January, 1861. |
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at that time, resolved, in effect, to assume to themselves the political power of the South, and to control all political and military operations for the time; that they telegraphed directions to complete the seizure of forts, arsenals, custom houses, and other public property, as already recorded in. preceding pages, and advised conventions then in session, or soon to assemble, to pass ordinances for immediate secession.
They agreed that it would be proper for the representatives of the “seceded States” to remain in Congress, in order to prevent the adoption of measures by the National Government for its own security.
“They also,” said this writer, “advised, ordered, or directed the assembling of a convention of delegates from the seceding States, at Montgomery, on the 15th of February.
This can, of course, only be done by the rovolutionary conventions usurping the powers of the people, and sending delegates over whom they will lose all control in the establishment of a provisional government, which is the plan of the dictators.”
They resolved, he said, to use every means in their power to force the Legislatures of Tennessee, Kentucky, Missouri, Arkansas, Texas, Virginia, and Maryland, into the adoption of revolutionary measures.
They had already possessed themselves of all the avenues of information in the South--the telegraph, the press, and the wide control of the postmasters; and they relied upon a general defection of all the Southern-born members of the Army and Navy.
“The spectacle here presented,” he said, “is startling to contemplate.
Senators, intrusted with the representative sovereignty of States, and sworn to support the Constitution of the United States, while yet acting as the privy counselors of the President, and anxiously looked to by their constituents to effect some practical plan of adjustment, deliberately conceive a conspiracy for the overthrow of the Government through the military organizations, the dangerous secret order of the Knights of the Golden Circle, Commaittees of Safety, Southern Leagues, and other agencies at their command.
They have instituted as thorough a military and civil despotism as ever cursed a maddened country.”
These charges were sustained by an electrograph, which appeared in the Charleston Mercury on the 7th,
dated at Washington City on the 6th. “--The Senators,” it said, “
from those of the Southern States which have called conventions of the people, met in caucus last night, and adopted the following resolutions:--
Resolved, That we recommend to our respective States immediate secession.
Resolved, That we recommend the holding of a General Convention of the said States, to be holden in the city of Montgomery, Alabama, at some period not later than the 15th day of February, 1861.”
These resolutions, and others which the correspondent did not feel at liberty to divulge, were telegraphed to the conventions of Alabama, Mississippi, and Florida.
He said there was much discussion concerning the propriety of the members of Congress from seceding States retaining their seats, in order to embarrass legislation, and added, “It is believed that the opinion that they should remain, prevailed.”
The truth of these statements
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