beacons you at the end. Before deciding, consider well the ancient and sacred maxim -'Stand upon the ancient way-see which is the right, good way, and walk in it.' "But the question now was, Would the South submit to a Black Republican President and a Black Republican Congress, which will claim the right to construe the Constitution of the country and administer the Government in their own hands, not by the law of the instrument itself, nor by that of the fathers of the country, nor by the practices of those who administered seventy years ago, but by rules drawn from their own blind consciences and crazy brains. They call us inferiors, semi-civilized barbarians, and claim the right to possess our lands, and give them to the destitute of the Old World and the profligates of this. They claim the dogmas of the Declaration of Independence as part of the Constitution, and that it is their right and duty to so administer the Government as to give full effect to them. The people now must choose whether they would be governed by enemies, or govern themselves. "For himself, he would unfurl the Palmetto flag, fling it to the breeze, and, with the spirit of a brave man, determine to live and die as became our glorious ancestors, and ring the clarion notes of defiance in the ears of an insolent foe. He then spoke of the undoubted right to withdraw their delegated powers, and it was their duty, in the event contemplated, to withdraw them. It was their only safety. "Mr. C. favored separate State action; saying the rest would flock to our standard." Hon. Wm. W. Boyce then, and for some years previously, a leading Representative in Congress from South Carolina-was, in like manner, serenaded and called out by the enthusiastic crowd of Secessionists, at Columbia, on the following evening. He concluded a speech denunciatory of the Republicans, as follows:* 2 | revolution is to stare it in the face. I think the only policy for us is to arm as soon as we receive authentic intelligence of the election of Lincoln. It is for South Carolina, in the quickest manner, and by the most direct means, to withdraw from the Union. Then we will not submit, whether the other Southern States will act with us or with our enemies. "They cannot take sides with our enemies; they must take sides with us. When an ancient philosopher wished to inaugurate a great revolution, his motto was to dare! to dare!" "Mr. Boyce was followed by Gen. M. E Martin, Cols. Cunningham, Simpson, Richardson, and others, who contended that to submit to the election of Lincoln is to consent to a lingering death." There was great joy in Charleston, and wherever "Fire-Eaters" most did congregate, on the morning of November 7th. Men rushed to shake hands and congratulate each other on the glad tidings of Lincoln's election. Now, it was felt, and exultingly proclaimed, the last obstacle to "Southern independence" has been removed, and the great experiment need no longer be postponed to await the pleasure of the weak, the faithless, the cowardly. It was clear that the election had resulted precisely as the master-spirits had wished and hoped. Now, the apathy, at least of the other Cotton States, must be overcome; now, South Carolina-that is, her slaveholding oligarchy-will be able to achieve her long-cherished purpose of breaking up the Union, and founding a new confederacy on her own ideas, and on the 'peculiar institution' of the South. Men thronged the streets, talking, laughing, cheer 3 "The question then is, What are we to do? In my opinion, the South ought not to submit. If you intend to resist, the way to resist in earnest is to act; the way to enacting, like mariners long becalmed leading and wealthy gentleman in Charleston, states that the news of Lincoln's election was received there with cheers and many manifestations of approbation.” 2 This, and nearly all the proceedings at Columbia at this crisis, are here copied directly from the columns of The Charleston Courier. 3 Dispatch to The New York Herald, dated Washington, Nov. 8, 1860: "A dispatch, received here to-day from a The Charleston Mercury of the 7th or 8th exultingly announced the same fact. 'COÖPERATION' URGED BEFORE SECESSION. on a hateful, treacherous sea, whom a sudden breeze had swiftly wafted within sight of their longed-for haven, or like a seedy prodigal, just raised to affluence by the death of some faroff, unknown relative, and whose sense of decency is not strong enough to repress his exultation. 333 In support of this proposition, Mr. Lesesne spoke ably and earnestly, but without effect. "Coöperation" had been tried in 1850-1, and had signally failed to achieve the darling purpose of a dissolution of the Union; so the rulers of Carolina opinion would have none of it in 1860. Still another effort was made in the House (November 7th), by Mr. Trenholm, of Charleston-long conspicuous in the councils of the State eration" look so much like Secession that one could with difficulty be distinguished from the other. His proposition was couched in the following terms: Thus stimulated, the Legislature did not hesitate nor falter in the course marked out for it by the magnates of the State oligarchy. Joint resolves, providing for the call of a-who labored hard to make "CoöpConvention at some early day, with a view to unconditional secession from the Union, were piled upon each other with great energy, as if nearly every member were anxious to distinguish himself by zeal in the work. Among