PROCEEDINGS IN FLORIDA AND LOUISIANA.

61

"domestic peace and future prosperity" of the State depended upon "secession from their faithless and perjured confederates." He alluded to the argument of some, that no action should be taken until they knew whether the policy of the new Administration would be hostile to their interests or not; and, with the gravity of the most earnest disciple of Calhoun, he flippantly said:"My countrymen, if we wait for an overt act of the Federal Government, our fate will be that of the white inhabitants of St. Domingo. Why wait?" he asked. "What is this Government? It is but the trustee, the common agent of all the States, appointed by them to manage their affairs, according to a written constitution, or power of attorney. Should the Sovereign States then-the principal and the partners in the association --for a moment tolerate the idea that their action must be graduated by the will of their agent? The idea is preposterous." This was but another mode of expressing the doctrine of State Supremacy.

Louisiana was rather slow to move in the direction of treason. Her worst enemy, John Slidell, then misrepresenting her in the Senate of the United States, had been engaged for years in corrupting the patriotism of her sons, and had been aided in his task by Judah P. Benjamin, a Hebrew unworthy of his race, and others of less note. Slidell was universally detested by right-minded men for his political dishonesty,' his unholy ambition, his lust for aristocratic rank and power, and his enmity to republican institutions. He had tried in vain, during the summer and autumn of 1860, to engage many of the leading men in Louisiana in treasonable schemes. With others, such as Thomas O. Moore (the Governor of the State), and a few men in authority, he was more successful. Among the leading newspapers of the State, the New Orleans Delta was the only open advocate of hostility and resistance to the National Government, after the Presidential election.

Governer Moore called an extraordinary session of the Legislature, to meet at Baton Rouge on the 10th of December, giving as a reason the election of Mr. Lincoln by a party hostile to "the people and institutions of the South." In his message he said, he did not think it comported " with the honor and self-respect of Louisiana, as a Slaveholding State, to live under the government of a Black Republican President," although he did not dispute the fact that he had been elected by due form of law. "The question," he said, "rises high above ordinary political considerations. It involves our present honor, and our future existence as a free and independent people." He asserted the right of a State to secede; and hoped that, if any attempt should be made by the National authority "to coerce a Sovereign State, and compel her to submission to an authority she had ceased to recognize,” Louisiana would "assist her sister States with the same alacrity and courage that the Colonies assisted each other in their struggle against the despotism of the Old

1 A single incident in the political career of Slidell illustrates not only the dishonesty of his character, but the facilities which are frequently offered for politicians to cheat the people. Slidell had resolved to become a member of Congress. He was rich, but was, personally, too unpopular to expect votes enough to elect him. He resorted to fraud. None but freeholders might vote in Louisiana. Slidell bought, at Government price (one dollar and twenty-five cents an acre), one hundred and eighty-eight acres of land, and deeded it, in small parcels, to four thousand eight hundred and eight of the most degraded population of New Orleans. They went to his district (Plaquemine), where their land lay, and, in a body, gave him their votes for Congress, and elected him! That was in 1842.

62

PROCEEDINGS IN TEXAS AND NORTH CAROLINA.

World. If I am not mistaken in public opinion," he said, "the Convention, if assembled, will decide that Louisiana will not submit to the Presidency of Mr. Lincoln." The Legislature passed an act providing for a State Convention, to assemble on the 22d of January; and another, appropriating five hundred thousand dollars for military purposes. They listened to a commissioner from Mississippi (Wirt Adams), but refused to authorize the Governor to appoint like agents to visit the Slave-labor States. They gave him. authority to correspond with the governors of those States upon the great topic of the day, and adjourned on the 13th, to meet again on

• 1861. the 23d of January.“

Texas, under the leadership of its venerable Governor, Samuel Houston, and the influence of a strong Union feeling, held back, when invited by conspirators to plunge into secession. So did Arkansas, Missouri, Kentucky, Tennessee, Virginia, Maryland, and Delaware, all Slave-labor States. The Governor of Tennessee, Isham G. Harris, who was a traitor at heart, and had corresponded extensively with the disunionists of the Cotton-growing States, made great but unsuccessful exertions to link the fortunes of his State with those of South Carolina in the secession movement.

North Carolina took early but cautious action. The most open and influential secessionists in that State were Thomas L. Clingman, then a member of the United States Senate, and John W. Ellis, the Governor of the Commonwealth. They made great efforts to arouse the people of the State to revolt, but failed. The Union sentiment, and the respect for law and the principles of republican government were so deeply implanted in the nature and the habits of the people, that they could not be easily seduced from their allegiance to the National Government. The Legislature met on the 19th of November. An act was passed providing for a Convention, but directing that "no ordinance of said Convention, dissolving the connection of the State of North Carolina with the Federal Government, or connecting it with any other, shall have any force or validity until it shall have been submitted to and ratified by a majority of the qualified voters of the State for members of the General Assembly, to whom it shall be submitted for their approval or rejection;" and that it should be "advertised for at least thirty days in the newspapers of the State, before the people should be called upon to vote on the same."

