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| author | Roger Frank <rfrank@pglaf.org> | 2025-10-15 05:29:02 -0700 |
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| committer | Roger Frank <rfrank@pglaf.org> | 2025-10-15 05:29:02 -0700 |
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diff --git a/old/orig7140-h/p2.htm b/old/orig7140-h/p2.htm new file mode 100644 index 0000000..45f68fd --- /dev/null +++ b/old/orig7140-h/p2.htm @@ -0,0 +1,4622 @@ +<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01 Transitional//EN"> +<html> +<head> +<title>THE GREAT CONSPIRACY, Part 2</title> +<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=iso-8859-1"> + + +<style type="text/css"> + <!-- + body {background:#faebd7; margin:10%; text-align:justify} + P { + text-indent: 1em; + margin-top: .75em; + margin-bottom: .75em; } + H1,H2,H3,H4,H5,H6 { text-align: center; } + HR { width: 33%; text-align: center; } + blockquote {font-size: 95% } + .figleft {float: left;} + .figright {float: right;} + .toc { margin-left: 15%; margin-bottom: 0em;} + CENTER { padding: 10px;} + // --> +</style> + + +</head> +<body> + +<h2>THE GREAT CONSPIRACY, Part 2</h2> + + +<center> +<table summary="" cellPadding=4 border=3> +<tr><td> + + <a href="p1.htm">Previous Part</a> +</td><td> + <a href="7140-h.htm">Main Index</a> +</td><td> + <a href="p3.htm">Next Part</a> + +</td></tr> +</table> +</center> + + +<br><br><br><br><br><br> + + + +<h1> THE GREAT CONSPIRACY</h1> +<br> + <h2>Its Origin and History</h2> + <br> + <h3>By</h3> + <br> + <h1>John Logan</h1> +<br><br> + <h2> Part 2.</h2> +<br> +<br> + +<br><br><br><br> +<center> +<img alt="titlepage.jpg (65K)" src="images/titlepage.jpg" height="1134" width="692"> +<br><br><br><br> +<img alt="frontspiece.jpg (101K)" src="images/frontspiece.jpg" height="934" width="665"> +</center> + +<br><br><br><br> + +<h2> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<br> + CONTENTS</h2> +<br> +<br> + <h2><a href="#ch6">CHAPTER VI.</a><br> + THE GREAT CONSPIRACY MATURING.</h2> +<br> +LINCOLN'S ELECTION ASSURED—SOUTHERN EXULTATION—NORTHERN GLOOM—"FIRING +THE SOUTHERN HEART"—RESIGNATIONS OF FEDERAL OFFICERS AND SENATORS OF +SOUTH CAROLINA—GOVERNOR BROWN, OF GEORGIA, DEFIES "FEDERAL +COERCION"—ALEXANDER H. STEPHENS'S ARGUMENT AGAINST SECESSION—SOUTH CAROLINA +CALLS AN "UNCONDITIONAL SECESSION CONVENTION"—THE CALL SETS THE SOUTH +ABLAZE—PROCLAMATIONS OF THE GOVERNORS OF THE SOUTHERN STATES, FAVORING +REVOLT—LOYAL ADDRESS OF GOVERNOR MAGOFFIN OF KENTUCKY—THE CLAMOR OF +REVOLT SILENCES APPEALS FOR UNION—PRESIDENT BUCHANAN'S PITIFUL +WEAKNESS—CONSPIRATORS IN HIS CABINET—IMBECILITY OF HIS LAST ANNUAL +MESSAGE TO CONGRESS, DEC., 1860—ATTORNEY-GENERAL JEREMIAH BLACK'S +OPINION AGAINST COERCION—CONTRAST AFFORDED BY GENERAL JACKSON'S LOYAL +LOGIC—ENSUING DEBATES IN CONGRESS—SETTLED PURPOSE OF THE CONSPIRATORS +TO RESIST PLACATION—FUTILE LABORS OF UNION MEN IN CONGRESS FOR A +PEACEFUL SOLUTION—ABSURD DEMANDS OF THE IMPLACABLES—THE COMMERCIAL +NORTH ON ITS KNEES TO THE SOUTH—CONCILIATION ABJECTLY BEGGED +FOR—BRUTAL SNEERS AT THE NORTH, AND THREATS OF CLINGMAN, IVERSON, AND OTHER +SOUTHERN FIREEATERS, IN THE U. S. SENATE—THEIR BLUSTER MET BY STURDY +REPUBLICANS—BEN WADE GALLANTLY STANDS BY THE "VERDICT OF THE +PEOPLE"—PEACEFUL-SETTLEMENT PROPOSITIONS IN THE HOUSE—ADRIAN'S RESOLUTION, AND +VOTE—LOVEJOY'S COUNTER-RESOLUTION, AND VOTE—ADOPTION OF MORRIS'S UNION +RESOLUTION IN HOUSE<br> +<br> +<br> + <h2><a href="#ch7">CHAPTER VII.</a><br> + SECESSION ARMING.<br></h2> +<br> +THE SOUTH CAROLINA SECESSION CONVENTION MEETS—SPEECHES AT "SECESSION +HALL" OF PARKER, KEITT, INGLIS, BARNWELL, RHETT, AND GREGG, THE FIRST +ORDINANCE OF SECESSION—ITS JUBILANT ADOPTION AND +RATIFICATION—SECESSION STAMPEDE—A SOUTHERN CONGRESS PROPOSED—PICKENS'S PROCLAMATION +OF SOVEREIGN INDEPENDENCE—SOUTH CAROLINA CONGRESSMEN +WITHDRAW—DISSENSIONS IN BUCHANAN'S CABINET—COBB FLOYD, AND THOMPSON, +DEMAND WITHDRAWAL OF FEDERAL TROOPS—BUCHANAN'S +REPLY—SEIZURE OF FORTS, ETC.—THE "STAR OF THE WEST" FIRED ON—THE MAD +RUSH OF REBELLIOUS EVENTS—SOUTH CAROLINA DEMANDS THE SURRENDER OF FORT +SUMTER AND THE DEMAND REFUSED—SECRETARY HOLT'S LETTER TO CONSPIRING +SENATORS AND REBEL AGENT—TROOP'S AT THE NATIONAL CAPITAL—HOLT'S +REASONS THEREFOR—THE REVOLUTIONARY PROGRAMME—"ARMED OCCUPATION OF +WASHINGTON CITY"—LINCOLN'S INAUGURATION TO BE PREVENTED—THE CRUMBLING +AND DISSOLVING UNION—THE NORTH STANDS AGHAST—GREAT DEBATE IN CONGRESS, +1860-1861—CLINGMAN ON THE SOUTHERN TARIFF-GRIEVANCE—DEFIANCE OF BROWN +OF MISSISSIPPI—IVERSON'S BLOODY THREAT—WIGFALL'S UNSCRUPULOUS +ADVICE—HIS INSULTING DEMANDS—BAKER'S GLORIOUSLY ELOQUENT RESPONSE—ANDY JOHNSON +THREATENED WITH BULLETS—THE NORTH BULLIED—INSOLENT, IMPOSSIBLE TERMS OF +PEACE—LINCOLN'S SPEECHES EN ROUTE FOR WASHINGTON—SAVE ARRIVAL—"I'LL +TRY TO STEER HER THROUGH!"—THE SOUTH TAUNTS HIM—WIGFALL'S CHALLENGE +TO THE BLOODY ISSUE OF ARMS!<br> +<br> +<br> + <h2><a href="#ch8">CHAPTER VIII.</a><br> + THE REJECTED OLIVE BRANCH.</h2> +<br> +THE VARIOUS COMPROMISES OFFERED BY THE NORTH—"THE CRITTENDEN +COMPROMISE"—THE PEACE CONFERENCE—COMPROMISE PROPOSITIONS OF THE +SOUTHERN CONSPIRATORS—IRRECONCILABLE ATTITUDE OF THE PLOTTERS—HISTORY +OF THE COMPROMISE MEASURES IN CONGRESS—CLARK'S SUBSTITUTE TO CRITTENDEN +RESOLUTIONS IN THE SENATE—ANTHONY'S MORE THAN EQUITABLE +PROPOSITIONS—HIS AFFECTING APPEAL TO STONY HEARTS—THE CONSPIRACY DEVELOPING—SIX +SOUTHERN SENATORS REFUSE TO VOTE AGAINST THE CLARK SUBSTITUTE—ITS +CONSEQUENT ADOPTION, AND DEFEAT OF THE CRITTENDEN RESOLUTIONS—LYING +TELEGRAMS FROM CONSPIRING SENATORS TO FURTHER INFLAME +REBELLION—SAULSBURY'S AFTERSTATEMENT (1862) AS TO CAUSES OF FAILURE OF +CRITTENDEN'S COMPROMISE—LATHAM'S GRAPHIC PROOF OF THE CONSPIRATORS' +"DELIBERATE, WILFUL DESIGN" TO KILL COMPROMISE—ANDREW JOHNSON'S +EVIDENCE AS TO THEIR ULTIMATE OBJECT "PLACE AND EMOLUMENT FOR +THEMSELVES"—"THE POWERS OF GOVERNMENT IN THE HANDS OF THE FEW"—THE +CORWIN COMPROMISE RESOLUTION IN THE HOUSE—THE BURCH +AMENDMENT—KELLOGG'S PROPOSITION—THE CLEMENS SUBSTITUTE—PASSAGE BY THE HOUSE OF +CONSTITUTIONAL AMENDMENT PROHIBITING CONGRESSIONAL INTERFERENCE WITH +SLAVERY WHERE IT EXISTS—ITS ADOPTION BY THE SENATE—THE CLARK +SUBSTITUTE RECONSIDERED AND DEFEATED—PROPOSITIONS OF THE PEACE CONGRESS +LOST—REJECTION OF THE CRITTENDEN COMPROMISE<br> +<br> +<br> + <h2><a href="#ch9">CHAPTER IX.</a><br> + SLAVERY'S SETTING AND FREEDOM'S DAWN.<br></h2> +<br> +THE LAST NIGHT OF THE 36TH CONGRESS—MR. CRITTENDEN'S PATRIOTIC +APPEAL—"THE SADDEST SPECTACLE EVER SEEN"—IMPOTENCY OF THE BETRAYED AND FALLING +STATE—DOUGLAS'S POWERFUL PLEA—PATRIOTISM OF HIMSELF AND +SUPPORTERS—LOGAN SUMMARIZES THE COMPROMISES, AND APPEALS TO PATRIOTISM ABOVE +PARTY—STATESMANLIKE BREADTH OF DOUGLAS, BAKER AND SEWARD—HENRY WINTER DAVIS +ELOQUENTLY CONDENSES "THE SITUATION" IN A NUTSHELL—"THE FIRST FRUITS OF +RECONCILIATION" OFFERED BY THE NORTH, SCORNED BY THE +CONSPIRATORS—WIGFALL AGAIN SPEAKS AS THE MOUTHPIECE OF THE SOUTH—HE RAVES VIOLENTLY +AT THE NORTH—THE SOUTH REJECTS PEACE "EITHER IN THE UNION, OR OUT OF +IT"—THE DAWN OF FREEDOM APPEARS (MARCH 4TH, 1861)—INAUGURATION OF +PRESIDENT LINCOLN—LINCOLN'S FIRST INAUGURAL—GRANDEUR AND PATHOS OF HIS +PATRIOTIC UTTERANCES—HIS FIRST SLEEPLESS AND PRAYERFUL NIGHT AT THE +WHITE HOUSE—THE MORROW, AND ITS BITTER DISAPPOINTMENT—THE MESSAGE OF +"PEACE AND GOOD WILL" REGARDED AS A "CHALLENGE TO WAR"—PRESIDENT +LINCOLN'S CABINET<br> +<br> +<br> + <h2><a href="#ch10">CHAPTER X.</a><br> + THE WAR-DRUM—"ON TO WASHINGTON!"<br></h2> +<br> +REBEL COMMISSIONERS AT WASHINGTON ON A "MISSION"—SEWARD "SITS DOWN" ON +THEM—HE REFUSES TO RECOGNIZE "CONFEDERATE STATES"—THE REBEL +COMMISSIONERS "ACCEPT THE GAGE OF BATTLE THUS THROWN DOWN TO +THEM"—ATTEMPT TO PROVISION FORT SUMTER—THE REBELS NOTIFIED—THE FORT AND ITS +SURROUNDINGS—THE FIRST GUN OF SLAVERY FIRED—TERRIFIC BOMBARDMENT OF +THE FORT—THE GARRISON, STARVED AND BURNED OUT, EVACUATES, WITH ALL THE +HONORS OF WAR—THE SOUTH CRAZY WITH EXULTATION—TE DEUMS SUNG, SALUTES +FIRED, AND THE REBEL GOVERNMENT SERENADED—"ON TO WASHINGTON!" THE +REBEL CRY—"GRAY JACKETS OVER THE BORDER"—PRESIDENT LINCOLN'S FIRST +PROCLAMATION AND CALL FOR TROOPS—INSULTING RESPONSES OF GOVERNORS +BURTON, HICKS, LETCHER, ELLIS, MAGOFFIN, HARRIS, JACKSON AND +RECTOR—LOYAL RESPONSES FROM GOVERNORS OF THE FREE STATES—MAGICAL EFFECT OF THE +CALL UPON THE LOYAL NORTH—FEELING IN THE BORDER-STATES—PRESIDENT +LINCOLN'S CLEAR SUMMARY OF THE SITUATION AND ITS PHILOSOPHY—HIS PLAIN +DUTY—THE WAR POWER—THE NATIONAL CAPITAL CUT OFF—EVACUATION OF +HARPER'S FERRY—LOYAL TROOPS TO THE RESCUE—FIGHTING THEIR WAY THROUGH +BALTIMORE—REBEL THREATS—"SCOTT THE ARCH—TRAITOR, AND LINCOLN THE +BEAST"—BUTLER RELIEVES WASHINGTON—THE SECESSION OF VIRGINIA AND NORTH +CAROLINA—SHAMEFUL EVACUATION OF NORFOLK NAVY YARD—SEIZURE OF MINTS AND +ARSENALS—UNION AND REBEL FORCES CONCENTRATING—THE NATIONAL CAPITAL +FORTIFIED—BLOCKADE OF SOUTHERN PORTS—DEATH OF ELLSWORTH—BUTLER +CONFISCATES NEGRO PROPERTY AS "CONTRABAND OF WAR"—A REBEL YARN +<br> +<br> +<br><br> + +<h3>PORTRAITS</h3> +<center> +<table summary=""> +<tr><td> + +<a href="#hayne">ISAAC W. HAYNE,</a><br> +<a href="#seward">WM. H. SEWARD,</a><br> +<a href="#clay">HENRY CLAY,</a><br> +<a href="#davis">JEFFERSON DAVIS,</a><br> + +</td></tr> +</table> +</center> + +<br><br><br><br><br> +<a name="hayne"></a> +<center> +<img alt="p120-hayne.jpg (73K)" src="images/p120-hayne.jpg" height="849" width="577"> +</center> +<br><br><br> + +<a name="ch6"></a> +<br><br> + + + +<center> +<h2> CHAPTER VI.<br> +<br> + THE GREAT CONSPIRACY MATURING.<br></h2> +</center> +<p>The 6th of November, 1860, came and passed; on the 7th, the prevailing +conviction that Lincoln would be elected had become a certainty, and +before the close of that day, the fact had been heralded throughout the +length and breadth of the Republic. The excitement of the People was +unparalleled. The Republicans of the North rejoiced that at last the +great wrong of Slavery was to be placed "where the People could rest in +the belief that it was in the course of ultimate extinction!" The +Douglas Democracy, naturally chagrined at the defeat of their great +leader, were filled with gloomy forebodings touching the future of their +Country; and the Southern Democracy, or at least a large portion of it, +openly exulted that at last the long-wished-for opportunity for a revolt +of the Slave Power, and a separation of the Slave from the Free States, +was at hand. Especially in South Carolina were the "Fire-eating" +Southrons jubilant over the event.</p> + +<blockquote><blockquote><blockquote> +<p> ["South Carolina rejoiced over the election of Lincoln, with + bonfires and processions." p. 172, Arnold's "Life of Abraham + Lincoln."</p> + +<p> "There was great joy in Charleston, and wherever 'Fire Eaters' most + did congregate, on the morning of November 7th. Men rushed to + shake hands and congratulate each other on the glad tidings of + Lincoln's election. * * * Men thronged the streets, talking, + laughing, cheering, like mariners long becalmed on a hateful, + treacherous sea, whom a sudden breeze had swiftly wafted within + sight of their longed-for haven." p. 332, vol. i., Greeley's + American Conflict.]</p> +</blockquote></blockquote></blockquote> +<p>Meanwhile any number of joint resolutions looking to the calling of a +Secession Convention, were introduced in the South Carolina Legislature, +sitting at Columbia, having in view Secession contingent upon the +"cooperation" of the other Slave States, or looking to immediate and +"unconditional" Secession.</p> + +<p>On the evening of November 7th, Edmund Ruffin of Virginia—a Secession +fanatic who had come from thence in hot haste—in response to a +serenade, declared to the people of Columbia that: "The defense of the +South, he verily believed, was only to be secured through the lead of +South Carolina;" that, "old as he was, he had come here to join them in +that lead;" and that "every day delayed, was a day lost to the Cause." +He acknowledged that Virginia was "not as ready as South Carolina;" but +declared that "The first drop of blood spilled on the soil of South +Carolina would bring Virginia, and every Southern State, with them." He +thought "it was perhaps better that Virginia, and all other border +States, remain quiescent for a time, to serve as a guard against the +North. * * * By remaining in the Union for a time, she would not only +prevent coercive legislation in Congress, but any attempt for our +subjugation."</p> + +<p>That same evening came news that, at Charleston, the Grand Jury of the +United States District Court had refused to make any presentments, +because of the Presidential vote just cast, which, they said, had "swept +away the last hope for the permanence, for the stability, of the Federal +Government of these Sovereign States;" and that United States District +Judge Magrath had resigned his office, saying to the Grand Jury, as he +did so: "In the political history of the United States, an event has +happened of ominous import to fifteen Slave-holding States. The State +of which we are citizens has been always understood to have deliberately +fixed its purpose whenever that event should happen. Feeling an +assurance of what will be the action of the State, I consider it my +duty, without delay, to prepare to obey its wishes. That preparation is +made by the resignation of the office I have held."</p> + +<p>The news of the resignations of the Federal Collector and District +Attorney at Charleston, followed, with an intimation that that of the +Sub-Treasurer would soon be forthcoming. On November 9th, a joint +resolution calling an unconditional Secession Convention to meet at +Columbia December 17th, was passed by the Senate, and on the 12th of +November went through the House; and both of the United States Senators +from South Carolina had now resigned their seats in the United States +Senate.</p> + +<p>Besides all these and many other incitements to Secession was the fact +that at Milledgeville, Georgia, Governor Brown had, November 12th, +addressed a Georgian Military Convention, affirming "the right of +Secession, and the duty of other Southern States to sustain South +Carolina in the step she was then taking," and declaring that he "would +like to see Federal troops dare attempt the coercion of a seceding +Southern State! For every Georgian who fell in a conflict thus incited, +the lives of two Federal Soldiers should expiate the outrage on State +Sovereignty"—and that the Convention aforesaid had most decisively +given its voice for Secession.</p> + +<p>It was about this time, however, that Alexander H. Stephens vainly +sought to stem the tide of Secession in his own State, in a speech +(November 14) before the Georgia Legislature, in which he declared that +Mr. Lincoln "can do nothing unless he is backed by power in Congress. +The House of Representatives is largely in the majority against him. In +the Senate he will also be powerless. There will be a majority of four +against him." He also cogently said: "Many of us have sworn to support +it (the Constitution). Can we, therefore, for the mere election of a +man to the Presidency—and that too, in accordance with the prescribed +forms of the Constitution—make a point of resistance to the Government, +and, without becoming the breakers of that sacred instrument ourselves, +withdraw ourselves from it? Would we not be in the wrong?"</p> + +<p>But the occasional words of wisdom that fell from the lips of the few +far-seeing statesmen of the South, were as chaff before the storm of +Disunion raised by the turbulent Fire-eaters, and were blown far from +the South, where they might have done some good for the Union cause, +away up to the North, where they contributed to aid the success of the +contemplated Treason and Rebellion, by lulling many of the people there, +into a false sense of security. Unfortunately, also, even the ablest of +the Southern Union men were so tainted with the heretical doctrine of +States-Rights, which taught the "paramount allegiance" of the citizen to +the State, that their otherwise powerful appeals for the preservation of +the Union were almost invariably handicapped by the added protestation +that in any event—and however they might deplore the necessity—they +would, if need be, go with their State, against their own convictions of +duty to the National Union.</p> + +<p>Hence in this same speech we find that Mr. Stephens destroyed the whole +effect of his weighty and logical appeal against Secession from the +Union, by adding to it, that, "Should Georgia determine to go out of the +Union I shall bow to the will of her people. Their cause is my cause, +and their destiny is my destiny; and I trust this will be the ultimate +course of all."—and by further advising the calling of a Convention of +the people to decide the matter; thus, in advance, as it were, binding +himself hand and foot, despite his previous Union utterances, to do the +fell bidding of the most rampant Disunionists. And thus, in due time, +it befell, as we shall see, that this "saving clause" in his "Union +speech," brought him at the end, not to that posture of patriotic +heroism to which he aspired when he adjured his Georgian auditors to +"let us be found to the last moment standing on the deck (of the +Republic), with the Constitution of the United States waving over our +heads," but to that of an imprisoned traitor and defeated rebel against +the very Republic and Constitution which he had sworn to uphold and +defend!</p> + +<p>The action of the South Carolina Legislature in calling an Unconditional +Secession Convention, acted among the Southern States like a spark in a +train of gunpowder. Long accustomed to incendiary resolutions of +Pro-Slavery political platforms, as embodying the creed of Southern men; +committed by those declarations to the most extreme action when, in +their judgment, the necessity should arise; and worked up during the +Presidential campaign by swarming Federal officials inspired by the +fanatical Secession leaders; the entire South only needed the spark from +the treasonable torch of South Carolina, to find itself ablaze, almost +from one end to the other, with the flames of revolt.</p> + +<p>Governor after Governor, in State after State, issued proclamation after +proclamation, calling together their respective Legislatures, to +consider the situation and whether their respective States should join +South Carolina in seceding from the Union. Kentucky alone, of them all, +seemed for a time to keep cool, and look calmly and reasonably through +the Southern ferment to the horrors beyond. In an address issued by +Governor Magoffin of that State, to the people, he said:</p> + +<p>"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 Mr. Lincoln. Do not +precipitate by premature action into a revolution or Civil War, the +consequences of which will be most frightful to all of us. It may yet +be avoided. There is still hope, faint though it be. Kentucky is a +Border State, and has suffered more than all of you. * * * She has a +right to claim that her voice, and the voice of reason, and moderation +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 confirmed. 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 the Free and 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."</p> + +<p>But this "still small voice" of conscience and of reason, heard like a +whisper from the mouths of Stephens in Georgia, and Magoffin in +Kentucky, was drowned in the clamor and tumult of impassioned harangues +and addresses, and the drumming and tramp of the "minute men" of South +Carolina, and other military organizations, as they excitedly prepared +throughout the South for the dread conflict at arms which they +recklessly invited, and savagely welcomed.</p> + +<p>We have seen how President Andrew Jackson some thirty years before, had +stamped out Nullification and Disunion in South Carolina, with an iron +heel.</p> + +<p>But a weak and feeble old man—still suffering from the effects of the +mysterious National Hotel poisoning—was now in the Executive Chair at +the White House. Well-meaning, doubtless, and a Union man at heart, his +enfeebled intellect was unable to see, and hold firm to, the only true +course. He lacked clearness of perception, decision of character, and +nerve. He knew Secession was wrong, but allowed himself to be persuaded +that he had no Constitutional power to prevent it. He had surrounded +himself in the Cabinet with such unbending adherents and tools of the +Slave-Power, as Howell Cobb of Georgia, his Secretary of the Treasury, +John B. Floyd of Virginia, as Secretary of War, Jacob Thompson of +Mississippi, as Secretary of the Interior, and Isaac Toucy of +Connecticut, as Secretary of the Navy, before whose malign influence the +councils of Lewis Cass of Michigan, the Secretary of State, and other +Union men, in and out of the Cabinet, were quite powerless.</p> + +<p>When, therefore, the Congress met (December 3, 1860) and he transmitted +to it his last Annual Message, it was found that, instead of treating +Secession from the Jacksonian standpoint, President Buchanan feebly +wailed over the threatened destruction of the Union, weakly apologized +for the contemplated Treason, garrulously scolded the North as being to +blame for it, and, while praying to God to "preserve the Constitution +and the Union throughout all generations," wrung his nerveless hands in +despair over his own powerlessness—as he construed the Constitution—to +prevent Secession! Before writing his pitifully imbecile Message, +President Buchanan had secured from his Attorney-General (Jeremiah S. +Black of Pennsylvania) an opinion, in which the latter, after touching +upon certain cases in which he believed the President would be justified +in using force to sustain the Federal Laws, supposed the case of a State +where all the Federal Officers had resigned and where there were neither +Federal Courts to issue, nor officers to execute judicial process, and +continued: "In that event, troops would certainly be out of place, and +their use wholly illegal. If they are sent to aid the Courts and +Marshals there must be Courts and Marshals to be aided. Without the +exercise of these functions, which belong exclusively to the civil +service, the laws cannot be executed in any event, no matter what may be +the physical strength which the Government has at its command. Under +such circumstances, to send a military force into any State, with orders +to act against the people, would be simply making War upon them."</p> + +<p>Resting upon that opinion of Attorney-General Black, President Buchanan, +in his Message, after referring to the solemn oath taken by the +Executive "to take care that the laws be faithfully executed," and +stating that there were now no longer any Federal Officers in South +Carolina, through whose agency he could keep that oath, took up the laws +of February 28, 1795, and March 3, 1807, as "the only Acts of Congress +on the Statute-book bearing upon the subject," which "authorize the +President, after he shall have ascertained that the Marshal, with his +posse comitatus, is unable to execute civil or criminal process in any +particular case, to call out 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'"—and thereupon held that +"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." +And, not satisfied with attempting to show as clearly as he seemed to +know how, his own inability under the laws to stamp out Treason, he +proceeded to consider what he thought Congress also could not do under +the Constitution. Said he: "The question fairly stated, is: Has the +Constitution delegated to Congress the power to coerce into submission a +State which is attempting to withdraw, or has actually withdrawn, from +the Confederacy? If answered in the affirmative, it must be on the +principle that the power has been conferred upon Congress to declare and +make War against a State. After much serious reflection, I have arrived +at the conclusion that no such power has been delegated to Congress or +to any other department of the Federal Government." And further: +"Congress possesses many means of preserving it (the Union) by +conciliation; but the sword was not placed in their hands to preserve it +by force."</p> + +<p>Thus, in President Buchanan's judgment, while, in another part of his +Message, he had declared that no State had any right, Constitutional or +otherwise, to Secede from that Union, which was designed for all +time—yet, if any State concluded thus wrongfully to Secede, there existed no +power in the Union, by the exercise of force, to preserve itself from +instant dissolution! How imbecile the reasoning, how impotent the +conclusion, compared with that of President Jackson, thirty years +before, in his Proclamation against Nullification and Secession, wherein +that sturdy patriot declared to the South Carolinians that "compared +to Disunion, all other evils are light, because that brings with it an +accumulation of all;" that "Disunion by armed force, is Treason;" and +that he was determined "to execute the Laws," and "to preserve the +Union!"</p> + +<p>President Buchanan's extraordinary Message—or so much of it as related +to the perilous condition of the Union—was referred, in the House of +Representatives, to a Select Committee of Thirty-three, comprising one +member from each State, in which there was a very large preponderance of +such as favored Conciliation without dishonor. But the debates in both +Houses, in which the most violent language was indulged by the Southern +Fire-eaters, as well as other events, soon proved that there was a +settled purpose on the part of the Slave-Power and its adherents to +resist and spit upon all attempts at placation.</p> + +<p>In the Senate also (December 5), a Select Committee of Thirteen was +appointed, to consider the impending dangers to the Union, comprising +Senators Powell of Kentucky, Hunter of Virginia, Crittenden of Kentucky, +Seward of New York, Toombs of Georgia, Douglas of Illinois, Collamer of +Vermont, Davis of Mississippi, Wade of Ohio, Bigler of Pennsylvania, +Rice of Minnesota, Doolittle of Wisconsin, and Grimes of Iowa. Their +labors were alike without practical result, owing to the irreconcilable +attitude of the Southrons, who would accept nothing less than a total +repudiation by the Republicans of the very principles upon which the +recent Presidential contest had by them been fought and won. Nor would +they even accept such a repudiation unless carried by vote of the +majority of the Republicans. The dose that they insisted upon the +Republican Party swallowing must not only be as noxious as possible, but +must absolutely be mixed by that Party itself, and in addition, that +Party must also go down on its knees, and beg the privilege of so mixing +and swallowing the dose! That was the impossible attitude into which, +by their bullying and threats, the Slave Power hoped to force the +Republican Party—either that or "War."</p> + +<p>Project after project in both Houses of Congress looking to Conciliation +was introduced, referred, reported, discussed, and voted on or not, as +the case might be, in vain. And in the meantime, in New York, in +Philadelphia, and elsewhere in the North, the timidity of Capital showed +itself in great Conciliation meetings, where speeches were applauded and +resolutions adopted of the most abject character, in behalf of "Peace, +at any price," regardless of the sacrifice of honor and principles and +even decency. In fact the Commercial North, with supplicating hands and +beseeching face, sank on its knees in a vain attempt to propitiate its +furious creditor, the South, by asking it not only to pull its nose, but +to spit in its face, both of which it humbly and even anxiously offered +for the purpose!*</p> +<blockquote><blockquote><blockquote> +<p> [Thus, in Philadelphia, December 13, 1860, at a great meeting held + at the call of the Mayor, in Independence Square, Mayor Henry led + off the speaking—which was nearly all in the same line—by saying: + "I tell you that if in any portion of our Confederacy, sentiments + have been entertained and cherished which are inimical to the civil + rights and social institutions of any other portion, those + sentiments should be relinquished." Another speaker, Judge George + W. Woodward, sneeringly asked: "Whence came these excessive + sensibilities that cannot bear a few slaves in a remote Territory + until the white people establish a Constitution?" Another, Mr. + Charles E. Lex (a Republican), speaking of the Southern People, + said: "What, then, can we say to them? what more than we have + expressed in the resolutions we have offered? If they are really + aggrieved by any laws upon our Statute-books opposed to their + rights—if upon examination any such are found to be in conflict + with the Constitution of these United States—nay, further, if they + but serve to irritate our brethren of the South, whether + Constitutional or not, I, for one, have no objection that they + should instantly be repealed." Another said, "Let us repeal our + obnoxious Personal Liberty bills * * *; let us receive our brother + of the South, if he will come among us for a little time, attended + by his servant, and permit him thus to come." And the resolutions + adopted were even still more abject in tone than the speeches.]</p> +</blockquote></blockquote></blockquote> +<p>But the South at present was too busy in perfecting its long-cherished +plans for the disruption of the Union, to more than grimly smile at this +evidence of what it chose to consider "a divided sentiment" in the +North. While it weakened the North, it strengthened the South, and +instead of mollifying the Conspirators against the Union, it inspired +them with fresh energy in their fell purpose to destroy it.</p> + +<p>The tone of the Republican press, too, while more dignified, was +thoroughly conciliatory. The Albany Evening Journal,—[November 30, +1860]—the organ of Governor Seward, recognizing that the South, blinded +by passion, was in dead earnest, but also recognizing the existence of +"a Union sentiment there, worth cherishing," suggested "a Convention of +the People, consisting of delegates appointed by the States, in which it +would not be found unprofitable for the North and South, bringing their +respective griefs, claims, and proposed reforms, to a common +arbitrament, to meet, discuss, and determine upon a future"—before a +final appeal to arms. So, too, Horace Greeley, in the New York +Tribune,—[November 9, 1860.]—after weakly conceding, on his own part, +the right of peaceable Secession, said: "But while we thus uphold the +practical liberty, if not the abstract right, of Secession, we must +insist that the step be taken, if it ever shall be, with the +deliberation and gravity befitting so momentous an issue. Let ample +time be given for reflection; let the subject be fully canvassed before +the People; and let a popular vote be taken in every case, before +Secession is decreed." Other leading papers of the Northern press, took +similar ground for free discussion and conciliatory action.</p> + +<p>In the Senate, as well as the House of Representatives—as also was +shown by the appointment, heretofore mentioned, of Select Committees to +consider the gravity of the situation, and suggest a remedy—the same +spirit of Conciliation and Concession, and desire for free and frank +discussion, was apparent among most of the Northern and Border-State +members of those Bodies. But these were only met by sneers and threats +on the part of the Fire-eating Secession members of the South. In the +Senate, Senator Clingman of North Carolina, sneeringly said: "They want +to get up a free debate, as the Senator (Mr. Seward) from New York +expressed it, in one of his speeches. But a Senator from Texas told me +the other day that a great many of these free debaters were hanging from +the trees of that country;" and Senator Iverson, of Georgia, said: +"Gentlemen speak of Concession, of the repeal of the Personal Liberty +bills. Repeal them all to-morrow, and you cannot stop this revolution." +After declaring his belief that "Before the 4th of March, five States +will have declared their independence" and that "three other States will +follow as soon as the action of the people can be had;" he proceeded to +allude to the refusal of Governor Houston of Texas to call together the +Texas Legislature for action in accord with the Secession sentiment, and +declared that "if he will not yield to that public sentiment, some Texan +Brutus will arise to rid his country of this hoary-headed incubus that +stands between the people and their sovereign will!" Then, sneering at +the presumed cowardice of the North, he continued: "Men talk about their +eighteen millions (of Northern population); but we hear a few days +afterwards of these same men being switched in the face, and they +tremble like sheep-stealing dogs! There will be no War. The North, +governed by such far-seeing Statesmen as the Senator (Mr. Seward) from +New York, will see the futility of this. In less than twelve months, a +Southern Confederacy will be formed; and it will be the most successful +Government on Earth. The Southern States, thus banded together, will be +able to resist any force in the World. We do not expect War; but we +will be prepared for it—and we are not a feeble race of Mexicans +either."