USA > Tennessee > History of the Twentieth Tennessee regiment volunteer infantry, C.S.A > Part 4
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Page 158. "It is our honest conviction that all the pro- slavery slave-holders deserve to be at once reduced to a paralell with the basest criminals that lie fettered within our public prisons."
Page 162. "Three quarters of a century hence, if the South retains slavery, which God forbid, she will be to the North what Poland is to Russia, Cuba to Spain, and Ireland to England."
Page 163. "The black God of slavery which the South has worshipped for 237 years."
On page 168 it said, "Slavery is a great moral, social, civil, and political evil, to be rid of at the earliest practical period."
Page 180. "In any event, come what will, transpire what may, the institution of slavery must be abolished."
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Page 187. "Our purpose is as firmly fixed as the eternal pillars of heaven, we have determined to abolish slavery, and so help us God, abolish it we will."
Page 234. "We believe it is as it ought to be, the desire, the determination, and the destiny of the Republican party to give the death blow to slavery."
Page 329. "Shall we pat the blood-hound of slavery, shall we fee the curs of slavery, shall we pay the whelps of slavery? No! Never."
Now these dark and bitter teachings must have been conceived in the brains of iniquity, written with a pen that had been dipped in the blackest and most poisonous of gall, driven by a hand of an infuriated and bloodthirsty demon, who was a stranger to God and justice, spreading its vile sentiments upon sheets soaked in wormwood for its unholy purpose.
The contents of this book, "The Impending Crisis", was endorsed by sixty-eight republican members of Congress. Now what was the South to do, when this was the sentiment that had elected a president in Nov. 1860? Must she sit still and see her property taken from her without remuneration, or should she secede and try to protect it according to the com- pact of 1787?
When the British Government emancipated the Blacks in her colonies she acted with the strictest commercial equity, but the Republican party denied any compensation for the negroes that they sold to the "curs and whelps" of the South, and threat- ened to secede from the Union because they were not allowed to continue in the slave trade.
Before we close this article, let us give to some extent a re- view, First, In forming the Government the thirteen States conferred upon the Federal Government the power to tax slave property, to protect it from foreigners on land and sea, and also from domestic escape, and conferred no other powers.
Second. The Abolitionists of the North clung to the profits of the slave trade as long as they were permitted, and then attacked the slave system when they were deprived of its profits.
Third, At the beginning of our government, all of our terri- tory was slave territory, a large portion of it became free territory by the Ordinance of 1787, prohibiting slaves north of the Ohio
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river, and by right of the Northern States abolishing slavery.
Fourth, By, the Missouri Compromise of 1820, prohibiting slavery north of 36.30.
Fifth, By the act admitting Texas, re-enacting the Missouri Compromise line of 1820; the above acts show that the North had driven slavery out of half of the territory of the United States.
Sixth, The Constitution of the United States made it the duty of the Federal Government to protect slavery wherever found, until the people could by vote decide whether or not they wanted it in that particular territory.
Seventh, The agitation of the slave question grew out of the chagrin of New England being deprived of the slave trade and its profits; and the Louisiana purchase.
Eighth, The emancipation idea made steady progress in the Southern States until the abolitionists forced the slave holders. on the defensive.
Ninth, The cry of the free soiler was raised by Martin Van Buren in 1848 to revenge his failure of renomination by the South at Baltimore.
Tenth. The compromise of 1850 was carried by the influence of Henry Clay.
Eleventh. The violation of the different compromises by the Northern States, and by the passage of the Personal Liberty Bill Acts, which was a direct blow at the Fugitive Slave Act.
Twelfth. The repeal of the Missouri Compromise act in 1854 by the influence of Stephen A. Douglas of Illinois.
Thirteenth. An attempt by the abolitionists to make Kansas a free state without any regard to the teachings of the constitution.
Fourteenth. The violent agitation of the slavery question at the North was soon followed by John Brown's raid into. Virginia.
Fifteenth. The people in the North to justify their over-riding the Constitution and the laws of Congress in violation of the com- pact of 1787, called it a higher law.
Sixteenth. In 1787, the South entered into a civil compact with the North on certain conditions and guarantees, which the
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MAJ .- GEN. JNO. C. BRECKINRIDGE. See page 373.
