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Benson J. Lossing, Pictorial Field Book of the Civil War. Volume 1., Chapter 8: attitude of the Border Slave-labor States, and of the Free-labor States. (search)
ment should be established at Washington to receive the power of the outgoing President, and for the President elect to take the oath of office out of Slave Territory. . . . If the Slave States would unite and form a convention, they might have the power to coerce the North into terms to amend the Constitution so as to protect Slavery more effectually. --Extract of a Letter from John Reynolds, of Belleville, Illinois, to Jefferson Davis and ex-Governor William Smith, of Virginia, dated December 28, 1860. Many influential public journals in the Free-labor States advocated the right of secession and the wrong of coercion. One of these, more widely read and more frequently quoted in the South than any other, as the exponent of public opinion in the North, said:--For far less than this [the election of Mr. Lincoln] our fathers seceded from Great Britain; and they left revolution organized in every State, to act whenever it is demanded by public opinion. The confederation is held toge
Horace Greeley, The American Conflict: A History of the Great Rebellion in the United States of America, 1860-65: its Causes, Incidents, and Results: Intended to exhibit especially its moral and political phases with the drift and progress of American opinion respecting human slavery from 1776 to the close of the War for the Union. Volume I., Xxxi. The forces in conflict. (search)
th, stated that Senator Douglas, just prior to the Cincinnati Convention of 1856, made complaints to him of the disposition of Southern men to be too easily satisfied, substantially like those of Mr. Buchanan, just quoted. He suggested that they should boldly demand all their rights, and accept nothing less. In this spirit, the following letter from a leading Democrat of Illinois, formerly Governor of that State, was written after the secession of South Carolina: Bellville, Ill., Dec. 28, 1860. dear. Friends: I write to you because I cannot well avoid it. I am, in heart and soul, for the South, as they are right in the principles and possess the Constitution. If the public mind will bear it, the seat of Government, the Government itself, and the Army and Navy, ought to remain with the South and the Constitution. I have been promulgating the above sentiment, although it is rather revolutionary. A Provisional Government should be established at Washington to receive the
Benjamnin F. Butler, Butler's Book: Autobiography and Personal Reminiscences of Major-General Benjamin Butler, Chapter 3: the Democracy in 1860. (search)
nts are made for the peoples, not peoples for governments; that the latter derive their just power from the consent of the governed; and whenever a portion of this Union, large enough to form an independent self-subsisting nation, shall show that, and say authentically to the residue, We want to get away from you, I shall say — and we trust self-respect, if not regard for the principles of self-government, will constrain the residue of the American people to say--Go. [New York Tribune, Dec. 28 1860.] . . . Nor is it treason for the State to hate the Union and seek its disruption. A State, a whole section may come to regard the Union as a blight upon its prosperity, an obstacle to its progress, and be fully justified in seeking its dissolution. And in spite of adverse clamor we insist that if ever a third or even a fourth of these States shall have deliberately concluded that the Union is injurious to them, and that their vital interests require their separation from it, they wi
Jefferson Davis, The Rise and Fall of the Confederate Government, Appendix G (search)
Appendix G correspondence between the commissioners of South Carolina and the President of the United States (Buchanan) relative to the forts in the harbor of Charleston. Letter of the commissioners to the President Washington, December 28, 1860. Sir: We have the honor to transmit to you a copy of the full powers from the Convention of the People of South Carolina, under which we are authorized and empowered to treat with the Government of the United States for the delivery of the forts, magazines, lighthouses, and other real estate, with their appurtenances, within the limits of South Carolina, and also for an apportionment of the public debt, and for a division of all other property held by the Government of the United States as agent of the confederated States of which South Carolina was recently a member; and generally to negotiate as to all other measures and arrangements proper to be made and adopted in the existing relation of the parties, and for the continuan
Harper's Encyclopedia of United States History (ed. Benson Lossing), Buchanan, James, (search)
r an outbreak on the part of South Carolina. No necessity for these reinforcements seemed to exist. I was assured by distinguished and upright gentlemen of South Carolina that no attack upon Major Anderson was intended, but that, on the contrary, it was the desire of the State authorities as much as it was my own to avoid the fatal consequences which must eventually follow a military collision. And here I deem it proper to submit for your information copies of a communication, dated Dec. 28, 1860, addressed to me by R. W. Barnwell, J. H. Adams, aid James L. Orr, commissioners from South Carolina, with the accompanying documents, and copies of my answer thereto, dated Dec. 31. In further explanation of Major Anderson's removal from Fort Moultrie to Fort Sumter. it is proper to state that after my answer to the South Carolina commissioners the War Department received a letter from that gallant officer, dated on Dec. 27, 1860, the day after this movement, from which the followin