</p> + +<p>On the other hand, there were Republicans in that Body who sturdily met +the bluster of the Southern Fire-eaters with frank and courageous words +expressing their full convictions on the situation and their belief that +Concessions could not be made and that Compromises were mere waste +paper. Thus, Senator Ben Wade of Ohio, among the bravest and manliest +of them all, in a speech in the Senate, December 17, the very day on +which the South Carolina Secession Convention was to assemble, said to +the Fire-eaters: "I tell you frankly that we did lay down the principle +in our platform, that we would prohibit, if we had the power, Slavery +from invading another inch of the Free Soil of this Government. I stand +to that principle to-day. I have argued it to half a million of people, +and they stand by it; they have commissioned me to stand by it; and, so +help me God, I will! * * * On the other hand, our platform repudiates +the idea that we have any right, or harbor any ultimate intention to +invade or interfere with your institutions in your own States. * * * +It is not, by your own confessions, that Mr. Lincoln is expected to +commit any overt act by which you may be injured. You will not even +wait for any, you say; but, by anticipating that the Government may do +you an injury, you will put an end to it—which means, simply and +squarely, that you intend to rule or ruin this Government. * * * As to +Compromises, I supposed that we had agreed that the Day of Compromises +was at an end. The most solemn we have made have been violated, and are +no more. * * * We beat you on the plainest and most palpable issue +ever presented to the American people, and one which every man +understood; and now, when we come to the Capital, we tell you that our +candidates must and shall be inaugurated—must and shall administer this +Government precisely as the Constitution prescribes. * * * I tell you +that, with that verdict of the people in my pocket, and standing on the +platform on which these candidates were elected, I would suffer anything +before I would Compromise in any way."</p> + +<p>In the House of Representatives, on December 10, 1860, a number of +propositions looking to a peaceful settlement of the threatened danger, +were offered and referred to the Select Committee of Thirty-three. On +the following Monday, December 17, by 154 yeas to 14 nays, the House +adopted a resolution, offered by Mr. Adrian of New Jersey, in these +words:</p> + +<p>"Resolved, That we deprecate the spirit of disobedience to the +Constitution, wherever manifested; and that we earnestly recommend the +repeal of all Statutes by the State Legislatures in conflict with, and +in violation of, that sacred instrument, and the laws of Congress passed +in pursuance thereof."</p> + +<p>On the same day, the House adopted, by 135 yeas to no nays, a resolution +offered by Mr. Lovejoy of Illinois, in these words:</p> + +<p>"Whereas, The Constitution of the United States is the Supreme law of +the Land, and ready and faithful obedience to it a duty of all good and +law-abiding citizens; Therefore:</p> + +<p>"Resolved, That we deprecate the spirit of disobedience to the +Constitution, wherever manifested; and that we earnestly recommend the +repeal of all Nullification laws; and that it is the duty of the +President of the United States to protect and defend the property of the +United States."</p> +<blockquote><blockquote><blockquote> +<p> [This resolution, before adoption, was modified by declaring it to + be the duty of all citizens, whether "good and law abiding" or not, + to yield obedience to the Constitution, as will be seen by + referring to the proceedings in the Globe of that date, where the + following appears:</p> + +<p> "Mr. LOGAN. I hope there will be no objection on this side of the + House to the introduction of the [Lovejoy] resolution. I can see + no difference myself, between this resolution and the one + [Adrian's] just passed, except in regard to verbiage. I can find + but one objection to the resolution, and that is in the use of the + words declaring that all' law abiding' citizens should obey the + Constitution. I think that all men should do so.</p> + +<p> "Mr. LOVEJOY. I accept the amendment suggested by my Colleague.</p> + +<p> "Mr. LOGAN. It certainly should include members of Congress; but + if it is allowed to remain all 'good and law abiding' citizens, I + do not think it will include them. [Laughter.]</p> + +<p> "The resolution was modified by the omission of those words."]</p> +</blockquote></blockquote></blockquote> +<p>It also adopted, by 115 yeas to 44 nays, a resolution offered by Mr. +Morris of Illinois, as follows:</p> + +<p>"Resolved by the House of Representatives: That we properly estimate the +immense value of our National Union to our collective and individual +happiness; that we cherish a cordial, habitual, and immovable attachment +to it; that we will speak of it as the palladium of our political safety +and prosperity; that we will watch its preservation with jealous +anxiety; that we will discountenance whatever may suggest even a +suspicion that it can, in any event, be abandoned, and indignantly frown +upon the first dawning of every attempt to alienate any portion of our +Country from the rest, or enfeeble the sacred ties which now link +together the various parts; that we regard it as a main pillar in the +edifice of our real independence, the support of tranquillity at home, +our peace abroad, our safety, our prosperity, and that very liberty +which we so highly prize; that we have seen nothing in the past, nor do +we see anything in the present, either in the election of Abraham +Lincoln to the Presidency of the United States, or from any other +existing cause, to justify its dissolution; that we regard its +perpetuity as of more value than the temporary triumph of any Party or +any man; that whatever evils or abuses exist under it ought to be +corrected within the Union, in a peaceful and Constitutional way; that +we believe it has sufficient power to redress every wrong and enforce +every right growing out of its organization, or pertaining to its proper +functions; and that it is a patriotic duty to stand by it as our hope in +Peace and our defense in War."</p> + +<br><br><br><br><br> +<a name="seward"></a> +<center> +<img alt="p128-seward.jpg (74K)" src="images/p128-seward.jpg" height="847" width="590"> +</center> +<br><br><br> +<a name="ch7"></a> +<br><br> + +<center><h2> + CHAPTER VII.<br><br> + + SECESSION ARMING.</h2></center><br> + +<p>While Congress was encouraging devotion to the Union, and its Committees +striving for some mode by which the impending perils might be averted +without a wholesale surrender of all just principles, the South Carolina +Convention met (December 17, 1860) at Columbia, and after listening to +inflammatory addresses by commissioners from the States of Alabama and +Mississippi, urging immediate and unconditional Secession, unanimously +and with "tremendous cheering" adopted a resolution: "That it is the +opinion of the Convention that the State of South Carolina should +forthwith Secede from the Federal Union, known as the United States of +America,"—and then adjourned to meet at Charleston, South Carolina.</p> + +<p>The next day, and following days, it met there, at "Secession Hall," +listening to stimulating addresses, while a committee of seven worked +upon the Ordinance of Secession. Among the statements made by orators, +were several clear admissions that the rebellious Conspiracy had existed +for very many years, and that Mr. Lincoln's election was simply the +long-sought-for pretext for Rebellion. Mr. Parker said: "It is no +spasmodic effort that has come suddenly upon us; it has been gradually +culminating for a long period of thirty years. At last it has come to +that point where we may say, the matter is entirely right." Mr. Inglis +said: "Most of us have had this matter under consideration for the last +twenty years; and I presume that we have by this time arrived at a +decision upon the subject." Mr. Keitt said: "I have been engaged in +this movement ever since I entered political life; * * * we have +carried the body of this Union to its last resting place, and now we +will drop the flag over its grave." Mr. Barnwell Rhett said: "The +Secession of South Carolina is not an event of a day. It is not +anything produced by Mr. Lincoln's election, or by the non-execution of +the Fugitive Slave Law. It has been a matter which has been gathering +head for thirty years." Mr. Gregg said: "If we undertake to set forth +all the causes, do we not dishonor the memory of all the statesmen of +South Carolina, now departed, who commenced forty years ago a war +against the tariff and against internal improvement, saying nothing of +the United States Bank, and other measures which may now be regarded as +obsolete."</p> + +<p>On the 20th of December, 1860—the fourth day of the sittings—the +Ordinance of Secession was reported by the Committee, and was at once +unanimously passed, as also was a resolution that "the passage of the +Ordinance be proclaimed by the firing of artillery and ringing of the +bells of the city, and such other demonstrations as the people may deem +appropriate on the passage of the great Act of Deliverance and Liberty;" +after which the Convention jubilantly adjourned to meet, and ratify, +that evening. At the evening session of this memorable Convention, the +Governor and Legislature attending, the famous Ordinance was read as +engrossed, signed by all the delegates, and, after announcement by the +President that "the State of South Carolina is now and henceforth a Free +and Independent Commonwealth;" amid tremendous cheering, the Convention +adjourned. This, the first Ordinance of Secession passed by any of the +Revolting States, was in these words:</p> + +<p>"An Ordinance to dissolve the Union between the State of South Carolina +and other States united with her, under the compact entitled the +'Constitution of the United States of America.'</p> + +<p>"We the people of the State of South Carolina in Convention assembled, +do declare and ordain, and it is hereby declared and ordained, that the +Ordinance adopted by us in Convention on the 23rd day of May, in the +year of our Lord 1788, whereby the Constitution of the United States of +America was ratified, and also all Acts and parts of Acts of the General +Assembly of this State ratifying the amendments of the said +Constitution, are hereby repealed; and that the Union now subsisting +between South Carolina and other States, under the name of the United +States of America, is hereby dissolved."</p> + +<p>Thus, and in these words, was joyously adopted and ratified, that solemn +Act of Separation which was doomed to draw in its fateful train so many +other Southern States, in the end only to be blotted out with the blood +of hundreds of thousands of their own brave sons, and their equally +courageous Northern brothers.</p> + +<p>State after State followed South Carolina in the mad course of Secession +from the Union. Mississippi passed a Secession Ordinance, January 9, +1861. Florida followed, January 10th; Alabama, January 11th; Georgia, +January 18th; Louisiana, January 26th; and Texas, February 1st; +Arkansas, North Carolina, and Virginia held back until a later period; +while Kentucky, Tennessee, Missouri, Maryland, and Delaware, abstained +altogether from taking the fatal step, despite all attempts to bring +them to it.</p> + +<p>In the meantime, however, South Carolina had put on all the dignity of +a Sovereign and Independent State. Her Governor had a "cabinet" +comprising Secretaries of State, War, Treasury, the Interior, and a +Postmaster General. She had appointed Commissioners, to proceed to the +other Slave-holding States, through whom a Southern Congress was +proposed, to meet at Montgomery, Alabama; and had appointed seven +delegates to meet the delegates from such other States in that proposed +Southern Congress. On the 21st of December, 1860, three Commissioners +(Messrs. Barnwell, Adams, and Orr) were also appointed to proceed to +Washington, and treat for the cession by the United States to South +Carolina, of all Federal property within the limits of the latter. On +the 24th, Governor Pickens issued a Proclamation announcing the adoption +of the Ordinance of Secession, declaring "that the State of South +Carolina is, as she has a right to be, a separate sovereign, free and +independent State, and as such, has a right to levy war, conclude peace, +negotiate treaties, leagues or covenants, and to do all acts whatsoever +that rightfully appertain to a free and independent State;" the which +proclamation was announced as "Done in the eighty-fifth year of the +Sovereignty and Independence of South Carolina." On the same day (the +Senators from that State in the United States Senate having long since, +as we have seen, withdrawn from that body) the Representatives of South +Carolina in the United States House of Representatives withdrew.</p> + +<p>Serious dissensions in the Cabinet of President Buchanan, were now +rapidly disintegrating the "official family" of the President. Lewis +Cass, the Secretary of State, disgusted with the President's cowardice +and weakness, and declining to be held responsible for Mr. Buchanan's +promise not to reinforce the garrisons of the National Forts, under +Major Anderson, in Charleston harbor, retired from the Cabinet December +12th—Howell Cobb having already, "because his duty to Georgia required +it," resigned the Secretaryship of the Treasury, and left it bankrupt +and the credit of the Nation almost utterly destroyed.</p> + +<p>On the 26th of December, Major Anderson evacuated Fort Moultrie, +removing all his troops and munitions of war to Fort Sumter—whereupon a +cry went up from Charleston that this was in violation of the +President's promise to take no step looking to hostilities, provided the +Secessionists committed no overt act of Rebellion, up to the close of +his fast expiring Administration. On the 29th, John B. Floyd, Secretary +of War, having failed to secure the consent of the Administration to an +entire withdrawal of the Federal garrison from the harbor of Charleston, +also resigned, and the next day—he having in the meantime escaped in +safety to Virginia—was indicted by the Grand Jury at Washington, for +malfeasance and conspiracy to defraud the Government in the theft of +$870,000 of Indian Trust Bonds from the Interior Department, and the +substitution therefor of Floyd's acceptances of worthless +army-transportation drafts on the Treasury Department.</p> + +<p>Jacob Thompson, Secretary of the Interior, also resigned, January 8th, +1861, on the pretext that "additional troops, he had heard, have been +ordered to Charleston" in the "Star of the West."—[McPherson's History +of the Rebellion, p. 28.]</p> + +<p>Several changes were thus necessitated in Mr. Buchanan's cabinet, by +these and other resignations, so that by the 18th of January, 1861, +Jeremiah S. Black was Secretary of State; General John A. Dix, Secretary +of the Treasury; Joseph Holt, Secretary of War; Edwin M. Stanton, +Attorney General; and Horatio King, Postmaster General. But before +leaving the Cabinet, the conspiring Southern members of it, and their +friends, had managed to hamstring the National Government, by scattering +the Navy in other quarters of the World; by sending the few troops of +the United States to remote points; by robbing the arsenals in the +Northern States of arms and munitions of war, so as to abundantly supply +the Southern States at the critical moment; by bankrupting the Treasury +and shattering the public credit of the Nation; and by other means no +less nefarious. Thus swindled, betrayed, and ruined, by its degenerate +and perfidious sons, the imbecile Administration stood with dejected +mien and folded hands helplessly awaiting the coming catastrophe.</p> + +<p>On December 28th, 1860, the three Commissioners of South Carolina having +reached Washington, addressed to the President a communication, in +which—after reciting their powers and duties, under the Ordinance of +Secession, and stating that they had hoped to have been ready to proceed +to negotiate amicably and without "hostile collision," but that "the +events—[The removal, to Fort Sumter, of Major Anderson's command, and +what followed.]—of the last twenty-four hours render such an assurance +impossible"—they declared that the troops must be withdrawn from +Charleston harbor, as "they are a standing menace which render +negotiation impossible," threatening speedily to bring the questions +involved, to "a bloody issue."</p> + +<p>To this communication Mr. Buchanan replied at considerable length, +December 30th, in an apologetic, self-defensive strain, declaring that +the removal by Major Anderson of the Federal troops under his command, +from Fort Moultrie to Fort Sumter was done "upon his own responsibility, +and without authority," and that he (the President) "had intended to +command him to return to his former position," but that events had so +rapidly transpired as to preclude the giving of any such command;</p> +<blockquote><blockquote><blockquote> +<p> [The seizure by the Secessionists, under the Palmetto Flag, of + Castle Pinckney and Fort Moultrie; the simultaneous raising of that + flag over the Federal Custom House and Post Office at Charleston; + the resignation of the Federal Collector, Naval Officer and + Surveyor of that Port—all of which occurred December 27th; and the + seizure "by force of arms," December 30th, of the United States + Arsenal at that point.]</p> +</blockquote></blockquote></blockquote> +<p>and concluding, with a very slight stiffening of backbone, by saying: +"After this information, I have only to add that, whilst it is my duty +to defend Fort Sumter as a portion of the public property of the United +States against hostile attacks, from whatever quarter they may come, by +such means as I may possess for this purpose, I do not perceive how such +a defense can be construed into a menace against the city of +Charleston." To this reply of the President, the Commissioners made +rejoinder on the 1st of January, 1861; but the President "declined to +receive" the communication.</p> + +<p>From this time on, until the end of President Buchanan's term of office, +and the inauguration of Mr. Lincoln as President, March 4th, 1861, +events crowded each other so hurriedly, that the flames of Rebellion in +the South were continually fanned, while the public mind in the North +was staggered and bewildered, by them.</p> + +<p>On January 2nd, prior to the Secession of Georgia, Forts Pulaski and +Jackson, commanding Savannah, and the Federal Arsenal at Augusta, +Georgia, with two 12 pound howitzers, two cannon, 22,000 muskets and +rifles, and ammunition in quantity, were seized by Rebel militia. About +the same date, although North Carolina had not seceded, her Governor +(Ellis) seized the Federal Arsenal at Fayetteville, Fort Macon, and +other fortifications in that State, "to preserve them" from mob-seizure.</p> + +<p>January 4th, anticipating Secession, Alabama State troops seized Fort +Morgan, with 5,000 shot and shell, and Mount Vernon Arsenal at Mobile, +with 2,000 stand of arms, 150, 000 pounds of powder, some pieces of +cannon, and a large quantity of other munitions of war. The United +States Revenue cutter, "Lewis Cass," was also surrendered to Alabama.</p> + +<p>On the 5th, the Federal steamer "Star of the West," with reinforcements +and supplies for Fort Sumter, left New York in the night—and Secretary +Jacob Thompson notified the South Carolina Rebels of the fact.</p> + +<p>On the 9th, the "Star of the West" appeared off Charleston bar, and +while steaming toward Fort Sumter, was fired upon by Rebel batteries at +Fort Moultrie and Morris Island, and struck by a shot, whereupon she +returned to New York without accomplishing her mission. That day the +State of Mississippi seceded from the Union.</p> + +<p>On the 10th, the Federal storeship "Texas," with Federal guns and +stores, was seized by Texans. On the same day Florida seceded.</p> + +<p>On the 11th, Forts Jackson and St. Philip, commanding the mouth of the +Mississippi River, and Fort Pike, dominating Lake Pontchartrain, were +seized by Louisiana troops; also the Federal Arsenal at Baton Rouge, +with 50,000 small arms, 4 howitzers, 20 heavy pieces of ordnance, 2 +batteries, 300 barrels of powder, and other stores. The State of +Alabama also seceded the same day.</p> + +<p>On the 12th—Fort Marion, the coast surveying schooner "Dana," the +Arsenal at St. Augustine, and that on the Chattahoochee, with 500,000 +musket cartridges, 300,000 rifle cartridges and 50,000 pounds of powder, +having previously been seized—Forts Barrancas and McRae, and the Navy +Yard at Pensacola, were taken by Rebel troops of Florida, Alabama and +Mississippi. On the same day, Colonel Hayne, of South Carolina, arrived +at Washington as Agent or Commissioner to the National Government from +Governor Pickens of that State.</p> + +<p>On the 14th, the South Carolina Legislature resolved "that any attempt +by the Federal Government to reinforce Fort Sumter will be regarded as +an act of open hostility, and a Declaration of War."</p> + +<p>On the 16th, Colonel Hayne, of South Carolina, developed his mission, +which was to demand of the President the surrender of Fort Sumter to the +South Carolina authorities—a demand that had already been made upon, +and refused by, Major Anderson.</p> + +<p>The correspondence concerning this demand, between Colonel Hayne and ten +Southern United States Senators;—[Senators Wigfall, Hemphill, Yulee, +Mallory, Jeff. Davis, C. C. Clay, Fitzgerald, Iverson, Slidell, and +Benjamin.]—the reply of the President, by Secretary Holt, to those +Senators; Governor Pickens's review of the same; and the final demand; +consumed the balance of the month of January; and ended, February 6th, +in a further reply, through the Secretary of War, from the President, +asserting the title of the United States to that Fort, and declining the +demand, as "he has no Constitutional power to cede or surrender it." +Secretary Holt's letter concluded by saying: "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 authorities of that +State shall assault Fort Sumter, and peril the lives of the handful of +brave and loyal men shut up within its walls, and thus plunge our Common +Country into the horrors of Civil War, then upon them and those they +represent, must rest the responsibility."</p> + +<p>But to return from this momentary diversion: On the 18th of January, +Georgia seceded; and on the 20th, the Federal Fort at Ship Island, +Mississippi, and the United States Hospital on the Mississippi River +were seized by Mississippi troops.</p> + +<p>On the 26th, Louisiana seceded. On the 28th, Louisiana troops seized +all the quartermaster's and commissary stores held by Federal officials; +and the United States Revenue cutter "McClelland" surrendered to the +Rebels.</p> + +<p>On February 1st, the Louisiana Rebels seized the National Mint and +Custom House at New Orleans, with $599,303 in gold and silver. On the +same day the State of Texas seceded.</p> + +<p>On February 8th, the National Arsenal at Little Rock, Arkansas, with +9,000 small arms, 40 cannon, and quantities of ammunition, was seized; +and the same day the Governor of Georgia ordered the National Collector +of the Port of Savannah to retain all collections and make no further +payments to the United States Government.*</p> +<blockquote><blockquote><blockquote> +<p> + [It was during this eventful month that, certain United States + troops having assembled at the National Capital, and the House of + Representatives having asked the reason therefor, reply was made by + the Secretary of War as follows:</p> + +<p> "WAR DEPARTMENT, February 18, 1861. + [Congressional Globe, August 8, 1861, pp. 457,458] + "SIR: On the 11th February, the House of Representatives adopted a + resolution requesting the President, if not incompatible with the + public interests, to communicate 'the reasons that had induced him + to assemble so large a number of troops in this city, and why they + are kept here; and whether he has any information of a Conspiracy + upon the part of any portion of the citizens of this Country to + seize upon the Capital and prevent the Inauguration of the + President elect.'</p> + +<p> "This resolution having been submitted to this Department for + consideration and report, I have the honor to state, that the body + of troops temporarily transferred to this city is not as large as + is assumed by the resolution, though it is a well-appointed corps + and admirably adapted for the preservation of the public peace. + The reasons which led to their being assembled here will now be + briefly stated.</p> + +<p> "I shall make no comment upon the origin of the Revolution which, + for the last three months, has been in progress in several of the + Southern States, nor shall I enumerate the causes which have + hastened its advancement or exasperated its temper. The scope of + the questions submitted by the House will be sufficiently met by + dealing with the facts as they exist, irrespective of the cause + from which they have proceeded. That Revolution has been + distinguished by a boldness and completeness of success rarely + equaled in the history of Civil Commotions. Its overthrow of the + Federal authority has not only been sudden and wide-spread, but has + been marked by excesses which have alarmed all and been sources of + profound humiliation to a large portion of the American People. + Its history is a history of surprises and treacheries and ruthless + spoliations. The Forts of the United States have been captured and + garrisoned, and hostile flags unfurled upon their ramparts. Its + arsenals have been seized, and the vast amount of public arms they + contained appropriated to the use of the captors; while more than + half a million dollars, found in the Mint at New Orleans, has been + unscrupulously applied to replenish the coffers of Louisiana. + Officers in command of revenue cutters of the United States have + been prevailed on to violate their trusts and surrender the + property in their charge; and instead of being branded for their + crimes, they, and the vessels they betrayed, have been cordially + received into the service of the Seceded States. These movements + were attended by yet more discouraging indications of immorality. + It was generally believed that this Revolution was guided and urged + on by men occupying the highest positions in the public service, + and who, with the responsibilities of an oath to support the + Constitution still resting upon their consciences, did not hesitate + secretly to plan and openly to labor for, the dismemberment of the + Republic whose honors they enjoyed and upon whose Treasury they + were living. As examples of evil are always more potent than those + of good, this spectacle of demoralization on the part of States and + statesmen could not fail to produce the most deplorable + consequences. The discontented and the disloyal everywhere took + courage. In other States, adjacent to and supposed to sympathize + in sense of political wrong with those referred to, Revolutionary + schemes were set on foot, and Forts and arms of the United States + seized. The unchecked prevalence of the Revolution, and the + intoxication which its triumphs inspired, naturally suggested + wilder and yet more desperate enterprises than the conquest of + ungarrisoned Forts, or the plunder of an unguarded Mint. At what + time the armed occupation of Washington City became a part of the + Revolutionary Programme, is not certainly known. More than six + weeks ago, the impression had already extensively obtained that a + Conspiracy for the accomplishment of this guilty purpose was in + process of formation, if not fully matured. The earnest endeavors + made by men known to be devoted to the Revolution, to hurry + Virginia and Maryland out of the Union, were regarded as + preparatory steps for the subjugation of Washington. This plan was + in entire harmony with the aim and spirit of those seeking the + subversion of the Government, since no more fatal blow at its + existence could be struck than the permanent and hostile possession + of the seat of its power. It was in harmony, too, with the avowed + designs of the Revolutionists, which looked to the formation of a + Confederacy of all the Slave States, and necessarily to the + Conquest of the Capital within their limits. It seemed not very + indistinctly prefigured in a Proclamation made upon the floor of + the Senate, without qualification, if not exultingly, that the + Union was already dissolved—a Proclamation which, however + intended, was certainly calculated to invite, on the part of men of + desperate fortunes or of Revolutionary States, a raid upon the + Capital. In view of the violence and turbulent disorders already + exhibited in the South, the public mind could not reject such a + scheme as at all improbable. That a belief in its existence was + entertained by multitudes, there can be no doubt, and this belief I + fully shared. My conviction rested not only on the facts already + alluded to, but upon information, some of which was of a most + conclusive character, that reached the Government from many parts + of the Country, not merely expressing the prevalence of the opinion + that such an organization had been formed, but also often + furnishing the plausible grounds on which the opinion was based. + Superadded to these proofs, were the oft-repeated declarations of + men in high political positions here, and who were known to have + intimate affiliations with the Revolution—if indeed they did not + hold its reins in their hands—to the effect that Mr. Lincoln would + not, or should not be inaugurated at Washington. Such + declarations, from such men, could not be treated as empty bluster. + They were the solemn utterances of those who well understood the + import of their words, and who, in the exultation of the temporary + victories gained over their Country's flag in the South, felt + assured that events would soon give them the power to verify their + predictions. Simultaneously with these prophetic warnings, a + Southern journal of large circulation and influence, and which is + published near the city of Washington, advocated its seizure as a + possible political necessity.</p> + +<p> "The nature and power of the testimony thus accumulated may be best + estimated by the effect produced upon the popular mind. + Apprehensions for the safety of the Capital were communicated from + points near and remote, by men unquestionably reliable and loyal. + The resident population became disquieted, and the repose of many + families in the city was known to be disturbed by painful + anxieties. Members of Congress, too—men of calm and comprehensive + views, and of undoubted fidelity to their Country—frankly + expressed their solicitude to the President and to this Department, + and formally insisted that the defenses of the Capital should be + strengthened. With such warnings, it could not be forgotten that, + had the late Secretary of War heeded the anonymous letter which he + received, the tragedy at Harper's Ferry would have been avoided; + nor could I fail to remember that, had the early admonitions which + reached here in regard to the designs of lawless men upon the Forts + of Charleston Harbor been acted on by sending forward adequate + reinforcements before the Revolution began, the disastrous + political complications that ensued might not have occurred.