THE CONSPIRATORS AT WORK.-CALHOUN'S AVOWALS.

41

During the summer and early autumn of 1860, William L. Yancey, one of the most active and influential of the conspirators, with other disunionists, made a pilgrimage through the Free-labor States, for the purpose of vindicating the claims put forth by the extremists of the South, concerning State supremacy and the unrestricted extension of Slavery. They were listened to patiently by thousands at public meetings; were hospitably treated everywhere; received assurances of sympathy from vast numbers of men who regarded the agitation of the Slavery question, by the Abolitionists, as mischievous, unfriendly, and dangerous to the peace of the Union; and then they went back, with treason in their hearts and falsehoods upon their lips, to deceive and arouse into rebellion the masses of the Southern people, who regarded them as oracles. Like an incarnation of Discord, Yancey cried, substantially as he had written two years before:-"Organize committees all over the Cotton States; fire the Southern heart; instruct the Southern mind; give courage to each other; and at the proper moment, by one organized, concerted action, precipitate the Cotton States into revolution."

WILLIAM L. YANCEY.

This advice was instantly followed when the election of Mr. Lincoln was assured by the decision of the ballot-box, on the 6th of November. Indeed, before that decision was made, South Carolina conspirators-disciples and political successors of John C. Calhoun2-met at the house of James

1 Letter to James Slaughter, June 15, 1858.

2 John Caldwell Calhoun, of South Carolina, always appears in history as the central figure of a group of politicians who, almost forty years ago, adopting the disunion theories put forth by a few Virginians, like John Taylor, of Caroline, and used by Jefferson and his friends for the temporary purpose of securing a political party victory at the close of the last century, began, in more modern times, the work of destroying the nationality of the Republic. With amazing intellectual vigor and acumen, Mr. Calhoun crystallized the crude elements of opposition to that nationality, found in so great abundance, as we have observed, in Virginia, daring Washington's Administration, that it drew from him his great plea for union in his Farewell Address to his countrymen. Calhoun reduced these elements to compact form, and, by the consummate use of the most subtle sophistry, of which he was complete master, he instilled the most dangerous disintegrating poison, known as the doctrine of Supreme State Sovereignty, into the public mind of the Slave-labor States, for the purpose of meeting a contingency which he contemplated as early as the year 1812. The now [1865] venerable Bear-admiral Stewart, in a letter to George W. Childs, of Philadelphia, relates a conversation between himself and Mr. Calhoun, in Washington City, in the winter of 1812:-"You in the South," said Stewart, "are decidedly the aristocratic portion of this Union; you are so, in holding persons in perpetual slavery; you are so, in every domestic quality; so in every habit of your lives, modes of living, and action. You neither work with your hands, bead, nor any machinery, but live and have your being, not in accordance with the will of your Creator, but by the sweat of slavery; and yet you assume all the attributes, professions, and advantages of Democracy." Mr. Calhoun replied:-"I admit your conclusions in respect to us Southerners. That we are essentially aristocratic, I cannot deny. But we can, and do, yield much to Democracy. This is our sectional policy. We are, from necessity, thrown upon and solemnly wedded to that party, however it may occasionally clash with our feelings, for the conservation of our interests. It is through our affiliation with that party, in the Middle and Western States, that we hold power. But when we cease thus to control this nation, through a disjointed Democracy, or any material obstacle in that party shall tend to throw us out of that rule and control, we shall resort to a dissolution of the Union. The compromises of the Constitution, under the circumstances, were sufficient for our fathers; but under the altered condition of our country, from that period, leave to the South no resource but dissolution."

This avowal of Mr. Calhoun, then a leading Democratic member of Congress, that the politicians of the South were determined to rule the Republic, or ruin it, was made forty-eight years before the great rebellion occurred. Under the lead of Calhoun, the politicians of South Carolina attempted a rebellion about thirty years before, but failed.

42

SECRET MEETINGS OF THE CONSPIRATORS.

