Many writers have deprecated applying the word "conspiracy" to the secession movement; but if the word is suitable for a secret, long-continued, and concerted movement, the term is just. On January 5, Senators Davis and Brown, of Mississippi; Hemphill and Wigfall, of Texas; Slidell and Benjamin, of Louisiana; Iverson and Toombs, of Georgia; Johnson, of Arkansas; Clay, of Alabama; Yulee and Mallory, of Florida, met in Washington and passed resolutions for the immediate secession of their respective states, and for a convention at Montgomery, Alabama, to meet not later than February 16, to organize a southern confederacy; they requested instructions from their friends as to whether the delegations were to remain in Congress until March 4, so as to defeat threatened hostile legislation.' As one of them privately expressed it, "By remaining in our places. . . it is thought we can keep the hands of Mr. Buchanan tied and disable the Republicans from effecting any legislation which will strengthen the hands of the incoming administration." Extraordinary ethics which could permit men sworn to support the Constitution, and paid out of the Federal treasury, to use their official position to conspire for the downfall of their government!

The fact that the action of this cabal was almost at once published, and that it was openly mentioned in southern conventions, does not divest it of its

1 War Records, Serial No. 1, p. 443.

2 Yulee to Finegan, January 7, 1861, in ibid.

true character. It is impossible in our country to keep secret proceedings of a character designed to influence many widely separated individuals; but the intent of secrecy undoubtedly existed. Even the southern leaders were not so disregardful of place and circumstances as to flaunt willingly such action in the face of the president, or such designs upon legislation in the face of their northern colleagues.1

2

Mr. Davis, twenty years later, indignantly proclaimed the absurdity of the statement; but it is very difficult to accept this opinion in face of the resolutions of January 5, which he signed, and of a letter to Governor Pickens, January 13, in which he said: "I take it for granted that the time allowed to the garrison of Fort Sumter has been diligently employed by yourselves, so that before you could be driven out of your earthworks you will be able to capture the fort which commands them"; and, January 20, "The occurrence of the Star of the West scems to me to put you in the best condition for delay, so long as the Government permits that matter to rest where it is. Your friends here think you can well afford to stand still, so far as the presence of a garrison is concerned, and if things continue as they are for a month, we shall then be in a condition to speak with a voice which all must hear and heed." 3 Nor can it be reconciled with the

1 Contemporary opinion, National Intelligencer, January 14, 2 Davis, Confederate Government, I., 200-202.

1861.

3 Crawford, Fort Sumter, 263–265.

action of such men as Senators Wigfall and Mal lory, who bristled with telegrams and advice to the secession leaders in the South, crowned as such action was by that of Floyd and Thompson in the cabinet.

In weighing Davis's statement one must consider his peculiarly sophistical mental make-up. No man could more easily deceive himself. He could constantly declare himself no disunionist while instigating secession in the strongest terms. A memorable instance is a speech of 1858, in which he said: "Neither in that year [1852], nor in any other, have I ever advocated a dissolution of the Union, or a separation of the State of Mississippi from the Union, except as the last alternative. . . . I hold

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that whilst occupying a seat in the Senate, I am bound to maintain the Government of the Constitution, and in no manner to work for its destruction; that the obligation of the oath of office, Mississippi's honor and my own, require that as a Senator of the United States, there should be no want of loyalty to the Constitutional Union." " In almost the next words of this speech he is able to declare that if an abolitionist be chosen president (and the word abolitionist in the southern view included every Republican), whether by the House of Representatives or by the people, the state of Mississippi should provide for its safety outside the

1 Daily Mississippian, November 15, 1858, quoted by Nicolay and Hay, Abraham Lincoln, III., 210.