diff options
| -rw-r--r-- | .gitattributes | 3 | ||||
| -rw-r--r-- | 39720-8.txt | 5912 | ||||
| -rw-r--r-- | 39720-8.zip | bin | 0 -> 116571 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 39720-h.zip | bin | 0 -> 139522 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 39720-h/39720-h.htm | 8373 | ||||
| -rw-r--r-- | 39720-h/images/titledecorative.jpg | bin | 0 -> 6670 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 39720.txt | 5912 | ||||
| -rw-r--r-- | 39720.zip | bin | 0 -> 116559 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | LICENSE.txt | 11 | ||||
| -rw-r--r-- | README.md | 2 |
10 files changed, 20213 insertions, 0 deletions
diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6833f05 --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,3 @@ +* text=auto +*.txt text +*.md text diff --git a/39720-8.txt b/39720-8.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..fa5a6a1 --- /dev/null +++ b/39720-8.txt @@ -0,0 +1,5912 @@ +The Project Gutenberg eBook, The Abolition Crusade and Its Consequences, +by Hilary Abner Herbert + + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + + + + +Title: The Abolition Crusade and Its Consequences + Four Periods of American History + + +Author: Hilary Abner Herbert + + + +Release Date: May 17, 2012 [eBook #39720] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + + +***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE ABOLITION CRUSADE AND ITS +CONSEQUENCES*** + + +E-text prepared by Charlene Taylor, Julia Neufeld, and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team (http://www.pgdp.net) from page images +generously made available by Internet Archive/American Libraries +(http://archive.org/details/americana) + + + +Note: Images of the original pages are available through + Internet Archive/American Libraries. See + http://archive.org/details/abolitioncrusade00herbrich + + +Transcriber's note: + + Text enclosed by underscores is in italics (_italics_). + + Small capital text has been replaced with all capitals. + + + + + +THE ABOLITION CRUSADE AND ITS CONSEQUENCES + +Four Periods of American History + +by + +HILARY A. HERBERT, LL.D. + + + + + + + +New York +Charles Scribner's Sons +1912 + +Copyright, 1912, by +Charles Scribner's Sons + +Published April, 1912 + + + + + TO MY GRANDCHILDREN + + THIS LITTLE BOOK IS AFFECTIONATELY DEDICATED + IN THE HOPE THAT ITS PERUSAL + WILL FOSTER IN THEM, AS CITIZENS OF THIS GREAT + REPUBLIC, A DUE REGARD FOR THE CONSTITUTION + OF THEIR COUNTRY + AS THE SUPREME LAW OF THE LAND + + + + +PREFATORY NOTE BY JAMES FORD RHODES + + +"Livy extolled Pompey in such a panegyric that Augustus called him +Pompeian, and yet this was no obstacle to their friendship." That we +find in Tacitus. We may therefore picture to ourselves Augustus reading +Livy's "History of the Civil Wars" (in which the historian's republican +sympathies were freely expressed), and learning therefrom that there +were two sides to the strife which rent Rome. As we are more than +forty-six years distant from our own Civil War, is it not incumbent on +Northerners to endeavor to see the Southern side? We may be certain that +the historian a hundred years hence, when he contemplates the lining-up +of five and one-half million people against twenty-two millions, their +equal in religion, morals, regard for law, and devotion to the common +Constitution, will, as matter of course, aver that the question over +which they fought for four years had two sides; that all the right was +not on one side and all the wrong on the other. The North should +welcome, therefore, accounts of the conflict written by candid Southern +men. + +Mr. Herbert, reared and educated in the South, believing in the moral +and economical right of slavery, served as a Confederate soldier during +the war, but after Appomattox, when thirty-one years old, he told his +father he had arrived at the conviction that slavery was wrong. Twelve +years later, when home-rule was completely restored to the South (1877), +he went into public life as a Member of Congress, sitting in the House +for sixteen years. At the end of his last term, in 1893, he was +appointed Secretary of the Navy by President Cleveland, whom he +faithfully served during his second administration. + +Such an experience is an excellent training for the treatment of any +aspect of the Civil War. Mr. Herbert's devotion to the Constitution, the +Union, and the flag now equals that of any soldier of the North who +fought against him. We should expect therefore that his work would be +pervaded by practical knowledge and candor. + +After a careful reading of the manuscript I have no hesitation in saying +that the expectation is realized. Naturally unable to agree entirely +with his presentation of the subject, I believe that his work exhibits a +side that entitles it to a large hearing. I hope that it will be placed +before the younger generation, who, unaffected by any memory of the heat +of the conflict, may truly say: + + Tros Tyriusve, mihi nullo discrimine agetur. + + JAMES FORD RHODES. + +BOSTON, _November_, 1911. + + + + +PREFACE + + +In 1890 Mr. L. E. Chittenden, who had been United States Treasurer under +President Lincoln, published an interesting account of $10,000,000 +United States bonds secretly sent to England, as he said, in 1862, and +he told all about what thereupon took place across the water. It was a +reminiscence. General Charles Francis Adams in his recent instructive +volume, "Studies Military and Diplomatic," takes up this narrative and, +in a chapter entitled "An Historical Residuum," conclusively shows from +contemporaneous evidence that the bonds were sent, not in 1862, but in +1863, but that, as for the rest of the story, the residuum of truth in +it was about like the speck of moisture that is left when a soap bubble +is pricked by a needle. + +General Adams did not mean that Mr. Chittenden knew he was drawing on +his imagination. He was only demonstrating that one who intends to +write history cannot rely on his memory. + +The author, in the following pages, is undertaking to write a connected +story of events that happened, most of them, in his lifetime, and as to +many of the most important of which he has vivid recollections; but, +save in one respect, he has not relied upon his own memory for any +important fact. The picture he has drawn of the relations between the +slave-holder and non-slave-holder in the South is, much of it, given as +he recollects it. His opportunities for observation were somewhat +extensive, and here he is willing to be considered in part as a witness. +Elsewhere he has relied almost entirely upon contemporaneous written +evidence, memory, however, often indicating to him sources of +information. + +Nowhere are there so many valuable lessons for the student of American +history as in the story of the great sectional movement of 1831, and of +its results, which have profoundly affected American conditions through +generation after generation. + +An effort is here made to tell that story succinctly, tracing it, step +after step, from cause to effect. The subject divides itself naturally +into four historic periods: + +1. The anti-slavery crusade, 1831 to 1860. + +2. Secession and four years of war, 1861 to 1865. + +3. Reconstruction under the Lincoln-Johnson plan, with the overthrow by +Congress of that plan and the rule of the negro and carpet-bagger, from +1865 to 1876. + +4. Restoration of self-government in the South, and the results that +have followed. + +The greater part of the book is devoted to the first period--1831 to +1860, the period of causation. The sequences running through the three +remaining periods are more briefly sketched. + +Italics, throughout the book, it may be mentioned here, are the +author's. + +Now that the country is happily reunited in a Union which all agree is +indissoluble, the South wants the true history of the times here treated +of spread before its children; so does the North. The mistakes that were +committed on both sides during that lamentable and prolonged sectional +quarrel (and they were many) should be known of all, in order that like +mistakes may not be committed in the future. The writer has, with +diffidence, attempted to lay the facts before his readers, and so to +condense the story that it may be within the reach of the ordinary +student. How far he has succeeded will be for his readers to say. The +verdict he ventures to hope for is that he has made an honest effort to +be fair. + +The author takes this occasion to thank that accomplished young teacher +of history, Mr. Paul Micou, for valuable suggestions, and his friend, +Mr. Thomas H. Clark, who with his varied attainments has aided him in +many ways. + + HILARY A. HERBERT. + +WASHINGTON, D. C., _March_, 1912. + + + + +CONTENTS + + + CHAPTER PAGE + + INTRODUCTION 3 + + I. SECESSION AND ITS DOCTRINE 15 + + II. EMANCIPATION PRIOR TO 1831 37 + + III. THE NEW ABOLITIONISTS 56 + + IV. FEELING IN THE SOUTH--1835 77 + + V. ANTI-ABOLITION AT THE NORTH 84 + + VI. A CRISIS AND A COMPROMISE 93 + + VII. EFFORTS FOR PEACE 128 + + VIII. INCOMPATIBILITY OF SLAVERY AND FREEDOM 147 + + IX. FOUR YEARS OF WAR 180 + + X. RECONSTRUCTION, LINCOLN-JOHNSON PLAN AND CONGRESSIONAL 208 + + XI. THE SOUTH UNDER SELF-GOVERNMENT 229 + + INDEX 245 + + + + + +THE ABOLITION CRUSADE AND ITS CONSEQUENCES + + + + +INTRODUCTION + + +The Constitution of the United States attempts to define and limit the +power of our Federal Government. + +Lord Brougham somewhere said that such an instrument was not worth the +parchment it was written on; people would pay no regard to self-imposed +limitations on their own will. + +When our fathers by that written Constitution established a government +that was partly national and partly federal, and that had no precedent, +they knew it was an experiment. To-day that government has been in +existence one hundred and twenty-three years, and we proudly claim that +the experiment of 1789 has been the success of the ages. + +Happy should we be if we could boast that, during all this period, the +Constitution had never been violated in any respect! + +The first palpable infringement of its provisions occurred in the +enactment of the alien and sedition laws of 1798. The people at the +polls indignantly condemned these enactments, and for years thereafter +the government proceeded peacefully; the people were prosperous, and the +Union and the Constitution grew in favor. + +Later, there grew up a rancorous sectional controversy about slavery +that lasted many years; that quarrel was followed by a bloody sectional +war; after that war came the reconstruction of the Southern States. +During each of these three trying eras it did sometimes seem as if that +old piece of "parchment," derided by Lord Brougham, had been utterly +forgotten. Nevertheless, and despite all these trying experiences, we +have in the meantime advanced to the very front rank of nations, and our +people have long since turned, not only to the Union, but, we are happy +to think, to the Constitution as well, with more devotion than ever. + +It may be further said that, notwithstanding all the bitter animosities +that for long divided our country into two hostile sections, that +wonderful old Constitution, handed down to us by our fathers, was +always, and in all seasons, in the hearts of our people, and that never +for a moment was it out of mind. Even in our sectional war Confederates +and Federals were both fighting for it--one side to maintain it over +themselves as an independent nation; the other to maintain it over the +whole of the old Union. In the very madness of reconstruction the +fundamental idea of the Constitution, the equality of the States, +ultimately prevailed--this idea it was that imperatively demanded the +final restoration of the seceded States, with the right of +self-government unimpaired. + +The future is now bright before us. The complex civilization of the +present is, we do not forget, continually presenting new and complex +problems of government, and we are mindful, too, that, for the people +who must deal with these problems, a higher culture is required, but to +all this our national and State governments seem to be fully alive. We +are everywhere erecting memorials to our patriotic dead, we have our +"flag day" and many ceremonies to stimulate patriotism, and, throughout +our whole country, young Americans are being taught more and more of +American history and American traditions. + +The essence of these teachings presumably is that time has hallowed our +Constitution, and that experience has fully shown the wisdom of its +provisions. In this land of ours, where there are so much property and +so many voters who want it, and where the honor and emoluments of high +place are so tempting to the demagogue, there can be no such security +for either life, liberty, or property as those safeguards which our +fathers devised in the Constitution of the United States. + +Our teachers of history must therefore expose fearlessly every violation +in the past of our Constitution, and point out the penalties that +followed; and, above all, they cannot afford to condone, or to pass by +in silence, the conduct of those who have heretofore advocated, or acted +on, any law which to them was _higher than the American Constitution_. + +One of the most serious troubles in the past, many think our greatest, +was our terrible war among ourselves. Perhaps, after the lapse of nearly +fifty years, we can all now agree that if our people and our States had +always, between 1830 and 1860, faithfully observed the Federal +Constitution we should have not had that war. However that may be, the +crusade of the Abolitionists, which began in 1831, was the beginning of +an agitation in the North against the existence of slavery in the South, +which continued, in one form or another, until the outbreak of that war. + +The negro is now located, geographically, much as he was then. If +another attempt shall be made to project his personal status into +national politics, the voters of the country ought to know and consider +the mistakes that occurred, North and South, during the unhappy era of +that sectional warfare. This little book is a study of that period of +our history. It concludes with a glance at the war between the North and +South, and the reconstruction that followed. + +The story of Cromwell and the Great Revolution it was impossible for any +Englishman to tell correctly for nearly or quite two centuries. The +changes that had been wrought were too profound, too far-reaching; and +English writers were too human. The changes--economic, political, and +social--wrought in our country by the great controversy over slavery and +State-rights, and by the war that ended it, have been quite as profound, +and the revolution in men's ideas and ways of looking at their past +history has been quite as complete as those which followed the downfall +of the government founded by Cromwell. But we are now in the twentieth +century; history is becoming a science, and we ought to succeed better +in writing our past than the Englishmen did. + +The culture of this day is very exacting in its demands, and if one is +writing about our own past the need of fairness is all the more +imperative. And why not? The masses of the people, who clashed on the +battlefields of a war in which one side fought for the supremacy of the +Union and the other for the sovereignty of the States, had honest +convictions; they differed in their convictions; they had made honest +mistakes about each other; now they would like their histories to tell +just where those mistakes were; they do not wish these mistakes to be +repeated hereafter. Nor is there any reason why the whole history of +that great controversy should not now be written with absolute fairness; +the two sections of our country have come together in a most wonderful +way. There has been reunion after reunion of the blue and the gray. The +survivors of a New Jersey regiment, forty-four years after the bloody +battle of Salem Church, put up on its site a monument to their dead, on +one side of which was a tablet to the memory of the "brave Alabama +boys," who were their opponents in that fight. One of those "Alabama +boys" wrote the story of that battle for the archives of his own State, +and the State of New Jersey has published it in her archives, as a fair +account of the battle. + +The author has attempted to approach his subject in a spirit like this, +and while he hopes to be absolutely fair, he is perfectly aware that he +sees things from a Southern view-point. For this, however, no apology is +needed. Truth is many-sided and must be seen from every direction. + +Nearly all the school-books dealing with the period here treated of, and +now considered as authority, have been written from a Northern +stand-point; and many of the extended histories that are most widely +read seem to the writer to be more or less partisan, although the +authors were apparently quite unconscious of it. Attempts made here to +point out some of the errors in these books are, as is conceived, in the +interests of history. + +Of course it is important that readers should know the stand-point of an +author who writes at this day of events as recent as those here treated +of. Dr. Albert Bushnell Hart, professor of history in Harvard +University, in the preface to his "Slavery and Abolition" (Harper +Brothers, 1906), says of himself: "It is hard for a son and grandson of +abolitionists to approach so explosive a question with impartiality." +Following this example, the writer must tell that he was born in the +South, of slave-holding parents, three years after the Abolition crusade +began in 1831. Growing up in the South under the stress of that crusade, +he maintained all through the war, in which he was a loyal Confederate +soldier, the belief in which he had been educated--that slavery was +right, morally and economically. + +One day, not long after Appomattox, he told his father he had reached +the conclusion that slavery was wrong. The reply was, to the writer's +surprise, that his mother in early life had been an avowed +emancipationist; that she (who had lived until the writer was sixteen +years old) had never felt at liberty to discuss slavery after the rise +of the new abolitionists and the Nat Turner insurrection; and then +followed the further information that when, in 1846, the family removed +from South Carolina to Alabama, Greenville, Ala., was chosen for a home +because it was thought that the danger from slave insurrections would be +less there than in one of the richer "black counties." + +What a creature of circumstances man is! The writer's belief about a +great moral question, his home, his school-mates, and the companions of +his youth, were all determined by a movement begun in Boston, +Massachusetts, before he was born in the far South! + +With a vivid personal recollection of the closing years of the great +anti-slavery crusade always in his mind, the writer has studied closely +many of the histories dealing with that movement, and he has found quite +a consensus of opinion among Northern writers--a view that has even been +sometimes accepted in the South--that it was not so much the fear of +insurrections, created by Abolition agitation, that shut off discussion +in the South about the rightfulness of slavery as it was the invention +of the cotton-gin, that made cotton growing and slavery profitable. The +cotton-gin was invented in 1792, and was in common use years before the +writer's mother was born. A native of, she grew to maturity entirely in, +the South, and in 1830 was an avowed emancipationist. The subject was +then being freely discussed. + +The author has ventured to relate in the pages that follow this +introduction two or three incidents that were more or less personal, in +the hope that their significance may be his sufficient excuse. + +And now, having spoken of himself as a Southerner, the author thinks it +but fair, when invoking for the following pages fair consideration, to +add that, since 1865, he has never ceased to rejoice that slavery is no +more, and that secession is now only an academic question; and, further, +that he has, since Appomattox, served the government of the United +States for twenty years as loyally as he ever served the Confederacy. He +therefore respectfully submits that his experiences ought to render him +quite as well qualified for an impartial consideration of the +anti-slavery crusade and its consequences as are those who have never, +either themselves or through the eyes of their ancestors, seen more than +one side of those questions. Certain he is, in his own mind, that this +Union has now no better friend than is he who submits this little study, +conscious of its many shortcomings, claiming for it nothing except that +it is the result of an honest effort to be fair in every statement of +facts and in the conclusions reached. + +Not much effort has been made in the direction of original research. +Facts deemed sufficient to illustrate salient points, which alone can be +treated of in a short story, have been found in published documents, +and other facts have been purposely taken, most of them, from Northern +writers; and the authorities have been duly cited. These facts have been +compressed into a small compass, so that the book may be available to +such students as have not time for a more extended examination. + +Of the results of the crusade of the Abolitionists, and the consequent +sectional war, George Ticknor Curtis, one of New England's distinguished +biographers, says in his "Life of Buchanan," vol. II, p. 283: + +"It is cause for exultation that slavery no longer exists in the broad +domain of this republic--that our theory of government and practice are +now in complete accord. But it is no cause for national pride that we +did not accomplish this result without the cost of a million of precious +lives and untold millions of money." + + + + +CHAPTER I + +SECESSION AND ITS DOCTRINE + + +John Fiske has said in his school history: "Under the government of +England before the Revolution the thirteen commonwealths were +independent of one another, and were held together juxtaposed, rather +than united, only through their allegiance to the British Crown. Had +that allegiance been maintained there is no telling how long they might +have gone on thus disunited." + +They won their independence under a very imperfect union, a government +improvised for the occasion. The "Articles of Confederation," the first +formal constitution of the United States of America, were not ratified +by Maryland, the last to ratify, until in 1781, shortly before Yorktown. +In 1787 the thirteen States, each claiming to be still sovereign, came +together in convention at Philadelphia and formed the present +Constitution, looking to "a more perfect union." The Constitution that +created this new government has been rightly said to be "the most +wonderful work ever struck off, at a given time, by the brain and +purpose of man."[1] And so it was, but it left unsettled the great +question whether a State, if it believed that its rights were denied to +it by the general government, could peaceably withdraw from the Union. + + [1] Gladstone, "Kin Beyond the Sea." + +The Federal Government was given by the Constitution only limited +powers, powers that it could not transcend. Nowhere on the face of that +Constitution was any right expressly conferred on the general government +to decide exclusively and finally upon the extent of the powers granted +to it. If any such right had been clearly given, it is certain that many +of the States would not have entered into the Union. As it was, the +Constitution was only adopted by eleven of the States after months of +discussion. Then the new government was inaugurated, with two of the +States, Rhode Island and North Carolina, still out of the Union. They +remained outside, one of them for eighteen months and the other for a +year. + +The States were reluctant to adopt the Constitution, because they were +jealous of, and did not mean to give up, the right of self-government. + +The framers of the Constitution knew that the question of the right of a +State to secede was thus left unsettled. They knew, too, that this might +give trouble in the future. Their hope was that, as the advantages of +the Union became, in process of time, more and more apparent, the Union +would grow in favor and come to be regarded in the minds and hearts of +the people as indissoluble. + +From the beginning of the government there were many, including +statesmen of great influence, who continued to be jealous of the right +of self-government, and insisted that no powers should be exercised by +the Federal Government except such as were very clearly granted in the +Constitution. These soon became a party and called themselves +Republicans. Some thirty years later they called themselves Democrats. +Those, on the other hand, who believed in construing the grants of +power in the Constitution liberally or broadly, called themselves +Federalists. + +Washington was a Federalist, but such was his influence that the dispute +between the Republicans and the Federalists about the meaning of the +Constitution did not, during his administration, assume a serious +aspect; but when a new president, John Adams, also a Federalist, came in +with a congress in harmony with him, the Republicans made bitter war +upon them. France, then at war with England, was even waging what has +been denominated a "quasi war" upon us, to compel the United States, +under the old treaty of the Revolution, to take her part against +England; and England was also threatening us. Plots to force the +government into the war as an ally of France were in the air. + +Adams and his followers believed in a strong and spirited government. To +strike a fatal blow at the plotters against the public peace, and to +crush the Republicans at the same time, Congress now passed the famous +alien and sedition laws. + +One of the alien laws, June 25, 1798, gave the President, for two years +from its passage, power to order out of the country, _at his own will, +and without "trial by jury" or other "process of law," any alien he +deemed dangerous_ to the peace and safety of the United States. + +The sedition law, July 14, 1798, made criminal any unlawful conspiracy +to oppose any measure of the government of the United States "which was +directed by proper authority," as well as also any "false and scandalous +accusations against the Government, the President, or the Congress." + +The opportunity of the Republicans had come. They determined to call +upon the country to condemn the alien and sedition laws, and at the +presidential election in 1800 the Federalists received their death-blow. +The party as an organization survived that election only a few years, +and in localities the very name, Federalist, later became a reproach. + +The Republicans began their campaign against the alien and sedition laws +by a series of resolutions, which, drawn by Jefferson, were passed by +the Kentucky legislature in November, 1798. Other quite similar +resolutions, drawn by Madison, passed the Virginia assembly the next +year; and these together became the celebrated Kentucky and Virginia +resolutions of 1798-9.[2] The alien and sedition laws were denounced in +these resolutions for the exercise of powers not delegated to the +general government. Adverting to the sedition law, it was declared that +no power over the freedom of religion, freedom of speech, or freedom of +the press had been given. On the contrary, it had been expressly +provided by the Constitution that "Congress shall make no law respecting +an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof, +_or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press_." + + [2] Warfield, in his "Kentucky Resolutions of 1798," relates that John + Breckenridge introduced the Kentucky and John Taylor, of Caroline, moved + the Virginia resolutions. In 1814 Taylor made it known that Madison was + the author of the Virginia resolves, but not till 1821 did Jefferson + admit his authorship of the Kentucky resolutions. Jefferson was + Vice-President when they were drawn, and it would have been thought + unseemly for him to appear openly in a canvass against the President, + but by correspondence with his friends he "gradually drew out a program + of action" (Warfield, p. 17). The Kentucky Resolutions were sent by the + Governor to the Legislatures of the other States, ten of which, being + controlled by the Federalists, are known to have declared against them + (Warfield, p. 115). But of course the resolutions were canvassed by the + public before the presidential election of 1800. + +The first of the Kentucky resolutions was as follows: + + "_Resolved_, That the several States composing the United States of + America, are not united on the principle of unlimited submission to + their general government, _but that by compact_, under the style + and title of a constitution for the United States, and of + amendments thereto, they constituted a general government for + specific purposes, delegated to that Government certain definite + powers, _reserving, each State to itself_, the residuary mass of + right to their own self-government; and _that whensoever the + general government assumes undelegated powers its acts are + unauthoritative, void, and of no effect_: That to this _compact + each State acceded as a State_, and is an integral party, its + co-States forming, as to itself, the other party: That the + government created by _this compact, was not made the exclusive or + final judge of the extent of the powers delegated to itself_, since + that would have made its direction, and not the Constitution, the + measure of its powers; but that, _as in all other cases of compact + among parties having no common judge, each party has a right to + judge for itself as well of infractions as of the mode and measure + of redress._" + +Undoubtedly it is from the famous resolutions of 1798-9 that the +secessionists of a later date drew their arguments. The authors of these +celebrated resolutions were, both of them, devoted friends of the Union +they had helped to construct. Why should they announce a theory of the +Constitution that was so full of dangerous possibilities? + +The answer is, they were announcing the theory upon which the States, or +at least many of the States, had ten years before ratified the +Constitution. A crisis in the life of the new government had now come. +Congress had usurped powers not given; it had exercised powers that had +been prohibited, and the government was enforcing the obnoxious statutes +with a high hand. Dissatisfaction was intense. + +Jefferson and Madison were undoubtedly Republican partisans, Jefferson +especially; but it is equally certain that they were both friends of the +Union, and as such they concluded, with the lights before them, that the +wise course would be to submit to the people, in ample time for full +consideration, before the then coming presidential election, a full, +clear, and comprehensive exposition of the Constitution precisely as +they, and as the people, then understood it. This they did in the +resolutions of 1798 and 1799, and the very same voters who had created +the Constitution of 1789, now, with their sons to aid them, endorsed +these resolutions in the election of 1800, which had been laid before +them by the legislatures of two Republican States as a correct +construction of that instrument. + +The Republicans under Jefferson came into power with an immense +majority. The people were satisfied with the Constitution as it had been +construed in the election of 1800, and the country under control of the +Republicans was happy and prosperous for three decades. Then the party +in power began to split into National Republicans and Democratic +Republicans. The National Republicans favored a liberal construction of +the Constitution and became Whigs; the Democratic Republicans dropped +the name Republican and became Democrats. + +The foregoing sketch has been given with no intent to write a political +history, but only to show with what emphasis the American people +condemned all violations of the Constitution up to the time when, in +1831, our story of the Abolitionists is to begin. The sketch has also +served to explain the theory of State-rights, as it was held in early +days, and later, by the Southern people. + +Whether the union of the States under the Constitution as expounded by +the Kentucky and Virginia resolutions would survive every trial that was +to come, remained to be seen. The question was destined to perplex Mr. +Jefferson himself, more than once. + +Indeed, even while Washington was President there had been disunion +sentiment in Congress. In 1794 the celebrated Virginian, John Taylor, of +Caroline, shortly after he had expressed an intention of publicly +resigning from the United States Senate, was approached in the privacy +of a committee room by Rufus King, senator from New York, and Oliver +Ellsworth, a senator from Massachusetts, both Federalists, with a +proposition for a dissolution of the Union by mutual consent, the line +of division to be somewhere from the Potomac to the Hudson. This was on +the ground "that it was utterly impossible for the Union to continue. +That the Southern and the Eastern people thought quite differently," +etc. Taylor contended for the Union, and nothing came of the +conference, the story of which remained a secret for over a hundred +years.[3] + + [3] Taylor was so deeply impressed by the conference, which was + protracted, that two days later, May 11, 1794, he made an extended note + of it which he sent to Mr. Madison. At the foot of his note Taylor says, + among other things: "He (T.) is thoroughly convinced that the design to + break up the Union is contemplated. The assurance, the manner, the + earnestness, and the countenances with which the idea was uttered, all + disclosed the most serious intention. It is also probable that K. (King) + and E. (Ellsworth) having heard that T. (Taylor) was against the + (adoption of) the Constitution have hence imbibed a mistaken opinion + that he was secretly an enemy of the Union, and conceived that he was a + fit instrument (as he was about retiring) to infuse notions into the + anti-federal temper of Virginia, consonant to their views."--"Disunion + Sentiment in the Congress in 1794" (with fac-simile of Taylor + memorandum), by Gaillard Hunt, Editor of Writings of James Madison. + Lowdermilk Co., Washington, D. C., 1905. + +"In the winter of 1803-4, immediately after, and as a consequence of, +the acquisition of Louisiana, certain leaders of the Federal party +conceived the project of the dissolution of the Union and the +establishment of a Northern Confederacy, the justifying causes to those +who entertained it, that the acquisition of Louisiana to the Union +transcended the constitutional powers of the government of the United +States; that it created, in fact, a new confederacy to which the States, +united by the former compact, were not bound to adhere; that it was +oppressive of the interests and destructive of the influence of the +northern section of the Confederacy, whose right and duty it was +therefore to secede from the new body politic, and to constitute one of +their own."[4] + + [4] C. F. Robertson, "The Louisiana Purchase," etc. "Papers of the + American Association," vol. I, pp. 262, 263. + +This project did not assume serious proportions. + +John Fiske in his school history says: "John Quincy Adams, a supporter +of the embargo act of 1807, privately informed President Jefferson (in +February, 1809) that further attempts to enforce it in the New England +States would be likely to drive them to secession. Accordingly, the +embargo was repealed, and the non-intercourse act substituted for it." + +The spirit of nationality was yet in its infancy, threats of secession +were common, and they came then mostly from New England. These threats +were in no wise connected with slavery; agitators had not then made +slavery a national issue; the idea of separation was prompted by the +fear that power in the councils of the Union would pass into the hands +of other sections. + +Massachusetts was heard from again in 1811, when the State of Louisiana, +the first to be carved from the Louisiana purchase, asked to come into +the Union. In discussing the bill for her admission, Josiah Quincy said: +"Why, sir, I have already heard of six States, and some say there will +be at no great distance of time more. I have also heard that the mouth +of the Ohio will be far to the east of the contemplated empire.... It +is impossible that such a power could be granted. It was not for these +men that our fathers fought. It was not for them this Constitution +was adopted. You have no authority to throw the rights and liberties +and property of this people into hotchpot with the wild men on +the Missouri, or with the mixed, though more respectable, race of +Anglo-Hispano-Gallo-Americans who bask in the sands in the mouth of the +Mississippi.... _I am compelled to declare it as my deliberate opinion +that, if this bill passes, the bonds of the Union are virtually +dissolved; that the States which compose it are free from their moral +obligations; and that, as it will be the right of all, so it will be +the duty of some, to prepare definitely for a separation--amicably, if +they can; violently, if they must._" + +June 15, 1813, the Massachusetts legislature endorsed the position taken +in this speech.[5] + + [5] "American State Documents and Federal Relations," p. 21. + +Later, in 1814, a convention of representative New England statesmen met +at Hartford, to consider of secession unless the non-intercourse act, +which also bore hard on New England, should be repealed; but the war +then pending was soon to close, and the danger from that quarter was +over. + +But secession was not exclusively a New England doctrine. "When the +Constitution was adopted by the votes of States in popular conventions, +it is safe to say there was not a man in the country, from Washington +and Hamilton, on the one side, to George Clinton and George Mason, on +the other, who regarded the new system as anything but an experiment, +entered into by the States, and from which each and every State had the +right to withdraw, a right which was very likely to be exercised."[6] + + [6] Henry Cabot Lodge's "Webster," p. 176. + +As late as 1844 the threat of secession was to come again from +Massachusetts. The great State of Texas was applying for admission to +the Union. But Texas was a slave State; Abolitionists had now for +thirteen years been arousing in the old Bay State a spirit of hostility +against the existence of slavery in her sister States of the South, and +in 1844 the Massachusetts legislature resolved that "the Commonwealth of +Massachusetts, faithful to the _compact_ between the people of the +United States, according to the plain meaning and intent in which it was +understood by them, is sincerely anxious for its preservation; but that +it is determined, as it _doubts not other States are, to submit to +undelegated powers in no body of men on earth_," and that "the project +of the annexation of Texas, unless arrested at the threshold, may tend +to drive _these States into a dissolution of the Union_." + +This was _just seventeen years before the Commonwealth of Massachusetts +began to arm her sons to put down secession in the South_! + +The Southern reader must not, however, conclude from this startling +about-face on the question of secession, that the people of +Massachusetts, and of the North, did not, _in 1861_, honestly believe +that under the Constitution the Union was indissoluble, or that the +North went to war simply for the purpose of perpetuating its power over +the South. Such a conclusion would be grossly unjust. The spirit of +nationality, veneration of the Union, was a growth, and, after it had +fairly begun, a rapid growth. It grew, as our country grew in prestige +and power. The splendid triumphs of our ships at sea, in the War of +1812, and our victory at New Orleans over British regulars, added to it; +the masterful decisions of our great Chief Justice John Marshall, +pointing out how beneficently our Federal Constitution was adapted to +the preservation not only of local self-government but of the liberties +of the citizen as well; peace with, and the respect of, foreign nations; +free trade between the people of all sections, and abounding +prosperity--all these things created a deep impression, and Americans +began to hark back to the words of Washington in his farewell address: +"The unity of our government, which now constitutes you one people, is +also dear to you. It is justly so, for it is a main pillar in the +edifice of your real independence, the support of your tranquillity at +home, your peace abroad, of your safety, of your prosperity, of that +very liberty which you so highly prize." + +But far and away above every other single element contributing to the +development of Union sentiment was the wonderful speech of Daniel +Webster, January 26, 1830, in his debate in the United States Senate +with Hayne, of South Carolina. Hayne was eloquently defending States' +rights, and his argument was unanswerable if his premise was admitted, +that, as had been theretofore conceded, the Constitution was _a compact +between the States_. Webster saw this and he took new ground; the +Constitution was, he contended, not a compact, but the formation of a +government. His arguments were like fruitful seed sown upon a soil +prepared for their reception. No speech delivered in this country ever +created so profound an impression. It was the foundation of a new school +of political thought. It concluded with this eloquent peroration: "When +my eyes shall be turned to behold for the last time the sun in heaven, +may I not see him shining on the broken and dishonored fragments of a +once glorious Union; on States dissevered, discordant, belligerent; on a +land rent with civil feuds, or drenched, it may be, in fraternal blood! +Let their last feeble and lingering glance rather behold the gracious +ensign of the republic, now known and honored throughout the earth, +still full high advanced, its arms and trophies streaming in their +original lustre, not a stripe erased or polluted, not a single star +obscured, bearing for its motto no such miserable interrogatory as 'What +is all this worth?' nor those other words of delusion and folly, +'Liberty first and Union afterwards,' but everywhere, spread all over +with living light, blazing on all its ample folds, as they float over +the sea and over the land, and in every wind under the whole heavens, +that other sentiment, dear to every American heart--'Liberty _and_ +Union, now and forever, one and inseparable.'" + +For many years every school-house in the land resounded with these +words. By 1861 they had been imprinted on the minds and had sunk into +the hearts of a whole generation. Their effect was incalculable. + +It is perfectly true that the secession resolution of the Massachusetts +legislature of 1844 was passed fourteen years after Webster's speech, +but the Garrisonians had then been agitating the slavery question within +her borders for fourteen years, and the old State was now beside herself +with excitement. + +There was another great factor in the rapid manufacture of Union +sentiment at the North that had practically no existence at the South. +It was immigration. + +The new-comers from over the sea knew nothing, and cared less, about the +history of the Constitution or the dialectics of secession. They had +sought a land of liberty that to them was one nation, with one flag +flying over it, and in their eyes secession was rebellion. Immigrants to +America, practically all settling in Northern States, were during the +thirty years, 1831-1860, 4,910,590; and these must, with their natural +increase, have numbered at least six millions in 1860. In other words, +far more than one-fourth of the people of the North in 1860 were not, +themselves or their fathers, in the country in the early days when the +doctrine of States' rights had been in the ascendant; and, as a rule, to +these new people that old doctrine was folly. + +In the South the situation was reversed. Slavery had kept immigrants +away. The whites were nearly all of the old revolutionary stock, and had +inherited the old ideas. Still, love of and pride in the Union had grown +in them too. Nor were the Southerners all followers of Jefferson. From +the earliest days much of the wealth and intelligence of the country, +North and South, had opposed the Democracy, first as Federalists and +later as Whigs. In the South the Whigs have been described as "a fine +upstanding old party, a party of blue broadcloth, silver buttons, and a +coach and four." It was not until anti-slavery sentiment had begun to +array the North, as a section, against the South, that Southern Whigs +began to look for protection to the doctrine of States' rights. + +Woodrow Wilson says, in "Division and Reunion," p. 47, of Daniel +Webster's great speech in 1830: "The North was now beginning to insist +upon a national government; the South was continuing to insist upon the +original understanding of the Constitution; that was all." + +And in those attitudes the two sections stood in 1860-61, one upon the +modern theory of an indestructible Union; the other upon the old idea +that States had the right to secede from the Union. + +In 1848 there occurred in Ireland the "Rebellion of the Young Irishmen." +Among the leaders of that rebellion were Thomas F. Meagher and John +Mitchel. Both were banished to Great Britain's penal colony. Both made +their way, a few years later, to America. Both were devotees of liberty, +both men of brilliant intellect and high culture. Meagher settled in the +North, Mitchel in the South. This was about 1855. Each from his new +stand-point studied the history and the Constitution of his adopted +country. Meagher, when the war between the North and South came on, +became a general in the Union army. Mitchel entered the civil service of +the Confederacy and his son died a Confederate soldier. + +The Union or Confederate partisan who has been taught that his side was +"eternally right, and the other side eternally wrong," should consider +the story of these two "Young Irishmen." + +How fortunate it is that the ugly question of secession has been +settled, and will never again divide Americans, or those who come to +America! + + + + +CHAPTER II + +EMANCIPATION PRIOR TO 1831 + + +In the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, Dutch, French, Portuguese, +Spanish, English, and American vessels brought many thousands of negroes +from Africa, and sold them as slaves in the British West Indies and in +the British-American colonies. William Goodell, a distinguished +Abolitionist writer, tells us[7] that "in the importation of slaves for +the Southern colonies the merchants of New England competed with those +of New York and the South" (which never had much shipping). "They appear +indeed to have outstripped them, and to have _almost monopolized_ at one +time the profits of this detestable trade. Boston, Salem, and +Newburyport in Massachusetts, and Newport and Bristol in Rhode Island, +amassed, in the persons of a few of their citizens, vast sums of this +rapidly acquired and ill-gotten wealth."[7] + + [7] "Slavery and Anti-Slavery," 3d ed., 1885. + +The slaves coming to America went chiefly to the Southern colonies, +because there only was slave labor profitable. The laws and conditions +under which these negroes were sold in the American colonies were +precisely the same as in the West Indies, except that the whites in the +islands, so far as is known, never objected, whereas the records show +that earnest protests came from Virginia[8] and also from Georgia[9] and +North Carolina.[10] The King of England was interested in the profits of +the iniquitous trade and all protests were in vain. + + [8] _Am. Archives_, 4th series, vol. I, p. 696. + + [9] _Ib._, p. 1136. + + [10] _Ib._, p. 735. + +Of the rightfulness, however, of slavery itself there was but little +question in the minds of Christian peoples until the closing years of +the eighteenth century. Then the cruelties practised by ship-masters in +the Middle Passage attracted attention, and then came gradually a +revolution in public opinion. This revolution, in which the churches +took a prominent part, originated in England, but it soon swept over +America also, both North and South. + +England abolished the slave trade in 1807. The United States followed +in 1808; the Netherlands in 1814; France in 1818; Spain in 1820; +Portugal in 1830. The great Wilberforce, Buxton, and others, who had +brought about the abolition of the slave trade in England, continued +their exertions in favor of the slave until finally, in 1833, Parliament +abolished slavery in the British West Indies, appropriating twenty +millions sterling ($100,000,000) as compensation to owners--this because +investments in slave property had been made under the sanction of +existing law. + +"Great Britain, loaded with an unprecedented debt and with a grinding +taxation, contracted a new debt of a hundred millions of dollars to give +freedom, not to Englishmen, but to the degraded African. This was not an +act of policy, but the work of statesmen. Parliament but registered the +edict of the people. The English nation, with one heart and one voice, +under a strong Christian impulse and without distinction of rank, sex, +party, or religious names, decreed freedom to the slave. I know not that +history records a national act so disinterested, so sublime." + +So wrote Dr. Channing, the great New England pulpit orator, in his +celebrated letter on Texas annexation, to Henry Clay, in 1837. + +While the rightfulness of slavery was being discussed in England, the +American conscience had also been aroused, and emancipation was making +progress on this side of the water. + +Emancipation was an easy task in the Northern States, where slaves were +few, their labor never having been profitable, and by 1804 the last of +these States had provided for the ultimate abolition of slavery within +its borders. But the problem was more difficult in the Southern States, +where the climate was adapted to slave labor. There slaves were +numerous, and slavery was interwoven, economically and socially, with +the very fabric of existence. Naturally, it occurred to thoughtful men +that there ought to be some such solution as that which was subsequently +adopted in England, and which, as we have seen, was so highly extolled +by Dr. Channing--emancipation of the slaves with compensation to the +owners by the general government. The difficulty in our country was +that the Federal Constitution conferred upon the Federal Government no +power over slavery in the States--no power to emancipate slaves or +compensate owners; and that for the individual States where the negroes +were numerous the problem seemed too big. Free negroes and whites in +great numbers, it was thought, could not live together. To get rid of +the negroes, if they should be freed, was for the States a very serious, +if not an unsurmountable task. + +On the seventeenth of January, 1824, the following resolutions, proposed +as a solution of the problem, were passed by the legislature of +Ohio:[11] + + [11] "State Documents on Federal Relations," Ames, pp. 203-4. + + _Resolved_, That the consideration of a system providing for the + gradual emancipation of the people of color, held in servitude in + the United States, be recommended to the legislatures of the + several States of the American Union, and to the Congress of the + United States. + + _Resolved_, That, in the opinion of the general assembly, a system + of foreign colonization, with correspondent measures, might be + adopted that would in due time effect the entire emancipation of + the slaves of our country without any violation of the national + compact, or infringement of the rights of individuals; by the + passage of a law by the general government (with the consent of the + slave-holding States) which would provide that all children of + persons now held in slavery, born after the passage of the law, + should be free at the age of twenty-one years (being supported + during their minority by the persons claiming the service of their + parents), provided they then consent to be transported to the + intended place of colonization. Also: + + _Resolved_, That it is expedient that such a system should be + predicated upon the principle that the evil of slavery is a + national one, and that the people and the States of the Union ought + mutually to participate in the duties and burthens of removing it. + + _Resolved_, That His Excellency the Governor be requested to + forward a copy of the foregoing resolutions to His Excellency the + Governor of each of the United States, requesting him to lay the + same before the legislature thereof; and that His Excellency will + also forward a like copy to each of our senators and + representatives in Congress, requesting their co-operation in all + national measures having a tendency to effect the grave object + embraced therein. + +By June of 1825 eight other Northern States had endorsed the +proposition, Pennsylvania, Vermont, New Jersey, Illinois, Connecticut, +Massachusetts. Six of the slave-holding States emphatically disapproved +of the suggestion, _viz._, Georgia, South Carolina, Missouri, +Mississippi, Louisiana, and Alabama.[12] + + [12] Ames, p. 203. + +Reasons which in great part influenced all the Southern States thus +rejecting the proposition may be gathered from the following words of +Governor Wilson, of South Carolina, in submitting the resolutions: "A +firm determination to resist, at the threshold, every _invasion of our +domestic tranquillity_, and to _preserve our sovereignty and +independence as a State_, is earnestly recommended."[13] + + [13] _Ib._, p. 206. + +The resolutions required of the Southern States a complete surrender in +this regard of their reserved rights; they feared what Governor Wilson +called "the overwhelming powers of the general government," and were +unwilling to make the admission required, that the slavery in the South +was a question for the nation. + +Another reason was that, although there was a quite common desire in the +Southern States to get rid of slavery, the majority sentiment doubtless +was not yet ready for the step. + +Basing this plan on the "consent of the slave-holding States," as the +Ohio legislature did, was an acknowledgment that the North had no power +over the matter; while the proposition to share in the expense of +transporting the negroes, after they were manumitted, seems to be a +recognition of the joint responsibility of both sections for the +existence of slavery in the South. However that may be, the generous +concurrence of nine of the thirteen Northern States indicates how kindly +the temper of the North toward the South was before the rise of the "New +Abolitionism" in 1831. Had emancipation been, under the Federal +Constitution, a national and not a local question, it is possible that +slavery might have been abolished in America, as it was in the mother +country, peacefully and with compensation to owners. + +The Ohio idea of freeing and at the same time colonizing the slaves, was +no doubt suggested by the scheme of the African Colonization Society. +This Colonization Society grew out of a resolution passed by the General +Assembly of Virginia, December 23, 1816. Its purpose was to rid the +country of such free negroes and subsequently manumitted slaves as +should be willing to go to Liberia, where a home was secured for them, +and a government set up that was to be eventually controlled by the +negro from America. The plan was endorsed by Georgia in 1817, Maryland +in 1818, Tennessee in 1818, and Vermont in 1819.[14] + + [14] Ames, 195. + +The Colonization Society was composed of Southern and Northern +philanthropists and statesmen of the most exalted character. Among its +presidents were, at times, President Monroe and ex-President Madison. +Chief Justice Marshall was one of its presidents. Colonization, while +relieving America, was also to give the negro an opportunity for +self-government and self-development in his native country, aided at the +outset by experienced white men, and Abraham Lincoln, when he was +eulogizing the dead Henry Clay, one of the eloquent advocates of the +scheme, seemed to be in love with the idea of restoring the poor African +to that land from which he had been rudely snatched by the rapacious +white man. The society, with much aid from philanthropists and some from +the Federal Government, was making progress when, from 1831 to 1835, +the Abolitionists halted it.[15] They got the ears of the negro and +persuaded him not to go to Liberia. Its friends thought the enterprise +would stimulate emancipation by furnishing a home for such negroes as +their owners were willing to manumit; but the new friends of the negro +told him it was a trick of the slave-holder, and intended to perpetuate +slavery--it was banishment. And Dr. Hart now, in his "Abolition and +Slavery," calls it a move for the "expatriation of the negro." + + [15] See Garrison's "Garrison." + +All together only a few thousand negroes went to Liberia. The enterprise +lagged, and finally failed, partly because of opposition, but chiefly +because the negroes were slothful and incapable of self-government. The +word came back that they were not prospering. For a time, while white +men were helping them in their government, the outlook for Liberia had +more or less promise in it. When the whites, to give the negroes their +opportunity for self-development withdrew their case was hopeless.[16] + + [16] See article in _Independent_, 1906, Miss Mahony. + +In 1828, while emancipation was still being freely canvassed North and +South, Benjamin Lundy, an Abolition editor in charge of _The Genius of +Emancipation_, then being published at Baltimore, in a slave State, went +to Boston to "stir up" the Northern people "to the work of abolishing +slavery in the South." Dr. Channing, who has been previously quoted, +wrote a letter to Daniel Webster on the 28th of May, 1828, in which, +after reciting the purpose of Lundy, and saying that he was "aware how +cautiously exertions are to be made for it in this part of the country," +it being a local question, he said: "It seems to me that, before moving +in this matter, we ought to say to them (our Southern brethren) +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 the 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 +abolishing slavery, or, I fear, our interference will avail +nothing."[17] Mr. Webster never gave out this letter until February 15, +1851.[18] + + [17] "Webster's Works," vol. V, pp. 366-67, 1851. + + [18] _Ib._, ed. 1851, vol. V, pp. 266-67. + +In less than three years after that letter was written, Lundy's friend, +William Lloyd Garrison, started in Boston a crusade against slavery in +the South, on the ground that instead of being the "_calamity_," as Dr. +Channing deemed it to be, it was the "_crime_" of the South. Had no such +exasperating sectional cry as this ever been raised, the story told in +this little book would have been very different from that which is to +follow. Even Spain, the laggard of nations, since that day has abolished +slavery in her colonies. Brazil long ago fell into line, and it is +impossible for one not blinded by the sectional strife of the past, now +to conceive that the Southern States of this Union, whose people in 1830 +were among the foremost of the world in all the elements of Christian +civilization, would not long, long ago, if left to themselves, have +found some means by which to rid themselves of an institution condemned +by the public sentiment of the world and even then deplored by the +Southerners themselves. + +The crime, if crime it was, of slavery in the South in 1830 was one for +which the two sections of the Union were equally to blame. Abraham +Lincoln said in his debate with Douglas at Peoria, Illinois, October 15, +1858: "When Southern people tell us they are no more responsible for +slavery than we are, I acknowledge the fact. When it is said that the +institution exists, and that it is very difficult to get rid of it, in +any satisfactory way, I can understand and appreciate the saying. I +surely do not blame them for not doing what I would not know how to do +myself."[19] + + [19] "The Negro Problem," Pickett, 1809. + +Prior to the rise of the Abolitionists in 1831, emancipationists in the +South had been free to grapple with conditions as they found them. What +they and what the people of the North had accomplished we may gather +from the United States census reports. The tables following are taken +from "Larned's History of Ready Reference," vol. V. The classifications +are his. We have numbered three of his tables, for the sake of +reference, and have added columns 4 and 5, calculated from Larned's +figures, to show "excess of free blacks" and "increase of free blacks, +South." + +Let the reader assume as a fact, which will perhaps not be questioned, +that "free blacks" in the census means freedmen and their increase, and +these tables tell their own story, a story to which must be added the +statement that slaves in the South had been freed only by voluntary +sacrifices of owners. + +It will be noted that in 1790 the total "blacks" in the North was +67,479, and, although emancipation in these States had begun some years +before, the excess of "free blacks" in the South was over 5,000. Also +that at every succeeding census, down to and including that of 1830, the +"excess of free blacks" increased with considerable regularity until +1830, when that excess is 44,547. + + +----------------------+----------+-------+---------+-------+-------+--------+ + | | | | | | | | + | | | | | TOTAL |EXCESS |INCREASE| + | | WHITES | FREE | SLAVES |BLACKS,|OF FREE|IN FREE | + | | | BLACKS| | NORTH |BLACKS,|BLACKS, | + | | | | | | SOUTH | SOUTH | + | | | | | | | | + +----------------------+----------+-------+---------+-------+-------+--------+ + | | | | | | | | + |1790: North, 9 States | 1,900,976| 27,109| 40,370| 67,479| .... | .... | + | South, 8 States | 1,271,488| 32,357| 657,527| .... | 5,248 | .... | + | | | | | | | | + |1800: North, 11 States| 2,601,521| 47,154| 35,946| 83,100| .... | 20,045 | + | South, 9 States| 1,702,980| 61,241| 857,095| .... |14,087 | 28,884 | + | and D.C. | | | | | | | + | | | | | | | | + |1810: North, 13 States| 3,653,219| 78,181| 27,510|105,691| .... | 31,027 | + | South, 11 States| 2,208,785|108,265|1,163,854| .... |30,084 | 47,024 | + | and D. C. | | | | | | | + |1820: North, 13 States| 5,030,371| 99,281| 19,108|118,359| .... | 21,100 | + | South, 13 States| 2,831,560|134,223|1,519,017| .... |34,942 | 25,958 | + | and D. C. | | | | | | | + |1830: North, 13 States| 6,871,302|137,529| 3,568|141,097| .... | 38,248 | + | South, 13 States| 3,660,758|182,070|2,005,475| .... |44,541 | 47,747 | + | D. C. and Ter.| | | | | | | + |1840: North, etc. | 9,577,065|170,728| 1,728|171,857| .... | 33,199 | + | South, etc. | 4,632,530|215,575|2,486,326| .... |44,547 | 33,505 | + | | | | | | | | + |1850: North, etc. |13,269,149|196,262| 262|196,524| .... | 25,534 | + | South, etc. | 6,283,965|238,187|3,204,051| .... | 1,925 | 22,612 | + | | | | | | | | + |1860: North, etc. |18,791,159|225,967| 64|226,031| .... | 29,705 | + | South, etc. | 8,162,684|262,003|3,953,696| .... |36,036 | 23,816 | + | | | | | | | | + +----------------------+----------+-------+---------+-------+-------+--------+ + +There was always in the South, prior to 1831, an active and freely +expressed emancipation sentiment. But there was not enough of it to +influence legislation. In all but three or four of these States, +emancipation was made difficult by laws which, among other conditions, +required that slaves after being freed should leave the State. + +Emancipation in the North had not been completed in 1830. Professor +Ingram, president of the Royal Irish Academy, says in his "History of +Slavery," London, 1895, p. 184: "The Northern States--beginning with +Vermont in 1777 and ending with New Jersey in 1804--either abolished +slavery or adopted measures to effect its gradual abolition within their +boundaries. But the principal operation of (at least) the latter change +was to transfer Northern slaves to Southern markets." + +There had been in 1820 an angry discussion in Congress about the +admission of Missouri--with or without slavery--which was finally +settled by the Missouri Compromise. This dispute over the admission of +Missouri is often said to have been the beginning of the sectional +quarrel that finally ended in secession; but the controversy over +Missouri and that begun by the "New Abolitionists" in 1831 were +entirely distinct. They were conducted on different plans. + +In the Missouri controversy the only questions were as to the expediency +and constitutionality of denying to a new State the right to enter the +Union, with or without slavery, as she might choose. The entire dispute +was settled to the satisfaction of both sections by an agreement that +States thereafter, south of 36° 30', might enter the Union with or +without slavery; _and nobody denied, during all that discussion about +Missouri, or at any time previous to_ 1831, _that every citizen was +bound to maintain the Constitution and all laws passed in pursuance of +it, including the fugitive slave law_. + +"The North submitted at that time (1828) to the obligations imposed upon +it by the fugitive slave-catching clause of the Constitution and the +fugitive slave law of 1793."[20] So say the biographers of William Lloyd +Garrison for the purpose of establishing, as they afterwards do, their +claim that Garrison conducted a successful revolt against that provision +of the Constitution. What strengthens the statement that the North in +1828 submitted without protest to the "fugitive slave-catching clause of +the Constitution," is that the Compromise Act of 1820 contained a +provision extending the fugitive slave law over the territory made free +by the act, while it should continue to be territory, and until there +should be formed from it States, to which the existing law would +automatically apply. Every subsequent _nullification of the fugitive +slave laws_ of the United States, whether by governors or state +legislatures, was therefore a palpable _violation of a provision that +was of the essence of the Missouri Compromise_. + + [20] Garrison's "Garrison," vol. I, p. 113. + +The South was content with the Missouri Compromise, and from that date, +1820, until the rise of the "New Abolitionists," slavery was in all that +region an open question. Judge Temple says in his "Covenanter, Cavalier, +and Puritan," p. 208: "In 1826, of the 143 emancipation societies in the +United States, 103 were in the South." + +The questions for Southern emancipationists were: How could the slaves +be freed, and in what time? How about compensation to owners? Where +could the freed slaves be sent, and how? And, if deportation should +prove impossible, what system could be devised whereby the two races +could dwell together peacefully? These were indeed serious problems, and +required time and grave consideration. + +"Who can doubt," says Mr. Curtis, to quote once more his "Life of +Buchanan," "that all such questions could have been satisfactorily +answered, if the Christianity of the South had been left to its own time +and mode of answering them, and without any external force but the force +of kindly, respectful consideration and forebearing Christian +fellowship?"[21] + + [21] George Ticknor Curtis's "Life of Buchanan," vol. II, p. 283. + +But this was not to be. + + + + +CHAPTER III + +THE NEW ABOLITIONISTS + + +On the first day of January, 1831, there came out in Boston a new paper, +_The Liberator_, William Lloyd Garrison, editor. That was the beginning, +historians now generally agree, of "New Abolitionism." The editor of the +new paper was the founder of the new sect. + +Benjamin Lundy was a predecessor of Garrison, on much the same lines as +those pursued by the latter. Lundy had previously formed many Abolition +societies. _The Philanthropist_ of March, 1828, estimated the number of +anti-slavery societies as "upwards of 130, and most of them in the slave +States, and of Lundy's formation, among the Quakers."[22] But Garrison +became the leader and Lundy the disciple. + + [22] Garrison's "Garrison," vol. I. + +Garrison was a man of pleasing personal appearance, abstemious in +habits, and of remarkable energy and will power. He was a vigorous and +forceful writer. Denunciation was his chief weapon, and he had "a genius +for infuriating his antagonists." The following is a fair specimen of +his style. Speaking of himself and his fellow-workers as the "soldiers +of God," he said: "Their feet are shod with the preparation of the +_gospel of peace_.... Hence, when smitten on one cheek they turn the +other also, being defamed they entreat, being reviled they bless," etc. +And on that same page,[23] and in the same prospectus, showing how he +"blesses" those who, as he understands, are outside of the "Kingdom of +God," he says: "All without are dogs and sorcerers, and ... and +murderers, and idolaters, and whatsoever loveth a lie." + + [23] _Ib._, Vol. II, p. 202. + +Mr. Garrison had no perspective, no sense of relation or proportion. In +his eye the most humane slave-holder was a wicked monster. He had a +genius for organization, and a year after the first issue of _The +Liberator_ he and his little body of brother fanatics had grown into the +New England Anti-Slavery Society. + +The new sect called themselves for a time the "New Abolitionists," +because their doctrines were new. The principles upon which this +organization was to be based were not all formulated at once. The +key-note was sounded in Garrison's "Address to the Public" in the first +number of _The Liberator_: + + I shall strenuously contend for the immediate enfranchisement of + our slave population. I shall be as harsh as truth and as + uncompromising as justice on this subject. _I do not wish to think + or speak or write with moderation._ + +In an earlier issue, after denouncing slavery as a "damning crime," the +editor said: "Therefore my efforts shall be directed to _the exposure of +those who practise it_." + +The substance of Garrison's teachings was that slavery, anywhere in the +United States, was the concern of all, and that it was to be put down by +making not only slavery but also the slave-holder odious. And, further, +it was the slave, not the slave-owner, who was entitled to compensation. + +Thus the distinctive features of the new crusade were to be warfare upon +the personal character of every slave-holder and the confiscation of +his property. It was, too, the beginning of that sectional war by people +of the North against the existence of slavery in the South, which, as we +have seen, was deprecated by Dr. Channing in his letter three years +before to Mr. Webster. + +The new sect began by assailing slavery in States other than their own, +and very soon they were openly denouncing the Constitution of their +country because under it slavery in those sections was none of their +business; and of course they repudiated the Missouri Compromise +absolutely, the essence of that compromise being that slavery was the +business of the States in which it existed. + +It was a part of their scheme to send circulars depicting the evils of +slavery broadcast through the South; and they were sent especially to +the free negroes of that section. + +"In 1820," says Dr. Hart in his "Slavery and Abolition," "at Charleston +(South Carolina), Denmark Vesey, a free negro, made an elaborate plot to +rise, massacre the white population, seize the shipping in the harbor, +and, if hard pressed, to sail away to the West Indies. One of the +negroes gave evidence, Vesey was seized, duly tried, and with +thirty-four others was hanged."[24] + + [24] Hart's "Slavery and Abolition," p. 163. + +This plot, so nearly successful, was fresh in the minds of Southerners +when the Abolitionists began their programme, and naturally, the South +at once took the alarm--an alarm that was increased by the massacre, in +the Nat Turner insurrection, of sixty-one men, women, and children, +which took place in Virginia seven months after the first issue of _The +Liberator_. One of Turner's lieutenants is stated to have been a free +negro. This insurrection the South attributed to _The Liberator_. +Professor Hart says a free negro named Walker had previously sent out to +the South, from Boston, a pamphlet, "the tone of which was +unmistakable," and that "this pamphlet is known to have reached +Virginia, and may possibly have influenced the Nat Turner +insurrection."[25] + + [25] _Ib._, pp. 217-20. + +If this surmise be correct, knowledge that Walker, a free negro, had +been responsible for the Turner insurrection, would have lessened +neither the guilt of the Abolitionists nor the fears of the Southerners. + +But in 1832 Abolition agitation and the fears of insurrection had not +as yet entirely stifled the discussion of slavery in the South. A debate +on slavery took place that year in the Virginia Assembly, the immediate +cause of which was no doubt the Turner insurrection. The members of that +body had not been elected on any issue of that character. The discussion +thus precipitated shows, therefore, the state of public opinion in +Virginia on slavery. Of this debate a distinguished Northern writer +says:[26] + + [26] "Life of James Buchanan," George Ticknor Curtis, vol. II, pp. + 277-78. + +"In the year 1832 there was, nowhere in the world, a more enlightened +sense of the wrong and evil of slavery than there was among the public +men and people of Virginia." + +In the Assembly of that year Mr. Randolph brought forward a bill _to +accomplish gradual emancipation_. Mr. Curtis continues: + +"No member of the House defended slavery.... There could be nothing said +anywhere, there had been nothing said out of Virginia, stronger and +truer in deprecating the evils of slavery, than was said in that +discussion, by Virginia gentlemen, debating in their own legislature, a +matter that concerned themselves and their people." + +The bill was not pressed to a vote, but the House, by a vote of 65 to +38, declared "that they were profoundly sensible of the great evils +arising from the condition of the colored population of the Commonwealth +and were induced by policy, as well as humanity, to attempt the +immediate removal of the free negroes; but that further action for the +_removal of the slaves should await a more definite development of +public opinion_." + +Mr. Randolph, who was from the large slave-holding county of Albemarle, +was re-elected to the next assembly. + +But when the early summer of 1835 had come the fear of insurrection had +created such wide-spread terror throughout the whole South that every +emancipation society in that region had long since closed its doors; and +now the Abolitionists were sending South their circulars in numbers. +Many were sent to Charleston, South Carolina,[27] where fifteen years +before[28] the free negro, Denmark Vesey, had laid the plot to massacre +the whites, that had been discovered just in time to prevent its +consummation. + + [27] Referred to in "Life of Andrew Jackson," W. G. Sumner, p. 350. + + [28] Hart, _supra._ + +The President, Andrew Jackson, in his next message to Congress, +December, 1835, called their "attention to the painful excitement +produced in the South by attempts to circulate through the mails +_inflammatory appeals addressed to the passions of the slaves, in prints +and in various sorts of publications calculated to stimulate them to +insurrection and produce all the horrors of a servile war_." + +The good people of Boston were now thoroughly aroused. They had from the +first frowned on the Abolition movement. Garrison was complaining that +in all the city his society could not "hire a hall or a meeting-house." +The Abolition idea had been for a time thought chimerical and therefore +negligible. Later, civic, business, social, and religious organizations +had all of them in their several spheres been earnest and active in +their opposition; now it seemed to be time for concerted action. + +In Garrison's "Garrison" (vol. I, p. 495), we read that "the _social_, +_political_, _religious and intellectual élite_ of Boston filled +Faneuil Hall on the afternoon of Friday, August 3, 1835, to frame an +indictment against their fellow-citizens." + +This "indictment" the _Boston Transcript_ reported as follows: + + _Resolved_, That the people of the United States by the + Constitution under which, by the Divine blessing, they hold their + most valuable political privileges, have solemnly agreed with each + other to leave to their respective States the jurisdiction + pertaining to the relation of master and slave within their + boundaries, and that no man or body of men, except the people of + the governments of those States, can of right do any act to + dissolve or impair the obligations of that contract. + + _Resolved_, That we hold in reprobation all attempts, in whatever + guise they may appear, to coerce any of the United States to + abolish slavery by _appeals to the terror of the master or the + passions of the slave_. + + _Resolved_, That we disapprove of all associations instituted in + the non-slave-holding States with the intent to act, within the + slave-holding States, on the subject of slavery in those States + without their consent. For the purpose of securing freedom of + individual thought they are needless--and they afford to those + persons in the Southern States, whose object is to effect a + dissolution of the Union (if any such there may be now or + hereafter), a pretext for the furtherance of their schemes. + + _Resolved_, That all measures adopted, _the natural and direct + tendency of which is to excite the slaves of the South to revolt, + or of spreading among them a spirit of insubordination_, are + repugnant to the duties of the man and the citizen, and that where + such measures become manifest by overt acts, which are recognizable + by constitutional laws, we will aid by all means in our power in + the support of those laws. + + _Resolved_, That while we recommend to others the duty of + sacrificing their opinions, passions and sympathies upon the altar + of the laws, we are bound to show that a regard to the supremacy of + those laws is the rule of our conduct--and consequently to + deprecate all tumultuous assemblies, all riotous or violent + proceedings, all outrages on person and property, and all illegal + notions of the right or duty of executing summary and vindictive + justice in any mode unsanctioned by law. + +The allusion in the last resolution is to a then recent lynching of +negroes in Mississippi charged with insurrection. + +In speaking to these resolutions, Harrison Gray Otis, a great +conservative leader, denounced the Abolition agitators, accusing them of +"wishing to 'scatter among our Southern brethren _firebrands_, _arrows_, +and _death_,' and of attempting to force Abolition by appeals to the +terror of the masters and the passions of the slaves," and decrying +their "measures, the natural and direct tendency of which is to excite +the slaves of the South to revolt," etc. + +Another of the speakers, ex-Senator Peleg Sprague, said (p. 496, +Garrison's "Garrison") that "if their sentiments prevailed it would be +all over with the Union, which would give place to two hostile +confederacies, with forts and standing armies." + +These resolutions and speeches, viewed in the light of what followed, +read now like prophecy. + +It is a familiar rule of law that a contemporaneous exposition of a +statute is to be given extraordinary weight by the courts, the reason +being that the judge then sitting knows the surrounding circumstances. +That Boston meeting pronounced the deliberate judgment of the most +intelligent men of Boston on the situation, as they knew it to be that +day; it was in their midst that _The Liberator_ was being published; +there the new sect had its head-quarters, and there it was doing its +work. + +Quite as strong as the evidence furnished by that great Faneuil Hall +meeting is the testimony of the churches. + +The churches and religious bodies in America had heartily favored the +general anti-slavery movement that was sweeping over all America between +1770 and 1831, while it was proceeding in an orderly manner and with due +regard to law. + +In 1812 the Methodist General Conference voted that no slave-holder +could continue as a local elder. The Presbyterian General Assembly in +1818 unanimously resolved that "slavery was a gross violation of the +most precious and moral rights of human nature," etc. + +These bodies represented both the North and the South, and this +paragraph shows what was, and continued to be, the general attitude of +American churches until after the Abolitionists had begun their assault +on both slavery in the South and the Constitution of the United States, +which protected it. Then, in view of the awful social and political +cataclysm that seemed to be threatened, there occurred a stupendous +change. We learn from Hart that Garrison "soon found that neither +minister _nor church anywhere in the lower South continued_ (as before) +to protest against slavery; _that the cloth in the North was arrayed +against him_; and that many Northern divines vigorously opposed him." +Also that Moses Stuart, professor of Hebrew in Andover Theological +Seminary; President Lord, of Dartmouth College, and Hopkins, the +Episcopal bishop of Vermont, now became defenders of slavery. "The +positive opposition of churches soon followed." + +And then we have cited, condemnations of Abolitionism by the Methodist +Conference of 1836, by the New York Methodist Conference of 1838, by the +American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions, by the American +Home Missionary Society, the American Bible Society, the Protestant +Episcopal Church, and the Baptists. See for these statements, Hart, pp. +211-12. + +The import of all this is unmistakable; and this "about-face" of +religious organizations on the question of the morality of slavery has +no parallel in all the history of Christian churches. Its significance +cannot be overstated. It took place North and South. It meant opposition +to a movement that was outside the church _and with which religion could +have no concern, except in so far as it was a vital assault upon the +State, and the peace of the State_. To make their opposition effective +the Christians of that day did this remarkable thing. _They reversed +their religious views on slavery, which the Abolitionists were now +assailing, and which they themselves had previously opposed._ They +re-examined their Bibles and found arguments that favored slavery. These +arguments they used in an attempt to stem an agitation that, as they saw +it, was arraying section against section and threatening the perpetuity +of the Union. + +United testimony from all these Christian bodies is more conclusive +contemporaneous evidence against the agitators and their methods than +even the proceedings of all conservative Boston at Faneuil Hall in +August, 1835. + +This new attitude of the church toward slavery meant perhaps also +something further--it meant that slavery, as it actually existed, was +not then as horrible to Northerners, who could go across the line and +see it, which many of them did, as it is now to those whose ideas of it +come chiefly from "Uncle Tom's Cabin." + +In view of this phenomenal movement of Northern Christians it is not +strange that Southern churches adhered, throughout the deadly struggle +that was now on, to the position into which they had been driven--that +slavery was sanctioned by the Bible--nor is it matter of wonder that, as +Professor Hart makes prominent on p. 137, "not a single Southern man of +large reputation and influence failed to stand by slavery." + +Historians of to-day usually narrate without comment that nearly all the +American churches and divines at first opposed the Abolitionists. It +illustrates the courage with which the Abolitionists stood, as Dr. Hart +delights to point out, "for a despised cause." They assuredly did stand +by their guns. + +Later, another change came about in the attitude of the churches. In +1844 the Abolitionists were to achieve their first victory in the great +religious world. The Methodist Church was then disrupted, "squarely on +the question whether a bishop could own slaves, and all the Southern +members withdrew and organized the Methodist Episcopal Church, South." +Professor Hart, p. 214, says of this: "Clearly, the impassioned +agitation of the Abolitionists had made it impossible for a great number +of Northern anti-slavery men _to remain on terms of friendship with +their Southern brethren_." + +That great Faneuil Hall meeting of August 31, 1835, was followed some +weeks later by a lamentable anti-Garrison mob, which did not stand +alone. In the years 1835, 1836, and 1837 a great wave of anti-Abolition +excitement swept over the North. In New York, Philadelphia, Cincinnati, +Alton (Illinois), and many other places, there were anti-Abolition +riots, sometimes resulting in arson and bloodshed. + +The heart of the great, peace-loving, patriotic, and theretofore happy +and contented North, was at that time stirred with the profoundest +indignation against the Abolitionists. Northern opinion then was that +the Abolitionists, by their unpatriotic course and their nefarious +methods, were driving the South to desperation and endangering the +Union. If the North at that time saw the situation as it really was, the +historian of the present day should say so. If, on the other hand, the +people of both the North and South were then laboring under delusions, +as to the facts that were occurring among them, those of this +generation, who are wiser than their ancestors, should give us the +sources of their information. To know the lessons of history we must +have the facts.[29] + + [29] The late Professor William Graham Sumner, of Yale, in his "Life of + Andrew Jackson," 1888, treats of the excitement at Charleston, South + Carolina, in 1835, during Jackson's administration, over Abolition + circulars, etc. Dr. Albert Bushnell Hart, Professor of History at + Harvard, in his "Abolition and Slavery," 1906, treats of the same + subject. The following extracts from these books will show how these + authors picture that exciting period, and our italics will emphasize the + _sang-froid_ with which they touch off what so profoundly affected + public sentiment, both North and South, _when the events were + occurring_. Professor Sumner has this to say: + + "The Abolition Society adopted the policy of sending documents, papers, + and pictures against slavery to the Southern States. + + "_If the intention was_, as charged, to excite the slaves to revolt, + _the device, as it seems to us now_, must have fallen short of its + object, for the chance that anything could get into the hands of the + black man must _have been poor indeed_. + + "These publications, however, caused _a panic_ and _a wild indignation_ + in the South."--Sumner's "Jackson," p. 350. + + Why should the Southerners of that day go _wild_ over conduct for which + the professor of this era has no word of condemnation? + + Dr. Hart follows Professor Sumner's treatment. These are his words: + + "The free negroes of the South, the Abolitionists could not reach except + by _mailing publications to them_, a process which _fearfully + exasperated_ the South _without reaching the persons + addressed_."--Hart's "Abolition and Slavery," p. 216. + + Why should Southerners be "fearful" when they were intercepting all the + dangerous circulars, etc., they could find? And why should they be + exasperated at all? + + Dr. Hart's chair at Harvard is within gunshot of Faneuil Hall, yet the + great meeting there of August 31, 1835, is not mentioned in either his + or Professor Sumner's book, nor is there to be found in either of them + _any explanation of the reasons underlying the general and emphatic + condemnation throughout the North at that period of the Abolitionists + and their methods_. + +In 1854, at Framingham, Massachusetts, the Abolitionists celebrated the +Fourth of July thus: Their leader, William Lloyd Garrison, held up and +burned to ashes, before the applauding multitude, one after another, +copies of + +1st. The fugitive slave law. + +2d. The decision of Commissioner Loring in the case of Burns, a fugitive +slave. + +3d. The charge to the Grand Jury of Judge Benjamin R. Curtis in +reference to the effort of a mob to secure a fugitive slave. + +4th. "Then, holding up the United States Constitution, he branded it as +the source and parent of all other atrocities, 'a covenant with death +and an agreement with hell,' and consumed it to ashes on the spot, +exclaiming, 'So perish all compromises with tyranny! And let all the +people say, Amen!' A tremendous shout of 'Amen!' went up to heaven in +ratification of the deed, mingled with a few hisses and wrathful +exclamations from some, who evidently were in a _rowdyish_ state of +mind, but who were at once cowed by the popular feeling."[30] + + [30] Garrison's "Garrison," vol. III, p. 412. + +The Abolitionist movement was radical; it was revolutionary. When an +accredited teacher of history, in one of the greatest of our +universities, writes a volume on "Abolition and Slavery," why should he +restrict himself in comment, as Dr. Hart thus does in his preface? The +book is "intended to show that there was more than one side to the +controversy, and that both the milder form of opposition called +anti-slavery and _the extreme form called Abolition_, were _confronted +by practical difficulties_ which to many public men seemed +insurmountable." + +Why should not the historian, in addition to pointing out the +"difficulties" encountered by these extremists, _show how and why the +people of that day condemned their conduct_? + +Condonation of the Abolitionists, and a proper regard for the +Constitution of the United States, cannot be taught to the youth of +America at one and the same time. + +The writer has been unable to find any of the incendiary pamphlets that +had proved so inflammatory. He has, however, before him a little +anonymous publication entitled "Slavery Illustrated in its Effects upon +Woman," Isaac Knapp, Boston, 1837. It was for circulation in the North, +being "Affectionately Inscribed to all the Members of Female +Anti-Slavery Societies," and it is only cited here as an illustration of +the almost inconceivable venom with which the crusade was carried on to +_embitter the North against the South_. It is a vicious attack upon the +morality of Southern men and women, and upon Southern churches. None of +its charges does it claim to authenticate, and it gives no names or +dates. One incident, related as typical, is of two white women, all the +time in full communion with their church, under pretence of a +boarding-house, keeping a brothel, negro women being the inmates. + +In the chapter entitled "Impurity of the Christian Churches" is this +sentence: "At present the Southern Churches are only one vast +consociation of hypocrites and sinners." + +The booklet was published anonymously, but at that time any prurient +story about slavery in the South would circulate, no matter whether +vouched for or not. + + + + +CHAPTER IV + +FEELING IN THE SOUTH--1835 + + +Not stronger than the proceedings of a great non-partisan public +meeting, or than the action of religious bodies, but going more into +detail as to public opinion in the South and the effect upon it of +Abolition agitation, is the evidence of a quiet observer, Professor E. +A. Andrews, who, in July, 1835, had been sent out as the agent of "The +Boston Union for the Relief and Improvement of the Colored Race." His +reports from both Northern and Southern States, consisting of letters +from various points, constitute a book, "Slavery and the Domestic Slave +Trade," Boston, 1836. + +July 17, 1835, from Baltimore, Professor Andrews reports that a resident +clergyman, who appears to have his entire confidence, says, among other +things, "that a disposition to emancipate their slaves is very prevalent +among the slave-holders of this State, could they see any way to do so +consistently with the true interest of the slave, but that it is their +universal belief that no means of doing this is now presented except +that of colonizing them in Africa." + +From the same city, July 17, 1835, he writes, p. 53: "In this city there +appears to be no strong attachment to slavery and no wish to perpetuate +it." + +Again, on p. 95: "There is but one sentiment amongst those with whom I +have conversed in this city, respecting the possibility of the white and +colored races living peaceably together in freedom, nor during my +residence at the South and my subsequent intercourse with the Southern +people, _did I ever meet with one who believed it possible for the two +races to continue together after emancipation_.... When the slaves of +the South are liberated they form an integral part of the population of +the country, and must influence its destiny for ages--perhaps forever." + +From Fredericksburg, Virginia, Professor Andrews writes: + + Since I entered the slave-holding country I have seen but one man + who did not deprecate wholly and absolutely the direct interference + of Northern Abolitionists with the institutions of the South. "I + was an Abolitionist," has been the language of numbers of those + with whom I have conversed; "I was an Abolitionist, _and was + laboring earnestly to bring about a prospective system of + emancipation. I even saw, as I believed, the certain and complete + success of the friends of the colored race at no distant period, + when these Northern Abolitionists interfered, and by their + extravagant and impracticable schemes frustrated all our hopes.... + Our people have become exasperated, the friends of the slaves + alarmed_, etc....[31] Equally united are they in the opinion that + the servitude of the slaves is far more rigorous now than it would + have been had there been no interference with them. _In proportion + to the danger of revolt and insurrection, have been_ the severity + of the enactments for controlling them and the diligence with which + the laws have been executed." + + [31] "Slavery and the Domestic Slave Trade," Andrews, pp. 156-57. + +From a private letter, written at Greenville, Alabama, August 30, 1835, +by a distinguished lawyer, John W. Womack, to his brother, we quote: + + The anti-slavery societies in the Northern and Middle States are + doing all they can to destroy our domestic harmony by sending among + us pamphlets, tracts, and newspapers--for the purpose of exciting + dissatisfaction and insurrection among our slaves.... Meetings have + been held in Mobile, in Montgomery, in Greensboro, and in + Tuscaloosa, and in different parts of all the Southern States. At + these meetings resolutions have been adopted, disclaiming (_sic_) + and denying the right of the Northern people to interfere in any + manner in our internal domestic concerns.... It is my solemn + opinion that this question (to wit, slavery) will ultimately bring + about a dissolution of the Union of the States. + +It should be remembered that in 1832 the massacre in Santo Domingo of +all the whites by the blacks was fresh in mind. It had occurred in +1814--after manumission--and had produced, especially in the minds of +statesmen and of all observers of the many signs of antagonism between +the two races, a profound and lasting impression. + +The fear that the races, both free, could not live together was in the +mind of Thomas Jefferson, of Henry Clay, and of every other Southern +emancipationist. And deportation, its expense, and the want of a home to +which to send the negro--here was a stumbling-block in the way of +Southern emancipation. + +Indeed, the incompatibility of the races was an appalling thought in the +minds of Southerners for the whole thirty years of anti-slavery +agitation. It was even with Abraham Lincoln, and weighed upon his mind +when, at last, in 1862, military necessity placed upon his shoulders the +responsibility of emancipating the Southern slaves. Serious as was the +responsibility, the question was not new to him. When Mr. Lincoln said, +in his celebrated Springfield speech in 1858, "I believe this government +cannot endure permanently half slave and half free," and added that he +did not expect the government to fail, he certainly expected that +emancipation in the South was coming; and, of course, he thought over +what the consequences might be. + +In that same debate with Douglas, in his speech at Charleston, Illinois, +Mr. Lincoln said: "There is a physical difference between the white and +black races, which, I believe, will forever forbid the two races living +together on terms of social and political equality." + +In his memorial address on Henry Clay, in 1852, he had said: "If, as the +friends of colonization hope, the present and coming generations of our +countrymen shall by some means succeed in freeing our land from the +dangerous presence of slavery, and at the same time in restoring a +captive people to their long lost father-land, ... it will, indeed, be a +glorious consummation. And if to such a contribution the efforts of Mr. +Clay shall have contributed ... none of his labors will have been more +valuable to his country and his kind." + +In his famous emancipation proclamation he promised "that the effort to +colonize persons of African descent upon this continent or elsewhere, +with the consent of the government existing there, will be continued." + +It must have been with a heavy heart that the great President announced +the failure of all his efforts to find a home outside of America for the +freedmen, _when he informed Congress in his December message, 1862, that +all in vain he had asked permission to send the negroes, when freed, to +the British, the Danish, and the French West Indies; and that the +Spanish-American countries in Central America had also refused his +request_. He could find no places except Hayti and Liberia. He even made +the futile experiment of sending a ship-load to a little island off +Hayti.[32] Hume, in "The Abolitionists," tells us that Mr. Lincoln for a +time _considered setting Texas apart as a home for the negroes_--so much +was he disturbed by this trouble. + + + [32] Within perhaps a year Mr. Lincoln was compelled to bring these + negroes home; they were starving. + +CHAPTER V + +ANTI-ABOLITION AT THE NORTH + + +Southerners, save perhaps a few who were wise enough to foresee what the +consequences might be, were deeply gratified when they read (1835-1838) +of the violent opposition in the North to the desperate schemes of the +Abolitionists. Surely these mobs fairly represented public opinion, and +that public opinion certainly was a strong guaranty to the South of +future peace and security. + +But the Abolitionists themselves were not dismayed. They may have +misread, indeed it is certain they did misunderstand, the signs of the +times. Garrison in his _Liberator_ took the ground--as do his children +in their life of him, written fifty years later--that the great Faneuil +Hall meeting of August 31, 1835, which they themselves declare +represented "the intelligence, the wealth, the culture, and the religion +of Boston," was but an indication of the "pro-slavery" sentiment then +existing. In reality it was just what it purported to be--an +authoritative condemnation, not of the anti-slavery opinions, but of the +avowed purposes and methods of the new sect. The mobbing of Garrison and +the sacking of his printing office in Boston on September 26th, however, +and the lawless violence to Abolitionists that followed the +denunciations of that despised sect by speakers, and by the public +press, in New York, in Philadelphia, in Cincinnati, and elsewhere in the +North, proved disastrous in the extreme. + +While that great wave of anti-Abolition feeling was sweeping over that +whole region from East to West, there were many good people who deluded +themselves with the idea that this new sect with its visionary and +impracticable ideas was being consigned to oblivion, but in what +followed we have a lesson that unfortunately some of our people have not +yet fully learned. Mob law in any portion of our free country, where +there is law with officers to enforce it, is a mistake, a mistake that +is likely to be followed sooner or later by most disastrous results. The +mobs that marked the beginning of our Revolution in 1774 were +legitimate; they meant revolt, revolt against constituted authorities. +But where a mob does not mean the overthrow of government, where it only +means to substitute its own blind will for the arm of the law, not good +but evil--it may be long deferred, but evil eventually--is sure to +follow. When mobs assailed Abolitionists because they threatened the +peace and tranquillity of the country, evil followed swiftly. + +Violent and harsh treatment of these mischievous agitators almost +everywhere in the North, and the heroism with which they endured +ignominy and insult, brought about a revulsion of public sentiment. To +understand the philosophy of this, read two extracts from the writings +of that great, and universally admired, pulpit orator, Dr. William E. +Channing of Boston, the first written sometime prior to that August +meeting: + + The adoption of the common system of agitation by the Abolitionists + has not been justified by success. From the beginning it has + created alarm in the considerate, and strengthened the sympathies + of the Free States with the slave-holder. It has made converts of + a few individuals, but alienated multitudes. _Its influence at the + South has been almost wholly evil. It has stirred up bitter + passions, and a fierce fanaticism, which have shut every ear and + every heart against its arguments and persuasions._ These efforts + are more to be deplored, because the hope of freedom to the slave + lies chiefly in the dispositions of his master. The Abolitionist + proposed indeed to convert the slave-holder; and for this end he + _approached them with vituperation, and exhausted upon them the + vocabulary of reproach_. And he has reaped as he sowed.... Perhaps + (though I am anxious to repel the thought) something has been lost + to the cause of freedom and humanity.[33] + + [33] "Channing's Works," vol. II, ed. 1837, pp. 131-32. + +These were Dr. Channing's opinions of the Abolitionists prior to August, +1835, and he seems to have kept silent for a time after the mobbing that +followed that great Faneuil Hall meeting; but a year later, when many +other things had happened along the same line, he spoke out in an open +letter to James G. Birney, an Abolitionist editor who had been driven +from Cincinnati, and whose press, on which _The Philanthropist_ was +printed, had been broken up. In that letter, p. 157, _supra_, speaking +of course not for himself alone, Dr. Channing says: + + I think it best ... to extend my remarks to the spirit of violence + and persecution which has broken out against the Abolitionists + throughout the whole country. Of their merits and demerits as + Abolitionists I have formerly spoken.... I have expressed my + fervent attachment to the great end to which they are pledged and + at the same time _my disapprobation, to a certain extent, of their + spirit and measures_.... Deliberate, systematic efforts have been + made, _not here and there, but far and wide_, to wrest from its + adherents that _liberty of speech and the press_, which our fathers + asserted in blood, and which our National and State Governments are + pledged to protect as our most sacred right. Its most conspicuous + advocates have been hunted and stoned, its meetings scattered, its + presses broken up, and nothing but the patience, constancy and + intrepidity of its members has saved it from extinction.... They + are _sufferers for the liberty of thought, speech and press; and in + maintaining this liberty, amidst insult and violence, they deserve + a place among its honorable defenders_. + +Still admitting that "their writings have been blemished by a spirit of +intolerance, sweeping censure, and rash, injurious judgment," this great +man now threw all the weight of his influence on the side of the +Abolitionists, because they were _the champions of free speech_. Their +moral worth and steady adherence to their ideas of non-resistance he +pointed to admiringly, and it must always be remembered to their credit +that the private lives of Garrison and his leading co-workers were +irreproachable. Indeed, the unselfish devotion of these agitators and +their high moral character were in themselves a serious misfortune. They +soon attracted a lot of zealots, male and female, who became as reckless +as they were. And these out-and-out fanatics were not themselves +office-seekers. What they feared, they said, was that a "lot of soulless +scamps would jump on to their shoulders to ride into office";[34] and +there really was the great danger, as appeared later. + + [34] Garrison's "Garrison," vol. III, p. 214. + +In the results that followed the mobbing of Abolitionists in the North, +from 1834 to 1836, is to be found another lesson for those voters of +this day who can profit by the teachings of history. The violent +assaults on the Abolitionists by the friends of the Constitution and the +Union constituted an epoch in the lives of these people. It gave them a +footing and a hearing and many converts. + +We have already noted some wonderful and instructive changes in the tide +of events set in motion by the radical teachings of the New +Abolitionists. The churches, as has been shown, to save the country, +North and South, changed their attitude on slavery itself. Dr. Channing, +who had opposed the methods of the Abolitionists, became, as many others +did with him, when mobs had assailed these people, their defender and +eulogist, because they were martyrs for the sake of free speech; and now +we are to see in John Quincy Adams another change, equally notable, a +change that was to make Mr. Adams thenceforward the most momentous +figure, at least during its earlier stages, in the tragic drama that is +the subject of our story. + +Elected to the House of Representatives after the expiration of his term +as President, Mr. Adams was not in sympathy with the methods of the +Abolitionists. Indeed, prior to December 31, 1831, he had shown as +little interest in slavery as he did when on that day in presenting to +the House fifteen petitions against slavery he "deprecated a discussion +which would lead to ill-will, to heart-burning, to mutual hatred ... +without accomplishing anything else."[35] + + [35] Hart's "Slavery and Abolition," p. 256. + +The petitions presented by Mr. Adams were referred to a committee. + +The Southerners had not then become so exasperated as to insist on +Congress refusing to receive Abolition petitions. But multiplying these +petitions was a ready means of provoking the slave-holders, and soon +petitions poured in from many quarters, couched, most of them, in +language, not disrespectful to Congress but provoking to slave-holders. + +Unfortunately, the lower house of Congress on May 26, 1836, which was +while mobs in the North were still trying to put down the Abolitionists, +passed a resolution that all such petitions, etc., should thereafter be +laid upon the table, _without further action_. Adams voted against it as +"a direct violation of the Constitution of the United States." The +Constitution forbids any law "abridging the freedom of speech ... or the +right ... to petition the government for a redress of grievances." The +resolution to lay all anti-slavery petitions on the table without +further action was passed, "with the hope that it might put a stop to +the agitation that seemed to endanger the existence of the Union." But +it had the opposite effect. It soon became known as the "gag +resolution," and was, for years, the centre of the most aggravating +discussions that had, up to that time, ever occurred in Congress. Mr. +Adams in these debates became, without, it seems, ever having been in +full sympathy with the agitators, thenceforward their champion in +Congress, and so continued until the day of his death in 1848. + +The Abolitionists were happy. They were succeeding in their +programme--making the Southern slave-holder odious by exasperating him +into offending Northern sentiment. + + + + +CHAPTER VI + +A CRISIS AND A COMPROMISE + + +In 1840 there were 200 Abolition societies, with a membership of over +200,000. Agitation had created all over the North a spirit of hostility +to slavery as it existed in the South, and especially to the admission +of new slave States into the Union. In 1840 the struggle over the +application of Texas for admission into the Union had already, for three +years, been mooted. Objections to the admission of the new State were +many, such as: American adventurers had wrongfully wrested control of +the new State from Mexico; boundary lines were unsettled; war with +Mexico would follow, etc.; but chiefly, Texas was a slave State, which +was, in the South, a strong reason for annexation. There were, however, +many sound and unanswerable arguments for the admission of the new +State, just such as had influenced Jefferson in purchasing the +Louisiana territory: Texas was contiguous, her territory and resources +immense. + +On the issue thus joined the first great gun had been fired by Dr. +Channing, who, though still more moderate than some, might now be +classed as an Abolitionist. August 1, 1837, he wrote a long open letter +to Henry Clay against annexation, and in that letter he said: + + To me it seems not only the right but the duty of the Free States, + in case of the annexation of Texas, to say to the slave-holding + States, "We regard this act as the dissolution of the Union; the + essential conditions of the National Compact are violated."[36] + + [36] "Channing's Works," vol. II, ed. 1847, p. 237. + +This was very like the pronunciamento already made by Garrison--"no +union with slavery." + +The underlying reasons that controlled Southern statesmen in this +contest over Texas, and the motives that animated them in the fierce +battles they fought later for new slave States, are thus stated by Mr. +George Ticknor Curtis, of New England.[37] + + [37] "Life of Buchanan," vol. II, p. 280. + + It should in justice be remembered that the effort _at that period + to enlarge the area of slavery was an effort on the part of the + South, dictated by a desire to remain in the Union, and not to + accept the issue of an inherent incompatibility of a political + union between slave-holding and non-slave-holding States_. + +In 1840 the first effort for the annexation of Texas, by treaty, was +defeated in the Senate. + +If the Southerners had been as ready to accept the doctrine of an +inherent incompatibility between slave and free States as were Dr. +Channing and those other Abolitionists who were now declaring for "no +union with slave-holders," they would at once have seceded and joined +Texas; but the South still loved the Union, and strove, down to 1860, +persistently, and often passionately, for power that would enable it to +remain safely in its folds. + +Texas was finally admitted in 1845, after annexation had been passed on +by the people in the presidential election of 1844. In that election +Clay was defeated by the Abolitionists. Because Clay was not +unreservedly against annexation the Abolitionists drew from the Whigs in +New York State enough votes, casting them for Birney, to defeat Clay and +elect Polk; and now Abolitionism was a factor in national politics. + +The two great national parties were the Democrats and the Whigs, the +voters somewhat equally divided between them. For years both parties had +regarded the Abolitionists precisely as did the non-partisan meeting at +Faneuil Hall, in August, 1835--as a band of agitators, organized for the +purpose of interfering with slavery where it was none of their business; +and both parties had meted out to this new and, as they deemed it, +pestilent sect, unstinted condemnation. But at last the voters of this +despised cult had turned a presidential election and were making inroads +in both parties. Half a dozen Northern States, in which in 1835 "no +protest had been made against the fugitive slave law of 1793," had +already passed "personal liberty laws" intended to obstruct and nullify +that law. And now it was "slave-catchers" and not Abolitionists who were +being mobbed in the North. + +Boston had reversed its attitude toward the Abolitionists. On May 31, +1849, the New England Anti-Slavery Society was holding its annual +convention in that very Faneuil Hall where, in 1835, Abolitionism had +been so roundly condemned; and now Wendell Phillips, pointing to one of +two fugitive slaves, who then sat triumphantly on the platform, said, +"amid great applause, ... 'We say that they may make their little laws +in Washington, but that _Faneuil Hall repeals them_, in the name of the +humanity of Massachusetts.'"[38] + + [38] Garrison's "Garrison," vol. III, p. 247. + +Poets headed by Whittier and Longfellow, authors like Emerson and +Lowell, and orators like Theodore Parker and Wendell Phillips, had +joined the agitators, and all united in assaulting the fugitive slave +law. The following, from James Russell Lowell's "Biglow Papers," No. 1, +June, 1840, is a specimen of the literature that was stirring up +hostility against slavery and the "slave-catcher" in the breasts of many +thousands, who were joining in an anti-slavery crusade while disdaining +companionship with the Abolitionists: + + "Ain't it cute to see a Yankee + Take such everlastin' pains + All to get the Devil's Thankee + Helpin' on 'em weld their chains?" + W'y it's jest es clear es figgers, + Clear es one and one makes two, + Chaps that makes black slaves of niggers + Want to make w'ite slaves o' you. + +In the meantime the people of the South, much excited, were resorting to +repression, passing laws to prevent slaves from being taught to read, +and laws, in some States, inhibiting assemblages of slaves above given +numbers, unless some white person were present--all as safeguards +against insurrection. Thus, in 1835, an indictment was found in +Tuscaloosa County, Alabama, against one Williams, who had never been in +Alabama, for circulating there an alleged incendiary document, and +Governor Gayle made requisition on Governor Marcy, of New York, for the +extradition of Williams. Governor Marcy denied the request. The case was +the same as that more recently decided by the Supreme Court of the +United States, when it held that editors of New York and Indiana papers +could not be brought to the District of Columbia for trial. + +The South, all the while clamoring to have the agitators put down, had +by still other means than these contributed to the ever-increasing +excitement in the North. Southerners had mobbed Abolitionists, and +whipped and driven out of the country persons found in possession of +_The Liberator_ or suspected of circulating other incendiary literature. +And violence in the South against the Abolitionists had precisely the +same effect on the Northern mind as the violence against them in the +North had from 1835 to 1838, but there was this difference: the refugee +from the distant South, whether he were an escaped slave or a fleeing +Abolitionist, could color and exaggerate the wrongs he had suffered and +so parade himself as a martyr. While this was true, it was also quite +often true that the outrage committed in the South against the suspect +was real enough--a mob had whipped and expelled him without any trial. +_And this is another of the lessons as to the evil effects of mob law +that crop out all through the history of the anti-slavery crusade. No +good can come from violating the law._ + +In 1848 another presidential election turned on the anti-slavery vote, +this time again in New York State. Anti-slavery Democrats bolted the +Democratic ticket, thus electing General Taylor, the Whig candidate. + +In the canvass preceding this election originated, we are told, the +catch-phrase applied to Cass, the Democratic candidate--"a Northern man +with Southern principles." The phrase soon became quite common, South +and North--"a Southern man with Northern principles," and _vice versa_. + +The invention and use of it in 1848 shows the progress that had been +made in arraying one section of the Union against the other. Later, a +telling piece of doggerel in Southern canvasses, and it must also have +been used North, was + + He wired in and wired out, + Leaving the people all in doubt, + Whether the snake that made the track + Was going North, or coming back. + +Over the admission of California in 1849 there was another battle. +California, 734 miles long, with about 50,000 people (less than the +usual number), and with a constitution improvised under military +government, applied for admission as a State. Southerners insisted on +extending the line of the Missouri Compromise to the Pacific, thereby +making of the new territory two States. The South had been much +embittered by the opposition to the admission of Texas. Texas was, +nearly all of it, below the Missouri Compromise line, and the South +thought it was equitably entitled to come in under that agreement. Its +case, too, differed from that of Missouri, which already belonged to the +United States when it applied for admission as a State. Texas, with all +its vast wealth, was asking to come in without price. + +Another continuing and increasing cause of distraction had been the use +made by Abolitionists of the right of petition. As already shown, +petitions to Congress against slavery had been received without question +till 1836, when Northern conservatives and Southern members, hoping to +abate this source of agitation, had combined to pass a resolution to lay +them on the table, which meant that they were to be no further noticed. +The Abolitionists were so delighted over the indefensible position into +which they had driven the conservatives--the "gag law"--that they +continued, up to the crisis of 1850, with unflagging zeal to hurry in +monster petitions, one after another. The debates provoked by the +presentation of these petitions, and the more and more heated +discussions in Congress of _slavery in the States_, which was properly +_a local and not a national question_, now attracted still wider public +attention. The Abolitionists had almost succeeded in arraying the entire +sections against each other, in making of the South and North two +hostile nations. Professor John W. Burgess, dean of the Faculty of +Political Science in Columbia University, says: "It would not be +extravagant to say that the whole course of the internal history of the +United States from 1836 to 1861 was more largely determined by the +struggle in Congress, over the _Abolition petitions_ and the use of the +mails for the Abolition literature, than anything else."[39] + + [39] "The Middle Period," John W. Burgess, p. 274. + +The South had its full share in the hot debates that took place over +these matters in Congress. Its congressmen were quite as aggressive as +those from the North, and they were accused of being imperious in +manner, when demanding that a stop should be put to Abolition petitions, +and Abolition literature going South in the mails. + +There was another cause of complaint from the South, and this was grave. +By the "two underground railroads" that had been established, slaves, +estimated at 2,000 annually, abducted or voluntarily escaping, were +secretly escorted into or through the free States to Canada. To show how +all this was then regarded by those who sympathized with the +Abolitionists, and how it is still looked upon by some modern +historians, the following is given from Hart's "Abolition and Slavery": + +"The underground railroad was manned chiefly by orderly citizens, +members of churches, and philanthropical citizens. _To law-abiding folk_ +what could be more delightful than the sensation of aiding an oppressed +slave, _exasperating_ a cruel master, and at the same time incurring the +penalties of _defying an unrighteous law_?" + +Southerners at that time thought that conductors on that line were +practising, and readers of the above paragraph will probably think that +Dr. Hart in his attractive rhetoric is now extolling in his history, +"higher law doctrines." + +It is undoubtedly true that, in 1850, a large majority of the Northern +people strongly disapproved of the Abolitionists and their methods. +Modern historians carefully point out the difference between the great +body of Northern anti-slavery people and the Abolitionists. +Nevertheless, here were majorities in eleven Northern States voting for, +and sustaining, the legislators who passed and kept upon the statute +books laws which were intended to enable Southern slaves to escape from +their masters. The enactment and the support of these laws was an attack +upon the constitutional rights of slave-holders; and Southern people +looked upon all the voters who sustained these laws, and all the +anti-slavery lecturers, speakers, pulpit orators, and writers of the +North, as engaged with the Abolitionists in one common crusade against +slavery. From the Southern stand-point a difference between them could +only be made by a Hudibras: + + He was in logic a great critic + Profoundly skilled in analytic, + He could distinguish and divide + A hair 'twixt South and South West side. + +As to how much of the formidable anti-slavery sentiment of that day had +been created by the Abolitionists, we have this opinion of a +distinguished English traveller and observer. Mr. L. W. A. Johnston was +in Washington, in 1850, studying America. He says: + +"Extreme men like Garrison seldom have justice done to them. It is true +they may be impracticable, both as to their measures and their men, but +that unmixed evil is the result of their exertions, all history of +opinion in every country, I think, contradicts. Such ultra men are as +necessary as the more moderate and reasonable advocates of any growing +opinion; and, as _an impartial person_, who never happened to fall in +with one of the party in the course of my tour, I must express my belief +that the present wide diffusion of anti-slavery sentiment in the United +States is, in no small degree, owing to their exertions."[40] + + [40] "Notes on North America," London, 1851, vol. II, p. 486. + +And Professor Smith, of Williams College, speaking of the anti-slavery +feeling in the North in 1850, says: + +"This sentiment of the free States regarding slavery was to a large +degree the result of an agitation for its abolition which had been +active for a score of years (1831-1850) without any positive +results."[41] + + [41] "Parties and Slavery," Smith, pp. 3, 4. + +But no matter what had produced it, the anti-slavery sentiment that +pervaded the North in 1850 boded ill to slavery and to the Constitution, +and the South was bitterly complaining. Congress met in December, 1849, +and was to sit until October, 1850. Lovers of the Union, North and +South, watched its proceedings with the deepest anxiety. The South was +much excited. The continual torrent of abuse to which it was subjected, +the refusal to allow slavery in States to be created from territory in +the South-west that was below the parallel of the Missouri Compromise, +and the complete nullification of the fugitive slave law, seemed to many +to be no longer tolerable, and from sundry sources in that section came +threats of secession. + +In 1849-50 the South was demanding a division of California, an +efficient fugitive slave law, and that the territories of New Mexico and +Arizona should be organized with no restrictions as to slavery. Other +minor demands were unimportant. + +Henry Clay, Daniel Webster, Stephen A. Douglas, Lewis Cass, and other +conservative leaders came forward and, after long and heated debates in +Congress, the Compromise of 1850 was agreed on. To satisfy the North, +California, as a whole, came in as a free State, and the slave trade was +abolished in the District of Columbia. To satisfy the South, a new and +stringent fugitive slave law was agreed on, and the territories of New +Mexico and Arizona were organized with no restrictions as to slavery. + +In bringing about this compromise, Daniel Webster was, next to Clay, the +most conspicuous figure. He was the favorite son of New England and the +greatest statesman in all the North. On the 7th of March, 1850, Mr. +Webster made one of the greatest speeches of his life on the Compromise +measures. Rising above the sectional prejudices of the hour, he spoke +for the Constitution and the Union. The manner in which he and his +reputation were treated by popular historians in the North, for half a +century afterward, on account of this speech, is the most pathetic and, +at the same time, the most instructive story in the whole history of the +anti-slavery crusade. + +Mr. Webster was under the ban of Northern public opinion for all this +half a century, not because of inconsistency between that speech and his +former avowals, an averment often made and never proven, but because he +was consistent. He stood squarely upon his record, and the venom of the +assaults that were afterward made upon him was just in proportion to the +love and veneration which had been his before he offended. His offence +was that he would not move with the anti-slavery movement.