CHAPTER V. THE SOUTHERN CONFEDERACY. government, by "the sovereign and inde- On the 4th of February, the same day | the political associations with the nationa that John Tyler's Peace Congress assembled at Washington, the delegates of six seceding States, South Carolina, Mississippi, Alabama, Florida, Georgia, and Louisiana, met in convention at Montgomery, Alabama. Texas, completing the original "seven," sent her delegation some days after. The members were not chosen by the people, but by the Seceding conventions of the States; it being a prominent characteristic of the whole movement, that it was carried on as far as possible out of the reach of popular discussion. A few leading schemers, in fact, kept control of the entire affair. That they succeeded in exciting the enthusiasm of the people, and secured, as the experiment went on, an extraordinary degree of support, is not inconsistent with the original usurpation. Fortyone delegates, in unequal numbers from the different States, were present at the opening and formed the convention. Of these, the members best known to the country were the Georgia representa-sibility which may be necessary for the tives, Robert Toombs, late United States Senator, and Howell Cobb, late United States Secretary of the Treasury. The latter, on motion of R. B. Rhett, Senior, of South Carolina, was called to the chair. In his address on taking his seat, after the usual complimentary sentence of thanks and expression of good intentions, he alluded briefly to the dissolution of successful completion of the great work committed to our trust, placing before our countrymen and the world our acts and their results, as the justification of the course which we may pursue and adopt. With a consciousness of the justice of our cause, and with a confidence in the guidance and blessings of a kind Providence, we will this day inaugurate for the South a new era of peace, security, and pros perity." Of the assumption of the responsibility the public was not left long in doubt; the "new era" of peaceful felicity was not so abundantly realized. to the public property and the public debt, at the time of their withdrawal from them, these States hereby declaring it to be their wish and earnest desire to adjust everything pertaining to the common property, common liabilities, and common obligations of that Union, upon principles of right, justice, equity, and good faith." The first step of the Convention was the preparation of a Constitution, which, as it was mainly a transcript of that of the United States, caused little delay. It was brought forward on the 8th, and unanimously adopted. It was ordained On the following day, the 9th, Jefferto continue one year from the inaugura-son Davis of Mississippi, was chosen tion of the President, or until a perma- President, and Alexander H. Stephens nent confederation of the States whose of Georgia, Vice President of the Condelegates were assembled, should be put federation. The former, as a master in operation. In the few new terms of spirit of the conspiracy, an agent of unthis Provisional Constitution two politic doubted ability, calm, polished, sagacious, clauses were introduced; one intended of great concentration of purpose, versed to ingratiate the government with foreign in political intrigue, of experience in the powers, the other to appeal to the inter-most arduous affairs of State, in war and ests of the border States. By the first, finance and executive administration, in the importation of African negroes "from the cabinet and the field, was well qualiany foreign country other than the slave- fied to take the lead. About fifty-four holding States of the United States" was years old, a native of Kentucky, carried forbidden; and by the other, power was by his father to Mississippi in his boygiven to Congress "to prohibit the intro-hood, he had entered West Point by the duction of slaves from any State not a member of this Confederacy." The intimation was significant enough. It was addressed to Virginia and the other more northern slave States, which derived a large income from the raising and exportation of negroes to the southern markets. As for the prohibition of the foreign slave trade, there were, doubtless, not a few in the South to whom the provision was decidedly unpalatable; but it might be submitted to as a good stroke of policy which could be amended thereafter. A stringent fugitive slave law was included, and an article adopted requiring the Government to "take immediate steps for the settlement of all matters between the States forming it and their late confederates of the United States, in relation favor of President Monroe, and passed from that institution to a career of honorable distinction in the Black Hawk war. On his retirement from this duty he married the daughter of Colonel Taylor, afterward the President, with whom he had served, and became a cotton planter in Mississippi. He was sent to Congress from that State in 1845, and resigned his seat to take part in the Mexican war, again by the side of General Taylor, with whom, at the head of his famed Mississippi Rifles, he acquired new laurels at Buena Vista. His coolness and gallantry in the battle, where, though wounded, he still kept