Such is a brief outline of the preparations for the marshaling of the cohorts of rebellion in the Slave-labor States; for a vigorous assault, not only upon the Republic, but upon the advancing civilization of the age, and the rights of man-upon the cherished institutions of good and free government inherited from the patriots of the old War for Independence, and the hopes of aspirants for freedom throughout the world.

It is evident, in even this shadowy picture, which reveals similarity of expressions and actions in the movements of the opponents of the Government in widely separated portions of the Slave-labor States, that there had been long and thorough preparation for the revolt. This will become more manifest as we proceed in our inquiry; and when, at the close of this work, we shall consider the history of political parties at the beginning of our national career, and the gradual development of radical differences of social and political opinions in sections of the Republic remote from each other, we

LONG PREPARATIONS FOR REVOLT.

63

shall perceive that rebellion and civil war were logical results of the increasing activity of potential antagonisms, controlled and energized by selfish men for selfish purposes.'

1The contemplation of disunion, as an emollient for irritated State pride, had been a habit of thought in Virginia and the more Southern Slave-labor States from the beginning of the Government. Whenever the imperious will of a certain class of politicians in those States was offended by a public policy opposed to its wishes, they were in the habit of speaking of the dissolution of the Union as their remedy for the provocation. They threatened to dissolve the Union in 1795, if Jay's Treaty with Great Britain should be ratified by the United States Senate; and the famous Kentucky and Virginia Resolutions of 1798, in which the doctrine of State Supremacy was broadly inculcated, familiarized the popular mind with the idea that the National Government was only the agent of the States, and might be dismissed by them at any time.

The more concrete and perfect form of these sentiments, embodied in deliberate intentions, was exhibited by John C. Calhoun, as we have observed (note 2, page 41), in 1812. Disloyalty was strongly manifested during the discussions of the Slavery question before the adoption of the Missouri Compromise, in 1820. After the Tariff Act, so obnoxious to the Cotton-growers, became a law, in 1828, the dissolution of the Union was loudly talked of by the politicians of the Calhoun school. "The memorable scenes of our Revolution have again to be acted over," said the Milledgeville (Georgia) Journal; and the citizens of St. John's Parish, in South Carolina, said, in Convention:-"We have sworn that Congress shall, at our demand, repeal the tariff. If she does not, our State Legislature will dissolve our connection with the Union, and we will take our stand among the nations; and it behooves every true Carolinian to stand by his arms,' and to keep the halls of our Legislature pure from foreign intruders."

When, in the autumn of 1832, the famous Nullification Ordinance was passed by the South Carolina Convention, so certain were the mad politicians that composed it of positive success, that they caused a medal to be struck with this inscription:-"JOHN C. CALHOUN, FIRST PRESIDENT OF THE SOUTHERN CONFEDERACY!" Their wicked scheme failed, and Calhoun and his followers went deliberately at work to excite the bitterest sectional strife, by the publication, in the name of Duff Green, as editor and proprietor, of the United States Telegraph, at Washington City. At about the same time (1836), a novel was written by Beverly Tucker, of Virginia, called The Partisan Leader, in which the doctrine of State Supremacy and the most insidious sectionalism were inculcated in the seductive form of a tale, calculated, as it was intended, to corrupt the patriotism of the Southern people, and prepare them for revolution. This was printed by Duff Green, the manager of Calhoun's organ, and widely circulated in the South.

Finally, "Southern Rights Associations" were formed, having for their object the dissolution of the Union. Concerning this movement, Muscoe R. H. Garnett, who was a Member of Congress from Virginia when the late civil war broke out, wrote to Wm. H. Trescot (afterward Assistant Secretary of State under Mr. Buchanan), in May, 1851, when great preparations were made by the oligarchy for a revolt, saying:-"I would be especially glad to be in Charleston next week, and witness 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 at the head of the South, to whom alone true-hearted men can look with any hope or pleasure. Momentous are the consequences which depend upon your action." Garnett mourned over the action of Virginia, in hesitating to go with the revolution. "I do not believe," he said, "that the course of the Legishature is a fair expression of the popular feeling. In the east, at least, the great majority believe in the right of secession, and feel the deepest sympathy with Carolina in opposition to measures which they regard as she does. But the west-Western Virginia-here is the rub! Only sixty thousand slaves to four hundred and ninety-four thousand whites! When I consider this fact, and the kind of argument which we have heard in this body, I cannot but regard with the greatest fear the question, whether Virginia would assist Carolina in sneh an issue. I must acknowledge, my dear Sir, that I look to the future with almost as much apprehension as hope. You will 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 we look back, what change will you find made in any of our State Constitutions, or in our legislation, in its general course, for the last fifty years, which was not in the direction of 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 have we to hope for 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."

