was made by certain Southern Senators, ernor Brown on the 3d of January. including Davis, Wigfall, Slidell, and Fort Morgan, at the entrance to the bay others, to prolong the negotiation, when of Mobile, with the arsenal and its supthe answer of the Government was giv-plies at that city, were similarly occupied en, through the Secretary of War, Mr. the next day. Forts Johnson and CasHolt, to the final demand, which was well were seized by the State troops of somewhat modified by an offer on the North Carolina a few days later. On the part of South Carolina to purchase Sum- 10th, Louisiana seized Forts St. Philip ter and its contents as property of the and Jackson on the Mississippi, and the United States, with the alternative of arsenal at Baton Rouge. The Floridians taking it by force in case this novel ne- secured Fort Barrancas and the navy gotiation were refused. Mr. Holt's reply, yard at Pensacola, on the 12th. The one of the most admirable of his excel- last day of the month the United States lent State papers, combatted this strange Mint and Custorn-house, at New Orleans, proposition, pointed out its inadmissible with about half a million of dollars of character, and while it asserted his re- the public money, passed by a bold act solve to maintain the fort in its present of confiscation, into the keeping of the position, and make every effort, if the State. The arsenal at Little Rock, in occasion arose for it was now repre- Arkansas, and the military posts and sented by Major Anderson that he stood property of Texas, fell into rebel hands in no need of immediate aid-to reinforce a short time after. The spoliation of the it also, renewed the President's declara- Texas forts was particularly discreditable, tions of his pacific policy and intentions. since it was accomplished by a prominent 'If," was its conclusion, "with all the officer of the United States service. multiplied proofs which exist of the Pres- Brigadier-General Twiggs, who had gainident's anxiety for peace, and of the ear-ed deserved distinction in Mexico under nestness with which he has pursued it, the authorities of South Carolina shall assault Fort Sumter, and peril the lives of the handful of brave and loyal men shut up within its walls, and thus plunge our country into the horrors of civil war, then upon them and those they represent must rest the responsibility."*

Whilst this was the condition of affairs at Sumter and at Charleston, the public property in the other Southern States was also suffering spoliation. Under plea of danger from popular violence, Forts Pulaski and Jackson, the fortifications of the harbor of Savannah were taken possession of for the State by Gov

* Hon. J. Holt to Hon. J. W. Hayne, War Department, February 6, 1861.

the flag of his country, first deserted his troops who were guarding the frontier, and not content with this "infamy of treason to his flag, added the crowning crime of deliberately handing over to the armed enemies of his government all the public property intrusted to his charge, thus even depriving the loyal men under his command of all means of transportation out of the State.' The United States soldiers, as they arrived from their distant posts at the seaboard, were made prisoners, and though urgently solicited, not a man of them would follow the example of their general and abandon their allegiance to their coun

* Report of the Secretary of War, Simon Cameron, July 1, 1861.

try. After suffering various hardships, and a portion of them making an ineffectual attempt to escape by sea, they were all compelled to lay down their arms. They finally gave their parole and were allowed to return to the North.

More than a million of dollars' worth of property-mules, horses, wagons and various materials of war-was directly transferred by General Twiggs to the Rebel Commissioners. The loss of the government property of various kinds at the forts and stations in the State was estimated at about three millions. On the 1st of March, one of the last few

days of the retiring Administration, the following Order, signed by Secretary Holt, was issued from the War Department at Washington:-"By the direc tion of the President of the United States, it is ordered that Brigadier-General David E. Twiggs be, and is hereby dismissed from the army of the United States, for his treachery to the flag of his country, in having surrendered on the 18th of February, 1861, on the demand of the authorities of Texas, the military posts and other property of the United States in his department and under his charge "

CHAPTER IV.

SECESSION IN CONGRESS.

was listened to by the patriotic members. Bold assailants of the nation, the very audacity of the course of the Southerners was their safety. The loyalty of the people had hitherto been so well preserved, that the Government for a while appeared incapable of receiving the deadly blow, and made no defence against the stroke.

