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[Illustration: John H. Aughey. _Engraved by Samuel Sartain, Phila._]
THE IRON FURNACE:
OR,
SLAVERY AND SECESSION.
BY REV. JOHN H. AUGHEY,
A REFUGEE FROM MISSISSIPPI.
Cursed be the men that obeyeth not the words
of this covenant, which I commanded your
fathers in the day that I brought them forth
out of the land of Egypt, from the _Iron
Furnace_.--Jer. xi. 3, 4. See also, 1 Kings
viii. 51.
PHILADELPHIA:
WILLIAM S. & ALFRED MARTIEN.
606 CHESTNUT STREET.
1863.
Entered, according to the Act of Congress, in the year 1863,
BY WILLIAM S. & ALFRED MARTIEN,
In the office of the Clerk of the District Court for the
Eastern District of Pennsylvania.
TO MY PERSONAL FRIENDS
REV. CHARLES C. BEATTY, D.D., LL.D.,
OF STEUBENVILLE, OHIO,
Moderator of the General Assembly of the (O.S.) Presbyterian
Church in the United States of America,
and long Pastor of the Church in which
my parents were members, and
our family worshippers;
REV. WILLIAM PRATT BREED,
Pastor of the West Spruce Street Presbyterian Church, of
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania;
GEORGE HAY STUART, ESQ.,
OF PHILADELPHIA, PA.,
The Philanthropist, whose virtues are known and
appreciated in both hemispheres,
THIS VOLUME IS AFFECTIONATELY INSCRIBED.
PREFACE.
A celebrated author thus writes: "Posterity is under no obligations to a
man who is not a parent, who has never planted a tree, built a house, nor
written a book." Having fulfilled all these requisites to insure the
remembrance of posterity, it remains to be seen whether the author's name
shall escape oblivion.
It may be that a few years will obliterate the name affixed to this
Preface from the memory of man. This thought is the cause of no concern. I
shall have accomplished my purpose if I can in some degree be humbly
instrumental in serving my country and my generation, by promoting the
well-being of my fellow-men, and advancing the declarative glory of
Almighty God.
This work was written while suffering intensely from maladies induced by
the rigours of the Iron Furnace of Secession, whose sevenfold heat is
reserved for the loyal citizens of the South. Let this fact be a
palliation for whatever imperfections the reader may meet with in its
perusal.
There are many loyal men in the southern States, who to avoid martyrdom,
conceal their opinions. They are to be pitied--not severely censured. All
those southern ministers and professors of religion who were eminent for
piety, opposed secession till the States passed the secession ordinance.
They then advocated reconstruction as long as it comported with their
safety. They then, in the face of danger and death, became quiescent--not
acquiescent, by any means--and they now "bide their time," in prayerful
trust that God will, in his own good time, subvert rebellion, and
overthrow anarchy, by a restoration of the supremacy of constitutional
law. By these, and their name is legion, my book will be warmly approved.
My fellow-prisoners in the dungeon at Tupelo, who may have survived its
horrors, and my fellow-sufferers in the Union cause throughout the South,
will read in my narrative a transcript of their own sufferings. The loyal
citizens of the whole country will be interested in learning the views of
one who has been conversant with the rise and progress of secession, from
its incipiency to its culmination in rebellion and treason. It will also
doubtless be of general interest to learn something of the workings of the
"peculiar institution," and the various phases which it assumes in
different sections of the slave States.
Compelled to leave Dixie in haste, I had no time to collect materials for
my work. I was therefore under the necessity of writing without those aids
which would have secured greater accuracy. I have done the best that I
could under the circumstances; and any errors that may have crept into my
statements of facts, or reports of addresses, will be cheerfully rectified
as soon as ascertained.
That I might not compromise the safety of my Union friends who rendered me
assistance, and who are still within the rebel lines, I was compelled to
omit their names, and for the same reason to describe rather indefinitely
some localities, especially the portions of Ittawamba, Chickasaw,
Pontotoc, Tippah, and Tishomingo counties, through which I travelled while
escaping to the Federal lines. This I hope to be able to correct in future
editions.
Narratives require a liberal use of the first personal pronoun, which I
would have gladly avoided, had it been possible without tedious
circumlocution, as its frequent repetition has the appearance of egotism.
I return sincere thanks to my fellow-prisoners who imperilled their own
lives to save mine, and also to those Mississippi Unionists who so
generously aided a panting fugitive on his way from chains and death to
life and liberty. My thanks are also due to Rev. William P. Breed, for
assistance in preparing my work for the press.
I am also under obligations to Rev. Francis J. Collier, of Philadelphia;
to Rev. A. D. Smith, D. D., and Rev. J. R. W. Sloane, of New York, and to
Rev. F. B. Wheeler, of Poughkeepsie, New York.
May the Triune God bless our country, and preserve its integrity!
JOHN HILL AUGHEY.
FEBRUARY 1, 1863.
CONTENTS.
CHAPTER I.
SECESSION.
Speech of Colonel Drane--Submission Denounced--Northern
Aggression--No more Slave States--Northern _isms_--Yankees'
Servants--Yankee inferiority--Breckinridge, or immediate,
complete, and eternal Separation--A Day of Rejoicing--Abraham
Lincoln, President elect--A Union Speech--A Southerner's
Reasons for opposing Secession--Address by a Radical
Secessionist--Cursing and Bitterness--A Prayer--Sermon
against Secession--List of Grievances--Causes which led to
Secession 13--49
CHAPTER II.
