THE CONVENTION'S ADDRESS TO THE PEOPLE. al Federal regiments, whose retention, though State Reorganization. of a loyal reorganization and an anti-secession procedure. The features of the several resolutions adopted, were: “1. Declares the offices of Governor, LieutenantGovernor, Secretary of State, and members of the Legislature, as heretofore recognized, vacant. "2. That a Governor, Lieutenant-Governor and Secretary of State shall be appointed by the Convention to hold these offices until the first Monday in November next. on the 3d Monday in De- 293 Address to the People. ment an address to the people was prepared, giving an exposition of affairs and defending its action in legislating for the loyal Governcovering the entire groundment of the State. It was a document of much importance as well as of interest, and served greatly to strengthen the Union sentiment among the people. After recurring to the sad change in the peace of the State, since the adjournment in March, the address proceeded to show what had brought about the state of war then existing within their borders. Governor Jackson was found to be deeply implicated in the conspiracy, as the documents cited by the Address fully proved. As showing how the treacherous and unprincipled few dominated over the many, particularly in the States of Virginia, North Carolina, Tennessee and Arkansas, we may quote, from the Convention's statement, the revelations regarding the conspiracy concocted to carry Missouri over to the Confederacy. Several letters were cited from Governor Jacksonone dated April 19th, to the President of the Arkansas Convention, and another, dated April 28th, to the editor of a secession paper in St. Louis-in both of which he declared the Convention in March [see pages 29–31]. for secession, notwithstanding the action of The Conventionists then say : “3. That on that day a Governor, LieutenantGovernor and Secretary of State and members of the Legislature shall be chosen, and the precise manner of election is set forth. “4. That certain laws passed at the last session of the Legislature, referring to the organization of the militia; to raising money to arm the State to repel invasion, and to protect the lives and property of the people of the State; to suspend the apportionment of the school fund, and other less important laws, are repealed, and declared to have no validity whatever. That all commissions under any of such laws are repealed and annulled, and all soldiers and other persons are disbanded and discharged. That certain other laws for the organiza tion of the volunteers are revived and declared to be in force, and under this law (December 31, 1850) volunteer forces may be enrolled-such act being declared to have full force and effect. "5. That at the election for Governor, and other officers, on the first Monday of November next, polls shall be opened, and the people shall vote for the action of the Convention, or against the action of the Convention; and if a majority of the legal voters shall vote in favor of the amendment of the Constitution, then the officers before referred to shall hold their offices as provided in this ordinance; but if a majority be against such amendments, then the election of State officers shall be null and void, and they shall not take their seats." These resolutions were adopted by a vote of 56 to 25--the first, only, varying, viz.: 52 to 28. "Here we have the fixed mind and purpose of the Governor, that Missouri shall leave the Union. He wants time-a little time to arm the State. He thinks secrecy should be preserved by the parties with whom he acts in keeping their counsels. He suggests that nothing should be said about the time or the manner in which Missouri should go out; manifestly implying that the time and manner of going out, which he and those with whom he acted proposed to adopt, was some other time and manner than such as was to be fixed by the people through their Convention. It was no doubt to be a time and manner to be fixed by the Governor and General As sembly, or by the Governor and a military body to be provided with arms during the little time needed by the Governor for that purpose. “There have been no specific disclosures made to the public of the details of this plan, but the Governor expresses his strong conviction that at the proper time the State will go out. On the 31st July the Convention elected Judge Hamilton R. Gamble, Governor; Willard P. Hall, Lieutenant-Governor; Mordecai Oliver, Secretary of State. The inauguration "This correspondence of the Governor occurred at took place during the afternoon, after which time when there was no interference by soldiers of the Convention adjourned to convene again the United States with any of the citizens, or with a 294 THE SOUTHERN REBELLION. the peace of the State. The Address to the People. event which produced exasperation through the State, the capture of camp Jackson, did not take place until the 10th of May. Yet the evidence is conclusive that there was at the time of this correspondence a secret plan for taking Missouri out of the Union without any assent of the people through their Convention. An address to the people of Missouri was issued by Thomas C. Reynolds, the