[42] He did +not stand with his section in a sectional dispute. + + [42] McMaster says: "The great statesman was behind the + times."--"Webster," p. 19. + +Henry Clay, old and feeble, had come back into the Senate to render his +last service to his country. He was the author of the Compromise. Daniel +Webster was everywhere known as the champion of the Union. Henry Clay +was known as the "Old Man Eloquent," and he now spoke with all his +old-time fire; but Webster's great speech probably had more influence on +the result. + +Before taking up Mr. Webster's speech his previous attitude toward +slavery must be noted. The purpose of the friends of the Union was, of +course, to effect a compromise that would, if possible, put an end to +sectional strife. Compromise means concession, and a compromise of +political differences, made by statesmen, may involve some concession of +view previously held by those who advocate as well as by those who +accept it. Webster thought his section of the Union should now make +concessions. + +Fanaticism, however, concedes nothing; it never compromises, although +statesmanship does. One of the most notable utterances of Edmund Burke +was: + +"_All government, indeed every human benefit and enjoyment, every virtue +and every prudent act, is founded on compromise and barter._" + +Great statesmen, on great occasions, speak not only to their countrymen +and for the time being, but they speak to all mankind and for all time. +So spoke Burke in that famous sentence when advocating, in the British +Parliament in 1776, "conciliation with America"; and so did Daniel +Webster speak, in the Senate of the United States, on the 7th of March, +1850, for "the Constitution and the Union." If George III and Lord North +had heeded Burke, and if the British government and people, from that +day forth, had followed the wise counsels given in that speech by their +greatest statesman, all the English-speaking peoples of the world, now +numbering over 170,000,000, might have been to-day under one government, +that government commanding the peace of the world. And if all the people +of the United States in 1850 and from that time on, had heeded the words +of Daniel Webster, we should have been spared the bloodiest war in the +book of time; every State of the Union would have been left free to +solve its own domestic problems, and it is not too much to say that +these problems would have been solved in full accord with the advancing +civilization of the age. + +The sole charge of inconsistency against Webster that has in it a shadow +of truth relates to the proposition he made in his speech as to the +"Wilmot proviso." That celebrated proviso was named for David Wilmot, of +Pennsylvania, its author. It provided against slavery in all the +territory acquired from Mexico. The South had opposed the Wilmot proviso +because the territory in question, much of it, was south of the Missouri +Compromise line extended. Mr. Webster had often voted for the Wilmot +proviso, as all knew. In his speech for the Compromise, by which the +South was urged to and did give up its contentions as to the admission +of California, and its contentions as to the slave trade in the District +of Columbia, Webster argued that _the North might forego_ the proviso as +to New Mexico and Arizona for the reason that the proviso was, as to +these territories, _immaterial_. Those territories, he argued, would +never come in as slave States, because the God of nature had so +determined. Climate and soil would forbid. Time vindicated this +argument. In 1861 Charles Francis Adams said, in Congress, that New +Mexico, open to slave-holders and their slaves for more than ten years, +then had only twelve slaves domiciled on the surface of over 200,000 +square miles of her extent.[43] + + [43] "Vindication of Webster," William C. Wilkinson, p. 69. + +Daniel Webster's services to the cause of the Union, the preservation of +which had been the passion of his life, had been absolutely +unparalleled. It is perhaps true that without him Abraham Lincoln and +the armies of the Union in 1861-65 would have been impossible. The sole +and, as he then stated and as time proved, immaterial concession this +champion of the Union now (1850) made for the sake of preserving the +Union was his proposition as to New Mexico and Arizona. + +Henry Clay spoke before Webster. These words were the key-note of Clay's +great speech: "In my opinion the body politic cannot be preserved unless +this agitation, this distraction, this exasperation, which is going on +between the two sections of the country, shall cease." + +The country waited with anxiety to hear from Webster. Hundreds of +suggestions and appeals went to him. Both sides were hopeful.[44] +Anti-slavery people knew his aversion to slavery. He had never +countenanced anti-slavery agitation, but he had voted for the Wilmot +proviso. They knew, too, that he had long been ambitious to be +President, and, carried away by their enthusiasm, they hoped that +Webster would swim along with the tide that was sweeping over the +majority section of the Union. In view of Mr. Webster's past record, +however, it would be difficult to believe that Abolitionists were really +disappointed in him had we not many such proofs as the following stanza +from Whittier's ode, published after the speech: + + Oh! dumb be passing, stormy rage + When he who might + Have lighted up and led his age + Falls back in night! + + [44] McMaster's "Webster." + +The conservatives also were hopeful. They knew that, though Webster had +always been, as an individual, opposed to slavery, he had at all times +stood by the Constitution, as well as the Union. At no time had he ever +qualified or retracted these words in his speech at Niblo's Garden in +1839: "Slavery, as it exists in the States, is beyond the reach of +Congress. It is a concern of the States themselves. They have never +submitted it to Congress, and Congress has no rightful power over it. I +shall concur therefore in _no act_, _no measure_, _no menace_, no +indication of purpose which _shall interfere or threaten to interfere +with the exclusive authority_ of the several States over the subject of +slavery, as it exists within their respective limits. All this appears +to me to be matter of plain imperative duty." + +Nullifying the fugitive slave law was a plain "interference" with the +rights of the slave States. + +Mr. Webster's intent, when he spoke on the Compromise measures, is best +explained by his own words, on June 17, while these measures were still +pending: "Sir, my object is peace. My object is reconciliation. My +purpose is not to make up a case _for the North_ or a case _for the +South_. My object is not to continue useless and irritating +controversies. I am against agitators, North and South, and all narrow +local contests. I am an American, and I know no locality but America." + +In his speech made on the 7th of March he dwelt at length on existing +conditions, on the attitude of the North toward the fugitive slave law, +and argued fully the questions involved in the "personal liberty" laws +passed by Northern States. Referring to the complaints of the South +about these, he said: "In that respect _the South, in my judgment, is +right and the North is wrong_. Every member of every Northern +legislature is bound by oath, like every other officer in the country, +to support the Constitution of the United States; and the article of the +Constitution which says to these States that they shall deliver up +fugitives from service _is as binding in honor and conscience as any +other article_. _No man fulfils his duty in any legislature who sets +himself to find excuses, evasions, escapes, from this constitutional +obligation._" + +And further on he said: "Then, sir, there are the Abolition societies, +of which I am unwilling to speak, but in regard to which I have very +clear notions and opinions. I do not think them useful. _I think their +operations for the last twenty years have produced nothing good or +valuable.... I cannot but see what mischief their interference with the +South has produced._" + +In these statements is the substance of Webster's offending. + +Webster's speech was followed, on the 11th of March, by the speech of +Senator Seward, of New York, in the same debate. Quoting the fugitive +slave provision of the Federal Constitution, Mr. Seward said: "This is +from the Constitution of the United States in 1787, and the parties were +the Republican States of the Union. The law of nations _disavows such +compacts; the law of nature, written on the hearts and consciences of +freemen, repudiates them_."[45] The people of the North, instead of +following Webster, chose to follow Seward, the apostle of a _law higher +than the Constitution_; and when, ten years later, it appeared to them +that the whole North had given in its adhesion to the "higher law" +doctrine, the people of eleven Southern States seceded, and put over +themselves in very substance the Constitution that Seward had flouted +and Webster had pleaded for in vain. + + [45] _Congressional Globe_, 31st Congress, 1st session, Appendix, p. + 263. + +Anti-slavery enthusiasts in the North generally, and Abolitionists +especially, in their comments on Webster's speech scouted the idea that +the preservation of the Union depended upon the faithful execution of +the fugitive slave law or the cessation of anti-slavery agitation. +"What," said Theodore Parker, "cast off the North! They set up for +themselves! Tush! Tush! Fear boys with bugs!... I think Mr. Webster knew +there was no danger of a dissolution of the Union."[46] + + [46] "Vindication of Webster," William C. Wilkinson, p. 191. + +The immediate effect of the speech was wonderful; congratulations poured +in upon Mr. Webster from conservative classes in every quarter, and he +must have felt gratified to know that he had contributed greatly to the +enactment of measures that, for a time, had some effect in allaying +sectional strife. But the revilings of the Abolitionists prevailed, and +it turned out that Daniel Webster, great as he was, had undertaken a +task that was too much even for him. His enemies struck out boldly at +once: and years afterward, when the anti-slavery movement that Webster's +appeals could not arrest had culminated in secession, and when the +Union had been saved by arms, the triumphant hosts of the anti-slavery +crusade all but succeeded in writing Daniel Webster down permanently in +the history of his country as an apostate from principle for the sake of +an office he did not get. Here is their verdict, which Mr. Lodge, a +biographer of Webster, passes on into history: + +"The _popular verdict_ has been given against the 7th of March speech, +_and that verdict has passed into history_. Nothing can be said or done +which will alter the fact that the people of this country, _who +maintained and saved the Union, have passed judgment on Mr. Webster_, +and condemned what he said on the 7th of March as _wrong in principle +and mistaken in policy_." + +Here are specimens of the assaults that were made on Webster after his +speech. They are selected from among many given by one of his +biographers.[47] + + [47] McMaster's "Webster," p. 316 _et seq._ + +"'Webster,' said Horace Mann, 'is a fallen star! Lucifer descended from +Heaven.'... 'Webster,' said Sumner, 'has placed himself in the dark +list of apostates.' When Whittier named him Ichabod, and mourned for him +in verse as one dead, he did but express the feeling of half New +England: + + 'Let not the land once proud of him + Mourn for him now, + Nor brand with deeper shame his dim + Dishonored brow. + + * * * * * + + Then pay the reverence of old days + To his dead fame! + Walk backward with averted gaze + And hide his shame.'" + +After much more to the same effect, Professor McMaster proceeds: "The +attack by the press, the _expressions of horror_ that rose from New +England, Webster felt keenly, but the absolute isolation in which he was +left by his New England colleagues cut him to the quick."[48] + + [48] Professor McMaster in the chapter preceding that containing these + extracts, has collected much evidence to show that Webster aspired to be + President, and the biographer entitles the chapter, "Longing for the + Presidency," apparently the author's clod on the grave of a buried + reputation. + +On Mr. Webster's speech, its purpose and effect, we have this opinion +from Mr. Lodge: + +"The speech, if exactly defined, is in reality a powerful effort, not +for a compromise, or for the fugitive slave law, or for any other one +thing, _but to arrest the whole anti-slavery movement_, and in that way +_put an end to the danger which threatened the Union and restore harmony +to the jarring sections_." + +And then he adds: + +"_It was a mad project. Mr. Webster might as well have attempted to stay +the incoming tide at Marshfield with a rampart of sand, as to check the +anti-slavery movement with a speech._" + +To undertake at this time to arrest the whole anti-slavery movement by +holding up the Constitution was indeed useless. + +Seward, who had spoken for the "higher law," was riding on the tide of +anti-slavery sentiment that was submerging "the Sage of Marshfield," who +had stood for the Constitution. Seward's reputation, in the years +following, went steadily up, while Webster's was going down. Webster +died, in dejection, in 1852. + +Seward, at Rochester, in 1854, later on in the same crusade, made +another famous declaration--there was an "irrepressible conflict between +slavery and freedom." The conflict was "irrepressible," as Seward well +knew; and this was simply and solely because the anti-slavery crusade +could not be suppressed. Clay and Webster, now both dead and gone, had +tried it in vain. Every one knew that if, in 1850, or at any other time, +the anti-slavery hosts had halted, and asked for, or consented to, +peace, they could have had it at once. + +Mr. Lodge, in the following paragraph, seems to have almost made up his +mind to defend Webster. He says: "What most shocked the North were his +utterances in regard to the fugitive slave law. There can be no doubt +that, _under the Constitution_, the South had a _perfect right_ to claim +the extradition of fugitive slaves. The legal _argument to support that +right was excellent_." This would seem to justify the speech in that +regard. "But," Mr. Lodge adds, "the Northern people could not feel that +it was _necessary_ for _Daniel Webster_ to make it." They wanted him to +be sectional or to hold his tongue. Then Mr. Lodge goes on to say: "The +fugitive slave law was in _absolute conflict with the awakened +conscience and moral sentiment of the North_." + +The conscience of _the North_ at that time, Mr. Lodge means, was a +_higher law_ than the _Constitution_; and Webster's "excellent +argument," therefore, fell on deaf ears. + +No American historian stands higher as an authority than Mr. Rhodes. He +says on page 161, vol. I, of his "History of the United States," +published in 1892: "_Until the closing years of our century a +dispassionate judgment could not be made of Webster_; but we see now +that in the war of secession his principles were mightier than those of +Garrison. It was not 'No Union with slave-holders,' but _Liberty and +Union_ that won." + +This tribute to services Webster had rendered to the Union in his great +speech in 1850, in which he advocated "Liberty and Union, now and +forever," exactly as he was advocating it in 1830, is just. How pathetic +that the historian was impelled also to record the fact, in the same +sentence, that for nearly half a century partisan prejudice had rendered +it impossible to form a dispassionate judgment of him who had pleaded in +vain for the Union without war! + +After an able analysis of his "7th of March speech," and a discussion of +his record, in which he paralleled Webster and Edmund Burke, Mr. Rhodes +declares: "His dislike of slavery was strong, but his love of the Union +was stronger, and the more powerful motive outweighed the other, for he +believed that _the crusade against slavery had arrived at a point where +its further prosecution was hurtful to the Union_. As has been said of +Burke, 'He changed his front but he never changed his ground.'"[49] + + [49] _Ib._, p. 160. + +Daniel Webster's name and its place in history may be likened to a giant +oak, a monarch of the forest, that, while towering high above all +others, was stripped of its branches; for a time it stood, a rugged +trunk, robbed of its glory by a cyclone; but its roots were deep down in +the rich earth; the storm is passing away; the tree has put out buds +again; now its branches are stretching out once more into the clear +reaches of the upper air. + +Mr. Rhodes seems to be the first historian of note to do justice to +Daniel Webster and the great speech which, McMaster takes pains to +inform us, historians have written down as his "7th of March speech," in +spite of the fact that Mr. Webster himself entitled it "The +Constitution and the Union." + +Other historians besides Mr. Rhodes have come to the rescue of Webster's +speech for "the Constitution and the Union." Mr. John Fiske says of it +in a volume (posthumous) published in 1907: "So far as Mr. Webster's +moral attitude was concerned, although he was not prepared for the +bitter hostility that his speech provoked in many quarters, he must +nevertheless have known it was quite as likely to injure him at the +North as to gain support for him in the South, and his resolute adoption +of a policy that he regarded as national rather than sectional was +really an instance of high moral courage."[50] + + [50] "Daniel Webster and the Sentiment of Union," John Fiske, "Essays + Historical and Literary," pp. 408-9. + +Mr. William C. Wilkinson has recently written an able "Vindication of +Daniel Webster," and, after a conclusive argument on that branch of his +subject, he says: "Webster's consistency stands like a rock on the shore +after the fretful waves are tired with beating upon it in vain."[51] + + [51] "Daniel Webster: A Vindication," p. 47. + +Mr. E. P. Wheeler, concluding a masterly sketch of Daniel Webster, +setting forth his services as statesman and expounder of the +Constitution, and not deigning to notice the partisan charges against +him, concludes with these words: + +"Great men elevate and ennoble their countrymen. In the glory of Webster +we find the glory of our whole country." + +The story of Daniel Webster and his great speech in 1850 has been told +at some length because it is instructive. The historians who had set +themselves to the task of upholding the idea that it was the +aggressiveness of the South, during the controversy over slavery, and +not that of the North, that brought on secession and war, could not make +good their contention while Daniel Webster and his speech for "the +Constitution and the Union" stood in their way. They, therefore, wrote +the great statesman "down and out," as they conceived. But Webster and +that speech still stand as beacon lights in the history of that crusade. +The attack came from the North. The South, standing for its +constitutional rights in the Union, was the conservative party. +Southern leaders, it is true, were, during the controversy over +slavery, often aggressive, but they were on the defensive-aggressive, +just as Lee was when he made his campaign into Pennsylvania for the +purpose of stopping the invasion of his own land; and the South lost in +her political campaign just for the same reason that Lee lost in his +Gettysburg campaign: numbers and resources were against her. "The stars +in their courses fought against Sisera." + +Mr. Webster in his great speech for "the Constitution and the Union," as +became a great statesman pleading for conciliation, measured the terms +in which he condemned "personal liberty" laws and Abolitionism. But +afterward, irritated by the attacks made upon him, he naturally spoke +out more emphatically. McMaster quotes several expressions from his +speeches and letters replying to these assaults, and says: "His hatred +of Abolitionists and Free-soilers grew stronger and stronger. To him +these men were a 'band of sectionalists, narrow of mind, wanting in +patriotism, without a spark of national feeling, and quite ready to see +the Union go to pieces if their own selfish ends were gained.'" Such, +if this is a fair summing up of his views, was Webster's final opinion +of those who were carrying on the great anti-slavery crusade.[52] + + [52] McMaster's "Webster," p. 340. + + + + +CHAPTER VII + +EFFORTS FOR PEACE + + +The desire for peace in 1850 was wide-spread. Union loving people, North +and South, hoped that the Compromise would result in a cessation of the +strife that had so long divided the section; and the election of +Franklin Pierce, in 1852, as President, on a platform strongly approving +that Compromise, was promising. But anti-slavery leaders, instead of +being convinced by such arguments as those of Webster, were deeply +offended by the contention that legislators, in passing personal liberty +laws, had violated their oaths to support the Constitution. They were +angered also by the presumptuous attempt to "arrest the whole +anti-slavery movement." + +The new fugitive slave law was stringent; it did not give jury trial; it +required bystanders to assist the officers in "slave-catching," etc. For +these and other reasons the law was assailed as unconstitutional. All +these contentions were overruled by the Supreme Court when a case +eventually came before it. The court decided that the act was, in all +its provisions, fully authorized by the Constitution.[53] But in their +present mood, no law that was efficient would have been satisfactory to +the multitudes of people, by no means all "Abolitionists," who had +already made up their minds against the "wicked" provision of the +Constitution that required the delivery of fugitive slaves. This +deep-seated feeling of opposition to the return to their masters of +escaping slaves was soon to be wrought up to a high pitch by a novel +that went into nearly every household throughout the North--"Uncle Tom's +Cabin." On its appearance the poet Whittier, who had so ferociously +attacked Webster in the verses quoted in the last chapter, "offered up +thanks for the fugitive slave law, for it gave us 'Uncle Tom's Cabin.'" + + [53] Ableman _v._ Boothe, 21 How., 506. + +Rufus Choate, a celebrated lawyer and Whig leader, is reported to have +said of "Uncle Tom's Cabin": "That book will make two millions of +Abolitionists." Drawing, as it did, a very dark picture of slavery, it +aroused sympathy for the escaping slave and pictured in glowing colors +the dear, sweet men and women who dared, for his sake, the perils of the +road in the darkness of night and all the dangers of the law. Mrs. Stowe +was _making heroes of law-breakers, preaching the higher law_. + +Mrs. Stowe declared she had not written the book for political effect; +she certainly did not anticipate the marvellous results that followed +it. That book made vast multitudes of its readers ready for the new +sectional and anti-slavery party that was to be organized two years +after its appearance. It was the most famous and successful novel ever +written. It was translated into every language that has a literature, +and has been more read by American people than any other book except the +Bible. As a picture of what was conceivable under the laws relating to +slavery there was a basis for it. Though there were laws limiting the +master's power, cruelty was nevertheless possible. + +Here, then, Mrs. Stowe's imagination had full scope. Her book, however, +has in it none of the strident harshness, none of the purblind ferocity +of Garrison, in whose eyes every slave-holder was a fiend. "Uncle Tom's +Cabin" assailed a system; it did not assault personally, as the +arch-agitator did, every man and woman to whom slaves had come, whether +by choice or chance. Light and shadow and the play of human nature made +Mrs. Stowe's picture as attractive in many of its pages as it was +repulsive and unfair in others. Mrs. Shelby was a type of many a noble +mistress, a Christian woman, and when financial misfortunes compelled +the sale of the Shelby slaves and the separation of families, we have +not only what might have been, but what sometimes was, one of the evils +of slavery, which, by reason of the prevailing agitation, the humanity +of the age could not remedy. But Mrs. Stowe's slave-master, Legree, was +impossible. The theory was inconceivable that it was cheaper to work to +death in seven years a slave costing a thousand dollars, than to work +him for forty years. Millions of our people, however, have accepted +"Uncle Tom" as a fact, and have wept over him; they have accepted also +as a fact the monster Legree. + +"Uncle Tom's Cabin" lives to-day as a classic on book shelves and as a +popular play. The present generation get most of their opinions about +slavery as it was in the South from its pages, and not one in ten +thousand of those who read it ever thinks of the inconsistency between +the picture of slavery drawn there and that other picture, which all the +world now knows of--the Confederate soldier away in the army, his wife +and children at home faithfully protected by slaves--not a case of +violence, not even a single established case, during four years, +although there were four millions of negroes in the South, of that crime +against white women that, after the reconstruction had demoralized the +freedmen, became so common in that section. + +The unwavering fidelity during the four years of war of so many slaves +to the families of their absent masters, and the fact that those who, +during that war, left their homes to seek their freedom invariably went +without doing any vengeful act, is a phenomenon that speaks for itself. +It tells of kindly relations between master and slave. It is not to be +denied that where the law gave so much power to the master there were +individual instances of cruelty, nor is it supposable that there were +not many slaves who were revengeful; but at the same time there was, +quite naturally, among slaves who were all in like case, a more clannish +and all-pervading public opinion than could have been found elsewhere. +It was that all-pervading and rigid standard of kindly feeling among the +slaves to their masters that made the rule universal--fidelity toward +the master's family, at least to the extent of inflicting no injury. + +What a surprise to many this conduct of the slave was may be gathered +from a telling Republican speech made by Carl Schurz during the campaign +of 1860.[54] A devotee of liberty, recently a revolutionist in his +native land, and, like other foreigners, disregarding all constitutional +obstacles, Mr. Schurz had naturally espoused the cause of anti-slavery +in this country. He had absorbed the views of his political associates +and now contended that secession was an empty threat and that secession +was impossible. "The mere anticipation of a negro insurrection," he +said, "will paralyze the whole South." And, after ridiculing the alarm +created by the John Brown invasion, the orator said that in case of a +war between the South and the North, "they will not have men enough to +quiet their friends at home; what will they have to oppose to the enemy? +Every township will want its home regiment; every plantation its +garrison; and what will be left for its field army?" + + [54] Fite, "Presidential Campaign of 1860," p. 243. + +Slavery in the South eventually proved to be, instead of a weakness, an +element of strength to the Confederates, and Mr. Lincoln finally felt +himself compelled to issue his proclamation of emancipation as a +military necessity--the avowed purpose being to deprive the Confederates +of the slaves who were by their labor supporting their armies in the +field. + +The faithfulness during the war of the slave to his master has been a +lesson to the Northerner, and it has been a lesson, too, to the +Southerner. It argues that the danger of bloody insurrections was +perhaps not as great as had been apprehended where incendiary +publications were sent among them. That danger, however, did exist, and +if the fear of it was exaggerated, it was nevertheless real, and was +traceable to the Abolitionists. + +The rights of the South in the territories had now been discussed for +years and Stephen A. Douglas, a Democratic senator from Illinois, had +reached the conclusion that under the Constitution Southerner and +Northerner had exactly the same right to carry their property, whatever +it might be, into the territories, which had been purchased with the +common blood and treasure of both sections, a view afterward sustained +by the Supreme Court of the United States in the Dred Scott case. +Douglas, "entirely of his own motion,"[55] introduced, and Congress +passed, such a bill--the Kansas-Nebraska act. The new act replaced the +Missouri Compromise. This the Southerners considered had been a dead +letter for years. Every "personal liberty" law passed by a Northern +State was a violation of it. + + [55] "Parties and Slavery," Theodore Clarke Smith, professor of history + in Williams College, p. 96. + +Ambition was now playing its part in the sectional controversy. Douglas +was a Democrat looking to the presidency and had here made a bid for +Southern support. On the other hand was Seward, an "old line Whig," +aspiring to the same office. The South had been the dominant element in +national politics and the North was getting tired of it. Seward's idea +was to organize all the anti-slavery voters and to appeal at the same +time to the pride and jealousy of the North as a section. + +The immediate effect of the Kansas-Nebraska act was to aggravate +sectionalism. It opened up the territory of Kansas, allowing it to come +into the Union with or without slavery, as it might choose. Slave State +and free State adventurers rushed into the new territory and struggled, +and even fought, for supremacy. The Southerners lost. Their resources +could not match the means of organized anti-slavery societies, and the +result was an increase, North and South, of sectional animosity. + +The overwhelming defeat of the old Whig party in 1852 presaged its +dissolution. Until that election, both the Whig and Democratic parties +had been national, each endeavoring to hold and acquire strength, North +and South, and each combating, as best it could, the spirit of +sectionalism that had been steadily growing in the North, and South as +well, ever since the rise of Abolitionism. Both these old parties had +watched with anxiety the increase of anti-slavery sentiment in the +North. Both parties feared it. Alliance with the anti-slavery North +would deprive a party of support South and denationalize it. For years +prior to 1852 the drift of Northern voters who were opposed to slavery +had been as to the two national parties toward the Whigs, and the +tendency of conservative Northerners had been toward the Democratic +party. Thus the great body of the Whig voters in the North had become +imbued with anti-slavery sentiments, and now, with no hope of victory as +a national party and left in a hopeless minority, the majority of that +old party in that section were ready to join a sectional party when it +should be formed two years later. William H. Seward was still a Whig +when he made in the United States Senate his anti-slavery "higher law" +speech of 1850. + +The Kansas-Nebraska act was a political blunder. The South, on any +dispassionate consideration, could not have expected to make Kansas a +slave State. The act was a blunder, too, because it gave the opponents +of the Democratic party a plausible pretext for the contention, which +they put forth then and which has been persisted in till this day, that +the new Republican party, immediately thereafter organized, was called +into existence by, and only by, the Kansas-Nebraska act. + +As far back as 1850 it was clear that a new party, based on the +anti-slavery sentiment that had been created by twenty years of +agitation, was inevitable. Mr. Rhodes, speaking of conditions then, +says: "It was, moreover, obvious to an astute politician like Seward, +and probably to others, that a dissolution of parties was imminent; that +to oppose the extension of slavery, _the different anti-slavery elements +must be organized as a whole_; it might be called Whig or some other +name, but it would be based on the principle of the Wilmot +proviso"[56]--the meaning of which was, no more slave States. + + [56] "Rhodes," vol. I, p. 192. + +Between 1850 and the passage of the Kansas-Nebraska act in 1854, new +impulse had been given anti-slavery sentiment by fierce assaults on the +new fugitive slave law and, as has been seen, by "Uncle Tom's Cabin." +The Kansas-Nebraska act did serve as a cry for the rallying of all +anti-slavery voters. That was all. It was a drum-call, in answer to +which soldiers already enlisted fell into ranks, under a new banner. Any +other drum-call--the application of another slave State for admission +into the Union--would have served quite as well. Thus the Republican +party came into existence in 1854. Mr. Rhodes sums up the reason for the +existence of the new party and what it subsequently accomplished in the +following pregnant sentence, "The moral agitation had accomplished its +work, the cause (of anti-slavery) ... was to be consigned to a political +party that brought to a successful conclusion the movement begun by the +moral sentiment of the community,"[57]--which successful conclusion was, +of course, _the freeing of the slaves by a successful war_. + + [57] Vol. I, p. 66. + +For a time the new Republican party had a powerful competitor in another +new organization. This was the American or Know-Nothing party. This +other aspirant for power made an honest effort to revitalize the old +Whig party under a new name and, by gathering in all the conservatives +North and South, to put an end to sectionalism. Its signal failure +conveys an instructive lesson. After many and wide-spread rumors of its +coming, the birth of the American party was formally announced in 1854. +It had been organized in secret and was bound together with oaths and +passwords; its members delighted to mystify inquirers by refusing to +answer questions, and soon they got the name of "Know-Nothings." The +party had grown out of the "Order of the Star Spangled Banner," +organized in 1850 to oppose the spread of Catholicism and indiscriminate +immigration--the two dangers that were said to threaten American +institutions. + +The American party made its appeal: For the Union and against +sectionalism; for Protestantism, the faith of the Fathers, against +Catholicism that was being imported by foreigners; its shibboleth was +"America for the Americans." + +The Americans or Know-Nothings everywhere put out in 1854 full tickets +and showed at once surprising strength. In the fall elections of that +year they polled over one-fourth of all the votes in New York, +two-fifths in Pennsylvania, and over two-thirds in Massachusetts, where +they made a clean sweep of the State and Federal offices.[58] + + [58] Smith, "Parties and Slavery," pp. 118-20. + +They struck directly at sectionalism by exacting of their adherents the +following oath: + +"You do further swear that you will not vote for any one ... whom you +know or believe to be in favor of a dissolution of the Union ... or who +is endeavoring to produce that result." + +The effect of this oath at the South was almost magical. The Whig party +there was speedily absorbed by the Americans, and Southern Democrats by +thousands joined the new party that promised to save the Union.[59] But +the attitude of the Northern and Southern members of the American party +soon became fundamentally different. Southerners saw their Northern +allies in Vermont, Maine, and Massachusetts passing "personal liberty" +laws.[60] + + [59] The writer's father, who had been a nullifier and a lifelong + follower of Calhoun, joined the Know-Nothings in the hope of saving the + Union, but withdrew when he found that in the North the party was not + true to its Union pledges. Here was a typical case of Southern + unwillingness to resort to secession. + + [60] _Ib._, pp. 138-9. + +The Know-Nothings were strong enough in the elections of 1855 to +directly check the progress of the new Republican party; but the +American party, though it succeeded in electing a Speaker of the +national House of Representatives in February, 1856, soon afterward went +down to defeat. Even though led by such patriots as John Bell, of +Tennessee, and Edward Everett, of Massachusetts, it could not stand +against the storm of passion that had been aroused by the crusade +against slavery. + +There was a fierce and protracted struggle between the pro-slavery and +anti-slavery men in Kansas for possession of the territorial government. +Rival constitutions were submitted to Congress, and the debates over +these were extremely bitter. In their excitement the Democrats again +delighted their adversaries by committing what now seems to have been +another blunder. They advocated the admission of Kansas under the +"Lecompton Constitution." A review of the conflicting evidence appears +to show that the Southerners were fairly outnumbered in Kansas and that +the Lecompton Constitution did not express the will of the people.[61] + + [61] Theodore Clarke Smith, "Parties and Slavery." + +While "the war in Kansas" was going on, Charles Sumner, an Abolitionist +from Massachusetts, delivered in the Senate a speech of which he wrote +his friends beforehand: "I shall pronounce the most thorough Philippic +ever delivered in a legislative body." He was a classical scholar. _His +purpose was to stir up in the North a greater fury against the South +than Demosthenes had aroused in Athens against its enemies, the +Macedonians._ His speech occupied two days, May 28 and 29, 1855. At its +conclusion, Senator Cass, of Michigan, arose at once and pronounced it +"the most un-American and unpatriotic that ever grated on the ears of +this high body." The speech attacked, without any sufficient excuse, the +personal character of an absent senator, Butler of South Carolina, a +gentleman of high character and older than Sumner. Among other +unfounded charges, it accused him of falsehood. Preston Brooks, a +representative from South Carolina, attacked Sumner in the Senate +chamber during a recess of that body and beat him unmercifully with a +cane. The provocation was bitter, indeed, but Brooks's assault was +unjustifiable. Nevertheless, the exasperated South applauded it, while +the North glorified Sumner as a martyr for free speech. + + * * * * * + +In less than two years the new Republican party had absorbed all the +Abolition voters, and in the election of 1856 was in the field with its +candidates for the presidency and vice-presidency--Fremont and +Dayton--upon a platform declaring it the duty of Congress to abolish in +the territories "those twin relics of barbarism, polygamy and slavery." + +Excitement during that election was intense. Rufus Choate, the great +Massachusetts lawyer, theretofore a Whig, voiced the sentiment of +conservatives when he said it was the "duty of every one to prevent the +madness of the times from working its maddest act--the permanent +formation and the actual present triumph of a party which knows one-half +of America only to hate it," etc. + +Senator Toombs, of Georgia, said: "The object of Fremont's friends is +the conquest of the South. I am content that they shall own us when they +conquer us." + +The Democrats elected Buchanan; Democrats 174 electoral votes; +Republicans 74, all Northern; and the Know-Nothings, combined with a +remnant of Whigs, 8. + +The work of sectionalism was nearly completed. + +The extremes to which some of the Southern people now resorted show the +madness of the times. They encouraged filibustering expeditions to +capture Cuba and Nicaragua. These wild ventures were absolutely +indefensible. They had no official sanction and were only spontaneous +movements, but they met with favor from the Southern public, the +outgrowth of a feeling that, if these countries should be captured and +annexed as slave States, the South could the better, by their aid, +defend its rights in the Union. _The Wanderer_ and one or two other +vessels, contrary to the laws of the United States, imported slaves +from Africa, and when the participants were, some of them, indicted, +Southern juries absolutely refused to convict. + + "Judgment had fled to brutish beasts, + And men had lost their reason." + +When later the Southern States had seceded and formed a government of +their own their constitution absolutely prohibited the slave traffic. + + + + +CHAPTER VIII + +INCOMPATIBILITY OF SLAVERY AND FREEDOM + + +That it was possible for slave States and free States to coexist under +our Federal Constitution was the belief of its framers and of most of +our people down to 1861. The first to announce the absolute +impossibility of such coexistence seems to have been William Lloyd +Garrison. In 1840, at Lynn, Massachusetts, the Essex County Anti-Slavery +Society adopted this resolution, offered by him: + +"That freedom and slavery are natural and irreconcilable enemies; that +it is morally impossible for them to endure together in the same nation, +and that the existence of the one can only be secured by the destruction +of the other."[62] + + [62] Garrison's "Garrison." + +Garrison's remedy was disunion. Near that time his paper's motto was "No +Union with Slave-Holders." + +The next to announce the idea of the incompatibility of slave States and +free States seems to have been one who did not dream of disunion. No +such thought was in the mind of Abraham Lincoln when, in a speech at +Springfield, Illinois, June 15, 1858, he said: + +"_A house divided against itself cannot stand. I believe this government +cannot endure permanently half slave and half free. I do not expect the +Union to be divided. It will become one thing or the other._ Either the +opponents of slavery will arrest the further spread of it, and place it +where the public mind will rest in the belief that _it is in the course +of ultimate extinction_; or its advocates will push it forward until it +shall become alike lawful in all the States--old as well as new--North +as well as South." + +When the Southerners read that statement they concluded that, as Mr. +Lincoln knew very well that the South could not, if it would, force +slavery on the North, he was announcing the intention of his party to +place slavery "in course of ultimate extinction," constitution or no +constitution. + +Senator Seward, at Rochester, New York, some weeks later, reannounced +the doctrine, declaring that the contest was "an irrepressible conflict +between opposing and enduring forces; and it means that the United +States _must and will_, sooner or later, become either an entirely +slave-holding nation or entirely a free labor nation." + +The utterances of Lincoln and Seward were distinctly radical. The +question was, would this radical idea ultimately dominate the Republican +party? + +Less than eighteen months after the announcement in 1858 of the doctrine +of the "irrepressible conflict," John Brown raided Virginia to incite +insurrections. With a few followers and 1,300 stands of arms for the +slaves who were to join him, he captured the United States arsenal at +Harper's Ferry. Only a few slaves came to him and, after a brief +struggle, with some bloodshed, Brown was captured, tried by a jury, and +hanged. + +In the South the excitement was intense; the horror and indignation in +that section it is impossible to describe. Brown was already well known +to the public. He was not a lunatic. Not long before this, in Kansas, +"at the head of a small group of men, including two of his sons and a +son-in-law, he went at night down Pottowattamie Creek, stopping at three +houses. The men who lived in them were well known pro-slavery men; they +seem to have been rough characters; their most specific offence +(according to Sanborn, Brown's biographer and eulogist) was the driving +from his home, by violent threats, of an inoffensive old man. John Brown +and his party went down the creek, called at one after the other of +three houses, took five men away from their wives and children, and +deliberately shot one and hacked the others to death with swords."[63] + + [63] "The Negro and the Nation," George Spring Merriam, p. 120. + +Quite a number of people, some of them men of eminence in the North, +aided Brown in his enterprise. Among the men of repute were Gerrit +Smith, a former candidate for the presidency; and Theodore Parker, Dr. +Howe, and Thomas Wentworth Higginson, of Boston, who were all members of +a "secret committee to collect money and arms for the expedition." With +them was F. S. Sanborn, who has since the war vauntingly revealed the +scheme in his "Life of John Brown."[64] + + [64] Sanborn's "Life of John Brown," p. 466. + +Sanborn intimates that Henry Wilson, subsequently vice-president, was +more or less privy to the design.[65] At various places in the North +church bells were tolled on the day of John Brown's execution; meetings +were held and orators extolled him as a martyr. Emerson, the greatest +thinker in all that region, declared that if John Brown was hanged he +would glorify the gallows as Jesus glorified the cross; and now many +Southern men who loved the Union reluctantly concluded that separation +was inevitable. John Bell, of Tennessee, Union candidate for President +in 1860, is said to have cried like a child when he heard of Brown's +raid. + + [65] _Ib._, p. 515. + +The great body of the Northern people condemned John Brown's expedition +without stint. Edward Everett, voicing the opinion of all who were +really conservative, said of Brown's raid, in a speech at Faneuil Hall, +that its design was to "let loose the hell hounds of a servile +insurrection, and to bring on a struggle which, for magnitude, +atrocity, and horror, would have stood alone in the history of the +world." + +But they who had been preaching the "irrepressible conflict," they whom +public opinion might hold responsible, did not feel precisely as Mr. +Everett did. They were concerned about political consequences, as +appears from a letter written somewhat later during the State canvass in +New York by Horace Greeley to Schuyler Colfax. Horace Greeley afterward +proved himself in many ways a broad-minded, magnanimous man, but now he +wrote: "Do not be downhearted about the old John Brown business. Its +present effect is bad and throws a heavy load on us in this State ... +_but the ultimate effect is to be good.... It will drive the slave power +to new outrages.... It presses on the irrepressible conflict_."[66] + + [66] "History of United States," Rhodes, vol. I. + +The fact that such a man as Horace Greeley was taking comfort because +that outrage would "drive the slave power to new outrages"[67] throws a +strong side-light on the tactics of the anti-slavery leaders. They were +following Garrison. Garrison, the father of the Abolitionists, had +begun his campaign against slave-holders by "exhausting upon them the +vocabulary of abuse," and he had shown "a genius for infuriating his +antagonists."[68] The new party--his successor and beneficiary, was now +felicitating itself that ultimate good would come, even from the John +Brown raid. It would further their policy of "_driving the slave power +to new outrages_." + + [67] Channing. + + [68] Hart. + +People at the North, conservatives and all, held their breath for a time +after Harper's Ferry. Then the crusade went on, in the press, on the +rostrum, and from the pulpit, with as much virulence as ever. No +assertion was too extravagant for belief, provided only its tendency was +to disparage the Southern white man or win sympathy for the negro. From +the noted "Brownlow and Pryne's Debate," Philadelphia (_Lippincott_), we +take the following as a specimen of the abuse a portion of the Northern +press was then heaping on the Southern people. Brownlow quotes from the +_New York Independent_ of November, 1856: + +"The mass of the population of the Atlantic Coast of the slave region +of the South are descended from the transported convicts and outcasts of +Great Britain.... Oh, glorious chivalry and hereditary aristocracy of +the South! Peerless first families of Virginia and Carolina!... Progeny +of the highwaymen, and horse-thieves and sheep-stealers, and +pick-pockets of Old England!" + +The South was not to be outdone, and here was a retort from _De Bow's +Review_, July, 1858: + +"The basis, framework, and controlling influence of Northern sentiment +is Puritanism--the old Roundhead, rebel refuse of England, which ... has +ever been an unruly sect of Pharisees ... the worst bigots on earth and +the meanest of tyrants when they have the power to exercise it."[69] + + [69] Theodore Clarke Smith, "Parties and Slavery," p. 303. + +And the non-slave-holder of the South did not escape from the pitiless +pelting of the storm. He was sustaining the slave-holder, and this was +not only an offence but a puzzle. + +It became quite common in the North for anti-slavery writers to classify +the non-slave-holding agricultural classes of the South as "poor +whites," thus distinguishing them from the slave-holders; and the idea +is current even now in that section that as a class the lordly +slave-holder despised his poor white fellow-citizen. The average +non-slave-holding Southern agriculturist, whether farming for himself or +for others, was a type of man that no one who knew him, least of all the +Southern slave-holder, his neighbor and political ally, could despise. +Educated and uneducated, these people were independent voters and honest +jurors, the very backbone of Southern State governments that always will +be notable in history for efficiency, purity, and economy. + +This class of voters, however, came in for much abuse in the literature +of the crusade. They were all lumped together as "poor whites," +sometimes as "poor white trash," and the belief was inculcated that +their imperious slave-holding neighbors applied that term to them. "Poor +white trash," on its face, is "nigger talk," caught up, doubtless, from +Southern negro barbers and bootblacks, and used by writers who, from +information thus derived, pictured Southern society. + +This is a sample of the numerous errors that crept into the literature +of one section of our Union about social conditions in the other during +that memorable sectional controversy. It is on a par with the idea that +prevailed, in some quarters in the South, that the Yankee cared for +nothing but money, and would not fight even for that. + +Southerners were practically all of the old British stock. Homogeneity, +common memories of the wars of the Revolution, of 1812, and with Mexico, +and Fourth of July celebrations, all tended to bind together strongly +the Southern slave-holder and non-slave-holder. + +There were, of course, many classes of non-slave-holders--the thrifty +farmer, the unthrifty, and the laborer who worked for hire, but more +frequently for "shares of the crop." Then there were others--the +inhabitants of the "sand-hills" and the mountain regions. These people +were, as a rule, very shiftless; too lazy to work, they were still too +proud to beg, as the very poor usually do in other countries. The +mountaineers were hardier than the sand-hillers, and it was from the +mountains of Tennessee, Alabama, etc., that the Union armies gathered +many recruits. This was not, as is often stated, because mountaineers +love liberty better than others, but because these mountaineers never +came into contact with either master or slave. The crusade against +slavery, therefore, did not threaten to affect their personal status. + +There were very few public schools in the South, but in the cities and +towns there were academies and high-schools, and the country was dotted +with "old field schools," most of them not good, but sufficient to train +those who became efficient leaders in social, religious, and political +circles. + +The wonderful progress made by the Southern white man during the last +thirty-five years is by no means all due to the abolition of slavery. +Labor, it is true, is held in higher esteem. This is a great gain, but +still more is due to improved transportation, to better prices for +timber and cotton, to commercial fertilizers, and an awakening interest +in education. The South is also developing its mineral resources and is +now rapidly forging to the front. The white man is making more cotton +than the negro. + +But the very strongest bond that bound together the Southern +slave-holder and non-slave-holder was the pride of caste. Every white +man was a freeman; he belonged to the superior, the dominant race. + +Edmund Burke, England's philosopher-statesman, in his speech on +"Conciliation with America" at the beginning of our Revolution, +complimented in high terms the spirit of liberty among the dissenting +protestants of New England. Then, alluding to the hopes indulged in by +some gentlemen, that the Southern colonies would be loyal to Great +Britain because the Church of England had there a large establishment, +he said: "It is certainly true. There is, however, a circumstance +attending these colonies which in my opinion fully counter-balances this +difference, and makes the spirit of liberty still more high and haughty +than in those to the Northward. It is, that in Virginia and Carolina +they have a vast multitude of slaves. Where this is the case, in any +part of the world, _those who are free are by far the most proud and +jealous of their freedom_. Freedom with them is not only an enjoyment, +but a kind of _rank and privilege_." + +The privilege of belonging to the superior race and of being free was a +bond that tied all Southern whites together, and it was infinitely +strengthened by a crusade that seemed, from a Southern stand-point, to +have for its purpose the levelling of all distinctions between the white +man and the slave hard by. + +Socially, there were classes in the South as there are everywhere. The +controlling class consisted of professional men, lawyers, physicians, +teachers, and high-class merchants (though the merchant prince was +unknown), and slave-holders. Slave-holders were, of course, divided into +classes, chiefly two: those who had acquired culture and breeding from +slave-holding ancestors, and those who had little culture or breeding, +principally the newly rich. It was the former class that gave tone to +Southern society. The performance of duty always ennobles, and this is +especially true of duty done by superiors to inferiors. The master and +mistress of a slave establishment were responsible for the moral and +material welfare of their dependents. When they appreciated and +fulfilled their responsibilities, as the best families usually did, +there was found what was called the Southern aristocracy. The habit of +command, assured position, and high ideals, coming down, as these often +did, with family traditions, gave these favored people ease and grace, +and they were social favorites, both in the North and Europe. At home +they dispensed a hospitality that made the South famous. They were +exemplars, giving tone to society, and it was notable that breeding and +culture, and not wealth, gave tone to Southern society. There was +perhaps in Virginia and South Carolina an aristocracy that was somewhat +more exclusive than elsewhere. + +Slavery was at its worst when masters were not equal to their +responsibilities, for want of either culture or Christian feeling, or +both, as also when, as was now and then the case, a brutal overseer was +in charge of a plantation far away from the eye of the owner. + +The influence of the slave-holder and his lavish hospitality did not +make for thrift among his less fortunate brethren; it made perhaps for +prodigality, but it also made for a high sense of honor among +slave-holders and non-slave-holders as well. Both slave-holders and +non-slave-holders were extremely punctilious. Money did not count where +honor was concerned, and Southerners do well to be proud of the record +in this respect that has been made by their statesmen. + +Among the more cultured classes in the period here treated of, the duel +prevailed, a practice now very properly condemned. But it made for a +high sense of honor. Demagogues were not common when a false statement +on "the stump" was apt to result in a mortal combat. + +Among the less cultured classes insult was answered with a blow of the +fist. Fisticuffs, too, were quite common to ascertain who was the "best +man" in a community or county. The rules were not according to the +Marquis of Queensbury, but they always secured "fair play."[70] + + [70] For the humorous side of life in the South in the old day, see + "Simon Suggs," J. J. Hooper; "Georgia Scenes," Judge Longstreet; and + "Flush Times of Alabama and Mississippi," by Baldwin. + +This combative spirit of Southerners was undoubtedly a result of the +spirit of caste that came from slavery. Sometimes it was unduly +exhibited in Congress during the controversy over slavery and State's +rights, and excited Southerners occasionally subjected themselves to the +charge of arrogance. + +One of the great evils of slavery was that, as a rule, neither the +slave-holder nor the non-slave-holder properly appreciated the dignity +of labor. A witty student at a Southern university said that his chief +objection to college life was that he could not have a negro to learn +his lessons for him. The slave-holder quite generally disdained manual +labor, and the non-slave-holder was also inclined to deprecate the +necessity that compelled him to work. + +The sudden abolition of slavery was the ruin of thousands of innocent +families--a loss for which there was no recompense. But for the South at +large, and especially to this generation, it is a blessing that all +classes have come to see, that to labor and to be useful is not only a +duty, but a privilege. + +Political conditions, North and South, differed widely. The North was +the majority section. Its majority could protect its rights; recourse to +the limitations of the Federal Constitution was seldom necessary. The +South, a minority section, with a devotion that never failed, held high +the "Constitution of the fathers, the palladium" of its rights. To one +section the Constitution was the bond of a Federal Union that was the +security for interstate commerce and national prosperity; to the other +it was a guaranty of peace abroad and local self-government at home. In +the one section the brightest minds were for the most part engaged in +business or in literary pursuits; in the other, politics absorbed much +of its talent. In the North the staple of political discussion was +usually some business or moral question, while in the South the +political arena was a great school in which the masses were not only +educated in the history of the formation of the Constitution, but taught +an affectionate regard for that instrument as a revered "gift from the +fathers" and the only safeguard of American liberty. Joint political +discussions, which were common between the ablest men of opposing +parties, were always numerously attended, and the Federal Constitution +was an unfailing topic. The result was, an amount of political +information in the average Confederate soldier that the average Union +soldier in his business training had never acquired, and a devotion of +the Southerner to the Constitution of his country which even the ablest +historians of to-day have failed to comprehend. + +It is often stated, as if it were an important fact in the consideration +of the great anti-slavery crusade, that not many of the Abolitionists +were as radical as Garrison, and that of the anti-slavery voters very +few favored social equality between whites and blacks. Southerners did +not stop to make distinctions like these. They saw the Abolitionists +advocating mixed schools and favoring laws authorizing mixed marriages; +saw them practising social equality; saw the general trend in that +direction; and so from its very beginning the Republican party, which +had absorbed the Abolitionists, was dubbed, North and South, the "Black +Republican" party. + +The whites of the South believed that the triumph of the "Black +Republican" party, as they called it, would be ultimately the triumph of +its most radical elements. Judge Reagan, of Texas, United States +congressman in 1860-61, Confederate Postmaster-General, later United +States senator, and always until 1860 an avowed friend of the Union, in +his farewell speech to the Congress of the United States in January, +1861, gave expression to this idea when he said: + +"And now you tender to us the inhuman alternative of unconditional +submission to _Republican rule on abolition principles, and ultimately +to free negro equality, and a government of mongrels_, or a war of races +on the one hand, and on the other, secession and a bloody and desolating +civil war."[71] + + [71] "Memoirs of John H. Reagan," p. 261. + +Judge Reagan was expressing in Congress the opinion that animated the +Confederate soldier in the war that was to follow secession, an opinion +the ex-Confederate did not see much reason to change when the era of +Reconstruction had been reached, and the ballot had been given to every +negro, while the leading whites were disfranchised. + +In 1857 Hinton Rowan Helper, of North Carolina, wrote a notable book to +show that slavery was a curse to the South, and especially to the +non-slave-holders. It was an appeal to the latter to become +Abolitionists. His arguments availed nothing; back of his book was the +Republican party, now planting itself, as Garrison had planted himself, +on an extract from the first sentence of the Declaration of +Independence, "all men are created equal." The Republican contention +was, in platforms and speeches, that the Declaration of Independence +covered negroes as well as whites,[72] and Southern whites, nearly all +of Revolutionary stock, resented the idea. They rebelled at the +suggestion that the signers, every one of whom, save possibly those from +Massachusetts, represented slave-holding constituents, intended to say +that the negroes then in the colonies were the equals of the whites. If +so, why were these negroes kept in slavery, and why were they not +immediately given the right to vote, to sit on juries, to be educated, +and to intermarry with the whites? + + [72] Mr. Lincoln took that position in his great speech at Chicago, in + 1858, when beginning his campaign for the senatorship. + +All this, the Southerners said, as, indeed, did many Northerners also, +was to be the logical outcome of the Republican doctrine, that negroes +and whites were equals. It is passing strange that modern historians so +often have failed to note that this thought was in the minds of all the +opponents of the Republican party from the day of its birth--North and +South it was called the "Black Republican" party. Douglas, in his debate +with Lincoln, gave it that name and stood by it. In his speech at +Jonesboro, Illinois, September 15, 1858, he charges the Republicans with +advocating "negro citizenship and negro equality, putting the white man +and the negro on the same basis under the law."[73] + + [73] Lincoln, "Complete Works," vol. IV, p. 9. + +John C. Calhoun, in a memorial to the Southern people in 1849, signed by +many other congressmen, had said that Northern fanaticism would not stop +at emancipation. "Another step would be taken to raise them [the +negroes] to a political and social equality with their former owners, by +giving them the right of voting and holding public office under the +Federal Government.... But when raised to an equality they would become +the fast political associates of the North, acting and voting with them +on all questions, and by this perfect union between them holding the +South in complete subjection. _The blacks and the profligate whites that +might unite with them_ would become the principal recipients of Federal +patronage, and would, in consequence, be raised above the whites of the +South in the social and political scale. We would, in a word, change +conditions with them, _a degradation greater than has as yet fallen to +the lot of a free and enlightened people_."[74] + + [74] "Calhoun's Works," vol. VI, p. 311. + +In the light of Reconstruction, this was prophecy. + +These words, once heard by a Southern white man, of course sank into his +heart. They could never have been forgotten. The argument of Helper fell +on deaf ears. If Helper had come with the promise (and an assurance of +its fulfilment) that the negroes, when emancipated, would be sent to +Liberia, or elsewhere _out of the country_, the South would have become +Republicanized at once. Even if the slave-holder had been unwilling, the +Southern non-slave-holder, with his three, and often five, to one +majority, would have seen to it. + +And it is not too much to say that if the negro had been, as the +Abolitionists and ultimately many Republicans contended he was, the +equal of the white man, Liberia would have been a success. What a +glorious consummation of the dreams of statesmen and philanthropists +that would have been! Abolitionists, unable to frustrate their scheme, +and the American negro, profiting by the civilization here received from +contact with the white man, building by his own energy happy homes for +himself and his kinsmen, and enjoying the blessings of a great +government of his own, in his own great continent! + +Africa with its vast resources is a prize that all Europe is now +contending for. It is believed to be adapted even to white men. Most +assuredly, for the negro Liberia offered far better opportunities than +did the rocky coast of New England to the white men who settled it. +Liberia had been carefully selected as a desirable part of Africa. It +was an unequalled group of statesmen and philanthropists that had +planted the colony; they provided for it and set it on its feet. But it +failed; failed just for the same reason that prevented the aboriginal +African from catching on to the civilization that began to develop +thousands of years ago, close by his side on the borders of the +Mediterranean; failed for the same reason that Hayti, now free for a +century, has failed. The failure of the plan of the American +Colonization Society to repatriate the American negro in Africa was due +_primarily to the incapacity of the negro_. + +A very complete and convincing story will be found in an article +entitled "Liberia, an Example of Negro Self-Government,"[75] by Miss +Agnes P. Mahony, for five years a missionary in that country. The author +of the article was a sympathizing friend. She says: "In 1847 the colony +was considered healthy enough to stand alone.... So our flag was lowered +on the African continent, and the protectors of the colony retired, +leaving the people to govern the country in their own way." Then she +recites that in order to test their capacity for self-government their +constitution (1847) provided that no white man should hold property in +the country; and to this Miss Mahony traces the failure that followed. +When she wrote, the Liberian negroes, for fifty-nine years under the +protectorship of the United States, had been troubled by no foreign +enemy; yet their failure was complete--not a foot of railroad, no cable +communication with foreign countries, no telegraphic communication with +the interior, etc. Still the devoted missionary thinks that Liberia +might prosper, if it could but have "_the encouraging example of and +contact with the right kind of white men_." + + [75] _Independent_, 1906. + + * * * * * + +The presidential campaign of 1860 was very exciting. There were four +tickets in the field, Douglas and Johnson, Democrats; Breckenridge and +Lane, Democrats; Lincoln and Hamlin, Republicans, and Bell and Everett +representing the "Constitutional Union" party. As the election +approached it became apparent that the Republicans were leading, and +far-seeing men, like Samuel J. Tilden, of New York, became much alarmed +for fear that the election of Lincoln would bring about secession in the +South. Mr. Tilden, in view of the danger that to him was apparent, +wrote, shortly before the election, to William Kent, of New York City, +an open letter in which he earnestly urged a combination in New York +State of the supporters of other candidates, in order to defeat Abraham +Lincoln. The letter was so alarming that some of Tilden's friends +thought he had lost his balance; but now that letter is regarded as a +remarkable proof of his sagacity. In the first volume of Mr. Tilden's +"Life and Letters," by Bigelow, appears an "Appreciation" by James C. +Carter and an analysis of this letter. Of this the following is a brief +abstract: Mr. Tilden first argued that two strictly sectional parties, +arrayed upon the question of destroying an institution which one of +them, not unnaturally, regarded as essential to self-existence, would +bring war. + +Then Mr. Tilden further said that if the Republican party should be +successful in establishing its dominion over the South, the national +government in the Southern States would cease to be self-government and +become a government of one people over a distinct people, a thing +impossible with our race, except as a consequence of a successful war, +and even then incompatible with our democratic institutions. He also +said: "I assert that a controversy between powerful communities, +organized into governments, of a nature like that which now divides the +North and South, can be settled only by convention or by war." + +And again: "A condition of parties in which the Federative Government +shall be carried on by a party, having no affiliations in the Southern +States, is impossible to continue. Such a government would be out of all +relations to those States. It would have neither the nerves of +sensation, which convey intelligence to the intellect of the body +politic, nor the ligaments and muscles, which hold its parts together +and move them in harmony. It would be in substance the government of one +people by another people. That system will not do for our race." + +Mr. Tilden, when he spoke of "two sectional parties arrayed upon the +question of destroying an institution," _viz._, slavery, saw the +situation exactly as the South did. To prove that the Republican party +was looking to the ultimate destruction of the institution, Mr. Tilden +cited the leadership of Chase and his speeches in which he was +propounding the higher law theory; asserting that the conflict was +"irrepressible"; suggesting the power of the North to amend the +Constitution, etc. + +The South noted this, and it regarded, not the platform, but the record +of the Republican party and of the statesmen the party was following. + +Long before 1860, that great American scholar, George Ticknor, saw the +dilemma in which the North was involving itself by its concern over +slavery in the South, and he thus stated it, in a letter to his friend, +William Ellery Channing, April 30, 1842:[76] + + [76] Life and Letters and Journals of George Ticknor. + +"On the subject of our relations with the South and its slavery, we +must--as I have always thought--do one of two things; either keep +honestly the bargain of the Constitution as it shall be interpreted by +the authorities--of which the Supreme Court of the United States is the +chief and safest--or declare honestly that we can no longer in our +conscience consent to keep it, and break it." + +The North had failed to "keep honestly the bargain of the Constitution" +by faithfully delivering fugitive slaves and leaving the question of +slavery to be dealt with by the States in which it existed, and was now, +in 1860, upon the other horn of the dilemma--repudiating and denouncing +a decision of the Supreme Court, which, as Mr. Ticknor had said, was the +"chief and safest authority." But during that campaign of 1860 very +many, perhaps a majority of the Republican voters, failed to realize +what their party was standing for. Indeed, down to this day the members +of that organization, taught as they have been, indignantly deny that a +vote for Lincoln and Hamlin in 1860 looked to an interference with +slavery in the States. + +But now Professor Emerson David Fite, of Yale University, sees in 1911 +what was the underlying hope, and consequently the ultimate aim, of the +Republican party in 1860, exactly as the South saw it then. In a +powerful summing up of more evidence than there is room to recite here, +he says: "The testimony of the Democracy and of the leaders of the +Republican party accords well with the evidence of daily events in +_revealing Republican aggression_. _The party hoped to destroy slavery, +and this was something new in a large political organization._"[77] + + [77] "The Presidential Campaign of 1860," p. 195, Fite, 1911. + +That this party, when it should ultimately come into full power, would, +to carry out the purpose which Professor Fite now sees, ignore the +Federal Constitution was, in 1860, evident to Southerners from the +following facts: + +In 1841 the governor of Virginia demanded of the governor of New York +the extradition of two men indicted in Virginia for enticing away slaves +from their masters. Governor Seward, of New York, refused the demand, on +the ground that no such offence existed in New York. This case did not +go to the courts, but in 1860 the governor of Kentucky made a similar +demand in a like case on the governor of Ohio, who placed his refusal on +the same grounds as had Governor Seward in the former case. The Supreme +Court of the United States in this case decided that the governor of +Ohio, in refusing to deliver up the fugitive, was violating the +Constitution. The court further said: + +"If the governor of Ohio refuses to _discharge this duty there is no +power delegated to the general government_, either through the judicial +department or any other department, to use any coercive means to compel +him."[78] + + [78] "Virginia's Attitude on Slavery and Secession," Mumford, pp. + 211-12. + +If these two governors had defied the Federal Constitution, so had +eleven State legislatures. From 1854 to 1860, inclusive, Vermont, Rhode +Island, Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, Michigan, Wisconsin, Kansas, +Ohio, and Pennsylvania, had all passed new "personal liberty laws" to +abrogate the new fugitive slave law of 1850. + +Of these laws Professor Alexander Johnston said: + +"There is absolutely no excuse for the personal liberty laws. If the +rendition of fugitive slaves was a federal obligation, the personal +liberty laws were flat disobedience to the law; if the obligation was +upon the States, they were a gross breach of good faith, for they were +intended and operated to prevent rendition; and, in either case, they +were in violation of the Constitution."[79] + + [79] Alexander Johnston, "Lalor's Encyclopædia," vol. III, p. 163. + +And now came the State of Wisconsin. Its Supreme Court intervened and +took from the hands of the federal authorities an alleged fugitive +slave. The Supreme Court of the United States reversed the case and +ordered the slave back into the custody of the United States +marshal;[80] and thereupon the General Assembly of Wisconsin expressly +repudiated the authority of the United States Supreme Court. The +Wisconsin assembly asserted its right to nullify the Federal law, basing +its action on the Kentucky Resolutions of 1798--a recrudescence of a +doctrine long since abandoned even in the South. + + [80] Ableman _v._ Booth, 21 How. + +In reality all this defiance of the Constitution of the United States by +State executives, State legislatures, and a State court, was on the +ground that whatever was dictated by conscience to these officials was a +"higher law than the Constitution of the United States"; and modern +historians recognize, as Tilden did, the leadership of the statesman who +in 1850 announced that startling doctrine. It is Alexander Johnston who +says, "Seward's speeches in the Senate made him the leader of the +Republican party from its first organization."[81] + + [81] Alexander Johnston, "Lalor's Encyclopædia," vol. III, p. 707. + +To the minds of Southerners it seemed clear that _if the Southern States +desired to preserve for themselves the Constitution of the fathers, they +must secede and set it up over a government of their own_. This eleven +of these States did. Many of them were reluctant to take the step; all +their people had loved the old Union, but they passed their ordinances +of secession, united as the Confederate States of America, and their +officials took an oath to maintain inviolate the old Constitution, +which, with unimportant changes in it, they had adopted. + +The new government sent delegates to ask that the separation should be +peaceful. The application was denied and the war followed. Attempts to +secede were made in Kentucky and Missouri. In neither of these States +did the seceders get full control. They were represented, however, in +the Confederate Congress by senators and representatives elected by the +troops from those States that were serving in the Confederate army. + + + + +CHAPTER IX + +FOUR YEARS OF WAR + + +The bitter fruits of anti-slavery agitation were secession and four +years of bloody war. The Federal Government waged war to coerce the +seceding States to remain in the Union. With the North it was a war for +the Union; the South was fighting for independence--denominated by +Northern writers as "the Civil War." It was in reality a war between the +eleven States which had seceded, as autonomous States, and were fighting +for independence, as the Confederate States of America, against the +other twenty-two States, which, as the United States of America, fought +against secession and for the Union of all the States. It is true the +States remaining in the Union had with them the army and the navy and +the old government, but that government could not, and did not, exercise +its functions within the borders of the seceded States until by force of +arms in the war that was now waged it had conquered a control. It was a +war between the States for such control; for independence on the one +hand, and for the Union on the other. It was not, save in exceptional +cases, a war between neighbor and neighbor; it was a war between States +as entities, and therefore not properly a civil war. The result of the +war did not change the principles upon which it was fought, though it +did decide finally the issues that were involved, the right of secession +primarily, and slavery incidentally. + +Jefferson Davis, afterward the much-loved President of the Confederacy, +in his farewell speech in the United States Senate, March 21, 1861, thus +stated the case of the South: "Then, senators, we recur to the compact +which binds us together. We recur to the principles upon which this +government was founded, and _when you deny them_, and when you deny to +us the right to withdraw from a Union which thus perverted _threatens to +be destructive of our rights, we but tread in the path of our fathers +when we proclaim our independence and take the hazard_. This is done not +in hostility to others, not to injure any section of our country, _not +even for our own pecuniary benefit, but from the high and solemn motive +of defending and protecting the rights we inherited and which it is our +duty to transmit unshorn to our children_." + +Southerners were, as Mr. Davis understood it, treading in the path of +their fathers when they proclaimed their independence and fought for the +right of self-government. + +Professor Fite, of Yale, justifies secession on the following ground: + +"In the last analysis the one complete justification of secession was +the necessity of saving the vast property of slavery from destruction; +secession was a commercial necessity designed to make those billions +secure from outside interference. Viewed in this light, secession was +right, for any people, prompted by the commonest motives of self-defence +and with no moral scruples against slavery, would have followed the same +course. The present generation of Northerners, born and reared after the +war, must shake off their inherited political passions and prejudices +and pronounce the verdict of justification for the South. Believing +slavery to be right, it was the duty of the South to defend it. It is +time that the words 'traitors,' 'conspirators,' 'rebels,' and +'rebellion' be discarded."[82] + + [82] "The Presidential Campaign of 1860," Emerson David Fite, 1911, + introductory chapter. + +These words of Professor Fite will waken a responsive echo in the hearts +of Southerners, but Southerners place, and their fathers planted, +themselves on higher ground than commercial considerations. The +Confederates were defending their inherited right of local +self-government and the Federal Constitution that secured it. It was for +these rights that, as Mr. Davis had said, they were willing to _follow +the path their fathers trod_. + +The preservation of the Union the North was fighting for, was a noble +motive; it looked to the future greatness and glory of the republic; but +devotion to the Union had been a growth, the product largely of a single +generation; the devotion of the South to the right of local +self-government was an older and deeper conviction; it had been bred in +the bone for three generations; it dated from Bunker Hill and Valley +Forge and Yorktown. Close as the non-slave-holders of the South were to +the slave-holders, of the same British stock, and with the same +traditions, blood kinsmen as they were, they might not have been willing +to dare all and do all for the protection of property in which they were +not interested; but they were ready to, and they did, wage a death +struggle to maintain against a hostile sectional majority, their +inherited right to govern themselves in their own way. Added to this was +the ever-present conviction of Southerners all, that they were battling +not only for the supremacy of their race but for the preservation of +their homes. There was a little ditty quite prevalent in the Army of +Northern Virginia, of which nothing is now remembered except the +refrain, but that of itself speaks volumes. It ran: + + "Do you belong to the rebel band + Fighting for your home?" + +Northerners had, most of them, convinced themselves that the South would +never dare to secede. The danger of servile insurrections, if nothing +else, would prevent it.[83] Many Southerners, on the other hand, could +not see how, under the Constitution, the North could venture on coercion. + + [83] See Fite, "Campaign of 1860," passim, and especially speech of + Schurz, p. 244 _et seq._ + +But to the South the greatest surprise furnished by the events of that +era has been Abraham Lincoln--as he appears now in the light of history. +What, in the minds of Southerners, fixed his status personally, during +the canvass of 1860, was the statement he had made in his speech at +Chicago, preliminary to his great debate with Douglas in 1858, that the +Union could not "continue to exist half slave and half free." And he was +now the candidate of the "Black Republican" party, a party that was +denouncing a decision of the Supreme Court; that, in nearly every State +in the North, had nullified the fugitive slave law, and that stood for +"negro equality," as the South termed it. + +There were other statements by Mr. Lincoln in that debate with Douglas +that the South has had especial reason to take note of since the period +of Reconstruction. At Springfield, Illinois, September 18, 1858, he +said: "There is a physical difference between the white and black races +which, I believe, will forever forbid the two races living together on +terms of social and political equality, and, _inasmuch as they can not +so live, while they do live together there must be the position of +superior and inferior; and I, as much as any other man, am in favor of +having that position assigned to the white man_." + +The new Confederacy took the Constitution of the United States, so +modified as to make it read plainly as Jefferson had expounded it in the +Kentucky Resolutions of 1798. Other changes were slight. The +presidential term was extended to six years and the President was not to +be re-eligible. The slave trade was prohibited and Congress was +authorized to forbid the introduction of slaves from the old Union. + +Abraham Lincoln became President, with a fixed resolve to preserve the +Union but with no intent to abolish slavery. Had the war for the Union +been as successful as he hoped it would be, slavery would not have been +abolished by any act of his. It is clear that, when inaugurated, he had +not changed his opinions expressed at Springfield, nor those others, +which, at Peoria, Illinois, on October 16, 1854, he had stated thus: +"When our Southern brethren tell us they are no more responsible for +slavery than we are, I acknowledge the fact. When it is said the +institution exists and it is very difficult to get rid of it in any +satisfactory way, I can understand and appreciate the saying. I will +surely not blame them for not doing what I should not know how to do +myself. If all earthly power were given me, I should not know what to do +as to the institution. My first impulse would be to free all the slaves +and send them to Liberia, their native land." + +This, he said, it was impracticable to do, at least suddenly, and then +proceeded: "To free them all and keep them among us as underlings--is it +quite certain that this would better their condition?... What next? Free +them and make them politically and socially our equals?" This question +he answered in the negative, and continued: "It does seem to me that +systems of gradual emancipation might be adopted, but for their +tardiness I will not undertake to judge our brethren of the South." + +In these extracts from his speeches we find a central thread that runs +through the history of his whole administration. We see it again when, +pressed by extremists, Mr. Lincoln said in an open letter to Horace +Greeley, August 22, 1862: "My paramount object in this struggle is to +save the Union, and it is not either to save or to destroy slavery. If I +could save the Union without freeing any slave I would do it; and if I +could save it by freeing all the slaves I would do it; and if I could +save it by freeing some and leaving others alone, I would also do that." + +Indeed, Congress had, in 1861, by joint resolution declared that the +sole purpose of the war was the preservation of the Union. In no other +way, and for no other purpose, could the North at that time have been +induced to wage war against the South. + +Abraham Lincoln, the President of the United States, and Jefferson +Davis, the President of the Confederate States, were both Kentuckians by +birth, both Americans. In the purity of their lives, public and private, +in patriotic devotion to the preservation of American institutions as +understood by each of them, they were alike; but they represented +different phases of American thought, and each was the creature more or +less of his environment. Both were men of commanding ability, but the +destiny of each was shaped by agencies that now seem to have been +directed by the hand of Fate. Mr. Lincoln, by nature a political genius, +was carried to Illinois when a child, reared in the North-west among +those to whom, with the Mississippi River as their only outlet to the +markets of the world, disunion, with its loss of their highway to the +sea, was unthinkable. Lincoln became a Whig, with the Union of the +States the passion of his life, and finally, by forces he had not +himself put in motion, he was placed at the head of the Federal +Government at a time when sectionalism had decided that the question of +the permanence of the Union was to be tried out, once and forever. + +Mr. Davis went from Kentucky further South. He was a Democrat, and +environment also moulded his opinions. During the long sectional +controversy between the North and the South, "State-rights" became the +passion of his life, and when the clash between the sections came, he +found himself, without his seeking, at the head of the Confederacy. He +had been prominent among the Southerners at Washington, who had hoped +that the South, by threats of secession, might obtain its rights in the +Union, as had been done in Jefferson's days by New England. In the +movement (1860-61) that resulted in secession, the people at home had +been ahead of their congressmen. William L. Yancey, then in Alabama, not +Jefferson Davis at Washington, was the actual leader of the +secessionists. Mr. Davis feared a long and bloody war and, unlike +Yancey, he had doubts as to its result.[84] + + [84] Mrs. Chestnut, wife of the Confederate general, James Chestnut, + writes in her "Diary from Dixie," under date of 1861, at Montgomery, + Alabama, then the Confederate capital: "In Mrs. Davis's drawing-room + last night, the President took a seat by me on the sofa where I sat. He + talked for nearly an hour. He laughed at our faith in our own powers. We + are like the British. We think every Southerner equal to three Yankees + at least. We will have to be equivalent to a dozen now. After his + experience of the fighting qualities of Southerners in Mexico, he + believes that we will do all that can be done by pluck and muscle, + endurance and dogged courage, dash, and red-hot patriotism. And yet his + tone was not sanguine. _There was a sad refrain running through it all._ + For one thing, either way, he thinks it will be a long war. That floored + me at once. It has been too long for me already. Then he said, before + the end came we would have many bitter experiences. He said only fools + doubted the courage of the Yankees, or their willingness to fight when + they saw fit. And now that we have stung their pride, we have roused + them till they will fight like devils." + +Mr. Lincoln, standing for the Union, succeeded in the war, but just as +he was on the threshold of his great work of Reconstruction he fell, +the victim of a crazy assassin. Martyrdom to his cause has naturally +added some cubits to the just measure of his wonderful reputation. + +Jefferson Davis and his cause failed; and the triumphant forces that +swept the Confederacy out of existence have long (and quite naturally) +sought to bury the cause of the South and its chosen leader in ignominy. +But the days of hate and passion are past; reason is reasserting her +sway; and history will do justice to both the Confederacy and its great +leader, whose ability, patriotism, and courage were conspicuous to the +end. + +Mr. Davis was also a martyr--his long imprisonment, the manacles he +wore, the sentinel gazing on him in the bright light that day and night +disturbed his rest; the heroism with which he endured all this, and the +quiet dignity of his after life--these have doubly endeared his memory +to those for whose cause he suffered. + +Mr. Lincoln had remarkable political tact--he seemed to know how long to +wait and when to act, and, if we may credit Mr. Welles,[85] his +inflexibly honest Secretary of the Navy, he was, with the members of his +cabinet, wonderfully patient and even long-suffering. And although he +was the subject of much abuse, especially at the hands of Southerners +who then totally misunderstood him, he was animated always by the +philosophy of his own famous words, "With malice towards none, with +charity for all." Never for one moment did he forget, amidst even the +bitterest of his trials, that the Confederates, then in arms against +him, were, as he regarded them, his misguided fellow-citizens; and the +supreme purpose of his life was to bring them back into the Union, not +as conquered foes, but as happy and contented citizens of the great +republic. + + [85] "Diary of Gideon Welles," 3 vols., passim. + +The resources of the Confederacy and the United States were very +unequal. The Confederacy had no army, no navy, no factories, save here +and there a flour mill or cotton factory, and practically no machine +shops that could furnish engines for its railroads. It had one cannon +foundry. The Tredegar Iron Works, at Richmond, Virginia, was a fully +equipped cannon foundry. The Confederacy's arms and munitions of war +were not sufficient to supply the troops that volunteered during the +first six months of military operations. Its further supplies, except +such as the Tredegar works furnished, depended on importations through +the blockade soon to be established and such as might be captured. + +The North had the army and navy, factories of every description, food in +abundance, and free access to the ports of the world. + +The population of the North was 22,339,978. + +The population of the South was 9,103,332, of which 3,653,870 were +colored. The total white male population of the Confederacy, of all +ages, was 2,799,818. + +The reports of the Adjutant-General of the United States, November 9, +1880, show 2,859,132 men mustered into the service of the United States +in 1861-65. General Marcus J. Wright, of the United States War Records +Office, in his latest estimate of Confederate enlistments, places the +outside number at 700,000. The estimate of Colonel Henderson, of the +staff of the British army, in his "Life of Stonewall Jackson," is +900,000. Colonel Thomas J. Livermore, of Boston, estimates the +number of Confederates at about 1,000,000, and insists that in the +Adjutant-General's reports of the Union enlistments there are errors +that would bring down the number of Union soldiers to about 2,000,000. +Colonel Livermore's estimates are earnestly combated by Confederate +writers. + +General Charles Francis Adams has, in a recently published volume,[86] +cited figures given mostly by different Confederate authorities, which +aggregate 1,052,000 Confederate enlistments. What authority these +Confederate writers have relied on is not clear. The enlistments were +for the most part directly in the Confederate army and not through State +officials. The captured Confederate records should furnish the highest +evidence. But it is earnestly insisted that these records are +incomplete, and there is no purpose here to discuss a disputed point. + + [86] "Studies, Military and Diplomatic," p. 282 _et seq._ These studies + make a volume of rare historic value. + +The call to arms was answered enthusiastically in both sections, but +the South was more united in its convictions, and practically all her +young manhood fell into line, the rich and the poor, the cultured and +uncultured serving in the ranks side by side. + +The devotion of the noble women of the North, and of its humanitarian +associations, to the welfare of the Federal soldiers was remarkable, but +there was nothing in the situation in that section that could evoke such +a wonderful exhibition of heroism and self-sacrifice as was exhibited by +the devoted women of the South, who made willingly every possible +sacrifice to the cause of the Confederacy. + +Both sides fought bravely. Excluding from the Union armies negroes, +foreigners, and the descendants of recent immigrants, the Confederates +and the Union soldiers were mainly of British stock. The Confederates +had some notable advantages. Excepting a few Union regiments from the +West, the Southerners were better shots and better horsemen, especially +in the beginning of the war, than the Northerners; and the Southerners +were fighting not only for the Constitution of their fathers and the +defence of their homes, but for the supremacy of their race. They had +also another military advantage, that would probably have been decisive +but for the United States navy: they had interior lines of communication +which would have enabled them to readily concentrate their forces. But +the United States navy, hovering around their coast-line, not only +neutralized but turned this advantage into a weakness, thus compelling +the Confederates to scatter their armies. Every port had to be guarded. + +In the West the Federals were almost uniformly successful in the greater +battles, the Confederates winning in these but two decisive victories, +Chickamauga and Sabine Cross Roads, in Louisiana. Estimating, according +to the method of military experts, the percentage of losses of the +victor only, Chickamauga was the bloodiest battle of the world, from and +including Waterloo down to the present time. Gettysburg and Sharpsburg +also rank as high in losses as any battle fought elsewhere in this long +period, which takes in the Franco-German and the Russo-Japanese wars. At +Sharpsburg or Antietam the losses exceeded those in any other one day's +battle.[87] + + [87] According to that standard work, E. P. Alexander's "Memoirs," pp. + 244, 245, and 274, the Confederates, who stood their ground at + Sharpsburg on the day of battle and the day after, lost in killed and + wounded thirty-two per cent. The French army at Waterloo entirely + dissolved, with a loss in killed and wounded of only thirty-one per + cent. (See figures in Henderson's "Stonewall Jackson.") + +The Confederates were successful, excepting Antietam or Sharpsburg and +Gettysburg, and perhaps Seven Pines or Fair Oaks, in all the great +battles in the East, down to the time when the shattered remnant of +Lee's army was overwhelmed at Petersburg and surrendered at Appomattox. +The _élan_ the Southerners acquired in the many victories they won +fighting for their homes is not to be overlooked. But the failure of the +North with its overwhelming numbers and resources, to overcome the +resistance of the half-famished Confederates until nearly four years had +elapsed, can only be fully accounted for, in fairness to the undoubted +courage of the Union armies, by the fact, on which foreign military +critics are agreed, that the North had no such generals as Lee and +Stonewall Jackson. Only by the superior generalship of their leaders +could the Confederates have won as many battles as they did against +vastly superior numbers. + +But against the United States navy the brilliant generalship of the +Confederates and their marvellous courage were powerless. + +Accepted histories of the war have been written largely by the army and +its friends, and, strangely enough, the general historians have been so +attracted by the gallantry displayed in great land battles, and the +immediate results, that they have utterly failed to appreciate the +services of the United States navy. + +The Southerners accomplished remarkable results with torpedoes with the +_Merrimac_ or _Virginia_ and their little fleet of commerce destroyers; +but the United States navy, by its effective blockade, starved the +Confederacy to death. The Southern government could not market its +cotton, nor could it import or manufacture enough military supplies. +Among its extremest needs were rails and rolling stock to refit its +lines of communication. For want of transportation it was unable to +concentrate its armies, and for the same reason its troops were not half +fed. + +In addition to its services on the blockade, which, in Lord Wolseley's +opinion, decided the war, the navy, with General Grant's help, cut the +Confederacy in twain by way of the Mississippi. It penetrated every +Southern river, severing Confederate communications and destroying +depots of supplies. It assisted in the capture, early in the war, of +Forts Henry and Donelson, and it conducted Union troops along the +Tennessee River into east Tennessee and north Alabama. It furnished +objective points and supplies at Savannah, Charleston, and Wilmington, +to Sherman on his march from Atlanta; and finally Grant, the great Union +general, who had failed to reach Richmond by way of the Wilderness, +Spottsylvania, and Cold Harbor, achieved success only when the navy was +at his back, holding his base, while he laid a nine months' siege to +Petersburg. + +That distinguished author, Charles Francis Adams, himself a Union +general in the Army of the Potomac, says that the United States navy was +the deciding factor in the Civil War. He even says that every single +successful operation of the Union forces "hinged and depended on naval +supremacy." + +The following is from the preface to "The Crisis of the Confederacy," in +which, published in 1905, a foreign expert, Captain Cecil Battine, of +the King's Hussars, condenses all that needs further to be said here +about the purely military side of the Civil War: + + The history of the American Civil War still remains the most + important theme for the student and the statesman because it was + waged between adversaries of the highest intelligence and courage, + who fought by land and sea over an enormous area with every device + within the reach of human ingenuity, and who had to create every + organization needed for the purpose after the struggle had begun. + The admiration which the valor of the Confederate soldiers, + fighting against superior numbers and resources, excited in Europe; + the dazzling genius of some of the Confederate generals, and in + some measure jealousy at the power of the United States, have + ranged the sympathies of the world during the war and ever since to + a large degree on the side of the vanquished. Justice has hardly + been done to the armies which arose time and again from sanguinary + repulses, and from disasters more demoralizing than any repulse in + the field, because they were caused by political and military + incapacity in high places, to redeem which the soldiers freely shed + their blood as it seemed in vain. If the heroic endurance of the + Southern people and the fiery valor of the Southern armies thrill + us to-day with wonder and admiration, the stubborn tenacity and + courage which succeeded in preserving intact the heritage of the + American nation, and which triumphed over foes so formidable, are + not less worthy of praise and imitation. The Americans still hold + the world's record for hard fighting. + +The great majority of the Union soldiers enlisted for the preservation +of the Union and not for the abolition of slavery. But among these +soldiers there was an abolition element, and very soon the tramp of +federal regiments was keeping time to + + "John Brown's body lies a mouldering in the ground, + As we go marching on." + +Early in the war Generals Frémont and Butler issued orders declaring +free the slaves within the Union lines; these orders President Lincoln +rescinded. But Abolition sentiment was growing in the army and at the +North, and the pressure upon the President to strike at slavery was +increasing. The Union forces were suffering repeated defeats; slaves at +home were growing food crops and caring for the families of Confederates +who were fighting at the front, and in September, 1862, President +Lincoln issued his preliminary proclamation of emancipation, basing it +on the ground of military necessity. It was to become effective January +1, 1863. + +And here was the same Lincoln who had declared in 1858 his opinion that +whites and blacks could not live together as equals, socially and +politically; and it was the very same Lincoln who had repeatedly said he +cherished no ill-will against his Southern brethren. If the slaves were +to be freed, they and the whites should not be left together. He +therefore _sought diligently to find some home for the freedmen in a +foreign country_. But unfortunately, as already seen, the American +negro, a bone of contention at home, was now a pariah to other peoples. +Most nations welcome immigrants, but no country was willing to shelter +the American freedman, save only Liberia, long before a proven failure, +and Hayti, where, under the blacks, anarchy had already been chronic for +half a century. Hume tells us, in "The Abolitionists," that for a time +Mr. Lincoln even considered setting Texas apart as a home for the negro. + +Later the surrender of the Confederate armies, together with the +adoption of the Thirteenth Amendment to the Constitution, consummated +emancipation, foreseeing which President Lincoln formulated his plan of +Reconstruction. Suffrage in the reconstructed States under his plan was +to be limited to those who were qualified to vote at the date of +secession, which meant the whites. The sole exception he ever made to +this rule was a suggestion to Governor Hahn, of Louisiana, that it might +be well for the whites (of Louisiana) to give the ballot to a few of the +most intelligent of the negroes and to such as had served in the army. + +The part the soldiers played, Federal and Confederate, in restoring the +Union, is a short story. The clash between them settled without reserve +the only question that was really in issue--secession; slavery, that had +been the origin of sectional dissensions, was eliminated because it +obstructed the success of the Union armies. By their gallantry in battle +and conduct toward each other the men in blue and the men in gray +restored between the North and the South the mutual respect that had +been lost in the bitterness of sectional strife, and without which +there could be no fraternal Union. + +Mr. Gladstone, when the war was on, said that the North was endeavoring +to "propagate free institutions at the point of the sword." The North +was not seeking to propagate in the South any new institution whatever. +Mr. Gladstone's paradox loses its point because both sections were +fighting for the preservation of the same system of government. + +The time has now happily come when, to use the language of Senator Hoar, +as Americans, we can, North and South, discuss the causes that brought +about our terrible war "in a friendly and quiet spirit, without +recrimination and without heat, each understanding the other, each +striving to help the other, as men who are bearing a common burden and +looking forward with a common hope." + +The country, it is believed, has already reached the conclusions that +the South was absolutely honest in maintaining the right of secession +and absolutely unswerving in its devotion to its ideas of the +Constitution, and that the North was equally honest and patriotic in +its fidelity to the Union. We need to advance one step further. Somebody +was to blame for starting a quarrel between brethren who were dwelling +together in amity. If Americans can agree in fixing that blame, the +knowledge thus acquired should help them to avoid such troubles +hereafter. + +It seems to be a fair conclusion that the _initial cause of all our +troubles was the formation by Garrison of those Abolition societies_ +which the Boston people in their resolutions of August 1, 1835, +"disapproved of" and described as "associations instituted in the +non-slave-holding States, with the intent to act, within the +slave-holding States, on the subject of slavery in those States, without +their consent." And further, that it was the creation of these +societies, the methods they resorted to, and their explicit defiance of +the Constitution that roused the fears and passions of the South and +caused that section to take up the quarrel that, afterward became +sectional; and that, after much hot dispute and many regrettable +incidents, North and South, resulted in secession and war. + +In every dispute about slavery prior to 1831, the Constitution was +always regarded by every disputant as supreme. _The quarrel that was +fatal to the peace of the Union began when the New Abolitionists put in +the new claim, that slavery in the South was the concern of the North, +as well as of the South, and that there was a higher law than the +Constitution. If the conscience of the individual, instead of human law, +is to prescribe rules of conduct, society is at the mercy of anarchists. +Czolgosz was conscientious when he murdered McKinley._ + +Had all Americans continued to agree, after 1831, as they did before +that time, that the Constitution of the United States was the supreme +law of the land, there would have been no fatal sectional quarrel, no +secession, and no war between the North and South. + + * * * * * + +The immediate surrender everywhere of the Confederates in obedience to +the orders of their generals was an imposing spectacle. There was no +guerilla warfare. The Confederates accepted their defeat in good faith +and have ever since been absolutely loyal to the United States +Government, but they have never changed their minds as to the justice of +the cause they fought for. They fought for liberty regulated by law, and +against the idea that there can be, under our system, any higher law +than the Constitution of our country. That the Constitution should +always be the supreme law of the land, they still believe, and the +philosophic student of past and current history should be gratified to +see the tenacity with which Southern people still cling to that idea. It +suggests that not only will the Southerners be always ready to stand for +our country against a foreign foe, but that whenever our institutions +shall be assailed, as they will often be hereafter by visionaries who +are impatient of restraints, the cause of liberty, regulated by law, +will find staunch defenders in the Southern section of our country. + + + + +CHAPTER X + +RECONSTRUCTION, LINCOLN-JOHNSON PLAN AND CONGRESSIONAL. + + +President Lincoln's theory was that acts of secession were void, and +that when the seceded States came back into the Union those who were +entitled to vote, by the laws existing at the date of the attempted +secession, and had been pardoned, should have, and should control, the +right of suffrage. Mr. Lincoln had acted on this theory in Tennessee, +Louisiana, and Texas, and he further advised Congress, in his message of +December, 1863, that this was his plan. Congress, after a long debate, +responded in July, 1864, by an act claiming for itself power over +Reconstruction. The President answered by a pocket veto, and after that +veto Mr. Lincoln was, in November, 1864, re-elected on a platform +extolling his "practical wisdom," etc. Congress, during the session that +began in December, 1864, did not attempt to reassert its authority but +adjourned, March 4, 1865, in sight of the collapse of the Confederacy, +leaving the President an open field for his declared policy. + +But unhappily, on the 14th of April, 1865, Mr. Lincoln was assassinated, +and his death just at this time was the most appalling calamity that +ever befell the American people. The blow fell chiefly upon the South, +and it was the South the assassin had thought to benefit. + +Had the great statesman lived he might, and it is fully believed he +would, like Washington, have achieved a double success. Washington, +successful in war, was successful in guiding his country through the +first eight stormy years of its existence under a new constitution. +Lincoln had guided the country through four years of war, and the Union +was now safe. With Lee's surrender the war was practically at an end. + +Gideon Welles says that on the 10th of April, 1865, Mr. Lincoln, "while +I was with him at the White House, was informed that his fellow-citizens +would call to congratulate him on the fall of Richmond and surrender of +Lee; but he requested their visit should be delayed that he might have +time to put his thoughts on paper, for he desired that his utterances on +such an occasion should be deliberate and not liable to misapprehension, +misinterpretation, or misconstruction. He therefore addressed the people +on the following evening, Tuesday the 11th, in a carefully prepared +speech intended to promote harmony and union. + +"In this remarkable speech, delivered three days before his +assassination, he stated he had prepared a plan for the reinauguration +of the sectional authority and reconstruction in 1863, which would be +acceptable to the executive government, and that every member of the +cabinet fully approved the plan," etc.[88] + + [88] Gideon Welles in an essay, "Lincoln and Johnson," _The Galaxy_, + April, 1872. + +In view of his death three days later, this, his last and deliberate +public utterance, may be regarded as Abraham Lincoln's will, devising as +a legacy to his countrymen his plan of reconstruction. That plan in the +hands of his successor was defeated by a partisan and radical Congress. +That it was a wise plan the world now knows. + +Senator John Sherman, of Ohio, was one of the most influential of those +who succeeded in defeating it, and yet he lived to say, in his book +published in 1895,[89] Andrew Johnson "adopted substantially the plan +proposed and acted on by Mr. Lincoln. After this long lapse of time I am +convinced that Mr. Johnson's scheme of reorganization was wise and +judicious. It was unfortunate that it had not the sanction of Congress +and that events soon brought the President and Congress into hostility." + + [89] "John Sherman's Recollections," vol. I, p. 361. + +And the present senator, Shelby Cullom, of Illinois, who as a member of +the House of Representatives voted to overthrow the Lincoln-Johnson plan +of Reconstruction, has furnished us further testimony. He says in his +book, published in 1911:[90] + + [90] "Fifty Years of Public Service," Cullom, p. 146. + +"To express it in a word, the motive of the opposition to the Johnson +plan of Reconstruction was a firm conviction that its success would +wreck the Republican party and, by restoring the Democracy to power, +bring back Southern supremacy and Northern vassalage." + +The Republican party, then dominant in Congress, felt when confronting +Reconstruction that it was facing a crisis in its existence. The +Democratic party, unitedly opposed to negro suffrage, was still in +Northern States a power to be reckoned with. Allied with the Southern +whites, that old party might again control the government unless, by +giving the negro the ballot, the Republicans could gain, as Senator +Sumner said, the "allies it needed." But the masses at the North were +opposed to negro suffrage, and only two or three State constitutions +sanctioned it. Indeed, it may be safely said that when Congress convened +in December, 1865, a majority of the people of the North were ready to +follow Johnson and approve the Lincoln plan of Reconstruction. But the +extremists in both branches of the Congress had already determined to +defeat the plan and to give the ballot to the ex-slave. To prepare the +mind of the Northern people for their programme, they had resolved to +rekindle the passions of the war, which were now smouldering, and +utilize all the machinery, military and civilian, that Congress could +make effective. + +Andrew Johnson,[91] who as vice-president now succeeded to the +presidency, though a man of ability, had little personal influence and +none of Lincoln's tact. Johnson retained Lincoln's cabinet, and +McCullough, who was Secretary of the Treasury under both presidents, +says in his "Men and Measures of Half a Century," p. 378: + + [91] The final estimate of Gideon Welles, Secretary of the Navy under + both Lincoln and Johnson, is this: "He (Johnson) has been faithful to + the Constitution, although his administrative capabilities and + management may not equal some of his predecessors. Of measures he was a + good judge but not always of men."--"Diary of Gideon Welles," vol. III, + p. 556. + +"The very same instrument for restoring the national authority over +North Carolina and placing her where she stood before her secession, +which had been approved by Mr. Lincoln, was, by Mr. Stanton, presented +at the first cabinet which was held at the executive mansion after Mr. +Lincoln's death, and, having been carefully considered at two or three +meetings, was adopted as the Reconstruction policy of the +administration." + +Johnson carried out this plan. All the eleven seceding States repealed +their ordinances of secession. Their voters, from which class many +leaders had been excluded by the presidential proclamation, all took +the oath of allegiance, and reconstructed their State governments. From +most of the reconstructed States, senators and representatives were in +Washington asking to be seated when Congress convened, December 4, 1865. + +The presidential plan of Reconstruction had been promptly accepted by +the people of the prostrate States. Almost without exception they had, +when permitted, taken the oath and returned to their allegiance. + +The wretchedness of these people in the spring of 1865 was +indescribable. The labor system on which they depended for most of their +money-producing crops was destroyed. Including the disabled, twenty per +cent of the whites, who would now have been bread-winners, were gone. +The credit system had been universal, and credit was gone. Banks were +bankrupt. Confederate currency and bonds were worthless. Provisions were +scarce and money even scarcer. Many landholders had not even plough +stock with which to make a crop. + +There was some cotton, however, that had escaped the ravages of war, and +a large part of this also escaped the rapacious United States agents, +who were seizing it as Confederate property. This cotton was a godsend. +There was another supply of money that came from an unexpected source. +The old anti-slavery controversy had made it seem perfectly clear to +many moneyed men, North, that free labor was always superior to slave +labor; and now, when cotton was bringing a good price, enterprising men +carried their money, altogether some hundreds of thousands of dollars, +into the several cotton States, to buy plantations and make cotton with +free negro labor. Free negro labor was not a success. Those who had +reckoned on it lost their money; but this money went into circulation +and was helpful. + +Above all else loomed the negro problem. Five millions of whites and +three and a half millions of blacks were to live together. Thomas +Jefferson had said, "Nothing is more certainly written in the Book of +Fate than that these people are to be free; _nor is it less certain that +the two races, equally free, cannot live in the same government_. +_Nature, habit, opinion have drawn indelible lines between them._"[92] +And it may truly be said of Jefferson that he was, as quite recently he +was declared to be by Dr. Schurman, President of Cornell University, the +"apostle of reason, and reason alone." + + [92] "Jefferson's Works," vol. I, p. 48. + +What system of laws could Southern conventions and legislatures frame, +that would enable them to accomplish what Jefferson had declared was +impossible? This was the question before these bodies when called +together in 1865-66 by Johnson to rehabilitate their States. Two dangers +confronted them. One was, armed bands of negroes, headed by returning +negro soldiers. Mr. Lincoln had feared this. Early in April of that very +year, 1865, he said to General Butler: "I can hardly believe that the +South and North can live in peace unless we can get rid of the negroes, +whom we have armed and disciplined, and who have fought with us, to the +amount, I believe, of one hundred and fifty thousand." Mississippi, and +perhaps one other State, to guard against the danger from this source, +enacted that negroes were only to bear arms when licensed. This law was +to be fiercely attacked. + +The other chief danger was that idleness among the negroes would lead to +crime. It soon became apparent that the negro idea was that freedom +meant freedom from work. They would not work steadily, even for their +Northern friends, who were offering ready money for labor in their +cotton fields, and multitudes were loitering in towns and around +Freedmen's Bureau offices. Nothing seemed better than the old-time +remedies, apprenticeship and vagrancy laws, then found in every body of +British or American statutes. These laws Southern legislatures copied, +with what appeared to be necessary modifications, and these laws were +soon assailed as evidence of an intent to reduce the negro again to +slavery. Mr. James G. Blaine, in his "Twenty Years," selected the +Alabama statutes for his attack. In the writer's book, "Why the Solid +South," pp. 31-36, the Alabama statutes cited by Mr. Blaine are shown to +be very similar to and largely copied from the statutes of Vermont, +Massachusetts, and Rhode Island. + +Had Mr. Lincoln been living he would have sympathized with these +Southern law-makers in their difficult task. But to the radicals in +Congress nothing could have been satisfactory that did not give Mr. +Sumner's party the "allies it needed." + +The first important step of the Congress that convened December 4, 1865, +was to refuse admission to the congressmen from the States reconstructed +under the Lincoln-Johnson plan, and pass a joint resolution for the +appointment of a Committee of Fifteen to inquire into conditions in +those States. + +The temper of that Congress may be gauged by the following extract from +the speech of Mr. Shellabarger, of Ohio, on the passage of the joint +resolution: + +"They framed iniquity and universal murder into law.... Their pirates +burned your unarmed commerce on the sea. They carved the bones of your +dead heroes into ornaments, and drank from goblets made out of their +skulls. They poisoned your fountains; put mines under your soldiers' +prisons; organized bands, whose leaders were concealed in your homes; +and commissions ordered the torch and yellow fever to be carried to your +cities and to your women and children. They planned one universal +bonfire of the North from Lake Ontario to the Missouri," etc. + +Congress, while refusing admission to senators elected by the +legislatures of the reconstructed States, was permitting these very +bodies to pass on amendments to the Federal Constitution; and such votes +were counted. Congress now proposed the Fourteenth Amendment, Section +III of which provided that no person should hold office under the United +States who, having taken an oath, as a Federal or State officer, to +support the Constitution, had subsequently engaged in the war against +the Union. The Southerners would not vote for a provision that would +disfranchise their leaders; they refused to ratify the Fourteenth +Amendment, and this helped further to inflame the radicals of the North. + +After the Committee of Fifteen had been appointed, Congress proceeded to +put the reconstructed States under military control. In the debate on +the measure, February 18, 1867, James A. Garfield, who was, at a later +date, to become generous and conservative, said exultingly: "This bill +sets out by laying its hands on the rebel governments and taking the +very breath of life out of them; in the next place, it puts the bayonet +at the breast of every rebel in the South; in the next place, it leaves +in the hands of Congress utterly and absolutely the work of +Reconstruction." + +And Congress did its work. Lincoln was in his grave, and Johnson, even +with his vetoes, was powerless. By the acts of March 2 and March 23, +1867, the reconstructed governments were swept away. Universal suffrage +was given to the negro and most of the prominent whites were +disfranchised. + +The first suffrage bill was for the District of Columbia, during the +debate on which Senator Sumner said: "Now, to my mind, nothing is +clearer than the absolute necessity of suffrage for all colored persons +in the disorganized States. It will not be enough, if you give it to +those who can read and write; you will not in this way acquire the +voting force you need there for the protection of Unionists, whether +white or black. You will not acquire the new allies who are essential to +the national cause." + +In the forty-first Congress, beginning March 4, 1871, the twelve +reconstructed States, including West Virginia, were represented by +twenty-two Republicans and two Democrats in the Senate, and forty-eight +Republicans and twelve Democrats in the House of Representatives. + +Mr. Sumner's "new allies" were ready to answer to the roll-call. + + * * * * * + +When Congress had convened in December, 1865, its radical leaders were +already bent on universal suffrage for the negro, but the Northern mind +was not yet prepared for so radical a measure. The "Committee of +Fifteen" was the first step in the programme, which was to hold the +Southern States out of the Union and make an appeal to the passions and +prejudices of Northern voters in the congressional elections of +November, 1866. Valuable material for the coming campaign was already +being furnished by the agents of the Freedmen's Bureau. These +"adventurers, broken down preachers, and politicians," as Senator +Fessenden, of Maine, called them, were, and had been for some time, +reporting "outrages," swearing negroes into midnight leagues, and +selecting the offices they hoped to fill. + +But the chief source of the material relied upon in the congressional +campaign of 1866 to exasperate the North, and prod voters to the point +of sanctioning negro suffrage in the South, was the official information +from the Committee of Fifteen. Its subcommittee of three, to take +testimony as to Virginia, North and South Carolina, Georgia, Alabama, +Mississippi, and Arkansas, were _all Republicans_. The doings of this +subcommittee in Alabama illustrate their methods. Only five persons, who +claimed to be citizens, were examined. These were all Republican +politicians. The testimony of each was bitterly partisan. "Under the +government of the State as it then existed, no one of these witnesses +could hope for official preferment. When this Reconstruction plan had +been completed the first of these five witnesses became governor of his +State; the second became a senator in Congress; the third secured a life +position in one of the departments in Washington; the fourth became a +circuit judge in Alabama, and the fifth a judge of the Supreme Court of +the District of Columbia--all as Republicans. There was no Democrat in +the subcommittee which examined these gentlemen, to cross-examine them; +and not a citizen of Alabama was called before that subcommittee to +confute or explain their evidence."