others, Mr. Robert Barnwell Rhett, on the second day of the session, offered such resolves, calling for the choice of a Convention on the 22d of November; the delegates to meet at Columbia on the 17th of December. (6 Resolved, That the Committee on the Military of the Senate and House of Repthe recess, and to prepare a plan for armresentatives, be instructed to meet during ing the State, and for organizing a perCommittee be instructed to report by bill to manent Military Bureau; and that the said their respective Houses on the first day of the reassembling of the General Assembly. "Resolved, That the Committee of Ways and Means of the House of Representatives be instructed to sit during the recess, and prepare a bill for raising supplies necessary to carry into effect the measure recommended by the Military Committee, and to report by bill on the first day of the reas Mr. Moses and others offered similar resolves in the Senate; where Mr. Lesesne, of Charleston, attempted to stem, or, rather, to moderate, the roaring tide, by inserting the thin-sembling of the General Assembly. "Resolved, That the Governor be renest end of the wedge of "Coöpera-quested immediately to apply the one huntion.” His resolves are, in terms, as follows: "1st. Resolved, That the ascendency of the hostile, sectional, anti-Slavery party, styling themselves the Republican party, would be sufficient and proper cause for the 'dissolution of the Union and formation of a Southern Confederacy. “2d. Resolved, That, in case of the election of the candidates of that party to the office of President and Vice-President of the United States, instead of providing unconditionally for a Convention, the better course will be to empower the Governor to take measures for assembling a Convention so soon as any one of the other Southern States shall, in his judgment, give satisfactory assurance or evidence of her determination to withdraw from the Union." dred thousand dollars, appropriated by the last General Assembly, to the purchase of arms. Resolved, That immediately after the election of the Commissioner to the State of Georgia, this General Assembly do take a recess until the third Monday, being the nineteenth day, of November, instant, at 7 o'clock. "Resolved, As the sense of this General Assembly, that the election of a Black Republican to the Presidency of the United States, will be the triumph and practical application of principles incompatible with the peace and safety of the Southern States. "Resolved, That a Commissioner be elected, by joint ballot of the Senate and House of Representatives, whose duty it shall be, in the event of Mr. Lincoln's election, to proceed immediately to Milledgeville, the seat of government of the State of Georgia, whose legislature will then be in session, to announce to the government of that State that South Carolina, in view of the impending danger, will immediately put herself in a state of efficient military defense, and will cordially coöperate with the State of Georgia in measures for the protection of Southern interests; and to express the readiness of this State to cooperate with the State of Georgia, in the event of Mr. Lincoln's election, in withdrawing at once from the confederacy; and to recommend the calling of a Convention simultaneously in both States, to carry this measure into effect; and to invite the cooperation of all the Southern States in withdrawing from the present Union, and forming a separate Southern Confederacy." These resolves coming up for consideration on the 9th, Mr. McGowan, of Abbeville, made a zealous effort to stem the furious current; pleading earnestly and plausibly for Coöperation- that is, for consultation with other Slave States, and for action in obedience to their mutual determination. He said: "Coöperation with our Southern sisters has been the settled policy of South Carolina for at least ten years past. We have long been satisfied with the causes for a dissolution of this Union. We thought we saw long ago what was coming, and only awaited the action of our Southern sisters. being the case, it would seem strange, now that the issue is upon us-when our need is the sorest-that we should ignore our past policy, and, in the very crisis of the conflict, cease to ask for Coöperation. This 'Lincoln's election is taken as an occasion for action, but with us it is not the only cause for action. We have delayed for the last ten years for nothing but Coöperation. He thought it the best and wisest policy to remain in the Union, with our Southern sisters, in order to arrange the time when, and the manner how, of going out, and nothing else. ގ "It is perfectly manifest that the recorded policy of this State for the last ten years has been the policy of Secession in coöperation with other Southern States. "But is that not fortified by both history and philosophy?