Spain sell her again." He (Mr. Buchanan) had admitted that Texas cost us a war with Mexico, and 10,000 lives, and besides, we had paid Texas $10,000,000 for land which she never owned." Again, speaking of war: "The atmosphere is full of it. I have determined that I will do all that is in my power to rescue the country from such a dreadful fate. But I will not consider this question of war till all hope of peaceable adjustment fails. Better, a thousand times better, that all political parties be disbanded and dissolved. Better that every public man now in existence be consigned to retirement and political martyrdom, than this government should be dissolved, and this country plunged in civil war. I trust we are to have no war for a platform. I can fight for my country, but there never was a political platform that I would go to war for. I fear if this country is to be wrecked it is to be done by those who prefer party to their country." Later, in reply to Mr. Wigfall, of Texas, he said: "The senator (Wigfall) had better read the Constitution again, then let him tell me where he finds the power given to this government to protect horses, or cattle, or merchandise, or slaves, or any species of property in any state or territory of this Union?" Until the close of Congress he earnestly sought to secure peace, by such amendments to the Constitution as would forever place slavery without the bar of Congressional action or Federal controversy.

Mr. Trumbull, his colleague, was an able and ardent advocate of the policy of the party which had elected Mr. Lincoln, yet he was conciliatory, though bating not one jot of Federal authority. He said in a speech on the night of March 3d, that there would have been no triumphant secession but for complicity with treason in the very cabinet of the government. The President received commissioners who, under any other government would have been hung for treason, and that, not until the last moment, when forced to take sides, and either join the secessionists and let Major Anderson perish, or to meet the anger of his countrymen, did the President declare for the Union. Speaking of compromise he said, if they wanted anything let them go back to the Missouri Compromise and stand to it. All agreed that Congress had not the right to interfere with slavery in the States. But he would never, by his vote, make ɔne slave, and the people of the great Northwest would never con

sent by their act, to establish slavery anywhere. He did not believe the Constitution needed amending, but was willing to vote a recommendation to the States to make a proposal to call a convention to consider amendments. His position was clearly defined; viz., peace, if possible; government in the Union at all hazards.

In the popular branch were several members of prominence. There was Owen Lovejoy, a primitive anti-slavery man, who had been bereaved of a brother by a pro-slavery mob. John A. Logan and Mr. McClernand, both of whom became Major Generals of U. S. Volunteers, were in opposition to the Republican party, both conservative, and Mr. Logan opposed to coercion. Mr. Morris, Mr. Kellogg and Mr. Washburne were also prominent. Mr. Lovejoy, considered one of the most radical of the extreme abolitionists, on the 17th of December, offered, and pressed to a vote, the following:

"WHEREAS, the Constitution of the United States is the supreme law of the land, and its ready and faithful obedience a duty of all good and law-abiding citi zens; therefore,

"Resolved, that we deprecate the spirit of disobedience to the Constitution, wherever manifested, and that we earnestly recommend the repeal of all nullification laws; and that it is the duty of the President to protect and defend the pro perty of the United States."

The conspirators were much annoyed by this flank movement of "an extremist" and generally refused to vote, but without them it was passed by an affirmative vote of 124, none voting nay. On the same day Mr. Morris, for the third time, brought forward his Union resolution declaring "the immense value of the national Union," that "we will frown upon the first dawning of every attempt to alienate any portion of our country from the rest, or enfeeble the sacred ties which now link together the various parts," and added, "nor do we see anything in the election of Abraham Lincoln to the Presidency of the United States, or from any other existing cause to justify its dissolution," &c., which was adopted by a vote of 115 to 44. It is singular to find among the nays that of Daniel Sickles, subsequently a gallant and able Major-General of the Union army. Later, Mr. Lovejoy made a remark in caucus which has become famous among the memorable sayings which the war has occasioned. He was speaking of a proposition to divide the country to the Pacific between freedom and slavery, and in his own peculiar

LOVEJOY ON THE REVOLT.

49 way said, "There never was a more causeless revolt since Lucifer led his cohorts of apostate angels against the throne of God; but I never heard that the Almighty proposed to compromise the matter by allowing the rebels to kindle the fires of hell south of the celestial meridian of 36° 30'!" Mr. Logan has been spoken of as opposed to coercive measures at the outset, but when the vote was called upon a resolution approving the act of Major Anderson in removing from Fort Moultrie and also pledging to "support the President in all constitutional measures to enforce the laws, and preserve the Union," he said in answering to his name, "As the resolution merits my unqualified approval, I vote aye."

The record of Kellogg, McClernand, Washburne, &c., during that memorable session, the last of the XXXVI. Congress, need not be transcribed. Whatever theoretical differences may have divided them, when war really came they were found unflinching on the side of the Union.

The position of the Governor and other state authorities, will be seen in a subsequent chapter. It is enough to say that there was no doubt in what direction the hearty influence of the Illinois Executive would be thrown. This introductory chapter will be fitly closed with a statement of the principal events down to the close of Mr. Buchanan's administration.

