The secession movement at the South.
the
Governor of
Kentucky on the crisis — sentiment of the
Northern press — movements at the
South--affairs in
Virginia, &c., &c., &c.
Below we collate the latest mail intelligence bearing on the present secession movements at the
South.
In our telegraph column will be found some later events:
The Views of the Governor of Kentucky.
Governor Magoffin has written a long letter to the editor of the
Frankfort Yeoman, the sum and substance of which is, "stand by the
Union." As
Mr. Magoffin is a political friend of
Mr. Breckinridge, this letter will be understood to contain views not widely at variance with those of the late candidate for the Presidency.
Mr. Magoffin says:
‘
"
Mr. Lincoln has been elected according to all the forms of law under that Constitution which we revere and regard as the depository of our rights and the shield of our safety, and not withstanding his threats and the danger of carrying out his principles,
he may not do it.--We must wait for an overt act, hoping that truth, and reason, and justice, embodied in a clear, an impartial delineation of our rights under the
Constitution, as expounded by the Supreme Court of the
United States, will yet prevent it.
"Let us reason with the Republicans still further; let us remonstrate more earnestly, firmly and unitedly; let us at all events wait for the overt act, and then
Kentucky can and will join her sister slave States.
This, it seems to me, is the course of moderation and prudence and wisdom; certainly so, because neither
Mr. Lincoln nor his party can pass any law, if the Opposition remains true, that will violate our rights.
He can't even get an appropriation bill through Congress to carry on the
Government.
He can't appoint his
Cabinet officers who may be offensive to the Democratic party and to the slave States.
He can do nothing, with the present House of Representatives and Senate, backed by the Supreme Court, to violate our rights.
Let the anti-Republican members of the Opposition firmly resolve not to discuss the question of slavery any more, and when the Republicans have done, let them vote down their measures and proceed to business upon the other important interests of the country.
The question has been discussed too much already, and let them resolve they will discuss it no more.
It only produces discord, strife, crimination and recriminations, and sunders all those fraternities, socially, politically and religiously, which bind us together."
’
He makes the following direct appeal to the Secessionists:
‘
"To
South Carolina and such other States who may wish to secede from the
Union, I would say, the geography of this country will not admit of a division — the mouth and sources of the
Mississippi river cannot be separated without the horrors of civil war — we cannot sustain you in this movement merely on account of the election of
Lincoln.
Do not precipitate us, by premature action, into a revolution or civil war, the consequences of which will be most frightful to all of us. It may yet be avoided.
There is still hope, faint though it be.
Kentucky is a border State, and has suffered more than all of you. She claims that, standing upon the same sound platform, you will sympathize with her, and stand by her, and not desert her in her exposed perilous border position.
She has a right to claim that her voice, and the voice of reason and moderation and patriotism, shall be heard and heeded by you. If you secede, your representatives will go out of Congress and leave us at the mercy of a Black Republican Government.
Mr. Lincoln will have no check.
He can appoint his Cabinet and have it confirmed.
The Congress will then be Republican, and he will be able to pass such laws as he may suggest.
The Supreme Court will be powerless to protect us. We implore you to stand by us and by our friends in the free States, and let us all,
the bold, the true and just men in the free and the slave States, with a united front stand by each other, by our principles, by our rights, our equality, our honor, and by the
Union under the
Constitution.
I believe this is the only way to save it, and we can do it."
’
The Charleston Mercury, alluding to the proposition of a Southern Conference and
Virginia's agency therein, says:
‘
This is the measure which
South Carolina proposed to
Virginia last winter.
It was hooted down and rejected as a disunion measure.
If it had been adopted an abolitionist would not, in all probability, have been elected
President of the
United States, and the sectionalism of the
North might have been alarmed.
It was an exceedingly conservative proposition, which
Virginia was unable to appreciate.
The times have now passed beyond it.
Virginia may now call, but the
South will not answer.
She is completely demoralized in the estimation of the
South; and no Southern State, Intent on vindicating her rights and preserving her institutions, would go into a conference with her. She has placed the
Union above the rights and institutions of the
South, and will only seek a conference with the
Southern States in order to bring them down to the level of her fatal Union policy.
’
Virginia and the other frontier States may as well at once understand their position with the cotton States.
They are not expected to aid the cotton States in protecting themselves and redeeming their liberties.
They will practically aid the
Northern States in attempting to obtain in the
South an acquiescence in the rule of abolitionists at
Washington.
The Southern States, however, will disregard their counsels.
