John G. Nicolay, The Outbreak of Rebellion

[42] of Mississippi, President, and Alexander H. Stephens, of Georgia, Vice-President of the new Confederacy. The reported vote for Davis is unanimous; but it is historically related by Stephens that Howell Cobb and Robert Toombs were also aspirants, and that Davis himself preferred the chief command of the rebel armies. For the moment, however, offices were plenty, and each of the leaders received a prominent station. Cobb remained presiding officer of the rebel Congress; Toombs became Secretary of State; and if not completely satisfied, all acquiesced in the distribution of honors. Davis was sent for and inaugurated at Montgomery, on Monday, February 18th. In his inaugural address he intimated that they would permit the non-seceded Slave States to join their confederacy; “but, beyond this,” he continued, “if I mistake not the judgment and will of the people, a reunion with the States from which we have separated is neither practicable nor desirable.”

If the remotest doubt remained, from previous indications and this official hint, that the whole purpose and animus of the revolt was the establishment of a powerful slaveocracy, that doubt was removed by the public declaration of Mr. Stephens, the new Vice-President. In a speech which he made at Savannah, Ga., on the 21st of March, he defined the ruling idea of the conspiracy in the following frank language:

The prevailing ideas entertained by him (Jefferson) and most of the leading statesmen at the time of the formation of the old constitution, were that the enslavement of the African was in violation of the laws of nature; that it was wrong in principle, socially, morally, and politically. It was an evil they knew not well how to deal with; but the general opinion of that day was, that somehow or other, in the order of Providence the institution would be evanescent and