USA > Connecticut > Litchfield County > Woodbury > History of ancient Woodbury, Connecticut : from the first Indian dead in 1659 to 1872, Vol. II > Part 25
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1861. As we have seen, the Great Rebellion of the slavehold- ers, foreshadowed, threatened, and foreordained, for many years, came into active existence immediately npon the announcement that Abraham Lincoln had been elected President of the United States. The earliest, most earnest and effective efforts at rebell- ion were made in South Carolina. The election of Lincoln was but the merest pretext, but the leaders knew best with what ma- terial to " fire the Southern heart." One after another, as soon as the several Southern States seceded, or, as they gingerly termed
1 When the whole country was in a state of alarm at the intelligence that Lord Cornwallis, with a large fleet and armament, was approching the American coast, Col. Tallmage happened to pass through Litchfield with a regiment of cav- alry. While there, he attended publie worship, with his troops, on Sunday, at the old meeting-house, that stood upon the village green. The occasion was deeply interesting and exciting. The Rev. Judah Champion, then the settled minister of the place-a man of great eloquence, and of a high order of intellectual endow- ment-in view of the alarming crisis, thus invoked the sanction of Heaven :-
"Oh, Lord ! we view with terror the approach of the enemies of Thy holy re- ligion. Wilt thou send storm and tempest, to toss them upon 'the sea, and to overwhelm them upon the mighty deep, or to scatter them to the uttermost parts of the earth. But. peradventure, should any escape Thy vengeance, collect them together again, Oh Lord! as in the hollow of Thy hand, and let thy lightnings play upon them," An invocation for the safety and success of Col. Tallmage's command then followed.
Hollister's Hist. of Conn.,-2 vol. pp. 390, 891.
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it, withdrew their former assent to the Constitution of the United States, and resumed their original powers as sove- reign, free and independent States, and notice of the ordinances of secession was received, their senators and representatives with- drew from Congress, with insulting denunciations and threats towards the remaining loyal States of the Union. Better speci- mens of insolence, braggadocio, and intolerable, foundationless, arrogance, was never expressed in any language, than by these retiring braggarts, and crime-steeped despots. They had been guilty of the meanness, as well as disloyalty of retaining their seats as long as possible, to act as spies on the efforts of the gov- ernment for its safety, and to thwart every well-directed effort for the salvation of the country No such unparalleled conduet was ever before witnessed in the transactions of all the former traitors of the world. Treason, long projected and secretly working to accomplish its purpose, was rampant everywhere-in the cabinet. in the Supreme Court, in both Houses of Congress, in the Army, in the Navy-everywhere. Never had traitors less cause for their crime. They had the full control of every department. and could earry their plans without " let or hindrance" No considerable party in the union claimed the right, or even desired to interfere with their cherished institution of slavery in the States where it then existed. It had however become repugnant to the great na- tional heart. that that accursed institution should be extended into territory then free. The free legions of the North were fully de- termined to resist its further extension. This was the sole sub- ject of dispute.
Immediately, on the assembling of Congress at its Session in Dee. 1860, numerous efforts and plans of compromise were brought. forward by a large number of Senators and Representatives, and the subject of pacification was almost the sole theme of earnest discussion during the whole of the Session of 1860-61, and quite up to the inauguration of Abraham Lincoln as President, on the 4th of March. 1861. Committees of thirteen and thirty-three were appointed, for the express purpose of devising some rational means of reconciliation : but all to no purpose It had been pre- determined, on the part of the slave interest. that there should be no reconciliation. The slaveholding leaders thought their plans were so well laid, that they could disrupt the union. erect a slave confederacy. the corner stone of which should be human bondage, form a new constitution, to which the free North would beg ad-
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mission, except, perhaps, New England, which was to be " uncer- emoniously left out in the cold," and Washington was still to be the capital, but it was to be the capital, not of the nation of the stars and stripes, but of a new confederacy, governed by a slave- holding aristocracy.
