pointed by the House of Representatives, in a report upon the conduct of the Secretary of the Navy, spoke as follows:

"From this statement it will appear, that the entire naval force available for the defense of the whole Atlantic coast, at the time of the appointment of this committee, consisted of the steamer Brooklyn, 25 guns, and the storeship Relief, 2 guns; while the former was of too great draft to permit her to enter Charleston harbor with safety, except at spring tide, and the latter was under orders to the coast of Africa, with stores for the African squadron. Thus the whole Atlantic sea-board has been, to all intents and purposes, without defense, during all the period of civil commotion and lawless violence, to which the President (Buchanan) has called our attention, as of such vast and alarming proportions, as to be beyond his power to check or control.'

"The Committee can not fail to call attention to this extraordinary disposition of the entire naval force of the country, and especially in connection with the present no less extraordinary and critical juncture of political affairs. They can not call to mind any period in the past history of the country, of such profound peace and internal repose, as would justify so entire an abandonment of the coast of the country to the chance of fortune. Certainly, since the nation possessed a navy, it has not before sent its entire available force into distant seas, and exposed its immense interests at home, of which it is the special guardian, to the dangers from which, even in times of the utmost quiet, prudence and forecast do always shelter them

"To the Committee, this disposition of the naval force, at this most critical period, seems extraordinary. The permitting of vessels to depart for distant seas, after these unhappy difficulties had broken out at home, the omission to put in repair and commission, ready for orders, a single one of the twenty-eight ships dismantled and unfit for service, in our ports, and that, too, while $646639.70 of the appropriation for repairs of the navy, the present year, remain unexpended, were, in the opinions of your Committee, grave errors-without justification or excuse."

"Thus the Government was despoiled by its own imbecile or traitorous officials. Enemies within, opened the door of the fortress for the entrance of the beleaguering foe. The President, overawed and nerveless, was a silent observer of the march of the conspirators. At last, however, he summoned courage to say to Congress, in tones alike of weakness and despair, that the rebell

ion had attained such "vast and alarming proportions, as to place the subject entirely above and beyond Executive control." Nay more, instead of hurling the thunderbolts he might have wielded, into the ranks of the rebels, he acquiesced in their movements, and could hardly be forced to adopt any measure which did not meet with their approval.

"It is difficult to find in all the annals of the past, an example of executive power bowing the neck so meekly beneath the heel of traitorous arrogance. His Cabinet was mostly filled with slaveholding conspirators, who first endeavored to betray their country by the most insane measures, and then disclosed to their confederate traitors all that transpired in the Executive counsels. President Buchanan was anxious for peace. His political sympathies were, however, with the conspirators, and bitterly hostile to those who were the foes of human bondage. As the storm of passion increased in violence, the only measure he could suggest was unconditional surrender of the Government to the wishes of the slaveholders. This was called a compromise. The North, on its part, was to surrender everything. The South, on its part, would consent to accept the surrender.

"Speaking of this rebellion and the plan to conciliate the rebels, by surrendering to slavery all the United States territory south of 36o 30', a concession which the rebels would not accept, Mr. Lovejoy, in the House of Representatives, uttered the memora ble words:

"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."

Mr. Wigfall, Senator from Texas, exclaimed, in one of his characteristic outbursts, "It is the merest balderdash-that is what it is-it is the most unmitigated fudge for any one to get up here, and tell men who have sense and who have brains, that there is any prospect of two-thirds of this Congress passing any propositions as an amendment to the Constitution, that any man who is white, twenty-one years old, and whose hair is straight, living south of Mason and Dixon's line, will be content with."

"One of the most marvelous revelations of history is the phenomenon, that the most majestic of national movements may of ten be controlled by very small minorities. Brissot de Warville

says, that the French Revolution was carried by not more than twenty men. The whole number of slaveholders in the South did not exceed three hundred thousand. Not more than a hundred thousand of these possessed any large amount of this species. of property. And yet this petty oligarchy, entirely subordinate to a few leading minds, organized the most gigantic rebellion which ever shook this globe. "The future historian," says the Hon. Charles Sumner, will record, that the present rebellion, notwithstanding its protracted origin, the multitudes it has enlisted, and its extensive sweep, was at last precipitated by fewer than twenty men; Mr. Everett says, by as few as ten. It is certain that thus far it has been the triumph of a minority—but of a minority inspired, combined, and aggrandized by slavery."

