fighting until cool reflection and the | stormy wrath, which possessed the great body of the Secessionists, transforming even women into fiends. These impulses were sedulously cultivated and stimulated by the engi neers of Disunion, through the uncontradicted diffusion by their journals of the most atrocious forgeries" and the most shameless inventions." The North was habitually represent enormous cost of the struggle should calm or overbear the rage of extremists on both sides, and induce reunion on the basis, substantially, of the Crittenden Compromise. Whoever keeps this explanation in mind will be enabled by it to comprehend movements, delays, vacillations, obstinate torpors, and even whole abortive campaigns, which must otherwise seemed to the ignorant masses of the utterly unaccountable. XI. The Rebellion had, moreover, a decided advantage in the respect that all its partisans, civil as well as military, were thoroughly in earnest, and ready to prove their faith by their works. "You are a Unionist," said a Baltimorean to a New York friend "I don't doubt it. But are you ready to fight for the Union? I am a Secessionist, and am going to fight for Secession." There were few real Secessionists who shrank from this test of their sincerity. On the side of the Union were the calm calculations of interest, the clear suggestions of duty, the inspirations of a broad, benignant patriotism; but these were tame and feeble impulses when contrasted with the vengeful hate, the quivering, absorbing rage, the The Louisville (Ky.) Courier of June, 1861, published the following infamous fabrication as from The New York Tribune, and it immediately ran the rounds of the journals of the Confederacy: "From the New York Tribune. 'DO YOU HEAR? THE BEAUTY AND THE BOOTY SHALL BE YOURS, ONLY CONQUER THESE REBELS OF THE SOUTH BEFORE THE NEXT CROP COMES IN. The next crop will be death to us! Let it be hewn down in the field, burned, trampled, lost; or, if you have the opportunity, ship it to New York, and we will build up Gotham by the prices it must bring next season. We shall have the monopoly of the markets, having duly subjected our vassals in the South. Go ahead, brave fellows, Zouaves of New York, whom we were apt to spit upon, though you do the work at fires. Go ahead! Don't mind yellow fever; don't mind black vomit; don't mind bilious fever, or South as thirsting for their blood and bent on their extermination-as sending forth her armies instructed to ravish, kill, lay waste, and destroy; and the pulpit was not far behind the press in disseminating these atrocious falsehoods. Hence, the Southern militia, and even conscripts, were impelled by a hate or horror of their adversaries which rendered them valiant in their own despite, making them sometimes victors where the memories of their grandfathers at Charleston and at Guilford, and of their fathers at Bladensburg, had led their foes to greatly undervalue their prowess and their efficiency. XII. Whether Slavery should prove an element of strength or of weakness to the Rebellion necessarily depended on the manner in which it should be cholera, or measles, or small pox, or hot weather, or hard living, or cold steel, or hot shot! Go!'" 15 The Norfolk (Va.) Herald of April 22d, said: "It is rumored that Lincoln has been drunk for three days, and that Capt. Lee has command at the Capitol; and also that Col. Lee, of Vir. ginia, who lately resigned, is bombarding Wash ington from Arlington Hights. If so, it will account for his not having arrived here to take command, as was expected." The New Orleans Picayune of about May 15th, 1861, said: "All the Massachusetts troops now in Washington are negroes, with the exception of two or three drummer boys. Gen. Butler, in command, is a native of Liberia. Our readers may recollect old Ben, the barber, who kept a shop in Poydras-street, and emigrated to Liberia with a small competence. Gen. Butler is his son." SLAVERY, LOYALTY, AND STATE SOVEREIGNTY. treated by the defenders of the Union. It was a nettle, which, handled timidly, tenderly, was certain to sting the hand that thus toyed with it; the only safety lay in clutching it resolutely and firmly. Slavery had made the Rebellion; Slavery coërced the South into a silence that counterfeited unanimity by howling 'Abolitionist!' on the track of every one who refused to seem a traitor to his country, and sending its bloodhounds and Thugs to throttle or knife him. An aristocracy of three hundred thousand families, haughty, highspirited, trained to arms, and accustomed to rule all who approached them, wielding all the resources and governing the conduct not only of Four Millions of Slaves, but of nearly twice that number of free persons, who served the woolly man-owners as