USA > Alabama > Reminiscences of public men in Alabama : for thirty years, with an appendix > Part 74
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AN ORDINANCE TO DISSOLVE THE UNION BETWEEN THE STATE OF ALABAMA AND OTHER STATES UNDER THE COMPACT "THE CONSTITUTION OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA."
WHEREAS, The election of Abraham Lincoln and Hannibal Hamlin to the offices of President and Vice-President of the United States of America, by a sectional party avowedly hostile to the domestic institutions, and to the peace and security of the people of the State of Alabama, preceded by many and dangerous infrac- tions of the Constitution of the United States by many of the States and people of the Northern section, is a political wrong of so insulting and menacing a char- acter as to justify the people of the State of Alabama in the adoption of prompt and decided measures for their future peace and security ; therefore,
Be it declared and ordained by the people of the State of Alabama, in Convention assembled, That the State of Alabama now withdraws, and is hereby withdrawn, from the Union known as "the United States of America," and is, and of right ought to be, a soverign and independent State.
SEC. 2. Be it further declared and ordained, by the people of the State of Alabama in Convention assembled, That all the powers over the territory of said State, and over the people thereof, heretofore delegated to the Government of the United States, be, and they are, hereby withdrawn from said Government, and are hereby resumed and vested in the people of the State of Alabama.
Be it Resolved by the people of Alabama in Convention assembled, That the people of the States of Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Florida, Georgia, Mississippi, Louisiana, Texas, Arkansas, Tennessee, Kentucky, and Missouri, be and are hereby invited to meet the people of the State of Ala- bama, by their delegates, in Convention, on the 4th day of February, A. D. 1861,
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at the city of Montgomery, in the State of Alabama, for the purpose of consult- ing with each other as to the most effectual mode of securing concerted and harmonious action in whatever measures may be deemed most desirable for our common peace and security.
And be it further Resolved, That the President of this Convention be, and is hereby, instructed to transmit forthwith, a copy of the foregoing preamble, ordi- nance, and resolutions, to the Governors of the several States named in said reso- lutions.
Done by the people of the State of Alabama, in Convention assembled at Mont- gomery, on this, the eleventh day of January, A. D. 1861.
The preamble, ordinance, and resolutions, were adopted, by ayes 61, nays 39.
It will be no disparagement to any member of the Convention when it is said that Mr. Yancey was the master spirit, towering above all others, in the boldness of his conceptions, in the energy of his measures, and in the splendid gifts of argumentative elo- quence. He, of course, took an active part in the proceedings and debates.
As Chairman, he made a report from the Committee of Thir- teen, upon the formation of a Provisional and Permanent Govern- ment between the seceding States. Besides his speech on that subject, and on the merits of secession, he delivered speeches more or less elaborate on a variety of reports, motions and amend- ments, all tending to perfect the system of Government which he advocated. He also made speeches on the proposition to send Commissioners to Washington City; on the navigation of the Mississippi River; and on the African slave trade.
Soon after the organization of the Government of the Confed- erate States, President Davis, in March, 1861, appointed Mr. Yancey a Commissioner to England and France, to procure from those governments terms of recognition. Failing in this object, after visiting Europe, he returned in the Summer of 1862, and soon thereafter took his seat in the Confederate States Senate, at Richmond, to which he had been elected by the Legislature of Alabama. He occupied the position at the time of his death, which occurred at his residence, near Montgomery, in July, 1863, in the forty-ninth year of his age.
Seldom has so much of history been crowded into twenty-two years of civil service. It is not my province to determine, or to pass judgment on the many grave questions which for years occu- pied the minds of men, under the lead or inspiration of Mr. Yan- cey. In his political career, he was regarded by many as erratic and speculative, rather than practical, and by others his course was looked upon as wholly indefensible, though none questioned his great intellectual superiority, or his patriotism. The character of the measures for which he contended as a Southern man, may form a topic of inquiry for the future historian, when the passions of
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men shall have subsided, and the facts and influences shall be grouped by an impartial judgment. No such task can be success- fully performed at present, and nothing of the kind will be here attempted. As a man of splendid gifts he has left a record which will descend to other generations.