the field, and powerfully assisted in turning the wavering fortunes of the day, were specially commended in the official dispatch. In 1848 he was chosen CHOICE OF LEADERS. to the United States Senate, but did not complete his term, retiring in 1851, to be a candidate for Governor of Mississippi as an advocate of disunion principles. He was not successful, but soon reappeared in public life as Secretary of War in the Cabinet of President Pierce. When Mr. Buchanan succeeded, he again entered the Senate, from which, as we have seen, he retired to take part in the seceding movement. In person he is described by an intelligent observer who saw him during the session of the Convention at Montgomery, as "a man of slight, sinewy figure, rather over the middle height, and of erect, soldierlike bearing. His features are regular and well defined, but the face is thin, and marked on cheek and brow with many wrinkles, and is rather careworn and haggard. One eye is apparently blind; the other is dark, piercing and intelligent."* His associate, Stephens, was of a somewhat different disposition and force of mind; more conservative in his tastes: less politic and determined in his councils; of a more genial flow of oratory. Born in Georgia in 1812, his youth had been passed in poverty, from which he had struggled upward to eminent success at the bar of his native State. He had served in Congress with distinction, for many years, at first, as a member of the old whig party, and afterwards as a leader of the Southern democracy. Since 1858, he had lived in retirement. Like Jefferson Davis, he had suffered from disease, which had left its mark in his weak and attenuated frame. He was chosen, doubtless, to conciliate his somewhat refractory State, which had shown some reluctance to follow in the * W. H. Russell, Correspondent :f the London Times, Mcntgomery, May 8, 1861. 67 footsteps of South Carolina and the more ardent of her revolting brethren. Indeed, Stephens himself, in one of his excellent speeches, had, but a few months before, strongly resisted any act of secession. In the previous November he had, in the Hall of the House of Representatives at the capital of Georgia, demonstrated to his fellow-citizens that the election of Mr. Lincoln to the Presidency, was by no means an adequate cause of withdrawal from the Union. "Let us," said he, "not anticipate a threatened evil. If he violates the Constitution, then will come our time to act. Do not let us break it, because, forsooth, ̈ he may. If he does, that is the time for us to strike. I think it would be injudicious and unwise to do this sooner. I do not anticipate that Mr. Lincoln will do anything to jeopard our safety or security, whatever may be his spirit to do it; for he is bound by the constitutional checks which are thrown around him, which at this time render him powerless to do any great mischief. This shows the wisdom of our system. The President of the United States is no emperor, no dictator; he is clothed with no absolute power. He can do nothing unless he is backed by power in Congress. The House of Representatives is largely in the majority against him. In the Senate he will also be powerless. He cannot appoint an officer without the consent of the Senate; he cannot form a Cabinet without the same consent. He will be in the condition of George III., the embodiment of Toryism, who had to ask the Whigs to appoint his ministers, and was compelled to receive a cabinet utterly opposed to his views; and so Mr. Lincoln will be compelled to ask of the Senate to choose for him a cabinet, if the Democ racy of that body choose to put him on sented a glowing picture of its growing such terms." wealth and improvements. Its taxable property had doubled since 1850-a year when many of its inhabitants had longed to carry the State out of the Union. "Do you believe," said he, "that if that policy had been carried out at that time, we would be the same great people that we are to-day? . . . When I look around," he added, with a prophetic intimation, casting a shadow over the scene, "and see our prosperity in everything, agriculture, commerce, art, science, and every department of education, physical and mental, as well as moral advancement, and our colleges, I think, in the face of such an exhibition, if we can, without the loss of power, or any essential right or interest, remain in the Union, it is our duty to ourselves and to posterity to do so. Let us not too readily yield to this temptation. Our first parents, the great progenitors of the From arguments and considerations like these, he rose to the contemplation of the Government of the United States. "I am not," said he, "one of those who believe this Union has been a curse up to this time. True men, men of integrity, entertain different views from me on this subject. I do not question their right to do so; I would not impugn their motives in so doing. Nor will I undertake to say that this Government of our fathers is perfect. There is nothing perfect in this world of a human origin; nothing connected with human nature, from man himself to any of his works. You may select the wisest and best men for your judges, and yet, how many defects are there in the administration of