Produced by David Widger
THE GREAT CONSPIRACY
Its Origin and History
Part 1
BY
JOHN LOGAN
PREFACE.
In the preparation of this work it has been the writer's aim to present
in it, with historical accuracy, authentic facts; to be fair and
impartial in grouping them; and to be true and just in the conclusions
necessarily drawn from them. While thus striving to be accurate, fair,
and just, he has not thought it his duty to mince words, nor to refrain
from "calling things by their right names;" neither has he sought to
curry favor, in any quarter, by fulsome adulation on the one side, nor
undue denunciation on the other, either of the living, or of the dead.
But, while tracing the history of the Great Conspiracy, from its obscure
birth in the brooding brains of a few ambitious men of the earliest days
of our Republic, through the subsequent years of its devolution, down to
the evil days of Nullification, and to the bitter and bloody period of
armed Rebellion, or contemplating it in its still more recent and,
perhaps, more sinister development, of to-day, he has conscientiously
dealt with it, throughout, in the clear and penetrating light of the
voluminous records so readily accessible at the seat of our National
Government. So far as was practicable, he has endeavored to allow the
chief characters in that Conspiracy-as well as the Union leaders, who,
whether in Executive, Legislative, or Military service, devoted their
best abilities and energies to its suppression--to speak for themselves,
and thus while securing their own proper places in history, by a process
of self-adjustment as it were, themselves to write down that history in
their own language. If then there be found within these covers aught
which may seem harsh to those directly or indirectly, nearly or
remotely, connected with that Conspiracy, he may not unfairly exclaim:
"Thou canst not say I did it." If he knows his own heart, the writer
can truly declare, with his hand upon it, that it bears neither hatred,
malice, nor uncharitableness, to those who, misled by the cunning
secrecy of the Conspirators, and without an inkling or even a suspicion
of their fell purposes, went manfully into the field, with a courage
worthy of a better cause, and for four years of bloody conflict,
believing that their cause was just, fought the armies of the Union, in
a mad effort to destroy the best government yet devised by man upon this
planet. And, perhaps, none can better understand than he, how hard, how
very hard, it must be for men of strong nature and intense feeling,
after taking a mistaken stand, and especially after carrying their
conviction to the cannon's mouth, to acknowledge their error before the
world. Hence, while he has endeavored truly to depict--or to let those
who made history at the time help him to depict--the enormity of the
offence of the armed Rebellion and of the heresies and plottings of
certain Southern leaders precipitating it, yet not one word will be
found, herein, condemnatory of those who, with manly candor, soldierly
courage, and true patriotism, acknowledged that error when the ultimate
arbitrament of the sword had decided against them. On the contrary, to
all such as accept, in good faith, the results of the war of the
Rebellion, the writer heartily holds out the hand of forgiveness for the
past, and good fellowship for the future.
WASHINGTON, D. C.
April 15, 1886.
CONTENTS.
[For detailed Table of Contents see below]
CHAPTER.
I. A Preliminary Retrospect,
II. Protection, and Free Trade,
III. Growth of the Slavery Question,
IV. Popular Sovereignty,
V. Presidential Contest of 1860,
VI. The Great Conspiracy Maturing,
VII. "Secession" Arming,
VIII. The Rejected Olive Branch,
IX. Slavery's Setting Sun,
X. The War Drum--"On to Washington,"
XI. Causes of Secession
XII. Copperheadism vs. Union-Democracy,
XIII. The Storm of Battle,
XIV. The Colored Contraband,
XV. Freedom's Early Dawn,
XVI. Compensated, Gradual, Emancipation,
XVII. Border-State Opposition,
XVIII. Freedom Proclaimed to All,
XIX. Historical Review,
XX. Lincoln's Troubles and Temptations,
XXI. The Armed Negro
XXII. Freedom's Sun still Rising,
XXIII. Thirteenth Amendment Passes the Senate
XXIV. Treason in the Northern Camp,
XXV. The "Fire in the Rear,"
XXVI. Thirteenth Amendment Defeated in House,
XXVII. Slavery Doomed at the Polls,
XXVIII. Freedom at last Assured,
XXIX. Lincoln's Second Inauguration,
XXX. Collapse of Armed Conspiracy,
XXXI. Assassination!
XXXII. Turning Back the Hands,
XXXIII. What Next?
CHAPTER I.
A PRELIMINARY RETROSPECT.
AFRICAN SLAVERY IN AMERICA IN 1620--CONTROVERSY BETWEEN THE COLONIES AND
ENGLAND IN 1699--GEORGIAN ABHORRENCE OF SLAVERY IN 1775--JEFFERSON AND
THE DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE--SLAVERY A SOURCE OF WEAKNESS IN THE
REVOLUTIONARY WAR--THE SESSION BY VIRGINIA OF THE GREAT NORTH-WEST--THE
ORDINANCE OF 1784 AND ITS FAILURE--THE ORDINANCE OF 1787 AND ITS
ADOPTION--THE GERM OF SLAVERY AGITATION PLANTED--THE QUESTION IN THE
CONSTITUTIONAL CONVENTION--SUBTERFUGES OF THE OLD CONSTITUTION--THE
BULLDOZING OF THE FATHERS--THE FIRST FEDERAL CONGRESS, 1789--CONDITIONS
OF TERRITORIAL CESSIONS FROM NORTH CAROLINA AND GEORGIA, 1789-1802--THE
"COLONY OF LOUISIANA" (MISSISSIPPI VALLEY) PURCHASE OF 1803--THE TREATY
--CONDITIONS TOUCHING SLAVERY--THE COTTON INDUSTRY REVOLUTIONIZED--RAPID
POPULATING OF THE GREAT VALLEY, BY SLAVEHOLDERS AND SLAVES--JEFFERSON'S
APPARENT INCONSISTENCY EXPLAINED--THE AFRICAN SLAVE TRADE--MULTIPLICATION
OF SLAVES--LOUISIANA ADMITTED, 1812, AS A STATE--THE TERRITORY OF
MISSOURI--THE MISSOURI STRUGGLE (1818-1820) IN A NUTSHELL--THE "MISSOURI
COMPROMISE"