THE speeches and proceedings of the | missiveness with which their language National Congress offered, meanwhile, a curious reflection of the disordered state of the public mind. On the part of the Southern members, there was a singular tone of assurance as to the progress and triumph of the Secession movement. They appeared to regard it from the first as an established fact, something which could neither be gainsayed nor refuted, which was proof equally against argument and arms, which they had but to assert to maintain. Looking into those two remarkable volumes of the Congressional Globe in which the acts and debates of the session are recorded, and which will be eagerly studied, with mingled feelings of sorrow and astonishment by posterity, to pluck out the heart of this mystery, we know not which most to wonder at ;-the reckless, wanton conduct of the secessionists, or the patient sub

The debate on the President's Message in the Senate at once called forth the most decided expressions. The language of Iverson of Georgia was suf ficiently direct and treasonable, if treason had been understood. The right of secession, he frankly admitted, was not given in the Constitution either expressly or by reservation; it was simply an act of revolution. With equal candor, he proclaimed that the repeal of the personal liberty bills of the North would be of

But the Senator from Georgia said something further of the calculations of rebellion, of what it intended, and upon what it relied. "We intend, Mr. Pres ident," he continued, "to go out peaceably if we can, forcibly if we must; but

no consequence in stopping the progress incubus that stands between the people of disunion. 'It is not because," said and their sovereign will." A prompt he, "that in their practical operation and vigorous method, surely, of expeditthey ever do any harm." Nor did he ing the good work of secession by the look for any overt act of injury upon the assassination of a governor. part of Mr. Lincoln. The danger to be dreaded was in the disposition of the North on the subject of slavery, and the influence which could be exerted by the dominant party for its extinction. "Why, sir," was his language, "the power of this Federal Government could be so ex-I do not believe with the Senator from ercised against the institution of slavery New Hampshire, (Mr. Hale,) that there in the Southern States as that, without is going to be any war. If five or eight an overt act, the institution would not States go out, they will necessarily draw last ten years. We know that, sir; and all the other Southern States after them. seeing the storm which is approaching, That is a consequence that nothing can although it may be seemingly in the dis- prevent. If five or eight States go out tance, we are determined to seek our own of this Union, I should like to see the safety and security before it shall burst man who would propose a declaration of upon us and overwhelm us with its fury, war against them, or attempt to force when we are not in a situation to defend them into obedience to the Federal Govourselves." This, at least, was a candid ernment at the point of the bayonet admission of the motives of the course or the sword. If one State alone was to to be pursued. go out, unsustained by her sister States, possibly war might ensue, and there might be an attempt made to coerce her, and that would give rise to civil war; but, sir, South Carolina is not to go out alone. In my opinion she will be sustained by all her Southern sisters. They may not all go out immediately; but they will in the end join South Carolina in this important movement ; and we shall, in the next twelve months, have a Confederacy of the Southern States, and a government inaugurated and in successful operation, which, in my opinion, will be a government of the greatest prosperity and power the world has ever seen. Such was the well-calculated description of the destruction of his

"Now, sir," he added defiantly, we intend to go out of this Union. I speak what I believe upon this floor, that before the 4th of March, five of the Southern States at least "he had already enumerated them, with a glowing panegyric of their progress in secession-" will have declared their independence; and I am satisfied that three others of the Cotton States will follow as soon as the action of the people can be had." There was "a clog," he admitted, in the case of Texas, whose aged Governor Houston had shown considerable reluctance so lightly to abandon the old flag; but for that he had a remedy in this classic intimation: "If he does not yield to public sertiment some Texan Brutus will arise to rid his country of the hoary-headed 1860.

* Remarks of Mr. Iverson in the Senate, December 5

country, presented to John C. Breckenridge, the Vice President of the nation, in the chair, and which, for aught that appears on the record, was suffered to pass without remonstrance or rebuke.

The remarks of Louis T. Wigfall, Senator from Texas, jocosely uttered, were to the same effect. "I know," said he, "that there is much truth, there is much philosophy in Dogberry's saying, 'An two men ride of a horse, one must ride behind;' and if we proposed to remain in this Union, we should undoubtedly submit to the inauguration of any man who was elected by a constitutional majority. We propose nothing of that sort. We simply say, that a man who has been distasteful to us has been elected, and we choose to consider that as a sufficient ground for leaving the Union, and we intend to leave the Union. Then, if you desire it, bring us back. When you undertake that, and have accomplished it, you may be like the man who purchased the elephant-you may find it rather difficult to decide what to do with the animal.”

