USA > Pennsylvania > Martial deeds of Pennsylvania, Vol. 1 > Part 6
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" Thus far it is a noble example, worthy of imitation. The gentleman, Mr. Cobb, the other night, said it had proven a failure. A failure in what ? In growth ? Look at our expanse in national power. Look at our population and increase in all that makes a people great. A failure? Why, we are the admiration of the civilized world, and present the brightest hopes of mankind. Some of our public men have failed in their aspirations; that is true,
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and from that comes a great part of our troubles. No, there is no failure of this Government yet. We have made great advance- ment under the Constitution, and I cannot but hope that we shall advance higher still. Let us be true to our cause."
But while there were a few men at the South not entirely car- ried away with the madness of the hour, the great body of the leaders were intent on establishing a new Government whose ruling interest should be Slavery. "Its corner-stone," they said, "rests upon the great truth, that the negro is not equal to the white man; that slavery, subordination to the superior race, is his natural and normal condition. . . . This stone, which was first rejected by the first builders, 'is become the chief stone of the corner' in our new edifice." Slavery made the South a homo- geneous people. A system of labor like this, pervading all parts, and a condition of society and habits of life which are its inevita- ble result, bound the dominant race to a common interest. The lack of general education among the masses of the poor whites made them fit subjects to be duped by a comparatively small number of landed aristocrats, rejoicing in their retinues of slaves. Hence, any enterprise which could command the united support of the slave-holders, was sure to have the concurrence of the com- bined white population. Of the 12,000,000 of people in the South, a careful estimate made for 1850, showed that there were less than 170,000 men who owned more than five slaves. The influence of these was everywhere supreme, and so skilfully had their views been made to permeate and leaven the entire mass, that the very class who were most degraded by slavery, and whose highest interests would have been conserved by universal free- dom, were most clamorous for, and even mad with the desire for Secession. For a score or more of years, they had been made familiar with the theme. They had been told that the poverty and wretchedness of the South was due to the tariff laws, the fishing bounties, and the navigation policy of the General Gov- ernment; and so effectually had these ideas been dinned into their ears, that they had come to look upon Secession as the panacea for all ills, and that if adopted, a golden sunshine would dawn upon all that beclouded and abused region. The stump and the bar had long echoed with the call, and even the pulpit
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had taken up the refrain. From the day Jackson crushed at- tempted rebellion, in 1832, and summarily silenced the cry of Nullification, the leaders seem to have cherished a hatred of the National authority, and secretly labored for its overthrow. A republican form of government was not the one best suited to Southern society. To a small but powerful aristocracy, holding a vast laboring population as their slaves and vassals, a monarchy was better adapted. This, the foremost of their writers were not backward in proclaiming. Mr. Garnett, member of Congress from Virginia, declared : "Democracy, in its original philosophical sense, is indeed incompatible with Slavery, and the whole system of Southern society." Mr. Lossing, in a note to his " History of the Civil War in America," has quoted the following paragraphs from De Bow's Review, a leading Southern magazine, in confirma- tion of this truth :
"The right to govern resides in a very small minority; the duty to obey is inherent in the great mass of mankind."
" There is nothing to which the South [the ruling class] enter- tains so great a dislike, as of universal suffrage. Wherever for- eigners settle together in large numbers, there universal suffrage will exist. They understand and admire the levelling democracy of the North, but cannot appreciate the aristocratic feeling of a privileged class, so universal at the South."
" The real civilization of a country is in its aristocracy. The masses are moulded into soldiers and artisans by intellect, just as matter and the elements of nature are made into telegraphs and steam-engines. The poor who labor all day are too tired at night to study books. If you make them learned, they soon forget all that is necessary in the common transactions of life. To make an aristocrat in the future, we must sacrifice a thousand paupers. Yet, we would by all means make them-make them permanent, too, by laws of entail and primogeniture. An aristocracy is patri- archal, parental, and representative. The feudal barons of Eng- land were, next to the fathers, the most perfect representative government. The king and barons represented everybody, be- cause everybody belonged to them."
