"Directly after Major Anderson's removal to Fort Sumter, the

Federal arsenal in Charleston, containing many thousand stand

of arms and a considerable quantity of military stores, was

seized by the volunteers, now flocking to that city by

direction of the State authorities; Castle Pinckney, Fort

Moultrie, and Sullivan's Island were likewise occupied by

them, and their defenses vigorously enlarged and improved. The

Custom-House, Post-Office, etc., were likewise appropriated,

without resistance or commotion. … Georgia having given

[January 2, 1861] a large popular majority for Secession, her

authorities immediately took military possession of the

Federal arsenal at Augusta, as also of Forts Pulaski and

Jackson, commanding the approaches by sea to Savannah. North

Carolina had not voted to secede, yet Governor Ellis

simultaneously seized the United States Arsenal at

Fayetteville, with Fort Macon, and other fortifications

commanding the approaches to Beaufort and Wilmington. Having

done so, Governor Ellis coolly wrote to the War Department

that he had taken the step to preserve the forts from seizure

by mobs! In Alabama, the Federal arsenal at Mobile was seized

on the 4th, by order of Governor Moore. It contained large

quantities of arms and munitions. Fort Morgan, commanding the

approaches to Mobile, was likewise seized, and garrisoned by

State troops. … In Louisiana, the Federal arsenal at Baton

Rouge was seized by order of Governor Moore on the 11th. Forts

Jackson and St. Philip, commanding the passage up the

Mississippi to New Orleans, and Fort Pike, at the entrance of

Lake Pontchartrain, were likewise seized and garrisoned by

State troops. The Federal Mint and Custom-House at New Orleans

were left untouched until February 1st, when they, too, were

taken possession of by the State authorities. … In Florida,

Fort Barrancas and the Navy Yard at Pensacola were seized by

Florida and Alabama forces on the 13th; Commander Armstrong

surrendering them without a struggle. He ordered Lieutenant

Slemmer, likewise, to surrender Forts Pickens and McRae; but

the intrepid subordinate defied the order, and, withdrawing

his small force from Fort McRae to the stronger and less

accessible Fort Pickens, announced his determination to hold

out to the last. He was soon after besieged therein by a

formidable volunteer force; and a dispatch from Pensacola

announced that 'Fort McRae is being occupied and the guns

manned by the allied forces of Florida, Alabama, and

Mississippi.' … The revenue cutter Cass, stationed at Mobile,

was turned over by Captain J. J. Morrison to the authorities

of Alabama at the end of January.

{3413}

The McClellan, Captain Breshwood, stationed on the Mississippi

below New Orleans, was, in like manner, handed over to those

of Louisiana. General Dix had sent down a special agent to

secure them, but he was too late. The telegraph dispatch

whereby General Dix directed him, 'If any person' attempts to

haul down the American flag, shoot him on the spot,' sent an

electric thrill through the loyal heart of the country.

Finally, tidings reached Washington, about the end of

February, that Brigadier-General Twiggs, commanding the

department of Texas, had disgracefully betrayed his trust, and

turned over his entire army, with all the posts and

fortifications, arms, munitions, horses, equipments, etc., to

General Ben. M'Culloch, representing the authorities of Texas,

now fully launched upon the rushing tide of treason. The Union

lost by that single act at least half its military force, with

the State of Texas, and the control of our Mexican frontier. …

The defensive fortifications located within the seceding

States were some 30 in number, mounting over 3,000 guns, and

having cost at least $20,000,000. Nearly all these had been

seized and appropriated by the Confederates before Mr.

Lincoln's inauguration, with the exception of Fortress Monroe

(Virginia), Fort Sumter (South Carolina), Fort Pickens

(Florida), and the fortresses on Key West and the Tortugas,

off the Florida coast."

_H. Greeley,

The American Conflict,

volume 1, chapter 26._

ALSO IN:

_Official Records of the War of the Rebellion,

series 1, volume 1._

UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1861 (January-February).

Secession of Georgia, Mississippi, Florida, Louisiana,

Alabama, and Texas.

Opposition of Alexander H. Stephens, in Georgia.

"On the 9th day of January, 1861, the State of Mississippi

seceded from the Union. Alabama and Florida followed on the

11th day of the same month; Georgia on the 20th; Louisiana on

the 26th; and Texas on the 1st of February. Thus, in less than

three mouths after the announcement of Lincoln's election, all

the Cotton States … had seceded from the Union, and had,

besides, secured every Federal fort within their limits,

except the forts in Charleston harbor, and Fort Pickens, below

Pensacola, which were retained by United States troops."

_E. A. Pollard,

The First Year of the War,

chapter 1._

The secession of Georgia was powerfully but vainly opposed by

the foremost citizen of that state, Alexander H. Stephens,

whose speech before the Legislature of Georgia, in protest

against the disruption of the Union, had been one of the

notable utterances of the time. "Shall the people of the

South," asked Mr. Stephens, "secede from the Union in

consequence of the election of Mr. Lincoln to the Presidency

of the United States? My countrymen, I tell you frankly,

candidly, and earnestly, that I do not think that they ought.

In my judgment, the election of no man, constitutionally

chosen to that high office, is sufficient cause for any State

to separate from the Union. It ought to stand by and aid still

in maintaining the constitution of the country. To make a

point of resistance to the government, to withdraw from it

because a man has been constitutionally elected, puts us in

the wrong. We are pledged to maintain the constitution. Many

of us have sworn to support it. Can we, therefore, for the

mere election of a man to the presidency, and that, too, in

accordance with the prescribed forms of the constitution, make

a point of resistance to the government, without becoming the

breakers of that sacred instrument ourselves, by withdrawing

ourselves from it? Would we not be in the wrong? Whatever fate

is to befall this country, let it never be laid to the charge

of the people of the South, and especially to the people of

Georgia, that we were untrue to our national engagements. Let

the fault and the wrong rest upon others. … Let the fanatics

of the North break the constitution, if such is their fell

purpose. Let the responsibility be upon them. … We went into

the election with this people. The result was different from

what we wished; but the election has been constitutionally

held. Were we to make a point of resistance to the government

and go out of the Union on that account, the record would be

made up hereafter against us. But it is said Mr. Lincoln's

policy and principles are against the constitution, and that,

if he carries them out, it will be destructive of our rights.

Let us not anticipate a threatened evil. If he violates the

constitution, then will come our time to act. Do not let us

break it because, forsooth, he may. If he does, that is the

time for us to strike. I think it would be injudicious and

unwise to do this sooner. I do not anticipate that Mr. Lincoln

will do anything to jeopard our safety or security, whatever

may be his spirit to do it; for he is bound by the

constitutional checks which are thrown around him, which at

this time render him powerless to do any great mischief. This

shows the wisdom of our system. The President of the United

States is no emperor, no dictator—he is clothed with no

absolute power. He can do nothing unless he is backed by power

in Congress. The House of Representatives is largely in a

majority against him. In the very face and teeth of the heavy

majority which he has obtained in the northern States, there

have been large gains in the House of Representatives to the

conservative constitutional party of the country, which here I

will call the national democratic party, because that is the

cognomen it has at the North. … Is this the time, then, to

apprehend that Mr. Lincoln, with this large majority in the

House of Representatives against him, can carry out any of his

unconstitutional principles in that body? In the Senate he

will also be powerless. There will be a majority of four

against him. … Mr. Lincoln cannot appoint an officer without

the consent of the Senate—he cannot form a cabinet without the

same consent. He will be in the condition of George the Third

(the embodiment of toryism), who had to ask the whigs to

appoint his ministers, and was compelled to receive a cabinet

utterly opposed to his views; and so Mr. Lincoln will be

compelled to ask of the Senate to choose for him a cabinet, if

the democracy of that party chose to put him on such terms. He

will be compelled to do this, or let the government stop, if

the national democratic men (for that is their name at the

North), the conservative men in the Senate, should so

determine. Then how can Mr. Lincoln obtain a cabinet which

would aid him, or allow him to violate the constitution? Why

then, I say, should we disrupt the ties of this Union when his

hands are tied—when he can do nothing against us?"

_A. H. Stephens,

Speech against Secession, November 14, 1860

(in "Alexander H. Stephens in Public and Private;

by H. Cleveland")._

{3414}

But when Georgia, despite his exertions, was drawn into the

movement of rebellion, Mr. Stephens surrendered to it, and

lent his voice to the undertaking which he had proved to be

without excuse.

See UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1861 (MARCH).

UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1861 (February).

The Peace Convention.

"The General Assembly of Virginia, on the 19th of January,

adopted resolutions inviting representatives of the several

States to assemble in a Peace Convention at Washington, which

met on the 4th of February. It was composed of 133

Commissioners, many from the border States, and the object of

these was to prevail upon their associates from the North to

unite with them in such recommendations to Congress as would

prevent their own States from seceding and enable them to

bring back six of the cotton States which had already

seceded." On the 15th of February a committee of the

Convention reported certain proposed amendments to the

Constitution which "were substantially the same with the

Crittenden Compromise;

See UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1860 (DECEMBER)

VAIN CONCESSIONS;

but on motion of Mr. Johnson, of Maryland, the general terms

of the first and by far the most important section were

restricted to the present Territories of the United States. On

motion of Mr. Franklin, of Pennsylvania, this section was

further amended, but not materially changed, by the adoption

of the substitute offered by him. Nearly in this form it was

afterwards adopted by the Convention. The following is a copy:

'In all the present territory of the United States north of

the parallel of thirty-six degrees and thirty minutes of north

latitude, involuntary servitude, except in punishment of

crime, is prohibited. In all the present territory south of

that line, the status of persons held to involuntary service

or labor, as it now exists, shall not be changed; nor shall

any law be passed by Congress or the Territorial Legislature

to prevent the taking of such persons from any of the States

of this Union to said territory, nor to impair the rights

arising from said relation; but the same shall be subject to

judicial cognizance in the Federal courts, according to the

course of the common law. When any Territory north or south of

said line, within such boundary as Congress may prescribe,

shall contain a population equal to that required for a member

of Congress, it shall, if its form of government be

republican, be admitted into the Union on an equal footing

with the original States, with or without involuntary

servitude, as the Constitution of such State may provide.'…

More than ten days were consumed in discussion and in voting

upon various propositions offered by individual commissioners.

The final vote was not reached until Tuesday, the 26th

February, when it was taken on the first vitally important

section, as amended. This section, on which all the rest

depended, was negatived by a vote of eight States to eleven.

Those which voted in its favor were Delaware, Kentucky,

Maryland, New Jersey, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, and

Tennessee. And those in the negative were Connecticut,

Illinois, Iowa, Maine, Massachusetts, Missouri, New York,

North Carolina, New Hampshire, Vermont, and Virginia." A

reconsideration of the vote was moved, however, and on the day

following (February 27), "the first section was adopted, but

only by a majority of nine to eight States, nine being less

than a majority of the States represented. … From the nature

of this vote, it was manifestly impossible that two-thirds of

both Houses of Congress should act favorably on the amendment,

even if the delay had not already rendered such action

impracticable before the close of the session. The remaining

sections of the amendment were carried by small majorities,"

and the proposed amendment of the Constitution was reported to

Congress, with a request that it be submitted to the

Legislatures of the States, but no action upon it was taken.

_T. V. Cooper,

American Politics,

pages 106-108._

"Most of the Southerners thought these propositions worse than

nothing. Hunter preferred the present position under the

constitution, with the Dred Scott decision as its exposition.

Mason, the other Senator from the state that had issued the

call for the Peace Convention, said that he would consider

himself a traitor if he should recommend such propositions.

Wigfall of Texas, however, bore off the palm by saying: 'If

those resolutions were adopted, and ratified by three-fourths

of the states of this Union, and no other cause ever existed,

I make the assertion that the seven states now out of the

Union would go out upon that.' Many of the Republicans were

equally strong in their opposition to them. Chandler of

Michigan spoke the substance of the opinions of several on his

side of the Senate when he expressed himself in the language

of the 'stump' by saying: 'No concession, no compromise,—ay,

give us strife, even to blood,—before a yielding to the

demands of traitorous insolence.' … John Tyler, the president

of the convention that passed them, and Seddon returned to

their state and denounced the recommendations of the Peace

Convention as a delusion, a sham and an insult to the South. …

Hawkins of Florida told the House, when the question was first

touched upon, that the day of compromise was past and that he

and his state were opposed to all and every compromise. Pugh

and Clopton of Alabama both spoke boldly for secession and

against any temporizing policy. Congress had been in session

but ten days, and neither of the committees on compromise had

had time to report, when a large number of the members of

Congress from the extreme Southern States issued a manifesto

declaring that 'argument was exhausted' and that 'the sole and

primary aim of each slaveholding state ought to be its speedy

and absolute separation from an unnatural and hostile Union.'

… The boldness of these facts is startling, even when viewed

at this distance. They make it perfectly evident that it was

not the constitution which the South was desirous of saving,

but the institution of slavery which she was determined to

preserve. Likewise on the Northern side we find that those who

were courageous, logical, and intellectually vigorous in

political speculation considered the constitution of less

importance than the development of their ideas of freedom.

These people were called Abolitionists. Although their

political strength was not great, some one of their many ideas

found sympathy in the mind of almost every Northerner of

education or of clear moral intentions. This explains how John

A. Andrew could be elected governor of Massachusetts, although

known to have presided over a John Brown meeting.

{3415}

The purpose of the Abolitionists was 'the utter extermination

of slavery wheresoever it may exist.' Wendell Phillips

surprised very few Abolitionists when, knowing that the

Confederacy was forming, he rejoiced that 'the covenant with

death' was annulled and 'the agreement with hell' was broken

in pieces, and exclaimed: 'Union or no Union, constitution or

no constitution, freedom for every man between the oceans, and

from the hot Gulf to the frozen pole! You may as well dam up

Niagara with bulrushes as bind our anti-slavery purpose with

Congressional compromise.' Congress had to consider such facts

as these, as well as the compromises which were proposed.

Stephen A. Douglas felt compelled to say, as early as January,

1861, that there were Democrats in the Senate who did not want

a settlement. And it was plain to all that most of the

Republicans discouraged further concessions. Nor would a

constitutional amendment have been possible unless the

Northern members had first recognized the seven states as

being out of the Union, for it would otherwise have required

the support of all but one of the states that were still

active. That the 'personal liberty' laws were a violation of

the constitution, and that the execution of the fugitive slave

law of 1850 had been unconstitutionally obstructed, were

unquestioned facts, directly or indirectly recognized by many

of the Republican leaders. Nevertheless, the North was much

more inclined to continue in this unconstitutional position

than to yield to the demands of the South."

_F. Bancroft,

The Final Efforts at Compromise

(Political Science Quarterly, September, 1891)._

ALSO IN:

_H. A. Wise,

Seven Decades of the Union,

chapter 15._

_L. G. Tyler,

Letters and Times of the Tylers,

volume 2, chapter 20._

_L. E. Chittenden,

Report of Debates and Proceedings in Secret Session

of the Conference Convention, Washington, 1861._

UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1861 (February).

Adoption of a Constitution for

"The Confederate States of America."

Election of a President and Vice President.

