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dent until Dec. 29th. For the correspondence which followed, see a future Chapter. Secession gained ground

first movement toward "coercing" the rebel- | their first communication before the Presi lious States. In the North it aroused a perfect acclamation of delight. "Huzza for Major Anderson !" became the street-greeting, for, without a full knowledge of the affair, men believed it to foreshadow a determination, on the part of the Administration, to resist any further encroachments upon its authority. [The incidents of the evacuation are given in Chapter XIX.]

The election of Delegates Alabama Election. to the State Convention, in Alabama, came off December 24th, resulting in the choice of a large majority of unconditional Secessionists. The entire majority for secession was over fifty thousand. In many localities Union and Conservative tickets were not voted upon at all. On the same day Governor Moore issued a proclamation, convening the Legislature of that State, January 14th, to provide for any emergency which might arise from the action of the Convention, which was to meet January 7th.

On the 24th the South Carolina members of Congress (House) sent in, to the Speaker, a letter stating that, by the act of secession, their State had withdrawn from the Union, thereby dissolving their connection with the House, and that they should, accordingly, vacate their seats. The letter was signed by Messrs. John McQueen, M. L. Bonham, W. W. Boyce, and J. D. Ashmore. Mr. Keitt had previously withdrawn. The Speaker, however, directed that their names be retained on the roll and regularly called-thus failing to recognize the act of secession and the withdrawal, for that cause, of members.

Arrival of Commissioners in Washington.

The South Carolina Com. missioners, Messrs. Barnwell, Orr and Adams, arrived in Washington Dec. 26th their mission, as before stated, being to treat with the Federal Government for a peaceful adjustment of all relations between the Government and their "Sovereign" State. The evacuation of Moultrie, by Major Anderson, not a little complicated the difficulties of their position. On the evening of their arrival a number of leading Southern men were called into counsel, to arrange more fully their line of conduct. They did not, however, lay

rapidly in Virginia, after Virginia's Defection. the movement of South Carolina became well canvassed. Under its influence numerous meetings were called, and many individuals characterized as "Conservative" gave in to the programme for separate action. This was in Eastern Virginia. Western Virginia then, as later, was loyal to the Union, and took little part in affairs, except to protest against the course of the incendiaries, led by such wild and reckless spirits as Roger A. Pryor. John Minor Botts, one of the most eminent and able men that the State ever called citizen, thundered away with the Paixhan guns of his incontrovertible logic, against the "bloody heresy," the right of secession, and stood up grandly for the Union, the Constitution and the Laws. It was not reason, however, which controlled the hour; and Virginia, "Mother of Presidents," it became painfully apparent, was rapidly gliding into the arms of a paramour, who would rob her of her jewels and debase her ancient glory into the very dust.

Army and Navy Resignations.

The prospective movements in the South were canvassed excitedly in both army and navy, a large proportion of whose officers were Southern men. When attention was called to the subject it was found that the materiel of the two services would suffer severely by the defection likely to follow, since a majority of the commissions above second lieutenancies were held by Southern men, notwithstanding the proportion of population and wealth in the North was as three to one. South Carolina alone, with her fiftytwo thousand voters, was represented in the navy and army as follows, at the date under consideration, December 24th-30th.

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SOUTH CAROLINIANS IN THE ARMY AND NAVY.

117

Name.

Original entry into service.

ARMY continued. Department. Capt. Wm. W. Anderson.. Surg. Gen. Dep...... 1849 Capt. Robert L. Brodie... Surg. Gen. Dep......1854 Capt. Nat. S. Crowell.... Surg. Gen. Dep......1854 1st Lt. Wm. J. L'Engle... Surg. Gen. Dep......1856 1st Lt. Wm. A. Caiswell.. Surg. Gen. Dep......1859 Maj. Thomas G. Rhett....Paymaster Gen. Dep. 1845 Bvt. Col. Benj. Huger.....Ordnance Dep........1825

Bvt. Maj. L. B. Northrup. 1st Regt. Dragoons... 1839 2d Lt. S. W. Ferguson....1st Regt. Dragoons... 1857 Capt. R. H. Anderson... 2d Regt. Dragoons... 1842 1st Lt. J. B. Villepigue...2d Regt. Dragoons... 1854 Capt. Win. De Saussure... 1st Regt. Cavalry.,...1855 Capt. Nathan D. Evans...2d Regt. Cavalry.... ...1848 1st Lt. Stephen D. Lee...4th Regt. Artillery...1854 1st Lt. Geo. S. James.... 4th Regt. Artillery... 1856 2d Lt. J. H. Hollinquist...4th Regt. Artillery...1858 Capt. Chris. S. Lovell.. .2d Regt. Infantry.. 1st Lt. L. W. O'Bannon...3d Regt. Infantry....1843 1st Lt. Jas. L. Corley.. .6th Regt. Infantry...1850 1st Lt. Ed. D. Blake..... .8th Regt. Infantry...1847 2d Lt. E. S. Camp... .9th Regt. Infantry...1857 Capt. John Dunnovant... 10th Regt. Infantry...1855

.....

