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Causes which led to the American Civil War-The Missouri Compromise-The Fugitive Slave Law-Anti-slavery movement-The Nebraska Bill-Contest in Kansas-The Lecompton Constitution-Mr. Buchanan's election as President-His policy-The Dred-Scott case-Attempts on Cuba-African Slave Trade-Treatment in the United States of persons of colour-John Brown's insurrection-Reign of Terror in the South-Election of Mr. Lincoln as President-Secession of the Southern States-Reasons alleged for this step-State of feeling in the North-Attack on Fort Sumter-Blockade of the Southern ports-Recognition of the Southern States as belligerents-Public Opinion in Great Britain-Unconstitutional and oppressive Measures of the Government-State of the Federal ArmySuperiority of the Southern levies-General Lee-Mistaken strategy of the North-Their Generals-Defeat of the Northerns at Bull's Run-General M'Clellan appointed Commander-in-Chief-Seizure of the Southern Commissioners on board the Trent-Steps taken by the British Government-Release of the Commissioners.

IN 1861 the attention of the whole civil- | counted for more than a voter in the ized world was riveted on the civil war that had broken out in the United States. The disruption of the American Union had often been predicted, but when it did take place it was a great surprise both to America and to Europe. The causes of the secession of the Southern States were deepseated, and had been long in operation. Sooner or later they must have come to the surface. The Union consisted originally of thirteen States; at the outbreak of the civil war they amounted to thirty-four. Each new State sent two members to the Senate, and the balance of political power there depended on whether the majority of these States were slave-holding or free-soil. For a long time the South had the majority; but the greater part of the emigrants settled in the Free States, and as these became more populous the number of their members of course increased. The Slave States, in the meantime, remained almost stationary, while the minimum number taken as the standard of representation was increased. The result was that while Virginia originally returned ten members, and New York six, at the time of the Secession the former had added only a single unit to its representation, and sent eleven members to the Senate, while New York returned thirty. South Carolina, which in the scheme of the Constitution had one-thirteenth of the representation, at the time of the Secession returned only one-sixtieth part. It is no doubt true that a voter in the South

North, because the number of representatives of the Southern States was determined, not by their proportion of free men only, but of slaves. In taking the census slaves were to count in the proportion of five to three free persons. In the Presidential election of 1856 the slave representation was nearly equal to one-third of the whole Southern representation. It is evident, therefore, that in virtue of this arrangement, the influence of the South in the general representation of the Union was nearly one-half greater than it would have been had the popular principle of the Constitution been fairly carried out. Still, as long as the aggregate population of the Slave States was inferior to that of the Northern, it was impossible for them to command a majority in the House of Representatives by means of their own members. Hence their intense efforts to increase the numbers of the slave-holding States. In 1820, when Missouri applied for admission into the Union, the relative numbers in the Senate were so equally balanced that its admission as a slave-holding or a free-soil State would have turned the scale in favour of either the South or the North. It was this which caused the desperate character of that struggle.' The contest ended in the wellknown Missouri Compromise.' Congress passed an Act prohibiting slavery for ever in all the territory north of a line coinciding with 36° 30' latitude, but it excepted the State of Missouri, the whole of which

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lies north of this line, and it applied only to the State of Louisiana, which had been purchased from France. At the very commencement of the question as to the admission of the Missouri territory, Jefferson expressed with startling vehemence and prophetic sagacity the impression which that proposal had produced on his mind. This momentous question,' he said, ' like a firebell in the night, awakened and filled me with terror. I considered it at once as the knell of the Union. It is hushed indeed for a moment. But this is a reprieve only, not a final sentence. A geographical line, coinciding with a marked principle, moral and political, once conceived and held up to the angry passions of men, will never be obliterated, and every new irritation will make it deeper and deeper.'

The iniquitous annexation of Texas gave the South two senators, with the prospect that in time four more Slave States might be erected out of the territory of Texas. Still the slave-holders were not satisfied, but continued to demand further concessions and additional securities for their 'domestic institution.'