</p> + +<p> "Impressed by these circumstances and considerations, I earnestly + besought you to allow the concentration, at this city, of a + sufficient military force to preserve the public peace from all the + dangers that seemed to threaten it. An open manifestation, on the + part of the Administration, of a determination, as well as of the + ability, to maintain the laws, would, I was convinced, prove the + surest, as also the most pacific, means of baffling and dissolving + any Conspiracy that might have been organized. It was believed too + that the highest and most solemn responsibility resting upon a + President withdrawing from the Government, was to secure to his + successor a peaceful Inauguration. So deeply, in my judgment, did + this duty concern the whole Country and the fair fame of our + Institutions, that, to guarantee its faithful discharge, I was + persuaded no preparation could be too determined or too complete. + The presence of the troops alluded to in the resolution is the + result of the conclusion arrived at by yourself and Cabinet, on the + proposition submitted to you by this Department. Already this + display of life and loyalty on the part of your Administration, has + produced the happiest effects. Public confidence has been + restored, and the feverish apprehension which it was so mortifying + to contemplate has been banished. Whatever may have been the + machinations of deluded, lawless men, the execution of their + purpose has been suspended, if not altogether abandoned in view of + preparations which announce more impressively than words that this + Administration is alike able and resolved to transfer in peace, to + the President elect, the authority that, under the Constitution, + belongs to him. To those, if such there be, who desire the + destruction of the Republic, the presence of these troops is + necessarily offensive; but those who sincerely love our + Institutions cannot fail to rejoice that, by this timely precaution + they have possibly escaped the deep dishonor which they must have + suffered had the Capital, like the Forts and Arsenals of the South, + fallen into the hands of the Revolutionists, who have found this + great Government weak only because, in the exhaustless beneficence + of its spirit, it has refused to strike, even in its own defense, + lest it should wound the aggressor.</p> + +<p> "I have the honor to be, very respectfully, your obedient servant,</p> + +<p> "J. HOLT. + "Secretary of War,</p> + +<p> "THE PRESIDENT."]</p> +</blockquote></blockquote></blockquote> +<p> +On February 20th, Forts Chadbourne and Belknap were seized by the Texan +Rebels; and on the 22nd, the Federal General Twiggs basely surrendered +to them all the fortifications under his control, his little Army, and +all the Government stores in his possession—comprising $55,000 in +specie, 35,000 stand of arms, 26 pieces of mounted artillery, 44 +dismounted guns, and ammunition, horses, wagons, forage, etc., valued at +nearly $2,000,000.</p> + +<p>On the 2nd of March, the Texan Rebels seized the United States Revenue +cutter "Dodge" at Galveston; and on the 6th, Fort Brown was surrendered +to them.</p> + +<p>Thus, with surrender after surrender, and seizure after +seizure, of its revenue vessels and fortifications and troops and arms +and munitions of war in the Southern States—with Fort Sumter invested +and at the mercy of any attack, and Fortress Monroe alone of all the +National strongholds yet safe—with State after State seceding—what +wonder that, while these events gave all encouragement to the Southern +Rebels, the Patriots of the North stood aghast at the appalling +spectacle of a crumbling and dissolving Union!</p> + +<p>During this period of National peril, the debates in both branches of +Congress upon propositions for adjustment of the unfortunate differences +between the Southern Seceders and the Union, as has been already hinted, +contributed still further to agitate the public mind. Speech after +speech by the ablest and most brilliant Americans in public life, for or +against such propositions, and discussing the rightfulness or +wrongfulness of Secession, were made in Congress day after day, and, by +means of the telegraph and the press, alternately swayed the Northern +heart with feelings of hope, chagrin, elation or despair.</p> + +<p>The Great Debate was opened in the Senate on almost the very first day +of its session (December 4th, 1860), by Mr. Clingman, of North Carolina, +who, referring to South Carolina, declared that "Instead of being +precipitate, she and the whole South have been wonderfully patient." A +portion of that speech is interesting even at this time, as showing how +certain phases of the Tariff and Internal Improvement questions entered +into the consideration of some of the Southern Secession leaders. Said +he, "I know there are intimations that suffering will fall upon us of +the South, if we secede. My people are not terrified by any such +considerations. * * * They have no fears of the future if driven to +rely on themselves. The Southern States have more territory than all +the Colonies had when they Seceded from Great Britain, and a better +territory. Taking its position, climate, and fertility into +consideration, there is not upon Earth a body of territory superior to +it. * * * The Southern States have, too, at this day, four times the +population the Colonies had when they Seceded from Great Britain. Their +exports to the North and to Foreign Countries were, last year, more than +$300,000,000; and a duty of ten per cent. upon the same amount of +imports would give $30,000,000 of revenue—twice as much as General +Jackson's administration spent in its first year. Everybody can see, +too, how the bringing in of $300,000,000 of imports into Southern ports +would enliven business in our seaboard towns. I have seen with some +satisfaction, also, Mr. President, that the war made upon us has +benefitted certain branches of industry in my State. There are +manufacturing establishments in North Carolina, the proprietors of which +tell me that they are making fifty per cent. annually on their whole +capital, and yet cannot supply one tenth of the demand for their +production. The result of only ten per cent. duties in excluding +products from abroad, would give life and impetus to mechanical and +manufacturing industry, throughout the entire South. Our people +understand these things, and they are not afraid of results, if forced +to declare Independence. Indeed I do not see why Northern Republicans +should wish to continue a connection with us upon any terms. * * * +They want High Tariff likewise. They may put on five hundred per cent. +if they choose, upon their own imports, and nobody on our side will +complain. They may spend all the money they raise on railroads, or +opening harbors, or anything on earth they desire, without interference +from us; and it does seem to me that if they are sincere in their views +they ought to welcome a separation."</p> + +<p>From the very commencement of this long three-months debate, it was the +policy of the Southern leaders to make it appear that the Southern +States were in an attitude of injured innocence and defensiveness +against Northern aggression. Hence, it was that, as early as December +5th, on the floor of the Senate, through Mr. Brown, of Mississippi, they +declared: "All we ask is to be allowed to depart in Peace. Submit we +will not; and if, because we will not submit to your domination, you +choose to make War upon us, let God defend the Right!"</p> + +<p>At the same time it was esteemed necessary to try and frighten the North +into acquiescence with this demand to be "let alone." Hence such +utterances as those of Clingman and Iverson, to which reference has +already been made, and the especially defiant close of the latter's +speech, when—replying to the temperate but firm Union utterances of Mr. +Hale—the Georgia Senator said: "Sir, I do not believe there will be any +War; but if War is to come, let it come; we will meet the Senator from +New Hampshire and all the myrmidons of Abolitionism and Black +Republicanism everywhere upon our own soil; and, in the language of a +distinguished member from Ohio in relation to the Mexican War, we will +'welcome you with bloody hands to hospitable graves.'"</p> + +<p>On the other hand, in order to encourage the revolting States to the +speedy commission of overt acts of Rebellion and violence, that would +precipitate War without a peradventure, utterances fell from Southern +lips, in the National Senate Chamber, like those of Mr. Wigfall, when he +said, during this first day of the debate: "Frederick the Great, on one +occasion, when he had trumped up an old title to some of the adjacent +territory, quietly put himself in possession and then offered to treat. +Were I a South Carolinian, as I am a Texan, and I knew that my State was +going out of the Union, and that this Government would attempt to use +force, I would, at the first moment that that fact became manifest, +seize upon the Forts and the arms and the munitions of war, and raise +the cry 'To your tents, O Israel, and to the God of battles be this +issue!"</p> + +<p>And, as we have already seen, the Rebels of the South were not slow in +following the baleful advice to the letter. But it was not many days +after this utterance when the Conspirators against the Union evidently +began to fear that the ground for Rebellion, upon which they had planted +themselves, would be taken from under their feet by the impulse of +Compromise and Concession which stirred so strongly the fraternal spirit +of the North. That peaceful impulse must be checked and exasperated by +sneers and impossible demands. Hence, on December 12th we find one of +the most active and favorite mouthpieces of Treason, Mr. Wigfall, +putting forth such demands, in his most offensive manner.</p> + +<p>Said he: "If the two Senators from New York (Seward and King), the +Senator from Ohio (Wade), the two Senators from Illinois (Douglas and +Trumbull), the Senator from New Hampshire (Hale), the Senator from +Maine, and others who are regarded as representative men, who have +denied that by the Constitution of the United States, Slaves are +recognized as Property; who have urged and advocated those acts which we +regard as aggressive on the part of the People—if they will rise here, +and say in their places, that they desire to propose amendments to the +Constitution, and beg that we will vote for them; that they will, in +good faith, go to their respective constituencies and urge the +ratification; that they believe, if these Gulf States will suspend their +action, that those amendments will be ratified and carried out in good +faith; that they will cease preaching this 'irrepressible conflict'; and +if, in those amendments, it is declared that Slaves are Property, that +they shall be delivered up upon demand; and that they will assure us +that Abolition societies shall be abolished; that Abolition speeches +shall no longer be made; that we shall have peace and quiet; that we +shall not be called cut-throats and pirates and murderers; that our +women shall not be slandered—these things being said in good faith, the +Senators begging that we will stay our hand until an honest effort can +be made, I believe that there is a prospect of giving them a fair +consideration!"</p> + +<p>Small wonder is it, that this labored and ridiculous piece of +impertinence was received with ironical laughter on the Republican side +of the Senate Chamber. And it was in reference to these threats, and +these preposterous demands—including the suppression of the right of +Free Discussion and Liberty of the Press—that, in the same chamber +(January 7, 1861) the gallant and eloquent Baker said:</p> + +<p>"Your Fathers had fought for that right, and more than that, they had +declared that the violation of that right was one of the great causes +which impelled them to the Separation. * * * Sir, the Liberty of the +Press is the highest safeguard to all Free Government. Ours could not +exist without it. It is with us, nay, with all men, like a great +exulting and abounding river, It is fed by the dews of Heaven, which +distil their sweetest drops to form it. It gushes from the rill, as it +breaks from the deep caverns of the Earth. It is fed by a thousand +affluents, that dash from the mountaintop to separate again into a +thousand bounteous and irrigating rills around. On its broad bosom it +bears a thousand barks. There, Genius spreads its purpling sail. +There, Poetry dips its silver oar. There, Art, Invention, Discovery, +Science, Morality, Religion, may safely and securely float. It wanders +through every land. It is a genial, cordial source of thought and +inspiration, wherever it touches, whatever it surrounds. Sir, upon its +borders, there grows every flower of Grace and every fruit of Truth. I +am not here to deny that that Stream sometimes becomes a dangerous +Torrent, and destroys towns and cities upon its bank; but I am here to +say that without it, Civilization, Humanity, Government, all that makes +Society itself, would disappear, and the World would return to its +ancient Barbarism.</p> + +<p>"Sir, if that were to be possible, or so thought for a moment, the fine +conception of the great Poet would be realized. If that were to be +possible, though but for a moment, Civilization itself would roll the +wheels of its car backward for two thousand years. Sir, if that were +so, it would be true that:</p> + +<center> +<table summary=""> +<tr><td> + + 'As one by one in dread Medea's train,<br /> + Star after Star fades off th' ethereal plain,<br /> + Thus at her fell approach and secret might,<br /> + Art after art goes out, and all is night.<br /> + Philosophy, that leaned on Heaven before,<br /> + Sinks to her second cause, and is no more.<br /> + Religion, blushing, veils her sacred fires,<br /> + And, unawares, Morality expires.'<br /> + + +</td></tr> +</table> +</center> + + + + +<p>"Sir, we will not risk these consequences, even for Slavery; we will not +risk these consequences even for Union; we will not risk these +consequences to avoid that Civil War with which you threaten us; that +War which, you announce so deadly, and which you declare to be +inevitable. * * * I will never yield to the idea that the great +Government of this Country shall protect Slavery in any Territory now +ours, or hereafter to be acquired. It is, in my opinion, a great +principle of Free Government, not, to be surrendered.</p> + +<p>"It is in my judgment, the object of the great battle which we have +fought, and which we have won. It is, in my poor opinion, the point +upon which there is concord and agreement between the great masses of +the North, who may agree in no other political opinion whatever. Be he +Republican, or Democrat, or Douglas man, or Lincoln man; be he from the +North, or the West, from Oregon, or from Maine, in my judgment +nine-tenths of the entire population of the North and West are devoted, in +the very depths of their hearts, to the great Constitutional idea that +Freedom is the rule, that Slavery is the exception, that it ought not to +be extended by virtue of the powers of the Government of the United +States; and, come weal, come woe, it never shall be.</p> + +<p>"But, sir, I add one other thing. When you talk to me about Compromise +or Concession, I am not sure that I always understand you. Do you mean +that I am to give up my convictions of right? Armies cannot compel that +in the breast of a Free People. Do you mean that I am to concede the +benefits of the political struggle through which we have passed, +considered politically, only? You are too just and too generous to ask +that. Do you mean that we are to deny the great principle upon which +our political action has been based? You know we cannot. But if you +mean by Compromise and Concession to ask us to see whether we have not +been hasty, angry, passionate, excited, and in many respects violated +your feelings, your character, your right of property, we will look; +and, as I said yesterday, if we have, we will undo it. Allow me to say +again, if there be any lawyer or any Court that will advise us that our +laws are unconstitutional, we will repeal them.</p> + +<p>"Now as to territory. I will not yield one inch to Secession; but there +are things that I will yield, and there are things to which I will +yield. It is somewhere told that when Harold of England received a +messenger from a brother with whom he was at variance, to inquire on +what terms reconciliation and peace could be effected between brothers, +he replied in a gallant and generous spirit in a few words, 'the terms +I offer are the affection of a brother; and the Earldom of +Northumberland.' And, said the Envoy, as he marched up the Hall amid +the warriors that graced the state of the King, 'if Tosti, thy brother, +agree to this, what terms will you allow to his ally and friend, +Hadrada, the giant.' 'We will allow,' said Harold, 'to Hadrada, the +giant, seven feet of English ground, and if he be, as they say, a giant, +some few inches more!' and, as he spake, the Hall rang with acclamation.</p> + +<p>"Sir, in that spirit I speak. I follow, at a humble distance, the ideas +and the words of Clay, illustrious, to be venerated, and honored, and +remembered, forever. * * * He said—I say: that I will yield no inch, +no word, to the threat of Secession, unconstitutional, revolutionary, +dangerous, unwise, at variance with the heart and the hope of all +mankind save themselves. To that I yield nothing; but if States loyal +to the Constitution, if people magnanimous and just, desiring a return +of fraternal feeling, shall come to us and ask for Peace, for permanent, +enduring peace and affection, and say, 'What will you grant? I say to +them, 'Ask all that a gentleman ought to propose, and I will yield all +that a gentleman ought to offer.' Nay, more: if you are galled because +we claim the right to prohibit Slavery in territory now Free, or in any +Territory which acknowledges our jurisdiction, we will evade—I speak +but for myself—I will aid in evading that question; I will agree to +make it all States, and let the People decide at once. I will agree to +place them in that condition where the prohibition of Slavery will never +be necessary to justify ourselves to our consciences or to our +constituents. I will agree to anything which is not to force upon me +the necessity of protecting Slavery in the name of Freedom. To that I +never can and never will yield."</p> + +<p>The speeches of Seward, of Douglas, of Crittenden, of Andrew Johnson, of +Baker, and others, in behalf of the Union, and those of Benjamin, Davis, +Wigfall, Lane, and others, in behalf of Secession, did much toward +fixing the responsibility for the approaching bloody conflict where it +belonged. The speeches of Andrew Johnson of Tennessee—who, if he at a +subsequent period of the Nation's history, proved himself not the +worthiest son of the Republic, at this critical time, at all events, did +grand service in the National Senate—especially had great and good +effect on the public mind in the Northern and Border States. They were, +therefore, gall and wormwood to the Secession leaders, who hoped to drag +the Border States into the great Southern Confederacy of States already +in process of formation.</p> + +<p>Their irritation was shown in threats of personal violence to Mr. +Johnson, as when Wigfall—replying February 7th, 1861, to the latter's +speech, said, "Now if the Senator wishes to denounce Secession and +Nullification eo nomine, let him go back and denounce Jefferson; let him +denounce Jackson, if he dare, and go back and look that Tennessee +Democracy in the face, and see whether they will content themselves with +riddling his effigy!"</p> + +<p>It would seem also, from another part of Wigfall's reply, that the +speeches of Union Senators had been so effective that a necessity was +felt on the part of the Southern Conspirators to still further attempt +to justify Secession by shifting the blame to Northern shoulders, for, +while referring to the Presidential canvass of 1860—and the attitude of +the Southern Secession leaders during that exciting period—he said: +"We (Breckinridge-Democrats) gave notice, both North and South, that if +Abraham Lincoln was elected, this Union was dissolved. I never made a +speech during the canvass without asserting that fact. * * * Then, I +say, that our purpose was not to dissolve the Union; but the dire +necessity has been put upon us. The question is, whether we shall live +longer in a Union in which a Party, hostile to us in every respect, has +the power in Congress, in the Executive department, and in the Electoral +Colleges—a Party who will have the power even in the Judiciary. We +think it is not safe. We say that each State has the clear indisputable +right to withdraw if she sees fit; and six of the States have already +withdrawn, and one other State is upon the eve of withdrawing, if she +has not already done so. How far this will spread no man can tell!"</p> + +<p>As tending to show the peculiar mixture of brag, cajolery, and threats, +involved in the attitude of the South, as expressed by the same favorite +Southern mouthpiece, toward the Border-States on the one hand, and the +Middle and New England States on the other, a further extract from this +(February 7th) speech of the Texan Senator may be of interest. Said he:</p> + +<p>"With exports to the amount of hundreds of millions of dollars, our +imports must be the same. With a lighter Tariff than any people ever +undertook to live under, we could have larger revenue. We would be able +to stand Direct Taxation to a greater extent than any people ever could +before, since the creation of the World. We feel perfectly competent to +meet all issues that may be presented, either by hostility from abroad +or treason at home. So far as the Border-States are concerned, it is a +matter that concerns them alone. Should they confederate with us, +beyond all doubt New England machinery will be worked with the water +power of Tennessee, of Kentucky, of Virginia and of Maryland; the Tariff +laws that now give New England the monopoly in the thirty-three States, +will give to these Border States a monopoly in the Slave-holding States. +Should the non-Slave-holding States choose to side against us in +organizing their Governments, and cling to their New England brethren, +the only result will be, that the meat, the horses, the hemp, and the +grain, which we now buy in Pennsylvania, in Ohio, in Indiana and +Illinois, will be purchased in Kentucky and in Western Virginia and in +Missouri. Should Pennsylvania stand out, the only result will be, that +the iron which is now dug in Pennsylvania, will be dug in the mountains +of Tennessee and of Virginia and of Kentucky and of North Carolina. +These things we know.</p> + +<p>"We feel no anxiety at all, so far as money or men are concerned. We +desire War with nobody; we intend to make no War; but we intend to live +under just such a Government as we see fit. Six States have left this +Union, and others are going to leave it simply because they choose to do +it; that is all. We do not ask your consent; we do not wish it. We +have revoked our ratification of the Treaty commonly known as the +Constitution of the United States; a treaty for common defense and +general welfare; and we shall be perfectly willing to enter into another +Treaty with you, of peace and amity. Reject the olive branch and offer +us the sword, and we accept it; we have not the slightest objection. +Upon that subject we feel as the great William Lowndes felt upon another +important subject, the Presidency, which he said was neither to be +sought nor declined. When you invade our soil, look to your own +borders. You say that you have too many people, too many towns, too +dense a population, for us to invade you. I say to you Senators, that +there is nothing that ever stops the march of an invading force, except +a desert. The more populous a country, the more easy it is to subsist +an army."</p> + +<p>After declaring that—"Not only are our non-Slaveholders loyal, but even +our Negroes are. We have no apprehensions whatever of insurrection—not +the slightest. We can arm our negroes, and leave them at home, when we +are temporarily absent"—Mr. Wigfall proceeded to say: "We may as well +talk plainly about this matter. This is probably the last time I shall +have an opportunity of addressing you. There is another thing that an +invading army cannot do. It cannot burn up plantations. You can pull +down fences, but the Negroes will put them up the next morning. The +worst fuel that ever a man undertook to make fire with, is dirt; it will +not burn. Now I have told you what an invading army cannot do. Suppose +I reverse the picture and tell you what it can do. An invading army in +an enemy's country, where there is a dense population, can subsist +itself at a very little cost; it does not always pay for what it gets. +An invading army can burn down towns; an invading army can burn down +manufactories; and it can starve operatives. It can do all these +things. But an Invading army, and an army to defend a Country, both +require a military chest. You may bankrupt every man south of North +Carolina, so that his credit is reduced to such a point that he could +not discount a note for thirty dollars, at thirty days; but the next +autumn those Cotton States will have just as much money and as much +credit as they had before. They pick money off the cotton plant. Every +time that a Negro touches a cotton-pod with his hand, he pulls a piece +of silver out of it, and he drops it into the basket in which it is +carried to the gin-house. It is carried to the packing screw. A bale +of cotton rolls out—in other words, five ten-dollar pieces roll +out—covered with canvas. We shall never again make less than five million +bales of cotton. * * * We can produce five million bales of cotton, +every bale worth fifty dollars, which is the lowest market price it has +been for years past. We shall import a bale of something else, for +every bale of cotton that we export, and that bale will be worth fifty +dollars. We shall find no difficulty under a War-Tariff in raising an +abundance of money. We have been at Peace for a very long time, We are +very prosperous. Our planters use their cotton, not to buy the +necessaries of life, but for the superfluities, which they can do +without. The States themselves have a mine of wealth in the loyalty and +the wealth of their citizens. Georgia, Mississippi, any one of those +States can issue its six per cent. bonds tomorrow, and receive cotton in +payment to the extent almost of the entire crop. They can first borrow +from their own citizens; they can tax them to an almost unlimited +extent; and they can raise revenue from a Tariff to an almost unlimited +extent.</p> + +<p>"How will it be with New England? where will their revenue come from? +From your Custom-houses? what do you export? You have been telling us +here for the last quarter of a century, that you cannot manufacture, +even for the home market, under the Tariffs which we have given you. +When this Tariff ceases to operate in your favor, and you have to pay +for coming into our markets, what will you export? When your machinery +ceases to move, and your operatives are turned out, will you tax your +broken capitalist or your starving operative? When the navigation laws +cease to operate, what will become of your shipping interest? You are +going to blockade our ports, you say. That is a very innocent game; and +you suppose we shall sit quietly down and submit to a blockade. I speak +not of foreign interference, for we look not for it. We are just as +competent to take Queen Victoria and Louis Napoleon under our +protection, as they are to take us; and they are a great deal more +interested to-day in receiving cotton from our ports than we are in +shipping it. You may lock up every bale of cotton within the limits of +the eight Cotton States, and not allow us to export one for three years, +and we shall not feel it further than our military resources are +concerned. Exhaust the supply of cotton in Europe for one week, and all +Europe is in revolution.</p> + +<p>"These are facts. You will blockade us! Do you suppose we shall do +nothing, even upon the sea? How many letters of marque and reprisal +would it take to put the whole of your ships up at your wharves to rot? +Will any merchant at Havre, or Liverpool, or any other portion of the +habitable globe, ship a cargo upon a New England, or New York, or +Philadelphia clipper, or other ship, when he knows that the seas are +swarming with letters of marque and reprisal? Why the mere apprehension +of such a thing will cut you out of the Carrying Trade of the civilized +World. * * * I speak not of the absurdity of the position that you can +blockade our ports, admitting at the same time that we are in the Union. +Blockade is a remedy, as all writers on International law say, against a +Foreign Power with whom you are at War. You cannot use a blockade +against your own people. An embargo even, you cannot use. That is a +remedy against a Foreign Nation with whom you expect to be at War. You +must treat us as in the Union, or out of it. We have gone out. We are +willing to live at peace with you; but, as sure as fate, whenever any +flag comes into one of our ports, that has thirty-three stars upon it, +that flag will be fired at. Displaying a flag with stars which we have +plucked from that bright galaxy, is an insult to the State within whose +waters that flag is displayed. You cannot enforce the laws without +Coercion, and you cannot Coerce without War.</p> + +<p>"These matters, then, can be settled. How? By withdrawing your troops; +admitting our right to Self-government clearly, unqualifiedly. Do this, +and there is no difficulty about it. You say that you will not do it. +Very well; we have no objection—none whatever. That is Coercion. When +you have attempted it, you will find that you have made War. These, +Senators, are facts. I come here to plead for Peace; but I have seen so +much and felt so much, that I am becoming at last, to tell the plain +truth of the matter, rather indifferent as to which way the thing turns. +If you want War, you can have it. If you want Peace, you can get it; +but I plead not for Peace."</p> + +<p>Meanwhile the Seceding States of the South were strengthening their +attitude by Confederation. On February 4, 1861, the Convention of +Seceding States, called by the South Carolina Convention at the time of +her Secession, met, in pursuance of that call, at Montgomery, Alabama, +and on the 9th adopted a Provisional Constitution and organized a +Provisional Government by the election of Jefferson Davis of +Mississippi, as President, and Alexander H. Stephens of Georgia, as +Vice-President; to serve until a Presidential election could be held by +the people of the Confederacy.</p> +<blockquote><blockquote><blockquote> +<p> [At a later day, March 11, 1861, a permanent Constitution for the + "Confederate States" was adopted, and, in the Fall of the same + year, Messrs. Davis and Stephens were elected by popular vote, for + the term of six years ensuing, as President and Vice-President, + respectively, of the Confederacy.]</p> +</blockquote></blockquote></blockquote> +<p>Mr. Davis almost at once left Jackson, Mississippi, for Montgomery, +where he arrived and delivered his Inaugural, February 17, having +received on his road thither a succession of ovations from the +enthusiastic Rebels, to which he had responded with no less than +twenty-five speeches, very similar in tone to those made in the United States +Senate by Mr. Wigfall and others of that ilk—breathing at once defiance +and hopefulness, while admitting the difficulties in the way of the new +Confederacy.</p> + +<p>"It may be," said he, at Jackson, "that we will be confronted by War; +that the attempt will be made to blockade our ports, to starve us out; +but they (the Union men of the North) know little of the Southern heart, +of Southern endurance. No amount of privation could force us to remain +in a Union on unequal terms. England and France would not allow our +great staple to be dammed up within our present limits; the starving +thousands in their midst would not allow it. We have nothing to +apprehend from Blockade. But if they attempt invasion by land, we must +take the War out of our territory. If War must come, it must be upon +Northern, and not upon Southern soil. In the meantime, if they were +prepared to grant us Peace, to recognize our equality, all is well."</p> + +<p>And, in his speech at Stevenson, Alabama, said he "Your Border States +will gladly come into the Southern Confederacy within sixty days, as we +will be their only friends. England will recognize us, and a glorious +future is before us. The grass will grow in the Northern cities, where +the pavements have been worn off by the tread of Commerce. We will +carry War where it is easy to advance—where food for the sword and +torch await our Armies in the densely populated cities; and though they +may come and spoil our crops, we can raise them as before; while they +cannot rear the cities which took years of industry and millions of +money to build."</p> + +<p>Very different in tone to these, were the kindly and sensible utterances +of Mr. Lincoln on his journey from Springfield to Washington, about the +same time, for Inauguration as President of the United States. Leaving +Springfield, Illinois, February 11th, he had pathetically said:</p> + +<p>"My friends: No one, not in my position, can realize the sadness I feel +at this parting. To this people I owe all that I am. Here I have lived +more than a quarter of a century. Here my children were born, and here +one of them lies buried. I know not how soon I shall see you again. I +go to assume a task more difficult than that which has devolved upon any +other man since the days of Washington. He never would have succeeded +except for the aid of Divine Providence, upon which he at all times +relied. I feel that I cannot succeed without the same Divine blessing +which sustained him; and on the same Almighty Being I place my reliance +for support. And I hope you, my friends, will all pray that I may +receive that Divine assistance, without which I cannot succeed, but with +which success is certain. Again I bid you an affectionate farewell."