merchants, factors, lawyers, doctors, priests, overseers, navigators, mechanics, slave-hunters, etc., etc., never dreaming that they could cherish any opinions but such as the planting aristocracy prescribed, was no contemptible foe. So long as their slaves should remain obedient to their orders and docile to their will, knowing nothing but what they were told, and hoping for nothing beyond their daily rations of corn and pork, a community of Twelve Millions, holding an area of nearly One Million square miles-the governing caste conscripting the Poor Whites to fill its armies, and using the labor of the slaves to feed and clothe them-presented to its foes on every side a front of steel and flame. Only by penetrating and disintegrating their phalanx, so that its parts should no longer support each other, but their enforced cohesion give place to their natural | 509 antagonism, could its power be broken and its persistence overborne. And here it may be instructive to note that the paramount loyalty to his State, vaunted by the Southron as the keystone of his political arch, always resolved itself, on a searching analysis, into devotion to Slavery. Thus, when Virginia seceded, we have seen Alex. H. H. Stuart, with other eminent conservatives,' who had, up to this point, resisted Disunion, now take ground in its favor; while Magoffin, C. F. Jackson, etc., always insisted that it was to his State that each citizen owed his first and highest duty. A favored officer in our regular army transmitted his resignation, to be tendered in case his State seceded, and was not cashiered therefor, as he should have been promptly and finally. All over the South, men said, 'This Secession is madness-it will ruin all concernedI have resisted it to the best of my ability-but my State has seceded nevertheless, and I must go with my State. But, on the other hand, Sterling Price, Humphrey Marshall, James B. Clay, Richard Hawes, Simon B. Buckner, William Preston, Charles S. Morehead, and scores like them-in good part old Whigs, who could not help knowing betternever seemed to imagine that the refusal of their respective States to secede laid them under the smallest obligation to restrain their traitorous propensities. 'State Sovereignty' was potent only to authorize and excuse treason to the Union-never to restrain or prevent it. XIII. The Southern leaders entered upon their great struggle with the Union under the impression-which, with the more sanguine, amounted to undoubting confidence-that they | proposed allowing the North a month were to be largely aided by coöperation and diversion on the part of their Northern friends and allies. They did not, for a moment, suppose that the Free States were to be, even in appearance, a unit against their efforts." Doubtless, there was disappointment on both sides-the North believing that there could never fail to be an open and active Union party at the South; while the South counted on like aid from the North; but there was this material difference between the two cases: The Southern leaders had received innumerable assurances, through a series of years, of Northern sympathy and aid in the anticipated struggle for their 'rights;' while probably no single Republican had received a letter or message from any Southron of note, urging that no concession be made, but that the Disunionists be crowded to the wall, and compelled to back square out or fight. On the contrary, almost every Southern plea for the Union had assumed as its basis that the North could, would, and should, be induced to recede from its position of resistance to Slavery Extension, or else The alternative was not always plainly expressed; but the inference was irresistible, that Southern Unionism differed from Secessionism in that it 16 The New Orleans Picayune of February 21st, 1861, had a letter from its New York correspondent' Antelope,' dated the 13th, which, with reference to Mr. Lincoln's speech, two days earlier, at Indianapolis, said: "Lincoln even goes so far as to intimate that hostile armies will march across the seceded States to carry out the darling project of recapture, and the 'enforcement of the laws,' but he surely could not have counted the dreadful and sickening result when such a course wandered through his hot and frenzied brain. March hostile armies through the Southern States! Why, where are the armies to come from that are to or two longer wherein to back out of its chosen position before visiting its perverseness with the retribution of fire and sword. Wait a little longer,' was the burden of Southern appeals for persistence in Unionism: the North is preparing to recede: she will presently agree, rather than fight, to give us, at least, the Crittenden Compromise.' But suppose she should not-what