"Early in February, 1861, a convention of six seceding states,

South Carolina, Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana,

Florida, was held at Montgomery, Alabama. They were

represented by 42 persons. Measures were taken for the

formation of a provisional government. After the vote on the

provisional Constitution was taken, Jefferson Davis was

elected President, and Alexander H. Stephens Vice-President of

the Confederacy for the current year. The inauguration of Mr.

Davis took place on February 18th. Both were shortly after

re-elected permanently for six years. … The permanent

Constitution adopted for 'The Confederate States of America,'

the title now assumed, was modeled substantially on that of

the United States. It was remarked that, after all, the old

Constitution was the most suitable basis for the new

Confederacy. Among points of difference must be noticed that

the new instrument broadly recognized, even in its preamble,

the contested doctrine of state-rights. … Inducements and

threats were applied to draw Virginia and the other Border

States into the Confederacy. … With an ominous monition, the

second article reads, 'Congress shall … have power to prohibit

the introduction of slaves from any state not a member of this

Confederacy.' At this time Virginia was receiving an annual

income of $12,000,000 from the sale of slaves. In 1860 12,000

slaves were sent over her railroads to the South and

Southwest. One thousand dollars for each was considered a low

estimate. Notwithstanding this, the Ordinance of Secession did

not pass the Virginia Convention until some weeks subsequently

(April 17)."

_J. W. Draper,

History of the American Civil War,

chapter 32 (volume 1)._

The preamble of the Constitution declared that "the people of

the Confederate States, each State acting in its sovereign and

independent character, invoking the favor and guidance of

Almighty God, ordained a Constitution to form a permanent

Federal Government and for other purposes. The change in

phraseology was obviously to assert the derivative character

of the Federal Government and to exclude the conclusion which

Webster and others had sought to draw from the phrase, 'We,

the people of the United States.' In the Executive department,

the Constitution provided, in accordance with the early

agreement of the Convention of 1787, that the President should

be elected for six years and be ineligible. A seat upon the

floor of either House of Congress might be granted to the

principal officer in each of the Executive departments with

the privilege of discussing any measures appertaining to his

department. The President was empowered to remove at pleasure

the principal officer in each of the Executive departments and

all persons connected with the diplomatic service. To give

entire control of Cabinet officers and of foreign ministers

was considered to be necessary for the proper discharge of the

President's duties and for the independence of his department.

All other civil officers could be removed when their services

were unnecessary, or for dishonesty, inefficiency, misconduct,

or neglect of duty, but the removals in such cases, with the

reasons therefor, were to be reported to the Senate, and no

person rejected by the Senate could be reappointed to the same

office during the recess of the Senate. The President was

empowered, while approving portions of an appropriation bill,

to disapprove particular items, as in other like cases of

veto, the object being to defeat log-rolling combinations

against the Treasury. Admitting members of the Cabinet to

seats upon the floor of Congress with right of discussion

(which worked well during the brief life of the Confederacy),

was intended to secure greater facility of communication

betwixt the Executive and the Legislative departments and

enforce upon the heads of the departments more direct personal

responsibility. By ineligibility of the President and

restriction of the power of removal, the Congress, acting as a

convention, sought to secure greater devotion to public

interests, freedom from the corrupting influences of Executive

patronage, and to break up the iniquitous spoils system which

is such a peril to the purity and perpetuity of our

Government. The Judicial department was permitted to remain

substantially as it was in the old Government. The only

changes were to authorize a tribunal for the investigation of

claims against the Government, the withholding from the

Federal Courts jurisdiction of suits between citizens of

different States, and the enactment of a wise provision that

any judicial or other Federal officer, resident and acting

solely within the limits of any State, might be impeached by a

vote of two thirds of both branches of the Legislature

thereof.

{3416}

The provisions in reference to the election of Senators and

Representatives and the powers and duties of each House were

unaltered except that the electors of each State were required

to be citizens, and the Senators were to be chosen by the

Legislatures of the State at the session next immediately

preceding the beginning of the term of service. In reference

to the general powers of Congress, some of the changes were

more vital. The general welfare clause was omitted from the

taxing grant. Bounties from the Treasury and extra

compensation to contractors, officers, and agents were

prohibited. 'A Protective Tariff' was so far forbidden that no

duties or taxes on importations could be laid to promote or

foster any branch of industry. Export duties were allowed with

the concurrence of two thirds of both Houses. Congress was

forbidden to make internal improvements except to furnish

lights, beacons, buoys, to improve harbors, and to remove

obstructions in river navigation, and the cost of these was to

be paid by duties levied on the navigation facilitated. That

the objects might be better attained, States, with the consent

of Congress and under certain other restrictions, were allowed

to lay a duty on the sea-going tonnage participating in the

trades of the river or harbor improved. States, divided by

rivers, or through which rivers flowed, could enter into

compacts for improving their navigation. Uniform laws of

naturalization and bankruptcy were authorized, but bankruptcy

could not affect debts contracted prior to the passage of the

law. A two-thirds vote was made requisite to appropriate money

unless asked and estimated for by some one of the heads of the

departments. Every law must relate but to one subject, and

that was to be expressed in the title. To admit new States

required a vote of two thirds of each House, the Senate voting

by States. Upon the demand of any three States, legally

assembled in their several conventions, Congress could summon

a convention to consider amendments to the Constitution, but

the convention was confined in its action to propositions

suggested by the States making the call. … 'The importation of

negroes of the African race was forbidden, and Congress was

required to pass laws effectually to prevent it.' The right of

transit or sojourn with slaves in any State was secured and

fugitive slaves—called 'slaves' without the euphemism of the

old instrument—were to be delivered up on the claim of the

party to whom they belonged. Congress could prohibit the

introduction of slaves from States and Territories not

included in the Confederacy, and laws impairing the right of

property in negro slaves were prohibited. Slaves could be

carried into any Territory of the Confederacy by citizens of

the Confederate States and be protected as property. This

clause was intended to forbid 'squatter sovereignty,' and to

prevent adverse action against property in slaves, until the

Territory should emerge from a condition of pupilage and

dependence into the dignity, equality, and sovereignty of a

State, when its right to define 'property' would be beyond the

interference or control of Congress."

_J. L. M. Curry,

The Southern States of the American Union,

chapter 13._

Alexander H. Stephens, in his "Constitutional view of the late

War between the States," expresses the opinion that the

selection of Jefferson Davis for the Presidency of the

Confederacy was due to a misunderstanding. He says that a

majority of the states were looking to Georgia for the

President, and the Georgia delegation had unanimously agreed

to present Mr. Toombs, who would have been acceptable. But a

rumor got currency that Georgia would put forward Howell Cobb,

whereupon the other states took up Davis, and united upon him.

It was generally understood, says Mr. Stephens, that Davis

"did not desire the office of President. He preferred a

military position, and the one he desired above all others was

the chief command of the army."

_A. H. Stephens,

Constitutional View of the War between the States,

volume 2, page 328-333._

ALSO IN:

_R. B. Rhett,

The Confederate Government at Montgomery

(Battles and Leaders of the Civil War,

volume 1, pages 99-111)._

_Jefferson Davis,

Rise and Fall of the Confederate Government,

part 3, chapter. 5, and appendix K (volume 1)._

The text of both the Provisional and the Permanent

Constitution of the Confederate States is given in the

appendix referred to.

UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1861 (February).

Urgency of South Carolina for the reduction of Fort Sumter

before the inauguration of President Lincoln.

"I am perfectly satisfied," wrote Governor Pickens of South

Carolina to Howell Cobb, "President of the Provisional

Congress" of the Confederacy, in a letter dated February 13,

1861,—"I am perfectly satisfied that the welfare of the new

confederation and the necessities of the State require that

Fort Sumter should be reduced before the close of the present

administration at Washington. If an attack is delayed until

after the inauguration of the incoming President of the United

States, the troops now gathered in the capital may then be

employed in attempting that which, previous to that time, they

could not be spared to do. They dare not leave Washington now

and do that which then will be a measure too inviting to be

resisted. Mr. Lincoln cannot do more for this State than Mr.

Buchanan has done. Mr. Lincoln will not concede what Mr.

Buchanan has refused. Mr. Buchanan has placed his refusal upon

grounds which determine his reply to six States, as completely

as to the same demand if made by a single State. If peace can

be secured, it will be by the prompt use of the occasion, when

the forces of the United States are withheld from our harbor.

If war can be averted, it will be by making the capture of

Fort Sumter a fact accomplished during the continuance of the

present administration, and leaving to the incoming

administration the question of an open declaration of war.

Such a declaration, separated, as it will be, from any present

act of hostilities during Mr. Lincoln's administration, may

become to him a matter requiring consideration. That

consideration will not be expected of him, if the attack on

the fort is made during his administration, and becomes,

therefore, as to him, an act of present hostility. Mr.

Buchanan cannot resist, because he has not the power. Mr.

Lincoln may not attack, because the cause of the quarrel will

have been, or may be, considered by him as past. Upon this

line of policy I have acted, and upon the adherence to it may

be found, I think, the most rational expectation of seeing

that fort, which is even now a source of danger to the State,

restored to the possession of the State without those

consequences which I should most deeply deplore."

_Official Records,

volume 1, page 256._

{3417}

UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1861 (February-March).

The inauguration and the

inaugural address of President Lincoln.

"On the 11th of February, with his family and some personal

friends, Lincoln left his home at Springfield for Washington.

… On his way to Washington, he passed through the great states

of Indiana, Ohio, New York, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania, and

was everywhere received with demonstrations of loyalty, as the

representative of the national government. He addressed the

people at the capitals of these states, and at many of their

chief towns and cities. The city of Washington was surrounded

by slave territory, and was really within the lines of the

insurgents. Baltimore was not only a slaveholding city, but

nowhere was the spirit of rebellion more hot and ferocious

than among a large class of its people. The lower classes, the

material of which mobs are made, were reckless, and ready for

any outrage. From the date of his election to the time of his

start for Washington, there had often appeared in the press

and elsewhere, vulgar threats and menaces that he should never

be inaugurated, nor reach the capital alive. Little attention

was paid to these threats, yet some of the President's

personal friends, without his knowledge, employed a detective,

who sent agents to Baltimore and Washington to investigate. …

The detectives ascertained the existence of a plot to

assassinate the President elect, as he passed through

Baltimore. The first intelligence of this conspiracy was

communicated to Lincoln at Philadelphia. On the facts being

laid before him, he was urged to take the train that night

(the 21st of February), by which he would reach Washington the

next morning, passing through Baltimore earlier than the

conspirators expected, and thus avoid the danger. Having

already made appointments to meet the citizens of Philadelphia

at, and raise the United States flag over, Independence Hall,

on Washington's birthday, the 22nd, and also to meet the

Legislature of Pennsylvania at Harrisburgh, he declined

starting for Washington that night. Finally his friends

persuaded him to allow the detectives and the officers of the

railways to arrange for him to return from Harrisburgh, and,

by special train, to go to Washington the night following the

ceremonies at Harrisburgh. … He went to Harrisburgh according

to arrangement, met the Legislature, and retired to his room.

In the meanwhile, General Scott and Mr. Seward had learned,

through other sources, of the existence of the plot to

assassinate him, and had despatched Mr. F. W. Seward, a son of

Senator Seward, to apprise him of the danger. Information

coming to him from both of these sources, each independent of

the other, induced him to yield to the wishes of his friends,

and anticipate his journey to Washington. Besides, there had

reached him from Baltimore no committee, either of the

municipal authorities or of citizens, to tender him the

hospitalities, and to extend to him the courtesies of that

city, as had been done by every other city through which he

had passed. He was persuaded to permit the detective to

arrange for his going to Washington that night. The telegraph

wires to Baltimore were cut, Harrisburgh was isolated, and,

taking a special train, he reached Philadelphia, and driving

to the Baltimore depot, found the Washington train waiting his

arrival, stepped on board, and passed on without interruption

through Baltimore to the national capital. … He afterwards

declared: 'I did not then, nor do I now believe I should have

been assassinated, had I gone through Baltimore as first

contemplated, but I thought it wise to run no risk where no

risk was necessary.' … On the 4th of March, 1861, he was

inaugurated President of the United States. … In the open air,

and with a voice so clear and distinct that he could be heard

by thrice ten thousand men, he read his inaugural address, and

on the very verge of civil war, he made a most earnest appeal

for peace."

_I. N. Arnold,

Life of Abraham Lincoln,

chapters 11-12._

ALSO IN:

_J. G. Blaine,

Twenty Years of Congress,

volume 1, chapter 13._

_J. G. Nicolay and J. Hay,

Abraham Lincoln,

volume 3, chapters 19-21. _

_H. J. Raymond,

Life of Abraham Lincoln,

chapters 5-6._

The following is the full text of the inaugural address, from

Lincoln's "Complete Works."

"Fellow-Citizens of the United States: In compliance with a

custom as old as the government itself, I appear before you to

address you briefly, and to take, in your presence, the oath

prescribed by the Constitution of the United States to be

taken by the President 'before he enters on the execution of

his office.' I do not consider it necessary, at present, for

me to discuss those matters of administration about which

there is no special anxiety or excitement. Apprehension seems

to exist among the people of the southern states, that, by the

accession of a republican administration, their property and

their peace and personal security are to be endangered. There

has never been any reasonable cause for such apprehension.

Indeed, the most ample evidence to the contrary has all the

while existed and been open to their inspection. It is found

in nearly all the published speeches of him who now addresses

you. I do but quote from one of those speeches, when I declare

that 'I have no purpose, directly or indirectly, to interfere

with the institution of slavery in the states where it exists.

I believe I have no lawful right to do so, and I have no

inclination to do so.' Those who nominated and elected me did

so with full knowledge that I had made this and many similar

declarations, and had never recanted them. And, more than

this, they placed in the platform, for my acceptance, and as a

law to themselves and to me, the clear and emphatic resolution

which I now read: 'Resolved, That the maintenance inviolate of

the rights of the states, and especially the right of each

state to order and control its own domestic institutions

according to its own judgment exclusively, is essential to

that balance of power on which the perfection and endurance of

our political fabric depend, and we denounce the lawless

invasion by armed force of the soil of any state or territory,

no matter under what pretext, as among the gravest of crimes.'

I now reiterate these sentiments; and in doing so I only press

upon the public attention the most conclusive evidence of

which the case is susceptible, that the property, peace, and

security of no section are to be in any wise endangered by the

now incoming administration. I add, too, that all the

protection which, consistently with the Constitution and the

laws, can be given, will be cheerfully given to all the states

when lawfully demanded, for whatever cause—as cheerfully to

one section as to another.

{3418}

There is much controversy about the delivering up of fugitives

from service or labor. The clause I now read is as plainly

written in the Constitution as any other of its provisions:

'No person held to service or labor in one state under the

laws thereof, escaping into another, shall, in consequence of

any law or regulation therein, be discharged from such service

or labor, but shall be delivered up on claim of the party to

whom such service or labor may be due.' It is scarcely

questioned that this provision was intended by those who made

it for the reclaiming of what we call fugitive slaves; and the

intention of the law-giver is the law. All members of Congress

swear their support to the whole Constitution—to this

provision as much as to any other. To the proposition, then,

that slaves whose cases come within the terms of this clause

'shall be delivered up,' their oaths are unanimous. Now, if

they would make the effort in good temper, could they not,

with nearly equal unanimity, frame and pass a law by means of

which to keep good that unanimous oath? There is some

difference of opinion whether this clause should be enforced

by national or by state authority; but surely that difference

is not a very material one. If the slave is to be surrendered,

it can be of but little consequence to him or to others by

which authority it is done. And should anyone, in any case, be

content that this oath shall go unkept on a merely

unsubstantial controversy as to how it shall be kept? Again,

in any law upon this subject, ought not all the safeguards of

liberty known in civilized and humane jurisprudence to be

introduced, so that a free man be not, in any case,

surrendered as a slave? And might it not be well at the same

time to provide by law for the enforcement of that clause in

the Constitution which guarantees that 'the citizens of each

state shall be entitled to all privileges and immunities of

citizens in the several states'? I take the official oath

today with no mental reservations, and with no purpose to

construe the Constitution or laws by any hypercritical rules.