Alfred Roman, The military operations of General Beauregard in the war between the states, 1861 to 1865, Chapter 2: (search)
also for the apportionment of the public debt, and for a division of all other property held by the government of the United States as agent of the confederated States, of which South Carolina was recently a member; and generally to negotiate as to all other measures and arrangements proper to be made and adopted in the existing relation of the parties, and for the continuance of peace and amity between this commonwealth and the government at Washington. See letter dated Washington, Dec. 28th, 1860, of Messrs. R. W. Barnwell, J. H. Adams, and James L. Orr, South Carolina Commissioners, to President Buchanan. These negotiations failed. The removal of the United States garrison, on the 25th of December, 1860, from Fort Moultrie to Fort Sumter—the gun carriages of the former work having been fired and the guns injured by the retiring troops—whatever may have been its cause, or by whomsoever suggested, was the first overt act of war, and the real beginning of hostilities betwee
John Harrison Wilson, The life of Charles Henry Dana, Chapter 10: last days with the tribune (search)
we will hire nobody, bribe nobody, pay nobody, cajole nobody to remain in it. And now a firmer note is heard: The South Carolina secessionists openly proclaim their intention of treading the stars and stripes under foot. The only security the President can have that Fort Moultrie will not be violently seized upon is the presence of a force sufficient to protect it. After Major Anderson had transferred his little garrison from Fort Moultrie to Fort Sumter, there follows, December 28, 1860, a word of warning as hard as adamant: Let us entreat all who meditate treason to pause ere it is too late, and avoid at once the traitor's crime and his doom. On January 17, 1861: Stand firm! No compromise; no surrender of principle! No cowardly reversal of the great verdict of the sixth of November. Let us have the question of questions settled now and for all time! There can never be another opportunity so good as the present. Let us know once for all whether th
Thomas Wentworth Higginson, Harvard Memorial Biographies, 1854. (search)
t the argument of his Commencement Oration derives the passion of a personal feeling from his indignation at the then recent surrender of Anthony Burns. But his opinions, though radical, were not generally violent, and, even in some of his last letters, it is evident that his mind dwelt above the range of the ordinary thought of any political party. In December he visited New Orleans on business connected with the mill, and he wrote to his mother on his return:— Mt. Savage, December 28, 1860. I suppose you fancied me burned, or at least barrelled; but after all, I suppose I ran less risk than friend——exposed himself to in panic-stricken Boston. Perhaps I did not merit martyrdom so richly, however, and certainly I should not have enjoyed it so keenly. I must say I have no sympathy with those John-Brownists, nor do I believe they will make much out of the Free-speech cry. It was a piece of rowdyism to break up their meeting, but was at the same time a proof the more h<
James Buchanan, Buchanan's administration on the eve of the rebellion, Message of the President of the United States, of the 8th of January, 1861. (search)
lemen of South Carolina Messrs McQueen, Mines, Bonham, Boyce, and Keitt, members of the House of representatives from South Carolina, on the 8th of December, 1860. that no attack upon Major Anderson was intended, but that, on the contrary, it was the desire of the State authorities, as much as it was my own, to avoid the fatal consequences which must eventually follow a military collision. And here I deem it proper to submit, for your information, copies of a communication, dated December 28, 1860, addressed to me by R. W. Barnwell, J. H. Adams, and J. L. Orr, Commissioners from South Carolina, with the accompanying documents, and copies of my answer thereto, dated December 31. In further explanation of Major Anderson's removal from Fort Moultrie to Fort Sumter, it is proper to state that, after my answer to the South Carolina Commissioners, the War Department received a letter from that gallant officer, dated December 27, 1860, the day after this movement, from which the fol
Col. O. M. Roberts, Confederate Military History, a library of Confederate States Military History: Volume 12.1, Alabama (ed. Clement Anselm Evans), Chapter 2: (search)
re made for the peoples, not peoples for the governments; that the latter derive their just power from the consent of the governed; and whenever a portion of this Union, large enough to form an independent self-subsisting nation, shall show that and say authentically to the residue, We want to get away from you, I shall say, and we trust self-respect, if not regard for the principles of self-government, will constrain the residue of the American people to say, Go. New York Tribune, December 28, 1860.— . . . Nor is it treason for the State to hate the Union and seek its disruption. A State, a whole section, may come to regard the Union as a blight upon its prosperity, an obstacle to its progress, and be fully justified in seeking its dissolution. And in spite of the adverse clamor, we insist that if ever a third or even a fourth of these States shall have deliberately concluded that the Union is injurious to them, and that their vital interests require their separation from it, t
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