Secession of Southern States.
State pride, the mother of the doctrine of State supremacy, was conspicuously manifested in the formation of the League of States under the
Articles of Confederation.
It was also conspicuous in the convention that framed the
National Constitution, and especially so in the
State conventions called to ratify that document.
It was so strong in New York that the ratification was effected by only one majority in the convention.
Whenever the imperious will of politicians became thwarted by a public policy opposed to their wishes, they were in the habit of speaking of a dissolution of the
Union as the remedy for the provocation.
Such was eminently the case with the opposers of
Jay's treaty in 1795.
Such was the tone of the famous
Virginia resolutions of 1798.
So threatening to the peace of the
Union had the expression of such threats become during the administration of
President Washington, that the chief burden of his
Farewell Address was a plea, for union.
The purchase of
Louisiana and its creation as a State called forth this sentiment from
New England politicians (see
Quincy, Josiah, vol.
VII., p. 363), and the positive declarations of
Calhoun to
Commodore Stewart, in 1812, of the intention of the
Southern politicians to dissolve the
Union in case of a certain contingency, showed the alarming prevalence of this idea in the slave-labor States.
It was put forth conspicuously in the debates on the admission of
Missouri.
After the tariff act of 1828, so obnoxious to the cotton-growers, became a law, the citizens of
St. John's parish, S. C., said in convention: “We have sworn that Congress shall, at our demand, repeal the tariff.
If she does not, our State legislature will dissolve our connection with the
Union, and we will take our stand among the nations; and it behooves every true
Carolinian ‘to stand by his arms,’ and to keep the halls of our legislature pure from foreign intruders.”
When, in the autumn of 1832, the famous nullification ordinance was passed, so positive were the politicians of
South Carolina that the-dissolution of the
Union was nigh, that they caused a medal to be struck with this inscription, “
John C. Calhoun, First
President of the Southern Confederacy.”
In 1836 a novel was written by
Beverly Tucker, of
Virginia, called
The partisan, leader, in which the doctrine of State supremacy and sectional feeling was inculcated in the seductive form of a romance, which was widely
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circulated at the
South, and made the people familiar with the idea of secession as a great good for that section.
“Southern rights associations” were founded, having
|
Scene at a seceders' convention. |
for their object the dissolution of the
Union.
These were active at the time of the excitement about the admission of
California into the
Union.
One of the most active of the Virginians in these movements was
M. R. H. Garnett (who was in Congress when the
Civil War broke out). In a letter to
W. H. Trescott, a leader in the “Southern rights Association” of
South Carolina (May, 1851),
Garnett mourned over the action of
Virginia in hesitating to enter into the scheme of revolution then.
“I do not believe,” he wrote, “that the course of the legislature is a fair expression of the popular feeling.
In the
East, at least, the great majority believe in the right of secession, and feel the deepest sympathy with
Carolina in opposition to measures which they regard as she does.
But the
West—
Western Virginia—here is the rub!
Only 60,000 slaves to 494,000
whites! When I consider this fact, and the kind of argument which we have heard in this body, I cannot but regard with the greatest fear the question whether
Virginia would assist Carolina in such an issue. ... You will object to the word Democrat.
Democracy, in its original philosophical sense, is, indeed, incompatible with slavery and the whole system of Southern society.”
Mr. Garnett expressed a fear that if the question was raised between
Carolina and the national government, and the latter prevailed, the last hope of Southern civilization would expire.
Preston S. Brooks, who assaulted
Senator Sumner of
Massachusetts, when alone at his desk in the Senate, said, in an harangue before an excited populace in
South Carolina, “I tell you that the only mode which I think available for meeting the issue is, just to tear in twain the
Constitution of the United States, trample it under foot, and form a Southern Confederacy, every State of which shall be a slave-holding State. ... I have been a disunionist from the time I could think.
If I were commander of an army, I never would post a sentinel who would not swear slavery was right. ... If
Fremont be elected
President of the
United States, I am for the people, in their majesty, rising above the laws and leaders, taking the power into their own hands, going, by concert or not by concert, and laying the strong arm of
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Southern power upon the treasury and archives of the government.”
In order to carry out the design of the few leaders of the secession scheme to have the whole fifteen slave-labor States belong to a projected Southern Confederacy, four of the
State conventions which adopted ordinances of secession appointed commissigners to go to these several States as missionaries in the cause.
The names and destinations of these were as follows:
South Carolina sent to
Alabama A. P. Calhoun; to
Georgia,
James L. Orr; to
Florida,
L. W. Spratt; to
Mississippi,
M. L. Bonham; to
Louisiana,
J. L. Manning; to
Arkansas,
A. C. Spain; to
Texas,
J. B. Kershaw.
Alabama sent to
North Carolina Isham W. Garrett; to
Mississippi, E. W-Petters; to
South Carolina,
J. A. Elmore; to
Maryland,
A. F. Hopkins; to Virginia.,
Frank Gilmer; to
Tennessee, L.
Pope Walker; to
Kentucky,
Stephen F. Hale; to
Arkansas,
John A. Winston.
Georgia sent to
Missouri Luther J. Glenn; to
Virginia,
Henry L. Benning.
Mississippi sent to
South Carolina C. E. Hooker; to
Alabama,
Joseph W. Matthews; to
Georgia,
William L. Harris; to
Louisiana,
Wirt Adams; to
Texas,
H. H. Miller; to
Arkansas,
George B. Fall; to
Florida,
E. M. Yerger; to
Tennessee T. J. Wharton; to
Kentucky,
W. S. Featherstone; to
North Carolina,
Jacob Thompson, the
Secretary of the Interior; to
Virginia,
Fulton Anderson; to
Maryland,
A. H. Handy; to
Delaware,
Henry Dickinson; to
Missouri,
P. Russell.
Ordinances of secession were passed in eleven States of the
Union in the following order:
South Carolina, Dec. 20, 1860;
Mississippi, Jan. 9, 1861;
Florida, Jan. 10;
Alabama, Jan. 11;
Georgia, Jan. 19;
Louisiana, Jan. 26;
Texas, Feb. 1;
Virginia, April 17;
Arkansas, May 6;
North Carolina, May 20, and
Tennessee, June 8.
Only one of these ordinances was ever submitted to the people for their considration.
See
Confederate States of America; articles on the States composing the
Confederacy; and suggestive titles of the persons and events that were conspicuous in the
Civil War.