MR. their agitation and irritation. SHERMAN'S SPEECH. Sherman's Speech. 239 Remember the course pursued by the Government? Had it overstepped its authority in any instance? Had it invaded a State? Had it occupied a part which did not belong to it by purchase and immutable cession? Had any community been overawed by a military power? Had any man's rights been contemned or invaded? Who can assert it? Not a line has Government overstepped its duty and trust. Not a wrong has it committed to State or person. What cause, then, for the charges made against it-what propriety in the cry of coercion ? these men who thus come to us are bone of your bone. They are your brethren and fellow-citizens. You may grant what they desire, without losing your character and self-respect. He begged them, in God's name, to do it. Give peace instead of discord, maintain the Government, and preserve this great Confederated Empire. His voice, to-day, was for conciliation and compromise, and in this he echoed the voice of those whom he represents. If you will not grant this, in God's name let the affected States depart in peace. If the Southern States cannot be conciliated, if we cannot grant them what they desire, if they must leave the paternal mansion, he would signalize their departure with acts of kindness; if, in the vicissitudes of national existence, it should prove necessary for us to come together, there should be no pride to be humbled, and he would welcome them back to the place they should occupy. Sherman's Speech. Mr. Sherman's speech, which followed, commanded the undivided attention of all. His standing as a conservative yet firm Republican, his influence with his party and with the country generally, his position as Chairman of the most important committee in Congress, viz., of Ways and Means all conspired to give interest and importance to his declarations. He approved of his colleague's appeal for peace and conciliation; but, the appeal was addressed to the wrong side of the House. He assumed that it was not the policy of any administration to "conquer" a State--to compel it to be represented in Congress, to force it to maintain Federal courts and post-offices. It is the duty of Government to protect each State as a constituent part of the whole, and therefore its paramount duty to protect the wholeprotect itself. To do this it is fully empowered by the instrument of its organization. It alone has the right to levy and collect duties, to make treaties and form alliances, to erect and maintain a navy, an army, forts, arsenals, navy yards, to declare war, and to make peace. It has a flag, the symbol of its supremacy—the emblem of its power and province to protect all who may of right gather under its folds. What has been - to He then, at length, adverted to the instances of wrong and usurpation practiced against the Government-the seizure of forts, arsenals, navy-yards, vessels-the firing upon the National flag-the calling out of an army to shoot down United States troops whose only offence consisted in simply taking care of, and protecting Government propertythe abrogation of United States laws and the general contempt for its authority-the seizure of moneys belonging to the United States treasury--the planting of cannon on the Mississippi River banks to arrest the tide of commerce on that National highway. What shall be done at this wide-spread and direct assault upon the Government? Shall it tamely submit and become a wreck at the bidding of enemies, to become the object of pity and scorn; or shall it rise in its majesty to vindicate its claim to the name of a power and to uphold its system of liberty for the continued prosperity of its people and the admiration of the world? He said :— "If this Government cannot survive a constitu tional election-if it cannot defend its property or protect its flag-if it crumbles before the first sign of disaffection, what hope is there for free institutions in countries where kings, nobles, marshals, hereditary institutions and laws of primogeniture have existed for ages? Sir, when the love of liberty has inspired in modern times the masses of any people to demand the right of self-government, they are pointed to the French revolution of 1789; they are pointed to South America, whose changing Republics rise and disappear, so that not ten men in this House can now tell me their names. They are pointed to Mexico! God forbid that they shall ever adorn their infernal logic by adding the example of a disrupted Union here! It is said, with the license of poetry, that 'Freedom shrieked when Kosciusko fell.' Sherman's Speech. She will die with the death of this Republic. I appeal to you, gentlemen of the border Slave States, to arrest the tide that, but for you, will in a few days place us in hostile array with each other. If not, I see nothing before us but a fatal civil war. I do not threaten it, for I dread it, not for personal reasons, for you and I are but atoms in the storm; but all history teaches us that no free Government can be disrupted or overthrown without that disruption being followed in the end by military despotism. The man may now live who will be the Napoleon of this country. If your people will not sustain and support this Government in maintaining its public property in the Seceding States, then it must do it in spite of you, or perish in the attempt. If we can stand by each other, if our constituents will stand by us in that emphatic declaration, I do believe that the good ship that has borne us thus far on a prosperous