Nelson of Tennessee, Rust of Arkansas, and others of note. Mr. Powell of Kentucky, the mover of the Resolution, presided over the Senate Committee, of which, Hunter of Virginia, Crittenden of Kentucky, Seward of New York, Toombs of Georgia, Douglas of Illinois, Collamer of Vermont, Jefferson Davis of Mississippi, Wade of Ohio, Bigler of Pennsylvania, Rice of Minnesota, Doolittle of Wisconsin and Grimes of Iowa, were members. To these committees various propositions involving more or less of compromise were referred. They were taken into consideration, and nothing came of them but further dissatisfaction. The Senate Committee, after ten days' discussion, reported their inability to agree upon any general plan of adjustment.

The House Committee held out longer, though with little better result. After more than a month's anxious deliberation. a majority report was submitted by Mr. Corwin, proposing various recommendations, such as a request to the non-slaveholding States to repeal all laws in conThe House of Representatives began flict with the laws for the recovery of the discussions of the session in a more fugitives, and on the other hand, a modipromising mood. Their first act, on the fication of the fugitive slave law itself ; reception of the Message was, on motion an amendment to the Constitution, denyof Mr. Boteler, of Virginia, "to refer so ing for ever to Congress any power to much of it as related to the present interfere with slavery in the States till perilous condition of the country to a every State in the Union shall consent special committee of one from each to its exercise; and a settlement of the State." By the side of this committee question of slavery in the territories by of thirty-three, a similar committee of at once admitting New Mexico as a State thirteen was presently appointed in the "on an equal footing with the original Senate, with the design of devising some States." A minority report of Washplan of reconciliation, to relieve the burn of Wisconsin and Tappan of New country of the threatening disunion. Hampshire, scouted the proposed palliaMr. Corwin, of Ohio, was at the head tives. "South Carolina," was its lanof the House Committee, which included guage, "is our 'sick man,' that is laborCharles Francis Adams of Massachusetts, ing under the influence of the most

COMPROMISE RESOLUTIONS.

53

distressing of maladies. A morbid dis- ish slavery in the District of Columbia ease which has been preying upon that while it exists in Virginia and Maryland, State for a long series of years has at or either, or without the consent of the last assumed the character of acute inhabitants or remuneration to owners; mania, and has extended to other mem- and further, that Congress shall have no bers of the Confederacy, and to think power to prohibit or hinder the transof restoring the patient to health by the portation of slaves from one State to nostrums proposed, is, in our judgment, another, or to a Territory in which slaves perfectly idle." It closed with a resolu- are, by law, permitted to be held, whether tion, "that the provisions of the Consti- that transportation be by land, navigatution are ample for the preservation of ble rivers, or by the sea. By a fifth arthe Union and the protection of all the ticle, Congress was to provide for the material interests of the country; that it payment to the owner of the value of a needs to be obeyed rather than amended, fugitive slave whose return was preand our extrication from present difficul- vented by violence or intimidation. A ties is to be looked for in efforts to pre- sixth article provided that these provisserve and protect the public property ions should never be affected by any and enforce the laws, rather than in new future amendment of the Constitution. guarantees for particular interests, or An accompanying series of Resolutions compromises or concessions to unreason-recommended the enforcement of the exable demands." isting fugitive slave law, its improvement

The most important or best known of to the extent of making the commissionthe many propositions submitted to Con-er's fee equal in amount in the cases degress were, doubtless, the Resolutions offered by the venerable Senator Crittenden, of Kentucky, who, with the most patriotic intentions and unwearied zeal, sought to reconcile all differences by a comprehensive system of concession and compromise. He proposed several articles of Amendment to the Constitution, providing for the prohibition of slavery in all territory north of the line 36 degrees 30 minutes, and its protection to the south of that line, leaving the admission of all future new States out of any portion of the territory, north or south, to be uncontrolled in respect to the peculiar institution; denying to Congress the power to abolish slavery in places, (the forts, dockyards, &c.) under its exclusive jurisdiction, and situate within the limits of States that permit the holding of slaves; restricting the power to abol

cided by him, whether his decision be in favor of or against the claimant, and the repeal by the States of the personal liberty bills, and that the laws forbidding the African slave trade, be made effectual. Arguments and debates were held on these Resolutions during the greater part of the session. Other resolutions and amendments were offered. There were caucuses of members from the Border States outside of Congress; there were conferences within; there were ingenious schemes of individuals, by Johnson, in the Senate, and others. No less than seventeen members of the House, at different times proposed Amendments to the Constitution, beside the labors of the Committee of thirty-three, and other simple resolutions, deprecating hostilities and suggesting terms of adjustment of existing difficulties. There was a Peace Con