"The real contest of to-day is not simply between the North and the South; but to determine whether for ages to come our
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Government shall partake more of the form of monarchies or of more liberal forms."
To accomplish their purpose, the advocates of these doctrines were busy in fomenting sectional strife, and in nurturing in the minds of the masses of the Southern people a deep-seated hatred of the North and its institutions. So successful were they that even the slaves came to share it. The people of the North had no conception of the bitterness of this feeling previous to the break- ing out of the Rebellion. Hence, up to the very last moment, they could not be induced to believe that a civil war was possible; for the feeling towards the people of South Carolina and Louisiana was the same among them as between the inhabitants of New York and Pennsylvania. Indeed, a warmer feeling of friendship seemingly existed in Pennsylvania for the dwellers in the neigh- boring States on the south, than for those on the north. Not so at the South. The whole section was kuit together as by a common tie, and their hatred of the North was intense.
The evidence that such feeling existed is now beyond question. William HI. Russell, a distinguished correspondent of the London Times, was travelling in the South during the early stages of the war, and on the 30th of April sent a communication to that journal, of which the following are extracts :
" Nothing I could say can be worth one fact which has forced itself upon my mind in reference to the sentiments which prevail among the gentlemen of this State. I have been among them for several days. I have visited their plantations. I have conversed with them freely and fully, and I have enjoyed that frank, cour- teous and graceful intercourse which constitutes an irresistible charm of their society. From all quarters have come to my ears the echoes of the same voice. . . . That voice says, 'if we could only get one of the royal race of England to rule over us, we should be content.' Let there be no misconception on this point. That sentiment, varied in a hundred ways, has been repeated to me over and over again. . . . The admiration for monarchical institutions on the English model for privileged classes, and for a landed aristocracy and gentry, is undisguised and apparently genuine. . . . An intense affection for the British connection, a love of British habits and customs, a respect for British sentiment,
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law, authority, order, civilization and literature, preeminently dis- tinguish the inhabitants of this State, who, glorying in their descent from ancient families on the three islands, whose fortunes they still follow, and with whose members they maintain, not unfrequently, familiar relations, regard with an aversion of which it is impossible to give an idea to one who has not seen its mani- festations, the people of New England and the populations of the Northern States. . . . There are national antipathies on our side of the Atlantic which are tolerably strong, and have been, unfortunately, pertinacious and long-lived. The hatred of the Italian for the Tedesco, of the Greek for the Turk, of the Turk for the Russ, is warm and fierce enough to satisfy the prince of dark- ness, not to speak of a few little pet aversions among allied powers, and the atoms of composite empires; but they are all mere indif- ference and neutrality of feeling compared to the animosity evinced by the 'gentry' of South Carolina for the 'rabble of the North.'
." The contests of Cavalier and Roundhead, of Vendean and Republican, even of Orangeman and Croppy, have been elegant joustings, regulated by the finest rules of chivalry, compared with those which North and South will carry on if their deeds support their words. 'Immortal hate, the study of revenge' will actuate every blow ; and never in the history of the world, perhaps, will go forth such a dreadful vœ victis as that which may be heard before the fight has begun. There is nothing in all the dark caves of human passion so cruel and deadly as the hatred the South Carolinians profess for the Yankees. That hatred has been swelling for years, till it is the very life-blood of the State. It has set South Carolina to work steadily to organize her resources for the struggle which she intended to provoke, if it did not come in the course of time. 'Incompatibility of temper' would have been sufficient ground for the divorce, and I am satisfied that there has been a deep-rooted design conceived in some men's minds thirty years ago, and extended gradually year after year to others, to break away from the Union at the very first opportunity."
