CHAPTER XIII.

SECRETARY OF THE INTERIOR RESIGNS. MR. HOLT IN THE WAR DEPARTMENT. THE PREVALENCE OF TREASON. THE LAW OF TREASON. RESIGNATION OF MR. THOMAS AND APPOINTMENT OF GENERAL DIX TO THE TREASURY.

Resignation of Mr.
Thompson.

Mr. Holt, Postmaster

HON. JACOB THOMPSON, | ances, and declared his purpose to do his Secretary of the Interior, whole duty, fearlessly. resigned his Cabinet seat, Thursday, January 8th. His reasons were, that "after the order to reenforce Major Anderson was countermanded, on the 31st of December, there was a distinct understanding that no troops should be ordered South without the subject being considered and decided on in the Cabinet. At the Cabinet meeting, on the 2d of January, the matter was again debated, but not determined. Notwithstanding these facts, the Secretary of War, without the knowledge of Secretary Thompson, sent 250 troops in the Star of the West to reenforce Anderson. Not learning of this till Tuesday morning, he forthwith resigned." The resignation proved a relief rather than an embarrassment to the President. He was, like all the Southern men in the Cabinet, inimical to a policy of resistance to the revolution, and served only to distract the Cabinet Council. The remaining Southern member, Mr. Thomas, of Maryland, Secretary of the Treasury, was less offensive than any of those who had withdrawn; but, being a "Southern man," his resignation was, also, daily looked for, and, by the great mass of the people and members of Congress, was desired.

Congress not being in session Tuesday, Mr. Buchanan was waited upon by a large number of Congressmen, as well as by eminent persons then in Washington, to be congratulated on the growing sentiment for Union. He was quite generally assured that his policy of resistance would not only gratify the majority of the people, but that they would be satisfied with nothing less than a firm enforcement of the laws. The President expressed much gratification with these assur

General, continued to dis- The War Department.
charge the duties of the
War Department. His labors were almost
exclusively performed in General Scott's
office, where he could find not only privacy,
but could, at all moments, obtain the wise
counsel of the veteran Lieutenant-General.
Spies and Southern emissaries lurked every-
where, and scarcely a whisper was uttered
which did not seem to be heard and repeated
to the Government's detriment. Eminent
men from the South stooped to the mean po-
sition of tale-bearers and special reporters;
while the army of Southerners in employ of
all the departments, in all branches of the
civil service, in the Army and Navy-almost
without exception-became petty informers,
plotting and intriguing against the Govern-
ment whose bounty they were living upon.
Such wide spread and thorough demoraliza-
tion of the sentiment of honor never before
was witnessed in America: may it never again
be seen! Mr. Holt brought to the duties of
his responsible position courage, patriotism
and industry quite equal to the extraordinary
emergencies by which he was environed, and
Southern men beheld in him the controlling
genius of the unqualified Union policy.

Resolved, That we hold ourselves ready, and tender our services to the State, or the National Govern- be ment, or both, to aid to the extent of our power in crushing this formidable and wicked rebellion; determined, at all hazards, that the Constitution shall

1

THE LAW OF TREASON.

open and secret sales of arms and munitions were consummated during all the months of December, January and February arms which the manufacturers and salesmen knew were to be used against the Government, and, beyond question, sold them so to be used. The Adams' Express was an accredited carrying agent for the transportation of arms to the South; and, during these months, almost daily transported packages which its agents knew to contain arms and munitions ordered by the revolutionary States for use against the Government. During March, large quantities of clothing were manufactured in Northern cities for Southern troops, and rapidly carried South by this same "Southern" Express, knowing the clothing to be for the aid and comfort of the enemies of the Government. In Washington, as we have stated, the Departments, the floors of Congress, the Army, the Navy, all fairly stiffened with the insolence and hauteur of treason and misprision of treason. Army and Navy officers signed, with the expressed purpose of taking service against their Government—some taking such service before they could even know if their resignations were acted upon, as in the cases of Commander Farrand and Lieut. Renshaw, at Pensacola; while others not even deigned to send in a resignation, but took their vessels with them when they passed over to the revolutionists, as in the cases of Capt. Coste, Capt. Breshwood, and Capt. Morrison-each one of whom betrayed his vessel into the hands of the rebels.

