SEIZURE OF FORTS. seeing that spirit, gave over every effort for adjustment. If it was necessary to make the Constitution itself recognize Slavery, to protect Slavery, by special enactment, they would not touch the question of Constitutional amendment. Mr. Crittenden visited the President, Saturday, to congratulate with him on the adoption, at length, of a settlement. The pure-hearted and patriotic statesman was yet to be undeceived as to the animus of the Southern Secessionists; his congratulations were premature. Caucus of Republicans. A general caucus of Republican members, Saturday, was called to especially consider that seventh section, which was the proposition of Mr. Hale, of Pennsylvania, on the Border Committee. Mr. Howard, of Michigan, objected to any "compromise" at all, as it would, of itself, be an acdnowledgment of wrong which did not exist. Mr. Lovejoy, of Maine, expressed similar sentiments. Speaking of the malcontents of the Slave States, and the proposed compromise of dividing the Territory between Freedom and Slavery to the Pacific, he 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 thirty-six thirty." 173 ministration of the Government is resisted by those opposed to Mr. Lincoln, the crime will be theirs. When the Republicans took their position before the election, they knew they would have to meet this state of things, and now they should not put the burden upon posterity. Messrs. Hickman, and Stevens, of Pennsylvania, and Case of Indiana, opposed all compromises, in speeches couched in unmistakable language. Mr. Pettit, of Indiana, from the Committee of Border States, said he had approved all the propositions in that Committee except the one proposed by Mr. Hale, upon which he did not vote. He defended the Border States for their efforts to arrange matters. Mr. Stanton, of Ohio, and Mr. Nixon, of New Jersey, expressed themselves in favor of some compromise. The caucus unanimously agreed to press the business of the country in the House. Mr. Dawes, of Massachusetts, moved that no vote be taken on any of the propositions, and that the caucus adjourn sine die, which was carried. The caucus was fully attended, and was harmonious at the close against all compromise in view of the ultimatum made by the disunionists of a positive cession to Slavery of all territory south of 36 deg. 30 min. They resolved to stand by the Constitution as it is, and to abide the issue. A correspondent at the Capital, of a leading Republican (New York) journal, wrote: "It may be stated that a majority of the Repub licans would sustain the extension of the old Missouri line, pure and simple, through the present Ter Mr. Sherman stated that, "as a member of the Committee from the Border States, he could neither vote for the proposition proposed by Mr. Hale, nor that proposed by Mr. Crittenden, to restore the Missouri line and extend it to the Pacific. He was also oppos-ritory as a final settlement, regarding it as a vindied to the compromise to prevent the abolition of Slavery in the District of Columbia. While he did not wish to abolish it now, he was opposed to yielding up the right of Congress to do so at any future period." cation of the principle upon which the party was Seizure of Forts. Mr. Grow, of Pennsylvania, expressed himself decidedly opposed to all compromises. He asked what better platform the North or the South could have to stand upon than the Union, the Constitution and the laws? The Republican party has chosen a President in The United States Arsenal at Mobile, and accordance with the forms of the Constitu- Fort Morgan, were seized, Jan. 4th. These tion, and is entitled to fair play. If his ad-seizures were expected by the State Depart eloquent invocation for the Union, for peace, and for fraternal conciliation. It impressed its hearers profoundly. ment at Washington, and added not a little | lain, in the Representatives' Hall, was a most to the gathering sentiment in Congress and throughout the North against the revolution. These acts of violence, and appropriation of the unprotected property of the General Government, eventually awakened the spirit of coercion in the breasts of men of all parties in the Free States-a spirit which, except for such overt acts might forever have slumbered.* January 4th was observed at Washington with great solemnity, as a day of fasting and prayer. A sermon, preached to an immense audience, by Rev. Thomas Stockton, Chap As frequent reference will be made to the forts of the South, we append, from Col. Totten's Report, a table of the Navy Yards and Forts built by the U. S. Government in the Southern States, together with their cost and armament: Where located. No. of 66 During the week troops were concentrated in Washington and vicinity to the number of about three hundred. Fort McHenry, in Baltimore, was occupied by one company of artillery, while another company was thrown into Fort Washington, on the Potomac, twelve miles below the Capital. The Navy Yard was placed under a strong guard, and every arrangement made for giving a decidedly warm reception" to the madmen who might attempt to seize the