Martial Deeds of Pennsylvania, Samuel P. Bates, 1876 - Part 1, Chapter 2, 44-73 Contributed for use in the USGenWeb Archives by Judy Banja jbanja@msn.com and transcribed by Judy Banja, Judith Bookwalter, Cyndie Enfinger, Linda Horn, Margaret Long, Patricia Martz, Barbara Milhalcik, Leah Waring and Marjorie B. Winter Copyright 2003. All rights reserved. http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm http://www.usgwarchives.net/pa/pafiles.htm ________________________________________________ MARTIAL DEEDS OF PENNSYLVANIA by SAMUEL P. BATES. PHILADELPHIA: T. H. DAVIS & CO., 1876. MARTIAL DEEDS OF PENNSYLVANIA - 44 PART I. GENERAL HISTORY. CHAPTER II. ORIGIN OF REBELLION. ON the 15th of April, 1861, the State of Pennsylvania contained a population of three millions, sedulously devoted to the arts of peace, having no hatreds nor animosities towards the people of any other section of the common country, contented and happy under the common government, and unwilling to believe, or even think, that the quiet which reigned would be disturbed. But on that day a proclamation from the Executive of the nation, declaring that a little body of seventy soldiers garrisoning a fort of the United States in Charleston Harbor had been attacked and forced to surrender, and calling for men to defend and preserve the national integrity, rung like a clarion note throughout its borders. So long as differences which arose were fairly discussed, and left to the peaceful decision of the ballot-box, they were content. To that decision, whether for them, or against them, they quietly bowed. But when the flag of the nation, the emblem of freedom and justice, known and honored on every sea, in every land, under which was peace and prosperity and happiness, was fired upon, the feeling of condemnation was aroused in every patriot breast. What men were called, with alacrity went, and many more stood ready to follow at the lightest word. The torch fires of civil discord, once enkindled, spread with marvelous rapidity. Fields ran red with the blood of contending hosts. Herald after herald was sent forth, until 366,000 of Pennsylvania's bravest and best had gone. Death held high carnival, and for four long years the wasting and bloody work went on. Many a hearthstone was made desolate, and in every household were breasts wrung with anguish. The widow and the orphan ORIGIN OF REBELLION - 45 mourned, and parents endured the bereavement of sons lost; and when, at length, a peace was conquered, but a fragment of all that host that went forth in strength and beauty returned. What principle was involved in this mighty struggle? What were the differences which enlightened statesmanship and the mild influences of Christianity were unable to settle? What was the question at issue that demanded so costly a sacrifice? At the beginning of the dispute it was thought impossible that a collision could occur. As it progressed, the civilized world stood amazed that the people of a common country could be led into a struggle so desperate. When the American Colonies were first settled, they were entirely independent of each other, and were only subordinate to the Crown of England. The first idea of union originated in the necessity of protecting themselves against a common enemy in the French and Indians. At the suggestion of the English Government, that a system of taxation, uniform throughout all the colonies, should be adopted to provide for defence, a Congress was called to meet at Albany in 1754. Franklin was a delegate from Pennsylvania, and went with his pockets loaded down with a scheme of union, that he had, as usual, been cogitating in advance, which he offered, and which was adopted substantially as he presented it. It provided for the appointment of a President General by the Crown, and a council of forty-eight delegates to be chosen by the colonies. It came to nothing, as it was distasteful to both parties, each desiring more power than it conferred. But the meeting had the effect of making known to each other the leading statesmen in the several colonies, and preparing the minds of the people for a general Congress. The next subject which secured united effort, was opposition to an act of Parliament to impose a uniform tax throughout the American Colonies. It was known as the Stamp Act, and a Congress was called, which met at New York in 1765, to protest against its imposition. The subject of taxing America continued at issue until 1774, when the first Continental Congress met in Philadelphia, and after having framed suitable petitions and addresses, adjourned to meet again on the follow- MARTIAL DEEDS OF PENNSYLVANIA - 46 ing year, provided the British Government refused to heed their requests. The king turned a deaf ear, and the meeting was held. In the meantime, war was opened upon the colonies, and at the session of the 4th of July, 1776, the Declaration of Independence was adopted, which resulted in the final severance of the colonies from the mother country by the treaty of peace of 1783. The authority previously exercised by the crown passed in a measure to the Congress, with this difference, the king and parliament had power to enforce their edicts, but the Congress had none. It could pass acts, but unless they were approved by the Legislatures of all the colonies they had no effect; a single colony, even the most insignificant, having in its power to defeat the most important legislation. Congress in one instance endeavored to provide for the payment of the interest on the debt contracted in support of the Revolutionary armies, by laying moderate duties on imports, which the voice of Rhode Island defeated. While the war continued, this inconvenience and weakness was less felt, as the people were united in the feeling of patriotism, and the consent of all to wholesome legislation for meeting a common enemy was easily obtained. But when peace was secured and the varied interests of the several States came in collision, the articles of Confederation, adopted by Congress in 1777, but not approved by all the States until 1781, were seen to be entirely inadequate to the government of the new nation. Indeed, with the exception of a few subjects, over which Congress was supreme, there were thirteen independent nationalities. To remedy this, the present Constitution of the United States was framed by a convention of delegates which met in Philadelphia in 1787. That convention was called to revise the old Articles of Confederation; but so defective were they found to be that an entirely new frame of government, providing for executive, legislative, and judicial departments, independent of the States and supreme over all, was framed and submitted for ratification. In nearly every State it encountered violent opposition. It was objected, that the individual States would be shorn of their sovereignty, if this Constitution were adopted, and the National Government, thus set up, would be supreme. The pre- ORIGIN OF REBELLION - 47 amble of the Constitution, which sets forth the object of the instrument, opens with the expression, "We, the people of the United States, in order to form a more perfect Union." In the Virginia Convention, Patrick Henry opposed the adoption, in the most determined manner, and with his characteristic impassioned eloquence. "That this is a consolidated Government," he said, "is demonstrably clear. . . . But, sir, give me leave to demand what right had they to say 'We, the people?' . . . who authorized them to speak the language of 'We, the people,' instead of 'We, the States?' States are the characteristics and soul of a Confederation. If the States not be the agents of this compact, it must be one great, consolidated, National Government of the people of all the States. . . . Have they made a proposal of a compact between States? If they had, this would be a Confederation: It is, otherwise, most clearly a consolidated Government. The whole question turns, sir, on that poor little thing, the expression, 'We, the people,' instead of, 'the States of America.'" The opponents of a consolidated Government clearly perceived that the only remedy for the establishment of such a power was in the rejection of this Constitution; that when it was once adopted, it became the supreme law of the land, and could never be revoked or broken up, save by revolution. But the friends of the new code, in order to sugar-coat the pill which they found distasteful to its opponents, suggested that, in case the rights of a State were infringed, that State could recall its delegated powers, and thus become once more sovereign. "We will assemble in convention," said Mr. Pendleton, the President of the Virginia Convention, "wholly recall our delegation