Having thus whetted the minds of the people, and prepared them for sudden enterprise; having emptied the arsenals of the North, and filled those of the South with arms and ammunition ;
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having condemned large quantities of good percussion muskets and sold them to militia companies forming all over the South, and to private parties there, at a merely nominal price; having dis- persed the small fragment of a standing army which the nation had, and sent its ships of war to the ends of the earth, the leaders stood ready when the time arrived for another presidential elec- tion, to set their craft afloat. To effect the disruption and division of the political party with which they had for a long time acted, in the nominating convention, was easy. When that was done there was certainty of the election of a Republican President, and as soon as the popular voice had pronounced in favor of Mr. Lincoln, that circumstance was seized as the pretext for the forma- tion of a Southern Confederacy, and the call to arms for its defence.
It was but a pretext; for had they not held a controlling influ- ence in the Government from its foundation, and might they not still have continued to do so had they been united ? Mr. Stephens said, in the Secession Convention of Georgia:
"What right has the North assailed ? What interest of the South has been invaded ? What justice has been denied ? and what claim founded in justice and right has been withheld ? Can either of you to-day name one governmental act of wrong, delib- erately and purposely done by the Government of Washington, of which the South has a right to complain ? I challenge the answer. .. When we of the South demanded the slave-trade, or the importation of Africans for the cultivation of our lands, did they not yield the right for twenty years? When we asked a three-fifths representation in Congress for our slaves, was it not granted? When we asked and demanded the return of any fugitive from justice, or the recovery of those persons owing labor or allegiance, was it not incorporated in the Constitution, and again ratified and strengthened by the Fugitive Slave Law of 1850? But do you reply that in many instances they have vio- lated this compact, and have not been faithful to their engage- ments ? As individuals and local communities, they may have done so; but not by the sanction of Government; for that has always been true to Southern interests. Again, gentlemen, look at another act; when we have asked that more territory should be
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added, that we might spread the institution of Slavery, have they not yielded to our demands in giving us Louisiana, Florida, and Texas, out of which four States have been carved, and ample territory for four more to be added in due time, if you, by this unwise and impolitic act do not destroy this hope, and, perhaps by it lose all, and have your last slave wrenched from you by stern military rule, as South America and Mexico were; or by the vindictive decree of a universal emancipation, which may reasonably be expected to follow ?
" But again, gentlemen, what have we to gain by this proposed change of our relation to the General Government? We have always had the control of it, and can yet, if we remain in it, and are as united as we have been. We have had a majority of the Presidents chosen from the South, as well as the control and management of most of those chosen from the North. We have had sixty years of Southern Presidents to their twenty-four, thus controlling the Executive Department. So of the Judges of the Supreme Court ; we have had eighteen from the South, and but eleven from the North; although nearly four-fifths of the judicial business has arisen in the Free States, yet a majority of the Court has always been from the South. This we have required so as to guard against any interpretation of the Constitution unfavorable to us. In like manner we have been equally watch- ful to guard our interests in the Legislative branch of the Govern- ment. In choosing the presiding Presidents pro tem. of the Senate, we have had twenty-four to their eleven. Speakers of the House we have had twenty-three, and they twelve. While the majority of the Representatives, from their greater popula- tion, have always been from the North, yet we have generally secured the Speaker, because he, to a great extent, shapes and controls the legislation of the country. Nor have we had less control in every other department of the General Government. Attorney-Generals we have had fourteen, while the North have had but five. Foreign Ministers we have had eighty-six, and they but fifty-four. While three-fourths of the business which de- mands diplomatic agents abroad is clearly from the Free States, from their greater commercial interests, yet we have had the principal embassies, so as to secure the world markets for our
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cotton, tobacco, 'and sugar, on the best possible terms. We have had a vast majority of the higher offices of both army and navy, while a larger proportion of the soldiers and sailors were drawn from the North. Equally so of clerks, auditors, and con- trollers, filling the Executive Department; the records show for the last fifty years that of the 3000 thus employed, we have had more than two-thirds of the same, while we have but one-third of the white population of the Republic."