Lieutenant Governor, in which he declares that in Arkansas, Tennessee and Virginia his efforts have been directed unceasingly, to the best of his limited ability, to the promotion of our interests, indissolubly connected with the vindication of our liberties and our speedy union with the Confederate States. Here is the second executive officer of Missouri avowedly engaged in travelling through States which he must regard, while Missouri continues in the Union, as foreign States, and those States endeavoring, as he says, to promote the interest of our State. "The mode of promoting our interests is disclosed in another passage of the address, in which he gives the people assurance that the people of the Confederate States, though engaged in a war with a powerful foe, would not hesitate still further to tax their energies and resources at the proper time and on a proper occasion in aid of Missouri. The mode of promoting our interests, then, was by obtaining military aid, and this while Missouri continued in the Union. The result of the joint action of the first and second executive officers of the State has been that a body of the military forces of Arkansas has actually invaded Missouri, to carry out the schemes of our own officer, who ought to have conformed to your will, as you had made it known at elections, and had expressed it by your delegates in Convention. Address to the People. organization of a military force, which was to be sustained by extraordinary taxation, and to be absolutely subject to the orders of the Governor, to act against all opposers, including the United States. By these acts schools are closed, and the demands of humanity for the support of lunatics are denied, that the money raised for the purpose of education and benevolence may swell the fund to be expended in war. "Without referring more particularly to the provisions of these several acts, which are most extraor dinary and extremely dangerous as precedents, it is sufficient to say that they display the same purpose to engage in a conflict with the General Government and to break the connection of Missouri with the United States, which had before been manifested by Governor Jackson. The conduct of these officers of the Legislative and Executive Departments has produced evil and dangers of vast magnitude, and your delegates in Convention have addressed themselves to the important and delicate duty of attempting to free the State from these evils. "The high executive officers have fled from the State, leaving us without the officers to discharge the ordinary necessary executive functions. But, more than this, they are actually engaged in carrying on a war within the State, supported by troops from States in the Southern Confederacy, so that the State, while earnestly desirous to keep out of the war, has become the scene of conflict without any action of the people assuming such hostility. Any remedy for our present evil, to be adequate, must be one which shall vacate the offices held by the officers who have thus brought our troubles upon us." This is a dark record for the honesty and “Still further to execute the purpose of severing good faith of those in authority, during April the connection of Missouri with the United States, the General Assembly was called, and when assembled sat in secret session and enacted laws which had for their object the placing in the hands of the Governor large sums of money, to be expended in his discretion for military purposes, and a law for the and May; but is it not in perfect keeping with the dishonor and treachery successfully practiced upon the people of Virginia, Tennessee, North Carolina, Texas, and Arkansas by a few base spirits? CHAPTER V. THE LAST STRUGGLE IN THE SOUTH AGAINST SECESSION. TEN NESSEE'S VOTE, JUNE 8TH. THE GREENVILLE CONVENTION. THE ADDRESS, PRO ITS UNCOMPROMISING UNION ACTION. The Vote of June 8th. The vote of June 8th. TENNESSEE, though press- [ a Union Union sentiment; in ed into the Southern Con- Middle Tennessee it subfederacy by the hand of treason and the bay-jected the person to such persecutions as onets of the insurrectionists, still struggled few cared to challenge; in East Tennessee for a hearing. The vote of June 8th, as pro- the loyal sentiment was so immensely in the claimed by Governor Harris in his proclama- ascendant, through the labors of such men as tion of June 24th, was: Andrew Johnson, Judge Nelson, Parson No Separation. Brownlow, Emerson Etheridge, Horace Maynard, and their fellow-laborers, that the vote polled on the 8th, was over eighteen thousand majority against separation.* Finding themselves powerless before the tyranny East Tennessee, Separation. 