powers, or reform them so as to prevent such abuse, and punish our servants." This was the first breathing of the doctrine of Secession, in 1788, before the Constitution itself had been adopted. But Mr. Henry scouted the idea that a State, when once this Constitution was accepted, could recall its delegated powers, and showed, most clearly, that the language of the instrument gives no such authority, and that, on the contrary, it provides, in the most ample manner, for meeting such a contingency. "What resistance," he exclaimed, "could be made? The attempt would be madness." The theory of Secession, founded upon the idea that a State MARTIAL DEEDS OF PENNSYLVANIA - 48 had the ability to withdraw the powers delegated to the National Government after the adoption of the Constitution, and again become sovereign, was from time to time revived. The Alien and Sedition Laws-the former empowering the President to send out of the country foreigners who were found endeavoring to draw the nation into European complications, and violate the principles of neutrality which the Government had adopted, and the latter providing for the prosecution and punishment of persons found publishing matter abusive of the members of the Government-were both strongly opposed, and gave rise to the noted resolves of 1798. These resolves were first passed by the Kentucky Legislature, and subsequently reaffirmed, in substance, by Virginia, and asserted that these laws are unauthoritative, void, and of no force, and concluded by calling on the other States of the Union to "concur in declaring these acts void and of no force, and each take measures of its own, in providing that neither these acts, nor any others of the General Government, not plainly and intentionally authorized by the Constitution, shall be exercised within their respective territories." "None of the States," says Victor, "responded favorably to the resolutions; but, on the contrary, Pennsylvania, Maryland, Delaware, New Jersey, New York, Connecticut, Rhode Island, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, and Vermont, disavowed the doctrine set up, of a right in the State Legislatures to decide upon the validity of acts of Congress." These resolutions embodied the doctrines of Secession in a more compact and imposing form than they had ever before assumed, and constitute nearly the entire faith of the disciples of that school since. The Embargo Act of 1809, and later, the Declaration of War against Great Britain, the alleged neglect of the General Government to protect certain sections, and the devises adopted for raising men to fill the ranks in the War of 1812, all excited strong opposition. The discontent culminated in the Hartford Convention, whose utterances were similar in tone to the resolutions of 1798. "in cases of deliberate, dangerous, and palpable infractions of the constitution," is the language of the report, "affecting the sovereignty of a State and the liberties of the people, it is not only the right, but the duty of such State, to interpose its authority ORIGIN OF REBELLION - 49 for the protection in the manner best calculated to secure that end." As in the case of the Kentucky resolutions, the several States were invited to unite in enforcing the principles enunciated. To this call no State responded, and the proceedings were regarded with marked disfavor by the mass of the people, even in that section where the convention had originated. So strong was the almost universal regard for the Union, that no greater odium could attach to a man than that of having been a member of the Hartford Convention, or of having countenanced its proceedings. The Richmond Enquirer, of November 1st, 1814, said, in noticing this Convention: "No man, no association of men, no State or set of States, has a right to withdraw itself from the Union of its own account." The tariff laws of 1828, which Pennsylvania and the other middle states had been instrumental in enacting, were the next subjects of opposition. Louisiana, on account of the protection afforded to the production of sugar, favored a tariff. But the cotton States opposed it; and the New England States, especially those upon the seaboard, being largely engaged in foreign commerce, regarded with disfavor any policy which should encourage home manufactures. The principal opposition to this measure, however, came from the politicians of South Carolina. The Legislature of that State issued a manifesto, known as the South Carolina Exposition, which asserted the unconstitutionality of a protective tariff, and claimed Nullification as a reserved right of the State. This document became the test of that memorable discussion in which those Titans of eloquence, Calhoun, Hayne, and Webster wielded the bolts of argument. The whole debate hinged upon the question, if the National Government should enact a law that the Legislature of a State should declare to be unconstitutional, could it be enforced? Mr. Hayne argued that it could not, because the State would be robbed of its sovereignty. Mr. Webster by an ingenious illustration, drawn from the very measure in dispute, showed the futility of this position. "Sir," he said, "the human mind is so constituted, that the merits of both sides of a controversy appear very clear and very palpable to those who respectively espouse them; and both sides usually grow clearer as the controversy advances. South Carolina sees MARTIAL DEEDS OF PENNSYLVANIA - 50 unconstitutionality in the tariff; she sees oppression there also; and she sees danger. Pennsylvania, with a vision not less sharp, looks at the same tariff and sees no such thing in it; she sees it all constitutional, all useful, all safe. The faith of South Carolina is strengthened by opposition, and she now not only sees, but resolves, that the tariff is palpably unconstitutional, oppressive, and dangerous; but Pennsylvania, not to be behind her neighbors, and equally, willing to strengthen her own faith by a confident asseveration, resolves also, and gives to every warm affirmative of South Carolina a plain, downright Pennsylvania negative. South Carolina, to show the strength and unity of her opinion, brings her assembly to a unanimity, within seven voices. Pennsylvania, not to be out-done in this respect, any more than in others, reduces her dissentient fraction to a single vote. Now, sir, again I ask the gentleman, What is to be done? Are these States both right? If not, which is in the wrong? Or, rather, which has the best right to decide? And if he, and if I, are not to know what the Constitution means, and what it is, till those two State Legislatures, and the twenty-two others, shall agree in its construction, what have we sworn to when we have sworn to maintain it?" In addition to the absurdity of allowing twenty-four separate arbiters, which was the number of States at that time, to construe and pass upon acts of the General Government, he pointed to the provision of the Constitution itself, which explicitly describes the manner in which the disputed validity of law should be decided. "The Constitution," he says, "declares that the laws of Congress, passed in pursuance of the Constitution, shall be the supreme law of the land. No construction is necessary here. It declares also, with equal plainness and precision, that the judicial power of the United States shall extend to every case arising under the laws of Congress. This needs no construction. Here is a law then which is declared to be supreme; and here is a power established which is to interpret that law." On the 19th of April, 1832, a convention of the people of South Carolina passed an ordinance declaring the tariff laws of the General Government void, and prohibited the payment of duties to United States Revenue officers. This ordinance was to be confirmed by the State Legislature, and if the national authorities ORIGIN OF REBELLION - 51 should attempt forcibly to collect the revenues, a further provision was made that, "The people of the State would thenceforth hold themselves absolved from all further obligation to maintain or preserve their political connection with the people of the other States, and will forthwith proceed to organize a separate government, and do all other acts and things which sovereign and independent States may of right do." Andrew Jackson, who was then President, perceiving that forcible resistance to the laws would be attempted, quietly ordered General Scott to Charleston Harbor accompanied by a military and naval force, with instructions to assist the regular agents of the Government, if necessary, in collecting the revenues, and then issued his famous proclamation showing the futility of the doctrine of Nullification, commanding all