And while I do not choose now to specify particular acts of

Congress as proper to be enforced, I do suggest that it will

be much safer for all, both in official and private stations,

to conform to and abide by all those acts which stand

unrepealed, than to violate any of them, trusting to find

impunity in having them held to be unconstitutional. It is

seventy-two years since the first inauguration of a President

under our National Constitution. During that period, fifteen

different and greatly distinguished citizens have in

succession administered the executive branch of the

Government. They have conducted it through many perils, and

generally with great success. Yet, with all this scope of

precedent, I now enter upon the same task, for the brief

constitutional term of four years, under great and peculiar

difficulty. A disruption of the Federal Union, heretofore only

menaced, is now formidably attempted. I hold that in the

contemplation of universal law and of the Constitution, the

union of these states is perpetual. Perpetuity is implied, if

not expressed, in the fundamental law of all national

governments. It is safe to assert that no government proper

ever had a provision in its organic law for its own

termination. Continue to execute all the express provisions of

our National Constitution, and the Union will endure forever,

it being impossible to destroy it except by some action not

provided for in the instrument itself. Again, if the United

States be not a government proper, but an association of

states in the nature of a contract merely, can it, as a

contract, be peaceably unmade by less than all the parties who

made it? One party to a contract may violate it—break it, so

to speak; but does it not require all to lawfully rescind it?

Descending from these genera] principles, we find the

proposition that in legal contemplation the Union is

perpetual, confirmed by the history of the Union itself. The

Union is much older than the Constitution. It was formed, in

fact, by the Articles of Association in 1774. It was matured

and continued by the Declaration of Independence in 1776. It

was further matured, and the faith of all the then thirteen

states expressly plighted and engaged that it should be

perpetual, by the Articles of Confederation, in 1778. And

finally, in 1787, one of the declared objects for ordaining

and establishing the Constitution was 'to form a more perfect

Union.' But if the destruction of the Union by one or by a

part only of the states be lawfully possible, the Union is

less perfect than before the Constitution, having lost the

vital element of perpetuity. It follows from these views that

no state, upon its own mere motion, can lawfully get out of

the Union; that resolves and ordinances to that effect are

legally void; and that acts of violence within any state or

states against the authority of the United States are

insurrectionary or revolutionary, according to circumstances.

I therefore consider that, in view of the Constitution and the

laws, the Union is unbroken; and, to the extent of my ability,

I shall take care, as the Constitution itself expressly

enjoins upon me, that the laws of the Union be faithfully

executed in all the states. Doing this I deem to be only a

simple duty on my part; and I shall perform it so far as

practicable, unless my rightful masters, the American people,

shall withhold the requisite means, or in some authoritative

manner direct the contrary. I trust this will not be regarded

as a menace, but only as the declared purpose of the Union

that it will constitutionally defend and maintain itself. In

doing this there needs to be no bloodshed or violence, and

there shall be none unless it be forced upon the national

authority. The power confided to me will be used to hold,

occupy, and possess the property and places belonging to the

Government, and to collect the duties and imposts; but beyond

what may be necessary for these objects there will be no

invasion, no using of force against or among the people

anywhere. Where hostility to the United States in any interior

locality shall be so great and universal as to prevent

competent resident citizens from holding the federal offices,

there will be no attempt to force obnoxious strangers among

the people for that object. While the strict legal right may

exist in the Government to enforce the exercise of these

offices, the attempt to do so would be so irritating, and so

nearly impracticable withal, that I deem it better to forego,

for the time, the uses of such offices. The mails, unless

repelled, will continue to be furnished in all parts of the

Union. So far as possible, the people everywhere shall have

that sense of perfect security which is most favorable to calm

thought and reflection.

{3419}

The course here indicated will be followed, unless current

events and experience shall show a modification or change to

be proper; and in every case and exigency my best discretion

will be exercised according to circumstances actually

existing, and with a view and a hope of a peaceful solution of

the national troubles, and the restoration of fraternal

sympathies and affections. That there are persons, in one

section or another, who seek to destroy the Union at all

events, and are glad of any pretext to do it, I will neither

affirm nor deny; but if there be such, I need address no word

to them. To those, however, who really love the Union, may I

not speak? Before entering upon so grave a matter as the

destruction of our national fabric, with all its benefits, its

memories, and its hopes, would it not be wise to ascertain

precisely why we do it? Will you hazard so desperate a step,

while there is any possibility that any portion of the ills

you fly from have no real existence? Will you, while the

certain ills you fly to are greater than all the real ones you

fly from—will you risk the commission of so fearful a mistake?

All profess to be content in the Union if all constitutional

rights can be maintained. Is it true, then, that any right,

plainly written in the Constitution, has been denied? I think

not. Happily the human mind is so constituted that no party

can reach to the audacity of doing this. Think, if you can, of

a single instance in which a plainly written provision of the

Constitution has ever been denied. If, by the mere force of

numbers, a majority should deprive a minority of any clearly

written constitutional right, it might, in a moral point of

view, justify revolution—certainly would if such a right were

a vital one. But such is not our case. All the vital rights of

minorities and of individuals are so plainly assured to them

by affirmations and negations, guarantees and prohibitions in

the Constitution, that controversies never arise concerning

them. But no organic law can ever be framed with a provision

specifically applicable to every question which may occur in

practical administration. No foresight can anticipate, nor any

document of reasonable length contain, express provisions for

all possible questions. Shall fugitives from labor be

surrendered by national or by state authority? The

Constitution does not expressly say. May Congress prohibit

slavery in the Territories? The Constitution does not

expressly say. Must Congress protect slavery in the

Territories? The Constitution does not expressly say. From

questions of this class spring all our constitutional

controversies, and we divide upon them into majorities and

minorities. If the minority will not acquiesce, the majority

must, or the Government must cease. There is no other

alternative; for continuing the Government is acquiescence on

one side or the other. If a minority in such case will secede

rather than acquiesce, they make a precedent which, in turn,

will divide and ruin them; for a minority of their own will

secede from them whenever a majority refuses to be controlled

by such minority. For instance, why may not any portion of a

new Confederacy, a year or two hence, arbitrarily secede

again, precisely as portions of the present Union now claim to

secede from it? All who cherish disunion sentiments are now

being educated to the exact temper of doing this. Is there

such perfect identity of interests among the states to compose

a new Union as to produce harmony only, and prevent renewed

secession? Plainly, the central idea of secession is the

essence of anarchy. A majority held in restraint by

constitutional checks and limitations, and always changing

easily with deliberate changes of popular opinions and

sentiments, is the only true sovereign of a free people.

Whoever rejects it, does, of necessity, fly to anarchy or to

despotism. Unanimity is impossible; the rule of a minority, as

a permanent arrangement, is wholly inadmissible; so that,

rejecting the majority principle, anarchy or despotism, in

some form, is all that is left. I do not forget the position

assumed by some that constitutional questions are to be decide

by the Supreme Court; nor do I deny that such decisions must

he binding in any case upon the parties to a suit, as to the

object of that suit, while they are also entitled to very high

respect and consideration in all parallel cases by all other

departments of the Government; and while it is obviously

possible that such decision may be erroneous in any given

case, still the evil effect following it, being limited to

that particular case, with the chance that it may be overruled

and never become a precedent for other cases, can better be

borne than could the evils of a different practice. At the

same time the candid citizen must confess that if the policy

of the Government upon vital questions affecting the whole

people is to be irrevocably fixed by decisions of the Supreme

Court, the instant they are made, in ordinary litigation

between parties in personal actions, the people will have

ceased to be their own rulers, having to that extent

practically resigned their Government into the hands of that

eminent tribunal. Nor is there in this view any assault upon

the Court or the Judges. It is a duty from which they may not

shrink, to decide cases properly brought before them, and it

is no fault of theirs if others seek to turn their decisions

to political purposes. One section of our country believes

slavery is right and ought to be extended, while the other

believes it is wrong and ought not to be extended. This is the

only substantial dispute. The fugitive-slave clause of the

Constitution, and the law for the suppression of the foreign

slave-trade, are each as well enforced, perhaps, as any law

can ever be in a community where the moral sense of the people

imperfectly supports the law itself. The great body of the

people abide by the dry legal obligation in both cases, and a

few break over in each. This, I think, cannot be perfectly

cured; and it would be worse in both cases after the

separation of the sections than before. The foreign

slave-trade, now imperfectly suppressed, would be ultimately

revived, without restriction, in one section; while fugitive

slaves, now only partially surrendered, would not be

surrendered at all by the other. Physically speaking, we

cannot separate; we cannot remove our respective sections from

each other, nor build an impassable wall between them. A

husband and wife may be divorced, and go out of the presence

and beyond the reach of each other; but the different parts of

our country cannot do this. They cannot but remain face to

face; and intercourse, either amicable or hostile, must

continue between them. Is it possible, then, to make that

intercourse more advantageous or more satisfactory after

separation than before? Can aliens make treaties easier than

friends can make laws?

{3420}

Can treaties be more faithfully enforced between aliens than

laws can among friends? Suppose you go to war, you cannot

fight always; and when, after much loss on both sides and no

gain on either, you cease fighting, the identical old

questions as to terms of intercourse are again upon you. This

country, with its institutions, belongs to the people who

inhabit it. Whenever they shall grow weary of the existing

government, they can exercise their constitutional right of

amending it, or their revolutionary right to dismember or

overthrow it. I cannot be ignorant of the fact that many

worthy and patriotic citizens are desirous of having the

National Constitution amended. While I make no recommendation

of amendments, I fully recognize the rightful authority of the

people over the whole subject, to be exercised in either of

the modes prescribed in the instrument itself; and I should,

under existing circumstances, favor, rather than oppose, a

fair opportunity being afforded the people to act upon it. I

will venture to add that to me the convention mode seems

preferable, in that it allows amendments to originate with the

people themselves, instead of only permitting them to take or

reject propositions originated by others not especially chosen

for the purpose, and which might not be precisely such as they

would wish to either accept or refuse. I understand a proposed

amendment to the Constitution—which amendment, however, I have

not seen—has passed Congress, to the effect that the Federal

Government shall never interfere with the domestic

institutions of the states, including that of persons held to

service. To avoid misconstruction of what I have said, I

depart from my purpose not to speak of particular amendments,

so far as to say that, holding such a provision to now be

implied constitutional law, I have no objection to its being

made express and irrevocable. The Chief Magistrate derives all

his authority from the people, and they have conferred none

upon him to fix terms for the separation of the states. The

people themselves can do this also if they choose, but the

Executive, as such, has nothing to do with it. His duty is to

administer the present government as it came to his hands, and

to transmit it unimpaired by him to his successor. Why should

there not be a patient confidence in the ultimate justice of

the people? Is there any better or equal hope in the world? In

our present differences is either party without faith of being

in the right? If the Almighty Ruler of Nations, with his

eternal truth and justice, be on your side of the North, or on

yours of the South, that truth and that justice will surely

prevail by the judgment of this great tribunal, the American

people. By the frame of the Government under which we live,

this same people have wisely given their public servants but

little power for mischief; and have with equal wisdom provided

for the return of that little to their own hands at very short

intervals. While the people retain their virtue and vigilance,

no administration, by any extreme of wickedness or folly, can

very seriously injure the Government in the short space of

four years. My countrymen, one and all, think calmly and well

upon this whole subject. Nothing valuable can be lost by

taking time. If there be an object to hurry any of you, in hot

haste, to a step which you would never take deliberately, that

object will be frustrated by taking time; but no good object

can be frustrated by it. Such of you as are now dissatisfied

still have the old Constitution unimpaired, and on the

sensitive point, the laws of your own framing under it; while

the new administration will have no immediate power, if it

would, to change either. If it were admitted that you who are

dissatisfied hold the right side in the dispute, there still

is no single good reason for precipitate action. Intelligence,

patriotism, Christianity, and a firm reliance on Him who has

never yet forsaken this favored land, are still competent to

adjust, in the best way, all our present difficulty. In your

hands, my dissatisfied fellow-countrymen, and not in mine, is

the momentous issue of civil war. The Government will not

assail you. You can have no conflict without being yourselves

the aggressors. You have no oath registered in heaven to

destroy the Government, while I shall have the most solemn one

to 'preserve, protect, and defend it.' I am loth to close. W

are not enemies, but friends. We must not be enemies. Though

passion may have strained, it must not break, our bonds of

affection. The mystic cords of memory, stretching from every

battle-field and patriot grave to every living heart and

hearthstone all over this broad land, will yet swell the

chorus of the Union, when again touched, as surely they will

be, by the better angels of our nature."

UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1861 (March).

President Lincoln and his Cabinet.

Secretary Seward.

President Lincoln, "in selecting his cabinet, which he did

substantially before he left Springfield for Washington, …

thought it wise to call to his assistance the strong men of

his party, especially those who had given evidence of the

support they commanded as his competitors in the Chicago

convention. … This was sound policy under the circumstances.

It might indeed have been foreseen that among the members of a

cabinet so composed, troublesome disagreements and rivalries

would break out. But it was better for the President to have

these strong and ambitious men near him as his coöperators

than to have them as his critics in Congress, where their

differences might have been composed in a common opposition to

him. As members of his cabinet he could hope to control them,

and to keep them busily employed in the service of a common

purpose, if he had the strength to do so. Whether he did

possess this strength was soon tested by a singularly rude

trial. There can be no doubt that the foremost members of his

cabinet, Seward and Chase, the most eminent Republican

statesmen, had felt themselves wronged by their party when in

its national convention it preferred to them for the

presidency a man whom, not unnaturally, they thought greatly

their inferior in ability and experience as well as in

service. … Seward, who, as Secretary of State, considered

himself next to the Chief Executive, and who quickly

accustomed himself to giving orders and making arrangements

upon his own motion, thought it necessary that he should

rescue the direction of public affairs from hands so

unskilled, and take full charge of them himself. At the end of

the first month of the administration he submitted a

'memorandum' to President Lincoln, which has been first

brought to light by Nicolay and Hay, and is one of their most

valuable contributions to the history of those days.

