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Address to the Slaveholding States.

Address to the Slaveholding States.

to preclude or abolish Slavery
in a Territory, why should it be
allowed to remain in the States?
The one is not at all more unconstitutional than the
other, according to the decisions of the Supreme

African slave-trade for twenty years. African Slavery existed in all the States but one. The idea that they would be made to pay that tribute to their Northern Confederates which they had refused to pay to Great Britain, or that the institution of Afri-Court of the United States. And when it is considcan Slavery would be made the grand basis of a sectional organization of the North to rule the South, never crossed their imaginations. The Union of the Constitution was a Union of Slaveholding States. It rests on Slavery, by prescribing a representation in Congress for three-fifths of our slaves. There is nothing in the proceedings of the Convention which framed the Constitution to show that the Southern States would have formed any other Union, and still less that they would have formed a Union with more powerful non-Slaveholding States, having a majority in both branches of the Legislature of the Government. They were guilty of no such folly. Time and the progress of things have totally altered the relations between the Northern and Southern States since the Union was first established. That identity of feeling, interests and institutions which once existed is gone. They are now divided between agriculture, and manufacturing, and commercial States-between Slaveholding and non-Slaveholding States. Their institutions and industrial pursuits have made them totally different peoples. That equality in the government between the two sections of the Union which once existed no longer exists. We but imitate the policy of our fathers in dissolving a Union with non-Slaveholding Confederates, and seeking a Confederation with Slaveholding States.

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ered that the Northern States will soon have the power to make that Court what they please, and that the Constitution never has been any barrier whatever to their exercise of power, what check can there be in the unrestrained counsels of the North to emancipation? There is sympathy in association, which carries men along without principle; but when there is principle, and that principle is fortified by long existing prejudices and feelings, association is omnipotent in party influences. In spite of all disclaimers and professions, there can be but one end to the submission by the South to the rule of a sectional Anti-Slavery Government at Washington; and that end, directly or indirectly, must be the emancipation of the slaves of the South. The hypocrisy of thirty years-the faithlessness of their whole course from the commencement of our union with them-show that the people of the non-Slaveholding North, are not and cannot be safe associates of the Slaveholding South under a common Government. Not only their fanaticism, but their erroneous views of the principles of free Governments render it doubtful whether, separated from the South, they can maintain a free Government among themselves. Brute numbers with them is the great element of free Government. A majority is infallible and omnipotent. The right divine to rule in kings' is only transferred to their majority. The very ob

Experience has proved that Slaveholding States|ject of all constitutions, in free, popular governcannot be safe in subjection to Non-Slaveholding States. Indeed, no people ever expect to preserve their rights and liberties unless they are in their own custody. To plunder and oppress where plunder and oppression can be practiced with impunity, seems to be the natural order of things. The fairest portions of the world have been turned into wildernesses, and the most civilized and prosperous communities have been impoverished and ruined by Anti-Slavery fanaticism. The people of the North have not left us in doubt as to their designs and policy. United as a section in the late Presidential election, they have elected as the exponent of their policy one who has openly declared that all the States of the United States must be made Free States or Slave States. It is true that among those who aided in this election, there are various shades of Anti-Slavery hostility. But if African Slavery in the Southern States be the evil their political combinations affirm it to be, the requisitions of an inexorable logic must lead them to emancipation. If it is right

ments, is to restrain the majority. Constitutions, therefore, according to their theory, must be most unrighteous inventions, restricting liberty. None ought to exist, but the body politic ought simply to have a political organizatlon, to bring out and enforce the will of a majority. This theory may be harmless in a small community, having an indentity of interests and pursuits, but over a vast State-still more, over a vast Confederacy, having various and conflicting interests and pursuits-it is a remorseless despotism. In resisting it, as applicable to ourselves we are vindicating the great cause of free government, more important, perhaps, to the world than the existence of the United States. Nor in resisting it, do we intend to depart from the safe instrumentality the system of government we have established with them requires. In separating from them we invade no rights-no interest of theirs. We violate no obligation of duty to them. As separate, independent States in Convention, we made the Consti tution of the United States with them; and as sepa

ADDRESS TO THE SLAVE HOLDING

STATES.

111

Address to the Slave bolding States.