persons to obey the laws of the General Government, and expressing his determination to execute them. In the iron hand of Jackson, Nullification, which was another word for Secession, was crushed. The final attempt to thwart the General Government in the exercise of its powers, and to break up the Union, occurred in 1860-61. It was undertaken under the specious name of Secession, because it was easier to carry the masses of the people into the mad scheme with this plea, than by the direct and real designation of revolution, which was its true character. The enactment of no objectionable law, as in former cases, was awaited; but the election of a President, legally and rightfully chosen, the principles of whose supporters were distasteful, was seized as the occasion. The real cause, however, lay far back of that event. When the colonies were originally settled, that section which was occupied by the States that joined in the Rebellion had a prospect of predominance. While the North, and especially New England, had a thin and rockbound soil, which yielded its increase only after patient and well-directed toil, and lay beneath a cold, bleak sky, icebound for nearly half the year, the sunny South, the land of the cane and the cotton, possessed of a deep, luxuriant soil, and a soft, balmy atmosphere, produced plentiful harvests with little labor. For a time that predominance was maintained. At the opening of the American Revolution the population of Virginia was nearly doubled that of either of the MARTIAL DEEDS OF PENNSYLVANIA - 52 other Colonies.* when the Articles of Confederation were adopted, and later, when the Constitution was framed, there seemed a certain prospect that the South would remain in the ascendancy. The census of 1790 showed that its population was considerably above that of the North, the former being 2,618,901, and the latter only 1,968,455. The exports and imports of Maryland and Virginia alone, at that period, were many times greater than those of all the New England States, and for nearly fifty years, commencing with 1797, were larger than those of all the Northern States combined. Of the first five Presidents four, each for two terms, a period of thirty-two years, were from Virginia, while only one, for a period of four years, was from the North. But the two sections finally settled down into the employment of widely diverse systems of labor. In the North, manual labor was performed by instructed, white freemen; in the South, by ignorant, Negro slaves. In the North, the laboring man could in time become a freeholder, acquire an independent competence, and his son, perchance, arrive at fortune and eminence. In the South, the slave was sold in the shambles, like a beast of burden, with often a hard lot for the present, and no hope of betterment for the future. The effect of these two systems upon society was soon apparent. Free labor stimulated enterprise. Success in husbandry, which was at first the occupation of the greater portion of the inhabitants, could only be attained by the practice of the strictest habits of temperance, industry, and economy. The habits imposed by the necessities of the soil were carried into other avocations, and were everywhere the fruitful elements of success. To their quickening influence is due the rapid rise of commerce and manufactures, and the vast proportions which they have subsequently assumed. It extended even to letters. The same enterprise which gave triumph to the husbandman, to the merchant, to the manufacturer, rewarded the scholar. It originated systems of ___________ *New Hampshire, 80,000; Massachusetts, 360,000; Rhode Island, 50,000; Connecticut, 200,000; New York, 180,000; New Jersey, 130,000; Pennsylvania, 300,000; Delaware, 40,000; Maryland, 220,000; Virginia, 560,000; North Carolina, 260,000; south Carolina, 180,000; Georgia, 30,000.-Tucker's United States, vol. I. p. 96. ORIGIN OF REBELLION - 53 public instruction which are the marvel of the age which produced them. It founded colleges and professional schools, gave birth to a literature that has won the favor of the learned in every country, and nurtured a statesmanship, which, tried by the standard of success, must place it in the very front rank, the nation under its guidance having come, in a comparatively short time, to be a first-class power. The system of slave labor, whose products could in no way enrich or contribute to the happiness of the laborer, was one of drudgery, eked out under the eye of a taskmaster. With a soil of unsurpassed fertility, abundant harvests were secured with the most indifferent and unskilled labor. But slavery did little towards repairing the wastes engendered by repeated harvests. To secure the largest present return was the most that was anticipated. Skilled husbandry was unattempted, and its improved implements were unsought. When old fields were worn out, new ones were turned to. The most fertile lands were gradually absorbed by the most prosperous planters, and the increase in the number of slaves kept pace with that of domain. The staple products of the soil brought large income, and there was, consequently, little inducement to engage in manufactures, where labor was unskilled, and where ventures would be hazardous; nor was there greater encouragement to tempt the seas in the pursuit of commerce. Little or no attention was given to popular education. Ignorance was considered a prime quality in a slave, and was secured by law. The poor white population were so scattered, except in the towns, that a public system was for the most part impracticable, and this class came in time to set little value upon mental culture. The children of the planters were instructed by the governess and the family tutor, and were often sent to the boarding-schools and colleges of the North. Of the effect of Slavery upon society, Mr. George M. Dallas, Vice-President of the United States in the administration of Mr. Polk, and one of the most worthy and esteemed of the sons of Pennsylvania, in a speech delivered in the Senate, on the 27th of February, 1832, said: " I refer, sir, to the character of Southern labor, in itself, and in its influence on others. Incapable of adaptation to the ever-varying changes of human society and MARTIAL DEEDS OF PENNSYLVANIA - 54 existence, it retains the communities in which it is established in a condition of apparent and comparative inertness. The lights of Science and the improvements of Art, which vivify and accelerate elsewhere, cannot penetrate, or if they do, penetrate with dilatory inefficiency among its operatives. They are not merely instinctive and passive. While the intellectual industry of other parts of this country springs elastically forward at every fresh impulse, and manual labor is propelled and redoubled by countless inventions, machines, and contrivances, instantly understood and at once exercised, the south remains stationary, inaccessible to such encouraging and invigorating aids. Nor is it possible to be wholly blind to the moral effect of this species of labor upon those freemen among whom it exists. A disrelish for humble and hardy occupation; a pride adverse to drudgery and toil; a dread that to partake in the employments allotted to color may be accompanied also by its degradation, are natural and inevitable. The high and lofty qualities which, in other scenes, and for other purposes, characterize and adorn our southern Brethren, are fatal to the enduring patience, the corporal exertion, and the painstaking simplicity by which only a successful yeomanry can be formed. When in fact, sir, the Senator [Mr. Hayne] asserts that 'slaves are too improvident, too incapable of that minute, constant, delicate attention, and that persevering industry which are essential to manufacturing establishments,' he himself admits the defect in Southern labor by which the progress of his favorite section must be retarded. He admits an inability to keep pace with the rest of the world. He admits an inherent weakness; a weakness neither engendered nor aggravated by the Tariff-which, as societies are now constituted and directed must drag in the rear, and be distance in the common race." In one respect, however, this system of labor gave the dominant class a great advantage. The large wealth accumulated, afforded abundant leisure for travel, and for social and intellectual culture. Whatever could pamper the appetite and gratify the taste, was at their command. Rarely has the world seen a state of society in which such advantages have been enjoyed. Mr. Buckle, in his History, places this as the measure of civilization, declaring that the progress of a people is dependent in the first ORIGIN OF REBELLION - 55 instance upon the accumulation of