{3421}

In that paper Seward actually told the President that, at the

end of a month's administration, the government was still

without a policy, either domestic or foreign; that the slavery

question should be eliminated from the struggle about the

Union; that the matter of the maintenance of the forts and

other possessions in the South should be decided with that

view; that explanations should be demanded categorically from

the governments of Spain and France, which were then

preparing, one for the annexation of San Domingo, and both for

the invasion of Mexico; that if no satisfactory explanations

were received war should be declared against Spain and France

by the United States; that explanations should also be sought

from Russia and Great Britain, and a vigorous continental

spirit of independence against European intervention be

aroused all over the American continent; that this policy

should be incessantly pursued and directed by somebody; that

either the President should devote himself entirely to it, or

devolve the direction on some member of his cabinet, whereupon

all debate on this policy must end. This could be understood

only as a formal demand that the President should acknowledge

his own incompetency to perform his duties, content himself

with the amusement of distributing post offices, and resign

his power as to all important affairs into the hands of his

Secretary of State. … Had Lincoln, as most Presidents would

have done, instantly dismissed Seward, and published the true

reason for that dismissal, it would inevitably have been the

end of Seward's career. But Lincoln did what not many of the

noblest and greatest men in history would have been noble and

great enough to do. He considered that Seward was still

capable of rendering great service to his country in the place

in which he was, if rightly controlled. He ignored the insult,

but firmly established his superiority. In his reply, which he

forthwith dispatched, he told Seward that the administration

had a domestic policy as laid down in the inaugural address

with Seward's approval; that it had a foreign policy as traced

in Seward's dispatches with the President's approval; that if

any policy was to be maintained or changed, he, the President,

was to direct that on his responsibility; and that in

performing that duty the President had a right to the advice

of his secretaries. Seward's fantastic schemes of foreign war

and continental policies Lincoln brushed aside by passing them

over in silence. Nothing more was said. Seward must have felt

that he was at the mercy of a superior man."

_Carl Schurz,

Abraham Lincoln,

pages 67-73._

ALSO IN:

_J. G. Nicolay and J. Hay,

Abraham Lincoln: a History,

volume 3, chapters 22 and 26._

UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1861 (March).

Surrender of Alexander H. Stephens to Secession.

His "Corner-stone" speech at Savannah.

The following is from a speech made by Alexander H. Stephens

at Savannah, on the evening after the secession of Georgia,

which he had opposed, but to which he now yielded himself

without reserve. It is a speech that became famous on account

of its bold declaration that Slavery formed the "corner-stone"

of the New Confederacy. "The new constitution," said Mr.

Stephens, "has put at rest, forever, all the agitating

questions relating to our peculiar institution—African slavery

as it exists amongst us—the proper status of the negro in our

form of civilization. This was the immediate cause of the late

rupture and present revolution. Jefferson, in his forecast,

had anticipated this, as the 'rock upon which the old Union

would split.' He was right. What was conjecture with him, is

now a realized fact. But whether he fully comprehended the

great truth upon which that rock stood and stands may be

doubted. The prevailing ideas entertained by him and most of

the leading statesmen at the time of the formation of the old

constitution, were that the enslavement of the African was in

violation of the laws of nature; that it was wrong in

principle, socially, morally, and politically. It was an evil

they knew not well how to deal with, but the general opinion

of the men of that day was that, somehow or other in the order

of Providence, the institution would be evanescent and pass

away. This idea, though not incorporated in the constitution,

was the prevailing idea at that time. The constitution, it is

true, secured every essential guarantee to the institution

while it should last, and hence no argument can be justly

urged against the constitutional guarantees thus secured,

because of the common sentiment of the day. Those ideas,

however, were fundamentally wrong. They rested upon the

assumption of the equality of races. This was an error. It was

a sandy foundation, and the government built upon it fell when

the 'storm came and the wind blew.' Our new government is

founded upon exactly the opposite idea; its foundations are

laid, its corner-stone rests upon the great truth, that the

negro is not equal to the white man; that slavery

—subordination to the superior race—is his natural and normal

condition. This, our new government, is the first, in the

history of the world, based upon this great physical,

philosophical, and moral truth. This truth has been slow in

the process of its development, like all other truths in the

various departments of science. It has been so even amongst

us."

_A. H. Stephens,

Speech in Savannah, March 21, 1861

(in "Alexander H. Stephens in Public and Private;

by H. Cleveland")._

UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1861 (March-April).

The breaking of rebellion into open war

by the attack on Fort Sumter.

President Lincoln's statement of the circumstances.

His first difficulties.

Attitude of the Border States.

The circumstances under which the first blow of the civil war

was struck by the rebels at Charleston were recited by

President Lincoln, in his Message to Congress, at the special

session convened July 4, 1861; "On the 5th of March (the

present incumbent's first full day in office), a letter of

Major Anderson, commanding at Fort Sumter, written on the 28th

of February and received at the War Department on the 4th of

March, was by that department placed in his hands. This letter

expressed the professional opinion of the writer that

reinforcements could not be thrown into that fort within the

time for his relief, rendered necessary by the limited supply

of provisions, and with a view of holding possession of the

same, with a force of less than 20,000 good and

well-disciplined men. This opinion was concurred in by all the

officers of his command, and their memoranda on the subject

were made inclosures of Major Anderson's letter.

{3422}

The whole was immediately laid before Lieutenant-General

Scott, who at once concurred with Major Anderson in opinion.

On reflection, however, he took full time, consulting with

other officers, both of the army and the navy, and at the end

of four days came reluctantly but decidedly to the same

conclusion as before. He also stated at the same time that no

such sufficient force was then at the control of the

government, or could be raised and brought to the ground

within the time when the provisions in the fort would be

exhausted. In a purely military point of view, this reduced

the duty of the administration in the case to the mere matter

of getting the garrison safely out of the fort. It was

believed, however, that to so abandon that position, under the

circumstances, would be utterly ruinous; that the necessity

under which it was to be done would not be fully understood;

that by many it would be construed as a part of a voluntary

policy; that at home it would discourage the friends of the

Union, embolden its adversaries, and go far to insure to the

latter a recognition abroad; that, in fact, it would be our

national destruction consummated. This could not be allowed.

Starvation was not yet upon the garrison, and ere it would be

reached Fort Pickens might be reinforced. This last would be a

clear indication of policy, and would better enable the

country to accept the evacuation of Fort Sumter as a military

necessity. An order was at once directed to be sent for the

landing of the troops from the steamship 'Brooklyn' into Fort

Pickens. This order could not go by land, but must take the

longer and slower route by sea. The first return news from the

order was received just one week before the fall of Fort

Sumter. The news itself was that the officer commanding the

'Sabine,' to which vessel the troops had been transferred from

the 'Brooklyn,' acting upon some quasi armistice of the late

administration (and of the existence of which the present

administration, up to the time the order was despatched, had

only too vague and uncertain rumors to fix attention), had

refused to land the troops. To now reinforce Fort Pickens

before a crisis would be reached at Fort Sumter was

impossible—rendered so by the near exhaustion of provisions in

the latter-named fort. In precaution against such a

conjuncture, the government had, a few days before, commenced

preparing an expedition as well adapted as might be to relieve

Fort Sumter, which expedition was intended to be ultimately

used, or not, according to circumstances. The strongest

anticipated case for using it was now presented, and it was

resolved to send it forward. As had been intended in this

contingency, it was also resolved to notify the governor of

South Carolina that he might expect an attempt would be made

to provision the fort; and that, if the attempt should not be

resisted, there would be no effort to throw in men, arms, or

ammunition, without further notice, or in case of an attack

upon the fort. This notice was accordingly given; whereupon

the fort was attacked and bombarded to its fall, without even

awaiting the arrival of the provisioning expedition. It is

thus seen that the assault upon and reduction of Fort Sumter

was in no sense a matter of self-defense on the part of the

assailants."

_Abraham Lincoln,

Complete Works,

volume 2, pages 56-57._

The President's delay of action in the case of Fort Sumter was

mainly due, on the political side of the question, to the

state of things in the border states—especially in Virginia.

"There were fifteen slave states, which those engaged in the

rebellion hoped to lead or to force into secession. At the

time of the inauguration, only seven of these fifteen—less

than a majority—had revolted. The cotton states alone had

followed the lead of South Carolina out of the Union. Several

weeks had passed since a state had seceded; and unless other

states could be dragooned into the movement, the rebellion

would be practically a failure from the start. Such a

confederacy could not hope to live a year, and would be

obliged to find its way back into the Union upon some terms.

In the meantime, two or three conventions in the border states

[Virginia, April 4, and Missouri, March], delegated freshly

from the people, had voted distinctly and decidedly not to

secede. [Kentucky and Tennessee had refused even the call of

conventions; while North Carolina, February 28, and Arkansas,

March 18, of the states farther south, had voted secession

down.] The affairs of the confederacy were really in a very

precarious condition when Mr. Lincoln came into power. The

rebel government was making very much more bluster than

progress. It became Mr. Lincoln's policy so to conduct affairs

as to strengthen the Union feeling in the border states, and

to give utterance to no sentiment and to do no deed which

should drive these states toward the confederacy. … The

confederacy found that it must make progress or die. The rebel

Congress passed a measure for the organization of an army, on

the 9th of March, and on the 12th two confederate

commissioners—Mr. Forsyth of Alabama and Mr. Crawford of

Georgia—presented themselves at the State Department at

Washington for the purpose of making a treaty with the United

States. They knew, of course, that they could not be received

officially, and that they ought to be arrested for treason.

The President would not recognize them, but sent to them a

copy of his inaugural, as the embodiment of the views of the

government. … In the meantime, Lieutenant Talbot, on behalf of

Mr. Lincoln, was having interviews with Governor Pickens of

South Carolina and with General Beauregard, in command of the

confederate forces there, in which he informed them that

provisions would be sent to Fort Sumter, peaceably if

possible,—otherwise by force. This was communicated to L. P.

Walker, then rebel Secretary of War. Before Talbot had made

his communication, Beauregard had informed Major Anderson, in

command of Fort Sumter, that he must have no further

intercourse with Charleston; and Talbot himself was refused

permission to visit that gallant and faithful officer. … The

wisdom of Mr. Lincoln's waiting became evident at a day not

too long delayed. Fort Pickens, which the rebels had not

taken, was quietly reinforced [April 12], and when the vessels

which carried the relief [to Sumter] were dispatched, Mr.

Lincoln gave official information to General Beauregard that

provisions were to be sent to Major Anderson in Fort Sumter,

by an unarmed vessel. He was determined that no hostile act on

the part of the government should commence the war, for which

both sides were preparing; although an act of open war had

already transpired in Charleston harbor"—the rebel batteries

having fired upon and driven off the unarmed steamer Star of

the West, which had been sent to convey troops and provisions

to Fort Sumter on the 9th of January, two months before

Lincoln's inauguration.

{3423}

"Beauregard laid this last intelligence before his Secretary

of War, and, under special instructions, on the 12th of April,

he demanded the surrender of Fort Sumter. He was ready to make

the demand, and to back it by force. The city of Charleston

was full of troops, and, for months, batteries had been in

course of construction, with the special purpose of compelling

the surrender of the fort. Major Anderson had seen these

batteries going up, day after day, without the liberty to fire

a gun. He declined to surrender. He was called upon to state

when he would evacuate the fort. He replied that on the 15th

he would do so, should he not meantime receive controlling

instructions from the government, or additional supplies. The

response which he received was that the confederate batteries

would open on Fort Sumter in one hour from the date of the

message. The date of the message was 'April 12, 1861, 3:30 A.

M.' Beauregard was true to his word. At half past four the

batteries opened upon the Fort, which, after a long and

terrible bombardment, and a gallant though comparatively

feeble defense by a small and half-starved garrison, was

surrendered the following day. … The fall of Sumter was the

resurrection of patriotism. The North needed just this. Such a

universal burst of patriotic indignation as ran over the North

under the influence of this insult to the national flag has

never been witnessed. It swept away all party lines as if it

had been flame and they had been flax."

_J. G. Holland,

Life of Lincoln,

chapter 18._

ALSO IN:

_F. W. Seward,

Seward at Washington,

chapter 56._

_S. W. Crawford,

Genesis of the Civil War: The Story of Sumter,

chapters 24-32._

_A. Doubleday,

Reminiscences of Forts Sumter and Moultrie,

chapters 8-11._

_A. Roman,

Military Operations of General Beauregard,

volume 1, chapters 2-4._

_Battles and Leaders of the Civil War,

The Century Company,

volume 1, pages 40-83._

_S. L. Woodford,

The Story of Fort Sumter

(Personal Recollections of the War:

N. Y. Com. L. L. of the United States)._

UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1861 (April).

President Lincoln's call to arms.

The mighty uprising of the North.

The response of disloyal Governors.

"By the next morning (Sunday April 14) the news of the close

of the bombardment and capitulation of Sumter was in

Washington. In the forenoon, at the time Anderson and his

garrison were evacuating the fort, Lincoln and his Cabinet,

together with sundry military officers, were at the Executive

Mansion, giving final shape to the details of the action the

Government had decided to take. A proclamation, drafted by

himself, copied on the spot by his secretary, was concurred in

by his Cabinet, signed, and sent to the State Department to be

sealed, filed, and copied for publication in the next

morning's newspapers. The document bears date April 15

(Monday), but was made and signed on Sunday." It was as

follows:

"Whereas the laws of the United States have been for some time

past and now are opposed, and the execution thereof

obstructed, in the States of South Carolina, Georgia, Alabama,

Florida, Mississippi, Louisiana, and Texas, by combinations

too powerful to be suppressed by the ordinary course of

judicial proceedings, or by the powers vested in the marshals

by law: Now, therefore, I, Abraham Lincoln, President of the

United States, in virtue of the power in me vested by the

Constitution and the laws, have thought fit to call forth, and

hereby do call forth, the militia of the several States of the

Union, to the aggregate number of seventy-five thousand, in

order to suppress said combinations, and to cause the laws to

be duly executed. The details for this object will be

immediately communicated to the State authorities through the

War Department. I appeal to all loyal citizens to favor,

facilitate, and aid this effort to maintain the honor, the

integrity, and the existence of our National Union, and the

perpetuity of popular government; and to redress wrongs

already long enough endured. I deem it proper to say that the

first service assigned to the forces hereby called forth will

probably be to repossess the forts, places, and property which

have been seized from the Union; and in every event the utmost

care will be observed, consistently with the objects

aforesaid, to avoid any devastation, any destruction of or

interference with property, or any disturbance of peaceful

citizens in any part of the country. And I hereby command the

persons composing the combination aforesaid to disperse and

retire peacefully to their respective abodes within twenty

days from date. Deeming that the present condition of public

affairs presents an extraordinary occasion, I do hereby, in

virtue of the power in me vested by the Constitution, convene

both Houses of Congress. Senators and Representatives are

therefore summoned to assemble at their respective chambers,

at twelve o'clock noon, on Thursday the fourth day of July

next, then and there to consider and determine such measures

as, in their wisdom, the public safety and interest may seem

to demand. In witness whereof, I have hereunto set my hand,

and caused the seal of the United States to be affixed. Done

at the city of Washington, this 15th day of April, in the year

of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and sixty-one, and of

the Independence of the United States the eighty-fifth.

Abraham Lincoln. By the President: William H. Seward,

Secretary of State."

_Abraham Lincoln,

Complete Works,

volume 2, page 34._

"In view of the subsequent gigantic expansion of the civil

war, eleventh-hour critics continue to insist that a larger

force should have been called at once. They forget that this

was nearly five times the then existing regular army; that

only very limited quantities of arms, equipments, and supplies

were in the Northern arsenals; that the treasury was bankrupt;

and that an insignificant eight million loan had not two weeks

before been discounted nearly six per cent. by the New York

bankers, some bids ranging as low as eighty-five. They forget

that the shameful events of the past four months had elicited

scarcely a spark of war feeling; that the loyal States had

suffered the siege of Sumter and firing on the 'Star of the

West' with a dangerous indifference. They forget the doubt and

dismay, the panic of commerce, the division of counsels, the

attacks from within, the sneers from without—that faith seemed

gone and patriotism dead. Twenty-four hours later all this was

measurably changed, … The guns of the Sumter bombardment woke

the country from the political nightmare which had so long

tormented and paralyzed it.

