A Short History of the United States Part 45

[Sidenote: Weakness of the Republicans.]

[Sidenote: Southern fears.]

373. The North and the South.--Lincoln had been elected by a minority of the people. He had been elected by the people of one section. Other Presidents had been chosen by minorities. But Lincoln was the first man to be chosen President by the people of one section.

The Republicans, moreover, had not elected a majority of the members of the House of Representatives, and the Senate was still in the hands of the Democrats. For two years at least the Republicans could not carry out their ideas. They could not repeal the Kansas-Nebraska Act. They could not admit Kansas to the Union as a free state. They could not carry out one bit of their policy. In their platform they had declared that they had no intention to interfere with slavery in the states.

Lincoln had said over and over again that Congress had no right to meddle with slavery in the states. The Southern leaders knew all these things. But they made up their minds that now the time had come to secede from the Union and to establish a Southern Confederacy. For the first time all the southernmost states were united. No matter what Lincoln and the Republicans might say, the Southern slaveholders believed that slavery was in danger. In advising secession, many of them thought that by this means they could force the Northerners to accept their terms as the price of a restored Union. Never were political leaders more mistaken.

[Sidenote: Southern conventions.]

374. Threats of Secession, November, 1860.--The Const.i.tution permits each state to choose presidential electors as it sees fit. At the outset these electors had generally been chosen by the state legislatures. But, in the course of time, all the states save one had come to choose them by popular vote. The one state that held to the old way was South Carolina. Its legislature still chose the state's presidential electors. In 1860 the South Carolina legislature did this duty and then remained in session to see which way the election would go. When Lincoln's election was certain, it called a state convention to consider the question of seceding from the United States. In other Southern states there was some opposition to secession. In Georgia, especially, Alexander H. Stephens led the opposition. He said that secession "was the height of madness." Nevertheless he moved a resolution for a convention. Indeed, all the southernmost states followed the example of South Carolina and summoned conventions.

[Sidenote: Buchanan's compromise plan.]

[Crittenden's plan of compromise. _McMaster_, 380-381.]

[Sidenote: It fails to pa.s.s Congress.]

375. The Crittenden Compromise Plan.--Many men hoped that even now secession might be stopped by some compromise. President Buchanan suggested an amendment to the Const.i.tution, securing slavery in the states and territories. It was unlikely that the Republicans would agree to this suggestion. The most hopeful plan was brought forward in Congress by Senator Crittenden of Kentucky. He proposed that amendments to the Const.i.tution should be adopted: (1) to carry out the principle of the Missouri Compromise (p. 222);(2) to provide that states should be free or slave as their people should determine; and (3) to pay the slave owners the value of runaway slaves. This plan was carefully considered by Congress, and was finally rejected only two days before Lincoln's inauguration.

[Sidenote: South Carolina secedes, 1860. _Eggleston_, 304-305.]

[Sidenote: Six other states secede.]

376. Secession of Seven States, 1860-61.--The South Carolina convention met in Secession Hall, Charleston, on December 17, 1860.

Three days later it adopted a declaration "that the union now subsisting between South Carolina and other states, under the name of the United States of America, is hereby dissolved." Six other states soon joined South Carolina. These were Mississippi, Florida, Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana, and Texas.

[Sidenote: Confederate states const.i.tution]

[Sidenote: Views of Jefferson Davis.]

377. The "Confederate States of America."--The next step was for these states to join together to form a confederation. This work was done by a convention of delegates chosen by the conventions of the seven seceding states. These delegates met at Montgomery, Alabama. Their new const.i.tution closely resembled the Const.i.tution of the United States.

But great care was taken to make it perfectly clear that each member of the Confederacy was a sovereign state. Exceeding care was also taken that slavery should be protected in every way. Jefferson Davis of Mississippi was chosen provisional president, and Alexander H. Stephens provisional vice-president.

[Ill.u.s.tration: CHARLESTON MERCURY EXTRA: The UNION is DISSOLVED!]

[Sidenote: Views of Jefferson Davis.]

[Sidenote: Views of Alexander H. Stephens. _Source-Book_, 296-299.]

378. Views of Davis and Stephens.--Davis declared that Lincoln had "made a distinct declaration of war upon our (Southern) inst.i.tutions."

His election was "upon the basis of sectional hostility." If "war must come, it must be on Northern and not on Southern soil.... We will carry war ... where food for the sword and torch awaits our armies in the densely populated cities" of the North. For his part, Stephens said the new government's "foundations are laid, its cornerstone rests, upon the great truth that the negro is not equal to the white man."

[Sidenote: "Let the erring sisters" go in peace.]

[Sidenote: Greeley's opinions.]

[Sidenote: Buchanan's opinions.]

379. Hesitation in the North.--At first it seemed as if Davis was right when he said the Northerners would not fight. General Scott, commanding the army, suggested that the "erring sisters" should be allowed to "depart in peace," and Seward seemed to think the same way.

The Abolitionists welcomed the secession of the slave states. Horace Greeley, for instance, wrote that if those states chose to form an independent nation, "they had a clear moral right so to do." For his part, President Buchanan thought that no state could const.i.tutionally secede. But if a state should secede, he saw no way to compel it to come back to the Union. So he sat patiently by and did nothing.

QUESTIONS AND TOPICS

CHAPTER 35

---- 361, 362.--_a_. Compare the area and population of the United States in 1800 and in 1860.

_b_. Compare the white population of the North and the South. Were all the Southern whites slave owners?

_c_. Why had the control of the House pa.s.sed to the free states? Did a white man in the North and in the South have proportionally the same representation in the House? Why?

_d_. What change in the control of the Senate had taken place? Why? Why was this change so important?

---- 363, 364.--_a_. What had caused the growth of the Northern cities?

Why were there so few large cities in the slave states?

_b_. How had the population of the states changed since 1790? What had caused the growth of the Northwest?

_c_. Where was there the greatest density of population? Why?

---- 365, 366.--_a_. Describe the change of life in the cities. What arrangements were made for the comfort and health of the people?

_b_. How had railroads increased, and what improvements had been made?

---- 367, 368.--_a_. Of what use are newspapers? How do they influence the opinions of the people? What policy did Horace Greeley uphold? Why?

_b_. Who were some of the important writers? Mention two works of each.

_c_. What influence did the telegraph have? Was this important?

_d_. Describe some of the other inventions.

_e_. Why had this progress been confined mainly to the North?

CHAPTER 36

-- 369.--_a_. Who were the leading Republican candidates?

_b_. Why was Lincoln nominated? What is the meaning of the phrase "too conspicuous"?

_c_. What did Seward mean by saying that there was a "higher law" than the Const.i.tution? Why was the slavery contest "irrepressible"?

_d_. What declaration was made by the Republican party as to slavery?

Compare this policy with the Wilmot Proviso.

---- 370, 371.--_a_. What divisions took place in the Democratic party?