After showing that three-fourths of the revenue collected for the support of the Government has been raised in the North, and that the revenue for carrying the mails at the North was in excess of expenditures by $6,000,000, while at the South there was a deficit of over $6,500,000, he concludes in the following impas- sioned strain : "Leaving out of view, for the present, the count- less millions of dollars you must expend in a war with the North, with tens of thousands of your sons and brothers slain in battle, and offered up as sacrifices upon the altar of your ambition-and for what ? we ask again. Is it for the overthrow of the American Government, established by our common ancestry, cemented and built up by their sweat and their blood, and founded on the broad principles of Right, Justice, and Humanity ? And as such, I must declare here, as I have often done before, and which has been repeated by the greatest and wisest of statesmen and patriots in this and other lands, that it is the best and freest Government, the most equal in its rights, the most just in its decisions, the most lenient in its measures, and the most aspiring in its princi- ples to elevate the race of men, that the sun of heaven ever shone upon. Now for you to attempt to overthrow such a Government as this, under which we have lived for more than three-quarters of a century-in which we have gained our wealth, our standing as a nation, our domestic safety while the elements of peril are around us, with peace and tranquillity accompanied with unbounded prosperity and rights unassailed-is the height of mad- ness, folly, and wickedness, to which I can neither lend my sanc- tion nor my vote."
But in the face of such appeals as these, the South rushed wildly on. " Perhaps there never was a people," wrote a Southern man in the third year of the war, "more bewitched, beguiled, and
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befooled than we were when we drifted into this rebellion." The election in November, 1860, resulted in the choice of Mr. Lincoln, in strict accordance with the prescribed forms of the Con- stitution. Without awaiting an unfriendly act, or even his inauguration, the Southern States, led by South Carolina, called Conventions, voted themselves out of the Union, and proceeded to establish independent State Governments, their Senators and Representatives in Congress withdrawing therefrom. The Ordi- nance of South Carolina was passed on the 17th of November, 1860, only a few days after the Presidential election, and by the Ist of February following, the Conventions of eight States had passed similar enactments. On the 4th of February, a Congress of delegates from these States met at Montgomery, Alabama, and having on the 8th adopted a Constitution, under the title of the Confederate States of America, on the following day chose Jeffer- son Davis President. The five border States, including North Carolina, subsequently followed, in one form or another, and sent representatives to that body. Thus was an independent Govern- ment set up without opposition, a month before the President- elect could be inaugurated.
This peaceful action was followed up by other, looking to the maintenance of the new authority vi et armis. The forts and arsenals of the General Government, filled with arms, ammunition, and heavy ordnance, and vast quantities of military stores, were seized by the State authorities, the guards, which had been reduced to a mere nominal force, turning over their charge with- out opposition. To these disgraceful acts were two notable exceptions. Major Anderson, at Fort Sumter, Charleston Harbor, and Lieutenant Adam J. Slemmer, at Fort Pickens, on the Ala- bama coast, resolutely preserved their honor, the latter defying his assailants and holding his post, and the former denying all authority of the State of South Carolina over him, and only yield- ing when destruction was inevitable. The public sentiment of the North stoutly condemned this unlawful and violent procedure, and the press called in loudest tones for its suppression. But the National Administration held that the Constitution delegated to Congress and the Executive no power to coerce a State into sub- mission which was attempting to withdraw, or had actually with-
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drawn from the Confederacy, and manifested a pusillanimity towards this whole momentous question, in strange contrast with the fiery zeal of Jackson.
General Scott had proposed to throw large garrisons, with abundant supplies and ammunition to withstand a long siege, into the forts in the Southern States, before they should fall into the hands of the insurgents; but to this the objection was made that such a course would exasperate them and lead to violence, and the purpose was thwarted.