As an orator, Mr. Yancey ranked among the first men of his day, and from the Halls of the Legislature, to the great array in Congress, in the Charleston and Baltimore Conventions-in every deliberative body in which he took part, he was a man of mark. Still, however, to some extent, he was regarded as an unsafe leader, and, for a long time, men hesitated to follow his counsels, until 1860, when his commanding eloquence, and advocacy of the rights of the South, and denunciation of the wrongs inflicted upon it by the North, in the language of his Slaughter letter, fired the public heart, and plunged the cotton States into revolution :
MONTGOMERY, June 15, 1858.
Dear Sir-Your kind favor of the 15th is received. I hardly agree with you that a general movement can be made that will clear out the Augean stables. If the Democracy were overthrown, it would result in giving place to a greater and hungrier swarm of flies. The remedy of the South is not in such a process; it is in a diligent organization of her true men for prompt resistance to the next aggres- sion. It must come in the nature of things. No national party can save us-no sectional party can ever do it; but if we could do as our fathers did, organize committees of safety all over the cotton States-and it is only in them that we can hope for an effective movement-we shall fire the Southern heart, instruct the Southern mind, give courage to each other, and at the proper moment, by one or- ganized, concerted action, we can precipitate the cotton States into a revolution.
The idea has been shadowed forth in the South by Mr. Ruffin-has been taken up and recommended in the " Advertiser" under the name of "League of United Southerners," who, keeping up their old party relations on all other questions, will hold the Southern issue paramount, and will influence parties, Legislatures, and statesmen. I have no time to enlarge, but to suggest merely.
W. L. YANCEY.
JAMES S. SLAUGHTER, Esq.
I heard Mr. Yancey make his great argument for the South, at the Charleston Convention. He and the Hon. George E. Pugh, United States Senator from Ohio, were selected by the respective wings of the Democratic party, as their representatives upon the rostrum, and they both addressed the Convention in set speeches of two hours each. It was truly a contest of giants. Mr. Yancey had the advantage of a Southern audience, but Mr. Pugh com- manded and received a respectful hearing. Mr. Yancey, while rich in his pathetic appeals for justice to the South, was massive in argumentation, and like a thunderbolt in denouncing what he considered aggression and bad faith on the part of Northern fanatics. In style and temperament Mr. Pugh was more subdued, and more on his guard, having taken lessons as a public speaker in the Senate of the United States, which, at one time, was the most dignified legislative body in the world. Although addressing
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a Southern audience which was under the full inspiration pro- duced by the speech of Mr. Yancey, the Ohio orator came fully up to the mark of an able statesman in the quality and manner of his arguments. At all times his style was chaste and classical, and occasionally it was most ornate and captivating. It is seldom that two such men have met each other in the forum of debate.
As the proceedings at the Charleston Convention were remark- able, before a satisfactory platform could be adopted for the Na- tional Democracy, and as, after a spirited session of ten days, it adjourned without making a nomination for President, and then reassembled at Baltimore in two separate wings, with two distinct nominations for President and Vice-President, I think the public mind and wishes will be consulted, in giving an outline of the doctrines, creeds, and abstractions insisted upon in that able assem- blage of Northern and Southern politicians, all professedly, and no doubt, honestly, endeavoring to uphold the true democratic principles of the Government. As the question of slavery in one shape or other produced all the dissensions, and as it ultimately led to the war of 1861-'65, no details could be more interesting to those who wish to review the action of that period, or to those persons of another generation who will naturally feel curious to know the facts, and the ground taken by the respective actors in the preliminary drama. Mr. Yancey having been identified with the whole movement from 1850, no place could be more suitable to introduce it, than these pages on his life and character.
The Convention at Charleston met in the Hall of the South Carolina Institute, on Monday, April 23, 1860-about three hun- dred and three delegates being entitled to seats, to correspond with the number of Senators and Representatives in Congress, with the right of each State to cast its quota on all questions submitted to a general vote. Thirty-two States appeared to be represented when the first vote was taken by States, which was on a call for the previous question on a resolution to appoint two Committees, one of which related to the conflicting claims for seats of two del- egations from Illinois and New York-yeas 244, nays 54. The next vote showed yeas 259, nays 44; in all 303. Portions of the Journal of the Convention will be referred to, in which the names of a few delegates appear, with such other passages as are deemed pertinent.