Although the authors of the American Constitution were unfriendly to slavery, and desired its gradual extinction, they yet recognized the right of recapturing slaves who had escaped from their masters and taken refuge in a Free State. The officers of the Federal Government, however, were very reluctant to assist in enforcing this right; but the notorious Fugitive Slave Law which was passed, mainly through the defection of Northern representatives, imposed upon the officers of the State the duty to seize a fugitive slave and restore him to his master. That disgraceful Act contributed greatly to widen the breach between the North and the South. It seems for the first time to have opened the eyes of the Northern population to the wickedness of slavery. It was denounced by clergymen from the pulpit and by judges from the bench. In various places the people adopted violent measures to prevent

VOL. IV.

its execution; there were incessant conflicts in the streets and courts between kidnappers and the protectors of negroes. Slaves were rescued in open court from the persons who sought to drag them back into bondage, and sent off to Canada, to find shelter under the British flag. 'Boston, the chief city of New England, the birthplace of the Republic, was garrisoned with marines; cannon were planted in her streets, and her court-house was surrounded with chains, in order that a fugitive arrested with a fictitious warrant, and under cover of the night, might be carried back to slavery openly through her streets between files of armed men.' This course of action served, more than any force of argument, to create a strong feeling in the Northern States against the system which required to be supported by a law that converted the people of these States into accomplices in the crime of slavery. Some of the States even passed what were styled 'Personal Liberty Laws,' which forbade the State officers to assist in the capture of runaway slaves, and placed legal obstacles in the way of their recovery by their alleged masters.

The Missouri Compromise produced only a brief truce between the contending parties. The South was dissatisfied with the arrangement from the first, and strove for its repeal, because it prevented slavery from extending northwards; while the North resisted the proposal to extend the Missouri Compromise, as it would sanction the establishment of slavery in all the new States south of this line as far as the Pacific. The immense tide of population which now flowed into California and into Oregon added immensely to the Northern free-soil States, and the ratio of members in the House of Representatives followed in the same proportion. It became therefore a matter of vital importance to the South to obtain the removal of the barrier which prevented the increase of slaveholding States. At length, in 1854, Mr. Douglas, one of the Southern leaders, succeeded in carrying the Nebraska Bill, which 6

established the principle of what was called 'Squatter Sovereignty.' It left the original settlers in each territory before its admission into the Union to determine whether slavery was to be permitted in it or not, and in the words of the Act, when admitted as a State or States, the said territory, or any portion of the same, shall be received into the Union with or without slavery, as their institutions may prescribe at the time of their admission.'

The first fruits of this measure were the disturbances in Kansas. The Slave States which had carried the Nebraska Act at once practically repudiated it, and sent bands of armed men from Missouri over the frontier to 'secure Kansas to slavery.' Led by an ex-President of the Senate of the United States, they took possession of the ballot-boxes, drove away the free settlers, and many hundreds of fictitious votes were given for the pro-slavery party. In one instance 400 votes were returned from a place which contained only 42 voters, 1000 from another which contained only 42 voters, and 1200 from a third inhabited by only 40 citizens. A civil war raged for some time in the territory, and blood was spilt by the mean whites,' who boasted that they were sent to Kansas with bowie knives and revolvers, to make a clean sweep of the anti-slavery men from the Legislature of that territory. South Carolina, Georgia, and Texas voted money for the armament of expeditions despatched to aid in enforcing the law' in Kansas, and President Pierce, who was then in office, threw the whole weight of the Federal authority into * It was in the course of a most courageous and effective speech upon the Kansas question in the Senate that Mr. Sumner, one of the ablest and most upright of American statesmen, made those cutting criticisms upon the course pursued by South Carolina which provoked Mr. Brooks, of that State, to make a murderous assault upon him in the Senate House. It was a most cowardly proceeding on the part of Brooks, as Mr. Sumner was seated at his desk in a position which

made it impossible for him to defend himself. The bully resigned his seat, in order that his constituents might indicate their opinion of his conduct, and he was unanimously re-elected. Mr. Sumner was so seriously injured that some years elapsed before he completely recovered from the effects of this attack.

the pro-slavery scale. The Legislature elected in this disgraceful manner, proceeded to adopt laws for the government of Kansas, and among other statutes worthy of the men, they enacted that the 'discussion of slavery' was to be treated as a felony, punishable by two years of hard labour in chain gangs on the highroad. These men prepared the notorious Lecompton Constitution for Kansas, sanctioning slavery in the territory, which was readily accepted and ratified by the President and his Ministry.