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North violated time and again, and when the South was forced to secede she only returned to her original sovereignty.
Seventeenth. The South asserted her independence in 1861, as the thirteen colonies did in 1776, and it is an undeniable practice of the European nations to repudiate a government who assails their rights, and sacrifices their best interests.
Eighteenth. The above were the causes of our great civil war, and the writer, as a Confederate soldier, from start to finish, be- lieves it was far better to have fought and lost, than never to have fought at all.
We have now arrived at the year 1860, the year to elect a Pres- ident and Vice-President to succeed James Buchanan and John C .. Breckinridge. This year found the political horison much clouded. Upon the different issues, the people had divided and sub-divided until four parties, instead of two, had candidates in the field for these high offices.
The first of the great parties to step into the arena and shy its castor. by holding its National Convention at Charleston, S. C., on the 23rd day of April, 1860, was the Democratic party.
After much dissension and bitterness it split into two wings, one of said wings met in convention in Baltimore on the 23rd day of June and nominated Stephen A. Douglass of Illinois, for Presi- dent, and Herschel V. Johnson of Georgia, for Vice-President. This convention also declared in favor of leaving the slavery question to the voters of each territory, or to Congress. This convention was composed mostly of Northern Democrats.
The Southern wing of the Democratic Party met in Charles- ton, S. C., on June 28, and nominated John C. Breckinridge of Kentucky for President and Joseph Lane of Oregon for Vice- President, and they declared that neither Congress nor a terri- torial legislature had the right to prohibit slavery in a territory, and it was the duty of the Federal Government to protect slavery in a territory when necessary, or until its people could take a vote thereon.
The third party who called themselves the Constitutional party met in Baltimore, on May 9, and nominated John Bell of Tennessee for President, and Edward Everett of Massachu- setts for Vice-President, their platform was the "Union, the Constitution and the Enforcement of the Law."
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The Republican or Abolition party met in National Conven- tion in Chicago, on May 18, and nominated Abraham Lincoln of Illinois for President, and Hannibal Hamlin of Maine for Vice-President, and they declared in favor of the abolition of slavery in the territories by congressional action.
Now the candidates of the four parties having been nomi- nated and their platforms defined, a hot political contest followed.
The election was held on November 6, 1860, which elected Abraham Lincoln and Hannibal Hamblin, who received 180 elec- toral votes out of a total of 313, and every one of these 180 votes were cast by states north of the Mason and Dixon line. Breck- inridge and Lane received 72 votes, all from the Southern states, including Maryland and Delaware.
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Bell and Everett received 39 votes from Kentucky, Tennessee and Virginia ; while Stephen A. Douglas and Herschel V. Johnson received only 12 votes and these from the state of Missouri.
So you will see that Lincoln and Hamlin received more votes in the electoral college than all three of the other candidates com- bined.
We will now investigate the popular vote. There was cast in this election 4,662, 170 votes. Of this number Lincoln and Ham- lin received only 1,857,610 votes against 2,804,560 cast for the other three candidates, which showed that Lincoln did not get the popular vote by 946,950 votes, this also showed the mani- fest injustice of the electoral college.
Now the election of a sectional candidate by a purely sec- tional vote greatly alarmed the Southern people.
A number of Southern states soon called conventions to consult and determine what course they would pursue.
Here is what Mr. Lincoln said after he was elected. "I believe this Government can not endure permanently, half slave and half free."
"I do not expect the union to be dissolved, I do not expect the house to fall, but I do expect it will cease to be divided. It will become all one thing or all the other, either the opponents of slavery will arrest the further spread of it and place it where the public mind shall rest in the belief that it is in the course of ultimate extinction, or its advocates will push it forward until it
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shall become alike lawful in all the states, old as well as new, North 'as well as South."
Mr. Lincoln farther said, "I have always hated slavery as much as any abolitionist, I have always been an old time Whig. I have always hated it and I always believed it in a course of ultimate extinction. If I was in Congress and a vote should come up on a question whether slavery should be prohibited in a new territory, in spite of the Dred Scott decision I would vote that it should."
