for the advocacy and promotion of Slavery, and we have not been able to discover a vestige even in the most excited speeches in an excited time of any in tention, expressed or insinuated, to make war on the institution of Slavery. " But what matters all this ? Not a single obser vation that we have ventured to make could be made in the Republic of South Carolina, thus auspiciously taking her place among the nations of the world. Without law, without justice, without delay, she is treading in the path that leads to the downfall of na tions and the misery of families. The hollowness of her cause is seen beneath all the pomp of her labored denunciation, and surely to her, if to any community of modern days, may be applied the words of the Hebrew Prophet, ' a wonderful and horrible thing is committed in the land. The Prophets prophesy falsely, and my people love to have it so.' "— Jan. 19fA. We may say here, en passent, that the Times, if it afterwards treated the movement in the Free States captiously— if its scarcely con cealed desire for a breaking up of this Gov ernment led it a course of seemingly studied fault-finding, it did not much " aid and com fort" the movement for a Slave Confedera tion, except its general depreciation of the North, and a denial of its belligerent rights can be so construed. " The State of South Carolina ... The Galway (Ireland) his ignored its connection with vindicator. the American Union. It has deliberately divorced itself from those federative tieB which bound together a great nation. Two conse quences must follow— either they will return to their proper position by. some agreement or concession on both sides, or a civil war must follow in order to compel them. The Carolinians assert their right to this extreme step by laying before the country the • fact that the States of Maine, New Hampshire, Ver mont, Massachusetts, Connecticut, Rhode Island, New York, Pennsylvania, Hlinois, Indiana, Ohio, Michigan, Wisconsin, and Iowa, have enacted laws for the non-delivery up of escaped slaves, and thus have violated their constitutional obligations. " Viewing the question in the light they do, it ia OPINIONS OF THE EUROPEAN PRESS 225 Bet down as a violation of the laws of property ! — ¦ property in man, in woman, and in children ! — pro perty in men-stealers and in bloodhounds, which are the ferocious police to hunt escaping victims ! They also deny the right of opinion, in morals or in prac tice, of the Northern States to encourage slaves to escape from chains and bondage ! Why, this is an attempt to uproot the first principles of humanity, and to put the rights of flesh and blood, and Christi anity, under the feet of a Cottonocracy more vile than the refined vultures of the French Revolution, who stirred up at last the stagnant puddle in the veins of the victims of the Court and aristocracy of that period. " The policy of the slaveowners is to compel the opponents of that fearful creed to a cooperation with them, in making all America an immense field for Slavery ! — or else This is a wild and prepos terous fancy, and the attempt-to enforce it by sepa ration will only lead to results most disastrous to the States who shall proceed to that extremity. Under the present Anti-Slavery President, it could only end in compulsion, and perhaps the sweeping away of the whole infernal system from the country, which has brought on it the scorn and derision of mankind. The entire public opinion of Europe is against Ame rican Slavery. It was whispered that England, for her own cupidity, might be inclined to favor the Cotton States, and that she was sounded on that head. But England, with all her faults, would be incapable of such a diabolical connection. The peo ple of England detest Slavery ; and the Parliament of England showed the animus of the country in the case of the West Indies." — January \Uh. " Up to the present time the Federal Government, though it has been called upon to de clare its right to stop secession, has never acted upon the declaration. The question now is, whether it will act upon it at the present crisis, or whether the predictions of M. de Tocqueville, in his admirable work, will be realized. ' It appears to me,' he says, . ' unquestionable that if any portion of the United States seriously desired to separate itself from the other States, they would not be able — nor, indeed, would they attempt — to prevent it ; and that the present Union will only last as long as the States which compose it choose to continue members of the Confederation. If this point be admitted, the question becomes less difficult, and our object is not to inquire whether the States of the exist ing Union are capable of separating, but whether they will choose to remain united.' It must not ;be imagined that this opinion of M. de Tocque ville implies any doubt as to the right of the Federal , Government to interfere, by force of arms, in order | 29 The London Daily News. The London Econo mist. to retain any of the States within the Union. The slightest consideration will show that the assertion of independence on the part of any one State can never be conceded ; indeed, any such step must amount to revolution. But, admitting this, it may very well be that the non-Seceding States consider it more judicious to forego their strict rights, and so, practically, to acquiesce in the fact of Secession." — January 10th. " Apart from this perplexing question, we see no reason for anticipating that a severance of the Union, once effected peaceably, and without catastrophe, will be, in any way, injurious to Great Britain. On the contrary, we are not sure that it may not indirectly be rather beneficial than other wise. In the first place, we may expect that Amer ica will be somewhat less aggressive, less insolent, and less irritable than she has been. Instead of one vast State, acting on every foreign question cum toto corpore regni, we shall have two, with different objects and interests, and by no means always disposed to act in concert, or in cordiality. Instead of one, showing an encroaching and somewhat bullying front to the rest of the world, we shall have two, showing something of the same front to each other. Each will be more occupied with its immediate neighbor, and therefore less inclined to pick quar rels with more distant nations. Then, too, for some time at least, that inordinate, though most natural sense of unrivalled prosperity and power, which swelled so flatulently and disturbingly in the breast of every citizen of the great trans- Atlantic Republic, will receive a salutary check. Their demeanor is likely to become somewhat humbler and more ra tional, and it will, therefore, be easier to maintain amicable and tranquil relations with them than it has been. In place, too, of Europe being obliged to watch and thwart their annexing tendencies, the two Federations-will probably exercise this sort of moral police over each other. Neither of them will look with much complacence on the annexation of States or Territories which will add power and dominion to the other, and so disturb their relative equilib rium. Unprincipled and reckless Southerners, like Mr. Buchanan, may talk of seizing on Mexico, Nica ragua, and Cubar ; unprincipled and inflated North erners, like Mr. Seward, may talk of seizing on Can ada ; but there will be some hope that we may leave them to each other's mutual control, and smile at the villainous cupidities of both. With the Northern Federation, too, we may look to maintain ing more cordial relations than we have often here tofore been able to do ; not only will the embarrass ing question of Slavery, which has caused so much righteous indignation on our side, and so much bitter 226 THE SOUTHERN REBELLION. resentment and irritation on theirs, be forever re moved from between us; but the. immediate and marked improvement which we may look for in the tone and working, if not in the form of the institu tions, of the North, when Southern Democracy, com plicated as it has been with Slavery, shall have ceased to poison and degrade them, can scarcely fail to bring them more into harmony with English feeling, because to command more of English confi dence and re'spect. The more they civilize (they must pardon us the word, for assuredly they are getting rid of a barbarising element), the more friendly and cordial shall we inevitably grow." At the usual New-Year's- The Emperor Napo- &^ fi f the E leon's Words. r r ror Napoleon, our minister, Mr. Faulkener, was interrogated by the Em peror. The conversation was thus reported : Emperor. — " What is the latest news you have from the United States. Not so alarming, I trust, as the papers represent it ?" Mr. Faulkener. — " Like most nations, Sire, we have our troubles, which have lost none of their coloring as described in the European press." Emperor. — " I hope it is riot true that any of the States have separated from the General Govern ment." Mr. Faulkener. — " The States will form one com mon Government, as heretofore. There is excite ment in portions of the Confederacy, and there are indications of extreme measures being adopted by one or two of the States. But we are familiar with the excitement, as we are with the vigor which be long to the institutions of a free people. We have already more than once passed through commotions which would have shattered into fragments any other Government on earth, and this fact justifies the in ference that the strength of the Union will now be found equal to the strain upon it." Emperor. — " I sincerely hope it may be so ; and that you may long continue a united and prosperous people." This important declaration was here con strued to mean sympathy for the Government, to which French interests are so closely allied. The United States are the counterpoise, in the balance of nations, to England, and the French are not solicitous that that counter poise should be broken. Napoleon's words were wise while they were kind. CHAPTER XV. PROCEEDINGS OF CONGRESS. SEVENTH WEEK. "REPRESENTA TIVE" SPEECHES OF MESSRS. POLK, M'CLERNAND, REAGAN, STANTON, COX, GURLEY, SHERMAN, AND OTHERS. THE OHIO STATE RESOLUTIONS. THE ARMY BILL. MISSOURI'S RESOLU TION. COMPROMISE IMPOSSIBLE. In the Senate, Monday, Bigler's Propositions. January 14th, Mr. Bigler (Dem.) of Pennsylvania, in troduced resolutions calling upon the people of the United States to hold an election throughout the country, on February 12th, and vote for the acceptance and rejection of amendments to the Constitution, said amend ments proposing to divide all present and future Territory between Freedom and Slavery by a line on the parallel of 36 deg. 30 min. ; to permit Slavery to extend South of that line, and to protect it there by constitutional sanctions. The resolutions also proposed to deprive Congress of the power to abolish Slavery, in places under its exclusive jurisdic tion, and to make the United States pay for fugitive slaves. These clauses he proposed to make perpetual, never to be amended or stricken out. They embodied the substance of the Crittenden resolutions, but added the amendments proposed to be engrafted per petually on the Constitution. After some remarks upon its reference to a committee, against which Mr. Bigler protested, the mat ter was laid over. Mr. Grimes, of Iowa, introduced a resolu tion requesting the President to communicate any information he may have regarding at- i tempts made, or contemplated, by any large THE ENGLISH RESOLVE, 227 body of men to interfere with the free navi gation of the Mississippi, and what efforts have been made to suppress the same. This resolution referred to the erection of a battery on the banks of the Mississippi River, at Vicksburg, by order of the authorities of Mississippi, which proposed to call every boat passing down the river to " land and give an account of herself" — amounting to a virtual blockading of the river. The resolution was laid over. Mr. Brown, of Mississippi, speaking for himself and his colleague, Mr. Davis, an nounced their withdrawal from the Senate, in view of the late action of their State. Mr. Mason, of Va. tried to bring forward his resolutions of inquiry, calling upon the Secretary of War to communicate informa tion of feenfbrcements sent to Charleston harbor and other defences. The Crittenden resolutions were then called, and were finally Bet for consideration on Tuesday. Mr. Polk, (Dem.) of Mo., addressed the Senate, basing his remarks on Mr. Hunter's resolution to withdraw all Federal forces from Seceded States. His sentiments were of the usual extreme Southern tone. The unut terable crime of an Anti- Mr. Polk's Views. Slavery triumph had been achieved. The canvass is now over, and Abolitionism has brought, as its first offering, astonishment and regret. From a state of peace the sudden change to a state of sectional antagonism had almost immediately followed. An unnatural ani mosity exists between sections only separated by a geographical line, and a universal panic prevails throughout the country. The public and private credit are prostrate. Of the Gov ernment loan of five millions, only half was taken, and that at usurious rates of interest. Commerce is curtailed, trade is checked, in dustry is paralyzed, artisans and mechanics are idle, manufactures are stopped, and the operatives discharged. The consequence is want and starvation. The Union is tottering and ready to fall. Four pillars have already gone, one being of the original thirteen. The admission of California disturbed the equili brium between the Slaveholding and Non- Slaveholding States. One cause of complaint against the action of certain States and their people — these States being parties to the Union — was, that they added to the insult of the passage of Personal Liberty bills, Under ground Railroad operations, not only in the Border States, but the entire South. He knew gentlemen having lost thousands of dollars worth of negroes who fear to attempt to recover 'them. Kentucky loses $200,000 annually in slaves stolen and enticed away. Mr. Lincoln is the first man elected to the office of President who announced the doc trine of the irrepressible conflict. This house, built by our forefathers, now becomes a house divided against itself. These remarks scarcely attracted notice. The palpable misstatements in regard to Kentucky's loss, and the usual exaggeration regarding Northern sentiment, elicited no catechising from the Republicans. In the House, Monday, Mr. English, (Dem.) of Indiana, introduced, or rather " read for information," the following resolution : ' ' Resolved, That the present alarming condition of the coun- The 'English' Resolve. try imperatively demands that Congress should take immediate steps to preserve the peace and maintain the Union, by removing, as far as possible, all causes of sectional irritation and division, and, to that end, patriotism should prompt a cheerful surrender of all partisan prejudices and minor differences of opinion ; and this House, be lieving the plan of adjustment proposed by the Honorable John J. Crittenden, in the Senate, De cember 18th, 1860, would be an equitable and favor able compromise, involving no sacrifice tp any party or section which should not promptly be made for the sake of the inestimable blessings of peace and a united country, hereby instruct the Committee of Thirty-three, heretofore appointed by this House, to report without delay the necessary measures to carry that plan into practical effect." It being objected to by the Republicans, Mr. English said, at the proper time he should move to suspend the rules. He tried to get it before the House a few hours later, by a motion for the previous question, but the House decided against it. It was killed. Mr. Maynard, of Tennessee, introduced and had adopted, a resolution instructing a Select Committee on the President's Special Mes sage, to consider that portion which recom mended to a vote of the people the questions at issue between the two sections, and that the Committee, at an early day, report thereon a bill or joint resolution. 228 THE SOUTHERN REBELLION. Holman's Reso lutions. Mr. Holman, (Democrat), of Indiana, offered resolves declaring that the right of a State to withdraw from its Federal re lations is not countenanced by the House, nor sanctioned by the Constitution; but, on the contrary, is wholly inconsistent with that instrument; that neither Congress nor the President is invested with authority to recog nize any State once admitted, in any relation except as a State of the Union ; that power to protect the public property should be ex ercised, and that the Committee on Judiciary inquire and report whether laws are now sufficient for the purpose, and, if not, that it report a bill, giving additional powers, by the employment of the Navy, or otherwise. These stirring resolves provoked debate, and had, therefore, to lie over. They were in dicative of a purpose, on the part of the Northern Democrats, to sustain the Union and the laws to the end, by the employment of the entire powers of the Executive and of Congress. Another significant step was a motion, by Mr. Stanton, (Rep.,) of Ohio, to make the spe cial order for Tuesday the bill for organizing and disciplining the militia of the District of Columbia. Objected to by the Southern side, and lost by one majority on a motion to sus pend the rules. The Army Appropriation bill then came up for consideration in Committee of the Whole on the State of the Union. Speeches were made by McClernand, (Dem.,) of Illinois, and Cox, (Dem.,) of Ohio, both looking to a vigorous policy to sustain the Union. Mr. McClernand assumed that when danger could not be averted it was then the point of wisdom to meet it — to endeavor to overthrow it. In this spirit he proposed to deal with the question of Secession, now upon us. He denied the right of any State to secede from the Union, and depre cated the consequences of any such assumed right, as a measure of revolution which must necessarily, in the present case, embroil the country in a sanguinary and wasteful war. In his legal argument he said the idea of nation ality is as old as the Rovolution itself, that that war was a national measure. The treaty of 1783 was made as a nation which Great Bri- McClernand's Speech. tain recognized. He referred to the decisions of the Supreme Court in support of this view, saying, the unity of the American people per vaded the Convention which framed the Con stitution. Any mode of withdrawing from the Union, excepting by a Convention, would be revolutionary. The Government being sovereign, its first duty is to preserve itself; and, being sovereign, where is the power to dissolve it ? He argued, it would be unjust, unsafe and inexpedient for some States to se cede from the others, for with the possession of the Southern forts and the aid of foreign powers, they would be capable of inflicting great wrongs upon the commerce of the adher ing State. He spoke of the Mississippi valley as a geographical unity, which the people of the great North-west could not consent to share with a foreign power. He had heard much about coercion. But was it coercion for us to do what we have sworn to do ; namely, uphold the Constitution and the laws, and stay the lawless, violent hand that would tear down the Government ? Were we to be required to submit to State spoliations ? No ! Such submission would be disgraceful, utter imbecility. But if we must submit, let it be proclaimed that our system of Government is a splendid failure. In the course of his remarks he earnestly appealed to the Northern States to remove the grievances which are complain ed of. He believed the Northern States would all do so when the sober second thought of the citizens had time to act. When the anti-Slavery agitation commenced in the North, he could not say that the South were blameless. The Garrisons and Phillipses find their counterpart in the Rhetts and Yanceys. Such men, in fact, formed the two great sec tional parties. In conclusion he appealed to all Conservative men to rally in favor of the integrity of the Constitution, merge the par tisan in the patriot, and make a generous sacrifice on the altar of their country, for the general welfare and happiness of all. A dispatch from Washington to the Asso ciated Press said, in regard to this speech : " The speech of Mr. McClernand, of Blinois, in its geographical, commercial and national significance, is -producing quite a sensation here. It is rallying the Union feeling." Mr. Corwin, from the Committee of Thirty-three STANTON'S REPLY TO REAGAN. 229 reported. The report was made the Special Order for Monday, January 21st. In the House, Tuesday, Mr. Reagan,(Demo- crat) of Texas, having the floor, proceeded to define his views. The speech gave rise to a spirited debate, in which Mr. Stanton, of Ohio, showed an unflinching determination not to be rode down, nor to suffer gross libels on the North to pass uncontradicted. Mr. Reagan said he came to the Capital with the hope that such meas- Reagan's Assault. ures might be brought forward by those who have the power to control the question, as would assure the South of future security. The Republicans have held sullenly back, and de clared that they have no terms of peace to offer. In view of such facts four States have already gone out of the Union, and others are rapidly seceding. Unless, by the 4th of March, some thing is done to arrest this movement, we will see but few Southern States in the Union. The irrepressible conflict had cul minated too soon for its authors — behold the result ! They mean to effect the humiliation and desolation of the South, or a dissolution of the Union. They have reached that logi cal end. He proceeded to show that the condition of the Negroes, in no portion of the world, could compare favorably in bless ings with those of our own country. Would the North, if they were freed, accept them as freemen ? No. You would fight the South with all your energy and power against such an influx, and yet you demand the South to liberate 4,000,000 of slaves, and break up the social order, and commercial and political prospects, and retain the Negro element among us. You never consider the relative position of the two races, and what is to be the end of your conduct. He spoke of the destruction of manufactures and com merce which would be produced by the abo lition of Slavery. The cry of treason had been raised against certain States, and the blockade of their ports threatened ; but if this be attempted those concerned will, like a famous general, find a fire in front as well as in the rear. He knew no Southern Slate that asked more than its constitutional rights, and, so far as Texas is concerned, she is un alterably determined never to submit to less ; and, if she cannot get her rights in, she will have them out of the Union. The Northern States have done nothing to show the South ern States that they shall have security in the Union, because to give Southerners their constitutional rights would be to disband the Republican party ; but, by the violation of the Constitution they are enabled to make war on the South. In reviewing parts of Mr. McClernand's speech Mr. Reagan said : One accepts independence, with all its conse quences, rather than base submission and eternal ruin. Mr. McClernand remarked that his position was that of a Unionist, opposing both ex tremes in North and South. Mr. Reagan replied, that he knew the po sition of the Illinois member, individually, but asked him to consider what it was which had brought the South to its present con dition. If their rights had not been denied, no disunion would have been raised. He re ferred to the history of Texas, and the means by which she won her independence, and spoke of the recent alleged insurrections in that State. He charged that the Methodists were all emissaries of the spirit of incendiar ism — that it was their ministers, their mem bers, who had sought to light the fires of insurrection in that State. This charge called up Mr. Stanton. He pronounced Stanton's Reply. the imputations of the Texas member to be an unwarrantable libel on the Methodists. They were not incendiaries, not fanatics, not inciters to crime and de bauchery. As a society they doubtless did regard African Slavery as unwise, unchristian, and immoral, and it was probable that where- ever the members of it might go, they would carry that opinion with them. He added : — " The speech of the gentleman from Texas is rather extraordinary in this, that when he seeks, as he says, some measure of conciliation from this side of the House that shall avoid civil war and disunion, he at the same time announces to the political or ganization which elected the President, that this Union cannot be preserved except by its absolute disorganization and destruction. Now, as a mere political organization, he cared nothing for any par ty. They are all secondary and subordinate consid erations with me. But the principles on which this Government was founded, by whatever party they 230 THE SOUTHERN REBELLION, may be advocated now, cannot be surrendered un der any threat of civil war or apprehension of seces sion. This may as well be clearly understood first as last. And, if the principles of the Republican party cannot be vindicated as historical, and as con secrated by all the fathers of the Republic as being in acquiescence with the history of the country for fifty years, I am prepared to abandon it, and surrender the organization to-day. I stand pledged to main tain here, by the authority of the fathers and the principles of the Constitution, that the Republican party claims and maintains no principle, proposes to carry out no doctrines and no policy, that has not the sanction of the Constitution. Occupying that ground, and maintaining these principles, gentlemen cannot drive us from it by an apprehension of con sequences, from whatever quarter they may come. He was utterly astounded that the gentleman from Texas should assume here, as a conceded proposi tion, that the Republican party was organized on the idea of the ultimate and utter extinction of Sla very in the States. Now, if that gentleman would undertake to circulate my reply among the people of his district in Texas, at the rate of one for every two which I am willing to circulate of his among my people, he would much enlighten his con stituents on the true principles of the Republican party, and disabuse their mind3 of their misconcep tions." The Texas member here interposed, saying that he did not consider Mr. Stanton an ex ponent of the Republican party. This did not serve any purpose but to call up a " live Republican," in the person of Marston, of N. H., who repeated Mr. Stanton's assevera tion, and assumed his declarations to be those of the party. He added : — " I know of no Republican who looks upon the Republi can organization as one designed, directly or indirectly, now or in the future, present or remote, to interfere with Slavery in the States." To this Mr. R. replied, that Mr. Seward had averred that the " irrepressible conflict" would be the overthrow of Slavery. Mr. Stanton retorted that many men had en tertained various philosophical opinions re garding the ultimate issues of the present so cial status of the two systems of labor, but, the opinions were those of individuals only. The speaker then resumed his argument : " I desire to lay down, in a Stanton's Reply. few words, what I regard as the great leading and distin guishing feature of .the two political parties of the country. The Republican party holds that African Slavery is a local institution, depending upon local statute laws — that it cannot exist beyond the limit of the State by virtue of whose laws it is established. The Democratic party holds that African Slavery is a National institution, established and maintained by National Constitution, existing everywhere where it is not prohibited by statute local law. Now, who ever maintains that Slavery is a local statute law is whether he knows it or not, a Republican, and if not in the party, he ought at once to join it ; and every man who holds that Slavery is a national institution, existing everywhere by the force of the Constitution where not prohibited by local law, is a Democrat, and if not already, should, as early as possible, join that party. "Now, all questions about which we differ, arise from and grow out of that necessary and natural cardinal difference. You say that the nationality of Slavery is established and maintained by those pro visions in the Constitution which authorise the re capture of fugitive slaves in the Free States. Judge Taney is the organ of the Democratic party on this position. That position we deny, and base our de nial upon the declaration of the framers of the Con stitution and _the Convention which framed it. On several occasions, when the proposition was made for a clause to authorize masters to pursue fugitive slaves and recapture them, objection was made, not because the thing was not proper in itself, but be cause the phraseology threw out the idea that Slavery was recognized. A change was made in the terms — that Persons owing service or labor in one State, by the law thereof, escaping into another, shall not, by reason of the law in that State, be ex cused from such service, but shall be delivered up to whom such service is due. Again, the language of the provisions of the Constitution itself designates a Person escaping from service or labor ; and every man, who ever read the law books, must know that the difference between a Person and a thing is here recognized. Chattels are things, and persons are creations of God, having rational accountability, and are immortal beings, and therefore the. Constitution treats them as persons. Again, what do you want with the Fugitive Slave law ? Why have you not constitutional provisions for recapturing horses and cows ? Simply because the Constitution recognizes property in every thing property by common law, and therefore the Courts in every State are bound to recognize the constitutional title of any party who follows property and claims through the law of the State to which he goes, and where his property is found. " What do you want with constitutional provisions for the recapture of fugitive slaves? You want it because it is not part of the Constitution. You can- STANTON'S REPLY TO REAGAN, 231 not capture your slaves without Stanton's Reply. special provisions, recognized by the States surrendering the per- Bon escaped. Under this same provision of the Consti tution you follow from one State to another indented apprentices who escape from their masters, to whom they are bound for ~ term of years ; you follow a child who is supposed by law to owe you service, and you may follow a wife, who, according to the same legal fiction, owes you service, and reclaim them under the same provision. Will you claim that children and wives are property within the meaning of the provisions of the Constitution ? Yet they are covered by this same provision. The doctrine I put forth here is sustained by all the eminent statesmen of the country that have given an opinion upon this question, from the organization of the Government, that Slavery is a local institntion, depending npon local State laws, and has no existence outside the State within which it exists. * * * * The Constitution of the United States is the law of the land, and all State Constitutions and State laws coming in conflict with it are null and void. I desire to know upon what principle we can exclude Slavery from the Free States, or prevent any man coming in with slaves and making a Free State his domicile ? Indeed, if Slavery existed by virtue of the Constitu tion we could not prevent him. I cannot prevent a man from Kentucky going with his Bourbon whiskey or his Durham cow across to Ohio and settling there, because it was his constitutional right to do so, and Ohio could not invade that right ; and if slaves be property in the same sense, as you contend, how can we prevent you from coming to Ohio and domiciling and holding your slaves as property there ? Gen tlemen claim that this is the Constitution, and that if it is not it ought to be so." This severe and forcible application of principle to practice created some stir on the Southern side of the House. It was by far the most searching because the most practi cal expose' of the assumptions of right in slaves as property under the Constitution. The speaker was interrupted by Mr. Crawford, of Geo., and Reagan, of Texas, but he fastened upon them the logical deductions of their claims of property — that of taking and hold ing it in Free as well as in Slave States or Territories. The argument on this point is so clear and strong that we quote it : — "When yon go into a Free State not regulated by the laws of the State where you come from — for they deny the right of a master to exercise control over the slave — you claim to carry with yon into a Free State the right to exercise dominion and control over the while there. Now, if a gentle- Stanton's Reply. man go into a Free State with his slaves, and the slaves become rebellious, has he not a right, according to his constitutional claim, to subdue that rebellious disposition, and to reduce them to obedience, agd to inflict reasonable correction? Is not that so ? Very, well ; by what light is that law to be regarded but by the law of the State from whence he came ? Now, suppose a man brings a slave into a Free State, and a controversy arises between them, the slave refusing obedience to the master, the latter undertakes to inflict chastisement upon him, and he is resisted. In that case the slave may be killed, and the master is forthwith indicted for murder. On trial it is claimed that the master was exercising his constitutional right in inflicting rea sonable chastisement, and the Courts of the Free States must recognize the law of the Slave States in defining and punishing the crime. Again, if you take slaves into a Free State, I claim yon take them there con amore, and the slave ceases to be part of your property. Now, a Southern planter, having purchased goods in New York, goes there and takes his slave with him. The master gets into debt to the merchant, who files his affidavits, and has a writ issued, and gets an attachment, and arrests the slave, being property, and subjects him to sale for the satisfaction of the master's debt. Again, sup pose a slaveowner goes into a Free State and con tracts debts, and dies there before they are paid, and leaves three or four slaves behind him. His creditors take out the letters of administration, and can seize upon the slaves as property, and can sell them in satisfaction of the debt. Now, when you have established this state of things, I want you to know how much you will fall short of making this one grand consolidated Slaveholding Confederacy ! There is an essential difference between the two or ganizations, indeed, because one claims all these rights for the slaveholders, and the others resist them as unconstitutional. And yet we are told by the gentleman from Texas that unless the Republi can organization disbands itself, and recognizes these constitutional demands, civil war must come, and the Government must be overthrown." Stanton's closing remarks succeeded in set ting the Georgia members at loggerheads in the matter of the forts' seizure. Crawford said the seizure was justifiable, and Georgia held herself responsible for the act. Hill, (of Geo.) said the State had not seized any por tion of the public property. It was a mob which had committed the act. He disclaim ed, for Georgia and its State Government, any responsibility for the act. Mr. Crawford 232 THE SOUTHERN REBELLION. insinuated that Mr. Hill did Stanton's Reply. not know what he was talk ing, about. Mr. Love, (of Geo.) said both gentlemen were wrong, as the forts were seized for self defence. If the State did not secede they would be returned. Mr. Hardeman, (ofGeo.) said the country was in the crisis of a revolution — that, in fact, a revolu tion was going on. In view of the fact, the Executive of the State had seized the forts in advance, and the people would sustain him in the act. Stanton adverted to the seizure as a wanton act of war — that it inaugurated war, and Georgia must assume the responsi bility. He declared his willingness and wish yet to adjust matters. He thought the people of the South loyal, but that they were laboring under the most shameful mis apprehensions regarding the dominant party and its policy. Garrison and other men like him are now gloating over the ruin they have contributed so largely to bring about. With such men are united, hand in hand, the men in Charleston, who are seeking to over throw the Government and to drench the country in blood. Gentlemen from the revo lutionary districts must be perfectly aware that the Federal Government cannot surrender its power to a rebellious demand. The thing is utterly impossible. If it did it would be an act of imbecility, and an utter abandon ment of all Government, and an abdication of its executive power. Gentlemen must see that that mode of separation can lead to nothing but civil war and bloodshed. If they are determined to do this, and resist by force of arms, and refuse time for consulting the popular will — the only source of true power — as to what shall be done in this emergency, they must take the consequences on their own heads. Mr. Stanton's words called up Rust, of Ar kansas ; Adrian, of New Jersey; Anderson, of Missouri, andGarnett, of Virginia. The latter gentleman had the floor upon adjournment. In the Senate, Tuesday, Mr. Crittenden's resolutions, being the Special Order, were under consideration, when Clark, of New Hampshire, moved an amendment by offering, as a substitute, his resolutions [see p. 184.] Mr. Green, of Missouri, expressed ultra pro- secession sentiments, if there was not a radi cal change in Northern public opinion. JHe consumed the time up to the hour allotted for the consideration of the Pacific Railway bill, when the question passed over. Mr. Crittenden persisted in pressing the subject of the paramount importance of the State of the Union, but the Pacific Railway bill kept the floor up to adjournment. In the Senate, Wednesday (January 16th)," the Vice-President presented a message from the President, announcing the Senate resolu tion, relating to his appointment of Joseph Holt, to perform the duties of the office of Secretary of War, made vacant by the resig nation of Secretary Floyd. He fully set forth the legal reasons for the step. Mr. Rice (Democrat), of Minnesota, offered a resolution for the appointment of a Special Committee of Seven by the Senate, with in structions to inquire into the expediency of the passage of a general act for the admission of new States, and the readjustment of the limits of California, Minnesota and Oregon. " First : New Mexico shall be bounded on the North by the BiU for AdmiuinK New States. 37th degree of latitude ; East by Texas ; Sonth by Texas and the Mexican boundary ; and West, by the 114th degree of longitude . "Second: Kansas, including the present Territo ries of Kansas, East of longitude 140 ; a small portion of New Mexico, North of latitude 37, and that portion of Nebraska which lies South of latitude 43. " Third: An enlargement of the jurisdiction of Minnesota, to embrace the proposed Territory of Dakota, and the portion of Nebraska lying North of latitude 43. ' ' Fourth : An enlargement of the jurisdiction of Oregon, so as to merge and iuclude the Territory of Washington. " Fifth : A readjustment of the State of California, so as to include that portion of Utah andNew Mexico, lying West of longitude 114." Mr. Bigler then called up the Crittenden resolutions, by a motion to set aside all other business, which prevailed, by a vote of 27 to 20. The speeches of the day were by the members from Rhode Island, Messrs. Simmons and Anthony, both of whom expressed, in the strongest terms, the necessity for sustain ing the Union and the Constitution, at all hazards. Both approved, of Mr. Clark's amendment ; viz., that the Constitution was MR. GARNETT'S SPEECH, 233 The Ohio State Resolutions. good enough, only wanted to be obeyed,* &c. A vote being obtained on Mr. Clark's substi tute, it was adopted by 25 to 23 — Messrs. Benjamin, Slidell and Wigfall not voting. Mr. Douglas afterwards recorded his vote against the substitute. The subject was then laid on the table, but, on a motion by Mr. Cameron, (of Pennsylvania), was resuscitated by a motion for reconsideration. In the House, Wednes day, Mr. Cox, (Dem.) of Ohio, presented the reso lutions passed by the Legislature of Ohio, expressive of attachment to the Union, against secession, and declaring that the laws should be maintained against one State intermed dling with the affairs of another, &c. He said Ohio did not unanimously pass these resolutions, but has already begun the work of conciliation, giving a vital stab to the Per sonal Liberty bill ; and he had been assured that the work will go on till every obnoxious act of legislation shall be removed from the statute book. Full justice will be done to all sections. He said that they held up the hands of the Administration in enforcing the laws and maintaining the Union, and that they were the sentiments of the people of Ohio. A member from Mississippi wishing to know the substance of the resolutions,! Mr. Cox answered : — *A reporter present wrote of Mr. Simmons' speech : " It was a feeling effort, beautiful in many of its jarts, and powerful in all. Its eloquent peroration called forth marked and significant applause in the galleries. He enunciated one proposition worthy of a statesman. He declared with great emphasis that he was afraid to compromise, in the face of ex isting dangers, for fear of demoralizing the Govern ment. No weightier remark has been uttered in the Senate since the opening of the session." t A synopsis of these resolutions read as follows : " First, The people of Ohio believe that the pre servation of this Government is essential to the peace , prosperity, and safety of the American people. "Second, The General Government cannot permit the secession of any State without violating the bond and compact of union. " Third, The power of the National Government must be maintained, and the laws of Congress en forced in the States and Territories, until their re- 30 " Well, Sir, theyendorsed the speech which I was making at the time they Were passing the Senate. [Laughter.] Mr. Cox said that he would take the occasion to notice the perversion of his remarks and those of Mr. McClernand by the gentleman from Texas, who had predicated his attack on a remark made by a colleague, (Mr. Vallandigliam,) as to carving out our way from the West with a sword. Every one knows that my colleague is against coercion ; yet, his (Reagan's) remarks were as if he (Cox) had made unreasonable threats. What he said was, that the President was right. He acted on the defensive and against aggression, and he would be sustained. These resolutions sustain him." Crawford, of Georgia, moved to lay them on the table. Sherman, of Ohio, called for their reading, when they were read. After some inquiries propounded by Southern mem bers, and as frankly answered by Mr. Cox, the resolutions were ordered to be printed. Mr. Garnett, of Virginia, having the floor, addressed the House. At the opening of the session, he said a Committee had been ap pointed to consider the cri sis that was upon the COUn- Garnett's Speech try, but it had been long since apparent that the Committee could do nothing effectual towards the end for which it had been formed. Their deliberations ap peal by Congress, or they are adjudged to be un constitutional by the proper tribunal. All attempts by State authority to nullify the Constitution and laws of Congress, or resist their execution are de structive of the wisest government in the world. " Fourth, The people of Ohio are opposed to med dling with the internal affairs of other States. " Fifth, The pepple of Ohio will fulfill in good faith all their obligations under the Constitution of the United States, according to their spirit. " Sixth, Certain offensive laws in some of the States are rendered inefficient by the Constitution and laws of the Federal Government which guarantee to the citizens of each State the privileges and immunities of the several States. The several State Govern ments should repeal these offensive laws, and thus restore confidence between the States. "Seventh, All Union men condemn the secession ordinances. "Eighth, The power and resources of Ohio are pledged to the maintenance of the civil authority, Constitution, and laws of the General Government. " Ninth, Copies of these resolutions shall be fur nished to the Senators and Representatives of both Houses of Congress." 234 t h : SOUTHERN REBELLION. peared as one of the strang- Gamett's Speech. est phenomena of these un settled times. State after State had seceded, and yet nothing was done. Minute-guns continued to proclaim the separa tion of fresh States. The old ship of State was being broken up into fragments, and yet the representatives of the people stand idly by as spectators, with folded arms and helpless in the emergency. It was, therefore, time that they should seriously address them selves to the dangers which surround the country, and, rising above the horizon of party prejudices, grapple with the responsi bilities which, through Providence, had de volved upon them, and which must affect generations yet unborn. It was in such a spirit he addressed them. He proceeded : — " Those who would trace their difficulties and the cause of their dangers to the 6th of November last, would be shallow thinkers and very superficial ob servers. That cause was not merely the election of Lincoln and Hamlin. Through the machinations of the Republican party, the interests and rights of one section of the country had been imminently endan gered, and that section had been denounced by the other. Between those two sections there were wide differences of feeling and sentiment. They were dif ferent in institutions, and in some degree in race, and they were further separated by a geographical line. In times past the Anti-Slavery party had, after many vicissitudes, broken down ; but upon its ruins a new party had arisen, which had burst beyond the last line of defence raised against the approaches of the former party. The new organization, under the name of Republicans, had gained a powerful ma jority of the Electoral votes in every non-Slave holding State, with the exception of gallant little New Jersey. Since the organization of the Anti- Slavery party, every Presidential election had shown on their part a steady growth, until now they have gained possession of all the Northern States, in every department of the States' Government, and the control of the House of Representatives, besides a probable majority in the Senate. The life and sustaining principle of this organization was to be found embodied in one idea — hatred to Slavery. Their great party leader, Mr. Seward, said that the secret of their success lay in one idea — the equality of all men. Again, Lincoln declared that the limita tion of Slavery was their avowed object, and confin ing it, so that all men might hope for its ultimate ex tinction. The emphatically declared sentiment of the party was, that Slavery was a social, moral and political evil. This was the doctrine of the men who must ultimately control the whole of the populai feeling in the North. It was impossible to adopt all opinion of this kind without making up the mind to carry what it professes. In other words, it was im possible for the Southern people to join the Repub lican party without a great revolution in the policy of that organization ; and, therefore, the Republican must be a sectional party. In proof of this it was only necessary to show that no portion of the people in the Southern States could join them without com mitting themselves to a radical change in their whole social, moral and political system. Therefore, being sectional and the stronger party, they will control the Government, to the detriment of the weaker Southern section. While the stronger would engross to themselves all the emoluments of office, and enjoy the patronage of Government, the South would have to pay the taxes, help to fight the battles and extend the boundaries of the Confederacy. Thus the South would be isolated and left to gradual decay, without hope of redemption. Thus, the Federal patronage and power, and all the moral and political influence of the Government would be brought to bear against Southern institutions, to the final overthrow of Sla very. * * * The South could no longer afford to hold their slaves at the mercy of the North; and therefore they were compelled to seek safety and honor out of the Union. If they were to remain in the Union the South- must be invested with the power of an absolute veto in every department of the Government. • They no longer expected justice from the North. The crisis was now upon them, ard each must meet it as best they might." He then adverted to the position of Vir ginia — that all her sympathies and interests were with the South.* That she, too, would follow the Seceded States was not a matter of doubt. Coercion, he said, would be the death blow to all hopes of a reconstruction. If a blockade of rebellious ports was attempt ed, England and France would both resist, as they must have cotton. So must New Eng- * Virginia's almost only product of sale has, for years, been slaves. She raised much tobacco and a little grain for the market ; but, the raising of ne groes for the Southern market was her surest source of revenue. The Richmond Inquirer, in arguing the question of Virginia's interest, said her revenue was four millions per year from the sale of negroes— what commerce with the North could be a substitute for that traffic in " chattels?" The oldest families in the State— the true F.F.V.'s — derived their chief revenue from their annual sales of " black stock," which they bred for the market just as a Kentuckian bred his horses and hogs. HOLMAN AND MORRIS' SPEECHES 235 land. As for an invasion of the South, it would be at the cost of rivers of blood. Peaceful separation was asked for, and ex pected. If it was denied let the responsibility rest where it belonged — upon a persecuting, wicked, and revengeful North. Mr. Gurley, (Rep.,) of Ohio, replied, show ing that the South had, for years, persecuted Northern citizens, and already had inaugu rated the Civil War — she Gurloy's Reply. was at once the aggressor and the enemy of all peace. He adverted to the seizure of forts, arsenals, and public property in the South — the men acing attitude of the Seceding States, and, last in the record of outrages, to the firing upon a United States vessel — an act which, if committed by any power on the earth, would have been considered, in itself, a de claration of war. What a record to come be fore the world with and plead immunity from "persecution !" What a stultification of mo ral, sensibilities did it argue, when the assas sins could come forward and prate of peace — could charge the North with having inaugu rated the war ! For years the South had in sulted the North, and had treated its citizens as a conquered and inferior people. Mer chants of Cincinnati have been ordered home from Louisiana for no other reason than up holding a Presidential candidate of their own choice. We should stop this work of trai tors, and vindicate the laws, which must pre vail, and the Government must put down traitors by its strong arm. Forbearance has ceased to be a virtue. He characterized the Southern movement as cold-blooded rebellion. There was no cause for rebellion in a Govern ment where people make and control it. Re bellion is a leap in the dark ; a high crime ; wild anarchy ; and, if successful, must end in civil war, and consequent desolation. He suggested to the Secessionists, would it be an act of prudence for them to stand against the ten millions of freemen of the West, who would be united as a man if attempts were made to interrupt the navigation of the Mississippi. The now peaceful foundations of New Orleans would become the bed of a lake where fishes would live instead of men. Should the Union be broken up there would be war, and the test will be as to who is the strongest. Did Southern gentlemen expect that the people of the North-west would fold their hands with indifference and see their steamboats fired into and their merchants driven home ? How long was the North west to continue peaceful under this state of things ? If a bill should be passed giving the President authority to sustain the Na tional Government, you could have a hundred thousand men from the West. Then let the worst come 1 The people of Ohio have, through their Legislature, recently, unani mously passed resolutions in favor of main taining the Government. [See page 233.] There was no mistaking the tone and spirit of this speech. It was threatening, but not defiant — it breathed the spirit of the great North-west. Southern members felt more really disconcerted at its delivery, than at any speech yet pronounced on the Republican side. The South had courted force— this was the reply that ten millions in the Free States, west of the Alleghanies, had to make Mr. Gurley was followed _^ „, Holman's and Morris' by two Democrats, Messrs. speeches. Holman, of Ind., and Mor ris, of 111., both of whom were firm in their stand against the revolution. Mr. Holman said no person would question the right of revolution for intolerable oppressions, but those did not exist. Therefore, if the Gov ernment was overturned, it would be without justification or excuse. The people whom he represented would not consent that the Union should be destroyed. They would rally around it. He could not, however, despair of the Republic, and trusted that it would continue to endure. Mr. Morris pronounced the Secession move ment to be treason against the Constitution, and declared, in strong language, that the sooner resistance was offered to disunion, the better for the country. Every true patriot demands it. He then, in very severe terms, arraigned the President, charging upon him the authorship of the calamities which threat ened to overwhelm the country. The last base scene in the Lecompton drama has been played out, producing on one hand the over throw of the Democratic party, and on the other the destruction of the Government. Who would have supposed that Mr. Buchanan, 236 THE SOUTHERN REBELLION, on his return from abroad, would have be come the instrument of the nation's ruin! Nero fiddled while Rome was burning, and Mr. Buchanan, while the whole Republic is falling into ruin, complacently comes forward and says he is not responsible for it! But he (Mr. Morris) said with the whole country, as Nathan said to David, '• Thou art the man." The blackness of darkness will overshadow Mr. Buchanan's memory. If there were needed any other inscription on his tomb it should be, "God have mercy on him." [A voice from the Republican side — ¦" Amen !"] He referred to his former remarks, to show that his predictions have been realized respecting the breaking down of the Democratic party by an odious Administration. The President had descended from his high position to ma liciously operate against Mr. Douglas. It had been said by outsiders that Buchanan is the last of the constitutional Presidents; but it might, with more truth, be asserted that he is the first of constitutional tyrants and usurp ers. The President had virtually surrendered the Government to the Secessionists, who gained his ear. He traveled with them to the verge of dissolution; but, refusing to take the leap, they turn their keen blades against him, and he now cries for help. While he preaches like a patriot, his acts are like those of a traitor. He would say to him, " Deceitful man, be sure that your sins will find you out." In the course of his remarks, he said that the Administration lent itself to the Disunionists, who, emboldened by his course, destroyed the Democratic party. The Union would have been in safety if Douglas had been elected President. The Southern people are alone to blame for the defeat of Democracy, and the election of Lincoln. The object to be attained in this was the dismem berment of the Union. These words were uttered in a spirit of fervor which marked a deep and rankling feeling, and, coming from the lips of a lead ing Douglas man, produced a sensation in Democratic circles. They confirmed the evi dent tendency of a consolidation of all parties in the North in that of one whose only rally ing cry should be the Union and the Consti tution. Speech after speech came from the Democrats, like" the turning of leaves in the Book of Fate, to pronounce against the wrong the treason, the fatal madness of the disuni onists and their vast conspiracy. In the House, Thursday, Mr. Thomas, of Tenn., spoke Thomas' Speech. for himself and his consti tuents. He assumed that Lincoln was elected because of his hostility to Slavery — that he was elected not to govern the North but the South, which had no more to do with his election than it had with that of the Emperor of France. He argued the rights of the South in the Territories which their cash and blood helped to secure. Why parcel out these lands, by Homestead bills, to foreigners, many of whom cannot speak the English language, and yet deny the South entrance to that com mon domain ? Having been denied its rights under the Constitution, the South had exer cised only its "inalienable rights" of proce dure in leaving the Union and its tyranny. Would coercion be attempted ? It would re sult in the solid unity of every Slave State _ against the mad act. The South would never be conquered nor turned from her course. Mr. Sickles, (Dem.,) of N. Y, followed. He took a strong stand against coercion. They could not, under any provision of the Con- Sickles' Speech. titution, enforce the laws against a seceding State. The law was ap plicable to individuals, and, to enforce the law against the individual you must have judges and juries, and you must proceed against him according to the Constitution in the State where the crime was committed. It was clear, therefore, that they could not enforce the law against an individual, for no jury in South Carolina would bring in a verdict of guilty upon any indictment found at this juncture and under present circum stances. It was true, there was a general de mand for the enforcement of the laws; but. however true as an abstraction, however ne cessary at all times and imperative it might be on the Government to enforce them, it was now impracticable and impossible, as well as wholly unsuited to the occasion. The question then was, What was the duty of the Administration and of Congress ? It was one of pacification and reconstruction ; a duty which must undoubtedly be committed MR. ASHLEY SPEECH. 237 to the next Administration, and the country must therefore await an appeal to the peo ple. But what, in the meantime, is to be done ? As yet no practical remedy had been devised, and State after State was going out of the Union. All the votes taken in the dif ferent Crisis' Committees tended to strengthen the indication that a remedy from these sources is out of the question. The domi nant party have shown an indisposition to make those concessions indispensable to a re union. Their bounden duty, then, was to preserve the status quo, and to preserve the existing state of things as nearly as possible — to avoid the employment of coercion. But, to do this, it was essentially necessary to their policy that a like purpose and spirit should animate their Southern friends. It would not do for the South to protest against coer cion, while at the same time they seized the arms, arsenals, fortresses, navy -yards, and ships that come within their reach and power. To act thus was not and could never be peaceable secession — that would not be pre serving the status quo. It was a declaration of war ; and when sovereign States make war they could not cry peace, nor call for protection against coercion. * * * Whatever may be the issue of events — whether, happily, by conciliation and justice to the South, we may find an honorable and fraternal solution of our difficulties ; or whe ther, unhappily, we blindly drift into alien ation, war, and irrevocable separation — the great commercial interests of this country re quire, the destiny of American civilization demands, that the political and territorial control of this continent, from the mouth of the Hudson to the mouth of the Mississippi, from the Atlantic to the Pacific seas, shall remain where it now stands — in the hands of the Government of the United States. In all the partisan issues between the South and the Republican party, the people of the City of New York are with the South ; but when the South makes an untenable issue with our country, when the flag of the Union is in sulted, when the fortified places provided for the common defense are assaulted and seized, when the South abandons its North ern allies for English and French coopera tion, then the loyal and patriotic population of that imperial city are a unit for the Union. — Mr. S. fully conceded the property right of a slaveholder to his slave, and granted the South the right to bear slaves to the Ter ritories. He, in fact, took no position against the South, except upon the sole issue of the property of the Federal Government and its j ust claims to its national possessions. These, he assumed, must be retained — if the South seized them they must be defended or re taken at all hazards. Upon the South alone rested the responsibility, if the property taken was not restored. Mr. Ashley, (Rep.) of Ohio, charged that the conspira- Ashley's Speecn. tors for the overthrow of the Government had found cooperation from those connected with the Administration. If the people knew what had been going on for the last four years in every department of the Government, there would have been such an expression at the ballot-box as would have effectually silenced the allies of the South living in the North. The party who had vio lated the Missouri and other compromises, now ask, as a condition of their remaining in the Union, such amendments to the Constitu tion as will give a finality to the Slavery question. The Republican party ought to die if they engraft on that instrument the re cognition of property in man ! That Slavery shall be extended and made perpetual is the test demanded. To meet the secession move ments, he would abolish all the ports of entry where the laws are now obstructed, proclaim a blockade in the ports of the rebellious States, and let thoughtless men take the con sequences of their own illegal acts. Mr. Lin coln will be inaugurated in Washington, and this will remain the seat of Government so long as there can be found States loyal to the principles on which the Government was founded. If the conspirators succeed, Wash ington will not be the Capital. If the Presi dent had acted with firmness, these troubles would not exist. He will retire from his of fice utterly disgraced. The speaker claimed to represent all of North-western Ohio when he said that his people would demand the recovery of all the stolen property, and the restoration of the authority of the General Government in all its rightful and constitu- 238 THE SOUTHERN REBELLION, tional avenues. No Executive, he main tained, could satisfactorily administer the Government who would accept any other settlement with rebellion and treason. Mr. Perry, (Rep.) of Maine, Perry's Speech. proposed to speak as a New England man, representing New England's sentiment in the crisis. Now that tyranny and treason stalk, with unblush ing front, even in the halls of legislation, schemes of compromise were talked of — men would appease the monster by submitting to his voracious demands. Of course, in such schemes New England was not to be consult ed. The South, indignant at the Yankees' persistent maintenance of self-respect, and their undying spirit of opposition to the spread of Slavery, proposed to rule New Eng land out — to cut her off from the Confede racy-to-be. When that experiment shall be tried, the South would find that New Eng land could live without the South as well as the South could live without her. He dis cussed the following points : First, the terri tory and population of New England; second, her social and moral condition; and third, her wealth and industry. In the course of his remarks, he spoke of her devotion to the Union. She was always prompt to repel foes from without and to meet traitors at home. She was willing to make any reasonable com promise which could not be construed into an abandonment of principle. So long as the men have arms in their hands, so long as they forcibly resist the common laws of the coun try, his voice was for war. The Government that negotiates with traitors deserves the con tempt of the civilized world. " The Union must and shall be preserved." In the Senate, Thursday, the Pacific Rail way bill was under discussion. Friday's session was chiefly devoted to the considera tion of the bill for the admission of Kansas. The Crittenden resolutions were taken up, but their consideration was postponed to Monday, January 21st. Mr. Green, of Mo., introduced a joint resolution declaring that, for the purpose of protecting the rights of all the people and all the States as far as de volves upon the Federal authority, and to maintain the Union in all its purity and ex cellence, or, failing in that, to provide for a peaceable separation, be it here recommended that the several States take immediate steps by a Convention or otherwise, and make pro positions to the several States, each to the other, or by a Convention of the States, as will best conduce to the restoration of peace and harmony on principles of justice and equity to all. Ordered to a second reading. As indicative of tne cast of opinion in the Senate at this time, we may give the yeas and nays on Mr. Cameron's motion to recon sider the vote by which Mr. Clark's amend ment to the Crittenden joint resolutions was adopted. " Yeas — Messrs. Bayard, Bigler, Bragg, Bright, Clingham, Crittenden, Douglas, Fitch, Green, Gwin, Hemphill, Hunter, Johnson (Ark.), Johnson (Tenn.), Kennedy, Lane, Latham, Mason, Nicholson, Pearoe, Polk, Powell, Pngh, Rice, Saulsbury, Sebastian and Slidell— 27. " Nays — Messrs. Anthony, Baker, Bingham, Cam eron, Chandler, Clark, Collamer, Dixon, Doolittle, Fessenden, Foot, Foster, Grimes, Hale, Harlan, King, Seward, Simmons, Sumner, Ten Eyck, Wade, Wigfall, Wilkinson and Wilson — 24. In the House, Friday, Messrs. Sherman, (Republican), and Pendleton, (Democrat), of Ohio, made speeches. The latter begged for compromise and peace. He would not debate whether there was legal or sufficient cause for secession. Certain Southern States have committed the act with a unanimity without parallel in the history of revolution. He said if this bill be passed not a dollar would be collected at Charleston. If an army could maintain the Union, half a million of men would spring up in a night. If money would keep it together the soil would leap with joy to produce its golden harvest. If blood, old and young men would yield it like streams which water their soil. But an army of blood and money will not preserve the Union. Justice, reason and peace may. What force can compel a State to do what is required to be done by legislation? The whole scheme of coercion is impracticable, and contrary to the genius and spirit of the Constitution. The Southern States are pre pared to resist, and when armed men come together there is war. The enforcement of the laws against the Seceding States is coer cion, and coercion is war. If the South say they have grievances, redress them, and calm their agitation and irritation. Remember these men who thus come to us are bone of your bone. They are your brethren and fel low-citizens. You may grant what they desire, without losing your character and self-respect. He begged them, in God's name, to do it. Give peace instead of dis cord, maintain the Government, and preserve this great Confederated Empire. His voice, to-day, was for conciliation and compromise, and in this he echoed the voice of those whom he represents. If you will not grant this, in God's name let the affected States depart in peace. If the Southern States can not be conciliated, if we cannot grant them what they desire, if they must leave the pa ternal mansion, he would signalize their de parture with acts of kindness ; if, in the vicissitudes of national existence, it should prove necessary for us to come together, there should be no pride to be humbled, and he would welcome them back to the place they should occupy. Mr. Sherman's speech, Sherman's Speech. which followed, command ed the undivided attention of all. His standing as a conservative yet firm Republican, his influence with his party and with the country generally, his position as Chairman of the most important commit tee in Congress, viz., of Ways and Means — all conspired to give interest and importance to his declarations. He approved of his col league's appeal for peace and conciliation ; but, the appeal was addressed to the wrong side of the House. He assumed that it was not the policy of any administration to " con quer" a State — to compel it to be represented in Congress, to force it to maintain Federal courts and post-offices. It is the duty of Government to protect each State as a con stituent part of the whole, and therefore its paramount duty to protect the whole — to protect itself. To do this it is fully empow ered by the instrument of its organization. It alone has the right to levy and collect duties, to make treaties and form alliances, to erect and maintain a navy, an army, forts, arsenals, navy yards, to declare war, and to make peace. It has a flag, the symbol of its supremacy — the emblem of its power and province to protect all who may of right gather under its folds. What has been the course pursued by the Government? Had it over- Sherman's speech. stepped its authority in any instance 1 Had it invaded a State ? Had it occupied a part which did not belong to it by purchase and immutable cession ? Had any community been overawed by a military power ? Had any man's rights been con temned or invaded ? Who can assert it ? Not a line has Government overstepped its duty and trust. Not a wrong has it com mitted to State or person. What cause, then, for the charges made against it — what propriety in the cry of coercion ? He then, at length, adverted to the in stances of wrong and usurpation practiced against the Government — the seizure of forts, arsenals, navy-yards, vessels — the firing upon the National flag — the calling out of an army to shoot down United States troops whose only offence consisted in simply taking care of, and protecting Government property — the abrogation of United States laws and the general contempt for its authority — the seizure of moneys belonging to the United States treasury — the planting of cannon on the Mississippi River banks to arrest the tide of commerce on that National highway. What shall be done at this wide-spread and direct assault upon the Government? Shall it tamely submit and become a wreck at the bidding of enemies, to become the object of pity and scorn; or^shall it rise in its majesty to vindicate its claim to the name of a power and to uphold its system of liberty for the continued prosperity of its people and the admiration of the world ? He said : — " If this Government, cannot survive a constitu tional election — if it cannot defend its property or protect its flag — if it crumbles before the first sign of disaffection, what hope is there for free institu tions in countries where kings, nobles, marshals, hereditary institutions and laws of primogeniture have existed for ages ? Sir, when the love of liberty has inspired in modern times the masses of any peo ple to demand the right of self-government, they are pointed to the French revolution of 1789 ; they are pointed to South America, whose changing Repub lics rise and disappear, so that not ten men in this House can now tell me their names. They are pointed to Mexico ! God forbid that they shall ever adorn their infernal logic by adding the example of a disrupted Union here ! It is said, with the license of poetry, that ' Freedom shrieked when Kosciusko fell.1 240 THE SOUTHERN REBELLION. She will die with the death of Sherman's Speech. this Republic. I appeal to yon, gentlemen of the border Slave States, to arrest the tide that, but for you* will in a few days place us in hostile array with each other. If not, I see nothing before us but a fatal civil war. I do not threaten it, for I dread it, not for personal reasons, for you and I are but atoms' in the storm ; but all history teaches us that no free Government can be disrupted or overthrown without that disruption being followed in the end by military despotism. The man may now live who will be the Napoleon of this country. If your people will not sustain and support this Government in maintaining its public property in the Seceding States, then it must do it in spite of you, or perish in the attempt. * * * If we can stand by each other, if our constituents will stand by us in that emphatic declaration, I do believe that the good ship that has borne us thus far on a prosperous voyage, will outlive the storm. But, Sir, if we yield too far to the fury of the waves, if we now surrender, without resistance, the forts, arsenals, dock-yards, and other property of the Government, we only demonstrate that we are not fit for the duties assigned us; and if our names survive our lives, they will only be recorded as those of a degenerate race, who had not the man hood to preserve that their fathers won. It is there fore due to you, Sir, to all our fellow members, to our countrymen, North and South, to say that in voting for the Army bill, I vote with the expectation that it will be used in protecting the acknowledged property of the United States, in recovering that which has been unlawfully taken, and in maintaining the Union." He did not believe in the power to invade a State, simply to coerce it, for, with the At torney-General, he seemed to acknowledge the necessity of civil processes to call in the aid of the military. He said : " I do not contemplate, in any event, hostile inva sions of the soil of any State, unless demanded for the defence of the acknowledged property of the United States. It is the duty of the Government to suppress insurrection in a State, but in this event the military power can only be used in strict subor dination to the civil authority. If the civil authority refuse to call for such aid, or suppress the Courts, the military power cannot intervene. If the Courts are closed, the duties of Postmasters cannot be en forced, or the mails protected ; and, therefore, the postal service must necessarily be suspended. No doubt this measure will soon be adopted. If the revenue is refused, or cannot be collected, then goods cannot be imported, and the ports must be closed. If a State shall, in violation of the Constitu tion, undertake to regulate commerce then her com merce must be suspended. No doubt other measures can be Sherman's Speech. devised that will preserve the peace of the country until the people of the States may confer in a constitutional way, unless one or more of the seceding States shall, by military force, shed the blood of their fellow-citizens, or refuse to the proper authorities the acknowledged property of the United States." He then examined the question of compro mise. The fact that a single State could coerce the Government must be admitted, if compromise be admitted, because of the seces sion of a State. Before any peaceful solution of differences could be made, it was simply necessary to crush out the heresy of the right of a State, at any time, to repudiate the au thority of the General Government, and to erect itself into an independent power. If that assumption is not first forever killed, of what earthly use is compromise? Compro mise could not, under its baleful assumption, save a rupture, at any moment, and the pre cedent would serve only to demoralize the Government — by making its enemies all the more imperative and intractable. The Republican party, as a party, had, in no way, infringed upon the constitutional rights of any section, and it did not propose to do aught to impair the rights of a single individual or State. Their candidate for the Presidency had been elected in a constitu tional way, and every loyal citizen demanded his inauguration in peace, and that he be permitted to develop his policy in the usual way. He said: — " Yon tell us that your people are- excited and alarmed, and that they apprehend that an over whelming Anti-Slavery element is about to be inau gurated in power, that will, directly or indirectly, affect the constitutional rights of your States. Per haps you will confess what you know to be true, that, for political purposes in the struggle, partisans for the ascendency of both parties in the South have united to fire the Southern mind against the hated Black Republicans of the North. Speeches have been distorted. Single sentences have been torn from the context and made to deceive and mislead. Garrison, Wendell Phillips, Seward, Lincoln, and latterly, Douglas, have been mixed in a hated con glomeration, and used to excite your people. A philosophic opinion of Mr. Seward has been con strued into a statement of a settled purpose to over throw Slavery in the States, though in the very pa ragraph itself all idea of interference by the people MR. SHERMAN'S SPEECH. 241 of the Free States is expressly Sherman's Speech. excluded. It is but a year since you inflamed your constituents because some of your fellow members recommend- ' ed without reading, a book written by one of your own citizens, containing obnoxious opinions about Slavery. Nearly all of you gave birth, stability and victory to the Republican party by adopting the pol icy you now join in condemning. Some of you broke down the only political organization that could com pete with us, and thus gave us an easy victory. You have all contributed, more or less, in perverting the public mind as to our principles and purposes ; but even the baptism of misrepresentation, through which this Republican party has thus far advanced, does not excuse us from doing all in our power to pro duce conciliation, harmony, peace, quiet, and a fair and honest adjustment of all the difficulties that sur round us." He then proceeded to review the claims of the South for Constitutional amendments, remarking that the Republican party had no desire or power to interfere with the social institutions of the Slave States. He thought an amendment would have the good effect to set at rest the slanders in that direction. But, he asked equal rights under the same Constitution and amendments for the institu tions and people of the Free States. To this end it should guarantee, in the Slave as well as in the Free States, freedom of opinion, freedom of the press, freedom of speech — it should perfectly protect Northern men from the violence and outrage which are sure to be meted out to any citizen who differs in opinion from a Southern public. His words were : — "Our people in the North have the right to ex press their opinions about Slavery, to write, to speak them, and to preach them. Freedom of speech, freedom of the press, and freedom of opinion are es sential to the preservation of Republican institutions, and they never can be and never will be surrendered. Their convictions that Slavery is a social, moral and .political evil, are fixed and immutable. They are now shared by the great body of the civilized worjd. They are not likely to be weakened by time or rea son, and surely they will not be weakened by threat . of disunion. They have a right to their opinions ; you have a right to yours. You can write them, speak them, and preach them. The providence of God will in due time, and in his own way, determine this difference of opinion. Opinions may freely be left to test their strength before the Great Arbitra tor. We go a step further; we invite you in our 31 midst; you can discuss your peculiar opinions and views in Sherman's Speech. any town or city in the North ern States. It would be far better for you to invite a similar discussion of our citizens, rather than confess your weakness by mob violence, and excite alarm among your citizens and unfounded hopes among your slaves by misrepresentations." The Fugitive Slave law he regarded as unconstitutional — in some of its provisions it was unjust, since it could be used to kid nap freemen as well as to capture fugitive slaves — its practical effect was to excite resis tance. It ought to be, and would be, modi fied, and the laws of the States to prevent its abuses would then be promptly repealed. In conclusion, he asked that Mr. Lincoln's Administration should have a fair trial. It would prove just to individuals and benefi cent to the whole country. As his election had been constitutionally achieved, so his Administration should be constitutionally obeyed. It must be obeyed; and no com bination on the Continent had power, or ought to have the power, to change the le gitimate results of our elective franchise. The Constitution was made for all, and must be obeyed by all — there was no provision for exemption from, or non-submission toj its wholesome responsibilities. It must be This speech made a powerful impression on the House. Its candor of statement, its di rectness of argument, its resolute tone, con spired to create fresh confidence in the friends of the Union, and to discomfit its enemies. It called out Crawford, of Georgia, who de fended the seizure of the forts as a matter of safety to the several States. At the same moment he convicted himself of inconsist ency, by declaring that the South wanted to depart in peace — her people would die in de fence of their rights of sovereignty — using the logic of the highwayman who, after rob bing the confiding wayfarer, begs to depart in peace, claiming that his robbery was com mitted in self defence ! Mr. Hill, of Georgia, had the candor to repudiate such transparent absurdity. Refer ring, in a kindly manner, to Mr. Sherman's position, he expressed the belief that the South was approachable with reason. Admissions of Hill, of Georgia. 242 THE SOUTHERN REBELLION. and earnestly appealed for conciliation. Let the people have time to speak. He would await the result with confidence and hope. If Georgia resolved to secede she would do so prospectively, in order to give time to save the great structure of Government. "He wished it borne in mind that he belonged not to the class of men who would dismember the Confederacy. He would as soon take a glass vessel and crush it to pieces to make it a bet ter one, as to attempt to make a better Gov ernment by crushing the present into atoms. If Georgia shall proceed to the extremity of secession, he. would ask her, for her own sake, to have the manliness, after the act is done, to refuse a reconstruction of the Union, and to stand out as an island alone. There would be dignity, if not safety, in such a step. A resolution was introduced by Burnett, of Kentucky — the Army Appropriation bill being under consideration in Committee of the Whole — as an amendment, that no forces authorized in the bill shall be used to subju gate seceding States. He wanted the country to understand whether it was intended to make war on them or not. Rejected. The bill was then reported to the House. The proceedings in the Senate, Thursday, were, as stated, confined chiefly to consideration of the Pacific Railway bill — Messrs. Douglas and Benjamin leading. The matter of most interest to our subject was the discussion, in Executive Session, over the President's nomination of Joseph Holt, as Secretary of War. The discussion is repre sented as having been of an exciting char acter. An effort was made, by the oppo nents of the confirmation, to refer it to the Committee on Military Affairs, as Mr. Mc- Intyre's nomination, as Collector at Charles ton, had been referred to the Committee on Commerce — equivalent to a suspension of the nomination. But, the effort failed, and, in the Friday's session, after another exciting debate,* his appointment was con- Mr. Holt's Confir mation. * A correspondent at the Capital, writing to the New York Daily Times, of the Friday's debate in closed session, said : " During the debate on the nomination of Secre tary Holt, Mr. Crittenden is said to have taken the ground that, as Kentucky is now a Central State, firmed, by a vote of 38 to 13. The opposition was made by the Secessionist members, who regarded him as a Coercionist. They evi dently did not like to see such respect for his oath, and such devotion to duty, as Mr. Holt already had borne into that sadly ad ministered department. Mr. Floyd was their beau ideal of a War Secretary. In the Senate, Saturday, the Kansas bill chiefly consumed the day. Mr. Mason, of Virginia, presented the following joint reso lutions, which passed to a second reading, and were ordered to be printed : " Whereas, It appears to Con gress that the State of South Mason's Resolutions. Carolina has, by an ordinance of the people of that State in Convention assembled, declared the State separated from the United States and the Government thereof, as established under the Constitution ; and it further appearing that by reason of such declared separation there are no offi cers of the United States acting under the authority thereof in the judiciary department of this Govern ment, or under the laws for the collection of the re venues of the United States, whereby and in conse quence whereof the laws of the United States are in fact suspended within the limits of said State ; there fore, to avoid any hostile collision that may ariso between the authorities of the United States and the State of South Carolina aforesaid, in any attempt to execute the laws of the United States in the ab sence of the officers required by law to administer' and execute said laws, be it "Resolved, By the Senate and House of Represent atives, that from and after the passage of this joint resolution, all laws of the United States directing the mode in which the army and navy, and other public forces of the United States shall be used by the Pre sident of the United States in aiding the civil author ities in executing the laws and authorizing the same, enjoying all the prosperity consequent upon the present Union and form of Government, she never would consent to its breaking up and the formation of a Southern Confederacy, of which she would be a Border State, exposed to all the dangers and losses of such a position. He was much affected during this portion x>f his remarks, and the manner in which he upbraided the Southern men who defeated his Compromise in the Senate was very severe. He took the position that the Union must be preserved at all hazards, either by peaceable means or by force, and that force used against the lawless citizens of a Government is not coercion of a State. The speech, being entirely unexpected, created a great sensation among the Senators." IMPORTANT NAVAL MOVEMENTS 243 and all laws for the collection of revenues shall be, and the same are hereby suspended, and made in operative in the State of South Carolina for the time being ; and that should it be made to appear here after by the Executive authority of any other State or States that an Ordinance has been passed by the people of any State, declaring such State or States separate from the United States, then it shall be the duty of the President of the United States to announce such separation by proclamation, and all the laws of the United States shall in like manner be suspended and rendered inoperative iu such State as aforesaid." Nothing of importance transpired in the House, in the Saturday's session. During the week a large number of peti tions and memorials had been presented, from various States, praying the adoption of the Crittenden Resolutions. It is estimated that one hundred thousand names were thus re presented. Besides these expressions, many of the leading men of the Northern States were pressing the propositions of Mr. Crit tenden upon members as a satisfactory solu tion of the disunion movement troubles ; but, though, as the Republican leaders had re peatedly asseverated, they earnestly desired peace, a compromise obtained at that late hour, under compulsion, was evidently so power less to satisfy the disunion schemers that it became daily more and more apparent no compromise would be adopted. While the South actually was in arms, and already had committed overt acts of treason and revolu tion, to have accepted even Mr. Crittenden's appeal to the people, would not only have argued a state of fear, but would, in reality, have rendered the South more arrogant in its attitude towardsthe Free sentiment and the Free States. So the Republicans and many Democrats reasoned, and the decidedly belligerent tone of the loyal press, of the State Legislatures, of leading Congressmen, as well as of a large majority of the people, left no hope for a settlement, except the South should recede from its defiant and hostile attitude. CHAPTER XYT. CONDITION OF THE UNITED STATES' DEFENCES UP TO FEB. 1ST. THE AFFAIR OF THE NORTH CAROLINA FORTS. DETERMINED ATTITUDE OF THE GOVERNMENT. COL. HAYNE'S DEMANDS. THEIR REFUSAL. ORDERS TO MAJOR ANDERSON. VIRGINIA'S POSITION. HER PLANS OF PACIFICATION. GENERAL STATE OF THE UNION UP TO FEB. 1ST. Important Naval Movements. The corvette Macedonian sailed for Fort Pickens with reenforcements, in the second week of January. Troops were also ordered to the Key West and Tortugas forti fications. In and around Washington enough force was concentrated to secure the city from any " Southern incursion." Fortress Monroe, at Hampton Roads, Virginia, was given a garrison equal to its protection. Fort McHenry, in Baltimore, was garrisoned and put in defensive order. These several points of strategy and defence were thus compara tively secure, and as they really were the to command "Southern ports and commerce, their safety greatly contributed to the confidence of the loyalists in the ultimate ability of the Administration to prevent fur ther encroachments of the revolutionists. This feeling was measurably confirmed by the apparently loyal attitude of North Caro lina. It had been announced, as early as January 2d, that Governor Ellis, of that State, had dispatched troops to seize the ar senal at Fayetteville, and the forts at Wil mington and Beaufort. The news created much bitter feeling at the War Department, for, though inclined to repossess them, the 244 THE SOUTHERN REBELLION. The North Carolina Forts. meagre force at the disposal of the Secretary rendered it impossible to take any action. The feeling of the Department was communi cated, unofficially, to the Governor. Under date of January 12th he wrote to the Presi dent that the seizures had not been made as reported, but that, on the 8th of January, the forts of Wilmington alone had been seized, but, by his military orders, were restored. He said: " My information satisfies me that this popular outbreak was caused by a report, very gene rally credited, but which, for the sake of humanity, I hope is not true, that it was the purpose of the Administration to coerce the Southern States, and that troops were on their way to garrison the South ern ports, and to begin the work of subjugation. This impression is not yet erased from the public mind, which is deeply agitated at the bare contem plation of so great an indignity and wrong ; and I would most earnestly appeal to your Excellency to strengthen my hands in my efforts to preserve the public order here, by placing it in my power to give public assurance that no measures of force are con templated towards us." This communication Mr. Buchanan turned over to Mr. Holt for answer. He wrote : — " In reply to your inquiry, whether it is the pur pose of the President to garrison the forts of North Carolina during his Administration, I am directed to •say that they, in common with the other forts, arse nals, and other property of the United States, are in the charge of the President, and that if assailed, no matter from what quarter or under what pretext, it is his duty to protect them by all the means which the law has placed at his disposal. It is not his purpose to garrison the forts to which you refer at 'present, because he considers them entirely safe, as heretofore, under the shelter of that law-abiding sentiment for which the people of North Carolina have ever been distinguished. Should they, how- , ever, be attacked or menaced with danger of being seized or taken from the possession of the United States, he could not escape from his constitutional ¦ obligation to defend and preserve them. The very satisfactory and patriotic assurance given by your Excellency justifies him, however, in entertaining the confident expectation that no snch contingency will arise." If Sumter and Pickens could be placed be yond the hazards of capture, and the Navy- yard at Norfolk could be rendered secure from seizure, it would give the incoming Ad ministration the points d'appui necessary for a dictation of terms to the revolutionists — their retention might force a settlement of the Union question when all compromise should fail ; while, if the blood of loyal citi zens was shed in their defence, they would become the signal-lights to concentrate the patriotism of the people and States. What ever may have been Mr. Buchanan's wishes in the matter, it is evident that his Cabinet and General Scott regarded the question in the light we have represented, and those pa triotic men lent all their energies to the oc cupation and retention of all the points named. A dispatch from New Orleans, dated Jan uary 15th, said: — "Consul Pickens went to Vera Cruz this morning, bearing important dispatches from Washington to the Com mander of the Gulf Squadron. It is rumored they were for a concentration of the fleets at the mouths of the Mississippi and the harbor of Pensacola." The great activity in the Portsmouth and Brooklyn Navy-yards was also a marked feature in the events of the month, which went to prove that the Federal Government had truly become aroused to the imminence of its danger. Every vessel of war, capable of service, was, apparently, to be called into requisition for any service which the policy of resistance to aggression might require. Col. Hayne, the " Agent" of Governor Pickens, to bear to Washington the ultimatum of South Carolina, had an inter view with Mr. Buchanan on Tuesday, Jan uary 15th. His demands were understood to be made by authority of Governor Pickens, as Commander-in-Chief of the South Caror Una forces ; he was neither empowered by the Legislature nor by the Convention. His terms proposed the entire withdrawal of Ma jor Anderson and the Federal garrison from Charleston harbor, guaranteeing that South Carolina would then honorably treat for the forts and a just settlement of all questions at issue. The President refused to recognize Colonel Hayne as an agent ; and, that no mis conception might arise, he turned the mes senger over to the War Department, ordering him to put his demands in writing. As sig nificant of the purposes of the Administra- South Carolina's " Agent." MR. PRYOR'S PLAN OF SETTLEMENT, 245 tion, Lieut. T. Talbot, of Fort Sumter, Major Anderson's bearer of dispatches, left Wash ington with sealed orders, on Wednesday, January 16th, for the Major to be prepared to retain his post to the last, in event of any attempt to force him from his position. The corvette Brooklyn and the Harriet Lane were understood to be ready to lend him their assistance at any moment, while vessels from the Gulf Squadron would soon be in to cooperate in Sumter's defense, if an assault should be made. This determined front rather intimidated the " agent," and we find him not only hesitating in his further formal proceedings, but, it is said, the most urgent messages were sent from the secession leaders in Washington to Governor Pickens, remon strating against any attempt to dispossess Anderson. Colonel Hayne, therefore, re served his communication to the War De partment to a later day. Governor Pickens, probably to give force to his " agent's" de mands, sent in a message to the Legislature of South Carolina, (January 15th,) advising the raising of two more military companies and one more regiment, to serve three years. He proposed the permanent garrison of the extensive fortifications in South Carolina. " This may be expensive, but, considering that we shall soon have a Southern Confede racy, it will be necessary to protect the sea- coast, and afterwards transfer the troops to the Southern Government. The fanatical ex citement of Northern people shows us that if we expect to preserve peace, we must prepare for war." That message only rendered the War Department more determined to prepare for the seemingly inevitable emergency of a collision. The position of Virginia began to absorb public at tention to a great degree during the middle of January. Her location as a "Border State" — her proximity to the Federal Capital — her importance as apolitical power rendered her course of vital importance to the cause of the Union. She, seemingly, held it in her keeping; if she cast her in fluence into the scale of the revolutionists the Southern Confederacy would become a gov ernment de facto until strength of arms should decide between the contestants for supremacy. The Position of Virginia. The extra session of the Legislature con vened by Governor Leteher, January 7th, continued in exciting and active session dur ing the entire month. Its primary indica tions were, as we have said, decidedly inimi cal to the cause of the Union, [see page 164] ; but the powerful influences brought to bear by members of Congress, by Messrs. Botts, Sherwood, Clemens, Amos Kendall, and other determined Unionists, for a while stemmed the tide of Secession sentiment, so far as to keep it in abeyance until propositions of set tlement could be acted upon. This peace policy little suited the plans and designs of Jas. M. Mason, Jno. B. Floyd, Henry A. Wise and their coadjutors, who had fully arranged to "precipitate" the State according to the prearranged secession programme; but it seemed to stay the revolution at least for the moment. A plan came up in the House of Delegates, understood to have originated in Washington and to have been forwarded by Roger A. Pryor. It embraced the following propositions in resolutions: — "First: There must be some definite and conclusive settle- ^Settlement. °f ment of the Slavery question, between the two sections of the country, or separa tion will be inevitable. "Second: Proposing the Crittenden compromise,,^ as amended by Mr. Douglas, as the basis of a fair and honorable adjustment, and as the least that Vir ginia feels she can take as a settlement. " Third: The appointment of a Commissioner to each State in the Union to represent the action of Virginia, and to invite a response to this measure of conciliation. "Fourth: A strong appeal to the Federal Govern ment to stay its hand and avert all acts which may lead to a collision pending the mediation of Virginia. "Fifth: An appeal to the Seceding States to pre serve the existing status, and also to abstain from all acts which may precipitate a collision." Similar movements were contemplated in the Legislatures of the remaining BordeT States. Out of this plan eventually sprung the " Peace Convention " which assembled in Washington, February 4th, composed of spe cially appointed Commissioners from all the States in the Union, excepting from those States already in revolution. On the 16th, the House of Delegates' Com mittee on Federal Relations reported, on Mr. 246 THE SOUTHERN REBELLION. Smith's resolutions, that it is inexpedient for the Federal Government, under existing cir cumstances, to make any additional military force, inasmuch as it would be liable to mis construction, and tend to credit uneasiness in the public mind ; and requesting the Gover nor to obtain immediate information for the purposes of the General Government with respect to strengthening the military force in the arsenals, &c, in Virginia. No action was taken on the report of the Committee. It embraced, as its basis of compromise, the plan above referred to, which was understood to have the approval of Messrs. Crittenden, Douglas, Breckenridge, Wm. C. Rives, and other eminent Conservative leaders, while it was, of course, opposed by the Secessionists. The plan was, however, to be referred to the Peace Congress, or Conference, which the Re port recommended to be called to meet at Washington, February 4th. On the 17th this Report was acted upon, so far as the calling of the Congress, with the proviso that the Commissioners, which Virginia might send, should, at all times, be under control of the General Assembly, or of the State Con vention, if it should be in session. In the State Senate, January 17th, the Com mittee on Federal Relations reported resolu tions that, in the opinion of the General As sembly, the propositions embraced in the Crittenden resolutions constitute such a basis of adjustment as would be accepted by the people of this Commonwealth ; that Commis sioners be appointed to the General Govern ment, also to South Carolina and other Se ceding States, with instructions respectfully to request the President and the authorities of such States to agree to abstain, pending the proceedings contemplated by the action of this General Assembly, from all acts cal culated to produce a collision of arms be tween the States and the General Government. It was made the order for the succeeding day. Considerable opposition was manifested, and a substitute offered. The Governor also communicated the New York State Legislature resolutions, copies of which had, by special vote, been sent to the Governors of all the States. His views of the resolutions were expressed in the following message : — " EXECUTIVE DePAKTMENT, RICHMOND, |: "January 17, 1861. j " Gentlemen of the Senate and House of Delegates: " I have received a commu nication from his Excellency Reply to New York. Edwin D. Morgan, Governor of New York, inclosing a preamble and resolutions adopted by the Legislature of that State. " The first resolution declares ' that the Legisla ture of New York ' tenders to the President of the United States ' whatever aid, in men and money, he may require, to enable him to enforce the laws and uphold the authority of the Federal Government.' This I understand to be a declaration of their readi ness and willingness to sacrifice the men and money of that State in the effort to coerce the Slaveholding States into submission to Federal authority. The Governor and Legislature of New York ought to know that the sword has never reconciled differences of opinion. Military coercion can never perpetuate the existence of this Union. When the affections of the people are withdrawn from the Government, an attempt at coercion can have no other effect than to exasperate the people threatened to be coerced. Blood shed in civil strife can only enrich the soil that must speedily produoe ' a harvest of woe.' " I cannot suppose, from what has occurred, that the President of the United States would be inclined to adopt a policy which he must see and know could not fail to result in bloodshed. I am satisfied that prudence and patriotism would induce him to reject all counsels and measures which would be calcu lated to bring about so great a calamity. I have no idea, therefore, that he will accept the tender which has been so inopportunely and ostentatiously para ded before the country. " Nothing that has occurred in the progress of this controversy has been worse timed and less excusa ble. If the Governor and Legislature of New York desire to preserve the Union, a tender of men and money, under the promptings of passion, prejudice and excitement, will not produce the result. At a time like this, when the horizon is overcast with clouds, when darkness and gloom are gathering close around us, and when we behold nothing but danger on all sides, some little wisdom, discretion and prudence is expected from the representatives of the people. They ought, at least, to refrain from adding fuel to the flame that burns with utmost in tensity now. It would have been far better that these resolutions had never been adopted. " In 1798 and 1799 the action of Virginia was marked by calmness, dignity, and an earnest desire to preserve the Union, without prejudice to the rights of the States. No feeling of resentment tow ard the other States was manifested by those great men, in that day of peril and trial. No effort was ADDRESSES OF CONGRESSMEN. 