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confided to him, I shall be found as ready and determined as any other man to arrest him in his wrong courses, and to seek redress of our grievances by any and all

proper means."

Delaware had, in 1858, chosen William Burton (Democrat) for Governor by 7,758 votes to 7,544 for his Opposition rival; Democracy in Delaware being almost exclusively based on Slavery, and having at length carried the State by its aid. The great body of the party, under the lead of Senator James A. Bayard, had supported Breckinridge, and were still in sympathy with his friends' view of 'Southern Rights,' but not to the extent of approving South Carolina remedies. Their Legislature met at Dover, January 2, 1861. Gov. Burton, in his Message, said:

"The cause of all the trouble is the persistent war of the Abolitionists upon more than two billions of property; a war waged from pulpits, rostrums, and schools, by press and people-all teaching that Slavery is a

crime and a sin, until it has become the opinion of a portion of one section of the country. The only remedy for the evils now threatening is a radical change of public sentiment in regard to the whole ques

tion.

The North should retire from its untenable position immediately."

Mr. Dickenson, Commissioner from Mississippi, having addressed the two Houses jointly in advocacy of Secession, they passed, directly thereafter, separately and unanimously, the following:

"Resolved, That, having extended to the Hon. H. Dickenson, Commissioner from Mississippi, the courtesy due him as the representative of a sovereign State of the confederacy, as well as to the State he represents, we deem it proper, and due to ourselves and the people of Delaware, to remedy for the existing difficulties suggested express our unqualified disapproval of the by the resolutions of the Legislature of Mississippi."

39 To Mr. O. J. Victor, author of 'The History of the Southern Rebellion,' who knew him well, and vouches for his integrity. (See his vol. i.,

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Before the opening of 1861, a perfect reign of terror had been established throughout the Gulf States. A secret order, known as "Knights of the Golden Circle," or as "Knights of the Columbian Star," succeeding that known, six or seven years earlier, as the Order of the Lone Star,' having for its ostensible object the acquisition of Cuba, Mexico, and Central America, and the establishment of Slavery in the two latter, but really operating in the interest of Disunion, had spread its network of lodges, grips, passwords, and alluring mystery, all over the South, and had ramifications even in some of the cities of the adjoining Free States. Other clubs, more or less secret, were known as The Precipitators,' 'Vigilance Committee,' 'Minute Men,' and by kindred designations; but all of them were sworn to fidelity to Southern Rights; while their members were gradually prepared and ripened, wherever any ripening was needed, for the task of treason. Whoever ventured to condemn and repudiate Secession as the true and sovereign remedy for Southern wrongs, in any neighborhood where Slavery was dominant, was thenceforth a marked man, to be stigmatized and hunted down as a 'Lincolnite,' Submissionist,' or 'Abolitionist.' One refugee planter from Southern Alabama, himself a slaveholder, but of northern birth, who barely escaped a violent death, because of an intercepted letter from a relative in Connecticut, return to the North, as he had promurging him to free his slaves and ised, stated" that he had himself been

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p. 134.) See to the same effect the testimony of Hon. A. J. Hamilton, of Texas, Rev. Mr. Aughey, of Mississippi, and hundreds of others. South

THE SLAVE STATES ON SECESSION.

351

The Slave States and District which had not united in the movement, were as follows:

States.
Arkansas..

obliged to join the 'Minute Men' of
his neighborhood for safety, and had
thus been compelled to assist in
hanging six men of Northern birth
because of their Union sentiments; Delaware.
and he personally knew that not less
than one hundred men had been hung
in his section of the State and in the
adjoining section of Georgia, during
the six weeks which preceded his es-
cape in December, 1860.

When, therefore, the time at length arrived,40 in pursuance of a formal invitation from South Carolina, for the assembling at Montgomery of a Convention of delegates from all the States which should, by that time, have seceded from the Union, with a view to the formation of a new Confederacy, the States which had united in the movement were as follows:

Kentucky
Maryland.
Missouri.

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North Carolina.

Tennessee.
Virginia....

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Dist. Columbia..

Total...

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So that, after the conspiracy had had complete possession of the Southern mind for three months, with the Southern members of the Cabinet, early all the Federal officers, most of the Governors and other State functionaries, and seven-eighths of the prominent and active politicians, pushing it on, and no force exerted against nor in any manner threatening to resist it, a majority of the 703,812 Slave States, with two-thirds of the 964,296 free population of the entire slave709,290 holding region, was openly and posi602,432 tively adverse to it; either because 2,656,948 2,312,046 4,968,994 they regarded the alleged grievances 1,638,297 7,271,302 of the South as exaggerated if not Total Slave States..... 8,289,958 3,950,348 12,240,296 unreal, or because they believed that those wrongs would rather be aggravated than cured by Disunion.