The Kansas controversy was still raging when the contest for the Presidency of the United States took place between Mr. Buchanan and Colonel Fremont. Mr. Buchanan was a citizen of a Free State (Pennsylvania), but he was a zealous partisan of the South. He had supported the annexation of Texas, the encouragement of slavery in the new territories, the extension of the Missouri Compromise to the Pacific, the Fugitive Slave Law, and the Nebraska Bill. He was adopted as a candidate by the Southern Convention as a man 'thoroughly true to the South,' and he received the support of the whole of the Slave States and of the Northern Democratic party, while the Republican party in the North voted for Colonel Fremont. Mr. Buchanan's election was carried by the most shameless bribery and corruption. Large sums of money were extorted from the officials in the Government of all grades, and liberal contributions were made to the 'corruption fund' by merchants and contractors, and spent in the purchase of votes. The patronage of the Government was unscrupulously employed for the same purpose, and thus the Southern slave-holders, once more and for the last time, by the aid of the Northern Democrats, carried the election of their nominee. So violent was the feeling among them that several of the States actually proposed, in case of Fremont's success, to march on Washington and assume the Government. When their candidate was elected they declared this

scheme adjourned till the next Presidential | might be, as it would assuredly spread a 'calm' election, but that it would be resumed on the first prospect of the success of an antislavery candidate.

The administration of the new President was characterized throughout by feebleness and -falsehood, and was carried on by unlimited corruption. The discoveries made by the Committee of the House of Representatives appointed to inquire into the truth of allegations of official corruption, proved beyond the possibility of doubt that under Mr. Buchanan the country was governed by bribers and bribed, from the Custom-House porters to the Cabinet itself. The President set himself by every means in his power to promote the interests and objects of the Slave States. The celebrated DRED-SCOTT case was pending at the time of the election, but it has since transpired that the judges of the Supreme Court had formed their decision on the question some months previously, and had communicated it to those whom it most concerned. It was, however, kept secret during the election and the following winter, from the fear of injuring Mr. Buchanan's prospects and embarrassing his entrance upon the Presidentship. Four days after his inauguration, though the majority of the judges had pronounced at the outset that Scott had no right to bring his case before them, the Court issued the judgment that it was contrary to the Constitution to declare slavery illegal, and therefore it was incompetent for the legislative authority in any territory to prohibit it. They likewise decided that a slave who resided in a State where slavery was prohibited by law remained nevertheless a slave.*

The President, in his inaugural address (4th March, 1857), had exhorted the people to submit peaceably to the unrevealed decision of the Supreme Court, whatever it

A blow against the Union was struck by this judgment as fatal as that given Secession itself. The integrity of the Supreme Court was the keystone of the fabric, but in this judgment it was clear that the Court exceeded its judicial duty for the purpose of

securing a party or political object.'

