COLLOQUY XIX.

CONSIDERATION OF THE MAIN SUBJECT RESUMED-ACTION OF THE OTHER SECEDING STATES BEFORE THE FALL OF SUMTER REVIEWED THE CONVENTION OF GEORGIA-HER ORDINANCE OF SECESSION-COURSE OF THE UNION MEN OF THE STATE-OTHER ORDINANCES OF THIS CONVENTIONACTION OF OTHER SECEDING STATES SIMILAR-THE CONGRESS OF MONTGOMERY-PROVISIONAL AND PERMANENT CONSTITUTIONS-ELECTION OF PRESIDENT AND VICE PRESIDENT OF THE CONFEDERACY-MR. DAVIS'S INAUGURAL-COMMISSIONERS SENT TO WASHINGTON-CORRESPONDENCE WITH MR. SEWARD-EFFECT OF THE BREACH OF FAITH AS TO SUMTER AND THE INAUGURATION OF THE WAR UPON THE SOUTHERN PEOPLE.

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MR. STEPHENS. Well, gentlemen, if none of you have anything further to say upon these matters which have occupied our attention so long, since our first digression in considering the defence, made by Judge Bynum, for the acknowledged dereliction and breach of faith of several of the non-slaveholding States, we will now again return to the point at which we had then arrived, and proceed in our consideration of the grand drama of the war-that "physical conflict" inaugurated, as we have seen; and which grew out of that "conflict of principles," which we have so fully discussed and are now through with.

This war or terrible "conflict" of physical forces is the greatest of the kind, in many respects, which has disturbed the peace of the world since the Christian era. Its general conduct, in a political and Constitutional view, is the next object of our inquiry. The exciting scenes and stirring events of the battle-fields which marked its progress do not come within the limits of the special

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objects of our investigation. These have been quite graphically described by many writers, but by none, so far as I have seen, with greater ability or more impartiality than by Mr. William Swinton in his two works: the one entitled "The Army of the Potomac ;" and the other, "The Twelve Decisive Battles of the War." It is true, he was attached to the Federal side, and therefore not without bias, but in his general account he has not shown himself to be incapable, as several others have, of doing justice to the merits of an opposing and gallant foe-" to that body of incomparable infantry "_" that array of tattered uniforms and bright muskets," which for four years, under Lee, carried the "revolt," as he terms it, "on its bayonets, opposing a stout front to the mighty concentration of power brought against it; which receiving terrible blows, did not fail to give the like; and which, vital in all its parts, died only with its annihilation!"

I do not intend, by any means, to say that either of his works alluded to, are faultless, or even without some grave errors, which, perhaps, were owing to a want of access to correct information on matters which belonged to the Confederate side; but, I mean simply to state, that upon the whole, I regard these two works from his pen, as the best and most accurate chronicle of the military operations, which he undertook to describe, that I have met with from any quarter.

With these ever so interesting and thrilling scenes, however, it is not our purpose to deal so directly, as with the principles, aims, and motives, which gave impulse to these most wonderful and heroic exploits on both sides while the conflict raged; and then to take a survey of the ultimate results, of the intermediate vicissitudes of victory and defeat, and the final fortunes of this uncertain arbitrament

of arms. In pursuit of these, our main objects, a slight retrospect is necessary to understand clearly the position of both Parties politically as well as physically, or in other words, the principles in the maintenance of which each was enlisted-the organizations under them, and the material resources of each for maintaining their principles at the fall of Fort Sumter. This, I was about to enter upon at our last conversation, when interrupted by the question of Major Heister.

To this point in our investigation of these subjects, we will now return.

After the secession of South Carolina, then, as we have seen, let it be borne in mind, that the other six States, before named, followed, by passing similar Ordinances of Secession. Mississippi, on the 9th of January, 1861; Alabama on the 11th; Florida on the 10th; Georgia on the 19th; Louisiana on the 26th; and Texas on the 1st of February. It is unnecessary to examine all these. One other only, that of Georgia, I call your attention to. An examination of the action of this State on this subject must suffice with the general remark, that the action of the other six States in the premises was of like import in principle and in substance.

The Convention of Georgia had been called by an Act of the Legislature, in the month of November, 1860, soon after the speech made by me before that body, which I have read. The election of delegates took place, on the first Monday in January, 1861. The representation of the counties in this Convention was, by the Act referred to, equal to their Senators and Members of the House, in the Legislature. The election was held in conformity to the laws regulating all public elections in the State as far as applicable. I was chosen as one of the delegates to which this county was entitled. The Convention met at

Milledgeville, the Seat of Government, on the 16th day of January, 1861. The whole number of delegates was three hundred and one.

George W. Crawford, Ex-Governor of the State, and Ex-Secretary of War under General Taylor's Administration, was chosen President of the Convention by acclamation, and Albert R. Lamar, a journalist of considerable repute, was chosen Secretary.

On the 18th of January, Mr. Nisbet, as stated in our last conversation, offered his two resolutions; the first declaring that the State had a right to secede and ought to secede, and the second authorizing the appointment of a committee to report an ordinance to that effect. It was as a substitute for these resolutions that the paper prepared by Mr. Johnson, before alluded to, was offered. A vote on this paper, at that stage of the proceedings, was cut off under the operation of the previous question, and Mr. Nisbet's resolutions were adopted. This Committee, of which he was Chairman, consisted of seventeen.

Mr. Nisbet was himself a gentleman of great distinction in the State. He had been brought up in the Jeffersonian States' Rights' school of politics. He had, however, opposed the doctrine of Mr. Calhoun upon Nullification. He was a member of the Congress of the United States, from 1839 to 1843. He supported the election of Mr. Clay for the Presidency in 1844, with great zeal and abil ity; and was among the most prominent actors in procuring his nomination to that office by the Whig Party, as then constituted in this State. He had occupied for a yumber of years a seat upon the Bench of our Supreme Court, where he had acquired the well-earned reputation of an eminent jurist. He was a warm supporter of the position assumed by Georgia upon the Compromise Measures of 1850. He was afterward a prominent leader in

what was known as the American Party, and gave his support to Mr. Fillmore in 1856. In religion and politics, from the time he entered public life, he had been regarded as the embodiment of Conservatism. For all those virtues and excellencies which constitute what is recognized as real worth in private character, no man was esteemed higher. Such is but a glimpse at the antecedents distinguishing the head and heart of the mover of the Ordinance of Secession in Georgia. On the 19th of January, he, as Chairman of the Committee of Seventeen, reported that measure in these words:

"An Ordinance to dissolve the Union between the State of Georgia and other States united with her under a Compact of Government, entitled 'the Constitution of the United States of America.'

"We, the people of the State of Georgia, in Convention assembled, do declare and ordain, and it is hereby declared and ordained:

"That the Ordinance adopted by the people of the State of Georgia, in Convention, on the second day of January, in the year of our Lord, seventeen hundred and eighty-eight, whereby the Constitution of the United States of America was assented to, ratified and adopted; and also all acts and parts of acts of the General Assembly of this State ratifying and adopting amendments of the said Constitution, are hereby repealed, rescinded and abrogated.

"We do further declare and ordain, That the Union now subsisting between the State of Georgia and other States, under the name of the United States of America,' is hereby dissolved, and that the State of Georgia is in the full possession and exercise of all those rights of Sovereignty which belong and appertain to a Free and Independent State."