Government buildings. It seems incredible that the design of such a seizure, at that early moment of the revolution, was conceived and entertained; but, there can be no doubt of such a Guns. plot having been concocted. Even papers in Richmond advised the seizure. “Seizures" were, indeed, a potent agency in hastening the revolution. The people were not to be hurried, nor "precipitated" in their steady movement: public opinion was only developed slowly by ordinary processes. Therefore it was necessary, if the leaders would instantly create a fever for action, to seize Government property, and to urge, in justification, the "impending dangers of coercion." This is the key to the seizures at Pensacola, Savannah, Mobile, New Orleans, and, at a later day, in North Carolina and Virginia. A dispatch from Savannah, January 5th, said: 74 Fort McHenry, Baltimore.... *Ft. Carrol, Baltimore.... Cost. 159 Ft. Delaware, Del. River, Del....... 539,000 151 5,000 31 6,000 14 88 Ft. Washington, Potomac River..... 575,000 Ft. McRea, Pensacola. Ft. Morgan, Mobile.... Ft. St. Philip, Mouth Miss. River.... 143,000 "The pretext that it was necessary to take the forts here because the people would rise against them is the merest subterfuge. The only trouble was, the people were not forward enough, and it was necessary to create an excitement in order to bring them to the proper pitch. The common talk of the town declares that all these movements are but preliminary to an attack upon the Federal Capital. Having a friendly country through which to march, and having possession of the forts and arsenals, they say that conquest would be easy. They rely on the supposed weakness of the Administration, and are elated with the ease with which they have gained the forts already taken." If Washington were seized, the South would Ship Island, Mississippi River; Georgetown, S. C.; provide an army to retain it. This would render the proposed Southern Confederacy the Government de facto, or would, at least, enable the conspirators to dictate their own THE INTRIGUE EXPOSED. terms to the North. The programme was a brilliant one, it must be confessed, and doubtless embodied the combined suggestions of Messrs. Toombs, Floyd, Governor Wise, Wigfall, and other Southern hot-heads. The President had no army-only a few companies at his immediate disposal; and, having no power to call out troops, twenty-five hundred Virginians and Marylanders were deemed amply sufficient to hold the Federal Capital. Congress should not be disturbed only it should act "circumspectly;" and, as for Mr. Lincoln-why, of course, he could not be inaugurated! Plot to seize Washington. All this performance was thwarted by Gen. Scott's and Sect'y Holt's judicious disposition of their small but effective force at hand, and by the action taken to place the District Military Companies and Militia in a condition for service. The spirit of loyalty grew stronger and stronger, day by day, after January 1st; and if the seizure had been attempted, after that day, at the call of the President one hundred thousand men would have rushed, in arms, to the Capital, from New York and Pennsylvania alone. General Scott, at no period, we are assured, felt the city to be insecure-so well did he know his own strength and the resources available in event of an emergency. To become possessed of the capital, was, beyond question, the dream of the revolutionists. The seizure of all the property of the Government in the Slave States was but preliminary to the forcible possession of the National Capital itself. The rapidity of action in the seceded States in the formation of a Provisional government—the sudden manner in which an army was brought into the field-demonstrate that the details of the revolution were matured by the leaders long before their movements became public. The filling of Southern Arsenals with rich stores of arms and munitions-the withdrawal of garrisons from Southern forts to send them far off on the Western plains the depletion of the National treasury to the very verge of bankruptcy, so as to leave the incoming administration powerless from want of means— the disruption of the Charleston Democratic Convention, all were, unquestionably, parts 175 The Intrigue Exposed. of the plot matured, in 1858, to initiate the long talked-of, the long prayed-for, the long perfected scheme of a Slave Confederacy. A very interesting document, bearing on this question of the intrigues of the managers of the movement, was given to the public through the columns of the National Intelligencer newspaper, in Washington, under date of January 9th. That journal said the communication came "from a distinguished citizen of the South, who formerly represented his State with great distinction in the popular branch of Congress. Temporarily sojourning in this city, he has become authentically informed of the facts recited in the letter, which he communicates under a sense of duty, and for the accuracy of which he makes himself responsible." The communication was as follows: "WASHINGTON, Jan. 9, 1861. "I charge that on last Saturday night a caucus was held in