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slavery, subordination to the superior race, is his natural and normal condition. [Applause.] This, our new Government, is the first in the history of the world based upon this great physical, philosophical, and moral truth. This truth has been slow in the process of its development, like all other truths in the various departments of science. It is so, even among us. Many who hear me, perhaps, can recollect well that this truth was not generally admitted, even within their day. The errors of the past generation still clung to many, so late as twenty years ago. Those at the North who still cling to these errors with a zeal above knowledge we justly denominate fanatics. All fanaticism springs from an aberration of the mind; from a defect in reasoning. It is a species of insanity. One of the most striking characteristics of insanity, in many instances, is forming correct conclusions from fancied or erroneous premises; so with the anti-slavery fanatics: their conclusions are right if their premises are. They assume that the negro is equal, and hence conclude that he is entitled to equal privileges and rights with the white man. If their premises were correct, their conclusions would be logical and just; but, their premises being wrong, their whole argument fails.

"In the conflict thus far, success has been on our side complete, throughout the length and breadth of the Confederate States. It is upon this, as I have stated, our social fabric is firmly planted; and I cannot permit myself to doubt the ultimate sucess of a full recognition of this principle throughout the civilized and enlightened world.

"Ours is the first Government ever instituted upon principles in strict conformity with nature, and the ordination of Providence, in furnishing the materials of human society. Many governments have been founded upon the principle of enslaving certain classes; but the classes thus enslaved were of the same race, and their enslavement in violation of the laws of nature. Our system commits no such violation of nature's laws. The negro, by nature, or by the curse against Canaan, is fitted for that condition which he occupies in our system. The architect, in the construction of buildings, lays the foundation with the proper material-the granite-then comes the brick or the marble. The substratum of our society is made of the material fitted by nature for it; and by experience we know that it is the best, not only for the superior, but for the inferior race, that it should be so. It is, indeed, in conformity with the Creator. It is not for us to inquire into the wisdom of His ordinances, or to question them. For His own purposes, He has made one

race to differ from another, as He has made 'one star to differ from another in glory.'

"The great objects of humanity are best attained when conformed to His laws and decrees, in the formation of governments as well as in all things else. Our Confederacy is founded upon principles in strict conformity with these laws. This stone, which was rejected by the first builders, 'is become the chief stone of the corner' in our new edifice. [Applause.]

"I have been asked, What of the future? It has been apprehended by some that we would have arrayed against us the civilized world. I care not who or how many they may be; when we stand upon the eternal principles of truth, we are obliged to and must triumph.' [Immense applause.]

With regard to future accessions to the Confederacy, Mr. Stephens said:

"Our growth by accessions from other States will depend greatly upon whether we present to the world, as I trust we shall, a better government than that to which they belong. If we do this, North Carolina, Tennessee, and Arkansas cannot hesitate long; neither can Virginia, Kentucky, and Missouri. They will necessarily gravitate to us by an imperious law. We made ample provision in our Constitution for the admission of other States. It is more guarded-and wisely so, I think-that the old Constitution on the same subject; but not too guarded to receive them so fast as it may be proper. Looking to the distant future and perhaps not very distant either-it is not beyond the range of possibility, and even probability, that all the great States of the Northwest shall gravitate this way, as well as Tennessee, Kentucky, Missouri, Arkansas, etc. Should they do so, our doors are wide enough to receive them; but not until they are ready to assimilate with us in principle.

"The process of disintegration in the old Union may be expected to go on with almost absolute certainty. We are now the nucleus of a growing power, which, if we are true to ourselves, our destiny, and our high mission, will become the controlling power on this continent. To what extent accessions will go on, in the process of time, or where they will end, the future will determine. So far as it concerns States of the old Union, they will be upon no such principle of reconstruction as is now spoken of, but upon reorganization and new assimilation." [Loud applause.]

CHAPTER X

COERCION OF SECEDED STATES: CONSTITUTIONAL OR UNCONSTITUTIONAL?

The President Secures a Legal Opinion on the Crisis from Attorney-General Jeremiah S. Black-Black Reports That "Coercion Is Unconstitutional'' -Last Annual Message of President Buchanan: "Secession Is Revolution"-Debate in the Senate on the Threatened Secession of South Carolina: Thomas L. Clingman [N. C.], John J. Crittenden [Ky.], Joseph Lane [Ore.], John P. Hale [N. H.], Albert G. Brown [Miss.], Alfred Iverson [Ga.], Louis T. Wigfall [Tex.], Willard Saulsbury [Del.]— London Times on the President's Message-Speech of Senator Stephen A. Douglas [Ill.] on "Federal Property Interest in the Seceded States.''