247 made to produce estrangement between the different sections of the country, or to inflame popular preju dices. Their example is worthy of imitation when events are hurrying us on so rapidly into civil strife. " Nothing but a sense of duty has induced me to transmit this preamble and resolutions to the two Houses of General Assembly. The threat which is conveyed in them can inspire no terror with Freemen. " JOHN LETCHER." The message and accompanying resolutions were read, when, on motion of Mr. Anderson, it was unanimously "Resolved, That the Governor. of Virginia return the resolutions of the Legislature of New York to the Executive of that State, with the request that no such resolutions be again sent to this General Assembly." The House of Delegates passed a bill, January 18th, appropriating one million dollars for the defense of the State. In the Senate, Jan. 19th, the consideration of the re port on Federal resolutions, contemplating a National Convention, was resumed. The second resolution in the report was amended by appointing John Tyler, William C. Rives, John W. Brockenbrough, George W. Sum mer and James A. Seddon, Commissioners to Washington, on the 4th ""ta^SS™" of February> t0 Procure a delay of Federal action, looking toward coercion. The fifth resolution was amended by modi fying Mr. Crittenden's proposition, so as to give additional protection and security to slave property. The sixth resolution was amended by ap pointing John Tyler a Commissioner to wait on the President of the United States, and Judge John Robertson a Commissioner to South Carolina and the other Seceding States, to request them to abstain from hostile acts during the pendency of proceedings. The report was then passed by yeas 40, nays 5. The following was then introduced, and passed unanimously : " Resolved, That if all efforts to reconcile the differ ences between the two sections of the ciountry shall prove abortive, then every consideration of honor and interest demands that Virginia shall unite her destinies with her sister Slaveholding States." The House of Delegates, January 19th, concurred in the Senate amendments of the report of the Committee on Federal Relations, as above given ; when the following resolu tion was adopted : ¦'Resolved, That the interests of Virginia are those of her Southern sisters, and no reconstruction of the Union can be permanent which will not secure to each section self-protecting power against any in vasion of the Federal Union upon the reserved rights of either." The people of the State were approached by their delegation in Congress. Acting un der the " central power" of Mason, Toombs, Hunter and Davis, ten members §igned and sent out an " Address to the Virginia peo ple," giving a review of the proceedings and the probable action of Con- . . .. Address of the gress m regard to the pre- ^^^^ sent state of affairs. They said : " It is vain to hope for any measures of conciliation or adjustment from Congress, which the people can accept. Also, that they are satisfied that the Republican party designs, by a civil war alone, to coerce the Southern States, under the pretext of ' enforcement of the laws,' unless it shall be come speedily apparent that the Seceding States are so numerous, determined and united, as to make such an attempt hopeless. The Address concluded by expressing the sol emn conviction, that prompt and decided action by the people of Virginia in Conven tion will afford the surest means, under the providence of God, of averting the impending civil war, and of preserving a hope of recon structing a Union already dissolved." This was devised to create a new fever for hasty action in the Legislature. The tendency of things towards the " peace" policy alarmed the conspirators at headquarters ; they, hence, sought to restore the immediate secession sentiment to its destined ascendency ere the Peace Congress could proceed to arrange a scheme of adjustment. The Address was one of several plots emanating from Washing ton to drive the people into the revolution. That this was the sole purpose of the Ad dress was soon evident in other extraordinary exertions made by the Secessionists to re cover their lost ground. A leading member of the Legislature, on the Conservative side, wrote as follows, under date of January 23d: 246 THE SOUTHERN REBELLION. " Recent developments have encouraged me to believe that the action of Virginia will be decidedly conservative. There was a violent and unnatural excitement here, produced by the systematic efforts of disunion politicians. The sober second thought has begun to operate, and a more wholesome condi tion of feeling prevails. I think a large majority of the Convention will be opposed to immediate seces sion. " The position of the conservatives in our General Assembly has been a trying one. At the earlier pe riod of the session we were overwhelmed by the de structives. But we rallied our forces, and, after a resolute fight, we have beaten them, and so shaped the action of the Legislature as to render it decided ly conservative. Virginia now occupies the position of mediator, holding back the belligerents and ten dering the olive branch of peace." Maryland continued Maryland still firm, steadfast to the Union un der the firm guidance of Governor Hicks. On the 20th it was stated, in a dispatch from Baltimore, that the great mass of the people approved the course pur sued by the Governor in refusing to call the Legislature. Another statement was pub lished to the effect that " Union meetings held in almost every county approve his course, and pronounce against disunion. The association of Minute-Men of Baltimore have taken a noble stand in support of Governor Hicks and the Union. This organization, formed about a month before the Presidential election, numbers about thirty-two hundred active members in the city, and is affiliated with kindred organizations in every county in the State. They are divided into compa nies of sixty-four men each. To their efforts is due the brilliant success of the recent Union meeting in Baltimore. Upon the very day when the forty United States marines were sent to take possession of Fort McHenry, it was intended by the Minute -Men to occupy and hold it, until relieved by the Federal troops, and thus to keep the property safe from the possibility of seizure by the rapidly organizing Secession association called the " Southern Volunteers." A dispatch from another source, dated the 21st, expressed less sanguine views of the Union strength in the State. It said : — " Georgia's secession has struck a melancholy blow to the hopes of Maryland. We are now at the mercy of Virginia. If she secedes, and no speedy com promise is made by Congress similar to Mr. Crittenden's proposition, I have positive knowledge that the people of Maryland are preparing, independent of the Governor, to elect and convene a Sovereign Convention, which will certainly withdraw the State from the Union before Mr. Lincoln's inauguration." Delaware showed herself to be loyal. Her Legisla- Delaware Loyal. ture approved the Crit tenden resolves, January 17th. The follow ing among other resolves, though not acted on affirmatively, still reflected the tone of feeling which was uppermost with the people : — " Resolved, That we believe solemnly that the Con stitution and the laws of the United States faithfully administered and implicitly obeyed are fully equal to heal all grievances, coming from what portion of the country they may. " Resolved, That Delaware knows no North, no South, no East, no West, but only the Union, Con stitution and Laws, and earnestly desires that the laws be fully and faithfully enforced in every por tion of our Union. " Resolved, That we earnestly recommend to our Senators and Representatives in Congress, under uo circumstances to countenance or sanction the with drawal of any State from the Union, but in the lan guage of Jackson, this ' Union must and shall be preserved.' " In North Carolina much opposition was manifested to the secession of the State. One party was unmistakably Union at all events ; another favored compromise, which, if not conceded, should be cause for seces sion ; another was for cooperation with Vir ginia. The number of unconditional separa- tionists was comparatively small, but power ful enough, with the outside pressure of South Carolina, to keep the State moving quietly but surely towards the point of open action. The Legislature of the State was in session during January. January 16th, anti-coercion resolutions passed to a second reading. They were opposed to coercion, even to pledging the whole power of the State to resist any attempt of the General Government to use arms against a seceding State. The Conven tion bill was also under consideration. The Arkansas Legislature, January 16th, North Carolina Hesi tating. TENNESSEE'S ACTION. 249 unanimously passed a bill submitting the question of calling a Convention to the peo ple on the 28th of February. If a majority favored a Convention, the Governor was to appoint the day. The Missouri State Legis- Missouri. lature continued in excited session during the month. ItsSenate, January 16th, passed a Convention bill, yeas 31, nays 2. The bill left the entire matter, however, to the people. The voters were to decide at the time the delegates were elected, whether the Secession Ordinance, if passed, should be submitted to the people for ratification. The election of delegates was set for February 18th, the Convention to meet on the 28th. The Governor of Ken- Kentucky, tucky submitted (Jan. 17th) a long message to the extra session of the Legislature convened by him to consider the crisis. He adverted at length to the facts of the secession movement, the means of adjustment proposed, the action desirable for the Border States to urge, &c. He recommended for the Legislature, as a body, to endorse the Crittenden resolves, and also advised the calling of a State Conven tion, saying : " We, the people of the United G0TeMessMCe3°fflll'S State9> are n0 lonSer oue Pe0Ple> tnited and friendly. The ties of fraternal love and concord which once bound us to gether are sundered. Though the Union of the States may, by the abstract reasoning of a class, be construed still to exist, it is really and practically, to an extent at least, fatally impaired. The Confed eracy is rapidly resolving into its original integral parts, and its loyal members are intent upon con tracting wholly new relations. Reluctant as we may be to realize the dread calamity, the great fact of revolution stares us in the face, demands recogni tion, and will not be theorized away. Nor is the worst yet told. We are not yet encouraged to hope that this revolution will be bloodless. A collision of arms has even occurred between the Federal Gov ernment and the authorities of a late member of the Uuion, and the issue threatens to involve the whole country in fratricidal war. It is under these circum stances of peculiar gloom that you have been sum moned. ****** In view of the partial disruption of the Union, the secession of eight or ten States, the establishment of a Southern Confederated Republic, and the ad ministration of this Government upon the principles 32 of the Chicago Platform — a condition of our country most likely near at hand — what attitude will Ken tucky hold, and by virtue of what authority shall hei external relations be determined? Herein are in volved issues of momentous consequence to the people. It is of vital importance to our own safety and domestic peace that these questions be solved in accordance with the will of » majority of our people. How have our neighboring States pre pared to meet this emergency ? Tennessee has, through the action of her Legislature, referred the whole subject to her people, to be passed upon in their sovereign capacity. Virginia and North Caro lina are discussing the propriety of a similar course, and will most probably authorize the people, through sovereign Conventions, to dispose of questions so deeply and vitally concerning their interests. Mis souri seems likely to adopt a similar policy. These States wisely recognize the fact that the country is in a state of revolution ; and, it seems to me, there is an eminent propriety, at such a time, in a direct appeal to the peopleV The ordinary departments of the Government are Vested with no power to con duct the State through such, a revolution. Any at tempt, by either of these departments, to change our present external relations, would involve a usurpation of power, and might not command that confidence and secure the unanimity so essential to our internal safety. Thus encompassed by embar rassment, complication and doubt, assailed by a diversity of counsels, and encountering much variety of opinion, it seems to me the wisest, as, certainly, the safest mode of meeting tbe extraordinary emer gency, is to adopt the course pursued by our neigh boring States, and refer these great questions to the arbitrament of the people, whose happiness and des tinies they so deeply affect. We should, in this mode, secure unity among ourselves, and attract the cordial loyalty of all our citizens to Kentucky, wherever she may cast her lot. I, therefore, submit to your consideration the propriety of providing for the election of delegates to a Convention, to be as sembled at an early day, to whom shall be referred, for full and final determination, the future Federal and inter-State relations of Kentucky." The Legislature, however, refused to call a Convention. It was decidedly averse to any action looking to Secession. Tennessee was laboring in the throes of the revolution. The following joint resolutions were adopted January 20th : "Resolved, By the General Assembly of the State of Tennessee, that this General Assembly has heard with profound regret of the resolutions adopted by the State of New York, tendering men and money to the President of the United States, to be used in 250 THE SOUTHERN REBELLION. coercing certain sovereign States of the South into obedience to the Federal Government. " Resolved, That this General Assembly receives the action of the Legislature of New York as the in dication of a purpose upon the part of the people of that State to further complicate existing difficulties, by forcing the people of the South to the extremity of submission or resistance ; and, bo regarding it, the Governor of the State of Tennessee is hereby re quested to inform the Executive of the State of New York that it is the opinion of this General Assembly that whenever the authorities of that State shall send armed forces to the South for the purposes indi cated in said resolutions, the people of Tennessee, united with their brethren of the South, will, as one man, resist such invasion of the soil of the South at all hazards, and to the last extremity." The Lower House adopted, on the 21st, without dissent, its plan of Convention and compromise as follows : " 1. Resolved, by the General Assembly of Tennessee, That a Convention of Delegates from all the Slave- holding States should assemble at Nashville, Ten nessee, or such other place as a majority of the States cooperating may designate, on the 4th of Feb ruary, to digest and define a basis upon which, if pos sible, a Federal Union and the constitutional rights of the Slave States may be preserved and perpetuated. " 2. Resolved, That the General Assembly of Ten nessee appoint a number of delegates to said Con vention, of our ablest and wisest men, equal to our whole delegation in Congress ; and that the Gover nor of Tennessee immediately furnish copies of these resolutions to the Governors of the Slaveholding States, and urge the participation of such States in said Convention. " 3. Resolved, That, in the opinion of the General Assembly of Tennessee, such plan of adjustment should embrace the following propositions as amend ments to the Constitution of the United States." The schedule then cited nine sections, em bracing chiefly the Crittenden basis, with further stringent provisions for the reclama tion of slaves — the permanent right of transit through non-Slaveholding States with slave property, and providing that no further amendments of the Constitution should in validate or controvert the amendments sug gested. The proposition closed with the fol lowing resolutions : " i. Resolved, That said Convention of the Slave- holding States, having agreed upon a basis of ad justment satisfactory to themselves, should, in the opinion of this General Assembly, refer it to a Con vention of all the States, Slaveholding and non- Slaveholding, in the manner following: It should invite all the States friendly to such plan of adjust ment to elect delegates in such manner as to reflect the popular will to assemble in a Coostitutional Con vention of all the States, North and South, to be held at Richmond, Virginia, on the day of Feb ruary, 1861, to revise and perfect said plan of ad justment for its reference for final ratification and adoption by Conventions of the States respectively. " Resolved, That should a plan of adjustment satis factory to the South not be acceded to by the requi site number of States to perfect amendments to the Constitution of the United States, it is the opinion of this General Assembly that the Slaveholding States should adopt for themselves the Constitution of the United States, with such amendments as may be sat isfactory to the Slaveholding States, and that they should invite into a Union with them all the States of the North which are willing to abide such amended Constitution and frame of Government, severing at once all connection with the States re fusing such reasonable guarantees to our future safety — such renewed conditions of Federal Union being first submitted for ratification to the Conven-' tions of all the States respectively." The attitude of the Northern States was not less belligerent at the close of January than at its opening. The various Legisla tures not only passed patriotic resolves, but almost without exception provided the "sin ews of war" in the way of military appropri ations and bills for a reconstruction of the militia systems so as to render a call for troops immediately available. In New York State the military system was, already, veiy perfect. New York City alone could muster at twelve hours' notice fully twenty thousand perfectly armed and disciplined troops. A portion of these, Comprising the 1st Division, about 7000 strong, were offered to the Presi dent through General Scott by Major Gene ral Sandford, commanding the division— to be ready for service at an hour's warning. Other equally significant tenders were made to the Governor of companies and regiments. The State Military Convention in session at Albany acted in a patriotic and determined manner. The Special Committee to report what arms were necessary for the State to purchase without delay, recommended the immediate purchase by the State of 25,000 arms, to be increased to 50,000 as soon as practicable ; and also 5,000 pairs of cavalry pistols and 5,000 sabres. THE PRESIDENT-ELECT, 251 The Pennsylvania Legislature, fully alive to the crisis, was not less patriotic than New York and Massachusetts. Resolves were passed, complimentary of Major Anderson, approving the conduct of Governor Hicks, in refusing to call the Maryland Legislature, and pledging to him the sympathy and sup port of Pennsylvania. The military organi zation was rendered very complete, and, under Governor Curtin's active cooperation, arms and equipments were being rapidly se cured. , ¦Governor Andrew, of Massachusetts, sent to the State Legislature (January 23d) a message, inclosing a communication from Colonel Jones of the 6th Regiment, tender ing the services of the Regiment to the Gov ernment; also a similar offer from Major- General Sutton and staff. The Light Artil lery, National Lancers, and numerous other efficient military corps of Boston City and the State, voted, nearly unanimously, to res pond to a call for active service. New Jersey leaned visibly toward compro mise and peace. The House of its Legisla ture, January 25th, considered resolutions embracing the Crittenden proposition, or re commending some other conciliatory measure, and appointing Charles S. Olden, Peter D. Vroom, Robert F. Stockton, Benjamin Wil liamson, Joseph F. Randolph, Frederick T. Frelinghuysen, Rodney M. Price, Thomas J. Stryker and William C. Alexander, Commis sioners to go to Washington and join Vir ginia, and other State Commissioners, in bringing about a reconciliation, in order to save the Union. After a whole day's ses sion, without adjournment, they were passed, 31 to 11. The Republicans offered amend ments, but they were voted down. They afterwards published a pamphlet address, setting forth their total dissent from the reso lutions, and printed a minority protest to the propositions. They also resolved to send a counter-deputation to Washington, to repre sent their views. CHAPTER XYII. THE PRESIDENT-ELECT. HIS VIEWS AND WISHES. THE PRESI DENT IN FACT. HIS VIEWS AND PURPOSES. CORRESPONDENCE GROWING OUT OF COLONEL HAYNE'S MISSION. THE PEACE CONGRESS. RESPONSE OF THE STATES. The movements of the people, the views of Mr. Lincoln, the choice of the new Cabinet, all became matters of absorbing interest, dur ing the middle and latter part of January. They were the " straws," whose direction seemed to indicate the line of conduct which was to be pursued by the incoming power. Mr. Lincoln remained in Springfield during the entire month of January, receiving visit ors, office-seekers, agents of candidates for positions, &c, &c. ; while, not a few of the most eminent persons in the country ap proached him, either in person or by letter, in regard to the troubles distracting the na tion. To all he gave a patient and candid hearing. His good-nature seemed equal to his visitors' pertinacity, curiosity and solici tude, since all seemed to leave his audience pleased. As the hour for his instalment to office approached, the impression prevailed that his prudence and kindness would dic tate the true steps to pursue in the crisis. To stay secession, of course, was impossible, since, ere he could come into office, a South ern Confederacy would be formed and in ac tive operation. With no Army, no Navy, a depleted Treasury, a Government thoroughly demoralized by its late terrible mismanage ment, it did not appear possible for him to pursue any other course than that seemingly dictated by his circumstances — of forbearance toward the revolutionists and a peaceful pol icy looking to reconstruction. Yet, he gave very little indication of his line of conduct. His lips were not sealed, but they did not " blab the Statesman's secret ;" and, though the public daily expected some declaration from him, which should act as oil upon the 252 THE southern rebellion. troubled waters, no definite, or even indica tive, words were put forth by him, or by his authority. He was reticent to an extraordi nary degree. One of the numerous Mr. Lincoln at Home, visitors to the fireside of the President-elect, in the middle of January, gave the public the re sults of his inquisition. His experience was thus detailed : — * * * « The subject of conversation was. politics, and Mr. Lincoln expressed himself upon every topic which was brought up with entire freedom. He said, at one period in the conversation, ' he hoped gentlemen would bear in mind that he was not speaking as President, or for the President, but only ex ercising the privilege of talking, which be longed to him, in common with private citizens.' " I chose rather to be a listener than a talker, and paid careful attention both to Mr. Lincoln's matter and manner; and, al though he seemed to talk without regard to the fact of his being the President, yet it was discoverable that he chose his words and framed his sentences with deliberation, and with a discretion becoming his high position. " He was asked : ' Do you think the Mis souri Compromise line ought to be restored ?' He replied that although the recent Presi dential election was a verdict of the people in favor of Freedom upon all the Territories, yet personally he would be willing, for the sake of the Union, to divide the territory we now own by that line, if, in the judgment of the nation, it would save the Union and restore harmony. But whether the acquisition of territory here after would not reopen the question and re new the strife, was a question to be thought of, and, in some way, provided against. " He had been inquired of, whether he in tended to recommend the repeal of the Anti- Fugitive Slave laws of the States ?¦ He re plied that he had never read one of them, but that if they were of the character ascribed to them by Southern men, they certainly ought to be repealed. Whether as President of the United States he ought to interfere with State legislation by Presidential recommen dation, required more thought than he had yet given the subject. He had also been asked if he intended to interfere or recom mend an interference with Slavery, or the right of holding slaves in the dock-yards and arsenals of the United States ? His reply was: 'Indeed, Sir, the subject has not entered. my mind.'' He was inquired of whether he intended to recommend the abolition of Sla very in the District of Columbia ? to which he replied: 'Upon my word, I have not given the subject a thought.'1 A gentleman present said to him : ' Well, Mr. Lincoln, suppose these difficulties should not be settled before- you are inaugurated, what will you do ?' He replied with a smile : ' Well, I suppose I will have to run the machine as, I find it.' " In speaking on the subject of a compro mise, he said : ' It was sometimes better for a man to pay a debt he did not owe, or to lose a demand which was a just one, than to go to law about it ; but then, in compromising our difficulties, he would regret to see the victors put in the attitude of the vanquished, and the vanquished in the place of the victors.' He would not contribute to any such com promise as that. " It was discernible in the course of Mr. L.'s conversation that he fully appreciates the difficulties which threaten his incoming Administration ; also, that he regards him self as grossly misrepresented and misunder stood at the South; nor did he conceal what was manifestly an invincible conviction of his honest and intelligent mind, that if the South would only give him a fair trial they would find their constitutional rights as safe under his Administration as they had ever been under the administration of any Presi dent." It will be interesting to learn Mr. Buchanan's views at this time. His corres pondence with Col. Hayne— published in the Charleston papers of February 4th, and the Message to Congress, February 8th, enclosing? other and further correspondence with the Commissioners — give us a clear exposition of the President's policy, so far as he had a pol icy. The Message to Congress will be given in its proper order. From the correspondence given in the Charleston papers we may quote such portions as have become part of the his tory of the events regarding the mission of Mr. Buchanan's Views. IMPORTANT CORRESPONDENCE. 253 Colonel Hayne and the President's position thereon. The preliminary correspondence attending the affair of the Stew of the West has been given. [See pages 216-18]. The further communications, referring the matter to the President, and his Executive views, are. as follows : MAJOR ANDERSON TO GOV. PICKENS. " Headquarters, Fort Sumter, S. C, I "January 11, 1861. j "To his Excellency F. W. Pickens, Governor of South Carolina : "Sir: I have the honor to acknowledge the re ceipt of your demand for the surrender of this fort to the authorities of South Carolina, and to say, in reply, that the demand is one with which I cannot comply. Your Excellency knows that I have re cently sent a messenger to Washington, and that it will be impossible for me to receive an answer to my dispatches, forwarded by him, at an earlier date than next Monday.. What the character of my in structions may be, I cannot foresee. " Should your Excellency deem fit, prior to a re sort to arms, to refer this matter to Washington, it would afford me the sincereat pleasure to depute one of my officers to accompany any messenger you may deem proper to be the bearer of your demand. " Hoping to God that in this, and all other matters in -which the honor, welfare, and lives of our fellow countrymen are concerned, we shall so act as to meet His approval ; and, deeply regretting that yon have made a demand of me with which I cannot comply, " I have the honor to be, with the highest regard, " Your obedient servant, " ROBERT ANDERSON, "Major U. S. A., Commanding." governor pickens to the president. " State op South Carolina, Executive Office, Headquarters, Charleston, January 11, 1861. " Sir : At the time of the separation of South Carolina from the United States, Fort Sumter was, and still is, in the possession of troops of the United States, under the command of Major Anderson. I regard that possession as not consistent with the dignity or safety of the State of South Carolina ; and I have this day addressed to Major Anderson a com munication to obtain from him the possession of that fort by the authorities of this State. The reply of Major Anderson informs me that he has no authority to do what I required ; but he desires a reference of the demand to the President of the United States. " Under the circumstances now existing, and which need no comment by me, I have determined to send to you the Hon. I. W. Hayne, the Attorney- General of the State of South Carolina, and have in structed him to demand the delivery of Fort Sumter, in the harbor of Charleston, to the constituted au thorities of the State of South Carolina. , " The demand I have made of Major Anderson, and which I now make of you, is suggested because of my earnest desire to avoid the bloodshed which a persistence in your attempt to retain the possession of that fort will cause, and which will be unavailing to secure you that possession, but induce a calamity most deeply to be deplored. " If consequences so unhappy shall come, I will secure for this State, in the demand which I now make, the satisfaction of having exhausted every at tempt to avoid it. " In relation to the public property of the United States within Fort Sumter, the Hon. I. W. Hayne, who will hand you this communication, is authorized to give you the pledge of the State that the valua tion of such property will be accounted for by this State, upon the adjustment of its relations with the United States, of which it was a part. (Signed) " F. W. PICKENS. " To the President of the United States." the comissioner's instructions. " State of South Carolina, " Executive Office, State Department, Charleston, January 12, 1861. " Sir, — The Governor has considered it proper, in view of the grave questions which now affect the State of South Carolina and the United States, to make a demand upon the President of the United States for delivery to the State of South Carolina of Fort Sumter, now within the territorial limits of this State, and occupied by troops of the United States. " The Convention of the People of South Carolina, authorized and empowered its Commissioners to en ter into negotiations with the Government of the United States, for the delivery of forts, magazines, lighthouses, and other real estate, within the limits of South Carolina. ' ' The circumstances which caused the interrup tion of that negotiation are known to you ; with the formal notification of its cessation, was the urgent expression of the necessity for the withdrawal of the troops of the United States from the harbor of Charleston. " The interruption of these negotiations left all matters connected with Fort Sumter and troops of the United States, within the limits of this State, affected by the fact, that the continued possession of the fort was not consistent with the dignity or safety of the State, and that an attempt to reenforce 254 THE SOUTHERN REBELLION. The Commissioner's Instructions. the troops at that fort would not be allowed. This, therefore, became a state of hostility, in consequence of which the State of South Carolina was placed in a condition of defence. During the prepa ration for this purpose, an attempt was made to re enforce Fort Sumter and repelled. " You are now instructed to proceed to Washing ton, and there, in the name of the Government of the State of South Carolina, inquire of the President of the United States, whether it was by his order that troops of the United States were sent into the harbor of Charleston to reenforce Fort Sumter ; if he avows that order, you will then inquire, whether he asserts a right to introduce troops of the United States within the limits of this State, to occupy Fort Sumter ; and you will, in case of his avowal, inform him that neither will be permitted ; and ei ther will be regarded as his declaration of war against the State of South Carolina. " The Governor, to save life, and determined to omit no course of proceeding usual among civilized "fc. nations, previous to that condition of general hos tilities .which belongs to war; and not knowing un der what order, or by what authority Fort Sumter is now held, demanded from Major Robert Ander son, now in command of that fort, its delivery to the State. That officer, in his reply, has referred the Governor to the Government of the United States at Washington. You will, therefore, demand from the President of the United States the withdrawal of the troops of the United States from that fort, and its delivery to the State of South Carolina. " You are instructed not to allow any question of property claimed by the United States to embarrass the assertion of the political right of the State of South Carolina to the possession of Fort Sumter. The possession of that fort by the State is alone consistent with the dignity and safety of the State of South Carolina ; but such possession is not inconsist ent with a right to compensation in money in another Government, if it has against the State of South Carolina any just claim connected with that fort. But the possession of the fort cannot, in regard to the State of South Carolina, be compensated by any consideration of any kind from the Government of the United States, when the possession of it by the Government is invasive of the dignity and affects the safety of the State. That possession cannot be come now a matter of discussion or negotiation. You will, therefore, require from the President of the United States a positive and distinct answer to your demand for the delivery of the fort. And you are' further authorized to give the pledge of the State to adjust all matters which may be, and are, in their nature, susceptible of value in money, in the The Commissioner'! Instructions. manner most usnal, and upon the principles of equity and jus tice always recognized by in dependent nations, for the ascertainment of their relative rights and obligations in such matters. " You are further instructed to say to the Presi dent of the United States, that the Governor regards the attempt of the President of the United States if avowed, to continue the possession of Fort Sum ter, as inevitably leading to a bloody issue ; a ques tion which, in the judgment of the Governor, can "have but one conclusion reconcilable with a due regard to the State of South Carolina, the welfare of the other States which now constitute the United States, and that humanity which teaches all men, but particularly those who, in authority, control the lives of others to regard a resort to arms as the last which should be considered: " To shed their blood in defense of their rights is a duty which the citizens of the State of South Caro lina fully recognize. And in such a cause, the Gov ernor, while deploring the stern necessity which may compel him to call for the sacrifice, will feel that his obligation to preserve inviolate the sacred rights of the State of South Carolina justify the sac rifice necessary to secure that end. The Governor does not desire to remind the President of the re sponsibilities which are upon him. " Respectfully, " Your obedient servant, " A. G. MAGRATH. " To the Hon. I. W. Hayne, Special Envoy from the State of South Carolina to the President of the United States." Then followed, in the Charleston papers, letters from United States Senators Wigfall, Hemphill, Davis,' Slidell, Benjamin and oth ers, to the Hon. I. W. Hayne, requesting him to exert his influence to postpone an attack upon Fort Sumter. They also addressed a similar letter to the President, to which the following reply was made through the Secre tary of War, Joseph Holt: SECRETARY HOLT'S REPLY FOR THE PRESI DENT. " War Department, January 22, 1861. " To the Hon. Benjamin Filzpatrick, S. R. MaUory, and John Slidell: "Gentlemen: The President has received your communication of the 19th instant, with the copy of a correspondence between yourselves and others, 'representing States which have already seceded from the United States, or will have done so before the first of February next,' and Colonel Isaac W. I THE VIRGINIA PEACE CONGRESS 255 Secretary Holt's * Reply. Hayne, of South Carolina, in behalf of the Government of that State, in relation to Fort Sumter; and you ask the President to take into consideration the subject of that correspondence." With this request he has complied, and has directed me to communicate his answer. - " In your letter to Col. Hayne of the 15th inst., you propose to him to defer the delivery of a mes sage from the Governor of South Carolina to the President, with which he has been intrusted, for a few days, or until the President and Col. Hayne shall have considered the suggestions which you submit. It is unnecessary to refer speoially to these suggestions, because the letter addressed to you by Col. Hayne, of the 17th inst., presents a clear and specific answer to them. In this he says : ' I am not clothed with power to make the arrangement you suggest ; but provided you can get assurances, with which you are entirely satisfied, that no reenforce- ments will be sent to Fort Sumter in the interval, and that the public peace will not be disturbed by any act of hostility toward South Carolina, I will re fer your communication to the authorities of South Carolina, and, withholding the communication with which I am at present charged, will await further instructions.' " From the beginning of the present unhappy troubles, the President has endeavored to perform his executive duties in such a manner as to preserve the peace of the country, and to prevent bloodshed. This is still his fixed purpose. You, therefore, do him no more than justice in stating that you have assurances (from his public messages, I presume,) that, ' notwithstanding the circumstances under which Major Anderson left Fort Moultrie, and enter ed Fort Sumter with the forces under his command, it was not taken, and is not held with any hostile or unfriendly purpose toward your State, but merely as property of the United States, which the Presi dent deems it his duty to protect and preserve; you have correctly stated what the President deems to be his duty. His sole object now is, and has been, to act strictly on the defensive, and to authorize no movement against the people of South Carolina, un less clearly justified by a hostile movement on their part. He could not have given a better proof of his desire to prevent the effusion of blood, than by for bearing to resort to the use of force, under the strong provocation of an attack (happily without a fatal result) on an unarmed vessel bearing the flag of the United States. " I am happy to observe that, in your letter to Col. Hayne, you express the opinion, that it is ' es pecially due from South Carolina to our States, to say nothing of other Slaveholding States, that she should, as far as she can consistently with her honor, avoid initiating hostilities between her and the Uni ted States, or any other power.' To initiate such hostilities against Fort Sumter, would, beyond ques tion, be an act of war against the United States. " In regard to the proposition of Col. Hayne, ' that no reenforcements will be sent to Fort Sumter, in the interval, and that the public peace will not be disturbed by any act of hostility toward South Caro lina,' it is impossible for me to give you any such assurances. The President has no authority to en ter into such an agreement or understanding. As an executive officer, he is simply bound to protect the public property, so far as this may be practica ble ; and it would be a manifest violation of his duty, either for an indefinite or a limited period. At the present moment, it is not deemed necessary to re enforce Major Anderson, because he makes no such request, and feels quite secure in his position. — Should his safety, however, require reenforcements, every effort will be made to supply them. " In regard to an assurance from the President ' that the public peace will not be disturbed by any act of hostility toward South Carolina,' the answer will readily occur to yourselves. To Congress, and to Congress alone, belongs the power to make war, and it would be an act of usurpation for the Execu tive to give any assurance that Congress would not exercise this power, however strongly he may be convinced that no such intention exists. " I am glad to be assured, from the letter of Colo nel Hayne, that ' Major Anderson and his command do now obtain all necessary supplies, including fresh meat and vegetables, and, I believe, fuel and water from the city of Charleston, and do now enjoy communication, by post and special messenger, with the President, and will continue to do so, cer tainly, until the door to negotiation has been closed.' I trust that these facilities may still be afforded to Major Anderson. This is as it should be. Major Anderson is not menacing Charleston ; and I am convinced that the happiest result which can be at tained is, that both he and the authorities of South Carolina shall remain on their present amicable footing, neither party being bound by any obliga tions whatever, except the high Christian and moral duty to keep the peace, and avoid all causes of mu tual irritation. " Very respectfully, your obedient servant, "J. HOLT, " Secretary of War, ad interim." A dispatch from Springfield, dated Janu ary 27th, advised the country that Mr. Lincoln approved the design of the Virginia "Peace Congress." It said: — "Telegraphic advices 256 THE SOUTHERN REBELLION, have been received by Gov. Yates from the Governors of New York, Pennsylvania, and other Northern States, suggesting the pro priety of joining in a Convention, to be held at Washington in February, to devise proper remedies for the adjustment of the present difficulties. The appointment of five Com missioners from each State is recommended. Gov. Yates has finally decided to join in the movement. In this, it is supposed, he has acted upon the advice of Mr. Lincoln." The States, as stated, The Peace Congress, quite generally approved of the Virginia suggestions, and appointed Commissioners. The appoint ments made indicated that it would embody the most trusty and able men in each State, though, it is but stating a generally accepted opinion, little hopes were entertained of any thing being accomplished of a definitive or satisfactory nature. south Carolina's Re- South Carolina's response jection of Virginia's (January 28th), to the pro- 0frer- position of Virginia was so characteristic that we may give it at length : — " Resolved unanimously. That the General Assem bly of South Carolina tender to the Legislature of the State of Virginia their acknowledgments of the friendly motives which inspired the mission intrusted to the Hon. Judge Robertson, her Commissioner. Adopted unanimously. " Resolved unanimously, That candor, which is due to the long continued sympathy and respect which have subsisted between Virginia and South Carolina, induces this Assembly to declare with frankness, that they do not deem it advisable to initiate nego tiations when they have no desire or intention to promote the ultimate object in view — that object being, as declared in the resolution of the Virginia Legislature, the procurement of amendments or new guaranees.to the Constitution of the United States. Adopted unanimously. " Resolved unanimously, That the separation of South Carolina from the Federal Union is final, and she has no further interest in the Constitution of the United States, and that the only appropriate nego tiations between her and the Federal Government are as to their mutual relations as foreign States. Adopted unanimously. ' ' Resolved unanimously, That this Assembly further owe it to the friendly relations with the State of Virginia, to declare that they have no confidence in the Federal Government of the United States ; that the most solemn pledges of that Government have been disregarded ; that, under the pretence of pre serving property ,-hostile troops have been attempted to be introduced into one of the fortresses of this State, concealed in the hold of a vessel of commerce, with a view to subjugate the people of South Caro lina, and that ever since the authorities at Washing ton have been informed of the present mediation of Virginia, a vessel of war has been sent to the South, with troops and munitions of war concentrated on the soil of Virginia. Adopted unanimously. " Resolved unanimously, That in these circumstan ces this Assembly, with renewed assurance of cor dial respect and esteem for the people of Virginia, and high consideration for her Commissioner, decline entering into the negotiations proposed by both branches of the Virginia Legislature. Adopted unani mously." Much opposition was manifested, by some State Legislatures, in sending Commissioners to the Congress. The Massachusetts legisla tors were divided, two reports being submit ted — the majority approving, the minority disapproving, representation in the Congress. Ohio instructed its deputation to vote for a postponement of the Congress to April 4th. Illinois, although, as stated, she resolved to send delegates, did not do so until after seve ral days of wordy dissension. The opposition arose from a disinclination to prosecute com promise further, until after Mr. Lincoln's safe and peaceful inauguration. Her State pride was insulted to think that their fellow-citi zen, constitutionally elected, should be com pelled to submit to the indignities threatened. Governor Yates, as heartily as any one, wished for peace ; but he preferred that it should not be dictated in opprobrious terms, nor in a spirit of intimidation. Mr. Lincoln, it was said, advised the sending of Commis sioners, and they were sent. This advice did not commit him to compromise — he simply proved his willingness to have all means tried for effecting a settlement of National troubles. [See page 290.] CHAPTER XVIII. PROCEEDINGS OF CONGRESS CONTINUED. EIGHTH WEEK. IM PORTANT AND EXCITING WEEK. WITHDRAWAL SPEECHES OF JEFFERSON DAVIS, YULEE, CLAY, ETC. CORWIN'S SPEECH IN SUPPORT OF HIS REPORT. SPEECHES OF BIGLER, CLEMENS, ETHERIDGE, NELSON, RUST, GILMER, AND OTHERS. The Session of the Senate for the 8th week (January 21-26,) opened with speeches from the withdrawing Senators, viz: Yulee and Mallory, of Florida ; Clay and Fitzpat- rick, of Alabama ; and Davis, of Mississippi. Prior to this withdrawal, Mr. Hunter, of Vir ginia, asked to be excused from any further service on the Finance Committee, remarking that, in view of the withdrawal of Southern Senators, the majority would pass into the hands of their ¦ opponents ; he therefore thought justice to himself and to the Senate required that he should be permitted to re tire. His labors, as Chairman of that im portant Committee, had extended through a term of fifteen years. His ability, prudence and probity had rendered his country inval uable service. He was excused. Mr. Polk, (Dem.,) of Missouri, then pre sented a petition of citizens of his State, whose signatures filled fifteen quires of fools cap paper. The roll was wrapped in the American flag, inscribed, " Love to the North, South, East and West." The petitioners asked the passage of the Crittenden resolu tions. It was laii. on the table. Slidell, of Louisiana, moved that the Sen ate take up the message of the President in answer to his resolution in relation to his appointment of Acting Secretary of War. He also offered a resolution as follows : " Resolved, That in the opinion of the Senate, the reasons given by the President, in his message, for not communicating to the Senate at an early day the fact of his having appointed Joseph Holt Acting Sec retary of War. " Also resolved, That the grounds assumed by the President for making such an appointment during 33 the session of the Senate, are at variance with the whole spirit of the Constitution, and with the true intent and meaning of the act of 1795." The Seceding Senators then claimed the floor for their parting salutations. Yulee, of Florida, rose to say that, in view of authen tic information from his State, his colleague and himself deemed it proper to announce to the Senate that their con nection with this body had Yulee's Valedictory. come to an end. The State of Florida, in Convention duly assembled, has seen fit to recall the powers delegated to the Union, and to assume the responsibility of separate Government. He was sure the people of Florida would never be insensible to the blessings and advantages of the Union when directed to the purpose of establishing justice, and domestic tranquillity, and safety. They would also hold in grateful memory the earlier history of the Union. But, they had decided that their civil and social safety were jeoparded by a longer continuance in the Union. Recent events had impressed them with the belief that there is no safety except in withdrawal. They would remem ber always the large array of noble spirits at the North, and their efforts to uphold the right. With grateful emotions and acknow ledgements for the many courtesies he had enjoyed in this body, and with most cordial wishes, he retired fi om their midst in cheer ful, approving loyalty to his own State. Mallory, of the same State, followed. He regretted, more than words could tell, the course of events which had compelled the disseverance of the Union. But one course had been left for the injured States to pur- 258 THE SOUTHERN REBELLION. Mallory's Bene diction. sue — to withdraw from a Confederacy which had failed of its intent and great truths. He said : " Many difficulties will arise — among ' them, one whicli I am not ashamed to say I dread, that is civil war. But, whatever dan ger may come upon us, we are a united people. Yet I implore, I entreat, and pray you not to mistake the facts, and force us into war. The South will never submit to the last degradation of a constrained, exist ence under a violated Constitution. - We do not seek to conquer you, and we know you could never conquer us. But if, in a moment of pride and infatuation, you should imbrue your hands in our blood, there will be such a contest as was never seen before. In thus leaving the Senate to return to my own State, there to serve her with unfaltering head and heart, I am very happy to acknowledge ten thousand acts of courtesy and kindness which I have received from Senators on the opposite side, and which I shall remember through life, and to whom I am indebted for much which I shall not only cherish, but -recall with pleasure. And, Sir, in parting on this side from true and tried friends, the noble representatives of the free people of the North, who are true to themselves — the noble champions of truth and justice — it is not strange that we should feel, that whatever the future may have in store for us, it will be brightened by the recollection of the loyalty and many acts of friendship which have characterized our intercourse, and which, in my judgment, will bind them to us by ties of kindness for ever." Clay, of Alabama, then extended his ad vice to the Hall in the following terms : "I rise to announce,. for my Clay's Adieu. colleague and myself, that the people of Alabama have adopt ed an Ordinance of Separation, and that they are all in favor of withdrawing from the Union. I wish it to be understood that this is the act of the people of Alabama, in taking this momentous step. It is nearly forty-two years since Alabama came into this Union. She entered it amid violence and excite ment, caused by the hostility of the North against the institution of Slavery at the South. It is this same spirit of hostility at the North which has effect ed the secession of Mississippi, South Carolina, (reorgia, Florida, and Alabama. It has denied Christian communication, be cause it could not endure what Clay's Adieu. it styles the leprosy of Slavery. It refuses us permission to pass through the North with our property, in violation of the Constitution and the laws of Congress, designed to protect that prop erty. It has refused us any share in the lands ac quired mainly by our diplomacy, our blood, and our treasure. It has robbed us of our property, and re fused restoration. It has refused to deliver up cri minals against our laws, who fled to the North with our property, or with blood upon their hands, and it threatened us with punishment, and murdered Southern men who attempted the recovery of their property. It invaded the borders of Southern States, burned the dwellings and murdered the families. Habitual violators of the rights of humanity, they have exhausted all that human ingenuity can de vise, and all that diabolical malice can invent, to heap indignity upon us, and make us a by-word, a hissing, and a scorn throughout the civilized world. Tet we bore all'this for many years, and might have borne it many years longer, under the oft-repeated assurance and fondly cherished hope that these things were not the action and feeling of a majority, but a minority party. But the failure of these prom ises and our hopes have conclusively proved to us that there is no hope. The platform of the Repub lican party we regard as a declaration of war against the lives and institutions of the Southern people. It not only reproaches us as unchristian and heathen ish, and imputes to us a sin and crime, but adds words insulting and hostile to our dbmestic tran quillity. In its declaration that our negroes are en titled to liberty and equality with white men, it is in spirit, if not in fact, a strong incitement to insurrec tion, arson, murder, and other crimes. And, to ag gravate the insult, the same platform denies us equality with Northern white men or free negroes, and brands us as an inferior race. To cap the cli max of insult to our feelings, and this menace to our rights, this party nominated for the Presidency » man who not only indorsed the platform, and prom ised to enforce its principles, but disregards the judgments of your Courts, the obligations of your Constitution, and the requirements of his oath, by approving any bill to prohibit Slavery in the Territories of the United States. A large ma jority of the Northern people have declared their approval of the platform, and candidates of that party in the late election. It is the solemn verdict of the people of the North that the Slaveholding communities of the South are to be outlawed, and branded with ignominy, and consigned to execration and ultimate destruction. Sir, are we looked upon as more or less than men? Is it ex pected that we will or can exercise that u-od-Iike JEFFERSON DAVIS —y--^r* SPEECH \\^s. it sr> Bn %t™' Clay's Adieu. virtue that beareth all things, believeth all things, hopeth all things, ehdureth all things, which tells us to love our enemies, and bless them that curse us ? Are we expected to be denied the sensibilities, the sentiments, the passions, the reason, the instincts of men ? Have not we pride and honor? Have we no sense of shame, no reverence for our ancestors, and care for our posterity? Have we no love of home, of family, of friends? Must we confess our baseness, discredit the fame of our sires, dishonor ourselves, and degrade our posterity, abandon our homes, flee our country — all, all for the sake of Union? Must we agree to live under the ban of our own Government? Must we acquiesce in the inauguration of a President chosen by confederate but hostile States, whose po litical faith constrains him to deny us our constitu tional rights ? Must we consent to live under a Gov ernment which we believe will henceforth be admin istered by those who not only deny ns justice and equality, but brand us as inferiors? — whose avowed principles and policy must destroy our domestic tranquillity and imperil the lives of our wives and children, and ultimately destroy our States? Must we live by choice, or compulsion, under the rule of those who present us the alternative of an irrepressible con flict in defence of our altars and firesides, or the man umission of our slaves, and their admission to social equality ? No, sir, never, never ! The free men of Alabama have proclaimed to the world that they will not, and have proven their sincerity by seceding from the Union, and braving all the dangers of a separate and independent nation among the powers of the earth. As a true and loyal citizen of that State, approving other action, acknowledging entire allegiance, and feeling that I am absolved by her act from all my obligations to support the Constitu tion of the United States, I withdraw from this body, intending to return to the bosom of my mother, and share her fate, and maintain her fortunes." Mr. Fitzpatrick, of the same State, approved •the words and endorsed the sentiments of his colleague, and announced his withdrawal from the Senate. He was succeeded by Jefferson Davis, of Mississippi, whose remarks had excited some expectancy of bitterness. The report of his brief speech of defence, jus tification and adieu, read : " I rise for the purpose of announcing to the Senate that I have satisfactory evidence that the State of Mississippi, by solemn ordinance iu Convention assembled, has declared her separa tion from the United States. Under these circum stances, of course, my functions terminate here. It Jeff. Davis' Parting Salutation. has seemed to be proper that I should appear in the Senate and Davis's Adieu. announce that fact, and say something, though very little, upon it. The occa sion does not invite me to go into the argument, and my physical condition will not permit it ; yet something would seem to be necessary, on the part of the State I here represent, on an oc casion like this. It is known to Senators who have served here that I have for many years advocated, as an essential attribute of State sov ereignty, the right of a State to secede from the Union. If, therefore, I had not believed there was justifiable cause — if I had thought the State was acting without sufficient provocation — still, under my theory of government, I should have felt bound by her action. I, however, may say I think she had justifiable cause, and I approve of her acts. I con ferred with the people before that act was taken, and counseled them that if they' could not remain then they should take the step. I hope none will confound this expression of opinion with the advo cacy of the right of a State to remain in the Union, and disegard its constitutional obligations by nulli fication. Nullification and secession are indeed an tagonistic principles. Nullification is the remedy which is to be sought and applied, within the Union, against an agent of the United States, when the agent has violated constitutional obligations, and the State assumes for itself, and appeals to other States to support it. But when the States them selves, and the people of the States, have so acted as to convince us that they will not regard our con stitutional rights, then, and then for the first time, arises the question of secession, in its practical application. That great man who now reposes with his fathers, who has been so often arraigned for want of fealty to the Union, advocated the doctrine of nullification, because it preserved the Union. It was because of his deep-seated attachment to the Union that Mr. Calhoun advocated the doctrine of nullification, which he claimed would give peace within the limits of the Union, and not disturb it, and only be the means of bringing the agent before the proper tribunal of the States for judgment. Se cession belongs to a different class of rights, and is to be justified upon the basis that the States are sovereign. The time has been, and I hope the time will come again, when a better appreciation of our Union will prevent any one denying that each State is a sovereign in its own right. Therefore, I say 1 concur in the act of my State, and feel bound by it. It is by this confounding of nullification and seces sion that the name of another great man has been invoked to justify the coercion of a Seceding State. The phrase ' to execute the law,' as used by Gene ral Jackson, was applied to a State refusing to obey 260 THE SOUTHERN REBELLION. the laws and still remaining in Davis's Adieu. the Union. I remember well when Massachusetts was ar raigned before the Senate. The record of that oc casion will show that I said, if Massachusetts, in pursuing the line of duty, takes the last step which separates her from the Union, the right is hers, and I will neither vote one dollar nor one man to coerce her ; but I will say to her, " God speed! " "Mr. Davis then proceeded to argue that the equality spoken of in the Declaration of Indepen dence was the equality of a class in political rights, referring to a charge against George III. for inciting insurrection, as a proof that it had no reference to the slaves. But we have proclaimed our indepen dence. This is done with no hostility or any desire to injure any section of the country, nor even for our pecuniary benefit, but from the high and solid foundation of defending and protecting the rights we inherited, and transmitting them unshorn to our pos terity. I know I feel no hostility to yon Senators here, and am sure there is not one of you, whatever may have been the sharp discussion between us, to whom I cannot now say, in the presence of my God, I wish you well. And such is the feeling, I am sure, the people I represent feel toward those whom you represent. I, therefore, feel I but express their de sire when I say I hope, and they hope, for those peaceful relations with you, though we must part, that may be mutually beneficial to us in the future. There will be peace if you so will it, and you may bring disaster on every part of the country if you thus will have it. And if you will have it thus, we will invoke the God of our fathers, who delivered them from the paw of the lion, to protect us from the ravages of the bear ; and thus, putting our trust in God, and our own firm hearts and strong arms, we will vindicate and defend the rights we claim. In the course of my long career, I have met with a great variety of men here, and there have been points of collision between us. Whatever of offense there has been to me, I leave here. I carry no hostile feel ings away. Whatever of offense0! have given, which has not been redressed, I am willing to say to Sena tors, in this hour of parting, I offer you my apology for anything I may have done in the Senate, and I go thus released from obligations, remembering no injury I have received, and having discharged what I deem the duty of man, to offer the only reparation at this hour for every injury I have ever inflicted." The five Senators then rose to withdraw, when the Democratic members, and those from the still represented Slave States, arose to extend the hand of fellowship in parting. Messrs. Hale, of N. H., and Cameron, of Pa., were the only Republicans who volunteered their adieus. The Kansas Bill Passed. The Kansas bill was call ed up by Mr. Seward, and put upon its passage. After the adoption of the amendment of Fitch (Dem.,) of Indiana, in regard to a Judicial District, the bill for the admission of Kansas as a Free State, passed by the following vote: " Yeas — Messrs. Anthony, Baker, Bingham, Big. ler, Bright, Cameron, Chandler, Clark, Collamer, Crittenden, Dixon, Doolittle, Douglas, Durkee Fes- senden, Foot, Fitch, Foster, Grimes, Hale, Harlan, Johnson (Tenn.), King, Latham, Morrill, Pugh,, Rice, Seward, Simmons, Sumner, Ten Eyck, Thomson, Trumbull, Wade, Wilkinson, Wilson — 36. "Nays — Messrs. Bayard, Benjamin, Clingman, Green, Hemphill, Hunter, Iverson, Johnson (Ark.), Kennedy, Mason, Nicholson, Polk, Powell, Sebas tian, Slidell, Wigfall— 16. The Crittenden (revised) resolutions were then called Bigier's Speech. up by Mr. Bigler, who pro ceeded to address the Senate at length, urg ing their adoption as the only balm for the sore distemper of the times. He held that it was the right of the people to amend or alter the provisions of the Constitution. He forci bly adverted to the history of the country, which, from thirteen small States, by Union, had risen to its present proud position of greatness. He reviewed the danger in which it now stands of disruption and ruin, and to the events that have added exasperation to exasperation in both sections, and until the South has come to the belief that its only safety lies in eternal separation. He then referred to the compromise of 1820, which gave peace to the country till 1850, when an other compromise was effected. Then the Anti-Slavery party sprung up and our trou bles began. The raid of John Brown upon Virginia, the endorsement of the Helper book, the doctrine of the "irrepressible conflict," and abuse of the Southern people followed, until at last a President was elected who af firmed and proclaimed these doctrines. Now South Carolina, Mississippi, Alabama, Geor gia, and Florida have seceded from the Union. Such is the distracted condition of the coun try, and our mission now should be to restore peace — such a peace as would send the old spirit and vitality into all the channels of commerce and society. The gentleman earn estly argued the necessity, as well as great propriety, of a Convention of the people to CAMERON CATECHISED 261 consider amendments to the Constitution. He urged Senators on the other side to con sider the necessity of passing these or similar resolutions. In reply to arguments against the resolutions, he would say that these are extraordinary times, and demand extraordin ary measures. He earnestly appealed to the Southern States to pause and consider if they could not obtain their rights in the Union. He claimed that the Territories ought to be opened to all the people of all the States. The country must maintain the Constitution, and accept the meaning of the tribunal who has the right to expound it. It was a fatal day for the country when a sectional party was formed. Disguise it as we may, the Repub lican party has for its basis Hostility to Sla very. One of the great difficulties is the abuse and insult heaped on the Southern peo ple. They declared war against secession, and yet believed redress for the alleged griev ances should be sought at the hands of all the people. He believed the laws should be maintained on this point. He agreed with the Senator from Illinois (Douglas), yet how could we coerce a State ? It would be war against fifteen States. Coercion was delusion. He referred to the troubles which fall mostly on the Border States, and closed by express ing fidelity to his own State, whose sentiments he claimed to represent. Cameron, of Pennsyl- Cameron Catechised, vania, followed in a few remarks, to say that it was the other side of the Senate which would not accept the olive branch held out to them. He would vote for the propositions — would do anything to save the Union. Being cate chised by Green, of Mo., and Iverson, of Geo., Mr. Cameron said he approved of the propositions so far as to be willing to vote for them, and asked the Southern members to do the same. His views of coercion were expressed by saying it was a bad remedy — that he did not know if, indeed, he should ever resort to it — certainly it was the last re medy he should adopt. Mason, of Virginia, referred to the fact that the Senator had voted against the Crit tenden resolutions, and for the amendment of the Senator from New Hampshire (Mr. Clark), and that the Senator from Ohio (Mr. Wade) presented resolutions of his State., one of which was against the Personal Liberty bills, while the House of Representa tives of Ohio refused to repeal one such law. He wanted to show to the people of his State and the country the difference between pro fession and practice here. Mr. Cameron said the Senator from Vir ginia seemed to be anxious for the excuse to leave the Union. He (Cameron) had voted as he did, because he saw no disposition to compromise on the other side, unless he went on bended knees and asked forgiveness. He should ask no forgiveness, because he had done no wrong, but still he was willing to forgive the backslidings of the South, and do all he could to preserve the Union. But he was not to be dragooned or driven. He was the peer and equal of the Senator from Virginia. Mr. Mason said he was unconscious of having said anything to arouse the wrath of the Senator from Pennsylvania. He (Mason) did not want an excuse for leaving the Union. If he wanted any excuse it was to know how to remain in the Union. He had seen to-day six Senators taking formal leave of the Senate, and he knew the Union was dissolved, abso lutely dissolved. Senators may not recog nize the dissolution, but that will not alter the fact. States are gone, and the chairs of their Senators are vacant. What is the rem edy ? Coercion ! Would you use the discip line the pedagogue inflicts on an urchin at school ? The Constitution was against coer cion, and humanity and the civilized world were against it. We cannot make war unless we change the laws, and we cannot change the laws unless we violate the Constitution. But the question of peace or war was in the hands of the majority. The South deplored war because of the consequences, not from fear ; and if it were forced on them it would be such a war as the world had never seen. The only excuse he wanted was to remain in the Union, and would to God the Senator from Pennsylvania would give him such excuse ! Mr. Cameron said he had not heard of any threats of war, but if it must come Penn sylvania was ready to meet it. The people of his State were ready to do anything hon orable to save the Union — were willing to 262 THE SOUTHERN REBELLION. yield their prejudices. The North has com mitted no aggression, no wrong, and you can't drive them by bullying them. If you want the Union preserved, let us know what, wrong we have committed, and we will redress it. Mr. Saulsbury, of Del., looked at the re marks of the Senator from Pennsylvania as an omen of good. He believed the Senator was sincere ; and though four or five States have gone, if his side will meet the Senator in the same spirit, the Union will still remain. He invoked the Senators to imitate the spirit of the Senator from Pennsylvania. Mr. Crittenden urged action on this im portant measure, and spoke against any post ponement. He expressed the hope that the Union might remain a long time yet, and the States be reunited. The Senate adjourned without a vote. In the House, Monday, (January 21,) was an eventful day. Lovejoy, of 111., presented a memorial from certain Methodist clergy men, of Illinois. Burnett, of Ky., objected to its reception in a tone of great insolence, saying, "Let the preachers attend to their own business." He thought Congress was capa ble of managing its legislation without their aid. Lovejoy remarked, with a tone of keen sarcasm, that the memorial only asked that clergymen should be protected in attending to their own business. One Methodist preacher had been hanged in Texas, simply for attending to his own business. It was to be permitted to attend to their own business that they had been constrained to memorial ize this Congress, which was so capable of managing its own business. The memorial, under the objection, was laid on the table. Its introduction served to illustrate the hate ful feelings which the Southern Secession members entertained for all "Northern emis saries." The incident referred to by Mr. Lovejoy, of a Methodist minister having been hung, simply for declaring Slavery a sin in the sight of God, was only one of several ex ecutions which, ere long, followed, in Texas, for the same cause. The Alabama Represen tatives announced their withdrawal, in the follow- lowing communication, which was read by the Clerk : Withdrawal of Ala- bamiaos. " Washington Cirr, Jan. 21, 1861, " To the Han. Wm. Pennington, Speaker of the House of Representatives : " Sir : Having received information that the State of Alabama, through a Convention representing hei sovereignty, have adopted and ratified an ordinance by which she withdraws from the Union of the United States of America, and resumes the powers heretofore delegated to the Federal Government, it is proper that we should communicate the same to you, and through you to the House of Representa tives over which you preside, and announce our withdrawal from the further deliberations of that body. The causes which, in the judgment of our State, rendered such action necessary, we need not relate. It is sufficient to say that duty requires our obedience to her sovereign will, and that we shall return to onr homes, sustain her action, and share the fortunes of our people. " We have the honor to be, very respectfully your obedient servants, (Signed) GEORGE S. HOUSTON, SUYDENHAM MOORE, DAVID CLOPTON, JAMES S. PCGH, J. L. M. CURRY, JAMES A. STALLWORTH." Schuyler Colfax, (Rep.,) of Ind., introduced the following bill in regard to mail service in the revolutionary States : — " Whereas, In several of the States of this Union the Judges, District Attorneys, and Marshals com missioned by the United States for said States, have resigned their offices, and it appears impracticable, in consequence of the revolutionary proceedings therein to fill the vacancies thus created ; and, " Whereas, The Government of the United States is thus without any means of collecting or enforcing in such States the payment of the postal revenues from the offices collecting the same, or of punishing violations of the postal laws committed by robbe ries of the mail or otherwise, or of enforcing the per formance of mail contracts : •* Therefore, Be a enacted, < tc. , That in all States which are, or may hereafter be situated as above, the Postmaster-General is hereby directed to discontinue the postal service for such period of time as in his judgment the public interests require, and shall re port his action to Congress." This was, after some questioning- by Branch, of N. C, referred to the Post-office Committee. Mr. English, (Dem.,) of Indiana, introduced a preamble setting forth, that. in the alarming condition of the country, mere differences of opinion should be discarded, and all sectional =J MR. CORWIN SPEECH. 263 differences removed ; and believing the Crit tenden plan of adjustment is an acceptable and honorable compromise, involving no sac rifice ; therefore, " Resolved, That the Select Committee of Thirty- three be instructed, without delay, to take the ne cessary measures to carry it into practical effect." To get this before the House he moved a suspension of the rules. Lost, by 67 to 92. Mr. English, with some feeling, called the at tention of the country to the fact that the Republicans would not allow a vote on a plan promising peace. On motion of Mr. Morris, (Dem.,) of 111., the Committee on Judiciary was instructed to inquire into the propriety of amending the neutrality laws so as to prevent persons of one State from fitting out military expe ditions to aid persons in States which have declared themselves out of the Union, and occupy a position outside of the rightful au thority and laws of the United States. Mr. Vandever, (Rep.,) of Iowa, asked leave to offer resolutions declaring that the Fede ral Government has no power to interfere with Slavery in the States; that whatever may be the power of the Government rela tive to Slavery in the Territories, &c, it is no ground for a dissolution of the Union ; that it is not expedient to amend the Consti tution at this time. A government without power to maintain itself is not worthy to be preserved. He withdrew the resolutions, in view of the consideration of the report of the Committee of Thirty-three. Members on the Democratic side wished a vote and objected to their withdrawal. The House then proceeded to the consi deration of the Majority Report of the Com mittee of Thirty-three, when Mr. Corwin, Chairman of the Committee, proceeded .to address the House in advocacy of the adop tion of the Report. He had served in the House thirty years ago, and then was called upon to consider a question analogous to that now presented, of the power of a State to sit in judgment on acts of Congress, and to withdraw from the Federal Union. He little dreamed that at the close of his public career he should be called upon to legislate on a revolution created by the same State upon the same assumption. In considering the question whether the Government had any legis- corwin's Speech. lative power, as it was sup posed it had, to coerce a portion of this great national combination to obey the laws of the Government, of the United States, he would, so far as he could, look into the matter as a question of constitutional law. He thought gentlemen on both sides had misunderstood the facts bearing on the question, and the meaning of the word coercion, as applied to the Government. Again, they were mistaken in the supposition that all the laws that might be considered fatal to the existence of the Republic of the United States, as now con stituted, might not be enforced without any attempt whatever at coercing any State taking this or t^iat^ position. If it were true that a State might withdraw itself from all connec tion with its fellow States of the Union, it did not follow that if a State did not choose to avail itself of the benefits conferred by the Union and the laws, that each law vital to the existence of the Union may not be en forced without disturbing the peace of that State. That is, if a State ever did withdraw, all the laws might be enforced without dis turbing her political relations to the general Union ; and if a State should secede, whether it did so under the specious garb of State Sovereignty or not, he was unable to see how it was that any distinct number of men, com bined to give force and countenance to the existence of the laws of the United States, could pass laws to make any difference in the measure of the offense, if it be an offense, de nominated treason. The facts which kad come to his knowledge of the course taken had been fully submitted to the Committee. Now, it was supposed that the causes of the complaint which had led to this strange and eccentric movement of the Southern States either had no foundation in fact, or, if they had, these causes of complaint could be re moved, and the people might hope that the public tranquillity would be restored. That brought him to the consideration of one or two topics which ho would briefly present. He then adverted to those acts and rela tions of the Northern States to which the Southern States took exception and offered as a justification of their revolutionary steps 264 THE SOUTHERN REBELLION, to dissolve all political con- Corwin's Speech. nection with the Free States. If a State passed a law un constitutional in character, was the proper ju dicature to determine the character of that law placed in a sovereign State 3 If that were so, a State would have the right to absolve it self from all allegiance, and absolve its citi zens from allegiance to the Government of the United States. Undeniably, if this were the case, if this was sufficient cause for break ing up the Union, they might have a thou sand reasons with as much propriety for breaking up and dissolving the Union as now. The judicial reports of the Courts over all the country were full of decisions which had de clared that such and such a law of the United States was unconstitutional, and that such and such a law was null and void. It was to meet such cases that the correct ing tribunal of the United States Supreme Court was established. It was the arbiter and judge, and all State laws declared by it to be unconstitutional were, by the nature of. the powers vested in that Court, null and void. It, therefore, was the judge of the pro priety of Congressional and State enactments — not the States themselves. The law for the recapture and surrender of fugitive slaves was passed in 1850, and was sustained by the opinion of the Supreme Court of the United States, and the State Courts had no more to do with it than they had with the act of 1793. The deduction, as a legal consequence inevitable, that the Supreme Court of the United States, if it deem the law of 1850, or the law of 1790, as amended by that of 1850, as within the Constitution and province of Congress, it must follow that it will execute that law ; and therefore every law coming in contact with any portion of the constitutional law, interposing aught to its execution, must be deemed by them totally void and of no effect. When he asserted this he presumed no man, whether a lawyer or a layman, would disagree with him. If, then, any of those laws passed in the North, entered into con flict with the laws of the United States which were declared to be constitutional by the courts of the Federal Government, they were simply null and of no possible effect. The Committee had been anxious, however, to Corwin's Speech. find out what injury had, actually, resulted to the ag grieved States from the Per sonal Liberty laws and the Fugitive Slave law's non-execution in consequence of these State acts. This led him to consider the question of property. He looked upon that as property which, owing a man labor, could be converted into value in goods or money. That he called property. He did not mean to say that man had property in man, but there was a relationship existing between a slave and his owner, which was recognized by the Consti tution of the United States, in this, to wit — that every State recognizes the right of a master to establish his claim to his runaway slave. That relationship which existed be tween a man who owns labor and him to whom it was due was called Slavery. He believed that the word "slave" had been strangely perverted from its original meaning.- The word "slave" was formerly applied to white men — the blue-eyed, fair-skinned man — the slaves who had raised the great Rus sian empire to its present stupendous and; brilliant height. He confessed, therefore, that in law a slave was property, and the Fugitive Slave law having been passed by the highest judicial authority, must be ac knowledged by States, and must be strictly enforced so long as it was the law. It was futile for any State Legislature to lift its puny arm against the strong, gigantic arm of the glorious Constitution, which declares that all its laws, made in pursuance of that instru ment, must be regarded as paramount to all State laws and State Constitutions. The speaker then adverted to the freedom of the press, and, though he might be called an " Old Federalist" for his opinion, he be lieved that every society had the right to pro tect its own interests and welfare, when those interests became menaced by danger. He wished to say that every man who had any thing to do with the concerns of the Govern ment, whether he be a newspaper editor, or other individual, who goes abroad through the States, circulating publications, with in tent to excite domestic insurrections, should be seized and punished ; and it was in the power of every State Government to punish, that intent according to the constitutional, MR. MILL SON'S, SPEECH, 265 definition of treason. He Corwin's Speech. was the last man in the world who would interfere with the institution of the Press; but the man who went about the country circulating docu ments, with intent of exciting domestic insur rection against the law — any man who would thus raise his suicidal arm against the South ern bosom, and raise his fratricidal arm against his brother's heart — he would have him duly and commensurately punished. As to the policy and spirit of the Republi can party, the South had made a great bug bear, without just cause or propriety. It had been sedulously and zealously attempted, by a certain set of politicians, to induce the people of the South to believe that the party, when it should have attained command of Congress — when it should have command of the Executive and the Judiciary, that one of its first acts would be, by some means never explained, to seize the power of the Federal Government, and then, interfering with the Slave States, seize and deprive you of your property. The newspapers of the South had zealously fostered this idea, and kept the Southern mind excited upon this bugbear of the predominancy of Black Re publicanism — not from anything that the party had ever avowed — not from any prin ciples ever put forth by them, but from the ravings of the Abolition party, greatly mag nified. The Constitution of the United States , gave to Congress and the President no more power over Slavery in the States where it exists than it gave them power to regulate over the people of England, the affairs of Ireland or Scotland. This they had not the power to do, nor could it be for a moment supposed that they would attempt to over leap all constitutional bounds. If any of the States should continue in their secession, from such vain and improbable causes as these, it was plain and obvious that the fu ture historian, looking at the events of these times, would come to the conclusion that the great experiment which this continent was intended to demonstrate, that man was ca pable of self-government, had entirely failed — that it failed from the insanity of the people, exhibited in this question now before the country. He, at some length, proceeded 34 to show how impossible it was for the Freesoil party Corwin's Speech. to obtain the requisite two- thirds majority, in both Houses, to subvert the institutions of the South, even if such a mad and irrational desire should exist in the future— for exist now it did not. Their rights in their slaves were safe, nor would 'they ever be infringed by the North. The clamor of rights in the Territories he would settle by giving the South, for its " pe culiar institution," all the territory South of the meridian 36 deg. 30 min. But, what did the Slaveowners want of more territory? They had not slave labor enough at the pre sent moment to develop the resources of their own States. There were three hundred mil lions of acres in Texas on which cotton could be cultivated, and he was told that one good hand was equal to the production of five bales of cotton. Calculations would show that in stead of wanting room for expansion, instead of choking- for breathing room, they had as much productive soil within their own States as would give employment to forty-five mil lions of negroes, and their whole negro popu lation was only four millions. He closed by repeating that the North had no desire to interfere with Slavery in the States, and any guarantees to further assure them of that fact it was ready to grant. He hoped to see this mighty Republic bound to gether by closer ties in the future than any that had yet bound them in the past. Mr. Millson, (Dem.,) of Virginia, followed, repre- unison's Speech. senting one of the Minority Reports submitted from the Committee. He spoke of the priceless nature of the Union, and considered one of the worst signs of the times to be the levity with which Disunion was regarded. He did not expect statesmen of the present day to attain to the wisdom of the authors of the Constitution, but he did expect that they would at least aspire to the capacity of comprehending the results which must follow from their action at this time. He had been asked, shall Virginia submit to Lincoln ? Certainly I What though the peo ple of Virginia gave their vote against Lin coln ; what though Virginia, through her Representatives here, may give her vote 266 THE SOUTHERN REBELLION. against the passage of a law Milison's Speech. enacted by Congress, it is still Virginia that says the laws shall be obeyed. It is still Virginia that says her will is potential, and that whoever re ceives a majority of therElectoral votes shall be the President. Submitting to Lincoln is but submitting to the sovereign will of Vir ginia. He had seen no other cause assigned for secession than the passage of Personal Liberty bills. He stood there a States' rights man of the strictest sect, and regarded the Constitu tion as a compact between States. He even believed that a violation of the Constitution, by some of the parties to it, justified the other parties in refusing to comply with its remain ing obligations ; but, he denied that the Le gislature of a State was one of the parties to the compact; and if the assumption of uncon stitutional power on the part of a Legislature was to be regarded as an infraction of the Constitution, discharging any of the parties from their reciprocal obligations, then the like assumption of unconstitutional power by a President, a Governor, a State or Federal Judge, a Postmaster, or a Collector of Cus toms, should also be so regarded. But when the people, after remonstrance, sanctioned the unconstitutional act of their Legislature, that made it an infraction of the compact, and it was then the privilege, not the duty, of any other State to avail herself of that broken faith. It could not be considered her duty to do so, for then Massachusetts might be compelled to secede because Connecticut passed a Personal Liberty bill. He held that among the most valuable State rights belong ing to Virginia, were those which belonged to her as a member of the Union. She was not bound to choose the alternative of sub mitting to Personal Liberty bills or breaking up the Union. He would refuse to submit to unconstitutional law, and he would not throw away his precious stake in the Union either. He did not see anything in the pas sage of Personal Liberty bills which justified the dissolution of the Union, particularly as evidence had been given by Northern Legis latures of a purpose to repeal such laws. The Territorial rights question he disposed of in a brief but effective manner. It seem ed he said, to be strangely overlooked that the Territorial question was already settled — settled by Milison's Speech the existing law of the land — settled by the Constitution — settled by the Supreme Court — and settled, too, in favor of the South 1 He, therefore, saw nothing which would justify them in abandoning their pre sent securities, and rushing hastily into dis union. Neophytes in States Rights' views addressed him, veteran States-Rights' men, with the argument that they must vindicate the rights of the States. What were they ? It would seem that some gentlemen supposed there were no other rights of a State than those which involved her destruction — the right to sacrifice her interest, the right to lay heavy burdens on her people, the right to ex pose herself to extreme peril, the right to throw away all her rights. He would defend all those rights of his State if she chose to exercise them. He would defend her right to commit suicide if she was tired of pros perity, and renown, and life itself. But the rights of Virginia, which he was most eager to maintain, were those connected with the welfare of her safety, her commerce, her in dustry, her peace, her consideration at home and abroad, the comfort and happiness and lives of her citizens — in short, all those ines timable blessings and benefits which the Con stitution secured her, and of which she was now or had lately been in the actual enjoy ment. These were the rights of his State which he would have her maintain against all comers. These were the rights which some men wanted her to throw away, only to show her right to do so. Mr. Millson regretted that he could not share in Mr. Corwin's conclusions respecting future aggressions. He could not conscien tiously accept the declarations of his political opponents against aggressions, present and prospective, and preferred that the Constitu tion should have such an interpretation given it as would forbid any future misconstruc tions. The men of the South required no new guarantees for their States— required no sur render either of consistency, or power, or ad vantages, on the part of the Northern States. The Territorial constitutional law had been settled by the decision of the Supreme Court. Upon that decision they rested, and upon it MILLSON'S SPEECH, 267 they relied for the whole Milison's Speech. settlement of that question. He referred with great logical force to the secession of the State of South Carolina as an impossibility. She had not withdrawn from Congress, for she never had been a member of Congress. She had not dissolved her connection with the Federal Government, for she never was a part of the Federal Government. The peo ple only were represented in Congress — the people only were a part of the Federal Government — they had ordained the Con federacy, they had accepted the Constitu tion, and not the State ; and they alone, in National Convention represented, could adju dicate upon the question — South Carolina must withdraw from them. They had no offi cial information that South Carolina had withdrawn from the Union, but yet they had such accumulated knowledge of the fact that they must act in the matter as if they knew officially that she had withdrawn. But hav ing withdrawn, she must not be coerced. While he had no sympathy with the mode adopted by South Carolina for leaving the Union, while he had little sympathy with her with reference to the cause of her seceding from the Union, while he thought he saw that there was a purpose in her so acting, so that she might compel the other States to give a reluctant acquiescence in her course; yet not only for the sake of South Carolina, not only for the sake of the other States, but for his own State, which desired to remain in the Union, he protested against the applica tion of coercion in any form for the purpose of subjecting a State. No ; call a Conven tion of the States ; submit the question to them. Let the States meet on equal terms, as when they formed the present Constitution, and let them determine what shall be done in this grave emergency. He again adverted to the necessity for such constitu1 ional amendments as would put the Southern mind at rest. Beyond the present the Republicans of to-day could not answer — they could not answer for their successors ; and, therefore, there should be some definite, satisfactory adjustment of the controversy. He did not see that the Constitution should be altered, for he maintained that what was asked now was already in the Constitution ; but they Milison's Speech. wanted some stipulation made to end forever the controversy. They did not ask this as suppliants. There was no thing practical to contend for. If the North did not want Slavery in the Territories it was not there, and could^ not be got there. No Southern man would bring his slaves into Territory either south or north of New Mexico. But no one could tell what would be the temper and spirit of the majority in some future time. They might exercise their power insultingly, for the purpose of tramp ling on the sensibilities of the Southern people. The South had a right to be pro tected against that danger. He could not conceive what just ground could be urged against the insertion of such plain stipulations in the Constitution as would forever put to rest this agitated question. Who could penetrate the dismal future? Whether this great Government was to be preserved or destroyed — whether this Union was to be maintained or dissolved — whether Peace was again to spread her wings over the nation, or whether it was to be exposed to all the horrors of a desolating civil war, he could not divine. He knew how strong were the inducements to peace. He knew that the interests of the North, as well as of the South, demanded peace, continued peace. Even if the Government was to be over thrown and the Union dissolved, there might be a General Convention of the States, and if they could not live peaceably together they might determine peaceably to separate. He looked upon the waging of war, not only as a violation of the Constitution, but as a crime against humanity. Still, there might be war. He feared there would be war. A mortal man rarely died without strong con vulsions and paroxysms, and it was not to be supposed that a first-class power of the earth — a Republic of thirty millions — would exhale its breath classically and tranquilly. But, though his fears were active, he did not per mit himself altogether to despond. The Union might yet be reconstructed and preserved, and the historian, in referring to this crisis in our national history, might date from this point the time when the 268 THE SOUTHERN REBELLION, Bill to Abolish Mails in the South Republic really began its career of greatness and glory. This eminently candid and conservative speech greatly exercised the Southern side of the House. In it they beheld their schemes daguerreotyped but too clearly, and felt its force all the more keenly, because coming from a Southern man, true to Southern in terests. In the House, Tuesday, Harris, of Mary land, gave notice that he would move the resolutions of the Border State Committee as an amendment to the propositions reported from the Committee of Thirty-three. He then presented memorials from seventeen thousand citizens of Maryland, representing every district and county in the State, in favor of the adoption of the Border reso lutions. Mr. Colfax, from the Post-office Committee, reported back the bill to abolish the mail service in the Seceded States [see page 262.] He said, in extenuation of this action, that he would not have intro duced the bill if the Fede ral Courts had remained intact. But now persons may open the mails and rifle them, and there is no means by which they may be brought to justice. If the Postmaster refuses to pay the drafts given to contractors, the latter can hold Congress responsible. Therefore, it became the imper ative duty of the Government to discontinue the postal service where there is no means of protecting it. Mr. Branch, (Dem.) of North Carolina, desired to offer a substitute, covering more ground than was proposed by the bill before the House. The President has communicated to Congress that, owing to the existing condi tion of affairs, the laws cannot.be enforced in South Carolina. That message was now be fore the Select Committee. Mr. Branch's substitute was then read, namely : " To the end of removing all causes for using force and to prevent the breaking out of civil war, pending the deliberations of Congress in the existing crisis of public affairs, all laws of the United States be and they are hereby sus pended until the 1st of January, 1862, in and over those States which have heretofore or may previous to said time, adopt Ordinances 1 of Secession. Mr. Colfax could not accept the substitute. Mr. Dawes, (Rep.,) of Massachu-' setts, inquired whether it was his (Colfax's) in tention to move the passage of the bill under the operation of the previous question. Mr Colfax replied in the affirmative. Mr. Dawes thought that the bill was of too much import ance to be thus forced through the Housed Mr. John Cochrane, (Dem.,) of New York, raised the question as to whether the laws could thus be constitutionally suspended. This was a grave inquiry. Was this, as Mr. Colfax stated, a measure of peace or the piece of a measure ? [Laughter.] Mr. Col fax repeated that in view of the existing rev olution the Postal laws could not be execu ted. No coercion was proposed. Mr. Stevens, (Rep.,) of Pennsylvania, pro posed a substitute, authorizing and em powering the President, when he shall deem it necessary, to suspend all laws and parts of laws establishing ports of entry and collection districts in South Carolina, Florida, Alabama, Mississippi, or any other State that has now or may hereafter se cede, of be in rebellion against the United States, and to continue such suspension. until such States shall return to their loy alty to the United States. The President shall give notice of such suspension by procla mation, and such suspension shall commence ten days thereafter. During the suspension it shall not be lawful for any vessel, except such as belong to the United States, to enter or leave any such ports of the United States for foreign ports or coastwise. If any vessel shall be found violating the provisions of this act, such vessel or cargo shall be forfeited, one-half to the captors and the other half to the United States, and those on board any such captured vessel shall be tried before any Admiralty Court having jurisdiction. The President shall also have power to suspend all laws establishing Post-offices and Post- routes in any of the Seceding States, and the mails shall be carried only to the lines of such States, except where it is necessary to pass through them to reach a loyal State. The mails shall not be opened in a rebellious State. And it is further provided, that the President have power to use the Army and Navy for the execution of the laws. BINGHAM AND CLEMENS' SPEECHES. 