CHAPTER III.

PEACE OFFERINGS: THE CALL TO ARMS.

"This is not the time for sycophancy, for servility, for compromise of principle, for forgetfulness of our rights."-CHANNING.

"The Government will not assail you."-LINCOLN.

"We have humbled the flag of the United States."-Gov. PICKENS.

W

HILE the Southern States, one after another, by the simple process of passing

a resolution, were, as they supposed, severing their connection with the Union, a very humiliating part was being enacted in the Northern States. At the many public meetings held in the large cities, resolutions of the most humble and conciliatory kind were adopted. Democrats clamoured loudly against Lincoln and the Republican party; and even Republicans themselves were almost ready to say: "We are very sorry we won the election." The teachings of Garrison, Greeley, Beecher, and Sumner were denounced. Mr. Alexander Henry, Mayor of

Philadelphia, and a former supporter of Lincoln, presided at a peace meeting held in the Quaker city; and during the course of his apologetic speech he said: "The misplaced teachings of the pulpit, the unwise rhapsodies of the lecture-room, the exciting appeals of the press, on the subject of slavery, must be frowned down by a just and law-abiding people." (Great applause.) Another gentleman who had voted for Lincoln spoke in a similar strain, saying :—“ If they (Southerners) are really aggrieved by any laws upon our statute-books-opposed to their rights—ií, upon examination, any such are found to be in conflict with the Constitution of these United States-nay, further: if they but serve to irritate our brethren of the South, whether constitutional or not, I, for one, have no objection that they should instantly be repealed. . . . I am not here, however, to concede that our noble Commonwealth has done any intentional wrong; but if, in our calm judgment, it shall appear that our feelings, in the slightest degree warped, have apparently inflicted any injury, she is noble and generous enough manfully to repair it. Let the Fugitive Slave Law be executed in its full intent and spirit. It is the law of the land; let it be implicitly obeyed. . . . Let us, too, submit, as we have hitherto cheerfully done, to the decisions of the Supreme Court of the United States; it is the great bulwark of the Constitution. Its judgments should be final and conclusive, and not be questioned in any

quarter. Whilst the free discussion of every question is the privilege of every citizen of the Republic, let us discountenance any denunciation of slavery, or of those who maintain that institution, as intemperate and wrong, whether they are promulgated in the lecture-room, at the political gathering, or from the sacred desk."

The attitude and language of the partisans of secession upon the floor of Congress were bold, aggressive, threatening. Their speeches indicated a conviction on their part that the North would in no event accept the issue of battle. Here is a sample of their utterances. Mr. Iverson, a Representative from Georgia, speaking from his place in the House, said:

"Before the 4th of March five States will have declared their independence, and I am satisfied that three others will follow as soon as the action of their people can be had. Arkansas will call her Convention, and Louisiana will follow. And, though there is a clog in the way of the 'Lone Star' of Texas in the person of the Governor, who will not consent to call the Legislature, yet the public sentiment is so strong that even her Governor may be overridden; and if he will not yield to that public sentiment, some Texan Brutus may rise to rid his country of this old, hoary-headed traitor. (Great sensation.) There has been a good deal of vapouring and threatening, but they come from the last men who would carry

out their threats. Men talk about their eighteen millions; but we hear, a few days afterwards, of these same men being switched in the face, and they tremble like a sheep-stealing dog. There will be no war. The North, governed by such far-seeing statesmen as the Senator from New York (Mr. Seward), will see the futility of this. In less than twelve months a Southern Confederacy will be formed, and it will be the most successful Government on earth. The Southern States, thus banded together, will be able to resist any force in the world. We do not expect war, but we will be prepared for it; and we are not a feeble race of Mexicans either."

The leaders of the Republican party believed that their position upon the slavery question had been, and continued to be, misinterpreted to, and misunderstood by, the people of the South; and Senator Seward spoke in favour of visiting the slave-holding district to disabuse the minds of the people. Senator Clingman of North Carolina, referring to that scheme, said :

"They want to get up a free debate, as the Senator from New York (Mr. Seward) expressed it in one of his speeches. But a Senator from Texas told me the other day that a great many of these free debaters were hanging from the trees of that country (Texas)."

The quantity of humble-pie eaten by Northern Congressmen at this time quite surfeited their constituents, and the young men of the West grew impatient. Many of us maintained that war with all

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its horrors was preferable to the dishonourable insinuations heaped upon "Black Republicans," day after day, by the representatives of the South in Congress; therefore, when at last the call for troops came, enthusiasm knew no bounds. We took up arms to save the Union, and to remove a false impression concerning our manhood.

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On the 17th of December, 1866, Hon. Benjamin F. Wade, Senator from Ohio, spoke out boldly for his party. He said :-"I tell you frankly that we did lay down the principle in our platform that we would prohibit, if we had the power, slavery from invading another inch of the free soil of this Government. stand to that principle to-day. I have argued it to half a million of people, and they stand by it-they have commissioned me to stand by it; and, so help me God, I will! I say to you, while we hold this doctrine to the end, there is no Republican, or Convention of Republicans, or Republican paper, that pretends to have any right in your States, to interfere with your peculiar and local institutions. On the other hand, our platform repudiates the idea that we have any right, or harbour any ultimate intention, to invade or interfere with your institution in your own States."

Various schemes looking towards compromise and conciliation were promoted in Congress, and through a National Peace Conference held at Washington. Slavery was the only important question discussed at the deliberations of these bodies. Whether the