driver to every forty Yankees, would ensure good order and lively work among them.

Those unacquainted with the state of public opinion at the South, can form but a faint conception of the arrogant assumptions of these slaveholders. On their remote plantations, surrounded only by their colored menials, not one of whom could testify in any court of justice, they ruled with a despotic power which felt no restraint. They could torture, maim, kill at pleasure. Thus they have formed a character of arrogance and of ferocity, which must excite the amazement and the execration of the civilized world. The evidence upon this point can not be resisted by any honest mind.

CHAPTER III.

THE WAR COMMENCED.

ENERGY OF THE CONSPIRATORS.-VIEWS OF SECESSIONISTS AND UNIONISTS.-TESTIMONY OF WEBSTER AND CLAY.-IGNOMINIOUS CONDUCT OF THE TRAITORS.—INAUGURATION OF PRESIDENT LINCOLN.-ANECDOTE.-FALL OF SUMTER.-UPRISING OF THE NORTH.-DEVELOPMENTS OF TREASON.-RESPONSE TO THE CALL FOR 75,000 VOLUNTEERS.-NOBLE SPEECH OF SENATOR DOUGLAS.-UNION OF ALL PARTIES.-TREACHERY OF REBELS IN VIRGINIA.-DESTRUCTION OF GOSPORT NAVY YARD.

On the 22d of February, four days after the inauguration of Jefferson Davis, in Montgomery, the Collector of Customs, appointed by the rebel government in Charleston, S. C., issued the manifesto, that all vessels, from any State out of the Confederacy, would be treated as foreign vessels, and subject to the port dues and other charges established by the laws of the Confederate States. Thus, by a stroke of the pen, the immense commerce of the Northern States was declared to be foreign commerce, beneath the guns of the forts which the United States had reared, at an expense of millions of dollars.

As these outrages were progressing, the people of the Free States were waiting quietly, but with intense latent emotion, for the inauguration of President Lincoln. Nothing could be hoped for while Mr. Buchanan remained in the presidential chair; and he was probably more impatient than any other man in the United States, for the hour to arrive which would release him from the burdens of an office, which were infinitely too heavy for him to bear. He was apparently the unwilling servant of the Secessionists, and could not escape from the toils, in which he had become involved. But the Secessionists had no idea of allowing President Lincoln to be inaugurated. Though frustrated in their plan of securing his assassination, on his passage to the Capital, they were quite confident of their ability to seize Washington, and make it the metropolis of their Confederacy. One of the leading New York journals, under date of January 1, said:

"It is now well known, that military companies have been organized and drilled, for months past, in Maryland and Virginia, some of them under the eye of an officer of the regular army, and that the distinct object of their organization is, to aid in the seizure of Washington City, or the prevention, by force, of Lincoln's inauguration. Some of the less prudent of their leaders boast, in private circles, that they have five thousand well armed and organized men, ready to strike the blow instantly, upon the concerted signal being given."

Very energetic secret societies were organized, all through the Southern States, under the names of "Minute Men," "Vigilance Committees," and "Knights of the Golden Circle," pledged to sustain the Southern Confederacy, to extend the institution of slavery, and to watch over, and, if necessary, to exterminate all suspected of disaffection. Great numbers of men, who ventured to speak freely, were treated with every indignity, and hung. The Hon. Mr. Iverson, of Georgia, stated boastfully in the Senate of the United States, "A Senator from Texas has told me that a great many of those free debaters were hanging from the trees of that country." Future generations will find it hard to believe that in a civilized community such atrocities could be committed as were enacted by the advocates of slavery at the South.

Very great ability was displayed by the leaders of this conspiracy. They were men of thought, of wealth, and were long accustomed to the exercise of power. They were few in numbers, and could thus act with almost the energy of a single despotic mind. Robert Toombs, of Georgia, by his talent in debate, his self-confidence, and his imperious, inexorable will, held Cobb, Crawford, and Iverson, as the willing vassals of his baronial spirit, and thus molded as he pleased the State of Georgia. When Mr. Iverson, of Georgia, withdrew from the Senate, he uttered the following arrogant menace:

"Georgia is one of six States, which, in less than sixty days, have dissolved their connection with the Federal Union, and declared their separate independence. Steps are now in progress, to form a Confederacy of their own, and, in a few weeks at furthest, a provisional government will be formed, giving them ample powers for their own defense, with power to enter into negotiations with other nations, to make war, to conclude peace, to form treaties, and to do all other things which independent nations may of right do. Provision will be made for admission of other states to the new Union, and it is confidently believed that, within a few months, all the Southern States of the late Confederacy will be formed into a Union far more homogeneous, and, therefore, far more stable than the one now broken up.

"You may acquiesce in the revolution, and acknowledge the independence of a great Confederacy, or you may make war on the seceding States, and attempt to force them back. If you acknowledge our independence, and treat us as one of the nations of the earth, you can have friendly relations and intercourse with us; you can have an equitable division of the public property and of the existing public debt of the United States. But if you make war upon us, we will seize and hold all the public property in our borders, and in our reach, and we will never pay one dollar of the public debt, for the law of nations will extinguish all public and private obligations between the States.

