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hope for the right. As a Southern man I shall CHAP. XII. meet the enemy and go with my State." Alexander H. Stephens, equally unsound in his allegiance, was ultra-radical on slavery. He believed it the normal condition of the negro, and looked forward to its spread into every State in the Union. Supporting Douglas, he repudiated "Squatter Sovereignty.” Herschel V. Johnson was an old-time "resistance" advocate. This kind of leadership was quasi disunion, especially under the assaults of aggressive and uncompromising revolutionists like Toombs, Iverson, Cobb, and Governor Brown.

Nevertheless, the popular voice, which sometimes restrains the rashness of leaders, was yet in doubt, and compelled a policy of slow approaches to insurrection. Governor Brown, therefore, in his message of November 8, went only to the extent of recommending retaliatory legislation, and that the State should be armed. The vote at the Presidential election had been: Breckinridge, 51,889; Bell, 42,886; Douglas, 11,590. The statutes required a majority vote for electors, hence there was no choice by the people. In conformity with law, the Legislature was obliged to appoint them; and accordingly it chose (January 29) a college favorable to Breckinridge. In the interim the Legislature was convulsed with the topics of the hour. Stephens made a famous plea for union; Toombs an equally fervid harangue for disunion.

Meanwhile the members had listened to an insidious suggestion apparently midway between the two extremes. "The truth is, in my judgment," writes Stephens, "the wavering scale in Georgia was turned by a sentiment, the key-note to which was given in

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CHAP. XII. the words-'We can make better terms out of the Union than in it.' It was Mr. Thomas R. R. Cobb who gave utterance to this key-note in his speech before the Legislature two days anterior to my address before the same body. This idea did more, in my opinion, in carrying the State out, than all the arguments and eloquence of all others combined." A formidable outside pressure in the shape of a military convention, and a large secession caucus was also organized and led by Governor Brown. The Legislature could not resist the impetuous current. A military appropriation of one million dollars was made November 13, and a convention bill passed on the 18th.

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Perhaps the most hotly contested election campaign which occurred in any Southern State now took place for the convention, in .the course of which fifty-two members of the Legislature joined in a "coöperation" address, urging a conference of Southern States instead of immediate secession. The vote was cast January 2, and, encouraged by apparent success, Governor Brown on the following day ordered the seizure of Fort Pulaski, and placed the telegraph under surveillance. The convention assembled at Milledgeville on January 16, and the respective factions mustered their adherents for the combat. The struggle was short and decisive. In place of a brief and direct secession resolution the conservatives offered to substitute a proposition to hold a Southern conference at Atlanta; also setting forth certain "indispensable " amendments to the Constitution of the United States. It is almost needless to say they were exacting and advanced to a degree not before sug

gested in any quarter. The "Georgia platform," CHAP. XII. hitherto proclaimed by Mr. Stephens as his creed, was left far behind. That was a simple affirmance of the settlement of 1850. These new "guarantees" embraced provisions which would in practice have legalized slavery in the free States. There was no more hope that the North would accept them than that it would set up a monarchy.

Radical as was this alternative, the straight-out secessionists would not even permit a vote to be taken upon it. The secession resolution was rushed through under the previous question, 166 yeas to 130 nays. On the following day an inquiry into the election for delegates was throttled with similar ferocity, 168 to 127. After this all opposition broke down, and on January 19 the secession ordinance was passed, 208 yeas to 89 nays. It was finally signed by all the delegates but six, and even those promised their lives and fortunes to the cause. Governor Brown, on January 24, set up the cap-sheaf of insurrection by sending six or seven hundred volunteers to demand and receive the surrender of the Augusta arsenal, declaring with sarcastic etiquette in his demand that "the State is not only at peace, but anxious to cultivate the most amicable relations with the United States Government."

The State of Louisiana followed in the main the action of the already mentioned Cotton States, except that it was more tardy. Her Governor and her Senators in Congress were as pronounced as the other principal conspirators, but her people, as a whole, were not yet quite so ripe for insurrection. "The State of Louisiana," wrote one of the secession emissaries, "from the fact that the

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CHAP. XII. Mississippi River flows through its extent and debouches through her borders, and that the great commercial depot of that river and its tributaries is the city of New Orleans, occupies a position somewhat more complicated than any other of the Southern States, and may present some cause of delay in the consummation and execution of the purpose of a separation from the Northwestern States, and the adoption of a new political status.” Here as elsewhere, however, the executive sword was thrown into the vibrating scale. First, the Governor's proclamation calling an extra session of the Legislature to meet December 10; then, on the plea of public danger, an appropriation to arm the State; next, on pretext of consulting public opinion, a convention bill; then, having volunteers, the seizure of Baton Rouge barracks and arsenal (January 10), and Forts Jackson and St. Philip (January 15), and other Federal property; and, finally, the terrorism of loud-mouthed revolution. When the convention met, January 23, the tide was already as irresistible as the waters of the Mississippi. A proposition for a slave-State conference was voted down, 106 to 24; another, to "provide for a popular vote," defeated by 84 to 43, and on January 26, some of the "coöperation" delegates having prudently silenced their scruples, the secession ordinance was passed, 113 yeas to 17 nays. Two exceptional incidents occurred in the action of Louisiana. One was the unanimous adoption of a resolution recognizing "the right of the free navigation of the Mississippi River and its tributaries by all friendly States bordering thereon," and also "the right of egress and ingress of the

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