H. Hammond (son of a New England schoolmaster, and an extensive land and slave holder, near the banks of the Savannah River), to consult upon a plan of treasonable operations. Hammond was then a member of the United States Senate, pledged by solemn oath to see that the Republic received no hurt; and yet, under his roof, he met in conclave a band of

men, like himself sworn to be defenders of his native land; from foes without and foes within, to plot schemes for the ruin of that country. At his table, and in secret session in his library, sat William H. Gist, then Governor of South Carolina; ex-governor James H. Adams; James L. Orr, once Speaker of the National House of Representatives; the entire Congressional Delegation of South Carolina,' excepting William Porcher Miles (who was compelled by sickness to be absent), and several other prominent men of that State. Then and there the plan for the overt act of rebellion, performed by South Carolinians in Convention at Charleston, sixty days later, seems to have been arranged. They were assured that their well-managed sundering of the Democratic party at Charleston, in April, would result in the election of Mr. Lincoln, and that the pretext for rebellion, so long and anxiously waited for, would be presented within a fortnight from that time.

JOHN CALDWELL CALHOUN,

This meeting was followed by similar cabals in the other cotton-growing States; and, in Virginia, that ever-restless mischief-maker, ex-governor Henry A. Wise, with R. M. T. Hunter, John Tyler, James M. Mason, the author of the Fugitive Slave Law of 1850, who had been his co-plotter against the life of the Republic four years before, and other leading politicians in that State, were exceedingly active in arranging plans for that Commonwealth to join her Southern sisters in the work of treason. Wise, who assumed to be their orator on all occasions, had openly declared, that

1 These were John McQueen, Lawrence M. Keitt, Milledge L. Bonham, John D. Ashmore, and William W. Boyce, of the House of Representatives, and Senators James H. Hammond and James Chesnut, Jr. 2 See page 23.

3 In response to an invitation from Wise, a convention of Governors of Slave-labor States was secretly held at Raleigh, North Carolina, of which Jefferson Davis, then the Secretary of War, was fully cognizant. The object was to devise a scheme of rebellion at that time, in the event of the election of Colonel John C. Frémont the Republican candidate for the Presidency. Wise afterward boasted that, had Frémont been elected, he should have marched, at the head of twenty thousand men, to Washington, taken possession of the Capitol, and prevented the inauguration of the President elect. Frémont's defeat postponed overt acts of treason by the con spirators.-The American Conflict: by Horace Greeley, i. 829. Senator Mason, writing to Jeff. Davis on the 30th of September, said:-"I have a letter from Wise, of the 27th, full of spirit. He says the governments of North Carolina, South Carolina, and Louisiana have already agreed to the rendezvous at Raleigh, and others will--this in your most private ear. He says further, that he had officially requested you to exchange with Virginia, on fair terms of difference, percussion for flint muskets. I don't know the usage or power of the Department in such cases; but, if it can be done, even by liberal construction, I hope you will accede. Was there not an appropriation at the last session for converting flint into percussion arms? If so, would it not furnish good reason for extending such facilities to the States? Virginia probably has more arms than the other Southern States, and would divide, in case of need. In a letter, yesterday, to a committee in South Carolina, I gave it as my judgment, in the event of Frémont's election, the South should not pause, but proceed at once to 'immediate, absolute, and eternal separation.' So I am a candidate for the first halter."

TREASONABLE UTTERANCES.-TRAITORS IN THE CABINET. 43

He

if Lincoln was elected, he "would not remain in the Union one hour." applauded, as hopeful words for his class, the declaration of Howell Cobb (then President Buchanan's Secretary of the Treasury), at a public gathering in the city of New York, that, in the event of Mr. Lincoln's election, secession would have the "sympathy and co-operation of the Administration," and that he "did not believe another Congress of the United States would meet." He hailed with delight,

as chivalrous to the last degree, the assurances of Lawrence M. Keitt, of the House of Representatives, in a public speech, at Washington, that President Buchanan was "pledged to secession, and would be held to it," that "South Carolina would shatter the accursed Union," and that, if she could not accomplish it otherwise, "she would throw her arms round the pillars of the Constitution, and involve all the States in a common ruin." He listened with peculiar pleasure to the declaration of Robert Barnwell Rhett, also of South Carolina, that "all true statesmanship in the South consists in forming combinations and shaping events, so as to bring about, as speedily as possible, a dissolution of the present Union, and a Southern Confederacy."-"Rather than submit one moment to Black Republican rule," Wise wrote to an old friend of his father, in the North, "I would fight to the last drop of blood to resist its fanatical oppression. Our minds are made up. The South will not wait until the 4th of March. We will be well under arms before then, or our safety must be guaranteed."1

