" ministration.-An impressive Incident.-A Delegation of Ministers visit Mr. Botts and have the Letter read to them.-His Views on the Emancipation Proclamation.-What he thought of the Confiscation Act.-Mr. Botts says, "Let the Nation live, and let Slavery perish.' The Democracy of the South the Destroyers of Slavery: "Out of Evil cometh Good."-He considers the Amnesty Act a Mistake.—He contends that the States never left the Union, but that their Citizens did, Page 310-320. THE GILMER LETTER.-John A. Gilmer, of North Carolina, wants Mr. Botts to go to Washington to "stop the War. "-His Answer to this Request.-A conquered Peace the only one to be had.-He refers to what Mr. Stephens said in 1860, 320–328. THE CONGRESSIONAL TEST-OATH.-Mr. Botts's Opinion solicited.-His Response to the Request.-No Doubt of the Right of Congress to impose the Oath.-None but a "religious Test-oath" prohibited by the Constitution.-Each House of Congress to be its own Judge of the Qualifications of its Members.-He tells them in September, 1865, that the Oath will not be repealed by Congress.-Though he fed the Hungry, and administered to the Sick and Wounded of the Rebel Army, as he did to those of the National Forces, he can, nevertheless, take the Oath conscientiously.-Acting the Part of the good Samaritan is not giving Aid to or having Sympathy with the Rebellion.-The second Letter on the Subject.-He clearly proves the constitutionality of the Oath, 328-339. PRESIDENT JOHNSON'S POLICY OF RECONSTRUCTION.-Mr. Botts's Views on the Subject.-He thought Mr. Johnson intended to make "Treason odious," and not a Virtue.-His Labors to restore Harmony to the distracted South.-He seeks Pardons for his former Persecutors, and, like the Snakes they were, they stung the Hand that saved them.-He sees Pardons bought and sold in the White House.-He exposes the Corruption to the President.-Loyal Unionists kept in the Background, while the worst Class of Rebels are allowed to take Office.-The gradual change of Rebels from humble Supplicants to tyrannical Taskmasters.―They assume Superiority over Unionists, and their Assumption is tacitly acknowledged by the President, 339–341. MR. BOTTS'S AXIOMS.-Secession forbidden by the Constitution.—All Ordinances of the kind null and void.-The Absurdity of state Allegiance being paramount.-No such thing as thirty-six different Allegiances in the United States, and yet none to the Central Government. -No State has been out of the Union.-Men can go out, however, though they can not take a State out.-The Rebel Government a de facto Government, and all its Citizens who voluntarily swore Alle- giance to it Aliens.-The Functions of the Rebel States suspended.- These Functions only to be restored by the law-making Power of the United States, viz., by President, House, and Senate acting together. -Properly elected and truly loyal Representatives entitled to Seats in Congress. To withhold the Right of such to Seats would be to place loyal and disloyal on a par.-No Presidential Pardons legal until the Pardoned have been tried.-The Policy of Reconstruction to be recom- menced under different Auspices; the present Policy declared a Fail- ure.-The unconstitutional Action of the Virginia Legislature.-Loyal Men the only Parties legally entitled to legislate in a reconstructed THE GARNETT LETTERS-THE FIRST LETTER.-Mr. Botts is requested to "define his Position."-He does it, greatly to the Disgust of ye Traitors.—He shows the Illegality of the Action of the State Legis- lature of Virginia.-He quotes Mr. Johnson's Record to show what his Policy is, or should be, rather.-He analyzes the Sequel to the great Southern Strike for higher Wages.-He quotes legal Authority as to the pardoning Power of the President.-What Attorney General Wirt, of Virginia, said in 1820.—What Roger B. Taney said in 1831.—He clenches the Nail with Chief Justice Marshall's Opinion on the Subject. -Tired of being persecuted by pardoned Rebels, he declares his Inten- tion to enter the Lists against the reconstructed Traitors alone, 344- THE SECOND LETTER.-Mr. Botts gives one of his "gentle Rebukes" to Mr. Garnett.—The "Rebuke" a scorching Epistle.—The Axioms il- lustrated.—Mr. Botts's "Roland" for Mr. Garnett's "Oliver," 359–367. THE THIRD LETTER.-Mr. Botts gives Evidence of the Disloyalty of the "Reconstructed."-The Conspiracy to involve the Nation in a foreign War. The Prescience of Mr. Botts in 1841, '44, '54, and '61. More Evidence of the Proscription of loyal People in the South.—Mr. Botts's Opinion on the Veto of the Bureau Bill, 367–375. THE FOURTH LETTER.-A Response to Mr. Garnett's Letter.-Mr. Botts MR. BOTTS'S PLAN OF RECONSTRUCTION.-His Letter to Congress.—Objections to the Report of the Congressional Reconstruction Committee. -No Relief for the white Unionists of the South.