Southern Historical Society Papers, Volume 32.
Reverend J. William Jones, Ed.

If it be claimed that if the three opposing candidates had withdrawn in favor of a single one to oppose Mr. Lincoln, many persons who supported the latter would have voted for such an one, Honorable Stephen A. Douglas, himself one of the candidates, gives the answer. In reply to such a proposition from Honorable Jefferson Davis, Mr. Douglas said that ‘if he were withdrawn, his friends, mainly Northern Democrats, would join in the support of Mr. Lincoln rather than for any one that should supplant him (Douglas).’ As a matter of fact, a fusion ticket in opposition to Mr. Lincoln was warmly supported in the State of New York, but it was beaten by more than 50,000 majority.

Seven of the Southern States considered this election of a President by a sectional vote upon a sectional issue, a menace to their liberties and interests necessitating a change in their general government? They therefore by convention of the people, and by popular vote, withdrew from the Union of the States, as the only legal and peaceable remedy for sectional differences. Without attempting to argue the question it would seem that these States had sufficient warrant and precedent for their acts in the following words of the Declaration of Independence itself: ‘It is the right of the people to alter, or to abolish, and to institute a new government, laying its foundation in such principles, and organizing its powers in such form as to them shall seem most likely to effect their safety and happiness.’

Such a new government these States organized and established at Montgomery, Ala., in February, 1861.

The States of North Carolina, Virginia, Tennessee and Arkansas were not parties to this movement. It was deemed best to wait