wealth, as without it there can be little leisure. An idea early prevailed among the Southern leaders, borrowed doubtless from the crooked diplomacy of Europe, that a balance of power must be preserved between the North and the South. Instead of regarding the whole as one great, common country, with common interests and common privileges, opportunities were sought for arraying one section against the other, and of pressing the question, "In the interest of which section shall the General Government be administered?" The baneful influence of this attempt to maintain a balance of power has been manifest in all the subsequent internal troubles of the country. When the Constitution was adopted, the subject which created the greatest diversity of opinion was that of representation, the political status of the slave coming in question in settling the organic law. It was claimed by the public men of the South that slaves were chattels, and should not be allowed the right of suffrage; but that they should be counted as population in determining representation. It was contended on the part of the North that, if slaves were chattels and had not the right of suffrage, they should not be allowed representation in the National Government, as the Constitution expressly forbids property representation. This was one of the first practical issues between the two sections. The long and impassioned discussion upon this issue in the Convention which framed the Constitution, was finally settled by a compromise, practically identifying the slave with two natures, in part chattel and in part man, whereby three-fifths of a slave was allowed to count as human in determining representation in Congress and the number of votes in the electoral college, and the remaining two-fifths as chattel, but giving neither the three-fifths nor the two-fifths element the right of suffrage, thus yielding to a ballot in the South a preponderance of power over a ballot in the North. As the old States increased in population, a disposition was manifested to push forward into the new and unsettled territories. The free laborer of the North did not desire to emigrate to a territory which would eventually become a slave State, nor would the planter from the South settle upon lands which could by any MARTIAL DEEDS OF PENNSYLVANIA - 56 possibility become free. The occupation of the territories constituted a second issue between the two sections. The cession to the General Government by the old States, which claimed vast stretches of country to the westward of their limits under their charters from the British Crown, of their right to such territory, brought a vast virgin domain to the common use. In 1784, immediately after the deed of cession had been executed, Mr. Jefferson introduced an ordinance for the government of the territory northwest of the Ohio, one article of which prohibited slavery. It failed of passage at that session; but three years after, an ordinance drawn by Nathan Dane, of Massachusetts, founded upon the draft of Mr. Jefferson, was enacted. This postponed the conflict for a score of years, Ohio, Indiana, and Illinois, in the meantime, filling up with population and being admitted as free States, and Alabama, Mississippi, and Louisiana being settled and organized in the interest of slavery. When the wave of emigration crossed the Mississippi river, and entered upon territory over which there was no principle regulating settlement, the issue of freedom or slavery was again presented. On the soil of Missouri the two classes of settlers met. Previous to the acquisition of the vast territory called Louisiana from the French in 1803, Saint Louis had become a trading post of considerable importance, having been settled by French Creoles from New Orleans. The nucleus of a slaveholding population had thus been formed before the soil had become a part of the United States. Accordingly, a Territorial Government was organized in the interest of slavery. Geographically, Missouri extends considerably to the north of any of the older slave States. Many of its inhabitants were emigrants from the North, whose interests would be in a measure sacrificed by its becoming a slave State. When the question of admission as such came up for consideration in Congress, it was violently opposed. The dominant party, however, favored the measure, and it was admitted accordingly, though its admission was coupled with another measure, called the Missouri Compromise, which provided that slavery in all territory north of thirty-six degrees thirty minutes of north latitude, commencing upon the western boundary of Missouri, and extending through to the eastern boundary of Mexico, should be forever ORIGIN OF REBELLION - 57 prohibited. This was supposed to settle the troublesome question for all time to come. But the population of the North increased much more rapidly than that of the South. The preponderance which had prevailed in the South began from the opening of the present century to change in favor of the North. There seemed little affinity between free and slave labor. The free, skilled laborer of the North, and of Europe, the never-failing element of national power, could see little to tempt to emigration in a country where the habits and institutions of the people were based upon the degradation of labor. Hence, the principal source of increase in the South, beyond the natural one by birth, was the clandestine importation of Negro slaves from Africa, and from the neighboring Antilles. The free institutions of the North, on the contrary, were peculiarly fitted to attract emigration. Abundance of food, cheap land, taxation only nominal, no standing army, free schools, a free press, the manhood of every class respected, to every one accorded a fair opportunity in the race of life, - were golden prospects towards which the oppressed in all lands turned with longing eyes. The emigrant who sought and secured a home in the land of freedom, wrote to his friends and neighbors whom he had left behind in the Fatherland, such glowing accounts of his fortunes and prospects, that many were induced to follow him. Thus, in addition to the increase of population by birth, there was a tide of emigration pouring into the free States, comprising the young and hardy and enterprising, and contributing the best elements of vitality and power. The intelligence and independence born of the free institutions of the North attracted attention in all lands. Dr. Franklin, the son of a tallow-chandler, and early the hard-working apprentice to a Philadelphia printer, when finally he appeared at the Court of St. James, and the Palace of Versailles, was a living demonstration of the excellence of the institutions of which he was the representative and the constant reminder. The census of 1810 showed an excess of population in the free States of 278,008; in 1820, 667,453; in 1830, 1,159,997; in 1840, 1,399,487; in 1850, 3,825,491; and in 1860, 6,813,040. The census of 1830, and again that of 1840, notwithstanding the MARTIAL DEEDS OF PENNSYLVANIA - 58 rich rewards of cotton-growing after the invention of the cotton-gin, and the consequent tendency to multiply population, showed so unmistakably the increasing preponderance of numbers in the free States, that the advocates of an equality of power between the two sections became alarmed. Until 1840 the number of States had remained very evenly balanced, as will be seen by the following table: 1800 1810 1820 1830 1840 Number of Free States 11 13 13 13 15 Number of Slave States 9 11 13 14 14 In the Senate, therefore, where each State had two members, equality was substantially preserved; but in the popular branch, power had steadily gravitated to the side of the North. The admission of Iowa and Wisconsin into the enumeration of 1840, and the certain prospect that before another census would be taken, Minnesota would be included, made the Southern leaders restive, and eager to devise some scheme by which their theory of a balance of power could be maintained. Stretching away to the southwest from the Sabine river, the boundary of the United States, was the vast territory of Texas, rich in physical resources, with a small white population, mostly emigrants from the United States, and with boundaries unsettled or only partially defined. Nominally, it was under the control of Mexico. Towards this virgin country the longing eyes of Southern leaders were turned. Various projects and overtures were made for its purchase, but without success, until in March, 1836, its independence was declared, and in 1845, upon the eve of President Tyler's administration, it was annexed to the United States. One of the terms of annexation was that new States of convenient size, not