During these months, there was great excitement throughout the South, and seven States had seceded from the union before the inauguration of Lincoln. Forts, arsenals, post-offices, custom- houses and sub-treasuries were seized, the Indian Fund, of some six millions of dollars, was stolen, all the public property in the seceded States was confiscated, the traitor, Gen. Twigs, delivered up in Texas, the major part of our whole little army, and the Northern arsenals were emptied of hundreds of thousands of arms by the traitor cabinet officer having them in charge, who caused them to be sent South. In every way, the loyal men of the nation were crippled, while a well-arranged plan for the capture of Wash- ington, before the inauguration of the new President, seemed only to have been prevented by the special interposition of God. Well- matured plans for the assassination of the President-elect, as he should pass through Baltimore on his way to the capital, came near a bloody consumation. By a secret and skillful manoever only, executed by night, was it possible to avoid the bloody death, which came to that patriotic and glorious man a little more than four years later. Meanwhile the servile Buchanan looked on in helpless imbecility.' He wrote a piteons message to Congress, in which he argned, that while the States had no right to seeede, the government, under the Constitution, had no right to prevent them by force. And thus the tide of treason rolled resistlessly on.
" While the excitement was thus rapidly deepening and extend- ing, the 4th of March drew nigh, when the President elect was to be inaugurated in Washington. Rumors filled the air, that he was to be assassinated on his passage through the Slave State of Maryland. Great anxiety was felt for his safety, as the desperate character of a portion of the populace in Baltimore, through which city he would naturally pass, was well known. On the 11th of February, he left his home in Springfield, Illinois, intending to make a brief visit in the leading cities on his route. In the fol- lowing touching address he took leave of his fellow-citizens at the railroad depot :
"My friends ! No one, not in my position, can appreciate the sadness that I feel at this parting. To this people I owe all that
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I am. Here I have lived more than a quarter of a century. Here my children were born, and here one of them lies buried. I know not how soon I shall see you again. A dnty devolves upon me which is perhaps greater than that which has devolved upon any other man since the days of Washington. Ile never would have succeeded, except for the aid of Divine Providence, upon which he, at all times, relied. I feel that I can not succeed without the same Divine aid which sustained him. In the same Almighty Being I place my reliance for support, and I hope you, my friends, will all pray that I may receive that Divine assistance, without which I can not succeed, but with which, success is certain. Again I bid you all an affectionate farewell." 1
Mr. Lincoln received an enthusiastic ovation from all, without distinction of party, in all the cities and towns at which he stop- ped on his way to Washington.
At Philadelphia, Mr. Lincoln's reception was as enthusiastic as in New York. He there attended upon the ceremony of raising the United States flag over the Old Hall of Independence. After appropriate ceremonies, the President raised, hand over hand, the glorious banner to the summit of the staff. On this occasion he uttered the following memorable and heartfull words :
"I have often inquired of myself what great principle or idea it was that kept this Confederacy so long together. It was not the mere matter of the separation of the Colonies from the mother land ; but that sentiment in the Declaration of Independence which gave liberty, not alone to the people of this country, but I hope to the world, for all future time. It was that which gave promise, that, in due time, the weight would be lifted from the shoulders of all men. This was a sentiment embodied in the Declaration of Independence. Now, my friends, can this country be saved on this basis ? If it can, I shall consider myself one of the hap- piest men in the world, if I can help save it. If it can not be saved on that principle, it will be truly awful. But if this country can not be saved without giving up that principle, I was abont to say, I would rather be assassinated on this spot than surrender it. Now, in my view of the present aspect of affairs, there need be no bloodshed or war. There is no necessity for it. I am not in favor of such a course, and I may say in advance, that there will be no bloodshed, unless it be forced upon the Government, and then it will be compelled to act in self-defense.
1 Abbott's Hist. of the Civil War in America."
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" My friends, this is wholly an unexpected speech. I did not expect to be called upon to say a word when I came here. I sup- posed that it was merely to do something toward raising the flag. I may, therefore, have said something indiscreet. I have said nothing but what I am ready to live by, and, if it be the pleasure of Almighty God, to die by."