Now with the election of a president who entertained such sentiments as the above, by a party whose mission in life was to abolish slavery, I again ask the question, If the South intended to protect and maintain her self-respect, could she have done otherwise than what she did?
As the minds of the Southern people were pretty well made up, the different states began to hold secession conventions and to exercise their rights, according to the compact of 1787, of withdrawing from the Union.
The first State to secede was South Carolina, her ordinance of secession was passed on December 20, 1860.
Mississippi, on January 9, 1861. Florida, January 10, 1861. Alabama, January 11, 1861. Georgia January 19, 1861. Lou- isiana, January 26, 1861. Texas, February 1, 1861. Virginia, April 17, 1861. Arkansas, May 6, 1861. North Carolina, May 26, 1861. Tennessee, June 8, 1861. Missouri, October 31, 1861, Kentucky, November 20, 1861.
On the 4th day of February, 1861, the representatives of seven of these seceded States, that now belonged to no government, but were independent republics, met in Montgomery, Alabama, for the purpose of forming themselves into an allied power, or Confederate Government, for the mutual protection of themselves and their property. The states represented here were the states that had seceded before February 4, 1861.
The following were the seven states and the names of the delegates who represented them.
South Corolina, R. B. Rhett, James Chesnut, Jr. W. P. Miles, T. J. Withers, R. J. Barnwell, C. G. Memminger, L. M. Keith and W. W. Boyce.
Mississippi, W. P. Harris, Walter Brooks, A. M. Clayton, W.
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L. Barry, T. J. Harrison, J. A. P. Campbell, and W. S. Wilson. Florida, Jackson Morton, James Powers, and J. P. Anderson.
Alabama, Richard W. Walker, J. L. M. Curry, Robert H. Smith, C. J. McRae, John Gill Shorter, T. T. Hale, David P. Lewis, Thomas Fearn, and W. P. Chilton.
Georgia, Robert Toombs, Howell Cobb, Benjamin J. Hill, A. H. Stephens, Francis Bartow, M. J. Crawford, E. A. Nisbett, A. R. Wright, T. R. R. Cobb, and A. H. Kenan.
Louisana, John Perkins, Jr., D. F. Kenner, C. M. Conrad, Edward Sparrow, Henry Marshall, and A. De Clouet.
Texas, L. T. Wigfall, J. H. Ragan, J. Hemphill, T. N. Waul, John Gregg W. S. Oldham, and W. H. Ochiltree.
These fifty delegates representing seven sovereign States or- ganized themselves into a convention by electing Howell Cobb of Georgia, Chairman, and J. J. Hooper of Alabama, Secretary.
Mr. Cobb was a leading advocate of the compromise of 1850. He was elected by the Union party Governor of Georgia in 1851, and he was later Secretary of the United States Treasury
Mr. Hooper, the secretary of the convention, was an Alabama editor and author of considerable note.
While the convention was being organized, hanging on the walls of the hall, were the portraits of Andrew Jackson, Marion, Washington and Henry Clay.
This first convention of the young Confederacy now being organized proceeded on February 9, 1861, to elect a President and Vice-President. The votes were taken by States separately, which resulted in the unanimous choice of Jefferson Davis of Miss- issippi for President, and Alexander H. Stephens of Georgia as Vice-President. When this honor was conferred on Mr. Davis, he was at home on his plantation in Mississippi. He did not prefer to be the civil head of the young nation, but offering him- self if needed, to its military service. Mr. Davis was one among the last to give up the hope of a reconciliation of the two sections.
He only withdrew from the United State Senate in obedience to the will of the state. He followed secession instead of leading it.
At the same time he was educated in the school of state sover- eignity, and when the time came Jefferson Davis was no traitor-
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to his people, as were some who lived in the South. Alexander H. Stephens, the Vice-President elect, was a thorough devotee to the Union under the constitution. He stood to the last moment in Georgia against the secession act, but he was a firm believer in the legal principles of States' rights, and upon the withdrawal of his State from the Federal Union, let it be said to his credit, that he did not hesitate to whom he owed his allegiance.
A committee was appointed to notify these gentlemen of their election, and they were inaugurated on February 18, 1861, as President and Vice-President of the Southern Confederacy.