{3424}

The lion of the North was fully roused. Betrayed, insulted,

outraged, the free States arose as with a cry of pain and

vengeance. War sermons from pulpits; war speeches in every

assemblage; tenders of troops; offers of money; military

proclamations and orders in every newspaper; every city

radiant with bunting; every village-green a mustering ground;

war appropriations in every legislature and in every city or

town council; war preparations in every public or private

workshop; gun-casting in the great foundries; cartridge-making

in the principal towns; camps and drills in the fields;

parades, drums, flags, and bayonets in the streets; knitting,

bandage-rolling, and lint-scraping in nearly every household.

Before the lapse of forty-eight hours a Massachusetts

regiment, armed and equipped, was on its way to Washington;

within the space of a month the energy and intelligence of the

country were almost completely turned from the industries of

peace to the activities of war."

_J. G. Nicolay and J. Hay,

Abraham Lincoln,

volume 4, chapters 4-5._

"In intelligence no army, except perhaps the Athenian, can

have ever equalled or approached that of the North. Most of

the soldiers carried books and writing materials in their

knapsacks, and mail bags heavily weighted with letters were

sent from every cantonment. Such privates would sometimes

reason instead of obeying, and they would see errors of their

commanders to which they had better have been blind. But on

the whole, in a war in which much was thrown upon the

individual soldier, intelligence was likely to prevail. In

wealth, in the means of providing the weapons and ammunitions

of war, the North had an immense advantage, which, combined

with that of numbers, could not fail, if, to use Lincoln's

homely phrase, it 'pegged away,' to tell in the end. It was

also vastly superior in mechanical invention; which was

destined to play a great part, and in mechanical skill; almost

every Yankee regiment was full of mechanics, some of whom

could devise as well as execute. In artillery and engineering

the North took the lead from the first, having many civil

engineers, whose conversion into military civil engineers was

easy. The South, to begin with, had the contents of Federal

arsenals and armouries, which had been well stocked by the

provident treason of Buchanan's Minister of War. … But when

these resources were exhausted, replacement was difficult, the

blockade having been established, though extraordinary efforts

in the way of military manufacture were made. To the wealthy

North, besides its own factories, were opened the markets of

England and the world. Of the small regular army the

Confederacy had carried off a share, with nearly half the

regular officers. The South had the advantage of the

defensive, which, with long-range muskets and in a difficult

country, was reckoned in battle as five to two. The South had

the superiority of the unity, force, and secrecy which

autocracy lends to the operations of war. On the side of the

North these were comparatively wanting."

_Goldwin Smith,

The United States,

chapter 5._

In six of the eight Slave-labor States included in the call,

the President's Proclamation and the requisition of the

Secretary of War "were treated by the authorities with words

of scorn and defiance. The exceptions were Maryland and

Delaware. In the other States, disloyal Governors held the

reins of power. 'I have only to say,' replied Governor Letcher

of Virginia, 'that the militia of this State will not be

furnished to the powers at Washington for any such purpose as

they have in view. Your object is to subjugate the Southern

States, and a requisition made upon me for such an object—an

object, in my judgment, not within the province of the

Constitution or the Act of 1795—will not be complied with. You

have chosen to inaugurate civil war, and, having done so, we

will meet it in a spirit as determined as the Administration

has exhibited toward the South.' Governor Ellis, of North

Carolina, answered:—'Your dispatch is received, and if

genuine, which its extraordinary character leads me to doubt,

I have to say in reply, that I regard the levy of troops, made

by the Administration for the purpose of subjugating the

States of the South, as in violation of the Constitution, and

a usurpation of power. I can be no party to this wicked

violation of the laws of the country, and to this war upon the

liberties of a free people. You can get no troops from North

Carolina.' Governor Magoffin, of Kentucky, replied:—'Your

dispatch is received. I say emphatically that Kentucky will

furnish no troops for the wicked purpose of subduing her

sister Southern States.' Governor Harris, of Tennessee,

said:—'Tennessee will not furnish a single man for coercion,

but 50,000, if necessary, for the defense of our rights, or

those of our Southern brethren.' Governor Rector, of Arkansas,

replied:—'In answer to your requisition for troops from

Arkansas to subjugate the Southern States, I have to say that

none will be furnished. The demand is only adding insult to

injury.' … Governor Jackson, of Missouri, responded:—'There

can be, I apprehend, no doubt that these men are intended to

make war upon the seceded States. Your requisition, in my

judgment, is illegal, unconstitutional, and revolutionary in

its objects, inhuman and diabolical, and cannot be complied

with. Not one man will the State of Missouri furnish to carry

on such an unholy crusade.' … Governor Hicks, of Maryland,

appalled by the presence of great dangers, and sorely pressed

by the secessionists on every side, hastened, in a

proclamation, to assure the people of his State that no troops

would be sent from Maryland unless it might be for the defense

of the National Capital, and that they (the people) would, in

a short time, 'have the opportunity afforded them, in a

special election for members of the Congress of the United

States, to express their devotion to the Union, or their

desire to see it broken up.' Governor Burton, of Delaware,

made no response until the 26th, when he informed the

President that he had no authority to comply with his

requisition. At the same time he recommended the formation of

volunteer companies for the protection of the citizens and

property of Delaware, and not for the preservation of the

Union. … In the seven excepted Slave-labor States in which

insurrection prevailed, the proclamation and the requisition

produced hot indignation, and were assailed with the bitterest

scorn. … Even in the Free-labor States, there were vehement

opposers of the war policy of the Government from its

inception." But, speaking generally, "the uprising of the

people of the Free-labor States in defense of Nationality was

a sublime spectacle. Nothing like it had been seen on the

earth since the preaching of Peter the Hermit and of Pope

Urban the Second filled all Christian Europe with religious

zeal, and sent armed hosts, with the cry of 'God wills it! God

wills it!' to rescue the sepulcher of Jesus from the hands of

the infidel."

_B. J. Lossing,

Field Book of the Civil War,

volume 1, chapter 14._

ALSO IN:

_F. Moore, editor,

Rebellion Record,

volume 1._

_W. J. Tenney,

Military and Naval History of the Rebellion,

chapters 4-6._

{3425}

UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1861 (April).

The Morrill Tariff Act.

See TARIFF LEGISLATION: A. D. 1861-1864 (UNITED STATES).

UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1861 (April).

Secession of Virginia.

See VIRGINIA: A. D. 1861 (JANUARY-JUNE).

UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1861 (April).

Activity of Rebellion in Virginia and Maryland.

Peril of the national capital.

Attack on Massachusetts volunteers in Baltimore.

"Massachusetts, always the most zealous, was the first in the

field [with troops in response to the President's call], and

on the 17th [April] she forwarded a regiment of volunteers

from Boston to Washington. Pennsylvania, although nearly

one-half of her votes had been given for Mr. Breckinridge,

followed this example; and, owing to her geographical

position, her volunteers reached the shores of the Potomac in

advance of all the others. After passing through the great

city of Baltimore in the midst of an incipient insurrection,

they encamped around the Capitol, on the 18th of April. The

seceders, on their side, had not lost a moment in Virginia.

They were in possession of Richmond, where the convention was

in session. … The workshops and arsenal of Harper's Ferry,

situated at the confluence of the Potomac and the Shenandoah,

on a spot which was destined to play an important part during

the war, were only guarded by a detachment of 64 dismounted

dragoons; and the Virginia volunteers, assembled in the

valleys of the Blue Ridge, were ready to take possession of

them as soon as the ordinance for the secession of Virginia

should furnish them a pretext. They were then to cross the

Potomac and join the insurgents of Maryland, for the purpose

of attempting the capture of Washington, where their

accomplices were expecting them. On the morning of the 18th

[April], a portion of them were on their march, in the hope of

seizing the prey which was to be of so much value to the

future armies of the Confederacy. But Lieutenant Jones, who

was in command at Harper's Ferry, had been informed of the

approach of the Confederate troops under the lead of Ashby—a

chief well known since; notwithstanding their despatch, they

only arrived in sight of Harper's Ferry in time to see from a

distance a large conflagration that was consuming the

workshops, store-houses, and the enormous piles of muskets

heaped in the yards, while the Federal soldiers who had just

kindled it were crossing the Potomac on their way to

Washington. The Confederates found nothing but smoking ruins,

and some machinery, which they sent to Richmond; their allies

from Maryland had not made their appearance, and they did not

feel strong enough to venture alone to the other side of the

Potomac. During the last few days the authorities of Virginia

had been making preparations for capturing the Norfolk [or

Gosport] arsenal (navy-yard). That establishment possessed a

magnificent granite basin, construction docks, and a depot of

artillery with more than 2,000 guns; a two-decked vessel was

on the stocks, two others, with a three-decker, three

frigates, a steam sloop, and a brig, lay dismantled in the

port; the steam frigate Merrimac was there undergoing repairs;

the steam sloop Germantown was in the harbor ready to go to

sea, while the sailing sloop Cumberland was lying to at the

entrance of the port. … Commodore McCauley, the Federal

commandant, was surrounded by traitors," and, being deficient

in energy and capability, he allowed himself to be put in a

position where he thought it necessary to sink all the vessels

in the harbor except the Cumberland. As they were sinking,

reinforcements arrived from Washington, under Captain

Paulding, who superseded McCauley in command. But they came

too late. Captain Paulding could do nothing except hastily

destroy as far as possible the sinking ships and the arsenal

buildings, and then retreat. "The Confederates found abundant

resources in artillery and 'materiel' of every description in

Norfolk; the fire was soon extinguished, the docks repaired,

and they succeeded in raising the Merrimac, which we shall see

at work the following year. Fort Monroe had just been occupied

by a small Federal garrison. Its loss would have been even

more disastrous to the Federal cause than that of the Norfolk

navy-yard and arsenal, because the Confederates, instead of

having to cover Richmond, would have been able to blockade

Washington by sea and besiege it by land. … The example of

Virginia fired the enthusiasm of the secessionists everywhere,

and they applied themselves to the task of drawing into the

conflict those slave States which were still hesitating. … The

sight of the Pennsylvania volunteers had caused a great

irritation in Baltimore. That city, the largest in the slave

States, … warmly sympathized with the South. Her location on

the railway line which connects Washington with the great

cities of the North imparted to her a peculiar importance.

Consequently, the accomplices of the South, who were numerous

in Baltimore, determined to seize the first opportunity that

might offer to drag that city into the rebellion. … The

looked-for opportunity occurred … April 19. When the Sixth

Massachusetts Regiment, with a few battalions of Pennsylvania

volunteers, arrived at the northern station, an immense crowd

bore down upon them. A line of rails, laid in the centre of

the streets, connected this with the southern station, and

enabled the cars, drawn by horses, to pass through the city.

The crowd surround the soldiers of the Sixth Massachusetts,

who occupy these cars. The last cars are stopped, and the

occupants, being obliged to get out, endeavor to make their

way through the crowd. But, being hemmed in on all sides, they

are soon attacked by a shower of stones, which wound many of

them, and injure a few mortally. The soldiers have to defend

themselves, and the first discharge of musketry, which has

considerable effect, opens them a passage. But the aggressors,

being armed, rally, and a regular battle ensues. … The ground

is strewn with the wounded of both parties. At last, the

Massachusetts soldiers rejoin their comrades at the southern

station," and are conveyed to Washington. "Baltimore was

thenceforth in possession of the secessionists, who were fully

determined to take advantage of the situation of that city to

intercept all communications between Washington and the North.

{3426}

Accordingly, they hastened to burn the railroad bridges which

had been constructed over large estuaries north of Baltimore,

and to cut the telegraph wires. Deprived of all sources of

information from the North, the capital of the Union was soon

wrapped in mournful silence. For some days the occupant of the

White House was unable to forward any instructions to the

people who had remained faithful to the Union; but their zeal

did not abate on that account. Patriotism extinguished all

party animosities in the hearts of most of the Democrats who

had opposed the election of Mr. Lincoln. In the presence of

the national peril they loyally tendered their assistance to

the President; and breaking loose from their former

accomplices of the South, they assumed the name of War

Democrats in opposition to that of Peace Democrats."

_Comte de Paris,

History of the Civil War in America,

volume 1, book 2, chapter 4._

ALSO IN:

_J. W. Hanson,

History of the Sixth Massachusetts Volunteers,

pages 21-57._

_G. W. Brown,

Baltimore and the 29th of April, 1861

(Johns Hopkins University Studies, extra volume 3)._

_Official Records of the War of the Rebellion,

series 1, volume 2._

UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1861 (April: South Carolina).

Monarchical cravings.

Intensity of the Carolinian hatred of New England and the North.

Mr. Russell, who was famous in his day as a correspondent of

"The Times" (London), spent some time in South Carolina at the

beginning of the war, and described the state of feeling there

in a letter from Charleston, written at the end of April:

"Nothing I could say," he wrote, "can be worth one fact which

has forced itself upon my mind in reference to the sentiments

which prevail among the gentlemen of this State. I have been

among them for several days. I have visited their plantations,

I have conversed with them freely and fully, and I have

enjoyed that frank, courteous and graceful intercourse which

constitutes an irresistible charm of their society. From all

quarters have come to my ears the echoes of the same voice. …

That voice says, 'If we could only get one of the royal race

of England to rule over us, we should be content.' Let there

be no misconception on this point. That sentiment, varied in a

hundred ways, has been repeated to me over and over again.