then? This question was sometimes answered, sometimes not; but the logical inference was inevitable: 'Then we will unite with you in a struggle for Disunion.' Here were the toils in which Virginia Unionism had immeshed itself before the bombardment of Sumter, and which foredoomed it to suicide directly thereafter. The more earnest and resolute Southerners had been talking of their 'rights' and their 'wrongs,' for a number of years, in such a definite, decisive way that they felt that no one could justifiably fail to comprehend them. Some of them were Disunionists outright-regarded separation as at all events desirable for the South, and certain to enhance her prosperity, wealth, and power. Others preferred to remain in the Union, if they could shape its policy and mold it to their will; but the take up the march? Where are the loans of money to come from to carry on this diabolical and fiendish crime? An American army sufficiently powerful cannot be raised to do it; while, as regards the raising of moneys to prosecute the fratricidal strife, New York, the banking emporium of the Union, will refuse, point blank, to advance a dollar for so unholy a purpose. *** "No! no! The South is too terribly in earnest for our bankers to furnish the sinews wherewith to whip it back to its 'allegiance:' and, if the atrocious game should still be persisted in, instead of having the funds to work with, the new Government of Mr. Lincoln will find itself flat upon its back." MR. BUCHANAN TO JEFFERSON DAVIS. former class, though few at first, had been steadily gaining from the latter. Each of these were constantly, openly saying, "Give us our rights in the Union, or we will secure them by going out of the Union." When, therefore, they received messages of sympathy and cheer from their Northern compatriots in many arduous struggles, they could not but understand their assurances of continued and thorough accord as meaning what was implied by like assurances from Southern sources. Among the captures by Gen. Grant's army, during his glorious Mississippi campaign of 1863, were several boxes of the letters and private papers of Jefferson Davis, found in an out-house on a plantation between Jackson and Vicksburg. Several of these letters were given to the public by their captors, many of them bearing the signatures of Northern men of note, who have never. denied their authenticity. These letters throw a clear light on the state of Southern opinion which induced the Secession movement of 1860-61, and are therefore essential contributions to the history of that period. As such, a portion of them will here be given. So early as 1850, James Buchanan (not yet President) wrote to Mr. Davis, complaining that the South' was disposed to be too easily satisfied, with regard to her rights' in the territories. In this 'private and confidential' letter, dated Wheatland, March 16th, he says: "So far from having in any degree recoiled from the Missouri Compromise, I have prepared a letter to sustain it, written with all the little ability of which I am master. 511 You may ask, why has it not been published? The answer is very easy. From a careful examination of the proceedings in Congress, it is clear that Non-Intervention is all that will be required by the South. Webster's speech is to be the base of the compromise -it is lauded to the echo by distinguished Southern men-and what is it? Non-intervention; and Non-Intervention simply because the Wilmot Proviso is not required to prevent the curse of Slavery from being inflicted on the Territories. Under these circumstan ces, it would be madness in me to publish my letter, and take higher ground for the South than they have taken for themselves. This would be to out-Herod Herod, and to be more Southern than the South. It could do no good, but might do much mischief. "The truth is, the South have got them selves into a condition on this question from which it appears to me now they cannot extricate themselves. My proposition of the Missouri Compromise was at once abandoned by them, and the cry was NonIntervention. They fought the battle at the last Presidential election with this device upon their banners. The Democracy of Pennsylvania are now everywhere rallying to Non-Intervention. They suppose in doing this they are standing by the South in the manner most acceptable to their Southern brethren. Our Democratic journals are praising the speech of Webster," because all the appearances are that it is satisfactory to the South. It is now too late to change front with any hope of success. You may retreat with honor upon the principle that you can carry your slaves to California, and hold them there under the Constitution, and refer the question to the Supreme Court of the United States. I am