_Nomination of Fremont.--Nomination of Lincoln.--The Mob Spirit.--Spirit
of Slavery.--The Democracy.--Cotton.--Northern Promises to the
Rebels.--Assault on Fort Sumter.--Call for 75,000 Men.--Response of the
Colored Men._
The nomination of John C. Fremont by the Republican party in 1856, and
the large vote given him at the election that autumn, cleared away all
doubts, if any existed as to the future action of the Federal Government
on the spread and power of slavery. The Democratic party, which had
ruled the nation so long and so badly, saw that it had been weighed, and
found wanting; that it must prepare to give up the Government into the
hands of better men.
But the party determined to make the most of Mr. Buchanan’s
administration, both in the profuse expenditure of money among
themselves, and in getting ready to take the Southern States out of the
Union.
Surrounded by the men who believed that the Government was made for
them, and that their mission was to rule the people of the United
States, Mr. Buchanan was nothing more than a tool,--clay in the hands
of the potters; and he permitted them to prepare leisurely for disunion,
which culminated, in 1860, in the nomination of Abraham Lincoln for the
presidency.
The proslavery Democracy became furious at the prospect of losing the
control of the situation, and their hatred of free speech was revived.
From the nomination of Mr. Lincoln to his inauguration, mob-law ruled
in most of the cities and large villages. These disgraceful scenes,
the first of which commenced at the antislavery-meeting at the Tremont
Temple, Boston, was always gotten up by members of the Democratic party,
who usually passed a series of resolutions in favor of slavery. New
York, Philadelphia, Albany, Buffalo, Troy, Cincinnati, and Chicago, all
followed the example set by Boston.
These demonstrations were caused more by sympathy with the South, and
the long-accustomed subserviency of the Northern people to slaveholding
dictation, than to any real hatred to the negro.
During all this time the Abolitionists were laboring faithfully to widen
the gulf between the North and South.
Towards the close of the year 1860, the spirit of compromise began to
show itself in such unmistakable terms as to cause serious apprehension
on the part of the friends of freedom for the future of American
liberty. The subdued tone of the liberal portion of the press, the
humiliating offers of Northern political leaders of compromises, and the
numerous cases of fugitive slaves being returned to their masters, sent
a thrill of fear to all colored men in the land for their safety, and
nearly every train going North found more or less negroes fleeing to
Canada.
At the South, the people were in earnest, and would listen to no
proposals whatever in favor of their continuance in the Union.
The vast wealth realized by the slave-holder had made him feel that the
South was independent of the rest of the world.
Prosperity had made him giddy. Cotton was not merely king: it was God.
Moral considerations were nothing. The sentiment of right, he argued,
would have no influence over starving operatives; and England and
France, as well as the Eastern States of the Union, would stand aghast,
and yield to the masterstroke which should deprive them of the material
of their labor. Millions were dependent on it in all the great centres
of civilization; and the ramifications of its power extended into all
ranks of society and all departments of industry and commerce. It was
only necessary to wave this imperial sceptre over the nations; and all
of them would fall prostrate, and acknowledge the supremacy of the power
which wielded it. Nothing could be more plausible than this delusion.
Satan himself, when about to wage war in heaven, could not have invented
one better calculated to marshal his hosts, and give promise of success
in rebellion against the authority of the Most High. But, alas! the
supreme error of this anticipation lay in omitting from the calculation
all power of principle. The right still has authority over the minds of
men and in the counsels of nations. Factories may cease their din; men
and women may be thrown out of employment; the marts of commerce may be
silent and deserted: but truth and justice still command some respect
among men; and God yet remains the object of their adoration.
Drunk with power, and dazzled with prosperity, monopolizing cotton, and
raising it to the influence of a veritable fetich, the authors of the
Rebellion did not admit a doubt of the success of their attack on the
Federal Government. They dreamed of perpetuating slavery, though all
history shows the decline of the system as industry, commerce, and
knowledge advance. The slave-holders proposed nothing less than to
reverse the currents of humanity, and to make barbarism flourish in the
bosom of civilization.
Weak as were the Southern people in point of numbers and political
power, compared with those of the opposite section, the haughty
slave-holders easily persuaded themselves and their dependents that they
could successfully cope in arms with the Northern adversary, whom they
affected to despise for his cowardly and mercenary disposition. Proud
and confident, they indulged the belief that their great political
prestige would continue to serve them among their late party associates
in the North, and that the counsels of the adversary would be
distracted, and his power weakened, by the fatal effects of dissension.
The proslavery men in the North are very much to blame for the
encouragement that they gave the rebels before the breaking out of the
war. The Southerners had promises from their Northern friends, that,
in the event of a rebellion, civil war should reign in the free
States,--that men would not be permitted to leave the North to go South
to put down their rebellions brethren.
All legitimate revolutions are occasioned by the growth of society
beyond the growth of government; and they will be peaceful or violent
just in proportion as the people and government shall be wise and
virtuous or vicious and ignorant. Such revolutions or reforms are
generally of a peaceful nature in communities in which the government
has made provision for the gradual expansion of its institutions to
suit the onward march of society. No government is wise in overlooking,
whatever may be the strength of its own traditions, or however glorious
its history, that human institutions which have been adapted for a
barbarous age or state of society will cease to be adapted for more
civilized and intelligent times; and, unless government makes a
provision for the gradual expansion, nothing can prevent a storm,
either of an intellectual or a physical nature. Slavery was always the
barbarous institution of America; and the Rebellion was the result of
this incongruity between it and freedom.
The assault on Fort Sumter on the 12th of April, 1861, was the dawn of
a new era for the negro. The proclamation of President Lincoln, calling
for the first 75,000 men to put down the Rebellion, was responded to
by the colored people throughout the country. In Boston, at a public
meeting of the blacks, a large number came forward, put their names to
an agreement to form a brigade, and march at once to the seat of war.
A committee waited on the Governor three days later, and offered the
services of these men. His Excellency replied that he had no power to
receive them. This was the first wet blanket thrown over the negro’s
enthusiasm. “This is a white man’s war,” said most of the public
journals. “I will never fight by the side of a nigger,” was heard in
every quarter where men were seen in Uncle Sam’s uniform.
Wherever recruiting offices were opened, black men offered themselves,
and were rejected. Yet these people, feeling conscious that right would
eventually prevail, waited patiently for the coming time, pledging
themselves to go at their country’s call, as the following will show:--
“Resolved, That our feelings urge us to say to our countrymen that we
are ready to stand by and defend the Government as the equals of its
white defenders; to do so with our lives, our fortunes, and our sacred
honor, for the sake of freedom and as good citizens; and we ask you to
modify your laws, that we may enlist,--that full scope may be given to
the patriotic feelings burning in the colored man’s breast.”--_Colored
Men’s Meeting, Boston_.