CHAPTER XII.

THE DEVELOPMENT OF DISUNION-CONTINUED.

ELECTION of Lincoln - South Carolina leads Secession - Activity of the Disunionists-Action in Georgia, Mississippi and Alabama - Southern Reliance on a Million of Northern Democrats as a Wall of Fire - Making Treason Attractive Judge Magrath - Henry A. Wise offers his Services to South Carolina - Jeff. Davis anxious for a Harvest of Death - The Meeting of Congress - Description of the Dramatis Persona in the Senate Douglas Hamlin, Vice-President elect Lane, the Defeated ilunter and Bayard - Sumner and Lord Lyons - Hale and Seward - The Reading of the President's Message in the House The South Carolina Representatives -Groups in the Senate - Exciting Debate on the Message-Clingman Justifies the South-Saulsbury alludes to the Constitution The Senate Committee of Thirteen and House Committee of Thirty-three on the state of the Union - The Seizure of the Forts Anticipated - The Cabinet Falling to pieces - Howell Cobb Resigns-Lewis Cass breaks his Sword a Second Time His occupation gone - Wigfall's Violent Speech - Wade's Declaration of Lincoln's Policy - The Laws to be Executed and Revenues to be Collected - A Republic of Free Labor - The House Committee at WorkAddress of Southern Senators and Representatives for a "Southern Confederacy."

As both North and South, on very different grounds, desired, Abraham Lincoln was elected President of the United States.* The election, which on usual occasions, quiets popular commotion, but added to the anxieties and excitements of the day. The South had at last made its opportu nity, and the long cherished schemes and hopes of at least one of the Southern States were being put into a form of temporary realization. Of course South Carolina took the lead in the secession movement. Her Legislature met on

The popular vote stood thus: Lincoln, 1,857,610; Douglas, 1,365,976; Breckinridge, 847,953; and Bell, 590,631. In the Electoral College the votes stood: Lincoln, 180; Douglas, 12; Breckinridge, 72; and Bell 39.

the 4th of November, and, while going through the for mality of casting her Electoral vote for President of the United States, in the same breath called for a Convention to break up the Union. The activity and esprit of the Disunionists kept up a continued and effectual clamor, and although a well-defined division soon began to show itself in several of the Southern States in regard to the position the South should assume, the well-directed and unceasing actions of the ultras seemed to fill the public ear. They controlled the chief journals, the most rebellious actions were the most highly commended, and the encomiums paid to treasonable speech was in the ratio to its audacity. Agents from Georgia, Mississippi and Alabama were promptly sent North to purchase the best arms "without regard to expense." Mr. Keitt declared it to be the mission of South Carolina to sever the "accursed Union," or if not, to grasp the pillars of the State and bury the States of the Republic in common ruin. He was applauded to the echo. He had great reliance on Northern aid, and told his hearers that a million of Democrats in the North would stand, like a wall of fire, to prevent the Republicans from coercing the South. To keep up the spirits of the timid, South Carolina declared she could, within thirty days, if necessary, place two hundred thousand men in the field. Every thing was done to make treason attractive. Judge Magrath, of the United States District Court, resigned on the election of Lincoln. Such noble conduct should not go unrewarded; a subscription was set on foot to present him with a service of plate. Henry A. Wise offered his services to South Carolina, if they were not needed by Virginia, which at the time was deliberating, and, like the woman who deliberates, was soon lost. Jeff. Davis, addressing the people of Vicksburg, said:

'If Mississippi, in her sovereign capacity, decides to submit to the rule of an arrogant and sectional North, then I will sit me down as one upon whose brow the brand of infamy and degradation has been

written, and bear my portion of the bitter trial. But if, on the other hand, Mississippi decides to resist the hand that would tarnish the bright star which represents her on the national flag, then I will come at your bidding, whether by day or by night, and pluck that star from the galaxy, and place it upon a banner of its own. I will plant it upon the crest of battle, and gathering around me the nucleus of Mississippi's best and bravest, will welcome the invader to the harvest of death; and future generations will point to a small hillock upon our border, which will tell the reception with which the invader was met upon our soil.”

Thus the time between the election of Lincoln and the meeting of Congress was filled with dreadful notes of preparation. Congress-the Second Session of the Thirtysixth-assembled on the 3d of December, and the President's message was received on the next day. The occasion was one of unusual interest. The annexed description of the opening scenes and acts was written on the spot and published the following day:

"The Congress of the United States was opened in the customary manner, but the galleries of the Senate and House of Representatives were filled with people throbbing with more than the customary anxiety and interest. The prayers, too, of the Rev. Mr. Gurley in the Senate, and Rev. Mr. Stockton in the House-especially that of the former- were of a more elevated and conciliatory nature than usual, and were devoted to a condensation of those fears and hopes which were evidently uppermost in the minds of the crowding spectators. I do not know with what feelings Messrs. L. M. Keitt, William W. Boyce, Milledge L. Bonham, Porcher Miles, and company, beheld the stars and stripes flying over both wings of the Capitol, but I do know that it inspired feelings not less patriotic and retrospectively proud, than those with which Francis S. Key beheld it still flying on the morning after the bombardment of Fort McHenry, and which found vent in the passionate and descriptive ode-the Star Spangled Banner-now become national. I do know that many a gentle heart of woman throbbed the quicker, seeing that

'Our flag was still there,"

and many an earnest hope of man found expression in words of enthusiasm and pride, yet I found few, however hopeful, who did not express fears and disgust of an unequivocal nature.

"On the opening day the Senate Chamber was an object of particular interest, and the disposition of the dramatis persona on that elevated political stage formed the natural subject of speculative interchange. The attendance of Senators was greater, I think, than at the opening of last session. The appearance of the honorable gentlemen who now stand so prominently before the country was genial and singularly free from any positive exhibition of those rancorous feelings which their journalistic antagonists are so lavish in attributing to them. As might have been expected, a large share of popular interest and curiosity was centered on Senator Douglas, and the conclusion drawn, as Senator Powell of Kentucky, the right hand man of Mr. Breckinridge, or Senator Clingman, of North Carolina, entered into conversation with him, were of a very various and suggestive nature. Douglas looked marvelously well in health, and but for the use of a cane, rendered necessary by a lameness resulting from the accident on the steamboat at Mongomery, Ala., his appearance offered no evidence of the arduous labors in which he has been engaged. Calm in position, self-reliant in expression, and equable in temper, he attracts the hopeful attention of the galleries. The suggestion thrown out by him on Saturday night at the serenadethat Congress could pass a law making it felony to resist the enforcement of the Fugitive Slave Act, has drawn renewed attention to him. "Senator Hamlin, as the successful candidate for the Vice-Presidency, and Senator Lane, as the defeated one, both being in their seats, suggest the inquiries of many on the benches and around the lobby doors. The former has not previously been the subject of much consideration or compliment. He was formerly a Democrat, but for several years has acted with the anti-Democrats, fell in with the tremendous current of Republicanism, and was swept to the steps of the White House. He is now one of the great observed, and, for a long time after the Senate came together, he seemed conscious of the fact. It is a difficult thing for a man, even used to public life, to stand the public gaze, when he is one of the two picked out of thirty millions of people to fill their highest offices. Senator Hamlin was never on exhibition before, and he buried his head over his desk, and with spectacles on nose, carried on a real or imaginary correspondence on note paper. He was presently invaded by several of his friends, and anon was betrayed by the directness of Senator Simmons of Rhode Island, into a conversation. Mr. Hamlin is an amiable looking man, having a placid expanse of feature; but he is positive in the expression of his views, and the sallowness of his complexion does not deny its usual concomitant of bitterness, if not warmth, in debate.