221

The responsibility of non-action on the part of Congress and the Executive cannot be excused on the plea that the States, individually, had power to punish treason committed against them, for, what was treason against a State was equally treason against the common country, and, therefore, amenable to the constitutional provision for its punishment. Judge Story says:—

The power of punishing the crime of treason against the United States is exclusive in Congress; and the trial of the offence belongs exclusively to the tribunals appointed by them. A State cannot take cognizance, or punish the offence; whatever it may do in relation to the offence of treason, com

Laitted exclusively against itself, if indeed any case

caa, under the Constitution, exist, which is not, at the same time, treason against the United States." [Com. on Const. § 1296, p. 173, vol. III.]

Further Cabinet
Changes.

On Congress, the Supreme Court, and the Executive alone must rest the responsibility of non-action. That the growth of the defection was precipitate and wide-spread owre-ing to this very smothering of the plain processes of the law is now, as it then was, evident even to the most casual observer. A telegram from Washington dated the 11th, stated that the "President had signified to Mr. Thomas, Secretary of the Treasury, that his resignation was desired." This is said to have grown out of a visit of several leading capitalists of New York, as representatives of the banks of that city, who expressed a willingness and wish to aid Government with funds, but felt so little confidence in the Secretary that his removal must precede any tenders of money. The fact that Mr. Thomas was a disunionist-as well as his first assistant, Mr. Clayton -was sufficient to inspire a want of faith in their integrity of administration. The capitalists, it is probable, also suggested the nomination, as Secretary of the Treasury, of General John A. Dix, then Postmaster of New York City. Mr. Thomas resigned (January 11th), and Mr. Dix took the vacated bureau to try and resuscitate the distressed finances of the country from their humiliating condition. The shocking mismanagement of that Department by the Secessionist, Secretaries had almost ruined the credit of Government; and Mr. Buchanan performed a wise act in listening to the counsel of

How it will astonish future generations to read the law of Congress above quoted, and then to learn that, in the face of all this undisguised cooperation and collusion with the conspirators, not one arrest was made-not one indictment for treason! That the violent Secessionists in Congress, the Army and Navy officers offering their resignations from secession proclivities, the manufacturers and salesagents of arms,—all should have been arrested admits of no question if the law was to be considered else than a dead letter. That Adams' Express Company should have had its charter confiscated, and its rights and immunities sequestered, can hardly be a matter of argument in the face of that act of Congress.

the New York men of money. The Treasury | supported in a vigorous policy, but soon dis soon felt the magnetism of integrity and covered that his advisers were ready for a true patriotism; and, from that hour, it began to Jacksonian handling of the reins of Governrecover its old character for efficiency. How-ment. The brief term of his rule, together ell Cobb took the keys to find the chest absolutely burdened with its riches: Mr. Thomas found and left it in a state of discredit and bankruptcy. The end designed of crippling the Federal Government had been accomplished.

This last change restored the Cabinet to harmony of action. It was now composed of men of undoubted ability and of devoted patriotism, and the President found himself not only

with his distaste for a state of war, contributed to lead his feet into bye-paths-to impel him to choose a course of action which should leave the incoming Administration to grapple with the monster which his timidity had not strangled in its infancy.

He was, indeed, to leave for his successor the veritable Pandora box. It was his only legacy.

WHEN it became proba- | looked eagerly for the news of each steamer to read their fate, if possible, in the revelations of the foreign press.

A pure

Relative Positions. ble that a disrupted Confederacy would be the result of the disunion revolution, the foreign The North viewed the matter of English relations of the country began to excite un- and French sympathy without concern. Apwonted interest on the part of the revolu- preciating the force of the arguments urged tionary leaders. The South turned longingly by the South, to create a foreign interest in to England and France for their sympathy. its behalf, the Free States felt confident of Were these nations not greatly dependent on being able to restrain active sympathy for the the products of Slavery for their prosperity? revolutionists, not more by old ties, treaties Could they fail to recognize a new Confederacy and international obligations, than by the rewhich might safely promise more cotton at a pugnance which the people-particularly of less price than under the old Union? Would Great Britain-felt for Slavery. they not be happy to establish new commer- Slave Confederacy never could win their concial relations, unhampered by tariffs, and en- fidence. If they must have the products of couraged by a system of exchanges-the Slave labor, to employ their millions of weavforeign nations acting as consumers of a raw ers and spinners, they preferred to practice material to return it manufactured? What the little hypocrisy of excusing themselves a fine promise, truly, for British commerce for the purchase, so long as it came from the and French looms! And then, weightier free United States; but, make the issue dithan all, would not those nations rejoice to rect, to support a Confederation formed ersee the great Western Republic reduced from pressly to extend the area of Slavery, to rivet a first-class to a third-rate power-thus giv- the chains more securely on the miserable ing monarchy a new lease of its prerogatives? bondmen-then the English people would cry, All views seemed favorable to the scheme for Never! The North seemed to rest assured the Slave Confederation, and the leaders of this feeling, and did not experience the

OPINIONS OF THE EUROPEAN PRESS.