-by the nature of the thing itself, and the fate of other nations? The Southern States of this Union have more motives, more inducements, and more necessities, for concert and Union, than any people that has lived in the tide of time. They are one in soil and climate; one in productions, having a monopoly of the Cotton region; one in institutions; and, more than all, one in their wrongs under the Constitution. Add to all this that they alone, of all the earth, have a peculiar institution -African Slavery-which is absolutely necessary for them; without which they would cease to exist, and against which, under the influence of a fanatical sentiment, the world is banded. Upon the subject of this institution, we are isolated from the whole world, who are not only indifferent, but inimical to it; and it would seem that the very weight of this outside pressure would compel us to unite. "Besides, the history of the world is pregnant with admonition as to the necessity of union. The history of classic Greece, and especially that awful chapter upon the The hisPeloponnesian war, appeals to us. tory of poor, dismembered Poland cries to us. The history of the Dutch Republic claims to be heard. Modern Italy and the States of Central America are now, at this moment, crying to us to unite. All history teaches us that United we stand, divided 6 we fall.' All the Southern States would not be too many for our confederacy, whose flag would float, honored upon every sea, and under whose folds every citizen would be sure of protection and security. My God! what is the reason we cannot unite? It seems to me that we might with propriety address to the whole South the pregnant words of Milton: 'Awake! arise! or be forever fallen!' "South Carolina has sometimes been accused of a paramount desire to lead or to disturb the councils of the South. Let us make one last effort for Coöperation, and, in doing so, repel the false and unfounded imputation. All "Mr. Speaker, I think all of us desire to consolidate the sentiment of the South. of us prefer Coöperation. It is, therefore, immensely important that we should take no false step, and omit nothing that might tend to that end. I am utterly opposed, now and forever, to taking any step backward in this matter, and therefore it is that I am anxious that we should take no false step. It is better to consider in advance of action than after action. When we act, we must stand upon that action against the world in arms. It will strengthen our arms and nerve our hearts in doing that, if we shall be able to say that this course was not taken hastily or from impulse, but after mature deliberation, and a last effort for that which we all desire so much-Coöperation. SOUTH CAROLINA WILL NOT AWAIT COÖPERATION. Then, if we fail, and a Convention is called under these circumstances, I and all of us will stand by the action of that Convention. Whatever may be our individual opinions, we will obey the mandate of the State thus pronounced. “Whenever she, after exhausting all proper and becoming efforts for union, resolves upon her course, we will have no option, as we will have no desire, to do otherwise than rally under her banner. If the State, in her sovereign capacity, determines that her secession will produce the cooperation which we have so earnestly sought, then it shall have my hearty approbation. And if, in the alternative, she determines to let us forego the honor of being first, for the sake of promoting the common cause, let us declare to Georgia, the Empire State of the South-the Keystone of the Southern Arch, which is our nearest neighbor westward, and lying for a great distance alongside of our own territory-that we are willing to follow in her lead, and together take our place among the nations of the earth. "If South Carolina, in Convention assembled, deliberately secedes-separate and alone, and, without any hope of cooperation, decides to cut loose from her moorings, surrounded as she is by Southern sisters in like circumstances-I will be one of her crew, and, in common with every true son of hers, will endeavor, with all the power that God has given me, to 'Spread all her canvas to the breeze, And give her to the God of storms, The lightning and the gale.'' Mr. Mullins, of Marion, followed; and his reply to McGowan's speech is worthy of record here, since it clearly betrays the consciousness of the disunionists that they were a lean minority of the Southern people, who might be precipitated, bullied, or dragged into treason, but whom there was no rational hope of reasoning or even seducing into it. He said: "South Carolina had tried Coöperation, but had exhausted that policy. The State of Virginia had discredited the cause which our Commissioner went there to advocate, although she treated him, personally, with respect; but she had as much as said there were no indignities which could drive her to take the leadership for Southern rights. If we wait for Coöperation, Slavery and State Rights would be abandoned, State Sovereignty and the cause of the South lost forever, and 335 we would be subjected to a dominion the parallel to which was that of the poor Indian under the British East India Company. When they had pledged themselves to take the State out of the Union, and placed it on record, then he was willing to send a Commissioner to Georgia, or any other Southern State, to announce our determination, and to submit the question whether they would join us or not. We have it from high authority, that the representative of one of the Imperial Powers of Europe, in view of the prospective separation of one or more of the Southern States from the present confederacy, has made propositions in advance for the establishment of such relations between it and the Government about to be established in this State, as will insure to that power such a supply of Cotton for the future as their increasing demand for that article will require : this information is perfectly authentic." Thus, it will be seen that foreign intrigue was already hand-and-glove with domestic treason in sapping the