Rebellion Record: a Diary of American Events: Documents and Narratives, Volume 1.
Frank Moore, Ed.

[26] had read a second time the bill for arming the State. Alabama had voted, by a large majority, in favor of secession. In Virginia, the oldest, the most conservative, and the most cautious of the Slave States, we are told that the secession feeling was gaining ground. State conventions are to meet in Florida on the 3d of January, in Alabama on the 7th, in Texas on the 8th, in Georgia on the 9th, and in Louisiana on the 23d; and our correspondent believes that “there will be a majority in each of them in favor of immediate and separate secession.” Hence in a few days more the United States of America, as the world has hitherto known them, will cease to exist.

But now comes the most singular part of this history. Till within a few weeks hardly any body in this country believed in the dissolution of the Union. People thought that instincts of patriotism and private interest would prevail, and that the Yankees and the Southerners would quarrel harmoniously for many years to come. The event seems to be against these anticipations, and Englishmen are content to look on in silence and wonder. Not so the Americans. While every mail is bringing news of fiery speeches and the planting of palmetto trees, the almost universal tone of private letters is that there is nothing in it at all. South Carolina cannot secede, or if she does she must come back again. The other States only want to make terms and to come back into the Union after having extorted new concessions as the price of reconciliation. The wish may be father to the thought, but that such is the thought is to be learnt from the most cursory glance at the American newspapers. The course of proceeding is to be as follows: South Carolina, Alabama, Mississippi, Florida, Texas, perhaps Louisiana, are to separate, form a federation of their own, and then treat on equal terms with those who remain faithful to Mr. Lincoln. The Northern Slave States, with Virginia and North Carolina at their head, are to act as mediators, and enforce concessions by the threat of joining the Southern league, which would then number fifteen Slave States, with a vast territory, and the prospect of conquering all the riches of Mexico. The President, it is whispered, is in favor of compromise; Gov. Seward is in favor of compromise; in short, now that the loss of Southern wealth threatens them, greatnumbers of the stanchest Anti-Slavery men arc in favor of compromise. What the terms of the compromise shall be of course remains in doubt. The hope of the democratic party in the North is that the slaveholders will not be too exacting, or insist on the repeal of the personal liberty acts, by which some of the Abolitionist States have nullified the Fugitive Slave act. Many of the Republicans are anxious to revive the Missouri compromise, by which slavery will be prohibited in any part of the United States territory north of 33° 30×. But as the abolition of this compromise and the assertion of the slaveowners' right to carry negrocs into any part of the territory is a recent and very great victory, it is hardly likely that the South will concede this. No one in this country can pretend to judge of the event; but this we may conclude from the tone of American discussion, that the North will not be too rigid, and that the slaveowners will receive what all but the most rabid of them will consider satisfaction. Gov. Seward, who first spoke of the “irrepressible conflict” which was impending, now prophesies peace and harmony at no distant day, while many of his most intimate friends have given their adhesion to the scheme of compromise brought forward by Mr. Crittenden. But whatever may be the final restilt, we may expect to hear shortly that other States have followed the example set by South Carolina.--London Times, Jan. 9.