exceeding four in number, in addition to Texas, might be formed out of this acquired territory. Attempts made to exclude slavery from a portion of this acquisition were fruitless, the provision for extending the Missouri Compromise line being gratuitous, as no part of the new territory extended so far north. The door thus opened for slavery expansion seemed to promise the restoration of the long contended for balance of power. ORIGIN OF REBELLION - 59 The annexation of Texas involved the country in a war with Mexico, which resulted in its occupation by United States armies, and in a treaty of peace, whereby a large extent of additional domain was acquired. When the bill providing for the settlement of the terms of the treaty was under consideration in Congress, David Wilmot,* member of the lower House, from the Bradford district of Pennsylvania, offered a proviso, afterwards widely known as the Wilmot Proviso, forever excluding slavery there-from. In all former acquisitions of territory, as that of Florida, Louisiana, and Texas, slavery already existed. But Mexico had abolished it in her domain some twenty years before, and it came to the United States free. The Wilmot Proviso was defeated; but its discussion in Congress, upon the stump, and in the newspaper press, occasioned a large development of the sentiment that the newly acquired territory, being already free by the laws of Mexico, should remain free when it came under the flag of the Union, and that slavery should be restricted to the domain in which it was already legalized. This sentiment finally culminated in the formation of the Republican party. The immediate result of the annexation of Texas was the acquisition of a vast area of fertile soil, and the flattering prospect to the South of its speedy settlement entirely in the interest of slavery. But an event soon transpired which suddenly clouded the roseate view so complacently regarded, verifying the oft-repeated sentiment of the poet: "The best laid schemes o' mice an' men, Gang aft a-gley." Gold was discovered in California. Attracted by the glittering prospect, thousands flocked to this new El Dorado. To mine gold required skilled labor, and a class who could endure great hard- _______ *On the tomb of Wilmot, in the cemetery at Towanda, where his remains lie buried, is this inscription: DAVID WILMOT, Born January 20, 1814; Died March 16, 1868; Aged 54 years. "Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude shall exist in any part of said territory, except for crimes whereof the party shall first be duly convicted." MARTIAL DEEDS OF PENNSYLVANIA - 60 ship. Neither of these conditions could be met by the employment of slaves. Again was the superiority of the labor of the North over that of the South apparent. Thus, a law of nature determined the character of the population, in defiance of the laws of politicians. Attempts to establish a territorial government over the northern part, under the name of California, and the southern under that of New Mexico, the latter to be open to slavery, were overborne by the demand for a State organization rendered absolutely necessary by its vast and rapidly accumulating population. In June, 1849, a convention assembled, at the call of the military Governor of the Territory, and a State Constitution was framed, wherein slavery was prohibited; and in August, 1850, California was admitted as a free State, with a population of 165,000. The territory of the new State extended north to the forty-second parallel, which forms the northern boundary of Pennsylvania, and south to the thirty- third parallel, which cuts the central part of Mississippi, Alabama, and Georgia. The largest part of the State is thus seen to lie south of the line of the Missouri Compromise. Its admission with these boundaries was strenuously opposed, because it infringed with a free population upon domain claimed for slavery, and gave to the North another powerful new State, already excelling in number of States. So strong was this opposition, that, had the advice of a party at the South, under the leadership of General Quitman, a United States Senator from Mississippi, been heeded, violent measures would then have been adopted to convulse the Union and rend it in twain; but, the conservative people of that section, headed by Henry Clay, were still too much attached to the national unity to give the advocates of violence promise of success. The admission of California was a part of a series of measures which together were known as the Compromise Measures of 1850, of which Mr. Clay was the author and advocate. California was to be a free State with boundaries as proposed; the compact with Texas, for the admission of new slave States, was to be faithfully executed; territorial governments were to be established over Utah and New Mexico, without the Wilmot Proviso; the boundaries of Texas were to be fixed excluding New Mexico from its domain, receiving as compensation therefore $10,000,000 from ORIGIN OF REBELLION - 61 the national treasury; a more efficient law for the rendition of fugitive slaves escaping into the free States was to be enacted; and slavery was to remain undisturbed in the District of Columbia, though the slave-trade in the District was to be prohibited under a heavy penalty. Upon these conditions, the leaders of the two great political parties, the Whig and the Democratic, united; and they were proclaimed as the final settlement of the Slavery question. But this vexatious matter, so often settled, would not remain settled. The next field of conflict was on the plains of Kansas. A proposition, presented in Congress, abolishing the Missouri Compromise, and legislating slavery into all the Territories of the United States, caused intense excitement throughout the North. Finally, on the 24th of May, 1854, after eliciting the most earnest discussion, and the violent denunciation of the press of the free States, a bill somewhat modified, providing that the people of the Territories should be left free to form and regulate their institutions in their own way, subordinate only to the Constitution of the United States, that the titles to slaves, and the right to personal freedom, should be referred to the local tribunals, subject to appeal to the Supreme Court of the Nation, was passed. Thus was the work of 1820 undone, and the doctrine of Squatter Sovereignty substituted. The winds were let loose. The status of the proposed new State of Kansas was to depend upon its settlement by free or slave labor. The race of colonization was commenced by emigrants from the neighboring slave State of Missouri, aided by parties from several of the States of the far South. It was followed up by a large emigration from the North, of men seeking a permanent home in the new territory. The two parties met; and, though the territory was wide enough for all, yet the presence of free labor threatened the ultimate permanence and security of slavery, and collisions and deadly encounters followed. Jealousy and hatred ripened into bitter animosity and well mediated revenge. Pillage and arson and murder were of frequent occurrence. Through the long dreary years of the early settlement, the inhabitants were kept in a constant ferment, while a most harassing petty warfare was persevered in, with the hope that the one party or the other would achieve a triumph. The MARTIAL DEEDS OF PENNSYLVANIA - 62 revolting details of these struggles form one of the blackest pages in territorial history. Finally, overborne by numbers, the slave party was obliged to yield, and Kansas and Nebraska were in due time admitted as free States. While these scenes of violence were passing in the territory, the two sections of the country were rocking with excitement as in the throes of an earthquake. The press teemed with highly wrought descriptions of the horrors perpetrated on either side, and with appeals to the passions and prejudices of the people, against the wrongs to which the unhappy settlers were subjected. Before this maelstrom of sectional strife the solid foundations of political parties, which from the origin of the Government had been preserved throughout the entire length and breadth of the nation, were rapidly being swept away. With the Presidential canvass of 1852, wherein a Free Soil party headed by Martin Van Buren, in addition to the Whig and the Democratic, made its appearance, the Whig party disappeared from the arena of politics. Upon its ruins arose a new organization, at first called the Anti-Nebraska, and subsequently the Republican party. In 1856 Mr. Buchanan was successful; but so strong was the voice of the opposition that it was plainly seen that at the next election it would undoubtedly be