[93] + + [93] "Why the Solid South," p. 20. + +With the material gathered by these means and from these sources, the +honest voters of the North were deluded into the election of a Congress +that went to Washington, in December, 1866, armed with authority to pass +the Reconstruction laws of March, 1867. + +Southern counsels were now much divided. Many good men, like Governor +Brown, of Georgia; General Longstreet and ex-Senator Albert Gallatin +Brown, of Mississippi, advised acquiescence and assistance, "not because +we approve the policy of Reconstruction, but because it is the best we +can do." These advisers hoped that good men, well known to the negroes, +might control them for the country's good; and zealous efforts were made +along this line in every State, but they were futile. The blacks had +already, before they got the suffrage, accepted the leadership of those +claiming to be the "men who had freed them." These leaders were not only +bureau agents but army camp-followers; and there was still another +brood, who espied from afar a political Eden in the prostrate States +and forthwith journeyed to it. All these Northern adventurers were +called "carpet-baggers"--they carried their worldly goods in their +hand-bags. The Southerners who entered into a joint-stock business with +them became "scalawags." These people mustered the negroes into leagues, +and everywhere whispered it into their ears that the aim of the Southern +whites was to reënslave them. + +Politics in the South in the days before the war had always been more or +less intense, partly because there were so many who had leisure, and +partly because the general rule was joint political discussions. The +seams that had divided Whigs and Democrats, Secessionists and Union men, +had not been entirely closed up, even by the melting fires of the Civil +War. Old feuds for a time played their part in Southern politics, even +after March, 1867. These old feuds made it difficult for Southern whites +to get together as a race; and, in fact, conservative men dreaded the +idea. It tended toward an actual race war which, for many years, had +been a nightmare; but in every reconstructed State the negro and his +allies finally forced the race issue. + +The new rulers not only increased taxes and misappropriated the revenues +of counties, cities, and States; they bartered away the credit of State +after State. Some of the States, after they were redeemed, scaled their +debts by compromising with creditors; others have struggled along with +their increased burdens. + +There were hundreds of negro policemen, constables, justices of the +peace, and legislators who could not write their names. Justice was in +many localities a farce. Ex-slaves became judges, representatives in +Congress, and United States senators. The eleven Confederate States had +been divided into military districts. Many of the officers and men who +were scattered over the country to uphold negro rule sympathized with +the whites and evidenced their sympathy in various ways. Others, either +because they were radicals at heart, or to commend themselves to their +superiors, who were some of them aspiring to political places, were +super-serviceable; and it was not uncommon for a military officer, in a +case where a negro was a party, to order a judge to leave the bench and +himself take the place. In communities where negro majorities were +overwhelming there were usually two factions, and when political +campaigns were on agents for these clans often scoured the fields clear +of laborers to recruit their marching bands. In cities these bands made +night hideous with shouts and the noise of fifes and drums. The negro +would tolerate no defection from his ranks to the whites, and negro +women were more intolerant than the men. It sometimes happened that a +bloody clash between the races was imminent when white men sought to +protect a negro who had dared to speak in favor of the Democratic and +Conservative party. In truth, the civilization of the South was being +changed from white to negroid. + +The final triumph of good government in all the States was at last +accomplished by accepting the race issue, as in Alabama in 1874. The +first resolution in the platform of the "Democratic and Conservative +party" in that State then was, "The radical and dominant faction of the +Republican party in this State persistently, and by fraudulent +representations, have inflamed the passions and prejudices of the +negroes, as a race, against the white people, and have thereby made it +necessary for the white people to unite and act together in self-defence +and for the preservation of white civilization." + +The people of North Carolina recovered the right of self-government in +1870. Other States followed from time to time, the last two being +Louisiana and South Carolina in 1877. + +Edwin L. Godkin, who was for long at the head of the _Nation_ and the +_Evening Post_, of New York, is thought by some competent judges to have +been the ablest editor this country has ever had. After the last of the +negro governments set up in the South had passed away, looking back over +the whole bad business, Mr. Godkin, in a letter to his friend Charles +Eliot Norton, written from Sweet Springs, West Virginia, September 3, +1877, said: "I do not see in short how the negro is ever to be worked +into a system of government for which you and I could have much +respect."[94] + + [94] Ogden's "Life and Letters of Edwin Lawrence Godkin," vol. II, p. + 114. + +Garrison is dead. At the centenary of his birth, December 12, 1904, an +effort was made to arouse enthusiasm. There was only a feeble response; +but we still have extremists. Professor Josiah Royce, of Harvard, in +"Race Questions" (1906), speaking of race antipathies as "trained +hatred," says, pp. 48-49: "We can remember that they are childish +phenomena in our lives, phenomena on a level with the dread of snakes or +of mice, phenomena that we share with the cats and with the dogs, not +noble phenomena, but caprices of our complex nature." + + + + +CHAPTER XI + +THE SOUTH UNDER SELF-GOVERNMENT + + +For now more than thirty years, whites and blacks, both free, have lived +together in the reconstructed States. In some of them there have been +local clashes, but in none of them has there been race war, predicted by +Jefferson and feared by Lincoln; and there probably never will be such a +war, unless it shall come through the intervention of such an outside +force as produced in the South the conflict between the races at the +polls in 1868-76. + +Every State government set up under the plan of Congress had wrought +ruin, and the ruin was always more complete where the negroes were most +numerous, as in South Carolina and Louisiana. + +The rule of the carpet-bagger and the negro was now superseded by +governments based on Abraham Lincoln's idea, the idea he expressed in +the debate with Douglas in 1858, when he said: "While they [the two +races] do remain together _there must be the position of inferior and +superior_, and I, as much as any other man, _am in favor of having the +superior position assigned to the white man_." + +Conducted on this basis, the present governments in the reconstructed +States have endured now for periods varying from thirty-six to forty-two +years, and in every State, without any exception, the prosperity of both +whites and blacks has been wonderful, and this in spite of the still +existent abnormal animosities engendered by congressional +reconstruction. + +In the present State governments the race problem seems to have reached, +in its larger lines, its only practicable solution. There is still, +however, much friction between whites and blacks. Higher culture among +the masses, especially of the dominant race, and wise leadership in both +races, will in time minimize this, but it is not to be expected, nor is +it ever to be desired, that racial antipathies should entirely cease to +exist. The result of such cessation would be amalgamation, a solution +that American whites will never tolerate. + +Deportation, as a solution of the negro problem, is impracticable. Mr. +Lincoln, much as he desired the separation of the races, could not +accomplish it, even when he had all the war power of the government in +his hands. He was, as we have seen, unable to find a country that would +take the 3,500,000 of blacks then in the seceded States. Now, there are +in the South, including Delaware, according to the census of 1910, +8,749,390, and, quite naturally, the American negro is more unwilling +than ever to leave America. + +Another solution sometimes suggested in the South is the repeal of the +Fifteenth Amendment, which declares that the negro shall not be deprived +of the ballot because of his race, but agitation for this would appear +to be worse than useless. + +The negro vote in the reconstructed States is, and has for years been, +quite small, not large enough to be considered a factor in any of them. +One cause of this is that the whites enforce against the blacks rigidly +the tests required by law, but the chief reason is, that the negro, who +is qualified, does not often apply for registration. He finds work now +more profitable than voting. He can not, he knows, control, nor can he, +if disposed to do so, sell his ballot as he once did. One of the most +signal and durable evils of Congressional Reconstruction was the utter +debasement of the suffrage in eleven States where the ballot had +formerly been notably pure. Gideon Welles saw clearly when he said in +his diary, June 23, 1867 (p. 102, vol. III): "Under the pretence of +elevating the negro the radicals are degrading the whites and debasing +the elective franchise, bringing elections into contempt." During the +rule of the negro and the alien, in every black county, where the negro +majority was as two to one, there were, as a rule, two Republican +candidates for every fat office, and an election meant, for the negro, a +golden harvest. Rival candidates were mercilessly fleeced by their black +constituencies, and the belief South is that as a rule the +carpet-baggers, in their hegira, returned North as poor as when they +came. + +In the Reconstruction era the whites fought fraud with fraud; and even +after recovering control they, the whites, felt justified in continuing +to defraud the negro of his vote. To restore the purity of the +ballot-box was the chief reason for the amendments to State +constitutions, by means of which amendments, having in view the +limitations of the Federal Constitution, as many negroes and as few +whites as was practicable were excluded. + +This accounts in part for the smallness of the negro vote South. A more +potent reason is that the Democratic party, dominated by whites, selects +its candidates in primaries; and the negro, seeing no chance to win, +does not care to pay a poll tax or otherwise qualify for registration. + +Southern whites have now for more than three decades been governing the +blacks in their midst. It is the most difficult task that has ever been +undertaken in all the history of popular government, but sad experience +has demonstrated that legal restriction of the negro vote in the South +there must be. + +Party spirit tends always to blind the vision, and, as we have seen in +this review of the past, it often stifles conscience; and this even +where the masses of the people are approximately homogeneous. Southern +statesmen are now dealing not only with party spirit, but with +perpetual race friction manifesting itself in various forms. Failure +there must be in minor matters and in certain localities; the progress +that has been made can only be fairly estimated by considering general +results. Those who sympathize with the South think they see there among +the whites a growing spirit of altruism, begotten of responsibility, and +this promises much for the amelioration of race friction. + +Since obtaining control of their State governments the whites in the +Southern States have as a rule increased appropriations for common +schools by at least four hundred per cent, and though paying themselves +by far the greater proportion of these taxes, they have continued to +divide revenues pro rata between the white and colored schools. + +Industrial results have been amazing. The following figures, taken from +the Annual Blue Book, 1911 edition, of the _Manufacturers' Record_, +Baltimore, Maryland, include West Virginia among the reconstructed +States. + +The population of these States was, in 1880, 13,608,703; in 1910, +23,613,533. + +Manufacturing capital, 1880, $147,156,624. In 1900--twenty years--it was +$1,019,056,200. + +Cotton crop, whole South, 1880, 5,761,252 bales. In 1911 it was about +15,000,000. + +Of this cotton crop Southern mills took, in 1880, 321,337 bales, and in +1910, 2,344,343 bales. + +In 1880 the twelve reconstructed States cut, of lumber, board measure, +2,981,274,000 feet; and in 1909 22,445,000,000 feet. + +Their output of pig-iron was, in 1880, 264,991 long tons; in 1910, +3,048,000 tons. The assessed value of taxable property was, in 1880, +$2,106,971,271; in 1910, $6,522,195,139. + +The negro, though the white man, with his superior energy and capacity, +far outstrips him, has shared in this material prosperity. His property +in these States has been estimated as high as $500,000,000. + +During the last decade, 1900-1910, the white population of the South +increased by 24.4 per cent, while the negro population in the same +States increased only 10.4 per cent. There has been a very considerable +gain of whites over blacks since 1880, the result largely of a greater +natural increase of whites over blacks, immigrants not counted. All +this indicates that the negro problem is gradually being minimized. + +Taken in the aggregate, the shortcomings of the negro are numerous and +regrettable, but not greater than was to be expected. The general +advance of an inferior race will never equal that of one which is +superior by nature and already centuries ahead. The laggard and +thriftless among the inferior people will naturally be more, and it is +from these classes that prison houses are filled. + +There is a very considerable class of negroes who are improving mentally +and morally, but improvidence is a characteristic of the race, and very +many of them, even though they labor more or less steadily, will never +accumulate. The third class, much larger than among the whites, is +composed of those who are idle, dissipated, and criminal. Taken +altogether, however, what Booker Washington says is true: "There cannot +be found, in the civilized or uncivilized world, a like number of +negroes whose economic, educational, and religious life is so far +advanced as that of the ten millions within this country."[95] This +advancement is one of the results of slavery. When the negroes come to +recognize this, as some of their leaders already do,[96] and come to +appreciate the advantages for further improvement they have had since +their emancipation, they will cease to repine over the bondage of their +ancestors. There were undoubtedly evils in slavery, but, after all, +there was some reason in the advice given by the good Spanish Bishop Las +Casas to the King of Spain--that it would be rightful to enslave and +thus Christianize and civilize the African savage. Herbert Spencer, +"Illustrations of Universal Progress" (p. 444), says: "Hateful though it +is to us, and injurious as it would be now, slavery was once beneficial, +was one of the _necessary phases of human progress_." + + [95] Pickett, pp. 399-400. + + [96] "The Negro Problem," Pickett, 1909, pp. 399-400. + +Sir Harry Johnston, African explorer and student of the negro race, in +both the old and the new world, and perhaps the most eminent authority +on a question he has, in a fashion, made his own, says: "Intellectually, +and perhaps physically, he (the negro) has attained the highest degree +of advancement as yet in the United States."[97] + + [97] "The Negro in the New World," Sir Harry Johnston, p. 478. + +"In Alabama (most of all) the American negro is seen at his best, as +peasant, peasant proprietor, artisan, professional man, and member of +society."[98] + + [98] _Ib._, p. 470. + +Race animosities are now abnormal, both South and North. The prime +reasons for this are two: + +1. The bitter conflict during reconstruction for race supremacy and the +false hopes once held out to the negro of ultimate social equality with +the whites. Among the early measures of congressional reconstruction was +a "civil rights" enactment which the negroes regarded as giving to them +all the rights of the white man. Their Supreme Court in Alabama decided, +in "Burns vs. The State," that the "civil rights" laws conferred the +right to intermarriage. Negroes, North, no doubt also believed in this +construction. But the Supreme Court of the United States later held that +the States, and not Congress, had jurisdiction over the marriage +relation within the States. All the Southern and a number of the +Northern States have since forbidden the intermarriage of whites and +blacks, and so the negro's hopes of equal rights in this regard have +vanished. + +This disappointment and his utter failure to secure the social equality +that once seemed his, have tended to embitter the negro against the +white man. + +2. Whites have been embittered against blacks by the frequency in later +years of the crime of the negro against white women. This horrible +offence began to be common in the South some thirty-two or three years +since, or perhaps a little earlier, and somewhat later it appeared in +the North, where it seems to have been as common, negro population +considered, as in the South. The crime was almost invariably followed by +lynching, which, however, was not always for the same crime. The +following is the list of lynchings in the sections, as kept by the +_Chicago Tribune_ since it began to compile them: + +1885 184 + +1886 138 + +1887 122 + +1888 142 + +1889 176 + +1890 127 + +1891 192 + +1892 205 + +1893 200 + +1894 190 + +1895 171 + +1896 181 + +1897 166 + +1898 127 + +1899 107 + +1900 107 + +1901 185 + +1902 96 + +1903 104 + +1904 87 + +1905 66 + +1906 66 + +1907 68 + +1908 100 + +1909 87 + +1910 74 + +The general decrease, while population is increasing, is encouraging; +but lynching itself is a horrible crime; and lynching for one crime +begets lynching for another. Of the total number lynched last year, nine +were whites; sixty-five were negroes, among them three women; and only +twenty-two were for crimes of negroes against white women. The other +crimes were murder, attempts to murder, robbery, arson, etc. + +Census returns indicate that in the country at large the criminality of +the negro, as compared with that of the white man, is nearly three times +greater, and that the ratio of negro criminality is much higher North +than South. Such returns also indicate that so far education has not +lessened negro criminality,[99] but it is not known that any +well-educated negro has been guilty of the crime against white women. + + [99] "The Negro Problem," William Pickett, pp. 136-38. Rare Traits, + etc., of the Negro, Statistician, Prudential Ins. Co. of America, p. 219 + _et seq._ + +In the South the negro is excluded from many occupations for which the +best of them are fitted, but in the North his industrial conditions are +worse. Fewer occupations are open to him and the wisest members of his +race are counselling him to remain in the more favorable industrial +atmosphere of the South. + +The dislike of negroes for whites has been increased South by the laws +which separate them from whites in schools, public conveyances, etc. But +it is to be remembered that these laws were intended to prevent +intermarriage; they are in part the result of race antipathies. But the +sound reason for them is that they tend to prevent intimacies which, at +the points where the races are in closest touch with each other, might +result in intermarriage. Professor E. D. Cope, of the University of +Pennsylvania, one of the very highest of American authorities on the +race question, in a powerful article published in 1890,[100] advocated +the deportation of the negroes from the South, no matter at what cost. +Otherwise he predicted eventual amalgamation, which would be the +destruction of a large portion of the finest race in the world. + + [100] "Two Perils of the Indo-European," _The Open Court_, January 23, + 1890, p. 2052. + + * * * * * + +This little study now comes to a close. An effort has been made to +sketch briefly in this chapter the difficulties the South has +encountered in dealing with the negro problem, and to outline the +measure of success it has achieved. However imperfectly the author may +have performed his task, it must be clear to the reader that no such +problem as the present was ever before presented to a self-governing +people. Never was there so much need of that culture from which alone +can come a high sense of duty to others. The negro must be encouraged to +be self-helpful and useful to the community. If he is to do all this and +remain a separate race, he must have leadership among his own people. In +the Mississippi Black Belt there is now a town of some 4,000 negroes, +Mound Bayou, completely organized and prospering. It may be that in the +future negroes seeking among themselves the amenities of life may +congregate into communities of their own, cultivating adjacent lands, as +the French do in their agricultural villages. Wherever they may be, +they must practise the civic virtues, honesty, and obedience to law. W. +H. Councill, a negro teacher, of Huntsville, Alabama, said some years +since in a magazine article: "When the gray-haired veterans who followed +Lee and Jackson pass away, the negro will have lost his best friends." +This is true, but it is hoped that time and culture, while not producing +social equality, will allay race animosities and bring the negro other +friends to take the place of the departing veterans. + +The white man, with his pride of race, must more and more be made to +feel that _noblesse oblige_. His sense of duty to others must measure up +to his responsibilities and opportunities. He must accord to the negro +all his rights under the laws as they exist. + +The South is exerting itself to better its common schools, but it cannot +compete in this regard with the North. Northern philanthropists are +quite properly contributing to education in the South. They should +consider well the needs of both races. Any attempt to give to the +negroes advantages superior to those of the whites, who are now +treating the negro fairly in this respect, might look like another +attempt to put, in negro language, "the bottom rail on top." + +Looking over the whole field covered by this sketch, it is wonderful to +note how the chain of causation stretches back into the past. +Reconstruction was a result of the war; secession and war resulted from +a movement in the North, in 1831, against conditions then existing in +the South. The negro, the cause of the old quarrel between the sections, +is located now much as he was then. How full of lessons, for both the +South and the North, is the history of the last eighty years! + +There is even a chord that connects the burning of a negro at +Coatesville, Pennsylvania, by an excited mob on the 13th of August, +1911, with the burning of the Federal Constitution at Framingham, +Massachusetts, by that other excited mob of madmen, under Garrison, on +the fourth day of July, 1854. One body of outlaws was defying the laws +of Pennsylvania; the other was defying the fundamental laws of the +nation. + + + + +INDEX + + + Abolitionists, mobbed, 71; + burn U. S. Constitution, 72; + private lives of leaders irreproachable, 89; + become factor in national politics; Boston captured by; + "slave-catchers" now mobbed; national election turns on + vote, 95-6; + anti-slavery in Faneuil Hall, 97; + election again turns on vote of, 99; + impartial observer on influence of, 105; + Professor Smith on, 106 + + Abolition petitions in Congress, influence of, 102 + + Abolition societies, in 1840, 93 + + Adams, John Quincy, becomes champion of Abolitionists, 90; + defends right of petition, 91 + + Alien and Sedition laws, 1798, 18; + nature of, 19 + + Americans, world's record for hard fighting, 201 + + Andrews, Prof. E. A., slavery conditions South, 79 + + Anti-slavery people and Abolitionists grouped, 104; + Douglas charged "Black Republican" party with favoring "negro + citizenship and negro equality," 167 + + Aristocracy in South, 159, 160, 161 + + Articles of Confederation, 15 + + Author, antecedents, explanation of, 10-11 + + Author's conclusions, 242-3-4 + + + Biglow Papers, 97-8 + + Birney, James G., mobbed, 87 + + Boston meeting, Dr. Hart overlooks, 73 + + Boston Resolutions, 64 + + Burke, Edmund, on conciliation, 109; + spirit of liberty in slave-holding communities, 158 + + + Calhoun, John C., prophecy of, 167-8 + + Cause of sectional conflict, Abolition societies and their methods, 205 + + Channing, Dr. Wm. E., encomium on Great Britain, 39; + letter to Webster, 47; + opinion of Abolitionists, 87; + his change, 88 + + Characters and careers, of Abraham Lincoln and Jefferson Davis, 188-192 + + Churches, North and South, opposition to slavery; a stupendous + change, 67; + "whole cloth arrayed against" Garrison, 68; + Southern churches still defend slavery; Northern changed; Methodist + church disrupted, 70 + + Coatesville lynching, 224 + + Colonies, juxtaposed, not united, 15 + + Colonization Society, origin of and purposes, 44; + its supporters, 45; + making progress; Abolitionists halted it, 46 + + Compromise of 1850; excitement in Congress, 106; + great leaders in; Webster on 7th of March, 107; + Clay's speech, 112; + new fugitive slave law gave offence, 128 + + Confederate States with old Constitution--changes slight, 186 + + Constitution, Alien and Sedition Laws first palpable infringement, 3; + powers conferred by discussed, 16; + as supreme law Southerners still cling to, 207 + + Cope, Prof. E. D., advocated deportation to prevent amalgamation, 241 + + Cotton gin, accepted theory as to denied, 12 + + Courage of, and losses in, both armies, 195 + + Criminality, of negroes greater than of whites, 240 + + Cromwell and the Great Revolution, analogy to, 8 + + Curtis, George Ticknor, quotation from "Life of Buchanan," 14 + + + Davis, Jefferson, farewell speech, 181; + doubts about success--sadness, 190 + + Democrats, North, opposed negro suffrage, 212 + + Deportation, no country ready to take negro, 82 + + Disunion, project among Federalist leaders, 1803-4, 25; + sentiment in Congress, 1794, 24 + + + Emancipation, easy North; difficult South, 40; + Federal government, no power over, 41; + status North in 1830, 52 + + Emancipations, South, what accomplished in 1831, 50; + census tables, 51 + + Embargo of 1807, why repealed, 26 + + Emerson, Ralph Waldo, eulogizes John Brown, 15 + + Everett, Edward, denunciation of John Brown expedition, 152 + + Extradition, refused, of abductors of slaves, Supreme Court + powerless, 176 + + + Federalists, construed Constitution liberally, 17 + + Fite, Professor at Yale, declares Republicans in 1860 hoped to destroy + slavery, 175; + justification of secession, 182 + + Freedman's Bureau, its composition, 221 + + Free speech, Channing defends Abolitionists as champions of, 87; + John Quincy Adams becomes advocate, 90 + + Fugitive slave law, North not opposing in 1828, 53; + Missouri Compromise provided for, 54 + + + Garrison, William Lloyd, began _Liberator_; personality and + characteristics, 56; + key-note, slavery the concern of all; slave-holders to be made + odious, 58 + + Godkin, E. L., on negro as factor in politics, 237 + + Greeley, Horace, draws comfort from John Brown's raid, 153 + + + Hartford Convention, 28 + + Helper, Hinton Rowan, his book, 165 + + Higher law idea, prompted Abolition Crusade--and Czolgosz to murder + McKinley, 206 + + + Immigration and Union sentiment; number of immigrants, 33; + few South, 34 + + Incendiary literature, sent South, 62; + North aroused; Andrew Jackson's message, 63; + Boston Resolutions, 64; + indictment in Alabama; requisition on Governor of New York, 98 + + Incompatibility of slavery and freedom; Lincoln's Springfield + speech, 81; + Garrison first to announce doctrine; Abraham Lincoln next; + then Seward, 147-8 + + Insurrections, Denmark Vesey plot at Charleston, 59; + Nat Turner in Virginia; Walker's pamphlet, 60 + + Irish patriots, Mitchel and Meagher, divide on secession, 35 + + + John Brown's raid, 149; + his secret committee, 151 + + Johnson, Andrew, succeeding Lincoln, carried out plan, 213 + + Johnston, Sir Harry, on negro in South, highest degree of + advancement, 237 + + + Kansas, fierce struggles in; Sumner's bitter speech, 142-3 + + Kansas-Nebraska Act, Douglas originated, 135; + aggravated sectionalism, 136 + + Kentucky Resolutions, 1798, 19; + Jefferson the author, 20; + copy of first of, 21 + + Kentucky and Virginia Resolutions of 1798-9; + Secessionists relied on, 21; + Jefferson and Madison's reasons for, 22 + + Know-Nothing party, its origin; purposes; appeal for the Union, + 140-1-2 + + + Las Casas, Bishop, advice to King of Spain, 237 + + Liberia, sending negroes to, called "expatriation"; enterprise a + failure, 46; + Lincoln's hopes of, 81; + why it failed--Miss Mahoney's account, 169-70-71 + + Lincoln, South no more responsible for slavery than North, 49; + speech at Charleston, Ill., 81; + finds no country ready to take American negro, 82; + South in 1860 thought him radical; had favored white supremacy + in 1858, 185; + speech at Peoria, 186; + assassination of, 209 + + Lodge, Henry Cabot, declares popular verdict against Webster, 118; + he had undertaken the impossible, 120; + his argument good, he not man to make it, 121 + + Lundy, Benjamin, attempts to stir up North against slavery South, 47 + + Lynchings, tables, 239; + comments on, 240 + + + McMaster, affirms Webster behind the times (note), 100 + + Missouri, controversy over slavery, 52; + distinct from that begun later by "New Abolitionists," 53 + + Mobs, Garrison mobbed; many anti-slavery riots North, 71; + violence toward Abolitionists in North reacted, 85; + opponents became defenders, 86 + + Mound Bayou, a negro town, 242 + + + Nationality, spirit of; causes of, development of, 30; + grows, North; South on old lines, 35 + + Navy, U. S., deciding factor in war, 198-9 + + Negro, the, located now much as in 1860, 7; + Lincoln could find no home abroad for, 206; + reasons for smallness of vote South, 233; + improvement; Booker Washington's opinion, 236; + benefited by slavery; attained South highest degree of + advancement, 237; + best opportunities South, 241; + Confederate veterans best friends there, 243 + + + Ohio, Resolutions looking to co-operative emancipation; responses + of other States to, 42; + Southern reason for, 43; + Northern, kindly temper of, 44 + + Otis, Harrison Gray, on Boston Resolutions, 65 + + + Pamphlets, venomous one cited, 75 + + Personal liberty laws, eleven States passed; Alexander Johnston + says absolutely without excuse, 177 + + Petition, right of, in Congress, 90; + "gag resolution," 92 + + Political conditions, North and South compared, 162-3-4 + + "Poor whites," discussion of, and of social conditions South, 155-6-7 + + Presidential campaign 1860, excitement, 171 + + Press, Northern slandering South, 153; + Southern slandering North, 154 + + + Race animosities, negro's aspirations to social equality; legal + enactments, 238; + whites embittered by crime against white women, 239 + + Reagan, "Republican rule on Abolition principles," 105 + + Reconstruction, Lincoln's theory; veto of resolution asserting power + of Congress over, 208; + last speech, adhering to plan, 210 + + Reconstruction by Johnson under Lincoln plan; wisdom of Lincoln-Johnson + plan, John Sherman; opposition to it partisan, Senator Cullom, 211; + South accepts plan; senators and representatives, 214; + negro problem and Jefferson's prediction, 215; + apprenticeship and vagrancy laws, Blaine's attack on, 217 + + Reconstruction, Congressional, extremists bent on negro suffrage when + Congress convened in 1865, 212; + preparations for; committee of fifteen; Shellabarger's appeal to war + passions, 215; + South denied representation; Southerners reject Fourteenth Amendment; + Garfield denounces rebel government, 219; + Johnson's reconstructed State governments swept away; universal + suffrage for negro; South sends Republicans to Congress, 220; + witnesses before "Committee of Fifteen" rewarded; Southern counsels + divided, 223; + carpet-baggers and scalawags, 224; + intolerable political conditions; race issue forced upon whites, 226; + whites recover self-government, 227 + + Republican party, the modern; its origin; Mr. Rhodes on, 138-139; + nominates Frémont and Dayton; denounces slavery; excitement; + defeated, 144 + + Resources, war, North and South compared, 191-2-3 + + + Salem Church monument, 9 + + Santo Domingo, memory of massacre in, 80 + + Seceded States, wretched conditions in 1865, 214 + + Seceding States, desire to preserve Constitution, 179 + + Secession, early threats of not connected with slavery, 26; + Josiah Quincy threatens, 1811; Massachusetts legislature endorses + him, 28; + in early days belief in general, 28; + Massachusetts legislature threatens, 1844, 29; + eleven States seceded, 179; + Prof. Fite justifies, his ground, 182; + motives for in 1860-1, 183 + + Self-government restored; local clashes, no race war; based on Lincoln's + idea, superiority of white man, 229; + constitutional amendments to restore purity of ballot, 233; + industrial results amazing, 234-5; + negro vote small--reasons, 231 + + Seward, leader of Republican party, 178 + + Situation in Alabama in 1835--letter of John W. Womack, 79 + + Slavery, Great Britain abolishes, compensates owners, 39; + South's "calamity not crime," 48; + debate in Virginia Assembly, 61 + + Slaves, protect masters' families during war, 132-3; + a surprise to North, 133-4 + + Slave-trade, New England's part in, 37; + South protests against; sentiment against arises in England, sweeps + over America, 38 + + Social conditions South, 155-60 + + South unwilling to accept idea of incompatibility of slave and free + States, 94-5; + bitterness in, 101; + on defensive-aggressive, 126; + excited; filibustering; importation of slaves, 145 + + Spencer, Herbert, slavery once a necessary phase of human progress, 237 + + Sprague, Peleg, on Boston Resolutions, 66 + + Suffrage, Lincoln thought Southerners themselves should control, 203 + + Sumner, Charles, philippic against South; Brooks's attack on, 143-4; + negro suffrage to give "Unionists" new allies, 220 + + + Texas, application for admission, 93; + Channing threatens secession if admitted, 94 + + Tilden, Samuel J., letter to Kent, secession inevitable if Lincoln + elected, 172-3-4 + + + Underground railroads, Professor Hart's picture of, 103 + + Union, the, Webster's great speech for in 1830, 31; + effect of, 32 + + Union sentiment South; Whigs, 34 + + "Uncle Tom's Cabin," influence on Northern sentiment, 129-133 + + + War, the, nature of, 180 + + Washington, a Federalist, 18; + his appeal for Union, 30 + + Webster, on 7th of March, 107; + his sole concession, 111; + condemns personal liberty laws and Abolitionists, 115; + congratulated and denounced, 117; + "Ichabod," 119; + Rhodes's estimate of, 122; + his speech for "The Constitution and the Union"; Wilkinson's estimate + of, 122; + E. P. Wheeler's estimate of, 125; + Webster's opinion of Abolitionists and Free-soilers, 126 + + Welles, Gideon, opinion in 1867 as to debasing elective franchise, 232 + + Whites, South, fought fraud with fraud during Reconstruction, till + Constitution amended continued it, 232; + difficulties of their task, 233; + growing spirit of altruism; school taxes divided pro rata, 234 + + Wilmot proviso, 111 + + Wisconsin nullifies fugitive slave law, 178 + + Women, devotion of during war, North and South, 195 + + + + + * * * * * + + + + +Transcriber's note: + +Page 49: 'Prior to the rise of the Abolitionists in 1831, +emancipationists in the South had been free to grapple with conditions +as they found them.' + +The words "in the" have been supplied by the transcriber. + +Hyphenation is inconsistent. + +Obvious printer's errors have been corrected. + +Index reference to Johnston, Sir Harry: the transcriber has changed +page 257 to read 237. + + + +***END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE ABOLITION CRUSADE AND ITS +CONSEQUENCES*** + + +******* This file should be named 39720-8.txt or 39720-8.zip ******* + + +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: +http://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/3/9/7/2/39720 + + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. Special rules, +set forth in the General Terms of Use part of this license, apply to +copying and distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works to +protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm concept and trademark. Project +Gutenberg is a registered trademark, and may not be used if you +charge for the eBooks, unless you receive specific permission. If you +do not charge anything for copies of this eBook, complying with the +rules is very easy. You may use this eBook for nearly any purpose +such as creation of derivative works, reports, performances and +research. They may be modified and printed and given away--you may do +practically ANYTHING with public domain eBooks. Redistribution is +subject to the trademark license, especially commercial +redistribution. + + + +*** START: FULL LICENSE *** + +THE FULL PROJECT GUTENBERG LICENSE +PLEASE READ THIS BEFORE YOU DISTRIBUTE OR USE THIS WORK + +To protect the Project Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting the free +distribution of electronic works, by using or distributing this work +(or any other work associated in any way with the phrase "Project +Gutenberg"), you agree to comply with all the terms of the Full Project +Gutenberg-tm License available with this file or online at + www.gutenberg.org/license. + + +Section 1. General Terms of Use and Redistributing Project Gutenberg-tm +electronic works + +1.A. By reading or using any part of this Project Gutenberg-tm +electronic work, you indicate that you have read, understand, agree to +and accept all the terms of this license and intellectual property +(trademark/copyright) agreement. If you do not agree to abide by all +the terms of this agreement, you must cease using and return or destroy +all copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in your possession. +If you paid a fee for obtaining a copy of or access to a Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic work and you do not agree to be bound by the +terms of this agreement, you may obtain a refund from the person or +entity to whom you paid the fee as set forth in paragraph 1.E.8. + +1.B. "Project Gutenberg" is a registered trademark. It may only be +used on or associated in any way with an electronic work by people who +agree to be bound by the terms of this agreement. There are a few +things that you can do with most Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works +even without complying with the full terms of this agreement. See +paragraph 1.C below. There are a lot of things you can do with Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic works if you follow the terms of this agreement +and help preserve free future access to Project Gutenberg-tm electronic +works. See paragraph 1.E below. + +1.C. The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation ("the Foundation" +or PGLAF), owns a compilation copyright in the collection of Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic works. Nearly all the individual works in the +collection are in the public domain in the United States. If an +individual work is in the public domain in the United States and you are +located in the United States, we do not claim a right to prevent you from +copying, distributing, performing, displaying or creating derivative +works based on the work as long as all references to Project Gutenberg +are removed. Of course, we hope that you will support the Project +Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting free access to electronic works by +freely sharing Project Gutenberg-tm works in compliance with the terms of +this agreement for keeping the Project Gutenberg-tm name associated with +the work. You can easily comply with the terms of this agreement by +keeping this work in the same format with its attached full Project +Gutenberg-tm License when you share it without charge with others. + +1.D. The copyright laws of the place where you are located also govern +what you can do with this work. Copyright laws in most countries are in +a constant state of change. If you are outside the United States, check +the laws of your country in addition to the terms of this agreement +before downloading, copying, displaying, performing, distributing or +creating derivative works based on this work or any other Project +Gutenberg-tm work. The Foundation makes no representations concerning +the copyright status of any work in any country outside the United +States. + +1.E. Unless you have removed all references to Project Gutenberg: + +1.E.1. The following sentence, with active links to, or other immediate +access to, the full Project Gutenberg-tm License must appear prominently +whenever any copy of a Project Gutenberg-tm work (any work on which the +phrase "Project Gutenberg" appears, or with which the phrase "Project +Gutenberg" is associated) is accessed, displayed, performed, viewed, +copied or distributed: + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + +1.E.2. If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is derived +from the public domain (does not contain a notice indicating that it is +posted with permission of the copyright holder), the work can be copied +and distributed to anyone in the United States without paying any fees +or charges. If you are redistributing or providing access to a work +with the phrase "Project Gutenberg" associated with or appearing on the +work, you must comply either with the requirements of paragraphs 1.E.1 +through 1.E.7 or obtain permission for the use of the work and the +Project Gutenberg-tm trademark as set forth in paragraphs 1.E.8 or +1.E.9. + +1.E.3. If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is posted +with the permission of the copyright holder, your use and distribution +must comply with both paragraphs 1.E.1 through 1.E.7 and any additional +terms imposed by the copyright holder. Additional terms will be linked +to the Project Gutenberg-tm License for all works posted with the +permission of the copyright holder found at the beginning of this work. + +1.E.4. Do not unlink or detach or remove the full Project Gutenberg-tm +License terms from this work, or any files containing a part of this +work or any other work associated with Project Gutenberg-tm. + +1.E.5. Do not copy, display, perform, distribute or redistribute this +electronic work, or any part of this electronic work, without +prominently displaying the sentence set forth in paragraph 1.E.1 with +active links or immediate access to the full terms of the Project +Gutenberg-tm License. + +1.E.6. You may convert to and distribute this work in any binary, +compressed, marked up, nonproprietary or proprietary form, including any +word processing or hypertext form. However, if you provide access to or +distribute copies of a Project Gutenberg-tm work in a format other than +"Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other format used in the official version +posted on the official Project Gutenberg-tm web site (www.gutenberg.org), +you must, at no additional cost, fee or expense to the user, provide a +copy, a means of exporting a copy, or a means of obtaining a copy upon +request, of the work in its original "Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other +form. Any alternate format must include the full Project Gutenberg-tm +License as specified in paragraph 1.E.1. + +1.E.7. Do not charge a fee for access to, viewing, displaying, +performing, copying or distributing any Project Gutenberg-tm works +unless you comply with paragraph 1.E.8 or 1.E.9. + +1.E.8. You may charge a reasonable fee for copies of or providing +access to or distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works provided +that + +- You pay a royalty fee of 20% of the gross profits you derive from + the use of Project Gutenberg-tm works calculated using the method + you already use to calculate your applicable taxes. The fee is + owed to the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark, but he + has agreed to donate royalties under this paragraph to the + Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation. Royalty payments + must be paid within 60 days following each date on which you + prepare (or are legally required to prepare) your periodic tax + returns. Royalty payments should be clearly marked as such and + sent to the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation at the + address specified in Section 4, "Information about donations to + the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation." + +- You provide a full refund of any money paid by a user who notifies + you in writing (or by e-mail) within 30 days of receipt that s/he + does not agree to the terms of the full Project Gutenberg-tm + License. You must require such a user to return or + destroy all copies of the works possessed in a physical medium + and discontinue all use of and all access to other copies of + Project Gutenberg-tm works. + +- You provide, in accordance with paragraph 1.F.3, a full refund of any + money paid for a work or a replacement copy, if a defect in the + electronic work is discovered and reported to you within 90 days + of receipt of the work. + +- You comply with all other terms of this agreement for free + distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm works. + +1.E.9. If you wish to charge a fee or distribute a Project Gutenberg-tm +electronic work or group of works on different terms than are set +forth in this agreement, you must obtain permission in writing from +both the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation and Michael +Hart, the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark. Contact the +Foundation as set forth in Section 3 below. + +1.F. + +1.F.1. Project Gutenberg volunteers and employees expend considerable +effort to identify, do copyright research on, transcribe and proofread +public domain works in creating the Project Gutenberg-tm +collection. Despite these efforts, Project Gutenberg-tm electronic +works, and the medium on which they may be stored, may contain +"Defects," such as, but not limited to, incomplete, inaccurate or +corrupt data, transcription errors, a copyright or other intellectual +property infringement, a defective or damaged disk or other medium, a +computer virus, or computer codes that damage or cannot be read by +your equipment. + +1.F.2. LIMITED WARRANTY, DISCLAIMER OF DAMAGES - Except for the "Right +of Replacement or Refund" described in paragraph 1.F.3, the Project +Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation, the owner of the Project +Gutenberg-tm trademark, and any other party distributing a Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic work under this agreement, disclaim all +liability to you for damages, costs and expenses, including legal +fees. YOU AGREE THAT YOU HAVE NO REMEDIES FOR NEGLIGENCE, STRICT +LIABILITY, BREACH OF WARRANTY OR BREACH OF CONTRACT EXCEPT THOSE +PROVIDED IN PARAGRAPH 1.F.3. YOU AGREE THAT THE FOUNDATION, THE +TRADEMARK OWNER, AND ANY DISTRIBUTOR UNDER THIS AGREEMENT WILL NOT BE +LIABLE TO YOU FOR ACTUAL, DIRECT, INDIRECT, CONSEQUENTIAL, PUNITIVE OR +INCIDENTAL DAMAGES EVEN IF YOU GIVE NOTICE OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH +DAMAGE. + +1.F.3. LIMITED RIGHT OF REPLACEMENT OR REFUND - If you discover a +defect in this electronic work within 90 days of receiving it, you can +receive a refund of the money (if any) you paid for it by sending a +written explanation to the person you received the work from. If you +received the work on a physical medium, you must return the medium with +your written explanation. The person or entity that provided you with +the defective work may elect to provide a replacement copy in lieu of a +refund. If you received the work electronically, the person or entity +providing it to you may choose to give you a second opportunity to +receive the work electronically in lieu of a refund. If the second copy +is also defective, you may demand a refund in writing without further +opportunities to fix the problem. + +1.F.4. Except for the limited right of replacement or refund set forth +in paragraph 1.F.3, this work is provided to you 'AS-IS', WITH NO OTHER +WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO +WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY OR FITNESS FOR ANY PURPOSE. + +1.F.5. Some states do not allow disclaimers of certain implied +warranties or the exclusion or limitation of certain types of damages. +If any disclaimer or limitation set forth in this agreement violates the +law of the state applicable to this agreement, the agreement shall be +interpreted to make the maximum disclaimer or limitation permitted by +the applicable state law. The invalidity or unenforceability of any +provision of this agreement shall not void the remaining provisions. + +1.F.6. INDEMNITY - You agree to indemnify and hold the Foundation, the +trademark owner, any agent or employee of the Foundation, anyone +providing copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in accordance +with this agreement, and any volunteers associated with the production, +promotion and distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works, +harmless from all liability, costs and expenses, including legal fees, +that arise directly or indirectly from any of the following which you do +or cause to occur: (a) distribution of this or any Project Gutenberg-tm +work, (b) alteration, modification, or additions or deletions to any +Project Gutenberg-tm work, and (c) any Defect you cause. + + +Section 2. Information about the Mission of Project Gutenberg-tm + +Project Gutenberg-tm is synonymous with the free distribution of +electronic works in formats readable by the widest variety of computers +including obsolete, old, middle-aged and new computers. It exists +because of the efforts of hundreds of volunteers and donations from +people in all walks of life. + +Volunteers and financial support to provide volunteers with the +assistance they need are critical to reaching Project Gutenberg-tm's +goals and ensuring that the Project Gutenberg-tm collection will +remain freely available for generations to come. In 2001, the Project +Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation was created to provide a secure +and permanent future for Project Gutenberg-tm and future generations. +To learn more about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation +and how your efforts and donations can help, see Sections 3 and 4 +and the Foundation information page at www.gutenberg.org + + +Section 3. Information about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive +Foundation + +The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation is a non profit +501(c)(3) educational corporation organized under the laws of the +state of Mississippi and granted tax exempt status by the Internal +Revenue Service. The Foundation's EIN or federal tax identification +number is 64-6221541. Contributions to the Project Gutenberg +Literary Archive Foundation are tax deductible to the full extent +permitted by U.S. federal laws and your state's laws. + +The Foundation's principal office is located at 4557 Melan Dr. S. +Fairbanks, AK, 99712., but its volunteers and employees are scattered +throughout numerous locations. Its business office is located at 809 +North 1500 West, Salt Lake City, UT 84116, (801) 596-1887. Email +contact links and up to date contact information can be found at the +Foundation's web site and official page at www.gutenberg.org/contact + +For additional contact information: + Dr. Gregory B. Newby + Chief Executive and Director + gbnewby@pglaf.org + +Section 4. Information about Donations to the Project Gutenberg +Literary Archive Foundation + +Project Gutenberg-tm depends upon and cannot survive without wide +spread public support and donations to carry out its mission of +increasing the number of public domain and licensed works that can be +freely distributed in machine readable form accessible by the widest +array of equipment including outdated equipment. Many small donations +($1 to $5,000) are particularly important to maintaining tax exempt +status with the IRS. + +The Foundation is committed to complying with the laws regulating +charities and charitable donations in all 50 states of the United +States. Compliance requirements are not uniform and it takes a +considerable effort, much paperwork and many fees to meet and keep up +with these requirements. We do not solicit donations in locations +where we have not received written confirmation of compliance. To +SEND DONATIONS or determine the status of compliance for any +particular state visit www.gutenberg.org/donate + +While we cannot and do not solicit contributions from states where we +have not met the solicitation requirements, we know of no prohibition +against accepting unsolicited donations from donors in such states who +approach us with offers to donate. + +International donations are gratefully accepted, but we cannot make +any statements concerning tax treatment of donations received from +outside the United States. U.S. laws alone swamp our small staff. + +Please check the Project Gutenberg Web pages for current donation +methods and addresses. Donations are accepted in a number of other +ways including checks, online payments and credit card donations. +To donate, please visit: www.gutenberg.org/donate + + +Section 5. General Information About Project Gutenberg-tm electronic +works. + +Professor Michael S. Hart was the originator of the Project Gutenberg-tm +concept of a library of electronic works that could be freely shared +with anyone. For forty years, he produced and distributed Project +Gutenberg-tm eBooks with only a loose network of volunteer support. + +Project Gutenberg-tm eBooks are often created from several printed +editions, all of which are confirmed as Public Domain in the U.S. +unless a copyright notice is included. Thus, we do not necessarily +keep eBooks in compliance with any particular paper edition. + +Most people start at our Web site which has the main PG search facility: + + www.gutenberg.org + +This Web site includes information about Project Gutenberg-tm, +including how to make donations to the Project Gutenberg Literary +Archive Foundation, how to help produce our new eBooks, and how to +subscribe to our email newsletter to hear about new eBooks. diff --git a/39720-8.zip b/39720-8.zip Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..48548b8 --- /dev/null +++ b/39720-8.zip diff --git a/39720-h.zip b/39720-h.zip Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..2e096c2 --- /dev/null +++ b/39720-h.zip diff --git a/39720-h/39720-h.htm b/39720-h/39720-h.htm new file mode 100644 index 0000000..77d587a --- /dev/null +++ b/39720-h/39720-h.htm @@ -0,0 +1,8373 @@ +<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Strict//EN" + "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-strict.dtd"> +<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"> +<head> +<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=ISO-8859-1" /> +<title>The Project Gutenberg eBook of The Abolition Crusade and Its Consequences, by Hilary Abner Herbert</title> + <style type="text/css"> + +body { + margin-left: 10%; + margin-right: 10%; +} + + h1,h2,h3,h4 { + text-align: center; /* all headings centered */ + clear: both; +} + +p { + margin-top: .75em; + text-align: justify; + margin-bottom: .75em; +} + +hr { + margin: 3em auto 3em auto; + height: 0px; + border-width: 1px 0 0 0; + border-style: solid; + border-color: #dcdcdc; + width: 500px; + clear: both; +} + +table { + margin-left: auto; + margin-right: auto; +} + +table.toc { + margin: auto; + width: 50%; +} + +td.c1 { + text-align: right; + vertical-align: top; + padding-right: 1em; +} + +td.c2 { + text-align: left; + margin-left: 0em; + padding-left: 2em; + text-indent: -2em; + padding-right: 1em; + vertical-align: top; +} + +td.c3 { + text-align: right; + padding-left: 1em; + vertical-align: bottom; +} + +td { padding: 0em 1em; } +th { padding: 0em 1em; } + + .pagenum { /* uncomment the next line for invisible page numbers */ + /* visibility: hidden; */ + position: absolute; + left: 92%; + font-size: smaller; + text-align: right; + color: #999; +} /* page numbers */ + + .blockquot { + margin-left: 5%; + margin-right: 10%; +} + + .center {text-align: center;} + + .smcap {font-variant: small-caps;} + + .u {text-decoration: underline;} + + .caption {font-weight: bold;} + + .gap { margin-top: 1em; } + +/* Images */ + .figcenter { + margin: auto; + text-align: center; +} + +/* Transcriber Notes */ +div.tn { + background-color: #EEE; + border: dashed 1px; + color: #000; + margin-left: 20%; + margin-right: 20%; + margin-top: 5em; + margin-bottom: 5em; + padding: 1em; +} + +ul.corrections { + list-style-type: circle; +} + +/* Footnotes */ +div.fn { + background-color: #EEE; + border: dashed 1px; + color: #000; + margin-left: 20%; + margin-right: 20%; + margin-top: 5em; + margin-bottom: 5em; + padding: 1em; +} + + .footnote { + margin-left: 10%; + margin-right: 10%; + font-size: 0.9em; +} + + .footnote .label { + position: absolute; + right: 84%; + text-align: right; +} + + .fnanchor { + vertical-align: super; + font-size: .8em; + text-decoration: none; +} + +/* Poetry */ + .poem { + margin-left: 10%; + margin-right: 10%; + text-align: left; +} + + .poem br { display: none; } + + .poem .stanza { margin: 1em 0em 1em 0em; } + + .poem span.i0 { + display: block; + margin-left: 0em; + padding-left: 3em; + text-indent: -3em; +} + + .poem span.i1 { + display: block; + margin-left: 1em; + padding-left: 3em; + text-indent: -3em; +} + + .poem span.i2 { + display: block; + margin-left: 2em; + padding-left: 3em; + text-indent: -3em; +} + + .signature { + text-align: right; + margin-right: 5%; +} + +/* INDEX */ +ul.index { list-style-type: none; + width: 20em; + margin: 2em auto; +} + +ul.index2 { list-style-type: none; } + +li.pad { padding-top: 2.0%; } + + hr.full { width: 100%; + margin-top: 3em; + margin-bottom: 0em; + margin-left: auto; + margin-right: auto; + height: 4px; + border-width: 4px 0 0 0; /* remove all borders except the top one */ + border-style: solid; + border-color: #000000; + clear: both; } + </style> +</head> +<body> +<h1>The Project Gutenberg eBook, The Abolition Crusade and Its Consequences, +by Hilary Abner Herbert</h1> +<p>This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at <a +href="http://www.gutenberg.org">www.gutenberg.org</a></p> +<p>Title: The Abolition Crusade and Its Consequences</p> +<p> Four Periods of American History</p> +<p>Author: Hilary Abner Herbert</p> +<p>Release Date: May 17, 2012 [eBook #39720]</p> +<p>Language: English</p> +<p>Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1</p> +<p>***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE ABOLITION CRUSADE AND ITS CONSEQUENCES***</p> +<p> </p> +<h4>E-text prepared by Charlene Taylor, Julia Neufeld,<br /> + and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team<br /> + (<a href="http://www.pgdp.net">http://www.pgdp.net</a>)<br /> + from page images generously made available by<br /> + Internet Archive/American Libraries<br /> + (<a href="http://archive.org/details/americana">http://archive.org/details/americana</a>)</h4> +<p> </p> +<table border="0" style="background-color: #ccccff;margin: 0 auto;" cellpadding="10"> + <tr> + <td valign="top"> + Note: + </td> + <td> + Images of the original pages are available through + Internet Archive/American Libraries. See + <a href="http://archive.org/details/abolitioncrusade00herbrich"> + http://archive.org/details/abolitioncrusade00herbrich</a> + </td> + </tr> +</table> +<p> </p> +<hr class="full" /> +<p> </p> +<p> </p> +<p> </p> + +<h1> +THE ABOLITION CRUSADE<br /> +AND ITS CONSEQUENCES</h1> + +<h3>FOUR PERIODS OF AMERICAN HISTORY<br /><br /> + +BY</h3> +<h2>HILARY A. HERBERT, LL.D.</h2> +<p> </p> +<p> </p> + +<p class="center"><br /><br />NEW YORK<br /> +CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS<br /> +1912</p> + + +<hr style="width: 15%;" /> + +<p class="center"> +<span class="smcap">Copyright, 1912, by</span><br /> +CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS<br /> + +Published April, 1912</p> +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 125px;"> +<img src="images/titledecorative.jpg" width="125" height="143" alt="logo" title="logo" /> +</div> +<hr style="width: 15%;" /> + + +<p class="center">TO MY GRANDCHILDREN<br /> + +THIS LITTLE BOOK IS AFFECTIONATELY DEDICATED +IN THE HOPE THAT ITS PERUSAL +WILL FOSTER IN THEM, AS CITIZENS OF THIS GREAT +REPUBLIC, A DUE REGARD FOR THE CONSTITUTION +OF THEIR COUNTRY +AS THE SUPREME LAW OF THE LAND +</p> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p> +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_vii" id="Page_vii">[vii]</a></span></p> + +<h2>PREFATORY NOTE<br /> +BY JAMES FORD RHODES</h2> + + +<p>"Livy extolled Pompey in such a panegyric +that Augustus called him Pompeian, +and yet this was no obstacle to their +friendship." That we find in Tacitus. We +may therefore picture to ourselves Augustus +reading Livy's "History of the Civil +Wars" (in which the historian's republican +sympathies were freely expressed), and +learning therefrom that there were two +sides to the strife which rent Rome. As +we are more than forty-six years distant +from our own Civil War, is it not incumbent +on Northerners to endeavor to see +the Southern side? We may be certain +that the historian a hundred years hence, +when he contemplates the lining-up of five +and one-half million people against twenty-two +millions, their equal in religion, morals,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_viii" id="Page_viii">[viii]</a></span> +regard for law, and devotion to the common +Constitution, will, as matter of course, aver +that the question over which they fought +for four years had two sides; that all the +right was not on one side and all the wrong +on the other. The North should welcome, +therefore, accounts of the conflict written +by candid Southern men.</p> + +<p>Mr. Herbert, reared and educated in the +South, believing in the moral and economical +right of slavery, served as a Confederate +soldier during the war, but after Appomattox, +when thirty-one years old, he told +his father he had arrived at the conviction +that slavery was wrong. Twelve years +later, when home-rule was completely restored +to the South (1877), he went into +public life as a Member of Congress, sitting +in the House for sixteen years. At the end +of his last term, in 1893, he was appointed +Secretary of the Navy by President Cleveland, +whom he faithfully served during his +second administration.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_ix" id="Page_ix">[ix]</a></span>Such an experience is an excellent training +for the treatment of any aspect of the +Civil War. Mr. Herbert's devotion to the +Constitution, the Union, and the flag now +equals that of any soldier of the North +who fought against him. We should expect +therefore that his work would be pervaded +by practical knowledge and candor.</p> + +<p>After a careful reading of the manuscript +I have no hesitation in saying that the expectation +is realized. Naturally unable to +agree entirely with his presentation of the +subject, I believe that his work exhibits a +side that entitles it to a large hearing. I +hope that it will be placed before the +younger generation, who, unaffected by any +memory of the heat of the conflict, may +truly say:</p> + +<p class="center">Tros Tyriusve, mihi nullo discrimine agetur.</p> + +<p class="signature"> +<span class="smcap">James Ford Rhodes.</span><br /> +</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Boston</span>, <i>November</i>, 1911.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_xi" id="Page_xi">[xi]</a></span></p> +<h2>PREFACE</h2> + + +<p>In 1890 Mr. L. E. Chittenden, who had +been United States Treasurer under President +Lincoln, published an interesting account +of $10,000,000 United States bonds +secretly sent to England, as he said, in 1862, +and he told all about what thereupon took +place across the water. It was a reminiscence. +General Charles Francis Adams in +his recent instructive volume, "Studies +Military and Diplomatic," takes up this +narrative and, in a chapter entitled "An +Historical Residuum," conclusively shows +from contemporaneous evidence that the +bonds were sent, not in 1862, but in 1863, +but that, as for the rest of the story, the +residuum of truth in it was about like the +speck of moisture that is left when a soap +bubble is pricked by a needle.</p> + +<p>General Adams did not mean that Mr. +Chittenden knew he was drawing on his imagination.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_xii" id="Page_xii">[xii]</a></span> +He was only demonstrating that +one who intends to write history cannot +rely on his memory.</p> + +<p>The author, in the following pages, is +undertaking to write a connected story of +events that happened, most of them, in his +lifetime, and as to many of the most important +of which he has vivid recollections; +but, save in one respect, he has not relied +upon his own memory for any important +fact. The picture he has drawn of the relations +between the slave-holder and non-slave-holder +in the South is, much of it, +given as he recollects it. His opportunities +for observation were somewhat extensive, +and here he is willing to be considered in +part as a witness. Elsewhere he has relied +almost entirely upon contemporaneous written +evidence, memory, however, often indicating +to him sources of information.</p> + +<p>Nowhere are there so many valuable lessons +for the student of American history as +in the story of the great sectional movement +of 1831, and of its results, which have<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_xiii" id="Page_xiii">[xiii]</a></span> +profoundly affected American conditions +through generation after generation.</p> + +<p>An effort is here made to tell that story +succinctly, tracing it, step after step, from +cause to effect. The subject divides itself +naturally into four historic periods:</p> + +<p>1. The anti-slavery crusade, 1831 to +1860.</p> + +<p>2. Secession and four years of war, 1861 +to 1865.</p> + +<p>3. Reconstruction under the Lincoln-Johnson +plan, with the overthrow by Congress +of that plan and the rule of the negro +and carpet-bagger, from 1865 to 1876.</p> + +<p>4. Restoration of self-government in the +South, and the results that have followed.</p> + +<p>The greater part of the book is devoted to +the first period—1831 to 1860, the period of +causation. The sequences running through +the three remaining periods are more briefly +sketched.</p> + +<p>Italics, throughout the book, it may be +mentioned here, are the author's.</p> + +<p>Now that the country is happily reunited<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_xiv" id="Page_xiv">[xiv]</a></span> +in a Union which all agree is indissoluble, +the South wants the true history of the +times here treated of spread before its children; +so does the North. The mistakes that +were committed on both sides during that +lamentable and prolonged sectional quarrel +(and they were many) should be known of +all, in order that like mistakes may not be +committed in the future. The writer has, +with diffidence, attempted to lay the facts +before his readers, and so to condense the +story that it may be within the reach of +the ordinary student. How far he has succeeded +will be for his readers to say. The +verdict he ventures to hope for is that he +has made an honest effort to be fair.</p> + +<p>The author takes this occasion to thank +that accomplished young teacher of history, +Mr. Paul Micou, for valuable suggestions, +and his friend, Mr. Thomas H. Clark, +who with his varied attainments has aided +him in many ways.</p> + +<p class="signature"> +<span class="smcap">Hilary A. Herbert.</span><br /> +</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Washington</span>, D. C., <i>March</i>, 1912.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2>CONTENTS</h2> + +<div class="center"> +<table border="0" cellpadding="4" cellspacing="0" summary="Contents"> +<tr><td> </td><td align="left">CHAPTER</td><td align="right"><small>PAGE</small></td></tr> +<tr><td> </td><td align="left"><span class="smcap">Introduction</span></td><td align="right"><a href="#Page_3">3</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="right">I.</td><td align="left"><span class="smcap">Secession and Its Doctrine</span></td><td align="right"><a href="#Page_15">15</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="right">II.</td><td align="left"><span class="smcap">Emancipation Prior to</span> 1831</td><td align="right"><a href="#Page_37">37</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="right">III.</td><td align="left"><span class="smcap">The New Abolitionists</span></td><td align="right"><a href="#Page_56">56</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="right">IV.</td><td align="left"><span class="smcap">Feeling in the South</span>—1835</td><td align="right"><a href="#Page_77">77</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="right">V.</td><td align="left"><span class="smcap">Anti-Abolition at the North</span></td><td align="right"><a href="#Page_84">84</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="right">VI.</td><td align="left"><span class="smcap">A Crisis and a Compromise</span></td><td align="right"><a href="#Page_93">93</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="right">VII.</td><td align="left"><span class="smcap">Efforts for Peace</span></td><td align="right"><a href="#Page_128">128</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="right">VIII.</td><td align="left"><span class="smcap">Incompatibility of Slavery and Freedom</span></td><td align="right"><a href="#Page_147">147</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="right">IX.</td><td align="left"><span class="smcap">Four Years of War</span></td><td align="right"><a href="#Page_180">180</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="right">X.</td><td align="left"><span class="smcap">Reconstruction, Lincoln-Johnson Plan and Congressional</span></td><td align="right"><a href="#Page_208">208</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="right">XI.</td><td align="left"><span class="smcap">The South under Self-Government</span></td><td align="right"><a href="#Page_229">229</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left"> </td><td align="left"><span class="smcap">Index</span></td><td align="right"><a href="#Page_245">245</a></td></tr> +</table></div> + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2>THE ABOLITION CRUSADE AND ITS<br /> +CONSEQUENCES</h2> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_3" id="Page_3">[3]</a></span></p> +<h2>INTRODUCTION</h2> + + +<p>The Constitution of the United States +attempts to define and limit the power +of our Federal Government.</p> + +<p>Lord Brougham somewhere said that +such an instrument was not worth the +parchment it was written on; people would +pay no regard to self-imposed limitations +on their own will.</p> + +<p>When our fathers by that written Constitution +established a government that was +partly national and partly federal, and that +had no precedent, they knew it was an +experiment. To-day that government has +been in existence one hundred and twenty-three +years, and we proudly claim that the +experiment of 1789 has been the success of +the ages.</p> + +<p>Happy should we be if we could boast +that, during all this period, the Constitution +had never been violated in any respect!</p> + +<p>The first palpable infringement of its +provisions occurred in the enactment of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_4" id="Page_4">[4]</a></span> +the alien and sedition laws of 1798. The +people at the polls indignantly condemned +these enactments, and for years thereafter +the government proceeded peacefully; the +people were prosperous, and the Union and +the Constitution grew in favor.</p> + +<p>Later, there grew up a rancorous sectional +controversy about slavery that lasted +many years; that quarrel was followed +by a bloody sectional war; after that war +came the reconstruction of the Southern +States. During each of these three trying +eras it did sometimes seem as if that old +piece of "parchment," derided by Lord +Brougham, had been utterly forgotten. +Nevertheless, and despite all these trying +experiences, we have in the meantime advanced +to the very front rank of nations, +and our people have long since turned, not +only to the Union, but, we are happy to +think, to the Constitution as well, with +more devotion than ever.</p> + +<p>It may be further said that, notwithstanding +all the bitter animosities that for +long divided our country into two hostile +sections, that wonderful old Constitution, +handed down to us by our fathers, was always,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_5" id="Page_5">[5]</a></span> +and in all seasons, in the hearts of +our people, and that never for a moment +was it out of mind. Even in our sectional +war Confederates and Federals were both +fighting for it—one side to maintain it over +themselves as an independent nation; the +other to maintain it over the whole of the +old Union. In the very madness of reconstruction +the fundamental idea of the +Constitution, the equality of the States, +ultimately prevailed—this idea it was that +imperatively demanded the final restoration +of the seceded States, with the right of +self-government unimpaired.</p> + +<p>The future is now bright before us. The +complex civilization of the present is, we +do not forget, continually presenting new +and complex problems of government, and +we are mindful, too, that, for the people +who must deal with these problems, a +higher culture is required, but to all this +our national and State governments seem to +be fully alive. We are everywhere erecting +memorials to our patriotic dead, we have +our "flag day" and many ceremonies to +stimulate patriotism, and, throughout our +whole country, young Americans are being<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_6" id="Page_6">[6]</a></span> +taught more and more of American history +and American traditions.</p> + +<p>The essence of these teachings presumably +is that time has hallowed our Constitution, +and that experience has fully shown the +wisdom of its provisions. In this land of +ours, where there are so much property and +so many voters who want it, and where the +honor and emoluments of high place are so +tempting to the demagogue, there can be +no such security for either life, liberty, or +property as those safeguards which our +fathers devised in the Constitution of the +United States.</p> + +<p>Our teachers of history must therefore +expose fearlessly every violation in the past +of our Constitution, and point out the penalties +that followed; and, above all, they +cannot afford to condone, or to pass by in +silence, the conduct of those who have heretofore +advocated, or acted on, any law which +to them was <i>higher than the American Constitution</i>.</p> + +<p>One of the most serious troubles in the +past, many think our greatest, was our terrible +war among ourselves. Perhaps, after +the lapse of nearly fifty years, we can all<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_7" id="Page_7">[7]</a></span> +now agree that if our people and our States +had always, between 1830 and 1860, faithfully +observed the Federal Constitution we +should have not had that war. However +that may be, the crusade of the Abolitionists, +which began in 1831, was the beginning +of an agitation in the North against the existence +of slavery in the South, which continued, +in one form or another, until the +outbreak of that war.</p> + +<p>The negro is now located, geographically, +much as he was then. If another attempt +shall be made to project his personal status +into national politics, the voters of the +country ought to know and consider the +mistakes that occurred, North and South, +during the unhappy era of that sectional +warfare. This little book is a study of that +period of our history. It concludes with a +glance at the war between the North and +South, and the reconstruction that followed.</p> + +<p>The story of Cromwell and the Great +Revolution it was impossible for any Englishman +to tell correctly for nearly or quite +two centuries. The changes that had been +wrought were too profound, too far-reaching;<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_8" id="Page_8">[8]</a></span> +and English writers were too human. +The changes—economic, political, and social—wrought +in our country by the great +controversy over slavery and State-rights, +and by the war that ended it, have been +quite as profound, and the revolution in +men's ideas and ways of looking at their +past history has been quite as complete as +those which followed the downfall of the +government founded by Cromwell. But we +are now in the twentieth century; history +is becoming a science, and we ought to +succeed better in writing our past than the +Englishmen did.</p> + +<p>The culture of this day is very exacting in +its demands, and if one is writing about our +own past the need of fairness is all the more +imperative. And why not? The masses +of the people, who clashed on the battlefields +of a war in which one side fought for +the supremacy of the Union and the other +for the sovereignty of the States, had honest +convictions; they differed in their convictions; +they had made honest mistakes +about each other; now they would like +their histories to tell just where those mistakes +were; they do not wish these mistakes<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_9" id="Page_9">[9]</a></span> +to be repeated hereafter. Nor is there +any reason why the whole history of that +great controversy should not now be written +with absolute fairness; the two sections +of our country have come together in a most +wonderful way. There has been reunion +after reunion of the blue and the gray. The +survivors of a New Jersey regiment, forty-four +years after the bloody battle of Salem +Church, put up on its site a monument to +their dead, on one side of which was a tablet +to the memory of the "brave Alabama +boys," who were their opponents in that +fight. One of those "Alabama boys" wrote +the story of that battle for the archives of +his own State, and the State of New Jersey +has published it in her archives, as a fair +account of the battle.</p> + +<p>The author has attempted to approach +his subject in a spirit like this, and while +he hopes to be absolutely fair, he is perfectly +aware that he sees things from a +Southern view-point. For this, however, +no apology is needed. Truth is many-sided +and must be seen from every direction.</p> + +<p>Nearly all the school-books dealing with +the period here treated of, and now considered<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_10" id="Page_10">[10]</a></span> +as authority, have been written +from a Northern stand-point; and many of +the extended histories that are most widely +read seem to the writer to be more or less +partisan, although the authors were apparently +quite unconscious of it. Attempts +made here to point out some of the errors +in these books are, as is conceived, in the +interests of history.</p> + +<p>Of course it is important that readers +should know the stand-point of an author +who writes at this day of events as recent +as those here treated of. Dr. Albert Bushnell +Hart, professor of history in Harvard +University, in the preface to his "Slavery +and Abolition" (Harper Brothers, 1906), +says of himself: "It is hard for a son and +grandson of abolitionists to approach so explosive +a question with impartiality." Following +this example, the writer must tell +that he was born in the South, of slave-holding +parents, three years after the Abolition +crusade began in 1831. Growing up +in the South under the stress of that crusade, +he maintained all through the war, +in which he was a loyal Confederate soldier, +the belief in which he had been educated—that<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_11" id="Page_11">[11]</a></span> +slavery was right, morally and +economically.</p> + +<p>One day, not long after Appomattox, he +told his father he had reached the conclusion +that slavery was wrong. The reply +was, to the writer's surprise, that his +mother in early life had been an avowed +emancipationist; that she (who had lived +until the writer was sixteen years old) had +never felt at liberty to discuss slavery after +the rise of the new abolitionists and the +Nat Turner insurrection; and then followed +the further information that when, in 1846, +the family removed from South Carolina to +Alabama, Greenville, Ala., was chosen for a +home because it was thought that the danger +from slave insurrections would be less +there than in one of the richer "black counties."</p> + +<p>What a creature of circumstances man +is! The writer's belief about a great moral +question, his home, his school-mates, and +the companions of his youth, were all determined +by a movement begun in Boston, +Massachusetts, before he was born in the +far South!</p> + +<p>With a vivid personal recollection of the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_12" id="Page_12">[12]</a></span> +closing years of the great anti-slavery crusade +always in his mind, the writer has +studied closely many of the histories dealing +with that movement, and he has found +quite a consensus of opinion among Northern +writers—a view that has even been +sometimes accepted in the South—that it +was not so much the fear of insurrections, +created by Abolition agitation, that shut +off discussion in the South about the rightfulness +of slavery as it was the invention +of the cotton-gin, that made cotton growing +and slavery profitable. The cotton-gin was +invented in 1792, and was in common use +years before the writer's mother was born. +A native of, she grew to maturity entirely +in, the South, and in 1830 was an avowed +emancipationist. The subject was then +being freely discussed.</p> + +<p>The author has ventured to relate in the +pages that follow this introduction two or +three incidents that were more or less personal, +in the hope that their significance may +be his sufficient excuse.</p> + +<p>And now, having spoken of himself as a +Southerner, the author thinks it but fair, +when invoking for the following pages fair<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_13" id="Page_13">[13]</a></span> +consideration, to add that, since 1865, he +has never ceased to rejoice that slavery is +no more, and that secession is now only an +academic question; and, further, that he +has, since Appomattox, served the government +of the United States for twenty years +as loyally as he ever served the Confederacy. +He therefore respectfully submits that his +experiences ought to render him quite as +well qualified for an impartial consideration +of the anti-slavery crusade and its consequences +as are those who have never, either +themselves or through the eyes of their ancestors, +seen more than one side of those +questions. Certain he is, in his own mind, +that this Union has now no better friend +than is he who submits this little study, +conscious of its many shortcomings, claiming +for it nothing except that it is the result +of an honest effort to be fair in every +statement of facts and in the conclusions +reached.</p> + +<p>Not much effort has been made in the direction +of original research. Facts deemed +sufficient to illustrate salient points, which +alone can be treated of in a short story, +have been found in published documents,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_14" id="Page_14">[14]</a></span> +and other facts have been purposely taken, +most of them, from Northern writers; and +the authorities have been duly cited. These +facts have been compressed into a small +compass, so that the book may be available +to such students as have not time for a +more extended examination.</p> + +<p>Of the results of the crusade of the Abolitionists, +and the consequent sectional war, +George Ticknor Curtis, one of New England's +distinguished biographers, says in his +"Life of Buchanan," vol. II, p. 283:</p> + +<p>"It is cause for exultation that slavery +no longer exists in the broad domain of this +republic—that our theory of government +and practice are now in complete accord. +But it is no cause for national pride that +we did not accomplish this result without +the cost of a million of precious lives and +untold millions of money."</p> + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_15" id="Page_15">[15]</a></span></p> +<h2>CHAPTER I</h2> + +<h3>SECESSION AND ITS DOCTRINE</h3> + + +<p>John Fiske has said in his school history: +"Under the government of England +before the Revolution the thirteen +commonwealths were independent of one +another, and were held together juxtaposed, +rather than united, only through their allegiance +to the British Crown. Had that +allegiance been maintained there is no telling +how long they might have gone on thus +disunited."</p> + +<p>They won their independence under a +very imperfect union, a government improvised +for the occasion. The "Articles +of Confederation," the first formal constitution +of the United States of America, were +not ratified by Maryland, the last to ratify, +until in 1781, shortly before Yorktown. In +1787 the thirteen States, each claiming to +be still sovereign, came together in convention +at Philadelphia and formed the present<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_16" id="Page_16">[16]</a></span> +Constitution, looking to "a more perfect +union." The Constitution that created +this new government has been rightly said +to be "the most wonderful work ever struck +off, at a given time, by the brain and purpose +of man."<a name="FNanchor_1_1" id="FNanchor_1_1"></a><a href="#Footnote_1_1" class="fnanchor">[1]</a> And so it was, but it left +unsettled the great question whether a +State, if it believed that its rights were +denied to it by the general government, +could peaceably withdraw from the Union.</p> + +<p>The Federal Government was given by the +Constitution only limited powers, powers +that it could not transcend. Nowhere on +the face of that Constitution was any right +expressly conferred on the general government +to decide exclusively and finally upon +the extent of the powers granted to it. If +any such right had been clearly given, it +is certain that many of the States would +not have entered into the Union. As it +was, the Constitution was only adopted by +eleven of the States after months of discussion. +Then the new government was +inaugurated, with two of the States, Rhode +Island and North Carolina, still out of the +Union. They remained outside, one of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_17" id="Page_17">[17]</a></span> +them for eighteen months and the other +for a year.</p> + +<p>The States were reluctant to adopt the +Constitution, because they were jealous of, +and did not mean to give up, the right of +self-government.</p> + +<p>The framers of the Constitution knew +that the question of the right of a State to +secede was thus left unsettled. They knew, +too, that this might give trouble in the future. +Their hope was that, as the advantages +of the Union became, in process of +time, more and more apparent, the Union +would grow in favor and come to be regarded +in the minds and hearts of the people +as indissoluble.</p> + +<p>From the beginning of the government +there were many, including statesmen of +great influence, who continued to be jealous +of the right of self-government, and insisted +that no powers should be exercised +by the Federal Government except such as +were very clearly granted in the Constitution. +These soon became a party and called +themselves Republicans. Some thirty years +later they called themselves Democrats. +Those, on the other hand, who believed in<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_18" id="Page_18">[18]</a></span> +construing the grants of power in the Constitution +liberally or broadly, called themselves +Federalists.</p> + +<p>Washington was a Federalist, but such +was his influence that the dispute between +the Republicans and the Federalists about +the meaning of the Constitution did not, +during his administration, assume a serious +aspect; but when a new president, John +Adams, also a Federalist, came in with a +congress in harmony with him, the Republicans +made bitter war upon them. France, +then at war with England, was even waging +what has been denominated a "quasi +war" upon us, to compel the United States, +under the old treaty of the Revolution, to +take her part against England; and England +was also threatening us. Plots to force +the government into the war as an ally of +France were in the air.</p> + +<p>Adams and his followers believed in a +strong and spirited government. To strike +a fatal blow at the plotters against the +public peace, and to crush the Republicans +at the same time, Congress now passed the +famous alien and sedition laws.</p> + +<p>One of the alien laws, June 25, 1798, gave<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_19" id="Page_19">[19]</a></span> +the President, for two years from its passage, +power to order out of the country, <i>at +his own will, and without "trial by jury" or +other "process of law," any alien he deemed +dangerous</i> to the peace and safety of the +United States.</p> + +<p>The sedition law, July 14, 1798, made +criminal any unlawful conspiracy to oppose +any measure of the government of the +United States "which was directed by proper +authority," as well as also any "false and +scandalous accusations against the Government, +the President, or the Congress."</p> + +<p>The opportunity of the Republicans had +come. They determined to call upon the +country to condemn the alien and sedition +laws, and at the presidential election in +1800 the Federalists received their death-blow. +The party as an organization survived +that election only a few years, and in +localities the very name, Federalist, later +became a reproach.</p> + +<p>The Republicans began their campaign +against the alien and sedition laws by a series +of resolutions, which, drawn by Jefferson, +were passed by the Kentucky legislature +in November, 1798. Other quite similar<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_20" id="Page_20">[20]</a></span> +resolutions, drawn by Madison, passed the +Virginia assembly the next year; and these +together became the celebrated Kentucky +and Virginia resolutions of 1798-9.<a name="FNanchor_2_2" id="FNanchor_2_2"></a><a href="#Footnote_2_2" class="fnanchor">[2]</a> The +alien and sedition laws were denounced in +these resolutions for the exercise of powers +not delegated to the general government. +Adverting to the sedition law, it was declared +that no power over the freedom of +religion, freedom of speech, or freedom of +the press had been given. On the contrary, +it had been expressly provided by +the Constitution that "Congress shall make +no law respecting an establishment of religion, +or prohibiting the free exercise thereof, +<i>or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the +press</i>."</p> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_21" id="Page_21">[21]</a></span></p> +<p>The first of the Kentucky resolutions was +as follows:</p> + +<blockquote><p>"<i>Resolved</i>, That the several States composing the +United States of America, are not united on the +principle of unlimited submission to their general +government, <i>but that by compact</i>, under the style +and title of a constitution for the United States, and +of amendments thereto, they constituted a general +government for specific purposes, delegated to that +Government certain definite powers, <i>reserving, each +State to itself</i>, the residuary mass of right to their +own self-government; and <i>that whensoever the general +government assumes undelegated powers its acts +are unauthoritative, void, and of no effect</i>: That to +this <i>compact each State acceded as a State</i>, and is an +integral party, its co-States forming, as to itself, the +other party: That the government created by <i>this +compact, was not made the exclusive or final judge of +the extent of the powers delegated to itself</i>, since that +would have made its direction, and not the Constitution, +the measure of its powers; but that, <i>as in all +other cases of compact among parties having no common +judge, each party has a right to judge for itself as +well of infractions as of the mode and measure of redress.</i>"</p></blockquote> + +<p>Undoubtedly it is from the famous resolutions +of 1798-9 that the secessionists of a +later date drew their arguments. The authors +of these celebrated resolutions were,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_22" id="Page_22">[22]</a></span> +both of them, devoted friends of the Union +they had helped to construct. Why should +they announce a theory of the Constitution +that was so full of dangerous possibilities?</p> + +<p>The answer is, they were announcing the +theory upon which the States, or at least +many of the States, had ten years before +ratified the Constitution. A crisis in the +life of the new government had now come. +Congress had usurped powers not given; +it had exercised powers that had been prohibited, +and the government was enforcing +the obnoxious statutes with a high hand. +Dissatisfaction was intense.</p> + +<p>Jefferson and Madison were undoubtedly +Republican partisans, Jefferson especially; +but it is equally certain that they were both +friends of the Union, and as such they concluded, +with the lights before them, that +the wise course would be to submit to the +people, in ample time for full consideration, +before the then coming presidential election, +a full, clear, and comprehensive exposition +of the Constitution precisely as they, and +as the people, then understood it. This +they did in the resolutions of 1798 and 1799, +and the very same voters who had created<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_23" id="Page_23">[23]</a></span> +the Constitution of 1789, now, with their +sons to aid them, endorsed these resolutions +in the election of 1800, which had been laid +before them by the legislatures of two Republican +States as a correct construction +of that instrument.</p> + +<p>The Republicans under Jefferson came +into power with an immense majority. The +people were satisfied with the Constitution +as it had been construed in the election of +1800, and the country under control of the +Republicans was happy and prosperous for +three decades. Then the party in power +began to split into National Republicans +and Democratic Republicans. The National +Republicans favored a liberal construction +of the Constitution and became Whigs; the +Democratic Republicans dropped the name +Republican and became Democrats.</p> + +<p>The foregoing sketch has been given with +no intent to write a political history, but +only to show with what emphasis the American +people condemned all violations of the +Constitution up to the time when, in 1831, +our story of the Abolitionists is to begin. +The sketch has also served to explain the +theory of State-rights, as it was held in<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_24" id="Page_24">[24]</a></span> +early days, and later, by the Southern people.</p> + +<p>Whether the union of the States under +the Constitution as expounded by the Kentucky +and Virginia resolutions would survive +every trial that was to come, remained +to be seen. The question was destined to +perplex Mr. Jefferson himself, more than +once.</p> + +<p>Indeed, even while Washington was President +there had been disunion sentiment in +Congress. In 1794 the celebrated Virginian, +John Taylor, of Caroline, shortly after +he had expressed an intention of publicly +resigning from the United States Senate, +was approached in the privacy of a committee +room by Rufus King, senator from +New York, and Oliver Ellsworth, a senator +from Massachusetts, both Federalists, with +a proposition for a dissolution of the Union +by mutual consent, the line of division to +be somewhere from the Potomac to the +Hudson. This was on the ground "that it +was utterly impossible for the Union to +continue. That the Southern and the Eastern +people thought quite differently," etc. +Taylor contended for the Union, and nothing<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_25" id="Page_25">[25]</a></span> +came of the conference, the story of +which remained a secret for over a hundred +years.<a name="FNanchor_3_3" id="FNanchor_3_3"></a><a href="#Footnote_3_3" class="fnanchor">[3]</a></p> + +<p>"In the winter of 1803-4, immediately +after, and as a consequence of, the acquisition +of Louisiana, certain leaders of the +Federal party conceived the project of the +dissolution of the Union and the establishment +of a Northern Confederacy, the justifying +causes to those who entertained it, +that the acquisition of Louisiana to the +Union transcended the constitutional powers +of the government of the United States; that +it created, in fact, a new confederacy to +which the States, united by the former compact, +were not bound to adhere; that it was<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_26" id="Page_26">[26]</a></span> +oppressive of the interests and destructive +of the influence of the northern section of +the Confederacy, whose right and duty it +was therefore to secede from the new body +politic, and to constitute one of their own."<a name="FNanchor_4_4" id="FNanchor_4_4"></a><a href="#Footnote_4_4" class="fnanchor">[4]</a></p> + +<p>This project did not assume serious proportions.</p> + +<p>John Fiske in his school history says: +"John Quincy Adams, a supporter of the +embargo act of 1807, privately informed +President Jefferson (in February, 1809) that +further attempts to enforce it in the New +England States would be likely to drive them +to secession. Accordingly, the embargo was +repealed, and the non-intercourse act substituted +for it."</p> + +<p>The spirit of nationality was yet in its +infancy, threats of secession were common, +and they came then mostly from New England. +These threats were in no wise connected +with slavery; agitators had not then +made slavery a national issue; the idea of +separation was prompted by the fear that +power in the councils of the Union would +pass into the hands of other sections.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_27" id="Page_27">[27]</a></span>Massachusetts was heard from again in +1811, when the State of Louisiana, the first +to be carved from the Louisiana purchase, +asked to come into the Union. In discussing +the bill for her admission, Josiah +Quincy said: "Why, sir, I have already +heard of six States, and some say there will +be at no great distance of time more. I have +also heard that the mouth of the Ohio will +be far to the east of the contemplated empire.... It +is impossible that such a power +could be granted. It was not for these men +that our fathers fought. It was not for +them this Constitution was adopted. You +have no authority to throw the rights and +liberties and property of this people into +hotchpot with the wild men on the Missouri, +or with the mixed, though more +respectable, race of Anglo-Hispano-Gallo-Americans +who bask in the sands in the +mouth of the Mississippi.... <i>I am compelled +to declare it as my deliberate opinion +that, if this bill passes, the bonds of the Union +are virtually dissolved; that the States which +compose it are free from their moral obligations; +and that, as it will be the right of all, so it +will be the duty of some, to prepare definitely</i><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_28" id="Page_28">[28]</a></span> +<i>for a separation—amicably, if they can; violently, +if they must.</i>"</p> + +<p>June 15, 1813, the Massachusetts legislature +endorsed the position taken in this +speech.<a name="FNanchor_5_5" id="FNanchor_5_5"></a><a href="#Footnote_5_5" class="fnanchor">[5]</a></p> + +<p>Later, in 1814, a convention of representative +New England statesmen met at Hartford, +to consider of secession unless the non-intercourse +act, which also bore hard on +New England, should be repealed; but the +war then pending was soon to close, and +the danger from that quarter was over.</p> + +<p>But secession was not exclusively a New +England doctrine. "When the Constitution +was adopted by the votes of States in +popular conventions, it is safe to say there +was not a man in the country, from Washington +and Hamilton, on the one side, to +George Clinton and George Mason, on the +other, who regarded the new system as anything +but an experiment, entered into by +the States, and from which each and every +State had the right to withdraw, a right +which was very likely to be exercised."<a name="FNanchor_6_6" id="FNanchor_6_6"></a><a href="#Footnote_6_6" class="fnanchor">[6]</a></p> + +<p>As late as 1844 the threat of secession<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_29" id="Page_29">[29]</a></span> +was to come again from Massachusetts. +The great State of Texas was applying for +admission to the Union. But Texas was a +slave State; Abolitionists had now for thirteen +years been arousing in the old Bay +State a spirit of hostility against the existence +of slavery in her sister States of the +South, and in 1844 the Massachusetts legislature +resolved that "the Commonwealth +of Massachusetts, faithful to the <i>compact</i> +between the people of the United States, +according to the plain meaning and intent +in which it was understood by them, is sincerely +anxious for its preservation; but that +it is determined, as it <i>doubts not other States +are, to submit to undelegated powers in no +body of men on earth</i>," and that "the project +of the annexation of Texas, unless arrested +at the threshold, may tend to drive +<i>these States into a dissolution of the Union</i>."</p> + +<p>This was <i>just seventeen years before the +Commonwealth of Massachusetts began to arm +her sons to put down secession in the South</i>!</p> + +<p>The Southern reader must not, however, +conclude from this startling about-face on +the question of secession, that the people +of Massachusetts, and of the North, did<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_30" id="Page_30">[30]</a></span> +not, <i>in 1861</i>, honestly believe that under the +Constitution the Union was indissoluble, +or that the North went to war simply for +the purpose of perpetuating its power over +the South. Such a conclusion would be +grossly unjust. The spirit of nationality, +veneration of the Union, was a growth, and, +after it had fairly begun, a rapid growth. +It grew, as our country grew in prestige +and power. The splendid triumphs of our +ships at sea, in the War of 1812, and our +victory at New Orleans over British regulars, +added to it; the masterful decisions +of our great Chief Justice John Marshall, +pointing out how beneficently our Federal +Constitution was adapted to the preservation +not only of local self-government but +of the liberties of the citizen as well; peace +with, and the respect of, foreign nations; +free trade between the people of all sections, +and abounding prosperity—all these things +created a deep impression, and Americans +began to hark back to the words of Washington +in his farewell address: "The unity of +our government, which now constitutes you +one people, is also dear to you. It is justly +so, for it is a main pillar in the edifice of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_31" id="Page_31">[31]</a></span> +your real independence, the support of your +tranquillity at home, your peace abroad, of +your safety, of your prosperity, of that very +liberty which you so highly prize."</p> + +<p>But far and away above every other +single element contributing to the development +of Union sentiment was the wonderful +speech of Daniel Webster, January 26, +1830, in his debate in the United States +Senate with Hayne, of South Carolina. +Hayne was eloquently defending States' +rights, and his argument was unanswerable +if his premise was admitted, that, as had +been theretofore conceded, the Constitution +was <i>a compact between the States</i>. Webster +saw this and he took new ground; the +Constitution was, he contended, not a compact, +but the formation of a government. +His arguments were like fruitful seed sown +upon a soil prepared for their reception. +No speech delivered in this country ever +created so profound an impression. It was +the foundation of a new school of political +thought. It concluded with this eloquent +peroration: "When my eyes shall be turned +to behold for the last time the sun in heaven, +may I not see him shining on the broken<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_32" id="Page_32">[32]</a></span> +and dishonored fragments of a once glorious +Union; on States dissevered, discordant, +belligerent; on a land rent with civil +feuds, or drenched, it may be, in fraternal +blood! Let their last feeble and lingering +glance rather behold the gracious ensign +of the republic, now known and honored +throughout the earth, still full high advanced, +its arms and trophies streaming in +their original lustre, not a stripe erased or +polluted, not a single star obscured, bearing +for its motto no such miserable interrogatory +as 'What is all this worth?' nor +those other words of delusion and folly, +'Liberty first and Union afterwards,' but +everywhere, spread all over with living light, +blazing on all its ample folds, as they float +over the sea and over the land, and in every +wind under the whole heavens, that other +sentiment, dear to every American heart—'Liberty +<i>and</i> Union, now and forever, one +and inseparable.'"</p> + +<p>For many years every school-house in the +land resounded with these words. By 1861 +they had been imprinted on the minds and +had sunk into the hearts of a whole generation. +Their effect was incalculable.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_33" id="Page_33">[33]</a></span>It is perfectly true that the secession resolution +of the Massachusetts legislature of +1844 was passed fourteen years after Webster's +speech, but the Garrisonians had then +been agitating the slavery question within +her borders for fourteen years, and the old +State was now beside herself with excitement.</p> + +<p>There was another great factor in the +rapid manufacture of Union sentiment at +the North that had practically no existence +at the South. It was immigration.</p> + +<p>The new-comers from over the sea knew +nothing, and cared less, about the history +of the Constitution or the dialectics of secession. +They had sought a land of liberty +that to them was one nation, with one flag +flying over it, and in their eyes secession +was rebellion. Immigrants to America, +practically all settling in Northern States, +were during the thirty years, 1831-1860, +4,910,590; and these must, with their natural +increase, have numbered at least six +millions in 1860. In other words, far more +than one-fourth of the people of the North +in 1860 were not, themselves or their fathers, +in the country in the early days when the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_34" id="Page_34">[34]</a></span> +doctrine of States' rights had been in the +ascendant; and, as a rule, to these new people +that old doctrine was folly.</p> + +<p>In the South the situation was reversed. +Slavery had kept immigrants away. The +whites were nearly all of the old revolutionary +stock, and had inherited the old ideas. +Still, love of and pride in the Union had +grown in them too. Nor were the Southerners +all followers of Jefferson. From the +earliest days much of the wealth and intelligence +of the country, North and South, +had opposed the Democracy, first as Federalists +and later as Whigs. In the South +the Whigs have been described as "a fine +upstanding old party, a party of blue broadcloth, +silver buttons, and a coach and four." +It was not until anti-slavery sentiment had +begun to array the North, as a section, +against the South, that Southern Whigs +began to look for protection to the doctrine +of States' rights.</p> + +<p>Woodrow Wilson says, in "Division and +Reunion," p. 47, of Daniel Webster's great +speech in 1830: "The North was now beginning +to insist upon a national government; +the South was continuing to insist<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_35" id="Page_35">[35]</a></span> +upon the original understanding of the Constitution; +that was all."</p> + +<p>And in those attitudes the two sections +stood in 1860-61, one upon the modern +theory of an indestructible Union; the other +upon the old idea that States had the right +to secede from the Union.</p> + +<p>In 1848 there occurred in Ireland the +"Rebellion of the Young Irishmen." Among +the leaders of that rebellion were Thomas +F. Meagher and John Mitchel. Both were +banished to Great Britain's penal colony. +Both made their way, a few years later, to +America. Both were devotees of liberty, +both men of brilliant intellect and high +culture. Meagher settled in the North, +Mitchel in the South. This was about 1855. +Each from his new stand-point studied the +history and the Constitution of his adopted +country. Meagher, when the war between +the North and South came on, became a +general in the Union army. Mitchel entered +the civil service of the Confederacy and his +son died a Confederate soldier.</p> + +<p>The Union or Confederate partisan who +has been taught that his side was "eternally +right, and the other side eternally<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_36" id="Page_36">[36]</a></span> +wrong," should consider the story of these +two "Young Irishmen."</p> + +<p>How fortunate it is that the ugly question +of secession has been settled, and will +never again divide Americans, or those who +come to America!</p> + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_37" id="Page_37">[37]</a></span></p> +<h2>CHAPTER II</h2> + +<h3>EMANCIPATION PRIOR TO 1831</h3> + + +<p>In the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, +Dutch, French, Portuguese, Spanish, +English, and American vessels brought +many thousands of negroes from Africa, and +sold them as slaves in the British West +Indies and in the British-American colonies. +William Goodell, a distinguished Abolitionist +writer, tells us<a href="#Footnote_7_7" class="fnanchor">[7]</a> that "in the importation +of slaves for the Southern colonies the merchants +of New England competed with those +of New York and the South" (which never +had much shipping). "They appear indeed +to have outstripped them, and to have +<i>almost monopolized</i> at one time the profits +of this detestable trade. Boston, Salem, and +Newburyport in Massachusetts, and Newport +and Bristol in Rhode Island, amassed, +in the persons of a few of their citizens, vast +sums of this rapidly acquired and ill-gotten +wealth."<a name="FNanchor_7_7" id="FNanchor_7_7"></a><a href="#Footnote_7_7" class="fnanchor">[7]</a></p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_38" id="Page_38">[38]</a></span>The slaves coming to America went +chiefly to the Southern colonies, because +there only was slave labor profitable. The +laws and conditions under which these negroes +were sold in the American colonies +were precisely the same as in the West Indies, +except that the whites in the islands, +so far as is known, never objected, whereas +the records show that earnest protests came +from Virginia<a name="FNanchor_8_8" id="FNanchor_8_8"></a><a href="#Footnote_8_8" class="fnanchor">[8]</a> and also from Georgia<a name="FNanchor_9_9" id="FNanchor_9_9"></a><a href="#Footnote_9_9" class="fnanchor">[9]</a> and +North Carolina.<a name="FNanchor_10_10" id="FNanchor_10_10"></a><a href="#Footnote_10_10" class="fnanchor">[10]</a> The King of England was +interested in the profits of the iniquitous +trade and all protests were in vain.</p> + +<p>Of the rightfulness, however, of slavery +itself there was but little question in the +minds of Christian peoples until the closing +years of the eighteenth century. Then +the cruelties practised by ship-masters in +the Middle Passage attracted attention, and +then came gradually a revolution in public +opinion. This revolution, in which the +churches took a prominent part, originated +in England, but it soon swept over America +also, both North and South.</p> + +<p>England abolished the slave trade in<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_39" id="Page_39">[39]</a></span> +1807. The United States followed in 1808; +the Netherlands in 1814; France in 1818; +Spain in 1820; Portugal in 1830. The great +Wilberforce, Buxton, and others, who had +brought about the abolition of the slave +trade in England, continued their exertions +in favor of the slave until finally, in 1833, +Parliament abolished slavery in the British +West Indies, appropriating twenty millions +sterling ($100,000,000) as compensation to +owners—this because investments in slave +property had been made under the sanction +of existing law.</p> + +<p>"Great Britain, loaded with an unprecedented +debt and with a grinding taxation, +contracted a new debt of a hundred millions +of dollars to give freedom, not to +Englishmen, but to the degraded African. +This was not an act of policy, but the work +of statesmen. Parliament but registered +the edict of the people. The English nation, +with one heart and one voice, under +a strong Christian impulse and without +distinction of rank, sex, party, or religious +names, decreed freedom to the slave. I +know not that history records a national +act so disinterested, so sublime."</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_40" id="Page_40">[40]</a></span>So wrote Dr. Channing, the great New +England pulpit orator, in his celebrated letter +on Texas annexation, to Henry Clay, in +1837.</p> + +<p>While the rightfulness of slavery was +being discussed in England, the American +conscience had also been aroused, and emancipation +was making progress on this side +of the water.</p> + +<p>Emancipation was an easy task in the +Northern States, where slaves were few, +their labor never having been profitable, +and by 1804 the last of these States had +provided for the ultimate abolition of slavery +within its borders. But the problem +was more difficult in the Southern States, +where the climate was adapted to slave +labor. There slaves were numerous, and +slavery was interwoven, economically and +socially, with the very fabric of existence. +Naturally, it occurred to thoughtful men +that there ought to be some such solution +as that which was subsequently adopted +in England, and which, as we have seen, +was so highly extolled by Dr. Channing—emancipation +of the slaves with compensation +to the owners by the general government.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_41" id="Page_41">[41]</a></span> +The difficulty in our country was +that the Federal Constitution conferred +upon the Federal Government no power +over slavery in the States—no power to +emancipate slaves or compensate owners; +and that for the individual States where the +negroes were numerous the problem seemed +too big. Free negroes and whites in great +numbers, it was thought, could not live together. +To get rid of the negroes, if they +should be freed, was for the States a very +serious, if not an unsurmountable task.</p> + +<p>On the seventeenth of January, 1824, the +following resolutions, proposed as a solution +of the problem, were passed by the +legislature of Ohio:<a name="FNanchor_11_11" id="FNanchor_11_11"></a><a href="#Footnote_11_11" class="fnanchor">[11]</a></p> + +<blockquote><p><i>Resolved</i>, That the consideration of a system +providing for the gradual emancipation of the people +of color, held in servitude in the United States, +be recommended to the legislatures of the several +States of the American Union, and to the Congress +of the United States.</p> + +<p><i>Resolved</i>, That, in the opinion of the general +assembly, a system of foreign colonization, with +correspondent measures, might be adopted that +would in due time effect the entire emancipation +of the slaves of our country without any violation<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_42" id="Page_42">[42]</a></span> +of the national compact, or infringement of the +rights of individuals; by the passage of a law by the +general government (with the consent of the slave-holding +States) which would provide that all children +of persons now held in slavery, born after the passage +of the law, should be free at the age of twenty-one +years (being supported during their minority by +the persons claiming the service of their parents), +provided they then consent to be transported to the +intended place of colonization. Also:</p> + +<p><i>Resolved</i>, That it is expedient that such a system +should be predicated upon the principle that the evil +of slavery is a national one, and that the people +and the States of the Union ought mutually to participate +in the duties and burthens of removing it.</p> + +<p><i>Resolved</i>, That His Excellency the Governor be +requested to forward a copy of the foregoing resolutions +to His Excellency the Governor of each of +the United States, requesting him to lay the same +before the legislature thereof; and that His Excellency +will also forward a like copy to each of our +senators and representatives in Congress, requesting +their co-operation in all national measures having +a tendency to effect the grave object embraced +therein.</p></blockquote> + +<p>By June of 1825 eight other Northern +States had endorsed the proposition, Pennsylvania, +Vermont, New Jersey, Illinois, +Connecticut, Massachusetts. Six of the +slave-holding States emphatically disapproved<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_43" id="Page_43">[43]</a></span> +of the suggestion, <i>viz.</i>, Georgia, +South Carolina, Missouri, Mississippi, +Louisiana, and Alabama.<a name="FNanchor_12_12" id="FNanchor_12_12"></a><a href="#Footnote_12_12" class="fnanchor">[12]</a></p> + +<p>Reasons which in great part influenced all +the Southern States thus rejecting the proposition +may be gathered from the following +words of Governor Wilson, of South Carolina, +in submitting the resolutions: "A firm +determination to resist, at the threshold, +every <i>invasion of our domestic tranquillity</i>, +and to <i>preserve our sovereignty and independence +as a State</i>, is earnestly recommended."<a name="FNanchor_13_13" id="FNanchor_13_13"></a><a href="#Footnote_13_13" class="fnanchor">[13]</a></p> + +<p>The resolutions required of the Southern +States a complete surrender in this regard +of their reserved rights; they feared what +Governor Wilson called "the overwhelming +powers of the general government," and +were unwilling to make the admission required, +that the slavery in the South was a +question for the nation.</p> + +<p>Another reason was that, although there +was a quite common desire in the Southern +States to get rid of slavery, the majority +sentiment doubtless was not yet ready for +the step.</p> + +<p>Basing this plan on the "consent of the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_44" id="Page_44">[44]</a></span> +slave-holding States," as the Ohio legislature +did, was an acknowledgment that the +North had no power over the matter; while +the proposition to share in the expense of +transporting the negroes, after they were +manumitted, seems to be a recognition of +the joint responsibility of both sections for +the existence of slavery in the South. However +that may be, the generous concurrence +of nine of the thirteen Northern States indicates +how kindly the temper of the North +toward the South was before the rise of the +"New Abolitionism" in 1831. Had emancipation +been, under the Federal Constitution, +a national and not a local question, +it is possible that slavery might have been +abolished in America, as it was in the mother +country, peacefully and with compensation +to owners.</p> + +<p>The Ohio idea of freeing and at the same +time colonizing the slaves, was no doubt +suggested by the scheme of the African +Colonization Society. This Colonization +Society grew out of a resolution passed by +the General Assembly of Virginia, December +23, 1816. Its purpose was to rid the +country of such free negroes and subsequently<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_45" id="Page_45">[45]</a></span> +manumitted slaves as should be +willing to go to Liberia, where a home was secured +for them, and a government set up that +was to be eventually controlled by the negro +from America. The plan was endorsed by +Georgia in 1817, Maryland in 1818, Tennessee +in 1818, and Vermont in 1819.<a name="FNanchor_14_14" id="FNanchor_14_14"></a><a href="#Footnote_14_14" class="fnanchor">[14]</a></p> + +<p>The Colonization Society was composed +of Southern and Northern philanthropists +and statesmen of the most exalted character. +Among its presidents were, at times, +President Monroe and ex-President Madison. +Chief Justice Marshall was one of +its presidents. Colonization, while relieving +America, was also to give the negro an +opportunity for self-government and self-development +in his native country, aided at +the outset by experienced white men, and +Abraham Lincoln, when he was eulogizing +the dead Henry Clay, one of the eloquent +advocates of the scheme, seemed to be in +love with the idea of restoring the poor +African to that land from which he had +been rudely snatched by the rapacious white +man. The society, with much aid from philanthropists +and some from the Federal Government,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_46" id="Page_46">[46]</a></span> +was making progress when, from +1831 to 1835, the Abolitionists halted it.<a name="FNanchor_15_15" id="FNanchor_15_15"></a><a href="#Footnote_15_15" class="fnanchor">[15]</a> +They got the ears of the negro and persuaded +him not to go to Liberia. Its friends +thought the enterprise would stimulate +emancipation by furnishing a home for such +negroes as their owners were willing to +manumit; but the new friends of the negro +told him it was a trick of the slave-holder, +and intended to perpetuate slavery—it was +banishment. And Dr. Hart now, in his +"Abolition and Slavery," calls it a move +for the "expatriation of the negro."