USA > Iowa > Chickasaw County > History of Chickasaw and Howard counties, Iowa, Volume I > Part 21
USA > Iowa > Howard County > History of Chickasaw and Howard counties, Iowa, Volume I > Part 21
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The adoption of this clause was, in effect, the recognition and approval by Congress of the African slave trade, a traffic that was a disgrace to the American Republic and an abomination in the eyes of the civilized world. It was a sin and a crime against humanity that was requited in the blood and treasure of a later generation. But it was regarded as a victory for the slave-holding element. as under it Congress had no power to interfere with the foreign slave trade until 1808 ; by that time, it was thought, the advocates of the system would have sufficient power to control any further action of Congress. But in 1808 an act was passed prohibiting any further traffic in or importation of negroes for slaves. Slavery existed in six of the original thirteen states in 1819, and in the mean- time Kentucky, Tennessee, Louisiana and Alabama had been admitted with con- stitutions permitting slavery ; and Vermont, Ohio, Indiana and Illinois had been admitted as free states. Thus the country was evenly divided between the free and the slave states, and each had an equal representation in the United States Senate. The effort to maintain this equilibrium as new states were admitted was the cause of contention and controversy between opposing factions in Congress. The admission of Maine as a free state, in 1820, threw the representation between the free and slave states out of balance, and then came the sharp controversy over the admission of Missouri, resulting in the Missouri Compromise. The provisions of this compromise and the important political events, following it are fully explained in another chapter of this volume, and need not be related here.
As the years passed the slave power became more and more aggressive, and more persistent in their demands for the extension and perpetuation of their institution. They demanded the right to carry their "property" into the terri- tories and to have the same protected, not only in the territories but also in the free states. On account of the slave power having control in Congress, either because of a numerical majority in the representation, or because of the sub- serviency of the northern contingency, they were able to obtain many compro- mises and concessions, the Fugitive Slave Law among others. Objections to their demands were met by threats to dissolve the Union, and there were many who were terrorized by the domineering methods of the slave power and inclined to yield rather than oppose their demands.
The apologists for slavery, and the subservient partisans who were ready to accede to the arrogant demands of the slave power, were not all found within the ranks of either of the leading political parties. The whig party, which had been successful in two national elections, had a large anti-slavery element in its northern contingent. but because of the opposite sentiments of its southern contingent, declined to take a firm stand in regard to the growing aggressions of the slave power. As a result of its timidity, the whig party went out of exist-
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ence as a national party in the defeat of their candidate in 1852. A new political organization, the republican party, succeeded; and in 1856, for the first time the great issues connected with the slavery question, and the extension of slavery in the territories, was placed before the people in such form that their voice could be heard. For the first time the dominant slave autocracy was confronted with a formidable political organization, with well defined principles as to the aggressions of the slave power. With Buchanan as their candidate, the slave power succeeded in the election of 1856, but the showing made by Fremont, the candidate of the republican party, was not a comforting assurance of their con- tinuance in control of the Government.
SECESSION PLANS POSTPONED
There is sufficient evidence to satisfy every impartial mind that the leading politicians of the South had fully determined. in the event of Fremont's election in 1856, to carry out the repeated threat of secession ; and that the act which was consummated in 1861 would have been anticipated four years earlier. The suc- cess of their candidate, however, deprived them both of the excuse and the motive for immediate secession. With Buchanan as president they believed they had a chief magistrate who would certainly equal. or might possibly excel. all his predecessors in subserviency to southern arrogance and southern interests : and this expectation was more than realized.