"In Harrisburg, the capital of Pennsylvania, the same enthusiasm greeted the President which had thus far accompanied him through every stage of his journey. Again the President uttered those conciliatory and peaceful sentiments which constituted so essen- tial a part of his generous nature. He was conducted to the hotel in a barouche drawn by six white horses, and accompanied by a very imposing military array. In response to the address of wel- come, he said :
"I recur, for a moment, to the words uttered about the military support, which the General Government may expect from the Common wealth of Pennsylvania, in a proper emergency. To guard against any possible mistake, do I recur to this. It is not with any pleasure, that I contemplate the possibility that a neces- sity may arise, in this country, for the use of the military arm. While I am exceedingly gratified to see the manifestation upon your steets of the military force here, and exceedingly gratified at your promise here to use that force upon a proper emergency, [ I desire to repeat, to preclude any possible misconstruction, that I 1 do most sincerely hope that we shall have no use for them; that it will never become their duty to shed blood, and most especially never to shed fraternal blood. I promise that, so far as I may have wisdom to direct, if so painful a result shall in any wise be (brought abont, it shall be through no fault of mine."
" To go from Harrisburg to Washington, it was necessary to pass : through the slaveholding State of Maryland, and through the ( City of Baltimore, where the spirit of secession had manifested itself in its most envenomed type. The loyal citizens of Balti- more were preparing to give the president a courteous reception. The partisans of the slaveholders had formed a conspiracy for his assassination. The plan was discovered by the police. It consist- ed in getting up a riot, very easily accomplished in Baltimore, at the depot, during which the unarmed and unprotected President was to be stabbed or shot. The detectives who ferreted out the plot, assumed to be secessionists from Louisiana. The conspira- tors were to mingle with the crowd, pretending to be friends of
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the President, when, at a given signal, a great tumult was to be raised, and some were to shoot at him with their pistols, and others to throw hand grenades into his carriage. In the inevitable confusion the assassins expected to escape to a vessel waiting for them in the harbor, which would convey them to Mobile, in Ala- bama, where they would be safe from all harm. General Scott and Senator Seward had been apprised, by the police, of this dan ger, and immediately dispatched Mr. Frederick W. Seward, a son of the Senator, to Philadelphia, to inform Mr. Lincoln of his peril. After consultation with friends, it was deemed advisable, in the then excited state of the country, when even a slight disturbance would plunge the country into all the horrors of civil war, that Mr. Lincoln should frustrate the plans of the conspirators, by taking an earlier express train, and passing through Baltimore incognito, as an ordinary traveler. The wisdom of this decis- ion few now, upon reflection, will dispute. Mr. Lincoln receiv- ed this information at Philadelphia, but, according to his plan, proceeded to Harrisburg.
" After the public reception at Harrisburg, the President, with a few of his confidential friends, retired to his private apartments, in the Jones House, at six o'clock in the evening. As he was known to be weary with the toils of the day, he was exposed to no interruptions. As soon as it was dark, he, in company with Col. Lamon, unobserved, entered a hack, and drove to the Pennsyl- vania railroad, where a special train was waiting for him. The tel- egraph wires were in the mean time cut, so that the knowledge of his departure, if discovered or suspected, could not be sent abroad. The train reached Philadelphia at 10g o'clock that night. They drove immediately across the city to the Baltimore and Washing- ton depot. The regular night train was just leaving, at & past 11. The party took berths in a sleeping car, and, without any change, passed directly through Baltimore to Washington, where they ar- rived safely, and all unexpected, at } past 6 o'clock in the morn- ing. Mr. Lincoln did not find it necessary to assume any disguise, but journeyed in his ordinary traveling dress.