There is a general admission that the means to such an end are

wanting, and that the desire cannot be gratified. But the

admiration for monarchical institutions on the English model,

for privileged classes, and for a landed aristocracy and

gentry, is undisguised and apparently genuine. With the pride

of having achieved their independence is mingled in the South

Carolinians' hearts a strange regret at the result and

consequences, and many are they who 'would go back tomorrow if

we could.' An intense affection for the British connection, a

love of British habits and customs, a respect for British

sentiment, law, authority, order, civilization, and

literature, preeminently distinguish the inhabitants of this

State, who, glorying in their descent from ancient families on

the three islands, whose fortunes they still follow, and with

whose members they maintain not unfrequently familiar

relations, regard with an aversion of which it is impossible

to give an idea to one who has not seen its manifestations,

the people of New England and the populations of the Northern

States, whom they regard as tainted beyond cure by the venom

of 'Puritanism.' Whatever may be the cause, this is the fact

and the effect. 'The State of South Carolina was,' I am told,

'founded by gentlemen.' It was not established by

witch-burning Puritans, by cruel persecuting fanatics, who

implanted in the North the standard of Torquemada, and

breathed into the nostrils of their newly-born colonies all

the ferocity, blood-thirstiness, and rabid intolerance of the

Inquisition. … We could have got on with these fanatics if

they had been either Christians or gentlemen,' says [one],

'for in the first case they would have acted with common

charity, and in the second they would have fought when they

insulted us; but there are neither Christians nor gentlemen

among them!' 'Any thing on earth!' exclaims [another], 'any

form of government, any tyranny or despotism you will; but

'—and here is an appeal more terrible than the adjuration of

all the Gods—'nothing on earth shall ever induce us to submit

to any union with the brutal, bigoted blackguards of the New

England States, who neither comprehend nor regard the feelings

of gentlemen! Man, woman and child, we'll die first.' … The

hatred of the Italian for the Tedesco, of the Greek for the

Turk, of the Turk for the Russ, is warm and fierce enough to

satisfy the prince of darkness, not to speak of a few little

pet aversions among allied powers and the atoms of composite

empires; but they are all mere indifference and neutrality of

feeling compared to the animosity evinced by the 'gentry' of

South Carolina for the 'rabble of the North.' The contests of

Cavalier and Roundhead, of Vendean and Republican, even of

Orangeman and Croppy, have been elegant joustings, regulated

by the finest rules of chivalry, compared with those which

North and South will carry on if their deeds support their

words. 'Immortal hate, the study of revenge' will actuate

every blow, and never in the history of the world, perhaps,

will go forth such a 'væ victis' as that which may be heard

before the fight has begun. There is nothing in all the dark

caves of human passion so cruel and deadly as the hatred the

South Carolinians profess for the Yankees. That hatred has

been swelling for years, till it is the very life-blood of the

state. … Believe a southern man as he believes himself, and

you must regard New England and the kindred States as the

birthplace of impurity of mind among men and of unchastity in

women—the home of free love, of Fourrierism, of infidelity, of

abolitionism, of false teachings in political economy and in

social life; a land saturated with the drippings of rotten

philosophy, with the poisonous infections of a fanatic press;

without honor or modesty; whose wisdom is paltry cunning,

whose valor and manhood have been swallowed up in a corrupt,

howling demagogy, and in the marts of a dishonest commerce."

_W. H. Russell,

Letter to the Times (London), April 30, 1861._

{3427}

UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1861 (April-May).

Proclamation by the Confederate President.

President Lincoln's proclamation of a Blockade of Southern ports.

The Queen's proclamation of British neutrality.

On the 17th of April, two days after President Lincoln's call

for troops, Jefferson Davis, the chief of the rebellious

Confederacy, published a counter-proclamation, giving notice

of the intention of the government at Montgomery to issue

letters of marque to privateers, for the destruction of

American commerce. It was as follows:

"Whereas, Abraham Lincoln, the President of the United States

has, by proclamation announced the intention of invading this

Confederacy with an armed force, for the purpose of capturing

its fortresses, and thereby subverting its independence, and

subjecting the free people thereof to the dominion of a

foreign power; and whereas it has thus become the duty of this

Government to repel the threatened invasion, and to defend the

rights and liberties of the people by all the means which the

laws of nations and the usages of civilized warfare place at

its disposal; Now, therefore, I, Jefferson Davis, President of

the Confederate States of America, do issue this my

Proclamation, inviting all those who may desire, by service in

private armed vessels on the high seas, to aid this Government

in resisting so wanton and wicked an aggression, to make

application for commissions or Letters of Marque and Reprisal,

to be issued under the Seal of these Confederate States. And I

do further notify all persons applying for Letters of Marque,

to make a statement in writing, giving the name and a suitable

description of the character, tonnage, and force of the

vessel, and the name and place of residence of each owner

concerned therein, and the intended number of the crew, and to

sign said statement and deliver the same to the Secretary of

State, or to the Collector of any port of entry of these

Confederate States, to be by him transmitted to the Secretary

of State. And I do further notify all applicants aforesaid

that before any commission or Letter of Marque is issued to

any vessel, the owner or owners thereof, and the commander for

the time being, will be required to give bond to the

Confederate States, with at least two responsible sureties,

not interested in such vessel, in the penal sum of five

thousand dollars; or if such vessel be provided with more than

one hundred and fifty men, then in the penal sum of ten

thousand dollars, with condition that the owners, officers,

and crew who shall be employed on board such commissioned

vessel, shall observe the laws of these Confederate States and

the instructions given to them for the regulation of their

conduct. That they shall satisfy all damages done contrary to

the tenor thereof by such vessel during her commission, and

deliver up the same when revoked by the President of the

Confederate States. And I do further specially enjoin on all

persons holding offices, civil and military, under the

authority of the Confederate States, that they be vigilant and

zealous in discharging the duties incident thereto; and I do,

moreover, solemnly exhort the good people of these Confederate

States as they love their country, as they prize the blessings

of free government, as they feel the wrongs of the past and

these now threatened in aggravated form by those whose enmity

is more implacable because unprovoked, that they exert

themselves in preserving order, in promoting concord, in

maintaining the authority and efficacy of the laws, and in

supporting and invigorating all the measures which may be

adopted for the common defence, and by which, under the

blessing of Divine Providence, we may hope for a speedy, just,

and honorable peace.

In testimony whereof, I have hereunto set my hand, and

caused the Seal of the Confederate States to be affixed,

this seventeenth day of April 1861.

By the President,

(Signed) Jefferson Davis. R. Toombs, Secretary of State."

The response to this menace was a second proclamation by

President Lincoln, announcing a blockade of the ports of the

Confederacy, and warning all persons who should accept and act

under the proposed letters of marque that they would be held

amenable to the laws against piracy. This proclamation was in

the following language:

"Whereas an insurrection against the government of the United

States has broken out in the States of South Carolina,

Georgia, Alabama, Florida, Mississippi, Louisiana, and Texas,

and the laws of the United States for the collection of the

revenue cannot be effectually executed therein conformably to

that provision of the Constitution which requires duties to be

uniform throughout the United States: And whereas a

combination of persons engaged in such insurrection have

threatened to grant pretended letters of marque to authorize

the bearers thereof to commit assaults on the lives, vessels,

and property of good citizens of the country lawfully engaged

in commerce on the high seas, and in waters of the United

States: And whereas an executive proclamation has been already

issued requiring the persons engaged in these disorderly

proceedings to desist therefrom, calling out a militia force

for the purpose of repressing the same, and convening Congress

in extraordinary session to deliberate and determine thereon:

Now, therefore, I, Abraham Lincoln, President of the United

States, with a view to the same purposes before mentioned, and

to the protection of the public peace, and the lives and

property of quiet and orderly citizens pursuing their lawful

occupations, until Congress shall have assembled and

deliberated on the said unlawful proceedings, or until the

same shall have ceased, have further deemed it advisable to

set on foot a blockade of the ports within the States

aforesaid, in pursuance of the laws of the United States, and

of the law of nations in such case provided. For this purpose

a competent force will be posted so as to prevent entrance and

exit of vessels from the ports aforesaid. If, therefore, with

a view to violate such blockade, a vessel shall approach or

shall attempt to leave either of the said ports, she will be

duly warned by the commander of one of the blockading vessels,

who will indorse on her register the fact and date of such

warning, and if the same vessel shall again attempt to enter

or leave the blockaded port, she will be captured and sent to

the nearest convenient port, for such proceedings against her

and her cargo, as prize, as may be deemed advisable. And I

hereby proclaim and declare that if any person, under the

pretended authority of the said States, or under any other

pretense, shall molest a vessel of the United States, or the

persons or cargo on board of her, such person will be held

amenable to the laws of the United States for the prevention

and punishment of piracy. In witness whereof, I have hereunto

set my hand and caused the seal of the United States to be

affixed. Done at the city of Washington, this nineteenth day

of April, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred

and sixty-one, and of the independence of the United States

the eighty-fifth. Abraham Lincoln. By the President: William

H. Seward, Secretary of State."

_Abraham Lincoln,

Complete Works,

volume 2, pages 35-36._

{3428}

Apparently on unofficial information of these announcements,

indicating a state of civil war in the United States, the

Government of Great Britain made haste—unfriendly haste, as

the United States complained—to declare neutrality between the

belligerents, thus placing the insurgent Confederacy on an

exactly equal footing with the United States so far as a

foreign recognition might do so. The Queen's Proclamation was

as follows:

"Whereas, We are happily at peace with all Sovereigns, Powers,

and States; And whereas hostilities have unhappily commenced

between the Government of the United States of America and

certain States styling themselves 'the Confederate States of

America'; And whereas we, being at peace with the Government

of the United States, have declared our Royal determination to

maintain a strict and impartial neutrality in the contest

between the said contending parties; We, therefore, have

thought fit, by and with the advice of our Privy Council, to

issue this our Royal Proclamation: And we do hereby strictly

charge and command all our loving subjects to observe a strict

neutrality in and during the aforesaid hostilities, and to

abstain from violating or contravening either the laws and

statutes of the realm in this behalf, or the law of nations in

relation thereto, as they will answer to the contrary at their

peril." After reciting the language of certain statutes which

forbid the subjects of Her Majesty to engage, without leave

and license from the Crown, in any foreign military or naval

service, or to furnish or equip any ship or vessel for service

against any state with which Her Majesty is not at war, the

Proclamation proceeds as follows: "Now, in order that none of

our subjects may unwarily render themselves liable to the

penalties imposed by said statute, we do hereby strictly

command, that no person or persons whatsoever do commit any

act, matter or thing whatsoever, contrary to the provisions of

the said statute, upon pain of the several penalties by the

said statute imposed, and of our high displeasure. And we do

hereby further warn all our loving subjects, and all persons

whatsoever entitled to our protection, that if any of them

shall presume, in contempt of this Royal Proclamation, and of

our high displeasure, to do any acts in derogation of their

duty as subjects of a neutral sovereign, in the said contest,

or in violation or contravention of the law of nations in that

behalf—as, for example and more especially, by entering into

the military service of either of the said contending parties

as commissioned or non-commissioned officers or soldiers; or

by serving as officers, sailors, or marines on board any ship

or vessel of war or transport of or in the service of either

of the said contending parties; or by serving as officers,

sailors, or marines on board any privateer bearing letters of

marque of or from either of the said contending parties; or by

engaging to go or going to any place beyond the seas with

intent to enlist or engage in any such service, or by

procuring or attempting to procure, within Her Majesty's

dominions, at home or abroad, others to do so; or by fitting

out, arming, or equipping, any ship or vessel to be employed

as a ship-of-war, or privateer, or transport, by either of the

said contending parties; or by breaking, or endeavoring to

break, any blockade lawfully and actually established by or on

behalf of either of the said contending parties; or by

carrying officers, soldiers, despatches, arms, military stores

or materials, or any article or articles considered and deemed

to be contraband of war according to the law of modern usage

of nations, for the use or service of either of the said

contending parties, all persons so offending will incur and be

liable to the several penalties and penal consequences by the

said statute, or by the law of nations, in that behalf imposed

or denounced. And we do hereby declare that all our subjects

and persons entitled to our protection who may misconduct

themselves in the premises will do so at their peril and of

their own wrong, and that they will in no wise obtain any

protection from us against any liability or penal

consequences, but will, on the contrary, incur our high

displeasure by such misconduct.

Given at our Court at the White Lodge, Richmond Park, this

13th day of May, in the year of our Lord 1861, and in the

24th year of our reign. God save the Queen."

In the complaint of the United States subsequently submitted

to the Tribunal of Arbitration at Geneva, the facts attending

this remarkably hastened Proclamation of Neutrality were set

forth as follows: "Before any armed collision had taken place,

there existed an understanding between Her Majesty's

Government and the Government of the Emperor of the French,

with a view to securing a simultaneous and identical course of

action of the two Governments on American questions. … The

fact that it had been agreed to by the two Governments was

communicated to Mr. Dallas, by Lord John Russell, on the first

day of May, 1861. There was nothing in the previous relations

between Great Britain and the United States which made it

necessary for Her Majesty's Government to seek the advice or

to invite the support of the Emperor of the French in the

crisis which was threatened. … When the news of the bloodless

attack upon Fort Sumter became known in Europe, Her Majesty's

Government apparently assumed that the time had come for the

joint action which had been previously agreed upon; and,

without waiting to learn the purposes of the United States, it

announced its intention to take the first step by recognizing

the insurgents as belligerents. The President's Proclamation,

which has since been made the ostensible reason for this

determination, was issued on the 19th of April, and was made

public in the Washington newspapers of the morning of the

20th. An imperfect copy of it was also telegraphed to New

York, and from thence to Boston, in each of which cities it

appeared in the newspapers of the morning of the 20th. The New

York papers of the 20th gave the substance of the

Proclamation, without the official commencement and close, and

with several errors of more or less importance. The Boston

papers of the same date, in addition to the errors in the New

York copy, omitted the very important statement in regard to

the collection of the revenue, which appears in the

Proclamation as the main cause of its issue.

{3429}

During the morning of the 19th of April, a riot took place in

Baltimore, which ended in severing direct communication, by

rail or telegraph, between Washington and New York.

Telegraphic communication was not restored until the 30th of

the month. The regular passage of the mails and trains was

resumed about the same time. … It is absolutely certain that

no full copy of the text of the Proclamation could have left

Washington by the mails of the 19th, and equally certain that

no copy could have reached New York from Washington after the

19th for several days. On the 20th the steamer Canadian sailed

from Portland, taking the Boston papers of that day, with the

imperfect copy of the Proclamation, in which the clause in

regard to the collection of the revenue was suppressed. This

steamer arrived at Londonderry on the 1st of May, and the

'Daily News' of London, of the 2d of May, published the

following telegraphic items of news: 'President Lincoln has

issued a Proclamation, declaring a blockade of all the ports

in the seceded States. The Federal Government will condemn as

pirates all privateer-vessels which may be seized by Federal

ships.' The Canadian arrived at Liverpool on the 2d of May,

and the 'Daily News,' of the 3d, and the 'Times,' of the 4th

of May, published the imperfect Boston copy of the

Proclamation. … No other than the Boston copy of the

Proclamation appears to have been published in the London

newspapers. It is not likely that a copy was received in

London before the 10th, by the Fulton from New York. It was on

this meager and incorrect information that the advice of the

British Law Officers was based, upon which that Government

acted. … On the 5th of May the steamship Persia arrived at

Liverpool with advices from New York to the 25th of April.

Lord John Russell stated on Monday, the 6th of May, in a

communication to Lord Cowley, 'that Her Majesty's Government

received no dispatches from Lord Lyons by the mail which has

just arrived, [the Persia,] the communication between

Washington and New York being interrupted.' In the same

dispatch Lord Cowley is informed 'that Her Majesty's

Government cannot hesitate to admit that such Confederacy is

entitled to be considered as a belligerent, and as such

invested with all the rights and prerogatives of a

belligerent,' and he is instructed to invite the French

Government to a joint action, and a line of joint policy with

the British Government, toward the United States."

_The Case of the United States before the Tribunal

of Arbitration at Geneva

[42d congress, 2d session, Senate ex. doc. 31],

pages 24-27._

"The British government is accustomed to preserve an attitude

of neutrality towards contending nations; but it would seem

that neutrality does not so far interfere with the sympathies

and freedom of its subjects as to compel it to issue

proclamations against Irishmen enlisting with Francis Joseph,

or Englishmen fighting for Victor Emanuel and Garibaldi. … In

the case of the United States, the laws of England and its

treaty stipulations with our Government already forbade its

subjects from engaging in a conspiracy to overthrow our

institutions. The proclamation, therefore, in forbidding

English subjects to fight in the service of the rebels against

the United States, simply declared the law as it was already

understood; while in forbidding Englishmen to fight for the

United States against the rebels, it intervened to change the

existing practice, to revive the almost obsolete act of Geo.