voyage, will outlive the storm. But, Sir, if we yield too far to the fury of the waves, if we now surrender, without resistance, the forts, arsenals, dock-yards, and other property of the Government, we only demonstrate that we are not fit for the duties assigned us; and if our names survive our lives, they will only be recorded as those of a degenerate race, who had not the manhood to preserve that their fathers won. It is therefore due to you, Sir, to all our fellow members, to our countrymen, North and South, to say that in voting for the Army bill, I vote with the expectation that it will be used in protecting the acknowledged property of the United States, in recovering that which has been unlawfully taken, and in maintaining Sherman's Speech. merce must be suspended. No He then examined the question of compromise. The fact that a single State could coerce the Government must be admitted, if compromise be admitted, because of the secession of a State. Before any peaceful solution of differences could be made, it was simply necessary to crush out the heresy of the right of a State, at any time, to repudiate the authority of the General Government, and to erect itself into an independent power. If that assumption is not first forever killed, of what earthly use is compromise? Compromise could not, under its baleful assumption, save a rupture, at any moment, and the precedent would serve only to demoralize the Government-by making its enemies all the more imperative and intractable. The Republican party, as a party, had, in no way, infringed upon the constitutional rights of any section, and it did not propose to do aught to impair the rights of a single individual or State. Their candidate for the Presidency had been elected in a constitutional way, and every loyal citizen demanded He did not believe in the power to invade his inauguration in peace, and that he be a State, simply to coerce it, for, with the At-permitted to develop his policy in the usual torney-General, he seemed to acknowledge way. He said:the necessity of civil processes to call in the aid of the military. He said: the Union." "You tell us that your people are excited and alarmed, and that they apprehend that an over gurated in power, that will, directly or indirectly, affect the constitutional rights of your States. Perhaps you will confess what you know to be true, that, for political purposes in the struggle, partisans for the ascendency of both parties in the South have united to fire the Southern mind against the hated Black Republicans of the North. Speeches have been distorted. Single sentences have been torn from the context and made to deceive and mislead. Garrison, Wendell Phillips, Seward, Lincoln, and latterly, Douglas, have been mixed in a hated conglomeration, and used to excite your people. A philosophic opinion of Mr. Seward has been construed into a statement of a settled purpose to overthrow Slavery in the States, though in the very pa "I do not contemplate, in any event, hostile inva-whelming Anti-Slavery element is about to be inausions of the soil of any State, unless demanded for the defence of the acknowledged property of the United States. It is the duty of the Government to suppress insurrection in a State, but in this event the military power can only be used in strict subordination to the civil authority. If the civil authority refuse to call for such aid, or suppress the Courts, the military power cannot intervene. If the Courts are closed, the duties of Postmasters cannot be enforced, or the mails protected; and, therefore, the postal service must necessarily be suspended. No doubt this measure will soon be adopted. If the revenue is refused, or cannot be collected, then goods cannot be imported, and the ports must be closed. If a State shall, in violation of the Constitution, undertake to regulate commerce then her com-ragraph itself all idea of interference by the people MR. SHERMAN'S SPEECH. 241 Sherman's Speech. of the Free States is expressly excluded. It is but a year since you inflamed your constituents because some of your fellow members recommended without reading, a book written by one of your own citizens, containing obnoxious opinions about Slavery. Nearly all of you gave birth, stability and victory to the Republican party by adopting the policy you now join in condemning. Some of you broke down the only political organization that could compete with us, and thus gave us an easy victory. You have all contributed, more or less, in perverting the public mind as to our principles and purposes; but The Fugitive Slave law he regarded as unconstitutional-in some of its provisions it was unjust, since it could be used to kidnap freemen as well as to capture fugitive slaves-its practical effect was to excite resisthis Republican party has thus far advanced, does tance. It ought to be, and would be, modinot excuse us from doing all in our power to pro-fied, and the laws of the States to prevent its duce conciliation, harmony, peace, quiet, and a fair abuses would then be promptly repealed. and honest adjustment of all the difficulties that surround us." even the baptism of misrepresentation, through which He then proceeded to review the claims of the South for Constitutional amendments, remarking that the Republican party had no desire or power to interfere with the social institutions of the Slave States. He thought an amendment would have the good effect to set at rest the slanders in that direction, But, he asked equal rights under the same Constitution and