" The Hon. Mr. Washburn, of Illinois, who had been privately informed of the arrangement, was at the station to receive the President. They drove directly to Willard's Hotel, where they were met by Mr. Seward. The active agents in this infamous plot were of course well known by the detectives; but it was deemed, at that time, desirable to avoid everything which could
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add to the excitement of the public mind, already so sorely agi- tated. The President-elect thus silently entered Washington, Saturday morning, February 23. The news of his arrival was immediately flashed over the land, and the next day his family entered the city by the special train designed for the Presidential party." 1
" By this time it had become quite evident, that the secession- ists wished for no compromise. They felt strong, sure of success, and with unflinching determination advanced in their measures to break up the Union, form a Confederacy of the Cotton States, on a thoroughly pro-slavery Constitution ; then draw in the bor- der States, which without any doubt would be eager to follow them, and then, through their partisans in the Middle and North Western States, draw those States in, and thus thoroughly reconstruct and reunite the country, leaving New England out, in a cold corner, to be attached to Canada, or, if independent, to be so weak as to be quite at the disposal of the great pro-slavery republic, which, grasping Cuba and Mexico, would overshadow the whole land. The plot of the secessionists to seize defenseless Washington was so palpable, and manifestly so feasible, surrounded as it was by slaveholding Virginia and Maryland, that even President Buchan- an became alarmed. General Scott was there urging him to de- cisive measures. During the first week in January, General Scott had succeeded, with some difficulty, in collecting about three hundred troops in the vicinity of Washington. President Bu- chan was excessively averse to any show of power, lest it might be regarded as a menace, by a foe whom he dreaded, and who ad gained almost entire dominion over his mind.
"On the 4th of February, forty-two of the secessionists met in Montgomery, Alabama, representing the States of Alabama, Flor- da, Georgia, Lonisiana, Mississippi. South Carolina and North Carolina. They proceeded immediately to organize a new nation, he Southern Confederacy, to consist of the above-mentioned seven States, and such others as might subsequently be added. And hen these forty two men chose Jefferson Davis, President, and Alexander HI. Stephens, Vice President of the Southern Confede- acy. In all the Southern States there were large numbers op- osed to all these measures of revolt, and in some of the States here were, undoubtedly, a decided majority ; but the leading
* Abbott's Hist. of the Civil War, p. 64.
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slaveholders had got the power entirely in their hands, and all op- position was overawed. On the 18th, Jefferson Davis was inau- gurated President, at Montgomery.
"These forty two delegates, without the slightest misgivings, undertook to revolutionize a nation of thirty millions. They deemed themselves umpires from whom there was no appeal. They framed a Constitution, adopted articles of Confederation, chose a President and Vice-President, confirmed Cabinet and Ministerial appointments, and set in operation all the machinery of what they believed would prove a powerful and perpetual government. History affords no parallel to such an audacious usurpation. The people had no voice in the organization of the government. And yet so sagaciously was the whole thing managed, that the igno- rant masses at the South were led as obediently as slaves on the plantations. Those who ventured to utter the slightest murmurs were instantly silenced with the most inexorable cruelty.
"No American can write such narratives about his own coun- trymen without extreme reluctance. But these facts must be known, or one can not understand how every voice of opposition was silenced at the South. The apparent unanimity at the South, was simply the silence enforced by the bludgeon, the lash. the hal- ter, and the stake. Hume has remarked upon the barbarizing in- fluence of slavery in ancient Rome. Its influence has been equally debasing in our own land. Its influence upon woman's character has been still more marked than upon the character of men. That there are noble men, and lovely and lovable women at the South, . all innst gladly affirm. The writer knows many such, whose mem- ory he must ever cherish with affection. But this rebellion has proved beyond all dispute, that such are the exceptions. It is the unanimous declaration of our army, that the venom exhibited by the secession females of the South was amazing and very general. Ladies, so called, would spit upon our soldiers in the streets of Baltimore. One elergyman testifies that a woman, a member of his church, whom he had always considered a worthy member, said to him, that " she would be perfectly willing to go to hell, if she could but shoot a Yankee first." Another lady said, to a gen- tleman who related it to the writer, that she hoped yet 'to sleep under a blanket made of the sealps of Northerners.'"