</p> + +<p>At Indianapolis, that evening, the eve of his birthday anniversary, +after thanking the assembled thousands for their "magnificent welcome," +and defining the words "Coercion" and "Invasion"—at that time so +loosely used—he continued: "But if the United States should merely hold +and retake her own Forts and other property, and collect the duties on +foreign importation, or even withhold the mails from places where they +were habitually violated, would any or all of these things be 'Invasion' +or 'Coercion'? Do our professed lovers of the Union, who spitefully +resolve that they will resist Coercion and Invasion, understand that +such things as these on the part of the United States would be +'Coercion' or 'Invasion' of a State? If so, their idea of means to +preserve the object of their great affection would seem to be +exceedingly thin and airy."</p> + +<p>At Columbus, Ohio, he spoke in a like calm, conservative, reasoning way +—with the evident purpose of throwing oil on the troubled waters—when +he said: "I have not maintained silence from any want of real anxiety. +It is a good thing that there is no more than anxiety; for there is +nothing going wrong. It is a consoling circumstance that, when we look +out, there is nothing that really hurts anybody. We entertain different +views upon political questions; but nobody is suffering anything. This +is a consoling circumstance; and from it we may conclude that all we +want is time, patience, and a reliance on that God who has never +forsaken this People."</p> + +<p>So, too, at Pittsburg, Pa., February 15th, he said, of "our friends," as +he termed them, the Secessionists: "Take even their own views of the +questions involved, and there is nothing to justify the course they are +pursuing. I repeat, then, there is no crisis, except such an one as may +be gotten up at any time by turbulent men, aided by designing +politicians. My advice to them, under the circumstances, is to keep +cool. If the great American People only keep their temper both sides of +the line, the trouble will come to an end, and the question which now +distracts the Country be settled, just as surely as all other +difficulties, of a like character, which have been originated in this +Government, have been adjusted. Let the people on both sides keep their +self-possession, and, just as other clouds have cleared away in due +time, so will this great Nation continue to prosper as heretofore."</p> + +<p>And toward the end of that journey, on the 22nd of +February—Washington's Birthday—in the Independence Hall at Philadelphia, after +eloquently affirming his belief that "the great principle or idea that +kept this Confederacy so long together was * * * that sentiment in the +Declaration of Independence which gave Liberty not alone to the People +of this Country, but" he hoped "to the World, for all future time * * * +which gave promise that, in due time, the weight would be lifted from +the shoulders of all men"—he added, in the same firm, yet temperate and +reassuring vein: "Now, my friends, can this Country be saved on that +basis? If it can, I will consider myself one of the happiest men in the +world, if I can help to save it. If it cannot be saved on that basis, +it will be truly awful. But, if this Country cannot be saved without +giving up that principle, I was about to say I would rather be +assassinated on this spot than surrender it. Now in my view of the +present aspect of affairs, there need be no bloodshed or War. There is +no necessity for it. I am not in favor of such a course; and I may say, +in advance, that there will be no bloodshed, unless it be forced upon +the Government, and then it will be compelled to act in self-defense. * +* * I have said nothing but what I am willing to live by, and, if it be +the pleasure of Almighty God, to die by."</p> + +<p>Thus, as he progressed on that memorable journey from his home in +Illinois, through Indianapolis, Cincinnati, Columbus, Pittsburgh, +Cleveland, Erie, Buffalo, Albany, New York, Trenton, Newark, +Philadelphia, and Harrisburg—amid the prayers and blessings and +acclamations of an enthusiastic and patriotic people—he uttered words +of wise conciliation and firm moderation such as beseemed the high +functions and tremendous responsibilities to which the voice of that +liberty—and union-loving people had called him, and this too, with a +full knowledge, when he made the Philadelphia speech, that the enemies +of the Republic had already planned to assassinate him before he could +reach Washington.</p> + +<p>The prudence of his immediate friends, fortunately defeated the +murderous purpose—and by the simple device of taking the regular night +express from Philadelphia instead of a special train next day—to +Washington, he reached the National Capital without molestation early on +the morning of the 23rd of February.</p> + +<p>That morning, after Mr. Lincoln's arrival, in company with Mr. Lovejoy, +the writer visited him at Willard's Hotel. During the interview both +urged him to "Go right along, protect the property of the Country, and +put down the Rebellion, no matter at what cost in men and money." He +listened with grave attention, and said little, but very clearly +indicated his approval of all the sentiments thus expressed—and then, +with the same firm and manly and cheerful faith in the outcome, he +added: "As the Country has placed me at the helm of the Ship, I'll try +to steer her through."</p> + +<p>The spirit in which he proposed to accomplish this superhuman task, was +shown when he told the Southern people through the Civic authorities of +Washington on the 27th of February—When the latter called upon +him—that he had no desire or intention to interfere with any of their +Constitutional rights—that they should have all their rights under the +Constitution, "not grudgingly, but fully and fairly." And what was the +response of the South to this generous and conciliatory message? +Personal sneers—imputations of Northern cowardice—boasts of Southern +prowess—scornful rejection of all compromise—and an insolent challenge +to the bloody issue of arms!</p> + +<p>Said Mr. Wigfall, in the United States Senate, on March 2d, alluding to +Mr. Lincoln, "I do not think that a man who disguises himself in a +soldier's cloak and a Scotch cap (a more thorough disguise could not be +assumed by such a man) and makes his entry between day and day, into the +Capital of the Country that he is to govern—I hardly think that he is +going to look War sternly in the face.</p> +<blockquote><blockquote><blockquote> +<p> [Had Mr. Wigfall been able at this time to look four years into the + future and behold the downfall of the Southern Rebellion, the + flight of its Chieftains, and the capture of Jefferson Davis while + endeavoring to escape, with his body enclosed in a wrapper and a + woman's shawl over his head, as stated by Lieutenant-Colonel Stuart + of Jefferson Davis's Staff, p. 756, vol. ii., Greeley's American + Conflict—he would hardly have retailed this slander.]</p> +</blockquote></blockquote></blockquote> +<p>"I look for nothing else than that the Commissioners from the +Confederated States will be received here and recognized by Abraham +Lincoln. I will now predict that this Republican Party that is going to +enforce the Laws, preserve the Union, and collect Revenue, will never +attempt anything so silly; and that instead of taking Forts, the troops +will be withdrawn from those which we now have. See if this does not +turn out to be so, in less than a week or ten days."</p> + +<p>In the same insulting diatribe, he said: "It is very easy for men to +bluster who know there is going to be no danger. Four or five million +people living in a territory that extends from North Carolina down to +the Rio Grande, who have exports to above three hundred million dollars, +whose ports cannot be blockaded, but who can issue letters of marque and +reprisal, and sweep your commerce from the seas, and who will do it, are +not going to be trifled with by that sensible Yankee nation. Mark my +words. I did think, at one time, there was going to be War; I do not +think so now. * * * The Star of the West swaggered into Charleston +harbor, received a blow planted full in the face, and staggered out. +Your flag has been insulted; redress it if you dare! You have submitted +to it for two months, and you will submit to it for ever. * * * We +have dissolved the Union; mend it if you can; cement it with blood; try +the experiment! we do not desire War; we wish to avoid it. * * * This +we say; and if you choose to settle this question by the Sword, we feel, +we know, that we have the Right. We interfere with you in no way. We +ask simply that you will not interfere with us. * * * You tell us you +will keep us in the Union. Try the experiment!"</p> + +<p>And then, with brutal frankness, he continued: "Now, whether what are +called The Crittenden Resolutions will produce satisfaction in some of +these Border States, or not, I am unaware; but I feel perfectly sure +they would not be entertained upon the Gulf. As to the Resolutions +which the Peace Congress has offered us, we might as well make a clean +breast of it. If those Resolutions were adopted, and ratified by three +fourths of the States of this Union, and no other cause ever existed, I +make the assertion that the seven States now out of the Union, would go +out upon that."</p> + +<br><br><br><br><br> +<a name="clay"></a> +<center> +<img alt="p132-clay.jpg (78K)" src="images/p132-clay.jpg" height="809" width="585"> +</center> +<br><br><br> +<a name="ch8"></a> +<br><br> +<center><h2> + CHAPTER VIII.<br><br> + + THE REJECTED OLIVE BRANCH.</h2></center><br> + + +<p>While instructive, it will also not be devoid of interest, to pause +here, and examine the nature of the Crittenden Resolutions, and also the +Resolutions of the Peace Congress, which, we have seen, were spurned by +the Secession leaders, through their chief mouthpiece in the United +States Senate.</p> + +<p>The Crittenden Compromise Resolutions * were in these words:</p> + +<p>"A Joint Resolution proposing certain Amendments to the Constitution of +the United States:</p> + +<p>"Whereas, serious and alarming dissensions have arisen between the +Northern and the Southern States, concerning the Rights and security of +the Rights of the Slaveholding States, and especially their Rights in +the common territory of the United States; and whereas, it is eminently +desirable and proper that these dissensions, which now threaten the very +existence of this Union, should be permanently quieted and settled by +Constitutional provisions which shall do equal justice to all Sections, +and thereby restore to the People that peace and good-will which ought +to prevail between all the citizens of the United States; Therefore:</p> + +<p>"Resolved, by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United +States of America, in Congress assembled, (two thirds of both Houses +concurring), the following articles be, and are hereby proposed and +submitted as amendments to the Constitution of the United States, which +shall be valid to all intents and purposes, as part of said +Constitution, when ratified by Conventions of three-fourths of the +several States:</p> + +<p>"Article I. In all the territory of the United States now held, or +hereafter to be acquired, situate north of latitude 36 30', Slavery or +involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime, is prohibited, +while such territory shall remain under Territorial government. In all +the territory south of said line of latitude, Slavery of the African +race is hereby recognized as existing, and shall not be interfered with +by Congress, but shall be protected as Property by all the departments +of the Territorial government during its continuance. And when any +Territory, north or south of said line, within such boundaries as +Congress may prescribe, shall contain the population requisite for a +member of Congress, according to the then Federal ratio of +representation of the People of the United States, it shall, if its own +form of government be republican, be admitted into the Union, on an +equal footing with the original States; with or without Slavery, as the +Constitution of such new State may provide.</p> + +<p>"Article II. Congress shall have no power to abolish Slavery in places +under its exclusive jurisdiction, and situate within the limits of +States that permit the holding of Slaves.</p> + +<p>"Article III. Congress shall have no power to abolish Slavery within +the District of Columbia; so long as it exists in the adjoining States +of Virginia and Maryland, or either, nor without the consent of the +inhabitants, nor without just compensation first made to such owners of +Slaves as do not consent to such abolishment. Nor shall Congress, at +any time, prohibit officers of the Federal government, or members of +Congress whose duties require them to be in said District, from bringing +with them their Slaves, and holding them as such during the time their +duties may require them to remain there, and afterward taking them from +the District.</p> + +<p>"Article IV. Congress shall have no power to prohibit or hinder the +Transportation of Slaves from one State to another, or to a Territory in +which Slaves are, by law, permitted to be held, whether that +transportation be by land, navigable rivers, or by the sea.</p> + +<p>"Article V. That in addition to the provisions of the third paragraph +of the second section of the fourth article of the Constitution of the +United States, Congress shall have power to provide by law, and it shall +be its duty to provide, that the United States shall pay to the owner +who shall apply for it, the full value of his Fugitive Slaves in all +cases where the Marshal, or other officer whose duty it was to arrest +said Fugitive, was prevented from so doing by violence or intimidation, +or where, after arrest, said Fugitive was rescued by force, and the +owner thereby prevented and obstructed in the pursuit of his remedy for +the recovery of his Fugitive Slave under the said clause of the +Constitution and the laws made in pursuance thereof.</p> +<blockquote><blockquote><blockquote> +<p> ["No Person held to Service or Labour in one State, under the Laws + thereof, escaping into another, shall, in consequence of any Law or + Regulation therein, be discharged from such Service or Labour, but + shall be delivered up on claim of the Party to whom such Service or + Labour may be due."—Art. IV., Sec. 2, P 3, U. S. Constitution.]</p> +</blockquote></blockquote></blockquote> +<p>"And in all such cases, when the United States shall pay for such +Fugitive, they shall have the Right, in their own name, to sue the +county in which said violence, intimidation, or rescue, was committed, +and recover from it, with interest and damages, the amount paid by them +for said Fugitive Slave. And the said county, after it has paid said +amount to the United States, may, for its indemnity, sue and recover +from the wrong-doers or rescuers by whom the owner was prevented from +the recovery of his Fugitive Slave, in like manner as the owner himself +might have sued and recovered.</p> + +<p>"Article VI. No future amendment of the Constitution shall affect the +five preceding articles; nor the third paragraph of the second section +of the first article of the Constitution, nor the third paragraph of +the second section of the fourth article of said Constitution; and no +amendment shall be made to the Constitution which shall authorize or +give to Congress any power to abolish or interfere with Slavery in any +of the States by whose laws it is or may be, allowed or permitted.</p> +<blockquote><blockquote><blockquote> +<p> ["Representatives and Direct Taxes shall be apportioned among the + several States which may be included within this Union, according + to their respective Numbers, which shall be determined by adding to + the whole Number of Free Persons, including those bound to Service + for a Term of Years, and excluding Indians not Taxed, three-fifths + of all Other Persons," etc.—Art. 1., Sec. 2, P 3, U. S. + Constitution.]</p> +</blockquote></blockquote></blockquote> +<p>"And whereas, also, besides those causes of dissension embraced in the +foregoing amendments proposed to the Constitution of the United States, +there are others which come within the jurisdiction of Congress, and may +be remedied by its legislative power; And whereas it is the desire of +Congress, as far as its power will extend, to remove all just cause for +the popular discontent and agitation which now disturb the peace of the +Country and threaten the stability of its Institutions; Therefore:</p> + +<p>"1. Resolved by the Senate and house of Representatives in Congress +assembled, that the laws now in force for the recovery of Fugitive +Slaves are in strict pursuance of the plain and mandatory provisions of +the Constitution, and have been sanctioned as valid and Constitutional +by the judgment of the Supreme Court of the United States; that the +Slaveholding States are entitled to the faithful observance and +execution of those laws; and that they ought not to be repealed, or so +modified or changed as to impair their efficiency; and that laws ought +to be made for the punishment of those who attempt, by rescue of the +Slave, or other illegal means, to hinder or defeat the due execution of +said laws.</p> + +<p>"2. That all State laws which conflict with the Fugitive Slave Acts of +Congress, or any other Constitutional Acts of Congress, or which, in +their operation, impede, hinder, or delay, the free course and due +execution of any of said Acts, are null and void by the plain provisions +of the Constitution of the United States; yet those State laws, void as +they are, have given color to practices, and led to consequences, which +have obstructed the due administration and execution of Acts of +Congress, and especially the Acts for the delivery of Fugitive Slaves; +and have thereby contributed much to the discord and commotion now +prevailing. Congress, therefore, in the present perilous juncture, does +not deem it improper, respectfully and earnestly, to recommend the +repeal of those laws to the several States which have enacted them, or +such legislative corrections or explanations of them as may prevent +their being used or perverted to such mischievous purposes.</p> + +<p>"3. That the Act of the 18th of September, 1850, commonly called the +Fugitive Slave Law, ought to be so amended as to make the fee of the +Commissioner, mentioned in the eighth section of the Act, equal in +amount in the cases decided by him, whether his decision be in favor of, +or against the claimant. And, to avoid misconstruction, the last clause +of the fifth section of said Act, which authorizes the person holding a +warrant for the arrest or detention of a Fugitive Slave to summon to his +aid the posse comitatus, and which declares it to be the duty of all +good citizens to assist him in its execution, ought to be so amended as +to expressly limit the authority and duty to cases in which there shall +be resistance, or danger of resistance or rescue.</p> + +<p>"4. That the laws for the suppression of the African Slave Trade, and +especially those prohibiting the importation of Slaves into the United +States, ought to be more effectual, and ought to be thoroughly executed; +and all further enactments necessary to those ends ought to be promptly +made."</p> + +<p> +The Peace Conference, or "Congress," it may here be mentioned, was +called, by action of the Legislature of Virginia, to meet at Washington, +February 4, 1861. The invitation was extended to all of such "States of +this Confederacy * * * whether Slaveholding or Non-Slaveholding, as are +willing to unite with Virginia in an earnest effort to adjust the +present unhappy controversies in the spirit in which the Constitution +was originally formed, and consistently with its principles, so as to +afford to the people of the Slaveholding States adequate guarantees for +the security of their rights"—such States to be represented by +Commissioners "to consider, and, if practicable, agree upon some +suitable adjustment."</p> + +<p>The Conference, or "Congress," duly convened, at that place and time, +and organized by electing ex-President John Tyler, of Virginia, its +President. This Peace Congress—which comprised 133 Commissioners, +representing the States of Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, Massachusetts, +Rhode Island, Connecticut, New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware, +Maryland, Virginia, North Carolina, Tennessee, Kentucky, Missouri, Ohio, +Indiana, Illinois, Iowa, Wisconsin and Kansas—remained in session until +February 27, 1861—and then submitted the result of its labors to +Congress, with the request that Congress "will submit it to Conventions +in the States, as Article Thirteen of the Amendments to the Constitution +of the United States, in the following shape:</p> + +<p>"Section 1. In all the present territory of the United States, north of +the parallel of 36 30' of north latitude, Involuntary Servitude, except +in punishment of crime, is prohibited. In all the present territory +south of that line, the status of Persons held to Involuntary Service or +Labor, as it now exists, shall not be changed; nor shall any law be +passed by Congress or the Territorial Legislature to hinder or prevent +the taking of such Persons from any of the States of this Union to said +Territory, nor to impair the Rights arising from said relation; but the +same shall be subject to judicial cognizance in the Federal Courts, +according to the course of the common law. When any Territory north or +south of said line, within such boundary as Congress may prescribe, +shall contain a population equal to that required for a member of +Congress, it shall, if its form of government be republican, be admitted +into the Union on an equal footing with the original States, with or +without Involuntary Servitude, as the Constitution of such State may +provide.</p> + +<p>"Section 2. No territory shall be acquired by the United States, except +by discovery and for naval and commercial stations, depots, and transit +routes, without the concurrence of a majority of all the Senators from +States which allow Involuntary Servitude, and a majority of all the +Senators from States which prohibit that relation; nor shall Territory +be acquired by treaty, unless the votes of a majority of the Senators +from each class of States hereinbefore mentioned be cast as a part of +the two-thirds majority necessary to the ratification of such treaty.</p> + +<p>"Section 3. Neither the Constitution, nor any amendment thereof, shall +be construed to give Congress power to regulate, abolish, or control, +within any State, the relation established or recognized by the laws +thereof touching Persons held to Labor or Involuntary Service therein, +nor to interfere with or abolish Involuntary Service in the District of +Columbia without the consent of Maryland, and without the consent of the +owners, or making the owners who do not consent just compensation; nor +the power to interfere with or prohibit Representatives and others from +bringing with them to the District of Columbia, retaining, and taking +away, Persons so held to Labor or Service; nor the power to interfere +with or abolish Involuntary Service in places under the exclusive +jurisdiction of the United States within those States and Territories +where the same is established or recognized; nor the power to prohibit +the removal or transportation of Persons held to Labor or Involuntary +Service in any State or Territory of the United States to any other +State or Territory thereof where it is established or recognized by law +or usage; and the right during transportation, by sea or river, of +touching at ports, shores, and landings, and of landing in case of +distress, shall exist; but not the right of transit in or through any +State or Territory, or of sale or traffic, against the laws thereof. +Nor shall Congress have power to authorize any higher rate of taxation +on Persons held to Labor or Service than on land. The bringing into the +District of Columbia of Persons held to Labor or Service, for sale, or +placing them in depots to be afterwards transferred to other places for +sale as merchandize, is prohibited.</p> + +<p>"Section 4. The third paragraph of the second section of the fourth +article of the Constitution shall not be construed to prevent any of the +States, by appropriate legislation, and through the action of their +judicial and ministerial officers, from enforcing the delivery of +Fugitives from Labor to the person to whom such Service or Labor is due.</p> + +<p>"Section 5. The Foreign Slave Trade is hereby forever prohibited; and +it shall be the duty of Congress to pass laws to prevent the importation +of Slaves, Coolies, or Persons held to Service or Labor, into the United +States and the Territories from places beyond the limits thereof.</p> + +<p>"Section 6. The first, third, and fifth sections, together with this +section of these amendments, and the third paragraph of the second +section of the first article of the Constitution, and the third +paragraph of the second section of the fourth article thereof, shall not +be amended or abolished without the consent of all the States.</p> + +<p>"Section 7. Congress shall provide by law that the United States shall +pay to the owner the full value of the Fugitive from Labor, in all cases +where the Marshal, or other officer, whose duty it was to arrest such +Fugitive, was prevented from so doing by violence or intimidation from +mobs or riotous assemblages, or when, after arrest, such Fugitive was +rescued by like violence or intimidation, and the owner thereby deprived +of the same; and the acceptance of such payment shall preclude the owner +from further claim to such Fugitive. Congress shall provide by law for +securing to the citizens of each State the privileges and immunities of +citizens in the several States."</p> + +<p> +To spurn such propositions as these—with all the concessions to the +Slave Power therein contained—was equivalent to spurning any and all +propositions that could possibly be made; and by doing this, the +Seceding States placed themselves—as they perhaps desired—in an +utterly irreconcilable attitude, and hence, to a certain extent, which +had not entered into their calculations, weakened their "Cause" in the +eyes of many of their friends in the North, in the Border States, and in +the World. They had become Implacables. Practically considered, this +was their great mistake. The Crittenden Compromise Resolutions covered +and yielded to the Slaveholders of the South all and even more than they +had ever dared seriously to ask or hope for, and had they been open to +Conciliation, they could have undoubtedly carried that measure through +both Houses of Congress and three-fourths of the States.</p> +<blockquote><blockquote><blockquote> +<p> ["Its advocates, with good reason, claimed a large majority of the + People in its favor, and clamored for its submission to a direct + popular vote. Had such a submission been accorded, it is very + likely that the greater number of those who voted at all would have + voted to ratify it. * * * The 'Conservatives,' so called, were + still able to establish this Crittenden Compromise by their own + proper strength, had they been disposed so to do. The President + was theirs; the Senate strongly theirs; in the House, they had a + small majority, as was evidenced in their defeat of John Sherman + for Speaker. Had they now come forward and said, with authority: + 'Enable us to pass the Crittenden Compromise, and all shall be + peace and harmony,' they would have succeeded without difficulty. + It was only through the withdrawal of pro-slavery members that the + Republicans had achieved an unexpected majority in either House. + Had those members chosen to return to the seats still awaiting + them, and to support Mr. Crittenden's proposition, they could have + carried it without difficulty."—Vol. 360, Greeley's Am. Conflict.]</p> +</blockquote></blockquote></blockquote> +<p>But no, they wilfully withdrew their Congressional membership, State by +State, as each Seceded, and refused all terms save those which involved +an absolute surrender to them on all points, including the impossible +claim of the "Right of Secession."</p> + +<p>Let us now briefly trace the history of the Compromise measures in the +two Houses of Congress.</p> + +<p>The Crittenden-Compromise Joint-Resolution had been introduced in the +Senate at the opening of its session and referred to a Select Committee +of Thirteen, and subsequently, January 16th, 1861, having been reported +back, came up in that body for action. On that day it was amended by +inserting the words "now held or hereafter to be acquired" after the +words "In all the territory of the United States," in the first line of +Article I., so that it would read as given above. This amendment—by +which not only in all territory then belonging to the United States, but +also by implication in all that might thereafter be acquired, Slavery +South of 36 30' was to be recognized—was agreed to by 29 yeas to 21 +nays, as follows:</p> + +<p>YEAS.—Messrs. Baker, Bayard, Benjamin, Bigler, Bragg, Bright, +Clingman, Crittenden, Douglas, Fitch, Green, Gwin, Hemphill, Hunter, +Iverson, Johnson of Tennessee, Kennedy, Lane, Mason, Nicholson, Pearce, +Polk, Powell, Pugh, Rice, Saulsbury, Sebastian, Slidell and Wigfall—29.</p> + +<p>NAYS.—Messrs. Anthony, Bingham, Cameron, Chandler, Clark, Collamer, +Dixon, Doolittle, Durkee, Fessenden, Foot, Foster, Grimes, Hale, Harlan, +King, Latham, Seward, Simmons, Sumner, Ten Eyck, Trumbull, Wade and +Wilson—24.</p> + +<p>The question now recurred upon an amendment, in the nature of a +substitute, offered by Mr. Clark, to strike out the preamble of the +Crittenden proposition and all of the resolutions after the word +"resolved," and insert:</p> + +<p>"That the provisions of the Constitution are ample for the preservation +of the Union, and the protection of all the material interests of the +Country; that it needs to be obeyed rather than amended; and that an +extrication from our present dangers is to be looked for in strenuous +efforts to preserve the peace, protect the public property, and enforce +the laws, rather than in new Guarantees for particular interests, +Compromises for particular difficulties, or Concessions to unreasonable +demands.</p> + +<p>"Resolved, That all attempts to dissolve the present Union, or overthrow +or abandon the present Constitution, with the hope or expectation of +constructing a new one, are dangerous, illusory, and destructive; that +in the opinion of the Senate of the United States no such Reconstruction +is practicable; and, therefore, to the maintenance of the existing Union +and Constitution should be directed all the energies of all the +departments of the Government, and the efforts of all good citizens."</p> + +<p> +Before reaching a vote on this amendment, Mr. Anthony, (January 16th) +made a most conciliatory speech, pointing out such practical objections +to the Crittenden proposition as occurred to his mind, and then, +continuing, said: "I believe, Mr. President, that if the danger which +menaces us is to be avoided at all, it must be by Legislation; which is +more ready, more certain, and more likely to be satisfactory, than +Constitutional Amendment. The main difficulty is the Territorial +question. The demand of the Senators on the other side of the Chamber, +and of those whom they represent, is that the territory south of the +line of the Missouri Compromise shall be open to their peculiar +Property. All this territory, except the Indian Reservation, is within +the limits of New Mexico; which, for a part of its northern boundary, +runs up two degrees above that line. This is now a Slave Territory; +made so by Territorial Legislation; and Slavery exists there, recognized +and protected. Now, I am willing, as soon as Kansas can be admitted, to +vote for the admission of New Mexico as a State, with such Constitution +as the People may adopt. This disposes of all the territory that is +adapted to Slave Labor or that is claimed by the South. It ought to +settle the whole question. Surely if we can dispose of all the +territory that we have, we ought not to quarrel over that which we have +not, and which we have no very honest way of acquiring. Let us settle +the difficulties that threaten us now, and not anticipate those which +may never come. Let the public mind have time to cool * * *. In +offering to settle this question by the admission of New Mexico, we of +the North who assent to it propose a great Sacrifice, and offer a large +Concession.