On the Committee for permanent organization, consisting of one from each State, A. B. Meek was appointed for Alabama. The officers, reported on the second day, were, the Hon. CALEB CUSH- ING, of Massachusetts, for President of the Convention, and a Vice-President and Secretary to each State-Robert G. Scott, formerly of Virginia, and N. H. R. Dawson, for those positions from Alabama. On being conducted to the Chair, as the presiding
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officer, Mr. Cushing delivered a brief address, of which the fol- lowing is an extract:
Gentlemen, you come here from the green hills of the Eastern States -- from the rich States of the imperial centre-from the sun-lighted plains of the South- from the fertile States of the mighty basin of the Mississippi-from the golden shores of the distant Oregon and California [loud cheers] : you have come hither in the exercise of the highest functions of a free people-to participate, to aid, in the selection of the future rulers of the Republic. You do this as the represent- atives of the party-of that great party of the Union, whose proud mission it has been, whose proud mission it is, to maintain the public liberties-to reconcile pop- ular freedom with constituted order-to maintain the sacred, reserved rights of the sovereign States [loud and long applause]-to stand, in a word, the perpetual sentinels on the outposts of the Constitution. [Loud cheers.] Ours, gentlemen, is the motto inscribed on that scroll in the hands of the monumental statue of the great statesman of South Carolina-"Truth, Justice, and the Constitution !" [Loud cheers. ] Opposed to us are those who labor to overthrow the Constitution, under the false and insidious pretense of supporting it; those who are aiming to produce in this country a permanent sectional conspiracy of one-half of the States of the Union against the other half; those who, impelled by the stupid and half- insane spirit of faction and fanaticism, would hurry our land on to revolution and to civil war. These, the banded enemies of the Constitution, it is the part, the high and noble part of the Democratic party, to withstand-to strike down and to conquer! Aye! that is our part, and we will do it; in the name of our dear coun- try, with the help of God, we will do it. [Loud cheers. ] Aye, we will do it-for, gentlemen, we will not distrust ourselves; we will not despair of the genius of our country ; we will continue to repose, with undoubting faith, in the good Provi- dence of Almighty God.
A Committee on Resolutions and Platform, consisting of one delegate from each State, was appointed, on which Alabama -was represented by John Erwin, Esq.
At the suggestion of Mr. Ewing, of Tennessee, it was agreed that the several resolutions be referred to the Committee on Plat- form. Judge Meek, of Alabama, presented to the Convention the Platform of his State, which was referred, under the rule.
On the fourth day, a number of resolutions were offered, read, and referred to the Committee on Platform.
I. By MR. FITZHUGH, of Virginia :
Resolved, That the rendition of fugitive slaves and other property, by one State to another is a right secured by the laws of nations, recognized by the Colonies and the mother-country previous to the Declaration of Independence, by the courts of Great Britain, and by the Supreme Court of the United States, and by the law and courts of all civilized nations, and a fortiori is a duty of the States of this Confederacy, under the Constitution and laws.
Resolved, That the refusal of the Governors of the several States to deliver up fugitives from justice, and fugitive slaves, is an open and palpable violation of the above national and international law, and the Constitution and laws of the United States, constituting official perjury by such Governors as have evaded or refused to perform this duty, and, if persevered in, must lead to the severance of the Union.
II. By MR. HUGHES, of Pennsylvania :
Resolved, That, while recognizing the docrine that the General Government has no power to create in, or exclude from, by legislation, any species of property in
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any State or Territory, yet we maintain that it is the duty of that Government to provide the Courts with ample process and ministerial officers for the protection and enforcement of any existing right, or the correction of any wrong, over which said Government, under the Constitution, has jurisdiction.