32,923 ETT West Military Camps, 29,127 104,913 8,198 47,238 The Union Convention at Greenville. Giving a majority for "separation" of fifty-inaugurated, the Unionists seven thousand six hundred and seventy-five. How this vote was obtained we are well informed. The election in February had resulted in a majority of about sixty thousand [see page 24] against calling a Convention to consider an ordinance of secession-showing the Union sentiment to overwhelmingly predominate. Without any further action whatever, with no indication from the people of a change of sentiment, the loyal voters of the State were astounded, on the morning of May 8th, to learn that, on the 6th, their Commonwealth had been transferred to the keeping of the guns of Davis, but that they (the voters) were to be permitted the unusual privilege of voting upon the Ordinance of Secession--which was proclaimed on the morning number were rebel troops, having no authority under the thousand and seven hundred votes. One half of that of said May 8th [see pages 152, 153]. That Constitution to vote at any election. For No Separation vote having been ordered for June 8th, time was thus allowed for the State to pass under Confederate military rule. When that day came it was equivalent to immediate military arrest in West Tennessee for a man to express of East Tennessee resolved, as a last resort, to hold a Convention at Greenville, to consult as to the best course to pursue. This Convention met June 17th. The attendance was very large-thirty-one counties having delegates present on the first day. Judge Nelson presided. After a four days' session it adopted a Declaration of Grievances and Resolutions which, emanating from a body composed of enlightened and substantial Southern men, deserve particular consideration. Occupying a position in the physical centre *Brownlow, in his " Experiences among the "For Separation and RepresentaRebels," says : tion at Richmond, East Tennessee gave fourteen and No Representation, East Tennessee gave thirtythree thousand straight-out Union votes, with at least five thousand quiet citizens deterred from coming out by threats of violence and by the presence of drunken troops at the polls to insult them.” Declaration of Griev ances. of the Union's area; originally settled almost | provision is made by law for for contesting the election. For these and other expressive of the will of a majority of the freemen of Tennessee. * * The Union men of East Tennessee, Declaration of Griev ances. We, the people of East Tennessee, again assembled in a Convention of our delegates, make the following declaration in addition to that heretofore promulgated by us at Knoxville, on the 30th and 31st days of May last: So far as we can learn, the election held in this State on the 8th day of the present month was free, with but few exceptions, in no part of the State, other than in East Tennessee. In the larger parts of Middle and West Tennessee no speeches or discussions in favor of the Union were permitted. Union papers were not allowed to circulate. Measures were taken in some anxious to be neutral in the contest, were content to enjoy their own opinions and to allow the utmost latitude of opinion and action to those who differed from them. Had the same toleration prevailed in other parts of the State, we have no doubt that a majority of our people would have voted to remain in the Union. But, if this view is erroneous, we have the same-and, as we think, a much betterright to remain in the Government of the United States than the other divisions of Tennessee have to secede from it." Thus far in regard to the character of that "election"—the second instance, in all the Seceded States, in which an Ordinance of Secession was submitted to the people for their acceptance or rejection !* The Declaration then proceeds to give the Convention's views of National obligations and relations, and to express its parts of West Tennessee, in defiance of the Consti- opinion of the secession movement. We may tution and laws, which allow folded tickets, to have * quote: "We prefer to remain attached to the Govern ment of our fathers. The Constitution of the United States has done us no wrong. The Congress of the United States has passed no law to oppress us. The President of the United States has made no threat against the law-abiding people of Tennessee. Under the Government of the United States we have enjoy. ed, as a nation, more of civil and religious freedom than any other people under the whole heaven. We believe there is no cause for rebellion or secession on the part of the people of Tennessee. None was assigned by the Legislature in their miscalled Declaration of Independence. No adequate cause can be assigned. The Select Committee of that body asserted a gross and inexcusable falsehood in their address to the people of Tennessee when they declared that the Government of the United States has made war upon them. "The secession cause has thus far been sustained in the different counties had been published, and by deception and falsehood: by falsehood as to the action of Congress; by false dispatches as to battles before it was possible to ascertain the result, it was exultingly proclaimed that separation had been carried by from fifty to seventy thousand votes. This was to prepare the public mind to enable the Secessionists to hold possession of the State though they should be in a minority.' The final result is to be announced by a disunion Governor, whose existence depends upon the success of secession, and no * The Virginia vote of May 23d, 1861, was taken under like circumstances; the hordes of the Confederacy being everywhere in Eastern Virginia, to prick with the bayonet any man presumptuous enough to entertain Union sentiments. We