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On the fourth day of February, 1861, while the Peace Conference met in
Washington to consider propositions of compromise and concession, the delegates of the seceding States convened in
Montgomery, Ala., to combine and solidify the general conspiracy into an organized and avowed rebellion.
Such action had been arranged and agreed upon from the beginning.
The congressional manifesto from
Washington, as far back as December 14th, advised that “we are satisfied the honor, safety, and independence of the
Southern people require the organization of a Southern confederacy--a result to be obtained only by separate State secession.”
This agreement of the
Washington caucus was steadily adhered to. The specious argument invented in
Georgia, that “we can make better terms outside of the
Union than in it,” and the public declaration of
Mississippi's commissioner in
Baltimore, that secession “was not taken with the view of breaking up the present government, but to assure to her (
Mississippi) those guarantees and principles of liberty which had been pledged to her by the fathers of the Revolution,” were but tricks of the conspiracy for local use and effect.
The managers well understood that if the States were once committed to secession, the mere revolutionary momentum of the crisis would carry them to whatever combination they might devise.