1853

Name.

NAVY-continued.

Original entry into service.

Duty. Mid'n Benjamin F. Perry. Naval Academy......1857 Mid'n R. H. Bacott......Naval Academy... ......1859 Lt. H. L. Ingraham... Marine Corps...... 1858 Engineer Geo. D. Lenny...Stm. sloop Wyoming..1858

Three West Point Cadets from South Caro

lina: viz., H. S. Farley, James Hamilton and George Reynolds, resigned at the call made by the Charleston Mercury [see pages 45–46]; and Lieutenant J. R. Hamilton, of the United States' Steam Sloop Wyoming, had thrown up his commission; but the list above given was on the rolls at the date of South Carolina's secession. After that act a rapid succession of resignations occurred, embracing officers of all grades, who almost immediately offered their services to South Carolina. The two Departments at Washington accepted these resignations without a protest! Every commission thrown up added to the record of disloyalty, ingratitude, and dishonor which

Capt. Barnard E. Bee....10th Regt. Infantry... 1845 influenced the entire movement, so far as

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...

.1827 1828

Capt. Wm. B. Shubrick..Chr. L. H. Board....1806
Capt. C. K. Stribling.....Com. E. I. Squadron..1812
Capt. D. N. Ingraham....Chf. BureauOrdnance.1812
Com. Henry K. Hoff.....Com. rec. ship at Phil.1823
Com. John S. Missroon .. Waiting Orders......1824
Com. Percival Drayton... Waiting Orders..
Com. Henry J. Hartstene..Special duty...
Com. Chas. Steedman.....Com. brig Dolphin... 1828
Com. Edw. Middleton.... Waiting Orders.......1828
Lt. James H. North..... L. H. Inspector......1829
Lt. Rd. Wainwright......Stm. frgt. Merrimac.. 1831
Lt. Thos. B. Huger.... .Stm. sloop Iroquois.. 1835
Lt. John Rutledge.. .Waiting Orders....... 1835
Lt. Henry Rolando......Stm. sloop Lancaster.1836
.Sloop Marion..... .1837
Lt. Alex. F. Warley.....Waiting Orders.... 1840
Lt. John R. Hamilton....Stm. sloop Hartford...1845
Lt. Thomas P. Pelot.....Sloop Savannah......1849
Lt. Wm. G. Dozier..............Leave of absence... 1850
Lt. Henry C. Flagg.... Leave of absence....1828

Lt. C. Morris.

.1839

officials were concerned, for disunion. They not only left the house of the mother who gave them all their knowledge-all their honors-all their ability for service, but they were eager to despoil her, and, if she resisted, to stab her. It is not enough to say these States had the first claim to their swords, for the States gave them nothing, the Federal Government everything. If they were unwilling to serve against their States, honor, duty, self-respect and true courage alike forbade that they should take up arms against the kind hand which had given them all they possessed. Yet, with scarcely an exception, every Southern man who resigned from the army or navy did so to accept service against the Federal Government! The disinterested observer will not fail to find in this fact an evidence of the remarkable demoralization of sentiment which characterized the rebellion. To imflame the zeal of the immediate Secessionists of his State, (Georgia) Mr. Toombs sent the following telegraphic address from Washington, on the evening of Sunday, Dec. 23d:

Lt. Maurice Simmons....Furlough....
Surgeon Arthur M. Lynch.Stm. frgt. Roanoke... 1830
Surgeon Chas. E. Lining..Sloop Cyane.. .1858
Purser J. S. Cunningham..Naval Academy..
.1857
Master John M. Stribling..Steamer Wyandot....1851
Master Philip Porcher....Stm. frgt. Merrimac..1851
Master Wm. E. Evans.... .Stm. sloop Pensacola.1859
Mid'n John Gumball......Sloop Macedonia....1854
Mid'n J. H. Ingraham....Naval Academy......1857 federates.

Mr. Toombs' Address.

"I came here to secure your constitutional rights, and to demonstrate to you that you can get no guarantee for those rights from your Northern con

No Compromise

probable

"The whole subject was referred to a committee | sibility of obtaining concessions from the of thirteen in the Senate. I was appointed on the dominant party, were concommittee and accepted the trust. I submitted firmed by the vote of Satpropositions which, so far from receiving a decided urday, (Dec. 22d,) on Mr. support from a single member of the Republican Crittenden's resolutions [see page 90.] A dispatch, by the Associated Press reporter,

party of the committee, were all treated with deri

sion or contempt. A vote was then taken in the

committee on amendments to the Constitution, proposed by Hon. J. J. Crittenden, and each and all of them were voted against, unanimously, by the Black Republican members of the committee.