</p> + +<p>"* * * But we make the offer in a spirit of Compromise and good +feeling, which we hope will be reciprocated. * * * I appeal to +Senators on the other side, when we thus offer to bridge over full +seven-eighths of the frightful chasm that separates us, will you not +build the other eighth? When, with outstretched arms, we approach you +so near that, by reaching out your hands you can clasp ours in the +fraternal grasp from which they should never be separated, will you, +with folded arms and closed eyes, stand upon extreme demands which you +know we cannot accept, and for which, if we did, we could not carry our +constituents? * * * Together our Fathers achieved the Independence of +their Country; together they laid the foundations of its greatness and +its glory; together they constructed this beautiful system under which +it is our privilege to live, which it is our duty to preserve and to +transmit. Together we enjoy that privilege; together we must perform +that duty. I will not believe that, in the madness of popular folly and +delusion, the most benignant Government that ever blessed humanity is to +be broken up. I will not believe that this great Power which is +marching with giant steps toward the first place among the Nations of +the Earth, is to be turned 'backward on its mighty track.' There are no +grievances, fancied or real, that cannot be redressed within the Union +and under the Constitution. There are no differences between us that +may not be settled if we will take them up in the spirit of those to +whose places we have succeeded, and the fruits of whose labors we have +inherited."</p> + +<p>And to this more than fair proposition to the Southerners—to this +touching appeal in behalf of Peace—what was the response? Not a word! +It seemed but to harden their hearts.</p> +<blockquote><blockquote><blockquote> +<p> [Immediately after Mr. Anthony's appeal to the Southern Senators, a + motion was made by Mr. Collamer to postpone the Crittenden + Resolutions and take up the Kansas Admission Bill. Here was the + chance at once offered to them to respond to that appeal—to make a + first step, as it were. They would not make it. The motion was + defeated by 25 yeas to 30 nays—Messrs. Benjamin and Slidell of + Louisiana, Hemphill and Wigfall of Texas, Iverson of Georgia, and + Johnson of Arkansas, voting "nay." The question at once recurred + on the amendment of Mr. Clark—being a substitute for the + Crittenden Resolutions, declaring in effect all Compromise + unnecessary. To let that substitute be adopted, was to insure the + failure of the Crittenden proposition. Yet these same six Southern + Senators though present, refused to vote, and permitted the + substitute to be adopted by 25 yeas to 23 nays. The vote of Mr. + Douglas, who had been "called out for an instant into the + ante-room, and deprived of the opportunity of voting "—as he afterwards + stated when vainly asking unanimous consent to have his vote + recorded among the nays—would have made it 25 yeas to 24 nays, had + he been present and voting, while the votes of the six Southern + Senators aforesaid, had they voted, would have defeated the + substitute by 25 yeas to 30 nays. Then upon a direct vote on the + Crittenden Compromise there would not only have been the 30 in its + favor, but the vote of at least one Republican (Baker) in addition, + to carry it, and, although that would not have given the necessary + two-thirds, yet it would have been a majority handsome enough to + have ultimately turned the scales, in both Houses, for a peaceful + adjustment of the trouble, and have avoided all the sad + consequences which so speedily befell the Nation. But this would + not have suited the Treasonable purposes of the Conspirators. Ten + days before this they had probably arranged the Programme in this, + as well as other matters. Very certain it is that no time was lost + by them and their friends in making the best use for their Cause of + this vote, in the doubtful States of Missouri and North Carolina + especially. In the St. Louis journals a Washington dispatch, + purporting (untruly however) to come from Senators Polk and Green, + was published to this effect.</p> + +<p> "The Crittenden Resolutions were lost by a vote of 25 to 23. A + motion of Mr. Cameron to reconsider was lost; and thus ends all + hope of reconciliation. Civil War is now considered inevitable, + and late accounts declare that Fort Sumter will be attacked without + delay. The Missouri delegation recommend immediate Secession."</p> + +<p> This is but a sample of other similar dispatches sent elsewhere. + And the following dispatch, signed by Mr. Crittenden, and published + in the Raleigh, N. C., Register, to quiet the excitement raised by + the telegrams of the Conspirators, serves also to indicate that the + friends of Compromise were not disheartened by their defeat:</p> + +<p> "WASHINGTON, Jan. 17th, 9 P. M.</p> + +<p> "In reply the vote against my resolutions will be reconsidered. + Their failure was the result of the refusal of six Southern + Senators to vote. There is yet good hope of success.</p> + +<p> "JOHN J. CRITTENDEN."</p> + +<p> + There is instruction also to be drawn from the speeches of Senators + Saulsbury, and Johnson of Tennessee, made fully a year afterward + (Jan. 29-31, 1862) in the Senate, touching the defeat of the + Crittenden Compromise by the Clark substitute at this time. + Speaking of the second session of the Thirty-sixth Congress, Mr. + Saulsbury said:</p> + +<p> "At that session, while vainly striving with others for the + adoption of those measures, I remarked in my place in the Senate + that—</p> + +<p> "'If any Gibbon should hereafter write the Decline and Fall of the + American Republic, he would date its fall from the rejection by the + Senate of the propositions submitted by the Senator from Kentucky.'</p> + +<p> "I believed so then, and I believe so now. I never shall forget, + Mr. President, how my heart bounded for joy when I thought I saw a + ray of hope for their adoption in the fact that a Republican + Senator now on this floor came to me and requested that I should + inquire of Mr. Toombs, who was on the eve of his departure for + Georgia to take a seat in the Convention of that State which was to + determine the momentous question whether she should continue a + member of the Union or withdraw from it, whether, if the Crittenden + propositions were adopted, Georgia would remain in the Union.</p> + +<p> "Said Mr. Toombs:</p> + +<p> "'Tell him frankly for me that if those resolutions are adopted by + the vote of any respectable number of Republican Senators, + evidencing their good faith to advocate their ratification by their + people, Georgia will not Secede. This is the position I assumed + before the people of Georgia. I told them that if the party in + power gave evidence of an intention to preserve our rights in the + Union, we were bound to wait until their people could act.'</p> + +<p> "I communicated the answer. The Substitute of the Senator from New + Hampshire [Mr. Clark] was subsequently adopted, and from that day + to this the darkness and the tempest and the storm have thickened, + until thousands like myself, as good and as true Union men as you, + Sir, though you may question our motives, have not only despaired + but are without hope in the future."</p> + +<p> To this speech, Mr. Johnson of Tennessee subsequently replied as + follows in the United States Senate (Jan. 31, 1862)</p> + +<p> "Sir, it has been said by the distinguished Senator from Delaware + [Mr. Saulsbury] that the questions of controversy might all have + been settled by Compromise. He dealt rather extensively in the + Party aspect of the case, and seemingly desired to throw the onus + of the present condition of affairs entirely on one side. He told + us that, if so and so had been done, these questions could have + been settled, and that now there would have been no War. He + referred particularly to the resolution offered during the last + Congress by the Senator from New Hampshire [Mr. Clark], and upon + the vote on that he based his argument. * * * The Senator told us + that the adoption of the Clark amendment to the Crittenden + Resolutions defeated the settlement of the questions of + controversy; and that, but for that vote, all could have been peace + and prosperity now. We were told that the Clark amendment defeated + the Crittenden Compromise, and prevented a settlement of the + controversy. On this point I will read a portion of the speech of + my worthy and talented friend from California [Mr. Latham]; and + when I speak of him thus, I do it in no unmeaning sense I intend + that he, not I, shall answer the Senator from Delaware. * * * As + I have said, the Senator from Delaware told us that the Clark + amendment was the turning point in the whole matter; that from it + had flowed Rebellion, Revolution, War, the shooting and + imprisonment of people in different States—perhaps he meant to + include my own. This was the Pandora's box that has been opened, + out of which all the evils that now afflict the Land have flown. * + * * My worthy friend from California [Mr. Latham], during the last + session of Congress, made one of the best speeches he ever made. * + * * In the course of that speech, upon this very point he made use + of these remarks:</p> + +<p> "'Mr. President, being last winter a careful eye-witness of all + that occurred, I soon became satisfied that it was a deliberate, + wilful design, on the part of some representatives of Southern + States, to seize upon the election of Mr. Lincoln merely as an + excuse to precipitate this revolution upon the Country. One + evidence, to my mind, is the fact that South Carolina never sent + her Senators here.'</p> + +<p> "Then they certainly were not influenced by the Clark amendment.</p> + +<p> "'An additional evidence is, that when gentlemen on this floor, by + their votes, could have controlled legislation, they refused to + cast them for fear that the very Propositions submitted to this + body might have an influence in changing the opinions of their + constituencies. Why, Sir, when the resolutions submitted by the + Senator from New Hampshire [Mr. Clark], were offered as an + amendment to the Crittenden Propositions, for the manifest purpose + of embarrassing the latter, and the vote taken on the 16th of + January, 1861, I ask, what did we see? There were fifty-five + Senators at that time upon this floor, in person. The Globe of the + second Session, Thirty-Sixth Congress, Part I., page 409, shows + that upon the call of the yeas and nays immediately preceding the + vote on the substituting of Mr. Clark's amendment, there were + fifty-five votes cast. I will read the vote from the Globe:</p> + +<p> "'YEAS—Messrs. Anthony, Baker, Bingham, Cameron, Chandler, Clark, + Collamer, Dixon, Doolittle, Durkee, Fessenden, Foot, Foster, + Grimes, Hale, Harlan, King, Seward, Simmons, Sumner, Ten Eyck, + Trumbull, Wade, Wilkinson, and Wilson—25.</p> + +<p> "NAYS—Messrs. Bayard, Benjamin, Bigler, Bragg, Bright, Clingman, + Crittenden, Douglas, Fitch, Green, Gwin, Hemphill, Hunter, Iverson, + Johnson of Arkansas, Johnson of Tennessee, Kennedy, Lane, Latham, + Mason, Nicholson, Pearce, Polk, Powell, Pugh, Rice, Saulsbury, + Sebastian, Slidell and Wigfall—30.</p> + +<p> "The vote being taken immediately after, on the Clark Proposition, + was as follows:</p> + +<p> "YEAS—Messrs. Anthony, Baker, Bingham, Cameron, Chandler, Clark, + Collamer, Dixon, Doolittle, Durkee, Fessenden, Foot, Foster, + Grimes, Hale, Harlan, King, Seward, Simmons, Sumner, Ten Eyck, + Trumbull, Wade, Wilkinson and Wilson—25.</p> + +<p> "NAYS—Messrs. Bayard, Bigler, Bragg, Bright, Clingman, Crittenden, + Fitch, Green, Gwin, Hunter, Johnson of Tennessee, Kennefly, Lane, + Latham, Mason, Nicholson, Pearce, Polk, Powell, Pugh, Rice, + Saulsbury and Sebastian—23.</p> + +<p> "'Six senators retained their seats and refused to vote, thus + themselves allowing the Clark Proposition to supplant the + Crittenden Resolution by a vote of twenty-five to twenty-three. + Mr. Benjamin of Louisiana, Mr. Hemphill and Mr. Wigfall of Texas, + Mr. Iverson of Georgia, Mr. Johnson of Arkansas, and Mr. Slidell of + Louisiana, were in their seats, but refused to cast their votes.'</p> + +<p> "I sat right behind Mr. Benjamin, and I am not sure that my worthy + friend was not close by, when he refused to vote, and I said to + him, 'Mr. Benjamin, why do you not vote? Why not save this + Proposition, and see if we cannot bring the Country to it?' He + gave me rather an abrupt answer, and said he would control his own + action without consulting me or anybody else. Said I: 'Vote, and + show yourself an honest man.' As soon as the vote was taken, he + and others telegraphed South, 'We cannot get any Compromise.' Here + were six Southern men refusing to vote, when the amendment would + have been rejected by four majority if they had voted. Who, then, + has brought these evils on the Country? Was it Mr. Clark? He was + acting out his own policy; but with the help we had from the other + side of the chamber, if all those on this side had been true to the + Constitution and faithful to their constituents, and had acted with + fidelity to the Country, the amendment of the Senator from New + Hampshire could have been voted down, the defeat of which the + Senator from Delaware says would have saved the Country. Whose + fault was it? Who is responsible for it? * * * Who did it? + SOUTHERN TRAITORS, as was said in the speech of the Senator from + California. They did it. They wanted no Compromise. They + accomplished their object by withholding their votes; and hence the + Country has been involved in the present difficulty. Let me read + another extract from this speech of the Senator from California</p> + +<p> "'I recollect full well the joy that pervaded the faces of some of + those gentlemen at the result, and the sorrow manifested by the + venerable Senator from Kentucky [Mr. Crittenden]. The record shows + that Mr. Pugh, from Ohio, despairing of any Compromise between the + extremes of ultra Republicanism and Disunionists, working + manifestly for the same end, moved, immediately after the vote was + announced, to lay the whole subject on the table. If you will turn + to page 443, same volume, you will find, when, at a late period, + Mr. Cameron, from Pennsylvania, moved to reconsider the vote, + appeals having been made to sustain those who were struggling to + preserve the Peace of the Country, that the vote was reconsidered; + and when, at last, the Crittenden Propositions were submitted on + the 2d day of March, these Southern States having 'nearly all + Seceded, they were then lost but by one vote. Here is the vote:</p> + +<p> "YEAS—Messrs. Bayard, Bigler, Bright, Crittenden, Douglas, Gwin, + Hunter, Johnson of Tennessee, Kennedy, Lane, Latham, Mason, + Nicholson, Polk, Pugh, Rice, Sebastian, Thomson and Wigfall—19.</p> + +<p> "'NAYS—Messrs. Anthony, Bingham, Chandler, Clark, Dixon, + Doolittle, Durkee, Fessenden, Foot, Foster, Grimes, Harlan, King, + Morrill, Sumner, Ten Eyck, Trumbull, Wade, Wilkinson and + Wilson—20.</p> + +<p> "'If these Seceding Southern senators had remained, there would + have passed, by a large vote (as it did without them), an + amendment, by a two-third vote, forbidding Congress ever + interfering with Slavery in the States. The Crittenden Proposition + would have been indorsed by a majority vote, the subject finally + going before the People, who have never yet, after consideration, + refused Justice, for any length of time, to any portion of the + Country.</p> + +<p> "'I believe more, Mr. President, that these gentlemen were acting + in pursuance of a settled and fixed plan to break up and destroy + this Government.'</p> + +<p> "When we had it in our power to vote down the amendment of the + Senator from New Hampshire, and adopt the Crittenden Resolutions, + certain Southern Senators prevented it; and yet, even at a late day + of the session, after they had Seceded, the Crittenden Proposition + was only lost by one vote. If Rebellion and bloodshed and murder + have followed, to whose skirts does the responsibility attach?</p> + +<p> "What else was done at the very same session? The House of + Representatives passed, and sent to this body, a Proposition to + amend the Constitution of the United States, so as to prohibit + Congress from ever hereafter interfering with the Institution of + Slavery in the States, making that restriction a part of the + Organic law of the Land. That Constitutional Amendment came here + after the Senators from seven States had Seceded; and yet it was + passed by a two-third vote in the Senate. Have you ever heard of + any one of the States which had then Seceded, or which has since + Seceded, taking up that Amendment to the Constitution, and saying + they would ratify it, and make it a part of that instrument? No. + Does not the whole history of this Rebellion tell you that it was + Revolution that the Leaders wanted, that they started for, that + they intended to have? The facts to which I have referred show how + the Crittenden Proposition might have been carried; and when the + Senators from the Slave States were reduced to one-fourth of the + members of this body, the two Houses passed a Proposition to Amend + the Constitution, so as to guarantee to the States perfect security + in regard to the Institution of Slavery in all future time, and + prohibiting Congress from legislating on the subject.</p> + +<p> "But what more was done? After Southern Senators had treacherously + abandoned the Constitution and deserted their posts here, Congress + passed Bills for the Organization of three new Territories: Dakota, + Nevada, and Colorado; and in the sixth section of each of those + Bills, after conferring, affirmatively, power on the Territorial + Legislature, it went on to exclude certain powers by using a + negative form of expression; and it provided, among other things, + that the Legislature should have no power to legislate so as to + impair the right to private property; that it should lay no tax + discriminating against one description of Property in favor of + another; leaving the power on all these questions, not in the + Territorial Legislature, but in the People when they should come to + form a State Constitution.</p> + +<p> "Now, I ask, taking the Amendment to the Constitution, and taking + the three Territorial Bills, embracing every square inch of + territory in the possession of the United States, how much of the + Slavery question was left? What better Compromise could have been + made? Still we are told that matters might have been Compromised, + and that if we had agreed to Compromise, bloody Rebellion would not + now be abroad in the Land. Sir, Southern Senators are responsible + for it. They stood here with power to accomplish the result, and + yet treacherously, and, I may say, tauntingly they left this + chamber, and announced that they had dissolved their connection + with the Government. Then, when we were left in the hands of those + whom we had been taught to believe would encroach upon our Rights, + they gave us, in the Constitutional Amendment and in the three + Territorial Bills, all that had ever been asked; and yet gentlemen + talked Compromise!</p> + +<p> "Why was not this taken and accepted? No; it was not Compromise + that the Leaders wanted; they wanted Power; they wanted to Destroy + this Government, so that they might have place and emolument for + themselves. They had lost confidence in the intelligence and + virtue and integrity of the People, and their capacity to govern + themselves; and they intended to separate and form a government, + the chief corner-stone of which should be Slavery, disfranchising + the great mass of the People, of which we have seen constant + evidence, and merging the Powers of Government in the hands of the + Few. I know what I say. I know their feelings and their + sentiments. I served in the Senate here with them. I know they + were a Close Corporation, that had no more confidence in or respect + for the People than has the Dey of Algiers. I fought that Close + Corporation here. I knew that they were no friends of the People. + I knew that Slidell and Mason and Benjamin and Iverson and Toombs + were the enemies of Free Government, and I know so now. I + commenced the war upon them before a State Seceded; and I intend to + keep on fighting this great battle before the Country, for the + perpetuity of Free Government. They seek to overthrow it, and to + establish a Despotism in its place. That is the great battle which + is upon our hands. * * * Now, the Senator from Delaware tells us + that if that (Crittenden) Compromise had been made, all these + consequences would have been avoided. It is a mere pretense; it is + false. Their object was to overturn the Government. If they could + not get the Control of this Government, they were willing to divide + the Country and govern part of it."]</p> +</blockquote></blockquote></blockquote> +<p> +The Clark substitute was then agreed to, by 25 (Republican) yeas to 23 +Democratic and Conservative (Bell-Everett) nays—6 Pro-Slavery Senators +not voting, although present; and then, without division, the Crittenden +Resolutions were tabled—Mr. Cameron, however, entering a motion to +reconsider. Subsequently the action of the Senate, both on the +Resolutions and Substitute, was reconsidered, and March 2d the matter +came up again, as will hereafter appear.</p> + +<p>Two days prior to this action in the Senate, Mr. Corwin, Chairman of the +Select Committee of Thirty-three, reported to the House (January 14th), +from a majority of that Committee, the following Joint Resolution:</p> + +<p>"Resolved by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United +States of America in Congress assembled, That all attempts on the parts +of the Legislatures of any of the States to obstruct or hinder the +recovery and surrender of Fugitives from Service or Labor, are in +derogation of the Constitution of the United States, inconsistent with +the comity and good neighborhood that should prevail among the several +States, and dangerous to the Peace of the Union.</p> + +<p>"Resolved, That the several States be respectfully requested to cause +their Statutes to be revised, with a 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 second section of +the Fourth 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 therefrom; 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 President of the +United States is requested to communicate these resolutions to the +Governors of the several States, with a request that they will lay the +same before the Legislatures thereof respectively.</p> + +<p>"Resolved, That we recognize Slavery as now existing in fifteen of the +United States by the usages and laws of those States; and we recognize +no authority, 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 or the Peace of society.</p> + +<p>"Resolved, That we recognize the justice and propriety of a faithful +execution of the Constitution, and laws made in pursuance thereof, 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 citizens of each State shall be entitled to all the privileges and +immunities of citizens in the several States.</p> + +<p>"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 parts of the same; and finally, to perpetuate its +existence on terms of equality and justice to all the States.</p> + +<p>"Resolved, That a faithful observance, on the part of all the States, of +all their Constitutional obligations to each other and to the Federal +Government, is essential to the Peace of the Country.</p> + +<p>"Resolved, That it is the duty of the Federal Government to enforce the +Federal Laws, protect the Federal property, and preserve the Union of +these States.</p> + +<p>"Resolved, That each State be requested to revise its Statutes, and, if +necessary, so to amend the same as to secure, without Legislation by +Congress, to citizens of other States traveling therein, the same +protection as citizens of such States enjoy; and also to protect the +citizens of other States traveling or sojourning therein against popular +violence or illegal summary punishment, without trial in due form of +law, for imputed crimes.</p> + +<p>"Resolved, That each State be also respectfully requested to enact such +laws as will prevent and punish any attempt whatever in such State to +recognize or set on foot the lawless invasion of any other State or +Territory.</p> + +<p>"Resolved, That the President be requested to transmit copies of the +foregoing resolutions to the Governors of the several States, with a +request that they be communicated to their respective Legislatures."</p> + +<p> +This Joint Resolution, with amendments proposed to the same, came up in +the House for action, on the 27th of February, 1861—the same day upon +which the Peace Congress or Conference concluded its labors at +Washington.</p> + +<p>The Proposition of Mr. Burch, of California, was the first acted upon. +It was to amend the Select Committee's resolutions, as above given, by +adding to them another resolution at the end thereof, as follows:</p> + +<p>"Resolved, etc., That it be, and is hereby, recommended to the several +States of the Union that they, through their respective Legislatures, +request the Congress of the United States to call a Convention of all +the States, in accordance with Article Fifth of the Constitution, for +the purpose of amending said Constitution in such manner and with regard +to such subjects as will more adequately respond to the wants, and +afford more sufficient Guarantees to the diversified and growing +Interests of the Government and of the People composing the same."</p> + +<p>This (Burch) amendment, however, was defeated by 14 yeas to 109 nays.</p> + +<p>A Proposition of Mr. Kellogg, of Illinois, came up next for action. It +was a motion to strike out all after the first word "That" in the +Crittenden Proposition—which had been offered by Mr. Clemens as a +substitute for the Committee Resolutions—and insert the following:</p> + +<p>"The following articles be, and are hereby, proposed and submitted as +Amendments to the Constitution of the United States, which shall be +valid, to all intents and purposes as part of said Constitution, when +ratified by Conventions of three-fourths of the several States.</p> + +<p>"Article XIII. That in all the territory now held by the United States +situate north of latitude 36 30' Involuntary Servitude, except in the +punishment for crime, is prohibited while such territory shall remain +under a Territorial government; that in all the territory now held south +of said line, neither Congress nor any Territorial Legislature shall +hinder or prevent the emigration to said territory of Persons; held to +Service from any State of this 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 population requisite for a member of Congress, according to the then +Federal ratio of representation of the People of the United States, it +may, if its form of government 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 and Labor, as the Constitution of +such new State may provide.</p> + +<p>"Article XIV. 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 to in any manner interfere with the +relation 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 prohibited by the Laws or Constitution of such State. +And that this Article shall not be altered or amended without the +consent of every State in the Union.</p> + +<p>"Article XV. The third paragraph of the second section of the Fourth +Article of the Constitution shall be taken and construed to authorize +and empower Congress to pass laws necessary to secure the return of +Persons held to Service or Labor under the laws of any State, who may +have escaped therefrom, to the party to whom such Service or Labor may +be due.</p> + +<p>"Article XVI. The migration or importation of Persons held to Service +or Involuntary Servitude, into any State, Territory, or place within the +United States, from any place or country beyond the limits of the United +States or Territories thereof, is forever prohibited.</p> + +<p>"Article XVII. No territory beyond the present limits of the United +States and the Territories thereof, shall be annexed to or be acquired +by the United States, unless by treaty, which treaty shall be ratified +by a vote of two-thirds of the Senate."</p> + +<p>The Kellogg Proposition was defeated by 33 yeas to 158 +nays.</p> + +<p>The Clemens Substitute was next voted on. This embraced the whole of +the Crittenden Compromise Proposition, as amended in the Senate by +inserting the provision as to all territory "hereafter acquired," with +the addition of another proposed Article of Amendment to the +Constitution, as follows:</p> + +<p>"Article VII. Section I. The elective franchise and the Right to hold +office, whether Federal, State, Territorial, or Municipal, shall not be +exercised by Persons who are, in whole or in part, of the African Race.</p> + +<p>"Section II. The United States shall have power to acquire from time to +time districts of country in Africa and South America, for the +colonization, at expense of the Federal Treasury, of such Free Negroes +and Mulattoes as the several States may wish to have removed from their +limits, and from the District of Columbia, and such other places as may +be under the jurisdiction of Congress."</p> + +<p>The Clemens Substitute (or Crittenden Measure, with the addition of said +proposed Article VII.), was defeated by 80 yeas to 113 nays, and then +the Joint Resolution of the Select Committee as heretofore given—after +a vain attempt to table it—was passed by 136 yeas to 53 nays.</p> + +<p>Immediately after this action, a Joint Resolution to amend the +Constitution of the United States, which had also been previously +reported by the Select Committee of Thirty-three, came before the House, +as follows:</p> + +<p>"Be it Resolved by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United +States of America in Congress assembled, (two-thirds of both Houses +concurring), That the following Article be proposed to the Legislatures +of the several States as an Amendment to the Constitution of the United +States, which, when ratified by three-fourths of said Legislatures, +shall be valid, to all intents and purposes, as a part of the said +Constitution, namely:</p> + +<p>"Article XII. No amendment of this Constitution having for its object +any interference within the States with the relation between their +citizens and those described in Section II. of the First Article of the +Constitution as 'all other persons,' shall originate with any State that +does not recognize that relation within its own limits, or shall be +valid without the assent of every one of the States composing the +Union."</p> + +<p>Mr. Corwin submitted an Amendment striking out all the words after +"namely;" and inserting the following:</p> + +<p>"Article XII. No amendment shall be made to the Constitution which will +authorize or give to Congress the power to abolish or interfere, within +any State, with the Domestic Institutions thereof, including that of +Persons held to Labor or Service by the laws of said State."</p> + +<p>Amid scenes of great disorder, the Corwin Amendment was adopted by 120 +yeas to 61 nays, and then the Joint Resolution as amended, was defeated +(two-thirds not voting in the affirmative) by 123 yeas to 71 nays. On +the following day (February 28th), amid still greater confusion and +disorder, which the Speaker, despite frequent efforts, was unable to +quell, that vote was reconsidered, and the Joint Resolution passed by +133 yeas to 65 nays—a result which, when announced was received with +"loud and prolonged applause, both on the floor, and in the galleries."</p> + +<p>On the 2d of March, the House Joint Resolution just given, proposing an +Amendment to the Constitution, prohibiting Congress from touching +Slavery within any State where it exists, came up in the Senate for +action.</p> + +<p>Mr. Pugh moved to substitute for it the Crittenden Proposition.</p> + +<p>Mr. Doolittle moved to amend the proposed substitute (the Crittenden +Proposition), by the insertion of the following, as an additional +Article:</p> + +<p>"Under this Constitution, as originally adopted, and as it now exists, +no State has power to withdraw from the jurisdiction of the United +States; but this Constitution, and all laws passed in pursuance of its +delegated powers, are the Supreme Law of the Land, anything contained in +any Constitution, Ordinance, or Act of any State, to the contrary +notwithstanding."</p> + +<p>Mr. Doolittle's amendment was lost by 18 yeas to 28 nays.</p> + +<p>Mr. Pugh's substitute (the Crittenden Proposition), was lost by 14 yeas +to 25 nays.