the great waters of the southwest. The decree has gone forth. Upon each acre of the peaceful soil of the South, armed men will spring up as the sound breaks upon their ears; and it will be found that every word of our insolent foe has been, indeed, a dragon's tooth sown for their destruction. And though grizzly and traitorous ruffians may cry on the dogs of war, and treacherous politicians may lend their aid in deceptions, South Carolina will stand under her own palmetto-tree, unterrified by the snarling growls or assaults of the one, undeceived or deterred by the wily machinations of the other. And if that red seal of blood be still lacking to the parchment of our liberties, and blood they want-blood they shall have-and blood enough to stamp it all in red. For, by the God of our fathers, the soil of South Carolina shall be free!"

Such was the language of the Declaration of War against the Union by the politicians of South Carolina--arrogant, boastful, savage. Unmindful of the wisdom of the injunction of the king of Israel, "Let not him that girdeth on his harness boast himself as he that putteth it off," they proceeded in hot haste, in the spirit of their Declaration, to inaugurate Civil War, and to drag the peaceful inhabitants of the other slave-labor States into its horrid vortex. The people, whose rights they had violated and whose sovereignty they had usurped, were stunned and bewildered by the violence of these self-constituted leaders, and they found themselves and their millions of property at the mercy of madmen who, as the sequel proved, were totally unfit to lead in the councils of a free, intelligent, and patriotic community. Four years after the war so boastfully begun by these political leaders in South Carolina, Charleston was a ghastly ruin, in which not one of these mer. remained; Columbia, the capital of the State, was laid in ashes; every slave within the borders of the Republic was liberated; society in the slave-labor States was wholly disorganized; the land was filled with the mourning of the deceived and bereaved people; and a large number of those who signed the Ordinance of Secession and so brought the curse of war's desolation upon the innocent inhabitants of most of the Southern States, became fugitives from their homes, utterly ruined. I would gladly draw the veil of oblivion over the folly and wrong-doing of these few crazy leaders, for they were citizens of our common country; but justice to posterity requires that their actions should be made warning beacons to others who, in like manner, contemplate rebellion against the divine law of the Golden Rule, and a total disregard of the rights of man.

The South Carolina politicians now made frantic appeals to those of other slave-labor States to follow their example, and bind the people hand and foot by ordinances of secession. During the first thirty days of the year 1851, the

CHAP. V.

GIVING AID AND COMFORT TO SECESSIONISTS.

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politicians in six of the other States responded by calling conventions and passing ordinances of secession, in the following order: Mississippi, on the 9th of January; Florida, on the 10th; Alabama, on the 11th; Georgia, on the 19th; Louisiana, on the 26th, and Texas on the first of February. At the same time the Secessionists of Virginia were anxious to enroll their State among the seceders; and under the control of ex-Governor Henry A. Wise, and of others in Maryland under leaders unknown to the public, large numbers of "Minute-men" were organized and drilled for the special purpose of seizing Washington city and the Government Buildings and archives—a prime object of the conspirators against the life of the nation. Acting upon the suggestions of the politicians of South Carolina, those of other States caused the seizure of forts, arsenals, and other property of the United States within the borders of the slave-labor States. In Louisiana the Arsenal, Mint, Custom-house and Post-office, with all their contents, were seized and turned over to the State authorities, while the President, evidently bound by ante-election pledges, dared not interfere. The insurgents everywhere were encouraged by the leaders of the Administration party in the North, by language such as was used at a large Democratic meeting held in Philadelphia on the 16th of January, 1861, when one of the resolutions adopted, echoing the sentiments of the decision of the AttorneyGeneral, declared: "We are utterly opposed to any such compulsion as is demanded by a portion of the Republican party; and the Democratic party of the North will, by all constitutional means, and with its moral and political influence, oppose any such extreme policy, or a fratricidal war thus to be inaugurated." And a Democratic State Convention held at the capital of Pennsylvania, on the 22d of February, 1861, said by a resolution: "We will, by all proper and legitimate means, oppose, discountenance and prevent any attempt on the part of the Republicans in power, to make any armed aggressions upon the Southern States, especially so long as laws [meaning those concerning the Fugitive-Slave Act] contravening their rights shall remain unrepealed on the statute books of Northern States, and so long as the just demands of the South shall continue to be unrecognized by the Republican majorities in those States, and unsecured by proper amendatory explanations of the Constitution."

Such moral "aid and comfort" everywhere given by Northern politicians, made the insurgents believe that there would be such a fatally "divided North" that their schemes might be consummated with ease, and they did not pause in their mad career. They at once set about executing, with boldness and energy, their preconcerted plans as set forth in the following words by one of them: "We intend to take possession of the army and

navy, and of the archives of the Government; not allow the electoral votes to be counted; proclaim Buchanan provisional president if he will do as we wish; if not, choose another; seize the Harper's Ferry Arsenal and the Norfolk Navy-yard simultaneously, and sending armed men down from the former and armed vessels up from the latter, take possession of Washington city and establish a new government." Many seizures were made; and the value of the public property thus appropriated to the use of the insurgents, before the close of Buchanan's administration, was estimated at $30,000,000.