States.

South Carolina.

Georgia..

Alabama..

Mississippi.
Louisiana.

Florida
Texas*.

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Free Population

in 1860.

301,271

595,097

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529,164 435.132
354,700 436,696

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376,280

Total Seceded.

333,010

791,396

78,686 61,753 140,439 421,750 180,682

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"Your Highness condescended to be | be mollified, bribed, beseeched, into

born."

remaining peaceably in the Union.

This was but following in the beaten track. Vehement threats of secession and dissolution were among the established means whereby an aristocracy of less than one-tenth of the American people had for sixty years swayed, almost uninterruptedly, the destinies of the Nation. Why should they not again resort to the expedient which had so often proved effectual? Why should not the re

The people of the United States had, in an unexceptionably legal and constitutional manner, chosen for their President an eminently conservative, cautious, moderate citizen, of blameless life and unambitious spirit, born in slaveholding Kentucky, but now resident in free Illinois, who held, with Jefferson and nearly all our Revolutionary sages and patriots, that Human Slavery is an evil which ought not to be diffused and strength-sponse be substantially the same now ened in this Nineteenth Century of as it had hitherto been? And why Christian light and love. Hereupon, should not those whose success furthe ruling oligarchy in certain States, nished the pretext for this treason who had done nothing to prevent, be charged with the evil, and inculbut much, indirectly yet purposely, pated as themselves the traitors? to secure this result, resolved to rend the Republic into fragments, tearing their own fragment away from the residue. What should be done about it? The natural, obvious answer springs at once to every unquivering lip "Convince the disturbers that their only safe course is to desist and behave themselves. They might have had a President who is not a Republican, had they chosen: having done their best to elect one who is, they must now accept the result they have contributed to insure, until the evolutions of four years shall bring around the opportunity for another, and, if they will, a more acceptable choice."

Far otherwise was the actual response of the Republic to her spoiled children, and their most unreasonably factious demonstration. Instead of treating their outbreak as culpable and flagrant disloyalty, to be rebuked, abandoned, repented, and desisted from, the first impulse from almost every side was to inquire on what terms and by what means they could

Had not, for a generation, the upholding of a rule based on caste, and a denial to the humblest class of all political rights in half the Union, and of all social and civil, as well as political, rights in another third of it, been commended and glorified as Democracy?

Had not every assertion, however broad and general, of the right of each rational being to "life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness,” been stigmatized as Sectionalism?

Had not a simple adhesion to the policy of Jefferson and the fathers, as to Slavery in the Territories, been denounced as Radicalism, and as

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making war on fifteen States ?"

Had not ravaging and subjugating foreign lands, with intent to curse them with human bondage, been glorified as "extending the area of Freedom?"

Had not the maintenance of the rights of constitutional majorities, and of the duty of universal submission to the popular will, constitutionally ascertained and declared, been stigma

DR. CHANNING SEEKS TO DISABUSE THE SOUTH.

353

tized as inciting to disunion and the removal of her giant curse as imanarchy?

And who could expect that half a century of such utter perversion of the plainest, least equivocal, most obvious terms, should not bear bitter fruit? The inebriate, who fancies the square in which he lives revolving about him, and gravely holds his latch-key in hand, waiting till his door shall in due order present itself, labors under substantially the same hallucination, and is usually certain to cherish it until he awakes to prosaic realities to bruises, self-reproach, headache, and remorse.'

Nearly forty years ago, the great and good Channing, after listening to Benjamin Lundy, wrote to Mr. Webster in apprehension that the South would regard and resent any attempt at the North to promote or hasten

1 Von Muller, one of the present King of Prussia's grave and reverend councilors of state, in his younger and wittier days, celebrated this inversion of the perceptive faculties, in verses still popular in Germany, and which have been rendered into English, as follows:

"OUT OF THE TAVERN. "Out of the tavern I've just stepped to-night: Street! you are caught in a very bad plight; Right hand and left are both out of place— Street! you are drunk !—'t is a very clear case ! "Moon! 't is a very queer figure you cutOne eye is staring, whilst t' other is shut; Tipsy, I see; and you're greatly to blame: Old as you are, 't is a terrible shame. "Then the street lamps-what a scandalous sight! None of them soberly standing upright; Rocking and swaggering-why, on my word, Each of the lamps is as drunk as a lord!

"All is confusion-now is n't it odd,
I am the only thing sober abroad?

Sure it were rash with this crew to remain ;
Better go into the tavern again."