triumphant. Accordingly the Southern leaders busied themselves during the four years to elapse before that event would occur, in preparations for founding a Southern Confederacy, - "A great slave-holding Confederacy," was the language of the address put forth by South Carolina. The defeat of their favorite theory of a balance of power, and the prospect of seeing the Government pass into the hands of a party bent on confining slavery to its then limits, induced them to seek independence. They called their method Secession, but it was in effect violent revolution. Mr. Lincoln, in his message of July 4th, 1861, says of this: "At the beginning, they knew they could never raise their treason to any respectable magnitude by any name which implies violation of law. They knew their ORIGIN OF REBELLION - 63 people possessed as much of moral sense, as much of devotion to law and order, and as much pride in, and reverence for, the history and Government of their common country, as any other civilized and patriotic people. They knew they could make no advancements directly in the teeth of these strong and noble sentiments. Accordingly, they commenced by an insidious debauching of the public mind. They invented an ingenious sophism, which, if conceded, was followed by perfectly logical steps, through all the incidents, to the complete destruction of the Union. The sophism itself is, that any State of the Union may, consistently with the national Constitution, and therefore lawfully and peacefully, withdraw from the Union, without the consent of the Union, or of any other State. The little disguise that the supposed right is to be exercised only for just cause, themselves to be the sole judge of its justice, is too thin to merit any notice. With rebellion thus sugar-coated, they have been drugging the public mind of their section for more than thirty years; and until, at length, they have brought many good men to a willingness to take up arms against the Government, the day after some assemblage of men have enacted the farcical pretence of taking their State out of the Union, who could have been brought to no such thing the day before." The sentiment of pride in the Government and reverence for its history here referred to was deep rooted even in the minds of those who eventually aided to destroy it. Alexander H. Stephens, who afterwards became Vice-President of the Confederacy, in an elaborate address at Milledgeville on the 14th of November, 1860, after denouncing Secession, and pleading most earnestly for delay and deliberation, said: "My countrymen, I am not of those who believe this Union has been a curse up to this time. True men, men of integrity, entertain different views from me on this subject. I do not question their right to do so; I would not impugn their motives in so doing. Nor will I undertake to say that this Government of our fathers is perfect. There is nothing perfect in this world, of a human origin-nothing connected with human nature, from man himself to any of his works. You may select the wisest and best men for your judges, and yet how many defects are there in the administration of justice? And it is so in MARTIAL DEEDS OF PENNSYLVANIA - 64 our Government. But that this Government of our fathers, with all its defects, comes nearer the objects of all good governments than any other on the face of the earth is my settled conviction. . . . Where will you go, following the sun in its circuit round our globe, to find a government that better protects the liberties of its people, and secures to them the blessings we enjoy? I think that one of the evils that beset us is a surfeit of liberty, an exuberance of the priceless blessings for which we are ungrateful. . . . When I look around and see our prosperity in everything, agriculture, commerce, art, science, and every department of education, physical and mental, as well as moral advancement, and our colleges, I think in the face of such an exhibition, if we can, without the loss of power, or any essential right or interest, remain in the Union, it is our duty to ourselves and to posterity to-let us not too readily yield to this temptation-do so. I look upon this country with our institutions as the Eden of the world, the paradise of the universe. It may be that out of it we may become greater and more prosperous, but I am candid and sincere in telling you, that I fear if we rashly evince passion, and without sufficient cause shall take that step, that instead of becoming gods, we will become demons, and at no distant day commence cutting one another's throats. . . . I believe in the power of the people to govern themselves when wisdom prevails and passion is silent. Look at what has already been done by them for their advancement in all that ennobles man. There is nothing like it in the history of the world. Look abroad from one extremity of the country to the other-contemplate our greatness. We are now among the first nations of the earth. Shall it be said, then, that our institutions, founded upon principles of self-government, are a failure? "Thus far it is a noble example, worthy of imitation. The gentleman, Mr. Cobb, the other night, said it had proven a failure. A failure in what? In growth? Look at our expanse in national power. Look at our population and increase in all that makes a people great. A failure? Why, we are the admiration of the civilized world, and present the brightest hopes of mankind. Some of our public men have failed in their aspirations; that is true, ORIGIN OF REBELLION - 65 and from that comes a great part of our troubles. No, there is no failure of this Government yet. We have made great advancement under the Constitution, and I cannot but hope that we shall advance higher still. Let us be true to our cause." But while there were a few men at the South not entirely carried away with the madness of the hour, the great body of the leaders were intent on establishing a new Government whose ruling interest should be Slavery. "Its corner-stone," they said, "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 stone, which was first rejected by the first builders, 'is become the chief stone of the corner' in our new edifice." Slavery made the South a homo-geneous people. A system of labor like this, pervading all parts, and a condition of society and habits of life which are its inevitable result, bound the dominant race to a common interest. The lack of general education among the masses of the poor whites made them fit subjects to be duped by a comparatively small number of landed aristocrats, rejoicing in their retinues of slaves. Hence, any enterprise which could command the united support of the slave-holders, was sure to have the concurrence of the combined white population. Of the 12,000,000 of people in the South, a careful estimate made for 1850, showed that there were less than 170,000 men who owned more than five slaves. The influence of these was everywhere supreme, and so skillfully had their views been made to permeate and leaven the entire mass, that the very class who were most degraded by slavery, and whose highest interests would have been conserved by the universal freedom, were most clamorous for, and even mad with the desire for Secession. For a score or more of years, they had been made familiar with the theme. They had been told that the poverty and wretchedness of the South was due to the tariff laws, the fishing bounties, and the navigation policy of the General Government; and so effectually had these ideas been dinned into their ears, that they had come to look upon Secession as the panacea for all ills, and that if adopted, a golden sunshine would dawn upon all that beclouded and abused region. The stump and the bar had long echoed with the call, and even the pulpit MARTIAL DEEDS OF PENNSYLVANIA - 66 had taken up the refrain. From the day Jackson crushed attempted rebellion, in 1832, and summarily silenced the cry of Nullification, the leaders seem to have cherished a hatred of the National authority, and secretly labored for its overthrow. A republican form of government was not the one best suited to Southern society. To a small but powerful aristocracy, holding a vast laboring population as their slaves and vassals, a monarchy was better adapted. This, the foremost of their writers were not backward in proclaiming. Mr. Garnett, member of Congress from Virginia, declared: "Democracy, in its original philosophical sense, is indeed incompatible with Slavery, and the whole system of Southern society." Mr. Lossing, in a note to his "History of the Civil War in America," has quoted the following paragraphs from De Bow's Review, a leading Southern magazine, in confirmation of this truth: "The right to govern resides in