III. By MR. BROWNE, of Pennsylvania:
Resolved, That the citizens of the several States, when emigrating into a Fed- eral Territory, retain the right to slave and other property which they may take with them, until there is some prohibition by lawful authority; and that, as de- clared by the Supreme Court, Congress cannot interfere with such right in a Ter- ritory, nor can a Territorial Legislature do so until authorized by the adoption of a State Constitution and that the attempted exercise of such a function by a Ter- ritorial Legislature is unconstitutional, and dangerous to the peace of the Union.
MR. WALKER, of Alabama, offered an additional resolution, by way of amendment, which was accepted by Mr. Browne, as follows :
Resolved, That it is the duty of the Federal Government, in all its departments, within their constitutional sphere, to afford adequate protection and equal advan- tage to all descriptions of property recognized as such by the laws of any of the States, as well within the Territories as upon the high seas, and every place subject to its exclusive power of legislation.
IV. By MR. WALL, of Tennessee, as the platform advocated by that State:
Be it resolved, That we hereby affirm the principles in the platform of the Dem- ocratic party, adopted in Convention at Cincinnati, in June, 1856, and that we hold them to be a true exposition of our doctrines on the subjects embraced.
Resolved, That the views expressed by the Supreme Court of the United States in the decision of the case of "Dred Scott," are, in our opinion, a true and clear exposition of the powers reposed in Congress upon the subject of the Territories of the United States, and the rights guarantied to the residents in the Territories.
Resolved, That the States of the Confederacy are equals in political rights; each State has the right to settle for itself all questions of internal policy. The right to have or not to have slavery, is one of the prerogatives of self-government. The States did not surrender this right to the Federal Constitution, and Tennessee will not do so now.
Resolved, That the Federal Government has no power to interfere with slavery in the States, nor to introduce or exclude it from the Territories, and no duty to perform in relation thereto, but to protect the rights of the owner from wrong, and to restore fugitives from labor. These duties it cannot withhold without a violation of the Constitution.
Resolved, That the organization of the Republican party upon strictly sectional principles, and its hostility to the institution of slavery, which is recognized by the Constitution, and which is inseparably connected with the social and indus- trial pursuits of the Southern States of this Confederacy, is war upon the princi- ples of the Constitution, and upon the rights of the States.
Resolved, That the late treasonable invasion of Virginia by an organized band of Republicans, was the necessary result of the doctrines, teachings, and princi- ples of that party; and the beginning of the "irrepressibie conflict" of Mr. Sew- ard; was a blow aimed at the institution of slavery by an effort to excite a servile insurrection ; was war upon the South, and as such it is the duty of the South to prepare to maintain its rights under the Constitution.
Resolved, That if this war upon the Constitutional rights of the Southern States is persisted in, it must soon cease to be a war of words. If the Republican party would prevent a conflict of arms, let them stand by the Constitution, and fulfil its obligations. We ask nothing more-we will submit to nothing less.
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V. By MR, WOLFE, of Indiana:
Resolved, That the Federal Government has no power to interfere with slavery in the States, nor to introduce or exclude it from the Territories, and no duty to perform in relation thereto, except to faithfully enforce the Fugitive Slave Law, and all the decisions of the Supreme Court of the United States in regard to all the rights of the people of every State and Territory under the Constitution of the United States.
VI. By MR. GLENN, of Mississippi :
1. A citizen of any State in the Union may emigrate to the Territories with his property, whether it consists of slaves or any other subject of personal ownership. 2. So long as the territorial condition exists, the relation of master and slave is not to be disturbed by Federal or Territorial legislation, and if so disturbed, the Federal Government must furnish ample protection therefor.
3. Whenever a Territory shall be entitled to admission into the Union as a State, the inhabitants may, in forming their Constitution, decide for themselves whether it shall authorize or exclude slavery.
VII. By MR. MOUTON, of Louisiana :
Resolved, That the Territories of the United States belong to the several States as common property, and not to the individual citizens thereof; that the Federal Constitution recognizes property in slaves, and as such, the owner thereof is enti- tled to carry his slaves into any Territory of the United States, and hold them as property. And in case the people of Territories, by inaction, unfriendly legisla- tion, or otherwise, should endanger the tenure of such property, or discriminate against it by withholding that protection given to this species of property in the Territories, it is the duty of the General Government to interpose, by an active exertion of its Constitutional powers, to secure the rights of slave-holders.