Address to the Slaveholding States.

rate, independent States, each | and grandeur. You have loved State acting for itself, we adopt the Union, in whose service your ed it. South Carolina, acting in great statesmen have labored, her sovereign capocity, now thinks proper to secede and your great soldiers have fought and conquered from the Union. She did not part with her sovereignty-not for the material benefits it conferred, but with

in adopting the Constitution. The last thing a State can be presumed to have surrendered is her sovereignty. Her sovereignty is her life. Nothing but a clear, express grant can alienate it. Inference should be dumb. Yet it is not at all surprising that those who have construed away all the limitations of the Constitution should also by construction claim the annihilation of the sovereignty of the States. Having abolished all barriers to their omnipotence by their faithless constructions in the operations of the General Government, it is most natural that they should endeavor to do the same toward us in the States. The truth is, they having violated the express provisions of the Constitution, it is at an end as a compact. It is morally obligatory only on those who choose to accept its perverted terms. South Carolina, deeming the compact not only violated in particular features, but virtually abolished by her Northern Confederates, withdraws herself as a party from its obligations. The right to do so is denied by her Northern Confederates. They desire to establish a despotism, not only omnipotent in Congress, but omuipotent over the States; and as if to manifest the imperious necessity of our secession, they threaten us with the sword, to coerce submission to their rule. "Citizens of the Slaveholding States of the United States, circumstances beyond our control have placed us in the van of the great controversy

between the Northern and Southern States. We would have preferred that other States should have

the faith of a generous and devoted chivalry. You
have long lingered and hoped over the shattered
remains of a broken Constitution. Compromise
after compromise, formed by your concessions, has
been trampled under foot by your Northern confed-
erates. All fraternity of feeling between the North
aud the South is lost, or has been converted into
hate, and we, of the South, are at last driven together
by the stern destiny which controls the exist
ence of nations. Your bitter experience of the faith-
lessness and rapacity of your Northern confede-
rates may have been necessary to evolve those great
principles of free Government, upon which the liber-
ties of the world depend, and to prepare you for the
grand mission of vindicating and re-establishing
them. We rejoice that other nations should be sat-
isfied with their institutions. Self-complacency is a
great element of happiness, with nations as with in-
dividuals. We are satisfied with ours.
If they pre-
fer a system of industry in which capital and labor
are in perpetual conflict-and chronic starvation
keeps down the natural increase of population-and
a man is worked out in eight years-and the law or-
dains that children shall be worked only ten hours a
day—and the saber and bayonet are the instruments
of order-be it so. It is their affair, not ours.
prefer, however, our system of industry, by which
labor and capital are identified in interest, and cap-

We

ital, therefore, protects labor, by which our popula

tion doubles every twenty years; by which starvation is unknown, and abundance crowns the land;

assumed the position we now occupy. Independent by which order is preserved by an unpaid police,

and the most fertile regions of the world where the Caucasian cannot labor are brought into usefulness by the labor of the African, and the whole world is blessed by our own productions. All we demand of other peoples is to be let alone to work out our own destinies. United together, and we must be the most independent, as we are the most important among the nations of the world. United together, and we require no other instrument to conquer peace than our beneficent productions. United together, and we must be a great, free, and prosperous people, whose renown must spread throughout the civilized world, and pass down, we trust, to the remotest ages. We ask you to join us in forming a confederacy of Slaveholding States.

ourselves, we disclaim any design or desire to lead
the councils of the other Southern States. Provi-
dence has cast our lot together, by extending over
ns an identity of pursuits, interests and institutions.
South Carolina desires no destiny separated from
yours. To be one of a great Slaveholding Confede-high
racy, stretching its arms over a territory larger than
any power in Europe possesses-with population
four times greater thad that of the whole United
States when they achieved their independence of the
British Empire-with productions which make our
existence more important to the world than that of
any other people inhabiting it-with common insti-
tutions to defend, and common dangers to encounter,
we ask your sympathy and confederation. While
constituting a portion of the United States, it has
been your statesmanship which has guided it in its
mighty strides to power and expansion. Iu the field
as in the Cabinet, you have led the way to its renown

On Wednesday, Dec. 26th, among other resolutions offered, was one by Mr. Spain, that the Governor be requested to communicate to the Convention in secret session, any informa

Resolution of Inquiry.

tion he possesses in reference to the condition of Forts Moultrie and Sumter, and Castle Pinckney, the number of guns in each, the number of workmen and kind of labor employed, the number of soldiers in each, and what additions, if any, have been made since the 20th instant? also, whether any assuranee has been given that the forts will not be reinforced, and if so, to what

extent; also, what police or other regulations have been made, if any, in reference

to the defenses of the harbor of Charleston, the coast and the State. This was considered in secret session, the same day, and is said to havo hastened Major Anderson's movements, being considered by him as indicative of a design to seize Fort Sumter, and all other forts except Moultrie, which he would be called upon to evacuate.

Ordinance for a Southern Confederacy.

Mr. Rhett offered an ordinance looking to the future alliance of the Slave

States. He wished the ordinance tabled with out reading, as it was thought best to await a response to the Address given above before the substance of the ordinance was made public. Mr. Memminger doubted if there was authority for receiving a paper without one reading, whereupon Mr. Rhett read it; it was as follows:

"First, That the Convention of the seceding Slaveholding States of the United States unite with South Carolina, and hold a Convention at Montgomery, Alabama, for the purpose of forming a Southern Confederacy.

