1859.]

JOHN BROWN'S EXECUTION.

31

most composure, encouraging them to be firm and to sell their lives as dearly as possible."

When Brown reached the scaffold his bearing was as firm as ever, and he met his death with the same defiant spirit with which he had faced his enemies in the field. Though most people in the North condemned his raid as the act of a fanatic, time and circumstances, and his gallant bearing in the hour of trial, made him a hero; and thus it happened that during the Civil War his name was used to denote devotion to principle, strength of will, and brave and persistent daring, and that the soldiers of the Union accepted for their marching song,

"John Brown's body lies a-mouldering in the grave,
But his soul is marching on."

*

CHAPTER III.

SECESSION.

DIVISION OF THE DEMOCRATIC PARTY.-STEPHEN A. DOUGLAS.-JOHN C. BRECKINRIDGE.-ELECTION OF LINCOLN.-THE NEWS IN SOUTH CAROLINA.-PRESIDENT BUCHANAN.-THE CRITTENDEN COMPROMISE.-SECESSION OF SOUTH CAROLINA.-SCENES IN CHARLESTON.-THE TOMB OF CALHOUN.-SECESSION BONNETS.-FOREIGN NEWS.-FORTS MOULTRIE AND SUMTER.MAJOR ANDERSON.-REMOVAL TO SUMTER.-RAISING THE FLAG.-UNITED STATES BUILDINGS SEIZED.-MAJOR ANDERSON AND STATE RIGHTS.-THE STAR OF THE WEST.-SECESSION OF OTHER STATES.-JOHN A. DIX AND THE FLAG.-THE CONFEDERATE STATES.-JEFFERSON DAVIS.-ALEXANDER H. STEPHENS.-THE PEACE CONGRESS.-TWIGGS'S SURRENDER.-FORT PICKENS SAVED.

THE

HE events which led to the raid of John Brown had stirred up the people of all parts of the country on the slavery question, and finally brought about a change in political parties. The Democrats split into two parties. In their convention, held in Charleston (1860), the Southern Democrats demanded that the party should accept the Dred Scott decision in full and declare that neither Congress nor the territorial legislatures had a right to prohibit slavery in the Territories. Most of the Northern Democrats, under the lead of Stephen A. Douglas, were unwilling to go so far as this or to give up the doctrine of Popular Sovereignty, and a bitter struggle ensued, in which the Douglas Democrats were finally successful; and the convention adopted a platform declaring that the Deïnocratic party would abide by the decisions of the Supreme Court. The Southern Democrats were not satisfied with this, and most of them left the convention. The remaining members of the convention finally adjourned to Baltimore, where Stephen A. Douglas, of Illinois, was nominated for President. The delegates who had left the convention afterward nominated John C. Breckinridge, of Kentucky. Another party, which had begun in 1852 as the Know-Nothing or American party, but which now called itself the Constitutional Union party, nominated John Bell, of Tennessee. In its platform it avoided the slavery question and declared its principles to be "the Constitution of the Country, the Union of the States, and the Enforcement of the Laws." The Republican party nominated Abraham Lincoln, of Illinois. In its platform it declared that "the normal

1860.]

ELECTION OF LINCOLN.

33

condition of all the territory of the United States is that of freedom," and denied the power of Congress or of a territorial legislature to give legal existence to slavery in any Territory of the United States.

There were thus four political parties in the field: the Douglas Democrats, who wished to throw the decision of the slavery question on the Supreme Court; the Breckinridge Democrats, who declared that slavery should be carried into the Territories; the Constitutional Union party, who did not meet the question at all, but evaded it; and the Republican party, who declared that slavery should not be carried into the Territories. The Democratic party being thus divided, the Republicans were successful in the election, and Abraham Lincoln became President of the United States. Thus the Free-Soil party, which in 1852 had polled only 156,149 votes, had risen in 1856 to 1,341,264 votes, and in 1860 had polled 1,866,352 votes and elected its candidate for President. Lincoln received the electoral votes of every free State excepting New Jersey, where he received four votes and Douglas three votes. Of the slave States, Virginia, Kentucky, and Tennessee chose Bell electors, Missouri voted for Douglas, and all the remainder for Breckinridge.

The men of extreme views in the slave States claimed that the election of Lincoln, though strictly according to the forms of the Constitution, was a purely sectional and not a party triumph; that the party which had elected him was the enemy of the South and determined to override it and its institutions, and that there was no longer any safety for the South in the Union. They therefore determined to withdraw from it. South Carolina was the first State to act. There had long been dissatisfaction in this State, and there were in it more men of extreme views than in any other of the slave-holding States. The news of Lincoln's election was received by these men with cheers and congratulations, because it gave them the opportunity to withdraw from the Union, which they had so ardently wished for. Some of the more moderate men proposed to wait until the other States could be consulted; but the disunionists saw danger in delay, and urged that a bold step taken by South Carolina would at once bring over to their side all the other slave-holding States. The views of these men prevailed, and a State

convention was called to meet December 17, to consider the question of secession.

Meanwhile the government at Washington acted as if paralyzed. President Buchanan had been elected by both Northern and Southern Democrats; his cabinet was made up largely of Southern Democrats, and the greater part of the government offices were filled by friends of the South, who did all in their power to aid the disunionists and to hinder the government. John B. Floyd, of Virginia, the Secretary of War, had sent to

Southern arsenals and forts, where they would easily fall into the hands of the disunionists, more than a hundred thousand stands of small arms and many cannon. Surrounded by such advisers, President Buchanan did not know what to do, and though he took a stand against the right of secession, he declared his belief that Congress could not, under the Constitution, make war on a State, and he did not feel that he would be justified in taking means to compel obedience to the laws. He did not even dare to send reinforcements to the forts along the Southern sea-coast, lest such action should cause a conflict with State troops, and bring on a civil war. At last, General Lewis

1860.]

CRITTENDEN COMPROMISË.

35

Cass, his Secretary of State, resigned because the President refused to send aid to the United States troops holding the forts in Charleston harbor. Thus Mr. Buchanan, sincere in his love for the Union, but too weak to cut loose from party ties and strike a blow for it, as Jackson had done in nullification times, found himself deserted by his best advisers, and helplessly allowed events to take their own course, trusting that the remaining few weeks of his administration would be peaceful.

In Congress all parties, excepting the disunionists, set to work to find some means of saving the Union, and several plans were proposed. The one which secured most favor was that called the Crittenden Compromise, so called from the name of

its proposer, John J. Crittenden, United States Senator from Kentucky. This provided that slavery should be prohibited in all territory north of 36° 30', the old Missouri Compromise line, and should be recognized and never interfered with south of that line. But the Republicans would not accept this, which was directly opposed to their doctrine of free Territories, and those who favored secession did not want any compromise of any kind.

Thus all attempts at conciliation failed. The South Carolina Senators and other office-holders resigned, and on December 20 the State Convention passed an "ordinance to dissolve the union between the State of South Carolina and other States