VIGILANCE COMMITTEE AND COURT-MARTIAL.
The election of Delegates to determine the status of
Mississippi--The Vigilance Committee--Description of its
members--Charges--Phonography--No formal verdict--Danger of
Assassination--Passports--Escape to Rienzi--Union sentiment--
The Conscript Law--Summons to attend Court-Martial--
Evacuation of Corinth--Destruction of Cotton--Suffering
poor--Relieved by General Halleck 50--69
CHAPTER III.
ARREST, ESCAPE, AND RECAPTURE.
High price of Provisions--Holland Lindsay's Family--The
arrest--Captain Hill--Appearance before Colonel Bradfute at
Fulton--Arrest of Benjamin Clarke--Bradfute's Insolence--
General Chalmers--The clerical Spy--General Pfeifer--Under
guard--Priceville--General Gordon--Bound for Tupelo--The
Prisoners entering the Dungeon--Captain Bruce--Lieutenant
Richard Malone--Prison Fare and Treatment--Menial Service--
Resolve to escape--Plan of escape--Federal Prisoners--
Co-operation of the Prisoners--Declaration of Independence--
The Escape--The Separation--Concealment--Travel on the
Underground Railroad--Pursuit by Cavalry and Bloodhounds--The
Arrest--Dan Barnes, the Mail-robber--Perfidy--Heavily
ironed--Return to Tupelo 70--112
CHAPTER IV.
LIFE IN A DUNGEON.
Parson Aughey as Chaplain--Description of the Prisoners--
Colonel Walter, the Judge Advocate--Charges and
Specifications against Parson Aughey, a Citizen of the
Confederate States--Execution of two Tennesseeans--Enlistment
of Union Prisoners--Colonel Walter's second visit--Day of
Execution specified--Farewell Letter to my Wife--Parson
Aughey's Obituary penned by himself--Address to his Soul--The
Soul's Reply--Farewell Letter to his Parents--The Union
Prisoners' Petition to Hon. W. H. Seward--The two Prisoners
and the Oath of Allegiance--Irish Stories 113--142
CHAPTER V.
EXECUTION OF UNION PRISONERS.
Resolved to Escape--Mode of Executing Prisoners--Removal of
Chain--Addition to our Numbers--Two Prisoners become Insane--
Plan of Escape--Proves a Failure--Fetters Inspected--
Additional Fetters--Handcuffs--A Spy in the Disguise of a
Prisoner--Special Police Guard on Duty--A Prisoner's
Discovery--Divine Services--The General Judgment--The Judge--
The Laws--The Witnesses--The Concourse--The Sentence 143--167
CHAPTER VI.
SUCCESSFUL ESCAPE.
The Second Plan of Escape--Under the Jail--Egress--Among the
Guards--In the Swamp--Travelling on the Underground
Railroad--The Fare--Green Corn eaten Raw--Blackberries and
Stagnant Water--The Bloodhounds--Tantalizing Dreams--The
Pickets--The Cows--Become Sick--Fons Beatus--Find Friends--
Union Friend No. Two--The night in the Barn--Death of Newman
by Scalding--Union Friend No. Three--Bound for the Union
Lines--Rebel Soldiers--Black Ox--Pied Ox--Reach Headquarters
in Safety--Emotions on again beholding the Old Flag--Kindness
while Sick--Meeting with his Family--Richard Malone again--
The Serenade--Leave Dixie--Northward bound 168--211
CHAPTER VII.
SOUTHERN CLASSES--CRUELTY TO SLAVES.
Sandhillers--Dirt-eating--Dipping--Their Mode of Living--
Patois--Rain-book--Wife-trade--Coming in to see the Cars--
Superstition--Marriage of Kinsfolks--Hardshell Sermon--Causes
which lead to the Degradation of this Class--Efforts to
Reconcile the Poor Whites to the Peculiar Institution--The
Slaveholding Class--The Middle Class--Northern _isms_--
Incident at a Methodist Minister's House--Question asked a
Candidate for Licensure--Reason of Southern Hatred toward the
North--Letter to Mr. Jackman--Barbarities and Cruelties of
Slavery--Mulattoes--Old Cole--Child Born at Whipping-post--
Advertisement of a Keeper of Bloodhounds--Getting Rid of Free
Blacks--The Doom of Slavery--Methodist Church South 212--248
CHAPTER VIII.
NOTORIOUS REBELS.--UNION OFFICERS.
Colonel Jefferson Davis--His Speech at Holly Springs,
Mississippi--His Opposition to Yankee Teachers and
Ministers--A bid for the Presidency--His Ambition--Burr,
Arnold, Davis--General Beauregard--Headquarters at Rienzi--
Colonel Elliott's Raid--Beauregard's Consternation--Personal
description--His illness--Popularity waning.--Rev. Dr. Palmer
of New Orleans--His influence--The Cincinnati Letter--His
Personal Appearance--His Denunciations of General Butler--His
Radicalism.--Rev. Dr. Waddell of La Grange, Tennessee--His
Prejudices against the North--President of Memphis Synodical
College--His Talents prostituted.--Union Officers--General
Nelson--General Sherman 249--263
CHAPTER IX.
CONDITION OF THE SOUTH.
