cord "as to the nature and extent of the powers of a territorial legislature, and as to the powers and duties of Congress under the Constitution over the institution of slavery within the territories," affirmed that the party would "abide by the decisions of the Supreme Court" on the issues involved. Thus the doctrine of popular sovereignty was for a time to be in suspense till either public opinion acquiesced in its interpretation by Douglas or the Supreme Court should hand down a final decision regarding it.

Political platforms are not always safe foundations for conclusions regarding parties, but, allowing for the brevity, ambiguity or obscurity of the platforms of 1860, it is evident that the country was hopelessly divided on the question of the power of Congress over slavery in the territories. The Dred Scott decision made slavery the law, freedom the exception. The three factions of the Democratic party agreed in accepting this decision as final. But the Republicans, following the suggestion of Lincoln, when first he reviewed the decision, believed it was erroneous and should be reversed. So they cited as part of their political faith the fifth Amendment to the Constitution, that "no person should be deprived of life, liberty or property, without due process of law." Therefore, legislation should be initiated that would prevent the extension of slavery into the territories. This indicated the fixed purpose of the party to bring about a reversal of the decision. Nor was this merely a campaign threat. It meant that in the event of the election of Lincoln the Supreme Court might be reorganized either by enlarging its membership or, as several of its members were aged men, by the appointment of successors in political sympathy with Republican doctrines. The election, on the sixth of November, was a political revolution. Lincoln and Ham

lin received a majority of the electoral votes and a plurality of the popular vote.1 Nor was this all. The Congress that would assemble after the fourth of March, 1861, would have a Republican majority in both branches.2 Meanwhile South Carolina and other Southern States had been carrying out a program of secession.

1 Lincoln and Hamlin, electoral vote, 180; popular vote, 1,865,913; Breckinridge and Lane, electoral vote, 72; popular vote, 848,404; Bell and Everett, electoral vote, 39; popular vote, 591,900; Douglas and Johnson, electoral vote, 12; popular vote, 1,374,664.

2 Thirty-seventh Congress, 1st Session, assembled July 4, 1861. Senate Democrats, 11; Republicans, 31; Americans, 7.* House of Representatives-Democrats, 42; Republicans, 106; Americans, 28.†

*One vacancy.
†Two vacancies.

CHAPTER V.

SECESSION.

On the seventeenth of December, 1860, a Convention assembled in Columbia, South Carolina, ostensibly to choose presidential electors, but really for the purpose of passing an ordinance of secession. This State was the only one, in 1860, whose presidential electors were chosen by the legislature. A week after the election of Lincoln the legislature passed the act calling the Convention. On the twentieth of December the ordinance of secession was passed unanimously.1 A Committee of Seven was appointed to draw up a "declaration of causes inducing and justifying the secession of the State," which was discussed and passed four days later. At the same time an "Address of the People of South Carolina and to the People of the

1 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."

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 twenty-third day of May, in the year of our Lord one thousand seven hundred and eighty-eight, 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 amendments of the said Constitution, are hereby repealed; and the Union now subsisting between South Carolina and other States, under the name of "The United States of America," is hereby dissolved.

Journal of the Convention, p. 44.

The Ordinance was prepared by a Committee of Seven (Journal, p. 23) consisting of John A. Inglis, R. B. Rhett, James Chestnut, Jr., James L. Orr, Maxey Gregg, B. F. Dunkin, and W. F. Hutson. Rhett had served in the State Legislature, 1826; as Attorney

562

ORDINANCES OF SECESSION.

General of the State, 1832; as a Representative in Congress, 18381849; in U. S. Senate, 1850-1. He is said to have been the first man to advocate secession and the dissolution of the Union, in a speech in Congress. Chestnut had served in the State Legislature, lower House, 1852; upper, 1854-8; appointed to U. S. Senate, December 4, 1857, and elected to fill the term ending March 3, 1865, but retired, November 10, 1860. James L. Orr served in the State Legislature, 1844-45; in Congress, 1848-60, serving as Speaker of the House during the 35th (December 7, 1857-March 3, 1859).

Ordinances of secession, similar to that of South Carolina, were passed by Mississippi, January 9, Florida, January 10, Alabama, January 11, Georgia, January 19, Louisiana, January 26, Texas, February 1, 1861.

The Mississippi convention by a vote of seventy to twentynine refused to submit the ordinance to popular vote. L. Q. C. Lamar was chairman of the committee reporting the ordinance; it was carried by a vote of 84 to 15.

Journal of Convention, 11, 15, 16.

In the Georgia convention, on the 18th of January, a resolution to secede and to co-operate in forming a Southern Confederacy was offered, also an elaborate substitute for pacification and constitutional guarantees similar to those suggested by the minority in the Alabama Committee of Thirteen. A vigorous debate followed which was interrupted by a call for the "previous question"; this was sustained by the Chair and the convention was brought to a direct vote on secession as provided in the resolution first offered; the vote stood 166 to 130, that an ordinance be prepared and a committee of seventeen was appointed to draw up the resolution. E. A. Nisbet was chairman and Robert Toombs, Alexander H. Stephens, D. P. Hill and A. H. Colquitt were members of this committee. The ordinance was reported on Saturday, the 19th, and passed by a vote of 208 to 89.

Journal of the Convention, 15, 20, 23, 31, 35. On the 10th of December, 1850, the State Convention of Georgia met in Milledgeville and passed resolutions on the issues of the day. The Constitution of the United States was declared to be "in its terms, a bond of political union between separate sovereignties"; a "compact" involving "a high moral obligation," the protection of the institution of slavery; the States were a "confederaties." (Journal, 15.) The abolition of slavery by Congress in places within slaveholding States purchased for Federal purposes; the exclusion of slaves from Utah and New Mexico; the repeal or material modification of the fugitive slave