</p> + +<p>Mr. Bingham moved to amend the House Joint Resolution, by striking out +all after the word "resolved," and inserting the words of the Clark +Proposition as heretofore given, but the amendment was rejected by 13 +yeas to 25 nays.</p> + +<p>Mr. Grimes moved to strike out all after the word "whereas" in the +preamble of the House Joint Resolution, and insert the following:</p> + +<p>"The Legislatures of the States of Kentucky, New Jersey, and Illinois +have applied to Congress to call a Convention for proposing Amendments +to the Constitution of the United States: Therefore,</p> + +<p>"Be it Resolved by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United +States of America in Congress assembled, That the Legislatures of the +other States be invited to take the subject of such a Convention into +consideration, and to express their will on that subject to Congress, in +pursuance of the Fifth Article of the Constitution."</p> + +<p>This amendment was also rejected, by 14 yeas to 25 nays.</p> + +<p>Mr. Johnson, of Arkansas, offered, as an amendment to the House Joint +Resolution, the propositions submitted by the Peace Congress or +Conference, but the amendment was disagreed to by 3 yeas to 34 nays.</p> + +<p>The House Joint Resolution was then adopted by 24 yeas to 12 nays.</p> + +<p>Subsequently the Crittenden Proposition came up again as a separate +order, with the Clark substitute to it (once carried, but reconsidered), +pending. The Clark substitute was then rejected by 14 yeas to 22 nays.</p> + +<p>Mr. Crittenden then offered the Propositions of the Peace +Congress, as a substitute for his own—and they were rejected by 7 yeas +to 28 nays.</p> + +<p>The Crittenden Proposition itself was then rejected, by +19 yeas to 20 nays.</p> + +<br><br><br><br><br> +<a name="davis"></a> +<center> +<img alt="p138-davis.jpg (85K)" src="images/p138-davis.jpg" height="886" width="587"> +</center> +<br><br><br> +<a name="ch9"></a> +<br><br> + +<center><h2> + CHAPTER IX.<br><br> + + SLAVERY'S SETTING, AND FREEDOM'S DAWN.</h2></center><br> + +<p>On that long last night of the 36th Congress—and of the Democratic +Administration—to the proceedings of which reference was made in the +preceding Chapter, several notable speeches were made, but there was +substantially nothing done, in the line of Compromise. The only thing +that had been accomplished was the passage, as we have seen, by +two-thirds majority in both Houses, of the Joint Resolution proposing a +Constitutional Amendment prohibiting Congress from meddling with Slavery +in Slave States. There was no Concession nor Compromise in this, +because Republicans, as well as Democrats, had always held that Congress +had no such power. It is true that the Pro-slavery men had charged the +Republicans with ultimate designs, through Congress, upon Slavery in the +Slave States; and Mr. Crittenden pleaded for its passage as exhibiting a +spirit, on their part, of reconciliation; that was all.</p> + +<p>In his speech that night—that memorable and anxious night preceding the +Inauguration of President Lincoln—the venerable Mr. Crittenden, +speaking before the Resolution was agreed to, well sketched the +situation when he said in the Senate: "It is an admitted fact that our +Union, to some extent, has already been dismembered; and that further +dismemberment is impending and threatened. It is a fact that the +Country is in danger. This is admitted on all hands. It is our duty, +if we can, to provide a remedy for this. We are, under the Constitution +and by the election of the People, the great guardians, as well as the +administrators of this Government. To our wisdom they have trusted this +great chart. Remedies have been proposed; resolutions have been +offered, proposing for adoption measures which it was thought would +satisfy the Country, and preserve as much of the Union as remained to us +at least, if they were not enough at once to recall the Seceding States +to the Union. We have passed none of these measures. The differences +of opinion among Senators have been such that we have not been able to +concur in any of the measures which have been proposed, even by bare +majorities, much less by that two-thirds majority which is necessary to +carry into effect some of the pacific measures which have been proposed. +We are about to adjourn. We have done nothing. Even the Senate of the +United States, beholding this great ruin around them, beholding +Dismemberment and Revolution going on, and Civil War threatened as the +result, have been able to do nothing; we have absolutely done nothing. +Sir, is not this a remarkable spectacle? * * * How does it happen that +not even a bare majority here, when the Country trusted to our hands is +going to ruin, have been competent to devise any measure of public +safety? How does it happen that we have not had unanimity enough to +agree on any measure of that kind? Can we account for it to ourselves, +gentlemen? We see the danger; we acknowledge our duty, and yet, with +all this before us, we are acknowledging before the world that we can do +nothing; acknowledging before the world, or appearing to all the world, +as men who do nothing! Sir, this will make a strange record in the +history of Governments and in the history of the world. Some are for +Coercion; yet no army has been raised, no navy has been equipped. Some +are for pacification; yet they have been able to do nothing; the dissent +of their colleagues prevents them; and here we are in the midst of a +falling Country, in the midst of a falling State, presenting to the eyes +of the World the saddest spectacle it has ever seen. Cato is +represented by Addison as a worthy spectacle, 'a great man falling with +a falling State,' but he fell struggling. We fall with the ignominy on +our heads of doing nothing, like the man who stands by and sees his +house in flames, and says to himself, 'perhaps the fire will stop before +it consumes all.'"</p> + +<p>One of the strong pleas made in the Senate that night, was by Mr. +Douglas, when he said: "The great issue with the South has been that +they would not submit to the Wilmot proviso. The Republican Party +affirmed the doctrine that Congress must and could prohibit Slavery in +the Territories. The issue for ten years was between Non-intervention +on the part of Congress, and prohibition by Congress. Up to two years +ago, neither the Senator (Mason) from Virginia, nor any other Southern +Senator, desired affirmative legislation to protect Slavery. Even up to +this day, not one of them has proposed affirmative legislation to +protect it. Whenever the question has come up, they have decided that +affirmative legislation to protect it was unnecessary; and hence, all +that the South required on the Territorial question was 'hands off; +Slavery shall not be prohibited by Act of Congress.' Now, what do we +find? This very session, in view of the perils which surround the +Country, the Republican Party, in both Houses of Congress, by a +unanimous vote, have backed down from their platform and abandoned the +doctrine of Congressional prohibition. This very week three Territorial +Bills have been passed through both Houses of Congress without the +Wilmot proviso, and no man proposed to enact it; not even one man on the +other side of the Chamber would rise and propose the Wilmot proviso."</p> + +<p>"In organizing three Territories," continued he, "two of them South of +the very line where they imposed the Wilmot proviso twelve years ago, no +one on the other side of the Chamber proposed it. They have abandoned +the doctrine of the President-elect upon that point. He said, and it is +on record, that he had voted for the Wilmot proviso forty-two times, and +would do it forty-two times more if he ever had a chance. Not one of +his followers this year voted for it once. The Senator from New York +(Mr. Seward) the embodiment of the Party, sat quietly and did not +propose it. What more? Last year we were told that the Slave Code of +New Mexico was to be repealed. I denounced the attempted interference. +The House of Representatives passed the Bill, but the Bill remains on +your table; no one Republican member has proposed to take it up and pass +it. Practically, therefore, the Chicago platform is abandoned; the +Philadelphia platform is abandoned; the whole doctrine for which the +Republican Party contended, as to the Territories, is abandoned, +surrendered, given up. Non-intervention is substituted in its place. +Then, when we find that, on the Territorial question, the Republican +Party, by a unanimous vote, have surrendered to the South all they ask, +the Territorial question ought to be considered pretty well settled. +The only question left was that of the States; and after having +abandoned their aggressive policy as to the Territories, a portion of +them are willing to unite with us, and deprive themselves of the power +to do it in the States."</p> + +<p>"I submit," said he, "that these two great facts—these startling, +tremendous facts—that they have abandoned their aggressive policy in +the Territories, and are willing to give guarantees in the States, ought +to be accepted as an evidence of a salutary change in Public Opinion at +the North. All I would ask now of the Republican Party is, that they +would insert in the Constitution the same principle that they have +carried out practically in the Territorial Bills for Colorado, Dakota, +and Nevada, by depriving Congress of the power hereafter to do what +there cannot be a man of them found willing to do this year; but we +cannot ask them to back down too much. I think they have done quite as +much within one year, within three months after they have elected a +President, as could be expected."</p> + +<p>That Douglas and his followers were also patriotically willing to +sacrifice a favorite theory in the face of a National peril, was brought +out, at the same time, by Mr. Baker, when he said to Mr. Douglas: "I +desire to suggest (and being a little of a Popular Sovereignty man, it +comes gracefully from me) that others of us have backed down too, from +the idea that Congress has not the power to prohibit Slavery in the +Territories; and we are proposing some of us in the Crittenden +proposition, and some in the Amendment now before the Senate—to +prohibit Slavery by the Constitution itself, in the Territories;"—and +by Mr. Douglas, when he replied: "I think as circumstances change, the +action of public men ought to change in a corresponding degree. * * * I +am willing to depart from my cherished theory, by an Amendment to the +Constitution by which we shall settle this question on the principles +prescribed in the Resolutions of the Senator from Kentucky."</p> + +<p> In the House, Mr. Logan, had, on the 5th of February, 1861, said:</p> + +<p> "Men, Sir, North and South, who love themselves far better than + their Country, have brought us to this unhappy condition. * * * + Let me say to gentlemen, that I will go as far as any man in the + performance of a Constitutional duty to put down Rebellion, to + suppress Insurrection, and to enforce the laws; but when we + undertake the performance of these duties, let us act in such a + manner as will be best calculated to preserve and not destroy the + Government, and keep ourselves within the bounds of the + Constitution. * * * Sir, I have always denied, and do yet deny, + the Right of Secession. There is no warrant for it in the + Constitution. It is wrong, it is unlawful, unconstitutional, and + should be called by the right name, Revolution. No good, Sir, can + result from it, but much mischief may. It is no remedy for any + grievance.</p> + +<p> "I hold that all grievances can be much easier redressed inside the + Union than out of it. * * * If a collision must ensue between + this Government and any of our own people, let it come when every + other means of settlement has been tried and exhausted; and not + then, except when the Government shall be compelled to repel + assaults for the protection of its property, flag, and the honor of + the Country. * * *</p> + +<p> "I have been taught to believe that the preservation of this + glorious Union, with its broad flag waving over us, as the shield + for our protection on land and on sea, is paramount to all the + Parties and platforms that ever have existed, or ever can exist. I + would, to-day, if I had the power, sink my own Party, and every + other one, with all their platforms, into the vortex of ruin, + without heaving a sigh or shedding a tear, to save the Union, or + even stop the Revolution where it is."</p> + +<p> After enumerating the various propositions for adjustment, then + pending in the House, to wit: that of Senator Crittenden; that of + Senator Douglas; that of the Committee of Thirty-three; that of the + Border States; and those of Representatives McClernand, Kellogg, + and Morris, of Illinois, Mr. Logan took occasion to declare that + "in a crisis like this" he was "willing to give his support to any + of them," but his preference was for that of Mr. Morris.</p> + +<p> Said he: "He (Morris) proposes that neither Congress nor a + Territorial Legislature shall interfere with Slavery in the + Territories at all; but leaves the people, when they come to form + their State Constitution, to determine the question for themselves. + I think this is the best proposition, because it is a fair + concession on all sides. The Republicans give up their + Congressional intervention; those who are styled 'Squatter + Sovereigns' give up their Territorial legislative policy; and the + Southern (Slave) protectionists give up their + protection-intervention policy; thus every Party yields something. With this + proposition as an Article in the Constitution, it would satisfy + every conservative man in this Union, both North and South, I do + seriously and honestly believe.</p> + +<p> "Having indicated my preference of these propositions, and my + reasons for that preference, I have said all I desire to say on the + point, except to repeat again, that I will willingly vote for any + of them, or make any other sacrifice necessary to save the Union. + It makes no kind of difference to me what the sacrifice; if it will + save my Country, I am ready to make it." * * *</p> + +<p> "There are some in this Hall," said he, "that are almost ready to + strike the Party fetters from their limbs, and assist in measures + of Peace. Halt not; take the step; be independent and free at + once! Let us overcome Party passion and error; allow virtue and + good sense in this fateful hour to be triumphant; let us invoke + Deity to interpose and prepare the way for our Country's escape + from the perils by which we are now surrounded; and in view of our + present greatness and future prospects, our magnificent and growing + cities, our many institutions of learning, our once happy and + prosperous People, our fruitful fields and golden forests, our + enjoyment of all civil and religious blessings—let Parties die + that these be preserved. Such noble acts of patriotism and + concession, on your part, would cause posterity to render them + illustrious, and pause to contemplate the magnitude of the events + with which they were connected. * * * In the name of the patriotic + sires who breasted the storms and vicissitudes of the Revolution; + by all the kindred ties of this Country; in the name of the many + battles fought for your Freedom; in behalf of the young and the + old; in behalf of the Arts and Sciences, Civilization, Peace, + Order, Christianity, and Humanity, I appeal to you to strike from + your limbs the chains that bind them! Come forth from that + loathsome prison, Party Caucus; and in this hour—the most gloomy + and disheartening to the lovers of Free Institutions that has ever + existed during our Country's history—arouse the drooping spirits + of our countrymen, by putting forth your good strong arms to assist + in steadying the rocking pillars of the mightiest Republic that has + ever had an existence."</p> + +<p> "Mr. Speaker," continued he, "a word or two more, and I am done. + Revolution stalks over the Land. States have rebelled against the + constituted authorities of the Union, and now stand, sword in hand, + prepared to vindicate their new nationality. Others are preparing + to take a similar position. Rapidly transpiring events are + crowding on us with fearful velocity. Soon, circumstances may + force us into an unnatural strife, in which the hand of brother + shall be uplifted against brother, and father against son. My God, + what a spectacle! If all the evils and calamities that have ever + happened since the World began, could be gathered in one great + Catastrophe, its horrors could not eclipse, in their frightful + proportions, the Drama that impends over us. Whether this black + cloud that drapes in mourning the whole political heavens, shall + break forth in all the frightful intensity of War, and make + Christendom weep at the terrible atrocities that will be + enacted—or, whether it will disappear, and the sky resume its wonted + serenity, and the whole Earth be irradiated by the genial sunshine + of Peace once more—are the alternatives which this Congress, in my + judgment, has the power to select between."</p> + +<p>In this same broad spirit, Mr. Seward, in his great speech of January +12th, had said: "Republicanism is subordinate to Union, as everything +else is and ought to be—Republicanism, Democracy, every other political +name and thing; all are subordinate—and they ought to disappear in the +presence of the great question of Union." In another part of it, he had +even more emphatically said: "I therefore * * * avow my adherence 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 War, with every +consequence of honor or dishonor, of life or death. Although I lament +the occasion, I hail with cheerfulness the duty of lifting up my voice +among distracted debates, for my whole Country and its inestimable +Union." And as showing still more clearly the kindly and conciliatory +attitude of the great Republican leader, when speaking of those others +who seemed to be about to invoke revolutionary action to oppose—and +overthrow the Government—he said: "In such a case I can afford to meet +prejudice with Conciliation, exaction with Concession which surrenders +no principle, and violence with the right hand of Peace."</p> + +<p>In the House of Representatives, too, the voice of patriotism was often +heard through the loud clamor and disorder of that most disorderly and +Treason-uttering session—was heard from the lips of statesmen, who rose +high above Party, in their devotion to the Union. The calm, +dispassionate recital by Henry Winter Davis (of Maryland), of the +successive steps by which the Southern leaders had themselves created +that very "North" of whose antagonism they complained, was one of the +best of these, in some respects. He was one of the great Select +Committee of Thirty-three, and it was (February 5th) after the +Resolutions, heretofore quoted, had been reported by it, that he +condensed the history of the situation into a nutshell, as follows:</p> + +<p>"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 that +measure, will come to themselves.</p> + +<p> * * * * * * * * * * * * *</p> + +<p>"Southern politicians have created a North. Let us trace the process +and draw the moral.</p> + +<p>"The laws of 1850 calmed and closed the Slavery agitation; and President +Pierce, elected by the almost unanimous voice of the States, did not +mention Slavery in his first two Messages. In 1854, the repeal of the +Missouri Compromise, at the instance of the South, reopened the +agitation.</p> + +<p>"Northern men, deserted by Southern Whigs, were left to unite for +self-defense.</p> + +<p>"The invasion of Kansas, in 1855 and 1856, from Missouri; the making a +Legislature and laws for that Territory, by the invaders; still further +united the Northern people. The election of 1856 measured its extent.</p> + +<p>"The election of Mr. Buchanan and his opening policy in Kansas, soothed +the irritation, and was rapidly demoralizing the new Party, when the +Pro-Slavery Party in Kansas perpetrated, and the President and the South +accepted, the Lecompton fraud, and again united the North more +resolutely in resistance to that invasion of the rights of +self-government.</p> + +<p>"The South for the first time failed to dictate terms; and the People +vindicated by their votes the refusal of the Constitution.</p> + +<p>"Ere this result was attained, the opinions of certain Judges of the +Supreme Court scattered doubts over the law of Slavery in the +Territories; the South, while repudiating other decisions, instantly +made these opinions the criterion of faithfulness to the Constitution; +while the North was agitated by this new sanction of the extremest +pretensions of their opponents.</p> + +<p>"The South did not rest satisfied with their Judicial triumph.</p> + +<p>"Immediately the claim was pressed for protection by Congress to +Slavery, declared by the Supreme Court, they said, to exist in all the +Territories.</p> + +<p>"This completed the union of the Free States in one great defensive +league; and the result was registered in November. That result is now +itself become 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 protection, and that is now +followed by the hitherto unheard of claim to a Constitutional Amendment +establishing Slavery, not merely in territory now held, but in all +hereafter held from the line of 36 30' to Cape Horn, while the debate +foreshadows 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—the topics of future agitation. How long the prohibition of +the importation of Slaves will be exempted from the doctrine of +equality, it needs no prophet to tell.</p> + +<p>"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 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 Constitution offered as the first fruits of Reconciliation."</p> + +<p>But calmness, kindness, and courtesy were alike thrown away in both +Houses upon the implacable Southern leaders. As the last day of that +memorable session, which closed in the failure of all peaceful measures +to restore the Union, slowly dawned—with but a few hours lacking of the +time when Mr. Lincoln would be inaugurated President of the United +States—Mr. Wigfall thought proper, in the United States Senate, to +sneer at him as "an ex-rail-splitter, an ex-grocery keeper, an +ex-flatboat captain, and an ex-Abolition lecturer"—and proceeded to scold +and rant at the North with furious volubility.</p> + +<p>"Then, briefly," said he, "a Party has come into power that represents +the antagonism to my own Section of the Country. It represents two +million men who hate us, and who, by their votes for such a man as they +have elected, have committed an overt act of hostility. That they have +done."</p> + +<p>"You have won the Presidency," said he, to the Republicans, "and you are +now in the situation of the man who had won the elephant at a raffle. +You do not know what to do with the beast now that you have it; and +one-half of you to-day would give your right arms if you had been defeated. +But you succeeded, and you have to deal with facts. Our objection to +living in this Union, and therefore the difficulty of reconstructing it, +is not your Personal Liberty bills, not the Territorial question, but +that you utterly and wholly misapprehend the Form of Government."</p> + +<p>"You deny," continued he, "the Sovereignty of the States; you deny the +right of self-government in the People; you insist upon Negro Equality; +your people interfere impertinently with our Institutions and attempt to +subvert them; you publish newspapers; you deliver lectures; you print +pamphlets, and you send them among us, first, to excite our Slaves to +insurrection against their masters, and next, to array one class of +citizens against the other; and I say to you, that we cannot live in +peace, either in the Union or out of it, until you have abolished your +Abolition societies; not, as I have been misquoted, abolish or destroy +your school-houses; but until you have ceased in your schoolhouses +teaching your children to hate us; until you have ceased to convert your +pulpits into hustings; until you content yourselves with preaching +Christ, and Him crucified, and not delivering political harangues on the +Sabbath; until you have ceased inciting your own citizens to make raids +and commit robberies; until you have done these things we cannot live in +the same Union with you. Until you do these things, we cannot live out +of the Union at Peace."</p> + +<p>Such were the words—the spiteful, bitter words—with which this chosen +spokesman of the South saluted the cold and cloudy dawn of that day +which was to see the sceptre depart from the hands of the Slave Power +forever.</p> + +<p>A few hours later, under the shadow of the main Pastern Portico of the +Capitol at Washington—with the retiring President and Cabinet, the +Supreme Court Justices, the Foreign Diplomatic Corps, and hundreds of +Senators, Representatives and other distinguished persons filling the +great platform on either side and behind them—Abraham Lincoln stood +bareheaded before full thirty thousand people, upon whose uplifted faces +the unveiled glory of the mild Spring sun now shone—stood reverently +before that far greater and mightier Presence termed by himself, "My +rightful masters, the American People"—and pleaded in a manly, earnest, +and affectionate strain with "such as were dissatisfied," to listen to +the "better angels" of their nature.</p> + +<p>Temperate, reasonable, kindly, persuasive—it seems strange that Mr. +Lincoln's Inaugural Address did not disarm at least the personal +resentment of the South toward him, and sufficiently strengthen the +Union-loving people there, against the red-hot Secessionists, to put the +"brakes" down on Rebellion. Said he:</p> + +<p>"Apprehension seems to exist among the people of the Southern States, +that by the accession of a Republican Administration, their Property and +their Peace and personal security are to be endangered. There has never +been any reasonable cause for such apprehension. Indeed, the most ample +evidence to the contrary has all the while existed, and been open to +their inspection. It is found in nearly all the published speeches of +him who now addresses you. I do but quote from one of those speeches, +when I declare that 'I have no purpose, directly or indirectly, to +interfere with the Institution of Slavery in the States where it +exists.' I believe I have no lawful right to do so; and I have no +inclination to do so. Those who nominated and elected me, did so with +the full knowledge that I had made this, and many similar declarations, +and had never recanted them. * * *</p> + +<p>"I now reiterate these sentiments; and in doing so, I only press upon +the public attention the most conclusive evidence of which the case is +susceptible, that the Property, Peace, and Security of no Section are to +be in any wise endangered by the now incoming Administration. I add, +too, that all the protection which, consistently with the Constitution +and the laws, can be given, will be cheerfully given to all the States, +when lawfully demanded, for whatever cause—as cheerfully to one Section +as to another.</p> + +<p>"I take the official oath to-day with no mental reservations, and with +no purpose to construe the Constitution or laws by any hypercritical +rules. * * *</p> + +<p>"A disruption of the Federal Union, heretofore only menaced, is now +formidably attempted. I hold that, in contemplation of Universal Law, +and of the Constitution, the Union of these States is perpetual. +Perpetuity is implied, if not expressed, in the fundamental law of all +National Governments. It is safe to assert that no Government proper +ever had a provision in its organic law for its own termination. +Continue to execute all the express provisions of our National +Constitution, and the Union will endure forever—it being impossible to +destroy it, except by some action not provided for in the instrument +itself.</p> + +<p>"Again, if the United States be not a Government proper, but an +Association of States in the nature of a contract merely, can it, as a +contract, be peaceably unmade by less than all the parties who made it? +One party to a contract may violate it—break it, so to speak; but does +it not require all, to lawfully rescind it?</p> + +<p>"Descending from these general principles, we find the proposition that, +in legal contemplation, the Union is perpetual, confirmed by the history +of the Union itself. The Union is much older than the Constitution. It +was formed, in fact, by the Articles of Association in 1774. It was +matured and continued in the Declaration of Independence in 1776. It +was further matured, and the faith of all the then thirteen States +expressly plighted and engaged that it should be perpetual, by the +Articles of Confederation, in 1778; and, finally, in 1787, one of the +declared objects, for ordaining and establishing the Constitution, was +'to form a more perfect Union.' But, if destruction of the Union by +one, or by a part only, of the States, be lawfully possible, the Union +is less perfect than before, the Constitution having lost the vital +element of perpetuity.</p> + +<p>"It follows, from these views, that no State, upon its own mere motion, +can lawfully get out of the Union; that Resolves and Ordinances to that +effect, are legally void; and that acts of violence within any State or +States against the authority of the United States, are insurrectionary +or revolutionary, according to circumstances.</p> + +<p>"I therefore consider that, in view of the Constitution and the laws, +the Union is unbroken, and, to the extent of my ability, I shall take +care, as the Constitution itself expressly enjoins upon me, that the +laws of the Union shall be faithfully executed in all the States. * * *</p> + +<p>"I trust this will not be regarded as a menace, but only as the declared +purpose of the Union, that it will Constitutionally defend and maintain +itself.</p> + +<p>"In doing this, there need be no bloodshed or violence, and there shall +be none, unless it is forced upon the National Authority.</p> + +<p>"The power confided to me will be used to hold, occupy, and possess the +property and places belonging to the Government, and to collect the +duties and imposts; but, beyond what may be necessary for these objects, +there will be no invasion, no using of force against or among the People +anywhere.</p> + +<p>"The mails, unless repelled, will continue to be furnished in all parts +of the Union.</p> + +<p> * * * * * * *</p> + +<p>"Is there such perfect identity of interests among the States to compose +a new Union, as to produce harmony only, and prevent renewed Secession? +Plainly, the central idea of Secession is the essence of anarchy. A +majority, held in restraint by Constitutional checks and limitations and +always changing easily with deliberate changes of popular opinions and +sentiments, is the only true sovereign of a Free People. Whoever +rejects it, does, of necessity, fly to anarchy, or to despotism. +Unanimity is impossible; the rule of a minority, as a permanent +arrangement, is wholly inadmissible; so that, rejecting the majority +principle, anarchy or despotism in some form is all that is left.</p> + +<p> * * * * * * *</p> + +<p>"Physically speaking, we cannot separate. We cannot remove our +respective Sections from each other, nor build an impassable wall +between them. A husband and wife may be divorced, and go out of the +presence and beyond the reach of each other; but the different parts of +our Country cannot do this. They cannot but remain face to face; and +intercourse, either amicable or hostile, must continue between them. Is +it possible, then, to make that intercourse more advantageous or more +satisfactory after separation than before? Can aliens make treaties, +easier than friends can make laws? Can treaties be more faithfully +enforced between aliens, than laws can among friends? Suppose you go to +War, you cannot fight always; and when, after much loss on both sides, +and no gain on either you cease fighting, the identical old questions, +as to terms of intercourse, are again upon you.</p> + +<p>"This Country, with its Institutions, belongs to the People who inhabit +it. Whenever they shall grow weary of the existing Government, they can +exercise their Constitutional right of amending it, or their +Revolutionary right to dismember or overthrow it. I cannot be ignorant +of the fact that many worthy and patriotic citizens are desirous of +having the National Constitution amended. While I make no +recommendations of Amendments, I fully recognize the rightful authority +of the People over the whole subject, to be exercised in either of the +modes prescribed in the instrument itself; and I should, under existing +circumstances, favor, rather than oppose, a fair opportunity being +afforded the People to act upon it. * * *</p> + +<p>"The Chief Magistrate derives all his authority from the People, and +they have conferred none upon him to fix terms for the separation of the +States. The People themselves can do this also, if they choose; but the +Executive, as such, has nothing to do with it. His duty is to +administer the present Government, as it came to his hands, and to +transmit it, unimpaired by him, to his successor.