a very small minority; the duty to obey is inherent in the great mass of mankind." "There is nothing to which the South [the ruling class] entertains so great a dislike, as of universal suffrage. Wherever foreigners settle together in large numbers, there universal suffrage will exist. They understand and admire the leveling democracy of the North, but cannot appreciate the aristocratic feeling of a privileged class, so universal at the South." "The real civilization of a country is in its aristocracy. The masses are moulded into soldiers and artisans by intellect, just as matter and the elements of nature are made into telegraphs and steam-engines. The poor who labor all day are too tired at night to study books. If you make them learned, they soon forget all that is necessary in the common transactions of life. To make an aristocrat in the future, we must sacrifice a thousand paupers. Yet, we would by all means make them-make them permanent, too, by laws of entail and primogeniture. An aristocracy is patriarchal, parental, and representative. The feudal barons of England were, next to the fathers, the most perfect representative government. The king and barons represented everybody, because everybody belonged to them." "The real contest of to-day is not simply between the North and the South; but to determine whether for ages to come our ORIGIN OF REBELLION - 67 Government shall partake more of the form of monarchies or of more liberal forms." To accomplish their purpose, the advocates of these doctrines were busy in fomenting sectional strife, and in nurturing in the minds of the masses of the Southern people a deep-seated hatred of the North and its institutions. So successful were they that even the slaves came to share it. The people of the North had no conception of the bitterness of this feeling previous to the breaking out of the Rebellion. Hence, up to the very last moment, they could not be induced to believe that a civil war was possible; for the feeling towards the people of South Carolina and Louisiana was the same among them as between the inhabitants of New York and Pennsylvania. Indeed, a warmer feeling of friendship seemingly existed in Pennsylvania for the dwellers in the neighboring States on the south, than for those on the north. Not so at the South. The whole section was knit together as by a common tie, and their hatred of the North was intense. The evidence that such feeling existed is now beyond question. William H. Russell, a distinguished correspondent of the London Times, was traveling in the South during the early stages of the war, and on the 30th of April sent a communication to that journal, of which the following are extracts: "Nothing I could say can be worth one fact which has forced itself upon my mind in reference to the sentiments which prevail among the gentlemen of this State. I have been among them for several days. I have visited their plantations. I have conversed with them freely and fully, and I have enjoyed that frank, courteous and graceful intercourse which constitutes an irresistible charm of their society. From all quarters have come to my ears the echoes of the same voice. . . That voice says, 'if we could only get one of the royal race of England to rule over us, we should be content.' Let there be no misconception on this point. That sentiment, varied in a hundred ways, has been repeated to me over and over again. . . . The admiration for monarchical institutions on the English model for privileged classes, and for a landed aristocracy and gentry, is undisguised and apparently genuine. . . . An intense affection for the British connection, a love of British habits and customs, a respect for British sentiment. MARTIAL DEEDS OF PENNSYLVANIA - 68 law, authority, order, civilization and literature, preeminently distinguish the inhabitants of this State, who, glorying in their descent from ancient families on the three islands, whose fortunes they still follow, and with whose members they maintain, not unfrequently, familiar relations, regard with an aversion of which it is impossible to give an idea to one who has not seen its manifestations, the people of New England and the populations of the Northern States. . . . There are national antipathies on our side of the Atlantic which are tolerably strong, and have been, unfortunately, pertinacious and long- lived. The hatred of the Italian for the Tedesco, of the Greek for the Turk, of the Turk for the Russ, is warm and fierce enough to satisfy the prince of darkness, not to speak of a few little pet aversions among allied powers, and the atoms of composite empires; but they are all mere indifference and neutrality of feeling compared to the animosity evinced by the 'gentry' of South Carolina for the 'rabble of the North.' "The contests of Cavalier and Roundhead, of Vendean and Republican, even of Orangeman and Croppy, have been elegant joustings, regulated by the finest rules of chivalry, compared with those which North and South will carry on if their deeds support their words. 'Immortal hate, the study of revenge' will actuate every blow; and never in the history of the world, perhaps, will go forth such a dreadful voe victis as that which may be heard before the fight has begun. There is nothing in all the dark caves of human passion so cruel and deadly as the hatred the South Carolinians profess for the Yankees. That hatred has been swelling for years, till it is the very life-blood of the State. It has set South Carolina to work steadily to organize her resources for the struggle which she intended to provoke, if it did not come in the course of time. 'Incompatibility of temper' would have been sufficient ground for the divorce, and I am satisfied that there has been a deep-rooted design conceived in some men's minds thirty years ago, and extended gradually year after year to others, to break away from the Union at the very first opportunity." Having thus whetted the minds of the people, and prepared them for sudden enterprise; having emptied the arsenals of the North, and filled those of the South with arms and ammunition; ORIGIN OF REBELLION - 69 having condemned large quantities of good percussion muskets and sold them to militia companies forming all over the South, and to private parties there, at a merely nominal price; having dispersed the small fragment of a standing army which the nation had, and sent its ships of war to the ends of the earth, the leaders stood ready when the time arrived for another presidential election, to set their craft afloat. To effect the disruption and division of the political party with which they had for a long time acted, in the nominating convention, was easy. When that was done there was certainty of the election of a Republican President, and as soon as the popular voice had pronounced in favor of Mr. Lincoln, that circumstance was seized as the pretext for the formation of a Southern Confederacy, and the call to arms for its defence. It was but a pretext; for had they not held a controlling influence in the Government from its foundation, and might they not still have continued to do so had they been united? Mr. Stephens said, in the Secession Convention of Georgia: "What right has the North assailed? What interest of the South has been invaded? What justice has been denied? and what claim founded in justice and right has been withheld? Can either of you to-day name one governmental act of wrong, deliberately and purposely done by the Government of Washington, of which the South has a right to complain? I challenge the answer. . . . When we of the South demanded the slave-trade, or the importation of Africans for the cultivation of our lands, did they not yield the right for twenty years? When we asked a three-fifths representation in Congress for our slaves, was it not granted? When we asked and demanded the return of any fugitive from justice, or the recovery of those persons owing labor or allegiance, was it not incorporated in the Constitution, and again ratified and strengthened by the Fugitive Slave Law of 1850? But do you reply that in many instances they have violated this compact, and have not been faithful to their engagements? As individuals and local communities, they may have done so; but not by the sanction of Government; for that has always been true to Southern interests. Again, gentlemen, look at another act; when we have asked that more territory should be MARTIAL DEEDS OF PENNSYLVANIA - 70 added, that we might spread the institution of Slavery, have they not yielded to our demands in giving us Louisiana, Florida, and Texas, out of which four States have been carved, and ample territory for four more to be added in due time, if you, by this unwise