HENRY A. WISE

Everywhere the conspirators and their followers and agents were sleepless in vigilance and tireless in energy. Hundreds of telegraphic messages, volumes of letters, and scores of couriers, went from plantation to plantation, from village to village, from city to city, and from State to State, wherever the Slave power held sway, stirring up the people to revolt; whilst prominent individuals and public bodies hastened, on hearing of the result of the election, to swell the grand chorus of treasonable speech, led by the dozen-they were but a little more in number-of the chief conspirators.

Three, if not four, of these chief conspirators were President Buchanan's cabinet ministers and constitutional advisers. The three were Howell Cobb, of Georgia, Secretary of the Treasury; John B. Floyd, of Virginia, Secretary of War; and Jacob Thompson, of Mississippi, Secretary of the Interior. William H. Trescott, of South Carolina, who for many years had

1 Autograph letter to Josiah Williams, of Poughkeepsie, N. Y., dated "Rolleston, near Norfolk, Va., December 24, 1860." Governor Wise, it will be remembered, was chiefly instrumental in procuring the execution of John Brown for treason, less than a year before. Four years later, his estate of "Rolleston, near Norfolk," was occupied as a camp for freed negroes; and, in his mansion, a daughter of John Brown was teaching colored children how to read and write the English language.

2 See the remarks of Horace Maynard, on page 35.

44

COBB'S PLAN OF REVOLUTION.

been plotting against the life of the nation, was then Assistant Secretary of State, and their confederate in crime. These men, while in office, and pledged by solemn oaths to support the National Constitution and laws, were for months plotting schemes for the destruction of the former and defiance of the latter.

December 6, 1860.

From his official desk at Washington, Cobb wrote an inflammatory address to the people of Georgia, in which he said, in conclusion:-"On the 4th of March, 1861, the Federal Government will pass into the hands of the Abolitionists. It will then cease to have the slightest claim either upon your confidence or your loyalty; and, in my honest judgment, each hour that Georgia remains thereafter a member of the Union will be an hour of degradation, to be followed by certain and speedy ruin. I entertain no doubt either of your right or duty to secede from the Union. Arouse, then, all your manhood for the great work before you, and be prepared, on that day, to announce and maintain your independence of the Union, for you will never again have equality and justice in it. Identified with you in heart, feeling, and interest, I return to share in whatever destiny the future has December 8, in store for our State and ourselves." Two days afterward," Cobb resigned his office,' hastened to Georgia, and afterward took up arms against his country.'

1860.

HOWELL Cовв.

1 In his letter to Mr. Buchanan, resigning his office, Mr. Cobb frankly informed him that duty to his State required him to sever his connection with the National Government, and lend his powers for the good of his own people. "I have prepared," he said, "and must now issue to them an address, which contains the calm and solemn convictions of my heart and judgment." As his views would, if he remained in the Cabinet, expose himself to suspicion, and put the President in a false position, he thought it proper to resign. In this, Mr. Cobb was more honest and honorable than his traitorous associates in the Cabinet, who remained almost a month longer.

2 Cobb's plans had been matured before the election of Mr. Lincoln. So early as the 1st of November, 1860, Trescott, the Assistant Secretary of State, wrote to the editor of the Charleston Mercury, as follows:"WASHINGTON, Nov. 1, 1860.

"DEAR RHETT: I received your letter this morning. As to my views or opinions of the Administration, I can, of course, say nothing. As to Mr. Cobb's views, he is willing that I should communicate them to you, in order that they may aid you in forming your own judgment; but, you will understand that this is confidential -that is, neither Mr. Cobb nor myself must be quoted as the source of your information. I will not dwell on this, as you will, on a moment's reflection, see the embarrassment which might be produced by any authorized statement of his opinions. I will only add, by way of preface, that after the very fullest and freest conversations with him, I feel sure of his earnestness, singleness of purpose, and resolution in the whole matter.

