HISTORICAL SUMMARY. Dec. 7.-A circular is issued inviting the members of the Texas Legislature to assemble in Austin on the third Monday in December, for the purpose of holding an extra session, and to take the necessary steps for calling a State Convention. Gov. Houston promises to resign if the people of the State demand the convoking of the Legislature. The hoisting of Lone Star flags in the towns of Texas continues, and the people throughout the State appear to be united in their feeling of resistance to the administration of Mr. Lincoln. -The President to-day explicitly expressed his determination to send no more troops to the forts near Charleston, and said everything would be done on his part to avoid a collision. Major Anderson has made no request for re-enforcements. -A dispatch from Washington states that the Secetary of the Treasury, Howell Cobb, has had repeated interviews with Mr. Hunter, Chairman of the Committee on Finance in the Senate, and finds himself unable to extricate the Treasury from its present bankrupt condition; consequently he proposes to resign at once. Dec. 8.-The Kentucky banks resolve to continue specie payment, as a suspension can afford no commercial relief. Governor of Tennessee calls an extra session of the Legislature, to convene Jan. 7th, to "consider the present condition of the country." Dec. 9.-Gov. Brown of Georgia publishes a letter favoring immediate secession. Dec. 10.-Howell Cobb, Secretary of the Treasury, resigns his seat in the Cabinet. Mr. Toucey, Secretary of the Navy, acts in his stead, ad interim. -United States Senator Clay, of Alabama, resigns his seat in the United States Senate after March 4th, 1861. -It is divulged that the Democratic members of Congress from the North-Western States have held several conferences. They take the position that the Union cannot be dissolved peaceably; that the North-West will, under no circumstances, consent to be cut off from the Gulf of Mexico and the City of New York; that the Government, whatever may be its faults, is of inestimable value. -Extra Session of Louisiana Legislature meets. The Governor recommends a State Convention. Convention ordered--an election of delegates to be held Jan. 23. Legislature adjourned Dec. 12th. A military bill was passed, appropriating $500,000 to arm the State for defence, and provisions made for military organization and administration. 23 urged the policy of strengthening Major Anderson fully. Mr. Cass, it was understood, made that policy a sine qua non of his stay in the Cabinet. Dec.. 14.-Lewis Cass, Secretary of State, resigns his seat in the Cabinet. His resignation causes much feeling and comment. It was owing to his disapproval of the President's inaction in regard to re-enforcing Southern forts, arsenals, navy yards, &c. Dec. 15.-Attorney-General Black nominated Secretary of State in place of Lewis Cass, resigned. -A meeting of members of the Georgia Legislature favoring co-operation, and urging a Convention of Southern States desirous of co-operating. An address issued to the people of South Carolina, Alabama, Mississippi, and Florida, signed by 52 members of the Legislature. Dec. 17.-South Carolina Convention of Delegates assembles in Convention. General Jamison elected President. Adjourned to Charleston. -Mr. Pickens inaugurated by the Legislature as Governor of South Carolina. His Inaugural was decidedly for secession. Dec. 18.-Mr. Crittenden introduces into the United States Senate, Resolutions of Compromise and settlement of differences between the Slave and Free States. The bill, as introduced, proposes: To renew the Missouri Compromise Line; prohibiting Slavery in the Territory north of 36 deg. 30 min., and protecting it South of that latitude; and for the admission of new States with or without Slavery, as their Constitutions shall provide: to prohibit the abolition of Slavery by Congress in the States: to prohibit its abolition in the District of Columbia so long as it exists either in Virginia or Maryland: to permit the transportation of slaves in any of the States by land or water: to provide for the payment of fugitive slaves, when rescued to repeal one obnoxious feature of the Fugitive Slave Law-the inequality of the fee to the Commissioner-and also to ask the repeal of all the Personal Liberty bills in the Northern States. These concessions are to be sub mitted to the people in the form of amendments to the Constitution, and if they are carried they are to be changed by no future amendments. Dec. 18-19.-Andrew Johnson, United States Senator from Tennessee, speaks on the resolutions propos ing amendments to the Constitution. He denies the right of secession, and calls upon the President to enforce the laws regardless of consequences. Taking up arms to resist the Federal laws he pronounces treason. Dec. 19.-Governor Hicks, of Maryland, declines to receive the Commissioner from Mississippi. He vindicates the course by expressing strong Union Dec. 12.-Assistant Secretary of State, Trescott, sentiments. resigns. -Mr. Philip Frank Thomas, of Maryland, Commissioner of Patents, is nominated Secretary of the Treasury, vice Cobb, resigned. Dec. 13.