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Second, That the said seceding States appoint, by their respective Conventions or Legislatures, as many delegates as they have Representatives in the present Congress of the United States, to the said Convention, to be held at Montgomery; and that, on the adoption of the Constitution of the Southern Confederacy, the vote shall be by States.

"Third, That whenever the terms of the Constitution shall be agreed upon by the said Convention, the same shall be submitted at as early a day as practicable to the Convention and Legislature of each State, respectively, so as to enable them to ratify or reject the said Constitution.

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adopted defining in its preamble the necessity for some provisional arrangement, and

declaring that South Carolina sought no adVantage over her sister Slaveholding States by commercial restrictions, and resolved that

all the customs officers of the United States

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within the limits of South Carolina be, and they are hereby appointed to hold, under the Government of this State exclusively, without any further connection whatever with the Federal Government of the United States, the same offices they now fill, until otherwise directed, and that they receive the same pay that "until it is otherwise provided by this and emoluments for their services." Also, Convention, or the General Assembly, the revenue collection and navigation laws of the United States, as far as may be practicable, be and they are hereby adopted and made laws of this State, saving that no duties shall be collected upon imports from the States forming the late Federal Union known as the United States of America, nor upon the tonof vessels owned in whole or in part by the citizens of said States," &c., &c.

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The 4th, 5th, 6th and 7th sections of the ordinance were as follows, viz. :—

Fourth. All vessels built in South Carolina or elsewhere, and owned to the amount of one-third by a citizen or citizens of South Carolina, or any of the Slaveholding Commonwealths of North America, and commanded by citizens thereof and no other, shall be registered as vessels of South Carolina, under the authority of the Collector and Naval Officer.

Fifth. All official acts of the officers aforesaid, in which it is usual and proper to set forth the authority under which they act, or style of documents issued by them or any of them, be in the name of the State of South Carolina.

"Fourth, That in the opinion of South Carolina, Sixth.--All moneys hereafter collected by any the Constitution of the United States will form a officers aforesaid shall, after deducting the sums nesuitable basis for the Confederacy of the Southern cessary for the compensation of the officers and States withdrawing. other expenses, be paid into the Treasury of the "Fifth, That the South Carolina Convention ap- State of South Carolina for the use of said State,

THE

GREAT ROBBERY.

113

subject to the order of this Convention or of the ties, by and with the advice and consent of General Assembly.

Seventh. The officers aforesaid shall retain in their hands all property of the United States in their possession, custody, or control, subject to the disposal of the State, who will account for the same upon a final settlement with the Government of the United States.

Secret Action.

The evacuation of Fort Moultrie took place on the night of the 26th. The excitement which followed upon the act resulted, among other things, in the seizure, by the State, of the telegraph lines leading out of Charleston, and in the Convention's sitting almost exclusively in secret session. The legislation, therefore, of the Convention was not made immediately public and was only learned either from the enforcement of the acts, or through the partial record of the Charleston newspapers. The Convention assumed the responsibility of the conduct of affairs in the harbor as well as on land-thus setting aside the power of the Governor and Legislature. Gov. Pickens acted under its orders and instructions.

An ordinance entitled an ordinance to amend the Constitution of South Carolina, in respect to the Executive Departments, was passed in secret session of the Convention, Dec. 27th. It provided as follows:

the Senate; to nominate all officers; to appoint embassadors, ministers, and consuls, as the General Assembly may previously direct, and also all other officers whose appointment has not otherwise been provided for by law; to fill vacancies during the recess of the Senate, by granting commissions, which shall expire at the end of the next session of the Senate; to convene the Senate whenever it thinks it necessary, provided, nevertheless, during the existence of the Commission, that all treaties, directions for the appointment of ambassadors, ministers, consuls, etc., be subject to the advice and consent of the Committee.

Second, That the Governor immediately appoint four persons, with the advice and consent of the committee, who, with the Lieutenant Governor, shall form a Council, whose duty it shall be to advise with him.

The seizure of the Custom House, Arsenal, Post-office, Castle Pinckney, &c.-the occupation of Fort Moultrie and of Sullivan's Island-the removal of the buoys from the channel, thus necessitating a special pilot for entrance-the suppression of the lights in the light-houses-the additional fortification of the city and its approaches-the enlistment First, That the Government has power to of an army-all were accomplished by the alreceive embassadors, ministers, consuls, and most unremitting labors of the Convention agents of foreign powers; to conduct nego- and Governor, in the three days following tiations with foreign powers; to make trea-Major Anderson's movement.

CHAPTER XVII.