</p> + +<p> * * * * * * *</p> + +<p>" * * * While the People retain their virtue and vigilance, no +Administration, by any extreme of weakness or folly, can very seriously +injure the Government in the short space of four years.</p> + +<p>"My countrymen, one and all, think calmly and well upon this whole +subject. Nothing valuable can be lost by taking time. If there be an +object to hurry any of you, in hot haste, to a step which you would +never take deliberately, that object will be frustrated by taking time; +but no good object can be frustrated by it. Such of you as are now +dissatisfied, still have the old Constitution unimpaired, and, on the +sensitive point, the laws of your own framing under it; while the new +Administration will have no immediate power, if it would, to change +either. If it were admitted that you who are dissatisfied, hold the +right side in the dispute, there still is no single good reason for +precipitate action. Intelligence, patriotism, Christianity, and a firm +reliance on Him who has never yet forsaken this favored Land, are still +competent to adjust, in the best way, all our present difficulty.</p> + +<p>"In your hands, my dissatisfied fellow-countrymen, and not in mine, is +the momentous issue of Civil War. The Government will not assault you. +You can have no conflict without being yourselves the aggressors. You +have no oath registered in Heaven to destroy the Government, while I +shall have the most solemn one to 'preserve, protect, and defend it'.</p> + +<p>"I am loath to close. We are not enemies, but friends. We must not be +enemies. Though passion may have strained, it must not break our bonds +of affection. The mystic chords of memory, stretching from every +battle-field and patriot grave to every living heart and hearthstone, +all over this broad Land, will yet swell the chorus of the Union, when +again touched, as surely they will be, by the better angels of our +nature."</p> + +<p>Strange, indeed, must have been the thoughts that crowded through the +brain and oppressed the heart of Abraham Lincoln that night—his first +at the White House!</p> + +<p>The city of Washington swarmed with Rebels and Rebel sympathizers, and +all the departments of Government were honey-combed with Treason and +shadowed with treachery and espionage. Every step proposed or +contemplated by the Government would be known to the so-called +Government of the Confederate States almost as soon as thought of. All +means, to thwart and delay the carrying out of the Government's +purposes, that the excuses of routine and red-tape admitted of, would be +used by the Traitors within the camp, to aid the Traitors without.</p> + +<p>No one knew all this, better than Mr. Lincoln. With no Army, no Navy, +not even a Revenue cutter left—with forts and arsenals, ammunition and +arms in possession of the Rebels, with no money in the National +Treasury, and the National credit blasted—the position must, even to +his hopeful nature, have seemed at this time desperate. To be sure, +despite threats, neither few nor secret, which had been made, that he +should not live to be inaugurated, he had passed the first critical +point—had taken the inaugural oath—and was now duly installed in the +White House. That was something, of course, to be profoundly thankful +for. But the matter regarded by him of larger moment—the safety of the +Union—how about that?</p> + +<p>How that great, and just, and kindly brain, in the dim shadows of that +awful first night at the White House, must have searched up and down and +along the labyrinths of history and "corridors of time," everywhere in +the Past, for any analogy or excuse for the madness of this Secession +movement—and searched in vain!</p> + +<p>With his grand and abounding faith in God, how Abraham Lincoln must have +stormed the very gates of Heaven that night with prayer that he might be +the means of securing Peace and Union to his beloved but distracted +Country! How his great heart must have been racked with the +alternations of hope and foreboding—of trustfulness and doubt! +Anxiously he must have looked for the light of the morrow, that he might +gather from the Press, the manner in which his Inaugural had been +received. Not that he feared the North—but the South; how would the +wayward, wilful, passionate South, receive his proffered olivef-branch?</p> + +<p>Surely, surely,—thus ran his thoughts—when the brave, and gallant, and +generous people of that Section came to read his message of Peace and +Good-will, they must see the suicidal folly of their course! Surely +their hearts must be touched and the mists of prejudice dissolved, so +that reason would resume her sway, and Reconciliation follow! A little +more time for reflection would yet make all things right. The young men +of the South, fired by the Southern leaders' false appeals, must soon +return to reason. The prairie fire is terrible while it sweeps along, +but it soon burns out. When the young men face the emblem of their +Nation's glory—the flag of the land of their birth—then will come the +reaction and their false leaders will be hurled from place and power, +and all will again be right. Yea, when it comes to firing on the old, +old flag, they will not, cannot, do it! Between the Compromise within +their reach, and such Sacrilege as this, they cannot waver long.</p> + +<p>So, doubtless, all the long night, whether waking or sleeping, the mind +of this true-hearted son of the West, throbbed with the mighty weight of +the problem entrusted to him for solution, and the vast responsibilities +which he had just assumed toward his fellow-men, his Nation, and his +God.</p> + +<p>And when, at last, the long lean frame was thrown upon the couch, and +"tired Nature's sweet restorer" held him briefly in her arms, the smile +of hopefulness on the wan cheek told that, despite all the terrible +difficulties of the situation, the sleeper was sustained by a strong and +cheerful belief in the Providence of God, the Patriotism of the People, +and the efficacy of his Inaugural Peace-offering to the South. But alas, +and alas, for the fallibility of human judgment and human hopes! +Instead of a message of Peace, the South chose to regard it as a message +of Menace;* and it was not received in a much better spirit by some of +the Northern papers, which could see no good in it—"no Union spirit in +it"—but declared that it breathed the spirit of Sectionalism and +mischief, and "is the knell and requiem of the Union, and the death of +hope."</p> +<blockquote><blockquote><blockquote> +<p> ["Mr. Lincoln fondly regarded his Inaugural as a resistless + proffering of the olive branch to the South; the Conspirators + everywhere interpreted it as a challenge to War."—Greeley's Am. + Conflict, vol. i., p. 428.]</p> +</blockquote></blockquote></blockquote> +<p> +Bitter indeed must have been President Lincoln's disappointment and +sorrow at the reception of his Inaugural. With the heartiest +forgiveness, in the noblest spirit of paternal kindness, he had +generously held out his arms, as far as they could reach, to clasp to +his heart—to the great heart of the Union—the rash children of the +South, if they would but let him. It was more with sorrow, than in +anger, that he looked upon their contemptuous repulsion of his advances; +and his soul still reproachfully yearned toward these his Southern +brethren, as did that of a higher than he toward His misguided brethren, +when He cried: "O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, thou that killest the prophets, +and stonest them which are sent unto thee, how often would I have +gathered thy children together, even as a hen gathereth her chickens +under her wings, and ye would not!"</p> + +<p>On the day following his Inauguration, President Lincoln sent to the +United States Senate the names of those whom he had chosen to constitute +his Cabinet, as follows: William H. Seward, of New York, Secretary of +State; Salmon P. Chase, of Ohio, Secretary of the Treasury; Simon +Cameron, of Pennsylvania, Secretary of War; Gideon Welles, of +Connecticut, Secretary of the Navy; Caleb B. Smith, of Indiana, +Secretary of the Interior; Edward Bates, of Missouri, Attorney General; +and Montgomery Blair, of Maryland, Postmaster General.</p> + +<p>On the other hand, the President of the rebellious Confederacy, +Jefferson Davis, had partly constituted his Cabinet already, as follows: +Robert Toombs, of Georgia, Secretary of State; Charles G. Memminger, of +South Carolina, Secretary of the Treasury; Leroy Pope Walker, of +Alabama, Secretary of War; to whom he afterwards added: Stephen R. +Mallory, of Florida, Secretary of the Navy; and John H. Reagan, of +Texas, Postmaster-General.</p> + +<br><br><br><br> +<a name="ch10"></a> +<br><br> + +<center><h2> + CHAPTER X.<br><br> + + THE WAR-DRUM "ON TO WASHINGTON".</h2></center><br> + +<p>Scarcely one week had elapsed after the Administration of Mr. Lincoln +began, when (March 11th) certain "Commissioners of the Southern +Confederacy" (John Forsyth, of Alabama, and Martin J. Crawford, of +Georgia), appeared at Washington and served a written request upon +the State Department to appoint an early day when they might present to +the President of the United States their credentials "from the +Government of the Confederate States of America" to the Government of +the United States, and open "the objects of the mission with which they +are charged."</p> + +<p>Secretary Seward, with the President's sanction, declined official +intercourse with Messrs. Forsyth and Crawford, in a "Memorandum" (March +15th) reciting their request, etc., in which, after referring to +President Lincoln's Inaugural Address—forwarded to them with the +"Memorandum" he says: "A simple reference will be sufficient to satisfy +those gentlemen that the Secretary of State, guided by the principles +therein announced, is prevented altogether from admitting or assuming +that the States referred to by them have, in law or in fact, withdrawn +from the Federal Union, or that they could do so in the manner described +by Messrs. Forsyth and Crawford, or in any other manner than with the +consent and concert of the People of the United States, to be given +through a National Convention, to be assembled in conformity with the +provisions of the Constitution of the United States. Of course, the +Secretary of State cannot act upon the assumption, or in any way admit, +that the so-called Confederate States constitute a Foreign Power, with +whom diplomatic relations ought to be established."</p> + +<p>On the 9th of April, Messrs. Forsyth, Crawford and Roman—as +"Commissioners of the Southern Confederacy"—addressed to Secretary +Seward a reply to the "Memorandum" aforesaid, in which the following +passage occurs:</p> + +<p>"The undersigned, like the Secretary of State, have no purpose to +'invite or engage in discussion' of the subject on which their two +Governments are so irreconcilably at variance. It is this variance that +has broken up the old Union, the disintegration of which has only begun.</p> + +<p>"It is proper, however, to advise you that it were well to dismiss the +hopes you seem to entertain that, by any of the modes indicated, the +people of the Confederate States will ever be brought to submit to the +authority of the Government of the United States. You are dealing with +delusions, too, when you seek to separate our people from our +Government, and to characterize the deliberate, Sovereign act of that +people as a 'perversion of a temporary and partisan excitement.' If you +cherish these dreams, you will be awakened from them, and find them as +unreal and unsubstantial as others in which you have recently indulged.</p> + +<p>"The undersigned would omit the performance of an obvious duty were they +to fail to make known to the Government of the United States that the +people of the Confederate States have declared their independence with a +full knowledge of all the responsibilities of that act, and with as firm +a determination to maintain it by all the means with which nature has +endowed them as that which sustained their fathers when they threw off +the authority of the British Crown.</p> + +<p>"The undersigned clearly understand that you have declined to appoint a +day to enable them to lay the objects of the mission with which they are +charged, before the President of the United States, because so to do +would be to recognize the independence and separate nationality of the +Confederate States. This is the vein of thought that pervades the +memorandum before us.</p> + +<p>"The truth of history requires that it should distinctly appear upon the +record, that the undersigned did not ask the Government of the United +States to recognize the independence of the Confederate States. They +only asked audience to adjust, in a spirit of amity and peace, the new +relations springing from a manifest and accomplished revolution in the +Government of the late Federal Union.</p> + +<p>"Your refusal to entertain these overtures for a peaceful solution, the +active naval and military preparation of this Government, and a formal +notice to the Commanding General of the Confederate forces in the harbor +of Charleston that the President intends to provision Fort Sumter by +forcible means, if necessary, are viewed by the undersigned, and can +only be received by the World, as a Declaration of War against the +Confederate States; for the President of the United States knows that +Fort Sumter cannot be provisioned without the effusion of blood.</p> + +<p>"The undersigned, in behalf of their Government and people, accept the +gage of battle thus thrown down to them, and, appealing to God and the +judgment of mankind for the righteousness of their Cause, the people of +the Confederate States will defend their liberties to the last, against +this flagrant and open attempt at their subjugation to Sectional power."</p> + +<p> +Let us now, for a moment, glance at the condition of Fort Sumter, and of +the Government with regard to it:</p> + +<p>On the 5th of March, the day after President Lincoln had taken his oath +of office, there was placed in his hands a letter of Major Anderson, +commanding at Fort Sumter, in which that officer, under date of the 28th +of February, expressed the opinion that "reinforcements could not be +thrown into that fort within the time for his relief rendered necessary +by the limited supply of provisions, and with a view of holding +possession of the same, with a force of less than twenty thousand good +and well-disciplined men."</p> +<blockquote><blockquote><blockquote> +<p> [President Lincoln's first Message, July 4, 1861.]</p> +</blockquote></blockquote></blockquote> +<p>Lieutenant-General Winfield Scott concurred in that opinion, and as the +provisions in the Fort would be exhausted before any such force could be +raised and brought to the ground, evacuation and safe withdrawal of the +Federal garrison from the Fort became a Military necessity, and was so +regarded by the Administration.</p> + +<p>"It was believed, however"—in the language of Mr. Lincoln himself, in +his first Message to Congress—"that to so abandon that position, under +the circumstances, would be utterly ruinous: that the necessity under +which it was to be done would not be fully understood; that by many it +would be construed as a part of a voluntary policy; that at home it +would discourage the friends of the Union, embolden its adversaries, and +go far to insure to the latter a recognition abroad; that in fact it +would be our National destruction consummated. This could not be +allowed. Starvation was not yet upon the garrison; and ere it would be +reached, Fort Pickens might be reinforced. This last would be a clear +indication of policy, and would better enable the country to accept the +evacuation of Fort Sumter as a Military necessity."</p> + +<p>Owing to misconception or otherwise, an order to reinforce Fort Pickens +was not carried out, and an expedition to relieve Fort Sumter was then +ordered to be dispatched. On the 8th of April President Lincoln, by +messenger, notified Governor Pickens of South Carolina, "that he might +expect an attempt would be made to provision the fort; and that if the +attempt should not be resisted there would be no effort to throw in men, +arms, or ammunition, without further notice, or in case of an attack +upon the fort."</p> + +<p>A crisis was evidently approaching, and public feeling all over the +Country was wrought up to the highest degree of tension and stood +tip-toe with intense expectancy. The test of the doctrine of Secession was +about to be made there, in the harbor of Charleston, upon which the eyes +of Patriot and Rebel were alike feverishly bent.</p> + +<p>There, in Charleston harbor, grimly erect, stood the octagon-shaped Fort +Sumter, mid-way of the harbor entrance, the Stars and Stripes proudly +waving from its lofty central flagstaff, its guns bristling on every +side through the casemates and embrasures, as if with a knowledge of +their defensive power.</p> + +<p>About equidistant from Fort Sumter on either side of the +harbor-entrance, were the Rebel works at Fort Moultrie and Battery Bee on +Sullivan's Island, on the one side, and Cummings Point Battery, on +Morris Island, on the other-besides a number of other batteries facing +seaward along the sea-coast line of Morris Island. Further in, on the +same side of the harbor, and but little further off from Fort Sumter, +stood Fort Johnson on James Island, while Castle Pinckney and a Floating +Battery were between the beleagured Fort and the city of Charleston.</p> + +<p>Thus, the Federal Fort was threatened with the concentrated fire of +these well-manned Rebel fortifications on all sides, and in its then +condition was plainly doomed; for, while the swarming Rebels, unmolested +by Fort Sumter, had been permitted to surround that Fort with frowning +batteries, whose guns outnumbered those of the Fort, as ten to one, and +whose caliber was also superior, its own condition was anything but that +of readiness for the inevitable coming encounter.</p> + +<p>That the officers' quarters, barracks, and other frame-work wooden +buildings should have been permitted to remain as a standing invitation +to conflagration from bombardment, can only be accounted for on the +supposition that the gallant officer in command, himself a Southerner, +would not believe it possible that the thousands of armed Americans by +whom he was threatened and encircled, could fire upon the flag of their +own native Country. He and his garrison of seventy men, were soon to +learn the bitter truth, amid a tempest of bursting shot and shell, the +furnace-heat of crackling walls, and suffocating volumes of dense smoke +produced by an uncontrollable conflagration.</p> + +<p>The Rebel leaders at Washington had prevented an attack in January upon +the forts in the harbor of Charleston, and at Pensacola.—[McPherson's +History of the Rebellion, p. 112.]—In consequence of which failure to +proceed to the last extremity at once, the energies of the Rebellion had +perceptibly diminished.</p> + +<p>Said the Mobile Mercury: "The country is sinking into a fatal apathy, +and the spirit and even the patriotism of the people is oozing out, +under this do-nothing policy. If something is not done pretty soon, +decisive, either evacuation or expulsion, the whole country will become +so disgusted with the sham of Southern independence that the first +chance the people get at a popular election they will turn the whole +movement topsy-turvy so bad that it never on Earth can be righted +again."</p> + +<p>After the inauguration of Mr. Lincoln, however, the Rebel authorities at +Montgomery lost no time, but strained every nerve to precipitate War. +They felt that there was danger to the cause of Secession in delay; that +there were wavering States outside the Confederacy, like Virginia, that +might be dragged into the Confederacy by prompt and bloody work; and +wavering States within, like Alabama, that must be kept in by similar +means. Their emissaries were busy everywhere in the South, early in +April, preaching an instant crusade against the old flag—inciting the +people to demand instant hostilities against Fort Sumter—and to cross a +Rubicon of blood, over which there could be no return.</p> + +<p>Many of the Rebel leaders seemed to be haunted by the fear (no doubt +well founded) that unless blood was shed—unless an impassable barrier, +crimsoned with human gore, was raised between the new Confederacy and +the old Union—there would surely be an ever-present danger of that +Confederacy falling to pieces. Hence they were now active in working +the people up to the required point of frenzy.</p> + +<p>As a specimen of their speeches, may be quoted that of Roger A. Pryor, +of Virginia, who, at Charleston, April 10, 1861, replying to a serenade, +said:—[Charleston Mercury's report.]</p> + +<p>'Gentlemen, I thank you, especially that you have at last annihilated +this accursed Union [Applause] reeking with corruption, and insolent +with excess of tyranny. Thank God, it is at last blasted and riven by +the lightning wrath of an outraged and indignant people. [Loud +applause.] Not only is it gone, but gone forever. [Cries of, 'You're +right,' and applause.] In the expressive language of Scripture, it is +water spilt upon the ground, which cannot be gathered up. [Applause.] +Like Lucifer, son of the morning, it has fallen, never to rise again. +[Continued applause.]</p> + +<p>"For my part, gentlemen," he continued, as soon as he could be heard, +"if Abraham Lincoln and Hannibal Hamlin to-morrow were to abdicate their +offices and were to give me a blank sheet of paper to write the +condition of re-annexation to the defunct Union, I would scornfully +spurn the overture. * * * I invoke you, and I make it in some sort a +personal appeal—personal so far as it tends to our assistance in +Virginia—I do invoke you, in your demonstrations of popular opinion, in +your exhibitions of official intent, to give no countenance to this idea +of reconstruction. [Many voices, emphatically, 'never,' and applause.]</p> + +<p>"In Virginia," resumed he, "they all say, if reduced to the dread +dilemma of this memorable alternative, they will espouse the cause of +the South as against the interest of the Northern Confederacy, but they +whisper of reconstruction, and they say Virginia must abide in the +Union, with the idea of reconstructing the Union which you have +annihilated. I pray you, gentlemen, rob them of that idea. Proclaim to +the World that upon no condition, and under no circumstances, will South +Carolina ever again enter into political association with the +Abolitionists of New England. [Cries of 'never,' and applause.]</p> + +<p>"Do not distrust Virginia," he continued; "as sure as tomorrow's sun +will rise upon us, just so sure will Virginia be a member of this +Southern Confederation. [Applause.] And I will tell you, gentlemen, +what will put her in the Southern Confederacy in less than an hour by +Shrewsbury clock—STRIKE A BLOW! [Tremendous applause.] The very +moment that blood is shed, old Virginia will make common cause with her +sisters of the South. [Applause.] It is impossible she should do +otherwise."</p> + +<p>The question of the necessity of "Striking a Blow"—of the immediate +"shedding of blood"—was not only discussed before the Southern people +for the purpose of inflaming their rebellious zeal, but was also the +subject of excited agitation in the Confederate Cabinet at this time.</p> + +<p>In a speech made by ex-United States Senator Clemens of Alabama, at +Huntsville, Alabama, at the close of the Rebellion, he told the +Alabamians how their State, which, as we have seen, was becoming +decidedly shaky in its allegiance to the "Sham of Southern +Independence," was kept in the Confederacy.</p> + +<p>Said he: "In 1861, shortly after the Confederate Government was put in +operation, I was in the city of Montgomery. One day (April 11, 1861) I +stepped into the office of the Secretary of War, General Walker, and +found there, engaged in a very excited discussion, Mr. Jefferson Davis +(the President), Mr. Memminger (Secretary of the Treasury), Mr. Benjamin +(Attorney-General), Mr. Gilchrist, a member of our Legislature from +Loundes county, and a number of other prominent gentlemen. They were +discussing the propriety of immediately opening fire on Fort Sumter, to +which General Walker, the Secretary of War, appeared to be opposed. Mr. +Gilchrist said to him, 'Sir, unless you sprinkle blood in the face of +the people of Alabama, they will be back in the old Union in less than +ten days!' THE NEXT DAY GENERAL BEAUREGARD OPENED HIS BATTERIES ON +SUMTER, AND ALABAMA WAS SAVED TO THE CONFEDERACY."</p> + +<p>On the 8th of April, G. T. Beauregard, "Brigadier General Commanding" +the "Provisional Army C. S. A." at Charleston, S. C., notified the +Confederate Secretary of War (Walker) at Montgomery, Ala., that "An +authorized messenger from President Lincoln has just informed Gov. +Pickens and myself that provisions will be sent to Fort Sumter +peaceably, or otherwise by force."</p> + +<p>On the 10th, Confederate Secretary Walker telegraphed to Beauregard: "If +you have no doubt of the authorized character of the agent who +communicated to, you the intention of the Washington Government to +supply Fort Sumter by force, you will at once demand its evacuation, +and, if this is refused, proceed, in such manner as you may determine, +to reduce it." To this Beauregard at once replied: "The demand will be +made to-morrow at 12 o'clock." Thereupon the Confederate Secretary +telegraphed again: "Unless there are special reasons connected with your +own condition, it is considered proper that you should make the demand +at an earlier hour." And Beauregard answered: "The reasons are special +for 12 o'clock."</p> + +<p>On the 11th General Beauregard notified Secretary Walker: "The demand +was sent at 2 P. M., and until 6 was allowed for the answer." The +Secretary desiring to have the reply of Major Anderson, General +Beauregard telegraphed: "Major Anderson replies: 'I have the honor to +acknowledge the receipt of your communication demanding the evacuation +of this Fort, and to say in reply thereto that it is a demand with which +I regret that my sense of honor and of my obligation to my Government +prevent my compliance.' He adds, verbally, 'I will await the first +shot, and, if you do not batter us to pieces, we will be starved out in +a few days.'"</p> + +<p>To this, the Confederate Secretary at once responded with: "Do not +desire needlessly to bombard Fort Sumter. If Major Anderson will state +the time at which, as indicated by himself, he will evacuate, and agree +that, in the mean time, he will not use his guns against us unless ours +should be employed against Fort Sumter, you are authorized thus to avoid +the effusion of blood. If this or its equivalent be refused, reduce the +Fort, as your judgment decides to be the most practicable."</p> + +<p>At 11 o'clock that night (April 11) General Beauregard sent to Major +Anderson, by the hands of his aides-de-camp, Messrs. Chesnut and Lee, a +further communication, in which, after alluding to the Major's verbal +observation, the General said: "If you will state the time at which you +will evacuate Fort Sumter, and agree that in the mean time you will not +use your guns against us unless ours shall be employed against Fort +Sumter, we shall abstain from opening fire upon you. Col. Chesnut and +Capt. Lee are authorized by me to enter into such an agreement with you. +You are therefore requested to communicate to them an open answer."</p> + +<p>To this, Major Robert Anderson, at 2.30 A.M. of the 12th, replied "that, +cordially uniting with you in the desire to avoid the useless effusion +of blood, I will, if provided with the necessary means of +transportation, evacuate Fort Sumter by noon on the 15th inst., should I +not receive prior to that time, controlling instructions from my +Government, or additional supplies, and that I will not in the mean time +open my fire upon your forces unless compelled to do so by some hostile +act against this Fort or the flag of my Government, by the forces under +your command, or by some portion of them, or by the perpetration of some +act showing a hostile intention on your part against this Fort or the +flag it bears." Thereupon General Beauregard telegraphed Secretary +Walker: "He would not consent. I write to-day."</p> + +<p>At 3.20 A.M., Major Anderson received from Messrs. Chesnut and Lee a +notification to this effect: "By authority of Brigadier General +Beauregard, commanding the Provisional Forces of the Confederate States, +we have the honor to notify you that he will open the fire of his +batteries on Fort Sumter in one hour from this time." And a later +dispatch from General Beauregard to Secretary Walker, April 12, +laconically stated: "WE OPENED FIRE AT 4.30."</p> + +<p>At last the hour and the minute had come, for which the Slave Power of +the South had for thirty years so impatiently longed. At last the +moment had come, when all the long-treasured vengeance of the +South—outgrown from questions of Tariff, of Slavery, and of Secession—was to +be poured out in blood and battle; when the panoplied powers and forces +of rebellious confederated States, standing face to face with the +resolute patriotism of an outraged Union, would belch forth flame and +fury and hurtling missiles upon the Federal Fort and the old flag +floating o'er it.</p> + +<p>And whose the sacrilegious hand that dared be first raised against his +Country and his Country's flag? Stevens's mortar battery at Sullivan's +Island is ready to open, when a lean, long-haired old man, with eyes +blazing in their deep fanatical sockets, totters hastily forward and +ravenously seizing in his bony hands a lanyard, pulls the string, and, +with a flash and roar, away speeds the shrieking shell on its mission of +destruction; and, while shell after shell, and shot after shot, from +battery after battery, screams a savage accompaniment to the boom and +flash and bellow of the guns, that lean old man works his clutched +fingers in an ecstasy of fiendish pleasure, and chuckles: "Aye, I told +them at Columbia that night, that the defense of the South is only to be +secured through the lead of South Carolina; and, old as I am, I had come +here to join them in that lead—and I have done it."</p> +<blockquote><blockquote><blockquote> +<p> [Edmund Ruffin, see p. 100. This theory of the necessity of South + Carolina leading, had long been held, as in the following, first + published in the New York Tribune, July 3, 1862, which, among other + letters, was found in the house of William H. Trescot, on + Barnwell's Island, South Carolina, when re-occupied by United + States troops:</p> + +<p> "VIRGINIA CONVENTION, May 3, 1851</p> + +<p> "My DEAR, SIR:—You misunderstood my last letter, if you supposed + that I intended to visit South Carolina this Spring. I am + exceedingly obliged to you for your kind invitations, and it would + afford me the highest pleasure to interchange in person, sentiments + with a friend whose manner of thinking so closely agrees with my + own. But my engagements here closely confine me to this city, and + deny me such a gratification.</p> + +<p> "I would be especially glad to be in Charleston next week, and + witness the proceedings of your Convention of Delegates from the + Southern Rights Associations. The condition of things in your + State deeply interests me. Her wise foresight and manly + independence have placed her, as the head of the South, to whom + alone true-hearted men can look with any hope or pleasure.</p> + +<p> "Momentous are the consequences which depend upon your action. + Which party will prevail? The immediate Secessionists, or those + who are opposed to separate State action at this time? For my part + I forbear to form a wish. Were I a Carolinian, it would be very + different; but when I consider the serious effects the decision may + have on your future weal or woe, I feel that a citizen of a State + which has acted as Virginia, has no right to interfere, even by a + wish.</p> + +<p> "If the General Government allows you peaceably and freely to + Secede, neither Virginia, nor any other Southern State, would, in + my opinion, follow you at present. But what would be the effect + upon South Carolina? Some of our best friends have supposed that + it would cut off Charleston from the great Western trade, which she + is now striking for, and would retard very greatly the progress of + your State. I confess that I think differently. I believe + thoroughly in our own theories, and that, even if Charleston did + not grow quite as fast in her trade with other States, yet the + relief from Federal taxation would vastly stimulate your + prosperity. If so, the prestige of the Union would be destroyed, + and you would be the nucleus for a Southern Confederation at no + distant day.