-Immense Union demonstration in Philadelphia, by proclamation of the Mayor. -Exciting session of the Cabinet in regard to the re-enforcement of Fort Moultrie, in Charleston harbor. The President opposed its re-enforcement as impolitic, saying he had assurances that the fort would not be attacked if no re-enforcements were attempted. Mr. Cass, Secretary of State, and Mr. Toucey, Secretary of the Navy, both strenuously -The Commissioner of Mississippi to Maryland addresses a large meeting in Baltimore, advising cooperation on the part of the people of Maryland in the secession movement. Dec. 20.-The Ordinance of Secession passes the South Carolina Convention of Delegates unanimously. The announcement is received by the people of Charleston with exciting manifestations of delight. The news throughout the North excites comparatively little remark. -The Methodist Conference of South Carolina passes resolutions favoring secession. -Immense receipts of specie in New York. Nearly six millions of dollars in coin received during the with the United States, leave Charleston for Washweek. ington. -Great demonstrations of enthusiasm throughout the Cotton States over South Carolina secession. In the leading cities of these States salutes were fired, Palmetto and State flags were displayed, bells were rung, and large meetings of citizens were held. No Union sentiment appeared. No Stars and Stripes flags to be seen. Salutes were also fired in many cities of the Border Slave States. -Gov. Moore convenes the Legislature of Alabama for January 14th, to provide for any emergency that may arise from the action of the Convention, which meets January 7th. Dec. 25.-Among other important transactions of the South Carolina Convention was the reception of three resolutions from the Committee on Relations with the Slaveholding States of North America. The first resolution provides that the Convention appoint Commissioners to proceed to each Slaveholding State that may assemble in Convention, for the purpose of laying before them the ordinance of secession and respectfully to invite their co-operation in forming a Southern Confederacy. The second reso Dec. 21,-As indicative of the course the Republican members of Congress are to pursue in regard to compromise measures, the speech of Senator Wade, of Ohio, before the Senate Select Committee of Thirteen, on the Crisis, is the first declaratory expression. It took ground against any amendments of the Constitution, and generally expressed oppo-lution authorises the said Commissioners to submit sition to compromises which looked to giving slavery any constitutional protection or recognition. He said Mr. Lincoln was constitutionally elected and should be constitutionally inaugurated. -Judge Douglas made important statements before the Senate Select Committee of Thirteen. He is reported as saying, "that he was ready now to unite in recommending such amendments to the Constitution as will take the Slavery question out of Congress. In view of the dangers which threaten the Republic with disunion, revolution, and civil war, he was prepared to act upon the matters in controversy without any regard to his previous action, and as if he had never made a speech or given a vote on the subject." Dec. 22. The North Carolina Legislature adjourned to January 7th. The bill to arm the State failed to pass the House. --Caleb Cushing, special messenger of the President to South Carolina, to induce the postponement of the threatened attack upon Fort Sumter, returns and reports disparagingly for peace. He has no homes of any arrangement of the pending differences. A Cabinet meeting was called. the Federal Constitution as the basis for a provisional Government for such States as shall have withdrawn from the connection with the Government of the United States of North America. The third resolution provides that the said Commissioners be authorized to invite seceding States to meet in convention at such a time and place as may be agreed upon for the purpose of forming a permanent Government for these States. All of which were acted upon affirmatively, after considerable discussion. They are regarded as having been arranged by the secession leaders, long since, and look to a co-operative union among the slave seceding States. Dec. 26. The three South Carolina Commissioners, viz. Messrs. R. W. Barnwell, James L. Orr, and ExGov. Adams arrive in Washington. -A resolution offered in the South Carolina Convention, that the Governor be requested to communicate to the Convention in secret session, any information 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 inst.; also, whether any assurance has if so, to what extent; also, what police or other rebeen given that the forts will not be re-enforced, and gulations have been made, if any, in reference to the defenses of the harbor of, Charleston, the coast and the State. Dec. 23.-Intense excitement in Washington, consequent upon the discovery of a heavy defalcation in the Department of the Interior, by abstraction of bonds and coupons belonging to the Indian Trust Fund. The amount abstracted is confessed by Godard Bailey, the guilty clerk, to have been $830,000. Mr. Floyd, Secretary of War, is said to be deeply Gov. Houston will convene an extra session of the implicated by the revelations made. Dec. 24.