"Mr. Cobb believes that the time is come for resistance; that upon the election of Lincoln, Georgia ought to secede from the Union, and that she will do so. That Georgia and every other State should, as far as secession, act for herself, resuming her delegated powers, and thus put herself in position to consult with other sovereign States who take the same ground. After the secession is effected, then will be the time to consult. But he is of opinion, most strongly, that whatever action is resolved on, should be consummated on the 4th of March, not before. That while the action determined on should be decisive and irrevocable, its initial point should be the 4th of March. He is opposed to any Southern convention, merely for the purpose of consultation. If a Southern convention is held, it must be of delegates empowered to act, whose action is at once binding on the States they represent.

"But he desires me to impress upon you his conviction, that any attempt to precipitate the actual issue npon this Administration will be most mischievous-calculated to produce differences of opinion and destroy

THE TREACHERY OF FLOYD AND THOMPSON.

45

Floyd's treachery consisted more in secret, efficient action than in open words. As we shall observe presently, he had used the power of his official station to strip the arsenals of the Free-labor States of arms and ammunition, and to crowd those of the Slave-labor States with these materials of war; while Thompson, for more than ten years an avowed disunionist, was now plotting treason, it seems, by night and by day. He wrote from his official desk at Washington, as early as the 20th of November:-"My allegiance is due to Mississippi' and her destiny. I believe she ought to resist, and to the bitter end, Black Republican rule. . . . As long as I am here, I shall shield and protect the South. Whenever it shall come to pass that I think I can do no further good here, I shall return to my home. Buchanan is the truest friend to the South I have ever known in the North. He is a jewel of a man." After speaking of the intended secession of Mississippi, he said:"I want the co-operation of the Southern States. I wish to do all I can to secure their sympathy and co-operation. A confederacy of the Southern States will be strong enough to command the respect of the world, and the love and confidence of our people at home. South Carolina will go. I consider Georgia and Florida as certain. Alabama probable. Then Mississippi must go. But I want Louisiana, Texas, Arkansas, Tennessee, North Carolina, Virginia; and Maryland will not stay behind long. . . . As soon as our mechanics, our merchants, our lawyers, our editors, look this matter in the face, and calculate the consequences, they will see their in

JACOB THOMPSON.

unanimity. He thinks it of great importance that the cotton crop should go forward at once, and that the money should be in the hands of the people, that the cry of popular distress shall not be heard at the outset of this move.*

"My own opinion is, that it would be well to have a discreet man, one who knows the value of silence, who can listen wisely, present in Milledgeville, at the meeting of the State Legislature, as there will be there an outside gathering of the very ablest men of that State.

And the next point, that you should, at the earliest possible day of the session of our own legislature, elect a man as governor, whose name and character will conciliate as well as give confidence to all the men of the State. If we do act, I really think this half the battle; a man upon whose temper the State can rely.

"I say nothing about a convention, as I understand, on all hands, that that is a fixed fact, and I have confined myself to answering your question. I will be much obliged to you if you will write me soon and fully from Columbia. It is impossible to write to you, with the constant interruption of the office, and as you want Cobb's opinions, not mine, I send this to you. Yours, W. H. T."

The original of the above letter is in my possession.

1 Ten years before, this man, then engaged in treasonable schemes, dating his letter at Washington, "House of Representatives, September 2, 1850," wrote to General Quitman, then Governor of Mississippi, on whom the mantle of Calhoun, as chief conspirator against American Nationality, had worthily fallen, saying: "When the President of the United States commands me to do one act, and the Executive of Mississippi commands me to do another thing, inconsistent with the first order, I obey the Governor of my State. To Mississippi I owe allegiance, and, because she commands me, I owe obedience to the United States."-Life and Correspondence of John A. Quitman: by J. F. H. Claiborne, ii. 68. This is the pure doctrine of Supreme State Sovereignty, on which the conspirators founded their justification for the so-called secession of the States from the Union.

The iniquity of this recommendation of Cobb is made apparent by the fact, that it was a common practice for the planter to receive pay for his crop in advance. The crop now to "go forward" was already paid for. The money to be received, on its delivery, as for the next year's crop, which would never be delivered. Here was a proposition for a scheme to swindle Northern men to the east of many millions of dollars.