"In addition to these facts, a majority of the Black Republican members of the committee declared distinctly that they had no guarantees to offer, which was silently acquiesced in by the other

members.

“The Black Republican members of this Committee are representative men of the party and section,

and, to the extent of my information, truly represent

them.

dated Dec. 23d, stated: "The Senate's Select Committee having come to no conclusion yesterday on any of the points before them, the Republicans asking further time for consideration, the most hopeful now despond, secing no immediate prospect of an accommodation of the political differences. Mr. Crittenden, in a conversation with a friend, said that was the darkest day of his life; that he was overwhelmed with solicitude for the of the people for the Union can restore peace. country, and that nothing but the affection The extremes on the Committee are equally unyielding to concession."

The same authority also added:-"The reported recent declaration of the President elect that he will strictly adhere to the Chicago

"The Committee of Thirty-Three on Friday adjourned for a week, without coming to any vote after solemnly pledging themselves to vote on all the propositions then before them, that day, It is controlled by the Black Republicans, your enemies, who only seek to amuse you with delusive hope un-platform, has confirmed the wavering Repubtil your election, that you may defeat the friends of

Secession.

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If you are deceived by them, it shall not be my fault. I have put the test fairly and frankly. It is decisive against you now. I tell you, upon the faith of a true man, that all further looking to the North for security for your Constitutional rights in the Union, ought to be instantly abandoned.

"It is fraught with nothing but ruin to yourselves and to your posterity. Secession, by the 4th day of March next, should be thundered from the ballotbox by the unanimous voice of Georgia, on the 2d day of January next. Such a voice will be your best guarantee for liberty, tranquillity and glory." "R. TOOMBS."

(Signed,)

This address anticipated the vote on Toombs' propositions. Although he stated that they were "treated with derision or contempt," no vote was taken upon them until Monday, Dec. 24th. His message, therefore, reflected more credit to his increased zeal for secession than for correctness of statement. The address was sent by telegraph Sunday, to influence the elections of Monday. answered its purpose most admirably, for even Mr. Stephens, the hitherto champion of the Conservatives, gave over his views and entered the field as a champion for separate and immediate action. The general assumptions of the address, in regard to the impos

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licans to that policy, and increased the intensity of Southern feeling." This referred to a paragraph placed at the head of the editorial column of the New York Daily Tribune, Dec. 22d., which announced that Mr. Lincoln had no compromises to offer, and was understood to adhere strictly to the principles of the Chicago platform on the question of the freedom of the Territories. Mr. Wade, it would, therefore, appear, had spoken for the President elect as well as for himself, in his speech of Dec. 17th. [See pages 88-89.]

Dec. 27th, Gov. Magoffin called an extra session of the Kentucky Legislature, to meet January 17th "to consider the distracted state of the country."

The Democratic State Committee of Illinois, on Dec. 27th, issued a call for a State Convention, to be held in Springfield on the 17th of January" to confer as to the existing national crisis, and to adopt some line of policy relative thereto."

At a Convention of "National Democrats," called by circular to meet at Albany, December 27th, forms of petitions were adopted, requesting the Legislature to repeal the Personal Liberty law of 1840, and to restore the Nine-months Slaveholding law of 1817, to be circulated in each county.

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Mr. Nicholson's Specch.

THE Senate (Monday, December 24th) received propositions of settlement from Messrs. Pugh, Douglas, Bigler, &c., which were severally referred to the Committee of Thirteen. Mr. Nicholson, of Tennessee, having the floor, proceeded to address the Senate in reply to his colleague, Andrew Johnson, as well as to Mr. Wade. He charged upon the Republican party all responsibility for the enmity felt at the South against the Norththe Democrats of the North were in no manner censurable. The feeling commenced, in 1856, with the nomination of Fremont, when the first vital stab was given to the Union. He quoted from the platform of the Republican party in regard to Slavery in the Territories, to show that it was the basis of all sectionalism. He then quoted Mr. Fillmore's prediction that the success of such a party must cause disunion. The Republicans concede that in the States the South have a right to hold slave property, but establish a principle, in places where they have the power, which affixes a stigma on Southern men. All that the South has to rest upon is the professions of a party, whose general principle is to disregard the rights of the South outside their own States. Suppose that this party gets a majority in both Houses of Congress, they will abolish Slavery in the District of Columbia and in all the arsenals and dockyards, &c., of the South, and they will also refuse to admit new Slave States. | Is it strange, then, that Southern men should begin to look out for their own interests, when, if this sectional power has dominion, it will surely progress towards the extinction of Slavery? The trouble is not so much that the Fugitive Slave law is not enforced, or the equality of the States denied, but that a