-The Speaker of the House directs the names of the "withdrawn" South Carolina members to be retained on the roll and to be regularly called. -Great excitement in Pittsburg in consequence of orders being given to ship, from the Alleghany Arsenal, 78 ten and eight-inch columbiads to Fort Newport, near Galveston, and 48 to Ship Island, near Balize, at the mouth of the Mississippi-both unfinished forts. The people regard the order as designed to strip the Arsenal in order to place the heavy guns in the hands of the enemies of the Government and will oppose their removal by force. -The South Carolina Convention adopts a "Declaration of Immediate Causes which Justified the Secession of South Carolina from the Union." -The Special Commissioners, appointed by the South Carolina Convention to negotiate a settlement of differences and a treaty of amity and commerce -It is now announced by advices from Texas, that Texas Legislature on the 21st of January, to consider the present crisis. The Convention of the people element is rapidly gaining the ascendancy. It will will be held on the 28th of January. The secession carry all before it in the Convention. -Major Anderson commences the evacuation of Fort Moultrie at night. Dec. 27.-Gov. Magoffin calls an extra session of 17th, to consider the distracted state of the country. the Kentucky State Legislature to assemble Jan. -It is ascertained at Charleston that Fort Monltrie is evacuated. The evacuation took place during force (about eighty men) with stores, munitions, the night, Major Anderson transferring his entire movable arms, &c., to Fort Sumter. Most intense excitement in consequence throughout the entire country. The military in Charleston ordered out. Troops tendered by Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi, and Florida. CHAPTER I. THE TRUE CAUSE OF THE REBELLION. 1 The True Reason. THE Secession movement, | gia and the Indians for the same purpose. which took form and con- Alabama was made out of Georgia and Mississippi territory, to increase the representation. sistency by the action of South Carolina, immediately after the election of Mr. Lincoln, was not the conception of an hour. It was not the result of the election of a "sectional" President. It was not the result of wrongs inflicted upon the South by the Free States. It was not because the North had perverted the Constitution from its original intent and purposes. It is urged, by the leaders of the movement, that these were their reasons for the attempt to dissolve the Union, and the mass of our people doubtless have regarded them as the true grounds of complaint; but, it is the merest surface view of the question. Were these the only excuses to offer for the Rebellion and all its train of blood, what a miserable pretence of justification the movement would have! The motive which underlies all is the numerical preponderance of the North, and, under the Constitution, its ability hereafter to control the legislation of Congress by virtue of its resistless majority. Purchases of new Tennessee was set off from North Carolina for the same purpose. Florida was purchased of Spain, at great expense, to the same end. Then followed a step over the Mississippi river, to appropriate territory lying to the west of the territory given to free labor by the ordinance of Mr. Jefferson; and Missouri, with her lines running as far North as the centres of Ohio, Indiana and Illinois, was given up to Slavery and a Slave representation in Congress. Arkansas, ere long, was added. Then the soil fitted for Slave labor, and accessible for Slave settlement, seemed exhausted, and the South, for a while, stood still to witness the onward march of the North. Even these enormous accessions of domain scarcely served to maintain the Southern preponderance in the Government, so rapidly had the Free States grown in population, both in the old and the three new States added. Schemes of Conquest Thus matters stood in 1840. The census of that Each census, since 1800, year aroused the South to has shown that the increase renewed efforts for further extension of the of population in the North- "peculiar institution." To the North they ern, or Free States, was in a ratio soon to could not go, for soil, climate and sentiment snatch from the Slave States their almost were alike inimical to the existence of slaves unbroken control of the Government; hence in the territory of Iowa. To the West they from that time the study has been to avert could not proceed, for Government had the impending minority by the introduc- pledged that section to the Indians. Contion of new Slave States to the Union. Lou-quest alone must come to the rescue. Texas, isiana was purchased at an enormous price, an immense domain, fitted to make five not more to open the mouths of the Mis-States, must be won. The scheme of its " ansissippi than to send to Congress two Slave conceived and perfected. Senators and her due quota of Representa- War was declared upon a flimsy pretext tives. Mississippi was purchased from Geor- against a weak and distracted neighbor.