On the 28th of December South Carolina troops occupied Fort Moultrie and Castle Pinckney, and the Palmetto flag was hoisted on the ramparts, instead of the honored national colors. The ensuing day John B. Floyd resigned his place in the cabinet, as Secretary of War, charging, with an impudence unparalleled, that the President, by declining to remove Major Anderson, and to withdraw the Federal troops from Charleston Harbor, designed to plunge the country into civil war! He said, "I cannot consent to be the agent of such a calamity." On the same day the South Carolina Commissioners presented their official credentials which, on the next day were declined. On the 1st day of January, 1861, the loyal press rang with warning that the Capital was in danger of seizure by armed rebels, and called for instant and efficient measures for its protection. On the 2d it was announced that Lieut.General Scott had taken steps to organize the militia of the District of Columbia, and that regulars had been placed in the navy yard

ment.

and other precautions taken against surprise or revolution. On the same day came telegraphic information that Georgia had declared for secession, and that Georgia troops had taken possession of the U. S. Arsenal in Augusta, and Forts Pulaski and Jackson. Governor Ellis, of North Carolina, seized the forts at Beaufort and Wilmington, and the arsenal at Fayetteville, stating with Floyd-like truthfulness that he did so to protect them from mobs! On the 3d the South Carolina Commissioners departed from the Capitol. On the 5th it was announced that enrollments of men to aid the government in enforcing the laws and maintaining the union of the States were progressing in the Northern cities. The Alabama and Mississippi delegations in Congress, who had met the preceding evening, telegraphed the conventions of their respective states, advising them to secede, stating there was no prospect of satisfactory adjustThe steamer "Star of the West," sailed secretly from New York with supplies and reinforcements for Fort Sumter. Companies of Federal troops were being concentrated in and about Washington, and the public began to hope that at last Mr. Buchanan would prove himself worthy of honorable mention in American history. On the 7th the conventions of Alabama, Mississippi and Tennessee met. On the 8th Secretary Thompson resigned his seat in the Cabinet, on the ground that, contrary to promise, troops had been sent to Major Anderson. On the next day the "Star of the West" was fired into from Fort Moultrie and Morris Island, and turned homeward, leaving Sumter and its gallant defenders. Henceforward events crowd with fearful rapidity, of which only a few can be recorded. The ordinance of secession passed the Mississippi convention on the 9th, that of Florida, purchased with Union gold, on the 10th, and that of Alabama on the 11th. The same day witnessed the resignation of Mr. Thomas, Secretary of the Treasury, and the seizure by the rebels of the arsenal at Baton Rouge, and Forts Jackson and St. Philip at the mouth of the Mississippi River, and Fort Pike at the Lake Ponchartrain entrance. On the 13th the Pensacola Navy Yard and Fort Barrancas were surrendered to rebel troops by Col. Armstrong. Lieut. Slemmer, who had withdrawn his command from Fort McRae to Fort Pickens defied Armstrong's orders, and an nounced his intention to hold his post at all hazards. On the 16th

TROOPS TENDERED AND DECLINED.

51

Major-General Sandford, of New York, tendered the President and General Scott the service of the first division of N. Y. Militia, well armed and disciplined, and numbering seven thousand. On the 18th came a voice from Massachusetts, her Legislature unanimously tendering the President all the men and money required to maintain the authority of the Federal Government, and declaring that South Carolina, in seizing the national fortifications with the Post Office and Custom House, and in firing upon a vessel in the U. S. service, had been guilty of an act of war. And so it had as truly as when, later, fire was opened upon Fort Sumter. The Georgia Convention voted the secession ordinance on the 19th. On the 20th it was announced in Washington that a "thousand allied troops" were besieging Lieut. Slemmer and his command in Fort Pickens. On the 24th the Augusta Arsenal was seized by Georgia authorities. The next day the Louisiana ordinance of secession passed the convention. On the 30th the revenue cutters, Cass and McClelland, were betrayed by their commanders into the hands of Louisiana and Alabama rebel officers. On the 1st of February the U. S. Mint and Custom House at New Orleans were seized, and the same day the Texas Convention voted that state out of the Union. On the 4th the "Peace Convention" assembled in Washington, and the Congress of seceded States met in Montgomery, Ala., and John Tyler was chosen President of the former. On the 9th a provisional Constitution was adopted at Montgomery, it being the U. S. constitution varied to suit the purposes of treason. Jefferson Davis, of Mis sissippi, was chosen President, and Alexander H. Stephens, despite the sentiments of his speech already quoted, Vice-President of the "Confederate States of North America." And yet the President of the United States saw no occasion to employ the troops tendered him! The government was going to pieces, and he was trembling with fear, not daring to strike, when a single blow might have crushed rebellion and saved the nation its terrible ordeal of blood. On the 11th Mr. Lincoln left his home for Washington; of his journey the next chapter will speak. On the 18th Jefferson Davis was inaugurated President of the C. S. A. On the 25th it was ascertained that General Twiggs, commanding the department of Texas, had basely betrayed his trust and given up all the military posts, munitions, arms, &c., to the authorities of Texas. On the 3d of