sorry, both for your sakes and my own, that such is the condition in which you are placed. "I say for my own sake, because I can never yield the position which I have deliberately taken in favor of the Missouri Compromise; and I shall be assailed by fanatics and free-soilers as long as I live, for having gone further in support of the rights of the South than Southern Senators and Representatives. I am committed for the Missouri Compromise, and that committal shall stand. "Should there be any unexpected change in the aspect of affairs at Washington which would hold out the hope that the publication of my Missouri Compromise letter would do any good, it shall yet be published." In this spirit, Northern aspirants and office-seekers had for years been 17 Mr. Webster's deplorably famous speech of March 7th, 1850. egging on the leaders of Southern opinion to take higher ground in opposition to Northern 'fanaticism' and in assertion of 'Southern rights.' Gen. John A. Quitman, of Mississippi-an able and worthy disciple of Mr. Calhoun - in a letter written shortly before his death, stated that Senator Douglas, just prior to the Cincinnati Convention of 1856, made complaints to him of the disposition of Southern men to be too easily satisfied, substantially like those of Mr. Buchanan, just quoted. He suggested that they should boldly demand all their rights, and accept nothing less. In this spirit, the following letter from a leading Democrat of Illinois, formerly Governor of that State, was written after the secession of South Carolina: “Bellville, Ill., Dec. 28, 1860. "DEAR FRIENDS: I write to you because I cannot well avoid it. I am, in heart and soul, for the South, as they are right in the principles and possess the Constitution. "If the public mind will bear it, the seat of Government, the Government itself, and the Army and Navy, ought to remain with the South and the Constitution. I have been promulgating the above sentiment, although it is rather revolutionary. A Provisional Government should be established at Washington to receive the power of the out-going President, and for the President elect to take the oath of office out of slave territory. "Now I come to the point. All the Slave States must separate from the North and come together. The Free States will not concede an atom, but are bent on the destruction of Slavery. Why, in God's name, cannot the Northern Slave States see this fact, as clear as noonday before their eyes? "The general secession ought to be accomplished before the 4th of March. Mr. Buchanan deserves immortal honor for keeping down bloodshed. In one hour, by telegraph, he could order Fort Moultrie to fire on Charleston, and the war would rage over the Union. I am, in heart and soul, against war; but the best way to keep peace is to be able to defend yourselves. "If the Slave States would unite and form a Convention, they might have the power to coërce the North into terms to Prof. Charles W. Hackley, of Columbia College, New York, writing two days earlier to Mr. Davis, to suggest a moderate and reasonable mean between the Northern and the Southern positions respecting the territories, commences: My sympathies are entirely with the South'"an averment which doubtless meant 66 much more to the receiver than was intended by the writer. Yet it is probable that nine out of every ten letters written from the North to the South during that boding Winter, if they touched on public affairs at all, were more exceptionable and misleading than was this one. Ex-President Pierce wrote, almost a year previously, and in prospect of the Presidential nomination for 1860, as follows: CLARENDON HOTEL, Jan. 6, 1860. MY DEAR FRIEND: I wrote you an unsatisfactory note a day or two since. I have just had a pleasant interview with Mr. Shepley, whose courage and fidelity are equal to his learning and talents. He says he would rather fight the battle with you as the standard-bearer, in 1860, than under the auspices of any other leader. The feeling and judgment of Mr. S. in this relation is, I am confident, rapidly gaining ground in New England. Our people are looking for "the Coming Man." One who is raised by all the elements of his character above the atmosphere ordinarily breathed by politicians. A man really fitted for this emergency by his ability, courage, broad statesmanship and patriotism. Col. Seymour (Tho's. H.) arrived here this morning, and expressed his views in this relation in almost the identical language used by Mr. Shepley. It is true that, in the present state of things at Washington, and throughout the country, no man can predict what changes two or three months may bring forth. Let me suggest that, in the morning debates of Congress, full justice seems to me not to have been done |