</p> + +<p> "But I do not doubt, from all I have been able toe to learn that the + Federal Government would use force, beginning with the form most + embarrassing to you, and least calculated to excite sympathy. I + mean a naval blockade. In that event, could you stand the reaction + feeling which the suffering commerce of Charleston would probably + manifest? Would you not lose that in which your strength consists, + the union of your people? I do not mean to imply an opinion, I + only ask the question.</p> + +<p> "If you could force this blockade, and bring the Government to + direct force, the feeling in Virginia would be very great. I trust + in God it would bring her to your aid. But it would be wrong in me + to deceive you by speaking certainly. I cannot express the deep + mortification I have felt at her course this Winter. But I do not + believe that the course of the Legislature is a fair expression of + popular feeling. In the East, at least, the great majority + believes in the right of Secession, and feels the deepest sympathy + with Carolina in her opposition to measures which they regard as + she does. But the West—Western Virginia—there is the rub! Only + 60,000 slaves to 494,000 whites! When I consider this fact, and + the kind of argument which has been heard in this body, I cannot + but regard with the greatest fear the question whether Virginia + would assist Carolina in such an issue.</p> + +<p> "I must acknowledge, my dear sir, that I look to the future with + almost as much apprehension as hope. You well object to the term + Democrat. Democracy, in its original philosophical sense, is + indeed incompatible with Slavery and the whole system of Southern + society. Yet, if you look back, what change will you find made in + any of your State Constitutions, or in our legislation—that is, in + its general course—for the last fifty years, which was not in the + direction of this Democracy? Do not its principles and theories + become daily more fixed in our practice? (I had almost said in the + opinions of our people, did I not remember with pleasure the great + improvement of opinion in regard to the abstract question of + Slavery). And if such is the case, what are we to hope in the + future? I do not hesitate to say that if the question is raised + between Carolina and the Federal Government, and the latter + prevails, the last hope of republican government, and, I fear, of + Southern civilization, is gone. Russia will then be a better + government than ours.</p> + +<p> "I fear that the confusion and interruptions amid which I write + have made this rather a rambling letter. Do you visit the North in + the Summer? I would be very happy to welcome you to the Old + Dominion.</p> + +<p> "I am much obliged to you for the offer to send me Hammond's Eulogy + on Calhoun, but I am indebted to the author for a copy.</p> + +<p> "With esteem and friendship, yours truly,</p> + +<p> "M. R. H. GARNETT.</p> + +<p> "WM. H. TRESCOT, ESQ."]</p> +</blockquote></blockquote></blockquote> +<p> +Next morning's New York herald, in its Charleston dispatch of April 12, +announced to the World that "The first shot [fired at Fort Sumter] from +Stevens's battery was fired by the venerable Edmund Ruffin, of +Virginia," and added, "That ball will do more for the cause of +Secession, in Virginia, than volumes of stump speeches."</p> + +<p>"Soon," says Greeley in his History, "the thunder of fifty heavy +breaching cannon, in one grand volley, followed by the crashing and +crumbling of brick, stone, and mortar around and above them, apprized +the little garrison that their stay must necessarily be short."</p> + +<p>Says an eye-witness of the bombardment: "Shells burst with the greatest +rapidity in every portion of the work, hurling the loose brick and stone +in all directions, breaking the windows and setting fire to whatever +woodwork they burst against. * * * The firing from the batteries on +Cumming's Point was scattered over the whole of the gorge or rear of the +Fort, till it looked like a sieve. The explosion of shells, and the +quantity of deadly missiles that were hurled in every direction and at +every instant of time, made it almost certain death to go out of the +lower tier of casemates, and also made the working of the barbette or +upper (uncovered) guns, which contained all our heaviest metal, and by +which alone we could throw shells, quite impossible.</p> + +<p>"During the first day there was hardly an instant of time that there was +a cessation of the whizzing of balls, which were sometimes coming half a +dozen at once. There was not a portion of the work which was not taken +in reverse from mortars. * * * During Friday, the officers' barracks +were three times set on fire by the shells and three times put out under +the most galling and destructive cannonade.</p> + +<p>"For the fourth time, the barracks were set on fire early on Saturday +morning, and attempts were made to extinguish the flames; but it was +soon discovered that red-hot shot were being thrown into the Fort with +fearful rapidity, and it became evident that it would be impossible to +put out the conflagration. The whole garrison was then set to work, or +as many as could be spared, to remove the powder from the magazines, +which was desperate work, rolling barrels of powder through the fire. * +* * After the barracks were well on fire, the batteries directed upon +Fort Sumter increased their cannonading to a rapidity greater than had +been attained before."</p> + +<p>"About this time, the shells and ammunition in the upper +service-magazines exploded, scattering the tower and upper portions of the +building in every direction. The crash of the beams, the roar of the +flames, and the shower of fragments of the Fort, with the blackness of +the smoke, made the scene indescribably terrific and grand. This +continued for several hours. * * * "</p> + +<p>"There was not a portion of the Fort where a breath of air could be got +for hours, except through a wet cloth. The fire spread to the men's +quarters on the right hand and on the left, and endangered the powder +which had been taken out of the magazines. The men went through the +fire, and covered the barrels with wet cloths, but the danger of the +Fort's blowing up became so imminent that they were obliged to heave the +barrels out of the embrasures."</p> + +<p>Major Anderson's official report tells the whole story briefly and well, +in these words:</p> +<blockquote><blockquote><blockquote> +<p> "STEAMSHIP BALTIC, OFF SANDY HOOK</p> + +<p> "April 18, 1861, 10.30 A.M., VIA NEW YORK.</p> + +<p>"Having defended Fort Sumter for thirty-four hours, until the quarters +were entirely burnt, the main gates destroyed by fire, the gorge walls +seriously injured, the magazine surrounded by flames, and its door +closed from the effects of heat; four barrels and three cartridges of +powder only being available, and no provisions remaining but pork, I +accepted terms of evacuation offered by General Beauregard—being the +same offered by him on the 11th inst., prior to the commencement of +hostilities—and marched out of the Fort on Sunday afternoon, the 14th +instant, with colors flying and drums beating, bringing away company and +private property, and saluting my flag with fifty guns.</p> + +<p> "ROBERT ANDERSON, + "Major 1st Artillery, Commanding.</p> + +<p>"HON. SIMON CAMERON, +"Secretary of War, Washington."</p> +</blockquote></blockquote></blockquote> +<p> +During all this thirty-four hours of bombardment, the South rejoiced +with exceeding great joy that the time had come for the vindication of +its peculiar ideas of State and other rights, even though it be with +flames and the sword. At Charleston, the people were crazy with +exultation and wine-feasting and drinking being the order of the day and +night. But for the surrender, Fort Sumter would have been stormed that +Sunday night. As it was, Sunday was turned into a day of general +jubilation, and while the people cheered and filled the streets, all the +Churches of Charleston celebrated, with more or less devotional fervor +and ceremony, the bloodless victory.</p> + +<p>At Montgomery, the Chiefs of the Confederate Government were serenaded. +"Salvos of artillery were fired, and the whole population seemed to be +in an ecstasy of triumph."—[McPherson's History of the Rebellion, p. +114]</p> + +<p>The Confederate Secretary of War, flushed with the success, predicted +that the Confederate flag "will, before the first of May, float over the +dome of the old Capitol at Washington" and "will eventually float over +Faneuil Hall, in Boston."</p> + +<p>From Maryland to Mexico, the protests of Union men of the South were +unheard in the fierce clamor of "On to Washington!"</p> + +<p>The Richmond Examiner said: "There never was half the unanimity among +the people before, nor a tithe of the zeal upon any subject, that is now +manifested to take Washington. From the mountain tops and valleys to +the shores of the sea, there is one wild shout of fierce resolve to +capture Washington City at all and every human hazard."</p> + +<p>So also, the Mobile Advertiser enthusiastically exclaimed:</p> + +<p>"We are prepared to fight, and the enemy is not. Now is the time for +action, while he is yet unprepared. Let the fife sound 'Gray Jackets +over the Border,' and let a hundred thousand men, with such arms as they +can snatch, get over the border as quickly as they can. Let a division +enter every Northern border State, destroy railroad connection to +prevent concentration of the enemy, and the desperate strait of these +States, the body of Lincoln's country, will compel him to a peace—or +compel his successor, should Virginia not suffer him to escape from his +doomed capital."</p> + +<p>It was on Friday morning, the 12th of April, as we have seen, that the +first Rebel shot was fired at Fort Sumter. It was on Saturday afternoon +and evening that the terms of surrender were agreed to, and on Sunday +afternoon that the Federal flag was saluted and hauled down, and the +surrender completed. On Monday morning, being the 15th of April, in all +the great Northern Journals of the day appeared the following:</p> +<blockquote><blockquote><blockquote> +<p>"PROCLAMATION.</p> + +<p>"WHEREAS, the laws of the United States have been for some time past, +and now are, opposed, and the execution thereof obstructed, in the +States of South Carolina, Georgia, Alabama, Florida, Mississippi, +Louisiana, and Texas, by Combinations too powerful to be suppressed by +the ordinary course of Judicial proceedings, or by the powers vested in +the Marshals by law; now, therefore I, ABRAHAM LINCOLN, President of the +United States, in virtue of the power in me vested by the Constitution +and the laws, have thought fit to call forth, and hereby do call forth, +the Militia of the several States of the Union to the aggregate number +of 75,000, in order to suppress said Combinations, and to cause the laws +to be duly executed.</p> + +<p>"The details for this object will be immediately communicated to the +State authorities through the War Department. I appeal to all loyal +citizens to favor, facilitate, and aid this effort to maintain the +honor, the integrity, and existence of our National Union, and the +perpetuity of popular government, and to redress wrongs already long +enough endured. I deem it proper to say that the first service assigned +to the forces hereby called forth, will probably be to repossess the +forts, places, and property which have been seized from the Union; and +in every event the utmost care will be observed, consistently with the +objects aforesaid, to avoid any devastation, any destruction of, or +interference with, property, or any disturbance of peaceful citizens of +any part of the Country; and I hereby command the persons composing the +Combinations aforesaid, to disperse and retire peaceably to their +respective abodes, within twenty days from this date.</p> + +<p>"Deeming that the present condition of public affairs presents an +extraordinary occasion, I do hereby, in virtue of the power in me vested +by the Constitution, convene both Houses of Congress. The Senators and +Representatives are, therefore, summoned to assemble at their respective +chambers at twelve o'clock, noon, on Thursday, the 4th day of July next, +then and there to consider and determine such measures as, in their +wisdom, the public safety and interest may seem to demand.</p> + +<p>"In witness whereof I have hereunto set my hand, and caused the seal of +the United States to be affixed.</p> + +<p>"Done at the city of Washington, this fifteenth day of April, in the +year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and sixty-one, and of the +independence of the United States the eighty-fifth.</p> + +<p>"By the President: ABRAHAM LINCOLN.</p> + +<p>"WILLIAM H. SEWARD, Secretary of State."</p> +</blockquote></blockquote></blockquote> +<p> +While in the North the official responses to this Call for troops were +prompt and patriotic, in the Border and Slave States, not yet in +Rebellion, they were anything but encouraging.</p> + +<p>The reply of Governor Burton, of Delaware, was by the issue of a +proclamation "recommending the formation of volunteer companies for the +protection of the lives and property of the people of Delaware against +violence of any sort to which they may be exposed; the companies not +being subject to be ordered by the Executive into the United States +service—the law not vesting him with such authority—but having the +option of offering their services to the General Government for the +defense of its capital and the support of the Constitution and laws of +the Country."</p> + +<p>Governor Hicks, of Maryland, in like manner, issued a proclamation for +Maryland's quota of the troops, but stated that her four regiments would +be detailed to serve within the limits of Maryland—or, for the defense +of the National Capital.</p> + +<p>Governor Letcher, of Virginia, replied: "The militia of Virginia will +not be furnished to the powers at Washington for any such use or purpose +as they have in view. Your object is to subjugate the Southern States, +and a requisition made upon me for such an object—an object, in my +judgment, not within the purview of the Constitution or the Act of 1795 +—will not be complied with. You have chosen to inaugurate Civil War, +and having done so, we will meet it in a spirit as determined as the +Administration has exhibited toward the South."</p> + +<p>Governor Ellis, of North Carolina, replied to Secretary Cameron: "Your +dispatch is received, and, if genuine—which its extraordinary character +leads me to doubt—I have to say in reply that I regard the levy of +troops made by the Administration, for the purpose of subjugating the +States of the South, as in violation of the Constitution and a +usurpation of power. I can be no party to this wicked violation of the +laws of the country, and to this War upon the liberties of a free +people. You can get no troops from North Carolina. I will reply more +in detail when your Call is received by mail."</p> + +<p>Governor Magoffin, of Kentucky, replied: "Your dispatch is received. In +answer I say emphatically, Kentucky will furnish no troops for the +wicked purpose of subduing her sister Southern States."</p> + +<p>Governor Harris, of Tennessee, replied: "Tennessee will not furnish a +single man for Coercion, but fifty thousand, if necessary, for the +Defense of our rights or those of our Southern brethren."</p> + +<p>Governor Jackson, of Missouri, replied: "Your requisition is illegal, +unconstitutional, revolutionary, inhuman, diabolical and cannot be +complied with."</p> + +<p>Governor Rector, of Arkansas, replied: "None will be furnished. The +demand is only adding insult to injury."</p> + +<p>Discouraging and even insulting as were most of these replies, the +responses of the Governors of the Free States were, on the other hand, +full of the ring of true martial Patriotism evoked by the fall of Sumter +and the President's first call for troops. Twenty millions of Northern +hearts were stirred by that Call, as they had never before been stirred. +Party and faction became for the moment, a thing of the past.</p> + +<p>The Governors of the Free States made instant proclamation for +volunteers, and the People responded not by thousands but by hundreds of +thousands. New York, the Empire State, by her Governor and her +Legislature placed all her tremendous resources at the service of the +Union; and the great State of Pennsylvania, through Governor Curtin, did +the same. Nor were the other States at all behind.</p> + +<p>The Loyal North felt that Law, Order, Liberty, the existence of the +Nation itself was in peril, and must be both saved and vindicated. Over +half a million of men—from the prairies of the West and the hills and +cities of the East—from farms and counting houses, from factories and +mines and workshops—sprang to arms at the Call, and begged to be +enrolled. The merchants and capitalists throughout the North proffered +to the Government their wealth and influence and best services. The +press and the people responded as only the press and people of a Free +land can respond—with all their heart and soul. "Fort Sumter," said +one of the journals, "is lost, but Freedom is saved. Henceforth, the +Loyal States are a unit in uncompromising hostility to Treason, wherever +plotted, however justified. Fort Sumter is temporarily lost, but the +Country is saved. Live the Republic!"</p> + +<p>This, in a nutshell, was the feeling everywhere expressed, whether by +the great crowds that marched through the streets of Northern cities +with drums beating and banners flying—cheering wildly for the Union, +singing Union songs, and compelling those of doubtful loyalty to throw +out to the breeze from their homes the glorified Stars and Stripes—by +the great majority of newspapers—by the pulpit, by the rostrum, by the +bench, by all of whatever profession or calling in Northern life. For +the moment, the voice of the Rebel-sympathizer was hushed in the land, +or so tremendously overborne that it seemed as if there was an absolute +unanimity of love for the Union.</p> + +<p>Of course, in Border-States, bound to the South by ties of lineage and +intermarriage and politics and business association, the feeling could +not be the same as elsewhere. There, they were, so to speak, drawn both +ways at once, by the beckoning hands of kindred on the one side, and +Country on the other! Thus they long waited and hesitated, praying that +something might yet happen to save the Union of their fathers, and +prevent the shedding of brothers' blood, by brothers—hoping against +hope-waited, in the belief that a position of armed neutrality might be +permitted to them; and grieved, when they found this could not be.</p> + +<p>Each side to the great Conflict-at-arms naturally enough believed itself +right, and that the other side was the first aggressor; but the judgment +of Mankind has placed the blame where it properly belonged—on the +shoulders of the Rebels. The calm, clear statement of President +Lincoln, in his July Message to Congress, touching the assault and its +preceding history—together with his conclusions—states the whole +matter in such authentic and convincing manner that it may be said to +have settled the point beyond further controversy. After stating that +it "was resolved to notify the Governor of South Carolina that he might +expect an attempt would be made to provision the Fort; and that if the +attempt should not be resisted there would be no effort to throw in men, +arms, or ammunition, without further notice, or in case of an attack on +the Fort," Mr. Lincoln continues: "This notice was accordingly given; +whereupon the Fort was attacked and bombarded to its fall, without even +awaiting the arrival of the provisioning expedition."</p> + +<p>The President then proceeds: "It is thus seen that the assault upon and +reduction of Fort Sumter was, in no sense, a matter of self-defense on +the part of the assailants. They well knew that the garrison in the +Fort could, by no possibility, commit aggression upon them. They +knew—they were expressly notified—that the giving of bread to the few brave +and hungry men of the garrison was all which would on that occasion be +attempted, unless themselves, by resisting so much, should provoke more. +They knew that this Government desired to keep the garrison in the Fort +—not to assail them—but merely to maintain visible possession, and +thus to preserve the Union from actual and immediate +dissolution—trusting, as hereinbefore stated, to time, discussion, and the +ballot-box for final adjustment; and they assailed and reduced the Fort for +precisely the reverse object—to drive out the visible authority of the +Federal Union, and thus force it to immediate dissolution.</p> + +<p>"That this was their object, the Executive well understood; and, having +said to them, in the Inaugural Address, 'you can have no conflict +without being yourselves the aggressors,' he took pains not only to keep +this declaration good, but also to keep the case so free from the power +of ingenious sophistry as that the World should not be able to +misunderstand it.</p> + +<p>"By the affair at Fort Sumter, with its surrounding circumstances, that +point was reached. Then and thereby the assailants of the Government +began the Conflict of arms, without a gun in sight or in expectancy to +return their fire, save only the few in the Fort sent to that harbor +years before for their own protection, and still ready to give that +protection in whatever was lawful. In this act, discarding all else, +they have forced upon the Country, the distinct issue: 'Immediate +dissolution or blood.'</p> + +<p>"And this issue embraces more than the fate of these United States. It +presents to the whole family of Man the question whether a +Constitutional Republic or Democracy—a government of the People by the +same People—can or cannot maintain its territorial integrity against +its own domestic foes. It presents the question whether discontented +individuals, too few in numbers to control administration according to +organic law in any case, can always, upon the pretences made in this +case, or on any other pretences, or arbitrarily without any pretence, +break up their Government, and thus practically put an end to free +government upon the earth. It forces us to ask: 'Is there in all +republics, this inherent and fatal weakness?' 'Must a Government of +necessity be too strong for the liberties of its own people, or too weak +to maintain its own existence?'</p> + +<p>"So viewing the issue, no choice was left but to call out the War power +of the Government; and so to resist force, employed for its destruction, +by force, for its preservation."</p> + +<p>The Call for Troops was made, as we have seen, on the 15th day of April. +On the evening of the following day several companies of a Pennsylvania +Regiment reported for duty in Washington. On the 18th, more +Pennsylvania Volunteers, including a company of Artillery, arrived +there.</p> + +<p>On the 19th of April, the Sixth Massachusetts Regiment—whose progress +through New York city had been triumphal—was suddenly and unexpectedly +assailed, in its passage through Baltimore, to the defense of the +National Capital, by a howling mob of Maryland Secessionists—worked up +to a pitch of States-rights frenzy by Confederate emissaries and +influential Baltimore Secession-sympathizers, by news of the sudden +evacuation of the Federal Arsenal at Harper's Ferry, and other exciting +tidings—and had to fight its way through, leaving three soldiers of +that regiment dead, and a number wounded, behind it.</p> +<blockquote><blockquote><blockquote> +<p> [At a meeting of the "National Volunteer Association," at Monument + Square, Baltimore, the previous evening, says Greeley's History of + the American Conflict, page 462, "None of the speakers directly + advocated attacks on the Northern troops about to pass through the + city; but each was open in his hostility to 'Coercion,' and + ardently exhorted his hearers to organize, arm and drill, for the + Conflict now inevitable. Carr (Wilson C. N. Carr) said: 'I do not + care how many Federal troops are sent to Washington; they will soon + find themselves surrounded by such an army from Virginia and + Maryland, that escape to their homes will be impossible; and when + the 75,000 who are intended to invade the South shall have polluted + that soil with their touch, the South will extermininate and sweep + them from the Earth.' (Frantic cheering and yelling). The meeting + broke up with stentorian cheers for 'the South' and for 'President + Davis."']</p> +</blockquote></blockquote></blockquote> +<p>Ten companies of Philadelphia troops, reaching Baltimore at the same +time, unarmed, were also violently assailed by the crazy mob, and, after +a two hours' fight, reached the cars and returned to Philadelphia.</p> + +<p>Washington City—already, by the Secession of Virginia, cut off from the +South—was thus practically cut off from the North as well; and to +isolate it more completely, the telegraph wires were cut down and the +railroad bridges burned. A mere handful of regulars, the few volunteers +that had got through before the outbreak in Baltimore, and a small +number of Union residents and Government department clerks—these, under +General Winfield Scott, constituted the paltry force that, for ten days +after the Call for troops, held the National Capital.</p> + +<p>Informed, as the Rebels must have been, by their swarming spies, of the +weakness of the Federal metropolis, it seems absolutely marvelous that +instant advantage was not taken of it.</p> + +<p>The Richmond Examiner, of April 23d, said: "The capture of Washington +City is perfectly within the power of Virginia and Maryland, if Virginia +will only make the effort with her constituted authorities; nor is there +a single moment to lose. * * * The fanatical yell for the immediate +subjugation of the whole South is going up hourly from the united voices +of all the North; and, for the purpose of making their work sure, they +have determined to hold Washington City as the point whence to carry on +their brutal warfare. Our people can take it—they will take it—and +Scott, the arch-traitor, and Lincoln, the Beast, combined, cannot +prevent it. The just indignation of an outraged and deeply injured +people will teach the Illinois Ape to repeat his race and retrace his +journey across the borders of the Free Negro States still more rapidly +than he came. * * * Great cleansing and purification are needed and +will be given to that festering sink of iniquity, that wallow of Lincoln +and Scott—the desecrated city of Washington; and many indeed will be +the carcasses of dogs and caitiff that will blacken the air upon the +gallows before the great work is accomplished. So let it be!"</p> + +<p>But despite all this fanfaronade of brutal bluster, and various +movements that looked somewhat threatening, and this complete isolation +for more than a week from the rest of the World, the city of Washington +was not seized by the Rebels, after all.</p> + +<p>This nervous condition of affairs, however, existed until the 25th—and +to General Benjamin F. Butler is due the chief credit of putting an end +to it. It seems he had reached the Susquehanna river at Perryville, +with his Eighth Massachusetts Regiment on the 20th—the day after the +Sixth Massachusetts had been mobbed at Baltimore—and, finding his +further progress to Washington via Baltimore, barred by the destruction +of the bridge across the Susquehanna, etc., he at once seized a large +ferry steamer, embarked his men on her, steamed down the river and +Chesapeake Bay to Annapolis, the capital of Maryland, took possession of +the frigate Constitution, the Naval Academy, and the city itself, +gathered supplies, and being reinforced by the arrival by water of the +famous New York Seventh, and other regiments, repaired the branch +railroad to Annapolis Junction (on the main line of railroad between +Baltimore and Washington), and transferred his column from thence, by +cars, on the 25th, to the National Capital—soon thereafter also taking +military possession of Baltimore, which gave no further trouble to the +Union Cause. In the meantime, however, other untoward events to that +Cause had happened.</p> + +<p>Two days after the Call for troops, the Virginia Convention (April 17th) +secretly voted to Secede from the Union. An expedition of Virginia +troops was almost at once started to capture the Federal Arsenal at +Harper's Ferry, which, as has already been intimated, was evacuated +hastily on the night of the 18th, by the handful of Union regulars +garrisoning it, after a futile effort to destroy the public property and +stores it held. Another expedition was started to seize the Federal +Navy Yard at Norfolk—a rich prize, containing as it did, between 2,000 +and 3,000 pieces of heavy ordnance (300 of them Dahlgrens), three old +line-of-battle ships and a number of frigates, including the Cumberland +and the fine forty-gun steam frigate Merrimac, together with thousands +of kegs of powder and immense stores of other munitions of war, and +supplies—that had cost in all some $10,000,000. Without an enemy in +sight, however, this fine Navy Yard was shamefully evacuated, after +partly scuttling and setting fire to the vessels—the Cumberland alone +being towed away—and spiking the guns, and doing other not very +material damage.</p> + +<p>So also, in North Carolina, Rebel influence was equally active. On the +20th of April Governor Ellis seized the Federal Branch Mint at, +Charlotte, and on the 22d the Federal Arsenal at Fayetteville. A few +days thereafter his Legislature authorized him to tender to +Virginia—which had already joined the Confederacy—or to the Government of the +Confederate States itself, the volunteer forces of North Carolina. And, +although at the end of January the people of that State had decided at +the polls that no Secession Convention be held, yet the subservient +Legislature did not hesitate, on demand, to call one together which met +in May and ordained such Secession.</p> + +<p>Thus, by the end of May, 1861, the Confederacy had grown to comprise +nine instead of seven States, and the Confederate troops were +concentrating on Richmond—whither the Rebel Government was soon to +remove, from Montgomery.</p> + +<p>By this time also not only had the ranks of the regular Union Army been +filled and largely added to, but 42,000 additional volunteers had been +called out by President Lincoln; and the blockade of the Southern ports +(including those of Virginia and North Carolina) that had been +proclaimed by him, was, despite all obstacles, now becoming effectual +and respected.</p> + +<p>Washington City and its suburbs, by the influx of Union volunteers, had +during this month become a vast armed camp; the Potomac river had been +crossed and the Virginia hills (including Arlington heights) which +overlooked the Federal Capital, had been occupied and fortified by Union +troops; the young and gallant Colonel Ellsworth had been killed by a +Virginia Rebel while pulling down a Rebel flag in Alexandria; and +General Benjamin F. Butler, in command at Fortress Monroe, had by an +inspiration, solved one of the knottiest points confronting our armies, +by declaring of three Negroes who had fled from their master so as to +escape working on Rebel fortifications, that they should not be returned +to that master—under the Fugitive Slave Law, as demanded by a Rebel +officer with a flag of truce—but were confiscated "property," and would +be retained, as "contraband of war."</p> + +<p>It was about this time, too, that the New Orleans Picayune fell into +line with other unscrupulous Rebel sheets, by gravely declaring that: +"All the Massachusetts troops now in Washington are Negroes, with the +exception of two or three drummer boys. General Butler, in command, is +a native of Liberia. Our readers may recollect old Ben, the barber, who +kept a shop in Poydras street, and emigrated to Liberia with a small +competence. General Butler is his son." Little did the writer of that +paragraph dream how soon New Orleans would crouch at the very feet of +that same General!</p> + +<p>And now, while the armed hosts on either side are assembling in hostile +array, or resting on their arms, preliminary to the approaching fray of +battle, let us glance at the alleged causes underlying this great +Rebellion against the Union.</p> + +<br><br> + + + + + +<center> +<table summary="" cellPadding=4 border=3> +<tr><td> + + <a href="p1.htm">Previous Part</a> +</td><td> + <a href="7140-h.htm">Main Index</a> +</td><td> + <a href="p3.htm">Next Part</a> + +</td></tr> +</table> +</center> + + + + + + +</body> +</html> |