269 The consideration of the bill was finally postponed to Thursday, January 31st. The House revived the consideration of the report of the Committee of Thirty-three. Mr. Bingham, (Rep.), of Bingham's Speech. Ohio, took the floor, to raise his voice against tam pering with the Constitution, pr resorting to a temporising policy. He would not with hold his support from any just legislation which looks to the supremacy of the laws; but it would be in vain to endeavor to save the Constitution by the sacrifice of the prin ciples which underlie and constitute its vital ity. He, with millions, stood by the Consti tution as it is, with its blessed enjoyment of the present and the cherished hopes of the future. With uplifted hand, he stood there to deny that any State .can by any appliance rightfully, separate one section of the country from the rest, or sever the various ties which bind together the Republic. We have one Constitution, and he denied that any State can strike down the unity of the Government which constitutes us one people. He denied, in the name of the American people, that any State can let loose the demon of discord to breathe dismay and death, and pollute our hearths and homes with fratricidal blood. In view of the seizures of the forts and arse nals, and other lawless measures, it is the duty of Congress to strengthen the Executive arm to enable him to summon the people to the vindication of the outraged Constitution and the laws. He refuted the idea of a constitutional right of secession, and scouted the assump tion that peaceful disunion was possible. It could not be peaceful when it sought to blot, at one stroke, a mighty nation from its place in the category of governments. As well talk of a peaceful earthquake which envelops cities in one common disaster — as well tell of a peaceful tempest, which fills the heavens with darkness, desolation, and death. He concluded by arguing that States had no right to secede. They possess no inherent rights at all. The people have no cause of grievance which justifies revolution, and otherthrows the Constitution and supreme law of the land. Our duty is not to amenij, but to maintain and uphold the Constitution, and on this basis he would stand. He opposed the mea sures recommended by a majority of the Com mittee. He would not vote for the admission into the Union of New Mexico, until she re peals the unjust Slave code which would bring a blush to the cheek of Caligula. He would not aid in making this a Slave Gov ernment. He wished to punish treason and recapture the forts and other public property. He appealed to the people to uphold the Constitution. His speech was a bold and se vere attack upon Mr. Corwin's Report, and aimed to draw the lines closely around those Republicans who still hoped and labored for compromise. . He was succeeded by Sherrard Clemens, (Dem.), **""£%£""* of Virginia — one of the few who, seeing Virginia's danger, had the courage and the patriotism to speak for her salvation. After a long illness, he thanked God that, in renewed health, he could serve his constitu ents when his services were most needed. He would speak from his heart; not in passion, but in truth, as befitted the solemnity of the hour and the magnitude of the issue. Great events hurried by with unflagging steps. Did they portend the death of the Republic ? He would not utter one word to hasten the dan ger, but would, as a Southern man, represent ing Southern interests, only study how to avert the impending ruin. He would speak as a Western Virginian, and as the custodian of those who were not old enough to know the perils to which they were exposed by those who were now riding on the crest of the popular wave, but who were, neverthe less, destined to sink into the very trough of the sea to a depth so unfathomable that not a bubble would ever rise to mark the spot where they went so ignominiously down. Well might those who had inaugurated the revolution which was now stalking over the land cry out, with uplifted hands, for peace, and deprecate the effusion of blood I It was the inventor of the guillotine who was the first victim, and the day was not far off when they would find among their own people those who would have to rely upon the mag nanimity of that population whom they had most cruelly outraged and deceived. He had not the heart to enter into a detail of the ar- 270 THE SOUTHERN REBELLION. Sherrard Clemens' Spepch. guments, or to express the indignant emotions, which rose to his lips for utterance. But, before God, and in his inmost conscience, he believed that Slavery would be crucified should this unhappy controversy end in a dismemberment of the Union. If not cruci fied, it would carry the death rattle in its throat. It remained to be seen whether trea son could be carried out^with the same facil ity with which it had been plotted. There was a holy courage among the minority of every State that might be for a time over whelmed. Lazarus was not dead, but slept; and, ere long, the stone would be rolled away from the mouth of the tomb, and they would witness all the glories of a resurrection. It would not be forgotten that among the clans of Scotland beacon fires used to be lit by con certed signals from crag to crag, in living volumes of flame, yet expiring even in their own fierceness, and sinking into ashes as the faggots which lit them were consumed. To such a picture as that might be likened a re bellion such as political leaders sometimes excite for a brief hour ; but the fires of rebel lion burnt out witlrthe faggots, and all was cold and dark again. There was a striking contrast between such a movement, between such a rebellion as he alluded to, and the up rising of the masses of the people in vindica- tion of violated rights. As great a difference as there was between Snug, the joiner, and Bottom, the weaver, who " could roar you as fierce as a lion, or coo you as gently as a suck ing dove." One was the stage trick of a po litical harlequin, the other was a living -real ity — the one was a livid and fitful flame, the other was a prairie on fire, finding in every step of its progress, food for its all-ravening maw. He might stand alone. Be it so ! His po litical race was, voluntarily, nearly run. He sought no office — asked no favors. History, that infallible arbiter, should decide for all in truth, -and would apportion to each his share of infamy or honor as was merited. He then referred to the diseased sentiment which prevailed to such an alarming degree in Con gress and out of it. Patriotism had become a starveling birdling, clinging with unfledged wings around the nest of twigs where it was Sherrard Clemens' Speech. born. A statesman must now not only narrow his mind and give up to party what was meant for mankind, but he must re cede as submissively as a blind horse in a bark- mill to every perverted opinion which sits, whip in hand, on the revolving shaft, at the end of which he is harnessed. To be a diamond of the first water he must stand in the Senate House of his country, and, in the face of a forbearing people, glory in being a traitor and a rebel. He must solemnly proclaim the death of the nation to which he had sworn allegiance, and with the grave stolidity of an undertaker invite its citizens to their own funeral. He must dwarf and provincialize his patriotism to the State on whose local passions he thrives, to the country where he practices court, or to the city where he flaunts in all the meretricious dignity ef a Doge of Venice. He can take an oath to support the Constitution of the United States, but he can enter with honor into a conspi racy to overthrow it. He can, under the sanctity of the same oath, advise the seizure of forts and arsenals, dock-yards and ships, and money, belonging to the Union, whose officer he is, and find a most loyal and conve nient retreat in State authority and State al legiance. [This severe construction of secession mor als was made in a tone of scorn which added to its bitterness. He fairly, for the moment, seemed the Jeremiah come to judge the mac- chinators against society and law. Being a Southern man he was prepared for the con tingencies of any personal issue which his anathema might excite, and, for that reason probably, was not bullied and insulted from the Southern side of the House. His speech was not interrupted, except in one instance.] Mr. Clemens said the differences between North and South had been created and car ried out, to their ultimate, by systematic per versions of the public sentiment, in both sections. In the South it was understoodthat the North was but a league of States, seek ing the overthrow of Southern institutions. In the North it w.as understood that the South desired and intended to monopolize with Slave Territory all the public lands, and to drive therefrom free labor, to convert everv Free CLEMENS' SPEECH, 271 Sherrard Clemens' Speech, State into common ground, for the recapture of colored persons, as slaves, who were free, and to put the Federal Government, in all its departments, under the control of a slave oli garchy. These and all other stratagems that could be resorted to to arouse antagonistic feelings, were wielded with fearful power over turbulent passions. As they planted, so they reaped. The whirlwind was now born out of the storm, which never would have been created but for the bad men in the two sections — anarchists in heart, and morally diseased in mind. No anaconda, with his filthy folds around the banyan tree, threw out the venomous tongue and yearned with fiercer passion for the crushed bone and the pulpy flesh than he, the Abolitionist, now expectant of his prey,- yearned for this long- proposed repast. Well might he cry that the day of jubilee had come I Well might he marshal his hosts to the last great war of sections and of races ! Defeated, stigmatized, insulted, scoffed at, ostracised and gibbeted by his countrymen, he now gloated over the most fearful of all retributions. His deadliest Foes in the South had now struck hands in a solemn league of kindred designs, and, with exultant tramp, stolidly marched, adorned, like a Roman ox, with the garlands of sacri fice, to the eternal doom. At this moment, when a sudden phrensy had struck blind the Southern people, this picture could not even be realized in all its horrors. When he looked at his country, and its present dis tracted and desolate condition, and its possi ble fate, he felt almost ready to close the quick accents of speech, and allow the heart to sink down voiceless in its despair. He would refer them to the words of Lloyd Gar rison, and demand what answer would be given to them ? [His reference was to an ar ticle in the Liberator, which appeared a few days after the secession of South Carolina, in which Garrison said that " the last covenant with death was annulled, and the agreement with hell broken by the action of South Caro lina herself;" closing with an appeal to Mas sachusetts, ending with the words, " How stands Massachusetts at this hour, in reference to the Union — in an attitude of hostility?" Mr. Clemens also quoted from a speech of Sherrard Clemens' Speech. Wendell Phillips, delivered in the Music Hall at Boston, a few days previously, in which Phillips declared, " We are dis unionists, not for any love of separate con federacies," &c, ending with a reference to South Carolina, "and Egypt will rejoin that she has departed."] The speaker gave, with considerable minu tiae of detail, statistics of white population and of slaves in the Border and more South ern Slave States, for the purpose of showing, as he said, that there was an irreversible law of population governing the question ; and that the South wanted population and capi tal rather than Territory. If secession were allowed to be carried out, he would show them a Southern Confederacy from which every man would turn back affrighted and pale, because it would be on the bloody hand that his rights of property would have to depend. Slavery cannot expand rapidly, either within the Union or without the Union, so long as slaves remained at their present high prices. The only mode by which Slavery could ever expand, was to re duce the price, and have a new source of sup ply. That was, in fact, the real design of the Coast States. Mr. Clemens, in proof of this, referred to all the Southern Conventions of late years, and cited the admissions of Messrs. Miles, Bonham, McRae, and Crawford, in the House, to show that the object was the re opening of the Slave-trade. Suppose, said he, that they do not get, out of the Union, this equality which they now claim ? That is a little problem in the rule of three which will be ciphered out if these events are much longer pending. The Border Slave States might as well be prepared, first as last, for the realization of the truth. But where was Slavery to expand ? If the South left the Union she would never get as much of the present Territory as he could grasp in his hand. A war of thirty years would never get it back, nor could there ever be extorted from the North a treaty giving the same guarantees to Slavery that it now had. Where was Slavery to expand ? Not to Cen tral America, for England exercised sover eignty over half of her domain. Not to Mex ico, for England had caused the abolition of 273 THE SOUTHERN REBELLION. Sherrard Clemens' Speech Slavery there also. Their retiring confederates ought not to forget the events of 1834, when George Thompson, the English Abolitionist, was sent to enlighten the dead conscience of the American people. In this connection he cited a letter from Thompson to Murrell,of Tennessee, in which was this sen tence : " The dissolution of the Union is the object to be kept steadily in view." In the event of a Southern Confederacy there will be, besides the African Slave-trade, other ele ments of discord and agitation. Slavery was the great ruling interest of the extreme States, while the other States had other great inter ests which could not be lightly abandoned. It would be for the interest of the Coast States to have free trade in manufactured goods ; but how would that operate on the mechanical and manufacturing industry of Missouri, Ken tucky, Virginia, Maryland, and Delaware? There would be, therefore, in the proposed Union, an antagonism quite as great as there ever has been in this. If manufactories were to be protected and encouraged in the Border Slave States, their white population would increase so fast that they would be but nomi nally Slave States, and would finally become Free States. He appealed to the North to guarantee, by constitutional enactments, the principle secured by the decision of the Su preme Court in the Dred Scott case. Let us feel, he said, that we have a country to save instead of a geographical section to represent. Let us act as men, and not as partisans, and the old Constitution, now in the very trough of the sea, with battered masts and sails, will weather the storm. During the remarks, Martin, of Virginia, had, in a tone of much excitement, expressed a hope that the member " should not be al lowed to continue his traitorous remarks."* * A correspondent at the Capital thus wrote : " Both sides gathered around him, and while the extremists endeavored to distract attention, every word told with unusual effect. As he had not closed at the end of the hour, motions were made to extend the time, but objections were shouted from the South side, even to let him print the conclusion. A more thorough exposure and dissection of false pre tences has rarely been witnessed, and no surprise was excited that the demagogues and conspirators should have winced as they did." Washburne, (Rep.,) of Wis., addressed the House washburne's speech, advocating his Minority Report from the Committee of Thirty-three. He insisted that the Constitution was ample for the preservation of the Union and the protection of all the material interests of the country, and that it needs to be obeyed ra ther than amended. He gave the reasons why. He opposed the recommendations of the majority, not being disposed to subject the people of the North to further contempt. He said the plain question was — and it would have to be met — whether they shall give a Slavery guarantee in the Constitution. He was opposed to the admission of New Mex ico. He would not consent to bring two more Slave State Senators into Congress. He would not vote for the admission of a Slave State. If New Mexico even were to- present herself with a Free State Constitution, still he would be against it. She has not the ne cessary population, and not the ability to sustain a, government. But one thing he de sired to impress on the minds of all, and that was, if the Union was once dissolved, they might look in vain for its reconstruction on any such basis as it now stands upon. If reconstructed, the North will fix the terms of the reconstruction, and will insist that those who now secede shall come into a new Union, if they come at all, on terms of equal ity with us. But, said he, if disunion comes, whether it comes by peaceable secession or through fire and blood, and civil war, we shall have this consolation, that when the conflict is over, those who survive it will be, what they never have — namely, inhabitants of a free country. In the Senate, Tuesday, (January 22d,) Mr. Saulsbury, of Delaware, presented that States' Legislative resolutions directing its Senators and Representatives to vote for the Critten den resolutions, or for any other measure looking to the preservation of the Union. Much time was consum- ed, and an interesting col- ""%££?* loquial debate had, on the question of the seats of the seceded Senators. A motion was made that the Vice-President fill the vacancies existing in the Committees. That officer asked instructions. As there was no record, on the journal, of the absence MR. POWELL'S SPEECH, 273 of the Senators, and as their names were still called on the roll, he asked Senators to say whether or not he should recognize their absence. Much was said pro and con. Ben jamin, of Louisiana, moved that the journal be corrected, to record the fact that the Sena tors from Alabama, Florida, and Mississippi have announced that their States have seced ed and resumed the powers delegated to the General Government, and withdrawn. Mr. Douglas moved to amend, that Messrs. Yulee, Mallory, and others, have announced that they are no longer members of this body, and have withdrawn, and that their names be stricken from the roll. After further questioning and personal opinions, the subject, on motion of Mr. Sew ard, was laid on the table. The Crittenden resolutions, being unfinish ed business, were then called up, and Pow ell, (Dem.,) of Kentucky, delivered a lengthy and somewhat elaborate speech. He repeat ed that he had advocated sincerely, every measure calculated to remove the difficulties, and argued that a division of the Territories, as proposed by his col- Poweil's Speech. league, was just and equit able to all. The Territo ries were acquired by all the States. By the proposed division,- the North gets nearly four times the quantity of the South, and ten times the value. He thought it eminently proper that the settlement should apply to all future acquisitions, so as to take the question for ever from the halls of Congress, and contend ed, that it would in no way encourage filli- bustering, for territory could not be acquired in such a way. He said the objection that it recognized Slavery was not well taken. The Constitution did recognize Slavery, and at the time of its formation it was recognized everywhere in the civilized world. He claim ed, also, that Congress had, on many occa sions, recognized Slavery, in treaties and vari ous ways. He thought there was no need of advocating the duty of protection, as protec tion was the plain duty of every Government. The South claimed no more than was right ; and, for the Bake of peace, and to transmit the institutions of our fathers to posterity, they were willing to yield far more than was right, and yet peace-offerings seemed to be spurned. He was in favor of an amendment to the Constitution to suppress the slave- trade forever, and argued in favor of an amendment requiring States to deliver up fu gitives from justice, and also in favor of pre venting all invasion of States. If these things were fair, he remarked, why not put them in the Constitution, so as to be beyond the reach of all sectioial majorities. He referred briefly to other proposed amendments, speci ally to one denying the right of suffrage to colored persons. If the Senators are against negro equality, why should they not be will ing to put this amendment in the Constitu tion ? He believed that it was a Govern ment specially for white men. He said that the Senator of Ohio (Mr. Wade,) asked what the charges were ? He would repeat a few : One was, that bands were organized in Free States to steal the property of the South. Mr. Wade, (Rep.) of Ohio., asked for a proof, and said he did not believe a word of it. Mr. Powell said, the fast Underground Railroad is well known. He had read a let ter of a member of the House from Ohio, (Mr. Cox,) speaking of the great number of slaves carried off. This, if it was a foreign country, would be a cause for war. The Per sonal Liberty bills were also another cause of complaint ; such laws are a clear violation of the Constitution. Mr. Wade said he wanted some specific charge against Ohio, so that he could answer it. He was tired of hearing general charges. Mr. Powell said that the Governor of Ohio had refused to deliver up a fugitive from jus tice. He had also to refer to a letter of a colleague of the Senator. The Republicans elected a candidate on a platform hostile to the South, and had elected a President who declared that he would not vote to admit a Slave State, notwithstanding the decision of the Supreme Court. Mr. Trumbull said it was directly the re • verse from what the Senator had stated. After further personal rejoinders, Mr. Powell proceeded. He said if anything was done to save the Union, it must come from the Republicans. He would not deal with the question of the right of secession — it was useless to argue the point, when a revolution 274 THE SOUTHERN REBELLION. was already in progress. He did not believe the Constitution gave any power to coerce a Seceding State. It was madness to attempt to preserve the Union by force. War was dissolution, and, he thought that these reso lutions were just and satisfactory. But he would not speak for Kentucky ; she would meet the crisis, and whatever was her decis- sion, he, as a loyal son, would obey her high behests. An interesting running Ohio vs. Virginia. debate then followed. The charges against Ohio called up Mr. Wade. He remarked that the Senator from Virginia (Mason) had said that the Le gislature of Ohio had refused to repeal an unconstitutional law. He did not believe Ohio had any law which was unconstitutional, and he thought the Senator was mistaken. The law framed last year gives further secu rity to free colored people, and when it came up this year before the Legislature, it was postponed. That was a mistake of the Sena tor, as the law was exactly opposite to what he (Mason) supposed. Mr. Mason said that the House of Repre sentatives of Ohio had refused to repeal a law under which United States Marshals had been imprisoned. Mr. Wade said the only law of Ohio on the subject was copied almost entirely from the law of Virginia, and such a law ought not to be repealed. He (Wade) saw no reason to compromise with anybody. There is no or ganization in Ohio to interfere with the laws. He did not doubt there were escaped slaves in Ohio, but he denied that there was any or- ganizd company to aid them in escaping. Mr. Mason said that the Governor of Vir ginia made a demand on the Governor of Ohio to surrender a fugitive who had com mitted murder and arson in Virginia, and the Governor of Ohio refused to deliver him up. The fugitive was one of John Brown's company. Mr. Wade said such refusal was not pecu liar to Ohio. It was a vexed question every where. In reference to the case in Kentucky, the Governor of Ohio took precedent from the Governor of Kentucky. Mr. Powell said he was not aware there was such a case in Kentucky. The Governor of Kentucky could not have refused on the , ground of kidnapping, as that was not an of fense in Kentucky. If the Governor did re fuse, he did wrong. Mr. Douglas said that he had traced some of these cases, and found them common to all the States. The first one was in 1791 when the Governor of Virginia refused to de liver up a fugitive to Pennsylvania. The Governor of Pennsylvania sent the parties to General Washington, who was then President, and he sent them to the Senate. Since then there had been various cases. He did not think this could form a subject of complaint now. Mr. Mason said the case in Virginia occur red before there was any law respecting the delivery of fugitives by Congress. But if the Senators think that the contumely, and inju ry, and insult heaped on the Slaveholding States for the last twenty years is to be ap peased by claiming to go back to the first wrong, let them have the benefit of the argu ment. I will not present a bill of indictment. The history of the country shows the wrongs the Slaveholding States have received, and they will determine for themselves whether their interests and safety will permit them to remain in the Union. Mr. Douglas said he simply wished to show, owing to the constitution of the law referred to, there was not a clear case of its violation by the Northern States. Mr. Wade said that all the complaints against Ohio came back to one thing. They say all the attempts to save the Union come from us. You, who seek to overthrow the Constitution, and who say you are about to rebel and wage war, should give some speci fication wherein we have offended. Mr. Mason explained that the case in Vir ginia occurred before any law of the United States on the subject, and the Attorney Gene ral of Virginia based his decision on the fact that there was no law authorizing the arrest. In the Senate, Wednesday, but little was done. The day was almost entirely spent in a personal and purely partisan warfare over minor matters. Bigler essayed to call up the Crittenden resolutions. His motion was dis agreed to — 24 to 27. . MR. ETHERIDGE'S SPEECH, 275 Mr. Clemens' " Per sonal Explanation." The House Session, Wednesday, was enlivened with some words by Mr- Clemens. Referring to the official report of the previous day's proceedings, he observed that Mr. Martin had made certain offensive remarks. He (Clemens) had not understood them at the time. He said the position which he conceived it his duty to take in this national emergency was taken deliber ately, and with the expectation that he would be subjected to personal defamation. If his colleague's remark was intended to give of fense, he pardoned him, for the reason he was now laboring under a physical infirmity with a reeking wound received in a personal ren contre. Hindman, of Arkansas, reminded Clemens that Martin was not present. Clem ens was not aware of his absence ; but, if any one was desirous to cast imputations on him, he could indulge in them for the reasons stated. He could conceive of men who would be unknown either in this or any other Con gress, had it not been through the interpo sition of Providence. The speech of the day Ethcridiie's Speech, was by Etheridge, (Am. ,) of Tennessee. It was an ef fort of much power and severity, and pro duced a strong impression on both sides of the House. Its plea was for settlement by compromise, but for the Union at all hazards. The patriotism of the House he doubted. He would be willing to submit the entire question at issue to a jury of twelve disinter ested men, without a word of argument ; but the House, composed of two-hundred and thirty-six members, by its inaction and sto lidity, refused to adjust differences, and stood by to see the revolution hurrying the Union on to destruction. He felt assured that, if the people of the country could be made arbi ters, all would be well; and, if Congress would not act, he should move an adjourn ment of the quarrel to the people. Then it would be settled, permanently and satisfac torily. As for the excuses put forth by the Disunionists, for their monstrous conduct, he said : there were Personal Liberty laws, one cause of complaint. Then followed, in their category, opposition to the execution of the Fugitive Slave law, another cause of com plaint. Then, as if tangible arguments had failed, the litboridge's Speech. Disunionists urged that the respective sections were not homogenous, and hated one another, and that some of the Northern States were for Negro equality. These charges constituted all the allegations in the bill of indictment which they had filed. As to the first, he confessed that Personal Liberty bills did exist, without ex tenuation and without excuse. But it was due to truth to say that these obnoxious bills would soon be swept from the statute books of the Free States. That was the only charge that could be sustained. The balance of the allegations they made out were all with refer ence to things which never happened, and which never could have happened, had the Seceding States remained in the Union, and had their representatives not staid at home. He was assured that the Personal Liberty bills had been, or would be, struck from the statute books of all the Border Free States — from Iowa, Indiana, Illinois, Ohio, Pennsylvania and New Jersey. To be sure they were still retained in Vermont, where, he was told, a fugitive slave had not been seen for forty years, and which was as inac cessible to a slave as was the kingdom of South Carolina to him at that moment. Now, he lived within a day's ride of three Free States, and he had never known a slave to have been stolen from his district and re tained. He had known of one escaping and passing through the district represented by his friend from Kentucky, who made his way into Illinois, where he was arrested by the people and returned to his owner. But, had the South ever appealed to the North to repeal their Personal Liberty bills ? Thej had done no such thing. They said the North would not execute the Fugitive Slave law. But what was the fact ? The present Executive, in his late Message, used this language: "That the Fugitive Slave law had been executed in every contested case that had arisen." They knew it was so. Every attempted rescue had become a mat ter of public notoriety; but it was not so sedulously made known that fugitive slaves were arrested every day in the Free States, and carried back to their masters. There 276 THE SOUTHERN REBELLION, was no fault to be found Etheridge's Speech. with the Fugitive Slave law. A United States Com missioner, appointed to carry out that law, a resident of the present kingdom of South Carolina, had assured him that the law was as stringent as human ingenuity could make it. And would you dissolve the Union for that cause? Foiled in argument so palpably unfounded, the desperate precipitators find a cover for their designs in the statement that the North ern people, in some time to come, intend to abolish Slavery in the States. He did not believe one word of it. Standing there in his place, before that crowded audience, he avowed that there was not a man in the House who desired to abolish Slavery in the States, or who imagined they have the right to attempt it. [Cries from Republican benches, " Not one, not one."] If there was such a man he desired to see him. Such a man would deserve the execration of his col leagues, and the execration of every man who respected the Constitution ; and yet that de claration to abolish Slavery was made by these precipitators in the teeth of the most solemn assurances that could be- given by a political party. He asserted that no politi cal party that had ever risen in the country had given such strong and solemn guaran tees to respect Slavery within the States. But, this fact was suppressed ,by the politi cians and newspapers of the South, and the opposite doctrine zealously inculcated in the public mind. With regard to the fear excited in the Southern mind, of a determin ation on the part of the North to give equal ity in every respect to the negro, he proceed ed to show how unfounded the charge was, and noticed that in the State of New York at the last election, that issue had been sub mitted to the people, who refused, by a ma jority of twenty to one, to extend universal suffrage to the negro. It was charged against the North that it was from their midst that the John Brown raid came; but he would ask his seceding friends, in case of disunion, would South Carolina be better able to protect herself against raids then than she had been in the past ? Now, when all were true to the Con stitution, when each man was a judge and execution- Etheridge's Speech. er of the law, and every con venient tree was_a gallows upon which to hang those who violated the Constitution in the manner of John Brown and his followers, it should teach every one that they had a code for the punishment of traitors, as stringent as it could be made. Mr. Etheridge then proceeded to an exam ination of history regarding territorial ac quisition. The House knew, he said, that when the Government was ordained, when the Declaration of Independence was pro claimed, that our Western boundary was the Mississippi River, and he asserted that from that very day, at the instance of the South, at the instance of Slaveholders, the area of the Government had been enlarged and ex panded. Every foot of soil that had been acquired at the instance of the South, the North, with its numerical power and strength overshadowing the South, had willingly yield ed. Florida and Louisiana had been thus secured at the instance of the South. Flo rida had been purchased at a first cost of $5,000,000, and at avcost of $50,000,000 more to remove the savages, millions more to build fortifications along the deep to guard South ern commerce. And after all this, little Flo rida, with less than half the population he represented, goes out of the Union, with the fortifications, with the public lands, with un told millions, and, worse than all, carries with her the prestige of the unity of these States I Little Florida secedes, which could not at this moment protect herself from the alligators without the aid of the Federal troops — [laughter]— this very Florida, pur chased at the instance of the South, with Northern money and Northern blood ! He then noticed the annexation of Texas, also at the instance of the South, and paid a eulogy to Governor Houston of that State. In 1850 the South demanded a Fugitive Slave law. They got that. They first demanded the Missouri Compromise. They got it. They then demanded its repeal. They got that. They demanded nothing which they had not got. Now they demand that Slavery should be protected in every inch of the Ter ritories of the United States. But that ques- WITHDRAWAL OF GEORGIA MEMBERS 277 tion was decided against Etheridge's Speech, them, in a most unmistak able manner, at the ballot- box ; and even the Southern States themselves had pronounced against that demand. The Government had been in operation nearly eighty years, and up to this time no member of Congress had even so much as introduced a bill to protect Slavery in the Territories. And now they proposed to dissolve the Union because a vast majority of the people had re plied to their demand for protection of slaves in the Territories, that all they should ever have was non-intervention. That probably was all they ever would obtain. One dis unionist said that he wanted protection for Slavery for the purpose of expansion ; that Slavery was increasing, and that in fifty years they would have twenty millions of negroes, and consequently they must have room to expand. But the truth was they needed no expansion ; and if they did, they could not get it, either in or out of the Union. Recurring to the studious misrepresenta tions made to the Southern people by the leaders of the revolution, he said it was a matter of history that a few weeks ago a gen tleman (Col. Memminger) proclaimed from the steps of the Capitol at Milledgeville to gentlemen, lawyers, doctors, shortboys, and everybody who stood around, that Hanibal Hamlin,, or, as he is called there, " Cannibal" Hamlin, was a mulatto ; that the North had elected an Abolitionist to be President, and a mulatto to be Vice-President ! That absurd and infamous statement was believed by the masses, and now it was generally charged at the South that the Black Republicans had really elected a mulatto to office ! You heard this charge made at every Southern hustings — in every Southern assembly, and any denial of it was taken as evidence of a sympathy with Abolitionism ! Leake, of Virginia, here interrupted the speaker, to know whether he was speaking on the side of the North, or on the side of the South. The scathing reply was : "lam speaking on that side which has few repre sentatives on this floor — on the side of my country!" — Already in the South bold men, educated men, chivalrous men, were drilling and disciplining the military forces. Men were excited with all the pomp and circumstance of Etheridge's Speech. war. Men believed that Lincoln and his cohorts were going to the South to apply the torch to towns, hamlets, and dwellings, and these things arose from Southern misapprehensions of Northern men. To allay this, to stop the tide of revolution, he would vote for the Crittenden propositions. He would vote for the proposition he had submitted himself; he would vote for the re port of the gentleman from Ohio ; he would vote for anything that was of any value, that had any principle, and that would relieve the public mind from the apprehensions which beset it. He hoped Congress would effect something to stay the tide of revolu tion ; but, if nothing could be done, as he said before, he would go before the people, and throw himself into the " deadly immi nent breach," and would resist the wave of disunion to the last. And if the worst came to the worst ; if his State should be dragged to the brink of the fearful precipice, and be made an unwilling victim, it would be only at the last moment of his country's ruin. And now, in advance, he washed his hands clear of the shame and of the crime that will attach to those who would overthrow public liberty, and raise a despotism on its ruins. Wherever the flag of his country floated, there would he go, and he would cling to it in this, the dark hour of her peril, with all the sacred trust and confidence of an enthusiast clinging to his God. The Speaker here laid before the House a commu nication, signed by all the members from Georgia — Mr. Hill excepted — announcing the secession of that State, and adding, " that having dissolved her political connection with the Federal Government, and having thereby repealed the Ordinance of 1788, by which the Constitution was ratified, and having resumed the powers heretofore delegated to her, we hereby announce that we are no longer members of the House of Representatives." A communication was read from Mr. Hill, of Georgia, in which he said : " Satisfied as I am, that a majority of the people of Georgia, in Convention now in session, desire that Withdrawal of Geor gia Members. 278 THE SOUTHERN REBELLION. State no longer to be represented on this floor, I, in obedience to their wishes, do here by resign the seat I now hold as a member of the House of Representatives from that State " Mr. Lovejoy, having the Iflvejoy's Prononcia- fl addressed the House. mento. , , , The gentleman's reputation as an uncompromising Anti-Slavery leader of the radical school, led his hearers to expect a speech which would not prove to be oil on the troubled waters. He did not, however, stir up the elements of Southern passion, as was usual when he spoke. Though he did not abate his oft-pronounced judgments against Slavery and the denunciation of Slave owners, he succeeded even in pleasing his old antagonists. He said he felt solemnly im pressed with the question before him, and prayed for wisdom from on high, which was first pure, then peaceable, to direct his mind that he might clothe his thoughts in such language as befitted the occasion and the presence of this audience. He then argu ed the theory of our Government as it is laid down, briefly and with philosophical preci sion, in the Declaration of Independence our fathers made, and in the Constitution. He said the wildest dogma was that of secession, which was treason and rebellion, and crime against God and man. If the Government could not be maintained, it was a mere co partnership, to be dissolved by a single mem ber of the firm. South Carolina could not dissolve the Union she did not make, except in conjunction with the other States; and it was miserable, derisive mockery for her to attempt to absolve her people from allegi ance to the Government. He alluded to the seizure of forts, arsenals, etc., and in this con nection was speaking of coercion, when Mr. De Jarnette, of Virginia, rose to a question of order. The gentleman was not speaking from his seat, as required by the rules of the House 1 [This same small game was, at the previous session, urged against Lovejoy by his opponents who were anxious to annoy the Illinois member, and thus to parry the force of his merciless blows. On the former occasion Mr. Lovejoy "showed fight," and thus lost his vantage ground; but, with this attempt, he kept his temper and his audience admirably. Under pressure of the disfavor excited by this question of order, it was with drawn, when Mr. L. proceeded.] He would not conciliate with rebels in arms against a Government which had done them nothing but favors. Whatever he might do under other circumstances, never, as God lives, would he vote for a particle of compro mise until the insult to our flag should be apologized for or avenged. He wanted to see this Disunion farce or tragedy played out. It was said, in compromising, the extremes of the Republican party must be cut off. He hoped they would have a merry time of it. They would be acting Hamlet with the cha racter of Hamlet left out. He appealed to his Republican friends to stand firm and de cided, and not part with the golden oppor tunity they now possessed to carry out their principles. Stand still and see the salvation • of the Lord. [Laughter.] Some of them were looking to Mr. Lincoln for a compro mise, but from his soul he did not believe Mr. Lincoln was so disposed ; he would stand by the principles enunciated in the Chicago Platform. If he or an angel from heaven pro claimed any other doctrine, let him be ana- thema maranatha. Let him be accursed, and the people curse him. [Laughter.] As to himself, he would not vote for the bill, if one were introduced to abolish Slavery in the States where it exists ; not that he would not have all mankind free, but they had no con stitutional power thus to act. He would not, however, sacrifice the right of Freedom to perpetuate or protect Slavery. A somewhat singular pro- -, , ,r A Self-saoriflcing position was made by Mr. project. Montgomery, of Pennsyl vania, that all members of the House should x resign, in order that their constituents might immediately elect Representatives whom they could specially instruct. It received little consideration on the floor ; but the mover, not to be intimidated, drew up a paper em bodying his propositions, which he circulated for signatures.* * The pledge or proposition read as follows : " We, the undersigned, Members of the XXXWth Congress, convinced by the various votes taken on the several propositions presented for our consider- THE DUNN AND RUST DIFFICULTY, 279 McPberson's Re marks. Mr. McPherson, (Rep.,) of Pennsylvania, made a brief and pointed speech. It had been said that we are in the midst of a revolution, but he thought we were in the "" presence of conspiracy. The blow comes from those who admit that, long ago, they laid the plan, and carefully prepared the means for its accomplishment. In alluding to the history of events in this connection, he said the Cabinet officers had used the machinery of the Government for their ne farious purposes, and even the House and Senate Chamber had not escaped. He char acterized the movement as despotic, origin ating in disappointed personal ambition, and nurtured in iniquity. In reviewing the progress of events he said one thing was cer tain — the Union was not to be destroyed, for the people would maintain it. They would neither be betrayed nor sold. The ation, from time to time, that there is no hope that any measure which will reconcile the existing differ ences between the sections of our country can re ceive a vote of a constitutional majority, and as none of the present members were elected in view of the existing troubles; and believing that, in a time of so great peril, it is proper to refer this question to the people of our several Districts, propose that the Members of this Congress shall resign, to take effect on the 21st of February next, and that we immedi ately provide for the election of our successors by the people, who shall assemble here on the 22d day of February next, and to these representatives, bearing the instructions of the people, the various propositions of compromise now pending and here after to be proposed, shall be referred ; the election is not to interfere with the officers and employees of this House." To this he obtained the following signatures : Messrs. Montgomery and Florence, of Pennsylvania ; Clemens, Bocock, Martin, Garnett, Jenkins, Edmund- son and De Jarnette, of Virginia ; Wright and Avery, of Tennessee; Rigg, of New Jersey ; Taylor, of Lou isiana ; Davis, Niblack, Holman and English, of Indi ana ; Burnett and Stephenson, of Kentucky ; Smith, of North Carolina ; Whitely, of Delaware ; Larabee, of Wisconsin ; Scott, of California ; Sickles, of New York ; Craig and Anderson, of Missouri ; Simms, Brown, Peyton and Stevenson, of Kentucky ; Hughes and Kunkel, of Maryland; Fouke, Logan and McClernand, of Illinois ;" &c, &c. About fifty mem bers finally gave it their endorsement. The Dunn and Rust Difficully. Government was theirs, and they would pro tect and preserve it, even if their chosen administrators were false to their trusts, their oaths and their sacred honor. Thursday, in the House, the Post-route bill consumed much of the day, when no thing of interest transpired, relating to the rebellion. At the allotted hour the consider ation of the Corwin Report was resumed. In the debate which followed, an exciting personal passage occurred, that served to illustrate the spirit of overbearing insolence which governed the treasonable leaders of the South. Rust, of Arkansas, having the floor, said, as a member of the Com mittee of Thirty-three, he had entered on the duty with a desire to do whatever he could to give peace, and regretted that his efforts met with no proper response. The Committee were engaged five weeks, and at last produced a miserable abor tion which can ^jlaim no paternity. From the first day they sat to the last, the pro ceedings were a sham and a mockery to the Southern men on the Committee. As it was constituted none but the most sanguine could have hoped anything from it. If civil war should result, let the responsibility rest on the heads of those who refused to compro mise. Arkansas is as conservative as any other State, but she will maintain her equality in the Union, or enjoy it out of the Union. As an evidence of the feeling in that State he read a letter from a member of the Legisla ture, an intelligent and influential citizen, to show that a great reaction had taken place in Arkansas, and that most conservative men had abandoned all hope. In answer to every appeal, all that conservative Southern mem bers on the Committee could get was — "nothing inconsistent with the Chicago Plat form." It appeared that John Brovyn was the martyr and hero of the Republican party. This last sentence, embodying what its author well knew to be a libel, was uttered as an insult. It called up Dunn, (Rep.,) of Indiana. He replied that, as for the Chicago Platform, it explicitly condemned the John Brown raid. As a member of the Committee 280 THE SOUTHERN REBELLION, he (Dunn) had discharged his duty, without reference to the Chicago Platform, as did other Republicans. He, therefore, had but one response to make to the statements of the. other speaker. As to the Republicans, or the Republican Platform, sympathizing with the John Brown invasion, everybody, North and South, knew it was an infamous libel on the Republican party, and he was surprised that any gentleman, in this time of the country's peril, could give circulation to it. This rejoinder was expected, since the nature of the charge forbade that it should go uncontradicted. It was made, unques tionably, with the hope of affording the " gentleman from Arkansas," an opportunity for a personal issue. It would much help him with his constituents if a " Black Repub lican" could be sacrificed to his practical aim. Rust's reply was as anticipated : " With reference to the charge of 'infamous libel,' made use of, the gentleman from Indiana, I hope, is responsible for it. As this is a time of war we must wage war; and I desire to know whether the gentleman announced to the House and the country that he was res ponsible for what he said. I want to know that. If he is for war I am willing to accom modate him with war." Dunn's rejoinder was : " This is a free coun try, and the gentleman can take any measure or- mode of redress he pleases." Rust, excitedly : "Ihave the answer which I want ! " He then resumed his remarks : If the Republican members on the Committee represented Northern sentiment, then all hope of compromise is lost, and he would prefer that all the Southern- States should be blood stained rather than submit to such a party. But he did not believe they represented the people of the country. If the Union should be dissolved, he hoped it would be in such a way as would give an opportunity for its re construction. He said a more disingenrous report than that of the Committee of Thirty- three, never before emanated from a political partisan ; and he expressed it as his deliber ate opinion that it was the purpose of the Republican party to abolish Slavery, where- ever they could. He believed, and could show, that Mr. Lincoln repudiated the Con stitution of the United States. Under that instrument the Southern States have rights in the Union; but, unless there were effectual guarantees given that it should be carried out in the spirit that it was framed, he should beg and implore them to secede. In the course of his remarks he said that the Legis lature of Massachusetts had passed resolu tions declaring that State out of the Union, because of the annexation of Texas. This last statement met with a positive de nial from Gooch, (Rep.,) of Massachusetts. He demanded the production of the reputed " resolutions." Rust, " to put the gentleman in a way to be enlightened," called on Mr. Adams, of Massachusetts, to read the resolu tions that he (Adams) prepared and intro duced in the Legislature of Massachusetts in opposition to the annexation of Texas, on constitutional grounds. In these resolutions it was declared that Massachusetts was de termined, as it doubted not other States were, to submit to no undelegated power in any body of men on earth ; and, further, that unless the annexation of Texas was resisted, it might tend to drive the States into a dis solution of the Union, and furnish new cal umnies against republican government, &c. Gooch replied, that the resolutions intro duced by Mr. Adams, many years ago (1844,) into his State Legislature, afforded very slight pretext for their exhumation now. Hindman, of Arkansas, replied that Rust's position was right — that he would sustain him in it. Mr. Dunn, having had a conference with his friends, and evidently anxious to give the belligerent members no opportunity for re sorting to " the code," offered an explanation to the House, whose rules and decorum it was understood he had infringed. He de sired always to be right in whatever he ut tered in response to the gentleman from Ar kansas. What he intended to say was this, namely, that the declaration that the Repub lican party sympathized with John Brown was a libel on that party. He did not intend to use offensive language to the gentleman, but made the remark believing the charge to be libelous on the Republican platform and party. , This little show of concession only made perry's protest against treason. 281 Rust demand that Dunn should make " an entire retractation of his remarks." Dunn replied that " he had rendered the explana tion which duty required him to make — he had nothing more to offer." In a tone, and with an air which betrayed the Southern "master," the Arkansas man said: "Very welll we will seel" — implying that, of course, the necessary retractation would be made.* Mr. Ferry, (Rep.,) of Connecticut, followed. His speech was not mollified in tone by what had just transpired. He alluded to the bold, yet miserable pretexts put forward by the conspirators to cover the infamy of their base treason. The avowed reasons for rebellion were utterly fallacious. Ferry's Protest ^^ ^ ^ ^ lurk_ against Treason. J ed in the Capitol, but it was found in the Executive departments, shaking hands with grand and petty larceny, for the accomplishment of unholy purposes. The dissolution of the United States was of thirty years' growth. The Dred Scott de cision of the Supreme Court of the .United States destroyed the confidence of the people in that Court, and the Lecompton policy destroyed their confidence in the Executive administration. Republicans were strangled out of the Southern States, and the same fate must be meted out to the Union portion of the Democracy. Hence the breaking up of the Convention in Charleston, that hotbed * The matter was placed in the hands of Messrs. Hindman and McClernand, and settled. It is a re markable fact that, in almost every instance where Southern insolence became so intolerable as to induce the insulted party to make reply, the onus of an " ex planation" was thrown npon the Northern member, and a "settlement" procured at the expense of his self-respect. The honorable exceptions are few, but they go to prove that where a defiant spirit was Bhown, the Southern bullies were slow to press an explanation. The " affair" between Pryor, of Virginia, and Potter, of Iowa, which happened at a period antecedent to this difficulty with Rust, is an illustra tion to this point. Such men as Potter would not be " called out" a second time ; and such men as Bur- lingame, B. F. Wade, ^Wilson, of Massachusetts, Stanton, Howard, of Michigan, were not apt to be insulted, either on the floor or off. 36 of treason. The Union is a delusion, and the Constitution a sham, if the disunion doctrine is true. He was opposed to all amendments to the Constitution, and would maintain it as it is. He would never recognize property in man, nor yield protection to Slavery, where it can be profitably employed. To consent to this would be a monstrous iniquity, ab horred of God, and deserving of the execra tion of the civilized world. He was opposed to the admission of New Mexico, and dis sented from the other measures recommended in, the report under consideration. He feared to compromise, lest he should dishonor the Government. He appealed to the Republi cans" to stand by their principles. So long as there was open rebellion on the one hand, and threatened rebellion on the other, it was due to the nation's dignity to make an exhi bition of its strength, for the vindication of the Constitution and the laws. Others might do as they pleased, but he could not com pound with treason and such unnatural guilt. In the Senate, Thursday, the Pacific Rail way bill consumed the clay. Mr. Crittenden moved to postpone its consideration, and to take up his resolutions, which he deemed to be of more vital importance, at that moment, than any railroad. He said he had heard something had been reported in the papers as having been said by him in secret session [see note, page 242]. He had never autho rized such publication at all. He had heard he had been charged with advocating the doctrine of coercion. He did no such thing ; but he did say, that in his judgment the Congress of the United States had the power, and there might be cases where such power was applicable, and ought to be exercised. If the District of Columbia should attempt to secede, nobody doubts the President would have the power to employ force if necessary ; but he did also say that the present is no occasion for the application of the doctrine of coercion. The vote to postpone the Rail way bill was lost — 20 to 26. No further action of a national nature was taken in the Senate until Monday. During the week, great numbers of names had been presented from various sections, attached to memorials and petitions in favor of the Crit tenden Compromise. 282 THE SOUTHERN REBELLION. The House session of Nelson's Speech. Thursday was one of more than ordinary interest. Mr. Nelson, (Am.,) of Tennessee, declared for him self and his constituents strong Union senti ments, thus placing himself beside Andrew Johnson and Emerson Etheridge. Without committing himself to any section he plant ed himself on the Union policy. He censured Congress for its inaction on the great ques tion. Notwithstanding the Union was melt ing away from under their very feet, mem bers discussed the matter as if it were of transitory importance. The two causes lying at the foundation of the differences are, first, the pride of opinion, and second, party spirit. To adhere to these in the present crisis is unworthy the representatives of freemen. If, instead of disseminating with lightning speed intelligence that nothing will be done, where by hope is destroyed, they would give evi dence of an earnest disposition to perform their duty, there would be more probability of agreeing upon some plan of adjustment. He advocated the Crittenden plan, which was rallying support everywhere. He had hoped, and when in Committee he offered the restor ation, in principle, of the Missouri Compro mise line, that it would be accepted by both parties. He had thought the Republicans would support it, because the repeal of that compromise was the origin of their party. He believed that if both Houses would adopt the Crittenden plan, peace would be restored to the country, and that a majority in the Southern States would acquiesce in it. The South have suffered grievances from Personal Liberty bills, obstructions to the execution of the Fugitive Slave law, and attempts to kindle the flame of insurrection. While he advocated the restoration of the Missouri line and the Crittenden plan, he would not insist upon this as an ultimatum, but as the basis of a settlement. He differed in opinion with Mr. Rust, who yesterday said the Com mittee of Thirty-three was a most miserable abortion, and amounted to nothing as to qui eting the minds of the people. But the gen tleman from Massachusetts (Mr. Adams) of fered in the Committee a proposition in the highest degree creditable to him, namely, a proposition by constitutional amendment never to abolish Slavery in the States where it exists, Nelson's Speech. except with the assent of all the States. This, if adopted, would go far to appease, and entirely remove, every just source of apprehension on this subject from the Re publican party. Mr. Nelson adverted to the recommendation of the Committee as to the repeal of the Personal Liberty bills, the Fu gitive Slave law, &c, and said that he saw in this a disposition for reconciliation and accommodation. Why not, then, give to the South in a constitutional form what is an nounced in the resolutions of the Committee, and the Territorial question could be settled by restoring the Missouri line. Stratton, (Rep.,) of New Jersey, here asked the speaker if he would be satisfied with that line extended to the Pacific. The reply was :— " If amended to suit the changed condition of the country." Mallory, of Ken tucky, asked Stratton if he would give that line by constitutional amendment? The New Jersey member replied, that "he was willing to give the, Missouri line in its original lan guage." To this sentiment came cries of " Good ! " from the Republican side of the House. Nelson then added that he was will ing to receive almost anything rather than to see brother arrayed against brother, and friend- against friend, in dreadful strife, and this would be the result if something was not speedily done to quiet the disunion feeling now prevailing. Morse, (Rep.) of Maine, here interposed to say that Mr. Nelson had read a paragraph from the Message of the Governor of Tennes see, in which it was charged that the Repub lican party intend to abolish Slavery in the District of Columbia, and the Slave-trade between the States. Mr. Morse said that never since the organization of the Republi can party has any man, North or South, ever heard a Republican take any such ground. It was never seen in any Republican platform or speech, and the Republican party do not want to do any such thing. Mr. Nelson was glad that the gentleman has thus expressed himself. In the same mes-" sage of the Governor of Tennessee, it was gravely charged that the Republicans exalted murder, insurrection, arson, and heroized the MR. NELSON'S SPEECH, 283 perpetrators of such crimes Nelson's Speech. as saints and martyrs ; but notwithstanding this, Mr. Nelson said, if you judge of a party by its plat form, it distinctly denounces raids and inter ference with Slavery in the States. He made this remark for the sake of truth, and for the benefit of the people of Tennessee — "let jus tice be done though the heavens fall." [Ap plause.] The Governor of Tennessee also says that Mr. Lincoln advocated equality be tween the black and white race, but it is known that Mr. Lincoln, in his discussion with Mr. Douglas, disavowed any such doc trine. He (Nelson) made this statement here because Secession is sweeping over Tennessee from such influences as this, and it was im possible to arrest it, save by compromise. He then read an extract from a letter he had re ceived from a friend in Tennessee, who was as much a friend to the Union as any man in it. The writer says he is sorry to say that the cause of Secession is gathering strength there, because the Republicans refuse to do anything in the way of conciliation. If no thing in the way of compromise is done by the 4th of March, Tennessee will go out of the Union. An interruption here occurred, made by Burnett, of Kentucky, which called up others in reply to preposterous insinuations, when Judge Nelson resumed, alluding to a remark in the message of Ex-Governor Gist, of South Carolina, in which the latter recommended to the Legislature of that State to pass a law to prevent the introduction therein of slaves from the Border States, the design of which was to drive those States into the disunion movement. South Carolina was the first to put herself in an attitude of rebellion, and the Cotton States followed her lead. Was it right to drag the Border States into Seces sion, whether they are willing or not ? As a Tennessean, he raised his voice against ty ranny everywhere. He would raise it against tyranny from the North, and all attempts to exercise it by the South. Mr. Craige, (Dem.,) of North Carolina, re minded Mr. Nelson that other Southern States had passed laws forbidding the introduction • of slaves, and said that shortly after the John Brown raid, South Carolina sent Commis sioners to Virginia, propos ing a consultation among Nelson's cpcecb. all the Southern States. But Virginia had positively refused. Mr. Nelson continued, that he considered Ex-Governor Gist's movement an insult to the Border Slave States. If he understood the people of Tennessee, they were not to be coerced. They would not submit to dicta tion from any quarter under heaven. [Ap plause.] I say that they should resist this attempt to coerce them, and they should re sist it, if needs be, with arms, and to the death. The disunion movement does not re commend itself to the people of Tennessee, either in argument or in the manner it was gotten up. The people in South Carolina are already groaning under taxation, and heavy burdens, and if Tennessee should fall into the movement, the tax-gatherers will soon be at every door. If war comes, it will not be fought by those who want to be mas ters, but by the farmers and laboring men. He would ask them, are you willing to sub mit to this to build up a pampered aristoc racy in the South, or a military despotism ? [Applause in the galleries.] Men in the South are afraid to speak their sentiments. Let the South beware of a military despot ism 1 He could not recognize the claims of South Carolina to secede, for he remembered something of her past glory, and he would vote to receive her once more into this Con federacy, wrong as she and other States have acted.- Let them retrace their steps, and let us all do just and right toward one another, and if we do this the present difficulties will soon pass away. The effect of this speech was most happy. It led the Southern Unionists to hope for a common rallying point. To the Republicans (taken in connection with the speeches of Millson and Clemens, of Virginia,) it strong ly appealed by showing that compromise might at least save the Border States to the Union, and thus defeat the plans of the con spirators, whose programme comprised a con federacy of all the Slave States. It strength ened the hopes of the friends of compromise, and equally alarmed-the disunionists. Leake, (Dem.,) of Virginia, sought to parry the force of Nelson's conciliatory declara- 284 THE SOUTHERN REBELLION. Leake's Tirade. tions, by a violent decla mation against the Repub licans, as a party, charging upon it the authorship of all the evils under which the country staggered — the North had, in its madness, sanctioned crime, canonized murder, and made it a high crime and mis demeanor to obey laws passed by virtue of the Constitution. It was the North which had broken the unity of the States; it had refused a compliance with constitutional ob ligations, and offered a premium on per jury- This tirade called out Sherman and Cox, of Ohio, who showed the groundless charac ter of the aspersions directly levelled at Ohio ; and Vandever, of Iowa, showed that his State was not amenable to such censure. Pottle, (Rep.,) of New York, answered Leake's violence in a temperate, but Pottle's Remarks. determined, manner. He assumed that every griev ance complained of could be, ought to be, and would be, redressed, in a constitutional manner — that the Constitution was supreme for good, and tolerated no wrong to any section, State or individual. He vindicated the principles of the Republican party from the uncalled for, unwarrantable and evidently wicked perversions of those conspiring to break up the Union. To those who assumed an attitude of irreconcilable hostility to the incoming Administration, the Republicans could not, and would not, give one inch. If compromise is asked of them it must also be given. No compromise which does not look to the protection of the rights of the citizens of all the States under the Constitution could receive his sanction. The North is for the enforcement of the laws, and will vindicate the flag from insult. It had but- one motto, "The Union — it shall be preserved." Saturday's session was characterized by an interesting episode, growing out of a reso lution by Grow, (Rep.,) of Pennsylvania, that the Select Committee of Five, appointed on the 7th instant, be in structed to inquire whether any secret organization, hostile to the United States, exists in the District of Columbia, and, if so, whether any officer or employee of the Federal Govern- Commission of Inquiry. ment, in the Executive or Judicial Depart ments thereof, was concerned therein. Burnett, of Kentucky, did not believe in the existence of any such conspiracy, and conceived the resolution to be a " miserable, contemptible mode of engendering bad feel ing, making excitement worse." Grow pro tested that he had evidence sufficient to base the resolution upon. Branch, of North Caro-' lina, objected to the resolution, until he should see the Chairman of that Select Com mittee, (Howard of Michigan), in his seat, and feel assured that it met his approval Grow answered, that it had his approval. The following passage then occurred : Mr. Grow — "I have reason to believe there was such a de- Exciting Passage. sign entertained by some per sons in the employment of the Government. To what extent it has gone I don't know. For that rea son I offered the resolution. If gentlemen on the other side don't want to investigate the subject they can object, and that would afford better evidence that there is something in it." Mr. Burnett — " I have not objected to the resolu tion. If the member says there is reason for investi gation, he shall have an investigation as thorough as he desires. Therefore there was no necessity for the remark that objection would afford evidence of the existence of a conspiracy." Mr. Grow — " I demand the previous question." Mr. Maynard, (Am.,) of Tennessee — " I claim the right to say a word pertaining to myself." Mr. Grow — " I ought to have said the gentleman from Tennessee yesterday afternoon objected to the resolution because of the fewness of the members then present." The Speaker — " The question is now on the adop tion of the resolution." Mr. Kunkle, (Dem.,) of Maryland — " I object to the resolution." Cries from the Republican side, " Too late." Mr. Kunkle — " I announced my intention to ob ject to it long since. As the gentleman from Penn sylvania indulged in some remarks reflecting on this side of the House, and as he desires some one to take the responsibility of objecting to this miserable im position or reflection on the people of Maryland, there is one here to object, and I am he." Mr. Grow — " I called the-previous question." Mr. Branch — "I said I would object until the Chairman came in, but I have since been informed that the resolution was agreeable to him." Mr. Kunkle — " I have my rights on this floor, and they cannot arbitrarily be taken from me by any MR. GILMER'S SPEECH. 285 man. I have a right to object Exciting Passage. to the resolution, under the rule, as soon as I get the recog nition of the Speaker. I will never relinquish my rights. I repeat my objection." The Speaker said he would not attempt to deprive the gentleman of any right, but the gentleman from Pennsylvania demanded the previous question before the gentleman from Maryland was recognized by the Chair. Mr. Kunkle— "I was on the floor." The Speaker — " But the gentleman was not recog nized." Mr. Kunkel — " I am aware that the gentleman who occupies the chair is not well disposed toward me at any time." Calls from the Republican side to order. Mr. Craige, (Dem.,) of North Carolina, wanted to offer an amendment. Mr. Grow — "I have demanded the previous ques tion." Mr. Craige, amid much confusion, indicated his amendment: that the Committee further inquire by what authority troops were stationed on the south ern side of the Capitol. Was it to control the pro ceedings here at the point of the bayonet and the mouth of cannon ? Grow carried his point, and the resolution was adopted. The conspirators were fairly beaten. Howard, of Michigan, as President of the Commission to Kansas, proved how dangerous a person he was to all evil doers; and that the investigation proposed would be most unflinchingly made the disorganizes had good reason to feel. Thomas, (Dem.,) of Tennessee, laid before the House the resolutions of the Tennessee Legislature, [see pp. 247-248,] in response to the New York members. The consideration of the Clark's (of Mo.,) ~ . t-, , ,. s h Corwin Report was then resumed. Clark, (Dem.) of Missouri, having the floor, addressed the House. His remarks were of the usual cha racter of those already made by gentlemen of the Secession school. Being hard pressed, however, he confessed that " he would first exhaust all constitutional means ; but he would tell the Republicans that, unless some thing was speedily done to restore peace, and give the Border States guarantees of their constitutional rights, the Union cannot be preserved ; and they will go where they can find their interests better protected. He hoped, however, that they would be spared from such a necessity." Mr. Gilmer, (Am.) of North Carolina, followed, Gilmer's speech. in a carefully considered speech. It was listened to with much inter est, as indicating North Carolina sentiments. His views were " conservative," and his con demnation of secession hearty. For thirty years, he said, South Carolina had been en gaged in trying to bring Southern mind up to its present point. She started with nulli fication as a peaceful remedy, but Jackson crushed it out. Then the idea of secession was born and studiously nursed, as a peaceful remedy for Southern ills. Nullification could never have many friends, and secession would have but very few, were it not for that decoy doctrine, the fruitful and seductive recom mendation which was attached to it, that it was peaceful in character. Coming down to the history of events within the last twelve months, he said, the Democratic party had been broken up by the nullifiers and seceders at Charleston and Baltimore. Their nulli fying friends, on that occasion, relied upon the action they might take in a separate Con vention, which, it was said, contained many prudent and patriotic men. They did not then hold out the idea that the election of Lincoln would be a just cause for disrupting the Government. They held out the fact that they have made a Union nomination, and placed at the head of their ticket Union- loving men. But when they were charged with having had a design to disrupt the Government in case they were defeated, and in case Lincoln was elected, these men almost universally and generally, throughout the South, denied the charge most manfully. The men who controlled that party — the men who were first on the Breckenridge ticket, and who declared that nullification was peace ful, and secession was a proper and peaceful remedy — where were they now ? They were scattered everywhere over the Southern States, doing all they could to destroy the Government and break up the Union. No counsel for delay, for calm consideration, came from them; but the wild and inflam mable dispatches which flew over the South, to fire the Southern heart, betrayed their 286 THE SOUTHERN REBELLION, baleful influence in subvert- Gilmer's Speech. jng the sentiments of the people to destroy the Union. Mr. Gilmer then adverted to the dangerous character of the Virginia manifesto, [See page 247.] It contained two propositions, alike fallacious and destructive: namely, that Vir ginia's only safety was to leave the Union ; and, second, that such a course was the only way to reconstruct the Union. He also ad verted, in the same connection, to Senator Clingman's letter to a leading North Carolina paper, in which the Senator explicitly warn ed the people that it was the determination of the Republican party to subjugate the South, and, finally, to abolish Slavery in the States even at the risk of civil war ! There was a purpose in this most wicked, most baleful misrepresentation to the people ; but, he knew if the people of the Border States could be assured that the object of these men who were hurrying the South into extremes was to break up the Union, they would shud der with horror at the very idea, as the men who voted for Breckenridge would, at the knowledge of the truth, had they been told, as they ought to have been told, that the men who put Mr. Breckenridge in nomina tion intended to break up the Union if they failed. They would have shuddered at the idea of assisting in such a work. The honest farmers and mechanics and traders of the South would shudder if they were told that the movement, represented to them as one intended for the purpose of securing South ern rights under a reconstruction of the Gov ernment, was, in fact, designed by the men of the Baltimore Platform, to dissever the Union and break up the Government. The men of the South would shudder at the great mistake they had made in voting in compli ance with those secessionists and disunion ists. They might as well hope to put to gether the delicate machinery of a watch, after it had been broken into atoms by the heavy strokes of a sledge-hammer, as to hope for a reconstruction of this Government and Union, after a virtual separation. The speaker earnestly pressed the readop- tion of the Missouri Compromise. He did not advocate concession because of revolution ; but thought that, immaterial as the conces sion was, it would disarm the false statements so sedu- Gilmer's Speech. lously made to bewilder and lead astray the mass of the Southern people. Only prove to them the baseness of the repre sentations made, and the power of the conspi rators for harm would be gone. He said : — " There was not a man in the House who would put his hand on his breast and say that he be lieved that the concession would make one Slave State more or less, or the Free States one more or less. Let them do this, and the question would be settled forever, and those disunionists who were still among them would go hence, weeping and wailing and gnashing their teeth, at the downfall of all their cher ished hopes and ambitious designs." He elaborated on the various propositions made, and favored that of Mr. Corwin as best to allay excitement, to restore confidence, and to save the Border States from the revolution. He thus closed : — " If these things go on unchecked, then civil war is inevitable. Then prepare to see your country laid waste, all the channels of communication and trade broken up, their shipping destroyed and their commerce ruined, their fields drenched with blood, and their homes desolated. Then would wives, and mothers, and sisters, reproachfully ask them, why it was they had done nothing to ward off the calamities of the land ? Why did they not say something, when they had the opportunity, that would have averted those terrible evils ? In those days the remembrance of what they might have done to save their country from this saturnalia of horrors will come to torment them, and then a harvest of punishment will be in that retrospection. He would ask them while there was yet time, would they, on u mere abstraction, the surrender of which could do them no harm, pre cipitate ruin on the country ? He begged gentlemen to take these things to heart, and offer this basis of conciliation to their brethren of the South. He would not envy the feelings of men, North or South, who would at this time, in the dread hour of impending calamity upon them, here now in this Congress, not unite heart and hand to settle this terrible contro versy by yielding a petty, trifling abstraction." This speech, so excellent in spirit, so strong in fact, so suggestive for action, stood out in strong contrast to the wild logic and irrational statements of Mr. Clingman. North Carolina's misfortune was to have been mis represented by her Senator, for it is incontest able that Mr. Gilmer, at the date under con- RESUME. 287 sideration, embodied the feelings and wishes of the -\ast majority of the people of his really conservative State. Mr. Alley, (Rep.,) of Alley's speech. Massachusetts, followed. He wondered at disunion, since, to the South especially, it was suicide. The North, he conceded, would at first suf fer, but her gigantic resources would soon recover from the changes of trade, when she would open for herself new channels equal to all her requirements. Indeed, he thought the North would be better off, commercially, so long as there was such a want of harmony and confidence between the two sections. To expect the North, which stood upon the Constitution, which adopted the old and long-settled views of Washington, Jefferson and other fathers of the Government, on the question of Slavery, was going to humble it self before the arrogance of the Slave power, was simply preposterous. The North stood, on that question, precisely where the great men of the South had always stood until within a very recent period. Because the South had changed front was no reason why the North should do the same, and abandon its deep-rooted convictions in giving consti tutional guarantees and protection to Sla very. The North had no power, no desire to interfere with Slavery in the States, but they would be degenerate sons of most wor thy sires if they consented to the extension of Slavery in the Territories. The South, he said, had had possession of the National Gov ernment for more than half a century, and her sons hat} monopolized a large share of the offices and emoluments, and received the lion's share of appropriations. The North had paid for many years more than three- fourths of the revenue, and most of it had been spent for the benefit of the South. The South, in its arbitrary exercise of power and its propagandism, had a parallel in the reign of James H., who was a propagandist of the Roman Catholic religion. To serve that interest, he abused his power, violated the Constitution, and was driven into exile as a reward for his tyranny. So it was with the Slave Power — it had been driven into exile, he trusted, as returnless as that of James H. He vindicated Massachusetts ; she would be true to all her constitutional obligations. Her fidelity to the Union was but the record of her history. He vindicated her Governor, and said that Massachusetts had had twenty- one Governors since 1780 — all of them able and distinguished — most of them eminent — some of them illustrious men, and, in every thing that constituted true greatness of mind and character, not one among them all was superior to John A. Andrew. He had faith in the wisdom and patriotism of the Ameri can people, and if they were true to their convictions, they had a future most hopeful, a mission most important, a destiny most glorious. A review of this week's proceedings will show that Resume. the disunion movement had bitter opponents in Southern men, and that, could they have been heard effectually by the people of the Border States, both Virginia and North Carolina would have been spared the dreadful plunge. But, so true is it that the machinations of the Evil One are more potent with men than the quiet promises of Angels, that the revolution gained force even as there dawned hope of staying it. The disunion leaders at Washington fairly bur dened the mails to the South with their trea sonable and baleful correspondence and docu ments. Did a member from a Slave State make a Union speech, immediately there was dispatched to his district such a counter-flood of falsehood and calumny as not only impair ed his own standing with his constituents, but added immeasurably to the disunion sen timent. It was by such means — means whose invention Would have added new lustre to Machiavel's crown of dishonor — that Ten nessee, North Carolina and Virginia were given up to the embraces of the monster whose very breath was political and social poison. We can imagine that the Angels of Darkness bore to Lucifer's court glad tidings during those eventful days — that his galleries of. glory became lustrous with the records of America's dishonored and dishonoring sons. CHAPTER XIX. PRESSURE FOR COMPROMISE. MR. LINCOLN'S POLICY. THE PEACE CONGRESS APPOINTMENTS. MENACING ATTITUDE OF AFFAIRS IN CHARLESTON. COLONEL HAYNE'S FINAL DEMANDS. HIS LETTER TO THE PRESIDENT. MR. HOLT'S REPLY. THE POSI TION OF THE GOVERNMENT. Outside Pressure for Compromise. Events of the closing week of January tended to demonstrate the improba bility of any settlement of the vexed questions between the North and South. A very strong pressure was brought to bear on Congress, by petitions, by letters, by special deputations, and by eminent men who gathered at the Capital to lend their influence to compro mise. A delegation of thirty-three citizens, from Philadelphia, representing fifty thousand working-men of that city, visited Washing ton January 30th. In a call upon Senator Crittenden, they stated their object to be to testify their love for the Union and their de sire to urge the adoption of the Crittenden Compromise by Congress. Delegations were also present from New York and Boston, un derstood to represent the commercial inter ests of those great business centres. They, too, favored the Crittenden propositions, and urged powerful monetary reasons why a settlement should be made. Great in fluence was exerted by the voice from Wall street. A conference of members of the Border States was held, January 30th, at the request of the delegation from New York City. The delegation urged that, as the Republicans would not receive the Crit tenden resolutions, some other practical pro position should be devised which did not re quire any surrender of principle at their hands. Several members from the Border Slave States expressed a willingness to accept the Corwin propositions, "with proper modifications;" and even the lately belligerent Rust, of Ar kansas, is represented as having exhibited a conciliatory disposition — so humanizing and harmonizing was the power of gold. Al though no definite proposition grew out of the conference, it was conceived to have done much good in lessening the divisions between the widely dissevered parties. Dispatches to the Asso ciated Press, from Wash- News Dispatches. ington, January 28th, made, among others, the following announcements : " Affairs wear a more hopeful aspect. A large number of distinguished gentlemen, from all parts of the country, are encouraged by the prospect of being able to contribute to a restoration of good feeling between the two sections. The repeal of the Personal Liberty bill in Rhode Island, and the late action of the Ohio Legislature on the same sub ject, are hailed by the friends of the Union as har bingers of peace. " The Boards of Trade of Milwaukee and Chicago paid their respects, to-day, to President Buchanan and to Senators Douglas, Seward and others. In their interview with the President he said : " If Mr. Lincoln shall enjoy his accession to power as much as I do my retirement from it, he will be a happy man." Senator Seward, in the course of his con versation with the Members of the Boards, said: " Heretofore the cry has been raised to save the Union," when the Union was not in danger. I tell you, my friends, the question of Slavery is not now to be taken into account. We must save the Union. Then we save all that is worth saving. " " The great point now aimed at by the friends of the Union is to avoid all pretext for a collision by the Seceding States, in the hope that the ' sober, second thought of the people,' if adjustment meas ures shall be presented, will induce them to resume their connection with the Federal Government. " The friends of the Union are much encou raged by the prompt responses to the invitation for Commissioners from the several States to meet in Convention here on the 4th of February, and it is believed the action of the Convention will command POSITION OF MR. LINCOLN'S PARTY, 289 the support of a large majority of both branches of Congress. " It is now certain that private letters have been received from Mr. Lincoln, urging his friends to con ciliation and compromise, and it is stated that he indicates the Border State resolutions as a reason able basis of adjustment. The assurance is given that this information is reliable. Soon after the Electoral vote shall be counted in the presence of the two Houses of Congress, on the second Wednes day in February, Mr. Lincoln will acquaint, the public with his views on the pending crisis. Here tofore he has not felt that it was proper for him, in advance of the official declaration of his election, to take a prominent part in the direction of political affairs." This latter dispatch crea- Mr. Lincoln's , - . . ,. Position. ted much remark, particu larly in Republican circles, with whom compromise by concession was rapidly becoming unpopular. It received, however, an early rejoinder from Springfield, 111. The Journal, of that city, understood to speak for Mr. Lincoln, in its issue of January 29th, said : " The country may rest assured that in Abraham Lincoln they have a Repub lican President — one who will give them a Republican Administration. Mr. Lincoln is not committed to the Border State Compro mise, nor to any other. He stands immovably on the Chicago Platform, and he will neither acquiesce in, nor counsel his friends to acqui esce in, any compromise that surrenders one iota of it." This was confirmed by an editorial in a leading Republican journal of New York City, which, in its issue of the 30th, said of the news dispatch : " We do not hesitate to say that these statements are false and calumnious . We have the best author ity for saying that Mr. Lincoln is opposed to all con cessions of the sort. We know that his views are fully expressed in his own language as follows :" ' I will suffer death before I will consent or advise my friends to consent to any concession or compromise which looks like buying the privilege of taking possession of the Government to which we have a constitutional right ; be cause, whatever I might think of the merit of the various propositions before Congress, I should regard any conces sion in the face of menace as the destruction of the Govern ment itself, and a consent on all hands that our system shall be brought down to a level with t ,e existing disorganized Btate of affairs in Mexico. But this thing will hereafter be, as it is now, in the bands of the people ; and if they desire to call a Convention to remove any grievances complained if, or to give new guarantees for the permanence of vested ights, it is not mine to oppose.' " 37 The same journal added, as to the real atti tude of the party : " This is not only to be taken as Mr. Lincoln's de claration of his own views, but it amply expresses the conviction of every unshaken Republican as to the duty of the hour. First inaugurate the new Ad ministration and determine the question of questions whether we have a Government, or only a Mexican anarchy ; and when that problem is disposed of, it will be time enough to consider and settle matters of inferior consequence." The speeches made dur ing the week by leading Position of his Party. Republicans confirmed this view. Wilson, of Massachusetts, Thaddeus Stevens, of Pennsylvania, Adams, of Massa chusetts, Seward, of New York, Conkling, of New York, and others, while they deprecated a course likely to precipitate matters, still were so firm in their Union sentiments, and so resolute in demanding the fullest obedience to the laws, that the country felt their minds were made up against concessions to the ex tent demanded. Both Messrs. Seward and Adams were eminently conciliatory; both strove so to harmonize feelings as to place the responsibility of further revolution on the Border Slave States. But, the stern fact that South Carolina disdained to be represented at the " Peace Congress," [see page 256,] and, speaking for the States soon to gather at Montgomery to establish a new Confederacy, gave indications that no settlement was want ed or was possible,* the declarations of with drawing members, and of Pryor, of Virginia, proving that concessions would prove futile * The Charleston Mercury, in its issue of January 25th, expressed the feeling of its partisans as re garded compromise in these words : — "What remains to us still, to be surrendered by compromise ? Our homesteads, agriculture, slaves, wives, and children. And these may very soon go, where a people are represented by those who seem to have compromised away their own manhood. Verily, the attitude they now exhibit, supplicants at the feet of Black Repub licanism, for simple words of fraud and evasion, which will enable them still to compromise away the rights and securities of a people, strips them of all claim, whether as men of sense or men of honor; and, if Black Republicans should spurn them, as An tonio spurned and spat upon Shylock, their proper speech would be, in the language of Maworm in the play : ' We loves to be contemptible !'" m* 290 THE SOUTHERN REBELLION. to restore the Seceded States — all tended to confirm the conviction prevailing, to a great extent, in all the Free States, that compro mise would not only prove useless but would savor of weakness, and must, therefore, in no small degree, commit the new Administration to a line of policy at once embarrassing and humiliating. Mr. Lincoln's position unques tionably was wisely chosen, so far as he was concerned ; and daily the public mind be came convinced that his "non-committalism," at least, was prudent and sagacious. The appointment, by the Governors and Legislatures of the several States, of " Com missioners " to the " Peace Congress," pretty clearly indicated the character of that assem blage of men. As a general thing " conser vatives" were chosen. So decidedly did the cool and cautious element predominate that it was called "the Old Gentlemen's" Con gress. The appointments, as announced, were as follows : Pennsylvania : Wm. M. Meredith, Ex-Gov. Pollock, David Wilmot, Judge Thos. White, Thos. E. Franklin, A. W. Loomis, and Wm. McKennan. Ohio : Ex-Gov. Salmon P. Chase, Hon. Thos. Ewing, Judge J. C. Wright, Wm. Groesbeck, Judge Reuben Hitchcock, Judge J. T. Backus, and V. B. Horton. Kentucky : Hon. James Guthrie, Gen. Wm. O. Butler, Ex-Gov. Wickliffe, Ex-Gov. Moore- head, Joshua F. Bell, and James B. Clay. Maryland : Reverdy Johnson, Aug. W. Bradford, Wm. S. Goldsborough, Jno. W. Crisfield, and J. Dixon Roman. Missouri : Waldo P. Johnson, Judge. Hough, Col. Doniphan, Judge Berckner, and John D. Coulter. New Hampshire : Amos Tuck, Asa Fowler, and Levi Chamberlain. Rhode Island : Chief-Justice Ames, Alex. Duncan, Ex-Gov. Hoppin, Geo. H. Browne, and Saml. Y. Arnold. Vermont: Ex-Gov. Hiland Hall, Lieutc- Gov. Levi Underwood, Gen. H. Henny Bax ter, Hons. L. E. Chittenden and D. B. Harris. Illinois : John Wood, Gustavus A. Korner, Stephen T. Logan, Thos. J. Turner, and Bur ton C. Cook.* * The Illinois Legislature resolves relating to the Commission were understood to have been drawn Indiana : Hon. Caleb B. Smith, P. A. Huckleman, G. S. Orth, E. W. H. Lewis, and T. C. Sloughton. Massachusetts : Jno. B. Goodrich, Chas. Allen, Ex-Gov. Boutwell, M. Forbes, Francis B. Crowningshield, Theo. P. Chandler, and Richard P. Waters. New York : David Dudley Field, Wm. Curtis Noyes, James C. Smith, Amaziah B. James, James S. Wadsworth,Erastus Corning, up under Mr. Lincoln's supervision. They were adopted February 1st, and read as follows : " Whereas, Resolutions of the State of Virginia have been communicated to the General Assembly of this State, proposing the appointment of Commis sioners by the several States, to meet in Convention on the 4th day of February, 1861, at Washington: " Resolved, by the Senate, the House of Represent atives concurring herein, That with the earnest de sire for the return of harmony and kind relations among our States, and out of respect to the Com monwealth of Virginia, the Governor of the State be requested to appoint five Commissioners on the part of Illinois to confer and consult with the Commis sioners of other States who shall meet at Washing ton ; provided, that said Commissioners shall at all times be subject to the control of the General As sembly of the State of Illinois. " Resolved, That the appointment of Commission ers by the State of Illinois in response to the invita tion of the State of Virginia, is not an expression of opinion on the part of this State that any amend ment of the Federal Constitution is requisite to afford to the people of the Slaveholding States adequate guarantees for security of their rights, nor an ap proval of the basis of settlement of our difficulties proposed by the State of Virginia, but .it is an ex pression of our willingness to unite with the State of Virginia in an earnest effort to adjust the present unhappy controversy in the spirit in which the Con stitution was originally framed and consistently with its principles. " Resolved, That while we are willing to appoint Commissioners to meet in Convention with those of other States for consultation upon matters which at present distract our harmony as a nation, we also insist that the appropriate constitutional method of considering and acting upon the grievances com plained of by our sister States would be by the call of a Convention for the amendment of the Constitu tion in the manner contemplated by the fifth article , of that instrument ; and if the States deeming them selves aggrieved shall request Congress to call such Convention^he Legislature of Illinois will and doM concur in such call." HAYNE FINAL DEMAND. 291 Warlike Attitude of Charleston Harbor. Addison Gardiner, Greene C. Bronson, Wm. E. Dodge, Ex.-Gov. John A. King, and Maj.- Gen. John E. Wool. Iowa, New Jersey, Connecticut, Delaware and North Carolina were also properly re presented. Affairs at Fort Sumter remained unchanged at the assembling of the Confede rate Congress, February 4th. Anderson's industry had enabled him to mount sufficient guns, bearing on the opposing fortifications, to make a stern defence in event of an as sault. Works continued to go up on Morris,' Sullivans' and James' Islands. The activity of South Carolinians betokened a stubborn spirit of war. Among other instruments of offense a floating battery was under construc tion, during January, which gave promise of proving a formidable engine of destruction. It was designed to mount a number of heavy' guns, and to be worked at any convenient point. Being constructed of green pine and palmetto logs and ribbed with heavy railroad iron, it was regarded as impervious to shot. Its construction, as well as the erection of several elaborate batteries and defences on the islands named, proved that the belea guered eighty men would experience the hazard of a terrific assault, when the word was given to open fire on Sumter. Colonel Hayne, the South Carolina Com missioner to the Federal Government, made his final demand of the President, Thursday, January 31st. His first call was made on the President, January 15th [see page 244.] He was, however, induced, by the influence of Jefferson Davis and nine other Senators, to make no formal demand, as at that time his orders seemed to require ; and the telegraph to Charleston was freely used by these parties, in their endeavors to hold the matter in abeyance. These gentlemen opened, in the stead of Colonel Hayne, a correspondence with the President, which was turned over to Secretary Holt to answer [see page 254, &c] Colonel Haynes' final demand, however, was made January 31st. The concluding portion of his letter to the President read as follows : " To send reenforcements to Fort Sumter, could not serve as a means of protecting and preserv ing the property, for it must be known to your Col. Hayne's Final Demand. Government that it would in evitably lead to immediate hos tilities in which property on all sides would necessarily suffer. South Carolina has every disposition to preserve the public peace, and feels, I am sure, in full force, those high Christian and moral duties referred to by your Secretary ; and it is submitted that on her part there is scarcely any con sideration of mere property, apart from honor and safety, which could induce her to do aught to the prejudice of that peace, still less to inaugurate a protracted and bloody civil war. She holds her po sition on something higher than mere property. It is in consideration of her own dignity as a sovereign, and the safety of her people, which prompts her to demand that the property should not longer be used as a military post by a Government she no longer acknowledges. She feels this to be her imperative duty — it has, in fact, become an absolute necessity of her condition. Repudiating, as you do, the idea of coercion, avowing peaceful intentions, and ex pressing a patriot's horror of civil war and bloody strife, among those who were once brethren, it is hoped that, on further consideration, you will not, on a mere question of property, refuse the reason able demand of South Carolina, which honor and necessity alike compel her to indicate. Should you disappoint this hope, the responsibility for the result surely does not rest with her. If the evils of war are to be encountered, especially the calamities of civil war, elevated statesmanship would seem to re quire that it should be accepted as the unavoidable alternative of something still more disastrous, such as national dishonor, or measures materially affecting the safety or permanent interests of a people ; that it should be a choice deliberately made and entered upon — war and its set purpose. But that war should be the incident or accident attendant on a policy professedly peaceful, and not required to effect the object which is avowed as the only end intended, can only be excused where there has been no warning given as to the consequences. I am instructed, further, to say that South Carolina cannot, by her silence, appear to acquiesce in the imputation that she was guilty of an act of unpro voked aggression, in firing on the Star of the West. Though an unarmed vessel she was filled with armed men, entering her territories against her will, with the purpose of reenforcing a garrison held within her limits and against her protest. She forbears to recriminate by discussing the question of the pro priety of attempting such reenforcement at all, as well as of the disguised and secret manner in which it was intended to be effected, and on this occasion she will say nothing as to the manner in which Fort Sumter was taken into the possession of its present 292 THE SOUTHERN REBELLIO! Col. Hayne's Final Demand. occupant. The interposition of the Senators who have ad dressed you was a circumstance unexpected by my Government, and unsolicited, cer tainly, by me. The Governor of South Carolina, while he appreciates the high and generous motives by which they were prompted, and while he fully ap proves the delay which, in deference to them, has taken place in the presentation of this demand, feels that it cannot longer be withheld. I conclude with an abstract from instructions just received by me from the Government of South Carolina : ' The letter of the President through Mr. Holt may be re ceived as the reply to the question you were instructed to ask. As to his assertion of his right to send reenforcements to Fort Sumter, you were instructed to say to him, if be as serted that right, that the State of South Carolina regarded such a right when asserted, or with an attempt at its exer cise, as a declaration of war If tbe President intends it shall not be so understood, it is proper, to avoid any miscon ception hereafter, mat he should be informed of the manner in which the Governor will feel bound to regard it. If tbe President, when you have stated the reasons which prompt tbe Governor, In making the demand for the delivery of Fort Sumter, upon tbe pledge you have been authorized to make, should refuse, you will communicate that refusal without delay to tbe Governor. If the President shall not be prepared to give you an immediate answer, you will com municate to Wm that his answer may be transmitted within a reasonable time to the Governmental this place, (Charles ton.) The Governor does not consider it necessary that you should remain longer in Washington than is necessary to ex- (cute this, the closing duty of your mission, in the manner now indicat d to you. As soon as the Governor shall re ceive from you information that you have closed your mis sion, and the reply, whatever it may be, of the President, he will consider the conduct whicn may be necessary on his part.' " Allow me to request that you will, as soon as possible, inform me whether, under these instruc tions, I need await your answer in Washington, and if not, I would be pleased to convey from yon to my Government information as to the time when an an swer may be expected in Charleston." The reply to this communication was not made until February 6th, when it was an swered, at some length, by Secretary Holt. It is an important paper in all its bearings, in defining what must be the relation of the Federal Government to its property every where, what its rights of jurisdiction, and the nature of its political supremacy. We therefore give it at length : " War Department, ) Secretary Holt's Feb. 6, 1861. j "Sik: The President has re ceived your letter of the 31st ult., and has charged me with the duty of replying thereto. In the com munication addressed to the President by Gov. Pick ens, under date of the 12th January, and which ac- Secretary Holt's Rejoinder. companied yours now before me, his Excellency says : ' I have determined to send to yon tbe Hon. J. W. Hayne, tbeAltorney-Cencral of the State of South Carolina, and have instructed him to demand the surrender of Fort Sumtet- in the hai bor of Charleston to the constituted authority of Suuth Carolina. This demand I have made of Major Anderson, and which I now make of you, is suggested, because of my earn est desire to avoid the bloodshed which a persistence in your attempt to retain the possession of that fort will cause, and which will be unavailing to secure to you that posses sion, but induce a calamity most deeply to be deplored,' " The character of the demand which was author ized to be made appears, under the influence, I pre sume, of the correspondence with the Senators to which you refer, to have been modified by the sub sequent instructions of his Excellency, dated the 26th and received by yourself on the 30th of Jan uary, in which he says : ' If it be so, that Fort Sum ter is held as property, the rights, whatever they may be, of the United States can be ascertained, and for the satisfaction of these rights, on the pledge of the State of South Carolina, you are authorized to give the full scope.' The precise purport of your instructions, as thus modified, you have expressed in the following words : ' I do not come as a military man to demand the surrender of a fortress, but as the legal officer of the State, its Attorney-General, to claim for the State the exercise of its nndoubted right of eminent domain, and to pledge the State to make good all injury to the rights of property which arise from the exercise of the claim,' and lest this explicit language should not sufficiently define your position, you add : ' The, proposition now is that her (South Carolina's) law officer should, under the au thority of the Governor and his council, distinctly pledge the faith of South Carolina to make such compensation in regard to Fort Sumter and its ap purtenances and contents, to the full extent of the money value of the property of the United States de livered over to the authorities of South Carolina by your command.' You then adopt his Excellency's train of thought upon the subject, so far as relates to the suggestion that the possession of Fort Sumter by the United States, if continued long enough, must lead to a collision, and that an attack upon it would scarcely improve it as property, whatever the re- sult;and if captured it would no longer be the sub ject of account. " The proposal, then, now presented to the Presi dent, is simply an offer, on the part of South Caro lina, to buy Fort Sumter and contents as properly of the United States, sustained by a declaration in effect that if she is not permitted to make a purchase, she will seize the Fort by force of arms. " As the invitation of a negotiation for the trans fer of property between friendly Governments, this SECRETARY IIOLTS REJOINDER. 293 Secretary Holt's Rejoinder. proposal impresses the Presi dent as having assumed a most unusual form. He has, however, investigated the claim on which it professes to be based, apart from the declaration that accompanies it. And be it here remarked, that much stress has been laid npon the employment of the words ' pro perty' and ' public property,' by the President, in his several messages. Those are the most comprehensive terms which can be used in such a connection ; and. surely, when referring to a fort, or any other public establishment, they embrace the entire and undi vided interest of the Government therein. The title of the United States to Fort Sumter is complete and incontestable. Were its interests in the property proprietary, in the ordinary acceptation of the term, it might probably be subjected to the exercise of the right of eminent domain. But, it has also political relations to it, of much higher and more imposing cha racter than those of mere proprietorship. It has ab solute jurisdiction over the fort and the soil on which it stands. This jurisdiction consists in the authority to exercise exclusive legislation over the property referred to, and is therefore clearly incompatible with the claims of eminent domain now insisted on by South Carolina. This authority was not derived from any questionable revolutionary source, but from the peaceful cession of South Carolina herself, acting through her Legislature, under a provision of the United States. South Carolina can no more assert the right of eminent domain over Fori Sumter than Maryland can assert it over the District of Columbia. The political and proprietary rights of the United States, in either case, rest upon precisely the same grounds. " The President, however, is relieved from the ne cessity of further pursuing this inquiry, by the fact that, whatever may be the claim of South Carolina to this Fort, he has not constitutional power to cede or surrender it. The property title in the State has been acquired by the force of public law, and can only be disposed of under the same solemn sanctions. The President, as the head of the Executive branch of the Government only, can no more sell and transfer Fort Sumter to Sonth Carolina, than he can sell and convey the Capital of the United States to Maryland, or to any other State or individual seeking to possess it. His Excellency, the Governor, is too familiar with the Constitution of the United States, and with the limitations upon the powers of the Chief Magis trate of the Government it has established, not to appreciate at once the soundness of this legal pro position. " The question of reenforcing Fort Sumter is so fully disposed of in my letter to Senator Slidell, and others, under date of the 22d of January, a copy of Secretary Holt's Rejoinder. which accompanies this, that its discussion will not be renewed. I then said : ' At the present mo ment it is not deemed necessary to reenforce Major Anderson, because he makes no such request. Should his safety, however, require reenforcements, every effort will be made to supply them.' I can add nothing to the explicitness of this language, which still applies to the existing status. The right to send forward reenforcements, when, in the judgment of the President, the safety of the garrison requires them, rests on the same unquestionable foundation as the right to occupy the fortress itself. In the let ter of Senator Davis and others to yourself, under date of the 15th ult., they say: ' We therefore think it due from South Carolina to our States, to say no thing of the other Slaveholding States, that she should, as far as she can consistently with her honor, avoid initiating hostilities between her and the United States or any other power;' and you now, yourself, give the President the gratifying assurance that South Carolina has every disposition to pre serve the public peace, and since he is, himself, sin cerely animated by the same desire, it would seem that this common and patriotic object must be of certain attainment. It is difficult, however, to re concile with this assurance the declaration on your part that it is ' a consideration of her (South Caro lina's) own dignity as a sovereignty, and the safety of her people, prompts her to demand that this pro perty should not longer be used as a military post by a Government she no longer acknowledges.' The thought you so constantly present is, that this occupation must lead to a collision of arms and the prevalence of civil war. Fort Sumter is, in itself, a military post and nothing else, and it would seem that not so much the fact, as the purpose of its use, should give to it a hostile or a friendly character. This fortress is now held by the Government of the United States for the same objects for which it has been held from the completion of its construction. These are national and defensive, and were a public enemy now to attempt the capture of Charleston, or the destruction of the commerce of its harbor, the whole force of the batteries of this fortress would be exerted for their protection. How the presence of a small garrison, aotuated by such a spirit as this, can compromise the dignity or honor of South Caro lina, or become a source of irritation to her people, the President is at a loss to understand. The atti tude of that garrison, as has been often declared, is neither menacing, nor defiant, nor unfriendly. It is acting under orders to stand strictly-on the defen sive, and the Government and people of South Caro lina must well know that they can never receive aught but shelter from its guns, unless, in the ab- 294 THE SOUTHERN REBELLION. Secretary Holt's Rejoinder. scnce of all provocation, they should assault it and seek its destruction. "The intent with which this fortress is held by the President is truthfully stated by Senator Davis, and others, in their letter to yourself of the 15th of January, in which they say : ' It is not held with any unfriendly or hostile purpose toward your State, but merely as property of the United States, which the President deems it his duty to protect and preserve. If the announcement so repeatedly made, of the President's pacific purposes in continuing the occu pation of Fort Sumter, until the question shall have been settled by competent authority, has failed to impress the Government of South Carolina, the for bearing conduct of his Administration, for the last few months, should be received as conclusive evi dence of his sincerity ; and if this forbearance, in view of the circumstances which have so severely tried it, be not accepted as a satisfactory pledge of the peaceful policy of this Administration toward South Carolina, then it may be safely affirmed, that neither language nor conduct can possibly furnish one. If, with all the multiplied proofs which exist of the President's anxiety for peace, and of the earnestness with which he has pursued it, the autho rities of South Carolina shall assault Fort Sumter and peril the lives of the handful of brave and loyal menvshut up within its walls, and thus plunge our country into the horrors of civil war, then upon them and those they represent must rest the respon sibility. — Your obdient servant, (Signed) "J. HOLT, " Secretaryof War. " To Hon. I. W. Hayne, Attorney-General of the State of South Carolina." Col. Hayne's answer to Col. Hayne's Reply. tn;s aUe document waS not sent in by the President to Congress along with his message of Feb. 8th, as it came too late for transmission. The position assumed by Mr.Holt only made Gov. Pickens too glad to turn over the question of occupancy to the Southern Confederacy. No apprehensions existed in Washington of an assault by the Governor's orders. The only danger was in the rashness of the war faction, which, led by the fiery Mercury, fairly chafed under the Governor's refusal to precipitate matters. It was considered "humiliating that that offensive rag (the Stars and Stripes) should be flaunted in their faces, and that a handful of men should be permitted to insult the dignity of the State by their presence." Nevertheless, the Governor did not order the assault, and the ardor of the troops spent it self in expediting the works on the islands and in doing guard duty. To prevent reen forcements being thrown into Sumter was the order, and a most unceasing vigilance reigned over the waters and approaches. Of the general news, of the week we may mention News of the Week the following items : January 27th, the Kentucky Legislature adopted, almost unanimously, the Virginia resolutions, guaranteeing the right of transit of Slaves through Free States. January 29th, the Missouri Legislature adopted resolutions, reported from the House Committee on Federal Relations. January 30th, the Grand Jury of Washing ton City found true bills of indictment against Godard Bailey, Wm. H. Russell, and John B. Floyd, as follows: Three cases against Bailey for larceny, in abstracting the bonds intrusted to his custody ; one joint in dictment against Bailey and Russell, for ab stracting the missing bonds; three indict ments against Russell, for receiving the stolen bonds, and one joint indictment against Bai ley, Russell and Floyd, for conspiring to gether to defraud the United States Gov ernment.