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principle is laid down that denies the title of Southern men to property which they claim under the Constitution—a principle which strikes at the very root of a system identified with the interest, prosperity and safety of the South. In view of this he claimed that the only safety for the South in the Union, was in Constitutional guarantees against encroachments, and a protection to Slavery in Slave sections. He would do all he could to obtain proper guarantees; but,if all failed, he would choose secession or revolution rather than acquiesce. He regretted hasty action in the South, and he thought it better to have counsel and concerted action in the Senate. He thought that an appeal from the whole South, with unanimity of sentiment, could not be resisted by the North. He regarded the policy of the extreme Southern States as dictated by a desire to awaken the sentiment of the North rather than a love of disunion per se. He thought that it was the duty of

the Border States to meet in solemn consultation and present their demands to the North. But, from the course of the Republican organs, he had scarcely a ray of hope that their demands would be granted. The chief points in our demand would be the recog nition of the right of property in slaves, and the right to hold them in the Territories. Although he had not much hope left, yet he preferred to try if a solemn appeal from the South to the North would not produce a good effect. Mr. Nicholson then referred to the ordinance of secession of South Carolina as the act of a sovereign State, saying that he should only allude to it as a fact, not argue whether it was right or wrong. He argued that any resort to force by the Federal Government was equivalent to a declaration of war to South Carolina. She had absolved

save a reference to the Select Committee of Thirty-three. Upon a motion for its reference, Mr. Cochrane withdrew the resolution. The two Houses took a recess until Decem

Mr. Doolittle's
Speech.

her citizens from all allegiance to the United | suspension of the rules for that purpose, to States, and the Government could not make war rightfully upon them. He drew a picture of the horrors of civil war, and urged calmness and consultation on the part of the Southern States. He concluded by ex-ber 27th. pressing the hope of a more perfect Union at Thursday, Dec. 27th, Mr. no distant day. Doolittle, (Rep.,) of WisThis speech elicited some remark, as fore-consin, addressed the Senshadowing the course of the Conservatives in Tennessee, and proved that the issue of Union or Disunion was to be forced upon Congress, in the demand for a constitutional recognition and protection of Slavery. The attitude of the Republicans against any such guarantees gave small hope, therefore, of any adjustment, and, day by day, the impassability of the gulf, widening between the Slave and Free States, became more apparent.

More Union-saving

Schemes.

In the House, John Cochrane, (Dem.,) of New York, again sought to press his views. He offered a preamble setting forth the dangers which menaced the country, suggesting the removal of the Slavery question from Congress as a remedy, and concluded with a resolution expressive of the opinion of Congress that Slavery shall not exist in the Territory north of 36 deg. 30 min., and that the States formed therefrom shall be admitted with or without Slavery, as their Constitutions may prescribe; and that, south of that line, Slavery shall not be prohibited by Congress or Territorial legislation. The next resolution asserts the sovereignty of each State, and that any attempt to compel them by force to subserve the Federal compact would be to levy war, and precipitate a revolution.

ate in a very elaborate and able argument, defending the Northern States, the Republican party, and Mr. Lincoln. As the speech met the points raised by Mr. Nicholson and others, and expressed the leading sentiment of the North-western States on the crisis, we may give place to some of the Senator's arguments and declarations:

Peace, he said, was based on two ideasone that neither the Federal Government nor citizens of non-Slaveholding States should make any aggression on Slavery in the States; and the other, that neither the Federal Government nor the citizens of Slaveholding States should make any aggressions or undertake to overthrow Freedom in the Territories. If these conditions were broken, there cannot be peace. He said the Constitution was the supreme law of the land and of every State; and if the Constitution contains any language which would abolish Slavery in a Territory, it would abolish it in a State. He then referred to the Dred Scott decision, and claimed that there was nothing in that decision to lead any one to infer that the Constitution establishes Slavery in any Territory; nothing that justifies men in saying that the Constitution enters the Territory acquired from Mexico, and abolishes Mexican law, and establishes a law guaranteeing the right to take and hold slaves in this Territory. He urged that, if we should annex Canada, the Constitution had no power, of its own force, to repeal the law there in regard to Slavery, which had been in force a hundred years. He said the Senator from Tennessee (Nich

Mr. Haskin, (Dem.,) of New York, proposed, as a substitute, that the Judiciary Committee inquire into the relations now existing between the Federal Government and the State of South Carolina; the duty of the Executive Department in view of the attempted withdrawal of that State from the United States, and the threatened seizure of the Fed-olson) had said there was a great alarm at eral property within the limits of that State; and what action Congress should take to execute the Constitution, and enforce the laws, and protect the property from seizure, and that the Committee report at any time.

Mr. Cochrane wanted a vote, and desired a

the South, against the Free States, and said he apprehended the time would come when the Free States would attempt to amend the Constitution, so as to extinguish Slavery. Why did not the Senator from Tennessee, if he wished to allay the alarm, quote in his

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