Cause of the Rebellion--Prevalence of Union Sentiment in the
South--Why not Developed--Stevenson's Views--Why Incorrect--
Cavalry Raids upon Union Citizens--How the Rebels employ
Slaves--Slaves Whipped and sent out of the Federal Lines--
Resisting the Conscript Law--Kansas Jayhawkers--Guarding
Rebel Property--Perfidy of Secessionists--Plea for
Emancipation--The South Exhausted--Failure of Crops--Southern
Merchants Ruined--Bragg Prohibits the Manufacture and Vending
of Intoxicating Liquors--Its Salutary Effect 264--281
CHAPTER X.
BATTLES OF LEESBURG, BELMONT, AND SHILOH.
Rebel Cruelty to Prisoners--The Fratricide--Grant Defeated--
Saved by Gunboats--Buell's Advance--Railroad Disaster--The
South Despondent--General Rosecrans--Secession will become
Odious even in the South--Poem 282--296
THE IRON FURNACE; OR SLAVERY AND SECESSION.
CHAPTER I.
SECESSION.
Speech of Colonel Drane.--Submission Denounced.--Northern
Aggression.--No more Slave States.--Northern _isms_.--Yankees'
Servants.--Yankee inferiority.--Breckinridge, or immediate, complete,
and eternal Separation.--A Day of Rejoicing.--Abraham Lincoln
President elect.--A Union Speech.--A Southerner's Reasons for opposing
Secession.--Address by a Radical Secessionist.--Cursing and
Bitterness.--A Prayer.--Sermon against Secession.--List of
Grievances.--Causes which led to Secession.
At the breaking out of the present rebellion, I was engaged in the work of
an Evangelist in the counties of Choctaw and Attala in Central
Mississippi. My congregations were large, and my duties onerous. Being
constantly employed in ministerial labours, I had no time to intermeddle
with politics, leaving all such questions to statesmen, giving the
complex issues of the day only sufficient attention to enable me to vote
intelligently. Thus was I engaged when the great political campaign of
1860 commenced--a campaign conducted with greater virulence and asperity
than any I have ever witnessed. During my casual detention at a store,
Colonel Drane arrived, according to appointment, to address the people of
Choctaw. He was a member of one of my congregations, and as he had been
long a leading statesman in Mississippi, having for many years presided
over the State Senate, I expected to hear a speech of marked ability,
unfolding the true issues before the people, with all the dignity,
suavity, and earnestness of a gentleman and patriot; but I found his whole
speech to be a tirade of abuse against the North, commingled with the bold
avowal of treasonable sentiments. The Colonel thus addressed the people:
MY FELLOW-CITIZENS--I appear before you to urge anew resistance
against the encroachments and aggressions of the Yankees. If the
Black Republicans carry their ticket, and Old Abe is elected, our
right to carry our slaves into the territories will be denied us; and
who dare say that he would be a base, craven submissionist, when our
God-given and constitutional right to carry slavery into the common
domain is wickedly taken from the South. The Yankees cheated us out of
Kansas by their infernal Emigrant Aid Societies. They cheated us out
of California, which our blood-treasure purchased, for the South sent
ten men to one that was sent by the North to the Mexican war, and thus
we have no foothold on the Pacific coast; and even now we pay five
dollars for the support of the general Government where the North pays
one. We help to pay bounties to the Yankee fishermen in New England;
indeed _we_ are always paying, paying, paying, and yet the North is
always crying, Give, give, give. The South has made the North rich,
and what thanks do we receive? Our rights are trampled on, our slaves
are spirited by thousands over their underground railroad to Canada,
our citizens are insulted while travelling in the North, and their
servants are tampered with, and by false representations, and often by
mob violence, forced from them. Douglas, knowing the power of the
Emigrant Aid Societies, proposes squatter sovereignty, with the
positive certainty that the scum of Europe and the mudsills of
Yankeedom can be shipped in in numbers sufficient to control the
destiny of the embryo State. Since the admission of Texas in 1845,
there has not been a single foot of slave territory secured to the
South, while the North has added to their list the extensive States of
California, Minnesota, and Oregon, and Kansas is as good as theirs;
while, if Lincoln is elected, the Wilmot proviso will be extended over
all the common territories, debarring the South for ever from her
right to share the public domain.
The hypocrites of the North tell us that slaveholding is sinful. Well,
suppose it is. Upon us and our children let the guilt of this sin
rest; we are willing to bear it, and it is none of their business. We
are a more moral people than they are. Who originated Mormonism,
Millerism, Spirit-rappings, Abolitionism, Free-loveism, and all the
other abominable _isms_ which curse the world? The reply is, the
North. Their puritanical fanaticism and hypocrisy is patent to all.
Talk to us of the sin of slavery, when the only difference between us
is that our slaves are black and theirs white. They treat their white
slaves, the Irish and Dutch, in a cruel manner, giving them during
health just enough to purchase coarse clothing, and when they become
sick, they are turned off to starve, as they do by hundreds every
year. A female servant in the North must have a testimonial of good
character before she will be employed; those with whom she is
labouring will not give her this so long as they desire her services;
she therefore cannot leave them, whatever may be her treatment, so
that she is as much compelled to remain with her employer as the slave
with his master.
Their servants hate them; our's love us. My niggers would fight for me
and my family. They have been treated well, and they know it. And I
don't treat my slaves any better than my neighbours. If ever there
comes a war between the North and the South, let us do as Abraham
did--arm our trained servants, and go forth with them to the battle.