The president was at once directed to appoint committees on Foreign affairs, Finance, Judiciary, Military and Naval Affairs, Commerce, Postal, Patents and Printing ; and all laws that were in force in the United States in November 1860, that were not in conflict with the Provisional Constitution of the Confederacy, were continued in operation.
The following Cabinet Officers were now appointed by Presi- dent Davis : Department of State, Robert Toombs, of Georgia. Department of war, Leroy P. Walker, of Alabama. Treasury, Charles G. Memminger of South Carolina. Post Office, John H. Ragan, of Texas. Navy Department, Stephen R. Mallory, of Florida. Department of Justice, Judah P. Benjamin, of Louisiana.
The world could now see from the National reputation of these men, that the young nation would be led by intellect and patriotism.
President Davis at once appointed a commission of three, viz .- Mr. Crawford, of Georgia, Mr. John Forsythe, of Ala- bama, and Mr. A. R. Roman, of Louisiana, to go to Washington and confer with President Buchanan, in regard to the settlement of all matters of joint ownership of property of any kind within the limits of the Confederate States upon principles of right, justice, equity and good faith.
Up to this time it was said that President Buchanan was willing to receive such a commission, but before this commission reached Washington, President Buchanan had changed his mind, and said : that he had only three days more of official life left,
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and he could not incur any further dangers of reproach from the people of the North.
President Davis next by the authority of the Confederate Congress, appointed three commissioners to represent the Con- federate States in England and France. This commission was composed of W. L. Yancy of Alabama, A. Dudley Mann of Virginia, and Mr. Rost of Louisiana.
A number of measures were enacted during the months of February and March 1861. Three of the most notable were, first, "to punish persons convicted of being engaged in the slave trade ;" second, by order of the President to borrow $15, 000,000 at 8 per cent interest ; the third was to authorize the President to ask for and accept 100,000 volunteers to serve for twelve months." (Confederate Military History, Vol. I page, 368.) The constitution by which the permanent govern- ment of the Confederate States of America was formed, was reported by the committee, and adopted by the Provisional Con- gress on the II of March 1861, to be submitted to the States for ratification, which was promptly done.
This Constitution varied in very few particulars from the Con- stitution of the United States, preserving carefully the funda- mental principles of popular representation, democracy and confederation of co-equal states. The changes which were thought to substantially improve the United States document were the following : (we will refer our readers to Vol. 1, pages 369-370 Confederate Military History, for these improvements, ) Viz. the official term of the President and Vice-President was fixed at six years, and the President was ineligible for re-election. In all cases of removals, except those of Cabinet officers and diplomatic agents, the cause was required to be reported to the Senate by the President. Congress was authorized to admit Cabinet officers to seats in either house with the privilege of debate, but without a vote on any measure affecting their department.
The President was given power to disapprove any appropria- tion in a bill, and to approve others in the same bill. The states as such were empowered to join in improving navigable rivers flowing between or through them. New States were ad-
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missible into the Confederation by a vote of two thirds of both houses, the Senate being required to vote by States.
A Confederate official exercising his function within any State was subject to impeachment by its legislature as well as by the House of Representatives of the Confederate States, but in all cases the trial was to be by the Confederate Senate.
No act of bankruptcy would be permitted to discharge the debtor from contracts made before the passage of the act.
General appropriations of money must be estimated for by one of the heads of the departments, and when this was not done, the appropriation could not be made except by a two thirds vote in both houses.
Internal improvements by Congress and protection to foster special branches of industry were forbidden. Citizens of the sev- eral states could not sue each other in the general Confederate courts, but were confined in such suits to the courts of the States.
The power of Congress over the territories and the right of cit- izens of one State to enter any other State with his slaves or other property were settled according to the views of the South under the United States Constitution.
Except in a few minor respects the Confederate Constitution was modeled upon that great instrument that Thomas Jefferson wrote, viz : The Constitution of the United States.