They want
no conference but in the Convention which will assemble to frame the Constitution and complete the organization of a Southern Confederacy. They intend to secede from the
Union and construct a Union among themselves, and will be glad to find
Virginia and the other border States in counsel with them after this great revolution.
But if these value their own dignity, or respect our wishes, let them keep aloof from us until they are prepared to dissolve their connection with the present Union, and to unite their destinies with that of the other Southern States.
If they will not be our friends, let them not be our enemies, by unsolicited and undesired efforts under whatever amiable pretext — of preserving an abolished Union, to subject us to the sectional despotism of a consolidated government under the control of abolitionists at
Washington.
The day for new guarantee is gone.
Henceforth we are two people.
A view of the Hereafter.
The Philadelphia Bulletin, a Republican paper, which immediately succeeding the election was foremost among those taunting and insulting the
Southern disunion sentiment has, now that dissolution stares it in the face, drawn the following picture of the result:
‘
We know that secession is not a peaceful remedy.
We know that it cannot be allowed.
But it is a mistake to suppose that wise statesmen have ever looked to coercion of a sovereign State with any other feeling than that it was the very extremest resort, not to be thought of until everything else within human compass had been tried.
It is a mistake to suppose that even
Jackson resorted to mere threatening and naked force in 1832.
His proclamation is full of the kindliest appeal to everything magnanimous and patriotic in an American heart.
It depicts in tones that are almost tender in their manly earnestness the consequences of disunion, and it is well known that measures were taken by
General Cass and others at that time to secure the good offices of
Virginia to prevent ulterior measures.
We need hardly call the attention of the
Eastern States to the grand utterance of their great orator, who prayed with deep pathos that
Providence might hide from his eyes "the broken and dishonored fragments of a once glorious Union," and who with a heart stirred to its mighty depths, gave forth that utterance which is written upon the
American firmament in letters of living light, "Liberty and Union now and forever, one and inseparable!"
’
No tongue can describe, no imagination can conceive the horrors of a civil war in
America among this Anglo-
Saxon race.
Conceive only that we exasperate each other until a federal army marches against
South Carolina.--
Georgia has voted a million or dollars for defence.
Alabama marches to sustain her sister State.
A hundred thousand Southern men as brave as we, men whose fathers fought at
Eutaw Springs and Guilford Court-House, who retreated with
Greene and stormed the redoubts at
Yorktown side by side with our Pennsylvania line, now stand in deadly opposition to the federal troops.
And suppose that
Mississippi and
Tennessee and
Kentucky at last, and
Virginia, cry out that though opposed to secession they will not see their Southern brethren trampled under our feet.
And so millions of men of American ancestry, of equal courage, the picked legions of mankind, the elect of the world, the last hope of bleeding liberty, madden each other and tear and rend each other, until this beautiful and glorious land swims in blood.
We tell our thoughtless, sneering Republican friends that there has been nothing like that set on earth.
If they have ever shuddered over the siege of
Jerusalem, chiefly because for the first time in the history of mankind the uttermost courage
was in vain, then let them know that the mightiest curse of even Omnipotence would be a civil war, a war to the death, between the
Northern and Southern States of this Union.
There is not an element of greatness or of glory in this nation that would not come in to swell the mortal terror and fearfulness of that fratricidal conflict.
The Republican party is in power.
Mr. Lincoln is not elected by close votes or doubtful calculations.
The great States of the
North have poured forth their myriads of votes for him. There is no mistaking the demonstration: But by the very grandeur of their triumph are the Republicans urged to generosity and courtesy towards the
South.
They are a routed minority.
They are exasperated.
They are growing desperate.
Their backs are to the wall.
Their hereditary courage is roused.
They must not be made reckless.
We do not
mean to encroach upon their rights.
Why not say so, frankly and cordially?
We
mean to observe every jot and tittle of the
Constitution.
Why not, in the spirit that belongs to a great people, assure them of it?
We are victorious.
Why press on with a
Va victis only worthy of barbarians?
To create strife and disunion is to fulfill the prophecy of the worst enemies of the Republican party; it is to gladden the hearts of the enemies of freedom in every clime.
Whatever was our duty before the election, it is surely our duty now to secure for
Mr. Lincoln a peaceful and successful administration.
It is time that the asperities of the campaign had passed away.
The great are generous.
Let the entire
North speak words of friendship and kindness to the
South, and instead of mourning a lost Pleiad, our constellation shall ultimately become a whole galaxy of glory.
The "Minute Men" of
Baltimore, a political organization, numbering 2,500, formed before the election to advocate the cause of
Bell and
Everett, have since the election adopted resolutions denying that
Lincoln's success is sufficient cause for dissolution, and denying the right of secession.