.6

"While Congress was discussing measures of compromise, the South was marshaling her hosts for battle. When the news of Lincoln's election reached Charleston, S. C., tumultuous throngs in the streets received the tidings with long continued cheering for a Southern Confederacy. In Washington, many of the people boldly assumed the secession cockade, knowing that the insulted, humiliated Government of the United States, in the hands of Presicent Buchanan, was impotent to harm them. The Palmetto flag was hoisted and saluted; "minute men" were organized. All through the cotton and slaveholding States, the excitement was intense, the secessionists striving to overawe the friends of the Union, and preparing for the arbitrament of the sword, in the success of which arbitrament, they, in their ignorance and selfconfidence, cherished not a doubt. They had been accustomed to regard all men who labored as degraded, as on a footing with their slaves. The Northerners they stigmatized as "greasy mechanics," and "mudsills," any five of whom could be instantly put to flight by one chivalrous Southron."1

We have said that the election of Abraham Lincoln was not the cause, but only the pretext for the rebellion. It was a cry by which the leading rebels and life-long conspirators against the institutions of the country sought, "to fire the Southern heart,” and forever destroy our free constitution. It turned out to be an admirable expedient for the purpose intended, among the ignorant masses of the South. A single example will show this:The Hon. A. H. Stephens, long a member of the United States.

* Abbott's History of the Civil War in America.

House of Representatives from Georgia, and one of the most influential and able men in that State, addressed an immense assemblage of his constituents, in the Hall of the House of Representatives, at Milledgeville, Ga., November 14, 1860. He then said: "The first question that presents itself is, Shall the people of the South secede from the Union in consequence of the election of Mr. Lincoln to the Presidency of the United States? My countrymen, I tell you frankly, candidly, and earnestly, that I do not think they ought. In my judgment, the election of no man, constitutionally chosen to that high office, is sufficient cause for any State to separate from the Union. It ought to stand by and aid still in maintaining the Constitution of the country. To make a point of resistance to the Government, to withdraw from it, be-, cause a man has been constitutionally elected, puts us in the wrong, We are pledged to maintain the Constitution. Many of us have sworn to support it. Can we, therefore, for the mere election of a man to the Presidency, and that, too, in accordance with the prescribed forms of the Constitution, make a point of resistance to the Government, without becoming the breakers of that sacred instrument ourselves?

"I look upon this country, with our Institutions, as the Eden of the world-the paradise of the Universe. It may be, that out of it we may become greater and more prosperous; but I am candid and sincere in telling you that I fear, if we rashly evince passion, and, without sufficient cause, shall take that step, that, instead of becoming greater or more peaceful, prosperous, and happy, instead of becoming gods, we will become demons, and, at no distant day, commence cutting one another's throats."

But the words of the wisest statesmen of the South were not to be heeded. All union opposition to secession was overborne. Even Stephens himself, a few days after making the speech, of which the above is an extract, took back his own brave and honest words, and made a ranting speech on the other side of the question, and a little later, accepted the Vice-Presidency of the slaveholders' confederacy. Several of the Southern States, almost immediately began to make warlike preparations and appropriations, and the whole Southern community was in a blaze of excitement.

On the 20th day of December, 1860, South Carolina seceded, or, in the polite phrase of the time, withdrew its original consent to the Constitution of the United States, and resumed its condition as a sovereign State! The news of this action, which

was unanimous, was hailed with enthusiasm throughout the Southern States. On the 9th of January, 1861, the Mississippi Convention passed an ordinance of secession. Florida followed suit on the 10th, and Alabama the next day Georgia seceded on the 19th, and Louisiana on the 26th. The Texas convention passed a secession ordinance, Feb. 1st, 1861, subject to a vote of the peo ple, and on the 4th, declared the State out of the union! Virginia passed an ordinance of secession the 17th of April, Arkansas, May 6th, and North Carolina, May 29th.

Meanwhile, the rebels were rapidly seizing the forts, arsenals, navyyards and mints, within the limits of the seceded States, while Gen Twiggs, in Texas, traitorously surrendered the greater portion of the little army of the United States, it having been placed there for this purpose by the Secretary of War.

But still the meek Buchanan did nothing but appoint a day for fasting and prayer throughout the nation, on the 4th of January, 1861, which was generally observed at the North, and as generally disregarded at the South, and to send a messenger or two to the South, to beg of them, in piteous terms, to do nothing rash during the brief remainder of his official term. His action disgusted his political friends in the North, not less than all other parties.

It was on the occasion of this fast that Woodbury took its frst part in the stirring events of the times. Thoroughly law abiding, as its citizens always had been, for two hundred years, always attentive to the suggestion of rulers, they generally attended, on this occasion, at their several places of worship, to supplicate the Lord of Hosts, that the evils which threatened the nation, and which the governmett seemed utterly unable to successfully oppose, might be averted. It was on this occasion that the late Rev. Noah Coe, who was then supplying the pulpit of the First Congregational church, and who, not being the settled pastor of the church, and, on account of the temper of the times, was not afraid of being accused of "preaching politics," uttered his memorable prayer, a passage of which follows:

"Oh! Lord, we have assembled in Thy presence, in response to the call, in his feebleness, of the President of the United States. We thank Thee that he has been brought to see the need of fasting and prayer, and that he has felt the necessity of asking the prayers of Thy people. Oh! Lord, Thou knowest that his sins are manifold in Thy sight, and that he greatly needs them. Let him still further see the error of his ways, and apply his heart unto