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over the whole area of society; and he and his friends now assumed the controversy between the North and South to be settled by this judgment. As might have been foreseen, it served only to exasperate the strife between the anti-slavery and pro-slavery parties. One State Legislature after another repudiated the attempt to restrict their authority, and one city after another refused to obey the mandate of the Supreme Court. The unprincipled conduct of the President in regard to Kansas contributed not a little to intensify the strife, as well as to degrade his own character and administration. He admitted that the Legislature and the Southern party were pledged to give the people of Kansas the power of voting for or against a Constitution directly submitted to them. On the question of submitting the Constitution to the actual bonâ fide residents of Kansas,' he said, 'I am willing to stand or fall.' In flagrant violation of this pledge he accepted the notorious Lecompton Constitution concocted by the Missouri intruders, and passed it in Congress, alleging that he had supposed it would be submitted to the people, but that there was no power anywhere to compel such an appeal. He met, however, with a signal and merited defeat from an unexpected quarter. Mr. Douglas, his friend and most powerful ally, who had hitherto supported all the pro-slavery legislation of late years, and was the author of the Nebraska Bill, at this stage abandoned the party. In consistency with his favourite principle of 'popular sovereignty,' he asserted the right of the people of Kansas to repudiate slavery and its institutions, and succeeded in defeating the attempt to saddle them with the fictitious Constitution.

Mr. Buchanan's policy in every other department displayed the same spirit, and was directed to the furtherance of the same object. The chiefs of the extreme southern party set their hearts on the acquisition of Cuba as soon as their hopes were defeated in California, and Mr. Buchanan's great

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ambition was to connect his term of office | to suppress the slave trade was a mere farce. with the annexation of that coveted island Large vessels were sent which could not to the United States. From year to year get near the shore. Only two or three he announced in his messages that in one vessels were stationed on the African coast way or other he was dissatisfied with Spain, at a time, three months' absence being coupled with an intimation that money allowed, and often largely exceeded, under would be wanted for the purchase of Cuba, pretext of the fever.' When the British or that measures must be taken for the Government remonstrated against this neacquisition of that island, which no doubt farious conduct, they were coolly informed would sooner or later belong to the United that the complaints of the extensive use of States. Claims for indemnities of various the American flag to cover slave trading kinds were put forward in order to coerce were unfounded, that the United States had the Spanish Government into negotiations done all that was possible, and that it was for the sale of Cuba, and the sum of the business of the British Government to 150,000,000 dollars was offered for its pur- control Spain and the Cuban trade; that it chase, but was indignantly rejected. The could not be true that the naval officers of Spanish authorities were naturally very the United States could have fallen short angry at the insult of the President's mes- of their duty, and that the "glory of their sages to Congress about buying what Spain navy" was a sufficient defence against the did not mean to sell, and declared that they charge, and, above all, that the slave trade would prefer seeing the island sunk in the is not in fact piracy, but conventionally An attempt was then made to gain made so by individual Governments.' it in the same way as Texas had been acquired that is, by first endeavouring to stir up discontent, and then entering the island with an armed force on pretext of aiding the malcontents against an oppressive government. The President's conduct towards the filibusters who organized piratical expeditions was of the most friendly kind, and no honest attempt was made by the Government to interfere with their preparations.

ocean.

One of the most significant indications of the state of feeling in the United States is the treatment given at this time to persons of colour and free negroes residing among them. Mr. Cass, Secretary of State, refused passports to persons of colour who wished to travel abroad, and the American Minister in London dutifully followed his example. The right of pre-emption of the public lands, hitherto enjoyed by persons of this class, was now denied, though the Secretary Mr. Buchanan's policy with regard to had declared a few months before that 'the the slave trade was of a similar character. laws of the country made in this respect no It was known to everybody that a very distinction between purchasers of different large number of mercantile houses in the races.' In opposition to constant practice, Northern States were engaged in this it was now announced that no man of vile traffic, and lists of them were pub- colour could register a vessel owned by lished in the leading newspapers. Five- himself, nor command a vessel sailing under sixths of the slave ships sailed from New United States marine papers. A ship-owner York, and from the Congo River alone 1000 was actually refused a permit to sail his negroes per month were carried off under own vessel, and the port officers were inthe American flag. The Government, how-structed to prevent any but white men ever, refused to allow the British cruisers to acting as masters of any ship. search vessels hoisting that flag, and they utterly failed to cause that duty to be performed by their own ships. Their mode of carrying out their agreement with Britain

With regard to the free negroes, various schemes were proposed for getting rid of them by sending them to the West Indies, or to Africa, by contract, at so much a head.

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