Disagreeing with his chief in the policy pursued, Lewis Cass, Secretary of State, resigned on the 12th of December, and was succeeded by Jeremiah S. Black. Two days before, Howell Cobb, of Georgia, resigned his position as Secretary of the Treasury, to follow the fortunes of the State he represented, and was succeeded by Philip F. Thomas, who was in turn succeeded on the 11th of January, 1861, by John A. Dix. For a like reason John B. Floyd, Secretary of War, and Jacob Thompson, Secretary of the Interior, both resigned in January, when Joseph Holt was entrusted with the War Department, Edwin M. Stanton was made Attorney-General, and Horatio King Postmaster- General.
These changes altered somewhat the complexion of the Cabinet ; but the President adhered to his views as to the powers of the Government, and nothing was done to stay the progress of rebel- lion to the end of his term. In the meanwhile, the new Govern- ment, which had been set up at Montgomery, was daily acquiring greater strength, and the Legislatures of the revolting States having voted money freely to raise and discipline troops, every- where warlike preparations went boldly on. The voice of the drill-master, and the tramp of recruits, were heard over the whole South, and when finally Mr. Lincoln came to power, he came with one half of his dominions in a state of revolt, provided with a well organized Government, and an army in preparation for its defence.
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CHAPTER III.
OUT-LOOK AT THE OPENING OF THE REBELLION.
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N the morning of the 22d of February, 1861, the anniversary of the birth-day of WASHINGTON, a number of companies of volunteer militia appeared on parade in the principal streets of Harrisburg, mustered to receive and honor ABRAHAM LINCOLN, President elect of the United States, journeying from his home at Springfield, Illinois, to the National Capital. A similar display of the State Militia had been made a few weeks previous, to signalize the inauguration of ANDREW G. CURTIN as Governor of the Commonwealth.
This display, though represented to be the greatest ever before seen in the State Capital, was an index to the discipline and numbers of the militia force of the Commonwealth, and a real acknowledgment of its weak- ness. The dull and lustreless muskets, the varied and grotesque uniforms, the feathers and tinsel of officers, appeared in strong contrast to the complete equipments, and well burnished armor, of the full ranked regiments of a later day. Their presence proved their patriotism, and their willingness to serve, when in due time they should be called to the field; but it attested the lack of military spirit, and the almost total want of prepara- tion for the desperate conflict which was so soon to follow.
The people of the State through all its borders had been earnestly devoted to the development of its resources. They saw no occasion, and had no desire for war. Moralists had proclaimed the wrongfulness of the Trial by Battle, and had magnified the glories and the blessings of Peace; the Pulpit, imbued with the mild and gentle spirit of the Gospel, had constantly deprecated the arts of war; and some of the finest
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specimens of eloquence of the schools taught that the true grandeur of a nation consisted in cultivating and maintaining peace. "Iniquissimam pacem," says Sumner in his master plea, "justissimo bello anteferro, are the words of Cicero; and only eight days after Franklin had placed his name to the treaty of peace which acknowledged the independence of his country, he wrote to a friend : 'May we never see another war, for, in my opinion, there never was a good war, nor a bad peace.' . . . True greatness consists in imitating, as near as is possible for finite man, the perfections of an infinite Creator; above all, in culti- vating those highest perfections, Justice and Love ;- Justice, which like that of St. Louis, shall not swerve to the right hand, or to the left; Love, which like that of WILLIAM PENN, shall regard all mankind of kin."
Meditating no violent measures, and studying no cause of quarrel with her sister States, Pennsylvania sought by good offices to cement the integral parts of the Union, and by the well-directed and industrious habits of her people to contribute as well to its steady growth and prosperity in every material resource, as to its elevation and ennoblement in every spiritual grace. But while making no preparations for war, and seeking no cause for conflict, there was nurtured in the breasts of her people that vigor which kept them ready for manly warfare, and that Spartan virtue which led them to court danger in the hour of battle. "Walled towns," says Lord Bacon, "stored arsenals and armories, goodly races of horse, chariots of war, elephants, ordinance, artillery, and the like; all this is but a sheep in a lion's skin, except the breed and disposition of the people be stout and warlike."
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