and impolitic act do not destroy this hope, and, perhaps by it lose all, and have your last slave wrenched from you by stern military rule, as South America and Mexico were; or by the vindictive decree of a universal emancipation, which may reasonably be expected to follow? "But again, gentlemen, what have we to gain by this proposed change of our relation to the General Government? We have always had the control of it, and can yet, if we remain in it, and are as united as we have been. We have had a majority of the Presidents chosen from the South, as well as the control and management of most of those chosen from the North. We have had sixty years of Southern Presidents to their twenty-four, thus controlling the Executive Department. So of the Judges of the Supreme Court; we have had eighteen from the South, and but eleven from the North; although nearly four-fifths of the judicial business has arisen in the Free States, yet a majority of the Court has always been from the South. This we have required so as to guard against any interpretation of the Constitution unfavorable to us. In like manner we have been equally watchful to guard our interests in the Legislative branch of the Government. In choosing the presiding Presidents pro tem. of the Senate, we have had twenty-four to their eleven. Speakers of the House we have had twenty-three, and they twelve. While the majority of the Representatives, from their greater population, have always been from the North, yet we have generally secured the Speaker, because he, to a great extent, shapes and controls the legislation of the country. Nor have we had less control in every other department of the General Government. Attorney-Generals we have had fourteen, while the North have had but five. Foreign Ministers we have had eighty-six, and they but fifty-four. While three-fourths of the business which demands diplomatic agents abroad is clearly from the Free States, from their greater commercial interests, yet we have had the principal embassies, so as to secure the world markets for our ORIGIN OF REBELLION - 71 cotton, tobacco, and sugar, on the best possible terms. We have had a vast majority of the higher offices of both army and navy, while a larger proportion of the soldiers and sailors were drawn from the North. Equally so of clerks, auditors, and controllers, filling the Executive Department; the records show for the last fifty years that of the 3000 thus employed, we have had more than two-thirds of the same, while we have but one-third of the white population of the Republic." After showing that three-fourths of the revenue collected for the support of the Government has been raised in the North, and that the revenue for carrying the mails at the North was in excess of expenditures by $6,000,000, while at the South there was a deficit of over $6,500,000, he concludes in the following impassioned strain: "Leaving out of view, for the present, the countless millions of dollars you must expend in a war with the North, with tens of thousands of your sons and brothers slain in battle, and offered up as sacrifices upon the altar of your ambition - and for what? we ask again. Is it for the overthrow of the American Government, established by our common ancestry, cemented and built up by their sweat and their blood, and founded on the broad principles of Right, Justice, and Humanity? And as such, I must declare here, as I have often done before, and which has been repeated by the greatest and wisest of statesmen and patriots in this and other lands, that it is the best and freest Government, the most equal in its rights, the most just in its decisions, the most lenient in its measures, and the most aspiring in its principles to elevate the race of men, that the sun of heaven ever shone upon. Now for you to attempt to overthrow such a Government as this, under which we have lived for more than three-quarters of a century-in which we have gained our wealth, our standing as a nation, our domestic safety while the elements of peril are around us, with peace and tranquility accompanied with unbounded prosperity and rights unassailed - is the height of madness, folly, and wickedness, to which I can neither lend my sanction nor my vote." But in the face of such appeals as these, the South rushed wildly on. "Perhaps there never was a people," wrote a Southern man in the third year of the war, "more bewitched, beguiled, and MARTIAL DEEDS OF PENNSYLVANIA - 72 befooled than we were when we drifted into this rebellion." The election in November, 1860, resulted in the choice of Mr. Lincoln, in strict accordance with the prescribed forms of the Constitution. Without awaiting an unfriendly act, or even his inauguration, the Southern States, led by South Carolina, called Conventions, voted themselves out of the Union, and proceeded to establish independent State Governments, their Senators and Representatives in Congress withdrawing therefrom. The Ordinance of South Carolina was passed on the 17th of November, 1860, only a few days after the Presidential election, and by the 1st of February following, the Conventions of Eight States had passed similar enactments. On the 4th of February, a Congress of delegates from these States met at Montgomery, Alabama, and having on the 8th adopted a Constitution, under the title of the Confederate States of America, on the following day chose Jefferson Davis President. The five border States, including North Carolina, subsequently followed, in one form or another, and sent representatives to that body. Thus was an independent Government set up without opposition, a month before the President-elect could be inaugurated. This peaceful action was followed up by other, looking to the maintenance of the new authority vi et armis. The forts and arsenals of the General Government, filled with arms, ammunition, and heavy ordnance, and vast quantities of military stores, were seized by the State authorities, the guards, which had been reduced to a mere nominal force, turning over their charge without opposition. To these disgraceful acts were two notable exceptions. Major Anderson, at Fort Sumter, Charles Harbor, and Lieutenant Adam J. Slemmer, at Fort Pickens, on the Alabama coast, resolutely preserved their honor, the latter defying his assailants and holding his post, and the former denying all authority of the State of South Carolina over him, and only yielding when destruction was inevitable. The public sentiment of the North stoutly condemned this unlawful and violent procedure, and the press called in loudest tones for its suppression. But the National Administration held that the Constitution delegated to Congress and the Executive no power to coerce a State into submission which was attempting to withdraw, or had actually with- ORIGIN OF REBELLION - 73 drawn from the Confederacy, and manifested a pusillanimity towards this whole momentous question, in strange contrast with the fiery zeal of Jackson. General Scott had proposed to throw large garrisons, with abundant supplies and ammunition to withstand a long siege, into the forts in the Southern States, before they should fall into the hands of the insurgents; but to this the objection was made that such a course would exasperate them and lead to violence, and the purpose was thwarted. Disagreeing with his chief in the policy pursued, Lewis Cass, Secretary of State, resigned on the 12th of December, and was succeeded by Jeremiah S. Black. Two days before, Howell Cobb, of Georgia, resigned his position as Secretary of the Treasury, to follow the fortunes of the State he represented, and was succeeded by Philip F. Thomas, who was in turn succeeded on the 11th of January, 1861, by John A. Dix. For a like reason John B. Floyd, Secretary of War, and Jacob Thompson, Secretary of the Interior, both resigned in January, when Joseph Holt was entrusted with the War Department, Edwin M. Stanton was made Attorney-General, and Horatio King Postmaster-General. These changes altered somewhat the complexion of the Cabinet; but the President adhered to his views as to the powers of the Government, and nothing was done to stay the progress of rebellion to the end of his term. In the meanwhile, the new Government, which had been set up at Montgomery, was daily acquiring greater strength, and the Legislatures of the revolting States having voted money freely to raise and discipline troops, everywhere warlike preparations went boldly on. The voice of the drill-master, and the tramp of recruits, were heard over the whole South, and when finally Mr. Lincoln came to power, he came with one half of his dominions in a state of revolt, provided with a well organized Government, and an army in preparation for its defence.