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CHAPTER XXIV

F.RST PERIOD OF THE CIVIL WAR (1860-1863)

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265. Secession. Though Lincoln would have been satisfied simply to stop slavery from spreading further, South Carolina at once called a convention, as had been done in 1832 (§ 212), to speak the mind of the people of the state. In the midst of this excitement Congress met (December 3), and President Buchanan sent in a message which argued that no state has a right to secede from the Union, but if a state does secede, the Federal government has no right to prevent it.

Such weak reasoning could not hold South Carolina back. On December 20, a convention passed an ordinance declaring that the state was no longer a part of the Union; and the Charleston newspapers began to print dispatches from the North under the title "Foreign Intelligence."

All parts of the state obeyed the ordinance, except three forts in Charleston harbor which had been built by the Federal government and held Federal troops. While commissioners were in Washington demanding that these forts should be given up, Major Anderson, who was in command, moved his troops (December 26) from the weak Fort Moultrie to the strong Fort Sumter. Buchanan was ready to turn Fort Sumter

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I could secede.

Charleston Harbor and Fort Sumter

over to South Carolina, and thereby to admit that a state His Cabinet prevented this. From that a mere figurehead; he had no power as

time he was

President.

HART'S SCH. HIST. 10

329

As had been planned beforehand, six more states quickly seceded, taking in the whole belt from South Carolina to Texas; but the eight other slave states held off. Delegates from the seceded states formed at Montgomery, Alabama, a government which they called the Confederate States of America (February, 1861), and Jefferson Davis was chosen its President. Nearly all the United States arsenals, public buildings, forts, and navy yards in the South were seized. Volunteer soldiers were drilling all through that section; but the southerners could not believe that the North would fight, and for several months they allowed the United States still to carry their mails.

266. Attempts to Compromise (1860-1861). — What could be done to save the Union? Many southern men loved it; among them was Alexander H. Stephens of Georgia (§ 253), who urged that there was no good reason for secession. Why could not some law or constitutional amendment be passed that would satisfy both parties?

Special committees were appointed in both houses of Congress to work on this problem, but neither Jefferson Davis, who represented the South, nor Seward, who was spokesman for the Republicans, would make concessions that the other side could accept. We now know that Abraham Lincoln advised his friends not to vote for any compromise that would allow the South to annex more slave territory and admit more slave states; and everybody thought that unless slavery could have more room it would surely die out. Nevertheless, Lincoln could not believe that the South really meant to leave the Union.

The compromise committees failed, as did other plans. When Congress expired (March 3, 1861), it was clear that the seven Confederate states meant to stay out of the Union; and therefore the only good that compromise could do would be to keep in the Union all or part of the eight other slave states. Meanwhile twelve southern Senators and thirty-one members of the House had left Congress. All this while Major Anderson, with his little garrison, was holding on in Fort Sumter, waiting for orders from the new President.

RIGHT OR WRONG OF SECESSION

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267. Right or Wrong of Secession (1861). When Lincoln was inaugurated (March 4, 1861) secession was already a fact. When the southern members withdrew from Congress the northern majority admitted Kansas as a free state, with 110,000 people. This made thirty-four states, but seven of them had ceased to take any part in the Union. The critical questions were: Would the other slaveholding states follow? Would all the nineteen free states stand by the United States government in resisting secession?

Here was one of the many cases where what people think is as important as what they do. Without doubt most of the southern people thought secession was right; it was believed and taught by their great public men, like Calhoun, and Jefferson Davis, and Alexander H. Stephens. Most of the thinking men and women of the South considered the Union to be what

it was called in nullification times, a compact between sovereign states" (§ 213). If the North would not stand by the Constitution as the South understood it, and protect slavery, the southerners held that they were released from all obligations to the Union, and could secede. They looked on secession as one of the rights which by the Constitution were "reserved to the states respectively or to the people." Hence, they always resented being called "rebels"; they said that they were not in rebellion, but were carrying on a war between the states."

A few of the northern people accepted that doctrine, and many more thought that if the southern people were bent on secession there was no use in trying to stop them. Horace Greeley was writing day after day in the New York Tribune, "Let the erring sisters go in peace." William Lloyd Garrison (§ 204) was pleased at the idea of at last being rid of the slaveholders.

Yet by far the greater number of northerners believed with Webster that the Union was "a people's government"; that the Constitution bound every state that had ratified it, and every new state that had been admitted into the Union; and that secession was nothing but treason and rebellion. They felt that the United States of America was greater than

the states, and that to break up the Union was also a sin in the sight of God.

Many southerners who sincerely loved the Union, such as Robert E. Lee, believed that if their state seceded, they were morally bound to go along. We must respect their honesty,

but we must also respect the honesty of General Winfield Scott, Admiral David Farragut, and scores of other southerners who saw their duty differently, and gave their loyalty and service to the United States, though

their own

seceded.

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states

268. Real Reasons for Secession (1861). In any case, most northern people and some southerners felt that there was no danger to the South which required secession. The Democrats, who were not hostile to slavery, would still have a majority in the Senate, and perhaps in the next House, and the majority of the Supreme Court favored slavery; the President would be the only antislavery part of the government. Let us set down. the main reasons put forward by the southern secessionists for their action:

General Robert E. Lee, 1807-1870

(1) The northern states would not perform their duties; an evidence was the Personal Liberty Laws (§ 256) which

REASONS FOR SECESSION

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interfered with the capture of fugitive slaves. On this point Lincoln advised that, as far as such laws were contrary to the Constitution, they should be withdrawn.

(2) The North was banded together to prevent the further spread of slavery. This was the main reason for secession as stated in the southern newspapers, speeches, and addresses prepared by the seceding conventions.

(3) The strong language of the abolitionists against "our domestic institutions" could no longer be borne. -- Robert Toombs of Georgia said that the matter would be settled if the North would call slavery right.

(4) Whatever Lincoln might do, the North as a section was opposed to slavery and would use its majority of states and voters to destroy slavery. That fear was justified though the danger was not yet close.

On the other hand, the Republicans, who were now made up nearly equally of former Whigs and former Democrats, stated their complaints about as follows:

(1) The South had for years browbeaten the North, and had tried to stop the discussion of slavery in public meetings, in newspapers, and even in Congress.

(2) The South had annexed Texas and New Mexico so as to provide more slave states, and was trying to annex Cuba for the same purpose.

(3) The South demanded that the northern states should allow slaveholders to hold slaves in the free states for short periods.

(4) The South had broken the slavery compromises and the Constitution, and was willing to destroy the Union which had done so much for both sections.

269. Outbreak of War (April, 1861). It chanced that the issue soon changed from arguments about secession to the vital question whether Fort Sumter should be given up to the southern Confederacy. In January, Buchanan's administration sent the merchant steamer Star of the West to carry provisions to the garrison; but it was fired upon by the South Carolina batteries, and turned back. After that everybody waited till Lincoln should be inaugurated.

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