* January 30th, the North Carolina Legisla ture, after many days of debate, decided to call a State Convention. * A dispatch from Washington, February 1st, thus stated the matter : — " It is ascertained that Mr. Floyd's whole accept ances were $6,900,000. Of these, Mr. Russell and partners retired about $3,000,000, first and last, and can account for half a million more. It therefore appears that at least $3,000,000 are still floating about, held by innocent parties, or were discounted by banks and individuals. Mr. Bailey, who abstract ed the bonds from the Interior Department, has never been examined before the Committee^of In vestigation, and for legal reasons, which may appear hereafter. The act of 1857, which is supposed to re lieve witnesses of Congressional Committees from prosecution, will doubtless be pleaded for the bene fit of some of the parties to this mammoth robbery. Lawyers already maintain that the indictment against Messrs. Russell, Floyd and Bailey for a con spiracy to defraud the Government, is for a crime not known in the criminal statutes. They will all probably escape punishment." CHAPTER XX. PROCEEDINGS OP CONGRESS CONTINUED. NINTH WEEK. COM PROMISE IMPOSSIBLE. IVERSON'S FAREWELL. VIRGINIA'S POSITION. TEXAS SENTIMENT. VARIOUS PROPOSITIONS. THE SPEECHES OP PRYOR, STEVENS, HARRIS, WINSLOW, VANWYCK, CONKLING, LATHAM, HAMILTON, AND OTHERS. COCHRANE'S IMPOST BILL. KELLOGG'S RESOLUTIONS, ETC., ETC. Irreconcilable Dif ferences. If public interest in the proceedings of Congress did not become intensified as the session advanced, it was from weari ness of debate and not from want of import ance in the doings of both Houses. The week under consideration — the ninth of the session — witnessed efforts of great power and significance from leading men ; and, though no advance was made towards the ardently wished-for peaceful adjustment of sectional differences, it was rather from the absolutely irreconcileable nature of those divisions than from a want of the spirit of kindness and conciliation. With very few exceptions, Con gressmen not only felt kindly towards each other, but strove, in their very hearts, to ac complish the peace so congenial, so desira ble to all. Outward things urged them to compromise ; the prosperity of the country, the happiness of the people, the hopes of the future, all seemed to hang upon that word ; while the truly self-sacrificing spirit of the mass of members plead with them on the floors and in the quiet of their chambers for peace, peace. That peace nor compromise grew out of their labors was owing solely to the gulf of principle which lay between the contestants. No subtle ingenuity of leaders could bridge it even with a frail tracery of meaningless words ; its depths neither party would eonsent to fill up by the melting away of their own mountains of political and" social antagonisms. The South stood ready and solicitous to treat ; but it named as its terms what the Republicans could not yield without sacrificing the heart-principle of their party organization. It claimed a recog nition of property in man— it exacted a consti tutional clause to guarantee that recognition against any future legislation — it demanded the division of the unsettled domain, whereby a due proportion should forever be debarred to freedom and consecrated to slavery. To concede the claim — to accede to the demand — were to confess the election of Mr. Lincoln to be a wrong, the Republican party to be a dangerous political organization, the Con stitution to be imperfect, and the principle of a majority rule to be a fiction. At least, so reasoned the masses of the party — so felt their leaders in Congress ; and, so reasoning and_feeling, to have compromised upon any plan offered, would have argued an abase ment of which they could not be guilty. The South had raised the standard of revolution tn force the concessions demanded; therefore she would uot accept less. To have accepted less would have argued defeat, at once fo reign to its spirit and its principles. Hence, though Mr. Seward offered the olive-branch — though Mr. Adams poured oil upon the seething waters — though patriotic Southern men extended hands for fellowship, there swept beneath the outward sea of troubles a tide of feeling, a strength of pur pose, which words were powerless to calm. The great ship of State staggered before the storm. Not even jurymasts of compromise would hold — not even staysails of resolutions would stand — not even the ponderous flukes of the Constitution anchor would grapple to make her fast. But, with a seemingly blind instinct, she drifted off the lee-shore and gained an offing, where to ride down the ele ments in comparative safety to her hull. Though upper-works and motive-power were gone, if the hull were left unshattered, all THE SOUTHERN REBELLION. might be repaired, and the glorious creature once again go forth, vigorous with life and strength. The seemingly blind instinct that bore her from the shore, was the deep, resistless undercurrent of American Idea, which exists beneath the surface of our political organism, of our daily progress, of our conflicting popular processes, to bend all things to its superhuman agency, as if the hand of Destiny alone were the impressing power. The American Idea ! Mysterious, silent, yet su preme ; typified in Union and embodied in Democracy ; potential against all forms, and impermeating the age with its humanizing influence: it was the generator of our political being — the monitor of our ways,and must ever be the preserver of our distinctive and glo rious Republic. The Senate's session of Monday (January 28th) was marked by the reception of a num ber of petitions from the people, presented by Seward, Wilson and Crittenden, praying for the passage of compromise resolutions. Mr. Wilson, in presenting the petition of citi zens of Newburyport, made some severe re flections on the petitioners, who prayed for the speedy adoption of the Crittenden reso lutions. He said : " These men prayed for the Wilson's Satire. adoption of the amendments to the Constitution proposed by the Senator from Kentucky, to wit : The recognition of Slavery and its protection South of latitude 30 deg. 30 min., not only in the existing Territory, but in Territory not yet conquered, purchased, or stolen; the denial of any power in Congress to abolish Slavery in the District of Columbia while it existed in Virginia, or to prohibit the transportation of slaves from one State to another, or to Territories recog nizing Slavery ; to pay the owner the full value of a fugitive slave when the Marshal was prevented from arresting him by intimidation, and to take from per sons of African race the right of suffrage which they have possessed in Massachusetts since the Constitu tion, passed by the Revolutionary fathers, was adopted in 1780, and acquire territory in Africa or South America, and send at the expense of the Fed eral Treasury, such free negroes as the States may wish to have removed from their limits. For the adoption of these honorable and humane provisions in the Constitution beyond the power of the people ever to change, the people of the Free States would secure the immense concession of making the fee of the Commissioner no greater for remanding a man to Slavery than for discharging him as a freeman. Surely the prayer of men of Massachusetts for such objects ought to be heeded by the Senate of the United States." Mr. Iverson, of Georgia, having received of ficial notice of the secession of his State, passed the notice and the Ordinance of Seces sion up to the Secretary to be read from his desk. After the reading, the Senator an nounced his withdrawal from the Senate, in the following terms: — " The paper which has just been read informs the Senate, Iverson's Farenell. which has already been an nounced to the public, that the State of Georgia, by a solemn act of Sovereign Convention, has with drawn from the Federal Union. She is no longer one of the United States of America, but has resum ed all the powers granted by her to the Federal Government, and asserted her independence as a separate and sovereign State. In performing this important and solemn act, she has been influenced by the deliberate and firm convictions that her safe ty, her interest, and her honor demanded it. The opinion of her people has been gradually tending to this point for the last ten years, and recent events have- confirmed it; and an overwhelming majority of the people have elected delegates to.-a Conven tion, and expressed in that election a determination to withdraw from the Federal Union. And the Con vention, by a like decisive majority, has passed the Ordinance of Secession. " Georgia is one of six States which, in less than sixty days, have dissolved their connection with the Federal Union, and declared their separate inde pendence. Steps are now in progsess to form a Confederacy of their own, and, in a few weeks at the furthest, a Provisional Government will be formed, giving them ample powers for their own defense, with power to enter into negotiations with other nations, to make war, to conclude peace, to form treaties, and do all other things which inde pendent nations may of right do. Provision will be made for the admission of other States to the new Union, and it is confidently believed that, within a few months, all the Southern States of the late Con federacy will be formed into a Union far more homo geneous, and, therefore, far more stable than the one now broken np. I have only to say that this action of my own State, and of her Southern neigh bors and sisters, meets the approval of my well-con sidered and deliberate judgment, and as one of her native sons and subjects, I shall cheerfully cast my lot with her and them. And, sink or swim, live or die, I shall be of and with her and them to the last. " By the secession of the Southern States, and the THE VIRGINIA PEACE CONVENTION, 297 formation of a Southern Confed- Iverson's Farewell. eracy, two great and moment ous alternatives will devolve on the Federal Government. You may acquiesce in the Revolution, and acknowledge the independence of a great Confederacy, or you may make war on the Se ceding States, and attempt to force them back. If you acknowledge our independence, and treat us as one of the nations of the earth, you can have friendly relations and intercourse with us. You can have an equitable division of the public property, and of the existing public debt of the United States. But if you make war upon us, we will seize and hold all the public property in our borders, and in our reach, arid we will never pay one dollar of the public debt, for the law of nations will extinguish all private and public obligations between the States. The first Federal gun that is fired upon the Secediug States — the first drop of blood of any of their people shed by the Federal troops — will cancel every public and private obligation of the South which may be due either to the Federal Government or to the Northern people. We care not in what shape or form, or under what pretext you undertake coercion. We shall consider all efforts to exercise authority over us as acts of war, and shall meet and resist them accordingly. You may send armies to invade us by land, or you may send ships to blockade onr ports, and destroy our trade and commerce with other na tions. You may abolish our ports of entry, and, by an act of Congress, attempt to collect the Federal revenues by ships of war. You may do all or any of these, or similar acts. They will be acts of war, and so understood and considered, and in whatever shape yon make war we will fight you. " You boast of your superior numbers and strength, but remember that ' the race is not always to the swift, nor the battle to the strong.' You have one hundred thousand fighting men. So have we. And, fighting upon our own soil, and to preserve our rights, and vindicate our honor, and defend our homes, our firesides, our wives and children from the invader, we shall not be easily conquered. You may possibly overrun us, desolate our fields, burn our dwellings, lay our cities in ruins, murder our people, and reduce us to beggary, but you cannot subdue and subjugate us to your will. Yonr con quest, if you gain a victory over us, will amount to but little. You will have to keep a standing army of 100,000 men, costing millions of money, only to keep us in subjection. You may whip us, but we will not stay whipped. We will rise again and again to vindicate our rights and liberty, and to throw off your oppressive and accursed yoke, and we will never cease the strife until our whole white race is extinguished, and our fair land given nver to desolation. You will have ships of war — we may have none. You may blockade our ports and lock Ivorson's Fai ewell up our commerce. We can live, if need be, without commerce. But when you shut up our commerce from the looms of Europe, we shall see whether other nations will not have some thing to say, and something to do, upon that sub ject. ' Cotton is King,' and will oblige you to raise your blockade and draw off your ships. " I know that great hopes are raised, and great efforts made to retain the Border States in the Union. But, let coercive measures be commenced against the Southern Confederacy, or any of the Seceding States, and all such hopes will vanish into thin air. The first act of Federal legislation looking to coercion, the first Federal gun fired, the first Federal ship which takes its station off a Southern port, will bring all the Southern States, including Maryland, laggard as she seems to be in the vindication of a sound independence, into obedience and alliance with their Southern sisters. And thus united, they will resist and defy all your efforts. There are also those who, surrendering all hope of preventing the destruction of the Union, recognizing the existing state of facts, yet hope to see it reconstructed. Sir, a war between the two sections will forever close the door to any such pro ject. "I will not say that the Southern States, if let alone, even after they have formed a Southern Con federacy, will not listen to propositions of reconcili ation. Let the North make them, and we will con sider them. The Southern people have heretofore cherished a firm and sincere reverence and attach ment to the Union, and nothing but stern necessity could have convinced them of the propriety of leav ing it, or could have driven them to the alternative of separation from it ; and when they shall see, if it be not too long delayed, a fraternal sense of justice and good feeling returning to the Northern mind and heart, and when they can find sufficient and reliable guarantees for their rights and equality in the Union, they may, perhaps, reconsider their action, and re join their former confederates. " For myself, I am free to declare that, unless my opinion shall be greatly changed, I shall never agree to a reconstruction of the Federal Union. The Ru bicon is passed, and it shall never, with my consent, be recrossed. But, in this sentiment, I may be overruled. I may safely say that nothing will satisfy them, except the recognition of equality, the safety of the institution of domestic Slavery, and the pro tection of their constitutional rights, for which they have been so long contending in the Union, and the denial of which has forced them to their present at titude of self-defense. " It remains for me now only to express my grate- 298 THE SOUTHERN REBELLION. ful acknowledgments and thanks for the uniform courtesy and kindness with which I have been treated by those Senators with whom I have had official and social intercourse. And in thus wishing them each a long life of prosperity and peace, I bid them farewell." This rather defiant good-bye embodied the true spirit of secession : — brimming with the pride of arrogance, its very insolence rendered it representative ; while the declaration that, if not allowed to go in peace, the revolution ists would still further seize, plunder and confiscate property, and outrage the Federal Government, shows what a mean estimate the conspirators placed upon the still loyal people and States. Iverson was a man of more than ordinary abilities. He would have adorned any society had his education and associations been more truly Christian. He paled before the greater greatness of Mr. Toombs, and was but an echo. He was only his equal in the sense of the proverb — Faci- nus quos inquinat csquat. A message from the Pre- The Virginia Peace . -, . ... ,, „ ,. sident, communicating the Convention. '_ *" vania, in a speech charac terized by much decision, said he would save the Union by remanding the entire question of Slavery in the Territories to the people, to whom its decision properly belonged. Let them battle it out, without the factious inter vention of Congress or of Territorial Legis latures. He would go for the Corwin Report, or for the Crittenden Resolutions, to submit the question of compromise to the people. Speaking of the proposed Convention at Montgomery, he said it might establish a Government stronger than the Federal, but it would, necessarily, be an oligarchy — the few slave-owners would reign, not the majority poor white population. He defended the policy of the Republican party, and thought the aspersions of its enemies as base as they were unfounded. All the agitation which prevails in the South, so far as it is based on the allegations that the people of the North wished to abolish Slavery in the States, is utterly without cause. The statement was a calumny, got up for the bad ends of aiding in the scheme to disrupt the Union. He spoke of the conservatism of Pennsylvania and of Mr. Lincoln, who was the most con servative of any candidate in the Presi dential election. He stood by the Consti tution, let the issue be what it may ; and, in dying, might he stand there and defend it to the last ! The Government of the United States has a right to defend its own exist ence, and it is its duty to do _it against coercion, which is on the part of the Seced ing States. 308 THE SOUTHERN REBELLION. Tho New Jersey Resolutions. Thursday, in both Houses, was a landmark in the legislative history of the revolution. On that day Mr. Seward, in the Senate, and Mr. Adams, in the House, made their last and utmost bids for peace. Representing the dominant party and the incoming Adminis tration, their declarations assumed even more than usual significance. The replies of Ma son and Wigfall, also, embody the sentiments entertained by the revolutionists at this time. Their conjoined speeches will, therefore, serve, in an historical view, as a resume of the practical position of the two sections and parties. We shall, in consequence, dissever them from our current Congressional record, and aecord them the more proper position of a special chapter. [See Chapter XXL] In the Senate session of Friday, February 1st, the President's Message being under consideration, Latham, (Dem.,) of Cal ifornia, expressed his views at length on the state of the country. Previous to the Mes sage being called up, Ten Eyck, (Rep.,) of New Jersey, presented the joint resolutions of the New Jersey Legislature, [see page 251,] expressing a willingness to accept the Crit tenden Resolutions, advising a Convention of the States, appointing Commissioners to Washington, and instructing members of Congress from the State to act in accordance with the resolutions of the Legislature. Mr. Ten Eyck said he owed a higher duty to the country than to the State. He refused to be instructed to the extent of having his actions controlled by the Legislature; — a machine would do as well as a man, if he was to be ordered from Trenton. But, these particular instructions he should particularly hesitate to obey, because he did not believe they re presented the feelings of the people of New Jersey. The Legislature, by an accidental vote, had undertaken to instruct Senators here against the will of a majority of the people. He would not be shackled in such a way. He objected to the resolutions of the Senator from Kentucky, because they provided an unconstitutional mode of amending the Con stitution. He was willing to have an efficient law for the rendition of fugitives, and to repeal all hiws interfering with such law ; but he would insist on the effectual carrying out of the provision, that citizens of each State are entitled to all the privileges in every State. He would not prohibit the transportation of slaves through the States, but would prohibit the traffic in African slaves. If disunion comes, the baseness of the act would only be equalled by its stupendous folly. But, he would not say disunion, for it could not come. Nations do not die easy; man, in his mad folly, may attempt the destruction of the Union, but humanity denounces the act, and God would not permit it. Mr. Latham's views pos sessed interest, apart from Latham's views. their intrinsic nature, as an exposition of the feeling of his far-removed State, in regard to the crisis. He adverted to the loyalty and devotion of California to the Union. Lying in the arms of the Sierra Ne- vadas, she was removed from the evils which might come upon some sections, but was not, therefore, a disinterested spectator of events when the Union was in danger. Disunion ! It was never pronounced by Calhoun ; it was a crime which the boldest ventured even to infer, only a short time since ; now it was fa miliar as a household word to American ears. The great fact was upon us, as the empty seats in the Senate would testify. Whatever the cause, it only remained now for legisla tors to meet the crisis with words and deeds calculated to heal the great discord reigning, and to restore peace and harmony once again. He then proceeded to a discussion of the causes, and to suggest the cure. Secession, as a constitutional right, he considered a fal lacy — there could be no such thing. It was revolution, as Mr. Toombs properly charac terized it. The right of revolution undoubt edly was inherent in man, but must as stren uously be denied by Government. A recog nition of that right would be to sign the death-warrant of Government. It must de pend for its justification upon its success — its failure will recoil upon its leaders. But, as this Government was founded upon the prin ciple of the consent of the governed, it was the right of that class to decide for itself its own relations, if the question were viewed merely as a personal matter. Viewed, how ever, in all its relations, it was a question to be decided by all parties affected by its solution. MR. LATHAM'S VIEWS 309 He reviewed the causes Latham's, views. of the estrangement of the two sections, and found in the Republican party the centralization of a sentiment on the question of Slavery at once insulting and injurious to the South. There prevailed, to a limited extent, a conservative feeling among a large class in the party ; but, the one cardinal principle of the organization, of enmity to Slavery, was logically and sen sibly construed as enmity to the South. Acting in unison, the Slave States were rap idly concentrating this opposition to their enemies in the formation of a Government all their own, wherein the radical sentiment of the North could no longer interfere for their disaster. To resort to brute force in order to " conquer the South to obedience," was unworthy of men of this enlightened century. If we granted the power of the majority to rule, even to the employment of force, might instate mob law at any moment, anywhere. It would produce its legitimate fruits of disorganization if conceded to any majority which might band together to effect any specific purpose. The property, the peace of the few might be at the mercy of the many, who are ever in the majority. No ! Our Government was one of peace — founded upon the consent of the governed ; and, when six States rise up and proclaim their resolve to govern themselves, the question of author ity must not be met by force. Peaceful remedies he. considered possible-^ nay, within their reach. The Democratic party of the North were friends and allies of the South. They had but to unite their forces, to forget their own unhappy and useless divisions, to inaugurate a great Con stitutional party, which would sweep all before it at the ballot-box. A divided coun try he could only contemplate with horror. The pictures presented by the other Sena tors of the results sure to follow the down fall of the Government were not overdrawn. It could only be palliated by the peaceful formation of two new confederacies, which, though disunited with themselves, were one to the world. A peaceful separation was demanded, if all efforts at compromise must fail. He approved of the several propositions Latham's Views. submitted by Messrs. Crit tenden, Bigler and Douglas, but proposed that offered by Mr. Rice, of Minnesota, as the one best cal culated to give peace and harmony to the country [see p. 232.] He drew a sad sketch of the results depending upon the settlement of the question. If the agitation was to increase and war was to threaten, one thousand mil lions of dollars would not cover the loss, in the way of depreciated property, paralyzed commerce, crippled manufactories. His per oration was as follows : " A Government . sustained only by force must, from its very nature, be arbitrary, or must soon become a despotism, and in the disorganization and general chaos,we shall be happy if we escape foreign intervention, and are spared the humiliat ing sight of a European soldiery perambulating in triumph the streets of our once proud Atlantic cities. For what reason shall all these calamities befall us? Why shall we thus, in the midst of un paralleled success — in the full vigor of our national youth, for we have not yet reached even man's es tate — become possessed of such a legion of devils — a prey to such insanity as to willfully shatter our own household gods — to heap the ashes of our own hearth-stone on our devoted heads, and, with spite ful hands and flaming torches, set fire to and destroy that friendly and wide-spreading roof that has so sheltered all true Liberty's children in the whole world — casting to utter and eternal destruction the hopes and elevated aspirations of mankind ? I im plore you, Senators, as others have done before me, by everything dear to our hearts and sacred to our consciences, not to turn a. deaf ear to the voice of the people, calling upon us, from all sections, to pause in our political career, and to prove to the North and to the South, and to the civilized world, that our hearts and our minds expand with the mag nitude of the subject on which we are called to de liberate ; that our patriotism can rise above party considerations ; that when the honor, dignity, and existence of our institutions are at stake, there is no sacrifice of personal vanity, or the narrow sphere of partisan politics, that we are not eager, nay, proud to make, to save our common country. Senators, if from the realms on high it were vouchsafed by a be neficent Providence that the shades of our departed patriots, sages, and heroes of the Revolution might speak to us, for whom while living they so toiled and labored, and spilled freely their heart's-blood, how they would implore us to pause and retrace our Bteps from this perilous brink of destruction and fra ternal strife ! How would the voices of Washington, 310 THE SOUTHERN REBELLION. Adams, and Jefferson, bursting the seal of death from their still glowing lips and his chill cerements from their potent hands, proclaim, as they did when living, that all true glory and historic renown are based on an elevated love of country, on a pure de votion to its lasting interests, and the abandonment of discord and strife ! They would, they do implore, as living men may not implore, by their sacred wounds and scars, by that precious bond of liberty and proud title of American bequeathed to us to en joy, and other lands to dream of as a vision of peace and glory, to be yet faithful to our Constitution and Union, to that law of equal right and love which is to nations the same saving grace it is to souls ; that law given us, as all-powerful, by God himself, the only King they taught us as a nation we might ever own." In the House, Friday, two conservative and conciliatory speeches were made by Southern men. They were in earnest of the spirit ex cited by the speeches of Messrs. Seward and Adams. Mr. Kellogg, (Dem.,) of Illinois, of fered resolutions as a substitute to the recom mendations of the Corwin Report. The sub stitute proposed amendments to the Consti tution as fellows : " Article 13. That in all the Kellogg's Besolutions. Territory now held by the Unit ed States situated north of lat itude 36 deg., 30 min., involuntary servitude, except- for the punishment of crime, is prohibited while such Territory shall remain under Territorial Govern ment ; that in all the Territory now held south of said line, neither Congress nor any Territorial Legis lature shall hinder or prevent the emigration to said Territory of persons held to service from any State of the Union, when that relation exists by virtue of any law or usage of such State, while it shall remain in a Territorial condition ; and when any Territory north or south of said line, within such boundaries as Congress may prescribe, shall contain the popu lation requisite for a member of Congress, accord ing to the then Federal ratio of representation of the people of the United States, it may, if its form of gov ernment be republican, be admitted into the Union on an equal footing with the original States, with or without the relation of persons held to service or labor, as the Constitution of such new State may provide. " Akt. 14. That nothing in the Constitution of the United States, or any amendment thereto, shall be so construed as to authorize any Department of the Government in any manner to interfere with the re lation of persons held to service in any State where that relation exists, nor in any manner to establish or sustain that relation in any State where it is pro tected by the laws or the Constitution of such State ; and that this Article shall not be altered or amend ed without the consent of every State in the Union. " Art. 15. The third paragraph of the second sec tion of the fourth Article of the Constitution shall be taken and construed to authorize and empower Con gress to pass laws necessary to secure the return of persons held to service or labor nnder the laws of any State, who may have escaped therefrom, to the party to whom snch service or labor may be dne. "Akt. 16. The emigration or importation of per sons held to service or involuntary servitude into any State, or Territory, or place, within the United States, from any place or country beyond the limits of the United States, or Territory thereof, is forever prohibited." When Mr. Latham, in the Senate, was, at the same moment, saying that the Democratic party of the North was the natural ally of the South and the protector of its institutions, Mr. Kellogg was proving the proposition, in the House, by his resolves. The report of the Com mittee of Thirty-tnree be- Hamilton's Speech. ing resumed, Mr. Hamilton, (Democrat,) of Texas, addressed the House in a speech characterized by good sense and a spirit of kindness quite in contrast with the declamation of his Furioso confed erate, Reagan, and with the treasonable chat tering of the " irrepressible Wigfall." Mr. Hamilton, giving his views on the nature of the Constitution, regarded it as a compact — that all constitutions, from their very nature, were but compacts. It had given to it guaranteed rights, and, in turn, guaranteed certain rights to the parties to the compact, both people and States. The Government was made, by its guaranteed rights, supreme, so far as the exercise of those rights was concerned; and absolute, within the sphere of the power conferred upon it as a Government. The reserved powers of the States were only such as preexisted before the formation of the compact. His argument on this point was so strong that, we may quote his words : " But would any man say that they received a power which did not preexist at all, and that could not have existed before the formation of the com pact? To assume such would be the wildest theory of these wild times. They said that they reserved the right of secession, but he contended that no such right existed anterior to the Constitution, because, MR. HAMILTON'S SPEECH, 311 in fact, there was no State that Hamilton's Speech. cou'd secede. Then could it be said that the right of secession was one of the reserved rights of the States, when it did not exist prior to the formation of the Govern ment? Certainly not. There was no right conferred, by the adoption of the Constitution, on any State, or the citizens of any State, growing out of that Consti tution, or on the part of any State, or the citizens of any State, growing out of that compact, that was not permanently provided for by the Constitution, either in precise or general terms. Were this and the other proposition true, then it followed that no constitutional or legal right of secession existed at all. The right of revolution he admitted ; but that right could not be exercised properly, unless it was exercised to oppose oppression and tyranny. The question of moral right depended on that of oppres sion; and no person had a right to revolutionize against a Government until the Government had become oppressive. Then, if secession involved all the consequences of revolution, why quarrel about the terms ?" He therefore declared that those States which had seceded, or were preparing so to do, must take the consequences of revolution. That they were acting most despotically and recklessly, for the interests of other States, he asserted to be true. He contended, with much force, that the most despotic power in Europe would not dare to change its Consti tution or form of government, whereby its relations would be changed with other pow ers, and the interests of others would be affected, without first consulting those peo ples or nations so affected. Thus, Louisiana had seceded, and, by that act, had cut off the State of Texas from the still existing States of the Union. Now this was one of the most flagrant breaches upon the rights of others that had ever come under his knowledge. Had Texas foreseen the likelihood of a seces sion of this kind — had she, for a moment, imagined that this right of secession existed in the States, and that, by virtue of it, Loui siana could, at any moment, have seceded from the Union — Texas would never have joined the Confederacy. This forcible argument appealed with such power to the common sense of his hearers, that Hindman, of Arkansas, sought to parry its force by reverting to the inherent right of revolution. He asked Hamilton if it were only to be allowed when several States acted in concert ? Hamilton re plied that the right of revo- Hamilton's speech. lution was not defined by any geographical lines. Not only any State might rebel, but any number of persons in a State had the same right, if any such right ex isted at all. All persons could resort to revo lution, if they were prepared to take the con sequences. The only justification for the violent act was to be found in oppression, which it needed violence to correct. Did any such oppression exist ? He said not. No griev ance of which the South complained, which could not have been remedied in the Union ! Nor did he believe the grievances of such a nature as to justify a withdrawal of the public confidence in the good faith of the Government. The South had a right to de mand that the North should treat them with fairness, and that they should receive protec tion for their slave property in transit in the Territories. The Republicans themselves ad mitted that the Constitution recognized prop erty in slaves. To this Lovejoy, of Illinois, dissented. Mr. Hamilton asked whether or not he (Lovejoy) believed that the Constitution recognized the right of Southern men to the service of those who owed them labor ? The Illinois member replied that, in his view, Slavery, so far as the Constitution was concerned, existed outside of that instrument, under the protec tion of State rights, which the Constitution had nothing to dC with, one way or the other. Hamilton replied that he saw no use in the Constitution, if it guaranteed protection to nothing but what was first protected by State laws. It was contended, on the other side, that Congress had the right to exercise power on the subject of Slavery, as between the States, so far as trade, in that property, was concerned, and that it had the right to deal with it, without restriction on the ques tion, in the Territories; all which the South denied. He had ever admitted, even since 1836, and at a time when no other man in his State dare dispute the dictation of poli ticians — he had ever contended, since that time, that the people of a Territory had themselves the power of dealing with Slaverj as a domestic institution, to be established 312 THE SOUTHERN REBELLION. or prohibited, as they Hamilton's Speech. thought fit. He supported the views advanced by Mr. Adams, of Massachusetts, with regard to Slav ery in New Mexico, taking the ground that the South have a right to go into the Territories with their property. He said, if gentlemen would consent never to interfere with Slavery in the States, and solemnly forego interference with the inter-State slave-trade, that would do much to secure the friendship of every man who is willing to see the Union pre served. Stanton, of Ohio, knew of none who claim ed any right to interfere. Hamilton was not sure that this was so ; but he knew it to be true that the South believed that a party was about to succeed to the Government which actually was going to interfere with Slavery where it then exist ed. Only satisfy the South that this is not so, and peace would be restored. When he left his home, two thousand miles dis tant, for Washington, his foot pressed no foreign territory, his eye rested throughout his journey on no material object that was not part and parcel of his own coun try ; and when Congress assembled, every State and Territory was represented on the floor. If he returned to his home, he must traverse four foreign Governments. The Temple of Liberty was lately completed in all its parts — every pillar in its place, and the apparently devout worshipers were gathered around its altar ; but, the storm burst, and, proud and majestic as the temple was, its foundations were moved as if by an earth quake, and now its dome reels like a drunk en man. He had been called on here and at home to " come out," and he had been threatened and entreated to that course ; but, no threats and danger should tear him away from the Union until he had saved the horn of the altar, and implored Heaven to allay the storm and again uprear the same pillars which sustain the weight and add their mounted beauty to the structure. This most excellent and patriotic speech was followed by one equally patriotic from Mr. Stokes, (Am.,) of Tennessee. He thought with Mr. Hamilton, that there existed no just cause for sundering the Union. The right of secession did not exist under the Constitu- Siokes' Speech. tion, nor was there any right gf revolution, except for intolerable oppression, and when all Constitutional rem edies had failed. He had sworn to support the Constitution, and he should be true to his oath. States had equally pledged themselves to the United States, and could not sunder their relations at will. No power on earth should induce him to utter one word to encourage, in any way whatever, a State to secede. Tennessee and other States were asked to join the Southern Confederacy ; but, as the Seceded States had proved faithless by withdrawing from Congress, when it was in their power to prevent mischief, and would not stand by the remaining Slave States, how could the latter rely upon them if they went into a Southern Confederacy ? The plan of this disunion was concocted and agreed on two years ago by the leaders of the Democratic party in the Cotton States. If certain demands were not granted by the Charleston Convention, then it was to be broken up, and a separate Con federacy established, whose object was to open the slave-trade, conquer Mexico, and an nex Cuba. Disunion was a scheme of a few excited madmen and politicians — ambitious men seeking for power. He admitted that he was a submissionist, and would rather be called this than rebel and traitor. He was for the Union, the Constitution, and the en forcement of the laws. He was not for coer cing a State, but would not submit to South Carolina coercing other States. Firmness and moderation ought to be exercised. He believed that the difficulties can and would be adjusted to the satisfaction of the Border States, but not to that of South Carolina and the other Seceded States. The working-men, farmers, tradesmen, and others in the remain ing Slave States were struggling, as if for life and death, to remain in the Union. He would not be true to himself and to the coun try if he did not take a stand against the secession movement. In the name of God and high Heaven, pass something to hold these States together, and preserve all that is dear to us in rights, persons, and property ! If we cannot settle the difficulty now, while KILLINGBR, QUARLES, AND WILSONS SPEECHES, 313 we are friendly, how could we do it after the Union is hopelessly dissolved ? In conclu sion, he earnestly appealed to the Republi cans to give, by amendments to the Consti tution, the rights and the safety to the South which they say they are willing to secure, and spoke in commendation of the Border States and Crittenden propositions. How ever, any plan of settlement would meet with his most hearty approbation. At the evening session Killinger's Speech, of the House, Friday, Kil- linger, (Rep.,) of Pennsyl vania, delivered an able and considerate speech. He would fellowship with the Border States, and was prepared to meet them half way. It is no time for partisanship. Mere platforms, hastily constructed in the excite ment of crowded Conventions, would not dis charge men from the responsibilities they owe before God and their country. When next the ballot-boxes open and send forth their thunders of vengeance, it would shake all the platforms and parties which reject ob stinately all propositions of conciliation and peace. The hope of relief to the suffering industrial interests, and confidence in the honesty of Mr. Lincoln, carried Pennsylva nia, as well as the popular opposition to Slavery extension. The mere Abolition ele ment sympathized with the nullifiers, and rejoiced in the fulfillment of their joint pur pose — the dissolution of the Union. He deprecated changes in the organic law, and preferred Congressional legislation to consti tutional amendments. Once open the door, fools would rush in where angels fear to tread. The controversy must have a peace ful solution. The gulf was not so wide that it cannot be spanned by conciliation ; nor yet so deep that it cannot be fathomed by mu tual forbearance. He" eulogized Mr. Critten den as the last of the statesmen which the Whig party gave to the country. He was worthy to wear the mantle of the immortal Clay. He complimented Maryland. Penn sylvania will stand shoulder to shoulder with her patriotic Governor. He gazed with pride on the memorials of patriotism which adorn her Monumental City like altars of devotion, and prayed God that so long as the mute but eloquent statue of the Father of his Coun- 40 try looked down from his pedestal, he would plead trumpet-tongued for the maintenance of the Union and Constitution. Quarles, (Am.,) of Ten- t. .. i TT . -, Quarles' and Wilson's nessee, followed. He said Speeches. that no person sympathized less with disunion than himself. There was no warrant for it in the Constitution. He believed, however, in the sacred right of rev olution, maintaining that when a Govern ment became oppressive it was a duty to overthrow it. He spoke of the generosity of the South, which had given to the North three-fourths of what had been acquired as Slave Territory. He advocated the restora tion of the Missouri line, protecting Slavery south of it by constitutional amendment. This would restore peace as it did in a former time. He preferred Mr. Crittenden's plan, and believed if it were adopted, the Seceding States would return to. the Union, and Ten nessee remain firm. This would settle the Slavery question forever. Wilson, (Rep.,) of Indiana, did not regard " conciliation" as potent enough to heal the wounds inflicted by Slavery. There was no cause whatever in this wicked rebellion — it was the offspring of the hateful spirit of Slavery. Until the wrong itself disappears, there can be no settlement. Its very breath is poison to peace, and to free institutions. It cannot live in the air purified by the strong blasts from the North ; and was bent on dis organization to perpetuate its too long ascendency. His views were decidedly against compromise. The Constitution al ready gave but too much power to the South, and he was willing to make no further con cessions to it. Be firm ! Sustain the Con stitution and uphold the laws to the end, and God will bless the right I In the Senate, Saturday, (February 2d,) Chandler, (Rep.,) of Michigan, pre sented a petition from citizens of that State asking the Senate : First, to ascertain whether they have a Government de facto or not ; sec ond, that if so, measures be taken for the apprehension of all persons presenting them selves at the seat of- Government under pre tence of being Commissioners from inde pendent Governments, on charge of treason ; A Wolverine Docu ment. 314 THE SOUTHERN REBELLION. third, that measures be taken to protect the archives of the Government; fourth, that the forts, while in the possession of the Govern ment, ~in the South, be promptly supplied with men; fifth, that a sufficient number of vessels be placed in Southern ports to protect commerce and collect the revenue. Of course this received no consideration, but it was felt, by the Northern Senators, to express the true feeling of the majority of people in the great North-west — so rapidly was the senti ment of resistance to revolution taking deter mined shape. In the House, Saturday, Mr. Sherman called up the important Loan Bill. bill authorizing the Presi dent, at any time before the 1st of July, to borrow, on the credit of the United States, not exceeding $25,000,000 ; certificates to be issued for not less than $1,000, with coupons payable, semi-annually, with interest, and the faith of the United States pledged for the payment of the interest and principal. Sev eral substitutes were offered and much oppo sition manifested by the Democrats and Southerners to the loan. It passed, 124 to 46. CHAPTER XXI. FEBRUARY 1ST. NORTHERN AND SOUTHERN ULTIMATUMS. THE RELATIVE POSITIONS OF THE REPUBLICANS AND THE OPPO SITION. OVERTURES OF MESSRS. SEWARD AND ADAMS. VIEWS OF MR. DOUGLAS AND JOHN P. HALE. REPLIES OF MASON, OF VIRGINIA, AND WIGFALL, OF TEXAS. THE UNION IN THE BALANCE. PROPERTY IN MAN THE ISSUE FORCED. Thursday, January 31st, Mr. Seward pre sented to the Senate the memorial of the New York Chamber of Commerce, bearing 38,000 signatures, petitioning for a settlement of national differences by compromise. The report, instructing the Committee of Twenty- five, who bore the memorial to Washington, commended the proposition of the Border States Committee as the basis of adjustment, [see page 172.] In presenting it, Mr. Seward delivered his views, at length, on the crisis. His speech drew out Mason, of Virginia, Mr. Douglas, John P. Hale, and Wigfall, of Texas. Their several speeches canvassed the entire question of Union and disunion. Being the recognized exponents of their parties and sections, their declarations are to be re garded as landmarks in the legislative his tory of the revolution, and will be referred to By historians as authority for their conclu sions respecting the relations of the contest ants, and the accountability of each for the results which followed to the country. The speech of Charles Francis Adams, on the Seward's Union same day, in the House of Representatives, added to the significance of the day, in its historical relations. We shall, therefore, quote quite at length from their efforts, and thus place within the reader's reach the means for forming a correct judgment upon the great issues, as they were shaped Feb ruary 1st. Mr. Seward said, in reference to the memo rial, that it was an embodiment of the feel ings of that eminent class which controls the commerce of the nation's greatest emporium. The memorial might, he said, also be re garded as a fair exponent of the wishes and views of the whole commercial interest of the country.^ Such a memorial would command obedience in England, France, Russia, Prus sia, or Germany — where the will of commerce decides questions of peace or war. Happily for the United States, commerce was but one of several interests entitled to a controlling influence. Agriculture, manufactures, mining, each are entitled to, and receive, equal re- SEWARD'S UNION SPEECH, 315 Seward's Union Speech. spect. As representatives of the interest of commerce, the memorialists are wor thy of the Senate's consideration. • Mr. Seward had waited anxiously for prop- •ositions which the Seceding States might offer as terms to the adhering States ; or, to state the proposition in its other form, he had seen nothing which would justify him in believing that any of the propositions sub mitted by the adhering States would be ac cepted by the Seceding States. He had held himself open and ready for the best adjust ment which could be practically made. He ' approved the spirit of conciliation, of fraternal kindness, of affection, adopted by so large a portion of the people of his State towards the various sections of the country, and, in return for acting as their spokesman, in pre senting their memorial to the Senate, he should advise them to continue to manifest the same spirit, to show forth their devotion to the Union by voting for it; and, if it should be demanded, by lending or even giv ing their money to it ; by fighting for it in it, if it must come as a last resort for its main tenance, taking care that speaking always goes before voting, voting goes before the giving of money, and all go before a resort to arms, which, at best, was hazardous and pain ful, and therefore should be the last measure to be resorted to for the salvation of the Union. This was the spirit in which he had determined to come up to the great ques tion, which he thought would yet be peace fully settled. He had not expected the great controversy to be settled in the sixty days of Congressional action already had ; nor did he expect the allotted ninety days of the session would see the differences, adjusted, peace re stored, and the Union firmly reestablished. It was not time enough for the people to ap preciate the danger and to agree upon the remedy. A great many and various interests and elements are brought into conflict in this sudden crisis, a great many personal ambi tions, and a great many sectional interests, and it would be strange if they would all be accommodated, arranged, and harmonized so as to admit and give full effect to the one profoundest and most enduring sentiment or passion of the United States — that of devotion Seward's Union Speech. to the Union. These — whether you call them Se cession or Revolution on the one side, or coercion or defiance on the other — are all to subside and pass away before Union, which is to become the grand absorbing ob ject of interest, affection, and duty upon the part of the citizens of the United States. A great many partisan interests are to be re pressed and suppressed to give peace to the partisan interests expressed by the Charleston Platform, the Baltimore Platform, the Chicago Platform, by the Popular Sovereignty Plat form, if, indeed, the Union is in danger, and is to be saved. With these interests and with these platforms, everybody standing upon them or connected with them is to pass away, if the Union is in danger and is to be saved. He added : " But it will require a very short time, if this Union is in danger and does re quire to be saved, for all these interests, all these platforms, and all these men to disap pear. You, everybody who shall oppose, re sist, or stand in the way of the preservation of this Union, will appear as moths on a sum mer's eve, when the whirlwind of popular in dignation arises that shall be excited at the full discovery that this Union is endangered through faction, and even impracticability, on the one part. I have hope and confidence that this is to come around just as I have said ; and quite soon enough, because I per ceive, although we may shut our eyes to it, that the country and mankind cannot shut their eyes to the true nature of this crisis." He then adverted to the issue actually pre sented. The vital question of antagonism between the North and South was sprung upon the country twelve years ago, but was strpnggst_in its development in 1850, when all the Pacific coast, and all the Territory in tervening between it and the Louisiana pur chase, was thrown suddenly upon our hands, for the purpose of our organizing in them free and independent Republican Gov ernments as a basis of future States. It had been an earnest — nay, an angry controversy, but it was closed, on the previous day, by the admission of Kansas as a State. The vital issues were closed — though there remained the passions which the long contest had en gendered. He said : 316 THE SOUTHERN REBELLION. Seward's Union Speech. " Kansas is in the Union, California and Oregon are in the Union, aDd now the same contest divides and distracts this Union for Freedom and Slavery in the Territories of the United Statesjust as before. What is the extent of the Territories which remain, after the admission of Minnesota, Oregon, and of Kansas ? One million, sixty-three thousand, five hundred square miles — an area twenty-four times that of the State of New York, the largest of the old and fully developed States. Twenty-four such States as this of New York are yet to be fully or ganized within the remaining Territories of the United States. Now, under what is accepted by the Administration and the Government as a judicial de cree, upheld by it, and put in practical operation by it, every inch of that Territory is Slave Territory. I speak of that decision not as I accept it, but as it is accepted and enforced by the existing Adminis tration. Every foot of it is Slave Territory as much as South Carolina. Over a considerable portion of it a Slave Code, made by a Government created by the Congress of the United States, is enforced ; so that, according to the claims of those who insist upon their rights in the Territory of the United States for Slavery, the whole of this 1,063,000 square miles is Slave Territory. How many slaves are there in it? How many have been brought into it during these twelve years in which it has been not only re linquished to Slavery, but in which the Supreme Court, the Legislature, and the Administration have maintained, protected, and guaranteed Slavery there ? Twenty-four African slaves ! One slave for every forty-four thousand square miles. One slave for every one of the twenty-four States which, sup posing them each to be of the dimensions of New York, or Pennsylvania, or Indiana, aover that por tion of the area of our Republic. JSir, I have fol lowed this thing in good faith, and with zeal and en ergy, but I confess that I have no fears of Slavery anywhere. In the peculiar condition of things which has existed, Slavery has succeeded in plant ing only one slave upon every 44,000 square miles of Territory. :~¦ Patriotism. OUTRAGES ON NORTHERN MEN, 333 Sad Condition of Monetary Affairs. seizure, gave the different States arms enough to equip several divisions each for immediate service. Had it not been for these sales by Northern men, during December, January, February and March, and the filling up of the Southern arsenals, during the summer of 1860, the rebellion would have been almost powerless for want of arms. The condition of mone tary affairs throughout all the Seceded States grew daily more oppressive, as the winter advanced. Money became of extreme scarcity. The general suspension of specie payment by Southern banks had not given any percepti ble relief to the community. Property so rapidly depreciated as to have no longer any fixed value. Real estate in Charleston, New Orleans, Savannah, &c, commanded no sale, at any price ; while the inexorable tax levies daily aggregated in their demands until the prospect of oppression as well as of ruin stared property-holders in the face. The two hundred millions due to the North was, by the acts of secession and the general suspension of Federal Courts, as well as by " stay laws" passed by most of the " original seven," placed upon the retired list — "to be paid when amicable relations with the North should be restored." Yet, this enormous vir tual repudiation scarcely affected the masses —it only gave immunity from pressure to the commercial class; but, even merchants, with stores stuffed by Northern goods, for which only Southern promises-to-pay .were given, could find no sale for their stocks except by extending credits, which, in turn, filled their hands with promises-to-pay, liable to be as sessed as so much taxable property, upon which assessments must be paid in coin. Slaves, in common with other property, de preciated ; and, in all districts they were re garded as a source of weakness rather than of strength in event of a state of war. Several millions of bondmen, ignorant to a degree almost bordering on barbarism, but with na tive instincts which rendered them a shrewd and persevering race, were not calculated to inspire their masters with a feeling of security ; hence, we find alarms of insurrections greatly exciting the States of Alabama and Georgia, during the winter. In the former State a conspiracy was said to have been discovered just previous to the holidays, which caused apprehension for a while, and only ended by the hanging of several negroes, by a self-con stituted court, and the most terrible punish ment of flogging administered to others of the blacks supposed to be implicated. The various communities in the Cotton States were qui vive in regard to the negroes ; and the extraordinary precautions taken by plant ers, by committees of safety, and by the minute-men organizations, prove that, prac tically, the Southern people regarded their human "property" in any other light than as cattle and horses.* The excitement against -vr ,, ¦ . Outrages perpetrated Northern men became so ., .. „ on Northern Men. great, that, when the seces sion movement took the shape of certainty in its accomplishment, persecutions were so generally inflicted as to cause a perfect hegira of Northern mechanics and agents, as well as of those entertaining Union sentiments. Al most every steamer from Charleston, Savan nah, and New Orleans, during the months of February, March, April, and May, brought numbers of persons of Northern birth, fleeing from the South for their lives. In some instances great amounts of property were left behind — the " Committee of Safety" allowing no time for a man to close his affairs prior to leaving. The summons to leave gen erally stipulated twenty-four hours as the re quired time in which to escape from threat ened "consequences." The history of some of these cases is peculiarly revolting, and ex cites in the mind a feeling of incredulity that * It is denied, in some quarters, that the negroes are a source of weakness. Under military and civil pressure they may be regarded as docile and tract able ; but, the presence of an overawing power is considered, by the Southerners themselves, as their only safety. The history of the Denmark Yesey in surrection in South Carolina — of the Nat. Turner in surrection in Southampton County, Virginia — prove that in the black breasts of the negroes there /is a slumbering fire which no power on earth may quench. The Charleston papers said their slaves would do the food-raising, the intrenching, &c, while the young men of the South would do the fighting ; but, it is to be doubted if any community in the South, during 1861, was left without its available guard against uprisings. 334 THE SOUTHERN REBELLION. such wrongs could have been perpetrated in any civilized community. The case stated on page 134 was almost daily confirmed, during the months named, by the story of the wrongs of some wretched sufferer, at the hands of a self-constituted "committee" in the revolu tionary sections. Southern papers occasion ally would chronicle these outrages, and would not fail, in all cases, to affix the stigma of " abolitionist" to the persecuted party as a full and only justification for the violence perpetrated " by a body of our citizens." In several instances, when the victim was hang ed, the papers recorded the event in a humor ous strain. We shall recur to this feature of the revolution in a future chapter, giving such accredited statements as will place the fact and nature of these outrages beyond all controversy. They will cast a shadow across even the darkness of the dark record of the revolution, and will serve to give both the Christian philanthropist and the politician suggestive mile-stones by which to direct their future steps. CHAPTEE XXIII. CONGRESS OF THE SECEDED STATES. NORTH CAROLINA COMMISSIONERS. FROM THE CHAIR. CONSTITUTION NAMES OF DELEGATES. HOWELL COBB'S SPEECH ADOPTED. ITS SPECIAL CLAUSES. ELECTION OF PRESIDENT AND VICE-PRESIDENT. MR. STEPHENS' SPEECHES. PROCEEDINGS UP TO FEBRUARY 16TH. The Montgomery Con- Extraordinary Char- , . j> t\ ^ l . . ' vention of Delegates as- actor of tno Congress- ° sembled Monday, February 4th. The plans and policy of the Conven tion appear to have been quite generally understood by the people to be — a recon struction of the Union of Slave States upon the basis of the Federal Constitution.* This understanding, indeed, made the people tol erant of the open-handed usurpation practiced * Thus, the Memphis (Tenn.) Inquirer used the following language, to induce the Tennessee people to join in the movement for a Southern Confed eracy : "It is well known beforehand that the Constitu tion, as it is, will be readopted, and such explana tions of contested sections of that instrument added as amendments, as to leave not the shadow of a doubt concerning their effect on the Southern social system. That is, it will be the same as though the Constilution of the United States were taken up and amended, at the discretion of Southern statesmen, so far as it affects Southern rights, all without the opposition or interruption of Northern members. It Extraordinary Char acter of the Congress. towards them by their re spective Conventions. This Montgomery Convention was composed of delegates elected by the sev eral State Conventions. How they were com posed the reader has already been informed, [see p. 203— 4J It thus represented an organ ized revolution, solely — one which, in all cases, refused to allow the people to decide for themselves, [see Yancey's speech, page 205, will not be touched at present, any further than to be rendered perfectly unambiguous as to the domes tic institutions of the South. Has anybody in the South any objection to this ? The very crisis that now weighs like lead on every man's mind has arisen from a diversity in the interpretation of certain clauses in the. Constitution ; or, which is the same thing, the fanaticism of the North has been wheedled into the idea that its sectional character is, at least, not adverse to the Constitution itself. It will now at once be seen that the Constitution of the United States, thus explained and amended, would still authorize the reception of States, just as it has always done; and should Tennessee secede, she PROCEEDINGS OF THE MONTGOMERY CONGRESS, 335 for the justification of Extraordinary Char- ., . J . , acter of the Congress. thls tyrannical usurpation.] Convening to organize a Government, these forty-two delegates pro ceeded to their work with all the authority of umpires from whom there was no appeal. They were to adopt Articles of Confederation, a Con stitution, organize Departments, elect a Presi dent and Vice-President, confirm Cabinet and Ministerial appointments — in fact, to place a fully-developed and powerful Govern ment in operation over the people. There is no parallel for such usurpation, under the guise of freedom, on the whole page of history. The people had nothing to do in the organ ization of the Government — no voice in the election of its officers — no option or judgment to exercise in the matter. They were as thoroughly ignored as if no power rested in them. A self-elected assembly gave them the law, gave them rulers, gave them inter-State obligations, vote"d war for them, imposed taxes, appropriated their property, impressed them to serve in the ranks ; and, so cleverly was the entire scheme managed,that, notwithstand ing all this glaring outrage of the first prin ciples of aRepublican Government, the people were led as obediently into the movement as their own slaves would have been led into * the shambles. The Convention was organized February 4th, when the following delegates presented their credentials and signed the roll: would of course have no objection to the acknowl edgment of the Constitution, made secure against any misunderstanding, which is held by some to jus tify, if it does not originate, the divisions now rife in the country. Any other State or States which might be willing to accept the Constitution thus amended in a Southern Convention, could of course be fairly received, lt may be recollected that Mis sissippi refused, by a vote of sixty-seven to twenty- three, to say that she would never receive any Free States into a Southern Confederacy. The Southern Rights advocates have no objection to secure exact equality under their Constitution. And to a recon struction, on this basis, they are not opposed, so far as we know. Many a man, it is true, may doubt whether this can ever be done ; but certainly no one has any objection to it if it can be done. And the way to test whether it is practicable, is to make the trial, as the Montgomery Convention will proceed directly to give an opportunity." Proceedings of the Congress. Alabama — R. W. Walker, R. H. Smith, J. L. M. Curry, W. P. Chilton, S. F. Hale, Colon J. McRae, John Gill Shorter, David P. Lewis, Thomas Fearn. Florida — James B. Owens, J. Patton Anderson. (Jackson Morton was not present.) Georgia — Robert Toombs, Howell Cobb, F. S. Bar tow, M. J. Crawford, E. A. Nisbet, B. H. Hill, A. R. Wright, Thomas R. R. Cobb, A. H. Kenan, A. H. Stephens. Louisiana — John Perkins, Jr., A. Declonet, Charles M. Conrad, D. F. Kenner, G. E. Sparrow, Henry Marshall. Mississippi — W. P. Harris, Walter Brooke, N. S. Wilson, A. M. Clayton, W. S. Barry, J. T. Harrison. South Carolina — R. B. Rhett, Sr., R. W. Barnwell, L. M. Keitt, James Chesnut, Jr., C. G. Memminger, Porcher Miles, Thomas J. Withers, W. W. Boyce. * Mr. Rhett, of South Carolina, then suggest ed the election of a President of the Conven tion, saying : — " On the part of the deputies from South Carolina, I present the name of a gentleman for that office who has been illus trious on the arena of the General Govern ment — whose name is coextensive with the length and breadth of this whole country— I nominate the Hon. Howell Cobb, of Georgia, for President of this Convention. [Applause.] I am sure that his election will be unanimous. I therefore propose that he be declared Pres ident by acclamation." And the motion prevailed. Mr. Cobb assumed the chair, to pronounce from it the following address : " Accept, gentlemen of the Convention, my sin cere thanks for the honor which you have conferred on me. I shall endeavor, by a faithful and impartial discharge of the duties of the Chair, to merit, in some degree, at least, the confidence which you have re posed in me. The occasion which assembles us to gether is one of no ordinary character. We meet as the representatives of sovereign and independent States, who by their solemn judgment have dissolved all the political associations which connected them with the Government of the United States. Of the causes which have led to this decision it is unneces sary now to speak : it is enough to announce that * Texas seceded February 1st, and appointed dele gates to the Montgomery Convention February llth notwithstanding her Ordinance of Secession was not to be considered as binding until February 23d when the people were to be permitted to vote on it. This is only another instance in the category of usur pations. Proceedings of the Congress. by the judgment of our constit uents, they have been ample and sufficient. It is now a fact — ir revocable fact — the separation is perfect, complete, and perpetual. [Applause.] The great duty is now imposed on us to provide for these States a Govern ment for their future security and protection. We can and should extend to our sister States — who are identified with us in interest, feeling, and institutions — a cordial invitation to unite with us in a common destiny; desirous, at the same time, of maintaining with the rest of our late confederates, as with the world, the most peaceful and friendly relations, both political and commercial. Our responsibilities, gen tlemen, are great, and I doubt not we shall prove equal to the occasion. Let us, assume all the re sponsibility which may be necessary for the success ful completion of the great work committed to our trust, placing before our countrymen and the world our acts and their results as the justification of the course which we may pursue and adopt. With a consciousness of the justice-of our cause, and with a confidence in the guidance and blessings of a kind Providence, we will this day inaugurate for the South a new era of peace, security, and prosperity." The proceedings of the Convention were done in secret session, and so little tran spired that we are but partially informed in regard to its daily legislation. The State Conventions had sat in secret sessions, and the people were aware of the results of their pro ceedings only when the edicts were promul gated. This was found to work so favorably that the rule was adopted at Montgomery — to cover all important legislation. February 5th, Memminger, of South Caro lina, presented the following resolutions : "Resolved, That this Convention deem it expedient forthwith to form a Confederacy of the States which have seceded from the Federal Union, and that a Committee be appointed to report a plan for a Pro visional Government upon the basis of the Constitu tion of the United States. " Resolved, That a Committee of thirteen members be appointed as follows : namely, the Chairman by the Convention, and two members from each State to be nominated by the deputies of that State. "Resolved, That all propositions in reference to a Provisional Government be referred to this Com mittee." Stephens, of Georgia, moved to substitute the word " Congress" for " Convention" — to which Mr. M. agreed. A substitute for the resolutions was offered by Bartow, of Georgia, namely : Proceedings of the Congress. " Whereas, The States of South Carolina, Georgia, Florida, Ala bama, Mississippi, and Louisi ana have dissevered the political ties which bound them to a compact known as the United States of America, and, through duly authorized delegates, are now assembled in Congress to provide measures for the welfare of those States, and to establish an en during government, whereby their rights may be maintained ; and whereas, it is important that a Provisional Government shall be formed before a permanent one can be constructed : therefore, " Resolved, That the President appoint a Committee of one from each State, to report a plan for a Provi sional Government as soon as possible." They were considered in secret session. February 6th, the North Carolina Commis sioners presented their credentials in the shape of the following resolutions, passed by their General Assembly, January 29th : " 1. Resolved, That for the purpose of effecting an honorable and amicable adjustment of all the diffi culties that disturb the country, upon the basis of the Crittenden resolutions, as modified by the Legis lature of Virginia, and for the purpose of consulting for our- common peace, honor, and safety, the Hon. Thomas Griffin, of Alamance, D. M. Barringer, David S. Reid, John M. Morehead, and George Davis, be, and they are hereby appointed Commissioners to re present North Carolina in the proposed consultation to be held at Washington City, on the 4th of Febru ary, 1861. And, " Whereas, The State of North Carolina has been invited by the State of Alabama to meet at the City of Montgomery, on the 14th of February, 1861, for the purpose of framing a provisional as well as per manent government ; and, " Whereas, North Carolina, as a part of the Fed eral Union, has no right to send delegates for such a purpose : therefore, be it " 2. Resolved, That for the purpose of effecting an honorable and amicable adjustment of all the diffi culties that distract the country, npon the basis of the Crittenden resolutions, as modified by the Legis lature of Virginia, and for the purpose of consulting for our common peace, honor, and safety, the Hon. David L. Swain, M. W. Ransom, and John L. Bridg- ers, are appointed Commissioners to visit Montgom ery, Alabama, for the purpose above indicated." Messrs. Swain, Ransom, and Bridgers were invited to occupy seats in the Congress dur ing open sessions. During the day very little was done. The Committee on Provisional Government was hard at work maturing its report. PROCEEDINGS OF THE MONTGOMERY CONGRESS, 337 Proceedings of the Congress. February 7th, a resolu tion was received from the Alabama Legislature, plac ing the sum of five hundred thousand dollars at the disposition of the " Provisional Govern ment of the Confederacy of the Seceded States," as a loan, with which to set the new Government in motion. February 8th, the loan was accepted, in a series'of complimentary resolutions. A secret session was called at 11$ o'clock, A. M., and, after a protracted discussion, adopted the Provisional Constitution reported from the Special Committee. Its preamble read : " We, the Deputies of the Bovereign and independ ent States of South Carolina, Georgia, Florida, Ala bama, Mississippi, and Louisiana, invoking the favor of Almighty God, do hereby, in behalf of these States, ordain and establish this Constitution for the Provisional Government of the same, to continue one year from the inauguration of the President, or un til a permanent Constitution or Confederation be tween the said States shall be put in operation, whichsoever shall first occur." The Constitution was a perfect transcript of the Federal instrument, except in special clauses, that here may be stated : " The seventh section, first article, read as fol lows: " The importation of African negroes from any foreign country other than the Slaveholding States of the United States is hereby forbidden, and Con gress is required to pass such laws as shall effectually prevent the same. •• Article second — Congress shall also have power to prohibit the introduction of slaves from any State not a member of this Confederacy. " Article fourth of the third clause of the second section read : " A slave in one State escaping to another shall be delivered up on the claim of the party to whom said slave may belong, by the Executive authority of the State in which such slave may be found ; and in case of any abduction or forcible rescue, full compen sation, including the value of the slave, and all costs and expenses, shall be made to the party by the State in which such abduction or rescue shall take place. " Article sixth of the second clause provided : " The Government hereby instituted shall take immediate steps for the settlement of all matters be tween the States forming it and their late confed erates of the United States in relation to the public property and public debt at the time of their with- 43 Proceedings of the Congress. drawal from them ; these States hereby declaring it to be their wish and earnest desire to ad just everything pertaining to the common property, common liabilities, and common obligations of that Union upon principles of right, justice, equity, and good faith." This Constitution was understood to have been adopted by the unanimous vote of the Convention. February 9th, the election of President and Vice-President was held by the delegates, re sulting in the choice of Jefferson Davis, of Mississippi, to be Provisional President, and Alexander H. Stephens, of Georgia, to be Provisional Vice-President. The vote in either case was reported unanimous. The President of the Convention also appointed the usual Congressional Committees, viz.: on Foreign Affairs, Finance, Military Affairs, Naval Affairs, Postal Affairs, Commerce, Patents, &c, &c. Among other legislative action was an ordinance continuing in force, until repealed or altered by the Congress, all laws of the United States in force or use No vember 1st. Also a resolution instructing the Finance Committee to report promptly a tariff for raising revenues to support the Gov ernment. That step blew away the dust from French and English eyes, who, in the pro posed Confederacy, saw brilliant visions of free trade and an unrestricted commerce in foreign bottoms. It was only one instance in which the promises of the leaders to their own people, as well as to foreign capitalists and manufacturers, were not fulfilled. A resolution was also adopted authorizing the appointment of a committee to prepare and report a " Permanent" Constitution for the Government of the Southern Confederacy — a mere matter of form, to confirm- the "Provi sional" Constitution. Mr. Stephens was serenaded during the grand demonstration which took place on the evening of this day, February 9th, in honor of the election of officers for the new Govern ment. Being called out, he addressed the vast concourse of people as follows : " This is not the time nor ... ., Mr. A. H. Stephens' place to discuss the great ques tions now pressing upon the public counsels. It is sufficient to say that this day a new republic has been formed. The ' Confederate 338 THE SOUTHERN REBELLION. Mr. A. H. Stephens' Speech. States of America' have been ushered into existence, to take their place among the nations of the earth ; under a temporary or Provisional Gov ernment, it is true, but soon to be followed by one of a permanent character, which, while it surrenders none of our ancient rights and liberties, will secure them more perfectly. We trust for peace, security, and domestic tranquillity. That ought to be the ob ject of all Governments. What is the future of this new Government ? The fate of this new Republic will depend npon ourselves. Six States only at present constitute it ; but six stars yet appear in our constel lation and Constitution. The permanent Govern ment may have a greater number than the original thirteen of the original Union, with more than three times their population, wealth, and power. With such a beginning, the prospect of the future presents strong hopes to the patriot's heart for bright pros pects in our career ; but what the future shall be de pends on ourselves and those who come after us. Our Republic, and all Republics, to be permanent and prosperous, must be supported by the virtue, intelligence, and integrity and patriotism of the people. " These are the corner-stones upon which the tem ple of liberty must be constructed, to stand securely and permanently. Resting our trust upon these, we need fear nothing from without or within, with a cli mate not surpassed by any on earth. With staples and productions which control the commerce of the world ; with institutions, so far as regards our organic and social policy, in strict conformity to nature and the laws of the Creator, whether read in the Book of Inspiration, or the great Book of Manifestations around us, we have all the natural elements essen tial to attainment in the highest degree of power and glory. These institutions have been much as sailed, and it is our mission to vindicate the great truth on which they rest, and with them exhibit the highest type of civilization which it is possible for human society to reach. In doing this, our policy should be marked by a desire to preserve and main tain peace with all States and people. If this cannot be done, let not the fault lie at our own door. While we should make aggressions on none, we should be prepared to repel those made by others, let them come from whatever quarter they may. We ask of others simply to let us alone, and to be permitted to look after our safety, security, and happiness in our own way, without molesting or giving offence to other people. Let, then, peace, fraternity, and liberal commercial relations with all the world, be our motto. With these principles, without envy towards other States in the line of poli cy they mark out for themselves, we will invite them Proceedings of the Congress. to a generous rivalry in all that develops the highest quality of every nation. With the best wishes to you, gentlemen, and to the success of our common Government this day announced, I bid you good night." February llth, Mr. Ste phens accepted the election to the Vice-Presidency of the new Government in the following speech : " I have been notified by the Committee of my election as Vice-President of the Provisional Govern ment of the Confederate States of America. The Committee request that I should make known to this body, in verbal response, my acceptance of the high position to which I have been called. This I now do, in this august presence, before you, Mr. President, before Congress, and before this large concourse of people, under the bright sun and bril liant-sky which now smile so auspiciously upon us. I take this occasion to return my most profound acknowledgments for this expression of confidence on the part of Congress. There are special reasons why I place an unusually high estimate on it. The considerations which induced me to accept it I need not state. It is sufficient for me to say, that it may be deemed questionable whether any good citizen can refuse to discharge any duty which may be as signed him by his country in the hour of need. It might be expected that I should indulge in some re marks on the state of public affairs, and the dangers which threaten us, and the most advisable measures to be adopted to meet the pressing exigencies. Al low me to say, in the absence of the distinguished gentleman called to the Chief Executive Chair, I think it best to forbear saying anything on such matters. We expect him in a few days — by Wednes day of this week, if not providentially detained— when we will hear from him onthese difficult questions; and, I doubt not, we shall cordially and harmoniously concur in the line of policy his superior wisdom and statesmanship will indicate. Meantime, we may very profitably be directing our attention to such mat ters as providing necessary postal arrangements, making provision for the transfer of the Custom-house3 from the jurisdiction of the separate States to the Confederacy, and the imposition of such duties as are necessary to meet the present expected exigen cies. The power to raise revenue should be limited to the object of the revenue. A small duty of not exceeding ten per centum upon, importations, it is believed, is sufficient. We can also be devoting our attention to a Constitution and permanent Govern ment, stable and durable, which is one of the leading objects of our assembling, I am now ready to take the oath." February 12th, the Chair announced the PROCEEDINGS OF THE MONTGOMERY CONGRESS. 339 Proceedings of the Congress. Committees-^the most im portant of which were filled as follows : " On Foreign Affairs: Messrs. Rhett, of S. C. ; Nis- bett, of Ga. ; Perkins, of La. ; Walker, of Ala. ; and Keitt, ofS. C. " On Finance: Messrs. Toombs, of Ga. ; Barnwell, of S. C. ; Kenner, of La. ; Barry, of Miss. ; and McRae, of Ala. " On Commercial Aff airs : Messrs. Memminger, of S. C. ; Crawford, of Ga. ; Morton, of Fla. ; Curry, of Ala. ; and Delcouet, of La. "On the Judiciary: Messrs. Clayton, of Miss.; Withers, of S. C. ; Hale, of Ala. ; T. R. Cobb , of Ga. ; and Harris, of Miss. " On Naval Affairs: Messrs. Conrad, of La. ; Ches- nut, of S. C. ; Smith, of Ala. ; Wright, of Ga. ; and Owens, of Fla. "On Military Affairs: Messrs. Barton, of Ga. ; Miles, of S. C. ; Sparrow, of La. ; Kenan, of Ga. ; and Anderson, of Fla. " On Postal Affairs: Messrs. Chilton, of Ala. ; Hill, of Ga. ; Boyce, of S. C. ; Harrison, of Miss. ; and Curry, of S. C." Mr. Stephens was inaugurated, and took the following oath : " You do solemnly swear that you will faithfully execute the office of Vice-President of the Confed erate States of America, and will, to the best of your ability, preserve, protect, and defend the Constitu tion thereof — so help you God." The Confederacy assumed charge of the question of the seized arsenals, forts, &c, in the adoption of a resolution which read : " Resolved, That this Government takes under its charge the questions and difficulties now existing between the sovereign States of this Confederacy and the Government of the United States, relating to the occupation of forts, arsenals, navy-yards, and other public establishments, and that the President of this Congress be directed to communicate this resolution to the Governors of the States." This threw all responsibility of the con duct of affairs in Charleston harbor on the central authorities, and South Carolina ceased to be sovereign. The resolution was as authoritative and imperative as the mandate of the Czar. Governor Pickens became thenceforward one of the lesser lights — so fleeting was the term of South Carolina's in dependence.* *The Mercury, of Charleston, grew exceedingly irritated over this early assumption of supreme power A resolution was offered , , . . . . . - Proceedings of the looking to the sending of congress. Commissioners to Washing ton. It was referred to the Committee on Foreign Affairs. On the 13th, quite a discussion arose on the question of a Government foundery and arms manufactory. Mr. Cooper, proprietor of the Etowah Iron- Works, proposed to con vert these works into the required manufac tory. The matter was finally referred to the Military Committee. The debate served to show that several " very extensive" iron- works were for sale. A resolution was adopted providing for the Military and Naval Committees to in clude in any plan they might propose for the organization of the Confederate army and navy suitable provisions for such officers of the army and navy of the United States " as may have tendered their resignations in con sequence of their adhesion to any or all of the States of this Confederacy." Mr. Brooke proposed a resolution to in struct the Committee on the Flag and Seal of the Confederacy to adopt and report a flag as similar as possible to the flag of the United States— making only such changes as were necessary to distinguish easily the one from the other. He supported his resolution by a speech, in which he paid a patriotic tribute to the Stars and Stripes, saying : " In by the Congress. It declared South Carolina still supreme in the matter of Fort Sumter, in these en ergetic terms : " What remains but for the Executive of South Carolina to take the fort? The authorities of the Confederation have nothing to do with it unless the State is incapable of resisting these aggressions, and needs assistance. After two efforts to obtain peaceable possession of Fort Sumter, and a submis sion for two months to the insolent military domi nation, in our bay, of a handful of men, the honor of the State requires that no further intervention, from any quarter, should be tolerated, and that this fort should be taken, and taken by South Carolina alone. By any other course, it appears to us, unless all the positions of the Governor are false, the State must be The Mercurial party was thus hatching rebellion against the new Government. The State, it was evident, was so chronically distempered as to be irascible under any extraneous control. =^ 340 THE SOUTHERN REBELLION. Proceedings of the Congress. revolutionary times it is de sirable to make as little change as possible in those things to which the people have been accus tomed. We should respect even their preju dices. The flag of the United States remains yet the emblem of the former glory, strength, and power of the nation. We, as well as the Northern Confederacy, have an interest in its past history. True, sir, it is but a sentiment ; but the feelings which hallow that emblem are not those merely of custom or habit, but they are the result of aspiration. That flag is an idol of the heart, around which cluster the memories of the past, which time never can efface nor cause to grow dim. * * Sir, let us preserve it as far as we can. Let us con tinue to hallow it in our memory, and still pray that, " Long may it wave O'er the land of the free And the home of the brave." This patriotic outburst, savoring so rankly of the Union, deeply stirred up that little as sembly. Mr. Miles, from the Flag and Seal Committee, protested against Mr. Brooke's resolution, and his sentiments. He said, among other things: " The gentleman speaks of the victories achieved in Mexico under the flag of the United States. True, sir, but I feel more pride in stating that the Palmetto Regiment was there, and bathed its own State flag in the blood of many of its members and officers, and the warm heart of the gallant Colonel of their regiment, the chivalrous Butler, beat its last pulsation there. [Applause.] That flag, that State flag, is dearer to my heart than the flag of the United States, for it was under that flag that the battle of Fort Moultrie was fought ; it was under that flag that the battles of Eutaw, Kings Mountain, and Cowpens were fought ; and I have always, sir, been one of those who thought there was an over-estimate placed on the glories of the flag of the United States. Why, sir, most of the great battles of the Revolution were not fought under it, but under the separate State flags, before the recognition of the United States by the nations of the world." Mr. Brooke withdrew his resolution, "at the suggestion of a friend." The Flag question came up again, February Proceedings of the Congress. 14th, when Mr. Boyce pre sented to Congress a flag re mitted by a lady "who resides in the picturesque town of Winnes- borough, Fail-field District, S. C— a lady of remarkable intelligence, whose path through life has been illustrated by all those virtues which adorn the female character." The letter remitting the flag was represented as "full of authentic fire. It is worthy of Rome in her best days, and might well have been read in the Roman Senate on that disastrous day when the victorious banner of the great Carthaginian was visible from Mount Aventine. And," the enthusiastic speaker said, " I may add, sir, that as long as our women are impelled by these sublime sentiments, and our mountains yield the metals out of which weapons are forged, the lustrous stars of our unyielding Confeder acy will never pale their glorious fires, though baffled oppression may threaten with its im potent sword, or, more dangerous still, seek to beguile with the Syren song of concilia tion." Mr. Boyce's grandiloquence was fol lowed by the reading of a letter from a Mrs. Ladd, giving her three sons to the cause, and thanking God that she was a Woman of the South. Flags were presented by Messrs. Ste phens, Toombs, and Walker. All these can didates for National adoption were referred to the proper Committee. The secret seal was lifted slightly on the 14th, by a resolution — permitting the Judi ciary Committee "to print such matters as they may desire to lay before Congress." This same liberty was extended also to any of the Standing Committees, so far as to allow the printing of any matter which they might deem requisite for the uses of the Committees. The inauguration of President Davis was fixed for Monday, February 18th, and a suit able Committee appointed to attend the Pres ident. A.n Act was adopted in secret ses sion this day (February 15th) to continue in office the officers of customs, and providing for the payment of the customs to the Confederate authorities. The proceedings of the open session of the Congress, February 16th, were unimportant. CHAPTER XXIY. PROCEEDINGS OF CONGRESS CONTINUED. TENTH WEEK. THE WITHDRAWAL OF LOUISIANA MEMBERS. SPEECHES OF SLIDE!,, BENJAMIN, CLINGMAN, ANDREW JOHNSON, HENRY WINTER DAVIS, KELLOGG, AND OTHERS. The Senate proceedings Petitions. of Monday, February 4th, were particularly interest ing from the withdrawal speeches of the Lou isiana Senators, and by the elaborate disunion argument of Mr. Clingman, of North Caro lina. Mr. Crittenden presented several im portant memorials and petitions from citizens of Louisville, Kentucky, of New Albany, In diana, from citizens of Michigan, New York, Maryland, &c, praying the passage of his resolutions, or for some compromise. Chand ler, of Michigan, presented two petitions from citizens of Bay County, of that State, protesting against the alteration of the Con stitution. Other petitions were presented by Messrs. Bigler and Fessenden, also praying for compromise. Wilson, of Massachusetts, introduced a resolution calling upon the Pres ident for information concerning the seizures in Louisiana. To its introduction Bigler ob jected, when it laid over under the rules. Mr. Slidell, of Louisiana, siideii's Valedictory, sent to the Secretary's desk a copy of the Louisiana Ordinance of Secession, which he had read. He then addressed the Senate quite at length, defending the course of the Seceding States. His argument, in many respects, was an able one, and his declarations were some what novel on points of interest involved. Among other things, he said : " We will adopt all laws not locally inapplicable or incompatible with our new relations ; we will recognize the obligations of all existing treaties — those respecting the African slave-trade included. We shall be prepared to assume our just proportion of the national debt ; to account for the cost of all the forts and other property of the United States, which we have been compelled Slidell's Valedictory. to seize in self-defence, if it should appear that our share in such expenditure has been greater than in other sections ; and, above all, we shall, as well from the dictates of natural justice and the principles of inter national law as of political and geographical affinities and of mutual pecuniary interests, recognize the right of the inhabitants of the Mississippi Valley and its tri butaries to its free navigation. We will guarantee to them a free interchange of all agricultural produc tions, without imposts, tax-duty, or toll of any kind ; the free transit from foreign countries of every spe cies of merchandise, subject only to such regulations as may be absolutely necessary for the protection of any normal system we may establish, and for purposes of police. " We must be prepared to resist coercion, whether attempted by avowed enemies, or by a hand hereto fore supposed friendly, by open war, or under the more insidious, and, therefore, more dangerous pretext of enforcing the laws, protecting public property, and collecting the revenues. We shall not cavil about words, nor discuss legal and tech nical distinctions ; we shall consider the one as equivalent to the other, and shall be prepared to act accordingly. Utroque arbitrio parati. You will find us ready to meet you with the outstretched hand of fellowship, or in the mailed panoply of war, as you may will it. Elect between these alternatives. " You may ignore the principles of our immortal Declaration of Independence ; you may attempt to reduce us to subjection ; or you may, under color of enforcing your laws or collecting your revenue, blockade our ports. This will be war, and we shall meet it with different, but equally efficient, weapons. We will not permit the introduction or consumption of any of your manufactures ; every sea will swarm with our volunteer militia of the ocean, with the striped bunting floating over their heads, for we do not mean to give up that flag without a bloody strug gle — it is ours as much as yours ; and although for 342 THE SOUTHERN REBELLION. a time more stars may shine on Shdell's Valedictory, your banner, our children, if not we, will rally under a constella tion more numerous and more resplendent than yours. You may smile at this as an impotent boast, at least for the present, if not for the future ; but if we need ships and men for privateering, we shall be amply supplied from the same sources as now almost ex clusively furnish the means for carrying on, with un exampled vigor, the African slave-trade — New York and New England. Your mercantile marine must either sail under foreign flags or rot at your wharves. " Bnt, pretermitting these remedies, we will pass to another equally efficacious. Every civilized na tion now is governed in its foreign relations by the rule of recognizing Governments ' de facto.' You alone invoke the doctrine of the ' dejure,' or divine right of lording it over an unwilling people strong enough to maintain their power within their own limits. How long, think you, will the great Naval Powers of Europe permit yon to impede their free intercourse with their best customers for their vari ous fabrics, and to stop the supplies of the great staple which is the most important basis of their manufacturing industry, by a mere paper blockade ? You were, with all the wealth and resources of this once great Confederacy, but a fourth or fifth rate naval power, with capacities, it is true, for a large, and, in a just quarrel, almost indefinite expansion. What will you be when not only emasculated by the withdrawal of fifteen States, but warred upon by them with active and inveterate hostility ?" His argument was directed to a justifica tion of the, course pursued by his people. He asserted that the revolution was a move ment of the people, and not a scheme of leaders ; that it was not a long-contemplated conspiracy, but a public expression of a prevalent popular feeling. Mr. Benjamin followed, Benjamin's Farewell, delivering his valedictory. His former speech [given on pages 150-51] expounded his views on the rights of States. On the present occa sion he reaffirmed those opinions, and refer red to the fact- that it was said whatever rights might accrue to the old States, Lou isiana, purchased by the Government, could not plead any " original independence." He assumed that the State and its people were not a piece of property over which the Gov ernment could exercise the jurisdiction of bargain and sale ; that they were only parts of a whole domain, for which, and by which, Government only existed. He proceeded to show that, Benjamin's Farewell in the treaty of cession of domain, the sovereignty was only conveyed in trust. Of the feeling and fixed purposes of the Southern people, he said : " We are told that the laws must be enforced ; that the revenues must be collected ; that the South is in rebellion without cause, and that her citizens are traitors. " Rebellion ! The very word is a confession, an avowal of tyranny, outrage, and oppression. It is taken from the despot's code, and has no terror for other than slavish souls. When, sir, did millions of people rise as a single man, rise in organized, de liberate, unimpassioned rebellion against justice, truth, and honor ? Well did a great Englishman ex claim upon a similar occasion : " ' You might as well tell us that they rebelled against the light of heaven; tltat they rejected the fiuits of the earth. Men do not war against their benefactors ; they are not mad enough to repel the instincts of sell-preservation. I pronounce, fearlessly, that no intelligent people ever rose, or ever will rise, against a sincere, rational, and^benevolent authority. No people were ever bom blind. Infatuation is not a law of human nature. When there is a revolt by a free people, with the common consent of all classes of so ciety, there must be a criminal against whom that revolt is aimed.' "Traitor! Treason! Ay, sir, the people of the South imitate and glory in just such treason as glowed in the soul of Hampden ; just such treason as leaped in living flames from the impassioned lips of Henry ; just such treason as enriches with a sa cred halo the undying name of Washington ! " You will enforce the laws. You want to know if we love a Government ; if you love any authority to collect revenue ; to bring tribute from an unwill ing people? Sir, humanity desponds, and all the in spiring hopes of her progressive improvement vanish into empty air at the reflections which crowd upon the mind at hearing repeated, with aggravated enor mity, the sentiments against which a Chatham launched his indignant thunders a century ago. The very words of Lord North are repeated here in de bate, not as quotations, but as the spontaneous out pourings of a spirit the counterpart of theirs. " In Lord North's speech on the destruction of the tea in Boston Harbor, he said : '"We are no longer to dispute between legislation and tax ation ; but we are now only to1 ccmsider whether or not we have any authority there. It is very clear we have none, if we suffer the propeity of our subjects to be destroyed. We must punish, contrul, or yield to thein ' " " And thereupon he proposed to close the port of Boston, just as the Representatives of Massachu setts now propose to close the port of Charleston. MR. 'CLINGMAN 'S SPEECH, 343 in order to determine whether or Benjamin's Farewell, not you have any authority there. It is thus that Boston, in 1861, is to pay her debt to Charleston, which, in the days of her struggle, proclaimed the generous sentiment that ' the cause of Boston was the cause of Charleston.' Who, after this, will say that Republics are ungrate ful ? Well, sir, the statesmen of Great Britain an swered to Lord North's appeal, 'yield.' The court iers and the politicians said, ' punish,' ' control.' The result is known. History gives you the lesson. Profit by its teachings." The consideration of the Clingman's Speech. President's Message, on the Virginia Peace Convention resolutions, was then called, when Mr. Cling man, of North Carolina, addressed the Senate, chiefly in reply to Senator Seward. In his former speech [see pages 63-64] his general views were expounded. He confined himself, at this time, to special points. He proceeded to show that a Republican rule must inevitably result in the abolishment of Slavery, in all States which remained under the old state of things. He said, in all sincerity, to Mr. Crittenden, that, " in his judgment, the issue which North Carolina and Kentucky have to determine is, whether there shall be a manly resistance now, or whether our States shall become free-negro communities. It is my deliberate judgment that, if this issue had met with no resistance, the latter alternative would have been the result." He recurred, quite at length, to the impossibility of a blockade being sustained, or even allowed by European governments. He drew a sad picture of the disaster which would over whelm Northern commerce and -finances, if cotton were withheld. The South, he as sumed, could keep an army of 450,000 men in the field, and, fighting for very existence, would never count its cost. But, the North, to meet this force, must have a relatively greater one. How would it be kept in the field? He conceived it impossible for the necessary army to be rendered available for any length of time — its cost would, of itself, live the North down. The only three courses left to be pursued were, 1st. A settlement such as would satisfy the South. 