III. forbidding English subjects from engaging in foreign

service without the royal consent, which had slumbered in

regard to Austria and Italy, for the purpose of forbidding

Englishmen from assisting to maintain in the United States

constitutional order against conspiracy and rebellion, and the

cause of freedom against chattel slavery. The first effect of

the proclamation, therefore, was to change the position in

which England and Englishmen stood to the United States, to

the disadvantage of the latter. Before the proclamation, for

an Englishman to serve the United States Government in

maintaining its integrity was regarded honorable; after the

proclamation such service became a crime. The proclamation

makes it an offence now for an Englishman to fight for the

Government at Washington as great as it was for Englishmen

before the proclamation to fight for the rebels of Montgomery.

It thus, in a moral view, lowered the American Government to

the level of the rebel confederacy, and in the next place, it

proceeded, in an international view, to place the rebel

confederacy on a par with the American Government. … No

ingenuity can blind us to these facts:—Before the

proclamation, to support our Government was an honorable

office for the subjects of Great Britain, and the rebels were

insurgents, with no rights save under the American

Constitution. After the proclamation, for an Englishman to

serve the United States is a crime, and the rebels are

elevated into a belligerent power—and this intervention of

England, depriving us of a support which her practice

permitted, and giving the rebels a status and right they did

not possess, we are coolly told is neutrality. … What would

England have said to such a proclamation of neutrality from us

in her domestic troubles in Canada, in Ireland, or in India?

What would the English people have thought of a state paper

from Washington, declaring it the sovereign will of the people

of the United States to remain perfectly neutral in the

contest being waged in Hindostan between the British

government on the one side and the Mogul dynasty on the other,

and forbidding American citizens to enter the services of

either of the said belligerents? What would they have thought

of the American President intimating with cold etiquette that

it was a matter of profound indifference to this Government

which of the belligerents should be victorious, the King of

Oude and Nana Sahib, or Lord Canning and the immortal

Havelock?"

_John Jay,

The Great Conspiracy:

Address at Mount Kisco, July 4, 1861._

ALSO IN:

_J. H. Soley,

The Blockade and the Cruisers,

chapter 2._

_W. H. Seward,

Works,

volume 5

(Diplomatic History of the War)._

_J. G. Nicolay and J. Hay,

Abraham Lincoln,

volume 4, chapter 15._

_M. Bernard,

Historical Account of the Neutrality of Great Britain

during the American Civil War,

chapters 4-10._

See, also, ALABAMA CLAIMS.

{3430}

UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1861 (April-May: Maryland).

The ending of rebellious trouble in Baltimore and the state.

General Butler in the field.

The Eighth Massachusetts Regiment, Colonel Monroe, arrived at

Philadelphia on the 20th of April, the day following the

passage of the Sixth Massachusetts Regiment through Baltimore,

and its battle with the rebel mob of that city. The Eighth was

accompanied by General Benjamin F. Butler, who had been

appointed by the Governor of Massachusetts to command the

first brigade from that state. At Philadelphia General Butler

"first heard of the attack on the Sixth, in Baltimore. His

orders commanded him to march through that city. It was now

impossible to do so with less than 10,000 armed men. He

counselled with Major-General Robert Patterson, who had just

been appointed commander of the 'Department of Washington,'

which embraced the States of Pennsylvania, Delaware, and

Maryland, and the District of Columbia, and whose

head-quarters were at Philadelphia. Commodore Dupont,

commandant of the Navy Yard there, was also consulted, and it

was agreed that the troops should go by water from Perryville,

at the mouth of the Susquehanna River, to Annapolis, and

thence across Maryland to Washington." This route was

accordingly taken by General Butler. Colonel Lefferts, who had

reached Philadelphia with the New York Seventh Regiment,

preferred to attempt going directly to Washington by a steamer

which he secured for the purpose; but a report of rebel

batteries on the Potomac turned him back, and his regiment,

likewise, proceeded to Annapolis, arriving there some hours

after the Eighth Massachusetts. Despite the protests and

remonstrances of the Governor of Maryland-who was striving

hard to put his state in an attitude of "neutrality," and to

persuade the national government to respect it by passing no

armed troops across Maryland soil—both regiments were landed,

and took possession of the town, where the secessionists were

making ready to capture the Naval Academy and the training

ship Constitution. The track of the railroad from Annapolis

had been torn up and the locomotives disabled. The mechanics

of the Massachusetts Eighth proceeded quickly to repair both,

and the two regiments moved forward. "The troops reached

Annapolis Junction on the morning of the 25th, when the

co-operation of the two regiments ceased, the Seventh New York

going on to Washington, and the Eighth Massachusetts remaining

to hold the road they had just opened. Before their departure

from Annapolis, the Baltic, a large steamship transport, had

arrived there with troops, and officers speedily followed.

General Scott ordered General Butler to remain there, hold the

town and the road, and superintend the forwarding of troops to

the Capital. The 'Department of Annapolis,' which embraced the

country twenty miles on each side of the railway, as far as

Bladensburg, was created, and General Butler was placed in

command of it, with ample discretionary powers to make him a

sort of military dictator. … At the close of April, General

Butler had full 10,000 men under his command at Annapolis, and

an equal number were guarding the seat of Government

[Washington]." Meantime, Baltimore had been given up to the

control of the Secessionists, though the Maryland Unionists

were numerous and strong and were gathering courage to assert

themselves. But the rebellious and riotous city was now

brought to its senses. On the 5th of May General Butler sent

two regiments to occupy the Relay House, within nine miles of

Baltimore. On the 9th, a force of 1,200 Pennsylvania troops

and regulars, ordered forward by General Patterson from

Philadelphia, were landed near Fort McHenry, under the guns of

a United States vessel, and marched through the city. On the

night of the 13th, General Butler, in person, with about 1,000

men, including the Massachusetts Sixth, entered the place and

took a commanding position on Federal Hill, which was

afterwards permanently fortified. From that day the disloyalty

in Baltimore gave no trouble to the Government.

_B. J. Lossing,

Field Book of the Civil War,

volume 1, chapter 18._

ALSO IN:

_Official Records of the War of the Rebellion,

series 1, volume 2._

_J. Parton,

General Butler in New Orleans,

chapters 4-5._

_T. Winthrop,

New York Seventh Regiment: Our March to Washington

(Life in the Open Air)._

UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1861 (May).

Call for additional volunteers.

On the 3d of May the President issued a call for forty

additional regiments of volunteers; directed an increase of

the regular army by ten regiments, and ordered the enlistment

of 18,000 seamen—acts subsequently legalized by Congress.

UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1861 (May).

Exportation of cotton from the Confederacy,

excepting through its seaports, prohibited.

On the 21st of May, 1861, the Congress of the Confederate

States passed an act declaring that "from and after the 1st

day of June next, and during the existence of the blockade of

any of the ports of the Confederate States of America by the

Government of the United States, it shall not be lawful for

any person to export any raw cotton or cotton yarn from the

Confederate States of America except through the seaports of

the said Confederate States."

UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1861 (May).

Secession of North Carolina.

See NORTH CAROLINA: A. D. 1861 (JANUARY-MAY).

UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1861 (May).

General Butler at Fortress Monroe and his "Contrabands."

The first military thrust at Slavery.

General Butler was commissioned as Major-General of Volunteers

on the 16th of May, and on the 20th he was ordered to the

command at Fortress Monroe. He arrived at the Fortress on the

22d and assumed the command. "On the evening of the second day

after his arrival at the post, the event occurred which will

for ever connect the name of General Butler with the history

of the abolition of slavery in America. Colonel Phelps's visit

to Hampton [the previous day] had thrown the white inhabitants

into such alarm that most of them prepared for flight, and

many left their homes that night, never to see them again. In

the confusion three negroes escaped, and, making their way

across the bridges, gave themselves up to a Union picket,

saying that their master, Colonel Mallory, was about to remove

them to North Carolina to work upon rebel fortifications

there, far away from their wives and children, who were to be

left in Hampton. They were brought to the fortress, and the

circumstance was reported to the general in the morning. … He

needed laborers. He was aware that the rebel batteries that

were rising around him were the work chiefly of slaves,

without whose assistance they could not have been erected in

time to give him trouble. He wished to keep these men. The

garrison wished them kept. The country would have deplored or

resented the sending of them away. If they had been Colonel

Mallory's horses, or Colonel Mallory's spades, or Colonel

Mallory's percussion caps, he would have seized them and used

them without hesitation.

{3431}

Why not property more valuable for the purposes of the

rebellion than any other? He pronounced the electric words,

'These men are Contraband of War; set them at work.' 'An

epigram,' as Winthrop remarks, 'abolished slavery in the

United States.' The word took; for it gave the country an

excuse for doing what it was longing to do. … By the time the

three negroes were comfortably at work upon the new

bake-house, General Butler received the following brief

epistle, signed 'J. B. Carey, major-acting, Virginia

volunteers': 'Be pleased to designate some time and place when

it will be agreeable to you to accord to me a personal

interview.' The general complied with the request." The

interview occurred that afternoon, and was not between

strangers; for General Butler and Major Carey were old

political allies—hard-shell democrats both. The essential part

of the conversation which ensued was as follows: "Major Carey:

'I am informed that three negroes, belonging to Colonel

Mallory, have escaped within your lines. I am Colonel

Mallory's agent and have charge of his property. What do you

intend to do with regard to those negroes?' General Butler: 'I

propose to retain them.' Major Carey: 'Do you mean, then, to

set aside your constitutional obligations?' General Butler: 'I

mean to abide by the decision of Virginia, as expressed in her

ordinance of secession, passed the day before yesterday. I am

under no constitutional obligations to a foreign country,

which Virginia now claims to be.' Major Carey: 'But you say,

we can't secede, and so you cannot consistently detain the

negroes.' General Butler: 'But you say, you have seceded, and

so you cannot consistently claim them. I shall detain the

negroes as contraband of war. You are using them upon your

batteries. It is merely a question whether they shall be used

for or against the government. Nevertheless, though I greatly

need the labor which has providentially fallen into my hands,

if Colonel Mallory will come into the fort, and take the oath

of allegiance to the United States, he shall have his negroes,

and I will endeavor to hire them from him.' Major Carey:

'Colonel Mallory is absent.' The interview here terminated,

and each party, with polite farewell, went its way. This was

on Friday, May 24. On Sunday morning, eight more negroes came

in. … They continued to come in daily, in tens, twenties,

thirties, till the number of contrabands in the various camps

numbered more than 900. A commissioner of negro affairs was

appointed, who taught, fed and governed them." General Butler

reported his action to the Government, and on the 30th of May

the Secretary of War wrote to him: "Your action in respect to

the negroes who came within your lines, from the service of

the rebels, is approved. … While … you will permit no

interference, by persons under your command, with the

relations of persons held to service under the laws of any

state, you will, on the other hand, so long as any state

within which your military operations are conducted remain

under the control of … armed combinations, refrain from

surrendering to alleged masters any persons who come within

your lines." "So the matter rested for two months, at the

expiration of which events revived the question."

_J. Parton,

General Butler in New Orleans,

chapter 6._

UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1861 (May: Virginia).

First Advance of Union Troops across the Potomac.

Death of Ellsworth at Alexandria.

"Already 'Confederate' pickets were occupying Arlington

Heights and the Virginia shore of the Long Bridge, which spans

the Potomac at Washington City; and engineers had been seen on

those heights selecting eligible positions for batteries. A

crisis was evidently at hand, and the General-in-chief was now

persuaded to allow an immediate invasion of Virginia. Orders

were at once issued [May 23] for the occupation of the shores

of the Potomac opposite, and also the city of Alexandria, nine

miles below, by National troops. General Mansfield was in

command of about 13,000 men at the Capital. Toward midnight,

these forces in and around Washington were put in motion for

the passage of the river, at three different points. One

column was to cross at the Aqueduct Bridge, at Georgetown;

another at the Long Bridge, at Washington; and a third was to

proceed in vessels, and seize the city of Alexandria. The

three invading columns moved almost simultaneously. … The

troops moving by land and water reached Alexandria at about

the same time. The National frigate Pawnee was lying off the

town, and her commander had already been in negotiation for

the evacuation of Alexandria by the insurgents. A detachment

of her crew, bearing a flag of truce, now hastened to the

shore in boats, and leaped eagerly upon the wharf just before

the zouaves [the New York Fire Zouave Regiment, under Colonel

Ellsworth] reached it. They were fired upon by some Virginia

sentries, who instantly fled from the town. Ellsworth,

ignorant of any negotiations, advanced to the center of the

city, and took possession of it in the name of his Government,

while the column under Wilcox marched through different

streets to the Station of the Orange and Alexandria Railway,

and seized it, with much rolling stock. They there captured a

small company (thirty-five men) of Virginia cavalry, under

Captain Ball. Other Virginians, who had heard the firing of

the insurgent pickets, escaped by way of the railroad.

Alexandria was now in quiet possession of the National troops,

but there were many violent secessionists there who would not

submit. Among them was a man named Jackson, the proprietor of

an inn called the Marshall House. The Confederate flag had

been flying over his premises for many days, and had been

plainly seen from the President's house in Washington. It was

still there, and Ellsworth went in person to take it down.

When descending an upper staircase with it, he was shot by

Jackson, who was waiting for him in a dark passage, with a

double-barreled gun, loaded with buckshot. Ellsworth fell

dead, and his murderer met the same fate an instant afterward,

at the hands of Francis E. Brownell, of Troy, who, with six

others, had accompanied his commander to the roof of the

house. He shot Jackson through the head with a bullet, and

pierced his body several times with his saber-bayonet. …

Ellsworth was a very young and extremely handsome man, and was

greatly beloved for his generosity, and admired for his

bravery and patriotism. His death produced great excitement

throughout the country. It was the first of note that had

occurred in consequence of the National troubles, and the very

first since the campaign had actually begun, a few hours

before.

{3432}

It intensified the hatred of rebellion and its abettors; and a

regiment was raised in his native State (New York) called the

Ellsworth Avengers. Intrenching tools were sent over the

Potomac early on the morning of the 24th, and the troops

immediately commenced casting up intrenchments and redoubts,

extending from Roach's Spring, on the Washington and

Alexandria Road, across Arlington Heights, almost to the Chain

Bridge."

_B. J. Lossing,

Field Book of the Civil War,

volume 1, chapter 20._

ALSO IN:

_F. Moore,

Anecdotes, Poetry and Incidents of the War,

page 391._

_J. T. Headley,

The Great Rebellion,

chapter 5._

UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1861 (May-June).

Tennessee dragged into the rebel Confederacy.

Loyal resistance of East Tennessee.

See TENNESSEE: A. D. 1861 (JANUARY-MAY) and (JUNE).

UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1861 (May-July: Missouri).

The baffling of the 'Secessionists in Missouri.

Lyon's capture of Camp Jackson.

The Battle of Boonville.

See MISSOURI: A. D. 1861 (FEBRUARY-JULY).

UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1861 (May-September: Kentucky).

The struggle for the state.

Secession and Neutrality overcome.

See KENTUCKY: A. D. 1861 (JANUARY-SEPTEMBER).

UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1861 (June: Virginia).