228

feverish anxiety in regard to foreign relations which possessed the entire South, from a very early moment of the revolution.

It will be of interest to reproduce such expressions of influential foreign journals, during the month of January, as will indicate how our affairs impressed the European mind. Being outside, and comparatively disinterested, observers the London Times, perhaps, excepted--their remarks will serve to give the reader a clearer comprehension of the questions involved than might otherwise be obtained.

The Paris

tionel.

Constitu

on it the whole responsibility of the crisis, persist in its victory, and allow the South, which it has neither threatened nor provoked, to act as it likes? That is what a no distant future will inform us. For our

part, our wishes are at the same time for the safety of the great American Republic, and for the gradual diminution of Slavery. We much fear, however,

Dee. 22d.

The London Times.

that the North will see in the late Message propositions offensive to it; while the South will find there an encouragement to its projects of rupture. Mr. Buchanan would thus have failed in his attempt at pacification, and will have bequeathed to his fellowcountrymen only an incoherent commentary on the Constitution of the Republic. Would it not have "Mr. Buchanan has sought been better if he had referred to a famous letter of out the means of preserving Washington, dated in April, 1786, and in which the Union from the catastrophe that 'Father of his Country' said: "There is not a which threatens it; he has drawn up a plan of re- man living who desires more sincerely than I to see conciliation between the Northern and Southern a plan adopted for the abolition of Slavery; but States. It cannot, however, be said that this pro- there is but one suitable and effectual mode of acject is a compromise, inviting the two adverse par-complishing that object—legislative authority.' 199 ties to mutual concessions and equal sacrifices; it is rather a summons addressed to one to yield to the exigencies of the other; it is more like a decision come to with partiality than an equitable arbitration. To the North, which has gained its cause before the people, the President signifies that it must abandon the benefit of the decision for the profit of the South, which has been the losing party. Under pretext of conciliation, the Message calls on the conqueror to place himself under the feet of the conquered. Such is the groundwork of Mr. Buchanan's propositions. * What, then, does Mr. Buchanan ask for? He requires the North to accept, as forming a part of the Constitution itself, the three following points:-1. An express recognition of the right of property over slaves wherever Slavery exists, or may exist. 2. The duty of protecting that right on all the common Territories, until they constitute themselves into States. 3. The recognition of the right of a master to have a fugitive slave delivered up to him by all the States, and a declaration that all the laws of a State, which are in contradiction to that right are so many violations of the Constitution, and must, therefore, be null and of non-effect. It is tantamount to saying to the North: 'Grant to the South all it claims; it will then be satisfied, and will not separate itself from you.'

* Will the North resign itself to a capitulation of its conscience-to a sacrifice of its self-loveand submit, in exchange for the maintenance of the Confederation, to all the exigencies of the South? Will it accept the evasion proposed to it under the form of remonstrance and wise advice? According to Mr. Buchanan, that would be the only means of saving the Union. Or will the North, irritated in its turn by the reproaches of the President, who throws

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"Never for many years can the United States be to the world what they have been. Mr. Buchanan's message has been a greater blow to the American people than all the rants of the Georgian Governor or the ordinances' of the Charleston Convention. The President has dissipated the idea that the States which elected him constitute one people. We had thought that the Federation was of the nature of a nationality; we find it is nothing more than a partnership. If any State may, on grounds satisfactory to a local convention, dissolve the union between itself and its fellows; if discontent with the election of a President, or the passing of an obnoxious law by another State, or, it may be, a restrictive tariff gives a State the right of revolution,' and permits it to withdraw itself from the community, then the position of the American people, with respect to foreign Powers, is completely altered. It is strange that a race whose patriotic captiousness, when in the society of Europeans, is so remarkable, should be so ready to divide and to give up the ties of fellowcitizenship for a cause which strangers are unable to appreciate. Still stranger is it that a chief magistrate, who would have plunged the world in civil war rather than a suspicious craft should be boarded by English officers, after it had displayed the Stars and Stripes, or would have done battle against despots for any naturalized refugee from Continental Europe, should, without scruple and against the advice of his own Secretary of State, declare the Fede ral Union dissolved whenever a refractory State chooses to secede."―January 9th.

"The Declaration of the immediate causes which induce and justify the separation of South Carolina