</p> + +<p>All together only a few thousand negroes +went to Liberia. The enterprise lagged, +and finally failed, partly because of opposition, +but chiefly because the negroes were +slothful and incapable of self-government. +The word came back that they were not +prospering. For a time, while white men +were helping them in their government, the +outlook for Liberia had more or less promise +in it. When the whites, to give the negroes +their opportunity for self-development +withdrew their case was hopeless.<a name="FNanchor_16_16" id="FNanchor_16_16"></a><a href="#Footnote_16_16" class="fnanchor">[16]</a></p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_47" id="Page_47">[47]</a></span>In 1828, while emancipation was still +being freely canvassed North and South, +Benjamin Lundy, an Abolition editor in +charge of <i>The Genius of Emancipation</i>, +then being published at Baltimore, in a +slave State, went to Boston to "stir up" +the Northern people "to the work of abolishing +slavery in the South." Dr. Channing, +who has been previously quoted, +wrote a letter to Daniel Webster on the +28th of May, 1828, in which, after reciting +the purpose of Lundy, and saying that he +was "aware how cautiously exertions are to +be made for it in this part of the country," +it being a local question, he said: "It seems +to me that, before moving in this matter, we +ought to say to them (our Southern brethren) +distinctly, 'We consider slavery <i>as your +calamity, not your crime</i>, and <i>we will share +with you the burden</i> 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 <i>clothed with the +power to apply a portion of revenue to it</i>.'</p> + +<p>"I throw out these suggestions merely to +illustrate my views. We must first let the +Southern States see that we are their<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_48" id="Page_48">[48]</a></span> +<i>friends</i> in this affair; that we sympathize +with them and, from principles <i>of patriotism +and philanthropy, are willing to share the +toil and expense</i> of abolishing slavery, or, I +fear, our interference will avail nothing."<a name="FNanchor_17_17" id="FNanchor_17_17"></a><a href="#Footnote_17_17" class="fnanchor">[17]</a> +Mr. Webster never gave out this letter until +February 15, 1851.<a name="FNanchor_18_18" id="FNanchor_18_18"></a><a href="#Footnote_18_18" class="fnanchor">[18]</a></p> + +<p>In less than three years after that letter +was written, Lundy's friend, William Lloyd +Garrison, started in Boston a crusade +against slavery in the South, on the ground +that instead of being the "<i>calamity</i>," as +Dr. Channing deemed it to be, it was the +"<i>crime</i>" of the South. Had no such exasperating +sectional cry as this ever been +raised, the story told in this little book would +have been very different from that which is +to follow. Even Spain, the laggard of nations, +since that day has abolished slavery +in her colonies. Brazil long ago fell into +line, and it is impossible for one not blinded +by the sectional strife of the past, now to +conceive that the Southern States of this +Union, whose people in 1830 were among +the foremost of the world in all the elements<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_49" id="Page_49">[49]</a></span> +of Christian civilization, would not long, +long ago, if left to themselves, have found +some means by which to rid themselves of +an institution condemned by the public +sentiment of the world and even then deplored +by the Southerners themselves.</p> + +<p>The crime, if crime it was, of slavery in +the South in 1830 was one for which the two +sections of the Union were equally to blame. +Abraham Lincoln said in his debate with +Douglas at Peoria, Illinois, October 15, +1858: "When Southern people tell us they +are no more responsible for slavery than +we are, I acknowledge the fact. When it +is said that the institution exists, and that +it is very difficult to get rid of it, in any satisfactory +way, I can understand and appreciate +the saying. I surely do not blame +them for not doing what I would not know +how to do myself."<a name="FNanchor_19_19" id="FNanchor_19_19"></a><a href="#Footnote_19_19" class="fnanchor">[19]</a></p> + +<p>Prior to the rise of the Abolitionists in +1831, emancipationists in the South had been free +to grapple with conditions as they found +them. What they and what the people of +the North had accomplished we may gather +from the United States census reports. The<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_50" id="Page_50">[50]</a></span> +tables following are taken from "Larned's +History of Ready Reference," vol. V. The +classifications are his. We have numbered +three of his tables, for the sake of reference, +and have added columns 4 and 5, calculated +from Larned's figures, to show "excess of +free blacks" and "increase of free blacks, +South."</p> + +<p>Let the reader assume as a fact, which +will perhaps not be questioned, that "free +blacks" in the census means freedmen and +their increase, and these tables tell their own +story, a story to which must be added the +statement that slaves in the South had been +freed only by voluntary sacrifices of owners.</p> + +<p>It will be noted that in 1790 the total +"blacks" in the North was 67,479, and, +although emancipation in these States had +begun some years before, the excess of +"free blacks" in the South was over 5,000. +Also that at every succeeding census, down +to and including that of 1830, the "excess +of free blacks" increased with considerable +regularity until 1830, when that excess is +44,547.</p> + + +<div class="center"> +<table border="0" cellpadding="4" cellspacing="0" summary="blacks"> +<tr><td align="left"><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_51" id="Page_51">[51]</a></span></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left"> </td><td align="left"> </td><td align="left"> </td><td align="left"> </td><td align="left"></td><td align="left"> TOTAL</td><td align="left">EXCESS</td><td align="left">INCREASE</td></tr> +<tr><td align="left"> </td><td align="left"> </td><td align="left"> WHITES</td><td align="left"> FREE</td><td align="left"> SLAVES</td><td align="left">BLACKS,</td><td align="left">OF FREE</td><td align="left">IN FREE</td></tr> +<tr><td align="left"> </td><td align="left"> </td><td align="left"> </td><td align="left"> BLACKS</td><td align="left"></td><td align="left"> NORTH</td><td align="left">BLACKS,</td><td align="left">BLACKS,</td></tr> +<tr><td align="left"> </td><td align="left"> </td><td align="left"> </td><td align="left"> </td><td align="left"> </td><td align="left"> </td><td align="left"> SOUTH</td><td align="left"> SOUTH</td></tr> +<tr><td align="left">1790:</td><td align="left">North, 9 States</td><td align="left"> 1,900,976</td><td align="left"> 27,109</td><td align="left"> 40,370</td><td align="left"> 67,479</td><td align="left"> ....</td><td align="left"> ....</td></tr> +<tr><td align="left"> </td><td align="left">South, 8 States</td><td align="left"> 1,271,488</td><td align="left"> 32,357</td><td align="left"> 657,527</td><td align="left"> ....</td><td align="left"> 5,248</td><td align="left"> ....</td></tr> +<tr><td align="left">1800:</td><td align="left">North, 11 States</td><td align="left"> 2,601,521</td><td align="left"> 47,154</td><td align="left"> 35,946</td><td align="left"> 83,100</td><td align="left"> ....</td><td align="left"> 20,045</td></tr> +<tr><td align="left"> </td><td align="left">South, 9 States and D. C.</td><td align="left"> 1,702,980</td><td align="left"> 61,241</td><td align="left"> 857,095</td><td align="left"> ....</td><td align="left">14,087</td><td align="left"> 28,884</td></tr> +<tr><td align="left">1810:</td><td align="left">North, 13 States</td><td align="left"> 3,653,219</td><td align="left"> 78,181</td><td align="left"> 27,510</td><td align="left">105,691</td><td align="left"> ....</td><td align="left"> 31,027</td></tr> +<tr><td align="left"> </td><td align="left">South, 11 States and D. C.</td><td align="left"> 2,208,785</td><td align="left">108,265</td><td align="left">1,163,854</td><td align="left"> ....</td><td align="left">30,084</td><td align="left"> 47,024</td></tr> +<tr><td align="left">1820:</td><td align="left">North, 13 States</td><td align="left"> 5,030,371</td><td align="left"> 99,281</td><td align="left"> 19,108</td><td align="left">118,359</td><td align="left"> ....</td><td align="left"> 21,100</td></tr> +<tr><td align="left"> </td><td align="left">South, 13 States and D. C.</td><td align="left"> 2,831,560</td><td align="left">134,223</td><td align="left">1,519,017</td><td align="left"> ....</td><td align="left">34,942</td><td align="left"> 25,958</td></tr> +<tr><td align="left">1830:</td><td align="left">North, 13 States</td><td align="left"> 6,871,302</td><td align="left">137,529</td><td align="left"> 3,568</td><td align="left">141,097</td><td align="left"> ....</td><td align="left"> 38,248</td></tr> +<tr><td align="left"> </td><td align="left">South, 13 States, D.C. and Ter.</td><td align="left"> 3,660,758</td><td align="left">182,070</td><td align="left">2,005,475</td><td align="left"> ....</td><td align="left">44,541</td><td align="left"> 47,747</td></tr> +<tr><td align="left">1840:</td><td align="left">North, etc.</td><td align="left"> 9,577,065</td><td align="left">170,728</td><td align="left"> 1,728</td><td align="left">171,857</td><td align="left"> ....</td><td align="left"> 33,199</td></tr> +<tr><td align="left"> </td><td align="left">South, etc.</td><td align="left"> 4,632,530</td><td align="left">215,575</td><td align="left">2,486,326</td><td align="left"> ....</td><td align="left">44,547</td><td align="left"> 33,505</td></tr> +<tr><td align="left">1850:</td><td align="left">North, etc.</td><td align="left">13,269,149</td><td align="left">196,262</td><td align="left"> 262</td><td align="left">196,524</td><td align="left"> ....</td><td align="left"> 25,534</td></tr> +<tr><td align="left"> </td><td align="left">South, etc.</td><td align="left"> 6,283,965</td><td align="left">238,187</td><td align="left">3,204,051</td><td align="left"> ....</td><td align="left"> 1,925</td><td align="left"> 22,612</td></tr> +<tr><td align="left">1860:</td><td align="left">North, etc.</td><td align="left">18,791,159</td><td align="left">225,967</td><td align="left"> 64</td><td align="left">226,031</td><td align="left"> ....</td><td align="left"> 29,705</td></tr> +<tr><td align="left"> </td><td align="left">South, etc.</td><td align="left"> 8,162,684</td><td align="left">262,003</td><td align="left">3,953,696</td><td align="left"> ....</td><td align="left">36,036</td><td align="left"> 23,816</td></tr> +</table></div> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_52" id="Page_52">[52]</a></span>There was always in the South, prior to +1831, an active and freely expressed emancipation +sentiment. But there was not +enough of it to influence legislation. In all +but three or four of these States, emancipation +was made difficult by laws which, +among other conditions, required that slaves +after being freed should leave the State.</p> + +<p>Emancipation in the North had not been +completed in 1830. Professor Ingram, president +of the Royal Irish Academy, says in +his "History of Slavery," London, 1895, +p. 184: "The Northern States—beginning +with Vermont in 1777 and ending with New +Jersey in 1804—either abolished slavery +or adopted measures to effect its gradual +abolition within their boundaries. But the +principal operation of (at least) the latter +change was to transfer Northern slaves to +Southern markets."</p> + +<p>There had been in 1820 an angry discussion +in Congress about the admission +of Missouri—with or without slavery—which +was finally settled by the Missouri +Compromise. This dispute over the admission +of Missouri is often said to have +been the beginning of the sectional quarrel +that finally ended in secession; but the controversy +over Missouri and that begun by<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_53" id="Page_53">[53]</a></span> +the "New Abolitionists" in 1831 were entirely +distinct. They were conducted on +different plans.</p> + +<p>In the Missouri controversy the only +questions were as to the expediency and +constitutionality of denying to a new State +the right to enter the Union, with or without +slavery, as she might choose. The entire +dispute was settled to the satisfaction +of both sections by an agreement that +States thereafter, south of 36° 30', might +enter the Union with or without slavery; +<i>and nobody denied, during all that discussion +about Missouri, or at any time previous to</i> +1831, <i>that every citizen was bound to maintain +the Constitution and all laws passed in pursuance +of it, including the fugitive slave law</i>.</p> + +<p>"The North submitted at that time +(1828) to the obligations imposed upon it +by the fugitive slave-catching clause of the +Constitution and the fugitive slave law of +1793."<a name="FNanchor_20_20" id="FNanchor_20_20"></a><a href="#Footnote_20_20" class="fnanchor">[20]</a> So say the biographers of William +Lloyd Garrison for the purpose of establishing, +as they afterwards do, their claim +that Garrison conducted a successful revolt +against that provision of the Constitution.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_54" id="Page_54">[54]</a></span> +What strengthens the statement that the +North in 1828 submitted without protest +to the "fugitive slave-catching clause of the +Constitution," is that the Compromise Act +of 1820 contained a provision extending the +fugitive slave law over the territory made +free by the act, while it should continue +to be territory, and until there should be +formed from it States, to which the existing +law would automatically apply. Every +subsequent <i>nullification of the fugitive slave +laws</i> of the United States, whether by governors +or state legislatures, was therefore a +palpable <i>violation of a provision that was of +the essence of the Missouri Compromise</i>.</p> + +<p>The South was content with the Missouri +Compromise, and from that date, 1820, until +the rise of the "New Abolitionists," slavery +was in all that region an open question. +Judge Temple says in his "Covenanter, +Cavalier, and Puritan," p. 208: "In 1826, of +the 143 emancipation societies in the United +States, 103 were in the South."</p> + +<p>The questions for Southern emancipationists +were: How could the slaves be freed, +and in what time? How about compensation +to owners? Where could the freed<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_55" id="Page_55">[55]</a></span> +slaves be sent, and how? And, if deportation +should prove impossible, what system +could be devised whereby the two races +could dwell together peacefully? These +were indeed serious problems, and required +time and grave consideration.</p> + +<p>"Who can doubt," says Mr. Curtis, to +quote once more his "Life of Buchanan," +"that all such questions could have been +satisfactorily answered, if the Christianity +of the South had been left to its own time +and mode of answering them, and without +any external force but the force of kindly, +respectful consideration and forebearing +Christian fellowship?"<a name="FNanchor_21_21" id="FNanchor_21_21"></a><a href="#Footnote_21_21" class="fnanchor">[21]</a></p> + +<p>But this was not to be.</p> + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_56" id="Page_56">[56]</a></span></p> +<h2>CHAPTER III</h2> + +<h3>THE NEW ABOLITIONISTS</h3> + + +<p>On the first day of January, 1831, there +came out in Boston a new paper, <i>The +Liberator</i>, William Lloyd Garrison, editor. +That was the beginning, historians now generally +agree, of "New Abolitionism." The +editor of the new paper was the founder of +the new sect.</p> + +<p>Benjamin Lundy was a predecessor of +Garrison, on much the same lines as those +pursued by the latter. Lundy had previously +formed many Abolition societies. <i>The Philanthropist</i> +of March, 1828, estimated the +number of anti-slavery societies as "upwards +of 130, and most of them in the slave +States, and of Lundy's formation, among +the Quakers."<a name="FNanchor_22_22" id="FNanchor_22_22"></a><a href="#Footnote_22_22" class="fnanchor">[22]</a> But Garrison became the +leader and Lundy the disciple.</p> + +<p>Garrison was a man of pleasing personal +appearance, abstemious in habits, and of remarkable +energy and will power. He was a<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_57" id="Page_57">[57]</a></span> +vigorous and forceful writer. Denunciation +was his chief weapon, and he had "a genius +for infuriating his antagonists." The following +is a fair specimen of his style. Speaking +of himself and his fellow-workers as the +"soldiers of God," he said: "Their feet are +shod with the preparation of the <i>gospel of +peace</i>.... Hence, when smitten on one +cheek they turn the other also, being defamed +they entreat, being reviled they +bless," etc. And on that same page,<a name="FNanchor_23_23" id="FNanchor_23_23"></a><a href="#Footnote_23_23" class="fnanchor">[23]</a> and in +the same prospectus, showing how he +"blesses" those who, as he understands, are +outside of the "Kingdom of God," he says: +"All without are dogs and sorcerers, and +... and murderers, and idolaters, and +whatsoever loveth a lie."</p> + +<p>Mr. Garrison had no perspective, no +sense of relation or proportion. In his eye +the most humane slave-holder was a wicked +monster. He had a genius for organization, +and a year after the first issue of +<i>The Liberator</i> he and his little body of +brother fanatics had grown into the New +England Anti-Slavery Society.</p> + +<p>The new sect called themselves for a time<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_58" id="Page_58">[58]</a></span> +the "New Abolitionists," because their doctrines +were new. The principles upon which +this organization was to be based were not +all formulated at once. The key-note was +sounded in Garrison's "Address to the Public" +in the first number of <i>The Liberator</i>:</p> + +<blockquote><p>I shall strenuously contend for the immediate enfranchisement +of our slave population. I shall be +as harsh as truth and as uncompromising as justice +on this subject. <i>I do not wish to think or speak or +write with moderation.</i></p></blockquote> + +<p>In an earlier issue, after denouncing slavery +as a "damning crime," the editor said: +"Therefore my efforts shall be directed to +<i>the exposure of those who practise it</i>."</p> + +<p>The substance of Garrison's teachings +was that slavery, anywhere in the United +States, was the concern of all, and that it +was to be put down by making not only +slavery but also the slave-holder odious. +And, further, it was the slave, not the +slave-owner, who was entitled to compensation.</p> + +<p>Thus the distinctive features of the new +crusade were to be warfare upon the personal +character of every slave-holder and the confiscation<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_59" id="Page_59">[59]</a></span> +of his property. It was, too, the +beginning of that sectional war by people of +the North against the existence of slavery +in the South, which, as we have seen, was +deprecated by Dr. Channing in his letter +three years before to Mr. Webster.</p> + +<p>The new sect began by assailing slavery +in States other than their own, and very +soon they were openly denouncing the Constitution +of their country because under it +slavery in those sections was none of their +business; and of course they repudiated +the Missouri Compromise absolutely, the +essence of that compromise being that slavery +was the business of the States in which +it existed.</p> + +<p>It was a part of their scheme to send circulars +depicting the evils of slavery broadcast +through the South; and they were sent +especially to the free negroes of that section.</p> + +<p>"In 1820," says Dr. Hart in his "Slavery +and Abolition," "at Charleston (South Carolina), +Denmark Vesey, a free negro, made +an elaborate plot to rise, massacre the white +population, seize the shipping in the harbor, +and, if hard pressed, to sail away to the West +Indies. One of the negroes gave evidence,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_60" id="Page_60">[60]</a></span> +Vesey was seized, duly tried, and with +thirty-four others was hanged."<a name="FNanchor_24_24" id="FNanchor_24_24"></a><a href="#Footnote_24_24" class="fnanchor">[24]</a></p> + +<p>This plot, so nearly successful, was fresh +in the minds of Southerners when the Abolitionists +began their programme, and naturally, +the South at once took the alarm—an +alarm that was increased by the massacre, +in the Nat Turner insurrection, of sixty-one +men, women, and children, which took place +in Virginia seven months after the first issue +of <i>The Liberator</i>. One of Turner's lieutenants +is stated to have been a free negro. This +insurrection the South attributed to <i>The +Liberator</i>. Professor Hart says a free negro +named Walker had previously sent out to +the South, from Boston, a pamphlet, "the +tone of which was unmistakable," and that +"this pamphlet is known to have reached +Virginia, and may possibly have influenced +the Nat Turner insurrection."<a name="FNanchor_25_25" id="FNanchor_25_25"></a><a href="#Footnote_25_25" class="fnanchor">[25]</a></p> + +<p>If this surmise be correct, knowledge that +Walker, a free negro, had been responsible +for the Turner insurrection, would have +lessened neither the guilt of the Abolitionists +nor the fears of the Southerners.</p> + +<p>But in 1832 Abolition agitation and the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_61" id="Page_61">[61]</a></span> +fears of insurrection had not as yet entirely +stifled the discussion of slavery in the South. +A debate on slavery took place that year in +the Virginia Assembly, the immediate cause +of which was no doubt the Turner insurrection. +The members of that body had not +been elected on any issue of that character. +The discussion thus precipitated shows, +therefore, the state of public opinion in +Virginia on slavery. Of this debate a distinguished +Northern writer says:<a name="FNanchor_26_26" id="FNanchor_26_26"></a><a href="#Footnote_26_26" class="fnanchor">[26]</a></p> + +<p>"In the year 1832 there was, nowhere in +the world, a more enlightened sense of the +wrong and evil of slavery than there was +among the public men and people of Virginia."</p> + +<p>In the Assembly of that year Mr. Randolph +brought forward a bill <i>to accomplish +gradual emancipation</i>. Mr. Curtis continues:</p> + +<p>"No member of the House defended slavery.... +There could be nothing said anywhere, +there had been nothing said out of +Virginia, stronger and truer in deprecating +the evils of slavery, than was said in that +discussion, by Virginia gentlemen, debating<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_62" id="Page_62">[62]</a></span> +in their own legislature, a matter that concerned +themselves and their people."</p> + +<p>The bill was not pressed to a vote, but +the House, by a vote of 65 to 38, declared +"that they were profoundly sensible of the +great evils arising from the condition of the +colored population of the Commonwealth +and were induced by policy, as well as +humanity, to attempt the immediate removal +of the free negroes; but that further +action for the <i>removal of the slaves should +await a more definite development of public +opinion</i>."</p> + +<p>Mr. Randolph, who was from the large +slave-holding county of Albemarle, was re-elected +to the next assembly.</p> + +<p>But when the early summer of 1835 had +come the fear of insurrection had created +such wide-spread terror throughout the +whole South that every emancipation society +in that region had long since closed +its doors; and now the Abolitionists were +sending South their circulars in numbers. +Many were sent to Charleston, South +Carolina,<a name="FNanchor_27_27" id="FNanchor_27_27"></a><a href="#Footnote_27_27" class="fnanchor">[27]</a> where fifteen years before<a name="FNanchor_28_28" id="FNanchor_28_28"></a><a href="#Footnote_28_28" class="fnanchor">[28]</a> the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_63" id="Page_63">[63]</a></span> +free negro, Denmark Vesey, had laid the +plot to massacre the whites, that had been +discovered just in time to prevent its consummation.</p> + +<p>The President, Andrew Jackson, in his +next message to Congress, December, 1835, +called their "attention to the painful excitement +produced in the South by attempts to +circulate through the mails <i>inflammatory appeals +addressed to the passions of the slaves, +in prints and in various sorts of publications +calculated to stimulate them to insurrection +and produce all the horrors of a servile war</i>."</p> + +<p>The good people of Boston were now +thoroughly aroused. They had from the +first frowned on the Abolition movement. +Garrison was complaining that in all the +city his society could not "hire a hall or a +meeting-house." The Abolition idea had +been for a time thought chimerical and +therefore negligible. Later, civic, business, +social, and religious organizations had all of +them in their several spheres been earnest +and active in their opposition; now it +seemed to be time for concerted action.</p> + +<p>In Garrison's "Garrison" (vol. I, p. 495), +we read that "the <i>social</i>, <i>political</i>, <i>religious</i><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_64" id="Page_64">[64]</a></span> +<i>and intellectual élite</i> of Boston filled Faneuil +Hall on the afternoon of Friday, August +3, 1835, to frame an indictment against +their fellow-citizens."</p> + +<p>This "indictment" the <i>Boston Transcript</i> +reported as follows:</p> + +<blockquote><p><i>Resolved</i>, That the people of the United States by +the Constitution under which, by the Divine blessing, +they hold their most valuable political privileges, +have solemnly agreed with each other to +leave to their respective States the jurisdiction pertaining +to the relation of master and slave within +their boundaries, and that no man or body of men, +except the people of the governments of those States, +can of right do any act to dissolve or impair the +obligations of that contract.</p> + +<p><i>Resolved</i>, That we hold in reprobation all attempts, +in whatever guise they may appear, to coerce any +of the United States to abolish slavery by <i>appeals +to the terror of the master or the passions of the slave</i>.</p> + +<p><i>Resolved</i>, That we disapprove of all associations +instituted in the non-slave-holding States with the +intent to act, within the slave-holding States, on +the subject of slavery in those States without their +consent. For the purpose of securing freedom of +individual thought they are needless—and they afford +to those persons in the Southern States, whose +object is to effect a dissolution of the Union (if any +such there may be now or hereafter), a pretext for +the furtherance of their schemes.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_65" id="Page_65">[65]</a></span><i>Resolved</i>, That all measures adopted, <i>the natural +and direct tendency of which is to excite the slaves of +the South to revolt, or of spreading among them a spirit +of insubordination</i>, are repugnant to the duties of +the man and the citizen, and that where such measures +become manifest by overt acts, which are recognizable +by constitutional laws, we will aid by all +means in our power in the support of those laws.</p> + +<p><i>Resolved</i>, That while we recommend to others the +duty of sacrificing their opinions, passions and sympathies +upon the altar of the laws, we are bound to +show that a regard to the supremacy of those laws +is the rule of our conduct—and consequently to +deprecate all tumultuous assemblies, all riotous or +violent proceedings, all outrages on person and property, +and all illegal notions of the right or duty of +executing summary and vindictive justice in any +mode unsanctioned by law.</p></blockquote> + +<p>The allusion in the last resolution is to a +then recent lynching of negroes in Mississippi +charged with insurrection.</p> + +<p>In speaking to these resolutions, Harrison +Gray Otis, a great conservative leader, denounced +the Abolition agitators, accusing +them of "wishing to 'scatter among our +Southern brethren <i>firebrands</i>, <i>arrows</i>, and +<i>death</i>,' and of attempting to force Abolition +by appeals to the terror of the masters +and the passions of the slaves," and<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_66" id="Page_66">[66]</a></span> +decrying their "measures, the natural and +direct tendency of which is to excite the +slaves of the South to revolt," etc.</p> + +<p>Another of the speakers, ex-Senator Peleg +Sprague, said (p. 496, Garrison's "Garrison") +that "if their sentiments prevailed +it would be all over with the Union, which +would give place to two hostile confederacies, +with forts and standing armies."</p> + +<p>These resolutions and speeches, viewed in +the light of what followed, read now like +prophecy.</p> + +<p>It is a familiar rule of law that a contemporaneous +exposition of a statute is to be +given extraordinary weight by the courts, +the reason being that the judge then sitting +knows the surrounding circumstances. That +Boston meeting pronounced the deliberate +judgment of the most intelligent men of +Boston on the situation, as they knew it to +be that day; it was in their midst that <i>The +Liberator</i> was being published; there the new +sect had its head-quarters, and there it was +doing its work.</p> + +<p>Quite as strong as the evidence furnished +by that great Faneuil Hall meeting is the +testimony of the churches.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_67" id="Page_67">[67]</a></span>The churches and religious bodies in +America had heartily favored the general +anti-slavery movement that was sweeping +over all America between 1770 and 1831, +while it was proceeding in an orderly manner +and with due regard to law.</p> + +<p>In 1812 the Methodist General Conference +voted that no slave-holder could continue +as a local elder. The Presbyterian +General Assembly in 1818 unanimously resolved +that "slavery was a gross violation +of the most precious and moral rights of +human nature," etc.</p> + +<p>These bodies represented both the North +and the South, and this paragraph shows +what was, and continued to be, the general +attitude of American churches until after +the Abolitionists had begun their assault +on both slavery in the South and the Constitution +of the United States, which protected +it. Then, in view of the awful social +and political cataclysm that seemed to be +threatened, there occurred a stupendous +change. We learn from Hart that Garrison +"soon found that neither minister <i>nor +church anywhere in the lower South continued</i> +(as before) to protest against slavery; <i>that</i><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_68" id="Page_68">[68]</a></span> +<i>the cloth in the North was arrayed against +him</i>; and that many Northern divines +vigorously opposed him." Also that Moses +Stuart, professor of Hebrew in Andover +Theological Seminary; President Lord, of +Dartmouth College, and Hopkins, the Episcopal +bishop of Vermont, now became defenders +of slavery. "The positive opposition +of churches soon followed."</p> + +<p>And then we have cited, condemnations +of Abolitionism by the Methodist Conference +of 1836, by the New York Methodist +Conference of 1838, by the American Board +of Commissioners for Foreign Missions, by +the American Home Missionary Society, +the American Bible Society, the Protestant +Episcopal Church, and the Baptists. See +for these statements, Hart, pp. 211-12.</p> + +<p>The import of all this is unmistakable; +and this "about-face" of religious organizations +on the question of the morality of +slavery has no parallel in all the history of +Christian churches. Its significance cannot +be overstated. It took place North and +South. It meant opposition to a movement +that was outside the church <i>and with which +religion could have no concern, except in so</i><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_69" id="Page_69">[69]</a></span><i> +far as it was a vital assault upon the State, and +the peace of the State</i>. To make their opposition +effective the Christians of that day +did this remarkable thing. <i>They reversed +their religious views on slavery, which the +Abolitionists were now assailing, and which +they themselves had previously opposed.</i> They +re-examined their Bibles and found arguments +that favored slavery. These arguments +they used in an attempt to stem an +agitation that, as they saw it, was arraying +section against section and threatening the +perpetuity of the Union.</p> + +<p>United testimony from all these Christian +bodies is more conclusive contemporaneous +evidence against the agitators and their +methods than even the proceedings of all +conservative Boston at Faneuil Hall in +August, 1835.</p> + +<p>This new attitude of the church toward +slavery meant perhaps also something further—it +meant that slavery, as it actually +existed, was not then as horrible to Northerners, +who could go across the line and see +it, which many of them did, as it is now to +those whose ideas of it come chiefly from +"Uncle Tom's Cabin."</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_70" id="Page_70">[70]</a></span>In view of this phenomenal movement of +Northern Christians it is not strange that +Southern churches adhered, throughout the +deadly struggle that was now on, to the position +into which they had been driven—that +slavery was sanctioned by the Bible—nor +is it matter of wonder that, as Professor +Hart makes prominent on p. 137, "not +a single Southern man of large reputation +and influence failed to stand by slavery."</p> + +<p>Historians of to-day usually narrate without +comment that nearly all the American +churches and divines at first opposed the +Abolitionists. It illustrates the courage +with which the Abolitionists stood, as Dr. +Hart delights to point out, "for a despised +cause." They assuredly did stand by their +guns.</p> + +<p>Later, another change came about in the +attitude of the churches. In 1844 the Abolitionists +were to achieve their first victory +in the great religious world. The Methodist +Church was then disrupted, "squarely on +the question whether a bishop could own +slaves, and all the Southern members withdrew +and organized the Methodist Episcopal +Church, South." Professor Hart, p. 214,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_71" id="Page_71">[71]</a></span> +says of this: "Clearly, the impassioned +agitation of the Abolitionists had made it +impossible for a great number of Northern +anti-slavery men <i>to remain on terms of +friendship with their Southern brethren</i>."</p> + +<p>That great Faneuil Hall meeting of August +31, 1835, was followed some weeks later +by a lamentable anti-Garrison mob, which +did not stand alone. In the years 1835, +1836, and 1837 a great wave of anti-Abolition +excitement swept over the North. In +New York, Philadelphia, Cincinnati, Alton +(Illinois), and many other places, there were +anti-Abolition riots, sometimes resulting in +arson and bloodshed.</p> + +<p>The heart of the great, peace-loving, +patriotic, and theretofore happy and contented +North, was at that time stirred +with the profoundest indignation against the +Abolitionists. Northern opinion then was +that the Abolitionists, by their unpatriotic +course and their nefarious methods, were +driving the South to desperation and endangering +the Union. If the North at that +time saw the situation as it really was, the +historian of the present day should say so. +If, on the other hand, the people of both<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_72" id="Page_72">[72]</a></span> +the North and South were then laboring +under delusions, as to the facts that were +occurring among them, those of this generation, +who are wiser than their ancestors, +should give us the sources of their information. +To know the lessons of history we +must have the facts.<a name="FNanchor_29_29" id="FNanchor_29_29"></a><a href="#Footnote_29_29" class="fnanchor">[29]</a></p> + +<p>In 1854, at Framingham, Massachusetts, +the Abolitionists celebrated the Fourth of +July thus: Their leader, William Lloyd +Garrison, held up and burned to ashes, before +the applauding multitude, one after +another, copies of</p> + +<p>1st. The fugitive slave law.</p> + +<p>2d. The decision of Commissioner Loring +in the case of Burns, a fugitive slave.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_73" id="Page_73">[73]</a></span>3d. The charge to the Grand Jury of +Judge Benjamin R. Curtis in reference to +the effort of a mob to secure a fugitive slave.</p> + +<p>4th. "Then, holding up the United States +Constitution, he branded it as the source +and parent of all other atrocities, 'a covenant +with death and an agreement with +hell,' and consumed it to ashes on the spot, +exclaiming, 'So perish all compromises with +tyranny! And let all the people say, Amen!' +A tremendous shout of 'Amen!' went up to +heaven in ratification of the deed, mingled +with a few hisses and wrathful exclamations<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_74" id="Page_74">[74]</a></span> +from some, who evidently were in a <i>rowdyish</i> +state of mind, but who were at once +cowed by the popular feeling."<a name="FNanchor_30_30" id="FNanchor_30_30"></a><a href="#Footnote_30_30" class="fnanchor">[30]</a></p> + +<p>The Abolitionist movement was radical; +it was revolutionary. When an accredited +teacher of history, in one of the greatest of +our universities, writes a volume on "Abolition +and Slavery," why should he restrict +himself in comment, as Dr. Hart thus does +in his preface? The book is "intended to +show that there was more than one side to +the controversy, and that both the milder +form of opposition called anti-slavery and +<i>the extreme form called Abolition</i>, were <i>confronted +by practical difficulties</i> which to many +public men seemed insurmountable."</p> + +<p>Why should not the historian, in addition +to pointing out the "difficulties" encountered +by these extremists, <i>show how and +why the people of that day condemned their +conduct</i>?</p> + +<p>Condonation of the Abolitionists, and a +proper regard for the Constitution of the +United States, cannot be taught to the +youth of America at one and the same +time.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_75" id="Page_75">[75]</a></span>The writer has been unable to find any of +the incendiary pamphlets that had proved +so inflammatory. He has, however, before +him a little anonymous publication entitled +"Slavery Illustrated in its Effects upon +Woman," Isaac Knapp, Boston, 1837. It +was for circulation in the North, being +"Affectionately Inscribed to all the Members +of Female Anti-Slavery Societies," and +it is only cited here as an illustration of the +almost inconceivable venom with which the +crusade was carried on to <i>embitter the North +against the South</i>. It is a vicious attack +upon the morality of Southern men and +women, and upon Southern churches. None +of its charges does it claim to authenticate, +and it gives no names or dates. One incident, +related as typical, is of two white +women, all the time in full communion with +their church, under pretence of a boarding-house, +keeping a brothel, negro women being +the inmates.</p> + +<p>In the chapter entitled "Impurity of the +Christian Churches" is this sentence: "At +present the Southern Churches are only +one vast consociation of hypocrites and +sinners."</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_76" id="Page_76">[76]</a></span>The booklet was published anonymously, +but at that time any prurient story about +slavery in the South would circulate, no +matter whether vouched for or not.</p> + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_77" id="Page_77">[77]</a></span></p> +<h2>CHAPTER IV</h2> + +<h3>FEELING IN THE SOUTH—1835</h3> + + +<p>Not stronger than the proceedings of a +great non-partisan public meeting, or +than the action of religious bodies, but going +more into detail as to public opinion in +the South and the effect upon it of Abolition +agitation, is the evidence of a quiet observer, +Professor E. A. Andrews, who, in July, 1835, +had been sent out as the agent of "The Boston +Union for the Relief and Improvement +of the Colored Race." His reports from both +Northern and Southern States, consisting +of letters from various points, constitute a +book, "Slavery and the Domestic Slave +Trade," Boston, 1836.</p> + +<p>July 17, 1835, from Baltimore, Professor +Andrews reports that a resident clergyman, +who appears to have his entire confidence, +says, among other things, "that a disposition +to emancipate their slaves is very prevalent +among the slave-holders of this State, +could they see any way to do so consistently<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_78" id="Page_78">[78]</a></span> +with the true interest of the slave, but that +it is their universal belief that no means of +doing this is now presented except that of +colonizing them in Africa."</p> + +<p>From the same city, July 17, 1835, he +writes, p. 53: "In this city there appears +to be no strong attachment to slavery and +no wish to perpetuate it."</p> + +<p>Again, on p. 95: "There is but one sentiment +amongst those with whom I have +conversed in this city, respecting the possibility +of the white and colored races living +peaceably together in freedom, nor during +my residence at the South and my subsequent +intercourse with the Southern people, +<i>did I ever meet with one who believed it possible +for the two races to continue together after +emancipation</i>.... When the slaves of the +South are liberated they form an integral +part of the population of the country, and +must influence its destiny for ages—perhaps +forever."</p> + +<p>From Fredericksburg, Virginia, Professor +Andrews writes:</p> + +<blockquote><p>Since I entered the slave-holding country I have +seen but one man who did not deprecate wholly +and absolutely the direct interference of Northern<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_79" id="Page_79">[79]</a></span> +Abolitionists with the institutions of the South. "I +was an Abolitionist," has been the language of numbers +of those with whom I have conversed; "I was +an Abolitionist, <i>and was laboring earnestly to bring +about a prospective system of emancipation. I even +saw, as I believed, the certain and complete success of +the friends of the colored race at no distant period, when +these Northern Abolitionists interfered, and by their +extravagant and impracticable schemes frustrated all +our hopes.... Our people have become exasperated, +the friends of the slaves alarmed</i>, etc....<a name="FNanchor_31_31" id="FNanchor_31_31"></a><a href="#Footnote_31_31" class="fnanchor">[31]</a> Equally +united are they in the opinion that the servitude of +the slaves is far more rigorous now than it would have +been had there been no interference with them. <i>In +proportion to the danger of revolt and insurrection, have +been</i> the severity of the enactments for controlling +them and the diligence with which the laws have been +executed."</p></blockquote> + +<p>From a private letter, written at Greenville, +Alabama, August 30, 1835, by a distinguished +lawyer, John W. Womack, to +his brother, we quote:</p> + +<blockquote><p>The anti-slavery societies in the Northern and +Middle States are doing all they can to destroy our +domestic harmony by sending among us pamphlets, +tracts, and newspapers—for the purpose of exciting +dissatisfaction and insurrection among our slaves.... +Meetings have been held in Mobile, in Montgomery,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_80" id="Page_80">[80]</a></span> +in Greensboro, and in Tuscaloosa, and in +different parts of all the Southern States. At these +meetings resolutions have been adopted, disclaiming +(<i>sic</i>) and denying the right of the Northern people +to interfere in any manner in our internal domestic +concerns.... It is my solemn opinion that this +question (to wit, slavery) will ultimately bring about +a dissolution of the Union of the States.</p></blockquote> + +<p>It should be remembered that in 1832 the +massacre in Santo Domingo of all the whites +by the blacks was fresh in mind. It had +occurred in 1814—after manumission—and +had produced, especially in the minds of +statesmen and of all observers of the many +signs of antagonism between the two races, +a profound and lasting impression.</p> + +<p>The fear that the races, both free, could +not live together was in the mind of Thomas +Jefferson, of Henry Clay, and of every other +Southern emancipationist. And deportation, +its expense, and the want of a home to +which to send the negro—here was a stumbling-block +in the way of Southern emancipation.</p> + +<p>Indeed, the incompatibility of the races +was an appalling thought in the minds of +Southerners for the whole thirty years of +anti-slavery agitation. It was even with<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_81" id="Page_81">[81]</a></span> +Abraham Lincoln, and weighed upon his +mind when, at last, in 1862, military necessity +placed upon his shoulders the responsibility +of emancipating the Southern slaves. +Serious as was the responsibility, the question +was not new to him. When Mr. Lincoln +said, in his celebrated Springfield speech +in 1858, "I believe this government cannot +endure permanently half slave and half +free," and added that he did not expect the +government to fail, he certainly expected +that emancipation in the South was coming; +and, of course, he thought over what +the consequences might be.</p> + +<p>In that same debate with Douglas, in his +speech at Charleston, Illinois, Mr. Lincoln +said: "There is a physical difference between +the white and black races, which, I +believe, will forever forbid the two races +living together on terms of social and political +equality."</p> + +<p>In his memorial address on Henry Clay, +in 1852, he had said: "If, as the friends of +colonization hope, the present and coming +generations of our countrymen shall by +some means succeed in freeing our land from +the dangerous presence of slavery, and at<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_82" id="Page_82">[82]</a></span> +the same time in restoring a captive people +to their long lost father-land, ... it will, +indeed, be a glorious consummation. And +if to such a contribution the efforts of Mr. +Clay shall have contributed ... none of +his labors will have been more valuable to +his country and his kind."</p> + +<p>In his famous emancipation proclamation +he promised "that the effort to colonize persons +of African descent upon this continent +or elsewhere, with the consent of the government +existing there, will be continued."</p> + +<p>It must have been with a heavy heart that +the great President announced the failure +of all his efforts to find a home outside of +America for the freedmen, <i>when he informed +Congress in his December message, 1862, that +all in vain he had asked permission to send the +negroes, when freed, to the British, the Danish, +and the French West Indies; and that the +Spanish-American countries in Central America +had also refused his request</i>. He could +find no places except Hayti and Liberia. +He even made the futile experiment of sending +a ship-load to a little island off Hayti.<a name="FNanchor_32_32" id="FNanchor_32_32"></a><a href="#Footnote_32_32" class="fnanchor">[32]</a> +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_83" id="Page_83">[83]</a></span>Hume, in "The Abolitionists," tells us that +Mr. Lincoln for a time <i>considered setting +Texas apart as a home for the negroes</i>—so +much was he disturbed by this trouble.</p> + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_84" id="Page_84">[84]</a></span></p> +<h2>CHAPTER V</h2> + +<h3>ANTI-ABOLITION AT THE NORTH</h3> + + +<p>Southerners, save perhaps a few +who were wise enough to foresee what +the consequences might be, were deeply +gratified when they read (1835-1838) of +the violent opposition in the North to the +desperate schemes of the Abolitionists. +Surely these mobs fairly represented public +opinion, and that public opinion certainly +was a strong guaranty to the South of future +peace and security.</p> + +<p>But the Abolitionists themselves were not +dismayed. They may have misread, indeed +it is certain they did misunderstand, the +signs of the times. Garrison in his <i>Liberator</i> +took the ground—as do his children in +their life of him, written fifty years later—that +the great Faneuil Hall meeting of +August 31, 1835, which they themselves +declare represented "the intelligence, the +wealth, the culture, and the religion of +Boston," was but an indication of the "pro-slavery"<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_85" id="Page_85">[85]</a></span> +sentiment then existing. In reality +it was just what it purported to be—an +authoritative condemnation, not of the +anti-slavery opinions, but of the avowed +purposes and methods of the new sect. +The mobbing of Garrison and the sacking +of his printing office in Boston on September +26th, however, and the lawless violence +to Abolitionists that followed the denunciations +of that despised sect by speakers, and +by the public press, in New York, in Philadelphia, +in Cincinnati, and elsewhere in the +North, proved disastrous in the extreme.</p> + +<p>While that great wave of anti-Abolition +feeling was sweeping over that whole region +from East to West, there were many good +people who deluded themselves with the +idea that this new sect with its visionary +and impracticable ideas was being consigned +to oblivion, but in what followed we have a +lesson that unfortunately some of our people +have not yet fully learned. Mob law in +any portion of our free country, where there +is law with officers to enforce it, is a mistake, +a mistake that is likely to be followed +sooner or later by most disastrous results. +The mobs that marked the beginning of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_86" id="Page_86">[86]</a></span> +our Revolution in 1774 were legitimate; +they meant revolt, revolt against constituted +authorities. But where a mob does not +mean the overthrow of government, where +it only means to substitute its own blind +will for the arm of the law, not good but +evil—it may be long deferred, but evil eventually—is +sure to follow. When mobs assailed +Abolitionists because they threatened +the peace and tranquillity of the country, +evil followed swiftly.</p> + +<p>Violent and harsh treatment of these mischievous +agitators almost everywhere in the +North, and the heroism with which they +endured ignominy and insult, brought about +a revulsion of public sentiment. To understand +the philosophy of this, read two extracts +from the writings of that great, and +universally admired, pulpit orator, Dr. +William E. Channing of Boston, the first +written sometime prior to that August +meeting:</p> + +<blockquote><p>The adoption of the common system of agitation +by the Abolitionists has not been justified by success. +From the beginning it has created alarm in +the considerate, and strengthened the sympathies of +the Free States with the slave-holder. It has made<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_87" id="Page_87">[87]</a></span> +converts of a few individuals, but alienated multitudes. +<i>Its influence at the South has been almost +wholly evil. It has stirred up bitter passions, and a +fierce fanaticism, which have shut every ear and every +heart against its arguments and persuasions.</i> These +efforts are more to be deplored, because the hope of +freedom to the slave lies chiefly in the dispositions +of his master. The Abolitionist proposed indeed +to convert the slave-holder; and for this end he +<i>approached them with vituperation, and exhausted upon +them the vocabulary of reproach</i>. And he has reaped +as he sowed.... Perhaps (though I am anxious to +repel the thought) something has been lost to the +cause of freedom and humanity.<a name="FNanchor_33_33" id="FNanchor_33_33"></a><a href="#Footnote_33_33" class="fnanchor">[33]</a></p></blockquote> + +<p>These were Dr. Channing's opinions of +the Abolitionists prior to August, 1835, and +he seems to have kept silent for a time after +the mobbing that followed that great Faneuil +Hall meeting; but a year later, when +many other things had happened along the +same line, he spoke out in an open letter to +James G. Birney, an Abolitionist editor who +had been driven from Cincinnati, and whose +press, on which <i>The Philanthropist</i> was +printed, had been broken up. In that letter, +p. 157, <i>supra</i>, speaking of course not +for himself alone, Dr. Channing says:</p> + +<blockquote><p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_88" id="Page_88">[88]</a></span>I think it best ... to extend my remarks to the +spirit of violence and persecution which has broken +out against the Abolitionists throughout the whole +country. Of their merits and demerits as Abolitionists +I have formerly spoken.... I have expressed +my fervent attachment to the great end to which +they are pledged and at the same time <i>my disapprobation, +to a certain extent, of their spirit and measures</i>.... +Deliberate, systematic efforts have been made, +<i>not here and there, but far and wide</i>, to wrest from its +adherents that <i>liberty of speech and the press</i>, which +our fathers asserted in blood, and which our National +and State Governments are pledged to protect +as our most sacred right. Its most conspicuous advocates +have been hunted and stoned, its meetings +scattered, its presses broken up, and nothing but +the patience, constancy and intrepidity of its members +has saved it from extinction.... They are +<i>sufferers for the liberty of thought, speech and press; +and in maintaining this liberty, amidst insult and +violence, they deserve a place among its honorable +defenders</i>.</p></blockquote> + +<p>Still admitting that "their writings have +been blemished by a spirit of intolerance, +sweeping censure, and rash, injurious judgment," +this great man now threw all the +weight of his influence on the side of the +Abolitionists, because they were <i>the champions +of free speech</i>. Their moral worth<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_89" id="Page_89">[89]</a></span> +and steady adherence to their ideas of non-resistance +he pointed to admiringly, and it +must always be remembered to their credit +that the private lives of Garrison and his +leading co-workers were irreproachable. Indeed, +the unselfish devotion of these agitators +and their high moral character were +in themselves a serious misfortune. They +soon attracted a lot of zealots, male and +female, who became as reckless as they were. +And these out-and-out fanatics were not +themselves office-seekers. What they feared, +they said, was that a "lot of soulless scamps +would jump on to their shoulders to ride +into office";<a name="FNanchor_34_34" id="FNanchor_34_34"></a><a href="#Footnote_34_34" class="fnanchor">[34]</a> and there really was the great +danger, as appeared later.</p> + +<p>In the results that followed the mobbing +of Abolitionists in the North, from 1834 to +1836, is to be found another lesson for those +voters of this day who can profit by the +teachings of history. The violent assaults +on the Abolitionists by the friends of the +Constitution and the Union constituted an +epoch in the lives of these people. It gave +them a footing and a hearing and many +converts.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_90" id="Page_90">[90]</a></span>We have already noted some wonderful +and instructive changes in the tide of events +set in motion by the radical teachings of the +New Abolitionists. The churches, as has +been shown, to save the country, North and +South, changed their attitude on slavery +itself. Dr. Channing, who had opposed the +methods of the Abolitionists, became, as +many others did with him, when mobs had +assailed these people, their defender and +eulogist, because they were martyrs for the +sake of free speech; and now we are to +see in John Quincy Adams another change, +equally notable, a change that was to make +Mr. Adams thenceforward the most momentous +figure, at least during its earlier +stages, in the tragic drama that is the subject +of our story.</p> + +<p>Elected to the House of Representatives +after the expiration of his term as President, +Mr. Adams was not in sympathy with the +methods of the Abolitionists. Indeed, prior +to December 31, 1831, he had shown as little +interest in slavery as he did when on that +day in presenting to the House fifteen petitions +against slavery he "deprecated a discussion +which would lead to ill-will, to heart-burning,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_91" id="Page_91">[91]</a></span> +to mutual hatred ... without +accomplishing anything else."<a name="FNanchor_35_35" id="FNanchor_35_35"></a><a href="#Footnote_35_35" class="fnanchor">[35]</a></p> + +<p>The petitions presented by Mr. Adams +were referred to a committee.</p> + +<p>The Southerners had not then become +so exasperated as to insist on Congress refusing +to receive Abolition petitions. But +multiplying these petitions was a ready +means of provoking the slave-holders, and +soon petitions poured in from many quarters, +couched, most of them, in language, +not disrespectful to Congress but provoking +to slave-holders.</p> + +<p>Unfortunately, the lower house of Congress +on May 26, 1836, which was while +mobs in the North were still trying to put +down the Abolitionists, passed a resolution +that all such petitions, etc., should thereafter +be laid upon the table, <i>without further +action</i>. Adams voted against it as "a direct +violation of the Constitution of the United +States." The Constitution forbids any law +"abridging the freedom of speech ... or +the right ... to petition the government +for a redress of grievances." The resolution +to lay all anti-slavery petitions on the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_92" id="Page_92">[92]</a></span> +table without further action was passed, +"with the hope that it might put a stop to +the agitation that seemed to endanger the +existence of the Union." But it had the +opposite effect. It soon became known as +the "gag resolution," and was, for years, the +centre of the most aggravating discussions +that had, up to that time, ever occurred in +Congress. Mr. Adams in these debates became, +without, it seems, ever having been +in full sympathy with the agitators, thenceforward +their champion in Congress, and so +continued until the day of his death in 1848.</p> + +<p>The Abolitionists were happy. They were +succeeding in their programme—making the +Southern slave-holder odious by exasperating +him into offending Northern sentiment.</p> + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_93" id="Page_93">[93]</a></span></p> +<h2>CHAPTER VI</h2> + +<h3>A CRISIS AND A COMPROMISE</h3> + + +<p>In 1840 there were 200 Abolition societies, +with a membership of over 200,000. +Agitation had created all over the North a +spirit of hostility to slavery as it existed in +the South, and especially to the admission +of new slave States into the Union. In 1840 +the struggle over the application of Texas +for admission into the Union had already, +for three years, been mooted. Objections to +the admission of the new State were many, +such as: American adventurers had wrongfully +wrested control of the new State from +Mexico; boundary lines were unsettled; +war with Mexico would follow, etc.; but +chiefly, Texas was a slave State, which was, +in the South, a strong reason for annexation. +There were, however, many sound +and unanswerable arguments for the admission +of the new State, just such as had influenced +Jefferson in purchasing the Louisiana<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_94" id="Page_94">[94]</a></span> +territory: Texas was contiguous, her +territory and resources immense.</p> + +<p>On the issue thus joined the first great +gun had been fired by Dr. Channing, who, +though still more moderate than some, might +now be classed as an Abolitionist. August +1, 1837, he wrote a long open letter to Henry +Clay against annexation, and in that letter +he said:</p> + +<blockquote><p>To me it seems not only the right but the duty of +the Free States, in case of the annexation of Texas, +to say to the slave-holding States, "We regard this +act as the dissolution of the Union; the essential +conditions of the National Compact are violated."<a name="FNanchor_36_36" id="FNanchor_36_36"></a><a href="#Footnote_36_36" class="fnanchor">[36]</a></p></blockquote> + +<p>This was very like the pronunciamento +already made by Garrison—"no union with +slavery."</p> + +<p>The underlying reasons that controlled +Southern statesmen in this contest over +Texas, and the motives that animated them +in the fierce battles they fought later for +new slave States, are thus stated by Mr. +George Ticknor Curtis, of New England.<a name="FNanchor_37_37" id="FNanchor_37_37"></a><a href="#Footnote_37_37" class="fnanchor">[37]</a></p> + +<blockquote><p>It should in justice be remembered that the effort +<i>at that period to enlarge the area of slavery was an effort</i><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_95" id="Page_95">[95]</a></span> +<i>on the part of the South, dictated by a desire to remain +in the Union, and not to accept the issue of an inherent +incompatibility of a political union between slave-holding +and non-slave-holding States</i>.</p></blockquote> + +<p>In 1840 the first effort for the annexation +of Texas, by treaty, was defeated in the +Senate.</p> + +<p>If the Southerners had been as ready to +accept the doctrine of an inherent incompatibility +between slave and free States as +were Dr. Channing and those other Abolitionists +who were now declaring for "no +union with slave-holders," they would at +once have seceded and joined Texas; but +the South still loved the Union, and strove, +down to 1860, persistently, and often passionately, +for power that would enable it to +remain safely in its folds.</p> + +<p>Texas was finally admitted in 1845, after +annexation had been passed on by the people +in the presidential election of 1844. In +that election Clay was defeated by the +Abolitionists. Because Clay was not unreservedly +against annexation the Abolitionists +drew from the Whigs in New York +State enough votes, casting them for Birney, +to defeat Clay and elect Polk; and<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_96" id="Page_96">[96]</a></span> +now Abolitionism was a factor in national +politics.</p> + +<p>The two great national parties were the +Democrats and the Whigs, the voters somewhat +equally divided between them. For +years both parties had regarded the Abolitionists +precisely as did the non-partisan +meeting at Faneuil Hall, in August, 1835—as +a band of agitators, organized for the +purpose of interfering with slavery where it +was none of their business; and both parties +had meted out to this new and, as they +deemed it, pestilent sect, unstinted condemnation. +But at last the voters of this +despised cult had turned a presidential election +and were making inroads in both parties. +Half a dozen Northern States, in which +in 1835 "no protest had been made against +the fugitive slave law of 1793," had already +passed "personal liberty laws" intended to +obstruct and nullify that law. And now it +was "slave-catchers" and not Abolitionists +who were being mobbed in the North.</p> + +<p>Boston had reversed its attitude toward +the Abolitionists. On May 31, 1849, the +New England Anti-Slavery Society was +holding its annual convention in that very<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_97" id="Page_97">[97]</a></span> +Faneuil Hall where, in 1835, Abolitionism +had been so roundly condemned; and now +Wendell Phillips, pointing to one of two +fugitive slaves, who then sat triumphantly +on the platform, said, "amid great applause, +... 'We say that they may make their +little laws in Washington, but that <i>Faneuil +Hall repeals them</i>, in the name of the humanity +of Massachusetts.'"<a name="FNanchor_38_38" id="FNanchor_38_38"></a><a href="#Footnote_38_38" class="fnanchor">[38]</a></p> + +<p>Poets headed by Whittier and Longfellow, +authors like Emerson and Lowell, +and orators like Theodore Parker and Wendell +Phillips, had joined the agitators, and +all united in assaulting the fugitive slave +law. The following, from James Russell +Lowell's "Biglow Papers," No. 1, June, +1840, is a specimen of the literature that +was stirring up hostility against slavery and +the "slave-catcher" in the breasts of many +thousands, who were joining in an anti-slavery +crusade while disdaining companionship +with the Abolitionists:</p> + +<div class="poem"> +<span class="i0">"Ain't it cute to see a Yankee</span><br /> +<span class="i0">Take such everlastin' pains</span><br /> +<span class="i0">All to get the Devil's Thankee</span><br /> +<span class="i0">Helpin' on 'em weld their chains?"</span><br /> +<span class="i0"><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_98" id="Page_98">[98]</a></span>W'y it's jest es clear es figgers,</span><br /> +<span class="i0">Clear es one and one makes two,</span><br /> +<span class="i0">Chaps that makes black slaves of niggers</span><br /> +<span class="i0">Want to make w'ite slaves o' you.</span> +</div> + +<p>In the meantime the people of the South, +much excited, were resorting to repression, +passing laws to prevent slaves from being +taught to read, and laws, in some States, +inhibiting assemblages of slaves above given +numbers, unless some white person were +present—all as safeguards against insurrection. +Thus, in 1835, an indictment was +found in Tuscaloosa County, Alabama, +against one Williams, who had never been +in Alabama, for circulating there an alleged +incendiary document, and Governor Gayle +made requisition on Governor Marcy, of +New York, for the extradition of Williams. +Governor Marcy denied the request. The +case was the same as that more recently +decided by the Supreme Court of the United +States, when it held that editors of New +York and Indiana papers could not be +brought to the District of Columbia for +trial.</p> + +<p>The South, all the while clamoring to have +the agitators put down, had by still other<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_99" id="Page_99">[99]</a></span> +means than these contributed to the ever-increasing +excitement in the North. Southerners +had mobbed Abolitionists, and +whipped and driven out of the country +persons found in possession of <i>The Liberator</i> +or suspected of circulating other incendiary +literature. And violence in the South +against the Abolitionists had precisely the +same effect on the Northern mind as the +violence against them in the North had from +1835 to 1838, but there was this difference: +the refugee from the distant South, whether +he were an escaped slave or a fleeing Abolitionist, +could color and exaggerate the +wrongs he had suffered and so parade himself +as a martyr. While this was true, it +was also quite often true that the outrage +committed in the South against the suspect +was real enough—a mob had whipped and +expelled him without any trial. <i>And this is +another of the lessons as to the evil effects of +mob law that crop out all through the history +of the anti-slavery crusade. No good can come +from violating the law.</i></p> + +<p>In 1848 another presidential election +turned on the anti-slavery vote, this time +again in New York State. Anti-slavery<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_100" id="Page_100">[100]</a></span> +Democrats bolted the Democratic ticket, +thus electing General Taylor, the Whig +candidate.</p> + +<p>In the canvass preceding this election +originated, we are told, the catch-phrase +applied to Cass, the Democratic candidate—"a +Northern man with Southern principles." +The phrase soon became quite +common, South and North—"a Southern +man with Northern principles," and <i>vice +versa</i>.</p> + +<p>The invention and use of it in 1848 shows +the progress that had been made in arraying +one section of the Union against the +other. Later, a telling piece of doggerel in +Southern canvasses, and it must also have +been used North, was</p> + +<div class="poem"> +<span class="i0">He wired in and wired out,</span><br /> +<span class="i0">Leaving the people all in doubt,</span><br /> +<span class="i0">Whether the snake that made the track</span><br /> +<span class="i0">Was going North, or coming back.</span> +</div> + +<p>Over the admission of California in 1849 +there was another battle. California, 734 +miles long, with about 50,000 people (less +than the usual number), and with a constitution +improvised under military government,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_101" id="Page_101">[101]</a></span> +applied for admission as a State. +Southerners insisted on extending the line +of the Missouri Compromise to the Pacific, +thereby making of the new territory two +States. The South had been much embittered +by the opposition to the admission of +Texas. Texas was, nearly all of it, below +the Missouri Compromise line, and the +South thought it was equitably entitled to +come in under that agreement. Its case, +too, differed from that of Missouri, which +already belonged to the United States when +it applied for admission as a State. Texas, +with all its vast wealth, was asking to come +in without price.</p> + +<p>Another continuing and increasing cause +of distraction had been the use made by +Abolitionists of the right of petition. As +already shown, petitions to Congress against +slavery had been received without question +till 1836, when Northern conservatives and +Southern members, hoping to abate this +source of agitation, had combined to pass +a resolution to lay them on the table, which +meant that they were to be no further noticed. +The Abolitionists were so delighted +over the indefensible position into which<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_102" id="Page_102">[102]</a></span> +they had driven the conservatives—the +"gag law"—that they continued, up to the +crisis of 1850, with unflagging zeal to hurry +in monster petitions, one after another. +The debates provoked by the presentation +of these petitions, and the more and more +heated discussions in Congress of <i>slavery +in the States</i>, which was properly <i>a local and +not a national question</i>, now attracted still +wider public attention. The Abolitionists +had almost succeeded in arraying the entire +sections against each other, in making of +the South and North two hostile nations. +Professor John W. Burgess, dean of the +Faculty of Political Science in Columbia +University, says: "It would not be extravagant +to say that the whole course of the +internal history of the United States from +1836 to 1861 was more largely determined +by the struggle in Congress, over the <i>Abolition +petitions</i> and the use of the mails for +the Abolition literature, than anything +else."<a name="FNanchor_39_39" id="FNanchor_39_39"></a><a href="#Footnote_39_39" class="fnanchor">[39]</a></p> + +<p>The South had its full share in the hot +debates that took place over these matters +in Congress. Its congressmen were quite<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_103" id="Page_103">[103]</a></span> +as aggressive as those from the North, and +they were accused of being imperious in +manner, when demanding that a stop should +be put to Abolition petitions, and Abolition +literature going South in the mails.</p> + +<p>There was another cause of complaint +from the South, and this was grave. By +the "two underground railroads" that had +been established, slaves, estimated at 2,000 +annually, abducted or voluntarily escaping, +were secretly escorted into or through the +free States to Canada. To show how all +this was then regarded by those who sympathized +with the Abolitionists, and how it +is still looked upon by some modern historians, +the following is given from Hart's +"Abolition and Slavery":</p> + +<p>"The underground railroad was manned +chiefly by orderly citizens, members of +churches, and philanthropical citizens. <i>To +law-abiding folk</i> what could be more delightful +than the sensation of aiding an oppressed +slave, <i>exasperating</i> a cruel master, and at the +same time incurring the penalties of <i>defying +an unrighteous law</i>?"</p> + +<p>Southerners at that time thought that +conductors on that line were practising, and<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_104" id="Page_104">[104]</a></span> +readers of the above paragraph will probably +think that Dr. Hart in his attractive +rhetoric is now extolling in his history, +"higher law doctrines."</p> + +<p>It is undoubtedly true that, in 1850, +a large majority of the Northern people +strongly disapproved of the Abolitionists +and their methods. Modern historians carefully +point out the difference between the +great body of Northern anti-slavery people +and the Abolitionists. Nevertheless, here +were majorities in eleven Northern States +voting for, and sustaining, the legislators +who passed and kept upon the statute books +laws which were intended to enable Southern +slaves to escape from their masters. +The enactment and the support of these +laws was an attack upon the constitutional +rights of slave-holders; and Southern people +looked upon all the voters who sustained +these laws, and all the anti-slavery lecturers, +speakers, pulpit orators, and writers of the +North, as engaged with the Abolitionists in +one common crusade against slavery. From +the Southern stand-point a difference between +them could only be made by a +Hudibras:</p> + +<div class="poem"><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_105" id="Page_105">[105]</a></span> +<span class="i0">He was in logic a great critic</span><br /> +<span class="i0">Profoundly skilled in analytic,</span><br /> +<span class="i0">He could distinguish and divide</span><br /> +<span class="i0">A hair 'twixt South and South West side.</span> +</div> + +<p>As to how much of the formidable anti-slavery +sentiment of that day had been +created by the Abolitionists, we have this +opinion of a distinguished English traveller +and observer. Mr. L. W. A. Johnston was +in Washington, in 1850, studying America. +He says:</p> + +<p>"Extreme men like Garrison seldom have +justice done to them. It is true they may +be impracticable, both as to their measures +and their men, but that unmixed evil is the +result of their exertions, all history of opinion +in every country, I think, contradicts. +Such ultra men are as necessary as the more +moderate and reasonable advocates of any +growing opinion; and, as <i>an impartial person</i>, +who never happened to fall in with one +of the party in the course of my tour, I must +express my belief that the present wide +diffusion of anti-slavery sentiment in the +United States is, in no small degree, owing +to their exertions."<a name="FNanchor_40_40" id="FNanchor_40_40"></a><a href="#Footnote_40_40" class="fnanchor">[40]</a></p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_106" id="Page_106">[106]</a></span>And Professor Smith, of Williams College, +speaking of the anti-slavery feeling in the +North in 1850, says:</p> + +<p>"This sentiment of the free States regarding +slavery was to a large degree the +result of an agitation for its abolition which +had been active for a score of years (1831-1850) +without any positive results."<a name="FNanchor_41_41" id="FNanchor_41_41"></a><a href="#Footnote_41_41" class="fnanchor">[41]</a></p> + +<p>But no matter what had produced it, the +anti-slavery sentiment that pervaded the +North in 1850 boded ill to slavery and to +the Constitution, and the South was bitterly +complaining. Congress met in December, +1849, and was to sit until October, 1850. +Lovers of the Union, North and South, +watched its proceedings with the deepest +anxiety. The South was much excited. +The continual torrent of abuse to which it +was subjected, the refusal to allow slavery +in States to be created from territory in the +South-west that was below the parallel of +the Missouri Compromise, and the complete +nullification of the fugitive slave law, seemed +to many to be no longer tolerable, and from +sundry sources in that section came threats +of secession.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_107" id="Page_107">[107]</a></span>In 1849-50 the South was demanding a +division of California, an efficient fugitive +slave law, and that the territories of New +Mexico and Arizona should be organized +with no restrictions as to slavery. Other +minor demands were unimportant.</p> + +<p>Henry Clay, Daniel Webster, Stephen A. +Douglas, Lewis Cass, and other conservative +leaders came forward and, after long +and heated debates in Congress, the Compromise +of 1850 was agreed on. To satisfy +the North, California, as a whole, came in as +a free State, and the slave trade was abolished +in the District of Columbia. To satisfy +the South, a new and stringent fugitive +slave law was agreed on, and the territories +of New Mexico and Arizona were organized +with no restrictions as to slavery.</p> + +<p>In bringing about this compromise, Daniel +Webster was, next to Clay, the most conspicuous +figure. He was the favorite son of +New England and the greatest statesman +in all the North. On the 7th of March, +1850, Mr. Webster made one of the greatest +speeches of his life on the Compromise measures. +Rising above the sectional prejudices +of the hour, he spoke for the Constitution<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_108" id="Page_108">[108]</a></span> +and the Union. The manner in which he +and his reputation were treated by popular +historians in the North, for half a century +afterward, on account of this speech, is the +most pathetic and, at the same time, the +most instructive story in the whole history +of the anti-slavery crusade.</p> + +<p>Mr. Webster was under the ban of Northern +public opinion for all this half a century, +not because of inconsistency between that +speech and his former avowals, an averment +often made and never proven, but because +he was consistent. He stood squarely upon +his record, and the venom of the assaults +that were afterward made upon him was +just in proportion to the love and veneration +which had been his before he offended. +His offence was that he would not move with +the anti-slavery movement.<a name="FNanchor_42_42" id="FNanchor_42_42"></a><a href="#Footnote_42_42" class="fnanchor">[42]</a> He did not +stand with his section in a sectional dispute.</p> + +<p>Henry Clay, old and feeble, had come +back into the Senate to render his last +service to his country. He was the author +of the Compromise. Daniel Webster was +everywhere known as the champion of the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_109" id="Page_109">[109]</a></span> +Union. Henry Clay was known as the "Old +Man Eloquent," and he now spoke with all +his old-time fire; but Webster's great speech +probably had more influence on the result.</p> + +<p>Before taking up Mr. Webster's speech +his previous attitude toward slavery must +be noted. The purpose of the friends of the +Union was, of course, to effect a compromise +that would, if possible, put an end to sectional +strife. Compromise means concession, +and a compromise of political differences, +made by statesmen, may involve some concession +of view previously held by those who +advocate as well as by those who accept it. +Webster thought his section of the Union +should now make concessions.</p> + +<p>Fanaticism, however, concedes nothing; +it never compromises, although statesmanship +does. One of the most notable utterances +of Edmund Burke was:</p> + +<p>"<i>All government, indeed every human benefit +and enjoyment, every virtue and every +prudent act, is founded on compromise and +barter.</i>"</p> + +<p>Great statesmen, on great occasions, +speak not only to their countrymen and +for the time being, but they speak to all<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_110" id="Page_110">[110]</a></span> +mankind and for all time. So spoke Burke +in that famous sentence when advocating, +in the British Parliament in 1776, "conciliation +with America"; and so did Daniel +Webster speak, in the Senate of the United +States, on the 7th of March, 1850, for "the +Constitution and the Union." If George III +and Lord North had heeded Burke, and if the +British government and people, from that +day forth, had followed the wise counsels +given in that speech by their greatest statesman, +all the English-speaking peoples of the +world, now numbering over 170,000,000, +might have been to-day under one government, +that government commanding the +peace of the world. And if all the people +of the United States in 1850 and from that +time on, had heeded the words of Daniel +Webster, we should have been spared the +bloodiest war in the book of time; every +State of the Union would have been left free +to solve its own domestic problems, and it is +not too much to say that these problems +would have been solved in full accord with +the advancing civilization of the age.</p> + +<p>The sole charge of inconsistency against +Webster that has in it a shadow of truth<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_111" id="Page_111">[111]</a></span> +relates to the proposition he made in his +speech as to the "Wilmot proviso." That +celebrated proviso was named for David +Wilmot, of Pennsylvania, its author. It +provided against slavery in all the territory +acquired from Mexico. The South had opposed +the Wilmot proviso because the territory +in question, much of it, was south +of the Missouri Compromise line extended. +Mr. Webster had often voted for the Wilmot +proviso, as all knew. In his speech for +the Compromise, by which the South was +urged to and did give up its contentions as +to the admission of California, and its contentions +as to the slave trade in the District +of Columbia, Webster argued that <i>the North +might forego</i> the proviso as to New Mexico +and Arizona for the reason that the proviso +was, as to these territories, <i>immaterial</i>. +Those territories, he argued, would never +come in as slave States, because the God +of nature had so determined. Climate and +soil would forbid. Time vindicated this +argument. In 1861 Charles Francis Adams +said, in Congress, that New Mexico, open +to slave-holders and their slaves for more +than ten years, then had only twelve slaves<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_112" id="Page_112">[112]</a></span> +domiciled on the surface of over 200,000 +square miles of her extent.<a name="FNanchor_43_43" id="FNanchor_43_43"></a><a href="#Footnote_43_43" class="fnanchor">[43]</a></p> + +<p>Daniel Webster's services to the cause of +the Union, the preservation of which had +been the passion of his life, had been absolutely +unparalleled. It is perhaps true that +without him Abraham Lincoln and the +armies of the Union in 1861-65 would have +been impossible. The sole and, as he then +stated and as time proved, immaterial concession +this champion of the Union now +(1850) made for the sake of preserving the +Union was his proposition as to New Mexico +and Arizona.</p> + +<p>Henry Clay spoke before Webster. These +words were the key-note of Clay's great +speech: "In my opinion the body politic +cannot be preserved unless this agitation, +this distraction, this exasperation, which is +going on between the two sections of the +country, shall cease."</p> + +<p>The country waited with anxiety to hear +from Webster. Hundreds of suggestions +and appeals went to him. Both sides were +hopeful.<a name="FNanchor_44_44" id="FNanchor_44_44"></a><a href="#Footnote_44_44" class="fnanchor">[44]</a> Anti-slavery people knew his<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_113" id="Page_113">[113]</a></span> +aversion to slavery. He had never countenanced +anti-slavery agitation, but he had +voted for the Wilmot proviso. They knew, +too, that he had long been ambitious to be +President, and, carried away by their enthusiasm, +they hoped that Webster would +swim along with the tide that was sweeping +over the majority section of the Union. In +view of Mr. Webster's past record, however, +it would be difficult to believe that +Abolitionists were really disappointed in +him had we not many such proofs as the +following stanza from Whittier's ode, published +after the speech:</p> + +<div class="poem"> +<span class="i0">Oh! dumb be passing, stormy rage</span><br /> +<span class="i1">When he who might</span><br /> +<span class="i0">Have lighted up and led his age</span><br /> +<span class="i1">Falls back in night!</span> +</div> + +<p>The conservatives also were hopeful. +They knew that, though Webster had always +been, as an individual, opposed to slavery, +he had at all times stood by the Constitution, +as well as the Union. At no time +had he ever qualified or retracted these +words in his speech at Niblo's Garden in +1839: "Slavery, as it exists in the States, is<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_114" id="Page_114">[114]</a></span> +beyond the reach of Congress. It is a concern +of the States themselves. They have +never submitted it to Congress, and Congress +has no rightful power over it. I shall +concur therefore in <i>no act</i>, <i>no measure</i>, <i>no +menace</i>, no indication of purpose which <i>shall +interfere or threaten to interfere with the exclusive +authority</i> of the several States over +the subject of slavery, as it exists within +their respective limits. All this appears +to me to be matter of plain imperative +duty."</p> + +<p>Nullifying the fugitive slave law was a +plain "interference" with the rights of the +slave States.</p> + +<p>Mr. Webster's intent, when he spoke on +the Compromise measures, is best explained +by his own words, on June 17, while these +measures were still pending: "Sir, my object +is peace. My object is reconciliation. +My purpose is not to make up a case <i>for the +North</i> or a case <i>for the South</i>. My object is +not to continue useless and irritating controversies. +I am against agitators, North +and South, and all narrow local contests. I +am an American, and I know no locality +but America."</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_115" id="Page_115">[115]</a></span>In his speech made on the 7th of March +he dwelt at length on existing conditions, on +the attitude of the North toward the fugitive +slave law, and argued fully the questions +involved in the "personal liberty" +laws passed by Northern States. Referring +to the complaints of the South about these, +he said: "In that respect <i>the South, in my +judgment, is right and the North is wrong</i>. +Every member of every Northern legislature +is bound by oath, like every other officer +in the country, to support the Constitution +of the United States; and the article of the +Constitution which says to these States +that they shall deliver up fugitives from service +<i>is as binding in honor and conscience as +any other article</i>. <i>No man fulfils his duty in +any legislature who sets himself to find excuses, +evasions, escapes, from this constitutional obligation.</i>"</p> + +<p>And further on he said: "Then, sir, there +are the Abolition societies, of which I am +unwilling to speak, but in regard to which +I have very clear notions and opinions. I +do not think them useful. <i>I think their operations +for the last twenty years have produced +nothing good or valuable.... I cannot but</i><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_116" id="Page_116">[116]</a></span> +<i>see what mischief their interference with the +South has produced.</i>"</p> + +<p>In these statements is the substance of +Webster's offending.</p> + +<p>Webster's speech was followed, on the +11th of March, by the speech of Senator +Seward, of New York, in the same debate. +Quoting the fugitive slave provision of +the Federal Constitution, Mr. Seward said: +"This is from the Constitution of the United +States in 1787, and the parties were the +Republican States of the Union. The law +of nations <i>disavows such compacts; the law +of nature, written on the hearts and consciences +of freemen, repudiates them</i>."<a name="FNanchor_45_45" id="FNanchor_45_45"></a><a href="#Footnote_45_45" class="fnanchor">[45]</a> The people +of the North, instead of following Webster, +chose to follow Seward, the apostle of a +<i>law higher than the Constitution</i>; and when, +ten years later, it appeared to them that +the whole North had given in its adhesion +to the "higher law" doctrine, the people of +eleven Southern States seceded, and put +over themselves in very substance the Constitution +that Seward had flouted and Webster +had pleaded for in vain.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_117" id="Page_117">[117]</a></span>Anti-slavery enthusiasts in the North generally, +and Abolitionists especially, in their +comments on Webster's speech scouted the +idea that the preservation of the Union +depended upon the faithful execution of the +fugitive slave law or the cessation of anti-slavery +agitation. "What," said Theodore +Parker, "cast off the North! They set up +for themselves! Tush! Tush! Fear boys +with bugs!... I think Mr. Webster knew +there was no danger of a dissolution of the +Union."<a name="FNanchor_46_46" id="FNanchor_46_46"></a><a href="#Footnote_46_46" class="fnanchor">[46]</a></p> + +<p>The immediate effect of the speech was +wonderful; congratulations poured in upon +Mr. Webster from conservative classes in +every quarter, and he must have felt gratified +to know that he had contributed greatly +to the enactment of measures that, for a +time, had some effect in allaying sectional +strife. But the revilings of the Abolitionists +prevailed, and it turned out that Daniel +Webster, great as he was, had undertaken +a task that was too much even for +him. His enemies struck out boldly at once: +and years afterward, when the anti-slavery +movement that Webster's appeals could<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_118" id="Page_118">[118]</a></span> +not arrest had culminated in secession, and +when the Union had been saved by arms, +the triumphant hosts of the anti-slavery +crusade all but succeeded in writing Daniel +Webster down permanently in the history +of his country as an apostate from principle +for the sake of an office he did not get. +Here is their verdict, which Mr. Lodge, a +biographer of Webster, passes on into +history:</p> + +<p>"The <i>popular verdict</i> has been given +against the 7th of March speech, <i>and that +verdict has passed into history</i>. Nothing can +be said or done which will alter the fact +that the people of this country, <i>who maintained +and saved the Union, have passed judgment +on Mr. Webster</i>, and condemned what +he said on the 7th of March as <i>wrong in +principle and mistaken in policy</i>."</p> + +<p>Here are specimens of the assaults that +were made on Webster after his speech. +They are selected from among many given +by one of his biographers.<a name="FNanchor_47_47" id="FNanchor_47_47"></a><a href="#Footnote_47_47" class="fnanchor">[47]</a></p> + +<p>"'Webster,' said Horace Mann, 'is a +fallen star! Lucifer descended from Heaven.'... +'Webster,' said Sumner, 'has placed<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_119" id="Page_119">[119]</a></span> +himself in the dark list of apostates.' When +Whittier named him Ichabod, and mourned +for him in verse as one dead, he did but express +the feeling of half New England:</p> + +<div class="poem"> +<span class="i0">'Let not the land once proud of him</span><br /> +<span class="i2">Mourn for him now,</span><br /> +<span class="i0">Nor brand with deeper shame his dim</span><br /> +<span class="i2">Dishonored brow.</span><br /> +<br /> + * * * * * * * +<br /> +<span class="i0">Then pay the reverence of old days</span><br /> +<span class="i2">To his dead fame!</span><br /> +<span class="i0">Walk backward with averted gaze</span><br /> +<span class="i2">And hide his shame.'"</span> +</div> + +<p>After much more to the same effect, Professor +McMaster proceeds: "The attack by +the press, the <i>expressions of horror</i> that rose +from New England, Webster felt keenly, +but the absolute isolation in which he was +left by his New England colleagues cut him +to the quick."<a name="FNanchor_48_48" id="FNanchor_48_48"></a><a href="#Footnote_48_48" class="fnanchor">[48]</a></p> + +<p>On Mr. Webster's speech, its purpose and +effect, we have this opinion from Mr. Lodge:</p> + +<p>"The speech, if exactly defined, is in reality<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_120" id="Page_120">[120]</a></span> +a powerful effort, not for a compromise, +or for the fugitive slave law, or for any other +one thing, <i>but to arrest the whole anti-slavery +movement</i>, and in that way <i>put an end to the +danger which threatened the Union and restore +harmony to the jarring sections</i>."</p> + +<p>And then he adds:</p> + +<p>"<i>It was a mad project. Mr. Webster +might as well have attempted to stay the incoming +tide at Marshfield with a rampart of +sand, as to check the anti-slavery movement +with a speech.</i>"</p> + +<p>To undertake at this time to arrest the +whole anti-slavery movement by holding up +the Constitution was indeed useless.</p> + +<p>Seward, who had spoken for the "higher +law," was riding on the tide of anti-slavery +sentiment that was submerging "the Sage +of Marshfield," who had stood for the Constitution. +Seward's reputation, in the years +following, went steadily up, while Webster's +was going down. Webster died, in +dejection, in 1852.</p> + +<p>Seward, at Rochester, in 1854, later on in +the same crusade, made another famous declaration—there +was an "irrepressible conflict +between slavery and freedom." The<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_121" id="Page_121">[121]</a></span> +conflict was "irrepressible," as Seward well +knew; and this was simply and solely because +the anti-slavery crusade could not be +suppressed. Clay and Webster, now both +dead and gone, had tried it in vain. Every +one knew that if, in 1850, or at any other +time, the anti-slavery hosts had halted, and +asked for, or consented to, peace, they could +have had it at once.</p> + +<p>Mr. Lodge, in the following paragraph, +seems to have almost made up his mind +to defend Webster. He says: "What most +shocked the North were his utterances in +regard to the fugitive slave law. There can +be no doubt that, <i>under the Constitution</i>, the +South had a <i>perfect right</i> to claim the extradition +of fugitive slaves. The legal <i>argument +to support that right was excellent</i>." +This would seem to justify the speech in +that regard. "But," Mr. Lodge adds, "the +Northern people could not feel that it was +<i>necessary</i> for <i>Daniel Webster</i> to make it." +They wanted him to be sectional or to hold +his tongue. Then Mr. Lodge goes on to +say: "The fugitive slave law was in <i>absolute +conflict with the awakened conscience and +moral sentiment of the North</i>."</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_122" id="Page_122">[122]</a></span>The conscience of <i>the North</i> at that time, +Mr. Lodge means, was a <i>higher law</i> than the +<i>Constitution</i>; and Webster's "excellent argument," +therefore, fell on deaf ears.</p> + +<p>No American historian stands higher as +an authority than Mr. Rhodes. He says +on page 161, vol. I, of his "History of the +United States," published in 1892: "<i>Until +the closing years of our century a dispassionate +judgment could not be made of Webster</i>; +but we see now that in the war of secession +his principles were mightier than those of +Garrison. It was not 'No Union with slave-holders,' +but <i>Liberty and Union</i> that won."</p> + +<p>This tribute to services Webster had rendered +to the Union in his great speech in +1850, in which he advocated "Liberty and +Union, now and forever," exactly as he was +advocating it in 1830, is just. How pathetic +that the historian was impelled also to +record the fact, in the same sentence, that +for nearly half a century partisan prejudice +had rendered it impossible to form a dispassionate +judgment of him who had pleaded +in vain for the Union without war!</p> + +<p>After an able analysis of his "7th of +March speech," and a discussion of his<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_123" id="Page_123">[123]</a></span> +record, in which he paralleled Webster and +Edmund Burke, Mr. Rhodes declares: +"His dislike of slavery was strong, but his +love of the Union was stronger, and the more +powerful motive outweighed the other, for +he believed that <i>the crusade against slavery +had arrived at a point where its further prosecution +was hurtful to the Union</i>. As has been +said of Burke, 'He changed his front but +he never changed his ground.'"<a name="FNanchor_49_49" id="FNanchor_49_49"></a><a href="#Footnote_49_49" class="fnanchor">[49]</a></p> + +<p>Daniel Webster's name and its place in +history may be likened to a giant oak, a +monarch of the forest, that, while towering +high above all others, was stripped of its +branches; for a time it stood, a rugged +trunk, robbed of its glory by a cyclone; +but its roots were deep down in the rich +earth; the storm is passing away; the tree +has put out buds again; now its branches +are stretching out once more into the clear +reaches of the upper air.</p> + +<p>Mr. Rhodes seems to be the first historian +of note to do justice to Daniel Webster and +the great speech which, McMaster takes +pains to inform us, historians have written +down as his "7th of March speech," in spite<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_124" id="Page_124">[124]</a></span> +of the fact that Mr. Webster himself entitled +it "The Constitution and the Union."</p> + +<p>Other historians besides Mr. Rhodes have +come to the rescue of Webster's speech for +"the Constitution and the Union." Mr. +John Fiske says of it in a volume (posthumous) +published in 1907: "So far as Mr. +Webster's moral attitude was concerned, +although he was not prepared for the bitter +hostility that his speech provoked in many +quarters, he must nevertheless have known +it was quite as likely to injure him at the +North as to gain support for him in the +South, and his resolute adoption of a policy +that he regarded as national rather than +sectional was really an instance of high +moral courage."<a name="FNanchor_50_50" id="FNanchor_50_50"></a><a href="#Footnote_50_50" class="fnanchor">[50]</a></p> + +<p>Mr. William C. Wilkinson has recently +written an able "Vindication of Daniel +Webster," and, after a conclusive argument +on that branch of his subject, he +says: "Webster's consistency stands like +a rock on the shore after the fretful waves +are tired with beating upon it in vain."<a name="FNanchor_51_51" id="FNanchor_51_51"></a><a href="#Footnote_51_51" class="fnanchor">[51]</a></p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_125" id="Page_125">[125]</a></span>Mr. E. P. Wheeler, concluding a masterly +sketch of Daniel Webster, setting forth his +services as statesman and expounder of +the Constitution, and not deigning to notice +the partisan charges against him, concludes +with these words:</p> + +<p>"Great men elevate and ennoble their +countrymen. In the glory of Webster we +find the glory of our whole country."</p> + +<p>The story of Daniel Webster and his great +speech in 1850 has been told at some length +because it is instructive. The historians who +had set themselves to the task of upholding +the idea that it was the aggressiveness of the +South, during the controversy over slavery, +and not that of the North, that brought +on secession and war, could not make good +their contention while Daniel Webster and +his speech for "the Constitution and the +Union" stood in their way. They, therefore, +wrote the great statesman "down and +out," as they conceived. But Webster and +that speech still stand as beacon lights in +the history of that crusade. The attack +came from the North. The South, standing +for its constitutional rights in the Union, +was the conservative party. Southern<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_126" id="Page_126">[126]</a></span> +leaders, it is true, were, during the controversy +over slavery, often aggressive, but +they were on the defensive-aggressive, just +as Lee was when he made his campaign into +Pennsylvania for the purpose of stopping +the invasion of his own land; and the South +lost in her political campaign just for the +same reason that Lee lost in his Gettysburg +campaign: numbers and resources were +against her. "The stars in their courses +fought against Sisera."</p> + +<p>Mr. Webster in his great speech for "the +Constitution and the Union," as became a +great statesman pleading for conciliation, +measured the terms in which he condemned +"personal liberty" laws and Abolitionism. +But afterward, irritated by the attacks +made upon him, he naturally spoke out +more emphatically. McMaster quotes several +expressions from his speeches and letters +replying to these assaults, and says: "His +hatred of Abolitionists and Free-soilers grew +stronger and stronger. To him these men +were a 'band of sectionalists, narrow of +mind, wanting in patriotism, without a +spark of national feeling, and quite ready +to see the Union go to pieces if their own<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_127" id="Page_127">[127]</a></span> +selfish ends were gained.'" Such, if this is +a fair summing up of his views, was Webster's +final opinion of those who were +carrying on the great anti-slavery crusade.<a name="FNanchor_52_52" id="FNanchor_52_52"></a><a href="#Footnote_52_52" class="fnanchor">[52]</a></p> + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_128" id="Page_128">[128]</a></span></p> +<h2>CHAPTER VII</h2> + +<h3>EFFORTS FOR PEACE</h3> + + +<p>The desire for peace in 1850 was wide-spread. +Union loving people, North +and South, hoped that the Compromise +would result in a cessation of the strife that +had so long divided the section; and the +election of Franklin Pierce, in 1852, as +President, on a platform strongly approving +that Compromise, was promising. But +anti-slavery leaders, instead of being convinced +by such arguments as those of Webster, +were deeply offended by the contention +that legislators, in passing personal liberty +laws, had violated their oaths to support +the Constitution. They were angered also +by the presumptuous attempt to "arrest +the whole anti-slavery movement."</p> + +<p>The new fugitive slave law was stringent; +it did not give jury trial; it required +bystanders to assist the officers in "slave-catching," +etc. For these and other reasons +the law was assailed as unconstitutional.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_129" id="Page_129">[129]</a></span> +All these contentions were overruled by +the Supreme Court when a case eventually +came before it. The court decided that +the act was, in all its provisions, fully +authorized by the Constitution.<a name="FNanchor_53_53" id="FNanchor_53_53"></a><a href="#Footnote_53_53" class="fnanchor">[53]</a> But in +their present mood, no law that was efficient +would have been satisfactory to the +multitudes of people, by no means all +"Abolitionists," who had already made up +their minds against the "wicked" provision +of the Constitution that required the delivery +of fugitive slaves. This deep-seated +feeling of opposition to the return to their +masters of escaping slaves was soon to be +wrought up to a high pitch by a novel that +went into nearly every household throughout +the North—"Uncle Tom's Cabin." On +its appearance the poet Whittier, who had +so ferociously attacked Webster in the verses +quoted in the last chapter, "offered up +thanks for the fugitive slave law, for it gave +us 'Uncle Tom's Cabin.'"</p> + +<p>Rufus Choate, a celebrated lawyer and +Whig leader, is reported to have said of +"Uncle Tom's Cabin": "That book will +make two millions of Abolitionists." Drawing,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_130" id="Page_130">[130]</a></span> +as it did, a very dark picture of slavery, +it aroused sympathy for the escaping slave +and pictured in glowing colors the dear, +sweet men and women who dared, for his +sake, the perils of the road in the darkness +of night and all the dangers of the law. +Mrs. Stowe was <i>making heroes of law-breakers, +preaching the higher law</i>.</p> + +<p>Mrs. Stowe declared she had not written +the book for political effect; she certainly +did not anticipate the marvellous results +that followed it. That book made vast +multitudes of its readers ready for the new +sectional and anti-slavery party that was to +be organized two years after its appearance. +It was the most famous and successful novel +ever written. It was translated into every +language that has a literature, and has been +more read by American people than any +other book except the Bible. As a picture +of what was conceivable under the laws +relating to slavery there was a basis for it. +Though there were laws limiting the master's +power, cruelty was nevertheless possible.</p> + +<p>Here, then, Mrs. Stowe's imagination had +full scope. Her book, however, has in it +none of the strident harshness, none of the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_131" id="Page_131">[131]</a></span> +purblind ferocity of Garrison, in whose eyes +every slave-holder was a fiend. "Uncle +Tom's Cabin" assailed a system; it did not +assault personally, as the arch-agitator did, +every man and woman to whom slaves had +come, whether by choice or chance. Light +and shadow and the play of human nature +made Mrs. Stowe's picture as attractive in +many of its pages as it was repulsive and +unfair in others. Mrs. Shelby was a type of +many a noble mistress, a Christian woman, +and when financial misfortunes compelled +the sale of the Shelby slaves and the separation +of families, we have not only what +might have been, but what sometimes was, +one of the evils of slavery, which, by reason +of the prevailing agitation, the humanity +of the age could not remedy. But Mrs. +Stowe's slave-master, Legree, was impossible. +The theory was inconceivable that +it was cheaper to work to death in seven +years a slave costing a thousand dollars, +than to work him for forty years. Millions +of our people, however, have accepted +"Uncle Tom" as a fact, and have wept over +him; they have accepted also as a fact the +monster Legree.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_132" id="Page_132">[132]</a></span>"Uncle Tom's Cabin" lives to-day as a +classic on book shelves and as a popular +play. The present generation get most of +their opinions about slavery as it was in +the South from its pages, and not one in +ten thousand of those who read it ever +thinks of the inconsistency between the +picture of slavery drawn there and that +other picture, which all the world now knows +of—the Confederate soldier away in the +army, his wife and children at home faithfully +protected by slaves—not a case of +violence, not even a single established case, +during four years, although there were four +millions of negroes in the South, of that +crime against white women that, after the +reconstruction had demoralized the freedmen, +became so common in that section.</p> + +<p>The unwavering fidelity during the four +years of war of so many slaves to the families +of their absent masters, and the fact that +those who, during that war, left their homes +to seek their freedom invariably went without +doing any vengeful act, is a phenomenon +that speaks for itself. It tells of kindly relations +between master and slave. It is not +to be denied that where the law gave so<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_133" id="Page_133">[133]</a></span> +much power to the master there were individual +instances of cruelty, nor is it supposable +that there were not many slaves +who were revengeful; but at the same time +there was, quite naturally, among slaves +who were all in like case, a more clannish +and all-pervading public opinion than could +have been found elsewhere. It was that all-pervading +and rigid standard of kindly feeling +among the slaves to their masters that +made the rule universal—fidelity toward the +master's family, at least to the extent of +inflicting no injury.</p> + +<p>What a surprise to many this conduct of +the slave was may be gathered from a telling +Republican speech made by Carl Schurz +during the campaign of 1860.<a name="FNanchor_54_54" id="FNanchor_54_54"></a><a href="#Footnote_54_54" class="fnanchor">[54]</a> A devotee +of liberty, recently a revolutionist in his +native land, and, like other foreigners, disregarding +all constitutional obstacles, Mr. +Schurz had naturally espoused the cause of +anti-slavery in this country. He had absorbed +the views of his political associates +and now contended that secession was an +empty threat and that secession was impossible. +"The mere anticipation of a negro<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_134" id="Page_134">[134]</a></span> +insurrection," he said, "will paralyze the +whole South." And, after ridiculing the +alarm created by the John Brown invasion, +the orator said that in case of a war between +the South and the North, "they will not +have men enough to quiet their friends at +home; what will they have to oppose to the +enemy? Every township will want its home +regiment; every plantation its garrison; and +what will be left for its field army?"</p> + +<p>Slavery in the South eventually proved +to be, instead of a weakness, an element +of strength to the Confederates, and Mr. +Lincoln finally felt himself compelled to +issue his proclamation of emancipation as +a military necessity—the avowed purpose +being to deprive the Confederates of the +slaves who were by their labor supporting +their armies in the field.</p> + +<p>The faithfulness during the war of the +slave to his master has been a lesson to the +Northerner, and it has been a lesson, too, to +the Southerner. It argues that the danger +of bloody insurrections was perhaps not +as great as had been apprehended where +incendiary publications were sent among +them. That danger, however, did exist, and<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_135" id="Page_135">[135]</a></span> +if the fear of it was exaggerated, it was +nevertheless real, and was traceable to the +Abolitionists.</p> + +<p>The rights of the South in the territories +had now been discussed for years and +Stephen A. Douglas, a Democratic senator +from Illinois, had reached the conclusion +that under the Constitution Southerner and +Northerner had exactly the same right to +carry their property, whatever it might be, +into the territories, which had been purchased +with the common blood and treasure +of both sections, a view afterward sustained +by the Supreme Court of the United States +in the Dred Scott case. Douglas, "entirely +of his own motion,"<a name="FNanchor_55_55" id="FNanchor_55_55"></a><a href="#Footnote_55_55" class="fnanchor">[55]</a> introduced, and +Congress passed, such a bill—the Kansas-Nebraska +act. The new act replaced the +Missouri Compromise. This the Southerners +considered had been a dead letter for +years. Every "personal liberty" law passed +by a Northern State was a violation of it.</p> + +<p>Ambition was now playing its part in the +sectional controversy. Douglas was a Democrat +looking to the presidency and had<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_136" id="Page_136">[136]</a></span> +here made a bid for Southern support. On +the other hand was Seward, an "old line +Whig," aspiring to the same office. The +South had been the dominant element in +national politics and the North was getting +tired of it. Seward's idea was to organize +all the anti-slavery voters and to appeal at +the same time to the pride and jealousy of +the North as a section.</p> + +<p>The immediate effect of the Kansas-Nebraska +act was to aggravate sectionalism. +It opened up the territory of Kansas, allowing +it to come into the Union with or without +slavery, as it might choose. Slave State +and free State adventurers rushed into +the new territory and struggled, and even +fought, for supremacy. The Southerners +lost. Their resources could not match the +means of organized anti-slavery societies, +and the result was an increase, North and +South, of sectional animosity.</p> + +<p>The overwhelming defeat of the old Whig +party in 1852 presaged its dissolution. Until +that election, both the Whig and Democratic +parties had been national, each endeavoring +to hold and acquire strength, +North and South, and each combating, as<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_137" id="Page_137">[137]</a></span> +best it could, the spirit of sectionalism that +had been steadily growing in the North, and +South as well, ever since the rise of Abolitionism. +Both these old parties had watched +with anxiety the increase of anti-slavery +sentiment in the North. Both parties +feared it. Alliance with the anti-slavery +North would deprive a party of support +South and denationalize it. For years prior +to 1852 the drift of Northern voters who +were opposed to slavery had been as to +the two national parties toward the Whigs, +and the tendency of conservative Northerners +had been toward the Democratic party. +Thus the great body of the Whig voters in +the North had become imbued with anti-slavery +sentiments, and now, with no hope +of victory as a national party and left in a +hopeless minority, the majority of that old +party in that section were ready to join a +sectional party when it should be formed +two years later. William H. Seward was +still a Whig when he made in the United +States Senate his anti-slavery "higher law" +speech of 1850.</p> + +<p>The Kansas-Nebraska act was a political +blunder. The South, on any dispassionate<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_138" id="Page_138">[138]</a></span> +consideration, could not have expected to +make Kansas a slave State. The act was a +blunder, too, because it gave the opponents +of the Democratic party a plausible pretext +for the contention, which they put +forth then and which has been persisted in +till this day, that the new Republican party, +immediately thereafter organized, was called +into existence by, and only by, the Kansas-Nebraska +act.</p> + +<p>As far back as 1850 it was clear that a new +party, based on the anti-slavery sentiment +that had been created by twenty years +of agitation, was inevitable. Mr. Rhodes, +speaking of conditions then, says: "It was, +moreover, obvious to an astute politician +like Seward, and probably to others, that a +dissolution of parties was imminent; that +to oppose the extension of slavery, <i>the different +anti-slavery elements must be organized +as a whole</i>; it might be called Whig or some +other name, but it would be based on the +principle of the Wilmot proviso"<a name="FNanchor_56_56" id="FNanchor_56_56"></a><a href="#Footnote_56_56" class="fnanchor">[56]</a>—the +meaning of which was, no more slave +States.</p> + +<p>Between 1850 and the passage of the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_139" id="Page_139">[139]</a></span> +Kansas-Nebraska act in 1854, new impulse +had been given anti-slavery sentiment by +fierce assaults on the new fugitive slave law +and, as has been seen, by "Uncle Tom's +Cabin." The Kansas-Nebraska act did +serve as a cry for the rallying of all anti-slavery +voters. That was all. It was a +drum-call, in answer to which soldiers already +enlisted fell into ranks, under a new +banner. Any other drum-call—the application +of another slave State for admission +into the Union—would have served quite +as well. Thus the Republican party came +into existence in 1854. Mr. Rhodes sums up +the reason for the existence of the new party +and what it subsequently accomplished +in the following pregnant sentence, "The +moral agitation had accomplished its work, +the cause (of anti-slavery) ... was to be +consigned to a political party that brought to +a successful conclusion the movement begun +by the moral sentiment of the community,"<a name="FNanchor_57_57" id="FNanchor_57_57"></a><a href="#Footnote_57_57" class="fnanchor">[57]</a>—which +successful conclusion was, of course, +<i>the freeing of the slaves by a successful war</i>.</p> + +<p>For a time the new Republican party +had a powerful competitor in another new<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_140" id="Page_140">[140]</a></span> +organization. This was the American or +Know-Nothing party. This other aspirant +for power made an honest effort to revitalize +the old Whig party under a new name and, +by gathering in all the conservatives North +and South, to put an end to sectionalism. +Its signal failure conveys an instructive lesson. +After many and wide-spread rumors +of its coming, the birth of the American +party was formally announced in 1854. It +had been organized in secret and was bound +together with oaths and passwords; its +members delighted to mystify inquirers by +refusing to answer questions, and soon they +got the name of "Know-Nothings." The +party had grown out of the "Order of the +Star Spangled Banner," organized in 1850 +to oppose the spread of Catholicism and +indiscriminate immigration—the two dangers +that were said to threaten American +institutions.</p> + +<p>The American party made its appeal: +For the Union and against sectionalism; +for Protestantism, the faith of the Fathers, +against Catholicism that was being imported +by foreigners; its shibboleth was "America +for the Americans."</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_141" id="Page_141">[141]</a></span>The Americans or Know-Nothings everywhere +put out in 1854 full tickets and +showed at once surprising strength. In the +fall elections of that year they polled over +one-fourth of all the votes in New York, two-fifths +in Pennsylvania, and over two-thirds +in Massachusetts, where they made a clean +sweep of the State and Federal offices.<a name="FNanchor_58_58" id="FNanchor_58_58"></a><a href="#Footnote_58_58" class="fnanchor">[58]</a></p> + +<p>They struck directly at sectionalism by +exacting of their adherents the following +oath:</p> + +<p>"You do further swear that you will not +vote for any one ... whom you know or +believe to be in favor of a dissolution of the +Union ... or who is endeavoring to produce +that result."</p> + +<p>The effect of this oath at the South was +almost magical. The Whig party there +was speedily absorbed by the Americans, +and Southern Democrats by thousands +joined the new party that promised to save +the Union.<a name="FNanchor_59_59" id="FNanchor_59_59"></a><a href="#Footnote_59_59" class="fnanchor">[59]</a> But the attitude of the Northern<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_142" id="Page_142">[142]</a></span> +and Southern members of the American +party soon became fundamentally different. +Southerners saw their Northern allies in +Vermont, Maine, and Massachusetts passing +"personal liberty" laws.<a name="FNanchor_60_60" id="FNanchor_60_60"></a><a href="#Footnote_60_60" class="fnanchor">[60]</a></p> + +<p>The Know-Nothings were strong enough +in the elections of 1855 to directly check the +progress of the new Republican party; but +the American party, though it succeeded in +electing a Speaker of the national House +of Representatives in February, 1856, soon +afterward went down to defeat. Even +though led by such patriots as John Bell, of +Tennessee, and Edward Everett, of Massachusetts, +it could not stand against the +storm of passion that had been aroused by +the crusade against slavery.</p> + +<p>There was a fierce and protracted struggle +between the pro-slavery and anti-slavery +men in Kansas for possession of the territorial +government. Rival constitutions were +submitted to Congress, and the debates +over these were extremely bitter. In their +excitement the Democrats again delighted +their adversaries by committing what now +seems to have been another blunder. They<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_143" id="Page_143">[143]</a></span> +advocated the admission of Kansas under +the "Lecompton Constitution." A review +of the conflicting evidence appears to show +that the Southerners were fairly outnumbered +in Kansas and that the Lecompton +Constitution did not express the will of the +people.<a name="FNanchor_61_61" id="FNanchor_61_61"></a><a href="#Footnote_61_61" class="fnanchor">[61]</a></p> + +<p>While "the war in Kansas" was going on, +Charles Sumner, an Abolitionist from Massachusetts, +delivered in the Senate a speech +of which he wrote his friends beforehand: +"I shall pronounce the most thorough Philippic +ever delivered in a legislative body." +He was a classical scholar. <i>His purpose was +to stir up in the North a greater fury against +the South than Demosthenes had aroused in +Athens against its enemies, the Macedonians.</i> +His speech occupied two days, May 28 and +29, 1855. At its conclusion, Senator Cass, +of Michigan, arose at once and pronounced +it "the most un-American and unpatriotic +that ever grated on the ears of this high +body." The speech attacked, without any +sufficient excuse, the personal character of +an absent senator, Butler of South Carolina, +a gentleman of high character and older<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_144" id="Page_144">[144]</a></span> +than Sumner. Among other unfounded +charges, it accused him of falsehood. Preston +Brooks, a representative from South +Carolina, attacked Sumner in the Senate +chamber during a recess of that body and +beat him unmercifully with a cane. The +provocation was bitter, indeed, but Brooks's +assault was unjustifiable. Nevertheless, the +exasperated South applauded it, while the +North glorified Sumner as a martyr for free +speech.</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p>In less than two years the new Republican +party had absorbed all the Abolition voters, +and in the election of 1856 was in the field +with its candidates for the presidency and +vice-presidency—Fremont and Dayton—upon +a platform declaring it the duty of +Congress to abolish in the territories "those +twin relics of barbarism, polygamy and +slavery."</p> + +<p>Excitement during that election was intense. +Rufus Choate, the great Massachusetts +lawyer, theretofore a Whig, voiced +the sentiment of conservatives when he said +it was the "duty of every one to prevent the +madness of the times from working its maddest<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_145" id="Page_145">[145]</a></span> +act—the permanent formation and the +actual present triumph of a party which +knows one-half of America only to hate it," +etc.</p> + +<p>Senator Toombs, of Georgia, said: "The +object of Fremont's friends is the conquest +of the South. I am content that they shall +own us when they conquer us."</p> + +<p>The Democrats elected Buchanan; Democrats +174 electoral votes; Republicans 74, +all Northern; and the Know-Nothings, +combined with a remnant of Whigs, 8.</p> + +<p>The work of sectionalism was nearly +completed.</p> + +<p>The extremes to which some of the Southern +people now resorted show the madness of +the times. They encouraged filibustering +expeditions to capture Cuba and Nicaragua. +These wild ventures were absolutely indefensible. +They had no official sanction and +were only spontaneous movements, but they +met with favor from the Southern public, +the outgrowth of a feeling that, if these +countries should be captured and annexed +as slave States, the South could the better, +by their aid, defend its rights in the Union. +<i>The Wanderer</i> and one or two other vessels,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_146" id="Page_146">[146]</a></span> +contrary to the laws of the United States, +imported slaves from Africa, and when the +participants were, some of them, indicted, +Southern juries absolutely refused to convict.</p> + +<div class="poem"> +<span class="i0">"Judgment had fled to brutish beasts,</span><br /> +<span class="i1">And men had lost their reason."</span> +</div> + +<p>When later the Southern States had seceded +and formed a government of their +own their constitution absolutely prohibited +the slave traffic.</p> + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_147" id="Page_147">[147]</a></span></p> +<h2>CHAPTER VIII</h2> + +<h3>INCOMPATIBILITY OF SLAVERY AND +FREEDOM</h3> + + +<p>That it was possible for slave States +and free States to coexist under our +Federal Constitution was the belief of its +framers and of most of our people down to +1861. The first to announce the absolute +impossibility of such coexistence seems to +have been William Lloyd Garrison. In +1840, at Lynn, Massachusetts, the Essex +County Anti-Slavery Society adopted this +resolution, offered by him:</p> + +<p>"That freedom and slavery are natural +and irreconcilable enemies; that it is morally +impossible for them to endure together in +the same nation, and that the existence of +the one can only be secured by the destruction +of the other."