FROM THE BALLOT TO THE BULLET
The secret circular of Governor Gist, of South Carolina, heretofore
quoted, inaugurated the great American Rebellion a full month before a
single ballot had been cast for Abraham Lincoln. This was but
repeating in a bolder form the action taken by Governor Wise, of
Virginia, during the Frémont campaign four years before. But, instead,
as in that case, of confining himself to a proposed consultation among
slave-State executives, Governor Gist proceeded almost immediately to
a public and official revolutionary act.
On the 12th of October, 1860, he issued his proclamation convening the
Legislature of South Carolina in extra session, "to appoint electors
of President and Vice-President ... and also that they may, if
advisable, take action for the safety and protection of the State."
There was no external peril menacing either the commonwealth or its
humblest citizen; but the significance of the phrase was soon
apparent.
[Sidenote] South Carolina "House Journal," Called Session, 1860,
pp. 10, 11.
A caucus of prominent South Carolina leaders is said to have been held
on October 25, at the residence of Senator Hammond. Their
deliberations remained secret, but the determination arrived at
appears clearly enough in the official action of Governor Gist, who
was present, and who doubtless carried out the plans of the
assemblage. When the Legislature met on November 5 (the day before the
Presidential election) the Governor sent them his opening message,
advocating both secession and insurrection, in direct and undisguised
language. He recommended that in the event of Lincoln's election, a
convention should be immediately called; that the State should secede
from the Federal Union; and "if in the exercise of arbitrary power and
forgetful of the lessons of history, the Government of the United
States should attempt coercion, it will be our solemn duty to meet
force by force." To this end he recommended a reorganization of the
militia and the raising and drilling an army of ten thousand
volunteers. He placed the prospects of such a revolution in a most
hopeful and encouraging light. "The indications from many of the
Southern States," said he, "justify the conclusion that the secession
of South Carolina will be immediately followed, if not adopted
simultaneously, by them, and ultimately by the entire South. The
long-desired coöperation of the other States having similar
institutions, for which the State has been waiting, seems to be near
at hand; and, if we are true to ourselves, will soon be realized."
Governor Gist's justification of this movement as attempted was (in
his own language) "the strong probability of the election to the
Presidency of a sectional candidate by a party committed to the
support of measures, which if carried out will inevitably destroy our
equality in the Union, and ultimately reduce the Southern States to
mere provinces of a consolidated despotism to be governed by a fixed
majority in Congress hostile to our institutions."
This campaign declamation, used throughout the whole South with great
skill and success, to "fire the Southern heart," was wholly defective
as a serious argument.
As to the alleged destruction of equality, the North proposed to deny
to the slave-States no single right claimed by the free-States. The
talk about "provinces of a consolidated despotism to be governed by a
fixed majority" was, in itself an absurd contradiction in terms, which
repudiated the fundamental idea of republican government. The
acknowledgment that any danger from anti-slavery "measures" was only
in the future, negatived its validity as a present grievance.
Hostility to "our institutions" was expressly disavowed by full
constitutional recognition of slavery under State authority. The
charge of "sectionalism" came with a bad grace from a State whose
newspapers boasted that none but the Breckinridge ticket was tolerated
within her borders, and whose elsewhere obsolete "institution" of
choosing Presidential electors by the Legislature instead of by the
people, combined with such a dwarfed and crippled public sentiment,
made it practically impossible for a single vote to be cast for either
Lincoln or Douglas or Bell--a condition mathematically four times as
"sectional" as that of any State of the North.
Finally, the avowed determination to secede because a Presidential
election was about to be legally gained by one of the three opposing
parties, after she had freely and fully joined in the contest, was an
indulgence of caprice utterly incompatible with any form of government
whatever.
There is no need here to enter upon a discussion of the many causes
which, had given to the public opinion of South Carolina so radical
and determined a tone in favor of disunion. Maintaining persistence,
and gradually gathering strength almost continuously since the
nullification furor of 1832, it had become something more than a
sentiment among its devotees: it had grown into a species of cult or
party religion, for the existence of which no better reason can be
assigned than that it sprang from a blind hero-worship locally
accorded to John C. Calhoun, one of the prominent figures of American
political history. As representative in Congress, Secretary of War
under President Monroe, Vice-President of the United States under
President John Quincy Adams, for many years United States Senator from
South Carolina, and the radical champion of States Rights,
Nullification, and Slavery, his brilliant fame was the pride, but his
false theories became the ruin, of his State and section.
[Sidenote] South Carolina "House Journal," Called Session, 1860,
pp. 16, 17.