See pages 92 and 93 of this volume.

СНАРТER III.

ASSEMBLING OF CONGRESS.-THE PRESIDENT'S MESSAGE

HILST the Cotton-growing States were in a blaze of excitement, and the Slave-labor States north of them were surg

Wing, and almost insurgent, with conflicting opinions and

perplexing doubts and fears, and the Free-labor States were looking on in amazement at the madness of their colleagues, who were preparing to resist the power of the Constitution and laws of the land, the Thirty-Sixth Congress assembled at Washington City. It began its second and last session at the Capitol, on Monday, the 3d of December, 1860. It was on a bright and beautiful morning; and as the eye looked out from the western front of the Capitol upon the city below, the winding Potomac and the misty hights of Arlington beyond, it beheld a picture of repose, strongly contrasting with the spirits of men then assembling in the halls of Congress.

Never, since the birth of the Nation-more than seventy years beforehad the people looked with more solemn interest upon the assembling of the National Legislature than at this time. The hoarse cry of Disunion, which had so often been used in and out of Congress by the representatives of the Slave interest, as a bugbear to frighten men of the Free-labor States into compliance with their demands, now had deep significance. Its tone was terribly earnest and defiant, and action was everywhere seen in support of words. It was evident that a crisis in the history of the Republic was present, with demands for forbearance, patience, wisdom, and sound states

manship, in an eminent degree, to save the nation from dreadful calamities, if not from absolute ruin. Therefore with the deepest anxiety the people, in all parts of the Republic, listened to hear the voice of the President in his Annual Message to Congress, which, it was supposed, would indicate, with clearness and precision, the line of policy which the Government intended to pursue.

Both Houses of Congress convened at noon on the 3d of December. The Senate, with Mr. Breckinridge, the Vice-President, in the chair, was opened by a prayer by the Rev. P. D. Gurley, D. D., the Chaplain of that House, who fervently prayed that all the rulers and the people might be delivered from "erroneous judgments, from misleading influences, and from the sway of evil passions." The House of Representa

JOHN C. BRECKINRIDGE.

THE PRESIDENT'S MESSAGE.

65

tives, with William Pennington, the Speaker, in the chair, was opened with prayer by its Chaplain, the Rev. Thomas H. Stockton, who fervently thanked God for the "blessings we have enjoyed within this Union-natural blessings, civil blessings, spiritual blessings, social blessings, all kinds of blessings-such blessings as were never enjoyed by any other people since the world began."

Committees were appointed by each House to inform the President of its organization, and readiness to receive any communication from him. These reported that he would send in to them a written message at noon on Tuesday. At the appointed hour, the President's private Secretary, A. J. Glossbrenner, appeared below the bar of the Senate, and announced that he was there by direction of the Chief Magistrate, "to deliver to the Senate a message in writing." The House of Representatives also received it. It was read to both Houses, and then its parts were referred to appropriate committees, in the usual manner.

The telegraph carried the President's Message quickly to every part of the land. The people sat down to read it with eagerness, and arose from its perusal with brows saddened with the gravest disappointment. This feeling was universal. The Message was full of evidences of faint-heartedness and indecision in points where courage and positive convictions should have been apparent in its treatment of the great topic then filling all hearts and minds, and bore painful indications that its author was involved in some perilous dilemma into which he had fallen, and was anxiously seeking a way of escape. The method chosen was most unwise and unfortunate. It recoiled fearfully upon the public character of the venerable President; and, in the estimation of thoughtful men, a reputation gained by many important and useful public services, during a

long and active life, was laid in ruins.

In the second paragraph of his Message, the President began the consideration of the troubles which then beset the nation. After recounting some of the blessings then enjoyed by the people, he asked, "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 ?" He answered his own question, by alleging, in contradiction of the solemn. assurances of leaders in the rising revolt to the contrary, that "the longcontinued and intemperate interference of the Northern people with the question of Slavery in the Southern States " had produced these estrangements and

JAMES BUCHANAN.

1 During the administrations of George Washington and John Adams, the message or speech of the President, at the opening of each session of Congress, was read to them by the Chief Magistrate in person. Mr. Jefferson abandoned this practice when he came into office, because it seemed to be a too near imitation of the practice of the monarchs of England in thus opening the sessions of Parliament in person.

2 Senator Hammond, of South Carolina, and others, publicly declared, long before the rebellion broke out, that the discussion of the subject of Slavery at the North had been very useful. After speaking of the great

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