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detective, of their deliberations in secret conclave. Thus our country was saved from a great crime, and Maryland from a foul blot that would have stained her fair name, by precautions which anticipated and thwarted the designs of the conspirators.

CHAPTER VII.

Many and long were the prayers that were made,
And millions were bowed with sorrow,

Whilst they wept for the glorious land thus betrayed,
And bitterly thought of the morrow.

FEBRUARY 23. The United States property and army posts in Texas, with the exception of Fort Brown, which Capt. Hill refused to surrender under Twiggs' order, were delivered to the State by General Twiggs.

A private letter from a gentleman in Texas gives a brief account of the treason of General Twiggs. The following is an extract:

"Before I was out of bed, with a great shout, heard half a mile, the arsenal property was invested, and every house was filled with men, next to the commissary and pay department. This was protected by two companies of regulars. All day the most intense excitement prevailed, the commissioners on behalf of Texas and Gen. Twiggs negotiating. Over one thousand men were under arms, all our bridges guarded, and every moment a conflict was expected. Finally, Twiggs ended in ignominy an infamous career, by giving up all; and by four o'clock the poor soldiers left their quarters and took to camp a mile out of town, and their places were filled by the "Knights of the Golden Circle. Only two weeks previous, Gen. Twiggs furnished these very K. G. C.'s with arms, who now drive him from his position."

Evidence sufficient has been received to show that Gen. Twiggs, in addition to being a traitor, most basely deceived all the officers under him. Had he resisted the

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demands of Texas, his whole force there would have stood by him to the last.

The demoralizing effect of secession has had no illustration more ignominious and more shameless than has been afforded by the conduct of General Twiggs. He has not merely violated his oaths and gone over to the insurgents, but has disbanded his army, and delivered up to the State of Texas the posts and property of the United States, a scandalous betrayal of trust. On the lowest view which can be taken of military honor, hist conduct was infamous.

Treason, such as characterized the career of Cobb, Thompson, Floyd, and Twiggs, would put to blush the traitor "Arnold," while such names as Lieut. Hamilton, Commodore Armstrong, Capt. Breshwood, and other traitor officers of the revenue service, should have been stricken in disgrace from the national muster-rolls, instead of receiving from Secretary Toucey the "Well done, good and faithful servants," and their names still kept on the rolls of the American navy, side by side with those who have either died in defence of their flag, or resigned from honorable motives.

March 1.

General Twiggs was expelled from the United States army.

March 2. Revenue Cutter Dodge surrendered to the rebels at Galveston.

March 4. Texas State convention declared that State out of the Union.

Inauguration of President Lincoln. Troops in Washington were under arms to prevent an apprehended attack from the secessionists.

The President's inaugural address appealed alike to the judgment and sympathies of the people. It enforced on the attention of all the value of the Union to the individual as well as the country, to the humble citizen as emphatically as to the President of the United States; yet

it did not seem to meet the approbation of the extremists of either party. The rabid abolitionists of the North thought it too conciliating, while the fire-eating politicians of the South denounced it as being a declaration of war, and became exasperated that President Lincoln should express his determination to hold the government property and collect the revenues, though at the same time the city of Charleston, S. C., was in a state of rebellion, and ten thousand men under arms in the city and vicinity; and the tone of public feeling is well illustrated by the comments of the Charleston Mercury and Courier upon the inaugural address. The Mercury says:

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"If ignorance could add anything to folly, or insolence to brutality, the President of the Northern States of America has, in this address, achieved it. A more lamentable display of feeble inability to grasp the circumstances of this momentous emergency could scarcely have been conceived. That President Lincoln will attempt to collect revenue off the bar is now beyond a question. What then? Here lies the question in which alone this State is directly concerned. What course is then to be pursued by the Southern government? There are but two open. The one, immediate attack upon Fort Sumter; the other, to besiege and starve out the fortress. To attack the fort will not remove the men-of-war from off our bar. What, then, will be gained? It is a question. To reinforce Fort Sumter is now only to hasten the period of starvation, for no ship-of-war can enter our harbor and land supplies. Should she succeed in running to the fort, she will be under the constant fire of three or four batteries, within telling and destructive distance. She must be quickly destroyed. In the mean time, our ships, or ships laden with our goods for foreign ports, may continue their course as usual. Even should a blockade be declared, it can in no way interfere with the egress and ingress of neutral bottoms in their ordinary

avocations of trade. A duty may, doubtless, for the present, be collected on such imports as arrive here directly from abroad. Of this, reckoning must be made in the calculation of costs, pro and con. A few months must settle the whole question. And the taking of Fort Sumter immediately cannot, as far as we can perceive, hasten that period. We will be little further when we have finished than when we begun, minus some valua

ble lives."

The Charleston Courier breaks forth in the following impetuous strain :

"Let the argument proceed to the next logical and necessary step,- an appeal to arms. We are as well ready as any free people can ever be expected to be found in advance of the actual onset; and that argument once applied, will bring us new forces and resources. We are ready."

March 5. Jefferson Davis appointed General P. G. T. Beauregard to command the Confederate troops at Charleston, S. C.

March 6. Fort Brown, Texas, surrendered by special agreement.

March 9. The congress of the Southern Confederacy passed an act for the establishment and organization of an army.

March 12. The Confederate commissioners, Forsyth and Crawford, sent a communication to the Secretary of State, Mr. Seward.

March 15. Secretary Seward replied to the communication, declining official intercourse.

March 16. The Montgomery convention adjourned to May 13.

March 18. Supplies sent to Fort Pickens were intercepted by the rebels.

March 22. A meeting was held at Frankfort, Alabama, opposed to secession.

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