VIII. By MR. GREENFIELD, of Kentucky :
Resolved, That it is the duty of the National Government to provide, by law, for paying for such fugitives from labor as, by the interposition of State authori- ties, the owners thereof may be prevented from recovering under the Fugitive Slave Law.
IX. By MR. STOUT, of Oregon:
Resolved, That to preserve the Union, the equality of the States must be main- tained, and every branch of the Federal Government should exercise all their Constitutional powers for the protection of persons and property.
X. By MR. McCONNELL, of Illinois :
Resolved, That the Federal Government has no power to interfere with slavery in the States, or to introduce it or exclude it from the Territories, and has no duty to perform in relation thereto, except to secure the rights of the owner by a return of the fugitive slave, as provided by the Constitution.
XI. By MR. SEWARD, of Georgia:
Resolved, That the Constitution of the United States extends to the several States, and to every citizen, the full protection of person and property in all the States and Territories; and that these rights, as declared and determined by the courts under the Constitution, are to be respected and maintained by the Govern- ment of the United States ; and that James Guthrie, of Kentucky, be the nominee of the Democratic party for President of the United States, on this platform.
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At this point, when resolutions on slavery, on a railroad to the Pacific, on a tariff for protection, came pouring in rapidly, occupy- ing much time in the reading, Mr. Pugh, of Ohio, moved that every resolution be presented directly to the Committee, without being read in the Convention; which motion prevailed.
The two following resolutions, already in possession of the Chair, were then read and referred:
XII. By MR. BROOKS, of Alabama:
Resolved, That is the duty of the Federal Government, by proper treaty stipu- lations with Great Britain, to secure the return to their owners of fugitive slaves from Canada.
XIII. By MR. WEST, of Connecticut :
Resolved, That we fully indorse the Cincinnati Platform, passed by the Demo- cratic Convention in 1856, and we hereby sustain and maintain the same, and the Constitution of the United States, as interpreted by the Supreme Court.
On the fifth day of the Convention, reports were made from majorities and minorities of the Committee on Resolutions, on which action was had not necessary to be here noticed. The Jour- nal states that, in the afternoon session, "Mr. Yancey, of Ala- bama, addressed the Convention at length in exposition of resolu- tions adopted by the State of Alabama," and that "the debate was continued by Mr. Pugh, of Ohio, when the Convention took a recess."
On the sixth day, Mr. BIGLER, of Pennsylvania, moved to re- commit the majority and minority reports, including the second minority report of Mr. B. F. Butler, of Massachusetts, on which he moved the previous question; pending which Mr. COCHRANE, of New York, rose to a point of order, for the purpose of amend- ing the instructions to the Committee, requiring them to report as follows:
Resolved, That the several States of the Union are, under the Constitution, equal, and that the people thereof are entitled to the free and undisturbed posses- sion and enjoyment of their rights of person and property in the common Terri- tories, and that any attempt by Congress, or a Territorial Legislature, to annul, abridge, or discriminate against any such equality of rights, would be unwise in policy, and repugnant to the Constitution; and that it is the duty of the Federal Government, whenever such rights are violated, to afford the necessary, proper, and Constitutional remedies for such violations.
Resolved, That the platform of principles adopted by the Convention held in Cincinnati in 1856, and the foregoing resolution, are hereby declared to be the .Platform of the Democratic party.
The call for the previous question was sustained by a vote of 302 yeas to 1 nay-the State of Maryland casting the single neg- ative vote. The vote was then taken by States, on the motion to recommit only, and carried-yeas 152, nays 151. After several
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explanations by the Chair on motions made, the resolutions of Mr. BIGLER, instructing the Committee, were laid on the table, by a vote of 242 yeas-56 nays. In the afternoon session, re- ports were made by the Committee on Resolutions from the ma- jority and minority each.
At the morning session of Monday, the seventh day of the Convention, the first vote taken was on the amendment of Mr. Butler, which was lost-yeas 105, nays 198. The question then recurred on adopting the minority report presented by Mr. SAM- UELS, of Iowa. [See Democratic Platform, affirmed at Baltimore, originally adopted at Charleston.]
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