They hate the Yankees as intensely as we do, and nothing could please
our slaves better than to fight them. Ah, the perfidious Yankees! I
cordially hate a Yankee. We have all suffered much at their hands;
they will not keep faith with us. Have they complied with the
provisions of the Fugitive Slave Law? The thousands and tens of
thousands of slaves aided in their escape to Canada, is a sufficient
answer. We _have_ lost millions, and _are_ losing millions every year,
by the operations of the underground railroad. How deep the perfidy of
a people, thus to violate every article of compromise we have made
with them! The Yankees are an inferior race, descended from the old
Puritan stock, who enacted the Blue Laws. They are desirous of
compelling us to submit to laws more iniquitous than ever were the
Blue Laws. I have travelled in the North, and have seen the depth of
their depravity. Now, my fellow-citizens, what shall we do to resist
Northern aggression? Why simply this: if Lincoln or Douglas are
elected, (as to the Bell-Everett ticket, it stands no sort of chance,)
let us secede. This remedy will be effectual. I am in favour of no
more compromises. Let us have Breckinridge, or immediate, complete,
and eternal separation.
The speaker then retired amid the cheers of his audience.
Soon after this there came a day of rejoicing to many in Mississippi. The
booming of cannon, the joyous greeting, the soul-stirring music, indicated
that no ordinary intelligence had been received. The lightnings had
brought the tidings that Abraham Lincoln was President elect of the United
States, and the South was wild with excitement. Those who had been long
desirous of a pretext for secession, now boldly advocated their
sentiments, and joyfully hailed the election of Mr. Lincoln as affording
that pretext. The conservative men were filled with gloom. They regarded
the election of Mr. Lincoln, by the majority of the people of the United
States, in a constitutional way, as affording no cause for secession.
Secession they regarded as fraught with all the evils of Pandora's box,
and that war, famine, pestilence, and moral and physical desolation would
follow in its train. A call was made by Governor Pettus for a convention
to assemble early in January, at Jackson, to determine what course
Mississippi should pursue, whether her policy should be submission or
secession.
Candidates, Union and Secession, were nominated for the convention in
every county. The speeches of two, whom I heard, will serve as a specimen
of the arguments used _pro_ and _con_. Captain Love, of Choctaw, thus
addressed the people.
MY FELLOW-CITIZENS--I appear before you to advocate the Union--the
Union of the States under whose favoring auspices we have long
prospered. No nation so great, so prosperous, so happy, or so much
respected by earth's thousand kingdoms, as the Great Republic, by
which name the United States is known from the rivers to the ends of
the earth. Our flag, the star-spangled banner, is respected on every
sea, and affords protection to the citizens of every State, whether
amid the pyramids of Egypt, the jungles of Asia, or the mighty cities
of Europe. Our Republican Constitution, framed by the wisdom of our
Revolutionary fathers, is as free from imperfection as any document
drawn up by uninspired men. God presided over the councils of that
convention which framed our glorious Constitution. They asked wisdom
from on high, and their prayers were answered. Free speech, a free
press, and freedom to worship God as our conscience dictates, under
our own vine and fig-tree, none daring to molest or make us afraid,
are some of the blessings which our Constitution guarantees; and these
prerogatives, which we enjoy, are features which bless and distinguish
us from the other nations of the earth. Freedom of speech is unknown
amongst them; among them a censorship of the press and a national
church are established.
Our country, by its physical features, seems fitted for but one
nation. What ceaseless trouble would be caused by having the source of
our rivers in one country and the mouth in another. There are no
natural boundaries to divide us into separate nations. We are all
descended from the same common parentage, we all speak the same
language, and we have really no conflicting interests, the statements
of our opponents to the contrary notwithstanding. Our opponents
advocate separate State secession. Would not Mississippi cut a sorry
figure among the nations of the earth? With no harbour, she would be
dependent on a foreign nation for an outlet. Custom-house duties would
be ruinous, and the republic of Mississippi would find herself
compelled to return to the Union. Mississippi, you remember,
repudiated a large foreign debt some years ago; if she became an
independent nation, her creditors would influence their government to
demand payment, which could not be refused by the weak, defenceless,
navyless, armyless, moneyless, repudiating republic of Mississippi.
To pay this debt, with the accumulated interest, would ruin the new
republic, and bankruptcy would stare us in the face.
It is true, Abraham Lincoln is elected President of the United States.
My plan is to wait till Mr. Lincoln does something unconstitutional.
Then let the South unanimously seek redress in a constitutional
manner. The conservatives of the North will join us. If no redress is
made, let us present our ultimatum. If this, too, is rejected, I for
one will not advocate submission; and by the cooperation of all the
slave States, we will, in the event of the perpetration of wrong, and
a refusal to redress our grievances, be much abler to secure our
rights, or to defend them at the cannon's mouth and the point of the
bayonet. The Supreme Court favours the South. In the Dred Scott case,
the Supreme Court decided that the negro was not a citizen, and that
the slave was a chattel, as we regard him. The majority of Congress on
joint ballot is still with the South. Although we have something to
fear from the views of the President elect and the Chicago platform,
let us wait till some overt act, trespassing upon our rights, is
committed, and all redress denied; then, and not till then, will I
advocate extreme measures.
Let our opponents remember that secession and civil war are
synonymous. Who ever heard of a government breaking to pieces without
an arduous struggle for its preservation? I admit the right of
revolution, when a people's rights cannot otherwise be maintained, but
deny the right of secession. We are told that it is a reserved right.
The constitution declares that all rights not specified in it are
reserved to the people of the respective States; but who ever heard of
the right of total destruction of the government being a reserved
right in any constitution? The fallacy is evident at a glance. Nine
millions of people can afford to wait for some overt act. Let us not
follow the precipitate course which the ultra politicians indicate.