A defiant spirit now prevailed all over the South. When General Dix, the loyal Secretary of the Treasury, sent a special agent of his department to secure from seizure revenue cutters at New Orleans and Mobile, with special orders for their commanders, the captain (Breshwood) of one of them at the former port, haughtily refused to obey. When the agent telegraphed to the Secretary a notice of this disobedience, the latter immediately sent his famous despatch: "Tell Lieutenant Caldwell to arrest Captain Breshwood, assume the command of the cutter, and obey the order through you. If Captain Breshwood, after arrest, undertakes to

interfere with the command of the cutter, tell Lieutenant Caldwell to consider him as a mutineer. If any one attempts to pull down the American flag, shoot him on the spot!"

This vigorous order was the first sign given by the Executive Government at Washington of a real determination to quell the rising insurrection; and it gave hopes to the friends of the Union who had observed, with great anxiety, the President of the Republic sitting with his hands folded in passive acquiescence while its enemies were preparing to destroy it. But the conspirators in New Orleans, who had control of the telegraph, did not allow the despatch to pass. The revenue cutter fell into the hands of the insurgents; and two days afterward the National Mint and Custom-house at New Orleans, with all the coin and bullion they contained, amounting to

CHAP. V.

RECONCILIATION ATTEMPTED.

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$536,000, were seized by the Secessionists, and the precious metals were placed in the coffers of the State of Louisiana.

While events in the slave-labor States, in the month of January, 1861, were tending more and more toward armed rebellion against the National Government, the people of the free-labor States became fully aroused to the impending danger to the Union. The Border States were also deeply agitated, at the same time, by conflicting sentiments, for there was a very large class of Unionists in each of them. But these were speedily overborne by the violence of the Secessionists; and Virginia, Tennessee and Missouri were finally arranged under the banner of the Southern Confederacy, by their politicians, and these, with Kentucky, bore the brunt of the dreadful conflict that ensued. Kentucky and Maryland were in a doubtful position at one time. The patriotic Governor Hicks kept the latter fast to her moorings among the loyal commonwealths; but Governor Magoffin of Kentucky, who was an adroit politician, failing to drag that State into secession, procured for it an attitude of so-called "neutrality" that was far worse for the inhabitants than a positive position on one side or the other. Governors Letcher of Virginia, Harris of Tennessee and Jackson of Missouri, with their associate politicians, formally committed their respective States to the fortunes of the enemies of the Union.

Meanwhile the loyal people of the Northern States were holding public meetings and counteracting, as far as they might, the revolutionary proceedings of their opponents North and South. They loved peace and desired friendship, and were willing to make almost any concessions to the enemies of the Government that did not involve their honor. When, as the politicians in State after State adopted ordinances of secession, and their respective representatives in both Houses of Congress abdicated their seats and hurled defiance and threats in the face of the Government and its supporters, the latter patiently yielded, and showed a willingness to conciliate the arrogant leaders of the Secessionists. So early as the 27th of December, Charles Francis Adams, a representative of Massachusetts-a commonwealth against which the fiercest maledictions of the slaveholders had been hurled for years-offered a resolution in the House of Representatives, "That it is expedient to propose an amendment to the Constitution, to the effect that no future amendments of it in regard to slavery shall be made unless proposed by a slave State, and ratified by all the States." And so eager were the loyal men for reconciliation, that when the authorities of Virginia proposed a General Convention at the National capital (which was called a Peace Conference), they readily agreed to the measure and appointed dele. gates to it, albeit many wise men doubted the sincerity of the proposers

and regarded it as a plan to gain time for the perfecting of plans for seizing Washington city.

The Peace Conference assembled at the National capital on the 4th of February, 1861, in which delegates from twenty-one States appeared. ExPresident John Tyler of Virginia was appointed chairman of the Convention, "Your patriotism," he said, in taking the chair, "will surmount the difficulties, however great, if you will but accomplish one triumph in advance, and that is triumph over party. And what is party, when compared to the work of rescuing one's country from danger? Do this, and one long, loud shout of joy and gladness will resound throughout the land."

The Convention heartily reciprocated these patriotic words. Efforts were made in the Convention to have an amendment to the National Constitution adopted, that would nationalize slavery. It failed, and a compromise was effected by adopting an article that should preserve slavery. With this compromise, Mr. Tyler and his Virginia friends professed to be satisfied. "I cannot but hope," he said, in his closing speech before the Convention, "that the blessing of God will follow and rest upon the result of your labors, and that such result will bring to our country that quiet and peace which every patriotic heart so earnestly desires. . . It is probable that the result to which you have arrived is the best that, under all the circumstances, could be expected. So far as in me lies, therefore, I shall recommend its adoption." The politicians at Richmond seem not to have responded kindly to this sentiment, and Mr. Tyler was compelled to change his views; for, thirty-six hours after the adjournment of the Convention, in a speech in the Virginia capital, he denounced the Peace Convention, and declared that "the South" had nothing to hope from the Republican party. Thenceforth he gave his whole influence for the promotion of the cause of disunion. Wise men had some reason for doubting the absolute sincerity of the Virginia politicians.

On the day when the Peace Convention assembled at Washington city, a band of men, professing to represent the people of six of the "seceded States," met at Montgomery, in Alabama, to form a Southern Confederacy. They were chosen by the Secession Conventions of South Carolina, Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, and Florida; and it is a notable fact that the people of these States were not allowed to act in the matter. The politicians would not trust them, and took the whole management of public affairs into their own hands. Not a single ordinance of secession was ever submitted to the people for ratification or rejection; and the delegates that met at Montgomery, forty-two in number, assembled wholly without the sanction of the people. Nevertheless, they proceeded as if they were a body