While they were in practical control of the Government, and had a president disposed to favor their cause, yet the statesmen and politicians of the South became convinced that various indications pointed to the probability of the suc- cess of the republican candidate for president in 1860. Several events that occurred during Buchanan's administration tended to confirm this forecast. Ac- cordingly the southern leaders began to take preliminary steps which were neces- sary to accomplish their favorite project, in preparation for the anticipated event. In the formation of Buchanan's cabinet the South had. as usual, an undue and exaggerated proportion, and it was through the members of this cabinet that the conspirators did their essential preparatory work. In Mr. Floyd, the secretary of war, they found a ready and willing tool. He prostituted all the resources of his office to their designs. Quietly and gradually, so as not to excite suspicion. a large number of muskets belonging to the Federal Government were removed to the southern states, where they could be of no possible service in time of peace. but would be ready at hand in the event of war. During the year 1860 Floyd removed over one hundred thousand stand of arms from the Springfield armory alone ; during that year not a single musket was sent to any fort or arsenal in a northern or western state. Thousands of muskets were sold to the South at a mere nominal price. Munitions of war were thus plundered from the Govern- ment and placed in the hands of its secret enemies, for the express and antici- pated purpose of destroying the Government that this man Floyd had sworn to support.
Floyd was assisted in his traitorous schemes by other members of Buchanan's cabinet, a majority of whom were in the secret service of the conspirators against the Government. It is not probable that Buchanan suspected, much less that he approved, of the actions and designs of these traitors in his official family.
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SECESSION CONSUMMATED
Indications in the presidential canvass of 1860 all pointed to the election of Abraham Lincoln as a foregone conclusion, and these traitorous schemes were carried out in anticipation of that event and in anticipation of the determined purpose of the southern leaders. The returns from all the states had hardly been declared before the fire-eaters of the South began to make preparations to. carry out the threats which had only been muttered before the election. How quickly and promptly they were prepared to assume the attitude of rebels against the Federal Government was demonstrated by the significant fact that on the very day after the one on which the general election was held, resolutions were adopted by both branches of the Legislature of South Carolina, then assembled at Columbia, in favor of calling a convention of the people of the state to act upon the question of secession; to reorganize the militia and to prepare for military operations. There seemed to be so settled a determination among the politicians and representatives of that state to assume the part which they after- ward enacted, that very little preliminary preparation was necessary to fit them for decisive measures.
Nor were the leaders of popular opinion in South Carolina much in advance of their confederates in the neighboring State of Georgia. On the 8th of Novem- ber a large meeting of prominent citizens was held at Savannah. At this meeting resolutions were adopted admitting the necessity, and commending the policy of secession. It was declared with unanimity and with great enthusiasm that the election of Lincoln was "an outrage which will not be submitted to ; that a petition be sent to the Legislature, then in session at Milledgeville, desiring them to cooperate with the governor in calling a convention of the people of the state to determine measures of redress."
Notwithstanding the spirited measures elsewhere, the city of Charleston seemed determined to achieve and hold the first place in the inauguration of the glorious cause of secession. On the 8th of November the time-honored Stars and Stripes, which had long waved in graceful splendor over the Federal buildings in that city, were hauled down in disgrace, and the Palmetto flag of the state. substituted.
It will be noted that these radical revolutionary proceedings occurred within two days after the election. There had been scarcely time for the counting of the votes in all the states; the formal election and inauguration of Lincoln was four months in the future; Buchanan, who was indebted to the South for his election, was still the president, and would continue for four months, and the South was in control of the dominant party in Congress, and would continue that control under the administration of Lincoln, whose election these secession advo- cates declared to be an outrage. Then why this haste?
The answer is that what seemed to be hasty action was only a development of plans formulated and carefully considered many years before. The purpose of the slavery propagandists was to withdraw from the Union and establish a Southern Confederacy whenever the time would come that they would not have full control of the Government. They were fully ready to take this step in the event of Fremont's election in 1856, as has been stated.