Let W. L. Yancey urge his treasonable policy of firing the Southern
heart and precipitating a revolution; but let us follow no such
wicked advice. Let us follow the things which make for peace.
We are often told that the North will not return fugitive slaves. Will
secession remedy this grievance? Will secession give us any more slave
territory? No free government ever makes a treaty for the rendition of
fugitive slaves--thus recognising the rights of the citizens of a
foreign nation to a species of property which it denies to its own
citizens. Even little Mexico will not do it. Mexico and Canada return
no fugitives. In the event of secession, the United States would
return no fugitives, and our peculiar institution would, along our
vast border, become very insecure; we would hold our slaves by a very
slight tenure. Instead of extending the great Southern institution, it
would be contracting daily. Our slaves would be held to service at
their own option, throughout the whole border, and our gulf States
would soon become border States; and the great insecurity of this
species of property would work, before twenty years, the extinction
of slavery, and, in consequence, the ruin of the South. Are we
prepared for such a result? Are we prepared for civil war? Are we
prepared for all the evils attendant upon a fratricidal contest--for
bloodshed, famine, and political and moral desolation? I reply, we are
not; therefore let us look before we leap, and avoiding the heresy of
secession--
"Rather bear the ills we have,
Than fly to others that we know not of."
A secession speaker was introduced, and thus addressed the people:
LADIES AND GENTLEMEN--FELLOW-CITIZENS--I am a secessionist out and
out; voted for Jeff Davis for Governor in 1850, when the same issue
was before the people; and I have always felt a grudge against the
_free state_ of Tishomingo for giving H. S. Foote, the Union
candidate, a majority so great as to elect him, and thus retain the
State in this accursed Union ten years longer. Who would be a
craven-hearted, cowardly, villanous submissionist? Lincoln, the
abominable, white-livered abolitionist, is President elect of the
United States; shall he be permitted to take his seat on Southern
soil? No, never! I will volunteer as one of thirty thousand, to
butcher the villain if ever he sets foot on slave territory. Secession
or submission! What patriot would hesitate for a moment which to
choose? No true son of Mississippi would brook the idea of submission
to the rule of the baboon Abe Lincoln--a fifth-rate lawyer, a
broken-down hack of a politician, a fanatic, an abolitionist. I, for
one, would prefer an hour of virtuous liberty to a whole eternity of
bondage under northern, Yankee, wooden-nutmeg rule. The halter is the
only argument that should be used against the submissionists, and I
predict that it will soon, very soon, be in force.
We have glorious news from Tallahatchie. Seven tory-submissionists
were hanged there in one day, and the so-called Union candidates,
having the wholesome dread of hemp before their eyes, are not
canvassing the county; therefore the heretical dogma of submission,
under any circumstances, disgraces not their county. Compromise! let
us have no such word in our vocabulary. Compromise with the Yankees,
after the election of Lincoln, is treason against the South; and still
its syren voice is listened to by the demagogue submissionists. We
should never have made any compromise, for in every case we
surrendered rights for the sake of peace. No concession of the scared
Yankees will now prevent secession. They now understand that the South
is in earnest, and in their alarm they are proposing to yield us much;
but the die is cast, the Rubicon is crossed, and our determination
shall ever be, No union with the flat-headed, nigger-stealing,
fanatical Yankees.
We are now threatened with internecine war. The Yankees are an
inferior race; they are cowardly in the extreme. They are descended
from the Puritan stock, who never bore rule in any nation. We, the
descendants of the Cavaliers, are the Patricians, they the Plebeians.
The Cavaliers have always been the rulers, the Puritans the ruled. The
dastardly Yankees will never fight us; but if they, in their
presumption and audacity, venture to attack us, let the war come--I
repeat it--let it come! The conflagration of their burning cities, the
desolation of their country, and the slaughter of their inhabitants,
will strike the nations of the earth dumb with astonishment, and serve
as a warning to future ages, that the slaveholding Cavaliers of the
sunny South are terrible in their vengeance. I am in favour of
immediate, independent, and eternal separation from the vile Union
which has so long oppressed us. After separation, I am in favour of
non-intercourse with the United States so long as time endures. We
will raise the tariff, to the point of prohibition, on all Yankee
manufactures, including wooden-nutmegs, wooden clocks, quack nostrums,
&c. We will drive back to their own inhospitable clime every Yankee
who dares to pollute our shores with his cloven feet. Go he must, and
if necessary, with the bloodhounds on his track. The scum of Europe
and the mudsills of Yankeedom shall never be permitted to advance a
step south of 36 deg. 30'. South of that latitude is ours--westward to
the Pacific. With my heart of hearts I hate a Yankee, and I will make
my children swear eternal hatred to the whole Yankee race. A mongrel
breed--Irish, Dutch, Puritans, Jews, free niggers, &c.--they scarce
deserve the notice of the descendants of the Huguenots, the old
Castilians, and the Cavaliers. Cursed be the day when the South
consented to this iniquitous league--the Federal Union--which has long
dimmed her nascent glory.
