“Resolution, authorizing the Governor to use all the powers of the State, civil and military, consistent with the Constitution, to protect the persons and property of our citizens, and to maintain and defend the honor of North Carolina. "Whereas, The Constitution of the United States has been entirely subverted, and its Government has been converted into a military despotism, by the usurpations of the Administration of Abraham Lincoln; And whereas, the said Abraham Lincoln has promulgated a proclamation declaring the ports of North Carolina in a state of blockade, and directing our ships engaged in lawful commerce to be seized; And whereas, such measures are, by the laws of civilized nations, only to be resorted to against a foreign State, and one against which war has been declared; And whereas, North Carolina has no alternative, consistent with her safety and honor, but to accept the position thus assigned to her, as being that of an independent and foreign State: “Therefore, be it resolved, That the Governor is hereby authorized to use all the powers of the State, civil and military, consistent with the Constitution, to protect the persons and property of our citizens, and to maintain and defend the honor of North Carolina. "A true copy, from the minutes of the House of Commons of North Carolina. "EDWARD CANTWELL, C. H. C." and ratifying the Confederate Constitution. It has been widely represented, and, to some extent, believed, that the failure of the Peace Conference or Congress, so called, with the refusal of the Republicans to pass the Crittenden Compromise, backed by President Lincoln's Inaugural, was generally received throughout the Slave States as a declaration of war on the South, and, as such, resented by large and controlling acquisitions to the ranks of the Disunionists in the hitherto unseceded States. The true view is widely different from this. We have seen that the Virginia Convention refused, so late as April 4th, by a vote of nearly two to one, to pass an Ordinance of Secession. The ARKANSAS Convention assembled about the 1st of March; and, on the 16th, was waited on by William S. Oldham, a member of the Confederate Congress and a Com By such statements, wholly un-missioner from Jefferson Davis, bearcontradicted, the loyalty and patriot- ing a message from that potentate, ism of North Carolina were, for the dated March 9th-four days after the moment, utterly paralyzed. The peo- adjournment of Congress, and when ple, assured by those they had learned the contents of Mr. Lincoln's Into trust that the Federal Government augural were familiar to the entire had been utterly subverted by usurp- South. The Convention listened to ation, and that a military despotism, Mr. Davis's letter, wherein he dilated headed by Abraham Lincoln, was on the identity of institutions and of making unprovoked war upon them, interests between his Confederacy and which their honor and their interests the State of Arkansas, urging the alike required them to resist, were adhesion of the latter to the former; passive, bewildered and helpless in- and, after taking two days to delibestruments in the hands of the con- rate, a majority-39 to 35-voted spirators. The Convention, on the not to secede from the Union. The very day of its assembling, passed an Convention proceeded, however, to Ordinance of Secession by a unani- resolve that a vote of the people of mous vote, and forthwith linked the their State should be taken on the efforts and fortunes of North Carolina 1st of August ensuing--the ballots with those of the traitors, by adopting reading "Secession" or "Coöpera| ARKANSAS ON IRREVOCABLE COMPACTS. 487 tion"—the Convention to stand ad- | soil or public lands of Arkansas, 24 journed to August 17th; when, if it should appear that Secession had received a majority, this should be regarded as an instruction from their constituents to pass the Ordinance, which they had now rejected; and so, having elected five delegates to a proposed Conference of the Border States, at Frankfort, Ky., May 27th, the Convention stood adjourned." Yet this identical Convention was reconvened upon the reception of the news from Fort Sumter, and proceeded, with little hesitation, to pass an Ordinance of Secession, by a vote of 69 to 1. That Ordinance asserts that this Convention, by resolves adopted March 11th, had pledged "the State of Arkansas to resist to the last extremity any attempt on the part of such power to coërce any State that seceded from the old Union." The Ordinance proceeds to set forth that the Legislature of Arkansas had, on the 18th of October, 1836, by virtue of authority vested therein by the Convention which framed the State Constitution, adopted certain propositions made to that State by Congress, which propositions "were freely accepted, ratified, and irrevocably confirmed, as articles of compact and union between the State of Arkansas and the United States;" which irrevocable compact this Convention proceeded formally to revoke and annul, and to declare 66 repealed, abrogated, and fully set aside," by the identical act which withdraws Arkansas from the Union and absolves its citizens from all allegiance to its Government! The meaning of this may not be understood without explanation. The 23 March 22d. before there was any such State or Territory, had belonged fully and absolutely to the Union, having been acquired by it in the purchase of Louisiana. To that soil, thus purchased and paid for, and the Indian title thereto at a still further cost extinguished, Congress had not chosen either to alienate or imperil its title by the creation