do not name the vote allowed in Texas: it was a mockery too base to be called a vote. that were never fought and victories that were never won; by false accounts as to the purposes of the President; by false representations as to the views of Union men, and by false pretenses as to the facility with which the secession troops would take possession of the Capital and capture the highest officers of the Government. The cause of secession or rebellion has no charms for us, and its progress has been marked by the most alarming and dangerous attacks upon the public liberty. In other States, as well as our own, its whole course threatens to annihilate the last vestige of freedom. While peace and prosperity have blessed us in the Government of the United States, the following may be enumerated as some of the fruits of secession : Declaration of Grievances. "It was urged forward by members of Congress who were sworn to support the Constitution of the United States, and were themselves supported by the Government. "It was effected without consultation with all the States interested in the slavery question, and without exhausting peaceable remedies. "It has plunged the country into civil war, paralyzed our commerce, interfered with the whole trade and business of our country, lessened the value of our property, destroyed many of the pursuits of life, and bids fair to involve the whole nation in irretrievable bankruptcy and ruin. "It has changed the entire relations of States, and adopted Constitutions without submitting them to a vote of the people, and where such a vote has been authorized, it has been upon the condition prescribed by Senator Mason, of Virginia, that those who voted the Union ticket' must leave the State.' "It has advocated a constitutional monarchy, a king and a dictator, and is, through the Richmond press, at this moment recommending to the Convention in Virginia a restriction of the right of suffrage, and 'in severing connection with the Yankees, to abolish every vestige of resemblance to the institutions of that detested race.' “It has formed military leagues, passed military bills, and opened the door for oppressive taxation, without consulting the people; and then, in mockery of a free election, has required them by their votes to sanction its usurpations, under the penalties of moral proscription or at the point of the bayonet. "It has offered a premium for crime in directing the discharge of volunteers from criminal prosecutions, and in recommending the Judges not to hold their courts. "It has stained our statute book with the repudiation of Northern debts, and has greatly violated the Constitution by attempting, through its unlawful extension, to destroy the right of suffrage. 297 Declaration of Griev ances. "It has called upon the people in the State of Georgia, and may soon require the people of Tennessee, to contribute all their surplus cotton, wheat, corn, bacon, beef, &c., to the support of pretended governments alike destitute of money and credit. It has attempted to destroy the accountability of public servants to the people by secret legislation, and set the obligation of an oath at defiance. "It has passed laws declaring it treason to say or do anything in favor of the Government of the United States, or against the Confederate States, and such a law is now before, and we apprehend will soon be passed by, the Legislature of Tennessee. "It has attempted to destroy, and we fear will soon utterly prostrate the freedom of speech and of the press. "It has involved the Southern States in a war whose success is hopeless, and which must ultimately lead to the ruin of the people. "Its bigoted, overbearing and intolerant spirit has already subjected the people of East Tennessee to many petty grievances: our people have been insulted; our flags have been fired upon and torn down; our houses have been rudely entered; our families subjected to insult; our peaceable meetings interrupted; our women and children shot at by a merciless soldiery; our towns pillaged; our citizens robbed, and some of them assassinated and murdered. 'No effort has been spared to deter the Union men of East Tennessee from the expression of their free thoughts. The penalties of treason have been threatened against them, and murder and assassination have been openly encouraged by leading secession journals. "As secession has been thus overbearing and intolerant while in the minority in East Tennessee, nothing better can be expected of the pretended majority than wild, unconstitutional and oppressive legislation; an utter contempt and disregard of law; a determination to force every Union man in the State to swear to the support of a Constitution he abhors; to yield his money and property to aid a cause he detests, and to become the object of scorn and derision as well as the victim of intolerable and relentless oppression." In view of these considerations, and of the fact that the people of East Tennessee had declared their fidelity to the Union by a majority of nearly twenty thousand votes, the Convention resolved and declared their wishes and purposes as follows: "1. That we do earnestly desire the restoration of peace to our whole country, and most especially |