Now, here is what Mr. President Davis said about it: " While he had no part in framing the Confederate Constitution, he be- lieved that it was a model of wise and deliberate statesmanship," and referring to the question of slavery, that was so prominent in the discussion between the North and the South, he said : " With regard to slavery and the slave trade the provisions of the Con- federate Constitution made an effective answer to the assertion so often made, that the Confederacy was founded on slavery and in- tended to perpetuate and extend it, that property in slaves al- ready existing was recognized and guaranteed just as it was by the Constitution of the United States, and the rights of such prop- erty in the common territories were protected against any such hostile discriminations as had been attempted in the Union. But the extension of slavery was more distinctly and effectually pre- cluded by the Confederate than by the Federal Constitution."
The Confederate Constitution forbade the importation of ne-
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groes from any country other than the slave-holding states and territories.
Mr. Alexander Stephens, the Vice-President, said, concerning the Confederate Constitution, "This whole document relegates the idea which so many have been active in endeavoring to put in the enduring form of history, that the convention at Montgomery was nothing but a set of conspirators whose object was the over- throw of the principles of the Constitution of the United States, and the creation of a great slave oligarchy, instead of the free in- stitution, thereby secured and guaranteed."
Now as the Confederate Government was fully organized and put in full operation, with good prospects for peace, this first Congress adjourned on March 16th; 1861.
While the Confederate Government was being organized at Montgomery, Ala., Abraham Lincoln of Illinois, was on March 4th, 1861, sworn in as President of the United States, Chief Jus- tice Taney, who had pronounced the Dred Scott decicion, admin- istered to him the oath of office.
The new cabinet was now formed by the appointment of W. H. Seward of New York, Secretary of State ; Salmon P. Chase of Ohio, Secretary of the Treasury: Simon Cameron of Penn., Sec- retary of War; Gideon Wells of Connecticutt, Secretary of the Navy; Caleb Smith of Indiana, Secretary of the Interior: Mont- gomery Blair of Maryland, Postmaster General; and Edward Bates of Missouri, Attorney General.
Now, as we have two full-fledged governments, and the Con- federate troops had caused the surrender of Fort Sumter, Satur- day, April 13th, 1861; and its evacuation on Sunday April 14th, which was the day President Lincoln issued his call on the differ- ent states for 75,000 troops, but dated his call on April 15th, to make it appear that the call was not made until after Fort Sumter was taken by the Confederates.
This first call for troops was signed on the 15th day of April, and on Wednesday, the 17th, troops were put in motion towards Washington, the extraordinary celerity of mobilizing troops by the Federal government showed conclusively that it had been pre- paring for war on her sister Southern States.
Up to this time only seven States had seceded, although Vir- ginia seceded on the 17th, only two days later. All of the South-
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ern States that had not withdrawn from the Union were included in his call for troops to serve for ninety days.
Here are the different replies of the Governors of the Southern States that had as yet not seceded. The Governor of Kentucky said, "Kentucky will furnish no troops for the wicked purpose of subduing her sister States."
The Governor of Virginia's response was, " the Militia of Vir- ginia will not be furnished to the powers at Washington for any such use or purpose as they have in view."
The Governor of Tennessee replied: "Not a man for coercion, but 50,000 for the defense of our rights and those of our South- ern brothers."
The Governor of North Carolina tartly replied: " I can be no party to this wicked violation of the laws of the country, and upon the liberties of a free people. You can get no troops from North Carolina."
Missouri's Governor answered : "The requisition is illegal, inhuman, diabolical, and can not be complied with ;" and the Governor of Maryland replied by simply stating the condition of his State.
This call of President Lincoln dispelled all doubt of the purpose of the administration at Washington to enforce actual war by ยท land or sea, upon the Southern States.
Viewing this bristling array of hostilities, the Southern States at once made preparations to defend themselves against invasion, and Virginia, Arkansas, North Carolina and Tennessee soon se- ceded and joined the young Confederacy, while Kentucky and Missouri announced the purpose of remaining neutral.
Gov. Hicks of Maryland, asked the administration at Washing- ton to respect the wishes of Maryland, and send no troops across her territory to invade Virginia.
L. Thomas, who was at that time, Adjutant General of the Federal Army, wired Gov. Hicks, that he, Hicks, as Govenor of Maryland had neither right nor authority to stop troops coming to Washington. So Adjutant General Thomas said, "send them on prepared to fight their way through if necessary."
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