many men—that no matter how foolish the undertaking may have been, "John Brown himself is right." The man was raised to the level of a martyr, and singing his name, men marched into battle for the Union. Indeed, one cannot help speculating as to the sensations experienced by an onlooker of the execution, when, some three years later, a Massachusetts regiment, recruited by the son of Daniel Webster, and hence known as the "Webster Regiment," halted where the gallows once had stood, and poured forth that wonderful battle song, original with this regiment :

"John Brown's body lies a-mouldering in the grave,
But his soul goes marching on.”

Disruption of

the Democratic Party.

The Democratic National Convention met at Charleston, South Carolina, in April, 1860, to nominate a successor to James Buchanan, then President of the United States. The Slave-power demanded that the principles embodied in the Dred Scott decision should be adopted as the principles of the Democratic Party—that the national government should "protect slavery." The Southerners felt the moral reproach under which they were living, and asserted that the blame for this was on the shoulders of the Northerners. "In the progress of civilization," said Yancey, a delegate from Mississippi, "the North-west has grown...into the free proportions of a giant people. We [the South] therefore, as the minority take the rights...of the minority." "The proposition you make will bankrupt us at the South. Ours is the property invaded." "The honour of our children, the honour of our females, the lives of our men, all rest on you.... You acknowledged that slavery was wrong, but that you were not to blame. That was your position, and it was wrong. I say ...that your admission that slavery is wrong has been the cause of all this discord." The Northern Democrats, therefore, must assert that slavery is right. "Gentlemen of the South," replied a delegate, Senator Pugh of Ohio, "We will not do it." The

Democratic Party split in twain. The Southern extremists left the Convention, which was adjourned, to meet at Baltimore in June. But no agreement could be reached. The Northern Democrats nominated Douglas for President, and the Southern Democrats nominated Breckinridge, of Kentucky-at the moment occupying the position of Vice-President. The ultraconservatives of all parties held a convention of their own, and nominated Governor Bell, of Tennessee, as the Constitutional Union Candidate. The Republican Party, which was composed of various discordant elements, and which had made its first presidential contest in 1856, nominated Abraham Lincoln for the office of President. Seward was a more prominent man in the party; but he had been long in political life, and had made many enemies. Lincoln was therefore a safer candidate, and was nominated for that reason and because of his presumed ability to carry several Western States.

The Demands of the Slave-holders,

1859.

The issues upon which the campaign was fought must be adverted to again. The last demand of the Slavepower was stated by Mr Gaulden of Georgia, in the following speech, which was received with approval by the Southern members of the Charleston Convention. Mr Gaulden stated his belief "that slavery is right, morally, religiously, socially, and politically. I believe that slavery has done more for this country, more for civilization, than all other interests put together. I would ask our Northern friends to give us all our rights, and take off the ruthless restrictions which cut off the supply of slaves from foreign lands." The position of the slave-owners in 1860 might be stated in a concise form as follows: Slavery is right, and we are unjustly accused of doing wrong; our slave property is expressly guaranteed by the Constitution-the Northern people must use its power to protect this property; as slavery is right and entitled to protection, it should be encouraged by the re-establishment of the slave-trade. The most interesting part of the Southern

case is the contention that it was the Northerners who had cast the reproach on the slave-owner. Lincoln and the Republican leaders asserted, and with the utmost sincerity, that they had no intention of interfering with the institution of slavery where it existed. The Republicans were entirely distinct from those Abolitionists, like Phillips and Garrison, who refused to exercise their constitutional right to vote. Indeed the Abolitionists properly so called, namely, those who, if they had the power, would abolish slavery, had made small progress in the last twenty years. The Republicans, however, were opposed to the further extension of slavery. On this question they stood firmly and squarely on the ground occupied by the fathers of the Constitution, and justly named themselves Republican. They maintained, as the men of 1787 had maintained, that slavery should be regarded as a State matter--that the voters of each State could decide at any time, and change their minds as often as they chose, whether their State should be a slave-labour State, or a free-labour State. They denied, however, that the National government should be used as a machine to extend slavery. The dissensions in the Democratic Party resulted in the election of Lincoln, the Republican leader. South Carolina, alone of all the States, adhered to the timedishonoured practice of choosing presidential electors by vote of the Legislature. Having performed that duty in November, 1860, the Legislature remained in session until the result of the election should be assured. When it was known that Lincoln had been elected, it provided for the calling of a State Convention, to be held on the 17th of December (1860), next following. On the 20th of that month, the people of South Carolina, in Convention assembled, repealed the ordinance of the Convention of 1788 ratifying the Constitution of the United States, and declared the Union between South Carolina and the other States dissolved. The Convention also

Secession,

1860-61.

issued a Declaration of Causes setting forth the reasons which had made this secession necessary. Before March, 1861, six other States: Mississippi, Florida, Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana, and Texas seceded. The people of these States seized the national property within the State limits, and only three military posts in the seceded States remained in the hands of the national authority when Lincoln took the oath of office on March 4th, 1861.

17

C. A.

CHAPTER X.

THE WAR FOR THE UNION, 1861-1865.

The Causes of the Civil War.

THE documents, wherein the politicians of South Carolina attempted to justify her course, furnish at once the reason for secession and for the ultimate defeat of the South in the War. So far as governmental ideas were concerned, the leaders of public opinion in the South in 1861 occupied the same ground that their great-grandfathers had occupied in 1776. Volumes have been written expounding the arguments for and against staterights. It is not necessary for the proper understanding of the points at issue in 1861 to go into these arguments. The Southern states which seceded first and last were, broadly speaking, agricultural communities. This fact had led to the introduction of slavery in the beginning, and slavery, once established, had prevented those communities from becoming other than agricultural. There was only one city of any considerable importance in the whole slave-holding section, south of the Potomac. This was New Orleans, which, in 1860, contained a population of one hundred and sixty-eight thousand. Moreover, its prosperity was due in great measure to the fact that it was, to a greater extent then than now, the entrepôt for the commerce of the Mississippi valley. The North, on the other hand, had developed into a country of