-The Power to vote dependent upon the grade of Office held instead of the grade of Offense committed. The President can not approve the Bill.-No Southern State will adopt it.-A new Oath suggested.-No one over twenty-five who voluntarily took up Arms against the United States Government to hold Office for ten Years.-A remission of forfeiture of Life, Liberty, and Property the Contingent.-Boys and young Men, together with those dragged in to Rebellion, not to be held to a Responsibility, Page 384-388. MR. LINCOLN AND HIS POLICY.-A Tribute to the Martyred President. -The gross Injustice done Mr. Lincoln.-The Lies of the Democratic Almanac.-The Republican Platform of 1860.—Its best Plank shown. -The false Statements of partisan Publications refuted.-Democratic Efforts to "fire the Southern Heart."-Mr. Lincoln's Speech in March, 1861.-His Reply to a Committee of so-called Southern Unionists.— Their false Report thereon.—Mr. Lincoln's Message in March, 1862.—Important Memorandum of an Interview between Mr. Lincoln and several Representatives of the Border States in 1862.--Another Interview with Members of Congress in July, 1862.-He explains his Views on the Slavery Question.-Compensation for Slaves made free, and gradual Emancipation offered to the South.-The Fremont Proclamation revoked by Mr. Lincoln.-Hunter's ditto.-Mr. Lincoln's Letter to the Tribune.-The Union to be saved at all Hazards-with Slavery or without it.—Mr. Botts's Comments on Mr. Lincoln's Policy.-The Vote on the Crittenden Proposition.-An apt Quotation from President Johnson when that eminent Tennesseean regarded Treason as odious, and was ready to punish Traitors, 388-402. THE GREAT REBELLION. ORIGIN OF THE BOOK. To Charles Palmer, Esq.: Home, near Richmond, October, 1861. MY DEAR SIR,By your letter of yesterday, I am informed that the French consul has applied to you for such information as you can furnish or obtain for him respecting the origin and progress of the doctrine of Secession, together with whatever else may be deemed important or interesting, as connected with the purposes and designs of the authors of this great Southern Rebellion; and, as one more familiar with the subject than yourself, you appeal to me. for the information required, to which I answer. It has generally been supposed that this doctrine of Secession had its origin with the famous "Hartford" Convention that was held in Hartford, Connecticut, in the year 1814, during the last war with Great Britain; but, with all the research I have been able to make, I have not succeeded in tracing this wild and pernicious assumption to that body. That it embraced a large degree of disaffected and disloyal spirit to the government of the United States, is undoubtedly true; that the authors of its creation were suspected and charged with entertaining such a design, is also beyond question; but it does not appear, by its published proceedings, to have claimed such right, or to have resorted to such a remedy for the evils of which they complained. They certainly manifested a deep hostility to the war then existing, and a great want of respect for the Constitution, and of good feeling for the government; and to the former they proposed certain amendments, which received the sanction of two only of those States that were represented in the Convention, to wit, Massachusetts and Connecticut. It is not at all improbable, that in the outset, the members of that Convention did contemplate a resort to some such Quixotic scheme, and that they were driven from their purpose by the universal condemnation of every patriotic voice and pen that could be raised or wielded in the land; for such was the odium and the infamy that attached to that body, from the bare suspicion of its disloyalty and treasonable design of originating separate action for the States, as sovereign powers independent of their obligations to the Constitution and their allegiance to the national government, that it was quite enough to damn the fame of any man in the nation, and to hold him up to public obloquy and contempt, if upon him could be fastened the stain of being a "Hartford Conventionist" either in fact or in sympathy of feeling; and it is not less remarkable than true, that no New England man, from that day to this, no matter what the extent of his capacity, integrity, or patriotism, has been able to achieve for himself a great national popularity and strength, because of the odium that stuck, like the shirt of Nessus, to those States for having been held to entertain such unpatriotic and unconstitutional sentiments, and for having permitted such a Convention to have been held within their limits; and every man at all familiar with the history of the country will recognize the truth of the assertion, that for more than twenty years after that Convention was held, whenever the Southern Democracy de |