A Youth's History of the Great Civil War
Van Evrie, Horton & Co., ©1866
Revised edition, ©2006 www.ronie-mooney-encs.us
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CHAPTER IX
THE BEGINNING OF SECESSION
The first State which seceded, after the election of Mr. Lincoln, was South Carolina On the 20th day of December, 1860, that State formally dissolved its connection with the Union, by a unanimous vote of a convention of the State.
This act produced great excitement and alarm among the true friends of the Union in the whole North. But by the leaders of the Black Republican party, or the party which elected Mr. Lincoln, it was received either with cold indifference, or with the too evident signs of suppressed delight.
President Buchanan promptly sent a message to Congress, recommending such measures as he hoped would stay the further progress of secession. But a very large majority of the members were Black Republicans, and they refused to take any notice of his recommendations, or to suggest any measures of their own to prevent the Union from going to pieces.
Indeed, President Buchanan, in his annual message, which had been transmitted to Congress eighteen days before South Carolina seceded, had anticipated the event, and had elaborately discussed the proper remedies, as well as the powers of the Federal Government to deal with a seceding State. Referring to these events since they transpired, Mr. Buchanan says:"To preserve the Union was my supreme object. I was well aware that our wisest statesmen had often warned their countrymen in the most solemn terms, that our institutions could not be preserved by force, and could only endure whilst concord of feeling and a proper respect by one section for the rights of another should be maintained."
This conclusion is sustained by President Madison,who is called "the father of the Constitution," who said in the convention which made the Constitution: "Any government for the United States, formed upon the supposed practicability of using force against the unconstitutional proceedings of the States, would prove visionary and fallacious." So President Jackson said, in his farewell address to the people of the United States: "The Constitution cannot be maintained, nor the Union preserved, in opposition to public feeling,by the mere exertion of the coercive powers confided to the General Government."
Such, I could show you had I space, has been the opinion of all the greatest and wisest statesmen of our country, ever since the foundation of our Government. President Buchanan manifested a sincere desire to impress upon Congress what were the constitutional and proper means to be applied to prevent the spread of secession. All remedies which the Constitution allowed, he was anxious for Congress to apply promptly, in order to save the Union. He was also anxious to impress upon Congress the wrong of attempting unconstitutional measures.
The point was clearly stated in his message in the following language:
"The question fairly stated is, has the Constitution delegated to Congress the power to coerce a State into submission which is attempting to withdraw, or has actually withdrawn from the Confederacy? If answered in the affirmative, it must be on the principle that the power has been conferred on Congress to make war against a State. After much serious reflection, I have arrived at the conclusion that no such power has been delegated to Congress, or to any other department of the Federal Government. It is manifest upon an inspection of the Constitution, that this is not among the specific and enumerated powers granted to Congress. So far from this power having been delegated to Congress, it was expressly refused by the convention which framed the Constitution."
A few days after the delivery of this annual message, President Johnson, then a member of the United States Senate, while debating with the Black Republicans, said: "I do not believe the Federal Government has the power to coerce a State; for by the eleventh amendment to the Constitution of the United States, it is expressly provided, that you cannot even put one of the States of this Confederacy before one of the courts of the country as a party."
The Attorney-General of the United States had just before given an opinion, marked with great ability and research, to the same effect. No Black Republican member of either branch of Congress attempted to combat these conclusions. But no argument, no appeal to the solemn sanctions of the Constitution could arouse a spark of patriotism in the bosoms of the abolition party. Constitutional remedies that would have prevented secession they despised. One fact there is which will rise up in judgment to condemn the Black Republican party forever. They could have preserved the Union without the loss of a drop of blood, by just pledging themselves to administer the Government as it had been administered by all of Mr. Lincoln's predecessors. All the South asked was equality in the Union - that the Northern States should not take away their rights.
In the last speech ever made in the Senate by Jefferson Davis, on December 6th, 1860, he plead for the Union in the following earnest language: "The Union of these States forms, in my judgment, the best government instituted among men. It is only necessary to carry it out in the spirit in which it was formed. Our fathers made a Union of friendly States. Now hostility has been substituted for fraternity. I call on men who have hearts, and who love the Union, to look the danger in the face. This Union is dear to me as a Union of fraternal States. Long have I offered propositions for equality in the Union. Not a single Republican has voted for them. We have in vain endeavored to secure tranquillity, and obtain respect for the rights to which we are entitled. As a necessity, not a choice, we have resorted to the remedy of separation. We have never asked for concessions; what we wanted was justice."
It was very evident, however, soon after the meeting of Congress, in December, 1860, that the Black Republican party were determined to do nothing. Their plan was to let things drift until Mr. Lincoln should come in on the 4th of March, 1861, and keep their policy, whatever it was, a profound secret. Seeing no chance for guarantees against the amalgamation policy, five other States, in January,1861, followed the example of South Carolina, viz. : Mississippi, January 9th; Alabama, January 11th; Florida, January 11th; Georgia, January 19th; and Louisiana, January 25th. Those were all the States that seceded previous to the inauguration of Mr. Lincoln. The other States remained, hoping against hope, that some plan of adjustment would yet be agreed upon.
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