2d. The recognition of Southern independence. 3d. War. The first he considered as most desir able ; if it could not be made effective, the second was then the next best resort ; the third would clingman's speech. come of its own accord, if something was not done. He referred to the forts in the South, and confessed that dis patches were sent from Washington for their seizure, when it was learned that they were to be reenforced. The President countermanded the orders for reenforcements, at eleven o'clock at night, but the dispatches had gone forward and the seizures followed. He assumed that it was against the wishes of the people to take Government property, and they only had done so to assure their own safety. Mr. Clingman then referred to the question of recognition of Southern independence by foreign powers — a certainty about which there should be no dispute. He proceeded to show that it would be against the order of things not to recognize it after the new Con federacy became a de facto Government. Great Britain, in particular, would come for ward, for, notwithstanding her apparent anti- slavery sympathies, she was going to do nothing to injure her commerce, nor to throw her own masses out of employment. The breaking up of the Charleston Demo cratic Convention was one of the worst ob stacles in the way of the cooperation of all the Southern States in the secession move ment. If only one candidate had been in the field, and the Republican candidate had been elected, then the Slave States would all have gone out together ; but, that very division in the Convention had been the obstacle in the way to this uniform movement. He said the result would have been the same had there been but one candidate in the field — the Northern majority would have carried all be fore it.* The idea of submission to that majority was absurd, if the principle was to be pressed to its entire conclusions. Suppose a free negro had been elected President — would it have been expected of the South to submit ? The Pacific Railway bill, the Tariff bill, and the Homestead bill he considered as all inimical to a peaceful settlement, since they * We can hardly account for this statement of the Senator. As we have shown, [page 137,] the Re publicans were immensely in the minority, on a. pop ular vote. 344 THE SOUTHERN REBELLION, were nothing but Repub- Clingman's Speeeh. lican schemes to secure their ascendency. He said of the future, that the Confederacy would be divided into several unities — that the anti-Slavery section along the St. Law rence and in New England was not going with the States bordering the Ohio and Mis sissippi Rivers, whose sentiments and interests were too clearly identified with those of the South. He therefore thought the Northern States would divide. He closed : " The Senator from New York said on one occa sion, not long since, that, in this dispute between the North and the South, it was a matter of con science with the North, while with the South it was only a matter of interest ; and therefore the South ought to yield. By this mode, secession, the conscience of the North can be relieved, without subjecting the South to financial bankruptcy, polit ical degradation, and social ruin. The anti-Slavery current can then run its course unchecked and un- trammeled. It has already demanded, at Boston, the removal of the statue of Daniel Webster, because he was willing to compromise with the South.* How long will it be before it requires that the Btatues of such slaveholders as Washington and Jackson shall be thrown into the Potomac, the monument of the former razed to the ground, and the very name of * It is singular what ideas have prevailed in re gard to Webster's views. He was ever a consistent anti-slavery man, and opposed any compromise which would demand a sacrifice of this sentiment. In one of his very latest speeches, made at Buffalo, May 22d, 1851, he said : " If the South wish any concession from me, they won't get it — not a hair's breadth of it. If they come to my house for it, they will not find it. I con cede nothing. * * * No matter what may be said at the Syracuse Convention, or any other assemblage of insane persons, I never would consent that there should be one foot of Slave Territory beyond what the old Thirteen States had at the time of the forma tion of the Union. Never, never ! The man can't show his face to me and prove that I ever departed from that doctrine. He would sneak away, or slink away, or hire a mercenary Heep, that he might say what a mercenary apostate from liberty Daniel Web ster has become. He knows himself to be a hypo crite and falsifier. * * * All that I now say is, that, with the blessing of God, 1 will not now or here after, before the country or the world, consent to be num bered among those who introduced new slam-power into the Union. I will do all in my power to prevent it." this city changed to one in har mony with the anti-Slavery feel- ( lingmun's Speech. ing? Hereafter, if the North should meet adverse fortune, and again change its views, then there might be a reunion and a recon struction of the Government. Twice did the Ple beians secede, and twice did tbe haughty Patricians make such terms of conciliation as rendered Rome the foremost empire upon earth. " If the States were now divided into two Confed eracies, and their interests required a union, I do not know why it might not occur. But war places an impassable gulf between them. A Roman Ambassa dor, addressing those to whom he was sent, said, ' I carry in my bosom peace and war ; which will you have ?' Reversing his declaration, I say to Sen ators on the other side of this chamber, ' You carry in your bosoms, for the country, peace or war ; which do yon mean to give it?' If you say war, then our people will meet yon, and struggle with you all along the lines, and wherever else you come; and they will defend their honor and the safety of their wives and children, with the same spirit and resolution they exhibited at Sullivan's Island, and at Kings Mountain, at Yorktown, and at New Orleans, and over the many battle-fields of Mexico. I have no doubt the South will make a tri umphal defence, if assailed; but sooner than submit to disgrace and degradation, she would, if fall she must, rather go down, like the strong man of the Bible, carrying with her the main pillars of the edi fice, the edifice itself, and the lords of the Philistines, into one common ruin." Hale, of New Hamp shire, gave this speech of Hale's Reply. the North Carolina gentle man a moment's most damaging notice. He protested, as a Northern man, against its tone. Who, he asked, is threatening the country with war, and all the horrors of it ? Has the North seized upon any forts, taken any arsenals, robbed any mints? Has the North been guilty of one act of aggression? Has the North fired into the United States flag, or into any State flag ? On the other hand, is not the condition of the Northern States one that subjects them, in the eyes of the world, to the charge of pusillanimity . and reproach for wanting in manliness to repel the attacks made upon them and the National Govern ment? Gentlemen come here, he said, and preach peace to us, as if we were the aggres sive party — as if the responsibilities of war must rest on the North ! Most monstrous assumption ! In remarking upon the contin- MR. TAYLOR'S FAREWELL, 345 gencies of war, the Senator, Hale's Reply. j^ g^ awelt Up0n tnat force which would be found in the Northern States favorable to the South. " Sir, I would do anything to avoid war that any honorable man can do ; but, let not the Senator lay that flattering unction to his soul. I tell him if we do have war— God in his provi dence avert it 1 — the first thing we will do will be to dispose of Northern traitors. We shall not go South." Lane, of Oregon, in his brusque manner, demanded to know whom the speaker called traitors. He proved, by his remarks, that he himself was a candidate for treason's honors. " Neither he nor any other man shall call them traitors !" The Oregon Senator evidently considered himself the guardian of secession honor. Hale replied pointedly, that he was not going to define any man's position — he left every man to choose for himself; but, " I repeat," he said, " that if we are forced into a war, I tell you we shall deal with all domestic questions without advice from anybody!" The Senator's further remarks were so characteristic that we quote his lan guage: " I have but a single word more to say in re ply, rather to the Senator's rhetoric than his logic. He says the most imposing thing he has seen in this body was when those Senators announced the other day, that they were about to retire. Sir, I saw a ceremony simpler than that, and vastly more impos ing about the same time. It was when my friend from the State of Maine, (Mr. Morrill,) coming here under an election from his State, walked up to that desk, and held up his right hand, and called God to witness that he would uphold the Constitution of the United States. That was vastly more imposing to me. The honorable Senator asks, in that overflow ing rhetoric with which he has delighted the Senate so long, ' What will you say when the ten tribes go out V Sir, I am glad to hear that. Ten tribes did go out from the kingdom of Israel, but the ark of the covenant of the living God remained with the tribe of Judah." [Applause in the galleries.] The presiding officer called to order. Mr. Hale — " I think the galleries ought to be ex- oused for applauding a reference made to the Scrip tures. [Laughter.] I say there is where the ark of the covenant remained-. What became of the ten tribes? They have gone God only knows where, and nobody else. It is a matter of speculation what became of them ; whether they constitute the Pot- 44 tawotomies, or some other tribe of American savages. I recol- Halo's Reply. lect a friend said to me the other day, when the Japanese were here, ' I am glad the Jap anese came, for,' said he, ' I have learned more his tory from them than from all the books I ever read ; I know now what became of the ten tribes ; they settled Japan.' [Laughter.] ¦ Well, sir, that is a speculation. Now, this was suggested by the hon orable Senator from North Carolina, and it is full of meaning. There were ten tribes went out ; and re member, they went out wandering. They left the ark and the empire behind them. They went, as I said before, God only knows where. But, sir, I do hope and pray that this comparison, so instinctive and so eloquent, suggested by the honorable Sen ator, may not be illustrated in the fate of these other tribes that are going out from the household of Israel." The House, Monday, (February 4th), was engaged almost wholly in considering the Deficiency bill. A Resolution of Inquiry, of fered by McClernand, of Illinois, recited the reported seizure, in New Orleans, of Mint and Custom-house, for revolutionary purposes, and called upon the President for informa tion. The preamble was objected to by Bur nett, of Kentucky, who would consent to the inquiry without the preamble. McCler nand accepted the amendment proposed ; but Craige, of North Carolina, denied all and each of the allegations in the preamble. He was surprised that Mr. McClernand, entertaining the principles which he professed, should present such a resolution. His objection was fatal to its reception, even in its modified form of simple inquiry of the President for information respecting the seizure. Thus conspirators were aided in their schemes by " friends of the South," on the floors of Con- Tuesday, in the House, was a day of interest. Tay- - Taylor's Farewell. lor, of Louisiana, made his farewell speech. He had the Ordinance of Secession read, and then addressed the House. Among other remarks were sentiments going to prove that compromise was simply harm less, to restore the Union. The Government was dissolved, beyond remedy, without the Constitution itself were so fundamentally changed as to give the South all guarantees and privileges demanded. He asked for a 346 THE SOUTHERN REBELLION, peaceful state of affairs — Taylor's Farewell. cM not claim any right of secession except by the right of revolution. He conceived it for the interest of the North to accept a peaceful dissolution of the Union. Sickles, of New York, interrogated Mr. Taylor. He asked, if a blockade be an act of war, whether, in his judgment, war has not already been initiated by the measures of a yet more aggressive character — namely, the seizure of the United States forts, of a public vessel of war of the United States, and the spoliation of the mint and the public moneys of the United States ? That if this be so, then are not the measures of the Government of which he has spoken essentially defensive in their character, and rendered imperative upon the people and the Government of the United States in protection of their dignity, their rights, and their honor ? Taylor replied, that the seizures were in self-defence, and were not in offence— that the forts, being erected to guard the States, could not be justly used to coerce them. He repeated, that any attempt at coercion would send Missouri, Tennessee, Virginia, and North Carolina to the rescue. He then bade the House adieu. Mr. Bouligney, of Lou- One Loyalist from .g. alg0 made a per. Louisiana. , , sonal explanation. He had received no official information that an Or dinance of Secession had been passed by Lou isiana. As to the Convention, he was not elected by them, and had nothing to do with their action. He should not, therefore, obey their instructions. Some of the gentlemen of that body were his personal and intimate friends. He thought discourtesy had been exercised towards him in not sending him a copy of the ordinance. He would therefore pay no attention to it until he received offi cial notice of its passage. Another reason compelled him to differ with the Senators and Representatives from that State. He was the only member of Congress elected therefrom as an American Union man, and to this principle he should stand forever. " When I came here," he added, " I took an oath to maintain the Constitution of the United States. What does that mean ? Does it not mean the Union of the States ? It does, if I understand it aright. By that oath I shall stand. Whenever instructed by my im mediate constituents, and asked by them to withdraw myself from this House, their wishes shall be complied with as soon as I receive the information. I shall, however, not only withdraw, but resign my seat. After I do so, I shall continue to be a Union man, and stand under the flag of the country that gave me birth." This patriotic declaration called forth great expressions of approval from the floor and galleries. The episode was a very gratifying evidence of the unwavering loy alty of a few men from the South, not yet awed into submission to the behests of revo lutionary Conventions and treasonable leaders. Colfax, of Indiana, called up his bill for suspending The Southern Mails. postal facilities in the Se ceding States, when Branch, (Dem.,) of North Carolina, opposed the measure. The Post master already has power to discontinue the laws in such cases. When the laws cannot be enforced it would be time enough to con sider such a measure as that now pending. We must either admit that the Seceded States are in or out of the Union. If this bill con siders them in the Union, then it is a most injurious act to withdraw from them the postal laws. If, however, it was to acknowl edge that these States are out of the Union, then he had no objection to the bill. He knew of no better way of acknowledging the independence of these States than by with drawing from them the postal benefits of the Government. Sickles, of New York, thought there was a legal necessity for the passage of the bill, for there is no power, in any of the Seceding States, to protect the mails of the United States. There is no power in any of the Seceding States to punish any criminal of fence which may be perpetrated upon the mails. As there are no Courts there which would entertain jurisdiction of any offence charged to have been committed in any of the Seceding States, therefore, en necessitate rei, the Government of the United States must either subject the mails to the hazard of every possible trespass and depredation, or else withhold them from those States. MR. SICKLES' ARGUMENT, 347 The Southern Mails. Hindman, of Arkansas, re garded the bill as virtually recognizing the independence of the Seceded States, and should therefore vote for it. He thought, however, as a question of law, that those laws not specially repealed still remained in force. Sickles answered: "My attention has not yet been called to that extraordinary incon sistency. I have yet to hear of the principle upon which a Sovereign State asserts its in dependence, and still allows the laws of a foreign jurisdiction to be enforced within its boundaries ; and I trust that no State hold ing the dignified attitude which these States claim, either as members heretofore of this Union, or as independent States, will continue in such position." This question gave rise to an interesting running debate. The assumption of the South that, notwithstanding the Southern States had seceded, the Government was obliged still to execute its laws until they were repealed, involved such a remarkable stultification of moral and political sensibili ties, that it created astonishment, even in a community accustomed to monstrous imposi tions. Branch, of North Carolina, demanded to know if any instance could be cited where the collection of postage had been stopped. Colfax replied that, in Alabama, certain post masters had refused to remit the amounts due from their offices until the course of the State was determined, when Branch made the following covering point : " These are cases of individual postmasters. But I would ask the gentleman from Indiana if he has any information that, in any instance, in the States that have attempted to secede, the public authorities have interfered with the collection of the revenue from postages ?" Colfax answered, and gave such " instan ces" as quite effectually silenced the patriots who were solicitous that Government should continue to carry the mails in the Seceded States. The postmasters might refuse to re mit, but those were " individual" sins — the . States did not interfere to prevent the collec tion of postages; therefore, the mails should be carried! It would be a very charming arrangement to have the Federal Government sustain the postal system throughout the South, in view of the fact that the expenses exceeded The Southern Mails. the revenues by several millions annually, [see p. 168.] The want of honor in the mere proposition is only another illustration of our previous statement, that the secession movement, in its treason, its break ing of oaths, its " appropriations" of Govern ment property, its deception and misrepre sentations, its air of insolence and dogmatism — all savored of a demoralization of the prin ciple of integrity which presents one of the most remarkable instances of degeneracy in the whole history of civilization. Mr. Buckle, in viewing it, will find prepared for his scrutiny a fearful basis of facts upon which to theorize. It is Carlyle, we believe, who says that a people who will appropriate a man will not stop at the lesser crime of ap propriating money ; but, without admitting such a charge as the deduction implies, it is certain from some cause, the Southern senti ment, in 1861, was demoralized morally, as well as politically, to an extent which must ever remain a blot on the once fair fame of the Seceded States. [See Sherrard Clemens' Speech, page 270.] Mr. Colfax, in reply to Branch's demand for instances of State complicity in outraging the sanctity of the mails, said : " I will answer the gentleman, that there is evi dence in the Post-office Department that the mails are tampered with in the States that claim to have seceded, and there is no authority by which you can protect the letters against being tampered with. A man may take letters that do not belong to him from the mails in the public streets and open them, and there is no tribunal before which he can be brought for that offence. I will add, thatit is well known that the correspondence between this Government and Major Anderson at Fort Sumter was stopped by the authority of the Governor of South Carolina, until the Governor saw fit to allow it to continue, and it is now continued only by his toleration." Sickles said,, also, in the course of his for cible argument for the suspension : " So far as this is a question to be considered with reference sickles' Argument. to individual and private incon venience', the merchants of New York will suffer, in a pecuniary point of view, one hundred-fold more than the merchants of the South. The Seceding States are indebted millions upon millions to the 848 THE SOUTHERN REBELLION, City of New York. A large The Southern Mulls, portion of this indebtedness is wholly unavailable. Of the bills receivable, payable by the Seceding States, which matured in January and February, not twenty per cent, has been paid. The balance of trade is entirely against the Seceding States, as we all know, and this is the very season of the year when the remittances, if honorably met, are forwarded. They have not been met, I regret to know. But, sir, they would not be safe ; I maintain, under existing legislation and in the present condition of relations between the United States and the Seceding States, that it would be most hazardous to forward remittances between the Seceding States and the remaining States of the Union. ***** * * * " I suppose, sir, that persons holding positions as postmasters in those States, pay over what they re ceive to the Sub-Treasuries in their vicinity ; and then, sir, as we have seen in Louisiana, the State authorities, after it has been collected in one mass, appropriate it to the local Government. In that way all the revenues from the postal service, and all the deposits belonging to the United States in those Sub- Treasuries, are secured to the insurgent States ; and frequently in the sub-treasuries and mints in those States there are large amounts of money belonging to private individuals, which are placed there upon deposit, placed there for coinage, placed there to be weighed, and placed there to be stamped for ex portation. We have no means of protecting that private property in any of those States ; and for the same reason that. I would have suspended the Mint at New Orleans a month ago, if a proposition had been brought forward for that purpose, because I could not anticipate the security of the public and private property there, for that very identical reason I will now, in view of these acts of spoliation, with draw the mails from a jurisdiction where they can not be protected. ****** "The United States Judges have resigned, and you cannot get a jury in these Seceding States that would convict a man of an offence against a jurisdiction which they repudiated. Wherever the flag of the United States cannot go, wherever the jurisdiction of the United States isrepelled and insulted, I would not trust the property of the United States. If the money, if the bullion in the Mint at New Orleans is not safe from spoliation ; if they are willing in Lou isiana to imitate the Mexican policy of spoliation npon property, how, sir, could you intrust your mails with the property of your citizens, with the dis patches of your Government, and with the property, also, of the Government, within the same jurisdic tion? You cannot do it." Mr. Sickles, as a Democrat, and friend of the South, had stood up for a recognition of the independence of the Southern States, presuming that their disquiet was, as repre sented, too grievous to allow of their further association with the North, in the Union. He represented, unquestionably, a large party in the North, entertaining like sentiments. How the entire features of the revolution had changed, when the mask dropped off, may be inferred from his remarks on this occasion, for which we claim the reader's attention : The Democratic Alarum Sounded. " Mr. Speaker, we must not close our eyes to the new phases which events have suc cessively put upon the secession movement. It orig inated, sir, as a peaceful remedy for grievances. As such it had thousands and tens of thousands of men at the North who were disposed to meet it on mid way ground, and say, ' If you cannot abide with us, bitter as the lesson may be, -we will yield to your appeals for a separation.' That was the December phase of the secession movement. In January it as sumed a new, attitude. No longer peaceable, no longer disposed to await the consent of the deliber ations of the Northern States, forcible possession was taken of our forts, and arsenals; and arms, and we were menaced, in advance, with all the terrors of civil war, and degradation to our flag and jurisdic tion was inflicted upon us. When this new phase of the secession movement was presented, those friends of the Southern cause who, up to December, defended it manfully, became only the apologists of the erring acts of their friends. In February it as sumes yet a new phase. I can only characterize it as the Mexican method of revolution. * * * In November it was peaceable secession. We could agree to that. I am for it. In January it was forci ble secession ; and then, sir, the friends of peaceable secession in the North were transformed into- timid apologists. In February it is spoliation and war. Armies are raised under the guns of forts belonging to the United States, the jurisdiction of which has been ceded to, us by the solemn acts of the Seceding States. Measures of open war yielded to Mexican spoliations, and I say, in the presence of this new and last phase of the secession movement, that it can have no friends in the North, it can have no apologists in the North, but there will soon be no exception to the general denunciation which it must meet with from the loyal and patriotic citizens of this country." This declaration embodied the now almost unanimous feeling in the North — of stern, un compromising resistance to the Southern movement. " Democracy," " Republicanism," ANDREW JOHNSONS SECOND SPEECH 349 "Americanism," "Abolitionism" — all were passing away like shadows over the plain, to give place to the vast cloud charged with the lightnings and thunders of a united people. Hughes, (Dem.,) of Maryland, addressed the House in a speech of an hour's duration. It embodied the usual declaration of causes which led to the disturbed state of affairs, chief of which was the election of a Presi dent on a strictly geographical and sectional issue. He favored the Crittenden Compro mise as a reasonable mode of adjustment. In the evening session — Various Speeches, held to give certain gentle men an opportunity for an expression of their sentiments before debate was suspended on the Corwin Report — Messrs. Logan, (Dem.,) of Blinds, Tappan, (Rep.,) of New Hampshire, Moore, (Dem.,) of Kentucky, and Trimble, (Rep.,) of Ohio, severally addressed the House. Logan opposed coercion or war against the Seceded States. We must regard the revolution as accomplished, and can treat with them only in a peaceful manner. He counseled concession and compromise. Let all come together in the spirit which actua ted the patriot fathers, and not as partisans, who adhere to mere party platforms in pref erence to the Union, to save the Union. He was willing to vote for any proposition, and to sacrifice every opinion he ever entertained. He wished to conciliate the conservative men of the South, that they, holding the national flag in one hand, and grasping the Union with the other, may put to rout the Disunionists. Tappan opposed both secession and com promise. He was for the Constitution as it was, and preferred the Union as it had been to what it would be under " conciliation '* — which meant, humiliation of the North. Mr. Tappan had, as a member of the Com mittee, joined Washburne, of Illinois, in a Minority Report, [see page 213-214.] Moore discarded Secession as heresy and a new-fangled idea. The wise, patriotic, and sagacious framers of the Constitution did not implant within it seeds for its own destruc tion. None of them considered that a State had a right to secede. He argued that the Andrew Johnson's Second Speech. South should have equal rights in the Territories with the North. His State had abundant reason to complain of the aggres sions of the North, but this was no reason why the Union should be dissolved. When the dogmas of the Republican platform come to be put into practice, then it would be time to revolt. Kentucky had never found the Government oppressive, and was not going to plunge into revolution without just cause. Trimble still prayed and hoped for the Union. He would vote to conciliate, but could not consent to the Crittenden Compro mise for recognizing Slavery. In the Senate, Tuesday, ( February 5th, ) Andrew Johnson, of Tennessee, de livered a somewhat remarkable speech, de nouncing secession in forcible terms, and arraigning certain of his assailants for their inconsistency and duplicity. 1 In his former speech he had planted him self on the Constitution, beside its fathers, and against the doctrine of nullification and secession, which he considered to be a na tional heresy. As far back as 1833 he had planted himself on the same principles, and believed the doctrine of secession to be a heresy, which, if sustained, would lead to the destruction of the Government ; and he opposed this doctrine to-day for the same reasons. He believed that it would be the destruction also of any Government which might be formed subsequently. He looked upon this doctrine as a prolific political sin ; as a production of anarchy, which was the next step to despotism. For his speech on the 19th of December, [see page 91-92,] he had been attacked and denounced; but he was inspired with a confidence that he had struck treason a blow, and men who were engaged in being traitors felt the blow. His object now was to meet attacks. He then referred to Benjamin's speech of the previous day regarding Louisiana's right to leave the Union, showing that the General Government had paid sixty millions of francs for the soil and sovereignty of the State — had given her constant protection ever since, even to levying a sugar duty for her special benefit, and what was the return ? Let the pages of history tell 1 Let robbed mints, 350 THE SOUTHERN REBELLION. Andrew Johnson's Second Speech. pillaged arsenals, seized forts and usurpations over the people tell 1 Benjamin, but a short time previous to his lugubrious lamentations over Louisiana's " wrongs," had characterized disunionists as those who shot arrows at the bright sun. What had made him so oblivious to his late sentiments ? Had any "wrongs" been perpetrated in the mean time? The speaker then quoted from the Rich mond Enquirer of 1814, where, discussing the proceedings of the Hartford Convention, it assumed the position that no State had a right to withdraw from the Union — that resistance against the laws was treason, calling on the Government to arrest the traitors, for the Union must be saved at all hazards. Mr. Johnson said he subscribed fully to those opinions. But what is Treason ? The Con stitution says, " Treason consists in levying war against the United States, or adhering to an'enemy, and giving him aid and comfort." Does it need any search to find men levying war, and giving aid and comfort to enemies against the United States ? Treason ought to be punished, North and South ; and if there are traitors, they should be entitled to trait ors' reward. He said that South Carolina early had a prejudice against 'a Government by the people, and that secession was no new thing in that State. He referred to the early history of South Carolina, who claimed, at one time, that they were ready to go back under the dominion of King George. He read an address of the people of Charleston to King George, 1780, saying that they never intended to dissolve that union, lamenting the struggle of independence, professing af fection and zeal for that Government, the King, &c. He then referred to the attempt to break up the Government in 1833 by South Carolina. Then they were restrained and their pride humbled, and men who speak in their Convention now say they have had an intention to dissolve the Union for forty years. The question now is, Are the other States going to allow themselves to be pre cipitated into ruin by South Carolina ? That State and Massachusetts ever had been a source of trouble to the Confederacy, and he thought it would be a God-send if Andrew Johnson's Second Speech. they could be joined to gether like the Siamese Twins, and be borne away to some secluded spot in the ocean. He then proceeded to notice the assaults made upon him for his views. Of Lane's rough attack he said : " I had not said anything offensive to him, or I did not intend to, at least. I felt he had just come out of a campaign, in which I had labored hard, and ex pended my money in vindicating him from the charge of secession. Yes, through dust and heat, through mud and rain, I traversed my State, meet ing the charges that secession was at the bottom of his platform and principles, and that it was a fixed and decided plan to break up this Government. It was charged that it started at Charleston, and was consummated at Baltimore, and that my worthy friend was the embodiment of disunion and seces sion. I met the charge ; I denied it and repudiated it, and tried to convince the people that the charge was untrue. I did not see what there was in my speech to extort an answer from him." He then referred to Lane's recent declara tions, comparing them with his vote, (May 25th, I860,) declaring that Slavery in the Territories did not want protection. His references to the record were particularly damaging to the Oregon knight. Lane as sumed that Virginia and New York had ac cepted the Constitution conditionally, by re serving certain rights. Johnson replied by showing that no such rights were reserved, and that Lane either was too stupid to under stand, or had not read the record at all. He said, of Lane's ignorance in regard to Ala bama's acceptance of the Constitution : " An act to enable the people of Alabama to form a Constitution and a State Government, and for the admission of such State into the Union, on an equal footing with the original States, was approved March 2d, 1819, and the people accepted it with this pas sage : ' This ordinance is hereby declared irrevo cable without the consent of the United States.' There is the compact. Yet it is claimed that Ala bama has a right to go out of her own will, because she cannot get her equal rights. When we are a candidate for the Presidency, then, I suppose, we are all equal brethren in this Confederacy. But after we have attempted and signally failed of an election, then I suppose the enemies' line commences just where our defeat commenced." Mr. Johnson concluded his speech on Wed nesday. Before adjournment, the President VARIOUS SPEECHES, 351 Andrew Johnson's Second Speech. sent in a message remitting the Kentucky Legislature resolutions, asking Congress to call a National Convention to present amend ments to the Constitution. He said it afforded him great pleasure to perform this duty, and felt confident that Congress would act with careful consideration, to which the resolu tions are entitled, on account of the patriotic source from which they proceed, as well as the great importance of the subject. The conclusion of Johnson's speech, Wed nesday, commanded much attention. -His scathing reply to the Oregonian, and his gen eral denunciations of the course pursued by the seceders, had excited them greatly. The " irrepressible Wigfall" — like a friend in need — made careful notes of the speech, to prepare for a reply. To him was the honor of the "great departed" — Davis, Toombs, Yulee, Slidell, and Benjamin — now confided. The Tennessee Senator resumed, asking what any State was to get by going out of the Union — what rights in Territories that they had not already? He thought the masses, even in the Seceded States, true, if they could only shake off the tyranny of the few men who directed the whole movement. He adverted to this remarkable usurpation, showing the designs of the lead ers clearly to be to override the people — to ignore them altogether ; giving, among other matters in evidence, the following dispatch : " Charleston, January 19fh, 1861. " Judge McGrath and myself have sent four tele graphs to you. Please urge Mississippi to send delegates to the Montgomery meeting of States, at as early a day as possible — say February 4th — to form immediaely a strong Provisional Government. It is the only thing to prevent war, and let that Convention elect immediately a commander-in-chief for the Seceding States. You may as well return, at least as far as Montgomery. " F. W. PICKENS. " To Hon. A. Rust Jackson." What meant all the vast military prepara tions in the South, if they did not mean war ? Even in his own State a proposition had been started to raise fifteen regiments. For what ? Had anybody attacked Tennessee ? No 1 Who are we going to fight ? He said : " Conventions are got up. A reign of terror is inaugurated ; and if, by the influence of a subsidized Andrew Johnson's Second Speeoh. and mendacious press, an ordinance taking the State out of the Confederacy can be ex torted, then those who make the proposition for an army expect to have all in readiness — to have their bands armed and equipped, and their Praetorian divisions fitted for the field. Then they will tell the people that they must carry the ordinance into effect, and join a Southern Confederacy, whether they will or not." Anderson's conduct he approved, and paid a high compliment to the gallant officer for his brave discharge of duty. With such de fenders the Union was safe. If the Union was to be destroyed, and the old flag struck to the dust, he wanted no more glorious winding- sheet than that same flag, and no better grave than to lie with the Union. He closed by making an appeal to the conservative men of the opposite party to sustain the Union men, fighting for the Union, and do some thing for the safety of the country; or, at least, let the question go to the people of the country, in whose patriotism and integrity he had an abiding confidence. In the House, Wednes day, Colfax, of Indiana, from the Postal Committee, reported a revised bill for suspending postal routes and officers in the Seceded States — giv ing to the Postmaster-General the power of such suspension, when, in his opinion, the service could not be continued with safety. The bill passed by a vote of 131 to 26. Hind man, of Arkansas, voted for it as a disunion measure — it recognized the right of seces sion! Brown, of Kentucky, thought like wise, and voted for it on that ground. The Report of the Committee being resumed, various speeches. Humphrey, of New York, addressed the House. His argument tended to prove that the idea of thirteen independ ent nations had never existed but in the brains of political theorists. Before State sovereignty was dreamed of, nationality had an existence. Yet they saw States solemnly declaring the resumption of a sovereignty that they never for a moment possessed. True men could not negotiate with traitors, nor could the Government compound with treason. But as to those States which remain loyal to the country, there was no rational The Postal Service Suspended. 352 THE SOUTHERN REBELLION. demand he would deny con- Various Speeches. sistent with honor and prin ciple. The Committee had wasted much time in devising the means of the adjustment, while the true cause remains un touched. Let Lincoln be inaugurated, and then Congress could address themselves to the subject. The duty of reinvigorating the Government must be cast on the incoming Administration. Animated by a patriotic impulse, its acts will be without suspicions of fear, or conscious weakness. It must have power to concentrate and lead public opinion, aided by Congressional representatives fresh from the people. He looked forward to the next Administration with a steadfast trust and cheerful hope. Then will come the time for adjustment in conformity with honor, dignity, and principle. If the Seceded States return, it must be with a recantation of the disunion heresy on their lips. Harris, (Dem.,) of Virginia, spoke patriot ically. He said he should use every exertion in his power to preserve this Government. He was for the Union now, even bleeding, torn, and shattered as it is. The calamities, including civil war, attending and following a dissolution, bear equally on both sections, and to each they are boundless. The Cotton States are gone, but the Republican party, by coming forward like men, and rendering jus tice to the South, can prevent further rupture, until the Border States, by a firm and con ciliatory course, can adjust with them all the pending difficulties. This done, these States would return to the Union, and it would then be fixed upon a more permanent basis than ever before. He opposed the idea of reconstruction, and urged the Republicans to accept the Crittenden propositions. Let the friends of adjustment and union stand firm, and our troubles will yet be settled. At the evening session, Maynard, (Am.,) of Tennessee, expressed strong Union senti ments. He advocated quite earnestly the Crittenden propositions. A coercive policy, he deemed, would prove ineffectual, unwise, and attended only by evil. The moment such a war commenced, the whole South would make common cause. Trust to the Union men. Give them assurances and guarantees, so they could go back to their people and Various speeches. satisfy them that their rights will not be invaded, and that their equality in the Union will be maintained inviolate, and he would pledge himself, so far as he could, that the forts, arsenals, ships, navy-yards, the mint and the bullion shall be restored. They will do this without firing a gun or shedding one drop of blood ; they will do it by the peace ful remedy of the ballot-box, with no honor soiled or self-respect lost. They will restore the Government in the high and proud posi tion" it enjoyed before these troubles com menced, and at the end for years the Govern ment will be in the hands of a party which shall embrace every one of the thirty-four States. Wells, (Rep.,) of New York, saw no pres ent escape from a dissolution of the Union. Its preservation must be found in a change of sentiment in the two sections, now as wide apart as the poles. Therefore, it was impossible for them to unite on a common ground until they feel like one brother towards another. He proceeded to show that the report of the Committee of Thirty-three asks the Republicans to give up their princi ples as announced in the Chicago Platform, by recognizing Slavery in New Mexico. Sla very was repugnant to the principles on which the Constitution rests, hence he would never vote for any measure which saps the foundation of the stones on which the struc ture is erected. This is the principal ques tion; others are of no consequence. He deprecated civil war, and would use no more force against the Seceded States than was necessary for the interests of the country. When South Carolina was hungry, he would give her bread ; when naked, give her cloth ing; and if she should come back, he would meet her half way and kill the fatted calf, and make music on her return. In the House, Thursday, (February 7th,) Henry Win ter Davis, (Am.,) of Mary land, expressed his views on the State of the Union, to a very crowded auditory. His reputation as an orator, his known Union sentiments, and his position as the represent* ative of the City of Baltimore, gave interest to his declarations. The public was scarcely Henry Winter Davis' Union Speech. HENRY WINTER DAVIS P E E C H . 353 „ prepared for the powerful Henry Winter Davis' Speech. an0- cogent speech which came from his lips. It rang out like an alarum on the night — to arouse men into an attitude of defence. The open ing words of his speech were as follow : " We are at the end of the insane revel of partisan license, which, for thirty years, has, in the United States, worn the mask of Government. We are about to close the masquerade by the dance of death. The nations of the world look anxiously to see if the people, ere they tread its mazes, will be restored to reason. * * The corruption of our political maxims has relaxed the tone of public morals, and degraded the public authorities, to be come, instead of a terror, the accomplices of evil doers. * * Under their disastrous influence, Gov ernment has gradually ceased to fertilize the fields of domestic and useful legislation, and pours itself, like an impetuous torrent, along the barren ravines of party and of sectional strife. * * The Presi dent, no longer preceded by the fasces and the axe, emblems of supreme authority, greets every popu lar clamor with smiles and condescension. He is degraded to the mean office of presiding over the distribution of spoils among the wrangling victors. He dedicates his vast powers to forge arms, with which to perpetuate partisan warfare at the expense of the public peace. The original ideas of the Con stitution have faded from men's minds. * * Con gress has ceased to regulate commerce, to protect domestic industry, to encourage our commercial marine, to promote internal trade, by h.ternal im provements. Almost every power, useful to the people in its exercise, has been denied, or so limited in its exercise, as to be useless ; and men, as a result, have forgotten that the Union is a blessing, and that they owe to the United States allegiance paramount to that due to their respective States. The conse quence is, that States stand face to face to wage their own quarrrels, to adjust their own difficulties, to impute to each other every wrong, to insist that individual States shall remedy every grievance, and making the failure to comply a cause for war — as if the Constitution were dead, and the power of the Federal Government utterly inadequate to keep the peace. Unconstitutional ' Commissioners' flit from State to State, or assemble at the National Capital to counsel peace or instigate war. Sir, these are the causes which lie at the root of present dangers ; and, sir, these causes must be removed before the evils can be permanently cured. * * In the strug gle for party power, the two great sections of the country have been brought face to face upon this most dangerous of all subjects of agitation — Slavery. The authority of the Government was re- 45 laxed just when its power was about to be assailed, and the Henry Wtater Davia' , . Speech. people, emancipated from every control, their passions inflamed by the fierce struggle for the Presidency, were the easy prey of revolutionary audacity." This view, humiliating as it must be con sidered, was felt to be but too true. Its force struck to the North as well as the South. " Corruption" was a word in almost every politician's mouth — it stared from the page of every partisan newspaper — it was the theme of conversation in offices, on the streets, in homes, and in halls of legislation. To be come a "politician" was to become suspected of a want of honor and probity — so fearfully had our ancient political integrity deteriorat ed. The best men withdrew from public life, disgusted with its associations, rather than suffer dishonor by the steps which be came necessary to attain office. It was all party and " platforms"— nothing of personal excellence and fitness. He was the most talk ed of and locally influential who could mar shal the greatest number of loafers to his call. Occasionally a good man, owing to some great exigency, was forced from his re tirement to take office, and his name served, perhaps, to create a momentary enthusiasm ; but, all soon subsided again, and the great stream of politics drove sluggishly on, to bear to high places and low, men who never should or would have been known in circles where moral worth and intelligence were made requisites. The speaker's words were but toe well grounded in truth. Mr. Davis further spoke in substance : Without any grievance or menace, we find six States have usurped the extraordinary prerogative of rebelling against the supreme law of the land, assuming to be independent powers — seizing forts, ships, &c, and insulting the national flag. We have seen a Cabinet Minister distributing the public arms in the South, for the benefit of those who are about to resist public authority and wage war ; we have seen a Cabinet Minister still holding his commission, and still bound by oath to sup port the Constitution, going as a Commis sioner from one State to another, for the purpose of organizing the great scheme of rebellion ; we have seen a President neglect- 354 THE SOUTHERN REBELLION. ing the most solemn warn- Henry Winter Davis' . « ,-, j. , .... .. . , mg of the first military of ficer of the age, in allowing the forts to be taken possession of; we have seen him, subsequently, making bargains for peace with the Disunionists, until he shall be relieved from the responsibilities of office, instead of defending the public property and vindicating public honor, and, without re monstrance, permitting the work of disinte gration to go on. His ascension to supreme power shows his utter incapacity for the Presidential honors showered upon him. We have seen, too, recently, a late Cabinet officer President of the Southern Convention, de claring it to be their purpose finally to sever connection with the United States, and take all the consequences of establishing a sover- reign and independent Republic. We are driven to one of two alternatives, and we must recognize what we are informed is an accomplished fact not to be recalled, or we must refuse to acknowledge it, and accept all the responsibilities attached to that refusal. He did not wish to quarrel about words, but the Constitution and • laws of the United States must be enforced, and those who stand across the path of that enforcement must either destroy the power of the United States, or it will destroy them. He trusted that this condition was centuries or thousands of years distant. The revenue may be collected on ship-board, and the laws of commerce en forced by not allowing vessels to pass out without papers from the United States authorities, and the postal facilities ean be continued or suspended, according to the circumstancs of the locality, and the courts of justice may be supported as in Utah, or their jurisdiction be extended in the States where there is no disturbance. These are clear and peaceful measures for enforcing the laws, and the United States Government is vested, under the Constitution, with adequate power to meet such emergencies. It may dispose of the troops and sink ships without war. Aftei further discussion, he said he could speak for Maryland, who has confidence in the strength of the great Govern ment who protects her. At this point Kunkle, (Dem.,) of Indiana, interrupted : " If you speak for Maryland, I desire to be heard;" and ... . -, , T-, • Henry Winter Davis' further said, when Davis speech declined to yield the floor, " I deny the right of the gentleman to speak for Maryland ; let him speak for himself only." Davis replied : " I represent here the Fourth Congressional District of Maryland only ; but though I am not elected by the State of Maryland, I am entitled to speak what / know to be the sentiments of Maryland." Great applause followed this forcible expres sion, both on the floor and in the galleries. Objections were made to these demonstra tions, which Mr. Davis begged might be dis continued. He proceeded only again to be interrupted by Kunkle. Resuming, he re peated, that Maryland did not recognize the right of secession — did not recognize any right to repeal or abrogate the supreme law. Should any Convention be called, of what ever character, and under whatever auspices, those who should presume to inaugurate a revolution would meet with revolutionary re sistance on the soil of Maryland under the Stars and Stripes. They will not allow either the majority or the minority to drag them from the Union. Within Maryland are men who will assume resistance to anything look ing to armed rebellion. He concluded, de tailing the causes which had called the Re publican party into existence, and had given it the great popular sympathy by which it was enabled to attain to power ; saying : " That result is now becoming the starting-point of new agitation — the demand of new rights and new guarantees. The claim to access to the Territories was followed by the claim to Congressional protec tion ; and that is now followed by the hitherto un heard-of claim to a constitutional amendment, estab lishing Slavery not merely in the Territory now held, but all hereafter to be obtained from the line of 36 deg. 30 min. to Cape Horn ; while there is fore shadowed in the distance the claim of the right of transit and the placing of property in slaves in all respects on the footing of other property — to be come topics of future agitation. How long the pro hibition of the importation of slaves will be execut ed under the doctrine of ' equality,' it needs no prophet to tell. " In the face of this recital let the imputation of autocratic and tyrannical aspirations cease to be cast on the people of the Free States; let the A NOVEL SCHEME OP COMPROMISE, 355 Southern people dismiss their fears, return to their friendly confidence in their fellow-citizens of the North, and accept as pledges of returning peace the salutary amendments of the law and the Consti tution offered as the first-fruits of reconciliation." This speech, coming from a member repre senting a Slave constituency, was as grati fying to the Republicans as it was provoking to their enemies. Like the words of Andrew- Johnson, of Emerson Etheridge, Sherrard Clemens, and John A. Gilmer — all " Southern men," in the proper sense of the word — it served to brush away the mountain of false hood and misrepresentation which the Dis unionists had built around them as a defen sive barrier, and proved to the world that, in that time of political demoralization, there were a few noble spirits, too incorruptible to be bought, too brave to be overawed — loyal, while all others were disloyal. Their words had only too little circulation among their own people, for it was a part of the game of revolution not to allow the people to hear their own representatives, where their elo quence and wisdom were directed against the secession movement. [See page 287, " resume."] Mr. Sedgwick, (Rep.,) of The Anti-Compromise N(jw Tork followed Davis Sentiment. ' in a strong anti-Compro mise speech — adding, to those already made by Van Wyck, Conkling, and Pottle, to the growing strength of the Empire State against the proposed measures of conciliation — all of which expressly stipulated the giving of more area to slave representation. A per manent union between the Slave and Free States he considered a failure, and he would consent that the Slave States should form a Confederacy by themselves, and would pro vide for the gradual emancipation of the slaves in States which might remain with the North. His amendment of the Constitution would be to provide for the emancipation of every slave. This speech was not from an "ultra." The gentleman's views seemed to spring from the unparalleled exigencies of the times. As Slavery had been the cause, he would cure the disease by striking at its provocation. Mr. Sedgwick represented a rapidly growing public sentiment, which, since old landmarks were to be obliterated by the revolutionists, was to make itself felt. No longer controlled by those motives of State policy which had. since 1820, kept down the anti-Slavery feeling, vast numbers of those who had been regarded as " con servative" now began to look forward to an abolishment of Slavery as the surest and wisest remedy for the evils under which the country was suffering. The South, by its mad and impolitic course, had alienated tens of thousands in the North who had, for years, stood as a barrier against the " Abolitionists." It had, by its daring attempt to prostrate the Government, and to trample the Constitu tion under foot, aroused animosities, awakened prejudices, excited resolves which a gen eration will scarcely suffice to obliterate. Vallandigham, (Dem. j of -, . „ .,. A Novel Scheme of Ohio, offered propositions compromise. to amend the Constitution of such a preposterous nature as rendered them among the most curious of all schemes of settlement proposed. A digest of his most un-democratic and impracticable idea may thus be stated : " The United States to be divided into four sec tions — the New England and Middle States to con stitute one, the North-western States another, the Pacific States another, and the Southern States east of the Rio Grande another — these sections to be called respectively the North, the West, the Pacific, and the South ; new States within the prescribed limits of each section to be a part of such section ; the latitude of thirty degrees and thirty minutes to the Rocky Mountains to be the line between the West and South. On the demand of one-third of the Senators of any section, a vote upon anything requiring the concurrence of the House, if neces sary, shall be had by sections, and a majority of the Senators from each section shall be necessary to the passage of a measure. Two of the electors for President and Yice-President shall be chosen for each State ; the other electors in each State to be chosen by the Congressional District; a majority of the electors in each section to be necessary to the choice of President and Vice-President, and a major ity of the States of each section, shall be necessary to the choice of President and Vice-President, in the House or Senate, whenever the right of choice de volves upon them ; the term of President and Vice- President to be six years, and they are to be ineligible for a second term, except by the votes of two-thirds of the electors of each section. Congress is to pro vide by law for the case of a failure of the House to choose a President, and of the Senate to choose a Vice-President; and also, in snch case, for a spe- 356 THE SOUTHERN REBELLION. cial election within six months from the 4th of March. No State shall secede without consent of the Legis latures of all the States of the section to which it belongs. The President is to have the power to ad just the terms with the Seceding States, and the terms are not to be valid till approved by Congress. Neither Congress nor a Territorial Legislature is to interfere with migration on equal terms of the citi zens of the several sections, nor shall either have the power to destroy or impair the rights of person and property in the Territories. New States are to be admitted with any Constitution, Republican in form, which the people thereof ordain." Sickles, of New York, asked leave to intro duce a resolution, calling on the Secretary of the Treasury to inform the House whether the duties on' imports continue to be collected in the ports of South Carolina, Georgia, Ala bama, Louisiana, and Florida. Craige, (Dem.,) of North Carolina, objected. Sickles said this was the only reliable mode of ob taining correct information. He gave notice to offer the resolution on Monday. At the evening session, Thursday, of the House, speeches were made by Messrs. Leach, (Am.,) of North Carolina ; Junkin, (Rep.,) of Pennsylvania; Allen, (Dem.,) of Ohio ; Carey, (Rep.,) of Ohio. They spoke to the shadows, apparently — so unpopular were the evening sessions, that members could not be con strained to attend. The views of the North Carolina member were favorable to the Union. He made an earnest appeal for constitutional guarantees. Junkin favored the propositions of the Committee, believing they virtually restored the Missouri Compromise of Henry Clay. Allen took strong ground against se cession and revolution. Carey spoke of se cession as being thick with the blackest treason. Leave the present difficulties to the people, and there will be a better settlement than by attempting to legislate on the sub ject. If the men of the Border State would talk like his friend Davis, of Maryland, it would not be two weeks before the traitors would tremble in their shoes. In the Senate, Thursday, (February 7th,) Wigfall made his promised re joinder to Andrew Johnson. Prior to his use of the floor, Thompson, (Dem.,) of New Jersey, reintroduced the New Jersey State Resolu tions, which Ten Eyck had already laid be- The New Jersey Res olutions again. fore the Senate. [Seepage 308.] He (Thomp son) said he entirely dissented from the views of his colleague. He contended that the instructions in the resolutions were the real views of a majority of the people of his State, and that a State had a right to in struct her Senators, who should obey or re sign. He was very much surprised at the course of his colleague. He thought the people of New Jersey never more in earnest than they are now in the opinion that the South has cause for complaint, and that some guarantees should be given it. Yet he must say that the course of the South, in seizing the forts, arsenals, &c, had done much to weaken kindly feeling in the North ern States. Nothing was more fatal than the doctrine of secession. If admitted, the Gov ernment must fall to pieces. He said a por tion of his colleague's speech looked to co ercion, but the coercion of States was an equally fatal doctrine. The Union could not be preserved by blows and bloodshed. He deprecated civil war, and made an appeal to save the Union by concessions on both sides. Ten Eyck replied, contending that the res olutions did not express the calm feeling of the people as shown by the votes of the re cent election, but the resolutions were rushed through the Senate of New Jersey when four members were sick. The men appointed un der that resolution [see page 251] did not represent the feeling of the State. Collamer, (Rep.,) of Ver mont, presented a petition from citizens of his State, asking Congress to adopt an amendment to the Constitution similar to the Border States proposition. He said he was willing to do all in the power of Congress, but not any thing which was not allowed by the Consti tution, which says that Congress may propose amendments to be submitted to the States; and, further, if States want amendments let them say so by convention, and Congress must agree. If the States call such Conven tion and adopt amendments, Congress must send them to the States for ratification. But does the Government need more delegated power? No. He contended that the pro vision of the Constitution was perfectly plain, but none of the complaining States Judge Collamer's Views. WIGPALLS FOURTEENTH SPEECH, 357 have taken any means to secure amendments in a constitutional way, yet Congress was asked to make amendments which somebody conjectures the States need I He never would attempt to make any such amendments, which none of the States, he said, wanted. Suppose two or three States present amend ments, asking Congress to submit them to the States. In his judgment, Congress could not pass on the merits of such amendments, but present them to the States as the request of certain Sates. He quoted, as a precedent, the former amendments made in 1789, when Congress took the same course. His views would govern his votes. The consideration!, of the Mr Wigfall's Four- pregident,s Message beillg teenth Speech. b a resumed, Mr. Wigfall, in his own peculiar rhetoric and originality of manner answered Andrew Johnson. The Senator from Tennessee seemed to think that he had once, on a former occasion, made a great argument, and had, in consequence, been the subject of special attacks. Wigfall did not believe either — both were halluci nations of the Senator's heated imagination. The Senator also seemed to think Benjamin's farewell was a farce, but Wigfall thought it was the most serious farce ever witnessed on that floor. He then alluded to Johnson's ar gument on the Government's right of pur chase in Louisiana. Referring to the treaty of cession, he contended that Johnson did not give it a fair construction ; and so in regard to the admission of Alabama. A monstrous perversion of the doctrines of Jackson and nationalism had been made by the Black Re publicans. He read from a number of docu ments to show that Jackson considered this Government as " a compact of States." He then argued against the right of coercion, and said that any attempt to force the laws upon individuals in a State was the same thing as the coercion of a State, and would bring on a civil war. He contended that Jefferson and Jackson had avowed the right of secession, and he read copious extracts from their writings and speeches to sustain this position. He claimed that Madison understood that States could, at any time, renounce the Con stitution, and such was the understanding of most of the States when they ratified the Constitution. He denied that the Brecken ridge party ever intended to break up the Union, but they demanded that the property of the Southern States should be protected. Six States thought it not safe to remain in the Union, when two millions of people in the North had voted that their property ought to be confiscated. They might talk about the Helper book, but Helper had never uttered anything so slanderous against the South as the sentiments uttered by a South ern Senator on this floor. What Black Re publican ally had told the Senator that the South wanted to make war on Mexico ? It was a slander. They have enough to do to take care of themselves. Mr. Wigfall then paid a high and eloquent tribute to the Sen ator from Mississippi, (Davis.) The Senator from Tennessee had attacked him (Davis) in his absence. If the Senator from Mississippi had been here, he would have answered the Senator from Tennessee : " Lord Angus, thou hast lied !" This expression created an outburst of laughter and noise in the gallery, which caused the Sergeant-at-Arms to clear it. Wig fall proceeded, assuming that the South had no purpose or desire to make war, but that it intended to live under such a Government as it saw fit. Six States had gone out because they chose to do so, and had revoked the treaty called the Constitution, though they might be willing to make another. He claimed that the South had a mine of wealth in cotton, and gave a picture of the destroy ed commerce of the North* if the ports are blockaded, which will be considered an act of war. A vessel with a flag of thirty-three stars will be fired on in a Southern port. Carrying the flag with the stars which they have plucked thence will be considered an insult. If the North wants war it can have it — he did not plead for peace. The remain ing portion of his speech was exceedingly violent and personal on Mr. Johnson. In the Senate, Friday and Saturday, noth ing transpired pertinent to our subject. In the House, Friday, Kellogg, of Illinois, sup ported his resolutions, [see page 310,] in a long speech. He said that parties and plat forms must all be discarded — that all m»S'S °al1 fOT tbB York, followed. He said Use of Force, he had, at former sessions, voted against any increase of the navy, be cause he did not see the necessity for it. But now that treason was abroad in the land, he believed there was a necessity for the increase of the armament and defensive power of the country. He declared : " This Government and this country cannot be 898 THE SOUTHERN REBELLION, King's Call for the Use of Force. peaceably destroyed, or over thrown, or divided. The sove, reigns themselves will come here before that is done, even if their representatives could prove recreant in their defence of it. It is well that the whole country should know that the people of this country will not consent, they will never con sent to the peaceable destruction or dissolution of the Government. They would be recreant to the highest duties of men, to their country, to their race, to themselves, and to the high trust of the ancestry who acquired it, if they could entertain a thought of the destruction of this country. I don't believe it can be destroyed. I would use forbearance and patience ; I would extend every degree of kindness, and make every effort at conciliation to these peo ple. But, to their right to divide this Government, to take a State out of the Union, or, least of all, that they should peaceably have a right to break np this Government, I would never admit. I don't know what these gentlemen consider peace. They have armed themselves, and have even taken arms be longing to this Government. Cabinet officers and members of the Senate have been interested in this treason, and a foul, infamous plot has existed, I have no doubt, to destroy this Government. Providence, rather than the skill and attention of the people, has arrested it ; some of the men have been driven out of the Cabinet in disgrace ; and an indictment found against one of them for embezzlement, or petty lar ceny, or grand larceny, or for any other infamous attempt which men can commit. There were mem bers of Congress found in the war of 1812 who voted against the supplies for Government, and it is not surprising that such should be found in Congress at any time. The greatest latitude of opinion exists in this country, and so it should. Men cannot talk treason — they must act it — and he who acts it, in my judgment, should take the fate of a traitor, and should not seek to escape by pretending that he can commit it peacefully against the country. I cannot conceive the case of a man of honor who could steal into a house, partly his own, and clandestinely and privately rob it of its means of strength and defence, and then assail it and claim a right to do so peace fully, and say he should not be punished or disturb ed by force. I tell these gentlemen that, in my judgment, this treason must come to an end — peace fully, I hope ; but never, in my judgment, peacefully, if by an ignominious submission of the honor of the people of this country to traitors. Never ! I desire peace, but I would provide, amply provide, for the means of defence of the country, by war, if necessary." Green, (Dem.,) of Missouri, obtained the floor, when the Senate adjourned. Interesting Resolu tions. In the House, Monday, (February llth,) Martin, of Virginia, introduced a resolu tion to request the several State Legislatures to call special elections, at which the whole people should vote for or against the Crit tenden resolutions. Referred to the Judi ciary Committee. Craige, (Dem.,) of North Carolina, submitted the following : " Whereas, South Carolina, Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, and Florida have seceded from the Confederacy of the United States, and es tablished a Southern Confederacy ; and whereas, it is desirable that the most amicable relations should exist between the States of the two Governments, and war be avoided, as the greatest calamity that can result : Therefore, • " Resolved, by the Senate and House of Representatives, That the President be and is hereby required to ac knowledge the independence of the said Southern Confederacy, as soon as official information of its establishment shall be received, and that he receive such Commissioners as may be appointed by that Government for an amicable adjustment of all mat ters in dispute." This was referred to the Committee on Foreign Affairs. The subject of the seizure of the Mint at New Orleans was then brought before the House, in a preamble and resolu tion, by McClernand, (Dem.,) of Illinois, re citing that by the seizure of the Mint, money, and Custom-house by the revolutionary au thorities of Louisiana, the United States are put at defiance, and calling upon the Presi dent, if not incompatible with the public in terests, for all the facts in the case, and what steps, if any, have been taken, or contem plated, to recover possession of the said property. Adopted. Ferry, (Rep.,) of Connecticut, asked leave to offer a resolution instructing the Commit tee on the Judiciary to inquire into the expe diency of so amending the Constitution of the United States as expressly to forbid the with drawal of any State from the Union without the concurrent vote of two-thirds of both Houses of Congress, the approval of the Presi dent, and the consent of all the States, and that the Committee report by joint resolution or otherwise. Objected to by Winslow, of North Carolina, but afterwards introduced and laid over. SLAVERY IN THE STATE] 399 Interesting Resolu tions. Mr. McKeon, (Rep.,) of New York, introduced the following : " Whereas, The Gulf States have assumed to secede from the Union, and it is deemed important to pre vent the Border Slave States from following their example ; and whereas, it is believed that those who are inflexibly opposed to any measure of compro mise or concession that involves a sacrifice of prin ciple, or the extension of Slavery, would, neverthe less, cheerfully concur in any lawful measure for the emancipation of the slaves : Therefore, " Resolved, That the Select Committee of Five be instructed to inquire whether, by the consent of the people, or of the State Governments, or by compen sating the slaveholders, it be practicable for the General Government to procure the emancipation of the slaves in some, or all of the Border States ; and if so, to report a bill for that purpose." Mr. Sickles, (Dem.,) of New York, offered a resolution calling on the Secretary of the Treasury to inform the House whether there have been any obstructions to the revenue laws in South Carolina, Georgia, Alabama, and Louisiana ; also, what measures have been taken to secure the revenue cutters from seizure, and to recover those which have been seized, together with other property. This resolution was adopted, after an amend ment, on motion of Burnett, (Dem.,) of Ken tucky, calling on the President to furnish the reasons which have induced him to bring a large number of troops to Washington, why they are kept here, and whether he has any information showing a conspiracy to seize the Capitol, and prevent the inauguration of the President-elect. Palmer, (Rep.,) of New York, then brought forward the following declaratory resolves, in order forever to put to rest the question of a right to interfere with Slavery in the States : o> ¦,„¦„«,„ c.„»00 "Resolved, That neither the Slavery in the states. Republican Resolu- Federal Government nor the tions. people or Government of non- Slaveholding States have a purpose or constitutional right to legislate upon or interfere with Slavery in any State of the Union. " Resolved, That those persons in the North who do not subscribe to the foregoing propositions are too insignificant in numbers or influence to excite the serious attention or alarm of any portion of the people of the Republic, and that the increase in their numbers and influence does not keep pace with the increase of the aggregate population of the -Union." Their introduction was BUm»y m me sut«. immediately followed by Republican Resoiu- a demand for the previous ti0QS- question, which, being seconded, the main question was ordered, and the yeas and nays called on the first resolution. These proceedings opened a new light on the controversy. The Disunion leaders, and many Northern Democrats, had so repeatedly charg ed upon the dominant party a settled design to interfere with Slavery in the States, that a portion of even the Northern public really had grown to believe there was truth in the pre posterous charge. This resolution, unmasking the truth, would not only exonerate the party aspersed, but would convict its enemies of mis representation. It therefore excited both sections of the House very much. Efforts were made to put the resolutions aside, but the Republicans crowded it to a vote. Pend ing the call of the roll, on the first resolution, Hindman, of Arkansas, demanded, amid shouts of " Order 1" from the Northern men, to know if Mr. Lincoln had not said the Union could not exist one-half slave and the other half free ; and if that did not indicate a settled purpose to interfere with Slavery in the States. Boteler, (Am.,) of Virginia, wished the resolution to be divided, that they might consider separately the purpose and the right; but the yeas and nays having been called, and the voting having commenced, the resolution could not be divided. Hindman, amid great confusion, rose to a question of order, insist ing on the right to call for a division, as sug gested by Mr. Boteler. He believed the assertion in the resolution that the people of the non-slaveholding States have no purpose to interfere with Slavery was untrue. In spite of the call to order from the Republicans, and the loud demand " Call the roll 1 " the Arkansas member continued to the end of his denunciation. Burnett, of Kentucky, could not stultify himself by voting for what he believed to be false. He wished the resolution divided, that he might vote for a portion of it. Bocock, of Virginia, asked to be excused from voting. Many others offered excuses for not going upon the record. Ruffin, of North Carolina, regarded it as a political 400 THE SOUTHERN REBELLION. trick. Brabson, of Tennessee, could not vote as to the purposes of the North, but would, nevertheless, vote for the resolution. Hind man taunted him, in an offensive manner, with being a " submissionist. " Cox, (Dem.,) of Ohio, approved that portion of the reso lution which denies the right to interfere with Slavery in the States. As to the pur pose of the Northern people thus to interfere, he believed the hitherto controlling portion of the dominant party of the North had the purpose then to interfere, but that the ma jority of the people of the North have no such purpose now. If they ever had, they are cured. He voted aye. The vote, as finally announced, stood 106 to 4, being no quorum. Several Republicans, riot having voted, asked to have their names recorded. McClernand suggested that the roll be called again. This was done, when the resolution passed — 116 to 4. Howard, (Dem.,) of Ohio, then moved to reconsider the vote, when Burnett, of Kentucky, again asked that the resolution should be divided. Sherman, (Rep.,) of Ohio, Sherman's Substitute, did not wish that South ern men should be called upon to decide as to the purposes of the North — the North would decide for itself in that respect. He therefore offered the fol lowing substitute : " Resolved, That neither the Federal Government nor the people or Governments of the non-slave- holding States have the right to legislate upon or interfere with Slavery in any slaveholding State in the Union.'' This substitute, designed to cover the en tire question before the House, as a substitute for Mr. Palmer's two resolutions, passed under the operation of the previous question : yeas 161 — nays none. At the Tuesday's session of the House, Mr. Sherman had the communication of the Sec retary of the Treasury read, stating the criti cal condition of the Government finances, [see page 390.] Mr. Sherman offered a bill providing for the acceptance of the States' guarantees, as proposed by the Secretary; but Garnett, of Virginia, objected to the bill being reported. He would allow it to be read, but would not, so long as he was a member of the House, allow it to be reported. Holman, (Dem.,) of Indiana, introduced resolutions, " adopted by „ _ , , , A Hoosier Propo- citizens of Kentucky and siuon Indiana," which proposed a unique settlement of difficulties, viz. : that, as Kentucky and Indiana were friends, they would not allow any line to be drawn be tween them in the formation of a new Con federacy — that other States be called upon to adopt the same rule of conduct, thus to " kick the line of division between two con federacies eastward into the Atlantic, south ward into the Gulf, westward into the Pacific, and northward into Canada." The resolu tion, although offered in humor, was, never theless, a true expression of the feelings of States for their neighbors. The Special Committee ... . , . Report on the Bailey appointed to investigate Robbery. the frauds perpetrated in the Interior Department offered their report, [see page 392,] which was read, though its consideration was postponed. It was a very thorough exposition of the robbery and frauds perpetrated by Bailey and Floyd, to which Russell was accessory. It embraced a history of the Indian Trust fund ; the man ner of keeping the bonds ; the bonds ab stracted ; the negotiations between Russell and Bailey ; Bailey's motives for taking the bonds ;x Bailey's confession ; the disposition made of the bonds ; the acceptances issued by the Secretary of War to an amount ex ceeding six millions of dollars ; what was done with the acceptances ; further light on Mr. Floyd's proceedings ; Mr. Russell's state ment regarding the amount of the accept ances negotiated by him ; the peculiar records of the War Department ; the payments made to Russell & Co. ; Mr. Benjamin's explicit testimony, &c, &c. It closed, recommend ing special legislation in the matter, to pro vide for the more effectual punishment of crimes of the nature of those brought to their notice, and to compel the disclosure of evi dence by witnesses. The want of power in j these respects threatened to thwart the ends of justice. The consideration of the Pacific Railway bill being the special order, was resumed. In the course of the discussion which fol lowed, the Virginia members, of the revo lutionary school, put forth their several SUMNER'S A N T I - C O M P K O M I 8 E SPEECH 401 declarations that Virginia Virginia Declares . „ „ „ against Submission, was ready for revolt. Pryor protested against the meas ure of building a railroad by Government sub sidies and appropriations. There was no war rant for such procedure in the Constitution. The entire scheme was of the most chimerical character. It involved an expenditure which no contrivance of mathematic progression could ascertain. Besides, the Treasury was bankrupt, and a mendicant on the credit of the States. He moved to lay the Senate's amend ment on the table, which was disagreed to. Sickles, (Dem.,) of New York, answered that, as the best scientific ability of the country had pronounced the plan feasible — as the Pierce and Buchanan administrations, the President of the Southern Confederacy, and all parties, "by their platforms, had de clared for the construction of the railway, he thought the time for objections past. If there was a want of credit in the Govern ment, who was responsible for it ? Mr. Sickles believed, however, that as Tennessee had spoken, by fifty thousand majority, for the Union — as Kentucky was loyal — as Vir ginia had thrown her influence on the side of the Union — the credit of Government would be restored, energy would revive, and, with the repose of the people, would come the old prosperity of the country. Pryor answered tartly that, once for all, he wished to tell the House and the country that Virginia had not pronounced for sub mission ; but that, in her abundance of mag nanimity and patriotism, she will make one more effort for the preservation of the Union. Unless, however, justice and equality shall be secured to her, she will sever the bonds which now hold her to an oppressive association. Sickles replied that he had not ventured to be the prophet of Virginia, and would not predict what she may do, but he did affirm that she has responded to the appeal of the Northern masses to submit the difficulties of arbitrament to reason, and not passion. She ' has recently declared herself for the Union, and what she may declare at some future day he knew not. Leake, (Dem.,) of Virginia, said that Vir ginia is anxious to preserve the Union, if she can get justice ; and, if not, she will trust to 61 her own right arm, and appeal to no earthly power for aid. She has decided, by the elec tion of 120 out of 152 delegates, in favor of secession, unless she shall obtain ample guarantees by the 4th of March. This she has determined in the most solemn man ner. Mr. Pryor caused to be read a paragraph from the Richmond Whig — called the "sub mission" organ, in the sense of certain gen tlemen on this floor but really, in the sense of valor ; the article from the Whig, while disabusing the impression abroad, as to the result of the election, says : " To suppose that she has declared to submit to a rule, according to the Chicago Platform, is a gross and pernicious error. She is determined not to remain in connection with the Northern States unless satisfactory assurance be given that every constitutional right will be recog nized, and perfect equality be given, free from all equivocation." [All of which simply proved that secession was a foregone conclusion, no matter for what the people of Virginia had voted. Providing the " Peace Congress" did not ob tain a concession to all the demands of Vir ginia's disunion leaders, the programme was disunion.] In the Senate, Tuesday, Mr. Crittenden presented a petition, signed by 23,500 citi zens of Massachusetts, asking for favorable action on the Crittenden Compromise resolu tions. Mr. Crittenden expressed much satis faction at this renewed proof of the loyalty of the old patriot State to the Union. The presentation of this petition called up Mr. Sumner, (Rep.,) of Massachusetts. He said in substance : ¦ " These petitioners ask, as I understand, for the passage of what is familiarly known as the Crittenden Propositions. Their best apology for this petition is their ignorance of the character of those propositions. Had they known what they were, they never would have put their names to that petition. Those resolutions go beyond the Breck enridge Platform, which has already been solemnly condemned by the American people. They foist into the Constitution of the United States constitutional guarantees' of Slavery which the framers of that in strument never gave — which Washington, Jefferson, Franklin, Patrick Henry, and John Jay, if we may Sumner's Anti-Com promise Speech. 402 THE SOUTHERN REBELLION. Sumner's Anti-Com promise Speech. oredit the testimony of their lives and opinions, would have scorned ! Had any such propo sition been made the condition of union, this Union never could have been formed. Mr. Madison told us in the Convention that it was wrong to attempt to put in the Constitution the idea of property in man, but these propositions propose to interpolate that idea, and, practically carrying it out, they run a black line on the latitude of 36 degrees, 30 minutes, and give constitutional protection to Slavery in all the Territory south of that line now belonging to the Republic ; while, to make the case still more oppres sive, and still more impossible to be received at the North, they make it applicable to all the Territory hereafter to be acquired, so that the flag of the Repub lic, as it moves southward, shall always be the flag of Slavery, and every future acquisition in that di rection shall be Africanized, and that by virtue of the Constitution of the United States. That is about enough in this age of civilization. " But that is notall. Still further, they insist upon guarantees to Slavery in the National Capital, and in other places within the Federal jurisdiction. Nor is this all. As if to make it especially offensive to the people of the North, and to the people of Massa chusetts, they propose to despoil our colored fel low-citizens of their political franchise, a long time secured to them by the institutions of that honored Commonwealth. Sir, it is for these things that these petitioners now pray. They insist they shall be in terpolated in the Constitution of the United States. I have an infinite respect for the right of petition, and I desire always to promote the interests, and to carry forward the just and proper desires, of my fel low-citizens. But I must express my regret that these gentlemen have missed the opportunity, after uniting in such numbers, of calling plainly and une quivocally, as savers of the Union of their fathers, for two things — two things all-sufficient for the pres ent occasion, and with regard to which I should expect the sympathies of the Hon. Senator from Ken tucky : First, the Constitution of the United States, as administered by George Washington, to be pre served intact and blameless in its text, without any tinkering or patching ; and, secondly, the verdict of the people last November, by which Abraham Lin coln was elected President of the United States, to be enforced without price or faltering. There is a ground upon which every patriot and loyal citizen of the land can stand, and he has over him then the Constitution and the flag of his country. You had better have that, sir, than any scheme, device, jug glery, or hocus pocus called a ' compromise.' On such ground, all men who really love the Union and the country can take their stand without an 'if or Sumner's .Anti-Com promise Speech. a ' but.' I remember, sir, on the night of the passage of the Nebraska bill, it was after mid night. I made the declaration in debate, that the time for compromises had passed. The events now taking place all verify this truth. " It is obvious that the existing difficulties can now be arranged only on permanent principles of justice, and freedom, and humanity. Any seeming settlement founded upon an abandonment of prin ciple will be but a miserable patch-work, which cannot succeed. It w^is only a short time ago, you will remember, sir, the whole country was filled with shame and dismay, as the report came to us of the surrender of Southern forts ; and when it was known that Fort Sumter, too, was about to be given up, a cry went forth from the heart of the people, by which that fortress was saved, at least, for the present. Propositions are now made and brought forward by the Senator from Kentucky, and now enforced by a petition from the people of my own State, calling upon the North to surrender its prin ciples — to surrender its impregnable principles of human rights, which constitute our Northern forts. It is even proposed now to surrender the principle of freedom in the Territories — the Fort Sumter of the North. I trust, sir, they will yet be saved ; and as their safety depends upon the President, I trust that the cry will go forth from the people like that which went forth from them a few days ago, to save that other Fort Sumter when it was menaced. For myself, if I stand with many, or with few, or alone, I have but one thing to say — no surrender of the Fort Sumter of the North — no surrender of any of our Northern forts. No, sir, not one ! But the bankers and merchants throw out their fears, and they tell us the Government shall not have money if we do not surrender our principles. Then, again, sir, I appeal to the people. I believe the American peo ple are not more unpatriotic than the French, and only want the opportunity to show it — to come for ward and relieve the necessities of the Government, as the French people recently, at the hint of Louis Napoleon, came forward with a loan composed of small sums. Our Government stands upon the ag gregate virtue and intelligence of the people, and it only remains now that we should make an appeal to the aggregate wealth of the people — the farmer, the laborer, the mechanic. Every man who truly loves his country will be willing to give of his earnings to uphold the Constitution and the national flag; and out of these small earnings, inspired by a gen uine patriotism, we shall have a full Treasury. There is but one thing now for the North to do — that is, to stand firm in their position. They may be guided by one of the greatest patriots of the age — I GREEN'S PRONUNCIAMENTO. 