<a name="FNanchor_62_62" id="FNanchor_62_62"></a><a href="#Footnote_62_62" class="fnanchor">[62]</a></p> + +<p>Garrison's remedy was disunion. Near +that time his paper's motto was "No Union +with Slave-Holders."</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_148" id="Page_148">[148]</a></span>The next to announce the idea of the incompatibility +of slave States and free States +seems to have been one who did not dream +of disunion. No such thought was in the +mind of Abraham Lincoln when, in a speech +at Springfield, Illinois, June 15, 1858, he +said:</p> + +<p>"<i>A house divided against itself cannot stand. +I believe this government cannot endure permanently +half slave and half free. I do not expect +the Union to be divided. It will become +one thing or the other.</i> Either the opponents +of slavery will arrest the further spread of +it, and place it where the public mind will +rest in the belief that <i>it is in the course of +ultimate extinction</i>; or its advocates will push +it forward until it shall become alike lawful +in all the States—old as well as new—North +as well as South."</p> + +<p>When the Southerners read that statement +they concluded that, as Mr. Lincoln +knew very well that the South could not, if +it would, force slavery on the North, he +was announcing the intention of his party +to place slavery "in course of ultimate extinction," +constitution or no constitution.</p> + +<p>Senator Seward, at Rochester, New York,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_149" id="Page_149">[149]</a></span> +some weeks later, reannounced the doctrine, +declaring that the contest was "an irrepressible +conflict between opposing and enduring +forces; and it means that the United +States <i>must and will</i>, sooner or later, become +either an entirely slave-holding nation or +entirely a free labor nation."</p> + +<p>The utterances of Lincoln and Seward +were distinctly radical. The question was, +would this radical idea ultimately dominate +the Republican party?</p> + +<p>Less than eighteen months after the announcement +in 1858 of the doctrine of the +"irrepressible conflict," John Brown raided +Virginia to incite insurrections. With a few +followers and 1,300 stands of arms for the +slaves who were to join him, he captured the +United States arsenal at Harper's Ferry. +Only a few slaves came to him and, after a +brief struggle, with some bloodshed, Brown +was captured, tried by a jury, and hanged.</p> + +<p>In the South the excitement was intense; +the horror and indignation in that section +it is impossible to describe. Brown was already +well known to the public. He was +not a lunatic. Not long before this, in Kansas, +"at the head of a small group of men,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_150" id="Page_150">[150]</a></span> +including two of his sons and a son-in-law, +he went at night down Pottowattamie +Creek, stopping at three houses. The men +who lived in them were well known pro-slavery +men; they seem to have been rough +characters; their most specific offence (according +to Sanborn, Brown's biographer and +eulogist) was the driving from his home, by +violent threats, of an inoffensive old man. +John Brown and his party went down the +creek, called at one after the other of three +houses, took five men away from their +wives and children, and deliberately shot +one and hacked the others to death with +swords."<a name="FNanchor_63_63" id="FNanchor_63_63"></a><a href="#Footnote_63_63" class="fnanchor">[63]</a></p> + +<p>Quite a number of people, some of them +men of eminence in the North, aided Brown +in his enterprise. Among the men of repute +were Gerrit Smith, a former candidate for +the presidency; and Theodore Parker, Dr. +Howe, and Thomas Wentworth Higginson, +of Boston, who were all members of a "secret +committee to collect money and arms +for the expedition." With them was F. S. +Sanborn, who has since the war vauntingly<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_151" id="Page_151">[151]</a></span> +revealed the scheme in his "Life of John +Brown."<a name="FNanchor_64_64" id="FNanchor_64_64"></a><a href="#Footnote_64_64" class="fnanchor">[64]</a></p> + +<p>Sanborn intimates that Henry Wilson, +subsequently vice-president, was more or +less privy to the design.<a name="FNanchor_65_65" id="FNanchor_65_65"></a><a href="#Footnote_65_65" class="fnanchor">[65]</a> At various places +in the North church bells were tolled on +the day of John Brown's execution; meetings +were held and orators extolled him as +a martyr. Emerson, the greatest thinker in +all that region, declared that if John Brown +was hanged he would glorify the gallows as +Jesus glorified the cross; and now many +Southern men who loved the Union reluctantly +concluded that separation was inevitable. +John Bell, of Tennessee, Union +candidate for President in 1860, is said to +have cried like a child when he heard of +Brown's raid.</p> + +<p>The great body of the Northern people +condemned John Brown's expedition without +stint. Edward Everett, voicing the +opinion of all who were really conservative, +said of Brown's raid, in a speech at Faneuil +Hall, that its design was to "let loose the +hell hounds of a servile insurrection, and to +bring on a struggle which, for magnitude,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_152" id="Page_152">[152]</a></span> +atrocity, and horror, would have stood alone +in the history of the world."</p> + +<p>But they who had been preaching the +"irrepressible conflict," they whom public +opinion might hold responsible, did not feel +precisely as Mr. Everett did. They were +concerned about political consequences, as +appears from a letter written somewhat +later during the State canvass in New York +by Horace Greeley to Schuyler Colfax. +Horace Greeley afterward proved himself +in many ways a broad-minded, magnanimous +man, but now he wrote: "Do not be +downhearted about the old John Brown +business. Its present effect is bad and throws +a heavy load on us in this State ... <i>but +the ultimate effect is to be good.... It will +drive the slave power to new outrages.... It +presses on the irrepressible conflict</i>."<a name="FNanchor_66_66" id="FNanchor_66_66"></a><a href="#Footnote_66_66" class="fnanchor">[66]</a></p> + +<p>The fact that such a man as Horace Greeley +was taking comfort because that outrage +would "drive the slave power to new outrages"<a name="FNanchor_67_67" id="FNanchor_67_67"></a><a href="#Footnote_67_67" class="fnanchor">[67]</a> +throws a strong side-light on the +tactics of the anti-slavery leaders. They +were following Garrison. Garrison, the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_153" id="Page_153">[153]</a></span> +father of the Abolitionists, had begun his +campaign against slave-holders by "exhausting +upon them the vocabulary of +abuse," and he had shown "a genius for +infuriating his antagonists."<a name="FNanchor_68_68" id="FNanchor_68_68"></a><a href="#Footnote_68_68" class="fnanchor">[68]</a> The new +party—his successor and beneficiary, was +now felicitating itself that ultimate good +would come, even from the John Brown +raid. It would further their policy of +"<i>driving the slave power to new outrages</i>."</p> + +<p>People at the North, conservatives and +all, held their breath for a time after Harper's +Ferry. Then the crusade went on, in +the press, on the rostrum, and from the +pulpit, with as much virulence as ever. No +assertion was too extravagant for belief, +provided only its tendency was to disparage +the Southern white man or win sympathy +for the negro. From the noted "Brownlow +and Pryne's Debate," Philadelphia +(<i>Lippincott</i>), we take the following as a +specimen of the abuse a portion of the +Northern press was then heaping on the +Southern people. Brownlow quotes from the +<i>New York Independent</i> of November, 1856:</p> + +<p>"The mass of the population of the Atlantic<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_154" id="Page_154">[154]</a></span> +Coast of the slave region of the South +are descended from the transported convicts +and outcasts of Great Britain.... +Oh, glorious chivalry and hereditary aristocracy +of the South! Peerless first families +of Virginia and Carolina!... Progeny of +the highwaymen, and horse-thieves and +sheep-stealers, and pick-pockets of Old +England!"</p> + +<p>The South was not to be outdone, and +here was a retort from <i>De Bow's Review</i>, +July, 1858:</p> + +<p>"The basis, framework, and controlling +influence of Northern sentiment is Puritanism—the +old Roundhead, rebel refuse of +England, which ... has ever been an unruly +sect of Pharisees ... the worst bigots +on earth and the meanest of tyrants when +they have the power to exercise it."<a name="FNanchor_69_69" id="FNanchor_69_69"></a><a href="#Footnote_69_69" class="fnanchor">[69]</a></p> + +<p>And the non-slave-holder of the South +did not escape from the pitiless pelting of +the storm. He was sustaining the slave-holder, +and this was not only an offence +but a puzzle.</p> + +<p>It became quite common in the North for +anti-slavery writers to classify the non-slave-holding<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_155" id="Page_155">[155]</a></span> +agricultural classes of the South as +"poor whites," thus distinguishing them +from the slave-holders; and the idea is current +even now in that section that as a class +the lordly slave-holder despised his poor +white fellow-citizen. The average non-slave-holding +Southern agriculturist, whether +farming for himself or for others, was a type +of man that no one who knew him, least of +all the Southern slave-holder, his neighbor +and political ally, could despise. Educated +and uneducated, these people were independent +voters and honest jurors, the very +backbone of Southern State governments +that always will be notable in history for +efficiency, purity, and economy.</p> + +<p>This class of voters, however, came in for +much abuse in the literature of the crusade. +They were all lumped together as "poor +whites," sometimes as "poor white trash," +and the belief was inculcated that their imperious +slave-holding neighbors applied that +term to them. "Poor white trash," on its +face, is "nigger talk," caught up, doubtless, +from Southern negro barbers and bootblacks, +and used by writers who, from information +thus derived, pictured Southern society.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_156" id="Page_156">[156]</a></span>This is a sample of the numerous errors +that crept into the literature of one section +of our Union about social conditions in the +other during that memorable sectional controversy. +It is on a par with the idea that +prevailed, in some quarters in the South, +that the Yankee cared for nothing but +money, and would not fight even for that.</p> + +<p>Southerners were practically all of the old +British stock. Homogeneity, common memories +of the wars of the Revolution, of 1812, +and with Mexico, and Fourth of July celebrations, +all tended to bind together strongly +the Southern slave-holder and non-slave-holder.</p> + +<p>There were, of course, many classes of +non-slave-holders—the thrifty farmer, the +unthrifty, and the laborer who worked for +hire, but more frequently for "shares of the +crop." Then there were others—the inhabitants +of the "sand-hills" and the mountain +regions. These people were, as a rule, very +shiftless; too lazy to work, they were still +too proud to beg, as the very poor usually +do in other countries. The mountaineers +were hardier than the sand-hillers, and it +was from the mountains of Tennessee, Alabama,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_157" id="Page_157">[157]</a></span> +etc., that the Union armies gathered +many recruits. This was not, as is often +stated, because mountaineers love liberty +better than others, but because these mountaineers +never came into contact with either +master or slave. The crusade against slavery, +therefore, did not threaten to affect +their personal status.</p> + +<p>There were very few public schools in the +South, but in the cities and towns there were +academies and high-schools, and the country +was dotted with "old field schools," most of +them not good, but sufficient to train those +who became efficient leaders in social, religious, +and political circles.</p> + +<p>The wonderful progress made by the +Southern white man during the last thirty-five +years is by no means all due to the abolition +of slavery. Labor, it is true, is held +in higher esteem. This is a great gain, but +still more is due to improved transportation, +to better prices for timber and cotton, +to commercial fertilizers, and an awakening +interest in education. The South is also +developing its mineral resources and is now +rapidly forging to the front. The white +man is making more cotton than the negro.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_158" id="Page_158">[158]</a></span>But the very strongest bond that bound +together the Southern slave-holder and non-slave-holder +was the pride of caste. Every +white man was a freeman; he belonged to +the superior, the dominant race.</p> + +<p>Edmund Burke, England's philosopher-statesman, +in his speech on "Conciliation +with America" at the beginning of our Revolution, +complimented in high terms the +spirit of liberty among the dissenting protestants +of New England. Then, alluding to +the hopes indulged in by some gentlemen, +that the Southern colonies would be loyal +to Great Britain because the Church of +England had there a large establishment, +he said: "It is certainly true. There is, +however, a circumstance attending these +colonies which in my opinion fully counter-balances +this difference, and makes the +spirit of liberty still more high and haughty +than in those to the Northward. It is, that +in Virginia and Carolina they have a vast +multitude of slaves. Where this is the case, +in any part of the world, <i>those who are free +are by far the most proud and jealous of their +freedom</i>. Freedom with them is not only an +enjoyment, but a kind of <i>rank and privilege</i>."</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_159" id="Page_159">[159]</a></span>The privilege of belonging to the superior +race and of being free was a bond that tied +all Southern whites together, and it was +infinitely strengthened by a crusade that +seemed, from a Southern stand-point, to +have for its purpose the levelling of all distinctions +between the white man and the +slave hard by.</p> + +<p>Socially, there were classes in the South +as there are everywhere. The controlling +class consisted of professional men, lawyers, +physicians, teachers, and high-class merchants +(though the merchant prince was +unknown), and slave-holders. Slave-holders +were, of course, divided into classes, chiefly +two: those who had acquired culture and +breeding from slave-holding ancestors, and +those who had little culture or breeding, +principally the newly rich. It was the +former class that gave tone to Southern +society. The performance of duty always +ennobles, and this is especially true of duty +done by superiors to inferiors. The master +and mistress of a slave establishment were +responsible for the moral and material welfare +of their dependents. When they appreciated +and fulfilled their responsibilities, as<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_160" id="Page_160">[160]</a></span> +the best families usually did, there was found +what was called the Southern aristocracy. +The habit of command, assured position, and +high ideals, coming down, as these often did, +with family traditions, gave these favored +people ease and grace, and they were social +favorites, both in the North and Europe. +At home they dispensed a hospitality that +made the South famous. They were exemplars, +giving tone to society, and it was +notable that breeding and culture, and not +wealth, gave tone to Southern society. +There was perhaps in Virginia and South +Carolina an aristocracy that was somewhat +more exclusive than elsewhere.</p> + +<p>Slavery was at its worst when masters +were not equal to their responsibilities, for +want of either culture or Christian feeling, +or both, as also when, as was now and then +the case, a brutal overseer was in charge of +a plantation far away from the eye of the +owner.</p> + +<p>The influence of the slave-holder and his +lavish hospitality did not make for thrift +among his less fortunate brethren; it made +perhaps for prodigality, but it also made for +a high sense of honor among slave-holders<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_161" id="Page_161">[161]</a></span> +and non-slave-holders as well. Both slave-holders +and non-slave-holders were extremely +punctilious. Money did not count +where honor was concerned, and Southerners +do well to be proud of the record in this +respect that has been made by their statesmen.</p> + +<p>Among the more cultured classes in the +period here treated of, the duel prevailed, a +practice now very properly condemned. But +it made for a high sense of honor. Demagogues +were not common when a false statement +on "the stump" was apt to result in +a mortal combat.</p> + +<p>Among the less cultured classes insult +was answered with a blow of the fist. Fisticuffs, +too, were quite common to ascertain +who was the "best man" in a community +or county. The rules were not according to +the Marquis of Queensbury, but they always +secured "fair play."<a name="FNanchor_70_70" id="FNanchor_70_70"></a><a href="#Footnote_70_70" class="fnanchor">[70]</a></p> + +<p>This combative spirit of Southerners was +undoubtedly a result of the spirit of caste +that came from slavery. Sometimes it was<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_162" id="Page_162">[162]</a></span> +unduly exhibited in Congress during the +controversy over slavery and State's rights, +and excited Southerners occasionally subjected +themselves to the charge of arrogance.</p> + +<p>One of the great evils of slavery was that, +as a rule, neither the slave-holder nor the +non-slave-holder properly appreciated the +dignity of labor. A witty student at a +Southern university said that his chief objection +to college life was that he could not +have a negro to learn his lessons for him. +The slave-holder quite generally disdained +manual labor, and the non-slave-holder was +also inclined to deprecate the necessity that +compelled him to work.</p> + +<p>The sudden abolition of slavery was the +ruin of thousands of innocent families—a +loss for which there was no recompense. +But for the South at large, and especially +to this generation, it is a blessing that all +classes have come to see, that to labor and +to be useful is not only a duty, but a privilege.</p> + +<p>Political conditions, North and South, +differed widely. The North was the majority +section. Its majority could protect its +rights; recourse to the limitations of the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_163" id="Page_163">[163]</a></span> +Federal Constitution was seldom necessary. +The South, a minority section, with a devotion +that never failed, held high the "Constitution +of the fathers, the palladium" of +its rights. To one section the Constitution +was the bond of a Federal Union that was +the security for interstate commerce and +national prosperity; to the other it was a +guaranty of peace abroad and local self-government +at home. In the one section +the brightest minds were for the most part +engaged in business or in literary pursuits; +in the other, politics absorbed much of its +talent. In the North the staple of political +discussion was usually some business or +moral question, while in the South the political +arena was a great school in which the +masses were not only educated in the history +of the formation of the Constitution, +but taught an affectionate regard for that +instrument as a revered "gift from the +fathers" and the only safeguard of American +liberty. Joint political discussions, which +were common between the ablest men of +opposing parties, were always numerously +attended, and the Federal Constitution was +an unfailing topic. The result was, an<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_164" id="Page_164">[164]</a></span> +amount of political information in the average +Confederate soldier that the average +Union soldier in his business training had +never acquired, and a devotion of the Southerner +to the Constitution of his country +which even the ablest historians of to-day +have failed to comprehend.</p> + +<p>It is often stated, as if it were an important +fact in the consideration of the great anti-slavery +crusade, that not many of the Abolitionists +were as radical as Garrison, and +that of the anti-slavery voters very few +favored social equality between whites and +blacks. Southerners did not stop to make +distinctions like these. They saw the Abolitionists +advocating mixed schools and favoring +laws authorizing mixed marriages; saw +them practising social equality; saw the +general trend in that direction; and so from +its very beginning the Republican party, +which had absorbed the Abolitionists, was +dubbed, North and South, the "Black Republican" +party.</p> + +<p>The whites of the South believed that the +triumph of the "Black Republican" party, +as they called it, would be ultimately the +triumph of its most radical elements. Judge<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_165" id="Page_165">[165]</a></span> +Reagan, of Texas, United States congressman +in 1860-61, Confederate Postmaster-General, +later United States senator, and +always until 1860 an avowed friend of the +Union, in his farewell speech to the Congress +of the United States in January, 1861, +gave expression to this idea when he said:</p> + +<p>"And now you tender to us the inhuman +alternative of unconditional submission to +<i>Republican rule on abolition principles, and +ultimately to free negro equality, and a government +of mongrels</i>, or a war of races on the +one hand, and on the other, secession and a +bloody and desolating civil war."<a name="FNanchor_71_71" id="FNanchor_71_71"></a><a href="#Footnote_71_71" class="fnanchor">[71]</a></p> + +<p>Judge Reagan was expressing in Congress +the opinion that animated the Confederate +soldier in the war that was to follow secession, +an opinion the ex-Confederate did not +see much reason to change when the era of +Reconstruction had been reached, and the +ballot had been given to every negro, while +the leading whites were disfranchised.</p> + +<p>In 1857 Hinton Rowan Helper, of North +Carolina, wrote a notable book to show that +slavery was a curse to the South, and especially +to the non-slave-holders. It was an<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_166" id="Page_166">[166]</a></span> +appeal to the latter to become Abolitionists. +His arguments availed nothing; back +of his book was the Republican party, +now planting itself, as Garrison had planted +himself, on an extract from the first sentence +of the Declaration of Independence, "all +men are created equal." The Republican +contention was, in platforms and speeches, +that the Declaration of Independence covered +negroes as well as whites,<a name="FNanchor_72_72" id="FNanchor_72_72"></a><a href="#Footnote_72_72" class="fnanchor">[72]</a> and Southern +whites, nearly all of Revolutionary stock, +resented the idea. They rebelled at the suggestion +that the signers, every one of whom, +save possibly those from Massachusetts, +represented slave-holding constituents, intended +to say that the negroes then in the +colonies were the equals of the whites. If +so, why were these negroes kept in slavery, +and why were they not immediately given +the right to vote, to sit on juries, to be educated, +and to intermarry with the whites?</p> + +<p>All this, the Southerners said, as, indeed, +did many Northerners also, was to be the +logical outcome of the Republican doctrine, +that negroes and whites were equals. It is<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_167" id="Page_167">[167]</a></span> +passing strange that modern historians so +often have failed to note that this thought +was in the minds of all the opponents of the +Republican party from the day of its birth—North +and South it was called the "Black +Republican" party. Douglas, in his debate +with Lincoln, gave it that name and +stood by it. In his speech at Jonesboro, +Illinois, September 15, 1858, he charges +the Republicans with advocating "negro +citizenship and negro equality, putting the +white man and the negro on the same basis +under the law."<a name="FNanchor_73_73" id="FNanchor_73_73"></a><a href="#Footnote_73_73" class="fnanchor">[73]</a></p> + +<p>John C. Calhoun, in a memorial to the +Southern people in 1849, signed by many +other congressmen, had said that Northern +fanaticism would not stop at emancipation. +"Another step would be taken to raise them +[the negroes] to a political and social equality +with their former owners, by giving them +the right of voting and holding public office +under the Federal Government.... But +when raised to an equality they would +become the fast political associates of the +North, acting and voting with them on all +questions, and by this perfect union between<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_168" id="Page_168">[168]</a></span> +them holding the South in complete +subjection. <i>The blacks and the profligate +whites that might unite with them</i> would become +the principal recipients of Federal +patronage, and would, in consequence, be +raised above the whites of the South in the +social and political scale. We would, in a +word, change conditions with them, <i>a degradation +greater than has as yet fallen to the +lot of a free and enlightened people</i>."<a name="FNanchor_74_74" id="FNanchor_74_74"></a><a href="#Footnote_74_74" class="fnanchor">[74]</a></p> + +<p>In the light of Reconstruction, this was +prophecy.</p> + +<p>These words, once heard by a Southern +white man, of course sank into his heart. +They could never have been forgotten. The +argument of Helper fell on deaf ears. If +Helper had come with the promise (and an +assurance of its fulfilment) that the negroes, +when emancipated, would be sent to Liberia, +or elsewhere <i>out of the country</i>, the South +would have become Republicanized at once. +Even if the slave-holder had been unwilling, +the Southern non-slave-holder, with his +three, and often five, to one majority, would +have seen to it.</p> + +<p>And it is not too much to say that if the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_169" id="Page_169">[169]</a></span> +negro had been, as the Abolitionists and +ultimately many Republicans contended he +was, the equal of the white man, Liberia +would have been a success. What a glorious +consummation of the dreams of statesmen +and philanthropists that would have been! +Abolitionists, unable to frustrate their +scheme, and the American negro, profiting +by the civilization here received from contact +with the white man, building by his +own energy happy homes for himself and +his kinsmen, and enjoying the blessings of +a great government of his own, in his own +great continent!</p> + +<p>Africa with its vast resources is a prize +that all Europe is now contending for. It +is believed to be adapted even to white men. +Most assuredly, for the negro Liberia offered +far better opportunities than did the rocky +coast of New England to the white men who +settled it. Liberia had been carefully selected +as a desirable part of Africa. It was +an unequalled group of statesmen and philanthropists +that had planted the colony; +they provided for it and set it on its feet. +But it failed; failed just for the same reason +that prevented the aboriginal African<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_170" id="Page_170">[170]</a></span> +from catching on to the civilization that began +to develop thousands of years ago, close +by his side on the borders of the Mediterranean; +failed for the same reason that +Hayti, now free for a century, has failed. +The failure of the plan of the American Colonization +Society to repatriate the American +negro in Africa was due <i>primarily to the incapacity +of the negro</i>.</p> + +<p>A very complete and convincing story +will be found in an article entitled "Liberia, +an Example of Negro Self-Government,"<a name="FNanchor_75_75" id="FNanchor_75_75"></a><a href="#Footnote_75_75" class="fnanchor">[75]</a> +by Miss Agnes P. Mahony, for five years a +missionary in that country. The author of +the article was a sympathizing friend. She +says: "In 1847 the colony was considered +healthy enough to stand alone.... So our +flag was lowered on the African continent, +and the protectors of the colony retired, +leaving the people to govern the country +in their own way." Then she recites that +in order to test their capacity for self-government +their constitution (1847) provided +that no white man should hold property +in the country; and to this Miss Mahony +traces the failure that followed. When she<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_171" id="Page_171">[171]</a></span> +wrote, the Liberian negroes, for fifty-nine +years under the protectorship of the United +States, had been troubled by no foreign +enemy; yet their failure was complete—not +a foot of railroad, no cable communication +with foreign countries, no telegraphic +communication with the interior, etc. Still +the devoted missionary thinks that Liberia +might prosper, if it could but have "<i>the encouraging +example of and contact with the +right kind of white men</i>."</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p>The presidential campaign of 1860 was +very exciting. There were four tickets in +the field, Douglas and Johnson, Democrats; +Breckenridge and Lane, Democrats; Lincoln +and Hamlin, Republicans, and Bell and +Everett representing the "Constitutional +Union" party. As the election approached +it became apparent that the Republicans +were leading, and far-seeing men, like Samuel +J. Tilden, of New York, became much +alarmed for fear that the election of Lincoln +would bring about secession in the South. +Mr. Tilden, in view of the danger that to him +was apparent, wrote, shortly before the election, +to William Kent, of New York City,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_172" id="Page_172">[172]</a></span> +an open letter in which he earnestly urged +a combination in New York State of the +supporters of other candidates, in order to +defeat Abraham Lincoln. The letter was +so alarming that some of Tilden's friends +thought he had lost his balance; but now +that letter is regarded as a remarkable proof +of his sagacity. In the first volume of Mr. +Tilden's "Life and Letters," by Bigelow, +appears an "Appreciation" by James C. +Carter and an analysis of this letter. Of +this the following is a brief abstract: Mr. +Tilden first argued that two strictly sectional +parties, arrayed upon the question of +destroying an institution which one of them, +not unnaturally, regarded as essential to +self-existence, would bring war.</p> + +<p>Then Mr. Tilden further said that if the +Republican party should be successful in +establishing its dominion over the South, +the national government in the Southern +States would cease to be self-government +and become a government of one people +over a distinct people, a thing impossible +with our race, except as a consequence of a +successful war, and even then incompatible +with our democratic institutions. He also<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_173" id="Page_173">[173]</a></span> +said: "I assert that a controversy between +powerful communities, organized into governments, +of a nature like that which now +divides the North and South, can be settled +only by convention or by war."</p> + +<p>And again: "A condition of parties in +which the Federative Government shall be +carried on by a party, having no affiliations +in the Southern States, is impossible to continue. +Such a government would be out of +all relations to those States. It would have +neither the nerves of sensation, which convey +intelligence to the intellect of the body +politic, nor the ligaments and muscles, +which hold its parts together and move them +in harmony. It would be in substance the +government of one people by another people. +That system will not do for our race."</p> + +<p>Mr. Tilden, when he spoke of "two sectional +parties arrayed upon the question of +destroying an institution," <i>viz.</i>, slavery, saw +the situation exactly as the South did. To +prove that the Republican party was looking +to the ultimate destruction of the institution, +Mr. Tilden cited the leadership of +Chase and his speeches in which he was propounding +the higher law theory; asserting<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_174" id="Page_174">[174]</a></span> +that the conflict was "irrepressible"; suggesting +the power of the North to amend +the Constitution, etc.</p> + +<p>The South noted this, and it regarded, not +the platform, but the record of the Republican +party and of the statesmen the party +was following.</p> + +<p>Long before 1860, that great American +scholar, George Ticknor, saw the dilemma +in which the North was involving itself +by its concern over slavery in the South, +and he thus stated it, in a letter to his +friend, William Ellery Channing, April 30, +1842:<a name="FNanchor_76_76" id="FNanchor_76_76"></a><a href="#Footnote_76_76" class="fnanchor">[76]</a></p> + +<p>"On the subject of our relations with +the South and its slavery, we must—as I +have always thought—do one of two things; +either keep honestly the bargain of the Constitution +as it shall be interpreted by the +authorities—of which the Supreme Court of +the United States is the chief and safest—or +declare honestly that we can no longer +in our conscience consent to keep it, and +break it."</p> + +<p>The North had failed to "keep honestly +the bargain of the Constitution" by faithfully<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_175" id="Page_175">[175]</a></span> +delivering fugitive slaves and leaving +the question of slavery to be dealt with by +the States in which it existed, and was +now, in 1860, upon the other horn of the +dilemma—repudiating and denouncing a decision +of the Supreme Court, which, as Mr. +Ticknor had said, was the "chief and safest +authority." But during that campaign of +1860 very many, perhaps a majority of the +Republican voters, failed to realize what +their party was standing for. Indeed, down +to this day the members of that organization, +taught as they have been, indignantly +deny that a vote for Lincoln and Hamlin in +1860 looked to an interference with slavery +in the States.</p> + +<p>But now Professor Emerson David Fite, +of Yale University, sees in 1911 what was +the underlying hope, and consequently the +ultimate aim, of the Republican party in +1860, exactly as the South saw it then. In +a powerful summing up of more evidence +than there is room to recite here, he says: +"The testimony of the Democracy and of +the leaders of the Republican party accords +well with the evidence of daily events in +<i>revealing Republican aggression</i>.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_176" id="Page_176">[176]</a></span> <i>The party +hoped to destroy slavery, and this was something +new in a large political organization.</i>"<a name="FNanchor_77_77" id="FNanchor_77_77"></a><a href="#Footnote_77_77" class="fnanchor">[77]</a></p> + +<p>That this party, when it should ultimately +come into full power, would, to carry out +the purpose which Professor Fite now sees, +ignore the Federal Constitution was, in +1860, evident to Southerners from the following +facts:</p> + +<p>In 1841 the governor of Virginia demanded +of the governor of New York the +extradition of two men indicted in Virginia +for enticing away slaves from their masters. +Governor Seward, of New York, refused +the demand, on the ground that no +such offence existed in New York. This +case did not go to the courts, but in 1860 +the governor of Kentucky made a similar +demand in a like case on the governor of +Ohio, who placed his refusal on the same +grounds as had Governor Seward in the +former case. The Supreme Court of the +United States in this case decided that the +governor of Ohio, in refusing to deliver up +the fugitive, was violating the Constitution. +The court further said:</p> + +<p>"If the governor of Ohio refuses to <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_177" id="Page_177">[177]</a></span><i>discharge +this duty there is no power delegated to +the general government</i>, either through the judicial +department or any other department, +to use any coercive means to compel him."<a name="FNanchor_78_78" id="FNanchor_78_78"></a><a href="#Footnote_78_78" class="fnanchor">[78]</a></p> + +<p>If these two governors had defied the +Federal Constitution, so had eleven State +legislatures. From 1854 to 1860, inclusive, +Vermont, Rhode Island, Connecticut, +Maine, Massachusetts, Michigan, Wisconsin, +Kansas, Ohio, and Pennsylvania, had +all passed new "personal liberty laws" to +abrogate the new fugitive slave law of 1850.</p> + +<p>Of these laws Professor Alexander Johnston +said:</p> + +<p>"There is absolutely no excuse for the +personal liberty laws. If the rendition of +fugitive slaves was a federal obligation, the +personal liberty laws were flat disobedience +to the law; if the obligation was upon the +States, they were a gross breach of good +faith, for they were intended and operated +to prevent rendition; and, in either case, +they were in violation of the Constitution."<a name="FNanchor_79_79" id="FNanchor_79_79"></a><a href="#Footnote_79_79" class="fnanchor">[79]</a></p> + +<p>And now came the State of Wisconsin. +Its Supreme Court intervened and took from<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_178" id="Page_178">[178]</a></span> +the hands of the federal authorities an alleged +fugitive slave. The Supreme Court of +the United States reversed the case and ordered +the slave back into the custody of the +United States marshal;<a name="FNanchor_80_80" id="FNanchor_80_80"></a><a href="#Footnote_80_80" class="fnanchor">[80]</a> and thereupon the +General Assembly of Wisconsin expressly repudiated +the authority of the United States +Supreme Court. The Wisconsin assembly +asserted its right to nullify the Federal law, +basing its action on the Kentucky Resolutions +of 1798—a recrudescence of a doctrine +long since abandoned even in the South.</p> + +<p>In reality all this defiance of the Constitution +of the United States by State executives, +State legislatures, and a State court, +was on the ground that whatever was dictated +by conscience to these officials was a +"higher law than the Constitution of the +United States"; and modern historians +recognize, as Tilden did, the leadership of +the statesman who in 1850 announced that +startling doctrine. It is Alexander Johnston +who says, "Seward's speeches in the Senate +made him the leader of the Republican +party from its first organization."<a name="FNanchor_81_81" id="FNanchor_81_81"></a><a href="#Footnote_81_81" class="fnanchor">[81]</a></p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_179" id="Page_179">[179]</a></span>To the minds of Southerners it seemed +clear that <i>if the Southern States desired to +preserve for themselves the Constitution of the +fathers, they must secede and set it up over a +government of their own</i>. This eleven of +these States did. Many of them were reluctant +to take the step; all their people +had loved the old Union, but they passed +their ordinances of secession, united as the +Confederate States of America, and their +officials took an oath to maintain inviolate +the old Constitution, which, with unimportant +changes in it, they had adopted.</p> + +<p>The new government sent delegates to +ask that the separation should be peaceful. +The application was denied and the war +followed. Attempts to secede were made +in Kentucky and Missouri. In neither of +these States did the seceders get full control. +They were represented, however, in the Confederate +Congress by senators and representatives +elected by the troops from those +States that were serving in the Confederate +army.</p> + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_180" id="Page_180">[180]</a></span></p> +<h2>CHAPTER IX</h2> + +<h3>FOUR YEARS OF WAR</h3> + + +<p>The bitter fruits of anti-slavery agitation +were secession and four years +of bloody war. The Federal Government +waged war to coerce the seceding States to +remain in the Union. With the North it +was a war for the Union; the South was +fighting for independence—denominated by +Northern writers as "the Civil War." It +was in reality a war between the eleven +States which had seceded, as autonomous +States, and were fighting for independence, +as the Confederate States of America, against +the other twenty-two States, which, as the +United States of America, fought against secession +and for the Union of all the States. +It is true the States remaining in the Union +had with them the army and the navy +and the old government, but that government +could not, and did not, exercise its +functions within the borders of the seceded +States until by force of arms in the war<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_181" id="Page_181">[181]</a></span> +that was now waged it had conquered a +control. It was a war between the States +for such control; for independence on the +one hand, and for the Union on the other. +It was not, save in exceptional cases, a war +between neighbor and neighbor; it was a war +between States as entities, and therefore +not properly a civil war. The result of the +war did not change the principles upon +which it was fought, though it did decide +finally the issues that were involved, the +right of secession primarily, and slavery incidentally.</p> + +<p>Jefferson Davis, afterward the much-loved +President of the Confederacy, in his +farewell speech in the United States Senate, +March 21, 1861, thus stated the case of the +South: "Then, senators, we recur to the +compact which binds us together. We recur +to the principles upon which this government +was founded, and <i>when you deny +them</i>, and when you deny to us the right +to withdraw from a Union which thus perverted +<i>threatens to be destructive of our rights, +we but tread in the path of our fathers when +we proclaim our independence and take the +hazard</i>. This is done not in hostility to<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_182" id="Page_182">[182]</a></span> +others, not to injure any section of our country, +<i>not even for our own pecuniary benefit, +but from the high and solemn motive of defending +and protecting the rights we inherited and +which it is our duty to transmit unshorn to our +children</i>."</p> + +<p>Southerners were, as Mr. Davis understood +it, treading in the path of their fathers +when they proclaimed their independence +and fought for the right of self-government.</p> + +<p>Professor Fite, of Yale, justifies secession +on the following ground:</p> + +<p>"In the last analysis the one complete +justification of secession was the necessity +of saving the vast property of slavery from +destruction; secession was a commercial +necessity designed to make those billions secure +from outside interference. Viewed in +this light, secession was right, for any people, +prompted by the commonest motives +of self-defence and with no moral scruples +against slavery, would have followed the +same course. The present generation of +Northerners, born and reared after the war, +must shake off their inherited political passions +and prejudices and pronounce the verdict +of justification for the South. Believing<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_183" id="Page_183">[183]</a></span> +slavery to be right, it was the duty of +the South to defend it. It is time that the +words 'traitors,' 'conspirators,' 'rebels,' and +'rebellion' be discarded."<a name="FNanchor_82_82" id="FNanchor_82_82"></a><a href="#Footnote_82_82" class="fnanchor">[82]</a></p> + +<p>These words of Professor Fite will waken +a responsive echo in the hearts of Southerners, +but Southerners place, and their fathers +planted, themselves on higher ground than +commercial considerations. The Confederates +were defending their inherited right of +local self-government and the Federal Constitution +that secured it. It was for these +rights that, as Mr. Davis had said, they were +willing to <i>follow the path their fathers trod</i>.</p> + +<p>The preservation of the Union the North +was fighting for, was a noble motive; it +looked to the future greatness and glory +of the republic; but devotion to the Union +had been a growth, the product largely of a +single generation; the devotion of the South +to the right of local self-government was +an older and deeper conviction; it had been +bred in the bone for three generations; it +dated from Bunker Hill and Valley Forge +and Yorktown. Close as the non-slave-holders<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_184" id="Page_184">[184]</a></span> +of the South were to the slave-holders, +of the same British stock, and with +the same traditions, blood kinsmen as they +were, they might not have been willing to +dare all and do all for the protection of property +in which they were not interested; but +they were ready to, and they did, wage a +death struggle to maintain against a hostile +sectional majority, their inherited right to +govern themselves in their own way. Added +to this was the ever-present conviction of +Southerners all, that they were battling not +only for the supremacy of their race but for +the preservation of their homes. There was +a little ditty quite prevalent in the Army of +Northern Virginia, of which nothing is now +remembered except the refrain, but that of +itself speaks volumes. It ran:</p> + +<div class="poem"> +<span class="i0">"Do you belong to the rebel band</span><br /> +<span class="i0">Fighting for your home?"</span> +</div> + +<p>Northerners had, most of them, convinced +themselves that the South would never +dare to secede. The danger of servile insurrections, +if nothing else, would prevent it.<a name="FNanchor_83_83" id="FNanchor_83_83"></a><a href="#Footnote_83_83" class="fnanchor">[83]</a><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_185" id="Page_185">[185]</a></span>Many Southerners, on the other hand, could +not see how, under the Constitution, the +North could venture on coercion.</p> + +<p>But to the South the greatest surprise furnished +by the events of that era has been +Abraham Lincoln—as he appears now in +the light of history. What, in the minds of +Southerners, fixed his status personally, during +the canvass of 1860, was the statement +he had made in his speech at Chicago, preliminary +to his great debate with Douglas in +1858, that the Union could not "continue to +exist half slave and half free." And he was +now the candidate of the "Black Republican" +party, a party that was denouncing a +decision of the Supreme Court; that, in +nearly every State in the North, had nullified +the fugitive slave law, and that stood +for "negro equality," as the South termed it.</p> + +<p>There were other statements by Mr. Lincoln +in that debate with Douglas that the +South has had especial reason to take note +of since the period of Reconstruction. At +Springfield, Illinois, September 18, 1858, he +said: "There is a physical difference between +the white and black races which, I +believe, will forever forbid the two races living<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_186" id="Page_186">[186]</a></span> +together on terms of social and political +equality, and, <i>inasmuch as they can not so +live, while they do live together there must be +the position of superior and inferior; and I, +as much as any other man, am in favor of +having that position assigned to the white man</i>."</p> + +<p>The new Confederacy took the Constitution +of the United States, so modified as to +make it read plainly as Jefferson had expounded +it in the Kentucky Resolutions of +1798. Other changes were slight. The presidential +term was extended to six years and +the President was not to be re-eligible. The +slave trade was prohibited and Congress +was authorized to forbid the introduction +of slaves from the old Union.</p> + +<p>Abraham Lincoln became President, with +a fixed resolve to preserve the Union but +with no intent to abolish slavery. Had the +war for the Union been as successful as he +hoped it would be, slavery would not have +been abolished by any act of his. It is clear +that, when inaugurated, he had not changed +his opinions expressed at Springfield, nor +those others, which, at Peoria, Illinois, on +October 16, 1854, he had stated thus: +"When our Southern brethren tell us they<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_187" id="Page_187">[187]</a></span> +are no more responsible for slavery than we +are, I acknowledge the fact. When it is said +the institution exists and it is very difficult +to get rid of it in any satisfactory way, I can +understand and appreciate the saying. I +will surely not blame them for not doing +what I should not know how to do myself. +If all earthly power were given me, I should +not know what to do as to the institution. +My first impulse would be to free all the +slaves and send them to Liberia, their native +land."</p> + +<p>This, he said, it was impracticable to do, +at least suddenly, and then proceeded: "To +free them all and keep them among us as +underlings—is it quite certain that this +would better their condition?... What +next? Free them and make them politically +and socially our equals?" This question he +answered in the negative, and continued: +"It does seem to me that systems of gradual +emancipation might be adopted, but for +their tardiness I will not undertake to judge +our brethren of the South."</p> + +<p>In these extracts from his speeches we +find a central thread that runs through the +history of his whole administration. We see<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_188" id="Page_188">[188]</a></span> +it again when, pressed by extremists, Mr. +Lincoln said in an open letter to Horace +Greeley, August 22, 1862: "My paramount +object in this struggle is to save the Union, +and it is not either to save or to destroy +slavery. If I could save the Union without +freeing any slave I would do it; and if I +could save it by freeing all the slaves I +would do it; and if I could save it by freeing +some and leaving others alone, I would +also do that."</p> + +<p>Indeed, Congress had, in 1861, by joint +resolution declared that the sole purpose of +the war was the preservation of the Union. +In no other way, and for no other purpose, +could the North at that time have been induced +to wage war against the South.</p> + +<p>Abraham Lincoln, the President of the +United States, and Jefferson Davis, the +President of the Confederate States, were +both Kentuckians by birth, both Americans. +In the purity of their lives, public and private, +in patriotic devotion to the preservation +of American institutions as understood +by each of them, they were alike; but they +represented different phases of American +thought, and each was the creature more or<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_189" id="Page_189">[189]</a></span> +less of his environment. Both were men of +commanding ability, but the destiny of each +was shaped by agencies that now seem to +have been directed by the hand of Fate. +Mr. Lincoln, by nature a political genius, +was carried to Illinois when a child, reared +in the North-west among those to whom, +with the Mississippi River as their only +outlet to the markets of the world, disunion, +with its loss of their highway to the sea, +was unthinkable. Lincoln became a Whig, +with the Union of the States the passion of +his life, and finally, by forces he had not +himself put in motion, he was placed at the +head of the Federal Government at a time +when sectionalism had decided that the +question of the permanence of the Union +was to be tried out, once and forever.</p> + +<p>Mr. Davis went from Kentucky further +South. He was a Democrat, and environment +also moulded his opinions. During +the long sectional controversy between the +North and the South, "State-rights" became +the passion of his life, and when the +clash between the sections came, he found +himself, without his seeking, at the head of +the Confederacy. He had been prominent<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_190" id="Page_190">[190]</a></span> +among the Southerners at Washington, who +had hoped that the South, by threats of +secession, might obtain its rights in the +Union, as had been done in Jefferson's days +by New England. In the movement (1860-61) +that resulted in secession, the people +at home had been ahead of their congressmen. +William L. Yancey, then in Alabama, +not Jefferson Davis at Washington, was +the actual leader of the secessionists. Mr. +Davis feared a long and bloody war and, unlike +Yancey, he had doubts as to its result.<a name="FNanchor_84_84" id="FNanchor_84_84"></a><a href="#Footnote_84_84" class="fnanchor">[84]</a></p> + +<p>Mr. Lincoln, standing for the Union, succeeded +in the war, but just as he was on the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_191" id="Page_191">[191]</a></span> +threshold of his great work of Reconstruction +he fell, the victim of a crazy assassin. +Martyrdom to his cause has naturally added +some cubits to the just measure of his wonderful +reputation.</p> + +<p>Jefferson Davis and his cause failed; and +the triumphant forces that swept the Confederacy +out of existence have long (and +quite naturally) sought to bury the cause +of the South and its chosen leader in ignominy. +But the days of hate and passion +are past; reason is reasserting her sway; +and history will do justice to both the Confederacy +and its great leader, whose ability, +patriotism, and courage were conspicuous +to the end.</p> + +<p>Mr. Davis was also a martyr—his long +imprisonment, the manacles he wore, the +sentinel gazing on him in the bright light +that day and night disturbed his rest; the +heroism with which he endured all this, and +the quiet dignity of his after life—these +have doubly endeared his memory to those +for whose cause he suffered.</p> + +<p>Mr. Lincoln had remarkable political tact—he +seemed to know how long to wait and +when to act, and, if we may credit Mr.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_192" id="Page_192">[192]</a></span> +Welles,<a name="FNanchor_85_85" id="FNanchor_85_85"></a><a href="#Footnote_85_85" class="fnanchor">[85]</a> his inflexibly honest Secretary of +the Navy, he was, with the members of his +cabinet, wonderfully patient and even long-suffering. +And although he was the subject +of much abuse, especially at the hands +of Southerners who then totally misunderstood +him, he was animated always by the +philosophy of his own famous words, "With +malice towards none, with charity for all." +Never for one moment did he forget, amidst +even the bitterest of his trials, that the Confederates, +then in arms against him, were, +as he regarded them, his misguided fellow-citizens; +and the supreme purpose of his +life was to bring them back into the Union, +not as conquered foes, but as happy and +contented citizens of the great republic.</p> + +<p>The resources of the Confederacy and the +United States were very unequal. The Confederacy +had no army, no navy, no factories, +save here and there a flour mill or cotton +factory, and practically no machine shops +that could furnish engines for its railroads. +It had one cannon foundry. The Tredegar +Iron Works, at Richmond, Virginia, was a +fully equipped cannon foundry. The Confederacy's<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_193" id="Page_193">[193]</a></span> +arms and munitions of war were +not sufficient to supply the troops that volunteered +during the first six months of military +operations. Its further supplies, except +such as the Tredegar works furnished, +depended on importations through the +blockade soon to be established and such as +might be captured.</p> + +<p>The North had the army and navy, factories +of every description, food in abundance, +and free access to the ports of the +world.</p> + +<p>The population of the North was 22,339,978.</p> + +<p>The population of the South was 9,103,332, +of which 3,653,870 were colored. The +total white male population of the Confederacy, +of all ages, was 2,799,818.</p> + +<p>The reports of the Adjutant-General of +the United States, November 9, 1880, show +2,859,132 men mustered into the service of +the United States in 1861-65. General Marcus +J. Wright, of the United States War +Records Office, in his latest estimate of +Confederate enlistments, places the outside +number at 700,000. The estimate of +Colonel Henderson, of the staff of the British<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_194" id="Page_194">[194]</a></span> +army, in his "Life of Stonewall Jackson," is +900,000. Colonel Thomas J. Livermore, of +Boston, estimates the number of Confederates +at about 1,000,000, and insists that in +the Adjutant-General's reports of the Union +enlistments there are errors that would +bring down the number of Union soldiers +to about 2,000,000. Colonel Livermore's +estimates are earnestly combated by Confederate +writers.</p> + +<p>General Charles Francis Adams has, in a +recently published volume,<a name="FNanchor_86_86" id="FNanchor_86_86"></a><a href="#Footnote_86_86" class="fnanchor">[86]</a> cited figures +given mostly by different Confederate authorities, +which aggregate 1,052,000 Confederate +enlistments. What authority these +Confederate writers have relied on is not +clear. The enlistments were for the most +part directly in the Confederate army and +not through State officials. The captured +Confederate records should furnish the highest +evidence. But it is earnestly insisted +that these records are incomplete, and there +is no purpose here to discuss a disputed +point.</p> + +<p>The call to arms was answered enthusiastically<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_195" id="Page_195">[195]</a></span> +in both sections, but the South +was more united in its convictions, and +practically all her young manhood fell into +line, the rich and the poor, the cultured +and uncultured serving in the ranks side by +side.</p> + +<p>The devotion of the noble women of the +North, and of its humanitarian associations, +to the welfare of the Federal soldiers was remarkable, +but there was nothing in the situation +in that section that could evoke such +a wonderful exhibition of heroism and self-sacrifice +as was exhibited by the devoted +women of the South, who made willingly +every possible sacrifice to the cause of the +Confederacy.</p> + +<p>Both sides fought bravely. Excluding +from the Union armies negroes, foreigners, +and the descendants of recent immigrants, +the Confederates and the Union soldiers were +mainly of British stock. The Confederates +had some notable advantages. Excepting +a few Union regiments from the West, +the Southerners were better shots and better +horsemen, especially in the beginning of the +war, than the Northerners; and the Southerners +were fighting not only for the Constitution<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_196" id="Page_196">[196]</a></span> +of their fathers and the defence of +their homes, but for the supremacy of their +race. They had also another military advantage, +that would probably have been decisive +but for the United States navy: they +had interior lines of communication which +would have enabled them to readily concentrate +their forces. But the United States +navy, hovering around their coast-line, not +only neutralized but turned this advantage +into a weakness, thus compelling the Confederates +to scatter their armies. Every +port had to be guarded.</p> + +<p>In the West the Federals were almost +uniformly successful in the greater battles, +the Confederates winning in these but two +decisive victories, Chickamauga and Sabine +Cross Roads, in Louisiana. Estimating, according +to the method of military experts, +the percentage of losses of the victor only, +Chickamauga was the bloodiest battle of the +world, from and including Waterloo down to +the present time. Gettysburg and Sharpsburg +also rank as high in losses as any +battle fought elsewhere in this long period, +which takes in the Franco-German and the +Russo-Japanese wars. At Sharpsburg or<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_197" id="Page_197">[197]</a></span> +Antietam the losses exceeded those in any +other one day's battle.<a name="FNanchor_87_87" id="FNanchor_87_87"></a><a href="#Footnote_87_87" class="fnanchor">[87]</a></p> + +<p>The Confederates were successful, excepting +Antietam or Sharpsburg and Gettysburg, +and perhaps Seven Pines or Fair Oaks, in all +the great battles in the East, down to the +time when the shattered remnant of Lee's +army was overwhelmed at Petersburg and +surrendered at Appomattox. The <i>élan</i> the +Southerners acquired in the many victories +they won fighting for their homes is not +to be overlooked. But the failure of the +North with its overwhelming numbers and +resources, to overcome the resistance of the +half-famished Confederates until nearly four +years had elapsed, can only be fully accounted +for, in fairness to the undoubted +courage of the Union armies, by the fact, on +which foreign military critics are agreed, +that the North had no such generals as Lee +and Stonewall Jackson. Only by the superior +generalship of their leaders could the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_198" id="Page_198">[198]</a></span> +Confederates have won as many battles as +they did against vastly superior numbers.</p> + +<p>But against the United States navy the +brilliant generalship of the Confederates and +their marvellous courage were powerless.</p> + +<p>Accepted histories of the war have been +written largely by the army and its friends, +and, strangely enough, the general historians +have been so attracted by the gallantry displayed +in great land battles, and the immediate +results, that they have utterly failed +to appreciate the services of the United +States navy.</p> + +<p>The Southerners accomplished remarkable +results with torpedoes with the <i>Merrimac</i> +or <i>Virginia</i> and their little fleet of commerce +destroyers; but the United States +navy, by its effective blockade, starved the +Confederacy to death. The Southern government +could not market its cotton, nor +could it import or manufacture enough military +supplies. Among its extremest needs +were rails and rolling stock to refit its lines +of communication. For want of transportation +it was unable to concentrate its +armies, and for the same reason its troops +were not half fed.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_199" id="Page_199">[199]</a></span>In addition to its services on the blockade, +which, in Lord Wolseley's opinion, +decided the war, the navy, with General +Grant's help, cut the Confederacy in twain +by way of the Mississippi. It penetrated +every Southern river, severing Confederate +communications and destroying depots of +supplies. It assisted in the capture, early in +the war, of Forts Henry and Donelson, and +it conducted Union troops along the Tennessee +River into east Tennessee and north +Alabama. It furnished objective points +and supplies at Savannah, Charleston, and +Wilmington, to Sherman on his march from +Atlanta; and finally Grant, the great Union +general, who had failed to reach Richmond +by way of the Wilderness, Spottsylvania, and +Cold Harbor, achieved success only when the +navy was at his back, holding his base, while +he laid a nine months' siege to Petersburg.</p> + +<p>That distinguished author, Charles Francis +Adams, himself a Union general in the +Army of the Potomac, says that the United +States navy was the deciding factor in the +Civil War. He even says that every single +successful operation of the Union forces +"hinged and depended on naval supremacy."</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_200" id="Page_200">[200]</a></span>The following is from the preface to +"The Crisis of the Confederacy," in which, +published in 1905, a foreign expert, Captain +Cecil Battine, of the King's Hussars, condenses +all that needs further to be said here +about the purely military side of the Civil +War:</p> + +<blockquote><p>The history of the American Civil War still remains +the most important theme for the student +and the statesman because it was waged between +adversaries of the highest intelligence and courage, +who fought by land and sea over an enormous area +with every device within the reach of human ingenuity, +and who had to create every organization +needed for the purpose after the struggle had begun. +The admiration which the valor of the Confederate +soldiers, fighting against superior numbers and resources, +excited in Europe; the dazzling genius of +some of the Confederate generals, and in some measure +jealousy at the power of the United States, have +ranged the sympathies of the world during the war +and ever since to a large degree on the side of the +vanquished. Justice has hardly been done to the +armies which arose time and again from sanguinary +repulses, and from disasters more demoralizing than +any repulse in the field, because they were caused +by political and military incapacity in high places, to +redeem which the soldiers freely shed their blood as +it seemed in vain. If the heroic endurance of the +Southern people and the fiery valor of the Southern<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_201" id="Page_201">[201]</a></span> +armies thrill us to-day with wonder and admiration, +the stubborn tenacity and courage which succeeded +in preserving intact the heritage of the American +nation, and which triumphed over foes so formidable, +are not less worthy of praise and imitation. +The Americans still hold the world's record for hard +fighting.</p></blockquote> + +<p>The great majority of the Union soldiers +enlisted for the preservation of the Union +and not for the abolition of slavery. But +among these soldiers there was an abolition +element, and very soon the tramp of federal +regiments was keeping time to</p> + +<p class="center"> +"John Brown's body lies a mouldering in the ground,<br /> +As we go marching on." +</p> + +<p>Early in the war Generals Frémont and +Butler issued orders declaring free the slaves +within the Union lines; these orders President +Lincoln rescinded. But Abolition sentiment +was growing in the army and at the +North, and the pressure upon the President +to strike at slavery was increasing. The +Union forces were suffering repeated defeats; +slaves at home were growing food crops and +caring for the families of Confederates who +were fighting at the front, and in September,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_202" id="Page_202">[202]</a></span> +1862, President Lincoln issued his preliminary +proclamation of emancipation, basing +it on the ground of military necessity. It +was to become effective January 1, 1863.</p> + +<p>And here was the same Lincoln who had +declared in 1858 his opinion that whites and +blacks could not live together as equals, +socially and politically; and it was the very +same Lincoln who had repeatedly said he +cherished no ill-will against his Southern +brethren. If the slaves were to be freed, they +and the whites should not be left together. +He therefore <i>sought diligently to find some +home for the freedmen in a foreign country</i>. +But unfortunately, as already seen, the +American negro, a bone of contention at +home, was now a pariah to other peoples. +Most nations welcome immigrants, but no +country was willing to shelter the American +freedman, save only Liberia, long before a +proven failure, and Hayti, where, under the +blacks, anarchy had already been chronic +for half a century. Hume tells us, in "The +Abolitionists," that for a time Mr. Lincoln +even considered setting Texas apart as a +home for the negro.</p> + +<p>Later the surrender of the Confederate<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_203" id="Page_203">[203]</a></span> +armies, together with the adoption of the +Thirteenth Amendment to the Constitution, +consummated emancipation, foreseeing +which President Lincoln formulated his plan +of Reconstruction. Suffrage in the reconstructed +States under his plan was to be +limited to those who were qualified to vote +at the date of secession, which meant the +whites. The sole exception he ever made +to this rule was a suggestion to Governor +Hahn, of Louisiana, that it might be well +for the whites (of Louisiana) to give the +ballot to a few of the most intelligent of +the negroes and to such as had served in +the army.</p> + +<p>The part the soldiers played, Federal and +Confederate, in restoring the Union, is a +short story. The clash between them settled +without reserve the only question that +was really in issue—secession; slavery, that +had been the origin of sectional dissensions, +was eliminated because it obstructed the +success of the Union armies. By their gallantry +in battle and conduct toward each +other the men in blue and the men in gray +restored between the North and the South +the mutual respect that had been lost in<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_204" id="Page_204">[204]</a></span> +the bitterness of sectional strife, and without +which there could be no fraternal Union.</p> + +<p>Mr. Gladstone, when the war was on, +said that the North was endeavoring to +"propagate free institutions at the point of +the sword." The North was not seeking to +propagate in the South any new institution +whatever. Mr. Gladstone's paradox loses +its point because both sections were fighting +for the preservation of the same system of +government.</p> + +<p>The time has now happily come when, to +use the language of Senator Hoar, as Americans, +we can, North and South, discuss the +causes that brought about our terrible war +"in a friendly and quiet spirit, without recrimination +and without heat, each understanding +the other, each striving to help the +other, as men who are bearing a common +burden and looking forward with a common +hope."</p> + +<p>The country, it is believed, has already +reached the conclusions that the South was +absolutely honest in maintaining the right +of secession and absolutely unswerving in +its devotion to its ideas of the Constitution, +and that the North was equally honest and<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_205" id="Page_205">[205]</a></span> +patriotic in its fidelity to the Union. We +need to advance one step further. Somebody +was to blame for starting a quarrel +between brethren who were dwelling together +in amity. If Americans can agree +in fixing that blame, the knowledge thus +acquired should help them to avoid such +troubles hereafter.</p> + +<p>It seems to be a fair conclusion that the +<i>initial cause of all our troubles was the formation +by Garrison of those Abolition societies</i> +which the Boston people in their resolutions +of August 1, 1835, "disapproved of" and +described as "associations instituted in the +non-slave-holding States, with the intent to +act, within the slave-holding States, on the +subject of slavery in those States, without +their consent." And further, that it was the +creation of these societies, the methods they +resorted to, and their explicit defiance of the +Constitution that roused the fears and passions +of the South and caused that section +to take up the quarrel that, afterward became +sectional; and that, after much hot +dispute and many regrettable incidents, +North and South, resulted in secession and +war.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_206" id="Page_206">[206]</a></span>In every dispute about slavery prior to +1831, the Constitution was always regarded +by every disputant as supreme. <i>The quarrel +that was fatal to the peace of the Union began +when the New Abolitionists put in the new +claim, that slavery in the South was the concern +of the North, as well as of the South, and +that there was a higher law than the Constitution. +If the conscience of the individual, instead +of human law, is to prescribe rules of +conduct, society is at the mercy of anarchists. +Czolgosz was conscientious when he murdered +McKinley.</i></p> + +<p>Had all Americans continued to agree, +after 1831, as they did before that time, that +the Constitution of the United States was +the supreme law of the land, there would +have been no fatal sectional quarrel, no secession, +and no war between the North and +South.</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p>The immediate surrender everywhere of +the Confederates in obedience to the orders +of their generals was an imposing spectacle. +There was no guerilla warfare. The Confederates +accepted their defeat in good faith +and have ever since been absolutely loyal<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_207" id="Page_207">[207]</a></span> +to the United States Government, but they +have never changed their minds as to the +justice of the cause they fought for. They +fought for liberty regulated by law, and +against the idea that there can be, under our +system, any higher law than the Constitution +of our country. That the Constitution +should always be the supreme law of the +land, they still believe, and the philosophic +student of past and current history should +be gratified to see the tenacity with which +Southern people still cling to that idea. It +suggests that not only will the Southerners +be always ready to stand for our country +against a foreign foe, but that whenever our +institutions shall be assailed, as they will +often be hereafter by visionaries who are +impatient of restraints, the cause of liberty, +regulated by law, will find staunch defenders +in the Southern section of our country.</p> + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_208" id="Page_208">[208]</a></span></p> +<h2>CHAPTER X</h2> + +<h3>RECONSTRUCTION, LINCOLN-JOHNSON +PLAN AND CONGRESSIONAL.</h3> + + +<p>President Lincoln's theory was +that acts of secession were void, and +that when the seceded States came back into +the Union those who were entitled to vote, +by the laws existing at the date of the attempted +secession, and had been pardoned, +should have, and should control, the right +of suffrage. Mr. Lincoln had acted on this +theory in Tennessee, Louisiana, and Texas, +and he further advised Congress, in his +message of December, 1863, that this was +his plan. Congress, after a long debate, responded +in July, 1864, by an act claiming +for itself power over Reconstruction. The +President answered by a pocket veto, and +after that veto Mr. Lincoln was, in November, +1864, re-elected on a platform extolling +his "practical wisdom," etc. Congress, +during the session that began in December, +1864, did not attempt to reassert its authority<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_209" id="Page_209">[209]</a></span> +but adjourned, March 4, 1865, in +sight of the collapse of the Confederacy, +leaving the President an open field for his +declared policy.</p> + +<p>But unhappily, on the 14th of April, 1865, +Mr. Lincoln was assassinated, and his death +just at this time was the most appalling calamity +that ever befell the American people. +The blow fell chiefly upon the South, and +it was the South the assassin had thought +to benefit.</p> + +<p>Had the great statesman lived he might, +and it is fully believed he would, like +Washington, have achieved a double success. +Washington, successful in war, was successful +in guiding his country through the first +eight stormy years of its existence under a +new constitution. Lincoln had guided the +country through four years of war, and the +Union was now safe. With Lee's surrender +the war was practically at an end.</p> + +<p>Gideon Welles says that on the 10th of +April, 1865, Mr. Lincoln, "while I was with +him at the White House, was informed that +his fellow-citizens would call to congratulate +him on the fall of Richmond and surrender +of Lee; but he requested their visit<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_210" id="Page_210">[210]</a></span> +should be delayed that he might have time +to put his thoughts on paper, for he desired +that his utterances on such an occasion +should be deliberate and not liable to misapprehension, +misinterpretation, or misconstruction. +He therefore addressed the people +on the following evening, Tuesday the 11th, +in a carefully prepared speech intended to +promote harmony and union.</p> + +<p>"In this remarkable speech, delivered three +days before his assassination, he stated he +had prepared a plan for the reinauguration +of the sectional authority and reconstruction +in 1863, which would be acceptable to the executive +government, and that every member +of the cabinet fully approved the plan," etc.<a name="FNanchor_88_88" id="FNanchor_88_88"></a><a href="#Footnote_88_88" class="fnanchor">[88]</a></p> + +<p>In view of his death three days later, this, +his last and deliberate public utterance, may +be regarded as Abraham Lincoln's will, devising +as a legacy to his countrymen his plan +of reconstruction. That plan in the hands +of his successor was defeated by a partisan +and radical Congress. That it was a wise +plan the world now knows.</p> + +<p>Senator John Sherman, of Ohio, was one<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_211" id="Page_211">[211]</a></span> +of the most influential of those who succeeded +in defeating it, and yet he lived to +say, in his book published in 1895,<a name="FNanchor_89_89" id="FNanchor_89_89"></a><a href="#Footnote_89_89" class="fnanchor">[89]</a> Andrew +Johnson "adopted substantially the plan +proposed and acted on by Mr. Lincoln. +After this long lapse of time I am convinced +that Mr. Johnson's scheme of reorganization +was wise and judicious. It was +unfortunate that it had not the sanction of +Congress and that events soon brought the +President and Congress into hostility."</p> + +<p>And the present senator, Shelby Cullom, +of Illinois, who as a member of the +House of Representatives voted to overthrow +the Lincoln-Johnson plan of Reconstruction, +has furnished us further testimony. +He says in his book, published in +1911:<a name="FNanchor_90_90" id="FNanchor_90_90"></a><a href="#Footnote_90_90" class="fnanchor">[90]</a></p> + +<p>"To express it in a word, the motive of +the opposition to the Johnson plan of Reconstruction +was a firm conviction that its +success would wreck the Republican party +and, by restoring the Democracy to power, +bring back Southern supremacy and Northern +vassalage."</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_212" id="Page_212">[212]</a></span>The Republican party, then dominant in +Congress, felt when confronting Reconstruction +that it was facing a crisis in its existence. +The Democratic party, unitedly opposed +to negro suffrage, was still in Northern +States a power to be reckoned with. Allied +with the Southern whites, that old party +might again control the government unless, +by giving the negro the ballot, the Republicans +could gain, as Senator Sumner said, +the "allies it needed." But the masses at +the North were opposed to negro suffrage, +and only two or three State constitutions +sanctioned it. Indeed, it may be safely said +that when Congress convened in December, +1865, a majority of the people of the North +were ready to follow Johnson and approve +the Lincoln plan of Reconstruction. But +the extremists in both branches of the Congress +had already determined to defeat the +plan and to give the ballot to the ex-slave. +To prepare the mind of the Northern people +for their programme, they had resolved +to rekindle the passions of the war, which +were now smouldering, and utilize all the +machinery, military and civilian, that Congress +could make effective.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_213" id="Page_213">[213]</a></span>Andrew Johnson,<a name="FNanchor_91_91" id="FNanchor_91_91"></a><a href="#Footnote_91_91" class="fnanchor">[91]</a> who as vice-president +now succeeded to the presidency, though a +man of ability, had little personal influence +and none of Lincoln's tact. Johnson retained +Lincoln's cabinet, and McCullough, +who was Secretary of the Treasury under +both presidents, says in his "Men and Measures +of Half a Century," p. 378:</p> + +<p>"The very same instrument for restoring +the national authority over North Carolina +and placing her where she stood before her +secession, which had been approved by Mr. +Lincoln, was, by Mr. Stanton, presented at +the first cabinet which was held at the executive +mansion after Mr. Lincoln's death, and, +having been carefully considered at two or +three meetings, was adopted as the Reconstruction +policy of the administration."</p> + +<p>Johnson carried out this plan. All the +eleven seceding States repealed their ordinances +of secession. Their voters, from +which class many leaders had been excluded +by the presidential proclamation, all took<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_214" id="Page_214">[214]</a></span> +the oath of allegiance, and reconstructed +their State governments. From most of +the reconstructed States, senators and representatives +were in Washington asking to +be seated when Congress convened, December +4, 1865.</p> + +<p>The presidential plan of Reconstruction +had been promptly accepted by the people +of the prostrate States. Almost without +exception they had, when permitted, taken +the oath and returned to their allegiance.</p> + +<p>The wretchedness of these people in the +spring of 1865 was indescribable. The labor +system on which they depended for most of +their money-producing crops was destroyed. +Including the disabled, twenty per cent of +the whites, who would now have been bread-winners, +were gone. The credit system had +been universal, and credit was gone. Banks +were bankrupt. Confederate currency and +bonds were worthless. Provisions were +scarce and money even scarcer. Many landholders +had not even plough stock with +which to make a crop.</p> + +<p>There was some cotton, however, that +had escaped the ravages of war, and a large +part of this also escaped the rapacious<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_215" id="Page_215">[215]</a></span> +United States agents, who were seizing it +as Confederate property. This cotton was +a godsend. There was another supply of +money that came from an unexpected source. +The old anti-slavery controversy had made +it seem perfectly clear to many moneyed +men, North, that free labor was always superior +to slave labor; and now, when cotton +was bringing a good price, enterprising men +carried their money, altogether some hundreds +of thousands of dollars, into the several +cotton States, to buy plantations and +make cotton with free negro labor. Free +negro labor was not a success. Those who +had reckoned on it lost their money; but this +money went into circulation and was helpful.</p> + +<p>Above all else loomed the negro problem. +Five millions of whites and three and a half +millions of blacks were to live together. +Thomas Jefferson had said, "Nothing is +more certainly written in the Book of Fate +than that these people are to be free; <i>nor +is it less certain that the two races, equally free, +cannot live in the same government</i>. <i>Nature, +habit, opinion have drawn indelible lines +between them.</i>"<a name="FNanchor_92_92" id="FNanchor_92_92"></a><a href="#Footnote_92_92" class="fnanchor">[92]</a> And it may truly be said<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_216" id="Page_216">[216]</a></span> +of Jefferson that he was, as quite recently +he was declared to be by Dr. Schurman, +President of Cornell University, the "apostle +of reason, and reason alone."</p> + +<p>What system of laws could Southern conventions +and legislatures frame, that would +enable them to accomplish what Jefferson +had declared was impossible? This was the +question before these bodies when called together +in 1865-66 by Johnson to rehabilitate +their States. Two dangers confronted +them. One was, armed bands of negroes, +headed by returning negro soldiers. Mr. +Lincoln had feared this. Early in April of +that very year, 1865, he said to General +Butler: "I can hardly believe that the South +and North can live in peace unless we can +get rid of the negroes, whom we have armed +and disciplined, and who have fought with us, +to the amount, I believe, of one hundred and +fifty thousand." Mississippi, and perhaps +one other State, to guard against the danger +from this source, enacted that negroes were +only to bear arms when licensed. This law +was to be fiercely attacked.</p> + +<p>The other chief danger was that idleness +among the negroes would lead to crime.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_217" id="Page_217">[217]</a></span> +It soon became apparent that the negro +idea was that freedom meant freedom from +work. They would not work steadily, even +for their Northern friends, who were offering +ready money for labor in their cotton +fields, and multitudes were loitering in +towns and around Freedmen's Bureau offices. +Nothing seemed better than the old-time +remedies, apprenticeship and vagrancy +laws, then found in every body of British or +American statutes. These laws Southern +legislatures copied, with what appeared to +be necessary modifications, and these laws +were soon assailed as evidence of an intent +to reduce the negro again to slavery. Mr. +James G. Blaine, in his "Twenty Years," +selected the Alabama statutes for his attack. +In the writer's book, "Why the Solid +South," pp. 31-36, the Alabama statutes +cited by Mr. Blaine are shown to be very +similar to and largely copied from the statutes +of Vermont, Massachusetts, and Rhode +Island.</p> + +<p>Had Mr. Lincoln been living he would +have sympathized with these Southern law-makers +in their difficult task. But to the +radicals in Congress nothing could have been<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_218" id="Page_218">[218]</a></span> +satisfactory that did not give Mr. Sumner's +party the "allies it needed."</p> + +<p>The first important step of the Congress +that convened December 4, 1865, was to +refuse admission to the congressmen from +the States reconstructed under the Lincoln-Johnson +plan, and pass a joint resolution for +the appointment of a Committee of Fifteen +to inquire into conditions in those States.</p> + +<p>The temper of that Congress may be +gauged by the following extract from the +speech of Mr. Shellabarger, of Ohio, on the +passage of the joint resolution:</p> + +<p>"They framed iniquity and universal +murder into law.... Their pirates burned +your unarmed commerce on the sea. They +carved the bones of your dead heroes into +ornaments, and drank from goblets made +out of their skulls. They poisoned your +fountains; put mines under your soldiers' +prisons; organized bands, whose leaders +were concealed in your homes; and commissions +ordered the torch and yellow fever +to be carried to your cities and to your +women and children. They planned one +universal bonfire of the North from Lake +Ontario to the Missouri," etc.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_219" id="Page_219">[219]</a></span>Congress, while refusing admission to +senators elected by the legislatures of the +reconstructed States, was permitting these +very bodies to pass on amendments to +the Federal Constitution; and such votes +were counted. Congress now proposed the +Fourteenth Amendment, Section III of +which provided that no person should hold +office under the United States who, having +taken an oath, as a Federal or State officer, +to support the Constitution, had subsequently +engaged in the war against the +Union. The Southerners would not vote +for a provision that would disfranchise their +leaders; they refused to ratify the Fourteenth +Amendment, and this helped further +to inflame the radicals of the North.</p> + +<p>After the Committee of Fifteen had been +appointed, Congress proceeded to put the +reconstructed States under military control. +In the debate on the measure, February 18, +1867, James A. Garfield, who was, at a later +date, to become generous and conservative, +said exultingly: "This bill sets out by laying +its hands on the rebel governments and +taking the very breath of life out of them; +in the next place, it puts the bayonet at the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_220" id="Page_220">[220]</a></span> +breast of every rebel in the South; in the +next place, it leaves in the hands of Congress +utterly and absolutely the work of +Reconstruction."</p> + +<p>And Congress did its work. Lincoln was +in his grave, and Johnson, even with his +vetoes, was powerless. By the acts of March +2 and March 23, 1867, the reconstructed +governments were swept away. Universal +suffrage was given to the negro and most of +the prominent whites were disfranchised.</p> + +<p>The first suffrage bill was for the District +of Columbia, during the debate on +which Senator Sumner said: "Now, to my +mind, nothing is clearer than the absolute +necessity of suffrage for all colored persons +in the disorganized States. It will not be +enough, if you give it to those who can read +and write; you will not in this way acquire +the voting force you need there for the +protection of Unionists, whether white or +black. You will not acquire the new allies +who are essential to the national cause."</p> + +<p>In the forty-first Congress, beginning +March 4, 1871, the twelve reconstructed +States, including West Virginia, were represented +by twenty-two Republicans and two<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_221" id="Page_221">[221]</a></span> +Democrats in the Senate, and forty-eight +Republicans and twelve Democrats in the +House of Representatives.</p> + +<p>Mr. Sumner's "new allies" were ready to +answer to the roll-call.</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p>When Congress had convened in December, +1865, its radical leaders were already +bent on universal suffrage for the negro, but +the Northern mind was not yet prepared for +so radical a measure. The "Committee of +Fifteen" was the first step in the programme, +which was to hold the Southern States out +of the Union and make an appeal to the +passions and prejudices of Northern voters +in the congressional elections of November, +1866. Valuable material for the coming +campaign was already being furnished by +the agents of the Freedmen's Bureau. These +"adventurers, broken down preachers, and +politicians," as Senator Fessenden, of Maine, +called them, were, and had been for some +time, reporting "outrages," swearing negroes +into midnight leagues, and selecting +the offices they hoped to fill.</p> + +<p>But the chief source of the material relied +upon in the congressional campaign of 1866<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_222" id="Page_222">[222]</a></span> +to exasperate the North, and prod voters to +the point of sanctioning negro suffrage in +the South, was the official information from +the Committee of Fifteen. Its subcommittee +of three, to take testimony as to Virginia, +North and South Carolina, Georgia, Alabama, +Mississippi, and Arkansas, were <i>all +Republicans</i>. The doings of this subcommittee +in Alabama illustrate their methods. +Only five persons, who claimed to be citizens, +were examined. These were all Republican +politicians. The testimony of each +was bitterly partisan. "Under the government +of the State as it then existed, no one +of these witnesses could hope for official +preferment. When this Reconstruction plan +had been completed the first of these five +witnesses became governor of his State; the +second became a senator in Congress; the +third secured a life position in one of the +departments in Washington; the fourth became +a circuit judge in Alabama, and the +fifth a judge of the Supreme Court of the +District of Columbia—all as Republicans. +There was no Democrat in the subcommittee +which examined these gentlemen, to cross-examine +them; and not a citizen of Alabama<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_223" id="Page_223">[223]</a></span> +was called before that subcommittee to confute +or explain their evidence."<a name="FNanchor_93_93" id="FNanchor_93_93"></a><a href="#Footnote_93_93" class="fnanchor">[93]</a></p> + +<p>With the material gathered by these +means and from these sources, the honest +voters of the North were deluded into the +election of a Congress that went to Washington, +in December, 1866, armed with authority +to pass the Reconstruction laws of +March, 1867.</p> + +<p>Southern counsels were now much divided. +Many good men, like Governor Brown, of +Georgia; General Longstreet and ex-Senator +Albert Gallatin Brown, of Mississippi, advised +acquiescence and assistance, "not because +we approve the policy of Reconstruction, +but because it is the best we can do." +These advisers hoped that good men, well +known to the negroes, might control them +for the country's good; and zealous efforts +were made along this line in every State, but +they were futile. The blacks had already, +before they got the suffrage, accepted the +leadership of those claiming to be the "men +who had freed them." These leaders were +not only bureau agents but army camp-followers; +and there was still another brood,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_224" id="Page_224">[224]</a></span> +who espied from afar a political Eden in the +prostrate States and forthwith journeyed +to it. All these Northern adventurers were +called "carpet-baggers"—they carried their +worldly goods in their hand-bags. The +Southerners who entered into a joint-stock +business with them became "scalawags." +These people mustered the negroes into +leagues, and everywhere whispered it into +their ears that the aim of the Southern +whites was to reënslave them.</p> + +<p>Politics in the South in the days before +the war had always been more or less intense, +partly because there were so many +who had leisure, and partly because the general +rule was joint political discussions. The +seams that had divided Whigs and Democrats, +Secessionists and Union men, had not +been entirely closed up, even by the melting +fires of the Civil War. Old feuds for a time +played their part in Southern politics, even +after March, 1867. These old feuds made +it difficult for Southern whites to get together +as a race; and, in fact, conservative +men dreaded the idea. It tended toward +an actual race war which, for many years, +had been a nightmare; but in every reconstructed<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_225" id="Page_225">[225]</a></span> +State the negro and his allies finally +forced the race issue.</p> + +<p>The new rulers not only increased taxes +and misappropriated the revenues of counties, +cities, and States; they bartered away +the credit of State after State. Some of +the States, after they were redeemed, scaled +their debts by compromising with creditors; +others have struggled along with their increased +burdens.</p> + +<p>There were hundreds of negro policemen, +constables, justices of the peace, and legislators +who could not write their names. +Justice was in many localities a farce. +Ex-slaves became judges, representatives in +Congress, and United States senators. The +eleven Confederate States had been divided +into military districts. Many of the officers +and men who were scattered over the country +to uphold negro rule sympathized with +the whites and evidenced their sympathy in +various ways. Others, either because they +were radicals at heart, or to commend themselves +to their superiors, who were some of +them aspiring to political places, were super-serviceable; +and it was not uncommon for a +military officer, in a case where a negro was<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_226" id="Page_226">[226]</a></span> +a party, to order a judge to leave the bench +and himself take the place. In communities +where negro majorities were overwhelming +there were usually two factions, and when +political campaigns were on agents for these +clans often scoured the fields clear of laborers +to recruit their marching bands. In +cities these bands made night hideous with +shouts and the noise of fifes and drums. +The negro would tolerate no defection from +his ranks to the whites, and negro women +were more intolerant than the men. It +sometimes happened that a bloody clash +between the races was imminent when white +men sought to protect a negro who had +dared to speak in favor of the Democratic +and Conservative party. In truth, the civilization +of the South was being changed +from white to negroid.</p> + +<p>The final triumph of good government in +all the States was at last accomplished by +accepting the race issue, as in Alabama in +1874. The first resolution in the platform of +the "Democratic and Conservative party" +in that State then was, "The radical and +dominant faction of the Republican party +in this State persistently, and by fraudulent<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_227" id="Page_227">[227]</a></span> +representations, have inflamed the passions +and prejudices of the negroes, as a race, +against the white people, and have thereby +made it necessary for the white people to +unite and act together in self-defence and +for the preservation of white civilization."</p> + +<p>The people of North Carolina recovered +the right of self-government in 1870. Other +States followed from time to time, the last +two being Louisiana and South Carolina in +1877.</p> + +<p>Edwin L. Godkin, who was for long at +the head of the <i>Nation</i> and the <i>Evening Post</i>, +of New York, is thought by some competent +judges to have been the ablest editor this +country has ever had. After the last of the +negro governments set up in the South had +passed away, looking back over the whole +bad business, Mr. Godkin, in a letter to his +friend Charles Eliot Norton, written from +Sweet Springs, West Virginia, September 3, +1877, said: "I do not see in short how the +negro is ever to be worked into a system +of government for which you and I could +have much respect."<a name="FNanchor_94_94" id="FNanchor_94_94"></a><a href="#Footnote_94_94" class="fnanchor">[94]</a></p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_228" id="Page_228">[228]</a></span>Garrison is dead. At the centenary of his +birth, December 12, 1904, an effort was made +to arouse enthusiasm. There was only a +feeble response; but we still have extremists. +Professor Josiah Royce, of Harvard, +in "Race Questions" (1906), speaking of +race antipathies as "trained hatred," says, +pp. 48-49: "We can remember that they are +childish phenomena in our lives, phenomena +on a level with the dread of snakes or of +mice, phenomena that we share with the +cats and with the dogs, not noble phenomena, +but caprices of our complex nature."</p> + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_229" id="Page_229">[229]</a></span></p> +<h2>CHAPTER XI</h2> + +<h3>THE SOUTH UNDER SELF-GOVERNMENT</h3> + + +<p>For now more than thirty years, whites +and blacks, both free, have lived together +in the reconstructed States. In some +of them there have been local clashes, but in +none of them has there been race war, predicted +by Jefferson and feared by Lincoln; +and there probably never will be such a war, +unless it shall come through the intervention +of such an outside force as produced +in the South the conflict between the races +at the polls in 1868-76.</p> + +<p>Every State government set up under the +plan of Congress had wrought ruin, and the +ruin was always more complete where the +negroes were most numerous, as in South +Carolina and Louisiana.</p> + +<p>The rule of the carpet-bagger and the +negro was now superseded by governments +based on Abraham Lincoln's idea, the idea +he expressed in the debate with Douglas in +1858, when he said: "While they [the two<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_230" id="Page_230">[230]</a></span> +races] do remain together <i>there must be the +position of inferior and superior</i>, and I, as +much as any other man, <i>am in favor of having +the superior position assigned to the white +man</i>."</p> + +<p>Conducted on this basis, the present governments +in the reconstructed States have +endured now for periods varying from thirty-six +to forty-two years, and in every State, +without any exception, the prosperity of +both whites and blacks has been wonderful, +and this in spite of the still existent abnormal +animosities engendered by congressional +reconstruction.</p> + +<p>In the present State governments the race +problem seems to have reached, in its larger +lines, its only practicable solution. There is +still, however, much friction between whites +and blacks. Higher culture among the +masses, especially of the dominant race, and +wise leadership in both races, will in time +minimize this, but it is not to be expected, +nor is it ever to be desired, that racial antipathies +should entirely cease to exist. The +result of such cessation would be amalgamation, +a solution that American whites will +never tolerate.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_231" id="Page_231">[231]</a></span>Deportation, as a solution of the negro +problem, is impracticable. Mr. Lincoln, +much as he desired the separation of the +races, could not accomplish it, even when +he had all the war power of the government +in his hands. He was, as we have seen, unable +to find a country that would take the +3,500,000 of blacks then in the seceded +States. Now, there are in the South, including +Delaware, according to the census of 1910, +8,749,390, and, quite naturally, the American +negro is more unwilling than ever to leave +America.</p> + +<p>Another solution sometimes suggested in +the South is the repeal of the Fifteenth +Amendment, which declares that the negro +shall not be deprived of the ballot because +of his race, but agitation for this would appear +to be worse than useless.</p> + +<p>The negro vote in the reconstructed States +is, and has for years been, quite small, not +large enough to be considered a factor in any +of them. One cause of this is that the whites +enforce against the blacks rigidly the tests +required by law, but the chief reason is, +that the negro, who is qualified, does not +often apply for registration. He finds work<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_232" id="Page_232">[232]</a></span> +now more profitable than voting. He can +not, he knows, control, nor can he, if disposed +to do so, sell his ballot as he once did. +One of the most signal and durable evils of +Congressional Reconstruction was the utter +debasement of the suffrage in eleven States +where the ballot had formerly been notably +pure. Gideon Welles saw clearly when he +said in his diary, June 23, 1867 (p. 102, +vol. III): "Under the pretence of elevating +the negro the radicals are degrading the +whites and debasing the elective franchise, +bringing elections into contempt." During +the rule of the negro and the alien, in every +black county, where the negro majority was +as two to one, there were, as a rule, two Republican +candidates for every fat office, and +an election meant, for the negro, a golden +harvest. Rival candidates were mercilessly +fleeced by their black constituencies, and the +belief South is that as a rule the carpet-baggers, +in their hegira, returned North as +poor as when they came.</p> + +<p>In the Reconstruction era the whites +fought fraud with fraud; and even after recovering +control they, the whites, felt justified +in continuing to defraud the negro of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_233" id="Page_233">[233]</a></span> +his vote. To restore the purity of the +ballot-box was the chief reason for the +amendments to State constitutions, by +means of which amendments, having in +view the limitations of the Federal Constitution, +as many negroes and as few whites +as was practicable were excluded.</p> + +<p>This accounts in part for the smallness of +the negro vote South. A more potent reason +is that the Democratic party, dominated by +whites, selects its candidates in primaries; +and the negro, seeing no chance to win, does +not care to pay a poll tax or otherwise qualify +for registration.</p> + +<p>Southern whites have now for more than +three decades been governing the blacks in +their midst. It is the most difficult task +that has ever been undertaken in all the history +of popular government, but sad experience +has demonstrated that legal restriction +of the negro vote in the South there must be.</p> + +<p>Party spirit tends always to blind the vision, +and, as we have seen in this review +of the past, it often stifles conscience; and +this even where the masses of the people +are approximately homogeneous. Southern +statesmen are now dealing not only with<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_234" id="Page_234">[234]</a></span> +party spirit, but with perpetual race friction +manifesting itself in various forms. +Failure there must be in minor matters and +in certain localities; the progress that has +been made can only be fairly estimated by +considering general results. Those who sympathize +with the South think they see there +among the whites a growing spirit of altruism, +begotten of responsibility, and this +promises much for the amelioration of race +friction.</p> + +<p>Since obtaining control of their State governments +the whites in the Southern States +have as a rule increased appropriations for +common schools by at least four hundred +per cent, and though paying themselves by +far the greater proportion of these taxes, +they have continued to divide revenues pro +rata between the white and colored schools.</p> + +<p>Industrial results have been amazing. +The following figures, taken from the Annual +Blue Book, 1911 edition, of the <i>Manufacturers' +Record</i>, Baltimore, Maryland, include +West Virginia among the reconstructed +States.</p> + +<p>The population of these States was, in +1880, 13,608,703; in 1910, 23,613,533.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_235" id="Page_235">[235]</a></span>Manufacturing capital, 1880, $147,156,624. +In 1900—twenty years—it was +$1,019,056,200.</p> + +<p>Cotton crop, whole South, 1880, 5,761,252 +bales. In 1911 it was about 15,000,000.</p> + +<p>Of this cotton crop Southern mills took, +in 1880, 321,337 bales, and in 1910, 2,344,343 +bales.</p> + +<p>In 1880 the twelve reconstructed States +cut, of lumber, board measure, 2,981,274,000 +feet; and in 1909 22,445,000,000 feet.</p> + +<p>Their output of pig-iron was, in 1880, +264,991 long tons; in 1910, 3,048,000 tons. +The assessed value of taxable property was, +in 1880, $2,106,971,271; in 1910, $6,522,195,139.</p> + +<p>The negro, though the white man, with +his superior energy and capacity, far outstrips +him, has shared in this material prosperity. +His property in these States has +been estimated as high as $500,000,000.</p> + +<p>During the last decade, 1900-1910, the +white population of the South increased by +24.4 per cent, while the negro population in +the same States increased only 10.4 per cent. +There has been a very considerable gain of +whites over blacks since 1880, the result +largely of a greater natural increase of whites<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_236" id="Page_236">[236]</a></span> +over blacks, immigrants not counted. All +this indicates that the negro problem is +gradually being minimized.</p> + +<p>Taken in the aggregate, the shortcomings +of the negro are numerous and regrettable, +but not greater than was to be expected. +The general advance of an inferior race will +never equal that of one which is superior by +nature and already centuries ahead. The +laggard and thriftless among the inferior +people will naturally be more, and it is from +these classes that prison houses are filled.</p> + +<p>There is a very considerable class of negroes +who are improving mentally and morally, +but improvidence is a characteristic of +the race, and very many of them, even +though they labor more or less steadily, will +never accumulate. The third class, much +larger than among the whites, is composed +of those who are idle, dissipated, and criminal. +Taken altogether, however, what +Booker Washington says is true: "There +cannot be found, in the civilized or uncivilized +world, a like number of negroes whose +economic, educational, and religious life is +so far advanced as that of the ten millions +within this country."<a name="FNanchor_95_95" id="FNanchor_95_95"></a><a href="#Footnote_95_95" class="fnanchor">[95]</a> This advancement<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_237" id="Page_237">[237]</a></span> +is one of the results of slavery. When the +negroes come to recognize this, as some of +their leaders already do,<a name="FNanchor_96_96" id="FNanchor_96_96"></a><a href="#Footnote_96_96" class="fnanchor">[96]</a> and come to appreciate +the advantages for further improvement +they have had since their emancipation, +they will cease to repine over the +bondage of their ancestors. There were +undoubtedly evils in slavery, but, after all, +there was some reason in the advice given +by the good Spanish Bishop Las Casas to +the King of Spain—that it would be rightful +to enslave and thus Christianize and +civilize the African savage. Herbert Spencer, +"Illustrations of Universal Progress" +(p. 444), says: "Hateful though it is to us, +and injurious as it would be now, slavery +was once beneficial, was one of the <i>necessary +phases of human progress</i>."</p> + +<p>Sir Harry Johnston, African explorer and +student of the negro race, in both the old +and the new world, and perhaps the most +eminent authority on a question he has, in +a fashion, made his own, says: "Intellectually, +and perhaps physically, he (the negro) +has attained the highest degree of advancement +as yet in the United States."<a name="FNanchor_97_97" id="FNanchor_97_97"></a><a href="#Footnote_97_97" class="fnanchor">[97]</a></p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_238" id="Page_238">[238]</a></span>"In Alabama (most of all) the American +negro is seen at his best, as peasant, peasant +proprietor, artisan, professional man, and +member of society."<a name="FNanchor_98_98" id="FNanchor_98_98"></a><a href="#Footnote_98_98" class="fnanchor">[98]</a></p> + +<p>Race animosities are now abnormal, both +South and North. The prime reasons for +this are two:</p> + +<p>1. The bitter conflict during reconstruction +for race supremacy and the false hopes +once held out to the negro of ultimate social +equality with the whites. Among the early +measures of congressional reconstruction +was a "civil rights" enactment which the +negroes regarded as giving to them all the +rights of the white man. Their Supreme +Court in Alabama decided, in "Burns vs. +The State," that the "civil rights" laws conferred +the right to intermarriage. Negroes, +North, no doubt also believed in this construction. +But the Supreme Court of the +United States later held that the States, +and not Congress, had jurisdiction over the +marriage relation within the States. All the +Southern and a number of the Northern States +have since forbidden the intermarriage of +whites and blacks, and so the negro's hopes of +equal rights in this regard have vanished.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_239" id="Page_239">[239]</a></span>This disappointment and his utter failure +to secure the social equality that once +seemed his, have tended to embitter the +negro against the white man.</p> + +<p>2. Whites have been embittered against +blacks by the frequency in later years of +the crime of the negro against white women. +This horrible offence began to be common +in the South some thirty-two or three years +since, or perhaps a little earlier, and somewhat +later it appeared in the North, where +it seems to have been as common, negro +population considered, as in the South. The +crime was almost invariably followed by +lynching, which, however, was not always +for the same crime. The following is the +list of lynchings in the sections, as kept by +the <i>Chicago Tribune</i> since it began to compile +them:</p> + + +<div class="center"> +<table border="0" cellpadding="4" cellspacing="0" summary="lynching"> +<tr><td align="left">1885</td><td align="right">184</td></tr> +<tr><td align="left">1886</td><td align="right">138</td></tr> +<tr><td align="left">1887</td><td align="right">122</td></tr> +<tr><td align="left">1888</td><td align="right">142</td></tr> +<tr><td align="left">1889</td><td align="right">176</td></tr> +<tr><td align="left">1890</td><td align="right">127</td></tr> +<tr><td align="left">1891</td><td align="right">192</td></tr> +<tr><td align="left">1892</td><td align="right">205</td></tr> +<tr><td align="left">1893</td><td align="right">200</td></tr> +<tr><td align="left">1894</td><td align="right">190</td></tr> +<tr><td align="left">1895</td><td align="right">171</td></tr> +<tr><td align="left">1896</td><td align="right">181</td></tr> +<tr><td align="left">1897</td><td align="right">166</td></tr> +<tr><td align="left">1898</td><td align="right">127</td></tr> +<tr><td align="left">1899</td><td align="right">107</td></tr> +<tr><td align="left">1900</td><td align="right">107</td></tr> +<tr><td align="left"><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_240" id="Page_240">[240]</a></span>1901</td><td align="right">185</td></tr> +<tr><td align="left">1902</td><td align="right">96</td></tr> +<tr><td align="left">1903</td><td align="right">104</td></tr> +<tr><td align="left">1904</td><td align="right">87</td></tr> +<tr><td align="left">1905</td><td align="right">66</td></tr> +<tr><td align="left">1906</td><td align="right">66</td></tr> +<tr><td align="left">1907</td><td align="right">68</td></tr> +<tr><td align="left">1908</td><td align="right">100</td></tr> +<tr><td align="left">1909</td><td align="right">87</td></tr> +<tr><td align="left">1910</td><td align="right">74</td></tr> +</table></div> +<p>The general decrease, while population is +increasing, is encouraging; but lynching itself +is a horrible crime; and lynching for one +crime begets lynching for another. Of the +total number lynched last year, nine were +whites; sixty-five were negroes, among them +three women; and only twenty-two were +for crimes of negroes against white women. +The other crimes were murder, attempts to +murder, robbery, arson, etc.</p> + +<p>Census returns indicate that in the country +at large the criminality of the negro, as +compared with that of the white man, is +nearly three times greater, and that the +ratio of negro criminality is much higher +North than South. Such returns also indicate +that so far education has not lessened +negro criminality,<a name="FNanchor_99_99" id="FNanchor_99_99"></a><a href="#Footnote_99_99" class="fnanchor">[99]</a> but it is not known that +any well-educated negro has been guilty of +the crime against white women.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_241" id="Page_241">[241]</a></span>In the South the negro is excluded from +many occupations for which the best of +them are fitted, but in the North his +industrial conditions are worse. Fewer +occupations are open to him and the wisest +members of his race are counselling him +to remain in the more favorable industrial +atmosphere of the South.</p> + +<p>The dislike of negroes for whites has been +increased South by the laws which separate +them from whites in schools, public conveyances, +etc. But it is to be remembered +that these laws were intended to prevent +intermarriage; they are in part the result of +race antipathies. But the sound reason for +them is that they tend to prevent intimacies +which, at the points where the races are in +closest touch with each other, might result +in intermarriage. Professor E. D. Cope, of +the University of Pennsylvania, one of the +very highest of American authorities on the +race question, in a powerful article published +in 1890,<a name="FNanchor_100_100" id="FNanchor_100_100"></a><a href="#Footnote_100_100" class="fnanchor">[100]</a> advocated the deportation of the +negroes from the South, no matter at what +cost. Otherwise he predicted eventual amalgamation,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_242" id="Page_242">[242]</a></span> +which would be the destruction of +a large portion of the finest race in the world.</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p>This little study now comes to a close. An +effort has been made to sketch briefly in this +chapter the difficulties the South has encountered +in dealing with the negro problem, +and to outline the measure of success +it has achieved. However imperfectly the +author may have performed his task, it must +be clear to the reader that no such problem +as the present was ever before presented to +a self-governing people. Never was there +so much need of that culture from which +alone can come a high sense of duty to +others. The negro must be encouraged to +be self-helpful and useful to the community. +If he is to do all this and remain a separate +race, he must have leadership among his +own people. In the Mississippi Black Belt +there is now a town of some 4,000 negroes, +Mound Bayou, completely organized and +prospering. It may be that in the future +negroes seeking among themselves the amenities +of life may congregate into communities +of their own, cultivating adjacent lands, +as the French do in their agricultural villages.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_243" id="Page_243">[243]</a></span> +Wherever they may be, they must +practise the civic virtues, honesty, and obedience +to law. W. H. Councill, a negro +teacher, of Huntsville, Alabama, said some +years since in a magazine article: "When +the gray-haired veterans who followed Lee +and Jackson pass away, the negro will have +lost his best friends." This is true, but it is +hoped that time and culture, while not producing +social equality, will allay race animosities +and bring the negro other friends +to take the place of the departing veterans.</p> + +<p>The white man, with his pride of race, +must more and more be made to feel that +<i>noblesse oblige</i>. His sense of duty to others +must measure up to his responsibilities and +opportunities. He must accord to the negro +all his rights under the laws as they +exist.</p> + +<p>The South is exerting itself to better its +common schools, but it cannot compete in +this regard with the North. Northern philanthropists +are quite properly contributing +to education in the South. They should +consider well the needs of both races. Any +attempt to give to the negroes advantages +superior to those of the whites, who are now<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_244" id="Page_244">[244]</a></span> +treating the negro fairly in this respect, +might look like another attempt to put, in +negro language, "the bottom rail on top."</p> + +<p>Looking over the whole field covered by +this sketch, it is wonderful to note how the +chain of causation stretches back into the +past. Reconstruction was a result of the +war; secession and war resulted from a movement +in the North, in 1831, against conditions +then existing in the South. The negro, +the cause of the old quarrel between the sections, +is located now much as he was then. +How full of lessons, for both the South and +the North, is the history of the last eighty +years!</p> + +<p>There is even a chord that connects the +burning of a negro at Coatesville, Pennsylvania, +by an excited mob on the 13th of +August, 1911, with the burning of the Federal +Constitution at Framingham, Massachusetts, +by that other excited mob of madmen, +under Garrison, on the fourth day of July, +1854. One body of outlaws was defying the +laws of Pennsylvania; the other was defying +the fundamental laws of the nation.