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SOUTHERN CONFEDERACY ESTABLISHED
South Carolina adopted an ordinance of secession in the convention assembled for that purpose December 20, 1860, declaring that the state's connection with the Union was severed, and that all allegiance to the Government of the United States was at an end. Similar action was taken by Mississippi, January 9, 1861 ; Florida, January 10; Georgia, January 19; Louisiana, January 26; and Texas, February I. All these states, except Texas, sent delegates to a convention at Montgomery, February 4, 1861, where a constitution was adopted establishing the Southern Confederacy, and Jefferson Davis was elected as provisional president. He was formally inaugurated on the birthday anniversary of Washington, Feb- ruary 22, 1861. Consequently, when Mr. Lincoln was inaugurated, March 4, 1861, he found seven states in open rebellion, and with an organized government in opposition to his administration. However, the president and his advisers, and the people of the North, generally, clung to the hope that reconciliation could be effected, and that upon sober thought the people of the seceded states could be induced to abandon the wild venture into which they had been led by scheming politicians, and return to their former allegiance. But it was a vain hope; con- ciliatory measures were proposed, and full assurance given that the new admin- istration would not interfere with slavery in the states where it existed, but these only excited the scorn and contempt of those who had deliberately set up. an opposition government. Conciliatory offers tended to confirm the opinion of the exultant secessionists that the North was lacking in courage and would not resort to arms in defense of the Union.
Soon after the inauguration of Lincoln, Virginia, Tennessee, North Carolina and Arkansas joined the Confederacy, making eleven states in rebellion against the Government.
ACTIVITIES OF SECESSIONISTS
Within sixty days after the election of Lincoln nearly all the ultra-slave states had joined the secession movement. Following the adoption of secession in each state, the authorities took possession of all the Government property located therein, including custom houses, mints, arsenals and munitions of war, which Buchanan's secretary of war had conveniently placed for that purpose. South Carolina confiscated everything within reach, except the guns and munitions of the forts in Charleston Harbor, occupied by a garrison of United States troops, under command of Major Anderson. For obvious reasons, these were not avail- able for peaceful seizure, so the conspirators had the supreme impudence to send a commission to Washington with a demand that these troops be removed and the forts and property be turned over to them. To this demand President Buchanan made an evasive reply, which did not satisfy the commissioners, much less the friends of the Government of which he was the chief executive.
On the 26th of December, a few days after the visit of the South Carolina commissioners, Major Anderson secretly removed his garrison from Fort Moultrie to Fort Sumter, because the latter was a stronger fort and could be more easily defended in case of assault. For this act Major Anderson gained an important advantage over the secessionists, and received the deserved applause of the loyal
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people of the nation. But Secretary Floyd was greatly incensed at the conduct of Major Anderson. Being now secretly in the service of the secessionists, Floyd began more openly to advocate their interests in the Federal cabinet. He made a demand of the president, which was something in the nature of a threat, that Major Anderson's troops should be withdrawn from Charleston Harbor. He said :
"It is evident now that the solemn pledges of the Government have been vio- lated by Major Anderson. (This solemn pledge, if made, was by Floyd himself.) In my judgment, but one remedy is left us by which to vindicate our honor and , prevent civil war. One remedy is left, and that is to withdraw the garrison from the Harbor of Charleston. I hope the president will allow me to make that order. This order, in my judgment, can alone prevent bloodshed and civil war."
President Buchanan refused his consent to this impudent demand of his secretary of war, which is one of the few things for which his administration may be commended in that critical period of the country's history. In conse- quence of this refusal, Floyd immediately resigned from the cabinet, and later found official position in the Confederate Government, where his sympathies had always been. It is the contention of the apologists for the act of the Confed- erates in firing upon Fort Sumter and thus inaugurating the Civil war, that the refusal of Buchanan to accede to Floyd's request was an actual declaration of war; that in refusing to withdraw United States troops from Charleston Harbor, the responsibility for the inauguration of the Civil war rests upon the Federal Government. Upon this flimsy pretext they claim justification for turning hostile guns on Fort Sumter.