amendments for the institutions and people of the Free States. To this end it should guarantee, in the Slave as well as in the Free States, freedom of opinion, freedom of the press, freedom of speech-it should perfectly protect Northern men from the violence and outrage which are sure to be meted out to any citizen who differs in opinion from a Southern public. His words were: "Our people in the North have the right to express their opinions about Slavery, to write, to speak them, and to preach them. Freedom of speech, freedom of the press, and freedom of opinion are essential to the preservation of Republican institutions, and they never can be and never will be surrendered. Their convictions that Slavery is a social, moral and political evil, are fixed and immutable. They are now shared by the great body of the civilized world. They are not likely to be weakened by time or reason, and surely they will not be weakened by threat of disunion. They have a right to their opinions; you have a right to yours. You can write them, speak them, and preach them. The providence of God will in due time, and in his own way, determine this difference of opinion. Opinions may freely be left to test their strength before the Great Arbitrator. We go a step further; we invite you in our In conclusion, he asked that Mr. Lincoln's Administration should have a fair trial. It would prove just to individuals and beneficent to the whole country. As his election had been constitutionally achieved, so his Administration should be constitutionally obeyed. It must be obeyed; and no combination on the Continent had power, or ought to have the power, to change the legitimate results of our elective franchise. The Constitution was made for all, and must be obeyed by all-there was no provision for exemption from, or non-submission to, its wholesome responsibilities. It must be obeyed! This speech made a powerful impression on the House. Its candor of statement, its directness of argument, its resolute tone, conspired to create fresh confidence in the friends of the Union, and to discomfit its enemies. It called out Crawford, of Georgia, who defended the seizure of the forts as a matter of safety to the several States. At the same moment he convicted himself of inconsistency, by declaring that the South wanted to depart in peace—her people would die in defence of their rights of sovereignty—using the logic of the highwayman who, after robbing the confiding wayfarer, begs to depart in peace, claiming that his robbery was committed in self defence! Mr. Hill, of Georgia, had the candor to repudiate such transparent absurdity. Referring, in a kindly manner, to Mr. Sherman's position, he expressed the belief that the South was approachable with reason, Admissions of Hill, of Georgia. 66 and earnestly appealed for conciliation. Let | firmed, by a vote of 38 to 13. The opposition the people have time to speak. He would was made by the Secessionist members, who await the result with confidence and hope. regarded him as a Coercionist. They eviIf Georgia resolved to secede she would do dently did not like to see such respect for so prospectively, in order to give time to save his oath, and such devotion to duty, as Mr. the great structure of Government. He Holt already had borne into that sadly adwished it borne in mind that he belonged not ministered department. Mr. Floyd was their to the class of men who would dismember the beau ideal of a War Secretary. Confederacy. He would as soon take a glass In the Senate, Saturday, the Kansas bill vessel and crush it to pieces to make it a bet- chiefly consumed the day. Mr. Mason, of ter one, as to attempt to make a better Gov- Virginia, presented the following joint resoernment by crushing the present into atoms. lutions, which passed to a second reading, If Georgia shall proceed to the extremity of and were ordered to be printed: secession, he would ask her, for her own sake, to have the manliness, after the act is done, to refuse a reconstruction of the Union, and to stand out as an island alone. There would be dignity, if not safety, in such a step. A resolution was introduced by Burnett, of Kentucky-the Army Appropriation bill being under consideration in Committee of the Whole-as an amendment, that no forces authorized in the bill shall be used to subjugate seceding States. He wanted the country to understand whether it was intended to make war on them or not. Rejected. The bill was then reported to the House. Mr. Holt's Confirmation. Mason's Resolutions. Whereas, It appears to Congress that the State of South Carolina has, by an ordinance of the people of that State in Convention assembled, declared the State separated from the United States and the Government thereof, as established under the Constitution; and it further appearing that by reason of such declared separation there are no officers of the United States acting under the authority thereof in the judiciary department of this Government, or under the laws for the collection of the revenues of the United States, whereby and in conse quence whereof the laws of the United States are in fact suspended within the limits of said State; therefore, to avoid any hostile collision that may arise between the authorities of the United States and the State of South Carolina aforesaid, in any attempt to execute the laws of the United States in the absence of the officers required by law to administer and execute said laws, be it The proceedings in the Senate, Thursday, were, as stated, confined chiefly to consideration