In battle, one southron is equivalent to ten northern hirelings; but I
regard it a waste of time to speak of Yankees--they deserve not our
attention. It matters not to us what they think of secession, and we
would not trespass upon your time and patience, were it not for the
tame, tory submissionists with which our country is cursed. A fearful
retribution is in waiting for the whole crew, if the war which they
predict, should come. Were they then to advocate the same views, I
would not give a fourpence for their lives. We would hang them
quicker than old Heath would hang a tory. Our Revolutionary fathers
set us a good example in their dealings with the tories. They sent
them to the shades infernal from the branches of the nearest tree. The
North has sent teachers and preachers amongst us, who have insidiously
infused the leaven of Abolitionism into the minds of their students
and parishioners; and this submissionist policy is a lower development
of the doctrine of Wendell Philips, Gerritt Smith, Horace Greely, and
others of that ilk. We have a genial clime, a soil of uncommon
fertility. We have free institutions, freedom for the white man,
bondage for the black man, as nature and nature's God designed. We
have fair women and brave men. The lines have truly fallen to us in
pleasant places. We have indeed a goodly heritage. The only evil we
can complain of is our bondage to the Yankees through the Federal
Union. Let us burst these shackles from our limbs, and we will be free
indeed.
Let all who desire complete and eternal emancipation from Yankee
thraldom, come to the polls on the ---- day of December, prepared not
to vote the cowardly submissionist ticket, but to vote the secession
ticket; and their children, and their children's children, will owe
them a debt of gratitude which they can never repay. The day of our
separation and vindication of States' rights, will be the happiest day
of our lives. Yankee domination will have ceased for ever, and the
haughty southron will spurn them from all association, both
governmental and social. So mote it be!
This address was received with great eclat.
On the next Sabbath after this meeting, I preached in the Poplar Creek
Presbyterian church, in Choctaw county, from Romans xiii. 1: "Let every
soul be subject unto the higher powers. For there is no power but of God:
the powers that be, are ordained of God."
Previous to the sermon a prayer was offered, of which the following is the
conclusion:
ALMIGHTY GOD--We would present our country, the United States of
America, before thee. When our political horizon is overcast with
clouds and darkness, when the strong-hearted are becoming fearful for
the permanence of our free institutions, and the prosperity, yea, the
very existence of our great Republic, we pray thee, O God, when flesh
and heart fail, when no human arm is able to save us from the fearful
vortex of disunion and revolution, that thou wouldst interpose and
save us. We confess our national sins, for we have, as a nation,
sinned grievously. We have been highly favoured, we have been greatly
prospered, and have taken our place amongst the leading powers of the
earth. A gospel-enlightened nation, our sins are therefore more
heinous in thy sight. They are sins of deep ingratitude and
presumption. We confess that drunkenness has abounded amongst all
classes of our citizens. Rulers and ruled have been alike guilty; and
because of its wide-spreading prevalence, and because our legislators
have enacted no sufficient laws for its suppression, it is a national
sin. Profanity abounds amongst us; Sabbath-breaking is rife; and we
have elevated unworthy men to high positions of honour and trust. We
are not, as a people, free from the crime of tyranny and oppression.
For these great and aggravated offences, we pray thee to give us
repentance and godly sorrow, and then, O God, avert the threatened and
imminent judgments which impend over our beloved country. Teach our
Senators wisdom. Grant them that wisdom which is able to make them
wise unto salvation; and grant also that wisdom which is profitable to
direct, so that they may steer the ship of State safely through the
troubled waters which seem ready to engulf it on every side. Lord,
hear us, and answer in mercy, for the sake of Jesus Christ our Lord.
Amen and Amen!
The following is a synopsis of my sermon:
Israel had been greatly favoured as a nation. No weapon formed against
them prospered, so long as they loved and served the Lord their God.
They were blessed in their basket and their store. They were set on
high above all the nations of the earth. * * * * When all Israel
assembled, ostensibly to make Rehoboam king, they were ripe for
rebellion. Jeroboam and other wicked men had fomented and cherished
the sparks of treason, till, on this occasion, it broke out into the
flame of open rebellion. The severity of Solomon's rule was the
pretext, but it was only a pretext, for during his reign the nation
prospered, grew rich and powerful. Jeroboam wished a disruption of the
kingdom, that he might bear rule; and although God permitted it as a
punishment for Israel's idolatry, yet he frowned upon the wicked men
who were instrumental in bringing this great evil upon his chosen
people.
The loyal division took the name of Judah, though composed of the two
tribes, Judah and Benjamin. The revolted ten tribes took the name of
their leading tribe, Ephraim. Ephraim continued to wax weaker and
weaker. Filled with envy against Judah, they often warred against that
loyal kingdom, until they themselves were greatly reduced. At last,
after various vicissitudes, the ten tribes were carried away, and
scattered and lost. We often hear of the lost ten tribes. What became
of them is a mystery. Their secession ended in their being blotted out
of existence, or lost amidst the heathen. God alone knows what did
become of them. They resisted the powers that be--the ordinance of
God--and received to themselves damnation and annihilation.
As God dealt with Israel, so will he deal with us. If we are exalted
by righteousness, we will prosper; if we, as the ten tribes, resist
the ordinance of God, we will perish. At this time, many are
advocating the course of the ten tribes. Secession is a word of
frequent occurrence. It is openly advocated by many. Nullification and
rebellion, secession and treason, are convertible terms, and no good
citizen will mention them with approval. Secession is resisting the
powers that be, and therefore it is a violation of God's command.
Where do we obtain the right of secession? Clearly not from the word
of God, which enjoins obedience to all that are in authority, to whom
we must be subject, not only for wrath, but also for conscience' sake.