LINCOLN INAUGURATED
The closing days of Buchanan's administration were days of indecision and a vacillating policy on the part of the executive and of serious apprehension and concern on the part of the loyal people of the country. With a cabinet honey- combed with traitors and treasonable machinations, Buchanan was handicapped and helpless, however desirous he may have been to use drastic measures to suppress rebellion in its incipient stage. When Lincoln came to assume the reins of government a storm cloud of war was impending. dark and portentous. As Mr. Lincoln expressed it, on bidding farewell to his friends as he was leaving his home in Springfield: "I go to assume a task more difficult than that which has devolved upon any other man since the days of Washington."
In Mr. Lincoln's inaugural address, spoken in the open air from the eastern portico of the capitol, and heard by thrice ten thousand people, on the very verge of civil war, he made a most earnest appeal for peace. He gave the most solemn assurance that the property, peace and security of no portion of the republic should be endangered by his administration. But he declared with firmness that the Union of states must be preserved, and that he would execute the laws faithfully in every state. "In doing this," he said, "there need be no bloodshed nor violence, nor shall there be, unless forced upon national authority. His closing appeal against civil war was most touching. "In your hands," he said, "and not in mine. are the momentous issues of civil war. You can have no conflict without being yourselves the aggressors. We are not enemies. but
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friends ; we must not be enemies. Though passion may strain, it must not break the bonds of affection."
The answer to these appeals was the attack upon Fort Sumter, which occurred a few weeks later, and immediately there broke loose all the maddening passions which riot in blood and carnage.
THE FALL OF FORT SUMTER
Not long after President Lincoln was inaugurated, General Beauregard, who was in command of the Conferedate forces at Charleston, made a demand upon Major Anderson for the evacuation of Fort Sumter. Anderson refused, but, on April 11, 1861, seeing that his stock of provisions was running low, and having no hope of obtaining a new supply, he informed General Beauregard that he would vacate the fort on the 15th, unless ordered to remain, and the needed supplies were received. This reply was not satisfactory to the Confederate com- mander, who feared the new administration might find some way of sending reinforcements and supplies that would enable Anderson to hold the fort indefi- nitely. In that case, Fort Sumter would be a constant menace to one of the Confederate strongholds, so, after a council with his officers, Beauregard decided upon an assault. Accordingly, at twenty minutes after 3 o'clock, on the morning of April 12, 1861, he sent word to Major Anderson that fire would be opened upon the fort at half past 4 o'clock that morning. A signal gun was fired from Fort Johnson by a Confederate officer, the shell bursting almost directly over Fort Sumter. A few seconds later a solid shot from the battery on Cummings Point went crashing against the walls of the fort, and this was the shot that marked the beginning of the Civil war.
Anderson's little band responded promptly to the fire and the bombardment continued all day. Late in the afternoon fire broke out in one of the casements of the fort, and the Confederates increased their fire, hoping to force the garrison to surrender. That was on Friday. Anderson held out against desperate odds until Sunday, the 14th, when he was permitted to evacuate the fort with all the honors of war, even to saluting the flag with fifty guns before hauling it down.
LOYAL INDIGNATION AROUSED
When the news of this indignity and treasonable outrage upon our flag was flashed over the country, the loyal people were thrilled as with an electric shock. Everywhere throughout the North there was manifested the greatest indignation at this insult to the nation's flag. Everywhere there was manifested an eagerness to resent this insult by an appeal to arms. All hope,-a hope that had been enter- tained by many previous to this treasonable act,-that a peaceful settlement of the differences might be found, was at once abandoned. Political controversies of the past were forgotten; there was but one sentiment, but one determination in the minds of the people-that the Union must and shall be preserved. This deter- mination was made and the people were ready to respond to the call of President Lincoln in his proclamation, issued on Monday, April 15, 1861, the day following the surrender of Fort Sumter. Following is the first call of the president for volunteers in the Civil war:
Vol. 1-13
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PRESIDENT'S PROCLAMATION
"Whereas, The laws of the United States have been for some time past and now are opposed, and the execution thereof obstructed in the states of South Carolina, Georgia, Alabama, Florida, Mississippi, Louisiana and Texas, by com- binations too powerful to be suppressed by the ordinary course of judicial pro- ceedings, or by the powers vested in the marshals by law ;
"Now, therefore. I, Abraham Lincoln, President of the United States, by virtue of the power in me vested by the Constitution and the laws, have thought fit to call forth, and hereby do call forth. the militia of the several states of the Union to the aggregate number of 75.000, in order to suppress said combination and cause the laws to be duly executed.