justice? You may select the wisest and best men for your legislators, and yet how many defects are apparent in your laws? And it is so in our Government." human race, were not without a like In full view, nothwithstanding, of these temptation when in the garden of Eden philosophical disparagements, he delib- They were led to believe that their conerately asserted his "settled conviction" dition would be bettered-that their eyes that "this government of our fathers, would be opened, and that they would with all its defects, comes nearer the ob- become as Gods. They in an evil hour jects of all good governments than any yielded. Instead of becoming gods, they other on the face of the earth. . . only saw their own nakedness. I look Where will you go, following the sun in upon this country, with our institutions, its circuit around our globe, to find a as the Eden of the world, the paradise government that better protects the lib- of the Universe. It may be that out of erties of its people, and secures to them it we may become greater and more the blessings we enjoy. I think that one prosperous, but I am candid and sincere of the evils that beset us, is a surfeit of in telling you that I fear if we evince liberty, an exuberance of the priceless passion, and without sufficient cause shall blessings for which we are ungrateful." take that step-a disruption of the ties that bind us to the Union-that, instead of becoming gods, we will become demons, and at no distant day commence cutting one another's throats."* About Nor was this said of the North merely, or of the country generally, but of the State of Georgia, in particular-a State which might and should have controlled the entire rebellion movement. He pre * Speech at Milledgeville, November 14,1800. MR. STEPHENS' DECLARATIONS. 69 the same time he wrote to a friend, nature and the laws of the Creator.. "When this Union is dissevered, if of ne- whether read in the Book of Inspiration, cessity it must be, I see at present but or the great Book of Manifestations little prospect of good government after-around us, we have all the natural elewards. At the North, I feel confident ments essential to attainment in the highanarchy will soon ensue. And whether we shall be better off at the South, will depend upon many things that I am not now satisfied that we have any assurance of. Revolutions are much more easily started than controlled, and the men who begin them, even for the best purposes and objects, seldom end them."* Yet, in spite of his own convictions, and his contentment with present good and fear of future evil, with nothing in the elements of political life and action at Washington to exasperate further, but, on the contrary, with much to conciliate, we now find this sagacious, thoughtful, feeling orator enlisted as the Vice President of a rebel government. It was an unnatural position for such a man to be placed in, but not an uncommon choice for such emergencies, when bolder men, whose objects would be suspected, keep behind the scenes and thrust forward an image of mildness and gentleness. Moderate men are the tools of revolutionists; they gain favor and conciliate, while they are worked for sterner purposes than they conceive of. On the evening of his election Mr. Stephens addressed a few words to the citizens of Montgomery, breathing of peace and a prosperous future, with one special and remarkable reference to the prominent motive of the revolt. "With staples," said he, "and productions which contest the commerce of the world; with institutions, so far as regards our organic and social policy, in strict conformity to * Alexander H. Stephens, Crawfordsville, Ga., Novem ber, 25, 186) N. Y. Herald, December 6, 1860. est degree of power and glory. These institutions have been much assailed, and it is our mission to vindicate the great truth on which they rest, and with them exhibit the highest type of civilization which it is possible for human society to reach." This Utopia, to which the admiration of the world was invited, was in other words an ideal state of society built upon the foundations of slavery. The following month the principle was still more distinctly annunciated by Vice President Stephens in a speech at Savannah, on the blessings and advantages of the new Constitution. "This," said he, "has put at rest forever all the agitating questions relating to our peculiar institutions-African slavery as it exists among us-the proper status of the negro in our form of civilization. This was the immediate cause of the late rupture and present revolution. Jefferson, in his forecast, had anticipated this, as the 'rock upon which the old Union would split.' He was right. What was conjecture with him, is now a realized fact. But whether he fully comprehended the great truth upon which that rock stood and stands, may be doubted. The prevailing ideas entertained by him and most of the leading statesmen at the time of the formation of the old Constitution were, that the enslavement of the African was in violation of the laws of nature; that it was wrong in principle, socially, morally and politically. It was an evil they knew not well how to deal with; but the general opinion of the men of that day was, that, somehow or |