and admission of the State of Arkansas. As a prerequisite, therefore, of such admission, said State was required to enter into an irrevocable compact never to claim. nor exercise ownership of said public lands, until that title should be ceded and conveyed, upon due consideration, by the Union, to individual or other purchasers. Having thus become a State and been admitted into the Union by virtue of this irrevocable compact, Arkansas proceeds to revoke the compact and seize the lands! The 'conservatives' in the Convention—that is, those who were opposed to Secession at its earlier meetingnow issued an address, justifying their change of position by the fact that the Federal Government had determined to use force against the seceded States, and adding: "The South is 'our country;' and, while we are satisfied that, up to the moment when the Government committed the folly and wickedness of making war upon the seceded States, the conservative party in Arkansas was largely in the ascendant, we cannot believe that her soil is polluted by a consider, in casting his lot in the unequal being base and cowardly enough to stop to struggle in which she is engaged, whether she is 'right or wrong. The 'conservatism' of these gentlemen, it seems, had not been shocked by the military seizure by Secession 24 May 6, 1861. ists, two weeks previous, of the Fede- | ernor, Thomas C. Reynolds as Lieut. ral arsenal at Napoleon," containing 12,000 Springfield muskets and a large amount of munitions and stores; nor by that of Fort Smith," also containing valuable deposits of arms, munitions, and Indian goods. These, and many kindred acts of violence and outrage on the side of disunion, had been committed without a shadow of disguise, and with no other excuse than the treason of the perpetrators -Solon Borland, late U. S. Senator, having led the party that captured Fort Smith. 'Coërcion' was abhorred and execrated only when exercised in defense of the Union. MISSOURI was found in a most anomalous condition on the breaking out of the great struggle, destined so severely to try her integrity, as well as that of the nation. Though her slaves were less than a tenth of her total population, and her real interests were bound up in the triumph of Free Labor and the maintenance of the Union, yet her managing politicians, of the Calhoun or extreme pro-slavery school, had contrived for years to wield and enjoy her power and patronage, by keeping a firm and skillful hold on the machinery of the Democratic party. They had thus succeeded, through a long and bitter canvass,in hunting Col. Thomas H. Benton-once the autocrat of the State-out of the Senate, and, ultimately, out of public life. In accordance with their settled policy, the most of them had professed to support Senator Douglas for President in 1860; and, on the strength of their regularity as Democrats, had elected Claiborne F. Jackson as Gov25 April 23d. April 24th. 27 Jan. 5th, 1861. Governor, and a Legislature either thoroughly committed or easily molded to their ultimate schemes. 28 Of this Legislature, the Senate had instructed" its Committee on Federal Relations to report a bill calling a State Convention, which, in due time, became a law. The Convention was accordingly chosen and held; but, when it came to assemble, not one avowed Disunionist was found among its members. Even Sterling Price, a Democratic ex-Governor, who in due time became one of the ablest and most successful of Rebel Generals, had secured his election only by a profession of Unionism. Its Committee on Federal Relations, through its Chairman, Judge H. R. Gamble," reported at length, on the 9th of March-four days after Mr. Lincoln's Inaugural had been read all over the country-in pointed opposition to the views of the Disunionists. After discussing the questions which agitated the country from a Southern point of view, with the usual complaints of Northern fanaticism, intermeddling, and aggression, condemning coërcion, whether employed by or against the seceded States, and warmly indorsing the Crittenden Compromise, the Convention, on the report of this Committee, Resolved, That at present, there is no adequate cause to impel Missouri to dissolve. her connection with the Federal Union; but, on the contrary, she will labor for such an adjustment of the existing troubles as will secure peace, rights, and equality, to all the States. Resolved, That the people of this State are devotedly attached to the institutions of our country, and earnestly desire that, by a fair and amicable adjustment, the present causes of disagreement may be removed, Jan. 16th. 29 Afterward made Governor. MISSOURI LURED TO THE BRINK. the Union perpetuated, and peace and harmony restored between the North and the South." 30 489 ment for a week. The Legislature having been on that day reconvened by him, the Governor transmitted And hereupon the Convention ad- to it a Message, denouncing the Prejourned to the third Monday in sident's call for troops as "unconstiDecember, after appointing seven del-tutional and illegal, tending toward egates to the proposed Border-State Convention, and a Committee with power to call an earlier meeting of this body, if deemed necessary. a consolidated despotism." Though he did not venture, directly, to advocate secession, he did all he could and dared to promote it; urging the Legislature to appropriate a large sum to arm the State and place it in a posture of defense. He said: The Legislature, however, remained in session, completely under the control of Gov. Jackson and his Disunion allies; and one of its most "Our interests and sympathies are identinotable acts provided a metropolitan cal with those of the slaveholding States, police for the city of St. Louis, under and necessarily unite our destiny with theirs. The similarity of our social and political inthe control of five Commissioners, to stitutions, our industrial interests, our symbe appointed by the Governor; who, pathies, habits, and tastes, our common oriof course, took care that a decided gin, territorial congruity, all concur in pointmajority of them should be Seces-ing out our duty in regard to the separation now taking place between the States of the old Federal Union.' sionists. Thus, the practical control of the chief city of the State, and of the entire Missouri valley, was seized by the enemies of the Union. 