CHAPTER XVII.

Election of Lincoln-Reception of the News-Mass Meeting at Montgomery-Yancey Declares for SecessionThe People Taught that Secession will be PeaceableCo-operationists and Secessionists - The Crittenden Compromise-Its Rejection and Defeat.

"Wayward sisters, depart injpeace!”—[Gen. Winfield Scott.

"I have good reason to believe that the action of any State will be peaceable-will not be resisted-under the present or any probable prospective condition of Federal affairs."-[W. L. Yancey.

"Were the plan of the Convention adverse to the public happiness, my voice would be, REJECT THE PLAN. Were the Union itself inconsistent with the public happiness, it would be, ABOLISH THE UNION."-[Madison in the Federalist, No. XIV.

On the night of the eventful 6th of November, 1860, as the telegraph carried to every nook and corner of the Union the news of the election, the people of Montgomery thronged the streets and the newspaper offices to a late hour to learn the result. All depended upon New York; it was past midnight before definite returns could be received from that vast State. At last the result was announced. The administration of the United States had been consigned to the Free Soil party, the restrictionists of slavery. Mr. WATTS had already broken the Whig line by announcing, towards the close of the canvass, that in the event of LINCOLN'S election he should advise and advocate secession. He had been educated at the University of Virginia in the school of constitutional law presided over by Davis,

afterwards by HOLCOMBE, and had steadfastly recognized the right of secession. As it was a right, so he believed that now it was the duty of Alabama to secede. The excited citizens who had been watching the returns asked, "Mr. WATTS, what will you do now?" His reply was, "Gentlemen, we ought not to stand it." CLANTON, whose views were moulded in a different school, walked the streets to a late hour, appealing to his party friends not to commit themselves-to wait for the cool second thought; but by noon of the next day so rapid appeared to be the defections from the Union ranks among the people of Montgomery and the adjacent country, and so unmistakable was their intention to vindicate the declaration of their General Assembly, that men of all parties at the Capital, with but a few exceptions, pronounced for instant and separate secession. (?)

It was the policy of those who advocated secession to strike while the iron was hot, to arouse the people to fury immediately upon the heels of the election, and to persuade them that immediate action while many friends of the South were still influential and powerful at Washington, would so concentrate and consolidate the strength and resources of seceding States as to render the movement entirely peaceable. On the morning of the 8th, while passions were still inflamed, the leading journal at Montgomery, in the confidence of Mr. YANCEY, published a leader entitled, " AND Now." It said: "Organize! We can now enforce a peaceable "secession. The time may come, will come, must 66 come, if you delay when you can gain your freedom, "if at all, only as the colonies gained it when they separated; only as our forefathers gained it when

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they fought the battle of disunion, through toil and "bloodshed, through carnage and desolation." The burden of the cry from all quarters was-make haste and all can be done completely and peaceably; delay, and the enemy seeing you unprepared to prevent the coercion of South Carolina, will force you to battle and perhaps desolation! Between the two alternatives as here presented, there was but little hesitation in the cities and towns where the question was most thoroughly discussed.

In the midst of the highest excitement and popular indignation a mass meeting was called at ESTELLE HALL. At the request of TENNENT LOMAX, His Excellency Gov. A. B. OORE took his stand upon the platform and addressed the vast audience amid tumultuous and long continued applause. The Governor said he saw no course left but to secede from the Union, resume sovereignty, and form a Southern Confederacy. He had no discretion with regard to calling the Convention-this he was forced to do by the resolutions of the Legislature, but if he had, he should most assuredly call it, for he felt that honor, liberty, and property were not safe under the rule of Abolitionism. The Governor took his seat after a short address, and was succeeded by Judge S. F. RICE.

Judge RICE said that he did not appear for the purpose of making a speech, but to introduce a resolution, which he read, as follows:

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"Resolved, That the authority and control of the "Northern sectional Abolition party, calling itself Republican, which has lately elected Abraham Lincoln "to the Presidency, over the institutions, rights, and "liberties of the people of Alabama, or any other slave

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holding State of the South, would be ruinous; that "such ruinous authority and control is not to be sub"mitted to, but can only be effectively resisted by "separate State action; that we are in favor of such separate State action, and without any further delay "than may be necessary, by the most prompt available means, to procure a free and fraternal consultation among the peoples and authorities of the respective slaveholding States, entered into and conducted under "the patriotic hope that such consultation will result in "the general conclusion on the part of the people of "the slaveholding States, that it is not fit or safe, that they or any of them should be subject to the control "of any government, the destinies of which are in the "hands of said sectional Abolition party."

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Judge EDWARD W. PETTUS, of Cahaba, in obedience to the repeated calls of the audience, took the stand and made a few eloquent remarks in favor of the resolution. He was followed by N. H. R. DAWSON, of Selma, whose earnest and thrilling address made an evident impression upon his hearers. Loud calls were made for Mr. WATTS, who responded in a spirited appeal in behalf of his State and section. When Mr. WATTS had concluded, Judge GOLDTHWAITE was called for, and taking his place on the platform, vindicated the cause of the South and defended the right and policy of secession. His remarks were repeatedly interrupted by outbursts of applause. Mr. YANCEY responded to the enthusiastic demands of the audience, and spoke as YANCEY always spoke. It was his night of triumph. The first resolution ever passed by a public assemblage at the Capital of the State in favor of secession, had just been adopted. He said: