USA > Mississippi > History of the Seventh Indiana cavalry volunteers, and the expeditions, campaigns, raids, marches, and battles of the armies with which it was connected. with biographical sketches of Brevet Major General John P. C. Shanks, and of Brever Brig. Gen. Thomas M. Browne, and other officers of the regiment; with an account of the burning of the steamer Sultana on the Mississippi river, and of the capture, trial conviction and execution fo Dick Davis, the Guerrilla > Part 2
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· tant der ou en stormont but as the angry declamation 1 Cher be that all the blood of the Revolu-
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as you may, cover it over with whatever plausible pretext you may, is but treason-treason blacker than Burrs', and as damn. able as that which has given Benedict Arnold an immortality of infamy. It is treason because it is a conspiracy against the lib. erty of the people, and would not only destroy a nation so good. so beneficent, but seeks to inaugmate anarchy and ruin in its stead. I do not propose to argue the question ; the mere state- ment of the proposition is suthdieat, but if more were required, ir the constitution needs an interpreter more certain than the hearts of a patriotic people. I won'd again bring to mind the patrio isances of the past. The coll. lifeless forms of the patri- of Fires who repose at Mount Vernon, at Monticello, at the Hol- inttage, at Mar Lfield. ant at Ashlan 1. rise animate before you and utter word- of carn -t and terrible condemnation against this infernal heresy of secession.
Our national existence is threatenedl. Already we hear the time of armed men. American citizens have met American citizens in conflict, and patriot and real blood have comminate ! upon the same battle S-bl. The goverment has resolved upon the goles to be pursued, and is devoting its best energies in ar- forces for the struggle. From the blowshare the nation is forging swords, but pruning hooks are being trans- Imand into spents. Fear and hope alternate in every heart. Strong men tremble as they contemplate events. The public mind a deeply moved. What has produced this mighty convul- Sia? Some cause exists and we may abertam it without tread- a debillen ground. Ist ne examine the question as Mariots, and see it we can se . the true searre of this tree- nie a'de conspiracy against Federal authority. Why then, this at- tempt to destroy the Union of the State, and to overturn i:" b: nol treest government the world has ever seen ? Is the ... isation of this question to be found in the result of the late pres- ilential von tion ? Thit Mr. Lincoin was elected in strict con- formity with the constitution, no one doubts. There is certainly westhin ; either nnammal or digprons inthe legal and peacemil
: the people to deer. taine by the arbiomment of the ballot, by whom they shall be - Avernel, is and out ever be Un am some of a Republican A Vernment. o Esper of ons national prote that uiler of wiem of government, sovereign power resides with the people. Those who would attempt to thwart their will when 1 .
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ful experiment. In popular elections some party must triumph -others suffer defeat. To govern in conformity with the consti- tution and laws of the country is the RIGHT of the one, while submission by the minority to the will of the majority is a cardi- ual one, and no compromise is demanded, and none will be demanded to change it. Tested by this acknowledged rule, the loval citizen owes the same allegiance to the government admin- istered by Lincoln, that he did in the days of Washington, Jeff- erson and Jackson. But we are told that the recent triumph of the people was a sectional one, sectional in the geographical position of the party, and sectional in view of the principle up- on which its supremacy was secured. The charge is made and it is denied. I will not pass judgment in the case, lest I should judge as a partisan. Who shall judge the people ? Who so paire a patriot that he could hold the balances of justice evenly in such a case ? To whose arbitrament will politicians subinit this question of sectionalism? I will not assume that the party in power or the one out of power, is sectional. It is a ques- tion which legitimately beleng- at all tunes TO THE PEOPLE. For the present they have settled it, and if any feel aggrieve 1 by the result, let the question be again submitted to th . sua : enereme tribunal, and trust that the people's patriotism and in- ilgence will cheerfully correct any error that may have been been committed. The right was intended. and if wrong has been done-it their action has tenlol to the weakening of the boris that unite these States in a common government, and a common latinv, I have snihcent confidence in their prudence and loyal- tv to believe that they will at oure retrace any inconsiderate Stop they may have taken, or repair any wrong they may have Inte. The constitution recognizes no sections; it does not re- pare a candidate for the Presidency to receive a part or all of In- cote from a particular locality : it does not demand that !! hall receive the vote of a single slave State, or of a single tre State, bat provides that whenever he receives a majority of the .in total votes Le shall be the Legally chosen Chief Magistrat But the recent election dit not trossorthe foster to castrol the formations to the Republican party. Whi'. In the department-the Expensive-it was omnipotent, in two wiers --- the Judicial and Legislativ --- it was absolutely power- That it is Low in power in all thes . department is beau -. . I the rebellion. The treason of certain Representatives and Senatore in Congress, and of certain Julgas, and the pretende l
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withdrawal of certain States from the Federal Goverment, has given it powers that it would not have possessed if every of er had been true to his duty and his oath. I speak of this simply to prove that this pretext of serionalism is as base as it is groundless. No considerable party exists in the Northern States that meditates an assault upon State rights, or upon Southern institutions. Whi> slavery is condemned and au- horred by many, its existence in certain States is recognized as a constitutional right with which they have neither the power or desire to interfere. A majority of the people in the non-slave- holding States are of povel to its expansion, to its being exten !- el to territories now they told inging dave laber into competition with free labor of the white man, but they took to secure their object by no other menis theer those provided by the constitution. They conceive it no more sectional in them to resist slavery ex- trution, than it is for others to insist upon it. They can not see why anti-slavery is more & Brunl than proslavery, But the is a rectionali'm which has had much to do in bringing the pres- ent trophies man the rules. What you see a State array It- self against the Feland power and roast Federal authority : when you see one setim, of in Cuion demand unconstitutional concessions and comments . to Jesttre cho continuance of its bor- alty : when lo almerests ue beri to be higher and more sacre ! than the constituth naa los- of the government, then yon have an exhibition of a sectionalicia which is the cause of the present · national commotion.
There are those who is devat . i live that our present alan- ities are the results of the salon of the slavery question in the north. Pork =, > ), in the oldest existing monar- chy in the world. t .... ero was evil there ought to b. agitation-the et wal awakened from our shouldn" by the fire bal. : bA: m the Names.' The free point- malt prak for the honor col integrity of time In emlangering its existen. .
A over had condetto l I world proust 1 1 more barning weris
1. mutiy's history and yol
that it is a dobe we owe to the party of off rens
thit it is at variance with tas
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law which warrants slavery * *
* * We ought to lament and deplore the necessity of holding our fellow men in bondage." Thomas Jefferson could speak of slavery, and tremble when he reflected that God was "just and that his justice would not sleep forever," and Washington -- the nation's idol-could express the ardent hope that some means would be devised for its atohition. Henry Clay could denounce it as the "everlasting curse," and Randolph, in his place in the Senate, could hurl his bitter sar- rasms at the "man from the North who attempted to defend it upon principle."
The North taking their political lessons from masters like these, learned to believe slavery wrong in morals, and at the same time bad political economy : and while they were withng to tolerate its existence where it was, thought that every prin- ciple. of duty in justice called upon them to resist its further extension. Upon that platform the political victory of 1800 was achieved. No intermed Hing with slavery in the States was contemplated. This embraces the full extent of our offending. In all this I can see no wrong-certainly none but that can be corrected at the ballot box. Let all this be as it may. At all events civil war with its unspeakable calam ties, is a pour cor- rertive. No one but a traitor or a madman would think of resorting to so fearful an expedient upon a pretext so paltry aml contemptible. If war must come-if anarchy must take the place of order, it is to be hoped that the Robespierre-, Marat- ant Dantons of this conspiracy will find some better excuse than this for their carnival of blood.
Bar why dil we not compromise existing differences and save the Union without the sacrifice of life and treasure ? Very many reasons exist why this course was not adopted. If loyalty birters with treason to day, when and where will it end ? The compromise of to day is but a pretext for another to-morrow .url every inch treason exacts, add- to its strength and detracts Bom that of the government. The constitution is itself a com- promise, and the administration of the government according to is letter and spirit is all that any State has a right to expect or domund. The constitution provides ample protection for the Petitation and interests of every section of the country. If otte provision in it is altered to day to suit the caprice of some testimone State, for the same revon another must be to mor. row, and thas in a few years the greatest work of the fathers will have departed from our government forever.
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It is true that popular governments like ours must be ad- ministered upon principles of mutual concession and forbear- ance. If there be conflicting sectional interests, let each section exhibit an honest disposition to adjust the trouble. A spirit that demands everything-exacts everything, and is willing to concede nothing in return, has no element of compromise in it.
In the opinion of our political gamblers, no wrongs are ever committed against human liberty ; they demand no concessions to be made to foster the interests of free white labor, but the eternal cry has been "slavery and Cotton demand this thing and we must give it and save the Union." In this way the Union has been saved already too often. Every pretended compro- m'se-has weakened the government and tended to precipitate the present condition of things.
But there has been no existing necessity for a compromise. No changes in the law, constitution, or condition of the nation, or of any part of it. made concession necessary, or even proper. To have made compromise a condition of loyalty was unjust, and the government would not have been true to itself, had it submitted to the condition. A compromise under such circum- stances, might have se ward a temporary peace, but it would have done a great wrong to the joyde. In Athens once, its greatest statesmen and general, proposed to do a thing of great advantage to the Athenians. The matter was referred to Aris- tiles, a man emment for masseres of justice, who reported "that. the enterprise which Thetantosles proposel was indeed the most advantageous in the world, but at the same time it was the most ungnet." He Arienian- removed the most advantageous thing in the world, Because it was tainted with injustice. The American people have don . well in imitating this Athenian Virtue. A Erit nats nen iways afford to repudiate a wrong that would de hon rat. The proposition to compromise was as No spreading State asked it and While we were halting Lo one maet it in the -tott . - meetings and conventions, and
- . -Du st, they were arming and г !- ving cannon. They usel the H.under its arsenais and navy They parented the one alternative to mize the independence of the Ciminerale Stres, or to prepare for war. The government dared nt woont the one, atil the other became a necessity.
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But secession had its origin long before 1-60. On the 15th day of May 1828, the congress of the I'nited States passed a law Jeveving anties on the importation of foreign goods. The art levied higher duties than any previous revenue law of the gor- ernment. It was passed by a full congress in strict accordance with the Constitution. and avowedly for the protection of American industry. The Gulf States at once commenced de- vising means by which to resist Federal authority, and to pre- vent the execution of the law. They insisted then, as now, that the revenue act was both sectional and unconstitutional. It was sectional because it benefited Northern manufacturers. while in the South there were none to protect. It was sectional for the further reason, that one hundred and five votes against it were from the slave States.
The philosophy of sectionalism is indeed a singular one : # combined pro-slavery interest may thrust any measure upon the country, or defeat any object, but let the North do that thing- let free labor attempt to thwiat the cherished projects of the Cotton power by a united vote, and how soon the howl of se- tionalism resounds from one ett of the land to the other. Again, it was insisted that this tariff was unconstitutional be- iuse it imposed onequal taxation. If it was true, the North might have claimed that slavery was unjust and anti-Republ :- ran, because it gave unegnal representation. However, seizing these pretexts, South Carolina immediately commenced pro- daiming her resistance to the laws of the government. Hasty and heretical then as now, in less than thirty days after the passage of the tariff act, a public meeting was held at Walter- intouch in that State, at which an address to the people was adopted, containing the following passage :
"What course is left to par-ne. If we have the common. pride of men, or the determination of freemen, we must resist the imposition of this tarif. To be stationary is impossible, we must either retrograd. in dishonor and in shame, and receive the contempt and scorn of our brechern saperadded to our own wrongs and their system of oppression strengthened by our to- "ration ; or we must "lg opposing end them." In advising an attitn le of open resistance to imus of the Union, we deem it in .. thenation, and that we may not be mi understood, distinctly, but briefly to state, without argument, our constitutional faith. For it is not enough that imposts laid for the protection of domestic manufacturers are oppressive, and transfer in their opuld-
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tion millions of our property to Northern capitalists. If we have given our bond, let thein take our blood. Those who resist these imposts avnet deem them unconstitutional, and the prin- ciple is abandoned by the payment of one cont as much as ten millions."
Open resistance to the laws of the Union are here explicitly proclaimed one-third of a century ago. A state assmines to declare in the face of Congress, and in the face of a Supreme Court, that a particular law is unconstitutional, and boldly and openly defied the nation to execute it. All over South Carolina. meetings were held and similar sentiments expressed. The soil which grew Tories so abundantly in the Revolution, was proline of traitors. Georgia openly co operated with South Carolina. while Mississippi and the other Cotton States contented themselves by more, or less boldly expressing their sympathy with treason.
In December 1528, the Senate of South Carolina pas-ed a resolution condemning the tarif as unconstitutional, asserting that its enforcement onght to be resisted, and concludes by inviting other States to co-operate with her in devising means of resistance. Thusthirty-three years ago the State which le clair this rebellion, was actively engaged in consmiring against the government. Nothing but her weakness prevented her attempt- ing to leave the Union then. But the first paroxyins of frenzy passed off. and she gradually rela sed into her formier condition.
In Is32, Congress thought best to revise the tantf and molity the duties impose i by it, so as to make it less distasteful to the Cotton States. It was thought to conciliate South Carolina, but true to her nature, she grew suddenly furious and would intv- been out of the Union wrLont the ceremony of a final good bye had not the strong arm of the government been interpo -..!. The tariff could not be made to suit our rebellions sister State in ises it was too high-m 1: 2 ste would not consent to have it mayde lower. The spirit of desunion again became rue within Her borders: Dem gomme- also andet on the stump, and minis- ters from the po'pit .. 1 t Lessing of tiod to consecrate
imatenanes and Cathoun pho- healy announced " Situation to bea peaceful solution of existing In 1-32, the Lesistare called a convention of delegates to be electr the the pond of the State, "to take into interation the roots of empires of the United States, and to devis means of relis." The convention contemplated by t .. e Legislature assemblel on the 13th day of November in the same
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year. Treason is always in haste. The people must have no time for reflection-no time to allow the passions to cool-for reason to assume her sway, lest returning to their allegiance, they should put their feet upon the necks of the traitors who would have rushed them out of the Union. In this respect the conduct of the conspirators was not unlike that of the rebels of to-day. They meet and resolve States ont of the Union -- form how governments and put them into operation, withont thinking of submitting their work to a vote of the people. But to pro- cred with the history : The convention of South Carolina had met but a brief day, befrie it ariayed it-elt in open and flagrant hostility to the gene' il government by adopting the "ordinance . f Nullification." The title is a curious and interesting speci- men of traitorons impudence. It reads : "An ordinance provid- ing for arresting the operation of certain acts of the Congress of tl.» United States, purporting to be laws laying duties and im- posts on the importation of foreign commodities." Think for a moment of the monstrons absurdity of the proposition : A State in the U'nion owing allegiance, bound to aid in its defense, and assist in the execution of its degrees, presumes to pass all ordinance arresting the operation of the laws within its limits! The ordinance next proceeds to pronounce the revenue laws of 1-28 and 1832. "null and void, neither binding upon the State, its officers or citizens." It declares it unlawful to attempt the collection of Inties or the enforcement of these laws within the imits of the State. It made the decisions of its own courts upon the validity of these laws, final ant conclusive, by prohib- ling appeals or write of error from such decisions to the Federal courts. It required every one who heid an office of honor, trust of profit, civil or military, to take an oath to obey the ordinance uly, and the laws of the Legislature passed in puisnance
Its iniquities culminated in its final proposition, which declared that in case the general government should employ force to Fury into efect its laws, or should endeavor to coerce the State by routing up its ports, that South Carolina would consider the I'mon dissolved, and would proceed to organize a seperate strument. I have been somewhat minute in stating the first-, 'ont you might, in the meantime, in your own minds, run the jetailed between that and the present conspiracy. Traitors Ron nated coercion-declared that "eversion was disunion." They only wanted to be let done. They did not intend to
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resist the government, unless the government undertook to"en- force the laws. If it assumed to do so monstrous a thing as that, and war value of it, the United States only would be to blame, because they were forewarned that "coercion was disunion." In such an event the traitors would not be responsible for de- severing the Union. Northern fanatics only could be blamed for foolishly insisting that the constitutional obligations of each State should be faithfully and rigally enforced. Strange logie is that of secession !
Notwithstanding South Carolina's belligerent attitude, an ! her terrible threats, the government dal enforce the revents laws, and she did not go out-did not proceed to " organize. separate government." Georgia and Mississippi saw in the fasLing eye, and determined visage of the hero of New Orlean- an unanswerable argument to Nullification. They abandoned Palinettodom to its tate. But the action of the convention de! not end the treason of the Creolina Catilines. Immediately upon its adjournment the Legislature was convened and law- were passed to carry into effective operation the ordinance : the convention. This Legislature hurriedly adjourned Ites -- sion upon the promulation of President Jackson's proclamation. Tro nation had at ir- hvala bero and a patriot equal to emer- gracias of the great occasion. He called no convention to pro- post muestres of peace and comprome. He hell no parles with traitors-agreed upon no terms of armistice by which they were enabled to make their conspiracy more formidable, So lance and impotent a policy found no place in his councils. II. had taken an oath to preserve the inviolability of the constitu. tion, and he kept that cath. General Scott was dispatched to Charleston with instructions to put the fortifications there in condition of defence. He was authorized to reinforer the forts and he dal it. S nth Carolina was coursed and the Union w :s saved. It has been claimed that all these dangers were averte i by the comprometer of Me. Clav. Irevere the memory of Henry Clay; from south I have been taught to believe ha the statesman of the age, and I would not plu k a leaf troen las laurels, but in justgo to the by- ory of my country, I must deny that that compromise restored South Carolina to her allegian ". The good na ton of the lot of Desember, and the vigorolls corrente policy of Jackson, did it. History will so record it --: ' ha- so recorded it already.
The Union was sayed by the very means that demagognes
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now tell us will destroy it. A similar policy employed at the beginning of the present rebellion, by the late administration would have saved much blood and treasure. The reinforce- ment of Moultrie, Sumpter and Pickney might have saved the nation. The Federal Government should have shown its teeth at the outset. An emphatic " by the eternal " by another Jack- son, might then have accomplished what years will now be re- quired to perform, But Jackson is entombed at the Hermitage, and it appears that he was " the last of the Romans."
"There are but few giants in these days!" The government triumphed over treason in 1832, but did not anmhilate it. Cotton and traitors are produced by the same soil-treason was indigenous in South Carolina. The Cotton States, dissatisfed with their connection with the government, have ever since then ben plotting for its overthrow. Feeling their inability to accomplish their purpose at once, they have sought to attain their object by regular approaches. A series of acts were passed by many of these States, in direct conflict with the constitution and in violation of the rights of citizens of non-slaveholding States. Statutes were passed making ime citizens of Massi- husetts and of some of the other New England States, slaves, " they entered their ports. When a distinguished and venera- Ie lawyer of Massachusetts was sent to quietly test the con- stitutionality of these laws in their own courts and before their own judges, he was seized, mobbed and driven from the State. southern Institutions soon became too sacred tor Northern men to think of or talk about. He who dared utter a word against the "peculiar institution," became the victim of indignities and cruelties insutterable by a brave and a tree people. It was thought a reproach to be a Northern man, for a man from the Noth was necessarily an . Abolitionist." The name of an American citizen was no protection even upon American soil.
The slave power was not only imperious within its own bor- ders, but it became ditatorial abroad. It not only managed its own affairs at home without interference, but demanded that it Should be supreme dictator for the general government. It : home frenzied with madness whenever the Representatives of Afree laboring North attempted in any way, to provide for the ! D'ection of labor.
No tariff suited it - none could be made to suit it. Feeling that its power was on the decline, that soon the offices of the Vernment and their emoluments might pass from its clutches,
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