While such outrageous proceedings were carried on by active, malignant traitors, the people of the free States were waiting quietly, but with intense latent- emotion, for the inauguration of
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Abraham Lincoln as President. Nothing could be hoped for while Mr. Buchanan remained in the Presidential chair. He, himself, was probably the most impatient man in the United States for the hour to arrive in which he could retire. But, the secessionists had no idea of allowing President Lincoln to be inaugurated. To be sure, they had failed in their plans to assassinate him on his journey to the capital. But they were still quite confident of their ability to seize Washington, and make it the capital of their new confederacy, and they were fully determined to carry out their wicked designs. Mr. Abbott, in his history of the Civil War has so admirably described the state of affairs at the date of the inan- guration, that it is thought well to give the account of it in sub- stantially his words.
"The week preceding the 4th of March, when Mr. Lincoln was to be inaugurated, was one of intense solicitude and excitement. The air was filled with rumors of conspiracies, to prevent the in- auguration by a bloody tumult, and by seizing the Capital. Wash- ington was thronged with strangers, many from the South, armed with bowie-knives and revolvers. Apparently there would have been but little difficulty in a few thousand men, at a concerted signal, making a rush which would sweep all opposition before them. Gen. Scott and Secretary Holt were in the meantime ma- king qniet, but effectual preparations, to meet any emergency. An important military escort was provided to conduct the President to the Capitol, and back again, after the inauguration, to the White House.
" The eventful morning dawned propitiously. At an early hour, Pennsylvania Avenue was thronged, the center of attraction being Willard's Hotel, where, thus far, the President elect, had occupied apartments. The procession began to form about 9 o'clock. It was very brilliant and imposing. One very striking feature was, a large triumphal car, the Constitution, bearing thirty-four very beautiful girls, robed in white, as representatives of the several : States. It was thus manifest that the government had no idea of recognizing the Union as dissolved. Mr. Buchanan and Mr. Lin- coln sat, side by side, in the carriage. They ascended the steps of the Capitol arm in arm. It was noticed that Mr. Buchanan looked pałe, sad, and nervous; he sighed audibly and frequently. Mr. Lincoln's face was slightly flushed, and his lips compressed, with an expression of much gravity and firmness."
The President elect took his stand upon the platform of the
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portico of the Capitol. The Supreme Court, the Senate, the House of Representatives, the Foreign Ministers, and a vast crowd of privileged persons, soon occupied every seat. A countless throng filled the grounds below, a surging mass of friends and foes. There were exasperated secessionists, watching for a chance to strike a blow, and pure patriots ready to repel that blow, at any hazard of life. Senator Baker, of Oregon, introduced the President to the people. Mr. Lincoln then, with strength of voice which arrested every ear, delivered his inaugural address. Speaking of secession, he said :
" Physically speaking, we cannot separate,-we can not remove our respective sections from each other, nor build an impassable wall between them. A husband and wife may be divorced, and go out of the presence and beyond the reach of each other; but the different parts of our com.try can not do this. They can not but remain face to face; and intercourse, either amiable or hostile, must continue between them. Is it possible, then, to make that intercourse more advantageous or more satisfactory after separa- tion than before? Can aliens make treaties easier than friends can make laws? Can treaties be more faithfully en- forced between aliens than laws can among friends ? Suppose you go to war ; you can not fight always, and when, after much loss on both sides, and no gain on either, you cease fighting, the iden- tical questions, as to terms of intercourse, are again upon you."
In reference to the policy to be pursued, he said :
"To the extent of my ability I shall take care, as the Constitution itself expressly enjoins upon me, that the laws of the Union be faithfully executed in all the States. Doing this I deem to be only a simple duty on my part. I shall perfectly perform it, so far as is practicable, unless my rightful masters, the American people, shall withhold the requisition, or, in some authoritative manner, direct the contrary. I trust this will not be regarded as a menace, but only as the declared purpose of the Union, that it will consti- tutionally defend and maintain itself. In doing this, there need be no bloodshed or violence, and there shall be none, unless it is forced upon the national authority. The power confided in me will be used to hold, occupy, and possess the property and places belonging to the government, and collect the duties and imposts; but beyond what may be necessary for these objects, there will be no invasion,-no using of force against or among the people any- where."
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Mr. Lincoln closed his noble inaugural with the following words, alike firm and conciliatory :
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