CHAP. XVI. Seward to Lincoln, Dec. 26, 1860. MS. Probably all the debate and conferences we have hitherto had will sink out of the public mind within a week or two, when the Republican members shall have refused to surrender at discretion to the State of South Carolina. New and exciting subjects will enter into the agitation and control results. Thus I have said all that I am able to say of the temper of parties and of the public. I add, very respectfully, my own opinion on the probable future. The United States of America, their Constitution, their capital, their organization in all its departments, and with all its military and naval forces, will stand and pass without resistance into your hands. There will be several, perhaps all, of the slave States standing in a contumacious attitude on the 4th of March. Sedition will be growing weaker and loyalty stronger every day from the acts of secession as they occur. But now the crisis in the affairs of the Government was approaching. It is already foreshadowed in Mr. Seward's letter of December 28. "There is a feverish excitement here," wrote he, “which awakens all kinds of apprehensions of popular disturbance and disorders connected with your assumption of the Government." And he suggested that Mr. Lincoln should prepare to come to Washington a week sooner than usual on such occasions; prefacing the advice with the statement, "I do not entertain these apprehensions myself." But by the day following he became convinced of the danger, and again wrote: At length I have gotten a position in which I can see what is going on in the councils of the President. It pains me to learn that things there are even worse than is understood. The President is debating day and night on the question whether he shall not recall Major Anderson and surrender Fort Sumter and go on arming the South. A plot is forming to seize the capital on or before the 4th of March, and this, too, has its accomplices CHAP. XVI. in the public councils. I could tell you more particularly than I dare write, but you must not imagine that I am giving you suspicions and rumors. Believe me that I know what I write. In point of fact, the responsibilities of your administration must begin before the time arrives. Mr. Seward then advises that the President should arrive earlier, that he appoint his Secretaries of War, Navy, and Treasury, and that they come to Washington as soon as possible. The events of a day or two, however, dissipated the apparent magnitude of the crisis. Buchanan's council broke up, Floyd retired in disgrace, the Cabinet was reorganized; Holt was made Secretary of War, and the plots of the conspirators were exposed and for a season baffled. Seward to Lincoln, Dec. 29, 1860. MS. CH. XVII. FOLL CHAPTER XVII STEPHENS'S SPEECH OLLOWING the lead of South Carolina, the Governor of Georgia began the secession movement in that State almost immediately after the Presidential election, by such public declarations and acts as fell within the scope of his personal influence and official authority. But Georgia had given a heavy vote for Douglas, and her people were imbued with a strong feeling of conditional unionism. An opposition to hasty secession at once developed itself of so formidable a character that all the influence and cunning of the secessionists were needed to push their movement to success. The ablest men in the State hurried to Milledgeville and met in a sort of battle royal of speech-making and wire-pulling; the Legislature was the target, and its action or non-action upon military appropriations and a convention bill was the result to be affected. Senator Toombs and others made speeches to promote secession; and in reply to these Alexander H. Stephens addressed the Legislature by special invitation on the 14th of November. His speech takes rank as the ablest made by a Southerner in opposition to disunion. The occasion appears to have been one of great excitement. Toombs sat on the platform beside CH. XVII. the speaker, and interlarded the address with his cynical interrogatories and comments, which Stephens met in every instance with successful repartee. The speaker declared that to secede in consequence of Lincoln's election was to break the Constitution and show bad faith. "We went into the election with this people," said he. "The result was different from what we wished; but the election has been constitutionally held." Mr. Lincoln could do the South no harm against an adverse House and Senate. This Government, with all its defects, came nearer the object of all good governments than any other on the face of the earth. One by one he refuted the charges and complaints which had been advanced by Toombs, and warned his hearers against the perils of sudden disunion. Liberty once lost might never be restored. Georgia had grown great, rich, and intelligent in the Union. I look upon this country, with our institutions, as the Eden of the world, the Paradise of the Universe. It may be that out of it we may become greater and more prosperous; but I am candid and sincere in telling you that I fear if we yield to passion, and without sufficient cause shall take that step, instead of becoming greater, or more peaceful, prosperous, and happy-instead of becoming gods we will become demons, and at no distant day commence cutting one another's throats. The speech created an immense sensation throughout the South, and but for an artful trick of the secessionists would have arrested and changed the immediate tide of secession in Georgia. Seeing that the underlying Union feel CH. XVII. ing was about to endanger their scheme of revolt, through defection or hesitation on the part of the Empire State of the South, they devised an adroit plea to appropriate its whole force to further their own plans. They persistently urged that "we can make better terms out of the Union than in it." Mr. Stephens himself has explained the misrepresentation and its result. "Two-thirds at least of View of the those who voted for the ordinance of secession did between,, so, I have but little doubt, with a view to a more Vol. II., P. certain re-formation of the Union." Alex. H. Stephens, "A Consti tutional Late War 321. Farewell Speech, Augusta, To understand this statement more thoroughly, it must be added that Mr. Stephens's great Union speech was also enthusiastically hailed by the North as a sign of firm allegiance. But that part of the country totally misapprehended its spirit and object. With all his eloquently asserted devotion to the Union, he was a pro-slavery man of the most ultra type. He defended the institution upon the "higher law" doctrine. "If slavery," said Stephens, he, "as it exists with us is not best for the African, constituted and made as he is, if it does not best promote his welfare and happiness, socially, morally, and politically, as well as that of his master, it ought to be abolished." He believed slavery should be protected in the Territories by Federal law. He did not go quite to the extent of advocating a revival of the African slave trade; but went so far as to suggest that without such a re-opening the South could not maintain her coveted balance of power. "If the policy of this country," said he, "settled in its early history, of prohibiting further importations or immigrations of this class of population, is to be adhered to, the race of competition 2, 1859. Cleveland, "Life of Stephens," p. 650. |