2

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pelled by hostility or ill-will, though nothing was further from our intention. The good Doctor can scarcely have read with adequate attention, or at least not with the utmost profit, the urgent, impassioned adjurations. of the demoniacs to the Saviour of mankind, for forbearance and 'nonintervention.' 'Let us alone," was their habitual entreaty: "What have we to do with thee?" "Art thou come to torment us before the time?" No delicacy of handling, no gentleness. of treatment, could have pacified them: they must be left undisturbed and unobserved, or irritation and excitement were unavoidable.

Twenty or thirty years ago, there existed in Charleston, S. C., an association for social and intellectual enjoyment, known as The Wistar

the editor of a paper called 'The Genius of Universal Emancipation,' visited this part of the country to stir us up to the work of abolishing: Slavery at the South; and the intention is to or-. ganize societies for this purpose. I know of few objects into which I should enter with more zeal;; but I am aware how cautiously exertions are to, be made for it in this part of the country. I know that our Southern brethren interpret every word from this region on the subject of Slavery as an expression of hostility. I would ask if they cannot be brought to understand us. better,, and if we can do any good till we remove their misapprehensions. It seems to me that, before: moving in this matter, we ought to say to them: distinctly: 'We consider Slavery as your calamity, not your crime; and we will share with you: the burden of putting an end to it. We will consent that the public lands shall be appropriated to this object; or that the General Government; shall be clothed with power to apply a portion. of revenue to it."

"I throw out these suggestions merely to› illustrate my views. We must first let the Southern States see that we are their friends in this affair; that we sympathize with them, and, from principles of patriotism and philanthropy, are willing to share the toil and expense of abol

2 The following is a portion of Dr. Channing's ishing Slavery; or I fear our interference will. letter:

"BOSTON, May 14, 1848. "MY DEAR SIR:-I wish to call attention your

to a subject of general interest. "A little while ago, Mr. Lundy, of Baltimore,

avail nothing. I am the more sensitive on this subject, from my increased solicitude for the preservation of the Union. I know no public interest so important as this."-Webster's Works, vol. V., p. 366.

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Club.' Many, if not most, of the more intelligent and cultivated class belonged to it, and strangers of like breeding were freely invited to its weekly or bi-weekly meetings. It It was its rule to select, at each gathering, some subject for conversational discussion at the next. At one of these meetings, the economic results of Slavery were incidentally brought into view; when the few remarks dropped from one and another developed a decided difference of opinion -the native Carolinians expressing a conviction that the institution' was profitable; while two or three members or guests of Northern birth indicated a contrary impression. Hereupon, some one asked, 'Why not select this as the topic for our next meeting?' 'Agreed!' was the unbroken response; and the point was settled. It was distinctly stipulated that no ethical, ethnological, religious, or other aspect of the main problem, should be considered-nothing but the simple, naked question-Is it economically advantageous to a community to hold slaves?' Hereupon, the assemblage quietly dissolved.

At the evening designated for the next regular meeting, the Yankee' members of the club were duly on hand, prepared and eager for the expected discussion; but not a Carolinian was present! Some old head had determined that no such discussion should take place at least, in Charleston—and had given a hint which had operated as a command. Though the interest in the subject had seemed general at the last meeting, and the disposition to discuss it mutual and cordial, not a man now appeared to speak for Slavery. The Yankees' enjoyed or endured each

other's society throughout the evening, sipped their coffee with due decorum, and dispersed at the proper hour, without an opportunity for discussion, leaving the proposed debate to stand adjourned over to the opening of the bombardment of Fort Sumter, in the year of grace 1861.

"Why can't you let Slavery alone?" was imperiously or querulously demanded at the North, throughout the long struggle preceding that bombardment, by men who should have seen, but would not, that Slavery never let the North alone, nor thought of so doing. "Buy Louisiana for us!" said the slaveholders. "With pleasure." "Now Florida!" "Certainly." Next: "Violate your treaties with the Creeks and Cherokees; expel those tribes from the lands they have held from time immemorial, so as to let us expand our plantations." "So said, so done.” "You have it." "Now for Texas!" "Next, a third more of Mexico!" "Yours it is." "Now, break the Missouri Compact, and let Slavery wrestle with Free Labor for the vast region consecrated by that Compact to Freedom!” "Very good. What next?" "Buy us Cuba, for One Hundred to One Hundred and Fifty Millions." "We have tried; but Spain refuses to sell it." "Then wrest it from her at all hazards!" And all this time, while Slavery was using the Union as her catspawdragging the Republic into iniquitous wars and enormous expenditures, and grasping empire after empire thereby-Northern men (or, more accurately, men at the North) were constantly asking why people living in the Free States could not let Slavery alone, mind their own

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