The fight at Big Bethel.

"Major-General Butler and staff arrived at Fortress Monroe

Wednesday afternoon, May 22d. … Colonel Magruder—late Colonel

in the United States service, and an officer of much

distinction as an obstinate combatant—was placed in command

(rebel) of the Peninsula. … Troops rapidly poured into

Butler's department, and he soon found himself in a condition

to act on the offensive. Magruder's scouts and cavalry greatly

annoyed the two camps mentioned. They had, also, seized

several Union men. These raids became so frequent and annoying

that a night attack was concerted upon their positions at

Little Bethel and Big Bethel—the latter, near the north branch

of Back River, where it was understood Magruder's outposts

were throwing up strong works. Brigadier-General Pierce, of

the Massachusetts troops, was detailed to command the

expedition. … Approaching the enemy's position at Big Bethel,

it was found that their guns commanded all points of approach.

The road leading up to the bridge over the creek was swept by

their artillery. A thick woods to the left of the road

afforded some protection to the Federal left. An open field on

the right of the approach only offered a house and

out-buildings as a cover. The enemy occupied a hill, beyond

the creek, which almost completely secured their front. At

their rear was a dense wood. This gave them the advantage of

ground, greatly. A reconnaissance would have demonstrated the

futility of a front attack except by artillery. The only hope

for the Federals was in a flank movement, higher up the creek,

by which, the stream being passed, the enemy could be

assaulted in their works, at the point of the bayonet, if

necessary. This movement was only attempted partially at a

late hour in the day. The rebels were well prepared, and only

awaited the appearance of the head of the Federal advance to

open a sharp fire. … The fight was, from the first, extremely

unequal. A front attack was sheer folly. But, the flank

movement was not ordered. … The fortunes of the day needed but

a master-hand to direct them, to have turned in favor of the

Union troops. … Lieutenant-Colonel Washburne had … arranged

for a flank movement which, with a combined attack from the

front, must have ended the struggle; but the order for retreat

was given before the movement could be executed. … The Federal

loss was 14 killed, 49 wounded and five missing. Among the

killed were two of the most gallant and noble men in the

service—Major Theodore Winthrop, Secretary and Aid to General

Butler, and first-Lieutenant John T. Greble, of the United

States regular artillery, Second regiment. The rebels

pronounced their loss to have been but one killed and four

wounded. The retreat was accomplished in good order—the enemy

not pursuing."

_O. J. Victor,

History of the Southern Rebellion,

volume 2, division 4, chapter 18._

ALSO IN:

_W. C. Bryant and S. H. Gay,

Popular History of the United States,

volume 4, chapter 17._

_Life and Poems of Theodore Winthrop,

chapter 9._

_Official Records,

series 1, volume 2._

UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1861 (June-July: West Virginia).

General McClellan's campaign in the mountains.

Rich Mountain and Carrick's Ford.

"Although some thousands of West Virginians had volunteered to

fight for the Union, none of them were encamped on the soil of

their State until after the election held [May 23] to ratify

or reject the Ordinance of Secession. …

See VIRGINIA: A. D. 1861 (JANUARY-JUNE)]

The Virginians who volunteered were mustered in and organized

at Camp Carlile, in Ohio, opposite Wheeling, under the command

of Colonel Kelly, himself a Virginian. George B. McClellan,

who had been appointed a Major-General and assigned to the

command of the Department of the Ohio, remained at Cincinnati,

his home. Three days after the election aforesaid, he issued

from that city a spirited address 'To the Union men of Western

Virginia.' … A brief and stirring address to his soldiers was

issued simultaneously with the above; and, both being read to

those in Camp Carlile that evening, the 1st Virginia, 1,100

strong, Colonel Kelly, crossed to Wheeling early next morning,

closely followed by the 16th Ohio, Colonel Irvine. The 14th

Ohio, Colonel Steedman, crossed simultaneously, and quietly

occupied Parkersburg, the terminus of the Northwestern branch

of the Baltimore and Ohio road. A Rebel force, then holding

Grafton, which connected the branch aforesaid with the main or

Wheeling division of the railroad, had meditated a descent on

Wheeling; but, finding themselves anticipated and outnumbered,

they obstructed and destroyed the railroad west of them," and

fell back to Philippi, some fifteen miles southward. "General

McClellan having ordered that Philippi be captured by

surprise, the attempt was made on the night of June 2d. Two

brigades of two regiments each approached the Rebel camp by

different roads" and dispersed it completely, with some loss

on both sides, capturing the tents, provisions and munitions.

The Rebel commander, Colonel Porterfield, "gathering up such

portion of his forces as he could find, retreated hastily to

Beverly, and thence to Huttonsville; where the Rebel array was

rapidly increased by conscription, and Governor Wise placed in

command. General McClellan arrived at Grafton on the 23d. …

His forces were rapidly augmented, till they amounted, by the

4th of July, to over 30,000 men; while the Rebels in his front

could hardly muster 10,000 in all.

{3433}

He therefore resolved to advance. The Rebel main force,

several thousand strong, under General Robert S. Garnett, was

strongly intrenched on Laurel Hill, a few miles north of

Beverly, … while a smaller detachment, under Colonel John

Pegram was intrenched upon the summit and at either base of

Rich Mountain … three or four miles distant from the Rebel

main body." General Rosecrans, sent by a detour of eight miles

through the mountains to Pegram's rear, drove the rebels (July

11) from their position, at the point of the bayonet; and the

following day their commander, with about 600 men, was forced

to surrender. "General McClellan pushed on to Beverly, which

he entered early next morning, flanking General Garnett's

position at Laurel Hill and compelling him to a precipitate

flight northward. Six cannon, 200 tents, 60 wagons and over

100 prisoners, were the trophies of this success. The Rebel

loss in killed and wounded was about 150; the Union about 50.

General Garnett, completely flanked, thoroughly worsted, and

fearfully outnumbered, abandoned his camp at Laurel Hill

without a struggle, crossing the Laurel Mountains eastward, by

a by-road, into the narrow valley of Cheat river. … At length,

having crossed the Cheat at a point known as Carrick's Ford,

which proffered an admirable position for defense. Garnett

turned [July 14] to fight." But the Union force which pursued

him was overpowering; Garnett himself was killed in the battle

at the Ford and his command fled in confusion. General

McClellan telegraphed to Washington, next day, from

Huttonsville: "We have completely annihilated the enemy in

Western Virginia. Our loss is about 13 killed and not more

than 40 wounded; while the enemy's loss is not far from 200

killed; and the number of prisoners we have taken will amount

to at least 1,000. We have captured seven of the enemy's guns

in all. A portion of Garnett's forces retreated; but I look

for their capture by General Hill, who is in hot pursuit."

"This expectation was not realized. The pursuit was only

continued two miles beyond the ford; when our weary soldiers

halted, and the residue of the Rebels, under Colonel Ramsey,

turning sharply to the right, made their way across the

mountains, and joined General Jackson at Monterey." Meantime,

simultaneously with General McClellan's advance on Beverly,

another strong Union force, under General Cox, had moved from

Guyandotte to the Kanawha, and up that river to Charleston,

which it reached on the 25th of July. Governor Wise, who

commanded the rebels in the Kanawha Valley, retreated, General

Cox pursuing, until the pursuit was checked on the 29th by

Wise's destruction of Gauley bridge. The rebels then made good

their flight to Lewisburg, in Greenbrier county, where Wise

was reinforced and superseded by General John B. Floyd.

_H. Greeley,

The American Conflict,

volume 1, chapter 32._

"The war in Western Virginia seemed to have ended with the

dispersion of Garnett's forces, and there was much rejoicing

over the result. It was premature. The 'Confederates' were not

disposed to surrender to their enemy the granaries that would

be needed to supply the troops in Eastern Virginia, without a

severer struggle. General Robert E. Lee succeeded Garnett, and

more important men than Wise and Floyd took the places of

these incompetents. Rosecrans succeeded McClellan, who was

called to the command of the Army of the Potomac, and the war

in the mountain region of Virginia was soon renewed."

_B. J. Lossing,

Field Book of the Civil War,

volume 1, chapter 22._

ALSO IN:

_Official Records of the War of the Rebellion,

series 1, volume 2, page 193-293._

_V. A. Lewis,

History of West Virginia,

chapter 28._

_J. D. Cox,

McClellan in West Virginia

(Battles and Leaders of the Civil War, volume 1)._

UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1861 (July).

First depredations of the Confederate cruiser Sumter.

See ALABAMA CLAIMS: A. D. 1861-1862.

UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1861 (July: Virginia).

The seat of the rebel government transferred to Richmond.

See VIRGINIA: A. D. 1861 (JULY).

[Image: The Principal Theatre of War in Virginia.]

UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1861 (July: Virginia).

On to Richmond.

The First Battle of Bull Run, or Manassas.

"The Southern Government having inclined to the defensive

policy as that upon which they should act, their first object

was to prevent an advance of any Federal force into Virginia.

Early in the month of May troops were assembled in Richmond,

and pushed forward toward the northeastern boundary of the

State, to a position known as Manassas Junction. … It is here

that a railroad from Alexandria, another from Staunton up the

valley and through Manassas Gap, and another from Gordonsville

unite. At Gordonsville the railroad from Richmond and the line

from East Tennessee unite. As a point for concentration none

more eligible exists in northeastern Virginia. The advantages

for fortification are naturally such that the place can be

rendered impregnable. Here the centre of the northern force of

the Southern army was posted, with the left wing pushed

forward to Winchester [under the command of General Joseph E.

Johnston, with the Union General Patterson opposed to him] and

the right extended to the Potomac, and sustained by heavy

batteries which served to blockade the river. The Federal

force, the advance of which was assembled at Washington for

the defence of that city against any attack by the Southern

troops, was posted on the Virginia side of the Potomac, on

Arlington Heights, which were strongly fortified. Their right

was pushed some distance up the Potomac, and chiefly on the

Maryland side, while their left occupied Alexandria. The

armies of both sides consisted of raw militia hastily brought

together, and of volunteers who for the first time had put on

the uniform, and taken up the weapons of the soldier. On both

sides the forces were constantly accumulating. On the morning

of June 27th, the consolidated report of General Mansfield,

commanding the Department of Washington, gives the number of

troops in that city and vicinity. The privates, including

regulars and volunteers present for duty, numbered 22,846 men.

The grand aggregate of the force, including officers, etc.,

present and absent, was 34,160 men. The force of General

Patterson, commanding in Maryland above Washington, and also

on the Virginia side of the Potomac, on the 28th of June, was

returned, embracing officers and men enlisted and present for

duty, 15,923. Of these about 550 were reported as sick."

_W. J. Tenney,

Military and Naval History of the Rebellion,

page 67._

{3434}

"The return of Johnston's [Confederate] army for June 30th

showed his total force present for duty to have been 10,654;

but this includes some troops which, though assigned to his

army, did not join him till after July 3d. … A prime object of

Johnston in taking post at Winchester was, that he might be

enabled to join the army at Manassas in case of need. On June

2d, only a week after Johnston's arrival at Harper's Ferry,

Beauregard had reached Manassas and assumed command. He and

Johnston at once communicated with each other, and agreed in

their views of the importance of mutual support. … As soon as

Johnston ascertained … that McClellan [from West Virginia] was

not moving on Romney and Winchester, the feasibility of this

movement to Manassas at the right time became greater. The

only problem then remaining was to so time it as to arrive

just long enough before the impending battle to take part in

it, and not so long as to cause, by the news of his arrival, a

corresponding transfer of Patterson. … It was for the purpose

of gaining as much start as possible on Patterson that

Johnston had retired to Winchester, instead of remaining

opposite the Northern force at Martinsburg. He kept his

cavalry well out, in order to be informed as promptly as

possible of the slightest change in Patterson's position.

Meanwhile the grand Federal advance upon Manassas had

commenced."

_R. M. Hughes,

General Johnston,

pages 47-51._

The advance from Washington, which began on the 16th of July,

and which resulted in the grievous defeat of the Union forces

at Bull Run, or Manassas, on Sunday, the 21st, was undertaken

to appease the impatient, ignorant clamor of Northern

newspapers, and in opposition to the judgment and the plans of

General Scott, who was then at the head of the National army.

The cry "On to Richmond" was taken up by Congressmen and

Senators, and the pressure on the government became too strong

to be resisted. Instead of keeping the raw troops, hurriedly

gathered at Washington, in camps of instruction, until they

were properly drilled and until their officers had acquired

some experience in handling them, they were hurriedly pushed

into a serious campaign movement, against an enemy likewise

untrained, to be sure, but who was far better prepared to

receive an attack than the assailants were to make one.

General Irwin McDowell had been recently placed in command of

the army intended for the field, with General Mansfield

commanding the troops in Washington. The former had "entered

on his new and responsible duties with great alacrity, working

night and day to prepare his command for the approaching

conflict. … McDowell was laboring at a great

disadvantage—drilling and preparing his troops as best he

could—under the heavy pressure from the North to deliver

battle to the enemy in his front. Secretary Chase was the

champion, in the Cabinet, of the intense feeling in the North

that the war should be pushed at once, with a vigor that would

end it soon. … There is no doubt that General Scott was

weakened with the administration, for the reason that he did

not believe in the prevailing opinion that a few days would

crush the rebellion; and the more the old hero insisted, or

faithfully stood by his views, the more it antagonized the

opinion of those who hoped and said it would end speedily. At

the Cabinet meeting a week before, General Hamilton says:

'General Montgomery Blair said he would march to Richmond with

10,000 men, armed with lathes.' 'Yes,' said General Scott, 'as

prisoners of war.' Continuing General Hamilton's statement of

the events which occurred prior to the battle and during its

progress, he says: 'On the Sunday preceding the battle of Bull

Run, Scott directed me, his military secretary, to say to

McDowell that he wished him to dine with him without fail. At

the dinner, at which General McDowell appeared, General Scott

used every possible argument to dissuade General McDowell from

fighting the first battle of Bull Run under the then existing

condition of public affairs. … He then begged General McDowell

to go to Secretary Chase, his kinsman, and aid him (General

Scott) in preventing a forward movement at that moment; one of

the arguments used by General Scott being that the Union

sentiment of the South had been surprised by the suddenness

and promptitude of the movement in favor of secession; that he

(General Scott) was well advised that the Union sentiment was

recovering itself, and gaining head in the South; that from

the moment blood was shed the South would be made a unit.

General McDowell regretted that he could not agree with

General Scott in his views, and arose and retired. … In the

course of the succeeding week General McDowell reported to

General Scott his proposed plan of battle. It was hung upon

the wall, and I followed with a pointer the positions

indicated by General McDowell as those he intended the forces

under his command should occupy. After General McDowell had

gone through a detailed statement of his plan, and had

finished, General Scott remarked, "General McDowell, that is

as good a plan of battle as I ever saw upon paper." General

McDowell said in rep]y: "General Scott, the success of this

whole plan depends upon General Patterson holding General

Johnston in check at Winchester." General Scott remarked that

General Johnston was a very able soldier, that he had a

railroad at his command with which to move his troops, and if

General McDowell's plan of battle, which had just been

presented to him, depended upon General Patterson holding

General Johnston in check, his plan was not worth the paper it

was drawn upon.' That ended that interview."

_J. H. Stine,

History of the Army of the Potomac,

pages 7-10._