403 Sumner's Anti-Com promise Speech. mean Lafayette — who, in his old age, when his experience had been ripened by time, and while looking over the unutterable calamities of the old French Revolution, said, ' It was his solemn duty to declare that, in his opinion, they were to be referred not to the bad passions of men, but to those timid counsels that sought to substitute compromise for principle.' Lafayette may well speak to his Amer ican fellow-citizens now, to caution them against any timid counsels that would substitute compromise for principles." In answer to Mr. Crittenden's query, if he had no proposition of his own to offer, Mr. Sumner replied he had — the Constitution as administered by Washington and the fathers of the Government. Mr. Crittenden then asked, why he did not submit that as a prop osition ? to which Mr. Sumner answered that the Clark Resolution covered the ground. [See page 184.J It was endeavored to cut off debate by call ing up the special order, but, by a vote of 23 to 21, that order was postponed. Trum bull, (Rep.,) of Illinois, said, if the debate was to go on, both sides must have a chance. So much had been charged on the Republican party that he wished to see the responsibility placed where it belongs — on the corruption and imbecility, irresolution, if he might not say the complicity with treason itself, on the part of a profligate power. Mr. Crittenden appealed to Senators not to stand by platforms, and let the Union perish. He said we were pledged to stand by and preserve the Union. But all compro mise seemed to be rejected. He believed that they must do something, or the country could not be saved. He wished to practice every forbearance he could, but why do men come here and talk of business when the Union is in danger 2 Mr. Sumner said that the Senator from Kentucky (Crittenden) was not aware of his own popularity in Massachusetts, and of the willingness of the people to adopt anything bearing his name, which they so much re spect. But, if they had examined his propo sitions they would have rejected them. The Senator intimated, if he understood aright, that the propositions were not applicable to territory hereafter acquired. Greeen's Pronuncia- miento. Mr. Crittenden said that he did not con sider that an essential point. After some further colloquial discussion, the Navy bill was taken up, when Mr. Green. (Dem.,) of Missouri, ad dressed the Senate against the proposed amendment to build seven steam sloops-of-war. His lan guage was violent, and his entire speech quite in harmony with the turbulent spirit of disunion. A digest of his speech — which really was an important confession of dis comfiture at the unexpected Union face of affairs in the Border Slave States — is as follows : " The question now was, whether we should make an appropriation of $1,200,000 to build seven new steam sloops-of-war. At a time when the credit of the Government is ruined, and it could not pay private claims of a few dollars, it is then proposed to pay this large sum for war. Senators could vote a Homestead bill to give homes to scoundrels and vagabonds of large cities, and could vote $120,000,000 to build a railroad, and now they come up and ask $1,200,000 to build steamers to coerce States. Not in the language of their eagle-eyed Senator from New York, but of the bellicose Sena tor whose voice is still for war. They talk of the enforcement of the laws. Every man says, Enforce the laws and protect the public property. What is public property? We have public property in London, where our Minister resides, but won't take sloops there. Have you public property in South Carolina? No, not one single particle ! Fort Sum ter this day is wrongfully held; and this is an act of war against South Carolina. He admitted that it was built by the Government, but he said it was built for the protection of the port of Charleston, and it was now frowning with guns against the port it was built to protect. " The whole resolves itself to the question, Has a State a right to secede ? and she has actually exer cised the right. Individuals in a State may commit treason, but whether a State can is another ques tion. The Government was a multiple of units, and a State comes in a separate unit, and is an entirety. A county in a State is an integral part of a State, and if she tried to break off it would be rebellion. But a State comes in by an act of volition, and can go out the same. Each State must judge for itself, if she has reason for going out, and only the en lightened judgment of the world can punish a State. No State ever was coerced into the Union, nor could one be. South Carolina has as much right to Fort Columbus, in New York Harbor, as the United 404 THE SOUTHERN REBELLION, Green's Pronuncia- mento. States has to Fort Sumter, and as much right to attack it ; and he pledged one feeble arm to act in the contingency which might arise. He commended the forbearance of South Carolina. He had feared she would be too hasty. He wanted all the States to act. He knew Missouri to be for the Union. Even the supporters of Rhett and Yancey are for Union, but he meant a Union which would give protection to all. He was tired of all these petitions for Union. He wanted a Union about which there would be no quarreling, and which would give rights to all, or else he wanted no Union but separation. He said this was not a mere ques tion of Slavery, bnt it affects every property-holder of the North. Missouri, though slow, would act ; but the action of Kentucky, Tennessee, and Virginia has been disastrous. If the Border States had acted with the South, we would have had peaceable sep- ratiou. Every one of the Slaveholding States ought to have gone out together. As sure as no adjust ment was made, all would go but Delaware, Mary land, and Virginia. He was afraid of Virginia, she was so slow. Arkansas, Missouri, and Kansas would go out. [Laughter.] He said Kansas, after the hot house plants of emigration die out, would fall back into the arms of Missouri. He contended that the secret object of the Republican party was to circumscribe Slavery, so as to extinguish it. " He was in favor of the proposition of the Senator from Kentucky, but there must be a reaction in the public mind of the North, or else these amendments would go for nothing. This thing must be settled either by adjustment or separation. There could be no honorable adjustment unless there was a retrac tion of Northern opinion. The Senate cannot amend the Constitution, and had better let the question alone and attend to the regular business, and wait for a proper adjustment. But if there was no change of Northern opinion, he would not ask for any Union. He deprecdted war, and, in this civilized age of the world, he thought all the difficulties ought to be settled without recourse to arms and war. Let the whole Southern States act together, and let them negotiate with the North as equals, and if they cannot agree, then let there be peaceable and quiet separation." The amendment, after this harangue, was passed — 27 to 17. Among those Democrats who voted with the Republicans were Messrs. Douglas, Bigler, and Latham, and Johnson, (Am.,) of Tennessee — a vote which, in the es timation of the Southern interest, placed them in the category of friends to coercion. Wednesday (Feb. 13th) was consumed, in both Houses, in counting the electoral vote. [See Chapter XXVII.] In the Senate, Thursday, Mr. Bingham, (Rep.,) of Michigan, presented the joint reso lutions of the Michigan State Legislature, expressing the adherence of Michigan to the Union ; offering the military force of the State to the Federal Government, and asking that no concessions be made to traitors. Mr. Bingham Michigan Sentiment. said that these resolutions had passed with great unanimity, and he thought they expressed the feeling of the State. He said that they would adhere to the Constitution as it is, and that they had no sympathy with treason, or those in the Government who took measures to destroy it. He hoped his Southern friends would yet come to see that the best way for them was to submit to the beneficent rule of the Govern ment ; but if not, and they persisted in their efforts to destroy it, they must take the responsibility. Mr. Wilkinson, (Rep.,) of Minnesota, presented a me- Minnesota Sentiment morial, signed by all the Repubcan and several Democratic members of the Minnesota Legislature, calling upon Con gress to preserve the Constitution as it is, and to enforce the laws ; also, to keep open the rivers, and to recapture all the seized forts. In presenting this memorial, the Senator re marked that, to arrive at the wishes of the mass of people, it was necessary to visit the country, and to get clear of city curb-stone influences. He said the memorial represented the feeling and spirit of the great North-west. " No menaces, no threats of war, no military display, no tramp of armed men, no glittering bayonets, would drive the people of that sec tion from their position." Rice, (Dem.,) of Minnesota, also presented a petition from many citizens of the same State, asking for compromise. An unusually large number of petitions were presented by Messrs. Wade, Seward, Critten den, and Cameron — pro and con compromise. The House, Thursday, after much time consumed in "personal explanations," re sumed consideration of the Corwin Report, when Campbell, (Rep.,) of Pennsylvania, de livered his views in a speech marked with REPORT OF THE CONSPIRACY COMMITTEE 405 a decision and force which Campbell's Speech. commanded attention. A digest of his views is as follows : " He alluded at some length to the present state of the country — a state calculated to awaken every man to a sense of peril. If every effort at concil iation should fail, the true way was to meet the crisis as men ready for duty in a just cause — even to the laying down of their lives. If those who have seized the forts, arsenals, and other public property, surrendered them, he would hear their complaints, .and, if well founded, furnish the meas ures of redress. What reason have the enemies of the Union to oppose the peaceful inauguration of Mr. Lincoln, who was elected strictly according to the Constitution? Though the vessel of State was now dashed about, a pilot will presently be found. Be argued that our Government is a grand nation of people and not of States. It is supreme, and the heresy of Secession can make no impression on rea sonable minds. Secession is rebellion. In the Se ceded States there are men true to the Government, and who preserve their alliance to the Union. Honor and humanity demand they be protected. Any other course would sink the Government to perdition. Any Government not protecting them from persecution, confiscation, and death, is not worthy of that name. There are no grievances which cannot be redressed in the Union. He was willing to do something for Maryland, Kentucky, Tennessee, and other States, and for loyal citizens in Georgia and Alabama who require assistance. He argued that Mr. Crittenden's proposition, in effect, was condemned in the last Presidential election by an overwhelming majority. In the language of Clay, no earthly power should induce him to vote for a. specific measure for the introduction of Slavery where it did not before exist, whether south or north of the parallel of 36 degrees, 30 minutes. The prop osition of the Select Committee met his approval. He was in favor of the passage of the resolution recommending the repeal of the Personal Liberty laws, and of the bill amendatory of the Fugitive Slave act. It was in the power of the Slave States to quiet this agitation by abandoning extreme views, giving up the Crittenden measure, and other impos sibilities, and combining on the admission of New Mexico as a State in the Union. This would settle the chief question of difficulty, namely, that relating to the Territories. Should conciliatory measures here fail, he would advocate the calling of a Na tional Convention. At all events, Pennsylvania will stand by the Union as it is." The Special Committee, appointed [see page 284] to inquire into, and to report on the facts as to an alleged . conspiracy to seize the Cap- Ee,port °f lhe Co°- *¦ •> r spiracy Committee. ital, reported, through Mr. Howard, Chairman, who presented what the Committee supposed to be a unanimous re port. It read as follows : "The Committee entered upon the investigation under a deep sense of the importance and the in trinsic difficulty of the inquiry. To prove the exist ence of a secret organization having for its object the resistance to and the overthrow of the Govern ment would, in the very nature of the case, be a dif ficult task, if such an organization really existed. On the other hand, in a time of high excitement, consequent upon the revolutionary events transpir ing all around us, and the very air filled with rumors, and individuals indulging in most extravagant ex pressions of fears and threats, it might well be thought difficult to elicit such clear proof as would enable the Committee to pronounce authoritatively that no such organization existed, and thus contrib ute to the quiet of the public mind and the peace of the country. The Committee have pursued their labors with a determination on their part to ascer tain the real facts, so far as possible ; and if some times they have permitted inquiries and admitted testimony not strictly within the rules of evidence or within the scope of the resolutions, it is to be at tributed to their great anxiety to elicit the real facts, and to remove unfounded apprehensions. The extraordinary excitement existing prior to the late Presidential election led disaffected persons of high and low positions, after the result of that election became known, to consult together on the question of submitting to that result, and also upon various modes of resistance — among other modes, resist ance to the counting of the ballots and to the inau guration of Mr. Lincoln, the seizure of the Capitol and the District of Columbia, were discussed form ally in this city and elsewhere ; but too much diver sity of opinion seems to have existed to admit of the adoption of any well-organized plan until some of the States commenced to reduce their theories of secession to practice. Since then, persons thus dis affected seem to have adopted the idea that all re sistance to the Government, if there is to be any, should have at least the color of State authority. If the purpose was at any time entertained of form ing an organization in secret, or open, to seize the District of Columbia, attack the Capitol, or pre vent the inauguration of Mr. Lincoln, it seems to have been rendered contingent upon the secession of either Maryland or Virginia, or both, and the sanction of one of these States. Certain or ganizations in this District and in Maryland that, prior to the Presidential election, seem 406 THE SOUTHERN REBELLION. Report of the Con spiracy Committee. to have been openly political clubs, have since assumed the character of military organiza tions, are now engaged in drilling, and expect to pro vide themselves with arms, some from the State au thorities, and others from private subscriptions. But so far as the Committee were able to learn, their pur poses, while they sympathized strongly with seces sion, there is no proof that they intend to attack either the Capitol or District of Columbia, unless the surrender should be demanded by a State to which they profess a high degree of allegiance. Some of these companies in Baltimore professed to be drilling for the sole purpose of preventing other military companies from passing through the State of Mary land. Whether these representations of the purpo ses of these companies be correct or not, the Com mittee have failed to discover any satisfactory evi dence that they had any purpose whatever, as a mere mob, without the sanction of State authority, to attack the Capitol, or any other public property in this District, or to seize the District. If it should be admitted that any one of these organizations were hostile to the Government, or entertained unlawful purposes, they are in no proper sense secret, and are not, therefore, such as are contemplated in the reso lution of the House. " The Committee are unanimously of opinion that the evidence produced before them does not prove the existence of a secret organization here or else where, hostile to the Government, that has for its object, upon its own responsibility, an attack upon the Capitol or any other of the public property here, or an interruption of any of the functions of the Gov ernment. The Committee submit herewith all the testimony taken upon the subject, and ask that the same and this report be printed, and the Committee be discharged from the further consideration of the subject." This report was, it afterwards appeared, the result of a compromise, being less positive and direct than the majority desired, owing to a wish to make it unanimous. It was re ported as the unanimous voice of the Com mittee. The members of it were, therefore, taken by surprise when Mr. Branch, (Dem.,) of North Carolina — one of P"Sr «ie Committee-arose to offer a minority report, set ting forth that no conspiracy existed, and therefore that the following resolution should receive the sanction of the House : " Resolved, That the quartering of troops of the regular army in this District and around the Capitol, when not necessary for their protection from » hostile enemy, and during the t /-,„„™^o=0 ;= i-nvinli The Minority Report session of Congress, is impoii- ' , , .. and Resolution. tic and offensive, and, if permit ted, may become destructive of civil liberty, and, in the opinion of this House the regular troops now in it, ought to be forthwith removed therefrom." To render his surprise successful, the North Carolina member called for the previous ques tion on his resolution. The Committee, how ever, "ventilated" the gentleman's strategy so much to his discredit that the resolution was tabled by a vote of 125 to 35. English, of Indiana, Florence, of Pennsylvania, and one or two other Northern members, voting with the South. Mr. John Cochrane, (Dem.,) of New York, sustained the Committee's re port, as entirely proper. If no conspiracy then existed, the evidence was conclusive that, at no remote period of time, there were rumors, commanding atten tion, of the existence of or- Exciting Debate. ganizations inimical to the peace and safety ,of the Capital. Hence, the assembling of troops at the Capital, as a pre cautionary measure, was necessary. Kunkle, of Maryland, was very severe on General Scott and Governor Hicks. He said the whole scheme of inquiry was a false and fu tile inquisition to furnish a pretext for the calling of troops by the Lieutenant-General — that the scheme originated with him for his own justification, or else it was hatched by the Governor of Maryland, or by his emis saries around the Capital. " The Governor of Maryland," he said, " was the only respect able man in the State who has had the au dacity to libel and calumniate his fellow- citizens by his published proclamation of the 3d of January. He has proclaimed that he was in possession of information not ac cessible to the Legislature, or to the people of the State, and that there did exist in the State an organization of his fellow-citizens, armed and prepared to invade the District and to capture this Capitol." This bitter assault called up various par ties, and, for a while, the confusion was be yond the Speaker's control. It only received its quietus in the vote to table, as recorded above. Nothing further of interest transpired up to the hour of adjournment. REPORT ON MR. FLOYD'S DEFAULT, 407 De Jamette's Speech. In the House, Friday, (February 15th,) speeches were made by Vandever, (Rep.,) of Iowa, and De Jarnette, (Dem.,) of Virginia. The Iowa member's argu- Vandever's Speech, ment was an able and thor ough expose of the dupli city practiced by the Southern leaders in the Democratic Conventions at Charleston and Baltimore, and of their duplicity towards the Union. He was interrupted much by South ern men, who sought to parry his points by references to side issues and personal mat ters. He disapproved the Corwin Report, and stood firmly on the principle of no more Slave Territory forever ! De Jarnette argued, with much feeling and no little ability, the Southside view of the question of Union. He was very se vere on the anti-Slavery sentiment of the North, and of England ; and essayed to throw upon it the responsibility of the evils which had come upon the country. He assumed that England's ultimate design was to dis rupt the American Confederacy, and that the North was rushing on in a scheme of mad ness in its crusade against Slavery — which he regarded as not only a just and wise institu tion, but said it was bound to spread, not only because of its commercial prosperity, but from its agricultural necessity. He closed thus: " You can never induce England to remain hostile to the South, because she is dependent on tbe South. From her trade with it she derives, annually, an in come of more than six hundred millions, besides giving employ to millions of her starving people. What does she derive from the export trade of the North? Not one cent ; because it is all consumed. Her bread, when there is a failure in the European crop, she sometimes gets from your ports. That is all. But that does not constitute a basis of trade, because it is consumed, and hence is no source of income. " We at the South understand the strength of our position. The step we are about to take is not one of our own choosing, but one of necessity. That ne cessity you have created, against our repeated.pro- tests, as well as against our threats. Yon have not heeded our solemn protests, and you have laughed to scorn our threats. As you have scorned our threats, so now we scorn yours, and we defy your power I " Do not, I implore you, suppose that Virginia will submit to oppression. She leaves' this Union and will sacrifice all, except her honor and the liberties of her people to preserve it. You now assail both. She has called her young men and her old men together around her council-board. They have left their swords at home, because their, presence some times engenders strife. " They want peace, and not war ; and if you do not acknowledge the sovereignty of Virginia, and the equality of her people, you will find them, too, on the war-path." This speech, violent as it was — and, in deed, as was all the declamation of disunion ist speakers — was charged with a wild elo quence and feeling which rendered it, for the moment, impressive. It served the purpose, however, of fanning the slumbering fires of secession in the State, through which it was quite studiously circulated. When such a speech was delivered, it was spread on the very wings of the wind throughout the South — when a Union speech was made by a Southern man, its echo scarcely reached beyond the walls of the Capitol, except towards the North. Saturday's session, in the Senate, was de voted entirely to a consideration of the Morrill Tariff bill. Saturday (February 16th) was private bill day. At the evening session the Corwin Report, being the special order, was before the House, when Somers, (Rep.,) of Maine, Burnham, (Rep.,) of Connecticut, and Wal- dron, (Rep.,) of Michigan, Beale and Duell, (Reps.,) of New York, Walton, (Rep.,) of Vermont, all delivered speeches of a strongly anti-compromise tone. The first was particu larly pointed and forcible in his remarks. We may quote : " The difficulties that threatr en the peace and stability of A Breeze from Maine. the nation are the results of an attempt to override Civilization by forcing Slavery on enlightened communities. The advocates of Slavery are trying to harmonize an intensified des potism with free schools and Christianity ; they insult the intelligence of the North by declaring that wrong is right, and they propose to gag all who presume to differ frcm them. They had undertaken to unite two repellant bodies, and, because they will not fuse, they threaten to break the crucible ; any political chemist could have foretold the result. The framers of the Constitution, while planting 408 THE SOUTHERN REBELLION. Slavery as a necessity there, A Breeze from Maine, yet provided in the Constitution means for carrying out the theory of equal rights, namely : Free speech and a free press. They feared not error so long as truth was free to combat it. Our Southern friends under stand the power of truth as well as Napoleon the First did, and fear it more. * * Its present game of forcing the North into compromise is one of brag ; conventions are cheap, and resolutions cheaper. We have had numerous Southern Conventions and resolutions for direct trade and magnificent steam ships, but they have floated only in the imaginations of the resolvers. But you say now they have cer tainly seceded ; have seized public property, and threaten war. I know it, and this is the very card to bring Congress to its knees, and they know it. I admire their boldness. They stake all on a small pair, and then, without moving a muscle, look their opponent in the face until he quails, and lays down his hand. They play the game more desperately than they first intended, for they did not expect firmness in the people of the North. If that which was intended for a farce results in a tragedy, the getters-up of the piece will be alone responsible. * * * * * Be warned of the fate of those who have compromised with wrong. The Fugitive Slave law was framed to satisfy the slave power, and was made so heavy that it crushed its Northern cham pion — the greatest man of the age ; and carried down a President and the Whig party. Are you not satisfied with such a feat, or have you got your eyes on another crop of great men, and a, successful party, whose necks you wish to place under their modern guillotine called compromise ? Several are on their backs already, looking up at the glistening blade, but they are unwilling to die alone, so they beckon us on to share their inglorious fate. A sham compromise will do the South no good — for a real one there is no basis. The Border States, for their own safety, must ally themselves with the North. Emancipation is sure to come in time — nothing can prevent it — better prepare for it in season. Aggressions on A Breeze from Maine Northern men in the Slave States must cease, rebellion must be put down, or the power of a consolidated North will sweep away all resistance ; unless the South retreats from its treason, Slavery is doomed, and will go out in blood. Seces sion, compromise, and reconstruction is now the plat form of the odds and ends of the Democratic party ; Secession to force compromise — compromise to des troy the Republican party and reconstruct the old De mocracy on its ruins. Let us meet this courageously — the people sustain brave men, and follow a hero into a ditch sooner than a coward into camp. Save the Free States from humiliation, the Border States from Secession. By compromise you encourage treason and enhance the danger. I hope that the Union will be saved, but it must not be by striking hands with wrong. Let us have liberty and Union if we can ; but liberty without Union rather than Union without liberty." This sounded like the stern North wind cutting through the pines. It was, unques tionably, Maine sentiment. Its last sentences sounded like grim prophecy. Compromise with revolutionists, and concessions to Slavery, found no response save that of defi ance from the real Northmen. They were as unbending in their sense of right as the pines in their primeval forests. It was Histo ry telling her beads over again. The speeches of Burnham, Beale, and Wal ton were reassurances of the feeling rapidly growing, against compromise, in their States, as was evident from the satisfaction with which they were received by their constitu ents. How it must have pained the heart of the noble Kentucky Senator to have heard these daily protests against his well-meant, but weakly cherished offspring I CHAPTER XXXI. THE NEW POWER IN THE SOUTH. JEFFERSON DAVIS' PROGRESS TO MONTGOMERY. SIGNIFICANT SPEECH. HIS INAUGURAL. HIS CABINET. PROCEEDINGS OF THE CONFEDERATE CONGRESS UP TO MARCH 2D. The journey of Jefferson Davis en rmte. Davis, President-elect of the Southern Confederacy, from Mississippi to Montgomery, was one con tinued ovation. Great numbers of people congregated at every station. Twenty-five speeches were made by the President, on the route, to the gathered crowds. He was met, on his approach to Montgomery, by a Com mittee of the Congress, and by the city au thorities, who served as an escort, while two military companies from Columbus, Georgia, joined the retinue as a body-guard. The reception at Montgomery, Saturday evening, (February 16th,) was enthusiastic. At the depot Mr. Davis Hostile Declaration. made a speech to the great concourse in waiting. He addressed them at some length on the state of the South and the duties of its people, as suming a position at once of defiance and menace toward the North.* This speech was * A letter received at Washington, February 24th, from a " distinguished Alabamian," said : *' You may suppose that there is a chance to re build the Union which has been torn down. There is none. Not only is there no probability, but there is no possibility of such an event. We do not be lieve that the North will give us any substantial guarantees, and we could not trust them if they did. The idea which seems to have taken possession of the ' Peace Congress,' as it is called, that we will be satisfied with the prohibition north of 36 deg. 30 min., and Squatter-Sovereignty south of that line, is a gross insult to our understanding. Be assured, we have no idea of accepting any snch terms. The truth is, and our friends outside of the Seceding States ought to be apprised of the fact, ' we have lost all hope of an amicable adjustment, and are looking to the bayonet as the final arbiter of the dis pute.' " regarded as a throwing down of the gauntlet, and HostiIe Declaration. sped over the North to con firm tte impression of the utter hopelessness of anyp>mpromise with the Seceded States. A new Government was formed— the dream of dreamers was realized : — the Slave Republic was a fact, which no step of the North 'or of the Border States could avert. Compromise not only was not asked for, but was scorned ; while the idea of any reconstruction was only entertained to be vituperated. Exhilarated by the remarkable success of the revolution to a state of nitrogenic delight, any return to the old Union looked, to their elated visions, like a descent to Avernus, and a reconstruc- tionist was regarded as an enemy. Eleven o'clock Saturday night the Presi dent, in answer to the clamors of the people, thus addressed them from the balcony of his hotel : Fellow-Citizens and Breth ren of the Confederate Significant Speech. States of America — For now we are brethren not in name merely, but in fact- men of one flesh, one bone, one interest, one pur pose — and of an identity of domestic institutions. We have hence, I trust, a prospect of living to gether in peace, with our institutions subject to pro tection, not defamation. It may be our career will be ushered in in the midst of storm. It may be that as this morning opened with clouds, mist, and rain, we shall have to encounter inconvenience at the be ginning. But, as the sun rose, it lifted the mist and dispelled the clouds, and left the pure sunlight of Heaven ; so will the progress of the Southern Con federacy carry us safe to the harbor of constitutional liberty and political equality. Thus, we have noth ing to fear at home, because at home we have ho mogeneity. We will have nothing to fear abroad, be cause, if war should come, if we must again baptize in blood the principles for which our fathers bled in 410 THE SOUTHERN REBELLION. the Revolution, we shall show we are not degenerate sons, but will redeem the pledges they gave, pre serve the sacred rights they transmitted to us, and show that Southern valor still shines as brightly as in 1776, in 1812, and in every other conflict. I was informed, my friends, that your kindness only re quired I should appear before you. Fatigued by travel, and hoarse, I am unable to speak at any length, and came merely to assure you of my grat itude for these manifestations of your good-will. I come with diffidence and distrust to the discharge of the great duties devolved on me by the kindness and confidence of the Congress of the Confederated States. I thank you, friends, for the kind man ifestations of favor and approbation you exhibit on this occasion. Through my entire progress to this city, I have received the same flattering demonstra tions of generous support. I did not regard them as personal to myself, but as tendered to me as the humble representative of the principles and policy of the Confederate States. I will devote to the du ties of the high office to which I have been called all I have of heart, of head, of hand. If, in the prog ress of events, my services shall be needed in an other position; if, to be plain, necessity shall re quire that I shall again enter the ranks as a soldier, I hope you will welcome me there. Now, friends, again thanking you for this manifestation of your approbation, allow me to bid you good-night." The inauguratory ceremo nies transpired in the open air, from the front of the Capitol, in the presence of a vast crowd, among whom were many ladies, and an imposing body of military. The In augural Address was pronounced, commenc ing at one o'clock, prior to the adminis tration of the oath. It read as follows : " Gentlemen of the Congress of the Confed erate States of America — Friends and Fellow- Citizens — Called to the difficult and responsible station of Chief Executive of the Provisional Govern ment which you have instituted, I approach the discharge of the duties assigned me with an humble distrust of my abilities, but with a sustaining confi dence in the wisdom of those who are to guide and aid me in the administration of public affairs, and an abiding faith in the virtue and patriotism of the people. " Looking' forward to the speedy establishment of a permanent Government to take the place of this, and which, by its greater moral and physical power, will be better able to combat with the many diffi culties which arise from the conflicting interests of separate nations, I enter npon the duties of the office to which I have been chosen, with the hope The Inaugural Ad dress of Jefferson Davis. Tbe Inaugurai Ad. dress of Jefferson Davis. that the beginning of our ca reer as a Confederacy may not be obstructed by hostile oppo sition to the enjoyment of onr separate existence and independence which we have asserted, and which, with the blessing of Providence we intend to maintain. " Our present condition, achieved in a manner un precedented in the history of nations, illustrates the American idea that Governments rest upon the consent of the governed, and that it is the right of the people to alter and abolish Governments when ever they become destructive to the ends for which they were established. The declared compact of the Union from which we have withdrawn was to establish justice, insure domestic tranquillity, pro vide for the common defence, promote the general welfare, and secure the blessings of liberty to our selves and our posterity; and when, in the judgment of the sovereign States now composing this Confed eracy, it has been perverted from the purposes for which it was ordained, and ceased to answer the ends for which it was established, a peaceful appeal to the ballot-box declared that, so far as they were concerned, the Government created by that compact should cease to exist. In this they merely asserted the right which the Declaration of Independence of 1776 defined to be inalienable. Of the time and occasion of its exercise they, as sovereigns, were the final judges, each for itself. " The impartial, enlightened verdict of mankind will vindicate the rectitude of our conduct, and He who knows the hearts of men will judge of the sincerity with which we labored to preserve the Government of our fathers in its spirit. " The right, solemnly proclaimed at the birth of the States, and which has been affirmed and reaffirmed in the Bills of Rights of the States subsequently ad mitted into the Union of 1789, undeniably recog nizes in the people the power to resume the authority delegated for the purposes of Government. Thus, the sovereign States, here represented, proceeded to form this Confederacy, and it is by the abuse of language that their act has been denominated ' revo lution.' They formed a new alliance ; but, within each State, its Government has remained. The rights of person and property have not been dis turbed. The agent through whom they communi cated with foreign nations is changed ; but, this does not necessarily interrupt their international relations. Sustained by the consciousness that the transition from the former Union to the present Confederacy has not proceeded from a disregard, on our part, of our just obligations, or any failure to perform every constitutional duty moved by no interest or passion to invade the rights of others, anxious to cultivate peace and commerce with all nations, if we may INAUGURAL ADDRESS OF JEFFERSON DAVIS. 411 The Inaugural Ad dress of Jefferson Davis. not hope to avoid war, we may at least expect that posterity will acquit us of having need lessly engaged in it." " Doubly justified by the absence of wrong on our part, and by wanton aggression on the part of oth ers, there can be no cause to doubt that the courage and patriotism of the people of the Confederate States will be found equal to any measures of de fence which their security soon may require. " An agricultural people, whose chief interest is the export of a commodity required in every manu facturing country, our true policy is peace, and the freest trade which our necessities will permit. It is alike our interest, and that of all those to whom we would sell, and from whom we would buy, that there should be the fewest practicable restrictions upon the interchange of commodities. , There can be but little rivalry between ours and any manufacturing or navigating community, such as the North-eastern States of the American Union. " It must follow, therefore, that mutual interest would invite good-will and kind offices. If, how ever, passion, or lust of dominion, 6hould cloud the judgment, or influence the ambition of those States, we must prepare to meet the emergency, and main tain, by the final arbitrament of the sword, the po sition which we have assumed among the nations of the earth. " We have entered upon a career of independence which must be inflexibly pursued through many years of controversy with our late associates of the Northern States. We have vainly endeavored to secure tranquillity and obtain respect for the rights to which we were entitled. As a necessity, not a choice, we have resorted to the remedy of separation, and henceforth our energies must be directed to the conduct of our own affairs, and the perpetuity of the Confederacy which we have formed. If a just per ception of mutual interest shall permit ns peaceably to pursue our separate political career, my most earnest desire will have been fulfilled. But if this be denied us, and the integrity of our Territory and jurisdiction be assailed, it will but remain for us, with firm resolve, to appeal to arms, and invoke the blessing of Providence on a just cause. " As a consequence of our new condition, and with a view to meet anticipated wants, it wiil be neces sary to provide a speedy and efficient organization of the branches of the Executive Department having special charge of Foreign Intercourse, Finances, Military Affairs, and Postal Service. " For purposes of defence, the Confederate States may, under ordinary circumstances, rely mainly upon their militia; but, it is deemed advisable, in the present condition of affairs, that there should be a The Inaugural Ad dress of Jefferson Davis. well-instructed, and disciplined army, more numerous than would usually be required on a peace establishment. " I may also suggest, that, for the protection of our harbors, and commerce on the high seas, a navy adapted to those objects will be required. These necessities have doubtless engaged the attention of Congress. " With a Constitution differing only from that of our fathers in so far as it is explanatory of their well-known intent, freed from sectional conflicts which have interfered with the pursuits of the gen eral welfare, it is not unnatural to expect that the States from which we have recently parted may seek to unite their fortunes with ours, under the Government we have instituted. For this, your Con stitution makes adequate provision ; but, beyond this, if I mistake not, the judgment and will of the people are, that union with the States from which they have separated is neither practicable nor de sirable. To increase the power, to develop the resources, and promote the happiness of a confed eracy, it is requisite there should be so much of homogeneity that the welfare of every portion would be the aim of the whole. Where this does not exist, antagonisms are engendered, which must and should result'in separation. " Actuated solely by a desire to preserve our own rights, and to promote our own welfare, the separa tion of the Confederate States has been marked by no aggression upon others, and followed by no do mestic convulsion. Our industrial pursuits have re ceived no check ; the cultivation of our fields pro gresses as heretofore ; and, even if we should be involved in war, there would be no considerable diminution in the production of the staples which have constituted our exports, in which the commer cial world has an interest scarcely less than our own. This common interest of producer and consumer can only be intercepted by an exterior force which should obstruct its transmission to foreign markets — a course of conduct which would be detrimental to manufacturing and commercial interests abroad. Should reason guide the action of the Government from which we have separated, a policy so detri mental to the civilized world, the Northern States included, could not be dictated even by a strong desire to inflict injury upon us ; but, if it be other wise, a terrible responsibility will rest upon it, and the sufferings of millions will bear testimony to the policy and wickedness of onr aggressors. " In the mean time there will remain to us, besides the ordinary remedies before suggested, the well- known resources for retaliation upon the commerce of an enemy. 412 THE SOUTHERN REBELLION. The Inaugural Ad dress of Jefferson Davis. "Experience in public sta tions of a subordinate grade to this which your kindness has conferred, has taught me that care, and toil, and dis appointments, are the price of official elevation. You will see many errors to forgive, many deficiencies to tolerate, but you shall not find in me either want of zeal or fidelity to the cause that is to me the highest !n hope and of most enduring affection. Your gen erosity has bestowed upon me an undeserved dis tinction, one which I neither sought nor desired. Upon the continuance of that sentiment, and upon •your wisdom and patriotism, I rely to direct and support me in the performance of the duty required at my hands. " We have changed the constituent parts, but not the system, of our Government. The Constitution formed by our fathers is that of these Confederate States. In their exposition of it, and in the judicial construction it has received, we have a light which reveals its true meaning. Thus instructed as to the just interpretation of that instrument, and ever re membering that all offices are but trusts held for the people, and that delegated powers are to be strictly construed, I will hope, by due diligence in the per formance of my duties, though I may disappoint your expectations, yet, to retain, when retiring, something of the good-willl and confidence which will welcome my entrance into office. " It is joyous, in the midst of perilous times, to look around upon a people united in heart, where one purpose of high resolve animates and actuates the .whole ; where the sacrifices to be made are not weighed in the balance against honor, right, liberty and equality. Obstacles may retard, but they cannot long prevent, the progress- of a movement sanctioned by its justice and sustained by a virtuous people. " Reverently let us invoke the God of our fathers to guide, and provide, and protect us, in our efforts to perpetuate the principles which, by His blessing, they were able to vindicate, establish, and transmit to their posterity, and with a continuance of His favor, ever gi'atefully acknowledged, we may hope fully look forward to success, to peace, to pros perity." Monday, February 18th, the Confederate Congress Members signed the Provisional Constitution. - [See page 337.] A bill was introduced to organize a Patent-office, and to define its duties. Secret session being ordered, nothing further transpired which the public was permitted to scrutinize. At the proper hour the Congress adjourned to attend upon the inauguration. Upon reassembling, the President and Vice-Presi dent of the Confederacy oc- . , ,. • i , Proceedings of the cupied seats on the right congress. and left of the President of Congress, Howell Cobb. Thus, the men who agitated for power, found them selves again reunited — not mere subordinates, as in the Federal Congress, but chiefs. They had not " thrown themselves on their coun try's altar" iu vain ! February 19th the following bills were re ported from the Committee on Engrossments as ready for signature : An Act for the en forcement of the Revenue Laws ; An Act for the preservation of the records of Congress ; An Act committing certain powers to the Committee on Naval Affairs. The Report of the Committee to Organize the Executive Departments was read. Its brief was : " The first section provides that there shall be an Executive Department known as the Department of State ; and there shall be a principal officer known as Secretary of State, who shall discharge such du ties as may be assigned him by the President, and in accordance with the Constitution and laws of the Confederate States, and receive such compensation as may be fixe d by law. " The second section— that it shall be the duty of the Secretary of State to preserve all bills, resolu tions, orders, &c, and affix to them the great seal of State ; also to give public notice of all laws passed by Congress in at least three public journals within the Confederacy; and also to cause two printed copies of all acts, resolutions, &c, to be sent to each of the Governors of the States of this Con federacy. " The third section — that there shall be in said department a chief clerk, and such other clerks as may be found necessary in the business of the de partment, who shall receive such compensation and take such oaths as may be regulated by law." It was considered in secret session. The State of Texas was regularly called on the roll, on and after this day 1 Very little transpired of the session of February 20th. A discussion arose on the establishment of an armory, in the course of which a member of the Military Committee, in a thoughtless moment, made the following interesting confession : " My colleague, however, greatly errs, when he states we are unprepared for war, and have no armB, and I am unwilling to let the assertion go undenied. Sir, we have arms, and in abundance, though no ar mories. Every Siate has amply provided itself to PROCEEDINGS OF THE MONTGOMERY CONGRESS. 413 meet any emergency that may Proceedings of the „. and ar(J m{ chasi Congress. ... and receiving cannons, mortars, shells, aud other engines of destruction, with which to overwhelm the dastaTd adversary. Organized ar mies now exist in all the States, commanded by offi cers brave, accmplished and experienced ; and even should war occur in twenty days, I feel confident that they have both the valor and the arms to success^ fully resist any force whatever. Let the issue come, I fear not the result. Mr. Davis (February 21st) named his Cabinet as follows : Secretary of State : Robert Toombs, of Georgia ; " Treasury: C. G. Memminger, of Ne»th iuvJR^Carolina ; " " War : L. Pope Walker, of Alabama ; " " Navy: Stephen R. Mallory, of Florida. Mr. Elet, of Mississippi, was named Post master-General, but he declined the appoint ment, when John H. Reagan, of Texas, was named. Wm. L. Yancey, of Alabama, was ten dered a Cabinet appointment, but declined it, preferring the post of Minister Extraordi nary to the Courts of England and France. Mr. Benjamin, of Louisiana, was also, at a later day, named Attorney-General. Mr. Sli dell. for his share, preferred a European Mis sion, which was given him. So of Rust, of Arkansas, and Mason, of Virginia,.* The Proceedings after this date were so exclu sively debarred to the public, that nothing is known of them further than such as tran spired when it became necessary to publish the acts for their enforcement. The list of those acts which went into force, at an early mo ment after their signature, comprises, among others, the following : " An Act to prescribe the rates of postage in the Confederate States, and for other purposes. Also, a supplemental act to the same subject. " An Act to modify the Navigation Laws, and to repeal all discriminating duties on ships or vessels. "An Act in relation to the Slave-trade, and to punish persons offending therein. * And thus the -disinterested agitators found them selves all repaid for their arduous services in behalf of " Southern Independence." Not one of them, except the "irrepressible Wigfall," but was hand somely provided for in the new order of things. The people had not a word to say in the whole matter. The Government and offices were farmed out just as spoils-gatherers would distribute their plunder. Proceedings of the Congress. " An Act to define more ac curately the exemption of cer tain goods from duty. " An Act to authorize the Secretary of the Treasury to establish additional ports and places of entry and delivery, and to appoint officers therefor. " An Act for the establishment and organization of a Central Staff for the Army of the Confederate States of America. " An Act to raise money for the support of the Government, and to provide for the defence of the Confederate States of America. " An Act to raise the provisional forces of the Confederate States of America, and for other pur poses. "An Act-to define the jurisdiction of the Federal Courts in certain cases. " An Act to provide for the registration of vessels owned in whole or in part by citizens of the Con federate States. " An Act guaranteeing the free navigation of the Mississippi River." Several of these Acts threw a flood of light upon the policy of the new Government. The Slave-Trade act President Davis vetoed — for the first time exercising that nullifying power. The grounds of the veto did not transpire, but it was understood that the Con gress had so modified the Federal law as to strip the slave-trade of the penalties for pira cy, and to modify the penalties for misde meanor. The veto left the Federal law in force, since the Congress had adopted, by special provision, all Federal laws until re pealed or otherwise modified by the Congress. The Postal law will prove statements already made in the pages of this History respecting the outrageous imposition to which the Fed eral Government was forced to submit, for many years, in the matter of mails over hun dreds of routes in the Southern States whose postages scarcely paid for the locks on the mail-bags used. We quote the exhibit made by the Committee as the basis of their law : " The Committee have mainly directed their in quiries to the question whether, without material inconvenience to the public, the Post-Office Depart ment of this Confederacy can be made self-sus taining. " The Committee find, from the latest and most reliable means of information of which' they have been able to avail themselves, that the excess of expenditure over the receipts of this department in the six States composing this Confederacy, for the 414 THE SOUTHERN REBELLION. fiscal year ending June 30, 1859, Proceedings of the wag $1>660,695.83. They have Congress. ^ beeQ aWe tQ obtain the report of such receipts and expenditures for the last fiscal year, but they presume the above furnishes an aproximation sufficiently accurate for the predicated of our present action. " To provide for this deficit, your Committee would suggest that the rates of postage may be in creased, as proposed by the accompanying bill. By this bill they estimate an increase of receipts ap proximating $578,874.83. " They believe that a saving can be effected by a change in the mode of letting out mail contracts, adopting what is usually called the ' star-bid sys tem,' providing for all our safeguards for the celer ity, certainty, and security of the mails, but without restrictions as to the mode of transportation. In this way your Committee are satisfied that the ex pense of mail transportation may be reduced — say 33 J per cent, upon the present cost — say $619,033. " They are further of opinion that there should be a discontinuance of numerous routes, the cost of which is greatly disproportioned to their conveni ence, and the receipts of the post-offices supplied by them. In this way they believe a saving of one- tenth of the present cost of transportation may be attained— say $206,344. " The service upon many of the routes may, with out material detriment, be changed, daily routes re duced to tri-weekly, &c. , at an estimated reduction of say $206,344. " They would also recommend the abolishing a number of minor post-offices, which occasion con siderable expense, without corresponding profit or convenience. In this way a saving to the Depart ment might be readily reduced to the amount of say $50,000. " These sums added, say by increased receipts by reason of postage rates. .. $ 578,874 83 "By savingsasabove,indicatedtotal. 1,081,721 00 " Total $1,660,595 83 " Present excess of expenditures over receipts $1,060,595 83 " Your Committee are of opinion that, steps should be immediately taken to preserve the postage stamps of the denomination often, five, and twenty cents ; that these stamps will be sufficient to meet the wants of the Department for the present." Texas, the most expensive of all the States, from its long non-paying routes, was not in cluded in this exhibit, or the deficit of re ceipts would have been increased by the sum of nearly six hundred thousand dollars an nually That little paragraph, last quoted, is Proceedings of the Congress. modestly worded, consider ing that it proposed to pre serve the postage stamps be longing to the Federal Government. Several hundred thousand dollars worth of stamps of the United States Government were in the hands of postmasters in the Seceded States, on sale. To render these profitably avail able, it was only necessary to preserve them, just as the mint at New Orleans was pre served, with its five hundred thousand dol lars of coin. The non-use of the word steal, doubtless, was owing to the "chivalrous sense of honor" which animated the bosoms of those remarkable men. The Act for the organization of the Con federate Army Staff reproduced, with slight change, the Army Regulations and pay of the United States service. The Adt to provide money for carrying on the Government would deserve but passing notice, were it not for the fact that the pro posed loan, after the most extraordinary ex ertions on the part of the "friends of the South," was never, we believe, entirely taken, although its amount was but fifteen millions of dollars.* We give the Act : Sec. 1 — The Congress of the Confederate States do enact, That the President of the Confederate States be and he is hereby authorized, at any time within *A letter found its way into print, purporting to have been written by a Charleston banker to a Lon don house, proposing for it to assist in placing the loan, and stating the securities to be offered to Foreign takers, as follows : First: A mortgage on the property seized from the United States, of forts, arsenals, custom houses, &c. Second : A pledge to pay off the delayed debts of Mississippi and Florida. The State of Florida to be transferred to trustees in security for the payment of its debt, while Mississippi should pledge its own honor and good faith to pay the new bonds to be issued for those repudiated. Third: A pledge of the revenues of the Custom- House and Post-Offices, after current expenses were paid. Fourth: A mortgage on all territory to be "ac quired, " and usufruct thereof. If this was not a canard, (as it doubtless was) then it only proves what a miserable Btate the finances of the country must have been in, that any such pledge should have been even thought of. PROCEEDINGS OF T H : MONTGOMERY CONGRESS. 415 Proceedings of the Congress. twelve months after the passage of this act, to borrow, on the credit of the Confederate States, a sum not exceeding $15,000,000, or so much thereof as, in his opinion, the exigencies of the pub lic service may require to be applied to the payment of appropriations mdea by law for the support of the Government, and for the defence of the Confederate States. "Sec. 2. That the Secretary of the Treasury is hereby authorized, by the consent of the President of the Confederate States, to cause to be prepared certificates of stock or bonds, in such sums as are hereafter to be mentioned, for the amount to be bor rowed as aforesaid, to be signed by the Register of the Treasury, and sealed with the seal of the Treas ury ; and the said certificates of stock or bonds shall be made payable at the expiration of ten years from the 1st day of September next ; and the interest thereon shall be paid semi-annually, at the rate of three per cent, per annum, at the Treasury, and such other place as the Secretary of the Treasury may designate. And to the bonds which shall be issued as aforesaid shall be attached coupons for the semi-annual interest which shall accrue, which coupons may be signed by officers to be appointed for the purpose by the Secretary of the Treasury. And the faith of the Confederate States is hereby pledged for the due payment of the principal and in terest of the said stock and bonds. "Sec. 3. At the expiration of five years from the 1st day of September next, the Confederate States may pay up any portion of the bonds or stock, upon giving three months previous public notice at the seat of Government of the particular stock or bonds to be paid, and the time and place of payment; and from and after the time so appointed, no furher inter est shall be paid on said stock or bonds. " Skc. 4. The certificates of stock and bonds shall be issued in such form and for such amounts as may be determined by the Secretary of the Treasury, and may be assigned or delivered under such regu lations as he may establish. But most of them shall be for a less sum than $50 ; and he shall report to Congress, at its next session, a statement in detail of his proceedings, and the rate at whiich the loans may have been made, and all expenses attend ing the same. " Sec. 5. From and after the 1st day of August, 1861, there shall be levied, collected, and paid, u duty of one-eighth of one per cent, per pound on all cotton in the raw state exported from the Confed erate States, which duty is hereby specially p ledged to the due payment of interest and principal of the loan provided for in this act; and the Secretary of the Treasury is authorized and required to establish Proceedings of the a sinking fund to carry into effect the provisions of this sec tion : Provided, however, That the. interest coupons, issued under the second section of this act, when due, shall be receivable in payment of the export duty on cotton : Provided, also, That when the debt and interest thereon, herein au thorized to be contracted, shall be extinguished, or the sinking fund provided for that purpose shall be adequate to that end, the said export duty shall cease and determine." It was announced by the Southern press quite generally that, so patriotic were the masses, the loan was eagerly absorbed by the people; that every man who could muster one hundred dollars was investing in a bond. This story served the purpose designed — of inspiriting the Secessionists, and of dispirit ing the Unionists in the States of Tennessee, Virginia, and North Carolina. To have con fessed the truth — that the credit of the new Government was so low as to be unable to obtain its first loan — would have been fatal to the further progress of the revolution to the North ; hence, the usual resort was had to deception. The loan went begging at the banks, at the doors of planters, on the street ; and, up to July, it had been but about half taken. Does the reader ask, How was it possible for the Government to progress without money? The curiosity-gatherer will be able to answer when he collects a specimen of each issue of Treasury notes, certificates, cotton-deposit acknowledgments, &c, &c, by the Government, and of the utterly illimit able issue of notes of every denomination, by banks, corporate and stock companies, cities, railways, individuals, and churches. The flood of promises-to-pay was only paralleled by an Autumnal fall of leaves. As it was dangerous for a person to demand the specie on any of these issues, there was no want of " currency," although there was a great want of coin. The history of these paper issues will form an amusing record, if it ever is written. The Act to provide for the " provisional" army of the Confederate States was as fol lows: ' ' Section 1. The Congress of the Confederate States of America do enact, That to enable the Government of the Confederate States to maintain its jurisdiction over all questions of peace and war, and to provide 416 THE SOUTHERN REBELLION. Paoceedings of the . Congress. for the public defence, the Pres • identbe, and is hereby, author ized and directed to assume control of all military operations in every State, hav ing reference to a connection with questions between the said States, or any of them, and powers foreign to them. "Sec. 2. And be it further enacted, That ^the President is hereby authorized to receive from the several States the arms and munitions of war which have been acquired from the United States, and which are now in the forts, arsenals, and navy- yards of the said States, and all other arms and mu nitions which they may desire to turn over and make chargeable to this Government. " Sec. 3. Be it further enacted, That the Presi dent be authorized to receive into the service of this Government such forces now in the service of said States as may be tendered, or who may volunteer by consent of their State, in such numbers as he may require, for any time not less than twelve months, unless sooner discharged. " Sec. 4. Be it further enacted, That such forces .may be received, with their officers, by companies, battalions, or regiments, and, when so received, shall form a part of the provisional army of the Con federate States, according to the terms of their en listment, and the President shall appoint, by and with the advice and consent of Congress, such gen eral officer or officers, for said forces, as may be necessary for the service. " Sec. 6. Be it further enacted, That said forces, when received into the service of the Government, shall have the same pay and allowances as may be provided by law for volunteers entering the service, or for the army of the Confederate States, and shall j be subject to the same rules and government." I This act stripped the State Governors of Proceedings of the Congress. their newly-assumed titles of Commander - in - Chief, which they had freely sport ed. It was a short-lived "supremacy" the State enjoyed. The tyranny closing around them like an overgrowth, was as sure to over run their "palmetto" independence as the moss which trailed over their forests to fes toon them with darkness. Under this act, Peter G. Beauregard, soon made Brigadier- General by commission of Mr. Davis, was sent to Charleston to assume ommand of the forces there, while General Bragg was placed in command at Pensacola. The Act for ihe free navigation of the Mis sissippi, although it conceded the river a com mon highway, still assumed a jurisdiction which the States drained by the great river would resist to the last. Their rights to that highway was incontestible ; to restrict their rights, by giving up the river to a foreign jurisdiction, was to injure the property and commerce of the great North-west to an in calculable degree. The fact that a battery had been placed on the banks of the river, at Memphis, to challenge all craft, and thus to obstruct navigation, showed to the twelve States, tributary to the stream, what might exist, at any moment, to their great detri ment ; and the Act for the navigation of the stream only served to call most especial atten tion to the matter. It soon became one of the things evident, that that highway never would be allowed to pass through the terri tory of 'A foreign power. CHAPTEE XXXII. RESISTANCE TO TYRANNY IN THE SECEDED STATES. SOUTH CARO LINA DISSATISFIED. EVIDENCES OF DISSATISFACTION IN GEORGIA, ALABAMA, AND MISSISSIPPI. THE UNION FEELING IN THE BORDER SLAVE STATES. Evidences of Dis content, The voice of the Cotton States, seemingly, was unanimous for the new order of things. But, so many evidences came of a stifled opinion which repelled the revolution and hoped - for reaction, that we advert to the subject briefly. As preliminary, it may be said that even the Secessionists did not harmonize in theii views, now that the hour had come to embody them. The element of revolution was not one to be calmed into peace at any voice. To say to South Carolina, "Peace! be. still!" was as hopeless for peace as to bid the overcharged steam-chest from foaming. She must have vent, apparently, or an explosion would ensue. The class of chronic mal-contents, in that State, was large — the class of well-con tents small. The philosophy of Calhoun, and the " glittering generalities" of McDuffie, had resulted in a mental disorder, whose only proper expression seemed to find embodiment in the word nullification. This became ap parent at an early stage of the proceedings of the Confederate Congress, notwithstand ing the seal of secrecy. A correspondent of the Charleston Mercury at Montgomery, writ ing under date of February 14th — evidently a member of the Congress — uttered this strong and distinctive protest to the too Fed eral nature of the new Government : South Carolina Repu- " UPon one Point theTe aPPe!*rS diates the Confed- to be a fixed determination and oracy. straightforward action here. Reconstruction is dead. A Southern Confedera tion is established ; and the Southern Confederacy is a fixed thing. But what sort of a Confederacy? Here the Convention is at sea, and vague dreads of the future and terrors of the people, and in some degree a want of statesmanship, paralyze all useful and essential reform, and weaken men into inaction. Let your people prepare their minds for a failure in 53 the future Permanent Southern South ^^^ Re. Constitution. For South Caro- pudiates the Con- lina is about to be saddled with federacy. almost every grievance except Abolition, for which she long struggled, and just withdrawn from the late United States Government. Surely McDuffie lived in vain, and Calhoun taught for naught, if we are again to be plundered, and our commerce crippled, destroyed^ by tariffs — even discriminating tariffs. Yet this is the almost inevitable prospect. The fruit of the labors of thirty odd long years, in strife and bitterness, is about to slip through our fingers. " But is this all we are about to be called on to enact and bear? It is only the beginning. " The three-fifths rule of representation for slaves was one of the many Yankee swindles put upon us in the formation of the old Constitution. It is a rad ical wrong. It most unfairly dwarfs the power of some of the States in any Federal representation. The proportion of her black to the white popula tion is very much larger than that of any other Slave State. By the old swindle, her fair popula tion of representation was cut down upon all her slaves in proportion as three to five. The black population, being in a majority in our State, two- fifths of more than one-half of the people of the State are entirely unrepresented. And in just the degree that the proportion of the black population in South Carolina predominates over the proportion of the blacks to the whites in any other State, is the swindA augmented and aggravated. South Carolina is small enough without again flinging away what legitimate power she possesses. That power is in her slaves — socially, politically, economically. The proposition of the three-fifths rule calls upon her not only to stultify herself, but to dwarf her powers. "Is this all? It is not. She is probably to be called upon to brand herself and her institutions. " The old Constitution of the United States merely grants to the Congress the power to prohibit by law the further introduction of slaves from Africa or else where outside of the United States. Terrorism here is about to make its perpetual prohibition a funda mental provision of the Constitution itself. A stigma 418 THE SOUTHERN REBELLION. South Carolina Re- is thus broadly stamped upon pudiates the Confed- the whole institution before the eracy. whole world, and sealed by our selves. That Congress should have power to prohibit the trade is a legitimate provision. I should not object to such a provision. It is a matter of trade, business, and general economy. There may or may not be a sufficient supply of African labor now in America. Of this it is for the peoples of the several States to decide, through their representatives in the General Congress. But to brand it by a fundamental article of the Constitution itself, is to cast an infamous slur upon the whole institution — the lives and the proper ties of every slaveholder in the land. " For what have we cast off the North as a rotten incubus, if we are thus to reenact all their swindles, outrages, and insolences upon ourselves? To be plundered and manacled with discriminating tariffs — to stultify ourselves with a half-way representation — and to indorse all the slanders and insolence of the Northern States ? " All this is not encouraging to our Kbpes. But there remains two methods of retrieving ourselves. The first is, in our Convention. We may have to fol low the example of 1788. The second is, by providing in the Constitution, for the present, an easy way of amendment; and South Carolina may insist upon amendments npon these points being made. Doubt less public spirit will advance. Many men here want information. They are ignorant and unprac- ticed in this matter. There is still room for much hope in the end — with the exercise on our part of much firmness. " It is greatly to be regretted that the debates upon the Constitution will probably not be public. It seems to me that they will be very important as guides in the future, whereby we may be enabled to comprehend its meaning — the proper interpretation of its language. "To change the subject — a nice pickle South Carolina has been placed in with regard to Foit Sumter ! Three weeks ago it was feared by many that any assault upon that fort was to be postponed until the 4th of February, and then to be turned over to the action of the Southern Congress. Such has proved the fact. What has been gained ? Pres ident Davis will not be inaugurated until Saturday evening, the 16th of February. This is the earliest period possible. Circumstances will still further delay it. The, Monday two weeks following, Lin coln is to be inaugurated at Washington. What op portunity is there between these two dates for Mr. Davis to make preparations for attack — to make his demand upon Mr. Buchanan for its surrender, and to receive an answer before the 4th of March? None whatever. We will have to fight, and we will have to fight Lincoln instead of Buchanan. And who are to do the fighting ? South Carolinians, and none but South Carolinians. The fort will, of course, be reenforeed if it is in the power of man to do it. Will nobody tell me how lives have been saved by this policy ? The attitude of our State has been in a large measure demoralized — I will not say dis graced — by the course pursued ; the political atti tude of the whole Southern Confederation has been embarrassed and complicated ; and what is gained ? Nothing, that I can see, but the spilling of much more valuable blood than was at all necessary." We have, in this, representative South Car olina opinion — opinion which, so long as South Carolina has existence as a State, she will struggle to force upon whatever govern ment is over her. The only normal condi tion of such a State is that of perfect isor lation, under the rule of an aristocracy. The Augusta (Georgia) Sentinel became extremely a Georgia Protest irascible under the secret reign of the new Congress. That paper thus commented on secret legislation and on the reported veto of the Slave-Trade act : " We believe there is no truth in the rumor. Should it be true, however, it shows that we live under a very singular system of government, in which laws are not only enacted in secret, but are vetoed in secret, after the people suppose them to have gone into force. It is time that the people knew, not only what laws they live under, but who are responsible for their passage. If it is necessary to exclude the public from the deliberations of Con gress to prevent confusion, that is no reason for de priving the press of the privilege of publishing the proceedings of our rulers." The Natchez (Mississippi) Courier did not look for A Mississippi Protest. prosperity under the rule of the new President. It characterized his success as the result of a ten years' struggle for a Presidency. While it admired the in genuity by which he had, at length, succeed ed to the accomplishment of his ambitious schemes, it despised the tricks by which he crawled to the place. Of the Confederacy and its usurpations, it thus gave its opinion : "There was no sound of rejoicinghereatNatchez, either on account of the formation of such a South ern Confederacy, or the appointment of such rulers. The words sprang too often from one to another, 'Are we to have no showing? Are the people to have no choice? Can a Convention alter constitu- tions? impose taxes? appoint Constitution-makers? inaugurate Presidents? Are they oligarchs, and are we nothing?' And each citizen had to confess that there was no reply to these questions. We live un der an oligarchy that has not yet dared to trust the people with a say as to its consent. Right as the South is upon the great question at issue, its posi tion has been compromitted by the events of the last two months. The consent of the governed is an essential element of government. The people of the South-west might have voted for all that has been done, but their consent has not been yet either asked or obtained." The Tuscaloosa (Alaba- An Alabama Protest .ma) Monitor was a non- submissionist to the reign of tyranny. Its words were significant of the powerful under-current struggling against the revolutionary assumptions of the Conven tions and the Congress. It said : " We hold, first, that the ordinance of secession should have been committed to the people for their ratification or rejection ; secondly, that the ordinan ces passed by the Convention should have awaited the issue of this decision ; thirdly, that the people had the right, and it should have been given them, to have chosen the delegates to a Congress which was to have framed for them a government for weal or for woe. And we now demand that the Govern ment formed — its President, Vice-President, and officers — should be submitted to the people for their approval or disapproval. If it is not, we shall, come weal or woe, attempt to fire the people's heart, to educate the people"s mind to know their rights and to dare maintain them. We are no sub- missionists, but right is right and wrong is wrong, and we will not betray our trust. We assert that the people have a right to be heard, and being heard, to be obeyed. And we intend to keep them posted in what we consider to be an infringement of their rights and of their privileges, let the worst come to the worst. If it is treason against the new Confederacy, make the most of it. We know we are right, and, untrammeled and nnawed, we will defend the right." Many of such protests would have shaken the power of the revolutionary leaders; — therefore, they were not allowed an utterance. The Jackson (Miss.) Mis- a Mississippi Threat sissvppian, a strong advo cate of secession, became alarmed and indignant at the virtual reign of tyranny inaugurated over the people of the South, It said : " It is the right of the people to decide whether or not they will live under the Constitution which is being pro- A Mississippi Threat. vided for them by the body in session at Montgomery. If it is not their right to do so, then the theory that they are the source of all power, and should govern themselves, is a vague ab straction, incapable of application, and invented to delude them. It will not do to say that in voting for separation from the Union they arranged the terms of confederation with other States, or prescribed the plan of future government. That would be a falsification of history which no sane man will ven ture to be guilty of. There is no way of evading the premises we have assumed ; hence the con clusion atwhichwe have arrived is unavoidable, viz. : That the Constitution for the permanent government; before Mississippi becomes a party to the compact, must be submitted directly to a vote of the people of the State. If it is not done, the question of the right of the people to form their own Government may require practical solution before the new order is fully established. They will not hold themselves bound by a Government which they have had no hand in creating." These several protests against the new Confederacy, or against its conduct, cannot be regarded merely as individual expressions, because their grounds of complaint involved general principles, and are such grounds as we know were presented by the unparalleled usurpations practiced by the reigning few over the outwitted many. As to the state of society induced by the unsettled state of affairs, we have evidences to warrant the statement that it was, socially, very baleful. The violence practiced in the months of March, April, and May, upon every person of Uniori sympathies, was but a " wreaking of thought upon expression" — it was a result of the passion and brutal in stincts of the masses ; and, though deprecated by the better classes, was unopposed, because such opposition would have proven danger ous even to the most patriotic of Southern States' Rights men. A Southern gentleman, of property and influence, residing at Augusta, Georgia, thus wrote to a friend, during the latter part of February: "Nine-tenths of our youth go constantly armed, and the common use of deadly weapons is quite disregarded. No control can be exercised over a lad after he is fourteen or fifteen years of age. He then be comes Mr. So-and-so, and acknowledges no 420 THE SOUTHERN REBELLION. master." The spirit which a Reign ofViolence. incited the revolution was one of violence, and it is not strange that an excitable people should have proceeded to extremes when every en couragement was offered to passion, and ev ery discouragement shown to reason. The wind was sown to breed the whirlwind, for only thus could the few hundreds hope to control the thousands to do their behests. An incredible amount of small arms — of pistols, rapiers and bowie-knives passed from the North to the South during the months of January, February, and March. So great, in deed, was the demand for these articles, that they appreciated in value, in New York, fully one hundred per cent. The weapons soon made their appearance on the persons of even the youth in the Seceded States, as stated by the letter-writers, and a corresponding de moralization of manners and morals followed. When the hour came for calling out troops, tens of thousands of these mere youths were found ready for the ranks, and as violent in passions as the most ambitious military officer could wish. In these apparently minor mat ters are written much of the real history of that sad revolution in society and morals, as well as in government. The press of the Border States was not all subsidized in the interest of secession. The Lynchburg Virginian, in February, said : "The people can only protect their interests by holding their servants to a strict account ability, and not vainly expect, by a parti tion of the Confederacy, that will give our section to the exclusive domination of the party which promulgated the demoralizing doctrine that 'to the victors belong the spoils,,' and will include, and retain among us, those who have outraged all public and private morality — to promote our welfare." The Raleigh (North Carolina) Banner was equally true to the clearly defined rights of the people. It said : " The big heart of the people is still in the Union, and we hope to see it yet assert its supremacy. It is now subjugated temporarily to the will of the politicians. Less than a hundred thousand politicians are endeavoring to destroy the liber ties and to usurp the rights of more than thirty millions p ' Territorial question, and refer red to the resolutions of Mr. Clay .which, he said, were intended to take the question out of Congress. The question now is, that the South, having seen itself excluded from the Territory, they think they have as much right as other sections in the Territory of the United States. But you deny it them. Their blood and their money helped to acquire it. The question has reached a point where it is of vital interest. The question is not of party, but of the union of the country. He referred to New Mexico as a barren country, which he thought could not become a Slave State. We are not here to talk on the disadvantages of Slavery, but as to constitutional rights, and the South think they have as much right to carry it in emigration as you have to any of your systems of labor. Is that so great a cause of complaint as to bring upon the country all the great evils of dis union? If we cannot agree, let us divide the Ter ritory — you go on one side and we go on the other. We talk about our fathers, and what did they do? He then referred to the compromise of 1820, as an example. Ha said all that belonged to the South now was one poor Territory, and all they asked was to let the South remain as it is. You are coming into power, and we ask you to give us some secu rity that yon will not abuse yonr power in that Territory. He believed that all that is necessary to settle the great mischief that is going on is to agree that in this sterile Territory the state of things shall remain as it is. Till when? Forever, gentlemen, say — but till this Territory shall have one hundred thousand inhabitants, when it will be admitted as a State, and then they will dispose of the question as they please. This is all that is asked. He said all, because in respect to fugitives there is no difficulty. That is settled by tbe Constitution. In regard to the District of Columbia, he argued, as it was ceded by Maryland, it would be an act of bad faith to abolish Slavery without the consent of Maryland. He asked if it was not worth something, even if we could not bring back States, to preserve those which have not gone ; or is an idea and dogma not in the Constitution, but which has its origin in the pe culiar idea of the people of a certain section, to be an inseparabie barrier to measures of policy nec essary to save the country ? Propositions were offered by him as a Senator of the United States, and not as a compromise from the North to the South, but measures which he offered as a Senator, were for the equality of all. He would not offer a proposition unfair to either section. He trusted in God ; neither his feeling nor principle would allow him td attack or permit any- Mr. Crittenden's Last Appeal. thing unfair to one section or the other. Yet, Senators say, let us have no compromise ; let us have blood first. But the Bible says, ' First be recon ciled to thy brother before thou layest thy gift on the altar.' Yet gentlemen would not give a straw for reconciliation ; but our business is to preserve the Union. If not, what would be the consequences? Who knows? He did not. He would advise that, if injustice were done now, the Union was worth bearing much for. Party passion and excitement would not last always, and if one Congress do wrong another may do right. Bnt this cry of no com promise was like the old cry of the Romans, roz vie- lis— woe to the conquered, and now translated No Compromise. He claimed that the Constitution in tended to leave the people of the States free to act as they pleased in regard to their domestic institu tions, and contended that the numerous petitions re ceived from all parts of the country were an evidence that the heart of the people was right, and in favor of peace and reconciliation with their brethren, aud that they were not willing to have their children go to war for a trifle and a dogma. We are one people of the same blood, and one family, and must compromise family troubles. He was for Union, and not for secession, and would say to Kentucky, stand by the Union, till necessity forces you out, with constancy and fidelity. This was the best Government in the world, notwith standing the bad administration sometimes, and he would have Kentucky stand by the Union, if rebel lion swept over the whole land, like the last soldier of a brave band, till everything was gone, and then consider what next should be done. This was his principle and his advice. He was about to part from his friends here, and had spoken in truth and soberness what he believed. He had hoped some thing would have been done to pacify the country, and this resolution from the House, though not sufficient, would still be a ray of sunshine. He ex pressed great confidence in the integrity of the people, and appealed to the Senate to have a vote, that something, at least, may be done which would be a step towards peace and harmony — something to save the Union. He begged those who declared they would not amend the Constitution to recon sider, and think how the condition of the country would be changed." Trumbull, (Rep.,) of Illi nois, followed with a speech which, if it was not defiant, was so firm in its declarations as to create much sensation during its delivery. He said it was not the way to obtain com promises by talking of dogmas and usurpa- Trumbull's Decla rations. 476 THE SOUTHERN REBELLION, Trumbull's Decla rations. tion. He was tired of hearing talk of usurpation and injustice in the Terri tories. Why not make the appeal to the men With arms in their hands against the Govern ment. Then he referred to the trouble in the Territories and the first attempt to break up the Union in 1832; then in 1850 another at tempt was made to break up the Union, but after a while peace was secured. Then in 1853 a proposition was made in the Senate which reopened the agitation. But secession would not have triumphed if there had not been complicity with treason in the very Cabinet of the Government. The President received Commissioners, who, under any other Government, would have been hung for treason; and, not untill the last moment, when forced to take sides, and either join the Secessionists and let Major Anderson perish, or to meet the anger of his countrymen, did the President declare for the Union and speak, though feebly, for the United States. But he had allowed the Secessionists to do as they pleased, till they had taken the forts and property of the Government to a great amount. Wigfall interrupted, wishing to be inform ed if Mr. Lincoln's Administration would pursue the same policy, or whether it would attempt to recapture the forts and property ? Trumbull replied that the Texas Senator would find out his opinion before he got through with his speech, and he (Trumbull) trusted that Wigfall would learn the opinions of the new Administration on the morrow from the eastern steps of the Capitol. He added : " I apprehend the Senator will learn to-morrow that we have a Government, and that it is the beginning of maintaining the Union." Mr. Trumbull continued, after the several interruptions, referring to the ac tion of the Secretaries of War and Navy, sending away the Army and Navy till they had no defences left. Secession would never have reached such a height if we had a Gov ernment. He spoke against the compro mises which had been offered. He was will ing to take the Missouri Compromise, but these were nothing like that. He contended that the effect of these compromises would be to declare Slavery perpetual in New Mex ico. If they want to do , , ,, Trumbull's Docla- anything, go back to the ^j, Missouri Compromise and stand to that, which will restore peace to the country. In regard to the House reso lutions, he said that all agreed that Congress had not the right to interfere with Slavery in the States. He would not interfere, but he would never, by his vote, make one slave ; and the people of the great North-west would never consent by their act to establish Slav ery anywhere. He was willing, though he did not think the Constitution needed amend ments, to vote for recommending to the States a proposition for calling a Convention to consider amendments. But our Southern friends ask for something to stand on. The best rock in the world to stand on is the old Constitution as framed by our fathers, and not suffer it to be trampled and amended. States have been arming themselves, and tell us they will fight against the Government if we attempt to enforce the laws, whicli they call "coercion." He could tell the Senator from Texas that he was for enforcing the laws. By this he did not mean marching an army to coerce a State, but that he want ed to settle the question if we have a Gov ernment. He referred to the fact that Vir ginia sent an ultimatum, and then armed herself for the purpose of armed intervention between the Government and the States in rebellion, and argued that under such cir cumstances Senators ought not to present propositions here for our acceptance. He contended that the attitude of Virginia was an act of menace. This speech, coming from a Senator in timate in his relations with the President, was supposed to indicate the new Adminis tration's policy, and therefore attracted much consideration on the floor. It is doubtful, however, if he spake for Mr. Lincoln by au thority. The President was notably silent on questions of his future conduct, and was wise in his silence. If Mr. Seward spoke for him, in proposing, as a substitute for the Peace Conference scheme, the calling of a National Convention, he may have acted on the suggestion of the Executive, though it is not probable that he ever committed hini- himself thus far; and Mr. Trumbull, if THE CLOSING SCENE. 477 he did indicate the course afterwards pur sued, did so by no special authorization of the President-elect. His views, and those ex pressed by Mr. Wade, were simply the Re publican ultimate of the discussions of the winter. The debate here took a more general turn, from the speaker having referred to Mr. Baker's willingness to compromise. It called up that Senator and Mr. Trumbull alter nately. Mr. Baker's closing reply was a most able and earnest appeal for an acceptance of any reasonable terms of settlement, and par ticularly of the Corwin proposition to amend the Constitution. After some further remarks by various par ties, a vote was had on the Doolittle amend ments to Pugh's amendment, viz. : — to sub stitute the Crittenden Final Struggle for ... „ ,, „ compromise. propositions for the Cor win amendment. Lost by 18 to 28. The question then recurred on the substitute, wThen a running debate occurred between Messrs. Bigler, Clingman, Douglas, Mason, Pugh, Morrill, Wade, Wigfall, Wilson, Doolittle, Johnson, of Arkansas, and others. It was peculiarly sharp and personal — as suming more of the character of charge and counter charge than of a Senatorial dis cussion. A vote being had, at length, the proposed substitute was rejected — only three voting in the affirmative. Mr. Bingham then proposed as an amendment to the amend ment, Mr. Clark's resolution, viz. : — that the Constitution is good enough — only wants to be obeyed, &c. Lost — 13 to 25. The Minority Report proposition of Messrs. Sew ard and Trumbull was then voted on. as an amendment. —Lost — 14 to 25. The main question, viz., the adoption of the joint (House) resolution to amend the Constitution, then came up, and received 24 ayes to 12 nays. This vote the Speaker an nounced, when Mr. Trumbull, of Illinois, in terrupted, before the Speaker should declare the result, to interpose the constitutional objecion, that two-thirds of a quorum was not two-thirds of the members of the Senate, and, therefore, that the constitutional amend ment was rejected. A discussion followed, and, as Mr. Trumbull wished the question tested, as a precedent, he appealed from the The Crittenden Plan Rejected. decision of the Chair, that two-thirds of a quorum complied with the constitutional requisition. The Senate sustained the Chair, by a vote of 33 to 1 — that single " nay" be ing Wade, of Ohio. This vote secured the final passage, by both Houses, of the Corwin Joint Resolution, pro posing to the Legislatures of the several States an amendment to the Constitution. Mr. Mason then called up the Crittenden Resolutions, in order to get a direct vote on them. Mr. Clark's Resolutions, it will be remembered, had been offered as a substitute, [see page 184,] when Mr. Bigler offered his propositions as a substitute to the substitute; This was the condition of the question at the moment Mr. Mason called up the matter. Mr. Bigler now withdrew his substitute. The vote on Clark's Resolutions was 14 ayes to 22 nays. Other amendments were then called up and disposed of, when, the main question being ordered on the joint (Crittenden) resolutions, they were rejected : yeas 19, nays 20. The roll-call was : " Yeas. — Messrs. Bayard, Bigler, Bright, Critten den, Douglas, Gwin, Hunter, Johnson, (Tennessee,) Kennedy, Lane, Latham, Mason, Nicholson, Polk, Pugh, Rice, Sebastian, Thomson, and Wigfall — 19. " Nays. — Messrs. Anthony, Bingham, Chandler, Clark, Dixon, Doolittle, Durkee, Fessenden, Foote, Foster, Grimes, Harlan, King, Morrill, Sumner, Ten Eyck, Trumbull, Wade, Wilkinson, and Wilson — 20. An attempt to go into Executive session failed, and the Senate, after its night session of twelve hours, took (at 7 A. M.) a recess until 10 A. M. Monday in the House was, as usual with the last The Closing Scene. hours of a session, very noisy, exciting, and uninteresting, except to those immediately concerned. At the hour of twelve the Speaker, William Pennington, of New Jerssey, delivered his farewell address, gving utterance to his sympathy and hopes for the Union. He cordially approved the report of the Committee of Thirty-three; while his conviction was unchanged, that a National Convention, for the redress of actual or sup posed grievances, was the proper and most available remedy. He said : " As a member of the Union, I declare my conviction that no tenable ground has been assigned for a dis- 478 THE SOUTHERN REBELLION, solution of the ties which The closing Scene, bind every American citi zen to his country ; and im partial history will so decide. My confidence in the American people is such that I believe no just complaint can long exist without a redress at their hands. There is always a remedy in the Union. With this view, I still declare my willingness to join in measures of compromise. I would do so because of the ancient ties that have bound us together, under institutions framed by our fathers, and under a Constitution signed by the immortal Washington. I would do so for the national honor committed to the experiment of free in stitutions. I would do so for the love I bear my countrymen in all parts of our beloved land, and especially so for the sake of the noble band of patriots in the Border States, who, in the midst of great opposition, have stood as firm as rocks in the wild ocean, for the peace and perpetuity of the Union." The close of his address was a benediction on the country and on the members of the House, with whom he had been so long and so agreeably associated. He concluded by an nouncing that the House of Representatives of the Thirty-sixth Congress was adjourned sine die. The Senate proceedings of Monday morn ing were interesting and brief. At the hour of noon the Vice-President called the Senate to order and addressed them : '• Senators — In taking final leave of this position, I shall ask a few moments in which to tender to you my grateful acknowledgments for the resolution declaring your approval of the manner in which I have discharged my duties, and to express my deep sense of the uniform courtesy which, as the presid ing officer, I have received from the members of this body. If I have committed errors your generous forbearance refused to rebuke them, and during the whole period of my service I have never appealed in vain to your justice or charity. " The memory of these acts will ever be cherished among the most grateful recollections of my life ; and for my successor I can express no better wish than that he may enjoy the relations of mutual con fidence which so happily have marked our inter course. Now, gentlemen of the Senate, and officers of the Senate, from whom I have received so many kind offices, accept my gratitude and cordial wishes for your prosperity and welfare." Mr. Hamlin then stepped forward and said : The Closing Scene. " Senators — The experience of several years in this body has taught me some thing of the duties of the presiding officer, and with a stern, inflexible purpose to discharge these duties faithfully, relying upon the courtesy and cooperation of Senators, and invoking the aid of Divine Providence, I am now ready to take the oath required by the Constitution, and to enter upon the discharge of the official duties assigned me by the confidence of a generous people." Mr. Hamlin then took the oath, as follows: " I, Hannibal Hamlin, do solemnly swear to sup port the Constitution of the United States." Mr. Breckenridge said : " Having now ar rived at the termination of this Congress, I now declare the Senate adjourned without day." Mr. Hamlin took the chair, and the proc lamation for an extra session was read. Thus closed the second session of the XXXVIth Congress of the United States. That it was one of the most anxious ever held, history will not fail to affirm. The fate of a nation hung upon its words — the happiness, prosperity, and destiny of a peo ple depended upon its enactments. That it s]Joke and legislated wisely is a question for the future to determine. In reviewing its proceedings, we are first impressed with the radical nature of the dif ferences both of opinion and polity which prevailed, to a great degree, among members. They were not differences of kind, but of ab solute antagonisms — such as never could and never will exist in harmony. One party claimed, on principles of right, a positive rec ognition of Slavery, by the Constitution and by the acknowledgments of the Free States; another party pronounced that as sumed right to be unfounded in law, in equity, or in humanity, and therefore not to be conceded under any pretext. A conserva tive few stood between these antagonisms, holding to the hands of each, in the endeavor to lock them in the fraternal embrace. But, though their mediation was passively ac cepted, hearts and opinions were unchanged — so deep-rooted and ineradicable were their differences ; and the country looked upon the votes given for " compromise" as the merest THE PRESIDENT AND THE REBEL AOENTS, 479 form, in which personal re- The Closing Scene. gard played a more con spicuous part than any de sire, on the side of Northern men, for conces sion to Southern demands, even in a moder ate degree. tal absence of power on the part of the Executive of Fort Sumter, in the harbor of Charleston, to the constituted authorities of the State of South Caro lina. " The correspondence above referred to is submit ted bythe President without comment, or any sugges tion as to the propriety or necessity of any action by Congress in respect to it, or to the various subjects to which it refers. If important to be submitted to Congress at all, it seems certainly to be of a character demanding grave consideration ; and the fact that it has been placed before us by the President implies that, in his opinion, at least, it involved considerations which might properly engage the attention of the leg islative branch of the Government, in connection with the various other matters forced upon it by the ne cessities of the times. The Committee has, there fore, thought it expedient and proper to direct attention to these special embassies, their object, the action of the President thereon, and, incident ally, to the character of the correspondence. " The first communication to the President, by Messrs. Barnwell, Adams, and Orr, under date of December 28th, 1860, communicates an official copy of an Ordinance of Secession, adopted by the State of South Carolina, on the 20th of the same month, by virtue of which that State assumes to have withdrawn from the Federal Union, and taken the position of an entirely independent nation. That such an atti tude was assumed by South Carolina, in attempting negotiations with the Government of the United States, is not only obvious from the history of cur rent events, but it was most distinctly asserted by her ' Commissioners,' in their communication to the President. The movement of Major Anderson from Fort Moultrie to Fort Sumter, after their arrival in Washington, seems to have been regarded as an ob stacle, on their part, to the opening of any discussion touching the object of their mission, until the cir cumstances attending that movement should be ex plained in a manner which would relieve them of all doubt as to the spirit in which the contemplated negotiations should be conducted. They, however, urge upon the President the immediate withdrawal of the troops of the United States from the harbor of Charleston, upon the allegation that they are a Btanding menace, which rendered negotiations impos sible, and which, as they express it, ' threaten speed ily to bring to a bloody issue questions which ought to be settled with temperance and judgment.' This communication was received by the Puesident, and to recognize the validity of any such attempt, the Committee cannot but regard the mission itself, as well as the manner in which it has been treated by the President, as among the most remarkable events of the extraordinary times in which we live. In his Annual Message, communicated to Congress at the beginning of the present session, the position is most distinctly affirmed by the President, that no State has the constitutional right to withdraw from the Union, and that there is no power in the Execu tive Department of the Government, to give the slightest countenance or encouragement to any such attempt. In this opinion we fully concur, and believing it to be the true theory of the Constitution, we have been unable to perceive upon what principle the President, representing the dignity of the Govern ment of the United States, has assumed to enter tain or hold any official communication of the character disclosed with the representatives of the State of South Carolina. For it seems to us obvious enough, that upon the principles enunci ated in the Annual Message, the gentlemen compos ing this Commission, acting under the sanction of a disloyal State, could be regarded in no other light than as engaged in a revolutionary effort to subvert the Government of the United States ; and, being so regarded, it would appear to have been the plain duty of the Executive to enforce the laws against any individuals, however eminent and respectable, known or suspected 'of complicity in any movement of a treasonable charaoter. We are not able to .imagine any circumstances under which the Presi dent of the United States would be justified in enter taining diplomatic intercourse with the State of South Carolina, in her present attitude to the General Government, except npon the assumption that by the action of her authorities she had suc ceeded in acquiring the position of an independent power, owing no duty whatever to the Government of the United States. " As before stated, it is claimed by her, and in her behalf, that she now occupies such a position, and her agents are sent hither npon that assumption, charged with most extraordinary and insolent de mands upon the President. The reception, by the President, of such a communication under such cir cumstances, and awarding the dignity of an official reply, involves, to some extent, the recognition of the assumed position of the rebellious State, and impliedly admits that the individuals engaged in the p THE MAJORITY REPORT, 481 revolutionary movements against The Majority Report, the Federal Government have acquired a political position which entitles them to some other consideration than is most commonly due to those who invite a collision with established authority. It is this atti tude of the President that the Committee partic ularly desire to express dissent from, and to affirm most emphatically the doctrine that so long as the Federal Government exists, its Constitution and laws operate with full vigor upon the people of every State, and that no action of State authority of less degree than successful revolution can justify any department of the Government in treating any persons engaged in the effort to throw off all Fed eral obligations other than rebels and traitors, and entitled to be dealt with as such. " Even if, from any considerations growing out of the structure of our Government, or the dangerous tendency of the secession movement in several States of the Union, the anxiety to prevent the shed ding of blood, and of avoiding the evils of civil war, great forbearance in the actual enforcement of the laws against political offenders may be pardoned, and perhaps justified, we are not prepared to give our assent to any action of the Executive Depart ment, which, in express terms, or by necessary im plication, may seem to place the responsible actors and abettors of secession in any State of the Union in any other aspect than that of traitors to the Con stitution of the United States. It is believed that the assertion and maintenance of this position is es sential to the existence of the Federal Government, and without which it neither can have nor deserve obedience at home or respect abroad. It may, perhaps, for a time, be tolerated that offenders against the laws may be permitted to go ' unwhipt of justice.' The forcible seizure of public property by rebellious citizens may temporarily be allowed to pass unpunished, for reasons which may appear satisfactory to those charged with executive duty ; but this condition of things cannot be of long con tinuance. Either the Government must vindicate its power, or it will itself become powerless. If any portion of the people of the Republic may at their pleasure repudiate all Federal authority, defy and disorganize the Government, seize its property, and insult its flag, without incurring the hazard of pun ishment for treason, either by civil or military au thority, we may well admit that there is no Govern ment of the United States worthy of preservation. And if, after the people of, the State, without ad equate cause, have announced their purpose of re pudiating all allegiance to the Federal Union, they are without question to be entertained by the Gov ernment of the United States, in diplomatic inter- 61 course in respect to the aban donment of its own forts, arse- The Majority Report. nals, and other public buildings upon threats of forcible expulsion, if the demands upon it are not at once acceded to, we may well pause and consider to what depths of degradation and humiliation the American Government is ap proaching, if the lowest depth has not already been reached. " The Committee do not propose to discuss here whether it is wise or politic at the present, time to employ the whole power of the Government under all circumstances and at all hazards to punish of fenders against its laws. In times of extensive civil commotion and discontent, prudence may dictate grt-at caution and forbearance in the exercise of ac- knuwledged powers; and when whole communities assume the attitude of revolution against established Government, for real or imaginary wrongs, it may be wise to listen to their complaints with attention, and not, by any unnecessary rigor against palpable violations of law, provoke passions already unduly and unreasonably excited. But when growing dis content assumes the position of actual hostility; when, instead of seeking redress under existing forms, resort is had to force, and the purpose is boldly avowed by overturning the Government to which their allegiance is due, we cannot see the wisdom of a policy which permits treason to per form its work without hindrance or molestation — above all we cannot sanction a policy in the Ex ecutive Departmtnt of this Government which pro fesses a purpose of executing its laws and protect ing its property from unlawful violence, and yet re mains inactive when revolution is actually impend ing, and entertains friendly intercourse with em bassies instigated by and growing out of the highest type of treason to the Federal Constitution. " The President acknowledges the obligation of his oath to protect and defend the Constitntion and enforce the laws made in obedience to its require ments, denies the right of secession, and yet in the correspondence before us we have the evidence that with full knowledge that the authority of the Government has been set at defiance, its dignity in sulted, and its flag dishonored, he yet negotiates with treason and commits the Government to a par tial recognition of the revolutionary movement for its destruction. If for any considerations of policy he may be justified in suspending the exercise of its powers, we know of no reason that can justify a course of action which ignores the theory upon which the whole foundation of the Government rests. If the fact that the Government has the power to protect itself from domestic violence may not prudently be acted upon under any apprehen- 482 THE SOUTHERN REBELLION. sion that any exercise of au- The Majority Report, thority may irritate and exas perate those already in open rebellion, it would be some consolation to such of the citizens of the United States as are still loyal to the Constitution to feel assured that the desire to shield traitors from the consequences of their acts may not result in the utter demoralization of all Federal authority and dignity. " If we recur to the contents of the correspondence to which we have referred, there is but little to commend it to favorable consideration. The com munication by the ' Commissioners' pf South Caro lina to the President conveys, in the most unqualified terms, an imputation of bad faith upon the President, and of necessity upon the Government of the United States, on account of the occupation of Fort Sumter by Major Anderson and his command. It is clearly intimated that some agreement previously made by the President respecting the occupation of the forts in the harbor of Charleston had been violated. From this charge the President has undertaken to defend himself, and to furnish excuses for the action of the Government in respect to the occupation of its own fortresses and the disposition of its own troops. The fact that the State of South Carolina intended to rebel against the Government of the United States was well understood long before her ordinance of secession was actually adopted. The probable consequences of such action, it was also well known, would be an attempt, on the part of the State, to take possession of all the forts, arsenals, magazines, and other public property within her limits. Under such circumstances, nothing would seem to be clearer than the duty of the President to provide in due time an adequate force for the pro tection of all the public property in danger of as sault. Instead, however, of taking such a, course, the President seems to have been in communication with those engaged in rebellion, and a sort of under standing appears to have been had early iu De cember, that no action should be taken by the Government of the United States to reinforce the command charged with the defence of the forts in the harbor of Charleston. " On the 9th of December, 1860, the Representa tives in Congress from the State of South Carolina furnished the President with a written statement under their signatures, expressing their strong con viction that the forts in the harbor of Charleston would not be attacked or molested previously to the action of the Convention of that State, then about to assemble, and they hoped and believed not uutil an offer had been made, through an accredited repre sentative, to negotiate for an amicable arrangement of all matters between the State and the Federal Government — 'provided, that no reinforcements shall be sent to The MaJ°rity Report these forts, and their relative military status shall remain as at present." ¦• At the time this paper was presented the Presi dent objected to the word 'provided,', as it might, as he expressed it, be construed into an agreement on his part which he ' never would make.' It was, he thinks, obvious there could be no such agreement made, and he says it was regarded iu effect as the promise of highly honorable gentlemen to exert their influence for the purpose expressed. The pur pose of the President was well known not to re inforce the forts in Charleston harbor until they had been actually attacked, or until he had certain evi dence that they were about to be attacked; and we are informed by his communication before us, that in respect to these forts he acted in the same man ner that he would have done if he had entered into a formal agreement with parties capable of con tracting. It does not, therefore, appear to be ma terial whether, in a strict technical sense, there was or was not an agreement to the effect indicated iu the paper lodged with him by the Representatives in Congress from the State of South Carolina. It is perfectly clear that at that time it was regarded as certain South Carolina would attempt to secede from the Union, and intended to obtain possessiou of these forts, either by force or negotiation. With a knowledge of these purposes, the President de termined to send the officer in command no rein forcements, and he has acted in this respect in the same manner as he would have done if he had made a formal agreement to that effect. " In this disclosure the Committee is not able to resist the inference that, in the beginning of the revolutionary movement against the Government of the United States, there were relations of an ex tremely friendly character between those who con templated rebellion, and those whose duty it was to suppress it. We cannot but regard jt as a most ex traordinary fact that parties notoriously contem plating the disruption of the Government, should beforehand stipulate with its executive authority in respect to the most convenient and least dangerous mode for making the rebellion successful. While the President has avowed his determination to exe cute the laws, he does not seem to have regarded treason to the Constitution of the United States con templated and existing as among the crimes con demned by the laws of the land and deserving punishment. " That crime, the highest known to the laws of the world, appears in our history to have assumed a milder form, to be treated with marked tenderness by the authorities of the Government against which THE PRESIDENT AND THE REBEL AGENTS. 483 the crime is perpetrated. We The Majority Report, do not think the history of any Government furnishes in this respect any parallel to the policy of our own, and we cannot believe that any Government, however pow erful, can long survive the inauguration of, and persist ence in, such a policy. We, therefore, regard it our duty to condemn, in the most emphatic terms, the course pursued by the President in recognizing or sub stantially holding diplomatic communication with the rebellious Authorities of the State of South Carolina. The dignity of the Government required at least that the President should at once, and with firmness, de cline all negotiations with a State in the attitude of rebellion, if the obligations of his oath did not re quire him to hand over such of the rebels as came within his power to the civil authorities of the United States, to be dealt with according to the forms of law. " Even while these negotiations were going on, the President received information that the authori ties of the State of South Carolina had seized, by force, Castle Pinckney, Fort Moultrie, the United States Arsenal, and the Custom-house and Post- office, in the City of Charleston. Although the cor respondence before us does not disclose the facts, the history of the times furnishes us with the results uf this ' peace policy.' In several other States of the Union the authority of the Government of the United States has been defied and insulted, its flag dishonored, and its property unlawfully seized. No effort has been made to defend or recover it, and now a Revolutionary Government, embracing six of the States of the Union, (in all of which acts of vio lence against the property of the United States have been committed,) is set up in defiance of, and in hos tility to, the Government of the United States. " The Revolutionary Government must either be recognized or repudiated. Its independence must be acknowledged, or the persons engaged in the ef fort to establish it must be treated as rebels and traitors to the Constitution of the United States. To acknowledge the right of secession, or recognize the revolutionary acts growing out of it, is a surrender of the authority, power, and dignity of the Govern ment of the United States, and a substantial agree ment to its destruction. We cannot believe that the American people will consent to the dissolution of the Federal Union without an effort to save it, even if that effort involves a resort to all the powers which the Government is able to command. That it can be preserved by peaceful negotiations and com promise does not seem probable ; for in certain quarters all propositions of that character are most distinctly repudiated. The demand is made that the Government of the United States shall surrender its authority, or maintain it by force of arms. We can imagine The Majority Report. but one answer that ought to be given to such a demand, and the longer it is delayed the more disastrous may be the consequences to those who resist, as well as those who desire to maintain the integrity aud the authority of the most beneficent Government established since the foun dation of the world. " The correspondence growing out of the mission of Colonel Hayne, ' Special Envoy,' from the State of South Carolina, communicated with the Message of the 8th of February, 1861, is also before us. The object of the mission, as already stated, was to de- .. mand of the President the unconditional surrender of Fort Sumter to the authorities of the State of South Carolina, accompanied with a threat that if the demand was refused it would be taken by force of arms. The views we express as to the duty of the President in relation to the first mission applies with . equal, if not greater, force to that represented by Colonel Hayne, as Special Envoy. If it were possi ble, the character of the second mission is even more insulting and offensive to the Government of the United States than the first. In both instances the President refused to accede to the demands made upon him, but, in our judgment, this fact does not remove the objections urged against the propri ety of receiving or entertaining communications with any ' Commissioners' or ' Envoys' from States in the condition of actual rebellion against the Govern ment, who come not to obtain pardon for their of fences, but with demands which cannot, without disgrace and humiliation, be for one moment enter tained, j " Whatever consequences may follow the effort to maintain the dignity and integrity of the Govern ment of the United States, it seems impossible to contemplate the possibility of its peaceful destruc tion. So long as it has the power of self-preseiva- tion, there appears to be no alternative between its exercise, at whatever hazard, and » cowardly sur render, without a blow struck, npon the demand of rebels and traitors. " Your Committee insist upon maintaining the dignity and exercising the powers of the Govern ment against any who deliberately set about its de struction, or invite collision with its power or its laws. " In conclusion, the Committee recommend the adoption of the following resolution : " * Resotved, That in the opinion of this House the President had no constitutional power to negotiate with the represent atives of the ftnte fif South Carolina for the surrender of any public property within tre limits of that ^tate, and that it is inexpedient for Congress to take any further action in rela tion thereto.'" 