The following scriptural argument for secession is often used, 1 Tim.
vi. 1--5. In these verses Paul was addressing believing servants, and
commanding them to absent themselves from the teaching of those who
taught not the doctrine which is according to godliness. In a former
epistle he had commanded Christians not to keep company with the
incestuous person who had his father's wife. He directed that they
should not keep company with any man who was called a brother, if he
were a fornicator, or covetous, or an idolator, or a railer, or a
drunkard, or an extortioner; with such a one no not to eat; but he
expressly declares that he does not allude to those who belong to the
above classes that have made no profession of religion. He does not
judge them that are without, for them that are without, God judgeth.
He afterwards exhorts that the church confirm their love toward the
incestuous person as he had repented of his wickedness. This direction
of the Apostle to believers to withdraw from a brother who walked
disorderly, till he had manifested proper repentance; and his
exhortation to believing servants to absent themselves from the
teachings of errorists, cannot logically be construed as a scriptural
argument in favour of secession. Were the President of the United
States an unbeliever, a profane swearer, a Sabbath-breaker, or a
drunkard, this fact would not, _per se_, give us the right to secede
or rebel against the government.
There is no provision made in the Constitution of the United States
for secession. The wisest statesmen, who made politics their study,
regarded secession as a political heresy, dangerous in its tendencies,
and destructive of all government in its practical application.
Mississippi, purchased from France with United States gold, fostered
by the nurturing care, and made prosperous by the wise administration
of the general government, proposes to secede. Her political status
would then be anomalous. Would her territory revert to France? Does
she propose to refund the purchase-money? Would she become a territory
under the jurisdiction of the United States Congress?
Henry Clay, the great statesman, Daniel Webster, the expounder of the
Constitution, General Jackson, George Washington, and a mighty host,
whose names would fill a volume, regarded secession as treason. One of
our smallest States, which swarmed with tories in the Revolution,
whose descendants still live, invented the doctrine of nullification,
the first treasonable step, which soon culminated in the advocacy of
secession. Why should we secede, and thus destroy the best, the
freest, and most prosperous government on the face of the earth? the
government which our patriot fathers fought and bled to secure. What
has Mississippi lost by the Union? I have resided seven years in this
State, and have an extensive personal acquaintance, and yet I know not
a single individual who has lost a slave through northern influence. I
have, it is true, known of some ten slaves who have run away, and have
not been found. They may have been aided in their escape to Canada by
northern and southern citizens, for there are many in the South who
have given aid and comfort to the fugitive; but the probability is
that they perished in the swamps, or were destroyed by the
bloodhounds.
The complaint is made that the North regards slavery as a moral,
social, and political evil, and that many of them denounce, in no
measured terms, both slavery and slaveholders. To be thus denounced is
regarded as a great grievance. Secession would not remedy this evil.
In order to cure it effectually, we must seize and gag all who thus
denounce our peculiar institution. We must also muzzle their press. As
this is impracticable, it would be well to come to this
conclusion:--If we are verily guilty of the evils charged upon us, let
us set about rectifying those evils; if not, the denunciations of
slanderers should not affect us so deeply. If our northern brethren
are honest in their convictions of the sin of slavery, as no doubt
many of them are, let us listen to their arguments without the dire
hostility so frequently manifested. They take the position that
slavery is opposed to the inalienable rights of the human race; that
it originated in piracy and robbery; that manifold cruelties and
barbarities are inflicted upon the defenceless slaves; that they are
debarred from intellectual culture by State laws, which send to the
penitentiary those who are guilty of instructing them; that they are
put upon the block and sold; parent and child, husband and wife being
separated, so that they never again see each other's face in the
flesh; that the law of chastity cannot be observed, as there are no
laws punishing rape on the person of a female slave; that when they
escape from the threatened cat-o'-nine-tails, or overseer's whip, they
are hunted down by bloodhounds, and bloodier men; that often they are
half-starved and half-clad, and are furnished with mere hovels to live
in; that they are often murdered by cruel overseers, who whip them to
death, or overtask them, until disease is induced, which results in
death; that masters practically ignore the marriage relation among
slaves, inasmuch as they frequently separate husband and wife, by sale
or removal; that they discourage the formation of that relation,
preferring that the offspring of their female slaves should be
illegitimate, from the mistaken notion that it would be more numerous.
They charge, also, that slavery induces in the masters, pride,
arrogance, tyranny, laziness, profligacy, and every form of vice.
The South takes the position, that if slavery is sinful, the North is
not responsible for that sin; that it is a State institution, and that
to interfere with slavery in the States in any way, even by censure,
is a violation of the rights of the States. The language of our
politicians is, Upon us and our children rest the evil! We are willing
to take the responsibility, and to risk the penalty! You will find
evil and misery enough in the North to excite your philanthropy, and
employ your beneficence. You have purchased our cotton; you have used
our sugar; you have eaten our rice; you have smoked and chewed our
tobacco--all of which are the products of slave-labour. You have grown
rich by traffic in these articles; you have monopolized the carrying
trade, and borne our slave-produced products to your shores. Your
northern ships, manned by northern men, brought from Africa the
greater part of the slaves which came to our continent, and they are
still smuggling them in. When, finding slavery unprofitable, the
northern States passed laws for gradual emancipation, but few obtained
their freedom, the majority of them being shipped South and sold, so
that but few, comparatively, were manumitted. If the slave trade and
slavery are great sins, the North is _particeps criminis_, and has
been from the beginning.
These bitter accusations are hurled back and forth through the
newspapers; and in Congress, crimination and recrimination occur every
day of the session. Instead of endeavouring to calm the troubled
waters, politicians are striving to render them turbid and boisterous.
