A Youth's History of the Great Civil War
Van Evrie, Horton & Co., ©1866
Revised edition, ©2006 www.ronie-mooney-encs.us
The views expressed in the following document do not necessarily represent the views of www.ronie-mooney-encs.us. This document, originally published in 1866, has been provided to the public based solely on its potential value as a historical document.
CHAPTER XI, THE FORMATION OF THE NEW CONFEDERACY
While the Black Republican members of both Houses of Congress were thus closing up every avenue to peace, six more of the Cotton States, as I have stated in a former chapter, followed South Carolina, and passed acts of secession. On the 4th day of February, 1861, these States assembled, by their delegates, at Montgomery, Alabama, for the purpose of organizing a provisional government. A provisional government is a temporary organization, or one that is not intended to be permanent. Of this provisional government Jefferson Davis was unanimously elected President, and Alexander H. Stephens, Vice President. They adopted a new Constitution, which was simply the old Constitution of the United States, altered essentially only in such parts as had been perverted and misinterpreted by the abolitionists. And the main point was in relation to the status of the negro. In the Confederate Constitution his inferior position was distinctly recognized, so that the abolitionists could no longer declare that the Government intended to include him in the ranks of citizenship. And this was, after all, the turning point of the whole issue between the North, as represented by Lincoln and his party, and the South. The abolitionists desired to make the negro a citizen. The South said, "No, this is a White Man's Government. It was made so by our forefathers, and we will not submit to its overthrow."
President Davis, in delivering his address on taking his seat as Provisional President, declared distinctly that the design was not to make any change in the system of government as originally established. In this speech he clearly showed that he had no desire or expectation that the separation between these States would be permanent-for he referred to the fact that, as their new Constitution was substantially the old one, freed of all chances for sectional quarrels, there was nothing to prevent all the States which wished for permanent rest and peace, from joining them.
No doubt the wish and the belief was, that all the States which preferred a real Union-just such a Union as our fathers made-to one perpetually vexed and torn by a degrading conflict about negroes, would ultimately unite their fortunes with the new organization. While the temper of the abolitionists, or the Black Republicans, of the North was savage, fiery, and full of blood, that of the Southern leaders was calm and dignified. The record I have already presented of the conflict between the two sections is proof of this, notwithstanding the many falsehoods told to the contrary.
In the last speech Mr.Davis delivered in the Senate of the United States, he said, with a mildness and dignity of voice and manner truly ennobling:
"But we have proclaimed our independence. This is done with no hostility or desire to injure any section of the country, nor even for our pecuniary benefit, but solely from the high and solid motives of defending and protecting the rights we inherited, and transmitting them unshorn to our posterity. I know that I feel no hostility to you, senators here, and am sure that there is not one of you, whatever may have been the sharp discussion between us, to whom I cannot now say, in the presence of my God, I wish you well.And such is the feeling, I am sure, the people I represent have toward those you represent. I therefore feel I but express their desire when I say I hope, and they hope, for those peaceful relations with you (though we must part) that may be mutually beneficial to us in the future."
"There will be peace if you so will it; and you may bring disaster upon the whole country if you thus will have it. And if you will have it thus we invoke the God of our fathers, who delivered them from the paw of the lion, to protect us from the ravages of the bear; and thus putting our trust in God, and our own firm hearts and strong arms, we will vindicate and defend the rights we claim. In the course of my long career I have met with a great variety of men here, and there have been points of collision between us. Whatever of offence I have given which has not been redressed, I am willing to say to senators in this hour of parting, I offer you my apology for anything I may have done; and I go thus released from obligation, remembering no injury I have received, and having discharged what I deem the duty of a man, offer the only reparation in my power for any injury I have ever inflicted."
This is not the language of a conspirator or a traitor! On the contrary, is it not rather the language of one who regretfully takes a step which he feels that duty compels him to take? And with what temper he was answered from the Black Republican side of Congress, let the brutal language of Senator Chandler of Michigan, which we have quoted in a previous chapter, answer.
After the Cotton States had withdrawn and formed the new Confederacy, they expressed their wish and determination to take no step that should provoke hostilities, except what was absolutely necessary for their own safety and preservation.The forts, arsenals, etc., situated within the limits of the several retiring States, necessarily went with the States,and in reality, belonged to the States as their own necessary defences. It is true they were built with the joint property of all the States, as I have shown in a former chapter, but then they were built for the benefit of the several States in which they were located, and not for the aggrandizement and power of the Federal Government. Each State held a certain jurisdiction over all the forts, arsenals, post-offices, etc., situated within its own limits.
That is, the State of South Carolina has a certain jurisdiction over Fort Sumter, situated in its harbor at Charleston, but it has no jurisdiction over Fort Warren, located in the harbor of Boston. And the State of Massachusetts has a certain jurisdiction over Fort Warren, but has none whatever over Fort Sumter, though the money of Massachusetts helped build Fort Sumter, as the money of South Carolina helped build Fort Warren. It is a part of the compact of Union between the several States, that each State shall have these defences provided from the general fund; while, at the same time, each State retains a certain jurisdiction over all such United States works as are located within its boundaries.
The United States has no right to deprive any State of its jurisdiction over such works. To illustrate-when the State of New York ceded to the United States the spot on which Fort Hamilton, now called Fort Lafayette, is built, it reserved to itself a certain jurisdiction over the fort when built, and expressly provided that should the fort ever be used for any purpose other than that for which the State had ceded the spot, the whole should revert again to the State of New York. That is, if the Federal Government should ever attempt to use the fort for any other purpose than that of the defence and protection of the city and harbor of New York,for which it was built, the Federal Government would lose all title to it, and the whole become the lawful property of the State. When the Federal Government converted that fort into a Bastile, under the administration of Mr.Lincoln, it undoubtedly forfeited all title to the property, had the State of New York strictly insisted upon its rights.
These considerations show you in what light the seceding States regarded the forts situated in their harbors. You have been told by the Black Republicans that those States, when they went out, "stole all our forts,"etc.; but the above facts prove that "theft" is by no means a just or proper word to apply to their action in this respect. Every State, at all times, and under all circumstances, has an undoubted right to take any steps which are immediately necessary to protect the lives and property of its people, from whatever quarter the danger may come. Any State has just as much right to protect itself from the threatened illegal violence of the Federal Government, as it has to protect itself from the invasion of Russia, or any other power. Its right to exist as a State carries with it the right to protect and defend that existence. The Federal Government was formed by the States for the purpose of giving greater protection and security to themselves; and whenever it is certain that the object for which that government was formed is sacrificed, and, instead of being a protection, becomes an oppression and a danger, it is the right and the duty of every State thus threatened to do the best thing it can for its own safety.
Suppose the Southern States had elected a strictly sectional President on a programme of bloody hostility to us here in the North-on a programme of threats to steal our property, and murder our men, women, and children if necessary, in doing it-should we not have had the undoubted right to take any step which we might think necessary for our protection? If the South believed that the barbarous and terrible threats of the Helper Book, and of the leaders of the Black Republicans, were to be visited upon them in the Lincoln Administration, can we blame them for attempting to provide against such a horrible outrage?Does any good man question their right to put forth all the powers God had given them for self-protection? Acting under this belief, were they to be regarded as traitors and rebels?
Almost everybody at the North said, before the beginning of the war, if Mr.Lincoln and his party did really intend to do what the South declared they did, then they would be justified in any course they saw fit to pursue. It is now seen that they have done just what the Southern leaders predicted they would.
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