484 THE SOUTHERN REBE L-L ION, The Minority Report, The Majority Report, made by John Cochrane, took the ground that, by reference to the public messages of the Presi dent, so far from his having admitted the Com missioners from any Seceded State to diplo matic intercourse, he explicitly refused to do so, and rigidly guarded against their assump tion. He never received them otherwise than as distinguished citizens, and the only reason of the question being presented to Congress, as appears from the report, was this refusal of the President, and the reference of the whole question to that body. The correspondence shows that the Commissioners stated, in refer ence to this attitude of th« President, that "they felt no special solicitude as to the character in which the President might recog nize them." The report said that, in the whole course of the published correspondence, it will be impossible to detect the most trifling devia tion from the evident annunciation by the President in his Message to Congress, at its opening, of his intention to defend the Union with the whole power of the Government, and to conserve its rights with all constitu tional vigor. The ardent aspirations of an uncalculating zeal have denounced as timidity these dictates of sobriety. Repulsive impetu osity has derided them, and the ungenerous impulses of political hostility have visited upon them the invectives of acrimonious con troversy. But, the sober sense of the public will inevitably prevail over these factitious stimulants of faction and discord, and ulti mately will be recognized and acknowledged the prescience which palliates the shock of disunion by the preservation of peace, which preserves from desolation by barricading the paths of blood, and woos the occasion for conciliation, compromise, and adjustment, by the counsels of moderation and peace. The Committee, February 28th, submitted its report, covering the resolution, its causes, its claims, and the course to be pursued in dealing with it. It was a paper showing much ability in its production, although it but iterated what had become familiar to every intelligent mind. As a resume of the entire question of secession, it will be referred to by the political inquirer and student of government with interest. We give it al most entire : * * "It now remains to con sider briefly the remaining snb. The Majority Report jects intrusted to your Commit tee. The Committee have been in session nearly every day since they were appointed. Among the great variety of subjects before them, they have diligently considered a large number of petitions and memo rials on the subject of conciliation and compromise; and while they earnestly desire that peace and har mony may be restored to our distracted country on the basis of justice and equality to all sections, with a full recognition of all constitutional rights and ob ligations, yet, in view of the fact that there are so many and so well-considered propositions already before the House, they have deemed it inexpedient to make any recommendations on the subject, and they report back all papers relating to the same. " Under the instructions of the House, the Com mittee were to make inquiry and report as to ths- seizure of certain forts and arsenals, revenue-cutters, and other property of the United States. " The rapid development of acts of lawless vio lence in a portion of the Confederacy — the notoriety and undisputed character of the facts — have perhaps rendered exact and official inquiry less important than could have been anticipated. All the Com mittee deemed necessary has been obtained in the forms of communications from the Execntivo Departments of the Government, and are herewith communicated, on these sujects. But in proportion as the necessity of proof of their existence has diminished, the consideration of their magnitude and importance has been rendered difficult and more imperative. The state of things, whether we call it secession, rebellion, or revolution, considered in its magnitude and character, presents a question unsur passed in importance by any ever presented to this or any other Government. It becomes a question of existence to the Government, and involves not only the happiness of the 31,000,000 of our present population, but of more than ten times that number of their unborn descendants, and the hopes of the friends of free government throughout tho world. " It is time for the American Congress to consider what the civilization of the world, the hopes of man kind, and the spirit of our fathers hovering over us, expect us to do. One of the most remarkable things ever developed in the history of our country is the steadiness, uniformity, and power of the ratio of the increase of our population. For seventy years it has scarcely changed, and is as strong to day, on a basis of 30,000,000, as it was when we had but 5,000,000 of inhabitants. It doubles our popu- THE PRESIDENT AND THE REBEL AGENTS. 485 Iation once in twenty-five years. The Majority Ruport. Could we conceive it possible for this same ratio to continue for twice seventy years more, the year A. D. 2,000 would find within our present bounds 1,600,000,000 of people. The question as to what shall be the condition of this vast multitude, and whether the spirit of anarchy, lawlessness, and violence, on th*e one hand, -or of oppression and tyranny on the other, shall prevent, under the inevitable laws of popu lation, their existence at all, and turn this heritage into a barren waste, may well lead us to pause and consider, and, when we have discovered our duty, apply ourselves to its discharge with in creasing fidelity and with unflinching firmness. Hith erto our progress is without a parallel. And what ever may be the fate of the Republic, if it shall crum ble into dust by the folly and madness of the hour, not only unchecked, but permitted and even aided by the rashness on the one hand, or imbecility on the other, of those who exercise brief authority in its different departments, the memorials of its greatness and beneficence, its glory and renown, of the hopes and fears that have hitherto clustered around it, and the disinterested patriotism and sterling virtues are at least secure. So much is safe. When genial influ ence will ever continue to be felt, and bless our race, time shall end. What, then, is secession ? This question forces itself upon our attention at every step. Either in its legal or constitutional aspect, or in its revolutionary character, or in the fearful con sequences of its unchecked progress, it meets us at every step, it shapes all policy, it imposes new and imperative duties ; and since it threatens the exist ence of the Government itself, its treatment should command the wisdom and patriotism of the nation. " Self-preservation is the first law of a nation. The power to defend its implements of self-preser vation is one of the clearest of all its powers. We cannot conceive of a nation without the power to build and defend forts, and all implements of war within its own jurisdiction. And yet secession claims to have seized, within sixty days, fourteen forts, costing $5,580,858, and mounting 1,124 guns. These forts are not only- held against the United States, but two others are closely besieged, and as sault is every day threatened. The arsenals, the arms, the revenue-cutters, the custom-houses, the post-offices, the mints, the money, and even the hospitals of the United States are seized and held with impunity. The operations of commerce are impeded. Seven States claim to have released themselves from all constitutional obligations, to have disrupted the Government, and formed a new and independent Confederacy in the bounds of the United States — all in the name of secession; and yet we are told secession is not only a peaceful, hut a constitutional The Majority Report. remedy. As if the Constitution had provided for its own destruction by an inconsid erable fraction of the power that made it. " To show the utter baselessness of this claim as a constitutional remedy, it is only necessary to con sider that the ordinance of secession in any one of the States can by no possibility rise higher as a sovereign act of the State than a State Constitution adopted by an organic Convention. If we concede all possible regularity and formality in the Con vention, and the fullest sanction of the State to the ordinance of secession, it is still no higher than the organic law of the State— just high enough, in fact, to be subordinate to the Constitution of the United States. Article 6, sec. I, of the Constitution declares: "'This Constitution , and the laws of the United Ptates which shall be made in pursuance thereof, and all treaties made, or which shall be made, under the authority of the United States, shall be the supreme law of the land, and the judges in every State shall bo bound thereby, anything in the i onstitution [Ordinance of Secession] nr laws of any State to the contrary notwithstanding.' " The Committee content themselves with this simple statement, to show the unconstitutionality of the whole proceedings. " It is also clear that the claim is destructive of the first principles of government in any form. For the rightful powers of government are made up of such individual natural rights as have been surren dered by individuals, for the purpose of obtaining from the governments thus erected security and protection for their remaining rights. The powers of a State in the Union are derived from the indi viduals of the State. Hence the maxim of our fathers : 'AD governments derive their just powers from the consent of the governed.' " Whether we consider the Government of the United States as a compact between the States, or as a Union of the whole people, secession is equally illegal and absurd, and equally destructive of the first principles of all government. If our Govern ment be only a compact between the States, the States in forming the compact, exercised. only such power as they had derived from the people ; and if a State may resume the power, that is, secede, it follows irre sistibly that each individual of the State may resume his sovereignty even while marching to the gallows, and all laws be practically nullified, and government rendered impossible. Secession, if admitted, would not only destroy the noble fabric of our fathers, but plunge the world into barbarism and anarchy, by rendering all govennment impossible. " The Committee, therefore, adopt the language of President Buchanan, in his last Annual Message, 486 THE SOUTHERN REBELLION. that 'Secession is revolution; The Majority Report, it may be justifiable revolution, but it is nevertheless revolu tion.' In the language of President Jackson, ' It is incompatible with the existence of the Union, contra dicted by the letter of the Constitution, unauthorized by the spirit, inconsistent with every principle on which it was founded, and destructive of the great objects for which it was formed. ' " Since Secession is thus hostile to the existence of the Government, and self-preservation is the highest duty of every Government, it follows, in the present emergency, that " 'The duties of the Government become the measure of its powers ; and whenever it fails to exorcise the power ne cessary and proper to the disch rge of the duty prescribed by the Constitution, it violates the public trust not less than it would in transcending its i roper limits. To refrain, there fore, from th ¦ high and solemn duties, [imposed by the pres ent condition of the country,] however painful the perform ance may be, and thereby tacit y permit the rightful au thority of the Government to be contemned, and its laws obstructed by a single State, would neither comport with its own safety, nor the rights of th-- great bodyof the Ameri can people.' " But when the Secessionists are driven to admit that it has no legal basis, the ever-ready reply is, that we have no power to coerce a State. This only creates a false issue, and diverts attention from the true one. This was so clearly stated in a recent debate by a distinguished Senator, that the Com mittee adopt his language as their own. His state ment may be deemed the more important from his supposed connection with the incoming Adminis tration. - " ' The President says thnt no State has a right to secede, but we have no constitutional power to make war against a State. The dilemma results from an assumption that those who, in such a case, act against ttie Federal-Government, act lawfully as a State, although manifestly they have per verted the power of the State to an unconstitutional purpose. A class of politicians in New England set up this theory, and attempted to practice upon it m our war with Great Britain Mr. Jefferson did not hesitate to say that States must be kept within their constitutional sphere by impulsion, if they could not be held there by attraction. Secession was then held to be inadmissible in the face of a public enemy. Butif it is untenable in one case, it is necessarily so in all others. I fully admit the originality, the sovereignty, and the inde pendence of the several States within their sphere. But I hold ttie Federal Government to be equally original, sover eign, and independent within its sphere. And the Govern ment of the State can no more absolve the people residing within its limits from allegiance to the Union, than the Gov ernment of the Union can absolve them from allegiance to the State. The Constitution of the United Mates, and the laws made in pursuance thereof, are tbe supremo law of the land, paramount to all legislation of the States, whether made under the Constitution, or by even their organic con ventions. The Union can be dis.solv.id, not by secession, with or without armed force, but only by the voluntary con sent of the people of the United states, collected in such manner prescribed by the Constitu tion of the U ited states.' The Majority Report " But, however baseless seces sion may be in a legal or constitutional aspect — however destructive of the great principles upon which all government rests — it is, never theless, an existing fact as a revolutionary move ment of vast proportions, involving the interests of our own people, the existence of the Govern ment, and the hopes of mankind. It is multiply ing its acts of hostility daily ; it is enlarging its claims of sovereignty ; it has declared seven of tie States independent nations; it has organized six of them into a separate Confederacy within our own bounds, and, by claiming exclusive jurisdiction, it denies the authority and contemns the laws and treaties of the United States. " What, then, is the duty of the Government in the existing emergency? To what extent does it possess the powers to meet it? These questions force themselves upon our attention at every step. Perhaps the first duty is to ascertain the causes of the disaffection and revolutionary movement, so that if it be possible the causes of discontent may be re moved, and the integrity of the Union and the peace of the country restored. These States claim that their rights have been infringed, and their peace and equality threatened — not because of anything that the Government has done, or proposed to do — for it has been substantially under their control — bnt be cause of certain legislation upon the statute-books of other States, and a spirit of hostility towards the institutions of the South alleged to exist in the Northern States. " It is conceded that the right of revolution is a sacred right of the people. But in our system of government it is not a right that pertains to a State. The powers of the State government are clear and distinct from those of the General Government, each designed to move in its own sphere ; and it is im possible to suppose that one has the right of revo lution against the other. It might as well be alleged that the State of South Carolina had the right of revolution against the Government of Great Britain as against the Government of the United States, acting within its prescribed limits. But if, for the sake of the argument, the right of revolution, as pertaining to a State, is conceded to any one of the thirty-four States, this necessarily implies the right on the part of the thirty-three remaining States to canvass the propriety of its exercise, and to resist it by their combined power, inasmuch as it in volves interests common to all." " In this view, it is a right dependent upon the power to enforce it. Such a right, though it may be admitted to pre-exist, and cannot be wholly surren dered, is necessarily subjected to limitations in all THE revolution: its cause and its cure. 487 free governments, and in com- The Majority Report. pacts of aU ^inis fl.ee]y and voluntarily entered into, and in which the interests and welfare of the individual be come identified with those of the community of which he is a member. In compacts between individuals, however deeply they may affect their relations, those principles are acknowledged to create a sacred ob ligation. And in compacts of civil governnif nts, involving the liberty and happiness of millions of mankind, the obligation cannot be less. " If these States had no real grievance, they could have no right of revolution. If causes of grievance exist, they must necessarily exhaust all peaceful and constitutional remedies before they could ask the adhering States to allow the exercise of a revo lutionary right on their part. "What are the alleged causes of grievance? Mainly the legislation of other States, and the alleged hostility of their people against the institutions of a portion of the States. While the legislation of some of the States, called ' Personal Liberty bills,' has been treated as a serious grievance, it is a singular fact that no effort has been made to bring any one of those laws to the judicial test provided by the Constitution ; nor, so far as your Committee are aware, has any one case ever arisen in which the enforcement of their rights has been obstructed by any of these laws. How, then, do they furnish cause of revolution ? " Nor are your Committee able to persuade them selves that the hostility to the institutions of the South, on the part of the people of the North, is greater now than it was twenty-five years ago, or that they demand any legislation on the part of Congress in regard to Slavery that was not common to, and the recognized policy of, each of the first twelve Administrations under the Constitution. But even if we concede all that is claimed, still the fact forces itself upon our attention, that no attempt has been made on the part of the disaffected States, or those who sympathize with them, to change the Constitution, or to meet the people of the adhering States in a National Convention to secure a peaceful separation. " So far from all possible means of redress short of revolution having been resorted to and ex hausted, not one of the steps that must necessarily precede the rightful exercise of revolution has been taken. While conservative and loyal citizens have earnestly sought conciliation and compromise, the Secessionists have been loudest in their denuncia tions of all attempts at reconciliation. They declare the Government is dissolved, and scout the efforts of their sympathizers and natural allies for recon struction. " One of the great sources of trouble would seem to be the The Majority Report. proper disposition of the Terri tories of the United States. And yet all the Territo ries which they claim for the use and occupation of their system of labor are already under organic laws, adopted as compromises, but ten years since, and mainly at their own dictation. " The true explanation of all this difficulty was disclosed in the debates in the South Carolina Con vention, immediately after the adoption of the Ordi nance of Secession on the 20th of December, 1860. One member arose in his place and declared : ' We have this day consummated the work of forty years.' To which another member responded : ' We have pulled down the temple of one Government, and we must now construct another.' Our Government has existed in its present form for seventy-two years. And if treason has been festering for more than forty years of that time, it will hardly do to attribute -the present difficulties to the state of public sentiment in the other portion of the Confederacy. While it is true that many patriotic and loyal citizens in those States have been excited to madness and phrensy, and have voted for secession under a total misap prehension produced by the grossest misrepresenta tions, your Committee are forced to believe that hostility to this Government has long existed, and has become wide-spread throughout those States. Perhaps one-third of those who voted for secession did so under the belief that it was the intention of the incoming Administration to seek to overthrow Slavery within the bounds of the States' by the power of the General Government as it is, or to force such amendments of the Constitution as would accom plish it. " It is nevertheless true, that not one intelligent man who voted for Mr. Lincoln can be found who ever dreamed or desired such a thing, or would tol erate it, if possible. Indeed, the freedom of the Free States rests upon the exercise of the sovereign ty of their States ; the slavery of the Slave States rests equally upon the exercise of the sovereignty of their States. To permit the abolition of Slavery in any one of the Slave States by the power of the General Government, would be to admit its right to establish it in all the Free States. Against this the whole body of the Northern people are unalterably opposed ; and so far from seeking the exercise of any such power in the Slave States, it would meet from them the sternest resistance. " The execution of the Fugitive Slave law has been a source of contention. But the President in forms us in his Message that the law has been ex ecuted in every case during his administration. At all events, if the amendment should be adopted 488 THE SOUTHERN REBELLION. which has been reported by the The Majority Report Committee of Thirty-three, and which is now before the House, the law would be rendered more effective to secure the rights of the South, while it would be far less odious to the people of the North. Be this as it may, it has been demonstrated that the per centage of loss on runaway slaves is less than that on horses or any other property. Viewed with reference to the aggregate value of that species of property, the loss is indeed very small. " Some difficulty in regard to the rendition of fu gitives from justice, growing out of local statutes, has arisen. But it would seem to be of easy adjust ment, and it is almost the only remaining grievance. When we consider that no effort has been made to secure a peaceful separation of the States under this Government, by the assent of the people in their sovereign capacity, but instead there have been acts of revolution, hostility to the Government, the seizure cf its forts, the robbery of its treasure, the exclusion of its jurisdiction, and preparation for war, we are forced to the conclusion that the diffi culties growing out of the existence of Slavery, however viewed by the common people, are, so far as the leaders of this revolutionary movement are concerned, but a mere pretence ; their real object being to overthrow the Government, that a separate Northern Confederacy of a military character might arise upon theirs. " What, then, is the duty of the Government under these circumstances? As the Constitution is the paramount law of the land, so it must be the sole guide of every department of the Government in meeting the present emergency.^ Studiously avoid ing the exercise of all new or doubtful powers in legislation, all approaches to forced judicial con structions or of Executive usurpation, the Govern ment must proceed to discharge its constitutional obligations with moderation, with prudence, with wisdom, but with unswerving steadiness and firm ness. To this course every officer of the Govern ment is impelled, by the sanction of his oath, by the sacred memories of our fathers, by the past glories of the model Republic of all past time, by the hopes and interests of the teeming millions of our present population, and of all that are to come after us. ) " The great feature of onr system is, that the peo ple make the laws, and that they obey the laws which they themselves have made. Hence, 'the Government will appeal to that political sense which exhorts obedience to the laws of the country as the highest duty of the citizen. It will appeal to the moral power in the community. If that appeal be in vain, it will appeal to the judiciary. If the mild arm of the judiciary be not sufficient to execute the laws, it will call out the civil force to sustain the laws. If "Ihe Majority Report, that be insufficient, God save and protect us from the last resort ! ' If the evil then comes, the responsibility will not be upon the Government. " ' The Executive must take care that the laws be faithfully executed.' The Congress must ' provide for calling forth the militia to execute the laws of the Union, suppress insurrection, and repel invasion ;' ' to make all laws which shall be necessary and proper for carrying into execution all the powers vested by the Constitution in the Government of the United States, or in any department or office thereof.' The Constitution makes no provision for releasing any of its officers or agents from the obligation of the oath it requires them to take. However painful the duty thereby imposed upon them may be, it can not be omitted without involving the destruction of the Government and incurring the guilt of per jury.' "Nor can there be any heed given to any one of the false or deceitful issues attempted to be raised, such as coercing a State — making war upon a State. All these pleas are fallacious, deceitful, and false, if not traitorous. The Government will act only in the strict line of duty in the discharge of its consti tutional functions and obligations, and whatever force it may attempt or use will be strictly on the defensive. Woe to those individuals, or combinations of individuals, who shall persistently violate their Constitutional obligations, and expect protection from a State where no State can rightfully act in the premises ! " The sovereign people of this country have seen fit to embrace all the powers of government into two organic forms — a National Union for national pur poses, with limited and well-defined powers and du ties, and State Governments for local purposes. In theory, at least, they cannot conflict with each other, for the reason that the powers of the Federal Gov ernment are clearly defined by a written Constitu tion, which is made supreme in its own sphere, the highest manifestation of State sovereignty to the contrary notwithstanding. So long as the General Government confines itself to its constitutional func tions, it is absurd, if not treasonable, to characterize the execution of its laws as the coercion of a State. Nay, more : if any State, forgetful of its just rights and duties, go outside of its own proper sphere to obstruct the due execution of the laws of the Union, by that very act it attempts to coerce the General Government from the exercise of its constitutional powers in the discharge of duties rendered imperative by the Constitution. Should collision ensue, the Government will be acting clearly on the defensive. A WEEK OF EXCITEMENT, 489 " It will neither coerce a The Majority Report State, nor make war upon it. But, if it fail to execute its own laws to the extent of the power conferred, it will be recreant to the highest trust ever conferred by any people, disappoint the hopes of a world, and de stroy its own existence. The course of the Govern ment cannot be doubtful, nor the result uncertain. Should the claims of the Secessionists be admitted, and the deceitful dogmas of coercion obtain the en dorsement of the people, the revolutionists and their apologists and allies would, in the language of the Constitution's greatest defender, prove themselves ' the most skillful architects of ruin, the most effect ual extinguishers of high-raised expectation, the greatest blasters of human hopes, which any age has produced. They would stand up to proclaim, in tones which would pierce the ears of half the hu man race, that the last great experiment of repre sentative government had failed.' " Millions of eyes, of those who now feed their in herent love of Liberty on the success of the Ameri can example, would turn away from beholding our dismemberment, and find no place on earth whereon to rest their gratified sight. Amid the incantations and orgies of secession, dis union, and revolution, would be The Majority Report celebrated the funeral rites of constitutional and republican Liberty. " But no such mad schemes can receive the en dorsement of the great body of the American peo ple. We are not Mexicans. We are unaccustomed to violent disruptions and peaceful reconstruction of our Government. The Anglo-Saxon race do not throw away the greatest of all possible benefits in a mere fit of phrensy. If it required forty years to make the people of the first of the Seceding States fully disloyal to the Union, one hundred will not suf fice for the great body of the American people to forget thef? Revolutionary sires, the rich inheritance bequeathed.by them, the glorious flag of the Union, or even the slumbering dust of their Washington. The people will sustain their own Government, and hold it to the strict line of its constitutional duty. "Even holding the olive-branch of peace and con ciliation before the emblems of its power, it will meet its stern responsibilities with firm purpose and steady hand — it will rise above all difficulties, and fulfill earth's highest mission." CHAPTEE XXXIX. CONDITION OF AFFAIRS DURING THE LAST WEEK OF MR. BU CHANAN'S TERM. MR. LINCOLN'S CABINET. THE VIRGINIA CONVENTION. JOHN TYLER WITH HIS MASK OFF. THE MIS SOURI STATE CONVENTION. MR. BUCHANAN'S MESSAGE. PREP ARATIONS FOR THE I N A UGURATION. HOSTILE ATTITUDE OF THE CONFEDERATE GOVERNMENT. A Week of Excite ment. The week preceding March 4th was one of ex treme solicitude and in terest. In Washington the important action of Congress on the Corwin report — the recep tion of the Peace proposition — the selection of Mr. Lincoln's Cabinet — the preparations for the inauguration — contributed to render every day pregnant with concern to the people ; while the drift, towards the vortex of secession, of Virginia, by the revolutionary 62 tone of its Convention, conspired to excite a renewed interest in its proceedings. The adoption, by the House, of the scheme of compromise reported by the majority of the Committee of Thirty-three, has been an nounced. The rejection of the Peace Con vention report resulted from the unwilling ness to act upon a second scheme, while the first covered the ground in the more official shape of a regular Congressional committee recommendation. 490 THE SOUTHERN REBELLION, Mr. Lincoln's Cabinet. The choice of the cabi net of Mr. Lincoln scarcely served to indicate his pol icy. The final decision of its constituency was not made until Saturday evening, March 2d, when it became understood that it would be ordered as follows : Secretary of Slate: William H. Seward, of New York. " " Treasury: Salmon P. Chase, of Ohio. " " War : Simon Cameron, of Pennsylvania. " " Navy : Gideon Welles, of Connecticut. " " Interior : Caleb B. Smith, of Indiana. Postmaster-General: Montgomery Blair, of Maryland. Attorney-General: Edward Bates, of Missouri." The strongest influences had been brought to bear upon the President-elect to bestow a place in his council upon John Bell, of Ten nessee, or W. A. Graham, of North Carolina, or upon Mr. Crittenden, of Kentucky; but, the incompatibility of such elements with the counsels which must prevail rendered the choice of either of those eminent men simply impracticable. The composition, as it was, did not give promise of harmony, since both the radical and conservative elements were prominent enough to threaten disagreements on vital points of national and internal pol icy. The selection, however, was conceded to have been made with extreme sagacity — each man being named to the place for which he was especially well fitted. Probably no administration in twenty-four years had em bodied more practical executive talent. Throughout the entire period of his proba tion, the President had shown a will and a way of his own which no influence brought to bear could override. This persistance gave the country hope that his rule would prove as vigorous as all felt it would be hon est. " Honest Old Abe" he was named, even by his political opponents. John Tyler left Washington, for Richmond, immediately after the adjournment of the Peace Convention, and, as Duplicity and Treason , ~ . , . , -, , , , . Unmasked. already intimated, lent his influence to "precipitate" Virginia from the Union. One hundred guns were fired at Washington, February 28th, in honor of the Peace compromise. At the same moment the President and leaders of the Convention called by Virginia herseU, was denouncing the result and demanding its total repudiation I The following dispatch conveyed its own moral : "Richmond, Thursday, February 28th, 1861. " Messrs. Tyler and Seddon were serenaded to night. Both made speeches, and denounced the Peace Conference as a worthless affair. They de clared that the South had nothing to hope from the RepuDlicau party. "Mr. Seddon said that the proposition adopted by the Conference was a delusion and a sham, as well as an insult and an offense to the South. " Lieutenant-Governor Montague is now making a secession speech. " The secession sentiment is increasing among the people, and if any measure of coercion is adopt ed, the North may rest assured that Virginia will secede. " The Peace Conference is generally condemned." Mr. Tyler thereafter bent his energies to accomplish J°hn Tyler. what was designed from the earliest stages of the excitement in Vir ginia — her cooperation in the scheme of a Southern Confederacy, wherein he might possibly become John Tyler redivivus. In the Confederacy of which most unfortunately he had been the accidental President, to the country's great detriment, he was unquestion ably John Tyler defunctus. North Carolina took a vote of the people for and against a Convention, February 28th. The final result showed a majority over six hundred against holding a State Convention. The Missouri State Con vention met February 28th Tho ™°soari St te ** Convention. at Jefferson City, and ad journed March 1st, to meet at St. Louis March 4th. It was understood to be comprised of a large majority of Unionists; but, the known disloyalty of Governor Claiborne Jackson, and of ex-Governor Sterling Price, rendered the results of its deliberations a matter of doubt. The Secession movement, thus far, had been so entirely ordered by a few men, that it was thought not only possi ble, but probable, the State of Missouri might be "precipitated" at the proper moment. The sessions of the Virginia Convention were attended, as we have said, with much excitement. The Northern and Western sec tions of the State were represented by Union ists of ability and courage. The Central and Southern portions of "Eastern Virginia" BELLIGERENT ATTITUDE OF THE CONFEDERATES. 491 The Virginia State Convention. were represented by dis unionists of a particularly virulent character, with but two or three exceptions. The debates took a wide range, covering the questions of Federal, State and Social relations, and called out talent, in the discussion, which proved that the "Mother of Presidents" still was the mother of brilliant sons. Sad for the Old Commonwealth was it that so many of those sons were drunk with the poison of secession I Like the hasheesh eat ers — who, in their ecstacy, built the temples of Xanadu, to dissolve in air when the finger of Fact should thrust their stately pleasure- domes through and through — the Secession ists built temples radiating glory from base to pinnacle, wherein each particular enthu siast was to be enshrined in tablets of gold. But, unlike the visionary of the hempen fumes, their castles required the prick of a bayonet ere they dissolved to leave the in sane worshiper a miserable man, contemned even by his own kindred for his heartless and reckless revelry. The Rhode Island Legislature, by a tie vote, (March 1st,) refused to instruct its Sen ators, and to request its Representatives, in Congress, to vote for the Peace Conference Propositions. The Pennsylvania Legislature adjourned February 28th, to meet again March 12th, without taking any action on the question of instructing its delegation in Congress on the Peace Conference scheme of settlement. The President communi- Mr. Buchinan's Last . , . ,-, .. ,„ Message. Cated t0 ConSress nls rePlv to the House resolution, calling upon him for his reasons for assem bling so large a force of military in Washing ton at that time. His answer was an embodiment of the facts set forth in the letter of Secretary Holt to the President, February 18th, [see pages 364-66.] The force, he sub mitted, was hot so large as the resolution presupposed, being but 683 effective troops, whom he had summoned as a pQssejcomitatus, to preserve peace and order before and during the inauguration, should any violence mani fest itself. He defended the gathering of the troops as a precautionary step, which he would have been wanting in duty not to Preparations for the Inauguration. have taken. The good effect of the measures adopted had been evident from the moment of the arrival of the first company. Up to that hour intense excitement prevailed in regard to rumored conspiracies and threats of force ; but, the appearance of the military had calmed the public mind, and had given a sense of security to the city before wanting. Preparations for the in auguration were announc ed, Thursday, February 28th. They embraced a procession — military, diplomatic, legislative, and civil — of a very imposing character, as an escort of the Presi dent-elect to the Capitol, and, after the cere mony of inauguration, as an escort to the White House. The uniformed militia of the District were ordered out in full force, while the regulars of the United States Army were to be disposed by the commander-in-chief as his judgment should dictate. A large and expensive hall had been erected for the Inau guration Ball, which was to come off on the evening of March 4th. The arrangements for the festivity gave promise of one of the most brilliant affairs of the kind ever witnessed in the Capital. All things augured well for a safe and agreeable instalment of the new Chief Magistrate. As indicated in chapter XXXI., the Confederate Go vernment had progressed in its organization, (up to March 2d,) so far as to instate its military and civil establishment, while its judiciary was rapidly assuming form and efficiency. A dispatch from Mont gomery, March 2d, stated : " Thirty thousand volunteers are now drilled and under canvas, awaiting orders. Large army pro vision supplies of all sorts have been purchased recently in Chicago, St. Louis, and Cincinnati, and sent to Mobile and New Orleans for distribution." The safety of a despotism lies in its army. This the revolutionists, so well understood that, almost before the new Government was inaugurated, a military establishment was in operation; and, when Mr. Lincoln became Chief Magistrate, he found not a peaceable revolution to contend with, but one armed and belligerent at all points, proving that violence and defiance were the weapons to be hurled against his administration. Belligerent Attitude of the Confederates. CHAPTER XL. STATE OF FEELING IN EUROPE DURING JANUARY AND FEBRUART REGARDING AMERICAN AFFAIRS. Interest in American Affairs. The state of foreign feel ing during January and February was one of the outside features of the Secession movement which, to a student of the momentous events of 1861, formed not the least interesting epi sode of the period. In a previous chapter, [XIV.,] we reproduced the editorial com ments of some of the leading London and Paris journals during December and the early part of January. Without exception, they regarded the Secession movement with dis favor, generally regarding it as a scheme for founding a pure "Slave Confederacy. As the revolution progressed, the interest of foreign ers in our affairs increased — so much so that, by March 4th, the European press was en gaged- in an active canvass of the entire sub ject in all its bearings, political, social, and moral, both to the United States and to the Old World. Our system of a Democratic Confederacy was freely commented on, and many were not slow to point to the approach ing dissolution of the Union as an evidence of the inherent instability of a Republican Government. There was, however, in The London Times. English journalism, a spirit of sympathy with the North of an unmistakable character; while the South, up to March 4th, scarcely found a respectable paper to give its cause even the shadow of a defence. The London Times, without committing itself to either section, laid its blows on both parties sturdily, and told so much' truth and untruth, in its over wrought and pungent way, as did not fail to give offence equally to North and South. It thus recurred to Mr. Seward's speech of Jan uary 12th, [see pages 187-92 :] " We do not see much to admire in the speech of Mr. Seward. It was meant, no doubt, to be a great success, but fortune has not entirely seconded the efforts of the orator. * * * Mr. Seward is in fa vor of doing all those things which he has already assured ns will not save the Union. He is ready to repeal the Personal Liberty acts which trench on the policy of the Fugitive Slave law. He is willing to vote for the amendment of the Constitution de claring that henceforth it shall not be lawful to abolish Slavery by an act- of Congress — an amend ment utterly futile, since it can always be rescinded by the same power that enacted it. Bnt, lastly, Mr. Seward is willing, when people have grown cool — that is, he says, in two or three years' time — to consent to a Convention to consider any change in the organic laws in regard to Slavery. And this while the steamers of the United States return to New York disabled by shot fired from Charleston batteries ; while Charleston threatens Major Ander son with an attack on a fort held by him for the United States ; and while the arsenals and forts of the Central Government, left to the care of separate States, are plundered and occupied as the result of a declared secession. This is all that the official adviser of the incoming President can suggest as a remedy for dangers so urgent and so threatening. The thing which has happened is ' impossible,' and in two or three years we may have a Convention. Alas ! in two or three years, for all that Mr. Seward and his class seem inclined to do to prevent it, the United States will have drifted into a position not re quiring, as now, only a manly resolution for their deliverance, but beyond the reach of the boldest or wisest of mankind to remedy it. In one thing we certainly agree with Mr. Seward — that if he is to be accepted as a type of the would-be saviors of his country, the Union is not likely to be saved, as he says, ' by anybody in particular.' " The same article, however, assumed, with Mr. Seward, that any citizen, or any aggre gate of citizens, seeking to destroy a Govern ment, was guilty of treason to that Govern ment. It stated the case thus forcibly : " The American people have seen fit, acting as a nation and in their collective capacity, to create a Government possessing certain definite powers. The remaining functions of Government they have left to be administered within certain territorial di- STATE OF FEELING IN EUROPE, 493 visions called States, and to each of these Govern ments, acting within its proper powers, every Ameri can citizen is bound to pay the same obedience as the people of England do to the laws under which they live. Any individual citizen, therefore, seeking to destroy this Central Government, is guilty of treason against it, and the same thing is true of any aggregate of individuals, even should they consti tute the majority of the population of a State, or several States. The fact that rebellion takes the form of the secession of a State can make no differ ence, for, so long as the Central Government con fines itself within its own jurisdiction, the State possesses no right whatever against it. The State possesses no greater right collectively than each of its citizens possess individually." If the same authority, at a later day, de manded the right of the Southern States to secede — demanded their rights as " bellig erents" — demanded the recognition of their independence — it was simply because it be came politic to do so, not that what was trea son in January was not equally so in July. The London Daily News The London News. (January 22d) also gave its views to the same con clusion. Its statement of the duty of citizens to obey, and the right of Government to enforce obedience, was clear and logically correct : •' Every American citizen is as directly bound to obey the laws passed by the central power in the exercise of its defined rights, as an Irishman or a Scotchman is bound to obey the laws of the Imperial Parliament. If any number of Irishmen or Scotchmen raised the stand ard of revolt against the Government, they would all be guilty of treason, but their conduct would not and could not affect the relations of the British with foreign Governments. So it is in the United States : the individual citizens of South Carolina or Alabama who levy war against the Federal Power are all guilty of treason, but their conduct cannot by possibility affect the relations between the United States Government and those of other countries." The same journal (January 19th) thus gen erously defended our great" Republican " ex periment" from the scoffs of those friends of aristocracy who wished well to no reign of the people : " America is a signal illustration of the worth of representative government. The people of Eng land neither believe nor wish to believe in the ruin of the great Commonwealth of their kindred beyond the ocean ; but whatever perils be in store for it, arising out of the schism of the Southern States, they well know that these perils originate, not from the application or misapplication of the Democratic principle in South Carolina, Georgia or Virginia, but conspicuously and notoriously from its absence in those States. The Southern States are not, and never were Democracies in any sense of the term. The simple truth is, and it cannot be too often re peated, that Virginia, Carolina, Georgia, Louisiana and Florida, were each and all expressly founded with oligarchic care and oligarchic aim npon an oli garchic model. All power and privilege were con centrated in the planter caste ; and a servile multi tude was provided by regal and aristocratic policy by whose unrequited toil the governing few were to subsist. We grieve to be obliged to say that in onr estimate of the possible future of America we see cause for the deepest anxiety as to the fate of civilization, social and political, iu the devoted re gions whose frantic oligarchs are striving to sever them from the wise and enlightened rule founded by Adams, Franklin, Hamilton, Jefferson and Jay. For the destiny of the Free North, with its intelligence and industry, its wealth and invention, its love of equal liberty, and its love of equal law, there is no cause for fear. Inferiority of soil, seaboard and streams, of mineral wealth, and of mountain pasture, of sweep of domain and enjoyable climate — the vig orous, fearless, self-reliant North can afford, with a laugh, to admit it all, and yet feel how transcend- ently stronger and richer, nobler and happier, is its place among the nations. If permanent severance there must be, the world will soon comprehend the difference between a compact nation of educated, free, and self-dependent citizens, and a, community of indolent and insolent proprietors of land living in hourly dread of a herd of slaves." The London Saturday Review, early in March said, in the course of a very clear and lucid expose of the secession revolution : " No event of our day has been half so wonderful as the one before us. Who, a priori, could have believed that in the nineteenth century a new State should be organized, by the grandsons of Englishmen, solely on the principle of preserving and extending a system of Slavery ! A more ignoble basis for a great Confederacy it is impossible to conceive, nor one in the long run more precarious. The per manent renunciation of sound principles and natural laws must, in due time, bring ruin. No great career can lie before the Southern States, bound together solely by the tie of having a working-class of negro bondsmen. Assuredly it will be the Northern Confederacy, based on the principle of freedom, with a policy untainted by crime^, with a free work- The Saturday Re view. 494 THE SOUTHERN REBELLION, ing-class of white men, that will be the one to go on and prosper, and become the leader of the New World." The London Morning The London star. Star (January 21st) pro posed to grant the Slave States the right to secede from the Union, but based its proposition upon such grounds as the Southern States must have repudiated : " There are thousands of noble-hearted men and women in the Northern States who have a hearty hatred of that moral complicity in the barter of human flesh and blood, which has been forced upon them by their political organization. They know that many of the blemishes which the foes of Free dom have signalized in their republican institutions and social condition arise from the presence, in the consideration of a system essentially anti-republican, and as hateful to God as it is injurious to man. They feel that its alliance with the North has been to the South as that presence of a few good men which would have induced the Almighty to spare the guilty city; and that, had the Slave States stood alone, Slavery would probably before this have been num bered among obsolete iniquities. Various consid erations may have induced them to refrain from seeking themselves to break the bond which led to such disastrous consequences; but now that the South sues for a divorce, why should they oppose the prayer? Let the Seceding States carry out their insane project, and base their new nationality upon the principle that man has a right of property in immortal beings; they will soon discover that they have built their house upon a heap of crum bling sand. The blessing of God will assuredly never rest upon that flag which, in a fair division of the emblem of the existing Union, should retain the Stripes without the Stars. If the men of the North have a clear perception of their duty and of the true interests of humanity, they will stay the hand of violence which has already been upraised, aban don all idea of coercion, and suffer the South to pur sue unchecked its mad career." The London Economist, The London Earn- ... , • -, .. m its early consideration of the question — ere King Cotton had whispered its Christian heart asleep and its commercial heart awake — gave expression (January 29th) to its views of the subject of recognition, by Great Britain, of the Seceded States : " The truly melancholy side of these strange cal culations on the part of the Southern States, is the evidence which they give of a completely distorted Btandard of judgment on all subjects at least that touch the one great interest of their political life. They have cried out so long that all scruples about Slavery are cant and affectation, that they not only believe it, and believe that we believe it, but they even expect us to make a sacrifice of political credit and consistency by avowing our previous insincer ity, and this for considerations that would certainly never have induced us to interfere iu behalf of Hun gary or Italy, whom we did desire to aid with all our hearts. Such infatuation is absolutely appall ing. It seems to indicate that a kind of monomania blinds the Southern States on all subjects closely connected with their cotton and their slaves. We doubt if anything we can say will open their eyes. But we are at least bound in the name of the mer cantile classes of England to tell them that any pro posal to intervene on their behalf in the struggle against the Federal Government of the Union, would be scouted nowhere with more scorn and indignation than in those districts of England which would benefit most by free trade with the United States." The reader may express surprise that the same journal, and, doubtless, the same editor, at a later day, became the champion of an English recognition of the Slave Confed eracy ; but, in England as in all the rest of the world, self-interest is all-powerful. It is so easy to make Principle sick, and to call in Policy as the doctor ! The London Review, (March 2d,) organ of the The London Reinew. aristocracy, pronounced the Union to be hopelessly dissolved in these words : " The United States of America are not in exist ence. A Free and >•¦ Slave Republic occupy their place, and stand side by side ; destined to be rivals — perhaps to be enemies ; while a third Republic, or confederation of Republics, to the west of the Rocky Mountains on the fertile shores of the Pacific, is cer tain to assert its independence at no distant date, and to form the nucleus of another powerful em pire. * * * The disruption of the American Union is as much a, fail accompli as the English Revo lution of 1688, or the coup d' etat that set Napoleon III. upon the throne ; and if there be any statesman ship in the North, or in the South, the only wise policy is to acknowledge it, and make the best of it." But the Review entertained little sympathy for the South and its political philosophy. It predicted the early inauguration of a mon archy over the downfall of republicanism : THE VOICE OF THE ENGLISH PEOPLE 495 " It is obvious that Mr. Calhoun's doctrine, car ried to its legitimate length, contains within itself the germ of the downfall of Republicanism., Al ready the slaveholders constitute an oligarchy, and from an oligarchy to a despotism the gradations are not very slow or painful even in times of peace, while they are facile as the descensus averni in periods of public danger, when war, offensive or defensive, opens the career of victory to any ambitious and successful soldier who has audacity enough to snatch at a crown and sceptre. There may be nothing positively new under the sun ; but in modern times, or within the record of history, the world has not Been such a Republic, or such a system of govern ment as that which has sprung into existence upon the shores of the Mexican Gulf. Its short history is- the marvel of our time, and its continued existence will be one of the most singular problems of our civilization." The London News, (Jan- ^ BTreafie!° ™ "' Uary 39th') advertinS t0 the binding force of treat ies made with the United States, by European Governments, in event of a dissolution of the Union, thus silenced those who regarded the threatened disruption as propitious for the abrogation of all treaty-relations with the United States : " Some are puzzled to know whether the treaties now subsisting between the United States and this country will continue if the Southerners succeed in separating themselves and setting up a Confedera tion for themselves. Such an event is spoken of as a dissolution of the Union of the States. If the con tract had been made between this country and the several States, as States, no doubt the secession of some of them would free the others from the obli gation of fulfilling the treaty. But the contract is with the American Union, the subjects of which »on- sist of those who, while they owe it certain duties, owe their own States certain other duties. Even after the British Government lost Smith O'Brien, Mi,tchel, and Meagher, the treaties with foreign Powers were still binding. So, when Francis II. lost Sicily, or Austria lost Lombardy, the treaties with the Powers not at war continued binding. So it is in America. If the secession succeeds, the Amer ican Union will lose a certain number of subjects. Nay, more ; any European Government will be at perfect liberty to make whatever treaties it pleases with those who have seceded ; but the American Union will still subsist, weakened though it be by the loss of many citizens. This is the conclusion which inevitably flows from the nature of the Amer ican Constitution as we have explained it." It will be evident, from these extracts, that British journalists well comprehended the position of affairs in America, and their judg ments, for that reason, are worthy of atten tion. Americans, absorbed in the events of the hour and swayed by the feelings of par tisans, could not be expected to pronounce a disinterested judgment on the revolution ; but, those intelligent observers, so far remov ed from the scene of i disaster as to be unin fluenced by its passions or results, could be regarded as reliable arbiters. If, at a future day — when the progress of the revolution had closed Southern ports, had cut off Brit ish looms from their supply of cotton and a profitable market for their products — the English press allowed its unanimity of con demnation to become broken, it was a pocJcet, rather than a heart or head, impulse that in stigated paragraphs devoted to the South ern cause and Southern interests. The Queen of England, . ,. t-, ,« Queen Victoria's at the opening of Parlia- „ Kiud Rega,.d3.„ ment, (February 5th,) de livered her annual speech, in the course of which she referred in terms of kindness to wards the American people that showed how anxiously the throne regarded the con troversy : " Serious differences have arisen among the States of the North American Union. It is impossible for me to look without great concern upon any events which can affect the happiness and welfare of a peo ple purely allied to my subjects by descent, and closely connected with them by the most intimate and friendly relations. My heartfelt wish is, that these difficulties may be susceptible of satisfactory adjustment. The interest which I take in the well- being of the people of the United States cannot but be increased by the kind and cordial reception given by them to the Prince of Wales during his recent visit to the Continent of America." As the Prince only visited the North ern States and Virginia— and, as the only insult he received was on Slave soil, at Richmond — the Northern States did not hesitate to appropriate to themselves her in terest in their " well-being." The English public was & r . . The Voice of the still more antagonistic to Engiish. People. the Pro-Slavery Confed eracy than the English press. Thoroughly Anti-Slavery in their views, the great mass 496 THE SOUTHERN REBELLION, of Britons are only consumers of Slave prod ucts from necessity. Manchester looms, so wholly dependent on cotton, might be fairly presumed to hum the paeans of Slavery ; but, so far from this being true, the stoppage of the supply from America was seized upon as the most propitious moment for opening new sources of cotton culture, and thus to sever, forever, their dependence on the Southern States for a staple every fibre of which look ed black even in its whiteness — every boll of which seemed, to them, a human tear. CHAPTER XLI. IBS SPIRIT OF VIOLENCE IN THE SOUTH. EVIDENCES OF DE MORALIZED MORAL SENTIMENT. THE REPUDIATED DEBTS, AND VIOLENCE TOWARDS CREDITORS. THE RICHMOND "WHIG'S" CONFESSION. A BRUTAL ALABAMA SENTIMENT. NUMEROUS CASES OF OUTRAGEAND PERSECUTION OF "SUSPECTED" PER SONS. THE RESULTS TO CIVILIZATION OF THAT REIGN OF TERROR. The Pecret Enginery of the Rebellion. The Southern States, from the first stages of their rebellion against the Federal Government, put forward, as a justi fication, the oppressions of that central power, and cited the Declaration of Independence as their defence. The parallel was indig nantly denied by Northern men, as these pages will testify — in Congress and out of it, an overwhelming sentiment pronounced the rebellion " causeless, wicked, and unnatural," with " no justification in the law of the coun try, nor in the higher law of self-protection." From this very denial sprung the passions and impulses necessary to feed the fires of discord ; and watchful "guardians of South ern interests" were not slow to fan the flames to a point of lawlessness necessary to '' pre cipitate" States into the vortex of insurrec tion. Success in the secession movement depended solely on the ability of the leaders to fire the popular passions to the point of hate of the North and defiance of its associa tion. Without a complete success in that direction, the revolution would become nerve less from inanition. A thousand devices were conceived to accomplish the desired end ; and the secret history of the insurrec tion, if it ever shall be divulged, will be found rich in intrigue, profuse in duplicity, mighty in falsehood — all directed to the one purpose of " firing the Southern heart." We have casually adverted to the animosity shown, in certain sections, towards Northern perjpns and interests, and promised a chapter of incidents to illustrate the spirit engendered by the revolutionists, by which to plunge the populace into their wild schemes. The fitting place for such a chapter is the close of this volume, which is rather a record of the pre liminary condition of the revolution, than of the results which followed upon its full development, after the inauguration of Mr. Lincoln. The repudiation of debts due to Northern merchants and manufacturers became one of the earliest and most exciting facts of the Southern movement. It argued a demoral ized sentiment of probity, which equally alarmed and angered the Northern people. SECESSION ADVICE TO SOUTHERN YOUTHS, 497 Visitations in North ern Creditors. fe The Southern merchants had, in exception to all commercial usage, obtained credits to an extraordinary amount, upon extraordinary time. A customer had but to say, " I am from the Cotton States," in order to obtain almost any credit desired. That secret and powerful inquisition, the '' Com mercial Agency," was scarcely consulted as to the Southerner's personal standing and com mercial responsibility — so eager was the de luded merchant to secure a " Southern trade." The wretched list of failures in the winter and spring of 1861 ever will remain as a monument of Northern commercial te merity, in the matter of Southern credits. The spirit which found an excuse for al lowing paper to go to protest, and followed the protest with a note expressing satisfac tion at the refusal to pay, soon betrayed itself in a passage of " stay" laws, in the Seceded States, and in the visitations of violence upon all agents of Northern business firms who sought out the recreant debtor in hopes of obtaining some satisfaction for the overdue claim. Lawyers banded together not to re ceive Northern claims for collection, while the people banded together to drive away any unlucky wight who proposed to do what the lawyers refused — to collect his own accounts. The agents, however, soon " made themselves scarce," as the vulgar, but significant, an nouncements in the papers recorded. Tar and feathers, and an escort of a " committee of citizens" to the nearest railway station, were such inevitable results as served to rid an " indignant community" of all " Northern vagabonds" early iu the year (1860.) These occasional perse- The Eirly Symptoms ^.^ rf col]ectors and of Violence. agents seemed to engend er an appetite for the excitement ; and it became a very honorable calling for committees to spy out every man of North ern birth — to seek to inculpate him in some way, in order to allow of the usual warning "to leave." As early as February these inquisitions became so frequent that large numbers of persons — chiefly Northern- born mechanics and tradesmen, who had found employ and a business in the South — fled for their lives, leaving behind all their 63 possessions. To meet these refugees in North ern cities became of such frequent occur rence, in February and March, that the pub lic almost tired of their uniform stories of injuries received and sufferings endured. The spirit of anger was fast culminating, not in a national, or even sectional resent ment, but in a species of inhuman personal malice which served to ally that revolution to the Sepoy drama. The Richmond Whig (March 15th) said : " It is a melancholy fact that a larger amount of mob violence has been developed in Virginia, since the Secession movement began, than in the whole previous lifetime of the State. There has been manifested an intolerance of spirit never before known ; and, what is more, such intolerance is evi dently on the increase, and bodes no good to law and order, and to the peace and prosperity of the citizens of the State ; and if not checked and re pressed, and that without delay, it will lead to riot, revolution, and fraternal bloodshed." This is simply confirmatory of our state ment hitherto made (see page 419) of the fearful spread of the spirit of violence throughout the Cotton States, where almost every youth sported his pistol and rapier, and shared the space in his mouth equally be tween oaths and tobacco. It was one of the first fruits of insurrection. Lawlessness to wards government soon begat lawlessness to wards society — the dragon's teeth grew with fearful fecundity. The demoralization be trayed itself even in the changed tone of the secession portion of the Southern press. As an evidence, we may quote one of a great many similar notices made of General Scott — even by professedly re- , ,., .. Advice to Southern spectable journals like the Youths. Richmond Inquirer. The Montgomery (Alabama) Mail (February 6th) contained this paragraph : " We observe that the students of Franklin Col lege, Georgia, burned General Scott in effigy a few days ago, ' as a traitor to the South.' This is well. If any man living deserves such infamy, it is the Lieutenant-General of the (Yankee) United States. And we have a proposition to make, thereanent, to . all the young men of the South, wherever scattered, at school or college ; and that is, that they burn this man in effigy all through the South on the even ing of the 4th of March next. The students of the South are an importaut class of our rising genera- 498 THE SOUTHERN REBELLION, tion. Let them make an epoch in the history of our sunny land, to which legend, and tale, and song shall point in after years. General Scott deserves this grand infamy. He is a traitor to the soil of his birth ; false to all the principles of the Common wealth which nurtured him; the tool, willing, pli ant, and bloody, of our oppressors ; and it is meet that his name should descend to our posterity as a word of execration ! What say the students ?" Some notices of the war-worn veteran — who had added more glory to the American name than any man since the " Father of his Country" — were so violent and vulgar as to forbid their repetition here, even though they might reflect, with stinging severity, upon a state of society which could be pleased with such impotent malice. To show the nature of Instances or Outrage ^ ecution8 inflicted and Suffering. r on those "suspected," in the revolutionary States, we shall cite a few from the numerous well-authenticated in stances, that they may stand before a Christ ian world as an evidence of the civilization which springs from a state of society like that which controls the Southern States of America. An advertisement appeared in a New York daily, February 18th, as follows: " Farming Manager. — An Englishman by birth, having had very extensive experience in breeding, raising, buying and selling of all kinds of cattle and sheep in his own country, and who has been en gaged North in agriculture for three years, and South for two, is on his way to New York, having been expelled, and his'property confiscated, on sus picion of being opposed to Slavery. He would like to engage with any gentleman having room to grow grain and roots, and to farm on a modern, enlight ened system, not looking to corn alone. He is 40, and has a small family. Address ." This case was that of a person named Gar diner. He had taken a farm " on shares," near Wilmington, North Carolina. In Au gust, September, and October he labored as siduously and successfully, and got a good start. In the Fall he obtained about sixty dollars worth of seeds from New York, ready for his Spring planting. He was astounded, one day in February, to be arrested and* thrown into prison, upon representation of the fellow whose farm he occupied that he (Gardiner) was a " dangerous" man. Gardi ner procured bail from ,, , . Instances of Outrage some of his countrymen, an(1 suffering. but these men were com pelled to withdraw their bond, under threats of a similar course towards themselves for be ing "dangerous" citizens. The matter was " compromised, out of consideration for his (Gardiner's) wife and children," by having his household goods hastily thrust on a little schooner — on which Gardiner and his family, perfectly penniless, were sent to New York. All his property and improvements passed into the hands of the good Southern Rights man who had instigated the mob, and com pelled the authorities to the deed of violence. Two Jersey men were hung in the vicinity of Charleston, early in February, for " sus picion of tampering with slaves." An Eng lish captain was served with a coat of tar and feathers in Savannah, in January, for having allowed a stevedore (black) to sit down with him at the dinner-table. Another Englishman, belonging in Canada, sailed on a vessel trading along coast. At Savannah the vessel was visited by a negro having fruit to sell. On leaving, the black man asked for a newspaper, and one was given him which happened to contain one of Henry Ward Beecher's sermons. The black was caught by his master reading the " incendiary" docu ment. Refusing to tell how he obtained it, he was ordered to the whipping-post, and flogged until he " confessed." The vessel was boarded by the authorities, and a de mand made for the astonished Canadian. The captain, however, stood before him as a Brit ish subject; and, by agreeing to ship the culprit North, by the next day's steamer, suc ceeded in saving him from the mob that stood ready on the shore to lynch him. He was placed on the steamer, on the morrow, when two " officials" came forward with a writ, which they agreed not to serve if the poor fellow would pay them fifty dollars. This he gladly paid, and was suffered to de part, " out of consideration for his being a British subject." Had he been a Yankee, he would have been hung. The following item appeared in the Eufau la (Ala.) Express, (February 6th :) " A Suspicious Individual. — The worthy captain of the Home Guards arrested a man on last Tuesday, INSTANCES OF OUTRAGE AND SUFFERING, 499 Instances of Outrage and Suffering. upon complaint made by one or two of our citizens. The charge was the use of improper lan guage in regard to the acts and position of the Southern people at this time. Some of the expres sions used by this traveling Yankee were, that Bob Toombs is a. traitor, and that the secessionists are thieves and robbers, and that he fully endorsed every thing contained in the Knoxville Whig, in regard to coercion, &e. After the examination, which brought out the foregoing facts, the committee of five mem bers of the Home Guards, appointed to investigate the matter, announced as their decision that as the indi vidual under arrest was only guilty of using improper language, they would set him at liberty, with a re quest to settle his business and leave as soon as possible. An application of tar and feathers wouldn't be at all amiss in such cases. The man's name is M. A. Smith. He is traveling agent for Scovil & Mead, of New Orleans, druggists. He will bear watching. Pass him around." Mr. Smith proceeded on his way. At Abbe ville (Ala.> he was again "apprehended." The Vigilance Committee relieved him of his horse and1 buggy, $356 in money, and all his papers. Then, taking him to a grove one- half mile from town, he was hung. No legal proceedings were had in his case — no evi dence existed as to his asserted " crime," ex cept the newspaper's . statement. He was dealt with according to the law of the super- judicial Vigilance Committee. It has been denied that Southern men ever permitted the roasting alive of slaves guilty of the high crime of murder of masters, or of the more heinous and diabolical nameless crime against females. Proof to the contrary, however, not only is not wanting, but is quite abundant, which goes to show that that hor rible and barbarous mode of execution has been resorted to for lesser crimes than those indicated — even upon suspicion. A case in point was freely narrated by the Harris County (Geo.) Enterprise, in February. On the 14th of that month a lady named Middle- brook, being alone in her house, was alarmed early in the morning, by the entrance of some person. " She hailed the intruder," the paper stated, who, -to silence her cries, took her from her bed, and, carrying her across the yard, " threw her over the fence." This was all. No violence upon her person, no maim ing—only " the fiend" abused her in a " most Instances of Outrage and Suffering. shameful manner." He was alarmed by two negro wo men, and fled. The neigh borhood was aroused. The lady stated that she believed the perpetrator of the outrage to have been a negro man named George. The newspaper account then states : " Dogs having been procured, the track was pur sued to a neighboring house, where the boy George had a wife, and thence to the residence of Mr. John Middlebrook. Under these circumstances, it was thought advisable to arrest the negro, which was done, and after an investigation before a justice of the peace, he was duly committed, and placed in the jail in this place, as we thought, to await his trial at the April term of our Superior Court. " On Monday morning last a crowd of men from the country assembled in our village, and made known their intention to forcibly take the negro George from the jail, and execute him in defiance of law or oppositio^. Our efficient sheriff, Major Hargett, together with most of our citizens, remon strated, persuaded, begged, and entreated them to desist, and reflect for a moment upon the conse quences which might follow such a course, but with out avail. Major Hargett promised to guarantee the safe-keeping of the prisoner by confining him in any manner they might suggest, and our citizens proposed to guard the jail night and day, but all to no purpose. There was no appeasing them. They rushed to the jail, and, despite of all remonstrances, with axe, hammer, and crow-bar, violently broke through the doors, and took the prisoner out, carry ing him about two miles from town, where they chained him to a tree, and burned him to death. " We understand that the negro protested his in nocence with his last breath, though repeatedly urged to confess." This horrible record could be written of no civilized country on the globe save of the Southern States of America. How that last paragraph rings out its silent imprecation upon a state of society whicli would allow such a deed to be committed on its soil ! These murderers were "citizens," and, of course, never were even questioned as to their crime ; it was only a suspected negro whom they burned. This deed was com mitted about fifty miles above Eufaula. Atlanta (Goo.) boasted of as violent a people as Eufaula or Abbeville. The same spirit which roasted a suspected negro would have hung a white man who might have been guilty of offence to the sensitive people. The 500 THE SOUTHERN REBELLION Intelligencer, of Atlanta, in Instances of Outrage February tllus paragraph- and Suffering. ¦" • j- ed the public sentiment 01 that locality, in regard to the editor of the Nashville (Tenn.) Democrat, who had pro nounced Jefferson Davis a great humbug : " If Mr. Hurley will come to Atlanta, we take the responsibility of saying that his tavern bill or his burial expenses shall not cost him anything. The only thing which strikes our astonishment is, that the people of Nashville would tolerate such a paper as the Democrat in their midst. General Jackson, whose bones repose within twelve miles of the City of Nashville, doubtless turned in the grave when such abominable doctrines were permitted to go forth from a Nashville paper." These "abominable doctrines" were lov ing the Union more than the newly-hatched Southern Confederacy — that was all. How many men were hung for the same crime in that delectable neighborhood, the Vigilance Committees only knew. The manner in which men's lives were im periled may be learned from a statement made by one Jones, of Rock Island, upon his return from Louisiana, February 27th. He had worked for three months, when, eighty dollars being due him, his employer charged him with being an Abolitionist. He was given five dollars and ordered to leave. He said, in the course of his statement : " It would have been madness for me to have staid to collect the money due me. I had seen enough to know that any man charged with being an Abol itionist was certain to be hung or thrown into the river by lynch law, and there were my employer's two brothers to swear, as they told me they would, that I was an Abolitionist. Not very long before I left, a planter had been robbed and murdered on the highway ; and there came along on the levee where we were working a crowd of about forty ruf fians, all armed to the teeth, and accompanied by about forty hounds, such as are used to track run away negroes. They searched our cabin, and in quired particularly after any ' strangers.' Three hours after they returned with a white man whom they had seized. He was tied to the tail of a mule by a halter around his neck. I afterwards heard that they took him into the timber and half hung him to make him confess, and would have hung him outright, but for a planter who persuaded them to wait until the next day, when the real murderer was caught, and this man was released." There was nothing new or remarkable, in Instances of Outrage and Suffering. this statement, since hun dreds of men doing busi ness on the Mississippi River would substantiate it by citations of cases more thoroughly cruel and painful. We give Jones' story because he came accred ited as an entirely reliable informant. The statement of Mary Crawford, made public in the winter of 1861, detailed, with painful minuteness, the sad story of her hus band's awful murder in Tarrant County, Texas, July 17th, 1860. The man was taken on suspicion of being an Abolitionist, and, after being shot, was hung. The wretched wife, informed by her two little boys (who had been with their" father out to haul wood, when Crawforfi was seized) of their fears, had started out to learn something of her hus band's fate. She had proceeded but a short distance when a party of men informed her, with indifference, that her husband was hung. The narrative read : "They took me back to the place we had been living in. My grief, my indignation, my misery, I have no words, no desire to describe. The body was not brought to me until night, and only then by the direction of Captain Dagget, a son-in-law and partner of Turner, (for whom Crawford had done much work,) who had been a friend to my husband, and was the only man of any influence who dared to befriend me. He had been away from home, and did not return until after the murder had been done. He denounced the act, and said they killed an in nocent man.'i The local newspaper — the Fort Worth Chief — thus chronicled the tragedy : " Man Hung. — On the 17th inst. was found the body of a man by the name of William H. Crawford, suspended to a pecan-tree about three-quarters of a mile from town. A large number of persons visited the body during the day. At a meeting of the citi zens the same evening, strong evidence was adduced proving him to have been an Abolitionist. The meeting endorsed the action of the party who hung him. Below we give the verdict of the jury of in quest : " ' We, the jury, find that William H. Crawford, the de ceased, came to his dealh by being hung with a grass rope tied around his neck and suspended from a pecan limb, by some person or persons to the jurors unknown. That he was hung on thr- 17th day of July, 1860, between the hours of 9 o'clock .A.M. and 1 o'clock P. M. We , could see no other marks of violence on the person of the deceased.' " This man Turner — a lawyer, and an owner of forty slaves — was one of those persons INSTANCES OF OUTRAGE AND SUFFERING, 501 who arraigned Crawford in Instances of Outrage presence 0f his little and buffering. r boys, and had borne him away from their sight to hang him. The jury took no steps, of course, to learn anything in regard to the murderers. Indeed, the act was not only justified, but, out of it, grew an organ ization which succeeded in whipping, banish ing, and hanging over two hundred persons — three Methodist ministers included — in the course of the succeeding three months, under plea of their being "Abolition emissaries," who had instigated the burning of property, and incited negroes to run away. The report of that meeting deserves repetition, in illus tration of the manner in which the slave districts care for their morals and their safety : " At a large and respectable meeting of the citi zens of Tarrant County, convened at the Town Hall, at Fort Worth, on the 18th day of July, 1860, pursuant to previous notice, for the purpose of de vising means for defending the lives and property of citizens of the county against the machinations of Abolition incendiaries, J. P. Alford was called to the chair, and J. C. Terrell was appointed Secre tary. After the object of the meeting was ex plained by Colonel C. A. Harper, the following preamble and resolutions were unanimously adopted : " ' Whereas, The recent attempts made to destroy several neighboring towns by fire, the nearly total destruction of one of them, coupled with the conversation and acts of one W, H. Crawford, who was hung in this county on the 17th inst., prove conclusively to us the necessity of an organized effort to ferret out and punish Abolition incendiaries, some of whom are believed to be in our county. Therefore, to discover and punish said Abolitionists, and to secure the lives and property of our citizens, be it " ' Resolved, That we endorse the action of those who hung W. H. Crawford in this county on the 17th inst. , con vinced as we are, from the evidence upon which he was hung, that he richly deserved his fate. " ' Resolved, That a Central County Committee be ap pointed by the President, consisting of seven citizens, whose duty it shall be to appoint such Committees in every pre cinct in the county, which sub-Committees shall confer with and report to the Central i ommittee tho names of all sus pected persons in their precincts, which persons shall be dealt with according to the pleasure of the Central Cum mitlee. " ' Resolved, That the members of this meeting hereby pledge themselves to support said Central Committee in the discharge of their duty in dealing with Abolitionists and incendiaries. " ' JAMES P. ALFORD, Chairman. " 'J. C. Terbkli, Secretary ' " The Central Committee hereby notify all per sons connected with or holding Abolition senti ments to leave the county forthwith, or they may pos- lances of Outrage ., , , and Suffering. sibly have cause to regret re maining." It is probable that every one of the men persecuted were as innocent of offence as Crawford. " Abolition emissaries" were not necessary to instruct negroes how to firo houses. The "Abolitionists" were, without exception, men having a calling, and pursu ing it peaceably ; but, being Northerners, and living without holding Slaves, were proofs conclusive of their dangerous character to the " highly respectable citizens" of Texas.* The case of Mrs. Catharine Bottsford, as published at length in the New York Tribune of March 22d, afforded the age with an evi dence that even in the civilized city of Charleston, South Carolina, an intelligent, honorable, and unprotected lady could be thrown into prison and be made to suffer in dignities because some person had said she had '' tampered with slaves." Arthur Robinson, of New Orleans, pub lisher of the Trite Witness, a religious paper of the. Old School Presbyterian denomination, was arrested, and thrown in prison without the usual forms of law. After laying there some time, he was taken into the criminal court for trial. The indictment, however, was so ignorantly drawn that he was set at liberty pending a second arrest. His friends man aged to effect his escape up the river. He lost everything. His "crime" was, not in saying or publishing anything offensive, but a "'com mittee" having searched his premisrs, found " seditious" literature in bis possession, and for that he was made to suffer. He would have been consigned to State's Prison ibr having the Boston Liberator on his exchange list had it not been for the flaw in his first indictment, and his escape from another arrest. * When Wigfall stated, on the floor of the United States Senate, that men were hanging from trees in Texas for opinion's sake, he was known to tell the truth, then, for a certainty. It will be remembered that Lovejoy, of Illinois, had in vain tried to get the case of the Methodist ministers, (one of whom was hung and others whipped) before Congress. [See Stanton's Defence of the Ministers from Reagan's Brutal Charges, pages 229-30.] 502 THE SOUTHERN REBELLION, Instances of Outrage and Suffering. John Watt, a citizen of Michigan, was working near Vicksburg, Missis sippi, in January. While under the influence of liquor a " committee" extracted from him " dangerous sentiments," and he was taken over the river into Louisiana and hung, and his body left hanging to the tree. The first officer of the bark Indian Queen made a statement in the New York journals, March 16th, to the effect that the vessel put into St. Marks, Florida, in January — himself and his second officer both being ill of the Chagres fever. Both were sent ashore to the United States Marine Hospital at that place, for proper care, while the vessel an chored in the harbor below, to await their recovery. As soon as Florida seceded, (Jan uary llth,) the Hospital wa's seized and the invalids turned out. The vessel lay at an chor about ten miles below the town. She had, as part of her crew, seven colored sea men — all able and trusty fellows. A plot was hatched to seize all these men and sell them into slavery — a judge of the Supreme (State) Court being one of the conspirators. The plot was revealed to the captain at two o'clock in the morning. He arose, hired a steamer, ran down to his vessel, and had her towed out to sea, beyond the jurisdiction of Florida. The discomfited citizens swore dreadfully over their disappointment. The same officer stated that, a few days after the ordinance of secession was passed, a resident of St. Marks remarked that the South was wrong and the North right in the contro versy. Whereupon, he was seized, stripped, whipped, and started "out of the country." Mr. H. Turner, a New Hampshire man, had for several years, spent the winter on the plantation of Woodworth & Son, near Charleston, South Carolina. Before the Presidential election, in reply to the question of a fellow-workman, he had stated that, if he held the casting vote, it should be given for Lincoln. Two weeks after the election he was visited by two members of a " Vigilance Committee," and asked if what had been re ported was true. He answered that he had made that single remark to a fellow- work man, but to no other person. A warrant for his arrest, as an incendiary and Abolitionist, was produced, and he was taken to Charleston, to jail. '"^.dsX^gT Around the jail a mob of "citizens" gathered, demanding that the jailer should give the prisoner up to them. It was only dispersed by the horse patrol. He was allowed neither food nor water. On the af ternoon of the day succeeding his arrest, he was taken before the " Vigilance Association Tribunal," for examination. Confessing, again, that he had said -to the workman what was reported, he was remanded back tojail, to be passed over to the Criminal Court. The "Judge" of the Tribunal treated the prisoner with a choice lecture, chiefly com posed of oaths and imprecations. He was placed in a bare cell, where the night was spent; and only on the morning of the sec ond day's confinement was he allowed food, consisting of a small piece of black bread and a pint of bad water. For fourteen weeks this man lay in that wretched dungeon. At the end of that time the son of his employer came to the jail, and stated that his wages, $248, still due, should be paid him, and his release procured, if he would leave at once. The promise was gladly given. He was ta ken to the steamer amid the hootings and howlings of a mob, whicli made threats of lynching. On the way to the steamer, he called upon a watchmaker for a fine watch and chain which he had left for repairs before his arrest. The watchmaker bade him, with an oath, to leave his premises. Once on the steamer, he expected his wages, as promised ; but received nothing, and was permitted to work his passage to New York, where he arrived in a perfectly destitute condition. Captain E. W. Ryder, of the bark Julia E. Aery, and his son, James B. Ryder, as mate, were landing a cargo at Encero Mills, Cam den County, Georgia, in November, 1860, when a negro came aboard the vessel with oars to sell. None being wanted, he was sent away. He paid a second visit, and some clothes were intrusted to him to wash, upon his telling that he belonged to a Dr. Nichols, living near. That afternoon five men came to the vessel, and demanded the right to search for the negro. The captain gave per mission for the search, freely, but stated that INSTANCES OF OUTRAGE AND S U'F F E R I N G . 503 Instances of Outrage Hid Suffrages. the fellow had gone ashore, taking with him some clothes to wash. The five men completed the search which, it became evident to the captain, was but a cover for the " citizens" to examine his cargo, his means of resistance, &c, as well as to discover, if pos sible, some " Abolition literature" by which to to seize the entire crew and vessel as " danger ous to the peace of the community." The " Committee" returned on the following day, late in the evening. It had grown to fifteen in numbers, who proceeded to thoroughly ran sack the vessel's hold. Every chest and bunker were overhauled. Nothing " danger ous" being found, the " Committee" passed on shore where, summoning the negroes who had been engaged in unloading the vessel, they examined them as to the conversations on the vessel. Six of them were finally most unmercifully whipped, to make them " con fess." What they confessed, was not known to the captain; but, as they probably stated anything required, the mob, it soon became evident, was ready for proceedings. The captain and his son went before the " Com mittee" and stated that, not only had no con versation been had, but that they had positively forbidden any unnecessary commu nication between his men and the negroes— that one or the other of the officers always was present, to see that orders were obeyed. . This did not satisfy the " Committee," and the two were taken to the jail at Jefferson, fifteen miles away. There they were again arraigned before another " Vigilance Associ ation," and charged with being Abolitionists —a charge which both men denied as un founded in proof. No proof being produced, they were allowed to spend that night at a hotel. A cook (black) from another vessel, was produced on the succeeding morning, who stated that he had heard both white men say they were Republicans, and would have voted for Mr. Lincoln if an opportunity had offered. The black fellow who had taken the clothes to wash, was then brought for ward, and he corroborated the statement of the other black man. This was deemed evi dence conclusive to the " Committee" and the sentence of a public flogging was immediate ly decreed against both father and son. This Instances of Outrage and Suffering. was deemed a lenient pun ishment — hanging was the usual mode of treating " such scoundrels." The inhuman wretches took their prisoners to the front of the court house, where, both being stripped to the waist and tied to a tree, they were whipped— twenty-five blows with heavy leather thongs being administered to each. The elder Ryder, being an old man, was a terrible sufferer under the horrible infliction. After the " pun ishment" both were thrust into cells in the jail. The large crowd which witnessed the whipping enjoyed it, apparently with a real zest, as it jeered and laughed vo ciferously during the brutal punishment. The two men lay fourteen days in that jail, suffering exquisite tortures from their wounds. At the end of that time five men came, took them out, carried them to their vessel, and remained until the craft stood out to sea. ( This instance of atrocious wrong was sim ply one of several similar cases inflicted in the same neighborhood. The civilized world may be excused for doubting evidence so in human ; but, there is no room for disbelief when an old man's scarred back is exhibited to the pitying eye. We may close this revolting record with the following statement made by the Cin cinnati Gazette, of May 18th ; " Nearly every day some fresh arrivals of refu gees from the violence and ferocity of the New Da homey bring to this city fresh and corroborative proofs of the condition of affairs in the rebel States. Many of these have come thence at the peril of their lives, and to avoid threatened death, have taken a hurried journey surrounded by thick dangers from the madmen who now fill the South with deeds of violence and bloodshed. " The people in that section seem to have been given up to a madness that is without parallel in the history of civilization — we had almost written bar barism. They are cut off from the news of the North, purposely blinded by their leaders as to the movements and real power of the Government, and in their local presses receive and swallow the most outrageous falsehoods and misstatements. " Yesterday, one William Silliman, a person of in telligence and reliability, reached this city, return ing from a year's residence in Southern Mississippi. He was one of a party who, in 1860, went from this 504 THE SOUTHERN REBELLION, Instances of Outrage and Suffering. city and engaged iu the con struction of the Mobile and Ohio Railroad. " Mr. Silliman, for several months past, has lived in Cupola, Itawamba County, one of the lower tier of counties, two hundred miles from New Orleans, and one hundred and sixty miles from Mobile. He Bays a more blood-thirsty community it would be difficult to conceive. Perfect terrorism prevails, and the wildest outrages are enacted openly by the rebels, who visit with their violence all suspected of loyalty, or withholding full adherenee to the king dom of Jefferson Davis. Could the full history of these outrages be written, and that truthfully, many and most of its features would be deemed incredible and monstrous, belonging to another age, and cer tainly to another county than our own. " The party who is suspected of hostility, or even light sympathy, with the rebellion, is at once seized. He is fortunate if he is allowed to leave in a given time, without flogging. He is still fortunate if only a flogging is added to the order to depart. Many have been hung or shot on the spot. Mr. Silliman details five instances of the latter as having occurred among the amiable people of Itawamba County, within the past ten weeks, of several of which he was the eye-witness, a mob wreaking their vengeance upon their victims under the approval of local au thorities. These five men were Northerners, at dif ferent times assailed by the rebels. Three of them were strangers to all about them. " On Saturday of last week a man was hung at Guntown, who refused to join the rebel army, and also refused to leave. He was taken to a tree in the outskirts of the village, and left hanging to a limb. Instances of Outrage and Suffering. He had a family in the place. Guntown is 10 miles from Cup ola. The same day, at Saltillo, a man was hung under similar circumstances, and still another at Vonona, where a traveller was seized in passing through the place. All these towns are within 20 miles circuit of Cupola, where Mr. Silliman resided. He says that he can recall twelve instances of killing, whipping, and other outrages thus visited upon the victims of the rebels in that vicinity, within the past two months. Many have been waiting in the hope that the storm would ' blow over,' but have, one after the other, been forced to submit or seek safety in flight." The instances herein given are such as seemed to us to be so verified as to admit of no doubt as to their entire truthfulness. Many others made public, and some of a most outrageous character, which have been re peated to us by refugees in person, we have refrained from referring to, since a suspicious public might question the authenticity of their unsupported statements. Enough has been given to throw an historical light upon the animus of the Southern people engaged in the revolution. The future historian of the great rebellion will not fail to discover in that spirit, not only a key to the social state of that section of the country, but will, if he be a disciple of Schlegel, find in it an effect of a cause — which cause had sedulous ly, and for generations, insensibly undermind- ed the moral sentiments of the peeple. CHAPTER XLLL THE FINAL ISSUE. MS. BUCHANAN AND HIS ERRORS. The Southern seceded States, notwith standing their apparent confidence in their future, still were much alarmed at the at titude of the North, as well as at Mr. Lin coln's expressed determination to "retake and hold" the property of the Government seized by the revolutionists. From the pre liminary stages of the secession movement, its leaders had, with entire reliance, counted upon a strong defensive support in the North which would restrain any attempts at coer cion, should they be made by the Repub licans and Douglas Democrats. New York City alone was regarded not only as ready to sustain the South in its secession, bnt, look ing to the future through the medium of THE FINAL ISSUE, 505 Mayor Wood's treasonable and preposterous manifesto regarding the independence of New York island, Southern men felt assured that the result would justify their most arrogant and precipitate steps in the formation of a Confederacy of Slave States. This rashness unquestionably was their ruin. Peaceable secession the administration Democracy stood ready to defend, as all their speeches in Con gress during December, and the tone of the leading administration journals in the North, during the same month and the first half of January, will demonstrate. But, who ever knew the South, as a section, to treat any measure with calmness which affected their social or political status ? The spirit which domineered at home was not one to play the courtier in the presence of its legislative equals ; and when the serpent of the revolu tion began to uncoil — began to put forth, one by one, its hydra heads, its fangs were freely shown, and those who would have bade the monster depart in peace from the National Capital, were compelled to assume an attitude of defence against its malice and folly. The speech of Mr. Sickles, in the House, February 5th, sounded the alarum in these words of warning : " In November it was peaceable secession. We could agree to that. I am for it. In January it was forcible secession; and then, sir, the friends of peaceable secession in the North were trans formed into timid apologists. In February it is spoliation and war. Armies were raised under the guns of forts belonging to the United States, the ju risdiction of which has been ceded to us by the solemn acts of the Seceding States. Measures of open war only yielded to Mexican spoliations, and I say, in the presence of this new and last phase of the secession movement, that it can have no friends in the North— it can have no apologists in the North ; but there will soon be no exception to the general denunciation which it must meet from every loyal and patriotic citizen of this country." Before such an issue, rashness and insolence would have given way at least to. an out ward show of kindness, in order to foster the moral and material force of that Northern sentiment in favor of peaceable secession ; but, with a mountebank like Wigfall— with such a "tower of strength" as that embodiment of coarseness, James M. Mason— with the dis tempered' and thwarted Robert M. T. Hun ter—to defend and direct the cause of the rev olutionists in the Senate ; with equally dis tasteful men in the Lower House; with Toombs, Davis, Pickens, Brown, Slidell, Yan cey, Rhett, Cobb, Benjamin — all plotting and counter-plotting for their own preeminence in the new nation : it is not remarkable that the secession movement should have resulted as it did — in driving the North, as a section, into an attitude of firm and determined re sistance. Had the wiser counsels of Mr. Ste phens, Judge Campbell, and other Southern " conservatives" prevailed, it is highly prob able that the history of the revolution would not have been written in blood — that diplo macy would have taken the place of the bay onet. Let the story of that reign of madmen remain, with its moral, as a warning to future malcontents 1 In view of the apparently inevitable issue of a defence against their aggressions, the most extraordinary exertions were put forth by the Provisional Government to meet im pending emergencies'. As stated elsewhere, the levy of troops became general throughout the Seceded States. The forts in possession of the revolutionists were strengthened, and strongly garrisoned. Before Fort Pickens, off Pensacola, a powerful army gathered in February, under command of Braxton Bragg, late of the United States army. Before Fort Sumter the outlines of the lands around fairly bristled with guns. It was of the first necessity, in event of a conflict with the Fed eral Government, that both of these fortresses should be in possession of the Confederates. They thus become, per consensum, the points of all interest to the people: around, and within their ramparts must the first blood be shed of a contest at which the civilized world should stand aghast. In view of Mr. Lincoln's several declara tions, on his route from Springfield to the Capital, regarding the forts and the property of the Government, the Charleston Mercury called, in these terms, for haste and extent of warlike preparations : " If his (Lincoln's) declarations are to be relied on, he will attempt to retake the forts now in the pos session of the Confederate States and reenforce those now in the possession of the United States. That will be war — war in our bays and harbors. He will probably be willing to confine it to such locali ties. We have no idea that he will daro a campaign 506 THE SOUTHERN REBELLION, with an army to conquer the South, but we can make the war he will have begun as wide as the ocean itself. It is said that New England made more money than she lost in the war of 1812, by pri vateers on the British commerce. We of the Con federate States cannot be the greatest loser at such a game. But, whatever may be our instrumentalities of defence or aggression, the Provisional Govern ment was established to put them in full operation against our enemies of the North. It is a war gov ernment. It may be compelled to raise an unusual army. It may be compelled to lay unusual taxes— to call for unusual loans. Let the people of the Con federate States view with forbearance its imperfec tions or irregularities, and be prepared to support it in all its difficulties. Within one month we will know what our necessities require. The Provisional Government may be useless, and a permanent gov ernment, looking to all those guaranties which a free government require, may supersede its tempo rary existence. The terms here used — " our enemies of the North"— implied a fact which should be given due weight, viz. : that the Southern populace had been educated to believe that the North was, an open and declared enemy of the South; hence, the unanimity with which they resvjonded to the call to arms, and submitted their necks to their rulers' yoke. The relative strength of each section became a subject of quite general attention, as well as the comparative courage and ac tivity of the Northern and Southern people. The intelligent community never before took such interest in the census statistics. It is indicative of the extraordinary self-decep tion which the Southern people practised upon themselves, that they deemed their six millions of white population fully equivalent, in material force, to the nineteen millions of the North. It would have been considered an evidence of cowardice in the South for a person to have confessed the equality of the North with the South, man-for-man. The local and State prejudices which ever have prevailed in the Cotton-growing States — owing as much to the want of general intel ligence among the masses of the people, as to the egotism and dictatorial spirit engen dered by long exercise of the rights of masters over sla\es — served to strengthen this over-estimate of strength and the re sources of war. During the last days of February, Col. Whiting was dispatched by Jefferson Davis to inspect the fortifications of Charleston. The " Floating Battery," of which great ex pectations were formed, was launched Feb ruary 25th. It was simply a floating fortifi cation about one hundred feet front, to mount four to six heavy guns. It was low in the water, built of pine and palmetto logs and ribbed with iron — thus supposed to be impervious to shot. The design was to an chor it in a commanding position off Sulli van's island, where it could enfilade the ramparts of Sumter.