ELECTION OF LINCOLN.
In the election of November, 1860, Mr. Lincoln received 1,857,610 votes,
and the combined opposition 2,787,780 votes, the successful candidate
being in a minority of nearly a million votes. The new House of
Representatives was Democratic, and the Senate had not been won over to
the antislavery party. But the trend of Northern politics was
unmistakably toward the extinction of slavery. As Mr. Lincoln said in
his letter to Mr. Stephens: "You think slavery is right and ought to be
extended, while we think it is wrong and ought to be restricted. There,
I suppose, is the rub." Mr. Buchanan's message to Congress was full of
conservative counsel, but the Northern pressure was too strong. His
Cabinet was soon dissolved, and the places of Southern men were taken by
Northern representatives, whose influence was not assuring to Southern
people.
Just before his departure for Congress Mr. Toombs, in response to an
invitation, wrote a conservative letter to his constituents in Danburg,
Wilkes County, Ga. It bore date of December 13, 1860. The General
Assembly of Georgia had unanimously passed a resolution calling for a
State convention to meet on January 16, 1861. Mr. Toombs took the ground
that separation, sooner or later, was inevitable. The time when the
remedy was to be applied was the point of difference. He opposed delay
longer than March 4, but declared that he would certainly yield that
point "to earnest and honest men who are with me in principle but are
more hopeful of redress from the aggressors than I am. To go beyond
March 4, we should require such preliminary measures to be taken as
would, with reasonable certainty, lead to adequate redress, and in the
meantime, we should take care that the delay gives no advantage to the
adversary." Mr. Toombs declared that he believed the policy of Mr.
Lincoln was to ultimately abolish slavery in the States, by driving
slavery out of the Territories, by abrogating Fugitive-slave laws, and
by protecting those who stole slaves and incited insurrections. The only
way to remedy these evils, in the Union, was by such constitutional
amendments as can be neither resisted nor evaded. "If the Republican
party votes for the amendments, we may postpone final action. This will
be putting planks where they are good for something. A cartload of new
planks in the party platform will not redress one wrong nor protect one
right."
As strong and unmistakable as this letter seemed, the great body of the
people of Georgia did not think it sufficiently aggressive. Secession
now amounted to a furor. It was not the work of leaders, but the spirit
which pervaded the ranks of the people, who clamored because events did
not move fast enough. The "minute-men" declared Mr. Toombs' letter was a
backdown. They called him a traitor, and wanted to vote him a tin sword.
Congress, upon reassembling, devoted itself to measures of compromise.
The situation was one of the deepest gravity. In the House a committee
of thirty-three was raised, and in the Senate a committee of thirteen,
to look into the situation. But there was no Henry Clay to interpose,
with tact and broad statesmanship, at the supreme moment.
Twice before in our history, the "Great Pacificator" had proven equal to
a desperate emergency. Adjusting the tariff in 1832 when South Carolina
threatened nullification, he had kept the peace between Calhoun and
Jackson. Proposing his omnibus bill in 1850, he had silenced all calls
for disunion by the territorial concession. Equally lacking was the
example of Webster to face the prejudices of the North and calm the
apprehensions of the South. Perhaps it was because these men had
postponed the conflict then that it reappeared now with irrepressible
power.
The House Committee reported propositions to amend the Fugitive-slave
laws, and accepted Mr. Toombs' demand that a law should be enacted by
which all offenses against slave property, by persons fleeing to other
States, should be tried where the offense was committed.
Mr. Toombs was a member of the committee of thirteen in the Senate. The
five Southern members submitted the Crittenden Compromise, demanding six
amendments to the Constitution. These recognized slavery south of the
old Missouri line, prohibited interference by Congress with slavery in
the District of Columbia, or with transportation of slaves from one
State to another, and provided for the payment for fugitive slaves in
cases where the marshal was prevented from arresting said fugitive. The
sixth amendment guaranteed the permanence of these provisions.
The House adopted the report of the committee of thirty-three. In the
Senate a resolution was adopted declaring that the provisions of the
Constitution were already ample for the preservation of the Union; that
it needed to be obeyed rather than amended. This, upon a test vote of
twenty-five to twenty-three, was substituted for the Crittenden
Compromise. Mr. Toombs and five other Democratic members refused to
vote, as they appropriately declared that no measure could be of value
to the South, unless it had the support of Republican senators from the
North. They sat still and waited to see whether those senators offered
any guarantees. The twenty-five votes showed that the Republicans were
not in a conciliatory mood. This, in the opinion of Senator Toombs, was
conclusive that the best interests of the South lay in immediate
separation.
Once convinced that this was the proper course, Senator Toombs bent all
his powers to bring about that result. He saw that if the Southern
States must secede, the quicker they did so the better. If the North
cared to recall them, a vigorous policy would react more promptly upon
the Republicans. He did not go into this movement with foreboding or
half-heartedness. There was no mawkish sentiment--no melancholy in his
make-up. His convictions mastered him, and his energy moved him to
redoubled effort. On the 22d of December he sent his famous telegram to
his "fellow-citizens of Georgia." He recited that his resolutions had
been treated with derision and contempt by the Republican members of the
committee of thirteen. The amendments proposed by Mr. Crittenden had
"each and all of them been voted against unanimously by the Republican
members of the committee." These members had also declared that they had
no guarantees to offer. He believed that the House Committee only sought
to amuse the South with delusive hope, "until your election, in order
that you may defeat the friends of secession. If you are deceived by
them it shall not be my fault. I have put the test fairly and frankly.
It has been decided against you, and now I tell you upon the faith of a
true man, that all further looking to the North for security for your
constitutional rights in the Union, ought to be instantly abandoned. It
is fraught with nothing but menace to yourselves and your party.
Secession by the 4th of March next should be thundered forth from the
ballot-box by the united voice of Georgia. Such a voice will be your
best guaranty for liberty, security, tranquillity, and glory."