"The first Federal gun that is fired upon the seceding States-the first drop of blood of any of their people, shed by the Federal troops-will cancel every public and private obligation of the South, which may be due either to the Federal government or to the northern people. We care not in what shape or form, or under what pretext you undertake coercion. We shall

consider all efforts to exercise authority over us, as acts of war, and shall meet and resist them, accordingly. You may send armies to invade us by land, or you may send ships to blockade our ports, and destroy our trade and commerce with other nations. You may abolish our ports of entry, and by an act of Congress, attempt to collect the Federal revenues by ships of war. You may do all or any of these or similar acts. They will be acts of war, and so understood and considered, and, in whatever shape you make war, we will fight you."

The views of the Secessionists can not be better expressed than in the above extracts. The following speech, delivered by the Hon. Mr. Doolittle, of Wisconsin, in the Senate of the United States, on the 27th of December, contains in briefest compass the views of the Unionists. It is so important, that the true nature of the conflict should be rightly understood, that we introduce this comprehensive statement, even at the risk of a slight repetition.

"The Constitution of the United States speaks in language clear enough that it is not in the power of one out of ten, or of one hundred, or of all the citizens of a State, to annul an act of Congress, because the Constitution of the United States and an act in pursuance of it is a supreme law of that State, and binding upon every citizen of that State, and every citizen must act at his peril. Now if this doctrine is true, that a State by its own mere motion can assemble in convention a mass of its citizens, by resolu tions dissolve its connection with the Federal Government, and put an end to the supremacy of the Constitution and laws of the United States, several other consequences must follow. If one State can secede from all the rest, I suppose the Senator from Louisiana will not deny but that all the rest can secede from one, and that of necessity gives to this Government the power to expel a State. Your right of secession involves the right of expulsion.

"Let us go a little further, and see how this doctrine would apply in time of war. We were engaged in a war with Great Britain in 1812, and the New England States, it is said, were rather disaffected, and met in Convention at Hartford. Now, if the doctrine of the gentleman is correct, any of the New England States could have resolved itself out at its pleasure, and gone over to the enemy. Our fortresses in Boston harbor, which we had manned, built, and filled with munitions and guns, they might have withdrawn from and surrendered to the enemy, and turned our own guns upon us.

"This is the consequence of this doctrine. But, again, take it in time of peace. Apply the doctrine to Pennsylvania, that she, by a simple resolution of her people, can withdraw from the United States. She could cut off all the mail routes going across Pennsylvania, and we could not go from Virginia to New York without going across a foreign country. So, too, with Illinois; if this doctrine is correct, we of the North-West could be cut off entirely from the East; and especially if the Union is to be broken up, we could not go to New York except by leave of Illinois; or without going through the State of Kentucky; and you propose to make that a foreign jurisdiction.

'Apply this doctrine further. How is it with Florida, a little State of the Gulf that has 76,686 white inhabitants-almost as many as some of the counties in the State where I live? We purchased this peninsula, and paid for it, to get rid of the foreign jurisdiction over it-also to get possession of the key, and command the entrance to the Gulf. We paid $35,000,000 to take the Seminoles off from it, and now these 76,686 people, whom the good people of the United States permitted to go there and settle their territories-they had hardly population enough to be admitted as a State, but we have admitted them to full fellowship-Florida now attempts, by mere resolution of her people gathered together, to resolve herself out of the Union, and take all those fortresses, which we have spent thousands of dollars to make, with all our own guns, and turn them against us?

"How is it with Louisiana? The Government of the United States upon wise national principles of great national policy, purchased from the Emperor of France, or the First Consul, the Territory of Louisiana, at an expense of $15,000,000. We purchased it to obtain possession of the great valley of the Mississippi, and above all things, to hold the mouth of that river which controls all its commerce, and discharges it upon the high seas of the world. Now, can it be contended here that because the people whom the Federal Government has permitted to go in there, and occupy its lands, and permitted to be introduced into the family of this reunion, that she, in a moment of passion and excitement, by the mere resolution of her citizens, can resolve herself outside of the confederacy, declare that she is a foreign power, and take with her the control of the mouths of the Mississippi. I tell you, Mr. President, and I tell the Senator from Louisiana, that if any such doctrine had been understood when Louisiana was admitted, she would never have been admitted. I tell you, sir, if any such doc trine had been asserted, her people would never have been permitted to take possession of the swamps of Louisiana. They will not willingly consent that she should hold the mouths of the Mississippi, and thus control the commerce that goes out into the Gulf.

"How has it been with Texas? The Federal Government admitted Texas at a time when she had a sparse population, and there were many debts against her treasury, and her credit was impaired and broken. We took her, as one of the States, into this Confederacy. The result of her annexation brought the Mexican war, which cost us 40,000 lives and nearly $100,000,000. Now, when we have made her a good State, built fortifications, paid her debts and raised her to a position of a State in this Confederacy, with prospects as glorious, perhaps more so than any other Southern State, is she now, in a single hour or moment of passion, to resolve herself out of the Union and become a foreign power? Suppose we had paid $200,000,000 for Cuba, and acquired her, with all her fortifi cations, she could now go out, and turn our own guns against us? What is all our great boasted nationality? Is it a farce and a delusion?

"Gentlemen sometimes complain that the Republican party are dis posed to do injustice to the citizens of the South, and to their social institutions especially. But what has been the history of the Government

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