* The fortress on Cumming's point was a firm structure of green logs covered in sand, mounting guns of a very heavy calibre, with one or two very effective rifled cannon. The other batteries strung along on Sullivan, Morris and James islands, were located in spots to command the channel approaches to Sumter — thus to cut off all reenforcements by sea. Fort Moultrie was a frowning fortress, of a nameless number of guns, evidently pre pared for throwing shot and shell in an appalling shower upon the sea-girt fastness of the " Invincible Eighty " which lay off in the harbor, as eullen, silent and dark as a sleeping volcano. This was the consideration which the Con federate Government vouchsafed to the Union, with whicli " its only desire was to maintain relations of peace." Audi alteram partem. We feel the force of the injunction when we are called to sit in judgment on the Administration of Mr. Bu chanan. With the effects of his misrule we are so painfully impressed, that the impulse to pronounce a sweeping condemnation is in deed strong. The tragedy of war — the hu miliation of our National prestige — the awful * The idea of this battery was by no means an original one. At the seige of Gibralter, 1782, ten floating forts were constructed, at a cost of upwards of $500,000. They were so compactly built, as to be deemed invulnerable, and, mounting from ten to eighteen guns each, truly were formidable engines of destruction. They worked well and did great execution, until the fortress threw hot shot, when they were soon all in flames, and those on board perished almost to a man. MR. BUCHANAN AND HIS ERRORS, 507 peril to Republican Government which he bequeathed as a legacy to his successor — all rise up, not like spirits, but like palpable presences, to cry out " anathema !" There are, too, minor sins for which partisans of the Democratic faith will not fail to hold him responsible. He assumed the Chief Magis tracy as the representative of a powerful party whose rule has rarely been broken since Jefferson laid its bases in the National heart. He vacated the Chief Magistracy to leave that party broken, bruised, abased. He found the country prosperous — he left it weak. He found a Treasury overflowing — he left it bankrupt. He trailed his robes of office in the dust of politicians' haunts, and made his high dignity a bye-word in cau cuses and committee-rooms. In a word, he dishonored his country — dishonored his office — dishonored his trusts, and his memory promises not to be precious with mankind, nor honorable in history. But, for all these miseries entailed, there still are some who offer a defence, if not in justification at least in palliation, of his acts. He was chosen Chief Magistrate to serve a party rather than to serve the country. He was both openly and secretly bound to men and to a policy, which, to have forsaken, would have required the moral and physical courage of a Jackson. He dared not " assume the responsibility : " and, in this dependance, is Written much of the misery which followed upon his rule. He pledged Kansas to the South as the price of Southern support. To redeem that pledge he stultified himself, he outraged the first principles of true de mocracy, he caused human blood to be shed and a fair land to struggle into the Union through desolution and curses. To make Kan sas a Slave State, and thus "preserve the balance of power," he pursued a course which caused "ODIOUS" to be written over his name. His reward was to see the Re publican party grow into the public heart, flourishing and daily strengthened on his very errors and follies. What should he do ? desert his Southern friends and bend before the unqestionable will of the people of the North? He dared not desert! He could not if he would ; for, in his Cabinet were men subtle and unscrupulous as an impious cause could demand, at his elbow were men as bra zen, as dangerous, as traitorous as their pa rent, the Prince of Darkness : all of whom watched, warned, plotted, promised, cajoled, threatened, until the President waswholly ob scured in the partisan. If he committed inexcusable errors the first was in his pledges of service; his next was the choice of his advisers; his third was in following their ad vice. Out of these sprang the terrible train of evils which now darken his name and load his memory with a weight of calami ties which all the special pleading of special chroniclers will scarcely be able to transfer to other shoulders. Following upon the Kansas imbroglio came his seeond blow to the Democracy, which still clung to him as its leader. His intrigues against Mr. Douglas and the persecution of his friends— his support of the irregular Southern nominee, irretrievably dissevered the two wings of the party and sent the anti- Lecompton or Northern wing over to the Re publicans as their only means of defence against his attempted demoralization.* He triumphed by seeing his rival fall, but it was the triumph of madness ; for, hardly had the deed of defeat been recorded ere he found himself betrayed by his Southern friends, and he opened his eyes to behold beneath his feet a mine which the creatures of his smiles had placed there not only for his own destruction but for the destruction of his country. * In a very undignified speech, made to a crowd of Breckenridge and Lane " ratifiers," the President unqualifiedly scoffed the idea of "Squatter Sover eignty" — the very principle upon which he had se- sured his promotion to office. He only recorded his own weakness in that desertion of principle at the behest of Southern men. He said : " We have been told that non-intervention on the part of Cong, ess with Piavi-ry in the Territories is the true policy. Very well. I most cheerfully admit that Congress has no right to pass any law to establish, impair, or abolish Slavery in the Territories. Let this principle of non-inte vention be extended to tbe Territorial Legislatures, and let it be declared that they in Ike manner have no power to establish, impair, or destroy Slavery, and then the controversy is in effect end ed, 'ihis is all that is required at present, and I verily be lieve all that will ever be required. Hands off by Congress, and hands off by the Territorial Legislature I" Had he made this speech in 1856, James Buchanan never would have been President of the United States. 508 THE SOUTHERN REBELLION. It is an impossible task to write the story of the Administration from the moment of that discovery down to the 4th of March. It is so full of good deeds and bad, of strength and weakness, of wisdom and folly, as to read like the alternate reign of a good and an evil genius. To disentangle the warp and woof required not only a master-hand, but more light than yet exists upon the Ex ecutive's conduct, and we must patiently bide the judgment which Time will surely send. Our record thus far, of outward facts, will stand the tests of evidence as far as they go ; but, we must, after all, consider that it is necessary to read motives as well as acts in order to arrive at the full truth of events in an historical light. In most of the incidents of the revolution, the motive became appa rent with the act. There are some things, however, concerning Mr. Buchanan's appa rently contradictory course, whicli make it impossible to write the true history of his " declinp and fall" at this early stage of the drama which his errors, not his genius, created. We shall await, with interest, his promised " Defence of his Administration ;" and if, in aught, we have done him injustice, it will be with a pleasure unfeigned that our censures shall be qualified. It is our country which is injured by the abasement of its Chief Magistrate, and every patriotic heart will be glad to wipe away any stain upon the name of a President of the United States. It is a relief to turn from the Cabinet of December to the Cabinet of February. It is like beholding a ray shooting across dark waters to read the names of Dix, Holt, Stan ton ; while the vision of Winfield Scott rises like a luminary out of the troubled sea, to draw to it all faith and confidence. We feel like crying " Oh, why so late ?" and the country might well mourn that they were not summoned to the President's side at the first alarm of danger. That Mr. Buchanan called them at all is proof that the President loved the Union well : — that he did not always follow their counsels, but trimmed and veered to the gale like a timid man, was proof rather of his desire to avoid danger than of his dis loyalty. Had he had one year to serve, in stead of forty days, his diplomatic scruples in regard to coercion probably would have been cast aside as unworthy of the crisis which the law-makers never had conceived possible; and he might have pursued the course so wisely prescribed and so sagaciously followed by his successor. But, the brevity of his term gave no opportunity for the lay ing down and elaboration of a defensive po licy; and all the honor which attaches to his latter days comes from little acts of patriotism — evidences of what he might have done, in a more eminent degree, had there been a year before him in whicli to act. We say, might have done. The spirit of his en tire administration forbids us to say would have done. What he would have done to ward " his Southern friends" is one of the secrets which his expected history may, and, we hope, will record. APPEN DIX. THE SECRET HISTORY OF THE BUCHANAN ADMINISTRATION. We are informed that the venerable ex-President is busily engaged upon his " History of his Admin istration." As one object of our labors is to throw all possible light upon the secession movement, we have an interest in the latter portion of his reign which warrants us in submitting for his considera tion, and that of the public who take an interest in secret histories, the documents relating to Judge Thompson's resignation as Secretary of the Interior. The Judge, on his arrival at Oxford, Miss., after his withdrawal, was given a reception by his fellow citizens and there made a speech wherein he de tailed his version of the Cabinet history during De cember and January. We subjoin the material portion: " No serious difficulty or division occurred in Mr. Buchanan's Cabinet, until after the late Presidential election. As soon as it was known that the section al candidate was elected President, by a sectional vote, on a platform of principles in direct conflict with the Constitution, which, by denying a right of protection to a vast property in the Southern States, overthrew the equality of the States, and passed all the States of the South to a state of outlaw, it was perceived that a new class of questions would arise. The extent of the reserved powers of the States was the first great question, and the power of the general government to use military force upon the people of a sovereign State undertaking to resume the powers delegated in the Consti tution of the United States— to enforce obedience to the mandates of the Government of the Union was the next great question. On the first, that is on the power of a State to secede, there was soon developed an irreconcilable difference of opin ion. On the power to coerce a State to remain in, or to return to the Union, there were found to be unanimity and harmony. Hence it was, fellow-citi zens, that I continued a member of the Cabinet af ter the delivery of the President's message. I differ ed with him in his argument on the right of secession. 64 I agreed with him in denying the right of coercion. I agreed with him, that it was his duty to enforce the the law, and to hold and preserve the public proper ty. And believing as I did, that in enforcing law in this free Government, where our fathers took the greatest pains to subordinate the military to the civil authorities, the army and navy could only be called on as posse comitatus to aid the civil officers in executing the processes and orders issuing from the civil magistrates. And that in preserving prop erty his duty and his power only extended to a resistance to all marauders, to the driving back and defeating all the approaches of mobs and unlawful and unauthorized combinations of individuals. With an ardent desire to preserve peace, to avoid all conflict, and to give a full and free opportunity in all sections for the public opinon to develop itself, so that if possible our institutions might be preserv ed I retained my place. "Looking at the subject practically, I believed with a due exercise of caution and moderation, conflict could be avoided. Without a civil magis trate there could be no process ; without a writ or process there could be no arraignment and no justi fication for the calling in the military force, and hence enforcing the laws was an impossibility, inas much as thjr*machinery for its accomplishments was wanting ! ^Forts had been erected within the limits of the States with their consent, for the purpose of enabling the United States to fulfil its duties to pro tect the States, by repelling invasion and sup pressing insurrection. To hold a fort as a menace upon a State, with a view of controlling her political action or of endangering her power, was such a per version of the grant of jurisdiction by the States, that, in the judgment of all true men, it would be viewed as a crying outrage, an act of war. The forts, then, in the Seceding States can be rightfully regarded only as property. To hold them as mili tary posts, to thus threaten the peace of the State is at war with the theory of our Government. I 510 THE SOUTHERN REBELLION. " With these opinions conscientiously entertained, and believing, as I did, that any attempt to reenforce the forts in Charleston Harbor would be viewed by the people of South Carolina as an act of hostility, and would, therefore, be resisted, my opposition to an order for reenforceraent was early taken and uniformly maintained. When the question first arose, the President decided to refuse such an order, and General Cass withdrew from the Cabinet on account of the refusal*. The President then agreed with cer tain gentlemen, undertaking to represent South Carolina, that no change should be made in the military status of the forts, and when Major Ander son, adopting an extreme measure of war, only jus tified in the presence of an overpowering enemy, spiked his guns and burned his gun-carriages, and moved with his garrison from Fort Moultrie to Fort Sumter, and thus committed an act of hostility, the President heard of the movement with chagrin and mortification. Governor Floyd considered his honor implicated, unless the garrison under Major Ander son was withdrawn, and when he was refused permission to make that order, he threw up his com mission. On his withdrawal Mr. Holt was trans ferred to the War Departmen as Secretary, adinterim. This assignment was made without consultation with me, and on the day I was advised that Mr. Holt had taken charge of the War Department, knowing hie eagerness to strengthen these forts, I visited the President with my resignation drawn up. He informed me then that the orders for reenforce- ment by the Brooklyn had been countermanded, and that no other orders would be issued without the question being first considered and decided in Cabi net. With that promise I was content. Two days afterwards the question was considered, and a de cision was reached, to send a messenger to Major Anderson to learn his true situation and wishes. As to what else was done my lips are sealed, because all Cabinet consultations are confidential. Of one thing be assured, that so hostile had I been from the beginning, to the sending of additional troops to the forts in Charleston, that there is not one member of the Cabinet who would have expected me to con tinue one hour in its councils after an affirmative de cision had been made by the President. I did not understand such a conclusion to have been adopted, and the first intimation I had that additional troops bad been sent to Fort Sumter was on the morning of the Sth of January. That day I severed my con nection with the Cabinet. My ground for doing so was two-fold. First, on account of the manner of the issuance of the order ; and, second, on account of the order itself. On the Saturday previous I had telegraphed my old friend, Judge Longstreet, that no troops had been ordered, and that if no attack had been made on Fort Sumter none, in my opinion, would be ordered, and urged him to exert his influ ence with the South Carolina authorities to make ns attack on Fort Sumter. This dispatch was sent in good faith. Judge Longstreet acted effectively in preventing an attack ; and while thus engaged to preserve peace, the Secretary of War was actually engaged in an effort, by stealth, to charter a steamer, put on board his soldiers, clear the vessel for New Orleans, to escape surprise, and thus, by strategy, strengthen a fort, to threaten the peace of South Carolina. As I was writing my resignation I sent a dispatch to Judge Longstreet that the Star of the West was coming with reenforcements. The troops were thus put on their guard, and when the Star of the West arrived, she received a warm welcome from booming cannon, and soon beat a retreat. I was rejoiced the vessel was not sunk, but I was still more rejoiced that the concealed trick, first conceived by General Scott, and adopted by Secretary Holt, but countermanded by the President when too late, proved a failure." Mr. Holt, upon reading this statement, prepared the following scathing rebuke and expose, which was published in the National Intelligencer, of March 6th : " To the Editors of the National Intelligencer : " Gentlemen — In your issue of Saturday last you published an extract from an address recently made to the people of Mississippi, by the Honorable Jacob Thompson, late Secretary of the Interior, in which the following language occurs : " ' As I was writing my resignation, I sent a dispatch to Judge Longstreet that the Star of the West was coming with reenforcements. The troops were then put on their guard, and when tbe Star of the West arrived she received a warm welaitie from booming cannon, and soon beat a retreat. I was rejoiced the vessel was not sunk, but I was still more rejoiced that the concealed trick, first conceived by General Scott, and adopted by Secretary Holt, but c-ountL-rmanded by the President when too late, proved a failure.' " We have here a distinct and exultant avowal, on the part of the honorable' Secretary, that, while yet a member of the Cabinet, he disclosed to those in open rebellion against the United States inform ation which he had derived from his official position and which he held under the seals of a confidence that, from the beginning of our history as a nation, had never been violated. This step not merely en dangered the highest public interests, but put in im minent jeopardy the lives of two hundred and fifty innocent men, who had never wronged the honor able Secretary, and who, in proceeding to Charleston Harbor, were simply obeying the lawful command of their superior officers. The armed enemies of the Government he was serving, under the solemn sanctions of an oath, were, as he declares, ' thus put upon their guard,' and the frail vessel that was bear ing succor to its friends ' received a warm welcome SECRET HISTORY OF BUCHANAN'S ADMINISTRATION, 511 from booming cannon.' It could not be less than offensive to the heart and to the intelligence of the American people to comment gravely on this humi liating transaction. Its true character has already been determined by the public voice, and that voice will doubtless find its echo in the judgment of history. " The reference in the concluding sentence of the paragraph is not to the reenforcement which had been contemplated by the Brooklyn, but to that which was attempted by the Star of the West. This is denounced as ' a concealed trick, first conceived by General Scott, and adopted' — of course with a knowledge of its character — ' by Secretary Holt,' and the impression left upon the mind of the reader is, that as soon as the President became aware of the ' trick' it was countermanded by him, but too late. If it was not designed to make this impression, then the animadversion of the Honorable Seeretary would lose most if not all its point, as it was his evi dent purpose to sharpen his censure of General Scott and myself, by leaving it to be inferred that our action had been without the sanction of the President. As the effort to reenforce Fort Sumter was the most responsible act of the War Depart ment during my brief connection with its Adminis tration, it is due alike to the public and to my own reputation that the calumnious imputation cast npon it by the paragraph quoted should be promptly met and refuted. That refutation will be furnished by the following correspondence : " * Washington, January 8, 1861. « < Sir— It is with extreme regret I have just learned that additional troops have been ordered to Charleston. This subject has been frequently discussed in Cabinet Council ; and when, on Monday night, 31st of December ultimo, the order for reenforcements to Fort Sumter were counter manded, I distinctly understood from you that no order of the kind would be made without being previously considered and decided in Cabinet. It is true that on Wednesday, Jan uary 2d, this subject was again discussed in Cabinet, but cer tainly no conclusion was reached, and the War Department was not justified in ordering reenforcements without some thing more than was then said. I learn, however, this morning, for the first time, that the steamer Star of the West sailed from New York, last Saturday night, whh 250 men, under Lieutenant Bartlett, bound for Fort Sumter. Under these circumstances I feel myself bound to resign my com mission, as one of your constitutional advisers, into your hands. " ' With high respect, your obedieut servant, '"J. THOMPSON. " ' His Excellency Jambs Buchanan, 'President of the United States.' " ' Washington, January 9, 1881. « ¦ Sir— I have received and accepted your resignation, on yesterday, of the office of Secretary of the Interior. " ' On Monday evening, 31st December, 1860, I suspended the orders which had been issued by the War and Navy De partments to send the Brooklyn with reenforcements to Fort Sumter. Of this I informed you ou the same evening. I stated to you my reason for this suspension, which you knew, from its nature, would be speedily removed. In con sequence of your request, however, I promised that these orders should not be renewed 'l without being previously considered and decided in Cabinet." This promise was faithfully observed on my part. In order to carry it into effect I called a special Cabinet meeting on Wednesday, 2d January, 1861, in which the question of sending reenforce ments to Fort Sumter was amply discussed both by yourself and others. The decided majority of opinion was against you. At this moment the answer of the South- Carolina " Commissioners" to my communication to them of 31st De cember was received and read. It produced much indigna tion among the members of the Cabinet After a further brief conversation I employed the following language : "It is now all over, and reenforcements must be sent." Judge Blade said, at the moment of my decision, that, after this letter, the Cabinet would be unanimous, and I heard no dis senting voice. Indeed, tbe spirit and lone of the letter left no doubt on my mind that Fort Sumter would be imme diately attacked, and hence the necessity of sending reen forcements there without delay. " ' While you admit " That en Wednesday, January 2d, this subject was again discussed in Cabinet," you say, " but certainly no conclusion was reached, and the War Depart ment was not justified in ordering reenforcements without something more than was then said." You are certainly mistaken in aileging that " no cdVclusion was reached." In this your recollection is entirely different from that of your four oldest colleagues in the Cabinet. Indeed, my language was so unmistakable that the Secretaries of War and tbe Navy proceeded to act upon it without any further inter course with myself than what you heard, or might have heard me say. You had been so emphatic in opposing these reenforcements, that I thought yon would resign in conso- quence of my decision. I deeply regret that you have been mistaken in point of fact, though I believe honestly mistaken. Still it is certain you have not the less been mistaken. " ' Yours, very respectfully, " ' JAMK BUCHANAN. " ' Hon. Jacob Thompson.' " Nothing can be added to the force and distinct ness of the testimony thus borne by the President and the four oldest members of his Cabinet. So far from the movement for the reenforcement of Fort Sumter having been a ' concealed trick,' it was re peatedly and frankly discussed in the Cabinet, and, when a conclusion was finally reached, the resolu tion of the President was announced in terms as emphatic as he probably ever addressed to one of his Secretaries. ' It is now all over, and reenforee- ments must be sent,' was his language ; and these words were spoken in open council, the Honorable Secretary of the Interior himself being present. It was in strict accordance with the command thus given that the Star of the West was chartered and the reenforcements sent forward. In all these cir cumstances the public will look in vain for any traces of ' trick' on the part of General Scott or of the Secretary of war. It is true that, in the hope of avoiding a waste of human life, an endeavor was made to ' conceal' the expedition from the hostile troops in charge of the forts and batteries in 512 THE SOUTHERN REBELLION, Charleston harbor ; but this endeavor the vigilance and zeal of the Secretary defeated. "The ' countermand' spoken of was not more cor dially sanctioned by the President than it was by General Scott and myself. It was given, not be cause of any dissent from the order on the part of the President, but because of a letter received that day from Major Anderson, stating, in effect, that he regarded himself as secure in his position, and yet more because of intelligence which, late on Saturday evening reached the Department, that a heavy bat tery had been erected among the sand-hills at the entrance to Charleston harbor, which would prob ably destroy any unarmed vessel (and such was the Star of the West) which might attempt to make its way up to Fort Sumter. This important information satisfied the Government that there was no present necessity for sending reenforcements, and that, when sent, they should go, not in a vessel of com merce, but of war. Hence the countermand was dispatched by telegraph to New York, but the ves sel had sailed a short time before it reached the officer to whom it was addressed. " This plain statement is submitted in the belief that, before an intelligent and candid public, it will afford a complete vindication of my conduct, as well as of the conduct of that illustrious patriot and sol dier, Lieutenant - General Scott, whose stainless honor certainly needs no defense at my hands against the aspersions of the present or of any other assailant. " It is well known that a persistent falsification of the policy and conduct of the late Administration in its relations to the South, has proved a potent in strumentality for inflaming the popular mind of that distracted portion of our country, thus giving an ever-increasing impetus to the revolution ; and the fact that the telegraph and the press have been under the absolute direction of thoso controlling this movement, has rendered resistance to this in strumentality impracticable. Whatever purposes, therefore, were expected to be accomplished by the circulation of the paragraph which has been expos ed, will probably be attained, since the antidote now offered cannot possibly pursue the poison into all its ramifications. - If, however, this explanation shall seem to win the confidence of those true-heart ed patriots who still love our Union better than all the spoils and power which revolution can promise, then I shall little regard the condemnation of men who, for the last two months, have incessantly de nounced me throughout the South, simply and solely because I have refused to blacken my soul with per jury, by betraying the Government of my country, while in its service. " Washington, March 5th, 1861. J. HOLT." THE SECESSION PLOT. Among the documents found at the taking of Fernandina, Florida, by the Union forces, was the following letter from Yulee, of Florida, giving the results of the Conference of Southern Congressmen, held in Washington on the evening of January 6th, 1861— referred to on pages 175-176 of this volume: " Washinqton, January 7, 1861. " My dbak Sir : On the other side is a copy of resolutions adopted at a consultation of the Senators from the seceding States — in which Geor gia, Alabama, Louisiana, Arkansas, Texas, Missis sippi, and Florida were present. " The idea of the meeting was that the States should go out at once, and provide for the early organization of a Confederate Government, not later than 15th February. This time is allowed to enable Louisiana and Texas to participate. It seemed to be the opinion that if we left here, force, loan, and volunteer bills might be passed, which would put Mr. Lincoln in immediate oondition for hostilities — whereas by remaining in our places until the 4th of March, it is thought we can keep the hands of Mr Bu chanan tied, and disable the Republicans from effecting any legislation which will strengthen the hands of the in coming Administration. " The resolutions will be sent by the delegation to the President of the Convention. I have not been able to find Mr. Mallory this morning. Hawkins [the member from Florida] is in Connecticut. I have therefore thought it best to send you this copy of the resolutions. In haste, " Yours truly, D. L. YULEE. " Joseph Finbgan, Esq., (¦ Sovereignty Conference,') Tallahassee, Fla." The resolutions referred to in this letter read as follows : " Resolved, 1. That in our opinion each of the Southern States should, as soon as may be, seoedefrotn the Union. " Resolved, 2. That provision should be made for a Con vention to organize a Confederacy of the seceding State*, the Confederacy to meet no later than the 15th of February, at the city of Montgomery, in the State of Alabama. "Resolved, That in view of the hostile legislation that is threatened against the Seceding States, and which may bd consummated before the 4th of March, we ask instaictions whether the delegations are ta remain in Ctmg}-et until that dote, for the purpose of defeating such legislation " R solved, That a Committee, be and are hereby appointed, consisting of Messrs. Davis, Slidell, and Mallory, to carry out the objects of this meeting." CONSTITUTION OF THE CONFEDERATE 513 CONSTITUTION OF THE CONFEDERATE STATES OF AMERICA. We, the people of the Confederate States, each State acting in its sovereign and independent char acter, in order to form a permanent federal govern ment, establish justice, insure domestic tranquillity, and secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity — invoking the favor and guidance of Almighty God — do ordain and establish this Consti tution for the Confederate States of America : ARTICLE I.— Section 1. All legislative powers herein delegated shall be vested iu u Congress of the Confederate States, which shall consist of a Senate and House of Rep resentatives. Section 2. 1. The House of Representatives shall be com posed of members chosen every second year by the people of the several States ; and the electors in each State shall be citizens of the Confederate States, and have the qualifications requisite for electors of the most numerous branch of the State Legislature ; but no person of foreign birth, not a citizen of the Confederate States, shall be allowed to vote for any officer, civil or political, State or Federal. 2. No person shall be a Representative who shall not have attained the age of twenty-five years, and be a citizen of the Confederate States, and who shall not, when elected, be an inhabitant of that State in which he 6hall be chosen. 3. Representatives and direct taxes shall be ap portioned among the several States, which may be included within this Confederacy, according to their respective numbers, which shall be determined, by adding to the whole number of free persons, inclu ding those bound to service for a term of years, and excluding Indians not taxed, three-fifths of all slaves. The actual enumeration shall be made within three years after the first meeting of the Congress of the Confederate States, and within every subsequent term of ten years, in such manner as they shall, by law, direct. The number of Representatives shall not exceed one for every fifty thousand, but each State shall have at least one Representative ; and until such enumeration shall be made, the State of South Carolina shall be entitled to choose six ; the State of Georgia ten ; the State of Alabama nine ; the State of Mississippi seven ; the State of Louisi ana six, and the State of Texas six. 4. When vacancies happen in the representation from any State, the executive authority thereof shall issue writs of election to fill such vacancies. 5. The House of Representatives shall choose their Speaker and other officers ; and shall have the sole power of impeachment ; except that any judicial or other federal officer resident and acting solely within 65 the limits of any State, maybe impeached by a vote of two-thirds of both branches of the Legislature thereof. Section 3. 1. The Senate of the Confederate States shall be composed of two Senators from each State, chosen for six years by the Legislature thereof, at the regu lar session next immediately preceding the com mencement of the term of service ; and each Senator shall have one vote. 2. Immediately after they shall be assembled, in consequence of *the first election, they shall be divided as equally as may be into three classes. The seats of the Senators of the first class shall be vacated at the expiration of the second year ; of the second class at the expiration of the fourth year, and of the third class at the expiration of the sixth year ; and that one-third may be chosen every second year ; and if vacancies happen by resignation, or otherwise, during the recess of the Legislature of any State, the executive thereof may make temporary appoint ments until the next meeting of the Legislature, which shall then fill suoh vacancies. 3. No person shall be a Senator who shall not have attained the age of thirty years, and be a citi zen of the Confederate States ; and who shall not, when elected, be an inhabitant of the State for which he shall be chosen. i. The Vice-President of the Confederate States shall be President of the Senate, but shall have no vote, unless they be equally divided. 5. The Senate shall choose their other officers ; and also a President pro tempore in the absence of the Vice-President, or when he shall exercise the office of President of the Confederate States. 6. The Senate shall have the sole power to try all impeachments. When sitting for that purpose, they shall be on oath or affirmation When the Presi dent of the Confederate States is tried, the Chief Justice shall preside ; and no person shall be con victed without the concurrence of two-thirds of the members present. 7. Judgment in cases of impeachment shall not extend further than to removal from office, and dis qualification to hold and enjoy any office of honor, trust, or profit, under the Confederate States ; but the party convicted shall, nevertheless, be liable and subject to indictment, trial, judgment, and punishment according to law. Section 4. 1. The times, places, and manner of holding the elections for Senators and Representatives, shall be prescribed in each State by the Legislature thereof, subject to the provisions of this Constitution ; but the Congress may, at any time, by law, make or al ter such regulations, except as to the time and places of choosing Senators. 514 THE SOUTHERN REBELLION. 2. The Congress shall assemble at least once in every year ; and such meeting shall be on the first Monday in December, unless they shall, by law, ap point a different day. Section 5. 1. Each House shall be the judge of the elec tions, returns and qualifications of its own members, and a majority of each shall constitute a quorum to do business ; but a smaller number may adjourn from day to day, and may be authorized to compel the attendance of absent members, iu such manner and under such penalties as each House may provide. 2. Each House may determine the rules of its pro ceedings, punish its members for disorderly be havior, and, with the consent of two-thirds of the whole number, expel a member. 3. Each House shall keep a journal of its proceed ings, and from time to time publish the same, ex cepting such parts as may, in their judgment, re quire secresy, and the yeas and nays of the mem bers of either House, on any question, shall, at the desire of one-fifth of those present, be entered on the journal. 4. Neither House, during the session of Con gress, shall, without the consent of the other, ad journ for more than three days, nor to any other place than that in which the two Houses shall be sitting. Section 6. 1. The Senators and Representatives shall receive a compensation for their services, to be ascertained by law, and paid out of the treasury of the Con federate States. They shall, in all cases, except treason, and breach of the peace, be privileged from arrest during their attendance at the session of their respective Houses, and in going to and re turning from the same ; and for any speech or de bate in either House they shall not be questioned in any other place. 2. No Senator or Representative shall, during the time for which he was elected, be appointed to any civil office under the authority of the Confederate States, which shall have been created, or the emol uments whereof shall have been increased during snch time; and no person holding any office under the Confederate States shall be a member of either House during his continuance in office. Bnt Con gress may, by law, grant to the principal officer in each of the Executive Departments a seat upon the floor of either House, with the privilege of discuss ing any measures appertaining to his department. Section 7. 1. All bills for raising revenue shall originate in the House of Representatives ; but the Senate may propose or concur with amendments as on other bills. 2. Every bill which shall have passed both Houses, shall, before it becomes a law, be presented to the President of the Confederate States ; if he ap prove, he shall sign it; but if not, he shall return it with his objections to that House in which it shall have originated, who shall enter the objections at large on their journal, and proceed to reconsider it. If, after such reconsideration, two-thirds of that House shall agree to pass the bill, it shall be sent, together with the objections, to the other House, by which it shall likewise be reconsidered, and if approved by two-thirds of that House, it shall be come a law. But in all such cases, the votes of both Houses shall be determined by yeas and nays, and the names of the persons voting for and against the bill shall be entered on the journal of each House respectively. If any bill shall not be re turned by the President within ten days (Sundays excepted) after it shall have been presented to him, the same shall be a law. in like manner as if he had signed it, unless the Congress, by their adjourn ment, prevent its return; in which case it shall not be a law. The President may approve any appro priation and disapprove any other appropriation in the same bill. In such case he shall, in signing the bill, designate the appropriations disapproved; and shall return a copy of such appropriations, with his objections, to the House in which the bill shall have originated ; and the same proceedings shall then be had as in case of other bills disapproved by the President. 3. Every order, resolution, or vote, to which the concurrence of both Houses may be necessary (ex cept on a question of adjournment), shall be pre sented to the President of the Confederate States; and before the same shall take effect, shall be ap proved by him ; or, being disapproved by him, may be re-passed by two-thirds of both Houses accord ing to the rules and limitations prescribed in case of a bill. Section 8. The Congress shall have power : 1. To lay and collect taxes, duties, imposts, and excises, for revenue necessary to pay the debts, pro vide for the common defense and carry on the Gov ernment of the Confederate States ; but no bounties shall be granted from the treasury ; nor shall any duties or taxes on importations from foreign nations be laid to promote or foster any branch of industry; and all duties, imposts, and excises shall be uniform throughout the Confederate States. 2. To borrow money on the credit of the Confede rate States. 3. To regulate commerce with foreign nations, and CONSTITUTION OF THE CONFEDERATE STATES. 515 among the several States, and with the Indian tribes ; but neither this nor any other clause contained in the Constitution shall ever be construed to delegate the power to Congress to appropriate money for any internal improvement intended to facilitate commerce, except for the purpose of furnishing lights, beacons, and buoys, and other aids to navi gation upon the coasts, and the improvement of harbors, and the removing of obstructions in river navigation ; in all which cases such duties shall be laid on the navigation facilitated thereby as may be necessary to pay the costs and expenses thereof. 4. To establish uniform laws of naturalization and uniform laws ou the subject of bankruptcies through out the Confederate States ; but no law of Congress shall discharge any debt contracted before the pas sage of the same. 5. To coin money, regulate the value thereof and of foreign coin, and fix the standard of weights and measures. 6. To provide for the punishment of counterfeiting the securities and current coin of the Confederate States. 7. To establish post-offices and post-routes ; but the expenses of the Post-Office Department, after the first day of March in the year of our Lord eighteen hundred and sixty-three, shall be paid out of its own revenues. 8. To promote the progress of science and useful arts, by securing, for limited times, to authors and inventors, the exclusive right to their respective writings and discoveries. 9. To constitute tribunals inferior to the Supreme Court. 10. "To define and punish piracies and felonies committed on the high seas, and offenses against the law of nations. 11. To declare war, grant letters of marqne and reprisal, and make rules concerning captures on land and water. 12. To raise and support armies; but no appro priation of money to that use shall be for a longer term than two years. 13. To provide and maintain a navy. 14. To make rules for the government and regula tion of the land and naval forces. 15. To provide for calling forth the militia to exe cute the laws of the Confederate States, suppress insurrection, and repel invasions. 16. To provide for organizing, arming, arid dis ciplining the militia, and for governing such part of them as may be employed in the service of the Con federate States ; reserving to the States respectively, the appointment of the officers, and the authority of training the militia according to the discipline pre scribed by Congress. 17. To exercise exclusive legislation, in all cases whatsoever, over such district (not exceeding ten miles square) as may, by cession of one or more States and the acceptance of Congress, become the seat of the Government of the Confederate States, and to exercise like authority over all places pur chased by the consent of the Legislature of the State in which the same shall be, for the erection of forts, magazines, arsenals, dockyards, and other needful buildings ; and 18. To make all laws which shall be necessary and proper for carrying into execution the foregoing powers, and all other powers vested by this Consti tution in the Government of the Confederate States, or in any department or officer thereof. Section 9. 1. The importation of negroes of the African race, from any foreign country other than the slaveholding States or Territories of the United States of America, is hereby forbidden ; and Congress is required to pass such laws as shall effectually prevent the same. 2. Congress shall also have power to prohibit the introduction of slaves from any State not a member of, or Territory not belonging to, this Confederacy. 3. The privilege of the writ of habeas corpus shall not be suspended, unless when in cases of re bellion or invasion the public safety shall require it. 4. No bill of attainder, or ex post facto law, or law denying or impairing the right of property in negro slaves, shall be passed. 5. No capitation or other direct tax shall be laid unless in proportion to the census or enumeration hereinbefore directed to be taken. 6. No tax or duty shall be laid on articles export ed from any State, except by a vote of two-thirds of both Houses. 7. No preference shall be given, by any regula tion of commerce or revenue, to the ports of one State over those of another. 8. No money shall be drawn from the treasury, but in consequence of appropriations made by law ; and a regular statement and account of the receipts and expenditures of all public money shall be pub lished from time to time. 9. Congress shall appropriate no money from the treasury, except by a vote of two-thirds of both Houses, taken by yeas and nays, unless it be asked and estimated for by some one of the Heads of De partments, and submitted to Congress by the Presi dent ; or for the purpose of paying its own expenses and contingencies ; or for the payment of claims against the Confederate States, the justice of which shall have been judicially declared by a tribunal for the investigation of claims against the Government, which it is hereby made the duty of Congress to establish. 516 THE SOUTHERN REBELLION. 10. All bills appropriating money shall specify in federal currency the exact amount of each appro priation, and the purposes for which it is made ; and Congress shall grant no extra compensation to any public contractor, officer, agent, or servant, after such contract shall have been made or such service rendered. 11. No title of nobility shall be granted by the Confederate States ; and no person holding any office of profit or trust under them shall, without the consent of the Congress, accept of any present, emoluments, office, or title of any kind whatever, from any king, prince, or foreign State. 12. Congress shall make no law respecting an es tablishment of religion, or prohibiting the free ex ercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press ; or the right of the people peace ably to assemble and petition the Government for a redress of grievances. 13. A well-regulated militia being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed. 14. No soldier shall, in time of peace, be quarter ed in any house without the consent of the owner ; nor in time of war, but in a manner to be pre scribed by law. 15. The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects against unrea sonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated ; and no warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by an oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized. 16. No person shall be held to answer for a cap ital or otherwise infamous crime, unless on a pre sentment or indictment of a grand jury, except in cases arising in the land or naval forces, or in the militia, when in actual service, in time of war or public danger; nor shall any person be subject for the same offense to be twice put in jeopardy of life and limb ; nor be compelled, in any criminal case, to be a witness against himself; nor be deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law ; nor shall private property be taken for public use, without just compensation. 17. In all criminal prosecutions, the accused shall enjoy the right to a speedy and public trial, by an impartial jury of the State and district wherein the crime shall have been committed, which district shall have been previously ascertained by law, and to be informed of the nature and cause of the accu sation ; to be confronted with the witnesses against him ; to have compulsory process for obtaining witnesses in his favor, and to have the assistance of counsel for his defense. 18. In suits at common law, where the value in controversy shall exceed $20, the right of trial by jury shall be preserved ; and no fact so tried by a jury shall be otherwise re-examined in any court of the Confederacy, than according to the rules of the common law. 19. Excessive bail shall not be required, nor ex cessive fines imposed, nor cruel and unusual pun ishments inflicted. 20. Every law, or resolution having the force of law, shall relate to but one subject, and that shall be expressed in the title. Section 10. 1. No State shall enter into any treaty, alliance, or confederation ; grant letters of marque and re prisal ; coin money ; make anything but gold and silver coin a tender in payment of debts ; pass any bill of attainder, or ex post facto law, or law impair ing the obligation of contracts ; or grant any title of nobility. 2. No State shall, without the consent of the Con gress, lay any imposts or duties on imports or ex ports, except what may be absolutely necessary for executing its inspection laws ; and the net produce of all duties and imposts, laid by any State on im ports or exports, shall be for the use of the trea sury of the Confederate States ; and all such laws shall be subject to the revision and control of Con gress. 3. No State shall, without the consent of Con gress, lay any duty of tunnage, except ou sea-going vessels, for the improvement of its rivers and har bors navigated by the said vessels ; but such duties shall not conflict with any treaties of the Confed erate States with foreign nations ; and any surplus of revenue thus derived shall, after making such improvement, be paid into the common treasury; nor shall any State kf ep troops or ships-of-war in time of peace, enter into any agreement or compact with another State, or with a foreign power, or en gage in war, unless actually invaded, or in such imminent danger as will not admit of delay. But, when any river divides or flows through two or more States, they may enter into compacts with each other to improve the navigation thereof. ARTICLE II.— Section 1. 1. The executive power shall be invested in a President of the Confederate States of America. He and the Vice-President shall hold their offices for Uhe term of six years ; but the President shall not be re-eligible. The President and Vice-President shall be elected as follows : 2. Each State shall appoint, in such manner as the Legislature thereof may direct, a number of electors equal to the whole number of Senators and Representatives to which the State may be entitled in the Congress ; but no Senator or Representative, J CONSTITUTION OF THE CONFEDERATE STATES. 517 or person holding an office of trust or profit under the Confederate States, shall be appointed an elector. 3. The electors shall meet in their respective States and vote by ballot for President and Vice- President, one of whom, at least, shall not be an inhabitant of the same State with themselves ; they shall name in their ballots the person voted for as President, and in distinct ballots the person voted for as Vice-President ; and they shall make distinct lists of all persons voted for as President, and of all persons voted for as Vice-President, and of the num ber of votes for each, which list they shall sign and certify, and transmit, sealed, to the Government of the Confederate States, directed to the President of the Senate ; the President of the Senate shall, in the presence of the Senate and House of Representa tives, open all the certificates, and the votes shall then be counted; the person having the greatest number of votes for President shall be the Presi dent, if such number be a majority of the whole number of electors appointed ; and if no person have such majority, then, from the persons having the highest numbers, not exceeding three, on the list of those voted for as President, the House of Representatives shall choose immediately, by ballot, the President. But in choosing the President, the votes shall be taken by States, the representation from each State having one vote ; a quorum for this purpose shall consist of a member or members from two-thirds of the States, and a majority of all the States shall be necessary to a choice. And if the House of Representatives shall not choose a President, whenever the right of choice shall devolve upon them, before the fourth day of March next following, then the Vice-President shall act as President, as in case of the death or other constitutional disability of the President. 4. The person having the greatest number of votes as Vice-President shall be the Vice-President, if such number be a majority of the whole number of electors appointed ; and if no person have a ma jority, then, from the two highest numbers on the list, the Senate shall choose the Vice-President ; a quorum for the purpose shall consist of two-thirds of the whole number of Senators, and a majority of the whole number shall be necessary to a choice. 5. But no person constitutionally ineligible to the office of President shall be eligible to that of Vice- President of the Confederate States. 6. The Congress may determine the time of choos ing the electors, and the daymen which they shall give their votes; which day shall be the same throughout the Confederate States. 7. No person except a natural-born citizen of the Confederate States, or a citizen thereof at the time of the adoption of this Constitution, or a citizen thereof born in the United States prior to the 20th of December, 1860, shall be eligible to the office of President ; neither shall any person be eligible to that office who shall not have attained the age of thirty-five years, and been fourteen years a resident within the limits of the Confederate States, as they may exist at the time of his election. 8. In case of the removal of the President from office, or of his death, resignation, or inability to discharge the powers and duties of the said office, the same shall devolve on the Vice-President; and the Congress may, by law, provide for the case of removal, death, resignation, or inability of the President and Vice-President, declaring what officer shall then act as President, and such officer shall act accordingly until the disability be removed, or a President shall be elected. 9. The President shall, at stated times, receive for his services a compensation, which shall neither be increased nor diminished during the period for which he shall have been elected ; and he shall not receive, within that period, any other emolument from the Confederate States, or any of them. 10. Before he enters on the execution of his office, he shall take the following oath or affirmation : " I do solemnly swear [or affirm] that I will faith fully execute the office of President of the Confed erate States, and will, to the best of my ability, preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution thereof." Section 2. 1. The President shall be Commander-in-Chief of the army and navy of the Confederate States, and of the militia of the several States when called into the actual service of the Confederate States ; he may require the opinion, in writing, of the principal officer in each of the Executive Departments upon any subject relating to the duties of their respective offices ; and he shall have power to grant reprieves and pardons for offenses against the Confederate States, except in cases of impeachment. 2. He shall have power, by and with the advice and- consent of the Senate, to make treaties, pro vided two-thirds of the Senators present concur ; and he shall nominate, and, by and with the advice and consent of the Senate, shall appoint Embassa dors, other public Ministers and Consuls, Judges of the Supreme Court, and all other officers of the Con federate States whose appointments are not herein otherwise provided for, and which shall be estab lished by law ; but the Congress may, by law, vest the appointment of such inferior officers, as they think proper, in the President alone, in the courts of law, or in the Heads of Departments. 3. The principal officer in each of the Executive Departments, and all persons connected with the diplomatic service, may be removed from office at the pleasure of the President. All other civil 518 THE SOUTHERN REBELLION, officers of the Executive Department may be re moved at any time by the President, or other ap pointing power, when their services are unnecessary, or for dishonesty, incapacity, inefficiency, miscon duct, or neglect of duty ; and when so removed, the removal shall be reported to the Senate, together with the reasons therefor. 4. The President shall have power to fill all va cancies that may happen during the recess of the Senate, by granting commissions which shall expire at the end of their next session ; but no person re jected by the Senate shall be reappointed to the same office during their ensuing recess. Section 3. 1. The President shall, from time to time, give to the Congress information of the state of the Con federacy, and recommend to their consideration such measures as he shall judge necessary and ex pedient ; he may, on extraordinary occasions, con vene both Houses, or either of them ; and in case of disagreement between them, with respect to the time of adjournment, he may adjourn them to such time as he shall think proper ; he shall receive Em bassadors and other public Ministers ; he shall take care that the laws be faithfully executed, and shall commission all the officers of the Confederate States. Section 4. 1. The President, Vice-President, and all civil officers of the Confederate States, shall be removed from office on impeachment for, and conviction of, treason, bribery, or other high crimes and misde meanors. ARTICLE III.— Section 1. 1. The judicial power of the Confederate States shall be vested in one Superior Court, and in such Inferior Courts as the Congress may from time to time ordain and establish. The Judges, both of the Supreme and Inferior Courts, shall hold their offices during good behavior, and shall, at stated times, re ceive for their services a compensation, which shall not be diminished during their continuance in office. Section 2. 1. The judicial power shall extend to all cases arising under this Constitution, the laws of the Con federate States, and treaties made, or which shall be made, under their authority ; to all cases affect ing Embassadors, and other public Ministers and Consuls ; to all cases of admiralty and maritime ju risdiction ; to controversies to which the Confede rate States shall be a party ; to controversies be- ' tween two or more States ; between a State and citizens of another State where the State is plaintiff ; between citizens claiming lands under grants of dif ferent States, and between a. State or the citizens thereof, and foreign States, citizens or subjects ; but no State shall be sued by a citizen or subject of any foreign State. 2. In all cases affecting Embassadors, other pub lic Ministers and Consuls, and those in which a State shall be a party, the Supreme Court shall have original jurisdiction. In all the other cases before mentioned, the Supreme Court shall have appellate jurisdiction, both as to law and fact, with such ex ceptions and'under such regulations as the Congress shall make. 3. The trial of all crimes, except in cases of im peachment, shall be by jury, and such trial shall be held in the State where the said crimes shall have been committed ; but when not committed within any State, the trial shall be at such place or places as the Congress may by law have directed. Section 3. 1. Treason against the Confederate States shall consist only in levying war against them, or in ad hering to their enemies, giving them aid and com fort. No person shall be convicted of treason un less- on the testimony of two witnesses to the samo overt act, or on confession in open court. 2. The Congress shall have power to declare the punishment of treason ; but no attainder of treason shall work corruption of blood or forfeiture except during the life of the person attainted. ARTICLE IV.— Section 1. 1. Full faith and credit shall be given in each State to the public acts, records and judicial pro ceedings of every other State. And the Congress may> by general laws, prescribe the manner in which such acts, records, and proceedings shall be proved, and the effect thereof. Section 2. 1. The citizens of each State shall be entitled to all the privileges and immunities of citizens in the several States, and shall have the right of transit and sojourn in any State of this Confederacy, with their slaves and other property ; and the right of property in said slaves shall not be thereby im paired. 2. A person charged in any State with treason, felo ny, or other crime against the laws of such State, who shall flee from justice, and be found in another State, shall, on demand of the executive authority of the State from which he fled, be delivered up to be re moved to the State having jurisdiction of the crime. 3. No slave or other person held to service or la bor in any State or Territory of the Confederate States, under the laws thereof, escaping or lawfully carried into another, shall, in consequence of any law or regulation therein, be discharged from such ser vice or labor ; but shall be delivered up on claim of the party to whom such slave belongs, or to whom such service or labor may be due. Section 3. 1. Other States may be admitted into this Confede- A IP- CONSTITUTION OF THE CONFEDERATE STATES. 519 racy by a vote of two-thirds of the whole House of Representatives, and two-thirds of the Senate, the Senate voting by States ; but no new State shall be formed or erected within the jurisdiction of any other State ; nor any State be formed by the junc tion of two or more States, or parts of States, with out the consent of the Legislatures of the States concerned as well as of the Congress. 2. The Congress shall have power to dispose of and make all needful rules and regulations concern ing the property of the Confederate States, including the lands thereof. 3. The Confederate States may acquire new terri tory; and Congress shall have power to legislate and provide governments for the inhabitants of all territory belonging to the Confederate States, lying without the limits of the several States ; and may permit them, at such times and in such manner as it may by law provide, to form States to be admitted into the Confederacy. In all such territory, the in stitution of negro slavery, as it now exists in the Confederate States, shall be recognized and pro tected by Congress, and by the territorial govern ment; and the inhabitants of the several Confede rate States and Territories shall have the right to take to such territory any slaves, lawfully held by them in any of the States or Territories of the Con federate States. 4. The Confederate States shall guarantee to every State that now is, or hereafter may become, a member of this Confederacy, a republican form of government, and shall protect each of them against invasion ; and on application of the Legis lature (or of the Executive when the Legislature is not in session), against domestic violence. ARTICLE V.— Section 1. 1. Upon the demand of any three States, legally assembled in their several Conventions, the Con gress shall summon a Convention of all the States, to take into consideration snch amendments to the Constitution as the said States shall concur in sug gesting at the time when the said demand is made ; and should any of the proposed amendments to the Constitution be agreed on by the said Convention- voting by States — and the same be ratified by the Legislatures of two-thirds of the several States, or by Conventions in two-thirds thereof — as the one or the other mode of ratification may be proposed by the General Convention — they shall thenceforward form a part of the Constitution. But no State shall, without its consent, be deprived of its equal repre sentation in the Senate. ARTICLE VI. 1. The Government established by this Constitu tion is the successor of the Provisional Government of the Confederate States of America, and all the laws passed by the latter shall continue in force un til the same shall be repealed or modified ; and all the officers appointed by the same shall remain in office until their successors are appointed and quali fied, or the offices abolished. 2. All debts contracted and engagements entered into before the adoption of this Cotfstitution shall be as valid against the Confederate States under this Constitution as under the Provisional Govern ment. 3. This Constitution, and the laws of the Confed erate States, made in pursuance thereof, and all treaties made, or which shall be made, under the au thority of the Confederate States, shall be the su preme law of the land; and the judges in every State shall be bound thereby, anything in the con stitution or laws of any State to the contrary not withstanding. 4. The Senators and Representatives before men tioned, and the members of the several State Legis latures, and all executive and judicial officers, both of the Confederate States and of the several States, shall be bound by oath or affirmation to support this Constitution ; but no religious test shall ever be required as a qualification to any office or public trust under the Confederate States. 5. The enumeration, in the Constitution, of cer tain rights, shall not be construed to deny or dis parage others retained by the people of the several States. 6. The powers not delegated to the Confederate States by the Constitution , nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States, respectively, or to the people thereof. ARTICLE VII. 1. The ratification of the Conventions of five States shall be sufficient for the establishment of this Constitution between the States so ratifying the same. 2. When five States Bhall have ratified this Con stitution, in the manner before specified, the Con gress, under the Provisional Constitution, shall prescribe the time for holding the election of Presi dent and Vice-President; and for the meeting of the Electoral College ; and for counting the votes, and inaugurating the President. They shall, also, prescribe the time for holdiDg the first election of members of Congress under this Constitution, and the time for assembling the same. Until the as sembling of such Congress, the Congress under the Provisional Constitution shall continue to exercise the legislative powers granted them ; not extend ing beyond the time limited by the Constitution of the Provisional Government. Adopted, unanimously, March llth, 1861. 520 THE SOUTHERN REBELLION, THE "PERSONAL LIBERTY" LAWS OF THE NORTHERN STATES. The following are the various enactments of the Legislatures of the Free States, which the Southern States urged as one of their chief causes of com plaint : " Maine — Provides that no sheriff, or other officer of the State, arrest or detain any person on claim that he is a fugitive slave. The penalty for violat ing the law is a fine not exceeding $1,000, or impris onment not less than one year in the county jail. " New Hampshire — Laws of 1857 — Admits all persons of every color to the rights and privileges of a citizen ; declares slaves, coining or brought into the State, by or with the consent of master, free; declares the attempt to hold any person as a slave within the State, a felony, with a penalty of impris onment not less than one nor more than five years; provided, that the provisions of this section shall not apply to any act lawfully done by any officer of the United States, or other person, in the execution of any legal process. " Vermont — Provides that no court, justice of the peace, or magistrate, shall take cognizance of any certificate, warrant or process under the Fugi tive Slave Law ; provides that no officer, or citizen of the State, shall arrest, or aid or assist in arrest ing, any person for the reason that he is claimed as a fugitive slave ; provides that no officer, or citizen, shall aid or assist in the removal from the State, of any person claimed as a fugitive slave ; provides a penalty of $1,000, or imprisonment five years in State prison, for violating this act,. This act shall not be construed to extend to any citizen of this State acting as a Judge of the Circuit or District Court of the United States, or as Marshal or Deputy Marshal of the District of Vermont, or to any person acting under the command or authority of said courts or marshal. Requires the State attorneys to act as counsel for alleged fugitives ; provides for issuing habeas corpus, and the trial by jury of all questions of fact in issue between the parties. " Connecticut. — ' Every person who shall falsely and maliciously declare, represent, or pretend that any free person, entitled to freedom, is a, slave, or owes service or labor to any person or persons, with intent to procure, or to aid or assist iu procur ing, the forcible removal of such free person from this State, as a slave, shall pay a fine of $5,000, and be imprisoned five years in the Connectieut State prison ;' requires two witnesses to prove that any person is a slave, or owes labor ; a penalty of $5,000 against any person seizing, or causing to be seized, any free person, with intent to reduce him to slav ery ; depositions not to be admitted as evidence ; witnesses testifying falsely liable to $5,000 fine and five years' imprisonment. " Rhode Island — Forbids the carrying away of any person by force out of the State ; forbids any judge, justice, magistrate, or court, from officially aiding in the arrest of a fugitive slave under the Fugitive Slave Law of 1793 or 1850 ; forbids any sheriff or other officer from arresting or detaining any person claimed as a fugitive slave ; provides a penalty of $500, or imprisonment not exceeding-six months, for violating the act. " New Jeesey— Laws of 1846 — Provides for the issuing of a warrant by claimant of fugitive slave ; provides that the application of the agent of claim ant shall be accompanied by the affidavit of claim ant ; prescribes the duties of the magistrate ; pro vides for the trial before the magistrate, but ex cludes the testimony of the owner or other persona interested; grants trial by jury to either party; prescribes the proceeding on trial, and the mode of surrender or discharge of the fugitive ; provides a penalty of not more than $1,000, and imprisonment not more than two years, or both, for violating this act. " Pennsylvania — Laws of 1847 — Provides that no judge or magistrate shall take cognizance of any case under the Fugitive Slave Act of 1793, under a penalty of not less than $500, nor more than $1000 ; forbids any claimant from seizing and carrying away any person in a violent and tumultuous man ner, so as to break the peace, nnder a penalty of not less than $100, nor more than $1,000, and im prisonment not more than six months; secures the right of habeas corpus ; provides a punishment of not less than five, nor more than twelve years for kid napping ; provides a penalty of not less than $500, nor more than $2,000, for selling free negroes, and imprisonment not less than five, nor more than twelve years ; sales of fugitives within the State declared void, and whoever makes such sales for feits $500. " Ohio— Act of Feb. 15th, 1831, prohibits the kid napping of any free black or mulatto with intent to transport him out of the State on any pretense whatever, under a penalty of imprisonment not less than three, nor more than seven years. Laws of 1857, April 17th : ' An act to prevent kidnapping' prohibits any person from arresting, imprisoning, or kidnapping, or forcibly, fraudulently carrying off, or decoying out of the State, any free black or mulatto ; requires all persons claiming any black or mulatto person as a fugitive from labor, to take such fugitive before the proper United States officer, and to prove such claim ; and forbids the forcibly kidnapping, or carrying or decoying away of any fugitive without such proof; affixes a penalty foi 'PERSONAL LIBERTY LAWS" OF NORTHERN STATES. 521 disobeying the law, or imprisonment not less than three, nor more than eight years, and payment of all costs of prosecution. Laws of 1859, April 2d, require judges of election to reject the vote of every person who has a visible and distinct admix ture of African blood; impose a penalty for the violation of the above section of not more than $500, nor less than $200, and imprisonment not more than six months, nor less than one ; impose a fine of not more than $500, nor less than $50, upon any person who shall procure, aid, counsel, or advise any such person to vote. " Michigan — Requires State's Attorneys to act as counsel for fugitives ; grant habeas corpus, and pro vide for trial by jury ; forbids use of jails, or other prisons, to detain fugitives ; provides a punishment of not less than three nor more than five years, for falsely declaring, representing, or pretending any person to be a slave ; provides a fine of not less than $500, nor more than $1,000, and imprisonment iu State prison for five years, for forcibly seizing, or causing to be seized, any free person, with intent to have such person held in slavery ; requires two wit nesses to prove any person to be a slave." " Illinois. — Article 14th of the State Constitution reads as follows : ' The General Assembly shall at its first session under the amended Constitution, pass such laws as shall effectually prohibit free persons of color from immigrating into and settling in this State ; and to effectually prevent the owners of Slaves from bringing them into this State for the purpose of setting them free.' In 1853, a law was passed to carry out the above provision ; Provides that any person bringing into the State a free negro or slave, shall be liable to a fine of not less than $100, nor more than $500, and to imprisonment not more than one year ; Proscribes the proceedings on indictment, and expressly exempts from arrest persons bona fide traveling through the State ; makes it a high misdemeanor for a negro or mulatto to come into the State with intent to reside, with a penalty of $50 ; Provides for the sale of said negro or mulatto for non-payment of the fine, to any one who will pay it for the shortest term of service ; Provides for surrender of persons, proved to be a slave, to the owner ; Defines a mulatto to be one has not less than one-fourth negro blood. " Indiana.— Section 5, Art. 2, of the Constitution provides that ' no negro or mulatto shall have the right of suffrage ;' forbids immigration of negroes and mulattoes, and declares contracts with them void ; declares a marriage void ' when one of the parties is a white person, and the other possessed of oue-eighth or more of negro blood;' forbids any negro or mulatto to come into, settle in, or become an inhabitant of the State ; provides for a registry of negroes and mulattoes, resident in the State prior to November 1st ; declares void all contracts made subsequent to November 1st, 1851 ; forbids any one employing negroes or mulattoes, under a penalty not less than $10, nor more than $500 ; imposes a penalty of not less than $10, nor more than $500, upon any negro or mulatto coming into the State to settle ; declares that no Indian, or person having one-eighth or more of negro blood, shall be per mitted to testify as a witness. " Iowa. — The Constitution confines suffrage, and the right to hold office, to free whites. " The laws exempt negroes and mulattoes from taxation for school purposes — .allow them to testify in courts of justice. "Wisconsin. — R. S., chap. 158, sec. 61, &c.,p. 912, &c, §§ 51, 52, 53 and 54, provide for the issuing of the habeas corpus in favor of persons claimed as fugitive slaves ; direct how proceedings shall be conducted, and grant a trial by jury ; provide a pen alty of $1,000, and imprisonment not more than five nor less than one year, against any person who shall falsely and maliciously declare, represent, or pretend, that any free person within the State is a slave, or owes service or labor, with intent forcibly to remove such person from the State ; require two witnesses to prove a person to be a slave ; depo sitions not to be received in evidence ; judgments under Fugitive Slave Act not to be liens upon real estate." The laws of Pennsylvania and New Jersey were framed before the passage of the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850. They remain upon the statute book unre pealed, and in force, except in so far as the United States Court has declared them in contravention of the law of Congress. THE ALABAMA RESOLUTIONS. Alabama is fairly entitled to the honor of having been the first State to pronounce, officially, for secession. In the Winter session of her Legislature, 1859-60, the following resolutions were adopted : " Whereas, Antislavery agitation, persistently continued in the non-slaveholding States of the Union for more than a third of a century, marked at every stage of its progress by contempt for the obligations of law, and the sanctity of compacts, evincing a deadly hostility to the rights and institu tions of the Southern people, and a settled purpose to effect their overthrow, even by the subversion of the Constitution, and at the hazard of violence and bloodshed ; and whereas, a sectional party, calling itself Republican, committed alike by its own acts and antecedents, and the public avowals and secret machinations of its leaders, to the exe cution of these atrocious designs, has acquired the 522 THE SOUTHERN REBELLION. ascendency in nearly every Northern State, and hopes, by success in the approaching Presidential election, to seize the Government itself; and whereas, to permit such seizure, whose unmis takable aim is to pervert its whole machinery to the destruction of a portion of its members, would be an act of suicidal folly and madness, almost without a parallel in history ; and whereas, the General As sembly of Alabama, representing a people loyally devoted to the Union of the Constitution, but scorn ing the Union which fanaticism would erect upon its ruins, deem it their solemn duty to provide, in advance, the means by which they may escape such peril and dishonor, and devise new securities for perpetuating the blessings of liberty to them selves and their posterity ; therefore, "1. Be it resolved, by the Senate and House of Repre sentatives of Alabama, in General Assembly convened, That npon the happening of the contingency con templated in the foregoing preamble— namely, the election of a President advocating the principles and ac tion of the party in the Northern States calling itself the Republican party, it shall be the duty of the Governor, and he is hereby required, forthwith to issue his proclamation calling upon the qualified voters of this State to assemble on a Monday not more than forty days from the date of said proclamation, at the several places of voting in their respective counties, to elect delegates to a Convention, of the Slate, to consider, determine, and do whatever, in the opinion of said Convention, the rights, interests and honor of the Stale of Alabama require to be done for their protection. " Be it further resolved, That said Convention shall assemble at the State Capital on the second Monday following said election. " Provision was made for the election of County Delegates to this Convention." A bill was also passed authorizing a tax of $200,000 for " arming the State." The collection of this tax, in the summer of 1860, excited much bitterness in some sections of the State. The citizens of Madison county, for instance, met in Convention and passed the following resolves : " Resolved, That we, as freemen, abhor the Military Law passed by our Legislature, and now, in this public manner, denounce the liw as unconstitutional, and subversive of our liberties as freemen. " Resolved, That we will resist this military tax by all lawful means, let it be attempted to be enforced in any manner or shape. " Resolved, That we recommend to all citizens and freemen of the State of Alabama to do as we have done — take a bold and legal stand against the enforcement of the Military Law. " Resolved, That when our State requires our property and lives in defense of what we may consider her honor and the safety of her citizens and their property, we will freely give both ; but we are not willing to surrender up our property, liberty, and lives to an unconstitutional and intolerant act of our Legislature. ' COMPARATIVE STATEMENT OF THREE DECADES OF THE REPRESENTATIVE STRENGTH. 1840. 1850. 1860. New England States : Maine 7 6 5 New Hampshire 4 3 3 Vermont 4 3 2 Massachusetts 10 U 10 Rhode Island 2 2 1 Connecticut 4 4 4 Total 31 29 25 Middle States : New York 33 33 31 New Jersey 5 5 5 Pennsylvania 24 25 23 Ohio 21 31 18 Delaware Ill Maryland 6 6 5 Total 91 91 83 Central Slave States : Virginia 15 13 11 North Carolina 9 8 7 Kentucky 10 10 8 Tennessee 11 10 8 Missouri 6 7 9 Arkansas 1 2 3 Total 51 50 46 Coast Planting States : South Carolina 7 6 4 Georgia : 8 8 7 Florida 0 11 Alabama 7 7 6 Mississippi 4 6 5 Louisiana 4 4 5 Texas 0 2 4 Total 30 33 32 North- Western States : Michigan 3 4 6 Indiana 10 11 11 Illinois 7 9 13 Iowa 0 2 6 Wisconsin 0 3 6 Minnesota 0 0 1 Kansas 0 0 1 Total 20 29 43 Pacific States : California 0 2 3 Oregon 0 0 1 Total 0 2 4 1860, Total Representation 233 CENSUS OF THE UNITED STATES. 523 POPULATION OF THE UNITED STATES FROM 1800 TO 1860. [to illustrate the text — pages 27-28.] Free States 1800 1810 1820 1830 1840 1850 California . .. .... .... .... 165,000 Connecticut 251,002 262,042 275,202 297,675 309,978 370,791 Illinois 12,282 55,211 157,446 476,183 851,470 Indiana 4,875 24,520 147,178 343,031 685,866 988,416 Iowa ... .... .-•• 43,112 192,214 Kansas — — — — — — Maine 151,710 228,705 298,335 399,455 501,793 583,188 Massachusetts 423,246 472,040 523,287 610,408 737,699 994,499 Michigan 4,762 8,896 31,639 217,267 397,654 Minnesota .... ¦ - 6,077 New Hampshire 183,762 214,360 244,161 263,328 284,574 317,964 NowJersey 211,949 245,555 277,575 320,823 373,306 489,555 New York 586,756 959,049 1,372,812 1,918,608 2,428,921 3,097,394 Ohio 45,365 230,760 581,434 937,903 1,519,467 1,980,408 Oregon .... .... •••• .... •--• 13,293 Pennsylvania 602,365 810,091 1,049,458 1,348,233 1,724,033 2,311,786 Rhode Island 69,122 77,031 83,059 97,199 108,830 147,544 Vermont 154,465 217,713 235,764 280,652 291,948 314,120 Wisconsin .... .... .... ••¦• 80,945 305,191 Territories — ¦••• •••• — 72,924 Total ...2,684,616 3,758,910 6,152,372 7,006,399 9,733,922 13,599,488 AtabInSAIES' .... .... 127,901 309,527 590,756 771,671 Arkansas' ... ¦-¦¦ 1*273 30,388 97,574 209,639 ^awarf::-.:-.:-.:-.:-;.::::... 64,273 **> »,«. «<«. ^ ^ Georgia .'.'.'.'.'.'.' 162,101 252,433 340,987 616,823 691,392 905,999 Kentucky'" 220,965 406,611 564,317 687,917 779,828 982,405 S2 .... 76556 153407 215 739 352,411 517,739 {SXEd 341,548 380,546 407 350 447,040 470,019 583,035 Sssippi ¦¦¦ 8850 40352 75 448 136,621 375,651 606,555 Mssouri ... 20845 66 586 140,455 383,702 682,043 North Carolina' '"." '. '.'.'.'... 478,103 555 500 638,829 737,987 753,419 868,903 South ctrona 345 591 415115 ,602 741 681,185 694,398 668,507 Snesste ................ 105,602 261,'727 422,813 681,904 829,210 1,002,625 Tfvid ...- ¦¦•• •-- ¦ ALApvA Virginia"'.'."::::.':::.'.'::.'.' 88o>o 974,622 1,065,379 i,2n;405 1,239,797 imm District Columbia 14|098 24,023 33,039 39,843 43,712 51,687 Total .. 2,621 ;316 3,480,902 4,485,819 5,848,312 7,334,433 9,663,997 IotaI ..5,305,932 7,239,812 9,638,191 12,854,711 17,068,355 23,263,485 Movement of Slave Population. . B32 si2gu Alabama ¦"" l'617 4576 19,935 47,100 Arkansas aiBg 4177 4509. 3,292 2,605 2,290 Delaware 6>153 *'1TT ; 15 501 25 717 39;310 El0" ^ 59404 105,218 149,654 217,531 280,944 381,682 %e0r&%-- ao'JS 80,561 126732 165,213 182,258 210,981 •f^^2 ' 34660 69064 109 588 168 452 244,809 i?uisana -,05'635 111502 107,397 102,994 89,737 90,368 Ma,7la?d-. 10|S iii^ * 196211 s09878 Mississippi S,«9 17,u»» ^^ 2B()91 6g240 87422 Missouri.. . noo'oqR 168824 205,017 245,601 245,817 288,548 North Carohna 133,296 «*,«* « 327 038 mjm South Carolina 146,151 l»B,3b& ^a ^ m Tennessee lifint vt,*oo "i1"' ' 58,161 £?*>?: 345-798 392'5i8 425',153 469',757 449,087- 472,628 Virginia 8*VVZ i'%0% 6 377 6,119 4,694 3,687 District Columbia 3,244 5,395 °>a" ' ' __! 857105 1,163,854- 1,518,930 2,005,469 2,486,326 3,204,051 'population of Free States in 1790, 1,968,465; Slave States, 1,961,372; Slaves, 667,527. 1860 380,016460,151 1,711,753 1,350,941 674,948 107,110628,276 1.231,065 '749,112 172,022 326,072 672,031 3,880,735 2,339,599 52,464 2,906,370 174,621315,116 775,873 220,143 19,128,418 964,296435,427 112,218140,439 1,057,3291,155,713 709.290 687,034791,396 1,182,317 992,667703,812 1,109,847 602,432 1,596,079 75,076 12,315,372 31,443,790 435,132 111,104 1,798 61,753 462,232 225,490 333,010 87,188 436,696114,965331,081402,541275,784 180,682490,887 3,181 3,953,524 GENERA! REFERENCE INDEX A. PAGE. Act of 1795 6 Alien and Sedition Emeute 6 Apportionment for Members of Congress, 1860-70 27-28 Arkansas Legislature Convened 37 Attorney- General's Opinion 66-69 Alabama's Condition in December, 1860 71 Anderson, Major, Position of, in December, 1860 79 Adrian's " Signal" Resolutions 89 Address (by South Carolina) to the Slave- holding States 107-111 Alleghany Arsenal Excitement 115 Alabama Election of Delegates. 116 - Anderson, Major, Last Orders of 125 " " Endorsed by Vote of House of Representatives 179-180 Alabama's Convention Proceedings 195 Ashley's Speech „ 237 Address of Virginia Congressmen to th« Vir ginia People 247 Arkansas Orders a Convention 249 Alley's Speech 287 Adams, Charles Francis, Speech of 324 Arms, Seizure of, in New York 321 Alarms Sounded 348 Acts passed by the Montgomery Congress. .413-416 B. Burr, Aaron, Conspiracy of 8 Border Slave States, Population of. 28 Banks, Condition of, in 1860 41 Brooks, Preston S., Treason of 31 Buchanan's Message, Dec. 4, 1860 65-62 Bell, John, Union Views of 72 Black's, Attorney-General, Opinion ......... 66-69 Brown, Senator, Speech of 123 Benjamin, Senator, Speech of. 151 Baker, Senator, Speeches of 153, 157, 471 65 B. — Continued. PAGE. Bingham's Force Bill 155 Buchanan's Message, January 9, 1861 181 Bigler's Propositions 226 Buchanan and Governor Picken's Correspond ence 253 Buchanan's Letter to the Seceding Senators... 254 Bigler's Speeches 260 Branch Resolution 268 Bingham's Speech 269 Buchanan's Message, January 28 300 Brown, Gov. of Georgia, Orders for Seizure of Northern Vessels 332, 455 Benjamin's Farewell Speech 342 Bouligney's Speech of Loyalty 346 Berryman, Lieut., Disloyalty of 367 Bocock's Speeches 425, 427, 431 Brown's (of Ky.) Speech 429 Bassett's Speech 433 Breckenridge, John C, Speech to the Senate. 478 Buchanan's Last Message 491 Buchanan, Mr., and his Errors 606 c. Conspiracies, History of former 3 Conquest, Schemes of 25 Census of 1860 27-28 Crisis, Monetary, of 1860 41 Charleston, South Carolina, Meetings, Novem ber, 1860 45 Clay's, Henry, Sentiments 52 Cobb's, Howell, Union Sentiments 63 Constitution, The, Its Powers, etc 63 Congress (36th) Assembles 54 Congressional Proceedings.. 54, 74, 87, 119, 149, 176 226, 257, 295, 341, 395, 457 Committee of Thirty-three 63-65 Committee of Thirteen 93 Clingman's Disunion Speeches 63, 343 Crittenden's Union Speeches. . : .64, 176, 475 Cochrane, John, Resolutions of 76 526 GENERAL REFERENCE INDEX, C. — Continued. PAGE. Cobb's, Howell, Resignation 79 Cass', Lewis, Resignation 79 Crisis Committee's Proceedings... 82, 103, 128, 171 208 Campbell, Judge John A., Circular of 86 Crittenden's First Resolutions 90-91 Cushing's, Caleb, Mission to Charleston 105 Committee of Thirteen, Proceedings of 104, 105 Compromise Improbable 118 Charges Against the Republican Party, Specification of 137 " Commissioners" at Washington 143 Correspondence between the President and the South Carolina Commissioners, etc., 143-149 Do., Reports on 479-484 Crittenden's New Propositions 156 " " Rejected 461-477 Committee, Border State 171 Clark's Resolutions 184 Committee, Special, on the Message 185 Cost, to the Union, of the Seceded States. .206, 207 Clay, Clement C, Farewell Speech 258 Cameron's Speeches 261 Corwin's Speech 263 Clemens', Sherrard, Speech. ., 269-272 " " Personal Explanation . . 275 Commission of Inquiry on the Reputed Con spiracy to Seize the Capital 284 Clark's (of Mo.) Speech 285 Compromise, Pressure for 288 Cobb's Farewell Speech 304 Conkiing's Speech 305 Cochrane's, John, Bill to Collect the Revenue 305 Congress of the Seceded States, Proceedings of. 334, 412 Confederate States, Belligerent Attitude of. . 491 Colfax, Schuyler, Speeches of 346 Collamer's Speech 356 Cobb, Howell. Evidences of His Criminality .391-392 Campbell's Speech 405 Conspiracy Committee Reports 405-406 Cabinet of Jefferson Davis 413 Calhoun, John C. , Views of 435 Curtis' Reply to Pryor 459 Convention, National, Proposition for, Re jected 461 Crisis Committee, Proposition of 461 " " adopted 463 Corwin's Amendment to the Constitution 463 " " Final Vote on 467 Corwin's Bills Covering his Propositions 468-9 Closing Scene of Congress 477 Cabinet of Mr. Lincoln 490 D. PACK. Dorr's Rebellion, History of 19 Democratic Convention in 1860 32 Day of Fasting and Prayer Ordered 81 Deception a Settled System 92 Delane's Resolution of Inquiry 93 Declaration of Causes, by South Carolina . . . 96-99 Doolittle's Speeches 120, 435, 437 Davis, Jefferson, Resolutions of, in the United States Senate 150" Douglas vs. the Republican Party 158 Delaware's Conservatism 165 Dix, John A., Secretary of Treasury 171, 221 Davis', Jefferson, Charges against Mr. Buchan an 183 Delaware Legislature Resolves 248 Davis', Jefferson, Farewell Speech in the United States Senate 259, 260 Dnnn and Rust Difficulty 279 Douglas', Stephen A., Speeches of 320, 324, 436 Davis, Henry Winter, Speeches of 352 Democracy Favoring Secession 363 Defiant Attitude of the North-western States . 363 Defence of Washington. Mr. Holt's Letter to the President 364 Dix's Orders 367 Dix's Letters of Finance 389 De Jarnette's Speech 407 Davis', Jefferson, Journey to Montgomery. . . 409 Davis', Jefferson, Inaugural 410-412 Debt of the Country 458 E. Election in 1860. How it was regarded 33 Equality Party 43 Evidences of Floyd's Complicity with the Revo lutionists 103, 115 Evacuation of Fort Moultrie. Incidents of. .124-128 Examination of Charges preferred against the Dominant Party in the North 137-142 Executive Departments in the new Government of South Carolina 167 Everett, Edward, Remarks on original Cost of the Seceded States 206 European Press. Opinions of in January, 1861 223-226, 492-496 English's Resolution 227 Etheridge's Speech 275 Electoral Vote, as announced 372 Endorsement of Government Bonds by the States 389 Evidences of Discontent in the new Confeder acy 417 GENERAL REFERENCE INDEX. 527 E. — Continued. ( PAOE. Evidences of Union Feeling in the new Con federacy 420 "Economist," London, on American Affairs. 225, 494 F. Forts, Garrisons in November, 1860 43 Florida, Governor's Message, November 26, 1860 71 Forts of Charleston Harbor 101-103 Floyd's Orders to Ship Cannon South 115 Fugitive Slave Law. Execution of it in the Northern States 139 Floyd's Defence 152 Force Bill of Mr. Bingham 156 Forts of the United States, Cost of 174 Florida's Convention Proceedings 194 Foreign Relations in January 222 Ferry's Speech 281 Floyd indicted 294 Floyd. Report on his Default 392 Floyd's Protest 394 Fessenden's Speech 396 Fenton's Substitute for the Corwin Resolutions 422 Final Vote on Corwin's Proposition 467 Final Issue, The 504 Floating Battery, Charleston 506 Fugitive Slave Law Unconstitutional. Charles ton Mercury's Admissions on 139 G. Georgia Convention Ordered 35 Gist, Gov., (of S. C.,) Last Message 71 Georgia, Condition in Dec. , 1860 73 Georgia, Plan of Cooperation - 84 Government, Hunter's Scheme of. 185 Georgia Convention Proceedings 196 Garnett's Speeches 233, 429, 439 Gnrley's Speech 235 Gilmer's Speech 285 Georgia Bill of Rights 3W Georgia's Seizures of Northern Ships 331 Green's Speeches 403, 471 Georgia, a Protest from 418 Germans of the North, Voice of 421 H. Hartford Convention Conspiracy 1° Hicks, Gov., (of Maryland,) Position of 29, 40 Hamilton's, Alexander, ViewB of Union 51 H. — Continued. PAGE. Henry, Patrick, Views of the Union 61 Houston, Gov., Resistance to Revolution 73 How the News of South Carolina's Secession was received 99-100 Hicks, Gov., Reply to the Mississippi " Com missioner" 105 Honors to Major Anderson 128 Hanging Men 133 Holt, John, Secretary of War 171, 242 Hunter, United States Senator, Speeches of. 185, 470 Harlan's Speech 187 Holman's Resolutions 228 Speech 235 Hill, of Georgia, Admissions of 242 Hayne, Col. Isaac. "Agent." 244 " " Instructions of 253 " " Final Demand 291 Holt, Secretary of War, Reply to Col. Hayne. 292 Hemphill's Speeches 299 Harris' (of Md.) Speeches 302 Howard's (of Ohio) Speeches 307, 432 Hamilton's (of Texas) Speech 310 Hale, John P., Speeches of. 321, 345 Hughes' Speech 349 Humphrey's Speech. 351 Harris' (of Va.) Speech 352 Hutchins' Speech • 358 Hatton's Speech 358 Holman's Hoosier Plan of Settlement 400 Howard's (of Mich.) Reply to Bocock 432 Howard, (of Mich.,) Speech of 458 Hamlin's Speech to the Senate 478 I. Increase in Population, per centage of 26 Indian Difficulties in Georgia, 1825 15 Iverson's Disunion Speeches 65-75 Interior Department, Robbery of 113 Illinois Preparing for the Crisis 166 Intrigue (Southern) Exposed 175 Illinois Legislature Resolves 290 Irreconcilable Differences 295 Iverson's Farewell Speech 297 Idea, the Southern 435 "Irrepressible Conflict," first avowed by Mr. Calhoun 140 J. ¦ Jefferson, the Father of Nullification 12-13 Jefferson's, Thomas, Views on the Question of Disunion 50 528 GENERAL REFERENCE INDEX, J. — Continued. PAGE. Jackson's, Andrew, Views 78 Johnson's, Andrew, Speeches 91, 349, 472 K. Kansas-Nebraska Imbroglio 20 Kent's, Chancellor, Views of Union 51 Kentucky Sentiment in December, 1860 86-87 K. C. G's, (Knights of the Golden Circle) .. 134-135 Kentucky Legislature 249 Kansas as a State 260-301 Kellogg's Resolutions 310 " " Rejected 461 Killinger's Speech 313 King's Speech 397 Kilgore's Speech 465 Loyal Slave States, Population of 28 Louisiana in December, 1860 74, 86 Lovejoy's " Signal " Resolutions 90 Lincoln's Record on the Slavery Question 140 " Feeling towards the South 142 Letcher, Gov. of Virginia, Message of 163, 246 Louisiana Convention Proceedings 198 Lincoln at Home. His Views 252 Lovejoy's Speeches 278 Leake's - " 284 Lincoln's Position as reported, (Feb. 1st, 1860) 289 Latham's Speech 308 Loyalist from Louisiana, A 346 Logan's Speech 349 Lincoln's Journey from Springfield to Wash ington, Diary of 372-388 Lincoln's Flight by Night 387 Loan, The Twenty-five Million 389 " Bids obtained for 391 Lincoln's Acceptance of Election 464 Lane, of Oregon, Speech of 472 Lincoln's Answers to Douglas 141 M. Missouri Compromise Excitement 14 Middle States, Population of 27 Mississippi Legislature convened 36 Moore, Gov. of Alabama, Views of 37 Magoffin, Gov. of Kentucky, " 37 Mobile, The Declaration of Causes 38 Majority not to rule — Minority to rule 47 M« — Continued. PAGE. McQueen, John, Views of 47 Marshall, John, Chief-Justice, Views of 60 Madison's, James, Views of Union 61 Morris, of Illinois, Resolutions of 90 " " Speech of 235 Maryland, Feeling in December, 1860 73 Memminger's Programme 69-70 Mississippi, Condition in Dec, 1860 71 Magoffin's, Gov., Circular 83 Moultrie Fort, Plan of, etc 101 " Minute-Men " Organizations 133 McKean's Resolution 152 Massachusetts' first Steps 161-2-51 Michigan's " 162 Maine's " , 163 Maryland's Conservatism 163, 248 Missonri.moving 165, 249 Military Movements in Charleston Harbor, in January 168 Mclntyre, Wm., nominated Collector for Charleston 171 . Mississippi Convention Proceedings 193 McClernand's Speeches 228 Mason's Resolutions 242 Magoffin, Gov., of Kentucky, Message of ... . 249 Mallory 's Farewell Speech 258 Mails in the Seceded States. Bill to withdraw 262, 346, 351, 426, 434, 457 Milison's Speeches .265,430 Mason's Speeches 279, 298, 318, 396 Montgomery's " Pledge " 278 McPherson's Speech 279 Mason's Duplicity 298 Morris', Edward Joy, Speech 307 Moore's, of Kentucky, Speech 349 Maynard's Speech S52 Morrison, Capt., Treason of 368 Maffit, Lieut., Loyalty of 368 Michigan State Legislature Resolutions 404 Minnesota's Memorial 404 Morgan, Gov., on the Georgia Seizure of North ern Vessels 456 Missouri Convention 490 N. New England States, Population of. 27 Northwestern States, Population of 27 North Carolina . Legislature 40, 85 Noell's Singular Proposition 76 Northern States, Attitude of. 161-166 Nicholson's Speech 119 New York Legislature Resolutions 197 GENERAL REFERENCE INDEX. 529 IV. — Continued. PAGE. Napoleon's Reputed Conversation with the American Minister 226 Naval Movements in January 243 North Carolina's Conservatism 248 New Jersey for Compromise 251 Nelson's Speech 283 North Carolina at the Montgomery Congress. 336 Navy, Officers of.from ea ch State 368 Navy, Report of Special Committee 431-440 Navy, List of Vessels in 440 Navy, Resignations in 444-445 " News," London, on American Affairs .... 225-493 O. Ordinances of Secession, viz. : South Carolina 94 Mississippi 193 Florida , 194 Alabama 195 Georgia 196 Louisiana 199 Texas 200 Oath of Allegiance of South Carolina 96-166 Officers in the Army and Navy from South Carolina, List of 117 Ohio, First Steps 164 Ordinances passed by the South Carolina Convention 169-170 Overriding of their own State Constitutions. 42, 205 Ohio State Legislature Resolutions 233 Ohio vs. Virginia 274 Outrages perpetrated on Northern Men. . . 333-498 P. Pacific States, Population o. 28 Paim etto Flag first displayed 46 Pinckney's, Chas. Cotesworth, Views 62 Pickens, F. W., Inaugurated 94 Pickens',Governor, Proclamation of South Car olina's Independence 90 Personal Liberty Laws 138 Pryor's Resolution against Coercion 152 Pennsylvania's first steps 162, 251 Postal System of the South. Its Cost 168 Pickens' , G overnor, Special Message 169 Propositions of Border States 172 Pryor, Roger A., Speeches of 192, 301, 434, 459 Photographs of Secession Leaders 201-202 Planter's Confession, A 203 People, The Outlawed 205 P. — Continued. PAGE. Pickens', Gov., Correspondence with Major Anderson 216-218, 253 Polk, United States Senator, Views of 227 Perry's Speech 238 Pryor's Plan of Settlement 245 Peace Conference proposed by Virginia 247 " " Proceedings 359,446 " " Members 290 Powell's Speeches 273, 463 Pottle's Speech. 284 Petition, The Boston 299 Petitions and Memorials ^ .304, 313, 401, 434 Porter, Commander, Patriotism of 366 President-Making, Ceremony of 369 Photographic View of the Floors of Congress. 370 Palmer's Resolutions 399 Peace Conference Scheme of Settlement. . . .451-452 Peace Propositions. Reference to a Commit tee. The Vote 464 Property in Man demanded 323 Queer Case 48 Quotas Contributed by States in support of the Old Confederacy 207 Quarles, (of Tenn.,) Speech of. 313 B. Rebellion, True Cause of 25 Republican Party Feeling, November, 1860. . 44 " " December, I860.. 101 Rhett's, Barnwell, Appeal 44 Resignation of Southern Officers demanded. . . 45 Revenue Laws of South Carolina 112 Robbery of the Interior Department 113 Revolutionary Secret Societies 133 Religious Societies for Secession 136 Republicans in the Minority on a Popular Vote 137 Resolutions of Inquiry .. .156, 161, 184, 263, 356, 358 398, 399 Revenue, Collection of, resisted 167 Republicans in Caucus 173 Rights, Federal, in Property 206 Reports of the Committee of Thirty- three... 208-214 Reagan's Speech 229 Rice's Resolutions: 232 Resignations, Montgomery's Pledge 278 Rust's Difficulty with Dunn 279 Republican Party's Attitude, (Feb. 1st, I860,) 289 Resignations in Army and Navy 366 530 GENERAL REFERENCE INDEX, R. — Continued. PAGE. Resolutions acknowledging the Independence ofthe Seceded States 398 Reign of Violence in the South 420 Ruffin's Speech 431 Rebellion, The. Report of Special Commit tee 484-489 "Review," London. Views of American Affairs 490 South Carolina's Nullification Conspiracy. ... 16 Summary of Historical Events 21, 129 Secession, Objects pf 29 " First Movements for 34 Stephens', A. H., Expositions 30, 338 Secession Sentiment, Spread of 31, 33 Southern Rights Association 40 Sectional Equality Party 43 Story's, Chief- Justice, Views of Union 61 Saulsbury's Union Speech 65 Southern States in December, 1860 69, 74 Sherman, John, Resolutions of 75 " " Speeches of 239 Scott, General Winfield, Prophetic Views of. 10 South Carolina Convention Proceedings. . .94, 107 166 Sumter, Fort — Description of, in December, 1860 103 Southern Confederacy, Plan of 112 " " Steps to Form 166 Seizure of Forts, &c, by South Carolina 121 " Georgia 170,198 " " Alabama 173,195 " " Florida 194 " " Louisiana 200 " " North Carolina 244 South Carolina Commissioners at Washington, Correspondence of 143-149 Stanton's Resolution of Inquiry 154 Seward, Wm. H., Speeches of 44, 187, 315 Secret Agents and Societies 203 Star of the West, Affair of 215, 218 Sumter, Fort, in January 218 Stanton's Speeches 229, 422, 465 Sickles, Speeches of 236, 346 South Carolina's Reply to Virginia 256 Slidell's Resolution 257 Stevens' Resolutions 268 " (of Pa.) Speeches 301 Stephenson's Speeches 307 Stokes' (of Tenn.) Speech 312 South Carolina's Independence gone 339 Slidell's Farewell Speech 341 Sedgwick's Speech 355 S. — Continued. < PAGE. Simms' Speech 358 Sloops-of-War, Seven 395, 428, 430 Sherman's Substitute for Palmer's Resolutions 400 Sumner's, Charles, Speech 401 Somers' Speech 407 South Carolina Repudiates the New Con federacy 417 Stewart's Speech 425 Sickles' Amendment to Volunteer Bill 460 Seward's Joint Resolution as a Substitute for Peace Propositions 464 Scott, Lieut.-General, Hung in Effigy 497 "Saturday Review,' ' London, Vie ws of American Affairs 493 "Star," London, Views of American Affairs. . 494 T. Territory, Purchases of 25 Tennessee, Condition of, November, 1860. . . . 40 Texas, Signs of Revolution 73 Tennessee, Condition of, December, 1860 72 Toombs' Letter to the Danbury Committee . . 85 Thirty-three, Committee of. 65 Thirteen, Committee of., 93 Thompson, Secretary, Visit to North Carolina as " Commissioner" 103 Toombs' Telegraphic Address 117 Tennessee Legislature 164, 250 Troops in Washington 174 Toombs' Farewell Speech 177 " Declarations against the Constitution 178 Thompson, Jacob, Secretary of the Interior, Resignation of. 219 Treason, Immunity shown it by the President and Chief-Justice 220 Treason, The Law of 220, 221 Thomas, Secretary of Treasury, Resignation of 221 Thomas, of Tennessee , Speech of. 236 Troops offered the President 250, 251 Ten Eyck's Protest 308 Texas at the Montgomery Congress 337 Taylor's (of La.) Farewell Speech 345 Tappan's Speech 349 Toucey, Secretary of Navy, Weakness of 367 Treasury, Financial Condition of 389 Toucey, Secretary of Navy, censured. : . . 440-444 " " defended 444-445 Twiggs, Major-General, Treason of 453 Trumbull's Speech 475 Tyler, John, Duplicity of. 490 "Times," London, on American Affairs.. . 223-492 Treaties, Binding Force of, Views of London " News" 495 GENERAL REFERENCE INDEX. 531 U. FAOB. Union-saving Schemes 74-77, 120, 152 Usurpations of Power by the Leaders and the Conventions 205 Union Majority in the Virginia Convention . . . 364 V. Vote for the President in 1860 32 Virginia vs. South Carolina 34 Virginia Legislature 36, 163, 245 Vigilance Associations 47 Views of the Fathers of the Republic 49 Vicksburg Resolves, The 71-72 Virginia's Signs of Defection 116 Virginia in January 245 Violence towards Unionists 134, 203 Vandever Resolution 263 Vacant Seats in the Senate 272 Van Wyck's Speech 303 Vallandigham's Novel Scheme 355 Virginia Declares Against Submission 402 Voice from Maine 407 Volunteer Bill, The 422, 427, 434, 458 Vessels, List of, in United States Navy 440 Virginia Convention 490 Victoria, Queen, Kind Regards of 495 Violence, Spirit of, in the South 496 " Vindicator," Galway, Ireland, on American Affairs 224 Whiskey Insurrection 4 Washington's Declarations 49 "W. — Continued. PAGE Webster's, Daniel, Views ofUnion and Disunion 62 Wade, Benjamin Speeches of. 88, 274 Withdrawal Letter of South Carolina Members of Congress 116 Washington, Plot to Seize it, 175 Withdrawal of Mississippi Members of Con gress 192 Wigfall, Louis T. , Photograph of 202 Washburne' s and Tappan's Minority Report . 213, 214 Withdrawal of Alabama Members of Con gress 262 Washburne's (of Miss.) Speech 272 Withdrawal of Georgia Members of Congress. 277 Warlike Attitude of Charleston Harbor, Feb. 1, i860 291 Wilson, Henry, Speeches of 296, 437 Winslow's Speech 302 Wilson's (oflnd.) Speech 313 Wigfall's Speeches 323, 357, 439 Wood's, Fernando, Dispatch to Mr. Toombs . 331 Wells' (of N. Y.) Speech 352 Webster's (of Md.) Speech 422 Wilkinson's Speech 473 Y. Yancey, William L., Photograph of. 202 Yulee, David L., " " 202 Yancey's Justification of the Usurpations of the Conventions 205 Yulee's Farewell Speech in the United States Senate 257 A P P E.N D I X . Secret History of the Buchanan Administration 509 The Secession Plot. The Intrigue Confessed by Yancey's Letter 512 Permanent Constitution of the Confederate States 613, 520 Tho Offending " Personal Liberty Laws" of the Free States 621, 622 The Alabama Secession Resolutions, 1859-60 522 Comparative Representation of the different sections 623 1017