</p> + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_245" id="Page_245">[245]</a></span></p> +<h2>INDEX</h2> + +<div> +Abolitionists, mobbed, <a href="#Page_71">71</a>;<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">burn U. S. Constitution, <a href="#Page_72">72</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">private lives of leaders irreproachable, <a href="#Page_89">89</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">become factor in national politics; Boston captured by; "slave-catchers" now mobbed; national election turns on vote, <a href="#Page_95">95</a>-<a href="#Page_6">6</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">anti-slavery in Faneuil Hall, <a href="#Page_97">97</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">election again turns on vote of, <a href="#Page_99">99</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">impartial observer on influence of, <a href="#Page_105">105</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Professor Smith on, <a href="#Page_106">106</a></span><br /> +<br /> +Abolition petitions in Congress, influence of, <a href="#Page_102">102</a><br /> +<br /> +Abolition societies, in 1840, <a href="#Page_93">93</a><br /> +<br /> +Adams, John Quincy, becomes champion of Abolitionists, <a href="#Page_90">90</a>;<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">defends right of petition, <a href="#Page_91">91</a></span><br /> +<br /> +Alien and Sedition laws, 1798, <a href="#Page_18">18</a>;<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">nature of, <a href="#Page_19">19</a></span><br /> +<br /> +Americans, world's record for hard fighting, <a href="#Page_201">201</a><br /> +<br /> +Andrews, Prof. E. A., slavery conditions South, <a href="#Page_79">79</a><br /> +<br /> +Anti-slavery people and Abolitionists grouped, <a href="#Page_104">104</a>;<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Douglas charged "Black Republican" party with favoring "negro citizenship and negro equality," <a href="#Page_167">167</a></span><br /> +<br /> +Aristocracy in South, <a href="#Page_159">159</a>, <a href="#Page_160">160</a>, <a href="#Page_161">161</a><br /> +<br /> +Articles of Confederation, <a href="#Page_15">15</a><br /> +<br /> +Author, antecedents, explanation of, <a href="#Page_10">10</a>-<a href="#Page_11">11</a><br /> +<br /> +Author's conclusions, <a href="#Page_242">242</a>-<a href="#Page_3">3</a>-<a href="#Page_4">4</a><br /> +<br /> +<br /> +Biglow Papers, <a href="#Page_97">97</a>-<a href="#Page_8">8</a><br /> +<br /> +Birney, James G., mobbed, <a href="#Page_87">87</a><br /> +<br /> +Boston meeting, Dr. Hart overlooks, <a href="#Page_73">73</a><br /> +<br /> +Boston Resolutions, <a href="#Page_64">64</a><br /> +<br /> +Burke, Edmund, on conciliation, <a href="#Page_109">109</a>;<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">spirit of liberty in slave-holding communities, <a href="#Page_158">158</a></span><br /> +<br /> +<br /> +Calhoun, John C., prophecy of, <a href="#Page_167">167</a>-<a href="#Page_8">8</a><br /> +<br /> +Cause of sectional conflict, Abolition societies and their methods, <a href="#Page_205">205</a><br /> +<br /> +Channing, Dr. Wm. E., encomium on Great Britain, <a href="#Page_39">39</a>;<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">letter to Webster, <a href="#Page_47">47</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">opinion of Abolitionists, <a href="#Page_87">87</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">his change, <a href="#Page_88">88</a></span><br /> +<br /> +Characters and careers, of Abraham Lincoln and Jefferson Davis, <a href="#Page_188">188</a>-<a href="#Page_192">192</a><br /> +<br /> +Churches, North and South, opposition to slavery; a stupendous change, <a href="#Page_67">67</a>;<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">"whole cloth arrayed against" Garrison, <a href="#Page_68">68</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Southern churches still defend slavery; Northern changed; Methodist church disrupted, <a href="#Page_70">70</a></span><br /> +<br /> +Coatesville lynching, <a href="#Page_224">224</a><br /> +<br /> +Colonies, juxtaposed, not united, <a href="#Page_15">15</a><br /> +<br /> +Colonization Society, origin of and purposes, <a href="#Page_44">44</a>;<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">its supporters, <a href="#Page_45">45</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">making progress; Abolitionists halted it, <a href="#Page_46">46</a></span><br /> +<br /> +Compromise of 1850; excitement in Congress, <a href="#Page_106">106</a>;<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">great leaders in; Webster on 7th of March, <a href="#Page_107">107</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Clay's speech, <a href="#Page_112">112</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">new fugitive slave law gave offence, <a href="#Page_128">128</a></span><br /> +<br /> +Confederate States with old Constitution—changes slight, <a href="#Page_186">186</a><br /> +<br /> +Constitution, Alien and Sedition Laws first palpable infringement, <a href="#Page_3">3</a>;<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">powers conferred by discussed, <a href="#Page_16">16</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">as supreme law Southerners still cling to, <a href="#Page_207">207</a></span><br /> +<br /> +Cope, Prof. E. D., advocated deportation to prevent amalgamation, <a href="#Page_241">241</a><br /> +<br /> +Cotton gin, accepted theory as to denied, <a href="#Page_12">12</a><br /> +<br /> +Courage of, and losses in, both armies, <a href="#Page_195">195</a><br /> +<br /> +Criminality, of negroes greater than of whites, <a href="#Page_240">240</a><br /> +<br /><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_246" id="Page_246">[246]</a></span> +Cromwell and the Great Revolution, analogy to, <a href="#Page_8">8</a><br /> +<br /> +Curtis, George Ticknor, quotation from "Life of Buchanan," <a href="#Page_14">14</a><br /> +<br /> +<br /> +Davis, Jefferson, farewell speech, <a href="#Page_181">181</a>;<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">doubts about success—sadness, <a href="#Page_190">190</a></span><br /> +<br /> +Democrats, North, opposed negro suffrage, <a href="#Page_212">212</a><br /> +<br /> +Deportation, no country ready to take negro, <a href="#Page_82">82</a><br /> +<br /> +Disunion, project among Federalist leaders, 1803-4, <a href="#Page_25">25</a>;<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">sentiment in Congress, 1794, <a href="#Page_24">24</a></span><br /> +<br /> +<br /> +Emancipation, easy North; difficult South, <a href="#Page_40">40</a>;<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Federal government, no power over, <a href="#Page_41">41</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">status North in 1830, <a href="#Page_52">52</a></span><br /> +<br /> +Emancipations, South, what accomplished in 1831, <a href="#Page_50">50</a>;<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">census tables, <a href="#Page_51">51</a></span><br /> +<br /> +Embargo of 1807, why repealed, <a href="#Page_26">26</a><br /> +<br /> +Emerson, Ralph Waldo, eulogizes John Brown, <a href="#Page_15">15</a><br /> +<br /> +Everett, Edward, denunciation of John Brown expedition, <a href="#Page_152">152</a><br /> +<br /> +Extradition, refused, of abductors of slaves, Supreme Court powerless, <a href="#Page_176">176</a><br /> +<br /> +<br /> +Federalists, construed Constitution liberally, <a href="#Page_17">17</a><br /> +<br /> +Fite, Professor at Yale, declares Republicans in 1860 hoped to destroy slavery, <a href="#Page_175">175</a>;<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">justification of secession, <a href="#Page_182">182</a></span><br /> +<br /> +Freedman's Bureau, its composition, <a href="#Page_221">221</a><br /> +<br /> +Free speech, Channing defends Abolitionists as champions of, <a href="#Page_87">87</a>;<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">John Quincy Adams becomes advocate, <a href="#Page_90">90</a></span><br /> +<br /> +Fugitive slave law, North not opposing in 1828, <a href="#Page_53">53</a>;<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Missouri Compromise provided for, <a href="#Page_54">54</a></span><br /> +<br /> +<br /> +Garrison, William Lloyd, began <i>Liberator</i>; personality and characteristics, <a href="#Page_56">56</a>;<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">key-note, slavery the concern of all; slave-holders to be made odious, <a href="#Page_58">58</a></span><br /> +<br /> +Godkin, E. L., on negro as factor in politics, <a href="#Page_237">237</a><br /> +<br /> +Greeley, Horace, draws comfort from John Brown's raid, <a href="#Page_153">153</a><br /> +<br /> +<br /> +Hartford Convention, <a href="#Page_28">28</a><br /> +<br /> +Helper, Hinton Rowan, his book, <a href="#Page_165">165</a><br /> +<br /> +Higher law idea, prompted Abolition Crusade—and Czolgosz to murder McKinley, <a href="#Page_206">206</a><br /> +<br /> +<br /> +Immigration and Union sentiment; number of immigrants, <a href="#Page_33">33</a>;<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">few South, <a href="#Page_34">34</a></span><br /> +<br /> +Incendiary literature, sent South, <a href="#Page_62">62</a>;<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">North aroused; Andrew Jackson's message, <a href="#Page_63">63</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Boston Resolutions, <a href="#Page_64">64</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">indictment in Alabama; requisition on Governor of New York, <a href="#Page_98">98</a></span><br /> +<br /> +Incompatibility of slavery and freedom; Lincoln's Springfield speech, <a href="#Page_81">81</a>;<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Garrison first to announce doctrine; Abraham Lincoln next; then Seward, <a href="#Page_147">147</a>-<a href="#Page_8">8</a></span><br /> +<br /> +Insurrections, Denmark Vesey plot at Charleston, <a href="#Page_59">59</a>;<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Nat Turner in Virginia; Walker's pamphlet, <a href="#Page_60">60</a></span><br /> +<br /> +Irish patriots, Mitchel and Meagher, divide on secession, <a href="#Page_35">35</a><br /> +<br /> +<br /> +John Brown's raid, <a href="#Page_149">149</a>;<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">his secret committee, <a href="#Page_151">151</a></span><br /> +<br /> +Johnson, Andrew, succeeding Lincoln, carried out plan, <a href="#Page_213">213</a><br /> +<br /> +Johnston, Sir Harry, on negro in South, highest degree of advancement, <a href="#Page_237">237</a><br /> +<br /> +<br /> +Kansas, fierce struggles in; Sumner's bitter speech, <a href="#Page_142">142</a>-<a href="#Page_3">3</a><br /> +<br /> +Kansas-Nebraska Act, Douglas originated, <a href="#Page_135">135</a>;<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">aggravated sectionalism, <a href="#Page_136">136</a></span><br /> +<br /> +Kentucky Resolutions, 1798, <a href="#Page_19">19</a>;<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Jefferson the author, <a href="#Page_20">20</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">copy of first of, <a href="#Page_21">21</a></span><br /> +<br /> +Kentucky and Virginia Resolutions of 1798-9;<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Secessionists relied on, <a href="#Page_21">21</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Jefferson and Madison's reasons for, <a href="#Page_22">22</a></span><br /> +<br /><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_247" id="Page_247">[247]</a></span> +Know-Nothing party, its origin; purposes; appeal for the Union, <a href="#Page_140">140</a>-<a href="#Page_141">1</a>-<a href="#Page_142">2</a><br /> +<br /> +<br /> +Las Casas, Bishop, advice to King of Spain, <a href="#Page_237">237</a><br /> +<br /> +Liberia, sending negroes to, called "expatriation"; enterprise a failure, <a href="#Page_46">46</a>;<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Lincoln's hopes of, <a href="#Page_81">81</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">why it failed—Miss Mahoney's account, <a href="#Page_169">169</a>-<a href="#Page_70">70</a>-<a href="#Page_71">71</a></span><br /> +<br /> +Lincoln, South no more responsible for slavery than North, <a href="#Page_49">49</a>;<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">speech at Charleston, Ill., <a href="#Page_81">81</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">finds no country ready to take American negro, <a href="#Page_82">82</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">South in 1860 thought him radical; had favored white supremacy in 1858, <a href="#Page_185">185</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">speech at Peoria, <a href="#Page_186">186</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">assassination of, <a href="#Page_209">209</a></span><br /> +<br /> +Lodge, Henry Cabot, declares popular verdict against Webster, <a href="#Page_118">118</a>;<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">he had undertaken the impossible, <a href="#Page_120">120</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">his argument good, he not man to make it, <a href="#Page_121">121</a></span><br /> +<br /> +Lundy, Benjamin, attempts to stir up North against slavery South, <a href="#Page_47">47</a><br /> +<br /> +Lynchings, tables, <a href="#Page_239">239</a>;<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">comments on, <a href="#Page_240">240</a></span><br /> +<br /> +<br /> +McMaster, affirms Webster behind the times (note), <a href="#Page_100">100</a><br /> +<br /> +Missouri, controversy over slavery, <a href="#Page_52">52</a>;<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">distinct from that begun later by "New Abolitionists," <a href="#Page_53">53</a></span><br /> +<br /> +Mobs, Garrison mobbed; many anti-slavery riots North, <a href="#Page_71">71</a>;<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">violence toward Abolitionists in North reacted, <a href="#Page_85">85</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">opponents became defenders, <a href="#Page_86">86</a></span><br /> +<br /> +Mound Bayou, a negro town, <a href="#Page_242">242</a><br /> +<br /> +<br /> +Nationality, spirit of; causes of, development of, <a href="#Page_30">30</a>;<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">grows, North; South on old lines, <a href="#Page_35">35</a></span><br /> +<br /> +Navy, U. S., deciding factor in war, <a href="#Page_198">198</a>-<a href="#Page_9">9</a><br /> +<br /> +Negro, the, located now much as in 1860, <a href="#Page_7">7</a>;<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Lincoln could find no home abroad for, <a href="#Page_206">206</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">reasons for smallness of vote South, <a href="#Page_233">233</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">improvement; Booker Washington's opinion, <a href="#Page_236">236</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">benefited by slavery; attained South highest degree of advancement, <a href="#Page_237">237</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">best opportunities South, <a href="#Page_241">241</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Confederate veterans best friends there, <a href="#Page_243">243</a></span><br /> +<br /> +<br /> +Ohio, Resolutions looking to co-operative emancipation; responses of other States to, <a href="#Page_42">42</a>;<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Southern reason for, <a href="#Page_43">43</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Northern, kindly temper of, <a href="#Page_44">44</a></span><br /> +<br /> +Otis, Harrison Gray, on Boston Resolutions, <a href="#Page_65">65</a><br /> +<br /> +<br /> +Pamphlets, venomous one cited, <a href="#Page_75">75</a><br /> +<br /> +Personal liberty laws, eleven States passed; Alexander Johnston says absolutely without excuse, <a href="#Page_177">177</a><br /> +<br /> +Petition, right of, in Congress, <a href="#Page_90">90</a>;<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">"gag resolution," <a href="#Page_92">92</a></span><br /> +<br /> +Political conditions, North and South compared, <a href="#Page_162">162</a>-<a href="#Page_3">3</a>-<a href="#Page_4">4</a><br /> +<br /> +"Poor whites," discussion of, and of social conditions South, <a href="#Page_155">155</a>-<a href="#Page_6">6</a>-<a href="#Page_7">7</a><br /> +<br /> +Presidential campaign 1860, excitement, <a href="#Page_171">171</a><br /> +<br /> +Press, Northern slandering South, <a href="#Page_153">153</a>;<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Southern slandering North, <a href="#Page_154">154</a></span><br /> +<br /> +<br /> +Race animosities, negro's aspirations to social equality; legal enactments, <a href="#Page_238">238</a>;<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">whites embittered by crime against white women, <a href="#Page_239">239</a></span><br /> +<br /> +Reagan, "Republican rule on Abolition principles," <a href="#Page_105">105</a><br /> +<br /> +Reconstruction, Lincoln's theory; veto of resolution asserting power of Congress over, <a href="#Page_208">208</a>;<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">last speech, adhering to plan, <a href="#Page_210">210</a></span><br /> +<br /> +Reconstruction by Johnson under Lincoln plan; wisdom of Lincoln-Johnson plan, John Sherman; opposition to it partisan, Senator Cullom, <a href="#Page_211">211</a>;<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">South accepts plan; senators and representatives, <a href="#Page_214">214</a>;</span><br /> +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_248" id="Page_248">[248]</a></span><span style="margin-left: 1em;">negro problem and Jefferson's prediction, <a href="#Page_215">215</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">apprenticeship and vagrancy laws, Blaine's attack on, <a href="#Page_217">217</a></span><br /> +<br /> +Reconstruction, Congressional, extremists bent on negro suffrage when Congress convened in 1865, <a href="#Page_212">212</a>;<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">preparations for; committee of fifteen; Shellabarger's appeal to war passions, <a href="#Page_215">215</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">South denied representation; Southerners reject Fourteenth Amendment; Garfield denounces rebel government, <a href="#Page_219">219</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Johnson's reconstructed State governments swept away; universal suffrage for negro; South sends Republicans to Congress, <a href="#Page_220">220</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">witnesses before "Committee of Fifteen" rewarded; Southern counsels divided, <a href="#Page_223">223</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">carpet-baggers and scalawags, <a href="#Page_224">224</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">intolerable political conditions; race issue forced upon whites, <a href="#Page_226">226</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">whites recover self-government, <a href="#Page_227">227</a></span><br /> +<br /> +Republican party, the modern; its origin; Mr. Rhodes on, <a href="#Page_138">138</a>-<a href="#Page_139">139</a>;<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">nominates Frémont and Dayton; denounces slavery; excitement; defeated, <a href="#Page_144">144</a></span><br /> +<br /> +Resources, war, North and South compared, <a href="#Page_191">191</a>-<a href="#Page_192">2</a>-<a href="#Page_193">3</a><br /> +<br /> +<br /> +Salem Church monument, <a href="#Page_9">9</a><br /> +<br /> +Santo Domingo, memory of massacre in, <a href="#Page_80">80</a><br /> +<br /> +Seceded States, wretched conditions in 1865, <a href="#Page_214">214</a><br /> +<br /> +Seceding States, desire to preserve Constitution, <a href="#Page_179">179</a><br /> +<br /> +Secession, early threats of not connected with slavery, <a href="#Page_26">26</a>;<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Josiah Quincy threatens, 1811; Massachusetts legislature endorses him, <a href="#Page_28">28</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">in early days belief in general, <a href="#Page_28">28</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Massachusetts legislature threatens, 1844, <a href="#Page_29">29</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">eleven States seceded, <a href="#Page_179">179</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Prof. Fite justifies, his ground, <a href="#Page_182">182</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">motives for in 1860-1, <a href="#Page_183">183</a></span><br /> +<br /> +Self-government restored; local clashes, no race war; based on Lincoln's idea, superiority of white man, <a href="#Page_229">229</a>;<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">constitutional amendments to restore purity of ballot, <a href="#Page_233">233</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">industrial results amazing, <a href="#Page_234">234</a>-<a href="#Page_5">5</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">negro vote small—reasons, <a href="#Page_231">231</a></span><br /> +<br /> +Seward, leader of Republican party, <a href="#Page_178">178</a><br /> +<br /> +Situation in Alabama in 1835—letter of John W. Womack, <a href="#Page_79">79</a><br /> +<br /> +Slavery, Great Britain abolishes, compensates owners, <a href="#Page_39">39</a>;<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">South's "calamity not crime," <a href="#Page_48">48</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">debate in Virginia Assembly, <a href="#Page_61">61</a></span><br /> +<br /> +Slaves, protect masters' families during war, <a href="#Page_132">132</a>-<a href="#Page_3">3</a>;<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">a surprise to North, <a href="#Page_133">133</a>-<a href="#Page_4">4</a></span><br /> +<br /> +Slave-trade, New England's part in, <a href="#Page_37">37</a>;<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">South protests against; sentiment against arises in England, sweeps over America, <a href="#Page_38">38</a></span><br /> +<br /> +Social conditions South, <a href="#Page_155">155</a>-<a href="#Page_60">60</a><br /> +<br /> +South unwilling to accept idea of incompatibility of slave and free States, <a href="#Page_94">94</a>-<a href="#Page_5">5</a>;<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">bitterness in, <a href="#Page_101">101</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">on defensive-aggressive, <a href="#Page_126">126</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">excited; filibustering; importation of slaves, <a href="#Page_145">145</a></span><br /> +<br /> +Spencer, Herbert, slavery once a necessary phase of human progress, <a href="#Page_237">237</a><br /> +<br /> +Sprague, Peleg, on Boston Resolutions, <a href="#Page_66">66</a><br /> +<br /> +Suffrage, Lincoln thought Southerners themselves should control, <a href="#Page_203">203</a><br /> +<br /> +Sumner, Charles, philippic against South; Brooks's attack on, <a href="#Page_143">143</a>-<a href="#Page_4">4</a>;<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">negro suffrage to give "Unionists" new allies, <a href="#Page_220">220</a></span><br /> +<br /> +<br /> +Texas, application for admission, <a href="#Page_93">93</a>;<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Channing threatens secession if admitted, <a href="#Page_94">94</a></span><br /> +<br /> +Tilden, Samuel J., letter to Kent, secession inevitable if Lincoln elected, <a href="#Page_172">172</a>-<a href="#Page_3">3</a>-<a href="#Page_4">4</a><br /> +<br /> +<br /> +Underground railroads, Professor Hart's picture of, <a href="#Page_103">103</a><br /> +<br /> +Union, the, Webster's great speech for in 1830, <a href="#Page_31">31</a>;<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">effect of, <a href="#Page_32">32</a></span><br /> +<br /> +Union sentiment South; Whigs, <a href="#Page_34">34</a><br /> +<br /> +"Uncle Tom's Cabin," influence on Northern sentiment, <a href="#Page_129">129</a>-<a href="#Page_133">133</a><br /> +<br /> +<br /><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_249" id="Page_249">[249]</a></span> +War, the, nature of, <a href="#Page_180">180</a><br /> +<br /> +Washington, a Federalist, <a href="#Page_18">18</a>;<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">his appeal for Union, <a href="#Page_30">30</a></span><br /> +<br /> +Webster, on 7th of March, <a href="#Page_107">107</a>;<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">his sole concession, <a href="#Page_111">111</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">condemns personal liberty laws and Abolitionists, <a href="#Page_115">115</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">congratulated and denounced, <a href="#Page_117">117</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">"Ichabod," <a href="#Page_119">119</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Rhodes's estimate of, <a href="#Page_122">122</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">his speech for "The Constitution and the Union"; Wilkinson's estimate of, <a href="#Page_122">122</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">E. P. Wheeler's estimate of, <a href="#Page_125">125</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Webster's opinion of Abolitionists and Free-soilers, <a href="#Page_126">126</a></span><br /> +<br /> +Welles, Gideon, opinion in 1867 as to debasing elective franchise, <a href="#Page_232">232</a><br /> +<br /> +Whites, South, fought fraud with fraud during Reconstruction, till Constitution amended continued it, <a href="#Page_232">232</a>;<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">difficulties of their task, <a href="#Page_233">233</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">growing spirit of altruism; school taxes divided pro rata, <a href="#Page_234">234</a></span><br /> +<br /> +Wilmot proviso, <a href="#Page_111">111</a><br /> +<br /> +Wisconsin nullifies fugitive slave law, <a href="#Page_178">178</a><br /> +<br /> +Women, devotion of during war, North and South, <a href="#Page_195">195</a><br /> +</div> + + + + + +<div class="footnotes"><h3>FOOTNOTES:</h3> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_1_1" id="Footnote_1_1"></a><a href="#FNanchor_1_1"><span class="label">[1]</span></a> Gladstone, "Kin Beyond the Sea."</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_2_2" id="Footnote_2_2"></a><a href="#FNanchor_2_2"><span class="label">[2]</span></a> Warfield, in his "Kentucky Resolutions of 1798," relates that +John Breckenridge introduced the Kentucky and John Taylor, +of Caroline, moved the Virginia resolutions. In 1814 Taylor +made it known that Madison was the author of the Virginia resolves, +but not till 1821 did Jefferson admit his authorship of the +Kentucky resolutions. Jefferson was Vice-President when they +were drawn, and it would have been thought unseemly for him +to appear openly in a canvass against the President, but by correspondence +with his friends he "gradually drew out a program +of action" (Warfield, p. 17). The Kentucky Resolutions were +sent by the Governor to the Legislatures of the other States, ten +of which, being controlled by the Federalists, are known to have +declared against them (Warfield, p. 115). But of course the +resolutions were canvassed by the public before the presidential +election of 1800.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_3_3" id="Footnote_3_3"></a><a href="#FNanchor_3_3"><span class="label">[3]</span></a> Taylor was so deeply impressed by the conference, which was +protracted, that two days later, May 11, 1794, he made an extended +note of it which he sent to Mr. Madison. At the foot of +his note Taylor says, among other things: "He (T.) is thoroughly +convinced that the design to break up the Union is contemplated. +The assurance, the manner, the earnestness, and the +countenances with which the idea was uttered, all disclosed the +most serious intention. It is also probable that K. (King) and +E. (Ellsworth) having heard that T. (Taylor) was against the +(adoption of) the Constitution have hence imbibed a mistaken +opinion that he was secretly an enemy of the Union, and conceived +that he was a fit instrument (as he was about retiring) to +infuse notions into the anti-federal temper of Virginia, consonant +to their views."—"Disunion Sentiment in the Congress in 1794" +(with fac-simile of Taylor memorandum), by Gaillard Hunt, Editor +of Writings of James Madison. Lowdermilk Co., Washington, +D. C., 1905.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_4_4" id="Footnote_4_4"></a><a href="#FNanchor_4_4"><span class="label">[4]</span></a> C. F. Robertson, "The Louisiana Purchase," etc. "Papers of +the American Association," vol. I, pp. 262, 263.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_5_5" id="Footnote_5_5"></a><a href="#FNanchor_5_5"><span class="label">[5]</span></a> "American State Documents and Federal Relations," p. 21.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_6_6" id="Footnote_6_6"></a><a href="#FNanchor_6_6"><span class="label">[6]</span></a> Henry Cabot Lodge's "Webster," p. 176.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_7_7" id="Footnote_7_7"></a><a href="#FNanchor_7_7"><span class="label">[7]</span></a> "Slavery and Anti-Slavery," 3d ed., 1885.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_8_8" id="Footnote_8_8"></a><a href="#FNanchor_8_8"><span class="label">[8]</span></a> <i>Am. Archives</i>, 4th series, vol. I, p. 696.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_9_9" id="Footnote_9_9"></a><a href="#FNanchor_9_9"><span class="label">[9]</span></a> <i>Ib.</i>, p. 1136.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_10_10" id="Footnote_10_10"></a><a href="#FNanchor_10_10"><span class="label">[10]</span></a> <i>Ib.</i>, p. 735.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_11_11" id="Footnote_11_11"></a><a href="#FNanchor_11_11"><span class="label">[11]</span></a> "State Documents on Federal Relations," Ames, pp. 203-4.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_12_12" id="Footnote_12_12"></a><a href="#FNanchor_12_12"><span class="label">[12]</span></a> Ames, p. 203.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_13_13" id="Footnote_13_13"></a><a href="#FNanchor_13_13"><span class="label">[13]</span></a> <i>Ib.</i>, p. 206.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_14_14" id="Footnote_14_14"></a><a href="#FNanchor_14_14"><span class="label">[14]</span></a> Ames, 195.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_15_15" id="Footnote_15_15"></a><a href="#FNanchor_15_15"><span class="label">[15]</span></a> See Garrison's "Garrison."</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_16_16" id="Footnote_16_16"></a><a href="#FNanchor_16_16"><span class="label">[16]</span></a> See article in <i>Independent</i>, 1906, Miss Mahony.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_17_17" id="Footnote_17_17"></a><a href="#FNanchor_17_17"><span class="label">[17]</span></a> "Webster's Works," vol. V, pp. 366-67, 1851.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_18_18" id="Footnote_18_18"></a><a href="#FNanchor_18_18"><span class="label">[18]</span></a> <i>Ib.</i>, ed. 1851, vol. V, pp. 266-67.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_19_19" id="Footnote_19_19"></a><a href="#FNanchor_19_19"><span class="label">[19]</span></a> "The Negro Problem," Pickett, 1809.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_20_20" id="Footnote_20_20"></a><a href="#FNanchor_20_20"><span class="label">[20]</span></a> Garrison's "Garrison," vol. I, p. 113.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_21_21" id="Footnote_21_21"></a><a href="#FNanchor_21_21"><span class="label">[21]</span></a> George Ticknor Curtis's "Life of Buchanan," vol. II, p. 283.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_22_22" id="Footnote_22_22"></a><a href="#FNanchor_22_22"><span class="label">[22]</span></a> Garrison's "Garrison," vol. I.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_23_23" id="Footnote_23_23"></a><a href="#FNanchor_23_23"><span class="label">[23]</span></a> <i>Ib.</i>, Vol. II, p. 202.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_24_24" id="Footnote_24_24"></a><a href="#FNanchor_24_24"><span class="label">[24]</span></a> Hart's "Slavery and Abolition," p. 163.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_25_25" id="Footnote_25_25"></a><a href="#FNanchor_25_25"><span class="label">[25]</span></a> <i>Ib.</i>, pp. 217-20.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_26_26" id="Footnote_26_26"></a><a href="#FNanchor_26_26"><span class="label">[26]</span></a> "Life of James Buchanan," George Ticknor Curtis, vol. II, +pp. 277-78.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_27_27" id="Footnote_27_27"></a><a href="#FNanchor_27_27"><span class="label">[27]</span></a> Referred to in "Life of Andrew Jackson," W. G. Sumner, +p. 350.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_28_28" id="Footnote_28_28"></a><a href="#FNanchor_28_28"><span class="label">[28]</span></a> Hart, <i>supra.</i></p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_29_29" id="Footnote_29_29"></a><a href="#FNanchor_29_29"><span class="label">[29]</span></a> The late Professor William Graham Sumner, of Yale, in his +"Life of Andrew Jackson," 1888, treats of the excitement at +Charleston, South Carolina, in 1835, during Jackson's administration, +over Abolition circulars, etc. Dr. Albert Bushnell Hart, +Professor of History at Harvard, in his "Abolition and Slavery," +1906, treats of the same subject. The following extracts from +these books will show how these authors picture that exciting period, +and our italics will emphasize the <i>sang-froid</i> with which they +touch off what so profoundly affected public sentiment, both North +and South, <i>when the events were occurring</i>. Professor Sumner has +this to say: +</p><p> +"The Abolition Society adopted the policy of sending documents, +papers, and pictures against slavery to the Southern +States. +</p><p> +"<i>If the intention was</i>, as charged, to excite the slaves to revolt, +<i>the device, as it seems to us now</i>, must have fallen short of its object, +for the chance that anything could get into the hands of +the black man must <i>have been poor indeed</i>. +</p><p> +"These publications, however, caused <i>a panic</i> and <i>a wild indignation</i> +in the South."—Sumner's "Jackson," p. 350. +</p><p> +Why should the Southerners of that day go <i>wild</i> over conduct +for which the professor of this era has no word of condemnation? +</p><p> +Dr. Hart follows Professor Sumner's treatment. These are his +words: +</p><p> +"The free negroes of the South, the Abolitionists could not +reach except by <i>mailing publications to them</i>, a process which +<i>fearfully exasperated</i> the South <i>without reaching the persons addressed</i>."—Hart's +"Abolition and Slavery," p. 216. +</p><p> +Why should Southerners be "fearful" when they were intercepting +all the dangerous circulars, etc., they could find? And +why should they be exasperated at all? +</p><p> +Dr. Hart's chair at Harvard is within gunshot of Faneuil Hall, +yet the great meeting there of August 31, 1835, is not mentioned +in either his or Professor Sumner's book, nor is there to be found +in either of them <i>any explanation of the reasons underlying the general +and emphatic condemnation throughout the North at that period +of the Abolitionists and their methods</i>.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_30_30" id="Footnote_30_30"></a><a href="#FNanchor_30_30"><span class="label">[30]</span></a> Garrison's "Garrison," vol. III, p. 412.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_31_31" id="Footnote_31_31"></a><a href="#FNanchor_31_31"><span class="label">[31]</span></a> "Slavery and the Domestic Slave Trade," Andrews, pp. +156-57.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_32_32" id="Footnote_32_32"></a><a href="#FNanchor_32_32"><span class="label">[32]</span></a> Within perhaps a year Mr. Lincoln was compelled to bring +these negroes home; they were starving.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_33_33" id="Footnote_33_33"></a><a href="#FNanchor_33_33"><span class="label">[33]</span></a> "Channing's Works," vol. II, ed. 1837, pp. 131-32.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_34_34" id="Footnote_34_34"></a><a href="#FNanchor_34_34"><span class="label">[34]</span></a> Garrison's "Garrison," vol. III, p. 214.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_35_35" id="Footnote_35_35"></a><a href="#FNanchor_35_35"><span class="label">[35]</span></a> Hart's "Slavery and Abolition," p. 256.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_36_36" id="Footnote_36_36"></a><a href="#FNanchor_36_36"><span class="label">[36]</span></a> "Channing's Works," vol. II, ed. 1847, p. 237.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_37_37" id="Footnote_37_37"></a><a href="#FNanchor_37_37"><span class="label">[37]</span></a> "Life of Buchanan," vol. II, p. 280.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_38_38" id="Footnote_38_38"></a><a href="#FNanchor_38_38"><span class="label">[38]</span></a> Garrison's "Garrison," vol. III, p. 247.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_39_39" id="Footnote_39_39"></a><a href="#FNanchor_39_39"><span class="label">[39]</span></a> "The Middle Period," John W. Burgess, p. 274.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_40_40" id="Footnote_40_40"></a><a href="#FNanchor_40_40"><span class="label">[40]</span></a> "Notes on North America," London, 1851, vol. II, p. 486.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_41_41" id="Footnote_41_41"></a><a href="#FNanchor_41_41"><span class="label">[41]</span></a> "Parties and Slavery," Smith, pp. 3, 4.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_42_42" id="Footnote_42_42"></a><a href="#FNanchor_42_42"><span class="label">[42]</span></a> McMaster says: "The great statesman was behind the times."—"Webster," +p. 19.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_43_43" id="Footnote_43_43"></a><a href="#FNanchor_43_43"><span class="label">[43]</span></a> "Vindication of Webster," William C. Wilkinson, p. 69.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_44_44" id="Footnote_44_44"></a><a href="#FNanchor_44_44"><span class="label">[44]</span></a> McMaster's "Webster."</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_45_45" id="Footnote_45_45"></a><a href="#FNanchor_45_45"><span class="label">[45]</span></a> <i>Congressional Globe</i>, 31st Congress, 1st session, Appendix, +p. 263.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_46_46" id="Footnote_46_46"></a><a href="#FNanchor_46_46"><span class="label">[46]</span></a> "Vindication of Webster," William C. Wilkinson, p. 191.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_47_47" id="Footnote_47_47"></a><a href="#FNanchor_47_47"><span class="label">[47]</span></a> McMaster's "Webster," p. 316 <i>et seq.</i></p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_48_48" id="Footnote_48_48"></a><a href="#FNanchor_48_48"><span class="label">[48]</span></a> Professor McMaster in the chapter preceding that containing +these extracts, has collected much evidence to show that Webster +aspired to be President, and the biographer entitles the +chapter, "Longing for the Presidency," apparently the author's +clod on the grave of a buried reputation.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_49_49" id="Footnote_49_49"></a><a href="#FNanchor_49_49"><span class="label">[49]</span></a> <i>Ib.</i>, p. 160.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_50_50" id="Footnote_50_50"></a><a href="#FNanchor_50_50"><span class="label">[50]</span></a> "Daniel Webster and the Sentiment of Union," John Fiske, +"Essays Historical and Literary," pp. 408-9.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_51_51" id="Footnote_51_51"></a><a href="#FNanchor_51_51"><span class="label">[51]</span></a> "Daniel Webster: A Vindication," p. 47.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_52_52" id="Footnote_52_52"></a><a href="#FNanchor_52_52"><span class="label">[52]</span></a> McMaster's "Webster," p. 340.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_53_53" id="Footnote_53_53"></a><a href="#FNanchor_53_53"><span class="label">[53]</span></a> Ableman <i>v.</i> Boothe, 21 How., 506.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_54_54" id="Footnote_54_54"></a><a href="#FNanchor_54_54"><span class="label">[54]</span></a> Fite, "Presidential Campaign of 1860," p. 243.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_55_55" id="Footnote_55_55"></a><a href="#FNanchor_55_55"><span class="label">[55]</span></a> "Parties and Slavery," Theodore Clarke Smith, professor of +history in Williams College, p. 96.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_56_56" id="Footnote_56_56"></a><a href="#FNanchor_56_56"><span class="label">[56]</span></a> "Rhodes," vol. I, p. 192.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_57_57" id="Footnote_57_57"></a><a href="#FNanchor_57_57"><span class="label">[57]</span></a> Vol. I, p. 66.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_58_58" id="Footnote_58_58"></a><a href="#FNanchor_58_58"><span class="label">[58]</span></a> Smith, "Parties and Slavery," pp. 118-20.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_59_59" id="Footnote_59_59"></a><a href="#FNanchor_59_59"><span class="label">[59]</span></a> The writer's father, who had been a nullifier and a lifelong +follower of Calhoun, joined the Know-Nothings in the hope of +saving the Union, but withdrew when he found that in the North +the party was not true to its Union pledges. Here was a typical +case of Southern unwillingness to resort to secession.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_60_60" id="Footnote_60_60"></a><a href="#FNanchor_60_60"><span class="label">[60]</span></a> <i>Ib.</i>, pp. 138-9.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_61_61" id="Footnote_61_61"></a><a href="#FNanchor_61_61"><span class="label">[61]</span></a> Theodore Clarke Smith, "Parties and Slavery."</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_62_62" id="Footnote_62_62"></a><a href="#FNanchor_62_62"><span class="label">[62]</span></a> Garrison's "Garrison."</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_63_63" id="Footnote_63_63"></a><a href="#FNanchor_63_63"><span class="label">[63]</span></a> "The Negro and the Nation," George Spring Merriam, +p. 120.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_64_64" id="Footnote_64_64"></a><a href="#FNanchor_64_64"><span class="label">[64]</span></a> Sanborn's "Life of John Brown," p. 466.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_65_65" id="Footnote_65_65"></a><a href="#FNanchor_65_65"><span class="label">[65]</span></a> <i>Ib.</i>, p. 515.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_66_66" id="Footnote_66_66"></a><a href="#FNanchor_66_66"><span class="label">[66]</span></a> "History of United States," Rhodes, vol. I.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_67_67" id="Footnote_67_67"></a><a href="#FNanchor_67_67"><span class="label">[67]</span></a> Channing.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_68_68" id="Footnote_68_68"></a><a href="#FNanchor_68_68"><span class="label">[68]</span></a> Hart.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_69_69" id="Footnote_69_69"></a><a href="#FNanchor_69_69"><span class="label">[69]</span></a> Theodore Clarke Smith, "Parties and Slavery," p. 303.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_70_70" id="Footnote_70_70"></a><a href="#FNanchor_70_70"><span class="label">[70]</span></a> For the humorous side of life in the South in the old day, +see "Simon Suggs," J. J. Hooper; "Georgia Scenes," Judge +Longstreet; and "Flush Times of Alabama and Mississippi," by +Baldwin.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_71_71" id="Footnote_71_71"></a><a href="#FNanchor_71_71"><span class="label">[71]</span></a> "Memoirs of John H. Reagan," p. 261.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_72_72" id="Footnote_72_72"></a><a href="#FNanchor_72_72"><span class="label">[72]</span></a> Mr. Lincoln took that position in his great speech at Chicago, +in 1858, when beginning his campaign for the senatorship.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_73_73" id="Footnote_73_73"></a><a href="#FNanchor_73_73"><span class="label">[73]</span></a> Lincoln, "Complete Works," vol. IV, p. 9.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_74_74" id="Footnote_74_74"></a><a href="#FNanchor_74_74"><span class="label">[74]</span></a> "Calhoun's Works," vol. VI, p. 311.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_75_75" id="Footnote_75_75"></a><a href="#FNanchor_75_75"><span class="label">[75]</span></a> <i>Independent</i>, 1906.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_76_76" id="Footnote_76_76"></a><a href="#FNanchor_76_76"><span class="label">[76]</span></a> Life and Letters and Journals of George Ticknor.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_77_77" id="Footnote_77_77"></a><a href="#FNanchor_77_77"><span class="label">[77]</span></a> "The Presidential Campaign of 1860," p. 195, Fite, 1911.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_78_78" id="Footnote_78_78"></a><a href="#FNanchor_78_78"><span class="label">[78]</span></a> "Virginia's Attitude on Slavery and Secession," Mumford, +pp. 211-12.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_79_79" id="Footnote_79_79"></a><a href="#FNanchor_79_79"><span class="label">[79]</span></a> Alexander Johnston, "Lalor's Encyclopædia," vol. III, p. 163.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_80_80" id="Footnote_80_80"></a><a href="#FNanchor_80_80"><span class="label">[80]</span></a> Ableman <i>v.</i> Booth, 21 How.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_81_81" id="Footnote_81_81"></a><a href="#FNanchor_81_81"><span class="label">[81]</span></a> Alexander Johnston, "Lalor's Encyclopædia," vol. III, p. +707.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_82_82" id="Footnote_82_82"></a><a href="#FNanchor_82_82"><span class="label">[82]</span></a> "The Presidential Campaign of 1860," Emerson David Fite, +1911, introductory chapter.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_83_83" id="Footnote_83_83"></a><a href="#FNanchor_83_83"><span class="label">[83]</span></a> See Fite, "Campaign of 1860," passim, and especially +speech of Schurz, p. 244 <i>et seq.</i></p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_84_84" id="Footnote_84_84"></a><a href="#FNanchor_84_84"><span class="label">[84]</span></a> Mrs. Chestnut, wife of the Confederate general, James Chestnut, +writes in her "Diary from Dixie," under date of 1861, at +Montgomery, Alabama, then the Confederate capital: "In Mrs. +Davis's drawing-room last night, the President took a seat by +me on the sofa where I sat. He talked for nearly an hour. He +laughed at our faith in our own powers. We are like the British. +We think every Southerner equal to three Yankees at least. We +will have to be equivalent to a dozen now. After his experience +of the fighting qualities of Southerners in Mexico, he believes that +we will do all that can be done by pluck and muscle, endurance +and dogged courage, dash, and red-hot patriotism. And yet his +tone was not sanguine. <i>There was a sad refrain running through +it all.</i> For one thing, either way, he thinks it will be a long war. +That floored me at once. It has been too long for me already. +Then he said, before the end came we would have many bitter +experiences. He said only fools doubted the courage of the +Yankees, or their willingness to fight when they saw fit. And +now that we have stung their pride, we have roused them till they +will fight like devils."</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_85_85" id="Footnote_85_85"></a><a href="#FNanchor_85_85"><span class="label">[85]</span></a> "Diary of Gideon Welles," 3 vols., passim.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_86_86" id="Footnote_86_86"></a><a href="#FNanchor_86_86"><span class="label">[86]</span></a> "Studies, Military and Diplomatic," p. 282 <i>et seq.</i> These +studies make a volume of rare historic value.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_87_87" id="Footnote_87_87"></a><a href="#FNanchor_87_87"><span class="label">[87]</span></a> According to that standard work, E. P. Alexander's "Memoirs," +pp. 244, 245, and 274, the Confederates, who stood their +ground at Sharpsburg on the day of battle and the day after, lost in +killed and wounded thirty-two per cent. The French army at +Waterloo entirely dissolved, with a loss in killed and wounded +of only thirty-one per cent. (See figures in Henderson's "Stonewall +Jackson.")</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_88_88" id="Footnote_88_88"></a><a href="#FNanchor_88_88"><span class="label">[88]</span></a> Gideon Welles in an essay, "Lincoln and Johnson," <i>The +Galaxy</i>, April, 1872.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_89_89" id="Footnote_89_89"></a><a href="#FNanchor_89_89"><span class="label">[89]</span></a> "John Sherman's Recollections," vol. I, p. 361.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_90_90" id="Footnote_90_90"></a><a href="#FNanchor_90_90"><span class="label">[90]</span></a> "Fifty Years of Public Service," Cullom, p. 146.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_91_91" id="Footnote_91_91"></a><a href="#FNanchor_91_91"><span class="label">[91]</span></a> The final estimate of Gideon Welles, Secretary of the Navy +under both Lincoln and Johnson, is this: "He (Johnson) has been +faithful to the Constitution, although his administrative capabilities +and management may not equal some of his predecessors. +Of measures he was a good judge but not always of men."—"Diary +of Gideon Welles," vol. III, p. 556.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_92_92" id="Footnote_92_92"></a><a href="#FNanchor_92_92"><span class="label">[92]</span></a> "Jefferson's Works," vol. I, p. 48.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_93_93" id="Footnote_93_93"></a><a href="#FNanchor_93_93"><span class="label">[93]</span></a> "Why the Solid South," p. 20.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_94_94" id="Footnote_94_94"></a><a href="#FNanchor_94_94"><span class="label">[94]</span></a> Ogden's "Life and Letters of Edwin Lawrence Godkin," vol. +II, p. 114.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_95_95" id="Footnote_95_95"></a><a href="#FNanchor_95_95"><span class="label">[95]</span></a> Pickett, pp. 399-400.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_96_96" id="Footnote_96_96"></a><a href="#FNanchor_96_96"><span class="label">[96]</span></a> "The Negro Problem," Pickett, 1909, pp. 399-400.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_97_97" id="Footnote_97_97"></a><a href="#FNanchor_97_97"><span class="label">[97]</span></a> "The Negro in the New World," Sir Harry Johnston, p. 478.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_98_98" id="Footnote_98_98"></a><a href="#FNanchor_98_98"><span class="label">[98]</span></a> <i>Ib.</i>, p. 470.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_99_99" id="Footnote_99_99"></a><a href="#FNanchor_99_99"><span class="label">[99]</span></a> "The Negro Problem," William Pickett, pp. 136-38. Rare +Traits, etc., of the Negro, Statistician, Prudential Ins. Co. of +America, p. 219 <i>et seq.</i></p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_100_100" id="Footnote_100_100"></a><a href="#FNanchor_100_100"><span class="label">[100]</span></a> "Two Perils of the Indo-European," <i>The Open Court</i>, January +23, 1890, p. 2052.</p></div> + +</div> + +<div class="tn"> +<h3>Transcriber's note:</h3> + +<p>Hyphenation is inconsistent.</p> + +<p>Obvious printer's errors have been corrected.</p> + +<p>Page 49: 'Prior to the rise of the Abolitionists in 1831, +emancipationists in the South had been free to grapple with conditions +as they found them.'</p> + +<p>The words "in the" have been supplied by the transcriber.</p> + +<p>Index reference to Johnston, Sir Harry: the transcriber has changed +page 257 to read 237.</p> + +</div> + +<p> </p> +<p> </p> +<hr class="full" /> +<p>***END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE ABOLITION CRUSADE AND ITS CONSEQUENCES***</p> +<p>******* This file should be named 39720-h.txt or 39720-h.zip *******</p> +<p>This and all associated files of various formats will be found in:<br /> +<a href="http://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/3/9/7/2/39720">http://www.gutenberg.org/3/9/7/2/39720</a></p> +<p> +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed.</p> + +<p> +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. Special rules, +set forth in the General Terms of Use part of this license, apply to +copying and distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works to +protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm concept and trademark. Project +Gutenberg is a registered trademark, and may not be used if you +charge for the eBooks, unless you receive specific permission. If you +do not charge anything for copies of this eBook, complying with the +rules is very easy. You may use this eBook for nearly any purpose +such as creation of derivative works, reports, performances and +research. They may be modified and printed and given away--you may do +practically ANYTHING with public domain eBooks. Redistribution is +subject to the trademark license, especially commercial +redistribution. +</p> + +<h2>*** START: FULL LICENSE ***<br /> + +THE FULL PROJECT GUTENBERG LICENSE<br /> +PLEASE READ THIS BEFORE YOU DISTRIBUTE OR USE THIS WORK</h2> + +<p>To protect the Project Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting the free +distribution of electronic works, by using or distributing this work +(or any other work associated in any way with the phrase "Project +Gutenberg"), you agree to comply with all the terms of the Full Project +Gutenberg-tm License available with this file or online at +<a href="http://www.gutenberg.org/license">www.gutenberg.org/license</a>.</p> + +<h3>Section 1. General Terms of Use and Redistributing Project Gutenberg-tm +electronic works</h3> + +<p>1.A. By reading or using any part of this Project Gutenberg-tm +electronic work, you indicate that you have read, understand, agree to +and accept all the terms of this license and intellectual property +(trademark/copyright) agreement. If you do not agree to abide by all +the terms of this agreement, you must cease using and return or destroy +all copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in your possession. +If you paid a fee for obtaining a copy of or access to a Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic work and you do not agree to be bound by the +terms of this agreement, you may obtain a refund from the person or +entity to whom you paid the fee as set forth in paragraph 1.E.8.</p> + +<p>1.B. "Project Gutenberg" is a registered trademark. It may only be +used on or associated in any way with an electronic work by people who +agree to be bound by the terms of this agreement. There are a few +things that you can do with most Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works +even without complying with the full terms of this agreement. See +paragraph 1.C below. There are a lot of things you can do with Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic works if you follow the terms of this agreement +and help preserve free future access to Project Gutenberg-tm electronic +works. See paragraph 1.E below.</p> + +<p>1.C. The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation ("the Foundation" +or PGLAF), owns a compilation copyright in the collection of Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic works. Nearly all the individual works in the +collection are in the public domain in the United States. If an +individual work is in the public domain in the United States and you are +located in the United States, we do not claim a right to prevent you from +copying, distributing, performing, displaying or creating derivative +works based on the work as long as all references to Project Gutenberg +are removed. Of course, we hope that you will support the Project +Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting free access to electronic works by +freely sharing Project Gutenberg-tm works in compliance with the terms of +this agreement for keeping the Project Gutenberg-tm name associated with +the work. You can easily comply with the terms of this agreement by +keeping this work in the same format with its attached full Project +Gutenberg-tm License when you share it without charge with others.</p> + +<p>1.D. The copyright laws of the place where you are located also govern +what you can do with this work. Copyright laws in most countries are in +a constant state of change. If you are outside the United States, check +the laws of your country in addition to the terms of this agreement +before downloading, copying, displaying, performing, distributing or +creating derivative works based on this work or any other Project +Gutenberg-tm work. The Foundation makes no representations concerning +the copyright status of any work in any country outside the United +States.</p> + +<p>1.E. Unless you have removed all references to Project Gutenberg:</p> + +<p>1.E.1. The following sentence, with active links to, or other immediate +access to, the full Project Gutenberg-tm License must appear prominently +whenever any copy of a Project Gutenberg-tm work (any work on which the +phrase "Project Gutenberg" appears, or with which the phrase "Project +Gutenberg" is associated) is accessed, displayed, performed, viewed, +copied or distributed:</p> + +<p>This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at <a +href="http://www.gutenberg.org">www.gutenberg.org</a></p> + +<p>1.E.2. If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is derived +from the public domain (does not contain a notice indicating that it is +posted with permission of the copyright holder), the work can be copied +and distributed to anyone in the United States without paying any fees +or charges. If you are redistributing or providing access to a work +with the phrase "Project Gutenberg" associated with or appearing on the +work, you must comply either with the requirements of paragraphs 1.E.1 +through 1.E.7 or obtain permission for the use of the work and the +Project Gutenberg-tm trademark as set forth in paragraphs 1.E.8 or +1.E.9.</p> + +<p>1.E.3. If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is posted +with the permission of the copyright holder, your use and distribution +must comply with both paragraphs 1.E.1 through 1.E.7 and any additional +terms imposed by the copyright holder. Additional terms will be linked +to the Project Gutenberg-tm License for all works posted with the +permission of the copyright holder found at the beginning of this work.</p> + +<p>1.E.4. Do not unlink or detach or remove the full Project Gutenberg-tm +License terms from this work, or any files containing a part of this +work or any other work associated with Project Gutenberg-tm.</p> + +<p>1.E.5. Do not copy, display, perform, distribute or redistribute this +electronic work, or any part of this electronic work, without +prominently displaying the sentence set forth in paragraph 1.E.1 with +active links or immediate access to the full terms of the Project +Gutenberg-tm License.</p> + +<p>1.E.6. You may convert to and distribute this work in any binary, +compressed, marked up, nonproprietary or proprietary form, including any +word processing or hypertext form. However, if you provide access to or +distribute copies of a Project Gutenberg-tm work in a format other than +"Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other format used in the official version +posted on the official Project Gutenberg-tm web site (www.gutenberg.org), +you must, at no additional cost, fee or expense to the user, provide a +copy, a means of exporting a copy, or a means of obtaining a copy upon +request, of the work in its original "Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other +form. Any alternate format must include the full Project Gutenberg-tm +License as specified in paragraph 1.E.1.</p> + +<p>1.E.7. Do not charge a fee for access to, viewing, displaying, +performing, copying or distributing any Project Gutenberg-tm works +unless you comply with paragraph 1.E.8 or 1.E.9.</p> + +<p>1.E.8. You may charge a reasonable fee for copies of or providing +access to or distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works provided +that</p> + +<ul> +<li>You pay a royalty fee of 20% of the gross profits you derive from + the use of Project Gutenberg-tm works calculated using the method + you already use to calculate your applicable taxes. The fee is + owed to the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark, but he + has agreed to donate royalties under this paragraph to the + Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation. Royalty payments + must be paid within 60 days following each date on which you + prepare (or are legally required to prepare) your periodic tax + returns. Royalty payments should be clearly marked as such and + sent to the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation at the + address specified in Section 4, "Information about donations to + the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation."</li> + +<li>You provide a full refund of any money paid by a user who notifies + you in writing (or by e-mail) within 30 days of receipt that s/he + does not agree to the terms of the full Project Gutenberg-tm + License. You must require such a user to return or + destroy all copies of the works possessed in a physical medium + and discontinue all use of and all access to other copies of + Project Gutenberg-tm works.</li> + +<li>You provide, in accordance with paragraph 1.F.3, a full refund of any + money paid for a work or a replacement copy, if a defect in the + electronic work is discovered and reported to you within 90 days + of receipt of the work.</li> + +<li>You comply with all other terms of this agreement for free + distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm works.</li> +</ul> + +<p>1.E.9. If you wish to charge a fee or distribute a Project Gutenberg-tm +electronic work or group of works on different terms than are set +forth in this agreement, you must obtain permission in writing from +both the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation and Michael +Hart, the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark. Contact the +Foundation as set forth in Section 3 below.</p> + +<p>1.F.</p> + +<p>1.F.1. Project Gutenberg volunteers and employees expend considerable +effort to identify, do copyright research on, transcribe and proofread +public domain works in creating the Project Gutenberg-tm +collection. Despite these efforts, Project Gutenberg-tm electronic +works, and the medium on which they may be stored, may contain +"Defects," such as, but not limited to, incomplete, inaccurate or +corrupt data, transcription errors, a copyright or other intellectual +property infringement, a defective or damaged disk or other medium, a +computer virus, or computer codes that damage or cannot be read by +your equipment.</p> + +<p>1.F.2. LIMITED WARRANTY, DISCLAIMER OF DAMAGES - Except for the "Right +of Replacement or Refund" described in paragraph 1.F.3, the Project +Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation, the owner of the Project +Gutenberg-tm trademark, and any other party distributing a Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic work under this agreement, disclaim all +liability to you for damages, costs and expenses, including legal +fees. YOU AGREE THAT YOU HAVE NO REMEDIES FOR NEGLIGENCE, STRICT +LIABILITY, BREACH OF WARRANTY OR BREACH OF CONTRACT EXCEPT THOSE +PROVIDED IN PARAGRAPH 1.F.3. YOU AGREE THAT THE FOUNDATION, THE +TRADEMARK OWNER, AND ANY DISTRIBUTOR UNDER THIS AGREEMENT WILL NOT BE +LIABLE TO YOU FOR ACTUAL, DIRECT, INDIRECT, CONSEQUENTIAL, PUNITIVE OR +INCIDENTAL DAMAGES EVEN IF YOU GIVE NOTICE OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH +DAMAGE.</p> + +<p>1.F.3. LIMITED RIGHT OF REPLACEMENT OR REFUND - If you discover a +defect in this electronic work within 90 days of receiving it, you can +receive a refund of the money (if any) you paid for it by sending a +written explanation to the person you received the work from. If you +received the work on a physical medium, you must return the medium with +your written explanation. The person or entity that provided you with +the defective work may elect to provide a replacement copy in lieu of a +refund. If you received the work electronically, the person or entity +providing it to you may choose to give you a second opportunity to +receive the work electronically in lieu of a refund. If the second copy +is also defective, you may demand a refund in writing without further +opportunities to fix the problem.</p> + +<p>1.F.4. Except for the limited right of replacement or refund set forth +in paragraph 1.F.3, this work is provided to you 'AS-IS', WITH NO OTHER +WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO +WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY OR FITNESS FOR ANY PURPOSE.</p> + +<p>1.F.5. Some states do not allow disclaimers of certain implied +warranties or the exclusion or limitation of certain types of damages. +If any disclaimer or limitation set forth in this agreement violates the +law of the state applicable to this agreement, the agreement shall be +interpreted to make the maximum disclaimer or limitation permitted by +the applicable state law. The invalidity or unenforceability of any +provision of this agreement shall not void the remaining provisions.</p> + +<p>1.F.6. INDEMNITY - You agree to indemnify and hold the Foundation, the +trademark owner, any agent or employee of the Foundation, anyone +providing copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in accordance +with this agreement, and any volunteers associated with the production, +promotion and distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works, +harmless from all liability, costs and expenses, including legal fees, +that arise directly or indirectly from any of the following which you do +or cause to occur: (a) distribution of this or any Project Gutenberg-tm +work, (b) alteration, modification, or additions or deletions to any +Project Gutenberg-tm work, and (c) any Defect you cause.</p> + +<h3>Section 2. Information about the Mission of Project Gutenberg-tm</h3> + +<p>Project Gutenberg-tm is synonymous with the free distribution of +electronic works in formats readable by the widest variety of computers +including obsolete, old, middle-aged and new computers. It exists +because of the efforts of hundreds of volunteers and donations from +people in all walks of life.</p> + +<p>Volunteers and financial support to provide volunteers with the +assistance they need are critical to reaching Project Gutenberg-tm's +goals and ensuring that the Project Gutenberg-tm collection will +remain freely available for generations to come. In 2001, the Project +Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation was created to provide a secure +and permanent future for Project Gutenberg-tm and future generations. +To learn more about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation +and how your efforts and donations can help, see Sections 3 and 4 and +the Foundation information page at <a +href="http://www.gutenberg.org">www.gutenberg.org</a></p> + +<h3>Section 3. Information about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive +Foundation</h3> + +<p>The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation is a non profit +501(c)(3) educational corporation organized under the laws of the +state of Mississippi and granted tax exempt status by the Internal +Revenue Service. The Foundation's EIN or federal tax identification +number is 64-6221541. Contributions to the Project Gutenberg +Literary Archive Foundation are tax deductible to the full extent +permitted by U.S. federal laws and your state's laws.</p> + +<p>The Foundation's principal office is located at 4557 Melan Dr. S. +Fairbanks, AK, 99712., but its volunteers and employees are scattered +throughout numerous locations. Its business office is located at 809 +North 1500 West, Salt Lake City, UT 84116, (801) 596-1887. Email +contact links and up to date contact information can be found at the +Foundation's web site and official page at <a +href="http://www.gutenberg.org/contact">www.gutenberg.org/contact</a></p> + +<p>For additional contact information:<br /> + Dr. Gregory B. Newby<br /> + Chief Executive and Director<br /> + gbnewby@pglaf.org</p> + +<h3>Section 4. Information about Donations to the Project Gutenberg +Literary Archive Foundation</h3> + +<p>Project Gutenberg-tm depends upon and cannot survive without wide +spread public support and donations to carry out its mission of +increasing the number of public domain and licensed works that can be +freely distributed in machine readable form accessible by the widest +array of equipment including outdated equipment. Many small donations +($1 to $5,000) are particularly important to maintaining tax exempt +status with the IRS.</p> + +<p>The Foundation is committed to complying with the laws regulating +charities and charitable donations in all 50 states of the United +States. Compliance requirements are not uniform and it takes a +considerable effort, much paperwork and many fees to meet and keep up +with these requirements. We do not solicit donations in locations +where we have not received written confirmation of compliance. To +SEND DONATIONS or determine the status of compliance for any +particular state visit <a +href="http://www.gutenberg.org/donate">www.gutenberg.org/donate</a></p> + +<p>While we cannot and do not solicit contributions from states where we +have not met the solicitation requirements, we know of no prohibition +against accepting unsolicited donations from donors in such states who +approach us with offers to donate.</p> + +<p>International donations are gratefully accepted, but we cannot make +any statements concerning tax treatment of donations received from +outside the United States. U.S. laws alone swamp our small staff.</p> + +<p>Please check the Project Gutenberg Web pages for current donation +methods and addresses. Donations are accepted in a number of other +ways including checks, online payments and credit card donations. +To donate, please visit: <a +href="http://www.gutenberg.org/donate">www.gutenberg.org/donate</a></p> + +<h3>Section 5. General Information About Project Gutenberg-tm electronic +works.</h3> + +<p>Professor Michael S. Hart was the originator of the Project Gutenberg-tm +concept of a library of electronic works that could be freely shared +with anyone. For forty years, he produced and distributed Project +Gutenberg-tm eBooks with only a loose network of volunteer support.</p> + +<p>Project Gutenberg-tm eBooks are often created from several printed +editions, all of which are confirmed as Public Domain in the U.S. +unless a copyright notice is included. Thus, we do not necessarily +keep eBooks in compliance with any particular paper edition.</p> + +<p>Most people start at our Web site which has the main PG search facility: +<a href="http://www.gutenberg.org">www.gutenberg.org</a></p> + +<p>This Web site includes information about Project Gutenberg-tm, +including how to make donations to the Project Gutenberg Literary +Archive Foundation, how to help produce our new eBooks, and how to +subscribe to our email newsletter to hear about new eBooks.</p> + +</body> +</html> diff --git a/39720-h/images/titledecorative.jpg b/39720-h/images/titledecorative.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..fc57cb2 --- /dev/null +++ b/39720-h/images/titledecorative.jpg diff --git a/39720.txt b/39720.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..10d08b8 --- /dev/null +++ b/39720.txt @@ -0,0 +1,5912 @@ +The Project Gutenberg eBook, The Abolition Crusade and Its Consequences, +by Hilary Abner Herbert + + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + + + + +Title: The Abolition Crusade and Its Consequences + Four Periods of American History + + +Author: Hilary Abner Herbert + + + +Release Date: May 17, 2012 [eBook #39720] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-646-US (US-ASCII) + + +***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE ABOLITION CRUSADE AND ITS +CONSEQUENCES*** + + +E-text prepared by Charlene Taylor, Julia Neufeld, and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team (http://www.pgdp.net) from page images +generously made available by Internet Archive/American Libraries +(http://archive.org/details/americana) + + + +Note: Images of the original pages are available through + Internet Archive/American Libraries. See + http://archive.org/details/abolitioncrusade00herbrich + + +Transcriber's note: + + Text enclosed by underscores is in italics (_italics_). + + Small capital text has been replaced with all capitals. + + + + + +THE ABOLITION CRUSADE AND ITS CONSEQUENCES + +Four Periods of American History + +by + +HILARY A. HERBERT, LL.D. + + + + + + + +New York +Charles Scribner's Sons +1912 + +Copyright, 1912, by +Charles Scribner's Sons + +Published April, 1912 + + + + + TO MY GRANDCHILDREN + + THIS LITTLE BOOK IS AFFECTIONATELY DEDICATED + IN THE HOPE THAT ITS PERUSAL + WILL FOSTER IN THEM, AS CITIZENS OF THIS GREAT + REPUBLIC, A DUE REGARD FOR THE CONSTITUTION + OF THEIR COUNTRY + AS THE SUPREME LAW OF THE LAND + + + + +PREFATORY NOTE BY JAMES FORD RHODES + + +"Livy extolled Pompey in such a panegyric that Augustus called him +Pompeian, and yet this was no obstacle to their friendship." That we +find in Tacitus. We may therefore picture to ourselves Augustus reading +Livy's "History of the Civil Wars" (in which the historian's republican +sympathies were freely expressed), and learning therefrom that there +were two sides to the strife which rent Rome. As we are more than +forty-six years distant from our own Civil War, is it not incumbent on +Northerners to endeavor to see the Southern side? We may be certain that +the historian a hundred years hence, when he contemplates the lining-up +of five and one-half million people against twenty-two millions, their +equal in religion, morals, regard for law, and devotion to the common +Constitution, will, as matter of course, aver that the question over +which they fought for four years had two sides; that all the right was +not on one side and all the wrong on the other. The North should +welcome, therefore, accounts of the conflict written by candid Southern +men. + +Mr. Herbert, reared and educated in the South, believing in the moral +and economical right of slavery, served as a Confederate soldier during +the war, but after Appomattox, when thirty-one years old, he told his +father he had arrived at the conviction that slavery was wrong. Twelve +years later, when home-rule was completely restored to the South (1877), +he went into public life as a Member of Congress, sitting in the House +for sixteen years. At the end of his last term, in 1893, he was +appointed Secretary of the Navy by President Cleveland, whom he +faithfully served during his second administration. + +Such an experience is an excellent training for the treatment of any +aspect of the Civil War. Mr. Herbert's devotion to the Constitution, the +Union, and the flag now equals that of any soldier of the North who +fought against him. We should expect therefore that his work would be +pervaded by practical knowledge and candor. + +After a careful reading of the manuscript I have no hesitation in saying +that the expectation is realized. Naturally unable to agree entirely +with his presentation of the subject, I believe that his work exhibits a +side that entitles it to a large hearing. I hope that it will be placed +before the younger generation, who, unaffected by any memory of the heat +of the conflict, may truly say: + + Tros Tyriusve, mihi nullo discrimine agetur. + + JAMES FORD RHODES. + +BOSTON, _November_, 1911. + + + + +PREFACE + + +In 1890 Mr. L. E. Chittenden, who had been United States Treasurer under +President Lincoln, published an interesting account of $10,000,000 +United States bonds secretly sent to England, as he said, in 1862, and +he told all about what thereupon took place across the water. It was a +reminiscence. General Charles Francis Adams in his recent instructive +volume, "Studies Military and Diplomatic," takes up this narrative and, +in a chapter entitled "An Historical Residuum," conclusively shows from +contemporaneous evidence that the bonds were sent, not in 1862, but in +1863, but that, as for the rest of the story, the residuum of truth in +it was about like the speck of moisture that is left when a soap bubble +is pricked by a needle. + +General Adams did not mean that Mr. Chittenden knew he was drawing on +his imagination. He was only demonstrating that one who intends to +write history cannot rely on his memory. + +The author, in the following pages, is undertaking to write a connected +story of events that happened, most of them, in his lifetime, and as to +many of the most important of which he has vivid recollections; but, +save in one respect, he has not relied upon his own memory for any +important fact. The picture he has drawn of the relations between the +slave-holder and non-slave-holder in the South is, much of it, given as +he recollects it. His opportunities for observation were somewhat +extensive, and here he is willing to be considered in part as a witness. +Elsewhere he has relied almost entirely upon contemporaneous written +evidence, memory, however, often indicating to him sources of +information. + +Nowhere are there so many valuable lessons for the student of American +history as in the story of the great sectional movement of 1831, and of +its results, which have profoundly affected American conditions through +generation after generation. + +An effort is here made to tell that story succinctly, tracing it, step +after step, from cause to effect. The subject divides itself naturally +into four historic periods: + +1. The anti-slavery crusade, 1831 to 1860. + +2. Secession and four years of war, 1861 to 1865. + +3. Reconstruction under the Lincoln-Johnson plan, with the overthrow by +Congress of that plan and the rule of the negro and carpet-bagger, from +1865 to 1876. + +4. Restoration of self-government in the South, and the results that +have followed. + +The greater part of the book is devoted to the first period--1831 to +1860, the period of causation. The sequences running through the three +remaining periods are more briefly sketched. + +Italics, throughout the book, it may be mentioned here, are the +author's. + +Now that the country is happily reunited in a Union which all agree is +indissoluble, the South wants the true history of the times here treated +of spread before its children; so does the North. The mistakes that were +committed on both sides during that lamentable and prolonged sectional +quarrel (and they were many) should be known of all, in order that like +mistakes may not be committed in the future. The writer has, with +diffidence, attempted to lay the facts before his readers, and so to +condense the story that it may be within the reach of the ordinary +student. How far he has succeeded will be for his readers to say. The +verdict he ventures to hope for is that he has made an honest effort to +be fair. + +The author takes this occasion to thank that accomplished young teacher +of history, Mr. Paul Micou, for valuable suggestions, and his friend, +Mr. Thomas H. Clark, who with his varied attainments has aided him in +many ways. + + HILARY A. HERBERT. + +WASHINGTON, D. C., _March_, 1912. + + + + +CONTENTS + + + CHAPTER PAGE + + INTRODUCTION 3 + + I. SECESSION AND ITS DOCTRINE 15 + + II. EMANCIPATION PRIOR TO 1831 37 + + III. THE NEW ABOLITIONISTS 56 + + IV. FEELING IN THE SOUTH--1835 77 + + V. ANTI-ABOLITION AT THE NORTH 84 + + VI. A CRISIS AND A COMPROMISE 93 + + VII. EFFORTS FOR PEACE 128 + + VIII. INCOMPATIBILITY OF SLAVERY AND FREEDOM 147 + + IX. FOUR YEARS OF WAR 180 + + X. RECONSTRUCTION, LINCOLN-JOHNSON PLAN AND CONGRESSIONAL 208 + + XI. THE SOUTH UNDER SELF-GOVERNMENT 229 + + INDEX 245 + + + + + +THE ABOLITION CRUSADE AND ITS CONSEQUENCES + + + + +INTRODUCTION + + +The Constitution of the United States attempts to define and limit the +power of our Federal Government. + +Lord Brougham somewhere said that such an instrument was not worth the +parchment it was written on; people would pay no regard to self-imposed +limitations on their own will. + +When our fathers by that written Constitution established a government +that was partly national and partly federal, and that had no precedent, +they knew it was an experiment. To-day that government has been in +existence one hundred and twenty-three years, and we proudly claim that +the experiment of 1789 has been the success of the ages. + +Happy should we be if we could boast that, during all this period, the +Constitution had never been violated in any respect! + +The first palpable infringement of its provisions occurred in the +enactment of the alien and sedition laws of 1798. The people at the +polls indignantly condemned these enactments, and for years thereafter +the government proceeded peacefully; the people were prosperous, and the +Union and the Constitution grew in favor. + +Later, there grew up a rancorous sectional controversy about slavery +that lasted many years; that quarrel was followed by a bloody sectional +war; after that war came the reconstruction of the Southern States. +During each of these three trying eras it did sometimes seem as if that +old piece of "parchment," derided by Lord Brougham, had been utterly +forgotten. Nevertheless, and despite all these trying experiences, we +have in the meantime advanced to the very front rank of nations, and our +people have long since turned, not only to the Union, but, we are happy +to think, to the Constitution as well, with more devotion than ever. + +It may be further said that, notwithstanding all the bitter animosities +that for long divided our country into two hostile sections, that +wonderful old Constitution, handed down to us by our fathers, was +always, and in all seasons, in the hearts of our people, and that never +for a moment was it out of mind. Even in our sectional war Confederates +and Federals were both fighting for it--one side to maintain it over +themselves as an independent nation; the other to maintain it over the +whole of the old Union. In the very madness of reconstruction the +fundamental idea of the Constitution, the equality of the States, +ultimately prevailed--this idea it was that imperatively demanded the +final restoration of the seceded States, with the right of +self-government unimpaired. + +The future is now bright before us. The complex civilization of the +present is, we do not forget, continually presenting new and complex +problems of government, and we are mindful, too, that, for the people +who must deal with these problems, a higher culture is required, but to +all this our national and State governments seem to be fully alive. We +are everywhere erecting memorials to our patriotic dead, we have our +"flag day" and many ceremonies to stimulate patriotism, and, throughout +our whole country, young Americans are being taught more and more of +American history and American traditions. + +The essence of these teachings presumably is that time has hallowed our +Constitution, and that experience has fully shown the wisdom of its +provisions. In this land of ours, where there are so much property and +so many voters who want it, and where the honor and emoluments of high +place are so tempting to the demagogue, there can be no such security +for either life, liberty, or property as those safeguards which our +fathers devised in the Constitution of the United States. + +Our teachers of history must therefore expose fearlessly every violation +in the past of our Constitution, and point out the penalties that +followed; and, above all, they cannot afford to condone, or to pass by +in silence, the conduct of those who have heretofore advocated, or acted +on, any law which to them was _higher than the American Constitution_. + +One of the most serious troubles in the past, many think our greatest, +was our terrible war among ourselves. Perhaps, after the lapse of nearly +fifty years, we can all now agree that if our people and our States had +always, between 1830 and 1860, faithfully observed the Federal +Constitution we should have not had that war. However that may be, the +crusade of the Abolitionists, which began in 1831, was the beginning of +an agitation in the North against the existence of slavery in the South, +which continued, in one form or another, until the outbreak of that war. + +The negro is now located, geographically, much as he was then. If +another attempt shall be made to project his personal status into +national politics, the voters of the country ought to know and consider +the mistakes that occurred, North and South, during the unhappy era of +that sectional warfare. This little book is a study of that period of +our history. It concludes with a glance at the war between the North and +South, and the reconstruction that followed. + +The story of Cromwell and the Great Revolution it was impossible for any +Englishman to tell correctly for nearly or quite two centuries. The +changes that had been wrought were too profound, too far-reaching; and +English writers were too human. The changes--economic, political, and +social--wrought in our country by the great controversy over slavery and +State-rights, and by the war that ended it, have been quite as profound, +and the revolution in men's ideas and ways of looking at their past +history has been quite as complete as those which followed the downfall +of the government founded by Cromwell. But we are now in the twentieth +century; history is becoming a science, and we ought to succeed better +in writing our past than the Englishmen did. + +The culture of this day is very exacting in its demands, and if one is +writing about our own past the need of fairness is all the more +imperative. And why not? The masses of the people, who clashed on the +battlefields of a war in which one side fought for the supremacy of the +Union and the other for the sovereignty of the States, had honest +convictions; they differed in their convictions; they had made honest +mistakes about each other; now they would like their histories to tell +just where those mistakes were; they do not wish these mistakes to be +repeated hereafter. Nor is there any reason why the whole history of +that great controversy should not now be written with absolute fairness; +the two sections of our country have come together in a most wonderful +way. There has been reunion after reunion of the blue and the gray. The +survivors of a New Jersey regiment, forty-four years after the bloody +battle of Salem Church, put up on its site a monument to their dead, on +one side of which was a tablet to the memory of the "brave Alabama +boys," who were their opponents in that fight. One of those "Alabama +boys" wrote the story of that battle for the archives of his own State, +and the State of New Jersey has published it in her archives, as a fair +account of the battle. + +The author has attempted to approach his subject in a spirit like this, +and while he hopes to be absolutely fair, he is perfectly aware that he +sees things from a Southern view-point. For this, however, no apology is +needed. Truth is many-sided and must be seen from every direction. + +Nearly all the school-books dealing with the period here treated of, and +now considered as authority, have been written from a Northern +stand-point; and many of the extended histories that are most widely +read seem to the writer to be more or less partisan, although the +authors were apparently quite unconscious of it. Attempts made here to +point out some of the errors in these books are, as is conceived, in the +interests of history. + +Of course it is important that readers should know the stand-point of an +author who writes at this day of events as recent as those here treated +of. Dr. Albert Bushnell Hart, professor of history in Harvard +University, in the preface to his "Slavery and Abolition" (Harper +Brothers, 1906), says of himself: "It is hard for a son and grandson of +abolitionists to approach so explosive a question with impartiality." +Following this example, the writer must tell that he was born in the +South, of slave-holding parents, three years after the Abolition crusade +began in 1831. Growing up in the South under the stress of that crusade, +he maintained all through the war, in which he was a loyal Confederate +soldier, the belief in which he had been educated--that slavery was +right, morally and economically. + +One day, not long after Appomattox, he told his father he had reached +the conclusion that slavery was wrong. The reply was, to the writer's +surprise, that his mother in early life had been an avowed +emancipationist; that she (who had lived until the writer was sixteen +years old) had never felt at liberty to discuss slavery after the rise +of the new abolitionists and the Nat Turner insurrection; and then +followed the further information that when, in 1846, the family removed +from South Carolina to Alabama, Greenville, Ala., was chosen for a home +because it was thought that the danger from slave insurrections would be +less there than in one of the richer "black counties." + +What a creature of circumstances man is! The writer's belief about a +great moral question, his home, his school-mates, and the companions of +his youth, were all determined by a movement begun in Boston, +Massachusetts, before he was born in the far South! + +With a vivid personal recollection of the closing years of the great +anti-slavery crusade always in his mind, the writer has studied closely +many of the histories dealing with that movement, and he has found quite +a consensus of opinion among Northern writers--a view that has even been +sometimes accepted in the South--that it was not so much the fear of +insurrections, created by Abolition agitation, that shut off discussion +in the South about the rightfulness of slavery as it was the invention +of the cotton-gin, that made cotton growing and slavery profitable. The +cotton-gin was invented in 1792, and was in common use years before the +writer's mother was born. A native of, she grew to maturity entirely in, +the South, and in 1830 was an avowed emancipationist. The subject was +then being freely discussed. + +The author has ventured to relate in the pages that follow this +introduction two or three incidents that were more or less personal, in +the hope that their significance may be his sufficient excuse. + +And now, having spoken of himself as a Southerner, the author thinks it +but fair, when invoking for the following pages fair consideration, to +add that, since 1865, he has never ceased to rejoice that slavery is no +more, and that secession is now only an academic question; and, further, +that he has, since Appomattox, served the government of the United +States for twenty years as loyally as he ever served the Confederacy. He +therefore respectfully submits that his experiences ought to render him +quite as well qualified for an impartial consideration of the +anti-slavery crusade and its consequences as are those who have never, +either themselves or through the eyes of their ancestors, seen more than +one side of those questions. Certain he is, in his own mind, that this +Union has now no better friend than is he who submits this little study, +conscious of its many shortcomings, claiming for it nothing except that +it is the result of an honest effort to be fair in every statement of +facts and in the conclusions reached. + +Not much effort has been made in the direction of original research. +Facts deemed sufficient to illustrate salient points, which alone can be +treated of in a short story, have been found in published documents, +and other facts have been purposely taken, most of them, from Northern +writers; and the authorities have been duly cited. These facts have been +compressed into a small compass, so that the book may be available to +such students as have not time for a more extended examination. + +Of the results of the crusade of the Abolitionists, and the consequent +sectional war, George Ticknor Curtis, one of New England's distinguished +biographers, says in his "Life of Buchanan," vol. II, p. 283: + +"It is cause for exultation that slavery no longer exists in the broad +domain of this republic--that our theory of government and practice are +now in complete accord. But it is no cause for national pride that we +did not accomplish this result without the cost of a million of precious +lives and untold millions of money." + + + + +CHAPTER I + +SECESSION AND ITS DOCTRINE + + +John Fiske has said in his school history: "Under the government of +England before the Revolution the thirteen commonwealths were +independent of one another, and were held together juxtaposed, rather +than united, only through their allegiance to the British Crown. Had +that allegiance been maintained there is no telling how long they might +have gone on thus disunited." + +They won their independence under a very imperfect union, a government +improvised for the occasion. The "Articles of Confederation," the first +formal constitution of the United States of America, were not ratified +by Maryland, the last to ratify, until in 1781, shortly before Yorktown. +In 1787 the thirteen States, each claiming to be still sovereign, came +together in convention at Philadelphia and formed the present +Constitution, looking to "a more perfect union." The Constitution that +created this new government has been rightly said to be "the most +wonderful work ever struck off, at a given time, by the brain and +purpose of man."[1] And so it was, but it left unsettled the great +question whether a State, if it believed that its rights were denied to +it by the general government, could peaceably withdraw from the Union. + + [1] Gladstone, "Kin Beyond the Sea." + +The Federal Government was given by the Constitution only limited +powers, powers that it could not transcend. Nowhere on the face of that +Constitution was any right expressly conferred on the general government +to decide exclusively and finally upon the extent of the powers granted +to it. If any such right had been clearly given, it is certain that many +of the States would not have entered into the Union. As it was, the +Constitution was only adopted by eleven of the States after months of +discussion. Then the new government was inaugurated, with two of the +States, Rhode Island and North Carolina, still out of the Union. They +remained outside, one of them for eighteen months and the other for a +year. + +The States were reluctant to adopt the Constitution, because they were +jealous of, and did not mean to give up, the right of self-government. + +The framers of the Constitution knew that the question of the right of a +State to secede was thus left unsettled. They knew, too, that this might +give trouble in the future. Their hope was that, as the advantages of +the Union became, in process of time, more and more apparent, the Union +would grow in favor and come to be regarded in the minds and hearts of +the people as indissoluble. + +From the beginning of the government there were many, including +statesmen of great influence, who continued to be jealous of the right +of self-government, and insisted that no powers should be exercised by +the Federal Government except such as were very clearly granted in the +Constitution. These soon became a party and called themselves +Republicans. Some thirty years later they called themselves Democrats. +Those, on the other hand, who believed in construing the grants of +power in the Constitution liberally or broadly, called themselves +Federalists. + +Washington was a Federalist, but such was his influence that the dispute +between the Republicans and the Federalists about the meaning of the +Constitution did not, during his administration, assume a serious +aspect; but when a new president, John Adams, also a Federalist, came in +with a congress in harmony with him, the Republicans made bitter war +upon them. France, then at war with England, was even waging what has +been denominated a "quasi war" upon us, to compel the United States, +under the old treaty of the Revolution, to take her part against +England; and England was also threatening us. Plots to force the +government into the war as an ally of France were in the air. + +Adams and his followers believed in a strong and spirited government. To +strike a fatal blow at the plotters against the public peace, and to +crush the Republicans at the same time, Congress now passed the famous +alien and sedition laws. + +One of the alien laws, June 25, 1798, gave the President, for two years +from its passage, power to order out of the country, _at his own will, +and without "trial by jury" or other "process of law," any alien he +deemed dangerous_ to the peace and safety of the United States. + +The sedition law, July 14, 1798, made criminal any unlawful conspiracy +to oppose any measure of the government of the United States "which was +directed by proper authority," as well as also any "false and scandalous +accusations against the Government, the President, or the Congress." + +The opportunity of the Republicans had come. They determined to call +upon the country to condemn the alien and sedition laws, and at the +presidential election in 1800 the Federalists received their death-blow. +The party as an organization survived that election only a few years, +and in localities the very name, Federalist, later became a reproach. + +The Republicans began their campaign against the alien and sedition laws +by a series of resolutions, which, drawn by Jefferson, were passed by +the Kentucky legislature in November, 1798. Other quite similar +resolutions, drawn by Madison, passed the Virginia assembly the next +year; and these together became the celebrated Kentucky and Virginia +resolutions of 1798-9.[2] The alien and sedition laws were denounced in +these resolutions for the exercise of powers not delegated to the +general government. Adverting to the sedition law, it was declared that +no power over the freedom of religion, freedom of speech, or freedom of +the press had been given. On the contrary, it had been expressly +provided by the Constitution that "Congress shall make no law respecting +an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof, +_or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press_." + + [2] Warfield, in his "Kentucky Resolutions of 1798," relates that John + Breckenridge introduced the Kentucky and John Taylor, of Caroline, moved + the Virginia resolutions. In 1814 Taylor made it known that Madison was + the author of the Virginia resolves, but not till 1821 did Jefferson + admit his authorship of the Kentucky resolutions. Jefferson was + Vice-President when they were drawn, and it would have been thought + unseemly for him to appear openly in a canvass against the President, + but by correspondence with his friends he "gradually drew out a program + of action" (Warfield, p. 17). The Kentucky Resolutions were sent by the + Governor to the Legislatures of the other States, ten of which, being + controlled by the Federalists, are known to have declared against them + (Warfield, p. 115). But of course the resolutions were canvassed by the + public before the presidential election of 1800. + +The first of the Kentucky resolutions was as follows: + + "_Resolved_, That the several States composing the United States of + America, are not united on the principle of unlimited submission to + their general government, _but that by compact_, under the style + and title of a constitution for the United States, and of + amendments thereto, they constituted a general government for + specific purposes, delegated to that Government certain definite + powers, _reserving, each State to itself_, the residuary mass of + right to their own self-government; and _that whensoever the + general government assumes undelegated powers its acts are + unauthoritative, void, and of no effect_: That to this _compact + each State acceded as a State_, and is an integral party, its + co-States forming, as to itself, the other party: That the + government created by _this compact, was not made the exclusive or + final judge of the extent of the powers delegated to itself_, since + that would have made its direction, and not the Constitution, the + measure of its powers; but that, _as in all other cases of compact + among parties having no common judge, each party has a right to + judge for itself as well of infractions as of the mode and measure + of redress._" + +Undoubtedly it is from the famous resolutions of 1798-9 that the +secessionists of a later date drew their arguments. The authors of these +celebrated resolutions were, both of them, devoted friends of the Union +they had helped to construct. Why should they announce a theory of the +Constitution that was so full of dangerous possibilities? + +The answer is, they were announcing the theory upon which the States, or +at least many of the States, had ten years before ratified the +Constitution. A crisis in the life of the new government had now come. +Congress had usurped powers not given; it had exercised powers that had +been prohibited, and the government was enforcing the obnoxious statutes +with a high hand. Dissatisfaction was intense. + +Jefferson and Madison were undoubtedly Republican partisans, Jefferson +especially; but it is equally certain that they were both friends of the +Union, and as such they concluded, with the lights before them, that the +wise course would be to submit to the people, in ample time for full +consideration, before the then coming presidential election, a full, +clear, and comprehensive exposition of the Constitution precisely as +they, and as the people, then understood it. This they did in the +resolutions of 1798 and 1799, and the very same voters who had created +the Constitution of 1789, now, with their sons to aid them, endorsed +these resolutions in the election of 1800, which had been laid before +them by the legislatures of two Republican States as a correct +construction of that instrument. + +The Republicans under Jefferson came into power with an immense +majority. The people were satisfied with the Constitution as it had been +construed in the election of 1800, and the country under control of the +Republicans was happy and prosperous for three decades. Then the party +in power began to split into National Republicans and Democratic +Republicans. The National Republicans favored a liberal construction of +the Constitution and became Whigs; the Democratic Republicans dropped +the name Republican and became Democrats. + +The foregoing sketch has been given with no intent to write a political +history, but only to show with what emphasis the American people +condemned all violations of the Constitution up to the time when, in +1831, our story of the Abolitionists is to begin. The sketch has also +served to explain the theory of State-rights, as it was held in early +days, and later, by the Southern people. + +Whether the union of the States under the Constitution as expounded by +the Kentucky and Virginia resolutions would survive every trial that was +to come, remained to be seen. The question was destined to perplex Mr. +Jefferson himself, more than once. + +Indeed, even while Washington was President there had been disunion +sentiment in Congress. In 1794 the celebrated Virginian, John Taylor, of +Caroline, shortly after he had expressed an intention of publicly +resigning from the United States Senate, was approached in the privacy +of a committee room by Rufus King, senator from New York, and Oliver +Ellsworth, a senator from Massachusetts, both Federalists, with a +proposition for a dissolution of the Union by mutual consent, the line +of division to be somewhere from the Potomac to the Hudson. This was on +the ground "that it was utterly impossible for the Union to continue. +That the Southern and the Eastern people thought quite differently," +etc. Taylor contended for the Union, and nothing came of the +conference, the story of which remained a secret for over a hundred +years.[3] + + [3] Taylor was so deeply impressed by the conference, which was + protracted, that two days later, May 11, 1794, he made an extended note + of it which he sent to Mr. Madison. At the foot of his note Taylor says, + among other things: "He (T.) is thoroughly convinced that the design to + break up the Union is contemplated. The assurance, the manner, the + earnestness, and the countenances with which the idea was uttered, all + disclosed the most serious intention. It is also probable that K. (King) + and E. (Ellsworth) having heard that T. (Taylor) was against the + (adoption of) the Constitution have hence imbibed a mistaken opinion + that he was secretly an enemy of the Union, and conceived that he was a + fit instrument (as he was about retiring) to infuse notions into the + anti-federal temper of Virginia, consonant to their views."--"Disunion + Sentiment in the Congress in 1794" (with fac-simile of Taylor + memorandum), by Gaillard Hunt, Editor of Writings of James Madison. + Lowdermilk Co., Washington, D. C., 1905. + +"In the winter of 1803-4, immediately after, and as a consequence of, +the acquisition of Louisiana, certain leaders of the Federal party +conceived the project of the dissolution of the Union and the +establishment of a Northern Confederacy, the justifying causes to those +who entertained it, that the acquisition of Louisiana to the Union +transcended the constitutional powers of the government of the United +States; that it created, in fact, a new confederacy to which the States, +united by the former compact, were not bound to adhere; that it was +oppressive of the interests and destructive of the influence of the +northern section of the Confederacy, whose right and duty it was +therefore to secede from the new body politic, and to constitute one of +their own."[4] + + [4] C. F. Robertson, "The Louisiana Purchase," etc. "Papers of the + American Association," vol. I, pp. 262, 263. + +This project did not assume serious proportions. + +John Fiske in his school history says: "John Quincy Adams, a supporter +of the embargo act of 1807, privately informed President Jefferson (in +February, 1809) that further attempts to enforce it in the New England +States would be likely to drive them to secession. Accordingly, the +embargo was repealed, and the non-intercourse act substituted for it." + +The spirit of nationality was yet in its infancy, threats of secession +were common, and they came then mostly from New England. These threats +were in no wise connected with slavery; agitators had not then made +slavery a national issue; the idea of separation was prompted by the +fear that power in the councils of the Union would pass into the hands +of other sections. + +Massachusetts was heard from again in 1811, when the State of Louisiana, +the first to be carved from the Louisiana purchase, asked to come into +the Union. In discussing the bill for her admission, Josiah Quincy said: +"Why, sir, I have already heard of six States, and some say there will +be at no great distance of time more. I have also heard that the mouth +of the Ohio will be far to the east of the contemplated empire.... It +is impossible that such a power could be granted. It was not for these +men that our fathers fought. It was not for them this Constitution +was adopted. You have no authority to throw the rights and liberties +and property of this people into hotchpot with the wild men on +the Missouri, or with the mixed, though more respectable, race of +Anglo-Hispano-Gallo-Americans who bask in the sands in the mouth of the +Mississippi.... _I am compelled to declare it as my deliberate opinion +that, if this bill passes, the bonds of the Union are virtually +dissolved; that the States which compose it are free from their moral +obligations; and that, as it will be the right of all, so it will be +the duty of some, to prepare definitely for a separation--amicably, if +they can; violently, if they must._" + +June 15, 1813, the Massachusetts legislature endorsed the position taken +in this speech.[5] + + [5] "American State Documents and Federal Relations," p. 21. + +Later, in 1814, a convention of representative New England statesmen met +at Hartford, to consider of secession unless the non-intercourse act, +which also bore hard on New England, should be repealed; but the war +then pending was soon to close, and the danger from that quarter was +over. + +But secession was not exclusively a New England doctrine. "When the +Constitution was adopted by the votes of States in popular conventions, +it is safe to say there was not a man in the country, from Washington +and Hamilton, on the one side, to George Clinton and George Mason, on +the other, who regarded the new system as anything but an experiment, +entered into by the States, and from which each and every State had the +right to withdraw, a right which was very likely to be exercised."[6] + + [6] Henry Cabot Lodge's "Webster," p. 176. + +As late as 1844 the threat of secession was to come again from +Massachusetts. The great State of Texas was applying for admission to +the Union. But Texas was a slave State; Abolitionists had now for +thirteen years been arousing in the old Bay State a spirit of hostility +against the existence of slavery in her sister States of the South, and +in 1844 the Massachusetts legislature resolved that "the Commonwealth of +Massachusetts, faithful to the _compact_ between the people of the +United States, according to the plain meaning and intent in which it was +understood by them, is sincerely anxious for its preservation; but that +it is determined, as it _doubts not other States are, to submit to +undelegated powers in no body of men on earth_," and that "the project +of the annexation of Texas, unless arrested at the threshold, may tend +to drive _these States into a dissolution of the Union_." + +This was _just seventeen years before the Commonwealth of Massachusetts +began to arm her sons to put down secession in the South_! + +The Southern reader must not, however, conclude from this startling +about-face on the question of secession, that the people of +Massachusetts, and of the North, did not, _in 1861_, honestly believe +that under the Constitution the Union was indissoluble, or that the +North went to war simply for the purpose of perpetuating its power over +the South. Such a conclusion would be grossly unjust. The spirit of +nationality, veneration of the Union, was a growth, and, after it had +fairly begun, a rapid growth. It grew, as our country grew in prestige +and power. The splendid triumphs of our ships at sea, in the War of +1812, and our victory at New Orleans over British regulars, added to it; +the masterful decisions of our great Chief Justice John Marshall, +pointing out how beneficently our Federal Constitution was adapted to +the preservation not only of local self-government but of the liberties +of the citizen as well; peace with, and the respect of, foreign nations; +free trade between the people of all sections, and abounding +prosperity--all these things created a deep impression, and Americans +began to hark back to the words of Washington in his farewell address: +"The unity of our government, which now constitutes you one people, is +also dear to you. It is justly so, for it is a main pillar in the +edifice of your real independence, the support of your tranquillity at +home, your peace abroad, of your safety, of your prosperity, of that +very liberty which you so highly prize." + +But far and away above every other single element contributing to the +development of Union sentiment was the wonderful speech of Daniel +Webster, January 26, 1830, in his debate in the United States Senate +with Hayne, of South Carolina. Hayne was eloquently defending States' +rights, and his argument was unanswerable if his premise was admitted, +that, as had been theretofore conceded, the Constitution was _a compact +between the States_. Webster saw this and he took new ground; the +Constitution was, he contended, not a compact, but the formation of a +government. His arguments were like fruitful seed sown upon a soil +prepared for their reception. No speech delivered in this country ever +created so profound an impression. It was the foundation of a new school +of political thought. It concluded with this eloquent peroration: "When +my eyes shall be turned to behold for the last time the sun in heaven, +may I not see him shining on the broken and dishonored fragments of a +once glorious Union; on States dissevered, discordant, belligerent; on a +land rent with civil feuds, or drenched, it may be, in fraternal blood! +Let their last feeble and lingering glance rather behold the gracious +ensign of the republic, now known and honored throughout the earth, +still full high advanced, its arms and trophies streaming in their +original lustre, not a stripe erased or polluted, not a single star +obscured, bearing for its motto no such miserable interrogatory as 'What +is all this worth?' nor those other words of delusion and folly, +'Liberty first and Union afterwards,' but everywhere, spread all over +with living light, blazing on all its ample folds, as they float over +the sea and over the land, and in every wind under the whole heavens, +that other sentiment, dear to every American heart--'Liberty _and_ +Union, now and forever, one and inseparable.'" + +For many years every school-house in the land resounded with these +words. By 1861 they had been imprinted on the minds and had sunk into +the hearts of a whole generation. Their effect was incalculable. + +It is perfectly true that the secession resolution of the Massachusetts +legislature of 1844 was passed fourteen years after Webster's speech, +but the Garrisonians had then been agitating the slavery question within +her borders for fourteen years, and the old State was now beside herself +with excitement. + +There was another great factor in the rapid manufacture of Union +sentiment at the North that had practically no existence at the South. +It was immigration. + +The new-comers from over the sea knew nothing, and cared less, about the +history of the Constitution or the dialectics of secession. They had +sought a land of liberty that to them was one nation, with one flag +flying over it, and in their eyes secession was rebellion. Immigrants to +America, practically all settling in Northern States, were during the +thirty years, 1831-1860, 4,910,590; and these must, with their natural +increase, have numbered at least six millions in 1860. In other words, +far more than one-fourth of the people of the North in 1860 were not, +themselves or their fathers, in the country in the early days when the +doctrine of States' rights had been in the ascendant; and, as a rule, to +these new people that old doctrine was folly. + +In the South the situation was reversed. Slavery had kept immigrants +away. The whites were nearly all of the old revolutionary stock, and had +inherited the old ideas. Still, love of and pride in the Union had grown +in them too. Nor were the Southerners all followers of Jefferson. From +the earliest days much of the wealth and intelligence of the country, +North and South, had opposed the Democracy, first as Federalists and +later as Whigs. In the South the Whigs have been described as "a fine +upstanding old party, a party of blue broadcloth, silver buttons, and a +coach and four." It was not until anti-slavery sentiment had begun to +array the North, as a section, against the South, that Southern Whigs +began to look for protection to the doctrine of States' rights. + +Woodrow Wilson says, in "Division and Reunion," p. 47, of Daniel +Webster's great speech in 1830: "The North was now beginning to insist +upon a national government; the South was continuing to insist upon the +original understanding of the Constitution; that was all." + +And in those attitudes the two sections stood in 1860-61, one upon the +modern theory of an indestructible Union; the other upon the old idea +that States had the right to secede from the Union. + +In 1848 there occurred in Ireland the "Rebellion of the Young Irishmen." +Among the leaders of that rebellion were Thomas F. Meagher and John +Mitchel. Both were banished to Great Britain's penal colony. Both made +their way, a few years later, to America. Both were devotees of liberty, +both men of brilliant intellect and high culture. Meagher settled in the +North, Mitchel in the South. This was about 1855. Each from his new +stand-point studied the history and the Constitution of his adopted +country. Meagher, when the war between the North and South came on, +became a general in the Union army. Mitchel entered the civil service of +the Confederacy and his son died a Confederate soldier. + +The Union or Confederate partisan who has been taught that his side was +"eternally right, and the other side eternally wrong," should consider +the story of these two "Young Irishmen." + +How fortunate it is that the ugly question of secession has been +settled, and will never again divide Americans, or those who come to +America! + + + + +CHAPTER II + +EMANCIPATION PRIOR TO 1831 + + +In the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, Dutch, French, Portuguese, +Spanish, English, and American vessels brought many thousands of negroes +from Africa, and sold them as slaves in the British West Indies and in +the British-American colonies. William Goodell, a distinguished +Abolitionist writer, tells us[7] that "in the importation of slaves for +the Southern colonies the merchants of New England competed with those +of New York and the South" (which never had much shipping). "They appear +indeed to have outstripped them, and to have _almost monopolized_ at one +time the profits of this detestable trade. Boston, Salem, and +Newburyport in Massachusetts, and Newport and Bristol in Rhode Island, +amassed, in the persons of a few of their citizens, vast sums of this +rapidly acquired and ill-gotten wealth."[7] + + [7] "Slavery and Anti-Slavery," 3d ed., 1885. + +The slaves coming to America went chiefly to the Southern colonies, +because there only was slave labor profitable. The laws and conditions +under which these negroes were sold in the American colonies were +precisely the same as in the West Indies, except that the whites in the +islands, so far as is known, never objected, whereas the records show +that earnest protests came from Virginia[8] and also from Georgia[9] and +North Carolina.[10] The King of England was interested in the profits of +the iniquitous trade and all protests were in vain. + + [8] _Am. Archives_, 4th series, vol. I, p. 696. + + [9] _Ib._, p. 1136. + + [10] _Ib._, p. 735. + +Of the rightfulness, however, of slavery itself there was but little +question in the minds of Christian peoples until the closing years of +the eighteenth century. Then the cruelties practised by ship-masters in +the Middle Passage attracted attention, and then came gradually a +revolution in public opinion. This revolution, in which the churches +took a prominent part, originated in England, but it soon swept over +America also, both North and South. + +England abolished the slave trade in 1807. The United States followed +in 1808; the Netherlands in 1814; France in 1818; Spain in 1820; +Portugal in 1830. The great Wilberforce, Buxton, and others, who had +brought about the abolition of the slave trade in England, continued +their exertions in favor of the slave until finally, in 1833, Parliament +abolished slavery in the British West Indies, appropriating twenty +millions sterling ($100,000,000) as compensation to owners--this because +investments in slave property had been made under the sanction of +existing law. + +"Great Britain, loaded with an unprecedented debt and with a grinding +taxation, contracted a new debt of a hundred millions of dollars to give +freedom, not to Englishmen, but to the degraded African. This was not an +act of policy, but the work of statesmen. Parliament but registered the +edict of the people. The English nation, with one heart and one voice, +under a strong Christian impulse and without distinction of rank, sex, +party, or religious names, decreed freedom to the slave. I know not that +history records a national act so disinterested, so sublime." + +So wrote Dr. Channing, the great New England pulpit orator, in his +celebrated letter on Texas annexation, to Henry Clay, in 1837. + +While the rightfulness of slavery was being discussed in England, the +American conscience had also been aroused, and emancipation was making +progress on this side of the water. + +Emancipation was an easy task in the Northern States, where slaves were +few, their labor never having been profitable, and by 1804 the last of +these States had provided for the ultimate abolition of slavery within +its borders. But the problem was more difficult in the Southern States, +where the climate was adapted to slave labor. There slaves were +numerous, and slavery was interwoven, economically and socially, with +the very fabric of existence. Naturally, it occurred to thoughtful men +that there ought to be some such solution as that which was subsequently +adopted in England, and which, as we have seen, was so highly extolled +by Dr. Channing--emancipation of the slaves with compensation to the +owners by the general government. The difficulty in our country was +that the Federal Constitution conferred upon the Federal Government no +power over slavery in the States--no power to emancipate slaves or +compensate owners; and that for the individual States where the negroes +were numerous the problem seemed too big. Free negroes and whites in +great numbers, it was thought, could not live together. To get rid of +the negroes, if they should be freed, was for the States a very serious, +if not an unsurmountable task. + +On the seventeenth of January, 1824, the following resolutions, proposed +as a solution of the problem, were passed by the legislature of +Ohio:[11] + + [11] "State Documents on Federal Relations," Ames, pp. 203-4. + + _Resolved_, That the consideration of a system providing for the + gradual emancipation of the people of color, held in servitude in + the United States, be recommended to the legislatures of the + several States of the American Union, and to the Congress of the + United States. + + _Resolved_, That, in the opinion of the general assembly, a system + of foreign colonization, with correspondent measures, might be + adopted that would in due time effect the entire emancipation of + the slaves of our country without any violation of the national + compact, or infringement of the rights of individuals; by the + passage of a law by the general government (with the consent of the + slave-holding States) which would provide that all children of + persons now held in slavery, born after the passage of the law, + should be free at the age of twenty-one years (being supported + during their minority by the persons claiming the service of their + parents), provided they then consent to be transported to the + intended place of colonization. Also: + + _Resolved_, That it is expedient that such a system should be + predicated upon the principle that the evil of slavery is a + national one, and that the people and the States of the Union ought + mutually to participate in the duties and burthens of removing it. + + _Resolved_, That His Excellency the Governor be requested to + forward a copy of the foregoing resolutions to His Excellency the + Governor of each of the United States, requesting him to lay the + same before the legislature thereof; and that His Excellency will + also forward a like copy to each of our senators and + representatives in Congress, requesting their co-operation in all + national measures having a tendency to effect the grave object + embraced therein. + +By June of 1825 eight other Northern States had endorsed the +proposition, Pennsylvania, Vermont, New Jersey, Illinois, Connecticut, +Massachusetts. Six of the slave-holding States emphatically disapproved +of the suggestion, _viz._, Georgia, South Carolina, Missouri, +Mississippi, Louisiana, and Alabama.[12] + + [12] Ames, p. 203. + +Reasons which in great part influenced all the Southern States thus +rejecting the proposition may be gathered from the following words of +Governor Wilson, of South Carolina, in submitting the resolutions: "A +firm determination to resist, at the threshold, every _invasion of our +domestic tranquillity_, and to _preserve our sovereignty and +independence as a State_, is earnestly recommended."[13] + + [13] _Ib._, p. 206. + +The resolutions required of the Southern States a complete surrender in +this regard of their reserved rights; they feared what Governor Wilson +called "the overwhelming powers of the general government," and were +unwilling to make the admission required, that the slavery in the South +was a question for the nation. + +Another reason was that, although there was a quite common desire in the +Southern States to get rid of slavery, the majority sentiment doubtless +was not yet ready for the step. + +Basing this plan on the "consent of the slave-holding States," as the +Ohio legislature did, was an acknowledgment that the North had no power +over the matter; while the proposition to share in the expense of +transporting the negroes, after they were manumitted, seems to be a +recognition of the joint responsibility of both sections for the +existence of slavery in the South. However that may be, the generous +concurrence of nine of the thirteen Northern States indicates how kindly +the temper of the North toward the South was before the rise of the "New +Abolitionism" in 1831. Had emancipation been, under the Federal +Constitution, a national and not a local question, it is possible that +slavery might have been abolished in America, as it was in the mother +country, peacefully and with compensation to owners. + +The Ohio idea of freeing and at the same time colonizing the slaves, was +no doubt suggested by the scheme of the African Colonization Society. +This Colonization Society grew out of a resolution passed by the General +Assembly of Virginia, December 23, 1816. Its purpose was to rid the +country of such free negroes and subsequently manumitted slaves as +should be willing to go to Liberia, where a home was secured for them, +and a government set up that was to be eventually controlled by the +negro from America. The plan was endorsed by Georgia in 1817, Maryland +in 1818, Tennessee in 1818, and Vermont in 1819.[14] + + [14] Ames, 195. + +The Colonization Society was composed of Southern and Northern +philanthropists and statesmen of the most exalted character. Among its +presidents were, at times, President Monroe and ex-President Madison. +Chief Justice Marshall was one of its presidents. Colonization, while +relieving America, was also to give the negro an opportunity for +self-government and self-development in his native country, aided at the +outset by experienced white men, and Abraham Lincoln, when he was +eulogizing the dead Henry Clay, one of the eloquent advocates of the +scheme, seemed to be in love with the idea of restoring the poor African +to that land from which he had been rudely snatched by the rapacious +white man. The society, with much aid from philanthropists and some from +the Federal Government, was making progress when, from 1831 to 1835, +the Abolitionists halted it.[15] They got the ears of the negro and +persuaded him not to go to Liberia. Its friends thought the enterprise +would stimulate emancipation by furnishing a home for such negroes as +their owners were willing to manumit; but the new friends of the negro +told him it was a trick of the slave-holder, and intended to perpetuate +slavery--it was banishment. And Dr. Hart now, in his "Abolition and +Slavery," calls it a move for the "expatriation of the negro." + + [15] See Garrison's "Garrison." + +All together only a few thousand negroes went to Liberia. The enterprise +lagged, and finally failed, partly because of opposition, but chiefly +because the negroes were slothful and incapable of self-government. The +word came back that they were not prospering. For a time, while white +men were helping them in their government, the outlook for Liberia had +more or less promise in it. When the whites, to give the negroes their +opportunity for self-development withdrew their case was hopeless.