66 31 Fort Sumter having been captured, and a most insulting, defiant refusal returned to the President's requisition. for troops by Gov. Jackson, he proceeded to call an extra session of his Legislature, to begin May 2d, "for the purpose of enacting such laws and adopting such measures as may be necessary for the more perfect organization and equipment of the Militia of this State, and to raise money and such other means as may be required to place the State in a proper attitude of defense." Orders were issued by his Adjutant-General, Hough, to the Militia officers of the State, to assemble their respective commands May 3d, to go into encamp The Legislature obsequiously obeyed his behests; giving him, so far as it could, the entire control of the military and pecuniary resources of the State. Had not these machinations been countervailed, Missouri would have soon fallen as helplessly and passively into the hands of the Confederates. as did North Carolina or Arkansas. Her slaveholders, though not numerous, constituted her political and social aristocracy. They were large landholders, mainly settled in the fertile counties 2 stretched along both banks of the Missouri river, through the heart of the State, and exerting a potent control over the poorer, less intelligent, and less influential pioneers, who thinly overspread the rural counties north and south of them. 32 2,837; Clay, 3,456; Cooper, 3,800; Howard, 5,889; Jackson, 3,944; Lafayette, 6,367; Pike, 4,056; Platte, 3,313; St. Charles, 2,181; Saline, 4,876. Probably two-thirds of all the slaves in the State were held within 20 miles of that river. The mercantile aristocracy of St. | Capt. Nathaniel Lyon, who promptly made arrangements, not to destroy, but to protect and defend, its stores of arms and munitions. During the night of the 25th of April, the great bulk of these were quietly but rapidly transferred to a steamboat, and removed to Alton, Ill., whence they were mainly conveyed to Springfield, the capital of that State, foiling the Secessionists, who were organizing a State Guard' in the vicinity with a view to their capture, and who had, for several days, been eagerly and hopefully awaiting the right moment to secure these arms. Having thus Louis was predominantly devoted to their supposed interests and docile to their commands. But for St. Louis on one side and Kansas on the other, Missouri could scarcely have been saved. But Kansas had a population whom the rough experiences of previous years had educated into deadly hostility to the Slave Power; while St. Louis possessed, in her libertyloving Germans, in her intelligent and uncompromising citizens of eastern lineage, and in The St. Louis Democrat-a journal of high character and extensive influence, which could neither be bought nor fright-sent away all that were not needed, ened into recreancy to the interests of Free Labor—the elements of powerful resistance to the meditated treason. Although the Governor had so promptly and abusively repelled President Lincoln's requisition, a full regiment had been raised by Col. Frank P. Blair, while four others were in process of formation in St. Louis, within ten days from the issue of the President's call. Capt. Lyon and Col. Blair, on the morning of May 10th, suddenly surrounded the State Guard at Camp Jackson, at the head of 6,000 armed Unionists and an effective battery, and demanded their surrender-allowing half an hour for compliance with this peremptory request. Gen. D. M. Frost, in command of the camp, being completely surprised, had no alternative but compliance. Twenty cannon, twelve hundred new rifles, several chests of muskets, large quantities of ammunition, etc., most of which had recently been received from the Baton Rouge Arsenal, now in Confederate hands, were among the 'spoils of victory.' The Federal Arsenal in Western Missouri was located at Liberty, Clay County, in the midst of a strongly proSlavery population. As it had been often robbed with impunity to arm the 'Border Ruffians' for their repeated raids into Kansas, it was naturally supposed that it might now be drawn upon for its entire contents in behalf of what was essentially the same cause. Accordingly, on the 20th, it was seized by a strong force, and the guns and munitions therein deposited carried off to arm and equipments (German) were impelled to the gathering hosts of treason. But the Federal Arsenal at St. Louis had a garrison of several hun- | dred regulars, under the command of The news of this exploit preceded the return of the Unionists from the camp to the city; and the chagrin of the embryo Rebels impelled them to proceed from insults to violence. At length, one of the Unionist regi fire upon its assailants, when twentytwo persons fell dead-one of them a woman. A furious excitement was aroused by this tragedy, but inquiries |