Sectional bitterness and animosity prevail to a fearful extent; but
secession is not the proper remedy. To cure one evil by perpetrating a
greater, renders a double cure necessary. In order to cure a disease,
the cause should be known, that we may treat it intelligently, and
apply a proper remedy. Having observed, during the last eleven years,
that sectional strife and bitterness were increasing with fearful
rapidity, I have endeavoured to stem the torrent, so far as it was
possible for individual effort to do so. I deem it the imperative duty
of all patriots, of all Christians, to throw oil upon the troubled
waters, and thus save the ship of State from wreck among the
vertiginous billows.
Most of our politicians are demagogues. They care not for the people,
so that they accomplish their own selfish and ambitious schemes. Give
them power, give them money, and they are satisfied. Deprive them of
these, and they are ready to sacrifice the best interests of the
nation to secure them. They excite sectional animosity and party
strife, and are willing to kindle the flames of civil war to
accomplish their unhallowed purposes. They tell us that there is a
conflict of interest between the free and slave States, and endeavour
to precipitate a revolution, that they may be leaders, and obtain
positions of trust and profit in the new government which they hope
to establish. The people would be dupes indeed to abet these wicked
demagogues in their nefarious designs. Let us not break God's command,
by resisting the ordinance of God--the powers that be. I am not
discussing the right of revolution, which I deem a sacred right. When
human rights are invaded, when life is endangered, when liberty is
taken away, when we are not left free to pursue our own happiness in
our own chosen way--so far as we do not trespass upon the rights of
others--we have a right, and it becomes our imperative duty to resist
to the bitter end, the tyranny which would deprive us and our children
of our inalienable rights. Our lives are secure; we have freedom to
worship God. Our liberty is sacred; we may pursue happiness to our
hearts' content. We do not even charge upon the general Government
that it has infringed these rights. Whose life has been endangered, or
who has lost his liberty by the action of the Government? If that man
lives, in all this fair domain of ours, he has the right to complain.
But neither you nor I have ever heard of or seen the individual who
has thus suffered. We have therefore clearly no right of revolution.
Treason is no light offence. God, who rules the nations, and who has
established governments, will punish severely those who attempt to
overthrow them. Damnation is stated to be the punishment which those
who resist the powers that be, will suffer. Who wishes to endure it? I
hope none of my charge will incur this penalty by the perpetration of
treason. You yourselves can bear me witness that I have not heretofore
introduced political issues into the pulpit, but at this time I could
not acquit my conscience were I not to warn you against the great sin
some of you, I fear, are ready to commit.
Were I to discuss the policy of a high or low tariff, or descant upon
the various merits attached to one or another form of banking, I
should be justly obnoxious to censure. Politics and religion, however,
are not always separate. When the political issue is made, shall we,
or shall we not, grant license to sell intoxicating liquors as a
beverage? the minister's duty is plain; he must urge his people to use
their influence against granting any such license. The minister must
enforce every moral and religious obligation, and point out the path
of truth and duty, even though the principles he advocates are by
statesmen introduced into the arena of political strife, and made
issues by the great parties of the day. I see the sword coming, and
would be derelict in duty not to give you faithful warning. I must
reveal the whole counsel of God. I have a message from God unto you,
which I must deliver, whether you will hear, or whether you will
forbear. If the sword come, and you perish, I shall then be guiltless
of your blood. As to the great question at issue, my honest conviction
is (and I think I have the Spirit of God,) that you should with your
whole heart, and soul, and mind, and strength, oppose secession. You
should talk against it, you should write against it, you should vote
against it, and, if need be, you should fight against it.
I have now declared what I believe to be your high duty in this
emergency. Do not destroy the government which has so long protected
you, and which has never in a single instance oppressed you. Pull not
down the fair fabric which our patriot fathers reared at vast expense
of blood and treasure. Do not, like the blind Samson, pull down the
pillars of our glorious edifice, and cause death, desolation, and
ruin. Perish the hand that would thus destroy the source of all our
political prosperity and happiness. Let the parricide who attempts it
receive the just retribution which a loyal people demand, even his
execution on a gallows, high as Haman's. Let us also set about
rectifying the causes which threaten the overthrow of our government.
As we are proud, let us pray for the grace of humility. As a State,
and as individuals, we too lightly regard its most solemn obligations;
let us, therefore, pray for the grace of repentance and godly sorrow,
and hereafter in this respect sin no more. As many transgressions have
been committed by us, let the time past of our lives suffice us to
have wrought the will of the flesh, and now let us break off our sins
by righteousness, and our transgressions by turning unto the Lord, and
he will avert his threatened judgments, and save us from dissolution,
anarchy, and desolation.
If our souls are filled with hatred against the people of any section
of our common country, let us ask from the Great Giver the grace of
charity, which suffereth long and is kind, which envieth not, which
vaunteth not itself, is not puffed up, does not behave itself
unseemly, seeketh not her own, is not easily provoked, thinketh no
evil; rejoiceth not in iniquity, but rejoiceth in the truth; beareth
all things, believeth all things, hopeth all things, endureth all
things, and which never faileth; then shall we be in a suitable frame
for an amicable adjustment of every difficulty; oil will soon be
thrown upon the troubled waters, and peace, harmony, and prosperity
would ever attend us; and our children, and our children's children
will rejoice in the possession of a beneficent and stable government,
securing to them all the natural and inalienable rights of man.