[16] + + [16] See article in _Independent_, 1906, Miss Mahony. + +In 1828, while emancipation was still being freely canvassed North and +South, Benjamin Lundy, an Abolition editor in charge of _The Genius of +Emancipation_, then being published at Baltimore, in a slave State, went +to Boston to "stir up" the Northern people "to the work of abolishing +slavery in the South." Dr. Channing, who has been previously quoted, +wrote a letter to Daniel Webster on the 28th of May, 1828, in which, +after reciting the purpose of Lundy, and saying that he was "aware how +cautiously exertions are to be made for it in this part of the country," +it being a local question, he said: "It seems to me that, before moving +in this matter, we ought to say to them (our Southern brethren) +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 the 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 +abolishing slavery, or, I fear, our interference will avail +nothing."[17] Mr. Webster never gave out this letter until February 15, +1851.[18] + + [17] "Webster's Works," vol. V, pp. 366-67, 1851. + + [18] _Ib._, ed. 1851, vol. V, pp. 266-67. + +In less than three years after that letter was written, Lundy's friend, +William Lloyd Garrison, started in Boston a crusade against slavery in +the South, on the ground that instead of being the "_calamity_," as Dr. +Channing deemed it to be, it was the "_crime_" of the South. Had no such +exasperating sectional cry as this ever been raised, the story told in +this little book would have been very different from that which is to +follow. Even Spain, the laggard of nations, since that day has abolished +slavery in her colonies. Brazil long ago fell into line, and it is +impossible for one not blinded by the sectional strife of the past, now +to conceive that the Southern States of this Union, whose people in 1830 +were among the foremost of the world in all the elements of Christian +civilization, would not long, long ago, if left to themselves, have +found some means by which to rid themselves of an institution condemned +by the public sentiment of the world and even then deplored by the +Southerners themselves. + +The crime, if crime it was, of slavery in the South in 1830 was one for +which the two sections of the Union were equally to blame. Abraham +Lincoln said in his debate with Douglas at Peoria, Illinois, October 15, +1858: "When Southern people tell us they are no more responsible for +slavery than we are, I acknowledge the fact. When it is said that the +institution exists, and that it is very difficult to get rid of it, in +any satisfactory way, I can understand and appreciate the saying. I +surely do not blame them for not doing what I would not know how to do +myself."[19] + + [19] "The Negro Problem," Pickett, 1809. + +Prior to the rise of the Abolitionists in 1831, emancipationists in the +South had been free to grapple with conditions as they found them. What +they and what the people of the North had accomplished we may gather +from the United States census reports. The tables following are taken +from "Larned's History of Ready Reference," vol. V. The classifications +are his. We have numbered three of his tables, for the sake of +reference, and have added columns 4 and 5, calculated from Larned's +figures, to show "excess of free blacks" and "increase of free blacks, +South." + +Let the reader assume as a fact, which will perhaps not be questioned, +that "free blacks" in the census means freedmen and their increase, and +these tables tell their own story, a story to which must be added the +statement that slaves in the South had been freed only by voluntary +sacrifices of owners. + +It will be noted that in 1790 the total "blacks" in the North was +67,479, and, although emancipation in these States had begun some years +before, the excess of "free blacks" in the South was over 5,000. Also +that at every succeeding census, down to and including that of 1830, the +"excess of free blacks" increased with considerable regularity until +1830, when that excess is 44,547. + + +----------------------+----------+-------+---------+-------+-------+--------+ + | | | | | | | | + | | | | | TOTAL |EXCESS |INCREASE| + | | WHITES | FREE | SLAVES |BLACKS,|OF FREE|IN FREE | + | | | BLACKS| | NORTH |BLACKS,|BLACKS, | + | | | | | | SOUTH | SOUTH | + | | | | | | | | + +----------------------+----------+-------+---------+-------+-------+--------+ + | | | | | | | | + |1790: North, 9 States | 1,900,976| 27,109| 40,370| 67,479| .... | .... | + | South, 8 States | 1,271,488| 32,357| 657,527| .... | 5,248 | .... | + | | | | | | | | + |1800: North, 11 States| 2,601,521| 47,154| 35,946| 83,100| .... | 20,045 | + | South, 9 States| 1,702,980| 61,241| 857,095| .... |14,087 | 28,884 | + | and D.C. | | | | | | | + | | | | | | | | + |1810: North, 13 States| 3,653,219| 78,181| 27,510|105,691| .... | 31,027 | + | South, 11 States| 2,208,785|108,265|1,163,854| .... |30,084 | 47,024 | + | and D. C. | | | | | | | + |1820: North, 13 States| 5,030,371| 99,281| 19,108|118,359| .... | 21,100 | + | South, 13 States| 2,831,560|134,223|1,519,017| .... |34,942 | 25,958 | + | and D. C. | | | | | | | + |1830: North, 13 States| 6,871,302|137,529| 3,568|141,097| .... | 38,248 | + | South, 13 States| 3,660,758|182,070|2,005,475| .... |44,541 | 47,747 | + | D. C. and Ter.| | | | | | | + |1840: North, etc. | 9,577,065|170,728| 1,728|171,857| .... | 33,199 | + | South, etc. | 4,632,530|215,575|2,486,326| .... |44,547 | 33,505 | + | | | | | | | | + |1850: North, etc. |13,269,149|196,262| 262|196,524| .... | 25,534 | + | South, etc. | 6,283,965|238,187|3,204,051| .... | 1,925 | 22,612 | + | | | | | | | | + |1860: North, etc. |18,791,159|225,967| 64|226,031| .... | 29,705 | + | South, etc. | 8,162,684|262,003|3,953,696| .... |36,036 | 23,816 | + | | | | | | | | + +----------------------+----------+-------+---------+-------+-------+--------+ + +There was always in the South, prior to 1831, an active and freely +expressed emancipation sentiment. But there was not enough of it to +influence legislation. In all but three or four of these States, +emancipation was made difficult by laws which, among other conditions, +required that slaves after being freed should leave the State. + +Emancipation in the North had not been completed in 1830. Professor +Ingram, president of the Royal Irish Academy, says in his "History of +Slavery," London, 1895, p. 184: "The Northern States--beginning with +Vermont in 1777 and ending with New Jersey in 1804--either abolished +slavery or adopted measures to effect its gradual abolition within their +boundaries. But the principal operation of (at least) the latter change +was to transfer Northern slaves to Southern markets." + +There had been in 1820 an angry discussion in Congress about the +admission of Missouri--with or without slavery--which was finally +settled by the Missouri Compromise. This dispute over the admission of +Missouri is often said to have been the beginning of the sectional +quarrel that finally ended in secession; but the controversy over +Missouri and that begun by the "New Abolitionists" in 1831 were +entirely distinct. They were conducted on different plans. + +In the Missouri controversy the only questions were as to the expediency +and constitutionality of denying to a new State the right to enter the +Union, with or without slavery, as she might choose. The entire dispute +was settled to the satisfaction of both sections by an agreement that +States thereafter, south of 36 deg. 30', might enter the Union with or +without slavery; _and nobody denied, during all that discussion about +Missouri, or at any time previous to_ 1831, _that every citizen was +bound to maintain the Constitution and all laws passed in pursuance of +it, including the fugitive slave law_. + +"The North submitted at that time (1828) to the obligations imposed upon +it by the fugitive slave-catching clause of the Constitution and the +fugitive slave law of 1793."[20] So say the biographers of William Lloyd +Garrison for the purpose of establishing, as they afterwards do, their +claim that Garrison conducted a successful revolt against that provision +of the Constitution. What strengthens the statement that the North in +1828 submitted without protest to the "fugitive slave-catching clause of +the Constitution," is that the Compromise Act of 1820 contained a +provision extending the fugitive slave law over the territory made free +by the act, while it should continue to be territory, and until there +should be formed from it States, to which the existing law would +automatically apply. Every subsequent _nullification of the fugitive +slave laws_ of the United States, whether by governors or state +legislatures, was therefore a palpable _violation of a provision that +was of the essence of the Missouri Compromise_. + + [20] Garrison's "Garrison," vol. I, p. 113. + +The South was content with the Missouri Compromise, and from that date, +1820, until the rise of the "New Abolitionists," slavery was in all that +region an open question. Judge Temple says in his "Covenanter, Cavalier, +and Puritan," p. 208: "In 1826, of the 143 emancipation societies in the +United States, 103 were in the South." + +The questions for Southern emancipationists were: How could the slaves +be freed, and in what time? How about compensation to owners? Where +could the freed slaves be sent, and how? And, if deportation should +prove impossible, what system could be devised whereby the two races +could dwell together peacefully? These were indeed serious problems, and +required time and grave consideration. + +"Who can doubt," says Mr. Curtis, to quote once more his "Life of +Buchanan," "that all such questions could have been satisfactorily +answered, if the Christianity of the South had been left to its own time +and mode of answering them, and without any external force but the force +of kindly, respectful consideration and forebearing Christian +fellowship?"[21] + + [21] George Ticknor Curtis's "Life of Buchanan," vol. II, p. 283. + +But this was not to be. + + + + +CHAPTER III + +THE NEW ABOLITIONISTS + + +On the first day of January, 1831, there came out in Boston a new paper, +_The Liberator_, William Lloyd Garrison, editor. That was the beginning, +historians now generally agree, of "New Abolitionism." The editor of the +new paper was the founder of the new sect. + +Benjamin Lundy was a predecessor of Garrison, on much the same lines as +those pursued by the latter. Lundy had previously formed many Abolition +societies. _The Philanthropist_ of March, 1828, estimated the number of +anti-slavery societies as "upwards of 130, and most of them in the slave +States, and of Lundy's formation, among the Quakers."[22] But Garrison +became the leader and Lundy the disciple. + + [22] Garrison's "Garrison," vol. I. + +Garrison was a man of pleasing personal appearance, abstemious in +habits, and of remarkable energy and will power. He was a vigorous and +forceful writer. Denunciation was his chief weapon, and he had "a genius +for infuriating his antagonists." The following is a fair specimen of +his style. Speaking of himself and his fellow-workers as the "soldiers +of God," he said: "Their feet are shod with the preparation of the +_gospel of peace_.... Hence, when smitten on one cheek they turn the +other also, being defamed they entreat, being reviled they bless," etc. +And on that same page,[23] and in the same prospectus, showing how he +"blesses" those who, as he understands, are outside of the "Kingdom of +God," he says: "All without are dogs and sorcerers, and ... and +murderers, and idolaters, and whatsoever loveth a lie." + + [23] _Ib._, Vol. II, p. 202. + +Mr. Garrison had no perspective, no sense of relation or proportion. In +his eye the most humane slave-holder was a wicked monster. He had a +genius for organization, and a year after the first issue of _The +Liberator_ he and his little body of brother fanatics had grown into the +New England Anti-Slavery Society. + +The new sect called themselves for a time the "New Abolitionists," +because their doctrines were new. The principles upon which this +organization was to be based were not all formulated at once. The +key-note was sounded in Garrison's "Address to the Public" in the first +number of _The Liberator_: + + I shall strenuously contend for the immediate enfranchisement of + our slave population. I shall be as harsh as truth and as + uncompromising as justice on this subject. _I do not wish to think + or speak or write with moderation._ + +In an earlier issue, after denouncing slavery as a "damning crime," the +editor said: "Therefore my efforts shall be directed to _the exposure of +those who practise it_." + +The substance of Garrison's teachings was that slavery, anywhere in the +United States, was the concern of all, and that it was to be put down by +making not only slavery but also the slave-holder odious. And, further, +it was the slave, not the slave-owner, who was entitled to compensation. + +Thus the distinctive features of the new crusade were to be warfare upon +the personal character of every slave-holder and the confiscation of +his property. It was, too, the beginning of that sectional war by people +of the North against the existence of slavery in the South, which, as we +have seen, was deprecated by Dr. Channing in his letter three years +before to Mr. Webster. + +The new sect began by assailing slavery in States other than their own, +and very soon they were openly denouncing the Constitution of their +country because under it slavery in those sections was none of their +business; and of course they repudiated the Missouri Compromise +absolutely, the essence of that compromise being that slavery was the +business of the States in which it existed. + +It was a part of their scheme to send circulars depicting the evils of +slavery broadcast through the South; and they were sent especially to +the free negroes of that section. + +"In 1820," says Dr. Hart in his "Slavery and Abolition," "at Charleston +(South Carolina), Denmark Vesey, a free negro, made an elaborate plot to +rise, massacre the white population, seize the shipping in the harbor, +and, if hard pressed, to sail away to the West Indies. One of the +negroes gave evidence, Vesey was seized, duly tried, and with +thirty-four others was hanged."[24] + + [24] Hart's "Slavery and Abolition," p. 163. + +This plot, so nearly successful, was fresh in the minds of Southerners +when the Abolitionists began their programme, and naturally, the South +at once took the alarm--an alarm that was increased by the massacre, in +the Nat Turner insurrection, of sixty-one men, women, and children, +which took place in Virginia seven months after the first issue of _The +Liberator_. One of Turner's lieutenants is stated to have been a free +negro. This insurrection the South attributed to _The Liberator_. +Professor Hart says a free negro named Walker had previously sent out to +the South, from Boston, a pamphlet, "the tone of which was +unmistakable," and that "this pamphlet is known to have reached +Virginia, and may possibly have influenced the Nat Turner +insurrection."[25] + + [25] _Ib._, pp. 217-20. + +If this surmise be correct, knowledge that Walker, a free negro, had +been responsible for the Turner insurrection, would have lessened +neither the guilt of the Abolitionists nor the fears of the Southerners. + +But in 1832 Abolition agitation and the fears of insurrection had not +as yet entirely stifled the discussion of slavery in the South. A debate +on slavery took place that year in the Virginia Assembly, the immediate +cause of which was no doubt the Turner insurrection. The members of that +body had not been elected on any issue of that character. The discussion +thus precipitated shows, therefore, the state of public opinion in +Virginia on slavery. Of this debate a distinguished Northern writer +says:[26] + + [26] "Life of James Buchanan," George Ticknor Curtis, vol. II, pp. + 277-78. + +"In the year 1832 there was, nowhere in the world, a more enlightened +sense of the wrong and evil of slavery than there was among the public +men and people of Virginia." + +In the Assembly of that year Mr. Randolph brought forward a bill _to +accomplish gradual emancipation_. Mr. Curtis continues: + +"No member of the House defended slavery.... There could be nothing said +anywhere, there had been nothing said out of Virginia, stronger and +truer in deprecating the evils of slavery, than was said in that +discussion, by Virginia gentlemen, debating in their own legislature, a +matter that concerned themselves and their people." + +The bill was not pressed to a vote, but the House, by a vote of 65 to +38, declared "that they were profoundly sensible of the great evils +arising from the condition of the colored population of the Commonwealth +and were induced by policy, as well as humanity, to attempt the +immediate removal of the free negroes; but that further action for the +_removal of the slaves should await a more definite development of +public opinion_." + +Mr. Randolph, who was from the large slave-holding county of Albemarle, +was re-elected to the next assembly. + +But when the early summer of 1835 had come the fear of insurrection had +created such wide-spread terror throughout the whole South that every +emancipation society in that region had long since closed its doors; and +now the Abolitionists were sending South their circulars in numbers. +Many were sent to Charleston, South Carolina,[27] where fifteen years +before[28] the free negro, Denmark Vesey, had laid the plot to massacre +the whites, that had been discovered just in time to prevent its +consummation. + + [27] Referred to in "Life of Andrew Jackson," W. G. Sumner, p. 350. + + [28] Hart, _supra._ + +The President, Andrew Jackson, in his next message to Congress, +December, 1835, called their "attention to the painful excitement +produced in the South by attempts to circulate through the mails +_inflammatory appeals addressed to the passions of the slaves, in prints +and in various sorts of publications calculated to stimulate them to +insurrection and produce all the horrors of a servile war_." + +The good people of Boston were now thoroughly aroused. They had from the +first frowned on the Abolition movement. Garrison was complaining that +in all the city his society could not "hire a hall or a meeting-house." +The Abolition idea had been for a time thought chimerical and therefore +negligible. Later, civic, business, social, and religious organizations +had all of them in their several spheres been earnest and active in +their opposition; now it seemed to be time for concerted action. + +In Garrison's "Garrison" (vol. I, p. 495), we read that "the _social_, +_political_, _religious and intellectual elite_ of Boston filled +Faneuil Hall on the afternoon of Friday, August 3, 1835, to frame an +indictment against their fellow-citizens." + +This "indictment" the _Boston Transcript_ reported as follows: + + _Resolved_, That the people of the United States by the + Constitution under which, by the Divine blessing, they hold their + most valuable political privileges, have solemnly agreed with each + other to leave to their respective States the jurisdiction + pertaining to the relation of master and slave within their + boundaries, and that no man or body of men, except the people of + the governments of those States, can of right do any act to + dissolve or impair the obligations of that contract. + + _Resolved_, That we hold in reprobation all attempts, in whatever + guise they may appear, to coerce any of the United States to + abolish slavery by _appeals to the terror of the master or the + passions of the slave_. + + _Resolved_, That we disapprove of all associations instituted in + the non-slave-holding States with the intent to act, within the + slave-holding States, on the subject of slavery in those States + without their consent. For the purpose of securing freedom of + individual thought they are needless--and they afford to those + persons in the Southern States, whose object is to effect a + dissolution of the Union (if any such there may be now or + hereafter), a pretext for the furtherance of their schemes. + + _Resolved_, That all measures adopted, _the natural and direct + tendency of which is to excite the slaves of the South to revolt, + or of spreading among them a spirit of insubordination_, are + repugnant to the duties of the man and the citizen, and that where + such measures become manifest by overt acts, which are recognizable + by constitutional laws, we will aid by all means in our power in + the support of those laws. + + _Resolved_, That while we recommend to others the duty of + sacrificing their opinions, passions and sympathies upon the altar + of the laws, we are bound to show that a regard to the supremacy of + those laws is the rule of our conduct--and consequently to + deprecate all tumultuous assemblies, all riotous or violent + proceedings, all outrages on person and property, and all illegal + notions of the right or duty of executing summary and vindictive + justice in any mode unsanctioned by law. + +The allusion in the last resolution is to a then recent lynching of +negroes in Mississippi charged with insurrection. + +In speaking to these resolutions, Harrison Gray Otis, a great +conservative leader, denounced the Abolition agitators, accusing them of +"wishing to 'scatter among our Southern brethren _firebrands_, _arrows_, +and _death_,' and of attempting to force Abolition by appeals to the +terror of the masters and the passions of the slaves," and decrying +their "measures, the natural and direct tendency of which is to excite +the slaves of the South to revolt," etc. + +Another of the speakers, ex-Senator Peleg Sprague, said (p. 496, +Garrison's "Garrison") that "if their sentiments prevailed it would be +all over with the Union, which would give place to two hostile +confederacies, with forts and standing armies." + +These resolutions and speeches, viewed in the light of what followed, +read now like prophecy. + +It is a familiar rule of law that a contemporaneous exposition of a +statute is to be given extraordinary weight by the courts, the reason +being that the judge then sitting knows the surrounding circumstances. +That Boston meeting pronounced the deliberate judgment of the most +intelligent men of Boston on the situation, as they knew it to be that +day; it was in their midst that _The Liberator_ was being published; +there the new sect had its head-quarters, and there it was doing its +work. + +Quite as strong as the evidence furnished by that great Faneuil Hall +meeting is the testimony of the churches. + +The churches and religious bodies in America had heartily favored the +general anti-slavery movement that was sweeping over all America between +1770 and 1831, while it was proceeding in an orderly manner and with due +regard to law. + +In 1812 the Methodist General Conference voted that no slave-holder +could continue as a local elder. The Presbyterian General Assembly in +1818 unanimously resolved that "slavery was a gross violation of the +most precious and moral rights of human nature," etc. + +These bodies represented both the North and the South, and this +paragraph shows what was, and continued to be, the general attitude of +American churches until after the Abolitionists had begun their assault +on both slavery in the South and the Constitution of the United States, +which protected it. Then, in view of the awful social and political +cataclysm that seemed to be threatened, there occurred a stupendous +change. We learn from Hart that Garrison "soon found that neither +minister _nor church anywhere in the lower South continued_ (as before) +to protest against slavery; _that the cloth in the North was arrayed +against him_; and that many Northern divines vigorously opposed him." +Also that Moses Stuart, professor of Hebrew in Andover Theological +Seminary; President Lord, of Dartmouth College, and Hopkins, the +Episcopal bishop of Vermont, now became defenders of slavery. "The +positive opposition of churches soon followed." + +And then we have cited, condemnations of Abolitionism by the Methodist +Conference of 1836, by the New York Methodist Conference of 1838, by the +American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions, by the American +Home Missionary Society, the American Bible Society, the Protestant +Episcopal Church, and the Baptists. See for these statements, Hart, pp. +211-12. + +The import of all this is unmistakable; and this "about-face" of +religious organizations on the question of the morality of slavery has +no parallel in all the history of Christian churches. Its significance +cannot be overstated. It took place North and South. It meant opposition +to a movement that was outside the church _and with which religion could +have no concern, except in so far as it was a vital assault upon the +State, and the peace of the State_. To make their opposition effective +the Christians of that day did this remarkable thing. _They reversed +their religious views on slavery, which the Abolitionists were now +assailing, and which they themselves had previously opposed._ They +re-examined their Bibles and found arguments that favored slavery. These +arguments they used in an attempt to stem an agitation that, as they saw +it, was arraying section against section and threatening the perpetuity +of the Union. + +United testimony from all these Christian bodies is more conclusive +contemporaneous evidence against the agitators and their methods than +even the proceedings of all conservative Boston at Faneuil Hall in +August, 1835. + +This new attitude of the church toward slavery meant perhaps also +something further--it meant that slavery, as it actually existed, was +not then as horrible to Northerners, who could go across the line and +see it, which many of them did, as it is now to those whose ideas of it +come chiefly from "Uncle Tom's Cabin." + +In view of this phenomenal movement of Northern Christians it is not +strange that Southern churches adhered, throughout the deadly struggle +that was now on, to the position into which they had been driven--that +slavery was sanctioned by the Bible--nor is it matter of wonder that, as +Professor Hart makes prominent on p. 137, "not a single Southern man of +large reputation and influence failed to stand by slavery." + +Historians of to-day usually narrate without comment that nearly all the +American churches and divines at first opposed the Abolitionists. It +illustrates the courage with which the Abolitionists stood, as Dr. Hart +delights to point out, "for a despised cause." They assuredly did stand +by their guns. + +Later, another change came about in the attitude of the churches. In +1844 the Abolitionists were to achieve their first victory in the great +religious world. The Methodist Church was then disrupted, "squarely on +the question whether a bishop could own slaves, and all the Southern +members withdrew and organized the Methodist Episcopal Church, South." +Professor Hart, p. 214, says of this: "Clearly, the impassioned +agitation of the Abolitionists had made it impossible for a great number +of Northern anti-slavery men _to remain on terms of friendship with +their Southern brethren_." + +That great Faneuil Hall meeting of August 31, 1835, was followed some +weeks later by a lamentable anti-Garrison mob, which did not stand +alone. In the years 1835, 1836, and 1837 a great wave of anti-Abolition +excitement swept over the North. In New York, Philadelphia, Cincinnati, +Alton (Illinois), and many other places, there were anti-Abolition +riots, sometimes resulting in arson and bloodshed. + +The heart of the great, peace-loving, patriotic, and theretofore happy +and contented North, was at that time stirred with the profoundest +indignation against the Abolitionists. Northern opinion then was that +the Abolitionists, by their unpatriotic course and their nefarious +methods, were driving the South to desperation and endangering the +Union. If the North at that time saw the situation as it really was, the +historian of the present day should say so. If, on the other hand, the +people of both the North and South were then laboring under delusions, +as to the facts that were occurring among them, those of this +generation, who are wiser than their ancestors, should give us the +sources of their information. To know the lessons of history we must +have the facts.[29] + + [29] The late Professor William Graham Sumner, of Yale, in his "Life of + Andrew Jackson," 1888, treats of the excitement at Charleston, South + Carolina, in 1835, during Jackson's administration, over Abolition + circulars, etc. Dr. Albert Bushnell Hart, Professor of History at + Harvard, in his "Abolition and Slavery," 1906, treats of the same + subject. The following extracts from these books will show how these + authors picture that exciting period, and our italics will emphasize the + _sang-froid_ with which they touch off what so profoundly affected + public sentiment, both North and South, _when the events were + occurring_. Professor Sumner has this to say: + + "The Abolition Society adopted the policy of sending documents, papers, + and pictures against slavery to the Southern States. + + "_If the intention was_, as charged, to excite the slaves to revolt, + _the device, as it seems to us now_, must have fallen short of its + object, for the chance that anything could get into the hands of the + black man must _have been poor indeed_. + + "These publications, however, caused _a panic_ and _a wild indignation_ + in the South."--Sumner's "Jackson," p. 350. + + Why should the Southerners of that day go _wild_ over conduct for which + the professor of this era has no word of condemnation? + + Dr. Hart follows Professor Sumner's treatment. These are his words: + + "The free negroes of the South, the Abolitionists could not reach except + by _mailing publications to them_, a process which _fearfully + exasperated_ the South _without reaching the persons + addressed_."--Hart's "Abolition and Slavery," p. 216. + + Why should Southerners be "fearful" when they were intercepting all the + dangerous circulars, etc., they could find? And why should they be + exasperated at all? + + Dr. Hart's chair at Harvard is within gunshot of Faneuil Hall, yet the + great meeting there of August 31, 1835, is not mentioned in either his + or Professor Sumner's book, nor is there to be found in either of them + _any explanation of the reasons underlying the general and emphatic + condemnation throughout the North at that period of the Abolitionists + and their methods_. + +In 1854, at Framingham, Massachusetts, the Abolitionists celebrated the +Fourth of July thus: Their leader, William Lloyd Garrison, held up and +burned to ashes, before the applauding multitude, one after another, +copies of + +1st. The fugitive slave law. + +2d. The decision of Commissioner Loring in the case of Burns, a fugitive +slave. + +3d. The charge to the Grand Jury of Judge Benjamin R. Curtis in +reference to the effort of a mob to secure a fugitive slave. + +4th. "Then, holding up the United States Constitution, he branded it as +the source and parent of all other atrocities, 'a covenant with death +and an agreement with hell,' and consumed it to ashes on the spot, +exclaiming, 'So perish all compromises with tyranny! And let all the +people say, Amen!' A tremendous shout of 'Amen!' went up to heaven in +ratification of the deed, mingled with a few hisses and wrathful +exclamations from some, who evidently were in a _rowdyish_ state of +mind, but who were at once cowed by the popular feeling."[30] + + [30] Garrison's "Garrison," vol. III, p. 412. + +The Abolitionist movement was radical; it was revolutionary. When an +accredited teacher of history, in one of the greatest of our +universities, writes a volume on "Abolition and Slavery," why should he +restrict himself in comment, as Dr. Hart thus does in his preface? The +book is "intended to show that there was more than one side to the +controversy, and that both the milder form of opposition called +anti-slavery and _the extreme form called Abolition_, were _confronted +by practical difficulties_ which to many public men seemed +insurmountable." + +Why should not the historian, in addition to pointing out the +"difficulties" encountered by these extremists, _show how and why the +people of that day condemned their conduct_? + +Condonation of the Abolitionists, and a proper regard for the +Constitution of the United States, cannot be taught to the youth of +America at one and the same time. + +The writer has been unable to find any of the incendiary pamphlets that +had proved so inflammatory. He has, however, before him a little +anonymous publication entitled "Slavery Illustrated in its Effects upon +Woman," Isaac Knapp, Boston, 1837. It was for circulation in the North, +being "Affectionately Inscribed to all the Members of Female +Anti-Slavery Societies," and it is only cited here as an illustration of +the almost inconceivable venom with which the crusade was carried on to +_embitter the North against the South_. It is a vicious attack upon the +morality of Southern men and women, and upon Southern churches. None of +its charges does it claim to authenticate, and it gives no names or +dates. One incident, related as typical, is of two white women, all the +time in full communion with their church, under pretence of a +boarding-house, keeping a brothel, negro women being the inmates. + +In the chapter entitled "Impurity of the Christian Churches" is this +sentence: "At present the Southern Churches are only one vast +consociation of hypocrites and sinners." + +The booklet was published anonymously, but at that time any prurient +story about slavery in the South would circulate, no matter whether +vouched for or not. + + + + +CHAPTER IV + +FEELING IN THE SOUTH--1835 + + +Not stronger than the proceedings of a great non-partisan public +meeting, or than the action of religious bodies, but going more into +detail as to public opinion in the South and the effect upon it of +Abolition agitation, is the evidence of a quiet observer, Professor E. +A. Andrews, who, in July, 1835, had been sent out as the agent of "The +Boston Union for the Relief and Improvement of the Colored Race." His +reports from both Northern and Southern States, consisting of letters +from various points, constitute a book, "Slavery and the Domestic Slave +Trade," Boston, 1836. + +July 17, 1835, from Baltimore, Professor Andrews reports that a resident +clergyman, who appears to have his entire confidence, says, among other +things, "that a disposition to emancipate their slaves is very prevalent +among the slave-holders of this State, could they see any way to do so +consistently with the true interest of the slave, but that it is their +universal belief that no means of doing this is now presented except +that of colonizing them in Africa." + +From the same city, July 17, 1835, he writes, p. 53: "In this city there +appears to be no strong attachment to slavery and no wish to perpetuate +it." + +Again, on p. 95: "There is but one sentiment amongst those with whom I +have conversed in this city, respecting the possibility of the white and +colored races living peaceably together in freedom, nor during my +residence at the South and my subsequent intercourse with the Southern +people, _did I ever meet with one who believed it possible for the two +races to continue together after emancipation_.... When the slaves of +the South are liberated they form an integral part of the population of +the country, and must influence its destiny for ages--perhaps forever." + +From Fredericksburg, Virginia, Professor Andrews writes: + + Since I entered the slave-holding country I have seen but one man + who did not deprecate wholly and absolutely the direct interference + of Northern Abolitionists with the institutions of the South. "I + was an Abolitionist," has been the language of numbers of those + with whom I have conversed; "I was an Abolitionist, _and was + laboring earnestly to bring about a prospective system of + emancipation. I even saw, as I believed, the certain and complete + success of the friends of the colored race at no distant period, + when these Northern Abolitionists interfered, and by their + extravagant and impracticable schemes frustrated all our hopes.... + Our people have become exasperated, the friends of the slaves + alarmed_, etc....[31] Equally united are they in the opinion that + the servitude of the slaves is far more rigorous now than it would + have been had there been no interference with them. _In proportion + to the danger of revolt and insurrection, have been_ the severity + of the enactments for controlling them and the diligence with which + the laws have been executed." + + [31] "Slavery and the Domestic Slave Trade," Andrews, pp. 156-57. + +From a private letter, written at Greenville, Alabama, August 30, 1835, +by a distinguished lawyer, John W. Womack, to his brother, we quote: + + The anti-slavery societies in the Northern and Middle States are + doing all they can to destroy our domestic harmony by sending among + us pamphlets, tracts, and newspapers--for the purpose of exciting + dissatisfaction and insurrection among our slaves.... Meetings have + been held in Mobile, in Montgomery, in Greensboro, and in + Tuscaloosa, and in different parts of all the Southern States. At + these meetings resolutions have been adopted, disclaiming (_sic_) + and denying the right of the Northern people to interfere in any + manner in our internal domestic concerns.... It is my solemn + opinion that this question (to wit, slavery) will ultimately bring + about a dissolution of the Union of the States. + +It should be remembered that in 1832 the massacre in Santo Domingo of +all the whites by the blacks was fresh in mind. It had occurred in +1814--after manumission--and had produced, especially in the minds of +statesmen and of all observers of the many signs of antagonism between +the two races, a profound and lasting impression. + +The fear that the races, both free, could not live together was in the +mind of Thomas Jefferson, of Henry Clay, and of every other Southern +emancipationist. And deportation, its expense, and the want of a home to +which to send the negro--here was a stumbling-block in the way of +Southern emancipation. + +Indeed, the incompatibility of the races was an appalling thought in the +minds of Southerners for the whole thirty years of anti-slavery +agitation. It was even with Abraham Lincoln, and weighed upon his mind +when, at last, in 1862, military necessity placed upon his shoulders the +responsibility of emancipating the Southern slaves. Serious as was the +responsibility, the question was not new to him. When Mr. Lincoln said, +in his celebrated Springfield speech in 1858, "I believe this government +cannot endure permanently half slave and half free," and added that he +did not expect the government to fail, he certainly expected that +emancipation in the South was coming; and, of course, he thought over +what the consequences might be. + +In that same debate with Douglas, in his speech at Charleston, Illinois, +Mr. Lincoln said: "There is a physical difference between the white and +black races, which, I believe, will forever forbid the two races living +together on terms of social and political equality." + +In his memorial address on Henry Clay, in 1852, he had said: "If, as the +friends of colonization hope, the present and coming generations of our +countrymen shall by some means succeed in freeing our land from the +dangerous presence of slavery, and at the same time in restoring a +captive people to their long lost father-land, ... it will, indeed, be a +glorious consummation. And if to such a contribution the efforts of Mr. +Clay shall have contributed ... none of his labors will have been more +valuable to his country and his kind." + +In his famous emancipation proclamation he promised "that the effort to +colonize persons of African descent upon this continent or elsewhere, +with the consent of the government existing there, will be continued." + +It must have been with a heavy heart that the great President announced +the failure of all his efforts to find a home outside of America for the +freedmen, _when he informed Congress in his December message, 1862, that +all in vain he had asked permission to send the negroes, when freed, to +the British, the Danish, and the French West Indies; and that the +Spanish-American countries in Central America had also refused his +request_. He could find no places except Hayti and Liberia. He even made +the futile experiment of sending a ship-load to a little island off +Hayti.[32] Hume, in "The Abolitionists," tells us that Mr. Lincoln for a +time _considered setting Texas apart as a home for the negroes_--so much +was he disturbed by this trouble. + + + [32] Within perhaps a year Mr. Lincoln was compelled to bring these + negroes home; they were starving. + +CHAPTER V + +ANTI-ABOLITION AT THE NORTH + + +Southerners, save perhaps a few who were wise enough to foresee what the +consequences might be, were deeply gratified when they read (1835-1838) +of the violent opposition in the North to the desperate schemes of the +Abolitionists. Surely these mobs fairly represented public opinion, and +that public opinion certainly was a strong guaranty to the South of +future peace and security. + +But the Abolitionists themselves were not dismayed. They may have +misread, indeed it is certain they did misunderstand, the signs of the +times. Garrison in his _Liberator_ took the ground--as do his children +in their life of him, written fifty years later--that the great Faneuil +Hall meeting of August 31, 1835, which they themselves declare +represented "the intelligence, the wealth, the culture, and the religion +of Boston," was but an indication of the "pro-slavery" sentiment then +existing. In reality it was just what it purported to be--an +authoritative condemnation, not of the anti-slavery opinions, but of the +avowed purposes and methods of the new sect. The mobbing of Garrison and +the sacking of his printing office in Boston on September 26th, however, +and the lawless violence to Abolitionists that followed the +denunciations of that despised sect by speakers, and by the public +press, in New York, in Philadelphia, in Cincinnati, and elsewhere in the +North, proved disastrous in the extreme. + +While that great wave of anti-Abolition feeling was sweeping over that +whole region from East to West, there were many good people who deluded +themselves with the idea that this new sect with its visionary and +impracticable ideas was being consigned to oblivion, but in what +followed we have a lesson that unfortunately some of our people have not +yet fully learned. Mob law in any portion of our free country, where +there is law with officers to enforce it, is a mistake, a mistake that +is likely to be followed sooner or later by most disastrous results. The +mobs that marked the beginning of our Revolution in 1774 were +legitimate; they meant revolt, revolt against constituted authorities. +But where a mob does not mean the overthrow of government, where it only +means to substitute its own blind will for the arm of the law, not good +but evil--it may be long deferred, but evil eventually--is sure to +follow. When mobs assailed Abolitionists because they threatened the +peace and tranquillity of the country, evil followed swiftly. + +Violent and harsh treatment of these mischievous agitators almost +everywhere in the North, and the heroism with which they endured +ignominy and insult, brought about a revulsion of public sentiment. To +understand the philosophy of this, read two extracts from the writings +of that great, and universally admired, pulpit orator, Dr. William E. +Channing of Boston, the first written sometime prior to that August +meeting: + + The adoption of the common system of agitation by the Abolitionists + has not been justified by success. From the beginning it has + created alarm in the considerate, and strengthened the sympathies + of the Free States with the slave-holder. It has made converts of + a few individuals, but alienated multitudes. _Its influence at the + South has been almost wholly evil. It has stirred up bitter + passions, and a fierce fanaticism, which have shut every ear and + every heart against its arguments and persuasions._ These efforts + are more to be deplored, because the hope of freedom to the slave + lies chiefly in the dispositions of his master. The Abolitionist + proposed indeed to convert the slave-holder; and for this end he + _approached them with vituperation, and exhausted upon them the + vocabulary of reproach_. And he has reaped as he sowed.... Perhaps + (though I am anxious to repel the thought) something has been lost + to the cause of freedom and humanity.[33] + + [33] "Channing's Works," vol. II, ed. 1837, pp. 131-32. + +These were Dr. Channing's opinions of the Abolitionists prior to August, +1835, and he seems to have kept silent for a time after the mobbing that +followed that great Faneuil Hall meeting; but a year later, when many +other things had happened along the same line, he spoke out in an open +letter to James G. Birney, an Abolitionist editor who had been driven +from Cincinnati, and whose press, on which _The Philanthropist_ was +printed, had been broken up. In that letter, p. 157, _supra_, speaking +of course not for himself alone, Dr. Channing says: + + I think it best ... to extend my remarks to the spirit of violence + and persecution which has broken out against the Abolitionists + throughout the whole country. Of their merits and demerits as + Abolitionists I have formerly spoken.... I have expressed my + fervent attachment to the great end to which they are pledged and + at the same time _my disapprobation, to a certain extent, of their + spirit and measures_.... Deliberate, systematic efforts have been + made, _not here and there, but far and wide_, to wrest from its + adherents that _liberty of speech and the press_, which our fathers + asserted in blood, and which our National and State Governments are + pledged to protect as our most sacred right. Its most conspicuous + advocates have been hunted and stoned, its meetings scattered, its + presses broken up, and nothing but the patience, constancy and + intrepidity of its members has saved it from extinction.... They + are _sufferers for the liberty of thought, speech and press; and in + maintaining this liberty, amidst insult and violence, they deserve + a place among its honorable defenders_. + +Still admitting that "their writings have been blemished by a spirit of +intolerance, sweeping censure, and rash, injurious judgment," this great +man now threw all the weight of his influence on the side of the +Abolitionists, because they were _the champions of free speech_. Their +moral worth and steady adherence to their ideas of non-resistance he +pointed to admiringly, and it must always be remembered to their credit +that the private lives of Garrison and his leading co-workers were +irreproachable. Indeed, the unselfish devotion of these agitators and +their high moral character were in themselves a serious misfortune. They +soon attracted a lot of zealots, male and female, who became as reckless +as they were. And these out-and-out fanatics were not themselves +office-seekers. What they feared, they said, was that a "lot of soulless +scamps would jump on to their shoulders to ride into office";[34] and +there really was the great danger, as appeared later. + + [34] Garrison's "Garrison," vol. III, p. 214. + +In the results that followed the mobbing of Abolitionists in the North, +from 1834 to 1836, is to be found another lesson for those voters of +this day who can profit by the teachings of history. The violent +assaults on the Abolitionists by the friends of the Constitution and the +Union constituted an epoch in the lives of these people. It gave them a +footing and a hearing and many converts. + +We have already noted some wonderful and instructive changes in the tide +of events set in motion by the radical teachings of the New +Abolitionists. The churches, as has been shown, to save the country, +North and South, changed their attitude on slavery itself. Dr. Channing, +who had opposed the methods of the Abolitionists, became, as many others +did with him, when mobs had assailed these people, their defender and +eulogist, because they were martyrs for the sake of free speech; and now +we are to see in John Quincy Adams another change, equally notable, a +change that was to make Mr. Adams thenceforward the most momentous +figure, at least during its earlier stages, in the tragic drama that is +the subject of our story. + +Elected to the House of Representatives after the expiration of his term +as President, Mr. Adams was not in sympathy with the methods of the +Abolitionists. Indeed, prior to December 31, 1831, he had shown as +little interest in slavery as he did when on that day in presenting to +the House fifteen petitions against slavery he "deprecated a discussion +which would lead to ill-will, to heart-burning, to mutual hatred ... +without accomplishing anything else."[35] + + [35] Hart's "Slavery and Abolition," p. 256. + +The petitions presented by Mr. Adams were referred to a committee. + +The Southerners had not then become so exasperated as to insist on +Congress refusing to receive Abolition petitions. But multiplying these +petitions was a ready means of provoking the slave-holders, and soon +petitions poured in from many quarters, couched, most of them, in +language, not disrespectful to Congress but provoking to slave-holders. + +Unfortunately, the lower house of Congress on May 26, 1836, which was +while mobs in the North were still trying to put down the Abolitionists, +passed a resolution that all such petitions, etc., should thereafter be +laid upon the table, _without further action_. Adams voted against it as +"a direct violation of the Constitution of the United States." The +Constitution forbids any law "abridging the freedom of speech ... or the +right ... to petition the government for a redress of grievances." The +resolution to lay all anti-slavery petitions on the table without +further action was passed, "with the hope that it might put a stop to +the agitation that seemed to endanger the existence of the Union." But +it had the opposite effect. It soon became known as the "gag +resolution," and was, for years, the centre of the most aggravating +discussions that had, up to that time, ever occurred in Congress. Mr. +Adams in these debates became, without, it seems, ever having been in +full sympathy with the agitators, thenceforward their champion in +Congress, and so continued until the day of his death in 1848. + +The Abolitionists were happy. They were succeeding in their +programme--making the Southern slave-holder odious by exasperating him +into offending Northern sentiment. + + + + +CHAPTER VI + +A CRISIS AND A COMPROMISE + + +In 1840 there were 200 Abolition societies, with a membership of over +200,000. Agitation had created all over the North a spirit of hostility +to slavery as it existed in the South, and especially to the admission +of new slave States into the Union. In 1840 the struggle over the +application of Texas for admission into the Union had already, for three +years, been mooted. Objections to the admission of the new State were +many, such as: American adventurers had wrongfully wrested control of +the new State from Mexico; boundary lines were unsettled; war with +Mexico would follow, etc.; but chiefly, Texas was a slave State, which +was, in the South, a strong reason for annexation. There were, however, +many sound and unanswerable arguments for the admission of the new +State, just such as had influenced Jefferson in purchasing the +Louisiana territory: Texas was contiguous, her territory and resources +immense. + +On the issue thus joined the first great gun had been fired by Dr. +Channing, who, though still more moderate than some, might now be +classed as an Abolitionist. August 1, 1837, he wrote a long open letter +to Henry Clay against annexation, and in that letter he said: + + To me it seems not only the right but the duty of the Free States, + in case of the annexation of Texas, to say to the slave-holding + States, "We regard this act as the dissolution of the Union; the + essential conditions of the National Compact are violated."[36] + + [36] "Channing's Works," vol. II, ed. 1847, p. 237. + +This was very like the pronunciamento already made by Garrison--"no +union with slavery." + +The underlying reasons that controlled Southern statesmen in this +contest over Texas, and the motives that animated them in the fierce +battles they fought later for new slave States, are thus stated by Mr. +George Ticknor Curtis, of New England.[37] + + [37] "Life of Buchanan," vol. II, p. 280. + + It should in justice be remembered that the effort _at that period + to enlarge the area of slavery was an effort on the part of the + South, dictated by a desire to remain in the Union, and not to + accept the issue of an inherent incompatibility of a political + union between slave-holding and non-slave-holding States_. + +In 1840 the first effort for the annexation of Texas, by treaty, was +defeated in the Senate. + +If the Southerners had been as ready to accept the doctrine of an +inherent incompatibility between slave and free States as were Dr. +Channing and those other Abolitionists who were now declaring for "no +union with slave-holders," they would at once have seceded and joined +Texas; but the South still loved the Union, and strove, down to 1860, +persistently, and often passionately, for power that would enable it to +remain safely in its folds. + +Texas was finally admitted in 1845, after annexation had been passed on +by the people in the presidential election of 1844. In that election +Clay was defeated by the Abolitionists. Because Clay was not +unreservedly against annexation the Abolitionists drew from the Whigs in +New York State enough votes, casting them for Birney, to defeat Clay and +elect Polk; and now Abolitionism was a factor in national politics. + +The two great national parties were the Democrats and the Whigs, the +voters somewhat equally divided between them. For years both parties had +regarded the Abolitionists precisely as did the non-partisan meeting at +Faneuil Hall, in August, 1835--as a band of agitators, organized for the +purpose of interfering with slavery where it was none of their business; +and both parties had meted out to this new and, as they deemed it, +pestilent sect, unstinted condemnation. But at last the voters of this +despised cult had turned a presidential election and were making inroads +in both parties. Half a dozen Northern States, in which in 1835 "no +protest had been made against the fugitive slave law of 1793," had +already passed "personal liberty laws" intended to obstruct and nullify +that law. And now it was "slave-catchers" and not Abolitionists who were +being mobbed in the North. + +Boston had reversed its attitude toward the Abolitionists. On May 31, +1849, the New England Anti-Slavery Society was holding its annual +convention in that very Faneuil Hall where, in 1835, Abolitionism had +been so roundly condemned; and now Wendell Phillips, pointing to one of +two fugitive slaves, who then sat triumphantly on the platform, said, +"amid great applause, ... 'We say that they may make their little laws +in Washington, but that _Faneuil Hall repeals them_, in the name of the +humanity of Massachusetts.'"[38] + + [38] Garrison's "Garrison," vol. III, p. 247. + +Poets headed by Whittier and Longfellow, authors like Emerson and +Lowell, and orators like Theodore Parker and Wendell Phillips, had +joined the agitators, and all united in assaulting the fugitive slave +law. The following, from James Russell Lowell's "Biglow Papers," No. 1, +June, 1840, is a specimen of the literature that was stirring up +hostility against slavery and the "slave-catcher" in the breasts of many +thousands, who were joining in an anti-slavery crusade while disdaining +companionship with the Abolitionists: + + "Ain't it cute to see a Yankee + Take such everlastin' pains + All to get the Devil's Thankee + Helpin' on 'em weld their chains?" + W'y it's jest es clear es figgers, + Clear es one and one makes two, + Chaps that makes black slaves of niggers + Want to make w'ite slaves o' you. + +In the meantime the people of the South, much excited, were resorting to +repression, passing laws to prevent slaves from being taught to read, +and laws, in some States, inhibiting assemblages of slaves above given +numbers, unless some white person were present--all as safeguards +against insurrection. Thus, in 1835, an indictment was found in +Tuscaloosa County, Alabama, against one Williams, who had never been in +Alabama, for circulating there an alleged incendiary document, and +Governor Gayle made requisition on Governor Marcy, of New York, for the +extradition of Williams. Governor Marcy denied the request. The case was +the same as that more recently decided by the Supreme Court of the +United States, when it held that editors of New York and Indiana papers +could not be brought to the District of Columbia for trial. + +The South, all the while clamoring to have the agitators put down, had +by still other means than these contributed to the ever-increasing +excitement in the North. Southerners had mobbed Abolitionists, and +whipped and driven out of the country persons found in possession of +_The Liberator_ or suspected of circulating other incendiary literature. +And violence in the South against the Abolitionists had precisely the +same effect on the Northern mind as the violence against them in the +North had from 1835 to 1838, but there was this difference: the refugee +from the distant South, whether he were an escaped slave or a fleeing +Abolitionist, could color and exaggerate the wrongs he had suffered and +so parade himself as a martyr. While this was true, it was also quite +often true that the outrage committed in the South against the suspect +was real enough--a mob had whipped and expelled him without any trial. +_And this is another of the lessons as to the evil effects of mob law +that crop out all through the history of the anti-slavery crusade. No +good can come from violating the law._ + +In 1848 another presidential election turned on the anti-slavery vote, +this time again in New York State. Anti-slavery Democrats bolted the +Democratic ticket, thus electing General Taylor, the Whig candidate. + +In the canvass preceding this election originated, we are told, the +catch-phrase applied to Cass, the Democratic candidate--"a Northern man +with Southern principles." The phrase soon became quite common, South +and North--"a Southern man with Northern principles," and _vice versa_. + +The invention and use of it in 1848 shows the progress that had been +made in arraying one section of the Union against the other. Later, a +telling piece of doggerel in Southern canvasses, and it must also have +been used North, was + + He wired in and wired out, + Leaving the people all in doubt, + Whether the snake that made the track + Was going North, or coming back. + +Over the admission of California in 1849 there was another battle. +California, 734 miles long, with about 50,000 people (less than the +usual number), and with a constitution improvised under military +government, applied for admission as a State. Southerners insisted on +extending the line of the Missouri Compromise to the Pacific, thereby +making of the new territory two States. The South had been much +embittered by the opposition to the admission of Texas. Texas was, +nearly all of it, below the Missouri Compromise line, and the South +thought it was equitably entitled to come in under that agreement. Its +case, too, differed from that of Missouri, which already belonged to the +United States when it applied for admission as a State. Texas, with all +its vast wealth, was asking to come in without price. + +Another continuing and increasing cause of distraction had been the use +made by Abolitionists of the right of petition. As already shown, +petitions to Congress against slavery had been received without question +till 1836, when Northern conservatives and Southern members, hoping to +abate this source of agitation, had combined to pass a resolution to lay +them on the table, which meant that they were to be no further noticed. +The Abolitionists were so delighted over the indefensible position into +which they had driven the conservatives--the "gag law"--that they +continued, up to the crisis of 1850, with unflagging zeal to hurry in +monster petitions, one after another. The debates provoked by the +presentation of these petitions, and the more and more heated +discussions in Congress of _slavery in the States_, which was properly +_a local and not a national question_, now attracted still wider public +attention. The Abolitionists had almost succeeded in arraying the entire +sections against each other, in making of the South and North two +hostile nations. Professor John W. Burgess, dean of the Faculty of +Political Science in Columbia University, says: "It would not be +extravagant to say that the whole course of the internal history of the +United States from 1836 to 1861 was more largely determined by the +struggle in Congress, over the _Abolition petitions_ and the use of the +mails for the Abolition literature, than anything else."[39] + + [39] "The Middle Period," John W. Burgess, p. 274. + +The South had its full share in the hot debates that took place over +these matters in Congress. Its congressmen were quite as aggressive as +those from the North, and they were accused of being imperious in +manner, when demanding that a stop should be put to Abolition petitions, +and Abolition literature going South in the mails. + +There was another cause of complaint from the South, and this was grave. +By the "two underground railroads" that had been established, slaves, +estimated at 2,000 annually, abducted or voluntarily escaping, were +secretly escorted into or through the free States to Canada. To show how +all this was then regarded by those who sympathized with the +Abolitionists, and how it is still looked upon by some modern +historians, the following is given from Hart's "Abolition and Slavery": + +"The underground railroad was manned chiefly by orderly citizens, +members of churches, and philanthropical citizens. _To law-abiding folk_ +what could be more delightful than the sensation of aiding an oppressed +slave, _exasperating_ a cruel master, and at the same time incurring the +penalties of _defying an unrighteous law_?" + +Southerners at that time thought that conductors on that line were +practising, and readers of the above paragraph will probably think that +Dr. Hart in his attractive rhetoric is now extolling in his history, +"higher law doctrines." + +It is undoubtedly true that, in 1850, a large majority of the Northern +people strongly disapproved of the Abolitionists and their methods. +Modern historians carefully point out the difference between the great +body of Northern anti-slavery people and the Abolitionists. +Nevertheless, here were majorities in eleven Northern States voting for, +and sustaining, the legislators who passed and kept upon the statute +books laws which were intended to enable Southern slaves to escape from +their masters. The enactment and the support of these laws was an attack +upon the constitutional rights of slave-holders; and Southern people +looked upon all the voters who sustained these laws, and all the +anti-slavery lecturers, speakers, pulpit orators, and writers of the +North, as engaged with the Abolitionists in one common crusade against +slavery. From the Southern stand-point a difference between them could +only be made by a Hudibras: + + He was in logic a great critic + Profoundly skilled in analytic, + He could distinguish and divide + A hair 'twixt South and South West side. + +As to how much of the formidable anti-slavery sentiment of that day had +been created by the Abolitionists, we have this opinion of a +distinguished English traveller and observer. Mr. L. W. A. Johnston was +in Washington, in 1850, studying America. He says: + +"Extreme men like Garrison seldom have justice done to them. It is true +they may be impracticable, both as to their measures and their men, but +that unmixed evil is the result of their exertions, all history of +opinion in every country, I think, contradicts. Such ultra men are as +necessary as the more moderate and reasonable advocates of any growing +opinion; and, as _an impartial person_, who never happened to fall in +with one of the party in the course of my tour, I must express my belief +that the present wide diffusion of anti-slavery sentiment in the United +States is, in no small degree, owing to their exertions."[40] + + [40] "Notes on North America," London, 1851, vol. II, p. 486. + +And Professor Smith, of Williams College, speaking of the anti-slavery +feeling in the North in 1850, says: + +"This sentiment of the free States regarding slavery was to a large +degree the result of an agitation for its abolition which had been +active for a score of years (1831-1850) without any positive +results."[41] + + [41] "Parties and Slavery," Smith, pp. 3, 4. + +But no matter what had produced it, the anti-slavery sentiment that +pervaded the North in 1850 boded ill to slavery and to the Constitution, +and the South was bitterly complaining. Congress met in December, 1849, +and was to sit until October, 1850. Lovers of the Union, North and +South, watched its proceedings with the deepest anxiety. The South was +much excited. The continual torrent of abuse to which it was subjected, +the refusal to allow slavery in States to be created from territory in +the South-west that was below the parallel of the Missouri Compromise, +and the complete nullification of the fugitive slave law, seemed to many +to be no longer tolerable, and from sundry sources in that section came +threats of secession. + +In 1849-50 the South was demanding a division of California, an +efficient fugitive slave law, and that the territories of New Mexico and +Arizona should be organized with no restrictions as to slavery. Other +minor demands were unimportant. + +Henry Clay, Daniel Webster, Stephen A. Douglas, Lewis Cass, and other +conservative leaders came forward and, after long and heated debates in +Congress, the Compromise of 1850 was agreed on. To satisfy the North, +California, as a whole, came in as a free State, and the slave trade was +abolished in the District of Columbia. To satisfy the South, a new and +stringent fugitive slave law was agreed on, and the territories of New +Mexico and Arizona were organized with no restrictions as to slavery. + +In bringing about this compromise, Daniel Webster was, next to Clay, the +most conspicuous figure. He was the favorite son of New England and the +greatest statesman in all the North. On the 7th of March, 1850, Mr. +Webster made one of the greatest speeches of his life on the Compromise +measures. Rising above the sectional prejudices of the hour, he spoke +for the Constitution and the Union. The manner in which he and his +reputation were treated by popular historians in the North, for half a +century afterward, on account of this speech, is the most pathetic and, +at the same time, the most instructive story in the whole history of the +anti-slavery crusade. + +Mr. Webster was under the ban of Northern public opinion for all this +half a century, not because of inconsistency between that speech and his +former avowals, an averment often made and never proven, but because he +was consistent. He stood squarely upon his record, and the venom of the +assaults that were afterward made upon him was just in proportion to the +love and veneration which had been his before he offended. His offence +was that he would not move with the anti-slavery movement.[42] He did +not stand with his section in a sectional dispute. + + [42] McMaster says: "The great statesman was behind the + times."--"Webster," p. 19. + +Henry Clay, old and feeble, had come back into the Senate to render his +last service to his country. He was the author of the Compromise. Daniel +Webster was everywhere known as the champion of the Union. Henry Clay +was known as the "Old Man Eloquent," and he now spoke with all his +old-time fire; but Webster's great speech probably had more influence on +the result. + +Before taking up Mr. Webster's speech his previous attitude toward +slavery must be noted. The purpose of the friends of the Union was, of +course, to effect a compromise that would, if possible, put an end to +sectional strife. Compromise means concession, and a compromise of +political differences, made by statesmen, may involve some concession of +view previously held by those who advocate as well as by those who +accept it. Webster thought his section of the Union should now make +concessions. + +Fanaticism, however, concedes nothing; it never compromises, although +statesmanship does. One of the most notable utterances of Edmund Burke +was: + +"_All government, indeed every human benefit and enjoyment, every virtue +and every prudent act, is founded on compromise and barter._" + +Great statesmen, on great occasions, speak not only to their countrymen +and for the time being, but they speak to all mankind and for all time. +So spoke Burke in that famous sentence when advocating, in the British +Parliament in 1776, "conciliation with America"; and so did Daniel +Webster speak, in the Senate of the United States, on the 7th of March, +1850, for "the Constitution and the Union." If George III and Lord North +had heeded Burke, and if the British government and people, from that +day forth, had followed the wise counsels given in that speech by their +greatest statesman, all the English-speaking peoples of the world, now +numbering over 170,000,000, might have been to-day under one government, +that government commanding the peace of the world. And if all the people +of the United States in 1850 and from that time on, had heeded the words +of Daniel Webster, we should have been spared the bloodiest war in the +book of time; every State of the Union would have been left free to +solve its own domestic problems, and it is not too much to say that +these problems would have been solved in full accord with the advancing +civilization of the age. + +The sole charge of inconsistency against Webster that has in it a shadow +of truth relates to the proposition he made in his speech as to the +"Wilmot proviso." That celebrated proviso was named for David Wilmot, of +Pennsylvania, its author. It provided against slavery in all the +territory acquired from Mexico. The South had opposed the Wilmot proviso +because the territory in question, much of it, was south of the Missouri +Compromise line extended. Mr. Webster had often voted for the Wilmot +proviso, as all knew. In his speech for the Compromise, by which the +South was urged to and did give up its contentions as to the admission +of California, and its contentions as to the slave trade in the District +of Columbia, Webster argued that _the North might forego_ the proviso as +to New Mexico and Arizona for the reason that the proviso was, as to +these territories, _immaterial_. Those territories, he argued, would +never come in as slave States, because the God of nature had so +determined. Climate and soil would forbid. Time vindicated this +argument. In 1861 Charles Francis Adams said, in Congress, that New +Mexico, open to slave-holders and their slaves for more than ten years, +then had only twelve slaves domiciled on the surface of over 200,000 +square miles of her extent.[43] + + [43] "Vindication of Webster," William C. Wilkinson, p. 69. + +Daniel Webster's services to the cause of the Union, the preservation of +which had been the passion of his life, had been absolutely +unparalleled. It is perhaps true that without him Abraham Lincoln and +the armies of the Union in 1861-65 would have been impossible. The sole +and, as he then stated and as time proved, immaterial concession this +champion of the Union now (1850) made for the sake of preserving the +Union was his proposition as to New Mexico and Arizona. + +Henry Clay spoke before Webster. These words were the key-note of Clay's +great speech: "In my opinion the body politic cannot be preserved unless +this agitation, this distraction, this exasperation, which is going on +between the two sections of the country, shall cease." + +The country waited with anxiety to hear from Webster. Hundreds of +suggestions and appeals went to him. Both sides were hopeful.[44] +Anti-slavery people knew his aversion to slavery. He had never +countenanced anti-slavery agitation, but he had voted for the Wilmot +proviso. They knew, too, that he had long been ambitious to be +President, and, carried away by their enthusiasm, they hoped that +Webster would swim along with the tide that was sweeping over the +majority section of the Union. In view of Mr. Webster's past record, +however, it would be difficult to believe that Abolitionists were really +disappointed in him had we not many such proofs as the following stanza +from Whittier's ode, published after the speech: + + Oh! dumb be passing, stormy rage + When he who might + Have lighted up and led his age + Falls back in night! + + [44] McMaster's "Webster." + +The conservatives also were hopeful. They knew that, though Webster had +always been, as an individual, opposed to slavery, he had at all times +stood by the Constitution, as well as the Union. At no time had he ever +qualified or retracted these words in his speech at Niblo's Garden in +1839: "Slavery, as it exists in the States, is beyond the reach of +Congress. It is a concern of the States themselves. They have never +submitted it to Congress, and Congress has no rightful power over it. I +shall concur therefore in _no act_, _no measure_, _no menace_, no +indication of purpose which _shall interfere or threaten to interfere +with the exclusive authority_ of the several States over the subject of +slavery, as it exists within their respective limits. All this appears +to me to be matter of plain imperative duty." + +Nullifying the fugitive slave law was a plain "interference" with the +rights of the slave States. + +Mr. Webster's intent, when he spoke on the Compromise measures, is best +explained by his own words, on June 17, while these measures were still +pending: "Sir, my object is peace. My object is reconciliation. My +purpose is not to make up a case _for the North_ or a case _for the +South_. My object is not to continue useless and irritating +controversies. I am against agitators, North and South, and all narrow +local contests. I am an American, and I know no locality but America." + +In his speech made on the 7th of March he dwelt at length on existing +conditions, on the attitude of the North toward the fugitive slave law, +and argued fully the questions involved in the "personal liberty" laws +passed by Northern States. Referring to the complaints of the South +about these, he said: "In that respect _the South, in my judgment, is +right and the North is wrong_. Every member of every Northern +legislature is bound by oath, like every other officer in the country, +to support the Constitution of the United States; and the article of the +Constitution which says to these States that they shall deliver up +fugitives from service _is as binding in honor and conscience as any +other article_. _No man fulfils his duty in any legislature who sets +himself to find excuses, evasions, escapes, from this constitutional +obligation._" + +And further on he said: "Then, sir, there are the Abolition societies, +of which I am unwilling to speak, but in regard to which I have very +clear notions and opinions. I do not think them useful. _I think their +operations for the last twenty years have produced nothing good or +valuable.... I cannot but see what mischief their interference with the +South has produced._" + +In these statements is the substance of Webster's offending. + +Webster's speech was followed, on the 11th of March, by the speech of +Senator Seward, of New York, in the same debate. Quoting the fugitive +slave provision of the Federal Constitution, Mr. Seward said: "This is +from the Constitution of the United States in 1787, and the parties were +the Republican States of the Union. The law of nations _disavows such +compacts; the law of nature, written on the hearts and consciences of +freemen, repudiates them_."[45] The people of the North, instead of +following Webster, chose to follow Seward, the apostle of a _law higher +than the Constitution_; and when, ten years later, it appeared to them +that the whole North had given in its adhesion to the "higher law" +doctrine, the people of eleven Southern States seceded, and put over +themselves in very substance the Constitution that Seward had flouted +and Webster had pleaded for in vain. + + [45] _Congressional Globe_, 31st Congress, 1st session, Appendix, p. + 263. + +Anti-slavery enthusiasts in the North generally, and Abolitionists +especially, in their comments on Webster's speech scouted the idea that +the preservation of the Union depended upon the faithful execution of +the fugitive slave law or the cessation of anti-slavery agitation. +"What," said Theodore Parker, "cast off the North! They set up for +themselves! Tush! Tush! Fear boys with bugs!... I think Mr. Webster knew +there was no danger of a dissolution of the Union."[46] + + [46] "Vindication of Webster," William C. Wilkinson, p. 191. + +The immediate effect of the speech was wonderful; congratulations poured +in upon Mr. Webster from conservative classes in every quarter, and he +must have felt gratified to know that he had contributed greatly to the +enactment of measures that, for a time, had some effect in allaying +sectional strife. But the revilings of the Abolitionists prevailed, and +it turned out that Daniel Webster, great as he was, had undertaken a +task that was too much even for him. His enemies struck out boldly at +once: and years afterward, when the anti-slavery movement that Webster's +appeals could not arrest had culminated in secession, and when the +Union had been saved by arms, the triumphant hosts of the anti-slavery +crusade all but succeeded in writing Daniel Webster down permanently in +the history of his country as an apostate from principle for the sake of +an office he did not get. Here is their verdict, which Mr. Lodge, a +biographer of Webster, passes on into history: + +"The _popular verdict_ has been given against the 7th of March speech, +_and that verdict has passed into history_. Nothing can be said or done +which will alter the fact that the people of this country, _who +maintained and saved the Union, have passed judgment on Mr. Webster_, +and condemned what he said on the 7th of March as _wrong in principle +and mistaken in policy_." + +Here are specimens of the assaults that were made on Webster after his +speech. They are selected from among many given by one of his +biographers.[47] + + [47] McMaster's "Webster," p. 316 _et seq._ + +"'Webster,' said Horace Mann, 'is a fallen star! Lucifer descended from +Heaven.'... 'Webster,' said Sumner, 'has placed himself in the dark +list of apostates.' When Whittier named him Ichabod, and mourned for him +in verse as one dead, he did but express the feeling of half New +England: + + 'Let not the land once proud of him + Mourn for him now, + Nor brand with deeper shame his dim + Dishonored brow. + + * * * * * + + Then pay the reverence of old days + To his dead fame! + Walk backward with averted gaze + And hide his shame.'" + +After much more to the same effect, Professor McMaster proceeds: "The +attack by the press, the _expressions of horror_ that rose from New +England, Webster felt keenly, but the absolute isolation in which he was +left by his New England colleagues cut him to the quick."[48] + + [48] Professor McMaster in the chapter preceding that containing these + extracts, has collected much evidence to show that Webster aspired to be + President, and the biographer entitles the chapter, "Longing for the + Presidency," apparently the author's clod on the grave of a buried + reputation. + +On Mr. Webster's speech, its purpose and effect, we have this opinion +from Mr. Lodge: + +"The speech, if exactly defined, is in reality a powerful effort, not +for a compromise, or for the fugitive slave law, or for any other one +thing, _but to arrest the whole anti-slavery movement_, and in that way +_put an end to the danger which threatened the Union and restore harmony +to the jarring sections_." + +And then he adds: + +"_It was a mad project. Mr. Webster might as well have attempted to stay +the incoming tide at Marshfield with a rampart of sand, as to check the +anti-slavery movement with a speech._" + +To undertake at this time to arrest the whole anti-slavery movement by +holding up the Constitution was indeed useless. + +Seward, who had spoken for the "higher law," was riding on the tide of +anti-slavery sentiment that was submerging "the Sage of Marshfield," who +had stood for the Constitution. Seward's reputation, in the years +following, went steadily up, while Webster's was going down. Webster +died, in dejection, in 1852. + +Seward, at Rochester, in 1854, later on in the same crusade, made +another famous declaration--there was an "irrepressible conflict between +slavery and freedom." The conflict was "irrepressible," as Seward well +knew; and this was simply and solely because the anti-slavery crusade +could not be suppressed. Clay and Webster, now both dead and gone, had +tried it in vain. Every one knew that if, in 1850, or at any other time, +the anti-slavery hosts had halted, and asked for, or consented to, +peace, they could have had it at once. + +Mr. Lodge, in the following paragraph, seems to have almost made up his +mind to defend Webster. He says: "What most shocked the North were his +utterances in regard to the fugitive slave law. There can be no doubt +that, _under the Constitution_, the South had a _perfect right_ to claim +the extradition of fugitive slaves. The legal _argument to support that +right was excellent_." This would seem to justify the speech in that +regard. "But," Mr. Lodge adds, "the Northern people could not feel that +it was _necessary_ for _Daniel Webster_ to make it." They wanted him to +be sectional or to hold his tongue. Then Mr. Lodge goes on to say: "The +fugitive slave law was in _absolute conflict with the awakened +conscience and moral sentiment of the North_." + +The conscience of _the North_ at that time, Mr. Lodge means, was a +_higher law_ than the _Constitution_; and Webster's "excellent +argument," therefore, fell on deaf ears. + +No American historian stands higher as an authority than Mr. Rhodes. He +says on page 161, vol. I, of his "History of the United States," +published in 1892: "_Until the closing years of our century a +dispassionate judgment could not be made of Webster_; but we see now +that in the war of secession his principles were mightier than those of +Garrison. It was not 'No Union with slave-holders,' but _Liberty and +Union_ that won." + +This tribute to services Webster had rendered to the Union in his great +speech in 1850, in which he advocated "Liberty and Union, now and +forever," exactly as he was advocating it in 1830, is just. How pathetic +that the historian was impelled also to record the fact, in the same +sentence, that for nearly half a century partisan prejudice had rendered +it impossible to form a dispassionate judgment of him who had pleaded in +vain for the Union without war! + +After an able analysis of his "7th of March speech," and a discussion of +his record, in which he paralleled Webster and Edmund Burke, Mr. Rhodes +declares: "His dislike of slavery was strong, but his love of the Union +was stronger, and the more powerful motive outweighed the other, for he +believed that _the crusade against slavery had arrived at a point where +its further prosecution was hurtful to the Union_. As has been said of +Burke, 'He changed his front but he never changed his ground.'"[49] + + [49] _Ib._, p. 160. + +Daniel Webster's name and its place in history may be likened to a giant +oak, a monarch of the forest, that, while towering high above all +others, was stripped of its branches; for a time it stood, a rugged +trunk, robbed of its glory by a cyclone; but its roots were deep down in +the rich earth; the storm is passing away; the tree has put out buds +again; now its branches are stretching out once more into the clear +reaches of the upper air. + +Mr. Rhodes seems to be the first historian of note to do justice to +Daniel Webster and the great speech which, McMaster takes pains to +inform us, historians have written down as his "7th of March speech," in +spite of the fact that Mr. Webster himself entitled it "The +Constitution and the Union." + +Other historians besides Mr. Rhodes have come to the rescue of Webster's +speech for "the Constitution and the Union." Mr. John Fiske says of it +in a volume (posthumous) published in 1907: "So far as Mr. Webster's +moral attitude was concerned, although he was not prepared for the +bitter hostility that his speech provoked in many quarters, he must +nevertheless have known it was quite as likely to injure him at the +North as to gain support for him in the South, and his resolute adoption +of a policy that he regarded as national rather than sectional was +really an instance of high moral courage."[50] + + [50] "Daniel Webster and the Sentiment of Union," John Fiske, "Essays + Historical and Literary," pp. 408-9. + +Mr. William C. Wilkinson has recently written an able "Vindication of +Daniel Webster," and, after a conclusive argument on that branch of his +subject, he says: "Webster's consistency stands like a rock on the shore +after the fretful waves are tired with beating upon it in vain."[51] + + [51] "Daniel Webster: A Vindication," p. 47. + +Mr. E. P. Wheeler, concluding a masterly sketch of Daniel Webster, +setting forth his services as statesman and expounder of the +Constitution, and not deigning to notice the partisan charges against +him, concludes with these words: + +"Great men elevate and ennoble their countrymen. In the glory of Webster +we find the glory of our whole country." + +The story of Daniel Webster and his great speech in 1850 has been told +at some length because it is instructive. The historians who had set +themselves to the task of upholding the idea that it was the +aggressiveness of the South, during the controversy over slavery, and +not that of the North, that brought on secession and war, could not make +good their contention while Daniel Webster and his speech for "the +Constitution and the Union" stood in their way. They, therefore, wrote +the great statesman "down and out," as they conceived. But Webster and +that speech still stand as beacon lights in the history of that crusade. +The attack came from the North. The South, standing for its +constitutional rights in the Union, was the conservative party. +Southern leaders, it is true, were, during the controversy over +slavery, often aggressive, but they were on the defensive-aggressive, +just as Lee was when he made his campaign into Pennsylvania for the +purpose of stopping the invasion of his own land; and the South lost in +her political campaign just for the same reason that Lee lost in his +Gettysburg campaign: numbers and resources were against her. "The stars +in their courses fought against Sisera." + +Mr. Webster in his great speech for "the Constitution and the Union," as +became a great statesman pleading for conciliation, measured the terms +in which he condemned "personal liberty" laws and Abolitionism. But +afterward, irritated by the attacks made upon him, he naturally spoke +out more emphatically. McMaster quotes several expressions from his +speeches and letters replying to these assaults, and says: "His hatred +of Abolitionists and Free-soilers grew stronger and stronger. To him +these men were a 'band of sectionalists, narrow of mind, wanting in +patriotism, without a spark of national feeling, and quite ready to see +the Union go to pieces if their own selfish ends were gained.'" Such, +if this is a fair summing up of his views, was Webster's final opinion +of those who were carrying on the great anti-slavery crusade.[52] + + [52] McMaster's "Webster," p. 340. + + + + +CHAPTER VII + +EFFORTS FOR PEACE + + +The desire for peace in 1850 was wide-spread. Union loving people, North +and South, hoped that the Compromise would result in a cessation of the +strife that had so long divided the section; and the election of +Franklin Pierce, in 1852, as President, on a platform strongly approving +that Compromise, was promising. But anti-slavery leaders, instead of +being convinced by such arguments as those of Webster, were deeply +offended by the contention that legislators, in passing personal liberty +laws, had violated their oaths to support the Constitution. They were +angered also by the presumptuous attempt to "arrest the whole +anti-slavery movement." + +The new fugitive slave law was stringent; it did not give jury trial; it +required bystanders to assist the officers in "slave-catching," etc. For +these and other reasons the law was assailed as unconstitutional. All +these contentions were overruled by the Supreme Court when a case +eventually came before it. The court decided that the act was, in all +its provisions, fully authorized by the Constitution.[53] But in their +present mood, no law that was efficient would have been satisfactory to +the multitudes of people, by no means all "Abolitionists," who had +already made up their minds against the "wicked" provision of the +Constitution that required the delivery of fugitive slaves. This +deep-seated feeling of opposition to the return to their masters of +escaping slaves was soon to be wrought up to a high pitch by a novel +that went into nearly every household throughout the North--"Uncle Tom's +Cabin." On its appearance the poet Whittier, who had so ferociously +attacked Webster in the verses quoted in the last chapter, "offered up +thanks for the fugitive slave law, for it gave us 'Uncle Tom's Cabin.'" + + [53] Ableman _v._ Boothe, 21 How., 506. + +Rufus Choate, a celebrated lawyer and Whig leader, is reported to have +said of "Uncle Tom's Cabin": "That book will make two millions of +Abolitionists." Drawing, as it did, a very dark picture of slavery, it +aroused sympathy for the escaping slave and pictured in glowing colors +the dear, sweet men and women who dared, for his sake, the perils of the +road in the darkness of night and all the dangers of the law. Mrs. Stowe +was _making heroes of law-breakers, preaching the higher law_. + +Mrs. Stowe declared she had not written the book for political effect; +she certainly did not anticipate the marvellous results that followed +it. That book made vast multitudes of its readers ready for the new +sectional and anti-slavery party that was to be organized two years +after its appearance. It was the most famous and successful novel ever +written. It was translated into every language that has a literature, +and has been more read by American people than any other book except the +Bible. As a picture of what was conceivable under the laws relating to +slavery there was a basis for it. Though there were laws limiting the +master's power, cruelty was nevertheless possible. + +Here, then, Mrs. Stowe's imagination had full scope. Her book, however, +has in it none of the strident harshness, none of the purblind ferocity +of Garrison, in whose eyes every slave-holder was a fiend. "Uncle Tom's +Cabin" assailed a system; it did not assault personally, as the +arch-agitator did, every man and woman to whom slaves had come, whether +by choice or chance. Light and shadow and the play of human nature made +Mrs. Stowe's picture as attractive in many of its pages as it was +repulsive and unfair in others. Mrs. Shelby was a type of many a noble +mistress, a Christian woman, and when financial misfortunes compelled +the sale of the Shelby slaves and the separation of families, we have +not only what might have been, but what sometimes was, one of the evils +of slavery, which, by reason of the prevailing agitation, the humanity +of the age could not remedy. But Mrs. Stowe's slave-master, Legree, was +impossible. The theory was inconceivable that it was cheaper to work to +death in seven years a slave costing a thousand dollars, than to work +him for forty years. Millions of our people, however, have accepted +"Uncle Tom" as a fact, and have wept over him; they have accepted also +as a fact the monster Legree. + +"Uncle Tom's Cabin" lives to-day as a classic on book shelves and as a +popular play. The present generation get most of their opinions about +slavery as it was in the South from its pages, and not one in ten +thousand of those who read it ever thinks of the inconsistency between +the picture of slavery drawn there and that other picture, which all the +world now knows of--the Confederate soldier away in the army, his wife +and children at home faithfully protected by slaves--not a case of +violence, not even a single established case, during four years, +although there were four millions of negroes in the South, of that crime +against white women that, after the reconstruction had demoralized the +freedmen, became so common in that section. + +The unwavering fidelity during the four years of war of so many slaves +to the families of their absent masters, and the fact that those who, +during that war, left their homes to seek their freedom invariably went +without doing any vengeful act, is a phenomenon that speaks for itself. +It tells of kindly relations between master and slave. It is not to be +denied that where the law gave so much power to the master there were +individual instances of cruelty, nor is it supposable that there were +not many slaves who were revengeful; but at the same time there was, +quite naturally, among slaves who were all in like case, a more clannish +and all-pervading public opinion than could have been found elsewhere. +It was that all-pervading and rigid standard of kindly feeling among the +slaves to their masters that made the rule universal--fidelity toward +the master's family, at least to the extent of inflicting no injury. + +What a surprise to many this conduct of the slave was may be gathered +from a telling Republican speech made by Carl Schurz during the campaign +of 1860.[54] A devotee of liberty, recently a revolutionist in his +native land, and, like other foreigners, disregarding all constitutional +obstacles, Mr. Schurz had naturally espoused the cause of anti-slavery +in this country. He had absorbed the views of his political associates +and now contended that secession was an empty threat and that secession +was impossible. "The mere anticipation of a negro insurrection," he +said, "will paralyze the whole South." And, after ridiculing the alarm +created by the John Brown invasion, the orator said that in case of a +war between the South and the North, "they will not have men enough to +quiet their friends at home; what will they have to oppose to the enemy? +Every township will want its home regiment; every plantation its +garrison; and what will be left for its field army?" + + [54] Fite, "Presidential Campaign of 1860," p. 243. + +Slavery in the South eventually proved to be, instead of a weakness, an +element of strength to the Confederates, and Mr. Lincoln finally felt +himself compelled to issue his proclamation of emancipation as a +military necessity--the avowed purpose being to deprive the Confederates +of the slaves who were by their labor supporting their armies in the +field. + +The faithfulness during the war of the slave to his master has been a +lesson to the Northerner, and it has been a lesson, too, to the +Southerner. It argues that the danger of bloody insurrections was +perhaps not as great as had been apprehended where incendiary +publications were sent among them. That danger, however, did exist, and +if the fear of it was exaggerated, it was nevertheless real, and was +traceable to the Abolitionists. + +The rights of the South in the territories had now been discussed for +years and Stephen A. Douglas, a Democratic senator from Illinois, had +reached the conclusion that under the Constitution Southerner and +Northerner had exactly the same right to carry their property, whatever +it might be, into the territories, which had been purchased with the +common blood and treasure of both sections, a view afterward sustained +by the Supreme Court of the United States in the Dred Scott case. +Douglas, "entirely of his own motion,"[55] introduced, and Congress +passed, such a bill--the Kansas-Nebraska act. The new act replaced the +Missouri Compromise. This the Southerners considered had been a dead +letter for years. Every "personal liberty" law passed by a Northern +State was a violation of it. + + [55] "Parties and Slavery," Theodore Clarke Smith, professor of history + in Williams College, p. 96. + +Ambition was now playing its part in the sectional controversy. Douglas +was a Democrat looking to the presidency and had here made a bid for +Southern support. On the other hand was Seward, an "old line Whig," +aspiring to the same office. The South had been the dominant element in +national politics and the North was getting tired of it. Seward's idea +was to organize all the anti-slavery voters and to appeal at the same +time to the pride and jealousy of the North as a section. + +The immediate effect of the Kansas-Nebraska act was to aggravate +sectionalism. It opened up the territory of Kansas, allowing it to come +into the Union with or without slavery, as it might choose. Slave State +and free State adventurers rushed into the new territory and struggled, +and even fought, for supremacy. The Southerners lost. Their resources +could not match the means of organized anti-slavery societies, and the +result was an increase, North and South, of sectional animosity. + +The overwhelming defeat of the old Whig party in 1852 presaged its +dissolution. Until that election, both the Whig and Democratic parties +had been national, each endeavoring to hold and acquire strength, North +and South, and each combating, as best it could, the spirit of +sectionalism that had been steadily growing in the North, and South as +well, ever since the rise of Abolitionism. Both these old parties had +watched with anxiety the increase of anti-slavery sentiment in the +North. Both parties feared it. Alliance with the anti-slavery North +would deprive a party of support South and denationalize it. For years +prior to 1852 the drift of Northern voters who were opposed to slavery +had been as to the two national parties toward the Whigs, and the +tendency of conservative Northerners had been toward the Democratic +party. Thus the great body of the Whig voters in the North had become +imbued with anti-slavery sentiments, and now, with no hope of victory as +a national party and left in a hopeless minority, the majority of that +old party in that section were ready to join a sectional party when it +should be formed two years later. William H. Seward was still a Whig +when he made in the United States Senate his anti-slavery "higher law" +speech of 1850. + +The Kansas-Nebraska act was a political blunder. The South, on any +dispassionate consideration, could not have expected to make Kansas a +slave State. The act was a blunder, too, because it gave the opponents +of the Democratic party a plausible pretext for the contention, which +they put forth then and which has been persisted in till this day, that +the new Republican party, immediately thereafter organized, was called +into existence by, and only by, the Kansas-Nebraska act. + +As far back as 1850 it was clear that a new party, based on the +anti-slavery sentiment that had been created by twenty years of +agitation, was inevitable. Mr. Rhodes, speaking of conditions then, +says: "It was, moreover, obvious to an astute politician like Seward, +and probably to others, that a dissolution of parties was imminent; that +to oppose the extension of slavery, _the different anti-slavery elements +must be organized as a whole_; it might be called Whig or some other +name, but it would be based on the principle of the Wilmot +proviso"[56]--the meaning of which was, no more slave States. + + [56] "Rhodes," vol. I, p. 192. + +Between 1850 and the passage of the Kansas-Nebraska act in 1854, new +impulse had been given anti-slavery sentiment by fierce assaults on the +new fugitive slave law and, as has been seen, by "Uncle Tom's Cabin." +The Kansas-Nebraska act did serve as a cry for the rallying of all +anti-slavery voters. That was all. It was a drum-call, in answer to +which soldiers already enlisted fell into ranks, under a new banner. Any +other drum-call--the application of another slave State for admission +into the Union--would have served quite as well. Thus the Republican +party came into existence in 1854. Mr. Rhodes sums up the reason for the +existence of the new party and what it subsequently accomplished in the +following pregnant sentence, "The moral agitation had accomplished its +work, the cause (of anti-slavery) ... was to be consigned to a political +party that brought to a successful conclusion the movement begun by the +moral sentiment of the community,"[57]--which successful conclusion was, +of course, _the freeing of the slaves by a successful war_. + + [57] Vol. I, p. 66. + +For a time the new Republican party had a powerful competitor in another +new organization. This was the American or Know-Nothing party. This +other aspirant for power made an honest effort to revitalize the old +Whig party under a new name and, by gathering in all the conservatives +North and South, to put an end to sectionalism. Its signal failure +conveys an instructive lesson. After many and wide-spread rumors of its +coming, the birth of the American party was formally announced in 1854. +It had been organized in secret and was bound together with oaths and +passwords; its members delighted to mystify inquirers by refusing to +answer questions, and soon they got the name of "Know-Nothings." The +party had grown out of the "Order of the Star Spangled Banner," +organized in 1850 to oppose the spread of Catholicism and indiscriminate +immigration--the two dangers that were said to threaten American +institutions. + +The American party made its appeal: For the Union and against +sectionalism; for Protestantism, the faith of the Fathers, against +Catholicism that was being imported by foreigners; its shibboleth was +"America for the Americans." + +The Americans or Know-Nothings everywhere put out in 1854 full tickets +and showed at once surprising strength. In the fall elections of that +year they polled over one-fourth of all the votes in New York, +two-fifths in Pennsylvania, and over two-thirds in Massachusetts, where +they made a clean sweep of the State and Federal offices.[58] + + [58] Smith, "Parties and Slavery," pp. 118-20. + +They struck directly at sectionalism by exacting of their adherents the +following oath: + +"You do further swear that you will not vote for any one ... whom you +know or believe to be in favor of a dissolution of the Union ... or who +is endeavoring to produce that result." + +The effect of this oath at the South was almost magical. The Whig party +there was speedily absorbed by the Americans, and Southern Democrats by +thousands joined the new party that promised to save the Union.[59] But +the attitude of the Northern and Southern members of the American party +soon became fundamentally different. Southerners saw their Northern +allies in Vermont, Maine, and Massachusetts passing "personal liberty" +laws.[60] + + [59] The writer's father, who had been a nullifier and a lifelong + follower of Calhoun, joined the Know-Nothings in the hope of saving the + Union, but withdrew when he found that in the North the party was not + true to its Union pledges. Here was a typical case of Southern + unwillingness to resort to secession. + + [60] _Ib._, pp. 138-9. + +The Know-Nothings were strong enough in the elections of 1855 to +directly check the progress of the new Republican party; but the +American party, though it succeeded in electing a Speaker of the +national House of Representatives in February, 1856, soon afterward went +down to defeat. Even though led by such patriots as John Bell, of +Tennessee, and Edward Everett, of Massachusetts, it could not stand +against the storm of passion that had been aroused by the crusade +against slavery. + +There was a fierce and protracted struggle between the pro-slavery and +anti-slavery men in Kansas for possession of the territorial government. +Rival constitutions were submitted to Congress, and the debates over +these were extremely bitter. In their excitement the Democrats again +delighted their adversaries by committing what now seems to have been +another blunder. They advocated the admission of Kansas under the +"Lecompton Constitution." A review of the conflicting evidence appears +to show that the Southerners were fairly outnumbered in Kansas and that +the Lecompton Constitution did not express the will of the people.[61] + + [61] Theodore Clarke Smith, "Parties and Slavery." + +While "the war in Kansas" was going on, Charles Sumner, an Abolitionist +from Massachusetts, delivered in the Senate a speech of which he wrote +his friends beforehand: "I shall pronounce the most thorough Philippic +ever delivered in a legislative body." He was a classical scholar. _His +purpose was to stir up in the North a greater fury against the South +than Demosthenes had aroused in Athens against its enemies, the +Macedonians._ His speech occupied two days, May 28 and 29, 1855. At its +conclusion, Senator Cass, of Michigan, arose at once and pronounced it +"the most un-American and unpatriotic that ever grated on the ears of +this high body." The speech attacked, without any sufficient excuse, the +personal character of an absent senator, Butler of South Carolina, a +gentleman of high character and older than Sumner. Among other +unfounded charges, it accused him of falsehood. Preston Brooks, a +representative from South Carolina, attacked Sumner in the Senate +chamber during a recess of that body and beat him unmercifully with a +cane. The provocation was bitter, indeed, but Brooks's assault was +unjustifiable. Nevertheless, the exasperated South applauded it, while +the North glorified Sumner as a martyr for free speech. + + * * * * * + +In less than two years the new Republican party had absorbed all the +Abolition voters, and in the election of 1856 was in the field with its +candidates for the presidency and vice-presidency--Fremont and +Dayton--upon a platform declaring it the duty of Congress to abolish in +the territories "those twin relics of barbarism, polygamy and slavery." + +Excitement during that election was intense. Rufus Choate, the great +Massachusetts lawyer, theretofore a Whig, voiced the sentiment of +conservatives when he said it was the "duty of every one to prevent the +madness of the times from working its maddest act--the permanent +formation and the actual present triumph of a party which knows one-half +of America only to hate it," etc. + +Senator Toombs, of Georgia, said: "The object of Fremont's friends is +the conquest of the South. I am content that they shall own us when they +conquer us." + +The Democrats elected Buchanan; Democrats 174 electoral votes; +Republicans 74, all Northern; and the Know-Nothings, combined with a +remnant of Whigs, 8. + +The work of sectionalism was nearly completed. + +The extremes to which some of the Southern people now resorted show the +madness of the times. They encouraged filibustering expeditions to +capture Cuba and Nicaragua. These wild ventures were absolutely +indefensible. They had no official sanction and were only spontaneous +movements, but they met with favor from the Southern public, the +outgrowth of a feeling that, if these countries should be captured and +annexed as slave States, the South could the better, by their aid, +defend its rights in the Union. _The Wanderer_ and one or two other +vessels, contrary to the laws of the United States, imported slaves +from Africa, and when the participants were, some of them, indicted, +Southern juries absolutely refused to convict. + + "Judgment had fled to brutish beasts, + And men had lost their reason." + +When later the Southern States had seceded and formed a government of +their own their constitution absolutely prohibited the slave traffic. + + + + +CHAPTER VIII + +INCOMPATIBILITY OF SLAVERY AND FREEDOM + + +That it was possible for slave States and free States to coexist under +our Federal Constitution was the belief of its framers and of most of +our people down to 1861. The first to announce the absolute +impossibility of such coexistence seems to have been William Lloyd +Garrison. In 1840, at Lynn, Massachusetts, the Essex County Anti-Slavery +Society adopted this resolution, offered by him: + +"That freedom and slavery are natural and irreconcilable enemies; that +it is morally impossible for them to endure together in the same nation, +and that the existence of the one can only be secured by the destruction +of the other."[62] + + [62] Garrison's "Garrison." + +Garrison's remedy was disunion. Near that time his paper's motto was "No +Union with Slave-Holders." + +The next to announce the idea of the incompatibility of slave States and +free States seems to have been one who did not dream of disunion. No +such thought was in the mind of Abraham Lincoln when, in a speech at +Springfield, Illinois, June 15, 1858, he said: + +"_A house divided against itself cannot stand. I believe this government +cannot endure permanently half slave and half free. I do not expect the +Union to be divided. It will become one thing or the other._ Either the +opponents of slavery will arrest the further spread of it, and place it +where the public mind will rest in the belief that _it is in the course +of ultimate extinction_; or its advocates will push it forward until it +shall become alike lawful in all the States--old as well as new--North +as well as South." + +When the Southerners read that statement they concluded that, as Mr. +Lincoln knew very well that the South could not, if it would, force +slavery on the North, he was announcing the intention of his party to +place slavery "in course of ultimate extinction," constitution or no +constitution. + +Senator Seward, at Rochester, New York, some weeks later, reannounced +the doctrine, declaring that the contest was "an irrepressible conflict +between opposing and enduring forces; and it means that the United +States _must and will_, sooner or later, become either an entirely +slave-holding nation or entirely a free labor nation." + +The utterances of Lincoln and Seward were distinctly radical. The +question was, would this radical idea ultimately dominate the Republican +party? + +Less than eighteen months after the announcement in 1858 of the doctrine +of the "irrepressible conflict," John Brown raided Virginia to incite +insurrections. With a few followers and 1,300 stands of arms for the +slaves who were to join him, he captured the United States arsenal at +Harper's Ferry. Only a few slaves came to him and, after a brief +struggle, with some bloodshed, Brown was captured, tried by a jury, and +hanged. + +In the South the excitement was intense; the horror and indignation in +that section it is impossible to describe. Brown was already well known +to the public. He was not a lunatic. Not long before this, in Kansas, +"at the head of a small group of men, including two of his sons and a +son-in-law, he went at night down Pottowattamie Creek, stopping at three +houses. The men who lived in them were well known pro-slavery men; they +seem to have been rough characters; their most specific offence +(according to Sanborn, Brown's biographer and eulogist) was the driving +from his home, by violent threats, of an inoffensive old man. John Brown +and his party went down the creek, called at one after the other of +three houses, took five men away from their wives and children, and +deliberately shot one and hacked the others to death with swords."[63] + + [63] "The Negro and the Nation," George Spring Merriam, p. 120. + +Quite a number of people, some of them men of eminence in the North, +aided Brown in his enterprise. Among the men of repute were Gerrit +Smith, a former candidate for the presidency; and Theodore Parker, Dr. +Howe, and Thomas Wentworth Higginson, of Boston, who were all members of +a "secret committee to collect money and arms for the expedition." With +them was F. S. Sanborn, who has since the war vauntingly revealed the +scheme in his "Life of John Brown."[64] + + [64] Sanborn's "Life of John Brown," p. 466. + +Sanborn intimates that Henry Wilson, subsequently vice-president, was +more or less privy to the design.[65] At various places in the North +church bells were tolled on the day of John Brown's execution; meetings +were held and orators extolled him as a martyr. Emerson, the greatest +thinker in all that region, declared that if John Brown was hanged he +would glorify the gallows as Jesus glorified the cross; and now many +Southern men who loved the Union reluctantly concluded that separation +was inevitable. John Bell, of Tennessee, Union candidate for President +in 1860, is said to have cried like a child when he heard of Brown's +raid. + + [65] _Ib._, p. 515. + +The great body of the Northern people condemned John Brown's expedition +without stint. Edward Everett, voicing the opinion of all who were +really conservative, said of Brown's raid, in a speech at Faneuil Hall, +that its design was to "let loose the hell hounds of a servile +insurrection, and to bring on a struggle which, for magnitude, +atrocity, and horror, would have stood alone in the history of the +world." + +But they who had been preaching the "irrepressible conflict," they whom +public opinion might hold responsible, did not feel precisely as Mr. +Everett did. They were concerned about political consequences, as +appears from a letter written somewhat later during the State canvass in +New York by Horace Greeley to Schuyler Colfax. Horace Greeley afterward +proved himself in many ways a broad-minded, magnanimous man, but now he +wrote: "Do not be downhearted about the old John Brown business. Its +present effect is bad and throws a heavy load on us in this State ... +_but the ultimate effect is to be good.... It will drive the slave power +to new outrages.... It presses on the irrepressible conflict_."[66] + + [66] "History of United States," Rhodes, vol. I. + +The fact that such a man as Horace Greeley was taking comfort because +that outrage would "drive the slave power to new outrages"[67] throws a +strong side-light on the tactics of the anti-slavery leaders. They were +following Garrison. Garrison, the father of the Abolitionists, had +begun his campaign against slave-holders by "exhausting upon them the +vocabulary of abuse," and he had shown "a genius for infuriating his +antagonists."[68] The new party--his successor and beneficiary, was now +felicitating itself that ultimate good would come, even from the John +Brown raid. It would further their policy of "_driving the slave power +to new outrages_." + + [67] Channing. + + [68] Hart. + +People at the North, conservatives and all, held their breath for a time +after Harper's Ferry. Then the crusade went on, in the press, on the +rostrum, and from the pulpit, with as much virulence as ever. No +assertion was too extravagant for belief, provided only its tendency was +to disparage the Southern white man or win sympathy for the negro. From +the noted "Brownlow and Pryne's Debate," Philadelphia (_Lippincott_), we +take the following as a specimen of the abuse a portion of the Northern +press was then heaping on the Southern people. Brownlow quotes from the +_New York Independent_ of November, 1856: + +"The mass of the population of the Atlantic Coast of the slave region +of the South are descended from the transported convicts and outcasts of +Great Britain.... Oh, glorious chivalry and hereditary aristocracy of +the South! Peerless first families of Virginia and Carolina!... Progeny +of the highwaymen, and horse-thieves and sheep-stealers, and +pick-pockets of Old England!" + +The South was not to be outdone, and here was a retort from _De Bow's +Review_, July, 1858: + +"The basis, framework, and controlling influence of Northern sentiment +is Puritanism--the old Roundhead, rebel refuse of England, which ... has +ever been an unruly sect of Pharisees ... the worst bigots on earth and +the meanest of tyrants when they have the power to exercise it."[69] + + [69] Theodore Clarke Smith, "Parties and Slavery," p. 303. + +And the non-slave-holder of the South did not escape from the pitiless +pelting of the storm. He was sustaining the slave-holder, and this was +not only an offence but a puzzle. + +It became quite common in the North for anti-slavery writers to classify +the non-slave-holding agricultural classes of the South as "poor +whites," thus distinguishing them from the slave-holders; and the idea +is current even now in that section that as a class the lordly +slave-holder despised his poor white fellow-citizen. The average +non-slave-holding Southern agriculturist, whether farming for himself or +for others, was a type of man that no one who knew him, least of all the +Southern slave-holder, his neighbor and political ally, could despise. +Educated and uneducated, these people were independent voters and honest +jurors, the very backbone of Southern State governments that always will +be notable in history for efficiency, purity, and economy. + +This class of voters, however, came in for much abuse in the literature +of the crusade. They were all lumped together as "poor whites," +sometimes as "poor white trash," and the belief was inculcated that +their imperious slave-holding neighbors applied that term to them. "Poor +white trash," on its face, is "nigger talk," caught up, doubtless, from +Southern negro barbers and bootblacks, and used by writers who, from +information thus derived, pictured Southern society. + +This is a sample of the numerous errors that crept into the literature +of one section of our Union about social conditions in the other during +that memorable sectional controversy. It is on a par with the idea that +prevailed, in some quarters in the South, that the Yankee cared for +nothing but money, and would not fight even for that. + +Southerners were practically all of the old British stock. Homogeneity, +common memories of the wars of the Revolution, of 1812, and with Mexico, +and Fourth of July celebrations, all tended to bind together strongly +the Southern slave-holder and non-slave-holder. + +There were, of course, many classes of non-slave-holders--the thrifty +farmer, the unthrifty, and the laborer who worked for hire, but more +frequently for "shares of the crop." Then there were others--the +inhabitants of the "sand-hills" and the mountain regions. These people +were, as a rule, very shiftless; too lazy to work, they were still too +proud to beg, as the very poor usually do in other countries. The +mountaineers were hardier than the sand-hillers, and it was from the +mountains of Tennessee, Alabama, etc., that the Union armies gathered +many recruits. This was not, as is often stated, because mountaineers +love liberty better than others, but because these mountaineers never +came into contact with either master or slave. The crusade against +slavery, therefore, did not threaten to affect their personal status. + +There were very few public schools in the South, but in the cities and +towns there were academies and high-schools, and the country was dotted +with "old field schools," most of them not good, but sufficient to train +those who became efficient leaders in social, religious, and political +circles. + +The wonderful progress made by the Southern white man during the last +thirty-five years is by no means all due to the abolition of slavery. +Labor, it is true, is held in higher esteem. This is a great gain, but +still more is due to improved transportation, to better prices for +timber and cotton, to commercial fertilizers, and an awakening interest +in education. The South is also developing its mineral resources and is +now rapidly forging to the front. The white man is making more cotton +than the negro. + +But the very strongest bond that bound together the Southern +slave-holder and non-slave-holder was the pride of caste. Every white +man was a freeman; he belonged to the superior, the dominant race. + +Edmund Burke, England's philosopher-statesman, in his speech on +"Conciliation with America" at the beginning of our Revolution, +complimented in high terms the spirit of liberty among the dissenting +protestants of New England. Then, alluding to the hopes indulged in by +some gentlemen, that the Southern colonies would be loyal to Great +Britain because the Church of England had there a large establishment, +he said: "It is certainly true. There is, however, a circumstance +attending these colonies which in my opinion fully counter-balances this +difference, and makes the spirit of liberty still more high and haughty +than in those to the Northward. It is, that in Virginia and Carolina +they have a vast multitude of slaves. Where this is the case, in any +part of the world, _those who are free are by far the most proud and +jealous of their freedom_. Freedom with them is not only an enjoyment, +but a kind of _rank and privilege_." + +The privilege of belonging to the superior race and of being free was a +bond that tied all Southern whites together, and it was infinitely +strengthened by a crusade that seemed, from a Southern stand-point, to +have for its purpose the levelling of all distinctions between the white +man and the slave hard by. + +Socially, there were classes in the South as there are everywhere. The +controlling class consisted of professional men, lawyers, physicians, +teachers, and high-class merchants (though the merchant prince was +unknown), and slave-holders. Slave-holders were, of course, divided into +classes, chiefly two: those who had acquired culture and breeding from +slave-holding ancestors, and those who had little culture or breeding, +principally the newly rich. It was the former class that gave tone to +Southern society. The performance of duty always ennobles, and this is +especially true of duty done by superiors to inferiors. The master and +mistress of a slave establishment were responsible for the moral and +material welfare of their dependents. When they appreciated and +fulfilled their responsibilities, as the best families usually did, +there was found what was called the Southern aristocracy. The habit of +command, assured position, and high ideals, coming down, as these often +did, with family traditions, gave these favored people ease and grace, +and they were social favorites, both in the North and Europe. At home +they dispensed a hospitality that made the South famous. They were +exemplars, giving tone to society, and it was notable that breeding and +culture, and not wealth, gave tone to Southern society. There was +perhaps in Virginia and South Carolina an aristocracy that was somewhat +more exclusive than elsewhere. + +Slavery was at its worst when masters were not equal to their +responsibilities, for want of either culture or Christian feeling, or +both, as also when, as was now and then the case, a brutal overseer was +in charge of a plantation far away from the eye of the owner. + +The influence of the slave-holder and his lavish hospitality did not +make for thrift among his less fortunate brethren; it made perhaps for +prodigality, but it also made for a high sense of honor among +slave-holders and non-slave-holders as well. Both slave-holders and +non-slave-holders were extremely punctilious. Money did not count where +honor was concerned, and Southerners do well to be proud of the record +in this respect that has been made by their statesmen. + +Among the more cultured classes in the period here treated of, the duel +prevailed, a practice now very properly condemned. But it made for a +high sense of honor. Demagogues were not common when a false statement +on "the stump" was apt to result in a mortal combat. + +Among the less cultured classes insult was answered with a blow of the +fist. Fisticuffs, too, were quite common to ascertain who was the "best +man" in a community or county. The rules were not according to the +Marquis of Queensbury, but they always secured "fair play."