These resolutions further declare--
That we regard the Union of the States as the only source of the nationality of our Republic; that to the
Union we are indebted for our power, prosperity and growth as a nation; for our peace at home and abroad; for the influence we have won in the affairs of the world, and for the hopes we are allowed to indulge in the beneficence of the future.
We, therefore, hold the preservation of the
Union in its full and perfect integrity, with the enjoyment of all its guarantees, rights and duties, as established by the
Constitution and laws, as interpreted by the Judiciary, and as handed down by the tradition of our fathers, to be the first and highest obligation of a citizen of the
United States.
That in our judgment no violation of its spirit, no assault, whether by treacherous friend or open foe, which wise men may avert or brave men repel, can ever justify or excuse the breaking of that sacred bond; but such attack should rather summon all true and faithful citizens to its defence, accounting it the more honorable part to rally to its aid when misfortune threatens ruin.
In the earnest conviction of the truth of this sentiment, we declare that the
Minute Men of 1860 will be the last to abandon the glorious inheritance of the
Union, which we have received from the
Minute Men of 1776.
Arms for the South.
The only people gathering any advantage from the present crisis are the manufacturers and sellers of arms.
The New York Journal of Commerce says:
‘
Yesterday there arrived by the steamer
City of Hartford from
Hartford, 180 cases of
Sharp's patent carbines, containing 10 pieces each, making in all arms for 1,800 men, and 40 cases of conical ball, each containing 1,000 bullets, or 40,000 cartridges in the aggregate.
These arms and ammunition were ordered by telegraph from the
Governor of
Georgia, and will be sent to
Savannah by the next steamer.
The same factory has also received orders from
Alabama for 1,000 stand of the same death-dealing weapons.
’
A firm in New York city receive from twenty to fifty orders daily from
South Carolina,
Alabama and
Georgia--and people who suppose that the
South is not a paying customer may be astonished to know that their business transactions in this line are strictly on a cash basis.
Cash within thirty days is their invariable rule.
Most of the orders are for rifles and navy revolvers, though the firm supply an immense number of flint-lock muskets.
They lately sent twenty gun carriages to
Georgia, and have done a brisk business in all kinds of small arms and ammunition with all the principal Southern States.
Another large house in this city has filled orders for about 5,000 stand of muskets of the
U. States pattern, and has sold large quantities of artillery swords and army pistols.
Its orders come from all the
Southern States, but mainly from those in which secession is regarded as the only remedy for Southern grievances.
A third extensive establishment has supplied an immense number of
Colt's revolvers and rifles to
Georgia, principally to
Columbus.
All the wholesale houses and agencies in the city have been hard pressed to supply the orders for every imaginable species of weapon.
In a sermon at
Charleston, S. C., on Sunday last, the officiating minister,
Rev. D. X. Lafar said:
‘
You need not compromise your religion while protecting your homes and firesides.
The same God who has commanded you to love him above all things else, informs you in another part of His word, that whosoever "provideth not for his own household is worse than an infidel" Carry your religion with you where ever you go — whatever you undertake.
You are not of the world, even as
Christ was not of the world — so that, whilst you would aid your fellow-men by all the means in your power, in rendering your country happy and prosperous in future, show to them at the same time that you are disciples of
Christ, ready to bless your enemies.
Let no undue excitement pervade your actions; be calm and deliberate in counsel; determined in the accomplishment of it; be satisfied that you are right before you act, and God will make the issue prosperous.
Keep your eye on
Christ, and his reflected image will ever bear you on ward.
’
For my own part, I will only say, in conclusion, my every sympathy is with the soil on which I stand.
I have never known any other mother than this; and I cling to her with the devotion of a child.
My dear dead ones sleep in her dust; my children have been nursed on her bosom, and here I hope to repose this head when my cares are over.
If Carolina falls, I fall with her. If she prospers, it will be the richest privilege of my life to ascribe to God the glory.
Amen.
On Tuesday last a number of citizens repaired on board the steamship
Columbia, at
Charleston, and presented
Capt. Berry with a Palmetto cane, in remembrance of his having hoisted the first
Palmetto flag at sea. Quite a sensation was produced on the
Columbia as she was about leaving the wharf in New York, on Saturday last, occasioned by the displaying of the
Palmetto flag from the peak of the mainmast.
Wednesday was observed in
Charleston as a day of "humiliation and prayer." The Mercury, in referring to the solemn occasion, says:
‘
The time is rapidly approaching when the people of
South Carolina must determine for themselves the place they will occupy in history.