foundations of our Union and seeking peculiar advantages from its overthrow. Mr. Edmund Ruffin, of Virginia, had for many years been the editor of a leading Agricultural monthly, and had thus acquired a very decided influence over the planters of the South. A devotee of Slavery, he had hastened to Columbia, on the call of the Legislature, to do his utmost for Secession. He was, of course, ́serenaded in his turn by the congregated Union-breakers, on the evening of the 7th, and addressed them from the balcony of the Congaree House. The following is a synopsis of his response: "He said the question now before the country he had studied for years. It had been the one great idea of his life. The defense of the South, he verily believed, was only to be secured through the lead of South Carolina. As old as he was, he had come here to join them in that lead. He wished Virginia was as ready as South Carolina, but, unfortunately, she was not; but, circumstances being different, it was perhaps better that Virginia and all other border States remain quiescent for a time, to serve as guard against the North. The first drop of blood spilled on the soil of South Carolina, would bring Virginia and every Southern State with them. By remaining in the Union for a time, she would not only prevent coërcive legislation in Congress, but any attempt for our subjugation. No argument in favor of resistance was wanted now. As soon as he had performed his duty in Virginia as a citizen, he came as fast as steam could bring him to South Carolina. He was satisfied if anything was to be done, it was to be done here. He had no doubt it would be done, and the sooner the better. Every day delayed was a day lost to the cause. They should encourage and sustain their friends, and they would frighten their enemies. "There was no fear of Carolina remaining alone. She would soon be followed by other States. Virginia and half a dozen more were just as good and strong, and able to repel the enemy, as if they had the whole of the slaveholding States to act with them. Even if Carolina remained alone-not that he thought it probable, but supposing so— it was his conviction that she would be able to defend herself against any power brought against her. Multitudes spoke and said the issue was one of courage and honor, or of cowardice, desertion, and degradation." A number of second and third-rate traitors followed this Ruffin in a similar vein, but their remarks were not deemed worth reporting. But, that evening, the busy telegraph reported from Charleston the more important resignation of the leading Federal officers for South Carolina, in anticipation of her seceding. The U. S. District Court had met there in the morning, District Judge Magrath presiding. The Grand Jury-of course, by preconcert-formally declined to make any presentments, because of "The verdict of the Northern section of the confederacy, solemnly announced to the country, through ne ballot-box, on yesterday, having swept away the last hope for the permanence, for the stability of the Federal Government of these sovereign States; and the public mind is constrained to lift itself above the consideration of details in the administration of Law and Justice, up to the vast and solemn issues which have These issues involve been forced upon us. the existence of the Government of which this Court is the organ and minister. In these extraordinary circumstances, the Grand Jury respectfully decline to proceed with their presentments. They deem this explanation due to the Court and to themselves." Judge Magrath received this communication with complaisance, and thereupon resigned his office; saying: "The business of the term has been disposed of, and, under ordinary circumstances, it would be my duty to dismiss you to your several avocations, with my thanks for your presence and aid. But now I have something more to do, the omission of which would not be consistent with propriety. In the political history of the United States, an event has happened of ominous import to fifteen slaveholding States. The State of which we are citizens has been always understood to have deliberately fixed its purpose whenever that event should happen. Feeling an assurance of what will be the action of the State, I consider it my duty, without delay, to prepare to obey its wishes. That preparation is made by the resignation of the office I have held. For the last time, I have, as a Judge of the United States, administered the laws of the United States within the limits of the State of South Carolina. "While thus acting in obedience to a sense of duty, I cannot be indifferent to the emotions it must produce. That department which, I believe, has best maintained its integrity and preserved its purity, has been suspended. So far as I am concerned, the Temple of Justice, raised under the Constitution of the United States, is now closed. If it shall never be again opened, I thank God that its doors have been closed before its altar has been desecrated with sacrifices to tyranny." C. J. Colcock, Collector at Charleston, and James Conner, U. S. District Attorney, likewise resigned; and it was announced that B. C. Pressley, Sub-Treasurer, would follow, "so soon as was consistent with due respect and regard for our present excellent Chief Magistrate [Buchanan], by whose appointment he holds the office." In the face of such multiform and high-seasoned incitements to go ahead, the efforts of those members of the |