[70] + + [70] For the humorous side of life in the South in the old day, see + "Simon Suggs," J. J. Hooper; "Georgia Scenes," Judge Longstreet; and + "Flush Times of Alabama and Mississippi," by Baldwin. + +This combative spirit of Southerners was undoubtedly a result of the +spirit of caste that came from slavery. Sometimes it was unduly +exhibited in Congress during the controversy over slavery and State's +rights, and excited Southerners occasionally subjected themselves to the +charge of arrogance. + +One of the great evils of slavery was that, as a rule, neither the +slave-holder nor the non-slave-holder properly appreciated the dignity +of labor. A witty student at a Southern university said that his chief +objection to college life was that he could not have a negro to learn +his lessons for him. The slave-holder quite generally disdained manual +labor, and the non-slave-holder was also inclined to deprecate the +necessity that compelled him to work. + +The sudden abolition of slavery was the ruin of thousands of innocent +families--a loss for which there was no recompense. But for the South at +large, and especially to this generation, it is a blessing that all +classes have come to see, that to labor and to be useful is not only a +duty, but a privilege. + +Political conditions, North and South, differed widely. The North was +the majority section. Its majority could protect its rights; recourse to +the limitations of the Federal Constitution was seldom necessary. The +South, a minority section, with a devotion that never failed, held high +the "Constitution of the fathers, the palladium" of its rights. To one +section the Constitution was the bond of a Federal Union that was the +security for interstate commerce and national prosperity; to the other +it was a guaranty of peace abroad and local self-government at home. In +the one section the brightest minds were for the most part engaged in +business or in literary pursuits; in the other, politics absorbed much +of its talent. In the North the staple of political discussion was +usually some business or moral question, while in the South the +political arena was a great school in which the masses were not only +educated in the history of the formation of the Constitution, but taught +an affectionate regard for that instrument as a revered "gift from the +fathers" and the only safeguard of American liberty. Joint political +discussions, which were common between the ablest men of opposing +parties, were always numerously attended, and the Federal Constitution +was an unfailing topic. The result was, an amount of political +information in the average Confederate soldier that the average Union +soldier in his business training had never acquired, and a devotion of +the Southerner to the Constitution of his country which even the ablest +historians of to-day have failed to comprehend. + +It is often stated, as if it were an important fact in the consideration +of the great anti-slavery crusade, that not many of the Abolitionists +were as radical as Garrison, and that of the anti-slavery voters very +few favored social equality between whites and blacks. Southerners did +not stop to make distinctions like these. They saw the Abolitionists +advocating mixed schools and favoring laws authorizing mixed marriages; +saw them practising social equality; saw the general trend in that +direction; and so from its very beginning the Republican party, which +had absorbed the Abolitionists, was dubbed, North and South, the "Black +Republican" party. + +The whites of the South believed that the triumph of the "Black +Republican" party, as they called it, would be ultimately the triumph of +its most radical elements. Judge Reagan, of Texas, United States +congressman in 1860-61, Confederate Postmaster-General, later United +States senator, and always until 1860 an avowed friend of the Union, in +his farewell speech to the Congress of the United States in January, +1861, gave expression to this idea when he said: + +"And now you tender to us the inhuman alternative of unconditional +submission to _Republican rule on abolition principles, and ultimately +to free negro equality, and a government of mongrels_, or a war of races +on the one hand, and on the other, secession and a bloody and desolating +civil war."[71] + + [71] "Memoirs of John H. Reagan," p. 261. + +Judge Reagan was expressing in Congress the opinion that animated the +Confederate soldier in the war that was to follow secession, an opinion +the ex-Confederate did not see much reason to change when the era of +Reconstruction had been reached, and the ballot had been given to every +negro, while the leading whites were disfranchised. + +In 1857 Hinton Rowan Helper, of North Carolina, wrote a notable book to +show that slavery was a curse to the South, and especially to the +non-slave-holders. It was an appeal to the latter to become +Abolitionists. His arguments availed nothing; back of his book was the +Republican party, now planting itself, as Garrison had planted himself, +on an extract from the first sentence of the Declaration of +Independence, "all men are created equal." The Republican contention +was, in platforms and speeches, that the Declaration of Independence +covered negroes as well as whites,[72] and Southern whites, nearly all +of Revolutionary stock, resented the idea. They rebelled at the +suggestion that the signers, every one of whom, save possibly those from +Massachusetts, represented slave-holding constituents, intended to say +that the negroes then in the colonies were the equals of the whites. If +so, why were these negroes kept in slavery, and why were they not +immediately given the right to vote, to sit on juries, to be educated, +and to intermarry with the whites? + + [72] Mr. Lincoln took that position in his great speech at Chicago, in + 1858, when beginning his campaign for the senatorship. + +All this, the Southerners said, as, indeed, did many Northerners also, +was to be the logical outcome of the Republican doctrine, that negroes +and whites were equals. It is passing strange that modern historians so +often have failed to note that this thought was in the minds of all the +opponents of the Republican party from the day of its birth--North and +South it was called the "Black Republican" party. Douglas, in his debate +with Lincoln, gave it that name and stood by it. In his speech at +Jonesboro, Illinois, September 15, 1858, he charges the Republicans with +advocating "negro citizenship and negro equality, putting the white man +and the negro on the same basis under the law."[73] + + [73] Lincoln, "Complete Works," vol. IV, p. 9. + +John C. Calhoun, in a memorial to the Southern people in 1849, signed by +many other congressmen, had said that Northern fanaticism would not stop +at emancipation. "Another step would be taken to raise them [the +negroes] to a political and social equality with their former owners, by +giving them the right of voting and holding public office under the +Federal Government.... But when raised to an equality they would become +the fast political associates of the North, acting and voting with them +on all questions, and by this perfect union between them holding the +South in complete subjection. _The blacks and the profligate whites that +might unite with them_ would become the principal recipients of Federal +patronage, and would, in consequence, be raised above the whites of the +South in the social and political scale. We would, in a word, change +conditions with them, _a degradation greater than has as yet fallen to +the lot of a free and enlightened people_."[74] + + [74] "Calhoun's Works," vol. VI, p. 311. + +In the light of Reconstruction, this was prophecy. + +These words, once heard by a Southern white man, of course sank into his +heart. They could never have been forgotten. The argument of Helper fell +on deaf ears. If Helper had come with the promise (and an assurance of +its fulfilment) that the negroes, when emancipated, would be sent to +Liberia, or elsewhere _out of the country_, the South would have become +Republicanized at once. Even if the slave-holder had been unwilling, the +Southern non-slave-holder, with his three, and often five, to one +majority, would have seen to it. + +And it is not too much to say that if the negro had been, as the +Abolitionists and ultimately many Republicans contended he was, the +equal of the white man, Liberia would have been a success. What a +glorious consummation of the dreams of statesmen and philanthropists +that would have been! Abolitionists, unable to frustrate their scheme, +and the American negro, profiting by the civilization here received from +contact with the white man, building by his own energy happy homes for +himself and his kinsmen, and enjoying the blessings of a great +government of his own, in his own great continent! + +Africa with its vast resources is a prize that all Europe is now +contending for. It is believed to be adapted even to white men. Most +assuredly, for the negro Liberia offered far better opportunities than +did the rocky coast of New England to the white men who settled it. +Liberia had been carefully selected as a desirable part of Africa. It +was an unequalled group of statesmen and philanthropists that had +planted the colony; they provided for it and set it on its feet. But it +failed; failed just for the same reason that prevented the aboriginal +African from catching on to the civilization that began to develop +thousands of years ago, close by his side on the borders of the +Mediterranean; failed for the same reason that Hayti, now free for a +century, has failed. The failure of the plan of the American +Colonization Society to repatriate the American negro in Africa was due +_primarily to the incapacity of the negro_. + +A very complete and convincing story will be found in an article +entitled "Liberia, an Example of Negro Self-Government,"[75] by Miss +Agnes P. Mahony, for five years a missionary in that country. The author +of the article was a sympathizing friend. She says: "In 1847 the colony +was considered healthy enough to stand alone.... So our flag was lowered +on the African continent, and the protectors of the colony retired, +leaving the people to govern the country in their own way." Then she +recites that in order to test their capacity for self-government their +constitution (1847) provided that no white man should hold property in +the country; and to this Miss Mahony traces the failure that followed. +When she wrote, the Liberian negroes, for fifty-nine years under the +protectorship of the United States, had been troubled by no foreign +enemy; yet their failure was complete--not a foot of railroad, no cable +communication with foreign countries, no telegraphic communication with +the interior, etc. Still the devoted missionary thinks that Liberia +might prosper, if it could but have "_the encouraging example of and +contact with the right kind of white men_." + + [75] _Independent_, 1906. + + * * * * * + +The presidential campaign of 1860 was very exciting. There were four +tickets in the field, Douglas and Johnson, Democrats; Breckenridge and +Lane, Democrats; Lincoln and Hamlin, Republicans, and Bell and Everett +representing the "Constitutional Union" party. As the election +approached it became apparent that the Republicans were leading, and +far-seeing men, like Samuel J. Tilden, of New York, became much alarmed +for fear that the election of Lincoln would bring about secession in the +South. Mr. Tilden, in view of the danger that to him was apparent, +wrote, shortly before the election, to William Kent, of New York City, +an open letter in which he earnestly urged a combination in New York +State of the supporters of other candidates, in order to defeat Abraham +Lincoln. The letter was so alarming that some of Tilden's friends +thought he had lost his balance; but now that letter is regarded as a +remarkable proof of his sagacity. In the first volume of Mr. Tilden's +"Life and Letters," by Bigelow, appears an "Appreciation" by James C. +Carter and an analysis of this letter. Of this the following is a brief +abstract: Mr. Tilden first argued that two strictly sectional parties, +arrayed upon the question of destroying an institution which one of +them, not unnaturally, regarded as essential to self-existence, would +bring war. + +Then Mr. Tilden further said that if the Republican party should be +successful in establishing its dominion over the South, the national +government in the Southern States would cease to be self-government and +become a government of one people over a distinct people, a thing +impossible with our race, except as a consequence of a successful war, +and even then incompatible with our democratic institutions. He also +said: "I assert that a controversy between powerful communities, +organized into governments, of a nature like that which now divides the +North and South, can be settled only by convention or by war." + +And again: "A condition of parties in which the Federative Government +shall be carried on by a party, having no affiliations in the Southern +States, is impossible to continue. Such a government would be out of all +relations to those States. It would have neither the nerves of +sensation, which convey intelligence to the intellect of the body +politic, nor the ligaments and muscles, which hold its parts together +and move them in harmony. It would be in substance the government of one +people by another people. That system will not do for our race." + +Mr. Tilden, when he spoke of "two sectional parties arrayed upon the +question of destroying an institution," _viz._, slavery, saw the +situation exactly as the South did. To prove that the Republican party +was looking to the ultimate destruction of the institution, Mr. Tilden +cited the leadership of Chase and his speeches in which he was +propounding the higher law theory; asserting that the conflict was +"irrepressible"; suggesting the power of the North to amend the +Constitution, etc. + +The South noted this, and it regarded, not the platform, but the record +of the Republican party and of the statesmen the party was following. + +Long before 1860, that great American scholar, George Ticknor, saw the +dilemma in which the North was involving itself by its concern over +slavery in the South, and he thus stated it, in a letter to his friend, +William Ellery Channing, April 30, 1842:[76] + + [76] Life and Letters and Journals of George Ticknor. + +"On the subject of our relations with the South and its slavery, we +must--as I have always thought--do one of two things; either keep +honestly the bargain of the Constitution as it shall be interpreted by +the authorities--of which the Supreme Court of the United States is the +chief and safest--or declare honestly that we can no longer in our +conscience consent to keep it, and break it." + +The North had failed to "keep honestly the bargain of the Constitution" +by faithfully delivering fugitive slaves and leaving the question of +slavery to be dealt with by the States in which it existed, and was now, +in 1860, upon the other horn of the dilemma--repudiating and denouncing +a decision of the Supreme Court, which, as Mr. Ticknor had said, was the +"chief and safest authority." But during that campaign of 1860 very +many, perhaps a majority of the Republican voters, failed to realize +what their party was standing for. Indeed, down to this day the members +of that organization, taught as they have been, indignantly deny that a +vote for Lincoln and Hamlin in 1860 looked to an interference with +slavery in the States. + +But now Professor Emerson David Fite, of Yale University, sees in 1911 +what was the underlying hope, and consequently the ultimate aim, of the +Republican party in 1860, exactly as the South saw it then. In a +powerful summing up of more evidence than there is room to recite here, +he says: "The testimony of the Democracy and of the leaders of the +Republican party accords well with the evidence of daily events in +_revealing Republican aggression_. _The party hoped to destroy slavery, +and this was something new in a large political organization._"[77] + + [77] "The Presidential Campaign of 1860," p. 195, Fite, 1911. + +That this party, when it should ultimately come into full power, would, +to carry out the purpose which Professor Fite now sees, ignore the +Federal Constitution was, in 1860, evident to Southerners from the +following facts: + +In 1841 the governor of Virginia demanded of the governor of New York +the extradition of two men indicted in Virginia for enticing away slaves +from their masters. Governor Seward, of New York, refused the demand, on +the ground that no such offence existed in New York. This case did not +go to the courts, but in 1860 the governor of Kentucky made a similar +demand in a like case on the governor of Ohio, who placed his refusal on +the same grounds as had Governor Seward in the former case. The Supreme +Court of the United States in this case decided that the governor of +Ohio, in refusing to deliver up the fugitive, was violating the +Constitution. The court further said: + +"If the governor of Ohio refuses to _discharge this duty there is no +power delegated to the general government_, either through the judicial +department or any other department, to use any coercive means to compel +him."[78] + + [78] "Virginia's Attitude on Slavery and Secession," Mumford, pp. + 211-12. + +If these two governors had defied the Federal Constitution, so had +eleven State legislatures. From 1854 to 1860, inclusive, Vermont, Rhode +Island, Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, Michigan, Wisconsin, Kansas, +Ohio, and Pennsylvania, had all passed new "personal liberty laws" to +abrogate the new fugitive slave law of 1850. + +Of these laws Professor Alexander Johnston said: + +"There is absolutely no excuse for the personal liberty laws. If the +rendition of fugitive slaves was a federal obligation, the personal +liberty laws were flat disobedience to the law; if the obligation was +upon the States, they were a gross breach of good faith, for they were +intended and operated to prevent rendition; and, in either case, they +were in violation of the Constitution."[79] + + [79] Alexander Johnston, "Lalor's Encyclopaedia," vol. III, p. 163. + +And now came the State of Wisconsin. Its Supreme Court intervened and +took from the hands of the federal authorities an alleged fugitive +slave. The Supreme Court of the United States reversed the case and +ordered the slave back into the custody of the United States +marshal;[80] and thereupon the General Assembly of Wisconsin expressly +repudiated the authority of the United States Supreme Court. The +Wisconsin assembly asserted its right to nullify the Federal law, basing +its action on the Kentucky Resolutions of 1798--a recrudescence of a +doctrine long since abandoned even in the South. + + [80] Ableman _v._ Booth, 21 How. + +In reality all this defiance of the Constitution of the United States by +State executives, State legislatures, and a State court, was on the +ground that whatever was dictated by conscience to these officials was a +"higher law than the Constitution of the United States"; and modern +historians recognize, as Tilden did, the leadership of the statesman who +in 1850 announced that startling doctrine. It is Alexander Johnston who +says, "Seward's speeches in the Senate made him the leader of the +Republican party from its first organization."[81] + + [81] Alexander Johnston, "Lalor's Encyclopaedia," vol. III, p. 707. + +To the minds of Southerners it seemed clear that _if the Southern States +desired to preserve for themselves the Constitution of the fathers, they +must secede and set it up over a government of their own_. This eleven +of these States did. Many of them were reluctant to take the step; all +their people had loved the old Union, but they passed their ordinances +of secession, united as the Confederate States of America, and their +officials took an oath to maintain inviolate the old Constitution, +which, with unimportant changes in it, they had adopted. + +The new government sent delegates to ask that the separation should be +peaceful. The application was denied and the war followed. Attempts to +secede were made in Kentucky and Missouri. In neither of these States +did the seceders get full control. They were represented, however, in +the Confederate Congress by senators and representatives elected by the +troops from those States that were serving in the Confederate army. + + + + +CHAPTER IX + +FOUR YEARS OF WAR + + +The bitter fruits of anti-slavery agitation were secession and four +years of bloody war. The Federal Government waged war to coerce the +seceding States to remain in the Union. With the North it was a war for +the Union; the South was fighting for independence--denominated by +Northern writers as "the Civil War." It was in reality a war between the +eleven States which had seceded, as autonomous States, and were fighting +for independence, as the Confederate States of America, against the +other twenty-two States, which, as the United States of America, fought +against secession and for the Union of all the States. It is true the +States remaining in the Union had with them the army and the navy and +the old government, but that government could not, and did not, exercise +its functions within the borders of the seceded States until by force of +arms in the war that was now waged it had conquered a control. It was a +war between the States for such control; for independence on the one +hand, and for the Union on the other. It was not, save in exceptional +cases, a war between neighbor and neighbor; it was a war between States +as entities, and therefore not properly a civil war. The result of the +war did not change the principles upon which it was fought, though it +did decide finally the issues that were involved, the right of secession +primarily, and slavery incidentally. + +Jefferson Davis, afterward the much-loved President of the Confederacy, +in his farewell speech in the United States Senate, March 21, 1861, thus +stated the case of the South: "Then, senators, we recur to the compact +which binds us together. We recur to the principles upon which this +government was founded, and _when you deny them_, and when you deny to +us the right to withdraw from a Union which thus perverted _threatens to +be destructive of our rights, we but tread in the path of our fathers +when we proclaim our independence and take the hazard_. This is done not +in hostility to others, not to injure any section of our country, _not +even for our own pecuniary benefit, but from the high and solemn motive +of defending and protecting the rights we inherited and which it is our +duty to transmit unshorn to our children_." + +Southerners were, as Mr. Davis understood it, treading in the path of +their fathers when they proclaimed their independence and fought for the +right of self-government. + +Professor Fite, of Yale, justifies secession on the following ground: + +"In the last analysis the one complete justification of secession was +the necessity of saving the vast property of slavery from destruction; +secession was a commercial necessity designed to make those billions +secure from outside interference. Viewed in this light, secession was +right, for any people, prompted by the commonest motives of self-defence +and with no moral scruples against slavery, would have followed the same +course. The present generation of Northerners, born and reared after the +war, must shake off their inherited political passions and prejudices +and pronounce the verdict of justification for the South. Believing +slavery to be right, it was the duty of the South to defend it. It is +time that the words 'traitors,' 'conspirators,' 'rebels,' and +'rebellion' be discarded."[82] + + [82] "The Presidential Campaign of 1860," Emerson David Fite, 1911, + introductory chapter. + +These words of Professor Fite will waken a responsive echo in the hearts +of Southerners, but Southerners place, and their fathers planted, +themselves on higher ground than commercial considerations. The +Confederates were defending their inherited right of local +self-government and the Federal Constitution that secured it. It was for +these rights that, as Mr. Davis had said, they were willing to _follow +the path their fathers trod_. + +The preservation of the Union the North was fighting for, was a noble +motive; it looked to the future greatness and glory of the republic; but +devotion to the Union had been a growth, the product largely of a single +generation; the devotion of the South to the right of local +self-government was an older and deeper conviction; it had been bred in +the bone for three generations; it dated from Bunker Hill and Valley +Forge and Yorktown. Close as the non-slave-holders of the South were to +the slave-holders, of the same British stock, and with the same +traditions, blood kinsmen as they were, they might not have been willing +to dare all and do all for the protection of property in which they were +not interested; but they were ready to, and they did, wage a death +struggle to maintain against a hostile sectional majority, their +inherited right to govern themselves in their own way. Added to this was +the ever-present conviction of Southerners all, that they were battling +not only for the supremacy of their race but for the preservation of +their homes. There was a little ditty quite prevalent in the Army of +Northern Virginia, of which nothing is now remembered except the +refrain, but that of itself speaks volumes. It ran: + + "Do you belong to the rebel band + Fighting for your home?" + +Northerners had, most of them, convinced themselves that the South would +never dare to secede. The danger of servile insurrections, if nothing +else, would prevent it.[83] Many Southerners, on the other hand, could +not see how, under the Constitution, the North could venture on coercion. + + [83] See Fite, "Campaign of 1860," passim, and especially speech of + Schurz, p. 244 _et seq._ + +But to the South the greatest surprise furnished by the events of that +era has been Abraham Lincoln--as he appears now in the light of history. +What, in the minds of Southerners, fixed his status personally, during +the canvass of 1860, was the statement he had made in his speech at +Chicago, preliminary to his great debate with Douglas in 1858, that the +Union could not "continue to exist half slave and half free." And he was +now the candidate of the "Black Republican" party, a party that was +denouncing a decision of the Supreme Court; that, in nearly every State +in the North, had nullified the fugitive slave law, and that stood for +"negro equality," as the South termed it. + +There were other statements by Mr. Lincoln in that debate with Douglas +that the South has had especial reason to take note of since the period +of Reconstruction. At Springfield, Illinois, September 18, 1858, he +said: "There is a physical difference between the white and black races +which, I believe, will forever forbid the two races living together on +terms of social and political equality, and, _inasmuch as they can not +so live, while they do live together there must be the position of +superior and inferior; and I, as much as any other man, am in favor of +having that position assigned to the white man_." + +The new Confederacy took the Constitution of the United States, so +modified as to make it read plainly as Jefferson had expounded it in the +Kentucky Resolutions of 1798. Other changes were slight. The +presidential term was extended to six years and the President was not to +be re-eligible. The slave trade was prohibited and Congress was +authorized to forbid the introduction of slaves from the old Union. + +Abraham Lincoln became President, with a fixed resolve to preserve the +Union but with no intent to abolish slavery. Had the war for the Union +been as successful as he hoped it would be, slavery would not have been +abolished by any act of his. It is clear that, when inaugurated, he had +not changed his opinions expressed at Springfield, nor those others, +which, at Peoria, Illinois, on October 16, 1854, he had stated thus: +"When our Southern brethren tell us they are no more responsible for +slavery than we are, I acknowledge the fact. When it is said the +institution exists and it is very difficult to get rid of it in any +satisfactory way, I can understand and appreciate the saying. I will +surely not blame them for not doing what I should not know how to do +myself. If all earthly power were given me, I should not know what to do +as to the institution. My first impulse would be to free all the slaves +and send them to Liberia, their native land." + +This, he said, it was impracticable to do, at least suddenly, and then +proceeded: "To free them all and keep them among us as underlings--is it +quite certain that this would better their condition?... What next? Free +them and make them politically and socially our equals?" This question +he answered in the negative, and continued: "It does seem to me that +systems of gradual emancipation might be adopted, but for their +tardiness I will not undertake to judge our brethren of the South." + +In these extracts from his speeches we find a central thread that runs +through the history of his whole administration. We see it again when, +pressed by extremists, Mr. Lincoln said in an open letter to Horace +Greeley, August 22, 1862: "My paramount object in this struggle is to +save the Union, and it is not either to save or to destroy slavery. If I +could save the Union without freeing any slave I would do it; and if I +could save it by freeing all the slaves I would do it; and if I could +save it by freeing some and leaving others alone, I would also do that." + +Indeed, Congress had, in 1861, by joint resolution declared that the +sole purpose of the war was the preservation of the Union. In no other +way, and for no other purpose, could the North at that time have been +induced to wage war against the South. + +Abraham Lincoln, the President of the United States, and Jefferson +Davis, the President of the Confederate States, were both Kentuckians by +birth, both Americans. In the purity of their lives, public and private, +in patriotic devotion to the preservation of American institutions as +understood by each of them, they were alike; but they represented +different phases of American thought, and each was the creature more or +less of his environment. Both were men of commanding ability, but the +destiny of each was shaped by agencies that now seem to have been +directed by the hand of Fate. Mr. Lincoln, by nature a political genius, +was carried to Illinois when a child, reared in the North-west among +those to whom, with the Mississippi River as their only outlet to the +markets of the world, disunion, with its loss of their highway to the +sea, was unthinkable. Lincoln became a Whig, with the Union of the +States the passion of his life, and finally, by forces he had not +himself put in motion, he was placed at the head of the Federal +Government at a time when sectionalism had decided that the question of +the permanence of the Union was to be tried out, once and forever. + +Mr. Davis went from Kentucky further South. He was a Democrat, and +environment also moulded his opinions. During the long sectional +controversy between the North and the South, "State-rights" became the +passion of his life, and when the clash between the sections came, he +found himself, without his seeking, at the head of the Confederacy. He +had been prominent among the Southerners at Washington, who had hoped +that the South, by threats of secession, might obtain its rights in the +Union, as had been done in Jefferson's days by New England. In the +movement (1860-61) that resulted in secession, the people at home had +been ahead of their congressmen. William L. Yancey, then in Alabama, not +Jefferson Davis at Washington, was the actual leader of the +secessionists. Mr. Davis feared a long and bloody war and, unlike +Yancey, he had doubts as to its result.[84] + + [84] Mrs. Chestnut, wife of the Confederate general, James Chestnut, + writes in her "Diary from Dixie," under date of 1861, at Montgomery, + Alabama, then the Confederate capital: "In Mrs. Davis's drawing-room + last night, the President took a seat by me on the sofa where I sat. He + talked for nearly an hour. He laughed at our faith in our own powers. We + are like the British. We think every Southerner equal to three Yankees + at least. We will have to be equivalent to a dozen now. After his + experience of the fighting qualities of Southerners in Mexico, he + believes that we will do all that can be done by pluck and muscle, + endurance and dogged courage, dash, and red-hot patriotism. And yet his + tone was not sanguine. _There was a sad refrain running through it all._ + For one thing, either way, he thinks it will be a long war. That floored + me at once. It has been too long for me already. Then he said, before + the end came we would have many bitter experiences. He said only fools + doubted the courage of the Yankees, or their willingness to fight when + they saw fit. And now that we have stung their pride, we have roused + them till they will fight like devils." + +Mr. Lincoln, standing for the Union, succeeded in the war, but just as +he was on the threshold of his great work of Reconstruction he fell, +the victim of a crazy assassin. Martyrdom to his cause has naturally +added some cubits to the just measure of his wonderful reputation. + +Jefferson Davis and his cause failed; and the triumphant forces that +swept the Confederacy out of existence have long (and quite naturally) +sought to bury the cause of the South and its chosen leader in ignominy. +But the days of hate and passion are past; reason is reasserting her +sway; and history will do justice to both the Confederacy and its great +leader, whose ability, patriotism, and courage were conspicuous to the +end. + +Mr. Davis was also a martyr--his long imprisonment, the manacles he +wore, the sentinel gazing on him in the bright light that day and night +disturbed his rest; the heroism with which he endured all this, and the +quiet dignity of his after life--these have doubly endeared his memory +to those for whose cause he suffered. + +Mr. Lincoln had remarkable political tact--he seemed to know how long to +wait and when to act, and, if we may credit Mr. Welles,[85] his +inflexibly honest Secretary of the Navy, he was, with the members of his +cabinet, wonderfully patient and even long-suffering. And although he +was the subject of much abuse, especially at the hands of Southerners +who then totally misunderstood him, he was animated always by the +philosophy of his own famous words, "With malice towards none, with +charity for all." Never for one moment did he forget, amidst even the +bitterest of his trials, that the Confederates, then in arms against +him, were, as he regarded them, his misguided fellow-citizens; and the +supreme purpose of his life was to bring them back into the Union, not +as conquered foes, but as happy and contented citizens of the great +republic. + + [85] "Diary of Gideon Welles," 3 vols., passim. + +The resources of the Confederacy and the United States were very +unequal. The Confederacy had no army, no navy, no factories, save here +and there a flour mill or cotton factory, and practically no machine +shops that could furnish engines for its railroads. It had one cannon +foundry. The Tredegar Iron Works, at Richmond, Virginia, was a fully +equipped cannon foundry. The Confederacy's arms and munitions of war +were not sufficient to supply the troops that volunteered during the +first six months of military operations. Its further supplies, except +such as the Tredegar works furnished, depended on importations through +the blockade soon to be established and such as might be captured. + +The North had the army and navy, factories of every description, food in +abundance, and free access to the ports of the world. + +The population of the North was 22,339,978. + +The population of the South was 9,103,332, of which 3,653,870 were +colored. The total white male population of the Confederacy, of all +ages, was 2,799,818. + +The reports of the Adjutant-General of the United States, November 9, +1880, show 2,859,132 men mustered into the service of the United States +in 1861-65. General Marcus J. Wright, of the United States War Records +Office, in his latest estimate of Confederate enlistments, places the +outside number at 700,000. The estimate of Colonel Henderson, of the +staff of the British army, in his "Life of Stonewall Jackson," is +900,000. Colonel Thomas J. Livermore, of Boston, estimates the +number of Confederates at about 1,000,000, and insists that in the +Adjutant-General's reports of the Union enlistments there are errors +that would bring down the number of Union soldiers to about 2,000,000. +Colonel Livermore's estimates are earnestly combated by Confederate +writers. + +General Charles Francis Adams has, in a recently published volume,[86] +cited figures given mostly by different Confederate authorities, which +aggregate 1,052,000 Confederate enlistments. What authority these +Confederate writers have relied on is not clear. The enlistments were +for the most part directly in the Confederate army and not through State +officials. The captured Confederate records should furnish the highest +evidence. But it is earnestly insisted that these records are +incomplete, and there is no purpose here to discuss a disputed point. + + [86] "Studies, Military and Diplomatic," p. 282 _et seq._ These studies + make a volume of rare historic value. + +The call to arms was answered enthusiastically in both sections, but +the South was more united in its convictions, and practically all her +young manhood fell into line, the rich and the poor, the cultured and +uncultured serving in the ranks side by side. + +The devotion of the noble women of the North, and of its humanitarian +associations, to the welfare of the Federal soldiers was remarkable, but +there was nothing in the situation in that section that could evoke such +a wonderful exhibition of heroism and self-sacrifice as was exhibited by +the devoted women of the South, who made willingly every possible +sacrifice to the cause of the Confederacy. + +Both sides fought bravely. Excluding from the Union armies negroes, +foreigners, and the descendants of recent immigrants, the Confederates +and the Union soldiers were mainly of British stock. The Confederates +had some notable advantages. Excepting a few Union regiments from the +West, the Southerners were better shots and better horsemen, especially +in the beginning of the war, than the Northerners; and the Southerners +were fighting not only for the Constitution of their fathers and the +defence of their homes, but for the supremacy of their race. They had +also another military advantage, that would probably have been decisive +but for the United States navy: they had interior lines of communication +which would have enabled them to readily concentrate their forces. But +the United States navy, hovering around their coast-line, not only +neutralized but turned this advantage into a weakness, thus compelling +the Confederates to scatter their armies. Every port had to be guarded. + +In the West the Federals were almost uniformly successful in the greater +battles, the Confederates winning in these but two decisive victories, +Chickamauga and Sabine Cross Roads, in Louisiana. Estimating, according +to the method of military experts, the percentage of losses of the +victor only, Chickamauga was the bloodiest battle of the world, from and +including Waterloo down to the present time. Gettysburg and Sharpsburg +also rank as high in losses as any battle fought elsewhere in this long +period, which takes in the Franco-German and the Russo-Japanese wars. At +Sharpsburg or Antietam the losses exceeded those in any other one day's +battle.[87] + + [87] According to that standard work, E. P. Alexander's "Memoirs," pp. + 244, 245, and 274, the Confederates, who stood their ground at + Sharpsburg on the day of battle and the day after, lost in killed and + wounded thirty-two per cent. The French army at Waterloo entirely + dissolved, with a loss in killed and wounded of only thirty-one per + cent. (See figures in Henderson's "Stonewall Jackson.") + +The Confederates were successful, excepting Antietam or Sharpsburg and +Gettysburg, and perhaps Seven Pines or Fair Oaks, in all the great +battles in the East, down to the time when the shattered remnant of +Lee's army was overwhelmed at Petersburg and surrendered at Appomattox. +The _elan_ the Southerners acquired in the many victories they won +fighting for their homes is not to be overlooked. But the failure of the +North with its overwhelming numbers and resources, to overcome the +resistance of the half-famished Confederates until nearly four years had +elapsed, can only be fully accounted for, in fairness to the undoubted +courage of the Union armies, by the fact, on which foreign military +critics are agreed, that the North had no such generals as Lee and +Stonewall Jackson. Only by the superior generalship of their leaders +could the Confederates have won as many battles as they did against +vastly superior numbers. + +But against the United States navy the brilliant generalship of the +Confederates and their marvellous courage were powerless. + +Accepted histories of the war have been written largely by the army and +its friends, and, strangely enough, the general historians have been so +attracted by the gallantry displayed in great land battles, and the +immediate results, that they have utterly failed to appreciate the +services of the United States navy. + +The Southerners accomplished remarkable results with torpedoes with the +_Merrimac_ or _Virginia_ and their little fleet of commerce destroyers; +but the United States navy, by its effective blockade, starved the +Confederacy to death. The Southern government could not market its +cotton, nor could it import or manufacture enough military supplies. +Among its extremest needs were rails and rolling stock to refit its +lines of communication. For want of transportation it was unable to +concentrate its armies, and for the same reason its troops were not half +fed. + +In addition to its services on the blockade, which, in Lord Wolseley's +opinion, decided the war, the navy, with General Grant's help, cut the +Confederacy in twain by way of the Mississippi. It penetrated every +Southern river, severing Confederate communications and destroying +depots of supplies. It assisted in the capture, early in the war, of +Forts Henry and Donelson, and it conducted Union troops along the +Tennessee River into east Tennessee and north Alabama. It furnished +objective points and supplies at Savannah, Charleston, and Wilmington, +to Sherman on his march from Atlanta; and finally Grant, the great Union +general, who had failed to reach Richmond by way of the Wilderness, +Spottsylvania, and Cold Harbor, achieved success only when the navy was +at his back, holding his base, while he laid a nine months' siege to +Petersburg. + +That distinguished author, Charles Francis Adams, himself a Union +general in the Army of the Potomac, says that the United States navy was +the deciding factor in the Civil War. He even says that every single +successful operation of the Union forces "hinged and depended on naval +supremacy." + +The following is from the preface to "The Crisis of the Confederacy," in +which, published in 1905, a foreign expert, Captain Cecil Battine, of +the King's Hussars, condenses all that needs further to be said here +about the purely military side of the Civil War: + + The history of the American Civil War still remains the most + important theme for the student and the statesman because it was + waged between adversaries of the highest intelligence and courage, + who fought by land and sea over an enormous area with every device + within the reach of human ingenuity, and who had to create every + organization needed for the purpose after the struggle had begun. + The admiration which the valor of the Confederate soldiers, + fighting against superior numbers and resources, excited in Europe; + the dazzling genius of some of the Confederate generals, and in + some measure jealousy at the power of the United States, have + ranged the sympathies of the world during the war and ever since to + a large degree on the side of the vanquished. Justice has hardly + been done to the armies which arose time and again from sanguinary + repulses, and from disasters more demoralizing than any repulse in + the field, because they were caused by political and military + incapacity in high places, to redeem which the soldiers freely shed + their blood as it seemed in vain. If the heroic endurance of the + Southern people and the fiery valor of the Southern armies thrill + us to-day with wonder and admiration, the stubborn tenacity and + courage which succeeded in preserving intact the heritage of the + American nation, and which triumphed over foes so formidable, are + not less worthy of praise and imitation. The Americans still hold + the world's record for hard fighting. + +The great majority of the Union soldiers enlisted for the preservation +of the Union and not for the abolition of slavery. But among these +soldiers there was an abolition element, and very soon the tramp of +federal regiments was keeping time to + + "John Brown's body lies a mouldering in the ground, + As we go marching on." + +Early in the war Generals Fremont and Butler issued orders declaring +free the slaves within the Union lines; these orders President Lincoln +rescinded. But Abolition sentiment was growing in the army and at the +North, and the pressure upon the President to strike at slavery was +increasing. The Union forces were suffering repeated defeats; slaves at +home were growing food crops and caring for the families of Confederates +who were fighting at the front, and in September, 1862, President +Lincoln issued his preliminary proclamation of emancipation, basing it +on the ground of military necessity. It was to become effective January +1, 1863. + +And here was the same Lincoln who had declared in 1858 his opinion that +whites and blacks could not live together as equals, socially and +politically; and it was the very same Lincoln who had repeatedly said he +cherished no ill-will against his Southern brethren. If the slaves were +to be freed, they and the whites should not be left together. He +therefore _sought diligently to find some home for the freedmen in a +foreign country_. But unfortunately, as already seen, the American +negro, a bone of contention at home, was now a pariah to other peoples. +Most nations welcome immigrants, but no country was willing to shelter +the American freedman, save only Liberia, long before a proven failure, +and Hayti, where, under the blacks, anarchy had already been chronic for +half a century. Hume tells us, in "The Abolitionists," that for a time +Mr. Lincoln even considered setting Texas apart as a home for the negro. + +Later the surrender of the Confederate armies, together with the +adoption of the Thirteenth Amendment to the Constitution, consummated +emancipation, foreseeing which President Lincoln formulated his plan of +Reconstruction. Suffrage in the reconstructed States under his plan was +to be limited to those who were qualified to vote at the date of +secession, which meant the whites. The sole exception he ever made to +this rule was a suggestion to Governor Hahn, of Louisiana, that it might +be well for the whites (of Louisiana) to give the ballot to a few of the +most intelligent of the negroes and to such as had served in the army. + +The part the soldiers played, Federal and Confederate, in restoring the +Union, is a short story. The clash between them settled without reserve +the only question that was really in issue--secession; slavery, that had +been the origin of sectional dissensions, was eliminated because it +obstructed the success of the Union armies. By their gallantry in battle +and conduct toward each other the men in blue and the men in gray +restored between the North and the South the mutual respect that had +been lost in the bitterness of sectional strife, and without which +there could be no fraternal Union. + +Mr. Gladstone, when the war was on, said that the North was endeavoring +to "propagate free institutions at the point of the sword." The North +was not seeking to propagate in the South any new institution whatever. +Mr. Gladstone's paradox loses its point because both sections were +fighting for the preservation of the same system of government. + +The time has now happily come when, to use the language of Senator Hoar, +as Americans, we can, North and South, discuss the causes that brought +about our terrible war "in a friendly and quiet spirit, without +recrimination and without heat, each understanding the other, each +striving to help the other, as men who are bearing a common burden and +looking forward with a common hope." + +The country, it is believed, has already reached the conclusions that +the South was absolutely honest in maintaining the right of secession +and absolutely unswerving in its devotion to its ideas of the +Constitution, and that the North was equally honest and patriotic in +its fidelity to the Union. We need to advance one step further. Somebody +was to blame for starting a quarrel between brethren who were dwelling +together in amity. If Americans can agree in fixing that blame, the +knowledge thus acquired should help them to avoid such troubles +hereafter. + +It seems to be a fair conclusion that the _initial cause of all our +troubles was the formation by Garrison of those Abolition societies_ +which the Boston people in their resolutions of August 1, 1835, +"disapproved of" and described as "associations instituted in the +non-slave-holding States, with the intent to act, within the +slave-holding States, on the subject of slavery in those States, without +their consent." And further, that it was the creation of these +societies, the methods they resorted to, and their explicit defiance of +the Constitution that roused the fears and passions of the South and +caused that section to take up the quarrel that, afterward became +sectional; and that, after much hot dispute and many regrettable +incidents, North and South, resulted in secession and war. + +In every dispute about slavery prior to 1831, the Constitution was +always regarded by every disputant as supreme. _The quarrel that was +fatal to the peace of the Union began when the New Abolitionists put in +the new claim, that slavery in the South was the concern of the North, +as well as of the South, and that there was a higher law than the +Constitution. If the conscience of the individual, instead of human law, +is to prescribe rules of conduct, society is at the mercy of anarchists. +Czolgosz was conscientious when he murdered McKinley._ + +Had all Americans continued to agree, after 1831, as they did before +that time, that the Constitution of the United States was the supreme +law of the land, there would have been no fatal sectional quarrel, no +secession, and no war between the North and South. + + * * * * * + +The immediate surrender everywhere of the Confederates in obedience to +the orders of their generals was an imposing spectacle. There was no +guerilla warfare. The Confederates accepted their defeat in good faith +and have ever since been absolutely loyal to the United States +Government, but they have never changed their minds as to the justice of +the cause they fought for. They fought for liberty regulated by law, and +against the idea that there can be, under our system, any higher law +than the Constitution of our country. That the Constitution should +always be the supreme law of the land, they still believe, and the +philosophic student of past and current history should be gratified to +see the tenacity with which Southern people still cling to that idea. It +suggests that not only will the Southerners be always ready to stand for +our country against a foreign foe, but that whenever our institutions +shall be assailed, as they will often be hereafter by visionaries who +are impatient of restraints, the cause of liberty, regulated by law, +will find staunch defenders in the Southern section of our country. + + + + +CHAPTER X + +RECONSTRUCTION, LINCOLN-JOHNSON PLAN AND CONGRESSIONAL. + + +President Lincoln's theory was that acts of secession were void, and +that when the seceded States came back into the Union those who were +entitled to vote, by the laws existing at the date of the attempted +secession, and had been pardoned, should have, and should control, the +right of suffrage. Mr. Lincoln had acted on this theory in Tennessee, +Louisiana, and Texas, and he further advised Congress, in his message of +December, 1863, that this was his plan. Congress, after a long debate, +responded in July, 1864, by an act claiming for itself power over +Reconstruction. The President answered by a pocket veto, and after that +veto Mr. Lincoln was, in November, 1864, re-elected on a platform +extolling his "practical wisdom," etc. Congress, during the session that +began in December, 1864, did not attempt to reassert its authority but +adjourned, March 4, 1865, in sight of the collapse of the Confederacy, +leaving the President an open field for his declared policy. + +But unhappily, on the 14th of April, 1865, Mr. Lincoln was assassinated, +and his death just at this time was the most appalling calamity that +ever befell the American people. The blow fell chiefly upon the South, +and it was the South the assassin had thought to benefit. + +Had the great statesman lived he might, and it is fully believed he +would, like Washington, have achieved a double success. Washington, +successful in war, was successful in guiding his country through the +first eight stormy years of its existence under a new constitution. +Lincoln had guided the country through four years of war, and the Union +was now safe. With Lee's surrender the war was practically at an end. + +Gideon Welles says that on the 10th of April, 1865, Mr. Lincoln, "while +I was with him at the White House, was informed that his fellow-citizens +would call to congratulate him on the fall of Richmond and surrender of +Lee; but he requested their visit should be delayed that he might have +time to put his thoughts on paper, for he desired that his utterances on +such an occasion should be deliberate and not liable to misapprehension, +misinterpretation, or misconstruction. He therefore addressed the people +on the following evening, Tuesday the 11th, in a carefully prepared +speech intended to promote harmony and union. + +"In this remarkable speech, delivered three days before his +assassination, he stated he had prepared a plan for the reinauguration +of the sectional authority and reconstruction in 1863, which would be +acceptable to the executive government, and that every member of the +cabinet fully approved the plan," etc.[88] + + [88] Gideon Welles in an essay, "Lincoln and Johnson," _The Galaxy_, + April, 1872. + +In view of his death three days later, this, his last and deliberate +public utterance, may be regarded as Abraham Lincoln's will, devising as +a legacy to his countrymen his plan of reconstruction. That plan in the +hands of his successor was defeated by a partisan and radical Congress. +That it was a wise plan the world now knows. + +Senator John Sherman, of Ohio, was one of the most influential of those +who succeeded in defeating it, and yet he lived to say, in his book +published in 1895,[89] Andrew Johnson "adopted substantially the plan +proposed and acted on by Mr. Lincoln. After this long lapse of time I am +convinced that Mr. Johnson's scheme of reorganization was wise and +judicious. It was unfortunate that it had not the sanction of Congress +and that events soon brought the President and Congress into hostility." + + [89] "John Sherman's Recollections," vol. I, p. 361. + +And the present senator, Shelby Cullom, of Illinois, who as a member of +the House of Representatives voted to overthrow the Lincoln-Johnson plan +of Reconstruction, has furnished us further testimony. He says in his +book, published in 1911:[90] + + [90] "Fifty Years of Public Service," Cullom, p. 146. + +"To express it in a word, the motive of the opposition to the Johnson +plan of Reconstruction was a firm conviction that its success would +wreck the Republican party and, by restoring the Democracy to power, +bring back Southern supremacy and Northern vassalage." + +The Republican party, then dominant in Congress, felt when confronting +Reconstruction that it was facing a crisis in its existence. The +Democratic party, unitedly opposed to negro suffrage, was still in +Northern States a power to be reckoned with. Allied with the Southern +whites, that old party might again control the government unless, by +giving the negro the ballot, the Republicans could gain, as Senator +Sumner said, the "allies it needed." But the masses at the North were +opposed to negro suffrage, and only two or three State constitutions +sanctioned it. Indeed, it may be safely said that when Congress convened +in December, 1865, a majority of the people of the North were ready to +follow Johnson and approve the Lincoln plan of Reconstruction. But the +extremists in both branches of the Congress had already determined to +defeat the plan and to give the ballot to the ex-slave. To prepare the +mind of the Northern people for their programme, they had resolved to +rekindle the passions of the war, which were now smouldering, and +utilize all the machinery, military and civilian, that Congress could +make effective. + +Andrew Johnson,[91] who as vice-president now succeeded to the +presidency, though a man of ability, had little personal influence and +none of Lincoln's tact. Johnson retained Lincoln's cabinet, and +McCullough, who was Secretary of the Treasury under both presidents, +says in his "Men and Measures of Half a Century," p. 378: + + [91] The final estimate of Gideon Welles, Secretary of the Navy under + both Lincoln and Johnson, is this: "He (Johnson) has been faithful to + the Constitution, although his administrative capabilities and + management may not equal some of his predecessors. Of measures he was a + good judge but not always of men."--"Diary of Gideon Welles," vol. III, + p. 556. + +"The very same instrument for restoring the national authority over +North Carolina and placing her where she stood before her secession, +which had been approved by Mr. Lincoln, was, by Mr. Stanton, presented +at the first cabinet which was held at the executive mansion after Mr. +Lincoln's death, and, having been carefully considered at two or three +meetings, was adopted as the Reconstruction policy of the +administration." + +Johnson carried out this plan. All the eleven seceding States repealed +their ordinances of secession. Their voters, from which class many +leaders had been excluded by the presidential proclamation, all took +the oath of allegiance, and reconstructed their State governments. From +most of the reconstructed States, senators and representatives were in +Washington asking to be seated when Congress convened, December 4, 1865. + +The presidential plan of Reconstruction had been promptly accepted by +the people of the prostrate States. Almost without exception they had, +when permitted, taken the oath and returned to their allegiance. + +The wretchedness of these people in the spring of 1865 was +indescribable. The labor system on which they depended for most of their +money-producing crops was destroyed. Including the disabled, twenty per +cent of the whites, who would now have been bread-winners, were gone. +The credit system had been universal, and credit was gone. Banks were +bankrupt. Confederate currency and bonds were worthless. Provisions were +scarce and money even scarcer. Many landholders had not even plough +stock with which to make a crop. + +There was some cotton, however, that had escaped the ravages of war, and +a large part of this also escaped the rapacious United States agents, +who were seizing it as Confederate property. This cotton was a godsend. +There was another supply of money that came from an unexpected source. +The old anti-slavery controversy had made it seem perfectly clear to +many moneyed men, North, that free labor was always superior to slave +labor; and now, when cotton was bringing a good price, enterprising men +carried their money, altogether some hundreds of thousands of dollars, +into the several cotton States, to buy plantations and make cotton with +free negro labor. Free negro labor was not a success. Those who had +reckoned on it lost their money; but this money went into circulation +and was helpful. + +Above all else loomed the negro problem. Five millions of whites and +three and a half millions of blacks were to live together. Thomas +Jefferson had said, "Nothing is more certainly written in the Book of +Fate than that these people are to be free; _nor is it less certain that +the two races, equally free, cannot live in the same government_. +_Nature, habit, opinion have drawn indelible lines between them._"[92] +And it may truly be said of Jefferson that he was, as quite recently he +was declared to be by Dr. Schurman, President of Cornell University, the +"apostle of reason, and reason alone." + + [92] "Jefferson's Works," vol. I, p. 48. + +What system of laws could Southern conventions and legislatures frame, +that would enable them to accomplish what Jefferson had declared was +impossible? This was the question before these bodies when called +together in 1865-66 by Johnson to rehabilitate their States. Two dangers +confronted them. One was, armed bands of negroes, headed by returning +negro soldiers. Mr. Lincoln had feared this. Early in April of that very +year, 1865, he said to General Butler: "I can hardly believe that the +South and North can live in peace unless we can get rid of the negroes, +whom we have armed and disciplined, and who have fought with us, to the +amount, I believe, of one hundred and fifty thousand." Mississippi, and +perhaps one other State, to guard against the danger from this source, +enacted that negroes were only to bear arms when licensed. This law was +to be fiercely attacked. + +The other chief danger was that idleness among the negroes would lead to +crime. It soon became apparent that the negro idea was that freedom +meant freedom from work. They would not work steadily, even for their +Northern friends, who were offering ready money for labor in their +cotton fields, and multitudes were loitering in towns and around +Freedmen's Bureau offices. Nothing seemed better than the old-time +remedies, apprenticeship and vagrancy laws, then found in every body of +British or American statutes. These laws Southern legislatures copied, +with what appeared to be necessary modifications, and these laws were +soon assailed as evidence of an intent to reduce the negro again to +slavery. Mr. James G. Blaine, in his "Twenty Years," selected the +Alabama statutes for his attack. In the writer's book, "Why the Solid +South," pp. 31-36, the Alabama statutes cited by Mr. Blaine are shown to +be very similar to and largely copied from the statutes of Vermont, +Massachusetts, and Rhode Island. + +Had Mr. Lincoln been living he would have sympathized with these +Southern law-makers in their difficult task. But to the radicals in +Congress nothing could have been satisfactory that did not give Mr. +Sumner's party the "allies it needed." + +The first important step of the Congress that convened December 4, 1865, +was to refuse admission to the congressmen from the States reconstructed +under the Lincoln-Johnson plan, and pass a joint resolution for the +appointment of a Committee of Fifteen to inquire into conditions in +those States. + +The temper of that Congress may be gauged by the following extract from +the speech of Mr. Shellabarger, of Ohio, on the passage of the joint +resolution: + +"They framed iniquity and universal murder into law.... Their pirates +burned your unarmed commerce on the sea. They carved the bones of your +dead heroes into ornaments, and drank from goblets made out of their +skulls. They poisoned your fountains; put mines under your soldiers' +prisons; organized bands, whose leaders were concealed in your homes; +and commissions ordered the torch and yellow fever to be carried to your +cities and to your women and children. They planned one universal +bonfire of the North from Lake Ontario to the Missouri," etc. + +Congress, while refusing admission to senators elected by the +legislatures of the reconstructed States, was permitting these very +bodies to pass on amendments to the Federal Constitution; and such votes +were counted. Congress now proposed the Fourteenth Amendment, Section +III of which provided that no person should hold office under the United +States who, having taken an oath, as a Federal or State officer, to +support the Constitution, had subsequently engaged in the war against +the Union. The Southerners would not vote for a provision that would +disfranchise their leaders; they refused to ratify the Fourteenth +Amendment, and this helped further to inflame the radicals of the North. + +After the Committee of Fifteen had been appointed, Congress proceeded to +put the reconstructed States under military control. In the debate on +the measure, February 18, 1867, James A. Garfield, who was, at a later +date, to become generous and conservative, said exultingly: "This bill +sets out by laying its hands on the rebel governments and taking the +very breath of life out of them; in the next place, it puts the bayonet +at the breast of every rebel in the South; in the next place, it leaves +in the hands of Congress utterly and absolutely the work of +Reconstruction." + +And Congress did its work. Lincoln was in his grave, and Johnson, even +with his vetoes, was powerless. By the acts of March 2 and March 23, +1867, the reconstructed governments were swept away. Universal suffrage +was given to the negro and most of the prominent whites were +disfranchised. + +The first suffrage bill was for the District of Columbia, during the +debate on which Senator Sumner said: "Now, to my mind, nothing is +clearer than the absolute necessity of suffrage for all colored persons +in the disorganized States. It will not be enough, if you give it to +those who can read and write; you will not in this way acquire the +voting force you need there for the protection of Unionists, whether +white or black. You will not acquire the new allies who are essential to +the national cause." + +In the forty-first Congress, beginning March 4, 1871, the twelve +reconstructed States, including West Virginia, were represented by +twenty-two Republicans and two Democrats in the Senate, and forty-eight +Republicans and twelve Democrats in the House of Representatives. + +Mr. Sumner's "new allies" were ready to answer to the roll-call. + + * * * * * + +When Congress had convened in December, 1865, its radical leaders were +already bent on universal suffrage for the negro, but the Northern mind +was not yet prepared for so radical a measure. The "Committee of +Fifteen" was the first step in the programme, which was to hold the +Southern States out of the Union and make an appeal to the passions and +prejudices of Northern voters in the congressional elections of +November, 1866. Valuable material for the coming campaign was already +being furnished by the agents of the Freedmen's Bureau. These +"adventurers, broken down preachers, and politicians," as Senator +Fessenden, of Maine, called them, were, and had been for some time, +reporting "outrages," swearing negroes into midnight leagues, and +selecting the offices they hoped to fill. + +But the chief source of the material relied upon in the congressional +campaign of 1866 to exasperate the North, and prod voters to the point +of sanctioning negro suffrage in the South, was the official information +from the Committee of Fifteen. Its subcommittee of three, to take +testimony as to Virginia, North and South Carolina, Georgia, Alabama, +Mississippi, and Arkansas, were _all Republicans_. The doings of this +subcommittee in Alabama illustrate their methods. Only five persons, who +claimed to be citizens, were examined. These were all Republican +politicians. The testimony of each was bitterly partisan. "Under the +government of the State as it then existed, no one of these witnesses +could hope for official preferment. When this Reconstruction plan had +been completed the first of these five witnesses became governor of his +State; the second became a senator in Congress; the third secured a life +position in one of the departments in Washington; the fourth became a +circuit judge in Alabama, and the fifth a judge of the Supreme Court of +the District of Columbia--all as Republicans. There was no Democrat in +the subcommittee which examined these gentlemen, to cross-examine them; +and not a citizen of Alabama was called before that subcommittee to +confute or explain their evidence."[93] + + [93] "Why the Solid South," p. 20. + +With the material gathered by these means and from these sources, the +honest voters of the North were deluded into the election of a Congress +that went to Washington, in December, 1866, armed with authority to pass +the Reconstruction laws of March, 1867. + +Southern counsels were now much divided. Many good men, like Governor +Brown, of Georgia; General Longstreet and ex-Senator Albert Gallatin +Brown, of Mississippi, advised acquiescence and assistance, "not because +we approve the policy of Reconstruction, but because it is the best we +can do." These advisers hoped that good men, well known to the negroes, +might control them for the country's good; and zealous efforts were made +along this line in every State, but they were futile. The blacks had +already, before they got the suffrage, accepted the leadership of those +claiming to be the "men who had freed them." These leaders were not only +bureau agents but army camp-followers; and there was still another +brood, who espied from afar a political Eden in the prostrate States +and forthwith journeyed to it. All these Northern adventurers were +called "carpet-baggers"--they carried their worldly goods in their +hand-bags. The Southerners who entered into a joint-stock business with +them became "scalawags." These people mustered the negroes into leagues, +and everywhere whispered it into their ears that the aim of the Southern +whites was to reenslave them. + +Politics in the South in the days before the war had always been more or +less intense, partly because there were so many who had leisure, and +partly because the general rule was joint political discussions. The +seams that had divided Whigs and Democrats, Secessionists and Union men, +had not been entirely closed up, even by the melting fires of the Civil +War. Old feuds for a time played their part in Southern politics, even +after March, 1867. These old feuds made it difficult for Southern whites +to get together as a race; and, in fact, conservative men dreaded the +idea. It tended toward an actual race war which, for many years, had +been a nightmare; but in every reconstructed State the negro and his +allies finally forced the race issue. + +The new rulers not only increased taxes and misappropriated the revenues +of counties, cities, and States; they bartered away the credit of State +after State. Some of the States, after they were redeemed, scaled their +debts by compromising with creditors; others have struggled along with +their increased burdens. + +There were hundreds of negro policemen, constables, justices of the +peace, and legislators who could not write their names. Justice was in +many localities a farce. Ex-slaves became judges, representatives in +Congress, and United States senators. The eleven Confederate States had +been divided into military districts. Many of the officers and men who +were scattered over the country to uphold negro rule sympathized with +the whites and evidenced their sympathy in various ways. Others, either +because they were radicals at heart, or to commend themselves to their +superiors, who were some of them aspiring to political places, were +super-serviceable; and it was not uncommon for a military officer, in a +case where a negro was a party, to order a judge to leave the bench and +himself take the place. In communities where negro majorities were +overwhelming there were usually two factions, and when political +campaigns were on agents for these clans often scoured the fields clear +of laborers to recruit their marching bands. In cities these bands made +night hideous with shouts and the noise of fifes and drums. The negro +would tolerate no defection from his ranks to the whites, and negro +women were more intolerant than the men. It sometimes happened that a +bloody clash between the races was imminent when white men sought to +protect a negro who had dared to speak in favor of the Democratic and +Conservative party. In truth, the civilization of the South was being +changed from white to negroid. + +The final triumph of good government in all the States was at last +accomplished by accepting the race issue, as in Alabama in 1874. The +first resolution in the platform of the "Democratic and Conservative +party" in that State then was, "The radical and dominant faction of the +Republican party in this State persistently, and by fraudulent +representations, have inflamed the passions and prejudices of the +negroes, as a race, against the white people, and have thereby made it +necessary for the white people to unite and act together in self-defence +and for the preservation of white civilization." + +The people of North Carolina recovered the right of self-government in +1870. Other States followed from time to time, the last two being +Louisiana and South Carolina in 1877. + +Edwin L. Godkin, who was for long at the head of the _Nation_ and the +_Evening Post_, of New York, is thought by some competent judges to have +been the ablest editor this country has ever had. After the last of the +negro governments set up in the South had passed away, looking back over +the whole bad business, Mr. Godkin, in a letter to his friend Charles +Eliot Norton, written from Sweet Springs, West Virginia, September 3, +1877, said: "I do not see in short how the negro is ever to be worked +into a system of government for which you and I could have much +respect."[94] + + [94] Ogden's "Life and Letters of Edwin Lawrence Godkin," vol. II, p. + 114. + +Garrison is dead. At the centenary of his birth, December 12, 1904, an +effort was made to arouse enthusiasm. There was only a feeble response; +but we still have extremists. Professor Josiah Royce, of Harvard, in +"Race Questions" (1906), speaking of race antipathies as "trained +hatred," says, pp. 48-49: "We can remember that they are childish +phenomena in our lives, phenomena on a level with the dread of snakes or +of mice, phenomena that we share with the cats and with the dogs, not +noble phenomena, but caprices of our complex nature." + + + + +CHAPTER XI + +THE SOUTH UNDER SELF-GOVERNMENT + + +For now more than thirty years, whites and blacks, both free, have lived +together in the reconstructed States. In some of them there have been +local clashes, but in none of them has there been race war, predicted by +Jefferson and feared by Lincoln; and there probably never will be such a +war, unless it shall come through the intervention of such an outside +force as produced in the South the conflict between the races at the +polls in 1868-76. + +Every State government set up under the plan of Congress had wrought +ruin, and the ruin was always more complete where the negroes were most +numerous, as in South Carolina and Louisiana. + +The rule of the carpet-bagger and the negro was now superseded by +governments based on Abraham Lincoln's idea, the idea he expressed in +the debate with Douglas in 1858, when he said: "While they [the two +races] do remain together _there must be the position of inferior and +superior_, and I, as much as any other man, _am in favor of having the +superior position assigned to the white man_." + +Conducted on this basis, the present governments in the reconstructed +States have endured now for periods varying from thirty-six to forty-two +years, and in every State, without any exception, the prosperity of both +whites and blacks has been wonderful, and this in spite of the still +existent abnormal animosities engendered by congressional +reconstruction. + +In the present State governments the race problem seems to have reached, +in its larger lines, its only practicable solution. There is still, +however, much friction between whites and blacks. Higher culture among +the masses, especially of the dominant race, and wise leadership in both +races, will in time minimize this, but it is not to be expected, nor is +it ever to be desired, that racial antipathies should entirely cease to +exist. The result of such cessation would be amalgamation, a solution +that American whites will never tolerate. + +Deportation, as a solution of the negro problem, is impracticable. Mr. +Lincoln, much as he desired the separation of the races, could not +accomplish it, even when he had all the war power of the government in +his hands. He was, as we have seen, unable to find a country that would +take the 3,500,000 of blacks then in the seceded States. Now, there are +in the South, including Delaware, according to the census of 1910, +8,749,390, and, quite naturally, the American negro is more unwilling +than ever to leave America. + +Another solution sometimes suggested in the South is the repeal of the +Fifteenth Amendment, which declares that the negro shall not be deprived +of the ballot because of his race, but agitation for this would appear +to be worse than useless. + +The negro vote in the reconstructed States is, and has for years been, +quite small, not large enough to be considered a factor in any of them. +One cause of this is that the whites enforce against the blacks rigidly +the tests required by law, but the chief reason is, that the negro, who +is qualified, does not often apply for registration. He finds work now +more profitable than voting. He can not, he knows, control, nor can he, +if disposed to do so, sell his ballot as he once did. One of the most +signal and durable evils of Congressional Reconstruction was the utter +debasement of the suffrage in eleven States where the ballot had +formerly been notably pure. Gideon Welles saw clearly when he said in +his diary, June 23, 1867 (p. 102, vol. III): "Under the pretence of +elevating the negro the radicals are degrading the whites and debasing +the elective franchise, bringing elections into contempt." During the +rule of the negro and the alien, in every black county, where the negro +majority was as two to one, there were, as a rule, two Republican +candidates for every fat office, and an election meant, for the negro, a +golden harvest. Rival candidates were mercilessly fleeced by their black +constituencies, and the belief South is that as a rule the +carpet-baggers, in their hegira, returned North as poor as when they +came. + +In the Reconstruction era the whites fought fraud with fraud; and even +after recovering control they, the whites, felt justified in continuing +to defraud the negro of his vote. To restore the purity of the +ballot-box was the chief reason for the amendments to State +constitutions, by means of which amendments, having in view the +limitations of the Federal Constitution, as many negroes and as few +whites as was practicable were excluded. + +This accounts in part for the smallness of the negro vote South. A more +potent reason is that the Democratic party, dominated by whites, selects +its candidates in primaries; and the negro, seeing no chance to win, +does not care to pay a poll tax or otherwise qualify for registration. + +Southern whites have now for more than three decades been governing the +blacks in their midst. It is the most difficult task that has ever been +undertaken in all the history of popular government, but sad experience +has demonstrated that legal restriction of the negro vote in the South +there must be. + +Party spirit tends always to blind the vision, and, as we have seen in +this review of the past, it often stifles conscience; and this even +where the masses of the people are approximately homogeneous. Southern +statesmen are now dealing not only with party spirit, but with +perpetual race friction manifesting itself in various forms. Failure +there must be in minor matters and in certain localities; the progress +that has been made can only be fairly estimated by considering general +results. Those who sympathize with the South think they see there among +the whites a growing spirit of altruism, begotten of responsibility, and +this promises much for the amelioration of race friction. + +Since obtaining control of their State governments the whites in the +Southern States have as a rule increased appropriations for common +schools by at least four hundred per cent, and though paying themselves +by far the greater proportion of these taxes, they have continued to +divide revenues pro rata between the white and colored schools. + +Industrial results have been amazing. The following figures, taken from +the Annual Blue Book, 1911 edition, of the _Manufacturers' Record_, +Baltimore, Maryland, include West Virginia among the reconstructed +States. + +The population of these States was, in 1880, 13,608,703; in 1910, +23,613,533. + +Manufacturing capital, 1880, $147,156,624. In 1900--twenty years--it was +$1,019,056,200. + +Cotton crop, whole South, 1880, 5,761,252 bales. In 1911 it was about +15,000,000. + +Of this cotton crop Southern mills took, in 1880, 321,337 bales, and in +1910, 2,344,343 bales. + +In 1880 the twelve reconstructed States cut, of lumber, board measure, +2,981,274,000 feet; and in 1909 22,445,000,000 feet. + +Their output of pig-iron was, in 1880, 264,991 long tons; in 1910, +3,048,000 tons. The assessed value of taxable property was, in 1880, +$2,106,971,271; in 1910, $6,522,195,139. + +The negro, though the white man, with his superior energy and capacity, +far outstrips him, has shared in this material prosperity. His property +in these States has been estimated as high as $500,000,000. + +During the last decade, 1900-1910, the white population of the South +increased by 24.4 per cent, while the negro population in the same +States increased only 10.4 per cent. There has been a very considerable +gain of whites over blacks since 1880, the result largely of a greater +natural increase of whites over blacks, immigrants not counted. All +this indicates that the negro problem is gradually being minimized. + +Taken in the aggregate, the shortcomings of the negro are numerous and +regrettable, but not greater than was to be expected. The general +advance of an inferior race will never equal that of one which is +superior by nature and already centuries ahead. The laggard and +thriftless among the inferior people will naturally be more, and it is +from these classes that prison houses are filled. + +There is a very considerable class of negroes who are improving mentally +and morally, but improvidence is a characteristic of the race, and very +many of them, even though they labor more or less steadily, will never +accumulate. The third class, much larger than among the whites, is +composed of those who are idle, dissipated, and criminal. Taken +altogether, however, what Booker Washington says is true: "There cannot +be found, in the civilized or uncivilized world, a like number of +negroes whose economic, educational, and religious life is so far +advanced as that of the ten millions within this country."[95] This +advancement is one of the results of slavery. When the negroes come to +recognize this, as some of their leaders already do,[96] and come to +appreciate the advantages for further improvement they have had since +their emancipation, they will cease to repine over the bondage of their +ancestors. There were undoubtedly evils in slavery, but, after all, +there was some reason in the advice given by the good Spanish Bishop Las +Casas to the King of Spain--that it would be rightful to enslave and +thus Christianize and civilize the African savage. Herbert Spencer, +"Illustrations of Universal Progress" (p. 444), says: "Hateful though it +is to us, and injurious as it would be now, slavery was once beneficial, +was one of the _necessary phases of human progress_." + + [95] Pickett, pp. 399-400. + + [96] "The Negro Problem," Pickett, 1909, pp. 399-400. + +Sir Harry Johnston, African explorer and student of the negro race, in +both the old and the new world, and perhaps the most eminent authority +on a question he has, in a fashion, made his own, says: "Intellectually, +and perhaps physically, he (the negro) has attained the highest degree +of advancement as yet in the United States."[97] + + [97] "The Negro in the New World," Sir Harry Johnston, p. 478. + +"In Alabama (most of all) the American negro is seen at his best, as +peasant, peasant proprietor, artisan, professional man, and member of +society."[98] + + [98] _Ib._, p. 470. + +Race animosities are now abnormal, both South and North. The prime +reasons for this are two: + +1. The bitter conflict during reconstruction for race supremacy and the +false hopes once held out to the negro of ultimate social equality with +the whites. Among the early measures of congressional reconstruction was +a "civil rights" enactment which the negroes regarded as giving to them +all the rights of the white man. Their Supreme Court in Alabama decided, +in "Burns vs. The State," that the "civil rights" laws conferred the +right to intermarriage. Negroes, North, no doubt also believed in this +construction. But the Supreme Court of the United States later held that +the States, and not Congress, had jurisdiction over the marriage +relation within the States. All the Southern and a number of the +Northern States have since forbidden the intermarriage of whites and +blacks, and so the negro's hopes of equal rights in this regard have +vanished. + +This disappointment and his utter failure to secure the social equality +that once seemed his, have tended to embitter the negro against the +white man. + +2. Whites have been embittered against blacks by the frequency in later +years of the crime of the negro against white women. This horrible +offence began to be common in the South some thirty-two or three years +since, or perhaps a little earlier, and somewhat later it appeared in +the North, where it seems to have been as common, negro population +considered, as in the South. The crime was almost invariably followed by +lynching, which, however, was not always for the same crime. The +following is the list of lynchings in the sections, as kept by the +_Chicago Tribune_ since it began to compile them: + +1885 184 + +1886 138 + +1887 122 + +1888 142 + +1889 176 + +1890 127 + +1891 192 + +1892 205 + +1893 200 + +1894 190 + +1895 171 + +1896 181 + +1897 166 + +1898 127 + +1899 107 + +1900 107 + +1901 185 + +1902 96 + +1903 104 + +1904 87 + +1905 66 + +1906 66 + +1907 68 + +1908 100 + +1909 87 + +1910 74 + +The general decrease, while population is increasing, is encouraging; +but lynching itself is a horrible crime; and lynching for one crime +begets lynching for another. Of the total number lynched last year, nine +were whites; sixty-five were negroes, among them three women; and only +twenty-two were for crimes of negroes against white women. The other +crimes were murder, attempts to murder, robbery, arson, etc. + +Census returns indicate that in the country at large the criminality of +the negro, as compared with that of the white man, is nearly three times +greater, and that the ratio of negro criminality is much higher North +than South. Such returns also indicate that so far education has not +lessened negro criminality,[99] but it is not known that any +well-educated negro has been guilty of the crime against white women. + + [99] "The Negro Problem," William Pickett, pp. 136-38. Rare Traits, + etc., of the Negro, Statistician, Prudential Ins. Co. of America, p. 219 + _et seq._ + +In the South the negro is excluded from many occupations for which the +best of them are fitted, but in the North his industrial conditions are +worse. Fewer occupations are open to him and the wisest members of his +race are counselling him to remain in the more favorable industrial +atmosphere of the South. + +The dislike of negroes for whites has been increased South by the laws +which separate them from whites in schools, public conveyances, etc. But +it is to be remembered that these laws were intended to prevent +intermarriage; they are in part the result of race antipathies. But the +sound reason for them is that they tend to prevent intimacies which, at +the points where the races are in closest touch with each other, might +result in intermarriage. Professor E. D. Cope, of the University of +Pennsylvania, one of the very highest of American authorities on the +race question, in a powerful article published in 1890,[100] advocated +the deportation of the negroes from the South, no matter at what cost. +Otherwise he predicted eventual amalgamation, which would be the +destruction of a large portion of the finest race in the world. + + [100] "Two Perils of the Indo-European," _The Open Court_, January 23, + 1890, p. 2052. + + * * * * * + +This little study now comes to a close. An effort has been made to +sketch briefly in this chapter the difficulties the South has +encountered in dealing with the negro problem, and to outline the +measure of success it has achieved. However imperfectly the author may +have performed his task, it must be clear to the reader that no such +problem as the present was ever before presented to a self-governing +people. Never was there so much need of that culture from which alone +can come a high sense of duty to others. The negro must be encouraged to +be self-helpful and useful to the community. If he is to do all this and +remain a separate race, he must have leadership among his own people. In +the Mississippi Black Belt there is now a town of some 4,000 negroes, +Mound Bayou, completely organized and prospering. It may be that in the +future negroes seeking among themselves the amenities of life may +congregate into communities of their own, cultivating adjacent lands, as +the French do in their agricultural villages. Wherever they may be, +they must practise the civic virtues, honesty, and obedience to law. W. +H. Councill, a negro teacher, of Huntsville, Alabama, said some years +since in a magazine article: "When the gray-haired veterans who followed +Lee and Jackson pass away, the negro will have lost his best friends." +This is true, but it is hoped that time and culture, while not producing +social equality, will allay race animosities and bring the negro other +friends to take the place of the departing veterans. + +The white man, with his pride of race, must more and more be made to +feel that _noblesse oblige_. His sense of duty to others must measure up +to his responsibilities and opportunities. He must accord to the negro +all his rights under the laws as they exist. + +The South is exerting itself to better its common schools, but it cannot +compete in this regard with the North. Northern philanthropists are +quite properly contributing to education in the South. They should +consider well the needs of both races. Any attempt to give to the +negroes advantages superior to those of the whites, who are now +treating the negro fairly in this respect, might look like another +attempt to put, in negro language, "the bottom rail on top." + +Looking over the whole field covered by this sketch, it is wonderful to +note how the chain of causation stretches back into the past. +Reconstruction was a result of the war; secession and war resulted from +a movement in the North, in 1831, against conditions then existing in +the South. The negro, the cause of the old quarrel between the sections, +is located now much as he was then. How full of lessons, for both the +South and the North, is the history of the last eighty years! + +There is even a chord that connects the burning of a negro at +Coatesville, Pennsylvania, by an excited mob on the 13th of August, +1911, with the burning of the Federal Constitution at Framingham, +Massachusetts, by that other excited mob of madmen, under Garrison, on +the fourth day of July, 1854. One body of outlaws was defying the laws +of Pennsylvania; the other was defying the fundamental laws of the +nation. + + + + +INDEX + + + Abolitionists, mobbed, 71; + burn U. S. Constitution, 72; + private lives of leaders irreproachable, 89; + become factor in national politics; Boston captured by; + "slave-catchers" now mobbed; national election turns on + vote, 95-6; + anti-slavery in Faneuil Hall, 97; + election again turns on vote of, 99; + impartial observer on influence of, 105; + Professor Smith on, 106 + + Abolition petitions in Congress, influence of, 102 + + Abolition societies, in 1840, 93 + + Adams, John Quincy, becomes champion of Abolitionists, 90; + defends right of petition, 91 + + Alien and Sedition laws, 1798, 18; + nature of, 19 + + Americans, world's record for hard fighting, 201 + + Andrews, Prof. E. A., slavery conditions South, 79 + + Anti-slavery people and Abolitionists grouped, 104; + Douglas charged "Black Republican" party with favoring "negro + citizenship and negro equality," 167 + + Aristocracy in South, 159, 160, 161 + + Articles of Confederation, 15 + + Author, antecedents, explanation of, 10-11 + + Author's conclusions, 242-3-4 + + + Biglow Papers, 97-8 + + Birney, James G., mobbed, 87 + + Boston meeting, Dr. Hart overlooks, 73 + + Boston Resolutions, 64 + + Burke, Edmund, on conciliation, 109; + spirit of liberty in slave-holding communities, 158 + + + Calhoun, John C., prophecy of, 167-8 + + Cause of sectional conflict, Abolition societies and their methods, 205 + + Channing, Dr. Wm. E., encomium on Great Britain, 39; + letter to Webster, 47; + opinion of Abolitionists, 87; + his change, 88 + + Characters and careers, of Abraham Lincoln and Jefferson Davis, 188-192 + + Churches, North and South, opposition to slavery; a stupendous + change, 67; + "whole cloth arrayed against" Garrison, 68; + Southern churches still defend slavery; Northern changed; Methodist + church disrupted, 70 + + Coatesville lynching, 224 + + Colonies, juxtaposed, not united, 15 + + Colonization Society, origin of and purposes, 44; + its supporters, 45; + making progress; Abolitionists halted it, 46 + + Compromise of 1850; excitement in Congress, 106; + great leaders in; Webster on 7th of March, 107; + Clay's speech, 112; + new fugitive slave law gave offence, 128 + + Confederate States with old Constitution--changes slight, 186 + + Constitution, Alien and Sedition Laws first palpable infringement, 3; + powers conferred by discussed, 16; + as supreme law Southerners still cling to, 207 + + Cope, Prof. E. D., advocated deportation to prevent amalgamation, 241 + + Cotton gin, accepted theory as to denied, 12 + + Courage of, and losses in, both armies, 195 + + Criminality, of negroes greater than of whites, 240 + + Cromwell and the Great Revolution, analogy to, 8 + + Curtis, George Ticknor, quotation from "Life of Buchanan," 14 + + + Davis, Jefferson, farewell speech, 181; + doubts about success--sadness, 190 + + Democrats, North, opposed negro suffrage, 212 + + Deportation, no country ready to take negro, 82 + + Disunion, project among Federalist leaders, 1803-4, 25; + sentiment in Congress, 1794, 24 + + + Emancipation, easy North; difficult South, 40; + Federal government, no power over, 41; + status North in 1830, 52 + + Emancipations, South, what accomplished in 1831, 50; + census tables, 51 + + Embargo of 1807, why repealed, 26 + + Emerson, Ralph Waldo, eulogizes John Brown, 15 + + Everett, Edward, denunciation of John Brown expedition, 152 + + Extradition, refused, of abductors of slaves, Supreme Court + powerless, 176 + + + Federalists, construed Constitution liberally, 17 + + Fite, Professor at Yale, declares Republicans in 1860 hoped to destroy + slavery, 175; + justification of secession, 182 + + Freedman's Bureau, its composition, 221 + + Free speech, Channing defends Abolitionists as champions of, 87; + John Quincy Adams becomes advocate, 90 + + Fugitive slave law, North not opposing in 1828, 53; + Missouri Compromise provided for, 54 + + + Garrison, William Lloyd, began _Liberator_; personality and + characteristics, 56; + key-note, slavery the concern of all; slave-holders to be made + odious, 58 + + Godkin, E. L., on negro as factor in politics, 237 + + Greeley, Horace, draws comfort from John Brown's raid, 153 + + + Hartford Convention, 28 + + Helper, Hinton Rowan, his book, 165 + + Higher law idea, prompted Abolition Crusade--and Czolgosz to murder + McKinley, 206 + + + Immigration and Union sentiment; number of immigrants, 33; + few South, 34 + + Incendiary literature, sent South, 62; + North aroused; Andrew Jackson's message, 63; + Boston Resolutions, 64; + indictment in Alabama; requisition on Governor of New York, 98 + + Incompatibility of slavery and freedom; Lincoln's Springfield + speech, 81; + Garrison first to announce doctrine; Abraham Lincoln next; + then Seward, 147-8 + + Insurrections, Denmark Vesey plot at Charleston, 59; + Nat Turner in Virginia; Walker's pamphlet, 60 + + Irish patriots, Mitchel and Meagher, divide on secession, 35 + + + John Brown's raid, 149; + his secret committee, 151 + + Johnson, Andrew, succeeding Lincoln, carried out plan, 213 + + Johnston, Sir Harry, on negro in South, highest degree of + advancement, 237 + + + Kansas, fierce struggles in; Sumner's bitter speech, 142-3 + + Kansas-Nebraska Act, Douglas originated, 135; + aggravated sectionalism, 136 + + Kentucky Resolutions, 1798, 19; + Jefferson the author, 20; + copy of first of, 21 + + Kentucky and Virginia Resolutions of 1798-9; + Secessionists relied on, 21; + Jefferson and Madison's reasons for, 22 + + Know-Nothing party, its origin; purposes; appeal for the Union, + 140-1-2 + + + Las Casas, Bishop, advice to King of Spain, 237 + + Liberia, sending negroes to, called "expatriation"; enterprise a + failure, 46; + Lincoln's hopes of, 81; + why it failed--Miss Mahoney's account, 169-70-71 + + Lincoln, South no more responsible for slavery than North, 49; + speech at Charleston, Ill., 81; + finds no country ready to take American negro, 82; + South in 1860 thought him radical; had favored white supremacy + in 1858, 185; + speech at Peoria, 186; + assassination of, 209 + + Lodge, Henry Cabot, declares popular verdict against Webster, 118; + he had undertaken the impossible, 120; + his argument good, he not man to make it, 121 + + Lundy, Benjamin, attempts to stir up North against slavery South, 47 + + Lynchings, tables, 239; + comments on, 240 + + + McMaster, affirms Webster behind the times (note), 100 + + Missouri, controversy over slavery, 52; + distinct from that begun later by "New Abolitionists," 53 + + Mobs, Garrison mobbed; many anti-slavery riots North, 71; + violence toward Abolitionists in North reacted, 85; + opponents became defenders, 86 + + Mound Bayou, a negro town, 242 + + + Nationality, spirit of; causes of, development of, 30; + grows, North; South on old lines, 35 + + Navy, U. S., deciding factor in war, 198-9 + + Negro, the, located now much as in 1860, 7; + Lincoln could find no home abroad for, 206; + reasons for smallness of vote South, 233; + improvement; Booker Washington's opinion, 236; + benefited by slavery; attained South highest degree of + advancement, 237; + best opportunities South, 241; + Confederate veterans best friends there, 243 + + + Ohio, Resolutions looking to co-operative emancipation; responses + of other States to, 42; + Southern reason for, 43; + Northern, kindly temper of, 44 + + Otis, Harrison Gray, on Boston Resolutions, 65 + + + Pamphlets, venomous one cited, 75 + + Personal liberty laws, eleven States passed; Alexander Johnston + says absolutely without excuse, 177 + + Petition, right of, in Congress, 90; + "gag resolution," 92 + + Political conditions, North and South compared, 162-3-4 + + "Poor whites," discussion of, and of social conditions South, 155-6-7 + + Presidential campaign 1860, excitement, 171 + + Press, Northern slandering South, 153; + Southern slandering North, 154 + + + Race animosities, negro's aspirations to social equality; legal + enactments, 238; + whites embittered by crime against white women, 239 + + Reagan, "Republican rule on Abolition principles," 105 + + Reconstruction, Lincoln's theory; veto of resolution asserting power + of Congress over, 208; + last speech, adhering to plan, 210 + + Reconstruction by Johnson under Lincoln plan; wisdom of Lincoln-Johnson + plan, John Sherman; opposition to it partisan, Senator Cullom, 211; + South accepts plan; senators and representatives, 214; + negro problem and Jefferson's prediction, 215; + apprenticeship and vagrancy laws, Blaine's attack on, 217 + + Reconstruction, Congressional, extremists bent on negro suffrage when + Congress convened in 1865, 212; + preparations for; committee of fifteen; Shellabarger's appeal to war + passions, 215; + South denied representation; Southerners reject Fourteenth Amendment; + Garfield denounces rebel government, 219; + Johnson's reconstructed State governments swept away; universal + suffrage for negro; South sends Republicans to Congress, 220; + witnesses before "Committee of Fifteen" rewarded; Southern counsels + divided, 223; + carpet-baggers and scalawags, 224; + intolerable political conditions; race issue forced upon whites, 226; + whites recover self-government, 227 + + Republican party, the modern; its origin; Mr. Rhodes on, 138-139; + nominates Fremont and Dayton; denounces slavery; excitement; + defeated, 144 + + Resources, war, North and South compared, 191-2-3 + + + Salem Church monument, 9 + + Santo Domingo, memory of massacre in, 80 + + Seceded States, wretched conditions in 1865, 214 + + Seceding States, desire to preserve Constitution, 179 + + Secession, early threats of not connected with slavery, 26; + Josiah Quincy threatens, 1811; Massachusetts legislature endorses + him, 28; + in early days belief in general, 28; + Massachusetts legislature threatens, 1844, 29; + eleven States seceded, 179; + Prof. Fite justifies, his ground, 182; + motives for in 1860-1, 183 + + Self-government restored; local clashes, no race war; based on Lincoln's + idea, superiority of white man, 229; + constitutional amendments to restore purity of ballot, 233; + industrial results amazing, 234-5; + negro vote small--reasons, 231 + + Seward, leader of Republican party, 178 + + Situation in Alabama in 1835--letter of John W. Womack, 79 + + Slavery, Great Britain abolishes, compensates owners, 39; + South's "calamity not crime," 48; + debate in Virginia Assembly, 61 + + Slaves, protect masters' families during war, 132-3; + a surprise to North, 133-4 + + Slave-trade, New England's part in, 37; + South protests against; sentiment against arises in England, sweeps + over America, 38 + + Social conditions South, 155-60 + + South unwilling to accept idea of incompatibility of slave and free + States, 94-5; + bitterness in, 101; + on defensive-aggressive, 126; + excited; filibustering; importation of slaves, 145 + + Spencer, Herbert, slavery once a necessary phase of human progress, 237 + + Sprague, Peleg, on Boston Resolutions, 66 + + Suffrage, Lincoln thought Southerners themselves should control, 203 + + Sumner, Charles, philippic against South; Brooks's attack on, 143-4; + negro suffrage to give "Unionists" new allies, 220 + + + Texas, application for admission, 93; + Channing threatens secession if admitted, 94 + + Tilden, Samuel J., letter to Kent, secession inevitable if Lincoln + elected, 172-3-4 + + + Underground railroads, Professor Hart's picture of, 103 + + Union, the, Webster's great speech for in 1830, 31; + effect of, 32 + + Union sentiment South; Whigs, 34 + + "Uncle Tom's Cabin," influence on Northern sentiment, 129-133 + + + War, the, nature of, 180 + + Washington, a Federalist, 18; + his appeal for Union, 30 + + Webster, on 7th of March, 107; + his sole concession, 111; + condemns personal liberty laws and Abolitionists, 115; + congratulated and denounced, 117; + "Ichabod," 119; + Rhodes's estimate of, 122; + his speech for "The Constitution and the Union"; Wilkinson's estimate + of, 122; + E. P. Wheeler's estimate of, 125; + Webster's opinion of Abolitionists and Free-soilers, 126 + + Welles, Gideon, opinion in 1867 as to debasing elective franchise, 232 + + Whites, South, fought fraud with fraud during Reconstruction, till + Constitution amended continued it, 232; + difficulties of their task, 233; + growing spirit of altruism; school taxes divided pro rata, 234 + + Wilmot proviso, 111 + + Wisconsin nullifies fugitive slave law, 178 + + Women, devotion of during war, North and South, 195 + + + + + * * * * * + + + + +Transcriber's note: + +Page 49: 'Prior to the rise of the Abolitionists in 1831, +emancipationists in the South had been free to grapple with conditions +as they found them.' + +The words "in the" have been supplied by the transcriber. + +Hyphenation is inconsistent. + +Obvious printer's errors have been corrected. + +Index reference to Johnston, Sir Harry: the transcriber has changed +page 257 to read 237. + + + +***END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE ABOLITION CRUSADE AND ITS +CONSEQUENCES*** + + +******* This file should be named 39720.txt or 39720.zip ******* + + +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: +http://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/3/9/7/2/39720 + + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. Special rules, +set forth in the General Terms of Use part of this license, apply to +copying and distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works to +protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm concept and trademark. Project +Gutenberg is a registered trademark, and may not be used if you +charge for the eBooks, unless you receive specific permission. If you +do not charge anything for copies of this eBook, complying with the +rules is very easy. You may use this eBook for nearly any purpose +such as creation of derivative works, reports, performances and +research. They may be modified and printed and given away--you may do +practically ANYTHING with public domain eBooks. Redistribution is +subject to the trademark license, especially commercial +redistribution. + + + +*** START: FULL LICENSE *** + +THE FULL PROJECT GUTENBERG LICENSE +PLEASE READ THIS BEFORE YOU DISTRIBUTE OR USE THIS WORK + +To protect the Project Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting the free +distribution of electronic works, by using or distributing this work +(or any other work associated in any way with the phrase "Project +Gutenberg"), you agree to comply with all the terms of the Full Project +Gutenberg-tm License available with this file or online at + www.gutenberg.org/license. + + +Section 1. General Terms of Use and Redistributing Project Gutenberg-tm +electronic works + +1.A. By reading or using any part of this Project Gutenberg-tm +electronic work, you indicate that you have read, understand, agree to +and accept all the terms of this license and intellectual property +(trademark/copyright) agreement. If you do not agree to abide by all +the terms of this agreement, you must cease using and return or destroy +all copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in your possession. +If you paid a fee for obtaining a copy of or access to a Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic work and you do not agree to be bound by the +terms of this agreement, you may obtain a refund from the person or +entity to whom you paid the fee as set forth in paragraph 1.E.8. + +1.B. "Project Gutenberg" is a registered trademark. It may only be +used on or associated in any way with an electronic work by people who +agree to be bound by the terms of this agreement. There are a few +things that you can do with most Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works +even without complying with the full terms of this agreement. See +paragraph 1.C below. There are a lot of things you can do with Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic works if you follow the terms of this agreement +and help preserve free future access to Project Gutenberg-tm electronic +works. See paragraph 1.E below. + +1.C. The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation ("the Foundation" +or PGLAF), owns a compilation copyright in the collection of Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic works. Nearly all the individual works in the +collection are in the public domain in the United States. If an +individual work is in the public domain in the United States and you are +located in the United States, we do not claim a right to prevent you from +copying, distributing, performing, displaying or creating derivative +works based on the work as long as all references to Project Gutenberg +are removed. Of course, we hope that you will support the Project +Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting free access to electronic works by +freely sharing Project Gutenberg-tm works in compliance with the terms of +this agreement for keeping the Project Gutenberg-tm name associated with +the work. You can easily comply with the terms of this agreement by +keeping this work in the same format with its attached full Project +Gutenberg-tm License when you share it without charge with others. + +1.D. The copyright laws of the place where you are located also govern +what you can do with this work. Copyright laws in most countries are in +a constant state of change. If you are outside the United States, check +the laws of your country in addition to the terms of this agreement +before downloading, copying, displaying, performing, distributing or +creating derivative works based on this work or any other Project +Gutenberg-tm work. The Foundation makes no representations concerning +the copyright status of any work in any country outside the United +States. + +1.E. Unless you have removed all references to Project Gutenberg: + +1.E.1. The following sentence, with active links to, or other immediate +access to, the full Project Gutenberg-tm License must appear prominently +whenever any copy of a Project Gutenberg-tm work (any work on which the +phrase "Project Gutenberg" appears, or with which the phrase "Project +Gutenberg" is associated) is accessed, displayed, performed, viewed, +copied or distributed: + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + +1.E.2. If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is derived +from the public domain (does not contain a notice indicating that it is +posted with permission of the copyright holder), the work can be copied +and distributed to anyone in the United States without paying any fees +or charges. If you are redistributing or providing access to a work +with the phrase "Project Gutenberg" associated with or appearing on the +work, you must comply either with the requirements of paragraphs 1.E.1 +through 1.E.7 or obtain permission for the use of the work and the +Project Gutenberg-tm trademark as set forth in paragraphs 1.E.8 or +1.E.9. + +1.E.3. If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is posted +with the permission of the copyright holder, your use and distribution +must comply with both paragraphs 1.E.1 through 1.E.7 and any additional +terms imposed by the copyright holder. Additional terms will be linked +to the Project Gutenberg-tm License for all works posted with the +permission of the copyright holder found at the beginning of this work. + +1.E.4. Do not unlink or detach or remove the full Project Gutenberg-tm +License terms from this work, or any files containing a part of this +work or any other work associated with Project Gutenberg-tm. + +1.E.5. Do not copy, display, perform, distribute or redistribute this +electronic work, or any part of this electronic work, without +prominently displaying the sentence set forth in paragraph 1.E.1 with +active links or immediate access to the full terms of the Project +Gutenberg-tm License. + +1.E.6. You may convert to and distribute this work in any binary, +compressed, marked up, nonproprietary or proprietary form, including any +word processing or hypertext form. However, if you provide access to or +distribute copies of a Project Gutenberg-tm work in a format other than +"Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other format used in the official version +posted on the official Project Gutenberg-tm web site (www.gutenberg.org), +you must, at no additional cost, fee or expense to the user, provide a +copy, a means of exporting a copy, or a means of obtaining a copy upon +request, of the work in its original "Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other +form. Any alternate format must include the full Project Gutenberg-tm +License as specified in paragraph 1.E.1. + +1.E.7. Do not charge a fee for access to, viewing, displaying, +performing, copying or distributing any Project Gutenberg-tm works +unless you comply with paragraph 1.E.8 or 1.E.9. + +1.E.8. You may charge a reasonable fee for copies of or providing +access to or distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works provided +that + +- You pay a royalty fee of 20% of the gross profits you derive from + the use of Project Gutenberg-tm works calculated using the method + you already use to calculate your applicable taxes. The fee is + owed to the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark, but he + has agreed to donate royalties under this paragraph to the + Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation. Royalty payments + must be paid within 60 days following each date on which you + prepare (or are legally required to prepare) your periodic tax + returns. Royalty payments should be clearly marked as such and + sent to the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation at the + address specified in Section 4, "Information about donations to + the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation." + +- You provide a full refund of any money paid by a user who notifies + you in writing (or by e-mail) within 30 days of receipt that s/he + does not agree to the terms of the full Project Gutenberg-tm + License. You must require such a user to return or + destroy all copies of the works possessed in a physical medium + and discontinue all use of and all access to other copies of + Project Gutenberg-tm works. + +- You provide, in accordance with paragraph 1.F.3, a full refund of any + money paid for a work or a replacement copy, if a defect in the + electronic work is discovered and reported to you within 90 days + of receipt of the work. + +- You comply with all other terms of this agreement for free + distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm works. + +1.E.9. If you wish to charge a fee or distribute a Project Gutenberg-tm +electronic work or group of works on different terms than are set +forth in this agreement, you must obtain permission in writing from +both the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation and Michael +Hart, the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark. Contact the +Foundation as set forth in Section 3 below. + +1.F. + +1.F.1. Project Gutenberg volunteers and employees expend considerable +effort to identify, do copyright research on, transcribe and proofread +public domain works in creating the Project Gutenberg-tm +collection. Despite these efforts, Project Gutenberg-tm electronic +works, and the medium on which they may be stored, may contain +"Defects," such as, but not limited to, incomplete, inaccurate or +corrupt data, transcription errors, a copyright or other intellectual +property infringement, a defective or damaged disk or other medium, a +computer virus, or computer codes that damage or cannot be read by +your equipment. + +1.F.2. LIMITED WARRANTY, DISCLAIMER OF DAMAGES - Except for the "Right +of Replacement or Refund" described in paragraph 1.F.3, the Project +Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation, the owner of the Project +Gutenberg-tm trademark, and any other party distributing a Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic work under this agreement, disclaim all +liability to you for damages, costs and expenses, including legal +fees. YOU AGREE THAT YOU HAVE NO REMEDIES FOR NEGLIGENCE, STRICT +LIABILITY, BREACH OF WARRANTY OR BREACH OF CONTRACT EXCEPT THOSE +PROVIDED IN PARAGRAPH 1.F.3. YOU AGREE THAT THE FOUNDATION, THE +TRADEMARK OWNER, AND ANY DISTRIBUTOR UNDER THIS AGREEMENT WILL NOT BE +LIABLE TO YOU FOR ACTUAL, DIRECT, INDIRECT, CONSEQUENTIAL, PUNITIVE OR +INCIDENTAL DAMAGES EVEN IF YOU GIVE NOTICE OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH +DAMAGE. + +1.F.3. LIMITED RIGHT OF REPLACEMENT OR REFUND - If you discover a +defect in this electronic work within 90 days of receiving it, you can +receive a refund of the money (if any) you paid for it by sending a +written explanation to the person you received the work from. If you +received the work on a physical medium, you must return the medium with +your written explanation. The person or entity that provided you with +the defective work may elect to provide a replacement copy in lieu of a +refund. If you received the work electronically, the person or entity +providing it to you may choose to give you a second opportunity to +receive the work electronically in lieu of a refund. If the second copy +is also defective, you may demand a refund in writing without further +opportunities to fix the problem. + +1.F.4. Except for the limited right of replacement or refund set forth +in paragraph 1.F.3, this work is provided to you 'AS-IS', WITH NO OTHER +WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO +WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY OR FITNESS FOR ANY PURPOSE. + +1.F.5. Some states do not allow disclaimers of certain implied +warranties or the exclusion or limitation of certain types of damages. +If any disclaimer or limitation set forth in this agreement violates the +law of the state applicable to this agreement, the agreement shall be +interpreted to make the maximum disclaimer or limitation permitted by +the applicable state law. The invalidity or unenforceability of any +provision of this agreement shall not void the remaining provisions. + +1.F.6. INDEMNITY - You agree to indemnify and hold the Foundation, the +trademark owner, any agent or employee of the Foundation, anyone +providing copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in accordance +with this agreement, and any volunteers associated with the production, +promotion and distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works, +harmless from all liability, costs and expenses, including legal fees, +that arise directly or indirectly from any of the following which you do +or cause to occur: (a) distribution of this or any Project Gutenberg-tm +work, (b) alteration, modification, or additions or deletions to any +Project Gutenberg-tm work, and (c) any Defect you cause. + + +Section 2. Information about the Mission of Project Gutenberg-tm + +Project Gutenberg-tm is synonymous with the free distribution of +electronic works in formats readable by the widest variety of computers +including obsolete, old, middle-aged and new computers. It exists +because of the efforts of hundreds of volunteers and donations from +people in all walks of life. + +Volunteers and financial support to provide volunteers with the +assistance they need are critical to reaching Project Gutenberg-tm's +goals and ensuring that the Project Gutenberg-tm collection will +remain freely available for generations to come. In 2001, the Project +Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation was created to provide a secure +and permanent future for Project Gutenberg-tm and future generations. +To learn more about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation +and how your efforts and donations can help, see Sections 3 and 4 +and the Foundation information page at www.gutenberg.org + + +Section 3. Information about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive +Foundation + +The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation is a non profit +501(c)(3) educational corporation organized under the laws of the +state of Mississippi and granted tax exempt status by the Internal +Revenue Service. The Foundation's EIN or federal tax identification +number is 64-6221541. Contributions to the Project Gutenberg +Literary Archive Foundation are tax deductible to the full extent +permitted by U.S. federal laws and your state's laws. + +The Foundation's principal office is located at 4557 Melan Dr. S. +Fairbanks, AK, 99712., but its volunteers and employees are scattered +throughout numerous locations. Its business office is located at 809 +North 1500 West, Salt Lake City, UT 84116, (801) 596-1887. Email +contact links and up to date contact information can be found at the +Foundation's web site and official page at www.gutenberg.org/contact + +For additional contact information: + Dr. Gregory B. Newby + Chief Executive and Director + gbnewby@pglaf.org + +Section 4. Information about Donations to the Project Gutenberg +Literary Archive Foundation + +Project Gutenberg-tm depends upon and cannot survive without wide +spread public support and donations to carry out its mission of +increasing the number of public domain and licensed works that can be +freely distributed in machine readable form accessible by the widest +array of equipment including outdated equipment. Many small donations +($1 to $5,000) are particularly important to maintaining tax exempt +status with the IRS. + +The Foundation is committed to complying with the laws regulating +charities and charitable donations in all 50 states of the United +States. Compliance requirements are not uniform and it takes a +considerable effort, much paperwork and many fees to meet and keep up +with these requirements. We do not solicit donations in locations +where we have not received written confirmation of compliance. To +SEND DONATIONS or determine the status of compliance for any +particular state visit www.gutenberg.org/donate + +While we cannot and do not solicit contributions from states where we +have not met the solicitation requirements, we know of no prohibition +against accepting unsolicited donations from donors in such states who +approach us with offers to donate. + +International donations are gratefully accepted, but we cannot make +any statements concerning tax treatment of donations received from +outside the United States. U.S. laws alone swamp our small staff. + +Please check the Project Gutenberg Web pages for current donation +methods and addresses. Donations are accepted in a number of other +ways including checks, online payments and credit card donations. +To donate, please visit: www.gutenberg.org/donate + + +Section 5. General Information About Project Gutenberg-tm electronic +works. + +Professor Michael S. Hart was the originator of the Project Gutenberg-tm +concept of a library of electronic works that could be freely shared +with anyone. For forty years, he produced and distributed Project +Gutenberg-tm eBooks with only a loose network of volunteer support. + +Project Gutenberg-tm eBooks are often created from several printed +editions, all of which are confirmed as Public Domain in the U.S. +unless a copyright notice is included. Thus, we do not necessarily +keep eBooks in compliance with any particular paper edition. + +Most people start at our Web site which has the main PG search facility: + + www.gutenberg.org + +This Web site includes information about Project Gutenberg-tm, +including how to make donations to the Project Gutenberg Literary +Archive Foundation, how to help produce our new eBooks, and how to +subscribe to our email newsletter to hear about new eBooks. diff --git a/39720.zip b/39720.zip Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..c44ca0b --- /dev/null +++ b/39720.zip diff --git a/LICENSE.txt b/LICENSE.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6312041 --- /dev/null +++ b/LICENSE.txt @@ -0,0 +1,11 @@ +This eBook, including all associated images, markup, improvements, +metadata, and any other content or labor, has been confirmed to be +in the PUBLIC DOMAIN IN THE UNITED STATES. + +Procedures for determining public domain status are described in +the "Copyright How-To" at https://www.gutenberg.org. + +No investigation has been made concerning possible copyrights in +jurisdictions other than the United States. Anyone seeking to utilize +this eBook outside of the United States should confirm copyright +status under the laws that apply to them. diff --git a/README.md b/README.md new file mode 100644 index 0000000..3d8d395 --- /dev/null +++ b/README.md @@ -0,0 +1,2 @@ +Project Gutenberg (https://www.gutenberg.org) public repository for +eBook #39720 (https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/39720) |