-One nexation" was soon hundred millions of dollars were spent, and Texas was given over to the Slave power to De made into States, as emergencies should require; while New Mexico, with her boundless plains, lay to the West, to await the necessity for her introduction to a Slave proprietary. But, even this absorbtion of an empire did not suffice. The census of 1850 again sent consternation into the "balance of power" ranks, and excited their leaders to renewed zeal. More territory must be had, at any sacrifice. Kansas and Nebraska alone offered the soil, but there stood the Gibraltar of Henry Clay's "Compromise Act" of 1821, guaranteeing all that region to Freedom forever. Still, the emergency was imperative. Kansas at least must be represented on the floors of Congress by a Slave delegation. The tremendous strides of the North, in Iowa, Wisconsin, Michigan and Minnesota, threatened, by their very growth, to leap at once into an uncontrolled majority. Kansas lost, all was lost, since Texas, could not, for years, gain population enough to allow of her subdivision into several States. The repeal of the Missouri Compromise Act alone would open the Territory for Slave incursion. That repeal was made, through the co-operation of the Northern Democratic party with the South. But, the hand of Destiny seemed to interfere. The entire scheme of Southern settlement miscarried, and Kansas not only became a Free State, but the - struggle to make it such called into existence the Republican party, which, in a brief period, elected its candidate to the Chief Magistracy-so fatally were the tables turned. Dismayed at the storm created by the effort to secure Kansas, mortified at their defeat, cut off from any further extension of Slave representation, the Southern States saw before them their long-apprehended disaster of a minority in the Government. If they remained in the Union it must be as the weaker half. At this not only their pride revolted, but, as it appeared to them, their material interests forbade submission. With some hesitancy, as if feeling the way, the long contemplated scheme of Southern independence was revived and its agitation determinedly entered upon. Fictitious Causes But, the love of the Union was so strong in the hearts of a majority in the Southern States the disinclination to encounter the hazards of a revolution was so apparent― that it became necessary for the leaders to act with great circumspection in setting on foot their movement for disunion. The old themes of wrongs endured-of slaves stolen— of unjust imposition of taxes by way of tariff levies-of unconstitutional Personal Liberty acts by Northern States--were augmented in force by the evident fact that the institution of Slavery was to be excluded from the Territories in the West, thus seemingly denying the rights of the South in the unsettled and common domain; while, to crown the list of motives for non-submission, the North had become so far estranged and inimical to the South as to elect a "sectional" President. This catalogue of indignities, if properly represented to the excitable and sensitive people of the South, could not fail to answer the ends designed; hence, separately and collectively, they have been put forward as the real causes of the uprising and of the abjuration of the Constitution, and have been so often and variously repeated that the original and prime cause of the movement is almost ignored. In contemplating the events which have transpired in the attempt to dismember the Union, it is necessary to accept the bill of complaint preferred in the various resolutions, ordinances and declarations of the seceded States' Conventions and Legislatures; but, a comprehensive understanding of the revolution can only be had by striking at the ultimate causes which originated the desire for a separate Confederacy. Even though those first causes may not be confessed nor set forth by any of the parties implicated- -a confession which would concede defeat in the struggle for power-they nevertheless are readily demonstrable. 1 THE NATIONAL CENSUS. 27 cent. per annum. This ratio being so defini- | ulation, these three States lose four Repre- In 1850 it was conclusive that the South must be cast into a minority if new acquisitions were not secured during the decade following. The attempt was made on Kansas and failed; and the South has had to.witness the long threatened ascendency of the Free States in the returns and apportionment of the census of 1860, with no power to modify the result. The Census. States. Ohio.. To apprehend, at a NEW ENGLAND STATES. States. Maine Total..... .2,729,116 3,135,301 25 Illinois Wisconsin.... 305,391 Total... 4,721,551 7,870,896 61 4 / 12 Ohio, notwithstanding her heavy gain, loses three Representatives, though the NorthWestern States collectively add nine to their delegation. Ohio alone has more free white population than the whole six States of South Carolina, Georgia, Alabama, Florida, Mississippi, and Louisiana; yet she has but eighteen There is something so paradoxical in the constructive and the active relations of the Slave to the Gain in 10 years, 407,185, or 15 per cent nearly. Here we have still more remarkable re-tency to reconcile this discordance. He will have to sults. Notwithstanding the enormous in- be satisfied with the fact without understanding its crease of over one and a half million, in pop- propriety. |