ALABAMA
ARRIVAL

A WEEK OF EXCITING EVENTS. THE ROBBERY OF THE INTERIOR
DEPARTMENT. THE ALLEGHANY ARSENAL AFFAIR.
ELECTION. THE SOUTH CAROLINA COMMISSIONER'S
AT WASHINGTON. AFFAIRS IN VIRGINIA. LIST OF ARMY
NAVY OFFICERS FROM SOUTH CAROLINA. SENATOR
TELEGRAPHIC ADDRESS. HOPELESSNESS OF COMPROMISE.

AND

TOOMBS'

THE week of December 25th to January 1st | evening, December 25th, called immediately was ushered in by a revelation of fraud which upon the President, to advise him that he - startled the entire country. The facts were had been informed, by letter, of a large robsubstantially as follows:bery in his department. It was decided to Secretary Thompson, re-investigate the matter at once. Proceeding

The Great Robbery. turning from his trip to to the offices Mr. Thompson attempted to exNorth Carolina, Sunday amine the safe in which the Indian bonds

A Philadelphia journalist having investigated the matter, wrote of it as follows:

were kept, but discovered the key to be miss- | $300,000 worth of them additional, in all ing. He made several attempts to find it, but $870,000. On the 18th of December he adfailed. Different statements were made by dressed a letter to the Secretary of the different subordinates, as to the whereabouts Interior, frankly imparting these facts, ånd of Mr. Godard Bailey, disbursing clerk, a requesting an investigation. This letter he native of South Carolina, to whom the bonds gave to a Senator to be delivered to the were specially intrusted, and who held the Secretary on his return from North Carolina, key of the safe. He was found, and asked which request was complied with. The infor the key, but could not produce it. The vestigation proved the truth of the stateSecretary, at once suspecting the worst, pro-ments. ceeded to the office of Mayor Berrett and solicited a special police force. With these he returned to the Department, and put a "Floyd, to aid Russell, Majors & Co., in comply. guard at every avenue leading to it. The ing with their huge contract for the transportation clerks were summoned, and orders given of army supplies from the Missouri River to Utah, not to allow any of them to pass out. The accepted their drafts, in some instances absolutely, safe was then broken open. The bonds were in others conditionally, for a sum exceeding $800,000. missing. The register of the bonds was found. Subsequently he allowed Russell, Majors & Co. to Monday, Bailey, it was ascertained, was miss-draw the whole amount due them under their coning. Mr. Black, Secretary of State, District Attorney Ould and others, having knowledge of the nature of the bonds, were called in by Secretary Thompson. The clerks were severally examined as to their knowledge of the disappearance of the instruments. After much close investigation, Monday and Tuesday, the facts were elicited. They proved

to be as follows:

About two months previous to the discovery of the loss, Mr. E. Russell, of the firm of Majors, Russell & Waddell, held about a million of dollars of the official acceptances of the Secretary of War. These acceptances had been given, conditionally, in advance, for transportation of supplies of the army, under contract with the Government. Mr. Russell, not finding himself able to negotiate the acceptances, was greatly embarrassed, pecuniarily; and, ascertaining from Godard Bailey, with whom he was intimately acquainted, that the latter had control over three millions of Indian Trust Funds, invested in bonds of different States, arranged with him for about half a million of dollars-these bonds to be hypothecated in New York. As security he gave Bailey the acceptances of Mr. Floyd, which Bailey placed in the safe where the bonds were kept. During December these bonds greatly depreciated, and the bankers in New York, who made advances on them, called for additional security. Bailey, in order to save the bonds, delivered over

tract, with the assurance on their part that all of his acceptances as Secretary of War should be retired. Drafts matured, and Russell, Majors & Co were un

able to meet them, and others were soon to mature,

which, unless money could be had, would be pro

tested also. Under these circumstances, Mr. Bailey, the clerk in charge of the Indian Trust Fund, who, it is said, married a niece of Secretary Floyd, was approached by an agent of Russell, Majors & Co.,

and told that unless the acceptances referred to were provided for immediately, the Secretary of War would be disgraced irredeemably. He was then asked to lend to Russell, Majors & Co., temporarily, State bonds of the Indian Trust Fund to the amount of eight hundred and seventy thousand dollars. Bailey, influenced by the conviction that this breach of trust was the only means of saving the honor of the Secretary of War, and satisfied, also, that Russell, Majors & Co. would be able to replace the bonds according to promise, delivered bonds amounting to

$870,000 to Maj. Russell, the principal of that firm, who hypothecated them to the Bank of the Republic, New York. This is said to be Bailey's version of his unfortunate breach of official trust, which it was impossible to conceal longer, inasmuch as the Indian Bureau had applied for the coupons, to collect the January interest on the bonds abstracted. Hence, the confession of Bailey to the Secretary of the Interior, on Saturday, of the whole affair."

This affair, whatever its causes, was unfortunate in its results, since it added much to public excitement, and turned popular sentiment very strongly against an administration which had failed so utterly to answer to the demands of the hour. Report magnified the

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