this city by the Southern secession Senators from Florida, Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, Arkansas, and Texas. It was then and there resolved, in effect, to assume to themselves the political power of the South, and to control all polit. ical and military operations for the present. They telegraphed to complete the plan of seizing forts, arsenals, and custom-houses, and advised the Conventions now in session, as soon as possible, to pass ordinances for immediate secession; but, in order to thwart any operations of the Government here, the Conventions of the seceding States are to retain their representations in the Senate and the House. "They also advised, ordered, or directed the as sembling of a Convention of delegates from the se ceding States at Montgomery, on the 13th of Febru ary. This can, of course, only be done by the revolutionary Conventions usurping the powers of the people, and sending delegates over whom they will lose all control in the establishment of a Provisional Government, which is the plan of the dictators. This caucus also resolved to take the most effec tual means to dragoon the Legislatures of Tennessee, Kentucky, Missouri, Arkansas, Texas, and Virginia into following the seceding States. Maryland is also to be influenced by such appeals to popular passion as have led to the revolutionary steps which promise a conflict with the State and Federal Gov. ernments in Texas. "They have possessed themselves of all the avenues of information in the South-the telegraph, the press, and the general control of the postmasters. They also confidontly rely upon defections in the system of intrigue, of duplicity, of usurpation army and navy. "The spectacle here presented is startling to contemplate. Senators intrusted with the representative sovereignty of the States, and sworn to support the Constitution of the United States, while yet acting as the privy counsellors of the President, and anxiously looked to by their constituents to effect some practical plan of adjustment, deliberately con and wrong through which the entire rebellion was controlled. When the secret history of the conspiracy is written, the Southern people will be amazed to find to what an extent they were instruments in the hands of the designing and restless spirits whose political ambition was only second to their sel ceive a conspiracy for the overthrow of the Govern-fishness and slave-owners' pride. We have yet ment through the military organizations, the dangerous secret order of the Knights of the Golden Circle, "Committees of Safety," Southern leagues, and other agencies at their command; they have instituted as thorough a military and civil despotism as ever cursed a maddened country."* to learn, from a careful examination of all evidence at this moment available-from a rigid scrutiny of individual acts and public movements-that there has been, on the part of the instigators of the revolution, anything of patriotism, of pure motive, of earnest desire for the good of the whole. If this, indeed be true, time surely will unmask the hypoc racy of professions and acts. See Appendix, "The Secession Plot," page 512. The confirmation which these statements had in succeeding events gives assurance that the writer was well informed, and unveils the CHAPTER VIII. PROCEEDINGS IN CONGRESS CONTINUED. SIXTH WEEK. SPEECHES THE PRESIDENT. THE PRESIDENT'S MESSAGE. THE proceedings of this ritory until it becomes a State? The TerriMr. Crittenden's week were of the most im- tory was acquired as the common property Speech. portant and interesting na- of all, and now a few attempt to exclude a porture. In the Senate, Monday, (January 7th,) tion from their just rights, because they have Mr. Crittenden called up his resolutions for conscientious scruples on the subject. Were a reference of his compromise to the people, Senators willing to sacrifice the country and supported the proposition with an earnest rather than yield their scruples? But, as a and eloquent appeal. It seemed to him the matter of right, have Senators any right to only course left-to appeal to the people, exclude any property? The Constitution was who would be just arbiters. There was no- formed by men who well knew we had differthing improper in such an appeal-nothing ent institutions in different parts of the counwhich forbade it. He then referred to the try, and no section of the country has a features of his propositions, approving of the right to set up a particular opinion as a rule suggested amendments to the Constitution as for all the rest. Suppose the different sec desirable, to take the Slavery question from tions had different religions, would one secCongress forever. The establishment of a tion try to establish a religion for the other? line dividing the common Territory was less a But the pulpit has become the minister of compromise than a fair adjustment of rights. the politician, and the politician has become The alternative was civil war. Were mem- the minister of the Gospel. No man has the bers of Congress prepared for such an alter-right to insist that another man's conscience