Governor Gist and his secession coadjutors had evidently still a
lingering hope that the election might by some unforeseen contingency
result in the choice of Breckinridge. On no other hypothesis can we
account for the fact that on the 6th of November, when Northern
ballots were falling in such an ample shower for Lincoln, the South
Carolina Legislature, with due decorum and statute regularity,
appointed Presidential electors for the State, and formally instructed
them to vote for Breckinridge and Lane. The dawn of November 7
dispelled these hopes. The "strong probability" had become a stubborn
fact.
When the certain news of Lincoln's election finally came, it was
hailed with joy and acclamation by both the leaders and the people of
South Carolina. They had at length their much coveted pretext for
disunion; and they now put into the enterprise a degree of
earnestness, frankness, courage, and persistency worthy of a better
cause. Public opinion, so long prepared, responded with enthusiasm to
the plans and calls of the leaders. Manifestations of disloyalty
became universal. Political clubs were transformed into military
companies. Drill-rooms and armories were alive with nightly meetings.
Sermons, agricultural addresses, and speeches at railroad banquets
were only so many secession harangues. The State became filled with
volunteer organizations of "minute men."
The Legislature, remaining in extra session, and cheered and urged on
by repeated popular demonstrations and the inflamed speeches of the
highest State officials, proceeded without delay to carry out the
Governor's programme. In fact, the members needed no great incitement.
They had been freshly chosen within the preceding month; many of them
on the well-understood "resistance" issue. Their election took place
on the 8th and 9th days of October, 1860. Since there was but one
party in South Carolina, there could be no party drill; but a
tyrannical and intolerant public sentiment usurped its place and
functions. On the sixteen different tickets paraded in one of the
Charleston newspapers, the names of the most pronounced disunionists
were the most frequent and conspicuous. "Southern rights at all
hazards," was the substance of many mottoes, and the palmetto and the
rattlesnake were favorite emblems. There was neither mistaking nor
avoiding the strong undercurrent of treason and rebellion here
manifested, and the Governor's proclamation had doubtless been largely
based upon it.
[Sidenote] South Carolina, "House Journal," Called Session, 1860,
pp. 13, 14.
The first day's session of the Legislature (November 5) developed one
of the important preparatory steps of the long-expected revolution.
The Legislature of 1859 had appropriated a military contingent fund of
one hundred thousand dollars, "to be drawn and accounted for as
directed by the Legislature." The appropriation had been allowed to
remain untouched. It was now proposed to place this sum at the control
of the Governor to be expended in obtaining improved small arms, in
purchasing a field battery of rifled cannon, in providing
accouterments, and in furnishing an additional supply of tents; and a
resolution to that effect was passed two days later, The chief measure
of the session, however, was a bill to provide for calling the
proposed State Convention, which it was well understood would adopt an
ordinance of secession. There was scarcely a ripple of opposition to
this measure. One or two members still pleaded for delay, to secure
the coöperation of Georgia, but dared not record a vote against the
prevailing mania. The chairman of the proper committee on November 10
reported an act calling a convention "for the purpose of taking into
consideration the dangers incident to the position of the State in the
Federal Union," which unanimously became a law November 13, and the
extra session adjourned to meet again in regular annual session on the
26th.
Meanwhile public excitement had been kept at fever heat by all manner
of popular demonstrations. The two United States Senators and the
principal Federal officials resigned their offices with a public
flourish of their insubordinate zeal. An enthusiastic ratification
meeting was given to the returning members of the Legislature. To give
still further emphasis to the general movement a grand mass meeting
was held at Charleston on the 17th of November. The streets were
filled with the excited multitude. Gaily dressed ladies crowded
balconies and windows, and zealous mothers decorated their children
with revolutionary badges. There was a brisk trade in fire-arms and
gunpowder. The leading merchants and prominent men of the city came
forth and seated themselves on platforms to witness and countenance a
formal ceremony of insurrection. A white flag, bearing a palmetto tree
and the legend _Animis opibusque parati_ (one of the mottoes on the
State seal), was, after solemn prayer, displayed from a pole of
Carolina pine. Music, salutes, and huzzahs filled the air. Speeches
were addressed to "citizens of the Southern Republic." Orations and
processions completed the day, and illuminations and bonfires occupied
the night. The preparations were without stint. The proceedings and
ceremonies were conducted with spirit and abandon. The rejoicings were
deep and earnest. And yet there was a skeleton at the feast; the
Federal flag, invisible among the city banners, and absent from the
gay bunting and decorations of the harbor shipping, still floated far
down the bay over a faithful commander and loyal garrison in Fort
Moultrie.