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N November 17, 1860, President Buchanan, who was preparing his last annual message to Congress, asked his Attorney-General, Jeremiah S. Black, for an opinion upon the legal status of the situation. Mr. Black returned the following report:

COERCION UNCONSTITUTIONAL

OPINION ON SECESSION BY ATTORNEY-GENERAL BLACK

Mr. Black gave it as his opinion that, where owing to resignations there were no Federal judges in a State to issue judicial process, nor officers to execute it, the use of Federal troops would be illegal, since these were intended to aid the courts and marshals, not to replace them. He, therefore, concluded:

"If it be true that war cannot be declared, nor a system of general hostilities carried on, by the central Government against a State, then it seems to follow that an attempt to do so would be ipso facto an expulsion of such State from the Union. Being treated as an alien and an enemy, she would be compelled to act accordingly. And, if Congress shall break up the present Union by unconstitutionally putting strife, and enmity, and armed

hostility between different sections of the country, instead of the "domestic tranquillity" which the Constitution was meant to insure, will not all the States be absolved from their Federal obligations? Is any portion of the people bound to contribute their money or their blood to carry on a contest like that?

"The right of the general Government to preserve itself in its whole constitutional vigor, by repelling a direct and positive aggression upon its property or its officers, cannot be denied. But this is a totally different thing from an offensive war to punish the people for the political misdeeds of State governments, or to prevent a threatened violation of the Constitution, or to enforce an acknowledgment that the Government of the United States is supreme. The States are colleagues of one another; and, if some of them should conquer the rest and hold them as subjugated provinces, it would totally destroy the whole theory upon which they are now connected.

"If this view of the subject be as correct as I think it is, then the Union must utterly perish at the moment when Congress shall arm one part of the people against another, for any purpose beyond that of merely protecting the general Government in the exercise of its proper constitutional functions."

The President also sought the advice of Senator Jefferson Davis [Miss.] in preparing his message. According to Davis' testimony (in his "Rise and Fall of the Confederate Government"-Vol. I, p. 59) Buchanan read to him the rough draft of the document, and accepted all the modifications which he suggested. "The message," continues Davis, "was, however, somewhat changed, and, with great deference to the wisdom and statesmanship of the author, I must say that, in my judgment, the last alterations were unfortunate."

Congress assembled on December 3, 1860, the Senators from South Carolina being absent. The last annual message of President Buchanan began with a discussion of the great crisis before the country, which followed the argument of the Attorney-General.

SECESSION IS REVOLUTION

LAST ANNUAL MESSAGE OF PRESIDENT BUCHANAN

Throughout the year since our last meeting, the country has been eminently prosperous in all its material interests. The

general health has been excellent, our harvests have been abundant, and plenty smiles throughout the land. Our commerce and manufactures have been prosecuted with energy and industry, and have yielded fair and ample returns. In short, no nation in the tide of time has ever presented a spectacle of greater material prosperity than we have done until within a very recent period.

Why is it, then, that discontent now so extensively prevails, and the Union of the States, which is the source of all these blessings, is threatened with destruction? The long-continued and intemperate interference of the Northern people with the question of slavery in the Southern States has at length produced its natural effects. The different sections of the Union are now arrayed against each other, and the time has arrived, so much dreaded by the Father of his Country, when hostile geographical parties have been formed. I have long foreseen and often forewarned my countrymen of the now impending danger. This does not proceed solely from the claim on the part of Congress or the territorial legislatures to exclude slavery from the Territories, or from the efforts of different States to defeat the execution of the Fugitive Slave Law. All or any of these evils might have been endured by the South without danger to the Union-as others have been-in the hope that time and reflection might apply the remedy. The immediate peril arises, not so much from these causes, as from the fact that the incessant and violent agitation of the slavery question throughout the North for the last quarter of a century has at length produced its malign influence on the slaves, and inspired them with vague notions of freedom. Hence a sense of security no longer exists around the family altar. This feeling of peace at home has given place to apprehensions of servile insurrection. Many a matron throughout the South retires at night in dread of what may befall herself and her children before the morning. Should this apprehension of domestic danger, whether real or imaginary, extend and intensify itself until it shall pervade the masses of the Southern people, then disunion will become inevitable. Selfpreservation is the first law of nature, and has been implanted in the heart of man by his Creator for the wisest purpose; and no political union, however fraught with blessings and benefits in all other respects, can long continue, if the necessary consequence be to render the homes and firesides of nearly half the parties to it habitually and hopelessly insecure. Sooner or later the bonds of such a union must be severed. It is my conviction that this fatal period has not yet arrived; and my prayer to God

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