native rather than recognize Slavery in a Ter- shall be ruled by his. But he was to deal MR. TOOM BS' SPEECH. dissolved. That is a fixed fact lying in the way of this discus- heed it. 177 Toombs' Speech. One of your confederates has already wisely, bravely, boldly, met the public danger, and confronted it. She is only ahead and beyond any of her sisters, because of her greater facility of action. The great majority of these sister States, under like circumstances, consider her cause as their cause; and I charge you, in their name, here, to-day, 'touch not seguretum.' While my friend from Kentucky, (Mr. Crittenden,) while the House of Representatives are debating the constitutionality and the expediency of seceding from the Union, and while the perfidious authors of all this mischief are showering down denunciations upon a large por with the present, not the past. He was now to consider the safety of the country, and was here as advocate of the Union, contending for what he thought would save the country. Had a great party grown up which would introduce the Anti-Slavery principle, and was that the principle on which it had triumphed? This triumph filled some portion of the Southern States with alarm. Will the party now in the proud triumph of victory plant itself on platforms and dogmas and not yield an inch, or will they, like generous men, be not only just but liberal? He appealed to them as patriots and countrymen to grant equal rights to all. He did not think he was asking them to make concessions, but only to grant equal rights. He did not believe in the doctrine of secession. It was a new doc-ed defense. They appealed to the Constitution and trine, and an attempt to secede with the bold front of a revolution, is nothing but lawless violation of the law and the Constitution. But he only wanted to bear his testimony to the Constitution, and to let it be known that the Constitution cannot be broken. If a State wishes to secede, let them proclaim revolution boldly, and not attempt to hide themselves under little subtleties of law, and claim the right of secession. A constitutional right to break the Constitution was a new doctrine. He argued that Mr. Webster always went against any right of secession. On one side was an asked concession, and on the other side was civil war. Mr. Toombs, having the Mr. Toombs' Speech. floor, next followed. His speech having been set for Monday, had drawn a very crowded auditory to wait upon its delivery. It was well understood that it would define the extreme Southern programme. It was, as anticipated, extremely violent and defiant; in many portions it was rank with treasonable threat and declaration; in its entire spirit and matter it exemplified the irreconcileable nature of his views, and those even of the Conservatives in the two Houses. We shall reproduce so much of it as may be necessary to indicate its spirit and intent. "The success of the Abolitionists and their allies, under the name of the Republican party, has produced its logical result already. They have, for long years, been sowing dragon's teeth, and they have finally got a crop of armed men. The Union, Sir, is tion of the patriotic men of this country, those brave men are calmly and coolly effecting what you call revolution. Aye, Sir, better than that-an arm to justice they appealed to fraternity, until the constitutional justice and fraternity were no longer listened to in the legislative halls of the country. And then, Sir, they prepared for the arbitrament of the sword. Now, Sir, you may see the glitter of the bayonet, and hear the tramp of armed men, from your Capital to the Rio Grande. * "My own position, and my own demands, as I will now give them, are considered the demands of an extreme person, and what you, who talk of Constitutional right, consider treason. I believe that is the term. I believe for all the acts which the Re publican party call treason and rebellion, there stands before them as good a traitor and as good a rebel as ever descended from revolutionary loins. What does this rebel demand? That these States have equal rights to go into the common Territories and remain there with their property, and be protected by the Government till such Territories shall become States. We have fought for this Territory when blood was its price. We have paid for it when money was the price. I demand only that I have leave to go into these Territories upon terms of equality with you, as equal in this great confederacy, and enjoy my own property, receiving the protec tion of a common Government until they shall come into the Union as a Sovereign State, and choose their own institutions. I demand, second, that property in slaves be entitled to the same protection from Government as all other property, and that the Government shall never interfere with the right of any State to control or protect Slavery in its own limits. We demand that a common Government shall use its power to protect our property as well as yours. We pay as much as you do. Our property is subject to taxation. We claim that that Government which recognizes our property for tax. |