During the memorable winter preceding Lincoln's inauguration, secession was the all-absorbing topic. The South energetically maintained its right to secede, and proceeded to exercise it; while the North was loth to believe that the secession movement was not conceived in a spirit of mere bravado, and that the Union would be broken.

The subject was discussed in the press and pulpit, and in the national Legislature. Thaddeus Stevens of Pennsylvania, in a speech in the House of Representatives, said:

"The secession and rebellion of the South have been inculcated as a doctrine for twenty years past among slaveholding communities. At one time the tariff was deemed a sufficient cause; then the exclusion of slavery from the Territories; then some violation of the Fugitive Slave Law. Now the culminating cause is the election of a President who does not believe in the benefits of slavery or approve of that great missionary enterprise, the slave-trade. The truth is, all these things are mere pretenses. The restless spirits of the South desire to have a slave empire, and they use all these things as excuses. Some of them desire a more brilliant and stronger government than a republic. Their domestic institutions and the social inequality of their free people naturally prepare them for a monarchy, surrounded by a lordly nobility, for a throne founded upon the neck of labor."

The extreme Southern view was partially presented in a short speech in the Senate, December 4, by Thomas Clingman of North Carolina, which he began as follows:

"My purpose was not so much to make a speech, as to state what I think is the great difficulty; and that is, that a man has been elected because he has been and is hostile to the South. It is this that alarms our people; and I am free to say, as I have said upon the stump this summer repeatedly, that if an election were not resisted, either now or at a day not far distant, the Abolitionists would succeed in abolishing slavery all over the South. . . . Therefore, I maintain that our true policy is to meet this issue in limine, and I hope it will be done. If we can maintain our personal safety let us hold on to the present Government, if not, we must take care of ourselves at all hazards. . . . The current of resistance is running rapidly over the South. It is idle for men. to shut their eyes to consequences such as these."

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The views of the ultra-secessionists were presented much more elaborately in the same place, January 7, by Robert Toombs of Georgia. He formulated the grievances of the South into five demands: "First, that the people of the United States shall have an equal right to emigrate and settle in the present or future acquired Territories, with whatever property they may possess (including slaves), and be securely protected in its peaceable enjoyment until such a Territory be admitted as a State into the Union, with or without slavery as she may determine, on an equality with existing States. . . . The second proposition is, that property in slaves shall be entitled to the same protection from the Government of the United States, in all its departments, everywhere, which the Constitution confers upon it the power to extend to any other property, provided that nothing herein.

contained shall be construed to limit or restrain the right now belonging to every State to prohibit, abolish or establish and protect slavery within its limits. We demand of the common Government to use its granted powers to protect our property as well as yours. . . . We demand, in the next place, that persons committing crimes against slave property in one State and fleeing to another, shall be delivered up in the same manner as persons committing crimes against other property and that the laws of the State from which persons flee shall be the test of criminality. . . . The next stipulation is, that fugitive slaves shall be surrendered under the provisions of the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850, without being entitled either to a writ of habeas corpus or a trial by jury or other similar obstructions of legislation in the State to which he may flee. . . . The next demand, made in behalf of the South is, that Congress shall pass effective laws for the punishment of all persons in any of the States who shall, in any manner, aid and abet invasion or insurrection in any other State, or commit any other act against the laws of nations tending to disturb the tranquility of the people or government of any other State. . . . In a compact where there is no common arbiter, where the parties finally decide for themselves, the sword, at last becomes the real, if not the constitutional arbiter. Your party says that you will not take the decision of the Supreme Court. What are you going to do? You say we shall submit to your construction. We shall do it—if you can make us; but not otherwise, or in any other manner. That is settled. You may call that secession or you may call it revolution; but there is a big fact stand

ing before you ready to oppose you, and that fact is -freemen with arms in their hands. The cry of the Union will not disperse them; we have passed that point; they demand equal rights, you had better heed their demands."

With such specious words as these did the partyleaders seek to justify their course. If it be granted that slavery was morally and legally right, their arguments were conclusive. Few of them claimed that they had any constitutional right to secede; for such a claim there were no plausible grounds. They, therefore, justified secession as a revolutionary measure and used, practically, the same arguments as the patriots of 1775 in severing their connection from England-the oppressive character of the Government and the impossibility of maintaining their rights under the Constitution.

The speeches in Congress were but the echoes of aggressive deeds throughout the South. One of the orators boldly said :1 " And while this Congress is debating the constitutionality and expediency of seceding from the Union, and while the perfidious authors of this mischief are showering down denunciations upon a large portion of the patriotic men of this country, those brave men are coolly and calmly voting what you call revolution.-Ay, sir, better than that, arming to defend it. They appealed to the Constitution they appealed to justice, they appealed to fraternity, until the Constitution, justice, fraternity, were no longer listened to in the legislative halls of their country, and then, sir, they prepared for the arbitra

Robert Toonbs.

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ment of the sword; and now you see the glittering bayonet, and you hear the tramp of armed men from your Capital to the Rio Grande.”

The great conspiracy was almost perfected in the South before the North did more than suspect its existence. No sooner was Lincoln's election assured than active preparations for secession were begun. When the result of the election was announced, a Convention was called in South Carolina, a State which had always been the leader in revolutionary movements, to consider the question of secession. After a heated discussion, an ordinance of secession was adopted, November 17. Mississippi, Georgia, Alabama, Florida and Louisiana followed her example in January, and Texas in February. Not only were the people of the North powerless to prevent the catastrophe but the National Government was practically in the hands of the Confederacy. The President weakly deplored the state of affairs, but announced his inability to cope with it. In a message to Congress he announced it as his belief, that no State had the constitutional right to secede, but once seceded that the Government had no right nor power to bring them back by force. Congress was powerless to effect anything and the suffering country could only wait and pray for the advent of a stronger administration. And as comparatively few had any faith in the ability of Lincoln to successfully cope with such a momentous state of affairs, the outlook was gloomy indeed, perhaps more so than at any time during the succeeding war.

President Buchanan's Cabinet was a very hot-bed of treason. Traitors, high in the Councils of State,