of the Pacific Railway billMessrs. Douglas and Benjamin leading. The matter of most interest to our subject was the discussion, in Executive Session, over the President's nomination of Joseph Holt, as Secretary of War. The discussion is represented as having been of an exciting char-sident of the United States in aiding the civil authoracter. An effort was made, by the opponents of the confirmation, to refer it to the Committee on Military Affairs, as Mr. McIntyre's nomination, as Collector at Charleston, had been referred to the Committee on Commerce-equivalent to a suspension of the nomination. But, the effort failed, and, in the Friday's session, after another exciting debate,* his appointment was con A correspondent at the Capital, writing to the New York Daily Times, of the Friday's debate in closed session, said: "During the debate on the nomination of Secretary Holt, Mr. Crittenden is said to have taken the ground that, as Kentucky is now a Central State, "Resolved, By the Senate and House of Representatives, that from and after the passage of this joint resolution, all laws of the United States directing the mode in which the army and navy, and other public forces of the United States shall be used by the Pre ities in executing the laws and authorizing the same, enjoying all the prosperity consequent upon the present Union and form of Government, she never would consent to its breaking up and the formation of a Southern Confederacy, of which she would be a Border State, exposed to all the dangers and losses of such a position. He was much affected during this portion of his remarks, and the manner in which he upbraided the Southern men who defeated his Compromise in the Senate was very severe. He took the position that the Union must be preserved at all hazards, either by peaceable means or by force, and that force used against the lawless citizens of a Government is not coercion of a State. The speech, being entirely unexpected, created a great sensation among the Senators." IMPORTANT NAVAL MOVEMENTS. 243 and all laws for the collection of revenues shall be, | tion of the disunion movement troubles; but, and the same are hereby suspended, and made in- though, as the Republican leaders had reoperative in the State of South Carolina for the time peatedly asseverated, they earnestly desired being; and that should it be made to appear here- peace, a compromise obtained at that late hour, after by the Executive authority of any other State under compulsion, was evidently so poweror States that an Ordinance has been passed by less to satisfy the disunion schemers that it became daily more and more apparent no compromise would be adopted. While the South actually was in arms, and already had committed overt acts of treason and revolution, to have accepted even Mr. Crittenden's appeal to the people, would not only have the people of any State, declaring such State or States separate from the United States, then it shall be the duty of the President of the United States to announce such separation by proclamation, and all the laws of the United States shall in like manner be suspended and rendered inoperative in such State as aforesaid." Nothing of importance transpired in the argued a state of fear, but would, in reality, House, in the Saturday's session. During the week a large number of petitions and memorials had been presented, from various States, praying the adoption of the Crittenden Resolutions. It is estimated that one hundred thousand names were thus represented. Besides these expressions, many of the leading men of the Northern States were pressing the propositions of Mr. Crittenden upon members as a satisfactory solu have rendered the South more arrogant in its attitude towards the Free sentiment and the Free States. So the Republicans and many Democrats reasoned, and the decidedly belligerent tone of the loyal press, of the State Legislatures, of leading Congressmen, as well as of a large majority of the people, left no hope for a settlement, except the South should recede from its defiant and hostile attitude. CHAPTER XVI. CONDITION OF THE UNITED STATES' DEFENCES UP TO FEB. 1ST. THE AFFAIR OF THE NORTH CAROLINA FORTS. DETERMINED ATTITUDE OF THE GOVERNMENT. COL. HAYNE's DEMANDS. THEIR REFUSAL. ORDERS TO MAJOR ANDERSON. VIRGINIA'S POSITION. HER PLANS OF PACIFICATION. GENERAL STATE OF THE UNION UP TO FEB. Important Naval 1ST. THE Corvette Macedonian | "keys" to command Southern ports and sailed for Fort Pickens commerce, their safety greatly contributed to with reenforcements, in the the confidence of the loyalists in the ultimate second week of January. Troops were also ability of the Administration to prevent furordered to the Key West and Tortugas forti- ther encroachments of the revolutionists. fications. In and around Washington enough This feeling was measurably confirmed by force was concentrated to secure the city the apparently loyal attitude of North Carofrom any "Southern incursion." Fortress lina. It had been announced, as early as Monroe, at Hampton Roads, Virginia, was January 2d, that Governor Ellis, of that given a garrison equal to its protection. Fort State, had dispatched troops to seize the arMcHenry, in Baltimore, was garrisoned and senal at Fayetteville, and the forts at Wilput in defensive order. These several points mington and Beaufort. The news created of strategy and defence were thus compara- much bitter feeling at the War Department, tively secure, and as they really were the for, though inclined to repossess them, the |