Happily, for the peace and prosperity of the
State, there are no signs of discord among its citizens.
They stand united against a common enemy.
All have recognized the wrong, and all are agreed upon the remedy.--Unanimity has not been the offspring of any sudden irritation.
Long years of aggression and insult have given time for sober reflection, and have bound our people together in an unalterable resolve.
’
We are, then, upon the eve of great events.
The Legislature has properly set apart this day for prayer and preparation.
It is right that a Christian people, struggling in a good cause, should invoke
Providence for its success.
From every quarter of our State a voice of supplication will arise to-day, and on the morrow, conscious of the smile of Heaven, the patriot will march forward in the line of duty, with new confidence and an unshrinking step.
The crisis that is upon us is indeed a grave one, and we trust that the observance of this day will be proportionably serious and general.
The
Columbia Carolinian, under the caption "More Volunteers," says:
‘
It is very gratifying to learn that in the secession movement, inaugurated by
South Carolina, we have the solid sympathy of the
Southern States.
From all quarters the
Governor is receiving tenders of volunteers by individuals, companies and regiments of rifle companies, sharp-shooters, cavalry and artillery, from
Virginia,
Mississippi,
Georgia,
Alabama and
Tennessee.
A French Zouave officer in
Philadelphia offers to raise a company or regiment of Zouave Chasseurs, and Individual officers tender their services to raise all sorts of companies.
The South is truly roused.
’
In the same paper we find the following paragraph:
‘
We are requested by
Thomas P. Walker late Deputy United States Marshal, to state that the attendance of the jurors summoned for the session of the Federal Court, to have been held in this city on next Monday, will not be required.
’
Charleston, Nov. 20, 1860.--United States Marshal
Hamilton to day mailed his resignation.
The opinion prevails that
ex-Senator Rhett
will head the ticket from the Charleston district to the
Convention.
The brig
James Gray,
Capt. Plummer, of
Newburyport, sails to-morrow with cotton for Havre, and will leave the port with the
Palmetto colors flying.
This vessel is owned by Cushing Brothers.
The cavalry companies of
Charleston were to-day reviewed, and presented arms to the Southern Confederacy flag.
The money stringency is now so great that relief from the Banks is absolutely essential.
They will, therefore, certainly suspend, but are straining every nerve to keep up till the apprehended crash at the
North occurs.
The news of the suspension of the Farmers' Bank, of
Richmond, may precipitate a suspension here to-morrow.
The religious folks are now the most violent of the secessionists.
The American Sunday School Union Agency flings out a beautiful flag, inscribed, "In the name of our God we set up our banners."
Strong secession speeches were made to-day at the presentation of a cane to
Capt. Berry, of the steamship
Columbia.
To-morrow is the appointed day of fasting, humiliation and prayer in view of the crisis, and will be generally observed.
Mr. Keitt arrived in the city to-night at ten o'clock. A large procession of citizens, headed by a band, marched to the
Charleston Hotel to serenade him.
Mr. Keitt responded in a most eloquent and fiery speech.
He said that
South Carolina was pledged by every solemn obligation to secede from the Federal Union. Three weeks ago she had elected on that issue a Legislature which unanimously recommended separate action.
It was infamy to retrace the step.
Out of his district —
Orangeburg — he could say that of the sixteen hundred votes polled, not one would be for submission.
In
Colleton,
Beaufort,
Barnwell, Pedee, and ever in the up country, people were a unit on this question.
He closed amid great applause.
The
South Carolina students at the University of Virginia held a meeting on the 16th inst., and offered their services to their native State "whenever she shall need them." The resolution expressing this determination is prefaced by the following preamble:
‘
Whereas, the
Government has fallen into the hands of a sectional party, declaring the existence of a "higher law," an intention top event the introduction of slavery into the
Territories, an "irrepressible conflict" between white and slave labor and an interminable war upon the institutions of the
South upon which its happiness and prosperity entirely depend; an institution which is authorized by the holy word of God, and the peaceable enjoyment of which is guaranteed to us by that Constitution which our forefathers adopted when the
Government was organized, and without which the
Government would never have been established; and whereas the sovereign
State of South Carolina, of which we are proud to be citizens, by an unanimous act of her Legislature has determined, as a last meats of resort for protecting the honor, lives and property of her citizens, not to submit to the domination of such a party, and has ordered a Convention with a view to the resumption of the powers with which she has for specific purposes invested the
General Government.
Therefore, &c.
’
An association of Minute Men, numbering near 100 members, has been formed in
Prince Edward county, Va. 