"The details for this object will be immediately communicated to the state authorities through the war department.
"I appeal to all loyal citizens to favor, to facilitate and aid this effort to maintain the honor, the integrity and the existence of our national Union and the perpetuation of popular government, and to redress wrongs already too long endured.
"I deem it proper to say that the first service assigned to the forces hereby called forth will probably be to repossess the forts, places and property which have been seized from the Union; and in every event the utmost care will be observed, consistently with the objects aforesaid, to avoid any devastation and destruction of, or interference with, property, or any disturbance of peaceful citizens in any part of the country.
"And I hereby command the persons composing the combinations aforesaid, to disperse and retire peaceably to their respective abodes within twenty days from this date.
"Deeming that the present condition of public affairs presents an extraordinary occasion, I do hereby, in virtue of the power in me vested by the Constitution, convene both houses of Congress. Senators and representatives are therefore summoned to assemble in their respective chambers at 12 o'clock, noon, on Thursday, the 4th day of July next, then and there to consider and determine such measures as, in their wisdom, the public safety and interest may seem to demand.
"In witness whereof I have hereunto set my hand and caused the seal of the United States to be affixed.
"Done at the City of Washington, this the 15th day of April, A. D. 1861, and of the Independence of the United States the eighty-fifth.
"By the President : ABRAHAM LINCOLN.
"W. H. SEWARD, Secretary of State."
IOWA'S READY RESPONSE
On the 16th of April. 1861. the day following the issuance of the president's proclamation, Governor Samuel J. Kirkwood, of Iowa, received from the secretary of war the following telegram: "Calls made upon you by tonight's mail for one regiment of militia for immediate service."
When the governor received this message he expressed some doubt as to Towa's ability to furnish one entire regiment. In the population of Iowa at that time there were probably something over one hundred thousand men eligible
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for. military service. But Iowa, in common with most of the other central and western states, had given little attention to military affairs, and was without an effective organized militia. The people had been generally engaged in agricul- tural pursuits, and were a peaceable and peace-loving people. There was no question as to their patriotism and loyalty, but their patriotism had never been put to the supreme test. But whatever doubts Governor Kirkwood may have had as to the character of the patriotism of the people of Iowa were dispelled by their response to his proclamation, issued on the second day after the fall of Sumter :
"Whereas, The President of the United States has made a requisition upon the executive of the State of Iowa for one regiment of militia, to aid the Federal Government in enforcing the laws and suppressing rebellion :
"Now, therefore, I, Samuel J. Kirkwood, governor of the State of Iowa, do issue this proclamation, and hereby call upon the militia of the state immediately to form, in the different counties, volunteer companies with a view of entering the active military service of the United States for the purpose aforesaid. The regiment at present required will consist of ten companies of at least seventy- eight men each, including one captain and two lieutenants, to be elected by each company.
"Under the present requisition, only one regiment can be accepted, and the companies accepted must hold themselves in readiness for duty by the 26th of May next, at the farthest. If a sufficient number of companies are tendered. their services may be required. If more companies are formed and reported than can be received under the present call, their services will be required in the event of another requisition upon the state.
"The nation is in peril. A fearful attempt is being made to overthrow the Constitution and dissever the Union. The aid of every loyal citizen is invoked to sustain the general Government. For the honor of our state, let the require- ment of the President be cheerfully and promptly met.
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