Secession states. On the selfsame day, Mississippi seceded, folof other lowed in the course of the same month by Florida, Alabama, Georgia, and Louisiana, and on the first of February by Texas. None of the conventions in these states were unanimous in favor of secession, and that in Alabama threw a vote of thirty-nine out of one hundred against it. The secession of Texas was followed by the most shameless treachery, even of those treacherous days. General Twiggs, next in rank to General Scott, and intrusted with nearly half the army of the United States, besides posts of great importance, and stores of great value, surrendered the whole to commissioners appointed by the Texan convention, (February 18.) Out of all the twentyfive hundred whom Twiggs betrayed, not one common soldier deserted to the seceders. Many officers were faithless, as many both of the army and navy, at home and abroad, had already proved, and continued to prove. Peace tions. On the last day of January, when six states had conven- left the Union, and a seventh was just leaving, a convention assembled at Albany. It was called as a democratic state convention, but other parties, past or present, were represented in it. "We meet here," said the president, Judge Parker," as conservative men. The people of this state," he continued, "demand the peaceful settlement of the questions that have led to disunion. They have a right to insist that there shall be conciliation, concession, compromise." "We are advised," said Governor Seymour, "that if force is to be used, it must be exerted against the united south. . . . Let us see if successful coercion by the north is less revolutionary than successful secession by the south." Such was the sentiment of conservative men throughout the country. If they condemned secession, they also condemned every measure by which it could be resisted. One more effort of pacification was made in a peace conference, representing twenty-one states, at Washington. Meeting on the 4th of February, and continuing until the 27th, the conference debated various projects, and finally determined upon recommending Congress to submit to the States au amendment of the Constitution, substantially the same as the Crittenden compromise. Confeder ernment. Another body met on the 4th of February, at ate gov- Montgomery, Alabama. Six states, soon seven, were represented in a congress, by which a constitution was framed, and an executive appointed, Jefferson Davis, of Mississippi, being elected president, and Alexander H. Stephens, of Georgia, vice president, of the Confederate States of America. The acceptance of the vice presidency by a man who had resisted secession less than three months before, shows how thoroughly the Union feeling in the seceded states was extinguished. The president had been a secessionist from the start. As he now travelled towards Montgomery, he spoke again and again to shouting crowds of their brilliant prospects. "If war must come," he said, "it must be upon northern, and not upon southern soil. We will carry war where it is easy to advance, where food for the sword and torch awaits our armies in the densely populated cities." But he did not believe the north would fight, while he was sure that all the slaveholding states would join the Confederacy, and that their independence would be recognized by England and France. In his inaugural address, the probability of war was admitted. "We have entered upon a career of independence, and it must be inflexibly pursued through many years of controversy with our late associates of the Northern States." In the month following, when Vice President Stephens returned from Montgomery, he spoke concerning his government to a great meeting at Savannah. "Its foundations are laid," he said; "its corner-stone rests upon the great truth that the negro is not equal to the white man; that slavery, subordination to the superior race, is his natural and normal condition. This our new government is the first in the history of the world based upon this great physical, philosophical, and moral truth. May we not look with confidence to the ultimate universal acknowledgment of the truths upon which our system rests?" Lincoln way to Washing While the president of the Confederate States on the journeyed to Montgomery, the president elect of the United States was on his way to Washington. ton. He took leave of his neighbors at Springfield, Illinois, in one of the most touching speeches ever made, saying that he was assuming a burden greater than had been laid upon any before him except Washington, and that he must depend upon Divine assistance. As he trav elled on, he spoke sometimes gayly, but oftener gravely, of the situation, insisting that "nobody is suffering any thing," and that "the people on both sides must keep their self-possession." As he raised the American flag over Independence Hall, in Philadelphia, on Washington's birthday, he said, "I have often inquired of myself, what great principle or idea it was that kept this confederacy so long together; he was alluding to the revolution. "It was not the mere matter of the separation of the colonies from the mother land, but that sentiment in the Declaration of Independence which gave liberty not alone to the people of this country, but I hope to the world for all future time. If this country cannot be saved without giving up that principle, I was about to say that I would rather be assassinated on this spot than surrender it." He was aware at that moment of a plot to assassinate him as he passed through Baltimore, and to avoid the danger he made the rest of the journey to Washington by night. InauguHis inauguration was protected by an unusually ration. large body of troops against the violence which was believed to be intended, (March 4.) The most striking passage in the president's address was the following: "We find the proposition that in legal contemplation the Union is perpetual, confirmed by the history of the Union itself. The Union is much older than the Constitution. It was formed, in fact, by the Articles of Association in 1774. It was matured and continued in the Declaration of Independence in 1776. It was further matured, and the faith of all the then thirteen states expressly plighted and engaged that it should be perpetual, by the Articles of Confederation in 1777; and finally in 1787, one of the declared objects for ordaining and establishing the Constitution was to form a more perfect union. But if the destruction of the Union, by one or by a part only of the states, be lawfully possible, the Union is less than before. . I therefore consider that in view of the Constitution and the laws, the Union is unbroken; and to the extent of my ability I shall take care, as the Constitution itself expressly enjoins upon me, that the laws of the Union shall be faithfully executed in all the states." He concluded, "In your hands, my dissatisfied fellow-countrymen, and not in mine, is the momentous issue of civil war. The government will • ... We are not enemies, but friends. not assail you. Contrast. History has few such contrasts as this between the chief magistrate of the United States and the leaders of the seceded states. In all their positions, in their views of their own principles and of the principles which they must combat, in their purposes and their expectations, there is something of the same difference as that dividing the day and the night. That such a man as Abraham Lincoln represented the Union, and stood ready to live or die for it, was one of the greatest blessings which God has bestowed upon this nation. Attempt A week after the new administration began, two at nego- men, claiming to be commissioners from the govtiation. ernment of the Confederate States, informed the secretary of state, Mr. Seward, that they were instructed to make overtures for the opening of negotiations. To their letter the secretary replied in a memorandum, the main point being that he "cannot act upon the assumption, or in any way admit, that the so-called Confederate States constitute a foreign power with whom diplomatic relations ought to be established," (March 15.) Relief of All A more anxious question had come up the Fort very day after the inauguration. Major Anderson Sumter. was still in Fort Sumter. He had sent away the women and children towards the end of January. around the fort, on both sides of the harbor, extended the batteries of the South Carolinians and their comrades from other states. Thousands in arms kept watch upon the eighty men within the fort, to whom no succor had been sent since the Star of the West had been driven back. At the end of February, Anderson wrote to the war department that twenty thousand men would be needed in order to reënforce him before his provisions were exhausted, and this letter was laid before the cabinet. General Scott concurred in the opinion, and stated that the government had no such force at its control, and could have none in season to relieve the garrison. The president seems to have acquiesced, but only for a time; giving up Fort Sumter, as he afterwards declared, was our national destruction commenced." He sent an officer directly to Major Anderson, who said that he could hold out till the 15th of April; and on receiving this assurance, the president determined to relieve him. A few days later, (April 4,) 66 |